1. favorite sport(s) and *why*?

2. favorite team(s), and *why*?

3. favorite sports personality, and *why*?

4. least favorite sport(s), and *why*?


Most curious to see the 'why' answers,
-chr|st0pher

Favorite Sport: Hockey!
I like the fast paced action. Well, other main reasons for this have to do with the ability for one team to bully another, strategically to create a psychological advanatge. It's great to see sound goaltending, finesse skating and crisp passing, but to see two teams slug it out, now that's hockey.

Favorite Team: Well, by my name it's obvious that I'm a Buffalo Sabres fan with a special place in my heart for Hartford Whalers. But i choose to tell you that my favorite team, in respect to emotional attachment is the Boston Red Sox.
Baseball and the Red Sox have such a tradition, it really is the only sport that brings me back to my childhood. I follow the sport intensely, and live and die by each dramatic day during the season.

Favorite Sports Character: I would have to go with Barry Melrose from NHL tonight on ESPN. I think he has considerable knowledge and I like how he breaks down teams. Second would be another guy from ESPN, but the reason is because i love the way he talks. He hosts Friday night fights and is starting a new show on ESPN called Around the Horn. His name is Sam or Sal..well I'm drawing a mental blank right now. I'm sure someone will remind me of his name.

Least Favorite SPort: I really don't have one. I would say to geographical reasons that it would have to be Nascar. I do follow it and watch it occasionally on TV, but to understand the culture better, I would need to move to North Carolina or another southern state where they breathe nascar.

Fovorite sport to watch Soccer. My alternative career is as a soccer referee. I love the game. It is fast like hockey and the guys are just gorgeous.

Favorite sport to play. Squash. I am totally enamoured of the game. No idea why. I have been playing for 22 years. I love playing with guys half my age and wiping up the court with them. Does my frail ego good. It only lasts a couple of games though

Favorite team Michigan State Hockey followed closely by the Wisconsin Badgers hockey team.

Favorite sport personality Tim Green. He used to play for the Falcons I think. He had a great commentary series on NPR for a while. Now he is a commentator on Battle Bots but that can be forgiven. Not only is he reasonably intelligent, he is gorgeous to boot.

Least favorite sport Pro Football. Why should I pay money to watch a bunch of steroid crazed 20 years olds run into each other. Now if they did it in the buff, I might be interested.

1. Baseball. Why? The grace, the fluidity, the fact that it's not goverened by a clock, the fact that it's a team game but with a one-on-one battle at the heart of it (pitcher v. hitter), the sound of a ball hitting a bat and the fact that hitting a MLB fastball is arguably the hardest thing to do well in sports.

2. The Angels--no, I'm not a bandwagon hopper--and Everton FC of the English football (soccer) league. Why? The Angels: My dad was in the Air Force when I was growing up and we were exiled to New Jersey in the early 70's. The base had a group going to Yankee stadium in 1974. We got great seats about 5 rows behind the 3rd base dugout and, lucky us, Nolan Ryan pitching. I've always loved pitchers and to see Ryan in his prime was awesome. So, I started to follow them and when we luckily returned to Los Angeles in 1975, it was a choice: Dodgers or Angels. I hated the early 70's Dodgers (Garvey, Lopes, Russell, Cey, Baker, Sutton etc.) because they epitomised for me passionless, sanitized, corporate "family friendly" bullshit (I know, they were owned by a family but you know what I mean) and when in NJ, I was an A's fan (note: I got in to them a 2 years before their title run) because they had long hair, hated each other openly and probably did drugs. So, the Angels it was and all these years and heartache later, I'm still a fan.

Everton: In the early 80's, before cable and the 'Net, they'd show a "Match of the Week" on the PBS station here in Los Angeles. I was curious about soccer and I started to watch the games. One of the first games was a Merseyside Derby between the Blues, Everton and the Reds, Liverpool. I thought one of the Everton players, Kevin Ratcliffe, was really cute and that was that. He turned out to be a great player and Everton were a great team for the 80's. They've been in a slump since about 1992, but they're getting better and some good times could be ahead. On one of my trips to England, I managed to go Mecca for Evertonians, Goodison Park, and while they lost 2-nil to the Arsenal, I'll never forgot the passion of the fans and how green the pitch surface was. Everton 4 Eva!

3. Jim Thome, I guess. I don't really get in to sports anymore for the personalities because in a lot of cases it's all PR bullshit (see: Steve "I'm Perfect" Garvey and the zillions of kids he fathered illegitimately in San Diego County) but Thome *seems* like a down-to-earth nice guy. The fact that I'd sleep with him in a nanosecond has nothing to do with it! I frankly find most athletes totally uninteresting as personalities but I did like Charles Barkley during his playing days because he was a Great Quote Machine.

