Favorites on the Fringe   Once again we find ourselves at that time of year: college basketball is done for the year, baseball hasn't really geared up to full throttle yet and the NBA & NHL playoffs haven't quite started.  In other words  . . .the dog days of sports.  Days you spend aimlessly searching the cable networks for any sport that is exciting enough to spend a half-hour watching.  So we decided to tell you what our favorite "non-mainstream" sports were.  These are the sports that always illicit that "Yes!" feeling when you magically come across them at 3am on ESPN.  These are the ones that Wide World of Sports made a living off of for twenty years and they're our favorites.   Here’s what we came up with:      Dan - AJS Contributing Writer   Poker - First of all, I’ll admit that poker has no claim to being a real sport except airing on ESPN.  In no sport should you actually become less physically fit by playing it.  That said, poker still rocks.  I’ve been playing since I was ten (and yes, with real money).  The losses are real and instantaneous.  The George Masons can be found in every tournament.  And with the pocket cam you feel like you’re in huddle on both sides of the ball, knowing that even the perfect hand can unravel with poor execution.  The best part though?  Winning is all about having bigger cajones than the guy across the table.  Luck helps of course, but just like Rockne said of football, the game is played “mostly from the neck up”.       Joe - AJS College Football Editor   Rodeo – Even though I’m from Oklahoma, I own zero country music CD’s.  I’ve never in my life owned a pair of cowboy boots.  Couldn’t two-step if I had to.  But the sport that I cannot turn off when it jumps on my TV is Rodeo.  It’s easy to talk about the courage of the wide-receiver who is willing to go across the middle knowing he’s going to get high-lowed by the safety and the linebacker.  Or even to wonder what it must feel like when a pitcher throws a 98 mph fast ball at your head.  But these are uncommon occurrences in either sport and in both cases, the player has a referee/umpire there to protect them to some degree.  Not so with a cowboy.  Any man who would willingly climb on to a two-thousand pound animal that has a strap tied to his balls just to make him meaner, is deserving of our respect.  These guys take tough to a whole new level and they do it for not much money and an ugly belt buckle.   Travis - AJS Contributing Writer   Curling - The newest rage in sports “sweeping” the nation. Soon there will be ice rinks everywhere putting in a curling room and offering classes on the strategies and nuances of the sport. Before long there will be leagues nationwide, much like softball it will explode into a sport that brings together friends a couple of nights a week for good times. It is an Olympic sport that the average joe can play and who knows with a little practice make to the Olympics. ESPN is even beginning to recognize the popularity of this craze, they televised the USA – Sweden match a couple of Sundays ago. I am telling you now, invest soon in companies making brooms and stones.  And best of all, Curling tradition calls for the WINNER not the loser to buy the beer.   Don - AJS Editor-in-chief   Aussie Rules Football - Not sure about the rules completely on this one – but it’s just fun to watch.  The game is played between two teams of 18 players (plus interchange players), on cricket ovals or similar-sized grassed arenas which vary in size and may be up to 185 metres (200 yards) long; these are much larger than those used by other codes of football. The game is also distinguished from other games by the fast, relatively free movement of the ball (partly due to the absence of an offside rule) and the awarding of a free kick for any clean catch – known as a mark – of a ball which has been kicked more than 15 metres. Pass interference?  What’s that?  I need that ball and he’s in my way – WHAM!  Spectacular high marks, or "speccies", tackles and fast, fluid play are the game's main attributes as a spectator sport (making this game look like a massive match of “Smear the Queer” from our youth). Despite the game's sometimes rough physical nature players do not usually wear protective clothing (whattya think this is, that girlie Yank-style football?). Although it is a winter sport, pre-season competitions usually begin in late February (that is, in the Australian summer); the football season proper is from March to August, with finals being held in September.   If you would like to let us know what you think of this or any other article, you can E-mail us by clicking here. C.O.W. Page Home