this is the worst time in the sports year

[namkcuR]

Baseball is boring.

And yes, I've been to a few games in person.

The most recent one was, I believe, the second game of the Subway series this past May at Shea Stadium. I felt like I was in a middle school cafeteria what with all the childish turn-chanting(Group 1: 'Let's go Yankees' Group 2: 'Yank-ees SUCK!'. Add to that the fact that I develop Vertigo(no pun intended) sometimes when I'm sitting very high up in a stadium(which I was that day) and I have a shitty time. Why was I there, you ask? Long story short, my brother is a huge Mets fan, I was in town, and I had to go.

And the game itself just moves too damn slow and there's no time limit so any given game can drag on forever. I'm a huge NBA fan, that's my sport there. Non-stop action, beautiful to watch. I honestly believe watching a basketball team execute a play using all five players flawlessly is one of the most beautiful things in sports, right up there with watching a QB throw a perfect TD pass. Plus it's played indoors which means you don't have to deal with weather...no rainouts, no sun in your eyes, no being too hot or too cold, etc. And I don't care what anyone says, there is nothing that can beat watching a buzzer-beating game-winner in basketball.

Anyway, after NBA basketball, my favorite sports are Tennis and college basketball. I've been getting a lot more into NFL football lately though. It's fun enough to watch. Passing > running always imo though.

As far as the olympics go, I prefer the summer games to the winter games.

 

[Zoomerang96]

i don't understand americans.

i really don't.

how can you not follow hockey? it's everything that's good about soccer except sped up 20 times faster with body contact.

how can anyone call hockey boring when baseball drags it's feet even at the best of times?

and i like baseball.

hockey should be WAY bigger in the states.

and soccer should be bigger in north america. soccer makes 7ust about everything else look embarassing by comparison.

world cup in 4 months...

 

[the rockin edge]

i don't understand americans.

i really don't.

how can you not follow hockey? it's everything that's good about soccer except sped up 20 times faster with body contact.

how can anyone call hockey boring when baseball drags it's feet even at the best of times?

and i like baseball.

hockey should be WAY bigger in the states.

and soccer should be bigger in north america. soccer makes 7ust about everything else look embarassing by comparison.

world cup in 4 months...

brilliant post

world cup

 

[impy13]

The Mavs are all alone at the top of the West.

Making it the best moment in sports so far this year.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

i don't understand americans.

i really don't.

how can you not follow hockey? it's everything that's good about soccer except sped up 20 times faster with body contact.

how can anyone call hockey boring when baseball drags it's feet even at the best of times?

and i like baseball.

hockey should be WAY bigger in the states.

and soccer should be bigger in north america. soccer makes 7ust about everything else look embarassing by comparison.

world cup in 4 months...

i'd rather puncture my eyeballs with a pencil than watch the world cup

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Baseball is boring.

And yes, I've been to a few games in person.

The most recent one was, I believe, the second game of the Subway series this past May at Shea Stadium. I felt like I was in a middle school cafeteria what with all the childish turn-chanting(Group 1: 'Let's go Yankees' Group 2: 'Yank-ees SUCK!'. Add to that the fact that I develop Vertigo(no pun intended) sometimes when I'm sitting very high up in a stadium(which I was that day) and I have a shitty time. Why was I there, you ask? Long story short, my brother is a huge Mets fan, I was in town, and I had to go.

i feel that i can comment on this one, seeing as i, too, was at that game... and to top it off i was in the upper deck in my usual seats (have a 13 game plan with some friends... they give us the same seats for every game... anyhoo)...

u2 was at the garden that night... twas a perfect day. on, oh i don't know, 4 hours of sleep, i crawled back into the city, met up with my friends in the auxilary parking lot in corona park (other side of the train station, about a mile from the stadium, no parking fee ), having a few icey cold adult beverages, decked out in my black mets jersey complete with vertigo tour shirt underneath... the fans chanting back and forth at each other before you even get into the stadium... followed up with a great game if you were a mets fan, as they knocked randy johnson all over the park...

is the "chanting" a little childish? sure... what part of sport isn't? you've got adults playing a game, you have adults wearing the jersey of their favorite player, you have adults painting their face, you have adults chanting silly chants. all of these things go on at your average baseball game, basketball game, football game, hockey game, and especially soccer game... where grown men have been known to riot if the other grown men who are playing a game don't win.

it's all childish - uhh, that's kinda the point... a release from the true boredom of every day life.

the atmosphere in that stadium that afternoon was terrific, no matter where your seats were. if you found that boring, try going to a tuesday night game against the pirates with steve trachsel on the mound.

if you found that game to be boring, if you were not the least bit interested being in that stadium that day, then you simply hate baseball and nothing can change your mind. i normally wouldn't make that statement, but i was at that game, and i was in the upper deck.

