Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

Walk into the Village Chess Shop on Thompson Street and you will see graying men huddled over a game and hear classical music in the background.

Until midnight regulars strategize on how to protect their king, throw the dice for a game of backgammon, or stop the clock during a move in speed chess.

Located a few blocks from the boards at Washington Square Park, the Village Chess Shop opened in 1972, the same year Bobby Fischer became World Champion.

Owner Larry Nash describes his shop as peaceful and apart of “old” New York, but admits every once in a while a competitor might leave with a bloody nose.

Also known as a “chess museum” because of the novelty chess sets displayed in the window, Nash says, “Even in the best of circumstances, it’s hard to be a business like this.”

Listen to why people have been going to the Village Chess Shop for over 35 years.

The Spanish Olympic men's basketball team making their eyes slanted during a team photo before the games: Dumb. (photo from NPR.org)

A week ago at Huffington Post, Myles Brand wrote an article titled “The ‘Dumb Jock’ Myth is Dumb.” The article focuses on the dumb jock stereotype as it pertains to D-I college athletics:

Student-athletes in Division I — where the dumb jock myth is most firmly attached — graduate on average at a higher rate than the general student body, according to data gathered by the federal government. Student-athletes graduate at a rate of 63 percent, one point better than all other students. Given that more than 100,000 student-athletes participate in Division I, the differences in federal rates are statistically significant.

While I was a dumb jock myself (Division III sadly, so my graduation means nothing in the context of this article), I don’t take any gratification from the article. I don’t think it disproves the stereotype at all. I’m not even sure the stats are meaningful.

(more…)

Most Yankee fans agree that the farewell to Yankee stadium on Sunday night was a memorable tribute.  Even if you didn’t watch the farewell ceremony Sunday and aren’t a Yankee fan, you can read this nostalgic essay by Billy Crystal (and there are other links on the left to more essays) to get a sense of what Yankee stadium embodies to its fans. 

But since Sunday night, others have pointed out that something was missing from the ceremony.  Or rather, two people were missing.  Both Joe Torre and Roger Clemens, two Yankee greats, were completely excluded, for different reasons, from any mention in the pre-game ceremonies. (more…)

Now that the gates have officially closed at Yankee Stadium, fans may be craving a little nostalgia from the good old days of baseball.  Julia Ruth Stevens, who threw the last “first” pitch at Yankee Stadium Sunday night in the house her father built, might just have the remedy.

Although she admits to being a Red Sox fan, Ruth Stevens published a book in 2008 filled with photographs and memories of the Babe, especially his time spent in pinstripes. The book titled Babe Ruth:  Remembering the Bambino in Stories, Photos & Memorabilia is a pricey $35.00, but captures why this one man from Baltimore became a worldwide legend.  Sure she mentions all of the records he set, broke and how he is still considered the greatest player ever to swing a bat, but she also writes about his humble beginnings and how he was simply a great dad.  

One chapter in the book, Ruth Stevens describes her father’s special breakfast we would fix, just for her.  She describes how the Babe would wake her up early in the morning before he would go hunting or fishing. He would butter bread and fry an egg in a whole, cut in the middle of the bread, and top it off with a slice bologna.           

Ruth Stevens really balances the legend of her father and showing how he was just an ordinary man who had a great passion.  Considering the state of baseball today, with the million dollar salaries, steroid use or human growth hormone, expensive ticket prices, and “misremembering” clubhouse conversations, it is refreshing to look back on why baseball is an American pastime. 

Although I am not a Yankee’s fan, I can remember the first time I went to a game at the Stadium.  My older brother and I had tickets in the bleachers.  We sat in the furthest row from home plate, and in the furthest section of right field.  We had the worst possible seats in Ruth’s house.  There was not one person behind us and we both just laughed about it and looked around and saw the perfect view of all the devoted fans in the entire stadium.  My brother gave me nudge and told me to shut up, so he could have a “moment” at Yankee Stadium.    

Photo courtesy of NBA.com

In a haphazard display of free speech, Josh Howard says he doesn’t celebrate the Star Spangled Banner because he’s black.

Josh Howard Remarks
While attending a charity flag football game sponsored by Allen Iverson, the Dallas Maverick forward was captured on what appears to be a cell phone video that was later posted on YouTube.

Howard’s remarks follow a laundry list of PR nightmares:

• Admitted to smoking weed on The Michael Irvin Show, an ESPN radio show in Dallas
• Arrested for street racing in North Carolina
• Planned a birthday bash following game four of the playoffs last season despite being told not to party by Dallas Maverick’s coach Avery Johnson (more…)

Ten more and an era ends.

Tonight was supposed to be the beginning of the end. The final ten games in at Yankee Stadium had been scheduled to begin at 7:05. But rain pushed back the start of the very last home stand. The Yankee’s season is done. According to everyone and everything except the math. All that’s left is to finish out the season and reserve tee times for October.

The close of the season ends the legacy of the greatest sports cathedral ever built by man (and that’s not an opinion). The building that would have you believe was put together solely by the hands of a man named Babe and held together for 85 years by those followed – Gehrig and DiMaggio, Mantle and Maris, Munson and Mattingly, Jeter, Rodriguez and Rivera – will be gone next spring.  

If there are any ghosts left, who have not yet cleaned out their lockers and moved in across the street, they will all have to put in extra BP over the next 10 days. Not because the Yanks are fighting for a division crown or even the wildcard. After all, they’re not. But because the nine men who will dress in pinstripes and stand on the the greenest diamond in the Bronx over the next week-plus owe their very best to the hundreds to those who stood on that field before them and to the millions who have sat in the bleachers and nose-bleeds and cheered their hardest for them.

Rain has delayed the end. Hopefully the extra night will give those about to play the chance to think about it. Over 6600 games have been played at Yankee Stadium. There are only ten more chances for anyone to ever play a baseball game there. Ten more chances to make a memory. Ten more chances to become a legend.

Ten more.