What position would you like to play in your favorite team sports?

[dalej42]

Ice Hockey: I'd want to be a goaltender.

Baseball: 3rd base.

[mnemosyne]

Goalie definitely. I don't think I'd ever be any good but it looks like a lot of fun.

[PlanetCharlie]

Baseball: catcher
Basketball: power forward
Hockey: there's positions?
Football: cornerback
Curling: guy with broom

[mkecane]

Football: Cornerback
Soccer: Defensive midfielder

[dalej42]

In American football, I'd want to be a nose tackle.

In soccer, goaltender.

In basketball, center.

[Ají de Gallina]

Soccer: Left midfielder
Rugby: Scrum-half
NFL: Tight end
Baseball: 2nd base

[John DiFool]

Am. football, punter or kicker only (I don't relish the aches and pains from a regular position).

Hockey, defenseman with a nasty slap shot and deft passing touch.

Baseball, third base (with training I'm sure I could have gotten my 65 MPH arm up over 80)

But in temperament I'd be better off in an individual sport (auto racing or golf).

[Swords to Plowshares]

Baseball: second base or shortstop
Am. football: pass rusher (assuming I had the body for it of course)

[Bearflag70]

American football - receiver

[jsgoddess]

Shortstop.

A good shortstop is a beautiful thing.

[Stink Fish Pot]

Baseball - Shortstop or Pitcher

Football - Quarterback

Hockey - Right Wing

[Randy Seltzer]

My favorite team is an NFL franchise. And if I had to play a position on that team? Hm...

Well, I'm a skinny Jewish guy who has never played a day of football in his life. I would probably snap like a dry twig if I were tackled. So I'm going to go with punter. The other team would get penalized for hitting me (in most circumstances), I wouldn't have the pressure that is put on the kicker, and occasionally, I could throw my body at the legs of the return man, and suddenly I'm the hero who was able to stop him when 10 other (three hundred pound) guys couldn't.

Yeah, I wouldn't get the money or glory of a QB or defensive back, but at least when I retire at the age of 53, I wouldn't have chronic encephalopathy.

[Stink Fish Pot]

Originally Posted by Randy Seltzer

Well, I'm a skinny Jewish guy who has never played a day of football in his life. I would probably snap like a dry twig if I were tackled.

[slight hijack]

I may start another thread about this particular thing, but while I'm thinking about it, why on earth is it relevant at all that you are Jewish? Who cares if you are Jewish?

[/slight hijack]

<snip>

Originally Posted by Randy Seltzer

Yeah, I wouldn't get the money or glory of a QB or defensive back, but at least when I retire at the age of 53, I wouldn't have chronic encephalopathy.

You'd still be jewish.

[PlanetCharlie]

Outside of Sandy Koufax, name one decent Jewish athlete. Exactly.

[dogbutler]

Ice hockey-right wing

[Asimovian]

In my fantasies -- begun in childhood and never quite given up on -- I have always been a left fielder for the Dodgers.

Sadly, in real life, while I still have some speed and catching ability and can even scale a wall decently at my age and weight, I've never been able to throw for any distance without making it a rainbow.

[installLSC]

My first though was center fielder. When you think of graceful players, you usually think of center fielders like Willie Mays and Joe DiMaggio. But then I decided I'd rather be a third baseman. There's something just cool looking about charging a bunt or making a backhanded stab.

[Mister Rik]

Second base.

[Hal Briston]

Football, obviously -- there aren't any other sports:

Assuming there was some body-morphing technology that would actually allow me to play, I'd be a defensive end. One job: get off the snap quickly and kill that bastard with the ball.

[kenobi 65]

Originally Posted by PlanetCharlie

Outside of Sandy Koufax, name one decent Jewish athlete. Exactly.

Ryan Braun, the Hebrew Hammer (a nickname also apparently applied to Gabe Kapler, Hank Greenberg, and Al Rosen).

Back to the original question...

Football: tight end, or placekicker.

[Superhal]

NFL: What position would I NOT want to play? I probably would want to play at any position except maybe fullback, long snapper, and kicker, as they're rarely on the field. I want to be on the field as much as possible. Assuming my body size/speed stays the same, I probably couldn't play any position at all, but maybe I would be closest as a defensive back.

Basketball: I always loved the center/power forward position. I was never big enough, and my outside shot stank, but I liked the idea of being the wall around the basket and posting up on offense.

Baseball: I played just about every position. The only one I really liked was first base. You get just enough action to stay awake, but not so much action you make mistakes.

Track and field: I wanted to do either the pole vault or high jump.

[Randy Seltzer]

Originally Posted by Stink Fish Pot

[slight hijack][...]

I'd be happy to discuss this in another thread. Not this one.

