probably the best approach when it comes to team sports i feel, i had this perspective when watching the eurocup and copa america (with some exceptions for lets say harmless/personal reasons) and it allowed me to appreciate the games much more. that or rooting for them on a per-matchup basis.
with baseball its much easier because theres so many players from our domestic league that get drafted into the MLB that it makes it easy to root for certain teams. in the NBA from what i’ve seen its more rewarding to follow players through their careers vs teams, and from what you and sabertoothalex are saying perhaps a similar approach wrt the NWSL is best and following young players is a good way to pick up the storylines within a league.
perhaps im overthinking the distinction and following a sport involves a combination of both, i can imagine rooting for an underdog team as a whole is a good way of engaging with a sports league.
frankly, the habit of following sports sort-of blindly as to what the players do/believe is a defense mechanism from supporting DR baseball players (DR i love you but im sorry!)
Yeah I generally agree that hanging out with a whole league and checking in on different match-ups is the most way to follow team sports. This is how I enjoy the NBA, NHL, and NFL (and how I used to enjoy soccer, which I no longer really follow).
The exception for me is the MLB, where there are just too many players to really get a sense of who everyone is. So with baseball, I find that it’s more fun to just follow your one team (the Blue Jays), because they play almost every dang day, so you really get a sense for what the players’ personalities are like, and they as a group become your lens through which to view the rest of the league. Baseball’s also got the fun added wrinkle of each ballpark having its unique eccentricities, so seeing “your guys” do their thing in different environments has almost like an RPG feel to it.
Agreed to add to the above and stump for the NWSL again - it has some of the charm and goofiness of minor league baseball except it’s a top league in terms of talent and on-field competitiveness. The minor league hangout quality is down to the more modest but not quite ramshackle material reality of the league. All fun with minimal un-fun stuff you get with “major” leagues
Was busy yesterday but right now I’ve got some time to watch a bit of olympic taekwondo and after 10 minutes I can already tell that watching this is much more readable as an outsider than judo was.
Also that arena is so cool. Walking down that staircase of the grand palais? What an entry man! Paris is such a cool city, I really gotta visit it again.
worked a long shift yesterday so had to dodge the results and catch the game on replay. USWNT was the best team in the tournament and deserved the gold. Brazil and Germany deserved their medals too of course. I guess the only surprise was Spain eating shit like they did. These 18 player rosters are crazy, eager to see who’s in the next full-roster camp. Guessing a few new or not seen lately midfielders, especially at the 6 and 8
Just saw this the other day. I always thought: since the knuckle ball is so good, why don’t organizations encourage all their non-prospects try to learn it? Was pleasantly surprised to find out one system tried exactly that and failed miserably at it years ago.
it makes sense but it is too funny every time he’s like, 58 year old Lawrence Pendergrass hadn’t pitched since middle school and played 18 years in the majors after learning to throw a knuckleball. I feel like it takes a certain kind of insane guy to do it.
