June 2006:

	Short Takes
	Barry Bonds and the Law.
	Desperate Sports Wives.
	Commonwealth Games Ticket Sales Exceed Torino Olympic Winter Games.
	World Cyber Games Hoping for Big Crowds.
	The Soccer Film "Goal" Does Weak Box Office. Is the "Undocumented" Central Character to Blame?
	"Hoop Dreams," the Basketball Documentary, Is Added to the National Film Registry.
	Publish or Perish
	Recent Academic Articles on 1) the NBA and Young Black Men, 2) Race, Pay and Retention of NBA Head Coaches, and 3) the Changing Nature of Major League Baseball Fans.
	Interviews
	David Maraniss, author of acclaimed biographies of Vince Lombardi and Bill Clinton, discusses his new book on Roberto Clemente, plus his next project, a book about the 1960 Rome Olympic Games.
	Jake Steinfeld, of Body by Jake fame, talks about his role as co-founder of Major League Lacrosse and the future of the sport in the U.S.
	Mascot
	Sing the "Mister Ed" theme song — of course, of course — while you greet Karli, Mascot of the 2006 World Equestrian Games.

Memo? What memo? . . . Barry Bonds is chasing Hank Aaron's career home-run mark, but discussion about "755" has been overshadowed by the debate over Bonds' alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs. The most widely publicized charges appear in the book "Game of Shadows," written by San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, who charge that Bonds used steroids from 1998 to 2002.

Add Bonds . . . Bonds' supporters — and such fans do exist, primarily in the Bay Area — like to point out that steroid use in Major League Baseball was not prohibited during the 1998 to 2002 period. In 2004, ESPN.com quoted Bonds' attorney, Michael Raines, as saying "that [steroids] were not banned by baseball at the time." This spring, Foxsports.com noted that "Baseball did not ban performance-enhancing drugs until 2002," and even Bonds has said as much. In 2005, according to SI.com, Bonds said, "You're talking about something that wasn't even illegal at the time. All this stuff about supplements, protein shakes, whatever. Man, it's not like this is the Olympics."

Add Bonds . . . ESPN The Magazine, however, maintains that Major League Baseball banned steroids in 1991. The evidence? A two-page memo written in 1991 by then-commissioner Fay Vincent to "All Major League Clubs" outlining "Baseball's Drug Policy and Prevention Program." The memo states: "The possession, sale or use of any illegal drug or controlled substance by Major League players and personnel is strictly prohibited . . . . This prohibition applies to all illegal drugs and controlled substances, including steroids or prescription drugs for which the individual in possession of the drug does not have a prescription."

Add Bonds . . . ESPN reports that Commissioner Bud Selig "reissued the same memo in 1997, with minor changes." ESPN's conclusion? "Baseball ignored its own rules about steroids."

Add Bonds . . . Did the commissioners' memos amount to a true ban? Marvin Miller, who served as executive director of MLBPA from 1966-1982, says it did not. Miller told SportsLetter that the memos "had no standing. You're talking about a condition of work. Introducing a new rule which is so serious that a violation could end a player's career — you can't do that without a discussion with the union. That's absurd. There's no way it would have any validity."

Add Bonds . . . MLB spokesman Rich Levin told SportsLetter that MLB issued the drug memos "every year." But he admitted that the policy, which was never a part of the collective bargaining agreement, was "unenforceable." Said Levin: "We couldn't do anything because it was a unilateral policy [issued] without the union. It had no teeth, and so we couldn't act on it." Levin noted that MLB attempted to reach agreement with the union on a drug policy beginning in 1986, but that these efforts were rebuffed. Drug testing among Minor Leaguers began in 2000; in the Majors, it started in 2003, after MLB and the players' union finally agreed on a policy.

Final Bonds . . . It is not clear what Bonds and his apologists mean when they say steroids were not "illegal." If they are referring to baseball and its rules, then they have a reasonable case. The law of the land, however, is a different matter. In 2000, when Bonds is alleged to have used steroids, the 2000 U.S. Code listed anabolic steroids as a controlled substance. Simple possession of steroids was punishable, under the Code, by up to one year in jail and a fine.

Printed matter . . . If there's a niche, a magazine will fill it. That might explain the existence of a new glossy quarterly titled Professional Sports Wives Magazine, founded by Gena James Pitts, the wife of former NFL defensive lineman Mike Pitts, now a defensive line coach at Morehouse College.

Add magazine . . . Publisher-editor Pitts describes the publication as "a cross between a sports wives version of Sports Illustrated, People, and Oprah." Her audience includes the wives of active and retired athletes, coaches, and executives, whom Pitts describes as "natural caregivers, motivators, gate-keepers, hostesses, organizers, coordinators, nurses, at-home coaches, personal assistants, 'pillow-talkers', negotiators, business managers (with keen instincts), excellent communicators, and kind-hearted volunteers who can handle a multitude of tasks (all at one time)."

Add magazine . . . On the magazine's website, Pitts notes that the PSWM is mailed to members of the Professional Sports Wives Association and distributed to team lounges. She also claims that the "targeted distribution to over 707,000 of the highest income homeowners gives [advertisers] the ability to reach prospects with the means to purchase your products and/or pay for your services." Presumably, that would include such services as automobile detailing and divorce attorneys.

