Sports as a Part of Life

"Three-Man Weave" by Chuck Klosterman expresses the memory of a certain game that is largely forgotten.  Although there are few who remember this game, most of these people were first account witnesses or participants.  To the rest of the world, it is as if the game doesn't even exist.  "Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio" by James Wright expresses sports, particularly high school football, being a part of many people's lives.  No matter who you are, sports can have some sort of effect on your life.  This effect can vary whether it's something your interested in watching, a way to relieve yourself, or anything else.  "Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio" particularly expresses that high school football can effect the "Polacks," "Negroes," workers, and even fathers who eventually have to go home to their wives and families.  This range of people that high school football can effect can relate to sports being universal.  Now when people think about sports, many memories are associated with this thinking.  These memories can already be in existence or can be that which one strives for.  When I speak of that which one strives for, I am talking about someone longing to make a memory.  Memories can serve as a way to reminisce on sports or to strive to succeed in sports.  In my experience with sports, memories served both as a reminiscence and as a goal.  When I played softball in high school, I recall a district tournament game where my coaches and everyone who was supporting us tried to fire us up by saying that it was our time to shock the world.  Our school's softball team had not won a district game in somewhere close to 9 years.  Even though we were looked down upon, we used our doubters as motivation to succeed and ended up creating a memory and winning our first round of districts in years.  This particular experience and even experiences when I first began to play sports relate to "Three-Man Weave" and how UT rose up from being the underdog.