The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Sports & Leisure => Topic started by: Nabubrush on May 01, 2011, 09:41:15 pm
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Look, i know nobody cares about hockey but goddamn it after the Wings swept the Coyotes I thought they'd put up a bit of a series against the hated Sharks. California shouldn't even have a hockey team (sorry, Ash).
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I give a shit about hockey, but right now the Caps are down 2-0 and I am upset. It could be worse, it could have been the Penguins.
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I most definitely give a shit about hockey, though I don't follow it as closely as I would like to. I am a Detroit fan since small times and Carolina is of course my home team. I am starting to prefer Carolina to Detroit, honestly, because their club does a lot of things that directly and favorably impact my family, like support (financially and through in-kind donations) the special-needs hockey club my son plays with.
Regardless, WTF, Detroit? Don't let those San Jose motherfuckers push you around. Not now. Not ever.
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Yeah, they beat us in six last year but I figured since our old guys got more rest going into the series this year it wouldn't be a problem.
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Well, the Wings get to stumble into a new day.
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Ok, that didn't work, but I did get to watch the game with Grant Jennings (http://youtu.be/1HCb6azKLlA) (he gets the worst of it here). Here he is (http://youtu.be/aMmb0Iqpe0o) getting a couple good shots in on Tie Domi. He was undrafted, but he did get his name on the Cup twice with the Penguins.
Now I don't have to be quite so jealous of Ash.
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*weeps*
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Apologies to Nabu, but I was totally behind the Sharks last night. The Red Wings are, for the last 10-15 years at least, more or less the New York Yankees of hockey. And therefore, anytime they come up short is OK by me. Furthermore, as a Caps fan, I know a thing or two about teams that are great in the regular season but crumble in the playoffs, so I sympathize with the Sharks' fan base.
Now that that's done, with the Caps and Flyers both out, the next logical step is to root for any remaining Canadian teams. So, go Canucks!
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I'm officially backing the Lightning. Why you ask (ah, you didn't, but this is my post so fuck ya)? My boss at work, his nephew is Nate Thompson, local Alaskan kid made good. I talked to him as I left yesterday and we were talking about the deal where the guys get possession of the Cup for a day, to show it around, and I suggested that if the Lightning wins he ought to have his nephew bring the Cup to Prudhoe, since no one else will ever do that. He's on board, and I think he's got the stroke to have BP do it. They did recently bring the winner of the Iditarod up, so maybe there's a precedent. So fuck yeah I'm pulling for the Lightning. If it all goes this way and he comes up when I'm home I'm going to kill everyone involved.
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Gotta back the cities where actual hockey is played.
San Jose and Tampa wouldn't know a puck from a cowpie except that some rich local wanted the cache of owning a major sports team.
Vancouver and Boston seem to have their hockey bonafides more or less in order.
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Well, that's why I spent some time up there explaining why I would be backing an expansion team, when I am a knee-jerk anti-expansion kind of guy (funny since my NFL team is an expansion team).
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I know that I am just a guy who doesn't "get" sports, but, I mean... it's not like the Bruins are a team of guys who all grew up in Boston.
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I know that I am just a guy who doesn't "get" sports, but, I mean... it's not like the Bruins are a team of guys who all grew up in Boston.
can
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It's said that "these days, you root for the laundry," but for years and years and years I rooted for Detroit because of Scotty Bowman (the coach).
Also, I do pull for the Hurricanes because, as I mentioned above, none of them are "from" here, but they all live here now and are a part of the community, doing a lot of charity work and donating stuff to be auctioned off for various nonprofits all the time. The whole community benefits from them being here, not just a few rich people who "own" them, because the team personality is very community-oriented and charitable. (I credit the coaching staff with that.) Lots of public appearances, lots of opportunities for fans to meet the team and get things signed, etc.
They're just nice. That makes me want them to win.
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I know that I am just a guy who doesn't "get" sports, but, I mean... it's not like the Bruins are a team of guys who all grew up in Boston.
And they never were. But for fans, they do represent the locale.
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I get that, but it seems like they represent Boston whether or not people in Boston love playing hockey.
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So the attachment people feel towards sports teams isn't geographically based. In fact, you could argue that people form these attachments on a completely arbitrary basis.
So what?
