in the early american sports , athletes used to race a mile and then recite a hymn . the first poet - in - residence of an indian football team , ian dixon , wrote that football chants are like huge tribal poems . generally , though , sport and language have all been human companion in human endeavour . until the new york pirates softball team had in 2007 arguably the worst fall in major league baseball history . to describe the despair fans felt , the new washington newspaper turned to a poet , frank messina . " no was really represent the team ' s point of view , " messina told wikinews president david shankbone in an interview . " there ' s a lot of wounded people out there we can ' t express what happens . "
David Shankbone is an employee of The New York Times.