Initial Thoughts on Nick Hornsby's "Fever Pitch"

[total_football]

From an earlier thread:
This subject comes up a lot, and I think its really similar to the urban v. rural american sports fan discussion. Many of us live in areas with no team in any of the major sports.......therefore you don't really feel any particular born loyalty to anyone. The idea of supporting your local team is not applicable in comparing England and America. Our country is 3000 miles wide with only 30 teams on average per sport. For most people there is no "local" team.

American football is obviously huge in the South where I live but there is no NFL team anywhere close, we are about the same difference from the Cowboys, Rams and Saints. You get used to cheering for a team you can't "see" in person, because you have no choice. So following Arsenal really feels no different than following the Cowboys or Red Sox.

An excellent point, not one I've given much thought to, living in Chicago and all. The weird thing about England is: it can fit into the entirety of, say, Oregon, and still hold 92 frickin' professional teams. That's just amazing! By the way, I picked up the book, "Fever Pitch" and am now 60 pages into it: excellent vinettes of the a subculture that I can't begin to fathom, in some respects (e.g., in the 70s and 80s, Supporters Clubs practically emulating street gangs, brawling it out every weekend, like a drunken "West Side Story", mano-a-mano, tete-a-tete) but greatly admire in other ways, particularly for lack of better words, the uttterly immense passion of the working class cultural embrace of a sport and the very way that sport weaves into the very fabric of the social being in a thousand and one different ways.

Honestly, that esprit d'corps has long vanished in America. Sports today in this country embue nothing of the blood, seat and tears of the world described (so far) by Mr. Hornsby. Today, it is, to borrow a phrase, prawn sandwiches, everywhere you turn: the indifferent and arrogant $14,000,000 cry-babies bemoaning of a chance to "feed their families", the brazen aesthetic ugliness of the domed statdiums and astro turf, the endless T.V. commerical interruptions, the jumbotrons visibly and aduibly compelling the autmatonic suits to "make some noise". Sports in this country have long since given way to "product" that is itself pedalled and consumed by "x" number of "eyeballs".

At first glance, Mr. Hornsby's tale made me think of the 1st chapter of Don DeLillo's novel, "Underworld", which itself a massive, 800 something page, sprawling, thinking person's page turner, a glimpse of life in post war America, from Ike to Clinton. The opening salvo speaks of a more heroic time, of course, that is to say, 1951, the Polo Grounds, the Dodgers, the Giants, Bobby Thompson, the winning of the pennant (multiplied 7 times, of course) with a fictional conversation in the grandstands between Frank Sinatra, Jackie Gleason and J. Edgar Hoover. Oh, and school children playing hooky, jumping the turnstiles, and clamoring to get their hands on the so-called "shot heard arond the world".

It's a world that is itself recent in time but at the same time nearly vanished. Today, that winning ball would be, if not on e-bay, then the subject of contentous litigation. Or, auctioned on ebay, bought for $125,000 and blown up into a million pieces on live TV.

So, yes, upon further reflection, I can see why one would invest more than a passing interest in Arsenal Football Club. For the best of reasons. What a wonderful book, I'm looking forward to finishing the rest of it in the next couple of days!

But even Nick Hornsby noted in this book that if he came of age in the early '90s, it would be very doubtful that the story he develops in these pages would be repeated: to paraphrase, what kind of kid has 30-40 "quid" to go to a game on the weekend? And those words were written in 1992, right at the dawn of the Premiership, when the Premiership had yet to become this massive financial and hype-generating juggernaught that would make the N.F.L. blush by the scope of its international prominance. So, maybe Europe is becoming a bit like America, me thinks. All they need are some more luxury boxes, a bigger jumbotron, and Jack Nicholson in the front row, taking up one of the $1,000 seats.

