What's Right About
Sports:
User Comments, Part
III
Posted: Mon August 10, 1998
This is the final sample of your responses to Sports
Illustrated's list of
What's Right About
Sports.
Walking up to Camden Yards and gasping every time I see the
field—and I'm a season-ticket holder.
Talkin' baseball with baseball fans when I don't even know
their
names. The beauty of
baseball as seen through a camera
lens.
—Kim Jackson, Arlington,
Va.
The smell of the pines and magnolias on the 15th fairway at
Augusta
National.
—Noel Barrett,
Atlanta
The first Thursday and Friday of the NCAA
tournament. School pride, and the rush of knowing that big schools and
small have an equal chance of being shown the
exit.
—Fred Vaughn, St. Paul,
Minn.
Kissing your date after every score by the Texas A&M
football
team.
—Stavros A. Megas, Nederland,
Texas
The Swamp—Florida Field—in
Gainesville. The toughest place to play in sports, period. It is hot,
humid and loud with 85,000-plus people there with nothing
better to do than cheer the Gators on! Just ask Bobby
Bowden.
—David Jones, Tampa,
Fla.
What's good:
Watching the
opposing
coach at my nephew's peewee baseball game
stop play to help my nephew position himself
better to field the
ball.
What's bad: Watching the opposing fans boo their coach for
doing
it.
—Scott Robey, Frankfort,
Ind.
Mid- to small-size Division I basketball
programs, like University of the Pacific,
which compete successfully on limited
budgets. These schools are what college athletics are supposed to
be about. Students go to school and graduate on time with
degrees (like Michael Olowokandi in civil engineering).
Clean programs with no
probation.
—Arthur Cummings, Tracy,
Calif.
The ivy of Wrigley
Field and
the fountains of Kauffman
Stadium.
—Mark Zillman, Kansas City,
Mo.
Brooks
Robinson. Not only one of the best (maybe
the best) third basemen ever to play the game of baseball, but
also one of the best autograph signers and one of the
friendliest men
alive.
—Mark Konstans, Aberdeen,
Md.
Dennis Rodman's
hustle, not his hair. And
fighting for the puck in the
corners!
—Mike Bauer, Orange,
Calif.
In-car cameras for
races. Just how
does it feel to wreck at over 150 miles an
hour?
—Scutter Lowe, Harrisonburg,
Va.
Listening to the sounds of a
game. The crack of the bat. A puck off the glass. The collective
groan of a crowd.
Swish.
—Rob Sheinfeld,
Toronto
Sitting in a 10,000-seat Triple-A ballpark on a warm summer
night, watching a thrilling game being played on
emerald-green grass, cheering wonderful plays on both
sides, and all the while
sitting 10 rows up from the dugout for $9
Canadian (about 89 cents U.S. these days).
Ecstasy.
—Norm King, Ottawa,
Ontario
How a real receiver deals with coming across the middle:
You know that you're going to take a hit so you might as
well catch the damn ball
anyway.
—Robert Fedoruk, Winnipeg,
Manitoba
Game-ending home
runs. Call me biased, but there have been few more beautiful
sights on a baseball field than Joe Carter leaping around
the bases in 1993. Every kid who ever called himself a
baseball fan has dreamed of hitting a homer like
that.
—Chad Lucas, Sackville, Nova
Scotia
The smile on a kid's face after making his or her first
pass, catch and/or
goal.
—Mark Flood, Athens,
Ontario
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