Category Archives: Sports

Bowl season: College entertainment, nothing more

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I have never been a fan of college “sports”. They take money away from education, and basketball and football have become professional development leagues with the players making millions of dollars for fat university administrators and boosters while the players are not paid by the universities. Yes they get an education (wink). Some of these “educated” men can’t even read much less earn a college degree. I don’t even believe that college football is a sport. I believe that there is no subjectivity is sport – a voting system to determine your champion? Well you might as well have The Rock break up the game with a chair shot to the head. (That’s a professional wrestling reference for the uninformed).

My big issue with college sports is that they continue to be run by racist boosters. In 2009 we will have a black President, but a black head coach in Division II football? Well that’s rare. Out of the 119 division II teams there are 7 black head coaches (of which 3 were hired in December). By comparison, the NFL’s 32 teams also have 7 black head coaches. Progress is being made, but after reading that Charlie Strong has been told repeatedly that Strong has been passed over because his wife is white, I realize that the NCAA remains stuck in the 40′s.

The history of major college sports has always been sordid. The treatment of black players in the 50′s through the 70′s was horrible, but they’ve barely gotten much better. They’re willing to use these players as indentured servants, but nothing more. Until that changes, we should all turn our head away.

Reversal of fortunes for the Phillies and Eagles

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For most of my life I have been a Phillies fan first and Eagles fan second. Some of my earliest memories are of watching the Phillies at my father’s feet. The switch began in the late 80′s as I learned about football, the Eagles got better, and the Phils became atrocious. I had always felt that the Phillies had surrendered this city to the Eagles because this city was first and foremost a baseball town. The Eagles owned this town as recent as two years ago. What a difference two years makes.

Flash to Winter of 2008, the Phillies are World Champs and the Eagles have become a team that has underperformed just as the Phillies had done for most of this decade. I had often said that the Phils need to look at how the Eagles are run and learn a lesson. I don’t see lessons for the Eagles to learn from these Phillies, but they should be disappointed that they haven’t been able to turn all that savviness into a title. And now they’ve lost this town; at least for now.

These things are fleeting. If the Eagles turn this around next year, they could be the toast of the town. That will require Jeffery Lurie to instigate the changes that Andy Reid is unable to. Otherwise this team will suffer the fate of the Phillies of the 90′s: they will become a ridiculed and forgotten team in a city they owned.

(Sorry for any typos. This post was written on an iPhone.)

The worst, best ever: ESPN Properties

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This morning I got up thinking it was a good day for a good old Sunday morning. What is that? I have a few, but the one I wanted today, at the beginning of March Madness, was my newspaper, coffee, and ESPN’s Sportscenter. At one point in time ESPN was essential watching by every sports fan. I used to watch it daily. It was the best there was at delivering a wide variety of sports. They had great journalists such as Keith Olbermann, Dan Patrick, Dick Schapp, and Bob Ley. They covered sports in a way that made missing the big game less unbearable. That means they didn’t just show the dunks or the home runs, but they would show the critical plays of the game; and because they understood sports, they understood that the critical play didn’t always result in points and wasn’t always made by the star player. Those days are long over.

I stopped watching ESPN daily some time ago. I thought it was because my now wife moved in and deserved equal time in selecting what we watched. I think there is something else to consider. Today’s ESPN is highlight clip, after pithy quip, followed by whoring themselves out for some product placement, and then repeat. They’ve designed their show to appeal to the short attention span public. Their flagship show Sportscenter is barely watchable, and isn’t a valuable source of sports information any longer. It is not unusual for them to skip highlights (or even skip mentioning) what happened in a major U.S. sports contest (by major that means NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL in that order). Sure you can watch one of their other shows such as NFL Live or Baseball Tonight, but I don’t want to watch 3 different shows to find out what happened in the day in sports. Sportscenter used to be enough.

It’s not as if their website is any better.