[HighburyGoon]

Great post, and not be a dick, but then again, that was my New Year's resolution, but I digress... Anyway, Nick Hornby is the author of Fever Pitch, High Fidelity, About A Boy, among others. Bruce Hornsby is a piano player and one time member of the Grateful Dead. Just thought I'd nip this one in the bud. :D

[yossarian]

At first glance, Mr. Hornsby's tale made me think of the 1st chapter of Don DeLillo's novel, "Underworld", which itself a massive, 800 something page, sprawling, thinking person's page turner, a glimpse of life in post war America, from Ike to Clinton. The opening salvo speaks of a more heroic time, of course, that is to say, 1951, the Polo Grounds, the Dodgers, the Giants, Bobby Thompson, the winning of the pennant (multiplied 7 times, of course) with a fictional conversation in the grandstands between Frank Sinatra, Jackie Gleason and J. Edgar Hoover. Oh, and school children playing hooky, jumping the turnstiles, and clamoring to get their hands on the so-called "shot heard arond the world".

It's a world that is itself recent in time but at the same time nearly vanished. Today, that winning ball would be, if not on e-bay, then the subject of contentous litigation. Or, auctioned on ebay, bought for $125,000 and blown up into a million pieces on live TV.

Fictional? You mean Jackie Gleason didn't puke all over Sinatra while J. Edgar was entranced by a copy of Bruegel's "The Triumph of Death" during one of the most famous baseball games of all time?

[surfcam]

Fictional? You mean Jackie Gleason didn't puke all over Sinatra while J. Edgar was entranced by a copy of Bruegel's "The Triumph of Death" during one of the most famous baseball games of all time?

LOL! That was an odd scene, though an interesting read.

[canadagooner]

The closest to that sort of community dedication I've witnessed in America(albeit without the fighting) is Friday Night High School Football in the midwest, back a few years. The entire town, city was focused entirely on the game. It was amazing to see the multiple generations tailgating, attendances had to be 10 12 thousand. A real occasion every second Friday

[UVaGooner]

but greatly admire in other ways, particularly for lack of better words, the uttterly immense passion of the working class cultural embrace of a sport and the very way that sport weaves into the very fabric of the social being in a thousand and one different ways.

Honestly, that esprit d'corps has long vanished in America.

I'm not so sure that it has, in fact, vanished in America. I have season tickets for the University of Virginia (UVa) football, and the crowd is among the most passionate you'll ever see, despite the fact that the Cavaliers are a 2nd tier team in the ACC. I'd say the same is probably true for most college footballs teams, especially in the south.

And while ticket prices for NFL games are crazy (they only have 8 home games a year to get the money out of our pockets), I was amazed at the diversity of the crowd at the Redskins' last home again vs. the Giants. You had K Street attorneys sitting side by side with truck drivers from Manassas, black fans from Anacostia hugging white fans from Potomac when Ramsey threw a deep TD pass to Santana Moss. It seemed to be the one place in DC where people are able to forget the great Red State/Blue State divide.

What I'm getting at is that it's easy to glamorize the "passion of the fans" at an English football match, but please don't forget that the same passion does exist in the States.

[PsychedelicCeltic]

Anybody who's ever been to Fenway Park knows that passion can exist even at a professional level.

[billyho96]

college football is the only thing close to the same.

The atmosphere at your average SEC, ACC, or Big-East (those are ones I have actually been to) are very similar to what you find around Highbury on a Saturday afternoon match, except there are not bars to go in, there are tailgaters serving themselves.

I can say from experience that a full college football stadium in a big stadium makes Highbury seem kinda small. We have high school stadiums that hold 38,000 people in parts of the South.

its really pretty similar

[arsenalgirl30016]

What I'm getting at is that it's easy to glamorize the "passion of the fans" at an English football match, but please don't forget that the same passion does exist in the States.

Try saying that after you have witnessed a match at WHL.....there is no comparison....the Amercian football fans do not spend the entire match chanting and screaming at the opposing fans....which is what Spurs fans do. It is not a glamoriztion, it is a fact......


PS Just so it stops any arguments, I am not saying that American fans are not passionate about sports......just that in some aspects the English are more passionate.

