If you could only watch one sport for the rest of your life...

[Kodos]

... which would it be?

(Poll to come)

[MJ4H]

college football. not even close.

[Crapshoot]

Cricket or baseball - pretty close to a toss up IMO.

[Lorena]

NFL for sure

[Crapshoot]

Okay, how did Lacrosse make the poll over cricket? Damnit, they're enough Commenwealth citizens here! :D

[Kodos]

I believe you'll find cricket in the list. It's spelled "Other". ;)

[Lathum]

college football. not even close.

*

[hoopsguy]

Somehow I think I may be on the wrong message board for "college basketball" to have much of a shot ...

[JonInMiddleGA]

Hmm ... I'm trying to decide if I need to consider length of schedule as a component here? If so, I think NASCAR might have to get the nod since it (I think) has the longest season & would therefore have a lot less time for no sports viewing.

[miami_fan]

Somehow I think I may be on the wrong message board for "college basketball" to have much of a shot ...

I think you are right but it gets my vote.

[kiwiLB57]

Rugby Union. After watching the All Blacks play Twickenham and Cardiff, there is nothing else close for me.

Still, I did enjoy the first 49ers game I managed to see live in a year or so tonight. Even if did we get whumped.

cheers,

kiwiLB57

[kamacdon]

If professional soccer = all professional leagues around the world, then it gets my vote. Tons of games everyday of the year.

If it is only in the U.S., the choice between college basketball and MLS/A-League is a lot tougher, I love soccer, but I prefer having 325 teams to watch rather than just a few dozen.

[Hammer755]

Pro baseball by miles.

[Raiders Army]

What about Table Tennis? In lieu of that, I chose the NFL.

[Young Drachma]

tennis

[Antmeister]

For me, it's gotta be the NFL. It is the only sport in which I can watch any game since any team has a chance to win. You can't say that for college football.

Basketball is somewhat close, but I really only follow one team sporadically and mostly watch many of the games in the playoffs for both college and the pros.

Baseball is strictly for playoff viewing and I only watch the pros.

Soccer, hockey and lacrosse are sports I don't follow at all

[timmynausea]

college football. not even close.

Yes.

[Bad-example]

Pro baseball by miles.

Agreed. The sport I most enjoy watching and there are 162 a year. Bonus!

[DolphinFan1]

Are you kidding? It's gotta be curling.

Seriously, it's the NFL by far for me.

[thealmighty]

Australian rules football...and it doesn't say I can't watch reruns of my sport in the off season, just not another sport.

[Emiliano]

College football baby!

[Johnny93g]

NHL hockey, followed by College Basketball

[Coder]

Easily NHL Hockey... as much as I enjoy Football and soccer, if there was only one sport available, it would be hockey for me.

[SFL Cat]

Tough call between NFL and college football...gotta go with the pros.

[Bee]

Tough call between NFL and college football...gotta go with the pros.
same for me

[CleBrownsfan]

NFL but MLB a very close 2nd...

[Kodos]

College has made big gains, and the NFL has lost a lot, but it still rules the roost for me. I'm sure it'd be fine if I could find a true favorite team.

[spleen1015]

College basketball for sure. I gave a small amount of consideration to MLB.

[fantastic flying froggies]

It would be NFL football, but the season's too short compared to other sports.

So just like KiwiLB57, I'll choose rugby.
Even his All-blacks destroyed the Frenchmen a couple of weeks back in the test matches...

[st.cronin]

Hockey, for sure. It's far and away the most enjoyable sporting event to attend.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Hockey, for sure. It's far and away the most enjoyable sporting event to attend.
"

[Passacaglia]

College football, but only if it were just the Big Ten, and the rest of the country didn't exist. Otherwise, it would be NFL.

