Also, auto racing: not a sport. A contest, an impressive and skillful one, yes. But a sport, no.

Hey! This could turn into a discussion of what is a sport and what isn't a sport! I feel so lucky; I've never seen one of those before.

Hey! This could turn into a discussion of what is a sport and what isn't a sport!

Baiting BTFers: a sport.

This sport finished just out of the top 10.

Baiting BTFers: a sport.

Only if shooting fish in a barrel is also a sport.

Surprised MMA didn't make a dent.

The NBA only has a 2 percent lead on hockey in America? That seems odd. I guess being in Laker country has skewed my perspective.

As a young man, I would have checked the baseball box. Sadly I would either check hockey or college football now depending on what time of year I was asked.

Can someone explain this sport to me?

Surprised to see auto racing outpolling hoops. And...

Also, auto racing: not a sport. A contest, an impressive and skillful one, yes. But a sport, no.

#1: You go and wrestle with a steering wheel for two hours while being subjected to several G's of force several times per lap, and get back to us; hell, go and ride a high-speed rollercoaster with all of the loops and curves you want for 2 hours, if you can. There's a reason there aren't any fat race car drivers (at least anymore).

#2: I fail to see any ultimate distinction between sports which use various physical implements (hockey, baseball), and those which use more complicated machines (bicycling, motor sports), and hell those which use none at all (soccer)-even a leg is a machine in a way. Point is they all require the user to know the laws of physics intimately well in order to excel in his chosen field. Auto racers simply utilize extensions of their own bodies in the course of their competitions.

Hey! This could turn into a discussion of what is a sport and what isn't a sport! I feel so lucky; I've never seen one of those before.

We've had more than our fair share of idiotic threads over the years, but I think the "That's Not a Sport" ones are the idiotickest.

I fail to see any ultimate distinction between sports which use various physical implements (hockey, baseball), and those which use more complicated machines (bicycling, motor sports)

There is a difference between an object and a machine. A bat/stick is an object because there are no moving parts. The bikes having moving parts and can provide results without the person providing any input after a point (bike keeps rolling even if rider stops pedalling...a bat just lies on the ground if the batter does nothing). Cars are complicated pieces of machinery with engines and electronics.

and hell those which use none at all (soccer)-even a leg is a machine in a way.

It's part of the human body. You've taken your analogy and driven it off a cliff at this point.

Also, auto racing: not a sport. A contest, an impressive and skillful one, yes. But a sport, no.

I think by definition it is a sport(but so is poker, and pok-e-mon I believe) but for me, it's not a real sport.

I more or less define a sport as a direct competition between two or more sides, in which the participants are expected to give full physical effort for a brief period of time during the event, in which scoring is not strictly based upon a judge and who's primary method of locomotion is provided by the participants effort.(I.E...bike racing is a sport, nascar is not)

I always find it funny when people get upset if you call their preferred event not a sport. I'm a bowler, and bowling is not a sport.(neither is golf) It's not an insult, it's just what it is. It's like saying Star Wars is not hard science fiction.

I also accept that some sports have evolved to where they don't fall under these definitions, but the point is that at it's heart they match. Boxing might be decided by a judge frequently, but at the heart of the matter, the winner is the guy who is standing at the end of the match.

Can someone explain this sport to me?

It's looks like someone watched a single game of baseball 10 years ago while drunk, and then tried to recreate it based on memory.

#1: You go and wrestle with a steering wheel for two hours while being subjected to several G's of force several times per lap, and get back to us; hell, go and ride a high-speed rollercoaster with all of the loops and curves you want for 2 hours, if you can. There's a reason there aren't any fat race car drivers (at least anymore).

Being taxing or tough doesn't make it a sport.

I'd have voted for baseball, but I follow all of the sports listed except auto racing. I'd wager there's a lot of people like me that just enjoy sports in general.

"That's Not a Sport" threads are a sport.

Can someone explain this sport to me?

Pesapallo - finish Baseball

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesäpallo

I'd have voted for baseball, but I follow all of the sports listed except auto racing. I'd wager there's a lot of people like me that just enjoy sports in general.

Or at least follow two/three sports.

The ad age article mentions an ESPN poll that asked about 2nd favorite sports, whether people consider them a fan of a league, etc. That might be more interesting.

The bikes having moving parts and can provide results without the person providing any input after a point (bike keeps rolling even if rider stops pedalling...a bat just lies on the ground if the batter does nothing).

A baseball keeps flying (for a little while) after you hit it. A javelin keeps flying (for a little while) after you throw it. A bike is certainly a more complicated machine than a javelin or a baseball bat, but it only responds to the forces you apply to it.

Interesting; I'd have thought college basketball was much more popular than the NBA.

Pesapallo - finish Baseball

I like it, especially that they make the umpires wear Harlequin outfits. They should do that with the MLB umps. Might take a little starch out of their attitudes.

I always find it funny when people get upset if you call their preferred event not a sport. I'm a bowler, and bowling is not a sport.(neither is golf) It's not an insult, it's just what it is.

Of course not. Bowling and golf are games, just like baseball. Football is a sport, because it involves actually trying to injure your opponent to win. So is hockey, MMF, or MMA or whatever it calls itself, as well as lacrosse and boxing. There are lots of others, but those are the first that come to mind.

