Sports
January 10, 2023 — Steven Hayward
My Sunday post on the ridiculous Scientific American headline about black men being exploited in NFL football—as if no white men ever get life-altering injuries on the playing field—brought up the question: just what is the “diversity” breakdown of major professional sports? Here it is: Observations: I believe there may be no Jews in the NBA, and less than five Asians. I have heard, but don’t know how to verify
»
January 6, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Well, not the Arctic, exactly. Minnesota. Alex Rodriguez is now a part owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves, regarded by many as the most godforsaken franchise in professional sports. Maybe A-Rod can change that. In any event, he now spends time in Minnesota and apparently owns a home here. So when we got a foot of snow earlier this week, he had to deal with it. Allegedly. He posted this on
»
January 4, 2023 — Steven Hayward
No, this headline is not a reference to the chaos in the House of Representatives. Rather it refers to the latest disgrace of the NFL team formerly known as the Redskins. The “Washington Football Team,” as it has been known the last three seasons, decided to become “The Commanders,” which, Richard Samuelson points out, is quite fitting for the age of the administrative state in Washington, which prefers to govern by
»
January 3, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I take in the joy of sports by following my hometown teams — the Gophers, the Twins, and the Vikings — but I was watching the Bills-Bengals Monday Night Football game on ESPN last night when Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field and the game was suspended. Hamlin had bounced up after making a stop on the play before he collapsed. It looked like an absolutely routine football
»
January 1, 2023 — Scott Johnson
The Middle East Forum has posted an interview with Enes Kanter Freedom. This is the MEF introduction: Raised in Turkey, star basketball player Enes Kanter Freedom, recently of the Boston Celtics, began to call out human rights violations by Turkey’s President Recep Tayep Erdoğan in 2013. Not long after, Freedom’s Turkish passport was canceled, his name placed on an Interpol list, and his father imprisoned in Turkey. In 2017, Freedom
»
December 21, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Asked what was said inside the Vikings locker room at halftime when they were down 33-0 to the lowly Colts, quarterback Kirk Cousins reported the words of all-pro cornerback Patrick Peterson: “All we need is five touchdowns.” Cousins said he wondered if Peterson was being sarcastic — until he looked at him. “When I looked at him, he was serious,” Cousins said. “I think his point was, ‘We’re not going
»
December 17, 2022 — John Hinderaker
You can learn lessons from sports. Like, no matter how bleak things look, you should never give up. Never. Today the Minnesota Vikings notched the biggest comeback in the history of the NFL, coming back from a 33-0 deficit at halftime to win in overtime, 39-36. I watched the first part of the game on television. For the Vikings it was a disaster–a long kickoff return by the Colts, a
»
December 14, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I literally liked Elon Musk’s mockery of the trans madness along with his disrespect of public health wrecking ball Anthony Fauci in the tweet below. I therefore served it up as a “Thought of the day” via Twitter’s embed function on Monday. My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 11, 2022 Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert is one of the more than 1,000,000 Twitter users who “liked” Musk’s
»
November 28, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I gather that was quite the press conference held by US Men’s National Soccer Team coach Gregg Berhalter and captain Tyler Adams in Doha today before the team’s with Iran tomorrow. The state-approved reporter from Iran had what he thought was an important point or two to make while the regime back home is slaughtering innocents and repressing citizens. Soccer isn’t my sport but I would like to say Tyler
»
November 27, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Being in England during the World Cup is interesting. It is a relatively minor sports event in the U.S., but, obviously, not here. A couple of days ago I pulled into a gas station in the Cotswolds to gas up our rental car. I pumped the gas and went inside the station to pay. There was a middle-aged guy at the cash register; he looked at the American Experiment quarter-zip
»
November 22, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I admire the bravery and support the cause of the Iranian players competing in the FIFA World Cup competition in Doha, Qatar. The AP reports: “Iran’s players didn’t sing their national anthem and didn’t celebrate their goals.” Their silence speaks. The players are putting themselves on the line for a cause that is a matter of life, death, and basic human rights back home. It’s not exactly akin to taking
»
October 27, 2022 — Steven Hayward
Since the World Series is starting tomorrow, it’s a good time to look at the all-time MLB home run list, which lists not just the number of dingers but the total number of at-bats each slugger had to accumulate their total. If you go by dingers-per-at-bats, Mark McGwire looks to have the most prodigious home-run rate, but I insist that he (and Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa) deserve to be
»
October 26, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Do you remember where you were on October 26, 1991, 31 years ago today? Probably not. But I do. I was in Munich, on business, arriving that day from London. But let’s back up. The Minnesota Twins were in the World Series that year against the Atlanta Braves. I was part of a consortium that had season tickets to Twins games. We had bought in when tickets were easy to
»
October 17, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Congress is adjourned. Members up for reelection are home campaigning in advance of elections next month. We are left reading omens and tea leaves. Anything but the Star Tribune! The Star Tribune has gone into full campaign mode on behalf of the DFL. Please see my related comments in “The real fake news.” Looking for a bona fide tea leaf to read, I noted that Dr. Jill Biden attended last
»
October 1, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The Associated Press reports that Japanese wrestler and politician Antonio Inoki has died at the age of 79. I was a high school teacher who paid good money to attend his whatever-it-was with Muhammad Ali televised live from Tokyo’s Budokan over closed circuit at the Minneapolis Auditorium in June 1976. Inoki contended with Ali during most of the 15 rounds by kicking him while positioned on his back. Ali taunted
»
September 23, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Ohio Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan is a 25-carat phony “moderate.” He had the luxury of running a general election style campaign through the primary season, so he has had the time to perfect his act. In just the past two years, however, “he’s voted to federalize elections, admit Washington, D.C., as the 51st state, impose onerous new background check requirements on gun owners, and grant mass amnesty to millions
»
September 12, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Two stories in the news strike a common chord: the need to stop infantilizing minority, especially black, populations. The first comes from the world of sports and involves the familiar racial hate incident hoax. Briefly, the Duke women’s volleyball team played a match at Brigham Young University, and lost. After the match, the godmother of one of the Duke players, who is black, tweeted that someone in the BYU crowd
»
