Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 6 - The Olympics and Wall Ball
102 Plays1 year ago
Ross and Gregg primarily discuss the Olympics, sharing their thoughts on various aspects of the event including its relevance, the inclusion of new sports, and potential everyday activities that could be turned into Olympic events. The conversation then takes an unexpected turn as they delve into a lengthy discussion about the childhood game "wall ball".
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:06
Speaker
You're listening to Unmotivated and Unprepared, a podcast where we take a break from the everyday hustle and bustle to muse about life,
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of Unmotivated and Unprepared. I'm Ross.
Olympics Enthusiasm and Niche Sports
00:00:36
Speaker
And I'm Greg. And Greg, today we're gonna we're going to talk about something that's near and dear to my heart that recently concluded, which is the Olympics, if if you're OK with that. Yeah, for sure. Let's talk about the Olympics, Ross.
00:00:51
Speaker
Yeah, so I know, here's here's my thing. I feel like the Olympics are either right you're all in and excited or you want nothing to do with it. And not necessarily for any reason other than it's just like, eh, it happens every two to four years depending on which sport you like. So I'm curious, are you are you on one polar opposite of the spectrum of Olympic fandom?
00:01:21
Speaker
Uh, I mean, I think, I think it's sports in general, Ross. I'm not too big into sports as it were, but the Olympics, uh, definitely not, not what I get excited for. Like I do other types of events that happen annually or biannually, et cetera. We've talked on the show before, but I do understand the joy of the Olympics and you Ross, you are, did you watch it all? Did you sneak away from work and watch some?
00:01:50
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I didn't, I was, I was happy for the days we had off that, you know, so I could, you know, watch like three sports at the same time, but you got to remember I am a, okay. Four let's be honest, but I'm a, I'm a unique and a non, I like watching the sports that aren't as popular in the United States just because I find it fascinating that there are billions of other people that watch these sports.
00:02:18
Speaker
and everybody in America are like oh NFL and NBA MLB ish and then you've got you've got these other sports that only like only come around every two to four years and I'm like okay well that's fascinating I don't even know what this I don't even know how handball plays so from how it works so I'm more interested in like the uniqueness of the sport and like, can I learn the rules of the sport in a two week timeframe? That's like a challenge to me. Like, like the nuances of water polo.
00:02:52
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. like like Why are they wiggling around? and like can they like you know it's So it's impressive. I mean, obviously, there's there's an athletic element that's like just impressive to me. And these people are like extremely, extremely like athletic. They're the best at what they do. But but to me, it's yeah it's interesting to see the uniqueness of each of each sport.
Human Interest Stories in Olympics
00:03:14
Speaker
Well, it's interesting, Ross. like I thought about it from a standpoint of like softball or basketball because we play those sports on teams year round, etc. And they don't play together. Whereas there's the US national water polo team, which is, that's it, that's the team. like they they don't have They don't have competitive water polo, like you know the the water dragons versus the yeah the drowning jaguars like playing each other. The PPL, professional polo league. Yeah, no, they don't have that at all.
00:03:47
Speaker
So from that standpoint, I get it it kind of like skiing, I don't know, I don't watch skiing year round, but when it plays at the Olympics, then it's like, okay, I'll watch downhill skiing, etc. Yeah.
00:03:58
Speaker
I do. Are you into the human interest story part of the lip? Oh, no, no. See, i'm I'm not like I like you you throw up, you throw up a montage and I'm checked out. I mean, it's not it's not that I don't appreciate like, oh, you know, she works at she works at Home Depot during the day and at night she goes to the ah she goes to the pool and treads water for six hours as she prepares for her polo journey.
00:04:27
Speaker
You know, like, cool. I mean, I get it. And these people oftentimes have regular jobs. But i I feel like they just throw those up there because they think it's going to get viewership.
Breakdancing and Cultural Diversity
00:04:38
Speaker
And I'm like, just show me the sport. I get this once every four years. Just give me down to the sport.
00:04:43
Speaker
port I mean, they've shown that it does. It absolutely does give viewership, especially from female audiences who want to hear that human interest story and make you feel attached to the challenges that this person experienced all to become a great long jumper or the relationship between, you know, the husband and wife and how they had to go through adversity to get to the Olympics. I mean, it is that kind of nationalistic pride that the Olympics are all about.
