- 07:18 AM
- 11/17/24
| Name: | Mary Malmros |
|---|---|
| Member since: | October 21, 2003 |
| Last visit: | November 29, 2012 |
lil_brown_bat has posted 185 links and 5,388 comments to SportsFilter and 59 links and 694 comments to the Locker Room and 5 columns.
Question About Armstrong Post: After reading the book, no doubt is left in the reviewer's mind as to Armstrong's guilt. If this is a quote from the article, shouldn't it be in quotes? And if it isn't, it's editorializing, and doesn't belong in a fpp.
posted by lil_brown_bat to editorial policy at 10:41 AM on September 05, 2012 - 5 comments
Fantasy football in the age of CTE: So, here's the deal: for the past five years, I've run my (small) company's fantasy football league. It's become something of an office institution, with two annual trophies (the championship trophy and the Toilet Bowl) that get passed on to each season's champions, with a new plaque with their names. We have a lot of fun with it. I'm just not so sure that I can continue to have fun, given what we're learning about CTE.
I'm not interested in getting into a debate about whether CTE caused Junior Seau to kill himself, or about whether his career as a football player caused the CTE. It's enough for me to know that former professional football players seem to be showing up with a lot of CTE, and that CTE's effects are profoundly crippling (not to mention the other ailments that ex-NFLers are prone to). It's enough for me to know that this happens and that the NFL is soft-pedaling it, when (as I see it) the only ethical course of action would be to pursue it as aggressively and discuss it as fully and publicly as possible. I can't make the NFL do the right thing, but I can refuse to give my support to them as they do the wrong thing. Withdrawal of fan support over this issue is the only thing that will cause the NFL to take it seriously.
Accordingly, I'm thinking about resigning my commissionership this year, and announcing my reasons why to my league. I'll hand it over to anyone who wants to run it, but to be honest, I think that once I speak up about it, no one is going to feel ok going ahead with it. I don't want to be the Ruiner of Fun, but I don't feel ok just starting up the league as if nothing is wrong.
One alternative that has occurred to me is to charge would-be players $20 to join the league, and donate the money to an organization such as PAST (see the link) that unlike the NFL, is actually doing something about CTE. I don't know much about PAST, though (like whether they're actually doing any good). I also don't know if there are other organizations that are either helping former athletes directly, or working on the NFL to change policies. So, this was all a rather long-winded way of asking: does anybody out there know more about organizations that are doing something to address the issue of CTE and other health problems in ex-NFL players?
Thanks,
posted by lil_brown_bat to fantasy at 10:26 PM on July 13, 2012 - 5 comments
How to go 0-8 and still win the ballgame: if your DH isn't getting it done as a DH, pretend there's no such thing as a DH rule and make him pitch.
posted by lil_brown_bat to baseball at 09:27 PM on May 06, 2012 - 9 comments
Back button don't work with Chrome: Post a comment, hit the back button. You go back to the page where you were editing your post. Hit back again, you go to the thread with the comment posted. Back again, you\'re back to the edit page. Back again, thread with the comment posted. The bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain, and what do you think he saw?
posted by lil_brown_bat to feature requests at 11:01 PM on January 26, 2012 - 2 comments
Not your business: after a yes-it-is-no-it-isn't ruling on the permissability of her underwear, Tina Maze tells the FIS where to get off.
posted by lil_brown_bat to other at 09:11 AM on January 19, 2012 - 8 comments
I can't recall a time here when special phrasing was required to draw an opinion out of you.
And I can't recall a time here when you were able to refrain from passive-aggressive swipes at people who disagree with you. You've been doing it to people throughout this thread, along with a generous larding of strawman argumentation and conveniently sloppy restatements of other people's beliefs. Let me put it to you straight: people in this thread have been talking about what they think, and you've got some inexplicable need to beef with them about it, despite the fact that NO ONE has tried to bully YOU out of your belief that Fireman Ed or Crazy Ray are an essential "part of the show". I suggest that you stop trying to promote groupthink; it's a waste of time. People hold different views than you.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 02:39 PM on November 28, 2012
The idea he lost some "dignity" as a fan by cultivating a persona and never missing a game makes me wonder how much dignity you think there is in sports fandom.
