Simple query this time: what are your favorite sports? Are there versions or levels of the sport you enjoy more (or less)?
For instance, I like baseball. I like Major League Baseball, like watching it on TV, though I hate the fact that the National League has 16 teams and the American League has 14, for reasons Scott discussed here. But I really enjoy attending Minor League Baseball. College baseball’s interesting, but they still use those aluminum bats, which I find to be sacrilege at that age level. If the Little League World Series happens to be on, I’ll watch it.
I like football. I like the NFL, and particularly how the divisions are even. The league has found a way to distribute money more equitably so that there is more parity than in the college game. While I like the college game, I hate how it’s become a quasi-professional league, which in turn has caused several teams’ victories to be voided. Alabama and Ohio State (disgraced coach Jim Tressel, pictured), and several other teams have had their wins vacated in the past couple of seasons, with the expectations of it continuing in the future.
College basketball can also be subject to fraud. But the March Madness scheme, allowing teams from “weak” conferences to compete with the “major” conferences, unlike in football, makes the season more exciting. Meanwhile, it seems that half of the NBA gets into the playoffs anyway, making the regular season almost meaningless.
What are your sports favorites and dislikes?
Football at any level, but I most enjoy watching the English Premier League.
Cricket has more variations: five day international matches, four day county matches, 50 over games, 40 over games and Twenty20 competitions. My preference is for the longer version of the game, although I’ll watch any!
Incidentally, football is known as soccer in the US and although this is derided as an affectation peculiar to America, soccer is, in fact, more correct.
It comes from socca (1889), socker (1899) and finally soccer (1895). The word is slang abbreviation of Football Association to differentiate it from rugby football.
I love listening to baseball on the radio, other sports you need television, but baseball is so simple and so primal that the radio is more exciting, I like it better when I can visualize the games for myself!
Tennis as a participant – rounders too.
I seldom ever watch any sport (don’t have a tv anyway). I enjoy cycling and walking.
I, too, love Major League Baseball. But attending a minor league game in person is more special. It has a more homey type feel, and you get a better sense of what it’s like being a pro ball player.
As you said, I don’t like what has happened with college football, but I still prefer it over the NFL. And someday hope for a playoff system in division 1-A.
Then there is hockey. I love going to the games AND watching them on TV. Yes, nearly half the league qualifies for the playoffs, but the races for those spots have been exciting.