Cleveland Sports

I did this last year and predicted the Cleveland Indians would have a great year..... they had one of their worst years in franchise history and finished in a tie for last place in the division with the lowly Kansas City Royals and fired their manager Eric Wedge. So to say the least no more predictions for me, but do we as Cleveland fans have anything to look forward to? It always seems we are in a rebuilding year no matter what the sport. We are quite close in basketball, but we are Cleveland so I am not holding my breathe. The Browns are currently 2-11 (we did just beat Pittsburgh!), and the Indians are in the process of another rebuilding year (traded two Cy young award winners two years in a row), while the Cavs are struggling with the new pieces they picked up in the off season. Saying this I still have faith, and when the day comes that the pieces come together and we the city of Cleveland win a championship it will be the most glorious day I can ever imagine. I do not even know how the city of Cleveland will react, shock, awe, who really knows? I do know where ever I am in the world at that time I will make it back to the city to celebrate though. I am 22 and it has been a life time I do not want to wait any longer I can only imagine what the people born in 1965 feel. One day though, one day we will have ours.

Conclusion

After all is said and done Sports and Gender 425 opened my eyes to a lot of issues I had not given much though to before. My favorite topic was that of the guy on the girls field hockey team, and how he received so much opposition, even from parents with daughters on the same team! It was really interesting to hear other peoples opinions, and what they think of matters such as these and then being able to come on here and read what people thought about issues in class. We only met twice a week so if you did not get to speak in class I think this was a good venue to get your thoughts and opinions out for other people to see and agree or disagree with you. All in all I found this class to be very informal. I had done blogging last year in History and Philosophy, and I think I will continue too. Sports is a never ending story with new issues everyday. Look at the Tiger Woods fiasco, who could of seen this coming? It is just nice to see what other people think and also voice your own opinion and see what others think of what you put. I know for a fact I will be writing about Cleveland teams in the near future, hopefully good things, but we know how that goes. Again overall a very informative and eye opening semester that I enjoyed very much.

The LeBron Effect?

We have discussed the Jordan effect and how he transformed the sporting world, but does Jordan have a predecessor and if so who is it? Kobe, LeBron, or Wade? Personally if LeBron can start winning some championships I think he can be bigger than Jordan and even have a larger effect globally as Jordan did. Kobe I think right now is the closest with all his rings but I think being in L.A. hurts him. Being on the west coast I don't think the casual basketball fans get to see him play much, plus he has a spotty history. Dwayne Wade has a ring already but his team has been rebuilding the past few years and injuries have kept him down quite a bit the past few years. This leaves LeBron James the savior to the city of Cleveland. If he can bring Cleveland a championship (last time 1964) it will propel him to legendary status here in Ohio, but in order for him to reach global icon status he needs multiple rings. Not only was Jordan marketable he was the best and his teams dominated. That is what LeBron needs to do in order to "be like Mike". The competition in this day and age may be tougher, but people at the end of the day don't care, they look for rings and trophies in the trophy case. When LeBron gets his third ring then maybe we can talk, but until then the greatest is still Jordan.

Win or Rest?

Two teams 13-0 this deep into the season, literally unheard of and history in the making. The Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints are the two teams undefeated right now, and the huge question on fans in general and fantasy owners are will the starters rest for the playoff run, or will they play and go for the undefeated season? I think a lesson was learned from the New England Patriots a few years back where they went undefeated up to the Super Bowl and lost that game to the New York Giants. Now a great season but they lost the game that counted and I am sure they would have liked to lose a game or even two and won the Super Bowl. And just think if Drew of Peyton are playing in a pointless game because at this point they have locked up home-field through out the playoffs. People would be sooooo mad, and rightfully so. I am sure any fan and player would give a game or two up in the loss column, and win a Super Bowl. It is a tricky, tricky question but overall I think coaches will choose to rest the starters and key players, disappointing fans and fantasy owners alike.

Come on Tiger

I am sitting here cramming for finals and working on final papers and such feeling sorry for myself but at least I am not Tiger Woods.?. Just think about a month or so ago Tiger Woods was the man, everyone wanted to be him, numerous endorsements, the exemplary role model for kids, rich, beautiful wife, and the list goes on. Well look what a simple car crash (at the time) has turned into. At first it was a simple car crash, then Tiger might be cheating on his wife with someone, then it was with more than one person, and the latest is steroids. Geeeeeeeeeeez, it is crazy how this has snow balled. Now people like Ron Artest of all people are offering advice to Tiger. A month ago could you ever link Tiger and Artest together? I think not. I mean this information was out there before the crash correct? Was the media waiting for him to slip up to reveal all the dirt on him? I just find it really crazy how everything is going wrong for him. Sponsors have dropped him, he is being accused of seeing a doctor who is linked with steroids, cheating on his wife, and all at the same period of time. It just makes you wonder, if people dig deep enough what will they find???

