Are there any sports you simply don't "get?"

[FiddySicks]

If I’m being 100% honest here? 

 

Ice Hockey. Specifically NHL style hockey.

 

I feel like I spend around 90% of the time watching the game just trying to figure out where the hell the puck is. It’s so frustrating to me. I don’t know why I have such a bad eye for it compared to other sports. I feel like I never actually see what’s going on because I just don’t know where to look. I also think the whole fighting aspect of the game is totally unnecessary and lame, and it kinda brings the whole sport down with it. And with the NHL and other similar leagues the rink feels comically small. It doesn’t make sense to me why you would try to cram such a fast paced game with such large athletes into such a small little area. Watching a bunch of hulking dudes on skates all crammed together into the same corner of the boards fighting for the puck isn’t a fun watch IMO. I actually much prefer Olympic style hockey because it opens the whole thing up just a little bit more and it better showcases just how fast some of these guys move. I also appreciate the general intolerance for fighting Olympic hockey has. 

 

 

And its it’s not that I “hate” hockey. I actually like a lot of the concepts of the sport. It just loses me when it comes to actual gameplay because I have a bit of a hard time fundamentally “getting” it.

 

[Needschat]

On 4/1/2019 at 4:19 PM, Gothamite said:

Fair enough.  I just wish that if it was going to be appropriated, it hadn't been appropriated by the worst kind of white guys.  

 

I played on a club team my senior year in high school, against two suburban teams.  They acted like THOSE people 

[Matthew24]

Nascar.. 

[Magnus]

Golf. It just doesn't seem like a TV-worthy game. It also doesn't appeal to me to play, personally. I think I've been to a driving range twice in my life.

[kimball]

On 4/2/2019 at 6:23 PM, Bucfan56 said:

If I’m being 100% honest here? 

 

Ice Hockey. Specifically NHL style hockey.

 

I feel like I spend around 90% of the time watching the game just trying to figure out where the hell the puck is. It’s so frustrating to me. I don’t know why I have such a bad eye for it compared to other sports. I feel like I never actually see what’s going on because I just don’t know where to look. I also think the whole fighting aspect of the game is totally unnecessary and lame, and it kinda brings the whole sport down with it. And with the NHL and other similar leagues the rink feels comically small. It doesn’t make sense to me why you would try to cram such a fast paced game with such large athletes into such a small little area. Watching a bunch of hulking dudes on skates all crammed together into the same corner of the boards fighting for the puck isn’t a fun watch IMO. I actually much prefer Olympic style hockey because it opens the whole thing up just a little bit more and it better showcases just how fast some of these guys move. I also appreciate the general intolerance for fighting Olympic hockey has. 

 

 

And its it’s not that I “hate” hockey. I actually like a lot of the concepts of the sport. It just loses me when it comes to actual gameplay because I have a bit of a hard time fundamentally “getting” it.

 

 

I am 100% with you on that too. I blame it a lot on the fact that my first sport love was basketball because of the Jazz. I didn't have a team above the Golden Eagles here in Salt Lake to cheer for. I like it, I just don't get how to properly watch it.

[Maroon]

On ‎4‎/‎2‎/‎2019 at 7:23 PM, Bucfan56 said:

If I’m being 100% honest here? 

 

Ice Hockey. Specifically NHL style hockey.

 

I feel like I spend around 90% of the time watching the game just trying to figure out where the hell the puck is. It’s so frustrating to me. I don’t know why I have such a bad eye for it compared to other sports. I feel like I never actually see what’s going on because I just don’t know where to look. I also think the whole fighting aspect of the game is totally unnecessary and lame, and it kinda brings the whole sport down with it. And with the NHL and other similar leagues the rink feels comically small. It doesn’t make sense to me why you would try to cram such a fast paced game with such large athletes into such a small little area. Watching a bunch of hulking dudes on skates all crammed together into the same corner of the boards fighting for the puck isn’t a fun watch IMO. I actually much prefer Olympic style hockey because it opens the whole thing up just a little bit more and it better showcases just how fast some of these guys move. I also appreciate the general intolerance for fighting Olympic hockey has. 

 

 

And its it’s not that I “hate” hockey. I actually like a lot of the concepts of the sport. It just loses me when it comes to actual gameplay because I have a bit of a hard time fundamentally “getting” it.

 

Hockey took me the longest to understand as well, and not being able to follow the puck well was a huge part of that. For me, though, it was because I had always tried to watch hockey on TV and just had no idea what was happening. Then I went to a couple of Blues games because my boss was a season ticket holder and gave my wife and I some tickets to a couple games. We absolutely loved it in person, and it was a lot easier (for me) to follow the action. It still falls below baseball/basketball/football/soccer for me, but I now find hockey a lot more fun (and my wife prefers it to everything but basketball now).

 

But speaking to the rest of the thread, I've never really tried to get into lacrosse or cricket, so it wouldn't be fair to say I don't "get" it when I never have tried. Really enjoy watching curling, though. But what I REALLY never got was field hockey. Why does it even exist as a college sport? Why not just have an actual hockey team?

[FiddySicks]

That’s true that live hockey is a much better experience than watching it on TV, but even that has its downsides. I always find hockey easier to watch while at a game, but I still always have issues with the view because things like the glass and the boards get in the way of the view. Unfortunately, there’s no real solution to that because you’d routinely kill the fans without them in place. 

[Sykotyk]

1 hour ago, Bucfan56 said:

That’s true that live hockey is a much better experience than watching it on TV, but even that has its downsides. I always find hockey easier to watch while at a game, but I still always have issues with the view because things like the glass and the boards get in the way of the view. Unfortunately, there’s no real solution to that because you’d routinely kill the fans without them in place. 

My wife never liked hockey until I took her to a Phantoms game. It's still not that great compared to football for her, but she enjoys watching it now in person. 

[Needschat]

I don't get fantasy sports.  To me, it's just Dungeons & Dragons for the gambling fans.  

[The_Admiral]

Fighting is down about 75% from where it was ten years ago, for whatever that may be worth to the hockeyskeptics. You'll never completely purge it from the game, but with how it's evolved (and not necessarily for the better) into short shifts and high-speed north-south play, there's less of a place for fighting and fighters than there's ever been. I'll always find it interesting how the regimented and abstracted violence of football is a feature of the game, but two dudes flailing at each other because one said he slept with the other guy's wife makes people very uncomfortable.

[oldschoolvikings]

I'm sure a big part of this is just the simple fact that I'm not a golf fan, but I really wish someone who was could explain to me the Tiger Woods thing. I watch ESPN and whenever some golf event is coming up, the gasbags that get paid to talk about it can barely contain their chubbies over the idea the Tiger could win again. I just don't get it... Why is it so important to everyone that this one guy win? I try to picture what it would be like if other sports we're covered like this... If they picked some team that used to be good but isn't now (say, the Detroit Pistons) and just openly rooted for them. To the point that they really just ignored every other team. From the standpoint of somebody who's really only marginally interested at best, it's bizzare. And the funniest part is, he never wins, and me, the non- golf fan seems to be the only one who isn't surprised. So they talk a bit about whatever faceless clone did win, they get back to how close Tiger was, and how he really seems to be putting it together. Then a month later, the whole senario plays out again verbatim.

 

I don't know, maybe this is something that gets discussed a lot in golf circles, or I'm stepping into a mine field of stuff I'm unaware of. But from the distance of someone who has never cared one way or another, it's confusing.

[The_Admiral]

7 minutes ago, oldschoolvikings said:

I try to picture what it would be like if other sports we're covered like this... If they picked some team that used to be good but isn't now (say, the Detroit Pistons) and just openly rooted for them. To the point that they really just ignored every other team.

 

This is how Canadian media covers the Maple Leafs.

[pollux]

6 minutes ago, the admiral said:

 

This is how Canadian media covers the Maple Leafs.

 

TSN = Toronto Sports Network.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

4 hours ago, oldschoolvikings said:

I'm sure a big part of this is just the simple fact that I'm not a golf fan, but I really wish someone who was could explain to me the Tiger Woods thing. I watch ESPN and whenever some golf event is coming up, the gasbags that get paid to talk about it can barely contain their chubbies over the idea the Tiger could win again.

 

This is nothing new in the coverage of golf. Jack Nicklaus got the same sort of fawning deference, as did Arnold Palmer before him. But it's probably a little more intense regarding Tiger, on account of how young he was when he emerged onto the pro scene; people want to see him regain the dominance of his youth.

 

Let's remember that, when 39-year-old Jimmy Connors made his run to the semi-finals of the 1991 U.S. Open, announcers were openly rooting for him, just as they always did for George Foreman as he fought well into his mid-forties. 

 

Really, this is not so different to the tone of the coverage of other beloved veteran superstars in the team sports. Julius Erving was treated with extreme reverence during his "farewell tour" (which was really the first of its kind). Other athletes who later got this sort of deference and suspension of impartiality were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Cal Ripken.

[CaliforniaGlowin]

E-sports
Curling
Soccer.  I even tried to watch indoor soccer which has a smaller court and is faster, meh.  I guess I'm partial to "throwing" sports.
NASCAR
Golf, although I like the scenery

 

I LOVED Kronum!!!  It had weird rules, but if you watch it enough you can figure it out.  I loved the freestyle of it and the unique team names.

Gaelic football is cool, has similar kicking and bouncing gameplay.  

 

[RyanMcD29]

I think the E-sports divide might be around the millennial-to-Gen Z divide. I'm 28 and couldn't care less about watching it outside of FIFA Tournaments, but it's a huge hit for those in their early 20s. Also like to think the Dynasty Modes-to-Online/Ultimate Team divide runs around that line as well in sports games, and that's why pretty much everyone has punted on career modes from EA to Sony (2K at least pumps things into it, but also puts the most in the virtual currency crap).

 

Anyway, on topic, my answer's cricket. Any time I catch it randomly on TV I can't follow along with what's going on outside of putting in a frame of it being similar to baseball.

 

[and Happy Post 6,000 to me. Make a logo and put it on a baseball cap and sell it]

[greyraven8]

Haven't watched cricket but have no idea how it works.

 

For me:

Basketball is just an orgy of points - needs more defence.

Don't mind watching some baseball games in person but most of the time it is a chore to watch a whole MLB game on t.v.   Also, WAY too many MLB games in a season.
Golf and Racing are of less interest to me than watching paint dry.

 

Oddly enough, though I've never curled I do like to watch curling (which my wife refers to as "nap t.v.")

[AstroCree]

I'm 23 and I wish I could explain why e-sports is huge but I don't care for Overwatch or League of Legends so I don't bother watching them.

I do love video games and actively follow it but I'm not one to sit down and watch a long tournament. I'll watch some LPs and Twitch streams but never a big tournament. If it involved games I like (Smash Bros, Tekken and/or Street Fighter) then I'll look at it for a few minutes but I also own the game and can play it any time.

e-sports just isn't for me. 

[The_Admiral]

1 hour ago, greyraven8 said:

Also, WAY too many MLB games in a season.

 

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[IceCap]

I tried watching an e-sports competition once. It was a game (match?) in the Overwatch league. I made it five seconds in before questioning what the hell I was watching.