When it comes to the blog, I guess I’ve reached sort of a crossroads. After being MIA for the entire summer, I have about three options at this point.
1. Can the thing – Ain’t gonna happen.
2. Reinvent It – Well that was the purpose of the blog in the first place, to provide a different perspective than whats on the mainstream
3. Act like it never happened – Well, maybe I’m going to do a three with a little bit of two. I’m not going to reinvent the blog, but I’m going to try to provide more depth. We’ll see what happens.
NBA
Missing the summer was kind of like a reverse hibernation. I was fired up about the Olympics and was one of 30 people who watched the gold medal game live, but most of my thoughts about the team and that game have faded away.
I will say that the Collangelo formula worked, at least somewhat. However, the biggest difference in this team and the one’s that lost were the fact that for the most part, these were the best players in the league.
In ’92, we sent a team full of legends. In ’96, we sent the guys that weren’t quite good enough for the ’92 team, and guys who were young then but now coming into their own. In 2000, a new trend started. A lot of the better guys didn’t want to go.
That team was still good, but as the foreign teams got better, we started sending worse guys. This helped our team lose the world championships in ’02 and ’06, along with the Olympics in ’04.
I think that if you send a team with Kobe, LeBron, D. Wade, ‘Melo, Chris Bosh, CP3, Deron Williams and D. Ho cold turkey, they still win.
I hope that when London comes around, we don’t revert back into our losing ways with guys like ‘Bron-Bron opting not to go.
MLB
For most of the summer, I didn’t have a clue about what was going on. Being without TV and Internet, it was hard to keep up with the NL East, AL and NL Central, the NL West and all the award races.
For a while it seems like I would come into work one week with the Phillies on top of the NL East, only to find them 3 games back of the Mets the next week.
I’m now starting to get back into the season, which has been a great one. Too bad it seems like the Red Sox are going to make the postseason. A playoffs without the Sox and Yanks would be awesome for baseball fans who are tired of their rivalry overshadowing the rest of the league
College Football
I’m glad I didn’t do a preview this year, I probably would’ve been way off. Right now, it looks as if USC is a lock to play in the title game. The second best team is probably either Oklahoma or Florida, but Florida is more likely to lose a game than the Sooners. Missouri and Georgia would be the second tier of contenders, and everyone else is just playing for a 10-2 season.
I’d love to see the Pac-10 and SEC finally square off for the chip, but that probably won’t happen.
NFL
I’ll talk about this sometime this week, I want to really gather my thoughts and put together something good.
Showing posts with label MLB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MLB. Show all posts
Monday, September 15, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
The Decline of the American-born Black Athlete????? (Sportsology Academic Break) Pt. 1
I am 15 days away from graduating from Drexel University. My emotions are mix of excitement and anxiety over the uncertainty of my future. That said, I’ll be finished with classes this time next week.
For my Sociology 380 Media Sociology class, I was given the assignment to come up with a piece of media and present it to class. Since I already had the blog, I figured I’d use it to come up with some food for thought. That food will be the decline of the American born-black athlete in American sports.
In four parts, I’ll look at this phenomenon from a historical standpoint and see how it’s affecting the three major sports leagues in the U.S.; the NBA, NFL, and MLB.
There are two inspirations for this work. One is this Jason Whitlock article, which I’ll discuss more in the NFL section, where he notes that many of the more successful teams in the NFL are the ones with mostly white players.
The other is one of my favorite books, Forty Million Dollar Slaves, written by the New York Times’ Bill Rhoden. If you haven’t read this book, please do so immediately.
It’s an excellent historical view of the rise and fall of the black athlete and some of the contributing factors.
The name of the book comes from a fan’s response to Larry Johnson referring to the Knicks as rebel slaves.
The book is centered on the situation of black athletes in America, which is still the same today. On one hand, many black athletes have dominated their sports. On the other hand, the success on the field hasn’t translated into success off the field. By this I mean blacks have no ownership in the sports they dominate, which puts them in a vulnerable position.
There is only one black owner in American professional sports, Bob Johnson, who is already under fire for some of his tactics with his Charlotte Bobcats, a franchise not even ten years old.
In his book, Rhoden showed how the vulnerability has often left black athletes in an exploitable position. Before, in sports like boxing, horse racing (most of the best jockey’s were black in the mid-1800s before racism excluded them from participating), cycling, etc., black’s lack of ownership put them in positions to be excluded from participation.
Now, their lack of ownership has them in a subservient position, where they are mostly confined to worker positions (playing and coaching) and have limited executive power. I’m not going to make this a book review, just go read the book.