00:05:09
Speaker
Yeah, I know. but i So maybe I don't like the Olympics as much as I just like random sports. i like my The ESPN Ocho. Yes, i'm i'm like I'm like the top Ocho viewer. my wife My wife would agree with me on that. right I started watching the Indian, uh, the, it's a popular in India, kabaddi, um, sport. And I'm like, it's just, I started watching the pro kabaddi league, um, the P K L. And, uh, I was just like, what is this thing? with like So it's not an Olympic sport yet.
Sports Diversity and Global Shifts
00:05:44
Speaker
i'm I'm rooting for it. It'd be better than breaking. That's for sure. Uh, because, and now, now you said to pause for a moment, you said, uh,
00:05:54
Speaker
activities that you normally do. Now you you take part in dancing. I do. so you Yeah, yeah. So so breakdancing was a sport in the Olympics this year. How do you how do you think you'd fare it at breakdancing Greg? Oh, I would be terrible. Did you see the upper body strength on those guys? Like the one guy who goes from some from a dead like lay on the ground to straight up on a handstand without actually like with only using his legs and his abs. He does the worm, but then ends up in a handstand. I'm like, right now hold up. Are the break dancers? Is that like, hey, I thought about doing gymnastics, but I decided to like music too much so I went into break dancing? Because like you're right, these people have ridiculous strength.
00:06:41
Speaker
i I don't know, I didn't watch enough of the human interest aspect of the Olympics for me to to confer on that. Fair. But I think what you're seeing,
Olympics and National Unity
00:06:51
Speaker
what I think you're seeing more in the Olympics now, especially with the Western world declining in population and the developing world booming in population, I think there's more and more things that'll get incorporated into the Olympics that have inclusion aspects, right? The fact that the fact that basketball was as competitive as it was when in 92, you know, you go back 20 years ago, there was no chance it was just wiped the floor with everybody. And now you have all these basketball players playing in the NBA. It's really interesting. All these international basketball players are coming to the United States to play and Americans are going international play in their leagues, because they they're not good enough to play in the American League. yeah And then these international people are good enough to play in the in the American League.
00:07:36
Speaker
it It is interesting, especially when you start asking yourself questions about patriotism, which is like, you know, the National Basketball Association doesn't have America in it. But it's the national sport of the United States for basketball, etc. And then the MLB is almost all Dominicans now. So like, so from that perspective, I think you are you are seeing this identity thing where the Olympics is the last bastion of nationalistic pride of These are Americans that are competing. Yeah. Everybody, everybody can support like for the, for the one moment, especially in a year like this year, which we won't talk politics, but I'm always like, Hey, it's the one time that almost everybody can root for the same person. And we can like
Integration of New Sports in Olympics
00:08:21
Speaker
cheer, you know, cheer that person on and everything. So there is a, there is a sense of pride in that. But to the point about breakdancing, I think what makes the Olympics challenging, especially for certain countries is
00:08:33
Speaker
You have soccer, which is anat which is a sport worldwide or football, which is a sport worldwide. And then you have running, which is a sport worldwide. And apparently shooting guns is a sport world. Yeah. Yeah. I was going to say I did not, I did not realize how, uh, and shooting it very accurately. Right. Like, you know, I just don't, don't try to juke those people at all. But no, but, but it is one of those things where I think having sports like breakdancing and others allows more people from other countries to compete. Because while you asked gymnastics is very, very expensive.
00:09:10
Speaker
to be part of to... and unless you have a state-sponsored program like you do in some of the Eastern European countries or ah socialized sports, which you do have someone in the Western European world, most people are forced to spend a lot of money, especially the United States, to spend a lot of money getting their kid at even competitive ready, let alone trying to compete in the Olympics, you'd have a lot of money or scholarships. And then college and then college yeah college programs where the best coaches are and everything else. And so, yeah, and I think that's, you make a good point about just new sports coming in and that element. I mean, I think even culturally it's interesting to see, you know, how, cause I didn't realize i didn't realize it until this year, like the host country
00:09:56
Speaker
gets to like pick a sport to add in, which is why I guess France chose breakdancing. But then there's all the talk like it won't be back like this. It'll be a one and done type of sport, which, you know, I don't blame the Australian lady like
Relevance of Modern Olympics
00:10:12
Speaker
everybody else did. I don't blame her routine that did not go well for all the memes. But I do think that.
