So sports is letting you jack off about how much better you are than someone who makes more money than you. Got it.
Those “millionaire playboys” are such because they play better than all these other people, and thus people want to watch. If it’s not your cup of tea, fine. But to come into a thread about the death of a fan and shit all over the game he loves is asinine, and is fairly characterized as a stupid argument.
And, no, staying out in the rain playing a soccer game is not sports. It’s dangerous and stupid. Sport is about competition while removing the danger, so we’re not in an arena like the fucking Romans. And that’s why this guy’s death is tragic.
And meanwhile, said girl playing in the rain is probably dreaming of being the next Mia Hamm.
:rolleyes:
Yeah, so every time he looks at it he can flashback to Daddy plummeting to his death. And he’ll probably think, “I’d give a million foul balls just to have my dad back.”
You could have stated your counterpoint without making a crude sexual reference appropriate for the opposite gender. Why did you think I was worth such contempt from you? I don’t understand. Oh wait, this is another example of “since one posts in the Pit then automatically one should expect everyone to be an asshole towards you.”
I didn’t “shit” on baseball, nor did I shit on the man who tragically died. I guess you were so busy figuring out how you could be offended and make a sexual riposte at me, that you unfortunatley missed the whole point of my post.
To you or anyone else on this subject, I wasn’t talking about kids out dodging lightning bolts; folks here need to stop being mendacious. Go watch the kids practicing soccer out in the field, rain or shine, working their hearts out to try and play and have fun and engage in sports. I mean what’s the next gambit, to criticize my wheelchair fencing example because you think the chairs might tip over? Maybe you have a problem with my grandmother playing darts - after all, sharp points on those things.
People who play or support or are active in the gritty reality of local sports understand that there’s almost always some danger; it cannot be removed from most competitions. People should not be disconnected from that sweat and pain and work and joy that is the reality of sports. Sports are great, baseball is great. Where I disagree with some is on the line between what is “sports” and what is a 5-hour drama, or soap opera even. The difference between supporting a local Little League team and getting the dust of the field in your hair, or sitting in a luxury box with beer in hand lazily cheering for the millionaire playboys.
And someone can certainly do and enjoy both. I merely call for the average “sports fan” who hasn’t or doesn’t already do so to make that stretch and reconnect with the heart of sports. Perhaps that is Wrong Thinking, and must be punished, but so be it.
And folks are in that arena, up in the stands worshiping their self-elected demigods, just like a member of the factions of the hippodrome. The parallels with Gibbon’s writings on the subject, in fact, are so close at times they’re truly unsettling.
And no one is more aware of it than that fatherless boy. I’d like to see y’all defend it’s specialness to that child. Good Luck with that.
He’s going to grow up fatherless because his Dad couldn’t resist the urge to snag something you could buy at any sporting goods store. Truly tragic.
What’s sad is a 20yr old out racing 9yr olds to get a game ball. And then, as an adult being proud of it? I’m sure you’re a perfectly nice fellow, in other ways, with many redeeming qualities. But you’re also proof that sports culture makes people into idiots. Anyone who thinks this is a shining moment in their lives has some growing up to do, in my opinion.
It’s just a ball, no matter how you slice it or dice it. Any significance you attach to it, is pure projection. To risk your life, your child’s parent, over it, looks like complete and utter stupidity to me.
Resist the urge? Watch the video, he just leans over the railing a little bit and then lost his footing. Your average construction worker takes more risk than this guy did. It was a horrible accident, but it has probably happened millions of times at ballparks throughout the years and this is the first guy to die.
I’ll resist a comment about OSHA tie-offs for construction workers, but I agree it seems like a freak accident. I watched the video in slow-mo and still can’t see what really was the key point which sent him over. He’s even bending his left knee and dropping his center of gravity, doesn’t seem to have been running towards the barrier at the time…he must just have been very top-heavy, yet he doesn’t look it.
Looking at that video I am not remotely surprised he went over. That railing is significantly below his center of gravity AND he has forward motion and is leaning to boot (not that he was recklessly rushing or running, but he was moving). That railing appears to me to be below the center of gravity of most people (or in other words its too damn low).
The gotcha moment IMO occurs once his body has pivoted over the railing some, which causes two significant problems. First, the center of gravity is outside the rail. Second, he has reduced traction and quickly NO traction with his feet to stop the continued pivoting motion. Once those two things happen, its hard to stop it.
That railing should be higher. Or at the very least there should be another railing/pipe at the same height but say a foot or two further out. That way if you end up pivoting over the first all your going to do is end up laying out there flat across two pipes.
I’m sure we’re about to see railings, in baseball stadiums, substantially increase, across the country. Along with the accompanying rise in ticket prices, and the moaning and complaining about how it’s now prohibitively expensive for families, etc.
All because grown men can’t accept, it’s just a ball. This child is now fatherless because a grown man didn’t have the sense to not lean out over the railing provided for his safety.
Would you lean out over the railing at Niagara Falls to get a primo view? What would you think of the fella who, fell to his death, doing so?
While I see your point, IMO those railings are just too low/inadequate for even non-ball catching daily use. Heck, I can easily see someone going over just from two fat/large people trying to get around each other. And given the cost of extra/better railings compared to the cost of the whole arena and daily operating costs I think it would be nearly in the noise. I suspect part of the problem was the mentally of “its only 20 feet down” that lead to these IMO substandard railings.
Well aren’t you just the high and mighty one?
It’s only in the last, what, thirty years or so that athletes began to make millions. Prior to that, most had to take second jobs during the off-season, while the owners and the managers were making all of the money. Heaven forbid they should be PAID to do something they actually like doing!
A lot of these franchises bring revenue to their city, many of them establish charitable organizations, but oh right. Every single one of them is a coked out loser spending all of his money on whores.
How is this any different from actors, or musicians? Should one forgo buying music by professional musicians, and only listen to local bands at clubs? Or only go to local playhouses?
But wait, that’s an “intellectual” persuit, of course.
Again, how many of those little kids are dreaming of being the next Sidney Crosby, or Michael Jordan? Please.
No, BigT, that wasn’t “uncalled for”. This is the Pit, Una is being a sanctimonious twat and should be called on for it. Quit being so wishy-washy.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and see if the NHL has the pre-season schedule up yet. Oh noes, I’m actually looking at PROFESSIONAL TEAM!!!
OSHA requires handrails to be 42 inches high. At my facility workers aren’t allowed within six feet of any drop of more than four feet unless they are harnessed and wearing an anchored lanyard, or the fall is protected by a handrail meeting the OSHA regs. I didn’t put a tape on it, but it would shock me if that handrail was 42 inches high. It looked to be around three feet.
I’ve idly wondered why more ballparks don’t have baskets a la Wrigley Field to avoid this sort of situation. As far as I understand it, those were put in in the 70s to keep this sort of situation from happening. Although this site says it was more to keep Cubs fans in the bleachers from purposefully being idiots. (Really? Tightrope walking along the walls?) I mean, Cubs fans (of which I am one) are a special type of idiot, but that’s just insane.
The key point was that his attention was on outreaching the guy with the glove rather than his own safety or balance. His initial lunge was the point of no return.
Sure. Because, to someone with a certain mindset, anything and anyone who actually becomes popular must not be any good. To allow that they might actually be both would be to in some way align oneself with the unwashed masses, and that would undermine a carefully-cultivated, smug sense of superiority. Yes, there certainly are sports snobs in the same way there are music and art snobs. And they’re all just as worthy of scorn.