MLB: Yankee (old & new), Shea, Citi, Skydome, Citizens Bank, National Stadium (game got rained out), Camden Yards, Progressive, PNC, Great American, Tiger Stadium, Safeco, Rangers Ballpark, Dodger, Petco, Wrigley, the Cell, Angels
CFB: Michigan, UConn, Rutgers
CBB: Michigan, TWC Center (Charlotte for NCAA tournament), preseason and postseason NIT (MSG), Seton Hall (Prudential Center)
NHL: Devils
NBA: Nets at Meadowlands and Prudential
NFL: A preseason Jets or Giants game (I don't even remember).
Soccer: Barcelona/Red Bulls at Giants Stadium, West Ham

Its really strange - I've never played baseball and basically very few of my friends like baseball yet its by far my favorite sport.

Oh, I don't think Dance Gaming resembles dancing. It's just that originally it was supposed to represent dancing until people realized that dancing on an arcade machine looked kind of stupid and silly and that dancing was best reserved for clubs and outdoor music festivals. In the interim, they discovered that stepping really fast on arrows was actually kind of fun, but "Arrow Stomp Gaming" doesn't quite have the amusing ring to it that "Dance Gaming" does.

I feel like I'm perhaps giving the impression of defending dance games as not silly, when that is wholly not the case. Dance gaming is silly as all hell, but it's also a pretty demanding athletic venture.

edited for related content: I've been to baseball games at Joe Robbie/Pro Player/Whatever, Tropicana, both Braves stadiums that have existed in my lifetime, Citi, Fenway, Three Rivers, both Cleveland stadiums, Comerica, "New Comiskey", Wrigley, Safeco, Pac Bell or whatever it is, and Petco.

Answering the other questions in this thread:

Sports I follow
Closely: baseball, college football
With some amusement: tennis, soccer
In a passing way: college basketball

Sports that cause me to change the channel when they're on
NBA, NFL, anything involving fighting, NHL


stadia I have been to

MLB: Safeco, Kingdome, Candlestick, AT&T, Alameda Coliseum, Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium, Target Field, Fenway Park, New Yankee Stadium, Old Yankee Stadium, Citifield, Shea Stadium. I think that's it.
MiLB: Civic Stadium (Portland), Emeralds Stadium (Eugene), Vince Gennaro Park (Bend, OR), the Epicenter (Rancho Cucamonga Quakes), MCU Park (Brooklyn Cyclones), Richmond County Park (Staten Island Yankees)
College Baseball: Oregon State, Stanford, Pomona-Pitzer, University of Portland, Claremont McKenna

Pro Football: Joe Robbie Staidum (Doug Flutie, QB)
College Football: Autzen Stadium (Oregon), Parker Field (OSU), Stanford, LA Coliseum, Civic Stadium (Portland State)

Pro Basketball: Rose Garden, Memorial Coliseum (both Portland); Target Center
NCAA Basketball: Oregon, Oregon St, Portland State, UP, Stanford, Cal, UCLA, USC, Pomona-Pitzer, Claremont McKenna

Soccer (all varieties): PGE Park (Portland), Rose Bowl (LA Galaxy), Buck Shaw Stadium (San Jose Quakes, Santa Clara University), University of Portland, Amsterdam Arena (Ajax)

I'm surprised at how few minor league stadiums people here have gone to. If I remember correctly, I've seen games at 30 different minor league parks (2 of them in Durham) and I know people who've gone to more than that. It's the best thing to do on a summer road trip!

