Who's In?

Pickup Culture

2008-06-17T14:50:47-04:00

Fun hoops piece in the LA Times Sunday (true, I am rooting for the Celtics in the Boston-LA matchup now ongoing, but it doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the opponents' local paper). It’s about women playing pickup basketball with guys, a situation I have a lot of experience with. So has the author, Melissa Rohlin. She describes the phenomenon perfectly, particularly the “male dilemma.”

Say you’re the guy matched up with the one female player: Do you play hard and risk looking like a jerk, or do you back off and get beat and consequently embarrassed? I’ve felt this dynamic at play myself. I'm usually the smallest player out there; I'm not necessarily the worst. I try to match up with the person closest in size (that’s gonna be a smaller guy, who may have unresolved issues there anyway), or someone who doesn’t love to live in the post. If somebody’s bigger and stronger than me, they’re stupid not to use that in playing against me. If somebody’s bigger and stronger than me, they’re an asshole to use that in trying to hurt me, shove me around, or discourage me from playing. I’ve run into both those kinds of stupidity, and just as much straight-up play, thankfully. One big guy swatted a shot attempt of mine halfway across the gym, and then said, “Sorry,” kind of sheepishly. That’s at least a happier medium … acknowledging the awkwardness but not letting it affect the play. We could both laugh about it.

Rohlin talks about the issue of even getting into the game, sometimes. I haven’t run into that so much, but haven’t tried to join in many new games where I don’t already know somebody. One place where I did, I got a distinct feeling that some of the guys feared a feminization of the game. (It's a run where supposedly Doug Flutie plays sometimes, but not that day.) There was one other woman there, a college player. Size and skill-wise, it didn’t make real sense for me to be guarding her, but we were both female so it was a foregone conclusion. At some point in the game I stepped on the back of her heel and pulled her shoe off. I said, “Oop, sorry,” while continuing to play. Some guy nearby barked, “Hey! We don’t say 'sorry' here!”

For a variety of reasons (like cost and location, but including that benighted attitude), I didn’t go back there.

In the LA Times article, Rohlin quotes another ball-playing friend of hers, which sums up the inclusion issue and the whole scenario, really:

Guys who are good at basketball, she said, are inclusive and encourage women to join. Guys who are insecure about their basketball skills, well, they are insecure, period.

Feisty Exchange on Doping, China, and Rowing

2008-06-03T16:58:29-04:00

Check out friend Mary's blog, 50 Eggs. She posts about the recent New York Times article on the Chinese rowing program (China is going full-tilt after sports that offer multiple medals). Featured prominently is Igor Grinko, a former Soviet, then former U.S. sculling coach now a head coach in China. Many of my former rowing teammates rowed under him when he was coaching U.S. national team sculling prospects in Occoquan, Virginia, starting a couple of years before the 1992 Olympiad. It was a somewhat uncomfortable fit all round, but he was a coach with proven success, and there were high hopes here.

Mary has some personal experience with Igor. And she respectfully pulls no punches. He replies! Fascinating!

What do you think? Is China doping its athletes? Did the Easties do it back in the day?

Ball Around the World

2008-06-01T23:02:35-04:00

Been meaning to post this for awhile. My friend N sent me by U.S. Postal Service an article cut out of the New York Times, claiming her days as a crazy, newspaper-clipping lady were just beginning. I think it's great. I wish people would do it more. It’s somehow more endearing and idiosyncratic than being sent a link to an online story. Which is basically what I’m doing here.

The Times article was called Traveling, and Always Shooting, and told the story of Noel and Angelina Andreoni (who took the picture posted here), and their life of traipsing about the world shooting photos and baskets wherever they went. They had been working ordinary jobs in somewhat ordinary Las Vegas when they decided there had to be more to life. As the Times reports:

Angelina loved photography; Noel loved basketball. But Noel said he realized that they probably wouldn’t make a living at either. “But we can still pursue those passions,” he said. “We said, ‘Let’s get back to what we enjoy and do it.’ And because we can do it, we’ve become very good at passing that message on.”

