June 21, 2006

• Hockey nicknames are formed in one of two ways: by dropping the last syllable of the player's name, or by adding -er or -ie (sometimes by a combination of the two). Right, how do you explain Maurice "Rocket" Richard then? Don't think he's quite right with this one. I'd still agree with most of the rest, but I'm Canadian, eh. Did you know that the flags were lowered at half-mast at Maurice Richard's death, and that he had a state funeral? Wonder if anything like that was done for a baseball, football or basketball player in the US.
• AFAIC people who play sport shouldn't even get a proper wage, let alone a state funeral.
• Now I remember why I never read the National Pest. I think it's all a matter of conditioning, which sports one has been exposed to, those are going to be the 'greatest', or more accurately, 'my favourite'. For Coyne to say that there isn't action in footie -- he just doesn't know what to look for. And that the action 'stops' in baseball, doesn't mean that there's nothing going on. I suppose there may even be something to cricket, beyond interminable periods of boredom interrupted by spots of tea. But for him to say that the Stanley Cup playoffs are the most gruelling test in sport -- bah. Start with the Tour de France or round-the-world solo sailing races, and move on up to other inhuman competitions.
• I guess Canadians like hockey then? I bet Andrew Coyne is also pretty passonate about curling, followed by dog sled racing and competative igloo building. Ha. I'll be here all week folks.
• I like hockey. When it came to Texas, my mom and I worked to learn all the rules and players, and we had a lot of fun together doing it :) I like hockey because of the mixture of grace and aggression. Of course, I like sports. I'm also wacky for baseball, and will happily sit through a soccer or basketball game. The only one I don't really get is American football.
• although my preference is for other forms of football (rugby, gaelic, aussie rules), i'd have to say that soccer is the greatest sport. why? low barriers to entry (all you need is a ball), playable year-round in some climates, playable on a variety of terrain, relatively injury free, superbly skillful, and strategically complex. it's the world's game.
• Canadian newspaper thinks hockey is the greatest sport in the world shocker! I mean, yeah, personally I think it is the greatest sport in the world, but I'm not going to impose my opinion on everyone else. That's because I am Canadian! It has a great balance between strategy and violence, specific rules and anarchy, fast action and commercial breaks, graceful skating and fighting. Plus it has Don Cherry. What's not to love?
• The "ie" thing is Canadian in general, though frequently seen in hockey, of course; if you get the "ie", you've made it. See, to wit, Doug "Dougie" Gilmour, et al. The Rocket and Boom-Boom, you just don't see nicknames like that anymore, I love 'em, but it's very old-fashioned, I think. (And I'm still in denial over Carolina beating Edmonton. If I don't believe it, it's not true, right?)
• No, livii, it's not true. It was just a horrible, horrible dream. Just like that one you had about the Stanley Cup Champions Tampa Bay Lightning. Only this time, they didn't sell out all the seats.
• Of all team sports, hockey's the one leaves me the coldest. ... attracts the most violent fans in North America.
• Howe the Hull could you say it any Worsley, bees? Is your Coffey consumption on the Wayne, Orr are you driving the Potvin today?
• Hockey fucking sucks. Like a husband and wife grabbing the TV remote from each other and clicking, but she wants to watch figure skating and he wants to watch boxing. Soccer fucking sucks. Specifically because I can't take seriously a sport called "footie" that can end after nearly 2 hours in a 0-0 tie. BTW, figure skating and boxing fucking suck as well. Let the flaming begin.
• I don't give a h00t about hockey, tick, and never have.
• I don't a hoot about *any* sport, bees! Except I sometimes watch F1 racing with a smidgeon of envy that I am not allowed to drive as fast as I want to...
• give, that is
• Enjoy equestrain events, of just about any sort. But find the inane, non-stop comments of many sportscasters insupportable. Folk can see what's happening for themselves, can't they, for pity's sake? So these guys seem redundant most o' the time. Put a cork in 'em.
• Wait, someone named commercial breaks as a PLUS for a sport???
• There was an experiment once in the early 80s . . somewhere . . where they broadcast games without announcers. Sadly, the powers that were decided people *wanted* inane chatter else they lost interest in the game. Hm.
• I remember that petey. I found it frustrating because I could see, but I wanted just a little more information along the lines of "Smith. Pass to Ronaldo. Gets past Ralph." And there's what we usually get. "Smith with a slick pass to Ronaldo. That Smith really does know how to pass. And his wife is a hottie. They met on a commercial shoot doncha know. There's a shot of her now in the stands. Ronaldo the oldtimer, coming up on Ralph, his former teammate with the Arva Blacksmiths back when they were first breaking into the pros; they were great together back then, but nobody gave them a chance of getting into this league, among the creme de la creme of this sport. And he gets behind Ralph!!! Ralph doesn't usually let people past him that easily, it's quite uncharacteristic for this top defender who has won top awards for his defending, and has justifiably placed himself among the top earners in the league in that position...."
• Yeah there's a definite art to sportscasting, but bad sportscasters (with the exeption of . umm . . Okay Bob Costas - hey, he tries, okay? He's better than almost anyone else on that level) seem to dominate the network attempts. Case in point: Tim McCarver. Aargh.
• Bob Costas is evil. I'm pretty sure about this, and it's only mostly because he hates the Texas Rangers as much as I love them. A good commentator can add a lot to the game, but a bad one can take just as much away, I think.
• Think the nadir is reached when, during an event like the [Wood Memorial] or insert name of any other equine competition, the audience is given information about some trainer's wife's companion's hat (!) instead of the horse, the jockey, the condition of the track that day, or the weather, or any of a hundred matters conceivably more pertinent to the actual race.
• Yep, that would be a bad announcer. For those who haven't witnessed teh horror of Tim McCarver, he's a baseball announcer who loudly says things like "There are two outs in the inning, if he can just get this guy it'll be three outs and then the inning is over!" Powerful stuff, to be sure, but . . ugh.
• How many inns in an outing?
• ... an outing? I make it one.
• Sports proves that neanderthals still breed.
• Oh, Lord, Tim McCarver. Please preserve us from his banality and man-crushes. Nothing wrong with a good man-crush. McCarver just talks about nothing else the whole darn game.
• Sports proves that neanderthals still breed. You've said that before, Berek, in another thread. Did a jock steal your lunch money or something? Anyway, each sport has it's advantages and disadvantages. Hockey is probably the most action-packed; Baseball and American Football the most strategic; and Soccer's popularity can be attributed to British colonialism and low financial barriers to play. I like them all (basketball still sucks, IMO).