haha. I have been to one baseball game (Capitals). They did the presidents race and hotdogs were 1 dollar. Had no idea what was going on but had a great evening
correction..went to a baseball game in Tokyo during the 2002 World Cup, also had no idea what was going on butsome Japanese kids kept buying me beer and wouldny accept payment. another great evening
I enjoy the occasion itself. There just comes a point where one has seen every conceivable combination of events on the diamond. We go more for the carnival feel, now!
Went to a NO Saints game when I was in the States. Had a bit more idea about what was going on the field. Had a big bet on the Saints so was giving it large. Next to me was a NY Giants couple who must have been pissed off at my antics. But we had a good chat and drank together. Maybe we can experiment with no segregation this season?
@LX1 said:
haha. I have been to one baseball game (Capitals). They did the presidents race and hotdogs were 1 dollar. Had no idea what was going on but had a great evening
@LX1 said:
What do you mean by we? and carnival? intrigued
My wife and daughter. There is just a lot going on other than the game, with all the sights and smells in the walkways behind the lower level. The last couple of times we have been to a Colorado game we have just kept half an eye on the game (half an eye is very precise, I know) while strolling around the ballpark for a few innings.
Mind you, with the thin air here, the scores are notoriously high. We saw most of a 16-14 last season.
I think I've mentioned before I went to a Yankees game and was surprised to find I quite enjoyed it...although it seemed as if we were the only ones watching the game while everyone else seemed to be in an eating contest with a slightly diverting sporting event taking place somewhere a long way away.
@LX1 said:
What do you mean by we? and carnival? intrigued
My wife and daughter. There is just a lot going on other than the game, with all the sights and smells in the walkways behind the lower level. The last couple of times we have been to a Colorado game we have just kept half an eye on the game (half an eye is very precise, I know) while strolling around the ballpark for a few innings.
Mind you, with the thin air here, the scores are notoriously high. We saw most of a 16-14 last season.
I used to love baseball when I first moved out to the States, but a fundamental problem with the sport is nothing ever new happens. There is a very restricted set of likely outcomes, so you end up never seeing anything new. Basketball has a similar problem for me, in that the scoring area is a hoop, and therefore there is a limit to how many different ways there is to score.
Football is the most varied game, as every single match throws up constant new things - an angle, a pass, a goal that does not quite resemble anything you have ever seen. The NFL and ice hockey are on the better end of this scale too, but for me, nothing comes close to football for seeing something new.
First MLB game i went to when living across the pond was Red Sox v th Yankees at Fenway park. Great atmos and lots and lots of beer, there was even a fight in th bleachers between rival fans....(.made me feel quite homesick!). Most of the game was spent drinking and people watching with occasionally something happening....a bit,like cricket in that sense (cue the howls of abuse...) and I agree with @Shev that it's pretty sameish..........worst of all they stop serving after the 7th inning. Someone said to me this is so you are sober to drive home! Wow.
Prefer my beloved super blues any day......especially when we're in th Championship ???
Yes, I thought that I like to go back for another game, but I could survive on one game a year for the experience. The thought of going every week did not interest me the way I look forward to going to AP even after we've just lost!
@Shev basketball is a dreadful watch for me. Seems to be just waiting for someone to miss. The scarcity of goals in football is what make a goal such a great event. imho
@LX1 - for sure! Also, in basketball there is this peculiarity in that the end of close games are tedious, unless there is just one score in it, and someone throws up a "buzzer beater" at the end. Basically, if the gap is more than a single basket, the trailing team will deliberately foul again and again, to stop the clock each time, and hope that the leading team miss at least one of the free throws. Coupled with commercial breaks, I once timed the last 1:45 of a game as taking 17 actual minutes to end!
Ice hockey is the complete opposite - if it is a close game, the trailing team will take their goalie off in favour of another attacking player, leaving an empty net, and you get a gloriously manic and tense finale, in which the trailing team try to make the extra attacker count, before the leading team can get a successful shot in on the empty net. Marvelous!
I would also say it is all geared more towards children - loud music at every pause, t-shirts being shot into the crowd, food falling from a blimp, quizzes in the breaks. It is really an attempt to overwhelm the senses, over here.
That being said, live ice hockey is superb. I don't know why the sport is so relatively dull (for me) on TV, but live it is fantastic. I have known people who hate sports with a passion, yet fall in love with ice hockey within a few minutes of being taken to a live game.