[timmae]

hockey... college hockey that is! The atmosphere of live games in hostile arenas, college kids and all, is just amazing. Any naysayers can join me in watching Minnesota visit the Kohl Center for validation. In lieu of live action I will watch just about any program on TV, including ll of those east coast wannabees! ;)

[Terps]

Major League Baseball by far.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I don't mean this as a slam against anybody, but I'm really surprised at how many people here would watch take baseball over every other sport. I grew up watching baseball, and I was a fanatic until the '94 strike. I still follow it to some degree, but it doesn't seem as much fun to me as it did 15 or 20 years ago. Obviously, this is only my opinion, but baseball is less watchable now than it was in the past.

Are all of the other sports really less watchable than baseball? All of them?

[Crapshoot]

I don't mean this as a slam against anybody, but I'm really surprised at how many people here would watch take baseball over every other sport. I grew up watching baseball, and I was a fanatic until the '94 strike. I still follow it to some degree, but it doesn't seem as much fun to me as it did 15 or 20 years ago. Obviously, this is only my opinion, but baseball is less watchable now than it was in the past.

Are all of the other sports really less watchable than baseball? All of them?

My two cents:
Well, as someone who would have picked baseball over the other sports - I blame the owners for the labor issues - but it doesn't affect my enjoyment in the least. As a sport, I think its far more interesting than football's run for 10 seconds, stop, and restart with a commercial gameplan - and the excitement in baseball is hard to match. From a thinking/strategy perspective, I think baseball's a better game as well.

[MIJB#19]

NFL without commercial breaks would be a very interesting option. With commercials, I'll probably pick volleyball, although cycling is very tempting to me...

And soccer isn't a sport, it's part of live, like politics, religion or a daily soap opera, either you believe in it or you don't. ;)

[Kodos]

The key to the NFL is letting the Tivo get about a half hour ahead, and then zipping through all the crap.


I'd kill to have my Tivo and DirecTV back. Comcast and their DVR sucks.

[Schmidty]

College Basketball destroys everything on that list. The only thing that comes close is College Football.

I really think that Golf and Boxing should be on there though. I'd seriously consider either of them, especially Golf, in my top 5 considerations.

[SunDevil]

Baseball. Since we have left reality with this poll, there is nothing like sitting in the bleachers and eating a hot dog watching the old timers play on the field in the Field of Dreams movie.

[Pumpy Tudors]

My two cents:
Well, as someone who would have picked baseball over the other sports - I blame the owners for the labor issues - but it doesn't affect my enjoyment in the least. As a sport, I think its far more interesting than football's run for 10 seconds, stop, and restart with a commercial gameplan - and the excitement in baseball is hard to match. From a thinking/strategy perspective, I think baseball's a better game as well.
I definitely see what you mean. I must admit, however, that one of the things that turns me off about baseball is all the pitching changes. Yes, football has a lot of breaks in the action, but there are so many "specialty" pitchers these days in baseball.

For a sample, I looked at this past season's Cardinals (my favorite team) and compared them to the 1987 Cardinals which won the NL pennant. This year's Cardinals has three pitchers who averaged less than one inning per appearance. OK, I can understand that with a closer, I guess, but setup man Randy Flores appeared in 65 games and pitched 41-2/3 innings. He averaged 2/3 of an inning per appearance. In my admittedly limited watching of baseball over the past couple of seasons, I've seen an awful lot of pitching changes, and that just adds to the "quiet time" of a baseball game.

For comparison, the 1987 Cardinals had no pitchers average less than an inning per appearance. That's right, not even one. I understand that the game has changed somewhat, and I'm not pining for 20 years ago, but it's just something that stood out to me when I was trying to think of reasons that baseball is less watchable to me now.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Dola

Baseball's not the same without Morganna the Kissing Bandit, either.

[st.cronin]

The incessant pitching changes have made baseball totally unwatchable to me. If MLB made a rule that you couldn't change pitchers during an inning, I would become a fan again.

[Eaglesfan27]

The NFL just nudges out College Football for me.

[Eaglesfan27]

The key to the NFL is letting the Tivo get about a half hour ahead, and then zipping through all the crap.




