Hope you caught the Friday night prime-time telecast of the Olympics, particularly the first hour interview of U.S. men's volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon.
McCutcheon, whose mother- and father-in-law were attacked in Beijing just before the Olympics began, sat down for an extended chat with NBC's Bob Costas just after the network showed the fifth set of the U.S. win over Russia in the semifinals.
Costas deftly moved McCutcheon from analyzing how the Americans have reached the gold medal match to discussing the circumstances surrounding the attack. In almost anyone else's hands, the interview would have been maudlin and tear-filled. In the hands of Costas, the most revered sports commentator of our generation, it was pure magic.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Doing the right thing
Three cheers for the Connecticut women's basketball program and for coach Geno Auriemma for granting prized freshman Elena Delle Donne a complete release from the scholarship, per her request.
There was a condition attached that she can only play basketball at Delaware this year, and while she should be able to go and play where ever she wants, the condition seems reasonable since it does place her back at home, where she apparently wanted to go.
She's already been accepted at Newark for this year. It really does seem that on this rare occasion, someone did right by a college athlete.
There was a condition attached that she can only play basketball at Delaware this year, and while she should be able to go and play where ever she wants, the condition seems reasonable since it does place her back at home, where she apparently wanted to go.
She's already been accepted at Newark for this year. It really does seem that on this rare occasion, someone did right by a college athlete.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Signing your life away
Elena Delle Donne's decision to leave Connecticut provides yet another example of how the college recruiting process is heavily weighted against the kids and almost entirely favors the schools.
Delle Donne, a 6-foot-5 forward from Wilmington, Del., was the nation's top girls basketball recruit this past year, and signed a national letter of intent to attend Connecticut for the coming fall. At Storrs, Delle Donne was expected to join Maya Moore and Renee Montgomery and be the final piece to the Huskies' national championship puzzle hopes.
The problem was that Delle Donne, who took a break from basketball while she was at Ursuline Academy, apparently changed her mind about wanting to attend/play at Connecticut. It's shouldn't have been a big deal. Teenagers change their minds all the time, and Delle Donne has every right to attend the school where she'll be the most comfortable.
End of story, right? Well, not so much. You see, because Delle Donne signed a letter of intent, Connecticut still has a hold on her future, or at least her basketball playing future. By NCAA rule, she must sit out a year if she decides to play basketball at another Division I school. It's not the greatest rule in the world, particularly when you consider that coaches can flit from campus to campus without restriction, but it's not the worst.
No, the worst rule is the one that could cost Delle Donne a year of eligibility. You see, Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma has not released her from her scholarship, and unless he does, she'll have to forfeit one of her four years of eligibility. That is, if she wants to transfer to play basketball at a school that honors the letter of intent, which pretty much covers all of Division I and II, where scholarships are offered.
This isn't to portray Auriemma as a bad guy, per se. He's just following the rules, and, more than likely, he wants to make sure that Delle Donne doesn't abscond to a school that he will play in the next four years, where she could come back to hurt him. It's just that the rules, as they're set up, don't give kids the freedom they need at the time of their lives when they need it most, the years when they make decisions that will impact their futures, like where they'll go to school.
Delle Donne, a 6-foot-5 forward from Wilmington, Del., was the nation's top girls basketball recruit this past year, and signed a national letter of intent to attend Connecticut for the coming fall. At Storrs, Delle Donne was expected to join Maya Moore and Renee Montgomery and be the final piece to the Huskies' national championship puzzle hopes.
The problem was that Delle Donne, who took a break from basketball while she was at Ursuline Academy, apparently changed her mind about wanting to attend/play at Connecticut. It's shouldn't have been a big deal. Teenagers change their minds all the time, and Delle Donne has every right to attend the school where she'll be the most comfortable.
End of story, right? Well, not so much. You see, because Delle Donne signed a letter of intent, Connecticut still has a hold on her future, or at least her basketball playing future. By NCAA rule, she must sit out a year if she decides to play basketball at another Division I school. It's not the greatest rule in the world, particularly when you consider that coaches can flit from campus to campus without restriction, but it's not the worst.
