Category: Sports

How I Learned To Like Mondays

On By In Write FieldIn Random Stuff, SportsLeave a comment

Adult studentI have always loved being a student. It’s a shame there’s no money in it, or it would be my chosen occupation.

My biggest challenge at school wasn’t the required reading or hours of study; it was deciding what classes to take. With just a few exceptions — my apologies to math teachers, but high school trigonometry was one of them – the entire course catalog interested me. Some of my fanciful choices (The Reformation in Britain, Reading Financial Statements) worked out well. Others (Russian 101) did not.

When it comes to education I am all about the journey – not necessarily the destination.

When I said goodbye to student life and moved to San Francisco, I took the requisite night course on wine tasting at the UC Berkeley Extension. It was a revelation: a class that involved no pre-reading or take-home assignments. It wasn’t even pass/fail! The only thing I was required to bring to class each week was an empty wine glass. Later, I took a number of photography classes that I also loved.

Eventually, though, I stopped taking classes for fun. I’m not sure why. My workdays got longer, for a start, leaving me with less energy to haul myself across town in the evenings. And perhaps I got a bit more practical about how I spent my disposable income; I should be saving for a car/house/vacation or taking classes for professional accreditation.

Something was definitely missing. So, in the spring I dusted off my thinking cap and signed up for a class called Monday Night Football: Inside America’s Pastime, part of Stanford University’s Continuing Studies Program. The class (held on Mondays, naturally) isn’t about the weekly NFL broadcasts – or even exclusively about the NFL. It covers the business of both pro football (about which I was already somewhat knowledgeable) and college football (about which I was clueless).

The best part of taking classes at Stanford – aside from the stunningly beautiful campus and the amazing microclimate that always seems to rest right on top of it – is that the school can draw some serious heavy-hitting speakers.

The highlights?

  • Columnists Mark Purdy and Lowell Cohn provided anecdotes about San Francisco 49er coaches, past and present.  How hard is it to pry a straight answer out of Jim Harbaugh?  Sorry, I’m sworn to secrecy.
  • Roger Noll, Professor of Economics, Emeritas, at Stanford schooled us on collective bargaining in the NFL, and shared his thoughts on the economic value a professional football team can bring to a city. (Hint: Don’t bank on it.)
  • Mike Pereira, a former VP of Officiating for the NFL and current “Rules Analyst” for Fox Sports, made us laugh for 90 minutes with his self-deprecating humor. He’s also pretty easy on the eyes, ladies.
  • Gary Cavalli, the co-founder and Executive Director of the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, is the course director, so we hear from him every week. He is so charming, humble and knowledgeable I think he could even make trig fun! (Easy to say, as I will never test this theorem.)  Gary doesn’t like bloggers much, but I am blogging about how he’s the bomb so I should be OK.

So, if you have ever thought of taking a class at night – just for fun – I say go for it. It doesn’t matter if it’s sports, literature, knitting or self-help, as long as you are energized by the topic.  There are a million reasons not to: the drive is too long, you’ll get home too late, maybe you won’t like it.  That’s the one that always kills me.  Maybe you won’t like it?  Well, what if you do?

One of my favorite quotations comes from author and motivational speaker Jim Rohn. I replay it in my mind when I catch myself rationalizing my way out of taking a risk.

If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.

True Confessions: Volume I

On By In Write FieldIn Sports, True Confessions2 Comments

Today’s confession: I find the sight of Bobby Petrino in a neck brace, with road rash all over his face, funny.  I know that’s bad.  (It is, right?  No, it is. I KNOW it is.)  I also find the mental image of him on a big ol’ Harley with 25 year-old Twinkie Jessica Dorrell on the back worthy of a chuckle, because I understand that comeuppance is on the way.

Petrino’s hanky-panky with a University of Arkansas employee – who he hired — has presumably left a family devastated, and a career besmirched, which should elicit sympathy from me.  But it doesn’t.  When it comes down to it, isn’t saying Bobby Petrino’s career is besmirched like saying Bill Belichick has abandoned his integrity?

Um, I think that ship sailed a while back, guys.

The situation is so tawdry and trite, even Lifetime Movie Network would not pick it up.  An aging man, with a lot of power and influence, encounters an attractive, ambitious young woman who needs his “help”.

“Single blonde female likes NCAA football, long rides on motorcycles, monetary gifts and unfair advantages when interviewing for highly coveted university jobs.  Assistant coaches and poor guys need not apply.”

When the story of Petrino (who is a married father of four) having a young lady passenger at the time of his crash broke, he said he had tried to spare his family the pain of a “previous” inappropriate relationship.  He used the word “previous” a lot.   She was straddling your hog, Bobby.  There’s nothing previous about it.

It would appear that Petrino was dating Dorrell before she applied for a position in the U of A Athletic Department, which gave her an “unfair and undisclosed advantage” over the other 159 applicants for the job.  Oh, he also gave her cash.

This reminds me of a quote from wise man Homer Simpson…

“Bart, with $10,000, we’d be millionaires! We could buy all kinds of useful things like . . . love.”

So true.  Look what Bobby Petrino bought with $20,000!  A whole mess o’ trouble.

