# What is the most difficult sport to figure out? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [May 18, 2011, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333 "2011-05-18T15:42:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333/81 "2011-05-30T22:42:04Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > See, I perfectly understood this. If you just assume the reader needs it explained _in simple English_, it’s not that hard to get across. Glad to oblige. But my prior post was fairly conversational, just terser. If you want to know what it sounds like for the more in-the-know listener… here’s how Sri Lanka lost this afternoon, an out-by-out description courtesy of Cricinfo. > [@Cricinfo ball-by-ball commentary](#): > > 1.6 85.8 mph, gone! There’s one for England. Paranavitana pushes at one outside off stump and edges low to first slip. Was a good, full length from Tremlett and it drew the batsman forward but not with any confidence. Another neat catch by Strauss. Took England 191 balls to shift Paranavitana in the first innings, but just 10 this time. 1/1 > > 3.2 84.9 mph, gone! Or is it? Dilshan gets into a tangle and it lobs back to Tremlett but he doesn’t think he hit it. The review in process and Hotspot shows a touch on the glove. This should be out. And it is! Was well bowled again, banged in back of a length and not well played by Dilshan. England have a sniff here. 10/2 > > 12.5 gone! Edged to first slip. Three for Tremlett, was a touch fuller and Jayawardene came forward, finding the edge and carrying at waist-height {to} Strauss 33/3 > > 15.4 gone! And another, Samaraweera plays back which is always dangerous with some uneven bounce around and chops into his stumps. Much like Dilshan in the first innings. Problems here for Sri Lanka 36/4 > > 17.2 gone! Oh boy. This is on for England. Big style. Sangakkara comes forward, it turns a little and the edge goes low to slip. Beautiful bowling, Swann at his best to left handers. Half the side out. 43/5 > > 17.5 gone! Edged to the keeper but Maharoof reviews it. He’s hit it. Clear HotSpot and there’s no wasting time with that. Easy decision. Swann is on fire, it was the straighter ball and Maharoof came forward but played the wrong line 43/6 > > 18.1 84.5 mph, it’s short from Tremlett, Jayawardene hooks and has that touched the glove? Doctrove says no, but England are convinced and they’re going to review it. HotSpot is inconclusive but the slo-mo replays seem to indicate contact with the glove … this could go either way … He’s gone! It didn’t show up on HotSpot but there was a definite noise, and a deflection. What is happening out there? 43/7 > > 19.1 gone! Another one! Herath swiped across the line, a bit of a brainless slog-sweep from a tailender, the ball rushes on with the arm from round the wicket and that hits him just about in line with the stumps. Sri Lanka sink further 52/8 > > 24.2 87.1 mph, what a catch! That is a stunning effort at short leg, and Perera is gone. He flapped at another short ball, the ball pinging lamely off the bat and Bell leaping forward to clutch the catch inches from the turf. England surge towards a win! 82/9 > > 24.4 89.2 mph, that’s it! Gone! How have England pulled a win out of this game? Incredible stuff. Dug in again by Broad, Lakmal just couldn’t deal with the bounce and the ball looped easily to Cook in the slips to complete the victory 82/10 So you see, I’m not as impenetrable as all that, am I? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333/82 "2011-05-31T05:08:46Z")
So while browsing the YouTubes, I watched the [Underarm Incident](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underarm_incident). > [@](#): > > New Zealand needed six runs to tie the match from the final ball, with eight wickets down. Greg Chappell, the Australian captain, ordered the bowler (his brother Trevor) to bowl underarm, rolling the ball along the ground to prevent the Number 10 New Zealand batsman (Brian McKechnie) hitting a six from the last ball to tie the match. Bowling underarm was within the laws of cricket, but perceived as unsportsmanlike. So let me get this straight. Bowling in a manner as to minimize your opponents chance of winning the game…is “unsportsmanlike?” ---
**Author:** ![BarryB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BarryB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarryB)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333/83 "2011-05-31T05:22:30Z")
> [@Cyberhwk](#): > > So while browsing the YouTubes, I watched the [Underarm Incident](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underarm_incident). > > So let me get this straight. Bowling in a manner as to minimize your opponents chance of winning the game…is “unsportsmanlike?” No, using a loophole in the rules that should have been closed long before is unsportsmanlike. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333/84 "2011-05-31T05:24:03Z")
Yes. We Commonwealthians realise the concept is, well, foreign to you 🙂 The idea is that the other chap must have a chance. The manoeuvre was immediately banned. ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333/85 "2011-05-31T05:33:12Z")
No one had bowled underarm in an international in living memory - overarm deliveries having displaced underarm bowling sometime back in the early nineteenth century. The batsman facing, Brian McKechnie was New Zealand’s number 10, essentially a non-batsman. The chance of him hitting a six to tie the match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (the largest ground in cricket) was essentially nil anyway. Even the older brother of the Australian captain thought it was unwarranted. ---
**Author:** ![BarryB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BarryB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarryB)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333/86 "2011-05-31T05:43:39Z")
It’s unsportmanlike because it literally breaks the game. Often people use baseball too much to try to understand cricket, but why the underarm delivery was unsportsmanlike is one thing that IS exactly the same. If it one team is unlikely to win, should the winning team be allowed to pitch by rolling the ball along the ground to the catcher, with it being called a strike every time? ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333/87 "2011-05-31T09:36:24Z")
> [@Cyberhwk](#): > > So let me get this straight. Bowling in a manner as to minimize your opponents chance of winning the game…is “unsportsmanlike?” There’s a reason why something is “just not cricket” is a known phrase in English. ---