I love the notion of a passion like that. I love the leitmotif of doing a particular activity in many and varied and unlikely places. I love the evidence that you can break out of the ordinary if you want to make it happen. I don’t love the fuzzy realization I have that I once would have craved doing what the Andreonis do, but not so much anymore … or not right now. Is it age? Or situation? Or an acceptance of dogged reality? Makes me feel like a mollusk, but I can still admire and vicariously enjoy the trip around the world with a basketball.

See more pictures on the Andreonis' website Shoot the Ball.

Women Sports Executives

2008-03-04T23:56:08-05:00

As Americans debate whether a woman is our best choice to run the country, male professional sports teams may become the final frontier for women's leadership.

Very interesting piece in The Boston Globe about women in top management posts in major league sports. Here's an interesting pack of statistics the story presents:

An analysis of staff directories from the 122 franchises comprising Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, National Football League, and National Hockey League revealed 10.8 percent of vice president positions or higher were filled by females. Subtract the women in non-revenue-producing departments (media/community relations, special events, human resources, and legal), which typically do not make decisions affecting the team, and the number plummets to 6.2 percent. Women like Ng and Yankees vice president and assistant general manager Jean Afterman, and Phoenix Suns vice president Ann Meyers Drysdale fill only 2.1 percent of team management positions. By comparison, women occupy 16.4 percent of corporate officer positions - vice president or higher - in Fortune 500 companies.

Ng refers to Kim Ng, VP and assistant general manager (GM) of the LA Dodgers. She was passed over for the GM position in 2005 after eight years as an assistant GM for the NY Yankees and the Dodgers, during which time she helped assemble teams that made five playoff bids and won three World Series titles. The job went to a guy who had been assistant GM with the San Fransisco Giants. (She's with Paul DePodesta, Dodgers' GM from 2004 to 2005 at spring training in the photo.)

Well, I guess it's still only 35 years after Title IX enactment... Even though the first women who grew up under Title IX are now of an age appropriate for corporate vice presidents and such, perhaps the boys that grew up with Title IX haven't reached an age appropriate to being the ones who are hiring these qualified women execs.

The story quotes Wellesley psychology professor Linda Carli: "There's lingering doubt about a woman's ability to do [the job], but it's not like you have a gene for understanding who makes a good baseball player. That's ridiculous."

Mussels a la Back Eddy

2008-03-13T18:18:39-04:00

These are a great starter or main part of a meal with bread and salad. The recipe is based on the mussels served at Westport, Mass., standout The Back Eddy. It isn't exactly like the restaurant's version (which is exquisite, especially eaten with a view of the water), but pretty close and very tasty. Done in a flash:

Put 2 Tbsp. olive oil in a hot saute pan. Add 1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger and a sprinkling (up to 1 Tbsp.) of ground chilis or red pepper flakes. Cook hot for one minute.

Add 1 clove garlic, minced or pressed and 1 lb. mussels in their nice closed shells. Spread 'em around then cook till they open.

Add 1/4 c. hoisin sauce, cook another minute. Add 1/2 c. coconut milk and cook for 1 minute longer. Turn off heat. Add juice of one lime.

Garnish with fresh cilantro, if you happen to have it. Serve with crusty bread.

Bad Cheer

2007-11-28T23:18:24-05:00

Since the season of cheer is here, I will complain about it. Not the season, no. The cheering. And not actually the cheering, it's the dancing.

We lucked into going to the Boston Celtics' opening home game at the Garden on Nov. 3. Great seats, great spirit in the place, great local celebrity spotting, great playing by the rejuvenated Cs, great time. The one blot on the whole thing is the Celtics Dancers (I think they're called). I'm sure they're probably earnest young women seeking a career in entertainment. Maybe it's their big break. But a) ugh, they're not very good and b) do we have to sexualize everything? and c) when we sexualize everything, does it have to be in an irrelevant, robotic, stamped-from-a-press kind of way? I would have less of an issue with real cheerleaders, leaders of cheers who toss in some acrobatics to keep it interesting. But the Jumbotron and electronics now lead the masses in cheers. We get women in a narrow range of skin tones, with long hair ironed flat, slim but without muscle definition in their polyester briefs, posturing in suggestive ways to some mostly quite old tunes.