00:10:22
Speaker
It'll be interesting because you get into the age old argument of what constitutes a sport, you know, and and I'm like, well, is it at that point, is it really about the sport or is it just about people rooting for rooting for their for their team or for their person at that point? I mean, there's absolutely athleticism involved in break dancing and any of these things.
00:10:44
Speaker
um I don't understand, actually, to be honest, I don't understand half the sports that they have in the the Olympics. i get I get the traditional ones like diving and swimming. And I never understood why softball or baseball were were summer Olympic sports or even, to be honest, basketball. At this point, basketball is such a a internationally loved, monetarily profit driven,
00:11:13
Speaker
pursuit I don't see why that's in the Olympics anymore, right? I think it should be all the amateur stuff. Yeah, and that's why that that was I mean obviously that was the big drama with the with the dream team in 92 when they first allowed non you know when they allowed professional players to come in it wasn't just amateur players and they just cleaned up right like there was I'm sure people in the US loved it because we it was like an instantaneous gold medal and you got to watch some of the greatest basketball players of all time play on one team and
00:11:43
Speaker
But there is an element of like, hey, these people are the amateur, you know, seeing LeBron James come, he has plenty of time to practice um and use facilities because he's a billionaire versus some, you know, person trying to learn pole vaulting, you know, has some makeshift pole vaulting thing in his backyard practicing when he comes home from work. You know, it's still a little bit, little bit different.
00:12:06
Speaker
Yeah, i don't I don't know the relevancy of the Olympics now beyond just a platform for odd sports that nobody
Amateur vs Professional Athletes
00:12:17
Speaker
cares about it unless it's the Olympics.
00:12:19
Speaker
um And you think it what like, what what have you peaked the year before the Olympics? Like how much would that suck? like You're right like a a shot putter and like you're like best of the best, you know, the year right before the Olympics, you win the worlds and then you just suck.
00:12:37
Speaker
And you go and don't get picked for the Olympics. Like you were last year's greatest. Cause that happens in sports a lot. yeah Especially kind of with four years. I mean, four years is a long time from an athletic ability standpoint. It's like, I mean, it is impressive. These people, you know, folks like Simone Biles who are dominant for so many years, but like there are inevitably people that two years ago had been like,
00:13:01
Speaker
you know, guaranteed slam dunk for a gold medal. And now they're like, I got beat out at our trials for our country. So I didn't even get to go. Right. what So from that perspective, I don't know. I mean, again, I don't. I watch a lot of stuff. I definitely love movies and I definitely do like, you know, YouTube.
00:13:22
Speaker
ah So I don't not watch TV. I just don't see watching sitting down. I don't really get excited about a three hour sporting event. Because for you it's more so for you it's more social. Yeah. I think the fun part about the Olympics is that everything lasts 15 minutes. um That's kind of nice. Or you could like tune into the marathon and watch somebody run and then you know poop on themselves. But you know, why did watch somebody run and then. Yeah, sure. yeah It's hard work, Greg. It's hard work. I don't understand.
00:13:49
Speaker
like i like
00:13:52
Speaker
It's really interesting about Olympics because I think if you look at Lenny Riefenstahl's, you know, thing about Olympia, which is, I mean, obviously I'm not trying to bring up like Nazi propaganda, but the whole idea of that movie was the body
Unconventional Olympic Sports
00:14:07
Speaker
and this idea of human prowess and the looks and those kinds of things. And I think that hasn't changed. I think there's still, and the nationalism of it all, right? The idea of nationalistic pride. I think that that hasn't changed. Still the same as it always was.
00:14:21
Speaker
Yeah, it's beating it's beating. It's proving that you're the best. Your country is the best. Right. At what though? Like the ability to throw a rock really far? I don't i don't know what the... Hey, you never know what you're gonna... I mean, it might come in handy when you need to like throw a rock through someone's ah third floor, you know, third floor townhome and just, you know, kind of sla sling it up there, you know, set up. i'm not Yeah, I'm not taking anything away from the achievements of the different athletes. I think that's an amazing skill and amazing a lot of investment because it's not just a skill.
