The 1956 SI Sportsman of the Year was an Olympic sprinter you’ve never heard of, Joel

MC-I’ll bet SI wouldn’t want us to bring this injustice up! Didn’t Mantle win something called the Hickock Belt for Athlete of the year.  Do they even award this anymore? If not do you know when that award ended and why?

Also, do you remember Sport magazine?  How many years ago did they go out of business? They used to give the WS MVP a corvette as I recall.

The Hickok belt was discontinued in 1976.

Sport Magazine ceased publication in August 2000.

The only Hickock Belt winner that I remember OTTOMH is Phil Rizutto in 1950.  Don’t know who handed it out, when they stopped awarding it, or why.  I’m sure a little googling will clear that up.

I’ve been told that SI used to be a lot more focused on amateur sports in its early years.  Track men took three of the first five Sportsman of the Year awards.  1956 was only the third year of the award’s existence.  They probably didn’t want to go with a baseball player for a second consecutive year (Johnny Podres had won in 1955).

Tigers Woods had this award in the bag until he ended up in a high speed police chase that resulted him crashing into a fire hydrant that was, at the time, being used to put out an orphanage that was on fire with 1,001 orphans trapped inside. At least that’s what I read.

I reference the previous thread:  MC, you really scuffled to explain how the two words became interchangeable.

I would like to see a definition of scuffle as “to have difficulty accomplishing a task,” with its etymology.

j, you forgot that he was getting road head from a hooker at the time of the crash.

I don’t care who wins it, but…

Sherman:

Alex Rodriguez should be the Sportsman of the Year. Before you hit me with how that title should go to someone who embodies the best in sports let’s remember that both Pete Rose and Mark McGwire have won the award, and before long we might remember that Tiger Woods has won twice.

Jeter had a brilliant year in which he became the all-time Yankees’ hit leader while remaining a high-level star who wears his pinstripes well on and off the field.

But sports are publicly messier these days, and we should not run away from that. Heck, the initial broken story on Rodriguez’s steroid use was published by Sports Illustrated. He also touches on the advancement of sports medicine as he came back successfully from significant hip surgery months after undergoing the operation. And he was again a great player, this time finally in the postseason, as well.

In the end, A-Rod offers a story of second chances and redemption. He was a better teammate and was rewarded with the most positive feedback yet as a person while scoring that elusive championship.

Rodriguez does not offer a life well-lived as much as a fascinating life. Sports in 2009 are no longer just about the games, and Rodriguez touches on so many of those other important elements while remaining a unique athlete.

[...]

And why is Jeter more the Sportsman of the Year than Mariano Rivera? Rivera reached an important career milestone (500 saves) in a season that would rank as good as any he has ever had and then was – yet again – a difference maker in the postseason. He gets no points for this, but he also turned 40 on Sunday.

At Rock N Roll HOF concert on HBO when Metallica was playing Enter Sandman they had footage of Mo coming in and striking guys out.

[4]
Isn’t Tiger Woods a long-retired baseball player?  As far as I can tell, he seems to spend most of his time on the golf course.

[4] Tiger was never really in the running this year was he?  First of all, he didn’t win any majors.  Second, if they’re going to make someone a three-time winner when nobody else has ever won more than once, he’d better do something really impressive.  Like at least getting head from a hooker without crashing the SUV into a fire hydrant.

[5] Whatever Froggie.  Point is, I’m pretty sure the (mis-)usage long-predates Torre.

[10] You took my joke way too seriously.

[5, 10] Repost from last thread:

I want to put in a vote here for “scuffling,” especially for pitchers. As MC said, a “scuffle” means a struggle between two parties, whereas “struggles” can be internal. But “scuffling” here also gives us a visual image of the pitcher kicking at the rubber out of neurosis or frustration. I think it’s quite perfect actually, just maybe not for a batter. If it wasn’t for misusing language, we wouldn’t have, you know, language.

[12] Language changes. In a few years, “to scuffle” meaning an internal struggle, if it continues to stick, will be in the dictionary. People will be discussing new misuses that will themselves become standard in the future.

