fan on the edge (not short, but not long)

[Douglas342@aol.com]

    As training camp draws nigh, along with our annual prediction derby 
(Theresa, you didn't really go away, did you? Say it ain't so!) some thoughts 
from one who mostly lurks.
    I have been a Celtics fan since the early 60s.  I remember "Bob Cousy 
Night" at the Garden, and my last game in that building was the 1976 triple 
overtime game against Phoenix.  I moved to California a few months later.  
But I fear my age (50+) is catching up with me.  Pro sports in general have 
become so distatseful to me that it is tough to remain a fan.  I haven't 
watched any football in ten years.  I haven't been to a baseball game in 8 or 
9 years.  Too many athlete arrests, too many athletes taunting opponents, too 
many athletes working for the bucks and not the team, too many ads at the 
games, too many agents and clients talking about respect, too many 
commercials on the broadcasts, and too much money in the athletes' pockets.  
I pay, as a co-holder of season tickets, something like $65/game to watch 
something called the Clippers play basketball in an arena that is a monument 
to corporate greed.  (I go to two or three games a year, and almost opted out 
this year.)  They may as well build an arena of all luxury boxes and pipe in 
crowd sounds for the few who care.  
    But for all of these years there have been the Celtics.  16 titles.  
Cooz, Heinie, Russ, Hondo, Bird, Tiny, Cowens, Red.  But now we have Pitino 
and Walker.  And a crappy team. This year they add Moiso, who was an 
indifferent contributor on a mediocre UCLA team, and provides the Cs with yet 
another beanpole to along with Battie and Walter.   (Hey, we did get rid of 
Travis, though!)  We added some backup guards and (I bet) a big slow guy 
(Blount) to complement the big, slow Pots.  And everyone wants more and more 
money.  And Antoine Walker compains that he gets no respect and shows up out 
of shape in camp.
   Maybe this team will surprise us.  Maybe another year will make everyone 
hungrier.  Walker will have that breakout year he hasn't had in his career.  
Maybe Pitino's sytem (is there REALLY something called the headless chicken 
outbreak, or was that a terrific creation of a list member??) will emerge.  
Maybe Battie will have his breakout year.  Right.
   But for this long time fan who is losing interest in sports anyway (even 
my beloved NASCAR shows signs of this same big-money disease), I will say 
this much:  if the Celtics don't make the playoffs this year, I will quit 
this list at the end of the season.  I will remove the Globe and Herald 
sports pages from my bookmarks.  I will glance at Celtic scores in the 
future, but mostly will gaze at my picture of the Garden c. 1990 as my sole 
memory of the Celtics.  I just can't generate the enthusiasm for any more 
dark and dreary years.  I will no longer be a fan.  Sorry.
     To see if anyone else joins me, I will be posing my own poll question 
sometime towards the end of exhibition season.  Stayed tuned and hope for the 
best.  And thanks for listening.
 - Doug