My two cents to those who're hesitant about getting into sports manga/anime:

I'm not much of an avid sports fan and I used to just avoid sports manga/anime just because I thought I wouldn't understand all the terminlogy or just wouldn't get into because it's about a sport I know nothing or barely about. So it took me a really long time before I gave the sports genre an actual shot. So I probably fall into Masa's category of those who would watch the sports genre.

I got into PoT out of sheer boredom and liked it at the beginning before it started getting totally ridiculous. With that said, I think Hajime no Ippo was the sports anime/manga I really got into-- which is saying alot because I never "got" boxing. I never understood the "drama" that came with this sport and had absolutely no interest in watching two guys hit each other (ie, your typical girl =P). Not trying to sell HnI here but my point is, I began to discover that the sports genre can tell a really good storyline and a successful sports anime/manga has good characters (which is always a requirement for my watching anything). Hence my giving Major a shot (another sport, baseball, which I find in real life utterly boring to watch). I was pleasantly surprised at how much family life and character interaction went into this series and once again, I got drawn into another sports anime, not because of the sport itself per se, but because of the characters that flesh out the storyline.

I think the sports genre deserves a little more paying attention to because a **really good** series will not really focus on the sport itself, but on the story and the growth of the main characters which is a necessity for any good series. I feel like the sports genre just has to try a little harder (and if successful get better results?) because it's really easy to get trapped into focusing on just the game action and making up ridiculous moves and such (ie PoT =P). And that's my argument for trying to get the skeptics into the genre.