Pilots and Following Sports - Do You?

[ContestID67]

I don't follow sports and never have short of knowing if the home team
is doing well. Call me a fair weather fan. Many of my friends can
spout which team (pro, college, HS) did what to whom and know all the
players, their stats, etc. I try to put up a good manly face and say
the right things at the right time but basically I could really care
less. I realize that I am in the minority.

Oddly I found that most of my pilot friends are in the same boat. I
took an informal poll at our club and at least 90% of those asked
didn't follow sports. Seems very odd. I wonder what the connection
is? Intelligence? ;-)

Next time you are out at the field, take your own informal pole and
report back. We may have the makings here of a article in Psychology
Today!

- John "No Sports" DeRosa

[[email protected]]

On Aug 21, 1:37 pm, ContestID67 > wrote:
> I don't follow sports and never have short of knowing if the home team
> is doing well. Call me a fair weather fan. Many of my friends can
> spout which team (pro, college, HS) did what to whom and know all the
> players, their stats, etc. I try to put up a good manly face and say
> the right things at the right time but basically I could really care
> less. I realize that I am in the minority.
>
> Oddly I found that most of my pilot friends are in the same boat. I
> took an informal poll at our club and at least 90% of those asked
> didn't follow sports. Seems very odd. I wonder what the connection
> is? Intelligence? ;-)
>
> Next time you are out at the field, take your own informal pole and
> report back. We may have the makings here of a article in Psychology
> Today!
>
> - John "No Sports" DeRosa

i think that if some psychologist got ahold of a group of pilots they
could fill volumes of psychology today.

not a real sports fan here either.

[Mike[_8_]]

Being an active soaring pilot seems close to being an all-consuming
passion with a lot of people, as is being a sports fan. Same energy
and zeal but a different focus.



On Aug 21, 12:37 pm, ContestID67 > wrote:
> I don't follow sports and never have short of knowing if the home team
> is doing well. Call me a fair weather fan. Many of my friends can
> spout which team (pro, college, HS) did what to whom and know all the
> players, their stats, etc. I try to put up a good manly face and say
> the right things at the right time but basically I could really care
> less. I realize that I am in the minority.
>
> Oddly I found that most of my pilot friends are in the same boat. I
> took an informal poll at our club and at least 90% of those asked
> didn't follow sports. Seems very odd. I wonder what the connection
> is? Intelligence? ;-)
>
> Next time you are out at the field, take your own informal pole and
> report back. We may have the makings here of a article in Psychology
> Today!
>
> - John "No Sports" DeRosa

[shawn]

ContestID67 wrote:
> I don't follow sports and never have short of knowing if the home team
> is doing well. Call me a fair weather fan. Many of my friends can
> spout which team (pro, college, HS) did what to whom and know all the
> players, their stats, etc. I try to put up a good manly face and say
> the right things at the right time but basically I could really care
> less. I realize that I am in the minority.
>
> Oddly I found that most of my pilot friends are in the same boat. I
> took an informal poll at our club and at least 90% of those asked
> didn't follow sports. Seems very odd. I wonder what the connection
> is? Intelligence? ;-)
>
> Next time you are out at the field, take your own informal pole and
> report back. We may have the makings here of a article in Psychology
> Today!

I'm definitely a fair weather fan, although I will go to pro football
games (the American kind) if my in-laws give up their season tickets for
a game.

I've subscribed to cable to watch the Tour, and canceled service
afterward, and driven hundreds of miles to watch three World Cycling
Championships that have been held in Colorado.
Baseball, what's that, doesn't it go on during the best part of the
soaring season :-)


Shawn


P.S. Stephen Jay Gould was huge big baseball fan, so the interest does
not correlate well with low intelligence.

[Vaughn Simon]

"ContestID67" > wrote in message
ups.com...
>Oddly I found that most of my pilot friends are in the same boat. I
> took an informal poll at our club and at least 90% of those asked
> didn't follow sports. Seems very odd. I wonder what the connection
> is? Intelligence? ;-)

When I was in the Navy, I was offered a free ride & free admission to a
World Series game. The deal included free beer, and seats in a special compound
ON THE FIELD. I wasn't even tempted. It sounded like a boring way to spend a
day.

