Sports Illustrated in 2020

At some point during the last decade or so, the idea of a weekly printed news magazine went the way of the horse and buggy.  Newsweek stopped their print edition.  I think, but I'm not absolutely sure, that Time still publishes a weekly magazine, but with the Internet and 24 hour news and sports cable outlets, what is the need for them?  Such was also the case for the venerable Sports Illustrated.

A few years ago, it went from a weekly to a bi-weekly publication.  It was also shed by Time-Life and is now owned and published by something called Maven Media Brands, and it has now become a monthly publication. It is no longer the place where you go to read about what happened in the World Series or Super Bowl.  So, what is it?

I long ago quit subscribing to SI, but I  recently succumbed to one of those one-year-for-twenty-bucks subscription offers to find out, and I have been pleasantly surprised.

The magazine still has it's Scorecard, Faces In the Crowd, and Point After features, but more importantly, they still maintain a stable of very good writers - Michael Bamberger, Steve Rushin, Pat Forde to name a few - and the magazine consists mainly of the kind of feature stories that used to appear as the final long form story in each weekly issue.  You know, the stories that made subscribing to Sports Illustrated worth the money.

In the current issue alone, dated "Fall 2020" and pictured above, I read no less than five such terrific articles.  One about the chain gangs that work in NFL stadiums, a story about the demise of sports bars due to the COVID pandemic, a story about athletes visits to the Trump White House over the last four years, an excerpt from Jim Gray's new book, and a story about racial unrest at the University of Missouri.  In the previous issue, there were two great stories: one about high level tournament Scrabble (who knew?) and an interesting profile of golfer Bryson DeChambeau.  So in just two issues, I've gotten more than my money's worth.

One note of caution.  There is very little advertising in the magazine, so I wonder if the new SI is a sustainable business model.  The do still plan to have their special soft core porn issue, aka, the Swimsuit Issue, which will probably be chock full of ads, so who knows?  And maybe the digital Sports Illustrated website, which does give you up to the minute sports news,  generates enough income to carry the ink-on-paper magazine.   

Like I said, who knows?

Sports Illustrated - The "Where Are They Now" Issue

Like much of print media, Sports Illustrated ain't what it used to be, but once in awhile the magazine can still grab your attention, and the current issue, its annual "Where Are They Now" issue, is one of them.

(As an aside, the fact that SI has to resort to such tropes as where-are-they-now features, tells you all you need to know about the state of the magazine, but what the heck.)

This particular issue features four stories that captured my attention, and that I would highly recommend to you.

The first was the cover story on Sammy Sosa, and would you have even recognized him if his name wasn't plastered on the cover along with that picture?

The second is on tennis great Martina Navratilova.

The third is on former football star turned sportscaster turned celebrity pal, Ahmad Rashad.

And the fourth is on Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench, and this is my favorite story in the issue.  Despite how he tortured the Pirates throughout his career, I have always liked Bench and consider him to the the best catcher that I have ever seen.  He is now 70 years old and is a single father of two young sons (a sixth grader and a third grader) living in Florida.  Despite his rocky marital history (married and divorced four times), he seems to be a remarkably happy and settled individual, happy and at ease with his past and the life he currently leads.

A couple of great quotes from him....

• On where he finds himself in life:  "The great thing about it is, I knew I had a life.  You feel bad, some of these guys, they walk away, and they didn't save a dime."
• On why he never became a manager, even though many thought he would be perfect for such a role: "I don't want to deal with incompetence. I played on a team that was the level of what it was. Really, its hard for me to accept people who don't make an effort, are not professional. The great thing in my life is, I don't have to deal with them."
• And a reflection on his career and his life today: "If what you did yesterday is big to you now, then you haven't done much lately."

There's more, and it's a great story, and a great issue.

The Current Sports Illustrated Issue

A couple of comments on the current issue of Sports Illustrated, dated February 13, 2017, which arrived in the mail yesterday.