And the game itself just moves too damn slow and there's no time limit so any given game can drag on forever. I'm a huge NBA fan, that's my sport there. Non-stop action, beautiful to watch. I honestly believe watching a basketball team execute a play using all five players flawlessly is one of the most beautiful things in sports, right up there with watching a QB throw a perfect TD pass. Plus it's played indoors which means you don't have to deal with weather...no rainouts, no sun in your eyes, no being too hot or too cold, etc. And I don't care what anyone says, there is nothing that can beat watching a buzzer-beating game-winner in basketball.

as someone who's played basketball their entire life, through middle school, high school, into college... and now coach it at the high school level, and have spent every weekday of every summer working at a basketball camp since i was a junior in high school... and someone who loves the nba... there ain't much beauty in the current NBA. most of it's painfully bad to watch due to the utter lack of fundamental skill found in today's american basketball player. this is why we lose to puerto rico in the olympics. but i won't go off on another disertation on that... i've done it enough over the years.

 

[Numb1075]

^ what Headache said

Esepcailly about baseketball - I don't see any team executing a designed play where all 5 members touch the ball.

I see one on one play and people chucking 3 pointers all game....I'm afraid the mid range jumper is gone.

 

[popacrobat]

pitchers and catchers

 

[thetitans2k]

^ what Headache said

Esepcailly about baseketball - I don't see any team executing a designed play where all 5 members touch the ball.

I see one on one play and people chucking 3 pointers all game....I'm afraid the mid range jumper is gone.

Ever watch the Pistons, Spurs, Mavs or Suns??

those are 4 very well coached teams at the top of the NBA who play great basketball. I agree with NAMkur in that a well executed basketball play is the best thing in sports. I get so pumped when I see a play run to perfection.

 

[Popmartijn]

i feel that i can comment on this one, seeing as i, too, was at that game... and to top it off i was in the upper deck in my usual seats (have a 13 game plan with some friends... they give us the same seats for every game... anyhoo)...

u2 was at the garden that night... twas a perfect day.

That sure was a great day!
The Mets beating the Yankees and a U2 concert to top it off.

And it was a very nice game of baseball too. Then again, it was my first.

 

[Numb1075]

Ever watch the Pistons, Spurs, Mavs or Suns??

those are 4 very well coached teams at the top of the NBA who play great basketball. I agree with NAMkur in that a well executed basketball play is the best thing in sports. I get so pumped when I see a play run to perfection.

Yes I have. that's 4 teams out of the 30 best in the world (supposedly).

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

Ever watch the Pistons, Spurs, Mavs or Suns??

those are 4 very well coached teams at the top of the NBA who play great basketball. I agree with NAMkur in that a well executed basketball play is the best thing in sports. I get so pumped when I see a play run to perfection.

the fact that you can only name 4 teams that actually play good team basketball in the entire NBA, that pretty much adds to what numb and i were saying.

and while the spurs and pistons are both very good teams, they aren't exactly kind to the eye.

the suns are fun to watch, but that's because they don't play any defense.


fact is that only 8 teams average more than 100 points per game, and of the top 50 scorers in the NBA, only 9... Elton Brand, Chris Bosh, Kevin Garnett, Richard Hamilton, Shawn Marion, Tony Parker, David West, Zydrunas Illgauskas and Dwight Howard... are shooting 50% from the field or higher. 18 of the top 50 are shooting below 45% from the field... including 4 players in the top 10 in scoring... Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Gilbert Arenas and Tracy McGrady, who's shooting a horrific 40%. of the top 50 players in the NBA in shots attempted, only seven... SEVEN... are shooting at least 50%.


looking over these stats I can see why all the scouts say that J.J. Redick's game won't translate to the NBA... in order to succeed in the NBA you need to not be able to shoot.

 

[phanan]

I used to love the NBA back in the 80s and early 90s, but I just can't get into it now. The play is so bad. Give me college hoops over it anyday.

Thanks goodness for spring training and March Madness. This month has been hell.

 

[Numb1075]

Phanan, I couldn't agree more

 

[U2DMfan]

Yes I have. that's 4 teams out of the 30 best in the world (supposedly).

And two of them don't play any defense (talking fundamentals)

and in terms of fundamentals, the NBA is a fucking disgrace, save for maybe, I stress maybe the two teams mentioned. The Pistons are ugly to watch, they have a couple of shooters but overall they are pretty rough to watch unless you like scrums. Their all-star center couldn't hit a free throw to save his life (fundamentals). I don't have much problem with the Spurs, they are the star of the league, no doubt.

So 2/30, good job NBA, doing a disservice to sound basketball for decades.

And I love the Mavs, but they are run and gun and the Suns, pretty much the same. It's just horrible basketball, overall.

 

[U2DMfan]

hockey should be WAY bigger in the states.

and soccer should be bigger in north america. soccer makes 7ust about everything else look embarassing by comparison.

world cup in 4 months...

Yeah, and NASCAR should be way bigger in Canada!

Turn left, eh?

 

[DaveC]

NBA basketball is awful and boring to watch.

College basketball is superior, but it's still a sport I watch only when there are no other sports on TV.

And if you think a basketball play is better than a perfectly-executed corner kick where the ball goes in on a bicycle kick, then you've got no sports sense.

