there is no question that the NHL playoffs are more exciting and action-packed than the NBA games. Much of this is because of the probably well-deserved impression that the first half of a basketball game is not that meaningful. The first period of a meaningful hockey game is way more exciting than the first quarter of a basketball game.

I am willing to say for the first time in my life that a Hockey game is a better sports product than a basketball game. In a close hockey game every moment of action has drama. a game changing moment is potentially never more than 2 seconds away. not so in basketball. If I go to the bathroom during a hockey game i could miss the tying or winning goal, there is no comparable thing in basketball.

Also, Hockey has a greater continuity of action and only one time out per side -- a huge difference for the viewer. timeouts make the end of an NBA game excrutiating. the third period of a close NHL playoff game is simply one of the best things in sports

One other aspect is that the underdogs actually win in hockey. Edmonton could really oust Detroit. I'm sure the numbers back this up over time.

In last night's mets-Phillies game the Phillies won after the rain came after the mets batted in the top of the fifth. because the Phillies never batted in the fifth, the mets starter Steve Trachsel only pitched 4 innings. I see in the stats today that for that effort he is credited with a complete game. And Hideki Matsui gets hurt in a game in which he statistically speaking never played. OK, now it all makes sense

I love the debate about why soccer is not popular here. My view is that Baseball, basketball and football are American sports, born and raised, and that their strong traditon essentially makes them part of our culture. Most americans follow these sports to some degree who don't even watch them regularly. For example, I guarantee you that many Americans who are not basketball fans at all can name a dozen NBA stars, past and present and know that Miami just won the title. Whereas even most sports fans, like myself, have no clue who won the last MLS title. Soccer just doesn't have that kind of tradition here and therefore there is no context for watching soccer which makes it appealing. The world cup, to some degree, is an exception. It has a history, people know about Brazil and Pele and Argentina and Maradona. that's why Americans can be interested in the world cup and yet not care at all about the MLS.

Any sporting event can be exciting or dull, but most of the time what matters is the context, such as what teams are playing, what are the stakes and most importantly what is my connection to these teams. It's the context that can make a high school football game more exciting than a pro football game despite the vastly inferior level of play, or why a whole state might be obsessed about it's state university basketball team but uninterested about it's pro team. The bottom line is tradition and in the USA, soccer as a spectator sport has almost none.

If the NASL had stayed around I think that soccer would be about as popular as hockey is right now, or maybe even hockey from 10 years ago. I watched the Cosmos as a kid, I listened to them on the radio if they weren't on, I was a fan. Then the league folded and the sport essentially disappeared from american sports consciousness for two decades. I moved on. I don't think it will ever return to where it was when the Cosmos used to SELL OUT Giants stadium.

Americans are capapble of liking soccer, but soccer has a lot of intrinsic problems in appealing itself to a new audience. it can be boring at times, and has rules which make the sport seem arcane. the offsides rule is just assinine. A player is penalized for beating his opponent. the continuous clock is anacronistic, as if we don't have the technology to stop the clock, and so much of it seems arbitrary (gimme penalty kicks for minor infractions, and bogus ejections for what would amount to a clean hard foul in basketball). If soccer fans want to make the sport more popular you have got to consider changing some aspects of the game; if you don't care about making it more popular then don't change anything, cause if i only care about soccer once every four years, that's fine with me, but then don't be complaining about why more people don't like soccer, and don't be so dismissive every time someone explains why they don't like it as much as you do.

The use of penalty kicks in soccer is simply a ridiculous method for deciding a sporting contest. In my mind, it deprives the outcome of the legitimacy that a championship deserves. Also, the awarding of penalty kicks during the match is absurd. You basically give a team a goal for almost no contact, which is what occurred yesterday and for Italy against Australia. A sudden death format would be fantastic and the fact that players get tired would actually lead to defensive lapses making it probable that a goal would be scored at some reasonable point in time. these are all things that make soccer less popular in the US.