The list is out of the ESPN firings. Some are 'about time', others are odd.
Young is a bit of a shocker to me.
Elly De La Cruz stole 2nd, 3rd, and home in the same inning for the Reds yesterday. First Red to do that since 1919 and the first in MLB since Rod Carew in 1969.
I was reading a very few days ago an account of when Cobb did that. He stole home 54 times! The record, of course.
Elly did it on two (WTF two) pitches. I’m guessing Ty Cobb never pulled that off.
I think this qualifies as an "oddity", altho it's much more than that.
Hmm. Not sure why that no-hitter would be a consequence of the new baseball rules.
The sad state of sports "journalism" continues to deepen with this story: Dianna Russini refused to accept a pay raise(?) to stay with ESPN and decided to move to The Athletic. (The NY Times recently acquired The Athletic to be their sports arm as the Times continues to phase out sports coverage.) Russini is second tier at best. Granted, she is a constant (and annoying) staple on the various daytime shows on ESPN (Get Up!, First Word, etc), but her "insights" seldom provide information that isn't available elsewhere. ESPN described her as their "top NFL correspondent"; they should qualify that as "our top NFL corresponent after the massive firing of the actual talent."
Disney has gutted ESPN to balance the massive loss of profits from their theme parks. But, ESPN signed a $3 billion contract with the SEC for their football games. One has to wonder the wisdom of that contract in light of Disney's cost-cutting measures.
And part of the fall-out of ESPN's missteps is the break-up of the PAC-10/12. They purposely drug their feet on concluding a TV rights deal in negotiations whilst waiting to see if (hoping that) Oregon and Washington were gonna bolt. It was kinda a game of chicken, with those 2 schools eventually deciding to take the money and run, altho most accounts state that they were ready to sign the deal. (Altho reportage does vary, and it's possible it was just a matter of time.) But ESPN successfully avoided having to sign *that* contract.
As I wrote earlier......it seems like a race to see who can claim the most credit for killing the goose that's been laying the golden eggs.
The Disney/ESPN deal was yet another example of greed gone wild. The Bible doesn't say that money is the root of all evil; it specifies that it's the *quest* for it.
Meanwhile...........Atlanta's Falcons beat the Dolphins Friday night 19-3. Their Bravos outscored them the next day in swamping the Metros 21-6 in the first game of a double dip. As a side note........a 28-yr. old "rookie" who is a substitute teacher in the off-season took the win in that contest for his first MLB victory.
Can't be much money in substitute teaching. This is surely an improvement, salary-wise.
Watching highlights of yesterday’s US Open tennis: the talking heads got all gooey when one of the men’s players gently chased a “moth” off the court. Once the “moth” had fled to safety, the camera gave us a close up of the bug — it was actually a lantern fly. Lantern flies are the modern day locusts of the Northeast, inflicting heavy economic damage on crops, trees, and landscape plants.
But it was adorbs how he saved it. 🤗😍
For those of you mired in depression because your football sucks, you have company.
Ok, this isn't what I'd call an "oddity" - but in a sense it truly is. Since we discussed marathons a fair amount in this thread back in 2021, this seems the most relevant place for this.
Earlier today (or "yesterday" as most would call it), the wimmens marathon record was (as CNN correctly states) "obliterated" by Tigist Assefa in Berlin. CNN's story is at least adequate, altho there's virtually certainly better, more in-depth accountings elsewhere:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/24/sport/tigist-assefa-berlin-marathon-world-record-spt-intl/index.html
To appreciate that a bit more.............she won by almost SIX minutes. That's approaching (tho not quite) Beamon-esque/Secretariat-esque. That's blowing away the rest of the field of world-class runners by ~13 seconds/mile - for 26 miles. Good golly....
So........once again.........we're left with the mystery of why, with all the American football and baseball news (altho I've not seen a peep about that on ESPN 😳) on TV, this wasn't splashed around our consciousnesses all day?
Sadly, we also know why, and it's an embarrassment to the sports media machines - at least in this country.
I think most 'knew' there was still significant room to lower the women's record. One just doesn't expect it to happen in such huge quanta.
I stumbled over that marathon story yesterday and was amazed.
I was curious about the lack of coverage, but not shocked. ESPN has two versions of their Sports Center (late night and early morning), and neither mentioned a word. Megan Rapinoe’s retirement game got a couple of minutes, and Taylor Swift’s visit to the Chief’s game got some attention.
The ESPN app probably has the story somewhere, but not on the front page. Lot of coverage of Rapinoe and Swift…
This is a bad time of year to try to capture the attention of the US sports media. But, considering the apt comparison to Beamon, there is no excuse.
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*EDIT: I ran a search on the the ESPN app for “marathon,” and the an AP story on the new record was the top hit.
