Talk:Sport

I just began a writing on this. I plan on expanding. It's such a broad topic that any comments on a focus for the article would be appreciated. History? Should I list professional sports organizations? Mention of the Olympic Games? Pop culture tie in? A lot of places to go. David Martin 20:32, 12 April 2007 (CDT)

I just saw the edit that included the three tennis players as a subcategory of tennis. Do you think this is appropriately placed? If we were to follow this, then there would be literally thousands of players listed on this page. It just seems like it doesn't belong. David Martin 19:29, 13 May 2007 (CDT)

I agree. I think it's fine to have a list of sports-which likely will become its own linked article (catalog). But, hard as it is, this article should be a narrative that introduces the topic, like Biology or Literature.Nancy Sculerati 19:35, 13 May 2007 (CDT)

I appreciate your concerns and thought about them before doing it. However, at the moment there is almost literally nothing in CZ about sports and any of the more prominent athletes. Until I put in a long article about tennis a couple of days ago, there was only a single brief paragraph about it. Right now I think it's useful for new visitors to these pages to be able to click on a header such as Sports (on the Home page) and then see that there actually is some content here. For instance, I think it would be useful for the baseball Header to have Cobb, Ruth, Mays, Bonds, etc. beneath it. Maybe when the tennis list reaches 20 or 30 or 40 or some other number the listing should be discontinued. In the meantime I don't see that it's hurting anything and may actually be useful.... Hayford Peirce 19:41, 13 May 2007 (CDT)

If you look at the list now, you will see that I have come up with what is probably a better solution, one that will certainly work better in the long run, when, hopefully, there will be many, many individual entries for this list. The same thing would also work, of course, for other sports, ie, Prominent Baseball Players. I hope that you find this satisfactory. Hayford Peirce 10:11, 14 May 2007 (CDT)

sports article first para

I have no strong feelings about this, but as a guy who has partipated for many years first in organized sports (tennis tournaments), then me-vs.-him sports (tennis matches at the club against other people, including my wife), and then, finally, non-competitive, except, maybe against the clock, stuff such as running (jogging) three or four miles a night in the Tucson foothills, it seems to me that Sports shouldn't be defined strictly as something in which there are winners and losers and real rules. I've played 3-hour, 3-set tennis matches in tournaments, in which, at the end, I was nowhere near exhausted as I have been after a 30-minute, 3.3-mile jog chez moi. What I was doing then in my jogging that wasn't a sport? Hayford Peirce 22:31, 5 August 2008 (CDT)

• The definition of sports has many different meanings for different cultures. A whole section devoted to it's etymology is what I'd suggest. --Charles Sandberg 22:55, 5 August 2008 (CDT)

Thanks

Thanks to everyone for contributing to this article lately. The experiment seems a success so far, but I really hope we'll be expanding this by ten times today. We'll see!  :-) And by the way, just so it's clear...by no means is this to be regarded as my article or in any way under my special care. This is a collaboration, as all CZ articles should be. --Larry Sanger 07:42, 6 August 2008 (CDT)

Nascar

Hey, I hate to throw in the controversy, but being from the south USA, do we consider my Nascar a sport?! I know the fans aren't really into exercise, but they do buy a lot of beer :-) D. Matt Innis 08:45, 6 August 2008 (CDT)

Well, I'm not sure it's a major concern. It should probably be linked from motor sports (and relevant subpages) rather than from the main sports article. --Tom Morris 08:53, 6 August 2008 (CDT)

Here's a fruitful question: what practical, objective standard do we use to determine that something is a sport? If it is covered in sport magazines, for example? --Larry Sanger 08:58, 6 August 2008 (CDT)

Nascar, and all auto racing, is covered in the sports pages of newspapers. At the *old* start of the LeMans 24 Hour Race, the drivers lined up across the road from their cars, ran across, jumped in, and roared away. Now *that* was sporty, hehe! Hayford Peirce 09:32, 6 August 2008 (CDT)

Hey, I understand those guys are working in 120 degrees under extreme stress conditions for hours on end. They get very dehydrated... it does include a skill, concentration, not everyone can do it... that's got to be tougher than a little tennis match with umbrellas :-) D. Matt Innis 14:12, 6 August 2008 (CDT)

Also, the chances of getting literally killed while playing tennis are substantially lesser -- unless, mebbe you're standing at the net and Pancho Gonzales smashes a *very* short lob directly into your adams apple from a couple of yards away. Which has never happened, to my knowledge. Although my old tennis coach, Ray Casey, once hit Little Bill Johnson like that and caused him to drop as if poleaxed. For a moment, people really thought that he *might* have killed him.... Hayford Peirce 14:21, 6 August 2008 (CDT)

Solitaire a sport?

Does anybody really think of solitaire as a sport? I don't think I've ever seen it referred to as anything but a game. The point being made, that some things called "games" are played by individuals, is perfectly correct, but the example used to illustrate the point is not relevant to sports. --Larry Sanger 13:00, 6 August 2008 (CDT)

Sports, politics and Olympics

Whoa, that opens a new bag of worms... what about the Olympics where the Jewish team was killed by terrorists. What was that 1976 or something like that. D. Matt Innis 14:16, 6 August 2008 (CDT)

1972, Munich. Bruce M.Tindall 15:04, 6 August 2008 (CDT)

That's it, then the one where Carter boycotted due to Russia's invasion of Afghanistan and then of course their rebuke of the USA Olympics the next time around.. but maybe these should be in the Olympic Games article. D. Matt Innis 15:08, 6 August 2008 (CDT)

Explaining my changes

I moved the bit about field sports to the "demonstrations of skill and strength," which is exactly what they are.

Also, I removed this sentence: "Mental competition without muscular physical effort debatably qualifies as sport." Sorry, but I don't see how that isn't redundant with two different sentences earlier in the paragraph. --Larry Sanger 20:01, 6 August 2008 (CDT)

Great work

Thanks to everyone who has worked on this article. It's getting rather good, I think! Well done!

Perhaps we'll be able to repeat the performance with another topic later sometime. But how? Please see this discussion if you're interested. --Larry Sanger 20:08, 6 August 2008 (CDT)