No, the worst rule is the one that could cost Delle Donne a year of eligibility. You see, Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma has not released her from her scholarship, and unless he does, she'll have to forfeit one of her four years of eligibility. That is, if she wants to transfer to play basketball at a school that honors the letter of intent, which pretty much covers all of Division I and II, where scholarships are offered.
This isn't to portray Auriemma as a bad guy, per se. He's just following the rules, and, more than likely, he wants to make sure that Delle Donne doesn't abscond to a school that he will play in the next four years, where she could come back to hurt him. It's just that the rules, as they're set up, don't give kids the freedom they need at the time of their lives when they need it most, the years when they make decisions that will impact their futures, like where they'll go to school.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The current Sports@Large
Here's the script from my radio essay, which aired yesterday afternoon and again this morning. If you'd like to hear these essays live, be sure to tune into WYPR-FM 88.1 each Monday afternoon at 5:30 p.m. or during Maryland Morning Tuesdays at 9 a.m. If you live outside the Baltimore area, you can listen to WYPR via streaming audio.
If what you hear over the next few minutes offends you or at least your sensibilities as a Baltimoreans, well, I apologize in advance. And if these few hundred words seem like the predictable reaction to the overreaction, then again I’m sorry. But someone in this city, this area, this country, heck, this planet needs to say this, so I might as well be the one. And here it comes:
Michael Phelps is not the greatest Olympian of all time. Not by a long shot.
Don’t get me wrong, folks. The 23-year-old from Rodgers Forge wrote one heck of a narrative over a magical nine days in the pool in Beijing. Add the eight gold medals from the Water Cube, with seven of them coming in world record time, to the six golds and two bronzes he collected in Athens four years ago, and you have a pretty amazing athlete.
And, even more astonishingly, Phelps has gone about the business of wiping Mark Spitz off the first line of the Olympic swimming record books with unfailing good grace and humor. He has never gone diva and has answered every question from all comers. And it’s a testament to the reservoir of goodwill that Phelps has built up that, in these times, when any accomplishment out of the norm, much less of a superhuman nature, there is no hint that what he has done has come in any other way than the right way. No shortcuts whatsoever.
But hero worship, not to mention the desires of a television network, a local station, and a newspaper to bring more customers into the tent, can’t rewrite history, and to call Michael Phelps the greatest Olympian would be doing just that, rewriting history.
Let’s start with the concept that as great as Phelps was in Beijing, his was not a solitary effort, as he was a member of three relay teams, with Jason Lezak literally snatching victory from the jaws of defeat in the 4 by 100 meter freestyle.
Then, there’s this: Perhaps the world’s most accomplished Olympics journalist, Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune and formerly of the Baltimore Evening Sun, has said that Phelps is, at best, the sixth best Olympic athlete, behind such icons as Carl Lewis, who won nine gold medals, including four in the 1984 games and four straight in the long jump, and Finnish track star Paavo Nurmi, who also won nine golds in three Olympics at distances from 1,500 to 10,000 meters in the early 20th century. Hersh’s opinion is shared by Olympic historian David Wallechinsky, and I would add the name of Eric Heiden, who won five gold medals in the 1980 Winter Olympics, capturing races at five different lengths, from sprint to distance.
But the best reason not to send Michael Phelps to Mount Olympus quite yet is that he has only been a force in two Olympics, though he was on the 2000 team in Sydney. The waters he churned in Beijing have barely stopped roiling and we’re ready to proclaim god status upon him. It’s understandable to want to do it. The past is no longer prologue, but mere annoyance, words on a page. Let’s let Michael Phelps write a few more pages in the Olympic history book in London in four years before we rename the entire library after him.
If what you hear over the next few minutes offends you or at least your sensibilities as a Baltimoreans, well, I apologize in advance. And if these few hundred words seem like the predictable reaction to the overreaction, then again I’m sorry. But someone in this city, this area, this country, heck, this planet needs to say this, so I might as well be the one. And here it comes:
Michael Phelps is not the greatest Olympian of all time. Not by a long shot.
