Greg Lindberg

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A day with no sports section

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Almost every day of the year, something is going on in sports. A baseball game is being played in Cincinnati. A basketball game is tipping off in Los Angeles. A football game is at halftime in Green Bay – with the score knotted at 21.

But there is one day of the year when newspapers can practically forget about printing their daily sports section and ESPN may not even need to air SportsCenter. Today is that day – the day after baseball’s All-Star Game.
There is really no reason to check ESPN.com for scores, no reason to dial 1-800-555-TELL (a sports score resource) to get updates on games. That’s because nothing is going on. And this rings true even louder this year in the midst of both the NFL and NBA lockouts.
The biggest event going on in sports right now is the women’s World Cup. Forgive me if I offend anyone, but soccer is just not a sport I have ever been interested in as a fan. It’s not one of the big four leagues in this country and probably will never become the fifth. Although I might feel slightly more patriotic knowing that the USA team has played quite well in this tournament, it is hard to get excited about it.
So what do us sports enthusiasts do on a day of no sports? The simple answer is to turn off your fandom for 24 hours. Give it a rest. Then focus on something besides athletics for once, like your significant other – or video games. Hey, why not pop in Madden or an NBA game to get your fix? Or instead of rooting for your favorite team, root for the calendar to turn to tomorrow. It will be here before you can put on your Rays hat.

What’s in a sport?

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This Fourth of July marked the 96th annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island in New York. The competition was once again broadcast on ESPN. I often wonder why competitive eating is considered a “sport.” It has been shown on ESPN for years. But so has the Scripps National Spelling Bee. And other non-athletic events. Just because something is broadcast on the home of SportsCenter doesn’t mean it is a sport.

People often debate what a “sport” really is. Does it have to involve a ball? A stick? Physical ability? Mental strength? According to Merriam-Webster, the long-trusted American English dictionary we all consider to be an official source, the word “sport” as a noun has several definitions listed, which furthers the debate about its actual meaning. The top three definitions call it “a source of diversion,” “sexual play,” and “a physical activity engaged in for pleasure.”
I guess an event like an eating competition could be described by two of these three meanings. It is definitely a diversion from everyday life. Rarely will you witness someone devour 62 hot dogs in a matter of minutes. It could also be considered a physical activity because one must position their bodies in a certain way as they chow down on the increasing amount of solid food going down their esophagus. The more salacious definition, however, doesn’t seem to apply here, unless there is a food fetish involved. (For your benefit, I won’t delve any further into that one.)
So perhaps there is some merit to including specific activities in the category of sports that some of us think have nothing to do with sports. I’m still not totally sold on the fact that eating – even in enormous quantities – takes nearly as much effort as playing football or basketball at the professional level. That is why five-time hot dog eating champ and 2011 winner Joey Chestnut will never rise to the level of Joe Montana or Michael Jordan.

Stepping up to the plate

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This is the first post of my blog. I plan to use this as a platform for writing about various subjects, probably more about sports than anything. Hence the baseball reference in the title of this post.

I have been a Tampa Bay Rays fan since the team had “devil” in its name. Although I probably shouldn’t be biased toward any team as someone who aspires to be a journalist someday, I am happy to report that the Rays beat the Cincinnati Reds tonight on a walk-off home run by Evan Longoria. The slugger’s batting statistics have been less than stellar since returning from the disabled list, which has been a while now. He recently ditched his batting gloves and decided to hit with flesh on wood. I don’t think I want to know how that would feel. But Longoria put the gloves back on and hit the game-winner, so it’s a good sign that he might be getting back into his normal groove – with the appropriate gear on.