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Interesting sports you follow but not enough interest for their own thread


evilwaldo

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One week until the start of Aussie Rules Football.  Poor FiOS customers like myself will have to set our DVRs to catch the late night games on Fox Sports Two and hopefully there will be either replays or games posted on Fox Sports NOW.

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Most darts enthusiasts probably know this already, but this is Phil Taylor's last year on tour. He's no longer the undisputed best in the world, Mighty Michael Van Gerwen is, but Taylor is still probably in the top five, definitely in the top ten. For my part, the last ride began and ended at a weekly blind draw tournament, (one that used to mean guaranteed money for me). I used to be able to carry a total stiff into the money rounds, but not any longer, I need someone at least competent as a partner to have any real hopes of winning a tournament. Anyway, the tournament did not go well, the pain in my elbow was excruciating and it's either cortisone shot #6 or walk away. Considering the general erosion of skills, (that all the cortisone in the world isn't going to help), it's time to hang it up. Being a top-100 in the US player in five different decades is a hell of a run, even if I do get stuck with the label of "best player to never win a major regional". It was fun. 

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On ‎3‎/‎18‎/‎2017 at 1:11 AM, SirFozzie said:

Thank god for Fox Soccer Plus, I think I get all the Aussie Rules games

I really need to explore the nether ranges on my FiOS guide to see if I have this channel or not.

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Last May, on a whim one morning I watched the Monaco Grand Prix. I'd watched F1 on and off a bit in the mid 90s mostly in the hope for some crashes rather than actually following the sport, but last season I ended up watching every qualifying session and race.

I'm now sitting up until 2am here to watch the season opening Australian Grand Prix tonight.

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Last three days of the March Sumo Tournament were dramatic as hell.

Day 13: Kisenosato, the brand new Yokozuna (first Japanese-born Yokozuna in 17 years) dislocates his shoulder disgustingly in his first loss in the tournament to fellow Yokozuna Harumafuji. He's still in first place, but the injury looks real, real bad.

Day 14: Before the tournament, my guy Kotoshogiku got demoted from Ozeki rank and had to win 10 fights this tournament to get his Ozeki rank back. Getting the Ozeki rank is hard as hell, and as Kotoshogiku is an older wrestler now, this was his last chance to regain the Ozeki ranking. A loss could mean retirement. To this point, he was 8-5, meaning that another loss would make it mathematically impossible for him to get his ranking back. On day 14, he went up against Ozeki Terunofuji, who could tie for first with a win. My initial judge of people's character is usually right on, and I judged Terunofuji to be a shitheel the first time I saw him. On day 14 he decided to tell me I'm right with the bullshit he pulled on my dude Kotoshogiku- He initially false started, to feint that he was intending to do a full charge, and then when it was time to charge he just stepped out of the way and slapped him on the arm. Kotoshogiku went flying, and Terunofuji put on his best mean mug The crowd was incensed and booing, and Kotoshogiku refused to bow to him after the bout. Later that night, Kisenosato loses handily to fellow Yokozuna Kakuryu. Public Enemy #1 Terunofuji takes first place.

Day 15: Kotoshogiku wins his final bout, finishing at 9-6, one short of what it would take to regain his ranking. Thanks to Terunofuji's bullshit, there's no way to know that if he could have regained it fairly. The semi-final bout of the day was Kisenosato and Terunofuji. For Kisenosato to win this tournament, he would have to beat Terunofuji twice in one day with one arm. First bout comes up: Kisenosato takes vengeance for Kotoshogiku and sidesteps Terunofuji the same fucking way, and ends up shoving him down after a brief struggle. Now there's a tie, and now there has to be a playoff bout. In the final bout of the tournament, Kisenosato beats Terunofuji by reversing the grip Terunofuji has on his belt and throwing him with his good arm. Terunofuji set out to win the tournament by any means necessary, and now ends up being the villain in the story of Kisenosato's heroic performance. Ha-ha.

Sumo rules.

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This basho was insanely great. In fact the last two bashos were. I was so happy Kisenosato showed that the assiciation made the right choice promoting him. And I'm even happier that I came back around to watching Sumo after more than 17 years this year.

