New Scaratings

I very much enjoy watching golf on TV. As an orthopaedic physical therapist I find the mechanics of the golf swing fascinating and love to observe the differences in individual swing characteristics from player to player. The golf swing (and also the act of pitching a baseball) are amazingly complex things of beauty, and I can watch somethign like that over and over again for hours. That, plus the fact that the golf courses are generally beautiful makes a Sunday afternoon watching a golf tournament while reading the previous weeks sports pages for the Monday night sports trivia game a regular in my house. The amount of pressure these guys are under too is fascinating to me. As an individual sport I think its more pressure than say tennis where the action is very fast and reactive. These guys have to concentrate through long periods of down time. I love to see a guy sitting with a clubhouse lead after posting a low number while waiting for 6 or 8 other groups to finish up to see if the score will stand.

Soccer I just cant watch. I have tried to drink the soccer "Kool-Aid" but it just doesnt do it for me. I dont find myself agreeing with Cloudy on too many issues but I do on this one. I know most of the world is crazy bonkers passionate about soccer, and thats great, but personally I find it unwatchable. Tremendous athletes to be sure, but for me a very unwatchable game.

As long as we're at it allow me to say the other unwatchable game for me is the NBA as it is currently being played. Doesnt resemble the game that I grew up with at all, not in any way, shape, or form. I will follow it in the newspaper and watch some ESPN highlights, but to sit down and watch a game anymore? No thank you.....

Thanks for reading my post on this as I have been casually following this thread sinces its debut.

Have you ever seen putt-putt ?

As for me, I think Curling is a thrill-a-minute.


...and as much as it pains me to say this, I'm with BO. Golf is an amazing game. If you have ever played any form of this game* you can appreciate what these players are going through during a particular match. Each shot matters. Whether it is the tension just to make the cut so you have a payday, or you are sweating over a seven foot putt with a wicked downhill break for the title, there is a decided competitive pressure.





* Mea culpa... I have only played about a half dozen rounds of 'ball' golf but I once played Disc Golf for a number of years on the Pro level. The pressure of making a putt for cash is much the same in each. Unfortunately injuries & time caught up with me so I don't participate in tournaments anymore.

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Yeah, curling is pretty bad. Even drinking Scotch and eating haggis, when the game is over, are not enough of a reward for suffering though it.

Golf or bowling...? Bowling is by far the better game, because when you goof up the ball is returned to you. When you goof up at golf, good luck, go find your ball.

Back to golf, I'm going to let a DANTE secret out of the bag. DANTE only tried to play a game of golf once in his life, however, he is a master of the video golf game, "Golden Tee", that you will find in virtually every bar in the United States. He wins money playing it.

Here's a photo of DANTE driving the ball to within 3 inches of the cup on a 300 yard hole.



You don't want to be standing behind DANTE, with a beer in your hand, while he is getting ready to drive the ball on "Golden Tee".

To get us back on the topic of soccer being boring for most Americans. When there is a soccer game on the TV screen in front of him, DANTE asks the bar tender to switch it to the Tiddlywinks Channel.

Watch this, I think you may find it more exciting than soccer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-pdglP7J8Y

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"The game is afoot."

Hmph! Dante's obviously too busy playing FAUTEE to be bothered with keeping riffraff out of the membership rolls around here. At the very least, ICE-man should rescind his handle

Philistines

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/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?

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PENGWN, I'm a little confused... I did figure out what "FAUTEE" meant. The "F" actually was shorhand for the word F%#@. That "AU" was the chemical symbol for gold. "TEE" was pretty obvious. However, why should our good friend, ICEMAN, have to rescind his handle...?

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"The game is afoot."

Call Football as boring as you want. However, Spain and France are playing, and you know where I will be.

Glued to the television, cheering on the team of my mother's homeland. And wearing the country's colors.

Ala España

Dagobah???

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YODA, I'm with you. I kind of feel about France the same way I do about the Yankees. Any team that's playing against them is my favorite team. Heck, I will root for Spain unless they are playing the U.S. or Scotland. (Does Scotland have a team, or did the Fu#@ing English make the Scots play for them?)

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"The game is afoot."

The Scots will play for anyone that pays them. Do you know that the Black Watch was decimated at Bunker Hill fighting for the Fu#@ing English. It was their worse defeat in their Gallant Glorious history. Better to be beaten by Americans than Germans or French.

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"Truth Like Football. Gets kicked around much, before reaching goal." - Charlie Chan

" Don't look back, The bastards might be gaining on you." - Satchel Paige

Frank

Yep, I did, and the patriots only left the battle field, because they ran out of ammunition.

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"The game is afoot."

Because I thought he was being sarcastic. How can a guy call himself Iceman and not like curling and hockey?

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/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?

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(o\_!_/o)

I will say something else good about soccer. Even though most of the kids, who play it at the YMCA or other non-competitive local soccer leagues for young kids will never go on to be high school or college stars, it is great exercise for them. Yeah, sometimes they run off the field chasing butterflies, and sometimes run the wrong way and score a goal for the other team, but they are RUNNING...! After coaching both tee-ball and soccer for young kids at the YMCA, I think soccer is a far better sport for them.

This may get me in trouble, but I think tee-ball is a complete waste of time for everybody. That would include kids, parents, umpires, and coaches. Baseball requires acquired skills that very few little kids have, and cannot acquire until they are older.

Yeah, I know someone will come up with an exception, but I've been there, and I know that most little kids, five and under, can't play baseball. I might add that subjecting them to the sport of baseball, before they are ready for it, might make them not want to ever play it again. However, little kids know how to kick things, and it's much easier for them to make contact with a soccer ball, than it is for them to catch a baseball. I will also add that tee-ball involves a lot of just standing around, while the worst soccer player on a YMCA soccer team runs his/her ass off not only in the game, but it practice as well.

YODA, have I redeemed myself...?

p.s. Hitting a baseball off of a tee teaches little kids little or nothing about the game of baseball.

p.p.s. I didn't learn how to play baseball until the summer before I was going into the 4th grade. It was in the sandlot with my buddies. We didn't have any coaches, umpires, or anything else besides gloves, a bat or two, and a couple baseballs that still hadn't had too much of their stitching unraveled. Most of us went on to become Little League All Stars. Sadly, none of us ever made it to the big leagues.

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"The game is afoot."