Sports

[miffy495]

Caught the end of the game while out tonight. Don't really care at all about baseball. As a Canadian, your game seems weird and arcane to me. Still, it was an exciting end. Dat triple. I was casually having a beer with three friends and I looked up just as it was being hit. There was a moment where these three Canadian dudes and one lady just stared at the screen and simultaneously said "OH SHIT." and then had to watch the rest. I believe the sentence I said at the time was "I don't fully understand what is happening right now guys, but I know enough to know that I will be paying attention to this instead of you for about the next five minutes. Please don't take offense." Congrats SF, condolences to Kansas. That was a hell of a tense finish.

[Bjorn]

Baseball is kind of weird and arcane, compared to a lot of other sports, which is one of the things that makes it charming. 

 

To be honest though, I'm really glad the series is over.  I was pretty baseballed out.  I usually go to a handful of games a year, and watch a few more on television.  I've watched more baseball this month than I usually do in several seasons. 

 

 

it was a good showing.  there will be conspiracy theorists & what-if analysts talking about Perez and that major hit to the leg all offseason

 

*edit - i had to put it on mute after bumgarner came in - after praising Panik for half an hour it turned to building the Bumgarner shrine.  Hes good, i get it, talk about KC's bullpen options, solution to hitting drought, the series & playoffs as a whole. Or how Herrera showed up and pitched almost 3 great innings

 

Perez' leg was the first thing we were talking about as soon as the game was over.  But we all pretty quickly agreed it ultimately doesn't matter, no reason to run it into the ground.  Guys get hit, hurt, strained and it affects them, or not.  No way to know.   It would have been a storybook ending to have him be the winning run though.  Dude's been the rock of the team all year. 

[Badfinger]

Boo, baseball. Damn, so close Royals. Sal Perez was not good at all in the postseason (or this year in general, really). Gordon would absolutely have been out. The ball was in the relay man's glove by the time he pulled into 3rd. We can all agree how exciting a finish it would have been though.

 

 

 

With the caveat that I have not watched nearly all of the action, especially not with sound, I'm going to ask when Joe Buck discovered emotions.

 

 

Apologies for the crappy music playing underneath. But in the last 2-3 years, Joe Buck somehow learned to not be a robot? Thank god the call from Buck for the Phillies in 2008 isn't in the montage. Literally all he says is "Phillies are World Champions." Not even an exclamation point. A period at the end of the sentence.

 

 

e: http://awfulannouncing.com/the-locker/tv-radio-calls-giants-world-series-win.html/

 

 

Here are all the broadcast calls if you want to listen or hate-listen to the last out. KC announcer is so depressing. :[

[Bjorn]

I'm really glad I'm not a soccer fan.  Kansas City has to be the first city ever (or one of the very rare few) to have two different professional sports have their postseasons ended on consecutive nights, as New York knocked Sporting KC out of the MLS playoffs tonight. 

 

I've got a buddy who's a big Sporting KC fan, and went out for drinks with him tonight to watch the game.  He's also a Royals fan.  This was like the worst possible back to back days in sports ever for him. 

 

Thankfully college basketball starts soon. 

[Badfinger]

I am quite happy with how the Eagles did on Thanksgiving. If they beat the Boys again they basically win the division, and have a good shot at a bye.

[Badfinger]

Oregon is absolutely gobsmacking Florida State, and my god there isn't a better way the year could start than this.

[TheLastBaron]

So just out of curiosity I was wondering what everyone's favorite sports/teams are.  For me it's changed over time a bit.  Mostly every sport/team I follow is related to my dad (with one exception).  I live in the Bay Area, but my dad is from is from Boston (well he's actually from Littleton which is 40 miles west and a fun fact is that Steve Carell used to be his mailman) so I follow the Red Sox and the Bruins rather than the Sharks and the Giant's/A's, in fact I really don't like the A's because I've never been to an A's game outside of the A's vs Boston context.  I've sort of gotten a little cold on following baseball though, it was by far my favorite sport growing up and most evenings I would sit with my dad on the couch watching it, but it's not as big of a deal as it used to be which is probably related to them winning the world series (my dad regularly re-watches the dvd's of the 2004 series especially when he's super stressed out, it was a huge deal here).  On the other hand I've never cared for the Patriots or the Celtics.  The Patriots my dad has never followed as a result of them being terrible when he was growing up, and he likes the Celtics, but I just never was into Basketball probably because I never played it growing up.  Hockey is kind of weird because when I was super little I liked the Sharks, I had Sharkie stuffed animals and everything and always got excited going to games, but at some point switched completely over to only really caring about the Bruins which is again probably related to watching games with my dad.  These days I don't have cable so don't watch much, but will try and listen to Bruins games on the radio if I can, whereas I just check the scores for Red Sox games usually.

