Sports Column

Buy Me a Drank: The Sports Editors’ Last Night on the Job

Sun Staff — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Meredith just spilled for the first time. It’s 9:15 p.m.

Black Friday Shopping: Contact Sport Gone Wrong

Danielle Schaub — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0500

In the wee hours of the morning, while the sun shone brightly on the other half of the world, a couple thousand Long Islanders sat in their cars in silent anticipation. The cars were neatly packed into a dark parking lot, every here and there one illuminated by the eerie glow of a lamppost. The fenders sat a little lower than usual in these first moments of the day after Thanksgiving, as most bellies were still stuffed to unusual dimensions with turkey and pumpkin pie. Floor mats were littered with the pages of a Wal-Mart flyer that had long been committed to the memory of every shopper. Visions of $69 digital cameras and $28 vacuums danced in their heads.

From Ivory Tower to Bullet-Proofed Mansion

Meredith Bennett-Smith — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0500

I woke up yesterday morning and sat bolt upright from the cushy, puke-green sofa in my living room I had fallen asleep on earlier that night (morning?). Something was definitely not right. I pulled the notes I was using to write a rather fabulous English essay (due in approximately three hours) from my face and took stock of my emotions.

What was this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach? Could it be that third helping of my Jersey cousins’ stuffing from Saturday afternoon, rising ominously up from the depths? Perhaps it was the caffeine pills — I mean tic-tacs — I’d been popping like an addict for the past nine hours?

Bringing Lynah Back

Mitchell Alva — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Standing in the middle of Section B as the final minutes ticked off Lynah’s scoreboard on both Friday and Saturday night, I felt a nostalgic electricity reverberating through the student sections that seeped its way around the rink. I imagined that Lynah Rink once bore witness to this contemporary anomaly every evening its famed and feared ice hockey team laced up their skates. Scenes of students shuffling on the wooden bleachers before 7 p.m., of chest painted diehards who brave the tundra-like conditions, of 60 minutes of nonstop enthusiasm from the Faithful and townies alike, and of a domination of our Hahvahd and Dartmouth rivals flooded my mind amid visions of seasons past.

Sanford Says: ‘NASCAR Is Not A Sport’

Harrison D. Sanford — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Let me ask you a question. If I was to, say, go out with one of my friends, race two cars around the neighborhood for 50 or 60 laps, would you call that a sport? How about if I did 200 laps? Or what if I got a small group of people to watch? And I promised to do a back flip after I win? Would you call that a sport? I thought you wouldn’t.

But for some reason, I am still trying to understand why people consider NASCAR an actual sport. For some reason, driving around for 500 laps or so earns some coverage in sports shows. Really? How about me? Can I get some coverage? Give me a nice ride with some horsepower and I can busy too.

McNabb Should Review the Rulebook

Matthew Manacher — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Are you ignorant, Donovan McNabb, or do you just like to propagate the stereotype that all football players are walking, talking meatheads? Why give more ammo to those who believe professional athletes were the kids who tried to fit the square block into the triangle hole back in preschool?

Following a 13-13 tie with the Cincinnati Bengals, McNabb explained to the media at Paul Brown Stadium that he was unaware an NFL game could end in a tie. Here is what a confused Mr. McNabb had to offer:

“I didn’t know that,” said McNabb. “I’ve never been part of a tie. I never even knew it was in the rule book. I was looking forward to getting the opportunity to get out there and try to drive to win the game. But unfortunately with the rules, we settled with a tie.”

Yes We Can ... Eat Fake Food

Danielle Schaub — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

“That organic eggplant hummus sandwich may be good for you, but it’s bad for our books” — warns a small sign sitting on the desk clusters in Mann library. My “ooh, yum” reaction might not be echoed by the person next to me, but neither of us find the sandwich to be anything out of the ordinary.

After all, this is a university well known for the diversity of foods available in our various dining locations. But beyond this cold and cloudy sphere we call the Cornell bubble, that sandwich order might elicit a very different response.