**Author:** ![kfraser34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@kfraser34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kfraser34)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333/88 "2011-05-31T18:52:32Z")
I thought I would take this convo in a different direction. An easy way to understand which games are the most complicated and hardest to understand is to look at what games are the most complicated and difficult to officiate… As a person who has referred and umpired all four major North American sports they all have fairly complicated rule books that take a decent amount of time to understand and memorize, but in my opinion Football is by far the most difficult to officiate. Which is evident when you compare the number of people on a professional level game’s officiating “crew”. Football = 7 Baseball and Hockey = 4 Basketball = 3 Amateur Baseball, Hockey, and Basketball games can all be competently officiated by a single person, but Football can’t. Football and Baseball are difficult because of the size of the field and number of players, but they differ in the fact that Baseball is more straight forward with most of the action happening around the ball, whereas football you need eyes on the entire field at all times because fouls can happen far away from the ball. Hockey and Basketball are both difficult because of the physical nature of the job. Both sports are very fast and require the referee to move and follow the play more than any other sport and are the most physically draining. In professional hockey the referees and linesmen all have to be as skilled a skater as the players and be in top condition to keep up with the play. So I would have to say that Football is the most mentally difficult to ref, while hockey is the most physically difficult to officiate; but all four require an extensive knowledge of the game in order to have your eyes at the right place at the right time… However, having said all that… Being the home plate umpire in Baseball is, BY FAR, the single most difficult and high pressure position of all the officiating jobs in professional North American sports, second only to being a South American Futbol referee during the '80s… ---
**Author:** ![Phatzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/da6949/32.png) [@Phatzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phatzo)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333/89 "2011-06-01T06:08:30Z")
This thread has made me lol a lot being a cricketer and all. Lets not touch on indoor cricket rules or “chucking” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333/90 "2011-06-01T06:34:29Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > Yeah, I was going to nominate [pogolfit](http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?491616-Let-s-Play-Grailquest-3-The-Gateway-of-Doom/page3) but that one has it beat. This finally solves the mystery! We were driving across the Hungarian-Romanian border about ten years back and all of a sudden, in the Romanian border town, I see what appeared be a gang of about 20 teenagers or young adults all carrying bats in the middle of a desolate dusty road in front of some railroad tracks. It looked like a scene right out of some dystopian action flick. As we approach the bat-wielding mob, I realized that they were just out there hawking bats to the passing vehicles. This elicited a number of questions: Where did they get the baseball bats, who the hell buys bats from vendors in the middle the road, why would anyone be trusting enough to pull over to buy bats from a bat-wielding mob, and why is there a demand for bats in Romania? Oina at least answers the last question for me. Finally, one more of my life’s mysteries explained. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333/91 "2011-06-01T08:41:24Z")
> [@kfraser34](#): > > second only to being a South American **Futbol** referee during the '80s… Just a question, is is common to use that word to describe football? I’ve never seen it used before other than in native language reporting or here on this board over the last few weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333/92 "2011-06-01T14:10:36Z")
Americans sometimes use it in a tongue-in-cheek sense. ---
**Author:** ![kfraser34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@kfraser34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kfraser34)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333/93 "2011-06-01T18:40:06Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Just a question, is is common to use that word to describe football? > > I’ve never seen it used before other than in native language reporting or here on this board over the last few weeks. I used it to accent the joke I was making at the end of my post… I was speaking about the sport in South America so it would be the correct term… I live in North America, the sport is Soccer here and that is how I would refer to it in general conversation, rather than Football, so as not to confuse people between the North American and Global usage of the word… Although I would use Football, or a poorly accented Futbol, when speaking to actual fans of the game… It does work well in this thread since there are posts discussing both American Football and regular Football… it makes it easier to distinguish the two with out having to write American Football every time… you can just say Football and Futbol… ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333/94 "2011-06-01T19:29:43Z")
aha, I see. Do carry on. ---
**Author:** ![BDoors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BDoors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BDoors)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333/95 "2011-06-01T20:34:03Z")
I think some Americans call it “futbol” because they get shouted at by non-Americans when they call it soccer. Without any good reason, because the term “soccer” originated here and is still commonly used as a perfectly acceptable term for the game. For example, one very popular TV show is called Soccer Saturday. I am not aware of viewers complaining that it should be “Football Saturday”. It seems that it is OK for us to use the term, but not Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333/96 "2011-06-01T20:43:26Z")
> [@BDoors](#): > > I think some Americans call it “futbol” because they get shouted at by non-Americans when they call it soccer. Without any good reason, because the term “soccer” originated here and is still commonly used as a perfectly acceptable term for the game. For example, one very popular TV show is called Soccer Saturday. I am not aware of viewers complaining that it should be “Football Saturday”. It seems that it is OK for us to use the term, but not Americans. I think it’s not a problem in Britain, because people there also play two kinds of Rugby football, so calling it “soccer” helps to distinguish. In most of Latin America, there’s only one kind of football, and they call it “fútbol” (or “futebol” in Brazil). ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-difficult-sport-to-figure-out/582333/97 "2011-06-01T20:45:54Z")
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