R.I.P. Flash and Boxing Update . . . The always entertaining and knowledgeable newsletters for boxing aficionados took the ten-count at the beginning of the year.

R.I.P. Sportspages . . . Founded in the mid-1980s, London-based Sportspages was one of the few remaining all-sports bookstores on the planet. Unfortunately, the store shuttered earlier this year.

The sun never sets . . . The 2006 Commonwealth Games, held in March in Melbourne, sold more tickets than February's Olympic Winter Games, in Torino. Late sales helped boost Torino sales to nearly 900,000 tickets. Melbourne organizers sold over 1.6 million tickets to their event the following month. Once called the British Empire Games, the Commonwealth Games, this year, featured more than 4,000 athletes from 71 nations and territories competing in 16 sports. Next stop for the Commonwealth Games: New Delhi in 2010.

But is it a sport? . . . Meanwhile, Seattle is preparing to host the 2007 World Cyber Games. The five-year-old event was last held in Singapore, where 55,000 spectators came to watch teams compete for $2.5 million in prize money in such games as "FIFA Soccer 2005" and "Dead or Alive Ultimate." According to WCG organizers, some 1.25 million competitors participated in the World Cyber Games, which they call "the largest cyber-gaming event serving what is becoming the largest sports market in the world."

The new soccer film "Goal! The Dream Begins" has grossed all of $3.6 million since it debuted in the U.S. on May 12. The filmmakers certainly cannot blame the timing of the film's release — about a month before World Cup — for its poor box-office showing. Nor can they blame Disney's promotional clout: after all, the company owns ABC and ESPN — the two domestic television partners on the Word Cup. Which leads to the question: Could the current political controversy over immigration be part of the reason the film has flopped?

Add film . . . On the surface, "Goal!" is a typical feel-good, sports-underdog flick that chronicles the journey of a young Latino soccer player from East Los Angeles to stardom in England. But in an unexpected twist, the hero of the film [played by Kuno Becker] happens to be an undocumented immigrant, making what has become a hot-button political issue an important part of the story line. Disney officials did not return numerous phone calls from SportsLetter to comment on the film, but producer Mike Jefferies told the Los Angeles Times [May 11] that "the decision to make Santiago an undocumented immigrant was made to touch on the political issue. I have lived in L.A. for many years and am aware that [the immigrant issue] has been brewing and bubbling for some time and would be contemporary at some point.'"

Add film . . . Soccer films usually perform poorly in the U.S. The last major soccer film released domestically — 2005's "The Game of Their Lives," about the U.S. team's "Miracle on Grass" upset victory over England in the 1950 Word Cup — grossed less than $500,000 in very limited release. "Game" flopped despite its excellent sports pedigree: it was directed by David Anspaugh ("Hoosiers," "Rudy") and produced by Bristol Bay, a production company financed by Phil Anschutz, whose Anschutz Entertainment Group owns several Major League Soccer teams.

Last film . . . "Bend It Like Beckham," which grossed $32 million domestically, remains the exception to the rule. Released in the United States in 2003 prior to the 2003 Women's World Cup staged in several American cities, "Bend It Like Beckham" benefited from an unusual grassroots marketing campaign that narrowly targeted American soccer fans, players and their families.

Film dreams . . . Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, the Librarian of Congress annually names 25 "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant motion pictures" to the National Film Registry. This year, two sports-themed films were added. One was "Hoop Dreams" (1994), Steve James' Academy Award-nominated documentary about the trials and tribulations of two African-American high-school basketball players. The other was the notorious film of the James Jeffries-Jack Johnson heavyweight championship fight (1910). After Johnson's overwhelming victory over boxing's first "Great White Hope," the film was banned in certain states because of fear of white rioting.

Add Registry . . . The National Recording Registry, meanwhile, preserves historic recorded sound. This year, the Registry added the broadcast of the second Joe Louis-Max Schmeling fight on June 22, 1938, when an estimated radio audience of 70 million people listened to veteran announcer Clem McCarthy give the blow-by-blow broadcast on NBC.

Soccer chilled . . . Call it the wickedly cool offspring of the World Cup and the Stanley Cup playoffs. It's the newly-devised sport of ice soccer, the brain-child of Doug Taylor. Michigan-based Taylor says he invented the sport to entertain guests at a party he threw. He has since concocted a sport-specific "ball" — called the Boot'r, which he has trademarked and sells for $49.50 — and now offers tips for starting ice soccer leagues on his website. The sport recently got an on-ice test during an exhibition scrimmage at Colgate University in upstate New York, but Taylor is thinking bigger. He says he hopes to "see it played professionally in franchised leagues by the year 2015." Or, when hell freezes over.