00:14:55
Speaker
Right. They might have natural talent, but they practice. I know oh yeah rough dancing like it. I've been dancing for three and a half months and I'm barely at a level that I feel confident that I could like show up and do stuff. The people that actually compete in dancing like legitimate dancing, which also is weird because we have ice skating. Do we have dancing in the Olympics, Ross? Rhythmic. Well, we have rhythmic gymnastics, which is the one where they yeah we have break dancing. But do we have like tango and stuff? No, no.
00:15:23
Speaker
Right? Which is weird because we have figure skating, which is essentially just dancing on ice. Dancing on ice. Absolutely. 100% dancing on ice. So we should have like the Tango and the Salsa competition along with breakdancing. Yeah. Well, you see- Well, who's tuning in for that? I mean, the other thing is it's also for the views, right? It also is an entertainment product, right? Absolutely. It's what it is. Yeah.
00:15:45
Speaker
Back to our Eurovision episode, right? Yeah. it's It happens once a year. Not a lot of those songs are really going to be like number one hits worldwide. No. It's for the viewership, right? It's to get people to tune in and watch, right? it's How weird can you make it? Yeah, half the time we talked about the people singing and what they were wearing and how weird they were, not even the song. It's you know it's a similar aspect of a thing. So but last question on the Olympics though.
00:16:11
Speaker
um What, so if you could add a sport or if you could add some random everyday activity that would get Greg to tune in, is there an activity that you would tune in for to watch ordinary people with extraordinary abilities? Think of the montage. but that Well, and I want to, what what's yours, Ross? Let's go with yours. Cause I have an idea.
00:16:40
Speaker
So, uh, winter Olympics, it would be snow shoveling. Okay. That's a pretty, pretty specific. Yeah. Right. Right. Like, yeah. Like, because you know, you could really think of, you know, Bill, and Bill lives in upstate New York every day.
Pet Olympics Idea
00:16:55
Speaker
He's, you know,
00:16:56
Speaker
Every day between September and and in April, he shovels snow. Little did he know in the year 2046 that he would be allowed to compete in the Olympics. yeah So ah snow shoveling. From a summer Olympics, I think dog walking.
00:17:16
Speaker
ah hear me out dog walking hear me hear me out hear me You see all these people like walking multiple dogs trying to keep them herded and stuff and you see the Westminster dog show but like these are These are highly trained dogs. I'm talking like you just pair this person up with a random like No, hear me out. Random. I'm coming up with this. This is like generative Ross stuff here because I'm making this up on the fly. You you take shelter dogs who need a good home. You give them the montage so they'll get adopted.
00:17:50
Speaker
And then you put them, and you pair them up with these, quote, professional dog walkers. And then they have to do like different things. Like, you know, like how quickly can and they get from point A to point B? If the dog gets distracted, that's, you know, a deduction of points. If it, you know, if it poops outside the lane, you know, that's like, you know, there's certain like objectives and things. I mean, we've got equestrian, right? So like, we're already prancing horses around. Why can't we do something with our, with our canine friends? And then,
00:18:18
Speaker
the dogs get adopted. You got a worldwide audience. And you know, so I think it's a win win for everyone. I think the dog benefits. It would be funny to watch. So dog walking, snow shoveling. Yeah, and I'm with you. I think I think it works better like with trained dogs, but untrained sheep. Like It that works a little better than than than untrained dogs and trained dog walkers. I think it's that hurting sheep is different. I think. Yeah. Yeah. um But I mean, sheep herding, well, you'd have all the Scottish people coming in and cleaning up every year. Right. Like, I mean, they'd be like, necessarily I mean, you could have the other one is like trained dogs and like rats on fields. Like you just go to random places in the world and the dogs have like have to collect all the rats that they can and you get points per rat that your dog collects.
00:19:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. just take Well, just take the humans out of it. Just give the dog all the prime time. Right. So now it's dog Olympics. Yeah. Dog trials. Yeah. we've now We've now switched to pet Olympics.
