The bad sports news keeps flowing.
That could change today when the Heels take on Kentucky in Chapel Hill. A win over another basketball blue blood would finally get this season started and restore hope in Tar Heel Nation, to say nothing of wiping away the dread left over from last season.
Like the Heels, Kentucky is young but unlike Carolina they have some decent wins this season. But the game is in Chapel Hill, and Harrison Barnes and Larry Drew II HAVE to get better, right?
But it's not just Carolina that is hurting today. Of course, the Wizards stink, and the Nats got worse this week when Adam Dunn signed with the White Sox. The Nats didn't want to add a fourth year to their offer, which makes sense long term.
However, failing to resign Dunn, something that should have and easily could have happened over the summer, makes NO sense in context of a terrible team trying to gain credibility with it's fragile fan base AND win games.
In the wake of Strasburg's injury, by failing to resign Adam Dunn the Lerner's are in effect telling Washington baseball fans - "We've decided to stink for one more season, but we may try to be kind of decent in 2012. Sorry about that, sucker!"
To compound matters, there really aren't any great options to replace Dunn, at least on the free agent market. Best case for the Nats is they sign Carl Crawford to play in the outfield and move Mike Morse to first. Of course, signing a player like Crawford or Jayson Werth is a huge long shot. Bottom line, our hometown baseball team got a lot worse this week with no plan B from ownership.
But the worst news of the sports week was the announcement that Qatar will host the 2022 World Cup, defeating the U.S. in the process. There are a million reasons why the U.S. should have been awarded the world's most popular sporting event: we have the stadiums; our diversity; a president who is no longer George Bush; the previous U.S.-hosted World Cup is the only time every game was a sell out/we sold every ticket; we have gotten respectable in the sport; etc.
There is an equally long list of anti-Qatar reasons: it's going to be 120 degrees at game time; their economy is based on polluting the planet and causing global warming; they don't know how to properly use the letter Q (granted, neither do English speakers but grammar rules are grammar rules; where is the U, in Miami?); they really stink at football; etc.
But for me, the worst thing about awarding Qatar the World Cup is the cynicism, not just of petro dollars uber alles but the symbolism. After celebrating Nelson Mandela and his movement's multi-ethnic triumph over apartheid by awarding this year's World Cup to South Africa, how cynical is it to award the World Cup to a country where a minority disenfranchises a majority? Qatar is one of those Gulf States where there are half a million Arab citizens who rule over 800,000 guest workers, mainly from south Asia and the Philippines, who have almost no political or economic rights.
Qatar even practices a form of modern-day slavery known as kafeel or kalafa (loosely translated as 'sponsor' or yes, 'master'). Guest workers can not enter or leave the country without a sponsor or their sponsor's approval. The sponsor can also bar someone from reentering the country for 2 to 5 years and often garners wages collected from working in the gas fields or on construction projects in the country. Many guest workers are expected to flood the country to build the new stadiums required to stage the 2022 World Cup. Of course, as it was in South Africa under apartheid where business people from Japan were declared 'honorary whites,' exceptions are made for employees in the financial sector. They do not need a 'master' to enter Qatar.
From Nelson Mandela to modern day slavery, in four years! Thanks FIFA.
FIFA's decision is both cynical AND unoriginal: the Olympics went from the cradle of democracy and civilization - Athens - to the bastion of totalitarian capitalism and oppression - Beijing - in four years, too.
The World Cup was the worst sports news of the week. The saddest has to be the death of Cubs icon Ron Santo. Santo is widely considered one of the greatest players not in the Hall of Fame. Clearly, he should be in the Hall. For 15 years or so he was the best third baseman of his era in the National League. He hit almost 350 homers, make nine All Star teams, and won five gold gloves. He led the NL in on-base percentage and walks multiple times, too.
He was also a beloved broadcaster (check out David Maraniss' great piece in the Post today) on the radio for years in Chicago.
For a time I was a Cubs fan growing up, and their 1969 collapse is one of my earliest sports fandom memories. And Santo was my first favorite player.
After he retired it was revealed that not only was he an All Star but he battled Type I diabetes his entire career. In fact, he was the founder of what went on to become the national and annual Walk to Cure Diabetes.
His life demonstrates why we follow sports. When your team loses, you feel miserable. But think of Ron Santo when you do. He battled diabetes, a terrible disease, his entire life yet was an All Star. Perhaps best of all, he never became bitter or cynical. He fought, he organized, he raised money, and demonstrated that if you fight you win (his cause of death was not diabetes but gall bladder cancer). He inspired, and he inspires me.
3 comments:
Great stuff on Santo. On international sports . . . great idea, but pretty ridiculous in how cynical they are, as you pointed out, in so many ways. In baseball one of the best trends is MLB taking over baseball internationally, because everyone knows what it's all about now--nationalism, making money and growing the game. No sham about anything else. Baseball wants to grow the game so it has more paying customers. No BS about anything else. There's still a strong anti-American bias, which is why all the tournaments are always held outside the U.S., even though we have the best facilities and weather (other reason is Americans seem to not be interested in going to international baseball events in strong numbers). Here's where major non-WBC baseball events in my tenure at BA have been held: Spain ('97), Italy ('98, '03, '09), Canada (various sites, '99, '02, '10), Australia (1999, 2000 Olympics)), Taiwan (2001, '07), Cuba ('02, '06), Greece ('04 Olympics), Panama ('03), Netherlands ('05, '09), China ('08 Olympics), Dominican Republic ('03), Brazil (Pan Ams in '07) and Puerto Rico (2010). Only U.S. event was a minor qualifying event in '05.
grI'll echo John's comments on your thougths on Santo. A great cub, both on the field and in the booth. He'll be missed by all Cubs fans who would turn down the TV and turn up the radio just to be entertained by his emotional commentary and comical sounds as their team inevitably did something stupid.
Got Pope, Need no Bart. The Holy Father gone to Turkey to redeem and consecrate the Greeks, so don't need no more soviet temples. Don't need no gyro blimpie Bart when got a regular Pope without the diner attitude. My pop kept hitting momma with a skillet on the head. Friends ended up in the hospital after their pop beat them. Pops got drunk and ruined my first car. Killed two cats and a dog, thrown out the window. Neighbor drowned the canaries in ouzo, lit, ate them. Ma overdid whip so she could give less pie. All our stuff came pilfered, with logos. Greeks overcook all meat so no one knows is bad. Another banned tenants flushing toilet paper. Waiters inpune sanitation because "dirty is natural and healthy." Priests just answered "behave, respect, tradition!" Now priest comes "no intercommunion!" Where was he when we needed him to protect us from our crazy parents? Don't sell me "educated Greeks" because we know all them Trojan Horse cheated on the exams. Besides it's just TV repair school. Remember all those jailed old disco Greeks, tax cheats to "protest" Jerome Ford stopping the Trojan Horse in Chyprious? We can't get good jobs because no one trusts Greeks, because of Trojan Horse. They always faked reading Greek. That's why we borrowed regular Catholic books instead of read Greek. Sure, we sacrifice to Greek myths three times a year to please yiayia, and she's nun the wiser when we go to regular Catholic Mass on Sundays when she bummed from bouzaki dances. Ain't need no more Bart, just the regular Pope. That's why we all married regular Catholic when we grew up. So they can trust us.
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