Whoever invented the ball should get the Nobel Prize. Look what it turned into. A simple ball turns this universe around. You can work your whole life to just get by; but if you are good with a ball you can get your college paid for and make millions later. The most amazing thing to me is the thinking that invented some of these games.

I was speaking to a foreigner the other day and their perspective on sports in general was very enlightening. I mean the guy who invented golf. Can you imagine yourself sitting around a table with a few people and stating that you had come up with this great game called golf. You get yourself a big club and hit a small ball as far as possible and then chase it. In fact, you chase it in the woods if you can't hit it straight and we'll even throw in some water and sand hazzards. Of course the idea is to see who can get the ball into a small hole in the fewest hits and the hole is a few hundred yards off. This means we can't play this sport in a building or even a large field. We have to purchase alot of costly property to build the course. Any takers?

How about soccer. Twenty grown men kick a ball around for a couple of hours in the hot sun or rain and alot of the time nobody scores. We are going to pay these guys millions of dollars and attract a hundred thousand people just to watch. More takers?

Now football is a good one too. This foreigner told me he watched the game for hours but couldn't understand it. It seems to him that these big guys would jump into a pile and then get up and run around a bit and then jump into a pile again. Hockey was alot like soccer except the guys have all this gear on and only 8 men actually chase a puck around for a couple of hours while on skates.

He thought baseball was basically, one guy in a corner of a diamond waits until somebody throws a ball at him and he hits it with a stick and then all the others chase the ball. In fact basketball was the only game he could get a handle on because he could see they were trying to throw a ball into a basket and if they succeeded then the other side got a turn.

When you really think about it alot of these games seem to be a real hard sell. Alot of these games you just get used to as you grow up but life sure is more interesting thanks to the guy who invented the ball.