How the mighty are fallen

[MajGenl.Meade]

You get a perfectly good thread about the most popular sport in the world and what happens? Minority games of marginal value - baseball... cycling.... and now people running around in ellipses. And apparently all of them on drugs.

[Long Run]

I am quite certain that the Chinese women were reported to have eaten crickets as part of their special dietary regime. As a result, I stand by my post as relevant to the thread.

[Bicycle Bill]

You get a perfectly good thread about the most popular sport in the world and what happens? Minority games of marginal value - baseball... cycling.... and now people running around in ellipses. And apparently all of them on drugs.

Exactly how are you defining "most popular sport"?  Number of players world-wide?  Amount of time spent participating in the sport?  Easiest sport to play?  Number of paying spectators world-wide?  Most revenue generated world-wide?
Each qualification could conceivably produce a different ranking.

-"BB"-

[MajGenl.Meade]

Most Popular Sports in the World

Football (Soccer)1) Football (Soccer): Soccer (more popularly known as Football in many regions) is a team sport that is popular in almost every country in the world. The huge fan following is perhaps due to the fact that at an amateur level, it requires very little equipment and effort to learn the basics. It starts with as simple as driving the ball into the opponent's goal post and preventing the opponent from doing so. Kids from all walks of life start playing soccer at an early age and go on to become ardent followers of the game. Soccer is also the highest paying team sport at professional level. The prize money for the winning team at the 2010 soccer world cup was US $30 million. The synonym of enthusiasm and zeal, soccer or soccer posses the number 1 ranking in the world's most popular sports. Learn more about this game which has taken the world by storm.

Football (Soccer) Popularity

Basketball2) Basketball:Basketball is an action packed game combining the display of skills, strategy and athleticism in one of the shortest duration as compared to contemporary sports. Basketball gives you one of the most rigorous indoor exercises. The game originated in Canada and has a huge fan following in North America. However, it has gained worldwide popularity rather quickly - the Federation Internationale de Basketball (FIBA) ranking list has 82 countries with non-zero points after the 2012 London Olympics. Top Basketball players in the world are rewarded handsomely. In 2004, Michael Jordan made 35 million dollars.

Basketball Popularity

Cricket3) Cricket: English version of American softball? Close but not quite. The third most popular sport in the world is also a team sport. Cricket's number three spot in terms of number of fans is thanks largely due to its popularity in the Indian sub-continent. It is popular in Asia, Australia, Middle-East, England and few selected countries, but is slowly expanding its reach to other countries. Cricket is a rather interesting sport with many formats - from test matches which last for as long as 5 days to the more recent 20-20 format which has a duration of about 3 hours. The original format of the game (5 days) and the somewhat involved rules and skills required meant that Cricket was popular among a few selected countries to begin with. However, the introduction of the 20-20 format has resulted in many more countries participating in the sport at an international level.

Cricket Popularity

Tennis4) Tennis:Tennis is one of the top 5 most popular sport in the world, but is the most popular individual sport. Tennis can be played between two single players or two teams of a pair of players each (doubles variant). It is a sport which is equally popular among men and women. Lawn tennis is a very high paying individual sport - individual players have made more than $40 million in a year alone. Tennis is a fascinating game as well as exercise. The fact that there is no fixed time limit in the game means a player has to work hard on his/her stamina - matches between professionals often turn out to be a test of endurance. The only limiting factor in the popularity of the game is the availability of affordable tennis courts for common public. Everyone should try Lawn Tennis - the world's most popular individual sport atleast once!

Tennis Popularity

Baseball5) Baseball:Baseball, the national pastime of the United States, is one of the top 10 most popular sports in the world. Baseball is also a very high paying sport at the professional level - the total prize money for the World Baseball Classic (WBC) tournament standing at $14 million, and individual players in the United States earning as much as $33 million in a year.

[rubato]

We've been through this.

If popularity is measured by the number or people who attend a game it is professional baseball by a large margin.

Just MLB: 75,000,000 in 2012
Minor league. > 30,000,000 in 2015
Japan. 24,000,000
+ Korea
+ Mexico
+ Caribbean, central and South America


Yrs,
Rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources

[Lord Jim]

games of marginal value - baseball...

