February 2012
1 post
6 tags
Feb 3rd
12 notes
December 2011
1 post
1 tag
Longreads: Bethlehem Shoals: My Top 5 Longreads of... →
longreads: Bethlehem Shoals is an editor at The Classical and the founder of FreeDarko.com.
Dec 14th
33 notes
November 2011
3 posts
7 tags
Yoenis, superstar
classicaldotorg: By Eric Freeman On Sunday night, a highlight video of Cuban defector and aspiring MLB center fielder Yoenis Cespedes, known as “Yoennis” up until a few days ago, appeared on YouTube. It set the sports world (well, one very specific quadrant of it) abuzz, and then just as abruptly, was removed by the uploader, presumably due to copyright issues. The baseball clips of the 26...
Nov 8th
37 notes
4 tags
How uncanny is my valley
classicaldotorg: By Fredorrarci This week in soccer, the clubs give way to the national teams. For some followers of the game — the special, enlightened, deeply attractive ones — it is a time of intrigue, with World Cup qualifiers taking place across the globe, and the final slots in the European Championships being filled. For others, it is anything but; to them, this is the first day of the...
Nov 7th
383 notes
7 tags
Baseball's white rabbit
nocoastoffense: classicaldotorg: illustration: Paul Windle By Paul Flannery Bill Lee is late. There are sixteen kids, their parents, and a man named Miro who is running for mayor waiting for him on a Little League baseball field in Burlington, Vermont. The weather is unusually cold for October, and now it’s starting to rain. Lee’s baseball life is equal parts inspiration and cautionary tale....
Nov 7th
64 notes
October 2011
18 posts
3 tags
Letty's Top Jamz
Here’s what my 5 week-old is listening to. Her picks, not mine: “Thirteen” -Big Star “Living in the Ghetto” -Purple Image “Train From Kansas City” -Shangri-Las “Without You” -The Classic Example “Tea for Two” -Bud Powell Legacy of Brutality - Misfits On the Beach - Neil Young ***for special occasions*** Fantastic Glissando - Tony...
Oct 30th
11 notes
6 tags
Oct 26th
18 notes
5 tags
Oct 25th
202 notes
5 tags
Oct 25th
41 notes
4 tags
Oct 25th
131 notes
6 tags
What I Learned
Bryant Gumbel uses a plantation analogy—sorry, he doesn’t really think the NBA is a plantation—and sensation ensues. Bill Simmons employs a insider-y business term, a week after harping on how little college the players attended, and “Twitter” seizes on its nastier connotations. So basically, any language connected to slavery freaks out white people, and writers who use...
Oct 25th
23 notes
9 tags
Oct 24th
22 notes
7 tags
Oct 22nd
39 notes
6 tags
You Don't Matter.
I’m not really concerned with who first started humoring the voice of the fan, or why. We all started as fans; presumably, most of us working somewhere in the business still are. However, it has absolutely no place in this lockout. The knee-jerk reaction to cancelations, of which there will be more today, is “I want my NBA!” or “Come on, let’s save the NBA!” The...
Oct 21st
193 notes
8 tags
Oct 20th
27 notes
8 tags
Oct 15th
46 notes
Oct 13th
12 notes
6 tags
Oct 13th
144 notes
8 tags
Oct 12th
278 notes
8 tags
Oct 10th
29 notes
7 tags
Oct 7th
31 notes
7 tags
Oct 6th
25 notes
5 tags
Michael Hayes: INTERVIEW: Jeffory Marker, The Guy... →
michaelhayes: Sports fans and HWLBSers (hipsters who love Bethlehem Shoals), The Classical raised the $50 K they needed to launch their new online destination. Actually, they raised $55 K. We all knew it would be successful Kickstarter campaign.   One donor distinguished himself in the process, a Jeffory Marker. A man from San Antonio. A gemini who loves basketball and airplanes. A life-long...
