Racing: NASCAR: Dario Franchitti wins by a rainstorm at Indy 500 classic event, favored Kanaan flushes out

Associated Press via FoxNews.com carries a great report, "Scottish Driver Dario Franchitti wins Indianopolis 500"(May27,2k7); it details Franchittii's deliberate gamble on the weather that day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and his strategem to beat his best friend, racer Tony Kanaan of Brazil. Kanaan was long well in the lead, Sam Hornish Jr was second, and Franchitti third; but Kanaan and Hornish stopped to refurbish in the pit. Losing time, Kanaan and the whole pack of other racers got cawt in a rainstorm only halfway thru, the race being called for some 3 hours. "The race was interrupted by rain for three hours shortly after the halfway point and then, after a restart, was stopped after 166 of the scheduled 200 laps." Also AP's Cliff Brunt's write-up of the NASCAR Indy race last week, "Franchitti Sees $1.6M Purse for Indy 500" (May28,2k7).

Kanaan also received the Scott Brayton Award, named for the late driver who was killed in practice after winning the pole in 1996 and given to the racer best exemplifying the character and spirit of Brayton.

Franchitti's share was part of a record purse of nearly $10.7 million that was announced at the victory dinner. The previous record was $10.5 million last year.

Second-place finisher Scott Dixon's $719,067 and third-place finisher Helio Castroneves' $646,303. ...

The smallest prize from Sunday's race was $193,305 for 32nd place by Jon Herb. The prize money is distributed in a formula that includes race finish, qualification outcome and various performance awards.

Kanaan made up for his non-win more recently, "Kanaan wins IRL race at Milwaukee Mile" (Jun3,2k7) by AP's Mike Marris.

Pro Basketball's draft often works against a 'good fit' between draftee and draft enviro

On Sports Law Blog Michael McCann, thinking especially about the National Basketball Association's season of drafting new players for its vbarious teams from a pool of candidates, inquires about "The Importance of Which Team Drafts You" (Apr24,2k7)

We have an article up on The Situationist today entitled "The Situation of the NBA Draft." It's premised on the idea that many, if not most, players selected in the NBA Draft will succeed or fail largely due to the situation of the team that drafts them. In other words, some players will find themselves in the right environment in terms of teammates and coaches and fans, while others will wind up playing in the wrong offense, with the wrong coach, in the wrong city. These situational factors can be enormously influential in whether the player succeeds or fails in the NBA.

However, when we evaluate these players, we usually focus on presumed, but often immeasurable and perhaps misunderstood qualities, like "how hard they work" or whether they have the "drive to succeed" (whatever that actually means). In other words, we tend to overlook the situation, and focus on the disposition, and that may not be the best way to judge players.

Over at The Situationist, the author/s pursue a related theme, NBA Draft Lottery under the title mentioned (Apr24,2k7).

As most fans of the National Basketball Association know, the NBA Draft lottery will be held on May 22. It will determine the draft order of the 14 NBA teams that did not make the playoffs, as those teams will be assigned a pick between 1 and 14 in the 2007 NBA Draft, which will be held on June 28. The 16 teams that made the playoffs will not participate in the lottery, but will instead select between 15 and 30 based on inverse order of record. Picks 31 through 60 in the second and final round of the NBA draft will be based on inverse record of all teams. Typically, the drop off in talent after the first five or so drafted players is quite significant, and few players selected after 15 will become NBA stars. Nevertheless, a good number of drafted players will enjoy NBA careers of at least two or three years, which for some can mean the difference between becoming a millionaire and becoming someone who doesn’t earn much doing anything.

.The whole article is worth clicking-up and reading.

Sled-dogs race 1100-mile IDITAROD 2007 in Alaska

The winner "crossed the finish line at 8:08 p.m. March 13 [2k7] with a time of nine days, five hours and eight minutes, one of the top 10 fastest Iditarods in the race's 35-year history." That's the classic IDITAROD sled-dogs racing competition, known around the world--on this year's route, it's an 1850-kilometers event. As the video footage I'm watching on OLN TV, makes clear, it took place in the bitter cold days and nites (but not non-stop, there are stations along the way to rest the dogs and replace their worn boots). And by day there's the blazing sun of the Alaskan mountains. Then the route took them into the flat marsh lands of the Alaskan interior. Lance Mackey and his dog team win the event.