I used to spend my days in a different little upstate New York town, where the majority of people would read that sign and think, “a what sandwich?”

Bar Raised for Philly Teams

Yael Borofsky — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

“World Champions….World Fu…”

Just kidding. My editor (aka Cory) would have my head for quoting Chase Utley’s now infamous word choice that was blasted unexpectedly throughout Citizens Bank Park, the entire city of Philadelphia, and the Greater Philadelphia Area (if you don’t know what he said, you probably don’t watch ESPN nearly enough). Turns out he didn’t warn anyone he was going to drop the F-bomb.

Who would have guessed it? Certainly not the people who doubted the Phils would even make the postseason, let alone become World Series champions. Earlier in the year I admitted that the Tampa Bay Rays were my biggest fear in the postseason. I think I speak for all Philly fans when I say that it’s rare that our biggest fears and worst nightmares fail to come true.

Welcome Back, Coach Schafer

Mitchell Alva — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Never before has Cornell hockey opened a season in such dramatic fashion. Junior goalie Ben “Mr. 0” Scrivens turned away all 68 shots he faced this weekend to shutout both No. 9 Princeton and Quinnipiac. Yet Cornell managed just one goal on the road trip and the Red rode home with three points in perhaps its most difficult test of the year.

Sports President for a Day

Harrison D. Sanford — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

First and foremost, I’m feeling good right about now — presidential almost. It didn’t really set in until I talked to my mother Tuesday night. I haven’t heard my mother that joyous in a while, if ever. Even if Barack Obama doesn’t work out how everybody hopes and assumes he will, his election means so much in terms of how far we have come as African Americans and as America as a whole.

And for that alone, Tuesday was a great day in America.

But seeing as this is on the other side of the newspaper — which is the better side — I have to keep this column sports-related.

We Can't All Be Winners: An Ode to the 'Lovable Loser'

Meredith Bennett-Smith — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500

On Friday, I had a pretty spectacular night, I’m not going to lie. My costume was well planned and well executed (I was a member of the S.W.A.T team), my house threw a ridiculous party and no one got hurt. Halloween was shaping up to be epic — that is until I lost my wallet. Don’t ask me how it happened, especially since, I know, the party was at my own house. But somewhere between my bedroom and an ill-fated trip to College Town Pizza, my beloved wallet escaped me. I should preface this with two points. First, I do not own many possessions, so although to some of you the loss of a wallet may not seem like a big deal, to me, it was nothing short of tragedy. Second, there will eventually be a tie between my wallet woes and the wonderfully wide world of sports.

Still Costume-less? Baseball’s Got You Covered

Allie Perez — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

After a year of waiting (im)patiently, this day has finally come … IT’S HALLOWEEN!

As some of you faithful readers may remember, last Halloween I wrote a column with costume suggestions based on the NBA’s most intriguing characters. Now maybe I didn’t get my fill of baseball because I saw almost none of the postseason (I just died a little inside when I wrote that) or maybe it’s just that the weather conspired to keep baseball around longer for the express purpose of interfering with basketball season, but I’m not ready to say good bye and move on so quickly this year.

Calling Stevie Wonder: ‘Very Superstitious’

Danielle Schaub — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:33:04 -0400

Wearing a blue sweatshirt, you trudge your way up to campus for a prelim, stopping at CTB for a medium coffee. You add an inch of skim milk and a packet of natural sugar —nah, make that two. You finish the trek up to the test you’re going to bomb, give it your best not-good-enough shot and feel inadequate all the way back home.

A week later, you’re nervously peeking through two fingers at the tiny numbers scribbled on the front page and it hits you: shock, delight and triple check that you are in fact holding your exam. An A!

