Who’s your columnist #12
Your comment must be posted no later than 30 minutes before the Tuesday April 14 class.
You must include the URL of the column so that your classmates can read the column, too. Let me know if you have any questions.
You might want to check out John Canzano of The Oregonian, who won the overall column writing award in the over-250,000 category of the 2009 Associated Press Sports Editors competition.
April 13th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Brendan Murphy
Communication 371-001
Sports Reporting/Klein
Who’s your columnist #12?
Michael Wilbon
The NBA season is coming to a close, as is the MVP race. The NBA’s top three scorers Lebron James, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade have made the award the top story this late in the season. LeBron James has surfaced as the front-runner for the with outrageous numbers. Wilbon’s article focuses on the astronomical statistics by James. Numbers in all of the major statistical categories: rebounds, points, assists, blocks and steal have not been as high by one player since Oscar Robertson. I find this article significant because it changed my opinion on the MVP. I previously believed Dywane Wade was more deserving. However, Wilbon presented Lebron’s accomplishments in a convincing manner.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/01/AR2009040102941.html
April 13th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Bill Plaschke took a little break for a couple weeks, not having written an article for his L.A. Times since UCLA was bumped out of the NCAA men’s b-ball tournament by Villanova.
Plaschke has come back with a vengeance, writing five Golf (and principally Masters) articles, the last of which is an examination of Tiger Woods’ and Phil Mickelson’s relationship and how the two performed at the Masters tournament Sunday.
Plaschke’s literary comparisons of Woods’ and Mickelson’s “duel” to a boxing ring is applaudable, and how he intersplices quotes from Mickelson’s caddy concerning how the two feel about one another is very palpable and fun to read.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-plaschke-masters13-2009apr13,0,3027444.column
April 14th, 2009 at 1:39 am
In Gary Parrish’s column on April 7, “Three things wrong with this Final Four: Location, location, location,” Parrish discussed the problems with the Final Four in Detroit.
He discussed his three things wrong with Detroit being the final four location.
Number one, he did not like seeing snow fall when he looked out his window from his hotel. As he typed this column, snow was still falling.
Number two, Detroit is huge and half the media and coaches were either in Canada or Michigan. How are you to network when people are in different places?
Finally, number three, and most important, the last calls were at 2 a.m. WHAT! How are you supposed to party when you can’t drink past 2?
In his own words, Parrish said, “So no, this Final Four wasn’t perfect.”
To recap, the weather was terrible, the drink laws = lame, and half the people were in a different country. The last one does not help when you misplace your passport, like Gary did while in Detroit.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/11604141
April 14th, 2009 at 7:47 am
Diana Friedman
This week was interesting for Tom Boswell.
He takes a small step outside his comfort zone by covering golf, not something we see very often from him. This goes along with what many of our guest speakers have talked about – be able to cover multiple sports.
Also, this week’s article “Honorable Approach” reads more like a feature story than most of his others. He writes a detailed account of Kenny Perry attempting to become the oldest man to win a major golf tournament.
This versatility he shows gives the impression that even a seasoned, well-respected columnist must change-it-up. Even he cannot become too comfortable, or in a rut.
URL:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/12/AR2009041202882.html
April 14th, 2009 at 8:07 am
Rick Reilly writes this week about the Arizona Diamondback’s fan scholarship.
For the past two years, the D-Backs have been giving free season tickets to fans who are needy.
…isn’t that sweet.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=4048771
April 14th, 2009 at 11:04 am
John Harper showed his versatility in his last column entitled “Tiger Woods looks out of it at Masters, but path should clear for U.S. Open at Bethpage.” I have never read something written by him that pertains to golf, but I was impressed. Harper argued that even though the majority of the media will be expecting a miraculous comeback by Tiger, it is highly doubtful the golf pro will succeed. Harper was straightforward and blunt when he said that Tiger’s “putter has been cold, his driver has been inconsistent and… his iron-play has been a bit erratic.” Harper’s style was concise, honest and to-the-point, offering both opinion and knowledge of the sport.
