Your favorite and least favorite of the Big 4 American sports

[KevShmev]

When I say football, I am obviously talking about American football.  Soccer fans, don't throw a fit.

Anyway, I will go with hockey as my favorite and basketball as my least favorite.  It was tough picking hockey over football, but I won't let my love for playing fantasy football change my mind.  Baseball over basketball for 3rd place was easy, as I hate the fouling out rule in basketball. 

[hefdaddy42]

Favorite: football
Least favorite: baseball

[Dark Castle]

Favorite: Hockey
Least: Baseball

I actually love baseball.... when I go to the game, but on tv, no matter if it's the regular season or World Series, it's dreadfully boring. Basketball, which came in third actually gets pretty entertaining during the playoffs and finals.


But Hockey easily remains no.1.  I just absolutely love hockey.

[cramx3]

Favorite: football
Least favorite: baseball

This.  Although if I wanted to be specific, id say college football is the best.

[Tom Bombadil]

Favorite: football
Least favorite: baseball

I voted this, but if we're strictly talking at the Pro level, then my least favorite would be basketball.

[gmillerdrake]

Favorite: Hockey
Least Favorite: Basketball

"Professional" Basketball in my eyes is an utter joke of a game and League. Nowhere near as competitive as College basketball nor entertaining. And as much as I love Baseball it's boring as heck to watch, especially when compared to a sport like Hockey. IMO....there is no professional sport out there that comes close to matching the intensity, speed, toughness, mental strength, team work and skill level required to play professional Hockey. American Football would be second behind Hockey with that criteria but the amount of breaks in the game and the actual time of play and games played in a season render it a distant second to what professional hockey players endure.

[black_biff_stadler]

Professional" Basketball in my eyes is an utter joke of a game and League. Nowhere near as competitive as College basketball nor entertaining.

You mean the same college basketball where teams like Duke and Kansas play schools with enrollments of less than 10,000 every season due to 350 schools of a dizzying degree of disparity are all in the same level of competition, 40-point margins of victory happen every single day of the regular season, and any game decided by fewer than 15 points is considered close?

[senecadawg2]

To be fair, b_f, there is a lot less disparity when it counts in march. Schools like Duke and Kansas go down early in the tournament very frequently, often to the Mercer's of the NCAA. And within conferences large blowouts are not all that common.

As for me, basketball is favorite and baseball least favorite.

[Implode]

College basketball is great. Baseball is probably my least favorite, but I wouldn't say I hate it.

[Big Hath]

Favorite to watch: NFL/collecge football followed closely by college basketball
Favorite to play: baseball

hockey doesn't even register

[cramx3]

Definitely like college bball over NBA, but not due to blowouts, but due to team play.  College runs a lot more different styles of offense and defense where they have to play as a team.  NBA does this too, but often it comes down to isolations with the best players and for me, thats just not as fun or entertaining.  Also the NBA does have quite a big difference between the top and bottom just like college.

[zepp-head]

Football
Hockey
Baseball









Basketball
Lawn darts

[antigoon]

Favorite: Basketball
Least Favorite: Football

I truly enjoy them all, though.

Just a side note: The 35 second shot clock is enough alone to stop me from watching anything more than a handful of March Madness games. Ugh.

[KevShmev]

To elaborate on what I said earlier, I hate the idea of fouling out in basketball.  It's stupid.  In no other major sport do you see major stars have to sit out huge chunks of games, or have to play tame or soft, but you do in basketball, and when you consider the subjective nature of foul calling, that puts a ton of power in the hands of the officials.  All it takes is a couple of ticky tack falls to be called on a player early in a game and all of a sudden he is sitting out for most of the rest of the first half or having to not be aggressive.  It hurts the game.  And, no, I don't think you should be able to rack up fouls all day, but make it to where, in college, for example, once you get your 5th foul, every time that player commits a foul, you treat it like a technical: one shot and the ball (or two shots if it was a shooting foul).  That would add a lot more strategy to the game. 

