Kindly avert your gaze from your fantasy football email chain to reflect on the accomplishments of one Wakana Ueda, 11 years old, from Japan. Wakana completed the Honolulu Marathon. She is blind. She finished last. It doesn’t matter.
It is a pleasant distraction for most of us to ponder whether the New York Giants can win the NFC East. That’s one aspect of sport, a commonly enjoyed one, and by all accounts, relatively healthy when enjoyed in moderation.
It is another thing entirely to appreciate the magnitude of the sacred confluence of sport and the human condition as presented by Ms. Ueda in the video above. Share this one with your friends and loved ones. Feel more human today, even as you curse your fellow man in line at the Best Buy and the Target as you scavenge for holiday gifts.
The most compelling thing about sports, remember, is that they are played by people.
One time I had to broadcast a three-game series between UCLA and Oral Roberts in baseball. I made it through three full games, over 9 hours of extemporaneous conversation, without giggling.
Oral. Roberts.
Also: Buzzer beaters totally rule. I will not argue about this.
You know how (dr) John is always defending play-by-play announcers, like he’s some annoying announcer himself? That’s because he is. Dig Robert Smith stealing one for UC Riverside at Montana State yesterday. Plenty of good seats still available in Bozeman!
The DA says some of Bernie Fine’s accusers are credible. However, there cannot be prosecution. The American justice system is not perfect. Some times, that hurts more than others. This is one of those times.
Shaquille O’Neal was – to most knowledgeable eyes – the most dominating basketball player since the Wilt Chamberlain/Bill Russell era. Nevertheless, he won only one MVP award. And, despite his four championship rings and his hall-of-fame career, Shaq never could shake the perception that he might have been an even greater player, had he approached the game with a ninja-killer-zeal like Michael Jordon.
Fortunately for the rest of us, the haters can now suck on this:
