re: Sportspeople whose age surprises you

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Joe Buck is only 55

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Will easily be the GOAT by the time he retires

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I follow Professional Darts via the PDC Tour and stream most of the big tournaments.

In this years World Championship to determine the current world champion there was a young guy named Luke Littler who entered. He is a youth champion and really shook up the pro ranks by making it to the finals where he was beaten by Luke Humphries.

The kid was just 16 yrs. old when the tournament started and turned 17 not long after it ended. I can't believe how cool he is under the pressure of playing against those seasoned pros on stage in front of many thousands of fans and being streamed worldwide.

He was invited to play in this years Premier League of Darts where he finished 1st out of the 8 players invited to participate and could very well win that title this coming Thursday when the finals start.

Amazing talent and as the Brits call it "Bottle" aka steel nerves to do what he's done at such a young age.

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woah you follow darts? I am a huge MVG fan. Do you play any in any local leagues or tourneys?

Bottle is just nerves in general.

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woah you follow darts? I am a huge MVG fan. Do you play any in any local leagues or tourneys?

Bottle is just nerves in general.

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Been playing darts since the late 80's and played in various leagues over the years but stopped in 2013 when I needed rotator cuff surgery on my throwing arm.

I'm now 71 and my days of hitting bars, drinking and playing darts well into the night are done. I do head out to play still, but generally on league night to get some pick-up games with the league players to warm them up.

I still love to play and follow the darts on PDC Live that streams about 500 hours a year of live tournaments, both stage and floor events.

I loved to watch Eric Bristow when he played and then Phil Taylor, his protege who went on to win 16 World Titles in his career before retiring.

I like to watch a lot of players and really have no favorite, but do have some I really don't like to watch.


Edited to add this: MVG is a hell of a player but his style of play is now catching up with him and that was something I eluded to many years ago.

When he first came into the PDC tour he was a skinny kid and over the years he's likely packed on 50+ lbs. Also, that pronounced lean and the extreme wrist snap at the end of this throw has started coming back to haunt him a bit with back, leg and wrist issues for the past few years.

He's now got 3 World Titles to his name and I can't see him even matching Raymond van Barneveld and Eric Bristow who both are in 2nd place behind Taylor with 5 World Titles each.

I really can't see anyone breaking Taylors run at World Titles. He was a freak of nature on the dart board in his day and so far ahead of the competition at the time, he made winning look easy.