After Atalanta

Before the start of Wimbledon Venus Williams wrote a column about the tournament's continuing practice of awarding the men and the women unequal prize money. Good for her, I thought to myself. But then I read it and was not as convinced it was such a valuable exercise. It was well-written and she made some good points. But I was surprised by her meritocracy argument which she personalized by discussing her own struggles and the work ethic of her father who conveyed to his daughters that hard work pays off. That Williams buys into the myth of meritocracy is disappointing to me. She must literally see how American systems (education, legal, etc.) work against some people (mainly racial and ethnic "minorities") and work for others (primarily white people). And most of the time it doesn't matter how much hard work one puts in. Williams does a disservice to everyone who has worked hard only to have the system descend and keep them down by extolling the value of hard work. ...

...I'm going to the Gay Games. That's the rationale of White Sox coach Ozzie Guillen who called journalist Jay Mariotti a fag last week, took a lot of flak for epithet, then issued a non-apology, received more flak and is now claiming he can't be homophobic because he plans on going to the Gay Games next month in Chicago. MLB has fined Guillen (an undisclosed amount) and is making him take sensitivity training classes. Come on--he's going to the Gay Games--can't that count as his sensitivity training? Some kind of transfer credits. I'm not a homophobe because I am going to the Gay Games is similar to the hackneyed rationale offered by white folks that "I'm not a racist; I have black friends." A problematic rationale in itself that refuses to see racism at the structural level or acknowledge and account for the invisible system of white privilege. To make it more analagous to Guillen's situation though that rationale would be given by someone wh...

Are there women playing Wimbledon this year? I see scores scrolling along the bottom and I saw Maria Sharapova interviewed this morning but I haven't seen any of them actually playing. Instead I get to watch the Nadal match that, despite being on grass, still took two hours to play 2 sets. It seems that ESPN is sticking with its French Open policy of staying with a match, no matter how lackluster, until the bitter end. And unfortunately all these matches feature men.

Last month I noted how a grunting black French man probably wouldn't sit so well with the Wimbledon traditionalists. Gael Monfils may not even have to utter a guttural syllable to irk some. (And I didn't see any coverage--if there was any--of his first round match to be able to calculate the decibel level.) 'Cause Monfils has undone the corn rows he was sporting at Roland Garros. So he has this great not-quite-an-afro going on. The only thing holding it all back from being completely "wild" is his Nike headband. James Blake is also sporting a Nike headband--blue--but it holds back nothing and seems like it might just create a very odd tan line. Of course Monfils lost in the first round. It doesn't look like he is playing doubles. The mixed draw isn't out yet, though. But it appears that any raised eyebrows Monfils may have garnered have past. So too those raised at the appearance of Svetlana Kuznetsova's first round opponent, Romina Oprandi have quiete...

Wimbledon started today. Well it tried to start anyway. Rain got the better of day one activities and no one was able to finish a match. So ESPN2 chose to air--when I flipped over anyway--last year's women's final between Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport. Williams is in this year's draw and got a decent seeding. But Davenport withdrew before the draw was even made as did Mary Pierce and Serena Williams. I hope today's airing of last year's final is not the last time we get to see Davenport who has been troubled--again--by injuries this year. I haven't ever really been a Pierce fan along the way--her personality is a bit off to me--but I think her perseverance over a decade of competition in this sport has been amazing. Her last few years of play have been especially impressive. And Serena Williams. Well again not so much a fan but I do have some empathy for all the crap the media has strewn at her over the years. Sure her family seems a little odd--but who...

Jenny Haigh, the soccer coach at Northwestern resigned the other day. Perhaps we should put resigned in quotes, though. She is leaving in the wake of the hazing incident. Or rather she is leaving in wake of the publicity that emerged when photos of the incident were found on the internet (posted by team members on a personal website). I was a little surprised by her resignation because--unlike the Duke lacrosse coach who seemed to know about and condone the behavior (pattern of behavior--not just the alleged rape)--Haigh likely had no specific knowledge of the event. I don't know the climate at Northwestern around athletics. All teams seem to have some kind of bonding events at the start of the season. This one crossed the line to hazing. Others have crossed that line as well. But there were no records of it. I am not diminishing the severity of hazing (see previous entry below) or that it is symptomatic of an attitude that collegiate student-athletes have certain immunities. But ...

I was in San Francisco this past weekend and went to a reception at the GLBT Historical Society and Archives. I actually kind of tagged along with friends with whom I was going out with afterwards but I am really glad I went. There was a new exhibit on the history of GLBT athletes and sporting events. (I stole this picture from the web site. I hope they don't mind. I am doing it for promotion rather than exploitation.) It was very well-done. There were lots of pictures and various installations. I was impressed given that the organization is primarily volunteer-based and in a very small space. The archives were amazing too. They have tons of stuff one could get totally sucked into--pictures, letters, flyers, signs. I hope to get back there for some research on the Gay Games. Anyway--if you're in the bay area check it out (it's about 2 blocks from the Montgomery BART station). And if you want to help preserve GLBT history (it was mentioned that often times the archives get d...

