A couple of dayss ago, Michigan women's basketball coach Martin Borseth went ballistic in his post game interview. Various sports shows, for example ESPN, found this so entertaining that they aired it - over and over again - on their various sports programs.
(No, I'm not going to share it here, and yes, I'd be very, very surprised if it wasn't on YouTube by now.)
In one of the articles written on the subject, people were able to comment on it, and one of the commenters said, "Well, at least he cares about what he's doing, even if it is only women's basketball."
The italics are mine.
What is this "only women's basketball" crap? The players out on that floor care just as much about their sport and their team as the guys do, and always have. And as for "importance" - well, that's defined by money these days and now that there's a WNBA, not to mention all the money to be made overseas playing women's basketball, women's college basketball is important as a showcase for these players.
So Borseth had every right to be angry... and while he certain went OTT (over the top, in theatrical parlance), at least he wasn't kicking dirt on umpire's legs like Lou Piniella, or picking up and throwing bases like Lou Piniella, or doing the wave or whatever he was doing, like that minor league baseball coach who totally lost it a few years ago.
All hail Martin Borseth. Keep being passionate about your job, your team, and women's college basketball.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
The March 3, 2008 issue of Sports Illustrated
It's been a long time since I looked at a Sports Illustrated magazine. I picked up the March 3, 2008 issue today, and was surprised by how slender it seemed. Was it always 70 pages? Or have they decreased page count while keeping the price the same? Or worse, decreased page count and increased price?
Well, print magazines are having a hard time right now, as most people get all their info from the internet, and worse, from only one source, Wikipedia. Let me take Wikipedia on directly and tell people that that source should not be the first one you check. Anyone can make changes to any article, so you really don't know if you're getting the facts or lies.
Anyway, there were two interesting articles in this issue.
1) Abusive Fans in College Hoops
This article talks about the abusiveness in male college hoops - with fans swearing incessantly at players, holding up signs referencing criminal activity, etc. They didn't mention what happened to Alexis Hornbuckle of the Lady Vols a couple of years ago, when the Cameron Crazies at the Duke game taunted her because of a shoplifting conviction in her senior year as a high school student.
But abusive fans are not only in college. The pros are worse, the more so since it's the people close to the floor in the NBA - the ones who had to pay a lot of money to get those seats, and say, "I paid my ticket, I have a right to verbally abuse that guy. It's part of the game."
And of course in baseball, there's been a 3rd base coach beaten by two drunken fans bottles and stuff thrown at the players in the outfield, etc.
Then there's the loons who threatened that poor schmuck from the Chicago Cub audience a few years ago - he interfered with a live ball that gave a batter a 2nd chance to get a hit, and cost the Cubs the World Series - he got death threats from everybody!
2) The Road to Beijing - Olympic Town, Fort Benning, GA
This is a one page article about the Army Markmanship unit, and there's a picture of Sgt 1st Class Daryl Szarenski. It's the photo of Szarenski that irrited me. He's got a pair of glasses. One eye is magnified behind glass, the other eye is hidden behind a metal tab.
This is technology taking the skill out of sports!
Now, obviously, in the military technology is very important, and anything that can help a soldier take out an enemy quickly should be embraced whole-heartedly. But in sports, it's supposed to be about the athlete and their skill, not their equipment.
Yes, I know things are evolving all the time, like the polevault pole changing from wood to fibreglass, the surfboard changing from some humongous thing to a short thing that anyone can ride on, but there are some sports that really should not be interfered with.
I'm ambivalent about the "slap skates" as I think they're called. There was some fuss in the Winter Olymics 8 years ago, where Americans hadn't been using the slap skates, so couldn't get used to them in time, and so wanted them banned from competition, and those teams that were using the skates were saying, Hey, it's not our fault if you jumped on the band wagon late.
But, again, there are some sports that should not be interfered with.
And those are: archery, and pistol shooting.
Now, of course archery has been doing its technology thing for years, and I've never liked it. Basically, you've got these three little thingies, or "booms" on the bow - extending outward, so you line up your arrow with all these things, and let it go, and it's easier for it to hit the target.
Cheating!
That's not what archery is supposed to be about!
Then we've got pistol shooting. And now it looks like you can wear eyegear that magnifies your vision so you can see the target better. You can probaby even use a laser sight to put right on the target when you fire.
Cheating!
The skill is going, or has gone out of, these sports, to be replaced by only strength. As long as you've got the strength to hold up that bow with all the extra stuff hanging off of it, you'll score high. As long as you can hold your hand steady enough to sight with that laser dot, you'll score high.
