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-David Kramer | Monday, September 27, 2021
Well before Notre Dame’s shocking fourth-quarter performance against the Wisconsin Badgers in Soldier Field — one that already typifies the lingering, opportune, perhaps even fortuitous scoring trends of this 2021 team — thousands of Fighting Irish students barreled down Highways 80 and 90 in overcrowded caravans to bask in the bliss of college football on
David Kramer | Monday, September 20, 2021
Bennett Miller’s quintessential baseball film “Moneyball” remains one of the most honest looks about transformative thinking and cognitive biases in the realm of sports. Peter Brand, Jonah Hill’s wonderfully depicted assistant to Billy Beane, places the narrative under this lens throughout the film. But perhaps most definitively, through his anti-establishment viewpoint among a group of
David Kramer | Tuesday, September 14, 2021
It’s a tale as old as time. Your local Little League phenom toes the rubber and enters the most cataclysmic free fall of pitching command in their young career. The pitcher looks for any source of valuable constructive among the sea of vicarious parents and overzealous wannabe coaches. After walking the bases loaded, the young
David Kramer | Thursday, September 9, 2021
Amid the rise of the coronavirus pandemic, finger-pointing surged to an almost unbelievable high. Cooped up behind their computer screens, Americans absorbed the barrage of news coverage and slowly shifted blame from China to political figures to socioeconomic disparities to personal ideologies. We know the story. But nearly a century before the pandemic, Americans sparked
David Kramer | Monday, September 6, 2021
June 14th marked one of the first full-capacity baseball games in nearly 21 months at Wrigley Field. Troves of Cubs fans, always restless for the shared sublimity of summer baseball, poured into the bleachers with an all too familiar craving: overpriced and excessive amounts of beer. Drinkers attuned to the crazes of social media banded
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