Noun

sports

1. Plural form of sport.

Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determinant of the outcome (winning or losing), but the term is also used to include activities such as mind sports (a common name for some card games and board games with little to no element of chance) and motor sports where mental acuity or equipment quality are major factors. Sport is commonly defined as an organized, competitive and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play. Some view sports as differing from games based on the fact that there are usually higher levels of organization and profit (not always monetary) involved in sports. Accurate records are kept and updated for most sports at the highest levels, while failures and accomplishments are widely announced in sport news.

The term sports is sometimes extended to encompass all competitive activities in which offense and defense are played, regardless of the level of physical activity. Both games of skill and motor sport exhibit many of the characteristics of physical sports, such as skill, sportsmanship, and at the highest levels, even professional sponsorship associated with physical sports.

Sports that are subjectively judged are distinct from other judged activities such as beauty pageants and bodybuilding shows, because in the former the activity performed is the primary focus of evaluation, rather than the physical attributes of the contestant as in the latter (although "presentation" or "presence" may also be judged in both activities).

Sports are most often played just for fun or for the simple fact that people need exercise to stay in good physical condition.

Although they do not always succeed, sports participants are expected to display good sportsmanship, standards of conduct such as being respectful of opponents and officials, and congratulating the winner when losing.

Contents

• 1 Said of sports in general
• 2 Baseball
• 3 Cycling
• 4 Football (American)
• 5 Football (Soccer)
  • 5.1 Managers/coaches
  • 5.2 Players
• 6 Women
• 7 Miscellaneous

Said of sports in general

"Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard for all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting." -- George Orwell, in Collected Essays.

"If all the year were playing holidays; to sport would be as tedious as work;" - William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, Act I, Scene II

Baseball

MANAGERS

Walt Alston[1]

• "Look at misfortune the same way you look at success - Don't Panic! Do your best and forget the consequences."

Sparky Anderson[2]

• "Baseball is a simple game. If you have good players and if you keep them in the right frame of mind then the manager is a success."

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Sun Sep 13 13:27:05 2009