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WHY I LOVE SPORTS: MANCHESTER CITY'S AMAZING COMEBACK!


Strider

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you can't have a "World series" with it that doesn't involve any other country*

Actually Canada has a team and they won the World Series before.

You're point remains true though.

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In reply to Strider....If I did have dyslexia, you would be so fucking rude its untrue, I may not know all the facts but at least I have a brain.I know nothing about American sports and have no interest in them anyway.The only good thing to come out of there is an aeroplane.

Easy now. In with the good air, out with the bad air.....

If you have no interest and know nothing about American sports, then why post about it in the first place?

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Good thing you posted that - I was about to complain :D

I totally understand the point of your posts - and I totally agree!!

So do I ! So many fantastic moments in my sports memory. Some have been mentioned but one that sticks out to me was Franz Klammer's downhill run at the 76 winter olympics.

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One for our over the pond dwellers: The US are the current Olympic Champions in Rugby Union. Hilarious I know. They won in 1924 and the sport has never appeared since. I know the US currently have a Rugby Union squad and they do appear in the RU World Cup. But to be honest they never really trouble the scorers.

Very physical, tough sport.Same shaped ball as American Football, but that's where the similarity ends. Fondly remembered by the English when Jonny Wilkinson dropped a goal in extra time to beat the Aussies ( who were favourites) in the Final ON THEIR OWN TURF in 2003. Another great example of Striders original post of classic moments in sport

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A fantasic moment in sport doesn't always have to be momentous game or popular sport either. I remember during the summer olympics one year, Australia had some guy going for gold in archery. Very few Aussies had heard of this guy, let alone knew anything about archery and yet we were all glued to the tv watching this unknown person go for gold, but because he was an Aussie, we were all on the edge of our seats (he won the gold too). Same thing another time, but this was a game of lawn bowls. I've never seen a game of lawn bowls, let alone know any rules, but once again, edge of seat stuff and we're all behind this pairs team.

Cricket .... I don't like the game. You'd have to tie, gag and sedate me in a chair to force me to sit through a test match, but if some bowler, from any country is on a hat trick, or someone is about to break a batting record etc, then i'll eagerly watch that great moment.

I was in the States a year or so ago and went to Fenway Park to see a game of baseball. I like baseball and know the rules, but I absolutely loved going to see a live game, especially at a ballpark with so much tradition as Fenway. It was incredible ...... the stadium, the atmosphere and the game. I then flew over to England, where my timing had me landing right in the middle of the World Cup. Wow, talk about passion. I don't think I saw a single car without a British flag flying on it. I was so caught up in it all, that I came out of a theatre show in London at the half time break and went straight outside on the streets to find out the score of whatever match was being played at that time. Then when I flew back home, my timing was all out with jet lag, but yay, it didn't matter, because at 3am the World Cup matches were on tv.

As for the 'football' debate. You're all bashing your heads against brickwalls. Which ever football'ish type game is the most popular of a country, that is the one which will be called football there. Whether that be American football, soccer, rugby league or rugby union. Even here is Australia, the southern half of our country call Aussie Rules football and the other half call rugby league football.

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Fondly remembered by the English when Jonny Wilkinson dropped a goal in extra time to beat the Aussies ( who were favourites) in the Final ON THEIR OWN TURF in 2003. Another great example of Striders original post of classic moments in sport

Unfortunately, where there are winners, there are always losers and the more classic or monumentous the win, the more devastating the loss can be.

Your post is a perfect example of both the euphoria and devastation in any sporting game or achievement.

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Thank you Bonzo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5QxPqpQH_M&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Oh, BTW Joe form Liverpool. If you are going to insult a country's sport, please get your facts straight. The U.S. did in fact beat the U.S.S.R. in the 1980 Olympics hockey event which was a momentous occasion since we were the total underdogs and were not expected to win at all.

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Unfortunately, where there are winners, there are always losers and the more classic or monumentous the win, the more devastating the loss can be.

Your post is a perfect example of both the euphoria and devastation in any sporting game or achievement.

Oh I know Jangles I'm English and a Manchester United supporter !!

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In reply to Strider....If I did have dyslexia, you would be so fucking rude its untrue, I may not know all the facts but at least I have a brain.I know nothing about American sports and have no interest in them anyway.The only good thing to come out of there is an aeroplane.

Last time I checked, the Olympics were an INTERNATIONAL event...but what do I know, I'm just a silly American who drives on the wrong side of the road.

Apparently since us Colonists told King George to sod off, the English and Americans are destined to forever bicker like cranky siblings into eternity. But I want to thank KB, ekb, Ally, Jangles and anyone else who got the point and guided this thread back on the right track.

Someone...ally, I think it was...brought up Franz Klammer's gold medal run in the 1976 Olympics. THAT was the exact moment the wish to learn how to ski was implented in my head. Not that I wasn't aware of skiing before...I knew about Jean-Claude Killy and there was that epic wipe-out that ABC used to represent the "agony of defeat" in its opening credits to "The Wide World of Sports" every weekend...but Klammer's blazing run down that course was riveting stuff to this 14-year-old kid growing up in the sun-drenched beaches of Orange County.

Two other Olympic events that fascinate me, and remain among my favourites to watch, are gymnastics and diving. Watching the athletes twist and turn and flip their lithe bodies in a myriad of ways keeps me spellbound. How do they do that? How does the mind keep itself oriented and know how to tell which muscle to flex and which nerve to twitch in the proper sequence to allow the rapid revolutions the body must propel itself through in these sports. And all the while never losing its sense of balance and gravity. Amazing...simply amazing to me to watch for both the beautiful aesthetics and the science, the wonder of it all.

I particularly like the moment in diving when the diver enters the water. The way the body, ramrod straight, plunges in the water like a bullet shot from a gun is beautiful to me, with all the bubbles the body's entrance into the water creates adding to the ethereal effect.

Even though I am not passionate about cricket or baseball, the way a pitcher or bowler hurls their sports respective spheres is a continual fascination to me, and a further illustration to me of "what a piece of work is man". And the advantages of having been blessed with opposable thumbs.

In fact, the showdown between pitcher and batter is one of those instances of mind-body synchronization that I find more compelling than the inner workings of a computer...and are probably just as intricate.

Figuring an average speed of around 90 miles per hour of a baseball pitch(some pitches are up to 100 m.p.h., some as low as 80 or 70 m.p.h.), the batter generally has less than a second to see the pitch, figure out where the pitch is headed and decide whether to swing or not, and if yes, then set his body in motion.

All in the blink of an eye. Not to mention watching out for a ball aimed at his head.

As for the pitcher, the different grips and the mechanics of arm delivery, the torquing of the elbow involved to throw a baseball with such velocity and varying trajectory and spin is also a marvel of the body at work.

It's no wonder that the physics of sport is a growing field of practice for scientists. I have a feeling the singular nature and endurance of Mariano Rivera's "cutter" will be studied a long time.

Edited by Strider
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