More "marginal" in some places then others...

Cricket: English version of American softball? Close but not quite.

Something to be said for that I suppose, except for the fact that softball is much more fast paced and requires more highly honed skills...(Credit to the author though for having the good sense to not even attempt to elevate Cricket by comparing it to Baseball.)

Cricket's number three spot in terms of number of fans is thanks largely due to its popularity in the Indian sub-continent.

Just think, if the US had conquered India and Pakistan rather than the UK, those folks could be experiencing the sublime pleasures of baseball rather than the dreary tedium of cricket...

Cricket is truly one of the cruelest enduring legacies of colonialism...

[MajGenl.Meade]

The US never conquered the UK

Softball is a girl's game developed from baseball which is a girl's game derived from the English girl's game, rounders.

Real men play rugby football (league) which was derived from the English men's game, football

Real football consists of two 45 minute halves totaling 90 minutes of continuous action. Time is extended for method acting.

Fake football consists of two 30 minute halves totally approximately 5 minutes of actual play, 140 minutes of standing around doing nothing and 35 minutes of commercials. No, wait. That's 5 minutes playing and 175 minutes standing around doing nothing.

Baseball... success is a man hitting a ball less than half the time plus a lot of standing around doing nothing.

Cricket - now there's a game that should be huge in the USA... a lot of standing around and doing nothing in full matches; 4-5 days of it. Probably the ODI limited over (limited pitches for the language challenged) is a bit fast for USians though; lots of action and not much doing nothing.

No wait - there's basketball (another girl's game invented in England) which is lots of action. Also lots of teams stopping the game and having a chin-wag... this is big in USian sports - stopping the game and chatting. The last two minutes of a close basketball game can take as long as 30 minutes to play, what with all the gossip.

So again, why isn't cricket popular here? We take tea breaks, lunch breaks, changing ends breaks... the game should be elongated enough for USians to reach the bathroom and the fridge often. (This seems to be the requirement of any successful sport here - soccer can never succeed ultimately because U.S. Americans like to pee, drink and eat without "missing" something)

[Big RR]

Real football consists of two 45 minute halves totaling 90 minutes of continuous action. Time is extended for method acting.

It depends what you define as action; most of the 90 minutes are spent running back and forth and trying to set up a scoring play. American football does have down time between each play. but then each play is designed to advance the football toward the goal; would you be happier if they ran up and down the field between plays.

FWIW, I enjoy both games for what they are.

Real men play rugby football (league) which was derived from the English men's game, football

In what possible way is rugby derived from soccer? One is a game where contact is incidental, in the other, contact between players is primary event during each minute. One is a game where the ball can only be touched by the hands of a single player, in the other, every player tries to grab at and touch it.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Oh, Big RR.... Soccer was the school game at Rugby School. The story is that in the 1830s a new player, having been told the object was to get the ball into the goal at the other end, promptly picked up the ball and achieved the objective while other soccer players attempted to give him a good whacking. From that, rugby was created as a game. Probably apocryphal. But it is named after the school that popularized that particular variation.

Truth really is that soccer and rugby have a common origin in a game from earlier times that was an unregulated mob of men trying to move the ball from one place to another by any means necessary. What we know today as Association Football (soccer) was the result of organization of a particular variety of the game - rugby also was a regularization of the same games but with rather different rules!


And no, I'd be happier if American football had no time outs (for the teams or for commercials) and was "hurry-up" all the time. But then it would be rugby - a far more sensible and interesting game. And no, soccer is a continuous action game occupying the full period allowed (90 minutes) - not a tailor-made for TV slobs game.

As I stated, given the US American penchant for not actually playing the game but standing around doing nothing for hours, it is amazing that cricket doesn't catch on

[Big RR]

But then it would be rugby - a far more sensible and interesting game

Well perhaps if you like a game where you can only throw the ball to people behind you.

