Shame on Boo-ya

The self-proclaimed worldwide leader in sports has abandoned the world. Or, to be more accurate, those parts of the world where Abominable Snowmen pick their teeth with icicles; that's right, ESPN, oh mighty Thane of the Boo-Ya, has asked Picabo and Bode and the Flying Tomato to kick their Uncle Sam in his Dakotas so they can put a few more Benjamins in their scoreboard. Talk about arrogance. How can the four-letter network justify hosting their Winter X Games the same year that Vancouver is hosting the Winter Olympics? They can't. In case you didn't know, didn't care, or were too busy trying to forget that ESPN considers Chris Berman the Tiger of their Woods, the 2010 Winter X Games recently wrapped up, the three-day event flatlining on Jan. 31st with only a few casualties scrawling across its ticker. Oh, but don't worry, it's not like those athletes wanted to compete for anything real; I'm sure they'd much rather take part in a faux-spectacle that the Sweetest Day-moguls down at Hallmark would be proud of. But it's ok, only a few athletes suffered injuries that were severe enough to keep them from competing in the, a'hem, OLYMPIC GAMES. One of those casualities, freestyle skier Daron Rahlves, said he was using the X Games as a Vancouver warm up. Good for him. At least he only suffered his fourth hip dislocation. I mean it could have been worse. He could have hurt ESPN's feelings by saying no. But who would want that? Who would want to be spanked by Scott Van Pelt, and shunned by the network that occasionally shows highlights from the 1996 World Championship of Mini Golf to fill its time slots? Apparently not Rahlves. Now, who's to blame? I say the Olympic Committee. I mean, we can't blame the station that gave us Mel Kiper can we? Four out five bad haircuts say no. So, silly, silly World, the next time you want to go out and play with your friends, you had best say no. Or Stuart Scott might give you an ookie-doke upside your head.

Commercials Take Valor Away From Super Bowl

Everyone says they watch the commercials as much as the actual football game come Super Bowl Sunday. Well, that may not be an exaggeration.

As the big day draws near and the media blitz picks up more steam than the Chiefs defense could all season, little is being said about the football game itself. Instead, the commercials are grabbing all the glory. Some for good. Some for bad.

One that has snagged a lot of criticism is the pro-life ad featuring Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow. Besides Tebow possibly being one of the greatest college quarterbacks in our generation and the fact the 30-second spot is being aired during the biggest football game of the year, this commercial has nothing to do with the sport.

But because it's about a controversial topic, like abortion, it has grabbed headlines all over the media. This includes such sports outlets as ESPN and Sports Illustrated.

For once, the Super Bowl has the two highest ranked teams battling head-to-head in what some say might be one of the greatest offensive scoring Super Bowls of all time. Yet, the public doesn't care.

It's sad that good football has to take a backseat to bad marketing.

Morality and pro sports players

So there’s all sorts of talk about Tiger Woods coming back to play in a couple of weeks despite his “sex addiction” (see: wandering eye) and Michael Vick is back in the news for a new documentary series that follows his “true” self. I find it a little disheartening to think that in a profession that has so much influence on youth and their actions, such indiscretions are being accepted and seemingly pushed under the rug. I’m not saying people don’t deserve second chances, I just wish they didn’t have so much influence on the media while they were getting them. Michael Vick claims to be oh-so-sorry and to really have changed and I just don’t buy it, but football fans seem happy—eager even—to accept his newfound sense of wrong and right. And these things happen all the time. There are shootings, gambling crimes, drug trafficking charges all the time. At least Vick is trying to do something redeeming by working with the Humane Society of the United States to speak out against dog-fighting. It’s nice to see someone try to make a difference in their lives, even if it is for publicity’s sake. I suppose it’s impossible to keep crime out of any profession, whether it’s professional sports or politics or even law enforcement. Hopefully Tiger can keep his wandering eye focused on the green this time.

The Mid-Majority

This is a site I stumbled upon a few years ago. It is definitely made for college basketball fans like myself, but this guy's writing is hilarious. His name is Kyle Whelliston. He is a failed software developer who made lots of money in the late '90s, then went broke. He started this site about 7 years ago and, after a few years, got hired for little money to write about mid-majors for ESPN. He got fired last year, but the site continues with donations from his dedicated readers. He normally attends about 100 college basketball games each season and loved the project so much it caused he and his wife to divorce last year.

