What makes America Great?

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America is the only Super Power in the world now, what makes it great?

Or is it really so great when so many people over there live in poverty while other have more money than they can spend?

Good losers at golf.

The genius of PBF wrote:Most of the best ever athletes come from America...Greatest Country in the World.

no they dont espicially considering americas size, many countires such as the Uk punch well above their weight although Michael Phelps is a demon

oh one good thing about the US is you can always rely on them to overlook something- e.g BIN LADEN staying in his house!?!?! (ok joking but...)

Someone earlier on this thread offered the thought that George Bush made America great for him. I am on the other side, thinking him one of the worst Presidents in history. Maybe, one of the things which makes America is the ability to have strong differing opinions like these and not end up having a revolution. Still possible to have a beer with someone with very different opinions.

They have there own sports that no other countries play and call them World Series.

Doon the Water wrote:They have there own sports that no other countries play and call them World Series.

What an ignorant comment. The only US Sport not played professionally internationally is American Football, mostly because of expensive equipment and physicality but even it has amateur leagues in many different countries now.

Baseball- Current World Champions - Japan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Baseball_Classic

Basketball (invented by a Scottish-Canadian)- Current World Champions- Formerly Spain, USA as of 2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Basketball_Championship

Ice Hockey (actually a Canadian game) - Current World Champions- Finland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Hockey_World_Championships

A scene from an Ice Hockey international where Germany beat USA 2-1 attended by 77,000 fans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eroeffnungsspiel_eishockey_wm_2010.jpg

In US sports leagues other nationalities make up a large part of the players and as no other leagues can compete with the quality of the American leagues in those sports then the US/ North American champions are called WORLD champions at club level. Non-Americans who follow US sports are rarely heard moaning about this.

Why is America great, well from some answers on here its because some people seem to have some sort of complex and feel they need to stick the boot in to make themselves feel better about it. Some people seem to still be suffering from Suez syndrome.

Are you saying that rounders and 'elf and saftey' rugby are actually sports.

PS
Scotland won the shinty world series this year.

I think that the USA does not embrace real world sports like cricket, football [NOT soccer], FI and rugby is that they are scaredy-cats.

77,000 to watch a Russia v's USA game, well done.
60,000 at least four times a year to watch a couple of Glasgow teams play fitba.
134.000 Scotland vs England at Old Hampden Park
For a nation of 5million thats no bad.

what are you all about Doon the Water? Rounders? Baseball is different from rounders, it was also invented in England in the 17th/18th centuries and the British also gave it the name baseball.

'elf and safety' rugby eh, pfffft I don't think so, even Martin Johnson respects American Football. I don't think this is too 'elf and safety'-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCTyEmvvZJo

And BTW Scotland didn't win at shinty/ Hurling, Ireland won the second leg. And soccer is also right, the name of the game is association football (soccer shortened from association) an English term by the way. And the Ice Hockey game was Germany V USA, 77K isn't a bad crowd for that considering Ice Hockey is usually played in indoor arenas, that one was played in a bundesliga stadium. And yes Soccer/Football is popular in the US, the women's team won the world cup final against Brazil in front of 90K plus fans- the biggest crowd ever for an all-female event in all sports and the men's game is becoming more popular every year.

scaredy-cats?
Come back when you grow up.

CANADA! Why does eveyone forget about Canada, they have a baseball team too you know!

Their gun laws...at least in states like Texas.

Any country where you're allowed to do stuff like THIS can't be all bad...

http://www.major-malfunction.com/rednech%20technical%202%20900%20copy.jpg

Doon the Water wrote:They have there own sports that no other countries play and call them World Series.

When the Super Bowl was first played it was between two seperate leagues, the NFL and AFL, who merged after Super Bowl 4, hence the World Champion title.

The World Series was played between the champions of the two rival leagues, the American League and the National League, hence World Series.

But if you just wanna make remarks without bothering to know the facts then that's you. If you took the time to open your tiny little mind and try to understand the US sports you'll realise how great they are.

Awe come on how can it be a world series when it is played in one country.

Warrior...knew about the Hurling/Shinty thing but Scotland won the Shinty which was what I was talking about.

So two of the most populated countries in the world get a crowd of 44,000 less than the Hampden one , can't quite understand why you mentioned that.

It's played in Canada!!

