Ready, Set, Click

Blame ESPN.

In 1979, the then upstart cablecaster went on the air with "SportsCenter" and anchor Leonard Lee saying "If you're a fan, what you'll see in the next minutes, hours, and days to follow may convince you you've gone to sports heaven." In those early days it was not so much heaven, but something a bit lower: their first exclusive sporting event was game one of the World Series in men's professional slow-pitch softball between the Milwaukee Schlitz and the Kentucky Bourbons. 

Fast forward to today, and ESPN is no longer a wannabe but one of the major players in sports broadcasting, with rights to NFL, NBA and MLB games. They have a radio arm, a streaming service and 8 US television networks. Far from merely surviving on second tier sports, they carry the NFL's Monday Night Football, finals in professional basketball and hockey, tennis' Australian, Wimbledon and US Open competitions, and The Masters golf tournament. 

Whether they created it or merely unearthed it, ESPN's existence is owed to our seemingly insatiable appetite to watch competitive events. And while the network may have moved upscale, that demand has proven to be incredibly wide and resilient, and others have sprung up to carry those up-till-then nearly invisible competitions. And so punch around and you can now watch women's volleyball in Kansas and horse racing in Louisiana, tennis in Hong Kong and martial arts in Wisconsin, bull riding in New York and lacrosse in Philadelphia. 

But even that's not enough to quench the appetite of the viewing public. A multitude of head-to-head battles have been created in what can only be described as "non-traditional" areas. These are arenas where it used to be we recognized and celebrated those who were better than others. but never thought to place them on a field or court. And while that space might not be green or have markings or goals, there are rules and refs, winners and losers.

For example, you might be guided by stars or ratings to find those chefs that rise above the rest. But if you want to see cooking "battles" there is "Iron Chef" and "The Great British Bakeoff" and "Beat Bobby Flay." You might choose a tour based on its Yelp rating, but never thought of racing from place to place as in "The Amazing Race" or "Expedition Impossible." And who would have believed that an audience would tune in to watch adults battle to the "death" in "Red Light, Green Light" on "Squid Game."

It shows no signs of stopping. Had you been watching the CBS Sports Network in December you would have seen the ETC Series. If you're unfamiliar with the league those initials represent, it's not a college or regional grouping. Rather, ETC stands for the Elite Trades Championship, and includes the US Auto Tech National Championship for the best mechanics, the Ideal National Championship for the top electricians, the ServiceTitan HVAC Championship spotlighting outstanding heating and air conditioning techs. And then there's the sump pump of them all, the Plumbing National Championships. There as in the others, play-by-play announcers walk us through the action, and color commentators highlight what is right and wrong: "Well, Joe, is that spanner that right way for Smitty to go?" "Bill, I tell, ya, I've never seen a such a masterful use of a quarter hex drive to tighten up a flange valve. We are seeing greatness here!"  

Perhaps your preferred tool is a mouse as opposed to a monkey wrench. If so, then head to Las Vegas for an eSport competition like no other. Not Fortnite or World of Warcraft, but the Microsoft Excel World Championship. Think you got the stuff? A sample case: "You have been hired as a financial modeling consultant for GreenEnergo (GE), a fictional electric utility company that operates in a fictional country of Bublijan. Your goal is to create a 10-year monthly financial model, forecast the financials, calculate the project's NPV and IRR and determine the required level of state subsidies for the project to be economically feasible for GE." Ready, set, click!

Whether you call them sports like tennis, boxing or basketball, or competitions like golf, surfing and running, they all have their fans. There is almost nothing that can't be turned into a contest and garner an audience. Downhill skiing or crab racing: the choice is yours.

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Marc Wollin of Bedford rarely cares who wins anything. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.