This recent post from his basketball travels should give a taste of his writing style:

http://www.midmajority.com/2010/02/why-things-suck.php#more

Super Bowl Predictions

The 43rd Super Bowl is this Sunday and if you're like me, neither team playing is the one I root for. In order to keep things interesting, it's fun to make a prediction on the game, that way you have a team to root for. This Sunday will be the same for all the Super Bowls I've been alive for: no Kansas City Chiefs. So I usually root for the AFC team. I'll keep that going since I'm picking the Colts to win by a score of 28-17. I'll go out on a limb and say Peyton Manning ends up with the MVP award.

What are you guys' predictions, at least who do you think is going to win or who are you going to be rooting for?

kstatefootball.com: Not just purple

When I have spare time in front of a computer, I go to kstatefootball.com to find the latest sports stories. While most people think that link will connect them to anything and everything purple, that is not always the case.

There is an area on that site called "Timeless News" that features two, in-depth sport stories from biggie newspapers. Today, an article from the NY Times explains why kids participate in youth sports. The other article from the Philadelphia Inquirer chronicles the first football postseason game played 1932.

As interesting as today's offerings are, they don't hold a candle to a 2008 story from NPR about football in Alaska. Here is a sampling:

This Saturday, Alaskans will be watching the state's first-ever high school football playoff game north of the Arctic Circle. The Barrow Whalers host the top-of-the-world game against the Houston Hawks.

David Gerke, the father of the Whalers' 17-year-old quarterback, Albert Gerke, tells NPR's Melissa Block that a polar bear was wandering near the field a couple days ago.

He says someone will keep an eye out for polar bears during the game this weekend.

Google "Alaska Football" to find out how football in the frozen North differs from football in Kansas on a cold weekend.

And, in case anyone is interested in current football news with a Wichita connection, this link to the Sun-Sentinel says that Arthur Brown, Wichita East High School, has left the University of Miami.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/um-hurricanes/fl-college-football-0203-20100202,0,1227777.story

For more details about AB from another website check out this story:

www.miamiherald.com/sports/story/1459302.html

I have no idea what just happened.

For whatever reason, some time ago I ran across an article describing a cricket match. I’ve always been sort of curious about cricket, if only because I’m already a huge baseball fan. But I read the article, and it turned out that I could only understand 63% of the words. Which is pretty bad, when you think about it, since it's supposed to be in English. (Seriously. I counted and everything. Here’s the article, you can play along at home.)

So I pulled up my ESPN 360, knowing that they broadcast cricket now and then, and I decided I’d learn how the game worked just by watching. Not reading the rules, not asking anyone, just watching. I always wondered what it was like to watch baseball without knowing anything at all, since I was raised on it and there's never been a time when I didn't know what was going on. I figured this was my best chance of ever knowing what that felt like.

I turned on a match from last fall, between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. Naturally, the announcers weren’t helping any at first—they were talking to people who knew what in the world they were watching, not to me. But I soldiered on. This was important.

I was surprised to find out, after about ten pitches (sorry, “bowls”), that the Zimbabwean bowlers were “dominating” Bangladesh. As far as I could tell, they had just thrown the ball ten times. (I later asked a friend of mine who follows cricket about this, and he confirmed that if nothing had happened after ten whole bowls, Zimbabwe was, indeed, dominating.) I watched the match for about 45 minutes, and I’m pretty sure only one guy was put out. No one seemed very surprised by this.

I can name three things I learned for sure from watching these 45 minutes of cricket:

1) They play inside a huge circle, not within one large right-angle like in baseball. Maybe I knew this already. I couldn’t say.

2) If a batter hits the ball outside of the circle, his team gets six runs. It could have been four runs. Either way, it didn’t matter that the ball was hit on the ground and went outside the circle. It was still out-of-play and the runs were automatic. Maybe something different happens if it’s hit in the air out of the circle, but I didn’t see that.

3) When a batter hits the ball in the air, and the defense catches the ball without hitting the ground, the batter is out, just like in baseball. The difference here is, in cricket everyone runs around screaming and hollering as if they’d just scored a goal in the World Cup.

And that’s it. That’s what I learned. Honestly, I can’t wait until I have a chance to watch the drama unfold during the other 5 hours and 15 minutes of the match.