And while I agree soccer is not tailor made for TV (perhaps one of the major reasons why it has not caught on in the US), I don't see running back and forth as continuous action--more like continuous movement akin to the marathon dances. Adding in all the delays for the fake injuries and the more or less arbitrary way in which the referee can award additional time at the end, the movement is not directed to scoring and/or otherwise winning the game; add in the silly shootout by which games are often won or lost, and the running back and forth can be of minimal import to the game. Personally, I see soccer, rugby, and US football are very different games and I enjoy them all (although I don't get that much a chance to view rugby).

[Long Run]

No wait - there's basketball (another girl's game invented in England) which is lots of action.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_basketball

[Big RR]

Don't blame him LR--the English think they invented everything.

[rubato]

" ... Greg LeMond, on the other hand, merely went into the bicycle and restaurant businesses. .... "

After winning the TdF 3 times and taking 2nd and 3rd place overall and setting a speed record which held for 30 years in his winning time trial against Fignon Greg has retired and continued to be a gracious gentleman.

A great champion and a great man who overcame childhood abuse:

"I wanted to be seen as a good person, and never wanted to let people down, but I found it hard to handle the fame or adulation. I didn't feel worthy of it. I was ashamed by who I thought I was because I felt partly responsible [for the abuse] and I was never able to enjoy the stuff I should have been able to enjoy. My first thought when I won the Tour was: 'My God, I'm going to be famous', and then I thought, 'He's going to call'. I was always waiting for that phone call. I lived in fear that anyone would ever find out."
—Greg LeMond explaining how he felt about the fame he acquired.[129]

Armstrong was a selfish asshole as a young man when he switched from triathalon to cycling and, contra the story of his redemption by cancer, continued to by a lying cheating asshole to the present day.

And Armstrong has -zero- Tdf wins.



yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

I'd be happier if American football had no time outs (for the teams or for commercials) and was "hurry-up" all the time.

I'm not surprised...

That way, the Cleveland Browns defeats would be over quicker...

[Long Run]

" ... Greg LeMond, on the other hand, merely went into the bicycle and restaurant businesses. .... "

After winning the TdF 3 times and taking 2nd and 3rd place overall and setting a speed record which held for 30 years in his winning time trial against Fignon Greg has retired and continued to be a gracious gentleman.

A great champion and a great man who overcame childhood abuse:

That was a strange sideswipe by BB at a great sports champion who does not belong in this category of the "mighty have fallen." It is also factually incorrect:

Since his retirement, LeMond has become increasingly involved in philanthropic efforts relating to causes that have affected him personally (including ADHD and sexual abuse),[129] and he and Kathy both sit on the board of the non-profit 1in6.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_LeMond

[rubato]

I take it back, his time trial record stood for 20 years.



yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

add in the silly shootout by which games are often won or lost

Oh that is just nonsense. You would be all over my case If I stated that the following is how NCAA games are often won or lost: When a game goes to overtime, each team is given one possession from its opponent's twenty-five yard line with no game clock, despite the one timeout per period and use of play clock. The team leading after both possessions is declared the winner. If the teams remain tied, overtime periods continue, with a coin flip determining the first possession. Possessions alternate with each overtime, until one team leads the other at the end of the overtime. Starting with the third overtime, a one-point PAT field goal after a touchdown is no longer allowed, forcing teams to attempt a two-point conversion after a touchdown.

That makes a penalty shoot-out look like genius.

Anyway, there are no "shoot-outs" in regular league Association soccer play anywhere in the world. All games are finished in 90 minutes, regardless of the score - a time to which officials have carefully added 0-5 minutes to account for any time-wasting by players and/or injuries. There are occasions on which an injury causes a large time extension - I watched a match just recently in which two players on the same team collided; one left the field temporarily for stitches and to clean up the blood. The other was concussed and went into convulsions; off to hospital and he's fine now (they say) but he was being attended to on the pitch for about 10 minutes.

You are thinking of knock-out competitions - where one team must win to move on to the next round. The World Cup, for example once the group stages are finished. The shoot-out is rare compared to actual game results, even then, and it only occurs after 30 minutes of extra time has been played to no conclusion.

[Fafhrd]

While Dr. James Naismith was Canadian by birth and education, he invented basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts, and remained in the USA for the rest of his life.

[Lord Jim]

and remained in the USA for the rest of his life.

Like damn too many Canadians...