I am a lot older now, but nothing has changed my attitude towards spectator
sports.

Vaughn

[BB]

Does obsessive following of glider contests via the internet count?

Once you "do" any sport like competitive soaring even half seriously,
"watching" other sports loses all interest.

It does make for embarrassing silence when one is expected to
participate in conversation at business lunches.

John Cochrane

[J a c k]

ContestID67 wrote:

> I don't follow sports and never have short of knowing if the home team
> is doing well.

Come on, John, you must pay some attention to one little niche in
professional sports. ;)


> Oddly I found that most of my pilot friends are in the same boat. I
> took an informal poll at our club and at least 90% of those asked
> didn't follow sports. Seems very odd. I wonder what the connection
> is? Intelligence? ;-)
>
> Next time you are out at the field, take your own informal pole and
> report back. We may have the makings here of a article in Psychology
> Today!

My dad played for the White Sox for a couple of years before going in
the Navy during WW2, so that's one small corner of pro-sports to which I
have a connection--but I don't pay much attention to the details of
today's competition. Strangely enough, perhaps, Dad also paid relatively
little attention to baseball after he moved on from his years in the
game into a more mundane career.

I tend to believe, as another poster here mentioned, that soaring is
absorbing enough that we don't often feel a need to perform, or to
compete, vicariously.


Jack
KJ

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

"ContestID67" > wrote in message
ups.com...
<...>
> Oddly I found that most of my pilot friends are in the same boat. I
> took an informal poll at our club and at least 90% of those asked
> didn't follow sports. Seems very odd. I wonder what the connection
> is? Intelligence? ;-)
>
<...>

"I didn't understand NASCAR until I met some NASCAR fans. You talk to a
couple of NASCAR fans and you'll see where a shiny car driving in a circle
would fascinate them all day."
Alonzo Bodden

I don't follow sports either. On the other hand, I rarely get to fly any
more either --
Perhaps when I retire from racing sailboats...

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.

[Ralph Jones[_2_]]

On Tue, 21 Aug 2007 21:50:20 GMT, "Vaughn Simon"
> wrote:

>
>"ContestID67" > wrote in message
ups.com...
>>Oddly I found that most of my pilot friends are in the same boat. I
>> took an informal poll at our club and at least 90% of those asked
>> didn't follow sports. Seems very odd. I wonder what the connection
>> is? Intelligence? ;-)
>
> When I was in the Navy, I was offered a free ride & free admission to a
>World Series game. The deal included free beer, and seats in a special compound
>ON THE FIELD. I wasn't even tempted. It sounded like a boring way to spend a
>day.
>
> I am a lot older now, but nothing has changed my attitude towards spectator
>sports.
>
"Spectator sports" is an oxymoron, like "athletic scholarship"...;-)

rj

[JS]

IMHO
Sport is something you do, not something you watch.
The first word you learned was MAMA, the second DADA. It's likely the
third word was BALL.
By about age 8 or 10 you should get over playing with a ball.
Jim

[5Z]

On Aug 21, 4:10 pm, BB > wrote:
> It does make for embarrassing silence when one is expected to
> participate in conversation at business lunches.

My response: "Oh, I don't follow (whatever sport is currently not in
season)..." when asked if I watched the game last night.

-Tom

[[email protected]]

On Aug 21, 11:37 am, ContestID67 > wrote:
> I don't follow sports and never have short of knowing if the home team
> is doing well. Call me a fair weather fan. Many of my friends can
> spout which team (pro, college, HS) did what to whom and know all the
> players, their stats, etc. I try to put up a good manly face and say
> the right things at the right time but basically I could really care
> less. I realize that I am in the minority.
>
> Oddly I found that most of my pilot friends are in the same boat. I
> took an informal poll at our club and at least 90% of those asked
> didn't follow sports. Seems very odd. I wonder what the connection
> is? Intelligence? ;-)
>
> Next time you are out at the field, take your own informal pole and
> report back. We may have the makings here of a article in Psychology
> Today!
>
> - John "No Sports" DeRosa

