What things about individual professional sports are really off putting to you? Maybe so much so that you can’t stand to watch that sport?
MLS- Was never that big of a soccer fan but since Minnesota has a nice new stadium and team I’ve been to my fair share of games and learned about the sport. But the flopping… OMG! Make it stop. It’s the most embarrassing stupid looking thing. Professional athletes faux writhing in pain and their miraculous healing powers. A mockery of the sport IMO.
NHL- My favorite spectator sport. But the fighting? I put up with it but find it an annoying and pointless stoppage to the action. Arguments that it’s needed? Nah. NCAA hockey prohibits fighting and the game is just fine.
MLB- Unwritten rules. What a bunch of nonsense. If it’s that important put it in the rulebook. If not, get over yourselves. You are a highly paid professional. If a batter admires his homerun or flips his bat and it hurts your feelings you need to suck it up buttercup. If they have a massive lead and want to swing at a 3-0 pitch so be it.
NBA- This one bugs me so much I find the sport unwatchable because of it. The way a game can flow smoothly for 47 minutes and build tension to the outcome only to have the last 30-60 seconds be played out over a half hour in 1.5 to 5 second increments is ridiculous. It just destroys any enjoyment of the game for me. So much so that I avoid basketball and only watch the last minute or so of each game of the finals. Otherwise forget it.
Any sport related pet peeves you have that drive you nuts?
The NFL - its flagrant and shameless appeal to Trump Bros, via patriotic displays paid for by the Armed Forces, and the fact that it takes itself So Fucking Seriously.
Any sport - the announcers acting as if the match they’re covering that day is the most important matchup of the season, nay any season. A late-season game between two teams not in playoff contention is not a Battle For The Ages.
College football - the bowl system. My god, the bowl system. I challenge any sports fan to imagine how excited they’d be about a “bowl” game between professional teams. Imagine if, following the end of the NFL season, two 4-12 teams played in front of a half-empty stadium in Tucson for the Frito Lays Bowl. No network would even show it. But for college football, apparently it’s a Huge Deal.
Golf - the announcers whispering. They’re likely in a control booth, hundreds of yards away from any golfers who could hear them. They’re just playing a part.
NASCAR - its continued insistence that they’re racing “stock” cars. I assure you that the Ford Whatever you’re driving bears as much relationship to the “Ford Whatever” that Dick Trickle is driving as my neighbor’s Cessna does to an F-16.
Fighting, for the most part, has been in steady decline for decades. The last full season I looked at (2017-18) had the fewest fights, fewest multi-fight games, and fewest players who had fights. The days of the goon are over, and fights are relatively rare. If you wanted to completely eliminate fighting you’d need to referee differently otherwise in a physical game like hockey players would react even more violently, at least that’s what the players say. A few fights tends to keep tempers from getting to the point where players would get seriously hurt.
I am under the impression that the only reason fighting is tolerated is, it is pretty much the only way to make sure a team doesn’t target the other team’s star players.
Because the NFL is supposed to be about football - about as many people would care about a meaningless postseason game as would care about the Pro Bowl or the second half of most preseason games. College football, on the other hand, can be just as much about the schools as it is the football; most schools consider it a reward to get into a bowl game (assuming the school doesn’t lose money as a result), and the host city gets some bonus tourism out of it.
What is your opinion of the low-level postseason college basketball tournaments?
Who still says that the top levels are stock cars? The announcers certainly don’t - every now and then, they even joke about it.
I agree with the OP about baseball. Baseball players are the most bafflingly over-sensitive players. You would never see NFL players complaining that an opponent celebrated a touchdown by doing an end zone dance, yet pitchers flip out because a batter celebrated a home run (Bautista’s bat flip, or Harper admiring his HR.) If you don’t want them celebrating, then don’t throw the hittable pitch.
That reminds me. NFL: The celebrating after touchdowns, interceptions, first downs, and sacks (and probably a few other things I’m forgetting) Jesus, guys, well done, but let’s just go on to the next play, okay?
MLB: You don’t have to fill every minute with a gimmick, adverstisement, loud music, or trivia contest. A few quiet minutes admiring the green grass and blue skies at the ballpark is one of the reasons I’d like to go to.
