Whatever the reasons of depth or profundity that compel reasonable adults to follow sports, it all begins with just wanting someone to win. At a time when athletic competitions haven't been so dispensable or irrelevant in more than 50 years, we have that anyway.
The sideshows we can do without, now more than ever. Even under conditions of peace and prosperity, they're a distraction and a waste of time.
But with the baseball season winding down to another two weeks of plodding pre-climax, it's become pretty near impossible to not raise a glass for the New York Mets. For their unlikely rise in the National League East and their exemplary community spirit after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Mets are positioned as America's neighborhood ball club, silly as that sounds.
In Cincinnati, a different kind of optimism has been cast by the Bengals, who upset the defending Super Bowl champions last Sunday before about 15,000 empty seats at Paul Brown Stadium. The Bengals are 2-0 for the first time in five years.
The Bengals' next five opponents are San Diego, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago and Detroit, which have won four games between them. Two of those wins belong to San Diego against hapless football teams from Washington and Dallas. Chicago has beaten Minnesota, which seems emotionally wrung out after the training camp death of Korey Stringer and the uncertainty that grips us all. Cleveland has beaten Detroit.
None has a marquee win, such as the Bengals' 21-10 win over Baltimore last Sunday. A cynic might argue that Baltimore's offense is next to nothing, which is true, but the Bengals also made plays with their defense for the second straight game, which is remarkable.
After holding New England to 68 rushing yards two weeks ago, the Bengals kept Baltimore to 64 rushing yards last Sunday. In short, the Bengals have taken on two teams that can't run and kept them from running. After 10 years of greatly limited competence, this almost qualifies for dancing in the streets.
The Bengals intercepted Baltimore quarterback Elvis Grbak three times and recovered three Baltimore fumbles. On one of the interceptions, Bengals linebacker Takeo Spikes ran 66 yards for a touchdown. Two other turnovers deep in Baltimore territory set up Bengals' touchdowns.
Any Super Bowl contender would be glad to split with the Ravens. The Bengals now are assured as much. Does that make them Super Bowl contenders? Of course not. But they're 2-0, they were resourceful enough to score three touchdowns against a team with a great defense, quarterback Jon Kitna has completed 65 percent of his passes, the offense has lost only one turnover in two games, the defense has taken care of business against two weak offenses and the schedule shows a puncher's chance of seven more wins, which would cash out a winning season for the first time in 11 years.
Whether nine wins would be sufficient for playoff entry is a matter for the distant future, depending to some extent on how the NFL adjusts its playoff schedule after postponing last week's games. Reports have it that the league is angling to push the Super Bowl back to Feb. 3, even if it means moving the game from New Orleans, which is busy that week with a car dealers' convention.
In that case, the playoffs will be able to fit three wild card teams from each conference. But the early results indicate that nine wins still wouldn't be enough to ensure playoff entry in the AFC, where the demands stand to be higher after its teams won six of nine inter-conference games in the season's first two weeks.
So for all the glory of a 2-0 start, it's a long way from September to January. But after 10 years in which the road from September to October was impassable, the Bengals are making progress.
Their trip to San Diego Sunday already is touted as one of the weekend's pivotal games. The Chargers, who won only once last season, have scored at least 30 in each of their first two games this year. Their rookie running back, LaDainian Tomlinson, will lug the ball about 30 times and veteran quarterback Doug Flutie will throw 35 passes to six or eight different receivers.
With six sacks in their first two games, the Bengals have yet to face a quarterback with any mobility or flair for improvisation. Though Flutie, who will turn 39 next month, has never rung up great quarterback ratings in the NFL, he still can turn broken plays into big plays. He'll raise the Bengals' defense to the next level of difficulty, so we'll know a lot more about them in a week.
While the Bengals have emerged as perhaps a fleeting curiosity, a deeper curiosity has been brought into relief by terrorist catastrophe.
Ordinarily, envy and disgust have spiced the relationship between America's heartland and its largest city. For every Midwesterner who moves to New York for the buzz, another Midwesterner who loves to visit still regards the New York state of mind as an unnatural way to live.
One who loves New York for its action and opportunities can still despise New York for pushing itself on the rest of America. One who disdains overdriven New Yorkers for their hard-bitten artificial hurry still loves New Yorkers for keeping the city alive.
It's already cliched to observe that all Americans have become New Yorkers since the attack on the World Trade Center. That said, it's certain that mixed feelings gave way to uncompromised sympathy as New Yorkers dug out of the disaster. Big cities and small towns across the country, all wishing to help with the recovery, passed their hats for New York relief.
The Mets famously came into existence with record-setting futility in 1962, losing 75 percent of their games. A city that loves winners and identifies with losers took to the Mets, who have much more often than not played second fiddle to the New York Yankees. But New York being what it is, there's plenty of room for both.
Always more the common man's ball club, the Mets were near the front of the relief efforts. While the city used Shea Stadium as a staging area for the relief effort during baseball's dark week, Mets manager Bobby Valentine and several Mets players pitched in and helped. When the Mets were back on the field on Sept. 17 at Pittsburgh, the players were inspired to wear the hats of the city's police department, fire department and port authority, designated as the real heroes of the relief effort. Last Sunday, the city's two NFL teams, the Jets and Giants, followed suit.
Coincidentally, the Mets began to play well. After going to the All-Star break with a 38-53 record, the Mets won 15 of 18 to surge within 4 1/2 games of first place in the NL East through the weekend. Having rallied to an unlikely appearance in the 1999 playoffs, then to the World Series last fall, the Mets hoped to at least give their fans reason for cheer as they dig out of their rubble.
Of their final 12 games, the Mets were to play six against Montreal, three against Pittsburgh and three against Atlanta. They remained a long shot to reach the playoffs, but they've got a history of long-shot prosperity. Now the Mets aren't playing only for their fans, but for their people.
They can't save any lives, but they can make a lot of lives a little happier. It's not everything, but it's something. In these times, that's a lot.
