Dear SI: Are you friggin' kidding me?

[bmfc1]

Derek Jeter to be named SI Sportsman of the Year. I'd be happier with Elin Nordegren or Bud Selig than Jeter.

http://gawker.com/5414123/derek-jeter-sportsman-of-the-year

[Frayed Knot]

It's the old cumulative award deal. Joe Paterno got his a handful of years back following a good though hardly groundbreaking year.
See also Henry Fonda's oscar for 'On Golden Pond' or Pacino's for 'Scent of a Woman'.

It helps to have no outstanding candidate elsewhere. I hadn't even thought about who else might be deserving this year.
Pujols? Kobe? Rothliesburger?
No golfer emerged or dominated. Nadal was injured and stumbled while Federer needed to win the U.S. and didn't. People seemed to get excited by this Pacquio? guy but boxing is dead. Not an Olympic or World Cup year which takes out those from "minor" sports.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Oh, the indignity of it all! Will 2009 baseball ever end?



(FK: What about Usain Bolt?)

[batmagadanleadoff]

What the hell was so sportsmanlike about Jeter's year? That he didn't whine when the better candidate (Mauer) won the league's MVP? What the hell did Jeter do to compensate for the fact that he wasn't even the best player in his own sport last season? Why not Albert Pujols if they wanted to award a baseall player? Boy, talk about a charmed life. This guy's halo is so big, he shoulda been playing for the team in Anaheim all along.

[Gwreck]

Nadal was injured and stumbled while Federer needed to win the U.S. and didn't.[/quote:1h6fc859]

Um, what?

Anyway, Federer made the finals of each of the 4 Grand Slams, winning 2. Seems like a perfectly good choice.

[Guest Kong76]

batmag: Why not Albert Pujols if they wanted to award a baseall player? <<<

Because he lacked the necessary intangibles.

[metirish]

It's SI so I really don't give a fiddlers fuck.....a worthless rag celebrating a proper bollox.

[ashie62]

Jeter covers sell magazine subscriptions and more importantly increase time spent by users on than all but Jordanhttp://www.si.com

Thats media

[Guest Edgy DC]

It helps to have no outstanding candidate elsewhere.

[Frayed Knot]

Bolt's fine with me, I'm just trying to look at this through SI's prism.
Track barely registers with the American public and when it does it only does so in Olympic years. Using that logic, Bolt's main claim to fame came during 2008 and not 2009. And, yes, they should be rewarding the accomplishment or the event and not just the popularity of said accomplishment or event, but as the focus on sports here grows increasingly narrow towards only the big TV sports the attitude that steers those awards only towards the "mainstream" only absent some extraordinary feat becomes increasingly likely IMO.
IOW, whose face on the cover is going to sell more magazines: Jeter's or Bolt's?

[Guest Kong76]

I have to be honest, I had to google Bolt.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Wow. For a minute there, I thought we were going to stop getting kicked in the groin.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

I'll let my son speak for me regarding this topic:

[Guest Kong76]

They should make him Sportsman of the Year!
Nice form.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

I'll let my son speak for me regarding this topic:

[metirish]

Parent of the year right there

[Guest Swan Swan H]

I'm pretty happy with the way he turned out.

[ashie62]

Bolt was the second choice at SI..

Bolt would have been THE choice but SI is concerned the Bolt is juiced..

[Guest Edgy DC]

Well, I'm concerned Jeter is juiced. Half the world is concerned that Lance Armstrong is juiced, and he won.

Bolt's fine with me, I'm just trying to look at this through SI's prism.

[ashie62]

SI is not going out on any limb, they are cutting 700 jobs by year end. Time-Warner would like to spin them off for cash. The weekly is losing money

The print version of SI is on the way out.

It's not fair but they had to make a safe pick, or what they think, is a saleable safe pick..Bolt AND Pujols were considered risky as potential juicers.

The magazine is on life support, take their choice as a joke. I mean, they picked the Mets to win the world Series..why did they do that. It got some buzz, and ultimately was a joke

Later

[seawolf17]

I'll let my son speak for me regarding this topic:

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I'll let my son speak for me regarding this topic:

[ashie62]

GF or GW Jr.?

[Guest Swan Swan H]

The picture was taken by his ex-girlfriend at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Times Square.

[Guest Edgy DC]

By the way, before I act out all over the internet, is there any source besides gawker.com?

[G-Fafif]

And Sports Illustrated was doing such a good job all these years not naming Derek Jeter its Sportsman of the Year.

[Frayed Knot]

My earlier point about Bolt is that I'd be willing to bet that if the folks at SI were queried as to why not him one of their answers would be that this was not an Olympic year and therefore not on most people's radar.
Besides, this might be Jeter's last best shot at it and how could those folks look themselves in the mirror for the rest of their lives knowing that they failed to get Jetes this honor when they had the chance?

I just hope it's not a re-run of the Jordan SotY issue (actually I don't care as I don't read the mag anymore anyway). That one wasn't just an article within the mag on Jordan it was virtually an issue-long shrine to the guy, complete with a hologram cover where MJ smiled at you as you viewed the cover from different angles. I think there are Vatican press releases less laudatory of the pope than that issue was towards Jordan. Not that it kept them off his shit-list a few years later when they ran a cover suggesting he bag his fledgling baseball career and, as we found out via his basketball HoF speech, his shit-list has a long half-life.

[bmfc1]

By the way, before I act out all over the internet, is there any source besides gawker.com?[/quote:ole9uqmn]

SI itself: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/magazine/specials/sportsman/2009/11/25/derek.jeter/index.html?eref=sihp

This issue may never see the inside of my house: directly from the mailbox to the recycle bin (although with Jeter on the cover, my throw into the recycle bin will be accurate and strong and I will use perfect form).

[Guest Edgy DC]

My earlier point about Bolt is that I'd be willing to bet that if the folks at SI were queried as to why not him one of their answers would be that this was not an Olympic year and therefore not on most people's radar.
Besides, this might be Jeter's last best shot at it and how could those folks look themselves in the mirror for the rest of their lives knowing that they failed to get Jetes this honor when they had the chance?

[MFS62]

Tim Tebow.

Later