Friday, September 22 2006
Collect ‘em, Race ‘em, Trade ‘em: Putting the “Fantasy” in Fantasy Sports
From the Cheap Seats -- Collect 'em, Race 'em, Trade 'em: Putting the 'Fantasy' in Fantasy Sports -- For fantasy leaguers, today's athletes are but tools to be used in a make-believe struggle for dominance.
Tuesday, August 22 2006
Mass Xceptance: The Too-Discovered Country of Extreme Sports
In playing up the punk rock, DIY ethos of skaters, surf bums, and adrenaline junkies, the X Games (and extreme sports in general) have edged their way forward from the margins of sports culture and now boast a committed following - not least the predatory advertising industry.
Monday, July 17 2006
World Cup Redux: Innocence Abroad
With my big and painfully obvious American mug pressed up to the glass of (a good many) European drinking establishments, I took out a pen and paper and tried to sketch some of what unfolded before me.
Tuesday, June 20 2006
The “Other” Football: Watching America Watching the World Cup
From the Cheap Seats -- The 'Other' Football: Watching America Watching the World Cup -- As the FIFA World Cup plays out in Germany this month, the disparity between American interest in 'soccer' and the rest of the world's passion for 'football' is felt now more keenly than ever.
Monday, May 22 2006
How Pretty is Too Pretty? Oscar De La Hoya’s Problematic Stardom
De La Hoya's flashy smile and cosmopolitan demeanor are signs of a sellout for many boxing fans.
Wednesday, April 26 2006
One-Potata, Two-Potata: The (Million) Dollar Logic of the NFL Draft
The draft, for all its baroque embellishment and glitz, essentially replays the same drama of bygone sandlot days.
Tuesday, April 4 2006
Am I Not a Role Model? Looking Back and Up to Kirby Puckett
Puckett made his team a winner and, by extension, made me one, too.
Monday, February 20 2006
Spanning the Globe?: The Ever-Shrinking Wide World of Sports
Twenty-five million viewers seem like so many crickets, chirping disinterestedly, as the Olympic pageantry carries on at the periphery of our national consciousness.
Monday, January 23 2006
Where Have You Gone, J.D.?: Pro Sports Fans in a Pomo Flux
The marquee names of a franchise are no longer written in lights, as in the time of Joe (J.D.) DiMaggio, but rather in sand, as in the time of Johnny (J.D.) Damon.
Tuesday, December 20 2005
Tailbacks of the World, Unite! Debunking the Myth of the Student-Athlete
The real travesty of college football is not that it fails to regularly account for a champion, but that it fails to account at any point for its players.
