I like the social aspect (as with many US sports)

My folks used to live in Colorado and when out there on holiday I'd be invited to a lot of Football nights with some of the guys my father worked with.

Typical set up would be a bunch of blokes (and wives - who were often more into it than the guys), a bunch of cold beers, a massive f**k off flast screen tv, and a lot of chips & dips. It didn't matter who was playing (unless it was college football, and then it *mattered*), everyone was so knowledgeable about the game and took it as a good opportunity to enjoy some sport and a chance to 'shoot the s**t'.

It's the breaks between all the plays that makes it a good thing to watch with friends, because you get to chat, talk about the game, and yet not miss any of the action (cf watching a football game down the pub with mates, where the only real time to actually talk to each other is at half time).

As for the game itself, I never really understood it until a work colleague (who played and coached at a minor level in the UK) ran off some powerpoint slides breaking down a number of typical plays and all the different roles of the players involved, how they'd make moves anticipated where the oppo would be and where they need to block certain opposition players to enable their own players to weave through the space that would be created etc. I find the tactical battles between the coaches, as played out on the pitch, fascinating and so different to any UK sport that it makes a nice change.

Live baseball is an aquired taste. For a while I could never understand why players on the field were just standing around doing nothing, often between pitches, until it dawned on me that they were just pausing for an advert break on tv. (Or at least that is what I assume they were doing...) But if you look it as a social event with the backdrop of sport, it's not such a bad way to spend an evening.

Posted By: CWC, Feb 3, 00:10:05