BCS Bowl but Coachless

This topic has intrigued me for quite some time. Coaches who build programs up from no where to power houses just to leave them and go else where to do the same or better there positions. Understandable at times, but at times it leaves me scratching my head. Why is Notre Dame such a prestiged job still? They have not been good in about a decade (good in Notre Dame standards). People still say that is one of the best coaching jobs out there. Brian Kelly has just recently went to Notre Dame and has left his former team the University of Cincinnati who went undefeated this year and are in a BCS bowl. That is horrible, leaving his team after leading them to an undefeated season. A few years back a similar thing happened with Rich Rodriguez and West Virginia. In my opinion there should be some sort of rule implemented that teams looking for new coaches can not talk to current coaches until after bowl season. You are cheating the universities, fans, and most of all the players. It is like bullying, a lot smaller schools have been bullies. Everyone is saying poor Cincinnati, which is true but for the second time they have taken Western Michigan's coach. No one really cares about the trickle down effect. These players have ran through walls for these coaches and got them the opportunities they have and they have the audacity to leave before the bowl game. It to me is disrespectful and a rule or something should be done about it. The NCAA should step up and implement some sort of rule so in the future people will not be cheated out, working so very hard for a coach, getting them to a BCS bowl game and then for the coach to leave......unbelievable to me.

Caster Semenya Issue Reslovled??

This was a large part of discussion for a few classes and thought it would be a good idea to post the follow up on what happened. It was stated in class that she was something other than female but in the follow up article it stated that the gender tests she took will be kept confidential. She also gets to keep her gold medal she won in the 800 meters at the world championships, and also gets to keep her prize money. So this makes me question if the rumors, or I do not know what to really call them at this time about her gender are true? The article is on espn.com and I am fairly positive they would not post something that was incorrect, but here is the article you guys can read for yourselves and see what actually happened to Caster Semenya. The remaining issue though is to whether or not she will be able to compete as a female. I mean if she does I would imagine the results of the gender test will have to be revealed. This is a touchy topic and I am sure we will be hearing more about it in the near future, especially when the summer Olympics begin again.

Group Blog

In class we were asked two questions in our group, one asked, based on the 1993 study on "gender of audience building" what would the findings show if the study was done today and the second asked, based on the article by Messner how could audiences be constructed to reflect growth of girls and women in sport?

The first question was tough because there have been improvements in the coverage of women sports, but they still lack the quality coverage that men sports receive. For example most women sports are announced by little known announcers, or rookie announcers while men sports are announced by the best of the best such as Al Michaels, Joe Morgan, and many others just depending on the sport. This can also be looked at in a bias because to be honest I am not familiar with many women sport announcers and do not know if there are any really well known ones that announce for a lot of the big women sporting events. All in all though besides the fact that the ratio for women to men sports being broadcast is very large the quality and such of the men's broadcasts I would assume are much greater, with more cameras, more crew, and like mentioned before the best of the best announcing the game.

The second question Messner says show more women sports coverage on local news instead of the ESPN's and such that are on cable television because everyone may not have cable, so if you do not get ESPN or cable for that matter you are receiving very little if any women sports coverage (only exception may be during the Olympics). Another one of Messner's suggestions is a simple idea, just show more regular season and post-season women sporting events, and I do think this has been done, maybe not on main stream channels but ESPN2 has a lot of women sports on, such as the WNBA and woman's college basketball. So progress is being made, but realistically this is not where the money is and for main stream networks such as ABC, NBC, and CBS to telecast a woman's sporting event it has to benefit the companies also, and this is the main reason I think it is not being done more often.

Vilolence in Sports

In class we recently discussed the violence in a women’s college soccer game. The main person of discussion was Elizabeth Lambert of New Mexico who was playing BYU at the time. Lambert was caught on video, but not by the refs of rough play and even at one point yanking an opposing player down by her hair. Rough play by any standards, but she has been suspended and has received nation wide criticism, having her parents phone number displayed on the internet for anyone to see and people wishing many negative things to happen to her via e-mail, blog, and phone messages. I mean what she did was wrong and she should be suspended for a period of time, but again with most things we discuss in class the double standard is being used. In a game not to long ago Florida linebacker Brandon Spikes was caught on film trying to gouge the opposing players eye! Brandon’s punishment by well known and respected coach Urban Meyer was one half of a game (later changed to a full game)! I don’t know about you but I think I would much rather have my hair pulled than my eye scratched at. These are two very different sports, but at the same time physicality that neither soccer nor football condones, but much harsher penalties were handed out to Elizabeth Lambert than that of Brandon Spikes. This to me all ties in to the masculinity and femininity associated with men and women. Seeing a women being physical and violent is very un-feministic and more masculine than anything, so it is looked at in a very negative way. I agree she should be suspended for her actions but all the negative attention she has received I feel is unjust and she should be reinstated onto the team as she has apologized, is speaking to youth soccer teams, and seeing a psychologist to better understand her actions on the field. You can get more information if you click on the players names as they are linked to some informal articles about the situations on both players and the physical play in question.