4. NFL. It's 3 seconds of action and then 45 seconds of standing around (I know, baseball is a lot of standing around but it's a different kind of standing around! Hahaha!), it's not about the unexpected but a bunch of anonymous drones doing precisely drilled plays, it's WAY to reliant on coaches as opposed to players and most of all, the NFL is a fascist organization. That Ed Hochuli and Terry McAuley are sure hot refs though! There was a great articles in SI a few years ago where the reporter went to Australia and interviewed AFL and soccer fans there about what they thought of the NFL. The Aussie's scathing comments were right on, I thought. Wish I had kept that article.

Jim Allen rates the NFL as his least-favorite sport. Strange coming from someone who is at my house to watch the NFL Sunday Ticket almost every week, and complains when he has to watch over-the-air games at home.

Favorite Sports (to watch): golf and tennis. Although golf is pretty boring on a shot by shot basis (either the player hit a good shot and has to follow up with a good shot, or he/she hit a bad shot and has to follow up with a good shot to salvage the match), the drama of a tournament unfolding, and whether the leaders can hang on or crack under the pressure is fantastic. And because we have arguably the best golfer ever playing right now. Tennis because it is a game that rewards everything, power, finesse, strategy, altheticism, endurance. Tennis matches, when they are played at their best, are riveting to watch.

Favorite teams: any team from New England. I am from Massachusetts, my family still lives there, my parents and grandparents are all from the same town and the fondest sports moment of my childhood was watching game 6 of the 1975 series. I will never forget my father yelling "Bernie Carbo? Who the f--k is Bernie Carbo?" when the Red Sox put him in to pinch hit at the bottom of the ninth - he went on to tie the game. I was only eight and fell asleep just after that, waking up to see Fisk's amazing homer in the bottom of the 12th.

Favorite sports personality: Andre Agassi, because he actually decided to have a life when competing, and likely will adjust to retirement much better than Pete Sampras (who nonetheless I think is the most amazing tennis player to emerge in the last 30 years).

Least favorite sport: Basketball - pro level. With the advent of high school drafts and early-outs of college players, the skill level has dropped to the point that I actually prefer college hoops (at least those guys are playing for the love of the game). I also think NASCAR should not be considered a sport - it is just a waste of fuel.

[ October 14, 2002: Message edited by: CPT_Doom ]

Favorite sport: Baseball.

Why: Its 19th-century roots, its finely-proportioned balances: simplicity and complexity, physical prowess and strategic acumen, team and individual contributions, split-second timing and relaxed pace, fractional-inch plays and 400-foot long-balls, its perfectly matched scale of ball-speed, playing-field distances and human skill. Its variety: players of all shapes and sizes; its oddities: ballparks with unique and endearing irregularities. Its rich lexicon, its vast body of statistics. Its execution without reliance (for the most part) on crushing force. Pinstripes and knickerbocker-style uniforms. The catcher's armor: about the sexiest accumulation of gear possible for a guy to wear. That eternally soul-stirring vista of diamond and outfield: no wonder they call it a ballpark. Much, much more...

Other favorite sports: Gymnastics and Diving.

Why: Since this is a gay website, I trust that no further explanation is needed!

Favorite team: the underdog with a lot of heart.

Favorite sports personality: (In no particular order) all out-of-the-closet gay athletes; Greg Louganis (anyone who professes to hate homos is conveniently forgetting about men like Louganis -- what could possibly reside in someone of Greg's calibre to elicit such an irrational reponse?) Henry Aaron (pure nobility and masterfully-honed talent, combined) and all those savvy yet amiably soft-spoken baseball broadcasters who (unfortunately) seem to be an endangered species, these days.

Least favorite sport(s): American-style football (I feel as though I could be watching the clash of robots with a comparable level of enjoyment); auto racing (global warming and we're burning up fossil fuels for this? Forgive my lack of enthusiasm, here...) and, finally: greed (though it's not a recognized "sport" it's practised with impunity by so many involved with athletics that I couldn't help but include it as one of the activities that aggravates me most.)

Good topic-starter, chr1st0pher!

[ October 14, 2002: Message edited by: fielderschoice ]

Favorite sport: baseball. Why? It was the first sport I started following and has pretty much always been number one.

Favorite teams: Philadelphia teams. Why? Need you ask?

Favorite sports personality: don't really have one. I might like someone for a while but then they do something bad or get traded or whatever.

Least favorite sport: soccer (except for the indoor variety). Why? Because...becauzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

[ October 14, 2002: Message edited by: Joe in Philly ]

#1 Fav Sport(s) & why? Tennis and Basketball, because I play both well! #2 Fav Team(s) and why? Los Angeles Lakers cuz they RDABOMB, Boston Redsox, & Minnesota Vikings cuz they are!
#3 Fav Sports Personality: Martina Hngis and Randy Moss cuz they speak their mind, reguardless of what "fans" think!
#4 Least favorite sports: Baseball cuz I never hit a homerun, and Any Winter Olympic sport besides Speed Skating, cuz they all Suck!