MLB: Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays (YS2), Expos, Braves (Fulton County & Turner), Pirates (3 Rivers), Devil Rays, White Sox, Cubs, Brewers, Cardinals, Royals, Rockies (Mile High)
Minors: Durham (A and AAA), Carolina (AA), Charlotte, Kannapolis, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Hickory, Asheville, Burlington (NC), Kinston, Johnson City, Pulaski, Richmond, Greenville (SC), Hagerstown, Wilmington (DE), Bluefield, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Brooklyn, Auburn, Batavia, Vermont, Pawtucket, Lowell, Portland (ME), Gary, Kane County, Burlington (IA), Davenport
College Baseball: North Carolina, NC State, College of Wooster, U of Chicago, Boston Beanpot tournament at Fenway
Italian baseball: Bologna
College Basketball: North Carolina (men & women), Duke, NC State, Wake Forest, UNC-Greensboro, Army
College Football: UNC, Duke, Army, U of Chicago
MLS: DC
NASL (new version): Tampa Bay
College Soccer: North Carolina (women), U of Chicago (men & women)
5th division Italian soccer: Fossembrone
ECHL hockey: Raleigh IceCaps
(also North Carolina, Duke, and Virginia field hockey; North Carolina and Johns Hopkins lacrosse)

Oh yeah, Rogers Centre, too.

There is a brief time period in golf (at least, maybe bowling) when you are exerting peak physical effort. A golf drive is a physical act, but it is for a very brief period of time. Why is it disqualified according to your definition?

I know I'm nitpicking on it, but it's because it's not long enough time. I used to say for 5 seconds or something to eliminate the couple of seconds from golf or bowling. Again I am a bowler(not great, but carry a 200+ average, do have one sanctioned 300 to my name) and my opinion on this bothers all my bowling friends greatly, but sports is like porn, you know it when you see it, and bowling isn't it(by my opinion, again this is personal, textbook definition anything could be a sport). (Yes I do know that at the elite levels it can be taxing, but my view on what a sport is, is based upon it at it's fundamental level, not at it's elite level)

I figure this is as good a place as any to see what the arbiters of "Sport" think of dance gaming as a sport.

I find that to be tough to categorize. Note: again I don't go by the elite levels, it's a sport (to me) by whether it could be called a sport at it's most basic levels. It meets what I consider to be the requirements of a sport(scoring system is not based upon judges, but actual events. Good amount of active physical activity, direct competition between others etc) I guess that since I bothered to come up with a "living definition" (I change it on the fly to fit my preconceived notions. I admit it) of what a sport is, and can't reasonably think of a way to modify that definition to exclude dance gaming, that it must be a sport.

I mean I could modify the definition to eliminate the video game part of it, but in reality, it's possible to recreate that game without the video screen, which would eliminate the special rule I just created. (the technology that improves the game wouldn't prevent it from being a sport still, just ups the quality level of the event)

NFL: 6 (OK, I can't literally name every player, but can anyone actually do this for any sport?)

4, 5, 6 seem to be too close together for a serious survey. All 3 probably define a "sports nut" to the rest of the population, though I could see the need for 2 levels beyond "I follow my favorite team."

As Fernigal alluded to above, there are probably several to many people who have posted on this thread that could name 100% (or damn close) of the 285 players starting on Opening Day 2013 from memory if you asked them in late March, myself among them.

Here's a sporcle quiz for 2012 opening day.

I assumed you meant this as a challenge. So I went straight there and started it, cold (unemployment has its perks).

1) It's not baseball season
2) This is more memory than knowledge, and my memory is terrible
3) 20 minute time limit

I was working through the AL Central (5th division listed) and was planning to circle back to guess the pitchers and fill in blanks when my time ran out. I got 173 of 284, so around 61%. Subtracting 30 pitchers I didn't guess and 70 players' worth of teams I didn't get to (though I did get some freebies on repeat names like Young, Murphy, Pena, Montero, and a passel of Cabreras)... and I'd have been damn close. Should have been 30 minutes.

Attended in person:

MLB: Nats (two parks), Orioles (two parks), Yankees, Mets, Cubs, White Sox, Giants, Brewers, Red Sox
NFL: Redskins (two parks)
NCAA Football: Northwestern, Wooster
NHL: Capitols, Devils
NBA: Knicks
MMA: Evans V Ortiz in Philly

Dance gaming is silly as all hell, but it's also a pretty demanding athletic venture.

