European sports in America..

[Seshat]

I'm not sure what you mean about 'what's up with Cricket', but anyway:

In baseball, the bowler (or whatever you call the person who throws the ball at the batter) has to hit an invisible zone: above home base, between the knees and the shoulders of the batter, if I recall correctly. If he hits that zone three times and the batter fails to connect with the ball every time, the batter is out.

In cricket, the zone is visible. The bowler has to hit the wicket behind the batsman, the batsman has to prevent him from doing so - with the bat. If the batsman's leg is in front of the wicket and the ball hits it, it's called 'leg before wicket' and is an automatic out. If the bowler hits the wicket, the batsman is out.

In baseball, once a batter has hit the ball, everyone who's on the batter's team and in the field tries to run as far around the diamond as he can without getting out. The diamond being the four bases in a square pattern (okay, a square on one corner) in the middle of the field. The batters have to put their foot on each base as they circle the field.

In cricket, once a batsman has hit the ball, he and his fellow batsman (the two who are in the field) try to run from one end to the other along the pitch as many times as they can without getting out. The pitch being the rectangle with the wickets on the short ends, in the middle of the field. The safe zone near the wicket is called the crease, and the batsman has to put his foot in it each run.

In both games, if a fielder who is positioned at the base/crease catches the ball with a batter/batsman approaching it but not on the base/crease, that batter/batsman is out. In cricket, the fielder must hit the wicket with the ball. In baseball, I think he only needs to be a certain distance from the base.

In both games, once there are no more batters/batsmen left in the batting team, the teams switch roles.

In both games, the team with the greater number of successful runs around/along the field at the end of play is the winner.

In both games, there are additional rules - how many times each team gets a go, rules about who goes first, rules that try to keep one team from playing with the sun in their eyes and the other not.

There you go. That's what's up with cricket.

[crazylegs]

But what the hell is up with Cricket??

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.
Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when
he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's
out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in
and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get
those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in
and not out. When a man goes out to go in, the men who
are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes
in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two
men called umpires who stay all out the time and they
decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides
have been in and all the men have been given out, and
both sides have been out twice after all the men have
been in, including those who are not out, that is the
end of the game!"

Make sense?

As a Brit I'd like to throw my hat into the ring for the crowd of football dislikers, a game where 22 men with over inflated egos and over inflated pay packets kick a an inflated pigs bladder for 90 minutes a week.

Rugby on the other hand, thats a real sport.

[daleduke17]

Daleduke, they did set up something like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Baseball_Classic

Yeah, I remember the WBC. I was talking about having Japanese League teams face MLB teams. It would be interesting to see Seibu vs Boston, just to see Matsuzaka face his old team.

[ArenaBoy]

Let's not kid ourselves, pro-soccer players are a bunch of foot faries. I have never seen a sport where so many people take dives at every chance possible. You could be watching the action at one end, and all of a sudden someone at the other end of the field will fall to the ground, complaining about being fouled.

Stop watching the Italian National Team, same goes for Portugal, Spain, and the Spanish League. There are plenty of players who would tell you otherwise about diving. Diving has only become a recent thing in the sport. There are plenty of players who tend to get giggles of actually giving a diver something to whine about. Need I add how much faking basketball has?

Daleduke, they did set up something like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Baseball_Classic

What I'd like to see in American pro sports is promotion and relegation. Basically the 3 worst teams get sent to the lower leagues and the 3 best teams in the lower league get sent to the higher level leagues. Imagine the Yankees and the Red Sox in a battle to avoid being relegated.

[daleduke17]

What I wouldn't mind is American Sports stop calling themselves World Champs until they actually PLAY someone outside of America!

Just looking at baseball, I think the title of "World Champion" could stand, depending on what teams are being played. Look at the Boston Red Sox (yes, I'm biased that way). They have players from Japan, United States, Cuba (Mike Lowell, kinda), Dominican Republic, Canada, Nicaragua (if Hansack is still on the team), and Puerto Rico. Other teams have players from the Netherlands, Mexico, and Australia to name a few countries. To me, that gives Major League Baseball a claim to "World Champion" status.

To refute my above claim, all of the teams play within the confines of the United States and Canada (except two games in Japan and past ones in Puerto Rico and Mexico). Like you said, Will-Mun, to truly be a "World Champion" it would be better to defeat teams from around the world. A nice inter-brand game would be something like the 12 Nippon League teams vs 12 MLB teams to lay claim to a sort of "Intercontinental" Champion of baseball.

