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-David Kramer | Friday, March 12, 2021
Each year, as water drips from the icicles haphazardly scattered on its roof and streams of melted snow pour down its sidewalks, St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center opens its doors for one last embrace of the winter season. In the State of Hockey, parents lace up their children’s skates seemingly hours after teaching them to
David Kramer | Friday, March 5, 2021
Over five months ago, I lauded the Seattle Mariners organization for its storied embrace of diversity in the clubhouse. I showered praise on the entire front office for its commitment to promoting talented BIPOC players to the global stage. At the time, the program stood in the way of anti-Asian sentiment and widespread racial injustice
David Kramer | Friday, February 19, 2021
All it took for the MLB to lose its integrity was a viral video about juice. Amid the seemingly uncontainable spread of the coronavirus last summer, Major League Baseball executives became the laughing stock of the sports community at the hands of Andrew McCutchen, Phillies outfielder and outspoken ambassador for the MLB players’ union. June
David Kramer | Friday, February 12, 2021
Take it from the media experts at Nielsen. Take it from your resident fanatic. Take it from anyone, anyone at all: the MLB needs an upgrade. For years, this axiom has pervaded the minds of MLB front office executives. The global pandemic has only catalyzed the downward spiral of worldwide baseball viewership, leaving the 2020
David Kramer | Friday, February 5, 2021
With the new year comes a deep-seated and pressing urge to fix things. Recalibrate the stock market by any means necessary. Roll out the vaccine at an almost impossible pace. Regain homeostasis in Washington from top to bottom. Mend any lingering damage to our mental health. No other objective in 2021 feels more critical than
David Kramer | Monday, November 2, 2020
People love to complain about anything and everything, anytime and everywhere. The rise of sports statistics’ influence on management decisions is certainly no exception. Anti-analytical sentiment reached its apex on Tuesday night when Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash took the ball out of elite pitcher Blake Snell’s hand in the sixth inning. Amid a
David Kramer | Monday, October 26, 2020
Sports champions fashion their success through sheer chaos. After centuries of what we endearingly call “organized” American sports, we find a refined sense of order on the field. Professional coaching staffs rarely offer insight that even the youngest players have never heard; their role — an increasingly compensated one across the industry, I might add
David Kramer | Friday, October 16, 2020
Classic. Time and again, the cultural richness of Notre Dame’s riveting football landscape has flirted with recognition under this bold title. In a city otherwise subdued and uninspired, the sheer cultural richness of Notre Dame Stadium has made South Bend a “classic” destination for avid fans and tourists alike. An A-list pipeline of electric players
David Kramer | Monday, October 5, 2020
Among our nation’s great state stereotypes, perhaps “Minnesota Nice” proves the most questionable. The torrential weather that sweeps over the fields of the North Star State forces publicly kind Minnesotans to endure abysmal temperatures in belligerent privacy. Outsiders never see the passive aggression and mass hysteria that pervades the state in five months of bone-chilling
David Kramer | Friday, September 25, 2020
“We are living on the wrong side of history.” Go ahead, throw your trusted copy of The Observer at a lucky nearby wall for me. With such a painfully cliched opener, I deserve no less. The sheer breadth of this phrase in American rhetoric truly appalls me. Journalists, reporters and public figures almost thoughtlessly append