Playing or watching? Judging by some of the answers to previous questions (the great outdoors, could you live without the internet, etc.), I'm guessing the answer will be a resounding no. But is there anyone out there? Do you watch the Olympics? Basketball? Football? Baseball? Local teams? College teams? Your own teams? Your children's teams? Anyone?

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Answers

I am a sports fan. I started watching sports, particularly baseball, so I could spend time with my father, who is a rapid sports fan (Giants, baseball and football).

I've been a Red Sox (the team for whom the term "wait until next year" was invented) fan forever. When I went away to college, I became a Cleveland Browns fan. I don't enjoy hockey or basketball much and usually don't watch those on TV.

I find the coverage of Olympics isn't as good as it used to be. I remember in particular the Montreal Olympics, which we watched on the CBC. Then it was much more sports and less the "up close and personal" features that they seem to run endlessly now. I really just want to see the sports -- track and field, gymnastics, etc.

I'm the only one I know who actually understands curling...

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

OK this is sad but I LOVE boxing. I just became a fan about two years ago but I am rabid. I understand all the rules for all the states and all that sad stuff. Now before you get the wrong idea I should clarify and say that I do not like heavyweight boxing because Mike Tyson and his 28 second knock out killed it for me. I think it's too slow because those guys are just to big. I prefer the middle weights and even light heavy wieghts. My mother and girlfriend are both shocked at this devolopment because I do not seem the type that would love boxing but I can't help it. I have favorite boxers (Roy Jones Jr., Sugar Shane Mosely, Oscar De Lahoya to name a small few) and will cancel nights out to stay home and watch the fights.

I have also been known to watch a little basketball but never with the same passion that I devote to boxing.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

So if I talk about throwing an in-turn with hack weight so I can freeze to the button, you'll know what I'm saying? :-)

Watching: hockey, curling, any international events where Team Canada is particpating, the Olympics, figure skating.

Particpating: golf & want to take up curling. When I was in grade 5 in Winnipeg, I participated in grade 5/6 bonspiel. Ours was the last grade 5 rink to be eliminated, in the quarter- or semi- finals. Haven't touched a broom since, unfortuantely.

Mind you, it's never too late to pick up the game. That's one beauty of curling. When my dad was 39 or 40, the rink he was on made it to the provincial finals of Newfoundland. Unfortuantely they had an early exit from the tourney; still, to be one level of competition away from making the Brier (Canadian national championships) is nothing to sneeze at.

So, there's hope for me yet! :-)

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Rugby! I love to watch international rugby. And no, it's not all about the men.

By rights I shouldn't like the game, as I grew up in the Scottish Borders, which is the heartland of the national team, and as a result, went to school with prehistoric man. But since I've been away the game has taken my heart. It's so physical and fast...the skill of a good pass or a hard and heavy tackle keeps me on the edge of my seat. And oooooh, the feeling in a full stadium when a conversion goes soaring over the bar...

I think it helps, too, that a rugby crowd is a well-tempered crowd?

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

huge sports fan. will watch anything except basketball or boxing. i mean anything. if it's on espn, i will watch. this includes their extended coverage of national billiards championships.

i watch the olympics like they are a religious experience. opening ceremony (during which i always cry) to the grand finale. in fact, i want to be bob costas. sundays in the fall exist only to eat the apples one picked the day before and watch football. every game. 1:00. 4:00. 7:00. monday night football baby. thanksgiving morning is all about catching my high school kick our 100+ year old rival's ass. i literally live and die by the red sox. i can tell you the name of every single player currently on their 25 man roster, and who will most likely be called up if -- god forbid -- anyone gets sent down or injured. i watched almost all of this year's women's ncaa softball world series. i even stop and watch on my shortcut through the park on the way home from the bus if there is a little league game or 4 and 5 year old's soccer game going on. hell, i've stopped to watch a frisbee game. a frisbee game with a dog.

i play almost anything too. but not as well as i watch. i have been plaing softball for 16 years, swam competitively for 8, did gymnastics for a while, played basketball and hated it but it's a game almost every kid in boston plays at some time, and i will play in any pickup volleyball, tennis, or hockey game.

i am a sports freak.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Do I like to watch baseball?....

Last Sunday I spent 8 hours in the sun watching both of my boys playing ball, at different locations, each on a different team, each playing a double header. They're only playing high school level ball, but its good entertainment. ...And you get to see the same fans at every game; just like season tickets. Local youth sports are great; ...and you get to interview the players at the dinner table!

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

When I was growing up, kids played, outside, after school, until dark, whatever game was in season: football, basketball, baseball.

