A thread over in GQ got me thinking about it. It was suggested that national news shows don’t cover sports because we are so regionalized in our support of teams, not to mention the factionalism between sports themselves. Personally, I couldn’t care less about professional football, and I’d rather watch paint dry than have anything to do with hockey. And both of those are light-years higher than soccer on my list. So, to the point: What sports are “your” sports? What sports do you play, watch, follow, obsess about? Any reason in particular?
For me, the One True Sport is baseball. All skill levels, from T-ball and the Royals at the bottom to the Dodgers and the Red Sox at the top. While not quite as bad as Ben in Fever Pitch, I still bleed Dodger Blue.
Played: Baseball/softball, football, soccer (indoor and out), track, wrestling, hockey (ice and roller), short lived attempt at lacrosse.
Still Play: Softball, indoor soccer, roller hockey
Follow Obsessivley: NFL (Cowboys, Ravens), NCAA Football (ACC (Terps) and PacTen (UCLA and whoever is playing USC)), MLB (Orioles, whoever is pitching for my fantasy team), MotoGP/FIM World Superbike/AMA Superbike (haven’t missed a race on TV since I got TiVo)
Follow Slightly Less: NHL (if Caps are doing well), NCAA BB (if Terps are doing well), NBA (if Wizards are doing well).
I think I like baseball the best as a TV viewer. The laid back pace allows you to do other things while watching the game. Going to a baseball game is also quite a treat. Any time I’m traveling I try to get to a Major League (I’m up to 16) (or Minor league) ball park. Hockey is also phenomenal to watch in person. It is so much better live than on TV.
Football - my ‘location’ explains that one. There’s nothing else that I watch religiously, or have any great following for, although rugby becomes very attractive around Six Nations time. I used to be a Formula 1 geek, but became disenchanted with it. The only other sport I ever attend as a spectator is the local short-oval track, which ranges from Hot Rods and similar formulas (serious racing, but still amateur) down to bangers. The same track hosts speedway, which has a bigger following, but I find it painfully boring.
I played hockey through high school, and mixed a bit of soccer in there as well (the two are pretty analogous in my mind) and we watched a fair bit of rugby matches as well. I still have friends who play rugby on organized mens leagues.
Watching wise I love baseball, and I enjoy the chance to see a hurling match down at Gaelic Park (those guys are out of their freaking minds), and my girlfriend gets me more into the NFL every year. The rest of them I really don’t care about. I fail to see how anyone can watch tennis for more than thirty seconds.
Played: Baseball/softball, ice hockey, volleyball, racquetball (tournament-level, but only well enough not to be totally embarassed in a first round exit)
Coach: Volleyball
Follow (Closely): NFL (Giants), MLB (Yankees), NHL (Islanders)
Can’t Stand: Basketball
I can no longer run nor jump without knee pain, so playing is out. Realized it was time to quit when I would start taking Motrin before a game in my volleyball league (and still walk like an old man up the subway steps afterwards).
I watch cycling very closely and beyond that I try to keep vaguely abreast of or watch once or twice a year: soccer, sailing, long-distance running, track, and Formula-1 auto racing.
I’ll watch anything at least once, but these are the big ones:
Baseball - Specifically, the St. Louis Cardinals, although I’ll watch the Sunday night game too.
Collegiate sports - I will be a member of Big Blue Nation until the day I die (check my location.) I’ll watch SEC games and any game where a Duke team is losing.
Auto racing - NASCAR mostly, but I’ve been known to watch the overgrown go-karts occasionally too.
I have no allegiance to any NFL team or NBA team (although I am starting to follow the Pistons.) Soccer? If there’s nothing else on, I’ll watch it, but don’t expect me to be excited about it.
I am a Baseball fanatic, I am watching Yankees/Redsox as I type. I have CBSsportsline up and running. I was talking baseball with my brother earlier tonight. I bleed Yankee pinstripes.
I listen to sportsradio for baseball and I constantly read up on baseball.
I am a big fan of the NY Giants football but I rarely watch a non-Giant game.
I watch a little B-Ball, Nets and Knicks.
I no longer watch Hockey. I gave it up for good with the strike and I was a mild Rangers fan before the strike.
I play Quoits, Shoot pool, throw darts and enjoy softball but have little skill at any of these.
I really, really love baseball. I guess it is my religion in a way.
I have found I quite often know more about AL teams then the average fan of the team. I follow the NL much more lightly.
Jim {The Yankees Win, The Yankees win, 13-5 over the Redsox}
You would have to pay me to watch virtually any regular sport. I just strongly dislike them–beyond just finding them boring.
However, I will watch soccer if it’s my brothers or sisters playing (ages 6-12, all five of them). I also play a mean game of Ping Pong, and will happily do so all day long. As for tv, I love the gymnastics and figure skating during the olympics, but that’s about it. Well, actually I found myself watching curling for longer than I would have guessed, just because I was in awe of how weird it was. I will sometimes watch odd sports that I run across on TV, like the lumberjack competitions and such, but they get old after 15 or 20 minutes, if not sooner.
