"Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks..."
Looks like the boys of summer are pulling the plug at month's end...
<a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/news/2002/08/16/strike_date_ap/"; target="_blank">http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/news/2002/08/16/strike_date_ap/</a>;
Pardon my French, but: fück 'em.
I would give my left lung if, come next spring on opening day, NOBODY showed up at any ballpark.
And for all subsequent games. I'd LOVE to see just how things would play out if everyone (I mean EVERYONE) could somehow find it in their hearts to simply go "ehhh...so?" all next summer, when it comes to baseball.
No attendance, no TV viewing, etc.
I wish people could truly commit to that and stick to it, just to see how things would turn out.
<a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/news/2002/08/16/strike_date_ap/"; target="_blank">http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/news/2002/08/16/strike_date_ap/</a>;
Pardon my French, but: fück 'em.
I would give my left lung if, come next spring on opening day, NOBODY showed up at any ballpark.
And for all subsequent games. I'd LOVE to see just how things would play out if everyone (I mean EVERYONE) could somehow find it in their hearts to simply go "ehhh...so?" all next summer, when it comes to baseball.
No attendance, no TV viewing, etc.
I wish people could truly commit to that and stick to it, just to see how things would turn out.
Comments
like baseball wasn't hurting enough.
you have a sport that just started to recover with the home run race between McGwire and Sosa, (now perhaps tainted by the allegations of steriod use).
it's just starting to get it's feet under it again and what are you going to do? STRIKE!!!
woo hoo, that'll show 'em. nothing makes people want to come out and watch over paid sports players like listening to them and/or the owners complain they aren't making enough money.
i still find it hard to believe that people can be so stupid as to complain about how much they make when those peopel who support them make a tenth of their income.
[ 08-16-2002: Message edited by: alcimedes ]</p>
Greed, Drugs, Vanity, etc.
Go on strike I was not going to go to a game anyway.
See a bunch of folks compare anatomy in the locker room and who can OD on the most performance enhancing drugs.
Forget that..
Life has much more meaningful and deeper subjects to consider.
Fellowship
I was thinking that too: baseball was JUST starting to get over the 1994 bad vibes (well, maybe a little) and now this!
What are these clowns THINKING? It's amazing to me. Amazing, but sad.
I don't feel sorry for any of these guys, players OR owners. They're all shitheads. Let them go work at Target or a light bulb factory or for UPS. I don't care.
I hope the teams bring up the minor league players.
What sucks is that everytime there's a strike, you always think "whew...okay, now they got THAT ironed out...things should be cool for a good long while...".
Nope.
And if this one drags out, cancels the World Series, delays opening day next year, causes MORE damage to the sport and its reputation (which it will), etc., who's to say that 2-3 years down the road it won't all happen AGAIN?
I just saw a call-in show in CNN a while ago and all the in-studio panelists and every phone call and e-mail they took felt the way I do. NOBODY is buying into this or supports this or sees it the way the players/owners do.
People were LIVID!
The MLB can go off the face of the earth for all I care.
Same here. I moved on to a better sport years ago.
Timing couldn't have been better.
I went from a "watch the Braves EVERY SINGLE NIGHT" kinda guy to my current status of "watch an inning or two if nothing else is on...".
I'm not a true, diehard fan. And I'd like to see everyone else model themselves after me and not be one either.
Live it, love it.
I HATE football. Pop Warner all the way up to the NFL (and all points in between).
No, I got my sport and I enjoy it more than I EVER did baseball: it goes for almost 10 months out of the year, the participants don't get caught up in wife-beating/killing, drug arrests, coach-choking, fan-spitting, etc. (okay, Tony Stewart might shove the occasional photographer...), it's more exciting/death defying than any football/baseball game could ever hope to be, TV coverage is great, the participants are actually somewhat like REAL people, they don't go on strike, etc.
Yes folks, I'm talking about NASCAR Winston Cup racing.
Every Sunday, I'm planted there for 3-4 hours. Best stuff going, IMO.
Vroom-vroom!
I'd rather watch a good ol' boy with grace and manners (and a refreshing dose of humor and humility) drive a car really fast than some overpaid, gold-bedecked hothead strike out at the plate, throw his bat or get pulled over with cocaine in his pocket.
