Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Game for a Rainy Day (or long car ride)

We all love games like Monopoly or Parcheesi, and who doesn't Madden appeal to? But sometimes when it's a rainy day or if you're in the car (one without video screens on the backs of seats) for a long drive, it's fun to play the sports name game. 'How does one play?' you ask? We're very glad you asked. The rules go as follows:

First person lists any player from any sport, past or present (sorry, no future). For example, Pele. Pele famously played soccer, of course, so for the next person, the athlete they name cannot be a soccer player. Easy enough, right?

But here's the interesting part (if this wasn't part of it, you could just name all the athelets you'd ever heard of which would just be a contest of who has the best memory, which would be kind of fun for a little while but eventually you'd probably rather be out in the rain): the next athlete's first name must start with the last letter of the previous athlete's last name. So, in the conveniently aforementioned example (see sentence two, above) Pele was the athlete and his name ends in 'e.' So, person two must reply with, for example, Edgerrin James. Edgerrin James starts with 'e' and is not a soccer player, making him one of thousands of perfect matches for this example. The game continues as such until a person can no longer name any players fitting these criteria. Additionally, no names may ever be reused (well, at least not in the same game. I guess you could reuse Pele the next time you play...if you weren't very good at it).

One fun way to more easily knock out your eager opponents is to use as many names like Claude Lemieux or Harold "the show" Arceneaux. Why? They end in 'x,' that's why. How many names have you ever heard of that start with 'x'? I'll cheat for you and give you a few (Xavier McDaniel, who by the way went to AC Flora high school here in Columbia, and Xavi Alsonso). Names such as Exree Hipp do not count, even though they sound like they might start with an 'x.'

Finally, names that cannot be used include nicknames of players. For example, one cannot use 'Pudge' Rodriguez, even though 'z' is another really good letter to end with. Ivan Rodriguez is of course very appropriate, but not if the last letter of the previous last name ends in 'p.' This is also useful when considering using Carlton Fisk and slightly less useful but still good to know when considering Pork Chop Womack (aka, Floyd).

So there you have it, completely free of charge (until we can start charging for access to this site) a game to play that will enhance your sports name knowledge while simultaneously wasting countless hours. Please play responsibly.

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