Conference 7.286::sports_90

    Maybe the tape around your ears from playing rugby is cutting off the
    circulation of blood to the brain, therefore disabling rational
    thinking?????
    
    Many, Many, 8^)
    

    � Say three or four years ago, that I'd very rarely miss a Red Sox game
    � that was televised.  I'd never miss a Giants game, and I watched the
    � Whalers all the time.

    Wow, you *are* a true glutton for punishment, 'Saw.   That's a lot of
    pain and agony with the exception of the Jints' 1986 season.  
    
    � This year, I watched hardly *any* baseball.  
    
    Actually, I recall reading in the Globe a few months ago that the Red
    Sox have something like a 6 or 7 year streak going for consecutive
    games televised, be it NESN or one of the networks or one of the local
    Boston independents.  So, you must have seen one helluva lot of
    baseball.
    
    � Since I've been playing rugby, I feel no compulsion to watch
    � football, and in fact, am  starting to find the game somewhat boring,
    � considering all the finite play.  
    
    Coupled with the NFL's intense desire to legislate all the excitement
    right out of the game, that is, no end zone dances, ridiculous
    penalties for excessive crowd noise, uniform consistency, and so on. 
    Small wonder you're fading away ...
    
    � I still enjoy live sports, but tix are so expensive....
    
    No kidding, dude.   Makes you reshuffle your priorities quite a bit,
    don't it ???
    
    Yes, I've felt the same way.  Of course, my three daughters keep me
    moving regardless of what's on the tube.  When the diaper has to be
    changed, you can't just procrastinate until the two-minute warning.
    
    There are a lot of factors here.   Too many meaningless games on the
    tube, artificially hyped excitement, nonchalant millionaire players,
    less time and cash for leisure activities in a tight economy, and more.
    
    You ain't alone.   For myself, I make every attempt to see the really
    special games I most want to see.   They would have had to shoot me
    last Saturday before I would have missed the Clemson-Virginia game.  
    Likewise, for most NCAA basketball tournament games.   I also don't
    like to miss the baseball playoffs and World Series.
    
    I guess as we get older we're forced to pick our spots with a bit more
    attention given to the true relative importance of the game.   A
    mid-July baseball game between the Mariners and the Twins I can live
    without.  No offense to M's and Twins fans. 
    
    But don't tell me I can't watch the Eagles-Redskins game.  Dems
    fightin' words.
    
    Bob Hunt

re the tape:

	Nah, cause electrical tape has a little give to it, so after
	you put it on, you slide your fingers under it at your 
	temples, and stretch it out a tad.  Next thing you know,  you
	don't even feel it.

re Steve and Bob:

	Yeah, you guys make some very valid points.  It seems that
	when I flip through the channels during the evening all that's
	on is baseball.  We got baseball overload from ESPN.

	Plus, the latest thing is that my cable company carries
	WWOR Channel 9 from Jersey, WTXX Channel 20 from Waterbury, CT
	and W-something-or-other Channel 26 from New London, CT.
	On my converter they're channels 9, 11, and 20 respectively.
	Each one carries the Mets.  So on any given evening, each
	channel is carrying the same Mets game!  BORING!!!

	This is the first year I haven't been wicked excited about the
	start of the football season.  Hockey will be cool when it
	starts....


	I can't imagine having kids and being able to afford to go
	to any live sporting events.  Unbelievable!  

	(Bob, you've got to train your daughter to hold it until
	the two minute warning...8^))


Read for the weekend....
'SAw

    re: nonchalant millionaire players
    
    That, to me, is the biggest factor as to why pro sports is losing/has
    lost it's excitement for me.  As adults, we can pick this up.  Kids
    can't.  That's why you see kids drooling over the very same players
    that tend to bore us silly, and why kids can sit through game after
    game after game.......
    
    Hawk

    What th'ell, 'tis FRI-DAY...
    
    Saw, the only difference is... youse gettin' OLD....    Unfortunately,
    I know 'cuz I suffer from the same problem.  Somehow, other priorities
    have taken over from veggin'infronttadatube keeping my Sox on.  
    