Don’t get me wrong, folks. The 23-year-old from Rodgers Forge wrote one heck of a narrative over a magical nine days in the pool in Beijing. Add the eight gold medals from the Water Cube, with seven of them coming in world record time, to the six golds and two bronzes he collected in Athens four years ago, and you have a pretty amazing athlete.
And, even more astonishingly, Phelps has gone about the business of wiping Mark Spitz off the first line of the Olympic swimming record books with unfailing good grace and humor. He has never gone diva and has answered every question from all comers. And it’s a testament to the reservoir of goodwill that Phelps has built up that, in these times, when any accomplishment out of the norm, much less of a superhuman nature, there is no hint that what he has done has come in any other way than the right way. No shortcuts whatsoever.
But hero worship, not to mention the desires of a television network, a local station, and a newspaper to bring more customers into the tent, can’t rewrite history, and to call Michael Phelps the greatest Olympian would be doing just that, rewriting history.
Let’s start with the concept that as great as Phelps was in Beijing, his was not a solitary effort, as he was a member of three relay teams, with Jason Lezak literally snatching victory from the jaws of defeat in the 4 by 100 meter freestyle.
Then, there’s this: Perhaps the world’s most accomplished Olympics journalist, Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune and formerly of the Baltimore Evening Sun, has said that Phelps is, at best, the sixth best Olympic athlete, behind such icons as Carl Lewis, who won nine gold medals, including four in the 1984 games and four straight in the long jump, and Finnish track star Paavo Nurmi, who also won nine golds in three Olympics at distances from 1,500 to 10,000 meters in the early 20th century. Hersh’s opinion is shared by Olympic historian David Wallechinsky, and I would add the name of Eric Heiden, who won five gold medals in the 1980 Winter Olympics, capturing races at five different lengths, from sprint to distance.
But the best reason not to send Michael Phelps to Mount Olympus quite yet is that he has only been a force in two Olympics, though he was on the 2000 team in Sydney. The waters he churned in Beijing have barely stopped roiling and we’re ready to proclaim god status upon him. It’s understandable to want to do it. The past is no longer prologue, but mere annoyance, words on a page. Let’s let Michael Phelps write a few more pages in the Olympic history book in London in four years before we rename the entire library after him.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Back after a (long) break
Sorry for the gap in posts. Life got in the way. Specifically, my wife and I had visitors, and between the cleaning for the visit and the actual visit itself, not to mention working on another project, well, I got a little way laid. I'll try not to let it happen again.
There's been far too many Olympic goings-on to cover in one omnibus posting, except to say that, as a Baltimore resident, if I hear one more word about a certain swimmer, I will take hostages. (Actually, that certain swimmer and the excruciating hype is the subject of my most recent radio essay, the script of which will be posted tomorrow morning.)
One of the things that I have been paying attention to from Beijing is the United States women's basketball team's play. While the men have labeled themselves "the redeem" team, the women haven't had to carry such a moniker because they've had nothing to redeem themselves for.
The American women are carrying a gaudy 30 game Olympic win streak, dating back to the bronze medal game in Barcelona in 1992. They haven't lost since, from pool play in Atlanta, Sydney, Athens and now in China, as well as the various medal rounds. It's a streak that would certainly draw attention if not for:
(A) Michael Phelps
(B) The men's basketball team
(C) The pixie gymnasts
(D) The bikinied beach volleyballers
(E) Flat out sexism
But I digress. A player who might likely find herself on the 2016 squad, Elena Delle Donne, the nation's most highly sought after freshman recruit, made a momentous decision that, were she a man, would have been all over ESPN and the papers over the weekend. Instead, Delle Donne's choice not to enroll at Connecticut, the consensus preseason No.1 team, has hardly been noticed.
Delle Donne, a 6-5 wing player with remarkable perimeter skill, has apparently had a love-hate relationship with basketball for some time, taking time off from the sport during her high school days, then withdrawing from Connecticut this summer.
Four years under relentless scrutiny and unreal expectations at Storrs might very well have harmed the kid. Instead, she has decided to enroll at Delaware, the closest Division I school to her Wilmington home. You have to hope she finds some peace and regains her love of the sport, even if she doesn't play for a national title.
