What's Wrong with your other favorite Sport?

[JustRalph]

Just wondering if anybody else feels like I do.

I have just about given up on Sports in General. I follow baseball, but my heart is not in it at all. Not like it used to be.

I was a huge basketball fan in the days of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.
I couldn't tell you but a few teams that made last years playoffs.

Never been a huge NFL fan but follow a few players.

I was a huge Nascar fan at one time. Attended at least one race a year. Sometimes 2 or 3 races. Then came the Hendrick years. They are just about ready to crown the same team champion for the 5th year in a row........there are only ten teams on the track (out of 43) that have a chance to win. five of them are only half as good as the other five.

Toss in the prices of these events etc and I am slowly moving away.

Horse racing has just about lost me.............. where the hell do you go from here?

[cj's dad]

To the one on one sports ralph such as golf, tennis, bowling Etc.... except boxing which is a nightmare !!

No guaranteed contracts, es solamente mano y mano.

You don't play well, you don't get paid well.

[cj]

I still follow them, but nothing like I did when younger. I knew practically every player on every team in the NFL and MLB, and many in the NBA. I think as you get older, you realize it just isn't that important any more. Entertainment at times but not worth losing sleep over.

[ElKabong]

JR, take a closer look at present day baseball. Baseball today reminds me more of the late 60s. Pitching is dominant now, not the Roided up beer leaguers. Better still, pitching alone won't do it. You gotta have defense to back it up. The fact arbitration is factoring in defense more than ever (per the guys on mlb tv) says a lot.

I didn't watch a mlb game all the way thru from 1995-2006....shitty baseball w/ the exception of the yanks champs, and the 2001 mariners....as geo will said, it was get a guy or 2 on base and let godzilla send one into tokyo bay....that ain't baseball but that's the way it was for a dozen yrs

College football has been the constant for me.....when i was a kid, they were heroes...when i was of that age, there were fmr teamates and friends to follow....older, my allegiance kept me interested..now later on, it's the whole spectacle. Bands, 3 generations of fans sitting together, etc...It's the best

College baseball has always been big for me, even when i was in jr high school...we'd go to austin, 200 miles, to watch james street pitch,,,now his son is the closer for the rockies

Can't stand the nfl, nhl, nba....nor the minor sports

As long as baseball is played the way it is, and done so by many teams, not just one or two, it's awesome.....give it a shot, the Reds have a future

[skate]

Man oh man, Justly...ya just went and shocked the poopoo out from meme.


Many times i felt like posting your post, but i often figure.. welp, why spoil someones fun. that someone was OFTEN little old Justly... so i gots to laugh


I was a big time sports fan, Nhl, Nba, Ncaa (includes track) and Nfl, like to bet em all, not so now.

I'm not sure if " i've seen it all before type thing", or the attitude such as "class envy", not so much for the players BUT the FANS, too much Kissin goin on out there.

we've all played ball, hit a homer, got a hole in one, sank a free throw etc.

[Marshall Bennett]

The only sport that really has my interest anymore is college football . I'll watch the world series because the Rangers are in . Like you Ralph , I used to be a huge Nascar fan , now I hate it , never watch . Never have I seen a sport where they change rules on nearly a weekly basis . Anything to sucker a fan base . I watch a llittle of several sports and none of a lot more . It's all about the bucks which ironically has ruined most .

[Steve 'StatMan']

I lost interest in Ten Pin Bowling - I gave it up after 24 years of leagues and tournaments at the age of 32 when 'serious bowling' while working a very demaning regular job became too much work. I also gave up all my other hobbies back then - 19 years ago - to focus on getting truly good at the one I thought I could do the best at - handicapping the TB races.

