Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Rally 'Round the Sparty, Pocket Full of, uh, Sparty

Tradition dictates that Michigan Wolverines do not like Michigan State Spartans. In simpler days, I would have said something like Spartans are inferior to Wolverines at everything but farming, drinking, and jealousy, but those days are behind me. There are not many people out there who lean toward sympathy, empathy, and understanding for the Great Lakes State and its residents, and it's no longer worth maintaining any type of real or imaginary feud with one of our few remaining allies. When times are flying high in our state years down the road, I will rejoin the ranks of the anti-Spartans with far more appreciation for having the leisure of focusing any time or attention on booing another in-state school.

I say all this, of course, because the Spartans are coming home to Detroit to fight for continued national glory in the Final Four this coming weekend. It is not as though a Michigan State victory will cure any of the ails we face or otherwise improve any of the real issues we encounter, but in more difficult times, any victory or piece of good news takes on so much more importance. It is fascinating to watch people from all collegiate walks of life banding together in Michigan sports bars and homes to cheer for the Spartans in the hopes of some success to add a small light to the gray.

I'm proud of Michigan State and genuinely happy for the students and fans that continue to follow the school through all of its basketball success. I don't think that college or professional sports actually mean anything of significance or that I'm saying anything deep right here, but with all the significant and painful battles currently on the table, I'm semi-permanently forgoing the pointlessness of this one and officially jumping on the MSU bandwagon. Go Spartans! Win one for Michigan.

5 comments:

Tim Chilcote said...

In Facebook fashion, TimChi likes this.

BobA said...

Even though I am a die-hard Wolverine fan, I have never begrudged Spartan success, unless it was in head to head competition. Spartan success does not diminish Wolverine greatness. We are too good for that.

Jeff Caminsky said...

As I've often told my MSU-graduate little brother...we're always glad to see them muddle through to victory, as long as it doesn't involve Michigan. After all, we were big enough to be rooting for the Spartans at Thermopylae, and we'll be rooting for them again this weekend.

Dan Anderson said...

Where did gl guru blog go?

AlexJD said...

Spartans are inferior to Wolverines at everything but farming, drinking, and jealousy