Unique Sports Events / Venues

[Scba]

Wow, it's like the town itself was a stadium. Odd, too; if my perspective is correct, especially on the last picture, the field would be completely underwater today at any tide.

[Commandant]

2010 RollerCon, Freemont Street, Las Vegas, Nevada

[Commandant]

Here are better pics of Franklin Field:

[Commandant]

Navy Midshipmen vs. Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Croke Park, Dublin, Ireland


Dream Match, Princeton Tigers vs. Kwansei Gakuin University Fighters, Osaka Dome, Osaka, Japan


Japan X Bowl (X-League Championship Game), Osaka Dome, Osaka, Japan
image hosted on flickr


Ocean Bowl (Japan Private Football Federation Championship Game), Yokohama Stadium, Yokohama, Japan


Pumas Dorados UNAM vs. Aguilas Blancas del IPN (ONEFA College Football), Foro Sol, Mexico City, Mexico

More from this game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1Q5S7aU2Qk

Koshien Bowl, Koshien Stadium, Nishinomiya, Japan


They changed the orientation of the field for the 2010 Game:

[Commandant]

According to this post, http://baseballinwartime.blogspot.co...-scotland.html, there was a a five inning game of baseball at Hampden Park in Glasgow. If anyone has any pics please post them.

[Commandant]

More of Pumas Dorados UNAM vs. Aguilas Blancas del IPN (ONEFA College Football), Foro Sol, Mexico City, Mexico


Potato Bowl (Hokkaido American Football Association Championship Game), Sapporo Dome, Sapporo, Japan


X-League, Hurricanes vs. Obic Seagulls, Chiba Marine Stadium, Chiba, Japan


X-League, Asahi Beer Silver Star vs. Nihon Unisys Bulls, Yokohama Stadium, Yokohama, Japan
image hosted on flickr


American Bowl, Atlanta Falcons vs. Indianapolis Colts, Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan

[Commandant]

One more pic of the Koshien Bowl, Koshien Stadium, Nishinomiya, Japan


American Football, Hankyu Nishinomiya Stadium, Nishinomiya, Japan

[Commandant]

Originally Posted by matthemod

I'm interested in how that worked. Was it like a miniature Cricket match? like 5 overs each or something?

I'm not exactly sure... Each year, for the last five years, around mid-August they are invited by the Padres to demonstrate cricket at PETCO Park just before the game... Here is the blog (The Baseball Collector) where I got the pic from:

http://snaggingbaseballs.mlblogs.com...at_petco_.html

[Commandant]

Chelsea vs. Oxford Baseball, Stamford Bridge, Fulham, West London, England



London Stars vs. Utah, Stamford Bridge, Fulham, West London, England


Meiji Baseball, Stamford Bridge, Fulham, West London, England

[Commandant]

Baseball at Lord’s Cricket Grounds between The Red Stockings and The Athletics


Baseball at The Oval, Kennington, London Borough of Lambeth, England


Canad Inns Stadium, Winnipeg, Manitoba


London Americans vs. London Canadians, Stamford Bridge, Fulham, West London, England

[Commandant]

Canadian Pond Hockey Championships, Deerhurst Resort, Huntsville, Ontario, Canada


US Pond Hockey Championships, Lake Nokomis, Minneapolis, Minnesota


World Pond Hockey Championships, Roulston Lake, Plaster Rock, New Brunswick, Canada

[Commandant]

Cup Winners' Cup, AEK Athens vs. Slavia Prague, April 4, 1968, Kallimarmaro Stadium, Athens, Greece (estimated 80,000 were seated for the game; 40,000 more followed from outside)



BasketBowl, Kentucky Wildcats vs. Michigan State Spartans, Ford Field, Detroit, Michigan (sets attendance record 78,129)


BasketBowl II, North Carolina Tar Heels vs. Michigan State Spartans, Ford Field, Detroit, Michigan


2009 NCAA Final Four, UConn Huskies vs. Michigan State Spartans, Ford Field, Detroit, Michigan (sets Final Four attendance record 72,456)


2010 NBA All-Star Game, Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, Texas (breaks attendance record 108,713)

[Archbishop]

Lucas Oil Stadium, 2010 Final Four




Much better set-up than Ford Field IMO.

[Walbanger]

How did American Football get so popular in Japan?

