<p>I’d rather chew glass then watch a soccer match…</p>
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<p>In that case I’ve got the perfect spectator sport: curling – it’s team sport requiring tons of skill. It’s got plays, strategy, teamwork - the works! It’s the new football!</p>
<p>Actually, I like foot racing because it <em>doesn’t</em> involve any subjective judging as do figure skating, diving, or gymnastics. It is sport in its purest form: first one across the line wins. No style points. No flopping to get phony fouls called. No need to figure out “what the judges are looking for.” Just winning and losing.</p>
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<p>One person’s tedium is another’s transcendence.</p>
<p>Baseball is a sport where no one seems to be in much of a hurry. </p>
<p>Especially in today’s hurry-up, multitasking, 24/7 world, that is (in my view) a positive attribute, not a negative one. If what I wanted to see was a lot of busy activity, I could sit down next to a highway and watch the cars whiz by.</p>
<p>(Oh, and by the way: the Cubs beat the Cardinals again this afternoon in St. Louis, 3-2 [pulling ahead in the 8th on a 2-run homer by Soriano]; they’re just about to start a second make-up game.)</p>
<p>Bottom line, what gets aired on TV is what the sponsors pick up; what the sponsors pick up is whatever is going to get them viewership. Supply and Demand. If your favorite sport isn’t getting air time it’s because not very many people enjoy watching it (besides you).</p>
<p>I think that what people enjoy watching is drama- much like a soap opera. That’s why people like hockey, football, baseball, and the others…they actually enjoy the fights, the disputed calls, the anguish on the faces of the coaches, the screaming in the ump’s face, the late hits, the personal fouls. They cringe when the figure skater leaps seven feet in the air and falls on his butt, but they LOVE it. Watching a race is the same whether the runners are all slow or all fast. It’s not comprehensible in and of itself, that what you’re watching is really pure athletic genius (after all, they could be the slowest runners in the world and it wouldn’t necessarily be evident). Not so with someone who jacks the ball over the fence for the 50th time, or runs a record 50 yard dash and pulls a tiny ball the size of a small rock out of the air, or a cornerback who appears out of nowhere to intercept a hail mary pass and runs 90 yards for a touchdown.</p>
<p>Red Sox win, Notre Dame loses, all is well.</p>
<p>Golf is “flog” spelled backwards. But I always check to see how Tiger is doing.
70-foot eagle putt? My.</p>
<p>YES YES YES - Yankees got WHOOPED today by those dear Red Sox 
10-1 - yeeeaaahhhhh :)</p>
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<p>Very true…almost any sport can be interesting if you know the ins and out, strategies, players, etc.</p>
<p>For example, I have found sumo, if you take the time to get to now it, to be very interesting…</p>
<p>Add golf: one of my best friends is an avid golfer, as is one of my best business relationships. I thought that I should learn a little about the game, just in case I ever got sucked in for a round. I heard that the first thing one had to do was to properly address the ball. I experimented a bit and finally came up with, “Oh honorable and esteemed ball.” Satisfied with this small bit of progress, I eagerly communicated this to my golf-playing buddies. Their schedules must be very busy for I have received no invitation to the links just as yet. I’m sure one will be forthcoming.</p>
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<p>Gee…OK.</p>
<p>Actually my son just played his first game of my personal favorite, rugby on Saturday. </p>
<p>Watch the rugby world cup this month and american football will seem slow as well.</p>
<p>I have been watching baseball on TV and in person since I was 3 years old. (Believe me, 3 years old was a very long time ago for me.) When someone tells me that baseball is boring, I say, “You don’t know what you are watching.” There is ALWAYS something going on, players shifting positions, backing up throws, anticipating runners breaking. There are an infinite number of possibilities as to what can happen with that next pitch. There is no running out the clock in baseball, you’ve got to throw that pitch until the last out. </p>