If we spectators are such cretins that we need to be visually entertained every minute, let's rely more on "Lucky" the fully human mascot who is surprisingly charismatic and gymnastical. Or show some replays on the big screen. Or troop out again the various local kids' talent acts that seem to make an appearance at every game. Or get some guys to dance too, c'mon, equal opportunity exploitation.

I find the dancers' presence embarrassing for everyone. I suppose maybe some people like watching them bounce out and shimmy unathletically. There's got to be some bottom line (pardon bad pun) reason the franchise would undertake it. Do they think it's gonna sell more tickets? Now that they have a powerful team of players, I think not.

Most embarrassing is how, on opening night, the organization dedicated the parquet to the late great Red Auerbach, and not long after that the dancers were out in the first of their five costume changes. You notice dancers are a recent thing with the Celtics--since just before Auerbach's death. That's partly because he reportedly had said, in regard to team dancers, "Over my dead body."

Completely nonironically, that is where those dancers are now, skipping about the Red Auerbach parquet.

I tip my hat, conversely, to Russell Crowe. He's a part owner of a rugby team in Australia, where he has sacked the dancing cheerleaders. He told ESPN, "We examined game day and wanted to contemporize and make the focus [on] football." A team of percussionists will replace the cheerleaders, the club announced last February. The club's website invited drummers to audition.

Fantasy Congress

2007-11-12T23:32:52-05:00

Last year a pal I play hoops with cajoled me into joining his fantasy NFL league. It was fun to study the rosters. I’ve always been fascinated by people’s names. Somehow football players’ names are particularly fascinating, maybe because they’re so prominently displayed on the gigantic billboards that are their backs.

So naturally, knowing very little about the current crop of individual players, I chose a team based entirely on the players’ names. I could have made a whole league of such teams. An entire team of Toms playing an entire team of Cedrics and Derricks? An entire team of people with last names that are professions (Miller, Baker, Cook, Porter, etc.) versus an entire team of people with names longer than 10 letters? Or a team of all players with sexually ambiguous names (Marion, Lesley, Randy, etc.) I wonder who would win? Well, despite all the fun I could have had, I created one team with players who had tough names. Rough tough names. Like Mack Strong. Or Alge Crumpler.

I actually did all right for awhile. And way under the salary cap, I might add. Until I, uh, took my eye off the ball and several of my players were out for weeks with injuries unbeknownst to me. I played a few weeks with no quarterback, I think.

But I can see how the fantasy league concept is a fun one. Especially for the attentive.

And there's a league for everyone. You can play fantasy Congress too. Fantasy Congress: Where people play politics. I haven't played, mainly because returning from reality after fiddling around in a land of fantasy politics would be just too devastating. But if you want to play, you have until Thanksgiving to draft for the fall season!

Instructions are simple:

Draft your team of Members of Congress (MCs).
Earn points as your MCs legislate effectively.
Manage by trading, benching, or picking up free MCs.
Win by getting the most points by the end of the season and go down in political history.

Good concept! The site encourages teachers to use it, which seems like a good way to get kids involved in thinking about what's going on in the halls of the legislature beyond the posturing and speechifying we see most of. (What am I saying, "kids," really for anyone to get past the weapons of mass distraction constantly used against us.) Good luck!

About That Last Post

2007-11-12T22:45:15-05:00

I really don't approve of athletes taking drugs. It's cheating. It throws the whole thing into disarray and chaos and removes the beauty.

But I do think it's better to finally fess up, even if it takes a while, than to persist in bug-eyed denial. Sometimes the lessons from one who's erred or fallen can be stronger than all the lecturing in the world from the virtuous.

Hopefully, Marion Jones will say succinctly, it just isn't worth it.

Marion Jones: Cynicism Litmus Test

2007-10-09T00:32:39-04:00

Marion Jones in more innocent times, 1994. (Getty)

Marion Jones said she was sorry. And that she had behaved stupidly and was ashamed. I almost like her even more now.

It is more than so many others in her shoes have done.

I really didn’t want to believe that she had artificial help in achieving her amazing athletic goals. I loved her apparent joy in the process and like everyone, her apparently genuinely nice persona. She was beautiful to watch compete and you knew, drugs or not, she trained wicked hard. Plus she had braces as an adult at the same time I did.

