The Raleigh Reds Team

Archive for April, 2010

Alex Richard asked:




Everybody knows about ESPN as the cable TV channel for sports-related programs. Its publication counterpart is called ESPN The Magazine, which is a bi-weekly sports magazine published by the ESPN sports network. While ESPN the channel was first launched in 1979, the magazine’s first issue was published in March of 1998.

The magazine covers the main and most popular sports in the United States. They include Major League Baseball, the NBA, NHL, NFL, college football and college basketball. What makes the magazine attractive than other sports magazine is that it usually takes a light-hearted, sometimes even humorous approach to sports news, as compared to other sports magazine like Sporting News or Sports Illustrated. If you have read a few magazine copies, you will notice that the issues usually cover players with careers that suffered due to incidents and accidents off the field.

Among the sections or departments of each issue of the magazine include:

The Sports Guy. This is the first section in the magazine, written by Bill Simmons, who tries to provide an alternative point of view on a particular sporting issue.

Two Way. As suggestive of its name, in this section, questions from readers are entertained by Stuart Scott, who gives his own opinions in response to the question.

The Biz. This part tackles a more serious topic. In this section, Peter Keating presents the business aspect of sports. He also discusses the effect of this business aspect on the sporting world.

The Post. This section refers back to the previous edition of the magazine, and presents some reader’s comments as well as updates regarding previously featured stories.

Zoom. This is a poster-type, large image considered to be the “image of the week.” It occupies two whole pages.

The Jump. This contains a mix of various regular features, which offers an alternative entertaining, often humorous view on the current topics in the sporting scene.

Outtakes. This contains transcripts of interviews done by Kenny Mayne with a popular sports star. The interview usually tackles non sports issues surrounding the sports star’s life.

The Life of Reilly. This is a section by columnist Rick Reilly who gives opinions regarding the sports world, and gives reports on various current topics of interest in the sporting world.

These are just some of the many things to look forward to in every issue of ESPN the Magazine. If you are a sports fanatic, every issue is surely worth looking forward to. You can enjoy great savings when getting an ESPN the Magazine subscription. For every issue, you will get a good percentage off the newsstand price. You can get even better discounts if you subscribe through an online magazine website.

Tom Billmore asked:




The first officially recorded game in baseball took place on June 4th 1838. It was around this time that this sport began to pick up momentum in the US. As its popularity increased in leaps and bounds, in the heat of competition, it produced good and top notch players who became household brand names. Soon enough, fans started collecting top baseball cards with pictures of top players, winning teams, and so on. Collecting these sports cards was soon becoming a roaring business and hobby for most fans.

To popularize this game, baseball cards were freely distributed at street corners just before the start of an event. As the game became more and more popular in the US, people started preserving some of the well-made cards of top players and teams as momentos. Several years later, these mementoes were selling at a premium as top baseball cards, just like original paintings, coins, stamps, etc.

In mid 1945s, fans introduced “Rookie Cards”. These are top sports cards of beginners in this sport. If the beginner became a hero or a legend in later years, his Rookie Card would become a premium item in the market. With baseball fever running high in the U.S., many of the top cards were sold at a premium, and soon acquired the name as trade cards, since people began to buy them at a premium and sell them at a still higher premium. Very soon it spawned a slew of cheap manufacturers who began selling fakes as originals. In the process, both the originals and the fakes became very expensive. The true originals of the 1860s and 1900s began to be called as vintage cards. As the fakes flooded the market, these vintage cards became rare, as their value kept rising in the market.

Just like any original painting, coin or stamp, an expensive baseball card commands a premium of minimum U.S. $ 100,000/-. It must have cost hardly a dime or even a premium of a dollar in the year 1875 or thereabouts. These days, some of the original baseball cards of top notch players and teams of yesteryears, command a very high premium.