Here’s how it relates to the situation of black athletes today. When blacks had their own leagues, like the Negro Leagues, and the best black athletes went to HBCU’s, they would protect each other.
Now, they are simply money making objects. In the MLB section, I’ll talk about how the absence of the Negro Leagues pretty much destroyed baseball in the black community (if I remember).
Back to the point, the lack of ownership and black executives in these leagues puts black athletes in a position where they can become extinct at any moment. Blacks have been replaced by Latin and now Japanese players in baseball; European and Asian players are becoming more prevalent in the NBA; white and African-born players are replacing the black American athlete in the NFL.
I use Whitlock’s article for balance, its not just the man’s fault. Black athletes were very eager to move on to the big money sports leagues in the mid-1900s. This was a very profitable relationship for black athletes and white owners at first. Now, with the baggage that comes with many black athletes and the behavior of the Pac Man Jones’ of the world, owners are starting to look elsewhere.
Maybe I’m looking into this too deeply. Maybe these leagues are becoming more diverse and are recruiting international talent to expand their fan base globally. I’ll do my best to present the facts during the next three days and give you something to think about. Enjoy.
For my Sociology 380 Media Sociology class, I was given the assignment to come up with a piece of media and present it to class. Since I already had the blog, I figured I’d use it to come up with some food for thought. That food will be the decline of the American born-black athlete in American sports.
In four parts, I’ll look at this phenomenon from a historical standpoint and see how it’s affecting the three major sports leagues in the U.S.; the NBA, NFL, and MLB.
There are two inspirations for this work. One is this Jason Whitlock article, which I’ll discuss more in the NFL section, where he notes that many of the more successful teams in the NFL are the ones with mostly white players.
The other is one of my favorite books, Forty Million Dollar Slaves, written by the New York Times’ Bill Rhoden. If you haven’t read this book, please do so immediately.
It’s an excellent historical view of the rise and fall of the black athlete and some of the contributing factors.
The name of the book comes from a fan’s response to Larry Johnson referring to the Knicks as rebel slaves.
The book is centered on the situation of black athletes in America, which is still the same today. On one hand, many black athletes have dominated their sports. On the other hand, the success on the field hasn’t translated into success off the field. By this I mean blacks have no ownership in the sports they dominate, which puts them in a vulnerable position.
There is only one black owner in American professional sports, Bob Johnson, who is already under fire for some of his tactics with his Charlotte Bobcats, a franchise not even ten years old.
In his book, Rhoden showed how the vulnerability has often left black athletes in an exploitable position. Before, in sports like boxing, horse racing (most of the best jockey’s were black in the mid-1800s before racism excluded them from participating), cycling, etc., black’s lack of ownership put them in positions to be excluded from participation.
Now, their lack of ownership has them in a subservient position, where they are mostly confined to worker positions (playing and coaching) and have limited executive power. I’m not going to make this a book review, just go read the book.
Here’s how it relates to the situation of black athletes today. When blacks had their own leagues, like the Negro Leagues, and the best black athletes went to HBCU’s, they would protect each other.
Now, they are simply money making objects. In the MLB section, I’ll talk about how the absence of the Negro Leagues pretty much destroyed baseball in the black community (if I remember).
Back to the point, the lack of ownership and black executives in these leagues puts black athletes in a position where they can become extinct at any moment. Blacks have been replaced by Latin and now Japanese players in baseball; European and Asian players are becoming more prevalent in the NBA; white and African-born players are replacing the black American athlete in the NFL.
I use Whitlock’s article for balance, its not just the man’s fault. Black athletes were very eager to move on to the big money sports leagues in the mid-1900s. This was a very profitable relationship for black athletes and white owners at first. Now, with the baggage that comes with many black athletes and the behavior of the Pac Man Jones’ of the world, owners are starting to look elsewhere.
Maybe I’m looking into this too deeply. Maybe these leagues are becoming more diverse and are recruiting international talent to expand their fan base globally. I’ll do my best to present the facts during the next three days and give you something to think about. Enjoy.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Quick Hits 4/22
As my college career winds down, I’ve been grinding like crazy. That said, I pretty much missed all the basketball this weekend. I haven’t watched a single inning of baseball, and I probably won’t do another mock draft before this weekend.
In the City of Philadelphia, this weekend is Penn Relays weekend. My chapter, the Delta Eta Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi, is holding all sorts of events. Between that and our NUPE Week for the rest of the week, I’m not sure how much time I’m going to have to devote to sports.
Of course this is devastating to a guy like me; I’m definitely going through some sort of withdrawal. That said, lets get on with the show.
