Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Dissy]

He's a fucking White Sox fan.

If there ever was a reason to hate that man, this is the number one reason.

[Vendetagainst]

There's only one way to respond to this.

[De_El]

Is there wide-spread animosity toward the White Sox? I'm not that huge on baseball, but I am aware of some of the more obvious beefs, like the White Sox v. the Cubs, the uh...BoSox v. the Yankees...the Yankees v. fucking everybody hates the Yankees.

[Johnny C]

Look at that throw.

Elitist.

[Vendetagainst]

No, only the drones of suburbanites living in fake-Chicago dislike the Sox.*

@Johnny
That made me laugh



*no offense to all you silly cubs fans.

[Slick]

I love how you are at 666 right now.

[KharBevNor]

You remember how I've always been saying professional sports are retarded.

woop woop

[KharBevNor]

When your dog is sexier than you it is time to kill yourself.

I still can't get on gabbly

[benji]

You remember how I've always been saying professional sports are retarded.

woop woop

I've got nothing against pro-athletes. Getting paid to play a game is a good gig. I wish I could pull a scam like that.

I've got nothing against people who enjoy watching pro athletes. Watching someone who is really good at something can be fun sometimes. I get that.

But the way some people get caught up in it, and let it dominate their lives, I just don't get it.

[Dimmukane]

My history teacher likes to compare sports fans to radical Nationalists.  I think that about sums it up.


I'd much rather play sports than watch them on TV, that's for damn sure.

[ruyi]

Well, talking about how much you hate sports can also be fun and a socially useful thing to go on about sometimes. As we've seen on this forum.

[Jimmy the Squid]

Tommy, are you suggesting that because I can't have a conversation about Ryan Giggs'* "sweet left foot", his "jiggery-pokery", his "hocus-pocus", his "abracadabra-I-wanna-reach-out-and-grab-ya" without resorting to The Fast Show references that people won't want to hang out with me? Because I think you probably have something there and it infuriates me.


*Ryan Giggs is the only sports person that springs to mind.

[Dimmukane]

There's nothing wrong with talking about them, and I agree; it's useful to know something relatively current in that area, but I think the amount of obsession that occurs fairly often around it is a bit disheartening.

[KvP]

Yes, well by shunning support of the sporting life we elevate ourselves above that transcendence.

[clockworkjames]

[Dollface]

I just noticed tha he's fucking KLINGON!




dun dun dunn (oh the drama)

[dennis]

What's sad is that I can totally imagine some Cubs fans not voting for him solely because he's ostensibly a South-sider.

Also, who wants a candidate who supports a team that is defined by losing against all odds?

[Inlander]

I just noticed tha he's fucking KLINGON!

Man that doesn't warrant an ominous "dun dun dunn". I would totally fucking vote Worf For President.

[Inlander]

Why, hello.

[blanktom]

'LOOK AT THIS FUCKING CANDIDATE'

Oh man I love this.

[Stryc9Fuego]

Yeah. I love that X-TREME advertising meme as much as I hate talking about politics. And I really hate talking about politics. So I won't.

I refuse.

Now we take the "D" rail over to baseball!

Personally, I'm a Rays fan, but that's just because I live here.

[valley_parade]

*Ryan Giggs is the only sports person that springs to mind.

See, this is WHY I want to hang out with you.

[öde]

resorting to The Fast Show references

See, this is WHY I want to hang out with you.

[valley_parade]

Maybe you should come to Bostoncon, Dan.

[benji]

Here's an idea which doesn't crop up very often - Sport is a thing which is also really fun to talk about.

It is an excellent social device. If you have it in your arsenal of conversation topics, all manner of doors will open for you.

This is true, and I have no problem with people using sports for this purpose. I was once wandering around the streets of Mandalay in Burma to try to get a feel for it. A man stepped out of an electronics shop and said "hay, football." Now, I didn't speak much Burmese beyond the word for hello and counting to 10, and the only English he knew was "football," "goal," and "my son," but Myanmar (Burma) was playing Cambodia in a game of soccer football, and because we all knew the rules to this game we were able to sit and enjoy each others company despite sharing no other language or culture in common.

But when fans of the two local football rivals actually stop speaking to each other close to the big game, or when parents get in fights with referees a little league games, I just have to shake my head in consternation.

[fatty]

Here's an idea which doesn't crop up very often - Sport is a thing which is also really fun to talk about.

It is an excellent social device. If you have it in your arsenal of conversation topics, all manner of doors will open for you.

This is why sometimes I wish I cared about sport or tv.

[TimA]

I became a Cubs fan purely as a defensive mechanism for getting along with my father-in-law. I don't know...it's not a bad hobby, as long as you don't become obsessed with it.

[IronOxide]

Fuck you, it is a bad hobby if you're not rooting for the BOSTON FUCKING RED SOX.