Terrible!
2) The Road to Beijing - Olympic Town, Princeton, NJ
There's a photo on this page of the Printon rowing women, and it was a joy to see these athetic women, their slender bodies packed unashamedly with muscle. These are what women should like - no more ruler-thin arms and stick-like legs! Muscular (albeit not hyper-muscular!) is sexy.
Well, print magazines are having a hard time right now, as most people get all their info from the internet, and worse, from only one source, Wikipedia. Let me take Wikipedia on directly and tell people that that source should not be the first one you check. Anyone can make changes to any article, so you really don't know if you're getting the facts or lies.
Anyway, there were two interesting articles in this issue.
1) Abusive Fans in College Hoops
This article talks about the abusiveness in male college hoops - with fans swearing incessantly at players, holding up signs referencing criminal activity, etc. They didn't mention what happened to Alexis Hornbuckle of the Lady Vols a couple of years ago, when the Cameron Crazies at the Duke game taunted her because of a shoplifting conviction in her senior year as a high school student.
But abusive fans are not only in college. The pros are worse, the more so since it's the people close to the floor in the NBA - the ones who had to pay a lot of money to get those seats, and say, "I paid my ticket, I have a right to verbally abuse that guy. It's part of the game."
And of course in baseball, there's been a 3rd base coach beaten by two drunken fans bottles and stuff thrown at the players in the outfield, etc.
Then there's the loons who threatened that poor schmuck from the Chicago Cub audience a few years ago - he interfered with a live ball that gave a batter a 2nd chance to get a hit, and cost the Cubs the World Series - he got death threats from everybody!
2) The Road to Beijing - Olympic Town, Fort Benning, GA
This is a one page article about the Army Markmanship unit, and there's a picture of Sgt 1st Class Daryl Szarenski. It's the photo of Szarenski that irrited me. He's got a pair of glasses. One eye is magnified behind glass, the other eye is hidden behind a metal tab.
This is technology taking the skill out of sports!
Now, obviously, in the military technology is very important, and anything that can help a soldier take out an enemy quickly should be embraced whole-heartedly. But in sports, it's supposed to be about the athlete and their skill, not their equipment.
Yes, I know things are evolving all the time, like the polevault pole changing from wood to fibreglass, the surfboard changing from some humongous thing to a short thing that anyone can ride on, but there are some sports that really should not be interfered with.
I'm ambivalent about the "slap skates" as I think they're called. There was some fuss in the Winter Olymics 8 years ago, where Americans hadn't been using the slap skates, so couldn't get used to them in time, and so wanted them banned from competition, and those teams that were using the skates were saying, Hey, it's not our fault if you jumped on the band wagon late.
But, again, there are some sports that should not be interfered with.
And those are: archery, and pistol shooting.
Now, of course archery has been doing its technology thing for years, and I've never liked it. Basically, you've got these three little thingies, or "booms" on the bow - extending outward, so you line up your arrow with all these things, and let it go, and it's easier for it to hit the target.
Cheating!
That's not what archery is supposed to be about!
Then we've got pistol shooting. And now it looks like you can wear eyegear that magnifies your vision so you can see the target better. You can probaby even use a laser sight to put right on the target when you fire.
Cheating!
The skill is going, or has gone out of, these sports, to be replaced by only strength. As long as you've got the strength to hold up that bow with all the extra stuff hanging off of it, you'll score high. As long as you can hold your hand steady enough to sight with that laser dot, you'll score high.
Terrible!
2) The Road to Beijing - Olympic Town, Princeton, NJ
There's a photo on this page of the Printon rowing women, and it was a joy to see these athetic women, their slender bodies packed unashamedly with muscle. These are what women should like - no more ruler-thin arms and stick-like legs! Muscular (albeit not hyper-muscular!) is sexy.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Interview with Pat Summitt after Stanford loss, 12/23/07
Click arrow twice to play
After every game, it's possible to hear audio of Pat's after-game interview with radio broadcaster Mickey Dearstone, but I'd never seen a video of it, til this appeared on Youtube. So I thought I'd share it here.
Here's also a video from about a year ago, where she's coaching her young son in an AAU game. They lost, though.
After every game, it's possible to hear audio of Pat's after-game interview with radio broadcaster Mickey Dearstone, but I'd never seen a video of it, til this appeared on Youtube. So I thought I'd share it here.
