The other sports thread

[WildCard]

1 minute ago, Eleven said:

Dude, there are people in this thread who think that auto racing is a sport.

Kayaking actually is, though.

Whoa whoa whoa, shots fired

[DarthEbriate]

11 minutes ago, Eleven said:

Dude, there are people in this thread who think that auto racing is a sport.

As I stand next to my Buffalo Sabres reverse retro uni race car...

If you can convince sufficient numbers of people to gather and spectate upon an event and it has as non-premeditated outcome based on competition vs. other humans or other sentient creatures or vs. a clock, then you could consider it a sporting event. And I like to add that it's strictly for human recreation --- if it were removed from society, then society can still move along just fine. (That addition is to help separate sporting hunting [either for a big head on a wall or for a couple deer during deer season] from subsistence hunting and gathering where if you don't successfully hunt, your family dies of hunger or needs to move to another area for food.) Whether it requires supreme athletic skills can be kind of arbitrary, although that's definitely a bonus. Mental skills and lots of practice are always present. So --- auto racing is a sporting event, from a certain point of view.

All these are ways to separate the folks who play Chutes & Ladders at home once or twice with their kids as a game... from those who play high-stakes Chutes & Ladders in professional Milton Bradley leagues around the world. Then, it becomes a sport.

9 minutes ago, WildCard said:

Whoa whoa whoa, shots fired

Pew! Pew! Pew! 🍺😇

[Sabres Fan in NS]

F1 is a sport, IMO.

NASCAR is just dumb.

[DarthEbriate]

1 minute ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

F1 is a sport, IMO.

NASCAR is just dumb.

Well, yes, obviously. Go open wheel or you might as well be driving a minivan in a circle all day.

[I-90 W]

3 hours ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

I have A Lifetime Emotion Guster, very fast on the water, tracks well while paddling, but just sitting there it seems to get moved around a bit. 

My first kayak was an 8 ft Emotion Comet (sit in). My friend still has his Emotion Glide. Nice kayaks.

[I-90 W]

2 hours ago, New Scotland (NS) said:

Is kayaking a sport?

I am seriously thinking of taking it up to *pose around the harbour bar* (😎) , actually around our very shelterd cove, but one false move and I'd be out in the Atlantic and with my luck the tides would pull me into Baastaan Habar.

Not the way I do it 😅 

For me it’s a means to an end, something that enables me to fish more surface area. Through the years I have genuinely grown an affinity to kayaking in and of itself though.

[ubkev]

1 hour ago, Eleven said:

 

Half a lifetime ago, I was supposed to go climbing and canoeing with a couple of guys from London.  I had a fever because I had gotten lost hiking the day before and the temperature dropped, so I told them that I would go climbing, but that I wasn't getting into the canoe.  They had never been in a canoe before and I KNEW they were going to capsize.  I also KNEW that they wouldn't listen to me when I told them never to stand in a canoe.

They made it back to the lodge, drenched in a 45 degree lake.

I stayed warm.

I know you're talking kayaks and not canoes, but still, no, don't stand!

Dude, there are people in this thread who think that auto racing is a sport.

Kayaking actually is, though.

Europeans tipping? Who knew!?

[Eleven]

2 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

If you can convince sufficient numbers of people to gather and spectate upon an event and it has as non-premeditated outcome based on competition vs. other humans or other sentient creatures or vs. a clock, then you could consider it a sporting event.

TIL that a poetry slam is a sport.

1 hour ago, I-90 W said:

Not the way I do it 😅 

For me it’s a means to an end, something that enables me to fish more surface area. Through the years I have genuinely grown an affinity to kayaking in and of itself though.

Fishing is sport too.

[I-90 W]

1 minute ago, Eleven said:

TIL that a poetry slam is a sport.

Fishing is sport too.

It can be, but when I think about fishing as a sport I think tournament fishing, which is definitely not my speed. I think of it as solo hunting. The KBF tournaments are really fun to watch though and it’s been a treat to watch kayak fishing grow over the last decade or so. 

[Weave]

1 hour ago, I-90 W said:

It can be, but when I think about fishing as a sport I think tournament fishing, which is definitely not my speed. I think of it as solo hunting. The KBF tournaments are really fun to watch though and it’s been a treat to watch kayak fishing grow over the last decade or so. 

Fyi there is a rod and gun club thread that should show up in a search.

[DarthEbriate]

16 hours ago, Eleven said:

TIL that a poetry slam is a sport.

Fishing is sport too.

Poetry slams absolutely could be sporting events. Just look at the national spelling bee (hours and hours of training, nationally televised, and I'll bet some wagers are placed on the side to make it more interesting). Or the 4th of July hot dog and other eating contests. They're incredibly wasteful --- no one needs to eat 60 hot dogs, let alone practice eating lots of anything in order to compete --- but eaters are athletes of a sort.

