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3.31.2006
Buwahahaha, yeah, right: Bud Selig, commissioner of baseball, announced this week that major league baseball is going to get serious about steroid use among players. No, really, he means it this time, honest. Stop laughing, he really, really, really means it.
Pardon my cynicism, but the latest pronouncement from Beelzebud reeks of P.R. flacks, damage control and a whopping dose of hypocrisy. Selig announced Thursday that George J. Mitchell, former Senate majority leader and a negotiator in the Northern Ireland peace proccess, would lead an investigation in to the steroid issue in baseball. This sounds good on the face of it -- anyone that could broker an agreement in Northern Ireland gets my full respect -- but already there's murky conflict-of-interest issues being raised, for a start.
Mitchell is on the board of directors of the Boston Red Sox and is chairman of Disney, owners of ESPN, a major baseball media partner. Additionally, the law firm that Mitchell is with has a long history of working for baseball's owners. Responding to a question about what would happen if a Red Sox player were caught juicing, Mitchell replied "If, in any way, anyone associated with the Red Sox is implicated, they will be treated just like everyone else". We'll see, we'll see.
The Mitchell appointment is a step in the right direction but there's other aspects that beg questions. I'm firmly in the camp of those that think that steroids are a huge taint on baseball -- I firmly reject the "it's meant more home runs, who cares how they do it?" mentality.
The problem with Selig's announcement for me is that the ponies have long bolted the barn, closing the damn door now won't do a bit of good. 'Roids have been around in baseball since at least the late 80's, definitely the mid 90's (see: Brady Anderson going from 13 home runs in 1995 to 50 in 1996 and back to 18 in 1997). After the devastating strike and cancelation of the World Series in 1994, Mark McGwire breaking Roger Maris' single season home run record in 1998 is widely credited for "saving baseball".
Is there anyone at this point who would seriously argue that McGwire wasn't chemically enchanced, at least a little? Yes, yes, steroids weren't illegal in baseball in 1998 but that's not the real point: the point I'm making is simply that when it was good for the game in terms of exposure and selling tickets, the owners and their sock puppet Bud Selig looked the other way. Now that public opinion has turned against the "don't ask, don't tell" attitude towards steroids, they're finally going to do something real about the problem?
The players, via their union, of course, deserve a large part of the blame for any delay in to real investigation happening sooner. Selig claims to have approached the players union in 1994 about steroid testing, but that the idea was rejected. I'm excited that the baseball season starts next week, but sadly, it looks like the steroid issue is going to dominate baseball news for a while. --Jim Allen
3.30.2006
Gay Games Support: Normally, government proclamations elicit nothing but big yawns, but the Chicago City Council's endorsement of the Gay Games sends a positive message around an event that has been dominated by controversy.
"Be it resolved that the City of Chicago welcomes the Seventh Quadrennial Gay Games Sports and Cultural Festival," read part of the proclamation signed by the council on Wednesday. The Gay Games take place July 15-22.
"We are proud that Chicago was chosen as the host city for the 2006 Gay Games," said Mayor Richard M. Daley. "Chicago celebrates diversity, and the Gay Games foster that celebration. On behalf of the city, I welcome the organizers, sponsors, participants, volunteers and spectators for the Gay Games, who will come from around the world. We encourage you to explore Chicago's rich cultural communities while you are here, and we invite you to visit us again in the near future."
The Games have been targeted by anti-groups inside and outside Illinois. One suburb first rejected, then preliminarily accepted the Games' bid to hold rowing on a nearby lake. In addition, a move is underfoot by these same hate groups to have the U.S. rescind its decision to grant waivers to HIV-positive athletes entering the country for the event.
The City of Chicago's proclamation, while not a surprise in the tolerant city, still sends a message that should blunt the negativity that has surrounded the event, fueled by those who hate.
Cockfighting Phillies: Some things you just can?t make up, courtesy of Deadspin. -- A television station in Philadelphia is reporting that the Phillies made a bit of a mistake with a promotional DVD they sent out. The DVD was supposed to be full of highlights from the Phillies, meant to fire up the hardcore fan base to re-up on their season tickets. But, it turns out, a few of the DVDs weren't of Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins; instead, they featured hours of cockfighting, in Spanish.
As Outsports poster Adam quipped: "Even worse: someone who wanted a Spanish language DVD of cockfighting was stuck with Phillies highlights! I see a lawsuit."--Jim Buzinski
3.29.2006
Sexual Assault Charges Roil Duke: The words "Duke Lacrosse" conjure up an image of intelligent, athletic young men from privileged backgrounds. "Rape" is not a word normally associated, until now. The Duke program was a powerhouse, with nine of 10 starters back, and was a favorite to win the national title. That is all in shambles now because of an incident involving a woman who danced at a private party.
The university suspended the team for the season after charges that several team members raped an exotic dancer. Last week, 46 of the 47 members of the team provided DNA samples to Durham police. In a twist that has heightened the tension between town and gown, the woman making the allegation is black, most of the team is white and allegations are that racial epithets were used in the incident. City residents are upset by the lack of cooperation by the players at the party.
The charges are very serious: First-degree forcible rape, common law robbery, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree sexual offense and felonious strangulation. According to the AP: A woman told police she and another dancer were hired to perform March 13 at a private party in an off-campus home. The dancer, a student at North Carolina Central University, told police she was pulled into a bathroom, beaten, choked and raped by three men. Police say they are confident a rape occurred and are gathering more evidence before filing any charges.
"The thing that most of us found so abhorrent, and the reason I decided to take it over myself, was the combination gang-like rape activity accompanied by the racial slurs and general racial hostility," Michael B. Nifong, the Durham County district attorney, told the New York Times. "There are three people who went into the bathroom with the young lady, and whether the other people there knew what was going on at the time, they do now and have not come forward. I'm disappointed that no one has been enough of a man to come forward. And if they would have spoken up at the time, this may never have happened."
The alleged victim, a student at North Carolina Central University, told the Raleigh News & Observer that she thought her and another dancer were going to a bachelor party for five men at a house rented by three lacrosse captains. Instead, more than 40 were there and they surrounded the two women and began uttering racial taunts, she said. "We started to cry," she said. "We were so scared."
A statement issued Tuesday by lacrosse team said, "The captains of the team met this morning with President [Richard] Brodhead, and expressed sincere regret over the lapse in judgment in having the party on March 13 which has caused so much anguish for the Duke community and shame to our families and ourselves. We also stated unequivocally that any allegation that a sexual assault or rape occurred is totally and transparently false."
One college administrator from North Carolina told Outsports: "It is rather shocking stuff and
while every one is of course innocent until proven guilty, this incident has completely poisoned an already incendiary relationship between Duke and the residents of the city of Durham.
"I live in Durham and I've never been anyplace or seen or read of anyplace where the town/gown relationship is as bad as it is here. I genuinely feel sorry for Duke President Brodhead. He is in an impossible situation. While none of the rape and sodomy charges may end up being proved in a court of law, the damage to their program has already been done. It is amazing to me when athletes show such an enormous lack of judgment." --Jim Buzinski
3.28.2006
Homophobia at Penn State: The NCAA women's basketball Final Four is in Boston next weekend and it was a perfect time for the Boston Globe to write comprehensive article on the charges of homophobia against Penn State coach Rene Portland.
It's an excellent article for anyone wanting to catch up on the Portland situation, especially in light of the suit filed against her and the school by Jennifer Harris. The former player claims she was cut from the team because Portland thought she was a lesbian. Harris is seeking monetary damages and institutional changes at Penn State. Portland has denied the charges and did not consent to an interview with the Globe.
"The Portland case looms as a watershed chapter in a decades-long struggle to eradicate prejudice that has long festered in the sport against homosexual players and coaches. Numerous athletes and coaches said in interviews that nearly every facet of women's college basketball, from recruiting to hiring practices, has been affected by discrimination based on sexual orientation," reporter Bob Hohler wrote. "I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, the horrible, humiliating, painful things she put me through," Harris said of Portland in an interview at her family's home in Harrisburg. ''I don't want anybody else to ever experience it again."