 

All that being said my favorite sport is soccer and my favorite team of any sport is the San Jose Earthquakes.  This is definitely just from me playing growing up, I played on club teams and then in high school.  It's almost the opposite of other sports, my dad knows nothing about soccer (well he does now) so if we're watching a game together it's a lot of him asking me stuff about the game which is what I used to do with him.  I have season tickets and I don't care how bad they are I'm super excited for the new season and new stadium.  Not having cable does kind of suck though because as much as I love the Quakes the MLS is the MLS and I used to watch every single Premier League game for years (which isn't actually very much since teams only play ~once a week) and now I get once game a week over the air if I'm lucky.  I could stream them and sometimes I do, but the time difference makes it annoying.

 

I also know absolutely nothing about any college sports except when I hear people from my area going on to play for teams since there are two big private schools here (Mitty and Bellarmine) who are among the top in the nation for athletics and people always make a big deal about it.

[undermind9]

i grew up with almost no sports influence (always lived in Chicago).  My father growing up did not watch professional sports outside of the major events - superbowl, NBA finals when the bulls crushed it 6 of 8 yrs, and i think some world-series events.  We subsequently did not go any events, even more-family cost friendly minor league games.  I had an aunt that really liked hockey, but the Blackhawks were not televised because Bill Wertz was ridiculous 

 

So all of my sports favoritism is learned from peers and my own volition. I am not a mega fan of any of my favorite teams either, i know their recent history - but having not grown up with a team to follow i also never learned the generally useless historic facts of a team that some of my peers can spout out

 

Baseball is one of my favorite sports to watch live, background televised, and even radio listen.  I also go to the most of these games a year due to ticket price & a box my company shares.  Despite growing up in the north suburbs i did not like the attitude of cubs fans and the association with Wrigleyville and the casual baseball fandom attached there. There are plenty of very baseball smart Cubs fans, but the frat boy mentality of Wrigleyville was a major turn off.  So my love for the White Sox actually started by trolling cubs fans after their collapse in 2003, then through college i had several close friends who were south-siders and i learned more about the team and followed along.  Eventually I was hired at my current job where the owner is a big WS fan and it was a point of conversation & camaraderie against Cub fans in the office.

 

Football is even weirder, I love the Pittsburgh Steelers for no good reason.  My brother and I started following them before Cordell Stewart was gone even, then when they started winning - even better.  I watch as many Steelers games as televised on my basic cable, but almost no other football on Sunday (my wife strongly dislikes football).  Also, liking an out of division team keeps the stupid peer razing down knowing the only match of potential importance is the superbowl...where recent history & statistics are on my side

 

Hockey is my favorite sport though and would try to watch as much as possible when younger with another friend - but that was only the playoffs - which at the time was usually Detroit, Colorado, and Anaheim.  In this case i followed my area-codes and aunt's lead to like the Blackhawks despite only the rarest of exposure.

As some might know the owners of the Blackhawks did not allow televising of homegames w/o national coverage (playoffs) so hockey was almost never on in Chicago.  Not until the son took over was there a resurgence of interest in the sport and reinvestment to the team.  Subsequently people came out in droves, revenue was up, and they were able to acquire strong players and win...a lot.  The popularity continues and i honestly find it to be the most exciting sport to watch on TV or live

 

 

To finish up i think basketball is boring, soccer is great, but i do not watch with any vested interest (outside of euro & world cups), and i didnt go to a college with athletics so no affiliation there either.

 

 

this was actually harder to put into words than i thought.  Sports & club fandom is so frequently a icebreaker in social and work that I have had to solidify my affiliations & knowledge base - but trying to explain why i fell into one camp over another was difficult to drum up.  Fortunately i have never had to explain them in person to someone who probably doesnt care anyways

[Badfinger]

I'm a Philadelphia sports fan all the way around. I'll also pull for Baltimore teams that are in the opposite conference (Ravens and Orioles). I am a huge sports fan and have been all my life. My mom was apparently a much bigger baseball fan than my dad was. I got myself into hockey. I love sports and competitions of all types.

