Sport as Escape

Abstract

One of the sources of sport’s enormous contemporary appeal is that it provides an escape, a brief and often intoxicating respite from the complexities and confusions of everyday life. This is the world the author explores here and does so by drawing from a variety of sources, although most especially by drawing from the world of sport literature. In particular, the article argues that the world of sport is built on several important ontological features, including space, time, community, order, purpose, and self. The article addresses each of these features using literary figures and stories to highlight both the power and danger of sport as escape. Among the literature to be cited may be included works by Frank DeFord, Roy MacGregor, Bernard Malamud, Jason Miller, and John Updike. In the end, the author’s analysis serves as a cautionary tale, an admonition about the personal and collective obsession with the world of sport.