The Football Team’s Report Card

Matthew Manacher — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:52:48 -0400

Just as Charles Dickens authored A Tale of Two Cities, Cornell head coach Jim Knowles ’87 has penned A Tale of Two Seasons. A once promising season that started with an exciting victory over Bucknell, the Miracle at Lehigh and the homecoming triumph over Yale has turned as gray and gloomy as the late October Ithaca sky. With four games remaining on the 2008 docket, the Cornell football team (3-3, 1-2 Ivy) stands at .500 for the second time in two seasons. The final four contests present a great opportunity for the underclassmen to open some eyes this season and set the stage for next year.

Sunday Morning Ritual: Sports Are Sacred

Harrison D. Sanford — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

So you lay there, with your stomach in a knot, motionless. The calls from your roommates don’t even earn a coherent response from you. If you decide to say anything, it really wouldn’t matter because it all comes out sounding like a bad radio signal. To your roommates, you might as well have not said anything.

As you lay there in the warmth of your comforter, you try to assemble your Sunday hangover survival kit.

Your phone, if you get the power to turn over and find it, is a remnant of last night’s successes and losses. Full with texts that you didn’t want to see, texts you accidentally sent, texts you don’t even understand or a combination of all three. Your next move, you move your arm around the bed, hoping, almost begging the remote to be in arm’s reach.

Calling Mr. Torre...

Meredith Bennett-Smith — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Sometimes, when I’ve had way too many jumbo diet Red Bulls (a practice fondly referred to by sports department disciples as “riding the bull”), and far too few hours of sleep, I sit in my chair in front of the one remaining sports-designated computer that doesn’t periodically erase the work you’ve been doing for the past hour and fantasize about what it must be like to be a real-life, honest to God, sports reporter. Ah, that Holy Land of the wannabe journalist, an oasis of steady (though pathetic) paychecks, adrenaline-filled Friday nights and weekly interviews with Jimmy Rollins and Allen Iverson. Yes, I am a Philly fan, nice of you to notice.

Red Looks Crisp in Early Exhibition Test

Mitchell Alva — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

For the second consecutive year, the hockey team has opened its season with an exhibition tie. Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that it’s going to be a tale of two seasons.

Cornell opened last year against Trois-Rivieres, University of Ottawa, and RIT, three teams arguably far weaker than the U.S. Under-18 Development Team. Disappointingly, however, Cornell finished an unimpressive 1-1-1 in those three games, registering just one goal in two of those contests.

This year, though, with only one coach’s practice under its belt heading into Saturday’s contest, Cornell looked far sharper and somewhat more disciplined than it did for good chunks of last season.

Lovehandles & Football

Danielle Schaub — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Feeling a little like Simba before a herd of wildebeests, I spent homecoming pacing the strip of turf that separates the sidelined Cornell football players from the field. Aside from the fact that I was paid to be there and despite the obvious danger of stampede and trample, the sidelines are a spectating ideal. The rusty foldout chairs at the top of the crescent where the trustees almost stay dry and get free chocolates are far my spot’s inferior. Super Bowl XLII in high-def on a 64-inch flat screen didn’t even come close. The reason it’s the best place to watch football here is because you don’t have to rely on the game for entertainment, which can get pretty risky in this league. The horde of players bobbing up and down the sidelines provides most of the fun.

New York, New York: Tennis Teams Head to City for Break

Allie Perez — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

While many Cornell students will be gallivanting around New York City during Fall Break, the tennis teams will be making a trip of their own to the city that never sleeps after two idle weeks.

While the men’s team heads to the Dick Savitt Tennis Center to compete in the Columbia Invitational, which runs from tomorrow through Sunday, the women’s team will be in Flushing, Queens, for the Women’s College Tennis Invitational.

A Day in GM Manacher’s (Imaginary) Life

Matthew Manacher — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Last week, the New York Yankees re-signed their General Manager Brian Cashman to a new three-year contract. And, just like that, my dreams of being the New York Yankees GM vanished into thin air. If Cashman had not gotten that extension, I was poised to assume control of the player personnel decisions for the 26-time World Champion Yankees. Here’s what might have been a typical day if I were at the helm of the New York Yankees:

6:30 a.m. – I hit the snooze button; only suckers get up before seven.