[KharBevNor]

I'm saying that it's an instant connection which often transcends class, status, culture, religion, nationality.

It's like an international language of sorts.

An international language of shit whose speakers should be rounded up and killed!

There are few things more alien to my soul than giving two flying shits about teams of jocks in stupid outfits manipulating spherical objects and getting paid more money than a fucking brain surgeon.

[öde]

It's almost like you hate capitalism, khar.

[KharBevNor]

[Inlander]

One of the things I most cherish about my upbringing is the idea that sport is just one facet of life, not inferior or superior to any other, and as rewarding in its way as any other cultural pursuit. My dad, for instance, holds season tickets to both the local rugby team, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra - as do just about all of his friends. I don't know about elsewhere in the world, but in Australia I think of this mindset - or at least its prevalence in the community - as distinctly Canberran.

I like listening to music, and reading books, and hanging out on the internet, and going to see arty-farty foreign films - and I like watching and playing sport. I really can't for the life of me understand why so many people seem to think that's weird or strange, or that sport and "higher" cultural interests are mutually incompatible.

On the other hand, I agree with Khar that elite sports-people are generally paid way too much (even taking into account the relative brevity of their careers) and, in Australia at least, receive waaaay too big a slice of the tax pie. But I think that's a societal problem, rather than a problem intrinsic in sport itself.

[Jace]

Number one reason why you should vote for obama:

McCain can't dance back.

[KharBevNor]

Man, it ain't snootiness. I enjoy all sorts of low shit. It's just I have literally no understanding of the appeal, what it is supposed to be. How do I invest emotionally or intellectually in this shit? I do not know. I don't really want to. I have intellectual justifications for it but really it's just a deep level of utter non-comprehension of the whole thing. With that, I suppose, comes particular anger at the obscene amounts of money, time, space and effort that are wasted on professional sports (far and beyond what they might actually need. It makes me spit to see my country pouring billions of pounds into the ghastly nationalist pissing contest that is the Olympics in some vague hope of scoring a few meaningless victories. It infuriates me that no one seems to regard this as wrong when there are fucking people who can't afford to heat their homes or have enough to eat in the UK NOW. I don't see how anyone could possibly justify spending so much of the taxpayers money on an utterly trivial thing when such a situation exists.

[0bsessions]

Tommy effectively nailed it. Love or hate them, sports are the single most universal "shooting the shit" topic that most people can get in on.

Rachel's dad is a staunch conservative Republican who is homophobic, a slight bit racist and all kinds of other shit that would effectively scare the piss out of me, but I'm able to actually sit in the dude's house with minimal discomfort because we can at least talk about sports.

My gramma and I constantly talk Red Sox. This is how we always connected growing up and to this day, she's one of my primary influences. And ask anyone who's met her, my grandmother is the absolute shit. Shane and Rachel can both vouch for this.

It's also one of the primary ways I've been able to connect with my brother in recent years. We're both incredibly different people and most of the things we have in common are more our failings than anything (Crude, tactless behavior, very stubborn, we hold terrible grudges), but we've always been able to connect on sports, at least.

I actually only ended up on this forum because of sports. Shane and I met through a Red Sox forum and he turned me on to this forum.

Sports is the tried and true uniter. There is not a single subject that ranges so many different classes, cultures and races. Until recently, the only really large group that you couldn't just strike up a conversation about sports with was women, and that's changed substantially over the past couple decades. Politics, video games, books, movies, music; none of them are quite so wide ranging and easily relateable as sports are.

[RobbieOC]

There's only one way to respond to this.

To be fair, Pierzsynski seems like kind of a dick.

Personally, I'm a Rays fan, but that's just because I live here.

Congratulations finally! Did you hear how they don't have anyone to throw out the first pitch in the playoffs, because "no one in the history of the franchise has done anything worthy of this honor?" I found that funny, but not an alltogether bad problem to have, I would say. I'm rooting for the Rays this postseason, if only because they beat both the Yankees and the Red Sox, with a payroll smaller than some individual players on those teams*. That's good sports, if you ask me.

*may or may not be hyperbole

[öde]

Front page of The Sun today: some footballer that routinely attacks people is serving his community service. Apparently the photo of him 'shows that he is trash'. I fucking hate The Sun.

[valley_parade]

It's sad that you didn't mention names and I'm 100% confident you're talking about Joey Barton.

he turned me on

I do have that effect on people, Jon.

[KharBevNor]

Sports is the tried and true uniter.

Yeah, I see people uniting over sports every Friday night!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2GkS0HOe2s&feature=related

[0bsessions]

That is, in fact, hyperbole, Robbie. However, it's not any extreme sense of hyperbole. The Rays' payroll is around $40 million, which is about a third of the Sox's payroll (There's no effective way to call their payroll right now as they shed their most expensive player midseason) and close to a fifth of the Yankees'. A-Rod himself is making more this season than the entire roster of the Florida Marlins, who actually got just as close as the Yankees did to the postseason.