Language in Sport

Recently in class we discussed how the LPGA tour was making it mandatory that all players learn the English language. This got me to thinking about other sports too. Like someone mentioned in class Hideki Matsui who won the World Series MVP, yet he could not speak English and needed a translator. He has been in the league for 6 going on 7 years now and still does not speak English. To me this does not bother me as much, as long as his/her teammates can communicate with them and do not have a problem with it. I remember when Bartolo Colon pitched for the Cleveland Indians and it was rumored that he was not even attempting to learn the English language, but he was a successful pitcher with us, and it did not seem to bother his teammates. Another good point that Pedro Martinez brought up is that for one Japanese player they receive a translator and such, while players from the Dominican and Venezuela and such do not receive such treatment. Good point but a good percentage of the MLB is from those countries so they can communicate with fellow countryman in the league while Asian players are still a much rarer breed in the MLB. Regardless of anything said it should not be mandatory for anyone to learn a foreign language.

Man in a Skirt

Katie Hnida, First and only women to score a point in NCAA Div-I Football


The recent topic of debate in class was that of men playing in women’s sport, and in this particular example field hockey. My opinion on this is that there are reasons we have men’s teams and women’s teams, physically we are very different. The video we watched in class had a high school male playing field hockey on a girl’s team and he was a lot larger than the girls he was playing with. All this being said he was frowned upon greatly even by most of the parents on the same team. Should it be this way? Personally I agree with the parents that he should not be allowed to play with girls but it also has to be put in the other way around, no double standard, girls should not be able to compete on guy’s teams either. Why should it be ok for one sex to be able to do it and not the other? It is and sounds very hypocritical. The girl playing with all guys on an all guys hockey or football team has a MUCH greater chance of getting hurt playing with all guys then the girls playing with one guy. So why are those parents who oppose him playing field hockey not opposing the girl playing on the ice hockey team? Most of them cited safety being the number one concern. If you want it to where girls can play on guy’s teams then why can’t guys play on girls teams? I think that there is a reason we have separate teams for men and women boys and girls and it should stay that way and if not you can’t just allow the door to open one way if you allow one sex the opportunity then you must allow both the same opportunities.

Wrestling and Masculinity

A few days ago we were discussing masculinity and wrestling. I used to watch wrestling and was a huge WCW fan and still to this day watch it occasionally. It was just great entertainment fake or not. I was probably around 8-10 years of age when I was really into it and myself and my brother used to imitate all the moves and everything but the whole masculinity thing I am not sure I even noticed it. I have heard as wrestling referred to as a male soap opera and I agree it really is and that is why I watched, to see all the plot twists and who would turn on whom. Calling someone out based on there man hood was part of the plot and made it entertaining. Like I said maybe I was too young to notice or maybe it did affect me and I just did not notice. Either way it is a valid point and now that I think about it is a big part of wrestling, but it is the entertainment aspect and I think most fans know it is fake but still watch and the kids watching now in time will figure out it is fake and that calling someone out is just part of the male soap opera we call wrestling.

Is Gender Testing Necesarry?

This has been a topic of discussion in class a few times and I figured I would blog my opinion. Caster Semenya was a big topic of discussion and rightfully so as she was in the news because there were questions about her gender. In my opinion gender testing, like all kind of testing (steroids and such) should be conducted, but privately like the NFL does there tests. There is no need to publicly, (the world being the public in this case) shame an 18 year old person guy or girl. Also I think tests should be conducted before the events take place. If Caster Semenya had not won the race in the fashion she did, would they have gender tested her? I personally do not think so. If women in question are privately tested before the events then this can save a lot of humiliation (at least public humiliation) to the person involved and the people involved such as the committees (not sure if it is the IOC) because the situation just makes everyone look bad.

Introduction

My name is Brandon Carlo and I am from Fairview Park, Ohio which is a small city right outside of Cleveland. Saying that I am a HUGE Cleveland sports fan. Love the big three, the Indians, Browns, and Cavs. If anyone of them won a championship I do not even know what would happen in the city of Cleveland. I also played many sports in High School and consider myself a knowledgeable sports fan and I hope to make a career out of something I love so it really will not seem like a job at all. I have one brother who wrestles for Cleveland State and one sister who also attends Bowling Green both younger. My favorite shows would have to be Pardon the Interruption and Around the Horn. And all in all just really love sports and want to keep on learning about them and someday make a living involved with them in some way.