[ 08-16-2002: Message edited by: pscates ]</p>
Eh... well... I'm gonna back away slowly
Real polite when they're jacking each other in the eye for passing too close.
[ 08-16-2002: Message edited by: groverat ]</p>
Pity about baseball. When most still listened to games instead of watching them, the players, the game itself, just seemed more romantic. Maybe that's just some hollywood movie nostalgia working, but it ain't the same no mo'. Football too, when you think of it, can never approach the romance of early days (when college was the only game in town.)
In those eras, to hear people speak of it, it seems the games themselves had more meaning. Now it's mostly just the centerpiece of a lurid side-show.
It would be better if these sports just died, I can think of better crap with which to pollute prime time.
Since when are American football fans violent?
[ 08-16-2002: Message edited by: groverat ]</p>
<strong>Nascar, eh?
Eh... well... I'm gonna back away slowly
Real polite when they're jacking each other in the eye for passing too close.
[ 08-16-2002: Message edited by: groverat ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
That doesn't go on that much (NASCAR, from what I understand - kinda new to it...only my second year - is very aware of its growing popularity and is doing all it can to rid itself of any sort of "brawling rednecks" image).
In the two years I've watched, I've seen only a handful of altercations, and none of them got far enough along for a punch (simply two guys "exchanging words" while in each other's face a bit...maybe a shove or a shirt grab).
Kevin Harvick got into trouble earlier this year for getting into a scuffle, and last year there was an ongoing brief "feud" between Ricky Rudd and Rusty Wallace that culminated in a post-race "discussion" where they cussed at each other in the garage and Rudd went to grab Wallace's shirt and they were IMMEDIATELY separated and moved on their separate ways by crew members, NASCAR officials, etc.
I'm sure it used to go on, back in the more "rough around the edges" era of the sport (I've seen the footage/photos and have heard the stories). And I'm quite sure it goes on in local dirt track races on Saturday nights (I watch enough "RealTV" and "You Gotta See This!" to know that!)
But, specifically, in NASCAR Winston Cup, it's policed pretty tightly and drivers routinely get admonished for "less than sportsmanlike" behavior/antics.
Just two weeks ago (after blowing a possible victory in Indianapolis) Tony Stewart (driver of the #20 Home Depot Pontiac) shoved - and apparently tried to kick - a photographer for the local paper. Stewart got in trouble last year (put on probation and fined) and has a notoriously bad temper.
Anyway, this incident two weeks ago got him fined (just for SHOVING) $10,000 and put on probation until the end of the year (November).
That's what everyone expected. What everyone DIDN'T expect was Home Depot going "oh yeah? Well, guess what? WE'RE fining you $50,000 and putting you on probation until season's end also!".
:eek:
Apparently, this was unheard of and Stewart came THIS CLOSE to be fired and replaced.
He agreed to under anger management therapy.
Ten years ago, other drivers would've probably HELPED Stewart shove/kick the photographer. Now, that stuff isn't seen as "helpful to the image" and is come down on quite hard.
I honestly feel as though I can get into this particular sport and root for several guys and NOT have to worry about waking up and reading about how "so-and-so pushed his pregnant girlfriend down some stairs..." or was "...busted by Daytona police while snorting cocaine off a hooker's ass cheek".
It's a pretty "safe" bet and one I don't feel bad for getting into and cheering on.
Besides, put it into perspective: if you're driving 188mph and a fellow driver does something stupid - on purpose, especially - to wreck or endanger you, you'd probably get a bit hot under the collar too after the race.
There is no "cool-down" period after races. No half-time, no breaks (unless you count slugging down a gulp of water or Gatorade for 15 seconds while pitting for tires/gas). The cars get into the mid-100 degree range.
And this all goes on - nonstop - for THREE HOURS.
I can forgive an occasional shove or name-calling under those circumstances.
10 times more forgiveable than spitting in an umpire's face or choking your own coach.
Snorting coke off a hooker's ass cheek, that's what Washington DC mayors do, not athletes.
