Sunday, February 18, 2007

Top Five Sports

5. Basketball
4. Baseball
2. (tie) Football
2. (tie) Soccer
1. Golf

Okay. There was actually a bit of science involved in this. First, I determined which sports are those that deserve merit. Outside of the above-listed, I considered, cycling, volleyball, hockey, NASCAR and tennis. Second, I determined categories upon which I would judge the sports. These categories were: Participation value, Watching - TV, Watching - Live, and Fantasy Value. Third, I applied a value of 1 to 5 within each category to each sport. The highest scorers for each category were: Soccer, Football, Golf and Baseball, respectively. Obviously, I have bias. Playing soccer was my passion through college, so that's a no-brainer. On the "watching" category, I actually had to disaggregate baseball, football and basketball into "college" and "pro" categories in my mind while assigning ranks. Football took the number one spot in televsion watching, as I love both college and pro. As for watching live, golf was number one. Now, if you have never been to a professional golf tournament, I think its wonderful and you're missing out. When Meggan looks forward to attending the Colonial every year, you know you have something golden. It's incredible to see up close what the pros can do with that little ball. On fantasy value, baseball takes the cake. It was my first fantasy sport in 1994 and I missed an entire afternoon of school to sit at Abernathy's off of West Berry and draft with a table-full of buddies. Six hours later, I was hooked on fantasy sports! Finally, the scores were tallied and Golf was victorious as the top sport.