I have taken a great deal of grief from people over the years because of the way I embrace sports; I embody the true meaning of the word fan, as in fanatic. If you are not accustomed to how people of my ilk act, I'll put it this way; if the team I am rooting for loses, it is not the end of the world, but it will certainly ruin the rest of my day. To say the least, there are not many people at my advanced age who behave this way, but I have never been one to toe the line, I live on the extremes of polarity.
I bring this up for two reason: if you are not used to be around people like this and all of a sudden find yourself in their tornado of odd emotions, the best bet is to just let them steam out and eventuallly they will come back to reality and realize the folly of shutting down simply because the result of a sports game did not go the way they wanted to, the other reason is that if you have never been around one of these people, you will absolutely never, and i mean never, understand where in the blue hell they are coming from.
Many people would think that this is an insane way to live, and it may well be, but from my experience it is pretty common among New Englanders, and as a man from Connecticut, I fit right in.
For most people who simply do not know how to find that golden mean, living life and watching sports is a double edged sword. The best way to describe the upside of one of these (well, let's call them benders because that is what they truly are) benders is the realistic description that as a life long Red Sox fan, I will always have in my back pocket the pure euphoria of watching Keith Foulke underhand a ball to Doug Mientkeiwidshjfhdkshldkjhc for the final out of the 2004 World Series...
The opposite would be from the year before when it took a whole fifteen minutes for me to move after Aaron "Bleepin'" Boone took Tim Wakefield deep to end the Red Sox World Series Hope (phew sentence over).
Today was a Bleepin' Boone day...
It was shaping up to be a wonderful day, Uconn vs. Louisville and USA vs. Canada for the gold in men's ice hockey. I was hoping for a split (realistically Uconn).
Uconn outplayed Louisville in the first half, but the Cardinals were able to bank in a prayer at the end of the first half and the old-school Red Sox fan inside me kept saying, "thats the kind of stuff that happens when three points at the end of the game will kill us, this is not good, this is not good." (It was not good).
Sarnardo Samuels made a campsite in the lane and did not get called once, and to ease the pain, Uconn blew a winnable game (they are no 0-6 in games decided by 5 or less) and now are resting very cautiously on the bubble against a suddenly red hot Notre Dame team.
To describe what Uconn sports means to the good Nutmeg people is hard to do; many do not realize that it is our only team. When the Whalers left in 1997 (leaving behind a rabid fanbase, but it's ok Gary Bettman, sure overexpand, take teams out of Canada and the Northeast and send them south and to warm climates where hockey is not played, makes great sense) they took with them Connecticut's only professional sports team. Who was there to help us through this transition*? The University of Connecticut Huskies *Transition means moving on to something, we were left with nothing and still do not have anything.
Uconn (both men and women, and thankfully recently the football team) is that conservative and pretty rebound girlfriend that you got after breaking up with that cazy, but smokin' hot girlfriend; sure, she may not be as good looking as the last girl, but she will always be there and she will never hurt you (and inside you are saying, "true, but crazy girl was smoking hot, and it was kinda fun not knowing if she would stab me or up and leave in the middle of the night..." always forgetting that she did in fact up and leave in the middle of the night.
Uconn made the pain of losing the Whalers go away slightly. When you go to bed at night you are thinking about Emeka and Rip and Ricky Moore, but every once in a while you have that sex dream of Sean Burke and Pat Verbeek (by the way, gross line right there) and you wake up sweating and on the verge of tears.
Back to the point, Uconn lost a winnable game, ok...ok... USA can do this, we got the momentum...
CRAP down 2-0... there is no way we can come back against this team that reads like the who's who of hockey, I should've known things would turn out like this, my Red Sox sense have been tingling all day....but ya know, Luongo IS looking kinda shaky....
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL.... Ok ok, we're in this and Miller is playing like a beast, but damn are we getting crushed here in the third...fast forward.