Among those quoted in the article is Helen Carroll, the former coach and athletic director who heads the homophobia in sports project for the National Center for Lesbian Rights. ''The big question is, will the Penn State president take action and enforce the anti-discrimination policy if the investigation shows Rene Portland discriminated? Or are some people in athletics so powerful that no matter what they do, nothing will happen to them?" said Carroll.
A pervasive undercurrent of homophobia in the women's game was acknowledged by other coaches, including the tactic of "negative recruiting." One anecdote perfectly summed up the fear in the sport.
"The climate of fear was documented in a study of 13 lesbian college coaches published last year by Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. Researchers from the University of New Hampshire and Bowling Green University reported they needed two years to persuade all the coaches to participate in the survey even though the coaches and their schools would not be identified (only one coach was openly gay)," the story said. "The researchers said the coaches reported coping with daily tensions involving their sexual orientation and job performance. Coaches who are perceived as lesbians battle the stigma in recruiting, most often when rival coaches cite their sexual orientation in trying to turn prospective players against them."
"This negative and sometimes hostile climate reinforces the perception that it is not safe to reveal a lesbian identity and to do so may result in negative consequences, such as loss of one's job," the study said.
How important is Harris' lawsuit? Pat Griffin, a University of Massachusetts professor, called it "the most significant thing that has happened in trying to address homophobia in the sport to date. It's a cautionary tale for coaches and athletic directors that they cannot discriminate with impunity anymore." Griffin should know: Her educational program, the Globe said, aimed at curbing bias against homosexuals has been distributed by the NCAA to every member school.--Jim Buzinski
3.27.2006
Cinderella in Indy: The dance card for the NCAA men's Final Four is now set and for the first time ever in the field of 64, no top seed has made it. We have a #2 (UCLA), a #3 (Florida), a #4 (LSU) and a #11 (George Mason), making this the most wide-open field ever. Count me underwhelmed.
I've discovered that I love when Cinderella teams like George Mason give the big boys a tough fight, but hate when they actually win. It gives the rest if the tournament a "whatever" feel to it. Why bother having a 30-game regular season? Just start the tournament earlier and invite 256 teams; maybe we can get someone who was winless in the regular season get hot and go all the way. College basketball has a sameness to it already and this Final Four only adds to it ? there's not a household name among any of the remaining starters. Contrast this to college football, where everyone had heard of Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart and Vince Young in the national championship game. It seems that every tournament game, regardless of how big a margin one team had, will still come down to the final minute; which in college basketball time means 30 minutes. Time out followed by time out, followed by a foul, followed by more time outs etc.
I bet fewer people will watch George Mason-Florida in the Final Four than would have Connecticut-Boston College; there's zero buzz about the former save for the curiosity factor. It's kind of like in baseball, where some people claim they get sick of the Yankees and Red Sox, yet without those teams the ratings suffer.
Of the Final Four teams, the highest rated at season's end was UCLA (tied for #7 in AP). That's parity of the worst sort.
Hoops Drag Queen: LSU forward Glen Davis has been a force for the Tigers in the tournament and he did an awesome imitation of a drag queen after they clinched a Final Four berth on Saturday. Standing on the winner's podium, with CBS cameras rolling, Davis was handed a feather boa that he wrapped around himself while doing quite-the-gay sashay fir for a draq queen. It was finished off when one of his teammates reached over and kissed Davis on the cheek. Tigers on the DL? --Jim Buzinski
A Reader Replies: Your point of view on the NCAA Basketball Tournament is ridiculous. 65 teams get a chance to go all the way to the final, if you win you advance just like the NFL playoffs.
George Mason has had an outstanding tournament by beating big, big teams. What other team in recent years has had to go through Michigan State, North Carolina and UConn to get to the Final Four? Even if those teams aren?t at their best, they are phenomenally talented basketball teams with great coaching.
Do you prefer the NCAA Football BCS? Every year that thing is mired in doubt and ridicule over the selection process (the A.P. pulled out of that charade.) And we are talking about two or three teams in the BCS not 65. What you are seeing is parody at a very high level. --Bradley
3.25.2006
Wow, Part 2: Another very interesting day of men's college hoops unfolded on Friday. The George Mason Patriots, of Fairfax, Virginia, continued their Cinderella run -- calm down Cyd -- by beating Wichitare State pretty handily, 63-55. They will face the #1 seed in the Washington DC bracket, the UConn Huskies. It was almost another team of Huskies, the University of Washington's, that was going to be playing GM, after Washington played UConn tough, but ultimately losing in overtime, 98-92.
It was another wild game, with UConn committing a season high 26 turnovers, but Rashad Anderson hit a three-pointer with 1.8 seconds left to send the game in to overtime, which UConn fairly strolled through. I saw some Washington fans online complaining about the officiating and I can understand why: UConn shot 47 free throws to Washington's 23, which meant that several key Washington players were in foul trouble for most of the second half.
Speaking of fans complaining about refs, Boston College fans were definitely not happy with a close call that went against them in their game against the #1 seed in the Minneapolis region, Villanva. Scene: in overtime, 'Nova is down 59-58 with three seconds to go. They have an inbound play under the basket that BC is defending. I know how hard it is to guard people on inbounds plays, but wow, Boston College just got torn to bits on this particular one. Will Sheridan of 'Nova was wide open after setting a pick and when the shot he put up was blocked by Boston College's Sean Williams, it initially looked like BC had won.
What outraged BC fans was the subsequent goaltending call. "We were robbed by cheating, paid off refs" was one of the milder comments that I saw online from an Eagles fan that I can print on this fine family website. The call could have gone either way, as the cliche goes, and it went Villanova's way on Friday. It's nice to see that people other than Super Bowl referees can be blasted for their calls. Special mention must be made of Villanova's Randy Foye. He played his socks off, scoring 29 of 'Nova's 60 points; it was one of those performances where a single player just simply wasn't going to let his team lose. Amazing.
Villanova will play Florida on Sunday after the Gators beat plucky Georgetown 57-53. There's some great matchups on Saturday and Sunday: UCLA v. Memphis should be interesting, though I suspect that UCLA spent everything they had in beating Gonzaga. Texas v. LSU is very interesting as well, two strong, physical teams going at it. UConn should handle George Mason, but the Huskies have lived dangerously this tournament, so who knows. And in the other Elite 8 game, Villanova might have the same problem as UCLA: getting to the Elite 8 game might have been their big achievement. The weather has been amazing here in Los Angeles for the last two weeks, so while parts of the country are wet and cold and freezing, of course I'll be inside watching basketball all weekend. --Jim Allen
3.24.2006
Wow: What a Thursday night of men's college basketball: the #1 ranked team in the country gone at the Sweet 16 stage and two amazing finishes.
I'll admit it: I thought Duke could go all the way this year based more on lust than on sound basketball reasoning. I simply wanted to see more games with J.J. Redick, Greg Paulus and Josh McRoberts playing. Alas, Duke is going home after getting thoroughly schooled by the LSU Tigers. One of the reasons was Redick's woeful performance in his final college game: 3-18 from the floor, 11 points in all. "The last four years have been pretty amazing and I didn't want that to end" said the hottie senior. Unfortunately for him and the Blue Devils, it's the third time in the last four years that Duke has gotten bounced in the Sweet 16 round.
Cyd mocked the Cinderella concept before the tournament, so he must have been happy to see this year's Cinderella team, the Bradley Braves, get trounced by the superb Memphis Tigers, 80-64. It was a nice run by Bradley but they simply ran in to the buzzsaw that is Memphis.
In contrast to those two snoozers, the other two games on tap had amazing finishes. Getting outplayed by a very good Texas team, West Virginia fought back from a 12 point halftime deficit to tie the score at 71 with five seconds left. Kevin Pittsnogle made a great clutch 3-point shot--the Texas defender played great D--and what happened next kind of surprised me. Normally in that situation, the team that got scored on will call a time out to set up a game winning shot. Instead, Texas inbounded the ball and pushed it up the floor. As soon as the ball left Kenton Paulino's hand with .8 seconds left on the clock, I knew Texas was going to win and, indeed, the ball hit nothing but net to give the Longhorns a great win.
