Bravo! Your dedication to your sport is admirable! Hope you recovered 100%. What did you do to your opponents?

If only your effort and enthusiasm would infiltrate the ranks of the professionals. That's one of the reasons why I really like A, AA, and AAA minor league baseball here in the states. The players don't yet have it made, or, for those "sent down", are trying to get back to the higher level. Therefore the intensity of play, the hustle, is much greater than one sees in "the big show".

The same applies to college baseball, although they need to get rid of those aluminum bats and the DH.

I'd get much enjoyment out of seeing Sterry, uh, Barry Bonds get busted (finally) and sent to a single-A minor league team. I doubt such an ego could handle it and his whines would fill the outfield. That is, if the manager was his own man and decided not to play him at all.

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I am shocked, you mean live strong (the other Armstrong) is not your national hero. The man sacrificed more than most (I want to say it, but I am afraid I will be banned ).

Am I really the first to notice that curling, which isn't even a sport, is listed twice by Doodler?

I mean, come on, we all fall asleep while watching it, but just by reading the word???

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

Plus he missed Pro Wrestling off the list.

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A friend of mine just got back from Australia on an extended visit to his daugther, son-in-law and granddaugther. He also referees soccer. His opinion was Rugby Premier, Rugby A-League, Aussie Football.

Soccer is becoming more popular in the US for two reasons:
- The demographics are changing; however, most Hispanic fans aren't willing to give up their old teams until US teams rise to the same level. [cough]Houston Dynamo 1, Club America 0[cough]
- More and more kids are playing youth soccer. As they become adults, they want to follow the sport at the professional level.

As for curling, when I first saw it during a winter Olympics, I thought it was very strange, even silly. But the more I watched, the more fascinated I became. It actually requires a great deal of skill, a lot of strategy, and a bit of athletecism. I really enjoy watching it now.

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Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
Isaac Asimov

The only problem there is that two of those don't exist

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There is no dark side of the moon really, as a matter of fact it's all dark - Pink Floyd, The Dark Side Of The Moon

I remember the hoopla back in the 1970s when the NY Cosmos soccer team hired Pele. Everyone was talking about how this would put soccer on the map in the US. It didn't happen.

As far as the "kids playing soccer" idea, well, soccer has been popular as a kids sport for at least 10 or 20 years - those kids are now adults... and they are watching baseball, US football, and NASCAR.

Oh all of those factors, I suspect demographics will have the biggest impact, but I'll wait and see.

I did like 12) Hot dog gorging and 19) Paint drying on Doodler's list - but are those as spectator or participant sports?

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I didn't say I think it will, I said I hope it will. It's an exciting sport. The thing I think that's hurting it the most is the Euopean snobbery toward American interest in the sport, which I think has turned a lot of us against it. I think that'll change though.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

Regarding [real ] football in the US, I think Africa is a good example of the potential for development. In the 70´s, the times of Pele in the NY Cosmos, African teams used to serve as sparring bags for South american and European teams. Now they are feared [at least down here]. I see the same thing happening in the near future with the US.

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What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart

Oh, in fact I like it too. It's interesting to see how the guys with the brooms can make or ruin a throw, or how they go "to the bone" to turn a bad throw into a good one. Reducing friction, steering (well, trying to), and all that with a broom without touching the curling ball. It really is a team sport.

I used to think the brooms melted the ice which slowed down the rock, but apparently the thin layer of water reduces friction.

More fun to do than to watch: petanque . What's the petanque variant called where they roll a flattened ball towards a target (not on ice)? Shown on BBC from time to time.

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

I remember going to some soccer games here in Arizona when I was a kid. We used to have a soccer team, the Phoenix Lions. Then I moved away for a few years and when I came back they didn't exist anymore. I was too young to really appreciate the sport so never really followed it. Then when I was playing football in high school we developed a rivalry with our own soccer team ("Why don't you play a real man's game, where you don't wear little shorts and knee-high socks and jog around the field all day?" "Yea, why don't you play a real man's game where you don't wear tights and play huggy-huggy and roll on the ground with other boys?"). Now I would watch soccer if I ever saw it on, but I forget to look for sports outside of football and hockey season

As for curling, I agree with Jim too. Before the olympics I didn't really have any idea what curling was other than some rocks and ice. I thought it was somthing like Canadian shuffleboard or something. Then they covered a lot of the curling matches on TV and I was hooked. The precision and strategy required is amazing, plus a lot of those girls were hot!

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I was just sitting here contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

And the harder these girls brush their brooms, the more... anyway does anyone know what's the name of the sport I'm looking for?

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

GOLTV and Fox Sports Channel (FSC) show a lot. The Asian Cup is currently in progress.

I really enjoy watching soccer but have never played it much. Played football in High School but don't watch it anymore.

I think that is the aspect about football (soccer) that I love the most - it's a world game.

Are those basic channels or additional-subscription channels?

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I was just sitting here contemplating the immortal words of Socrates who said, "I drank what?"

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." --Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"

My guess is additional subscription - but it's just a guess. Sorry. I haven't updated our DishNetwork package in years.

I was about to say that. But it wasn´t always so. Africa and Asia played a very poor football prior to the 80´s. The expansion of football in the last 30 years coincides with the economic globalization.

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What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart

I'll have to check but I think an African team made the final 16 in the 2006 World Cup - or else they almost made it, which is a great accomplishment. I watch (or at least keep tabs on) all the major Cups.

Sounds like that might be where horseshoes got it's start. Or maybe a parallel evolution as there's something in a horseshoe that makes you want toss it at something. (Maybe that's just my annoying family members that causes that urge. )

@ Argos: Yes. Ghana made the final 16 and were immediately eliminated by that foul and mean team from Brazil.

Yeah. Still they played a great football then. The same can be said of the Asian teams [S. Korea and Japan, chiefly]. Regarding poor football, an anthological score was Yugoslavia vs Zaire, 9-0, in the ´74 World Cup. You don´t see things like that happening anymore.

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What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart

And in the 2002 World Cup, Korea placed third defeating Turkey in the Third Place match.

I was going from memory. He mentioned two levels/leagues of rugby as 1 and 2. Are there two?

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Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
Isaac Asimov

I love curling! For fans, may I suggest the Canadian comedy Men with Brooms? It's got Leslie Neilsen and my personal favourite actor, Paul Gross.

Interestingly, soccer may be healing some of the discord in Iraq. Their team is winning. I just worry what'll happen if/when they end up losing. Can a World Cup win bring peace?

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"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

No. Suicide bombers waited and killed a whole bunch when the people flooded the streets after the Iraq win at the Asian Cup.

Do they even have a chance at the cup? I was under the impression that France, Portugol, Brazil, and Itally pretty much dominated that, but honestly I don't really follow it much.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

From the Washington Post:

Asian Cup.

I was responding to:
Or is there more than one world cup?

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

She's mixing World Cup and Asian Cup. Iraq is currently doing well in the Asian Cup. World Cup is not till 2010 in South Africa.