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Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

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Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#411

Post by analog31 »

existencebox wrote: post #378
analog31 wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that most kids who become intellectuals have parents who are intellectuals. Admittedly, my parents openly disdained pro and school sports, and rock music, when I was a kid. They are scientists, and into classical music. Today, I'm a scientist, I love classical and jazz, and am a performing jazz musician. Whatever "signaling" I might have received, I can't escape the fact that I love those art forms today. B…

I wouldn't say that's true. I had a father who pitched college baseball, and tried to instill the same values in me, and it only drove me further away from it. I'd rather we consider the alternate view, and rather than discussing how those who don't like spots are somehow infringing on those who are, select the MANY occasions (as in the parent post of school gym classes) where the opposite is certainly true; those wh…

I agree that I was probably over-generalizing.

Interestingly, as an alternative to the "big three," a feature of talking about sports is that it risks no enmity because the taking of sides is assumed to be good natured.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#412

Post by dinkumthinkum »

murbard2 wrote: post #379

The article is correct that one should not cultivate a disinterest in sports and talk about the "working class struggle". If you're going to be an elitist, do it right. Spectator sports, rooting for a team, appeal to the most basic and stupid tribal instincts. This is why we end up with crappy policies, this is what we can't have nice thing. So yes, it's fine to despise it, and to look down on people who make it an i…

If you think sports are the reason we have stupid policies then I think something is stupid and it's not sports. These supposed intellectuals on HackerNews are split between socialism and anarcho-capitalism so it can be hard to really say which of these policies are objectively stupid let alone blame sports of all things for them.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#413

Post by trendroid »

hiou wrote: post #376
copsarebastards wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cultivating an active ignorance about sports is stupid--knowing more things never hurt anyone. And I definitely see that trend in my peers. That said, I wouldn't go the further step to say that people should somehow be obligated to like sports. I don't like most sports--for reasons brought up, but not really expanded by the article. My main beef with sports is the effects sports have on education. My city spends mill…

I would say that your comments are exactly what the article is talking about. You've decided to exclude yourself because you feel the existence and importance placed on it by others is misplaced and essentially stupid. So you are in essence calling people who like professional sports at best misinformed and at worst stupid. That's pretty much the definition of elitism as far as I know it. You think you know more than…

But why is it incorrect to say that the most people on HN know more than the common man?

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#414

Post by jasonm23 »

solson wrote: post #20

When you show overt contempt for sports you are showing contempt for most everybody and that is problem with your social skills. It's called being a snob. The disdain for working class culture among academics was part of the reason I choose not to pursue a formal higher education. I suspect this overt snootiness keeps many gifted working class kids from participating in higher education. I grew up working class and w…

On the other hand, I could not give two shits about sport. If someone wants to take personal offence at this and decided I'm a snob, I'm quite happy about my conclusions of who exactly has the social problem.

Hint, it's not my problem.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#415

Post by dinkumthinkum »

remarkEon wrote: post #292

After reading through a lot of these comments...I just have to ask, does anyone ever just play sports for fun? There seems to be a lot of real visceral and negative feelings toward organized sports - even beyond the professional leagues. Does anyone enjoy just watching baseball? I absolutely love Fantasy baseball. It's a great intellectually stimulating way to just relax. Am I allowed to relax, or am I supporting som…

No you are clear not hipster enough. :) Actually, for people that just don't like sports, fine, but a lot of what's been written is pseudo-intellectual jibber jabber about tribalism blah blah jingoism, etc.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#416

Post by peckrob »

I have a hard time following professional sports because I don't feel any connection to the team. I live in a smaller city so we don't have any top-tier professional sports, just a minor league baseball team that's about to move, a minor league hockey team and some semi-pro teams. I would nominally say I'm a fan of the Titans as they're the closest NFL team, but they're still an hour and a half away and, anyways, it's more "oh, look, they're on, guess I'll watch."

But, I LOVE college sports. I graduated from to a major SEC university (Auburn) and attended all but one home game the 5 seasons I was there, as well as at least one away game each season. Same with basketball, only my attendance wasn't quite so diligent.

