re: Your unpopular sports opinions

-- I miss violence. There's a lot of factors which have contributed to it, and not all of them are bad (it's probably better for players sports are not as violent), but as a fan... I miss the violence. Pretty much across sports, the games are not as physical as they once were, as the rules and culture make it more and more of a skill game.

-- Old people overrate old players, but young people overrate current players. We are not evolving as a species at some fantastic rate, and the financial incentives for full-time athletes were in place by the mid-80s. Athletes are not better now, but we do have better training and technology. But most track records are pretty constant. Hell, the long jump record has now been held longer than Beamon had it in 1968. Eras are different, but not better/worse by and large.

-- The last two minutes of a basketball game are tense, but it isn't really basketball. The amount of stoppages plus foul shots turn it into a different game. All non-shooting fouls in the final two minutes should be one shot and the ball.

-- The baseball wild card game is great. It contracted the playoffs by expanding it. winning your division matters again.

-- Regular season results are more meaningful than playoff results. Playoffs aren't quite the crapshoot statheads insists, but it is easier for lesser teams to win in the playoffs (or teams constructed for the playoffs). We should value pennants and regular season titles more (except NFL division titles, which are meaningless).

-- Staying healthy is a skill. There's no such thing as a "mere compiler". If everyone could stick around, stay healthy, and play forever, everyone would do it. It's hard, and is an undervalued element of greatness. Flashes in the pan are remembered, but aren't as valuable to a team. I'd rather have Bert Blyleven's whole career than Koufax's.

Saturday morning premier league games are quickly approaching the top of my "sports I enjoy watching" list

-doesn't interfere with anything else
-nice way to start weekend
-goes well with coffee or alcohol or both

I agree with pretty much everything on your list except this:

quote:

---

-- Old people overrate old players, but young people overrate current players. We are not evolving as a species at some fantastic rate, and the financial incentives for full-time athletes were in place by the mid-80s. Athletes are not better now, but we do have better training and technology. But most track records are pretty constant. Hell, the long jump record has now been held longer than Beamon had it in 1968. Eras are different, but not better/worse by and large.

---

The population upon which elite athletes are drawn is much, much bigger than it was forty or even twenty years ago in pretty much every major sport in the world. The United States has added 100 million people since 1977; developing economies are much wealthier, bigger, and produce elite athletes at a rate that is several multiples better than even a generation ago; all the major sports except American football have a much larger global footprint than they did even a generation ago.

You're just going to get better athletes when the pool is that much larger. I think your long jump example is something of an exception that proves the rule.

quote:

---

You're just going to get better athletes when the pool is that much larger. I think your long jump example is something of an exception that proves the rule.

---

There's about 50 track and field records, about half of them were set in the past decade. About a dozen were set over 20 years ago. And a lot of that can be attributed to the jackrabbit effect (it's easier to chase an already achieved record) and advances in technology.

We have more people, but we also have more sports. I do think the biggest technology advances are in medicine. We used to lose a ton of athletes to injury, many before they even became great so they remained forever unknown. there are very few injuries that are career enders anymore, and some can even make you better (like Tommy John surgery).

One and done has ruined college basketball

Offsides calls in soccer make zero sense...how is it logical to give the defense an advantage for running away from the goal they are defending...draw a line and make the ball cross before the players get in the zone and it would increase scoring and make the sport much more entertaining

quote:

---

There's about 50 track and field records, about half of them were set in the past decade. About a dozen were set over 20 years ago. And a lot of that can be attributed to the jackrabbit effect (it's easier to chase an already achieved record) and advances in technology.

---

In track, in particular, I am a little weary of those records (especially the female ones) because of how juiced up a lot of the Eastern bloc was thirty years ago. I'm not sure it's a good indicator given the interplay between PEDs and enhanced testing (even besides the Eastern bloc shenanigans) over the last couple of generations.

I do agree with you on medicine in particular and training, health, and fitness in general. If you consider golf a sport, then that's example A of just how much an effect fitness has had on a sport.

quote:

---

Offsides calls in soccer make zero sense...how is it logical to give the defense an advantage for running away from the goal they are defending...draw a line and make the ball cross before the players get in the zone and it would increase scoring and make the sport much more entertaining

---

Haven't they tried this with some high level exhibitions or leagues?

I could be mistaken, but the results were that the game became pretty much unwatchable: a lot of sand-bagging, not very much fluidity, clogging up the box, etc.

quote:

---

Offsides calls in soccer make zero sense...how is it logical to give the defense an advantage for running away from the goal they are defending

---

If you don't have an offsides in soccer then you end up with the forward or forwards just camping out in the box, eliminating himself and the defenders for major stretches of the game. So you end up with long balls and all of the sudden guys that are playing power forward for the lakers are now playing striker for Real Madrid. You would see teams just bombing long balls down the field to their giant striker that's camped out in the box, eliminating the midfield and making for an extremely boring game. It would be like 7-on-7 football, or eliminating the "3 in the key" in basketball. With the way the rule is now, it requires cohesion between the back line, usually 3-5 players, and it requires the forwards to time their runs and the midfielders to time their passes. One mental lapse by one defender and the forward is off to the races, it requires phenomenal focus.

For the record, a player can only be offsides in the opponents half of the field. If all of the defenders are in the attacking half and their team turns the ball over, then the forward can get behind them and receive a pass if he hasn't crossed the halfway line. It would be an incredibly boring sport if offsides was eliminated. I think there are fewer than 20 rules in soccer, which is nothing compared to most sports. As far as rewarding them for running away from the goal they're defending, that depends on if they're playing a savvy forward or not. The good ones will beat an offside trap and be through on goal, which is the opposite of rewarding a team for moving away from the goal they're defending

The Chase playoff format is excellent theater in NASCAR.

quote:

---

Barry Bonds should be in the HOF

---

The MLB HOF is such a joke. All these holier than thou pricks thinking they hold such morality that they can't put someone in for using a substance that was used by 75% of the league.

Oh and not to mention that Curt Schilling who is probably a top 20 pitcher all time (looking at regular and postseason) won't get in because these losers disagree with his politics.

Most sports writers are absolutely insufferable, but that's probably a pretty popular opinion.