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#46436 11/02/01 08:02 PM
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Dear Faldage: You're safe. You are built wrong, you're too far away, and I'm too old.


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I don't believe believe that we have. Are you an English teacher? I don't think I want to talk about this right now.
Do you like to chat?







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Funny, all the threads are starting to sound like "talk to Alice" - she's been having a very bad influence. Glad to see that this thread is maintaining its delinquency.

Now, why bother with American football when they could have all played rugby, nice oval ball, men with good strong thighs and none of that unnecessary padding. I think I asked a long time ago why America persists in playing games that no-one else seems to play (who plays baseball anyway?), is it so that they always have the winning team? At least with cricket you can tour (or not) India. With soccer there is a World Cup (yes, I know that the USA qualified). With rugby you can play nice foreign countries like Australia, South Africa and New Zealand (do Canada play?) - don't you guys ever feel left out of all the fun????

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>who plays baseball anyway?

most of the known universe, excepting the EU and Africa, it seems. the US teams almost never win the Little League world series anymore, usually losing out to teams from the Far East or Latin America. the Seattle major league team has two marvelous Japanese players, one of whom was the best player of the year according to many. the current 'goat' in the World Serious is a Korean relief pitcher (closer) who can't get the last out (close).


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>who plays baseball anyway?
> most of the known universe, excepting the EU and Africa, it seems.

Only joking, honest. Interesting, for all our immersion in all things American (McDonalds, Burger King, TGI Fridays, Friends, The Simpsons, ER, Hollywood, GAP, US Politics ....) we really don't get much US sport on terrestrial TV (which, despite burgeoning satellite channels, tends to be the sport discussed in the pub). I wonder why, given the huge success of other exports.

Maybe there are not enough slots to cover the main sporting events of Europe (endless football, rugby, horse racing, Grand Prix formula one racing, tennis, athletics, golf, boxing, show jumping, I've probably missed a few). Outside major events like the Olympics, the main overlaps are tennis, boxing and golf, I think. Mohammed Ali, Billie Jean King and Tiger Woods are as big here as I assume they are/were in the states.

I suppose that it is relatively difficult and expensive to transport horses routinely for horse races (I know that they have to do it for the Olympics) but I don't think that they show US horse races, do you get horse races from Europe? So, whilst I know that the Kentucky Derby exists, I've never seen a race. I know that Nigel Mansell moved from Formula One to Indy car racing but I don't really know what an "Indy Car" is - is it a type of car or a type of circuit? I ever seen more than five minutes of a baseball or American football game but then I don't watch much cricket or rugby either. I wonder what sport from other countries is routinely shown elsewere?

I suppose that television shows sport to its existing supporter base. Here, football fans expect to see their teams - Manchester United, Celtic, whatever in the same way that an Australian might want to see Melbourne play cricket. I think that Channel Four shows some baseball late at night and satellite TV seems to have endless sporting channels, including all the minority sports that used to complain about their lack of coverage.

I wonder if, as communications grow and people are able to choose what they watch on an individual basis from a huge number of channels our sporting worlds will merge more as has happened with our cultural worlds (theatre, cinema, TV) or will sport remain local, part of society's ritualisation of our tribal roots.


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Wouldn't it be fun to have a cross-sport matchup? American football players and European rugby players could play games of football and rugby, and see who comes out with the fewest broken bones. Baseball and cricket teams could play each others' sports and see who remains awake the longest.


#46442 11/04/01 08:51 PM
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And it was a good weekend to be green. Within a 24-hour period:

MSU 4 Bowling Green 0 (hockey)
MSU 89 Magic All-Stars 87 (basketball)
MSU 26 Michigan 24 (football)

It is good to be a Spartan


#46443 11/04/01 10:16 PM
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>It is good to be a Spartan

And I'm glad you have a place to post your joy!

By the way in the cross cultural sports competition, I'm sure that the cricketers (or their audience) would be bound to fall asleep first!



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Wouldn't it be fun to have a cross-sport matchup?

I love it! The real fun would be watching the team playing it's non-native sport struggling merely to remember the rules!

And as far as the MSU-Michigan football game goes, what a fantastic finish, but it *does help to be the home team, doesn't it? For those who didn't watch, Michigan State was the recipient of some creative timekeeping (:03...:02...:01...:01...:01) and a rather blatant non-call on the final (game-winning) play. I'm a Spartan fan for career reasons -- two of my bosses are MSU alumnae!


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Wouldn't it be fun to have a cross-sport matchup? American football players and European rugby players...

Assuming each team playing with its respective rules and uniforms, it would be interesting to see if the American football players could manage to stay out of their committee meetings long enough to catch any of the rugby players.


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