Sports general discussion thread

[ZedClampet]

Tennessee won. National champs First #1 seed to win since 1999.

 

[Brian Boru]

Yay, silverware for the forum!

 

[ZedClampet]

Last college baseball post for this season. We've been pretty good recently:

 

[ZedClampet]

U20s Game 6 - International Federation of American Football

Spread the love

www.americanfootball.sport

Japan upsets US in IFAF U20 World Junior Championship.

As someone who follows college football recruiting religiously, I looked at the US roster, and, as expected, it was not even remotely the best team the US could field. None of the players on the US roster would be considered in the top 500 U20 players in the US, and probably not even in the top 1000. This is just not something top US players participate in.

But it's great for bolstering support for the game in Japan, where they are a little confused about the levels of the sport in the US. Their world team wouldn't be competitive right now with a high major Div 1 college football program, but if we want them to eventually get to the point where they actually can field competitive teams, then winning these tournaments no one in the US has ever heard of is actually important.

They have a very long road ahead of them, but my hope is that they some day can actually compete with the US' best. Hopefully American football being in the Olympics will inspire other countries to pick it up, as well, although that doesn't start until the 2028 Olympics. That will be flag football, which will be great for international teams who would likely not be competitive at all in tackle football.

 

[Zloth]

If we get two footballs popular worldwide, it's going to be terribly confusing. Perhaps we should change the name of ours to something more appropriate? Like mahomesball.

 

[Brian Boru]

two footballs popular worldwide

No danger—football is football worldwide. There's only double usage in countries with their own code, ie USA, Oz, Ireland.

Quiz:
Who has the world's longest career as a live match commentator?
Answer | Record

Cricket
Congrats India, who beat South Africa in the World Cup final.

 

[ZedClampet]

No danger—football is football worldwide. There's only double usage in countries with their own code, ie USA, Oz, Ireland.

Quiz:
Who has the world's longest career as a live match commentator?
Answer | Record

Cricket
Congrats India, who beat South Africa in the World Cup final.

It's not actually confusing. Everyone knows what "American football" is, and soccer could just stay "football". But if we absolutely have to change the name of something, whoever would win in a fight gets to pick.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEb4Rd0mU-E

 

[ZedClampet]

It's the off-season for me, as I don't really follow anything between college baseball season and college football season. Fall camp for college football begins in a couple of weeks.

QUESTION: Do you prefer the summer or winter Olympics?

I tend to like winter just, frankly, because I like watching things in the snow. I could watch skiing all day even though the Americans are no good at it. Like bobsled and speed skating and just about everything but curling (Is that Winter Olympics) and basketball. I watch enough basketball outside of the Olympics that I don't need any more of it. The Dream Team back in the 90s was fun, but it's good to see that basketball is competitive again as other countries have caught up to the US. But, personally, I can't stand NBA players. They are the most self-centered and obnoxious pro-athletes that I'm aware of. Doesn't bother me at all to see them lose in the Olympics.

 

[Brian Boru]

Do you prefer the summer or winter Olympics?

Summer. I don't watch either, but when I did 25+ years ago, Summer was my preferred choice—figure skating is great, but nothing else is on that level for me in Winter. No doubt preference is also due to my background in athletics—no snow or ice in Ireland back then

Funny how one can change thru life. Athletics was such an obsession with me as a kid that I knew all the medal winners in the Track & Field at the 1968 Summer Olympics—with the ultimate inspiration of maybe the best-ever performance in a T&F event, Bob Beamon's winning Long Jump which is still the Olympic record to this day.

 

[ZedClampet]

Summer. I don't watch either, but when I did 25+ years ago, Summer was my preferred choice—figure skating is great, but nothing else is on that level for me in Winter. No doubt preference is also due to my background in athletics—no snow or ice in Ireland back then

Funny how one can change thru life. Athletics was such an obsession with me as a kid that I knew all the medal winners in the Track & Field at the 1968 Summer Olympics—with the ultimate inspiration of maybe the best-ever performance in a T&F event, Bob Beamon's winning Long Jump which is still the Olympic record to this day.

I didn't watch any of the last two Olympics, which is kind of sad because I used to always binge watch them. My situation is complicated, but I hope I can watch it some this time around.

 

[ZedClampet]

Tn baseball had 8 players selected in the MLB draft, including 2 in the first round and two in the second.

@Zloth Kansas City got pitcher Drew Beam in the 3rd round and then pitcher AJ Causey in the 5th. I may have to be a Royals fan if they make it to the league some day. Both have the potential to be solid pitchers. Beam's ceiling is incredibly high.

 

[Zloth]

The Royals are not out of the running this year, and we're at the half-way point! They're even hiring like they want to win. Though they've made it so difficult to watch them, I don't know how they are going to make that money back.

 

[Brian Boru]

Olympics—pick one city

I haven't really researched it well, but my impression is the Olympics usually have a long-term negative effect on the host city, mainly via unnecessary infra after the show is over.

If this is usually true, should the IOC pick one city and be done with it?
Or maybe one city on each continent…

Spread over a country

Or dump the city idea and make it a country, or combo of smaller countries, like various World Cups do. That should mean much of the infra is already in place, and there'd be much less waste per city afterwards.

What do you think?

