Unpopular opinions.

[Thistle_do_nicely]

5 minutes ago, MixuFixit said:

I think you typo'd so I'm responding as if you mean folk wouldn't be impressed by a screamer. Of course they would. Man kicks ball very hard from far away into goal is easy to get. Similarly with American football, man runs a long way and dodges lots of tackles is intuitively impressive. What isn't is whatever the hell I watched that just seemed to be man throws ball a short distance and other man catches it.

This, yep.

Off the top of my head that Roberto Carlos free kick where he beats Barthez was incredible at the time, think folk that appreciated football were left stunned and any non-football folk that watched it and thought "how the f**k did he manage to do that", vivid memories of it being on the telly a few times and I'm sure it came up a few times at primary school even from non-football folk.

Also mind our maths teacher who wasn't really all that keen on football letting us have the Argentina - Serbia game on, think he managed to stream it on the computer. Even he went "oh, wow" at that Cambiasso goal.

I tried watching the NFL show they have on the beeb sometimes to see if it was something I'd be into but yeah, nah. I mean I liked the enthusiasm and it was kind of refreshing to see pundits that actually still enjoy life rather than, say, Alan Shearer or Mark Lawrenson tbf.

[Hedgecutter]

13 minutes ago, KnightswoodBear said:

Basketball is another one.  It seems to me its a case of one team gets the ball, runs up, puts it in the basket.  Other team gets the ball runs up and puts it in the basket at the other side.  The team that loses is the one that manages to make a hash of it.

I can however appreciate when someone gets it in the basket from a different postcode.

The thing with football, ice hockey, rugby & American football is that the goal/try/touchdown you see could possibly be the only one your team scores in that that match.  Basketball on the other hand is just one after another, after another, although I guess there's always something going on if you're just looking to kill a couple of hours or so. 

I know Americans that only go to the baseball out of family tradition and for the hotdogs.  What perplexes me however is how baseball is so f***ing massive in Japan. Of all the world sports to adopt. 

[BFTD]

Just now, KnightswoodBear said:

I think if you show anyone a clip of someone scoring a thunderb*****d from 35 yards or Messi pinging a bicycle kick into the top corner, they'll be able to appreciate it whether they have an interest in the game or not.

If they could somehow adapt football so that these things happened every ten seconds, it's be huge in the US.

Think the rest of us would be bored shitless.

[19QOS19]

This, yep.
Off the top of my head that Roberto Carlos free kick where he beats Barthez was incredible at the time, think folk that appreciated football were left stunned and any non-football folk that watched it and thought "how the f**k did he manage to do that", vivid memories of it being on the telly a few times and I'm sure it came up a few times at primary school even from non-football folk.
Also mind our maths teacher who wasn't really all that keen on football letting us have the Argentina - Serbia game on, think he managed to stream it on the computer. Even he went "oh, wow" at that Cambiasso goal.
I tried watching the NFL show they have on the beeb sometimes to see if it was something I'd be into but yeah, nah. I mean I liked the enthusiasm and it was kind of refreshing to see pundits that actually still enjoy life rather than, say, Alan Shearer or Mark Lawrenson tbf.

Obviously I don't agree with the majority of your post but you're right about the last part. OTT Americans are irritating as f**k but not listening to someone who appears to genuinely hate the sport they are commentating on in refreshing. Danny Murphy is the latest one for me. He spends the whole 90 minutes just fucking complaining. Why do the BBC continue to hire they arseholes?

[BFTD]

2 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

What perplexes me however is how baseball is so f***ing massive in Japan. Of all the world sports to adopt. 

So's baseball. I get the impression that part of the settlement after WWII was that they had to start enjoying American sports.

Edit: sorry, thought you said basketball  

Edited February 3, 2020 by BigFatTabbyDave

[BFTD]

The inevitable Simpsons soccer GIF, for anyone unsure of how many Americans view the game...

[Miguel Sanchez]

2 hours ago, MixuFixit said:

Impressive stuff should be intuitively impressive without understanding in detail what's going on tbh.

