much ado about . . . ?

Perpetuating stereotypes is nasty business. One of the more prevalent and damaging stereotypes in collegiate and professional sports in that of the criminalized African-American athlete. According to Kinesiology Professor Damion Thomas at the University of Maryland, “Images of black male athletes as aggressive and threatening ‘reinforce the criminalization of black men.’”...

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Sports Caster makes Garth songs References in report

Garth fans will love this also. I count 13 song referenc...

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Surprises!

I had a totally unexpected email yesterday. It seems that the lovely TB mare that we had here for a few months over autumn/winter last season that we sent home basically assuming empty (owners elected not to scan and as we had seen absolutely no action, we assumed that she had gone anoestrus by the time she arrived) was in fact in foal and produced a lovely filly on Friday...

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Weaning

Phew! Stages ONE and TWO complete. Kenzie was moved to the yards on Saturday morning and Bados was yarded next to her HOWEVER it seems that the 150cm yards were not quite high enough and Kenzie escaped over the top after jumping (from a standstill no less!) right in front of us (thankfully). So, a 30 odd cm electric tape was erected above the top rail to provide a visual barrier...

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Midnight Sun

Garth Fans will love th...

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A Brief Moment of Idiocy

I share this for the sake of entertainme...

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Ballpark construction, public culture, and public resources

In the current Sports Illustrated, S.L. Price, an SI writer and resident of DC, offers some thoughts on the soon-to-open Nationals Park. The park cost almost $675 million, 97 % of which (an absurdly high percentage compared with other ballpark deals) is public money. And the deal hands almost total control over the park, and all proceeds from tickets, parkings, concessions, and advertising signs, to the team. Everyone in DC government recognizes this was a terrible deal, particularly in the face of the district's underfunded and crumbling schools...

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Second Circuit Affirms Denial of Preliminary Injunction in MSG v. NHL Antitrust Lawsuit

Last fall on the blog, Marc Edelman discussed (here and here) the pending antitrust lawsuit brought by Madison Square Garden, L.P. (MSG), the parent company of the N.Y. Rangers, against the NHL. On November 2, 2007, the district court denied MSG's request for a preliminary injunction against the NHL’s effort to ban the Rangers from operating an independent website, holding that MSG had failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success or a sufficiently serious question going to the merits. Last week, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, in a summary...

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Holy Crap! Greenpeace just knocked on my door

HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!A lady from Greenpeace just knock at my door, asking if I could spare a minute, when I said no, she asked me Why I didn't like Greenpeace?How did they find out about me post on Greenpeace that quick?Good job I didn't write about Bin Laden....

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Why Greenpeace Sucks

Greenpeace must be the worst group on Earth, and I'm not saying that because of it's illegal and terrorist activities. I'm saying that, because it seems it only wants to help the furry cute animals from becoming wipe off the face of the earth.Greenpeace released a statement, condemning the good folk of Canada for clubbing baby seals in an orgy of violence that would make Caligula...

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Reilly's first ride at home

Can I just say how proud I am of my baby horse. He's just so mellow and calm and sweet tempered. I adore him even more today than I think I ever have. ...

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Congress and Sports

Daniel Libit of the Politico has an informative piece today that provides some highlights of Congress’ historic interest in sports (Timeline: Politicizing America's Pastimes, 3/25/08). Although Congress has recently focused its attention on issues that affect the "integrity of the game" such as steroids and videotaping of team signals, the bulk of its attention through the years (and where it has arguably had the most impact) has been in the antitrust arena. But did you know that, in 1912, Congress banned the interstate transfer of boxing fil...

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Reilly's Home!!

Nick and ReillyGavin and ReillyGavin and Reilly Me clambering aboard Gavin and Reilly The only pic Nick took of me riding!!! My baby is home!! I walked, trotted and even cantered him at Gavin's so am grinning from ear to ear! Such a good boy and so, so quiet! Can't wait to ride him again tomorrow. Nick only took a couple of photos of me, probably just as well as I am...

