I stood in the Bills’ locker room after a practice, sort of listening to what Ruben Brown was saying, but paying more attention to the things in his locker. The lockers have no doors, so I sometimes quickly examine them to get a glimpse into pro football players’ souls. Usually, there’s little of interest. Many […]
Mike Doser
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Bledsoe is not today’s QB
Last week I took Secrets of an NFL Scout, a book by the late Tony Razzano, and gave you Part 1 of a scrumptious soufflé of insights into the specific qualities that make good NFL players. It focused on defense. This week, I focus on offense and examine five Bills, just in time for training […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Baking an NFL player
If you’re going to Bills training camp at St. John Fisher you might as well get something out of it. So, starting this week, I’m issuing scouting guides to help keep your mind occupied through all the stretching and hydrating. Now your trip will be more useful than a tube of toothpaste. This information is […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Forging a Frontier of their own
DC United’s Jaime Moreno stands just outside Frontier Field’s team locker rooms and looks down the tunnel where soccer players enter the stadium, in the foul territory behind home plate. His team just beat the Rhinos 2-0 in a friendly match, and Moreno is describing what it’s like to play soccer on a baseball […]
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White men can jump
“[Basketball] is a black man’s game, and it will be forever. I mean, the greatest athletes in the world are African-American.” — Larry Bird, June 2004 Joseph Graves, Jr. might as well be talking to the wall. For years, the professor of biology and African-American Studies at Arizona State and Embry-Riddle University has dismissed […]
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Kids these days
Fifteen-year-old Major League Soccer Savior Freddy Adu came to Rochester last Wednesday night as part of a friendly match that pitted his team, DC United, against the Rhinos. United won, 2-0, and Adu scored a fine mid-range goal set up by former Greece Arcadia star and United teammate Dema Kovalenko. Adu’s got that Bill […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Sports are beneath you
Stereotypical City Newspaper readers don’t open the paper to read about sports. They sit in coffeehouses debating the world’s injustices while ignoring the NBA or Stanley Cup Finals, even the NFL training camps that get started next month. They might not even know what sports I’m talking about. But I don’t blame them. I often […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Home repair
Red Wing Jason Bartlett broke his left wrist during a game on Saturday, May 8. The 24-year-old shortstop will likely miss four to six weeks. Despite sitting out 15 games with the injury through May 24, Bartlett was still in the top-40 in IL hits. He rode an eight-game errorless streak before breaking his […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Olympics don’t belong in universe
The 2004 Summer Olympic Games open August 13 in Athens, Greece, and frankly, who cares? The Olympics are so pre-21st-century, they’re like record players. Among the things keeping this archaic athletic competition alive are the fortunes spent on corporate sponsorship, TV broadcast rights, and International Olympic Committee members, whose penchant for personal financial gain […]
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Beating the bush
It looks hopeless. The Sherbrooke Canadiens trounce the visiting Amerks 6-1 in game five of the 1987 Calder Cup Finals, and lead the best-of-seven series 3-2. The Canadiens are in the zone, the Amerks in the toilet. They lost consecutive games — one at the War Memorial — by a 13-4 margin. It’s time to […]
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‘Baseball guys are weird’
Red Wing Jason Bartlett is playing his first AAA season in the International League and his fourth season in the minor leagues. San Diego drafted the Lodi, California, native from University of Oklahoma in June 2001 and traded him to Minnesota in July 2002. “Publication Baseball America” named the 24-year-old shortstop Minnesota’s sixth-best prospect in […]
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Profiting from patriotism
War, terrorism, and catastrophic events are good for the US sports business. The industry willingly serves as the diversion to destruction and willingly supports any military campaign. But criticizing those marketing approaches would be un-American. Consequently, the industry can infallibly promote itself without fear of backlash. There apparently can never be enough patriotism. […]