[Bjorn]

I'm pretty much only into KU basketball and Royals baseball nowadays. The NFL used to be my favorite sporting events to watch, but a whole host of issues has ended up clubbing my interest in football to death. I think I watched 2 games this year.

[Badfinger]

I'm pretty much only into KU basketball and Royals baseball nowadays. The NFL used to be my favorite sporting events to watch, but a whole host of issues has ended up clubbing my interest in football to death. I think I watched 2 games this year.

 

That's a brutal yet unfortunately prescient metaphor.

[Bjorn]

A completely intentional metaphor as well.

Though while the health, concussion, and player behavior issues all helped tip the scales, ultimately the biggest factor in deciding to be done with football because of what a colossal waste of time it is. If I watched a couple of games a week (which used to be my norm), that's up to 7 hours of tv watching for a total of maybe 20ish minutes of actual sport. With basketball, I can watch 3 games in that same time frame and get 120 minutes of actual sport. Baseball tends to be a much more social event for me, like most of the playoffs I watched with friends and I go to way more live games than I do watch them on TV, and always with at least a few people, making it more like a night on the town with friends. If I had the same social aspect with football (which is obviously possible, that's just not how I partake in the sport), I'd probably still be watching it.

[Professor Video Games]

I think the ideal way to watch football is to dvr it and start watching an hour or two after kickoff. Skip all the breaks and if you time it right you can catch up with the live feed right as the game is ending.

[thefncrow]

I grew up in the Dallas area, so all my teams are basically just the Dallas teams. 

 

I got into the Stars when they got good (98-99) and that got me into hockey.  I'm pretty lazy about it though, where I kinda follow what's happening in the season but don't really get into it until the end of the season and the playoffs.  Playoff hockey is some of the most entertaining stuff on the planet, and I really dig into it then.

 

The Mavericks have always been a bunch of fun to watch.  I went to several games in the old bad days, of the blue and green jerseys.  I caught onto that team too late for their entertaining early runs, so my early memories are pretty much of how bad that team was, back in the Jamal Mashburn days and the days when everyone thought drafting Jason Kidd was really going to turn this team around.  I spent the early part of the 2000s basically in shock that the team wasn't an absolute shitshow anymore, but (especially with the Cowboys fandom having made me a real pessimist) waiting for the other shoe to drop, and for the Cinderella moment where the fancy coach would turn back into a pumpkin.  I still have a part of me that's really pissed off about the 2006 NBA Finals, but it also made winning in 2011 that much sweeter.  It's going to be hard to see Dirk retire in the near future.

 

I've been going to Rangers games for a long time, and went to a few games back at Arlington Stadium, and even got to go to the 2nd exhibition game held at The Ballpark in Arlington (before the season opener in the first year in that stadium, they played 3 exhibition games against the Mets to open the stadium).  Unfortunately, I didn't get to actually see that much of the team's home games, were televised on a pay-cable channel called HSE, which was really expensive.  Basically, adding HSE would pretty much double your cable bill.  So I always had to listen to Rangers home games on the radio, and watch the team when they were on the road.  The recent success has been fun (although also painful.  See: 2011 World Series Game 6.  I have very little memory of the specifics of that game anymore thanks to getting a little over eager with the booze, and I've decided that it's better that I've mostly forgotten that game.)  But I did get to attend 2011 ALCS Game 2 against the Tigers, the 11-inning game capped by a Nelson Cruz walk-off grand slam, which was just an amazing moment to be there for.  I've never heard anything louder than the crowd reaction to that.

 

I caught onto the Cowboys about a year or two before the run of Super Bowls, which was a lot of fun, even though I'm really not attached to that team in the same way anymore.  My motto for watching the Cowboys the last few years has been that they always are entertaining, because you could count on them to fail in the most spectacular way possible.

 

However, I do kinda pull for one out-of-market team: the Cubs.  When I grew up, I'd spend afternoons with my grandparents at their house, and they had cable.  Since Cubs games were broadcast on WGN, and they had a preference for day games, the typical summer afternoon would involve sitting down to watch a Cubs game.  With the situation I mentioned above with the Rangers home games being on an expensive pay-cable channel, I probably watched more Cubs games than Rangers games until things changed up to where that channel was either included with a basic subscription.

 

I enjoy soccer and really get in for the World Cup, but I really watch very little of it.  I've never bothered to get out to an FC Dallas game, unfortunately.