ESPN takes the fact that they provide the best sports information online, to take advantage of their readers. They inundate the user with ads. They have video, with sound, that starts without the request of the user. The site, aside from the content, is a bloated, slow mess, and I bet it has never been any more successful, because where else are you going to go? Sure Yahoo! Sports does an admirable job CBS Sportsline is a decent alternative; but you generally come crawling back to ESPN.com because they provide better content in an albeit horrible wrapper.

All this goes to say ESPN is one of the worst bests ever. This means they are the best at doing what they do without being good at it. It’s unfortunate for us sports fans who will just have to deal with the shit they deal until they decide to do a better job or someone takes them, because until then, nothing requires them to do a good job.

An Open Letter to Ed Snider of the Sixers

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I read today that Ed Snider is upset that fans aren’t going Sixers games and doesn’t know why. From the Philadelphia Weekly:

“Our kids play hard every single game, every single minute,” Snider said. “You can see them getting better right before your eyes. I would hope they deserve more recognition and support from our fans. I think those fans who come to the games are enjoying immensely what they are seeing.”

Snider said he had a better feeling about the Sixers at the start of the season than reporters who almost universally picked them to finish last in the Eastern Conference…. “I feel the prognosticators wrote us off before the season began,” Snider said. “And that’s why people have taken a show-me attitude.”

With this I wrote the following to the team:

I saw an article today that indicated that Ed Snider doesn’t understand why people aren’t showing up. Being exciting is not enough. We see this team struggle to get to the 8th playoff spot and we know that the best you can hope for is a playoff win or two, but we will not be competitive with the best teams. That would require seriously upgrading this team which up until now was hampered by the mishandling of the salary cap.

So without a compelling reason to attend a game it is just plain entertainment. If I want to sit in the lower level, it will cost at least $104 for two tickets. Add in the cost of parking, food, drink and easily you’ve spent $175-200. For that price tag I could go to best restaurant in the city. If my tastes are less refined, dinner and a movie for a quarter of the cost.

That is the decision your fans make when your team is not good, or lacks star power. There are bottom line reprecussions for having a bad or even mediocre team and that is what you’re experiencing.

 

(I know my regular readers don’t care too much about sports, but I do so sometimes I need to vent).

Perfectville, Population still 1 (Thank you Giants)

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Mercury Morris said about teams attempting to go undefeated, “Don’t call me when you get to my town, call me when you’re on my block”. Well the Patriots were knocking at their door. What a sense of failure they must feel – they were so certain, they tried to trademark 19-0. Well I hope they trademarked 18-1. After all the talk of spygate the past couple of days, I can’t believe how much I was rooting for the Giants. I hate the Giants. But yes, the evil empire of Bill Belichick gets a dose of humility – it’s long overdue.

Best Super Bowl I’ve ever seen. And a huge upset. Any one of you that picked New York, did it to pick the underdog – you know you didn’t believe it would happen. Thanks to the Giants for saving us from seeing the “jinxed” Boston fans celebrate yet again.

My only question is how long it will be before I realize Eli Manning has won a title and the Eagles have not. I say Tuesday.

Live blogging the Super Bowl

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Or is it live Twittering?   Any way – you can find it here:

Spencer’s Twitter page

Choosing between two evils: Superbowl XLII

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belichick_913.jpgcoughlin.jpgEarlier today I was reminiscing about the 2004 election between John Kerry and George Bush when I realized that this weekend’s Superbowl is perfectly analogous to that election.   Yes we have the New England Patriots, going for their fourth NFL championship in the past 7 years, and the New York Giants hoping to not be embarrassed.   Who do you root for?   Boston or New York fans?   Eli Manning or Tom Brady?   Tom Coughlin or Bill Belichick?   Might as well be Hitler or Bin Laden.

As much as I hate to do it – I just can’t stand seeing Boston win another championship.   Maybe if their fans weren’t such assholes, or if their coach wasn’t so damn smug, or their QB so damn good – I could sit back and enjoy history in the making.   As it is, this lifelong Philadelphia Eagle fan, and therefore a lifelong hater of anything having to do with the New York Giants must root for them this weekend.

What else can I do?