OT: Goalie masks vs. catcher's masks

[billhoward]

Over time, catchers (previously, hockey goaltenders) realized it's not shameful to have adequate protection. You'll notice lacrosse helmets are changing, too.

I bet Don Zimmer wishes he wore a batting helmet.

There are a few old timers who believe it's a real sport only when the participant risks all. Read Brock Yates reminiscing on how wimpy motorsports have become because drivers are not dying in the quantity they used to. Remember the 1973 Watkins Glen Grand Prix that killed Francois Cevert? That was Yates' kind of racing.

That said, there is some argument that the full face shields in college (possibly HS too) hockey make the players (skaters) chippier and more likely to lift their sticks knowing there's less risk of causing injury except for maybe the rare big injury.

[CowbellGuy]

Use Brock "every form of racing should use a big, American pushrod lump" Yates for any more point-making, and I'll just have to ban your ass. I've never heard more inane ideas come out of a human being. It's too bad he never managed to kill himself on a Cannonball or something. Of course, we're talking about someone who lives in Wyoming, NY by choice.

Since you brought it up, I actually think some drivers or series have become a bit prissy (see every sterile, flat giant gravel trap F1 track built since 1994). If there's almost no risk of hitting anything, drivers become complacent and stupid, often resulting in big accidents where flying debris is more of a risk to spectators than the guys in the cars (Australia '01). But hey, if Brock loves dead and broken drivers, I'm sure he's a big fan of the IRL.

[billhoward]

A couple years back, in an effort to ward off male menopause, I took the Skip Barber three-day race certification program. There is now no queston in my mind that you do more than just sit in a chair and press the gas pedal. Unless you're in top shape physically, you're not going to be able to hold your neck up straight going around corners and you won't be very sharp mentally at the end of the race if you're facing exhaustion. And that's just in rattly little Formula Dodge cars that can't do but 120mph.

Plus, have you seen the caliber of women who hang around racetracks? F1 at least if not Chemung Motor Speedway.

The most bizarre thing about motor racing though must be having David Hobbs as an analyst at Daytona.

[CowbellGuy]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:
The most bizarre thing about motor racing though must be having David Hobbs as an analyst at Daytona.  [/Q]
Even if he's out of his element, I'll take Hobbs over the yokels on Fox and NBC doing NASCAR any day. Oh wait. I don't watch NASCAR. No, it works just fine having him do F1, thanks. Impressive thread drift going on here...

[ben03]

back to talking about baseball ... and how it sucks :-O

[Josh '99]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:
There are a few old timers who believe it's a real sport only when the participant risks all. [/Q]"Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports...  all others are games."
- Ernest Hemingway


I don't agree, but it's a great quote.

[billhoward]

[Q]jmh30 Wrote: "Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports...  all others are games."
- Ernest Hemingway


I don't agree, but it's a great quote.

 [/Q]

I think that's the line Brock Yates trots out for his annual "F1 drivers are now wimps" column. I'm pretty sure he credits Hemingway. At least you've got to give him that. Or as the fop once told Oscar Wilde:

Fop: Brilliant, Oscar, I wish I'd said that.
Wilde: Eventually, you will.

[ugarte]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:
Fop: Brilliant, Oscar, I wish I'd said that.
Wilde: Eventually, you will.  [/Q]Actually, Oscar Wilde is the fop in that exchange.  He was zinged by James McNeill Whistler.
http://www.anecdotage.com/index.php?aid=11002

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

"His majesty is like A dose of clap"
"Whaaaat?"
"Before you arrive is pleasure, but afterwards is just a pain in the dong."
"It was one of Shaw's"