Major League Baseball: Triple-play crowns the day in Phillies win over Cincinnatii

I posted on refWrite Backpage (where I'm the occasional sports columnist) the key excerpt from ESPN.com / AP's report on the Phildelphia Phillies' infielders under pitcher Cole Hamels finessing the unusual triple-play gambit, off the cuff (so to say), winning yesterday 4-1 against Cincinnati's Reds.

Tennessee athletic associations, schools, state in a triangle dispute about manipulating boy athletes

USA Today's Joan Bikupic "Court case could affect school sports"(Apr17,2k7).

Jesse Kellogg, who now works for a Hooters in Clarksville, Tenn., was one of a dozen rising Brentwood Academy ninth graders invited by the school in the spring of 1997 to spring football practice, a transaction that eventually spiraled into a 10-year-old lawsuit between Brentwood and the [Tennessee Secondary School Athletics Assocation] TSSAA.

WASHINGTON — A dispute that traces to a football scrimmage on a grassy high school practice field in suburban Nashville is now in the nation's highest legal arena, where the dueling parties say it could have consequences for student sports nationwide.

In the backdrop of the case to be argued at the Supreme Court on Wednesday are concerns about the exploitation of budding athletes and the soundness of rules set by state athletic associations.

More broadly, the case could affect the latitude that school or other government-related associations have to impose conditions on individuals in their programs.

"The implications of the legal issues go far beyond the facts in the case," says Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center, one of more than a dozen groups that filed "friend of the court" briefs in the case.

In the spring of 1997, Brentwood Academy football coach Carlton Flatt sent a letter to 12 eighth-grade boys admitted to the private school for the fall, inviting them to spring football practice. The school, which had won state football championships in 1995 and 1996, is still known for its athletics and has sent graduates to Auburn University and other football powers.

The lengthy article by Bokupic is worth attention in full. One matter I wish were made more explicit (altho it's all there) is the sphere-sovereignty-blurring long stretch from the state, to the schools, to the athletic associations which are arguably not educational in an appropriately school-specific way (but arguably educational in their own non-school way). This becomes important in regard to the driving force of the athletic association in using the schools to recruit a pool from which a pre-pro cohort will be selected, promoted, and feed the universities and colleges their successive generations of cultivated near-professional athletes.

As such, it turns out that the universities use the university elite athletes (with an on-campus hierarchy among the sports selected for support, a hierarchy narrowing often (at the top) to the elite of elites, college football players ... and it's these few who have the background as a result to "turn pro"). So, the universities affinity for over-funding and over-statussing the pre-pro crew, feeds back to wag the secondary schools as the universities' dogs/tails. The secondaries in being assimilated to their "athletic programs" (which are actually in a separate association for age-specific players, not merely enkaptic within the schools as one among several departments), these secondaries end up in the unconscionable position of being party to manipulating eith-graders. This is a fundamental violation of the responsiblity of secondary schools.

More than that, the parents of the minors involved are not mentioned at all. Family (parents/child/sibs nexus of relationshps typically) is another societal sphere of authority and decision-making that doesn't factor into this quarrel between athletic organizations, the wannabe alpha dogs that want to wag the tail which turns out to the schools. Not vice versa! The framework of jurisprudence thru which the case is approached turns out to be a quarrel between state, school, and athletic organizsations as to who is more primarily in loco parentis. But where are the parents? Where is an association of parents willing to bear responsiblity in the face of all three other spheres with standing? The idea that the state should be the all-determining nanny for these boys (at the time, 1997) in their relations to an athletic assocation, united in a state organization to which at the start the schools already do seem overly servile, is itself flawed.

