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Image by Ingy The Wingy
Bury FC forward Andy Bishop signs autographs in front of the Surridge Sports Stand at Gigg Lane, home of Bury Football Club prior to the Bury vs. Accrington Stanley game. Saturday 2nd May 2009

Question by Hendrix: Whats the best or favorite piece of memorabilia that you own?
Whats the best or favorite piece of memorabilia that you own?

it can be anything from sports cards, autographs, used gear.. ect…

Best answer:

Answer by bgmcfn
Mark McGwire autographed baseball.

Give your answer to this question below!

P5025925


Image by Ingy The Wingy
Bury FC forward Andy Bishop signs autographs in front of the Surridge Sports Stand at Gigg Lane, home of Bury Football Club prior to the Bury vs. Accrington Stanley game. Saturday 2nd May 2009

Question by AmericaTheSuperpower: Is Tiger Woods the biggest hypocrite in sports?
He talks about wanting privacy in his life and being a private person, yet he has all these mega endorsement deals. There is nothing wrong with huge endorsement deals but you can’t expect privacy when you go around exposing yourself on tv and using your image to make money. How can you say you are a private person and expect privacy when you court publicity?

He gets uptight when everyone stares at him as if he is not comfortable with it, yet he is the one who creates this by signing these endorsment deals and exposing himself for everyone to see.

He also tries to act like he is more cultured and educated than the typical athlete, yet he marries a supermodel, curses loudly on TV and doesn’t have much time for fans. Nothing wrong with cursing or marrying a model or not signing autographs, but don’t try to act like an interesting, grateful, educated and cultured person because it smacks of hypocrisy.

Best answer:

Answer by Chuck P
I think he’s a person who is a good at golf. He has hang ups just like everyone else, try to give the poor guy some slack, how good do you think you would handle living under a micro scope?

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

102/365: 1983-1984


Image by bloody marty mix
Friday, 05 September 2008.

40 Years in 40 Days [ view the entire set ]
An examination and remembrance of a life at 40.

For the 40 days leading up to my 40th birthday, I intend to use my 365 Days project to document and remember my life and lay bare what defines me. 40 years, 40 qualities, 40 days.

Year 16: 1983-1984

In 1983, the Detroit Tigers had finished the season in second place in the American League, after a decade of mostly uninterrupted losing. I was convinced that 1984 was our year, and I devoted all my energies to making it happen. I was certain that the games required my attention in order to be won, so I was never far from a radio. When summer came, the screaming matches grew louder and more constant at home, and I retreated farther into my daily ritual. I would take two dimes down to the liquor store at the corner and purchase one copy each of the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News. Back in my room, I pored over the sports sections for any nugget of information or analysis I could find on the Tigers, and cut out the articles I wanted to save. When I was done, I would turn on the radio and await the start of the game.

Over the course of the season, I missed five games out of a total of 162. There was nothing more important to me. With things deteriorating quickly at home, I looked to baseball for something shiny, urgent, and reassuring. I cried when the Tigers lost, and I quietly celebrated when they won, having reaffirmed my belief that there was still something to hope for. When World Series tickets went on sale by lottery, my family put in orders for two games, not expecting to get either. We got both.

We sat in the right field, lower-deck area for game 4 of the World Series. It wasn’t the best vantage point, but Johnny Grubb tossed us a dirt-scuffed ball during warmups (later autographed). It all felt a little unreal. The atmosphere as we arrived the next day for Game 5 was so thickly charged, I could swear my skin was tingling. The Tigers were now 3-1 in the Series, and could win the whole thing that night. It had been grey and overcast all day, and I willed the rain away as hard as I could. We sat in the centerfield, upper-deck bleachers, while the crowed worked its way into a constant hum and buzz from the introduction of the lineups to the starting pitch. It never let up. Finally, in the top of the 9th, ace screwballer Willie Hernandez got Tony Gwynn to pop a gentle looper out to Larry Herndon in left field for the final out.

As soon as the ball hit Herndon’s glove, the stadium and the sky erupted. The long-delayed rain came down as the flashes popped. The players dogpiled each other on the infield, and the fans poured over the walls, unable to contain the need to celebrate with their heroes. In the outfield, people ripped up pieces of turf as souvenirs, tossing still more pieces up into the upper-deck for those unlucky enough not to be on the field. We caught a small piece, and tucked it away in a popcorn box to take home and plant in our yard. When we left the stadium, having been forced out at last by the ushers, we walked down Michigan Avenue to Lafayette Coney Island for some ritual post-game coney dogs.

I know what people saw in TV that night. I know about the overturned and burning squad car. I know about the supposed riots that have made Detroit references a running gag every time some ailing rustbelt city wins a championship. I make no excuses for that, but I was there, and that’s not what I saw. I saw a city celebrating the long-awaited arrival of good news (good news having being been hard to come by for many years). I saw an outpouring of joy and relief, generosity and brotherhood. As we walked Michigan Avenue, people greeted each other with tears and smiles, offering their hand to shake, and often giving their shoulders an "Aw, what the hell" shrug and going in for the full hug. It was clearly a mixed crowd. There were obviously wealthy people hugging obviously struggling folks. Old men bent over to shake the hands and pat the heads of young children. Black men and white men patted each other on the back, and said with a whistle, "Man, did you see that?" It didn’t matter who you were yesterday, or who you would be tomorrow. Today you were one people, united by a simple game, and a hope that, against all odds, you might see a little joy in this town again.

Who am I?

I am always sitting in those bleachers.

The seats in Tiger Stadium are long gone now. The team retired the old stadium and moved into a new concrete monstrosity down the road a piece. But, no matter where I sit in any ballpark, my mind and my heart are always in those centerfield, upper-deck bleachers, and the sky is always about to unleash the pent up frustrations and aspirations of everyone who looks to the game for respite from their complicated lives.

Old Tiger Stadium was a magical place. It was built high and closed-in, and when you sat in it, you couldn’t see anything around it. Only sky. It was like sitting in a bowl of baseball, and everything else just fell away. It could not have been more perfect for a city or a person who needed to escape for a few hours.

Moreover, the great swelling of the city’s heart, and the outpouring of genuine affection that followed the Series, profoundly moved me. If a game could do this, what other human connections might be possible? How many other arms outstretched could be met with handshakes? Might it be possible that disparate parties with disparate interests could find some peace? All the fighting and tension, in the world and at home, suddenly seemed incredibly unnecessary. I was so moved by the event, that I retold the story in my college interviews the following year. It remains one of the most formative moments in the development of my sense of community and connection, written across my heart in turf and rain and hugs from strangers.

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Question by ~Laurie~: What’s a good gift for a NFL sports fan that has everything?
Im stuck @ what to get my brother for Christmas. He is a HUGE baltimore ravens fan but already has every autographed picture/helmet/jersey you could ever want. I can’t afford game tickets for him.. what is another good gift option?
p.s tickets for ravens games are about $ 100 for one ticket ALONE. & thats upper seats

Best answer:

Answer by BillyBoy
Tickets are not the much. Check em out.

Add your own answer in the comments!

NASCAR is always accessable to it’s fans


Image by GSankary
One reason I really like the sport is the way they treat the fans.. interviews, autograph sessions, and when they’re in town, regular guys you can talk to. We ran into Biffle later in the club having a pop.. just chatted it up with him, that’s not going to happen with any NBA/MLB guys.

Question by jobees: An Australian woman who played a sport in Japan, was signing autographs to Japaness people?
What sport do you think she plays?
And how old do you think she be?
keep guessing the sport as no right answer yet
and she older

Best answer:

Answer by sαoяi oɀαωα™
Was she a sumo?

Add your own answer in the comments!

