Filed under Professional Sports …

Feb 11 2013
By Will Edman Preview, Professional Sports, Soccer

Preview: UEFA Champions League Knockout Stage

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the biggest sports stars in the world will take the field to play the world’s most popular sport in the world’s biggest and most ambitious sports competition, and most of America won’t bat an eyelash. But for those who do care, it is time to rejoice as the first leg knockout rounds of the UEFA Champions League soccer tournament are upon us. Over the next two weeks, the field of sixteen of the best club soccer teams in Europe will be whittled down to eight after eight home-and-home matchups. Here is a look at the first leg of each of the matchups, in order from least to most intriguing:

8. Malaga at Porto
Overview: Porto, the former stomping ground of Jose Mourinho, Andre Villas-Boas, Falcao and Hulk, is a remarkably consistent team despite a high rate of changeover. The Portuguese are currently sitting in a tie at the top of Portugal’s Liga, and Vítor Pereira’s men comfortably qualified for the Champions’ League knockout rounds. Porto is led by Joao Moutinho, a creative midfielder who was nearly transferred to Tottenham in January. To contrast Porto’s consistency, Malaga is perhaps the most unstable team in Europe. Only two seasons after being bought by a Qatari sheikh, the Spanish club is banned from European competitions for at least next season after failing to pay all of its players. Despite off-field issues, Malaga has ridden brilliant playmaker Isco through the most successful on-field stretch in the club’s history.
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Feb 06 2013
By Lenny Olsen Commentary, Football, Professional Sports

Is the Risk Worth the Reward?

A Tragic Death Reopens Safety Questions in the World of Sports

Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis was as passionate about the game of football as they come. Lewis’ passion was rewarded this Sunday with a Super Bowl title to finish out his career.

Caleb Moore, an athlete just like Lewis, was just as enthusiastic about his sport of snowmobiling. Tragically, Moore’s career ended in his untimely death on Thursday after a January 24th crash at the freestyle snowmobiling event at the Winter X Games in Aspen.

With so much recent talk about player safety in football, I think that Moore’s death, only the second in the 17-year history of the X Games, can shed some light on the ongoing debate as well as provide an interesting comparison between the two sports in terms of safety.

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Feb 04 2013
By Pat Curran Commentary, NFL, Professional Sports

Five Thoughts on the Spectacle That Was Super bowl XLVII

“THAT WAS [expletive] AWESOME!” – Joe “Elite” Flacco

Seriously, wow. Like many of my fellow football fans, I felt pretty ambivalent about the Super Bowl. On the American civic duty fun spectrum, it felt closer to “jury duty” than “Fourth of July barbeque.” (Yes, I tweeted that joke earlier. Sue me.)

It’s not that it lacked for storylines. There’s the Harbaugh brothers facing off on the game’s biggest stage. Ray Lewis’ last game. Kaepernick vs. Smith.

It’s just that I didn’t particularly care about any of these storylines. I have no unconditional love nor unrelenting hatred for either team, and the personalities involved weren’t interesting enough to draw me in on either side.

Then the game started.

The 34-31 Ravens victory was unbelievably entertaining even when it was a blowout (read: the first half), and it only got better with time. Let’s recap the best parts of the insanity that was Super Bowl XLVII.

1. The Blackout Has anything like this ever happened in a Super Bowl? From the hilarious awkwardness of the CBS TV crew to the hundreds of snark angles Twitter took to the situation (Bane, alcohol consumption, FEMA), the Great Blackout of 2013 was an all-around win for everyone except the Baltimore Ravens and the Superdome facilities staff.

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Jan 30 2013
By Lenny Olsen Baseball, Commentary, Professional Sports

For America’s National Pastime, a Shameful Past Is Still Present

Lance Armstrong’s story seems to be an all-time low in many regards — for cycling, for sports and even for morals. A man once seen as a legend and inspiration to so many (and who reminded everyone that they could persevere like he did through a series of popular wristbands), was exposed this past week as a repeated liar and cheater in admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs.