[Jeff Lichtman]

Originally Posted by PlanetCharlie

Outside of Sandy Koufax, name one decent Jewish athlete. Exactly.

I'll stick to just the big names in baseball:

Lou Boudreau (his mother was Jewish)
Mike Epstein
Shawn Green (he holds the record for the most total bases in a nine-inning game)
Hank Greenberg
Ken Holtzman
Al Rosen
Steve Yeager (converted to Judaism)
Kevin Youkilis

Oh, and I'd want to be a shortstop.

[CT_Damsel]

Baseball: Pitcher
Soccer: Goalkeeper
Football: Cheerleader

[Gray Ghost]

Jeff Lichtman has already stolen my thunder with Shawn Green and Hank Greenberg. From the NBA, one possible Jew that had me shaking my head in disbelief at the news was Amare Stoudemire. No, really.

To the OP, since I'm left-handed, I'd wanted to be a pitcher, LOOGY if necessary (have you seen what those guys make?!). Catcher's the most strategically interesting to me; you call the game, talk to everybody, and are usually required to hit from time to time.

Football, kicker/punter, for the reasons John DiFool listed.

Soccer, probably a left or center back. Center back, for many of the same reasons as I picked catcher for baseball. Stopping the other guy from scoring was always more interesting to me than trying to score. Probably because I was so inept at the latter.

Basketball, at 6 foot, what else could I do put play point and shoot 3s?

Skiing, downhiller. Edit: never mind skiing, just saw that the OP meant team sports. Whoops.

[Tanbarkie]

Pitcher or center fielder. As a kid, I found pitching stances and arm angles a lot of fun to play around with, while I got bored imitating swings. Weird, I know. I also love sprinting hard after fly balls, so out of the position players, I've always most enjoyed playing the outfield.

[faithfool]

Baseball: first base.

[mnemosyne]

Originally Posted by PlanetCharlie

Outside of Sandy Koufax, name one decent Jewish athlete. Exactly.

Hockey: Michael Cammalleri

[RealityChuck]

Baseball -- relief pitcher. I even picked out the music to play when I come in from the bullpen.

Hockey -- Goaltender

Football -- Punter

[soulmurk]

Hockey: Defenseman--My unassuming nature would dictate that I play an important but generally un-flashy position. Plus, you're expected to hit people.

American Football: Strong Safety--See above.

[Chronos]

Outside of Sandy Koufax, name one decent Jewish athlete. Exactly.

You know how people sometimes debate the reasons for black dominance in various sports? People used to ask the same question about why Jews dominated sports.

[Superhal]

Famous Jews in Sports. Gogo Wikipedia, again. My god, there's a list for everything.

NFL: Lyle Alzado, Sid Luckman

Pro Wrestling: Bill Goldberg, Dean Malenko

My new favorite Jewish athlete is figure skater Irina Slutskaya. Something about her just radiates charisma.

[ReticulatingSplines]

MLB: An NL pitcher so I could both pitch and bat.
NFL: Free safety
NBA: Shooting guard

[zamboniracer]

Baseball: Catcher
Basketball: Center. There are a lot of 5'10" centers around in the NBA, aren't there?
Football: Team owner. You could get hurt actually playing that game.
Hockey: Goalie
Golfer: Golfer.

[pravnik]

Originally Posted by Chronos

You know how people sometimes debate the reasons for black dominance in various sports? People used to ask the same question about why Jews dominated sports.

Boxing in particular. Max Baer is probably the best remembered now, but Jews dominated boxing in the early 20th century.

Boxing: A Jewish Sport

[Harborwolf]

Originally Posted by mnemosyne

Hockey: Michael Cammalleri

Also hockey: Defenseman Mathieu Schneider

On topic: Hockey. Center. Preferably a third/fourth line defensive minded role. I like scoring goals and all, but I feel better shutting people down.

[Sitnam]

Football: If on offense I'd be a tight end, if on defense I'd be a linebacker.

[Guinastasia]

I'd play hockey. A goalie would be cool, because then I could be like, the Gandalf of the team. "YOU CANNOT PASS, MOTHERFUCKER!!!"


If I wasn't a goalie though, I'd probably be a big time bruiser, agitator. I don't think I'd be on the Matt Cooke, Sean Avery level, but I'd probably spend a lot of time in the penalty box. I get waaaaay too into the game. I'm always screaming and swearing at the TV.

[Justin Credible]

Basketball - Shooting Guard. I've always been a great shot but never had the ball handling skills to play point guard. But there's nothing quite like getting set up for the perfect shot and watching it go into the rim, nothing but net.

[BomTek]

Originally Posted by Swords to Plowshares

Baseball: second base or shortstop
Am. football: pass rusher (assuming I had the body for it of course)

Pass rusher? That's vague enough to lead me to believe you don't know much about football. Nothing wrong with that, and I'm not looking to antagonize, but every player on the defensive side of the ball is a pass rusher at least occasionally in most defensive schemes. Most commonly it's the linemen and the linebackers that pass rush, though, so I assumed you meant one of those.