The waste of her career, and her genuine efforts, that came from that little extra edge she got from outside rather than inside herself, is tragic in the classical sense: Hero brought low by one fatal flaw.

Marion Jones in the spring prior to the contentious Olympics. (Sports Illustrated)

She takes full accountability herself, which I admire. But you can’t overlook the pressures on her. Not only from her coach or whomever, but from all of us as well, wanting her to win, wanting a superchampion, and the corporate world rewarding that mightily with cash.

There’s a tunnel-visioned aspect of elite competition which gives it a certain beauty but also a potentially inaccurate accounting of reality. I remember it from years striving toward world championships on the U.S. rowing team. I believe American rowing, at least back in the day, was clean. The most unspoken-of drug I ever witnessed any U.S. rowers take was Ex-Lax. But we had the single-mindedness of purpose, the deep desire, and a sense of the self’s virtue that comes with incredibly hard work toward a respected goal. If “supplements” had been dangled in front of any of us (and if (a big hypothetical if) there had been any significant money to be made by winning rowing competitions), would we have remained so pure, albeit irregular? You can always make an exception for yourself, it seems. I suspect these little things (and I would posit that given all the issues across the globe, these are little things) don’t seem a crime when up close and personal.

An unrelated radio story today on All Things Considered discussed a very similar tale in the world of business. It was much shadier to begin with, a guy making millions off of inflated stock trading. But the key thing was that the guy, Jordan Belfort, who spent 22 months in prison on fraudulent trading charges, said that in the thick of his greed being positively reinforced, he stopped seeing certain actions as wrong or criminal. Actions which now, and well before his trading days, he would have thought were completely unacceptable. He too, like Jones, is contrite.

We inheritors of the Puritan tradition love contrition, I think. It makes a good story (which Scorcese has optioned the rights to, incidentally, in Belfort‘s case). And good stories often contain redemption.

The redemption in Jones’s case will come from her acquiescence to be brought so low. Ron Rappaport wrote in the L.A. Times (good article; he wrote a book about her) that she has thrown out her chance to go on to be a respected spokesperson or even announcer for her sport or advocate for women’s sports generally. I disagree. Puritan proclivities aside, I think we (as in We, the People) are pretty good at forgiving in some cases. (Or am I just being cynical about the seriousness with which the country views doping, all lamentations about disappointing role models to the contrary? (Though ESPN’s Jemele Hill might say gullible rather than cynical.)) Especially in cases where a personally appealing individual is truly remorseful, we want to forgive. (I’m not sure people would re-embrace a fallen Barry Bonds as enthusiastically, for example.) I hope Marion does not disappear after her expected six month prison sentence, though about now I bet she would like to. I think she could still have a lot to offer. I am still rooting for her.

Mile Markers

2007-08-07T19:06:15-04:00

Just glossing over the silent gaps here, as usual, I wanted to bring attention to a nice blog I like to read.

It's called Mile Markers, and seems to be affiliated with Runner's World. I don't know what that affiliation represents; it is very much a personal blog, as the tagline says, "Sharing the road with Kristin Armstrong."

I don't know Kristin, but feel like I'd like to. She would fit well in my roster of sporty women I admire so much and am lucky to call friends. Another adult mom jock who needs to give her sport (in this case running) some time in her life to stay sane.

I was talking about this dynamic recently with my colleague Diann, also a runner. How we feel a bit crazy if deprived of exercise for awhile. It's not like a day without it is so bad but... it's like brushing your teeth. Sure, you can survive a day, a couple of days... a week without brushing your teeth. You're unlikely to die because of it. But you'll feel pretty crummy. And be unpleasant to be around!

Anyway, nothing eye-opening in Mile Markers, no secrets to new road speed or racewinning techniques. Just another experience in the world related by someone who is funloving, spiritual (not overbearingly), dedicated and hard-working, open to the world and humble in her way of sharing it. It's just satisfying to read. Like drinking a really good cup of coffee or something--entirely pleasant, a pause for thought, fills a gap. In the process you feel you get to know the writer, though in truth I don't know much... she has kids, maybe three? Divorced it seems like? Lives in Austin maybe? Maybe Oregon? Works doing something where she travels and has a varied schedule...? Isn't it funny? But I like her. Maybe you will too. Why not visit?