The March 3, 2008 issue of Sports Illustrated

It's been a long time since I looked at a Sports Illustrated magazine. I picked up the March 3, 2008 issue today, and was surprised by how slender it seemed. Was it always 70 pages? Or have they decreased page count while keeping the price the same? Or worse, decreased page count and increased price?

Well, print magazines are having a hard time right now, as most people get all their info from the internet, and worse, from only one source, Wikipedia. Let me take Wikipedia on directly and tell people that that source should not be the first one you check. Anyone can make changes to any article, so you really don't know if you're getting the facts or lies.

Anyway, there were two interesting articles in this issue.

1) Abusive Fans in College Hoops
This article talks about the abusiveness in male college hoops - with fans swearing incessantly at players, holding up signs referencing criminal activity, etc. They didn't mention what happened to Alexis Hornbuckle of the Lady Vols a couple of years ago, when the Cameron Crazies at the Duke game taunted her because of a shoplifting conviction in her senior year as a high school student.

But abusive fans are not only in college. The pros are worse, the more so since it's the people close to the floor in the NBA - the ones who had to pay a lot of money to get those seats, and say, "I paid my ticket, I have a right to verbally abuse that guy. It's part of the game."

And of course in baseball, there's been a 3rd base coach beaten by two drunken fans bottles and stuff thrown at the players in the outfield, etc.

Then there's the loons who threatened that poor schmuck from the Chicago Cub audience a few years ago - he interfered with a live ball that gave a batter a 2nd chance to get a hit, and cost the Cubs the World Series - he got death threats from everybody!

2) The Road to Beijing - Olympic Town, Fort Benning, GA
This is a one page article about the Army Markmanship unit, and there's a picture of Sgt 1st Class Daryl Szarenski. It's the photo of Szarenski that irrited me. He's got a pair of glasses. One eye is magnified behind glass, the other eye is hidden behind a metal tab.

This is technology taking the skill out of sports!

Now, obviously, in the military technology is very important, and anything that can help a soldier take out an enemy quickly should be embraced whole-heartedly. But in sports, it's supposed to be about the athlete and their skill, not their equipment.

Yes, I know things are evolving all the time, like the polevault pole changing from wood to fibreglass, the surfboard changing from some humongous thing to a short thing that anyone can ride on, but there are some sports that really should not be interfered with.

I'm ambivalent about the "slap skates" as I think they're called. There was some fuss in the Winter Olymics 8 years ago, where Americans hadn't been using the slap skates, so couldn't get used to them in time, and so wanted them banned from competition, and those teams that were using the skates were saying, Hey, it's not our fault if you jumped on the band wagon late.

But, again, there are some sports that should not be interfered with.

And those are: archery, and pistol shooting.

Now, of course archery has been doing its technology thing for years, and I've never liked it. Basically, you've got these three little thingies, or "booms" on the bow - extending outward, so you line up your arrow with all these things, and let it go, and it's easier for it to hit the target.

Cheating!

That's not what archery is supposed to be about!

Then we've got pistol shooting. And now it looks like you can wear eyegear that magnifies your vision so you can see the target better. You can probaby even use a laser sight to put right on the target when you fire.

Cheating!

The skill is going, or has gone out of, these sports, to be replaced by only strength. As long as you've got the strength to hold up that bow with all the extra stuff hanging off of it, you'll score high. As long as you can hold your hand steady enough to sight with that laser dot, you'll score high.

Terrible!

2) The Road to Beijing - Olympic Town, Princeton, NJ
There's a photo on this page of the Printon rowing women, and it was a joy to see these athetic women, their slender bodies packed unashamedly with muscle. These are what women should like - no more ruler-thin arms and stick-like legs! Muscular (albeit not hyper-muscular!) is sexy.