The Best Seat in Sports

Many assume that the best seat in sports is right in your own living room. I'm the first to acknowledge that there is nothing like watching a sporting event in full recline with a full refrigerator at my side. In fact, TV sports seem to steadily improve year after year. Adding the on-field camera in football which sits right behind the quarterback, really opens up the game and gives a view only the players could see before. Other elements, like the superimposed first down line, or the always visible score strip are also huge improvements.

Even as televisions get bigger and their resolution higher, is it still the best seat in sports? Well I think there is nothing like being at a game in person no matter where you sit. Although, I have to say that my tolerance for crappy seats has waned a bit. When I was young I was thrilled to spend 75 cents for a child's admission to the top deck at Dodger Stadium. I was hundreds of feet above the field, but loved every minute of the experience and the view. So, I'm not a seat snob, but when presented with opportunity to sit in the "perfect" seat, it's an entirely different experience.

You can't buy perfect seats. Someone has to give them to you. I'm sure with an unlimited budget one can buy perfect seats, but that's never been an option for me. Earlier this year a friend who works at Stanford got us seats under the basket for a men's basketball home game. There is nothing like watching 10 giants on a fast break down the floor stopping just short of inflicting bodily harm to perform what they do best just feet away. You can hate basketball (and it isn't my favorite sport) and still be fascinated by the game when sitting in perfect seats.

This week we sat in perfect baseball seats. A friend (who will soon become my best friend) has season tickets right behind home plate. While many may say "right behind home plate" I can assure you that we were directly behind the umpire and just 15 rows back. We were just high enough to see over the umpire's head. In a stadium with 40,000 plus seats there was no other place I wanted to be. We watched a classic pitcher's dual for eight and a half innings, marveling at how the pitches hooked and bent traveling 90+ miles an hour. We saw what the batters' perspective and an angle the TV rarely shows. The crack of the bat was more than a sound when you are that close...we felt the excitement and the pain course through our bodies depending if it was crack by the good guys or the bad guys. There was even a shallow ball hit to left field with a runner tagging up from third base that was thrown out right in front of our eyes. And, as a fan when you have something to say, the players can actually hear you. Perfect seats. Perfect game (Giants won 1 to nothing).

Everyone should be so lucky at some point in their life to enjoy perfect seats for a sporting event. In my experience, the perfect seat is the next best thing to actually having some athletic talent.

April 11, 2008