Even kids who didn't go out for a team, in school, played pickup, sandlot games. Had a glove, a ball, a backboard, over the garage, or a playground to go to.

You might bat right field and be chosen last, like Bunt Sign, but you played. If you were a boy.

My wife was a girl, and she remembers playing tag, hide and seek, and games like that. Physical, active, strenuous games.

I was better at individual sports like spearfishing or bodysurfing than I was at team sports.

I played on the B team, in basketball, sat on the bench, in Pony League baseball, and, during football season, was in the band. Although I played football after school.

Soccer wasn't played. Volleyball was played, at the beach, because we lived near the beach, and it was strictly amateur (and coed).

My brother and I played tennis. He could hold his own with me, even though he was three years younger.

Once, when we lived near a university field house (junior high and grade school), we played handball, and badminton against each other. We were swimmers.

I was a football fan when pro football was the NFL. In black and white. Mike Ditka was a player.

I was a drinker. Brenda says after I quit drinking I lost interest in football. I just used the game as an excuse to get drunk.

When I was stationed in Japan, I followed sumo wrestling. The three yokuzunas when I was following it were Taiho, Kashiwado, and Tochinoumi.

I liked pro basketball, back when Bill Russell was playing, and not much, since.

Once we had kids, we did a lot of camping, with a canoe, fishing, and hunting. Hiking.

I like to do sports, rather than watch them. I ride a bike, as transportation, and for fun.

If I lived near snow, I'd ski. But I don't go where snow is, to learn.

Brenda has started watching Atlanta Braves games, since she moved to Atlanta, and I keep track of their record, who's injured. Watch them with her, sometimes.

The coverage is much better than it used to be.

I don't like the way pro athletes act, including amateur athletes who compete at tournament-class level.

It's corrupt, dishonest, and as choreographed as pro wrestling.

I never got into stock car racing.

A southern writer can make a living writing about stock cars, AAA baseball, and country music.

None of them interests me all that much.

I'm interested in bluegrass music, classical music, and jazz.

I lived in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympic Games and didn't watch a single event.

I will watch the Tour de France, on television, or the Iron Man Triathlon.

I'm too out of shape to run, but I walk right much.

I guess I do like AAA baseball, reading what Beth had to say about it. And college, and junior college baseball.

Oh, yea, I watched boxing, on television, when it was free. Now, I like mixed martial arts tournaments, which I rent on video, rather than watch on pay-per-view.

I watched the fights with my father. He was a big fight fan.

We watched some good ones.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

I like baseball, but not on tv. I like to sit in the stands, drinking beer and eating peanuts, and throwing the peanut shells on the ground. And singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the 7th-inning stretch. Minor-league baseball is a little slice of heaven.

I'm kind of embarrassed to admit I like hockey, but I do. When it's played well, it's beautiful.

I watch approximately three football games per season, one of which is the Super Bowl. The other two will be college games.

I always watch the Olympics, and I can guarantee I will being crying at some point during them. Hi, I'm Tracey and I'm a sap.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

You mean, where you pay a bunch of money to sit and watch a bunch of grown men & women get paid a bunch of money to play a game? Naah. It's just a fad; it'll never catch on.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

No, but I once had a friend who's sister was a baseball groupie.

She was a very pretty girl, and had managed to secure season tickets for the Yankees, right over the third base dugout. She was a genuine sports fan, but her interests were not limited to game time.

She had quite a reputation amongst the ball players, and hooked up with some very well-known people during this time in her life. Let me just say for the record, that if you had any doubts, professional athletes are pigs.

The guys she dated were almost all married with families. They were flying her all over the country to meet them, stashing her away in fancy hotel rooms and handing her fistfuls of cash to keep her busy while they were at practice.

It was all very sordid, but fascinating as well.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Yes, I'm a big sports fan, which surprises me. I got interested in baseball in my 20s. I like baseball, hockey, and the Olympics. I don't like soccer, basketball or football.

I watch or listen to nearly every Giants and As game. My husband has season tickets to the Giants and I've gone with him a couple of times. We like minor league baseball too and we have the San Jose Giants a few miles a way. We always have fun at their games. You're right, it's nothing like the big leagues. The players are close and they have all kinds of silly contests for the fans. They have a great BBQ. My husband's even gone to Stockton and Sonoma for minor league games up there. Maybe we should come up and meet you at a Cats game some time.

I discovered rugby this year thanks to cable. Now that's a game!

