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Author Topic: The Redneck High Holy Day  (Read 10592 times)
Paelos
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Reply #35 on: February 22, 2005, 06:32:34 AM

So you are basically discounting skill sports? Anything that doesn't require intense physical conditioning baffles you? Golf, Billiards, Bowling, Racing, are all sports and they all have a very defined skill set in my book. You ask if you might be good at any of these without trying and go pro? I assure you unless you are a total idiot savant you would get your socks rolled up and down by the guys on the dirt tracks racing for peanuts. Just because you are ignorant of the sport, don't assume that talent is so easily hidden.

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DarkDryad
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Reply #36 on: February 22, 2005, 07:48:03 AM

First off fuck you for making it a southern thing. :-D In fact the majority of drivers and races are moving north.
I absolutly hate NASCAR as an organization and sport. I'm from one of the towns that NASCAR has a track in and I tell you I was glad when one of the races went north, well west.
Nascar didnt get big untill the northerners and west coast gang got involved so again bugger off. :-D

BWL is funny tho.  It's like watching a Special Needs school take a field trip to a minefield.
El Gallo
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Reply #37 on: February 22, 2005, 07:49:11 AM

I think NASCAR is popular because they can hold races in places that are too small to support a major team sport franchise.  It also gets people to identify with the individual drivers.  I think tickets are petty cheap as well, but I am not sure about that.  Plus a lot of people just plain get off on their car, and cars in general.  Also, the summer sport competition -- baseball -- is becoming less and less popular.

I can appreciate the strategy involves, but I just don't enjoy watching it.  Watching indy/formula 1 cars is much more exciting to me than watching NASCAR, but I can still only watch it for about 15 minutes, even when the other choices are bowling, golf and pool.  Different strokes.


Wait wait, isn't the Daytona 500 the most watched sporting event in North America?

The Super Bowl is usually the most watched TV program, period, so I doubt it.  Some Googling of US figures indicated that the D-500 got a 10.6 rating, representing 33.5 million viewers.  The Super Bowl had over 130 million viewers.  The NFL conference championships almost tripled the d-500's ratings, and average Monday Night games beat out the d-500, as did the World Series, the ALCS, and the college basketball and football championships.  The d-500 fell within the same ballpark as the NBA finals games [which I found pretty suprising], the Belmont horse race, and the major golf events.  It could be that there are a crapload of Canadiens and Mexicans watching NASCAR, I guess.

So, while the rednecks are clearly on the march, they have not yet overrun the gates.  Demographics are clearly on their side, though.

This post makes me want to squeeze into my badass red jeans.
TheWalrus
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Reply #38 on: February 22, 2005, 08:03:18 AM

 Let me boil it down for ya Margalis...you couldn't. There.

 Nothing personal, normally I enjoy your posting and usually agree with your opinion, but in this case you are just flat ass wrong. Sorry.

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Signe
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Reply #39 on: February 22, 2005, 08:06:06 AM

People actually watch other people bowl and play pool on TV?  I'm not entirely sure I believe you.

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HaemishM
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Reply #40 on: February 22, 2005, 08:09:15 AM

People watch CURLING on TV. Barely-evolved monkies with self-importance complexes will watch just about anything.

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Reply #41 on: February 22, 2005, 08:14:59 AM

I used to get curling and hurling confused.  Boy... are they different, though.  Hurling must be one of the wildest, nastiest sports I've ever seen.  Curling, however, can be accomplished by any decent housewife.

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Abagadro
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Reply #42 on: February 22, 2005, 08:35:35 AM

Margalis, no offense but you are wildly underestimating how hard it is to drive these cars.  You are going 182-200 MPH on tires with no tread. There is a reason they don't just stick any schmo into a NASCAR. You have to work your way up from sprints. Heck most of these guys have been driving competetively since they were 8.   It is very difficult to do and is easily on par with having the talent to play any other major league sport in the compartive sense to the rest of the population. They don't pay them millions of dollars if anyone can do it.

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

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shiznitz
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Reply #43 on: February 22, 2005, 08:43:03 AM

While I don't agree with Margolis fully, the fact that the children of great NASCAR racers tend to be good NASCAR racers suggests that exposure at an early age and financial support are not unimportant factors at become good. How many NBA or MLB family dynasties are there? Don't come back with the Mannings. They are the same generation.

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Paelos
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Reply #44 on: February 22, 2005, 08:51:05 AM

Bonds, as much as I hate that. The Mannings, Archie et all, not just the two bros. Hell, according to this article 146 players in the NFL have had fathers that played before in that league.

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Fargull
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Reply #45 on: February 22, 2005, 09:17:11 AM

Racing is about as important to me as Tropical salt errosion.  Just have no understanding why anyone watches it...

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Roac
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Reply #46 on: February 22, 2005, 10:22:10 AM

Racing is about as important to me as Tropical salt errosion.  Just have no understanding why anyone watches it...

Eh.  Same for me, but for ANY sport.  For any sport or play, it's not that hard to enumerate what the outcomes are (ie, x yards gained, fumble, interception, etc).  It's not like there is almost anything unexpected in sports, because you know the outcome is going to be one of a handful of options.  Something like once a year something absolutely crazy (fight on the field, etc) will happen, but it's outside the rules of the game anyway so not so much that you're watching (in this case) for the game, but for the break from the game.  I feel no affiliation with mebers of the NFL, just because they name their corporate entity after a city I live in, or live within a hundred miles of.  Nor do I feel any affiliation with college athletes whose motivations are largely for a cheaper ride through college and/or a shot at big money after they graduate.