I'm excited to see some competition from the Rays this season, but I am concerned about the terrible influx of bandwagon fans. The Sox have too many themselves, but it irks me slightly to see people walking around the city in brand new Rays caps that were quite obviously not bought until the All Sttar Break. Where were these people five years ago? Three years ago? Shit, where were these guys in the spring?

Khar,I see your football riot and I raise you a concert riot.

[benji]

I don't see how the last picture supports your argument in any way. The guy on the right is kinda' cute from this angle, and people kissing is a good thing.

[KharBevNor]

Wow, one concert riot? Well I suppose that isolated incident is damning because sports riots are so rare.

Well at least it's just that one sport

aww shit.

Was that a little homophobia in the last post? Hurrah. fucking sports!

[Jace]

Hurrah. fucking sports!

That's called porn. They also make more than brain surgeons.

[McTaggart]

AFL grand final on sunday, NRL grand final next sunday, Red Bull Air Race soon after, then it's cricket season!

[0bsessions]

Isolated incident my left nut, Khar. Anyone remember Woodstock '99? The Who concert riot where a couple fans were trampled to death? The Download Festival Riots in 2006?

Yeah, sports fans riot a lot, but that's partially because people in general riot. Don't ask as if it makes the lot of us a bunch of douche bags unless you, as a metal fan, would like to be lumped in with the relatively rampant rioting at concerts. I mean, fuck, a common hobby at concerts is for people to effectively just stand in a circle and punch each other. Yeah, sports fans are totally the Neanderthals here.

[KharBevNor]

Fucking rampant, come on.

You cannot be fucking serious.

When were you ever in a fight at a concert? I know I have never been in a fight at a concert. I have been to over a hundred concerts, and I have only seen one fight at a concert. I saw someone blow up a portaloo at Wacken once, but that ain't the same thing.

Football fans riot every five fucking seconds, at every level of the competition. You get riots at the massive games and the tiny games. With music you are only likely to get riots or fights at the largest, most poorly organised events with the widest popular appeal (ie, the most idiots). Football fans fight in the street all the time. People actually get stabbed for supporting the wrong football team in some places.

None of this of course belies the fact that sports are for fucking morons, but hey :p

[0bsessions]

I got into a fight at a concert back in 2005. A dude who I'm pretty sure was coked up started elbowing me in the head (Quite intentionally), I tried to push him back a bit, initially figuring it was unintentional, so he elbowed me hard in the head and then took a swing at me. I got knocked over into a mosh pit when I was fifteen and got kicked repeatedly by a bunch of fucking tards.

I can't find anything purporting either argument in terms of statistic via google, but if you've got something to back up your bullshit notion that sports are any more violent than concerts, I'll stay off the boards for a week. And I mean conclusively, I don't want some bullshit one sided thing, I want definitive statistics for both sides. If you can show me statistics that prove that violence occurs more often in sports spectators than concert spectators, I'll consider this a loss.

[valley_parade]

In all of the soccer games I've been to, I've not seen a fight. But then again, I've not been to many soccer games.

[Slick]

I got into a fight at a concert back in 2005. A dude who I'm pretty sure was coked up started elbowing me in the head (Quite intentionally), I tried to push him back a bit, initially figuring it was unintentional, so he elbowed me hard in the head and then took a swing at me. I got knocked over into a mosh pit when I was fifteen and got kicked repeatedly by a bunch of fucking tards.

I can't find anything purporting either argument in terms of statistic via google, but if you've got something to back up your bullshit notion that sports are any more violent than concerts, I'll stay off the boards for a week. And I mean conclusively, I don't want some bullshit one sided thing, I want definitive statistics for both sides. If you can show me statistics that prove that violence occurs more often in sports spectators than concert spectators, I'll consider this a loss.

Dude I think that is an uncommon situation. Maybe you are in a bad place in the world for thast kind of thing?
Mosh pits are like bizzaro zones where strange things happen. I have no statistics, but it has been my experience that intentional malacious beatings are not commonplace. Again, maybe for certain shows in certain places this is different. I really can only speak for concerts in Ontario, Quebec, and B.C., and little old Labrador.

Also, one coked up dick is not the equivalent of a riot. Single assholes are every. Violent mobs are not.

[Stryc9Fuego]

I have the ultimate "shoot the shit" topic of conversation. It never goes very far except as an ice breaker, but I believe "the weather" is the most universal topic of conversation. You never hear someone talking about how it's pouring cats and dogs and how tough it was to get inside, then hear someone next to him say "FUCK YOU, JACKASS! this is the BEST FUCKING RAIN EVAR!!!"

Anyone ever heard people argue over the weather?