The only thing I will ever say on this subject (Redskins)
I highly recommend Steve Coll's mini-screed on the New Yorker's web site right now. Like Coll, I enjoyed playing offensive line back during (briefly) the Peewee Football/Pop Warner stage of life. Unlike him, I was not a childhood fan of the Redskins -- the L.A. Rams, as then existed, had their summer training camp in my home town, and my brother and I lived for the moments when we could watch them up close and get autographs on the practice field. But you can't raise sons in DC, as my wife and I have done, without having the Redskins be the common bonding experience, topic of phone calls on Sunday afternoon, and all-purpose cultural touchstone for a lot of people in DC.
Unfortunately the Redskins of the Dan Snyder era, which is now a decade long with no sign of relief, are simply a cause of heartache, nausea, and depression. The only reason I've been able to watch this year is the stylish and stalwart Chris Cooley, who tonight apparently has been injured in the soon-to-be completed loss to the Iggles. Jeez.
Back to Steve Coll. He has won every journalistic prize, been a power at the Washington Post, now runs the New America Foundation, etc. But the words he may always be proudest of are those he's written about what has happened to the city's team:
"The issue is not the team's performance on the field, dismal as that
is. It is the culture created by the owner--one of greed, expediency,
and mean-spiritedness. The general atmosphere around the team suggests
Zimbabwe--a failed state, an intractable dictator, and an impotent and
suffering populace."
September 6, 2009
Festival of updates #7: NYT hit-and-miss
Catching up on one NYT item that rang exactly (and surprisingly) true, and another with a different effect:
Sounds true to me: A "good news" item that stayed on the "most popular" list for a very long time. Its news was that years and years of running can actually protect and strengthen your knees, rather than inevitably pulverize and destroy them. I am here as a one-man long-term-longitudinal study to say: yessir!
Except for the past three years-of-smog in China -- lest we forget: Easter Day, 2009, in Beijing, shown at left -- I have been running many times a week for many decades. I shudder for various reasons to realize that I ran my first Boston Marathon 40 years ago. As the body-odometer has gotten into the tens of thousands of miles, I've logged problems with: Achilles tendon (too often -- hmmm, I wonder if there should be some term for a point of chronic weakness); hamstrings or calf muscles (periodically, including now); shin splints or ankle issues (rarely); etc. But knees, which I'd always been warned would be used up by running? No problems, at all. (As opposed to my dad -- who played college football and for the next 60 years coped with trick knees.) Now that actual medical research has confirmed that this is the expected result rather than a fluke, my knees feel even better. So can yours!
On the other hand: we have this story last month, which suggested that if young Americans couldn't find jobs at home, all they had to do was move to China and they'd shortcut into positions of responsibility. I'm here to say: Well, sort of.
Is China exciting enough that people should go there? It sure is. Can young people with no background in China or Chinese find work quickly? Probably so -- if they're willing to teach English. (And can get a visa -- whole different topic.) And if they stay and learn the language, lots of other opportunities often do turn up. Really, for Westerners in their 20s it's hard to think of a better investment of a few years than going to China, learning what it's like, becoming comfortable with Chinese ways and Chinese people, facing its discouraging realities but also sharing its sense of possibility.
But the idea that many non-trained grads will find "good" jobs -- eg, ones where the Chinese employer regularly pays them? Or that it's realistic to go from zero to "highly proficient" in Chinese language in a short time? Or that young foreigners will be insulated from the, ummm, idiosyncrasies of typical Chinese accounting and business practices? Those all seem a stretch. This kind of "land of gold!" account of today's China has a touching parallel to the "gold mountain!" accounts of prospects in America that have historically drawn Chinese migrants across the Pacific. Both are accurate in spirit, but potentially misleading on details.
November 20, 2008
Boy, do I feel old (chapter 2,895)
Reading the NYT on line just now, I see a review of a "historical documentary" movie of something I can remember vividly but that apparently happened forty years ago this week: the Harvard-Yale football game in which Harvard scored 16 points in the last 42 seconds to "win," 29-29. (Touchdown with 2-point conversion; onside kick with recovery; another touchdown as the clock ran out and 2-point conversion.) Tick-tock footage of the game, from a Harvard athletic department perspective, here:
I mention this dawn-of-time occurrence for two reasons: I was excited during the game itself because one of the big stars for Harvard was tight end Bruce Freeman, who caught two crucial touchdown passes. We had grown up and gone to school together in the Western hinterland, where our fathers were doctors in the same small clinic. Also, I was about to take over as the editor of the Crimson and so was part of the squadron responsible for our post-game special edition.
