Sports
July 22, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Ted Leonsis owns the Washington Wizards and the Washington Capitals. The hockey team has done quite well under his leadership, though a deep playoff run has eluded it. The basketball team has often been mediocre or worse, though it now is among the better NBA squads. Leonsis also owns the Washington Mystics of the WNBA. The team, like the league, has struggled. Leonsis blames the WNBA’s woes on the media.
»
July 21, 2017 — Steven Hayward
What do you get when you cross sports with hyper-genderism? You get the usual outrage machine train wreck of course. Like when tennis great John McEnroe said that if Serena Williams played in men’s professional tennis she’d rank around 700th. The media erupted as if to say, “You cannot be serious!” Yes, he can—as even Williams herself agreed. Fortunately we have The Factual Feminist, Christina Hoff Sommers, on the case,
»
June 29, 2017 — Scott Johnson
An AP story on the Star Tribune site caught my eye, but the Las Vegas Review-Journal gives it the better headline: “MLB umpire earns save after rescuing woman on Pittsburgh bridge.” Here is the opening by Will Graves: PITTSBURGH — John Tumpane can’t explain why he approached the woman as she hopped over the railing of the Roberto Clemente Bridge on Wednesday afternoon. The woman told Tumpane she just wanted
»
June 3, 2017 — Scott Johnson
You may have heard that former baseball great Rod Carew needed a new heart after a massive heart attack in 2015. I was vaguely aware that he recently had a heart transplant. Listening to Rod talk in the booth during the broadcast of the Twins game against the Angels in Anaheim on Thursday night, I understood from Rod’s comments that the story behind the transplant had taken a few twists
»
May 15, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
We can think of ESPN’s “journalism” as falling into three categories: (1) in-depth analysis of games, teams, and players; (2) superficial high decibel debates about games, teams, and players; and (3) discussion focused not on games, teams, and players, but rather on sports and society — often sports and race. Which form of journalism do think is most affected by ESPN’s recent mass layoff? If you said (1), in-depth analysis
»
May 2, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Linda Cohn regularly “anchors” ESPN’s SportsCenter show. I haven’t watched SportsCenter in many years, so I hold no opinion about her as an anchor. But having been an ESPN stalwart for almost 25 years, Cohn probably has a good sense of her audience. Thus, her views on the network’s woes are worth considering. Cohn expressed her views shortly after ESPN’s mass layoff last week. She cited the loss of cable
»
April 28, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
With its recent round of layoffs, ESPN has largely ceased serious coverage of hockey. Apparently it regards covering the fourth most popular sport in the U.S. as a frill. But in ESPN’s eyes, not all frills are created equal. Hence, its new site for woman ESPNW, recently ran a feature called ““Five Poets on the New Feminism.” The “world wide leader in sports” doesn’t have much time for ice hockey
»
April 27, 2017 — John Hinderaker
ESPN is mostly losing money because people are turning away from cable television and the company paid far too much for the rights to various sports. But it hasn’t helped that ESPN has become a constant source of left-wing commentary. I don’t know what it is about sportswriters, but when they allow their politics to show, they are nearly always left-wing. It’s an odd phenomenon. Certainly you can’t say the
»
March 20, 2017 — Steven Hayward
News out of the sports world is that no NFL teams want to sign free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick, not merely because he may be washed up, but because of his political stunts. An unnamed NFL insider told Bleacher Report: “[Many teams] genuinely hate him and can’t stand what he did (kneeling for the national anthem). They want nothing to do with him. They won’t move on. They think showing
»
March 7, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
I don’t know, but it’s certainly hurting. Clay Travis reports: Two years ago ESPN cut several hundred behind the scenes jobs to save hundreds of millions of dollars in yearly costs. Since that time ESPN’s subscriber losses have accelerated, averaging over three million lost subscribers a year. Now new jobs cuts are coming, only this time you’re likely to know some of the casualties — different sources [say] that ESPN
»
February 28, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
If your answer is, “you can’t be serious,” you’re not fully in tune with the contemporary landscape. On the other hand, your common sense quotient is high. The NFL scouting combine is basically an audition by more than 300 of the best collegiate football players who are eligible for the NFL draft. They come to Indianapolis each year to undergo on-field workouts, medical testing, interviews, and psychological testing. The workouts
»
February 17, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
This is the NBA’s all-star weekend. The NBA is holding it in New Orleans. Originally, Charlotte was to be the host city. However, the league moved it because it disagrees with North Carolina’s law regarding bathroom usage. The law in question nullified a Charlotte ordinance that required businesses to allow transgender individuals who have not taken surgical and legal steps to change the gender noted on their birth certificate to
»
February 15, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Gregg Popovich is a marvelous basketball coach; probably one of the three best the NBA has ever seen. His accomplishments with the San Antonio Spurs — a team he has led to five NBA titles — are remarkable. Lately Popovich has indulged in political commentary. To be more precise, he has taken to blasting President Trump. There is plenty to dislike about Trump, but Popovich’s comments are of the knee-jerk
»
February 6, 2017 — Steven Hayward
Good grief, what happened? That was, as someone joked on Twitter, Atlanta’s best first half performance since Gone With the Wind. Another: Atlanta should have visited Wisconsin more often. Yeppers: the comparison to the election is irresistible. And Tom Brady is a Trump supporter! And finally, memo to Audi: This is the right kind of car commercial for the Super Bowl.
»
February 6, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Well, that was exciting. There were so many story lines running in Super Bowl LI last night that it seemed to me impossible to keep up. This morning I am writing from mental notes that may reflect oversights or errors for which I apologize in advance. I trust readers will note them in the comments. We had the bid of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick and the Patriots to a
»
January 1, 2017 — Steven Hayward
Anyone who watched either of yesterday’s BCS “playoff” games has to come away with disgust for whoever came up with the scheme to have a faux college football championship. Washington played creditably against Alabama for much of the game though the result never seemed much in doubt, but Ohio State didn’t even belong on the same field with Clemson. The Buckeyes took more black eyes than Rhonda Rousey in a
»
December 30, 2016 — Steven Hayward
As has been widely remarked, TV ratings for the NFL are down sharply this year. I don’t have an opinion about whether it is partly to to Colin Kaepernick’s capers, or other defects of the game today, but at least we still have NFL cheerleaders to cheer us up. Unless you’re a Cleveland Browns fan. There, apparently, even the cheerleaders can’t cheer up anyone. That’s the subject of our Video
»
