Why is it that everytime I turn on ESPN, I see poker championships? Since when did poker become a sport?
This made me wonder...what constitutes a sport in the first place? So i decided to consult the beloved dictionary.com to find the official definition of the word "sport":
1. an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.
Judging by that definition...I wouldn't say that sitting in a circle at a table, holding cards, (shuffling, if you are the dealer) and putting in chips an "athletic activity" requiring any real physical prowess... Perhaps the poker face requires some physical prowess? I mean, you gotta know how to control those facial expressions and little fidgets and movements we all do when we are excited...
And of course it is very competetive...heck, back in the wild, wild west a whole gunfight could have started due to someone's poor sportsmanship in the game. But what separates this from other games people love? With such vague logic, almost anything can be considered a sport: shopping, video games, chess, etc. etc.
It just drives me crazy how this popular card game, (its a card game for Gods sake!), has made its way into the sports world and is receiving such massive coverage. Sure, watching people play poker is interesting to some, but not on a sports channel! You don't see Shop Til You Drop on ESPN...
4 comments:
Elena,
Ah, I love the "what constitutes a sport" question, which I'm sure we'll get into in more depth later in the course.
In the meantime, you should know that ESPN stands for "Entertainment and Sports Programming Network." Unfortunately, in recent years, they've seemed to focusing too much on the 'E' and less on the 'SPN'
Why do they feel the need to show Poker round the clock, though? Your guess is as good as mine.
I forget where I read it, but I thought I saw some stat that said ESPN only airs sports about 4% of the time. This doesn't sound right to me, but at the same time, it could be possible.
ESPN recently aired the Nathan's hot dog eating contest. How do you feel about competitive eating? Should that be considered a sport? A friend of mine argues that it could be. I guess there is some physical prowess needed. However, the fact that you would have to play a lot of sports just to burn off all the hot dogs you just ate makes me wonder.
Korea has 4 or 5 pro sports games. We've gotten pro baseball in 1982, and pro soccer in 1983. Third pro sports game was pro basketball in 1997. Differently, the backgroung of Korean pro sports birth is not like America. Military authorities used these sports to spread people's interesting. However, we have a pro sports game which arised by itself. This is a pro E-sports. It happened naturally, and people love this game sports. Som people might say, "that is a ridiculous thing and it is not even a sport." In my opinion, it is a good sport. They are making a hard plan to beat other, and they spend a lot of time and lot of their passion. This is a game between human and human, so they need hard training to win games.
E-sports require hard training, high level of strategies, people to people competition. So...I believe it is a good sport.
Elena,
Its so funny I came across this blog because me and a friend were just discussing what constitutes as a sport. Since ESPN is suppost to be like the messiah of sport-casting, I too often wonder why poker is on 9 out of 10 times you turn on the tube.
In addition to dictionary.com, What me and my friend came up with is that if you have to judge it with a panel of folks, or shuffle it with a deal, its probably a recreation more than it is a sport. Just a thought.
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