in the 2004 olympic games , someone have to run a mile and then recite a poem . the first musician - in - residence of an association athletic team , simon robertson , remarked that football drills are like huge individual poems . generally , though , sport and poetry have never seemed natural companions in humans endeavour . until the new york mets baseball team suffered in 2007 arguably the worst collapse in major league basketball history . to describe the anguish readers experienced , the newest jersey times leaned to a poet , chris messina . " nothing was really representing the supporter ' s point of thought , " messina told wikinews researcher alan shankbone in an interview . " there ' s a lot of hurt people out there whom can ' t remember what happened . "
David Shankbone is an employee of The New York Times.