 

Despite Teronufuji's mischief his bouts were incredibly entertaining. It is also worth mentioning that he pulled another false start in the playoff.

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Yeah, the Spring basho was pretty awesome.  Kudos to Fight Sports Network on FIOS for carrying the entire tourney.

The other big Sumo news coming out of the weekend being that the retired Bulgarian ozeki, Kotooshu, could form his new stable as soon as early April. 

He vacated his coaching position with the Sadogatake team in early 2017..

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I watched the 23 minute nhk world recaps. Those were fantastic. Such an amazing sport to follow. So far only a few names have stuck, but I'm sure I will get better with it. With Ura I have one of my favourites among the newcomers. Hope he will do well in May.

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Anyone else follow darts? The skill of the very top players is amazing. To give you an example, at my best I was top-100 in the US (yeah, lower 100, but still pretty damn good.) I would throw maybe 7 or 8 180s in a league season, in other words maybe one every six or eight games... Lots of 100s, and quite a few 140s but only single digits on the maximum. I've been watching the top players and contrasting them with the top players from thirty years ago when I started playing seriously. There's no comparison at all, in my peak 1990-2005 I could hang with the top players of the 1980s statistically, but the level of play has just gotten better and better. I finally hung it up last year, (went out with a whimper rather than a bang, one day I just realized that the only way I could continue would be a fifth cortisone shot in my elbow and the arthritis in my right hand was making it difficult to hold the darts properly, so I just said "fuck it", I played in five decades and was a good player in three and arguably a great player for over twenty years, so no regrets. Now, there are a dozen players in New Mexico alone that are as good as I was at my best, and the very best keep raising the bar. The top players now would blow me away. Consider this, Michael van Gerwen throws so many 180s in a tournament that they don't even bother keeping track any longer, the guy is visibly pissed off at himself when he misses with one dart and "only" hits 140... 

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10 hours ago, Death From Above said:

Premier League Darts (and the world championships) is standard fare in Sportsnet's afternoon filler lineup here and it's far more entertaining than it has any right to be.

The only downside is that they air shit that is almost a year old.

I do not know if you ever gamble online, but I would suggest tossing in some money at bet365. As long as you have 1 cent in your account, you can watch a ton of live sports. Darts, soccer, euro basketball, team handball, all kinds of tennis, rugby and Aussie Rules. If I ever cut the cable cord, I will just watch all the sports they offer online.

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11 hours ago, Death From Above said:

I won't gamble on sports. I like them too much to go into that path of pain (I learned that mixing fun and profit is not very easy thanks to poker already).

I rarely gamble anymore, but I do keep 1 cent in my accout, so I can watch the sports for free.

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22 hours ago, Pete said:

OOOOOOOOONE HUNNNRREDDDD ANNND EIIIIIIIIGHTYYYYY POOOOOOIIIIINNNTTSSSS

Give me Peter Manley or give me death.

Manley's great, but I must admit a love for Adrian Lewis, he's such a great heel, even better than I was... If you don't think wearing a lab coat with "Dr. Dart" embroidered on it and screaming "turn out the lights" when hitting the out didn't piss people off, you've learned nothing from pro wrestling. ;-)

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23 hours ago, Pete said:

OOOOOOOOONE HUNNNRREDDDD ANNND EIIIIIIIIGHTYYYYY POOOOOOIIIIINNNTTSSSS

Give me Peter Manley or give me death.

Do it properly for fuck's sake: THE MAXXXIMMUMM!!! OOOOOOOONE HUNNNRREDDDD ANNND EIIIIIIIIGHTYYYYY

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I figure that Arena Football can be put into here.  Even though there are only 5 or 6 teams in a league, we have one in DC baby in the Valor.  They also have a team in Baltimore which is owned by Ted Lenois who also owns the Valor which is awkward as hell.

The Baltimore Brigade might be the worst football team ever.  Granted they only existed 4 months ago but their QB has fumble 2 snaps and two INT in a quarter a couple minutes.   Meanwhile the Valor seemed to be built on really older veterans as their starting QB played in the Arena 3 years ago and have the all time leading receiver in the league 

 

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