I have never been 100% sure of exactly who in the small group was first to say that the special-edition headline needed to be: HARVARD BEATS YALE, 29-29. It wasn't me; and I think it was my classmate Bill Kutik. But everyone instantly recognized a stroke of genius, and so it was set in hot lead, on Linotype machines, and was on the streets in a matter of minutes:
Maybe if the movie makes its way to Beijing's pirate video stores I'll find out what really happened.
(I have seen the image above on several sites. Somewhere in the attic of my real house in the US, I have the special edition itself, which I suppose I should scan or preserve in amber someday, given its status as a treasured antiquity.)
UPDATE: I have heard from Bill Kutik, who was indeed centrally involved, and even more so was the person I thought to name, but didn't: Tim Carlson. Further background (complete with Rashomon-like conflicting memories and accounts) here.
September 28, 2008
At last for Mike Mussina!
My sons adopted Mike Mussina as their favorite player when he came up to the Orioles in 1991 and seemed an ace of limitless promise. At the time, the Orioles were classy and great, and were the only available "local" team for kids in the DC area.
Since then, Mussina has been very good, and has become extremely rich, but has had a kind of asterisk for coming within an inch of a number of unquestionable milestones. Eighteen wins in his first full season, then 19 wins in two other early years. But not 20, for various hard-luck reasons. A perfect game taken well into the ninth inning -- I still remember the screams around the TV in our living room when that blew up. Number two in Cy Young voting one year (behind Pedro M), in the top handful seven other times -- but never the winner. Going from the Orioles, whose descent into mediocrity seemed to deny him a chance at the world series, to the unlovable Yankees just as their era of dominance was ending and just in time to join their gradual descent.
Today, it looked like one more "what might have been" moment. Starting with 19 wins, in his last appearance of the season, he took a 3-0 lead into the seventh. And then, as in the bad old Orioles days, the bullpen came within one run of letting him down. They escaped (thanks to 9th-inning Yankee offense) which meant that he escaped -- and ends up 20-9. Whew! What happens from now on with Moose is impossible to say, but for now, congrats.
August 20, 2008
Sincerest sign of gratitude for Beijing's new air
For the first two days of the Olympics, things looked bad on the air front. Then after two big thunderstorms and the passage of a cold front, things have been nice! Confirming my oft-expressed optimism that it would all work out just in time.
And after 25 months and zero outdoors runs in China, I've gone for four- or five- mile runs three times in the last week! All this along a reasonably nice flagstoned path along the canal that is just south of Tonghuihe North Road, between the old Beijing Train Station and the 4th Ring Road. (Only peril is migrant workers sleeping on shaded parts of the path during the day. I barely avoided planting my foot directly on one, in a dark underpass, today. I jumped over him at the last second and he didn't wake up.)
Previously I had praised the USATF.org site as a way to map running and bike routes. It turns out that MapMyRun.com works provides the same kind of mappable routes even in China! Ah this modern age. I'll keep this up as long as the good times last.
August 19, 2008
Take me out to the ball game (Beijing version)
Monday night fun, watching Team USA take on Team China at the Beijing Wukesong Olympic baseball field. The Olympic basketball stadium, which stands next door, is destined as a lasting addition to Beijing's sporting patrimony. The baseball field, like the velodrome and (sigh!) the beach volleyball area in Chaoyang Park, is destined to vanish as soon as the games are done.
Beforehand, much good natured cross-national cheering in the stands. The US team was the favorite but this was not necessarily a gimme. The Chinese team had, for the first time ever, beaten the Taiwanese. (I mean, the team from "Chinese Taipei.")
Stands were almost full! Perhaps because of the unmolested presence of hordes of scalpers outside. At many venues, scalpers can't do much because you need a ticket to get within a mile of the arena. Oh, yes, also it's illegal. In the jovially packed house, there was a polite cheering alternation as one group of fans would yell the ever-classy "U - S - A! U - S - A!" and then the other would give the equally imaginative Zhongguo! Jia You! Zhongguo! Jia You!
Then everything became a mess, as detailed in this story. Executive summary: China's best player, the catcher Wang Wei, was knocked out of the game when American Matt LaPorta bowled him over and scored. In the next inning the backup Chinese catcher was knocked over in a similar play. When LaPorta next came to bat, the pitcher promptly drilled him right in the head -- the ball bounced so hard off LaPorta's helmet that it came nearly back to the mound.
In the end, LaPorta left the game (but is apparently OK), the US won 9 -1, and the Chinese fans got some satisfaction when the backup catcher, Yang Yang, hit a 9th inning home run. Yang showboated as he rounded the bases, leading to apparent ill feelings on the field. But most in the stands seemed to miss it, and a relatively good mood prevailed in the crowd on departure, considering.
