Dear SI: Are you friggin' kidding me?

[Frayed Knot]

Tim Tebow.[/quote:1uiapopw]

I'd no sooner give this award to a college football player than I would to some guy because he just had a great year at AA or AAA.

[metsmarathon]

how about caster semenya, instead?

seriously, i prefer the idea of bolt, myself. heck, still in the realm of running, meb keflezighi strikes me as a better candidate than derek jeter.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Haile Gebrselassie, a magnificent runner and a quality candidate for future Sportsman of the Year competitions, holds the marathon record at an astounding 2:03:9.

If he went out this year and broke his 2008 record by 1:40, and then similarly crushed the 10,000 record or the half-marathon record, sure. As a distance runner, you'd probably think it's almost unthinkable. But it's the nearest equivelant to what Bolt did. I mean, KaBOOM!

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

In a sport where it's simple enough to dominate for stretches but nearly impossible to dominate for years, Jimmie Johnson just won a fourth straight NASCAR points title.

Manny Pacquiao beat three significantly larger, better-than-competent men (flabby De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, and Miguel Cotto) over the last 12 months... and did so in dominant and punishing fashion, becoming the first man to hold titles in SEVEN different weight classes.

And Usain Bolt, the fastest man alive, just broke his human landspeed record-- as others have illustrated-- in mind-shattering fashion. Two of 'em, actually.

Not to mention guys like Pujols and Adrian Peterson and Tebow and Christiano Ronaldo, who won individual accolades in team sports.

This canker's not even a medalist on his own team.

[ashie62]

Tim Tebow.[/quote:bpoburv8]

I'd no sooner give this award to a college football player than I would to some guy because he just had a great year at AA or AAA.[/quote:bpoburv8]


Alcoholics Anonymous?

[Guest Kong76]

Or AAA = Advanced Alcoholics Anonymous?

I have to rid myself of something here. This isn't easy for me and I'm
just going to say it ... I almost sincerely posted the second post in this
thread on Sunday morning something to the effect of, "Eh, no big deal,
he kinda deserves it."

Have at me.

[Guest Edgy DC]

BOOOOOOO!

(And... hurray, for not posting it!)

[Guest Vince Coleman Firecracker]

Haile Gebrselassie, a magnificent runner and a quality candidate for future Sportsman of the Year competitions, holds the marathon record at an astounding 2:03:9.

If he went out this year and broke his 2008 record by 1:40, and then similarly crushed the 10,000 record or the half-marathon record, sure. As a distance runner, you'd probably think it's almost unthinkable. But it's the nearest equivelant to what Bolt did. I mean, KaBOOM![/quote:2rwas2ju]

With all due respect to Mssr. Bolt, Haile Gebrselassie is the greatest runner of all time (that sounded more Kanye than I intended). He's held world records for every distance event (except the steeplechase) from 2000 meters and up, and he's been a world champion at every event starting with the 1500m. He once broke the 5K record by nearly eleven seconds.

While the 100 and 200 are different races, the 1500 up to two mile races are completely different monsters from the 10K, half- and full marathons that Gebrselassie has also dominated. That would be the equivalent of Bolt also winning a gold medal in the 400 and 800.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I agree that Gebrselassie has had (clearly) the better career, but I was just looking at it in the context of 2009.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Someone suggested Eunice Kennedy Shriver for having created the Special Olympics and who passed away this year. But at the risk of sounding like a complete douche, this "Sportsman" crap is the kind of award Jeter should be getting since it recognizes vague contributions to ideals and athletics that like it or not, Jeter more or less has lived up to. He's stayed out of trouble, stayed healthy, contributed, compiled, etc etc. Plus he'll help SI sell more mags ... and ads. My company (a publisher) does the same whoring with its "awards" and it makes me want to urinate on the conference room table.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I get that, but that defintiion seems to be conveniently shelved and conventiently dusted off and brought out again when, um, convenient.

And Jeter gets to cynically play the part, allowing them to praise his quiet humility while posing for a Soviet Realist-inspired low-angle shot heroically jutting his jaw out with banners of Yankee legends behind him in the new concourse of what will soon be called The House That Jeter Built. He's probably already brokered a deal to secure that name just as he got excusive rights to Bob Sheppard.

[soupcan]

Haile Gebrselassie...holds the marathon record at an astounding 2:03:9.[/quote:372t425q]

Is that right? The record is now 2:03? That's just mind-boggling. I remember when Salazar got it at 2:08 something in, I think, the 1980 NYC marathon maybe? Then they found out that the course was too short or he was wind-aided or something and took it away.

