Your sports Friday open thread

by liberal japonicus

The Guardian observes, in a piece about Cheryl Cole concert in Afghanistan, has this:

The X Factor is becoming almost like America's NFL, whose relationship with the military has become so weirdly symbiotic that flypasts before each game come as standard, the league's flagship show has been broadcast from a military base, and forces recruiters set up shop outside stadiums.

Don't know if that is true, but still, they seem to have a much better fix on America's heartbeat than MLB. I think that one reason I left the US was to get away from sports, not because I didn't like it, but because I liked it too much. But now, I can have NFL and MLB games streamed to my computer, so stepping away from it was probably a good thing.

I'd also note that I saw some highlights of the US Open semifinals and finals, and at the end of 5 sets, they looked like they were playing ping pong, the ball was going so fast. As a kid, you imagine yourself doing something like the pros, no matter how impossible it would be. But when I watched those 20+ shot rallies, corner to corner with full ground strokes, that whole idea suddenly seemed to vanish. 

Lots of non US sports as well. Champions League matches, Women's world cup qualifiers, track and field in Daegu (I loved the way Bolt didn't blame anyone but himself on the false start. Real class). cricket, England's rugby team involved in dwarf throwing.

Even when it's not about sports, it's about sports. The NBA lockout may have have the league scattered to the four corners of the globe. Since there are only 450 players on the NBA roster at any given time, this piece predicts that over 10% are going to be playing overseas.

And there was the Russian hockey team, Locomotiv, that died in a plane crash, which gave another interesting look into the internationalization of sports and sports tragedy. (1/4th of the passengers were foreign citizens)

So here's a thread to talk about any of that stuff or anything else that takes your fancy.

 

Comments

[russell]

From the Guardian article:

One can't help feeling that those were rather more seemly times.

I hear that.

Now get offa the lawn!

[hairshirthedonist]

I love sports, but I don't like the culture that often surrounds them, something that may have to do with being a Philadelphia fan, though I know it's not unique to Philadelphia. I just tend to think Philly's among the worst cities in the US for what this sort of thing is a very extreme example of:

Three Philadelphia men are facing murder charges over the attack in a parking lot near Citizens Bank Park.

The defendants had gone to the game on a trip sponsored by a city tavern. The feud between the groups allegedly started over a spilled beer.

[Ugh]

By coincidence, I just put up post at TiO on amateurism in U.S. college sports, based on this Atlantic article.

Feel free to discuss here or there (or both!)..

[wj]

It must be in that time. The Economist just started a new blog on sports:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gametheory

[Anarch]

I'm going to watch the Wisconsin Badgers play the Northern Illinois Huskies at Soldier Field in Chicago (the home field of the Bears, for those who don't know), so I'm hardly one to complain about an excess of sports :)

Adding to the fun, our former defensive coordinator is now their head coach, so even if/when we curb-stomp them, should be a good time for all. Except maybe the curb-stomped, I suppose.

[byomtov]

ugh,

I read your post at Tio and agree totally.

(I couldn't comment there because it won't let me set up an account. I keep getting an error message with the informative content: "A")

[Ugh]

Bernard - thanks, and sorry you couldn't comment. Not the most friendly interface over there and I swore off promising to fix anything computery-related in my first post. That said, if I happen to stumble across what happened I'll try to clean it up.

[liberal japonicus]

Morning Bernard
I'll try to figure out what's wrong tonite or tomorrow. If you could drop me a line at libjpn at gmail, I'd appreciate it.