Sticking with the importance of current events, particularly within the sporting world, as an Atlanta native I am especially excited about last weekends events in the MLB. Last Saturday, the Atlanta Braves clinched the 2018 National league East Division title. With a 5-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, I had the pleasure of attending this game with my two best friends. Although extremely hot, the ecstatic result of the game made me forget all about the weather as the Braves continue their successful season.

The thing that makes this league win so exciting, for those of you who don’t follow the world of baseball, is that this is the first time that the Braves have won the league division since 2013, as well as only being the 13th time in the franchise to win the pennant race. Again for those of you who don’t know, as well as those who do (and for that I’m sorry), but the Braves have not had the best of recent seasons at all. So that is what is so exciting. Their actually doing well!

As the MLB post season continually forms, of course I had to cover my home states’ success. It is important to cover all sporting news, not just the teams you love. So after my experience on Saturday, I knew that this would be perfect to reflect upon in my blog. Especially since it was on a sport to which I do not know a ton about, but as well in which a team I have always supported.

Kind of sticking with the theme of last week’s post, this one is all about soccer. If your any sort of dedicated fan, you know that this was quite the weekend for the sport. Three big players achieved very challenging feats in three separate leagues this weekend. Now, although I am mainly discussing this topic because I am a huge fan, there is also an underlying importance in terms of news. Keeping up with current events is crucial, especially in any news or journalistic career. So really that serves as the main purpose of these blogs; a place to catch up on big, important moments within different sports. And the world of sports hold a special place in the news world. Both for educational and enjoyable purposes. Anyways, back to the topic at hand, I think I have kept the suspense long enough.

Starting off with my favorite player, (and also favorite team), Chelsea FC had a fantastic game over Cardiff City with a 4-1 win. Three of those goals however, were scored by Eden Hazard, my personal favorite player, and also one of the most famous players in the world. Now if this does not sound impressive to you, let me lay down some perspective. Chelsea, a London based team has been part of the Premiere League for quite a long time now. The thing that is so special about the Premiere League is that is the highest and best league within England, but it is also held as one of the best leagues in the world. The reason for this is because of several factors. Physicality, intensiveness, pace, and players are some of these factors. Basically, compared to other professional soccer leagues, everything aspect is elevated in the Premiere League. It is faster, more physical, harder, and there are so many famous, amazing world players within it. So to get a hat-trick at this type of level is honestly quite a feat. Plus, Hazard has only done this once before in the league. I couldn’t be happy for him and the team, as his three goals give them their fifth victory in five games.

In other soccer news, some other names you may have heard made big impacts this weekend. Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic rocked with the soccer world with their goals. Playing for the best Italian club team, Juventus, Ronaldo scored his first two goals with them this weekend, after shockingly joining the club this past summer from several years at Real Madrid. Ronaldo is held as one of the best players in the world, as well as history. So with a 2-1 win over Sassuolo, Ronaldo lead his new team to victory. Another enormously famous player is one Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Playing for the american team LA Galaxy, in the MLS (Major League Soccer), Ibrahimovic scored his 500 career goal. What this means is that since becoming a professional soccer player, he has now scored 500 goals throughout his years at different clubs and for his national team. Not only this unbelievable milestone, but the actual goal itself was pretty impressive.

So like stated earlier, this was a big weekend for the world of soccer. But not only that, it was a big weekend for sports and news. It is important to include some recreational interests within your news intake, and what better way to do than keep up with current events within that realm!

Switching gears into the realm of soccer, the most recent occurrence with the U.S. Men’s National Soccer team may have some cause for worry. Sticking with my theme of journalism in the sporting world, in accordance with my last post concerning college lacrosse, the most recent international game has lead to some strong opinions about the future of our team. Facing the 5 time world cup champion nation of Brazil, USA fell to their superior “fut-balling” skills 2-0. Now although the country of Brazil is known for their immense talent and passion for the worldwide game, so technically a lose to them is not quite that big of a surprise, the way the USA played was still cause for uneasiness.

