I Really Like Sports…
Not Enough To Play Any of Them Anymore…
But I love living in what has now become a major sports city.
Tomorrow morning, (in the middle of my night) Kris and a number of other professional writers are headed off to an Ace’s game. We have season tickets and I love the games, but the one tomorrow starts at noon and I won’t be out of bed by then.
Tonight, I saw an article about how the construction was going on the new “A”s baseball stadium. That will be a work of art when it is done.
And then in the very next article I saw the renderings of a massive new hotel and casino and NBA arena on the north end of the Strip. (It will be walking distance from our condo.)
And with luck, the Raiders this season might have a team. If nothing else they will be better than that hot mess last year. (grin)
For me, no more running, just walking, but Kris has us signed up for seven different “runs” this fall, so now I have even more incentive to drop the last of this weight I gained when I broke my shoulder running. (I did hit some golf balls this last spring… so maybe I can play one sport still. (grin))
4 Comments
Kris Rusch
He makes it sound like I signed us up without his permission. He approved them all. And I have two more to add when I get the chance.
dwsmith
Yup, I sure did, and I am excited about them. A triple holiday one with a huge extra medal… Run on Halloween, Thanksgiving, and before Christmas. Do all three get the extra medal. And Vegas Strong which starts off the running season with 10,000 runners in the streets here in the downtown area all supporting the October 5th tragic event. And a Zombie run that last year I got lost on a golf course doing. And my favorite a run through the holiday lights under the Speedway grandstands. Just stunning. Last year I got a hot chocolate as I got to the half mile mark and just walked and stared at the holiday lights and drank my hot chocolate for the last two miles or so. Tough life, I know.
Mark Kuhn
I’m prompted here to contemplate how much the four major sports have changed over the years. I used to play ice hockey in the 70s and 80s. I also coached the game, refereed the game and worked at three different rinks as a Zamboni driver. Today’s game is almost unrecognizable to me. The equipment has changed drastically and how powerplays are run is completely bonkers thanks to the new sticks.
Baseball has changed, too. Thankfully they ruled that the flex defense is illegal. Counting pitches is a lot. Maybe they wouldn’t need to restrict pitches if pitchers weren’t throwing their elbows inside out every time they pitched. Back in the day pitchers started 30 to 40 games a season and at leat 20 of them were complete 9 inning games. They didn’t have “cut” fastballs, sweepers and their curve balls didn’t drop off a table like they do now.
Football, lots of rule changes are dulling down the game. Sadly, rightfully so. Concussions cannot be prevented.
Mangala McNamara
Losing weight is hard… and gets harder as we go. This summer I challenged each of my 6 kids and my husband to beat me at something (like planks or crunches) by 8/15. We’ll see. No one has been working at this but me, so maybe I have a shot.
Husband was a dedicated football and basketball watcher (and regular pick-up basketball and volleyball player until his joints objected). And we were indoctrinated into ice hockey as alums of RPI (smallest NCAA Div I team to win the championship ever! Twice!) He even had us do a homeschool unit on baseball.
But he began privately boycotting college sports a few years ago because – as a college professor – he felt it was wrong to support something that was so damaging to student brains with all the concussions. (No problem with pro sports, since they are making a choice and getting paid.)
I think he sort of gave up this last year. But it’s interesting that our oldest 2 daughters and son are much more interested in spectating.
I’m a fencer, and lots of rules changes since I was a teen as well. Don’t know why they had to change all the terminology. Making everything seem more like other sports and killing the uniqueness. And it’s not really working too bring fencing into the mainstream, though maybe it helped keep us in the Olympics.