Sporting Sensations

[AlreadyGone95]

The pitiful year for my Atlanta Braves continues. Their record is now 13-34, with a 2-17 home record at Turned Field. At this rate, they'll have one of the worst season records in modern MLB history.

[Annoying Twit]

I live in Leicester in the United Kingdom. This year our football team won the Premiership. While I'm not a big football fan, ours was one of the minor teams in the league, so it's notable that we won.

And on the same day, Leicester snooker player Mark Selby won the snooker world championship. I was watching that.

Overall, a good year for my city.

[NOLA]

Got a call a couple of days ago from the ticketing agency for the New Orleans Saints. The season tickets, that I had registered for in the fall of 2008 before they won the division playoffs and 2009 Super Bowl, were now ready for purchase. Well, a lot of good they'll do me half a country away. So, I made the difficult decision to turn them down for release to the next member of the Who Dat Nation. Needless to say, I was quite sad.

[jms18222]

I live in Leicester in the United Kingdom. This year our football team won the Premiership. While I'm not a big football fan, ours was one of the minor teams in the league, so it's notable that we won.

And on the same day, Leicester snooker player Mark Selby won the snooker world championship. I was watching that.

Overall, a good year for my city.

Congratulations on Leicester winning The Premier League. I am for anybody but Manchester U.

My baseball team, the Dodgers, has a $300 million payroll but doesn't have much of a pitching staff or bullpen. Wish I could clone Clayton Kershaw.

My favorite college basketball signed a kid to a scholarship taking him away from going to Kentucky. The kid they forced out of college to go try for the NBA decided to return to college but not to Kentucky. LOVE IT!

[Freypower]

I live in Leicester in the United Kingdom. This year our football team won the Premiership. While I'm not a big football fan, ours was one of the minor teams in the league, so it's notable that we won.

And on the same day, Leicester snooker player Mark Selby won the snooker world championship. I was watching that.

Overall, a good year for my city.

I bet you were proud. I was so delighted I used the celebrations as my wallpaper last week (I support Liverpool).

[Jonny Come Lately]

I live in Leicester in the United Kingdom. This year our football team won the Premiership. While I'm not a big football fan, ours was one of the minor teams in the league, so it's notable that we won.

And on the same day, Leicester snooker player Mark Selby won the snooker world championship. I was watching that.

Overall, a good year for my city.

I haven't been around enough lately to post in this thread, so I probably need to catch up on a couple of things.

Re: Leicester - it's been a fantastic year for the city. It was brilliant watching the Leicester team lift the trophy but no one deserved it more than Claudio Ranieri. He is a charming man, almost like a favourite grandfather, and has done a simply great job this season. One thing which I think hasn't been emphasised enough They are the first completely new team to win the league since Nottingham Forest under the great Brian Clough 38 years ago. (contrary to what Sky Sports might suggest, football did actually exist before the creation of the modern day Premier League in 1992! )

Funnily enough when I'm at university (although I won't be for most of the next four months) I'm quite close to Leicester, probably about 20 miles or so away. I've never been to Leicester itself though, it's not really somewhere I tend to go past on long journeys.

Not such a great end to the season for my own favourites with a defeat in the Europa League final. At half time I really thought we were going to do it, all the cards seemed line up - the sensational comeback against Dortmund, the stadium being full of Liverpool fans. The I saw the Champions League final last season, felt really sorry for Atletico. I wanted them to win and they would have really deserved it and to lose on penalties was sickening for them. From a personal level this was not helped by Cristiano Ronaldo scoring the decisive kick! Can't argue with Zidane's managerial record though, anyone who wins the Champions League in their first five months as manager must be onto something good.

In my other main sport of interest, Formula One, there was a dramatic race in Spain which saw Lewis Hamilton collide with his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg shortly after the start. Although this did protect Nico's championship lead built up after winning the first four races, in a way I was quite glad when Lewis's out of control car took out Nico too as it prevented him from further extending his advantage. The other major story was a shock win for F1's youngest driver of all time, Max Verstappen, who became the first teenager to win a grand prix (and the youngest driver to do so by about three years) by holding off Raikkonen to win in his first race for Red Bull. I think there is no limit to what Max can achieve, it's quite scary to think how good he might be in his mid-twenties!

[Freypower]

At least Lewis won last night. I'm not sure about Ricciardo yet - I certainly won't cheer for him based on where he comes from (I was the same with Mark Webber).

I wanted Atletico to win too - but Zidane is one of my heroes. Admittedly it probably isn't that hard to manage a team of galacticos like Real but credit to him.

Regarding Leicester we drove through it in 2010. We passed Simon de Montfort University. We stayed one night in Hull, so I was pleased they were promoted. Mixed feelings in this house as Sunderland stayed up & Newcastle went down.

I never talk about Rugby League here but my poor Sydney Roosters are second last on the table with two wins from nine! This after having won the past three minor premierships (which in football would be enough to win the title - but we have a playoff system where you have to win the grand final to win the title & we won one out of those three).

[Jonny Come Lately]

I've been following the European Championships (football) in France with great enthusiasm since the tournament started just over a week ago. I have thoroughly enjoyed it so far. I did wonder whether the expansion of the tournament to 24 teams (compared to 16 in the previous edition four years ago) would dilute the quality, but these fears have been allayed as virtually every game has been competitive and there have been some terrific performances by unfancied 'underdog' sides. Northern Ireland beating Ukraine 2-0 was one example, as was Hungary defeating Austria by the same margin, but my favourite was tiny Iceland holding Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo to a 1-1 draw (after the game Ronaldo criticised Iceland, saying that they had a 'small time mentality'. He just came across as a bad loser and I felt he got his comeuppance tonight when he missed a crucial penalty that would have given them a win over Austria).

Although there have not been as many goals scored as at some international tournaments, the quality of football has generally been good and a number of the goals that have been scored have been quite brilliant. The game between England and Wales was a great day, as it was the first ever meeting between the two sides at a major tournament. It was especially sweet for me as England secured a late 2-1 win with a goal from Daniel Sturridge, who at club level plays for my favourites Liverpool. Really excited for the next stages. I don't expect that much of England, although I think there is the potential to do well if everything falls into place. I couldn't pick a potential winner at the start of the tournament, but I was impressed by Spain in their 3-0 dismantling of Turkey and think they are probably the team to beat now.

[Freypower]

C. Ronaldo is a ......... (insert word of your choice). I always thought so. The Tom Cruise of football (sorry if anyone likes Tom Cruise).

Disappointed for Ireland who will probably exit now, hope Iceland progress, hope Spain win it. England not so much unless Sturridge gets the winner.

[Jonny Come Lately]

I agree it's a shame about Ireland, they're in a difficult group though so I don't think it's been a disaster for them. They were much worse four years ago, where they lost every game. Always had a bit of a soft spot for them (I believe my surname is Irish in origin), but I think they will probably have to beat Italy to get through to the next stage. It's happened before though (1994 World Cup) and the Italians may be relaxed as they're already qualified. I have mixed feelings about England myself, I always like seeing Liverpool players do well but even at international level Rooney scoring is still a bit of an 'ugh' moment for me! Basically I enjoy it when they win, but shrug off any failures.

Agreed about Ronaldo too - if it was just about anyone else I'd have reservations about saying this, but seeing him flop so far has been very entertaining in itself!