Iron Chef-style Olympic Events
00:19:20
Speaker
The dog could like, if he's the bestest of boys and he gets the gold, it's like a golden biscuit that he can then eat while he's on the podium. You know, it doesn't even need the biscuit anymore. So.
00:19:30
Speaker
Well, I think, I mean, when you think about athletic prowess, I was thinking like competitive chefs, right? Like I, you do see chopped, you see chopped and you see iron chef and those things and they've got to go fast and they've got to compete. I think there's a lot that iron chef format works really, really well. And I think it is athletic. They run around, they do a bunch of stuff. I think we should put iron chef as a competition. Iron chef. All right, put it in there. Put it in like that would be a At first round, you'd have a thing. Yeah, here's the thing, Ross. I think a lot of the sports that are in the Olympics still were sports that people did participate in when they were in high schools or schools, especially in America in the 50s. They weren't that far. Diving and all that stuff used to be in schools. It's not anymore. You don't see a lot of these sports anymore. ah Track and field still exists, but you have fewer and fewer shot putters, fewer and fewer discus throwers.
00:20:24
Speaker
you do still have pole vault, but less and less of them, namely because you really can't beat the records. The records have been done and that like we've kicked the human, the height of what we can do for pretty much the records, except for like millimeters. So the odds of a high school student. Yeah, the measurement. Yeah. The measurement is just getting more precise, not the people getting better. You're just getting closer and closer measurement precision. So, so I do think that if we were to revamp the Olympics, it has to be sports that people actually participate in.
00:20:52
Speaker
uh, minus of course, the footballs and the soccer's and the, you know, the sports have like national play. Something that everybody does, it changes your perspective on how impressive it is. You know, like I can watch somebody climb up, like they have the speed climbing in the Olympics, the rock climbing where they like shoot up a thing in like six seconds.
00:21:15
Speaker
And that's impressive. But try going bouldering or rock climbing. And then it's like, okay, that's really, really impressive. like that's and That's insane. The American Ninja Warrior for the Olympics? Yeah, yeah exactly. Exactly. i think they I think we should have... I honestly think we should go back to the Olympics of of old Greece or maybe old Rome and do like American gladiators, the Olympic version.
00:21:40
Speaker
Mm. Okay. Okay. Like just the show that was on TV. Yeah. Where like they shot you with tennis balls. Laser. That documentary by the way is excellent. Wait, there's a documentary. There's a documentary on American gladiators. Yeah. Yeah. I want to say it's, I think it's an ESPN 30 for 30.
00:22:02
Speaker
Um, I believe it's, I believe it's easy, but yeah, it's, uh, it talks about like how it was just, I mean, all the things you could think of, like they were just, you know, and the guy who created it and everything else, but it's, it's really good. but You know, laser and storm, you know, like all these, the one, my favorite one. So we've now pivoted from Olympics to American gladiators, but that's fine. That's how we roll.
00:22:26
Speaker
oh the the one where they have to like stuff like kind of like basketball style where they like stuff the ball into the little like little pillar looking thing and you know the gladiators are trying to like block them out from doing it and i'm just like i watched that as a kid just so fascinated by it was It was like, Hey, let's take, let's take wrestling, which, you know, don't want to spoil it for anybody.
American Gladiators Nostalgia
00:22:53
Speaker
Um, somewhat scripted and let's, let's add the everyday, the everyday John Doe or Jane Doe to this and let them like be athletic with it. But yeah, American gladiators is amazing. I loved it as a kid growing up.
00:23:12
Speaker
It's terrible though. Like really, it's really terrible. Awful. But I mean, like, how often can you have a tennis ball? Tennis ball shot at you and you're like ducking around and like shooting back at them. It's like, it's like somebody had all these leftover t-shirt cannons and like, what are we going to do with these? I've got an idea. Let me shoot a mad shoe and let's build it. It's like, this is perfect.
00:23:38
Speaker
with a ton of CO2, where they just shot, it to oh man, yeah and the joust and all that thing, oh man. Oh yeah, joust, yeah. there said Like who, I'm sure somebody's tried to reboot that, right? It has to have been attempted to reboot it. Oh it did, they out rebooted it in 2000s, right? Like with with with Hulk Hogan as the host. All right, brother.
