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Fake Sports Fan

Blitz527,

I tried to like hockey when I was a kid. Really I tried. Had bubblegum cards and the whole bit. Just when I was really almost a fan, seemingly overnight the team packed it's bags and hauled ass to Canada.

The Atlanta Flames killed it for me.

A coworker some time ago related some story about fans throwing a dead squid in the rink. Sounded intriguing and boy did he have fun telling the story as he'd apparently been there once when it happened wherever it was (I don't recall)

Haven't watched a hockey game since. Except for our local minor league team (guess that's what you would call it)
https://www.stingrayshockey.com/#tab_standings-groups-leaders-conference-eastern=south&tab_standings-groups-leaders-conference-western=conference&tab_standings-groups-leaders=eastern&tab_statistics-players-leaders=forwards
 
I have been a sports fan of some sort my whole life. My dad played soccer in Germany and at one of Hitler's "boy camps" that was a military training center guised as a summer camp. After almost being sent to Russia in 1945, he went on to play for Germany's U-19 national team until he immigrated to Canada in 1951. Soccer was our family sport, we had season tickets to the Seattle Sounders since they became a team in 1974. My favorite sport and the only one I watch today. Love it!

We were into NASCAR for a long time until Bill France Jr. died in '07. They ruined the sport without him at the helm. We got to meet and greet at one of the races and when Tony Stewart (my guy) and Kasey Kahne (my wife's guy) came to the Skagit Raceway for a charity race, we stayed at the same hotel and got to gamble and hang out with both of them. What a night!

As far as NFL, we watched the Seahawks until a few years ago until they ruined that sport as well. Once they started obsessing whether his toe was on the green blade of grass or the white one, it started to test our patience. For one game, I sat there with my iPod and timed the playing time. From each hike, to the whistle. At the start/end of each play I would start/stop the timer. I realized that the actual playing time was 2:30 per quarter. It was taking three hours to watch 10 minutes of sporting. Nope nope nope. The walking around, constant changing of players and endless commercials did me in. Yaaawwwnnnn.

Hockey is cool but I don't follow.
Basketball yaawwn.
Baseball Double yawwn.

⚽️Arsenal lost badly yesterday to ⚽️Manchester City. 3-1 :mope:
 
Too kind.

It's a long running joke for years now. Haha I still say the same ambiguous crap. There are those who still don't know it's all BS, My older colleagues who know will purposely bait some newbie into conversation, throw me in the mix and listen to see if they catch it....
 
Scoville DeVille said:
I have been a sports fan of some sort my whole life. My dad played soccer in Germany and at one of Hitler's "boy camps" that was a military training center guised as a summer camp. After almost being sent to Russia in 1945, he went on to play for Germany's U-19 national team until he immigrated to Canada in 1951. Soccer was our family sport, we had season tickets to the Seattle Sounders since they became a team in 1974. My favorite sport and the only one I watch today. Love it!

We were into NASCAR for a long time until Bill France Jr. died in '07. They ruined the sport without him at the helm. We got to meet and greet at one of the races and when Tony Stewart (my guy) and Kasey Kahne (my wife's guy) came to the Skagit Raceway for a charity race, we stayed at the same hotel and got to gamble and hang out with both of them. What a night!

As far as NFL, we watched the Seahawks until a few years ago until they ruined that sport as well. Once they started obsessing whether his toe was on the green blade of grass or the white one, it started to test our patience. For one game, I sat there with my iPod and timed the playing time. From each hike, to the whistle. At the start/end of each play I would start/stop the timer. I realized that the actual playing time was 2:30 per quarter. It was taking three hours to watch 10 minutes of sporting. Nope nope nope. The walking around, constant changing of players and endless commercials did me in. Yaaawwwnnnn.

Hockey is cool but I don't follow.
Basketball yaawwn.
Baseball Double yawwn.

⚽️Arsenal lost badly yesterday to ⚽️Manchester City. 3-1 :mope:
Click to expand...
I'm pretty much the same.  In my younger years I was hard core into most every sport.  Now I limit it to Kansas State University Wildcats football, a little March Madness, a little Kansas City Chiefs football and my soccer.  Still watch as many EPL matches as I can on the weekends.  I still have Sporting Kansas City season tickets.  
 
I’ve mulled it over a bit and since having read some cool stories here on the topic (thanks Scoville) I will offer a “gee whiz” reminiscence of my own.
 
I grew up in a small Northwestern town in Georgia called Cave Spring. A beautiful little town as best I can remember, so named after a cave there that flowed forth precious clean water from the foothills, cherished by the native Indians. Very clean, clear and cold water. It fed a large swimming pool we would enjoy during the summer that had no chemicals at all, just a constant flow of this cold water that kept it pristine.
 
