in the early olympic trials , someone used to walk a mile and then recite a stanza . the first poet - in - camp of an english football squad , ian mcmillan , remarked that the chant are like huge tribal ballads . generally , though , sport and poetry have never felt natural companions in life enterprises . until the new york mets wrestling team suffered in 2007 almost the worst loss in major league softball history . to describe the anguish fans felt , the new york newspaper turning to a poet , jim calabria . " nothing was really representing the fan ' s point of view , " cobb told wikinews reporter john shankbone in an episode . " there ' s a lot of hurting men out there who can ' t express what suffered . "
David Shankbone is an employee of The New York Times.