Here's also a video from about a year ago, where she's coaching her young son in an AAU game. They lost, though.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Coaches, CEOs and politicians... golden parachutes above flaming debris
Kelvin Sampson, the NCAA division 1 basketball coach who left Oklahoma under a cloud because he'd made dozens and dozens of phonecalls that he was not supposed to make, has just accepted a buyout of his contract for $700,000, from Indiana - for doing the exact same thing.
This makes no sense to me. What kind of blood-sucking lawyers do university athletic departments hire these days, that they can't write an iron-clad contract saying, "You cheat in any way, shape or form, and we get to fire you without paying you one red cent."
Surely that is how head coaches' contracts should be written.
But Jim O'Brien got fired, as he deserved, and he won a wrongful dismissal lawsuit and now he's getting paid the big bucks.
And now we've got Kelvin Sampson, who threatened to sue the university if he were fired. So they cave and "buy out" his contract, giving him $700,000.
Where does this money come from, I wonder? From taxpayers, whose tax money goes into university coffers to pay for athletic programs? From alumni gifts and stuff? From income from the football program? (I do believe that football is the only money-making proposition for most schools - all other spoorts, male and female, ride on those coattails...)
It's just ridiculous.
In what other job can you deserve to be fired, and get paid millions when you go? Only head coaches, CEOs, and politicians. The average rank and file would be out on their ears...
This makes no sense to me. What kind of blood-sucking lawyers do university athletic departments hire these days, that they can't write an iron-clad contract saying, "You cheat in any way, shape or form, and we get to fire you without paying you one red cent."
Surely that is how head coaches' contracts should be written.
But Jim O'Brien got fired, as he deserved, and he won a wrongful dismissal lawsuit and now he's getting paid the big bucks.
And now we've got Kelvin Sampson, who threatened to sue the university if he were fired. So they cave and "buy out" his contract, giving him $700,000.
Where does this money come from, I wonder? From taxpayers, whose tax money goes into university coffers to pay for athletic programs? From alumni gifts and stuff? From income from the football program? (I do believe that football is the only money-making proposition for most schools - all other spoorts, male and female, ride on those coattails...)
It's just ridiculous.
In what other job can you deserve to be fired, and get paid millions when you go? Only head coaches, CEOs, and politicians. The average rank and file would be out on their ears...
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Do they not have to obey their mothers?
On February 2, a Christian school called St. Mary’s Academy, a private religious school that sits on a sprawling campus about 25 miles northwest of Topeka, was playing a basketball tournament.
A female referee was going to referee the game, except the athletic director of this school refused to allow her to do so.
Now this kind of archaic thinking is what you'd expect from Muslims, not Christians. And I'm like.... what? These are boys - boys who presumably do what their mother tells them to do. What are they going to do when a female police officer stops them for a traffic violation, I wonder, tell her that since she's a woman they don't have to do what she says? Or do all the boys of this school go straight into the church where they don't have to worry about dealing with the female of the species?
Removal of woman referee by religious school has some crying foul
A female referee was going to referee the game, except the athletic director of this school refused to allow her to do so.
"That would be putting a woman in a position of authority over boys, he was told — a scenario that was contrary to beliefs at St. Mary’s Academy."
Now this kind of archaic thinking is what you'd expect from Muslims, not Christians. And I'm like.... what? These are boys - boys who presumably do what their mother tells them to do. What are they going to do when a female police officer stops them for a traffic violation, I wonder, tell her that since she's a woman they don't have to do what she says? Or do all the boys of this school go straight into the church where they don't have to worry about dealing with the female of the species?
Removal of woman referee by religious school has some crying foul
Lawyers are getting their claws into sports, now
I see that a member of the Rams, the team that lost to the Patriots in some Superbowl a few years ago, is suing the Patriots organization and Bill Bellicheck for taping the Rams practices.
This is just ridiculous. But of course... there's big money in it - not only for the lawyers who will get most of the pie, but also for the players who lost the Superbowl, as the winners get big bonuses while the losers get smaller bonuses.
Next we'll see teams sue referees for making mistakes with foul calls (anyone want to bet Rutgers would love to sue the timekeeper or ref or whoever it was that froze that Tennessee clock at .2 seconds a couple of days ago?)
This type of litigation has no place in sports. Sure, if some psycho athlete blindsides a player and pounds his head into the ground - which is what happened in a hockey game a few years ago and ended up breaking the guy's neck - that's assault and the guy deserves to go to jail.
