Please do enjoy the second installment of commenter Newbie's new feature called "Scratching A Niche." We're not sure if he likes the title or even thinks these are all niche sports, but trust us: it's a good title, and these are niche sports. The overriding theme here is that someone has the decency to break up the 17 consecutive posts about football. Newbie?

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It appears that the first venture of this feature has touched a few nerves. First, allow me (wait if I'm blogging do I have to refer to myself as "we"?), allow us to clear something up. @canada, we're not sure when or how this feud of ours began, but here we are. Rest assured though, IT'S NOT OVER! We also learned that no matter what we write, Mr. RandBall is going to get blamed for it. The system works.

Anyway on the subject of ringette, we did an informal poll of Canadians, (two Canadian co-workers) and neither of them was very familiar with the sport. One did have some friends that played, but doesn't like sports, so she didn't pay attention. The other's response was; "Not really. You do know we have electricity in Canada and we no longer commute using dog sleds, right?" We do... now. To be fair we also did a poll of two American co-workers who were even less familiar with the sport. You can't argue with science, people. Therefore, we offer a great apology to the fine athletes of ringette, for offending you with our version of humor. We will work hard to learn about the sport. The first thing we want to know is why are your championships not held regularly, but seemingly as random occurrences?

Also, a commenter was upset of our lumping Soccer in with the other niche sports. Which is funny, when we brought up the idea of this feature to Marth, he was seriously offended at my implying that hockey was a niche sport, but did not seem to take offense to soccer. And he seems to be a big soccer fanboy. Actually, I used to play soccer. In fact I was a goalkeeper. It was at a USA Cup game, that I performed my personal best. We also lost 12-0. I only played one half. That's not to say I was terrible, but the team we played from Kansas City was insanely above our level. I had somewhere in the neighborhood of 20ish saves, and my teammates lauded my effort. Nonetheless we lost. My point is, even though I played the game I still haven't fully embraced it.

So, perhaps a little more clarification on this feature is needed. It would seem the word "niche" is offensive to the fans of a sport that could be considered in the niche family. If you have a better term that encompasses all sports besides the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, we would like to hear it. Please know, we are not trying to belittle sports that are not in the "mainstream," we are trying to bring them out to the mainstream so they can be appreciated by more fans.

So with that, our new segment:

Untrue, Unresearched, and Possibly Incendiary Slurs Against Various Niche Sports
Thanks to Marth for demanding this section, look for his contributions in the future.

When we watch table tennis on TV, it looks extremely awkward when the player has to chase down his/her own ball after a point. Seriously, you are not going to gain credibility until you get ball-kids to retrieve them for you. Just calling yourself "table tennis" instead of ping-pong is not going to help. You people can do amazing things with the spin on a little plastic ball, but when you have to run around to chase it like we do in our buddy's basement while trying not to spill our beer, it loses some luster.

Job's we wish we had
This segment may take on various names, but it will always consist of things we read on twitter, by athletes, that irritate us as to why they feel the need to share information that they know will upset us common folk.

Up first, the PGA kicked of i's 2011 season with a tournament in Hawaii: The Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Kapalua, Maui. Geoff Ogilvy injured his finger while playing in the ocean. This injury kept him from playing, as the two-time defending champ of the tourney, but did not keep him from receiving a check. Which according to this article, was worth $53,000. It takes some of us a whole YEAR of WORK to earn that, Geoff.


Video Links Worth Watching

Bubba Watson is good at golf. If we set up to aim where he did; our ball would go absolutely straight (for once), maim three people, and accelerate global warming. His goes 10 feet from the pin.

What do NASCAR drivers do in the offseason, aside from ordering 750 beers, burnouts and donuts on the Las Vegas Strip of course?

If you have any more insight into ringette, a better name for this feature, table tennis, athletes that make money for just being them, crazy golf shots, or burnouts, please feel free to leave them in the comments.