tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23948057.post4179611411527907224..comments2010-06-20T11:20:40.346-04:00Ben Burdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06372169478978720740ben@eagle.caBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23948057.post-29421880722132062462010-06-20T09:58:45.349-04:002010-06-20T09:58:45.349-04:00With respect, Doug, the thing about baseball is strategy -strategy and math. If you can find it, I suggest Alan Abel&#39;s &#39;Baseball -The Timeless Game&#39; a column he wrote about 20 years ago in The Globe if memory serves. I once went to a Rangers-Celtic match at Ibrox around 1980 and observed some very odd things. Well, odd to a Canadian non-soccer fan anyway. First was the fact that if I wanted to get lucky in Glasgow, a Saturday match-day afternoon would be the time to do it because there wasn&#39;t, I swear, a single female among the 100,000 fans in attendance. I might as well have been in a mosque. Second was the smells; Bovril and urine. Bovril is the only drink you could get at Ibrox, alcohol being verboten and just about everybody showing up drunk anyway and urine because no one, not for a second, would leave their spot to go to a washroom. They just pissed in place. <br /><br />Why do I find soccer boring? Well for one thing any sport where tens of thousands of fans rise to their feet at a close call when the close call isn&#39;t within 35-feet of the net pretty much precludes excitement in my book. But I will say this; back in the 6-team NHL day what made the Toronto-Montreal rivalry so vital wasn&#39;t really hockey. It was socio-historical. That is it was Catholic vs. Protestant, French vs. English and peasant vs. overseer -much in the same way so many soccer matches are an undeniable draw to their respective ethnic supporters.<br /><br />No more with hockey, obviously. It&#39;s simply about money and hired guns. And, to a degree, I think the same might be said about soccer.<br /><br />All that said -I think we can agree on golf. Nes pas?Merklin Muffleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05850284624604652178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23948057.post-62251805947180564002010-06-16T22:12:42.547-04:002010-06-16T22:12:42.547-04:00Heard some folks saying the didn&#39;t watch soccer because it was boring. Those same folk of course spent all weekend watching golf and the Jays. Now those are exciting sports!Doug Lnoreply@blogger.com