• At least half of the issue, as should be expected, was devoted to the Super Bowl of last Sunday.  At least half of that story was devoted to a fawning deification of Tom Brady that read like a mid-1960's issue of Tiger Beat writing about Paul McCartney or Davy Jones.  Hey, five days ago in this blog I stated that Brady is the greatest QB of all time, and I maintain that position, but this syrupy story by Greg Bishop certainly contributes to why so much of America outside of the greater Boston area dislikes Tom Brady so much.
• Quoted extensively in that article is Frank Edelman, the father of Julian Edelman.  Wow, wait 'til you read those quotes.  They make Mr. Edelman worthy of this citation:

(Photo courtesy of Dan Bonk Enterprises.)

• The balance of the magazine is comprised of eleven stories that focus on Stories that will shape the 2017 sports year.  A good premise, but here are two of the stories that indicate the National Enquirer-ization of Sports Illustrated.

1.  A story that focuses on the likelihood of O.J. Simpson getting paroled by the State of Nevada in 2017.  I know that Simpson was the subject of an acclaimed documentary and an award winning TV mini-series in 2016, but, still, a story like this in SI smacks of cheap exploitativeness.
2. A story about a 15-year old high school freshman basketball player in Arizona named Nico Mannion.  It seems the SI wants to follow in its rich tradition of deifying (there's that word again) snotty nosed high school kids like Todd Marinovich, LeBron James, and Bryce Harper with this puff piece on this kid.  (To be fair, James turned out to be the Real Deal, and is seemingly a good guy to boot.  Marinovich flamed out big time.  Harper is a great baseball player and already an MVP, but that SI story about him when he was only 14 years old is in large part why Harper is so disliked by many people outside of the Washington Nationals fan base.)  Anyway, the story about this Mannion kid talks about what a "regular kid" he is.  He has to do chores at home, turn off his cell phone at 9:00 every night, has problems with acne, and is obsessed, yet still unsure, about girls.  Just like any 15 year old kid.  Oh, and he has over 15,000 Instagram followers, has over a dozen pairs of free shoes (that retail for $150 -$250) in his room, is being courted by Under Armour as a possible Steph Curry successor, has a dedicated cell phone for college recruiters only, and already has received a half dozen scholarship offers.  And he has a former NBA father who pushes him in this direction, but still treats him like a "normal kid".  Yeah, right.  I wasn't going to read this story, but like the traffic accident you see on the freeway, I had to take a look at it.  I'm about halfway through it, but I'm not sure I have the stomach to finish it.

As I have often said, a half dozen or so times every year, Sports Illustrated delivers a story that is so good and so well written, that it is worth the price of a subscription, but, on the whole, SI just ain't what it used to be.

This, That, and the Other....

Cleaning out the Mental In-Box.....

• The Grandstander went 3-1 in his NFL Wildcard Playoff predictions last weekend, missing only the Packers win over the Giants.  In truth, none of he games were all that great from a competitive point of view, although I loved the non-competitive nature of the Steelers thrashing of the Dolphins.
• For this coming weekend, I give you this....Patriots over Texans (Joe Starkey suggested today that, somehow, the Pats managed to get another bye week in the Playoffs), Falcons over the Seahawks (the fact that Seattle let a lousy Lions team stay with them into the fourth quarter prevents me from picking them), Packers over the Cowboys (just gotta go with Aaron Rodgers over the rookie Dak Prescott), and Steelers over the Chiefs (not going to back down from my prediction of a Super Bowl win for the Steelers).
• I also missed on the CFP game.  Congrats to Deshaun Watson and all the Clemson players on their victory.  To their sanctimonious coach, Dabo Swinney, well, all I can say is that he is one of the few guys I can think of that would make me want to root for Nick Saban.
• Got a chance to watch this Ron Howard-directed documentary this week:

• If you are a devoted follower and fan of the Beatles, I am not sure that you will learn anything new about the band from this, but it does give you a chance to see the group performing live in their touring years.  As everyone knows, The Beatles stopped making live performances in 1966, so any chance one gets to see them perform like this is a bonus.  There is also some color footage of the group performing at a concert in England in 1963 that is astonishingly good in terms of picture and sound quality, and that is something that I, at least, had never seen before.  I rate this a solid three stars, and will say that any fan of The Beatles should add a copy of this movie to their Beatles Library.
• Those same fans might also want to download or buy this CD which was recently remastered and reissued in conjunction with the Howard movie:

