Sunday, November 08, 2009
The Sunday Sports Section
[] Does building a new sports stadium really help the local economy? After the New Yankee Stadium was built with a lot of taxpayer money and opened this year, local Bronx merchants complained that the new "malls", stores and restaurants within the stadium competed with them, and reported that their business fell, says the NY Times.
[] "Clutch play" takes another hit. Among NFL field goal kickers it is undetectable.
[] Would Bill Belichick trade Tom Brady? If the price was right, apparently.
[] Is Derek Anderson the worst NFL starting QB ever? Maybe not, but PFR.com explores the question. (A commenter notes: "If every pass a quarterback attempts falls to the ground incomplete his QB rating is 39.6. Derek Anderson's quarterback rating is 36.2.")
[] When you die, do you want your ashes spread around your favorite sports team's home field? It's popular around the world...
Baseball fans can now buy "officially licensed by Major League Baseball" urns and caskets, with their favorite team logo.
"Each urn sits atop a 'home plate' base outlined in black. Each also features a baseball display dome at the top in which a favorite collectible baseball can be displayed. (Please note: the urn comes with a baseball, which the purchaser or family can replace with a special ball from their own collection.)"
So the only issue now is where to place them. There's money in it for the league ... the rest will come. Right now Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig have memorials in Yankee Stadium's "memorial park". Live long enough and pay enough, and someday you may have one right next to them.
[] "Clutch play" takes another hit. Among NFL field goal kickers it is undetectable.
[] Would Bill Belichick trade Tom Brady? If the price was right, apparently.
[] Is Derek Anderson the worst NFL starting QB ever? Maybe not, but PFR.com explores the question. (A commenter notes: "If every pass a quarterback attempts falls to the ground incomplete his QB rating is 39.6. Derek Anderson's quarterback rating is 36.2.")
[] When you die, do you want your ashes spread around your favorite sports team's home field? It's popular around the world...
In Argentina, the tradition of scattering ashes on the wildly popular Boca Juniors soccer team's pitch each time a goal was scored got so out of hand that the club opened a cemetery in 2007 expressly for fans, in part out of concern for the health of the playing surface.In America, NASCAR leads the way...
A soccer club in Hamburg followed suit in 2008, overrun with scattering requests....
at NASCAR's Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, Wayne Estes has adopted the informal role of "scattering counselor," gently proposing trackside locations with more permanence than the start-finish line family members invariably request ... "If this place means that much to somebody, it's the least we can do," says Estes, vice president of events at the fan-friendly track ...Some fans of other sports just can't wait!...
44-year-old Christopher Noteboom, during a 2005 Philadelphia Eagles-Green Bay Packers game ... threw caution (and a bit of his mother, a lifelong Eagles fan) to the wind and charged toward midfield, kneeled at the 30-yard line, let spill the contents of his plastic bag and blurted out, "This is for you, Mom!"... [WaPo, h/t: The Sports Economist]
Baseball fans can now buy "officially licensed by Major League Baseball" urns and caskets, with their favorite team logo."Each urn sits atop a 'home plate' base outlined in black. Each also features a baseball display dome at the top in which a favorite collectible baseball can be displayed. (Please note: the urn comes with a baseball, which the purchaser or family can replace with a special ball from their own collection.)"
So the only issue now is where to place them. There's money in it for the league ... the rest will come. Right now Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig have memorials in Yankee Stadium's "memorial park". Live long enough and pay enough, and someday you may have one right next to them.