Relevant:

 

[Melanius Mullarkey]

10 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

The inevitable Simpsons soccer GIF, for anyone unsure of how many Americans view the game...

McInnesesque in their tactical setup. Quite scary tbh

[Melanius Mullarkey]

24 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

So's baseball. I get the impression that part of the settlement after WWII was that they had to start enjoying American sports.

Edit: sorry, thought you said basketball  

Many Japanese basketball players are there, Dave?

[Hedgecutter]

29 minutes ago, BigFatTabbyDave said:

So's baseball. I get the impression that part of the settlement after WWII was that they had to start enjoying American sports.

Edit: sorry, thought you said basketball  

Psyche Out.

 

Edited February 3, 2020 by Hedgecutter

[Shandon Par]

1 hour ago, MixuFixit said:

I think you typo'd so I'm responding as if you mean folk wouldn't be impressed by a screamer. Of course they would. 

I met this screamer once. Was amazed her neighbours never called the police.

[ICTChris]

I like American sports, I think the NFL is fascinating tactically and, almost, every game is finely balanced. It’s got brute force, strength, skill, vision, speed and athleticism. I also like the analysis Side of it, the business side of it and think the way it’s run makes it so interesting to follow.

I’ll watch the NBA, it takes a bit of getting used to when you have always watched sports like football but there’s a flow to the best teams that’s very compelling. I sometimes watch baseball if I’m working late and it’s on but I don’t think I’d sit down to watch a game live. The five minute highlight packages in YouTube are good if you want to follow what’s happening in the season.

I don’t think any of that is particularly unpopular, these sports have always had followings in the U.K. When I was a kid we had a baseball set and my dad built me a basketball net in our back garden. I played basketball at school and at a club, it was hugely popular.

Nothing wrong with not liking them though. Not everyone’s going to like everything.

I do think there’s an attitude that football is the only proper sport by some people in Scotland and that anything else is a joke. You can see it when you hear the usual suspects on Sportsound bemoaning that kids today are all on their x boxes rather than outside kicking a ball like they were at that age. “Doing other sports or playing computer games or doing anything other than playing football is wrong, get out and play Tanner ba in the back close, like I did.”

[Melanius Mullarkey]

1 hour ago, Shandon Par said:

I met this screamer once. Was amazed her neighbours never called the police.

Running away from you was she?

[Shandon Par]

4 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Running away from you was she?

I don’t think this girl did much running tbh.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

Just now, Shandon Par said:

I don’t think this girl did much running tbh.

^^^feeder found.

[19QOS19]

When I was a kid we had a baseball set and my dad built me a basketball net in our back garden.

[BFTD]

3 hours ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Many Japanese basketball players are there, Dave?

They probably have more world class basketball players than we have footballers  

[Hampden Diehard]

Basketball is another one.  It seems to me its a case of one team gets the ball, runs up, puts it in the basket.  Other team gets the ball runs up and puts it in the basket at the other side.  The team that loses is the one that manages to make a hash of it.
I can however appreciate when someone gets it in the basket from a different postcode.

American sports are generally shite with basketball the worst of the lot. Up and down they go; big tall guys pushing and shoving each other. Tedious.

[Hampden Diehard]

If you think American football is bad, you want to try attending a baseball game

I did that once and was very surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Maybe it was the novelty factor. They stopped selling beer near the end though.

[tamthebam]

4 hours ago, Hedgecutter said:

The thing with football, ice hockey, rugby & American football is that the goal/try/touchdown you see could possibly be the only one your team scores in that that match.  Basketball on the other hand is just one after another, after another, although I guess there's always something going on if you're just looking to kill a couple of hours or so. 

I know Americans that only go to the baseball out of family tradition and for the hotdogs.  What perplexes me however is how baseball is so f***ing massive in Japan. Of all the world sports to adopt. 

I think mass participant baseball is big in North Glasgow but I'm sure I heard once that in a year they sold 200 baseball bats in Possil. And one ball...