• Last week's issue of Sports Illustrated featured a cover story about Ben Roethlisberger, whom that called the "NFL's most polarizing player".   I wish someone at SI would explain what the point was in publishing that story.  It broke absolutely no new ground.
• That same issue featured and "SI True Crime" sort about former Cowboys running back Joseph Randle.  "True Crime", apparently, is now going to be a monthly feature in SI.
• With both stories, I felt like I was reading the National Enquirer, and not Sports Illustrated.  
• Sports Illustrated also announced that US Olympic gymnasts Simone Biles and Aly Raisman will be featured models in its upcoming swimsuit issue.  Miss Biles and Miss Raisman have made this choice freely, and I presume that they are being paid handsomely for doing so, but I hope that I never hear them complain that they are not being "taken seriously" as competitive athletes, or that they are being "objectified", now that they have chosen to be a part of this issue of the magazine.  I wonder what a true pioneer like Billie Jean King would have to say about this.
• I guess that this is just what print publications have to do in an increasingly digital age.
• Finally, I am enjoying this short series from Amazon that was written and directed by Woody Allen:

• Allen also stars in the show that also includes the great Elaine May as his wife.  I had seen that critics weren't too wild about this series, but I think it has its moments.  I have not finished watching the entire series and will wait until I do to give my final judgment, but, so far, not bad.

You Need To Read The Current Sports Illustrated

While I think that the overall quality of Sports Illustrated has slipped over the last several years, every so often it summons up its past greatness and delivers a first rate article.  In the current edition, dated April 4, 2016, they knock it out of the park with two such articles.

The first is the cover story by Alan Shipnuck about Tiger Woods entitled simply, "What Happened?".  It has been eight years since Woods has won a Major Championship, three years since he has won a tournament, and now, at age 40, and after undergoing three back surgeries in 19 months, he is rarely seen with a golf club in his hands.  At best, he will only be a ceremonial figure at next week's Masters, where his fellow golfers are hoping that he will at least show up at the Champions Dinner on Tuesday. What has happened, indeed.

It is lengthy story, and my take away on it is this: like most highly scrutinized people in the celebrity culture of the twenty-first century, Woods is a complex and somewhat confounding person.  For every story about the guy who is curt and rude with fans or media, you find a story about the guy who was on the phone every day with his swing coach Sean Foley, when Foley and his wife were about to have a baby who might have been born with a fatal birth defect.  That child, by the way, overcame the defect, and is today a healthy active kid who Woods continues to check on, even though he and Foley have long since parted ways as Coach and Client.  And for every story of Woods' marital infidelities, there are stories of the hundreds of kids whose lives have literally been changed for the better via the services of the Tiger Woods Learning Center.

Lots of complexities, and lots of great quotes in the story.  You need to read it.

The second must read story is called "Under The Gun" is an excerpt from  a book called "The Arm" by Jeff Passan.  It is about the culture of youth baseball, travel teams, baseball academies, and Showcase Tournaments  in the United States, and the companies who run these events.  I found it to be rather disturbing.

Finally, I would recommend the column on the back page called "The Beauty of the Bracket" by Frank Kaminsky, now a member of the Charlotte Hornets of the NBA, but more famous as member of the University of Wisconsin basketball team that went to two consecutive Final Fours in 2014 and 2015.  It is a great story about the thrill of playing in College Basketball's showcase event, but I was really struck by this passage in Kaminsky's closing paragraph:  

"The hardest moment was getting back to campus and realizing that I was done in Wisconsin. Two days after the Final Four last year, I left school to start training for the draft.  It just happened so fast.  I was there, I was a basketball player and having the time of my life, and suddenly I was gone..."

So much for the myth of being a "student-athlete".  To his credit, Kaminsky never proclaimed to be a student.

The Serena Williams / Sports Illustrated Follow-Up

Yesterday, I made a post about the recent Sports Illustrated cover featuring Serena Williams as its Sports Person of the Year.  Here it is if you don't feel like just scrolling down the page to see it:

http://grandstander.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-sports-er-person-of-year.html

I posted this entry to both my Facebook news feed and a sports related Facebook group page in which I participate, and while there were not a lot of comments, certainly not enough to draw any statistically significant conclusions, the results were interesting, nonetheless.

