I was noticing the past few days that Non-sports Related Topics (including Religion and Politics) by far outnumber anything Sports Related -- and I'm wondering why.

Are we in a sports drought?

That really is bad news for MLB -- that a bunch of self-professed sports fans find so little to talk about that is baseball-related (great Orioles win over Seattle last night for example).

[I will be the first to admit that most of my post-World Cup postings have been in the non-sports areas ...]

Maybe it's just me ... but I for one can't wait for football!!

DC, I'm with you. I'm tired of baseball...give me some football and bring it on now.

Right on DCBucky, it's getting really hard to care about MLB... especially the Red Sox, but that's a whole 'nother story.

[ July 16, 2002: Message edited by: redsoxbreath ]

This is the dullest time of the sports year. Baseball is in midseason cruise-control and football camps are still 2 weeks away. Basketball and hockey are on vacation and there are no major sporting events on tap (save the British Open). Not much to talk about (You try doing Tops & Bottoms!). But wait a few weeks and I'll be all jazzed by football.

[ July 16, 2002: Message edited by: Jim at Outsports ]

I agree! I don't care anything for baseball anymore. I may have to start getting into football this year, though it will conflict with hockey.

How I long for Sept. and the opening of hockey training camps!

trevor

[quote]Originally posted by redsoxbreath:
Right on DCBucky, it's getting really hard to care about MLB... especially the Red Sox, but that's a whole 'nother story.

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I'm with ya, redsoxbreath. Now that Wimbledon's over, the only game in town is baseball. And if you're a Red Sox fan, you don't really want to be talking about it much. Since the beginning of June, the Sox are 17-23, and have lost 6 of the last 8 to the Tigers and Blue Jays. As the ultimate indignity, last night they squandered a 3-0 lead only to lose in the bottom of the 11th thanks to a fielding error.

These are the times that try men's souls.

It's difficult to care about baseball right now. Even if your favorite team isn't already playing out the string, it won't matter because they'll go on strike and there won't be a pennant race anyway. And the other sports going on right now are minor compared to football. So I don't see a problem with there being more non-sports-related posts right now.

The NFL goes out of its way to stay in the view of sports fans during the off-season - it really only leaves fans' attention in the period from the end of post-draft analysis to day one of training camp (minicamps and NFL Europe notwithstanding).

As for baseball, is the effect of having a wild-card partially to blame for less-focused interest? In years past, except when there was a start-to-finish pennant or dicision clincher, the July-August games seemed much more important. The WC seems to have concentrated the fan interest into the last three or four weeks of the regular season .....

[ July 16, 2002: Message edited by: Wurm ]

Finally, something we can ALL agree on! Bring on college football and all the hotties that liven up my Saturday mornings with it!

[quote]Originally posted by gmginsfo:
..... college football and all the hotties that liven up my Saturday mornings with it!

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Do you mean like

THIS?? (and hands off MC, he's mine)

As much as I love baseball, the sinking feeling in my stomach that the owners and players are actually going to put us through another strike that will probably wipe out the postseason again just keeps me from caring as much as I normally would.

Do you suppose Kerry Collins will have an All-Pro year now that he's gotten married and found religion?

Its definitely the slumpy time of the year. Trev: I am with you, I can't wait for hockey season, maybe it has to do with the heat wave I am experiencing? Nope, the love for hockey, thats it!

It's even a little dull at this time for tennis fans. It's hard to get excited about the post-Wimbledon clay court events.

I think its a plot by the liberals!

Seriously though, there are some great things going on. You just need to broaden your horizons a bit. Lance Armstrong just fought from 8th to 2nd place in one day in the Tour de France. Tiger Woods, perhaps the greatest sports performer of our time, prepares for the third leg of golf's Grand Slam. Though ot my cup of Earl Gray, the WNBA and MLS seasons are in full swing. The AL and NL West divisional races are quite exciting, at least as long as they last. And these races would be just as close under the old two division format sans Wild Card.

And fear not, the Second Annual Outsports NFL Pigskin Pick 'Em will begin shortly!!!

Gee, George you're really streching there buddy with those exciting ``events.''

When the most interesting thing going on in baseball is discussing a) how much the owners & players dislike/distrust each other, the idiocy of the commish, and c) how they're all shooting themselves in the foot--rather than something on the field--you know there's a problem. There is an upside: I can rip through the sports section and SI in record time.


~Adam

Just to spice up things, I'll add to george's list:

The 2002 Commonwealth games start in a week, with Australia competing, at the very least swimming will be world class, and hot to look at. Which reminds, Aussie Rules Football is coming to the end of the season and I don't have to say how good to look at they are - especially since Matt Primus, Peter Burgoyne and the Port Adelaide Power are serious contenders to win it all this year.

Maybe we're just looking in the wrong hemisphere.

Edit: Ok so I can be a bit anal. Misspelling Burgoyne as Bugouyne is a major error to me, might spoil my chance ever getting to meet him.

[ July 17, 2002: Message edited by: sportinlife ]

Well, I guess I'm in the minority on this subject, but I'm really into baseball right now! The NL West has some hot and heavy action going on. Either of the top three teams - Giants, D'Backs, Dodgers - could end up the division winner. All have a chance for the wild card. It's a very interesting race.

I find it hard to get excited about a race this early in the year--particularly when I'm not confident there will be any playoffs.

I'm with Billsf ... if you think there aren't enough on-field MLB events of interest -- Oakland's amazing pitching staff, the open wild-card races, Montreal attempting to stay in contention -- you just don't like the sport.

College football is as boring as the Wave.

I have to disagree. I love baseball. But all of the exciting happenings are not only overshadowed by the sport's problems, but they'll ultimately be rendered meaningless. The season is going to be at the very least interrupted and most likely wiped out.

Does anyone remember anything that happened in 1994, other than that the Expos were strong contenders that year? I don't think so. It'll be the same this year. No one will remember how close some pennant races are, or the home run race.

I have to agree that Major League Baseball is having an absolutely AWESOME season (even if my beloved Red Sox aren't). The NL West race is as good as it gets: Will Barry's bat be able to put SF over the top? How about that Dodgers pitching staff, especially their downright scary closer Gagne? Can the D-backs Dynamic Duo actually pull off a miracle 2 years in a row? Following the NL West is so much damn fun right now. And just when you thought that the Oakland pitching staff couldn't possibly get any better, or cuter, they acquire Ted "Melt Me" Lilly. There's also a helluva race for the AL Wild Card between Anaheim, Oakland, and Boston (assuming of course that the Red Sox can somehow pull themselves out of their funk -- but Manny's personal-best 5-hit game yesterday makes me a believer again).

All that said, I'm getting the same sinking feeling about the possibility of a strike. Some days I'm just sick about it; others I'm more disgusted and angry. I'm still watching and enjoying baseball, but I can't completely ignore the dark cloud on the horizon.

National League?

But you're right BSR, it's not over 'til the fat lady comes home, and hopefully there's alot of baseball left for this season. They would be complete fools to strike, and I keep believing that something will happen to scare them out of it -- like Congress moves to eliminate baseball's anti-trust immunity...

And Joe is right that if they do end the season with a strike, everyone will forget all the good stuff that happened. How many people remember how close Gwynn came to hitting .400 in '94?

Today's Wall Street Journal had an interesting article on the possibility of a players strike. They said if there was a strike, the owners would seek just about any solution to end it as quickly as possible. They show an analysis of teams' debt/value ratio some of which are over 50%, and reason that the players have got the owners by the balls. The owners simply can't afford to forgo the revenue a strike would freeze because they're servicing way too much debt. The story might be online at wsj.com, it ran in the Personal Journal section today 7/17.