[snapple]

Baseball
Basketball



Baseball is the purest and most athletic sport.

[King Postwhore]

Baseball is the purest and most athletic sport.

Um, no.

Athletic?!  There a grace to baseball, a majestic feel to seeing a pitch thrown and and the hand eye coordination to his a 97 MPH fastball 400 feet. but it's not the most athletic sport of the 4.  I'd say it's the least athletic.

[KevShmev]

Yeah, baseball is easily the least athletic of these four sports.

[CrimsonSunrise]

1. Football




2. Baseball
3. Basketball
4. Hockey

[rumborak]

I voted baseball as my favorite but hell yeah, it's certainly the least athletic. I mean, a good percentage of the players are plain overweight. I would say basketball is the most athletic.

[Dark Castle]

Hockey is undoubtable the most athletic. Fast paced like basketball, and unlike basketball, it's physical as shit.

[KevShmev]

I think hockey gets the slight nod over basketball when it comes to athleticism.  It's pretty close, though.  The gap between football in 3rd and baseball in 4th is pretty wide.

[Neon]

Football is definitely my favorite, and is the only sport that I make a point to watch regularly on TV.  However I of course love hockey and baseball as well.  I'm not really a basketball fan anymore, but I was when I was a kid. 

I think it's time to consider the possibility that there are now 5 major sports in the USA though.  As much as some people in the USA still consider soccer the game of little kids supported by bored middle-aged moms driving minivans, it's definitely not the case anymore. 

I never grew up with soccer and therefore never liked it- if you had told me 10 years ago that I would be a soccer fan, I would have laughed in your face.  But I completely love it now.  And MLS ticket sales beat out both NBA and NHL in many cities.  I realize that MLS level of playing doesn't compare to the level of playing that the rest of the world plays on.  But it's something at least

[orcus116]

Baseball
Hockey

I know a little about hockey but not being able to track the puck makes it really hard to watch.

[KevShmev]

Indoor soccer was actually really popular in the mid to early 80s.  I am sure some older DTFers remember the MISL.  The St. Louis Steamers, NY Arrows, Wichita Wings, Cleveland Force, San Diego Sockers, etc.  Good times.  We used to go to Steamers games all of the time at the old Checkerdome/Arena downtown and the place was almost always filled up.  Sadly, indoor soccer's popularity just plummeted over time.

[rumborak]

I think this year's soccer world cup will give it a good push, partially because for once it's in the same time zone.

[Neon]

Indoor soccer was actually really popular in the mid to early 80s.  I am sure some older DTFers remember the MISL.  The St. Louis Steamers, NY Arrows, Wichita Wings, Cleveland Force, San Diego Sockers, etc.  Good times.  We used to go to Steamers games all of the time at the old Checkerdome/Arena downtown and the place was almost always filled up.  Sadly, indoor soccer's popularity just plummeted over time.

Yeah, but MLS is growing- and it's played by FIFA rules and same size fields and all- just from the standpoint of the Philadelphia Union (the team I obviously support  ) their home games continually sell at least 17,000 tickets- and for easily accessible road trips (ie NY, Washington DC) we are known to organize 8-10 busses of people and travel for games. 

And look at the Seattle Sounders- they play at the Seahawks stadium and that crowd is massive every week- perhaps because Seattle no longer has an NBA team and doesn't have an NHL team, but you can't deny those numbers.  And that rivalry they have with Portland and Vancouver is huge. 

[Neon]

I think this year's soccer world cup will give it a good push, partially because for once it's in the same time zone.

I agree.  Except for the fact that the US isn't surviving the first group.  Fuck. 

And for USA vs. Germany- bet your ass I'm taking off work that day and going to my favorite German bar.  Gonna be out of control...

[Dimitrius]

Baseball

Hockey

I'd like to get more into hockey but there's so little shown on TV and I really don't feel like going out of my way and find more.

[snapple]

Baseball is the purest and most athletic sport.

Um, no.