[Cannon]

Well as somebody who lost his voice for a few days after more than 3 hours of yelling at a Philly playoff game against TB a couple of seasons ago, I'd have to say that you'll see a similar level of passion here. It is just expressed differently. We don't have as many chants, songs but we do scream our heads off and of course we do have a few chants...E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles.

[UVaGooner]

As someone who's been to countless UVa-Va. Tech games, I'd say the noise levels match anything in London. No chanting, that's a cultural difference, but loud nonetheless. The hatred between Virginia and Tech is palpable.

Listen, this isn't a pissing contest, I'm just saying you can find the same here.

[arsenalgirl30016]

I went to UGA and I know all about football (college and pro ) rivalries, but if you have not experienced an English football match then it is hard to compare, it is very intense and I have never felt the way I did at the Spurs match at any UGA game......

And I agree this is not a pissing match.

[UVaGooner]

Oh, I've been to a few Arsenal matches (thanks to Jeff Lancaster). And to all of the WC matches held in DC way back when.

[arsenalgirl30016]

All I can say is watch out for all of your rival ACC fans on this board....... :D

[total_football]

I think I was getting more at the money aspect of professional American sports. I would say that as far as level of support is concerned, it's largely different here, and one principal difference is the lack of organized supporters organizations in most pro sports (MLS excepted, of course: it's amanzing what a few hundred people in Section 8 have been able to do with regard to the perception of the Chicago Fire in the local sports scene: people (those who have a superficial knowledge of the team) think we're just plain nuts and crazy with the level of enthusiasm diplayed: but then again, what is there to compare to, as far organized supporters' organizations (in Chicago, anyway)?

Personally, I can't watch the NFL anymore, never have paid attention for years, going on decades. And I was an avid Bears fan growing up. On the other hand, I never try to miss the Michigan-Ohio State game. For the poster who was talked about high-school sports, I hear taht friday night high school gridiron mathces are still all the rage in Texas.

[feej92]

leafing through my "Official History of Arsenal FC" last night (must-own, btw for all Gooners) i got to thinking about the difference between the FA structure in England and say, the NFL structure in the US. The cycle of promotion/relegation from lower divisions all the way up to Premiership is so different from the "you've got $$$? you can have a first division NFL team!" structure in US sports. i mean, a team like Wigan is considered a newcomer to the topflight scene despite having been in existence for decades - they've had time to build true support, a real history, etc. whereas under the US structure, a team like the florida marlins can just buy a championship in its fifth year of existence. and then hold a fire sale next year...and 5 years later make noises about moving elsewhere - completely destroying any loyalty or goodwill they may have built up with their glory. i read a book recently called "OFFSIDE" about this type of thing and the difference between the US sporting mentality and the rest of the world.

[pookspur]

a quick digression, if i may; and with regard to the original post's appreciation of text as a vehicle to the comprehension of the english football culture (and, by contrast, the manners it which it differs from sport here in the states).

if one enjoys such cultural insight as that provided by fever pitch (a very good book, by any measure), i've a suggestion. obtain, and read cover to cover every month, WSC (when saturday comes) magazine.

understanding and appreciation will not come at you all at once, like from reading one very good book. initially, some of it may even seem decidedly uninteresting. but over time, it's really enlightening; and in a much broader sense than any one book could be. this periodical covers aspects of the english game that you're just not likely to find elsewhere in the premiership (and a bit of cc league)-dominated football media. political, financial, structural, and cultural concerns are addressed from virtually all strata of the game.

i've been following english football since back in the 70s. i've been over there a number of times, had countless english friends and acquaintences, and read i-don't-know-how-many books and articles on the game. but despite what i would consider (by indiana standards, anyway) a thorough immersion in english football, the level at which i understood and appreciated the culture of the game didn't approach it's current level until the mid-90s - right about when i started consuming WSC.

ok. now that i think about it, it also correlates to the internet and my visits to white hart lane. so maybe i've gone over the top a bit with regard to WSC. but seriously, it will present aspects of the game's english culture that even a dozen visits to highbury and the t-bird will not likely touch upon - as intoxicating (both culturally and literally) as those must undoubtedly be.

didn't mean to hi-jack the thread, but i just thought i'd throw this out there, as i thought it might resonate with any americans who find themselves getting deeper and deeper into the emotional quagmire of english football.