I agree with this, but what I don't like is how much of it is just memorization. Difficult memorization, but still memorization.
Now, dance gaming where the dancer doesn't know what's coming, that could be fun.

The Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge's Taxonomy of Sports:

Those that are played by the emperor
The moribund
Those involving trained animals
Ball sports
Those that award prizes
The fabulous
Hunting
Those that are included in this classification
Those that cause the viewer to tremble as if mad
The innumerable
Those played with a very fine camel hair brush
Et cetera
Those that have just broken the sound barrier
Those that, at a distance, resemble baseball

Well played, JLB.

Oh, why not.

MLB - Boston, Toronto, Montreal, Baltimore, New York (old Yankee Stadium)
NBA - Toronto
NHL - Vancouver (Pacific Colosseum); Montreal (Forum and Bell Centre), Toronto (MLG and Air Canada Centre); Boston (Gardens), Hartford Civic Center
MiLB - Binghamton, Auburn, Vancouver (AAA)

Some day, Mach Sakurai is going to retire, and on that day, I'll be very sad.

He'll always be a SHOOTO fighter to me. Shooto Japan was so great back in the day - a fight promotion exclusively dedicated to sub-170lb fighters. It's a mere shadow of its former glory now, like all of Japanese MMA. Rumina Sato, one of the most popular and successful Shooto fighters during their heyday, just got stomped in under a minute by journeyman Hideo Tokoro on Christmas Eve. I prefer to remember Sato for such wonders as this.

MLB: easier to list those I haven't been to: LAA, Oak, Arizona, new Seattle, new NYS/Citi, new PHL, new MIA, Tampa
NFL: Lambeau, Arrowhead, old Cowboys, Jack Murphy, Metrodome, Soldier (pre-renovation), Indy, Titans, Orange Bowl/Dolphins
College Football: all Big 8, XII sans WVA, TTU. Most Big Ten, 1/2 of SEC, and a decent handful of Pac/ACC/Beast/MAC, plus the awful Yale Bowl and other D3 venues.
NBA: Bucks, Twolves, Pacers
NHL: Carolina (yeah, buzzkill for lone NHL experience).

More for my own entertainment than anything--fun to try to remember this:

MLB: 36 parks covering all teams, including 2 for Brewers, Giants, Cards, Reds, Indians, White Sox. Have not been to current parks in SD, PIT, PHI, WDC, MIA, NYC (2), MIN or ATL, so some catching up to do. I've been to most of the spring training sites around Phoenix
MiLB: Only the Phoenix Firebirds and Frisco RoughRiders, I think
NFL: Bears (old and new Soldier, plus Champaign), Cowboys (old and new), Bengals, Browns, Dolphins, LA Rams, LA Raiders, Cardinals (Sun Devil Stadium)
NBA: Suns (old and new), Mavs, Pacers, Clippers (old), Bulls (old and new), Cavs
NHL: Blackhawks (old and new), Stars, Oilers, Flames
College Football: Penn, Princeton, Brown, Arizona St., Northwestern, SMU, Auburn, Alabama, Notre Dame, Cotton Bowl (the stadium and the "Classic" at JerryWorld), Meineke Car Care Bowl at Reliant Stadium in Houston
College Basketball: Penn, Northwestern, Arizona St., UIC, SMU (in the new Larry Brown era), Some NCAA action at the United Center and American Airlines Center (and somewhere in St. Louis, I think), Mateen Cleaves Final Four in Indy
Golf: The Masters, Western Open at Cog Hill
Auto Racing: N/A

I also drove to Dyersville, IA to see the Field of Dreams site, and I have severe doubts about the financial viability of Wade Boggs's investment there. He may well have downed a few Boggses before making that decision.

If I had to pick what I'd want to check off in the future, it would be the remaining new baseball sites, and then a bunch of college football rivalry games.

I prefer to remember Sato for such wonders as this.

That is great stuff. I first got into MMA through grainy old videos of Sakuraba and I do sometimes still miss the Pride days.

Well played, JLB.

I thought I was going to get more response than I did. Maybe not as many Borges fans around here as I expected.

