How excited are we, Americans, for football season?

Posted on August 29, 2012 by AD

In engaging in this process of writing for a sports blog, I’ve taken the approach of fully immersing myself in the sports media world– starting my days with ESPN Radio’s Mike and Mike, reading all of the websites that are linked in the left-hand column of our homepage, following athletes and sports media personalities on twitter, listening to podcasts, and taking in as many games as possible– for better and worse. I know more about sports and the issues surrounding sports than at any point in my life. Just like any other area of interest, though, immersion in the context of today’s myriad media offerings also can lead to a lack of perspective.

One of the steadiest mantras in all of sports chatter is that football is king. I’m not here to question that tenet– wondering, for example, whether it’s most popular because it is in fact more amenable to Americans’ true love, television, than other sports, or whether that amenability is a convenient coincidental characteristic of the inherently popular game– but to confirm it, which I did last night at the grocery store, where I happily was adding to my Fat Tire new state label collection. Keep reading…

And then there were four: Joe Posnanski’s Sports on Earth joins the fray

Posted on August 28, 2012 by AD

Yesterday marked the first day for a new online sports site, Sports on Earth. Helmed by Joe Posnanski, who left Sports Illustrated this spring after just three years there, the site’s “senior columnist” has assembled a supporting cast of twelve other writers, only two of whom, Deadspin founding editor Will Leitch and Patrick Hruby (who wrote the Dock Ellis feature I highlighted last week), are immediately recognizable to me. That appears to be farm more an indictment of me than Posnanski, though, as a review of the bio pages of the other ten writers discloses a diverse group of talented writers with online and offline experience in national and noted regional newspapers, blogs, and book-writing, representing a range of ages, geographic localities, sporting interests, and, thankfully if barely, genders. On first blush, this appears to be an accomplished and professional staff that, at least based on two days of operation, is up to the call to post regularly and on current topics. Keep reading…

ALDLAND Podcast

Posted on August 28, 2012 by bpbrady

College football season is finally here! Join blog founder AD and I, along with a special guest, as we go conference by conference and give you a comprehensive preview of the upcoming season.

Also a shoutout to Felix Hernandez, who notched his fifth complete game shutout of the season, but could not be included in the podcast since this is college football only, and also because it happened while we were recording. Anyway, go ahead and press play.

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Goin Phishin

Posted on August 24, 2012 by AD

Annual Phish summer pilgrimage starts today. After seeing the band in New York, Indiana, and Michigan, it’s time to add Georgia to the list. According to at least one expert, the group has been on a real tear during this second leg of their summer tour, so I have very high hopes.

For live setlist updates and high-quality photos, follow @Phish_FTR. For weakly insightful observations and low-quality photos, you know where to find me.

Lance Armstrong and the Cost of Victory

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Magalan

The big news today in cycling is that Lance Armstrong will quit fighting doping charges brought by the USADA. The news follows the dismissal of a lawsuit he filed contesting the charges in federal court.

Though he has framed it as simply being weary of continuing to fight a witch hunt, it’s hard to view this as anything but a tacit acknowledgement of guilt. Folks that follow cycling with anything more than a passing interest have believed he was guilty of doping for some time. Indeed, its likely that pretty much anybody contending at the top levels of cycling for the past 15 years has been doping.

This sports year has given us plenty of opportunity to determine when the good outweighs the bad in the legacy of admired athlete. In Joe Paterno’s case, the man had a blemish free record on the football field and by and large did things the right way. Ultimately, however, a sin of omission only tangentially related to football will erase much, if not all, of his legacy.

In the case of Armstrong, the story is a little different. In his free time, Armstrong has been a huge contributor to the fight against cancer, through funding, heightened awareness and advocacy, as well as inspiring countless folks that are battling cancer. Its hard to say if these great works outweigh cheating for the better part of your career, even if everybody else was doing it at the same time.

Part of the frustration with Armstrong is that he is so brand conscious that he will never admit guilt. He knows he cheated, we know he cheated, and we know that everybody else was doing it. If he’d just own up to it, maybe it would be easier. But when he smears anybody that challenges his legitimacy, he comes off looking like a colossal asshole. Indeed, by most private accounts, the guy is, in fact, a colossal asshole.

Incredible natural talent or not, this guy cheated better than anybody ever. Seven wins in a row. Certainly it got easier to cheat and win later tours given the money and sponsorships he accumulated after his early wins. On the subject of money, he’s obviously given a ton of it away, but he’s kept his share. He has profited enormously from these tour wins. Even if you want to discount the scale of the cheating because that was the environment in cycling at that time, its hard to give him a free pass.

Obviously, you can tell I don’t think highly of the guy.

ESPN: Outside the Lines delivers the definitive Dock Ellis experience

Posted on August 24, 2012 by AD

Commodawg sent me a quick email containing only a url link and a note: “I’m guessing this is in your wheelhouse.” The link led to an ESPN/Outside the Lines feature, “The Long, Strange Trip of Dock Ellis.” Commodawg was right: I am never not on drugs when working on this website, an admission that likely comes as no surprise to ALDLAND’s reader(s), so this piece is pretty squarely in my wheelhouse.