Of course not. Bowling and golf are games, just like baseball. Football is a sport, because it involves actually trying to injure your opponent to win. So is hockey, MMF, or MMA or whatever it calls itself, as well as lacrosse and boxing. There are lots of others, but those are the first that come to mind.

Disagree on the baseball classification. Sport doesn't mean you try to injure your opposition, at least to me. 100m dash is a sport. There is no attempt to injure in racing.

Interesting; I'd have thought college basketball was much more popular than the NBA.

I think that people claiming to like college basketball are what I would call sport hipsters. They vocally claim their support of something even though it's clearly less popular, and come up with silly crap like "better pure game"..while ignoring the obvious "massively lower quality of participants".

So why do the British call them Sport and Maths when we call them Sports and Math?

It's part of the human body. You've taken your analogy and driven it off a cliff at this point.

It wasn't an analogy-it was showing how these activities are more similar than the splitters and dichotomists amongst us like to think. A lot of technology goes into an athletic shoe too.

Being taxing or tough doesn't make it a sport.

Still waiting for your Perfectly Consistent Definition which includes most everything within the Sport umbrella, but excludes motor sport...

Still waiting for your Perfectly Consistent Definition which includes most everything within the Sport umbrella, but excludes motor sport...

Primary mode of transportation is powered by the individual..

Nascar, horse racing is not a sport, by my opinion. By textbook definition ####### chess is a sport.

hell, go and ride a high-speed rollercoaster with all of the loops and curves you want for 2 hours, if you can.

So... rollercoaster riding is a sport?

It wasn't an analogy-it was showing how these activities are more similar than the splitters and dichotomists amongst us like to think. A lot of technology goes into an athletic shoe too.

Who cares about the shoe... can you do a race without a shoe? The high end equipment doesn't matter. You can have a 100m dash with no shoes. You can't have a car race with no car. There are certain equipment necessary to play a sport of course, but it doesn't need to be high quality. At it's core a foot race is two people running against each other, winner crosses the finish line. Baseball is a group of people playing a game within certain rules, winner is the team with the most runs at the designated finish. You need a bat, and a ball((you don't even need bases, you can draw circles in the ground and it's good enough) The determining factor, for me to call it a sport is that the participants are providing the power/energy for the action. Car racing is not. Car racing is a guy getting in a car and driving against others. The participants aren't providing the energy for the locomotion, they aren't ever giving full physical effort for even a few seconds. Horse racing is the same thing, it's a sport for the horses, but not for the jockeys.

Sports Afield is 30-plus years older than the original Sports Illustrated. I wonder if guys posting on Hunting Think Factory or Angler.com spend a bunch of time whining that baseball, football and basketball aren't real sports, and if so, is the argument as tiresome there as it is here.

Sports Afield is 30-plus years older than the original Sports Illustrated. I wonder if guys posting on Hunting Think Factory or Angler.com spend a bunch of time whining that baseball, football and basketball aren't real sports, and if so, is the argument as tiresome there as it is here.

No clue, but that is the advantage of a board with 10 or more active threads, you can post in the threads you want to participate in, and ignore the ones you don't.

They vocally claim their support of something even though it's clearly less popular, and come up with silly crap like "better pure game"..while ignoring the obvious "massively lower quality of participants".

I follow both college and NBA basketball, and you're forgetting one thing: the early rounds of the NBA playoffs are long and boring, and even the Conference Finals and Finals can be complete duds. March Madness is perhaps the third best sporting event in existence behind the Olympics and the World Cup.

ETA: Add in the relative pointlessness of the NBA regular season, and the fact that the quality of play is significantly higher gets taken away by the tedium of the season and early playoffs.

So why do the British call them Sport and Maths when we call them Sports and Math?

The division of the rights to "s" was a subsection of the Treaty of Ghent.

My ten favorite sports leagues to follow and watch on TV:

1. Baseball

<sizable gap>

2. College basketball - I acknowledge the quality level is drastically inferior and that many of the "reasons" people give for liking CBB more than NBA are just bullsh!t, but aesthetically I enjoy college basketball much more. I like the shorter season and March Madness is IMO the best two weeks of sports there is by far.

<bigger gap>

3. NFL - It only ranks ahead of the next two because I "belong" to a specific team (I don't really have a particular NBA or NCAAF team that I live and die with). Aside from my particular favorite team, I have less interest in random NFL games than I do game in the following two leagues.

4. NBA - It used to rank higher for me and maybe will still in the future. I just haven't been that interested in it in the last decade, but I won't claim that the reason for this is anything negative about the NBA. It's just me.

5. College football - There isn't much separating 3/4/5 here, and they might change in their rankings in any given year. I follow all three fairly closely, but not nearly as closely as 1 and 2.

<very large gap>

6. Golf - I just started playing golf in earnest in the last couple years, and as such my interest in the professional tour has increased. I now make a point to watch (at least the final round) of major tournaments (not necessarily just THE majors) whereas before I may have only watched them if I found myself bored and in front of the TV.

7. NASCAR - I got into a fantasy NASCAR league a couple years ago at the behest of a couple friends, and after watching several races I started to "get it". It's an exciting sport, but has many flaws.
<very large gap>

8. Soccer -- I kinda want to get into it more, but truthfully, I I need to devote less of my time and energy to following sports, not more, so I think I'll stick with just paying close attention every four years.
<gap>

9. Olympics -- Kinda fun every four years (or every two years I guess), but I don't really get that into it.

10. Tennis -- I'll sit down and watch a Grand Slam final if it is a particularly intriguing matchup.

Also considered: College baseball (I'd like to try to get into it), boxing, horse racing.