If you want to know what I'm thinking, maybe you could try asking "What do you think about...?" It's a lot more straightforward and more likely to get you the answer you claim to be seeking, although it may not be the one you want.
I think when you ask the question "How much dignity do you think there is in sports fandom?", you've got the stick by the wrong end entirely -- but you've got plenty of company. There are plenty of people who clearly are drawn to sporting events because of the opportunity it gives them to act like a buffoon in public, free of censure. I've seen enough of this to think that it's a basic human urge, to act like a clown from time to time. It's the "from time to time" thing that's important. How much dignity is there in sports fandom? Just as much as there is in the human condition. If you're governed by the need to play the fool in public, so that you can't just shrug and walk away from the whole thing with no drama, no histrionics, no lip-quivering declarations about how tragic it all is...you lack dignity as a human being, and sports fandom has nothing to do with it.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:37 AM on November 28, 2012
When I was a kid, I loved Crazy Ray at Cowboys games
Do you think the fact that you were a kid may have had something to do with this?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:35 AM on November 28, 2012
I was stationed close enough to NYC back in my occasional-blackout-drunk days that I cannot be certain I've never been.
Blackout drunk days? Hell, you could have had unlawful carnal knowledge with Fireman Ed himself!
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:41 PM on November 27, 2012
(and again, I don't have an opinion on Fireman Ed -- I've never knowingly been to a Jets game)
I want to hear the story behind that "knowingly".
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:00 PM on November 27, 2012
For some reason, Wikipedia articles just don't trigger my "person who really ought to know better, showing their ass in public and making me cringe in sympathetic embarrassment" reaction. Maybe it's the difference between "Yeah, I went there" and "For chrissakes I'm just trying to watch the game".
posted by lil_brown_bat at 04:51 PM on November 27, 2012
They are. Especially in college football and soccer.
So who gets to decide what parts of the fan experience are "part of the show", what are ancillary, and what are annoyances that we'd rather not deal with but put up with in order to see the "show" (presumably an athletic event) that we came to see? Is "Sweet Caroline" part of the "show" at Fenway Park? How about the overpriced beer at the average NLF stadium or the parking-lot traffic jams leaving a Div I football game?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 04:31 PM on November 27, 2012
Yeah, put me down for a "gets old fast" too. My reaction to the whole Fireman Ed thing was, I get being a devoted fan, but come on, you're a grown man. Being a devoted fan doesn't mean losing all dignity and sense of proportion.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:29 AM on November 27, 2012
The true role of "inspiration" in sports.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:18 AM on November 27, 2012
Oh god no, not that right-wing pig-animal.
(yeah, it's better than The Donald; otoh, it's increasingly clear that Trump's euphemistally-termed "hairpiece" is just a cover for his tin-foil hat, and that he's likely to be in a psych ward before too much longer and not a threat to my favorite baseball team)
posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:16 AM on November 21, 2012
Yes, can we share the link? I have soccer-loving friends who would probably like to donate.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 12:44 PM on November 15, 2012
I'm in, and I will round up some non-spofites as well if we can find a way to work this. Good on ya, billsaysthis!
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:24 AM on November 13, 2012
Beat them at what?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 06:17 PM on November 04, 2012
Why do you hate games in London? It's not as if most of us get to see them live even when they're in the US. The time differential is a problem if a west coast team is involved, but watching the Pats it was just another 1 pm game for me.
(also, it's an excuse to serve chicken tikka masala at the tailgate -- the English national dish!)
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:44 AM on November 02, 2012
Jets Fan Fireman Ed Hanging Up His Helmet
P.s. It makes me sullen and resentful when people confuse my subtle mockery with passive-aggressive behavior. It's like my dad always said, "shut up son and bring me another beer."
I think you have to have a certain relationship with people in order for them to see that intention and be okay with it.