For more than 10 years (1994 - 2004), I wrote a self-syndicated column called “Utah Tech Watch” that began as a biweekly column and six months later moved to a weekly schedule.
Over time this column was published by three papers — the Deseret News (now the Deseret Morning News), The Daily Herald (in Provo, Utah) and The Enterprise (Utah’s weekly business paper) — as well as being distributed for free via email to several thousand subscribers.
Each year, one of my most fun and yet difficult self-directed assignments was to identify the top 10 stories of the year.
I plan to resurrect “Utah Tech Watch” as an online media property in 2008, and when I do, I’ll also resurrect its annual Top 10 stories piece. But for now, let me transpose this idea to this SOAR Communications blog with what I propose are the Top 10 Global SOAR Stories of 2007.
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With the 2007 Tour de France wrapping up yesterday under a dark cloud of suspicion, allegations and forced rider withdrawals, I can think of no better way to open this SOAR blog than with some thoughts about the question about the use of performance-enhancing substances by athletes.
As a long-time baseball fan who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I found myself in awe of childhood heroes at the S.F. Giants, including Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Bobby Bonds. Their towering homerun shots were amazing to behold, and I was, in fact, privileged to be in the stands to see McCovey hit a line shot out of Candlestick Park during the 1971 National League Championship Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates – the Giants only win of the series.
Since moving out of the Bay Area I’ve followed baseball from afar, catching the Giants position in the standings in the local paper and catching a Giants game on the tube or in person when I could. But I’ve always been a Giants fan.
Hence, the addition of Barry Bonds to the Giants roster in 1993 led to a renewed interest in the Giants franchise. Soon his long-ball drives in Candlestick (and then to PacBell Park) were attracting fan attention around the globe, including mine.
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