I was so sure that the team I've loved since 1972, UCLA, was going to lose their game at one point that I got up and made dinner. They were down by 17 points in the first half to Gonzaga, trailed by nine with three mintues to go and simply looked done, a great season under coach Ben Howland coming to an end. Then, in one of those things that will be debated for years, either Gonzaga choked big time or UCLA staged staged an amazing comeback.
UCLA scored the last 11 points to pull off an improbable 73-71 win to advance to the Elite 8. Gonzaga really have themselves to blame for the loss: leading 71-70, they inbounded the ball with 20 seconds left; this set up a typical scenario: UCLA fouls, Gonzaga makes the freethrows, the last minute of the game takes 15 minutes to play and so on. UCLA was obviously trying to foul, but Zag's forward Adam Morrison made a good pass to teammate J.P. Batista.
I'm prone to yelling at my TV when watching a game that I have an emotional interest in. If I was a Zags fan, I'd have been screaming at what happened next. Batista had an open teammate to pass to and run off more clock before someone was fouled but he tried to....um, I've watched it four or five times and I can't figure out *what* he was trying to do. The result of this indecision is that UCLA's Jordan Farmar was able to sneak up behind him, steal the ball, and pass it to Luc Richard Mbah for an easy layup and UCLA's first lead of the night with 9 seconds to go.
Gonzaga ran the ball up the court, lost the ball and that was effectively that, though to be fair they had a decent shot that missed to end the game. The Zags and coach Mark Few are probably going to lose stud Adam Morrison to the NBA draft so they might have blown their chance to make a good title run for the foreseeable future. Whew, what a night of hoops and there's still three more days to come of this insanity. --Jim Allen
3.23.2006
What Rhymes With 'Weir'?: The World Figure Skating championships are being held in Calgary this week and it seems not even the competitors care. Only five of the 12 medalists from the Turin Olympics even bothered to compete, which makes one wonder why they even bother to hold the event in an Olympics year. American Johnny Weir did show up, but his heart is not in it.
"One more long program, then the season is over," said Weir, sixth after the short program. "I've been putting my body through the wringer." Weir almost pulled out of the event on Monday but decided to gut it out. "I don't really like to stand up -- to walk or to skate -- but it's what I signed up for," he said.
Weir is also part of a contest onFigure Skaters Online, "Johnny Weir: Poetry on Ice." In order to participate in the contest, which runs through March 28, entrants must submit one original poem written about Weir. He will pick the eventual winner; if it's a woman, she gets a hug, a man and it's a private dinner and ? Just kidding! The winner gets an autographed photo of Weir performing his free skate at the 2005 U.S. Championships in Portland, Ore. A pretty lame prize, if you ask me. Why not one of his skating costumes? Or have Johnny record your answering machine message? Or a shopping spree with Johnny?
Sweet 16 Picks: My Final Four are still alive, but the rest of my bracket is (as they would say on SCTV's "Farm Film Report") blowed up real good. For what it's worth, here are my Sweet 16 picks in the NCAA men's tournament:
Duke over LSU, West Virginia over Texas, Memphis over Bradley, UCLA over Gonzaga, Villanova over Boston College, Wichita State over George Mason, Georgetown over Florida and Connecticut over Washington. To make the Final Four, I'll stay with my original picks: UCLA, Duke, Villanova and UConn, with Connecticut over UCLA in the final.--Jim Buzinski
3.22.2006
Vinatieri a Traitor?: One thing about fans is how quickly they'll turn on someone they were rooting for. It happens all the time as the ally quickly becomes the enemy. The latest example is the reaction in Boston to the news that kicker Adam Vinatieri has signed on with the Indianapolis Colts.
Vinatieri is maybe the greatest clutch kicker in NFL history (two of his kicks won Super Bowls) and the Colts are considered the enemy, playing in the same conference. "It is a complete backstabbing, plain and simple," wrote one fan on a popular Patriots message board. "I hope someone flattens the little turd on his 40-yard kickoffs." Said another: "I am completely beside myself. Of all the frickin teams and he goes to the Colts???? The frickin COLTS???? ? The only other athlete leaving that comes remotely close to this is when Roger Clemens left for the Blue Jays."
It will be interesting when Vinatieri travels to New England for a regular season game this fall as a member of the Colts. Don't expect a lot of cheers.
She'd Do These Sox: More Boston sports news from blogger Annalisa Ellis on which Boston Red Sox she would have sex with. She had to rule out Ex-Sox Johnny Damon, who is now a Yankee. "There isn?t a repressed housewife on the East Coast that wouldn?t do him," she writes. "He?s the Joe Namath of baseball. I mean, c?mon, he has twins. TWINS! How freakin cute is that?"
She also rules out David Ortiz ("He couldn?t be on top, because I would die.") and pitcher Josh Beckett ("That?s not a beard, it?s a chimney sweep for some poor girl?s a**crack.")
While complimentary to some of the players, Ellis' fave is general manager Theo Epstein: "He?s easily hotter than any of the actual players, but without the whole 'good at baseball' thing. He?s wicked smaaht, young, and, again, hot. Plus, he plays hard-to-get with the management, and what self-destructive girl doesn?t want a guy who plays mind games?" (Hat tip to Deadspin)--Jim Buzinski
3.21.2006
Tagliabue to Retire: NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue will retire from the job he has held for 19 years in July. Under his tenure, the league continued its growth as the nation's most popular sport and was the only pro league during that time to avoid a work stoppage.
Of all the honors Tagliabue has received, though, the one that most impresses us was he and his wife, Chandler, being honored by the New York chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays with the PFLAG 2005 Stay Close Individual Leadership Award. Tagliabue had given a sizable donation to PFLAG for the campaign. Tagliabue's son, Drew, is openly gay.
Brokeback Dugout: From an interview with Ryan Dempster of the Chicago Cubs by Dan Patrick, in "ESPN, the Magazine."
Dan Patrick: Did you see "Brokeback Mountain?" Ryan Dempster: I saw it with my wife. And dude, you know what? I'm thinking they could come out with "Brokeback Dugout." DP: So, you're Heath Ledger or Jake Gyllenhaal. Who's your partner? RD: Gabe Kapler. I'm not saying he's gay. I'm just saying, you know, he's a very good-looking, muscular dude. --Jim Buzinski
3.20.2006
The Sweet 16: Maybe the NCAA men's basketball selection committee knows what it's doing after all. After a wild four days of games, we are down to the final 16 teams and all four top seeds are alive, and 10 of the top 16 seeds overall.
After the selections were announced last week, CBS' Billy Packer ripped the inclusion of what he thought were too many mid-major schools in favor of more from the power conferences. This despite Packer's stunning admission that he had not seen any teams play from mid-major Missouri Valley Conference. The MVC has two teams in the Sweet 16 (Wichita State and Bradley), while the Big Ten, one of Packer's favorite "power" conferences has zero. The ACC also has only two left (Duke and Boston College), while the Big East (which got eight bids) still has four teams left (Villanova, Connecticut, Georgetown and West Virginia.
The tournament so far has been fine ? not dazzling but not boring either, with enough upsets sprinkled in to upset many a bracket. As always, my pet peeve are way too many time outs called in the final two minutes, which totally destroys the flow of a game. The worst was Northwestern State, which called a timeout down 15 points to West Virginia with only 30 seconds left. After the timeout, Northwestern State let WVU run the clock out, so why the timeout?
The World Baseball What? $5 if you can name the two teams playing in tonight's final of the World Baseball Classic. ? Need more time? ? Give up? It'll be Japan vs. Cuba in San Diego. This is huge news in both those countries, but in the U.S. it will draw yawns. The classic was a nice idea that never took off in the U.S. and it got lost in the midst of March Madness, especially since the U.S. underachieved. --Jim Buzinski
3.18.2006
NCAA hoops tournament, Day 2: A fairly uneventful day for the NCAA men's basketball tournament, with two exceptions. The first was the Connecticut v. Albany matchup in Philadelphia. UConn's Huskies have been a college hoops powerhouse for years, while Albany's Great Danes (love the name) were playing in their first tournament. I hit refresh on the scoreboard I was following at work because I couldn't believe that minutes in to the second half, Albany was ahead; surely it was a reading comprehension problem on my part. No, the Great Danes were romping against the Huskies in a bid to become the first #16 seed to beat a #1 seed.
