Which sports best live - TV?

[Mike Schutz]

Which sports do you prefer to watch in person, and which on TV? Choose one answer for each sport.

[Bob Evans]

I am not sure hockey is a sport.

Baseball is insufferable in person. I need the announcers for the behind the scence stories.

Basketball is better in person.

Football is good either way.

[Ryan Scott]

Hockey is only a sport in person.

[Gina Stevenson]

Have to agree w/Mr. Evans re hockey ... only time I ever went, we were given tickets (pay for hockey!?). Seems we weren't too far behind that plexiglas deal, either, where we could see well ... but I don't like to watch fights! :rolleyes:

Have heard it before maybe, but I learned that --- at that particular game, anyway --- they even stopped fighting now & then to play a few minutes of hockey.

It was Red Wings vs I've-no-idea! :p

[Bruce Carriker]

I am not sure hockey is a sport.

Ah, the blithering that accompanies the inability to comprehend the greatest game in the world not played on a baseball diamond.

Football is for folks who can only focus in four-five second spans, and then must rest their brains while each team confers in an attempt to figure out what to do next. :basic03

[Mark Bolerjack]

You left out the Roller Derby, Wrestling, Boxing, Curling...

[Mike Schutz]

My personal opinion is that football is absolutely best watched on TV. Baseball is okay on TV, but better live. Basketball is much better live, and hockey is almost unwatchable on TV, but great live.


I did leave out golf - which is a completely different experience live than on TV.



Has anyone been to a NASCAR race? Is it better live or on TV?

[Greg Farra]

I don't care much for baseball (not that there's anything wrong with it), so I didn't vote on it.

Hockey is great live, especially if your sister-in-law gets you 2nd row by the net for the CBJ.

Soccer, which wasn't listed, is great live, but terrible on tv.

[Ryan Scott]

Golf is a totally different sport live. I went to the (now defunct) International Tournament in Colorado one year. It was crazy trying to get around the course to see different golfers and also try to enjoy the experience. The ease, on TV, of seeing shot after shot after shot and constant scoring updates make it more of a stat fest than watching a sport. I relate it to the experience of watching ten or twelve baseball games happening simultaneously as they switch back and forth for pivotal moments and recaps. It's a great experience and one I'd prefer most of the time, however there is something really cool about walking the course, getting horribly sunburned,and seeing some incredibly talented athletes in person.

My highlights: watching Charles Howell III hit the green in two on a 600 yard par 5 that had a two-hundred foot elevation gain. The whole was so steep (and you'd never be able to tell on TV) that there were stairs the whole way up the side of the fairway.

Highlight #2: Phil Mickelson pulled an iron shot thirty yards wide of the green, which landed about two feet from me. His caddy then pulled out a club and physically herded us in the gallery. Not the most fan-friendly guy in the world, but intense. The look in his eyes on the chip was incredible.

[Jim Franklin]

As I have said here before, baseball is the thinking person's sport because on every pitch there are so many possibilities and each player has to be mentally ready for so many options as to how he should respond. I do enjoy the analysis by the color commentators and the stop action shots of which got to first first the runner or the ball also the umpires calling a hit down the line either fair or foul. Then those diving catches by the fielders and did the second baseman or the shortstop have the ball in his possession when he drug his foot across second on a double play or force out. So many intricate features to focus on during a well played game. As a former statistician for the NNC Crusaders it is always a must for me to obtain a scorecard and keep score as the game progresses. What I do not like about live baseball is the amplifier generated too loud noise that some errant folk call music between innings.

[Bruce Carriker]

I don't care much for baseball (not that there's anything wrong with it), so I didn't vote on it.

Hockey is great live, especially if your sister-in-law gets you 2nd row by the net for the CBJ.

Soccer, which wasn't listed, is great live, but terrible on tv.

Greg...would you like to introduce me to your sister-in-law? :basic05

[Bruce Carriker]

As I have said here before, baseball is the thinking person's sport because on every pitch there are so many possibilities and each player has to be mentally ready for so many options as to how he should respond. I do enjoy the analysis by the color commentators and the stop action shots of which got to first first the runner or the ball also the umpires calling a hit down the line either fair or foul. Then those diving catches by the fielders and did the second baseman or the shortstop have the ball in his possession when he drug his foot across second on a double play or force out. So many intricate features to focus on during a well played game. As a former statistician for the NNC Crusaders it is always a must for me to obtain a scorecard and keep score as the game progresses. What I do not like about live baseball is the amplifier generated too loud noise that some errant folk call music between innings.

You are a purist, my friend! See, there are things on which we can agree almost fully. :q)

I also score every game I attend. It just keeps me focused on what's going on. I'll never understand folks who get up and go to the concession stand or the bathroom and miss an inning-and-a-half.:eek:

[Gina Stevenson]

Has anyone been to a NASCAR race? Is it better live or on TV?

Fell asleep once at the Indy 500. :rolleyes:

I also score every game I attend.


Used to ... "eons" ago. Yes, someone taught me decades ago exactly how to do the scorecard "thing" ... it's a very detailed endeavor, when one keeps it up. Haven't been to a live game in so long, tho', nor even tried while watching on TV to do any such thing as a scorecard, that I've long forgotten how to do it. ;) [so, it's not just "a guy thang" ... it was fun when I learned it.]