It's just a way to be a part of something larger than yourself. It's a way to share a common experience with like minded individuals. It's a local team because all the people around here like it, not because the team or its members are somehow representative of the area.
In my state college basketball is by far the most popular sport. People are rabid fans of either UK or Louisville. Yet I'm willing to bet that the percentage of fans who have set foot on the campus of their preferred team would hover somewhere around 10%. Silly? Maybe. But it gives us something to share, something to talk about, something to root for together.
We root for local teams because they're what's here.
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I should probably hate Tampa, as a division rival and the team that knocked the Caps out. But you know, I have a healthy respect for them. They're a good squad, they won fair and square, and while I'd rather see either team from the West win the Cup, I'm not too bent about it.
(Now, the Penguins, fuck THOSE guys.)
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In my state college basketball is by far the most popular sport. People are rabid fans of either UK or Louisville. Yet I'm willing to bet that the percentage of fans who have set foot on the campus of their preferred team would hover somewhere around 10%.
Pedro went to NCSU. Sometimes, he wears a shirt or hat related to this. When he does, strangers at the mall will ask him, "Did you see the game last night?" To which he is forced to admit that he's not even sure which sport they're talking about, and that he's actually a fan of the educational institution.
When he's feeling flip, he'll say, "No, but did you see the *****ics competition last week?!?!"
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So the attachment people feel towards sports teams isn't geographically based. In fact, you could argue that people form these attachments on a completely arbitrary basis.
So what?
It's just a way to be a part of something larger than yourself. It's a way to share a common experience with like minded individuals. It's a local team because all the people around here like it, not because the team or its members are somehow representative of the area.
In my state college basketball is by far the most popular sport. People are rabid fans of either UK or Louisville. Yet I'm willing to bet that the percentage of fans who have set foot on the campus of their preferred team would hover somewhere around 10%. Silly? Maybe. But it gives us something to share, something to talk about, something to root for together.
We root for local teams because they're what's here.
Indeed.
Also, as far as I'm concerned if you don't like sports you can screw yourself.
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Also, as far as I'm concerned if you don't like sports you can screw yourself.
i think sports are ok. is it alright if i screw myself?
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Indeed.
Also, as far as I'm concerned if you don't like sports you can screw yourself.
It's is OK to not like sports. I want to hear about how you don't like sports about as much as I want to hear about how you don't like broccoli. And not liking sports does not make you smarter, hipper or more enlightened. It just means you don't like a form of entertainment that I do.
Tiny Can of Jergen's Lotion for GKA.
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yeah, that is not what I am saying. I do not care if you like sports. Go ahead and like sports.
What I am saying is, it is stupid to be biased against hockey teams from cities where the populace does not play hockey. They are still real teams that people are allowed to like. If I live in Brazil and want to like their hockey team, screw you if you think it is stupid for Brazil to have a hockey team.
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Or for Jamaica to have a bobsled team!
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Man, y'all are making way too much of this. Here's a reminder of what's going on. sMets team is out of the playoffs. He wants to continue following the playoffs. To add to his enjoyment he wants to root for one team over another. He doesn't have any sound real basis to root for any of the teams so he's invented an arbitrary one.
He's not saying that it's wrong for you root for the Mud Ducks or whatever, but he's choosing to root for Manchester United because the kids actually play soccer in that town.
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Man, y'all are making way too much of this. Here's a reminder of what's going on. sMets team is out of the playoffs. He wants to continue following the playoffs. To add to his enjoyment he wants to root for one team over another. He doesn't have any sound real basis to root for any of the teams so he's invented an arbitrary one.
He's not saying that it's wrong for you root for the Mud Ducks or whatever, but he's choosing to root for Manchester United because the kids actually play soccer in that town.
I think you might have conflated a couple of things.
As for what I said, as always, I was kidding around. I will continue to think of expansion teams as lesser franchises, albeit only jokingly. I'd always rather see an original six team win it all, with second choice going to a Canadian team. Funnily, I'd rather the Steelers never win another Super Bowl. Why? Because the Chargers haven't won one, while the Red Wings are the second most successful hockey club. What does this mean? That I am a hypocrite.
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He's not saying that it's wrong for you root for the Mud Ducks or whatever, but he's choosing to root for Manchester United because the kids actually play soccer in that town.
