Open Thread: What Is a Sport?

This is a question that Jay, Ben and I used to debate all the time on our sports talk radio show, "Double Overtime", on WBRS. It's also a question I debated with my co-workers yesterday. What is a sport? It's not a question just for water-cooler talk either: as Jay wrote a few weeks back, the courts have taken an interest in this question as well, especially pertaining to cheerleading (the courts said no in this instance).

Are these pictured the only real sports?

So while I think few would argue that the Major 4 sports (baseball, hockey, basketball and football) and probably soccer are sports, the rest seem up for debate. What are the criteria for being a sport? How would you define it (since the web definitions vary quite a bit) Can horse racing and car racing (like NASCAR) be considered sport since the actual physical exertion is non-human? Some people don't consider golf a sport but many others will argue with that.

Is the main requirement that ESPN covers it? So does that put poker in that category or is that more of a "game"? What about pool? Tennis? Ping pong? Beer pong? Flip cup? Darts? The hot dog eating contest? Cheerleading? Gymnastics? Chess? Boxing? Swimming? Wrestling? WWF wrestling? Strongest man competition? Or does it have to by in the Olympics to qualify as a sport?

The subject is open for debate and I'm curious your decision. Where do you draw a line? What is your definition of a "sport"? Let us know in the comments below.

Guest Post: Brandeis University In the Sweet 16

When I was a senior at Brandeis University, the school had a basketball team reach the NCAA tournament for the first time. The cool part about that was I was also the Sports Director of WBRS, the campus radio station, so myself and a group of WBRSers drove up to Bowdoin College in Maine to broadcast the games. It was a thrill I'll never forget and I still will sometimes listen to the play-by-play I did for the second game, one of the most thrilling I ever covered (even though the Judges lost at the very end). Since my senior year, it has changed from a chance that Brandeis would make the tournament to an expectation.

So this year when my Alma Mater men's team made it, I wasn't too surprised. But I was surprised to see them sweep through their tough road matches and end up in the Sweet 16. So tonight, when Brandeis plays in the Sweet 16, I will be listening in to WBRS to hear a new generation of sportscasters broadcast the game. One of those broadcasters will be the current WBRS Sports Director, Adam Rosen. Adam has done great things with the department including having them travel all across the country to broadcast games and increasing the popularity of the station. He will be heading up to Williamstown, Massachusetts tonight, but before he does he was kind enough to write a guest blog post for us about the game:
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The Brandeis men's team has been fascinating to cover this year. After losing their two best players last year to graduation (Steve DeLuca and Kevin Olson), I think everyone was cautiously optimistic about the team this year. They have surpassed most people’s expectations, coming into this weekend's game(s) at 21-6. They finished second place in the UAA with a 9-5 Conference record.

Brandeis is a team that relies very heavily on its seniors: Kenny Small (14.2ppg), Terrell Hollins (13.6ppg) and Andre Roberson (10.7ppg). Hollins in particular has been a beast all yearlong, also averaging 10.1 boards despite just his 6'4'' frame. Hollins and Small both made the All-UAA First Team.

The Judges have overcome quite a bit of adversity this year. Obviously losing DeLuca and Olson was big, but they also had various issues with recruits (One got homesick and left the school, another suffered a serious injury, I think there were a few other random occurrences), and on the last road trip of the season they lost their starting center and second-tallest player Rich Magee for the season with an ankle injury. Magee is not the most offensively-gifted player in the world, but provided a solid defensive presence, and more importantly, great senior leadership.

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Busted: The Steve Phillips Story

Sometimes we have guest posts. And sometimes we have awesome, laugh-out-loud funny guest posts. This is the latter. Bryan "The Dog" was with Jay and I on our sports talk radio show for WBRS, "Double Overtime". During my sophomore year, Bryan was the Freshman that did the overnight shift which followed Double OT. One day he showed up and was talking sports with us. The next year he became part of the sports department. He was the contrarian view. Bryan is a Red Sox/Mets fan (though not old enough to remember 1986, thankfully for his fragile mind). He's a Kings fan. He has a soul patch (or did...I haven't seen him in a while). He was easy to make fun of. And he laughed it off. It is that good sense of humor/knowledge of good insults that led him to give us this guest blog post/highly plausible conspiracy theory. Warning: while it may make you laugh, it does reference Steve Phillips' penis, John Kruk's testicle, and a fake mustache. One needs to be forewarned of such things. Without further ado, here's the guest post by Bryan "The Dog" (image courtesy of The Big Lead):

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A tale of seduction, deception, scandal, and “Really? Her?”

Well, at least we get some more insight into how the Mets traded away Jason Bay and acquired Mo Vaughn. Steve Phillips will never be remembered for his good judgment, and recent events don’t speak to the contrary. Phillips, ESPN Analyst and former New York Mets General Manager, was recently suspended by the network (even though he discovered David Wright) for the scandal associated with an extramarital affair with a twenty-two year old production assistant. However, there is more to this story than a mere quickie with an ESPN staffer. Now, perhaps Phillips merely wanted a woman whom he could pass off as his son if he got caught, or Bill Belichick and him have a bet going to see how can sleep with the most women working in the sports, assuming Phillips thought that if he traded quality, he could boost his quantity quickly. Harold Reynolds sure as hell isn’t hugging her.

