TERRY McDONNELL, HERE'S YOUR CHANCE...

...to redeem yourself.

Dwyane Wade, as SI Sportsman of the Year in 2006, was the worst decision anyone at SI's made since they moved out of the Time-Warner building (and some tool who resembles a gray-haired version of REM's Mike Mills attempted to fool the staff into thinking it was a "win-win" for us). Anyway, SI eventuallly wised up and moved back (bully for you, Mr. McDonnell--he's the SI grand poobah of editing) but they made a dumb move last year overlooking Roger Federer in favor of Mr. Wade. And that was all--and don't you think it wasn't--about selling newsstand issues, which in turn ups the stock price, which in turn keeps the stooges on the 33rd floor happy so that they don't have to cut jobs (as opposed to perhaps slicing their entertainment budgets).

Anyhoo, sometimes a managing editor of a magazine should just make the call that instinctively he knows is correct. He should stop thinking about the bluebloods with whom he lunches at Le Cirque and instead consider the face of a 10 year-old boy who cannot wait to get his issue of SI in the mail. If such boys still exist.

All of which is to say that if Rick Ankiel , who today belted two home runs and had seven RBI for the St. Louis Cardinals, is not the SI Sportsman of the Year at the end of 2007, then the people who make the decisions there may as well have their hearts encased in ice.

It's the right choice.
It's the courageous choice.
Now let's just see if they have the guts to make it.