00:23:59
Speaker
Just did, it's it's one of those shows that just needed to be there at a time and place that just, hit its peak I think it was the 90s. I think it was the 90s and the 90s really. It was very 90s. Yeah, very true. I think I think there wasn't. Yeah, I don't think there's a lot of ways to look at it. ah Yeah. Do you think do you think Gen I is ever going to create sports like rules and everything and like end up coming into it now type of sport? It can do it now. I mean, if it wanted to if you wanted to have it come up with a sport, it could do it now.
00:24:34
Speaker
them. I'm curious, I think first, whether or not you'll play it is a whole different thing. Sure, sure. I mean, I'm sure somebody's probably tried to have ah Gen AI create Quidditch that's actually playable. I mean, I know people do play Quidditch and you know like I get that, but it's a little odd.
Olympics as Reality TV
00:24:56
Speaker
They just run around on brooms.
00:24:58
Speaker
um
00:25:01
Speaker
It's a little odd. maybe Maybe if they put something like, I'm trying to think of what else I could put in the Olympics from the sport, because I do think the Olympics, they're never going to be away from the montages.
00:25:14
Speaker
But I think it would be funny for everyday for everyday activities that humans do, and that people do, to have something like that in the Olympics. Iron Chef, though, would be good. How fast can you julienne?
00:25:26
Speaker
you know and yeah We've reached the mandolin round. Careful, everybody. I would talk. We lost a thumb. We lost a thumb. ooh That's going to be a two-finger deduction. you know
00:25:43
Speaker
um Poor, poor guy. Even better it had to be the measurements accuracy like the teaspoon versus tail like, oh, you put a little too much salt into that one. We're gonna have the it's the pinch of salt round. It's like, how close can he get to quarter of a teaspoon? Oh, just slightly off.
00:26:03
Speaker
How close can you get to a quarter of a teaspoon? you That's so dumb Ross. I know exactly. Exactly. but you got to remember I'm a baker, not a, I'm not a, I'm not a cooker. I'm a baker. I don't lie. I like exact measurements. I'm not this. you do Just throw food, just throw food in there. No, no, no. I want, I want the, give me the exactly leveled teaspoon of this thing. Otherwise you're going to mess up the recipe type of person. That's, it's a hundred percent me. So I would kill it at that sport, whichever one that was kill it.
00:26:39
Speaker
I could just see it. Could you imagine like baking? Like we have to wait, like, ah like, oh, bo people people would tune in though, the iris, like they would tune into like, what is that? The great British Bake Off. They would turn into that. Oh yeah, they would. But then but then the question is like, how much of it then is it really the Olympics and how much of it is just TV?
00:26:57
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. At that point, at that point, it's just, it's just more television because we've, heard it's just reality TV.
Wall Ball as an Olympic Sport
00:27:03
Speaker
And I mean, that's really all the Olympics are anyways. It's reality TV with odd sports for the most part, seven years out of them. You've got, you have a swimming, but dodgeball didn't make it. Dodgeball didn't make it to the, no, no, dodgeball is probably a good thing. Like honestly, it's probably a great thing. Like you don't really want that to be Yeah, you know what that being? Wall ball. Did you ever play wall ball as a kid where you throw the tennis ball against the wall? And then, yeah, like that was, uh, I don't know what, uh, that was an early on generative AI model that came up with wall ball. And I was like, what do, uh, I've got a new game for you. Throw a tennis ball against a wall. Try to touch the wall. if You can't, if you drop it, you know, if not, somebody could hit you with the ball. What? Like.
00:27:51
Speaker
which Does a terrible game. What what bully? Because you know the initial rules of wall ball were just throw the ball against the wall, catch it. If you drop it, too bad for you. Then someone's like, well, if you drop it, you got to get to the wall. And then some bully came along and was like, hey, I've got a better idea. If you don't make it to the wall, you get to stand there and I get to throw this ball at you as hard as I can and hit you with it. Wait, what? But here's the question. Here's the question, Ross. Who came up with that?