I think the most corrupt athletes in pro sports are baseball players without a doubt. Basketball and football players fall a very very distant second and third. Ken Caminitti was caught smoking crack. Literally... crack. Crack rock.
At least there are drug tests in the NFL.
<strong>The average American football fan?
Since when are American football fans violent?
[ 08-16-2002: Message edited by: groverat ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
I don't think he meant violent, as in "tearing the joint up and lighting everything on fire..." like they do in Europe.
Probably just meaning the level of drunk, obnoxious behavior exhibited by some (SOME, not all) football fans in the stands.
Wasn't it football fans who threw those snowballs/chunks of ice onto the field and few years ago and beaned that guy on the sidelines?
You get enough people together who MIGHT be a bit obnoxious/boisterous to BEGIN with, load them up on beer and adrenaline for an entire afternoon, usually something freaky is going to happen.
No family is going to want to be around them. And no laid-back, normal fan (the kind that doesn't take his shirt off in 17-degree weather and paint a team logo on his belly) wants to be in the middle of all that either.
A buddy of mine goes to Chargers games several times a year and she ALWAYS has a story on Monday about a fight, about security having to toss someone out, scuffles in the stands, stuff getting thrown, guys cursing REALLY bad during the entire game, drinking unbelievable amounts of beer and only getting worse, etc.
Football is a hard, physical sport. It attracts some people who are like that, and brings it out in them.
You don't think there's a possible HUGE difference between the fans at Soldier Field on a Sunday and those in the stands at Wimbledon?
<strong>If NASCAR pushes the rednecks away they'll lose 95% of their audience!
Snorting coke off a hooker's ass cheek, that's what Washington DC mayors do, not athletes.
I think the most corrupt athletes in pro sports are baseball players without a doubt. Basketball and football players fall a very very distant second and third. Ken Caminitti was caught smoking crack. Literally... crack. Crack rock.
At least there are drug tests in the NFL.</strong><hr></blockquote>
They got it down to 84%, so they're working on it!
And yes, I believe baseball players are quite advanced in their penchant for debauchery and bad behavior. Don't know why that is, but it always seems the worst stories come from baseball, don't they?
Certainly football and basketball have their share (and then some), but it always seems like it's always someone in baseball who routinely ups the ante and raises the bar for dickheaded off-field behavior.
I have some theories:
1. It's a travelling sport, involving lots of different cities and lots of hotel usage. They're away from home A LOT. I know everytime I find myself in a Motel 6, I feel like having sex. Now imagine if I was a studly, filthly rich professional athlete, in town for a couple of days and young, dumb and...
2. It's in summer. EVERYBODY'S up to no good in the summer. People just want to drink, ****, party, etc. It's summertime!
3. The ratio of handsome, well-built guys in higher in baseball than football (not counting Randy Johnson)
4. There is no testing in baseball. Easier to get away with stuff, like you said.
5. Baseball has that image (wrong as it may be) of being "America's golden game" and all that bullcrap (go back and read my thread I started about the All-Star game this year and how hollow/empty all that tearjerk horsecrap they tried to pull during the pre-show just fell flat). People probably don't want to look too close at baseball, or suspect bad things. It's easier to point at tattooed, cornrowed black guys in the NBA and point out THEIR shortcomings!
Sad, but true.
Anyway, those "theories" are only half in jest...
Yeah, makes A LOT of sense: show your happiness by destroying the property of others.
Idiots.
Just go have a couple of beers and high-five each other like normal people, for crying out loud...
Alcohol + anything = bad news.
There are few things I find more irritating than the American self-denial about alcohol, but that's an issue for FC.
But head down to New Orleans and what happens when the fans disagree with the call? A rain of beer bottles and other debris, aimed right at the refs and opposing team...
It happened again in another city. I forget which.
NASCAR...oh NASCAR. I've seen every popular driver in NASCAR get into a fistfight at some point. I've seen Waltrip, Wallace, Gordon, Earnhardt, Harvick, Stewart, Jarrett, Petty, Irvan, etc. all get wound up on track and off track. Rear-ending cars in front of you and sending them into the wall, and other intentional incidents on track and off.
You do that in open-wheel and you kill somebody.