The News Review:
- Forget the great moments will 2007 be remembered as sport’s year…
- Scandals Make Life Hard for Sports Fans
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Motor Sports
- South Florida Sun-Sentinel Sports columnist column: Bonds hits No….
- We fans are loving sports to death
- In Fantasy Leagues the Field Is Level
- Cup isn’t perfect but it’ll be what softball needs in post…
Forget the great moments will 2007 be remembered as sport’s year…
Belfast Telegraph – Jul 28, 2007
" We could only presume such a void when the WMSC found the McLaren team guilty of illegally possessing 780 pages of Ferrari’s intellectual property but also concluded no advantage was gained from such rule-breaking. There it lay this extension of the motherlode of strategy and technical brilliance which had made the Italian team not only unbeatable but untouchable for so long gathering dust and no one we are asked to believe did so much as make a paper airplane out of one of those neglected sheets stocked with data. A ridiculous proposition? Yes but does it stretch belief in sports justice any more profoundly than the decision not to dock West Ham points for telling lies about the details of Carlos Tevez’s registration a ruling that haunts English football on a daily basis as Manchester United strive to sign the player they believe can help them retain their title just as surely as he preserved the salvation and roughly £25m profit of the Hammers after they paid out their meaningless fine of £5m. Meanwhile the Mayor of London talks dreamily of returning the Tour de France to his streets as an event which according to him and UK Sport is cleansing itself rather than tottering under the obscene weight of evidence that nothing short of an abandonment of the current shambles and at least a two-year break is guaranteed to bring the cyclists and their puppet-masters to their senses. It seems that wherever you look within these shores and beyond there is evidence that sport no longer has the means to discipline itself not just in the formal way of imposing judgement and punishment but in conditioning the minds of those who play the games and get the vast rewards. In America one agony lies in how to react to the epic achievements of Barry Bonds the steroid-fuelled slugger. Many say it is travesty of administration a monument to moral laxity that he has been allowed to encroach on the record of the legendary Hank Aaron.
Scandals Make Life Hard for Sports Fans
NPR – Jul 28, 2007
Observers tell Scott Simon that fans have failed to grasp the link between sports figures behaving badly and the basic honesty of the games we follow. He explains what that means.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Motor Sports
Seattle Post Intelligencer – Jul 28, 2007
41 Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver circled the historic 2. 5-mile superspeedway in 48.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Sports columnist column: Bonds hits No….
Free with registration – South Florida Sun-Sentinel – AccessMyLibrary.com – Jul 28, 2007
28–SAN FRANCISCO Talk about your awkward situations. Here was Barry Bonds man of the moment controversial slugger on history’s doorstep seeking out Jeffrey Loria beh.
We fans are loving sports to death
Denver Post – Jul 28, 2007
In most other pursuits the intensity of our interest can only improve things. Art? Work? Stamp collecting? Love itself? Feeling strongly about any of those makes the whole experience better. With spectator sports though we destroy our own happiness. The more we love the harder the games work to keep that love; the harder the games work the faster they sprint toward corruption. NBA Commissioner David Stern’s new conference last week about a referee’s alleged point-shaving scandal felt like a eulogy for professional basketball.
In Fantasy Leagues the Field Is Level
New York Times – Jul 28, 2007
“But why does he want to cuddle with Albert Pujols?”These days more women understand. Female participation in fantasy sports has increased substantially over the past decade. As recently as 2000 these leagues were an almost exclusively male domain with women comprising less than 3 percent of all players by most estimates. Today at roughly 15 percent women represent a significant — and growing — portion of the fantasy-sports-playing population. On the surface men and women are drawn to fantasy sports for the same reasons: they give you a reason to follow sports even when your favorite team is struggling; they allow you to indulge your inner Theo Epstein from the comfort of the couch; and for the hyper-competitive adrenaline-craving statistics-spouting sports geek there is no modern ritual more sublime than the fantasy draft — “the Christmas morning I never had” as one 30-something Jewish male lawyer described it to me. Perhaps it should not be a surprise that more women are participating… As recently as 2000 these leagues were an almost exclusively male domain with women comprising less than 3 percent of all players by most estimates. Today at roughly 15 percent women represent a significant — and growing — portion of the fantasy-sports-playing population. On the surface men and women are drawn to fantasy sports for the same reasons: they give you a reason to follow sports even when your favorite team is struggling; they allow you to indulge your inner Theo Epstein from the comfort of the couch; and for the hyper-competitive adrenaline-craving statistics-spouting sports geek there is no modern ritual more sublime than the fantasy draft — “the Christmas morning I never had” as one 30-something Jewish male lawyer described it to me. Perhaps it should not be a surprise that more women are participating. Title IX paved the way for more women to play sports and their elevated interest level is manifesting itself in the stands in the front office and in front of the computer — competing in the sports world’s alternate universe where genders are not assigned separate leagues. “We’re seeing women from athletic families who grew up watching sports and playing sports and now they’re playing fantasy because it gives them another reason to watch the games” said Thomas Bowers co-director of the Kelley MBA Sports & Entertainment Academy at.
Cup isn’t perfect but it’ll be what softball needs in post…
ESPN – Jul 28, 2007
And this year’s Cup provided more fuel for the fire of those worriedly counting down the days until next year’s Olympics in Beijing and wondering what will happen next for softball. Barring a decision by the International Olympic Committee to reinstate the sport for 2016 next summer’s Olympic Games are the last in which softball will be played. Lumping the sport together with baseball the IOC voted in 2005 to eliminate softball denying the sport its most visible showcase over the last decade. “Before it was an Olympic sport the World Championships were the big event” Team Canada coach and 1996 Olympian Lori Sippel explained. “And then the Olympics came in and we showed just how big of an event we can make it. And obviously what happens at the Olympics is that everybody pays attention. Those who maybe never saw softball [say] ‘Well it’s an Olympic event… Barring a decision by the International Olympic Committee to reinstate the sport for 2016 next summer’s Olympic Games are the last in which softball will be played. Lumping the sport together with baseball the IOC voted in 2005 to eliminate softball denying the sport its most visible showcase over the last decade. “Before it was an Olympic sport the World Championships were the big event” Team Canada coach and 1996 Olympian Lori Sippel explained. “And then the Olympics came in and we showed just how big of an event we can make it. And obviously what happens at the Olympics is that everybody pays attention. Those who maybe never saw softball [say] ‘Well it’s an Olympic event. It must be spectacular.
