Late game threadation
DMZ · March 31, 2007 at 2:21 pm · Filed Under Game Threads
Aaaaaaaand sometimes they slip between authors, and we don’t notice until mid-game. Sorry.
Jeff Weaver goodness.
Aaaaaaaand sometimes they slip between authors, and we don’t notice until mid-game. Sorry.
Jeff Weaver goodness.
Don’t forget Soccer. I just don’t get it, at all.
Soccer is The Beautiful Game. Rugby is probably the most fun game to watch, or Aussie Rules. Hockey is hard for me, because I can’t see the puck. Golf is the most boring of all. And I won’t watch any “college” sports on principle; I don’t care if it’s exciting or not.
At least have the decency to preface such statements with the words “in my opinion.”
SMASHCAR is actually kinda fun. It’s a 190mph soap opera. And everyone I’ve known who’s actually been to a race says it’s a million times better in person with the people and the smells.
Soccer I grew up playing, but it’s hard to get into anything other than my EPL team or the World Cup.
But college football… that’s where it’s at. The NFL is big, boring, and corporate. 31 nearly identical teams in talent and structure… and the Detroit Lions. College football is still all about the pagentry, the love of the game, and the under-the-table money.
I’m on Twitter now. This is the both the coolest and stupidest Web 2.0 idea ever. I spend a lot of time thinking it’s dumb, and then see how it’s really cool, then go back to thinking it dumb.
Prefacing my remarks with “in my opinion” is tantamount to saying that I think USSM readers are stupid and lack reading comprehension.
On principle?
What?
Well, I think big-time college athletics is an utterly corrupt enterprise that perverts the purpose of the university, and destroys the lives of hundreds of thousands of young men, predominantly impoverished minorities, with false promises of riches and glory that are only realized for a tiny number of them, and in the process steals from the real students. But that’s just my opinion!
I wish somebody around here showed Aussie Rules.
I think you can watch it on tape delay at Kangaroo and Kiwi, the Aussie and New Zealander pub on Aurora and about 73rd (near Beth’s). I think they show it a couple of days after. There’s an organized campaign to get Setanta to pick it up, but they’re not only not succeeding, they’re going backward; last year they dropped even the weekly highlight show. K&K show a lot of rugby too.
When we were in Australia last year, one of the highlights was going to see St. Kilda Saints v. Collingwood Magpies at the Telstra Dome in Melbourne, in the company of an Aussie who very patiently explained what was happening (without which I would have been lost). Great atmosphere, even for a preseason game. My wife appreciated the tiny little shorts — just about the last sport left that has them!
I remember back in the 80s, when I was in college, one of the cable channels would show Aussie rules really, really late at night (so it was probably live). I have no idea why they did it, but MTV was playing actual music videos in those days too, so everything on cable was a bit weird. Anyway, between the announcer’s thick accents, the unfamiliar terms, and our lack of sobriety, we had no idea what the hell was going on. This did not stop us from drunkenly hypothesizing, particularly when the baffling score with multiple numbers per side was shown. Our favorite theory was that the players were themselves allowed to make up new rules during the game so that you had one score for the creativity of the invented rules themselves and then another for the actual points scored according to those rules. And when the ref did that sharp little karate motion bringing his arms down with index fingers outstretched he was shouting, “That’s a good rule!”
Anyway, it kept us amused. Unlike cricket, which was far more baffling and just put us to sleep.
Oh, and count me among the “basketball is dull” camp. It’s even one of the sports I played a bit as a kid, and I can’t watch it. I’ll go out of my way to watch a baseball game; if I happen to go into a pub for food and football is on, I’ll pay attention; if it’s hocky, I might glance up now and again. If it’s basketball, I don’t even look up — it might as well be the Home Shopping Network or that country music channel. Or Nascar. Heck, I think those golf hilights where they show all the day’s best shots are more interesting than the Final Four.
Joser, you’re remembering ESPN in the early days, and the reason they showed Aussie Rules was because they didn’t have enough programming. I remember that too, and had about the same reaction. It was interesting to get the lowdown on what’s happening from an Aussie. It’s actually an interesting game; a bit like rugby with no line, i.e. a total free-for-all. The scoring is similar to our football, six points for a goal, a ball kicked between the taller center posts, and one point for a behind, which is between the outer posts.
A similar situation now brings us ESPN’s coverage of arena football.
No props for Gaelic football? (From which Aussie rules is derived)
I was so sad when Fox World decided to go All Soccer, All The Time.
How are you supposed to watch the footie grand final? To sing along with “Arise, Australia Fair” while clutching your “Arise, Australia Fair” teatowel? Find out who is the best and fairest?
Black puck. White ice. I don’t really see the problem.
Actually, the trick is to watch the players, not the puck. The puck is against the near boards half the time, anyway, so it’s not in your line of sight. Watch the players; that’s how you watch hockey.
I’ll take F1 over NASCAR any day.
Or even the WRC.