Athletic?!  There a grace to baseball, a majestic feel to seeing a pitch thrown and and the hand eye coordination to his a 97 MPH fastball 400 feet. but it's not the most athletic sport of the 4.  I'd say it's the least athletic.

I could rephrase. Baseball players tend to be the better overall athletes. Just because the players are good at what they are doing, doesn't meant these guys arent athletes. Plus, NFL has probably got a huge steroid problem. I'm not quite sure how it could be argued that the other sports are any more athletic.

[Dr. DTVT]

To elaborate on what I said earlier, I hate the idea of fouling out in basketball.  It's stupid.  In no other major sport do you see major stars have to sit out huge chunks of games, or have to play tame or soft, but you do in basketball, and when you consider the subjective nature of foul calling, that puts a ton of power in the hands of the officials.  All it takes is a couple of ticky tack falls to be called on a player early in a game and all of a sudden he is sitting out for most of the rest of the first half or having to not be aggressive.  It hurts the game.  And, no, I don't think you should be able to rack up fouls all day, but make it to where, in college, for example, once you get your 5th foul, every time that player commits a foul, you treat it like a technical: one shot and the ball (or two shots if it was a shooting foul).  That would add a lot more strategy to the game.

I disagree.  I like that you can foul out in basketball, it is part of what makes it different than other goal-oriented sports.  Yeah, it sucks when some of those are ticky-tack or questionable block/charge calls; but by in large it makes it adds something to the sport's uniqueness.  I don't feel like writing any more because I'm not going to change your mind and I don't really care to argue because you won't change mine.

Anyway: Football, Hockey, NL, basketball, AL.  I'm not a DH fan.  Deal with it.

[King Postwhore]

Baseball is the purest and most athletic sport.

Um, no.

Athletic?!  There a grace to baseball, a majestic feel to seeing a pitch thrown and and the hand eye coordination to his a 97 MPH fastball 400 feet. but it's not the most athletic sport of the 4.  I'd say it's the least athletic.

I could rephrase. Baseball players tend to be the better overall athletes. Just because the players are good at what they are doing, doesn't meant these guys arent athletes. Plus, NFL has probably got a huge steroid problem. I'm not quite sure how it could be argued that the other sports are any more athletic.

I love baseball but we all know steroids and HGH is huge in all sports.

[Grizz]

Hockey/Basketball

[TempusVox]

Football (although the older I become, the more I like baseball I think. Not sure why. Could be I'm just tired of football, or the fact that football has probably taken 10 years off my life if I had to guess. The older I get the more aches and pains I have as a result of football.)
Baseball- But as I mentioned, it's darn close to football.
Hockey


Horse Racing
Boxing
Lawn Darts
Croquet
Badminton
Jai Alai

Tractor Pulls

Herding Cats
Bowling on TV


Watching Flies Fuck


Professional Basketball   

[orcus116]

I think you're shorting tractor pulls.

[jammindude]

Football (although the older I become, the more I like baseball I think. Not sure why. Could be I'm just tired of football, or the fact that football has probably taken 10 years off my life if I had to guess. The older I get the more aches and pains I have as a result of football.)
Baseball- But as I mentioned, it's darn close to football.
Hockey


Horse Racing
Boxing
Lawn Darts
Croquet
Badminton
Jai Alai

Tractor Pulls

Herding Cats
Bowling on TV


Watching Flies Fuck


Professional Basketball   

I seriously could have written this ENTIRE thing.   You've nailed my exact list.  EDIT:  With the exception of boxing...which I truly despise. 

And it's a shame really, because when I was 9 years old, and the Seattle Supersonics won the NBA Championship, you never saw a little kid who was a bigger basketball geek.   And even years later with the mid-90's Sonics with Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Detlef Shremf, Sam Perkins and Nate McMillon.   I never missed a game.   

But through the years, I've just really come to see the NBA for the completely mindless drivel of a game that it is.   It's almost agonizing to watch.    I don't really care if Seattle ever gets an NBA team back...just give us a hockey team and I'll be happy.    And I'm REALLY looking forward to baseball this year.