WAIM Radio #084: Field Day

We're taking to the field for a full hour of athletic activity this week at WAIM. What song is your favorite tune about athletic endeavor?

As a young man I wanted so very badly to be an athlete. Unfortunately, I was small, slow, weak, and borderline asthmatic. Nevertheless, I longed to run like the wind and to have the strength of an ox. Growing up in middle America at the height of the Reagan years, nothing was so loved in my community as athletic endeavor.

Members of the football and basketball teams garnered all of the popularity in our small rural high school. If you could run, hit, jump, or shoot you were loved. In our small community

books, music, plays, and poetry were all secondary to the exploits of the playing field.

Throughout middle school and in to my early high school years, I did my best to fit in, playing Pony League baseball and then practicing for a while on the JV team at school. Quick hands, good reflexes, and a solid arm made me an asset at second base defensively. However, my mediocre lack of hitting power and my slow rate of speed clocked me to spend most days on the bench.

As the season approached in my Freshman year, I became disgusted with the behavior and treatment coming from the head coach. One afternoon, bored by charting pitches at scrimmages and running laps, I tendered my resignation and thus ended my ignominious career in team sports.

By sophomore year, I had found my people. I found a starting spot on the Quiz Bowl team and made a new batch of tight friends. I threw myself into the theater program and set to acting in two shows a year until graduation. Previously ignored pursuits like music, movies, and history began to take more of a role in my day to day life. I was still obsessed with watching and playing sports, but I had made my peace that I would no longer be an active participant at anything more than a casual level. I’d also come to understand that my intellect, my curiosity, and my unique perspective on the world were an asset and not a hinderance.

For years after exiting competitive team sports, I was an avid and excellent golfer. I played tennis regularly and even did some low-rent cycling during my high school and college years. I was not without any prowess, but as each year progressed these things became less and less important. I even began to struggle following and consistently watching the teams with which I had once been obsessed. Gradually, I eschewed almost all of my fandom, save for my beloved Detroit Tigers and the regular viewing of football played with actual feet, aka soccer.

This week at WAIM Radio, we are spending a full sixty minutes on the field with an hour of songs about sports. What athletic tune is your favorite, and why? Tell us all about it.

You can listen to the full show in the player above. Make sure to also check out the full tracklist below for full details on what made the show. You can tune in Friday at Noon Eastern on Suburbs Radio to hear each show live as it airs. New episodes are also archived here at WAIM each Tuesday. Feel free to go back and listen to any of our episodes at any time in the WAIM Radio archive.

Cheers,
Matty C