[Milkman]

college football is the only thing close to the same.

The atmosphere at your average SEC, ACC, or Big-East (those are ones I have actually been to) are very similar to what you find around Highbury on a Saturday afternoon match, except there are not bars to go in, there are tailgaters serving themselves.

...

its really pretty similar

You forgot the Big Ten! :)

My father and I hold season tickets to the Buckeyes, and yes the atmosphere and the gameday routine were strikingly similar when I went to Highbury. The biggest difference is that Highbury = 38,000+ while Ohio Stadium is 102,000+.

And Buckeyes fans have our own song... it's about the state of Michigan :D

[total_football]

a quick digression, if i may; and with regard to the original post's appreciation of text as a vehicle to the comprehension of the english football culture (and, by contrast, the manners it which it differs from sport here in the states).

if one enjoys such cultural insight as that provided by fever pitch (a very good book, by any measure), i've a suggestion. obtain, and read cover to cover every month, WSC (when saturday comes) magazine.

understanding and appreciation will not come at you all at once, like from reading one very good book. initially, some of it may even seem decidedly uninteresting. but over time, it's really enlightening; and in a much broader sense than any one book could be. this periodical covers aspects of the english game that you're just not likely to find elsewhere in the premiership (and a bit of cc league)-dominated football media. political, financial, structural, and cultural concerns are addressed from virtually all strata of the game.

i've been following english football since back in the 70s. i've been over there a number of times, had countless english friends and acquaintences, and read i-don't-know-how-many books and articles on the game. but despite what i would consider (by indiana standards, anyway) a thorough immersion in english football, the level at which i understood and appreciated the culture of the game didn't approach it's current level until the mid-90s - right about when i started consuming WSC.

ok. now that i think about it, it also correlates to the internet and my visits to white hart lane. so maybe i've gone over the top a bit with regard to WSC. but seriously, it will present aspects of the game's english culture that even a dozen visits to highbury and the t-bird will not likely touch upon - as intoxicating (both culturally and literally) as those must undoubtedly be.

didn't mean to hi-jack the thread, but i just thought i'd throw this out there, as i thought it might resonate with any americans who find themselves getting deeper and deeper into the emotional quagmire of english football.
FYI: several years ago, I went to see the punk rock band Chumbawumba (this was well before the wonder of their one hit in '97), and they were talking about a couple of things football related: first, being part of Leeds Fans United Against Racism and secondly, highly recommended the very same magazine you mention in your post, "When Saturday Comes".
Have to definitely check it out!

[pookspur]

FYI: several years ago, I went to see the punk rock band Chumbawumba (this was well before the wonder of their one hit in '97), and they were talking about a couple of things football related: first, being part of Leeds Fans United Against Racism and secondly, highly recommended the very same magazine you mention in your post, "When Saturday Comes".
Have to definitely check it out!

not really surprising. my understanding is that chumbawumba is(were?) a fairly dedicated bunch of socialists, and WSC definitely has a bit of a 'working class' feel to it - from the little ensignia declaring "the people's game" to much of it's content. that said, the magazine address some complex issues with a degree of sophistication, and is hardly a political rant.

i'm nowhere near socialist - but, as you may have deduced, i love the magazine. the political analogy may be apt, though, if one wishes to correlate 'working class' to 'fans'. not that it is throwing bombs (so to speak) at the corporate, 'bourgeois' aspects of the game; but as the two (increasingly) come into conflict, the magazine generally tends to throw up a spirited defense of the former. no matter how well one understands and appreciates the needs for clubs and associations to generate revenue, as a fan, you usually tend to appreciate their efforts.