I felt a little bit bored out there to be completely honest with you. You know, I tried at the end and stuff ... but it was too late. | | | | Roger Federer is ageless. Can you guess which year's Wimbledon this is?
(Jan Kruger/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “I felt a little bit bored out there to be completely honest with you. You know, I tried at the end and stuff ... but it was too late.”
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| | rantnrave:// Do sports and fans have a trust issue? One-third of fans surveyed for a new study said their “trust in the sport industry” fell in the last year. That study was conducted in BRITAIN but a poll of US fans might find similar results. Where can fans turn without being roped in by the cynicism sports has wrought? Can FIFA be trusted? Is it fair to compare the NFL to a 20th century tobacco company? Does the NCAA exploit student-athletes? Older generations fell in love with baseball for the love of the game, but do modern fans talk more about BRYCE HARPER's sweet swing or where he's going in free agency in 2018? Sport these days seems like it's more about transactions and contracts and prospects and drafts than the game itself. Fans are smarter, more in tune with how the game works on a business level and can watch any team they want, not just the one in their city. That's not lamenting the past. It's appreciating the modern era of fandom. But smarter fans are more critical and, probably, less trusting. That's the tradeoff. The more accessible athletes, execs and leagues are, the more chances we get to see past the facade and the more cynical we can become... The hype for LONZO BALL is real and so is the demand. He got a sellout for a SUMMER LEAGUE game. Then dropped a triple-double. Winning Summer League MVP is irrelevant but bringing out that many fans isn't. But how are the BIG BALLER BRAND shoes selling?... Enjoying SPORTS ILLUSTRATED's EATS vertical. Though not sure yet whether SI was savvy or sneaky to repurpose its NFL TWITTER account for it. Food is a huge part of the sports experience. What is a DODGERS game without a DODGER DOG or an SEC game without a pit stop at a BBQ joint? Devoting more time and space to it makes sense... JARED WYLLYS looks into the amateur baseball industrial complex. If you read THE ARM, you know the issues it can cause. Do the benefits outweigh the costs? Does it create exposure for players from unheralded areas? Or ask teenagers to pay too much to chase an unlikely dream? Both? | | | - Mike Vorkunov, curator |
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| | | mark mcgwire at fenway park |
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 | VQR |
| Kokpar and the Future of Kazakhstan. | | |
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 | Vice Sports |
| The road to MLB now goes through amateur baseball showcases run by organizations like Perfect Game. Sometimes they can be a boon for players. But are they worth it? | | |
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 | Bleacher Report |
| While the UFC was battling regulators, politicians and cable companies at home, Pride Fighting Championships was the dominant player in the space, featuring events equal parts ridiculous and sublime. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| Have you ever wondered why there were black bands painted around the posts at the World Cup in Argentina? One man went to Buenos Aires to find out. | | |
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 | ESPN |
| Why are Los Angeles and Paris the last two cities standing in an Olympic bid process that can be fraught with risk? Look no further than their respective mayors, Eric Garcetti and Anne Hidalgo, who have changed the game along the way. | | |
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 | The Athletic |
| That’s what happens if you do something enough — a job, relationship, hockey, drugs. It overtakes you. It becomes you. | | |
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 | Narratively |
| With strict rules, stiff competition and cash on the line, this is nothing like the breezy backyard ballgame you remember. | | |
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 | Messy Nessy Chic |
| Wimbledon today is known for showcasing the tennis talents of both male and female competitors, with household names ranging from Andy Murray to the Williams sisters to Marina Sharapova. It is astonishing to think that in in the tournament’s earlier days, women were expected to make a decent serve dressed in full-length skirts, corsets, and a bulky shirt: the ‘tennis whites’ of the time. It took some real champions to make a name for women in tennis… | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| Chaunté Lowe learned eight years after the 2008 Beijing Games that she had earned a bronze medal in the high jump. The news has been exhilarating and sobering. | | |
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 | Bloomberg |
| Bob Bowman, Major League Baseball's president of business and media, talks about the changing landscape of the game's audience, the challenge of courting millennials and how the league's experiment with a pay-one-price monthly pass seems to be working. He also talks about baseball's technology arm and why he can't get a decent meal in his office. Bowman is charged with overseeing revenue-generating and media rights activities across MLB's array of assets. | | |
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| | | josh hamilton at yankee stadium |
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 | Smithsonian Magazine |
| When hurricane-force winds suddenly struck the Bay, they swept more than 100 boaters into one of the worst sailing disasters in modern American history | | |
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 | The Washington Post |
| The Nationals outfielder enters the All-Star Game at the center of the sport, and unafraid to joust a bit with the media. | | |
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 | USA TODAY |
| NCAA Division I public universities are upping their spending on athletes and the facilities in which they compete. | | |
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 | Digiday |
| Adidas is using micro-influencers to drive sales throughout Europe. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by John McEnroe to discuss the current state of the New York Knicks (5:00), the parallels between basketball and tennis (11:14), tennis at the collegiate level (24:44), McEnroe's first Wimbledon (27:03), the infamous tantrums (35:25), growing the game of tennis (49:40), and the 1980 Wimbledon men's singles final (1:05:05). | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| He may not recognize Seinfeld, but baseball fans are getting to know Dodgers rookie Cody Bellinger as one of the game's new sluggers. | | |
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 | The Hardball Times |
| Eliminating the draft could be good for pretty much everybody. | | |
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 | The San Diego Union-Tribune |
| Tom Cushman, longtime columnist and sports editor in San Diego at the Evening Tribune and San Diego Union-Tribune, died Wednesday. He also was a columnist in Philadelphia. | | |
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| The Guardian |
| An army of volunteers help run the youth game in America, but a lack of professional oversight could be costing the game in the US future stars. | | |
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| Bleacher Report |
| Ken Griffey Jr. and a gang of six influential major leaguers on the past, present and still-bright future of America’s pastime. | | |
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 | YouTube |
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