Dear Cleveland Browns…

On By In Write FieldIn SportsLeave a comment

My first blog with unoriginal content. Now wait, not sure that’s a claim I can honestly make. Let me rephrase. It’s my first video blog, and it’s funny because it’s true. And that’s why I am crying…

Calling Ameriza!

On By In Write FieldIn Baseball, Random Stuff, Sports1 Comment

Last spring I did something I’d always vowed I wouldn’t; I got a DVR, and signed up for the overpriced Major League Baseball sports package on cable.  A bit extravagant, but it was worth it to watch my childhood team the Cleveland Indians play five times per week, in addition to my adopted home team the San Francisco Giants.

It’s a hard-knock life when your toughest decision of the day is which baseball game you will watch live, and which you will record.

Unfortunately, my first foray into sports packages was not all sunshine and home runs.  Comcast, er…um… I mean Xfinity, messed up my order — so for the first few weeks I was merely enjoying a free trial without knowing it.  Ah, those were heady, innocent days.  Then, one desperate night in April, I came home to discover… BAM!  NO MLB PACKAGE!

Don’t panic, Xfinity assured me.  We’ll fix it, although it’s too late to give you the early bird discount.  “The System” won’t allow it.

Um, I don’t think so.  I did my best imitation of a wheel in need of serious greasing, and eventually was awarded a credit on my next bill.  Play Ball!

I am puzzled by the billing options with sports packages.  Xfinity, theoretically, allows subscribers to either pay for a sports package in one lump sum, or break it up into monthly payments.   Why on earth would someone choose to pay for the whole thing up front?  Aren’t most folks familiar with the concept of the time value of money?

Of course I say “theoretically”, because when I have requested to pay in installments… things have gone terribly wrong.  In December, when the NBA lockout was resolved, it was time to support my Cleveland Cavaliers by signing up for the NBA sports package.  I asked to pay in monthly installments, but was charged the large lump sum on my first bill.

So it seems that someone at Xfinity, at least, is familiar with the time value of money after all.

It took a frustrating combination of phone calls, online chats and threats through clenched teeth to rectify the situation.  (They threatened to shut off my cable completely.  I vowed to call the The Better Business Bureau, which seemed to tip the scales of customer service in my favor.)

Both my after-hours phone calls, and my online chats, were handled by offshore reps with names like Ameriza or Amerigo.  Hmmm.

I can guess the subliminal message these noms de phone are meant to send. (If you love America, you won’t yell at me?)  And I suspect I will soon have a chance to test out my theory; it’s nearly time to commit to the 2012 MLB sports package.  I will again request to pay in installments,  Xfinity will probably get it wrong… and my complaint call will be taken by someone with a name that makes me want to stand up and salute.

Baseball is, after all, America’s pastime.

Tweet This!

On By In Write FieldIn Random Stuff, Sports1 Comment

At this point, nearly everyone knows that the San Francisco 49ers will not be going to the Super Bowl this year.  They have also heard about the two fumbles by wide receiver Kyle Williams that helped cost us the game, and the threatening messages he received via Twitter afterward.

I was reluctant to write about the 49ers’ loss, and the extreme reactions to it by some.  What more is there to say, that hasn’t already been written, blogged or tweeted?  But yesterday’s events raised several questions that lingered in the back of my mind all day.

Why does Twitter bring out such hatefulness, particularly on the topic of sports?   Some chalk it up to the anonymity that is available with social media.  They say people lose the will to censor themselves, if their words can’t be traced back to them.  This may be true in some cases, but most of the comments I saw yesterday came complete with full names and photos attached.  If these guys thought they were incognito, they are even dumber than their tweets suggest.  (Why is it that the nastiest tweeters are also incapable of spelling the word “you’re” correctly?)

Perhaps it’s less a matter of anonymity, than of proximity (or lack of it).   I doubt that yesterday’s tough-talking-tweeters would have been so bold, if a 49er had been within swinging distance.

Are these folks just uber-competitive athletes who love and understand the game better than the rest of us?  Doubtful.  I envision washed up high school sports heroes long since gone soft, and guys who passed out towels after practice… but like to pretend they did a whole lot more.  Regardless, they know nothing of sportsmanship, teamwork or compassion.

Where does that kind of venom come from? Alcohol?  Probably a factor, but that’s the Mel Gibson defense which always seemed a little shaky to me.  Alcohol may give you liquid courage to blurt out something you shouldn’t, but it doesn’t plant the idea in your head and heart in the first place.

I sense the pack mentality at work.  At its best, Twitter is a conversation, and just like in face-to-face interactions participants want to be liked – even admired.   We want to make other people laugh.  We are flattered and validated by follows and retweets.  So it’s easy to dog pile on a struggling pitcher after his fifth walk in two innings, each tweet a little more biting than the last, to keep the conversation going.  If he can’t take the heat, he should stay off Twitter, right?

On the whole, I think social media is a blast.  But just like in “real life” I choose who I interact with carefully.  I surround myself with people who lift me up, make me laugh and challenge my thinking.  In turn, I try to stick close to my values and apply common sense rules to my part of the conversation.  If the person I’m writing about read this, would I feel guilty?  Could I look him/her in the eye and say it?  Would I be OK if a stranger wrote something like this… about me?  If the answer to any of these is “no”, I do the digital equivalent of biting my tongue, and hit delete.