Elegy for the Oakland A’s

…no one wants to hear from the murderer at the funeral…

Sportswriter Ann Killion, on owner John Fisher’s sham letter of regret.
Some of my lifetime of A’s paraphernalia.

Sports is not really about demigods performing super human feats, even if it sometimes is. It’s not about honoring divine beings, extolling the virtues of gentlemen athletes, or bringing about world peace, even if some claimed that was its purpose. Sports is not even about winning. Sports is about storytelling, stories which become inseparably woven into the fabric of our own lives.

There have been a lot of tears shed this past week at the funeral for the Oakland Athletics, my hometown baseball team. The final games were played last week by Oakland’s quirky, over-achieving players in its aging, industrial monolith of a stadium. Fans and players wept openly, and we’re still crying. I went to a lot of games there, by myself and with friends, wife, kids, in-laws. The A’s Bay Area tenure roughly paralleled mine, and, although I’m not going anywhere, they’re headed off to West Sacramento, to wear jerseys that have no place name on them. The team owners are dreaming of going to Vegas, but all they have so far is an architectural drawing and a hope for public funding.

I was going to write a rant, full of fury at A’s owner John Fisher, who publicly throttled this team as we were all suffered to watch. Like many of the other fans, though, I end up just thinking about my long string of experiences. Forgive me for such a long, maudlin post. Like a good wake, it goes on longer than it should because I just don’t want to tell the deceased goodbye.

The Oakland A’s have always had to play things a little differently, under weird circumstances and not always with poise or polish. They took pride in eccentricity and in showing up to contend with those who had more to begin with.

Continue reading “Elegy for the Oakland A’s”

The Other Olympiads

The Much Wenlock Olympian Games are the oldest continuing multi-sport competition. Photo from Wenlock Olympian Society.

As the Paris 2024 Paralympics begin this week, you may discover that they were created by German physician Ludwig Guttmann in 1948 in Stoke Mandeville, to help wheelchair-bound veterans … without ever really knowing that there was more to it than that. It’s wonderful that the Paralympics has risen to the international, multi-event, multi-sport, multi-ability competition that it has become. But its laudable origin story covers over the fact that the IOC picks and chooses which types of international events that it wants to embrace, while rejecting others. The IOC has absorbed, like the Borg, the Paralympics and the Special Olympics. They have ignored the Deaflympics and Math Olympiads. They have absolutely positively not allowed gays, women, or anyone outside their predefined circle, to be Olympic.

While I don’t yet know enough about the Paralympics to report on its competitions (and I will be on vacation as they occur–sorry), I can try to help set the stage. There were many Olympiads that happened before, during, and after Coubertin and his IOC buddies decided that they could own and trademark the word, the logo, and the activities that constituted an Olympiad.

Continue reading “The Other Olympiads”

Domination (Paris 2024)

Steph Curry’s dagger over France’s Victor Wembanyama, helping seal the victory for TEAM USA. AP Photo.

“Do you really think professional athletes should compete in the Olympics?” a friend asked me. If you are of a certain age, you remember when they didn’t, and perhaps wax nostalgic that somehow the Olympics were better for it.

Hogwash.

Continue reading “Domination (Paris 2024)”