Ditto. I've never watched a commercial unless it was by choice in over a year now.

[cthomer5000]

Pro soccer... a radical change from a year ago.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Ditto. I've never watched a commercial unless it was by choice in over a year now.
So this means that you may have never seen the genius that is "Ted Ferguson, Bud Light Daredevil"?!?!?

[cthomer5000]

Hmm ... I'm trying to decide if I need to consider length of schedule as a component here? If so, I think NASCAR might have to get the nod since it (I think) has the longest season & would therefore have a lot less time for no sports viewing.

If pro soccer meant all leagues, you'd have year-round viewing with zero downtime. In fact you could go as low as 2 leagues and make this the case.

Edit: actually if you just include something like the English Premier league, as well as the logically connected european cup competitions (Champions League + UEFA cup), then you could cut your self down to a 1 month downtime. Last year the Champions Leauge final was on May 17th, and the UEFA Cup qualifying (Intertoto Cup) started on June 17th. Maybe they'rd be a week or two off in late summer, but you'd basically be talking 11th months of action at least once a week.

[Karlifornia]

College basketball for me, although I find this idea of only watching one sport for the rest of my life rather depressing. I'm just a sports nut!

[Passacaglia]

The key to the NFL is letting the Tivo get about a half hour ahead, and then zipping through all the crap.


I'd kill to have my Tivo and DirecTV back. Comcast and their DVR sucks.

How is it different? I have RCN's DVR, and I like it. Should I be having TiVo envy?

[Eaglesfan27]

So this means that you may have never seen the genius that is "Ted Ferguson, Bud Light Daredevil"?!?!?


Sadly, I've never seen it.

[Surtt]

Women's pro beach volleyball

[Kodos]

How is it different? I have RCN's DVR, and I like it. Should I be having TiVo envy?


Comcasts DVRs are buggy pieces of crap that don't have half the functonality or convenience of Tivo. Accept no substitutes. Unfortunately, DirecTV with Tivo is not an option for me at the moment. :(

[TroyF]

NFL.

My first vote would actually be basketball, but the refs are just horrific in the sport and until that gets solved I can't see wasting my time on a season to watch the next "superstar" get to the line 25 times in a game on phantom calls.

College football has zero chance for me. I would never watch a sport that didn't have a true champion, decided on the field.

College basketball comes oh so close. . . but I have to give the nod to the NFL.

[Kodos]

NFL.

College football has zero chance for me. I would never watch a sport that didn't have a true champion, decided on the field.


Right now, this is the main thing holding back college football for me. I care more about the poor, pathetic Indiana Hoosiers football team than any NFL team right now, but the lack of a playoff invalidates the crowning of a champion, which detracts from my enjoyment significantly. Still, it's good enough for second place behind the NFL. Over the course of my life, the NFL has reigned with no legitimate challenger.

[pennywisesb]

Baseball all day long.

[Passacaglia]

Right now, this is the main thing holding back college football for me. I care more about the poor, pathetic Indiana Hoosiers football team than any NFL team right now, but the lack of a playoff invalidates the crowning of a champion, which detracts from my enjoyment significantly. Still, it's good enough for second place behind the NFL. Over the course of my life, the NFL has reigned with no legitimate challenger.

Yeah, as an Indiana fan, I can see why the lack of a playoff would really upset you. Sorry, it had to be said. Anyway, I guess all this championship nonsense is why I would want it to be just the Big Ten -- I don't really give a crap how people think Big Ten teams stack up against other teams, especially considering that they all play 8 games against each other and 3 (okay, now 4) games against the other >100 teams out there.

[Passacaglia]

Comcasts DVRs are buggy pieces of crap that don't have half the functonality or convenience of Tivo. Accept no substitutes. Unfortunately, DirecTV with Tivo is not an option for me at the moment. :(

Okay, that's cool -- my RCN DVR isn't buggy -- it does everything I ask it to. I guess there's no need for TiVo envy.