    When I think back to my childhood, I could never understand why Dad
    would be mowing the lawn during a Saturday afternoon Sox game... I
    mean, I'd watch every pitch, and tell him the score every inning, and I
    knew he liked the game (at least during a pennant race), but here would
    be a big game, and he didn't even watch it!  OK, you have to mow the
    lawn, but couldn't he do that LATER??  (At least he didn't ask me to
    help - not after I screwed up enough to be relieved of that job - a
    lesson my wife swears I learned better than eny other :-).
    
    But even worse, after the lawn was done, he'd come in, grab an ice tea
    (wow, not a beer - and he was legal!), watch an inning, and, before you 
    know it, he'd be off tinkering away somewhere on some project!  I could
    never understand it.
    
    I now know that, because I now understand it, I, too, am getting old...
    
    Damn, I was almost in a good mood before you reminded me how old I
    feel, Saw - thanks a lot!
    
    The ever-quicker-aging, ML
    

    
    NFL is b-o-o-o-o-ring.  Half the stars hold out, start Week 3.  Most
    teams could just as easily finish last as first.  Cheapest ticket $25,
    end zone; can't see.  Fight with drunk likely.
    
    Baseball at the park's the thing.  Centerfield bleachers.  Afternoon 
    game.  No guilt factor due to excessive ticket price.  Game could last 
    two hours, or maybe even four.  Relax and enjoy.  Recuperate.
    
    glenn
    

Old.....

I guess old is relative.

We've got this other new guy on the squad, from Albany, where he
played rugby for three year with the Knickerbockers, I believe.
Anyway, he's young, compared to me.

Well, he found out last night that I'll be 32 in two weeks and a day,
and he's looking at me going "Wow, you're 32?  Man, you're 32?"
And I'm waiting for him to say "that's old", which he didn't.

(Actually, there are a lot of players on the team my age or older)

So, after a while he comes up to me and says "I hope I've got what
it takes to take up a new sport when I'm your age".  I almost busted
a gut laughing.

Yeah, there are times when I feel old, but not all the time.
It's a corny line, but you are as young as you feel....


You're only old when you've fallen and you can't get up to answer
the door for the mailman...

'Saw

    Also, with each passing year the sport seasons are getting longer.
    With very few nice weather weekends left in New England, you aren't
    gonna catch me sitting inside the house watching the tube during the
    day.  So, on the weekends when my wife works, I grab the kids and head
    out to a favorite fishing spot, with radio in hand (only because the
    Red Sox are still in a pennant race).
    
    The Broooons will be on soon, but those games are at night, when I'm
    usually in the house anyway.  Can't ever get too much hockey!
    
    					Steve

    
    It's not the age so much as the degree of cynicism towards some
    sports.  When "old" folks talk about the glory days of sports, they're
    not talking about calander years, but of the time when they believed
    in the purity of the game and the men who played it.  The game and
    its players may not have been pure, but they perceived it to be
    so.
    
    I enjoyed all sports by first learning them as a kid, and participated
    because, doggone it, it was just plain fun.  Wow, can you imagine
    that players did this for a living?  Like, they don't work, just
    play?  We actually believed that professional athletes were not
    only gifted, but that they actually played for the pure enjoyment
    of the game.  We know know the reality:  Sports is a business that
    (successfully) tries to seperate me from my dollars, and the players
    are highly paid employees who don't care about me, just the green
    stuff that I provide for them.
                                  
    'Off-weeks' in the NFL to stretch revenue, endless NHL and NBA playoffs
    to milk the market, two weeks of superbowl hype, NESN, cable rights,
    pay-per-view, Monday night football, Sunday night football, Thursday
    night football....gimme a break.  Yeah, it's the increasing cynicism
    towards sports that changes the way we view them.
    
    Dickster
    

    
    	9 month sport-- NASCAR.
    
    B.A.

   Things that have changed:

   No Heavywight Boxing viewing.

   Will watch baseball, but channel hop... couple innings here, couple
   there.... easily bored. (Apologies to T [we've had this discussion
   before] but if there is no hitting in a couple innings I'm gone.
   Whereas T is willing to watch thousands of hours of no hitters because
   of the tension and excitement.... or something).

   When I start watching pro hoops, it's usually about a quarter and I'm
   gone unless it is some kind of fantastic game. Oftentimes, I plan to
   turn it on when I judge there's about ten minutes left in the game.

   Although I don't mind partying most of a night, if it's a game I'm
   watching, and I know it's going to run until 10:00 or 11:00 pm, more
   often than not I bag it, and read something.