Totally agreed. I think the U.S. also loses something in how big everything is. It is such a large country that the teams all represent big cities (apart from you, Green Bay!) and as a result, there is no "local feel". In Denver, almost everyone is a Broncos fan, so you are a just a needle in a haystack, and everyone around you in a city of three million supports the same team. Whereas even the massive teams in English football are still local - no-one calls Arsenal, Chelsea or Tottenham "the London team" as they all still only have a portion of the city as their turf, and despite being international juggernauts too, there is still a local feel to their games.
Much more importantly, American sport has nothing on the level of the lower leagues, where you can follow a small club with a few thousand other niche enthusiasts (as it were), and feel connected. I live thousands of miles away and am a much newer fan, yet it would be impossible for me to feel as connected to a Denver sports club than I am at Wycombe. The sheer size works against it. Some people use the minor leagues as an approximation, and they can be fun, but it is still nothing like the passion of a smaller football club. None of these sports have the sense of father's walking through the community to the ground with their sons, who will one day walk their own sons.
College teams being so huge, with their big halls with "bleachers". The draft system.
Away support being either not a thing, or a much smaller thing (do you get any away fans?)
Distances between games being huge.
I suppose if you were brought up in America, most of the sports have a high turn over of scores, making for constant entertainment.
The idea of a 0-0, or a 1-1 must feel so bizarre to them.
How does it work with the franchises? Can teams simply uproot to a totally different part of the country? And the old team's history is uprooted? Or is it more the case that you just get new teams walk into the league with no pedigree - like MK Dons did?
Must agree with you @Shev regarding live ice hockey. Via a couple of recommendations, I have loosely been employed, (on an occasional basis), at the Bracknell Bees & Hornets. I must say, that live it is an exciting sport & the speed is quite remarkable. Didn't think it would really capture me and for sure it will never take the spot of WWFC, but as an alternative, (particularly when I am paid for it & entry is free), I won't mind taking the odd trip to watch.
@Malone you do get away fans, but with it being family oriented, they sit among the home fans, and the most edgy development is usually rival childish chants of "Let's Go (Insert Team Name Here)", though I have seen a couple of fights at Colorado Avalanche games, and some teams are known for having dodgy fans (Los Angeles Dodgers, any Philadelphia Team, Las Vegas Raiders, etc.)
Americans use the low scoring to mock football (though they have come around a lot), but I agree with @LX1 on the scarcity of goals - it makes for greater meaning and catharsis. I have only seen one basketball game live, and you can't really go mental for a basket that makes it 55-52, so it is all these smaller pieces of faux-catharsis.
@EwanHoosaami - glad you have been to some ice hockey! It is an instant addiction, once seen live. Fairly low scoring too, though not as much as football (I think the average overall goals per game in the NHL is just under 6).
Two things for me make most American sport meaningless.
1) No promotion or relegation. Without either of those things, every season is just months of admin to see where everything should sit on a spreadsheet at the end.
2) At any moment, any one of these teams can just F off to another city, change its name and "uniform" and be an entirely different "club". What's the point of ever forming any attachment?
I took two septics to the Chelsea v Wycombe game at the bridge back in the day and they both left at half time to go to the pub, said they were bored and didn't understand what was going on, and I think that's the point. I found baseball boring first as I didn't know what was going on, but I had the rules nd more importantly the strategy/tactics explained and it became a lot clearer what was going on.....still more about,people watching and drinking though and as was said here it's viewed as "a day out" and not for the majority a local passion like footie is here.
My nephew is an ST holder at Nottingham Panthers and I have heard from others that ice-hockey is a fast-moving exciting game in the flesh. Haven't tried it yet. As I say I would probably go to a game of any sport for the experience but have yet to find anything as captivating as yer Association Football.
Have seen the Yankees play many, many times over the years - used to summer there as a kid, staying with my lovely aunt who lived in Manhattan. Though, being a sporting fanatic and Americanophile as kid, I loved it straight away, I have also learned to enjoy the game rather as I like cricket for its gradual evolution and capacity to change pace suddenly.
On my most recent visit to NY, I took in NBA and NHL games on consecutive nights at the same venue in Brooklyn. Enjoyed the basketball well enough but the hockey was immeasurably more entertaining, mostly for the reasons @Shev cites.