Does the OLC qualify as a "Sport"? If not, then no.
UF

[Bullwinkle]

On 8/21/07 12:37 PM, in article
om, "ContestID67"
> wrote:

> I don't follow sports and never have short of knowing if the home team
> is doing well. Call me a fair weather fan. Many of my friends can
> spout which team (pro, college, HS) did what to whom and know all the
> players, their stats, etc. I try to put up a good manly face and say
> the right things at the right time but basically I could really care
> less. I realize that I am in the minority.
>
> Oddly I found that most of my pilot friends are in the same boat. I
> took an informal poll at our club and at least 90% of those asked
> didn't follow sports. Seems very odd. I wonder what the connection
> is? Intelligence? ;-)
>
> Next time you are out at the field, take your own informal pole and
> report back. We may have the makings here of a article in Psychology
> Today!
>
> - John "No Sports" DeRosa
>

No, I don't follow any sports.

Like Avery Brundage, I think anyone who gets paid to play cannot be
participating in a real sport.

And to call some overpaid moron who can hit a ball, or throw a ball, or kick
a ball, a sports "hero" is an insult to the fine men and women in the
military who each have a million times the heroism of Barry Bonds, or
what-his-name Vick, or Pete Rose, or even someone who hasn't disgraced
themselves at their little games.

There: I feel better now. Let's go flying.

Bullwinkle

[[email protected]]

Wow, are we stuck up or what!

But I totally agree. I can hardly watch a ball "sport", although I
admit an occasional Major League baseball game is fun to watch for
real (but only if someone else pays for the (good) tickets).... And I
did enjoy a pickup game of touch or flag football, or kicking a soccer
ball, or hitting a softball - I just didn't take it very seriously.

I do find that the Tour de France is fascinating to follow - as is the
America's cup (but not every minute of every race, for god's sake!).

Then again, I have raced both bicycles and sailboats (at very low
levels), so the connection is there.

As has been mentioned, for me it's all about doing it, not watching
other people get paid to do it.

Oddly enough, for the same reason, I rarely go to airshows anymore -
if the weather is good enough for an airshow, it's good enough to fly
my glider or the towplane!

66
Hoping for a 300k day in Illinois tomorrow...

[Jack[_4_]]

You mean there's another sport to follow besides soaring?

Jack Womack

[Headwind]

Well...I'll state the obvious;
'man against the elements' sports like soaring, cycling, sailing, appeal to
individualists...not team players.
Every pilot I bump into at the airport seems to have his unique 'take' on
the world....which is just as it should be, but this makes me wonder...
organizing a soaring competition must be like trying to herd cats!
Jim

"Jack" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> You mean there's another sport to follow besides soaring?
>
> Jack Womack
>

[Northern Man[_2_]]

What a heap of pompous, asinine, pretentious, self-indulgent
drivel!

I've been gliding for nearly 35 years, have a UK 750km
diploma, can manage the odd 500km on a good day; I'm
reasonably well educated with a couple of University
degrees, I read extensively from Bill Bryson to Gabriel
Garcia Marquez, I run my own business with enough success
to own and operate my glider, house, cars, dogs etc
...

... and I watch sports (!!); F1, Red Bull airshows,
motor rallies, sailing, tour de France and - mercy
me - even football (the beautiful game, rather than
the stop-start American version). And before you ask
- yes, I AM married, and happily so, too!

Relax guys - there's more to life than gliding!