I remain puzzled by what I was *not* seeing on SportsCenter last night. I had it on, without sound, for well over an hour and a half - long enough that it all 'cycled' back around to the same stuff - and saw ZERO about baseball or the marathon. I'm not shocked about not seeing marathon coverage, sadly. But why not a peep about baseball, at this very critical juncture? Does ESPN have some sort of tie-in with football to the extent that they've been ignoring baseball for a while? I was totally flummoxed. Normally, they try to 'mix' all the sports up, jumping from one to another over a period of time, I suppose to try and keep a viewer interested until whatever they're most interested in comes back around. I'll note that I don't watch ESPN nearly as much as I used to, so admit ignorance of some policy change along these lines - if there have been such along with the massive layoffs. But yes.............so *very* thankful to see footage of the head Swiftie in Arrowhead. [Have the pundits decided on a name yet - "Swelce"?] Can a day get any better than when one can see football and Taylor Swift at the same time? Swoon.....
I cannot explain why, but the Scott van Pelt version of SportsCenter on Sunday is NFL only. And, the episode is repeated verbatim about five times in a row. The early morning SportsCenter starts anew, and they had a mix of all sports. I held out to the bitter end hoping that the Top 10 Plays would have a snippet of the race, but no. Soccer, football, baseball, pre-season hockey.
I am hoping that somewhere someone with some cash will start a highlights program that does not suffer from all the grotesque flaws that plague ESPN.
Here's the link to the AP story (posted on ESPN): Tigst Assefa shatters women's marathon world record in Berlin - ESPN
And the AP story without granting ESPN their advertising $$ : Berlin Marathon 2023: Tigst Assefa shatters the women's world record by more than 2 minutes | AP News
*Pre-season* hockey over an astonishing marathon achievement?!?? 😱🥺 Is "the end" that near?!? Even Uncle Walt would probably blanch at that 😳.
But thanks for the insight on the Sunday night version of "Who Cares about Anything Else?".
How did they cover it Down Under, roo?
A Phillies fan was not allowed to bring his emotional support alligator into the stadium. How callous.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/38512361/support-alligator-wally-denied-entry-phillies-stadium
That's pretty cold-hearted -- as befits a reptile, I guess.
This isn't *really* sports, but it's sports-related, and it sure seems to me like an oddity:
I watched the early version of Sports Center to get a glimpse of non-NFL highlights. To my surprise, they included the new men’s marathon record of 2:00:35 by Kelvin Kiptum in Chicago.
Thanks. Meant to post that earlier. And gosh - he looked strong at the end....
"Remarkable" doesn't begin to do it justice.
Of course we knew this, generally...................but here's quite a bit of detail.........
“It has blown the sport of distance running into a new stratosphere, a new level of performance,” said Hutchings, “and not in an all-round fair way.”
James Harden (NBA guard) has been traded (at his loud request) three times in three years. He is a prolific scorer, but not much else. Well, other than incredibly disruptive to his teams. His latest stop is the LA Clippers. During his first presser with his new team, he was explaining his discontent with his old team, the Philadelphia 76ers. He was complaining that he expects to be able to interact with the coaches and management to express his ideas about how the team should play, and that expectation was not realized in Philly. "I am not a system player. I am a system." I can buy that, and let's extend his comparison to computer operating systems: "I am not a computer system user; I am a computer operating system, specifically Windows Me." As Computer World puts its, "Windows Me is arguably the worst system ever released. Unstable, unloved, unusable." Fits Harden perfectly.
Good luck, Clippers. Sometime in the next 8 months, Harden will boycott your team and start his demands for a new team.
Yeah, he needs to just buy a team. Call 'em "The Beards".
[Assuming you, Buzz, made the "Me"-"ME" connection -- awesome linkage!]
Seemed appropriate. Would have been more so if "me" had been repeated multiple times.
Some amazing players have beards. He would have no trouble putting together a good team.
As to the hi-tech shoes article above..............I sent that to a former grad student/protege, and he replied that he had already included a chapter on "the physiological advantages of wearable equipment" in a new textbook - and separately a section on the recent lowerings of the marathon records - but knows he'll have to update again in the next edition.
Those shoes are like running on springs. Good for one use. Maybe not affordable for those without shoe deals.
There are lesser versions being worn by high schoolers (and college runners?) that provide an upgrade over standard spikes.
Yeah, kinda like that (referring to firenze's post) - except there's no general consensus on where to draw the line. I would say that in freecell you're either on one side or the other. I believe we discussed this analogy earlier - maybe or maybe not in this thread - but not gonna go back and find it.
And I mean, really..............are shoes themselves an unfair advantage? Ask the Tarahumara. (Look 'em up if you have to.) (And I would highly recommend the "Born to Run" cultural immersion book by Christopher McDougall. It's a great read for those not hep.) On the other hand.............the Greeks certainly knew about Nike. 🤭
Run barefoot and naked. The true and equal test of ability.
Do those long-distance runners ever get testicular abrasions?
Or tallywacker frostbite during cold winter runs?
Yikes!!!! Kiptum (and coach) killed in car crash in Kenya, just a few hours ago:
Marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum and coach killed in road accident in Kenya | CNN
That's really sad. A very young man. He undoubtedly had so many years of living (and racing) in front of him.
The most boneheaded, stubborn, ill-equipped, under- or wrong-staffed collection of doofuses in a front office anywhere in the league
Bryant's not been at all the same out west.