 

I actually got into Formula 1 racing this year, thanks to Drew Scanlon and Danny O'Dwyer.  I decided to listen to their F1 podcast just because the sport sounded really crazy, and ended up watching the races and enjoying them, even though I didn't really develop a rooting interest in any driver or team.  I really wanted to go down and catch the US Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, but the ridiculous price of tickets kept me away.  (Seriously, it was something like $175 for standing room, or like $300 to actually have a bleacher to sit on).

 

Though while the health, concussion, and player behavior issues all helped tip the scales, ultimately the biggest factor in deciding to be done with football because of what a colossal waste of time it is. If I watched a couple of games a week (which used to be my norm), that's up to 7 hours of tv watching for a total of maybe 20ish minutes of actual sport.

 

So, not to try to hook you back in after you've kicked that habit (that I just cannot), but I've found the real solution to this is to only watch the Sunday afternoon games, and to watch Red Zone Channel.  Red Zone Channel is like watching the games at the house of a person who has both NFL Sunday Ticket and ADHD, because it's constantly flipping between games to keep football action going.  Game goes to commercial? We'll cut to something else where a play is about to happen.  Replay delay?  Off to another game.  Someone called a timeout?  Surely something is happening in another game.  Hell, at points when two games are down in the red zone, they'll often start cutting between games as individual plays end, so that you don't even really have the between play downtimes.  It has to slow down for the 4pm games, because they really only have 3 games to pick from, but the early session is always like 8 or 9 games, so they can pretty constantly find football action happening somewhere.

[Badfinger]

NFL Rewind exists and basically packages the game into 30 minutes or less. It just shows a play, gives you 3-4 seconds after the play of footage, and shows the next play. It's pretty great.

 

Redzone is amazing. It's probably the best way to just straight up absorb football.

[jennegatron]

My father is a huge Packers fan and as a result I am as well. It's becoming increasingly difficult to justify this love to myself given how terrible the NFL is as an organization.

I can't stand the NCAA because I can't get over the chicken shit nature of them as an organization, and I can't handle the exploitation of young (predominately black) men in college football & basketball specifically. (I know the revenue from those sports serve to fund the non money making sports, especially women's sports, which I very much value, but it still makes me feel icky.)

I didn't start watching basketball until 2011, because my boyfriend & his roommates were super into it.  That final series between the Heat & the Mavericks is what sold me on basketball, and sold me on the Mavericks specifically.  As part of a long, detailed negotiation with said boyfriend, I was forced to select one NBA team to be "my" team. I wanted to be a general NBA fan, and as a result, I have affection for a lot of teams in the West especially. (Specifically the Minnesota Timberwolves, who I saw a couple times when I was living in St. Paul. It was hard to resist double double machine Kevin Love, and dreamboat Ricky Rubio. I also appreciate the LA Clippers because I adore Chris Paul & Blake Griffin, the Indiana Pacers due to my affection for one of my friends from Indiana, and also when Lance Stephenson was there. I also want the clippers to be good and the lakers to be bad so that a tiny bit of cosmic justice is restored to the world. I have lots of basketball based opinions, some founded in logic, mostly founded in feeling, as any good sports opinion is. I also believe that 2011 was the most perfect sports year for me, Jennegatron, that will ever occur. It's a shame I peaked so early.)

I grew up in Illinois, at the height of Michael Jordan fever, but because my family didn't watch basketball, it didn't really stick with me. I loved Space Jam, but that was the full extent of my basketball feelings until I was 19 or so.

The other sports (baseball, hockey, Futbol, etc.) are decidedly not my jam. Being in Illinois (but not Chicago) my family were part of a vocal Cardinals fan minority, so I do get a small joy out of the Cubs being perennial non-contenders, but that's about it.

[Bjorn]

I can't stand the NCAA because I can't get over the chicken shit nature of them as an organization, and I can't handle the exploitation of young (predominately black) men in college football & basketball specifically. (I know the revenue from those sports serve to fund the non money making sports, especially women's sports, which I very much value, but it still makes me feel icky.)

 

I've felt very much in an ethical dilemma the last few years being a college basketball fan, exactly for the reasons you described. But I also live in a town that hosts what is one of the most storied college basketball programs in history. It feels functionally impossible to disconnect from that, and I don't even really want to as icky as it can be. The community, passion, love and camaraderie here are infectious. My love of KU basketball is not just about the sport, but also tied into my years spent as a student there, to watching my daughter play in the band at games, to going downtown with her and the lady when we won the national championship (where thousands of people managed to peacefully celebrate without rioting or burning anything up).  It's an emotional dichotomy that I don't know how to resolve. 

