Why do they have to speak English?

Ok, so I have to start this blog out with a quote from the article, "Culture, Gender Roles, and Sport: The Case of Korean Players on the LPGA Tour." To me this is one of the worst and most unneccesary things I have heard from someone in the sports world.

This is probably going to get me in trouble, but the Asians are killing our tour. Their lack of emotion, their refusal to speak English when they can speak English. They rarely speak.We have two-day pro-ams where people are paying a lot of money to play with us, and they (Asians) say hello and goodbye. Our tour is predominantly international, and the majority are Asians. They have taken it
over. (Kessler, 2003)

She was right that she would get in trouble. At least with me by saying what she said. I understand it is important that socializing with sponsors and that is important and looks better for the LPGA, but you can't force people to speak English if they don't want to. That is just ridiculous. That would be like if a person that only spoke English was in Mexico and they expected him to speak Spanish. Come on, let's be real here. Also, she hasn't taken into account that maybe these athletes are just naturally shy. Maybe they don't feel comfortable talking to people and would rather just play and go home. I see no problem in the fact that Asians or any other professionals that speak only their foreign language. I think it brings diversity to the game and if they are a great player, then just let them go out there do what they love to do.

I found it interesting that the commissioner of the LPGA had this to say, “attendance, TV viewership, Web site traffic and purses are up. That does not suggest a tour is being damaged by any one group.” Right there proves that people are watching anyways. If they are getting more people interested and viewership is up, then why complain and why do you need them to speak English? The only possible reason I think they could have for wanting them to speak English is because they are money hungry and want as many sponsors as possible. And if that is the case, then I think that is just plain wrong. Let the athletes show up and do what they do and call it a day. They are still representing your sport in a good way and shouldn't be judged for not speaking English.

There can Only be ONE Final Four

After reading, "Masculine Hegemonic Hoops: An Analysis of Media Coverage of March Madness." I found out somethings that were already very obvious to me. The basic summary of the article is it talks about the 2006 NCAA tournament between women and men and how men get alot more coverage then the women do. Overall the dominance that men's college basketball has during March Madness. And how women are lucky to get any coverage at all or at the least very little mention to it.

To me there is a reason why men's basketball is so much more popular during March then women's basketball. First off, looking past the whole gender issue. I can tell you that never in the history of the women's tournament has a number twelve seeded team made it to the final four. Really the closest thing they have to a upset is a team not in the top 25 making it to the sweet sixteen. The year George Mason made it to the final four was maybe one of the most shocking things to take plae in college basketball history. People watched the tournament to see what was going to happen next. Could this cinderella team actually make it to the championship game. In women's basketball you know you will have your Tennessee's and your UCONN's there every year. There is no real suprises. No drama to follow. It really is just boring. And you can't say they don't get coverage because during the tournament, the men's games are not shown on Monday or Tuesday night and ESPN has at least four different games going on at once during those days. Not only that, but the day after the men's finals game, the women's have there's and there is a good amount of coverage and sportscenter discusses in depth what went on during the game. They do get coverage during March, it's just viewers don't find it as interesting. That is why when filling out a bracket, men's is the way to go. Because of one simple reason. It is harder to predict who is going to win what games. Women's is alot easier at predicting the finals. I think if women's basketball had a little more competition and more teams with a chance to win, then more people would watch it. People love March Madness because of the excitement it brings. Women's just doesn't allows bring that to the table. Thus, is the reason why the men's is called the Final Four and women's is called the women's Final four. With all the excitement and money the men's brings in it is more deserving of getting the title "Final Four." Whereas, the women need to be seperated from this and given there own name. I don't think it deals with gender. It is just that it is better drama to watch on TV and is why men's will continue to be more popular.

They Should be Ashamed

Until we discussed it in class, I had never heard about the Indian Wells situation. To be truthful, I didn't even know there was a tennis event called it or for the fact that it was located in California. After reading about what transpired, I must say this is a very tragic event. Now I'm not going to lie, but if I was at the event and was expecting a historic match between two talented sisters, I would too be a little pissed off to find out that they had cancelled the match at the last moment. That to me is uncalled for. I could see informing the fans a couple of hours ahead of time. However, when the staff member didn't announce that Venus wasn't competiting, I was shocked. It is your job to report things of this nature and they should have done that. People though are going to look at the big picture. And they assume Venus backed out in the last minutes before the match. Then within the next couple of days fans errupted when Venus showed up to watch Serena play in the finals. Booing and saying racial comments to Venus and her father as they walked down to there seats. Making the whole arena very tense and defiantly affecting Serena's game for the first several matches.

During the summer I experienced something similar to this. I was at a Triple-A baseball game where Manny was getting in some practice games with the Albuquerque Isotopes. First off, I went to the game the night before and people cheered and cheered when he hit the field. But, as soon as he struck out in his first at-bat, people booed him for several minutes. Then the next night when it was raining before the game, fans were informed he was not going to play. The big problem with this is the stadium was soldout to see Manny. However, to not risk injury, he sat out of a pointless minior league baseball game. People started yelling horrible racial comments and just keep making fun of him the entire night. What the fans didn't realize was it wasn't his choice to sit out. The Los Angeles Dodgers have millions of dollars invested in this player and they wee the one's who decided whether he was going to play or not. People don't see it that way and see it as the player choice to not play. Just like Venus's situation. People have to realize she could have gotten seriously injured and it's not worth killing your career for one match. The fans at Indian Wells should be ashamed. The way they reaccted was very unmature and alot of those people need to look themselves in the mirror and realize they are not perfect either. I felt bad for the William's sisters. And it obviously affected Serena's game because she was worried about Venus. But, the true athlete that Serena is she proved that she was one of the best tennis players and I don't think most athletes could have handle the situation like she did at such a young age. Overall, I support there reasoning for never going back to Indian Wells.

If you were not able to see what happen, he is a clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcUcTMdn4dE&feature=related

She Did What?

Being from Albuquerque, New Mexico I feel it is necessary that I talk about the situation that escalated between Elizabeth Lambert, from the University of New Mexico, and her opponents the BYU Cougars. Seeing her play in high school I can say there were never any major problems with her. I mean she never did what she did in this game. If you don't know what I'm talking about, let me explain. She through a girl down by her ponytail, was punching, and even kicked a ball into another players face. Personally I have never seen anyone do this in the game of soccer. Men's or women's. It was shocking to say the least. However, I think ESPN did wrong by repeating the clips over and over again. First off, this was the one rare time I have seen women's soccer on sportscenter. The only other exception would be if it was the finals of the NCAA tournament or the US women's soccer team had a big game. I think the reason why ESPN reacted the way that they did was because they don't see women being this violent. Men's soccer is aired on ESPN all the time and mentioned on consent basis. And you see constenly they are hitting each other and hurting one another, but they don't focus on showing just that. They actually show highlights from the entire game. Before sportscenter showed the highlight, he the broadcaster said this has some MMA qualities to it. Which right there is making a joke towards the situation. It's pretty bad when the only time a women's soccer story is mentioned is if she takes off her shirt or she is beating up on the other players.

Here is a clip from what happen during the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNmPybFK2_o