Sports! We're#1 Archives – Page 8 of 21

December 4, 2023December 6, 2023

Too Much Games, Not Enough Sports

I hate to be a cranky ol’ lady, but I’m getting kind of tired of all the sports with so little sports. There’s too much talking about nothing, too much wagering on nothing, and too many things to watch, when there’s even professional tag.

Yappin’ Heads

I was at the gym, putting on my swimsuit, which is a bit time-consuming, so I had a good solid seven minutes to listen unwillingly to the pontificating talking head on the sports channel. He was talking about the poll of college football teams and commenting on the rankings and how they might change depending on who won which game.

Now, I gotta be honest. I don’t care. I went to Cal, whose football team’s goal is to beat Stanford, and that’s that. I went to Chicago, where they had no football team–I don’t even think we had a mascot, did we? (Actually, we did. It’s the phoenix. Of course, the Nobel Prize University would have a f’ing cerebral mascot! )

Still, suppose I did care. Suppose my team was one of those in those rankings or I followed college football. The guy went on for SEVEN MINUTES about these rankings in the following manner:

Now, this choice of ‘Bama being #7 is an interesting choice. Kind of a surprise there. I would have thought maybe higher. But here’s how, if ‘Bama doesn’t beat Oregon in the Viagra Big 13 Championship tomorrow, you’re going to wonder why they made this choice. On the other hand, maybe ‘Bama will win. It’s hard to say. It’s an interesting one. Now on this next one….

What the hell is he talking about? It is already stupid that there is a “ranking,” where numbers are chosen almost at random by an anonymous group of people, and it’s already stupid that they’re spending so much time talking about it. But if you’re going to analyze something, then analyze it.

October 17, 2022October 24, 2022

The Greatest Rematch You Didn’t See

Claressa Shields & Savannah Marshall elevate women’s boxing. Photo by Tom Jenkins/The Observer.

Imagine you’re eleven years old and live in one of the worst neighborhoods in the country. Gun violence surrounds you. Father in prison, mother with substance abuse problems, kids at school throw your homework in the trash. Even the tap water is poisoned. You learn to stick up for yourself; you learn to fight back. Then, you find out you can fight in a gym–hallelujah! Except that you’re a girl.

Fast forward six years, and the gym has let you, Claressa Shields from Flint, Michigan, hang around and learn some things. No longer a punk little kid, you’ve been fighting with the gloves on, boxing for six years. In some sports, you’d be called a prodigy, but this sport isn’t for girls, isn’t for ladies, so you get no respect.

Shields as an adolescent lived with her trainer, Jason Crutchfield, and credits him and her grandmother for teaching her not to accept restrictions. Photo from Zackary Canepari.

You have won your first 25 matches. The one place you can gain respect–the biggest international tournament on earth–is finally allowing women in to box. The 2012 Olympics is coming, and you can qualify, if you just defeat one more person. She’s older; she’s taller; she’s also never lost. She’s English. Her name is Savannah Marshall. And she beats you.

June 29, 2022June 29, 2022

Medal Counts & Manifest Destiny

The first U.S. Olympic team—a ragtag group of fourteen men, mostly Ivey Leaguers, with little support from the country—stood at the top of the podium for an amazing eleven events at the inaugural modern Games in 1896. Their unexpected triumphs caused a swell of national pride and paved the way for generations of U.S. Olympians.
Jacket copy from Igniting the Flame: America’s First Olymic Team

America has always positioned itself as the underdog, even at the Olympics, even when it earns medals by the fistful. Why is that? What is it about our national psyche that caused our athletic leaders to ask the International Olympic Committee in 1908 to establish a “point system,” so we can tell who wins?

Want to find out? Join me in a class this August...

American Olympic athletes have dazzled the world, starting with the very first games in Athens, 1896. But their performances have always had a subtext. It might be validating capitalism, promoting democracy, or even confirming American exceptionalism. We will explore these subtexts, the history behind the history, starting with how an upstart nation sought a foothold with Europeans in the sporting world and to prove itself as a world power.

Medal Counts & Manifest Destiny:
Team USA at the Olympics

I’ll be teaching this end-of-summer class, Thursday afternoons in August, online through OLLI at Cal State East Bay.

OLLI (scholarolli.com) stands for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. That’s shorthand for no papers, no exams, no homework. All the interesting bits of your favorite history class, without the outside work that causes all the stress.

OLLI classes are discounted for seniors, but this program allows all ages to participate. And because it’s online, you don’t have to live in northern California.

If you’re interested, or if you know someone who might be interested, check out the link to sign up for the class here.

And here’s a PDF you can download that will tell you more:

USA Olympic Class (pdf)Download

Hope to see you there! But don’t delay–the class may only be available for sign-up for a few more weeks.

Zeus is waiting!