Bowling, I’m sorry.
In a previous entry, I gave ESPN a serve for showing bowling on their sports channel. I’m here to apologise to the game of bowling. I should have left you out of my discussion because unfortunately, I wrote my article a week before I discovered ESPN showing the WJF. What is the WJF, you ask? The WJF stands for the World Juggling Federation. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I switched the channel to ESPN to see some fool juggling 5 different pins (bowling and juggling all in one!) in a variety of different ways. In all I watched no more than 30 seconds of the WJF, but it was more than enough to last the rest of my life.
There are so many other great sports out there that ESPN could be covering instead of the rubbish they show, but they resort to showing this and countless other ’sports’ when they could be showing REAL sports that get little or no exposure in the U.S. even though there is a following for them, such as Rugby. How does ESPN get away with showing this crap on television? Are they getting paid by the WJF or the Professional Bowling Association to televise the events? Next thing you know they’ll be showing the World Championships of Marbles.
I agree with a lot of what you’re saying concerning non-sports. But I also say it’s easy to bash without backing it up. Let’s get some data then! I issue you a challenge:
Please outline, as scientifically as needed, when a sport is a sport, and when it’s just a “skill”. Is it when there is no direct opponent (bowling, swimming, darts)? Is it when there isn’t enough activity to make one sweat (poker, curling)? Let’s hear your definition. Perhaps in another post?
I accept your challenge! It may have to wait until the weekend, but I accept!
i think the proper definition of sport is ’something a bloke would want to watch in the absence of sex.’ the crap ESPN shows clearly doesn’t fit this criteria.
You know, you could throw this on the list with marbles: http://www.worldrps.com/
Rock Paper Scissors is huge! With world tournaments and so on. We’ll probably see it on ESPN soon.