Time out . . . France's Laure Manaudou recently broke Janet Evans' 18-year-old world record in the 400-meter freestyle, set at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. That caused the digital fanatics at SL headquarters scurrying to their computers to find the longest-standing world records. According to FINA, the world swimming federation, that would be Evans' 1500-meter freestyle mark of 15:52.10, set on March 26, 1988. Interestingly, among male and female swimmers, there are now only four world records on the books that were set before 2000: Evans' 1500- and 800-meter freestyle (set in 1989), Hungary's Kristina Egerszegi's 200 backstroke (set in 1991), and China's Yanyan Wu's 200-meter individual medley (set in 1997). The "earliest" men's mark was established in 2000.

The Real Color of Money: Controlling Black Bodies in the NBA. David J. Leonard. Journal of Sport & Social Issues. 30(2) 2006.

The NBA's proposed age limit that would prevent high school players from jumping directly into the league "works from the same racist logic that identifies Black bodies as threats to White hegemony and pleasure, conceiving of rules, state power, and surveillance as proper and needed methods to save both the game and community. To protect the streets thus necessitates more police and prisons whereas protecting the NBA mandates increased rules and regulations of bodies, . . . trash talking . . . and [clothing]; or in the end, restricting who can and cannot enter the league. The racial implications are as undeniable here as is the policy's intent to control Black male bodies and aesthetics."

Race, Performance, Pay, and Retention Among National Basketball Association Head Coaches. Lawrence M. Kahn. Journal of Sports Economics. 7(2) 2006.

An analysis of NBA coaches, using a "hazard function approach," found that between 1996 and 2003 there were only "small and statistically insignificant racial differences" related to "entry, pay or retention." These findings suggest that black NBA coaches are not subject to racial discrimination in these areas.

What Takes Them Out of the Ball Game? Martin B. Schmidt and David J. Berri. Journal of Sports Economics. 7(2) 2006.

The data suggest that in the early baseball "customers appeared to be less concerned with their team's winning and losing." Fans attended games out of a sense of "loyalty" to their team. "Beginning in the late 1960s, though, this perception seemed to change" and attendance became increasingly determined by a team's won-lost record. Baseball, in effect, became "but one more form of entertainment," whose "fickle" customers would quickly "move on to more satisfying forms of recreation" when their teams failed to win. As baseball owners and players have come to treat the sport as "more of a business . . . fans may have reacted by treating MLB similarly."

DAVID MARANISS

In 1993, Washington Post reporter David Maraniss won a Pulitzer Prize for his "revealing articles on the life and political record of candidate Bill Clinton." After writing "First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton," Maraniss wrote an acclaimed biography of Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, entitled "When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi," and then "They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967." This spring, Maraniss has returned to sports with a new biography: "Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero" (Simon & Schuster), about the Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder. Roberto Clemente, of course, was no ordinary ballplayer. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, he was among the first wave of Latin ballplayers to reach the Majors.
		This book may be purchased at amazon.com

His four batting titles, twelve Gold Gloves, one MVP award, and two World Series rings made him a perennial National League all-star in an era that featured such outstanding outfielders as Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Curt Flood and Lou Brock.

Clemente's life ended in heroic circumstances: flying supplies to aid victims after a horrific earthquake in Nicaragua, Clemente died when the airplane crashed just after take-off. He became the second player to be enshrined at Cooperstown without the normal five-year waiting period after retirement — Lou Gehrig was the first — and the first Latino player to earn Hall of Fame honors.

Using his expert reportorial skills, Maraniss chronicles Clemente's life and career from Puerto Rico to Pittsburgh to Nicaragua. He details the challenges that Clemente faced as a Black Latino ballplayer during the turbulent 1960s, uncovers new information about the plane crash that killed Clemente and evaluates Clemente's legacy among contemporary Latino players. The result is an absorbing biography that gives this long-misunderstood and overlooked legend his due.

Recently, Maraniss came to Southern California to make an appearance at the annual Los Angeles Times Book Festival, part of the western swing of his promotional tour. He spoke with SportsLetter at the small, comfortable lobby of the Loews Beverly Hills Hotel.

— David Davis

David Maraniss: The first two books that influenced me were both Packer books: "Run to Daylight" [by Vince Lombardi and W.C. Heinz] and "Instant Replay" [by Jerry Kramer and Dick Schaap]. I loved Jim Brosnan's "The Long Season" and all of George Plimpton's and David Halberstam's books. And, I know I'm forgetting a lot.

SL: How long did the Clemente book take you to research and write?

DM: My dad died while I was doing it, and I had some other personal things to deal with, but basically three years. In 2000, I signed a two-book contract to do the book about Vietnam and the 1960s and the Clemente book. While I was doing the Vietnam book, every once in a while I'd do a little on Clemente. But I started it fulltime in about April of 2003.

SL: The Washington Post is very patient, eh?

DM: They really give me a lot of freedom. I've worked there for almost 30 years. I could leave and just do books, but they like to have some relationship with me. I do edit some projects. When 9/11 happened I was on book leave, but I came back immediately.

SL: How did you come to write about Roberto Clemente after Vince Lombardi?

DM: Essentially, because "Lombardi" sold really well, that gave me the opportunity to do "Clemente." Lombardi might be a bigger figure in American life because of [the stature of] pro football, but Clemente is more important to me personally. This book was really closer to my sensibilities. As a progression of writing about things that I care about, Clemente was always high up there.

SL: The Lombardi