WELCOME... THIS IS SPORTS!!! THE MOST POPULAR SPORTS IN AMERICA, PART 1!!!

Hello everybody! Welcome to this new entry of Montcada in English! Today I want to bring you another top 10 list, but this time is all about sports. So, I will talk about the Top 10 Most Popular Sports in America. I’d like to make myself clear. The list is about the most popular sports in America, not my top 10 favorite sports (which is a little bit different). Well, let’s get down to business and let’s get the ball rolling.

So, sports of different kinds play an important role in American society. These sports have earned tremendous popularity across USA, but most importantly they are the vehicles for transmitting such values as fair play, justice and team work. Sports have contributed to social and racial integration and over history, they have been a social glue bonding the whole America together.

Early American personalities like President Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin stressed the need for sports such as running and swimming. In the 20th century, American presidents like Dwight D. Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy continued to encourage sports among the Americans.

The list will be divided in two parts. Here we are with the first part.

10. Martial Arts

Martial arts are the traditions of combat practices and are practiced for various reasons: self-defense, physical health and fitness, competition, entertainment purposes, as well as physical, mental and spiritual development.

Actually, the term Martial Arts has become associated with the fighting arts of eastern Asia. But it was originally referred to the combat system of Europe, in early 1550s. The term Martial Arts derived from the Latin word Arts of Mars, the Roman God of war. Not only in Europe, this activity have also gained popularity in America. It has been a mandatory in US military to learn it as a form of self-defense.

 

Randy Couture vs Brock Lesnar, UFC World Heavyweight Championship, 2008.

The US government is also encouraging Martial Arts as a form of sport. In 2007, the wholesale value of martial arts related sports equipment in America was estimated 314 million USD. The participation in the same year was at stunning 6.9 million. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has become the most popular activity related to Martial Arts in the USA.

9. Motor Sports

Like the rest of the World, Americans initially began to use their public streets as a track of automobile races. As time progressed, and it was realized that these venues are not safe for the public as they offered relatively little crowd control. Promoters and drivers in America discovered that horse racing tracks could provide better conditions for motor sports than public streets. Since then, there was a huge development in the racing motor sports in America.

 

Mario Andretti, one of the greatest NASCAR drivers.

United States are quite capable of arranging famous motor racing events such as Indianapolis 500 (which is the most popular open wheel racing event in USA), NASCAR (which is the result of enormous expansion of stock car racing), Formula 1 or Motorcycle racing, commonly known as MotoGP championship (which after American football, is the 2nd most watched in America).

8. Pro-wrestling

Professional wrestling in the United States, until the 1920s, was viewed as a legitimate sport. This view did not endure into the 1930s, as professional wrestling became identified with modern theatrics, or admitted fakeness, moving away from being a showcase for true competition. The scripted nature of the art has made critics view it as an illegitimate sport, particularly in comparison to boxing, mixed martial arts, amateur wrestling, and the real sport itself, wrestling. No major promoter or wrestler denies that modern professional wrestling has predetermined match outcomes.

 

The Inmortal Hulk Hogan

Through the advent of television in the 1950s and cable in the 1980s, professional wrestling began appearing in powerful media outlets, reaching never before seen numbers of viewers. It became an international phenomenon with the expansion of the World Wrestling Federation. Throughout the 1990s, professional wrestling achieved highs in both viewers and financial success during a time of fierce competition among competing promotions, such as World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment, World Championship Wrestling, and Extreme Championship Wrestling.

 

The Nature Boy Ric Flair, 16-times World Heavyweight Champion

The nature of professional wrestling changed dramatically to better fit television, enhancing character traits and storylines. Television also helped many wrestlers break into mainstream media, becoming influential celebrities and icons of popular culture. Names such as Gorgeous George, Bruno Sammartino, The Nature Boy Ric Flair, The Steiner Brothers, Ricky The Dragon Steamboat, Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, Macho Man Randy Savage, Shawn Michaels, Bret The Hitman Hart, Sting, The Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Kurt Angle, Triple H, Chris Jericho, CM Punk, John Cena or Randy Orton have become authentic American icons.

  

Stone Cold Steve Austin & The Undertaker

7. Tennis

Tennis was first played in America at the home of Mary Ewing Outerbridge at the Staten Island Cricket club in New Brighton Staten Island, New York in 1874. In 1880, USA held the American National Tournament for the first time in history. The United States Tennis Association was formed on 21 May, 1881 to build up rules and organize tennis tournaments.

Pete Sampras & Andre Agassi, great rivals - better friends

America has possessed a glorious memory in the history of tennis. The sport is equally popular in men and women. Although these days the most dominant male players are not Americans, it is well known that many of the greatest players ever are from the USA. Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Jim Courier, Michael Chang, Ivan Lendl, Andy Roddick or Todd Martin are only a few of the biggest names in the game. It must be emphasized that girls are not behind in the list of achievements. Monica Seles, Jennifer Capriati, Martina Navratilova, Billy Jean King, Lindsay Davenport, Venus and Serena Williams are worthy representatives of American greatness in women's tennis.

Venus & Serena Williams

The America’s national singles championships is currently known as the US Open. The first US Open was took place in 1881 at Newport, Rhode Island and it was made officially one of the tennis majors from 1924.

6. Golf

Golf began many centuries before the Europeans migrated to America. Presumably, they brought the game across the Atlantics. This game took a while to become popular in the USA.

Jack Nicklaus & Tiger Woods, the greatest American golf players in history

American Professional Golfers Association (PGA) was formed in 1916. The catalyst in this procedure was the department store owner Rodman Wanamaker.

