New SI - Santana

I liked the Ballard piece very much.

 

Yeah it's Kidd's son.

 

Read the dunk piece - very, very good. I missed the football season, but it's encouraging for the future that Siver is gone. We'll see.

 

"That's Tito, Jesse."

"Like I said: Chico."

Saw the Bod rassle Santana at Maple Leaf Gardens. Guy I was with brought a sign that said "Chico sucks taco scum!" Good times!

Anyway, the new SI had arrived while I was on the road so I haven't read any of it yet but I love those cover shots from spring training. Baseball - and better weather - are coming!

 

My wife is a librarian, and believe it or not, the magazine does not circulate at all. By her library's rules, she would be justified in canceling the subscription.

But now, she's charging the new issue out to be the day it comes in, so I get it for free, and it circulates.

I am one of those children of the 70s who cut his teeth on SI. I remember reading it cover-to-cover, then taping pictures on the wall. I know times have changed, and it has changed, but I do love the times they nail it.

I taught for a long time -- including journalism and psychology -- and as I am cleaning up boxes of old stuff, I keep finding things like the original Allen Iverson story (when we was arrested in high school), the "Lonely End," story and Leigh Montville's piece on the soccer team from Africa that was wiped out in a plane crash.

 

not where you live!!!

 

True, but we've got Honeymoon Suite gigging at local dumps and you don't!

 

Not that anybody should care, but...

I absolutely LOVED the Dribble Drive Motion offense story by Grant Whal. It broke down the intricacies and x's and o's stuff, but managed not to be boring, while weaving a nice profile of the offense's originator in with it. What absolutely blew me away was the graphic that accompanied the story, pinpointing the 300-some colleges, junior colleges and high schools that run the DDM or some variation. Somebody earned their researcher's salary there.

Ballard's dunk story was fantastic. The pros of that piece have been well documented, so I don't have much to add.

Admittedly, baseball isn't my thing. I skipped the Clemens nonsense as I've reached my saturation point, but I read the Santana piece and thought it was way overdone. Way too much hyperbole from the players, the writer, the front office people. He's like a drink of water? He's their savior?

Ack.