Curling ESPN Style

[Desnudo]

Insert techno music and hardcore curling montages.

[Desnudo]

Some of the US curling girls are pretty cute.

[IwasHere]

LOL that was a freaking great animated Trutle Curling commericial for Disney's The Wild.


Here is the clip of the Commercial.

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/movies/clips/...&type=c&a=0,15

[Young Drachma]

Soon, ESPN will broadcast Dominoes. No, really. I read the story in the NY Times, I think.

[IwasHere]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Soon, ESPN will broadcast Dominoes. No, really. I read the story in the NY Times, I think.

And, this would be worse than Televising the National Spelling Bee every year?

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Soon, ESPN will broadcast Dominoes. No, really. I read the story in the NY Times, I think.

Indeed you did...

Poker-winning ESPN has dominoes theory
Sports network bets numbered tiles game due popularity boom - Corey Kilgannon, New York Times
Sunday, April 2, 2006

New York -- The next big thing in sports programming is dominoes?
To the occasional player, it is a stretch to even call this quiet game of straight-faced strategy a sport. But anyone who has spent time in a Latino neighborhood in New York City could testify that dominoes played there -- with the slammed-down tiles, the verbal sparring, the bragging and bluffing -- is no parlor game.
From the opening bid, a simple sidewalk match will quickly escalate into a raucous, freewheeling spectacle: a mini-fiesta where salsa and cigars, Bacardi and brown-bagged beers have as much a role as the little colored tiles with dots.
The games almost always draw spectators, so perhaps it is no surprise that the ESPN sports network has declared dominoes the next big spectator sport and is promoting it as both a cultural touchstone and a highly competitive game, complete with rankings, formal tournaments, celebrity events and sponsors.
Encouraged by the success of televised poker, the network has begun combing New York City for top players and colorful clubs for its coverage and has been taping segments on formal tournaments and casual neighborhood games.
Hourlong domino shows now run Tuesday nights on the network's Spanish-language sports channel ESPN Deportes. Hoping it will be popular with English-speaking viewers, the network plans to show similar programming on ESPN2 starting in June.
"We think it will be the next cool thing," said Lino Garcia, general manager of ESPN Deportes. "We're connecting with the best places dominoes is played, so naturally we're going to start in uptown Manhattan and the Bronx, the places where it really happens."
Garcia said he hopes to repeat the success the network has had with poker -- its World Series of Poker is its highest-rated regular series. Like poker, domino games offer plenty of suspense at the table, with clever decision-making and reading the strategies of other players all pivotal to winning. The network will also televise the world championships next year from the Dominican Republic.
The plan, Garcia said, is not only to present dominoes in world-class tournaments and flashy celebrity events the way the network showcases poker, but to capture the excitement and charm of "the highly energetic games on street corners and small clubs in basements where guys go every day."
New York's neighborhoods are filled with characters who come together to play. Older men in caps and young men in muscle T-shirts and gold chains go at it, slapping dominoes onto flimsy tables, speaking in Spanish in games lubricated by Presidente beer and salsa music.
Luis Guzman, a well-known Puerto Rican actor, said in an interview that the domino table is an arena where the very dramas of life play out: love, hatred, revenge. Tempers can flare, and lifelong relationships can begin and end around a domino game.
Guzman recalled that when he grew up on Manhattan's Lower East Side, it seemed that every male Latino played dominoes.
"My pops would play for hours on end; all the men did," he said. "I know best friends who stopped talking to each other for years because of one game. After 10 years, one would still be saying, 'Man, why'd he play that one when he knew the other guy was holding the 6-3?' I know a guy who jumped out a second-story window and broke both legs after losing a domino game."
At a dominoes club in the Bronx called Hijos y Amigos de Altamira, the players had varying opinions about how old-school domino players accustomed to casual, free-flowing action would react to being analyzed and scrutinized by ESPN, which plans to install a dozen table-level cameras, along with others overhead and around the club.
"I think being on TV would make some of our players nervous," said Augusto Montan, 55, "but then again, I could name at least a few guys right now who would eat it up."

/tk

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by IwasHere

And, this would be worse than Televising the National Spelling Bee every year?

Let's not forget the Scrabble tournaments they show!!! I have nothing against Scrabble (I love the game; my mom, my sister, and I have matches "for blood"), but those tournaments are the epitome of crappy television.

/tk

[MJ4H]

I am a scrabble buff. I love the broadcasts.

[IwasHere]

What is with the 4 on the board? Is this different a different scoring system than the Olympics? There are 4s and 3s on the board right now.

I don't remember these big numbers when I was watching the Olympics. Scoring system, or competition level?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by IwasHere

And, this would be worse than Televising the National Spelling Bee every year?

The spelling bee is kids. And it's once a year. And it's grown on people in a different sort of way, because we can all relate.

Dominoes?

Umm...I dunno about that.

[Julio Riddols]

Dominoes? This'll be big in the hood, I better tell Pookie and Ray-Ray and them..

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

The spelling bee is kids. And it's once a year. And it's grown on people in a different sort of way, because we can all relate.

