Aliens and Sports

 

First of all, I have never met an Alien, meaning someone from another planet.  If I did, I would have a lot of questions as I'm sure he/she would.   Initially, we may discuss politics, how he got here, and what life is about on his planet.  At some point we may approach the subject of sports, as it is a big part of our culture. So, in this top ten list I will cover how I would explain our sporting activities to an Alien. 

10)    We have a sport called boxing.  Two men and sometimes women get into an 18- 22ft. square ring and try to knock each other unconscious.

9)    Football - Played on 100-yard field where 11 men on each side take turns running and catching an oblong ball.  The goal is to knock down your opponent before he can reach a certain point.

8)    Baseball - Again played on an open field where you try to throw a little white ball by an opponent at a rate of 100 miles an hour. Not to worry, your opponent has a stick to protect himself. If he is good at this game and hits the ball with the stick, he can run around a circle while your team tries to tag him with the ball. The team that completes the most circles win.

7)    Ironman- This is a sport where men and women take a swim in the ocean for 2.4 miles, hop on a bike for 112 miles, and then run a marathon (26.2 miles), all in one day.  The kicker for this event is that you end up in the same spot you started!

6)    Soccer- Played by men and women, this is the most popular sport on the planet. Played in all 7 continents across the globe. It consists of two eleven persons teams, but unlike football they don't take turns with the ball. In fact, they try to keep it away from their opponents as long as possible. Because you cannot throw or run with the ball you are only allowed to kick it with your feet and sometimes head butt the ball. The point is to deliver the ball into a net at the opposite end of the field.   Sounds easy enough, but there is always someone standing in front of the net to make sure that does not happen. To make it more difficult he can use his hands to catch or throw the ball away from the net, back to his kickers.

5)    Basketball- Ten men or women running up and down a wooden court (inside) played with yet another round ball. The goal is to put that ball in a round small cylinder more times than your opponent.  Not as easy as it sounds, as you have to bounce it off the floor first while the other team is trying to steal it.

4)   Golf- My personal favorite.  Golf is played in an open field where you use a stick to hit a small white ball into a four- and one-half inch hole anywhere from 100 to 500 hundred yards away.  The best part is, after you get one in the first hole, you do it 17 more times.

3)    Cricket - surprisingly the number 2 sport in our world. It is believed previous Alien visitors may have brought this sport to our planet. Unless you are from India, not many in my country can explain it, much less play it. My understanding is teams consist of 11 players bowling a ball to a batter protecting a wicket.  Points are scored if someone hits a wicket. The batter has a square bat to protect the wicket.  You don't run around bases, you run back and forth to a wicket. Got it? Maybe my alien friend can explain it better

2)    Motorsports - Not played with a ball, but a pack of really loud cars going around in circles at speeds of over 200 mph. If you lead the pack without crashing or running out of gas, they wave a special checked flag at you, you get to kiss the ladies, and your friends pour adult beverages all over you.

1)   Olympics- As I said earlier, sports are such a big part of culture.  Every four years nations put aside their differences for sixteen days to compete in over 100 different sports.  What makes this unique is that they do not compete for money, but instead winners receive precious metals (gold-silver-bronze) for their efforts. 

Now how about sports in your world?