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Sports
July 29, 2005
When Candor Means Cliché
Stephen A. Smith, the Philadelphia Inquirer columnist and ESPN commentator, is getting his own ESPN show called Quite Frankly. From the name, you might guess the show would cut through the sports-talk blather and express original and controversial views—something Smith is good at, even if he expresses those views with too much stagecrafted anger and is sometimes incoherent. You might further guess that when the network set out to promote the new show, relentlessly, it might select an especially interesting and prominent Smith argument; or maybe, should we be so lucky, more than one, so we wouldn't be subject to the same promo over and over again, until any edge gets worn off into dullness. You would be wrong; so grievously wrong that your punishment is to be smacked upside the head over and over again with Smith's astute observation that the New England Patriots are good (a radical explanation for their three Super Bowl victories in four years; truly a paradigm shift in football analysis).
Sports
July 22, 2005
Play poker with this guy!
I made two bucks on the slots in Panama City last week, while waiting for a poker game to materialize. The poker boom has spread far enough for the staff of a Panamanian casino to enquire in Spanish if I wanted to play "Tejas hold 'em," but not quite far enough for there to actually be a game. Nonetheless, my absence, combined with the fact that The New Yorker still doesn't have much of an online presence, means I didn't get around to reading last week's issue until just now (even though it turns out this article is indeed online).
Sports
July 20, 2005
FIFA's Fragile Ranking System
The United States has reached its highest FIFA ranking ever, coming in as the sixth best soccer team in the world, up from 10th last month (AP). Certainly, the team has looked pretty good over the last few months, destroying teams like Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama in World Cup qualifiers, and has most recently advanced to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. (It plays Honduras tomorrow for a spot in the finals.) But Team USA's ascendancy in the FIFA World Rankings, one of the most complicated point systems in the world, has less to do with its strength than its schedule.
Sports
June 18, 2005
When Facts and Pistons Collide
Deadlines can do strange things to reporters. Exhibit A: This line in Friday, June 17's New York Times, from Howard Beck's game story about Detroit's victory in Game Four of the NBA Finals: "Equally strange was the sight of Detroit's scoreboard, which might need its light bulbs changed for the first time in years. The scoring-challenged Pistons, who rarely break 100 points in a game, had 51 by halftime." It's a cute line. It's also silly.
Sports
May 4, 2005
Leave John Rocker Alone
Let's see, CNN puts this article about John Rocker, former Atlanta Braves ace closer/bigoted idiot, on it's front page today. Why? Perhaps because Rocker once made SI (whose parent company is Time Warner) a lot of money by telling one of their reporters in an interview that a black teammate was a "fat monkey" and that New York's subway riders included "some queer with AIDS."
Sports
May 2, 2005
White Man Can't Think
Skip Bayless is not what any of us would consider a thinking man's sportswriter. After all, he's the guy who said Anthony Peeler should have fought back after Kevin Garnett elbowed him in the head last year. (At sportsblog, David Irwin noted the hypocrisy of his claims.
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