<p>We are part of a season ticket plan at the baseball cathedral, Yankee Stadium, and every single game draws close to or over 50,000 fans, even against the cr*ppy teams. They have broken the 4 million mark for several years, just as I am sure than Fenway would break that mark if it held more than 33,000 people. I often meet many Red Sox fans at Yankee Stadium and it is indeed easier for those fans to get tickets in NY because the Stadium hold 20,000 more people per game than Fenway does. Some cities are just baseball cities and some are not.</p>
<p>Agree with the ‘you don’t know what you’re watching’ comments. We started watching live high school cricket matches last year, and (I NEVER thought I’d say this), now I understand how it is played. Well, some stuff still doesn’t make sense, but we can follow what’s going on. </p>
<p>Oh, and you will never figure it out by watching on t.v. Gotta see it up close.</p>
<p>When we lived in England, my s played cricket. We went to pro games that would last - literally - DAYS! We still have no idea what the hell was going on!</p>
<p>I found the best way to learn the game of baseball is to keep score. Get a score pad, go to some farm team games with someone who does know how to keep score, and learn how. It forces you to see the possibilities. At the beginning, you do a lot of “huh? what just happened?” When you have to account for every base taken, you realize it’s not just about hitting the little ball and running for home.</p>
<p>Folks, you need to realize that just because people don’t prefer baseball, it doesn’t make them thick or means they lack the ability to understand the game. It’s just a game that doesn’t flow. Too many starts and stops. Too much management, not enough player decision making. Different strokes.</p>
<p>While I love sweet lou and always will, when I go to a “game”, I come to see the players play, not the factory manager control the workers. </p>
<p>If you like basketball, soccer isn’t that hard to appreciate, likewise rugby. American football spawned from rugby. Played both enjoyed rugby more. Any sport where anybody can score at anytime, with few coaching interuptions is more my speed. Practice is for coaching, games are for players…</p>
<p>Opie—maybe it’s you that need to realize that when people are waxing enthusiastically on a subject they love, all you have to say is you yourself don’t prefer it, rather than running it down with gratuitous insults.</p>
<p>At least, that’s how i teach my kids how to discuss their opinions.</p>
<p>I didn’t say or intend to suggest that people who don’t understand baseball are thick. Until my kids played, I didn’t know or care one whit about the game, but watching it for the good part of 10 years taught me a lot about it, and I learned to appreciate it. I love baseball and football. I also enjoy figure skating and lacrosse. In general I prefer team sports (I even like couples skating more than individuals). I also prefer games where every point is meaningful, but not so meaningful that if a team scores one or two points on the other team, the game is virtually over. There are a lot of sports that I really don’t like, but I don’t think it matters to anyone here. And my mommy always told me if I can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. :)</p>
<p>Lots of sports are great to watch, once you learn the details of how they work. Since DD started playing HS volleyball, I’ve learned from her about the strategy & intricacies of the game. Now that I can see plays developing, I really enjoy it!</p>
<p>I am a baseball fan, but I will admit that when football season starts, it’s hard to watch baseball. After the speed & action of a football game, baseball just c-r-a-w-l-s. I’d like to impose a time limit on pitchers. There is no need to walk off the mound, wander around, take off your hat, wipe your brow, put the hat back on, adjust your cup, spit, take a deep breath, then walk back onto the mound and rearrange the dirt BETWEEN EVERY PITCH. Newsflash - you threw one ball. Catch it when it comes back from the catcher, set yourself, get the sign, take a breath, and throw it again. And this is from a baseball fan…</p>
<p>YIPPPEE!! My brother-in-law just called with tickets for the Yankees/Orioles game tomorrow night! FIELD LEVEL!! BEHIND HOME PLATE!!! WITH PARKING!!!
GO YANKEES!!!
PS Tonight’s game should be great.</p>
<p>We went to yesterday’s Sox v. Yankees game. As dovoted Red Sox fans, it was an amazing game. We happened to be surrounded by Yankees fans and when the battle of chants started, it was hard to tell who was louder, as they were yelling in my ear. At least no one got thrown out like I saw last year.</p>
<p>I’ll be switching between baseball the the Pats game tonight. Who’s idea was it to schedule them for the same time?</p>