BTW, quiet as it's kept, Lisa Leslie has been keeping an Olympic diary, the latest entry of which is here.
There's been far too many Olympic goings-on to cover in one omnibus posting, except to say that, as a Baltimore resident, if I hear one more word about a certain swimmer, I will take hostages. (Actually, that certain swimmer and the excruciating hype is the subject of my most recent radio essay, the script of which will be posted tomorrow morning.)
One of the things that I have been paying attention to from Beijing is the United States women's basketball team's play. While the men have labeled themselves "the redeem" team, the women haven't had to carry such a moniker because they've had nothing to redeem themselves for.
The American women are carrying a gaudy 30 game Olympic win streak, dating back to the bronze medal game in Barcelona in 1992. They haven't lost since, from pool play in Atlanta, Sydney, Athens and now in China, as well as the various medal rounds. It's a streak that would certainly draw attention if not for:
(A) Michael Phelps
(B) The men's basketball team
(C) The pixie gymnasts
(D) The bikinied beach volleyballers
(E) Flat out sexism
But I digress. A player who might likely find herself on the 2016 squad, Elena Delle Donne, the nation's most highly sought after freshman recruit, made a momentous decision that, were she a man, would have been all over ESPN and the papers over the weekend. Instead, Delle Donne's choice not to enroll at Connecticut, the consensus preseason No.1 team, has hardly been noticed.
Delle Donne, a 6-5 wing player with remarkable perimeter skill, has apparently had a love-hate relationship with basketball for some time, taking time off from the sport during her high school days, then withdrawing from Connecticut this summer.
Four years under relentless scrutiny and unreal expectations at Storrs might very well have harmed the kid. Instead, she has decided to enroll at Delaware, the closest Division I school to her Wilmington home. You have to hope she finds some peace and regains her love of the sport, even if she doesn't play for a national title.
BTW, quiet as it's kept, Lisa Leslie has been keeping an Olympic diary, the latest entry of which is here.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
The public's right to know?
Sixteen years ago, I was took part in a Knight Center seminar on the business of sports at the University of Maryland's campus. One of the seminar's participants was tennis great Arthur Ashe, and he came to speak to us about what he found so appealling about Proposition 48, the controversial piece of NCAA legislation that largely tied admittance to college athletes to their performance on standardized tests.
Let me say parenthetically that I consider Arthur Ashe one of the great and heroic figures in modern athletics, but he and I couldn't have disagreed more on the topic, and I let him know both things afterwards. We had a spirited debate that would have gone on for longer than the 15 or so minutes it went on, except he had to leave to catch a flight.
In the process of leaving, Arthur dropped a bottle of medication. After he left, he called back to inquire if it had been found. It was, and the bottle was eventually returned. We learned a few months later during a press conference that he was an AIDS sufferer. Ashe was forced to call that press conference because a reporter had discovered his condition and was preparing to go public.
Now, it's possible that the medication Ashe left behind in that Maryland classroom was a part of the cocktail of drugs that many AIDS patients take each day, and to think, he left it in a room populated with journalists. I felt at the time of the press conference and still believe now that Arthur Ashe's medical condition was no one's business and if I had found the bottle, I would have returned it with no questions asked.
I say all that to wonder about the ethicacy of the quiet smear campaign that is going on about the possibility of former vice presidential candidate and two-time presidential aspirant John Edwards being the father of the baby of one of his campaign aides.
While I have some interest in the topic, strictly for its gossip value, I just don't see where this is anyone's concern, outside the people involved. Edwards is no longer a presidential candidate, and, as far as we know, is not under consideration to be Barack Obama's running mate.
Sorry, but having "former United States senator, former presidential candidate and former vice presidential candidate" serves as the welcome mat to protrude into a man's life, not to mention prying into the life of the mother, the life of the child and those of Edwards' wife, Elizabeth and their children.
But what do I know?
