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.
I really wish rugby (union or league, either one) would get bigger here. I have seen a few international matches on Youtube and have a tremendous amount of respect for the athletes, combining the running of a soccer player with the hitting of an NFL safety. First time I ever saw a Jonah Lomu highlight reel, my jaw hit the keyboard. It made me wonder how good Lomu could have been as an NFL runningback, or how good an NFL power fullback like, say, Earl Campbell could have been playing rugby. Or, even better, Bo Jackson.
}:-)4
There is probably some truth in both of our statements. No one is going to invest in learning all the nuances of a game which doesn't particularly interest him at the outset.
Basketball was invented by a Canadian and to claim its American is rather tenuous
Tenuous? While the game was invented by a Canadian who had moved to the U.S. (and who I believed never returned to Canada and later changed his citizenship), the game was first played in the U.S., it developed in the U.S., it spread from the U.S., and was (and arguably still is) dominated by U.S. players? If not the U.S., what other country would have a claim to the sport?
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.
You're probably right about the F1 glamour being unattainable to NASCAR. NASCAR doesn't have the same exotic race sites nor the same prestigious marques (particularly if Porsche returns to F1). In the U.S., NASCAR is far ahead of F1 and IndyCar in terms of popularity. Each of those racing series is very interesting in its own right.
Sports is a matter of personal taste. Some people think all sports are a silly waste of time and they are probably more correct than we are.