Random Cubs Musings

[Cubswin11]

Look at how elegant and hipster I am, I detest college sports because the NCAA makes a ton of money off of athletes. [expletive] you

:D

[seanimal]

if you don't watch hockey, how do you know how often goals are scored on deflections?

 

A combination of watching a small amount of hockey, and reading from those who watch more than me. I could be wrong, but I can't find much to indicate otherwise. Searching on the topic turns up a Canadian editorial wanting to to change the rules because " the game has turned into an exercise in shot-blocking, where the majority of goals are scored on ricochets, deflections or other happenstance." and a forum thread where some hockey fans estimate it's somewhere around one-third of all goals, so hardly scientific. Are there any numbers indicating that it's not the case?

 

you're just jealous cause soccer doesn't move fast enough to warrant needing to create the offensive schemes taking advantage of deflections. most soccer goals are one of two variations: guy kicks it into the giant goal where the small human being isn't able to get to it, or guy passes to a teammate who is able to kick it into a part of the giant goal that the small human being isn't able to get to it

[seanimal]

curling goes into the top 4 when the winter olympics start, for me

 

yes

[seanimal]

wow all sports are fun to watch ok moving on

 

badminton? cycling?

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

wow all sports are fun to watch ok moving on

 

badminton? cycling?

 

Bowling, baby.

[Tracer Bullet]

wow all sports are fun to watch ok moving on

 

badminton? cycling?

 

My son and I have played some pretty [expletive] entertaining badminton

[Banedon]

Look at how elegant and hipster I am, I detest college sports because the NCAA makes a ton of money off of athletes. [expletive] you

 

I know you were talking about other posters, but I honestly don't care much about that at all. I just think the NCAA, conferences, and the schools themselves have screwed up the level of competition with things like conference re-alignments and the bowl system. They did those things to make a ton of money, which...whatever...so long as it doesn't mess up the product, which I think they absolutely have.

[ctcf]

Look at how elegant and hipster I am, I detest college sports because the NCAA makes a ton of money off of athletes. [expletive] you

 

I know you were talking about other posters, but I honestly don't care much about that at all. I just think the NCAA, conferences, and the schools themselves have screwed up the level of competition with things like conference re-alignments and the bowl system. They did those things to make a ton of money, which...whatever...so long as it doesn't mess up the product, which I think they absolutely have.

 

This. I've never been able to get invested at all due to the above, especially the awful bowl system.

 

You were mediocre, so enjoy playing in the Hormel Chili Bowl sometime in mid December! Yay?

[pitchcs]

Yup, CFB pales in comparison to the NFL.

 

For me it's the 4 hour games, gimmicky offenses which lead to a million points, dumb kids doing dumb things, the fans being complete loons (thinking their team has a shot at winning anything and living and dying by a 7th place SEC team) and games not meaning jack [expletive] after you lose 1 game.

[Careless]

Soccer, although no single soccer league has the interest of the NHL.

MLS grosses 60% more revenue than the CFL, despite having a 19-8 team advantage, playing 4.5 times as many games per year, and having 10 times as many people in its home country.

 

It has basically identical ratings when shown on ESPN to the WNBA.

 

So what other leagues do you want me to try to aggregate with MLS so this isn't so ridiculous?

[Guest]

Soccer, although no single soccer league has the interest of the NHL.

MLS grosses 60% more revenue than the CFL, despite having a 19-8 team advantage, playing 4.5 times as many games per year, and having 10 times as many people in its home country.

 

It has basically identical ratings when shown on ESPN to the WNBA.

 

So what other leagues do you want me to try to aggregate with MLS so this isn't so ridiculous?

 

Liga MX, Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga, EPL, UEFA Champions League, and of course international play and all the tournaments therein(World Cup, World Cup Qualifying, Gold Cup, Confederations Cup, Euro 20xx, etc).

 

Like I said originally, it's not super relevant to the points being made, I said it to offer a different perspective for someone who obviously has a more hockey-centric sports fandom. But you might want to stop and think about what I said and why I said it that way before making silly comparisons like this.

[seanimal]

it's difficult to compare the two, really. either way, however you want to stack the deck by including international components, there are more people watching and spending money on professional hockey than professional soccer in the united states

 

that being said, soccer is definitely more popular in terms of participation, probably by a staggering margin

 

the discussion over which sport is better is dumb, because anyone's answer is going to depend upon whatever sports a given person was socialized with

[Hairyducked Idiot]

wow all sports are fun to watch ok moving on

 

badminton? cycling?

 

Bowling, baby.

 

If you aren't socialized into it from a young age, baseball is just about the worst sport in history.

[XZero771679666304]

wow all sports are fun to watch ok moving on

 

badminton? cycling?

 

Bowling, baby.

 

If you aren't socialized into it from a young age, baseball is just about the worst sport in history.

 

I disagree. I can easily understand how someone can find baseball much less than exciting, but if you're not indoctrinated into it, soccer is the absolute worst. I really can't think of something more interminably, painfully, brain rottingly boring than a low scoring soccer match.

 

I actually find it fun to play, but watching it? No thanks.

[Guest]

I didn't give a rat's ass about baseball until after my 12th birthday. It's probably my favorite sport although all 3 are up there for me.

[mul21]

 

If you aren't socialized into it from a young age, baseball is just about the worst sport in history.

 

I'll disagree with this. I've always liked baseball, but didn't really get fully into it until more of the stats stuff became mainstream and it really appealed to the scientific side of my brain. I think it does take a certain mindset to enjoy it though, especially if you didn't play a lot growing up.

[XZero771679666304]

I didn't give a rat's ass about baseball until after my 12th birthday. It's probably my favorite sport although all 3 are up there for me.