Alas, there was no fairy-tale ending, as UConn finally got it together with a 20-4 run about eight minutes in to the second half and ended up cruising to a 72-59 victory. "They were magnificent for the first 30 minutes. We were equally magnificent for the final 10" UConn coach Jim Calhoun noted. Whew, our friend Steve, a huge Huskies fan, would have had a heart attack if they'd lost. He lives, he lives!
Kansas' Jayhawks: choking dogs. For the second year in a row, the storied program was bounced out of the tournament in the first round, this time by Bradley University of Peoria, 77-73. Bill Self, the Jayhawks coach, is really going to feel the heat this offseason. In his third year as KU coach after replacing Roy Williams, the Jayhawks faithful won't have much patience with two straight first round flameouts. Luckily, I'll be home all weekend, so it'll be nice to actually watch a full slate of games as opposed to get score updates at work.
Dutch gay football initiative: A Dutch organization, the Institute of Multicultural Development (IMD), announced this week a football (i.e. soccer) tournament to be played next week. What's interesting is that the tournament will feature a gay team and a Muslim team. The reason for this is that a study was released by the Dutch Police Research Academy that showed statistically widespread concern about verbal and physical abuse directed towards gays and lesbians in the Netherlands.
According to the study, a large percentage of that abuse comes from young kids of Moroccan and Turkish descent. The integration of Muslims in to previously fairly homogenous European countries is a hot button issue these days and the Institute is attempting to use sports as a bridge towards understanding. According to Suzanne Ijsselmuiden of the IMD, she hoped the football match will "help ease these tensions so that people can openly talk about homosexuality". It's a nice idea, but I'm not quite sure how a mere football match is going to start a discussion in probably the most gay-friendly country on the planet, but every little bit will help.
On a more positive note, London-based Stonewall FC, the very successful gay football team, soundly thrashed a side consisting of people involved in the UK Parliament (politicians, clerks and so on). After winning 7-nil, a Stonewall FC spokesman was gracious in victory, noting that UK Parliamentary FC were missing a number of members "due to a late vote in the House of Commons the night before". I'd like to see the Kansas Jayhawks use that excuse if they get bounced from the NCAA tournament in the first round next year. --Jim Allen
3.17.2006
NCAA hoops tournament, Day 1: While I'm glad that I recently got a good new job that pays well, in a way I was kind of hoping that my start date could have been next week. In the past when I've been, as they say, between engagements, I've had a great time parking my fat butt in front of the moron machine and pigging out on college basketball during the first four days of the men's college basketball tournament. Alas, like most office drones, I followed the games on the Net at work (thank you-super fast T1 line!) and, again like most office drones, my tourney bracket got shot to hell by some upsets.
If it wouldn't have alerted my boss to the fact that I was staring at my computer as opposed to working, I would have been screaming at the screen during the Gonzaga v. Xavier game. The Zags got the usual "they're not very good, they play weak teams, why are they seeded so highly?" thing thrown their way before the tournament--it's as predictable as the swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano--and they came very close to proving their critics right. Seeded third in the Oakland region, they were losing to 14th seeded Xavier with about two minutes to go, thus causing me to want to curse them for screwing up my bracket big-time. Stud Adam Morrison simply wasn't going to let the Zags lose, and when he scored 7 points in the final two minutes, Gonzaga had eked out a 79-75 win. Phew.
Other top seeded teams weren't so lucky: Syracuse was ranked fifth in the Atlanta region but it was obvious that their amazing run in the Big East tournament left them out of gas, as they lost to 12th seeded Texas A&M, 66-58. Thanks for goofing up my Atlanta bracket, 'cuse! In fact, it was a bad day for the Big East conference in general. They'd sent a record eight teams to the Dance and in addition to Syracuse, Seton Hall and Marquette were sent packing in their respective games. It's bizarre that a team from Milwaukee is in the Big EAST conference, but such is college sports these days.
The rest of the games pretty much ran to form: Atlanta regional #1 seed Duke cruised to a 70-54 win over Southern University of Baton Rouge. Shelden Williams and hottie J.J. Redick scored 58 of the 70 Duke points; they'll probably need to have better balanced scoring to advance deeply. The college hoops team I support, UCLA, whipped first time tournament entrants Belmont of Nashville 78-44 to advance; there was no Steve Lavin-era first round flameout, luckily.
So, on to day two, more staring at the computer screen at work while the scores update and trying not to scream at it because teams screw up my brackets. What a great part of the sports calendar this is!
World Baseball Classic: I haven't been following the tournament at all, but I just wanted to get off a Nelson Muntz-like "Ha ha" at the U.S. team that was eliminated after losing to Mexico 2-1 on Thursday. Since the two teams I cared about, Holland and Italy, were cannon fodder for the traditional baseball powers and have already been eliminated, my interest in the WBC is now done. Bring on the major league season already. --Jim Allen
3.16.2006
T.O. Leaves, Garcia Comes: It was interesting symmetry this week for the Philadelphia Eagles. On Tuesday, the team cut royal pain- in-the-ass receiver Terrell Owens, and on Wednesday reached an agreement for Jeff Garcia to be their backup quarterback. Garcia and Owens were once teammates on the San Francisco 49ers.
That's not their only connection ? In a 2004 article in Playboy, Owens was asked whether he thought Garcia was gay. "Like my boy tells me: If it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, by golly, it is a rat." He then followed up with general comments on having a gay teammate. "I probably wouldn't say anything right off the bat. I'd just see what everyone else has to say. I'd probably keep my distance and, hopefully, he would keep his. If it was a guy who was helping us win ball games, hey, I'd have no problem with it. He can do what he wants to do outside of my everyday life."
In response, Garcia denied he is gay and made a public point of mentioning that "It has been written about my girlfriend and about my girlfriends in the past. I don't have a problem about myself, my teammates don?t have a problem with me, and we know what it is." He doth protest too much?
Of course, Owens love to show off his body more than a male stripper at the White Party, so he shouldn?t be casting aspersions. On the field, he's a marvelous talent, but his disruptive attitude a year ago cast a pall over the Eagles season. In contrast, while Garcia is no longer the elite quarterback he once was, by all accounts he is a great teammate, and the Eagles now have a solid backup for Donovan McNabb. --Jim Buzinski
3.15.2006
Weir Tells Critics to F*** Off: U.S. figure skater Johnny Weir has a blunt message for those who send him hate mail -? stuff it.
"I want to make a special note for everyone who has decided to take it upon themselves to be original and write Johnny Weir a hate mail. I've heard 'pussy,' 'disgrace,' 'narcissistic,' 'faggot,' 'princess,' 'mentally unstable,' 'embarrassment,' 'queeny,' 'I hope we're not related,' 'out of control,' 'retarded,' 'stupid,' 'queer,' 'ugly,' and many many other lovely things, so try to be more original at least. Oh and F*** You too!"
Weir made this response in a recent posting on his online journal following his time at the Winter Olympics. As with all things Weir, he holds nothing back and is highly entertaining doing it. That's why we're huge fans. Weir was second following the men's Olympic short program, but had a weak free skate and wound up fifth. Weir got tons of attention for how out there he was, without ever saying publicly whether or not he was gay.
"If I read one more article scrutinizing my sexuality, my fashion sense or why I'm so 'flamboyant,' I'll scream," Weir writes. "The thing is, the majority of the articles were positive or at least had a positive spin, until I lost America's medal. After the free program I was a loose cannon, a 'fag,' a disgrace, among other things. I'm sticking to the fact that I can only make myself happy or proud, and no matter what I still have talent. I was in Us Weekly, People magazine, I was invited to Elton John's Oscars party, Rosie O'Donnell wrote me, I'll be on MTV coming up as well as a Kathy Griffin comedy special, and popularity wise I'm doing pretty good, but once people forget about these Olympics it will die down again."