NOT considered: Hockey, MMA

Remove MLB's anti-trust exemption.

I watch and follow, in order, the MLB, the UFC, and the NFL. Left to my own devices I would watch some college football, lesser MMA leagues, the occasional NHL game, etc, but I made a deal with my wife that I could pick 3 sports and follow them to my hearts content if I didn't prioritize any other sports and I am pretty happy with that dcision.

horse racing is not a sport, by my opinion.

It is for the horse.

2. College basketball - I acknowledge the quality level is drastically inferior and that many of the "reasons" people give for liking CBB more than NBA are just bullsh!t, but aesthetically I enjoy college basketball much more. I like the shorter season and March Madness is IMO the best two weeks of sports there is by far.

I'm perfectly fine with that, and even though I don't like basketball in the slightest, I understand the appeal of March Madness and think that if I liked basketball at all, that it would be more appealing to me than NBA basketball. Mind you I find college basketball regular season to be one of the worse tv experiences imaginable, if you get the unfortunate broadcast of a ranked team versus a justly deserved non-ranked team. (The game becomes more about time management instead of actually playing the game....what could be a fun 120-40 blow out instead turns into a tedious 67-55 game....just like world cup soccer, I just can't find enjoyment in watching a sport in which the goal is more about not losing, than it is about trying to win.)

7. NASCAR - I got into a fantasy NASCAR league a couple years ago at the behest of a couple friends, and after watching several races I started to "get it". It's an exciting sport, but has many flaws.

Someone on my facebook just posted "Fantasy football, Dungeons and Dragons for jocks" meme... Just thought that was funny, and what I kinda view fantasy sports nowadays. Of course fantasy sports are great for getting people interested in a sport, it's done a world of good in adding to the cross sex appeal of the NFL. I imagine that Nascar is also enjoying a similar bump as it's a sport that allows the fantasy fans to jump in and pay attention to it once a week.

My ten favorite sports leagues/entities, in order to continue the prevention of the "what's a sport" wanking.

Follow each week and in the offseason closely, watch a lot of regular season games, watch most of the playoffs regardless of whether my team's in it, OR follow obsessively when it's on:
1) MLB
2) NFL
3) Summer Olympics
4) Winter Olympics

Follow during the season well enough to know how the teams are doing, watch some regular season games, watch some postseason games, more if my teams are in it OR follow obsessively when it's on but only be somewhat aware of the qualifiers:
5) World Cup Soccer
6) World Baseball Classic
7) NCAA Men's Basketball
8) NHL (though I'm done with the Bruins until their jackass owner croaks it, go Sabres!)

Follow during the season well enough to know who's good and who's terrible, seldom watch games in season, watch some postseason games, mainly if my teams are competitive:
9) NBA
10) NCAA Football
11) NCAA Women's basketball
12) Premier League

Follow only passingly:
13) NCAA Hockey
14) MMA
15) Other European soccer leagues

The only sports I really follow are baseball and soccer, those being the only sports I played. Then football if I'm influenced by mass media, or hockey if I'm with a hockey fan.

Basketball is deadly dull. Either every game is basically a statistical tie or it's obvious who's going to win after 10 minutes. Any strategy is utterly undetectable.

1) MLB. Who doesn't love baseball? Terrorists, Kim Jong Un, that guy arrested for having sex with an ostrich... When someone tells you they don't like baseball, think of the company they're keeping.

2) MMA. I hate the way the UFC is run and that factor alone has severely diminished my interest in MMA as a whole, but it's still a very entertaining sport to watch. I miss the defunct Japanese PRIDE promotion like crazy.

3) Old boxing. Can't support the modern game given the knowledge of the awful things being done to these athletes' brains, but I can watch footage of the long-retired with a clear conscience.

4) Nothing. Gotta get out of the basement on occasion.

1. Any World Series with the Yankees in it, with a bonus if it's against a non-expansion NL team
2. NFL playoffs with the kind of matchups we've been getting recently, with no Florida teams and as many original NFL and AFL franchises as possible
3. Baseball playoffs as long as the Yankees, Orioles or Nats are in it, and preferably without the Braves
4. NCAA basketball Sweet Sixteen through the championship game, but moves up to # 2 if Carolina is in the final four
5. Pool players I know personally playing in national or regional tournaments via livestreaming
6. NBA playoffs if the Celtics or an interesting backup team are in it
7. Michigan-Ohio State, Alabama-Georgia, Alabama-Florida, Army-Navy or Yale-Harvard football, and any BCS championship game that doesn't crap all over the place like tonight's (apologies if Notre Dame ever made a game of it)
8. The Masters or U.S. Open, but only with Tiger Woods in contention on the last day
9. coke to YR for reminding me of vintage boxing matches like Marciano-Walcott and Louis-Conn I
10. Re-runs of classic past games and matches in any of the above sports

Can't think of any others. Definitely no Olympics-type sports or auto racing.