Dominoes?

Umm...I dunno about that.

If 5 years ago someone told you ESPN was broadcasting poker, what would you have said?

[Samdari]

Originally Posted by IwasHere

What is with the 4 on the board? Is this different a different scoring system than the Olympics? There are 4s and 3s on the board right now.

I don't remember these big numbers when I was watching the Olympics. Scoring system, or competition level?

4's and 3's happened during the Olympics. You score however many rocks you have in the house and closer than your oppenents closest. I wish I had known this was on yesterday.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by wade moore

If 5 years ago someone told you ESPN was broadcasting poker, what would you have said?

It'd be just as weird as seeing it on TV now.

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

It'd be just as weird as seeing it on TV now.

But that's not the point.

It may seem weird to you, but it has been VERY profitable for ESPN and ratings by my understanding.

[dixieflatline]

Originally Posted by wade moore

If 5 years ago someone told you ESPN was broadcasting poker, what would you have said?

ESPN was broadcasting WSoP final tables 5 years ago. Even some before that. If you get classic (which I don't) you can see some of those events. No pocket cam though so it is less interesting.

[bulletsponge]

this is just another attempt of ESPNs to avoid showing soccer

[Desnudo]

Women's college bowling championship

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

Women's college bowling championship

Yeah, I watched that for about 5 minutes today, but after seeing some of those girls, it really wasn't worth it. Maybe I'm just all "bowled out" after having watched the PBA skills challenge for two hours.

Nah, those girls just aren't exciting enough to get me to watch them bowl for 90 minutes.

[Desnudo]

Unattractive + not very skilled + bowling = ?

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Desnudo

Unattractive + not very skilled + bowling = ?

Exactly.

As far as unattractive, when I watch women's sports, it's not 100% about how attractive the women are. If they are attractive, it does help overcome some of the other things.

Not very skilled? Yeah, in the five minutes I watched, I wasn't terribly impressed. I know they're not professionals, and they can bowl better than I can, but I can't see myself watching that instead of doing other things. This is supposed to be the championship, and there was some pretty substandard bowling happening there. It just didn't seem like a good time investment to me.

I like watching bowling because I started bowling regularly 8 months ago, and I feel like I can learn something if I watch people who are good at it. That's why I watched two hours of the skills challenge today, although that was mainly for the "wow factor." In this case, though, watching unattractive subpar championship bowling just wasn't doing it for me.

So what am I doing instead? Posting on FOFC. You know what? Maybe I should turn ESPN back on before this bowling is over.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

Exactly.

As far as unattractive, when I watch women's sports, it's not 100% about how attractive the women are. If they are attractive, it does help overcome some of the other things.

Not very skilled? Yeah, in the five minutes I watched, I wasn't terribly impressed. I know they're not professionals, and they can bowl better than I can, but I can't see myself watching that instead of doing other things. This is supposed to be the championship, and there was some pretty substandard bowling happening there. It just didn't seem like a good time investment to me.

I was feeling the same way after watching it.

Though I was more tickled at the fact that those jersey girls from FDU did not like the A&M girls. And well, that A&M just cracked me up. Though at least it's not like a lot of HBCUs that have all white golf teams and win minority national championships...at least this team was mixed and it was for the whole shebang.

It wasn't a surprise they won though, New Jersey has had high school bowling (coed) for a long while (Illinois is apparently the only other state with varsity HS bowling) and the NCAA likes the "sport" because it gives them a way for their schools to add a women's sport to even things out with Title IX.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by wade moore

But that's not the point.

It may seem weird to you, but it has been VERY profitable for ESPN and ratings by my understanding.

I understand the allure, don't get me wrong. It's just sorta funny how TV sports coverage has evolved, is all. I like it the increased diversity of the sports they cover.

But then, I have my reasons.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

Though I was more tickled at the fact that those jersey girls from FDU did not like the A&M girls.

Wait, did this become obvious? I never did watch after those first five minutes. Did something happen to make it clear that the FDU girls didn't like the A&M girls? I'm sorry I missed it, even if it was just a small thing.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

Wait, did this become obvious? I never did watch after those first five minutes. Did something happen to make it clear that the FDU girls didn't like the A&M girls? I'm sorry I missed it, even if it was just a small thing.

It was really subtle, but you could just tell. Like, the FDU girls were making all sorts of interesting faces just before the A&M girls bowled. I mean, how do we really know or anything, but..snarky faces are all tennis players do -- especially female ones -- and so, I can spot them a mile away, even if they are on female college bowlers. It's just a look and a bunch of them made them.

The A&M girls didn't seem to care one way or another, but...I dunno, those FDU girls didn't really seem to think much of their opponents.

I watched it in the middle, after FDU was up 2 games to 1 and watched until they went up 3 games to 1 and watched the very beginning of the 5th game, before stopping.

lol...the real problem was that the girls obviously knew they were on TV and I think it affected a lot of what they did. Maybe they got instructions not to show out.

Without it, I think it'd have been more rah-rah and it was toned down for a good part, short of a few hand slaps and stuff.