First off, I am not doubting the worthiness of Ms. Williams winning this award, nor am I saying that this is anything but a striking and attractive picture of a striking and attractive woman.  My gripe was that in the context of the story, such a pose was out of place and hypocritical of SI, but not unexpected, given their annual Swimsuit Edition.

Anyway, back to the responses.  Most of the men who responded tended to agree with me, while most of the women, thought it was okay.  This surprised me, and I wonder what women would think if Ms. Williams decided to strike the exact same pose on the cover of something like Maxim?

One young (late twenties) woman with whom I volunteer told me last night that she did agree with my reasoning, and wondered if SI would have asked a male athlete to strike a similar pose, and, if so, would those athletes have agreed to do so?

I also found it interesting that one of my Facebook posts was "Liked", but without comment, by another mid-twenties young woman who was a varsity athlete for four years in the Big Ten.  Would love to hear her further thoughts on that subject as she would be coming at as both a young woman and an athlete.

In the end, however, Serena Williams agreed to pose for this picture, so what I and others of my ilk see as exploitative and sexist, she obviously sees as something else.

The Sports, er, Person (?) of the Year

Last week Sports Illustrated announced it's annual Sportsman of the Year Award, and it was tennis player Serena Williams.  Now, let me state right off the bat that I have no problem with Ms. Williams winning this award.  Her accomplishments in 2015 and over the course of her career make her a worthwhile recipient of the honor, so congratulations, Serena Williams.

My gripe is with Sports illustrated itself and how they chose to present this award in their magazine.

First, they chose to call it the "Sports Person of the Year", presumably because, what with Ms. Williams being female and all, they couldn't call it Sportsman of the Year.  Now, I don't get as hung up on political correctness as much as many of my generation does, but sometimes these gender neutral pronouns drive me up the wall.  What would have been wrong with naming Serena Williams the Sportswoman of the Year?   Had the award been bestowed upon Tom Brady, Steph Curry, or Bryce Harper would they have been designated the Sports Person of the Year?  And if Brady, Curry, or Harper, or any other male athlete wins it next year, will they be called the Sports Person of the Year?

My second gripe is the cover shot that SI chose to showcase Ms. Williams.  Did they show Serena in her tennis togs in a triumphant moment on the courts of Wimbledon of Roland Garros?  No, they chose this shot:

Sports Illustrated will often take editorial stands and pat themselves on the back on behalf of equality for women athletes everywhere, will say that the female athletes work just as hard, and achieve accomplishments every bit as great as their male counterparts, and how these women athletes should not be denigrated or pushed aside by the sports loving public.  Then they publish this photo on their cover, a photo that would probably work quite well on the "new look" Playboy magazine that will debut this spring.

But, of course, Sports Illustrated is the magazine that brings you the annual Swimsuit Edition, which is, of course, all about sports fashion, right?

And what was Serena Williams thinking in agreeing to this?

Am I the only person who thinks this?

Sports Illustrated Soothsayers

When the Sports Illustrated Baseball Preview issue came out last March, I decided to tear out the page with their projected standings just to see how expert their prognostications actually were.

In the National League, they projected the following division winners and wild cards: Nationals, Cardinal, Dodgers, Pirates, Marlins.  The Nats totally imploded, and I suppose that any shot the Marlins might have had went away when Giancarlo Stanton was lost for the season.  They had both the Mets and Cubs tagged for third place in their divisions with 82 wins each.  All in all, not too bad.

In the American League, however, SI really soiled the bed.  If this morning's standings hold true come Sunday night, the AL division winners and wild cards will be the Blue Jays, Royals, Rangers, Yankees, and Astros. SI's projected division winners were the Red Sox, Indians, and Mariners.  Boston and Seattle will finish below .500, and as of this writing there is a good chance that the Indians will as well.  Their predicted wild cards were the Angels and Tigers.  As of this morning, the Angels are one-half game out of the final wild card spot.  The Tigers will finish below .500.  