NFL
I’m normally a Chad Johnson supporter. However, I think that he should ride it out in Cincinnati. I hate to see guys try to jump ship when it’s sinking. When they were on the rise, he was Mr. Bengal. Now he wants to play for a better team. You can call it Jermaine O’Neal syndrome. Like Chad, O’Neal got his paper from Indy and was the face of the franchise when they were good. Now they suck and he wants out.
That’s a little backwards to me. However, Cincy is dumb for turning down two 1st round picks for Chad. They need all the help they can get. Although I think he should stay, if I was Cincy I’d milk whoever wanted him for as many picks as possible.
On another note, I’m glad Miami seems to be leaning towards taking Jake Long. He is a sure thing. I’m not really sold on Chris Long, who was expected to end up in Miami at some point. I think a lot of his hype comes from the name, but I’ve been wrong about things like that before.
MLB
I really have no idea what’s going on. Baseball just isn’t really an interest of mine right now. I was really turned off by all that Mitchell Report stuff during the offseason. It overshadowed everything that the baseball offseason is usually about; trades, free agents, teams/players to watch, etc. Maybe I’ll start watching it in May.
NBA
I’m really excited about the NBA playoffs. This year’s playoffs have the potential to be one of the best playoffs in recent memory. That said, don’t be surprised if the top four seeds in each conference advance to the second round.
In the East, Boston, Detroit, Orlando, and Cleveland are clearly superior to the teams they’re facing. I know Detroit lost to Philly the other day, but they’ll probably get it together and win four in a row.
Washington would normally be a challenge to Cleveland, but I’m not sold on the health of Arenas, Butler, and even Jamison and this point. Too bad, as this might be the last time these two teams face each other with LeBron and Gilbert as the lead acts.
In the West, the Lakers, Hornets and Jazz have pretty easy matchups. The Suns and Spurs will probably go down to the wire. When Phoenix made the Shaq trade, I was very critical to the point where I didn’t even know if they would make the playoffs. If they don’t get past the Spurs, a team they made this trade for, Steve Kerr will start taking some heat again.
Regardless, I plan on watching every game as soon as I get that kind of free time, which will likely be next week.
In the City of Philadelphia, this weekend is Penn Relays weekend. My chapter, the Delta Eta Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi, is holding all sorts of events. Between that and our NUPE Week for the rest of the week, I’m not sure how much time I’m going to have to devote to sports.
Of course this is devastating to a guy like me; I’m definitely going through some sort of withdrawal. That said, lets get on with the show.
NFL
I’m normally a Chad Johnson supporter. However, I think that he should ride it out in Cincinnati. I hate to see guys try to jump ship when it’s sinking. When they were on the rise, he was Mr. Bengal. Now he wants to play for a better team. You can call it Jermaine O’Neal syndrome. Like Chad, O’Neal got his paper from Indy and was the face of the franchise when they were good. Now they suck and he wants out.
That’s a little backwards to me. However, Cincy is dumb for turning down two 1st round picks for Chad. They need all the help they can get. Although I think he should stay, if I was Cincy I’d milk whoever wanted him for as many picks as possible.
On another note, I’m glad Miami seems to be leaning towards taking Jake Long. He is a sure thing. I’m not really sold on Chris Long, who was expected to end up in Miami at some point. I think a lot of his hype comes from the name, but I’ve been wrong about things like that before.
MLB
I really have no idea what’s going on. Baseball just isn’t really an interest of mine right now. I was really turned off by all that Mitchell Report stuff during the offseason. It overshadowed everything that the baseball offseason is usually about; trades, free agents, teams/players to watch, etc. Maybe I’ll start watching it in May.
NBA
I’m really excited about the NBA playoffs. This year’s playoffs have the potential to be one of the best playoffs in recent memory. That said, don’t be surprised if the top four seeds in each conference advance to the second round.
In the East, Boston, Detroit, Orlando, and Cleveland are clearly superior to the teams they’re facing. I know Detroit lost to Philly the other day, but they’ll probably get it together and win four in a row.
Washington would normally be a challenge to Cleveland, but I’m not sold on the health of Arenas, Butler, and even Jamison and this point. Too bad, as this might be the last time these two teams face each other with LeBron and Gilbert as the lead acts.
In the West, the Lakers, Hornets and Jazz have pretty easy matchups. The Suns and Spurs will probably go down to the wire. When Phoenix made the Shaq trade, I was very critical to the point where I didn’t even know if they would make the playoffs. If they don’t get past the Spurs, a team they made this trade for, Steve Kerr will start taking some heat again.
Regardless, I plan on watching every game as soon as I get that kind of free time, which will likely be next week.
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