I wasn't going to bother, but why not, I'll play. This will be short and easy.

MLB: Turner Field, Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Dodger Stadium, Jack Murphy Stadium, Camden Yards
MiLB: Fort Myers Miracle, Charleston RiverDogs
NBA/NHL/NFL/MLS: None
College Baseball, Football, Basketball: Georgia Tech
Olympics: Volleyball and rowing in '96
Track Meets (various levels): Lots

Why not:

MLB: Cardinals (current stadium and the two previous), Cubs, White Sox (both Comiskeys), Twins (Metrodome), Reds (Crosley & Riverfront), Braves (Fulton County), Tigers (Tiger Stadium), Red Sox, Rays, Giants (Candlestick - was in the Air Force many years ago and went 35-40 times), A's (same deal but not nearly as often) & Astros.
NFL: Raiders & 49'ers (got cheap tickets when in Air Force)
NBA: Warriors (Air Force again - saw them beat the Celtics like a rented mule), Pacers
NHL/MLS: Nope
College sports: Attended University of Kentucky several lifetimes ago & went to games at the then current venues (Memorial Coliseum/Stoll Field); have also been to games at Rupp Arena/Commonwealth Stadium. Got to see the NCAA Regional Final at Tropicana Field where Kentucky made the great comeback against Duke, made the 14 hour drive (each way) worth it.
Auto racing: Several Indy 500's, NASCAR at Talladega/Indianapolis/Atlanta/Bristol. Auto racing is one of those things that people either like or they don't, there doesn't seem to be any middle ground. If you are a fan you should try to see the night race at Bristol; if you go you definitely want some good ear protection.

I played basketball & baseball in high school (not particularly well), so I have also been to numerous high school gyms/ball fields.

Since dancing was mentioned, my wife got me to be a fan of the Paul Taylor Dance Company, who are a modern group with a strong sense of humor so they're pretty accessible to non-dance fans. The women are made up different, not like clones in classical ballet companies, so you can distinguish them and pick favorites. It's a little bit like the cast of a TV show or the roster of a team. Over the course of their repertory, there are specific roles you could think of like the innocent girl, the femme fetale, the maternal role, etc. As the company has changed from retirements we'd talk about how the roles would change the way others might talk about lineups changing on a team. There was one dancer we got to know a little bit, from emails and buying her jewelry. She was very athletic, one newspaper review described her jumps as ending with baseball slides across the stage. But in her last year, facing hip surgery at age 38, it was kind of sad to see her in a non-physcially demanding role, like Willie Mays tripping over himself in Shea Stadium. And I'm sure other fans have favorites among the male dancers as well.

Why do people need to define what is a sport? If I don't like something in the broad category of sports, I ignore it. I don't need to demean it or the people who like it.

MLB: Griffith, DC/RFK, Nats, Memorial, Camden, Yankee I & II (not III), Municipal, Jake, Comiskey I, Connie Mack, the Vet, Fenway, Briggs/Tiger, Dodger, Candlestick, Busch II (not Sportsman's Park), Wrigley, Riverfront, County, Three Rivers, Shea, Jarry, Jack Murphy, Kingdome, Safeco. Best was Briggs/Tiger, worst was Shea.
Want to get to: PNC

NFL: Griffith, DC/RFK, Soldier, Memorial (Baltimore)
Best was DC/RFK and Memorial (tie)
Want to get to: M&T Bank

NCAA FB: Wallace Wade
Want to get to: any or all of the traditional powerhouse stadiums east of the Mississippi, plus Texas and LSU, plus the Ivy Leagues, maybe in another lifetime

NCAA BB: Cameron, LSU (for a regional tournment), Tennessee, Cole Field House, George Washington, Charlotte Coliseum (if that's what they called it in 1962)
Best: Cameron
Want to get to: the Deandome

NBA: Madison Square Garden (1968 version), Boston Garden, Capital Centre, Market Square Arena, the Spectrum (for Bird's Philly debut)
Best: Boston Garden
Want to get to: San Antonio, Oklahoma City

College Football: all Big 8, XII sans WVA, TTU. Most Big Ten, 1/2 of SEC, and a decent handful of Pac/ACC/Beast/MAC, plus the awful Yale Bowl and other D3 venues.

mrams, impressive.

