I remember when I was younger I used to enjoy watching sports on television. I’d sit in front of the TV at night or on weekends and watch an entire game of baseball, football, hockey and occasionally, college basketball. Sometimes, like on a Sunday, I’d watch three consecutive football games.

At work the following day, all the sports fans would be talking about some of the big plays we all saw and how they helped our team win or lose.

But I don’t seem to have the patience to watch an entire game anymore. I don’t know if it’s just something that happens as we grow older, or maybe I’m just getting more reluctant about investing too much time on a sports team.

I’m still a sports fan. I still have favorite teams in baseball, football, hockey and college basketball. But these days I find myself watching highlight videos on YouTube instead of entire games.

It seems like those 15 to 20-minute highlight videos are just the right length for my taste. Whoever edits them is pretty good about making sure most of the big plays are covered. And I can pause the videos at any time for a snack break.

Sure, there are short commercial breaks, even during the videos. But they’re usually 30 seconds, nothing like the string of endless commercials during a televised game. These days the typical NFL game lasts for more than two hours, even though the actual playing time is 60 minutes.

I just refuse to sit through all the commentators’ remarks, multiple camera angle replays and commercials just to have the game come down a decisive play with less than a minute on the clock. It’s like I could have been doing something productive, then just turned on the game in the closing minutes.

I remember many years ago, my father and I listened to a baseball game between the New York Mets (our team) and Houston Astros on a small transistor radio. The game wasn’t televised, so the only way to enjoy the game was by radio.

The game started at 7:30 Central time, which was 8:30 p.m. in New Jersey where we lived. I stayed up and listened for a few hours. When I went to bed, the game was tied, 0-0 in the 10th inning.

I didn’t know who had won until the next morning. That’s when I saw the smashed little radio on the kitchen table. My father had stayed up past 2:30 a.m. to hear the Mets lose, 1-0 in 24 innings.

It’s too bad YouTube wasn’t around back then. Maybe that little radio would still be around.