Cluing into this conversation a bit late it appears. Yeah, I’m a sports fan, though far less of one than I was ten years ago. I simply don’t have the time to keep up on stuff like I used to. My teenaged sons keep me in the loop on most things though.
Cubs - first and last and everything in between. The other sports simply fill up the time between baseball seasons. When I say that I’m a baseball fan, I mean that I can often name the top prospects in other teams minor league systems and have a pretty good idea of how they are performing. (Jeremy, do you think that Huria will ever be able to field well enough to make the big leagues? …although this is the Brewers we are talking about. They haven’t exactly been wowing people with their focus on defensive prowess.) Of all the sports that I played, I really only miss playing baseball.
I’m a passive TN Titans and Nashville Predators fan since I grew up in Nashville…when I pay attention to football or hockey (which is usually only during the playoffs or when my boys tell me I should watch this game with them.)
And Arsenal when I want to watch the beautiful game.
The big question is his arm. His fielding ability is rated at major league average, but his arm is below average. At this point, because he’s only had one full season in the minors, it seems more hype at this point. He’s young, only 22, I’d assume he’ll play in AAA for most the season and then be a Sept. call-up. At least that’s the way Stearns seems to be indicating.
Baseball is my passion. I’ve loved the Reds since 1975. (Too bad the Reds glory years were wasted on a 5 and 6 year old.) I wasted my youth not only playing the game, but playing Strat-o-matic, collecting ballcards, and reading Bill James twenty years before Michael Lewis wrote about Moneyball.
I’m also a big fan of Buckeye football which has given me far more bang for rooting buck than rooting for the Reds or Bengals.
As to the Bengals, I joke that I wouldn’t be the Sabbatarian I am today, if it weren’t for the Bengals futility over the last 25 years.
Basketball - nah, don’t care for it. Ones and done like Greg Oden did me in.
The Badgers (at home) were the bane of Buckeye football for much of the Bruce/Cooper era. Of course for Cooper, he couldn’t beat Michigan home or away.
I’m with you here. I love the game of football. There’s so much to it. Physical strength, dexterity, speed. Practice and play. Strategy and preparation. The mental game between coaches and players during the actual game. And of course dumb luck plays a role that you have to account for. Nothing else approximates war in such a way - and I’m open to correction but its just an incredible game.
But the trappings… I love football but hate the trappings. The goof-ball NFL network. All the talking heads. The goofy little stat tables that “float” over the field during the game. NBC sunday night football is the worst. That song the country music lady sings. Its embarrassing. It makes me embarrassed to watch football.
Anyway, Go Chiefs. As Chiefs fans like to say, if God isn’t a Chiefs fan, why do we all bleed red? Next year is our year.
Ah, cricket. Did you see Australia’s test against Sri Lanka? Decisive victory. Nice to see after Australia got soundly beaten by India in the previous test.
As for the Big Bash (name of the Australian T20 league), the Brisbane Heat women won their league, but the men’s team is still near the bottom. Crazy, considering the talent they’ve got.
Only recently started watching due to my son’s near obsession with the game. Awesome.
One of the earliest mentions of baseball in print was by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey. This is pretty much the extent of my knowledge of such things.
Excited? I had to ask in light of your Indiana-NBA speech on the Bookening. What do you Hoosiers think of this guy?
As a Kentuckian (who DESPISES kitty-cat basketball) I always held Coach Knight in low regard. Seemed like a “bad dude” to me. But I’ve known Hoosiers who just love the guy and we had an interim pastor who was from Indiana (back in the 90s) who claimed Knight was a “strong Christian.” Just curious.
Bob Knight was one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time, period, end of story. Anyone who says different is an idiot. He had serious character defects that led him to where he is today. A Hoosier’s relationship to him is complicated. Some people are over him. Some think they are and today will show them different. I don’t know anybody that still straight up adores him. We’ll be watching.
Jake first. He’s Authority on all things Hoosier basketball.
Knight was a great coach. Would have loved to have my sons coached by him, bullying and foul-mouthed as he was. His techniques were authority and submission and discipline. Each is now extinct. My wife and I have always disagreed about Knight, but it’s stayed a lovers’ quarrel.
The sad fact is that it will not be Knight at the game today. He’s deep into his dotage and will barely know where he is and what it means. The real Knight would never have done this and that shows his sins, not his strengths. Really, he was a lot like President Trump, as I think about it. Much that is repulsive, much that is very helpful.
I’ll never forget the day Knight was fired. I was in a daze, and drove around campus for a couple of hours, ending up at Tim & Mary Lee’s home. Still miss seeing him in the hall and was surprised when I heard his entrance announced at last weekend’s game. (I was a few newspapers behind in my reading.) I had a lump in my throat. He was a great coach and has not been equaled since.