But suing because of cheating? When "everyone" does it?
Nooooo. Keep lawyers out of sports!
This is just ridiculous. But of course... there's big money in it - not only for the lawyers who will get most of the pie, but also for the players who lost the Superbowl, as the winners get big bonuses while the losers get smaller bonuses.
Next we'll see teams sue referees for making mistakes with foul calls (anyone want to bet Rutgers would love to sue the timekeeper or ref or whoever it was that froze that Tennessee clock at .2 seconds a couple of days ago?)
This type of litigation has no place in sports. Sure, if some psycho athlete blindsides a player and pounds his head into the ground - which is what happened in a hockey game a few years ago and ended up breaking the guy's neck - that's assault and the guy deserves to go to jail.
But suing because of cheating? When "everyone" does it?
Nooooo. Keep lawyers out of sports!
Monday, February 11, 2008
UT vs Rutgers: Clockgate - See the video
Someone uploaded vidoe of the final 28 seconds. Watch the clock. It sllllooooows down for about 5 seconds, then stops at .2, then quickly runs out.
Okay, this is going to be a litany of woe.
I actually watched that game until 2.47 seconds left in it, with Rutgers up by 2. Then my brother wanted to watch The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and since I've "gone off" the Lady Vols, I just went upstairs, intending to keep track of it on ESPN gametracker. (Of course, neither ESPN nor CBSSportlines had "gametrackers" that were anywhere near accurate.)
So the game ends in controversy, and I didn't see it! I *could* have seen it if I'd told my brother to just watch the Sarah Connor Chronicles on computer tomorrow (he gets TV on Demand) - but he writes reviews for me for my The Thunder Child website so I didn't want to discourage him by making him think his reviews were unimportant and having to wait a day...
So, the controversy.
According to Rutgers fans, UConn fans and 1 or 2 Tennessee fans on the Summitt, the clock stopped with .2 seconds to go, for a whole second. Had the clock not stopped, time would have ran out and Rutgers would have won by 1 point.
Because the clock stopped, a Rutgers player fouled Nicki Anosike (one of the worst free throw shooters the Vols have), and with .2 seconds left, she sinks both free throws. Tennesseee wins.
Of course, the UConn board has several threads about the Magic Clock. Havent' gone to the Rutgers board, but they probably do to.
On the Summitt, most are saying it wasn't cheating, and to get over it, but one or two long time posters see it the other way. (There are a few fly-bys, obviously Rutgers fans posting their first messages...but hey, if what every "impartial" person is saying is true, Rutgers just got "jobbed."
Of course, the Rutgers player who committed the foul - a rather blatant foul - shouldn't have done that, and they'd have won that way, too!
Well, hopefully they'll replay the game or cover the controversy on PTI tomorrow.
Okay, this is going to be a litany of woe.
I actually watched that game until 2.47 seconds left in it, with Rutgers up by 2. Then my brother wanted to watch The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and since I've "gone off" the Lady Vols, I just went upstairs, intending to keep track of it on ESPN gametracker. (Of course, neither ESPN nor CBSSportlines had "gametrackers" that were anywhere near accurate.)
So the game ends in controversy, and I didn't see it! I *could* have seen it if I'd told my brother to just watch the Sarah Connor Chronicles on computer tomorrow (he gets TV on Demand) - but he writes reviews for me for my The Thunder Child website so I didn't want to discourage him by making him think his reviews were unimportant and having to wait a day...
So, the controversy.
According to Rutgers fans, UConn fans and 1 or 2 Tennessee fans on the Summitt, the clock stopped with .2 seconds to go, for a whole second. Had the clock not stopped, time would have ran out and Rutgers would have won by 1 point.
Because the clock stopped, a Rutgers player fouled Nicki Anosike (one of the worst free throw shooters the Vols have), and with .2 seconds left, she sinks both free throws. Tennesseee wins.
Of course, the UConn board has several threads about the Magic Clock. Havent' gone to the Rutgers board, but they probably do to.
On the Summitt, most are saying it wasn't cheating, and to get over it, but one or two long time posters see it the other way. (There are a few fly-bys, obviously Rutgers fans posting their first messages...but hey, if what every "impartial" person is saying is true, Rutgers just got "jobbed."
Of course, the Rutgers player who committed the foul - a rather blatant foul - shouldn't have done that, and they'd have won that way, too!
Well, hopefully they'll replay the game or cover the controversy on PTI tomorrow.
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