I've caught a couple of Premier League games and want to watch more but I don't have a team yet. But I do know that it's not cool to like Manchester United and if I choose to support them all the soccer fans I know will be mad at me. Teams people are lobbying me to like: Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal
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Back during the single year that Slamball (http://www.slamball.net/) was a televised sport, Pedro and I took to watching it and arbitrarily choosing opposing teams based on what colors we liked better or something equally silly. The teams aren't even associated with disparate geographic areas. It's completely random.
Still, it was fun to talk trash about the other team even though neither of us were invested in it beyond being deliberately adversarial.
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So I might get to see the Yankees play us in Seattle next week, and I'm excited about the prospect of throwing fake money at A-Rod (I'm a decade late but I never got to see any of the Seattle v Texas games after he left Seattle) and, as my friend suggested, chant "Gay-Rod" over and over. And this guy at work, who also hates the Yankees, lectured me about how you can't blame the guy for leaving Seattle because it was a better career move, it's not his fault that baseball is all about money now and that I'm probably just bitter and jealous. And he's right about the bitterness, though I'm not jealous and I still idolize former Mariners like Griffey and Randy Johnson (though for him it's mostly for the 2001 World Series). But for me, sports is in large part about hating the bad guys. Maybe A-Rod's the greatest guy in the world and I could sit down and have a beer with him and talk baseball and Madonna and whatever but when he dons his pinstripes he's a fuck*ng traitor and even though he's on my fantasy roster I hope he fuck*ng chokes. Why A-Rod? Why have I hated him since he left for Texas and not every good player that has left for money or a better shot at real post-season action? I don't know. But it's sports, it's a bit of fun and it's pointless to criticize fans as irrational because that's what makes it fun. Well, at least makes it more fun, for me.
But I do think it sucks that outside of the Yankees and after free agency, it's rare to see a star stick around for all or even most of his career. That's probably why Edgar and Ichiro rank so highly for me, or partly why. They're also fuck*ng tremendous ball players.
But anyway when I watched San Jose defeat the Canucks in San Jose last night, I was thinking, has it ever even snowed in San Jose? Fuck those guys. So I get that sentiment.
Also, LFM, how good was it to see the Mets beat the Yankees in the Bronx?
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[whatever sport] is a x month long soap opera for guys
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as my friend suggested, chant "Gay-Rod" over and over
You're better than this.
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Yeah, we're not going to chant that. Or throw anything. But we will boo him.
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Yeah, we're not going to chant that. Or throw anything. But we will boo him.
I'm not really a baseball guy (judging from fake baseball this year, I'm so not a baseball guy) but he is a guy I would boo. I feel about A-Rod the way I feel about Kobe. I don't really follow the sport, but the loathsomeness transcends it.
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Bruins vs. Canucks. I guess that'll be cool.
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Here's an odd little tidbit. There's a Canadian chain of Pizza restaurants called Boston Pizza. Boston Pizza has nothing to do with Boston in any way. In relation to the Boston v Vancouver situation they have "changed" (http://www.bostonpizza.com/en/Default.aspx)their name to show their allegiance.
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That's pretty fuck*ng awesome.
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Raffi Torres (there's a good hockey name) scores with 18.5 seconds left in the third and the Canucks take the first game (http://scores.espn.go.com/nhl/recap?gameId=310601022).
Also, it's not the Coyotes but Winnipeg's going to have a team again (http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=564247). Maybe Atlanta isn't a good place for a hockey team (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_Flames).
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Seems like a few years ago there was a lot of talk about how Hockey was losing it's roots because so many teams had up and moved south. Maybe the migration is headed the other way now.
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A yes, we're getting Atlanta's team. There was so much talk about this for so long leading up to it and I sort of got sick of the whole situation. I'm glad to get to finally see some more pro Hockey though. I haven't seen an actual game since knuckle head days.
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enjoy it, smells, nobody went to games here
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enjoy it, smells, nobody went to games here
Yeah, I'm gonna bet I won't be going to many here either. At an absolute minimum of $39 a ticket for the nosebleeds, meaning basically $80 + tax, parking and concessions, I won't be going to many games myself either. I'd be far more likely to spend my duckets on a concert or arts-basted performance.