Have you ever seen the Diego Maradona goal in the '86 World Cup against England (and I'm not talking about the Hand of God goal)? The man takes the ball and runs through the entire English team singlehandedly then pots the ball right in the top corner. It's seriously a thing of brilliance.

If you think soccer is boring, just watch the World Cup. A match where it comes right down to stoppage time goals, or penalty kicks, where it can go either way at any time on the most beautiful goals ever.

pitchers and catchers

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

comparing different types of plays in different sports is just silly... yes, i get a different sort of satisfaction watching a perfectly executed backdoor play in basketball, but that's because i coached it and played it for years.

but i don't place it in terms of excitement ahead of other plays in other sports... it's hard to argue with a late inning come from behind homerun, a beautiful save in overtime of a stanley cup playoff game, a perfectly executed 2 minute drill in football, etc. etc.

soccer? eh... i just don't get it. sorry... even an amazing soccer play, i look at it the same way i look at an amazing accomplishment in any of these olympic sports... ice skating, skiing, whatever... a quick "huh, that was pretty impressive" and then it's on to something else. it's not that it's any less thrilling to those who care about the sports, i just don't give a crap about the sport.

i've seen more soccer matches in my life than i ever wanted to... my sister was a D1 college soccer player... yes, i know... women's college doesn't compare to top flight men's soccer... but i just don't care. does not interest me in the least bit... the only soccer games i'll watch are the beer league games that a bunch of my friends play in, and that's only because i can sit on the sidelines with a few cold ones and make fun of people.


and back to the NBA... the bottom for the league in recent years was the spurs-nets NBA Finals and the embarassment of the Athens Olympics... they've been slowly and quietly changing rules, mostly off the court, to make the NBA a better product. right now the state of the current NBA is very similar to where it was in the late 70s and early 80s, when the NBA was in far worse shape than it was now... they had ratings as bad as the NHL's are now...

but then david stern took over, and an influx of great young talent entered the league... larry, magic, michael, isiah, malone, ewing, etc. etc. etc. and the league took off.

then chuck daily and pat riley tried to ruin everything in the late 80s early 90s with a different brand of basketball... a more physical, rugged brand... and because it was succesful that became the norm around the league, and play slowed down to a halt.

but now you're slowly seeing more teams open it up again... yes, there's only 7 teams over 100 points per game... but in the late 90s there was maybe only 1 team... teams were actually averaging less than 90 a game.

we also have an age limit now, forcing kids to go to college and improve their game and/or show that they're not really as good as they looked playing against 15 year old kids. and there's an incredible amount of personable young talent out there now... lebron, wade, bosh, amare, dwight howard... add in duncan, garnett, even kobe's image is turning around a little bit... toss in a guy like adam morrison next year, greg oden in 2-3 years...

the nba is on it's way back up... it's just not there yet.

 

[popacrobat]

i have been dragged to many a high school soccer games and i can't stand them. i don't like the world cup, i just hate the sport in general. i find it incredibly boring.

hockey is superior to it, but that still doesn't say much to me. I just don't give a rats ass about hockey. maybe if the whalers were still in town i'd have a mild interest because they'd be the only professional sports team in connecticut, but, they went to carolina. i dont think i'd really care anyway.

the nba bores me for all the reasons already stated.

once march madness comes the world is right again... and it can't get here fast enough

nba live for xbox 360 though

 

[ledu2nirvana]

i have been dragged to many a high school soccer games and i can't stand them. i don't like the world cup, i just hate the sport in general. i find it incredibly boring.

hockey is superior to it, but that still doesn't say much to me. I just don't give a rats ass about hockey. maybe if the whalers were still in town i'd have a mild interest because they'd be the only professional sports team in connecticut, but, they went to carolina. i dont think i'd really care anyway.

the nba bores me for all the reasons already stated.

once march madness comes the world is right again... and it can't get here fast enough

nba live for xbox 360 though

Look there is no sport that is superior to any other.

Its just tradition.

Some people grow up learning how to kick a soccer ball
Some people grow up learing how to throw a baseball.
While others learn how to shoot a puck.

It is really hard to understand, a sport that you did not grow up with.

For instance, I can't stand the winter olympics, not because they are boring (except for curling) but because I am not accustomed to any of them.

I grew up in LA. Being Mexican and all, my first loves were soccer and boxing. I learned to love the Lakers, Dodgers, and Raiders.

I love all these sports.


When I hear someone say that soccer is boring, my first thought is, he must be American or Canadien.

When I hear someone say that baseball is boring, my first thought is he must be European.

When I hear someone say that bball is boring, my first thought is he must be white.

When I hear someone say that football is boring, my first thought is he is skinny or European.

When I hear someone say that boxing is boring, my fist thought is he is a pvssy.

I know these are stereotypes but you would be suprised how many times I am right, with my assumptions.

 

[popacrobat]

right and your point is..? i never tried to piss on anybodys parade i merely said why i think this is the worst time in the sports year. i guess i should begin and conclude every message with "IMHO"