365 Project: Day 68


Image by mike_zellers

The End of An Era…RFK Stadium


Image by dbking
A ‘Final’ Farewell After So Many Others

By Marc Fisher
Sunday, September 23, 2007; C01

Today, the third and last time Phil Hochberg attends a "final game" at RFK Stadium, he won’t be working for the home team, as he did when the Senators split town, or wearing a tuxedo, as he did when the Redskins traded up to spiffier digs.

This time, when the Washington Nationals play their last game at RFK and the countdown toward inevitable demolition begins, Hochberg will be on hand as a fan to say goodbye to a building that has won little love, seen remarkably few great sports achievements and yet has somehow ginned up the kind of memories that stick with grown-up kids for all their days.

"There’s nothing pleasantly memorable about the stadium," says Hochberg, who landed the job of public-address announcer for the Senators when he was 21, in 1962, the first season for both that expansion team and what was then called D.C. Stadium. "It had no distinctive physical attributes. Nobody ever hit a ball out of the stadium. There was never a no-hitter. But there are great memories from the games themselves."

When the stadium opened in October 1961, an unimpressive crowd of 36,767 watched the Redskins lose to the New York Giants, 24-21 — the Skins’ 11th straight loss. Hard as it may be to imagine, The Washington Post’s reporter that day called the facility "magnificent." Fans oohed at the electronic message board featuring five lines of lights that could wish a kid a very public happy birthday. Critics aahed at the swooping roofline, so daringly modern, with lights embedded in the roof because the Fine Arts Commission, defenders of the capital’s skyline, nixed the idea of light towers.

The Senators being genetically incapable of success, no post-season baseball game was ever played at RFK. But two All-Star Games were staged there, in 1962 and 1969, and the Redskins played in four NFL championship games, in 1972, ’83, ’88 and ’92. But as fans reminisce, the memories have been less about shining moments in Skins or Senators history than about other events:

The Beatles played RFK on their final U.S. tour in 1966, drawing 32,000 fans; you could buy an upper-deck seat for . The Rolling Stones (appearing with Stevie Wonder) shook the place in a July 4th concert in 1972 that Mick Jagger later described as "pretty frightening and a bit weird . . . people sitting on the stage, grabbing at your legs, getting tangled in the mike cables." There were more than 60 arrests.

In the ’80s, when Washington had no baseball team, Cracker Jack sponsored an annual Old Timers game, and in 1982, the great Chicago White Sox shortstop Luke Appling hit a home run — at age 75, lifting the ball more than 250 feet off fellow Hall of Famer Warren Spahn, then 61.

RFK — the first and now the only survivor among the cookie-cutter stadiums whose awfulness led to the rash of retro-funky, Camden Yards-style ballparks built in the ’90s — sat mostly idle after the Senators moved to Texas in 1971. The U.S. Football League’s Federals, who played here for two summers in the ’80s, were so bad their owner called them "a bunch of trained gerbils." Federals quarterbacks threw a combined 65 interceptions but only 45 touchdowns.

The Washington Diplomats of the North American Soccer League — their cheerleaders were the Honeydips — lasted a bit longer, from 1974 to 1981, but, like today’s D.C. United soccer squad, struggled to attract fans. Despite one moment of glory, a 1979 game against the New York Cosmos that drew more than 50,000 fans, average attendance never topped 19,000.

The Nationals and the city will stage a farewell tribute today, but officially, the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission plans "to continue our relationship with D.C. United for next year and beyond," says spokesman Chinyere Hubbard. The contract with United — "our only tenant," Hubbard says — expires in December.

The city is scouting around for other events to book at RFK. Such as? "Nothing specific," Hubbard says. "We’re just looking." She says there are no immediate plans to blow up the stadium, but Mayor Adrian Fenty told me this year that he expects United to move to a smaller, soccer-only facility, at which point RFK would have a date with a pile of dynamite.