Watch games regularly (season and playoffs)
MLB, NHL

Watch games semi-regularly (mostly playoffs)
NCAA Basketball, NFL

Watch games intermittently (mostly highlights)
International soccer (EPL, World Cup, Champions League)

Rarely watch (major tournaments only)
PGA, Summer Olympics evnets, Winter Olympics events, junior hockey

Pay attention to highlights only, know the major stars
NBA, MMA, NCAA football

Barely know anything about, maybe one name or two I recognize
Boxing, NASCAR

Sports I've attended in person (home team):
MLB (Blue Jays, Tigers, Red Sox, Yankees)
NHL (Leafs, Red Wings)
NBA (Raptors)
NFL (Bills)
MLS (Toronto FC)
Championship League (Charlton Athletic FC)
Canadian Junior Hockey (Ottawa 67s, London Knights, Toronto Marlboros*)
NCAA basketball (numerous teams for rounds 2/3 in March Madness)
NCAA football (Michigan Wolverines)
AHL (Toronto Roadrunners*)
AAA baseball (Ottawa Lynx*)
Frontier League baseball (London Monarchs*)
CIS football (Waterloo)
CIS basketball (Waterloo)
CIS hockey (Waterloo)
NASL (Blizzard*)

* defunct teams

By textbook definition ####### chess is a sport.

#1: You go and wrestle with a rook for two hours while being subjected to en prise traps and Alehkine's Gun several times per contest, and get back to us; hell, go and watch a blitz chess match with all of the loops and curves you want for 2 hours, if you can. There's a reason there aren't any skinny chess players (at least anymore).

#2: I fail to see any ultimate distinction between sports which use complicated machines (bicycling, motor sports), and those which use stiff boards and pieces (chess, checkers, go), and hell those which use none at all (soccer)-even a goalie is a king in a way. Point is they all require the user to know the laws of mathematics intimately well in order to excel in his chosen field. Chess players simply utilize the blessings of Caïssa in the course of their competitions.

Mind you I find college basketball regular season to be one of the worse tv experiences imaginable, if you get the unfortunate broadcast of a ranked team versus a justly deserved non-ranked team.

Someone has never watched the unfortunate broadcast of two unjustly non-ranked teams -- typically major conference bottom-dwellers.

Well here's one genuine NASCAR fan, although it's a distant second to baseball for me.

There are variations of the rules of course, but how are pro football and college football different sports? The American League, National League, and the AAA leagues all have different DH rules, but it would be weird to describe those as your 3 favorite sports.

There are variations of the rules of course, but how are pro football and college football different sports? The American League, National League, and the AAA leagues all have different DH rules, but it would be weird to describe those as your 3 favorite sports.

They're different because a fairly significant portion of the population considers each one to be their favorite sport, I suppose. The number of people who would say that minor-league baseball is their favorite sport is probably quite low. As opposed to college football...

I wonder about the methodology of the study. Did they give people a multiple choice set of options? Did they just ask open-ended questions?

You go and wrestle with a rook for two hours while being subjected to en prise traps and Alehkine's Gun several times per contest, and get back to us

Primey.

And while you're at it, tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes.

#47, 48 I thought it was widely understood that high school football is the national sport of Texas.

“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.” Ernest Hemingway

I like auto racing, mostly road racing, second to baseball, but it is not an athletic activity on the level of football or basketball or tennis. Remember tennis? But auto racing is a lot of fun to actually engage in (I've done so only on the most minor level).

No love for korfball?

Favorite teams to watch - Michigan State basketball, Detroit Tigers, Michigan State football, Detroit Pistons (ugh), Detroit Lions (ugh!)

Favorite leagues to watch when my teams aren't involved -

College football (Obviously brings a ton of dud games, but in front of a TV on a Saturday you can find a good one)
NBA playoffs
College basketball (Again, a ton of duds, but the intra-conference games and March are great)
NFL
MLB (I feel like after watching Tigers games religiously for 6 months, I don't have much room for the rest of the league)

"Real" sports: stuff that was popular when I was a kid.

There are variations of the rules of course, but how are pro football and college football different sports? The American League, National League, and the AAA leagues all have different DH rules, but it would be weird to describe those as your 3 favorite sports.

I consider the NFL and CFB 'different' -- at least in the sense that I probably watch at most, 2-3 NFL games a year (and that includes the SB) but watch CFB pretty religiously on Saturdays and generally keep abreast of news on it...

I'd rank my preferences as

Baseball
(GAP)
College Football
(Bigger Gap)
Hockey
College Basketball
(GAP)
NFL
NBA
(GAP)
Soccer
(CHASM)
Track/Field/Olympic sports
(MIGHT AS WELL NOT EXIST)
NASCAR/etc

Sports Afield is 30-plus years older than the original Sports Illustrated. I wonder if guys posting on Hunting Think Factory or Angler.com spend a bunch of time whining that baseball, football and basketball aren't real sports.

It can't be a sport if only one side knows the rules.

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

Fun list, though mine is a lot less extensive.

MLB (Toronto, Cleveland)
Minor League Baseball (Indianapolis)
Defunct Canadian Baseball League (Niagara Stars)
WBC Qualifying Tournament (Germany hosting)
Championship Football (Nottingham Forest)
League One Football (Notts County)
English Elite League Hockey (Nottingham Panthers)
WHL (Regina Pats)
CFL (Saskatchewan Rough Riders, Toronto Argonauts, Hamilton Tiger-Cats)
CIS Football (University of Regina Rams, a Vanier Cup between the University of Saskatchewan and...Western? Or maybe McMaster? Would have been early 2000s)

Jays games and a weekend in Cleveland in 1989 are the only top level sports I've seen live.