Weir posted an example of the hate mail he received after failing to win a medal (spelling not corrected).
Q from Matt: "What did it feel like, to become a pussy overnite and embarass the united states like you did in the finals? You couldnt come up with anything better than that? What happened to your balls man?"
A: "I wasn't going to answer this question, but i wanted it posted so everyone could see an example of how "wonderful" the public is if you don't do well. I'm filled with warm fuzzies trying to imagine what it must be like to be a "pussy", embarrass my country, and to have lost my testicles somewhere in Torino. Haha people are so sweet, huh?"
In fairness, Weir spends most of his journal entry discussing his experience in Torino, and is very candid about his skating. "The [long] program started to unravel after the first minute. I lost my focus, felt insecure about what I was going to do next, and I lost it."
From Weir, we also learn the following:
"I traded my white coat from the opening ceremonies with a cross country skier from Kazakhstan."
His favorite purchase in Torino: "A pair of crocodile sneakers."
Politically, "I have a more Democratic take on things than our president, but I won't really begrudge him because it's his beliefs that he's trying to uphold. ? I am strongly for gay rights, women's rights, a woman's right to choose, and an eye for an eye (death penalty)."
Contrary to a report, he does not have a My Space profile. "I am terrible with computers, so I wouldn't even know where to start with that. I heard that there is someone pretending to be me on Myspace, but it's not me. I don't have a lot of extra time for silly hook-up websites, and generally internet friends aren't my thing. a lot of my friends have Myspace, I just think it's stupid."
On why he hangs out more with Russian skaters than Americans: "The Americans can sometimes be a little bit too diva for me." (More diva than Johnny?)
There was only one thing Weir wrote that makes me upset -? "I think I'll be a little more cautious next time." Please, Johnny, anything but that. We love you for who you are. --Jim Buzinski
3.14.2006
Gabe The Babe can bake, too! Last season we saw Queer Eye's Fab Five make over the then-World Series-champion Boston Red Sox. This season, the coverage of the team is getting queerified. Big Red Sox fan Jon Jones has created a Gay Red Sox blog to follow his once-insufferable team with a fun, gay attitude.
My favorite entry yet features (and this really happened) video of a cookie bake-off between a CBS reporter, a local lunch lady and outfielder Gabe Kapler. If you're a Red Sox fan, or even if you like to make fun of them, you've got to head over to the blog. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
It's official: there is crying in basketball: Wah wah wah. That has been then annual reaction the day after the NCAA tournament field is announced. This year is no different. Everybody has gotten in on the act from CBS commentators to annoying ESPN personalities.
Fans and apologists of those teams headed to the NIT tournament instead of the NCAA tournament have no reason to complain. I don't know of a single undefeated team that got left out of the tournament. Everyone else had their chances. Missouri State, with the magical RPI of 21, might have the biggest gripe, but they went 5-7 against tournament teams and didn't even play a team with a higher RPI than themselves all season. Another Missouri Valley team, Creighton, is also bitching, but they lost to Illinois State (RPI 233) and Chattanooga (RPI 169). The biggest outcry seems to be about Hofstra not making it. But, they couldn't even win the Colonial championship, they played no tournament teams outside their conference, and they lost to Towson (RPI 221), which I didn't even know was a university!
Big-name teams got left out, too. Six Big Ten teams are dancing, leaving Michigan (18-10) out in the cold. Michigan's record against tournament teams: 3-8. The ACC sent four, leaving Maryland and Florida State in the cold. Their combined record against tournament teams: 3-13.
There's also bitching that certain teams that made the tournament have to play away from home. Uh, newsflash: because the selection committee doesn't allow many West Coast teams in, some big-name teams from the East have to go to Oakland. It's as simple as that.
Next season, if these teams want to play in mid-March, they should start playing in January. If any one of these teams had eeked out one more win, their fortunes on Selection Sunday may have been different. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
3.13.2006
March Madness Arrives: Thank heavens the NCAA men's college basketball field has been announced (the women are on tap today). No more hearing ad nauseum about "bracketology," "bubble teams" and especially "RPI." And no more Dick V. screaming about the "Dookies," since ESPN does not telecast any of the games.
The start of the tournament this week, a three-week, one-and-done affair, will also make us forget the ridiculous conference tournaments that were just held. They are simply an excuse for these conferences to make money with games that are for the most part pointless. I never understood the need for a tournament when the regulars season is long enough and teams play 16 and 18 conference games. Until recently, the Big Ten and Pac-10 had resisted the urge, but even they caved.
We'll also hear bitching from teams left out of the 65-team field, but that's mostly whining. It's hard to feel sorry for the 66th or 67th team, which had plenty of time during the season to win enough games to ensure a berth.
The top four seeds are Duke, Connecticut, Villanova and Memphis (alma mater of a good friend of mine). My pick? I'll say Connecticut over UCLA in the final.
Edge to Arizona: The NFL free agency period is in full swing and the biggest signing to date is running back Edgerrin James to the Arizona Cardinals. It is a big loss for the Indianapolis Colts, James' team the past seven seasons. How big a loss? With James in the lineup, the Colts were 70-26 in regular-season record. Without him, they are 7-9. -- Jim Buzinski
3.11.2006
Corporatization of sports, part 23,987: Jim B. has a tape somewhere of the great Denver Broncos vs. Cleveland Browns NFL playoff game in 1988, the one where Ernest Byner fumbled the ball as he was heading in for a late score that would have tied the game. It's fun to watch and interesting too, as it's a window in to a way of viewing sports on TV that is long gone. Although the NFL pretty much pioneered the concept of being corporate in the sports world in America, on this tape you don't see promos every 30 seconds for the network's shows (in this case, NBC). The announcer, the incredible Dick "Oh My!" Enberg, wasn't having to stiffly read promo copy between plays for NBC's latest Thursday night sitcom bust. There weren't graphics cluttering the screen, no "whooshing" sounds as those grapics leave. OK, there wasn't the score and clock in the upper righthand corner either, but still.
I was reminded of those simpler, less corporate whoring days when I read about what the Major League Soccer franchise Formerly Known As The New York MetroStars have become: Red Bull New York. The Austrian company that makes the energy drink Red Bull has bought the team from Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) for $30 million, rising to $50 million if they buy a stake in the new soccer-only stadium near Newark, New Jersey that the team is planning on moving in to in 2008.
Dont' get me wrong, I love the Red Bull energy drink -- it's gotten me through many a tough day at work after staying out late the night before -- but this is just....lame. While it's good for MLS, as it will bring another owner in to the league that has largely been AEG's plaything, it's kind of dispiriting to me to see the team name, one of the really cool things about sports (see: UC Santa Cruz' Banana Slugs) just be another example of the dreaded Disney-esque *shudder* corporate synergy.
New Jersey legislators also aren't happy with the name change, as they are miffed that the team plays in New Jersey already at the Meadowlands, is building a stadium in New Jersey and gets money from the state but has no mention of New Jersey in the new name. They've actually been miffed since 2003, ever since the team that began life as the New York-New Jersey MetroStars dropped less marketable "New Jersey" part of the name. As a Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim fan, it's kind of amusing to see a different team get involved in the silliness of what city/state is involved in a team name.
One person who is definitely not amused is George Zoffinger, who runs the agency that oversees the operations of Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands, where the Red Bull currently play. He's threatened to make the team homeless prior to moving in to their new place, saying "They will not play in our stadium unless they have New Jersey in their name".
Maybe Zoffinger should consult with Anaheim mayor Curt Pringle, who dragged his city in to costly litigation, litigation that saw the city get its butt kicked in court. He might have a hard time explaining in court how it was OK for the team to have dropped the "New Jersey" from the name in 2003 and play two subsequent seasons at Giants Stadium but now that the team has been bought and changed it's name, it's suddenly an outrage. --Jim Allen
3.10.2006
Gay Games rowing row: I've only been to one Gay Games, in New York in 1994, and my experience there as a softball player made me aware of how tough it is for Games organizers to find venues for the sports they're putting on. The fields we played on were terrible, for a start. I saw one woman walking around with blood all over her leg. Was it caused by being spiked? Nope, it was because she dove for a ball in the outfield and landed on some broken glass.
