Word: sporting
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According to their recruiting materials, the Dallas Derby Devils are "looking for a few bad women"--black fishnets and tongue studs optional. As one of the nation's newest roller-derby leagues, the sexed-up Triple D's reflects the sport's new look, one that's decidedly different from the old '70s slamdango. Sweatbands and tank tops have been replaced by spiked collars and sultry schoolgirl uniforms. Gone, too, are the banked tracks of yesteryear, as the sport expands into less expensive arenas such as parking lots and tennis courts...
...build and bring the action closer to spectators, are helping roller derby mount a monster comeback across the U.S. At least 20 flat-track leagues have popped up in the past few years, in contrast with half a dozen still using the old tracks. "Banked track is the sport of dinosaurs," says flat-track pioneer Lacy Attuso, a.k.a. Whiskey L'Amour of the Texas Rollergirls in Austin. "We're the new wave." Attuso, who is a p.r. exec by day, says the Rollergirls are creating "a coalition of the willing" that will hash out official flat-track rules in Chicago...
During 11 hours of testimony, the House reform committee further embarrassed the game by making baseball answer for its weak steroid policy. Baseball officials told skeptical committee members that the current policy represents progress, since the sport inexplicably had no policy until 2002. But baseball still falls woefully short compared with other sports. In the NFL, players are tested randomly in and out of season, and first-time abusers miss a quarter of a season. Baseball players miss 10 days, or about 5% of the season--and the legislators were incensed to learn about language that allowed a fine instead...
...House surely produced great theater, but are the politicians just talking tough? Committee members repeatedly threatened to rescind baseball's antitrust exemption, which has been on the books for more than 80 years, if the sport doesn't adopt harsher drug rules. But some experts think Congress is bluffing. "Why would they do that?" asks Chicago-based sports-marketing consultant Marc Ganis. "It's an arrow in their quiver to say they'll pull it. If they did, what would they then have to hold over baseball...
...government has the power to rewrite baseball's drug laws, and Congress's patience with the sport is clearly low. Says Indiana's Mark Souder, who sits on the reform committee: "With the current policy, I don't think they'll make it through the current season [without intervention]." But Congress probably won't act too fast--it rarely does--so expect more hearings, say House reform-committee members. Some members want to call more players and perhaps baseball trainers to prove that baseball has long known about the steroid use. Rather than single out baseball, the House might...