Many of the AL playoff spots are still up in the air, but if the current standings hold, here is what SI projected for the five AL playoff teams:

Blue Jays - Second place in East, but not a WC
Royals - Fourth place in Central
Rangers - Fourth place in West
Yankees - Fourth place in East
Astros - Fifth place in West

Close races remain for the winner of the West and the second WC spot, with both the Angels and Twins (projected fifth place in AL Central by SI) still with a chance to catch the fading Astros.  At best, Sports Illustrated will have called only one correct AL post-season qualifier, and there is a good chance that they will be shut out entirely.   

I suppose that all this proves is that "In baseball, you don't know nothing ."  (One of the many quotes attributed to Yogi Berra which he may or may not have actually said.)

By the way, I've saved the SI predictions for the 2015 NFL season as well. Come January, we'll see how they did on that front.

Pitt Gets Its Man, and Other Selected Football Topics

The University of Pittsburgh ended its search for a new head football coach by announcing on Friday that current Michigan State defensive coordinator Pat Narduzzi will be the Panthers next coach.

It seemed from the outset that Narduzzi was the guy that Pitt wanted, and I am glad that they went the route of an up and coming, younger coordinator.  He has all of the credentials that you would want in making such a hire, and he certainly seems enthusiastic and excited to be here, but no matter the background and how well a guy has done in working his way up, you just never know how he will perform when given the job of head coach.

I always think about a quote from Art Rooney Sr. when he talked about hiring Bill Austin to be the Steelers coach in 1966.  No one had better credentials to be an NFL head coach at the time than did Austin.  He came highly recommend by no less than Vince Lombardi himself!  We all know what happened.  The next guy, Chuck Noll, arrived with little acclaim and no expectations, and we all know what happened with THAT hire as well.

Let's just hope that Pitt, finally, gets lucky with a football coaching hire.  One thing for sure, though, is that Narduzzi will not be putting anyone to sleep during interviews and press conferences.

********

Speaking of the Narduzzi press conference, I have to note that I listened to it on the radio.  How quaint is that?  I had assumed that Root Sports, which proclaims itself as the center of sports media in Pittsburgh,  would be televising this press conference, so imagine my disappointment when I tuned in and saw that Root was televising a replay of a HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAME that was played six weeks ago.  

Root could have given its audience its first view of Pitt's new football coach, but, instead, they thought we would be better served by hearing Craig Wolfley make up new words as he goes along.

********

Allow me to recommend to you, highly recommend, in fact, two recent articles fro  Sports Illustrated.

In the December 22 issue (Jon Lester on the cover): "Bundle of Questions" by L. Jon Wertheim.  This is about how sports are delivered to us via cable TV providers and networks and how that model may (will?) be changing in the future.  

For example, because so many cable networks are bundled by the service providers, we are forced to take and pay for networks that many never watch.  Many, myself included, have often said that they wished you could select your cable networks a la carte, but be careful what you wish for.  The average charge for ESPN in your monthly cable bill is about $6 (higher, way higher, than things like TNT, NFL Network, USA, Disney, CNN, or Fox News), but if such things were unbundled, and you could pick and choose, ESPN might cost you as much as THIRTY dollars a month just for ESPN to keep up with the financial commitments that they have made to the NFL, NCAA, MLB, etc.  Believe it or not, and sports fans may not get this, research shows that fully two-thirds of all cable subscribers do not watch ESPN.  Would you be willing to pay thirty bucks a month to watch Chris Berman and Around the Horn?

The second article is in the December 29 issue (Cardale Jones on the cover) and it is about the 1974 Steelers, the team's first Super Bowl winner.  As the lead says, that team "revived a franchise, enlivened a city, and reshaped the NFL."

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Like many of you, I am anxiously awaiting the four team college football playoff, but at breakfast yesterday, friend Dan Bonk made the point that the Committee couldn't have picked a more loathsome four teams if it tried.  Start with the Alabama and Ohio State and their dour coaches, Oregon and their unlimited bankroll from Nike, and Florida State and their looking the other way with their quarterback and what you've got are reasons to hope all four of this teams would lose their games.