Oct 4th
200 notes
September 2011
4 posts
9 tags
FREE EVERYONE: Bomani, Race, Blogging
If you haven’t already, go read Bomani Jones’s post (piece?) on the construction of the American sports fan, and how it affects the media industry, new or otherwise. There’s a lot to digest there, and in my post-baby morass, I doubt I’m going to be able to give it the consideration it deserves. Full disclosure: This post itself is reconstituted bits and pieces of emails...
Sep 27th
30 notes
5 tags
Sep 19th
35 notes
7 tags
The Classical and You
The Classical is $8,140 away from its goal. If you’ve donated, we thank you with all our hearts. If you’ve made a principled stance not to—maybe you would prefer to “support” writers with a different model, or believe freelancers can write two things at the same time—then we appreciate your honesty.  If you’re either waiting, or on the fence, this Tumbl is for you. We...
Sep 16th
35 notes
4 tags
Sep 1st
247 notes
August 2011
18 posts
6 tags
Aug 31st
172 notes
10 tags
HUGE Thanks to NBA Off-Season!
nbaoffseason: Today, the team here at NBA Off Season, the self proclaimed Wu-Tang Clan of basketball blogs here on Tumblr, has a request. We’d like you, our ever-loyal readers, to help us support The Classical. For those unfamiliar, The Classical intends to be more than another sports site. It will hopefully take sports writing to great new heights. A lot of people that we love, and most likely...
Aug 30th
36 notes
3 tags
Aug 29th
164 notes
6 tags
Dear Miranda July
SPOILER ALERT: I hate myself for doing this, because I really did like The Future, and I know that this was kind of the point of the whole film. But would it have been so hard to murder off those people at the end instead of that adorable metaphysical talking cat? Best, Shoals
Aug 28th
4 notes
3 tags
Aug 22nd
12 notes
3 tags
Aug 20th
2 notes
4 tags
Aug 17th
24 notes
5 tags
WatchWatch
gq: The Classical: The New-Thing-We’re-Excited-About Of The Day A new, user-funded Awl-esque website all about sports, brought to you in part by the Free Darko gang and featuring several of GQ’s favorite sportswriters. We will be kicking in coins to help make this happen. If you find the video primer as enticing as we did, please do the same. The fellas are calling it The Classical. Read more...
Aug 15th
49 notes
6 tags
Aug 11th
6 notes
5 tags
Aug 11th
9 notes
5 tags
The Most Seattle Thing Ever
A. and I go for a walk in Seward Park, typically one of the least Seattle-y places in Seattle. She makes frequent stops because 1) she’s pregnant (very Seattle) and 2) berries abound, making Seward Park prime territory for URBAN FORAGING (ultra-Seattle). Toward the end of the loop, which is taking us forever, two able-bodied dudes passing us notice A. rooting around the brambles. She is...
Aug 11th
11 notes
7 tags
Aug 8th
1 note
2 tags
Aug 6th
21 notes
7 tags
Reggie Bush & Vince Young
For SportsFeat, I explain why we will never really get over them.
Aug 5th
5 notes
7 tags
Aug 4th
5 notes
5 tags
A Line I Have to Use Somewhere
Don’t bother with “Shark Week jumped the shark”. That was done in 2004. However, I’m pretty sure that no one has yet proposed Shark Week as shark. It’s 24 years old, which means it has run (swam?) the in/out gauntlet and hardened into tradition, or optimized fact. Shark Week, like the beast itself, is perfect at what it does. Nothing brings together the disparate...
Aug 4th
28 notes
7 tags
Aug 4th
3 notes
5 tags
Aug 2nd
15 notes
7 tags
Aug 1st
77 notes
July 2011
32 posts
5 tags
Jul 30th
39 notes
6 tags
“FLAME: So where does the anger in your music come from? TYLER: Uh … FLAME: Is...”
– Waka Flocka Flame interviews Tyler, The Creator @ Interview Magazine. Related: Waka Flocka Flame “Stereo Type” Lyrics. I know we’re all supposed to be over OFWGKTA, or at least talking way less about them to make up for how much we were talking about them, but this is a good way to catch up...
Jul 30th
82 notes
9 tags
Jul 30th
13 notes
8 tags
Jul 28th
55 notes