#1: favorite sports/why: ice hockey because of the speed, skill involved. As a kid, I played just about every sport, but was NEVER any good at skating. And, very important to me, growing up here in LA, being a hockey fan--and going to see the Kings at the Sports Arena--allowed me to be bit of an outsider.

#3: favorite sports personality: Martina Navratilova. Brave enough to deal with the "boos" she had to endure--and did it with grace.

#4: least favorite sport: golf--I enjoy playing it but cannot abide watching it.

~Adam

1. favorite sport(s) and *why*?
Football to watch; I was raised on it, for me there’s a certain comfort to watching it. To participate, tennis; I was always way too intimidated for contact or team sports, and not overly competitive, so I gravitated to tennis where I compete against myself (i.e. I’d almost rather play well than win).

2. favorite team(s), and *why*?
The Auburn Tigers. Born that way. I think my mother sang the fight song during labor. It was in my blood. War Eagle were my first words. I was just raised that way.

3. favorite sports personality, and *why*?
Chris Evert. I always related to her coolness. The “ice maiden” persona. Keep your emotions inside. Don’t let ‘em see you sweat. Don't let 'em know what you're thinking or feeling. I think it was just a mesh of my personality to hers.

4. least favorite sport(s), and *why*?
Boxing. I just don’t get it. Less than don’t get it. The raw violence. Other sports may have some violence, but as part of the competition. I just don’t understand any attraction to watching guys (or chicks) hit each other till they’re bloody and passed out. I see no redeeming value.

1. Favorite Sport: My favorite individual sport to watch is probably tennis, mostly because I enjoy playing it. It's just easier to appreciate what you're watching if you have some sense of how difficult that drop volley was to make. It's nice and rhythmic, and no lead is ever insurmountable--it's even more not over 'till it's over than baseball. Ask Jana Novotna. I'm also partial to gymnastics because it has the highest "wow" factor of any sport--they constantly do things that seem almost physically impossible. The nice bodies don't hurt either.

My favorite team sport is baseball. People complain about it being boring, but I LIKE the fact that you have time to contemplate strategic moves. Plus, the waiting builds tension; it's a suspense movie, not an action movie. I also like the tidiness of it--a discrete number of things happens on every play, so it's much easier to follow. Football has always seemed like a mess to me--all these bodies running into each other at the same time. And scoring is so frequent in basketball that no one play means very much. Baseball players are also the hottest men on the planet and that doesn't hurt.

2. Teams: Toronto Blue Jays (I'm from Ontario--it's de rigeur), and Expos 2nd. Of the American teams, I've always been partial to the Cards, because Herzog's 80's teams were so much fun to watch.

3. Personalities. No one really stands out...my current fave in tennis is Justine Henin, mostly 'cause I like her game.

4. I dislike some of the same sports as other people: Golf (even Curling is more exciting), Boxing (for the same reasons as above), and race car driving (which I don't consider a sport).

1. Favorite sport: Football. It was the first game I completely understood, and pretty much set the standard for how I judge other sports. For me, it's got everything: competition, grace, speed, skill, drama, tradition...you name it.

2. Favorite team: Penn State Nittany Lions. I was born and raised in Philly, and always want my hometown teams to do well, but the Lions are the only team I live and die by. Probably because my college years at PSU were such happy ones, and football was a big part of that. Caused quite a conflict at home, too, seeing as how my catholic parents are such Notre Dame fans. I think they took my homosexuality better than my hatred of the Irish.

Outside college, I root for the home squads: Eagles, Phillies, Flyers, Wings. I've been known to cheer for the Steelers, I've always had a soft spot for the Jaguars for some unfathomable reason, and, while I could never actually CHEER for 'em, I love watching the NY Giants play. Something about those gray pants...

3. Favorite sports personality: Joe Paterno. Hands down. The classiest coach ever. I'm open-minded about pretty much any topic in the world except JoePa. I freely admit my bias, which has caused some friction even among some fellow PSU grads, but in my eyes, JoePa can do no wrong. He embodies everything that's right about sports in general, and college football in particular. I love that man. *sniff*

Now, if you asked me which sports personality I'd most like to go one-on-one with, I could break the PSU motif and go with Mark Brunell, Kris Brown, Mike Alstott, or my new hottie, David Carr...

4. Least favorite sport: Basketball. Never played it as a kid, so I never developed an appreciation for it. Watching those guys run up and down the court like that only puts me to sleep (I'm exhausted for 'em!) Plus, I could never really trust a sport where the scoring comes so fast...