I’m Not The Only One

I’m not a huge sports junkie, but I do enjoy an occasional game once in a while.  However, I prefer watching it online as opposed to attending a live game.  The main reason for this preference comes not just from the price of concessions or tickets, the loud and obnoxious team “supporters, surly asshole ushers who think you’re trying to sneak into the expensive seats when you’re actually just lost, or even leaving my home to go watch the game.

What I really hate about attending live games is what takes place before the game: the demand that everyone there stand during the Pledge of Allegiance and the playing of the national anthem.  Sure, some people will drag out the tired, old argument that soldiers died abroad so that I could have the “honor” of reciting the Pledge. In truth, U.S. troops have mostly died to protect the economic interests of U.S. corporations, overthrow foreign governments, destabilize entire regions, complete Manifest Destiny and punish 11 states for seceding.  Very little of that troop deployment had to do with actually defending Americans from external threats, and indirectly, our “right” to mindlessly recite a pledge and honor America’s theme song when instructed to do so .

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I’ve been recently dosing myself on all five seasons of one of my favorite sci-fi TV shows from the 90s, Sliders.  As good as the show was, I remember being in high school when the gorgeous Kari Wuhrer was added to the cast, making it even better.   I Wikipedia’d (yeah, I said it) Ms. Wuhrer and was surprised to learn she had had breast implants.  She later had them removed when one of them encapsulated but she definitely had them when she was in Sliders.  I’m sure while her natural talents propelled her acting career one could argue that her implants got her foot in the door of many Hollywood studios.  She has been quoted in multiple sources as saying her body was her best asset. (more…)

With March Madness upon us, a touchy issue comes up, the proverbial elephant in the room everyone can see but nobody wants to discuss: player compensation.

Let’s focus on college basketball, which with football, is one of the most popular collegiate spectator sports today.  Games between Division I teams are almost always televised with big-name sponsors paying a fortune for ad space, then there’s the ticket sales and the merchandising of everything from apparel to video games.  Everybody wins; coaches and support staff of winning teams enjoy high salaries, the universities rake in the revenue from ticket sales (when games are played on campus) and merchandising and the TV and cable networks rake in the advertising revenue.  Well, everybody wins except the players. (more…)

Remember John Rocker?

In 2000, John Rocker was a relief pitcher for the Atlanta Braves, and was actually enjoying a pretty successful career.  But that same year he said the following in a Sports Illustrated interview:

“Imagine having to take the 7 train [in Queens] to the ballpark [at Shea Stadium], looking like you’re in Beruit riding next to some kid with purple hair, next to some queer with AIDS, right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time, right next to some 20-year-old Mom with four kids. It’s depressing……The biggest thing I don’t like about New York are the foreigners. You can walk an entire block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English. Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there. How the hell did they get in this country?”

That pretty much ruined his career.  He later apologized for the remarks, and upon playing the Mets later that year at Shea Staium, New York fans chanted “asshole” when he came onto the field.  Three years late his MLB career came to an abrupt end.

Fast forward 10 years.  It appears African-Americans are once again breaking the color barrier, not only in the White House but in bigotry and color prejudice as well.  In a move that probably makes John Rocker proud, Los Angeles Angels center fielder Torii Hunter, who is African-American, used an interview in USA to spew his own hateful thoughts for Latino baseball players, particularly those with dark skin, wide noses, thick lips and kinky hair. (more…)

Yes, this gringo said it.

Brazil totally deserves to host the Olympics.  In fact, I’m shocked they’ve never hosted it before.  Most Americans have no idea why I’m saying this, mostly because many non-Hispanic whites and blacks can’t even find Brazil on a world map. much less know enough about Brazil to understand why they should host this international event. (more…)

I’m actually quite amused to hear the latest about Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and New York Yankees player Alex Rodriguez.  I’m amused because I’m sick of hearing about these people and how popular they are and how wonderful they are from the media and from friends and associate who are obsessed with these two athletes.

First, Phelps was caught in a photograph smoking marijuana, and now A-Rod, or as I always called him, A-Tard, has been caught with steroids in his body in a drug screening from several years ago.

Personally, I think marijuana is is no more a drug than caffeine, aspirin, sugar or tobacco.  I would go as far as to suggest that more people have probably developed health problems and/or have died from using caffeine, aspirin, sugar or tobacco than from using marijuana.  I don’t think it was right for Kelloggs to cancel the endorsement deal they had with Phelps, and NORML (National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws) wants potheads worldwide to boycott the company.  That will be a mighty financial blow to Kelloggs, considering how many stoners probably dig their hands into a box of Rice Krispies or Frosted Flakes and shove handfuls of dry cereal into their mouths after getting the munchies.

Some commentators are even going so far in their vilification of Phelps as to suggest that his Olympic medals be taken back because he cheated.  This is a ridiculous argument, because unlike steroids, marijuana is not a performance-enhancing drug unless you’re in the entertainment or music business.  In fact, I think if Michael Phelps was smoking marijuana when he was competing last year in Beijing, he should receive twice as many gold medals.

I’m glad he got caught, because he really deserved to be taken down a notch or two.  His skyrocketing stardom seemed endless for a while there, and I’m so sick of seeing him in commercials and in print advertising.

I’m even happier to see A-Tard come crashing down. I’m a New Yorker, and the local media practically worships the Yankees and of course their golden child A-Tard. New York City is also home to the New York Mets but if you only knew New York by what you read and hear in the media, you’d only think there was one team.  What’s more, I have to share the same town with thousands of grown (supposedly) heterosexual men who worship the Yankees and have an unsettling adoration for A-Tard that borders on a same-sex crush. Then there are the women in this town who get all hot and bothered for A-Tard; for them, he’s like the Dominican JFK, Jr. In New York, you see A-Tard in all kinds of TV commercials and print advertising, and his fans are semi-cultish with a very low tolerance for anyone who speaks ill of their messiah.

So yeah, he totally deserves all this negative publicity and public scorning, but because he’s a douche, not because he took steroids.

Like marijuana, I also think steroids should be legal.  The only one A-Tard hurt by taking them was himself.  He’s shortening his own life by doing so, probably duct tapes his perky man-breasts flat and the ladies won’t be too happy to find out his penis has most likely shrunk to the size of a cashew.  There should be a separate baseball hall of fame for athletes on steroids, maybe even a steroids league within Major League Baseball.  After all, fans mostly want to see a great performance on the field more than they want to see a drug-free athlete with mediocre stats.  But punishing athletes for doing whatever they could to improve their game (aside from sabotaging their competition) sounds dumb, and it translates into a huge waste of our tax dollars to put these players through a trial.

Legalize steroids, create a steroid baseball hall of fame, and the inductees can have their genitals photographed to show all those young kids out there why they should be natural athletes instead of pumped-up hermaphrodites.