That pleasant memory came back to me when I read about the troubles that the Gay Games Chicago organizers are having with their venue for the rowing competition. It's scheduled to be at a lake called Crystal Lake, by a small town of the same name about 45 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. It's funny that the name of the lake is the same as the one that Jason killed all those people at in the neverending series of Friday the 13th movies, but that's where the humor ends.
The town has been in an uproar, and in the news, because a faction on the city's park district board wanted nothing to do with the event. On March 2nd, the board voting was tied 2-2, causing the motion to fail. The other board member was on vacation but he returned on Tuesday and cast the deciding vote in favor of holding the event. That's not the final hurdle, however; this was just for the parks permit. The issue now goes before the governing bodies of Crystal Lake, neighboring Lakewood and McHenry County for approval.
Even though I live in Los Angeles, I don't live in a bubble and I realize that blatant homophobia is but a half-hour car ride away, in the towns that line the foothills of Los Angeles and that seem to be stuck in a time warp that stopped around 1952. However, it never fails to make me shake my head when I read comments like these from a Crystal Lake resident: "I do not want these queers coming to my hometown. Like I asked before, what revenue are you bringing in? What are you bringing in except stirring up all these problems?"
Revenue? All the mom and pop stores and restaurants that will get business from hungry and thirsty rowers and their fans and which lobbied for the approval, on the logical grounds that gay dollars are still legal tender. And I love how it's The Queers, who just want to have a smooth lake to enjoy their great sport without any bother are the problem, not homophobes talking nonsense and packing otherwise sleepy city government meetings so they can vent their ignorance and hate. --Jim Allen
3.9.2006
Sex and Sports Do Mix: Loved that the National Geographic is tackling this issue (Read the entire article)
: "scientists say there is no physiological evidence to suggest that sex before competition is bad. In fact, some studies suggest that pre-sports sex may actually aid athletes by raising their testosterone levels, for example."
"Lovemaking, after all, is not a very demanding exercise. In general sexual intercourse between married partners expends only 25 to 50 calories, about the energy it takes to walk up two flights of stairs."
In the gay single world, though, I would wager a lot more calories are burned: There's all the typing you have to do in the chat room to arrange the hookup, then the e-mails negotiating where to meet, then the travel to get there, followed by the walk up the stairs. It can be quite a workout, so it's best to not have sex on the way to play your event. As one researcher told National Geographic: "In general, an athlete should never try something before an important competition that they have not already tried in lesser competitions or practice."
Labor Peace in the NFL: NFL owners voted 30-2 to accept the latest contract with their players and extend the collective bargaining agreement through 2011. It was originally set to expire after 2007, and it could have been chaos for the sport if no deal had been reached.
The biggest winners this season will be teams that would have had to cut big-name and high-salary players because there would have been a tighter salary cap without a new agreement.
Cincinnati and Buffalo were the two teams that voted against the agreement. Bills owner Ralph Wilson admitted that he voted no because he didn't understand what he was voting on. "It's a very complex proposal, and I didn't really understand," Wilson said. "I didn't think I was a dropout, but maybe I am."
Oh Canada in Baseball: I'll admit to having zero interest in the World Baseball Classic (wake me when the major league season starts) but it was hard to ignore Canada beating the U.S. in a first-round game, 8-6. "We like to tell everyone we can play baseball, too," said Canadian Adam Stern. "We're not just a hockey country." U.S. manager Buck Martinez described his team's mood. "It's a very quiet locker room right now," Martinez said. "I think everybody is feeling like they got kicked in the stomach." --Jim Buzinski
3.8.2006
Bonds Juicy Juiced: The revelation that Barry Bonds knowingly took steroids should come as no surprise to anyone with eyes ? one look at Bonds from the early 1990s (athletic but lean) to more recent times (ultra buff) made it clear he was on something more powerful than protein shakes. But Bonds has always denied being a juicer, even as the BALCO scandal broke in San Francisco last year, claiming that if he did inject anything it was all an innocent mistake as he was told they were nutritional supplements.
Those denials ring hollow with the publication of "Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, Balco and the Steroids Scandal That Rocked Professional Sports," by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. The authors are reporters for the San Francisco Chronicle; their sources include 1,000 pages of documents, interviews and grand jury testimony of Bonds and seven other athletes involved in the steroids case. They also said that Kimberly Bell, Bonds's former girlfriend, gave them legal correspondence, tapes of voice-mail messages and transcripts that related to their relationship, the New York Times reported.
Jealousy at Mark McGwire setting the then-home run record in 1998 spurred Bonds to take several performance-enhancing drugs, the authors report. "They're just letting him do it because he's a white boy," Bonds is quoted as saying in the excerpt about McGwire. Bonds broke McGwire's mark in 2001.
In addition to detailing the drug usage, an excerpt of the book in Sports Illustrated portrays Bonds as a menacing boor, a tax cheat and an adulterer given to (probably because of the rampant steroid use) sexual dysfunction, hair loss and wild mood swings that included periods of rage (including threats to kill his girlfriend). The Giants apparently were aware that Bonds might be on the juice, but did nothing, not wanting to upset him.
One source of Bonds' growth hormone, the book says, was from AIDS patients in San Francisco who were legally prescribed the drugs but sold them to make money. This is not surprise to anyone who has been inside a gay-friendly gym, where guys well into their 40s and 50s have shredded physiques due to being HIV-positive and on legally obtained steroids.
Bonds' main supplier was Greg Anderson, who became his dealer, trainer and confidante. Anderson was convinced that no test would ever catch Bonds. "The whole thing is, everything I've been doing, it's all undetectable," he would say during the spring of 2003, when he described Bonds's drug use to an acquaintance who was secretly wearing a wire. "The stuff I have, we created it. You can't buy it anywhere else, you can't get it anywhere else. You can take [it] the day of [a drug test], pee, and it comes up clear.
Bonds would not comment on the book, but there's not much he can say. I've read the excerpt in Sports Illustrated and it is damning. He's a liar and a drug cheat who should never be elected to the Hall of Fame. Silence is his best option.
Kirby Puckett Dies: Kirby Puckett was one of baseball's stars in the late 1980s and early '90s, leading the Minnesota Twins to World Series titles in 1987 and 1991. So it is with sadness that we learned that Puckett died in Phoenix from complications of a stroke. He was 45.
Puckett, a Hall of Famer, was the ultimate team player and became a huge fan favorite. He stood only 5-9 but played at a level much higher than that. In recent years, he was more in the news after his marriage broke up amid charges of longtime infidelity. But baseball fans will remember the giant he was on the field. "I played every game like it was my last," Puckett said when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001. "I think I'm one of the few guys who can say I left my blood, sweat and tears on the field." --Jim Buzinski
3.6.2006
Hockey Is Gay Now: Philadelphia Flyers enforcer (the guy designated to mete out punishment to an opposing player) Donald Brashear was suspended one game and fined $10,000 for hunting down and punching to the ice Darius Kasparaitis of the New York Rangers last week.
Brashear went after Kasparaitis as revenge for him injuring fellow Flyer Simon Gagne during the Olympics. For his troubles, Brashear was assessed a whopping 29 minutes in penalties and left Kasparaitis chortling. "He told me I wasn't going to finish the game," Kasparaitis said of Brashear, according to the New York Daily News. "I finished the game but he didn't - he got thrown out." Brashear retorted: "This game is gay now," he said. "You can't even do anything anymore. ... They changed the game to favor the superstars. You can't do anything anymore to set some respect out there."
Yes, enforcing rules and trying to regulate fighting is now "gay." Add that to the other sins of being gay. Brashear's Neanderthal thinking is hopefully becoming pass￩; the lack of fighting in the Olympics and in the NHL playoffs is one reason why that brand of hockey is much more enjoyable that the NHL's regular season.
We have been encouraged by a recent Sports Illustrated poll that found 80% of NHL players said they would welcome a gay teammate. If many were to come out, Brashear's "this game is gay" may take on a new meaning.
Academy Awards: I watched about 10 minutes of the Oscars, so I have no opinion of whether it worth more than 3 hours of my time. But a lot of readers on the boardhave strong opinions about the show and the winners, so feel free to have your say. Was "Brokeback" screwed? You tell us. --Jim Buzinski
3.5.2006
J.J. Redick's sexual orientation: J.J. Redick spent "five good minutes" with the knuckleheads on PTI Friday. Among other things, he talked about what it would be like to win a championship for Duke, setting scoring records and the rare moments he gets to just be a college student.
He also talked about the harassment that he takes on the court and that his family has to witness every game. He said he'd heard everything fans can throw at him, including questions about his sexual orientation.
He didn't have to go there, but he did. And I have to say, it warmed my heart to hear a college basketball player, one of the nation's best this year, talk so openly about his sexual orientation being a topic of discussion. While I think many of us wish he was gay, chances are he's not. That he went there made me respect him a little more. I'll still be hoping Southwest Topeka A&M knocks off Duke in the first round, but I'll be a little happier for Redick if he actually wins it all. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
Ban the bums: I have this problem every March. Every time this year, we hear about "bubble teams" that come from big conferences, have winning records, and won't get into the NCAA tournament because some two-bit sucky team from the middle of nowhere has an automatic bid.
I don't have a problem with most automatic bids, but some of them are ridiculous. Take a look at the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC). It sucks. This season, the 11 MEAC teams are a combined 19-96 out of the conference; that means they won 16.5 percent of their non-conference games. The top two seeds in the MEAC tourney were a combined 2-21 against non-MEAC teams. The conference has one win over a team in the RPI top 100: Delaware State's November win at Kent State. The Pittsburgh Steelers were an also-ran and Bode Miller was still the best skier in the world when that happened.
The NCAA should implement some kind of quality assurance for conferences to qualify for their automatic bid. They could even make it easy: win 33 percent of your non-conference games, and the conference gets an automatic bid. This nonsense of these shitty teams from shitty conferences simply getting into the tournament hoping to spoil a legitimate contender's chances of a championship have got to stop. -Cyd Zeigler jr
3.4.2006
Ashley Cole, idiot: One of the more bizarre spectacles in sports in recent years has to have been when, in May, 2002, baseball player Mike Piazza announced to the world that he is heterosexual. What was bizarre about it is that it was such a bonehead PR move; for a month after his announcement, on most of the gay and sports boards I go to, the general consesus was "Oh, OK, so he IS gay, no straight guy would announce that out of the blue like that".
Apparently, Ashley Cole has never heard of Mike Piazza or that announcement. It's understandable, of course: Cole lives in London, plays football (soccer) for Arsenal and, when he's not hurt, is a fixture in the English national team. I recently did an item about 2 Premiership footballers, a music industry person (a DJ), cellphones and orgies that was triggered by two of the scummiest of London's notorious tabloids printing the salacious details. They left out the names of the players, but there were enough hints dropped in the articles in The Sun and The News of the World that it fueled massive speculation on the British football boards I go to. This where Ashley Cole comes in.
In a move of possibly bonehead proportions, Cole has initiated a libel proceeding against the two tabloids, claiming that they didn't do enough to hide his identity, and oh, he's engaged to be married to a female pop singer and is not gay. I don't care if he was in the orgies (and both of the players were described as bisexual anyway) and I definitely don't care whether he's gay, bi, straight or a Trappist monk in his sexual life.
What do I find interesting, though, is this question: why is he bringing a libel suit over this? He'll probably win the libel suit because in English courts, the burden is almost totally on the newspapers to prove that they did nothing wrong. Elton John, for one, has added to his considerable fortune more than once with his winnings in libel actions against a British tabloid. At dispute in the Cole case, in addition to the story, is a digitally altered photo of two men posing for a picture at some club or other. The faces are blurred out, but it was easy enough for Net sleuths to track down the original photo as it was on the popular radio station Choice FM London's website.
Cole's solicitor (attorney) is arguing that while the picture in question took pains to blur the identity of the participants, it did not go far enough and people could easily put 2 + 2 together, thus invading his clients privacy and exposing him to public ridicule. In the two articles I read for this, both mention that it's unsual for a libel case to be about a breach of privacy while maintaining that the allegations are untrue. This will play out in court, and given the tabloids horrible track record of getting their butts kicked in the English courts, I suspect Ashley Cole will see a bump in his bank balance fairly soon.
The question for me though is this: as with Mike Piazza, why would Ashley Cole initiate something that is only going to provoke even *more* scrutiny in to his private life? It seems like a very poor choice to make. --Jim Allen
3.3.2006
Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before: Apologies for the long title from a song by the best rock band of the 80's, The Smiths. In any case, I couldn't resist the typically lengthy Morrissey song title because I'm going write about a something that is a perennial Jock Talk subject: hazing. Normally, I wouldn't even make note of yet another in the long line of such things as they are depressingly similar but this one is a little more nuanced than the usual incident.
Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, has banned it's male and female swim teams from competing in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) swim championships in Missouri next month. This is harsh because the men's team won the competition last year, while the women finished second in the women's bracket. So, what was the heinous thing done to bring this on? A broomstick up the bum while others stand around and laugh? No, fortunately, nothing close: the incident came on school official's radar after an anonymous e-mailer sent pictures from a team party last September to team coach Liam Donnelly. They depicted first or second year teammates simulating same-sex acts with senior teammates while fully clothed in team uniforms; the gender was not specified of either the people who had to dress up or the seniors in the two articles I read for research. They also had to down a concoction of olives, pineapple and oatmeal (ewwww).
Now, obviously, this is no way compares to some of the truly sadistic and horrific things that have taken place in these rituals, not even close. However, I sense that at least at a school administration level, patience has completely run out--the schools open themselves to a world of lawsuits if these things happen, for example. On the other hand, some people just don't get it: according to a guy who left the team for unrelated reasons after the incidents, "I don't think we've done anything wrong. We're adults. We're university students. We got together and played some games".
This is a persuasive argument from a Libertarian perspective, but it has a fatal flaw: swim team members, in the words of a current member, "signed a contract in September saying that we wouldn't participate, or haze, or whatever". Apart from the ambiguous use of the word "whatever", that team member gets why the university acted as it did. The two articles gave no indication about whether the incident took place before or after the signing of those contracts. This "What's the problem" quote is especially unreal when, as one of the articles pointed out, there were sanctions for a similar incident two years ago, i.e. when the seniors were in their second year on the team.
I understand being 21 and getting carried away all too well, but these are elite athletes we're talking about--they are VERY focused and driven and used to rules and discpline from coaches; they're not a stereotypical college student who wants to drink and smoke pot all through his stay while getting D's; with the prior incident still fresh in their collective memory, they should have known better. --Jim Allen
3.2.2006
Closeted NFL Player Relates to Tuaolo:The Times of London ran an
interesting profile of former NFL player Esera Tuaolo, whose new book details life in the league as a gay man (read an excerpt.).
I was struck by the details late in the article where a closeted current player drops by the interview. As the writer Jane Wheatley details:
Halfway through our conversation, a friend of Tuaolo?s called by; a tall young man with close-cropped fair hair, he sat quietly on the bed during the remainder of the interview, listening intently. When I got up to go, he came with me and, in the lift down to the lobby, told me that he was a well-known professional footballer, and he, too, was gay. He wanted me to know, he said, how incredibly brave Tuaolo had been.
"I saw him on the Oprah show and got in touch," he said. "You feel so alone in the world. I lie to all my friends and hate it. It was such a relief to be able to talk to Esera; he is a kind of lifeline and a mentor." In the lobby, we sit down; the young man talks nervously, eagerly, just above a whisper: "You get into sport before you really know about sex or love; then, by the time you know you?re definitely gay, you?re part of the system, admired, well paid and scared stiff."