   I used to live and die football. I'd scream my guts out at the tube and
   if my team lost, I'd be totally bummed out Monday, and maybe a few
   other days. Now I'm more philisophical about it: If they win... great.
   If they lose... tough.

   I never really used to follow much College sports, except for New Years
   Day. Now I like College Football and Basketball better than the pros.
   Would NOT miss the NCAA tourney. More energy, enthusiam, emotion. Fun
   stuff.

   Occasionally will even watch golf, whereas at one time I could not
   understand why anyone would even PLAY golf, let alone watch it.

   Find myself once in awhile watching nutty stuff (probably because it
   never used to be on): monster trucks, women's pro beach volleyball,
   tennis, G.L.O.W., moto-cross, dog sled races, track and field, etc.

   Mike JN

    Baseball is the one sport that has seem me watch less and less of
    it.  Overexposure hasn't helped - but to tell the truth, the first
    baseball strike and the split season in 81 forever changed me as
    a sports fan.  It was then I went from a baseball first to a baseball
    last fan.   I find it the least demanding, physically, of the sports,
    and the most boring to wathc - though I do watch big games, liek
    the Mets/Pirates clashes on ESPN, and I'll watch the Sox when I
    can, and the Playoffs and World Series.
    
    I live for football season, but don't watch as much college ball
    as I used to, cuz there are just too many damn games on.  I'll watch
    big ones like Miami/nd, ND/USC, Michigan/Ohio St, Army/Navy, but
    not a lot of others.
    
    For the pros I live to watch the Giants - I was known to drive from
    Boston to Hartford or further on Sundays to watch games not televised
    in the Boston Area.  I'm currently trying to find a place to catch
    them in the Seattle are.  However, I find myselft watching less
    'other' pro games.
    
    Hoops is now my second favorite, both college and pros.  I'll watch
    whatever I can.   Hockey, I'll watch Hockey Night in Canada when
    I can.
    
    I'll go to a game if I can, scalped ticket s to 3 Seahawks games
    last year (Broncos, Browns, Chargers), had season tickets to the
    SOnics, and can go to any Mariner game I feel like.   I just won't
    sit inside on a nice day anymore and watch.
    
    Compared to the old days, I don't watch as many games as I used
    to.
    
    JD

    It used to be that when I sat down to watch teh Steelers play, there
    was noone or thing that was breaking me away from the front of the
    tube(rather than the call of nature during commercials) until the final
    gun had sounded.  My wife shared this same enthusiasm for football and
    Sunday afternoon was taboo for going to anybodies house that wouldn't
    ahve the game on.  When our daughter was born 7 years ago we used to
    scare the crap out of her when we'd both be screaming at the top of our
    lungs at a great play or a lousy play for that matter.
    
    Well these days, with three kids running around the house, ages 7,
    4-1/2, and 14 months, there is very little time to watch the game,
    although I still catch 90% of each game, and if you do get to watch the
    game, there are thousands of interuptions such as, "Daddy, Robbie is
    trying to put the dog's tail in the electric socket again" or "Daddy, 
    Puala swallowed the golf ball she was playing with and is starting to
    turn blue" that require immediate attention. My 14 month old son is
    going to be a Steeler fan, I just know it.  He can be screaming his
    head off while he's walking around the house, but, let him see a
    football game on the tube and he will stand there staring at the TV for
    5 or 10 minutes, smiling, just watching the game, until a commercial
    breaks the trance.  So, maybe there is hope for the future.
    
    On an up note, My daughter, Paula, who will be 7 in October can't get
    enuf of going to the Pirate baseball games.  She doesn't fully
    understand the game but she won't let me touch the binoculars once we
    get in the Stadium cause she's always looking for the Pirate Parrot, or
    "cute" ballplayers and eating hot dogs or popcorn or nachos.  Every now
    and then she asks me who's winning and then goes back to the bino's.  
    
    
    JaKe
    

    Hmmmmm, I'm an exception here.  I'm watching *more* sports now than I
    did a few years ago, although with less attention :-).  Those of you
    with small kids - just wait 'til they start competing themselves, and
    your sports time is *their* games.
    
