They don’t have to. The whole written in English published in America thing does it for them. A quick browse of what they cover shows it’s mostly American sports and leagues. They cover all sports but mostly NFL, MLB etc.
I made no assumptions about nor did I notice your gender when I made that comment, especially considering that I have never bought an issue. I made that assumption because of your specific ignorance.
From Mahaloth (bold print mine): “There have been a few group awards that included a non-American but the last non-American to win outright was Gretzky in 1982. The last non-North American was in 1959.” It’s the nationalism that disturbs me.
It’s an literally an American sports magazine. Why would an American sports magazine not be American focused? If you don’t like it, don’t buy it (anymore).
That said: Serena Williams was their SOTY for 2015, right? That’s the year she won three of the four Grand Slams, but didn’t make it to the fourth final; it’s also the year Djokovic won three of the four Grand Slams, and did make it to the fourth final. And if that’s not the tiebreaker, then — what? More titles at other tournaments? Well, no; he won more of those than she did. Better record in doubles? Uh, no; hers was worse. More weeks ranked number one? Again, no; the only advantage I can figure is that they figured the American would sell more issues.
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We are talking about the people who coined the term “World Series”, forget it Jake, is USATown
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Some sources say that “World Series” somehow involved the New York “World” newspaper, and it wasn’t meant to mean “worldwide”
There is no “tiebreaker.” Nothing stops SI from naming two people at once; look at 1994, with speedskaters Bonnie Blair and Johann Olav Koss.
I am in the “if Serena was not an American, she would never have been named” camp.
Best evidence of this: explain how Steffi Graf won all four majors and an Olympic gold medal in 1988 and didn’t win the award.
I have heard both versions of this. The “New York World” one may be confused with how the World Almanac got its name.
I guess my oh-so-limited point would be that, when Graf didn’t get it, she lost out to an athlete other than a tennis player, which makes it apples and oranges; I can’t rule out that it was just an America Fuck Yeah sentiment, but it’s at least possible that SI was just so danged wowed by a baseball accomplishment that they claim with a straight face beats anything in tennis. You could at least make that argument, is all I’m saying…
…but if Serena gets it in ‘15, (a) it’s at least possible that nobody else accomplished anything as impressive in baseball or football or whatever, but (b) if we grant, for the sake of argument, that her tennis accomplishments were more amazing than anything in any sport other than tennis that year, then it’s pretty danged apples-to-apples to say Er, No; That’s What Djokovic Did, Only Less So.
IIRC, that’s exactly what happened. Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser had an outstanding season and helped them win the World Series – but he was nowhere near as dominant as Graf.
I’m not sure why it has to be explained why an American sports magazine with a mostly American audience would have an American focus. The purpose of the issue is to 1) sell magazines/internet ads and 2) to get people talking. Honoring the best in the world in any sport is third at most.
There was a time (up through around 1980, I think) when the NBA Finals were called the “World Championship Series” by the league, and the NBA champions were also called “world champions.” Never mind that there had been a “world championship” played (between countries’ national amateur teams, like the Olympics) every 4 years since the 1950s.