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Post by Young Ireland on Mar 22, 2015 21:50:32 GMT
Personally, I mostly follow soccer (mainly League of Ireland and junior soccer) and rugby (especially Munster), though I do follow Gaelic football sometimes and cricket as well when Ireland are in the World Cup. Anybody else have sports that they play or follow?
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Post by maolsheachlann on Mar 22, 2015 23:29:07 GMT
I don't play or follow any, but I sometimes enjoy watching soccer matches on TV. I like how the game flows, how open it is.
Being a cultural nationalist, I sometimes watch gaelic games, but I don't really enjoy them very much. Nor do I enjoy rugby, which is far too spasmodic for my liking. You can't see half of what is happening.
I went to one baseball game in America and enjoyed it, as much for the atmosphere as the play. (But the play was interesting, too.)
I very much like the existence of sports, if such a remark makes any sense.
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Post by Ranger on Mar 23, 2015 16:25:18 GMT
I'm not a very sporty person; I enjoy playing soccer the odd time but haven't done so in quite a while. I used to play tennis as well and I fenced for a few years. I don't watch much sports but when there's a chance to go to a live game I usually take it; I like to watch both soccer and the Gaelic sports but usually wouldn't watch them on television, except perhaps an Ireland match or the World Cup. Not a big fan of rugby in spite of going to a rugby school, not my kind of thing!
Maolsheachlann, I've always wanted to go to one of those American games, not so much for the sport but for the experience! Never seem to make it when I'm in the US though.
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Post by maolsheachlann on Mar 23, 2015 21:14:20 GMT
Ranger, I was quite reluctant to go, but I loved it when I got there. It was a AAA League game, which is one of the lesser leagues. There weren't a huge amount of spectators, and they didn't seem terribly interested in the game. But there's a whole culture to the experience. There's the baseball song (written by someone who had never been to a baseball game), that is played before one of the later innings:
Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd; Just buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don't care if I never get back. Let me root, root, root for the home team, If they don't win, it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out, At the old ball game.
There was a cannon shooting tee-shirts into the crowd; there was a monkey dressed as a cowboy, riding on a dog (I'm not kidding), in between innings; every now and again the sound of a bugle would come over the sound system, to which the crowd would shout "charge!" (an explicable baseball tradition); and lots of other stuff. It was a blast.
The only disappointment was that I went to get a hot dog, expecting it to be enormous and slathered in sauce and toppings; but it was very skimpy.
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Post by Young Ireland on Mar 23, 2015 21:27:46 GMT
Ranger, I was quite reluctant to go, but I loved it when I got there. It was a AAA League game, which is one of the lesser leagues. There weren't a huge amount of spectators, and they didn't seem terribly interested in the game. But there's a whole culture to the experience. There's the baseball song (written by someone who had never been to a baseball game), that is played before one of the later innings: Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd; Just buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don't care if I never get back. Let me root, root, root for the home team, If they don't win, it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out, At the old ball game. There was a cannon shooting tee-shirts into the crowd; there was a monkey dressed as a cowboy, riding on a dog (I'm not kidding), in between innings; every now and again the sound of a bugle would come over the sound system, to which the crowd would shout "charge!" (an explicable baseball tradition); and lots of other stuff. It was a blast. The only disappointment was that I went to get a hot dog, expecting it to be enormous and slathered in sauce and toppings; but it was very skimpy. The Americans certainly know how to put on a show anyway! I've never been to the States, so can't really comment, but what you describe sounds fascinating, Maolscheachlann. It's a pity that nothing like that has been tried here, I'd imagine that if Shamrock Rovers brought in a monkey dressed as a lepreachaun for their mascot, they might attract more of a crowd.
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Post by maolsheachlann on Mar 23, 2015 21:30:14 GMT
I don't like Brendan O'Carroll much, but I did like his story about jumping over the wall at a Bohemians match. A steward said, "Hey you, get back in there and watch that game...."
