The Debatable Land
No gods and precious few heroes: transatlantic dispatches from Alex Massie
Home
December 21, 2008
Today's Question
Why has the United States
never
produced a great darts player?
21 Dec 2008 19:32:20
|
Sports
NEXT POST
Why don't you just cancel the bus service?
It's good to see that not every sector of the economy is knee-capped by the "credit crunch". So hurrah for NHS Lothian who are advertising this exciting opportunity: Job Title: Health Promotion Specialist: Physical Activity (Walking, City of Edinburgh) Band 5: £20,225 - £26,123 per annum Fixed Term – 3 Year Contract Ref: CO/AL/094 An exciting and challenging opportunity has arisen to take forward work in Partnership with City of Edinbrugh Council and Paths to Health to increase physical activity levels of whose who live and work in Edinburgh through walking. You will establish good working relationships with NHS Lothian, City of Edinburgh Council, Paths to Health and partner agencies to develop and implement an action plan to increase walking levels in Edinburgh. You will have knowledge and experience working in a health promotion setting and have in-depth knowledge of the public health issue of physical inactivity. You will be employed by the Health Promotion Service and seconded to City of Edinbrugh [sic] Council Services for Communities department where you will be based within the local community planning team. Your duties will include working with the local community planning team to identify priority areas of work on a locality level...
PREVIOUS POST
The Kennedy Difference
John Judis: I think it would have made most sense for Barack Obama to have appointed Caroline Kennedy a delegate to the United Nations in the manner of Shirley Temple Black or William F. Buckley. But I am not going berserk as my colleagues seem to be over the prospect that she will be appointed senator. The reason has to do, I suspect, with my understanding of political dynasties. There is a difference between the Kennedy dynasty and, say, the Biden, Clinton, or Bush dynasties. And the difference is that many Americans feel they owe the Kennedy family something for their service. Can this really be true?
alex massie
0
Following
44
Followers
Search
My Online Status
Skype
|
Alex Massie
Recent Comments
dqploxzkgcss:
i have installed window 7 and i am getting a mi...
|
more »
On
A local post for local people
Cheap UGGs:
Abdominal muscles initial boot footwear were be...
|
more »
On
Jeanne Campbell, RIP: Forget Not
TodoNizEHiz:
lCwsMxvPk canada goose jackets montreal vMwtUt...
|
more »
On
Jeanne Campbell, RIP: Forget Not
Because 10 pin bowling is the "sport" of choice for that demographic in the US?
Posted by: Simon | December 21, 2008 at 07:41 PM
Because Americans simply don't have the blood alcohol content tolerance expected of great darts players.
Posted by: rach | December 21, 2008 at 09:58 PM
Because if you put the bar for "great" high enough, the USA has never produced a great anyone. No Shakespeare, Darwin, Smith, Hume, Gauss, Euler, Lavoisier, Mozart, Beethoven, Rembrandt....
Posted by: dearieme | December 21, 2008 at 10:07 PM
"Because if you put the bar for "great" high enough, the USA has never produced a great anyone. No Shakespeare, Darwin, Smith, Hume, Gauss, Euler, Lavoisier, Mozart, Beethoven, Rembrandt...."
It's true: the set of Great People born in the USA and the set of Great People born before the USA existed have little overlap...
Posted by: MikeF | December 21, 2008 at 10:50 PM
No pub culture and the thought of having to throw a mini spear when you could go to the gun range would be considered a bit gay.
Posted by: Colin Campbell | December 21, 2008 at 11:04 PM
I blame violent video games and rap music...
Posted by: Kris | December 22, 2008 at 01:52 AM
Not, I think, an interesting question -- why hasn't the UK produced a good candlepin-bowling question or Mexico a good tiddlywinker? These are games played for a lark, mostly. It's when it gets into big money that you have to ask why the US has never produced a good *snooker* player.
Posted by: ben | December 22, 2008 at 07:21 AM
MikeF - you mean that the founding of the USA stopped the creation of Great Men worldwide? Cool. But what about Clerk Maxwell and Einstein?
Posted by: dearieme | December 22, 2008 at 09:46 PM
Well - how many great darts players have theri actually been ? Taylor & Barneveld for sure and of course you can argue Bristow, Lowe and Wilson - though even at their pomp they would struggle against the much heavier scorers around these days. So you are asking the USA to produce someone capable of joining a very elite band.
Back in the golden era the states had a couple of solid pros in Jerry Umberger and Nicky Veraschcal (who made televisions first 10 dart finish an achievement right up there with the first televised 146 or hole in two) and the USA have won the darts world cup - more than once I think. Throw in current PDC world champ John Part who is canadian but played and plays much of his darts in the US and we can see that the USA has made a fair contribution to the darting world. Sure they have never had a world champion but only 4 non UK nationals have won either version of the title, the fact that the original version is run by the "British Darts Organisation" may give some clue as to where the power base lies.
There are other reasons of course; tradition, "American Darts", geography, lack of tv exposure, lack of pub culture etc but it good just be, and I see this borne out in other areas, that Americans just arent very good at hitting the targets they are actually aiming for.
Posted by: tommyt | December 23, 2008 at 01:44 PM
This is definitely an interesting site. That is some inspirational stuff.
Posted by: michael jordan | October 25, 2010 at 08:19 AM
I was searching for some information and found your blog.I just loved it. Keep up the good work.
Posted by: michael jordan | October 25, 2010 at 08:29 AM