Watch games regularly
NHL then MLB. Historically was MLB but the Mets are garbage and the Blackhawks are awesome.

Watch games regularly only because there was no GD hockey and hey all sports should be broadcast at 10am on weekends:
EPL Soccer, KHL

Watch games semi-regularly, even though I'm no longer interested in it but because it is seemingly impossible to avoid being inundated with it:
NFL

I'd watch more CHL and Bundesliga if I had TV coverage of those leagues. But I'm trying to cut down on following sports since I already waste too much of my life with them. MLB and NHL is enough since they cover the whole year more or less.

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

Not that anyone cares:

MLB - Detroit (old and new), Cleveland (Municipal Stadium), White Sox (new), Cubs, Reds (new), Phillies (new), Montreal
NBA - Detroit
NHL - Detroit, Chicago
NFL - Detroit (old and new), Chicago (pre-renovation)
MiLB - Toledo (old and new), Lansing
OHL - Plymouth Whalers
NCAAB - MSU, Michigan, Big Ten Tournament, NCAA Final Four, NCAA Sweet 16/Regional Final, Detroit Mercy, Oakland University, Eastern Michigan, Northwestern
NCAAF - MSU, Michigan, Tennessee, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt
Soccer - Detroit City FC!

Most fun to attend (home team aside) - Big Ten Tournament, Cincinnati football (cool old stadium, attended a packed/loud night game), any crowded MLB game

Want to attend - Basketball at Palestra, Rose Bowl, pretty much any big SEC football game, something at Madison Square Garden

Sports Afield is 30-plus years older than the original Sports Illustrated.

Since Sports Afield was first published in 1888 and the earliest Sports Illustrated I can remember seeing began in the mid-1930's, what version of Sports Illustrated came before that?

Since Sports Afield was first published in 1888 and the earliest Sports Illustrated I can remember seeing began in the mid-1930's, what version of Sports Illustrated came before that?

Wickypedia says there was an even earlier version in the 20s. Since I had no desire to do further research than that, I went with the vague but correct 30-plus.

horse racing is not a sport, by my opinion.

It is for the horse.

Agreed.

It baffles me that jockeys (appropriately) don't really get any credit for their horses' successes, but NASCAR drivers do. Why don't we celebrate "Jimmie Johnson's Ford/Chevy/whatever" the same way we celebrate Secretariat.

Agreed.

It baffles me that jockeys (appropriately) don't really get any credit for their horses' successes, but NASCAR drivers do. Why don't we celebrate "Jimmie Johnson's Ford/Chevy/whatever" the same way we celebrate Secretariat.

Make the drivers switch cars a few times mid-season and see what happens.

Why don't we celebrate "Jimmie Johnson's Ford/Chevy/whatever" the same way we celebrate Secretariat

The team owners, Childress, Gibbs, Penske, et al., do get a lot of credit. The cars are mechanically almost identical. NASCAR wants it that way to have extremely close competition. Most of the difference between the top few teams and the backmarkers has to do with the preparation of the car for the given track / weather conditions from week to week. The top teams get a few more horsepower, but have a much larger edge in aerodynamic, suspension and tire prep. In the road racing world, Porsche and Ferrari get to add a big chunk to the price of every street car due to their racing glory.

This whole quesiton could be a great Nate Silver "bad polling" example. I mean, favorite sport has so many definitions, it's silly to even ask it and expect coherent results. It's like asking favorite food (cheesecake versus prime rib) when the categories are so disparate. I root for one team because of ties (college), I follow one sport for how the team goes about creating a roster, I watch one on TV to see what happens, and my favorite YouTube moments for pure atheltic accomplishment are yet another different thing.

Excuse me while I sprain my wrist wrestling a rook. It's dangerous to castle one-handed, and I never mastered the deft en passant capture.

The NBA only has a 2 percent lead on hockey in America? That seems odd.

I can't think of a friend who would call the NBA his or her favorite sport, although I know plenty who at least casually follow it.

Most people I know who follow hockey would call it their favorite sport.

The difference in casual followers is probably pretty large.

I actually watched my first UFC event the other day--my brother was in town and wanted to watch it--speaking of sports with rising popularity. I gotta say, it's not for me. Those guys are impressive athletes and as a former wrestler, I can appreciate how hard what they do is...but it's just not for me. When I was younger I was a sports omnivore, but as I've gotten older and time is more limited, I stick to baseball, soccer and the occasional basketball game (Warriors/NCAA tourney). I'll watch a football game if I am completely bored or if the 49ers/Pac-12 team is playing a high stakes game and I'm home to watch it.

horse racing is not a sport, by my opinion.

It is for the horse.

Not until the horses are unionized.

Then again, a successful horse doesn't care about induction to a Hall of Fame. They get put out to stud.
Shawn Kemp and Steve Garvey highly approve of this reward system!

If you read Grantland you would think the NBA is the most popular sport in America.

If you read Grantland you would think the NBA is the most popular sport in America.

And if baseball had finished as far down this list as basketball, instead of a solid second to the great behemoth, I'm sure we'd be reading how the sport is on death's doorstep.

Most people I know who follow hockey would call it their favorite sport.

I've had the opposite experience, every American I know who is a hockey fan was something else first.

I would guess that football is by far the sport with the most single-sport fans, so while it is obviously the most popular, it is probably heavily overrated by this poll. Favorite sport is such a dumb question, they should define what "following" means and then ask people what sports they follow.

