Sports in primitive human communties are about hunting and feats of human endurance.  Like the pictographs on cave walls depiciting the males of the clan together hunting and dominating the prey.   

  How about the ancient societal rites of the Olympics? With so much religious symbolism and the honoring of human feats because of the gifts given to the favorites of the gods.  The Greek influenced cultures of the world have always liked sports and it heros. 

The Americas are thirsting for more sports.  And we watch the playoffs in basketaball, hockey, and the games in baseball leading up to the World Series. So how big a role does art play in sports?  A very big one. Without art there would be no images to make conjured events from the past in words colorful.  No picture of Lou Gehrig standing at the microphone bidding farewell to the fans and the sport would be tragic. 

Art is the forum of the knowledgeable.  The stats and the events are real.  With art sports transforms itself from being a game to live and memorable. Sports writing is art; interpreting the setting  and players in written word so that everything is alive to the reader.