I experienced the first series of Scoring Inflation during my time at Ten Pins, the lane conditions and initial developments in ball surfaces/composition, in the days before the reactive resin ball. Now I've seen that the modern bowling balls themselves have gotten so high-tech and created with built in advantages with the weight blocks inside the balls that now, besides offsetting the holes drilled into them, can be designed and drilled to pretty much make ones bowling ball do all sorts of things that it used to take real talent to do, such as late hooks and less deflection in the pocket to carry the 5 pin, etc. Pro Bowlers along with the amatuers use these balls, but at least the pros have certain restrictions in the lane conditions that keeps some of the challenge, and the need for talent, in the game. Hard not to regularly see high scores in leagues that now make the Pros results on harder conditions look plain average. So to me, to go back to the game is rather futile with most people with average talent being able to bowl nearly as good as the bowlers with very good skills but without an endless series of $200+ custom balls - and no value at trying to be a Pro at it for me at the age of 51.

I fell in love with Candlepin Bowling while visiting my brother and his family over 20 years ago - but the sport is only offered in New England, and the Maritime Provinces - and I live in Chicago, IL. But this past spring I specifically treated myself to a trip just before last Easter to visit my brother's family in New Hampshire, and devote a week to learning Candlepin Bowling. I'd hoped to get myself ready enough for an Easter Sunday scratch tournament marathon, but soon learned that i was hopelessly out of shape due to inactivity and weight, and any bowling skills I had, let alone talent for candlepin, was long gone, so I just watched this past Easter.

Since returning home, over the last 6 months, I've now lost at least 55 more pounds, have myself in at least bowling shape again, learned many things from the cp bowling experience that I didn't realize about the game (lanes are NOT oiled, making hook shots very difficult if not worthless to roll, among other things). I had bought Candleping balls before, and have now made substitute for practicing this summer & fall on a local artificial-turf soccer field near my new home, have rolled enough practice balls to make the equivilent of a half-league season, getting my straight ball down & hitting my target 'pin' much move often - not great but much better. I'm now gaining the subsitute for the league experience I can't get in Chicago, and looking forward to 6 months from Today, Easter Sunday (April 24th, 2011), and this time following thorugh on my chance to bowl with and against many of the best Candlepin bowlers, many whom I've watched on youtube, meet a few more of them (we're all aged 15-20 years! since their local TV telecasts), and see how I fare in a "Open" tournament with and against them. I don't expect to win of course (would love to of course), but just want to enjoy the experience and do my best in what I consider 'Real Bowling' again, in what to me is the purest form of it. (That and regular Duck Pins, no rubber bands, no setting strings.)

[JustRalph]

Steve, Good luck! I hope you have a great time

Congrats on the weight loss too......... very impressive

[Robert Goren]

My other favorite sport is Pheasant Hunting. What is wrong with it? Too damn much walking for an old man.

[Canarsie]

The reason for the decline in watching sports especially with the older crowd is the abundance of games on the air. While we were growing up the Saturday game of the week for baseball was special. NBA finals were even on tape delay. Now there's something on 24/7 you just have to pick and choose.

Just look at MNF and it going to cable. When it started the ratings were through the roof. Even boxing was on in prime time every Friday night when I was growing up used to watch it with my dad in black and white.

Times change and so do viewing patterns.

[JustRalph]

Originally Posted by Robert Goren

My other favorite sport is Pheasant Hunting. What is wrong with it? Too damn much walking for an old man.

I too enjoyed that in my younger days........ but the pheasants became rare and so did my get up and go

[johnhannibalsmith]

I'm the same way Ralph... I used to watch hockey or baseball just about every night of the week... now, I'm hard pressed to turn away from a History channel show documenting how an envelope is made to watch a game of any kind.

Baseball lost me in the mid-90's and my pee-wee hockey games had more intensity and toughness than 64% of all NHL regular season games now.

[pandy]

I agree with CJ, watching sports was much more exciting when I was a teenager, or even in my twenties. Now I enjoy the games a lot more if I have a bet down. I'll watch the World Series, though, but the NFL has replaced MLB as my main sport outside of horse racing.

[Robert Goren]

Originally Posted by JustRalph

I too enjoyed that in my younger days........ but the pheasants became rare and so did my get up and go

Actually I have not done it years. I have the same problem as you. My get up and go these day is limited to the bathroom.

[dav4463]

I'm a sports junkie. I watch everything I have time to watch. I listen to sports radio every day. Without sports, my days would be really boring!