This Aaron Hernandez homicide investigation is a serious and developing story in and of itself, but it also provides a chance to examine the way people see the world, as evidenced by the assumptions and choices they make.
Here’s how the Atlanta Journal-Constitution currently is presenting this standard AP story right now on its front page:
We are long overdue for a visit with the Uptons. How about a dinner date? (They’ll probably make Chick-fil-A if you ask nicely and are willing to wait until the third inning.)
Appetizer: Team status small talk
Right now, Atlanta is in first place in the NL East, holding a seven-game lead over the Washington Nationals. They also are the only team in their division with a positive run differential. (Only the Cardinals (+106), Tigers (+76), Red Sox (+75), and Reds (+63) can best the Braves +57 mark.) That’s all the more impressive considering …Keep reading…
As noted here, the cover of last week’s Sports Illustrated magazine featured Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder, and while I contended then that SI was engaging in a bit of revisionist history with that cover, I still wanted to read that story. I also was interested in the other story advertised on that cover, an update on the Nevin Shapiro case. Both because I wanted to hang onto that cover and because I’d planned a lazy weekend, I wanted to buy an actual copy of the magazine. I’m not a subscriber, and I don’t want to be. I don’t generally have the time, lifestyle, or resources that support buying a subscription to a weekly sports periodical, even though I’ve always enjoyed reading SI (and SI for Kids before that).
I was on the hunt for an individual copy for sale. I live and work in the middle of a major American city. Sports Illustrated is one of the country’s most popular magazines. This should’ve been easy. It was not easy. In fact, I failed in my mission. I tried a grocery store (Publix), a drug store (CVS), and multiple convenience stores/newsstands. I saw a variety of sports periodicals and publications, but not even a whiff of SI. (Possibly interestingly, I recall seeing ESPN The Magazine just once.) I now think the airport or a large chain bookstore would be my best bets, but the above choices weren’t unreasonable options. It shouldn’t be this difficult, right?
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On the integration of the pulp paper and textile industries: Sports Illustrated as a case study
ESPN’s resident baseball-knowledge mouthpiece, Jayson Stark, decided that too many professional baseball people were acting like Donovan McNabb and forgetting the rules of the game this season, if they ever knew them to begin with, so he and Rich Marazzi, “esteemed baseball rules expert,” came up with a ten-question quiz to test folks. They then administered it to “20 of the most astute players in the game,” four coaches, one manager, “six ESPN baseball ‘geniuses,'” and one broadcaster.
Who were these people? The twenty-seven active players, managers, and coaches represent eleven of baseball’s thirty teams, and of those eleven teams, six of which are East Coast teams. That seems like a not unreasonable balance for a small sampling of people.
We don’t often hear people associating baseball players and intelligence, though, so the phrase “20 of the most astute players in the game” caught my eye. Stark pays close attention to the details of the game, so it certainly is possible that he has a good feel for what players might qualify. Maybe it was because I had just read Tommy Craggs’ article on Howie Schwab, but I started to worry that “astute” might mean something like “scrappy.” I took a look at the MLB.com profile pages for each of the “20 of the most astute players in the game,” and while Stark may be right– he goes to great lengths to discuss Sam Fuld’s academic credentials– my hunch wasn’t wrong: of the twenty, nineteen are white. The one exception was Jimmy Rollins, who is black. (According to the first Appendix of the 2013 Race and Gender Report Card for Major League Baseball, 61.2% of players are white, and 8.3% are African-American.)
As far as the quiz itself, it turned out to be pretty tough. Marazzi decided that a passing grade was 6/10, and by that measure, just thirteen of the thirty-two takers passed. That’s probably because, as Stark writes, “the rules might be the rules. But that doesn’t mean they have to make much sense.”
The rest is baseball minutiae and hopeless reform rhetoric. If you want to see how the quiz-takers performed, click here. If you want to take the quiz yourself– at last count, over 171,000 people had– click here. And if you really must know, this writer scored a five, which, while not “passing,” ranks me better than or equal to all but two of the professional media “geniuses.” You get what you pay for here at ALDLAND.
