From Pine View Farm

The Sporting Life category archive

You Can Bet on It 0

Sportswriter extraordinaire Bob Molinaro:

March Madness pools are innocent enough, but the relentless presence of online betting platforms — heavily supported by sports leagues — has America headed for a massive gambling-addiction epidemic among Millennials and Gen Z.

Afterthought:

I don’t know about you, but I spell “gamble” L-O-S-E.

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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:

Black college athletes should rethink any decision to attend public colleges and universities in Florida, the NAACP advised in an extraordinary letter issued in response to efforts by Gov. Ron DeSantis to weaken diversity, equity and inclusion efforts statewide.

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.

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The Bullies’ Pulpit 0

One more time, “social” media isn’t.

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A Bridge Too Favre 0

Case dismissed.

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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):

Start to finish: The NFL season begins with 10 players suspended for sports gambling and ends with a Super Bowl in Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the world. A little bit of a mixed message, don’t you think?

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.

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Stray Question 0

Who’s more corrupt? FIFA or the NCAA.

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Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0

So says sportswriter extraordinaire Bob Molinaro:

Not to belabor a subject touched on last week, but another example of AI putting the artificial in artificial intelligence was the absence of Kenny Easley from the chatbot’s top 10 list of all-time Hampton Roads athletes. The Oscar Smith High football legend became a three-time consensus All-American at UCLA before starring in Seattle, where he was a four-time All-Pro selection at safety and 1984 NFL Defensive Player of the Year. At the expense of someone else, he more than belongs.

And, in more news of AI antics . . . .

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You Can Bet on It 0

Sportswriter extraoridnaire Bob Milinaro:

Hypocrisy alert: It’s really something how the NFL is so keen on restricting when, where and on what its players can gamble, while the league is joined at the hip with online betting sites.

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No Mulligans To Give 0

The writer of a letter to the editor of the Las Vegas Sun is teed off.

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Moneyball 0

Man in Arab robes labeled

Click for the original image.

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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.

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Echoes of the Fall 0

Sportswriter extraordinaire Bob Molinaro:

Served up for my fellow curmudgeons is a reminder that at the 2024 Paris Olympics, breakdancing will be a sport. A sport.

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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.

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“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:

Violence accounts for much of the appeal of the game, then and now, and the history of American football suggests that fans and players are willing to tolerate injuries for the continuation of the game. “It’s the violence of the sport,” Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman observed. “The violence of the sport attracts us to the game.”

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.

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Game Changed 0

At Psychology Today Blogs, sociology professor Thomas Henricks explores why football has for all practical purposes supplanted baseball as America’s “national pastime.” It’s interesting and, in some ways, rather depressing read.

Me, I’ve pretty much lost interest in both: football because of the moral bankruptcy of the NCAA ruling body and and the odious behavior of too many of the NFL owners; baseball because the games have gotten just too darned long to be worth my time.

(But I still read Bob Molinaro’s column every week, because he is fine writer with a wicked sense of humor.)

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A Bridge Too Favre 0

The Los Angeles Times’s LZ Granderson, who has ties to Mississippi, digs into Brett Farve’s role in–er–misappropriating public funds intended to help the less-well-off to serve his own private ends. A snippet:

Just remember this: Two years after Favre made the, ahem, alleged mistake of pushing for welfare dollars to be used for a new volleyball arena, he reached back out to Bryant for an indoor football practice facility.

Once is a mistake.*

He came back for seconds.

______________________

*Yeah. Right.

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Illegal Procedure 0

At AL.com, Roy S. Johnson takes takes a long look at Brett Farve’s role in misappropriating public funds intended to help the needy. Johnson points out that

The pocket is collapsing around Brett Favre.

Follow the link for the play-by-play.

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The Maddening Maddened Crowd 0

Yet another (particularly vile) example that “social” media isn’t.

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The Shills 0

SFGate’s Drew Magary marvels as ESPN’s relentless promoting of sports betting.

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Danny Dodges the Man 0

Joe Patrice says, “Bon voyage, Dan Snyder.

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