Separating from Spectator Sports . . . Has the Time Finally Come?

[prisonchaplain]

A bunch of over-exercised players running around in shorts chasing balls while a bunch of under-exercised spectators forgo retirement so they can watch? I don't get it.

[NeuroTypical]

Amen brother.  With one exception.

 

[The Folk Prophet]

5 hours ago, prisonchaplain said:

A bunch of over-exercised players running around in shorts chasing balls while a bunch of under-exercised spectators forgo retirement so they can watch? I don't get it.

Preach brother!

[prisonchaplain]

14 minutes ago, The Folk Prophet said:

Preach brother!

Oh. 😁 Absolutely!  "We stand above a the flaming pit of hell, hanging by a thin thread, and it is only the mercy of God that keeps us from falling in this very moment* . . . "

* Full disclosure: I shamelessly stole that from Rev. Jonathan Edwards, but hey, since he proclaimed this over 400 years ago, I figure that the statute of limitations is up, and this is public domain.

[Traveler]

On 7/13/2019 at 12:31 PM, prisonchaplain said:

A bunch of over-exercised players running around in shorts chasing balls while a bunch of under-exercised spectators forgo retirement so they can watch? I don't get it.

If this is true - Why aren't women's sports more popular than men's?  

 

The Traveler

[anatess2]

19 minutes ago, Traveler said:

If this is true - Why aren't women's sports more popular than men's?  

 

The Traveler

They are... in sports where they look like women.  E.g. - Figure Skating, Gymnastics, etc.  But in sports where they look like men - Basketball, Soccer... they don't look as good. 

 

[prisonchaplain]

1 hour ago, Traveler said:

If this is true - Why aren't women's sports more popular than men's?  

 

The Traveler

It is a wonderment.

[Guest Scott]

On 7/13/2019 at 12:31 PM, prisonchaplain said:

A bunch of over-exercised players running around in shorts chasing balls while a bunch of under-exercised spectators forgo retirement so they can watch? I don't get it.

I agree and have for a long time.

I have only been to two pro-sports events and have never watched any on TV (not even once).   

Once when I was a cubscout I went to a Gull's game (does anyone remember the  Salt Lake City Gulls?) with the cubscouts.   The other time was when I went to a Jazz game went I played in the Jr. Jazz.

I actually like sports, but I never got the idea of watching someone else play rather than play yourself.    

I don't get why people who only watch call themselves sports fans, unless sitting on your butt and watching something really is a sport.   

 

 

Edited July 15, 2019 by Scott

[Guest MormonGator]

I don't get why people dislike sports, but I think some of it is based in snobbery. "Oh, look at those dirty sports fans. Ug, how blue collar!" I also think some of it, maybe even subconsciously, is based in envy or ego. "These people are enjoying themselves? How dare they!" or "Since I don't understand why sports are fun, there must be something wrong with those who do, because surely I can't be the one who is mistaken!" 

It's obvious I'm a huge sports fan, in particular baseball, college football and basketball. I have zero athletic ability (I topped out in little league) but I hiked a huge amount when I lived up north, run every day since I have lived down south, and take Tae Kwan Do. So I guess I participate in them too. 

 

Edited July 15, 2019 by MormonGator

[Serviteur du seigneur]

I feel you.people where i live are just crazy for soccer, sometimes they even fight among themselves because of teams and all that thing.

[The Folk Prophet]

1 hour ago, MormonGator said:

I don't get why people dislike sports, but I think some of it is based in snobbery. "Oh, look at those dirty sports fans. Ug, how blue collar!" I also think some of it, maybe even subconsciously, is based in envy or ego. "These people are enjoying themselves? How dare they!" or "Since I don't understand why sports are fun, there must be something wrong with those who do, because surely I can't be the one who is mistaken!" 

I don't get why people like sports, but I think some of it is based in snobbery. "Oh, look at those uppity non-sports fans. Ug, how white collar!" I also think some of it, maybe even subconsciously, is based in envy or ego. "These people are not enjoying themselves? How dare they!" or "Since I understand why sports are fun, there must be something wrong with those who don't, because surely I can't be the one who is mistaken!"

