Strangely my husband has a "business meeting" this evening. 100% sure it involves a wide screen tv in a sports bar. I don't know why they bother playing. You could predict the finalists before it even starts.
More like hockey, then. Shinty doesn't have that rule at all - players can play the ball in the air, and raise their sticks as high as they want to do so, but there is apparently a rule against swinging them around 'recklessly' (the whole game looks pretty 'reckless' to me, though!).
Is sports an opiate for the masses, a distraction from the grim realities of our maligned existence? Discuss.
I'd say without a doubt it is. Sports is an escape to most. I have a friend back in Connecticut, he's a conservative, big into guns(Revolutionary era) who is not a sports fan & he's always saying that as long as the govt. keeps the "bread & circus" going, they(the govt.) can get away with most anything. I don't know if that is totally true, but I think there is certainly some truth in it.
Well, since Nadal has exited, Murray doesn't have an excuse for at least not making the Finals. As usual, Wozniacki crashed & burned.
For the most part, yes. Football, Basketball, Soccer, Hockey, etc certainly are. But Baseball is not, because of its monumental beauty. To call baseball a "distraction" would be wrong because it showcases some of mankind's most excellent achievements in the same way celebrated fine arts and other cultural milestones do. I could stop there, as that argument would be sufficient, but just for any skeptics, I should also point out that while baseball's history is not squeaky clean, the organized sport was well ahead of society at large on major issues of justice. Jackie Robinson's major league debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 was monumental in shaping many Americans' opinions on racial equality 17 years before the Civil Rights Act was passed. Food for thought.
To a large extent yes, but the same could be said for any part of the entertainment industry, and that's what professional sport is - entertainment, with an added possible element of 'pride' in something (or sometimes even 'tribalism', which isn't always a good thing, even though some people enjoy it).
Yes... "give them the internet and Sky Sports and they won't notice we're ripping them off". Still, it's somewhat more enjoyable than what happened here over recent years when the culture changed to 24/7 shift working for both male and female and no one has energy or time to notice or challenge anything ever that's going on in the world. The English media put a ridiculous amount of pressure on Murray. He can't concentrate with all the nonsense that goes on around him when he's at Wimbledon. They want to get off his back. Edit] By the way, did you notice Nadal at the end of that match? Not a gracious loser, is he. The poor guy played the match of his life and was on cloud 9, but Nadal who has had plenty of glory and enjoys his moment in the spotlight, didn't exactly let the guy have his moment.
Sports as a part of our culture is different from traditional entertainment. Anything below the high school level (and including HS for most sports except Football and Basketball) serves little to no entertainment purpose. It exists for community and the development of character in young people. Even pro sports has a distinction from other forms of entertainment, which is why the NFL discourages excessive celebration and MLB throws players and managers out for arguing with the umpire, both of which are entertaining for the fans.
I'm sure the English media does put a lot of unnecessary pressure on Murray - that's what they do. Your right, I thought Nadal was a bit snooty...I think he was upset with the officials. He is normally quite gracious, so I'm willing to cut him some slack.
That is very gracious of you, but it wasn't gracious of him as an ambassador for the sport who carries some responsibility. Andy Murray has been criticised for being huffy when he loses, but he was young. Nadal I have never liked. I suspect him of drugs cheating, but I have no hard evidence on it at the moment other than my instinct and his strange behaviour. I see the Murray match is going on into the night. It's dark in London, although it's still daylight here London has its lights on and looks very pretty. They are putting the roof over and lights on to try to let them finish the match. Murray could have sustained injury when he went over on his ankle earlier though. It looked really bad. I have done exactly that playing basketball and it goes numb, then swells up like a balloon and you can be three months with tubigrip and such until it comes anywhere near right. He looks like he has the game though [Edit...or maybe not, now I'm really watching it] if he can finish it tonight and not wait until tomorrow when it might swell up and be a problem.
Hopefully, Murray isn't hurt. I thought it quite interesting that they(Wimbledon officials) let the match continue past the 11:00 deadline. I'm quite sure there will be much to say about the decision...English favoritism & such...But just as a fan watching, I was more than OK with the decision. I like Murray, he seems like a good kid & am cheering for him to win a Wimby one of these years. Hopefully this will be the year. Djokovic is his biggest obstacle, in my view. Although I wouldn't discount Tsonga or Federer, if he gets by Djokovic.
That's true, of course - with 'entertainment' I was mainly referring to pro sport, although there is also some 'entertainment' value for kids in playing sport, of course. It is about more than that - character, team work, health and fitness, and so on. It does still have to be 'fun' on some level, though, or they wouldn't be doing it (aside from those with pushy and over-competative parents projecting their own ambitions onto their youngsters, of course!). 'Entertaining' up to a point, but not necessarily good for the long term. If it goes too far, it can put some people off and make the sport a public laughing stock (and it has, at points, gone too far in soccer). It does have to be entertaining, though, and it is still a part of the entertainment industry - part of that is maintaining the rules and integrity of the sport itself, to maintain competetiveness and so on. On top of that, though, are all the added 'attractions' around (and during) the game purely for entertainment value - ultimately, pro sport is a big money entertainment business run by powerful businessmen for profit.
It's certainly inarguable that sports is ultimately a business, but I believe we as consumers for a very long time have demanded that the integrity of the games be preserved, rather than turned into a sideshow for cheap entertainment value. Pro-Wrestling probably "delivers" for its fans on a more consistent basis than football or baseball or hockey or basketball or other real sports, but the fans don't want those sports changed into a pure entertainment venue. A perfect example is that most basketball fans would rather go to a real NBA game than see the Harlem Globetrotters, even though the Globetrotters have loaded their games with as much entertaining stuff as possible. People know there's a strong possibility that the real game they go to might not be as entertaining, but they still want to watch because it's the real sport. As for your example in soccer, I think that shouldn't count because soccer is a game for 3 year olds that somehow people started taking seriously as an actual sport. No clue why.
A bit of common sense was shown there. If he hadn't won the game, they would have stopped it. Tonight though....Eurofinals. Guess who Olly supports...
FYI I am going to start reporting off topic posts if you guys continue talking about soccer in this thread. Make your own thread for that, this one is about sports.
Do your worst Vileconarse. (sorry, that's a bit rude isn't it) Arjay, I was supporting Spain all the way as the result was a 4 gone conclusion.
Not completely sure of this, but I think you're a little late jumping on that bandwagon. I thought the 4th goal was a bit of nose rubbing on Spain's part. Just not necessary, IMO.
Not at all, once England go out there is nothing to choose between them, but Olly's dad is Italian and his incessant flag waving is a bit wearing. I think it's fair enough scoring the last goal. It is a competition to see which team is the best.
When it comes to pro sports, I would normally agree: If you(the team that is getting whipped) don't like it, stop 'em from kicking your rear end. But in this case, the match was nearly over, Italy was down to ten men(because of injury, not a red card) & the fact that Spain is such a great ball control team, Spain could've easily just sat on the ball. Just my opinion.
Spain were taking criticism all through the tournament for their "boring" play. Today was a demonstration to shut their critics up. One more goal today and they would have equalled their entire tally from 2008 when they last won this tournament. They totally outclassed Italy. Defence was rock solid, passing was superb, finishing deadly. They earned the title best team in the world tonight.
