Things you believe as a sports fan that would surprise others

[SabresRule]

What are some things that, as a sports fan, you have always believed that would surprise others a lot that would make them say, "I don't believe that"?

Here are mine:

1. ESPN, at times, can be Spurs-biased. They were rightfully critical of them during the controversial Suns series, but when the Jazz series started, they did a complete 360 and slurped the Spurs like crazy. IMO, ESPN slurps Tim Duncan more than other athletes; even Notre Dame QB's get slobbered less than #21.

And, of course, Skip Bayless, while I can stand him, only gets on my nerves when he talks about 'my San Antonio Spurs.' Other than that, I don't mind him.

2. As a Sabres fan, I do NOT blame the Brett Hull goal/crease incident for their loss in the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals.

They lost because of A PATHETIC OFFENSE.

Unlike the post-lockout Sabres teams, they were goal-starved.

They were basically one good goalie and a whole lot of garbage goals.

Buffalo got in a 3-2 spot in the first place because THEIR OFFENSE STUNK.

Even in their two wins, they managed only 5 goals- and scored just three times in games 2, 3 and 5.

In game 6, one goal- ONE GOAL! If they had scored again or in ANY of the two overtimes... who knows?

 

[SandraC]

Great idea for a thread.

1. I believe the Ice-landers actually made a smart move when they signed DiPietro to a 15 year deal, if he stays healthy. During the last five years of his contract the amount they're paying DiPietro will be a steal for the team.

OMG I said something good about the Ice-landers. I'm going to have to say about 45,000 Hail Marys now.

2. I believe...no, in fact, I know...it's game seven in 1994 against Vancouver. Rangers are up 2-1...Kevin Lowe takes a shot from the point that hits the crossbar and comes out...except I recorded that game on VHS, both the MSG and ESPN versions. We were watching the MSG feed live, of course, and a week or two later I watched the entire game from the ESPN feed. And I saw without question, Lowe's shot hit the bar in the back of the net.

They had video replay back then, but nobody thought anything of it...I've gone back to the MSG feed, and the angle they showed the replay on does not make you think the puck going in is a possibility. As my brothers came home one by one and then my dad, I showed them all. At first they all thought I was nuts...then one by one thay all agreed it went in without question.

The Rangers wound up taking a 3-1 lead in the game anyway, but Vancouver closed to 3-2 which is how it ended, after some frantic final minutes. Imagine if Vancouver had tied it?

3. My dad believed until the end Richard Todd purposely allowed the Dolphins to beat the Jets in the Mud Bowl game in 1982 or 1983, I forget. The game he kept passing to AJ Duhe, who unfortunately was a Dolphin. i was too young to notice, but if my dad said it, I believe it.

4. I don't think games are fixed, but I do believe the NBA has always done it's best to make sure fans go home happy....meaning bending calls toward the home team on occasion. Or toward superstars.

5. I believe when the league announced Brett Barry was fouled by Derek Fisher and apologized, they should also have announced Charles Smith was fouled three times by the Bulls about 15 years ago. Knick fans know which game I'm talking about.

6. I believe the SEC is a superior football conference to the Big Ten. And I don't want to see Ohio State play a third title game in a row against an SEC team.


Sandra

 

[SabresRule]

Sandra,

what do you think of the two things I believed as a sports fan?

 

[SandraC]

Sandra,

what do you think of the two things I believed as a sports fan?

I have to say I never noticed ESPN being either positive or negative about the Spurs, at least not the game announcers. I don't watch the studio show like I watch TNT's, because I can't stand having Stephen A Smith yell at me. I much prefer Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith, they're fun to watch.

And I'd be lying if I said I remembered anything about that 1999 series other than Brett Hull's big toe being in the crease, or not being in the crease. The NHL had turned me off for a number of years, as once the Devils won in 1995 way too many teams became too defensive. That includes the Stars. Too many games where the shots on goal totals were somthing like 18-11.

The games became unwatchable, so I didn't always watch them...although I did watch the big toe game.


Sandra

 

[DerekE]

PTI and Outside the Lines are the only 'non-games' content on ESPN that is watchable. That said they do have some of the better 'game announcers' on TV. Jon Miller is my favorite Non-Vin Scully baseball broadcaster.

 

[Paul Wozniak]

Great idea for a thread.

1. I believe the Ice-landers actually made a smart move when they signed DiPietro to a 15 year deal, if he stays healthy. During the last five years of his contract the amount they're paying DiPietro will be a steal for the team.