More importantly, what do you think actually happened to Tiger? I thought it was something alcohol related, but the news sources all seem to be alleging domestic violence - his wife beats him up?

Internal struggle?  So IOW, scuffle = jihad?  Just not in the commonly mis-used sense of jihad, of course.

Guess I need to post this here too:

”  3. a. intr. To struggle through, on, along; hence, to go hurriedly and superficially (through or over some operation).
1784 COWPER Tiroc. 340 The rude will scuffle through with ease enough, Great schools suit best the sturdy and the rough. 1844 H. STEPHENS Book of Farm II. 218 They are usually scuffled over in the morning with the currycomb. 1844 THACKERAY in Punch VII. 83/2 Scuffling through our blessed meals, that we may be early on the road. 1885 J. RUNCIMAN Skippers & Sh. 235 You go to school and scuffle on the best way you can.

  b. To survive with difficulty, to make a bare living by uncongenial or degrading means. slang (chiefly U.S.).
1939 W. HOBSON Amer. Jazz Music (1940) 173 At the bottom of the economic pile are those musicians who have nothing which could accurately be called a job but are taking whatever one-night stand happens along; this is called ‘scuffling’. 1956 S. LONGSTREET Real Jazz Old & New xviii. 147 Scuffle is to get by. 1956 M. STEARNS Story of Jazz (1957) xvii. 212 The Basie band was scuffling. ‘It was a cracker town but a happy time,’ Basie recalls. 1961 RIGNEY & SMITH Real Bohemia p. xvi, Scuffle, to live by one’s wits, not by a gig. 1972 T. KOCHMAN Rappin’ & stylin’ Out 164 ‘Scuffling’ in the idiom means barely making it from day to day, generally by engaging in nonprestigious..activities such as begging, collecting and returning pop bottles for the deposit, working at odd jobs for minimum wages, etc.”

his wife beats him up?

With golf clubs.  Because of the hooker.

[11] Actually, I was trying to run with it.  But as is so often the case, not being funny enough.

In high school, when explaining why my curfew was what it was, my dad said “Nothing good ever happens after midnight.”

[18] I didn’t read your last sentence. I put the book down when the first two sentences were spent lecturing me about facts I missed or wasn’t aware of. Force of habit.

[19]
Was this before or after Jeter’s “Mr. November” HR, j?

[21] I was out of high school by then..

[19] Same deal for me. Come to think of it, he was sort of right. Nothing “good” happened after midnight, but almost everything “fun” did.

[8] That is officially the coolest thing Metallica has done since they released the Black Album.

More importantly, what do you think actually happened to Tiger? I thought it was something alcohol related, but the news sources all seem to be alleging domestic violence - his wife beats him up?

I take him at his word…because his private life is of no interest to me.

[24]
For related reasons, I choose to believe that the embarrassingly ridiculous nickname “Tiger” really is his name.

Apparently, there is some accountability in the world; TBS and Chip Caray have parted ways.

Sandomir:

Caray’s high-volume style was mixed with a penchant for bad play calls, embellishments and factual errors. His best known incident occurred during the American League Central Division tie breaker between the Twins and the Tigers in October. He called an obvious lineout this way: “Line drive. Base hit. Caught out there. The runner tags. Throw to the plate. On target. And in time! A double play!”

[26]

Wow.  I actually find it hard to believe that anyone in the press came out and wrote that.

A few days ago I listened to an exchange between Costas and Kay about how the national announcers we were listening to were really completely unbiased and that the Phillies fans obviously had exactly the same complaints, only reversed.
Unbelievably frustrating.  By such means they protect themselves and one another, reality be damned.

It’s hard to root for someone to be fired, but it’s also hard not feel that this is a good thing.

FWIW, Ken Davidoff responded to my comment on his blog that ridiculed the McCarron/Madden column about how much the Yankees would have to give up to acquire Halladay:

Catching up…Rich, re: Halladay, the Yankees and Red Sox both believe that they’ll have to pay a premium because they’re in the AL East. Don’t underestimate the Blue Jays’ fans’ emotional connection to Halladay, and how outraged they’d be to see him traded to the Yankees.

