The past week of baseball gave us a great example of how we all succumb to societal pressure. In Game 2 of the ALDS, Joe Girardi, manager of the New York Yankees, made a couple critical blunders that likely cost his team the game against Cleveland
Where is this all going? That’s the question I find myself asking in response to the rapid spread of Kaepernick-inspired protests across the NFL. Over the past two weeks, every single team has shown its unity in one form or another. The recent instigator for this surge in demonstrations was, of course, President Donald Trump…
So tweeted Jemele Hill, co-host of ESPN’s SportsCenter 6 AKA The Six, on September 11th. Personally, The Six isn’t my favorite. I haven’t vibed with Hill and co-host Michael Smith going back to their ESPN2 show, His & Hers. That said, I admire their individualism and courage in the face of far too many racist criticisms. Those hateful complaints, of course, come from the fact that ESPN stooped so low as to put two black hosts together for the same SportsCenter show. The horror.
It makes me uneasy that Derek Jeter is going to be the new CEO of the Miami Marlins. Jeter, as you might have heard, is one of the greatest Yankees and New York athletes of all time. From the moment he broke into the big leagues, he shone as a brilliant beacon of hope and pride for all New Yorkers. And he gave all baseball fans, even Yankee haters, someone they could respect. (Unlike, say, a certain Apple watch-using team in New England.) Throughout his career he never failed to display the highest levels of competitiveness, sportsmanship, leadership and, to his beloved franchise, loyalty. But now he’s set to run the Marlins. Confused? Me too.
Once we’ve bought in, once we see these athletes as our role models and representatives, their impact cannot be quantified by numbers or dollar signs.
I wouldn’t usually write about race the day of Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Then again, the name Emmett Till doesn’t usually make it into a basketball news conference. A paper on the civil rights movement, a discussion of race in a history classroom – these are places one could expect to hear Till’s…
This column reflects the opinion of the writer and does not in any way reflect the views of The Stanford Daily. I selectively block out most of what LeBron says. I’m not a big fan of his, to say the least. Pretty much everything he does tends to piss me off. But he said something…
I love the Knicks. I always have. I remember running to the living room after dinner on Friday nights to watch them play. They were led by a perennially underrated David Lee and JCrossover, the smooth, slick Jamal Crawford. I jumped whenever our spunky, streaky, 5’9” spark Nate Robinson entered the game. Not yet knowing what it feels like to have a bona fide star, those guys were my heroes. Those teams never won many games – how could they when guys like Malik Rose and Jerome James got minutes – but they nurtured my fandom into a piece of my identity. Back then, I was too innocent to get bogged down by the losing. With no expectations, I celebrated every win for the gift it was.