Doon the Water wrote:Awe come on how can it be a world series when it is played in one country.

Warrior...knew about the Hurling/Shinty thing but Scotland won the Shinty which was what I was talking about.

So two of the most populated countries in the world get a crowd of 44,000 less than the Hampden one , can't quite understand why you mentioned that.

He mentioned the Ice Hockey because the average Hockey crowd for an NHL game is around 20,000-25,000 due to arena sizes.

You wanna talk attendances, try this one for size, the Michigan Wolverines' (a college American football team) Michigan Stadium has a maximum capacity of 109,901. It is the 3rd largest stadium in the World. It has broken it's maximum capacity many times with these the top ten figures between 111,575 and 113,090 set between 1999 to 2010.


And as for your World Series comment Japan play baseball, I play for my local American football team, there's a major Basketball league in Europe and Hockey is one of the biggest sports in Europe, not just the US and Canada.

If anyone else participated, say in an American football World championship, I guarantee it would be all 32 NFL teams when they reach that stage anyway. So let them call themselves World champs, they're the best of the best, even if they are only in a one nation tournament.

What you're saying is like someone saying "Spain can't be World champions. Zimbabwe didn't get to play."

Holywood, their movies are brilliant, thank god we were smart enough to colonize them and teach them English!

AlynDavies wrote:Holywood, their movies are brilliant, thank god we were smart enough to colonize them and teach them English!

Um...the original colonists WERE English.

Its only over the last couple of centuries that they've degraded our beautiful language into American-ish.

Unknown Brother wrote:

Doon the Water wrote:Awe come on how can it be a world series when it is played in one country.

Warrior...knew about the Hurling/Shinty thing but Scotland won the Shinty which was what I was talking about.

So two of the most populated countries in the world get a crowd of 44,000 less than the Hampden one , can't quite understand why you mentioned that.

He mentioned the Ice Hockey because the average Hockey crowd for an NHL game is around 20,000-25,000 due to arena sizes.

You wanna talk attendances, try this one for size, the Michigan Wolverines' (a college American football team) Michigan Stadium has a maximum capacity of 109,901. It is the 3rd largest stadium in the World. It has broken it's maximum capacity many times with these the top ten figures between 111,575 and 113,090 set between 1999 to 2010.


And as for your World Series comment Japan play baseball, I play for my local American football team, there's a major Basketball league in Europe and Hockey is one of the biggest sports in Europe, not just the US and Canada.

If anyone else participated, say in an American football World championship, I guarantee it would be all 32 NFL teams when they reach that stage anyway. So let them call themselves World champs, they're the best of the best, even if they are only in a one nation tournament.

What you're saying is like someone saying "Spain can't be World champions. Zimbabwe didn't get to play."

There is a BIG difference between a sport played by 3 or 4 countries and one played by pretty much every country in the world.

And there is a good reason why Zimbabwe are excluded from most international tournaments.

dyrewolfe wrote:


There is a BIG difference between a sport played by 3 or 4 countries and one played by pretty much every country in the world.

And there is a good reason why Zimbabwe are excluded from most international tournaments.

3 or 4 countries?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Men's_World_Ice_Hockey_Championships

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ice_hockey_leagues

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_leagues_of_American_football

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Professional_Basketball_Leagues

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_baseball_outside_the_United_States

Wrong again Doon The Water, Fort William won the Camanachd Cup, therefore they are world champions, not Scotland.

Also the Ice Hockey match was between GERMANY and the USA not Russia. And I've already explained that Ice Hockey gets smaller crowds than outdoor games like football and rugby because they are played in indoor arenas. I mentioned it because it shows how popular Ice hockey is in Germany if it can fill a bundesliga stadium.

As far as old firm attendances go, don't make me laugh! The NFL is the world's most attended league in any sport with an average attendance of 68,000 per game, my team gets roughly 82,000 every home game. And as unknown Brother has mentioned college football in the USA, which is an amateur league, has teams averaging 100,000+ per match. It would be the equivalent of Brechin City or someone like that getting old firm attendances for every game here in Scotland.

BTW, Dyrewolfe, I think you'll find that there is interest in US sports in more than 3 or 4 countries.

dyrewolfe wrote:

AlynDavies wrote:Holywood, their movies are brilliant, thank god we were smart enough to colonize them and teach them English!

