Celebrating a big win

[Sly_Grin]

I guarantee that the presence of the TV cameras is changing people's behavior (usually for the worse). Do something outrageous, you get more face time. Show class and you don't make the "highlights".

He acted like a dick the whole tournament.

[Acesover8s]

The first live tournament that I ever won, an inspring $2000 (at the time), my g/f gave me a blumpkin for a reward. Who knows what'll happen if I win the WSOP, maybe I'll give Dutch Boyd a Dirty Sanchez.

[Sponger15SB]

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I don't mind the win celebrations when the tournaments over. It's getting overly pumped about the inbetween stuff that bothers me.

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agreed, fist pumping and getting loud and roudy after you have AA vs. 88, and the guy doesn't hit is 25-1 shot on the river just seems kinda stupid.

[MrDannimal]

I'm replying to myself instead of posting like 15-20 replies to individual points.

- "It's different with team sports."

Baloney. Being a good sport is being a good sport. In any playoff/final aside from the NFL or the NCAA hoops tourney, you've played the team multiple times (more if it's a conference/league championship than the actual final), and if you don't think it gets personal over the course of a 7 game series, you're nuts.

Not only that, but the "sports casters" annually commend how the NHL post-series stuff works (team goes wonkers, then does handshake line) as what makes the NHL classy.

Besides, it happens in individual sports, too. Hale Irwin doing a victory lap slapping hands with fans after winning a golf tournament. Phil Mickelson jumping into the air after winning the Masters (there, he didn't have the chance to go shake Els' hand, since Els had finished a group ahead).

McEnroe and Connors in tennis. Pete Weber (among others) in bowling. NASCAR! (doing donuts, the victory lap, standing on the car's roof spraying the fans with stuff. You're more likely to see racers throwing punches than shaking hands posst race. I suppose you could argue NASCAR is a team sport, but you'd be reaching. Helio Castroneves climbing the fence at Indy after a win.

Some people said that they felt that most individual celebrations were ridiculed. That's insane. You'll see some debate on SportsCenter (or the equivalent), but that's because they make their hay on the argument. If you did a man on the street poll of a particular sport's fans about specific individual celebrations, you'd find a majority of the people enjoy it. Fans in general did not ridicule Terrell Owens and the Sharpie, or Green's fire extinguishing.

I could fill this whole response with things like Muhammed Ali. Him standing over Frazier is one of the most famous sports pictures of all time.
Maurice Green isn't a bad example because that clip is run on SportsCenter over and over, with witty/humorous commentary. That's my point.

- Celebrating before you've won it all.

I agree. I wasn't even talking about Fischman specifcally. The carping about him laying out on the table was just what pushed me to post. It seems like after every televised tourney someone posts "<winner> acted like an ass, he should have just shaken <2nd place>'s hand and been calm".

Anyway, I put celebrating mid/late tourney bust-outs up there with celebrating a 3rd quarter 1st down catch, or a sack or pick. Or preening after a 4th inning home run. STUPID. You are begging the Gods of Sport to smack you down.

That doesn't mean that the top stars doesn't get a free pass at times. Tiger Woods can walk after a putt as it rolls in and point at it, then do a series of fist pumps, and it's okay. Dikembe Mutumbo would wag his finger after blocking a shot, and it became a trademark.

The later it gets, the less I care about celebrating. NCAA teams cut down the next when they make the final four. Two wins away from the National Title. If there are 4-5 left, and you bust someone out both increasing your guaranteed take and your odds of winning, it's tolerable. Especially if it's a dramatic hand. I agree celebrating a thrid ace when you have AA v. 88 is silly, but if your underpair holds up, or you win a coin flip, I can't really argue.


One thing I think we can all agree on is that the celebrations are driven by television. Be it live coverage or tape-delay, or just Sports "News" shows like SportsCenter. People who know that they're being watched tend to celebrate more. Do you think there were celebrations like we've been seeing at the WSOP the last 2 years 5 and 10 years ago? Look at the Chan/Seidel final hand.

We're not as far apart on this as it may seem. A lot of people have said that they don't think the post-title stuff was all that bad, but that it was the late-tourney antics that bothered them.

In the end, though, there are people who don't mind/enjoy celebrations and those who think it's crass. No amount of debate is going to change either side's mind, and neither side is wrong. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]