How can Brees lead Obama across the middle like that? That’s how you get your receivers knocked out of games.

Very interesting:

If the Minnesota Twins want to lock up Joe Mauer(notes) to a contract extension, they’re going to have to do it before the 2010 season begins.

Mauer plans on ending contract negotiations if a deal isn’t struck by the end of spring training, a source close to the American League Most Valuable Player told Yahoo! Sports on Monday. Mauer would play out the season, then enter free agency primed to land perhaps the second-biggest bonanza in baseball history.

I hope he stays in Minny, but damn, that would be a hell of a story next offseason, or even at the trade deadline in 2010.

it’s high time Jeter got some recognition

[29] Of course, most wide receivers don’t have secret service protection when they go across the middle.

[30] Link doesn’t work.  But anyway, un-named source close to Mauer says he won’t negotiate during the season while un-named Twins source says they’ll have an extension done by Christmas isn’t exactly man bites dog.  Sounds mostly like Passan wish-casting for that “hell of a story” you’re talking about.

Right you are yup. No one mentions ever El Kapitano. Poor fella.
I blame Bucky Dent.  And Randy Velarde. Mike Gallego. Frankie Crosetti. The Stick. Andre Robertson and of course the Meach. Ahh the great ones.
We should be so lucky.

I don’t think Mauer will end up a FA, but doesn’t prudence demand that Cashman have some payroll space to entertain an offer to him should he not resign with Minnesota? That could be a driving force this offseason.

[34] I don’t know about that.  There’s got to be more than a small opportunity cost associated with saving $20M+ for something you may never get the chance to buy.

They’ve got $136M committed to nine players for 2011.  And that doesn’t include re-signing Jeter (inevitable) and Mo (highly likely).

Dear Jim Mason, sorry I failed to mention you.
Frog- New contender in the great ale wars… Victory Yakima Twilight.
Hoppier than a jackalope on crystal meth, mellow malt from the rhineland calms it a wee bit and provides a dark tasty finish unlike any previous Victory offering. A bonafide New World- Old World. It’s tasty too.

I wonder what Jeter’s biggest worry is. Probably how many more years he wants to play. Maybe how he’ll propose to Minka.

[34] It’s not just Mauer, it’s potentially Crawford and Halladay as well. That’s why I wouldn’t give Damon two years.

[37] Propose what, and will it lead to her attacking him with a golf club?

OTF, put the Katt on a chain in front of the door.

I have the feeling you’re about to face the incomparable fury of a chicken scorned.

I would have given the award to Mo.  Mo is Mo.  Or SG, who is also Mo.

I don’t think Mauer will end up a FA, but doesn’t prudence demand that Cashman have some payroll space to entertain an offer to him should he not resign with Minnesota?

Not really, at least not any more than he’s trying to create payroll flexibility now.  2011 is also the last year of Posada’s contract, so they could “borrow” some of the savings from 2012, or free up monies in other ways (e.g. trade Swisher).  Plus, they could play some games with the yearly amounts if there was concern.  E.g. Mauer may get an 8/200 contract, but 2011 could only be $12M, escalating up to $26M (or something) in 2012 after Posada’s contract is up. 

Cashman is resourceful, if the opportunity presents itself whether or not he goes to NY will be based on *where* Mauer wants to play, not how much Yanks can offer.

[19] But the song isn’t “Before Midnight”... its “After Midnight”... why did your dad hate music so much?

[43]
And why was his dad rooting for Arizona?

[42]
Cashman, apparently, convinced the owners to fork up for Teix now so that they wouldn’t have to do something similar this year.  If they need to, they at least have the option to increase salary to take Mauer on with an eye to shedding (and not replacing, or not completely replacing) other salary in subsequent years.

Cashman is not only resourceful, but he (or his organization, rather) is full of resources.