They need a question such as: '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).

6 - I can name every player in the league (except Padres).

Back during the 8 team leagues and 5-cent packs of baseball cards, there were more than a few fans in the two team cities who could actually do that. If there's a person alive who can do that today I'd like to know about it.

I miss the defunct Japanese PRIDE promotion like crazy.

PRIDE never die!

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

'On a scale from 0 to 6 how closely do you follow each sport'

Just covering the last three years or so.

Baseball 4
Test Cricket 2
Northern Hemisphere Rugby Union Internationals 2
Serie A 2
College Basketball 2
NFL 1

Ironically, since I came to Canada my interest in hockey has seriously waned, even before this season's NHL lockout.

Back during the 8 team leagues and 5-cent packs of baseball cards, there were more than a few fans in the two team cities who could actually do that. If there's a person alive who can do that today I'd like to know about it.

I think that a lot of people who play Strat-o-Matic or Diamond Mind can come close to naming every player in the league from the season they're replaying. I always play last year's set, so by about June 2013 I'll be able to name every player from 2012 who got ~30 PAs or who threw 10 innings.

Excuse me while I sprain my wrist wrestling a rook.

You kids today & your euphemisms.

every American I know who is a hockey fan was something else first.

Probably Canadian.

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

Wow RTG, we've both been to Charlton! What are the odds?

MLB: Cincy (Crosley, Riverfront, GABP), St. Louis (Busch II and III), Chicago (Old Comiskey, Wrigley), Houston (Astrodome),
Cleveland (Progressive), Detroit (the new one, whatever it's called), Denver (Coors), Kansas City.
Minor league baseball: Columbus, Indianapolis, Salt Lake, Phoenix, Toledo.
NCAAF: Ohio State, Texas, Utah State, Colorado
NCAAB: Ohio State, Texas, Utah State, Arkansas, Colorado, NCAA tournament game at Indiana that the Hoosiers weren't in.
NCAA baseball: Ohio State, Texas, Arkansas
NBA: Salt Lake (Salt Palace and Delta Center), Denver.
ABA: Spirits of St. Louis!
NHL: St. Louis
MLS: Denver
English Football: Charlton Athletic, going to Arsenal in March

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

MLB: Tigers (Comerica & Tiger Stadium), Indians (Progressive & Municipal), Reds (GABP & Riverfront)
MiLB: Mud Hens, Charleston River Dogs (once at the Citadel, once at their own stadium), Columbus Clippers
NCAA baseball: Detroit, Wayne State, Bowling Green, a ST tourney in Homestead FL.
NFL: Browns (Municipal & Browns), Lions (Silverdome only)
Arena League: Detroit Drive
USFL: Michigan Panthers
NCAAF: Ohio State, Michigan, Wayne State, Findlay
NBA: Pistons (Palace)
NCAABB: Detroit, Notre Dame, Loyola-Chicago, Cleveland State, Wright State, Toledo, Bowling Green, NCAA regionals (Chicago), NCAA regional finals (Ford Field), NIT 2nd round (Dayton)
NHL: Red Wings
NCAAH: Bowling Green
WWE Friday Night Fights (!) at Joe Louis Arena

ABA: Spirits of St. Louis!

Oh, how I envy you.

As for me, precious darned little --

MLB -- Braves
USFL -- Arizona Wranglers
NCAAF -- Arizona State (one game, against Stanford & John Elway), Auburn
NAIAF -- Southern Arkansas U.
NCAAB -- Arizona State (two games, one regular season against UCLA & an NIT opening-round loss to TCU)
NAIAB -- Southern Arkansas
AAA baseball -- Phoenix Giants
AA baseball -- Shreveport Braves/Captain, Arkansas Travelers, Montgomery Biscuits
Independent baseball -- Montgomery Wings

That's it, I'm pretty sure. In general, I'd rather read about sports & obsess over the numbers & talk about it all with other people. Doing so is also a lot cheaper & easier.

Places/parks where I’ve attended games in person (excluding the ones I played in):
MLB: Boston, NY (Shea, old Yankee), Cincinnati (old and new), Chicago AL (old and new), Chicago NL, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Colorado, Washington.
Minor League: Indianapolis (old and new), Hudson Valley, Gary.
NFL: Indianapolis (old), NYJ (old)
USFL: New Jersey Generals
NBA: New York Knicks, Indiana Pacers (old), Warriors
NHL: Chicago
MLS: Chicago
CBB: West Point, IU, Purdue, Notre Dame, Butler, Valparaiso, Louisville, Franklin College, Stanford, NC vs. Kentucky (Brendan Byrne Arena), NCAA Regional Openers (RCA Dome, Rupp Arena), NCAA Regional Finals (Knoxville, St. Louis).
CFB: IU, Purdue, Notre Dame, Franklin College, DePauw University
Tennis: Indianapolis Men’s Pro Event
Auto Racing: Indianapolis (500 and Brickyard 400)
Boxing: Heavyweight Title Fight (Bowe-Golata, at MSG), Smaller Cards at Market Square Arena, Westchester County Center.
High School Basketball: Approximately 250 games in about 50 gymnasiums.

For me...