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England Win Series 2-1

Congrats to England for beating New Zealand 2-1 in the test series. England became only the 11th team in history to come back from being 1-0 down in a three match series, to win the series.Once again, it was the fault of New Zealand's senior batsman that cost the blackcaps. Players just didn't go on and turn 50's into hundreds, players also just didn't get anywhere near 50.There...

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Fleming's Test Legacy

For myself, the last two tests of Fleming's, has summed up his career perfectly. When New Zealand needed him to go and scored a big one, he didn't.Fleming a player who has managed to average 39 over a 100 Plus Test Match Career,has become a player that has averaged 40.His supporters in the Media and the Public who constantly rave on about how important he is to this Test...

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New Article on Recklessness

The tort standard of "recklessness" is essential in sports injury cases. At least until the Illinois Supreme Court's decision last month in Karas, the universal rule was that participants in contact sports could not recover for personal injuries from other participants for mere negligence. Instead, "recklessness" or "wanton and willful" misconduct was required. In some states, this limitation on liability is extended to all sports, not just contact sports (although, at least here in Ohio, not to potato-sack racing)One problem that has plagued...

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New Sports Law Scholarship

Recently published scholarship:Derek Marks, Casenote, One for twenty-five: the federal courts reverse a decision of the NFL’s disability board for the first time since 1993 in Jani v. Bert Bell/Pete Rozelle NFL Player Retirement Plan, 15 VILLANOVA SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT LAW JOURNAL 1 (2008)Jonathan M. Etkowicz, Comment, Professional athletes playing video games--the next prohibited “other activity?”, 15 VILLANOVA SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT LAW JOURNAL 65 (2008)William C. Martin, Comment, The graduate transfer rule: is the NCAA unnecessarily...

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NBA to Raise Minimum Age Limit to 20?

Over on ESPN's TrueHoop, Henry Abbott discusses my law review article Illegal Defense: The Irrational Economics of Banning High School Players from the NBA Draft. I also respond to Commissioner David Stern's recent comment that he hopes to raise the age floor for entry into the NBA to age 20, and to do so through the next round of collective bargaining with the Players' Association. Hope you have a chance to check out Henry's comments and my comments on these topics.Also, we know that our posts have been few and far between the last couple of...

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500 Runs in Two Days

Can the Blackcaps do the impossible? Can Fleming play the innings of the his career? Can New Zealand do it?The answer is...NO, of course not.There will be no miracle comeback for New Zealand, not in a zillion years.The only hope is for rain.Where is the Wizard, when you need h...

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Love and Freedom

There is no happiness without freedom. I know this absolutely. In order to be happy and fulfilled, people need the room to find themselves, pursue their dreams, and be exactly what they want to be.There is no happiness without love. It is in our natures as social beings to care for others and to want to be cared for in return. Infants deprived of human contact die in their cribs. Prisoners in isolation units lose their sanity. And it is the dream of many to find someone to share their lives with.Love and freedom often come into conflict. It can...

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NOT AGAIN!!!!!!

The Blackcaps batting once again collapsed, and have left England in a winning position after two days of the first test. How depressing. New Zealand looked in a great position thanks to 19 year old kid, Tim Southee, who got a fiver in his debut.Sidebottom tore thru our batsman taking seven, Bell fell cheaply, Fleming made a start, but didn't go on with it, noone stood up...

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Brent Buckman Syndrome

This post may be two years to late, but I feel I need to write about a certain syndrome in society, that I call "Brent Buckman syndrome". In 2006 Brent Buckman was a contestant in the fifth season of the apprentice. Never in the history of this show, has one person been treated so poorly.Brent was an overweight, 40 something lawyer with glasses, who became a scapegoat for...

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Supreme Court Grants Cert in 'Fleeting Expletive' Case

In a case that has application to sports broadcasters, the Supreme Court will hear an appeal involving the validity of the FCC's "fleeting expletive" standard for determining broadcast indecency. As I wrote in prior blogs (and in Sports Business Journal), the new standard -- which treats the accident airing of a single profanity as within the definition of indecency -- may...

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Calvin and Hobbes

How can one not be moved by the great Calvin and Hobbes. As a child, I was into the American Archie comic series, then I moved on to mad and cracked magazine, and that was it for my comic book tastes, until at 19, I was given a book titled Calvin and Hobbes.The genius of Bill Watterson can never be matched, he captures the innocence of childhood perfectly, for ten years he...