Soccer: yeah, I don’t know if I’d be a fan anyway, but the flops are disgusting.
Basketball - I have watched basketball for decades and for the life of me (ok, maybe it’s just me, and maybe it’s because of the quickness of the action?) I can’t see 99% of what is called as a foul. It seems to be such an integral part of the game, but it is also mostly obscure (sorta like offsides in soccer). I once saw the final winning basket in the final game of a season championship denied because of an offensive foul called. Yeah, everybody was jumping up to get the ball and make the shot. But OK.
Football - After a play, the way the players seem to just mill around aimlessly for some period of time. Get up, breathe, and get in position for the huddle or the next play.
MLB - The stupid strike zone box they show on tv. Dump it. It looks dumb and when the ump calls a strike on a pitch that’s ouside the box, why have it.
And get rid of stupid stats like Exit Velocity. It’s a home run whether it “exits” at 153 mph or 84 mph. VELOCITY is right. And the pitcher should be allowed to taunt the batter when he strikes him out.
" Yeah, idiot! I blazed 3 pitches right by you! SIT DOWN NOW!!"
(Points and screams at the batter.)
But that’s just the name of the organization, no one has even given lip service to the idea that the cars are stock in any way shape or form for decades. Since they introduced the Car of Tomorrow in 2007 all the cars have been built on a common chassis. They do pick a production car to pattern the graphics after, but I don’t think anyone is under the illusion that the Toyota NASCAR entry is based on the Camry.
True, but the major problem with baseball is the batter stepping out of the box after every freaking pitch. How much shorter would games be if players weren’t readjusting all of their equipment every 20 seconds?
NHL - Like many posters have pointed out, fighting is almost out of the game, heck there may even be more fights in baseball than in hockey. The problem hockey needs to fix is the stupid length of time it often takes to do a video review. Yes, I appreciate wanting to get calls right but if the delay takes more than 2 minutes, that is probably 1 minute too long. Unlike other problems with sports, this one does not have an easy fix.
NFL - The length of games is growing. It used to be that an NFL game was 3 hours and there was usually time for a recap at the end. Now games consistently go over by 15 minutes. Is this the result of video reviews or taking more commercial breaks? I don’t know.
This is a problem in all sports, and it’s the one thing about professional sports that most mystifies me. I don’t understand how their reply offices are set up that they can 't make a decision in less than a minute. Pro sports leagues, surely, can afford enough HD screens and video control software that you can see every available angle right away and determine, pretty much instantly, if there is sufficient evidence to overturn the call.
I mean, watching AT HOME, 99% of the time you know within 30, 45 seconds of the replays starting whether or not it’s clear that the call should be overturned.
My pet peeve with baseball is the fact they haven’t change the way it’s officiated in a century. Having just four umps, and not having computers call balls and strikes, is ridiculous.
Hate to disappoint you, but as a parent who has brought young children to games, they really like those things. If you want baseball to appeal to future generations, those need to stay.
NFL- it seems like EVERY time there’s an exciting play, its gets called back because of a holding call. Also can we get rid of the 2 minute warning? Finally, there is no reason for a commercial break after a kick off or a punt. I’ve been to NFL games and the players just stand around for 2-3 minutes. Get on with it!
But if there is holding, it has to be penalized. Oftentimes the big run or kick return happens in the first place **because **there was a hold that enabled it.
Otherwise, this is giving the green-light to more and more unfair holding by the offense or kick return team.
Way too many TV timeouts and reviews in college FB. NHL playoff games that go to overtime don’t have TV timeouts so that’s nice especially when you are in OT 3 at 1 AM , I was at that game.
Oh, definitely. The batter shouldn’t be allowed to leave the batter’s box at all during an at-bat, and the pitcher shouldn’t be allowed to step off the rubber once the ball is in his hand. I’d be for automatic balls and strikes to disincentivize that.
And also, the pitcher should be allowed to go ahead and pitch if the batter decides to make himself unprepared to bat.
or the second half of most preseason games. College football, on the other hand, can be just as much about the schools as it is the football; most schools consider it a reward to get into a bowl game (assuming the school doesn’t lose money as a result), and the host city gets some bonus tourism out of it.