The Sporting Life category archive
Signs of the Fall 0
I seldom look at the sport section of my local rag (except to read Bob Molinaro’s column, because he is a fine writer with a sharp pen and a wicked sense of humor). Even when I paid much more attention to sports than I do now, I was more interesting in watching competitions than in reading about them.
Nevertheless, as I leafed through the sports section on the way to the agony columns in yesterday’s paper (yes, paper, not electrons), something caught my eye.
My local rag now carries a syndicated column methinks no doubt subtly designed to suck people into covering sports betting.
We are a broken society.
If One Standard Is Good, Two Must Be Better 0
Al Pearce wonders that driver Bubba Wallace may be the most reviled–by racing fans, that is–driver on the NASCAR circuit. In his article, he says,
Methinks that, in his article, he makes it pretty clear he does understand why. But the why is not pretty and he doesn’t like what it is.
Money Ball 0
Bob Molinaro, sportswriter extraordinaire:
Monetization Nation, Reprise 0
Bob Molinaro, sportswriter extraordinaire, follows the money (emphasis in the original):
The market: In August, Ohio State is making each of its first four football practices available to a few hundred fans for $50 a ticket. You may have noticed that everything in college sports is for sale.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
A local high school baseball team has been benched because some of its members insisted on rising again.
America’s original sin of chattel slavery continues to exact its toll and poison our polity.
Afterthought:
That some of the team members are racist does not surprise me.
After all, racism is an American creation. Specifically, the belief that one race is somehow inferior to another and therefore can legitimately be subjugated and exploited is a construct created in the British colonies in America during the 17th Century to justify rationalize excuse chattel slavery. From there, it spread to everywhere Europeans established colonies during the Age of Empire.
I am, however, somewhat disturbed by how willing persons are today to flaunt their racism before others, over half a century after the passage of the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s.
Why, one wonders, do they think it has become okay to take their hate-full-ness public.
(Yes, I have my theories.)
Betting the Odds 0
The odds are that these folks don’t understand what a “gambling helpline” is for (and that they will need one real soon).
You Can Bet on It 0
Sportswriter extraordinaire Bob Molinaro:
Afterthought:
I don’t know about you, but I spell “gamble” L-O-S-E.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Actions have consequences. Here’s the lede from the news report at my old Philly NPR station:
Aside:
I became a member of the NAACP when George W. Bush was elected president. (One does not have to be a “colored person” to support the NAACP.) Somehow, I sensed that the Republican Party was headed in the wrong direction. I must say, though, I did not realize just how wrong a direction it was.
I am not sanguine.
The Bullies’ Pulpit 0
One more time, “social” media isn’t.
Playing by the Bookie 0
At my local rag, sportswriter extraordinaire Bob Molinaro looks at the gamboling gamblers in the game (emphasis in the original):
A look back: Evidence of how times have changed is that it wasn’t that long ago when Las Vegas was barred from even running TV ads during the Super Bowl.
Also: As if gambling isn’t prevalent enough, the Commanders are opening a sports book inside their stadium. When did buying a ticket to watch a game stop being enough?
Aside:
I suspect I’m not the only person sick of sports stars shilling for shysters commercials for online sports betting.
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
No Mulligans To Give 0
The writer of a letter to the editor of the Las Vegas Sun is teed off.
The Umpire Strikes Back 0
My brother has umpired baseball for years, mostly high school games. He has regularly attended course and workshops on how to umpire, because he loves the game. (So do I, for that matter, but he was good at it.)
According to him, the behavior of parents and other fans has taken a serious turn for the worse over the past decade, so much so that leagues are having trouble keeping and recruiting umpires.
In Deptford Township, New Jersey, a local Little League has come up with a novel strategy for fighting back.
Echoes of the Fall 0
Sportswriter extraordinaire Bob Molinaro:
The Brady Punch 0
Stephanie Hayes looks at the who-shot-john over football player Tom Brady’s age and has a momentary seizure of sauce for goose, sauce for the gander.
“What It Was, Was Football”* 0
In aftermath of Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest on the field (happily he seems to be recovering), Randall Balmer wonders what Americans find so enticing about so dangerous a sport. A snippet:
Which brings us back to the question about whether there is something about American society that draws us – myself included, by the way – to the carnage of football.
Aside:
I used to be a football fan. I looked forward to watching all the bowl games on New Year’s Day and a number that were not on New Year’s Day; I rooted for several NFL teams over the years. Now, though, I’ve lost all interest in football. The games have gotten far too long, the NFL owners are a mostly a bunch of jerks, and the NCAA is only in it for the money. (Indeed, the only sporting organization of which I have a lower opinion than of the NCAA is FIFA.)
My weekends are much more peaceful, relaxing, and productive now.
________________________
*With apologies to Andy Griffith.