However, I will no doubt be watching all of the games, so, as I have said so often, that makes me a part of the problem, doesn't it?

********

It appears that after the conclusion of today's NFL regular season, Jim Harbaugh and the San Francisco 49'ers will part company.  Harbaugh has proven that he can coach. The 49'ers have played in three straight conference championship games and one Super Bowl under his leadership, but it all seems to have come apart in 2014.  The team is 7-8 going into today's finale and will not make the playoffs.  I mean, wha' happened out there?

From what you read, Harbaugh has a personality that grates upon players and, more importantly, his employers, so his welcome has a very short shelf life.  Don't cry for him, though, because the University of Michigan appears to be ready to shower him with $48 million, and they will probably be competing with other NFL teams for his services as well.  Set the alarm clocks for 2018 or so for the implosion to come at wherever Harbaugh lands this time.

Catching Up.....

After a week's vacation in the Outer Banks, followed by a week at home catching up with daily life, it's time to clean out the Mental In-Box....

• The Pirates continue to hold their own (nine games over .500, 1.5 games out of first in the NL Central, and in the first wild card spot as of this morning) despite injuries that are depriving them of Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker, the head-scratching performance of Pedro Alvarez, and playing guys like Jayson Nix, Michael Martinez, Brent Morel, and whoever they use at first base on any given day.
• SABRmetric devotees who place great store in WAR, say that an extended loss of McCutchen won't mean all that much in the grand scheme of things.  sorry, but I'm not buying into that one.
• Among the interesting items that you will be able to put in my obituary, add the following:  I was at PNC Park the night Ernesto Frieri recorded his only win as a Pirate.
• As I type this, it is 10:45 AM and prior to the start if the third round of the PGA Championship.  I am calling that Ricky Fowler will be the winner when the final putt drops and all scorecards are signed tomorrow evening.
• While we were in the Outer Banks, the Steelers announced that they were retiring Joe Greene's number 75.  The Steelers have retired only one number in their history (Ernie Stautner's number 70, and that was way back in the early 1960's), and they then made a decision that it was not something that they would do because, As Dan Rooney said, "where would you stop?"  However, I am glad that they decided to make an exception in the case of Joe Greene.  He is THE greatest Steeler of them all, truly the cornerstone and the symbol of the great Steelers teams of the 1970's.
• In point of fact, no Steeler has worn the numbers 12, 32, 58, 59, and 75 since those players have retired (and I don't really have to tell you who those guys are, do I?), but the symbolism in making Greene's number "officially" retired is perfect.
• Speaking of the Steelers, the play their first exhibition game tonight, and I am actually looking forward to watching it, at least for the first half, anyway.  
• The current issue of Sports Illustrated commemorates the magazines 60th Anniversary.  I cannot recommend to you highly enough an article in that issue called "There and Back" by Steve Rushin which discusses how both the sports and the societal landscape has changed in the last sixty years.  Terrific, terrific article.
• Also in that SI issue is an article called "Regrets..." in which the magazine takes a good natured poke  at itself over some things that they have written about over the last sixty years.  Among them is an apology to "Womankind" for such things as gratuitous photos in 1955 of upward-blowing tennis skirts, a buttocks focused story from 1958 called "Miss Cheesecake Joins the Dodgers", a 1975 headline "There is Nothing Like a Dame", and a 1964 story on a women's track team which put way too much focus on what a good looking bunch of "gals" these were.  
• It certainly is a good thing that Sports Illustrated no longer depicts and focuses on women as sex objects anymore, isn't it?
• Let me close with this....

A Sports Illustrated "Special Issue"

No, the title of this post is NOT referring to the annual soft-core porn swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated, but rather the "Where Are They Now" issue published each summer and which arrived in the mailbox yesterday.

I have spent most of this morning reading some of the stories in the issue including ones on Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron, the 1976 (0-14) Tampa Bay Bucs,  and Angelo Pizzo, who wrote the screenplays for "Hoosiers" and "Rudy", and there are at least three more stories I want to read.

The cover story about Banks is terrific.  What a guy!

