Who's In?

Pickup Culture

noreply@blogspirit.com (Sandy) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:45:00 -0400

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

noreply@blogspirit.com (Sandy) — Tue, 3 Jun 2008 15:15:00 -0400

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

noreply@blogspirit.com (Sandy) — Sun, 1 Jun 2008 22:25:00 -0400

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

noreply@blogspirit.com (Sandy) — Tue, 4 Mar 2008 23:40:00 -0500

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

noreply@blogspirit.com (Sandy) — Sat, 1 Dec 2007 18:10:00 -0500

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

noreply@blogspirit.com (Sandy) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 22:35:00 -0500

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

noreply@blogspirit.com (Sandy) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 23:20:00 -0500

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!