 

[Zloth]

Olympics—pick one city

I haven't really researched it well, but my impression is the Olympics usually have a long-term negative effect on the host city, mainly via unnecessary infra after the show is over.

They do - few places even want to host the thing now. The price paid for the infrastructure doesn't even get close to the revenue the spectators bring in.

Or dump the city idea and make it a country, or combo of smaller countries, like various World Cups do. That should mean much of the infra is already in place, and there'd be much less waste per city afterwards.

But then somebody who wants to see several events has to travel all over the place. Olympians have to travel to one city to march in, travel to another city to compete, then back to the first city to march out. I would expect lots of athletes and spectators to just go to the event city. (That's already an issue now - especially with winter sports where the host city is 100miles plus from the mountains that support skiing.)

I think the problem is in the vanity. The host nations have been using the events to show off how great they are. They're going to have to start thinking more about doing it on the cheap. If your sport needs a special stadium, then it either adapts to an existing one or it doesn't happen. Baseball could be played in baseball stadiums if the host nation has them but, if it doesn't, expect it to be played on an open field with bleacher seats.

 

[Brian Boru]

somebody who wants to see several events has to travel all over the place

Okay, small bit more research—current 2024 Summer Olympics is actually the whole country plus a distant island. Wiki says:

"Paris is the main host city, with events held at 16 other cities spread across Metropolitan France, plus one subsite in Tahiti"

There's even quite a bit of travel within the greater Paris area too for different events.

With various World Cups, there's also often plenty of travel involved, especially for lower-seeded teams who may play group-stage games in 2-3 different cities or even countries.

 

[ZedClampet]

Okay, small bit more research—current 2024 Summer Olympics is actually the whole country plus a distant island. Wiki says:

"Paris is the main host city, with events held at 16 other cities spread across Metropolitan France, plus one subsite in Tahiti"

There's even quite a bit of travel within the greater Paris area too for different events.

With various World Cups, there's also often plenty of travel involved, especially for lower-seeded teams who may play group-stage games in 2-3 different cities or even countries.

When the Olympics were in Atlanta, a number of events were in Tennessee, like kayaking. This was about 3 hours from Atlanta.

I would imagine they will always want most of the "main events" in the same city, but I question why all the facilities have to be new. For instance, Atlanta has several large stadiums and indoor arenas.

***
Speaking of sports fields. As we drove by an area where the kids used to play soccer I noticed all the fields have been changed to rugby fields. We still have endless numbers of soccer fields here and there, even a few indoor ones.

***

Todd Helton told a funny story when he was inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame (he's a former Tennessee baseball and football player who then played for many years for the Colorado Rockies). As for football, he said he learned early that he wasn't quarterback material when they tried to put him in the game during the Rose Bowl, and he had to pull a ham sandwich and a bag of M&Ms out of his helmet.

He did get to start over Peyton Manning for a few games when Peyton was a freshman until the coaches decided Manning was ready to take over.

 

[Zloth]

"Paris is the main host city, with events held at 16 other cities spread across Metropolitan France, plus one subsite in Tahiti"

Tahiti!? Oh, probably surfing. Maybe beach volleyball, just cuz.

 

[Brian Boru]

probably surfing

Yep.
"As part of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tahiti will host the surfing competition. It will be the only sport to be held outside of metropolitan France, as Paris hosts the international competition 15,716 km (9,765 mi) away."

 

[ZedClampet]

I couldn't breathe listening to my wife describe the opening ceremonies. The ceremonies have a long history of being awkward, and France has a history of attempting to be avant garde to satisfy their grand opinion of themselves, so I was looking forward to laughing along, but didn't get to watch, so I was listening to my wife tell my daughter how weird it was, and then she said, "And they reenacted the last supper with drag queens," and that's when I almost lost consciousness laughing.

 

[Zloth]

I missed that bit - I presume part of the Louvre sketch, with the torch bearer running around parts of Paris.

But yeah: France. Japan learned to out-weird them decades ago, but they're still trying.

 

[Brian Boru]

Already heralded as photo of the Olympics, this remarkable shot of Paris is actually from 15K Km away in Tahiti!

 

[ZedClampet]

Simone Biles is greatest gymnast in history. She got so high in one of her tumbling passes last night that they measured it and the top of her head was over 11 feet off the ground.

She has a balance beam dismount that they had to institute new rules over. They were afraid another gymnast would try it and become seriously injured.

She is the most decorated gymnast in history with 8 Olympic gold medals and 30 World Championship medals.

 

[Frindis]

@ZedClampet You can watch the Curling at the Winter Olympics and be like: You know what, I could maybe do that. Then you watch Simone Biles and be like: There is no way in HELL!

 

[Brian Boru]

Simone Biles is greatest gymnast in history

It's been over 40 years since Nadia Comăneci, so it's time for a new GoaT—Biles is clearly the pinnacle, great to see her back and better after the wobble in 2020.

 

[Brian Boru]

So what's your fav new sport at the Olympics?

Mine is

Spoiler: Pillar Riding

This is cool, I think I read about sth similar during Covid lockdowns:
1989: ONLINE DARTS with BOBBY GEORGE | Tomorrow's World | Retro Tech | BBC Archive

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcK3Y0i3TsU


PS Borat's suit looks well on reporter