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Well, it's well-trodden ground and fairly snobby, but I would rather have a hockey team in Winnipeg than in Atlanta.
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Yeah, I'm gonna bet I won't be going to many here either. At an absolute minimum of $39 a ticket for the nosebleeds, meaning basically $80 + tax, parking and concessions, I won't be going to many games myself either. I'd be far more likely to spend my duckets on a concert or arts-basted performance.
Seriously, I don't get this -- hockey is a working class sport, but in the towns where it's most ingrained, it's so expensive that only corporate schmucks can afford it. My brother has to come to Raleigh to see Detroit play.
That's another thing that's great about Carolina -- they have $22 nosebleed tickets every game, and you can get the following "Family Packs" if you buy more than a week in advance:
*Buy 4 Upper Goal Zone Tickets for $39 - a $20 savings!
*Buy 4 Upper Corner Tickets for $99 - a $25 savings!
*Buy 4 Balcony Premier Tickets for $119 - a $42 savings!
*Buy 4 Lower Level North Tickets for $199 - a $75 savings!
Balcony premier seats, BTW, are excellent. That's what we usually get for games we really care about. They also have specials all the time for games against less popular teams like Tampa Bay.
Cheap? Not exactly. But definitely affordable enough that just about anyone who wants to go can afford to go once or twice a season. Hell, movie tickets are $10.50 at some of the theaters here nowadays; for $10 more in parking fees you could take your kids to see a hockey game with the cheapest family pack option.
Theatre and concert tickets, however, are nuts. I was looking yesterday at taking my kids to Phineas and Ferb Live next spring (yes, they're on sale now for March 2012) and the cheapest tickets there are $35 a pop. And those seats are nowhere near as close as the equivalently priced tickets at the RBC center.
There's really no bad seat in our hockey arena. It's a really thoughtfully designed space, you can get a good view even in the nosebleed seats. I once went to a game and had a cheap ticket because it was listed as "obstructed view." I didn't realize that it was an obstructed view ticket until my friend pointed it out halfway through the third period. There was a sheet of plexiglass with a 1" wide metal frame slightly to the right of my field of vision that I suppose was the "obstruction," but it certainly didn't bother me.
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Pretty cool. That hit that led to the 8-1 drubbing was pretty rough. I won't link to it.
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Fuck the excuse, they should light that bitch up all the time.
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Down Goes Brown, a Toronto Maple Leafs blog, has a take on the results of this evening's game 7 (http://www.downgoesbrown.com/2011/06/detailed-look-back-at-game-seven-which.html), albeit twelve hours early.
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A buddy and I went to a local bar for half-price burgers and pitchers tonight and the place was mobbed. We couldn't figure out why, it being 8:30 on a Wednesday but then we looked at one of the TVs in the place and realized why. We stayed though because shit, we weren't about to walk away from a $4 bacon cheeseburger with fries and $6.50 pitchers.
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Does that mean that Vancouver is going to turn off that awesome fire?
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I sure would like to know some backstory behind this photo. (http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/vancouver-riots-2011-photo-5929916)
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Oh, there's back (http://youtu.be/k4he79krseU)-story alright.
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Oh, there's back (http://youtu.be/k4he79krseU)-story alright.
I had somehow avoided seeing that video up 'til now, and I have to say two things:
1) Most of those women have pretty normal-sized butts, IMHO, and
2) The disembodied asses floating around in that one part are pretty disturbing.
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Even if that picture was staged (probably) is was done amidst the backdrop of some very real drama.
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Yeah, there is speculation that the photo was staged. Still a good shot though.
I find it sort of amusing that the powers that be (the mayor etc.) in Vancouver is claiming that the riots were the work of outsiders and anarchists. Yeah, I'm going to buy a $100 hockey jersey just before going on an anarchist rioting spree.
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"Your honor, my client merely found the drugs and was on his way to the police station to turn them in when he was arrested."
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There's been a lot of media coverage of the kissing couple, and for my part, I think they are legitimate. This video released today seems to clearly corroborate the couples claim that they were knocked to the ground and beaten by police. (http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/video-shows-riot-kissing-couple-ended-street-195508870.html)
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Yes, they are legit. It's refreshing to know that that was a real moment.