OMG I said something good about the Ice-landers. I'm going to have to say about 45,000 Hail Marys now.

2. I believe...no, in fact, I know...it's game seven in 1994 against Vancouver. Rangers are up 2-1...Kevin Lowe takes a shot from the point that hits the crossbar and comes out...except I recorded that game on VHS, both the MSG and ESPN versions. We were watching the MSG feed live, of course, and a week or two later I watched the entire game from the ESPN feed. And I saw without question, Lowe's shot hit the bar in the back of the net.

They had video replay back then, but nobody thought anything of it...I've gone back to the MSG feed, and the angle they showed the replay on does not make you think the puck going in is a possibility. As my brothers came home one by one and then my dad, I showed them all. At first they all thought I was nuts...then one by one thay all agreed it went in without question.

The Rangers wound up taking a 3-1 lead in the game anyway, but Vancouver closed to 3-2 which is how it ended, after some frantic final minutes. Imagine if Vancouver had tied it?

3. My dad believed until the end Richard Todd purposely allowed the Dolphins to beat the Jets in the Mud Bowl game in 1982 or 1983, I forget. The game he kept passing to AJ Duhe, who unfortunately was a Dolphin. i was too young to notice, but if my dad said it, I believe it.

4. I don't think games are fixed, but I do believe the NBA has always done it's best to make sure fans go home happy....meaning bending calls toward the home team on occasion. Or toward superstars.

5. I believe when the league announced Brett Barry was fouled by Derek Fisher and apologized, they should also have announced Charles Smith was fouled three times by the Bulls about 15 years ago. Knick fans know which game I'm talking about.

6. I believe the SEC is a superior football conference to the Big Ten. And I don't want to see Ohio State play a third title game in a row against an SEC team.


Sandra

We here at MICHIGAN will ask for an exception to that statement.

 

[AntAltMike]

Cal Ripkin, Jr., and Kirk Gibson went bald prematurely for the same reason that a lot of other, vilified players went bald prematurely.

 

[AntAltMike]

...Knick fans know which game I'm talking about.
...

Non-Knicks fans know, too!

BTW, two of my former customers were Michael Jordan and Bryon Russell, so I know non-calls when I see them.

 

[AntAltMike]

Did anyone besides me notice today that Phil Mickelson's arms are much bigger this year than they have been in previous years?

 

[BillD1984]

Did anyone besides me notice today that Phil Mickelson's arms are much bigger this year than they have been in previous years?

And his waist line is smaller.

 

[dishcomm]

Great idea for a thread.

1. I believe the Ice-landers actually made a smart move when they signed DiPietro to a 15 year deal, if he stays healthy. During the last five years of his contract the amount they're paying DiPietro will be a steal for the team.

OMG I said something good about the Ice-landers. I'm going to have to say about 45,000 Hail Marys now.

2. I believe...no, in fact, I know...it's game seven in 1994 against Vancouver. Rangers are up 2-1...Kevin Lowe takes a shot from the point that hits the crossbar and comes out...except I recorded that game on VHS, both the MSG and ESPN versions. We were watching the MSG feed live, of course, and a week or two later I watched the entire game from the ESPN feed. And I saw without question, Lowe's shot hit the bar in the back of the net.

They had video replay back then, but nobody thought anything of it...I've gone back to the MSG feed, and the angle they showed the replay on does not make you think the puck going in is a possibility. As my brothers came home one by one and then my dad, I showed them all. At first they all thought I was nuts...then one by one thay all agreed it went in without question.

The Rangers wound up taking a 3-1 lead in the game anyway, but Vancouver closed to 3-2 which is how it ended, after some frantic final minutes. Imagine if Vancouver had tied it?

3. My dad believed until the end Richard Todd purposely allowed the Dolphins to beat the Jets in the Mud Bowl game in 1982 or 1983, I forget. The game he kept passing to AJ Duhe, who unfortunately was a Dolphin. i was too young to notice, but if my dad said it, I believe it.

4. I don't think games are fixed, but I do believe the NBA has always done it's best to make sure fans go home happy....meaning bending calls toward the home team on occasion. Or toward superstars.

5. I believe when the league announced Brett Barry was fouled by Derek Fisher and apologized, they should also have announced Charles Smith was fouled three times by the Bulls about 15 years ago. Knick fans know which game I'm talking about.

