ESPN vs anti-ESPN
The ESPN crowd thinks that it is among the fanhood elite. The typical ESPN-er has two approaches to channel selection: a sporting event or whatever is on ESPN, because there is always SportsCenter. What ESPN reports is the gospel truth, and if you think you know more than The Mothership, then you are a contrarian or a conspiracy theorist. The ESPN crowd thinks Chris Berman is God's gift to football and baseball highlights and that Hannah Storm is the hottest 48 year old walking planet Earth.
The anti-ESPN crowd thinks that the ESPN crowd is a bunch of sheep, incapable of thinking for themselves. Anything anti-ESPN is trendy. The anti-ESPN crowd thinks that the "Four Letter Network" tries to control all things sporting related. The "Four Letter Network" is a four letter word to this clique and draws the ire of this group of sports fans similarly to how the words "Wal-Mart" make independent shopkeepers think "the bane of all retail".
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| SportsCenter in 1979 1 |
Yankee Fans vs Yankee Haters
At first, I had planned on calling this "Yankee Fans vs Red Sox Fans" but upon further reflection, I didn't see a whole lot of differences between the two fan bases, at their cores, other than the fact that they hate each other. The Yankees, however, are the polarizing lightning rod of Major League Baseball, if not sports as a whole, so we will take a look at the pro and anti-Yankee factions.
Yankee Fans have the greatest sense of entitlement of any clan of sports fans I have observed in my entire life. These people think it is their God-given right to play in October every fall. The dry spell between the 1981 World Series loss to the onetime bitter rival Los Angeles Dodgers and the 1995 American League Divisional Series, in which the resurgent Yanks were rubbed out by Ken Griffey, Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Edgar Martinez, Randy Johnson and the upstart Seattle Mariners, is often written off as a vast anti-Yankee conspiracy or is simply (late Yankee owner George) "Steinbrenner's fault." Yet The Boss is also credited with making the "brilliant baseball moves" to build the dynasty that the Yankees have had over the American League during the past decade and a half or so. For this bunch, all things baseball, even in the National League, are viewed as how it affects the Yankees or how the Yankees can affect it. This is the most narcissistic group of fans one may ever encounter.
The Yankee Haters cannot stand anything having to do with the Bronx Bombers. This crowd believes that the Yankees buy their way into contention every season, being one of a tiny number of teams that can afford to offer long term deals in excess of $20 million per season to the most coveted free agents. This group loathes all things A-Rod and dances on the Yankees metaphorical graves whenever they are eliminated from the playoffs.
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| Whether you loved him or hated him, he left a legacy. 2 |
MMA Is a Sport vs MMA Is Not a Sport
I cannot think of a more polarizing subject among sports fans, in recent years, than the legitimacy of Mixed Martial Arts as a sport. I received a Tweet from a reader minutes before writing this fine piece of...writing you are reading today. He asked if I covered MMA in the Hat Trick. I am grateful for every reader I get, so I politely responded that I lacked the knowledge necessary to cover the spectacle, but I would gladly accept guest columns and give the necessary credit.
The MMA crowd believes that MMA has replaced boxing as America's hand-to-hand combat sport. The personalities in MMA are far more compelling than any in boxing (I will concede this point, save for Pac Man and Money May), and the action provides the speed, intensity, and shock value that the American sports fan wants in the 21st Century. They will pool together funds with their buddies and order MMA galas on Pay Per View. They are split on the legitimacy of Kimbo Slice. They believe that MMA is a "real man's" EXTREME sport!
The anti-MMA crowd (ladies cover your ears...or, um, eyes) thinks that MMA is two guys beating the shit out of each other. MMA, to this faction, is bar fighting without beer bottles, knives, or stools. They often view the MMA crowd as a bunch of posers, losers, stoners, or a combination thereof. Sports enthusiasts falling into this category find MMA to be an offensive travesty in the world of sports and consider the activity to be little more than a lowbrow exhibition, appealing to the lowest common denominator and carried out by participants with clinical thrill-seeking issues.
The Daily Hat Trick is: I do not mince many words and I cannot be any clearer on the position of this blog on the legitimacy of Mixed Martial Arts as a spot. IT IS A CROCK! All I see is hot male-on-male action when I get exposed to this garbage on television. Frankly, I do not see how the guys that immerse themselves in this gratuitous violence manage to keep a girlfriend or move out of their mothers' garages. Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, and Evander Holyfield would whip UFC superstar Brock Lesnar's ass in the ring TODAY for so much as thinking that MMA deserves to be compared to boxing any more than dog poop should be compared to Godiva. To borrow a catch phrase from Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco, "CHILD PLEASE!"
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| MALE on MALE action!!!! You won't find Philip Rivers inThe Octagon but you may find Chance Rivers (do not look that name up from work or in the presence of children). 3 |
Next week: Baseball "traditionalists" vs "non-traditionalists", Cowboys Fans vs Cowboys Haters, and LeBron Lovers vs LeBron Haters.
Don't forget to vote in today's fan polls!
1) Image from coffeefortwo.livejournal.com
2) Image from yankees.lhblogs.com
3) Image from superproamui.com
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