[UA] The sports question

[Robin Pfeifer]

I have missed the original question and deleted my digest since, so 
sorry for the topic line. It seems to me Mattias asked about what makes 
football and baseball so appealing for US Americans. Here's what I have 
heard about this, and I hope it hasn't been mentioned yet. Furthermore, 
I'm German and haven't ever been to the US yet, so you can guess at how 
qualified I am.

Football and baseball (and basketball, too) are very decisive. They 
break down into relatively short component parts and the score changes 
frequently. It is relatively rare for such a game to end stalemate. 
Soccer, however, is a game where there can be very long stretches of 
nothing happening, a game can easily end with a stalemate and even with 
no points scored at all, and luck can quickly change the tide in favour 
of the weaker side, so that it's not always the better team which wins.

I've been told that the US mindset, if there is such a thing, just 
doesn't agree with games like that and prefers the former type. 
Something about how competition with a defineable and just outcome is a 
much more important concept in the US mindset, and how might makes right 
or the better one always wins. After all it's supposed to be a check of 
skills, not a game of chance.

Just for the record, I feel that cricket easily outweirds even 
baseball... ;)

Robin