These beautiful and intelligent people wrote

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  The WatcherReply

  December 3, 2013 at 11:56 pm

  Krishna:

  I was a semi-serious football-watcher for quite a few years. But I can’t stand the commercials. At some point the mud monster got old enough to take over the family room TV for whatever kiddie stuff she liked, and since it was then the only set in the house with a “mute” button, I lost interest….

  One night, I decided to watch a Steelers game in my office, and get the audio from a local radio station. The radio station guy thought he was Cosell, but Cosell was tolerable compared to him. Never did that again.

  I used to catch playoff games at the barbershop – enough chatter going on there that the commentary, commercials, and half-time was covered by our pontifications. I don’t think the barbers ever figured that out….

  Superbowl, back when we had Sunday night trash pickup, was kind enough to run the halftime show at about time to take the trash to the curb. Never could get into the halftime shows after they started “analysis” v.s. half-dressed cheerleaders and (usually pretty good) bands.

  The kid’s out of the house, and all the sets have mute buttons, but, somehow, I can’t quite get into it….

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  Michael KinyonReply

  December 4, 2013 at 11:35 am

  When I was young, live hockey games were the thing for me. My parents would take me to see the Salt Lake Golden Eagles (minor league) and that was always fun. Sometimes we’d go to baseball games, but that wasn’t really my thing. I didn’t watch much sports on TV.

  Now, I watch the occasional Super Bowl, and this January, I might watch the Broncos in the playoffs. But that’s about it.

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  capesnbabesReply

  December 4, 2013 at 3:43 pm

  Baseball and hockey are very similar from a “television versus live” perspective. On TV, baseball can be an INCREDIBLY boring game. With hockey, because the puck is so hard to follow, it can just seem like a lot of dudes skating in random circles.

  But GO to a live baseball game or go to a live hockey game and you’ll see an INCREDIBLE difference.

  With baseball, because you can see the WHOLE field live, you can pick up a whole bunch of nuances like players shifting defensive positions and the game can go a lot faster than people realize (even though it’s still called “The national Past time”).

  And watching a live hockey game… it’s MUCH easier to follow the puck and action. You also realize how incredibly fast hockey is too. The TV doesn’t catch that well at all.

  But football always seems to be almost custom made for the television. The heart of the action is in the trenches (the offensive and defensive lines). And even though football is considered a very physical sport, watching it on TV (for me) is more like a live action chess match. You can see the moves and counter moves so clearly and different than hockey or baseball.

  Just an observation from a former high school baseball coach. ;-)