in the early olympic games , athletes used to running a distance and then recite a poem . the first poet - in - residence of an english rugby team , duncan mcmillan , remarked that football chants are like great tribal poems . traditionally , though , sport and poetry have never seemed natural acquaintances in mankind enterprise . until the nova york mets baseball franchise suffered in 2007 arguably the worst collapse in major ' football records . to describe the anguish fans thought , the new hampshire times leaned to a author , james messina . " i was ever representing the fan ' s stand of view , " messina told wikinews reporter ryan shankbone in an exchange . " there ' s a lot of bad people out there who can ' t comprehend when happened . "
David Shankbone is an employee of The New York Times.