[Will-Mun]

No prob BFG, it's just the problem I have is that there are those who have never even watched a match once in their lives and they instantly bash it. In this country, the NFL reigns supreme when it isn't even real football. A friend of mine who came here from England actually called the NFL "a bunch of guys in oversized bicycle helmets and tight pants chasing a bad lookalike rugby ball up and down the pitch for three hours."
If you so much say you like soccer you get called all sorts of names, foot fairy being one of them by those who only know of the sport through the World Cup. And BFG, at times it can be effimate because of the godawful diving but I love it because of the tactics involved and rugby is a tough as nails sport.

See, no offense, but you're complaining about people in America not liking Soccer, but then you and your friend attack American Football in the same manner people here attack Soccer. It's cultural man, thats all.

As for me, I don't like sports, any sport at all. Just not into competition for the sake of competition, and being paid for being able to throw/kick/smack a ball around...

What I wouldn't mind is American Sports stop calling themselves World Champs until they actually PLAY someone outside of America!

[Dragonlover]

Speaking as a Brit, soccer bores me to tears both to watch and play, although if a couple of managers are having a go through the media I'll read it for a laugh. Rugby on the other hand... if I wasn't a skinny assed gamer with crap lungs I'd probably try and play it at amateur level.

I think the main thing with America is that to an extent they don't 'get' football, in the same way that this side of the pond we can't grasp American football.

Dragonlover

[ArenaBoy]

It sure would be easier to get your soccer fix if you left the US! For some reason that sport has just never caught on in America the way it has everywhere else.

Interestingly enough there's 3 channels dedicated to soccer on cable. They all show just about every league and then some.

I think you're near Toronto no? They have their own team called Toronto FC; as far as I know they've been a success as tickets have been near impossible to get.

There are also people who say that the league will fail. The only reason the NASL failed was lack of interest and overspending. Different times now. The current league took measures to prevent overspending and marketed to fans.

[Aldous]

Used to play, then got in a serious injury, haven't played sports since. Don't care much for them, I'm the intellectual type. I'd rather spend 3 hours trying to figure out a problem or puzzle than watch sports. That being said, Soccer doesn't infuriate me. Baseball does. Soccer, A-Okay in my book. Baseball, not so much. As for the "foot fairy" comment. Lemme tell you, 6 years of soccer and 7 of Tae-kwon-do (Foot based martial arts) my feet are pretty well trained to kick ass. So my one friend called me a foot fairy, and I booted him in the gut. Funny part, all my friends and I started playing soccer instead of football for about 6 months. Much more fun for me, than "set, hike, okay run."

[ArenaBoy]

That being said, I love soccer. It's an awesome sport. I played it for about 8 years. I don't watch any American leagues, but I have been following Champions League and rooting for Chelsea to kick some ass.

You are pretty much on my good side if you support Chelsea. That said, it is catching on somewhat in Canada. Toronto just got a Major League Soccer team and their merchandise demand is through the roof. http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/a.../08/c5992.html

There are quite a few Americans playing in the English Premiership now and the MLS has broadcasting rights with ESPN2 right now. That said, the sport is SLOWLY inching it's way to prominence in the USA.

[Greenday]

If you so much say you like soccer you get called all sorts of names, foot fairy being one of them by those who only know of the sport through the World Cup.

Let's not kid ourselves, pro-soccer players are a bunch of foot faries. I have never seen a sport where so many people take dives at every chance possible. You could be watching the action at one end, and all of a sudden someone at the other end of the field will fall to the ground, complaining about being fouled.

That being said, I love soccer. It's an awesome sport. I played it for about 8 years. I don't watch any American leagues, but I have been following Champions League and rooting for Chelsea to kick some ass. And when the World Cup started the last time, I was rooting for Germany since the qualifying rounds, unlike those Italian bastards back home who waited until the semi-finals to start watching the World Cup and were all of a sudden "Italian Pride". Support your team from the beginning and maybe I won't be so ticked off.

[Sphinx]

I love soccer as well, and have always wanted to play it. And I get the same grief from some of my friends who say "why dont you like REAL sports, all you like are soccer and hockey" .....Those ARE real sports!!! Much better than the football and baseball that always play here in the south. I had to get satellite so i could watch them. Gahhhh when will it ever end!! lol

[rahmota]

Protege: True after the loss of Dale (Moment of silence) and all it has gotten a bit overly controlled and there is less risk taking which does make for a safer race. But very boring. Go fast turn left. Again somehing that would be much more fun to do than watch.

[protege]

Also much as I like NASCAR when did that become a "sport"?

It became a sport when ESPN realized they could get some serious advertising revenues from it

I'm not a NASCAR fan at all. To me, seeing the cars go round and round an oval 500 times is boring. I'd rather watch F1 or vintage car racing.

[rahmota]

Well I find watching a lot of sports boring as heck. Playing sports are a lot better.

And I'll agree with you about the players being overpaid clowns.