NCAA FB: Wallace Wade
Want to get to: any or all of the traditional powerhouse stadiums east of the Mississippi, plus Texas and LSU, plus the Ivy Leagues, maybe in another lifetime

This is funny to me, a guy with all those cool college football posters, and your lone College Football I-A experience is at Wallace Wade stadium.

NCAA FB: Wallace Wade
Want to get to: any or all of the traditional powerhouse stadiums east of the Mississippi, plus Texas and LSU, plus the Ivy Leagues, maybe in another lifetime

I got to walk through Franklin Field when it was empty when I visited Philadelphia. I wasn't really aware of the history of the place until after the fact. It's a pretty amazing looking stadium.

College Football: all Big 8, XII sans WVA, TTU. Most Big Ten, 1/2 of SEC, and a decent handful of Pac/ACC/Beast/MAC, plus the awful Yale Bowl and other D3 venues.

mrams, impressive.

I realize I neglected to include the very first I-A stadium I witnessed a game at, Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, War Memorial Stadium at U of Wyoming and Notre Dame Stadium.

I too want to see additional games at Ivy Venues, and catch a Lehigh v Lafayette game.

baseball today, baseball tomorrow, baseball forever.

everything else goes in a big pile labeled 'meh'. although i do find myself watching more boxing than i used to.

I got to walk through Franklin Field when it was empty when I visited Philadelphia. I wasn't really aware of the history of the place until after the fact. It's a pretty amazing looking stadium.

I've never been to a game there, but I also walked through an empty Franklin Field once in the late afternoon, when the Sun was coming down on those distinctively "stadium green" seats that you used to see in every ballpark in the Majors. At that point I thought that Franklin Field was the most beautiful sporting venue I'd ever seen.

I'm surprised at how few minor league stadiums people here have gone to. If I remember correctly, I've seen games at 30 different minor league parks (2 of them in Durham) and I know people who've gone to more than that. It's the best thing to do on a summer road trip!

My bet is that this probably correlates pretty good to whether primates in question live in an MLB city or not...

I've been to five (six if indie leagues count) --

Two simply because they're in my general area (Kane County and Schaumburg)... I also saw a game in Peoria (O'Brien Field, I think?) when I was down in Peoria for a wedding. I've been to pretty large number of games at Coveleski in South Bend, but I grew up in the area. I've also been to the Gary Steel Yard -- that was just on a whim, taking the South Shore train to SB, I decided to catch a game.

The only specific minor league trip I ever took was years and years ago to Lansing to see the Lugnuts when they were a Cubs affiliate and the supposedly future Cubs WS champs (Choi, Patterson, Goldbach, Zambrano, Kelton, Wuertz, etc) were all playing there.

NCAA FB: Wallace Wade
Want to get to: any or all of the traditional powerhouse stadiums east of the Mississippi, plus Texas and LSU, plus the Ivy Leagues, maybe in another lifetime

This is funny to me, a guy with all those cool college football posters, and your lone College Football I-A experience is at Wallace Wade stadium.

I'll admit there is a certain amount of irony there, but nearly all of my stadium hopping took place in my 20's and 30's when cross-country travel was much cheaper. Beyond that, of all the major sports, baseball (up till recently, at least) has always required a lot less advance planning and connections if you want to get a half decent seat, and it's only been since I started accumulating thousands of college football programs during my later book shop years that I began to develop that much of an interest in the history of the sport.

I soured on minor league baseball after I got a steak dinner in Salem (VA) by winning a trivia quiz during the first game of a doubleheader, but then when I also got the answer to the second game question right they gave the dinner to the runner-up, a local yokel who'd missed part of the answer. Once again The Man had rigged The System, and was I ever steamed.

Going back thru some old ticket stubs...

