The Sporting Life

A man for all seasons?

When it comes to sports, the only offseason is a self-imposed one

At the start of his book True Believers, Joe Queenan wonders how many hours, days and weeks of his life he's spent watching sports. I say "spent" because I, a fellow addict, wince at the idea of calling them wasted.

But I have to admit summer often gives me a needed respite from the crowded schedule a fan of professional and college sports keeps. No March Madness. No Omaha. No Super Bowl. No Stanley Cup. No BCS race. No Yahoo! or ESPN pick ‘ems. When high temperatures and humidity unite to create the world's largest sauna in the South, only Major League Baseball is in season in the United States.

Don't get me wrong: I love baseball, both college and professional. Anyone who's read this blog with any regularity during the past year could attest to my near-euphoric state when Houston, my favorite team, eliminated Atlanta for the team's first-ever postseason series, as well as my excitement a couple of months ago about traveling to Omaha for the College World Series, despite my alma mater's absence from the eight-team field.

If you require more current evidence, this week I'm finding myself in the odd position of rooting for the Braves. I want them to go ahead and make their oh-so-predictable and inevitable leap over D.C. As my brother declared more than a month ago, "Don't kid yourself: The Nationals are who we're trying to catch for the wild-card race."

But baseball season, like the stretch for hockey, is long.

Teen-aged boys hanged in Iran for being gay

(Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan)

Update: Reports are surfacing that the two boys were guilty of sexual assault on a 13-year-old boy. While death by hanging seems an extreme punishment for minors, it's not exactly the same as being put to death just on the basis of sexual orientation.

Update II: Reports are also surfacing that the sexual assault may have been added to the story to soften the executions for Western readers.

Doves stripped down

I'm a little late in discovering this performance, but, if you wonder whether the Doves are worth hearing without the studio trickery, have a look at their performance for KCRW from this spring. I'd love to have a copy on CD, particularly the first song, "Snowden" (of which you can find the video for the single here).

Hey, kids! Wanna see a really big firework?

Wait 'til you see how Atlantans celebrate Halloween

From ajc.com:

"A tanker truck wreck that prompted the evacuation of a northwest Atlanta apartment complex was apparently caused by people throwing rocks, concrete and fireworks at the big rig ... Jolene Butts Freeman, spokeswoman for the Atlanta Fire Department, said that when firefighters arrived, 'people were actually standing on top of tanker once it was overturned.' She said she didn't know why the crowd of as many as 50 people climbed atop the flipped truck."