MetaFilter posts tagged with athlete

The Curious Case of Matt Harrington

reenum — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:24:45 -0800

When people think of the pitfalls of the baseball draft, it is hard not to remember the story of Matt Harrington. Harrington was drafted in the first round of the MLB draft by the Rockies and the Padres in successive years, only to go back into the draft after failing to reach an agreement each time. As the years went by, his stock kept falling. Harrington's flirtation with the majors ended in 2004 when he was drafted with the 1,089th pick by the Yankees. Joe Posnanski wrote about Harrington's saga in 2006, saying that this was a parable about athlete greed. ESPN wrote a piece about it earlier this year, showing Harrington's rapid decline in draft position and struggles as a result of the negative publicity he received. Harrington currently works at Costco for $11.50 an hour.

A few battles with foods that were calling me like sirens called Odysseus

ORthey — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:08:07 -0800

"Lunch is really nice again, not mentioning a few battles with foods that were calling me like sirens called Odysseus. I had some salad some pasta and some fish and we had a nice chat with some Russian girls at an “All-Russian” table. Catching up on all the gossip, laughing, and in general making fun of people! By the way I forgot to mention that this is a men’s and women’s tournament so if you lose early and you are lacking confidence there is a good chance to challenge one of the girls to a match." Russian-American tennis player Dmitry Tursunov blogged his experiences at a 2006 tourney in Estoril, Portugal with hilarious results. [For best results, read from the bottom of the page up!] Read about his adventures with Marat Safin: "The match was a bit awkward the first few games because this is our first time playing together and Marat doesn’t really understand the concept 'my side/your side.' He tends to think that his forehand is much better than my backhand so I had to convince him otherwise. Thanks to me and my ability to convey logic to the two-meter embodiment of a female’s dream, we won the first set 6-3." On intimidation: "Right before the match I tried to do some sprints and some jumps to get the blood going, then I stared into the mirror and said, 'You talking to me?!' When you are playing someone who is 15, it’s always good to scare the life out of them the moment you get out on the court! IT HAPPENED!!! They told me, 'Just keep pluggin’ alone and you will win a match!!!' and it happened! Of course the kid was 15 but c’mon! I’m blond!" On tennis players online: "The guy is like Neo in Matrix. He has no idea what he is writing anymore or who he is writing to. He just puts 'lol' and moves on to the next window. The girl is probably telling him that her kittens died and he just says, 'lol.' At the same time he is listening to Bow Wow and tries to sing along. The funniest stuff on Earth. A French dude is trying to rap! Impossible to watch without a condescending smile!" And more!

PolevaultFilter!

UbuRoivas — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:23:55 -0800

PolevaultFilter! Those who like to read about successful female athletes reaching great heights & being admired for their athletic achievements will be happy to know that Aussie World Youth Polevault Champion Vicky Parnov - niece of respected Olympic Silver Medallist Tatiana Grigorieva - will become the youngest ever Australian to take part in the world titles, in Osaka later this month.

What it feels like for a girl.

aerotive — Wed, 30 May 2007 18:54:33 -0800

This photo has launched high school pole vaulter Allison Stokke into Internet memedom. Her reaction: "I worked so hard for pole vaulting and all this other stuff, and it's almost like that doesn't matter. Nobody sees that. Nobody really sees me."

youthbc1 — Tue, 12 Jun 2001 23:55:27 -0800

Republican athlete politicians With trepidation, I post a link to a Slate article (is that akin to posting a Salon article?) Anyway, I've been largely impressed with the "Sports Nut" columns. I think my favourite quote of this one is Brent Jones saying "An athlete is a small business owner whose product is yourself." And Charles Barkely reminding his grandma, unsure of her grandson's political leanings towards the Republicans, "we are rich".