MLB: I think the total is up to 23 now, but many aren't around anymore -- I still need to get to a lot of the newer ones
MiLB: Toledo, New Haven
College Baseball: Georgia Tech, CWS in Omaha
Senior League BB: Ft Lauderdale circa 1989

NFL: Ravens, Baltimore Colts, Falcons, Jets, Steelers
College FB: Maryland, Tennessee, GaTech, UNC, Clemson, WakeForest, Princeton, Mizzou, Texas, Orange Bowl

NBA: Hawks, old Cavs, Lakers
College Basketball: GaTech, Clemson, UNC, Minnesota, Final 4 in Atlanta when Terps won (woo-hoo!)

NHL: Thrashers, Capitals, Rangers, Whalers, Penguins
MiL hockey: New Haven, Baltimore

Cooperstown, Canton
Kentucky Derby
Aussie Rules Football: Melbourne
WWF: Baltimore, Pittsburgh, MSG
MISL (does this exist anymore?) : Baltimore, Pittsburgh
indoor lacrosse: Baltimore
College Lax: Towson St

Sports I've attended in person (home team):

MLB: Reds (Riverfront, GABP), Indians (the old stadium by the lake, the Jake), Cubs (Wrigley, duh), Giants (Pac Bell), Dodgers (Dodger Stadium), Angels (the Big A), Brewers (County Stadium), Tigers (Comerica)
Milb: Birmingham Barons (saw Michael Jordan play + a few other games), Indianapolis Indians, Dayton Dragons (Fifth-Third Field), Toledo Mud Hens (the other Fifth-Third Field), Louisville Bats, Lancaster Jethawks, Portland Beavers
NFL: Bengals, Colts, Packers
NBA: Indianapolis
NCAAF: Auburn University many many times, Miami of Ohio, Cincinnati
NCAA Basketball: Auburn, Cincinnati, Xavier
CFL: Birmingham Barracudas
MLS: Los Angeles, also went to the USA-Mexico World Cup Qualifier in Columbus, OH (7-8 years ago?)
Hockey: Cincinnati Stingers (way back in the day), no NHL teams
Horses: Churchill Downs (Kentucky Derby)

edit: forgot Nationals Stadium!

edit, edit: USA Swimming Olympic Trials, 1992, 1996, 2000
NCAA Mens Division I Swimming Championships, 1991-1999

I assumed you meant this as a challenge. So I went straight there and started it, cold (unemployment has its perks).

1) It's not baseball season
2) This is more memory than knowledge, and my memory is terrible
3) 20 minute time limit

I was working through the AL Central (5th division listed) and was planning to circle back to guess the pitchers and fill in blanks when my time ran out. I got 173 of 284, so around 61%. Subtracting 30 pitchers I didn't guess and 70 players' worth of teams I didn't get to (though I did get some freebies on repeat names like Young, Murphy, Pena, Montero, and a passel of Cabreras)... and I'd have been damn close. Should have been 30 minutes.

I didn't specifically mean it as a challenge. I more meant "here's a 2012 one so they'll have a 2013 one that we can challenge you on."

I soured on minor league baseball after I got a steak dinner in Salem (VA) by winning a trivia quiz during the first game of a doubleheader, but then when I also got the answer to the second game question right they gave the dinner to the runner-up, a local yokel who'd missed part of the answer. Once again The Man had rigged The System, and was I ever steamed.

Reading - illegal steroids for your brain.

Holding onto the bar while playing DDR/ITG/PIU is completely invalid. If you can't pass the song without bar-raping then you can't pass it. It USED to be scorned by most players but sadly with the creation of In The Groove with its stupid-hard step charts it quickly became "normal" to use the bar all the time. At my peak playing days I couldn't pass a lot of the hardest stuff on ITG (my highest accomplishment was passing multiple times Charlene and Walking on Fire on expert....talk about ####### exhausting) but at least I never had to hold onto the bar to play.