00:28:19
Speaker
Like and how does all of us know about it? How does everybody know this like game? How does everybody know it? Do you know it? I grew up in Utah and then Germany and yet al everybody knows about Wobble. How does every kid in America know about Wobble?
00:28:35
Speaker
next time there is an unmotivated and unprepared. We talk about wall ball for 30 minutes as people tune out. Yeah. That's a, I don't know. Where did wall ball come from? Is that appropriate? Like we can call it that, right? There's nothing like, there's nothing like unpolitically correct about calling it wall ball, right? It's just wall and a ball, you know? Yeah. Apparently it's from like the 1950s Ross.
00:29:00
Speaker
And then like every kid just knows about it. You're just bored with it. You just know. you you you You take in your first breath, you cry, and you think, well, ball. Where's your board? It's just inherently bored with it. Fascinating. Yeah, apparently it's been around since like like forever, New York City and everything else. They call it butts up in all sorts of different games. That's That's probably not politically correct anymore. Well, but it makes sense. It's kind of one of those games where you can think of it as,
00:29:29
Speaker
yeah Like, yeah, if you, if you get caught and you got to go run up there and then they hit you with the ball, which is terrible. Cause it hurts. It's awful. Why do they play that game? It's although it would be funny if that's the new Olympic game that like, if we got out in the Olympic committee and be like, we're putting wall ball in the Olympics, right? Yeah. They'd be like, uh, I'm like, look, some of these sports are very, uh, I mean, there's boxing in the Olympics. So why not wall ball? Every kid knows how to play it.
00:29:57
Speaker
how many how many ah concussions have happened from wall ball? That's really the research we need to do, because I think if we're gonna get wall ball into the Olympics, because I think that's, I just decided that's what we're gonna petition for. um we need the We need the stats on safety. What's the injuries? What's the substantive injuries? Like you gotta wear a bait you gotta to wear a big padded helmet, like when you yeah when when you're playing Olympic wall ball.
Cricket's Evolution and Sports Development
00:30:22
Speaker
Like are there any are there any additional rules that you have to,
00:30:26
Speaker
You know, have to incorporate into wall ball like maybe we need to redefine the rules of wall ball to make it Olympic friendly. Yeah, we could maybe we could add break dancing in between. Right. Like if you don't make it to the wall, you have to dance while they throw the ball at you. I don't know something like that. It's terrible. right Just just please don't use a cricket. Just don't use a cricket ball like that. That would be that would be rough. Oh, wow. Yeah, that would be rough.
00:30:57
Speaker
ah first time I ever uh first time I ever um I didn't play a real cricket match but I went and practiced and played cricket with people and they were using how do you do they were just playing with the rubber with the rubber ball like or like their practice like the practice ball yeah yeah yeah so you can actually hold it and just yeah I do okay I mean I'm not I mean, if you saw me in real life, clearly I don't, I don't lift a lot of weights. I'm not real strong. ah' I'd say that, you know, I try, but I'm not real strong. Those cricket bats are heavy. Like they're, they're, they're beefy. Like I can pick up a baseball bat and I'm like, okay, you pick up a cricket bat. You're like, no wonder why they're not swinging these things for the, you know, swinging it for outer space every time. They're really heavy.
00:31:41
Speaker
but takes some I mean, that's why you you redirect the ball, but I did okay. I mean, ay ah got a couple of I got a couple of ones, I would say. But even to lift the ball up with cricket, right? Because you've got to hit it in a certain way, and that's a really heavy ball. I mean, it's yeah it's ah it's a croquet ball, so it's heavy. So you then hit the ball. You wonder if that's what the cricket started out as people were playing croquet, and they had the hammer. they're like Yeah, and they got bored, and they're like, hey, we could make this a lot more fun. I'm going to throw this at you.
00:32:12
Speaker
Poor dude with the croquet ballads, like, uh, I'm going to need something a little wider to hit this, to throw this at me. And I'm going to need some protection down below, protection on my head. Yeah, dude, it hurts. And they catch it with their bare hands. i mean that's yeah like That's what's insane to me. Like the fact that they can jump and catch catch that with their bare hands, it's like, there's got to be so many sprained nuts, sprained appendages. Absolutely bananas.
