Daily Egyptian Sports : This time, there was baseball

For those of us who are sick to death of 9/11 remembrances, as politically incorrect and "unpatriotic" as it may be, Wednesday night offered the option of watching sports instead of memorial services.

ABC aired "Report from Ground Zero," CBS showed an exclusive presidential interview, and NBC offered "A Concert for America."

But between WGN, ESPN and ESPN2, baseball was broadcast from 1 p.m. to midnight.

Take a wild guess which networks I was watching.

Last year, there were no sports in the aftermath of the attacks, and nothing drives a sports fan battier than having to face reality for an entire week.

The NCAA and NFL canceled their weekend games, forcing the jock junkies to watch CNN, go outside or talk to loved ones.

We hate that.

But no one would say anything at the risk of being unpatriotic.

Either that, or I'm in a club as exclusive as the monkey-juggling glass eaters of Northern Saskatchewan, because no one would agree with me.

"The NFL and NCAA did the right thing by not playing," said SIU football head coach Jerry Kill. "We had no business playing on that day. You've got to put sports and life in perspective, and that is life. Sports are entertainment."

True, but Kill and the rest of the team spent the rest of the week practicing. He had no need to pay attention to the unprecedented horrors being aired 24/7, something sports fans were reminded of every time they attempted to channel surf.

I know that turning off the TV was an option for most, but to the sports psycho, that is a physical impossibility.

It's like telling a nursing home patient to turn off his life support system, asking a diabetic to give up his insulin or forcing an SIU student to put down his beer - it's not bloody likely.

Sports fans and televisions are joined at the hip. The fan shares a bond with the TV that can't be measured - like the love between a man and a woman, just a little bit stronger.

So, despite the loss of sports, fans sat like inanimate slugs in front of the TV for an entire week, absorbing Wolf Blitzer and Peter Jacobson's reports that more attacks could be on the way.

There was nothing else to do that weekend for sports fans, and I was able to find someone sympathetic to the cause - Saluki quarterback Joel Sambursky.

"We should play football," Sambursky said. "A lot of college students didn't have something else to concentrate on to get their mind off of it. We were fortunate to have something else to get our mind off all the things going on."

Sambursky, a self-admitted sports nut, said he would watch ESPN Wednesday night. But he, unlike most rabid sports fans, is in touch with reality.

Sambursky will watch the news as well, and said he planned to attend Wednesday night's candlelight vigil.

But I did no such thing, because this time, there was baseball. There was no need to re-visit the trauma of the world's second-greatest city - behind Chicago - being brought to its knees.

For me, and the rest of the to-be committed sports maniacs with no perspective, the car has passed by and we're moving the hockey net back into the street.

Game on.

Reporter Michael Brenner can be reached at mbrenner@dailyegyptian.com