Play ball! Or, um, not.

[icepixie]

Dear Brain,

Why do you insist on coming up with fic ideas concerning subjects about which I know nothing? Kidfic is bad enough; adding in baseball and hockey just magnifies the torture.

I have already written about my lack of experience with kids. My relationship to team sports goes something like this:

In high school, I earned the ire of everyone on my team in PE because I would duck rather than try to bat the volleyball over the net.

In fourth grade, I managed to kick the kickball into my own face, nearly break my glasses, and then quickly get tagged out by the unsympathetic hooligans I was playing with because I'd stepped off the plate.

We're not even going into the time in high school when someone backhanded me with a badminton racquet and knocked a lens out of my glasses, or that other time when a low-flying frisbee smacked me in the teeth, because at least those were not my fault.

Let's just say I'm probably lucky that HS only required a year of PE, and that I could substitute dance classes for it during much of middle school. So brain, why are you doing this? At least the idea doesn't require extensive knowledge of either sport to pull off, and I can cover the gaps with research, but...argh. You can't pick something I know about, or at least could lie convincingly about?

With raised eyebrows,
Me

Comments

[magsyb.livejournal.com]

Well, you could always write a kid sports fic where the kid is just as awkward about sports as you were.. that would be an experience written fic.. ;)

[icepixie]

Ha! I should totally write a children's book about that. Me and like fifty zillion other children's authors. *g*

[magsyb.livejournal.com]

I was probably that kid all the other kids hated. I loved sports while growing up. I was good at some, great at others, and completely stunk at the ones I thought I would be good at.. but the sad part is, even if I was the best at the sport, I would always get picked last because I was one of the unpopular kids. *rolls eyes*.. *shrugs* But if you love dance, you should write about that. :D I consider that a sport. ;)

[icepixie]

but the sad part is, even if I was the best at the sport, I would always get picked last because I was one of the unpopular kids. *rolls eyes*

Awww, that sucks. I usually got picked last when we had kids picking teams, but it was purely because of my lack of ability. I would generally tell them, "Sorry," they would smile half-heartedly, and I'd wander out to the outfield to daydream and possibly pick flowers. If I saw the PE teacher looking at me I might run in the general direction of the ball.

I liked the more individual stuff--not running; I hate running--but foursquare was kinda fun, and I liked tennis.

Dance is definitely sportish. Several years ago, the governing body of ballroom dance competitions tried to get it into the Summer Olympics. But dance would definitely not work for this pairing. *g*

[magsyb.livejournal.com]

Maybe they should try winter olympics.. *shrugs* Who knows? Anythings possible.. ;)

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

I could help you out with the kid part, but kids who play sports? Not so much. My kids weren't much into the sports thing. I know a little about baseball, though. :)

[icepixie]

Well, the fic is actually about watching sports, which I still know very little of.

The "plot," such as it is, is that further on in my Ivanova/Garibaldi AU, Garibaldi decides it's time he taught their daughter the art of being a Mars Dodgers fan. Ivanova is sort of like, argh, baseball is so slow and boring; come winter, I'll convert her to the adrenaline rush that is hockey! So I don't need much knowledge of either sport, I hope--just enough to make it sound authentic. Right now, I'm basically at the point of, "I hear innings are important in baseball. And in hockey, there's something called a puck." *facepalm*

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

Ivanova/hockey OTP, for realz. Seriously, I've never thought of that before.

[icepixie]

She does seem like she'd enjoy it a lot, doesn't she? In my head, I've also decided that at some point during the series, she introduced Delenn to it, and Delenn became a big fan. (You know she needs some kind of vicarious outlet for the ass-kicking she can't really do most of the time in her position.)

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

*pictures Delenn in a goalie mask* Hmm, well.

[icepixie]

Ha! I was actually thinking she'd be into it as a spectator sport more than a participatory one (not seeing much room for an ice rink on B5, although I suppose there could be one...). Actually, given that Minbar is supposed to be really cold, the Minbari probably developed some kind of analog to hockey at some point. Hmmm.

Somewhat off-topic, I can't recall if you were out of the country when I linked to it, but if you're interested in a rewatch, a group of us started beyond_the_rim for that purpose. It's good times!

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

Oh, very cool! I'll check it out tomorrow (Gah. I *hate* being this busy with RL).

[amaresu]

I could help you out with the hockey part.

[icepixie]

Oooh, okay. I actually don't need that much info, because it's a glancing reference, but I'd like it to sound authentic. Basically I'm going to have Ivanova teasing Garibaldi about going nuts for a week during the World Series, and him teasing her back about going nuts during...whatever the equivalent for hockey is.* Is it the Stanley Cup? Does that even have a multiple-game playoff period like the World Series, or is it all over in one game?

* I assume Ivanova would support a St. Petersburg team, and am also assuming that, as with the World Series in canon, the Big Season-Ending Championship for each sport has opened up to teams from across the Earth Alliance.

[amaresu]

The Stanley Cup is the big playoff thing. It actually runs for about 2 months. Regular season ends mid-April and the playoff start within a few days, but no longer than a week, after that. The final Stanley Cup games are played around mid-June.

The way things are set up now is that there are two conferences, Eastern and Western, and each of those have 3 divisions of 5 teams each. The elimination goes Quarter Finales, Semi-Finales, Finales, Stanley Cup. Each round is best of 7 games. (So by the end it's possible to play an additional 28 games after the end of the regular season. The Stanley Cup playoffs are also generally considered one of the most brutal playoffs in sports as by the end everyone is injured.)

I'm not sure how that would change for an Earth Alliance league. The NHL has 30 teams currently and there are a number of European and Russian leagues.

The thing to note about the Stanley Cup is that Lord Stanley's Cup is the only trophy. The same trophy used in 1892 is the one used today. The original trophy is the bowl on top and various bases have been made over the years. The names of everyone on the winning team (including coaching staff and such) are engraved onto the cup every year. The winning team gets to host the cup for that year and each member gets to do whatever they want with the cup for a 24hr period. This has ranged from taking the cup to a children's hospital to taking the cup fishing.

And I've probably gone on long enough. Feel free to ask more questions.

[icepixie]

Excellent info, thank you! All of it was entirely new to me.

I think--considering this is going to seriously be about two lines of dialogue--that I might just have them tease each other about going nuts during "playoffs," which would also take care of the possibility that their chosen teams wouldn't necessarily make it to the final rounds of each championship every year. (This is meant to be a long-standing thing between them.)