2:03. I'm stunned.

[Frayed Knot]

Many of these arguments should be written up and sent to SI.
Keep them clean and without making them sound like simply anti-Jeter screeds, but bitching about it to ourselves only goes so far - and by 'so far' I mean nowhere at all. It's not going to change anything for this year obviously but companies are more sensitive to negative public feedback (product complaints, season ticket non-renewals, etc.) than most people think so maybe it'll affect their methods in the future.

- So mention how he's not only not the most deserving baseball player this year but not even the most deserving candidate on his own team. Mariano's 500th save was a MUCH bigger milestone than the breaking of the 20th best team hit record, his age-defying level of excellence is more impressive, and he's MUCH better at his position than Saint Derek has ever been at his. Or is it just that married Spanish-speaking bible-readers who don't date starlets not rate as highly?
- Talk about how if they want to give it for a long-term body of work why Federer is not first in line.
- Or about Bolt following up a stunning year with another stunning year!! - breaking 4 world records in a 12-month span, several of which at a Beamon-esque level is events usually measured by eyelashes.
- or about Gebrlselassie's overall dominance or just about how their short-sightedness of reducing their sports-view to only those events covered by U.S. networks in prime-time reduces their once-broad view of sports to the Chris Russo level of tunnel-vision.



The more I think about this the more I think that their reasoning probably deals more with the magazine hemorrhaging readers and the idea of having a camera-friendly athlete who plays in the media capital of the country on the cover appeals to their bottom line.
'And besides, we're paying Verducci all this money so we might as well put him to work during the winter too? After all, who the hell would we get to write about track? The last time we employed a writer who knew his way around a track was when William Nack was writing about Secretariat.'

[MFS62]

The more I think about this the more I think that their reasoning probably deals more with the magazine hemorrhaging readers and the idea of having a camera-friendly athlete who plays in the media capital of the country on the cover appeals to their bottom line.
[/quote:9icrj8ba]

That capturing/ recapturing readership makes sense. I heard that this is the first time a Yankee has won their Athlete-Of-The-Year award.

Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

Haile Gebrselassie...holds the marathon record at an astounding 2:03:9.[/quote:31pyvisv]

Is that right? The record is now 2:03? That's just mind-boggling. I remember when Salazar got it at 2:08 something in, I think, the 1980 NYC marathon maybe? Then they found out that the course was too short or he was wind-aided or something and took it away.

2:03. I'm stunned.[/quote:31pyvisv]

That should read 2:03:59. He broke his own record in the Berlin Marathon in September 2008. He broke it by 17 seconds. Had he done it in New York and/or been American, they'd likely have told you more about it.

[ashie62]

Many of these arguments should be written up and sent to SI.
Keep them clean and without making them sound like simply anti-Jeter screeds, but bitching about it to ourselves only goes so far - and by 'so far' I mean nowhere at all. It's not going to change anything for this year obviously but companies are more sensitive to negative public feedback (product complaints, season ticket non-renewals, etc.) than most people think so maybe it'll affect their methods in the future.

- So mention how he's not only not the most deserving baseball player this year but not even the most deserving candidate on his own team. Mariano's 500th save was a MUCH bigger milestone than the breaking of the 20th best team hit record, his age-defying level of excellence is more impressive, and he's MUCH better at his position than Saint Derek has ever been at his. Or is it just that married Spanish-speaking bible-readers who don't date starlets not rate as highly?
- Talk about how if they want to give it for a long-term body of work why Federer is not first in line.
- Or about Bolt following up a stunning year with another stunning year!! - breaking 4 world records in a 12-month span, several of which at a Beamon-esque level is events usually measured by eyelashes.
- or about Gebrlselassie's overall dominance or just about how their short-sightedness of reducing their sports-view to only those events covered by U.S. networks in prime-time reduces their once-broad view of sports to the Chris Russo level of tunnel-vision.



The more I think about this the more I think that their reasoning probably deals more with the magazine hemorrhaging readers and the idea of having a camera-friendly athlete who plays in the media capital of the country on the cover appeals to their bottom line.
'And besides, we're paying Verducci all this money so we might as well put him to work during the winter too? After all, who the hell would we get to write about track? The last time we employed a writer who knew his way around a track was when William Nack was writing about Secretariat.'

[HahnSolo]

But SI has honored such athletes before, I believe.

I will say though (and I consider myself a pretty good sports fan), my first thought when I read Gebrlselassie's name was "Who"? And I suspect that of most of America would have the same reaction (as would the newsroom at SI).

