General

This Sporting Life

So Wayne went a bit crazy and put up fivecountemfive posts about what we can learn about sports, ethics, and life itself from the call that cost Galarraga a perfect game. Give them a read while you’re waiting for France-Uruguay to start, it’s all really interesting stuff.

And since you might have some time left over, why not read Declan Hill’s submission to the Council of Europe about how to save the soul of sport as we know it. Hill, you’ll recall, is the author of the acclaimed book The Fix. Acclaimed, that is, everywhere except the pages of the Globe and Mail, where John Doyle dismissed it as “lacking credibility”. Speaking of credibility, Doyle also believes that concern over diving in soccer is nothing more than a sign of North Americans’ “small notions about manliness and sportsmanship”.

Right. That would explain why, since 1999, FIFA and Uefa have been on anti-diving missions, with both organizations asserting unequivocally that diving is cheating. It’s because they are in the thrall of small-minded Don Cherries in North America.

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