The Champion Single Sculls (Max Schmitt in a Single Scull), by Thomas Eakins, 1871. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Alfred N. Punnett Endowment Fund and George D. Pratt Gift, 1934.

Sports & Games

Volume III, Number 3 | summer 2010

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Field of Dreams

By Lewis H. Lapham

Play is the making of civilization—how one plays the game more to the point than whether the game is won or lost.

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The Best of It

By Beth Raymer

The key to winning money is knowing a good line when you see one.

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Map

Playing Grounds

On the track, in the ring, around the table, and at the target.

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1954 | Oxford

Picking Up the Pace

Roger Bannister runs the first sub-four-minute mile.More

c. 190 | Rome

Shooting Gallery

Emperor Commodus and his menagerie of death.More

29 BC | Japan

Namesake

The origins of sumo.More

Charts & Graphs

Get a Life

Facts and figures about the online virtual world Second Life circa 2009.

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Statue depicting Roman orator and historian Tacitus.

Cuban chess player José Raúl Capablanca.

American editor Terry McDonell.

Black and white image of American writer Herman Melville.

Image from Codex Manesse depicting a tournament of knights.

Courage and grace is a formidable mixture. The only place to see it is in the bullring.

—Marlene Dietrich, 1962

Missing contributor image silhouette

Dutch historian Johan Huizinga.

Bacchylides & Johan Huizinga

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