Um...the original colonists WERE English.

Its only over the last couple of centuries that they've degraded our beautiful language into American-ish.

Actually "American-ish" is closer to 'proper' English than our own current language, we have degraded it into something different while it has been better preserved in America.

Gaelic-Warrior wrote:
As far as old firm attendances go, don't make me laugh! The NFL is the world's most attended league in any sport with an average attendance of 68,000 per game, my team gets roughly 82,000 every home game. And as unknown Brother has mentioned college football in the USA, which is an amateur league, has teams averaging 100,000+ per match. It would be the equivalent of Brechin City or someone like that getting old firm attendances for every game here in Scotland.

To be fair, it's quite hard to compare numbers between US sports and Scottish sports in terms of attendance as there is a huge difference in population size.

invincibleILeak (CL-6WF) wrote:

Gaelic-Warrior wrote:
As far as old firm attendances go, don't make me laugh! The NFL is the world's most attended league in any sport with an average attendance of 68,000 per game, my team gets roughly 82,000 every home game. And as unknown Brother has mentioned college football in the USA, which is an amateur league, has teams averaging 100,000+ per match. It would be the equivalent of Brechin City or someone like that getting old firm attendances for every game here in Scotland.

To be fair, it's quite hard to compare numbers between US sports and Scottish sports in terms of attendance as there is a huge difference in population size.

I know that invincible, but tell that to Doon the Water, he was the one who wanted to compare the attendances in the first place.

Warrior, you are beginning to sound a bit desperate for a reply
I think you were the first to start quoting numbers.
I was just saying that how can a sport that is played by two countries [I'll give you Canada] be called a 'World Series'


And another thing

What is this I hear about the land of the free banning JK Rowling books in thier schools.

Doon the Water wrote:Warrior, you are beginning to sound a bit desperate for a reply
I think you were the first to start quoting numbers.
I was just saying that how can a sport that is played by two countries [I'll give you Canada] be called a 'World Series'


And another thing

What is this I hear about the land of the free banning JK Rowling books in thier schools.

I'm not 100% sure, but if the UK wanted to enter the World Series, is there anything to stop them? It's also being a bit pedantic to start criticising it just because of it's a name.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/693779.stm Same thing with Harry Potter has happened in the UK.

Scandalous. I mean they are shoite books, in fairness - but it's still scandalous.

Land Of The Free?

Harumph.

Well, I believe the original plan for the World Series (after a few years) was to have various national champions compete, UK included. In fact until WW2, baseball was very popular here, case in point, the Baseball Ground.

UK would need an MLB franchise now though.

Like I just posted, it happened in the UK as well...

until WW2, baseball was very popular here, case in point, the Baseball Ground.
.........and then the Brits realised how deadly boring this sport was.('')

More interesting than cricket.

Baseball vs Cricket? Two girl's games. In fairness.

Give me ladies beach-volleyball anyday.

Love apres-cricket though.

God Bless America.

invincible
"More interesting than cricket.."

Take that back immediately. Any sport that can have a bunch of English eccentrics on the national radio for 8 hours a day (mostly discussing the merits of different types of cake) far outdoes something where half the time is spent waiting for the change of innings.

(BTW, I quite like baseball, but do wish it was a bit less stop-start - 3 outs per inning just means you get 10 pitches and then an ad break)

dummy_half wrote:invincible
"More interesting than cricket.."

Take that back immediately. Any sport that can have a bunch of English eccentrics on the national radio for 8 hours a day (mostly discussing the merits of different types of cake) far outdoes something where half the time is spent waiting for the change of innings.

(BTW, I quite like baseball, but do wish it was a bit less stop-start - 3 outs per inning just means you get 10 pitches and then an ad break)

Only if you support the Astros!

Waht makes America great?
The unaccountability to the world, they can do Hiroshima, they can do Vietnam, they can do Iraq, Afghanistan, but no one can challenge them.

Doon the Water wrote:Warrior, you are beginning to sound a bit desperate for a reply
I think you were the first to start quoting numbers.
I was just saying that how can a sport that is played by two countries [I'll give you Canada] be called a 'World Series'


And another thing

What is this I hear about the land of the free banning JK Rowling books in thier schools.

