Sports

[hckynut]

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@kaydee50 wrote:

@hckynut  I think Jim McKay, the ABC sportscaster, once said he considered professional race car drivers the ultimate athlete.  To me it sounds more like an endurance test--LOL!!

Did you ever watch the movie, The Cutting Edge?  I started liking hockey when Rod Gilbert of the NY Rangers was playing.  Those were the days!

@kaydee50 

Coincidentally, the NY Rangers have been My team, since the mid 1960's. And the GAG line, with Gilbert/Ratelle/Hadfield Line? One of the best ever in the game. Hadfield was really my favorite of the 3. He had the skill along with his toughness and physical strength.

As far as auto racing endurance? A NASCAR race starting right now is the longest one ran by these racers. It is 600 miles and a test of both mechanical and physical endurance. Without both, one will never win. Oh, I DVR everything I watch, including racing and hockey games.

I have the "Cutting Edge" in my "cue" on Amazon Prime, I just haven't gotten around to watching it yet, but hope to soon.

hckynut 🏒

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[deepwaterdotter]

I grew up going to late-model stock car races at Rockford Speedway in Illinois when I was about 6 years old.  My parents attended every weekend in the warm months.  When the NASCAR drivers came to the Milwaukee Mile during the Wisconsin State Fair, it was the highlight of our summer.  Got to see the big-time cars and drivers, and attend the Wisconsin State Fair.  I'll always remember the cream puffs.  I guess it just got in my blood.  I'm just as big a tennis fan too.

Go Ryan Newman! 

[LdyBugz]

@hckynut Happy Birthday, a bit early!  I'm impressed at how long you've been skating!  I wish I could skate.  I never learned how to do anything except fall down.  

There is a big difference between being a spectator and a competitor.  With car racing, I have no desire to do either.  Being in the Boston area with its crazy drivers has allowed me to acquire some impressive driving skills though.  I could probably take on some of those pro racers, but at a much slower speed!  😁

I think car racers require skill, and endurance for the heat since you explained that part.  Being a woman of a "certain age" has allowed me to know what 123 degrees feels like internally, without a hat and winter coat on!  

All in all, I enjoy watching some sports, but I am most impressed by sports that push the human body and the dedication those atheletes have.  Gymnists, swimmers, runners, and yes skaters.  Lots of things we could debate about with sports.  Isn't it nice though that there are so many choices in finding a sport to enjoy?

Thanks for your reply!  Stay safe!

~LdyBugz

[1Snickers]

@LdyBugz  When I was a child I would crawl up in my Daddy's lap when the Saturday night fights came on. 
  I pretended to be interested so I could stay up past my bedtime, sometimes it worked!

   I went to many car races with my husband, he was always "into" cars. I never cared for it.  Then they became too crowded and he said it wasn't worth the traffic coming home. 
   
  

[LdyBugz]

@1Snickers What a nice memory for you!  You made me stop and think about my own dad.  I don't recall him being into any sports except maybe a little football.  

[mspatmac]

First let me say I'm not mad at anyone for their sports dislikes, there's enough varity for everyone. 

 @hckynut Thanks for both of your insightful posts and I agree with everything you said.  Right now I am watching the Coca Cola 600, this afternoon watched Peyton Manning and Tiger beat Mickelson and Tom Brady at golf yeaaaa.  Son and grandson both played hockey. Used to get up at 4am to drive son 3 hrs to games. Loved to go to the garden when Rangers played the Islanders. Had tickets to Texas Motor Speedway for Indy cars and Nascar.  Bristol night racing is not to be missed.  Still miss Dale Sr.  

I appreciate what it takes to exceland be elite in any sport, but boxing is way down on my must watch or follow list.  I watch tennis, football, playoffs only in NBA, Hockey even though it's so much better in person.  Hard to appreciate the speed of the game on TV.  Some baseball, International soccer, Most Olympics.  Guess I'm a sports nut LOL

[FancyPhillyshopper]

Different sports come from different traditions and cultures, and many skew towards the masculine, so I have no problem with any sports existing, although I may watch only a few, like gymnastics, ice-skating and ballet.  DH likes certain sports, different ones from my father and brothers, and different ones from me.

The only sports I refuse to watch or support are those that allow the hurting of innocent animals, such as hunting, fishing and horse or dog racing, and bull-fighting. Those activities based on ancient human/animal practices are no longer needed in today's modern world.

[gardenman]

People who don't like sports tend to oversimplify the sports they don't like/understand. There are subtleties and nuances that are overlooked. Let's look at two of the big ones mentioned here with racing and curling. We'll start with racing.

Auto racing is a team sport. The best driver in the world in a poorly prepared car won't win a race. The best-prepared car in the hands of an inept driver won't win a race. The difference between dominating a race and losing badly can be very subtle. Let's say one driver/car combo is able to stay on the gas just one-hundredth of a second longer getting into a corner and gains one-hundredth of a second on the competition each corner. In one lap around a four corner track that driver would gain four-hundredths of a second. That's not much. In a hundred green flag laps that lead would grow to four seconds. If the race is four hundred laps the driver would win by sixteen seconds and everyone would say what a dominant car they had. Was it that dominant? One one-hundredth of a second isn't that much of a difference, but it adds up.

