The Grind of Sports on and off the Field

In The Best American Sports Writing 2020 by Jackie MacMullan, she includes three stories, The Symptoms by Nick Paumgarten, The Grandmaster Diet by Aishwarya Kumar and Gritty All Day Long by Mark Gozonsky. The protagonist in each story deals with some sort of ailment. Even though people have a passion for sports, they often require playing through pain and soreness, whether the sport causes it or not. Sometimes though, these limitations cannot be overcome.

In Paumgarten’s story, a middle-aged man, Dickie, plays hockey in a beer league, but he decides to later on stop after suffering three concussions. He tried to toughen it out during his first concussion by fighting the urge to lay down on the penalty box bench. After his third one, he said his Advil stopped working, his moods worsened and he had trouble concentrating on work (MacMullan, 71). He eventually retires, but he would often stay up at night imagining himself playing. Many athletes, professional or recreational, miss the sport they had such a passion for when they stop playing. In this instance, the multiple concussions were something Dickie could not overcome. Concussions are treated much more seriously in this day and age and much more understood by doctors. Many athletes, notably football players, used to go back into games after things like not remembering the last play, having double vision or hearing a constant ringing, which are all common signs of concussions. This doesn’t happen as much, if at all these days. Dickie was researching a lot about CTE, the brain condition many athletes suffer from repeated blows to the head. He overheard one doctor say, “He shouldn’t freak out (too much),” (MacMullan 71), but he got lucky. When someone suffers several concussions, effects don’t always go away. The number of players that suffer from CTE and other brain-related injuries in the NFL after playing is alarming. It’s the same thing for other professional sports. Now that concussions are something more understood and taken more seriously, Dickie understood the consequences and said enough is enough.

Many people would not think so much could go into a game of chess since it is a board game. However, because of the competitiveness and the mental process in the game, people go through these physical and mental roller coasters. That is what Kumar goes into detail about in his story. Chess players can burn up to 6,000 calories a day (MacMullan, 77), because of high breathing rates and blood pressure. Chess players need to have a proper diet and workout regimen, so they are best equipped to handle the mental and physical effects of chess. Players even need to have proper posture to avoid damaging their bodies when sitting and playing for hours and hours. When people are not playing in tournaments, it takes a lot of effort to make sure they’re at peak physical and mental health. Caruana, the main character, goes for a five-mile run, does basketball and tennis for an hour and basketball for a half hour. Kumar writes that many players are always going through simulations in their head so they can beat their next opponent. This creates a juxtaposition where players need to have sharp mental minds to be able to calculate the best moves in a theoretical matchup while not having it affect their day or sleep schedule at the same time. According to Kumar, many grandmasters either stay up at night or dream about what they could’ve done differently and eventually wake up exhausted. These effects from chess are not on the level of playing contact sports, so it is a lot more feasible to be able to overcome them, but that’s not to say chess takes enduring a huge grind in order to be successful.

There are times where athletes need to overcome disabilities or physical conditions to play sports, such as asthma, cancer or diabetes. That is that case in Gozonsky’s story. He suffered from double vision. He also had not played baseball for 25 years. His condition also left him wobbly, made him sleep a lot and affected his mood. The later led to arguments with his wife. He was still able to play baseball during his Pacific Coast League tryouts, even at 57-years-old, because his double-vision went away when he would crouch behind home plate. At the plate, he was able to manage and make solid contact. He made the team as a fourth string catcher, but doing so at 57 when other players are less than half his age is quite an accomplishment. Gozonsky’s condition didn’t come from playing a sport, but it was something he had to overcome, making for a great motivational story, especially for someone at his age.

All of these stories relate to some top-notch athletes. Steelers running back James Connor beat cancer and COVID-19. Cardinals pitcher Jordan Hicks throws 105 miles per hour and is a diabetic. Ravens tight end mark Andrews is a diabetic and beat COVID-19. There are many stories like these on recreational and professional levels. Dickie’s story would be a great part of a documentary about concussions and head trauma from sports since he was someone who experienced it despite not playing on the professional level. The story about the mental and physical stress of chess could be a feature story if a certain grandmaster is the focus, or possibly a feature piece or documentary if it’s about multiple grandmasters. Gozonsky could be a part of a feature story or a mini documentary since it would be interesting to see what his life was like before resuming baseball and what he was feeling when he made the team.