Let me say parenthetically that I consider Arthur Ashe one of the great and heroic figures in modern athletics, but he and I couldn't have disagreed more on the topic, and I let him know both things afterwards. We had a spirited debate that would have gone on for longer than the 15 or so minutes it went on, except he had to leave to catch a flight.
In the process of leaving, Arthur dropped a bottle of medication. After he left, he called back to inquire if it had been found. It was, and the bottle was eventually returned. We learned a few months later during a press conference that he was an AIDS sufferer. Ashe was forced to call that press conference because a reporter had discovered his condition and was preparing to go public.
Now, it's possible that the medication Ashe left behind in that Maryland classroom was a part of the cocktail of drugs that many AIDS patients take each day, and to think, he left it in a room populated with journalists. I felt at the time of the press conference and still believe now that Arthur Ashe's medical condition was no one's business and if I had found the bottle, I would have returned it with no questions asked.
I say all that to wonder about the ethicacy of the quiet smear campaign that is going on about the possibility of former vice presidential candidate and two-time presidential aspirant John Edwards being the father of the baby of one of his campaign aides.
While I have some interest in the topic, strictly for its gossip value, I just don't see where this is anyone's concern, outside the people involved. Edwards is no longer a presidential candidate, and, as far as we know, is not under consideration to be Barack Obama's running mate.
Sorry, but having "former United States senator, former presidential candidate and former vice presidential candidate" serves as the welcome mat to protrude into a man's life, not to mention prying into the life of the mother, the life of the child and those of Edwards' wife, Elizabeth and their children.
But what do I know?
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
So long, Hiram
I am an inveterate reader of album liner notes (which is another reason to decry the demise of the CD and its packaging. But I digress.). I love discovering the names of keyboard players and guitarists and singers on the music I love. Reading the credits to Stevie's "Fulfillingness First Finale' is how I knew that Michael Sembello was a talented guitarist before he became a "Maniac.' Seeing Patti Austin's name all over Quincy Jones' "The Dude" made me go back and discover the career of one of the purest voices I've ever heard.
All of this serves as prelude as an elegy to one of the greatest guitarists I've ever heard, Hiram Bullock, who died July 31 in New York at the age of 52. The cause of Hiram's death is still unknown, but he was battling cancer of the mouth.
Though part of my affinity for Hiram was the fact that he was a Baltimore guy, having grown up here and having attended the prestigious Peabody Conservatory, I was also drawn to his virtuosity on the lead guitar. He worked with such luminaries as Billy Joel, Al Jarreau, Paul Simon, Barbra Streisand, Sting and Steely Dan, though I was initially introduced to his work when he was the original guitarist in "The World's Most Dangerous Band" on "Late Night with David Letterman" from 1982-84. He left the band amid reports of drug usage and struck out on his own.
His solo albums, especially, "From All Sides,' "Give It What U Got,' and "Way Kool" are masterpieces, and his collaborations with saxophonist David Sanborn on his own albums and on David's pieces are nothing short of brilliant. We'll miss his musicianship and showmanship, but mostly we'll miss his enthusiasm.
Rest in piece, Hiram
All of this serves as prelude as an elegy to one of the greatest guitarists I've ever heard, Hiram Bullock, who died July 31 in New York at the age of 52. The cause of Hiram's death is still unknown, but he was battling cancer of the mouth.
Though part of my affinity for Hiram was the fact that he was a Baltimore guy, having grown up here and having attended the prestigious Peabody Conservatory, I was also drawn to his virtuosity on the lead guitar. He worked with such luminaries as Billy Joel, Al Jarreau, Paul Simon, Barbra Streisand, Sting and Steely Dan, though I was initially introduced to his work when he was the original guitarist in "The World's Most Dangerous Band" on "Late Night with David Letterman" from 1982-84. He left the band amid reports of drug usage and struck out on his own.
His solo albums, especially, "From All Sides,' "Give It What U Got,' and "Way Kool" are masterpieces, and his collaborations with saxophonist David Sanborn on his own albums and on David's pieces are nothing short of brilliant. We'll miss his musicianship and showmanship, but mostly we'll miss his enthusiasm.
Rest in piece, Hiram
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