But I feel a connection with that team, even years later. That's my school. When I was there, they were my classmates. I had a geology class with the quarterback. Even now, years removed from my time as a student, I never miss a game on TV and try to make it down there at least once a season.

Seeing the stadium, seeing the band, hearing the roar of the crowd at kickoff, smelling the barbecue and bourbon in the air. The indescribable thrill of seeing a live eagle fly down and land in the middle of the field. Watching the chess match between the the two insanely intelligent coaches, watching the plays executed by talented players who are still often works in progress - not finely tuned professional athletes. And stepping foot back on campus once again. All those potent memories come flooding back. It truly is a wonderful experience for me. An unbelievable rush.

Some of my fraternity brothers and I even have a long running iMessage group that sees hundreds of messages on gameday going back and forth as the four of us cheer, analyze, celebrate and commiserate. Even though we're separated by different occupations and thousands of miles, we maintain that link that was our time together and our shared interest in sport.

Stephen Fry captured it perfectly in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuPeGPwGKe8

But I've heard NFL fans talk about their teams exactly how I talk about Auburn. So I wonder if it might be different if I lived in a city that actually had a real top-tier professional team. Some way of having a connection to this team.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#417

Post by mmcclimon »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #380
slg wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>how the sporting department despite those figures manages to be a net budgetry drain on almost every school which has one And so are music departments. Which I think is part of the point here. I firmly believe that playing right tackle can teach you just as much as playing the oboe, yet intellectuals tend to look down on former and praise the latter. Organized sports are not only a hobby and social gathering, but th…

Music departments are budget drains since when? The arts and humanities are actually rather cheap, they need nothing more than buildings, staff and a library. Science and engineering are the real whoppers, and as a rule cross-subsidized by A&H. Tuition per credit hour is the same, after all. The dean of the School of Arts & Sciences at a certain state school is on record saying that for the price of a chemistry profe…

Music departments tend to be expensive in terms of faculty, sine most of their time is spent in private lessons. If an oboe studio has 10 students, that's essentially 10 hours a week in lessons alone. In that same 10 hours, an English professor might teach 60 students (if you figure 15 students/class with 2 hours MWF and a different 30 students Tue./Thu.). Those are numbers for a small school; at larger universities an English professor might lecture to 300 students a week in 10 hours, but that oboe professor is still seeing just 10 students.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#418

Post by mason240 »

Hasu wrote: post #351
refurb wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sports is a huge financial drain on the school? Do you have any data? What I heard was that college football tends to pay for all of the other sports at a school. If anything sports creates a lot of opportunities for students that otherwise could be done due to budgets.

> What I heard was that college football tends to pay for all of the other sports at a school. Yeah, at the most successful football schools. That's a minority among schools that have football programs. [1] [2] >If anything sports creates a lot of opportunities for students that otherwise could be done due to budgets. No, sports diverts scholarship funds from scholars to athletes, and the athletes rarely take full ad…

>Yeah, at the most successful football schools.

And it's the successful (at pulliung NCAA TV money) football schools that have coaches with million dollar contracts.

It's a nice bait and switch you constructed. A "trick play" if you will.

Re: Cultivated Disinterest in Professional Sports

#420

Post by a8da6b0c91d »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #232
Glyptodon wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love playing sports and always have. But I have major issues with categorizing everyone who has issues with them as elitist. Some of us dislike them because they're destructive to society. I'm sure I'm not the only one who went to a high school where athletics were more important than academics, and not going to the football game was worth a couple nitpicked points off on your chemistry quiz or some teacher who bec…

High school athletics is a problem in some ways, but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Robert Putnam is a political scientist of some renown. One of his major contributions was a study he did in Italy over 40 years. His question was why was government in in the north generally more efficient and just all around better than politics in the southern portion of the country. His conclusion was that northern It…

Well there's putnam for ya, letting the obvious visual difference between southern and northern italians sail right over his head.
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