America is considered as the heartland of golf. There are hundreds of beautiful golf courses around the country. America’s history of golf is much enriched. For sure is undoubtedly one of the most popular sports in the country.

Tiger Woods is probably the most iconic golf figure in the USA, but the one who is considered as the best golf player ever is other American: Jack Nicklaus, winning a total of 18 career major championships, while producing 19 second-place and 9 third-place finishes in them, over a span of 25 years.

I hope you have enjoyed the first 5 sports from this Top 10 list...

C Ya!!!

WELCOME... THIS IS SPORTS!!! THE AMAZING METS!!!

Hi everybody!!! I want to share with you this article related to the New York Mets. The recently qualified to the 2015 World Series (the annual championship series of MajorLeague Baseball). I took the article from the New York Times. I hope you enjoy it!!!

Mets, Team of Big Shoulders, Sweep Cubs to Reach World Series

CHICAGO — The baseball globe spins differently now. It obeys the whims of a blue-and-orange team with a hapless history marked by spikes of the amazing. This is the latest, and it is overwhelming in its totality.

The Mets reached their fifth World Series on Wednesday night at Wrigley Field, completing a four-game sweep of the National League Championship Series with an 8-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs. The Mets, who never trailed in the series, will visit the Kansas City Royals or the Toronto Blue Jays for Game 1 on Tuesday.

Long after Jeurys Familia struck out Dexter Fowler to clinch the pennant, the Mets returned from their clubhouse to celebrate on the field with family. The Cubs fans had cleared out by then, and a throng of Mets fans, several rows deep, crowded around the dugout to chant the players’ names and cheer.

“This is a long time coming,” said David Wright, the team captain, who signed with the Mets at age 17, in 2001. “I’m glad that I got a chance to kind of experience some of the misery with them along this road, because that champagne tastes a lot sweeter having gone through that, let me tell you.”

The Mets will hope that their sudden star, Daniel Murphy, brings his gilded bat to the World Series. Murphy homered for the sixth game in a row, a slugging streak that set a new major league postseason record. He had four hits in Game 4 on Wednesday and torched the Cubs for four home runs and a .529 average in the series.

On Wednesday, Murphy told the Mets’ hitting coach, Kevin Long, that he would look for a changeup from the Cubs’ Fernando Rodney. He got a fastball — and crushed it over the center field fence, anyway. Curtis Granderson, the Mets’ right fielder, called him Babe Ruth.

“I can’t explain it,” Murphy said. “It’s just such a blessing to be able to contribute to what we’ve been able to do.”

The Mets, who also got a homer and five runs batted in from the struggling Lucas Duda, won their first N.L. pennant since 2000, when they lost a five-game World Series to the Yankees. This will be their first World Series at Citi Field, which opened in 2009 — the first of six losing seasons in a row for the Mets, who slashed payroll, groomed prospects and preached patience to their fans.

“Watching the fans like this — this is what I’m getting the most kick out of and the most fun, watching the fans enjoy this,” said Jeff Wilpon, the chief operating officer, on the field after the game. “We got four more wins now. Four more.”

Fred Wilpon, Jeff’s father and the Mets’ owner, thanked the fans and his family in a postgame interview on TBS. He added that he had special affection for this group of players.

“I must tell you I want to thank the players,” said Wilpon, who has been with the Mets since 1980. “They have been awesome right from spring training; they knew what they wanted to do, and they went out and did it. This group of young men are of the greatest character that I’ve ever seen on a team. They play for each other, they root for each other, and I’m tremendously proud of them.”

The Mets’ victory Wednesday was tinged with a bit of worry. Yoenis Cespedes, the star center fielder acquired by General Manager Sandy Alderson in a late-July trade, left in the second inning with a sore left shoulder. Now, at least, Cespedes and the Mets will have five days to rest before facing the Royals or the Blue Jays, who play Game 6 of the American League Championship Series on Friday with Kansas City leading, three games to two.

Manager Terry Collins said Cespedes’s shoulder would be fine and that Cespedes would be ready for the team’s workout Friday.

“They didn’t think there was any damage,” Collins said. “They thought an injection would calm it down in a day.”

The Mets silenced the Cubs with their new style — a complete, quick-strike offense that would have seemed so unlike them just three months ago. Back then, the Mets’ threadbare lineup gasped for runs, threatening to waste all their dominant pitching. Healthy and fortified now, the hitters can practically do no wrong.

An ultimate sweep — in which the losing team never leads, even for a moment — is rare for a best-of-seven series. It has happened only five other times in major league history, and never before in a best-of-seven N.L.C.S.

For Chicago, though, the party was soon over: 70 seasons without an N.L. pennant, 107 without a World Series crown. The Mets’ bruising treatment of their pitchers may have surprised some casual Cubs fans. After July 25, the Mets led the N.L. in runs, homers and slugging percentage, but all of it came after they last played the Cubs, who swept the regular-season series.

In theory, the Cubs could have matched the Mets’ power. They clobbered 12 homers in their five playoff games before this series, eliminating Pittsburgh and St. Louis, who combined for 198 wins this season.

But the Cubs’ hitters also led the majors in strikeouts, and the Mets kept them off balance with a game plan executed to precision: plenty of off-speed pitches mixed in with their usual heat. The Cubs’ offense led the majors in pitches per plate appearance yet could not wear down the Mets, who managed their starters’ innings during the season and unleashed fresh arms in the playoffs.

“I’m looking at guys here in the month of October — which none of these guys had ever performed in — still throwing the ball 98 miles an hour,” Collins said. “And that tells me we did all the right things leading up to this.”

The Mets, doing all the right things? It is a new world, indeed, and the Mets are on top of it — at least, the National League side of it. They will soon have their chance to stand alone.