Sports: Childhood versus now

[Guest mr. potato head]

Something I've been thinking a bit about lately - has your taste in sports changed since you were a kid?

When I was growing up, baseball was number one for me. Probably because of the hangover from the Jays' World Series years, but six-year-old me could name pretty much every player on every team. After that it was a steep drop to my number-two sport, hockey (which I didn't think was as great as most people said it was), and another big drop to number three, basketball.

Pause to explain why I liked basketball back then: Jordan was dominant, the Raptors were new, and there was this.

Football was number four, mostly the NFL as the CFL was still recovering from its US expansion and every player had a nickname like Pinball or Gizmo. Then it was a mess of golf, tennis, curling, and auto racing all pretty much level, followed by not really caring about anything else.

Now? It's changed quite a bit. Hockey's number one by a lot, followed by MMA and then soccer. Baseball would be number four, probably followed by golf, football, and curling, not necessarily in that order.

Why the changes? My baseball team stopped being good. I realized that basketball sucks. MMA has taken off as a sport. FM got me into soccer. And hockey, I think it just came down to being able to actually follow the play and anticipate what will happen next.

Anyone else had changes in favourite sports like this?

[Meacon Keaton]

Yes, actually.

As a kid baseball was #1 by a wide margin and then hockey.

Now it's football (college in particular) by a large margin, and then everything else mixed together depending on my mood.

As for playing:

As a child: baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, and wrestling.

As an adult: Basketball (rarely)

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Watching or playing?

Playing as a kid was:

Badminton

Cricket

Football

Basketball

Tennis

Nowadays living in Japan I can only get a game of football or maybe basketball. I have no interest in playing baseball. However when I get back to the UK in 2013 I'll only be 32 so plenty of years of village cricket ahead of me. Can't wait actually. No better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

As for watching it's pretty similar to what it's always been - football, cricket, Olympics...but now cycling is right up in there behind football.

[METALMAN]

When I was younger I preferred rugby to football, and no other sports really registered on my radar.

Now, football is my favourite sport for watching and playing by some distance, and afterwards it goes something like:

cricket (used to play, still like to watch)

rugby (only sport I play competitively these days)

badminton (playing only - no interest in watching it on TV)

golf (playing and watching)

tennis (playing only. exceptions made for Wimbledon)

American football (never played)

ice hockey (never played)

volleyball (playing only)

cycling

and the rest I don't really care about

[gunnar hendershow]

Growing up Cal Ripken was an Oriole and Baltimore didn't have an NFL team so I was a baseball fan and didn't really follow much else. Then I started watching basketball and then hockey and then Baltimore got the Ravens and I started watching the NFL religiously. I also played soccer but in those days you were lucky to see a handful of MLS games and the WC was on at weird hours.

Nowadays the NFL is by far my favorite sports league with the NBA a distant second and baseball third. MMA, soccer, lacrosse, tennis, and cricket are the only other sports I pay attention to with regular news. In May I become a temporary hockey fan though.

[Lineker]

I used to be pretty much solely football obsessed. But now I also love the NFL, tennis, cricket, Aussie Rules, rugby league, and more.

But fuck golf. Seriously.

[Colly]

No change for me to be fair, still have football as main sport for watching and playing.

Play a lot fewer sports since I've not touched rugby or cricket since school and tennis is few and far between these days. Never watched any of them on TV barring Wimbledon, but I find myself watching a lot more American Sports these days, particularly UFC.

[Mick]

I've always been a big fan of the NFL, and as time has gone by, it's been the only sport I really enjoy. I was raised to love Michigan too, for college, but moving down to Florida in 1989 and having FSU and UF (and occasionally Miami) crammed down my throat just really made me despise it. It's still bad with FSU and UF, even though FSU is shit now and USF is good. With the total clusterfuck that is the BCS, I can't stand college football at all.

Others:

Baseball: Tampa Bay didn't have a sports team until 1997, and the Rays were so shitty for 11 years, by the time they were good, I just didn't give a shit.

Hockey: The Lightning had a decent playoff run, went to shit, then got better. Though I enjoyed the year they won the Stanley Cup, the subsequent lock-out killed any interest I have in hockey.

Basketball: I hate basketball on every level. Why? All the asshole kids in elementary school liked it.

