Ice Hockey—Just got done reading George Plimpton’s book about the game, and he noted its one of the few sports where the players hang out on the ice after practice. Whats not fun about skating around the ice and slapping a puck around? Exception: not as fun for the goalie
Soccer-–very similar. Run around the field and kick the ball around. Admittedly requires a lot of physical stamiaa. Exception: the tackles are nasty.
NOT FUN:
American Football----for the life of me unless you are the quarterback, running back or a receiver, and even that being played with a cumbersome helmet. I cannot see how playing this game is fun in the least. Most positions rarely handle the ball. The game is physically brutal, and many of the coaches seem to be world class ballbusters. There is also a very toxic “jock” culture which almost seems required for such a violent game. Exception: Football players in USA get the most chicks.
Cricket----if a batsman, you could wait for hours before getting a turn at the wicket, only to be possibly eliminated with one bowl. As a fielder, you stand there for HOURS, and have to catch fly balls with your bare hands. Exception: You get to wear cool hats.
Baseball-----lets see. Your are either a pitcher and risk getting your arm blown out by the age of 21. Or you are a batter dodging 95mph fastballs bear your head. Or a fielder who gets to look up in the sun while trying to handle a flying 76mm baseball cascading at you. Wheres the fun come in? Exception: Highest paid athletes in North America!
Water Polo----Throwing a ball around in a deep pool with other dudes wearing speedos. I also hear the sport is physically brutal. Too bad almost no one cares. Quick test: Name ONE Water Polo Hero NOPE you cant name one. Exceptions: None. This sport sucks!
Has anyone played these sports and disagrees? What have I missed? Is handball fun? Celtic football miserable? Hurling a rush?
Fun: Basketball. Everyone gets to touch the ball. It’s played indoors so no weather extremes such as American football which has brutally hot and brutally cold weather in the same season. There’s a small number of players so you get to know your teammates.
Cricketers get all the baseball stuff as well, excpet the bowler is permitted to hit you. Repeatedly.
As a cricket fan, there are few more beautiful sights then when a bowler starts to dominate a batsman. You see his it in his eyes that he’d rather be anywhere else.
Unless its someone from your team.:eek::smack:
I don’t know… football was a LOT of fun in middle and high school. Then again, I always liked contact sports, and being a lineman is somewhere between sumo wrestling, fighting in a shield wall and martial arts in a lot of ways. It was you vs. the other guy each play, and one of you was going to prevail. It’s surprisingly primal. Plus, there’s a team aspect to it that few other sports I ever played had- one player can’t carry a team like they can in basketball, and it’s not as… individually oriented as baseball. Basically every play requires all eleven players to execute their assignments properly, or else it doesn’t work. Even soccer may have a completely awesome sequence of events that results in a goal where only maybe half the players from the scoring team are even oriented to receive a pass/make a shot.
The protective equipment is a lot less cumbersome than you might think as well.
I always found basketball to be a lot of fun to just play at any level- playing HORSE, pickup half-court two-on-two, organized full court 5v5, you name it.
I like playing baseball. Of course, I’m no professional. But when you’re among friends, or local softball leagues, it’s fun yet can be surprisingly competitive.
Volleyball is good fun. Everyone gets involved, no contact, and a low-ish risk of injury. The worst injury I saw was my own, blowing out my ACL by landing on another player’s foot.
Most fun that I’ve played enough to have an opinion, is Ultimate (frisbee). It plays a lot like soccer in that everyone can be involved and the defense/offense can turn on a dime.
Least fun is basketball. There are so many rules that are unenforced or enforced arbitrarily. While this makes me not want to watch it, I admit that seeing a well-executed play is fun, but as a player, wondering if the officiating was fair would override any pleasure of seeing a beautiful play.
Bowling: The prototypical Tuesday night bowling league… you get to hang with friends, have a beer, throw the ball for a couple of hours. Get a strike or a spare and it’s a cheer with high fives all around. Exception - leagues with big money prizes.
It would depend on the athlete. I follow the Mets and see several people on the team (Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo, Dom Smith, Jeff McNeil for example) who are clearly loving everything about it. OTOH, there are others who don’t play with that sort of joy (years ago, Kevin McReynolds, and now, I’d say Jacob DeGrom).
It’s probably the same in every sport – some people love playing it; others see it as a job.
When I played casual baseball/softball I would have been happy to play middle infield the whole game. You get to try to snag line drives. or go after grounders and throw to first, or tag out a runner.
Hitting is frustrating - you fail at least 70 percent of the time (higher for me). Playing the outfield is boring -you can go a whole game and not touch the ball.
I love one-on-one sports against a similar-level player, such as tennis, racquetball, ping pong, horseshoes, darts, etc. It makes me feel like a super-athletic-kungfu-ninja striving toward physical perfection. No no, don’t play the video back, just believe me.
Basketball is great fun only when coached well, otherwise it inevitably degenerates into ball-hoggery where there is nothing to do except set screens and scrabble for rebounds while never getting a touch on the ball.
Football is a ton of fun until your body starts breaking down. I played in high school and college and over all I enjoyed being a lineman. Rugby was a blast too I wish I’d found it in high school instead though it wouldn’t have paid for college.
Soccer is a boring sport to play unless the teams are evenly matched since the ball just stays on one end of the field. I would think its more fun if you’re not just watching from the field at least in football and rugby everyone Is mostly involved on every play.
Here’s my ranking of the major sports that I’ve played. To make it fair, I’m breaking them into organized (preset teams, practices, officials) vs unorganized (pick up). Ranked in order of most fun to least fun.
Organized:
1 - Basketball
2 - Football
3 - Soccer
4 - Baseball/Softball (hurt by the mind numbing boredom of practices)
Unorganized
1 - Football (By far the most fun when all the crap like equipment and practicing is removed)
2 - Basketball
3 - Baseball/Softball
4 - Soccer (mostly so low because I’m a late adopter)
Rugby is great fun, until you come to your senses and realize you are too beautiful a man to be involved in this stuff. Soccer is always fun to play, even at low skill level. This includes skill levels so low people tell you to play rugby instead.
I came here to say that. I think it is highest in sportmanship of any sport I know. Now that hog line violations have been automated, at least 90% of all games are played without any official making a call. In many of the tournaments, the players even make the measurements.