As an American, I have to admit to only a passing interest in soccer. Like most Americans, my interest peaks during the World Cup and wanes greatly thereafter. However, my American-ness means I am also greatly interested in freedom, liberty and the like. Global events, like the World Cup and the Olympics, allow me to express my love for sports and my passion for the aforementioned American ideals. I am certain I am not alone in this. Americans, as a whole, like to cheer for our teams, be they soccer, hockey, gymnastics or any of various other sports we care about greatly every four years (kinda like our feelings towards elections). We also like to cheer for countries like Iraq, places tormented by war, oppression, terror and whatever else yet resilient enough to place a team on a global stage. These countries, huddled masses expressing their yearning to be free, always seem to hit a soft spot in our hearts.
Consider then, fellow Americans, the venues for the next two Wold Cup tournaments. The 2018 tournament will be held in Russia and the 2022 tournament will be held in Qatar.
First, let's understand the situation in Russia. Russia recently hosted the Olympics. Not long after, they either invaded (depending on whose story you listen to) or greatly assisted with the occupation of a portion of Ukraine.
Unless my global history is incorrect, the only other country to pull off the rare "host the Olympics, invade a neighboring country" feat was Germany in the 1930s...and I understand things went downhill pretty quickly thereafter.
Think about that for a second. The last and only country to do what Russia has recently done was Germany under Hitler. That's like throwing your name right up there with Charles Manson. And what happened to Russia as a result? They get to host the world's largest sporting event. Boy, that's teach them a lesson they'll not soon forget.
Now, FIFA awarded the event to Russia prior to said invasion, but let us not forget that Hitler earned a nomination for the Nobel Prize for Peace, which, in retrospect, seems like a reasonably poor choice.
Still, the situation with Russia is nothing compared to the circumstances surrounding Qatar.
Let's never mind for a minute that half of the eligible FIFA voters selected Qatar as their top choice despite the fact Qatar didn't have, at the time of the vote, so much as a single soccer stadium. Had the Cup been played immediately in Qatar, the event would have come off like a youth soccer event, with games being played whilst fans cheered from their nearby lawn chairs.
Qatar has since made some construction progress, which is where the issues concerning Americans come in. While Russia's freedom and liberty issues are more ambiguous and muddled by geo-political concerns, the freedom issues in Qatar are more literal. Like, literally literal. See, by a number of different accounts, Qatar is making headway towards building a sufficient number of stadiums to host the Cup in 2022 largely through the use of slave labor.
Certainly Egypt established the benefits of using slave labor to pull off large-scale construction projects, but that was several thousand years and an uncertain number of divinely concocted plagues ago. Even the United States changed its tune on slavery some time back.
The allegations of corruption and labor irregularities have been enough to prompt Germany to threaten a boycott of the event. It's a pretty big statement of how bad things are when the current world champions are threatening to boycott an event taking place eight years from now!
Perhaps the Germans have simply gotten wind of the fact that Qatar also plans to ban alcohol consumption. I might guess that Budweiser, one of the Cup's biggest sponsors, would object when the day draws closer. Others might object that Qatar has also suggested that gays will not be tolerated at the event, either--which is where they reach a common ground with Russia, so hey, that's something.
To summarize, for Qatar it's gays not ok, beer not ok, slavery and corruption, just fine.
That said, we as Americans, with our love of sports and liberty, should not stand idle as these injustices to freedom and sport are allowed to carry on unopposed. In this country, you're either for us or you're a'gin us...and if we're not a'gin the Cup being in Russia and Qatar, then we're for their policies of oppression and intimidation. And to me, that's un-American.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Designed to Kill
I used to experience something as a sports writer that I've experienced again following the recent World Series victory by the San Francisco Giants.
Often in the world of sports, it's bothersome to people when one team wins so many titles in a short period of time. It's understandable. Everyone wants to win but when one team is doing the lion's share of winning, it becomes annoying for others.
But the experience I'm talking about isn't rooted in that. In fact, I'm not really sure what it's rooted in because I don't understand the logic behind it. That's probably because there is no logic behind it. The idea I'm talking about is one that has been expressed by some in baseball and by a few sports writers around the country, which is the notion that the best team didn't win the World Series this year. Sometimes I'd hear fans express the same thing at games I covered. The best team didn't win. Further, the idea, as it relates specifically to the World Series this season, doesn't apply to the San Francisco Giants alone. The reason this idea has gained any traction at all is people seem to think it's true even if the Royals had won the World Series. The Giants and Royals, after all, were wild card teams and, thus, barely got into the playoffs to begin with.
