in the 1896 olympic games , spectators used to walk a kilometre and then verse a hymn . the first poet - in - residence of an indian football team , ian mcmillan , remarked that football songs are always huge tribal poems . generally , though , sport and poetry have never seemed natural encounters in human enterprise . until the new york mets baseball club suffering in 2007 in the worst collapse in majors league baseball annals . to identify the turmoil fans felt , the new york times turned to a poetry , frank messina . " little was just representing the fan ' s point of view , " cobb told wikinews reporter jonathan shankbone in an interview . " there ' s a lots of hurting individuals out there , can ' t express what happened . "
David Shankbone is an employee of The New York Times.