That would be somewhat different if I knew (personally) anyone involved - say, if my son goes into athletics, and far different if I were playing the game myself.  But as far as watching sports for entertainment?  Far as I'm concerned, football, baseball, etc are all on the same level as NASCAR.  Whether you're driving in a circle or marching back and forth on a field, it's the same thing.  There isn't much novelty in it.

But for some reason millions of people love it all, NASCAR included.  Good for them.

-Roac
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Margalis
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Reply #47 on: February 22, 2005, 05:41:39 PM

Margalis, no offense but you are wildly underestimating how hard it is to drive these cars.  You are going 182-200 MPH on tires with no tread. There is a reason they don't just stick any schmo into a NASCAR. You have to work your way up from sprints. Heck most of these guys have been driving competetively since they were 8.   It is very difficult to do and is easily on par with having the talent to play any other major league sport in the compartive sense to the rest of the population. They don't pay them millions of dollars if anyone can do it.

OK, let me repeat myself one MORE time.

Yes, it takes skill. It takes an escoteric skill that most people have no idea if they actually have or not.

I KNOW FOR A FACT that I cannot jump very high, or run super fast. I don't know for a fact that I can't, WITH PRACTICE, race a car. ALL SPORTS that rely on out-of-the-way skills have a very self-selecting group of participants.

A guy in Africa who owns nothing and has no equipment has a pretty good idea how good a sprinter he can be. Sprinting is a universal sport. Auto racing is not. EVERYONE at some point in their life has tried to run fast. Not everyone has tried to race a car, or go whitewater rafting, or do synchronized swimming, or bowling, or whatever.

Bowling is the same. Does it take skill? Yes. Are there people out there who could be great bowlers but don't know it? Of course! So no, I don't really care about bowling or bowlers either. I think there are a lot of people on earth that could be great bowlers who either don't know it or don't care. It's not a universal sport to any degree.

I connect with sports that I either like to participate in, or that I think are true best of the best because they take some universal skills.

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Abagadro
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Reply #48 on: February 22, 2005, 06:19:09 PM

No need to get touchy.   tongue

I get what you are saying now.

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

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Sky
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Reply #49 on: February 23, 2005, 06:27:21 AM

I grew up a racing kid, I thought watching races from the pits and knowing all the drivers was normal. My dad did stock racing in some local circuits back in the 60s and 70s, had to sell his cars off, unfortunately. Never could afford a modified, but he was working toward getting into those divisions when he got out of it.

My favorite to watch were the dirt tracks, who cares what's racing on it. All I know is most of the mud flew the other way ;)

As I got older, and NASCAR grew in popularity, dad would take me to all these big races, and honestly, I thought it sucked compared to the small tracks and concentrated intensity of the small circuits. Went to the Daytona 500 several times through the 70s and 80s, hated it every time. Meeting folks in the pits was cool, but the constant oval crap just got old for me. I understand better than most the physical and mental rigors involved, just not my thing. Rally style, on the other hand, is really cool. For a while my dad lived out by Watkins Glen and we'd catch races out there.

The reason those guys in the small circuits drove so fast? Get the race over and get to the bar.
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Reply #50 on: February 23, 2005, 11:29:05 AM

Turns out there are actually 2 roadraces on the NASCAR circuit: Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen International. I think they should try to race on more raceway than the standard oval shape. I wonder how much trouble roadraces gives the drivers when they're so used to drving in a left turn oval all the time.
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Reply #51 on: February 23, 2005, 12:25:18 PM

Although,I'm not a huge fan of Nascar, I love Watkins Glen and pretty much enjoy any race there.  I have to say, I've never been to a live Nascar race anywhere.

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Sky
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Reply #52 on: February 23, 2005, 01:34:27 PM

Watkins Glen isn't the best for spectating in person. My memories is sort of "beer, bbq, beer, ZOOM CARS GO BY, beer, bbq..." You only see a small section of track. And I was too young for beer.
Paelos
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Reply #53 on: February 23, 2005, 01:39:07 PM

Talladega (sp?) is fun. Get someone with an RV and a lot of lawn chairs. Sit on top and let the good times roll! I remember taking swigs of HOT DAMN with three biker chicks while chasing it with PBR. Just one of the oddest moments of my life.

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Signe
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Reply #54 on: February 23, 2005, 03:51:53 PM

Watkins Glen isn't the best for spectating in person. My memories is sort of "beer, bbq, beer, ZOOM CARS GO BY, beer, bbq..." You only see a small section of track. And I was too young for beer.

Being too young for beer doesn't affect the fun factor if you're close enough to the action.  You can get high off the fumes.

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Reply #55 on: February 23, 2005, 09:25:35 PM

Watkins Glen International. I think they should try to race on more raceway than the standard oval shape. I wonder how much trouble roadraces gives the drivers when they're so used to drving in a left turn oval all the time.

Watkins Glen - It's racing, only twisted!

I live relatively near Watkins Glen...  I hear radio commercials for it alot.  The above is their tagline.
They ran a series once that was 'helpful hints for drivers new to Watkins Glen'.
Helpful Hint #1... 'The Right-hand Turn'.

The right hand turn is nothing to be afraid of.  It works just like the left hand turn, except you must turn the wheel in the opposite direction.

They were great.

Alkiera

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