But my column this week is neither about Armstrong nor cycling, a sport whose sanctity took its knockout blow with Armstrong’s confession if not long before that. But rather, I’m focusing on recent developments in a sport whose sanctity has also been greatly affected by steroids and performance-enhancers – our national pastime.

Baseball hit the peak of its steroid era roughly a decade ago, but unfortunately the embarrassment brought to some of the game’s best sluggers (Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa to name a few) as well as the institution of suspensions for banned substances (which began in 2004) has only slowed but not eliminated steroid use.

This past week, in an exposé released by the little-known Miami New Times, a group of major leaguers were linked in connection to Biogenesis, a Miami-based anti-aging clinic.

San Francisco Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera, Washington Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez, Texas Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz, San Diego Padres catcher Yasmani Grandal and, most notably, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez (in addition to a handful of other athletes) were all revealed to have bought or acquired steroids, HGH and plenty of other substances banned by the MLB from the clinic.

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Jan 23 2013
By Lenny Olsen Commentary, Professional Sports, Tennis

Inspirational Sloane Stephens Becomes American Tennis Sensation Overnight

Without too much of an introduction, I’m Lenny Olsen and welcome to my blog this semester. I’ll be posting every Wednesday evening on whatever sports story or subject seems to catch my eye from the past week and put my own spin or analysis on it. While football is my truest love, my postings could range anywhere from trick-shot pool to the PBA, so be prepared for anything…

In a week in which the most-talked about people are two brothers (Jim and John Harbaugh) and a non-existent girlfriend (that of Heisman runner-up Manti Te’o), it is perhaps a 19 year-old girl from Florida who deserves the most attention.

That girl is tennis player Sloane Stephens, who just knocked off her childhood idol in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. That idol is of course ATP No. 3 Serena Williams, who had seemingly been playing in a league of her own since she stormed through Wimbledon last year.

Serena had lost one match since the 2012 French Open en route to winning Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Olympic Gold Medal in Women’s Singles. She was, to put it simply, expected to cruise to another title in Melbourne this month, but Stevens’ win ended those expectations and sent shockwaves around the tennis world.

One must of course speculate that had Serena not tweaked her back in the second set, she would have won. Serena lost a great deal of her signature power that had propelled her to such recent dominance and was clearly dealing with tremendous amounts of both pain and frustration on the court. But to Stephens’ credit, she took the opportunity in stride by going on the attack more often while continuing to display stellar defensive skills.

And as Stephens goes into her semi-final match against No. 1 Victoria Azarenka (her best Grand Slam result so far in her short career), she has gained the support of countless fans for reasons beyond being the only American left in the field.

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Oct 05 2012
1 Comment
By Mitchel Hochberg Baseball, Commentary, Professional Sports

Looking at the Playoffs Through the Lense of an Unfortunate Cubs Fan

The MLB Playoffs are getting underway, which of course means that my beloved Cubs aren’t playing baseball anymore. In fact, it’s been a long time since the Northsiders have gotten anywhere deep in the playoffs; since the turn of the century (well, I guess two turns ago), our presence deep into October has been a rare sight.

Here’s how one Cub fan reacts to this year’s postseason setup.

National League

Giants - The last time the Cubs won the World Series, the population of San Francisco was around 400,000, and the Giants were in New York. Since then, the Giants have won five World Series. They’re looking to add another.

Note: this is obviously not this year’s Cubs team. (Bleacher Report)

Reds - The Cubs used to be managed by Dusty Baker but parted ways with the manager who brought them within seven outs of the World Series for proven ‘winner’ Lou Piniella. Another shrewd move by Cubs management in the history of such a winning franchise.

Nats - This team has come into existence, moved cities—AND countries in the process—rebuilt, and won their division in 4/67ths of the time it has taken the Cubs to not make a World Series since 1945.

Braves - Baseball old-timer/veteran Chipper Jones is out for one last hoorah as he rounds the bases on his way home to retirement with this Braves team. That same baseball old-timer/veteran Chipper Jones was -64 years-old the last time the Cubs won the World Series.

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