January 01, 2007

2006 SteveSilver.net Achievement Awards

Athlete of the Year: Jason McElwain, the autistic manager of a high school basketball team near Rochester, N.Y., who was allowed to play in his team’s final home game, and responded by scoring 20 points, including six three-pointers, in just a few minutes of action. His story has already been optioned for a “Remember the Titans”-like movie.

Athletic Achievement of the Year: Sal Fasano, then a backup catcher with the Phillies, admitted in an interview with the Philadelphia City Paper that in his minor-league days, he would drink 30 beers and a fifth of Southern Comfort every night.

Quote of the Year:

"I think that you flatter Isiah Thomas far too much by suggesting that he is merely one of a number of atrocious GMs. The truth is that Rob Babcock and Billy King are Einstein next to him. The mess he is creating right now in New York will be studied by business school students 50 years from now alongside Enron and pets.com."
Malcolm Gladwell, while chatting with Bill Simmons.

Film Critic Quote of the Year:

"I’m giving "Strangers With Candy" one star for every laugh it gave me [zero]. The Amy Sedaris comedy based on the failed TV show isn't the least funny film of the year - but for that it should send a thank-you note to "United 93...' The point of the movie is to take down white trash, but can trash be taken any lower than it already is? Sedaris and crew are doing not satire but manic caricature, trying to bring life to feeble punch lines by screaming them. This movie is worse than flying from JFK to Singapore in the middle seat between two chatty Scientologists. It's worse than do-it-yourself rhinoplasty. It's even worse than college improv."
Kyle Smith of the New York Post.

Press Critic Quote of the Year:

"The press can’t win. When The Times publishes a piece like its domestic spying exposé, the paper is criticized by the left for sitting on the piece for over a year, and excoriated by the right for being unpatriotic in a time of war. The polarization of American politics has grown so severe that partisan critics now blame the media for failing to bring down their political enemies. Unless bloggers on both sides of the aisle understand that it’s not the job of the press to do their political bidding, the media better get used to being a punching bag."
- Gabriel Sherman, in the New York Observer.

YouTube of the Year:

Cartoon of the Year: A child of Palestine, a child of Israel.

Blog Post of the Year: Andrew Sullivan's "alternate-universe" blog of what would have happened over the years if there had been no 9/11, in New York Magazine.

Tabloid Front Page of the Year: "Second Graders With Crack" (Philadelphia Daily News, March 1).

Headline of the Year (Best): "This is Your Brain on Jugs: What Sexy Women Do to Men's Thinking Skills" (Slate, April 21).

Headline of the Year (Worst): Wheelchair-Bound Grandmother, 37, Was City's 355th Homicide (Philadelphia Daily News, Nov. 14).

Newspaper Piece of the Year: Claire Hoffman's interview/interrogation of Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis, which started with the subject threatening to rape the reporter, and ended with her punching him in the face (Los Angeles Times, Aug. 6).

Oped of the Year: "What Year is It," Ross Douthat's look at how everyone follows politics by drawing historical parallels. (Wall Street Journal, Aug. 15).

Press Conference of the Year: Dennis Green's, after the Cardinals' heartbreaking loss to the Bears on Monday Night Football October 16, screaming "the Bears are who we THOUGHT they were," and "if you want to crown them, crown their ass."

Crime Reporting Piece of the Year: Wendy Ruderman's piece on a swastika-tatooed ex-con in West Deptford, NJ, who was living in a metal container, with a prostitute, outside the home of his ex-wife. (Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 11.)

Correction of the Year:The Associated Press, in their injury report of June 29, accidentally reported that Chicago Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood had torn his labia, rather than his labrum. The correction came too late to prevent the incorrect note from appearing in more than 100 newspapers.

Eckstein Award Winner (for achievements by non-Jews with Jewish-sounding names): David Eckstein himself, of course, though I’m sure he’s happier about being World Series MVP. He beats out Bears quarterback (and 2003 winner) Rex Grossman, and Wyoming Gov. David Freudenthal.

Chutzpah Award Winner: Saddam Hussein, prior to his death, for complaining that the judge in his war crimes trial was biased, because he was from a town against which Saddam had once carried out a poison gas attack.

Burn Your Siddur Award Winner: Baruch Marzel, chairman of Israel's United Jewish Front party, for publishing a letter criticizing Israeli model Linor Abargil for dating Lithuanian basketball player Sarunas Jasikevicius, who was playing in Israel at the time but is not Jewish. In order to make her aware of "the dangers associated with marrying gentiles," Marzel left his phone number for Abargil, and said she was free to call at any time.

Posted by Stephen Silver at January 1, 2007 01:56 PM
Comments

Um- the photo of the year is blank. Is that some sort of tribute to Time's Person of the year?

Posted by: Ivan at January 1, 2007 04:09 PM

That You Tube thing was aweful. I couldn't see or hear it.

Posted by: A at January 2, 2007 09:04 AM
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