00:32:41
Speaker
But yeah, so we were playing and then someone's like, yeah, we don't play with the real ball. And they, they they gave me one of the, credit I'm like, thank you for never throwing that at me. And I mean, they were nice to me. Like they barely even bold it. Like they just kind of like, yeah, throw it to the, throw it to the newbie. Just kind of pitch it his way. It was almost like, it was almost like a slow pitch softball.
00:33:00
Speaker
and it just It's like, can we play T cricket? Where you just put the T cricket.
00:33:09
Speaker
is smack it it just a ride for the outside you know oh It's funny. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's add, uh, I'll do some research. We can maybe get wall ball added to the Olympics. I mean, it's coming to Los Angeles. So what's coming? Oh, the yeah Olympics.
Episode Conclusion
00:33:24
Speaker
Yeah. wait We needed to petition the IOC to put wall ball. and
00:33:31
Speaker
Could you see a bunch of grown men? Oh, even better, make it co-ed. Could you see a bunch of like men and women playing wall ball and like having to go to the wall and then get hit with the ball? These guys would throw the ball at like miles an hour. They'd have like some they'd have some like ah like jujitsu style spit up in the air and sling it really hard. like yeah Dude, you know how much that would hurt? like There'd be injuries all over the place. yeah like oh America lost number seven. ah She was pegged too hard. It caused a a fissure across her glutamis maximus. it like but But it looks like the Americans, oh, we have a pinch thrower. We have a Raldus Chapman in here. He's going to throw baseballs at over a hundred miles an hour. He's going to be the pinch thrower.
00:34:19
Speaker
i A substitution for a wall ball. Oh, it's so bad, Ross. Dude, that that's like, that's like, I like to submit a runner for me as well. right i like Like I can't do this. I need to get somebody else to run for me. There's teams of four. You see him stretching, see him stretch at the beginning, real, real serious, like doing some, like some dynamic stretching before starting their wall ball.
00:34:46
Speaker
you know, the swimmers, they'll flap their arms back and forth. Yeah, see the wall ball athletes like swinging their arms around, getting ready. But isn't it an individual sport? Like it's played individually, right? Yeah, it is. not yeah Yeah. So then it'll be like, um there'd be like round like heats of four. So you'd have like, yeah, China, Russia, US, and England, it'd be like, it'd be like, and the the axis powers.
00:35:14
Speaker
We've got a we've got a we've got a good lineup today in today's heat for wall ball. Well, you could turn it into a team support sport, right? I mean, no, I would be very difficult to turn into a team sport. It'd be like and now represent the UN Security Council versus the developing nations of Africa.
00:35:32
Speaker
our wall ball heat. yeah
00:35:37
Speaker
like in the today's wall Today's ball is sponsored by Wilson. you know like youre kind of like Who's the first company that would sponsor somebody like on their jersey or something for a wall ball? Well, I guess, I mean, obviously it's Vans, right? Because off the wall. right oh yeah there kind bands yeah so yeah bands Vans would be the first to sponsor a wall ball athlete.
00:36:01
Speaker
in that rubber racquetball. Like, could you see it spring up as an actual like, yeah if they put it in the Olympics, it'd be a competitive sport. And then you'd actually see it like. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Man. Talk about like wall ball courts. All it would be would be dilapidated like other sports courts where they just put up a brick wall. Fuck. Yeah. We have high quality wall ball facilities, three brick walls for you to bounce your ball up against. All right. I think we've talked about wall ball for 10 minutes. We probably should ah probably. should
00:36:33
Speaker
Just be honest. This is where we started. with Hey man, so this is unmotivated unprepared. We go everywhere and anywhere and no way. Absolutely. We ended with wall ball. I can't wait for the, uh, can't wait to try to type up what the summary of this, uh, this episode is for people. I don't know if I should start with the Olympics or start with wall ball, but we'll figure it out. All right, Greg. Well, Hey, as always, it was great talking to you, man. Until next time. See you soon.
00:37:04
Speaker
Thanks for listening to Unmotivated and Unprepared. Join us again next time as we continue to meander through random topics at a pace defined by our mood, the weather, and what happened five minutes earlier.