"What the hell are they talking about ? ": A sport dictionary
Have you noticed that in this section mostly American and European people are posting, who often don't have the beginning of a clue about what the others are talking about ?
So my idea is to make the whole section understandable for anyone : let's make some kind of sport dictionary that would explain the basics of all sports (Leagues, Major events, very basic rules, etc.).
FOOTBALL -a.k.a SOCCER in the US-
Basic rules: two teams of eleven players who can only touch the ball with their feet, legs, chest and head (including one Goalkeeper, who's able to take the ball in his hands within his zone). Game duration: 90 minutes ( 2 x 45 mins).
Main Competitions :
- World Cup (every 4 years [the next will be in 2006], national teams) ;
- Euro[pean championship] (every 4 years, there is one in 2004, national teams) ;
- Copa America (South America, every other year, national teams) ;
- Champion's league (CL) (Europe, every year, best clubs from each national league) ;
- Copa Libertadores ( South America, every year, best clubs) ;
Each country has its own league ; the best ones are in England, Spain, Italy and Germany
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't was on purpose my dear Rusky, for I don't hold the UEFA Cup as a very important competition...But if you thnk it is...
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FOOTBALL (aka SOCCER)
Main Competitions ( part II):
- UEFA Cup (C3) (Europe, every year, clubs that aren't as good as the best ones);
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See, everyone?!? That is the TRUE beauty of sports--the fact that we're all so passionate about the ones we love. Athleticism. Motivation. Devotion. Competition. Winning. Losing. The words may be different in all our languages, and the terminolgy from game-to-game varies as much as it does from country- to-country.
P.S. Yers-- I thought your Madden comment was really funny, too.
P.P.S. amity75--It's not our faults that we're American!
We're not all boorish idiots that think the U.S. is the center of the universe, but the ones that are tend to be the ones who get paid to criticize other's athletic ability or effort to forward their journalistic interests.
I acknowledge that the titles for championships in North America do sound like ego-strokes, but bear in mind that many of these titles are 100 or more years old. It would be rude of us to change the names just to be more politically correct, and it disgraces our forefathers, and ruins tradition. I respect each of you guys for your opinions and understand that only a few of you will agree with my point of view, but that won't change my opinion, and no one else should be expected to change their own or be criticized just for trying to contribute. That having been said, I say, let's play ball!
players who come to the MLB from other countries who were some of the very best in their country are abover average here at the most part.. it was like the first year we made the dream team.. the other countries werent prepared.. baseball is still growing around the world and they just couldnt compete with MLB teams yet
Since you mentioned baseball, I'll start with that. MLB has two leagues-- the American and National. Each of those have 3 divisions: West, Central, and East. The divisions are made up of 4 to 6 teams. The National League has 16 teams, the American 14.
The regular season has 162 games. There are 2 sessions of interleague play, and the rules for those games are decided by the ballpark in which they are played. In an NL ballpark, both teams pitchers' make the up the ninth position in the batting order. In the AL, a designated hitter (DH) is used, just as they would in the World Series. We can talk about playoffs later. The roster is limited to 25 players- amended from 40 at training camp. There is no salary cap in MLB.
The position players are catcher (c), first base (1b), second (2b), shortstop (ss), third base (3b), right, center, and left fielders (rf, cf, and lf).
5 pitchers make up the start rotation (sp). Then there is the bullpen-- made up of relievers and closers. There are abbreviations to indicate which hand the p throws with (rhp=rightie and lhp=leftie). Switch hitters and pitchers are usually indicated by a #.
Games are 9 innings, with the home team always batting last. The inning ends when 3 batters (or baserunners) are retired (or thrown or put out, etc.) In an at-bat (ab), a batter gets 3 strikes. The third strike must be a swing and miss or no swing on a strike. A batter cannot foul out on the 3rd strike. A walk is issued on a count of 4 balls. This is called a base on balls (bb), and is charged to this pitcher. A run is scored as a baserunner steps on home plate-and is scored as a run for the player (r), and the player that drove in the run is credited with a run- batted-in (rbi). A home run (hr) credits the player for his hit, as credits him an rbi for every baserunner driven in. If the bases are loaded the batter gets 4 rbi, and another credit called the grand slam.
A hit (h) is a single, a double(2B), a triple(3B). A batter hits for the cycle when he hits all of the above and a hr in a single game.
That'll do for starters. How's that for on-topic?
Oooh--good. Of course I forgot that, and there are also lots of other special circumstances within all the stuff I mentioned above. It would probably take us several entire pages of thread to explain all of baseball. Did you see anything else I missed in the above? What do you think we should mention next? I think you should cover pitching. What do you think we should mention? This is kinda fun