The Aaron story is not so much about Aaron himself as it is about some of the peripheral people who were around Aaron forty years ago when he hit that famous 715th home run.  One of them is ex-Pirate announcer Milo Hamilton!   The best quote in the story, however, belongs to Al Downing, whom baseball fans will recall as the pitcher who gave up that historic dinger.  It notes that Downing does not regret the fact that his 17 year, all-star career has been reduced to a trivia question to many, and he says that he was dismayed when pitchers a few years back talked about being willing to walk Barry Bonds to avoid being the guy who would serve the pitch to Bonds that would break Aaron's record, and here is the money quote from Downing:

"If you don't want to give up home runs, don't pitch."

Love it.

There are many weeks when I can glance through SI and be done with it in about 20-30 minutes, but then there are the half dozen or so times each year when they serve up stories that make the cost of an annual subscription worth every penny you pay, and this issue is one of them.

Narcissism, Thy Names are A-Rod and Johnny Football

I would highly recommend that you read this week's edition of Sports Illustrated for two stories.

The first is the cover story on the soon to be banished Alex Rodriguez.  If there is any doubt in your mind as to why MLB is going after A-Rod with such fervor, then read this story.  Talk about a guy who had it all, threw it away, got a second chance, threw it away again, and STILL doesn't get it.  As the writer S.L. Price puts it, how can a guy with such superior talent and baseball smarts be so...dumb. 

The second story concerns Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel, aka "Johnny Football".  In the space of a few short months, Manziel has evolved from being an exciting football player, and a refreshing story to a near train wreck.  You know the stories...speeding tickets, underage drinking, getting thrown out of the Mannings' Quarterback camp, being seen at the NBA Finals, and so on and on.  He has come this close to being awarded an H.A. Citation by The Grandstander, but one feature of this story is making me hesitant to do so, and that is the details of how Texas A&M is reaping a financial bonanza by selling all sorts of Manziel jerseys and t-shirts, caps, photos etc.  Manziel, of course, gets not a penny of this loot, so NCAA hypocrisy allows me to give Johnny Football a break in not awarding him an H.A Citation.  He is, however, on the "H.A. Watch List".

Oh, and one more thing.  In none of these stories, not the SI story this week nor in all of the others that have surrounded Manziel this off season, is any mention at all made of him actually, you know, attending classes at A&M.  I know this brands me as being hopelessly naive, but can't they at least pretend that he is a student-athlete?  At least until he declares for the NFL at the end of the season? I mean...

All-Time Top Ten NCAA Tournament Players

A special edition of Sports Illustrated came in the mail today that salutes "75 Years of the NCAA Basketball Tournament".  Cool idea.  Even cooler was the centerpiece of the issue, which named the ten "greatest players" in the history of the tournament, and for your consideration, here they are:

10. Jerry West
9. Christian Laettner
8. Magic Johnson
7. Bill Bradley
6. Wilt Chamberlain
5. Larry Bird
4. Oscar Robertson
3. Bill Russell
2. Bill Walton
1. Lew Alcindor

Pretty good list and hard to find fault with either the players selected or their ranking on the list.  However, what I find to be the most interesting facet of this list is the fact that seven of the men on the list fully pre-date the ESPN Era of sports (1979 to current).  Johnson and Bird, who played from 1977 to 1979 straddled the birth of ESPN, and only one player, Laettner, can be considered a pure ESPN Era player.

Also, consider that Russell, Robertson. Chamberlain, Bradley, and West played in an era before these games were televised on national television networks (I might be wrong, but I believe I am correct on that).  It was only when the John Wooden UCLA Dynasty came to the fore, anchored by Alcindor and Walton, that these games began being telecast nationally on one of the major networks.

Being that I am at times a Grumpy Old Man, it always rankles me that many people are of a mind that "if it wasn't on ESPN, then it didn't really matter, or didn't even happen", and ESPN itself is one of the foremost dispensers of this bit of conventional wisdom.  That being the case, I salute Sports Illustrated for having the integrity to look at the complete history of the event about which they are writing.

How would such a list coming from the Mike Greenbergs, Stewart Scotts, Chris Bermans, and other sages in Bristol look?  For one thing, you can be sure that it would include Michael Jordan.  In fact, I am betting the we will see letters to the editor in SI in a few weeks demanding to know why Jordan was left off.