Doon the Water, I started quoting numbers to demonstrate Ice hockey's popularity in Europe, the game I mentioned was played in Europe. I wasn't trying to compare US with Scottish attendances- you started that!! And have you actually read anything thats been said, it's played in more than 2 countries with players from many different nations playing in North America. Your wee jibe about JK books was pathetic also, you seem desperate to score a point, fair enough that's one for you but their hardly the first country to ban books before. The US, like ALL countries is far from perfect, but you're starting to sound like one of those people who are anti-US for the sake of it.

I think the point is being missed a little with regard to American Football, Hockey, Baseball etc.

They may well be played all around the world but the fact is that the "world champions" come from the winners of the Superbowl (1 country), World Series (2 countries), Stanley Cup (1-2 countries?) and the NBA championships

Only in America baby, they seriously need to rename the World Series.

The World Series is also known as the Fall Classic. Does that help?

And the winners of the Stanley Cup never refer to themselves as 'world champions'.

Agreed.

While the winners may technically be World Champions (as they say, you can only beat the opposition available to you), the title does ring awfully hollow when you consider some of the sports which really are global.

invincibleILeak (CL-6WF) wrote:

dyrewolfe wrote:

AlynDavies wrote:Holywood, their movies are brilliant, thank god we were smart enough to colonize them and teach them English!

Um...the original colonists WERE English.

Its only over the last couple of centuries that they've degraded our beautiful language into American-ish.

Actually "American-ish" is closer to 'proper' English than our own current language, we have degraded it into something different while it has been better preserved in America.

Depends which part of the country you're talking about.

Washingtonians seem to speak upper-class English (with a slight American twang) but there are plenty of places where they almost speak a different language.

I think its partly thanks to strong foreign influences (Italian in New York and Chicago, Spanish in the Southwest and French in the Deep South) and partly due to the number of words they've made up, or use differently.

dyrewolfe wrote:Agreed.

While the winners may technically be World Champions (as they say, you can only beat the opposition available to you), the title does ring awfully hollow when you consider some of the sports which really are global.

As I've said to other people before its more of a cultural thing, there isn't a right way or wrong way about it, just how you see it. North American sports are played in many countries throughout the world but the North American leagues are clearly the best (the gulf in class is greater than that between the best soccer/football leagues) therefore they see it as the champions of the worlds best league by far as the world champions. But mostly they get called, Superbowl champs, world series winners, NBA champs and as calamity jane has said, Stanley Cup winners- I can see why people don't like it but there isn't a concrete right and wrong here imo. In my experience though, it's mostly people who don't like either the US or their sports making a big deal out of it.

The language one is interesting, I'd say you've got that one on the head dyrewolfe. It's the same in all English speaking countries too with the different dialects world wide, and even right here in the UK, from cockney to what you have here in the west of Scotland. Other countries with English speaking populations have taken the language and made it their own.

dyrewolfe wrote:
I think its partly thanks to strong foreign influences (Italian in New York and Chicago, Spanish in the Southwest and French in the Deep South) and partly due to the number of words they've made up, or use differently.

A dated a Cajun woman for four years. Boy is that one crazy dialect to understand!

I don't know why people have a problem with Americans calling their champions "World Champions" because at the end of the day they are the best in the World and they're not hurting anyone. I don't call them World champions but I won't let it ruin my day when someone does.

I just think it comes down to most people being ignorant and ant-anything non-British, and not having the open mindedness to try and understand the different sports. After our football, the NFL, NHL. MLB and NBA are my favourite sports in that order.

I'd move to America in a heartbeat given the chance.

Thickfreakness wrote:
After our football, the NFL, NHL. MLB and NBA are my favourite sports in that order.

I'd move to America in a heartbeat given the chance.

Do it! You won't regret it.

I'm lucky because where I live I've got world class () NHL, MLB, NFL, and NBA teams.

Boston must top the all-around rankings right enough!

In the last ten years Boston has seen three Super Bowls, two World Series, one NBA championship, and last week, the Bruins completed the 'Big Four' grand slam, and added the Stanley Cup to the list. Not too shabby

The Patriots are in greater Boston though..... :run1:

Fantastic film such as
Taxi Driver
Midnight Cowboy
The Deer Hunter
Good Morning Vietnam.
and
Finding Nero

Who's Nero? Was he ever found?

They have such interesting politicians.

Dah ya think Sahra will get in?