By Kevin Timms
Editorial Editor ’04ESPN Sporting Events? Have you ever sat down and turned on ESPN hoping to catch the end of that Braves baseball game or one of those Superbowl highlight shows, but found yourself watching some 12 year-old kid trying to spell the word <S-C-H-A-D-E-N-F-R-E-U-D-E>? And no, you may not have the language of origin but here’s a sentence: ESPN shows useless events such as the spelling bee in order to feel schadenfreude knowing that millions of disappointed viewers tuned in to ESPN only to see the next spelling world champion. And it’s not just spelling bees…ESPN also shows the Magic Card championship, Poker games, and the all new Publix Bagging World Championship featuring such great athletes as Michael Mayer. (Well…it’s not live yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see such an event in the near future.) With all the channels the average resident receives, you would think some other channel would show the “coveted” spelling bee. And then, sporting events such as Braves baseball games (TBS), NCAA Basketball Tournament (CBS) and the NFL (Fox) find themselves on channels not recognized as sports networks. I think the Hallmark channel or maybe Lifetime (Television for Women) show more sports than ESPN.
Georgia Tech in March Madness – Although they lost me a total of $15 on bets against them, I must congratulate Tech on their remarkable run to the NCAA final. However, I’d never realized how many in-the-closet Georgia Tech fans existed until they reached the Final Four. People dusted off their Tech caps and wore them with pride, “non-biased” sportscasters on local news channels wore Tech shirts and final four caps, and I’m glad Lassiter students were enjoying spring break because I’d fear the Tech yellow and navy colors would decorate every other person in the halls. Basically, I’m pretty sick of “born-again” Tech fans because one must support their teams through the bad and the good. Let’s see how many of these fans show up when the football season starts…
Freddy Adu – Compared to the Brazilian soccer legend Pele, Freddy Adu has been the focus of much national media due to his $1 million Nike sponsorship and his $500,000 salary. Oh and by the way, the kid is only 14!!!! However, I decided to sit down and go against my morals when I stooped to watch arguable the most inferior soccer league in the world—Major League Soccer (MLS). Why? To watch this so-called brilliant wonderkid. His team, DC United, brought him on with about 25 minutes to go and his team leading 2-1. His first touch, he beat seven players with moves I’ve never seen before and then proceeded to shoot a 30 yard bullet shot into the upper right corner of the goal…Then I reached consciousness and realized that all this kid did was complete about 50% of his passes, fail to make any scoring chances, and dive (pretend to fall down to obtain a free-kick or penalty.) No wonder this kid turned down European soccer teams to play in the U.S. because he can’t even hang with the overrated veterans that create the MLS.
Hawks Basketball – Just when the team realizes they’re as bad as possible, and their fans become slightly excited that at least they receive a great draft pick, the Hawks start winning, much as the Falcons did to blow a top five draft pick. The Hawks’ lack of a superstar finally meant that a team mentality could allow better basketball. Then, newly-acquired Bob Sura broke the NBA record for having three straight triple doubles…Bob who? However, his last rebound was a purposely missed lay-up so that he could get that 10th rebound and achieve an NBA record. But, the NBA nullified the rebound and Sura was stripped of his triple double but why? Nothing in the NBA rulebook prohibits intentional misses to achieve inflated stats, and did it really matter? The NBA could have at least given him the rebound and referred him to a character ed. integrity lesson at Lassiter High School. |