[Commandant]

It gained popularity at the university level (in the 1920's) after three prominent schools in Tokyo formed teams. The years following WWII, high school and junior high schools started to adopt the sport. According to the site www.american-football-japan.com, 17,000 players compete for about 400 teams at those two levels.

[Google1998]

Cluj-Napoca, Romania - the stadium of CFR, 1 stand missing, it has a nice panorama:

[Commandant]

The Manliest Sport In The World

By Barry Petchesky



You probably haven't heard of the Fight Football League. By the time you finish reading this post, it will be your favorite sport.

Formed in Italy, the Fight Football League reminds one at first of something akin to rugby. Players move a ball by carrying or passing it up the field, scoring by getting it in a net at the end.

Then you notice they're wearing MMA gloves. That's because it's perfectly legal to beat the shit out of anyone on the opposing team, MMA style, whether they're carrying the ball or not.

It's more than legal; it's encouraged. If you knock out or otherwise injure a player, his team doesn't get to substitute for him. So instead of flopping around to draw a red card to put your team a man up, FFLers will simply pummel opponents into unconsciousness to gain a man advantage.

Here's a FFL promo video:



For now, Fight Football exists only in Italy. That's fitting, because according to the organizers, it's inspired by an ancient Roman ballgame called Harpastum. A dubious claim, because the rules of Harpastum remain mostly unknown, but we'll let slide anything that lends legitimacy to a 20-man battle royale.

www.fightfootball.tv

[Commandant]

Calcio Fiorentino was an early form of football that originated in 16th century Italy. The Piazza Santa Croce of Florence is the cradle of this sport, that became known as giuoco del calcio fiorentino ("Florentine soccer game") or simply calcio. The official rules of calcio were published for the first time in 1580 by Giovanni de' Bardi, a Florentine count. Just like Roman harpastum, it was played in teams of 27, using both feet and hands. Goals could be scored by throwing the ball over a designated spot on the perimeter of the field. The playing field is a giant sand pit with a goal running the width of each end. There is a main referee, six linesmen and a field master. Each game is played out for 50 minutes with the winner being the team with the most points or 'cacce'. Originally, calcio was reserved for rich aristocrats, who played every night between Epiphany and Lent. In the Vatican, even Popes, such as Clement VII, Leo XI and Urban VIII were known to play. The sport was not played for around two hundred years but then revived in the twentieth century when organized games began again in 1930. Today, three matches are played each year in Piazza Santa Croce, in the 3rd week of June. The modern version allows tactics such as head-butting, punching, elbowing, and choking, but forbids sucker-punching and kicks to the head.

[Commandant]

One of the earliest known photographs of a baseball game was taken inside Fort Pulaski in 1862, and featured members of the 48th New York Volunteer Infantry.



NBC World Series in Wichita: 17 games in 56 hours!
by Daniel Dodd

The 76th annual National Baseball Congress World Series is under way in Wichita, Kan., and somewhere among the 32 amateur teams vying for the title could be tomorrow's home run-clobbering Hall of Fame pariah! It was at the 50th edition of the NBC World Series in 1984 in which the Hutchinson (Kan.) Broncos presented an outfield duo of Barry Bonds and Rafael Palmeiro. That was just two years after Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire were honing their crafts at the historic Lawrence-Dumont Stadium on the Arkansas River. But history aside, it's the quirky tournament itself that brings fans back year after year. For two weeks every August, some of the nation's best college and amateur players come to compete in front of equally dedicated, knowledgeable and rabid spectators. "Dedicated" is one way to describe watching 17 games in 56 hours in the blazing Midwestern sun, which is what you're in for if you sign up for "Baseball 'Round The Clock," which starts Friday. Don't worry, when you're not worshipping at the altar of 2 a.m. squeeze plays or responding to the audio cue to check in and prove you are still present, a non-denominational service is provided Sunday morning in case you have a religion other than baseball. If you need supplies for your marathon weekend -- pillows, deodorant, an excuse to change your mind -- you might be able to find them while bouncing around town like a pinball taking advantage of "buy-outs," in which local merchants sponsor designated game nights and give away free tickets (thank you El Mexico Café!). Satchel Paige, whose generosity, and a $1,000 paycheck, led him to bring his barnstorming team to Wichita in 1934, giving birth to the NBC World Series, once said, "I never had a job. I always played baseball." Here's to hoping some of the participants in this year's event will be able to say the same thing someday.

[Anubis2051]

Comiskey Park, Chicago, I.L.