The young man?s off-season home is New York, where he feels reasonably anonymous. But recently, waiting by a bus stop with his current boyfriend, a bartender in a gay bar, he was recognized by one of a group of girls partying in a nearby caf￩. As they flocked around him, they were joined by a young man, a regular at the bar where the boyfriend worked. "Are you all in this scene then?" somebody asked the tall young man who was by now suffering agonies of apprehension. "Don?t be silly,? scoffed the girl who had recognized him in the first place. ?He?s a footballer."
This story illustrates perfectly the value in people like Tuaolo coming out. They do become examples for those in the closet to look up to, to lean on and to gain strength from. Odds are that this player will never come out while playing, but at the very least we hope he will follow Tuaolo's example and become a role model for other gay jocks once his career is over. --Jim Buzinski
3.1.2006
Blonde Bonds steals the show: We've been very critical of hazing here at Outsports, with good reason. Most hazing is degrading and meant to create a class system where upperclassmen and veterans are better and more masculine than the rookies. But, if it wasn't for hazing, we wouldn't have Barry Bonds in drag.
The San Francisco Giants hosted their version of American Idol on Monday and Tuesday at their training camp in Scottsdale, Ariz. While only the rookies were obligated to perform, it was Bonds who stole the show. Bonds played the Paula Abdul of the event, and he did not disappoint. Complete with blonde wig and breasts (and the big boy didn't need anything to stuff his bra), his big smile lit up the event and became the talk of the town (and the national media, of course).
"I'll never tell my wife to hurry up anymore. Because it took me forever to get dressed,'' Bonds said after his jaunt down the catwalk. "I'll never do that again, man.''
Bonds has long been accused of being unapproachable and not a team player. Maybe he's trying to finally change the image, but for whatever reason, the guy put on a blonde wig for the rookies; he can't be THAT unapproachable.
"That's one of the best things I've seen this spring. Just the level that it brings him to. He's one of us,'' catcher Mike Matheny said. "To see him do what he did, going out there and having a good time and he didn't care who saw -- that spoke a lot to me, and I know that did a lot for a lot of guys in this room who felt very intimidated by him and maybe kind of separated.''
I've always liked Bonds. I always liked how he gave the media the finger, I always liked how focused he was on excellence. And it's great to see him show his fun, very human side. Good for him. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
2.28.2006
Vince Young dropping like a Seattle Seahawks tight end: This is just the way the media works, folks; I guess it's actually the way our mob-mentality society works. One day a guy is down, the next he's up and then he's down again. Welcome to the last eight weeks in the life of Texas quarterback Vince Young.
To be fair to the guy, it was the post-Rose Bowl hype that was totally manufactured; an over-reaction to his performance in one game. Because the media needed a story, Vince Young went from "maybe a top-five draft pick" to "the greatest quarterback in the history of football" to "boy, this guy is dumb" in just eight short weeks. Now, he's ended up right back where he should have been all along: He's got a lot of raw talent that probably won't fit so well in the NFL, but who has the ability to wow people with his legs in any game or any Pierre Cardin swimsuit runway.
Apparently, he did so miserably at the NFL combines that the management of the Houston Texans threw a party now that the crazy radio callers will quiet their demands that the Texans pass up on Reggie Bush and draft Young. While it depends on which report you believe, they all have one thing in common: among other things, Young BOMBED the Wonderlic test, designed to test the intelligence of potential NFL draftees. Sorry, "bombed" might be generous. He scored either a 6 or a 16 out of a possible 50 points on the test. Heck, maybe he'll drop to the Falcons at 15. Imagine Vick and Young together? I'd pay to see that! -Cyd Zeigler jr.
2.27.2006
Golf fans say ZZzzzzz: Man, does golf need Tiger Woods. On Sunday, Geoff Ogilvy beat Davis Love III to capture the sport's Match Play Championship, 3-and-2, and many golf fans couldn't care less. When Tiger is in the finals, whether he wins it or not, these championships get buzz and viewers. But I can't believe this tournament did well at all without Tiger, even if it was up against the biathlon and yet another airing of Animal House. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
Odd score from L.A. You'd have thought it was 1986. It has been 20 years since the Boston Celtics won the NBA Championship, but they pulled off a big upset on the road Sunday, beating the Los Angeles Lakers in their Sunday home whites, 112-111. The loss pushed the Lakers to just two games ahead of the Utah Jazz, and three games ahead of the Sacramento Kings, for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The Celtics, meanwhile, still suck. They're .400 and five-and-a-half games behind the Milwaukee Bucks for the last playoff spot in the East. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
2.25.2006
Brokeback Huddersfield: Huddersfield Town is an English football team in the English League One (England's third tier football division, sort of like AA is to the majors in baseball). Like a lot of sports teams these days, they've put out a calendar to raise money. Sadly, unlike French rugby calendars, there's no nudity, but there is still a gay angle to this.
In yet another example of the film Brokeback Mountain inspiring something or other, Huddersfield Town's players posed as cowboys to promote their "young guns" players that are up and coming. Pretty harmless stuff, really, as there's no mention of nudity in the reports I read. However, in the brutal world of English football supporters, the calendar has stirred up a wave of homophobic insults from opposing teams supporters. It doesn't help that one of the lines in the calendar is "12 reasons to get behind Town".
The calendar was a bust with Town fans, who didn't buy it because they were "embarrassed". However, once they found out that opposing supporters were buying the thing to taunt their team with, they bought 'em up to prevent rivals from capitalizing on it.
This is ironic because this happened the same week that Tottenham Hotspur, one of the grand clubs of English football, became the first Premiership team to announce that they will no longer tolerate homophobic abuse and chanting by their supporters. Spurs said that any fan caught being abusive or participating in homophobic chants will be kicked out of the stadium and, if they are season ticket holders, have their tickets revoked.
Good stuff from Spurs, who have long been the object of vile anti-Semitic abuse by opposing fans due to their historical roots in one of London's Jewish enclaves and occasional Jewish ownership. So, on the whole, one step forward, one back in the battle against homophobia in sports. Hat tip to Bad Jocks. --Jim Allen
2.24.2006
George Steinbrenner, idiot: Major league baseball is open for business, what with spring training camps in full swing. So, leave it to New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner to make the first dumbass comment of the new season. "We're going to win it this year", IT being the World Series. Hold on a sec. [Buwahahahahahahaha!] Sure, it's typical bombast for the New York tabloids, but seriously, are the Yankees even a lock to make the playoffs? Apart from acquiring Johnny Damon and his from the Boston Red Sox, they haven't upgraded their team in the offseason, all their core players are a year older and the average age of the pitching staff must be about 39. Still, it's nice to have The Boss shooting off his mouth, if only because if they somehow manage to make the playoffs, it'll be nice to do a Nelson Muntz-esque "Ha Ha" when they get bounced in the first round.
World Basebalzzzzzzzzzz: Major league baseball is really hyped about the upcoming World Baseball Classic but I couldn't care less. Apart from the fact that I'm the anti-flag waving "Rah rah go [insert country of birth here]" type, to me it's just meaningless exhibition games featuring players that are still working out their kinks in spring training. I think it's an especially poor move for the pitchers; how many arms are going to be hurt during this? The 16 teams participating are having trouble keeping players that had previously agreed to play, such as the Red Sox Manny Ramirez, who dropped off the Dominican Republic's roster this week.
The one thing that is kind of intriguing is the appearance of three national teams not normally associated with baseball: Australia, Holland and Italy. The Aussies, of course, have a strong cricket tradition (I think they're currently the #1 cricket squad in the world), so baseball shouldn't be *that* different, but Holland and Italy have no such tradition, so it'll be interesting to see what level of play they bring to the tournament.
Any chance to ogle Dutch men is fine with me, but overall, I don't get the sense of any buzz from American baseball fans. Of course, if the U.S. team wins the thing, everyone will be the biggest backers of the WBC, but I suspect that the loaded Dominican team has the best chance of winning at this point. --Jim Allen
