Comments on: Physicists Don’t Golf

By: It’s not over until it’s over | Cosmic Variance

It’s not over until it’s over | Cosmic Variance — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 05:28:14 +0000

[…] OK. So I promised myself I would not blog about the baseball post-season play-offs (otherwise I could, and still very much run the risk, of boring you all to death). But tonight (that’s St. Louis vs Houston in the National League Championship series) was just a spectacular example of, well of so many things. Anyone who thinks baseball is not exciting (see the comments on my previous post) should have watched this game. It just doesn’t get any better than this. Of course, I can say that as my team won. I literally spent the night biting my nails, pacing the floor, and at times not even being able to watch, covering my face with my hands. […]

By: Philip

Philip — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 17:53:50 +0000

Tens of millions of years of evolution gave us hands with opposable thumbs, but soccer players can’t use them.

What kind of a sport is that?

Go Padres!

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 17:03:55 +0000

Cricket>*

I watch baseball, because it’s at least a pale imitation of cricket. Alas, the Phillies, although not sucking as horribly as they often do, are likely to fail to get the NL Wildcard.

I will also take this opportunity to point out that the DH rule is evil. Evil, I say.

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 13:40:12 +0000

As a Cubs fan who’s having a bad week on so many levels, allow me this humble statement. Boooo Cardinals!!!! BOOOO!!!!!

By: Greg A.

Greg A. — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 00:10:38 +0000

Go White Sox!!! That’s all I have to say. DH is fine be me…

By: Moshe Rozali

Moshe Rozali — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 00:05:16 +0000

Scott,

I agree with you on basketball and football, and in fact anything you may have to say about the pains of watching soccer, hockey, power fishing or water polo…I’m just very agreeable on these matters.

By: bittergradstudent

bittergradstudent — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 23:43:06 +0000

Interesting idea, sam, but I’d add hockey to the blood cateogory, and challenging to the baseball category–after all, the best of the best at the sport are the ones that succeed in hitting the ball one out of nine times (.333 average is good, with three strikes in each chance to get a hit). And though playing FIFA level soccer is clearly extremely difficult, I might ask what is the first sport that people teach children, worldwide? And don’t people have to break in their children to baseball by first having them play T-ball?

By: Sam Gralla

Sam Gralla — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 23:02:41 +0000

Janet says its silly to argue because different people are looking for different things, such as…

“beautiful to look at, has interesting strategy, is likely to draw blood, is fun to play, is challenging to play”

So let’s see what sport a person interested in each of these things (respectively) would prefer.

beautiful: soccer
strategy: baseball
blood: football, soccer
fun: basketball, soccer
challenging: soccer, hockey

looks like we have a clear winner :). Unless you only like strategy, in which case I’d suggest watching chess instead.

By: Scott O

Scott O — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 22:38:33 +0000

Good to see Cardinals fans well-represented here. The St. Louis Cardinals are the source of all goodness in the universe, after all. It’s the only religion I have, after all.

As for football … if I wanted to watch dense bricks colliding with each other, I’d go to a construction yard. And don’t even get me started on basketball … any sport that takes as much time to play the last “30 seconds” as it takes to play the first quarter has far worse tempo problems than baseball could ever have. Scoring is so ridiculously easy that NBA players spend more time showboating than displaying skill. Eliminate time outs in the last two minutes of the game, and raise the hoop by 3 feet, and it could be an interesting game again.

By: JoAnne

JoAnne — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 21:52:45 +0000

Oh no - the secret’s out. I can’t spell or type! We can all look forward to more “anomously” spelled words in my future posts.

Sean, no way will the Phillies win in the play-offs! The Cards have a tough time with Houston though…hope the Braves take care of them if they’re in.

And, no self-respecting baseball league would employ the DH. Period.