Auto racing, primarily NASCAR and other forms of stock car racing. I watch the Indy 500 and if I happen to come across any other IRL races, I watch those too. I wil watch drag racing and AMA road course racing, I don’t do motocross. I started driving quarter midgets as a kid, did some flat track motorcycle racing as a teen and drove a variety of different kinds of stock cars as an adult.
Other than the Super Bowl, I haven’t watched a football game in years. I casually follow the local pro teams (Seahawks, Sonics, Mariners) and major college (Washington Huskies).
Hockey is my sport. I play roller hockey when I can as I can’t afford pads for ice hockey. I follow the sport obsessively. My team would be the Red Wings but I love the sport enough to follow the whole of the league. It’d be easier if OLN wasn’t such a shit network.
Why? No clue. Playing it helps, but I loved the sport before I started playing so that’s not a complete answer. I just like the speed and the skill involved. A great play in the sport of hockey in any form (offensive, defensive, or goaltending) is a thing of beauty.
Like most Americans, I want my sports stars to have some seemingly supernatural human ability in terms of stature and skill. We can just rule out soccer right there because I wouldn’t appreciate it if someone pointed out that some guy of average height and build (or less than even!) was a professional soccer, lacrosse or some other fringe sport athlete. That is no good to anyone.
I live around many New England Patriots football players and I tend to run into them at places like Home Depot. Their extraordinary stature tells the tale even if the gold chains and flashy cars fail to. My in-laws live door to Tom Brady, the Patriots quarterback and he is also huge and intimidating in person. That is the only way I can appreciate it. I am 6’1’’ and I cannot respect any midgets below me no matter their skill level if I believe I might be able to take them down at will. Professional sports are supposed to be about extreme size and ability, not some nancy-boy doing delicate things to some piece of arbitrary equipment. That would rule out baseball as well.
That leaves American football, basketball especially, and heavy-weight boxing no matter the height. Gymnastics would also qualify in the reverse because it depends on wispy people do extreme things against gravity. Hockey almost qualifies because I do recognize them as real bad-asses but then I realize it is the Canadian version of one of hundreds of dangerous redneck sports that happened to catch on and it loses its appeal somewhat. Also, they don’t have to be unusually heavy, tall, or anorexic and developmentally stunted to succeed.
The main sports I follow are football (American) and auto/motorcycle racing. I used to follow just about every motorsport, but now I only follow Formula 1 and MotoGP. I’ll occasionally put on a NASCAR, Indy car (either series), ALMS, or Superbike race but I don’t really keep up with them on a week to week basis like I do with F1 and MotoGP.
Sports I play: None at the moment. Used to race in triathlons and play a little golf, but haven’t done either in a few years now.
The only sport(s) I’m actively involved in happen to be Target Shooting (specifically, Service Rifle and Service Pistol) and hunting (primarily feral pests).
I don’t watch sports on TV- I’ve made clear my loathing of most kinds of sport in other threads- and the “sports obsession” culture these days drives me up the wall.
Yes, I know I’m the unusual one for hating footy, but even so- it’s just a game.
I don’t mention this to most people, though- I keep my dislike of sports hidden now, lest I get incredulous looks from people who’s very lives revolve around their local sports team. :mad:
Diehard baseball (“baseball” is synonymous with “Los Angeles Dodgers”) fan here. And I’m not deeply into stats or the historical aspects of the game (although I do appreciate them) – I just enjoy watching the game being played by any team at every level, in person or on television (or listening to Vin or the other Dodger guys on the radio). As for playing, I’m not much of an athlete, but I do enjoy pickup games, as well as just going to the batting cages or tossing a ball around with family or friends any time the opportunity presents itself.
My other sports passion – laugh if you will – is bowling. I’ve always enjoyed going to bowl just for fun with friends. Then, as a half joke, I sort of dared my wife to buy me a bowling ball for our first wedding anniversary gift (we aren’t into traditional gifts). The guy that sold her the bowling ball talked me, against my will and better judgment, into joining a bowling league, and since that time just over six years ago, I’ve been in multiple leagues at the same time, been league president for multiple years, gone to multiple state and national tournaments (and countless local tournaments), and I’ve owned somewhere between 10 and 12 different bowling balls, four pairs of bowling shoes and countless numbers of bowling towels that have gotten lost through time. There was a point in time when I bowled three to four times a week (30+ games). I absolutely love to bowl, and I can’t get enough of it.
And during the professional bowling season, I follow it week to week on TV religiously. I’ve gone to watch the pros (both men and women) in person, bowled with them, gotten tips, gotten autographs, etc. BOWLING!!!
I’m going to go find something decaffeinated to drink now.
