Letters

A recent commentary of mine included an error.  I misread an article by Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes magazine and reported that David Beckham had made $170-million  last year on endorsements.  Mr. Badenhausen kindly wrote to point out that it took Mr. Beckham five years to make that $170-million in endorsements.  I wrote back to thank Mr. Badenhausen, and wondered, idly, how Mr. Beckham has made ends meet.  In a one-line reply, Mr. Badenhausen wrote, "Coupons, Bill.  Lots and lots of coupons."

I smiled for the remainder of the day.

Celeste McGhee, a WBUR listener, e-mailed this week to say, "Your show is one of the high points of my week.  I love hearing the author interviews that make the star athletes seem like humans--and not gods--which is a good thing."

One of the authors I recently interviewed was John Feinstein, who wrote in his most recent book, One on One, that he may have been the world's first blogger.  In that context, I brought up the old joke about former Vice President Al Gore inventing the internet, which failed to amuse Maxine Saunders of Timonium, Maryland.

"Don't you ever read anything but sports articles?" she wrote.  "Mr. Gore never claimed that he invented the internet, and you should be ashamed to repeat this baldfaced lie."

Rick Evans went Ms. Saunders one better and accused me of working for the Republican National Committee.

Meanwhile, we invite you to send your candidates for our annual celebration of the Super Bowl via haiku.  Among those already submitted, one of the crankier entries comes from James who lives in Denver.  He wrote:

Can't warm up to this
Pointless bonfire of dollars
The dogs need a walk

And finally, responding to the January 14th show, which was hosted by Karen Given, B. Naum wrote, "Only A Soccer Game is one of my favorite programs, and I think it's admirable for you to let your nine-year-old daughter host this morning's show, but I'd rather listen to somebody older."

For the record, Ms. Given is, in her words, "considerably older" than age nine, her father lives in California, and he happens to be my age...though I don't know why that's relevant.

If you'd like to weigh in on something you've heard recently on Only A Game, drop us a line at oag@wbur.org or leave a message at 617-353-1860.

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