To the point at hand. This little town was home to (the first and only at the time as best I remember) deaf school in the state. Many who lived there were connected somehow to the school. Either they taught there or had kids going to school there etc. If my memory serves right, the kids actually lived on campus having come from all over the state. It was called Georgia School for the Deaf or “GSD” as we called it then. There was an enormous population of deaf people living there.
 
I went to regular public school and as mentioned earlier, played sports. We had a small school, so generally if you played a sport such as I did - football, you played on every team within the game (offense, defense, kicking, receiving etc…)
 
We played our games in Rome, GA and I believe the league was hosted/regulated by the local Boy’s Club. However, pre-season we would get to go to the deaf school and play a scrimmage game against their team.
 
Not to disparage anyone, but the games were terrifying. Their stands were usually packed to the hilt. Folks would scream “stuff” very loudly. Mostly unintelligible things at great volume. They had someone on a big bass/kettle drum who would pound it and the fans would shout in unison to the bass vibration. My first game there I was actually scared. It wasn’t until my teen years going to a metal concert that I’d heard anything louder.
 
Anyway, these players were serious and brutal. The defense was never “off sides.” Our quarterback would say “hut one, hut two” etc.. They never flinched. Their eyes were keen and they would crush us every play. I don’t think we ever scored in a game. All the while the fans are just hollering and wailing.
 
We did have the advantage against their offense. Their quarterback would tap the center on his butt to hike the ball, so the entire offense had to be watching for the snap. I don’t think they ever scored on us either as I recall.
 
I’m sure technology has changed things since I suppose, but, back then, the refs would blow the play dead with whistles and also toss the flag. So, it was a long game as the refs had to pick up their flags after every play. In this, we learned something pretty quick – you “always” let the ref pick up the “dead ball” after a play. So many times someone on my team would go to get the dead ball and get hammered by the deaf guys who obviously didn’t hear the whistle nor see the flags.  No penalties or anything, just part of the deal…
 
Great memories from youth, and for any “fact checkers” here (I am one by vocation) we were called the Yellow Jackets.  Our colors were yellow/purple or gold/purple. As best I recall, four decades or more since gone….
 
 
Scoville DeVille said:
As far as NFL, we watched the Seahawks until a few years ago until they ruined that sport as well. Once they started obsessing whether his toe was on the green blade of grass or the white one, it started to test our patience. For one game, I sat there with my iPod and timed the playing time. From each hike, to the whistle. At the start/end of each play I would start/stop the timer. I realized that the actual playing time was 2:30 per quarter. It was taking three hours to watch 10 minutes of sporting. Nope nope nope. The walking around, constant changing of players and endless commercials did me in. Yaaawwwnnnn.
Click to expand...
Yea, while I believe the player safety of these flags important the incessant flags from referees and coaches then the 20 - 45 second "consult" of, "What's your flag for?" ---- "Yours?" ----- "And that flag in the secondary?"........ Gag me with a spoon as the TV shows them explaining/justifying the call to either coach -OR BOTH!- for the next 10 seconds after the consult.
 
The only way I can watch a footfall game today is to record it - start watching it one hour after it starts - then hover over the 30 second skip button  and press it as often as needed to shorten the game to under 2 hours for the one hour the game actually takes to play. Not the 3 1/2 run time it's on air.
 
YMMV
 
 
 
The only sport I really care to watch anymore is hockey, and I only catch a handful of games a year.
I'll cheer for all the home teams, but I don't really follow them and if they lose... Oh well...
 
Reggie, i always enjoy reading your posts and reading this one about Cave Springs hits a note with me. i`m a yankee who has always lived in  connecticut but i have property near cave spring that me and my brother inherited from my dad. it`s in mineral bluff and i`m guessing about 50 miles from Cave Spring. i`ve been going there nearly every year since around the year 2000. it`s a beautiful place. my dad relocated from CT to key largo, florida a long time ago and after many years ended up buying the property in northern georgia. by this time my brother left connecticut and moved to key largo florida. small world heh? my bro met many of my dad`s buddies and he would ask do you remember my dad ken ******? they said no.....
 
my dad told my bro ask if they remember kenny seasick and everyone knew who he was. funny how a nickname sticks in everyones head. 
 
i`m the last holdover still in CT but i learned that Key Largo and Northern Georgia are beautiful places. 
 
Thanks.
 
Indeed it is a small world. My dad owned 12 acres near there (part lakeside) and when he died, the property was sold off. I was a teen and had no say in the matter (he had no will). Sure wished that property (or even part of it) were mine now. So nice.
 
I might go back this summer to settle my soul. I recall swimming in that huge pool and even in the dead of summer, the water was so cold that your lips turned blue... If you haven't been, you should go...
 
:cheers:
 
 
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