Pulled goalie, we are dominant with the extra man, holy crap...... ... ........ GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL. I LOVE YOU RYAN KESLER I WABT TO HAVE YOUR BABIES!!!! Ok, overtime....
Has JR been doing lines? He is literally just as tense as I am JEREMY ROENICK YOU ARE NOT HELPING... Pucked drop (oh no, it's four on four we are so screwed....)
Yup, Igilna, don't let him pass it, no...wait WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!? He scored? I didn't even see it (neither did Miller apparently)...
Dear NBC,
I hated every single method you used to over the olympics and thanks to you, I didn't even see the overtime goal in one of the best games ever...EVER... in hockey. Please do the Mama Cass and choke and die. That is all.
Sincerely,
He who should've seen it coming
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Media Representation
How to Get Noticed By the Media?
Many children growing up think of one thing; stardom. It does not matter the path they choose to achieve it, but at one point or another, everyone has thought to him or herself, "I wonder what it would be like to be famous?"
Once Upon a Time
For the lucky few that get to achieve this level of notoriety, it is not always a pleasant achievement. I was fortunate enough to be a part of one of, if not the, best statistical collegiate baseball team to ever; The Trinity College Division-III 2008 National Championship Team. That team was an astounding 45-1, setting multiple records throughout the year, most notably wins to start a season (44). Outside of New England there was very little fanfare even though a baseball team, never EVER wins 44 games in a row. As a team, we were fine with the lack of publicity and teams brushed off our win-streak as having played inferior opponents or brought any number of excuses to the table.
When we ran the table at the New England Regional all of a sudden the press started to jump in on the story; 40 wins in a row up to that point, and about a 45 minute drive from ESPN may have had something to do with it. The highlight of the year up to that point was a "First Take" segment where Dana Jacobson interviewed "Mike Decker" as she called him (real name Bill), and our captain Sean Killeen. It was about a five minute segment highlighting our season up to that point with a little Q&A for our coach and captain (Coach Decker handled himself well, Sean, he needs some work in front of the camera). It was fun, maybe something to write home about, but nothing earth shattering.
To make a long story, well, it's still long, but at least a little shorter, we won our first four games at the D-III College World Series and would face Johns Hopkins in the D-III National Championship Game where one win would give us an unprecedented undefeated season in Baseball and an unprecedented NCAA national championship for the school.
We had our ace Tim Kiely pitching and it seemed like sure thing that we would win the game, and we played like we thought it was, but Johns Hopkins put up an amazing fight and clipped us 4-3, scoring on a passed ball strike three (a rarity in general, but even more so considering the stellar play of our catcher/captain Sean Killeen). Johns Hopkins made a great comeback in the first game and so (leaving out many, many details) we decided to pay them back and scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth in the second game to take home the walnut and bronze.
Jubilation is an understatement, but we were literally, ecstatic and the party carried from the field back to the hotel. At the hotel we were all celebrating our win when all of a sudden ESPNews decided to show what we thought would be a highlight of our win. We all thought, "cool, a legit sportscenter highlight of our season." So about 35 very happy scholar athletes are standing, arms clasped around shoulders waiting for the highlight, when it pops us on the screen...
To display the passed ball strike three and Johns Hopkins beating us in the first game with a bottom third graphic saying "Trinity College Record Win Streak Snapped by Johns Hopkins," and then as an afterthought the anchor said, "Trinity College would come back to beat Johns Hopkins 5-4 in the second game to win their first ever NCAA Championship."
Well thanks ESPN for the plug, but, damnit all, maybe give us a little credit here for putting up the most amazing season in collegiate baseball history; the entire team was stunned and yelling at the TV, "Oh COME ON!!!," and "you got to be ****** me." That lasted for about ten seconds until one wise senior yelled, "To the National Champions!!!" and all was forgotten.
It seems that in order to get media exposure, one must toil and sweat and make all the right moves, AND THEN, do something drastic, or else the media and the viewers/readers will brush the story aside.