I don't know enough about them, but I imagine if you set some guiding rules (topic, poem style [sonnet], and fixed development time) you could get a really solid competition going and then you'd be able to have some basic judging criteria. It'd be figure skating. Welcome to Poetry SLAM XVIII!

[Eleven]

4 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

Poetry slams absolutely could be sporting events. Just look at the national spelling bee (hours and hours of training, nationally televised, and I'll bet some wagers are placed on the side to make it more interesting). Or the 4th of July hot dog and other eating contests. They're incredibly wasteful --- no one needs to eat 60 hot dogs, let alone practice eating lots of anything in order to compete --- but eaters are athletes of a sort.

I don't know enough about them, but I imagine if you set some guiding rules (topic, poem style [sonnet], and fixed development time) you could get a really solid competition going and then you'd be able to have some basic judging criteria. It'd be figure skating. Welcome to Poetry SLAM XVIII!

The spelling bee is not a sporting event.

[Eleven]

Right now, hundreds of thousands of sports fans are tuning in to the annual Jim Rome Smackoff.  It is a competition and the results are not predetermined.

 

It is not a sport.

[DarthEbriate]

2 hours ago, Eleven said:

The spelling bee is not a sporting event.

And yet, televised on ESPN.

5 minutes ago, Eleven said:

Right now, hundreds of thousands of sports fans are tuning in to the annual Jim Rome Smackoff.  It is a competition and the results are not predetermined.

It is not a sport.

This is really the fun part of the discussion of where something goes from contest to sport. I admit, I had to look up what the Smackoff is. But it appears to be just a popularity contest. It's game vehicle doesn't have rules and appears completely subjective, with the only rule being a time limit so you can't talk on forever. So... it's a contest. Like a bodybuilding or beauty pageant where it comes down to subjectivity. There's no subjectivity in a spelling bee, or a fishing contest by weight/size, or in a basketball tournament. And in some cases, there is subjectivity (did the player step out bounds, was that holding) but it's at least attempted to be removed by rules.

[Eleven]

30 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

And yet, televised on ESPN.

This is really the fun part of the discussion of where something goes from contest to sport. I admit, I had to look up what the Smackoff is. But it appears to be just a popularity contest. It's game vehicle doesn't have rules and appears completely subjective, with the only rule being a time limit so you can't talk on forever. So... it's a contest. Like a bodybuilding or beauty pageant where it comes down to subjectivity. There's no subjectivity in a spelling bee, or a fishing contest by weight/size, or in a basketball tournament. And in some cases, there is subjectivity (did the player step out bounds, was that holding) but it's at least attempted to be removed by rules.

Thousands of people watch chess and poker.  Not sports.

[DarthEbriate]

3 hours ago, Eleven said:

Thousands of people watch chess and poker.  Not sports.

This is the bestest part of the entire conversation. And if we were at a bar, this is where I buy you the next round, because the debate can go for years. And it comes down to your subjective definition of sporting. Where does the continuum end in what makes a game vs. what makes a sport?

Because chess and poker can both be games played by you and me. They can also be played by professionals of the utmost skill, craft, and practice. Working on bluffs, practicing reading tells, practicing faking tells, going over complex game and tournament strategies, even more diligently than a matchup between a cornerback and a wide receiver at the line of scrimmage throughout a football game.

Then, it gets really fun. Does it simply revolve around exertion levels? Is golf on a hot day a sport, but on a nice 50-degree cloudy day, it isn't? Is a biathlon a sport, while competitive shooting is not? Is placekicking in football not a sport, whereas the rest of football is? If you're a DH and you're walked in each at-bat, but your team wins because your pitcher pitched a no-hitter shutout, did you play a sport or a game?

[Weave]

2 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

This is the bestest part of the entire conversation. And if we were at a bar, this is where I buy you the next round, because the debate can go for years. And it comes down to your subjective definition of sporting. Where does the continuum end in what makes a game vs. what makes a sport?

Because chess and poker can both be games played by you and me. They can also be played by professionals of the utmost skill, craft, and practice. Working on bluffs, practicing reading tells, practicing faking tells, going over complex game and tournament strategies, even more diligently than a matchup between a cornerback and a wide receiver at the line of scrimmage throughout a football game.

Then, it gets really fun. Does it simply revolve around exertion levels? Is golf on a hot day a sport, but on a nice 50-degree cloudy day, it isn't? Is a biathlon a sport, while competitive shooting is not? Is placekicking in football not a sport, whereas the rest of football is? If you're a DH and you're walked in each at-bat, but your team wins because your pitcher pitched a no-hitter shutout, did you play a sport or a game?

