comments

1. Amy Mabli on June 15th, 2009 at 11:05 am

   Soccer (Football if you are European).

2. Andrew Simone on June 15th, 2009 at 11:10 am

   Hockey.

3. Deron Bauman on June 15th, 2009 at 11:10 am

   you beat me to it. used to, I would have said basketball. now I’d say soccer and track and field. and, as much as I don’t enjoy regular season baseball, I do think it can be really beautiful.

   part of the reason I was thinking about this is the realization last night watching the last of the NBA finals how cartoonish american sport has become. the graphics, the light shows, the branding and advertisements. it’s gross.

4. Deron Bauman on June 15th, 2009 at 11:11 am

   my comment was in reference to Amy’s.

5. JJ on June 15th, 2009 at 11:14 am

   Tennis, as played by Roger Federer. At Wimbledon – all white and green, elegant and beautiful.

6. Amy Mabli on June 15th, 2009 at 11:15 am

   I could never understand why we can’t pair good design with tv sports. It’s as if they think anyone interested in sports isn’t affected by poor graphic design.

7. Deron Bauman on June 15th, 2009 at 11:17 am

   America has decided that democracy means lowest common denominator.

8. Cindy Scroggins on June 15th, 2009 at 11:19 am

   Long jump.

9. Cindy Scroggins on June 15th, 2009 at 11:20 am

   Not exactly high on most people’s “professional sports” viewing, though.

10. Andrew Simone on June 15th, 2009 at 11:27 am

    Shoot. If we are going that route, Cindy, than Gymnastics is the clear winner.

11. Michael Smith on June 15th, 2009 at 11:27 am

    Cycling!

    I love the view from the helicopter as the peleton snakes through towns and villages (especially when the race is through the French countryside). In addition to the quaint villages and the overall beauty of the landscape itself, the peleton seems to be one organism made of 170 individual cells. It grows, it stretches, it turns, it breathes.

    On the flat races the entire field works together to catch the few riders who broke off from the front and road away on their own. These few are almost always doomed to failure, disadvantaged by the numbers. Every now and again a single rider may break away from this smaller group and ride to the finish alone, a hero, but most of the time the eaten whole by the giant animal chashing them.

    In the mountains, the climbs eat the peleton, shredding it to pieces until, finally, a small group of riders, the super elite, are left to battle it out in a game of strength, endurance, and tactics.

    Even if they’re all doping, the sport is gorgeous.

12. Deron Bauman on June 15th, 2009 at 11:30 am

    I’m with you, Michael.

13. Red Marylebone on June 15th, 2009 at 11:35 am

    Women’s tennis

14. Cindy Scroggins on June 15th, 2009 at 11:40 am

    Nah, Andrew, I’d never rank gymnastics as high as long jump or javelin throw. None of the “pretty” sports equals the beauty, for me, of the single, concentrated push. I would rank gymnastics, ice skating and diving ahead of hurdles, though, because hurdles make me nervous.

    Next to long jump and javelin, I find the men’s100m dash to be most beautiful, and definitely my favorite to watch.

    I guess I’m just a track & field girl at heart.

    Oh, but then there’s welterweight boxing….

15. Deron Bauman on June 15th, 2009 at 11:46 am

    Cindy, yes! boxing. and I also forgot horse racing: and down the stretch they come!

16. Steve Breault on June 15th, 2009 at 12:00 pm

    I second Hockey. The fluidity created by the blades moving across the ice is tough to beat.

17. Kelsey Parker on June 15th, 2009 at 12:04 pm

    Amy beat me to [European] football, Michael to distance cycling, and Cindy to boxing! It’s the way a white ball soars over a brightly lit green field, the bowed and branded backs of riders slide through countryside, and sweat beads across a chest of muscled, lacerated flesh. These are the things I find aesthetically pleasing.

18. Phil Bebbington on June 15th, 2009 at 5:51 pm

    Cricket and I say that off the back of being knocked out of the 20X20 world cup today. There is an order and calmness to it that is really rather beautiful – especially the 5 day test game.

19. Chris on June 15th, 2009 at 6:57 pm

    If order & calmness are the lead criteria in “aesthetically pleasing”, then Snooker is an OCD dream – the table starts with the balls arranged in balanced perfection, then one of the players takes a whack at them and causes a great big mess, and then they spend half an hour cleaning them all up by following an abitrary yet poetic ruleset. Blissful.

    Otherwise, it’s the ecstatic moments of skill in football & tennis that do it for me. The required reading on this subject [IMHO], is “Roger Federer as Religious Experience” by David Foster Wallace – http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20federer.html?_r=1

20. KG on June 16th, 2009 at 3:40 pm

    Women’s skiing. Or soccer.

21. michael on June 16th, 2009 at 7:54 pm

    jello wrestling, male or female.

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