Sports & Society

"Civil rights include the ensuring of peoples' physical integrity and safety; protection from discrimination on grounds such as physical or mental disability, gender, religion, race, sexual orientation, national origin, age, and individual rights such as the freedoms of thought and conscience, speech and expression, religion, the press, and movement."

That's a definition of civil rights from Wikipedia.

On Saturday night Cincinnati hosted it's second consecutive "Civil Rights Game."

This may seem like a strange idea to think of in the land of the free (and the home of the brave), but the wide world of sports in America could be termed as the land of supporting Communism.

Could a country that is based on free market economics and laissez-faire attitude be equated to be the same as the dreaded “reds under the bed"?

The parents of Mets catcher Rod Barajas came to the United States from Mexico, and he lives in Arizona. So Naturally, the new immigration law passed in that state has drawn his attention, and his ire.

Barajas was born in Ontario, Calif., three years after his parents moved there from Mexico. His father is from Mexicali and mother is from Michoacan, and his older brother was born in Mexico, too.

Bottom of the ninth and two outs. There was a runner on first and a ghost runner on third, and Moose, the neighborhood meathead and opposing team's best hitter, was at the plate.

Filthy, drenched in sweat, and a tightly wound bundle of nerves, I stood on the mound (which was actually just a chalk line drawn on the ground)—the loneliest kid on earth.

The impact of the new Arizona immigration law on baseball is far-reaching and potentially could cause a problem between labor and management. Of course, this is only a mirror of the effect it will have on society, in general, in Arizona.

I’ve spent some time in Arizona on business trips in the past. It doesn’t take long to figure out that this is a serious and overt problem for the legal residents of the state.

How can a player with a six-year stint in the majors, and a .200 career batting average become one of the most beloved characters in Major League Baseball?

Be Bob Uecker—that's it, fairly simply.

Milwaukee Brewers' fans are lucky enough to have the opportunity to listen to the "Ueke's" colorful and often legitimately laugh-out-loud funny commentary on a nightly basis.

Uecker, 75, will undergo major heart surgery on Friday, and most likely be out of commission for 10 to 12 weeks.

Cincinnati, whether deserved or undeserved, has long held a reputation of racist city.

And no, that's not a photo of Joe Morgan giving a "black power" fist. He's waving.

But the photo looked silly after trying to crop it down and get the wave into the shot.

Having never lived in Cincinnati, it's tough to properly judge. 

Just a hunch, but most whites would probably deny it, blacks would agree that the city has serious issues regarding racism.

Major League Baseball has a rich history of nicknames, but not all nicknames are created equally. The league is currently flooded with lazy, uninspired nicknames that are, more accurately, abbreviations that hold no real meaning.

Some, for instance A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez) and Arm-Ram (Aramis Ramirez) are better left without meaning. Both monikers are better suited to something you would find in the adult section of the video store. Other nicknames are stretches or just sound ridiculous. Jimmy "J-Roll" Rollins comes to mind.

The New York Yankees are arguably the MLB organization of the year; 27-time World Champions, 103 regular season wins, and an unobstructed run to the World Series.

You ask, how can the TinCaps of Fort Wayne, the Midwest League affiliate of the San Diego Padres, top the evil empire ?