Trinity in the News Again
The Trinity College Men's Squash Team just sealed their 12th National Championship in a row and 224th victory in a row. However, all you will hear from the media outlets is how Baset Chaudhry, one of the best collegiate players in squash history, yelled in the face of his Yale opponent after the match and "took a run at him."
The Trinity Squash team has been detailed before by ESPN in a very positive light, and even as a cover story in Sports Illustrated, but to anyone outside of Trinity College or the squash world, that news has been brushed aside. But now, Trinity is getting more press than ever because of Baset's actions (which may have been provoked, a point that is routinely forgotten in most reports); the video is on the verge of going viral, there have been debates on "Outside the Lines," "Pardon the Interruption," and "Around the Horn."
I just think it is a sad state of media and viewership that a story about a team winning their 12th consecutive national championship would be hardly newsworthy, but a story about one guy getting in the grill of another is not only newsworthy, but forces people like Merril Hoge (not kidding) to start talking about squash. We as a culture are obsessed with the taboo, of the forbidden, of the unusual, but in this pursuit, which is only rational human behavior, we lose our perspectives and miss the true story.
Were Baset Chaudhry's actions reprehensible? According to a Hartford Courant poll, yes (my own opinion, forged from long years of ultracompetive sports, would be that if the Yalie did not want him to yell in his face, (a) do NOT let him beat you (b) you probably should not have tried an intimidation factor earlier on in the match knowing that your chances of beating him were slim).
Baset's actions are deplorable in regards to sportsmanlike conduct on and off of the athletic arena, but were his actions any more despicable than a basketball player screaming after a tough "and-1" or a football player yelling at his opponent? No. They were simply the actions of a scholar-athlete releasing four years of tension and anxiety that had been growing cause he had the pressure of a 200+/decade+ winning streak on his 6'5 frame.
Should he have acted better? Yes. Are his actions reasonable given the circumstances? Maybe, maybe not. But did he act in any way different than the hundreds and hundreds of athletes that we see on T.V and that many children look up to as role models? No.
In this day and age of media that only clutches on and highlights the evil and unfortunate, does Baset Chaudhry wish right now that he was still living in his (relative) obscurity that he was before the ten seconds after his national championship title clinching match against Yale's Kenneth Chan? That's a good question....
Many children growing up think of one thing; stardom. It does not matter the path they choose to achieve it, but at one point or another, everyone has thought to him or herself, "I wonder what it would be like to be famous?"
Once Upon a Time
For the lucky few that get to achieve this level of notoriety, it is not always a pleasant achievement. I was fortunate enough to be a part of one of, if not the, best statistical collegiate baseball team to ever; The Trinity College Division-III 2008 National Championship Team. That team was an astounding 45-1, setting multiple records throughout the year, most notably wins to start a season (44). Outside of New England there was very little fanfare even though a baseball team, never EVER wins 44 games in a row. As a team, we were fine with the lack of publicity and teams brushed off our win-streak as having played inferior opponents or brought any number of excuses to the table.
When we ran the table at the New England Regional all of a sudden the press started to jump in on the story; 40 wins in a row up to that point, and about a 45 minute drive from ESPN may have had something to do with it. The highlight of the year up to that point was a "First Take" segment where Dana Jacobson interviewed "Mike Decker" as she called him (real name Bill), and our captain Sean Killeen. It was about a five minute segment highlighting our season up to that point with a little Q&A for our coach and captain (Coach Decker handled himself well, Sean, he needs some work in front of the camera). It was fun, maybe something to write home about, but nothing earth shattering.
To make a long story, well, it's still long, but at least a little shorter, we won our first four games at the D-III College World Series and would face Johns Hopkins in the D-III National Championship Game where one win would give us an unprecedented undefeated season in Baseball and an unprecedented NCAA national championship for the school.