NASCAR: Always thought it was dumb, gave it a fair chance a couple years ago. Yep, it was dumb.

Everything else: Meh.

[Baddar]

But fuck golf. Seriously.

It's better than F1.

I've always loved football, and quite liked Rugby when I was younger - can't stand Rugby anymore.

I liked watching Tennis about 8 years ago, but not so much now - still like playing.

You wouldn't have caught me watching Cricket or Golf 10 years ago - now I watch both a lot. Sky's coverage of Golf is amazing, so I watch whenever I can. As for Cricket, I only really follow England. I'll happily get up at 3 in the morning to watch them in Australia/at the World Cup.

[Lineker]

A mere -1 doesn't even begin to cover how much of a cunt you actually are.

[Baddar]

[Benjamin]

Let's see... When I was younger, football (soccer to you white folks) was the one and only thing I played, oh, besides badminton. When I entered high school, I realised just how much I sucked at both sports, but found out that I was pretty awesome at long jump (yes, it's a sport), basketball and volleyball. Now that I still play basketball and volleyball for university but I miss long jump because there's no track and field athletic program in my university.

When it comes to watching, all I used to watch when I was younger was basketball because of the Bulls and the EPL because that's all they showed in this bloody country. Now I obsess over the NBA and MMA more than anything else, though the EPL is number three, followed by tennis, snooker, skateboarding and at times when I have nothing to do and its on TV I watch curling and rugby.

[Mick]

Ugh, I totally forgot Golf.

At least in NFL the millionaires are beating the piss out of each other

[Ruki]

When I was younger, I used to play/be very interested in baseball. I was the fastest runner on my t-ball team, but when I had to make the switch to the pitching machine my mom pulled me out of baseball because the drive would be too much or something.

In my teenage years, I was more interested in BMX/skatboarding (never doing it myself, just keeping up to date/watching).

Now? Hockey, I follow the Leafs and keep an eye on interesting happenings throughout the league.

[gunnar hendershow]

Ruki we all know you stopped playing because you got too fat.

[bill_da_bill]

Not a whole lot has changed for me. As far as watching/following sports it has always been...

1) MLB

2) NFL

3) NBA

4) NHL

The things that have changed are my now love of MMA which is probably right up with there with the NFL as far as time spent and enjoyment of watching/following. I also have a much stronger appreciation for college sports now than I did when I was younger. I followed Michigan when I was a kid, now I follow college football and basketball as a whole.

When it comes to playing baseball was my sport when I was younger, I was obsessed. Now the sports I spend the most time playing are basketball and racquetball.

[Liam]

To be honest, nothing much has changed, but that is because I watched a lot of different sports when I was young.

I watch and still watch:

Football

NHL

NFL

Rugby Union (internationals)

Rugby League (club)

Cricket

Athletics

Golf

Pretty much anything at the Olympics.

The only thing I don't watch anymore is Kabbadi >_>

[JStarr]

When I started watching sports, I got into anything I could possibly find. Not much has changed, just order of priority.

1. NFL

2. College basketball

3. NBA

4. NHL

5. College football

6. MLB

7. MMA

8. Tennis

And a total co-sign on the "fuck golf" sentiment.

[TCO]

When I was younger, I played football and Gaelic football competitively, but association football was my only trues passion. It's still that way today except I managed to pick up and become a fanatic of American football since then. I'll watch pretty much anything now as long as it's not crikcet, baseball or any other sport that the players spent most of their time standing around doing fuck all for about 8 hours at a time.

If I had to order it, it'd probably be.

1. 
   
   
2. Football
   
3. NFL
   
4. GAA
   
5. NCAA Football
   
6. Tennis
   
7. NBA
   
8. The rest
   

[HailtotheYo]

Baseball was king for me up through High School, with College Football right behind it.

I've always loved soccer but here in the States, yeah couldn't exactly watch it regularly up until a decade or so ago. Had I been able too it would have been w/college football as my #2 growing up.

Now with everything available and I'm able to watch everything I wish:

1 - college football/soccer

.... most other football (NFL/HS/Arena)

.... college world series baseball/ncaa tournament/select MLB games/rugby 7s

.... fuck golf/every other form of basketball/tennis/cricket/pretty much everything else