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Post by Young Ireland on Mar 23, 2015 21:33:13 GMT
I don't like Brendan O'Carroll much, but I did like his story about jumping over the wall at a Bohemians match. A steward said, "Hey you, get back in there and watch that game...." Sorry Maolscheachlann, but I don't get the joke. Was he trying to get in without paying or was he doing some sort of stunt?
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Post by maolsheachlann on Mar 23, 2015 21:40:01 GMT
It doesn't make too much sense when you think about it too much, but the joke is that he was trying to get out of the stadium rather than into it...
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Post by Young Ireland on Mar 23, 2015 21:44:47 GMT
It doesn't make too much sense when you think about it too much, but the joke is that he was trying to get out of the stadium rather than into it... I can take it that Brendan O' Carroll must have been really disappointed with the fare on offer in the LOI if he was so desperate to leave that he had to jump over the wall!
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Post by hibernicus on Mar 23, 2015 23:27:18 GMT
I'm not really a sporty type but I do keep an eye on the results in the British Premier League. I support Sunderland BTW.
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Post by Young Ireland on Mar 24, 2015 17:49:24 GMT
I'm not really a sporty type but I do keep an eye on the results in the British Premier League. I support Sunderland BTW. Very interesting, Hibernicus (and you will be disappointed to know that I support Newcastle! ). Did the takeover of the club by Charlie Chawke and others a few years back pique your interest, or was it Sunderland's connection to the Venerable Bede? As for myself, I started supporting Newcastle when they were doing very well under Bobby Robson. Little did I know that they would be relegated five years later... Still, it would be a shame to see Sunderland go down, especially with their top-class stadium, and I hope that they can avoid relegation. Have you ever been to the Stadium of Light (or Roker Park)? I haven't been to St. James' Park myself as I heard that it takes years to get a season ticket there.
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Post by hibernicus on Mar 25, 2015 22:29:21 GMT
I just happened to visit the area some years running, and my interest in the Venerable Bede developed from that (not vice versa). I've visited the Stadium of Light though not during a match. Roker Park was the stadium before the Stadium of Light was built, and I suppose it has been redeveloped. BTW when I was reading a book on the decline of the mining culture in NE England in the early 1990s, I found a description of a relatively modern pit which was regarded as technological state-of-the art and seen as the best hope for a future for coal mining in the region. It took me some time, from the description of the situation, to work out that the Stadium of Light was built on top of it! There is a pit-wheel in one of the carparks in remembrance of the past, and a miners' banner used to be on display (it was on loan and withdrawn as an anti-fascist protest when Paolo di Canio became manager; I don't know if it has been put back now he is gone). What a symbol of the shift from an industrial to a post-industrial economy!
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Post by hibernicus on Mar 25, 2015 22:31:06 GMT
BTW one of Iain Duncan Smith's more widely publicised blunders as Tory leader occurred when he was addressing a meeting in Sunderland and began by saying how pleased they must be that Newcastle had won the match that afternoon!
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Post by maolsheachlann on Mar 25, 2015 22:37:14 GMT
I was always a contrarian. Back in the eighties, when Liverpool were winning everything under Kenny Dalglish, I declared myself a Manchester United fan, just to be different from everyone else in my class. Then, in the nineties, I decided to be a Liverpool fan as they were stagnating in the Souness era (as they have been since). I even wrote away to them for autographs, and acquired a Liverpool annual and jersey (I liked the jersey very much; it was a nice turquoise colour).
I suppose I am still a 'Liverpool fan' to the extent that I take a very, very mild interest in their fortunes, all these years later.
I visited Hull for five days in 2005 (I think), since everyone was telling me I had to travel. I decided I would indeed travel, but-- just to be a contrarian, again-- to the least likely destination I could think of. Also, I was going through a Philip Larkin phase at the time, and he lectured there. Anyway, Hull City got promoted to the Premiership some time after, so I perk up my ears when I hear them mentioned.
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Post by maolsheachlann on Mar 25, 2015 22:37:50 GMT
I was an enthusiastic player of Subbutteo when I was younger, and I had a lot of teams and accessories.
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