Mike Greenberg’s SportsCenter “Fan Feast” Essays Debut July 13

Mike Greenberg’s SportsCenter “Fan Feast” Essays Debut July 13

SportsCenter and ESPN.com’s four-week, fan-based celebration of the top sporting events to experience and to watch continues Monday, July 13, through Friday, July 17, with daily essays by Mike Greenberg, co-host of ESPN Radio and ESPN2’s Mike and Mike in the Morning Show, on his top five events to participate in. The essays, one each day, will debut on SportsCenter at 9 a.m. and will be repeated on all editions of the program.

SportsCenter “Fan Feast” combines online (ESPN.com) submissions of 50-word essays by fans proposing their favorite sporting event to attend and favorite sporting event to participate in. On Monday, July 13, a panel of ESPN.com editorial staff will post the top 10 essays submitted by fans on their best sporting event to play. The series will culminate in two winners – one for event to attend and the other for event to participate in – to be announced Friday, July 24, on SportsCenter at 6 p.m. Highlights of Greenberg’s essays:

Click SportsCenter “Fan Feast” to access and download photos from behind-the-scenes at the shoot of Greenberg’s essays.

Monday, July 13: Smack Notre Dame’s “Play Like A Champion Today”

“They are just five words … And none of them, with the possible exception of “champion,” are the sort which provoke excitement, or intrigue, or frankly any emotion at all … But put them together, and they form the most famous phrase in college football …

“… So how can a simple, wooden, gold and blue sign mounted on a cream-colored brick wall at the foot of a narrow stairwell – and placed there the same year Oprah Winfrey launched her talk show, a grounder eluded Bill Buckner, and Rock Me Amadeus reached number one on the billboard chart – how can THAT sign be perhaps the best known touchstone in the football world? …”

Tuesday, July 14: Play Center Court at Wimbledon
“The most magical address in the sport, maybe in any sport … Center Court at Wimbledon is older, much older, than Fenway Park or Lambeau Field, and has staged a disproportionate number of the game’s greatest matches featuring its greatest stars. Like Bjorn Borg, who won it five times in a row … And Roger Federer, who matched him a generation later … And Martina Navratilova, who won six titles in a row and an unmatched nine singles championships in all.”

Wednesday, July 15: Manage a Baseball Team

“If you want something done, you gotta talk to the manager. No one else has the authority to make the decisions that affect everything you do, every time you step up to the plate … Do you intentionally walk Barry Bonds with the bases loaded? Buck Showalter did, with a two run lead and two outs in the ninth inning. And it worked, he won. Would you have the guts to do it? …

“Wouldn’t you love to make those decisions – all of them? Do you guard the line with a two run lead? Do you suicide squeeze in a tie game in the eighth inning? Do you send the runners on a 3-2 pitch with a free swinger at the plate and less than two out? … So do it. Feel like the most powerful person on the planet. Because, let’s face it. A manager is the only one who makes the decisions.”

Thursday, July 16: Make Two Free Throws With Fans Yelling at You

“…Shaquille O’Neal is a career 58 percent shooter from the floor … from the line – less than 53 percent … he’s five per cent better against a defender than against his own limitations … And then there’s Ben Wallace, a career 42 percent from the line, in none of his 13 seasons has he ever hit half his foul shots …

“Try stepping to the line in a crowded arena with all eyes on you, with thousands of fans screaming and yelling and shaking anything they have in your line of sight to distract you from what should be the easiest shot in basketball…and yet, somehow, just simply isn’t.”

Friday July 17: Hole-in-One Island Green at Sawgrass

“Have you ever hit a hole in one? And I don’t mean in mini-golf to win a free round, but a real hole in one … I never have … I still remember the 90 seconds when I thought I had, on a 167-yard par three at dusk when my ball bounced on the green and was headed right at the pin.

“Let’s put it this way … To make a hole in one just once in a lifetime is something people dream about … To play the 17th at Sawgrass is something people dream about … To make a hole in one on the nastiest, scariest, most thrilling little three in the sport … Is something you’d never stop talking about for the rest of your life.”

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