|
|
Post by Jesse on Jun 16, 2014 2:57:35 GMT -5
Only if Bocce ball is considered a sport.  |
|
|
|
Post by Jasoomian on Jun 16, 2014 3:02:24 GMT -5
(Football fans -- without doing any research, can you tell me who holds the record for, say, interceptions in a career, & what that record is?) I can't tell you that... I just follow the franchise for my local major media market and a few other games here and there, mostly playoffs. But I can tell you there are tons of stats-obsessed fans now with the whole fantasy football phenomenon. Knowledge of all kinds of stats is necessary to do well in the hobby; there are tons of tv and radio shows breaking which players (or defenses) have the best stats, what the stats mean for the matchups this week, etc etc. I can't be botehred with all that nonsense; but it is a very big thing now. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2014 3:25:12 GMT -5
(Football fans -- without doing any research, can you tell me who holds the record for, say, interceptions in a career, & what that record is?) I can't tell you that... I just follow the franchise for my local major media market and a few other games here and there, mostly playoffs. But I can tell you there are tons of stats-obsessed fans now with the whole fantasy football phenomenon. Knowledge of all kinds of stats is necessary to do well in the hobby; there are tons of tv and radio shows breaking which players (or defenses) have the best stats, what the stats mean for the matchups this week, etc etc. I can't be botehred with all that nonsense; but it is a very big thing now. Baseball has the same thing with the fantasy freaks and now sabremetrics, but I think (and I am sure Dan will correct me if I am wrong) is the sense of history and context fans of baseball have based on Stats. Most can name not only the current home run king, but the man whose record he broke and the man before him who held the record. Most baseball fans can tell you the last man to hit .400 for a season even if it was 50 years ago, etc. A fantasy football fan might be able to tell you how many touches per game their running backs get or how many targets per game their receivers are getting this season, but ask them who has the career record for most touchdown receptions and not many will be able to tell you, and even fewer could tell you whose record he broke. The mentality of football stats followers is what have you done lately to tell me what you might do next so I can set my starting fantasy roster or fill out my betting picks for the week, not that of a connoisseur of the game who understands and/or appreciates what the accomplishments of these players means in the tapestry of the game as a whole the way a lot of baseball fans do. -M |
|
|
|
Post by Jasoomian on Jun 16, 2014 3:30:36 GMT -5
There's still a fair amount of talk of historical stats in football, at least from TV announcers; but as they change the rules more and more each year, the older stats become more and more irrelevant -- very little is still comparable.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2014 8:31:46 GMT -5
I'm obviously biased, but yeah, I'd say mrp is spot-on. Not that there aren't plenty -- easily the majority, I'm sure -- of baseball fans who wouldn't know Cap Anson from Captain America, but undoubtedly by dint of its seniority there's a historicity to baseball that exists with no other sport in the U.S. That's certainly not going to appeal to everyone, but for those us with a bent for history & such, it's a considerable part of the game's appeal.
And Jasoomian is correct as well about the ever-expanding plague of fantasy football. Of course, for someone grounded in fantasy baseball, I have a hard time cottoning to a pursuit in which (AFAIK) a sizable swath of players aren't eligible for inclusion, as I assume (perhaps erroneously) is the case with offensive linemen & perhaps others.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2014 8:38:17 GMT -5
Don't forget that baseball also has a lot of books devoted to things like how the 1917 Philadelphia Athletics were a metaphor for America during World War I and other similar nonsense. Sort of like the books that do the same with ephemera like comics, sf movies, etc. Like it or not, baseball does constitute a strand in the national fabric (clumsily phrased, but I'm not fully awake & won't be for hours, if ever) that no other sport does. I think most people know who the first player to break the color barrier was in baseball. Who was his counterpart in football? Basketball? Golf? Hockey? Etc. etc. etc.? I seriously doubt the average person, or for that matter the average sports fan (I happen to know the answer in basketball, but that's it), will have any idea. |
|
|
|
Post by Ish Kabbible on Jun 16, 2014 8:58:37 GMT -5
And now begins that golden moment of the calandar year when Baseball reigns supreme in the world of sports.Gone is professional basketball and the hockey ice has now melted away.Football training camps remained padlocked and all attention is paid to the crack of the bat and the arguements of all-star,playoff or hall-of-fame eligibility.I put on the sports radio station and can hear wall-to-wall baseball talk.The land is green like a baseball diamond.Hot dogs and crackerjack taste better now as well. King Basball is on the throne.The words cricket and soccer sound like a disease.
"Poor Tom.He's laid up in bed with a bad case of cricket"
"Mabel was operated on last night and the doctors removed her inflamed soccer"
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2014 9:10:18 GMT -5
I put on the sports radio station and can hear wall-to-wall baseball talk. Though of course down here (roughly midway between Auburn & Tuscaloosa) you'll hear wall-to-wall SEC football talk, or so memory tells me. Ever since my car audio went away two Septembers ago, followed not too long thereafter by Paul Finebaum's show, I haven't listened to 5 minutes of radio, sports talk or otherwise. |
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 16, 2014 10:30:35 GMT -5
The fact that basketball and, even worse, hockey last into June is ridiculous. Which could lead an an "everybody gets a ribbon" rant about playoffs, but I'll avoid that and go back to work.
|
|
|
|
Post by Action Ace on Jun 16, 2014 11:41:30 GMT -5
And now begins that golden moment of the calandar year when Baseball reigns supreme in the world of sports.Gone is professional basketball and the hockey ice has now melted away.Football training camps remained padlocked and all attention is paid to the crack of the bat and the arguements of all-star,playoff or hall-of-fame eligibility.I put on the sports radio station and can hear wall-to-wall baseball talk.The land is green like a baseball diamond.Hot dogs and crackerjack taste better now as well. King Basball is on the throne.The words cricket and soccer sound like a disease. "Poor Tom.He's laid up in bed with a bad case of cricket" "Mabel was operated on last night and the doctors removed her inflamed soccer" cricket is not a disease, it's a bug  |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2014 11:55:22 GMT -5
Well-played, sir.
|
|
ironchimp
Full Member
Simian Overlord
Posts: 456 
|
Post by ironchimp on Jun 16, 2014 12:19:24 GMT -5
Heathens. I bet none of you even watched the second clip i posted. Cricket - 90 miles an hour aiming for the head - no problem. Baseball - a riot.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2014 12:21:15 GMT -5
Did anyone else just hear a simian gibbering mindlessly somewhere off in the distance?
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2014 12:23:05 GMT -5
Actually, I tried watching those clips, but without subtitles they were unintelligible.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ish Kabbible on Jun 16, 2014 12:28:19 GMT -5
If I see people playing cricket,I think I've been transported to the 19th century.
|
|
