What Sports Are We Fans Of?

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timelord

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 30, 2017
955
1,982
Gallifrey
The Isle of Man TT is insane! I've seen footage on YouTube of the bikes racing through the streets and it looks incredible.

I watched a documentary on former Superbikes Champion Carl Fogarty a while back and it showed him riding in the TT in the early 1990's.

Dangerous as well. I just looked it up and 260 riders have been killed since 1907. A really amazing event that the health & safety brigade seem to have left alone.

It must have been brilliant to watch it in person Jay. Here's a 1min video of someone's dad getting their first taste.

When I was a teenager the one my dads younger colleagues road in the TT and the North West 200 in Ireland (plus a few other similar events and various track races); but he would never ride a bike on the public roads (except for those races) - he considered it far too dangerous and always drove a car!
 

timelord

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 30, 2017
955
1,982
Gallifrey
Participating in Sports:

School

At school (in England) we did a range of sports on Wednesday afternoons (soccer, rugby union, cricket, hockey, basketball, athletics and swimming) so I did all of those. I actually played Rugby (generally as Number 8 - i.e. the safe place at the back of the scrum or occasionally as a second row forward - once as a prop but it nearly broke my back) and hockey for the school in various competitions. I couldn't play football (soccer) for toffee and have never really watched it other than the World Cup.

After School

After school I took up rowing (4s and 8s) as the company I worked for - a large insurance company - had fantastic sports facilities in West London (sadly all sold off in the 1990s). I also did a lot of cycle touring (never racing) and have cycled all through the UK and Europe (over the Pyrenees twice and the Alps four times), down the coast from San Francisco to LA, around New England (in the fall - breathtaking); and around Cuba. I also alpine skied for many years.

Watching sports; well pretty much the same really:

F1 (as kids we used to go to Silverstone as it was close to where we lived for a few years); various ralley events and Le Mans.

Rugby. At club level I support London Irish, the NSW Waratahs and Manly Marlins (at various times I've had season tickets for all teams concurrently).

At international level: Ireland, Australia (when they're not playing Ireland) and Japan (when they're not playing Ireland or Australia). (As a good Irishman I of course support whoever is playing against England - especially the French - and as a good Aussie I'll support whoever is playing NZ (except England...). (My wife who is Brazilian always supports England...).

Cycling. Tour de France but if any road cycling is on I'll watch it (and six day events too).

Athletics. Olympics and the Diamond League.

Rowing. I love watching it - though not as much as taking part - but I'll admit it's not really a spectator sport.

Beach Volleyball (it was a major sport in Manly NSW when I lived there).

Surfing (which lets be honest is even less of a spectator sport than rowing but it's always a good excuse to be on a beach doing nothing much for a few days).

As for cricket; oddly I like watching village/pub teams play but not really interested in the professional game (except of course for the time I was in Bangalore when Ireland beat England in a World Cup game - great night in the hotel bar (unless you were English of course).
 

LOREN

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 21, 2019
624
1,064
66
Illinois -> Florida
Really closely followed the NFL during high school. Reading scores in the papers or on the internet quickly became more than enough for me, I don't know why. I don't understand why people get SO wrapped up in sports. Someone once told me that the word sports "fan" comes from the word sports "fanatic." I don't know if that's true. I know players wouldn't be paid a bazillion dollars if the franchise wasn't making two bazillion or more dollars, and the franchise wouldn't make two bazillion dollars if people weren't pouring their money into it. I don't think the huge sports industry creates social values, I think that the industry growing so large and dominant is just a reflection of social values.
 

curl

Part of the Furniture Now
Apr 29, 2014
722
463
Baseball is the best sport.
The business of baseball sucks, but the game itself is the best.
Men of all sizes can play it.
The strategy is complex and the skills are various and difficult.
There’s no clock and the team that’s ahead can’t just sit on its lead, they have to give the other team all of its out.
 
Dec 6, 2019
5,176
23,783
Dixieland
I forgot to mention that I also used to watch women's tennis back in the 1990's. Only when Anna Kournikova was playing though. Can't think why.... ?

View attachment 37545
View attachment 37546

Haha My dad and I drove 2 hours to watch her play.. I was probably 12.

+1 on the volleyball... I'll add the women's long jump.

My teams are the Auburn Tigers (football), and the Atlanta Braves (baseball).
 
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Moonbog

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 22, 2020
121
312
57
MLB Baseball
NFL--American Football
NBA Basketball, College Basketball
Boxing
Tennis
Olympics
Horse Racing
World Cup Soccer
 

mikethompson

Comissar of Christmas
Jun 26, 2016
11,873
25,836
Near Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I can't wait for the NHL to start (again)

2147397.jpg
 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
10,054
16,128
IMO, sports have been mostly ruined (like almost everything else) by being politicized and used as social engineering tools.

And this has been going on for a long time, but it has increased dramatically in recent years, and is reaching new heights of absurdity by the day now it seems.
 

mawnansmiff

Lifer
Oct 14, 2015
7,817
8,620
Sunny Cornwall, UK.
"I get it when the kids wear tops with with their favourite player on but not adults."

It's rather like those who wear tracksuit bottoms with white stripes running up the legs, these are usually worn by two types of people over here, those who want everyone to know (think?) they go to the gym and those involved in some form of criminal activity. The latter can often be spotted by their preponderance to saying at the end of every sentence "janartamean" or "innit".

As for the cost of those named & numbered sport shirts, well one could fit out an entire kid's wardrobe for the price of a Liverpool or Manchester football shirt.....incredible greed on the part of the teams who are basically being paid for free advertisement.

Regards,

Jay.?
 
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ChickenT00th

Starting to Get Obsessed
Apr 30, 2020
112
400
If you're new to F1 and are enjoying it then you definitely need to check out some videos of the 1980's when it was really good.
Here's a documentary about the 1989 season when Prost & Senna went up against each other. 2 of the greatest drivers of all time in the same team. They really didn't like each other.
I still love watching F1 today but it isn't in the same league as the 1980's

This is great! Thanks so much, I love Senna & Prost.
 
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