How will fans react to the end of an era? In 1971, as the Senators led the Yankees 7-5 in the ninth inning of the final game, fans poured onto the field and ripped out the turf. Washington forfeited the game, so the record book shows a 9-0 loss. In 1996, thousands grabbed fistfuls of grass after the Redskins won their final victory at RFK, beating Dallas, 37-10.

I’ll miss RFK’s pre-greed spaciousness, the luxurious legroom, friendly ushers, the relaxed policy about letting kids visit the big-money seats to seek player autographs. Above all, I’ll miss the RFK bounce, the sections that literally rock up and down when juiced fans start jumping.

The new stadium will surely be impressive (and expensive). It will have a scoreboard you can read. Better sightlines, a link to the city’s waterfront and the promise of a new entertainment district.

But RFK, rotting, neglected pit that it is, will grow to be magnificent in memories. For Hochberg, it will always be where he announced the first baseball game and the last football game. For countless kids, it will be the place where their father first took them to a game. For all of Washington, it will remain the place baseball abandoned and then, miraculously, the place to which it came home.

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The photographers personal memories of time spent at RFK:

1. The Human Rights Campaign’s "Equality Rocks" event in 2000. This concert event was a part of the Millinueum March for GLBT Rights.

"Equality Rocks: A Concert To Celebrate An Age Of Equality & Safety"

"Equality Rocks," a major concert featuring such superstar performers as Garth Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Melissa Etheridge, Anne Heche, George Michael, Rufus Wainwright, Kristen Johnston, Chaka Khan, Nathan Lane, k.d. lang, Queen Latifah, Kathy Najimy, Albita, Pet Shop Boys, will take place on Saturday, April 29, 2000, the eve of the Millennium March on Washington for Equality. The concert, to be held at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC, is being hosted by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the educational arm of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

In recent years, as the U.S. has repeatedly been shaken and appalled by the degree of violence and hatred unleashed by and at young people in this country, the HRC has continued to be deeply committed to fostering an atmosphere of respect for difference and basic human rights for all.

Equality Rocks is an effort to improve our basic standards of civility and understanding. The event’s organizers and performers hope to effectively address the climate in which long-term prejudice and bias is formed. The message of the concert is that people in every setting and institution have a responsibility to build a better nation for all young people.

Besides providing lots of entertainment, Equality Rocks will help the HRC Foundation continue its vital work into the next century. The concert will embody a dream of equality and safety for all people, and a world free of violence based on difference. It will also be a celebration fostering mutual respect and dignity, especially among young people, so they can dream their dreams, free of fear and violence.

The historic nature of the concert will be unprecedented in the United States. Never before have so many powerful and inspiring artists and performers come together to lend their support to the GLBT community and celebrate the dream of equality, safety, and fairness for all people. Through this event, HRC hopes to send a thoughtful and much needed message to America that it is time to end the senseless prejudice and violence that regularly tears at this country.

The concert is also a celebration of HRC’s work as the organization celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. HRC has always dreamed of a world in which difference is not just tolerated, but embraced and celebrated. Equality Rocks will give people an opportunity to dream, hope, and rock.

Equality Rocks is being produced by Elizabeth Birch, Executive Director, the Human Rights Campaign; Laurette Healey, President, Entertainment Marketing Associates; Bill Leopold, President, W.F. Leopold Management; Hilary Rosen, President, Recording Industry Association of America; and Lisa Sanderson, President and CEO, Red Strokes Entertainment. Ingrid Casares, CP Ventures, is also a producer.

Proceeds from the concert will benefit the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, a nonprofit corporation well known for its educational programs. The HRC Foundation will also provide a major grant to the Millennium March on Washington organization from the proceeds of the event.

2. Catching the only foul ball I’ve ever caught in my life while sitting in the Miller Lite Party suites in 2006 during a Nationals baseball game against Houston. Upon hearing the crack of the bat, I looked up and realized that the ball was headed straight for me. It hit the ledge approximately 5′ to my right and then bounced left into my hand on one bounce.