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

Minneapolis-Saint Paul is the last place on earth I would have expected a "structurally deficient bridge" to collapse, but it happened. As sure as the levees broke in New Orleans, the bridge is no more. Now the state of Minnesota is living a nightmare where people I speak with are alternately devastated and furious: two parts tears, one part rage, with the ratio shifting by the hour.

by Dave Zirin

"You can't throw money at the problem." As a former public school teacher in Washington, I heard this cliche from countless bureaucrats. It was code for "Stop whining about ancient textbooks and prehistoric classroom materials, because there is no money." Imagine my shock when the city announced it would be spending more than $500 million on a new baseball stadium. Clearly when it comes to the needs of billionaire sports owners, there always seems to be money available to be thrown.

By Dave Zirin

Dear LeBron:

At the tender age of 22, you have the galactic talent to make us wonder if a mad scientist had Magic and MJ genetically spliced. But talent ain't wisdom. In a recent interview, you said that your goal in sports was to become "the richest man on earth." You also told ESPN, "I'm trying to be a global icon...on the level of Muhammad Ali." These dreams are compatible only if you choose to emulate Ali the icon and not Ali the man.

Memo to Imus: You're Fired
Dave Zirin
Edge of Sports
April 12, 2007

Time for Jackson, Sharpton to Step Down
Jason Whitlock
AOL Sports
April 13, 2007

UPDATE

Outrageous Words, Outrageous Deeds
Ralph Nader
In the Public Interest
April 16, 2007

By Dave Zirin

Anybody got $500 million collecting dust under the couch? If you live in Chicago, take a second look between those cushions. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) has let it be known that the people of the Windy City could pay out as much as $500 million if they are awarded the 2016 Summer Games.

By Dave Zirin

There are more books about Muhammad Ali than Abe Lincoln: 300 titles in the children's section alone. You can also purchase The Muhammad Ali Reader, the Tao of Muhammad Ali, or the $10,000 G.O.A.T. - a massive coffee table book about all things Ali that is slightly larger than a typical coffee table. His is a history that has been repeatedly regurgitated for popular consumption. Despite - or maybe because of - this crisis of Ali overproduction, I felt compelled to write The Muhammad Ali Handbook.

By Dave Zirin

Bowie Kuhn, baseball's fifth commissioner, passed away last night at the age of 80. I never met the man. In private, he may have made Gandhi look like Ted Nugent. For all we know, he spent weekends warming terminally ill puppies against his sweet perfumed bosom. But when it comes to his 15-year reign as commissioner, from 1969-1984, it is more than appropriate to bury Mr. Kuhn, not praise him. Major League Baseball's website, in their Selig-sanctioned obituary, claims that Bowie Kuhn "presided over the dawn of free agency and the end of the reserve system." [The reserve system bound a player to their team for life.] That's sort of like saying the Czar Nicholas II "presided over" the Russian Revolution.

By Dave Zirin

(Note to Reader: Over the last decade, Jason Whitlock has been one of the most prominent African American sports columnists in the United States. He writes for the Kansas City Star and AOL Sports. For reasons unclear, he often refers to himself as "Big Sexy")

Dear Jason,

I start with long overdue thanks. Thanks for inspiring me to be a sportswriter. Thanks for showing all of us that the sports page could be more than blather and box scores. For that you have my sincere gratitude.

By Dave Zirin

JOHN AMAECHI, to much fanfare, has become the first retired player in the history of the National Basketball Assn. to announce that he's gay. The news came with publication of his book "Man in the Middle," in which Amaechi details his life in the NBA closet. The five-year veteran of three clubs used to be a basketball footnote, more known for his British upbringing and penchant for poetry than anything he did on the court as a center. Now he is part of history, giving human form and voice to the spectral boogeyman of the professional locker room - the gay athlete.

By Dave Zirin

There are those in the world of sports who view ESPN as some sort of diabolical genetic splicing of the Illuminati, George Bush and something scraped from Chris Berman's loofah. (I personally believe that, not unlike the Bush family, ESPN's power, while disturbing, is vastly overestimated.) This view is being reasserted with the news that former NBA player John Amaechi has loudly and proudly let the world know that he is gay.

[*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.]

As the NBA season gets underway, League of Fans would like to draw attention to the efforts of Stephon Marbury of the New York Knicks for the introduction of his new $15 sneaker, the Starbury One, which he will wear on the court during games.

As Business Week reports:
"'Two hundred to buy a pair of sneakers,' Marbury says, 'that's groceries for the week.' He wants Starbury One's low price to show kids how little it costs to make a high-quality sneaker. 'History is going to say Stephon Marbury changed the game,' he says."

(Letter co-signed by: Jim Bouton, former Yankee pitcher and author of Ball Four; Ralph Nader, consumer advocate and author; Neil deMause, co-author of Field of Schemes; Dave Zirin, columnist for SLAM magazine and author of What's My Name, Fool?; Robert Weissman, director of Essential Action and co-author of Corporate Predators; and Shawn McCarthy, director of League of Fans.)

Council of the District of Columbia

Dear Council member:

The District baseball boondoggle is swirling out of control at an ever accelerating pace.

The Honorable Adrian Fenty
Council of the District of Columbia

Dear Mr. Fenty:

With the primaries fast approaching, many voters are waiting for a plan as to what you would do to fix the baseball stadium mess should you become the Mayor of the District of Columbia.