:: Ah, July....when ballparks across the nation are alive with the sound of the grilling of hot dogs, the crack of bats, the creaking of thirty-six year old relievers' knees, and....the Pittsburgh Pirates having a fire sale. Come one, come all!
Peter Gammons says it's not so much a firesale as coming to grips with a failed rebuilding project, and maybe he's right, but this is getting pretty frustrating, nonetheless. Since 1993 this is, by my count, the third failed rebuilding undertaken by the Pirates, and this is the one that was supposed to work -- a new park last year and solid, young players coming of age were suppose to add to a run at .500 this year. Instead, the Pirates once again return from the All-Star Break to play out the string. (Gammons also identifies owner Kevin McClatchy as the Pirates' General Manager, which is odd considering that the actual GM's picture -- Dave Littlefield -- appears right next to the graf in question.)
:: Ah, July....when college athletic fields across the nation are alive with the sound of NFL players enduring the dreaded two-a-days, except the ones smart enough to hold out until after two-a-days are over. ("Two-a-days" refers to the early days of training camps, when practices are held twice daily. They are dreaded by players.) I won't be doing my second annual NFL Preview Post until much closer to the actual start of the regular season, but still -- it's getting closer, baby! News on the NFL's proudest franchise, the Buffalo Bills, can be found here. Go Bills!
(By the way, one of the many new faces this year is defensive line coach Tim Krumrie, whom I remember for his godawful injury in Super Bowl XXIII, when he played for the Bengals. This was one of those Joe Theismann-like leg breakings, where the extremity bends in a direction that would be painful for Reed Richards, and of course is replayed over-and-over by the network....)
:: In a column extolling the wonderment that is Lance Armstrong (AOL exclusive, so I can't link it, sadly), sports writer John Feinstein makes this larger point:
Those who mock bike racing and claim it is somehow not a "real" sport should try someday to ride a bike straight up a mountain in searing heat for 100 miles or so. Beyond that, there's simply no need for those who aren't fans of the sport to mock it or attempt to belittle it.
The constant bickering among sports fans about which sport is better or tougher or more dramatic strikes me as silly. Every sport has a niche and a component to it that draws those who love it to care about it. I don't pretend to understand cricket, but seeing the passion of those who do, I respect the passion and understand enough to know that to play it at the highest level takes great skill.
The flip side of the argument is that it is equally foolish for those who do love a sport to put down those who don’t. If you love soccer and see beauty and artistry in a 0-0 tie, that's wonderful. But to claim that those who don't see the game the same way as you are somehow inferior makes no sense at all.
Indeed.
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