Flying Pointy Things

While eating breakfast and watching the World Series of Darts on ESPN2, I thought about ...

Excuse me? ... Oh, yes, I did say “World Series of Darts.” ... Well, yes, it does seem an odd thing to see on TV ....

O.K., I admit it. I was a little confounded this morning. I’d been searching the TV channels for something to melt my brain before I could start working for the day, and I’d found ... darts. Bull’s-eye! — or so I thought.

Rather than melt, the broadcast intrigued. (And gave me something to write about. Now I can expense a day’s worth of cable-bill.)

I recalled my childhood days in Scotland. I was 4 when my dad was stationed there for about half a year, and my mom and little sister and I joined him. We lived in Campbelltown, in a cozy flat on Queen Street.

Dad worked as a short-order cook at a small restaurant, and I remember the patrons were always playing darts. Dad taught me the rules of 501, and until this morning I’d forgotten the toughest: To beat your opponent, you don’t try to surpass 501 points — you need to hit 501 exactly. Darts is a race of precision.

Now ESPN is bringing the darts race to your living room. (Or your family room. Or minivan. Or TiVo ... but I doubt it.) The network wants to do for darts what it did for poker. While I don’t see the former cultivating the cult following of the latter, there are some aspects of darts that make for good television:

• The individual games are quick. A blowout, a seesaw match or a come-from-behind victory can all be executed in just a few minutes. The highlights happen fast and often.
• The rules are simple, yet challenging. A player may quickly score 494 points, but might need several turns to secure the last seven.
• The play-by-play announcer is fascinating: World-class quick-math skills allow him to keep an audible tally after each throw. Doesn’t sound hard? In a quarter-second, update this score: 362 minus a triple-17.

One question remains: Are the contestants charismatic? The World Series of Poker has flourished partly because of the range of quirky characters convening behind the cards. Is the dart world inhabited by players who engender similar human interest? If not, darts won't hit the bull's-eye in the U.S.

(Also see: For a leisurely lesson on 501 rules, play this darts game. Also see: ESPN’s World Series of Darts.)