The main cause of this situation is due to the lack of veterans on the team. With essentially an almost full young, new squad, save certain members such as John Brooks or DeAndre Yedlin, there is confusion as to who will step into those leadership roles and take the team to the successful next level. However, one positive outlook that stems out from this is actually the young players again. Although creating this worry, it is always uplifting to see the new, young talent getting a chance to showcase why they made the team. So really when you look at it, it is not so much of a fully worrisome event, but more of a two pronged effect. Is there cause for worry, or do we just need to be patient and let the new team get into the rhythm of playing with each other? Only time will tell to be honest.

In my opinion, I think we just need to be patient. Let them get into the groove, into the rhythm of each other and their style of play. Again, only time will tell if this actually works. But as a fan of the sport, I am willing to give it a chance. And that’s what sports journalism should really be about. Presenting what occurred, but then projecting all of the possibles outcomes and effects of that event. Take this blog for instance, in my totally unbiased opinion, I think this blog easily excelled at this (once again).

As a first time blogger, if that’s what it’s even called these days, I will admit that I had no idea what to write about at first. But after pondering a few ideas after a couple of minutes, I decided that I may as well just write about one my passions: sports! But even more specifically, at least for this  first post, the sport of lacrosse.

Allow me to backtrack a couple of days back. This previous week, while in my editing class, we were discussing all sorts of aspects of news. What is news, what makes something newsworthy, that sort of stuff. About halfway through the class we starting talking about fake news, and looked over several examples, some utterly and humorously ridiculous. This kind of got the wheels turning in my head. I know I’m not the most attuned to news or to what political actions are occurring  within the country, but when it comes to the realm of sports, well that’s kind of like my bread and butter.

Fast forward to present day now. How could I write about something of interest, while relating it back to what we have learned in class thus far? Well, this is where the sport of lacrosse enters the picture. Recently, I learned that college lacrosse has now added in two new (well somewhat new but we’ll address that in a bit) rules for the upcoming season. Firstly, there will now be a sixty second shot clock, once the offensive team crosses the midfield line. Now, for any lax-bro’s out there that may be reading this, you know how big of a deal this actually is. Before this rule, in college lacrosse, once you had the ball there was no time limit whatsoever to shoot. You could just pass the ball from teammate to teammate as long and as much as you wanted. Heck, even for the whole game if you wanted! But that would be extremely boring obviously. Anyways, with this new dynamic added in, the college sport has greatly changed, for the better in my opinion. With a shot clock, teams will have to shoot the ball within sixty seconds. Not only does this speed up the play of the game, giving players more “opportunity” to shoot, but it also increases the enjoyment for the fans. Having an even quicker aspect within the sport of lacrosse will make the viewing of the sport so much more fun. Basically, the more you shoot, the more goals there will be. And goals are one of the best things about any sport really. Secondly, the dive has now been added back into college lacrosse. In 1998, the dive was officially made illegal in college lacrosse due to safety reasons. For those who don’t know what I mean by dive, it’s when a player with the ball dives across the face of the goal in order to shoot, and lands on the other side. The danger aspect is in terms of the goalie or the player who is diving, as jumping right in front of someone can obviously lead to an accident. But the dive has now been added back into college lacrosse officially.

If you’re wondering what on earth any of this has to due with my editing class, I am now finally addressing that side of the story, (even though I’m sure you enjoyed that riveting tangent about lacrosse rules). But thinking back to news and all the characteristics of it, these two rules are major news in the lacrosse community. Not fake at all, this real news has every lacrosse enthusiast talking and eagerly awaiting the start of the college season. From professional players to the everyday fan, any sort of news affecting what they love will get them talking. But when the face of the game is about to change, getting ready to tell a whole new story, as a result of adding some new potent rules to the game, well, that’s something worth blogging about.