I use to play a bit of softball, it's a perfect game for lazy summer afternoons. I don't think it'll catch on though, Brits have their own version of a mind-numbingly dull and inactive bats and balls game that they seem quite attached to (cricket, in case you were wondering).
It won't catch on. I wish NFL would, but if that doesn't, baseball won't.
I would say it has caught on - there are 40 odd american football teams around the universities, and most universities have a big superbowl party in Feb.
It would be cool if we could get the same amount of baseball teams.
I would say it has caught on - there are 40 odd american football teams around the universities, and most universities have a big superbowl party in Feb.
It would be cool if we could get the same amount of baseball teams.
No, I mean on a level with cricket and other non-football sports. I think uni's have them mostly because they may have some american students there. However, I do like the idea of a superbowl party, just another reason to go to uni I guess.
It's not boring at all. So... that's all I can say, haha.
If you didn't grow up on it, then chances are you're not going to be able to get into it. Although I've got a buddy from Ireland who lived in San Francisco for a number of years and fell in love with baseball. He just recently moved back, but he says he misses being to watch baseball on television.
NFL is the only American sport I enjoying watching(Hockey's Canadian). I find myself watching it every sunday night when it's on channel five, and every game I watch feels so important, it's ridiculously hyped up, I like it.
How can you watch MLB? It's soooo incredibly dull.
I thought baseball was boring, turns out I just didn't understand it. Then one deay I was in the states with nothing to watch on tv, and turned on the 2002 world series. I slowly figured out what was going on. I've never been so interested by a game that I didn't support either team. What an awesome sport.
Location: Charlottesville, VA, DC, Louisville, KY and Bristol, UK
Posts: 529
Re: Baseball!
I dunno, I'm an American from a HUGE baseball family--my uncle used to be President of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown--and I've never really gotten too into it. I understand it in & out but it's just a bit boring for me, because there's really not much strategy involved when it comes down to it. I do love going to ballgames though, but in America that's the whole atmosphere; sitting down with a hot dog and a beer with great company and enjoying a day of nice weather. It's a package deal.
And American Football is WAY bigger here than I expected. Now THERE'S a sport to love. People that say it's just stupid rugby are retarded and do not understand the game. They don't stop to rest. They stop because every single play is carefully deliberated, strategized, and chosen from literally thousands of plays, based upon what the opposing team is going to run. There are rules and regulations for every position on the field, and they are all very intricate, and I love it for that. When you start to see it as a highly intellectual sport, you can actually appreciate it.
I dunno, I'm an American from a HUGE baseball family--my uncle used to be President of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown--and I've never really gotten too into it. I understand it in & out but it's just a bit boring for me, because there's really not much strategy involved when it comes down to it. I do love going to ballgames though, but in America that's the whole atmosphere; sitting down with a hot dog and a beer with great company and enjoying a day of nice weather. It's a package deal.
And American Football is WAY bigger here than I expected. Now THERE'S a sport to love. People that say it's just stupid rugby are retarded and do not understand the game. They don't stop to rest. They stop because every single play is carefully deliberated, strategized, and chosen from literally thousands of plays, based upon what the opposing team is going to run. There are rules and regulations for every position on the field, and they are all very intricate, and I love it for that. When you start to see it as a highly intellectual sport, you can actually appreciate it.
Hey are you at UVa?
Have you heard of Mark Reynolds and Ryan Zimmerman? (that probably sounds patronising)
I remember when I was a student there I sat and watched those two guys play the left side of the infield for Virginia - now they are two of the best hitters in the majors. Crazy stuff.
I agree baseball at mlb level isn't <that> tactical, on a team level - (at least not in the AL) although there is always a lot of strategy involved in pitch selection and plate approach. But if you watch NL baseball, or US college baseball, or even university baseball in this country, it becomes very tactical, with squeezes and hit-and-runs and stuff.
American Football is an awesome game. Not a skins fan are you?
I dunno, I'm an American from a HUGE baseball family--my uncle used to be President of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown--and I've never really gotten too into it. I understand it in & out but it's just a bit boring for me, because there's really not much strategy involved when it comes down to it. I do love going to ballgames though, but in America that's the whole atmosphere; sitting down with a hot dog and a beer with great company and enjoying a day of nice weather. It's a package deal.
And American Football is WAY bigger here than I expected. Now THERE'S a sport to love. People that say it's just stupid rugby are retarded and do not understand the game. They don't stop to rest. They stop because every single play is carefully deliberated, strategized, and chosen from literally thousands of plays, based upon what the opposing team is going to run. There are rules and regulations for every position on the field, and they are all very intricate, and I love it for that. When you start to see it as a highly intellectual sport, you can actually appreciate it.
lol at you trying to sell nfl as an 'highly intellectual sport'
it's a game played by boneheads, who are pumped high full of performance enhancing drugs.
you don't even need to be that aerobically fit to play nfl ,as each play only lasts a few seconds, and you get ages between each play to 'recover'
you of course need to be built like a bull, and that's where the performance enhancing drugs come in
'stupid rugby' is actually not a bad way to describe nfl.
Location: Charlottesville, VA, DC, Louisville, KY and Bristol, UK
Posts: 529
Re: Baseball!
Originally Posted by plethoria
lol at you trying to sell nfl as an 'highly intellectual sport'
it's a game played by boneheads, who are pumped high full of performance enhancing drugs.
you don't even need to be that aerobically fit to play nfl ,as each play only lasts a few seconds, and you get ages between each play to 'recover'
you of course need to be built like a bull, and that's where the performance enhancing drugs come in
'stupid rugby' is actually not a bad way to describe nfl.
This is exactly what I was trying to say that the NFL is NOT. I specifically said...the breaks are NOT for "recovery," they're for planning the next play. Honestly, if you understood the work that goes into creating, memorizing and running those plays, and what it takes to understand when to run what against which defense given their play style etc., you wouldn't say that. What I meant was that what you just said is exactly how the NFL looks to people that don't understand the sport. What you said is equivalent to saying "cricket is stupid, all you have to do is hit a ball and that is the entire game."
I will agree that there are some buffoons in the NFL but that is with any sport. You do need to be EXTREMELY aerobically fit if you're playing a defensive end position, or QB, runningback, wide receiver, tight end etc., a position where a 250 pound, muscular man needs to be able to run a hundred yards in under twelve seconds flat. The other guys...the offensive & defensive linemen...bulk up on purpose, because their job is to be a human wall against other guys their size trying to take them out. They're not lazy, they just have to be huge and have ridiculous amounts of brute strength.
But really, college (NCAA) football is where it's at. I actually dislike the NFL & NBA for the most part because of the terrible attitudes of the players. I can't stand the whole thug attitude, but finally both leagues are starting to reform their standards on that front.
I'm not going to try to chew you out, though, or anything, because it doesn't make me mad that people view it this way--I felt the same way too, until I took the time to understand the game. Ignorance of the sport breeds hatred for it, and for some reason the British seem to get some kind of pathetic joy out of ripping it to shreds because they think that WE think it's a fast-paced, brutal game, when it simply isn't. It doesn't have anything more in common with rugby than it does with baseball. Americans tend to view it as a progressive, highly strategical game that has as much to do with the brains behind the plays as it does the players themselves.
Discuss sports, teams, players, matches and events. Anything and everything sporting.
Baseball!