[Guest Scott]

2 hours ago, MormonGator said:

I don't get why people dislike sports, but I think some of it is based in snobbery. "Oh, look at those dirty sports fans. Ug, how blue collar!" I also think some of it, maybe even subconsciously, is based in envy or ego. "These people are enjoying themselves? How dare they!" or "Since I don't understand why sports are fun, there must be something wrong with those who do, because surely I can't be the one who is mistaken!" 

It's obvious I'm a huge sports fan, in particular baseball, college football and basketball. I have zero athletic ability (I topped out in little league) but I hiked a huge amount when I lived up north, run every day since I have lived down south, and take Tae Kwan Do. So I guess I participate in them too. 

Personally, I like sports; I just don't like watching somebody else play them (unless it's my own kids of course).

I like steak too, but I'm not going to pay to watch someone else eat one, especially if they are getting paid a dumptruck of money to do so.

Bring back Church Ball and the neighborhood hoop games!  😉   Bring back the sandlots.   

More playing; less watching!  

It doesn't matter how athletically inclined one is either; let's just play!  🙂

Of course my opinion isn't reality, so watch on.  

 

 

Edited July 15, 2019 by Scott

[Guest MormonGator]

2 minutes ago, Scott said:

Personally, I like sports; I just don't like watching somebody else play them (unless it's my own kids of course).

I like steak too, but I'm not going to pay to watch someone else eat one, especially if they are getting paid a dumptruck of money to do so.

Bring back Church Ball and the neighborhood hoop games!  😉   Bring back the sandlots.   

More playing; less watching!  

It doesn't matter how athletically inclined one is either; let's just play!  🙂

Of course my opinion isn't reality, so watch on.  

 

 

Oh I understand totally my friend, just adding my own thoughts. 

 

[prisonchaplain]

2 hours ago, MormonGator said:

I don't get why people dislike sports, but I think some of it is based in snobbery. "Oh, look at those dirty sports fans. Ug, how blue collar!" I also think some of it, maybe even subconsciously, is based in envy or ego. "These people are enjoying themselves? How dare they!" or "Since I don't understand why sports are fun, there must be something wrong with those who do, because surely I can't be the one who is mistaken!" 

That hurts. Especially since Nascar fans are my political base.

[Guest MormonGator]

Just now, prisonchaplain said:

That hurts. Especially since Nascar fans are my political base.

Pat them on the head, tell them how much you appreciate them, then stab them in the back and make fun of their trailers on the way out of the voting booth! 

[prisonchaplain]

1 hour ago, Serviteur du seigneur said:

I feel you.people where i live are just crazy for soccer, sometimes they even fight among themselves because of teams and all that thing.

Now THIS I understand. My high school sport teams were mostly awful--even the debate team (yeah, I was the captain). HOWEVER, we always won the fights afterward ...

Edited July 15, 2019 by prisonchaplain

[prisonchaplain]

1 minute ago, MormonGator said:

Pat them on the head, tell them how much you appreciate them, then stab them in the back and make fun of their trailers on the way out of the voting booth! 

You broke a cardinal rule MG. What happens in secret, smoke-filled backrooms stays in secret, smoke-filled backrooms.

[hzdbl5]

I love sports.  Both to play and to watch.  I love college basketball and volleyball and have season tickets to both for a local Div I school a couple of miles from my home.  My wife and I enjoy our game nights together.  We, along with our adult son, play golf and tennis.  Both are sports one can play throughout their life.  Tennis, at least, is good exercise; golf usually puts you in nice, outdoor settings and we enjoy spending time together.  We spent our 25^th wedding anniversary in New York City being tourists by day and watching US Open tennis in person by night.  It was one of our favorite trips.  We even ran into Elder and Sister Perry a couple of times at our hotel.  Whenever we travel in the summer we scope out if there is a major or minor league baseball team in town and will take in a game just to enjoy a nice evening.