We have a housemate who's a huge sports fan. He and I watched the Stanley Cup playoffs on Saturday and he answered all my questions. (I like hockey but don't watch it nearly as much as baseball and don't follow it like baseball.) He'll watch anything except golf. He follows college sports too and has a sports radio show at a nearby community college.

My husband has watched our friends' kids games but that's too much for me.

I lift weights, do stairmaster type stuff, and racewalk. My knees are too screwed up to run.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

i play hockey. i was reared a baltimore orioles fan by my father, my uncle and my grandfather. i live and die by the victories of the university of north carolina basketball team in the winter. and lately, i've taken up the career of being a chelsea football fan. which means that i'm listening to european cup 2000 games on the internet while at work.

i'm an enormous sports fan.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

I like sports well enough, but have no time for them. If I could, I would follow the Yankees, if only to have something to talk about on the train and at the office.

The Olympics, however, do not count as sport. Of all the boring, time-wasting, who-gives-a-sh*t activities, the Olympics takes first prize. I hate the Olympics. It's just a bunch of freaks from rich families who have nothing else to occupy their time, and spend four years training to do things that no one has even wants to do this century (like that winter skiing-and-shooting sport, obviously a throwback to days when privileged children became officers on patrol at Alpine national borders). Then they get their moment in the sun and we all watch as their collective asses are kicked by the citizens of nations, such as the former Soviet Union, who use their command and control economies to preserve the amateur status of full time athletes. In the end, we learn every four years that people in economically depressed countries can throw themselves backwards over wicker barriers (that's the pole vault, folks) just as capably as the children of capitalists can.

The Olympics is the dullest, most inane spectacle ever to sully my retina, and I am convinced that it is rescued from being ridiculed into oblivion only by the solemn attitudes of the local chambers of commerce (and the Olympic Committee itself) into whose coffers it pours millions. It should be booed off the public stage with most other nineteenth century conceits, like boiled woolen underwear and metal hoop skirts.

Each new event that they add only heightens my despair over this ragtag collection of oddball behaviors that poses as the heir to a Greek tradition: synchronized swimming, floor exercises with little curlicues of ribbon, trampoline. It seems that you only need to dream up some physical activity that no one else partakes of, and you too can become an Olympic athlete.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

I'm a rabid fan of hockey in general, and the Dallas Stars in particular.

I must admit, I started out as one of those band wagon fans last year when the Stars got into the Stanley Cup finals. Then, I discovered I really loved the game! My brother is very knowledgable about hockey, and explained it to me. I now know all about off-sides, two line passes, the neutral zone trap and a bunch of other terms that were foreign to me a year ago.

I was heartbroken on Saturday when we had to give the Cup up to the Jersey Devils, but they earned it. The Stars started out slow, but managed to force the series to a 6th game. They had a spectacular season, and don't have anything to be ashamed of.

The Stars are a great team. They're very involved in community activities, they're accesible to the fans, and for hockey players, most of em are pretty easy on the eyes! :-)

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

Not really -- though the baseball you're describing is the kind of baseball I'd like to watch.

I do have an extreme fondness for the Olympics though, because they showcase sports that aren't commonly televised in the United States. Like downhill skiing, the high jump, speed skating and bobsledding.

I'm not as fond of the summer Olympics as I am of the winter. I like watching the foot races and the decathlons, and I _used_ to like watching gymnastics ... until the average age of the athletes in the women's category dropped below 15.

My favorite sport to watch is figure skating. There has been a steady rise of skating shows in the States in the last 5 years which is nice, since there are more events to watch.

But by and large, I'd rather _play_ sports than _watch_ them.

I like playing softball/baseball, volleyball and I love to ice skate, though I'll never be a figure skater.

There is little I hate more than the sound of the TV set to a sporting event with a crowd and an announcer. The endless dull roar of football, basketball and baseball on TV just drives me _bonkers_. I could never understand why my Dad couldn't watch the games on mute.

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000

I'm hopelessly uncoordinated when it comes to sports, so I only play boring stuff like disc golf, and even that's very rarely.

I don't much like watching sports either, though I did catch the last two Stanley Cup games and wondered why I thought I didn't like hockey. It's so deliciously violent!

And then of course there's my indoor soccer fetish. I love indoor soccer. Its like a cross between soccer and hockey but twice as fast as both sports. Instead of one or two goals in two halves, it's more like 15 goals in 4 quarters.

And Sacramento has it's very own championship pro indoor soccer team the Knights which my cousin plays for, so I have season tickets. Beth, you should come to a game with me sometime, the season opens in August.

- M

-- Anonymous, June 13, 2000