Posts by: League of Fans
By Ken Reed
Baseball’s Unwritten Rules Book reared it’s ugly head again last week, when the Chicago White Sox’ Yermin Mercedes had the audacity to actually swing at a 3-0 pitch from a utility player during a blowout victory over the Minnesota Twins last week.
Mercedes hit that ninth inning lob ball from Twins […]
By Ken Reed
We’ve written about this issue before (here and here). But it needs to be addressed again.
The number of drop-in ads during radio and television broadcasts of Major League Baseball (MLB) games is completely out of hand.
The problem is especially troublesome with radio broadcasts. Seemingly, every single […]
By Ken Reed
Originally published by Troy Media
We’re in the middle of a mental health crisis, and it’s crying out for more attention.
Lives are being lost to suicide. Depression, anxiety and other forms of mental illness negatively affect entire families, not just the individual suffering. Work productivity is impacted to a significant […]
By Ken Reed
The trend of sport specialization in youth sports continues unabated. Parents and coaches tell kids as young as seven and eight that they need to specialize in a single sport if they ever hope to be successful. Too many parents don’t even give kids a choice between single-sport participation and multi-sport participation. […]
League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast
Cleveland Indians Owner/CEO Paul Dolan joins us on this episode of the Sports Forum podcast. We jump right into a hot topic: the use of Native American names and logos by sports teams in general and the Cleveland Indians in particular. Dolan describes the process the team went […]
By Ken Reed
We have a mental health crisis in this country and it’s crying out for more attention.
Lives are lost to suicide. Depression, anxiety and other forms of mental illness negatively affect entire families, not just the individual suffering. The nation’s productivity is impacted to a significant degree due to mental health […]
League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast
League of Fans Sports Policy Director Ken Reed has a very special guest on this episode of our Sports Forum podcast: Ralph Nader. Nader is a long-time consumer advocate and four-time presidential candidate. He was named one of the “100 Most Influential Americans of the 20th Century” by […]
By Ken Reed
It used to be that youth sports was a local community activity. Youth sports teams — “little league” teams if you will — would play other teams formed in their neighborhood and perhaps a few teams from close surrounding neighborhoods.
In today’s club sports world, youth teams are formed with players from […]
By Ken Reed
Major League Baseball has an entertainment problem. And when you’re in the entertainment business that’s not good.
Baseball has become a slow game with a lot of strikeouts, walks and occasional home runs. Those are called the “three true outcomes” in today’s game. The plethora of strikeouts is a big issue because […]
Sport at its best is a co-operative activity. We compete with our opponents, not against them
By Ken Reed
Originally published by Troy Media
I love to collect quotes on a wide variety of subjects but especially sports. I’ve shared some of my favourites in the past. However, there are so many great […]
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #33 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Ken Reed Announces His Retirement and Chats With League of Fans Founder Ralph Nader – Ken and Ralph talk about the history of League of Fans and the reasons it was created. They then move into a discussion of a variety of contemporary sports issues that League of Fans has been working on in recent years. Ken and Ralph end by talking about the need for sports fans, athletes, and other sports stakeholders to get involved in the sports reform movement and be activists and change agents on issues important to them, whether that be at the local, state, or national level.
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Episode #32 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Prolific Author Joe Posnanski Joins the Show – Posnanski is one of America’s best sportswriters and has twice been named the best sports columnist in America by the Associated Press Sports Editors. We chat about his new book, “Why We Love Baseball,” his new Substack newsletter called Joe Blogs.
Episode #31 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Foul Ball Safety Is Still an Important Issue at Ballparks – Our guests are Jordan Skopp, founder of FoulBallSafety.com and Greg Wilkowski, a Chicago based attorney. We discuss the historical problem of foul balls injuring fans and why some teams are still hesitant to put up protective netting in some minor league and college baseball parks.
Episode #30 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The State of College Athletics with Dr. David Ridpath: Problems and Potential Solutions – Ridpath is a sports administration professor at Ohio University and a member of The Drake Group, a college sports reform think tank.
Episode #29 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The Honorable Tom McMillen Visits League of Fans’ Sports Forum – McMillen is a former All-American basketball player, Olympian, Rhodes Scholar and U.S. Congressman. We discuss the state of college athletics today.
Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world. We discuss problems in youth sports today.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- Reed Appears on Ralph Nader Radio Hour League of Fans’ sports policy director, Ken Reed, Ralph Nader and the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner discussed a variety of sports issues on Nader’s radio show as well as Reed’s updated book, How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan. Reed's book was released in paperback in February, and has a new introduction and several updated sections.
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
Books
