Nidhogg's Journal: Sports: ESPN does math!

I found this interesting.

Degree of Difficulty

Looking over the list the one I have a problem with is the one apparently most other people do. Basketball at #4. Over rugby? You're shitting me. Have you seen those guys? They try to fukkin' KILL each other worse than the hockey nuts do.

Anyways. Discuss if the mood strikes you.

And thank you for playing.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:At least they got one thing right.

[Nidhogg]

No no I agree with you. And I'm a racing fan. It's kind of like a law here in Indy. Or something.

If you look though it only scored really high in Nerve, which I'll buy, and only moderately high in Analytics and Endurance neither of which I have a problem with.

I can call it a sport though just for the reason that it takes ungodly amounts of moolah to participate in at a professional level. Just like all the others. Yankees anyone?

You are correct

[turg]

If you look at the individual scores, you'll see that Rugby does beat out Baseball in the rankings for Strength, Nerve, and Durability, which seems to be exactly the things you are talking about.

For the overall score, I guess it depends if you mean dificulty as in "dificult to survive" or "dificult to perform well in achieving the objective" :-)

Re:You are correct

[Nidhogg]

I'm assuming they mean the latter. Although assuming anything with ESPN's Page 2 writers is sort of dangerous. Half the time I read the stuff there and wonder how I can get a job trolling sports nuts.

Must be nice.

Re:You are correct

[turg]

Trolling sports nuts. Isn't that what all sports journalists do? AFAICT, they all are judged by their bosses on the basis of how much outrage they generate amongst fans.

That reminds me of an anecdote I heard about one famous old-time sports writer (I forget who). The publisher of the paper judged the popularity of the columnists by how much mail they received. So this guy would occasionally deliberately put a slightly-incorrect statistic in his column which would generate an avalanche of mail from nitpicky

Re:You are correct

[Nidhogg]

Hah. I don't doubt it a bit.

Some of the rankings boggle my mind

[SiliconJesus]

Before begining my analysis, lets define ESPN's explanation of each statistic...

ENDURANCE: The ability to continue to perform a skill or action for long periods of time. Example: Lance Armstrong

STRENGTH: The ability to produce force. Example: NFL linebackers.
POWER: The ability to produce strength in the shortest possible time. Example: Barry Bonds.
SPEED: The ability to move quickly. Example: Marion Jones, Maurice Green.
AGILITY: The ability to change direction quickly. Example: Derek Jeter, Mia Hamm.
FLEXIBI

Re:Some of the rankings boggle my mind

[Nidhogg]

Heh. Honestly... you're preaching to the choir here my friend. I used to play to a 12 handicap before I developed a knee problem that made me give up the game.

I played a lot of sports in my youth and nothing comes close to being as hard to play as golf. Non-golfers have trouble believing it but it's true.

And you're absolutely right. If you have a decent swing and you don't score well you have no one to blame but yourself. Which makes you want to go back out there and not make those mistakes again. It's a

gotta agree with a few, disagree with a few

[Em Emalb]

Golf at #51?

It's below Horse Racing. Yeah, that sport where the horse does all the work.

Funny.

I also disagree with boxing being number one. Rugby yeah, I can see that, and football as well.

But not boxing.

Sheesh. Crack smokers.

Re:gotta agree with a few, disagree with a few

[Nidhogg]

See now I have NO problem with boxing being #1. My cousin who was a pretty fit guy, high school football, baseball, track, whatever he could play tried an amateur bout during his freshman year at college. Three two-minute rounds with another amateur.

Afterwards he said that was the most tired he has ever been.

Plus I'm not sure I'd ever want Tyson or Ali (in his prime) to ever hit me. Even in jest.