In the good old days of Nascar (before they became way too over-regulated) teams could make all kinds of adjustments to cars to speed them up or improve the balance of the car. Want the car to go faster? Bump down the spoiler a bit. Of course, bumping down the spoiler lowers the downforce on the rear tires making the car harder to control in the corners, but it makes it faster on the straight parts of the track. If the car was too hard to control you could raise the spoiler or pull out a fender to change the car's aerodynamics. Now the cars pretty much are what they are from the start to the end and nothing really changes. It's largely killing the sport for me. Indy car racing is often better than Nascar these days as they can still adjust more on those cars.

Cars change over the course of a race and so does the track. Tires lose their grip over time. Rubber builds up on the track. Sun or clouds affect how grippy the track is. There are a lot of variables in racing that have to be constantly accounted for.

Curling is a combination of chess and athletics. Curling ice is made by spraying the flat ice with droplets of water to form beads. Those beads change with each pass of the stone over them and with each footstep over them. Reading the ice and knowing how much a stone will slide or curl in certain areas is huge. The same stone thrown in exactly the same manner and the same spot two times, ten minutes apart can react completely differently depending on what's happened to the beads in that path. The broomers may have to work like a lunatic or simply follow the stone down the ice depending on how it's tracking and its speed. Throw the stone harder and it'll go straighter, but maybe go too far. Throw the stone lighter and it'll typically curl more, but you may need the broomers to get it where you need it and control the curl. Broomers carry stopwatches on them and in addition to watching the stone and guiding the stone they also time the stone as it crosses certain landmarks to know how fast its traveling and thus how far it'll go. On the fly they may discover that the stone is going too slowly and they'll have to sweep it to get it where they want it, but it may be hanging out too far and they need it to curl and if they start sweeping too soon it won't curl enough. When do you start sweeping and can you get the stone where it needs to go and you've got maybe a half-second to decide as you're sliding down the ice with the stone.

You want to place your stones where you can use them to your best benefit and hinder your opponent. After each shot that whole strategy can change depending on where the last thrown stone ends up. The minds of the high-level curlers never stop calculating what's the best option for their next shot. They're constantly evaluating the ice, remembering which stones were thrown where and how the ice has changed since the last stone they threw. There's a whole lot more to curling than meets the eye.

People who don't like sports tend to assume they're simpler than they are. "Football is just a bunch of big guys running into each other." Uh, no. Offensive and defensive line play often feature a level of choreography that would be the envy of any professional ballet company featuring very specific hand and foot placement and precise timing and movement with each side trying to predict what the other side will do and how to counter their anticipated move. Much of that happens in that first tenth of a second after the snap.

Most sports now offer education/introductory programs to let people learn some of the subtleties of their sport. NFL teams typically have (or had before Covid-19) camps for women and non-fans to learn more about the sport. Curling centers typically have open houses and educational sessions to teach people more about the sport. Pretty much every sport has a lot more to it than it appears to an uninterested or uninformed outsider seeing it for the first time or who only watches casually. To truly understand how great a curler like a Niklas Edin, Anna Hasselborg, or Eve Muirhead is, you have to understand curling more. If you don't understand the sport, it looks dumb. "They're just chasing rocks down the ice with brooms." There's a whole lot more to it than that.

[spursfan2]

The only sport I cant watch is golf. I appreciate the skill it requires it just makes me sleepy. Baseball, basketball and boxing are my passion but I will watch anything else. I'm just heartbroken that on top of everything else even sports are being taken from us. I will not watch sports without the fans. How pathetic would it be to hear the crack of the bat when a baseball player hits a homerun and the only other sound would be the silence of an empty ballpark? No thank you.

[hckynut]

@spursfan2,

As being both a participant and a fan of a few sports, I understand what fans being present adds to most all sporting events. 

Would I enjoy being at an auto race as much when a fan were I the only one there? No. Would it have a bearing on my enjoyment of the day and that sport? No.

While crowds of fans a sporting events excite each other at these events, that feeling is multiplied many times over by yhe sports participants.

But watching on TV, or not watching a sport through the medium because of a lack of fans at the event itself? I don't get your connection. Enjoying watching 1 of my sports, or not, because of fans at that event? That I do not understand, not even just a little bit.

Since Nascar(which happens to be one of my loved sports) is the 1st one that I am aware of, that returned to live sports, me not DVR watching that event because on no fans at the track? Ain't gonna happen.

The sound of high powered motors has been in my blood for over 65 years, both as a racer and a fan. That in itself can satisfy me.

Ice skates blades digging into the ice and pucks hitting stick to stick, and then a slap shot! All I need to get immersed in a game, live or via a TV set. Been a fan/player/ref and ran my own adult league for over 52 years.

Since I am also an audio and video enthusiast, again since a young teen! Having a super surround sound system on all our TV sets, adds even more to any sport. Muted sports itself takes a certain element away from TV watching a sport. Adding true surround sound adds yet another dimension to almost any media viewed sport. 

Got my DVR set for today's Nascar Cup race today at Texas Motor Speedway. Will watch it later today or evening. Fans there? I have no idea, although there were fans at the Bristol Race Wednesday. Excited already just typing about it.

You need fans, I do not. Something to do with my being both a fan and a participant in those sports? To me, yes! To you?

hckynut 🏒