[G-Fafif]

Someone suggested Eunice Kennedy Shriver for having created the Special Olympics and who passed away this year. But at the risk of sounding like a complete douche, this "Sportsman" crap is the kind of award Jeter should be getting since it recognizes vague contributions to ideals and athletics that like it or not, Jeter more or less has lived up to. He's stayed out of trouble, stayed healthy, contributed, compiled, etc etc. Plus he'll help SI sell more mags ... and ads. My company (a publisher) does the same whoring with its "awards" and it makes me want to urinate on the conference room table.[/quote:3fldwx7x]

Here's hoping your company doesn't choose to celebrate the announcement of its awards internally with "we have bagels in the conference room this morning -- they're on the table."

[Guest Edgy DC]

Tennis & Track & Field are fringe professional sports-No dice _________________ Ya know what I'm sayin?

No, I don't quite know what you're saying.

Fringe is an arbitrary designation that's undefined and relevant only when needed to bolster an argument already in place. Track and field, for instance, wasn't fringey enough to keep Bolt from placing in second.

Moreover, eight track and field athletes have won the honor, including the first winner. Two tennis players have won as well.

And two endurance cyclists.

I mean, I realize this is about the sports story that stood above the rest and moved us and made for great photos and not just the best athlete and shit, but... shit, Jeter?

And if Sports Illustrated's readership doesn't know Gebrlselassie's name, then Sports Illustrated has to answer for that. How much of their content is dedicated to fantasy sports updates now?

[ashie62]

Thats Ok, I don't know what you're saying either

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Tennis & Track & Field are fringe professional sports-No dice


Well, they gave it to the bike guys in the past.

I am surprised they've never given it to an MFY before. Heck, a Mets player got one before an MFY? Verdicci must have been pitching all kinds of fits!

[ashie62]

They missed this candidate

http://perezhilton.com/2009-11-30-gradys-sizemore

[Guest Edgy DC]

Thats Ok, I don't know what you're saying either

[batmagadanleadoff]

It's been 25 years since SI awarded its' Sportsperson of the Year award to a Track and Field athlete for Track and Field Accomplishments. The majority (but not all) of the SI Sportsman of the Year Track athletes were honored in the earlier days of the magazine, when much of the magazine's coverage was devoted to the more "gentlemanly" aspects of sport. This trend didn't bode well for Usain Bolt wining their award.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Good point, I guess (though two of the "Athletes Who Care" winners in 1987 were trackletes), but do you really think the profile of track and field has changed so much in the interim or that Sports Illustrated has changed?

And were they a better institution then or now?

And isn't a nod to Derek Jeter some sort of nod to some sort of ideal gentlemanly sporting values?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Go ahead and call me Rogers, but SI makes a decent case. It sucks for me, but probably doesn't suck overall.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1163403/1/index.htm

[Guest Edgy DC]

Really? Verducci loses me right off the bat.

Being the ultimate team player and a role model synonymous with winning has brought him still another title:

Those are two supposedly self-evident truths I'd like to see somebody sit down and try and make an argument to really establish.

And then with

Every sunrise is a fresh shot at victory for Derek Jeter.

Makes for tough reading.

That whole, "Yankees win, therefore Yankees are winners, therefore long-term Yankees are, by definition, winners to the core" argument is extra-tragic for the Mets becaus poor Silly Willie believed it.

You got the extra special spin here in the account of the Yankee parade.

Most of the Yankees were flanked by wives, girlfriends, children or celebrities. Jeter rode along Broadway on a float with his mom, dad and sister, Sharlee.

No shallow callow girlfriend-impressing pimp he. He's substance. He's goodness.

"I pretty much said, 'You're coming on the float, right?'" says Jeter, who was also joined by his girlfriend, actress Minka Kelly.

Wait... what? Weren't we just specifically trying to distinguish him from those nudnicks who brought their girlfriends or celebrities. Oh, as an afterthought, he, um brought his celebrity girlfriend. For Pete Flynn's sake!

[Benjamin Grimm]

And what could be more unwholesome than bringing your wife and children to ride with you in a parade?

[metirish]

Every sunrise is a fresh shot at victory for Derek Jeter.

OMFeckingG


That rivals the Klapisch " applause like soft rain" quote.....it's disgusting.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Do you think Verducci carries a photo of Derek in his wallet? I can only imagine what the original version of that story was like, before the SI editors sat down with Jeter's lawyers to work out the personal restraining order. I bet Jeter's grandmother wouldn't write stuff that glowing!