For me, the only positions I would want to play in football are offensive guard and offensive tackle. I'm not nearly big enough to play them, but I did anyway for my high school's junior varsity team (still the best time I've ever had playing a team sport), and I LOVED it. I'm only 30... in a perfect world I'd be playing O-line for the Colts, and protecting Peyton Manning's blind side.
I don't play basketball much anymore, but I always liked playing a power forward type position: someone who could play physical defense and grab a lot of rebounds, but wasn't expected to command the floor or do much shooting.
Baseball? I'd have to say outfielder, probably centerfielder, but I think they all look about equally fun. Too bad I'd have to hit... I never enjoyed that.

[Quercus]

I bet most people wanting to play soccer goalkeeper have never done so. IMO, it's really a crappy job. Sitting on your behind doing nothing for most of the game, then a few seconds of action where either you do your job and nobody notices, or you make a mistake and everyone blames you for losing the game. (I think hockey might be more fun since you at least get more action).

Anyway, assuming I have the body and skills to do so:
Basketball: point guard (running the team and making things happen) or KG-style forward (get do a little bit of everything, and blocking shots is right up there with hearing the lamentation of your enemies women.).
Football: QB would be fun, obviously. On defense, probably linebacker, again for the variety of doing different things on every play, and especially making decisions on almost every play. Pass-catching tight end, maybe too -- fun of getting open and catching with some blocking to spice things up. Kicker would be right out. See description of soccer goalkeeper above.
Baseball: Shortstop seems like the most fun. 2B means you get to turn double plays, though. I saw an article this week where Kevin Youkilis was excited to move back to 3B from 1B, in part because he hated having to chat up the opposing batters when they reached first. Made me glad I wasn't a first baseman, because I would hate it too.
Soccer /futball: Striker or maybe attacking midfield.

[Trom]

I'm surprised so many people would play goalie in hockey. I've played hockey for 20 years and the thought of playing goalie bores me stiff. Also, without exception, all goalies are mentally unstable.

[ShibbOleth]

Originally Posted by Trom

I'm surprised so many people would play goalie in hockey. I've played hockey for 20 years and the thought of playing goalie bores me stiff. Also, without exception, all goalies are mentally unstable.

Quoted for truth. Also holds true for soccer goalies.

[ReticulatingSplines]

Originally Posted by Trom

Also, without exception, all goalies are mentally unstable.

YES. I don't know, maybe you need to be a little mentally unhinged to be the one kid in pee-wee who chose to stand in front of flying pucks, but every single goalie I've played with has been a bit odd. I've gotten so used to randomly glancing back and seeing the guy playing air guitar with his stick or banging his head on the pipes.

[Gray Ghost]

Originally Posted by Quercus

I bet most people wanting to play soccer goalkeeper have never done so. IMO, it's really a crappy job. Sitting on your behind doing nothing for most of the game, then a few seconds of action where either you do your job and nobody notices, or you make a mistake and everyone blames you for losing the game...

Agree with you, but it's a lot more "interesting" and "involving" if your team sucks.

I played it throughout high school and earlier. Lacked the reflexes to go further. And ShibbOleth's point about mental stability is, unfortunately, mostly true IME. In U.S. high school play, the two goalie types I saw usually were the borderline psychotic/intense big lug with poor dribbling/passing skills (Hand tentatively raised.) or it was someone fearless with unbelievable reflexes and leaping ability.

There's a reason I didn't pick it for my wish list.

[Intergalactic Gladiator]

In ('Merican) football, there's something iron nosed and old school about a fullback that I think is pretty cool. The bit about running headlong into a defender play after play is kind of iffy on me, though. I really like the idea of playing strong safety: that hard hitting defender who can play in the box or drop into coverage.

In baseball, I'd like to be outfield.

[Quercus]

Originally Posted by Trom

Also, without exception, all goalies are mentally unstable.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

[BobLibDem]

Baseball: Third base

Football: Middle linebacker

Hockey: The Enforcer (think Tony Twist)

[Jules Andre]

Center field, shooting guard, running back. I'd make for a much better wide receiver but I'm pretty sure I'd go over the middle exactly one time. No problem taking a hit I can see coming, though.

[Guinastasia]

Originally Posted by Trom

Also, without exception, all goalies are mentally unstable.

That's the point, duh.


(Besides, the word "five-hole" makes me giggle like Beavis)


For those of us who want to be goalies, how would you paint your mask? I'd have a Star Wars theme going -- with the Jedi code on the back, and the Rebel Alliance symbol. I'd also have to have a cat somewhere, since my name is Kat.