I’ve read all the stories about Ellis. I’ve seen all the videos, including the one everybody considers high art (no pun intended, seriously; it’s way overrated, its only redeeming aspect being the employment of actual audio of Ellis) and the one of former Deadspin editor A.J. Daulerio’s less entertaining stunts, in which he attempts to pitch a no-hitter in a video game while under the influence of LSD. Save yourself some time and watch neither.

The only real rub in the Ellis story at this point is whether Ellis really was on acid when he pitched that no hitter. Some recent writers (again, I’m sparing you the links) have advanced a view of Dock that suggests he was good at making up and perpetuating stories to fuel a love of the spotlight, implying that the most famous story about him was such a fabrication. Obviously that’s a boring road to go down.

This ESPN/OTL piece by Patrick Hruby and Joe Ciardiello blows right by all of that, though. It’s transcendent not because it’s about drugs, but because it transcends the debates and localized tropes that bring people to Ellis and tells a real story that answers all of these lightweight questions without even asking them because it starts with little baggage. It just tells the story of the man. Don’t feel bad if you found your way to Ellis, even to this post, because you kinda want to find out what it’s like to take LSD– that’s the reason anybody who didn’t know him or isn’t a weirdo fan of the Pirates finds their way to him– but know that your preconceived inquiries will be both resolved and shown to be irrelevant. The digital design features of the piece play no small part in contributing to this article and deserve separate comment from someone authorized to make such comments, but they extremely appropriately add to the experience, both visually and substantively.

Rereading what I just sputtered, maybe this one does convey what it’s like to be on acid after all.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=Dock-Ellis

(HT: Commodawg)

B-List Band of the Week: Dave Mason

Posted on August 24, 2012 by AD

The B-List Band of the Week feature returns today after an extensive hiatus. Again, the point here is not to present second-rate writing about second-rate musicians, but rather to briefly highlight artists existing out of the spotlight, perhaps in an attempt to identify why they are so located. Last time, the focus was on The Outlaws, a group that, on paper, had all the makings of one Lynyrd Skynyrd but failed to materialize as such. Today, it’s on Dave Mason, a guitarist and singer frequently on the fringe of rock and roll’s main scene, particularly in the 1970s, and who continues to perform today.

In recanting Mason’s story, it should first be acknowledged that he’s unlikely to have gained the notoriety that he has without his association with the band Traffic. As it were, Mason actually came to work with Jim Capaldi before either became involved with Steve Winwood, when Mason and Capaldi became members of the same band in the mid-1960s. Mason would meet Winwood when the former became road manager for the latter’s Spencer Davis Group, eventually joining him, Capaldi, and Chris Wood as founding members of Traffic. Mason’s first hit would be the band’s second single, “Hole in My Shoe,” a Harrisonian-Indian pop-psychedelic bit that would eventually appear on the band’s self-titled release in 1968, its second album. Between Traffic’s first album, 1967’s Dear Mr. Fantasy, and Traffic, Mason would leave and rejoin the band, adding another Britpop-style song in “You Can All Join In” and his biggest hit, “Feelin’ Alright?”, to the ’68 effort.

Mason was out of Traffic for the second and final time in 1968, making his way to Los Angeles and into one of the greatest and most embryonically formative touring bands ever recorded, Delaney & Bonnie. Keep reading…

ALDLAND Podcast

Posted on August 22, 2012 by bpbrady

Chris Cunico returns in an action-packed podcast that covers numerous topics from Major League Baseball and the beginning of the soccer season in Europe. Want to hear about the Rocket’s return to professional baseball? You got it! The Melk Man being a bad dude (but not a bad enough dude to rescue the president)? It’s right here. Soccer stuff? That too. So click play ASAP.

Also I think we should throw this up on the site. God knows Jim Joyce got a bad rap for that perfect game call, but now he’s out there all saving someone’s life and stuff. Way to go Jim Joyce!

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/scott-miller/19856253/umpire-joyce-makes-the-best-call-of-the-year—-before-the-game

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NBA offseason > NBA regular season

Posted on August 20, 2012 by AD

Last year, I wrote that the NBA offseason, extended by the owners’ lockout of the players, was more interesting than the NBA’s regular season. (See also this.)
Last week, I put forth irrefutable evidence that the James Harden Experience is one of the best there is.

Earlier this evening, bpbrady sent me a piece of investigative twit-journalism that demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt that items 1 and 2 above have merged into one truth: like in 2011, the NBA offseason will be more interesting than the regular season, and Harden has taken it upon himself to make it so.

James Harden seems to be enjoying his summer, the appropriately unassuming title reads, and now all the rest of us can enjoy his summer too.

Two girls, one Jam

Posted on August 17, 2012 by AD

I’m getting ready to slide out of work and slide into an evening of outdoor music featuring two fine ladies, Mavis Staples and Bonnie Raitt. Here they are in reverse order, Bonnie with one of her biggest hits, and Mavis discussing my favorite album of hers: