Taking Pleasure in Other People's Pain Ok if You're a Sports Fan
As I sit in Syracuse watching West Virginia methodically dismantle the Washington Huskies, I cannot help, but feel good. As you can tell from my other posts, the majority of the last year has not been a good one for a New England fan living in Connecticut, but finally, at least for a night, things are good.
I watched the number five-seed Butler Bulldogs take down the number one-seed Syracuse Orange and it made me HAPPY. As a grad student in Syracuse who happens to love the Uconn Huskies, this season has been an absolute nightmare: Wes Johnson coming out of nowhere to become one of the best players in the country, the smug and ultra-annoying Andy Rautins seemingly hitting every three he takes and overall the entire team overperforming thanks to great chemistry (and some beneficial officiating).
But tonight, it was good. Butler took them down thanks to some lucky bounces and the abscence of Arinze Onuako. I remember having a conversation with another Syracuse student in the Broadcast Journalism department and I posited to her, "who is more important to Syracuse, Arinze Onuako or Andy Rautins?" The student said Rautins without a second thought, citing his leadership more than anything else. I mentioned that everything runs through AO and without him no one, including Rautins, can get their shots.
So tonight, I had two things that made me happy: the knowledge that I was right, which is always, always a great ego rub, and most importantly, the rest of the Syracuse campus and join me in the misery that is watching the NCAA tournament knowing your team is out and there is nothing to do until next year (or until the NBA and NHL playoffs... unless you are from Connecticut and still miss the Whalers).
Is this feeling better because of other people's misery wrong? Absolutely not. Why be a true fan if not for the highs of winning, the lows of losing, and the happiness that comes from other's misery. Some people throw out sayings not knowing what they actually mean, but you know what they say, "misery loves company." And tonight in Syracuse, I have a great deal of company.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
A Perfect End to an Imperfect Season
Uconn's Season Ended The Way it Should Have...With a Heartbreaking Loss
Everything was there for a semi-magical end to the season: the other team that has been berated in the media for their bad performance, UNC, was knifing through the NIT, their main man Jerome Dyson was finally playing like he had millions of dollars riding on the line with his last couple of games and the ball was in the most consistent player of the year, Gavin Edwards, with a chance for a win... and it all came "rushing" down.
Everyone that cares about them knows that the University Connecticut MEN'S basketball team had underperformed all year. Something was missing from this team; to most that watched it was leadership. Jerome Dyson was supposed to be the leader for this Final Four caliber team, but when they needed him most, he failed, and failed gloriously.
From average games, to poor games and then finally at the end of the regular season and Big East tournament, to bad games for Jerome Dyson, it was clear that something was amiss and the team took the brunt of his bad play; Uconn dropped from NCAA tournament consideration to maybe on the outside of the NIT.
The leader for the team by the end of the year (and for at least one more to come) was clearly Kemba Walker; he had been playing out of his mind and it was clear from simple facial gestures that Walker has a killer's heart and should be something to behold next year when he finallly has his mad rushes under control.
It was those same mad rushes that made Uconn so dangerously good...and so dangerously bad. When the team was on, nobody could stop them (just ask Texas, Villanova and West Virginia), when they were off, anyone could beat them (just ask Providence, Michigan and St. John's). Uconn could run any team off the court, including themselves.
There were times this year when you would just marvel at Jerome Dyson barreling into the key and drawing the foul, but they were other times, too numerous to count, where Dyson or Walker would be barreling down the court and chuck an ill-conceived alley-oop for Stanley Robinson or simply lose control of the ball.
They were an enigma; at times both beautiful and painful to watch, and it all came to a head at the Virginia Tech game.
They showed their experience by not being phased by an unusually large NIT crowd, but showed their complete lack of leadership and true experience by not being able to handle a 2-3 zone (the same zone they dismantled only a month before at the Carrier Dome). The player lost in all of this is Stanley Robinson, who himself was more of a riddle than anyone else.
Robinson could take a game over with his thunderous dunks and streaky three-point shooting, but then fade into obscurity as fast as his leaps to the rim. He never really learned how to dominate in the low-post against smaller players nor how to drive past faster players; it will only be in the NBA where people will see just how great of a player he can be (my only reasoning being I have seen him play for three and a half years and know how good he is, he only has to develop that killer instinct that the entire team seemed to lack).
But with all the problems of this year's team there was one great story, Gavin Edwards and his meteoric rise as one of the most consistent, if not best, sixth men in the country. Edwards morphed from a shaky bench player to almost a certified double double man every game. His defense was spectacular and he was the only man on the team that could score in the pain with ease.
That is what made the last sequence so perfectly imperfect...
Down by one with about ten seconds left in the game, Kemba Walker drove a little too far, took an ill-advised jump-shot... the shot was blocked, but, like so many times before, he fought for the ball, got it back, drove again, and, with about four seconds left, made a beautiful pass to Gavin Edwards who took the pass in mid-air with no one around him and time on the clock....
But like seemingly everything else that went wrong this year for the Huskies, he rushed when he did not have to; Edwards, most likely thinking there was less time on the clock, caught the ball in mid-air, spun towards the hoop and shot, without ever touching the ground. The end result was a missed lay-up, maybe the only thing Edwards did not do right during the game. The shot clanked off the rim, but there was still time for a rebound and put back, but again, the team that seemed plagued all year was yet again plagued, but this time by the hard-work that eluded them most of the year.
Edwards went for the rebound and had position, but Kemba Walker, who had never given up on the play, unknowingly battled Edwards for the rebound and it bounced off both players and right into the hands of Virgina Tech. One for two at the line for Tech left Uconn with a sliver of hope, 0.7 seconds, and the last desperation heave fell short.
For a team that rushed through their season at a somehow breakneck, but snail-like speed, the Edwards hasty and ill-fated shot was the perfect way to end the season... It was just an imperfect ending for the team and their fans.
Everything was there for a semi-magical end to the season: the other team that has been berated in the media for their bad performance, UNC, was knifing through the NIT, their main man Jerome Dyson was finally playing like he had millions of dollars riding on the line with his last couple of games and the ball was in the most consistent player of the year, Gavin Edwards, with a chance for a win... and it all came "rushing" down.
Everyone that cares about them knows that the University Connecticut MEN'S basketball team had underperformed all year. Something was missing from this team; to most that watched it was leadership. Jerome Dyson was supposed to be the leader for this Final Four caliber team, but when they needed him most, he failed, and failed gloriously.
From average games, to poor games and then finally at the end of the regular season and Big East tournament, to bad games for Jerome Dyson, it was clear that something was amiss and the team took the brunt of his bad play; Uconn dropped from NCAA tournament consideration to maybe on the outside of the NIT.
The leader for the team by the end of the year (and for at least one more to come) was clearly Kemba Walker; he had been playing out of his mind and it was clear from simple facial gestures that Walker has a killer's heart and should be something to behold next year when he finallly has his mad rushes under control.
It was those same mad rushes that made Uconn so dangerously good...and so dangerously bad. When the team was on, nobody could stop them (just ask Texas, Villanova and West Virginia), when they were off, anyone could beat them (just ask Providence, Michigan and St. John's). Uconn could run any team off the court, including themselves.
There were times this year when you would just marvel at Jerome Dyson barreling into the key and drawing the foul, but they were other times, too numerous to count, where Dyson or Walker would be barreling down the court and chuck an ill-conceived alley-oop for Stanley Robinson or simply lose control of the ball.
They were an enigma; at times both beautiful and painful to watch, and it all came to a head at the Virginia Tech game.
They showed their experience by not being phased by an unusually large NIT crowd, but showed their complete lack of leadership and true experience by not being able to handle a 2-3 zone (the same zone they dismantled only a month before at the Carrier Dome). The player lost in all of this is Stanley Robinson, who himself was more of a riddle than anyone else.
Robinson could take a game over with his thunderous dunks and streaky three-point shooting, but then fade into obscurity as fast as his leaps to the rim. He never really learned how to dominate in the low-post against smaller players nor how to drive past faster players; it will only be in the NBA where people will see just how great of a player he can be (my only reasoning being I have seen him play for three and a half years and know how good he is, he only has to develop that killer instinct that the entire team seemed to lack).
But with all the problems of this year's team there was one great story, Gavin Edwards and his meteoric rise as one of the most consistent, if not best, sixth men in the country. Edwards morphed from a shaky bench player to almost a certified double double man every game. His defense was spectacular and he was the only man on the team that could score in the pain with ease.
That is what made the last sequence so perfectly imperfect...
Down by one with about ten seconds left in the game, Kemba Walker drove a little too far, took an ill-advised jump-shot... the shot was blocked, but, like so many times before, he fought for the ball, got it back, drove again, and, with about four seconds left, made a beautiful pass to Gavin Edwards who took the pass in mid-air with no one around him and time on the clock....
But like seemingly everything else that went wrong this year for the Huskies, he rushed when he did not have to; Edwards, most likely thinking there was less time on the clock, caught the ball in mid-air, spun towards the hoop and shot, without ever touching the ground. The end result was a missed lay-up, maybe the only thing Edwards did not do right during the game. The shot clanked off the rim, but there was still time for a rebound and put back, but again, the team that seemed plagued all year was yet again plagued, but this time by the hard-work that eluded them most of the year.
Edwards went for the rebound and had position, but Kemba Walker, who had never given up on the play, unknowingly battled Edwards for the rebound and it bounced off both players and right into the hands of Virgina Tech. One for two at the line for Tech left Uconn with a sliver of hope, 0.7 seconds, and the last desperation heave fell short.
For a team that rushed through their season at a somehow breakneck, but snail-like speed, the Edwards hasty and ill-fated shot was the perfect way to end the season... It was just an imperfect ending for the team and their fans.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
The Line in the Sand
Do Not Step Over It...Wipe it Out Completely
Note: I hope this doesn't come back to bite me in the ass...
The first Jemele Hill article I ever paid attention to was her "Putting Kobe in Perspective" article. Forgetting the fact she is blatantly wrong, I realized writing, or at least, coming up with ideas to write about nowadays is not so much about the ability to write as is, the topic you which to write about.
In the sports world, every John and Sally out there can write about what they think Tiger Woods should do, or who is really to blame for the Steroids Era, but the thing that will get people to read is not the prose of the author, but the topic.
I will be unabashedly straightforward; I am fairly certain I have never seen a Jemele Hill article and gone, "ooo goody, another Jemele Hill article." Simply put, I just do not agree with a single word that she says, well, until now...
On ESPN.Com you can find an article about "stepping -- a rhythmic form of dancing, clapping, and stomping that is widely practiced by historically black fraternities and sororities," in which Jemele Hill calls out the Coca-Cola Co. for waving a magic wand and forcing an all-white fraternity (Zeta Tau Alpha) to share the national title for best steppers with an all black sorority (Alpha Kappa Alpha) after discovering a "scoring discrepancy."
Back Ground
For those who know me, I am not what you would call a silent, or even shy person, when it comes to expressing my opinion. I have held Jemele Hill in such low regard because I think her stance on Kobe Bryant being better than Michael Jordan was simply a cowardly attempt to get people to read her article because no sane person could ever come to that conclusion (and if she does think this it does not help out her case).
One of my biggest rants in life comes out of discussions about race. I grew up in a predominantly (and that is even an understatement) white farm town on the border of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Knowing such you would think that there is rampant racism and bigotry, but for the most part, this lack of "mixing" has been a pretty vital ground for my stance on racism and bigotry.
Not only is it a predominantly white town, but to say that there is a religious melting pot would be lying through your teeth; there are Roman Catholics, Protestants and... and.... well, not much else.
I am an Irish Jew (kinda makes people go , "abuh?") and growing up Jewish in a town of practically all Christians was fun. Instead of nobody saying a damn thing about my "otherness," it was fair game for making fun of and teasing. If you are reading this (and considering the amount of views, I'd say you are not) and saying "oh that's terrible, what horrible, horrible children," get off your damn soap box.
The easiest way to integrate people is by making fun of them; you make fun of people that you are comfortable with, and the easiest way to include somebody is by showing that they are fair game. If you are saying to someone that they are fair game to be made of, you are inviting that person to turn the tables on you (yes, I am aware that there is a fine line, but in this day in age, that fine line is easy to spot).
Yesterday I was told using "Negro" in a Law Brief, even though I had it in quotation marks and it was used in the original case filings, was in bad taste and I should use "African American." Bullshit. My friends from back home with dark skin prefer to be called "black." I say I'm an Irish Jew because it is easy for people to pinpoint, but I think its stupid.
I think the term is stupid and the term African-American is stupid because it does not go the whole way; if you really want to start delineating people by their race, then I say we go the whole way, you are not an African American, but a "Ghanese-American," or a "Samburu-American." The worst is when I hear someone call musician Seal an African American...just wrong...not even close.
The Article
Jemele Hill's thesis in her article is stepping should bring cultures together and that cultural inclusion is a two way street; by forcing the honor of c0-national champions on the all-black sorority and taking the sole honor away from the all-white fraternity they are saying it is good if cultural inclusion works one way, but not the other.
Her thesis (and it pains me to say this) is absolutely correct. She pinpoints the issue when discussing the comments after the Youtube video was posted that the reason the Zeta's won was because they are a novelty rather than for their abilities and Hill writes "Hmm, now where have I heard that one before."
I will let this be known before I go any further, I hate stepping. I hate stepping probably because I have never seen it done well and the most memorable performance I can remember came at a Trinity College Fall Festival show my Freshmen (not Firstyear Trinity, but FRESHMEN) when the "Rhonda Steppers" did a bit at the beginning of an OkGo concert... it sucked.
What made it worse was that at the end of the OkGo concert the bad performed their routine from "A Million Ways," which I, and everyone else there, believed blew the Rhonda Steppers out of the water.
Talking about race and the need to be politically correct is downright unintelligible. As a religious person I truly believe we are all of one species (is that religious or scientific?) and studies show that this is the case. Simply because we originally came from different parts of the world means absolutely nothing anymore.
Do we look different? Yes, but everyone looks different, meaning that no is different if what makes us different is all the same ("YOU ARE NOT BEAUTIFUL AND UNIQUE SNOWFLAKES"). Racism, and having to abide by a certain set of codes is useless, and all it does is waste time and slow down the process of true integration.
Once we can get past stupid things like this "stepping controversy," we will as a species truly start getting it into our thickheads that the only differences we see are the ones we invent...
-A Money Grubbin' Constantly Drinking Potato Loving Kike
Note: I hope this doesn't come back to bite me in the ass...
The first Jemele Hill article I ever paid attention to was her "Putting Kobe in Perspective" article. Forgetting the fact she is blatantly wrong, I realized writing, or at least, coming up with ideas to write about nowadays is not so much about the ability to write as is, the topic you which to write about.
In the sports world, every John and Sally out there can write about what they think Tiger Woods should do, or who is really to blame for the Steroids Era, but the thing that will get people to read is not the prose of the author, but the topic.
I will be unabashedly straightforward; I am fairly certain I have never seen a Jemele Hill article and gone, "ooo goody, another Jemele Hill article." Simply put, I just do not agree with a single word that she says, well, until now...
On ESPN.Com you can find an article about "stepping -- a rhythmic form of dancing, clapping, and stomping that is widely practiced by historically black fraternities and sororities," in which Jemele Hill calls out the Coca-Cola Co. for waving a magic wand and forcing an all-white fraternity (Zeta Tau Alpha) to share the national title for best steppers with an all black sorority (Alpha Kappa Alpha) after discovering a "scoring discrepancy."