Our son plays pickup basketball each week at the church following YM/YW.  He has developed a number of close friendships from those weekly games.

I will travel a day’s journey in any direction to attend a football game for my alma mater.  I live two time zones away so it’s a pleasure to be able to see them play in person on occasion.  These end up being fun, family weekends.

As a spectator, I enjoy watching people who are better at something than I am and I appreciate the effort it has taken them to be as good as they are.

What I don’t understand is how people can get so worked up over their team, rivals or rival fans to the point where Dodgers / Giants games result in loss of life; where on-line commenters seem to shelve all civility in berating the players or fans of another team, etc.  I mean, seriously, it’s just a game.

[Guest MormonGator]

Just now, prisonchaplain said:

You broke a cardinal rule MG. What happens in secret, smoke-filled backrooms stays in secret, smoke-filled backrooms.

The only thing you have in common with elite, Manhattan liberals? You both look down on dirty sports fans! Next thing you know'll be pro choice and pro gay marriage! (just playing @prisonchaplain) 

What's cool about this is many of us trashy sports fans make a lot more money than you think. After all, season tickets to sporting events ain't cheap. 

[Guest MormonGator]

1 minute ago, hzdbl5 said:

What I don’t understand is how people can get so worked up over their team, rivals or rival fans to the point where Dodgers / Giants games result in loss of life; where on-line commenters seem to shelve all civility in berating the players or fans of another team, etc.  I mean, seriously, it’s just a game.

That bothers me too, and I'm a college football fan living in the glorious south, where college sports is a religion. 

[prisonchaplain]

I think everyone realizes...yeah...everyone must realize...well, I think, hope, gotta believe everyone knows...this string, it's just a silly parody of the one on entertainment. We know this, yes????

[Guest MormonGator]

39 minutes ago, prisonchaplain said:

I think everyone realizes...yeah...everyone must realize...well, I think, hope, gotta believe everyone knows...this string, it's just a silly parody of the one on entertainment. We know this, yes????

I had that feeling, but you can never tell. After all, first Disney movies. Than movies in general. Than any form of entertainment at all. So it wouldn't be out of place to think that someone stomps their feet and whines about sports being immoral. Next week it'll be music. Week after that it'll be video games. Week after that going to the beach. Week after that Elizabethan drama. Week after that kite flying...

Edited July 15, 2019 by MormonGator

[prisonchaplain]

36 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

I had that feeling, but you can never tell. After all, first Disney movies. Than movies in general. Than any form of entertainment at all. So it wouldn't be out of place to think that someone stomps their feet and whines about sports being immoral. Next week it'll be music. Week after that it'll be video games. Week after that going to the beach. Week after that Elizabethan drama. Week after that kite flying...

This does sound sadly like some segments of fundamentalist Christianity in the 1950s (and perhaps going back). On the other hand, I some times wonder if radical feminists want to head in that direction . . . (how was that for an awesome segue)?

[Just_A_Guy]

I used to sort of like sports, but the baseball strike of the early 90s killed the magic of baseball for me; and the 49ers’ collapse and BYU’s emotionally abusive football team of the early 2000s (juuuust enough good games early on to make everyone think this might be Our Year, and then the roof fell in every. single. time) killed that sport too.  

(Growing up in northern California we never really had a basketball team worth rooting for in the first place.)

Nowadays, in court I spend a good deal of time stressing out about what might happen if The Wrong Guys Win; and I just can’t see myself doing even more of that on a recreational basis.  Same reason I rarely watch movies or TV (except for light comedies)—I get all the drama I can handle in the workplace.  

(And, @MormonGator, that even includes Disney movies—I was actually in a theater watching a stage play of “The Little Mermaid” last week, and found the plot so insufferable I nearly walked out (my five-year-old daughter’s excited giggling and clapping and jumping up and down was the only redeeming feature.  That, and the fact that Ursula was being played by a dude.)

Edited July 15, 2019 by Just_A_Guy

[Backroads]

 I like the idea of sports. I like the concept of baseball. I'm glad sports exist.

Can't stand to watch them.