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[*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.]

Dave Zirin pieces together circumstantial evidence and historical context in his latest column in defense of French soccer star and national hero Zinedine Zidane (or Zissou as he is known) after his violent head-butt to the chest of Italy’s Marco Materazzi resulted in Zidane’s red card ejection from the World Cup Final. France went on to lose the game, without Zidane, in a penalty shootout. Zirin explains:

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.”

Who’s at Fault in the Stadium Standoff

Letter to the Editor: Washington Post – Wednesday, January 11, 2006; Page A20

In his Jan. 3 op-ed, “Why the Stadium Deal Isn’t Done,” Major League Baseball President Bob DuPuy wrote as though baseball were performing a humanitarian service against its interest by relocating the Montreal Expos to Washington.

The D.C. area’s huge population and media share, the Washington Nationals’ financial success in 2005, and the league’s anticipation of $450 million in franchise sale proceeds show that the District is the only choice for the Nats.

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.

(Ralph Nader’s Washington Post letter to the editor on DC Mayor Williams’ plan to increase public spending on stadium.)

Ballpark Bait and Switch
Letter to the Editor – Washington Post: Page A20

In the Oct. 7 editorial “Don’t Doff the Spending Cap,” The Post rightly advised the D.C. Council to reject Mayor Anthony A. Williams’s play for $75 million more from taxpayers for the stadium project.

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.

More teams scalping their own tickets. In a column titled “Yankees Show Contempt for Their Most-Loyal Fans,” Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg News explains how the Yankees are policing ticket resale websites and revoking season tickets from fans who have sold their unused seats online.

At the same time, the Yankees are planning an operation called Pinstripe Marketplace, which the Yankees describe as “a new and exciting feature which will create a forum through which full season ticket licensees will be permitted to resell their tickets.”

As the debate rages over whether or not Chief Illiniwek should remain the University of Illinois mascot, Darla M. Wiese of Quad-Cities Online (IL) writes a thoughtful piece on the American Indian mascot issue. Please note that an excellent reader discussion follows her article, under “comments.”