If the Cleveland ball club ever changes its identity, it should totally switch to this. Explanation for the design, by Daniel Irwin, here. Via Uni-Watch.
Category: sports
Is This the Way the NFL Ends? T. S. Eliot, Jim McMahon, And The End of Football In America
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
– From The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot.
Jim McMahon was trending on Twitter this morning because of this interview with SportsCenter that aired yesterday.
“He had a concussion, but it cleared up by halftime.” – a Bears team doctor in 1988.
“We knew about risks to every other part of the body. But we didn’t know about the brain trauma. They did. They lied.” – Jim McMahon
Headpieces of straw. Paralyzed force. Not lost, violent souls. The hollow men. The stuffed men.
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
This the way the NFL ends, with a bang. With a million concussions.
I hope these players get every dime.
Paul Pierce and Gospel Poetry
I spent most of the day working on a message inspired by 1 Corinthians 1:18- 25. In that passage, the apostle Paul says that the cross and the message it sends are foolishness to the self-styled wisdom of convention, but to those who “are being saved, it is the power of God.”
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the ways the life of Jesus bucked convention. His birth and upbringing, his passion, death, and resurrection. let alone his passion, death, and resurrection. Te irony, subversion, and poetry of Christ’s story is precisely what I find so compelling.
Last night, while I watched Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith throw down about the trade rumors swilring around Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo, I did a little reading up on lifelong Celtic forward Paul Pierce. It’s not often that professional athletes quote Mark Twain and Blaise Pascal on the front page of their website, but as Shaquille O’Neal will tell you, “Paul Pierce is the Truth.” As Pierce’s website reminds any nonbeliever: After a Lakers’ victory over the Celtics in 2001, O’Neal pulled a Boston reporter over and gestured toward his notepad:
“Take this down,” said O’Neal. “My name is Shaquille O’Neal and Paul Pierce is the [%*$&ing] truth. Quote me on that and don’t take nothing out. I knew he could play, but I didn’t know he could play like this. Paul Pierce is the truth.”
Compare that wit the first three verses of the apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians:
“Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
My name is Paul and this is how it is with Jesus.
My name is Shaquille O’Neal and Paul Pierce is the truth.
Sometimes that’s how I feel about the poetry of Jesus’ story. Whatever else, that poetry’s the truth.
“Fiction is bound by possibility,” Pierce quotes Twain as saying, “the truth is not.” Pascal adds, “we know the truth not only by reason, but also with the heart.”
After Minor League Hockey, Major League Soccer?
This report by Portfolio.com and bizjournals is two years old, but I’m guessing the numbers, if accurate, are fairly sticky. The question:
“What North American cities are primed economically to host a major-league sports franchise and which ones are already overextended?”
The usual suspects emerge in most cases. This interactive map displays them nicely. It’s also how I learned that the numbers crunchers at Portfolio believe Allentown (the Lehigh Valley metro region, really) could support a Major League Soccer team. Researchers looked at total personal income (the total sum of all income in a given market) and concluded that while an MLB franchise requires a TPI of $83 billion, an MLS franchise needs a comparatively scant $13.9 billion.
Allentown metro’s TPI is $30.62 billion. That’s $4 billion more than NHL city Winnipeg and 2 bills shy of Tucson for perspective. I know that Philadelphia (well, Chester) has a shiny new MLS team in the Union, but that’s not a TPI issue. Given a local MLS team to go crazy for, Lehigh Valley soccer fans would buy in in droves, and so would a good many casual sports fans. The Union would be our natural rival, with yearly Turnpike Grudge Matches and the like. A-town would get a piece of the national broadcast action, with ESPN beaming live from our lovely new stadium on the Allentown waterfront a few times a year. It’s too bad PPL, headquartered here, bought the naming rights to the Union’s home field. But those things can change.
Let’s put this on the fast track. I’m willing to green light this ahead of my hoped-for Butz Tower (a hypothetical soul-mate for the Art Deco bachelor on 9th street).
Come on, Allentown metro. You know you want to.
Related articles
- MLS will have longest season, final on Dec. 1 (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- IronPigs to become a Major League Team?!? (noisenation.wordpress.com)
Regarding Tebow
Tim Tebow strikes me as classy, upstanding, hardworking young man. I like him. I also like when people, in this case, Broncos coach John Fox, are willing to go all in with what they have. No, Tebow is not a traditional NFL quarterback, nor is he able, at least at this point, to play in a traditional NFL offense.
So what? There was a time when the whole concept of specialized closers in baseball was unthinkable. I’d love to see more ingenuity on the coaching side of sports and less sanctimonious, sacrosanct garbage. We’d all do well with less culty fandoms.
Enjoy this post from Yahoo!Sports’ MJD about Fox’s willingness to throw out “that other crap” (that is, the passing game) so that Tebow and the Broncos might have a chance to succeed.
Francona a Good Fit for St. Louis
I just read that Terry Francona interviewed for Tony La Russa’s old job. As much as I think Ryne Sandberg deserves a shot at managing in the bigs, I sure would love it if he stayed with Phillies organization, preferably at the helm of our own IronPigs.
Francona is the smart bet here. He’s a winner (this year’s dismal collapse notwithstanding), and he’s a recent multiple World Series winner. His penchant for questionable on-field attire aside, I think he’s the right fit for the Cardinals. As a veteran manager and recent winner, he’ll bring the kind of stability and gravity the franchise needs after losing their winningest coach of all time.
Fun Fact: Did you know La Russa has a law degree and is a member of the Florida State Bar? True story.
Related articles
- Cardinals’ candidates include Terry Francona, Ryne Sandberg (hardballtalk.nbcsports.com)
The Last Man Standing in the Baseball Steroid Scandal
Chris Cocca 