6. I believe the SEC is a superior football conference to the Big Ten. And I don't want to see Ohio State play a third title game in a row against an SEC team.


Sandra

"Ice-landers"
Hmm. Do you listen to Steve Somers on WFAN? Cuz that's what he calls them.

 

[SamCdbs]

4. I don't think games are fixed, but I do believe the NBA has always done it's best to make sure fans go home happy....meaning bending calls toward the home team on occasion. Or toward superstars.

6. I believe the SEC is a superior football conference to the Big Ten. And I don't want to see Ohio State play a third title game in a row against an SEC team.

NBA games are fixed. Not in the way 'raslin is fixed in that everybody is in on it, but in a sport without rules it is easy for the referees to get with the program. With 10 fouls on every play and the "rule" against walking unenforced, its just to simple.

What amazes me is why people watch a sport that is little more than streetball with some camara tricks. Contrasted to the purity of college basketball, or even international basketball, or any sport that has rules, I just don't get it.

The SEC is so superior to the rest of college football it is unbelievable. Fifteen minutes in an SEC city on gameday would be a massive reality therapy for anybody from elsewhere.

This is why it is so important that the BcS be destroyed. By creatating an environment where every league is, by law, "equal" to the point that 12-0 in something like the Leastleftovers is somehow similar to what goes on in the SEC, we set ourselves up for disaster. The managers of the SEC are not stupid, and understand that the top six or eight teams in the SEC, if they played in a joke conference like the Leastleftovers, would go undefeated. How long before a 12-0 Florida (having won a conference that includes such luminaries as East Carolina, UAB, Middle Tennessee, Troy State, TCU, etc) plays a 12-0 West Virginia, equally fat on similar woeful cupcakes like Rutgers, Syracuse, Louisville, play one another.

6-6 in the SEC is superior to 12-0 in the Big East. That simple.

 

[SabresRule]

The SEC is so superior to the rest of college football it is unbelievable. Fifteen minutes in an SEC city on gameday would be a massive reality therapy for anybody from elsewhere.

This is why it is so important that the BcS be destroyed. By creatating an environment where every league is, by law, "equal" to the point that 12-0 in something like the Leastleftovers is somehow similar to what goes on in the SEC, we set ourselves up for disaster. The managers of the SEC are not stupid, and understand that the top six or eight teams in the SEC, if they played in a joke conference like the Leastleftovers, would go undefeated. How long before a 12-0 Florida (having won a conference that includes such luminaries as East Carolina, UAB, Middle Tennessee, Troy State, TCU, etc) plays a 12-0 West Virginia, equally fat on similar woeful cupcakes like Rutgers, Syracuse, Louisville, play one another.

6-6 in the SEC is superior to 12-0 in the Big East. That simple.

I have to disagree with you.

The SEC is not THAT GOOD- some strong teams, but their cellar-dwellers are as bad as any.

Sam, the way you treat the Big East really disgusts me- at least with Sandra and the Ice-landers, it's just one team. She doesn't disrespect a division/conference.

You, OTOH, really get on my nerves.

I'm gonna say it once, and I'll never say it again.

SEC football- OVERRATED!!

They got lucky at the right time in the right place last year.

 

[SamCdbs]

The world disrespects the Leastleftovers. This fall there will be more empty seats at Leastleftovers games than to other BcS conferences, combined.

Its just not a big deal. WVU, and eight schools with not more than 1/10th of its resources. But under the broken BcS system, whatever happens there, and the same thing happens every year, is exactly equal to what happens in real conferences. Its as if the Carolina League was made a division of Major League Baseball and the Pittsburgh Pirates put in it, and then we are supposed to pretend that Pittsburgh winning that is the same thing as the Red Sox winning the AL East. It just isn't.

In all of America, not one 12 year old boy will go to bed tonight and pray, "please God, let me grow up to play for the South Florida Bulls."

 

[SabresRule]

In all of America, not one 12 year old boy will go to bed tonight and pray, "please God, let me grow up to play for the South Florida Bulls."

Like anyone really wants to play for Vanderbilt, Mississippi State or Ole Miss.

Your almighty SEC has some pathetic bottomfeeders.

 

[stogie5150]

Paul Tracy won the 2002 Indy 500 but because he was from a rival series the management of the IRL sided with an IRL regular, and gave him the win.

 

[Diamond Jim]

I believe the SEC is a superior football conference to the Big Ten.

The CYO is superoir than the Big 10 in football.