Back Ground
For those who know me, I am not what you would call a silent, or even shy person, when it comes to expressing my opinion. I have held Jemele Hill in such low regard because I think her stance on Kobe Bryant being better than Michael Jordan was simply a cowardly attempt to get people to read her article because no sane person could ever come to that conclusion (and if she does think this it does not help out her case).
One of my biggest rants in life comes out of discussions about race. I grew up in a predominantly (and that is even an understatement) white farm town on the border of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Knowing such you would think that there is rampant racism and bigotry, but for the most part, this lack of "mixing" has been a pretty vital ground for my stance on racism and bigotry.
Not only is it a predominantly white town, but to say that there is a religious melting pot would be lying through your teeth; there are Roman Catholics, Protestants and... and.... well, not much else.
I am an Irish Jew (kinda makes people go , "abuh?") and growing up Jewish in a town of practically all Christians was fun. Instead of nobody saying a damn thing about my "otherness," it was fair game for making fun of and teasing. If you are reading this (and considering the amount of views, I'd say you are not) and saying "oh that's terrible, what horrible, horrible children," get off your damn soap box.
The easiest way to integrate people is by making fun of them; you make fun of people that you are comfortable with, and the easiest way to include somebody is by showing that they are fair game. If you are saying to someone that they are fair game to be made of, you are inviting that person to turn the tables on you (yes, I am aware that there is a fine line, but in this day in age, that fine line is easy to spot).
Yesterday I was told using "Negro" in a Law Brief, even though I had it in quotation marks and it was used in the original case filings, was in bad taste and I should use "African American." Bullshit. My friends from back home with dark skin prefer to be called "black." I say I'm an Irish Jew because it is easy for people to pinpoint, but I think its stupid.
I think the term is stupid and the term African-American is stupid because it does not go the whole way; if you really want to start delineating people by their race, then I say we go the whole way, you are not an African American, but a "Ghanese-American," or a "Samburu-American." The worst is when I hear someone call musician Seal an African American...just wrong...not even close.
The Article
Jemele Hill's thesis in her article is stepping should bring cultures together and that cultural inclusion is a two way street; by forcing the honor of c0-national champions on the all-black sorority and taking the sole honor away from the all-white fraternity they are saying it is good if cultural inclusion works one way, but not the other.
Her thesis (and it pains me to say this) is absolutely correct. She pinpoints the issue when discussing the comments after the Youtube video was posted that the reason the Zeta's won was because they are a novelty rather than for their abilities and Hill writes "Hmm, now where have I heard that one before."
I will let this be known before I go any further, I hate stepping. I hate stepping probably because I have never seen it done well and the most memorable performance I can remember came at a Trinity College Fall Festival show my Freshmen (not Firstyear Trinity, but FRESHMEN) when the "Rhonda Steppers" did a bit at the beginning of an OkGo concert... it sucked.
What made it worse was that at the end of the OkGo concert the bad performed their routine from "A Million Ways," which I, and everyone else there, believed blew the Rhonda Steppers out of the water.
Talking about race and the need to be politically correct is downright unintelligible. As a religious person I truly believe we are all of one species (is that religious or scientific?) and studies show that this is the case. Simply because we originally came from different parts of the world means absolutely nothing anymore.
Do we look different? Yes, but everyone looks different, meaning that no is different if what makes us different is all the same ("YOU ARE NOT BEAUTIFUL AND UNIQUE SNOWFLAKES"). Racism, and having to abide by a certain set of codes is useless, and all it does is waste time and slow down the process of true integration.
Once we can get past stupid things like this "stepping controversy," we will as a species truly start getting it into our thickheads that the only differences we see are the ones we invent...
-A Money Grubbin' Constantly Drinking Potato Loving Kike
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Disappointment
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
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
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....
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