Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Wednesday 11/05 A.M. Quickie:
President Barack Obama. Enough Said.

I remain utterly elated over the result of yesterday's election. That lingering feeling is kind of remarkable, actually. Maybe I'm projecting, but people on the street seem to be perma-smiling.

It shouldn't surprise you that I led today's SN column with an attempt to put President Barack Obama into his proper sports context.

Needless to say, it is a new dawn when the First Fan is a real sports fan, much closer to how you or I consume sports than recent times.

And it has massive implications for a longtime Shanoff construction about the state of "Big" sports. I will republish the lead item in full later this morning.

Meanwhile, what you'll find in the rest of the column:

*NBA: The Celtics exposed the Rockets as not-yet-ready to challenge for a championship. Maybe in six months, but not now.

*CFB: Pete Carroll is a whiner: There is an easy way to master the BCS system when you have the most talented team in CFB playing the least challenging schedule of any contender: Win.

(Why doesn't Carroll flex some of his muscle as the biggest big dog in the Pac-10 to influence his conference's commissioner, who is one of the biggest playoff obstructionists in the country?)

*NFL: The state of the Raiders is so bad that it may finally be necessary for the NFL to step in. The pending purge could be the lowest moment yet.

*MLB: There will be some high-payroll team out there willing to give AJ Burnett a deal worth him opting out for. And they will pay for it, all right. Call it the "Pavano Effect."

*Schadenfreude: A roster of experts have determined that Derek Jeter is the worst fielder in baseball, which is a label that is a long time coming. Jeter fans are going to go insane.

More later. Complete SN column here.

President Barack Obama. Yes.

-- D.S.

2 comments:

DougOLis said...

For all criticisms you can throw at W, I don't think "not a sports fan" is one of them. He was a cheerleader, owned a team, and only seems legitimately happy/competent at sporting events (i.e. throwing out first pitches, that Nats game he was in the booth, the Olympics).

Michael W said...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the biggest reason not to have a CFB playoff is that it would be played by kids, most of who will never have a pro career. I can't imagine getting a catastrophic injury when all I want to do is get my degree because a bunch of grown men can't handle the BCS.

"Won't somebody PUH-LEASE thing of the children?!"