    A few things have changed.  Seasons run too long.  For my money,
    baseball should start in May, and the regular season should be over on
    Labor Day Weekend.  Playoffs done by the end of September.  Football
    season should complete all playoffs between Christmas and New Year's,
    with the college bowl games (and fewer of them) the last ones played. 
    Hockey and basketball need to have playoffs complete by the end of
    April, and probably shouldn't start until December.
    
    I attend very little pro sports live.  It's too expensive (baseball
    bleacher seats being the exception), and the odds of being accosted by
    obnoxious fans (mostly drunk) too high.  Plus the venues rarely seem
    'safe' for a single woman :-(.  
    
    Finally, it feels like there is over-exposure of the games,
    particularly baseball this year.  This has been a particular problem
    for ESPN - they are losing beaucoup bucks on the package, and have had
    to provide free time to advertisers because they haven't had the
    promised audience numbers.  The Sunday night football package is doing
    the same thing for me - it means there is a minimum of 4 games
    broadcast on Sunday, 6 games each week possible, and it's more than I
    care to watch.  So I look for the one that promises to be the most
    interesting, either because of long-standing rivalry between the teams
    or influence on the play-offs.
    
    And I watch lots of 'alternative' sports, when I can get 'em.
    
    A&W

    
    >    obnoxious fans (mostly drunk) too high.  Plus the venues rarely seem
    >    'safe' for a single woman :-(.  
    
    
    Aw.....does this mean you won't be going to Tigermania any more?
    We weren't *that* bad, were we? ;^)
    
    Dickster
    

    Some really good replies: Noting at its best. I have very little  to
    add but here's my version anyway:
    
    I was a true sportaholic. As a teenaagerI would
    never miss a game in any of the four major sports. I'd stay up late
    listening to the west coast games. My teams were the Mets,Jets,Rangers
    and Knicks. I spent countless hours watching sports. I often wonder
    what I could have accomplished if that time had been allocated
    differently. I subscribed to SI,TSN and Sport Magazine,read 2 or 3 
    newspapers a day,got all kinds of magazines like Street and Smiths.
    If ESPN had been around then,I may never have made it thru high school.
    
    Then a major change occurred,I can't remember exactly when,but all of a 
    sudden,my attitude became,"I will never let an athletic event control
    my life". And they haven't for about the last 8 years. I still enjoy
    pro and college sports.I open the sports section first,I try to keep
    up with things,but what I have to do is far more important than any
    game on the tube. 
    
    Amazingly it took a long time for me to realize that whether or not I
    watched a game it would still take place with the same result. Once 
    I realized I could see the highlights of a game on the news,I was
    freed. What I hate most about sports is the manipulation of the viewer,
    the stretching out of the end of the game to always run over their
    time allottment. It's a catch-22. The commercialization has allowed us
    to see more and more games,but made them less important and enjoyable.
    
    
    
    
    
    

    Dickster -
    
    Naah, I'll still be at Tigermania!  Day games at Fenway with a group of
    folks I know seem ok.
    
    But I won't be at the Garden without an escort!  (And for my first
    Sports ball game, I asked for and got someone to join up with me so I
    wasn't walking into a bar alone for meeting everyone else.)
    
    A&W

    I can't recall where I heard or read this but someone once said they
    watched hockey games on television by videotaping them and playing them
    back at "Fast Forward" speed.
    
    And then only stopping the tape when he saw all the sticks go up the
    air.   Which, of course, happens after a goal is scored.
    
    Bob Hunt

    I was a Pats season ticket holder for nine years, and was absolutely
    rabid about them. Never missed a game.  Then, about five years ago, I
    stopped caring for them.  It was just before their super bowl year, and
    I didn't care.  I still don't.
    
    The Red sox were my baseball team in the 70's.  I loved them, never
    missed a game on TV, and got to Fenway whenever I could.  After Carlton
    Fisk was "accidentally" let go, and Lynn and Burleson were traded, I
    stopped caring about them. Still don't care, but will admit to
    watching the 86 world series(auugh!)
    
    Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Hodge, Cashman, Sanderson - I was a rabid
    Broons fan, until the WHL and Harry Sinden destroyed the team(trading
    Orr to Chicago was the last straw). I've never watched them again.
    My only real passion in sports has always been Notre Dame Football and 
    The Boston Celtics.  They still remain, after 25 years, the only sports
    I still get ga-ga over.  I think life is a series of loss experiences,
    and I think I've had my share of losses in following sports. tjk