Play Ball!

[F2d5thCav]

Hmm.  Spectator sports with no spectators.

I hope they resist the temptation to politicize the games.

Cheers

Funny you say that regarding politicizing the games. I posted a similar thread on ATS. Guess what? The overwhelming majority of replies were political in nature. I was so pissed that I contacted a moderator and asked them to either delete those posts or just shitcan the entire thread. If I had known people were going to be like that, I never would have posted on there. I posted in the sports forum, and they turned it all political. I was thinking maybe I won’t post anything on there anymore.

Chief, yeah, among the spectators (and others), there will always be those who taint the spectacle in one way or another.  Maybe having games with no physical spectators present will be the 'cure' for that ill.  Europe has issues with louts who use the games as an excuse to provoke riots and such.  I have some non-authoritative opinions as to why that aspect manifests, but I'll spare you as it is pure opinion.

I am tired with both the corporations (sports teams etc) and the players themselves for bringing politics into the games.  There is a lot of rich hypocrisy in seeing fans lectured by an extraordinarily privileged segment of society about "the evil of it all".  The teams (corporations) getting behind this activity are IMO purely opportunistic.

You, like I, served in the military.  That experience made clear to us that respect is earned and not a given.  The coaches, the owners . . . have personal relationships with the players.  No doubt, many of those relationships are based upon mutual respect.  But that basis of experience cannot serve as a springboard to make broad-brush assumptions about society at large, or, fans in particular; and then go on to artlessly lecture the public, whether by performance art (refusing to take a knee for the National Anthem) or by rank political advertising (hanging of huge BLM banners outside of sports facilities).  They should be about, as your thread title indicates, "playing ball".  Our country has plenty of people and groups waging ideological warfare as it is.

Cheers