By Dave Zirin

Barry Bonds should be basking in the moment. The San Francisco Giants outfielder has just passed Hank Aaron to become the all-time home-run king of Major League Baseball. With 756 home runs, seven most-valuable-player awards and eight gold gloves, he should be trotting into the twilight of his career in a hail of hosannas as the finest ballplayer of his generation. But expect no laurels, parades or calls from President Bush.

by Dave Zirin

Pity the poor soul that sets to write a great sports novel. It can feel like trying to train a goldfish to fetch. Sisyphus might find pushing that rock up the hill a more fruitful task. What makes penning a sports novel such a perilous pursuit?

Reporting for the New York Times, Sally Wadyka focuses on a consensus statement released recently by the American College of Sports Medicine. Wadyka writes that it was a joint effort by sports medicine practitioners, team doctors and sports psychologists "to inform team physicians, coaches and athletic trainers about the important link between stress and injury."

[*UPDATE* NBA Commissioner David Stern has announced that the old-style basketballs will return January 1, 2007 and be used through the remainder of the season. "Our players' response to this particular composite ball has been consistently negative, and we are acting accordingly," Stern said in a brief statement.]

In the Pennsylvania race for governor, pro football Hall of Famer Lynn Swann was easily defeated by incumbent Ed Rendell in the November 7 mid-terms. Swann's celebrity status and former position as chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (2002-2005) couldn't carry him to victory as they did Arnold Schwarzenegger in California (Schwarzenegger was Chairman of the President's Fitness Council from 1990-92).

On this occassion, League of Fans remembers opposing Swann's peddling of junk food to kids while Chairman of the President's Fitness Council. At a vending machine trade group press conference on January 13, 2005, Chairman Swann was paid to appear next to a vending machine filled with junk food alongside elementary school kids.

To help baseball and softball coaches administer first aid and prevent injuries that may happen on the field, the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) makes available a handbook called "Prevention and Emergency Management of Youth Baseball and Softball Injuries."

Our sports culture often pushes children to over-achieve and play through pain while specializing in, and training year-round for, one sport at an early age. These factors are dangerously conducive to overuse injuries.

Melissa Silverstein of Women's Media Center gives an intriguing look into a growing issue for women's sports: What happens when a player gets pregnant? Highlighting a new documentary called "The Heart of the Game," Silverstein explains that there is no uniform policy at either the school or professional level that protects a pregnant athlete's rights:

In his May 26 column, Dave Krieger of the Rocky Mountain News profiles Frank Shorter -- a former Olympic marathon gold medalist for the U.S. -- whose work focuses on the belief that the fight against performance-enhancing drug use in sports can be won:

In the Public Interest
by Ralph Nader

As the Little League season gets into full swing for millions of young baseball and softball players across the country, their health and safety on the playing field will significantly benefit from an addition in the Little League rules this year -- a requirement for breakaway bases.

(Ralph Nader and the sports reform project League of Fans sent a letter to federal health and safety officials arguing that their agencies "have been collectively deficient in research, preservation of data, recommendations and overall recognition of the public health magnitude of sports injuries."

The letter was sent to Michael Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services; Julie Louise Gerberding, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Ileana Arias, Acting Director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control; and Hal Stratton, Chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Enclosed with the letter are recommendations urging the establishment of a task force to formulate sports injury policy and implement "a pro-active national program regarding health and safety in sports, at all levels and age groups, with the goal of minimizing the risk of injury to participants in informal and organized sports, recreation and exercise." The letter and recommendations follow.)

League of Fans

Good Sports
- Commissioner of Baseball Shows Commitment to Stopping Performance-Enhancing Drug Use

Bad Sports
- Adidas, Reebok Overstepping Commercial Bounds by Interfering with Sports


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