Main athletic point I learned by seeing this in person: most noticeable overall difference between US players and Chinese was how hard and accurately they threw the ball. It was not just the difference in the pitchers: the US starter Jake Arrieta throwing above 90mph early in the game while China's pitchers were in the 70s and low 80s. I think the one that hit LaPorta was clocked at 68. The throws across the infield and from outfielders also looked different. It's always amazing at Major League games to see the ease with which the 3rd baseman pegs it across the infield or the center fielder throws toward home. From the stands, that was the easiest way to tell the teams apart.
Update: Ouch! Team China's final game was tonight against the mighty Cubans. The game was called by the mercy rule at 17-1, after the Cubans had batted only six times. On Friday Cuba meets the US in one semifinal, with South Korea vs Japan in the other,
August 15, 2008
The Olympics will have to take care of themselves for a while now...
... as actual work impends. Back home at 1:30am from the "afternoon" events. Tales of logistics nightmares, of a phenomenally clear, crisp, and beautiful Beijing day, of the true meaning of medal counts, and other such topics later on. (Stop reading here if waiting for delayed broadcast of tennis games.)
The event that made the hassle worthwhile: watching Roger Federer, seemingly in the course of the first set, pick up the instincts of the doubles game:
At the start of the match, against the dominant doubles team in the world (Mike and Bob Bryan of the US, top seeded in the Olympics), Federer looked mildly chagrined to be out there -- and ill at ease on the doubles court. Every point his Swiss team lost in the very first game, Federer lost himself -- muffed volley that seemed to take him by surprise, ground stroke into the net, etc.
He and his partner Stanislas Wawrinka -- the second-best male tennis player in Switzerland, sort of like being the second most successful presidential candidate in the Clinton household -- won the first set in a tie-break, and in the second set Federer suddenly seemed to find his instinct and place.
The Bryans are made for doubles, but Federer took over, and he and Wawrinka upset the Americans in straight sets.
Happy as I am for James Blake, who knocked Federer out of the Olympic singles with his first-ever victory over him (before being knocked out himself a few hours ago), it is undeniably sad to see the elegant Federer (like Sampras before him -- like everyone before him) starting to look mortal on the singles court. It was nice to see his revival in doubles -- and it must be a strange kind of milestone for him, that an "upset" means he won.
May 25, 2008
'Good Luck Beijing'
The finals of the Good Luck Beijing 2008 track and field event, this evening at the "Bird's Nest" stadium that will be the center of the Olympic Games, was on the whole a promising omen on the "is Beijing ready?" front concerning the Olympics.
On the "hmmmmm" side: Air pollution still pretty bad today, 75 days before the opening ceremonies; interior of stadium, especially bathrooms, showing surprising wear and tear for a place that awaits its official debut; visually-striking exterior beams also already sooty and stained. And whole Olympic area still full of projects with a fair amount of work to do.
But: crowd flow good for the event (it looked as if only about half the seats had been opened for sale, perhaps as a test for handling scale); security screening quite quick and non-intrusive; the stadium's design truly is stunningly impressive, more so up close than from a distance; and hordes of young guides were peppy, helpful, cheery, and ready with English-language "Welcome to National Stadium! Enjoy the games!" greetings.
Most touching moment of the evening, by far: Men's 4 x 100m relay. The Chinese national team bungled the final baton pass and was out of contention. The anchor man for the Japanese national team was surging toward the tape -- when out of nowhere, maybe from fifth place overall, the anchor runner for the Sichuan provincial team stormed ahead to nip the Japanese runner at the last possible instant and win by .01 of a second.
Cheers absolutely rocked the stadium -- 10%, I thought, because the Japanese had not won, and 90% in appreciation for beleaguered Sichuan, which is of course the province devastated by the earthquake.
Triumphant Sichuan Province men's 4x100m relay team on the stadium big screen just after its victory, heroic anchorman in the middle:
Oddest moment: playing of the national anthem at award ceremony for each event. Some 95%+ of all competitors were from China -- a typical event would have someone from Beijing, someone from Guangdong, someone from Shanxi, someone from Xinjiang, etc etc, plus the occasional Malaysian or Australian. But when the medals were given out, it was the national rather than provincial song that was played, as if the Star Spangled Banner were played after each event at a NCAA track meet. We became quite familiar with China's national anthem.
Still, on the whole an exciting and encouraging event -- and touching, thanks to the Sichuan team.
