Monday, August 25, 2008

Will Tiki Barber Be Fired?

I only heard about this because I read Mike Freeman's blog entry about it today.

Apparently Tiki Barber called his co-anchor at the Olympics, a woman, Jenna Wolfe, a C - unt.

At about the 28 second mark.



Tiki should be fired because you should not be able to swear on national TV.

Here's the thing, of course. Boys swear, and men swear. It's something about the testosterone, eh? I remember my father never swore around us kids, but when he got on the phone to his brother or another male friend of the same age, he'd be using damn as an adjective and hell as an adjective... because he was talking with another guy.

These days women and girls probably think nothing of swearing the same way, but that's a different rant for a different time and blog...

According to Mike Freeman, Tiki doesn't have a superbowl ring and Wolfe was teasing him about that. So when she made another joke at his expense, he didn't have the wit to come back at her with somethign clever and just so used the c-word. Which I'm a bit surprised at because Tiki is a very articulate man.

(And I know articulate has become known as the a-word, but he is articulate, so just deal with it!)

I used to like Tiki until last year when he did indeed reveal himself to be a total jerk...I'm shocked he'd be stupid enough to use such a word on the air, but, unfortunately, I won't be shocked if he doesn't get fired for it. He only insulted a woman, after all.

Sports keywords to get ads back on track.

I see that my comment on the skimpy clothing of the Olympic women has generated the type of ads on this site that I don't really want to see.

So I shall make a list of keywords here which will hopefully supersede that post from a week ago and put the ads here back on track as far as sports are concerned.

Tae Kwon Do
Karate
Martial artists
baseball
football
basketball
fencing
epee
foil
sabre
Jeet Kune Do
softball
Lady Vols
UConn Huskies

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Video of Angel Matos kicking referee

In the Olympics, no less.



Apparently you get 1 minute to have your toe wrapped up, the Cuban stood up two seconds too late.

Okay, the ref may have been a bit precipitate - but the clock had run out.

No way did he deserve to get kicked in the face. That is assault, and the Cuban should go to jail. And his coach, who was "unapologetic" needs to be banned.

Of course, neither will happen.

WNBA Women Get Gold

The USA Women's Olympic Basketball Team, comprised of course of WNBA players, won the Gold medal at the Olympics a couple of days ago, defeating the Australian team easily.

Frankly, although I'm glad the Americans won, of course, I wish the Aussies had given us a better game.

But, despite the fact that they lost by double digits, that doesn't mean they are necessarily an easy win all the time.

It's the format of the Olympics that the winner of one game takes it all, and so its whoever's best on the night, and the US women had the better nerves that night, and may well have been the better team.

But it's impossible to really know unless they play 2 out of 3 or 3 out of 4. Obviously, there's no way they can do that, but I just don't like all the gloating being done on the Summitt, because of one win. (Yeah, I check out the Summitt - the Lady Vols message board - on a regular basis. A bastion of poor sportsmanship.)

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Women should be athletes, not sex ads

I have been watching bits of the Olympics, and have been getting more and more annoyed about the sexism on display - that has always been on display in women's sports since the 1970s.

Women's sports don't draw enough crowds. Solution? Have them wear really, really tight outfits so that guys (and women who like that sort of thing) will flock to see them. The guys don't have respect for the women, they dont' have respect for the sport involved, but they're certainly willing to pay to see breasts thrusting out of shirts and thighs leading up into the nether regions.

The most egregious is the women beach volleyballers. In the first place of course, beach volleyball isn't a sport, regardless of whether it's being played by men or women. But the women wear the skimpiest of skimpy bikini bottoms, and only slightly larger halter tops. (Isn't it odd how no big breasted women ever play in these events? Well, big breasted women are taught from an earlier age not to thrust themselves forward, as are of course plain-looking women.)

On the other hand, I was delighted... in a sense... to see the men's swimsuits used in the diving competitions. They also wore the skimpiest of skimpy bikinis! And I gotta tell you, much as I like lookng at muscular men, I don't really get a thrill out of looking at those folds of flesh descending downward that end up as the penis. Could you wear something two inches higher so I dont have to look at that?

Now, of course, the ultimate indignity. Ping pong people aren't crowding into the stands, so the women are urged to show more curves. (The article doesn't mention if the men's side is getting more audience member - if it's also suffering, will the guys be forced to play without shirts at all. Hey, if they've got a bit of muscles, I'd watch that.)

Here's the article:
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/tabletennis/news?slug=reu-tabletennisskirts_pix&prov=reuters&type=lgns, and one excerpt from it:

One player, Japan’s Naomi Yotsumoto, has taken matters into her own hands. At the Japanese national championships last year, she played in a daring ensemble of her own design: knee socks, a pleated mini-skirt and a shirt that left one shoulder bare.


If women want respect as athletes, they've got to dress as athletes, not as sex objects. No, I'm not advocating that they wear burkhas and full-length clothing like the fundamentalists Muslims make their women wear (not that that did Mehbooba Ahadyar, Afghanistan's only female athlete, wore all that stuff and was still called a whore by the Muslims, and now she's disappared and no one seems to know (or care) what has become of her.

On that note, Yay. A woman from Bahrain, dressed in a long sleeved white shirt and long leggings, and a white scarf on her head (hiding that horrible hair that inflames poor, innocentmen to lust), Roqaya Al-Gassra, has won a a heat on one of these track and field races. [Just saw it on my TV, but has the sound down, because a) I can't stand the commentators and b) I'm not really that interested in track and field. Of course, her success is frightening. Who knows how many psychotic fundamentalist Muslims might not even now be planning to punish her because she dared to show joy and confidence to the world! Women aren't allowed to feel like that!

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Don't run til the ball gets past the infield!

I'm currently watching the Boston Red Sox take on the Oakland As. Rookie Jacoby Ellsbury, who nevertheless is 24 years old and has been playing baseball for 15 years or so... just tried to advance from 2nd to 3rd on a ball hit in front of him. Of course he was thrown out by a mile.

And I'm thinking.... what? What? How can a professional baseball player, who's been playing the game for 15 years and probably has watched the game on TV for the same amount of time, not know that you do not try to advance from 2nd to 3rd on a ball hit in front of you?

Jacoby's the latest ballplayer to make that foolish mistake, but he's certainly not the only one I've seen do it...