The Thinking Man's Sports Reference

The source for all your sports philosophy and ethics discussions. From steroids to spousal abuse, we'll break down all the issues in sports that inspire some non-athletic thought. We're not picking winners, and we're not scouting the next LeBron James - this is your home for debating the ideas, ethics and morals that comprise today's professional sports landscape. For more on our mandate, see the very first post.

Welcome to Sports Philosophy 101

Hello, reader. You may know me as Kolsky, you may not know me at all. I'm here to make you aware that at this moment - the moment of the creation of this post, not your reading of it - a wonderful and exciting thing is happening. Sports fans and critics - of all shapes and sizes, all colors and creeds, etc. - now have a place to gather for their sports-related moral or philosophical quandaries. Welcome to the Thinking Man's Sports Reference. Bookmark it.

Here will reside a reference for any and all sports issues that fall under our purview. In the coming week or two I will be assembling a roster of regular contributors from various walks of life. We, both individually and as a group, will discuss any and all issues in sport that we feel have interesting philosophical or ethical implications.

The general rule (or the First Rule of Sports Philosophy, if you will) is that anything other than game or player analysis is eligible for discussion. In other words, we're not interested in your take on the foul call at the end of the NBA Finals, and we don't want to hear who should be playing in left field for the Cubbies. This is a place for analyzing the underlying aspects of sport, not the sports themselves.

Perhaps that falls short of completely explaining my intentions for this blog. To better illuminate you, I've prepared the following examples...

Good Sports Philosophy Topics

  1. Why MLB All-Star situation is a stupid clusterfuck. We could address the ridiculous voting (almost every AL winner will be a Red Sox or Yankee) or the ridiculous rule that every team must have an all-star representative.

  2. What does it say about America that White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen got more national attention (and criticism) for using the term "fucking fag" to describe an asshole reporter than Phillies pitcher Brett Myers did for publicly battering his wife? Because he did. And Myers was on the mound the day after his arrest.

  3. Why we should add instant replay to the important moments of every single professional sport. It was some of the World Cup players taking dives that led to penalty kicks that brought this issue to mind.

  4. Whether the fact that Kerry Wood's shoulder has no structural damage is a good thing for the Cubs or really just proof of the obvious structural damage to his psyche. This one's right on the cusp, but sports psychology fits the blog too; just as long as we don't start breaking down Wood's pitching mechanics.

  5. Whether a sports columnist ought to be on hand in pro clubhouses to "face the music" with the players and coaches he craps on in print. Obviously this idea was inspired by the Guillen v. Jay Mariotti fiasco. Yes, I think Jay's an asshole moron, but that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with this philosophical debate.

Bad Sports Philosophy Topics

  1. The Cubs on-field performance (or lack thereof). We will not debate how the Cubs (or any other team) might improve; we will not waste time criticizing Jim Hendry or Dusty Baker for on-field decisions or roster management. The "ownership must change to save the franchise" discussion is right on the cusp, but I think it's playable for now.

  2. Whether Jay-Z is really releasing another comeback album. This is not an entertainment blog. 'Nuff said.

  3. Deciphering the bizarre drafting habits of the Seattle SuperSonics. First of all, they are completely illegible. Second of all, this qualifies as discussion of basketball, not basketball philosophy. The principles of building a championship-level basketball team is, potentially, an eligible topic.

  4. Whether David "Big Papi" Ortiz is the best clutch hitter in baseball. Again, this is game talk, not philosophy talk, and there are more than enough Red Sox blogs to go around. You can go kiss some Big Papoose on one of them. And for the record, it's Joe Crede.

  5. Brazil's chances of winning the World Cup. If you don't get the credo yet, maybe just forget about it.

Hopefully we understand each other, because I expect you - yes, you the reader - to play an important part in this experience. If this blog is really to live up to its name, we will want to address any and all possible philosophical issues, and appropriately tag and catalog them such that folks can refer to us (after all, we are a reference) when they come up against a moral quagmire of the sporting kind.

Comment on our posts. Suggest potential topics. Hell, submit your own ideas (I'll accept TMSR submissions at funkinkolsky@yahoo.com). I'm completely open to handing a post over to a reader if he or she eloquently elaborates on a sports philosophy or ethics thought. In all honesty, you're just as qualified to discuss these issues as we are.

As far as the roster of regular contributors, we will freely post on things we find relevant, and we will attempt to keep our writings at reasonable length (by which I mean around 600 words or so). I'm also developing a plan for us to publish the occasional round table discussion between several of our regular writers, but the first of those is probably a little ways off.

Now that the mandate of this blog has been fully laid out - and I've exceeded my proposed length limit by hundreds of words - I'll yank the drawstring and close things up. I'm excited about what's happening here. I'm not sure it's a new field of sporting analysis, but I hope it's able to comprehensively address some issues in sports that are paid little mind in the major sports media.

Now I'm off to build my team. I leave you with the following quotable from Ozzie F. Kolsky, my new puppy: Grrrr... RUFF!

7 Comments:

  • At 11:11 AM, Blogger James said…

    I think the most important discussion involving NBA philosophy is whether or not the big man is becoming more and more obsolete by the rule changes, thus promoting Phoenix Suns type basketball. Dwayne Wade is great, but he is NOT Michael Jordan. Tony Parker is quick, but should he really be able to get to the basket that often? After watching the Mavs/Spurs Western Conference FINALS series (yeah, I said it) it appears to me that the move toward small ball is a must for teams to be successful, provided they can manage a way to secure a rebound or two. The ball in the hands of bigs just doesn't seem to be as effective as giving it to a perimeter slashers. Is this due to a lack of talented 7 footers or an influx of talented slahers. Thoughts?

     
  • At 4:53 PM, Blogger OGWiseman said…

    I would tend to agree with Shooey here, and to put a finer point on it, I would argue that it is the overwhelming athleticism of the smaller players that is MAKING the big man less important with time. That is, you have players (Kirilenko is a good example), who can never match up in terms of size, but they don't have to. They use quickness and leaping ability to ensure that big guys can't guard them, and to get rebounds that used to go to the big fellas. As an old coach of mine used to say, "you can't block out what you can't stay in front of, not matter how big you are."

     
  • At 5:30 PM, Blogger OGWiseman said…

    hey kolsky, is there any way you can set it up so I can do posts on here? I just thought of a good one but its not really a comment.

    owen

     
  • At 5:30 PM, Blogger OGWiseman said…

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  • At 5:31 PM, Blogger OGWiseman said…

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  • At 5:31 PM, Blogger OGWiseman said…

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  • At 5:34 PM, Blogger OGWiseman said…

    Also, I had one more thought about James' post. I think that at some point, of course, it will swing back and be more about big guys again. As more big guys acquire guard skills they will be able to do things on the outside no smaller guards can do. (e.g. Dirk)

    Owen

     

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