Category: Sports (Page 3 of 4)

I have never understood why people expect good athletes to quit. These are the people with the most competitive spirit and determination in the world; why should they walk away from the activity that has driven and dictated their entire lives, especially if they still enjoy it?

Mean-spirited articles by journalists, like this one suggesting Jerry Rice get out of football, completely miss the point. Sure, Rice may not be the superstar he once was, but he’s still a powerful presence and a potential contributor who wants to be in the game (which is more than one could say about many pro athletes, and most journalists, for that matter).

So Rice wants to play? Good! Let’s see him push himself to new goals, see if he can be the first 42-year-old wide receiver to score a touchdown in the NFL. So long as he’s better than the worst receiver on a roster, he deserves to play, if he so desires.

This haranguing is the same thing Rickey Henderson has endured the past few years. Henderson, rather than quit the sport he loves, has played minor league baseball for two seasons, in part to campaign for a major-league job, and in part because he still loves the game and still finds ways to contribute. And for that, I admire him.

“I’m going to play until I get it out of my system. It’s still fun, and that’s the main thing,” Rickey says in the article linked above. “I still love the game of baseball. I’ve accomplished everything there is to accomplish, but I still want to win.” More power to you, Rickey, and to you, Jerry. Play hard and play proud.

Like a jilted lover ignoring the phone when it rings, I am slowly but surely losing my baseball fanaticism.

Bill Simmons of ESPN proposes a fans’ strike against baseball. Technically, it would be a boycott, not a strike. But he’s right.

I have been offered Yankee tickets twice this month and turned down both offers. Normally, I’d make room for a ballgame; lately, my alternate plans have become more important, and not because they’re big, pressing engagements.

I would rather not go to Yankee Stadium right now. I don’t want to give Major League Baseball my money.

Take this for what it is. I’m not protesting; I’m not making noise. I have posted lots of baseball-related links this season. I remain a fan in my heart, and I still love the game.

What I don’t love is the business of baseball, the looming deadlines and the worthless negativity. In the labor talks, I don’t care who’s arguing about what; I am an avowed reader of sports business columns, yet I can’t bring myself to follow the strike news.

I no longer know who I think is right, and I no longer care. All I know is that the yapping has drained my interest in the season. I have stopped reading box scores. I rarely turn on a ballgame when I’m watching TV. I don’t know any Yankee pitcher’s ERA. And I’m not all that concerned.

Baseball is far and away my favorite sport. But it’s no longer the focus of my sports life. I have golf and NBA free-agent deals right now; in a few weeks I’ll have football and hockey games on TV.

Like a jilted lover ignoring the phone when it rings, I am slowly but surely losing my baseball fanaticism. It makes me sad, but it also makes things easier. If and when the strike hits, I will say, “Well, there you go,” instead of, “Oh, no.” Either way, I’m not giving the sport my money or my marketing-ready eyes and ears.

Maybe someday baseball will matter to me again. I hope it does. And I hope for Baseball’s sake the average fan’s disillusionment is somewhat less than mine.

Meet Anita Marks, the nation’s most prominent Jewish woman football player/Playboy model.

Good thread at Sportsfilter dealing with major league baseball’s contention that some teams won’t be able to make payroll this summer. In it I analyze how new revenue-friendly ballparks do not correlate with the team’s success or recurrent fan interest.

Meanwhile, baseball executives are busy telling lies to the media that their own statistics refute. Then they wonder why people don’t believe the spin.

Earth to Selig and Fehr: Unless you start paying attention, you won’t have any payroll to worry about, once the strike/lockout kicks in and the fans lose interest.

Major League Baseball voluntarily ended a game in a tie last night.

That maneuver is such an amazingly appropriate symbol of everything wrong with baseball that it’s hard to fathom how it came off so smoothly.

I’m going to compile a list here of the best editorial screeds telling baseball what the players and owners need, but refuse, to hear about the state of its sport:

~ Feeling cheated? Get used to it, Jim Caple, ESPN.com

~ Baseball’s All-Stall Break (mentioned here yesterday), Dave Anderson, The New York Times

~ The Strike That Will Kill Baseball, Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post

Know another one? Send it along.

“Baseball has succeeded in doing what no sport should ever do: taking the fun out of it.” Dave Anderson nails baseball with his sadly accurate column in today’s Times.

Bring the Olympic Games to New York in 2012! The plans and infrastructure enhancements—to be funded without tax dollars—have little downside. I enjoyed examining the X Map (included as a poster-size ad insert in today’s New York Times) on my morning commute. If the project got approved, it would be mass transit geek heaven.

Surviving the ‘Most Demanding Sport’ in the New York Times.

“What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.” —Abraham Lincoln

“Baseball continues to be the only entertainment industry where those that run the business continually tell their consumers how bad their product is.” —Peter Gammons, nicely channeling Lincoln

See, the Internet really does make your dreams come true: Now you can buy Jeff Nelson’s bone chips. (Here’s the back story.)