MLB: Oakland Coliseum, Candlestick, Kingdome, AT&T Park, Shea, Citifield, The Ballpark in Arlington, Wrigley, Fenway, Yankee Stadium, Jack Murphy
Minor League: Salinas Spurs
NFL: Meadowlands for a Jets game
CFB: Carrier Dome, Ole Miss, Florida, Texas, University of the Pacific
CBB: Carrier Dome, Univeristy of the Pacific, MSG for the pre-season NIT, Sacramento for the NCAA tourney
NBA: Oakland and MSG
NHL: Sharks (Cow Palace and the San Jose arena), Devils
Tennis: US Open
Soccer: San Jose Earthquakes (NASL version), NYRB, Tottenham at White Hart Lane
Auto Racing: just some very minor league dirt track stuff
Roller derby: @ Hunter's College in Manhattan. Surprisingly fun.

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

Baseball: Cubs, White Sox (old), Milwaukee (new), Yankees (old), Baltimore (New), Pittsburgh (New), DC, Philadelphia (Old), and Reading
Basketball (NBA): Chicago, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and NJ.
Soccer: Chicago (Sting) and Naperville (Fire)
Hockey: Philadelphia (Phantoms)
Football: Chicago (Bears), Maryland (Terrapins), and DC (ND)
Dog Racing: Kenosha

MLB: Shea, Citi, Yankee Stadium 2, CBP, RFK, Nationals Park, OPACY, Turner. Maybe AFCS.
MiLB: Knights, Bulls, Baysox, Keys, PawSox
NFL: Ericsson, the old Meadowlands, wherever the Eagles play.
CFB: Meineke Car Care Bowl a few times.
NBA: Hornets (in Charlotte), Wizards

Late to the party, but cardsfanboy I am confused by...

I more or less define a sport as a direct competition between two or more sides, in which the participants are expected to give full physical effort for a brief period of time during the event, in which scoring is not strictly based upon a judge and who's primary method of locomotion is provided by the participants effort.(I.E...bike racing is a sport, nascar is not)

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?

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

MLB: Athletics, Giants (Candlestick & TeleCom Park), Red Sox, Yankees (YSI), Mets (Shea)
MiLB: Richmond Braves, Sacramento RiverCats, PawSox
NFL: Forty-Niners, Raiders
XFL: San Francisco Demons (season ticket holder!)
NBA: Warriors
MLS: Earthquakes
CFB: Cal, UC Davis
CBB: Cal
Plus a ton of assorted NESCAC sporting events in basketball (mostly), football, hockey, and some randoms thrown in. Small-school college hockey is freakin' amazing to watch in person.

On the 0-6 basis introduced in [72]:
MLB: 6
NFL: 5
NBA: 2
NCAAMB: 1 (with March Madness serving as 'the championship')

All other pro/college sports are essentially zeros for me. I also love the Olympics and watch them obsessively. I also usually watch every match in the Men's FIFA World Cup plus some qualifiers, and I'll usually watch the FA Cup final and the Champions' Cup and sometimes some CONCACAF and CONMEBOL stuff. So whatever number that gets for international soccer, but I don't typically have a rooting interest in any of those competitions.

'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).

NHL: 6
MLB: 6 (placed 2nd b/c I am a bigger fan of NHL than MLB)
NFL: 5
F1: 4
CFB: 3
NBA: 0
NBA: 0

Baseball: Angels Stadium, Dodger Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium, Oakland Coliseum, Old Yankee Stadium, AT&T Park, Cal Bears and St. Mary's
Basketball: LA Sports Arena (Clips), Honda Center (Clips), Staples (Clips), Haas Pavilion (Cal Bears), Assembly Hall (Indiana Hoosiers), been inside Allen Fieldhouse (at KU) but not for a game
Hockey: Anaheim Ducks, SJ Sharks, Anaheim Bullfrogs (from defunct roller-hockey league)
Football: LA Rams, Cal Bears, Indiana Hoosiers
Soccer: Boca Juniors (Estadio Alberto J. Armando)
Horse Racing: Belmont Stakes, Kentucky Derby, Bay Meadows, Golden Gate Fields, Santa Anita
Bullfights: Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas, Madrid; bloodless bullfights in Gustine, CA
Hydroplane Boat Racing: Lake Mead, NV

'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).

(NOTE: 0's omitted, since there would be so many.)

NFL: 6 (OK, I can't literally name every player, but can anyone actually do this for any sport?)
MLB: 4-5
NBA: 3
College Football: 3
NHL: 2
College Basketball: 2
Tennis: 1 (some championships)
Soccer: 1 (World Cup)

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

MLB: A's, Giants (Stick & Phone Company), Cubs, White Sox (old Comiskey), Mets, Nats (RFK), Dodgers, Phillies, Astros ('dome)
MiLB: Chico, Stockton, Modesto, Fresno, Boise, Columbus, Jackson MS, Augusta
NBA: Warriors, Wizards
NFL: Raiders, Jets
CFB: Nebraska, Mississippi State

I feel like there must've been others, but I'm damned if I can remember any right now.
I've also gone to see high-school field hockey & track at Kezar in SF... the SF HS baseball championship is held every year at Pac Bell - free admission, following a Giants day game - and that's always a good time.

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

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. By May-June I'm usually pretty familiar with well over 400 MLB players. So the answer to your question probably depends on your definitions of 'every' and 'league'.

ETA: FLNRSA reminds me to consider HS athletics... I used to go to the California NCS (North Coast Section..? I think) track and field finals at Cal every year. And I've been to a hundred HS football games and a handful of basketball games. That HS baseball game at Pac Bell sounds awesome, I'll have to look that up.