His latest column can be found at: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2009/04/11/2009-04-11_tiger_woods_looks_out_of_it_masters_but_path_should_clear_for_us_open_at_bethpag.html?page=1
April 14th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Bill Simmons: A-Rod rallies the clubhouse in his own way
In his most recent ESPN The Magazine article, Bill Simmons discusses Alex Rodriguez. He makes the point that while A-Rod is a media gold mine and a distraction at times to the team, he actually helps bring the team together.
Simmons believes that groups often come together by agreeing to hate on somebody in the group.
He points out that baseball is an individual sport masquerading as a team sport. There does not necessarily need to exist a great deal of team chemistry in order for a team to succeed.
“It’s a common bond of sorts. Even as you believe he’s tearing your group apart, he’s bringing it closer and distracting anyone from turning on someone else. He’s your mean decoy, your Paula Abdul, your Newman. He’s your necessary evil.”
April 14th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Woody Paige’s most recent article (http://www.denverpost.comwww.denverpost.comepaige is about the his hometown Denver Nuggets clinching the Northwest division with their 54th win of the season over the lowly Sacramento Kings.
Paige focuses more specifically on streaky bench scorer J.R Smith, who had 39 points, including 13 three-point in the win.
Paige describes Smith’s heroics in preventing an embarrassing loss to the Kings as a sign of some kind.
He starts making comparisons to Denver’s last 54-win team. That team (the ’87-88 team) had such stars as Alex English and 3-point specialist Micheal Adams.
Paige ended by claiming that the ’08-09 Nuggets will surpass their predecessors, and that J.R has already passed Adams, who’s record of 9 three-pointers in a game was just broken.
April 14th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Verducci’s most recent column was a heart-felt piece about the death of Nick Adenhart. Adenhart, a 22-year-old starting pitcher with the Los Angeles Angels, was killed in a two-car accident early last week.
Adenhart had pitched six scoreless innings in his best outing as a major leaguer the night he was killed by a drunk driver who drove through a red-light, slamming into an eclipse carrying Adenhart and three friends.
Anyways…
Verducci talked about how sad this tragedy was. He cited his age and the circumstances as reasons why this might be the saddest death the baseball family has ever had to overcome.
He also talked about other deaths of famous players, some young and some older.
Here’s a good excerpt:
“Too many players have left us too soon. Just since 2002, we’ve lost Mike Darr, Darryl Kile, Cory Lidle, Josh Hancock and Joe Kennedy. The news of their passing always tears away at us, especially because their youthfulness and athleticism are qualities we choose not to associate with mortality.
But Nick Adenhart was only 22, young even by the standards of a profession that roots out its elders in their mid-30s, and he was on the cusp of being a star. It was the very worst news imaginable.”
April 14th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
“It doesn’t get classier than this”
Bob Ryan touches upon the in-coming NBA Hall of Fame class of Jordan, Stockton, and Robinson. He notes how the all played together on the “Dream Team” and now will come together on a very special day.
Given the location of the Hall, Springfield, MA, it’s appropriate that Ryan makes note of the inductees.
While past years have been marked with controversy over who should’ve been in the class, but as Ryan writes, “…no one can be fed up with the Class of 2009. This one reeks of royalty.”
While the likes of Dennis Johnson, Chris Mullin, and Bernard King were brought up for serious round-table discussion, as Ryan puts it, it’s just not their time.
As for the class of 3 (Jordan, Robinson, Stockton), they will be joined by one of the greatest coaches of all-time Jerry Sloan, and Rutgers Women’s Coach C. Vivian Stringer.
It is a class as Ryan put, “No one will be able to duplicate.”
http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/womens_hockey/articles/2009/04/07/it_doesnt_get_classier_than_this/?page=1
April 14th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
http://freep.com/article/20090414/SPORTS01/90414052/1048/SPORTS/More+reasons+why+Lions+passing+at+No.+1+isn+t+bright
The idea that the Lions might pass on the first pick to save money has been brought up in the national media. Cotsonika writes that the Lions will definitely not do this in order to make a stand that they are moving forward.