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Quick Hamish Update (new video at bottom of page)

Well the boy has had a good and bad season. Good because he got five lovely outside mares, bad because only the two who came prior to Christmas conceived, one mare was not bred due to injuring herself upon arrival and the last two just didn't conceive. Very frustrating for me as the stallion owner and for the mare owners so keen to have Hamish babies from their mares. Lovely...

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Are Steroids Ethically Good for Athletes?

Really interesting piece in Science Progress by Dr. Arthur Caplan, Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and the Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, on the ethics of steroids. In short, he argues that the commonly-endorsed logic of "steroids are evil" is at least partly misguided, if not altogether wrong. Here are some excerpts from...

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What Happens When a Video Game Gets a Player's Race Wrong?

Sports Law Blog reader Scott Timmerick checks in with an interesting question (between the asterisks):* * *I just started playing MLB 2K8 on PlayStation 2. Facing off against the great Tampa Bay Rays and their ace Scott Kazmir, seven innings later I found myself taking pitches from Gary Glover, a (understandably) unknown relief pitcher whose 5.00 career ERA has earned him...

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Ron White Rips into Garth Fans

You should always be able to make fun of yourself, here is a standup comic, ripping into Garth Brooks fa...

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Well Done England

Well done, England they have won the second test and tied the series, thanks to the brilliance of Sidebottom.Bring on the decid...

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Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much can be done if we are always doing.THOMAS JEFFER...

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Reality is no friend of the dreamer

Reality is no friend of the dreamerDreams it seems don't come true, as England is set to win the second test in an easy fashion.They just need four wickets on day five.It seems reality is no friend of the dreamer, you see when faced with an uphill battle, when face with the impossible, when faced with something historical, the Blackcaps folded at the start, showed no fight...

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Security and Freedom and Other Stuff

There are two impulses that run through the population. The first impulse is to be free from need or harm. The second impulse is to be free to do what you want to do. These impulses clash with one another.In the political realm, we see this conflict between libertarians and statists. Statists in both the Democratic and Republican parties always threaten people with real and perceived dangers in hopes they will exchange their freedoms for security. This is how we get the welfare/regulatory/police state we now enjoy in America.Libertarians point...

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Have the Blackcaps got a Hero?

Have the Blackcaps got a Hero? Have we got someone who will create Cricket History and go on to have a performance that people in 50 years will talk about? Will grown men be crying? Will cricketer writers all over the world, gasp and write about how this performance will never be matched in the history of the game?Will people talk about Botham's performance in 1981 and...

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Gordon Ramsay

I'm a huge fan of Gordon Ramsay, I think what he has done and what he is trying to acheive will never be match, my first impression of him though was very different.I remember watching a Documentary series years ago, which was on the opening of his first restaurant, and thinking who does this guy think he is? I was disgusted at the treatment of his staff and wished that...

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The Empire Strikes Back

Oh dear, Kiwi Cricket Hearts are Broken again.After celebrating a great test win, people's minds had already turned to a series victory, Unfortunately the English have other ideas, we are only into day two of the the second test and it seems almost certain that England will tie the series. Their batsmen piled on the runs to score 342 in the first innings, and New Zealand in...

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Consistency

The Second Test has Started, and England, Ended the Days play at 291/5. A great start for them, but they have a very short tail and it was only some poor Bowling by Mills and Martin that got them to that position. The Pitch had more in it for the Bowlers, than Hamilton, but unlike the first test, Mills and Martin failed to be Consistent.Consistency is the key, as the former...

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Sick Puppies-All the Same

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The Hated

As expected, my family has turned against me, and I am now out in the cold. And so it goes. . .My father has always hated me. I am a failure to him. Nothing I have ever done for him was good enough. To him, I am a worthless piece of shit. I made the mistake of being born, and he has never let me forget it.I don't want to be around that man ever again. I don't care to ever see him again. I do not want him in my life. I thought I could forgive, but I know I can't.I am at peace when I am not around him. I like myself again when I don't have to hear...

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