Rant aside, the games are a great workout and a ton of fun. It used to be a nice social thing as well with a lot of the same people showing up all the time and hanging out though locally that has died down thanks to the best place becoming hostile to the players and eventually closing while the other places to play have gone downhill as well.

I agree with this, but what I don't like is how much of it is just memorization. Difficult memorization, but still memorization.
Now, dance gaming where the dancer doesn't know what's coming, that could be fun.

It's not really memorization, I never truly memorized much of anything in the games and I doubt that many people really do. It does help to play a song a lot of course, even if you don't know the precise notes you instinctively start to know what's coming and you're prepared for any oddities or surprises, but for the most part it's just reading what's on screen and reacting to it. It is possible though to have it so you don't know what's coming (other than the basic pattern of the notes), it's called shuffle mode and as the name implies it shuffles the direction of the arrows so you are looking at unfamiliar steps; the downside to that is the chart doesn't flow as well so you sometimes end up having to move awkwardly.

MLB: Braves (Turner Field, Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium), (Rays) Tropicana Field
NFL: Bucs (Raymond James Stadium), Jaguars (Alltel Stadium, now called something else)
NCAA FB: USF Bulls (Raymond James Stadium)
Auto racing: Saw one of the grand prix races they held in downtown St. Pete 15 or so years ago

I think that's it. Only sports I actually participate in are tennis, disc golf, and biking.

It's not really memorization, I never truly memorized much of anything in the games and I doubt that many people really do.

That's naive. I have played guitar hero and after a couple of times of the same song, you get a feel for it. The better players have to memorize to get great at it.

Why do people need to define what is a sport? If I don't like something in the broad category of sports, I ignore it. I don't need to demean it or the people who like it.

For clarity sake. It's not demeaning to say something isn't a sport. If I tell you I'm a sports nut, and you then say "Oh you will like this then" and show me a video of two people playing magic the gathering (because that is a sport) then something is being lost in translation.

Just like if I say I like Science Fiction novels, and you hand me a harlequin romance novel (because it happens in outer space) I would think you had missed the point. Categories, and agreement on what it constitutes, helps conversations.


It's not demeaning to say something isn't a sport. Is there a nobleness related to sports that isn't related to activity? exercise? game? pastime? It's just what it is. The creeping definition of sport to include anything and everything under the sun is a loss to the English language.

That's naive. I have played guitar hero and after a couple of times of the same song, you get a feel for it.

Which is exactly what I said in the next sentence. A good player can jump in and do pefectly well on a song he has never played before though because the primary skill is still reading what's on the screen and reacting to it.

It's not demeaning to say something isn't a sport. Is there a nobleness related to sports that isn't related to activity? exercise? game? pastime? It's just what it is. The creeping definition of sport to include anything and everything under the sun is a loss to the English language.

If your point is to stem the devaluation of the term "sport" to nearly kind of competition, then I would agree with you. But those discussions don't usually center there. It's usually trying to say that an activity with subjectivity (figure skating, gymnastics, diving) or perceived low physicality (auto racing, bowling, golf) is not a sport. In other words, I don't like it so it's not a sport.

Then you go to a British sports site and find sections on darts and snooker.

Since dancing was mentioned, my wife got me to be a fan of the Paul Taylor Dance Company, who are a modern group with a strong sense of humor so they're pretty accessible to non-dance fans.

Have you seen their piece based on the Andrews Sisters' music? I think it's called "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy." That's just fantastic, the best modern dance piece I've seen.

Have you seen their piece based on the Andrews Sisters' music? I think it's called "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy." That's just fantastic, the best modern dance piece I've seen.

Company B on YouTube. It's called "Company B" and I've seen it performed by the Paul Taylor Company, the Houston Ballet (who originally commissioned and premiered the work) and with the cast size cut from 12 to 6. There's one part to the song "Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh!" where one male dancer is cast as a heartthrob and the high point, with a full cast, is six female dancers, leaping onto him, wrapping their arms and legs around him. For a few seconds, he's supporting all six while the audience laughs. With a small cast, it's still a good dance, but I'm not so impressed if he's holding up only three women.

