Left field

from Photographers Blog:

When baseballs attack

By Darryl Webb

"I was really glad I saw it coming."

I know that statement above sounds a little confusing so allow me to explain.

I don't know how many professional sporting events I've covered in the last 20 years. Let's just say it's been a lot and in all that time I've never been hurt. There have been a couple of close calls here and there, but nothing serious until earlier this week.

Had I not seen this sphere coming toward me at a blistering speed, the end result could have been a lot worse. I'm not saying it would have been as bad as Sports Illustrated's photographer John Iacono, who was hit by an overthrown ball in 1999, shattering his jaw which resulted in two titanium plates, some wire mess and something like 20 screws. But it definitely would have been worse than a headache, a bump on the head and two hours spent at Urgent Care.

As I stood in the first base photo well between innings, trying to figure another angle to shoot the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's Albert Pujols, I saw Angels' third baseman Mark Trumbo make a throw to first - a throw he's made a million times I'm sure. But this time the trajectory was off, it had some extra height to it, and unless Pujols was suddenly 10 feet-tall that ball was headed in my direction.

from Photographers Blog:

Before a ball is bowled

Reuters Photographer Parivartan Sharma takes us to the town of Meerut, north of Delhi, where cricket balls are still being made the old-fashioned way - by hand. India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will co-host the 2011 Cricket World Cup starting on February 19.

The Making Of A Cricket Ball - Cricket World Cup Preview from Vivek Prakash on Vimeo.

Former Estonian bouncer adds Baltic spice to sumo

After the nightclub fracas that toppled a Mongolian grand champion from grace who would have thought it would take a former bouncer from Estonia to help clean up the mess in the troubled world of sumo?

The soft-spoken giant Baruto gave the ancient Japanese sport a shot in the arm after sealing his promotion to the sport’s second highest rank of “ozeki” with a 14-1 showing at the spring grand sumo tournament less than two months after “yokozuna” Asashoryu quit in disgrace amid a “booze rage” probe.

The 1.98-metre tall, 190-kilogram Baruto narrowly missed out on his first Emperor’s Cup as yokozuna Hakuho went unbeaten to claim his 13th major title in Osaka. “I was happy about the 14 wins but the one defeat hurt more,” said Baruto, who will formally become the second European after Kotooshu in 2005 to ascent to the ozeki rank.

Certainly sections of the Japanese media would report on the slightest breach of protocol, from his fist-pumping victory celebrations to his choice of flowery Hawaiian shirts, although picking a soapy punch-up with a rival while both soaked in a communal bathtub and forging a sick note to get out of a regional tournament did Asashoryu few favours either.

His flair, however, will be missed.

“Asashoryu left a big hole to fill,” Hakuho said of his fellow Mongolian after winning in Osaka. “But sumo has a new ozeki and I expect him to be a major rival.”

Doubtless there will be factions within sumo who bemoan the promotion of yet another overseas wrestler to the upper echelons.

from Photographers Blog:

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…?

Snow. Looks good on those Christmas cards, doesn’t it? Fun for small children. Even nice for penguins in the zoo. But photographers covering soccer? Brrrrrrrrrr. Not really.

Let’s get one thing straight. We Brits go on about the weather like a stuck record, but when it comes to it, we can’t cope with it. That’s why we live in Britain.

We whinge when the mercury drops to -3 (26 degrees Fahrenheit). A colleague of mine in Canada will point out that’s not cold. Cold, proper cold, can’t feel your fingers, just walked into a fridge cold, is -25 (-13 degrees Fahrenheit).

So when the Met Office started predicting heavy snowfalls on the night of the Aston Villa v Liverpool game, I did my best boy scout impression, packed my shovel and set off four hours early, you know, in case of snowdrifts the size of elephants.

There weren’t any.

It was the sort of game where you could find yourself nodding off, a dull, tactical, stand-off between two Premiership sides fighting to finish in the top four to get a Champions League place.

Probably the only reason this match will ever be remembered - even by the most diehard fans - is the snow. Ninety minutes of sitting by the pitch feeling some sympathy with an ice lolly.

Five defining moments from a decade of sport

As the decade draws to a close, we pick five sporting moments which have defined the last 10 years.

1. Cathy Freeman lit the Olympic flame at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, a Games set in a country which embraces the outdoor life and punches well above its weight in most sports.

Aboriginal Freeman, who had suffered racial prejudice as a child, symbolised the optimism of a new start in a new century for a bustling immigrant nation. She went on to surmount suffocating pressure by winning the 400 metres gold, Australia’s only track gold.

2. A tattered U.S. flag, rescued from the rubble of the World Trade Centre which had been destroyed in the attacks on the United States in the previous year, was carried into the stadium during the opening ceremony for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

There had been serious doubts that the Games and the subsequent World Cup in Japan and South Korea would go head after the events of 9/11. In the end both took place without incident albeit at enormous security costs.

3. Zinedine Zidane, the supreme soccer player of his generation and scorer of two headers in France’s 1998 World Cup final win over Brazil, emerged from international retirement to help take his team to the 2006 final against Italy.

Woods takes first step on road to redemption

By Kevin Fylan and Tom Pilcher

Tiger Woods’s decision to take an indefinite break from golf will be a real worry for a sport that has relied on the drawing power of the world’s best player for so long but it might prove to be a necessary first step on the player’s own road to redemption.

“He’ll figure it out — we’ve always been a forgiving society,” major record holder Jack Nicklaus said before Woods announced his decision to take a break.

Well, even a forgiving society likes to see a little contrition and the tone of the statement Woods put out on Friday was certainly much more contrite and conciliatory than the spiky defence of his right to privacy in his only previous comment.

“I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children. I want to say again to everyone that I am profoundly sorry and that I ask forgiveness. It may not be possible to repair the damage I’ve done, but I want to do my best to try.

