The Perfect Metaphor For Soccer

[ajoknoblauch]

Yes I agree. To me all sports are boring to watch and fun to play.

Baseball is much more intellectually challenging.

 

[glasgowjohn]

Intellectually challenging ?

you must need a ph d to be a star in rounders

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Intellectually challenging ?

you must need a ph d to be a star in rounders

Baseball is an intricate sport. Pitching, in particular, requires both out-thinking and intimidating the batter - you want him to think the ball may hit him, even if you have no intention of doing so. On offense, you have to think several batters ahead, and try to figure out what maneuvers the opposing manager may do. And the rules of baseball are highly complex, almost requiring a law degree to interpret them. Many if not most major league players have at least attended university and many of them have degrees - one former pitcher earned a Ph.D. in kinesiology: http://www.drmikemarshall.com/AcademicCredentials.html (with a minor in physiological psychology).

Of course, soccer players have presumably learned how to inflate a ball and fake being injured.

 

[AdrianB1983]

lol at yanquis and their "reasons" futbol sucks while it's popular:

1. It's a third world sport. You just need an old ball and a field, so everyone can play it. Well, for baseball you just need a ball and a stick, for basketball a ball and a basket, for american football a ball and a field, for ice hockey ice, skates and a stick. Oh, we can't afford any of that!
2. It's for soft men to play it, we like tough sports where we can show we are men. Well, if you have to show that you are a man through a sport I guess you have it all wrong.
3. Everyone can play it, you don't need to be an athlete. Hey! If anyone can play it you should go pro and earn millions of dollars! Futbol players earn much more that american football or nba players!!!
4. There are no tactics, that's why dumb third world citizens can enjoy it, it's just kicking a ball around a field. OTOH you have to be a rocket scientist to understand american football. If you are so intelligent and futbol has no tactics become a futbol coach then, now!!! I think Mourinho is making 20 USD million this year, that money could be yours!
5. It's boring. Well, while I don't like watching futbol (exept when Argentina NT plays) i find it way more entertaining that baseball, where 98% of the time literally nothing happens, or american football, where you have 5 seconds of action every one minute of real time. I have to admit NBA is really fun to watch. Playing futbol is a lot of fun. If I were a kid and had to play baseball I would be bored to death anytime the other team has to bat while I'm standing still in the middle of a field crossing my fingers that the guy will send the ball over here.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

lol at yanquis and their "reasons" futbol sucks while it's popular:

1. It's a third world sport. You just need an old ball and a field, so everyone can play it. Well, for baseball you just need a ball and a stick, for basketball a ball and a basket, for american football a ball and a field, for ice hockey ice, skates and a stick. Oh, we can't afford any of that!
2. It's for soft men to play it, we like tough sports where we can show we are men. Well, if you have to show that you are a man through a sport I guess you have it all wrong.
3. Everyone can play it, you don't need to be an athlete. Hey! If anyone can play it you should go pro and earn millions of dollars! Futbol players earn much more that american football or nba players!!!
4. There are no tactics, that's why dumb third world citizens can enjoy it, it's just kicking a ball around a field. OTOH you have to be a rocket scientist to understand american football. If you are so intelligent and futbol has no tactics become a futbol coach then, now!!! I think Mourinho is making 20 USD million this year, that money could be yours!
5. It's boring. Well, while I don't like watching futbol (exept when Argentina NT plays) i find it way more entertaining that baseball, where 98% of the time literally nothing happens, or american football, where you have 5 seconds of action every one minute of real time. I have to admit NBA is really fun to watch. Playing futbol is a lot of fun. If I were a kid and had to play baseball I would be bored to death anytime the other team has to bat while I'm standing still in the middle of a field crossing my fingers that the guy will send the ball over here.

People who think baseball is boring, well, they just don't think. So much is going on between pitches, and you have be ready for anything - including a tiny sphere thrown toward your face at upwards on 90 mph (150 kph) or batted in your direction at even higher speeds. It requires phenomenal reflexes and concentration which, apparently, soccer players lack. There have always been some good Argentine tennis players, though, so similar skills are clearly teachable.

 

[thorsten]

Apparently, not only soccer players lack those phenomenal reflexes

 

[Napoleon]

Baseball is an intricate sport. Pitching, in particular, requires both out-thinking and intimidating the batter - you want him to think the ball may hit him, even if you have no intention of doing so. On offense, you have to think several batters ahead, and try to figure out what maneuvers the opposing manager may do. And the rules of baseball are highly complex, almost requiring a law degree to interpret them. Many if not most major league players have at least attended university and many of them have degrees - one former pitcher earned a Ph.D. in kinesiology: http://www.drmikemar...redentials.html (with a minor in physiological psychology).

Of course, soccer players have presumably learned how to inflate a ball and fake being injured.

Baseball is about 1/10th as complex as American football. (And I'm being generous.)

That doesn't mean that you have to like either sport, but the planning and strategy for 22 players on the field for each individual snap blows the ever-living-sh!t out of the strategy for baseball. And YES, I understand the intricacies of baseball.

Statistics were first created for baseball because otherwise there was no reason to pay attention to players scratch themselves for 2 hrs 20 mins. But with more and more stats and television contracts, those 2 hrs 20 mins games have morphed into 3 hrs 20 mins games and there are 162 of them. You could go into a coma for 2 months, come out of it, and not miss anything in baseball.

The fact that soccer (like rugby) is over in less than 2 hrs makes it very attractive to watch. Also, the fact that there is virtually no stoppage (unlike baseball, basketball, football) makes it interesting as well. Add to that the fact that it's played in every country in the world and it becomes even more interesting when you compare various styles from country to country depending on climate, genetics, population size...

...pero bueno. I'm done with this thread.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Baseball is about 1/10th as complex as American football. (And I'm being generous.)

Statistics were first created for baseball because otherwise there was no reason to pay attention to players scratch themselves for 2 hrs 20 mins. But with more and more stats and television contracts, those 2 hrs 20 mins games have morphed into 3 hrs 20 mins games and there are 162 of them. You could go into a coma for 2 months, come out of it, and not miss anything in baseball.

The fact that soccer (like rugby) is over in less than 2 hrs makes it very attractive to watch. Also, the fact that there is virtually no stoppage (unlike baseball, basketball, football) makes it interesting as well. Add to that the fact that it's played in every country in the world and it becomes even more interesting when you compare various styles from country to country depending on climate, genetics, population size...

In reality, baseball adopted statistics as a way to evaluate players, and now makes the most sophisticated use of those techniques in any sport: http://en.wikipedia....i/Sabermetrics. This enriches our understanding of each individual game - and one of the sport's strengths is that you can't just run out the clock - and of players' seasonal and career trajectories. Football (which consists of unnaturally large humans giving each other concussions) has attempted to do this, but with far less success. Soccer? Well, what can you say about games that usually end in a scoreless tie?

 

[internationalguy]

Would you please stop saying "yanquis" are this or that because they hate soccer? Yes there used to be a time in which this generalization may have been mostly true, but that has changed. Generalizations are very often really wrong anyway. Either way to claim that whatever one of us does represents what all Americans do is ridiculous.

 

[sleslie23]

Soccer? Well, what can you say about games that usually end in a scoreless tie?

Again with the platitudes about how FOOTBALL is boring. When you say things like this you just show how little you know about the actual sport.

Edit: I'll probably go to a bar and watch a baseball game in an hour or so. I'll need to drink 3-4 Guinesses just to keep from falling asleep.