You followed the live blog, now listen to the live podcast. Join Marcus and me as we discuss the NBA FInals DURING the NBA Finals. This is so groundbreaking that your mind might explode! We also talk about college football recruiting and how crazy that is. So crazy. You don’t even know. But you will soon.
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So far, the NBA Finals has been a tale of two blowouts. The most recent one belongs to the San Antonio Spurs, who routed the Miami Heat 113-77 to take a 2-1 series lead. The big story on offense was the three-point shooting of Danny Green and Gary Neal, who together made 13/19 shots from distance. As a team, the Spurs shot 50% from behind the arc, and they attempted 32 such shots.
Thirty-two three-point attempts seemed like a lot to me. The season average across all teams this year was 19.9, that number representing a record high. Thirty-two attempts is not an all-time record, though. In 1996, Dallas attempted forty-nine three-pointers in a 127-117 win over New Jersey. (Somebody named George McCloud was responsible for twenty of those attempts. The Nets, as a team– a team featuring none other than future Maverick Shawn Bradley– only attempted five. Rick Mahorn also played in that game, so do with that what you will.) In fact, there have been 404 games in NBA/ABA/BAA history in which a team attempted at least 33 three-point shots. It isn’t even the most this season, in which eighty-three games saw a team attempt at least 33 threes, and seven of those performances came in these playoffs. All time, only twenty-three playoff games have seen at least thirty-three attempts, though, which certainly comports with the trend the Sporting News discussed in the above-linked story on the steep increase in three-point shooting.
That the Spurs’ thirty-two attempts on Tuesday seemed like a lot to me only means that I haven’t been watching a lot of NBA basketball in recent years, which is absolutely correct.
Enjoy game 4 tonight if you’re capable of enjoying such things.
Earlier today, the Detroit Free Press tipped the new Sports Illustrated cover, pictured above, reporting that “it’s . . . thought to be the first time a pair of Tigers have been on the cover of SI since Al Kaline and Denny McLain made it in September 1968.” (Such thorough and confident reporting by the Freep is in line with their recent work on even more important issues.) For anyone who collected baseball cards in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the headline is immediately evocative of an earlier pair of mashers. The caption dubs Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder “Baseball’s 21st-Century Version of Mantle and Maris,” explaining to the Free Press in greater detail:
Ruth and Gehrig. Mays and McCovey. Ortiz and Ramirez. To the list of great hitting duos in baseball history we can now add one more: Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers. Both were established stars long before coming to Detroit but since joining forces prior to last season, Fielder and Cabrera have become baseball’s best 1-2 punch, which makes it only fitting that the sluggers appear together on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated.
Wait, what? I thought…. Hang on. Continue reading
For many, like Ray Savoy, who regularly tees off at the historic Langston Golf Course in Northeast, the 74-year-old sports cathedral is a home away from home.
ESPN recently noted that the famed course is the only one in Washington, D.C., where you can still get breakfast at 6 p.m. More importantly, Langston has been both a playground and a meeting ground for generations of African-American golfers.
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An African American renaissance in golf began based on the creation of Langston, which essentially became the Mecca for black golfers.World Heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, famed Big Band leader Billy Eckstein, singers Dionne Warrick and Lena Horne and Hall of Fame baseball player Willie Mays counted among the famous to patronize Langston.
Former President Gerald Ford, entertainer Bob Hope, and PGA champion Lee Trevino are among the notable non-African Americans who have played 18-holes at the fabled course.
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Northwest resident and golfer Luke Watson is also a regular at Langston and his review of the course on his “hot dogs and golf” blog echoes the thoughts of many who have had tee-times there. … Read More
(via The Washington Informer)
Technical difficulties and general laziness are a good combination for going two weeks without a podcast. Fear not, dear listeners, as one of the two of those issues has been fixed and a brand new ALDLAND podcast is available for you to take in. Join Marcus and I as we preview the NBA finals, discuss the latest in MLB steroids news, and take a look at our preseason World Series picks.
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