Comments
The atmosphere of the empty stadiums was only slightly inferior to a normal baseball game.
haha. I have been to one baseball game (Capitals). They did the presidents race and hotdogs were 1 dollar. Had no idea what was going on but had a great evening
correction..went to a baseball game in Tokyo during the 2002 World Cup, also had no idea what was going on butsome Japanese kids kept buying me beer and wouldny accept payment. another great evening
I enjoy the occasion itself. There just comes a point where one has seen every conceivable combination of events on the diamond. We go more for the carnival feel, now!
What do you mean by we? and carnival? intrigued
Went to a NO Saints game when I was in the States. Had a bit more idea about what was going on the field. Had a big bet on the Saints so was giving it large. Next to me was a NY Giants couple who must have been pissed off at my antics. But we had a good chat and drank together. Maybe we can experiment with no segregation this season?
By "Capitals", do you mean Nationals?
Yes sorry. Haha. Shows my ignorance when it comes to baseball
My wife and daughter. There is just a lot going on other than the game, with all the sights and smells in the walkways behind the lower level. The last couple of times we have been to a Colorado game we have just kept half an eye on the game (half an eye is very precise, I know) while strolling around the ballpark for a few innings.
Mind you, with the thin air here, the scores are notoriously high. We saw most of a 16-14 last season.
I went to a Yankees game once. The on field stuff was dull as ditch-water, but enjoyed the organ music, tall boy beers and giant hot dogs to be fair.
I think I've mentioned before I went to a Yankees game and was surprised to find I quite enjoyed it...although it seemed as if we were the only ones watching the game while everyone else seemed to be in an eating contest with a slightly diverting sporting event taking place somewhere a long way away.
Excellent. Colorado is pretty high
Indeed it is, @LX1!
I used to love baseball when I first moved out to the States, but a fundamental problem with the sport is nothing ever new happens. There is a very restricted set of likely outcomes, so you end up never seeing anything new. Basketball has a similar problem for me, in that the scoring area is a hoop, and therefore there is a limit to how many different ways there is to score.
Football is the most varied game, as every single match throws up constant new things - an angle, a pass, a goal that does not quite resemble anything you have ever seen. The NFL and ice hockey are on the better end of this scale too, but for me, nothing comes close to football for seeing something new.
First MLB game i went to when living across the pond was Red Sox v th Yankees at Fenway park. Great atmos and lots and lots of beer, there was even a fight in th bleachers between rival fans....(.made me feel quite homesick!). Most of the game was spent drinking and people watching with occasionally something happening....a bit,like cricket in that sense (cue the howls of abuse...) and I agree with @Shev that it's pretty sameish..........worst of all they stop serving after the 7th inning. Someone said to me this is so you are sober to drive home! Wow.
Prefer my beloved super blues any day......especially when we're in th Championship ???
Yes, I thought that I like to go back for another game, but I could survive on one game a year for the experience. The thought of going every week did not interest me the way I look forward to going to AP even after we've just lost!
@Shev basketball is a dreadful watch for me. Seems to be just waiting for someone to miss. The scarcity of goals in football is what make a goal such a great event. imho
@LX1 - for sure! Also, in basketball there is this peculiarity in that the end of close games are tedious, unless there is just one score in it, and someone throws up a "buzzer beater" at the end. Basically, if the gap is more than a single basket, the trailing team will deliberately foul again and again, to stop the clock each time, and hope that the leading team miss at least one of the free throws. Coupled with commercial breaks, I once timed the last 1:45 of a game as taking 17 actual minutes to end!
Ice hockey is the complete opposite - if it is a close game, the trailing team will take their goalie off in favour of another attacking player, leaving an empty net, and you get a gloriously manic and tense finale, in which the trailing team try to make the extra attacker count, before the leading team can get a successful shot in on the empty net. Marvelous!
I think it's safe to say that America, in general, doesn't really get sport.
I would also say it is all geared more towards children - loud music at every pause, t-shirts being shot into the crowd, food falling from a blimp, quizzes in the breaks. It is really an attempt to overwhelm the senses, over here.
That being said, live ice hockey is superb. I don't know why the sport is so relatively dull (for me) on TV, but live it is fantastic. I have known people who hate sports with a passion, yet fall in love with ice hockey within a few minutes of being taken to a live game.
American sport is all about entertainment, a lot of it not actually related to the actual contest on the pitch.
Whereas we sign up for a team for life, and glady suffer the massive downs, in the hope for a season like last year to magic along.