So is it true? Did the best team win the World Series? The simple answer is yes. And here's how I know: the best team always wins the World Series...or the Super Bowl or any other game in question. Figuring out which team is better is 100% of the reason games are played. People can throw all the "yeah, but..." scenarios they want to at the question, the answer remains the same. The best team always wins.
But look at the ERA or the batting average, but what about the home runs or the...
It's meaningless. Statistics only tell you what has happened, not what will happen. Fantasy sports are just that, a fantasy. Who has the best this, that or anything else is irrelevant in the real world. The Giants faced more "no team has done (X) since..." scenarios than I can remember. But they did it this year. The only stat that matters and the only one that ever, ever matters is the final score. Oh, but think of all the breaks, the lucky bounces, the bloopers, the walks, the errors by the other team. OK. Think about it. And think about fumbles and penalties and injuries and technical fouls and muscle cramps. Think about all of it, because it's all part of the game and it all counts. The Royals were nearly eliminated in the wild card game. Nearly...but they weren't.
And that's the whole point. Championships aren't the ascension of the great over mediocrity through the will, desire and effort of individual components. Championships are now, have always been and always will be about perseverance and survival.
The regular season is about reaching the playoffs. Once a team gets to the playoffs, they are destined to lose their final game of the year. Only one team will win their final game of the season. Only one team survives the injuries, the mistakes, the success of the other team, bad calls, bad weather, bad breaks. Only one team survives it all. How in the world could you not consider any team that lives through a process designed to kill all anything other than a champion?
Every team starts in the same spot. They all follow their own path throughout the season. Most fail. Some reach the playoffs and the one that do earned it, whether they are a wild card, went 7-9 in a weak division or stumbled backwards into the post season, some how, some way, they earned their spot. From there, the champion obeys the one and only rule: don't die. And when there is one and only one survivor left, what is the point of measuring how they were able to live? They won. That's how they lived. Everything else is meaningless.
Often in the world of sports, it's bothersome to people when one team wins so many titles in a short period of time. It's understandable. Everyone wants to win but when one team is doing the lion's share of winning, it becomes annoying for others.
But the experience I'm talking about isn't rooted in that. In fact, I'm not really sure what it's rooted in because I don't understand the logic behind it. That's probably because there is no logic behind it. The idea I'm talking about is one that has been expressed by some in baseball and by a few sports writers around the country, which is the notion that the best team didn't win the World Series this year. Sometimes I'd hear fans express the same thing at games I covered. The best team didn't win. Further, the idea, as it relates specifically to the World Series this season, doesn't apply to the San Francisco Giants alone. The reason this idea has gained any traction at all is people seem to think it's true even if the Royals had won the World Series. The Giants and Royals, after all, were wild card teams and, thus, barely got into the playoffs to begin with.
So is it true? Did the best team win the World Series? The simple answer is yes. And here's how I know: the best team always wins the World Series...or the Super Bowl or any other game in question. Figuring out which team is better is 100% of the reason games are played. People can throw all the "yeah, but..." scenarios they want to at the question, the answer remains the same. The best team always wins.
But look at the ERA or the batting average, but what about the home runs or the...
It's meaningless. Statistics only tell you what has happened, not what will happen. Fantasy sports are just that, a fantasy. Who has the best this, that or anything else is irrelevant in the real world. The Giants faced more "no team has done (X) since..." scenarios than I can remember. But they did it this year. The only stat that matters and the only one that ever, ever matters is the final score. Oh, but think of all the breaks, the lucky bounces, the bloopers, the walks, the errors by the other team. OK. Think about it. And think about fumbles and penalties and injuries and technical fouls and muscle cramps. Think about all of it, because it's all part of the game and it all counts. The Royals were nearly eliminated in the wild card game. Nearly...but they weren't.
And that's the whole point. Championships aren't the ascension of the great over mediocrity through the will, desire and effort of individual components. Championships are now, have always been and always will be about perseverance and survival.
The regular season is about reaching the playoffs. Once a team gets to the playoffs, they are destined to lose their final game of the year. Only one team will win their final game of the season. Only one team survives the injuries, the mistakes, the success of the other team, bad calls, bad weather, bad breaks. Only one team survives it all. How in the world could you not consider any team that lives through a process designed to kill all anything other than a champion?
Every team starts in the same spot. They all follow their own path throughout the season. Most fail. Some reach the playoffs and the one that do earned it, whether they are a wild card, went 7-9 in a weak division or stumbled backwards into the post season, some how, some way, they earned their spot. From there, the champion obeys the one and only rule: don't die. And when there is one and only one survivor left, what is the point of measuring how they were able to live? They won. That's how they lived. Everything else is meaningless.
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