Cool! I am late to the party because I was off birdwatching. Unsure if that's a sport, but there are some super-competitive events …

'on a scale from 0 to 6, how closely do you follow each sport?'

0 - I don't
1 - I'll watch the championship
2 - I'll watch my team sometimes
3 - I watch some games/I follow my team
4 - I generally know what's going on with most teams
5 - I follow every team
6 - I can name every player in the league (except Padres)

My interest possibly doesn't even go beyond 4 even for MLB. There are quite a few NL teams where I can't name any player, though I believe the Padres had the RBI champ last year, Headley or somebody like that. So I know him. I'd give myself a 3 for the NFL and a 2 for NCAA men's basketball and a pass for everything else except golf and horse racing, which are not team sports.

Sports I've attended in person (home team):

MLB- Oakland Coliseum, ATT park, Candlestick Park, Dodger Stadium, Jack Murphy Stadium, Petco, Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, Chase Field and Camden Yards. I had a nice tour of Safeco the day after the 2003 season which was very extensive and I could not recommend more.

NFL- Oak Col, Candlestick

NHL- Cow Palace, Shark Tank, tour of TD Garden

NBA - Oak Coliseum, Power Balance Pavilion (Sac)

Col Football - Stanford Stadium, Memorial Coliseum (Cal), Spartan Stadium

Soccer- 1990 World Cup in Italy Florence, Rome , Naples

As a side bonus all the hotels on the LV Strip I have stayed at : MGM Grand, Excalibur, NY-NY, Mirage, Luxor, Imperial Palace, Flamingo, Harrahs, Monte Carlo.

I would have listed women I have known but that would be a short list indeed.

I have to give respect to the people that have gone to pro roller hockey games or CFL games in the US.

And, my attends-in-person:

MLB: Wrigley, Fenway, Connie Mack Stadium, the Vet, Citizens Bank Park, Yankee Stadium (the 1976 iteration), Shea, the O, Arlington Stadium, the Ballpark
Minor League Baseball: Ft. Worth, Des Moines, Wichita KS, Williamsport PA
College Baseball: Rutgers, Princeton, Fordham, Rowan, Texas A&M, Texas-Arlington
College Basketball: Rutgers (women), SMU, Texas-Arlington (men & women)
College Football: Rowan, Michigan State
NFL: Cowboys Stadium
NBA: 76ers at the old Spectrum, Mavericks at Reunion Arena
World Cup Football: Cotton Bowl 1994 (quarterfinal, Brazil v. Netherlands)
Cricket: National Village Green final, Lord's
Tennis: US Open, Flushing Meadows
Horse Racing: Garden State, Monmouth, Belmont, Oaklawn, Lone Star
Rodeo: Ft Worth Stockyards

My gosh that's eclectic.

I want to see Bob Tufts in this thread.

You guys have been to a lot of places.

MLB- PNC Park, Three Rivers Stadium, Veterans Stadium, Wrigley Field

NFL- Heinz Field

NHL- Civic Igloo

Col Football - Pitt

Col Basketball - Pitt

Col Baseball - Pitt

Soccer - Philadelphia Union

MiLB - Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Williamsport, Washington (PA), Mahoning Valley, Harrisburg, Durham

CFL games in the US

I believe the Birmingham Barracudas played for 1 CFL season, and they played home games in the Iron Bowl. I never was able to get tickets to that place when I went to Auburn, so, a friend and I figured we'd get in a game there.

edit: crud, I forgot the Skydome also. I knew I was missing at least one MLB team in 133.

I've been to Olympic Stadium in Montreal and swam a meet in the Olympic pool while the 'spos were playing a game in the ballpark part of that complex. Does that count? :-)

I forgot all the NASL games I saw at Spartan Stadium including the Cosmos vs the Quakes in 75 and the Oakland Stompers vs the Cosmos in 1979?

2 more college football games: SF State vs Santa Clara at Buck Shaw 1991 and all the San Francisco State home Football games in 92 & 93 at Cox Field.