I'm not the biggest Olympic fan in the world. I really only like watching certain team sports like soccer and during the Winter Olympics, hockey. I'm not really one to get into the badminton, swimming and all the other random sports that the Summer Olympics bring. But for obvious reasons, I would love to watch U.S. Olympic baseball since two of the A's most prized possesions will be on that stage. Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill are both participating.
Any way, if you want to keep up with the USA baseball ventures in the Olympics, you can do so here. Course I'm not really sure how NBC is going to show the games. They have like 18 networks showing games, so it's going to be up to us to figure out where to see the games. So while the summer olympics usually bore me to death as I'm not really a basketball fan and most of the best soccer players in the world don't participate as it coincides with the professional leagues' seasons, we're actually going to have something to pay attention to during this deluge of sports. And quite frankly, Cuba versus the U.S.A. in baseball is about as close as we're going to get to U.S.A. against the Soviet hockey team from 1980.
Maybe I'll get into the Olympics as it goes on, but I doubt it right now. How excited are you about the Olympics? I've attached the obligatory poll.
0 recs | 21 comments
For those with DirecTV...
...if you’re on one of the channels with Olympic coverage, the red button on the remote pulls up a menu that lets you access a guide of scheduled events on that channel along with a medal count and trivia. Seems a little more useful than trying to follow a newspaper schedule.
Not sure how Dish Network, Comcast, etc. are doing things.
Flashfire - August 9, 2008
The olympics bore me.
I’ll watch the Little League World Series. I actually enjoy it more than the College World Series.
alox - August 9, 2008
I’ll pay attention to
-USA baseball
-USA soccer
-michael phelps to see if he can get 8 medals
that’s about it. i’ll watch some of the sprints but i’m too out of touch to even know who the big names are…
xbhaskarx - August 9, 2008
I actually think the obscure sports are really fun
Greco-roman wrestling, team handball, archery, badminton, kayaking…when else are you going to see people who’ve devoted their lives to these sports competing this way?
Some of the events are non-telegenic—say, the 50 km race walk. That’s pretty dull. But I really enjoy breaking out of the usual tv sports box, as long as there’s not too much “up close and personal”.
Nick - August 9, 2008
Thank you, that's exactly how I feel
When do I ever get to see dressage and badminton? Also, I really don’t get people who don’t get races, there’s nothing purer or more viscerally exciting than a swmming or track race. If you like sports you have to like swimming and track.
stormtown - August 9, 2008
Well, I'm going to repeat my race-walking exception
As much as I admire the competitors’ athletic ability, I can think of a lot of non-race activities that are purer and more viscerally exciting than watching people walk really fast for 4 hours.
I’m curious about a lot of sports. For instance, although I’ve watched a little team handball in the past, I never knew how fouls worked until watching some of a women’s team handball match just now—there’s a power-play, which continues even if the PP team scores, which makes sense given how much scoring there is in team handball compared to hockey.
Also, I was surprised that they use what’s evidently called “rally scoring” in Olympic volleyball (you can score a point even when you’re receiving serve). Is that the way all volleyball is scored now? If so, why?
But I always wonder where they find folks to do color for the really obscure sports. Do you think a producer just wanders through the stands before the telecast begins saying, “Do you speak English? Yes? You wanna be on tv?”
Nick - August 9, 2008
IIRC, volleyball,
just like badminton, has tweaked the scoring to make the games more “exiting” and “casual fan” friendly.
Colour for the obscure sports? Well, to get into the olympics, most of these sports do have to build a large enough following over the world.
rfloh - August 9, 2008
I think Volleyball's scoring system
was revised to shorten the games.
alox - August 9, 2008
I'm with you
I want to watch as much as I can. I don’t care if it’s a sport I’m not usually interested in. I want to see the people who have put their all into being one of the best at it whether they’re American, Russian, Canadian, Australian, on down to Bermudan, Laotian, etc.
Flashfire - August 9, 2008
And speaking of countries
I’m always curious about how different countries are defined in different competitions. In the Olympics, Great Britain fields a team, presumably including athletes from England, Scotland, Wales, and even Northern Ireland. In the Football/Soccer World Cup, England, Scotland, N. Ireland and (I assume) Wales field their own teams (I’m guessing about Wales, since they never seem to qualify for the World Cup). In contrast, Puerto Rico fields its own Olympic team, despite the fact that Puerto Ricans are American citizens. And in international cricket, the countries in the British West Indies field a single team, rather than having a Jamaican team and a Barbadian team or whatever, which is how it works in the Olympics. Who decides this stuff? And is this all a matter of history and tradition and habit, or is there some logic to it?
Nick - August 9, 2008
Wales does have a Football Team, and Ryan Giggs played on it.
WaddellCanseco - August 9, 2008
Funny you should mention badminton.
That’s probably the one sport in the entire Olympics I’m most interested in watching. Badminton is awesome.
But I doubt I will. No time. I’m on the verge of cutting my cable service since I so rarely find time to watch TV anyway. When I do find some time, there are so many other things I’ve been meaning to watch.
(By the way, expect to take some grief for “could care less”....)
iglew - August 9, 2008
Yeah, I noticed "could care less" too
When are they going to make pedantry an Olympic sport? I’m pretty confident I could medal in that one.
Nick - August 9, 2008
I love badminton
As a badminton player myself, it is awesome to be able to watch it on the olympic level. I stayed up last night watching the women’s round of 64, and I’ll continue watching badminton throughout the games.
gigglingone - August 9, 2008
not just blez, 32 people have voted for it so far...
xbhaskarx - August 9, 2008
I voted for it.
(1) My answer on the main question (ie, watching the Olympics) really is no.
(2) I don’t have any problem with “I could care less”. It’s not like it’s the only idiom that is routinely used to mean its exact opposite.
iglew - August 9, 2008
Yeah
I meant couldn’t. Shouldn’t have rushed the post this morning.
Tyler Bleszinski - August 9, 2008
The Olympics are a little more interesting than the WNBA, NASCAR, or soccer
But not much. I usually do my best to avoid all things Olympics. If I happen to catch the baseball, I might watch that though because any baseball is good baseball.
thejd44 - August 9, 2008
When I was a kid, I loved the Olympics
But every time, they add more dumb sports, and I really could care less about all the pageantry and fanfare. Especially since Bob Costas is nauseating to listen to for more than 5 minutes.
baseb3383 - August 9, 2008
Local product on the USA Baseball Team
For anyone interested, a pitcher from the Indian’s AAA affiliate in buffalo is an east bay native born in Berkeley and went to HS in Moraga. His name is Jeff Stevens. Pretty cool.
marco magic - August 9, 2008
More baseball = good for me
Venues like the Olympics, WBC, Little League WS, Opening Day in Japan are all very good.
This is the last year for Olympic baseball. That’s too bad, because looking back over the years 1992-2008, I see there were several really good players and some classic games. Wish I would have paid more attention at the time. Anyway, it now looks like baseball has hung its hat on the WBC to bring the game to a world stage. Feels like they are limiting themselves.
PS: What the F* is the deal with the rule change?
slobberknocker - August 11, 2008
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