[jennegatron]

I've felt very much in an ethical dilemma the last few years being a college basketball fan, exactly for the reasons you described. But I also live in a town that hosts what is one of the most storied college basketball programs in history. It feels functionally impossible to disconnect from that, and I don't even really want to as icky as it can be. The community, passion, love and camaraderie here are infectious. My love of KU basketball is not just about the sport, but also tied into my years spent as a student there, to watching my daughter play in the band at games, to going downtown with her and the lady when we won the national championship (where thousands of people managed to peacefully celebrate without rioting or burning anything up).  It's an emotional dichotomy that I don't know how to resolve. 

 

Oh I totally get it. My boyfriend grew up in Norman, OK and is a huge OU fan. He had OU basketball season tickets when they were real bad in those few years post Blake Griffin leaving, and I see his love is true. (I'm sure the KU basketball experience is v similar to the OU football experience.) I've even enjoyed the OU football games & basketball games I've gone to, and know that the players love it, but I have a hard time getting past how grossed out it makes me feel.

Congratulations on not burning any couches. (Lookin' at you West Virginia!)

[Bjorn]

I'm not sure there's a more important story to read about sports, and particularly college basketball, than this.

 

The Fighting Indians Earn It

 

I drive by Haskell all the time, sometimes every day.  To be honest, it serves as both a mark of distinct pride and shame for this town.  A lot of people, even me at times, will point out that we have the only 4 year tribal college in the country.  But the shame is how little we do to actually support this school, or the people who pass through it's doors every year.  This is the self declared most liberal, progressive city in Kansas, and arguably in every surrounding state.  But that reputation is also really unearned in a lot of ways.

 

Anyways, please read that. 

[Bjorn]

Rock chalk indeed, Mr. President (Obama was in town this week, wish I could have got tickets to see him).

[Dewar]

Never a better time to be a Seahawks fan, but my true passion these days is Sounders FC (it's not too bad of a time to be a Sounders fan either.) I really wish we had a hockey team as well, but they've been perennial teases about it for long enough that I don't think it'll happen.

[Polish Hill]

Primarily a Penn State and Pittsburgh sports fan.  I care most deeply about the PSU football team and Steelers but between the issues with the actual game of football, all the controversies both teams have been mired in for the last few years, and the NCAA and NFL being awful organizations its been tough.  I still get some modicum of enjoyment when I do watch but I find myself following more through articles and Twitter than relying on the swings of individual games. 

 

Soccer is another major love of mine but I follow too many teams to be deeply invested in their ultimate fate.  Tottenham is annually good for raising hopes and then immediately dashing them, the Chicago Fire can't get out of its own way half the time, and both the Polish and US Men's National teams are good but a ways from being in the world's elite.  Ah well, still fun times.  Just kind of wish every sports league didn't seem like it was run by a bunch of corrupt white dudes who very thinly veil their hatred for the players and fans.

[Henroid]

I'm glad that it was an actual game and all for the Super Bowl, but Seattle gave the game away with that last play. Literally wtf. Also,

 

[Henroid]

I'm not sure if there's a better thread for this on ye olde Idle Thumbs forum, so for now I'll post about it here.

 

After the Super Bowl, a former player in the league was busted by the cops when hiring a prostitute. Not even blinking an eye, the NFL Network (owned by the NFL itself) immediately fired him from his job there. And I am fired the fuck up about it.

 

Mostly because of their reaction to this when lined up next to other incidents like Ray Rice. Who, by the way, had his indefinite suspension from the league overturned after only two months.

 

I mean really, what the hell? A guy wants to get laid, and that's enough to fire him, but when a dude beats his wife on film, they do everything they can not to punish him (on top of the guy's team making the wife apologize)? Jesus jumped up Christ.

[Bjorn]

I assume you're talking about Sapp.  The complicating issue is that he's also been accused of assault against the prostitute, and he has a prior history of being arrested/investigated for assaulting a woman he was partying with. 

 

Is an immediate firing, within hours, appropriate?  Probably not, but the NFL's not going to fuck around with an on air personality the way it would with a current top tier athlete.  The athlete can still make them more money.

 

I think the Lynch stuff with being potentially fined for his hat and not wanting to do interviews also shows the ridiculousness of the league though.  Willing to hit a player with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines over interviews, while Goodell and the owners have stonewalled the press for many years on actually serious issues.