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- Fans, analysts, and other philosophical types continue to debate whether soccer or baseball best represents the human condition—but what about doubles tennis?
In the ebbing days of the World Cup, it was not enough to make the case for or against soccer. That had all been said. An appropriate adieu required putting soccer in its place, not simply as a sport among other sports but as an expression of the human condition.
Another interesting comparison between soccer and baseball showed up in a Wall Street Journal essay, “The Fault in Our Stars.” The writer, Daniel Akst, discussed a recent study that reported an inconsistent correlation between talent and success by national soccer teams. “Top talent benefited performance only up to a point,” said the study, “after which the marginal benefit of talent decreased and turned negative.” The same phenomenon was found among NBA teams, Akst reported. However, among baseball teams “added talent was never harmful.”
But the sport that tests us in the most ways is, I think, tennis. It demands quickness, endurance, strength, creativity, nerve, poise, and courage. And so I nominate doubles tennis as most like life. In addition to these other virtues it also requires teamwork.