 

I was indoctrinated into baseball and Cubs fanhood pretty much since birth. Growing up, my friends were almost all huge baseball fans, and we all played from a very early age. Consequently, baseball is far and away my favorite sport, though I played football, basketball, golf and ran track as well. Baseball is followed by college basketball and the NFL, with the NBA and NHL way, way, way back in the distance, as I only have the most passing interest in those two leagues. Soccer doesn't even register.

[XZero771679666304]

 

If you aren't socialized into it from a young age, baseball is just about the worst sport in history.

 

I'll disagree with this. I've always liked baseball, but didn't really get fully into it until more of the stats stuff became mainstream and it really appealed to the scientific side of my brain. I think it does take a certain mindset to enjoy it though, especially if you didn't play a lot growing up.

 

I agree with this. I think you have to be at list a little bit cerebral to be a really involved baseball fan. It's not as appealing to the casual sports fan as much as the faster paced, instant gratification sports like football and basketball.

[bukie]

 

If you aren't socialized into it from a young age, baseball is just about the worst sport in history.

 

I'll disagree with this. I've always liked baseball, but didn't really get fully into it until more of the stats stuff became mainstream and it really appealed to the scientific side of my brain. I think it does take a certain mindset to enjoy it though, especially if you didn't play a lot growing up.

Baseball is really the one true team sport that lends itself well to advanced individual analysis, since so little of a player's game is really other- or team-dependent (R, RBI, E).

[Warpticon]

I got into baseball because my cousin started collecting baseball cards and I heard they were worth money, so I wanted some too. After a while I started stopping at baseball games while channel surfing and realizing I recognized names, and it all kept going from there. I'm pretty much a Cub fan because one of those channels was WGN.

 

I have a much easier time enjoying baseball, even with its absurd quantity of down time, than soccer. There's at least a clear THING HAPPENING or POTENTIAL THING HAPPENING every couple of minutes or so, whereas in soccer, I don't understand the intricacies enough to be interested until a goal is at least close to scoring.

[Drew Doughty]

 

If you aren't socialized into it from a young age, baseball is just about the worst sport in history.

 

I'll disagree with this. I've always liked baseball, but didn't really get fully into it until more of the stats stuff became mainstream and it really appealed to the scientific side of my brain. I think it does take a certain mindset to enjoy it though, especially if you didn't play a lot growing up.

Baseball is really the one true team sport that lends itself well to advanced individual analysis, since so little of a player's game is really other- or team-dependent (R, RBI, E).

 

this is kind of false. every team sport is made up of individual plays that can be broken down statistically. everything is just much more... organized in baseball. it happens slower and there are far fewer events than in other sports, so the analysis was always bound to arrive there first. it inspired movements in the other major north american sports. there are accurate measures of individual performance in every sport that extend beyond the traditional box score. although i suppose the team dependent thing is pretty true, people are figuring out how to account for such things (at least in hockey, so i assume the other sports have caught on as well because hockey is pretty far behind the curve statistically speaking).

 

i think baseball is an extraordinarily tough sport to get into on your own NOW. when we were growing up, it was still america's pastime. kids have football now. baseball is slow. it's not the heavily publicized theater that football is. i agree with kyle (kill me). if a parent or close peer or some other influence isn't a guiding factor, kids have sexier picks.

[jersey cubs fan]

i think baseball is an extraordinarily tough sport to get into on your own NOW. when we were growing up, it was still america's pastime. kids have football now. baseball is slow. it's not the heavily publicized theater that football is. i agree with kyle (kill me). if a parent or close peer or some other influence isn't a guiding factor, kids have sexier picks.

 

Kids have football now? Now? Unless you grew up in NYC prior to the 60's football has been at the forefront for a very long time. Most probably start playing baseball at a younger age, but America's youth has been playing football, and futbol, in very large numbers for a very long time.

[KingCubsFan]

i think baseball is an extraordinarily tough sport to get into on your own NOW. when we were growing up, it was still america's pastime. kids have football now. baseball is slow. it's not the heavily publicized theater that football is. i agree with kyle (kill me). if a parent or close peer or some other influence isn't a guiding factor, kids have sexier picks.

 

Kids have football now? Now? Unless you grew up in NYC prior to the 60's football has been at the forefront for a very long time. Most probably start playing baseball at a younger age, but America's youth has been playing football, and futbol, in very large numbers for a very long time.

I think that's going to change with all of the publicity over concussions. Wouldn't surprise me if baseball starts getting closer to football in terms of popularity over the next decade or two.

[Guest]

i think baseball is an extraordinarily tough sport to get into on your own NOW. when we were growing up, it was still america's pastime. kids have football now. baseball is slow. it's not the heavily publicized theater that football is. i agree with kyle (kill me). if a parent or close peer or some other influence isn't a guiding factor, kids have sexier picks.

 

Kids have football now? Now? Unless you grew up in NYC prior to the 60's football has been at the forefront for a very long time. Most probably start playing baseball at a younger age, but America's youth has been playing football, and futbol, in very large numbers for a very long time.

I think that's going to change with all of the publicity over concussions. Wouldn't surprise me if baseball starts getting closer to football in terms of popularity over the next decade or two.

 

As far as kids actually playing sports (which is not what I thought we were talking about) isn't little league way more popular than pee-wee football? Maybe I'm way off, but from my own experience, it sure seems that way.

[bhogg]

A kid can play as much baseball as he wants. Tons of opportunities almost year round.

 

My boy plays city rec league in spring and plays competitive tournaments in spring and summer. Then a light schedule in fall.

 

Better than video games or being a couch potato.