Racing: Marathon: Rain, snow, driving winds forecast Boston Marathon

Breitart.com has the weather forecast regarding expected conditions for the 111th annual Boston Marathon: "heavy rain and sub-freezing cold plus blustery winds gusting as high as 50 mph, often forcing the runners to battle into a severe headwind." Yech!

The article's headline, "Furious storm forecast for Boston Marathon" (Apr14,2k7) gives way to the lead info on the footrace, which is about the human factor, bad weather or good. Deena Kastor "will try to become the first American in 22 years to win the Boston Marathon here Monday [Apr16,2k7]...."

Kastor, 34, won last year's London Marathon with a career-best time of 2 hours, 19 mins, 36 secs. Kastor also captured the 2005 Chicago Marathon and took the bronze medal in the women's marathon at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

"For the 22 years I have been running I have promised myself to keep setting loftier goals in this sport. Boston is my next lofty focus."

She hopes to become the first US man or woman to win a Boston Marathon since Lisa Larsen Weidenbach in 1985, but she will be challenged by defending champion Rita Jeptoo of Kenya and Latvia's Jelena Prokopcuka. ...

Also back to defend a Boston Marathon crown is Kenya's Robert Cheruiyot, who set the race record last year with his triumph in 2:07:14. ...

Kenyans have won 14 of the past 16 men's titles at Boston and six of the past seven Boston women's crowns.

I'm rooting for the Latvian lady this round.

Cricket cited as model of inter-ethnoreligious unity in war-torn Sri Lanka

Ecumenical News International reports Cricket held up as alternative to sectarianism in Sri Lanka (Apr12,2k7).

Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo says his island nation, bleeding from deep ethnic divisions, should emulate the cohesion of the successful Sri Lankan cricket team currently in the Cricket World Cup - writes Anto Akkara.

"At this time of World Cup fervour, we can do well to remember it is not just the prowess of our team that is noteworthy. Its visible unity in ethno-religious diversity, which enhances its performance, is also remarkable," Bishop de Chickera noted in his recent Easter message.

The national cricket team comprises members of the ethnic minority Tamils and majority Sinhalase. It has players from the Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and Muslim faiths. Bishop de Chickera noted it "should spur our nation towards a similar goal of unity in diversity".

Sri Lanka is one of the top contenders for a semi-final berth in the ongoing World Cup cricket in the West Indies after beating strong teams like India and England.

"The players of different ethnic and religious background have knit together so well and play as a team. This raises hopes not only for Sri Lankan cricket, but also for the future of our island," Bishop de Chickera told Ecumenical News International on 10 April from Jaffna – the Tamil heartland in the far north. "If our nation of different ethnic backgrounds can bat together as a team, certainly there can be lasting peace."

Around 40 civilians were killed during Holy Week alone at the beginning of April in bomb blasts, indiscriminate shelling and sporadic shootings.

The latest of bloodshed occurred on 7 April when a pastor, Yesu Kumar, from the Assemblies of God Church in Vankalai perished along with six others in a bus bomb blast while more than 20 people were injured.

The defence ministry has said more than 4000 people had died due to violence between December 2005 and the first week of March 2007. This includes 675 civilians and 1040 security personnel in the latest upsurge of fighting. The Tamil Tigers have waged a 35-year campaign for independence in a conflict that has claimed nearly 65,000 lives on the island.

It's great to hear how a sport can model competitive good sportsmanship without racial or sectarian religious markers, teams crossing the larger societal divides, especially in an area of civil war. But, since the pastor mentioned was Assemblies of God, there should be mentioned here that fanatical Buddhists and fantantical Hindus have turned violently on missionary Christian faiths, like that of the Assemblies of God. There's a difference between seeking converts, or becoming a convert to a different religion (both non-violent but unpalatable to many families and communities which are threatened by lack of uniformity), and religious harassment / violence which seeks to enforce uniformity. Cricket can only help overcome barriers to a certain extent, but to whatever extent it's certainly welcome. The main thing for cricketeers is to play a top-notch game.

UPDATE:

Amnesty International delivers a politically-correct slap at Sri Lankan bishop who cited inter-ethnocreligious cooperation among cricket players [Le journal chretien (Apr14,2k7).