Interesting enough, at lunch today, I walked through the student union building of the university where I work. Both big-screen TVs had the Royals-Tigers baseball game on rather than World Cup Soccer matches. I've always maintained that anyone who claims baseball is boring has not taken the time to learn the game. I've have always been amazed at how many foreign students become fans of American sports - MLB, NFL and CFB, and NBA.
Gridiron?. Not bad, but way too long.
Then you'd have to feel the same way about soccer.
Hockey?. Great game, but not American.
True. However, the highest level of the game is played in the NHL which is headquartered in the U.S. and where 3/4 of the franchises exist.
Basketball?...not bad, but not American either.
What? You might want to brush up on sports history a bit.
NASCAR?. Sorry, its Monte Carlo, Le Mans, and F1 glamour and cars for me. Redneck F1 just don’t cut it.
Given the elitism in these statements, I'm not surprised that you're a soccer fan too. I enjoy F1 but NASCAR races are generally more interesting. The F1 guys who have tried racing stock cars have discovered that these hillbillies are talented racers.
When people tell me they cannot watch soccer because it’s boring, I tell them to learn by watching baseball. And I’m a baseball fan, so maybe it prepared me for soccer.
1—I understand baseball, just as I understand cricket. I still don’t like either. And I find both overlong to the nth degree, dull, boring and lacking excitement. I don’t deny individual plays and players are exciting, but its far too long and tedious. Baseball and NFL are way too long. You can get three rugby matches and two soccer matches in the time it takes to play one baseball or NFL game.
I’ve equally always maintained that anyone who claims soccer is boring has also not taken the time to learn the game.
I have watched MLB both as a TV viewer and as an actual spectator (once) and sorry, I am/was bored and much prefer the NFL/CFL, or basketball.
BTW, in the 80s here in the UK, gridiron became a near-phenomenon, yet when CH4 tv channel tried to capitalise on that by showing MLB, it flopped and for nearly 30 yrs it didn’t appear again on our screens. Even the NFL audience here wasn’t interested. CH4’s showing of Aussie Rules at the same time was a huge hit.
2-—A soccer game is 90 mins. A rugby game is 80. Long isn’t one of their faults.
3—No, I know my sports history thanks. James Naismith was Canadian. Scots-Canadian to be exact. He had been living in the US for a very short time, nor would he be a US citizen for decades.
Basketball was invented by a Canadian and to claim its American is rather tenuous, just as Bell was the Scottish born and bred inventor of the telephone, not an American.
4—Jokey and sarcastic rather than elitist. After all, big Dario is a hero in Scotland as well as the US. Again, I am not denying NASCAR isn’t great stuff, but frankly it will never have the glamour of F1: the cars, the history, the racetracks and locations. The one US race that does enthrall us is the Indy 500, that is a race par excellence.
James Naismith was a Canuck.