I figure this is as good a place as any to see what the arbiters of "Sport" think of dance gaming as a sport. Anyone who has stepped foot in a Dave and Busters, or really any arcade, has probably seen a Dance Dance Revolution machine at some point in their life. If you haven't, DDR is a Japanese video game where players step on 4 plastic panels pointed in the cardinal directions (U,R,D,L) by following the arrows moving up the screen as they move the player (generally) to the music. The game has lots of variables in difficulty, ranging from "anyone with a fully functional body can do this" to "requires months of practice or extreme natural talent". DDR, however, is mostly a pretty easy game, and there exist two primary alternatives that offer substantially more difficulty: "In The Groove", a discontinued American DDR clone that follows the 4-panel formula but has been hacked by the community to allow for the insertion of custom songs and step charts, and "Pump It Up", a Korean alternative that has 5 panels rather than 4 (the diagonals and the center of the pad). It seems silly to think a stupid video game where you stand on arrows could even remotely be considered a sport, but here are three videos for your perusal.

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qbajCmVa6g (One of the best Pump players in the world, playing a single panel chart for a remix of Fur Elise rated 23 for difficulty. The rating scale currently goes up to 26, although the hardest single panel charts are rated 24s at this point in time. During the fastest parts of the music, there are sections of complex 16th note stepping at 237 BPM, or approximately 16 steps per second. Pump It Up charts are notorious for having large sections of turning, where the player must cross their feet over each other consistently at fast speeds to get to arrows that flow together. Occasionally some turns are so fast that a player will shortcut this by skipping them and having one foot hit two arrows consecutively, it's hard to notice but he does it a few times here.)

2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfhuY0fcKm0 (The best In The Groove speed/stamina player in the world, playing a song that was made specifically for him to attempt. It contains 60 straight seconds of 16th note stepping at 240 BPM, 16 steps per second, though it is obviously not insanely movement heavy, notice how precise his technique is in keeping his feet near the center of the pad so as to minimize wasted energy and hit only the inner pressure sensors for each arrow. I am a pretty good In The Groove player myself, and I cannot even do patterns at this speed for five seconds without failing/having my Quads lock up. This is the hardest song/chart that has ever been passed, in a game where people have privately owned machines for five-plus years working on beating hard songs.)

3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-XFCIyO6_I (In case you were not impressed by the videos of people using the bar, here is a video of someone playing the highest difficulty chart that exists in Pump It Up, without using the bar, and still getting an A. It contains sections of 220 BPM 16th notes across both pads, numerous sections where the player must hit four arrows at the exact same time, and is insanely movement heavy. It's probably not the ACTUAL hardest song in the game, maybe four or five harder songs exist, but it's a pretty good indicator of how high the skill curve on Pump It Up can be.)

This is all a lot of words and a lot of your time and if you actually read all of this you're probably having a boring day at work/home, but I thought it might interest people a bit since it's a very niche hobby and everyone here seems to have their own dorky obsessions. I personally think at the higher levels dance games are certainly a sport, and I've always wished that I could find some prime athlete and put them in a room with a Pump It Up machine for several months and see how good they become. Obviously the people competing at the highest levels of these games are not traditional athletic beasts, yet they still accomplish things that border on the unbelievable.

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.

Football: iowa, minnesota (the dome), wisky, illinois, NWU, MSU, Purdue, PSU, arizona, soldier field
Baseball: Wrigley, Comiskey, The Cell, Milwaukee County Stadium, Target Field, Busch Stadium, The Ballpark, The BOB, Dodger Stadium
Hockey: Chicago Stadium
NBA: Chicago Stadium, wherever the Mavs play

CFB: 5
MLB: 3-4
CBB: 3
Cwrasslin: 3
NFL: 2
NBA: 2
NHL: 0

One of the best Pump players in the world

But he holds onto the bar behind him like an old lady?

But he holds onto the bar behind him like an old lady?

It's a means of precision, not a necessity to play the game. Imagine if we told golfers they could no longer use a few randomly selected clubs from their bag, they could still play the game but the quality of their play would decline. Most great Pump players can still play exceptionally well without the bar, but since one element of the game is timing your steps to get as many "Perfects" as possible, you can improve your scores by using the bar. I personally warm up without the bar and can play up to 18s-20s without the bar, though not nearly as well as I can play them with the bar. Until about 2006, where Andamiro started rapidly ramping up the difficulty of the game, players were not allowed to use the bar at the National and World Pump Festivals.

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

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

As much as I'd like to be sympathetic to your proposal, I watched all 3 videos and what those kids are doing resembles "dancing" about as much as brine shrimp resemble Sea Monkeys.

MLB: Shea Stadium, Fenway Park, old Busch Stadium, Candlestick Park, Camden Yards, RFK, Nationals Park.
MiLB: Utica, Watertown NY, Oneonta NY, Memorial Stadium in Baltimore (Bowie BaySox), Bowie MD.
NCAAF: Michie Stadium, BC Stadium.
NFL: old Giants Stadium
NCAAB: NIT in MSG NY (~1970), Columbia, UPenn.
Auto Racing: Lime Rock (TransAm, WSC), Watkins Glen(CanAm/6hour, USGP), Bridgehampton.
Horses: Saratoga Springs (sigh...)