Football more exciting than crappy USA sports

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Baseball has become one of the most boring sports to watch IMHO. The only time Baseball has become of interest is during the Playoff's and World Series. Even the rating for these games are bad.

When the PGA and NASCAR bring in more viewers than baseball...it's time to take it off the list. Baseball is no longer the National Sport anymore in the States. Football and Basketball beat baseball in ratings...at least here in the states.

[Troll King]

I think a bigger factor in how exciting a sport is than the rate of upsets is the pacing of the action. Baseball would lag far behind in that aspect, as it can slow to a snail's pace. Cricket is probably just as bad if not worse. Golf is slow too, but most of the excitement there is in the tension and individual pressure than in action. Auto racing is nothing but speed, but the best action is when cars pass. If the only such passing happens when someone makes a pit stop, that makes for a less exciting race.

Soccer has a good pace when you're looking at the game at an intimate level. The problem is that most TV broadcasts keep the camera pulled far back so that you see more of the field. This lowers the perception of action as there's too much empty space on the field. In American football, the pacing is very stop and go with short bursts of action between longer periods of inaction. The average play lasts about 5 seconds but they take about 30 seconds to set them up. I think I read once that the average pro football player only has about 5 minutes of physical exertion in a regulation 60 minute game that stretches a couple of hours in real time. I find the CFL to be more exciting to watch than the NFL because the play clock is shorter and with fewer downs, teams have to take more risks on offence.

Of the North American team sports, I'd say that hockey and basketball have the most prolonged stretches of intense action. Hockey has fewer stoppages than basketball and the action is more physical, so I'd give it the nudge forward in terms of action and pacing. The checking, the skating, even the on-the-fly line changes make it much faster and intense than most other North American sports.

It seems a bit of a paradox if soccer is concidered more exciting because there are more upsets but at the same time, its fans say the best action occurs away from the scoring and in the general ball control. If the emphasis is taken away from the scoring then the results, upset or not, becomes less relevant.

[3d.]

Rugby. End of Story.


And NO FRENCH PEOPLE... RWC 2007 is England's...

[Exalt]

you only dont like american football because you suck and dont know real sports AHAHAHAHAHA that and you probably hate american football because of NFL Europe which is all the horrible NFL players booted and sent to europe like our horrible NBA players that suck, we send them to europe so that you guys can be entertained with lower quality. anyways, CHICAGO BEARS 4 SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DA BEARS

[froedrick]

Hockey isn't a US sport. It's canadian thanks!

[Galleleo]

The thing we call Hockey is really fast paced too.. and I mean the sport called Hockey.. I don't care how many names you people keep taking for your own, but I am not talking about ICE hockey, normal hockey.

And now face I am talking about the World Cups of baseball, last year the World Cup of Baseball was in the Netherlands (just like football world cups like the one coming up in germany those kind of world cups) and America never comes to the world cups because they are of the opinion that their Baseball league is the world cup, Cuba has now won the World Cup ALOT of times in a row.

Same reason why america used to send in second rate Dreamteams to the Olympics (donno if it's still done or not), because they seem to think the Olympics are not as big and important as the NBA.

[Sleepy Weasel]

They define upset as "how often a leading team is overcome by an opponent with a worse record "

What does that even mean? That a team with a better record loses to a team with a worse record? Why does it say "leading team." It's not clear to me what they think an upset it.

Max Kellerman thought they meant that the team expected to win, vegas odds, lost. And his argument was obviously football is going to have less upsets because it's analyzed to death in vegas, while vegas doesn't put nearly as much effort into analyzing soccer. That said, I think Max was just guessing about the study unprepared and guessed wrong, cause I don't think that's how they defined "upset" in their analysis.

I will agree that there are probably more boring football games in terms of you can be pretty sure who is going to win for a lot of them, moreso than baseball or hockey, but no one watches those football games, heh.

[genocidal]

I must be really boring then because I like baseball the best of any sport and football a close second.

Most other sports, other than basketball sometimes, I could really care less about. I've tried to get into hockey, but I find that I have the same problems being entertained by hockey as I do by soccer. Both are low-scoring and less strategic than baseball or football.

I don't care about seeing constant physical exertion, I like seeing well thought-out and executed plays or pitches or base-movement or whatever. But I do think it's true that if kept paying attention for a while to soccer or hockey and learned the teams I'd probably be hooked to it as well.

The exception, like someone said already, is the playoffs. I love watching World Cup games at 6 in the morning. Anything exciting will be entertaining, and if you keep up and pay attention to what should and could happen it will all be more exciting.

[Sleepy Weasel]

umm baseball has almost 0 strategy. I like baseball a lot too, but yeah, no strategy. It's just hit the ball and run. A few decisions on when to make a pitcher change, and that's about it.

[Ewan]

I can't really see how Baseball can have more strategy than Football (soccer)

[Riesen]

You know what's even more exciting than all sports in general? Watching a dog take a shit.

[Exotic]

the manu vs arsenal game was hot like fire but ended up 0-0

[geekbot]

I wrote up a whole thing at work and my browser froze. Now all you get are links.

Moto Grand Prix

The April 10 opening race of the 2005 race season:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...70606&q=motogp

Commentary:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...30609&q=motogp

[404 Not Found]

umm baseball has almost 0 strategy. I like baseball a lot too, but yeah, no strategy. It's just hit the ball and run. A few decisions on when to make a pitcher change, and that's about it.

Consider the squeeze play/suicide bunt or the Sacrafice Fly to advance a runner. There is also the strategy of purposely walking a batter to force a possible double play when there is one out...especially if the next batter is a crappy hitter...but then the other team can consider a pinch hitter to bat for him! Changing a pitcher from a right handed to left handed pitcher can also be a means of strategy in baseball, depending on who they are pitching too. A switch hitter can also be a strategic option depending on the outs and who is on base...not to leave out who is pitching to this batter...not that there are many switch hitters.

There are strategies, but to the avg. person who is not interested or knows little about Baseball, it would seem like just hitting the ball and running.

On a different note...usually a large percentage of baseball players in the States playing professionally are not even from the States. Basketball & (US) Football are mostly college graduated players that where born here in the States. Baseball has taken a back seat in that respect since monies involved for you average player do not match other sports...with added items such as free agency, farm teams (minor league franchise owned teams) & salary arbitrations. Baseball is more a business than a sport, as are most professional sports here in the States. This may be why College NCCAA Basketball (March Madness) generates more monies from TV, advertising, Gambling and just shear interest. These players are not paid and it is more for the sport and not the individuals monies since the players are not paid. Most ppl here in the States have an interest in college hoops due to having a favorite school from attending it at one time, or just living in the local town of the college team.

More gambling and office pools generate throughout the States than for any other single sports event...except for the Superbowl, but that could be debated.

[genocidal]

What 404 said. Base-movement is all strategy and that's how all the points are scored. I'm obsessive about pitching so maybe I see more strategy than a casual viewer would in trades and drafting. Batting order is all strategy as well as fielding to a lesser extent.