This was the post I started when I was at the airport late last week waiting for my flight to CA. But alas I am only finishing it now because there was no where in the whole city of Oakland that had free wi-fi and I was not going to pay $10/day for internet access at the hotal. So here it is: This story about student-athlete behavior came out a few weeks ago but I was busy watching and blogging about tennis, golf and softball. I mostly thought it was amusing--ok, yes somewhat serious--but somewhat missing the point as well. So some schools have mandated that their student athletes refrain from using Facebook or MySpace. OK sure--such rules impede naive SAs from posting incriminating photos of themselves hazing other team members a la the women's soccer team at Northwestern. But the rule misses two key points. The first is that--hello there appears to be rampant hazing going on and just because there may be a decline in a photographic record of the incidents doesn't mean this is...

Michelle Wie won her first major this weekend at the LPGA Championship. Oh wait--no it was Si Re Pak who won the tournament in a playoff against Karrie Webb, who herself won the first major of the year. Headline said Wie; article was correct in noting that it was 30-year old Pak, already qualified for the Hall of Fame, versus the teenager who hasn't won a major yet. What does this faux pas suggest? Perhaps on the most basic level it shows that there is a sloppy headline writer somewhere. But of course if I was happy with things on the most basic level I wouldn't bother to blog. Obviously I don't know what happened but it seems like one Asian golfer was all too easily confused for another. Wie of course is the headline grabber. Ask someone not familiar with golf to name a female golfer my guess is that either Wie or Annika Sorenstam are the top guesses. Pak, though just a few years ago was tearing up the LPGA. She, like Webb, have had some rough years. This, in part, is why...

I swore I had blogged about this last year but when I went back through my archives I realized I only started blogging in earnest in July 2005; after the McDonald's LPGA Championships were held. And I can't remember whether ESPN and/or one of the major networks actually showed the tournament last year. Regardless, this year it's ALL on The Golf Channel this year. I have been reminded of course that I am not even going to be near a television this weekend. But that is little consolation (especially since I am definitely here today). Frankly I was surprised that not even the final round would be on a more accessible network. I mean Annika is going for her 10th major and Michelle Wie is eager to prove she can win against women. With the crop of young women that have been in contention this year including Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel who have made good showings the past few weeks plus the folks you can never count out: Gulbis (hungry for a first major), Carrie Webb who appa...

I only checked in occasionally this morning to Gaels Monfils match against Djokovic. But whenever I did, I noticed that there was a lot of grunting going on. Grunting that seemed on the same decibel level as Sharapova (who was noticeably more quiet this year except maybe for that last match against Safina). It seemed to be coming mostly from Monfils side of the court. They're not going to like that at Wimbledon! A black Frenchman making lots of noise on the hallowed grounds? Oh the horror!

It was a weekend jam-packed with sports--well sports I am interested in anyway: softball, tennis, and women's golf. It was especially difficult this afternoon trying to channel switch between the three when they overlapped. The saddest moment of the weekend was Amelie Mauresmo's three-set loss to Vaidisova. Though Mauresmo was my sentimental favorite to win the French Open, I was not that surprised that she lost and to an up-and-coming teen. Didn't she lose to an -ova last year too? I just didn't see her making quick enough work of her early round opponents to carry her into the second week with enough mental and physical confidence. I don't know is going to show up at Wimbledon (Serena W. is out but Davenport?) but I think she will go farther there. The high of the weekend has to be Northwestern's amazing unbeaten streak at the WCWS. They took on #1 seed UCLA this afternoon who, coming out of the losers' bracket, had to win this game. NU held a 1-0 lead for...

The Women College World Series is this weekend--action began on Thursday and it was a great day of softball. But of course given that my team lost in the regionals several weeks ago, I am left figuring out who to root for. I have chosen Northwestern because 1) they're the only Big Ten team to make it through to the final weekend, 2) they had an amazing win over Alabama on Thursday, 3) I really like their coach, and 4) they have a very visible, positive team dynamic and oodles of unbridled enthusiasm. But there are other games to watch of course and because I come to softball fandom with a tennis fan mindset, I have to have a favorite--or at least a leaning--for all the games. Thursday's game between Texas and Arizona State was hard to pick though. Pretty much anything Texas makes me a little queasy and I am not--unlike everyone else--a Cat Osterman fan. I don't know why. I do like her better than Jenny Finch however, because I think she is a better pitcher. So I was ready t...

As promised, here are my thoughts after reading the women's doubles draw. I always find women's doubles fascinating and whenever I go to a tournament I watch as much as I can but alas even with the return of Martina Navratilova and the fact that many of the top players (in contrast to the men) play doubles too it gets next to no television coverage. Of course the French is in the midst of a rain delay and showing the matches they didn't show live yesterday. If the rain keeps up and they run out of taped singles matches maybe we will see some doubles. But I doubt it. They'll probably re-run every Federer and/or Nadal match first. The first thing I noticed was that not as many of the top women are playing doubles this year. Mauresmo and Sharapova (1 and 4) have never been big doubles players anyway. Clijsters used to be a regular playing most often with Ai Sugiyama who is playing now with Hantuchova. I wonder if winning a Grand Slam has changed her priorities a little bit...