Kind regards
NM


At 02:30 22 August 2007, Bullwinkle wrote:
>On 8/21/07 12:37 PM, in article
om,
>'ContestID67'
> wrote:
>
>> I don't follow sports and never have short of knowing
>>if the home team
>> is doing well. Call me a fair weather fan. Many
>>of my friends can
>> spout which team (pro, college, HS) did what to whom
>>and know all the
>> players, their stats, etc. I try to put up a good
>>manly face and say
>> the right things at the right time but basically I
>>could really care
>> less. I realize that I am in the minority.
>>
>> Oddly I found that most of my pilot friends are in
>>the same boat. I
>> took an informal poll at our club and at least 90%
>>of those asked
>> didn't follow sports. Seems very odd. I wonder
>>what the connection
>> is? Intelligence? ;-)
>>
>> Next time you are out at the field, take your own
>>informal pole and
>> report back. We may have the makings here of a article
>>in Psychology
>> Today!
>>
>> - John 'No Sports' DeRosa
>>
>
>No, I don't follow any sports.
>
>Like Avery Brundage, I think anyone who gets paid to
>play cannot be
>participating in a real sport.
>
>And to call some overpaid moron who can hit a ball,
>or throw a ball, or kick
>a ball, a sports 'hero' is an insult to the fine men
>and women in the
>military who each have a million times the heroism
>of Barry Bonds, or
>what-his-name Vick, or Pete Rose, or even someone who
>hasn't disgraced
>themselves at their little games.
>
>There: I feel better now. Let's go flying.
>
>Bullwinkle
>
>

[qflyer1]

No sports here - not for any snobby reasons. Just don't care. NM - my
other interests just don't happen to lean toward spectator activities.
Has anyone considered that most gliding occurs on weekends (in the US,
anyway) - as do many "normal" sports? (not that we're not intelligent
individualists..)

Cheers,
Tim
1FL

[Martin Gregorie[_1_]]

JS wrote:
> IMHO
> Sport is something you do, not something you watch.
>
My view exactly. If you don't do it, its just entertainment.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

[HoUdini]

John-
I think you have hit something here! I haven't watched TV since I
discovered model airplanes at age 13. Can bearly tell you the names
of my home teams. The only sport I kinda follow/play is tennis which
I learned when I was about 13. I only know what's "hot" by scanning
the magazine covers at the grocery store check out stand.

There are other sports which share this characteristic.

I don't want to live a virtual life, I want to directly experience the
thrill of success and the agony of defeat. That's why I soar, sail,
fish, hike and look for unusual projects I've never done before.

Finally note when my next door TV addled neighbors need a lightbulb
changed, guess who they call for advice?


LT








On Aug 21, 1:37 pm, ContestID67 > wrote:
> I don't follow sports and never have short of knowing if the home team
> is doing well. Call me a fair weather fan. Many of my friends can
> spout which team (pro, college, HS) did what to whom and know all the
> players, their stats, etc. I try to put up a good manly face and say
> the right things at the right time but basically I could really care
> less. I realize that I am in the minority.
>
> Oddly I found that most of my pilot friends are in the same boat. I
> took an informal poll at our club and at least 90% of those asked
> didn't follow sports. Seems very odd. I wonder what the connection
> is? Intelligence? ;-)
>
> Next time you are out at the field, take your own informal pole and
> report back. We may have the makings here of a article in Psychology
> Today!
>
> - John "No Sports" DeRosa

[Rand Baldwin]

I've never been interested in spectator sports, nor
was I the least bit interested in team sports of any
kind (with the exception of an occasional touch football
game) during secondary school, college, or thereafter.
On the other hand, like many of the respondents to
this thread I'm sure, I've been fascinated by flight
since I can remember. I've been hooked on soaring since
I discovered that one could fly without an engine while
reading an encylopedia article about the sport as a
child.
I love racing sailplanes and flying for records, but
spectator sports bore me to tears.

Rand Baldwin LS-8a 'NN'
Huntsville Soaring Club
Moontown Airport (3M5)
Huntsville, Alabama

[CindyB]

On Aug 22, 2:41 pm, Rand Baldwin
> wrote:
> I've never been interested in spectator sports, nor
> was I the least bit interested in team sports of any
> kind


Sport: noun - an outdoor or athletic pastime; fun, diversion;
jesting, a subject of diversion; a sportsmanlike person; verb
transitive - display ostentatiously.

I follow the sport of soaring, and find it diverts most pilot minds
from their workweek, or pedestrian lives. Most posters here or
interviewees on the airfield would qualify as sportsmen, in soaring.
Most sportsters would agree, they have a favorite topic/team/pastime
and rank all other diversions thereafter.

Organizing a glider comp IS like herding cats (having done so for 18
years before passing the torch). And competition can lead to some
ostentatious displays, some sporting, some not.