We had our ace Tim Kiely pitching and it seemed like sure thing that we would win the game, and we played like we thought it was, but Johns Hopkins put up an amazing fight and clipped us 4-3, scoring on a passed ball strike three (a rarity in general, but even more so considering the stellar play of our catcher/captain Sean Killeen). Johns Hopkins made a great comeback in the first game and so (leaving out many, many details) we decided to pay them back and scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth in the second game to take home the walnut and bronze.
Jubilation is an understatement, but we were literally, ecstatic and the party carried from the field back to the hotel. At the hotel we were all celebrating our win when all of a sudden ESPNews decided to show what we thought would be a highlight of our win. We all thought, "cool, a legit sportscenter highlight of our season." So about 35 very happy scholar athletes are standing, arms clasped around shoulders waiting for the highlight, when it pops us on the screen...
To display the passed ball strike three and Johns Hopkins beating us in the first game with a bottom third graphic saying "Trinity College Record Win Streak Snapped by Johns Hopkins," and then as an afterthought the anchor said, "Trinity College would come back to beat Johns Hopkins 5-4 in the second game to win their first ever NCAA Championship."
Well thanks ESPN for the plug, but, damnit all, maybe give us a little credit here for putting up the most amazing season in collegiate baseball history; the entire team was stunned and yelling at the TV, "Oh COME ON!!!," and "you got to be ****** me." That lasted for about ten seconds until one wise senior yelled, "To the National Champions!!!" and all was forgotten.
It seems that in order to get media exposure, one must toil and sweat and make all the right moves, AND THEN, do something drastic, or else the media and the viewers/readers will brush the story aside.
Trinity in the News Again
The Trinity College Men's Squash Team just sealed their 12th National Championship in a row and 224th victory in a row. However, all you will hear from the media outlets is how Baset Chaudhry, one of the best collegiate players in squash history, yelled in the face of his Yale opponent after the match and "took a run at him."
The Trinity Squash team has been detailed before by ESPN in a very positive light, and even as a cover story in Sports Illustrated, but to anyone outside of Trinity College or the squash world, that news has been brushed aside. But now, Trinity is getting more press than ever because of Baset's actions (which may have been provoked, a point that is routinely forgotten in most reports); the video is on the verge of going viral, there have been debates on "Outside the Lines," "Pardon the Interruption," and "Around the Horn."
I just think it is a sad state of media and viewership that a story about a team winning their 12th consecutive national championship would be hardly newsworthy, but a story about one guy getting in the grill of another is not only newsworthy, but forces people like Merril Hoge (not kidding) to start talking about squash. We as a culture are obsessed with the taboo, of the forbidden, of the unusual, but in this pursuit, which is only rational human behavior, we lose our perspectives and miss the true story.
Were Baset Chaudhry's actions reprehensible? According to a Hartford Courant poll, yes (my own opinion, forged from long years of ultracompetive sports, would be that if the Yalie did not want him to yell in his face, (a) do NOT let him beat you (b) you probably should not have tried an intimidation factor earlier on in the match knowing that your chances of beating him were slim).
Baset's actions are deplorable in regards to sportsmanlike conduct on and off of the athletic arena, but were his actions any more despicable than a basketball player screaming after a tough "and-1" or a football player yelling at his opponent? No. They were simply the actions of a scholar-athlete releasing four years of tension and anxiety that had been growing cause he had the pressure of a 200+/decade+ winning streak on his 6'5 frame.
Should he have acted better? Yes. Are his actions reasonable given the circumstances? Maybe, maybe not. But did he act in any way different than the hundreds and hundreds of athletes that we see on T.V and that many children look up to as role models? No.
In this day and age of media that only clutches on and highlights the evil and unfortunate, does Baset Chaudhry wish right now that he was still living in his (relative) obscurity that he was before the ten seconds after his national championship title clinching match against Yale's Kenneth Chan? That's a good question....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