From This Week's Sports Illustrated

The newest Sports Illustrated arrived today (John and Jim Harbaugh on the cover), and so far, it is proving to be an good issue, and I haven't even gotten to the Super Bowl stuff yet.  However, more than any story I've read thus far, I was most struck by the full page ad placed by Budweiser which I have scanned and shown above.  Well done, Budweiser.  And the story on Stan the Man by Richard Hoffer is a good one.

Also, in appreciation for Earl Weaver by Tom Verducci, there were two great quotes.  The first was by umpire Bill Haller who once said of Weaver, "When he dies, his family is going to have to pay for pallbearers."  The other - and I know my SABR and Facebook friend Father John Hissrich will like this one - concerned one of his "born again" outfielders, Pat Kelly.  After striking out with the bases loaded late in a game, Kelly said "Earl, I hope that you will walk with the Lord one day", to which Weaver replied, "Pat, I hope that you will walk with the bases loaded one day."

Chances are neither of those stories are true, but if they aren't, they should be!

Another great line  came in a story about the travails last week of Manti Te'o and the Cheating, Lying, Bullying Bicycle Rider, whose name I'd rather not mention.  Anyway, in describing the Oprah Winfrey interview with the C.L.B.B.R. and the moment when he confessed to all of his cheating, lying, and bullying, author S.L. Price writes "It was a classic TV takedown. Throw in a trail of cigarette smoke, and Edward R. Murrow would have felt right at home."

That's good writing!

I was interested to see how SI would right about the whole Te'o affair and and the Fall From Grace of the C.L.B.B.R., considering how they went all in on Te'o with a cover story in October and how no publication was more in the tank for the Bicycle Rider (was any lapdog ever more loyal to his owner than columnist Rick Reilly was to this guy?) over the years.  To the magazine's credit, Price pulls no punches in describing how the magazine (and every other news outlet) was duped by the Te'o story and the Bicycle Guy. 

Good issue, and now it's on to the Super Bowl Preview stuff.

Some Thoughts on Journalism

A couple of random comments on journalism in the year 2012.

I have been reading Sports Illustrated for at least the last 40 years or so, and have been a subscriber, off and on, for that long as well. I am starting to wonder if the magazine is still relevant in this Internet age. Always a news magazine, SI has fallen into a situation where it needs to reinvent itself because, as anyone with a home computer and an Internet connection knows, the "news" arrives instantaneously these days. This week's cover story offers the perfect case in point. It is Peter King's story on the New Orleans Saints and their payment of bounties for hits that injured and took out opposing players. The story broke last Friday, March 2. King himself summarized his own story on SI.com in his Monday Morning Quarterback column. It had been discussed endlessly on all of the sports TV shows. By the time the magazine arrived in the mail on Thursday, March 8, it was old news. Why bother reading it?

I always said that it was worth subscribing to SI for the the half dozen times or so each year when the lengthy feature story that they always feature at the end of the magazine would just be so good, it would almost knock you out. The need for a "wow factor" I these stories becomes even more important to SI in an age when news reaches the audience so quickly.

On another journalistic front, I spent close to two hours watching Channel 2's coverage of the Western Psych shootings yesterday afternoon, and it was not something that would make Edward R. Murrow proud. The loathsome Marty Griffith was the worst offender. He seemed to be most upset that there were "only" two people killed and "only" five others injured in the shootings. It seemed liked Marty (whose career highlight was a story that was teased so sensationally by KDKA that it caused a local minister to commit suicide a few years back) was disappointed that the shooting spree at Western Psych didn't surpass the death toll of the Virginia Tech shootings a few years back. Then of course we had other KDKA reporters badgering people who might have been witnesses and trying to put words into their mouths when they were clearly upset and did not want to talk about what they had seen inside the building. Finally there was Susan Koeppen, recovering from open heart surgery three days before, calling in on her cell phone from her hospital room at Presby. "Always a reporter, that Susan," said Stacey Smith and Kim Gabriel at the anchor desk.

I don't expect any Pulitzers to be handed down to KDKA after this performance.