I can keep up my end of a social conversation about other pastimes,
usually based on the same grocery checkout informational outlets or
broadcast "news" gleaned while cooking those groceries.

I am dismayed at the coverage/homage/payroll given to ball players in
the USA, when so many are misled to the belief that they have "earned"
this stature, and often that they are beyond the laws of the country.
We have allowed media to establish them as pewter idols. However, I
did join a group of pilots twice this summer for my first visits to a
small regional ballpark, and found that a wholesome experience. My
hosts to the ballpark admitted they were now disappointed with major
league events. I am also appalled at fans mayhem at major events.

I was a competitive team ball player in school. I occasionally
"compete" for records in soaring. The competition is not what draws me
to soaring. The beauty, the purity, the challenge, the outdoors, the
changeability or unpredictability, those things draw me in.

Horse racing, were there a track nearby, would draw me, were I also
able to be a participant. But like soaring, that Sport of Kings
offers more chances at vicarious thrills than participatory thrills.
Would that we could find an equally enthralling way to display this
sport (once called the King of Sports), to draw more participants,
observers, and build awareness of the delights of the pastime called
soaring.

When someone asks you what you think of the Orioles/Ducks/Seahawks
recent play, perhaps take a moment to say graciously, "I don't follow
that game, as I am absorbed as a participant in a different sport, and
would be happy to introduce you to a game that has enthralled ME for
umpteen years." That would be the most ostentatious display of
sporting behavior at the table. A mild social risk, a challenge to
them to participate!


Cindy B
www.caracolesoaring.com

[user]

I have to admit, I can't turn away from curling... those sexy Canadian MILFs
stretching themselves out on the ice, the intensity of their gazes, their
frenetic gestures and cries and they bring the stone home. Uh, excuse me...


"ContestID67" > wrote in message
ups.com...
>I don't follow sports and never have short of knowing if the home team
> is doing well. Call me a fair weather fan. Many of my friends can
> spout which team (pro, college, HS) did what to whom and know all the
> players, their stats, etc. I try to put up a good manly face and say
> the right things at the right time but basically I could really care
> less. I realize that I am in the minority.
>
> Oddly I found that most of my pilot friends are in the same boat. I
> took an informal poll at our club and at least 90% of those asked
> didn't follow sports. Seems very odd. I wonder what the connection
> is? Intelligence? ;-)
>
> Next time you are out at the field, take your own informal pole and
> report back. We may have the makings here of a article in Psychology
> Today!
>
> - John "No Sports" DeRosa
>

[Jim Vincent]

I never thought the day would come, but it has. Would you care to explain
what a MILF is? This I gotta see!

As for me, no interest in watching sports. I prefer to do things instead.
Passive vs. active.

"user" > wrote in message
...
>I have to admit, I can't turn away from curling... those sexy Canadian
>MILFs stretching themselves out on the ice, the intensity of their gazes,
>their frenetic gestures and cries and they bring the stone home. Uh, excuse
>me...
>
>
> "ContestID67" > wrote in message
> ups.com...
>>I don't follow sports and never have short of knowing if the home team
>> is doing well. Call me a fair weather fan. Many of my friends can
>> spout which team (pro, college, HS) did what to whom and know all the
>> players, their stats, etc. I try to put up a good manly face and say
>> the right things at the right time but basically I could really care
>> less. I realize that I am in the minority.
>>
>> Oddly I found that most of my pilot friends are in the same boat. I
>> took an informal poll at our club and at least 90% of those asked
>> didn't follow sports. Seems very odd. I wonder what the connection
>> is? Intelligence? ;-)
>>
>> Next time you are out at the field, take your own informal pole and
>> report back. We may have the makings here of a article in Psychology
>> Today!
>>
>> - John "No Sports" DeRosa
>>
>
>

[shawn]

Jim Vincent wrote:
> I never thought the day would come, but it has. Would you care to explain
> what a MILF is? This I gotta see!

Maybe he means this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milf

Boy, there's a cause in need on a name change (snicker).

But could be...
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/MILF

If it's not on Wikipedia it doesn't exist ;-)



Shawn