Category: sports history (Page 1 of 2)

Win A Private VIP Tour Of Fenway Park!

14 May, 2011 / Kat

The great team at Tickets for Charity has another giveaway for Boston Red Sox fans and baseball history buffs. By entering this contest, you could win a VIP tour of Fenway Park on May 25th. This tour involves features of the park not usually explored during routine tours of the historic venue. After your unique tour of America’s oldest ballpark, the Tickets for Charity crew will treat you to lunch.

To enter the giveaway, please click on this link. This contest runs until Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 6pm. A winner will be selected at random by Tickets For Charity.

Best of luck!

To learn more about my partnership with Tickets For Charity, read this earlier post. The organization sells popular sports and entertainment tickets and uses the profit to support a variety of charitable groups.

The Good, The Bad, and The QB: Why Did The Stereotype of the NFL Quarterback Decline?

4 February, 2011 / Kat

As I watched Ben Roethlisberger (he of a more unenviable last name spelling wise than my own maiden name) win the AFC championship game two Sundays ago, I wondered to myself, “what ever happened to the quarterback as hero?”

When I was growing up, the group of elite NFL quarterbacks included two men who promoted advocacy for two diseases that were woefully under funded at the time (cystic fibrosis and Krabbe’s disease), a law school student, and men who worked to be the face of a franchise and never would dream of leaving.

I am not saying they were saints (for example, Jim Kelly’s wife’s recent book shatters most of our good conceptions of Kelly thanks to his infidelities), but we were shielded from it while they played. Instead of talking about their most recent rape charge at a stoppage of play, they would talk about Boomer Esiason’s son’s progress as he battled cystic fibrosis, something Dan Marino did for the community, or Steve Young’s bar card. We only knew Joe Montana as Joe Cool, not the anti-social teammate who laughed at his tough-but-tiny teammate at Notre Dame, the one and only Rudy. We bought candles to support Kelly’s son Hunter as he battled a rare disorder. Drew Bledsoe was a good guy from Washington state, and John Elway made Colorado relevant beyond skiing. Quarterbacks weren’t bad – they were golden.

Battle of Comm Ave DVD Pre-Sale Begins Today

1 October, 2009 / Kat

If you've ever ridden the T, you know the Green Line is the most menancing thing in this poster. Screw being checked by a BC guy.

Just a quick note for those of you who were intrigued in my July interview with Rival Films’ Matt Fults on the Boston University-Boston College documentary, The Battle of Comm Ave. A pre-sale of the DVD begins today and ends on October 9. During this time, you can get the Director’s Cut DVD for half price, with free shipping. The DVD will ship November 1st.

The made-for-TV version – minus the Director’s Cut’s 32 minutes of extra footage – will air several times on NESN in November.

Even if you despise both BU and BC, you can never go wrong with supporting mainstream media coverage of college hockey, especially when the DVD is the price of one beer at an arena.

Five Questions With…Matt Fults of Rival Films (The Battle of Comm Ave.)

12 July, 2009 / Kat

The Boston College – Boston University hockey rivalry has been fought for approximately 91 years, and to some sports fans, it may be one of the best rivalries in all of college athletics. Geography is what makes the rivalry unique, since the two schools lie on the same street, on the same street car line, and in the same hockey conference.

Given that both BC and BU have combined to win the last two NCAA Division I Championships, their tradition-laced rivalry has started to receive additional national attention. Sure to add to this national spotlight will be the November release of The Battle of Comm Ave, a documentary on the rivalry by Utah-based Rival Films. The film will premiere on NESN, with an DVD release following. Rival Films’ Matt Fults agreed to answer some questions about the film, the company’s use of social media, and about his own favorite sports documentaries. Continue reading

Is the Sports Media Turning Shawn and Nastia Into the New Michelle and Tara?

24 March, 2009 / Kat

Shawn Johnson and Nastia Lukin at the 2008 Olympics

Two weeks ago, the Los Angeles Times published a pair of articles contrasting the current careers of U.S. gymnasts Shawn Johnson and Nastia Lukin. The Times spoke to the “graceful” Lukin about the three Marta Karolyi run training camps she has attended since the Beijing Olympics, and her agent about the offer she turned down from Dancing with the Stars. They then profiled a Dancing with the Stars rehearsal that Johnson, not necessarily renowned for her artistic ability as a gymnast, was participating in, quoted her mother as saying as Johnson never wants to leave the Left Coast, and mentioning that serious gymnastics training doesn’t seem to be in the cards at the moment.

The short, less artistic little kid looking to take advantage of her 15 minutes of Olympic provided fame. The lankier-only-by-comparison, more artistic, older teenager who looks to stay in the sport.

One would think we were back in 1998. Continue reading