Ranking the Sports

An interesting poll I found up on ESPN today (Rank 'Em: Where does the NHL fit?) giving the readers to rank the major, and some not so major, sports. Here is the current list:

1. NFL
2. MLB
3. College Football
4. NHL
5. NBA
6. College Basketball
7. Golf
8. Soccer
9. Tennis
10. Auto Racing
11. Boxing
12. Action Sports
13. Horse Racing
14. Softball
15. Bowling
16. WNBA

The biggest shock is how high hockey is even higher than basketball. David Stern can’t be happy with this and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Gary Bettman wakes up with a horses head in his bed sometime soon. Another shocker is that, even with all the Danica Patrick hoopla, auto racing is still ranked behind tennis and soccer. I keep hearing with the lack of the NHL, NASCAR would leap into the big four of major sports. I guess one could make an argument that your average NASCAR fan isn’t smart enough to vote on something that involves logging onto the internet, or wouldn’t have internet in the first place. But I will take the high road and not insult NASCAR fans like that. Granted, just mentioning, I guess in a way, is pot-shot at them. Oh, well. It’s not like they can get on the internet to read this anyways. Hear is how I rank the sports.

1. NFL – Coming from northeast Ohio, the Browns are a lifelong obsession for me and everyone around me. Seriously, where else are fans so obsessive that when they lose their team they riot to the point that they get their team back with the history and everything in tact. I even deny that the years 1996-1999 even existed. There was just a disturbance in the time-space continuum.
2. MLB – I grew up with one of the most feudal baseball team ever, the Indians and I was fine with that. As a kid, my family could go up to the Mistake by the Lake and walk up that day and get good tickets for cheap. The team even spawned on of the greatest sports movie ever, Major League. But unfortunately, the Tribe actually got good and moved into a much smaller stadium and it was impossible to get tickets and if you did, it cost an arm and a leg. So I switch over to rooting for the Astros because I became extremely bitter towards all the Fairweather Johnsons that popped up at the time. But I still make it to the local AA game a couple times a season because nothing beats a ballpark frank.
3. College Basketball – This is high solely because it hosts the greatest postseason even of all the sports, March Madness. Unfortunately the sport has been watered down as all the would be college stars are currently riding the pine in the NBA, but hopefully that will change with the new age restriction.
4. Soccer – The sport of my youth and World Cup soccer (men’s and women’s) is the best stand alone tournament of any sport. I’m glued to the couch whenever they roll around.
5. NHL – When the NHL comes back, it will poised to jump college basketball and soccer if they make some changes, and the closer the NHL becomes to Olympic hockey, the better.
6. Tennis – I have always loved to play tennis but watching professional tennis has become extremely boring lately because the athletes (and equipment for that matter) have become too good. Way too many aces and not enough long volleys to peak my interest for very long.
7.NBA – Much like college basketball, the quality of play has decreased because the players that should be college stars are mediocre NBA players at best. But unlike college, the NBA playoffs drag on forever. The rounds are too long and there is too much time in between playoff games, so by the time the finals roll around no one cares because they are bored with the winter sport and baseball is in full swing.
8. Boxing – How have the mighty have fallen. The biggest problem with boxing is that it got too big headed. They took it off free television and expected that people would drop $50 every couple weeks for a fight. Now it’s hard to find a sports fan that can name even one title holder. They could easily revive the sport if they start putting “marquee” bouts on free TV again.
9. Golf – Love to play it, fall asleep while watching it.
10. Action Sports – Some what of a broad category but some of thing those dudes (and chick) do are pretty cool like the dude last week who jumped the Great Wall of China.
11. College Football – Never understood the popularity of college football especially among those who have never went to that college or even live in that college town. My dislike of college football most likely stems from going to a college that never had a winning season while I was there. Of course that’s why God gave us NCAA Football so we can have Kent State beat up on Ohio State.
12. Bowling – Much like golf, like to play it, but massively boring to watch.
13. Softball – This is saved from last place solely because of Jennie Finch.
14. WNBA – Kind of like Softball but without Jennie Finch.
15. Horse Racing – They are animals; so essentially, I really could care less about them.
16. Auto Racing – People turning left for hours at a time, the smell of exhaust, the Doppler Effect, the instant loss of IQ points. I think I’ll pass. To be honest, if I could, I’d put badminton, paint ball, cricket, midget tossing, fake wrestling, tee ball, bicycling, Curling, flag football, spelling bees, laser tag, ballroom dancing, bull fighting, poker, bobsledding, and the heavyweight division of naked twister above auto racing.