Totally agreed. I think the U.S. also loses something in how big everything is. It is such a large country that the teams all represent big cities (apart from you, Green Bay!) and as a result, there is no "local feel". In Denver, almost everyone is a Broncos fan, so you are a just a needle in a haystack, and everyone around you in a city of three million supports the same team. Whereas even the massive teams in English football are still local - no-one calls Arsenal, Chelsea or Tottenham "the London team" as they all still only have a portion of the city as their turf, and despite being international juggernauts too, there is still a local feel to their games.
Much more importantly, American sport has nothing on the level of the lower leagues, where you can follow a small club with a few thousand other niche enthusiasts (as it were), and feel connected. I live thousands of miles away and am a much newer fan, yet it would be impossible for me to feel as connected to a Denver sports club than I am at Wycombe. The sheer size works against it. Some people use the minor leagues as an approximation, and they can be fun, but it is still nothing like the passion of a smaller football club. None of these sports have the sense of father's walking through the community to the ground with their sons, who will one day walk their own sons.
It is quite intriguing how a lot of it works.
College teams being so huge, with their big halls with "bleachers". The draft system.
Away support being either not a thing, or a much smaller thing (do you get any away fans?)
Distances between games being huge.
I suppose if you were brought up in America, most of the sports have a high turn over of scores, making for constant entertainment.
The idea of a 0-0, or a 1-1 must feel so bizarre to them.
How does it work with the franchises? Can teams simply uproot to a totally different part of the country? And the old team's history is uprooted? Or is it more the case that you just get new teams walk into the league with no pedigree - like MK Dons did?
Must agree with you @Shev regarding live ice hockey. Via a couple of recommendations, I have loosely been employed, (on an occasional basis), at the Bracknell Bees & Hornets. I must say, that live it is an exciting sport & the speed is quite remarkable. Didn't think it would really capture me and for sure it will never take the spot of WWFC, but as an alternative, (particularly when I am paid for it & entry is free), I won't mind taking the odd trip to watch.
@Malone you do get away fans, but with it being family oriented, they sit among the home fans, and the most edgy development is usually rival childish chants of "Let's Go (Insert Team Name Here)", though I have seen a couple of fights at Colorado Avalanche games, and some teams are known for having dodgy fans (Los Angeles Dodgers, any Philadelphia Team, Las Vegas Raiders, etc.)
Americans use the low scoring to mock football (though they have come around a lot), but I agree with @LX1 on the scarcity of goals - it makes for greater meaning and catharsis. I have only seen one basketball game live, and you can't really go mental for a basket that makes it 55-52, so it is all these smaller pieces of faux-catharsis.
@EwanHoosaami - glad you have been to some ice hockey! It is an instant addiction, once seen live. Fairly low scoring too, though not as much as football (I think the average overall goals per game in the NHL is just under 6).
College sports is absolutely where it’s at in the US. after 12 years here I barely pay attention to the pro game.
Two things for me make most American sport meaningless.
1) No promotion or relegation. Without either of those things, every season is just months of admin to see where everything should sit on a spreadsheet at the end.
2) At any moment, any one of these teams can just F off to another city, change its name and "uniform" and be an entirely different "club". What's the point of ever forming any attachment?
I took two septics to the Chelsea v Wycombe game at the bridge back in the day and they both left at half time to go to the pub, said they were bored and didn't understand what was going on, and I think that's the point. I found baseball boring first as I didn't know what was going on, but I had the rules nd more importantly the strategy/tactics explained and it became a lot clearer what was going on.....still more about,people watching and drinking though and as was said here it's viewed as "a day out" and not for the majority a local passion like footie is here.
My nephew is an ST holder at Nottingham Panthers and I have heard from others that ice-hockey is a fast-moving exciting game in the flesh. Haven't tried it yet. As I say I would probably go to a game of any sport for the experience but have yet to find anything as captivating as yer Association Football.
Have seen the Yankees play many, many times over the years - used to summer there as a kid, staying with my lovely aunt who lived in Manhattan. Though, being a sporting fanatic and Americanophile as kid, I loved it straight away, I have also learned to enjoy the game rather as I like cricket for its gradual evolution and capacity to change pace suddenly.
On my most recent visit to NY, I took in NBA and NHL games on consecutive nights at the same venue in Brooklyn. Enjoyed the basketball well enough but the hockey was immeasurably more entertaining, mostly for the reasons @Shev cites.