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The Silencing of Carlos Delgado

Sometimes sports mirrors politics with such morbid accuracy you don't know whether to laugh, cry or hide in the basement. Just as the Bush Administration shows its commitment to democracy by operating secret offshore gulags and buying favorable news coverage in Iraq, the New York Mets have made it clear to new player Carlos Delgado that freedom of speech stops once the blue and orange uniform--their brand--is affixed to his body.

The Fight to Save Stan Tookie Williams

Jim Brown: NFL hall of famer actor activist. He has mediated truces between the toughest gangs in Los Angeles and fought racism from South Central to Soweto. But today he is involved in a different kind of fight: the race to save Stan Tookie Williams, who now awaits execution on California's death row. Williams is due to be executed December 13, and Brown has linked arms with a motley crew of activists from Archbishop Desmond Tutu to hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg demanding that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger spare his life. Schwarzenegger, who has set a clemency hearing for December 8, recently told reporters he is "dreading" the decision he is about to make.

The Champ Meets the Chump

When George W. Bush met Muhammad Ali at the White House last week, the Champ had one last rope-a-dope up his sleeve. You don't have to guess who won this match.

The Soccer Star and the President

If there were a Mount Rushmore of international soccer, Diego Maradona

Sheryl Swoopes - Out of the Closet And Onto The Court

What

How Major League Baseball Strip-mines the Dominican Republic

This piece is in the November 14, 2005 issue of the Nation magazine with the title 'Say It Ain't So, Big Leagues.'

When Fists are Frozen: The Statue of Tommie Smith and John Carlos

Trepidation should be our first impulse when we hear that radical heroes are to be immortalized in fixed poses of bloodless nostalgia.

The Meeting That Never Was: Pat Tillman and Noam

Barry Bonds Laughs Last

Etan Thomas Electrifies Anti-War Washington

Every generation the wide world of corporate sports produces an athlete with the iron resolve and moral urgency to step off their pedestal and join the fight for social justice. A century ago, it was boxer Jack Johnson, flaunting, as WEB DuBois put it,