IMO it requires some level of physical activity (not necessarily exertion).  So brain games don’t count. And if it is subjective in an way, not a sport.

So by my definition auto racing, horse racing, darts, fishing, hunting qualify. Spelling bees don’t.  Video games probably do under my definition but I feel icky about it.

[DarthEbriate]

2 hours ago, Weave said:

IMO it requires some level of physical activity (not necessarily exertion).  So brain games don’t count. And if it is subjective in an way, not a sport.

So by my definition auto racing, horse racing, darts, fishing, hunting qualify. Spelling bees don’t.  Video games probably do under my definition but I feel icky about it.

The icky part is the fun part of the conversation. My 'Ebriate brain looks at everything recreational that fits into the "has rules for outcomes" as a game. And then where do we go from game to sport. Let's say I play a computer game, an EA NHL game because it's a hockey board. So -- I play at home 1:1 vs. computer or vs. friends = game. Online vs. friends or strangers = game. I think as soon as I add a Twitch account and people log on online for me to play at a specific time -- I'm crossing into sports threshold. If I'm on Twitch and have a sponsored team and am going to conventions/competitions for a computer game... I'm not gaming... I'm sporting. And I kind of weave that across everything. You can turn any game into a sport if society allows, or rather, desires it.

 

[Eleven]

The things you propose are not sports, Darth.  I don't know much about the Star Wars universe, but I commend, and/or condemn, you back to it.  Chewbacca will help me if necessary.

[ubkev]

11 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

This is the bestest part of the entire conversation. And if we were at a bar, this is where I buy you the next round, because the debate can go for years. And it comes down to your subjective definition of sporting. Where does the continuum end in what makes a game vs. what makes a sport?

Because chess and poker can both be games played by you and me. They can also be played by professionals of the utmost skill, craft, and practice. Working on bluffs, practicing reading tells, practicing faking tells, going over complex game and tournament strategies, even more diligently than a matchup between a cornerback and a wide receiver at the line of scrimmage throughout a football game.

Then, it gets really fun. Does it simply revolve around exertion levels? Is golf on a hot day a sport, but on a nice 50-degree cloudy day, it isn't? Is a biathlon a sport, while competitive shooting is not? Is placekicking in football not a sport, whereas the rest of football is? If you're a DH and you're walked in each at-bat, but your team wins because your pitcher pitched a no-hitter shutout, did you play a sport or a game?

2 things:

Stop it! Poker isn't a ***** sport. And 50 degrees and cloudy is not, nor will it ever be a "nice" day.

[SwampD]

11 hours ago, ubkev said:

2 things:

Stop it! Poker isn't a ***** sport. And 50 degrees and cloudy is not, nor will it ever be a "nice" day.

It is if it’s usually 40 degrees and raining.

[DarthEbriate]

On 6/26/2021 at 12:32 AM, ubkev said:

2 things:

Stop it! Poker isn't a ***** sport. And 50 degrees and cloudy is not, nor will it ever be a "nice" day.

Ach -- it's supposed to break 100 degrees before noon today. I would love for some 50s and clouds; it would be a tremendously nice day.

On 6/26/2021 at 12:18 PM, SwampD said:

It is if it’s usually 40 degrees and raining.

Oh my... that would be the nicest day possible after this ridiculous furnace weekend. 🍺

I'll just leave it as any objective- and rule-based game can be a sporting event if it gets itself organized and attended. They're on the same continuum. And any sport can just be a game if it's not organized.

[Claude Balls]

That Shoelace Ohtani kid for the Anaheim Angels in un-*****-real. What an amazing player to watch. 

[Hoss]

NBA playoff ratings are way up this year and there’s been a ton of good basketball played. This era is so stacked talent-wise I’m glad to see the super teams gone (aside from Brooklyn).

44 minutes ago, Claude Balls said:

That Shoelace Ohtani kid for the Anaheim Angels in un-*****-real. What an amazing player to watch. 

Incredible how bad baseball is at showcasing its players. I get that they haven’t found team success but the best player in baseball and the most unique player in baseball are both on the same team and the Angels are still nowhere to be found.

[Claude Balls]

21 minutes ago, Hoss said:

NBA playoff ratings are way up this year and there’s been a ton of good basketball played. This era is so stacked talent-wise I’m glad to see the super teams gone (aside from Brooklyn).

Incredible how bad baseball is at showcasing its players. I get that they haven’t found team success but the best player in baseball and the most unique player in baseball are both on the same team and the Angels are still nowhere to be found.

The dude just hit his 2nd HR of the game, after hitting 1 last night. And he is the starting pitcher tomorrow night and will most like bat as well. He might be the most incredible athlete I've ever seen. Take a seat Bo Jackson. 

Edited June 30, 2021 by Claude Balls