Lawrence Ferlinghetti Revives His Love of the 49ers at 92 Having given up watching football about five years ago because it had grown too violent and far less interesting than baseball and soccer, sports he finds much more poetic, Lawrence Ferlinghetti stumbled into watching the second half of the 49ers" victory over the Saints last weekend. He was charmed all over again. "That was the greatest end of a game I'd ever seen," Ferlinghetti said in a telephone interview, proclaiming himself a renewed fan of the 49ers, at least while their playoff run lasts. They will host the Giants on Sunday in the N.F.C. championship game. One of the country's most enduring poets, the 92-year-old Ferlinghetti was a leader of the Beat movement, the founder of the famous City Lights bookstore, a political activist and a champion of writers of all kinds. But he is also a sports fan, having started his long literary career writing sports for The Daily Tar Heel while at the University of North Carolina (after unsuccessfully trying out for the basketball team), although he said it was because it was the only job open. "I can't say I distinguished myself," he said, laughing. I wrote up game reports on the Southern League or whatever it was called. My only performance on the gym floor was the music of Tommy Dorsey at the senior prom. That was the totality of my achievement on the basketball floor. When the eclectic path of his life and career brought him to San Francisco in 1953 - an orphan, he spent part of his childhood in France, then in New York, served in the Navy during World War II and studied at the Sorbonne - he was soon followed there by his beloved New York Giants. They inspired his one sports poem, "Baseball Canto," about watching Willie Mays and Juan Marichal and their teammates play in San Francisco. Eventually he began following the 49ers, like seemingly every sports fan in the Bay Area, but grew disillusioned by the sport. "Seriously, they have to do something to change the basic rules of the game," he said. Too many of the players are getting concussions. It's murder out there. A couple of years after they retire it all catches up with them. I prefer European soccer. It's much more interesting than American football. It's like chess when you really pay attention to it. The more you know about it, the more interesting it gets. Football is just not that interesting. Every time they line up, it's going to either be a run or a pass. They stop all the time. In soccer, they never stop. He finds a poetry similar to soccer's in baseball. "It's another game where the more you learn, the more interesting baseball gets," he said. As Ferlinghetti built his bookstore into a fixture in the literary world, he maintained his allegiance to the baseball Giants through their many down seasons. He finally got to watch them win their first World Series as fellow San Franciscans in 2010. He was struck by how different the sport had become, though - including how expensive it was to attend games; he says he went to only two. "In the days of Willie Mays and earlier, the days of Babe Ruth, the players didn't work out," he said. They'd come to the games straight from the beer hall and put on their uniforms. Now they have these scientific workouts, and it's a whole different physical level. And the pants aren't baggy anymore. Although I guess it's more sexy today with the tight pants. For at least another week, Ferlinghetti will count himself among the 49ers faithful, too - as they match their tight pants against those of the other Giants. The 49ers never got a poem, but they did earn a new fan. "I think they'll beat the Giants easily, no problem," he said. Their players are smarter and faster. Their coach is smarter. Of course, what do I know? I'm no expert on football.