Imagine my surprise when I switch on the TV a few hours ago, Sunday night China time, and see -- a NFL playoff game! And one involving my "hometown" team, the Redskins! (My boyhood hometown team, the LA Rams, is of course lost to history.) But wait a minute... They're playing in Seattle. And as I turn it on, the Redskins have just stormed from behind to take a 14-13 lead! And, the Seahawks mishandle the ensuing kickoff return, so that the Redskins get the ball deep in Seahawks' territory, with a lead, in the fourth quarter. Huzzah!
As anyone still reading knows, what followed, from the game actually played one week ago, was about the most disspiriting ten minutes in any franchise's history. Moral question: with full foreknowledge of what's ahead, do I leave the TV on to watch those ten minutes?
Would Red Sox fans keep watching if they happened upon a replay of the 1986 World Series? Would Yankees fans, if they found a broadcast of the 2004 AL playoffs? If they were in China, maybe they would. And I did.
Updated, below
I am so starved for football-related entertainment here -- and there is only so much Chengdu v. Dalian women's volleyball one can tolerate, not to mention Asian snooker tourneys broadcast live from the Philippines -- that I am considering staying up for the wee-hours China time webcast of Saturday's exciting University of Redlands v St. John's University playoff game in the NCAA Div III football championships.
St. John's, a school in Minnesota that I know and like, is unusual in (a) having an on-site Benedictine monastery, and (b) having been in its heyday the crushing titan of small-college ball. Their coach, John Gagliardi, has now passed Eddie Robinson of Grambling to be the winningest college coach ever. Through the decades they have been repeat national champions and have reached the national playoffs 22 times. Etc. Plus (c) lots of other ways.
Redlands, a school in southern California that I know, like, and am on the board of trustees for, is unusual in (a) its overall charm and (b) having been in its heyday the crushing titan of small college tennis. My Redlands High School classmate (and co-member of the RHS tennis team, he #1 and me in the cellar) Doug Verdieck went to the University of Redlands and was the national small-college single's champion four straight years. His father, the U of R coach Jim Verdieck, won the national championship nine times in ten years and was the John Wooden of college tennis coaches. Plus (c) lots of other ways.
Inconveniently for Redlands, they're playing football this time, and St. John's is the higher seed. Also, the defending champion and big power this year appears to be Mount Union College, of Alliance, Ohio. But anything can happen. If you'd like to hear the game from the Johnnies' perspective, their webcast is here. I'm assuming I can hear it from the Bulldogs' side, here. Go team.
Update: I didn't stay up, but I did wake up in the middle of the night and thought, Why not check out this web cast? I listened long enough to hear, "What is killing the Bulldogs today is the turnovers, plus their inability to stop the passing game..." and I thought I had heard enough. Final score: St. John's Johnnies 41, University of Redlands Bulldogs 13. Good luck to the Johnnies in the next round, against the winner of Central (Iowa) v Olivet.
Also: not such a good day for Bulldogs of any type on the gridiron yesterday. Go Crimson.
November 8, 2007
Not just a beautiful backhand: brainy, too!
(With update, below)
I see from outside-world reports that Justine Henin might give up the chance to defend her Olympic gold medal in tennis, because she is so concerned about what the air in Beijing might do to her lungs. She has asthma and recently had to drop out of the last tournament she attempted to play here.
As noted earlier, I am against the idea of any threatened official boycotts of the Olympic games. The Beijing Olympics have become (despite many local grumbles) a source of pride for Chinese people broadly, not just for the regime. But I wonder whether we'll see many more individual "boycotts" of the sort Henin has mentioned.
It’s not just Ashe-Connors or McEnroe-Borg. Tonight Macau TV brings me Chris Evert vs Martina Navratilova, Wimbledon finals, 1978. The one, like McEnroe-Borg three years later, looks quite retro. Evert, then 23, still has baby fat. Navratilova — 21 years old, pre-blonde, pre-defection to the US, pre-out, pre-chic — has very dark chestnut hair and a clunky Eastern Bloc look. Both women use wooden rackets.
Why look at these old matches, given my previous protestation that sports is worth watching only if you don’t know how things turn out? Because there is a different kind of real-time tension built into the matches.
How the Aussie Open will make me into a better person
As noted earlier, the just-concluded Australian Open tennis championship was the first sports event I've seen live on TV in more than six months. My enforced weaning-away from those previous idle hours moaning about the Redskins or wondering about split-times at the Tour de France is no doubt virtuous and self-improving and so on.
But here is what I learned from the one truly startling participant at the Aussie Open: not the elegant Federer nor the gutsy Serena Williams but the computerized instant-replay system for disputed line calls. For anyone who has played tennis in the past or plans to play it again, the results of this system are worth serious, life-changing contemplation.
