Would you accept being the star of an event but get nothing except television appearance to show for it? Would you accept it if you were twelve?

Dan Wetzel has more on the little league which pays it’s stars nothing:

Little League is a Big League business and gets bigger each and every year, thanks to the increased national television coverage from ESPN and ABC, which has driven up not just rights fees but corporate sponsorships, stadium advertising and ancillary income …

… The Little League World Series is so big business that its championship game will go by the name “Little League World Series: World Championship presented by Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes.”

Would it be too much asking the cash rich MNC’s to give the real stars some of the share? I agree with Wetzel who feels the kids should get some share of the money little league develops. After all, the concept would produce no returns were it not for the little leaguers themselves.

[Link via email from Dhoomk2]

I always wanted to watch Abbott and Costello’s most famous comedy routine. Watching a re-run of Rainman (a movie in which it is mentioned many times) was a helpful reminder for this.

It is hilarious the first time. You can watch it again and again though, even if you have watched it before. A classic.

[The complete text of the routine can be read here.]

Barry bonds is in the news again. I didn’t care. Neither do you I am sure. The reason is not because you may not be an American and thus not interested in a lot of what goes on in US sports. Even Americans don’t care as this poll shows. [Via Blogcritics]

The Barry Bonds don’t care maybe due to the constant over coverage in the media during his home run chase. Each time Bonds hit a home run, ESPN cut regular programming to cover it. The result was that people went numb when they heard the words Barry Bonds. The senses system told them - shut every thing or your brains will burst.

We saw some thing similar in India not long ago during the Ganguly-Chappell controversy. First, people were either in favour of Ganguly or Chappell. The issue dragged and the media dragged it along. By the end, people didn’t care any more. They just wanted to hear no more of the Ganguly-Chappell issue. Tendulkar is back once again in the Indian team. Got the don’t care feeling? I guessed so.

Constant repitition maybe cause this numbness. For example, how many of you got excited when Roger Federer won Wimbledon again this year? Even against a promising Nadal, most people new Federer had little chance of losing. Had the opponent in the final been some one else, the Wimbledon final would have recieved much lower television ratings. The don’t care phenomena would have been much more evident.

Some how, flawed geniuses excite us and help us avoid the don’t care phenomena. So, a Kobe Bryant will never fail to bore us. One day, he scores truck loads of points and we can’t get enough of his talent. The next day, we wonder if he failed. Breaks in successful performances avoids repitions. Would we have got as excited for the second Jordan three peat had he not had the gap to try baseball despite scenario in which he achieved the second three peat very different?

We care about our sports but only that much and no more. For, the don’t care stage isn’t too far off.

Update: Read Ravi Gurnani’s flawed sporting idols here.

Three recent pieces of info in recent times leave me quite amazed.

Firstly, some thing Amit Varma pointed out a few days ago:

Not long ago, when the BCCI tried to get mobile companies to stop sending cricket scores as SMS updates to their users, I had a hearty laugh. Did these chaps actually believe that they owned cricket scores? It seemed evident that once these scores were in the public domain, anyone could use them in any way they wanted… Later, there were murmurs about them trying to get Cricinfo to stop ball-by-ball commentary…

A case between a St. Louis company and the internet arm of MLB over the legality of using player names and fantasy league stats is also quoted from The NY Times which shows such matters do not exist only in India.

(more…)

The 8-6 defeat Canada inflicted on the US in the inaugral World Baseball Classic surprised many. A group of minor leaguers defeated MLB stars. Quite a shock for the US.

The World Baseball Classic is the first international tournament whete MLB players are taking part. 16 countries are divided into groups of 4 each. Even the Nippon Professional Baseball league players are taking part.

The US needs a victory over South Africa now to still have control over its destiny. Else they would hope for Mexico to lose one of its games. Now would US really want to depend upon junior Mexico?

When the Soviet Union defeated the US in basketball (with Arvidas Sabonis playing the key role) albeit under tremendous controversy, there were shockwaves. Basketball has become a much more global game since then. The draft last year had Andrew Bogut, an Australian as number 1 pick for the first time. The World Baseball Classic will certainly help in the improvement of baseball in the countries which are participating. In time it can develop as the real world cup of baseball.

I am lucky that I have been exposed to baseball fairly more than most Indians very early. The first introductions came while playing a video game on media which I loved. It helped me get familiarised with the rules. Then went on to the best sports shop in our city at around the age of 11-12, bought a baseball bat and ball.

In the cubs (the junior form of scouts which I later joined) group in our school, we had cool ‘brothers’ who were adaptive as well. We played baseball a few days, the only time I have had experience of playing the sport in the evenings, in the night camping in school. Great days camping during holidays in school as a kid.

Okay coming back to the topic, the point is I like baseball like I do many other sports. It has got its own appeal, own specific skills required. With cable, internet and more advanced EA sports games, I understood baseball more. I would watch a live baseball game on tv as I would watch most other live sports.

The thing is cricket is unique, has far more variations than any other sport, why just compare with baseball. While every sport looks to eliminate the inconsistencies of nature, like the same court in basketball, switching of court sides in tennis, change of tennis balls after specific number of games, playing indoors - basically bringing in uniformity, cricket does the opposite.

In cricket, you have the pitch which consistently deterioates(Far less now than on uncovered wickets). The ball becomes old. (The changing of balls after 80 overs was not always there), the batsman can face a full toss or a ball on bounce, and millions of other intricacies.

Test cricket - as it originally was spanning a time (if you notice, the earlier innings were counted on minutes, the concept of counting balls only came in after advent of one day cricket), not uniform (australia and england having different rules for eg the aussie 8 ball over) and stuff makes it a unique sport. It is completely contrasting when you compare with other sports.

Now in the past 25-30 years we have had some uniformity but if you watch two simultaneous live test matches, one in australia, one in the subcontinent, you will think you are watching a different game.

Test cricket is from another age. It is less remixed than any other sport. We have the remix in the one dayers and the Martin Crowe Max cricket and now the twenty20 cricket and the double wicket tournaments and the sixes and the super 8s and stuff.

But cricket is more uncertain, has more aspects than any other game.

I LOVE playing basketball and I have had fun playing baseball and football is such a simple beautiful game (it has its own charm) but never can any thing replace the joy of bowling leg spinners for me. Some other craft for some one else may carry the same fondness.

Every sport, every game has its own aspects. Even the recent twenty20 cricket requires specific skills. I refer to it as different as it is so contrasting to the original test cricket. We can enjoy them all.

Basketball is my other love for its own reasons. It carries a passion in me like rugby does in some people. But there is no denying the uniqueness of cricket compared to baseball, tennis, basketball or any other sport.