“I would like to ask everyone, including my fans, the good people at my foundation, business partners, the PGA Tour, and my fellow competitors, for their understanding. What’s most important now is that my family has the time, privacy, and safe haven we will need for personal healing.

“After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf. I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person.”

from The Great Debate UK:

Gates closing for commercial partners in sport

- Professor Simon Chadwick, Director, Centre for the International Business of Sport, Coventry, UK. The opinions expressed are his own. -

This summer’s Tour de France was truly historic: the race finished without anyone having returned a positive dope test. Monumental! In a sport seemingly beset with drug problems, professional cycling appeared to have turned the corner, started over, seen the error of its ways, cleaned up its act etc.

Some weeks later however, it was back to "situation normal" when Mikel Astarloza, winner of Stage 16 in this year’s race, tested positive for EPO use. To be honest, the only real surprise about this was that the media singularly failed to refer to the test result as "dope-gate" or some such other gating scandal.

Yet gates elsewhere were swinging this summer like those on a disused farm caught in a tornado. The world of sport witnessed scandals ranging from "crash-gate" to "blood-gate" and beyond (even to situations where women were apparently men – gender-gate?). Crash-gate was the most serious of the summer's attempts at self-implosion, according to some possibly the most serious sporting scandal of all time.

Indeed, there was a sense amongst certain people that the 2008 F1 Grand Prix in Singapore will serve as a headstone on the grave of sporting credibility: we can no longer trust in or rely upon those involved in sport. Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds have admitted their guilt and apparently done the decent thing, but others may well be complicit too.

Just how could something so brazen, so dangerous, have remained secret for so long amongst such a small group of people? From whistle-blowing, to organisation culture, the use (and abuse) of power and the basis on which teams compete, the whole saga has been a sad, pitiful, mangled mess of managerial, organisational and commercial issues.

Blood-gate was a lot less controversial than the Renault fiasco, if for no other reason than it was essentially a domestic drama and wasn’t therefore played out in the glare of international publicity. Moreover, while the likelihood of a physically painful outcome was much greater in the F1 case, Harlequins willingness to feign a physically painful outcome was at the heart of bloody matters down at The Stoop.

Infamy! Infamy! Sporting cheats and scams

If Renault are found guilty of the race-fixing charge they face in Paris next week — and the Formula One team announced today they would not be contesting it — the incident will go down as one of the most brazen attempts at rule-breaking in sport.

As our F1 correspondent Alan Baldwin asked on this blog last week, What would you do if someone asked you to drive into a wall?

There are seemingly endless ways to cheat at sport. Here are a few of the most notorious examples from the depths of the sporting archives:

CHICAGO WHITE SOX - After the heavily favored Chicago White Sox lost the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds, eight players were charged with being paid by gamblers to throw the championship. The players, including the legendary “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, were banned for life.

BORIS ONISCHENKO - Russian pentathlete Boris Onischenko was sent home in disgrace from the 1976 Montreal Olympics after the Soviet Army Major was found to have rigged the electronic scoring system thanks to a circuit-breaker in the handle of his epee.

DIEGO MARADONA - Argentina won a 1986 World Cup soccer quarter-final against England in Mexico 2-1, with Maradona scoring the first of his two goals with his hand. “it was a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God,” the player said in his post-match news conference, coining one of the most famous quotes in sport.

BEN JOHNSON - Days after winning the 100 metres in a world record time at the 1988 Seoul Olympics the Canadian athlete Johnson tested positive for the banned steroid stanozolol and was stripped of his gold medal. The media had been captivated by the rivalry between Johnson and Carl Lewis ahead of the race and the Candian’s subsequent positive test shocked the world.

Is Michael Vick an asset or a liability for NFL?

Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick’s prison sentence followed by house arrest for participating and bankrolling a dog-fighting operation officially ended on Monday July 20.

It took exactly one night for Vick’s name to be once again embroiled in controversy. Vick’s Virginia-based lawyer Lawrence Woodward denied reports that his client spent his first night of freedom at a Virginia Beach strip club. “It is absolutely, categorically false,” Woodward said.

Two dancers at the club, who identified themselves as Tropical and Tara, told reporters they saw Vick and NBA free agent Allen Iverson there Monday night.

Throughout Vick’s legal ordeal, the NFL seemed content to toss all the controversy into the hands of the legal system. Now that Vick is out of the proverbial dog house, all eyes are on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

Shortly after regaining his freedom, Sports Illustrated and other media outlets, quoting anonymous sources, reported that Goodell and Vick’s agent, Joel Segal, secretly met in New Jersey.

It was then reported that the NFL had granted Vick a conditional re-instatement that includes a four-game suspension. NFL spokesperson Greg Aiello quickly went on Twitter to announce that “despite what ESPN says, commish has made no decisions on MVick.”

from AxisMundi Jerusalem:

Pushing back cricket’s boundary for Israel’s bedouin

For decades, the small number of cricket followers in Israel has been trying to clear up what is so far an unsolved mystery: Why the sport never took off in the country after the British lowered the Union Jack on pre-state Israel in 1948. 

Cricket, along with golf, is probably the most enduring bequest of the British Empire to its former colonies, but definitely not in the Jewish state.

Because it was seen as such a complicated sport that needed so much explaining, for many years Israeli newspapers and radio and television stations preferred to deliberately ignore cricket.

Often you would get people trying to show that they understood something about the sport by saying to the frustrated and infuriated cricket follower: "ah cricket, that's like baseball, isn't it?"

On more than one occasion, I was questioned as to the identity of the rabbi in the framed picture on my living room wall: no prizes for guessing that it was actually this caricature of W.G. Grace, the father of modern cricket and with little doubt the sport's most enduring and most recognisable figure.