Christianity, Culture, Vocation
A noted sports figure came out of the closet. Not Jason Collins of the NBA saying he is gay. ESPN commentator Chris Broussard revealing himself to be a Christian, something far more controversial than what Collins did. [Read more...]
There was a time (I’m sounding old) when community activities were never planned on Sunday mornings. There was never such a thing as a soccer or little league practice scheduled for the time when most families were in church. That has changed. Now children’s sporting events are routinely scheduled on Sunday mornings. In fact, new research suggests that children’s sports contributes significantly to the decline in church attendance.
My question: Why would Christian parents let their kids be in sports when that keeps them from going to church? [Read more...]
Louisville beat Michigan to win the NCAA basketball championship.
In our Cranach contest, no one picked the winner, but quite a few picked Louisville to be in the final two: Dr. Fundystan, Aletheist, A. MacPhee, and EGK. Dennis gets another imaginary prize for coming the closest to predicting the little school that comes out of nowhere to get into the Final Four as happens nearly every year: namely, Wichita State.
That’s pretty good prognosticating, another tribute to the quality of my readers on this blog.
For details of the game: News from The Associated Press.
The NCAA basketball tournament is all set. You may fill out your brackets: 2013 NCAA Tournament Bracket – March Madness Tournament Brackets – ESPN. While a good part of America’s workplaces will be turned into gambling parlors, we will host a simpler pool: What two teams will play for the national championship, and which one will win? [Read more...]
I usually cast a jaundiced eye at efforts to change the name of sports teams that refer to Native Americans. After all, I reason, fans love their teams, so there can hardly be anything demeaning in what they call them. I do understand tribal sensitivities in regard to mascots–misusing tribal symbols such as eagle feathers and perpetuating stereotypes–but I salute the Seminole Nation,for example, in affirming the dignified reference to their tribe by Florida State.
But Washington “Redskins”? Yeah, that’s pretty racial and hard to justify. Change is going to come eventually. So, if the name of the football team that represents our nation’s capital is going to change, what should it be? I am looking for suggestions both serious and humorous. [Read more...]
For some people, the portent of spring, with it promise of new life and new beginnings, is the first robin or the first flowers to bloom. For baseball fans, it’s spring training. And I am happy to say that spring training has started! Hope springs eternal in the human breast, and now the fans of every team are full of hope. I’ll tell you my baseball hopes for this next season, and you tell me yours. [Read more...]
One of the most awe-inspiring baseball players of all time died last Saturday, Stan “the Man” Musial. He was a great, great player for the St. Louis Cardinals with a lifetime batting average of .331. He was also celebrated for his good sportsmanship, his refusal to complain, his good-nature, and. his generosity to fans. Sort of the anti-Lance Armstrong.
From his Washington Post obituary by Dennis Drabelle:
Stan “The Man” Musial, one of major league baseball’s most prolific hitters and a model of good sportsmanship during his Hall of Fame career with the St. Louis Cardinals, died Saturday. He was 92.
The death was announced by the team. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that he had Alzheimer’s disease.
The most beloved Cardinal of all, Mr. Musial led the National League in batting seven times in the 1940s and ’50s and was voted the league’s most valuable player three times. His lifetime batting average was .331, his total of 3,630 hits ranks fourth all-time, and he was a perennial all-star. After spending the entirety of his 22-year career with the Cardinals, Mr. Musial retired in 1963 with so many firsts to his credit that he may have carved out a new category: the record for holding the most records at one time. . . . [Read more...]
I was glad to see that the Washington Nationals’ Davey Johnson won the National League’s manager of the year. He also won the award for the American League back in 1997 when he managed the Baltimore Orioles. On the same day that reward was announced for getting the Orioles into the post-season for the first time in decades, he got fired. That won’t happen this time, as the 70-year-old agreed to come back to Washington for one more year before he retires for good. He took a bad, hapless, hopeless team and turned it, virtually overnight, into the winningness team in baseball.
And, along that line, going from old to young, the National’s Bryce Harper won Rookie of the Year. He was 19 for most of the season and his infectious energy, as well as his penchant for getting on base and then stealing them, contributed greatly to the team’s successful season.
I was hoping for a trifecta for the Nationals, the home team I’m now following in my new home, but the team’s ace, Gio Gonzalez (not Stephen Strasburg, great young pitcher that he is) finished third in the NL Cy Young. Usually winning more games than anyone, going 21-8, having 207 strikeouts, and a 2.89 ERA is enough to get you a Cy Young, but this year’s award went to the Met’s kuckleballer R.A. Dickey, who went 20-6. Since the Mets were a losing team, I can see that this was a greater feat. race despite having
Gonzalez led the Major Leagues with 21 victories, led the team in strikeouts with 207 and had a 2.89 ERA in 32 games. However, Dickey, who went 20-6 with a 2.73 ERA, led the NL in starts, complete games, shutouts and innings pitched. The Dodger’s Clayton Kershaw came in second, despite his lowlier 14-9 record, because he came out so well in the sophisticated number crunching of sabremetrics.
Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler illustrates why talking trash against an opponent is not wise. Before his team played the Packers, he preened, he bragged, he taunted. And then he got sacked 7 times and threw 4 interceptions:
When you talk trash to the opposing team before the game, and then throw a bunch of even more odiferous garbage around the field in a loss … well, you have what amounted to a very bad week for quarterback Jay Cutler of the Chicago Bears. Not to mention, the other team has every right to talk right back at you.
Packers defensive back Charles Woodson put it best after the game. “Same old Jay. We don’t need luck — we just need to be in position. Jay will throw us the ball.”
Clay Matthews spent more time in Chicago’s backfield than Matt Forte did. (Getty Images)It started on Tuesday, when Cutler, fresh off an impressive Sunday outing against the Indianapolis Colts, stirred things up by saying that the Packers’ defense could bring whatever it wanted.
“Good luck,” Cutler said to his future tormentors. “Our speed guys are going to get around them and our big guys are going to throw and go … We invite press coverage. We invite man. And if we get in that type of game, our guys outside have to make some plays for us.”
“It’s all about matchups,” receiver Brandon Marshall said on the same day. “I’m 6-5, 230 pounds and there’s not too many DB’s walking around that big. If they want to get physical, I do welcome that.”
The Bears did not make plays, nor did they win any matchups, in a 23-10 disaster that was nowhere near as competitive as the score indicated — the Bears had zero net yards at the end of the first quarter, and Cutler was 7 of 18 for 70 yards and two interceptions after three quarters were done. He finished the game with 11 completions in 27 attempts for 126 yards, one touchdown, and four picks.
Here is the lesson in life, boys and girls and student athletes: If you diminish your opponent, that diminishes your victory if you win. And if you lose, you look oh, so foolish and pathetic.
Far better, even if you are playing a weak team, is to build them up and say how good they are and how you hardly have a chance. Then if you beat them, you come across not only as a good sport but as a team that has accomplished something significant. And if you lose, well, that’s understandable.
Also, you wouldn’t have fired up your opposing team and inspired them to wipe you off the field.
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