I was just talking about what an utterly drab team the Philadelphia Phillies are. They've actually been pretty good lately, but they're still the PHILLIES (young girl horses, as written by an idiot? what?). My hometown (Carlisle) felt obligated to put up with the Phillies as a home team (we were closer to Baltimore and DC, but you couldn't pull for a southern team), and the Phillies were so repellent that my older brother and I (just back from Munich) decided to pull for the Cubs instead (which we've continued to do for 40 trophyless years). So I absolutely despise the Phillies.
Say that's not so,Joe!!!!!! Sorry! I'm a Phillies fan......even though they were the other team at Cincinatti when I had my (SSSHHHH) heart attack.Funny thing.Reds were winning until the 6/7th innings.After they carted me off to Good Sam's the bloody Phillies came from behind to win it! You've got to be a Spurs fan to be a Phillies fan.Sometimes we both stink!!!!!!
All this talk of Phillies is making me think of Phindus lasagne. P.S If they do put horsemeat in the pies at matches, they should let you have at least a few pints to wash it down
If its good enough for players, its good enough for spectators! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8757786.stm
I can't believe that with all this talk and EVEN mention of American sports no-one's mentioned the Stadium Pal:
Goddamn! How come photos are always so small when I post them?! In case you can't see the above photo is of a man happily urinating, via some plastic strapping and tubes, into a bag that's strapped to his leg whilst his hapless friends struggle with the wretched social niceties of not pissing in public and/or all over the place. The product is real. America is real. I sometimes think that American-levels of consumerism (and the UK only lags behind USA in this - it has no moral high ground far as I can see) are basically there to make more and more people live lives that are equivalent to being quadriplegic. This is just the most blatant example.
"And to think I was breathing on my own like a complete sucker... The movie "Wally" is pretty good on that as well. Funny how I rate as far left by American standards but I hate the total helplessness that seems to be our cultural ideal. I want to tell a lot of people, often: Suck it up. The only remedy for pain is death. Never take drugs except for recreational purposes. Quit making up diseases and syndromes you supposedly suffer from, grab life with both hands and make something ****ing of it. Nobody else is going to do it for you. And for god's sake quit worrying about whether something's safe or not. Do you want to live forever? (I must be getting old and crotchety...) Also, Smithy, apologies for slagging off the Phillies. It's not so much I hate the team, as that I hate the city, and the team is a part of it.
Funny thing that.I used to argue that Spurs "weren't a London team" because we're not " in London" so to speak.We are in the suburbs. (I'm feeling much better now!!) Who are the closest teams to the center of London I wonder?
Here's your answer, Smithy: http://www.myfootygrounds.co.uk/AreaMap.asp?view=LONDON Looks like Chelsea might have it. What a great sporting culture there is in Britain, though - look at all those clubs in and around London. In the US you're lucky if even a massive city has more than one baseball/football team. And they'll both be huge and they'll both have zero chance of ever being relegated (cos relegation doesn't exist). Smaller towns and cities will have no top-level sporting presence at all. Very, very dull. I flew into Heathrow on a clear day last year and got a great view of Wembley, Highbury (trees growing on the pitch! Great entertainment at last!), Emirates, then turned over Canary Wharf area and came down the Thames where I could clearly make out Stamford Bridge and Craven Cottage. Think I saw the New Den, too - might have been wrong. Seemed like the only one I didn't see was bloody WHL!
Sports fans here live a carefully coddled existence which is deemed too important to leave to the free market. Very ironic, actually, considering we're supposed to be capitalist. I gotta admit relegation still seems harsh, though. The Cubs may be trophyless for 104 years, but they've spent all of it in the National League (though all too often propping up the standings...) It's also strange to me that for all the London teams, there's not a single one with the word "London" in its name. Small cities and large towns in the US do have minor league teams, and minor league baseball and ice hockey are a lot of fun.
Redwhiteandermblue many many years ago there was a competition called the 'Inter City Fairs Cup' A team was put together with players from the London teamsand was called London I remember (very vaguely) seeing a game at Stamford Bridge, but don't remember who played or who it was against. The competition eventually morphed into the Europa League via the UEFA cup and absorbing the European cup-winners cup.
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Football started a long time ago in Britain and some of the 'London' teams were outside the City before it grew to encompass them. The 'City of London' is only a square mile and no teams are in it. Plus London is really a collection of villages and local connections are important. Who would a team called London be supported by? Bankers?
Aren't there two villages in England where the villagers take part in a football match that's starts on the boundary...no goalposts,no referees and no Wenger to manage it. Don't know if any one scores as "the pitch" may be several miles long........ Then there's the Eton Wall game.I don't think the"players" move far in this one...... Anyhow,I was led to believe the nasty Chinese played the first football games by chopping off heads and using them as footballs.......
I've heard of the Scottish one Ba Football http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba_game , which was a slightly less exuberant version of the eventually, but unsurprisingly banned Mob Football http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mob_football . My favourite has to be the Shrovetide Ball Game (just missed it!) in Atherstone, where kick-off is in the form of chucking the ball out the local Barclays Bank window at 3pm! ...if it were me, I'd chuck the twat through it! Shrovetide Ball Game The ball played in the 813th Atherstone Ball game Shrove Tuesday 21st February 2012. An annual tradition in Atherstone is the Shrove Tuesday Ball Game played on a public highway with large crowds. The game celebrated its 800th anniversary in 1999. The game is a complete free-for-all played along Watling Street (the old Roman road) at the point where it forms the main street of Atherstone town. The ball is decorated with red, white and blue ribbons that are exchanged for money by who ever is able to obtain one and is made of thick leather to make it too heavy to kick far. The match starts at 15:00 when the ball is thrown from the window of Barclays Bank and continues until about 17:00. However the ball may legitimately be deflated or hidden after 16:30. There are no teams and no goals, though in the last century the match was played between a team from Warwickshire and one from Leicestershire. There is only one rule: players are not allowed to kill one another. Whoever is able to hang onto the ball at the end of the game not only wins the game but is allowed to keep the ball as well. This Shrove Tuesday ball game has been held annually since the early 12th century and is one of Atherstone's claims to fame. The origin of the game, in the reign of King John, is thought to have been a "Match of Gold that was played between the Warwickshire Lads and the Leicestershire Lads on Shrove Tuesday". The 'ball' used is specially made each year and is 'thrown out' by a prominent sporting or show business personality. Shop windows are boarded up and traffic is diverted on the afternoon whilst the game, in which hundreds of people take part, progresses along the town's main streets.
It depends what you consider to be the 'centre' of London. Many people consider Charing Cross as the mpdern centre of London in which case Chelsea is closest yes. But as Spurf rightly pointed out modern London is actually an amalgamation of the City of London, the City of Westminster and hundreds of other towns and villages. Charing Cross is actually in modern Westminster (though originally the hamlet of Charing was stationed between Westminster and London), technically not 'London' at all. Milwall is the closest club to the centre of the historic 'City of London', which is said to be Cannon Street. That little spiel was essentially the first lecture of my Master's degree
