Great to watch/play, awful to cover

For me it's golf. Anyone else?

 

Track and field.

 

Love golf and swimming. Had to cover a youth rhythmic gymnastics meet once. That was dreadful. Anything sport with youth or U in its name is agonizing.

 

Track and field? If you can't find a story at a track meet, you're not trying.

 

Soccer.
Joe Blow's header off Jimmy Doe's corner kick at the 34 minute mark was all Team X needed to hold off Team Y 1-0
Goaltender WC Handy notched the shutout, stopping 17 Team Y shots.
"We practice corner kicks a lot in practice," Blow said. "I guess I was just in the right place at the right time."

 

Soccer's tough, especially a regular season 0-0 game.

Unevenly matched teams of any sport are difficult, least at the prep level. Can't say somebody sucked in most papers.

Love track. You're crazy, lonestar!

 

I like covering golf and I don't play. I like covering tennis. I hate rodeo, but it's not great to watch/play. Hmmmm...I have a hard time fitting all the criteria.

 

Cross country is great! It's over in an hour, you talk to one gender while the other is competing. You're outside on a fall afternoon and the weather usually is pretty good. I like covering cross country. The kids are kind of quiet, but then most of them are.

 

I love covering swimming and track ... great stories and typically more articulate kids.

Can't believe I'm saying it, but I HATE high school baseball.

If I had to choose between the bad pitching, rain delays and regular three-plus hour games and soccer/lacrosse/softball, I'd go with the latter every fucking time.

 

Some sports just aren't worth the resources to be covered live (in terms of what you get for being there for the whole thing) - maybe show up late and get some quotes.
Tennis and volleyball are the kind of sports where you can't gauge the turning point until the thing is over. Golf and swimming are similar, nobody is playing defense.

 

I love to play volleyball with a few friends, but not all that fun to cover.

As for pure hate with no fun in watching or "playing" that redeems its awfulness to cover: wrestling.

 

I'd rather cover a bcs championship game than anything in the regular season. And I've covered four. But, all things being equal, it's hard for me to think of a sport, assuming it's played at all well, I don't enjoy watching more than football. I honestly don't get the fascination with the gridiron. I'd rather cover prep soccer and tennis and volleyball, played well, than football. And I've done plenty of that, too.