Sport
As an American, or a Yank as
they call me here, it is refreshing to be among people that like sports of all
kinds, like most of my friends back home in the states. There are several differences worth noting
however - first of all baseball - my first love - is a very minor sport here,
much like rugby in the US. Although the
Aussies have sent a few players to the Majors - Craig Shipley, Padre 3rd
baseman, remember him? And three pitchers you may have heard of Grahame Lloyd,
Luke Prokopec, and Damian Moss; that’s all I can think of. Being that it’s October I’ve had to work to
watch playoff baseball - this morning Sunday 9:00AM I watched the end of the
Bastard Yankees v Red Sox game, played Saturday afternoon in Beantown, in a pub
called the Ivanhoe. There is an American
guy from San Antonio who has lived here for forty something years, who we’ve
seen in the Ivanhoe the last two days watching baseball, he’s rooting for the
Cubs mostly but also shows no tendency towards supporting the Yankees so he’s
obviously a very smart man. We met him
when he asked me ‘are you a Mets fan?’ - I guess he noticed me wearing my
pullover and cap…..
The big team sports here are
rugby, League and Union - are the two different codes of rules - but I’ve
only got cursory knowledge so don’t ask -although I do know the rugby world cup
(RWC) is under Union rules. I think the digest
difference is that League does not have a scrum. Of course Australian Rules Football is huge
especially in the East and South of the country. Early viewers of ESPN - when they were a
fledgling network from Bristol, CT, will remember seeing a steady diet of
Aussie rules; my guess is they could get the broadcast rights for cheap - oh
how things have changed with ESPN a.k.a. Disney Sports - as if there could ever
be a more corporate sports company…… but anyway I’ll leave the polemics aside
for now.
Other sports like tennis,
auto racing (not NASCAR), moto GP (motorcycle racing), basketball, netball, and
of course all things aquatic - surfing in particular are very popular, as is
beach volleyball, sailing, wind-surfing, swimming, you name it.
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This page is copyright 2003, Laura
Giletti and John Meany
Last revised: October 2003