Nonetheless, these are idle quips; I have no interest in angering this young lady if she may stumble upon this post (you won’t see me signing my full name to this post…). Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and I believe that goes doubly so when the woman scorned is reportedly batshit crazy. Be it the Facebook friending of Phillips the younger to grill him for family information, or the car accident inducing letter drop off (she drove into a pole during her getaway), Steve Phillips has engulfed himself in a story for the ages, one that plays like a Hitchcock film. The woman, Brooke Hundley, in a letter dropped off for Phillips’s wife, displayed uncomfortable amount of detail regarding their children’s daily activities, told the Mrs. that the Catholic Church will understand if she gets a divorce so her and Steve can be together, and graphically described birthmarks on Phillips’s crotch (much to all of our chagrin) to prove her story. Additionally, Hundley called and left voicemails and sent texts to members of the family, finally prompting police involvement, Mrs. Phillips filing for divorce, and ESPN, ultra-sensitive to these issues, having no choice but to suspend Steve Phillips.

Yet in every great film noir, the love affair is only half of the story. The other part of the tale deals with the evil mustachioed man behind the scenes, pulling the strings in order to effectuate his wicked plan. Enter that mustachioed rogue (even if it was a fake mustache). In this story, our villainous scoundrel may be none other than the once-disguised Bobby Valentine, former New York Mets and Chiba Lotte Marines manager. Phillips and Valentine’s tenuous, if not volatile, relationship in the New York Mets organization ended unceremoniously after the 2002 season when Phillips fired Valentine after leading the team to a 75-86 5th place finish in the NL East. There was clearly no love lost between the two. Nonetheless, ESPN signed Valentine to do playoff baseball on Baseball Tonight when the Marines made it clear that they would not be bringing Valentine back for the 2010 season. Valentine, a former ESPN analyst, would be returning to the United States, and could work for ESPN before committing to managing a MLB team. And ESPN loves Bobby Valentine. However, this raised a certain dilemma for ESPN, who would have the two archrivals both signed on to work together on the same show, potentially cutting out the regulars of Peter Gammons, Tim Kurkjian, Buster Olney, Orestes Estrada, Eric Young, and Dave Winfield from the show even more often (sadly, John Kruk isn’t going anywhere), and making the room more awkward than when Kruk brings up his one testicle.

Enter ESPN’s escape clause. By using the affair as an excuse to suspend Phillips, for a situation where he is actually the victim, ESPN is able to slot Valentine in until the end of the playoffs, when he will undoubtedly be picked up by a major league team. At that point, they can reinstate Phillips, avoiding the mess they’ve gotten themselves into while not losing an analyst for good, as happened when they felt they needed to fire a skilled analyst in Harold Reynolds. The MLB network isn’t complaining. So like a true evil genius, Bobby Valentine has benefited from Phillips’s mistake, and in turn gotten his revenge on the man who fired him so many years ago. Not by some outright plan, but by subtly slotting himself into the job that Phillips loved oh-so-much and taking advantage of his enemy when he’s down. Beware the mustachioed gentleman.

WBRS honors Nelson Figueroa

The Sports Department at WBRS 100.1 FM -- the official radio station of Brandeis University -- recently conducted an exclusive interview of former Judges pitcher Nelson Figueroa after Brandeis retired his No. 2 jersey, as we previously covered here.

This occasion is exciting for so many reasons. Obviously, the ceremony itself was important because it recognized the most successful baseball player in Brandeis history. Figueroa was, after all, the school's first major leaguer. His recent success on the New York Mets, in particular, has helped put Brandeis Athletics on the map. I imagine I was not the only person who was bombarded by text messages after the Mets' SNY broadcast team of Gary Cohen, Keith Hernandez, and Ron Darling talked about Figueroa's college years at Brandeis!

Also, and perhaps most importantly, this ceremony underscored how unique Figueroa is among major leaguers. We hear too much about the Milton Bradleys and Gary Sheffields of the game - men who are talented but selfish and can't seem to shake the chip on their shoulder. They take a lot from the game - fame and fortune, most often - but give little back to the people who got them to that level. But here we have Nelson Figueroa. He may not be as rich or talented or successful as A-Rod or Barry Bonds, but would those guys return to their Division III alma mater to take photos wearing a not-for-profit radio station's giveaway t-shirt?



No, they would not. Figueroa did. Whether he's at Citi Field or the Shapiro Campus Center, he is willing and happy to give (a considerable amount) of his time to aspiring collegiate journalists. That generosity and warmth cannot be overstated. He's a unique professional athlete in this era, so let's not applaud him just because he went to Brandeis. Let's also recognize him for the positive example he sets for his peers.

Finally, I think Figueroa's celebration -- or should I say the celebration of Figueroa -- is important because it shows how "minor league" sports journalism can achieve big things if the people working in those trenches are persistent. I see Nelson standing in front of those stacks of CDs and LPs -- the same stacks that surrounded Andrew, Ben, and I when we used to broadcast our sports talk show as Brandeis undergrads in the wee hours of the morning -- and I am excited to see how much the WBRS Sports Department has accomplished.

As a member of that department, I once attended a Celtics practice at their facility in Waltham. I leafed through a press packet next to Jackie MacMullan and I got to interview Delonte West. We got Jayson Stark to record a "You're listening to WBRS 100.1 FM, Waltham" promo. But we never got a pro athlete to come to our studios. Nelson Figueroa came to our studios. That day was a great day for WBRS, and for all college radio stations, newspapers, and blogs. Despite the endless and often overwhelming presence of ESPN, Fox Sports, and RSNs such as YES and NESN, here's to the little guys. Here is to WBRS and No, You're a Towel.

A Look At Citi Field

At Brandeis I was part of the student radio station, WBRS. My senior year I became sports director of the radio station and I've made sure to listen in and keep in touch since I left. So it was really cool seeing these videos of some WBRS sports members on the field at Citi/Taxpayer Field and interviewing Brandeis alum, Nelson Figueroa, on the WBRS website. Since then Figueroa has been designated for assignment in favor of Casey Fossum and his wife wrote about how upset he is on the family's blog...but we still have some Brandeis pride there. Now to the videos: