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Steve Jobs was a visionary whose creative mind changed the world. Even the world of sports. Not so much for the athletes (although countless ones use his iPod for listening to pregame and postgame music), but for the followers of sports.
Soccer goalie and "Dancing With the Stars" participant Hope Solo is a solo figure on the ESPN issue that is out Friday.
Think of all the fans who access information through iPhones or iPads. Or even more fundamentally via personal computers. Jobs is the genius and co-founder of Apple Inc. who died Wednesday at 56. A modern-day Thomas Edison. Although Edison never had a Super Bowl television commercial. Jobs did with the classic ”1984” ad during the 1984 Super Bowl. And Edison never used the music from the Olympic-themed “Chariots of Fire” movie to promote a computer. Jobs did with the 1984 Macintosh.
For those of us who deal in a world of sports where ”sudden death” is a normal way of life, real mortality generally is something of a shock. For fans whose teams faced the end — or death, if you’re really dramatic about it — in Game 4 of the baseball playoffs, Jobs’ passing provides a little perspective. And a large dose of reality.
ESPN the Magazine’s annual “body issue” (think of it as the Worldwide Leader’s answer to the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue — minus the models and swimsuits but with male and female athletes) is out Friday.
Female athletes appearing in the issue: Hope Solo (soccer), Gretchen Bleiler (snowboarding), Julie Chu (hockey), Natasha Hastings (track and field), Alicia Sacramone (gymnastics), Vera Zvonareva (tennis), Belen Mozo (golf), Sylvia Fowles (WNBA), Stephanie Gilmore (surfing), Suzy Hotrod (roller derby) and Kelly Kulick (bowling).
The latest Sporting News Best Sports Cities rankings are out. And Dallas-Fort Worth is in at the No. 1 spot. The rankings are for 12 months from summer 2010 to summer 2011 and are determined by totaling point values for categories that include (but are not limited to) won-lost records, postseason appearances, applicable power ratings, number of teams and attendance.
Which means the rankings can have a degree of subjectivity. Which means people can argue about them. Which is part of the reason such rankings exist. For the complete Sporting News list of 271, cick here. Here is some of the list:
1. Dallas-Fort Worth
2. Boston
3. Philadelphia
4. Chicago + Evanston
5. New York
6. Pittsburgh
7. Atlanta
8. Los Angeles
9. Miami
10. Tampa + St. Petersburg
11. Detroit + Ann Arbor + Ypsilanti
12. Washington
13. San Jose + Palo Alto + Santa Clara
14. Minneapolis + St. Paul
15. San Francisco
16. Nashville
17. San Diego
18. Phoenix + Tempe
19. Indianapolis
20. Denver + Boulder
21. Cincinnati
22. New Orleans
23. Raleigh + Durham + Chapel Hill
24. Houston
25. Oakland + Berkeley
26. Oklahoma City + Norman
27. St. Louis
28. Salt Lake City + Provo
29. Baltimore
30. Vancouver
31. Anaheim
32. Seattle
33. Green Bay
34. Orlando
35. Memphis
36. Columbus
37. Toronto
38. Milwaukee
39. San Antonio
40. Portland
41. Buffalo
42. Kansas City
43. Montreal
44. Jacksonville
45. Cleveland
46. Calgary
47. Charlotte
48. Ottawa
49. Sacramento
50. Edmonton
51. Madison, Wis.
53. South Bend, Ind.
60. Columbia, Mo.
63. East Lansing, Mich.
68. Champaign, Ill.
76. Austin, Texas
80. State College, Pa.
106. Bloomington, Ind.
112. DeKalb, Ill.
124. Kalamazoo, Mich.
181. Carbondale, Ill.
183. Peoria, Ill.
200. Normal, Ill.
250. Charleston, Ill.
261. Macomb, Ill.
267. Edwardsville, Ill.
271. Lorman, Miss.
For all those who made it this far, here are some more ESPN Body Issue videos: