Category Archives: sports

Venus Williams: Activist and Champion

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venus

Venus Williams just defended her Wimbledon title and I couldn’t be happier. Last year Wimbledon finally decided to pay the men and women players equally. After over 130 years, this happened just last year! And it was due largely because of Venus.

She met with Wimbledon officials to reason with them. When that didn’t work she wrote a widely publicized editorial that easily toppled all their excuses. This led to British Prime Minister Blair and Parliament to vote to censure Wimbledon. Even UNESCO and the World Tennis Association pushed for sports gender equality in general and asked Venus to spearhead the movement.

Soon enough Venus’s tireless efforts provided enough public awareness and pressure to shame Wimbledon into modern civilization. A day later, the French Open, the only other major tournament with unequal pay, followed suit. I guess the French couldn’t stand the thought of being the only sexist tournament.

To read the eloquent editorial, click here.

And just to make it sweeter, Venus won Wimbledon last year, and became the first recipient of equal prize money. I guess you could argue it’s just millionaire women athletes getting a little more money. But the message of a men’s and women’s tournament being played side by side in the game’s most prestigious tournament, in England (self-styled bastion of high civilization), and the men being monetarily valued more, sent a powerful message that unequal treatment was acceptable at sport’s highest levels. (And that was a terribly structured sentence but you get the picture.)

I wish more powerful athletes would use their power, celebrity and influence to effect positive change. Do you think if Tiger Woods pressured Augusta National Golf Course, where the Masters is played, to accept female members and more than one African-American, they’d do that? Or if they didn’t stop discriminating, and he pressured the PGA to hold the Masters at a golf course that accepted standards that met basic human rights, they’d do that? Uh yeah. But Tiger doesn’t and what a shame.

Many believe that athletes like him and Michael Jordan avoid political issues because they don’t want to sully their marketing potential. This is nonsense. It would add so much more to their legacies, and create an aura of a true hero, a champion of justice. Who wouldn’t want to buy their shoe then? (Insert sarcasm here.)

That’s why I respect athletes like Venus all the more. In American sports history, I’d also add, Mohammed Ali, who protested the Vietnam War, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who is politically active in many areas. So thank you Venus, for bringing a little more justice into the world, and also for your breathtaking athleticism.

Soccer or Football?

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(I’ve updated this post for the World Cup 2010. Click on this sentence to read it.)

Since the Euro 2008 Football Championship is coming up, I’m going to continue with the sports theme and write about the use of the words ‘soccer’ and ‘football’.

While living in the UK, I learned that British people hate the use of ‘soccer’ to describe their favorite sport. As a culturally sensitive person, I dutifully referred to the sport as ‘football’ and referred to America’s most popular sport as ‘American football’. I was cool with that. I’m in their country; I’ll follow their customs.

Just like I gave in to the use of ‘lifts’ instead of ‘elevators’, ‘trainers’ instead of ‘sneakers’, and ‘trousers’ instead of ‘pants’. Now that I’m back in an American English environment, I’ve slowly resorted back to my native dialect. Still, I find myself using ‘mobile’ instead of ‘cell phone’; it just sounds cooler. And I’ve given in to the near universal use of ‘toilet’ instead of ‘restroom’. It’s a distasteful word to American ears, but just about every country outside of the US use some form of it.

What surprised me was the anger and bitterness towards the American use of the word ‘soccer’ instead of ‘football’. It is somehow the symbol of American imperialism. And this attitude extended to some of my other European and South American friends too.

Puzzled by the vitriol, I did a little research. So I’m going to give you a little history lesson and dispel some myths about what we call that sport with a bunch of people running around kicking a ball into the opposing team’s net.

Myth 1: Soccer is an American term.

The word originated in England back in the mid 19th century. Soccer was the original shorthand expression to refer to the sport. It was shortened from association football. At the time, there were many kinds of football, so it needed to be distinguished from all the other forms. American football and rugby are some of the other forms of football that also arose from those earlier sports.

Myth 2: The US is the only country that calls it soccer.

I was surprised to find that in Ireland, they also refer to the sport as soccer, and view the use of the word with anti-British-imperialist pride. Other countries that call it soccer include Australia, Canada (including Quebec where it’s called le soccer), New Zealand, Japan (called sacca), most Pacific Islands, and South Africa, where the next World Cup will be held.

Myth 3: Americans want the rest of the world to call it soccer too, as part of an insidious imperialist plot.

I assure you, I don’t know one American who really gives a damn what anyone calls it. The widespread use of ‘football’ stems from past British colonialism. Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries tried to replace the English word with native words (balompie and ludopedio, respectively). But were unsuccessful against the onslaught of British hegemony.

Myth 4: Well, okay a few countries say ‘soccer’. But the rest of the world calls it ‘football’.

Not so. While many countries use variations of the word football, like fussball, futbol, le foot, there are many many countries who use totally different words in their own language. Here in East Asia, the Koreans call it ‘chook-gu’, and in China it’s ‘zuqiu’. In Arabic, it’s ‘kurat al-qadam’.

Even among the Euro 2008 participants, there are many other words for the sport. Football powerhouse Italy, for instance, calls it ‘calcio’, which means kick. The Czechs call it ‘kopana’, which also means kick. The Croatians call it ‘nogomet’, which means leg sweep. The Greeks call it ‘podosfero’. In Polish, it’s ‘pika nozna’.

Myth 4: Fine. But the sport came from England so it should be called whatever they want.

Games involving kicking a ball has been found in nearly all cultures throughout human history. The earliest recorded sport using a ball and feet control date from the 3rd century BC in China, and it was called ‘cuju’. Maybe we should be calling the sport ‘cuju’, instead of the insidious British imperial term.

So there you have it. I realize that the US is the top dog in the world, wreaking imperialist havoc, so it’s fashionable to bash all things American. But there are many forms of football, and association football, or soccer, is just one of them. The pattern seems to be that where other forms of football are popular, that sport has taken on that term. Thus, what looks to me like rugby is called football in Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. And what’s football to me, looks like ebbing imperial influence in Great Britain.

The Lakers

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(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

As I wrote a few days ago, I’m a big big Lakers fan. Most of my friends don’t follow sports so they couldn’t care less. Or if they follow sports, they dislike the Lakers because some consider them the Yankees or Manchester United of basketball.

Well, if you’re not interested in watching the best athletes in the world move fluidly in an exciting fast-paced improvised choreography, then how about the stories of the people involved in the performance?

Why You Should Watch the Lakers

First there’s the partying owner, Jerry Buss, who’s probably the only owner of a sports team who has a PhD (in chemistry).

Then there’s the head coach, Phil Jackson. He’s referred to in the media as the Zen Master because he’s not afraid to blend his spirituality into the game. He does such things as drumming before big games to call the players to practice, having the team meditate together, and giving out specially selected books to his players. Only one other NBA coach has won as many championships.

Also on the coaching staff is the legendary Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Not only is he probably the most accomplished basketball player in history (he’s scored the most points, among numerous other records), he’s also a thoughtful writer, historian and activist. His most recent book, On the Shoulders of Giants, is about the importance of the Harlem Renaissance in American culture. I can’t say enough about this man. He has also acted extensively. Most notably he was also a good friend of Bruce Lee and appeared in one of his movies.

Kareem isn’t the only activist on the team. Ira Newble has been very active in raising awareness about the atrocities in Darfur, trying to get other players involved in pressuring the Chinese government to stop vetoing United Nations involvement in the region.

The team is a cosmopolitan blend of players representing 10 countries and 10 languages. There’s the Serbian sharpshooter, Vladimir Radmanovic. The floppy-haired Slovenian, Sasha Vujacic. The silky smooth Colombian, Trevor Ariza. And the 2006 World Championship MVP, the Spanish Catalonian, Pau Gasol.

One of the leaders of this team is the highly respected Derek Fisher. He sacrificed a part of his career so he could provide better care for his daughter who has eye cancer. But he’s more fortunate than Lamar Odom, whose infant child and grandmother died on the same day. For a real hard life, look no further than DJ Mbenga, who was a captive of warring militias during his childhood in the Congo, before he escaped to Belgium.

There are a lot of survivors on the team. Coby Karl has undergone two surgeries for cancer. The infectiously enthusiastic, Ronny Turiaf, from Martinique and France, suffered through open-heart surgery. You can see him constantly dancing during the game.

And if that doesn’t draw you into the Lakers, then you might be interested to know that every big Hollywood star clamors to attend the show. Jack Nicholson, who has been attending games since the 1970’s, is practically the Lakers mascot. Denzel Washington and Leonardo DiCaprio are regulars. And recent notables range from celebrities only there for the publicity like Paris Hilton, to sports superstars like Beckham and Pete Sampras, to musicians like Snoop Dogg and Justin Timberlake.

Still, the number one reason to watch is no. 24, the superstar of the team, Kobe Bryant. He spent most of his childhood in Italy and speaks Italian fluently, so that makes him pretty cool. All you need to know about him is that he was voted, by a landslide, the most feared and the best player in the league by his peers. And the man can jump over moving cars, and pools of snakes!

(Photo by Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

The Sports Exile

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I haven’t blogged much this past week because I’ve been following the NBA playoffs. The NBA is the U.S. professional basketball organization. Basketball is my favorite sport. And the Los Angeles Lakers, my favorite team, is one of four teams left playing for a championship. But more on them later.

I got to thinking about the role of sports in my life. And how complex it has become to maintain an American sports identity. In the US, sports consist of football, baseball, and basketball. Golf and Nascar are also up there. Sports allegiances are based on cities where you grew up, and where you attended university. I grew up in Los Angeles but haven’t lived there in a very long time. Yet, I’m still a diehard Lakers fan.

If you live in a small town, the local university team becomes your city team. Like the University of Oregon team represented the city of Eugene. I never attended the university but I attended games and supported the basketball and football teams. A team like the Portland Trailblazers can be supported regionally, in this case the state of Oregon, even if you’ve never lived in Portland.

In Europe and in East Asia, the emphasis is on national teams. There are more international tournaments, and rivals between countries are more pronounced. To us Americans, our attention on international sporting events occur sporadically and without the kind of passion found in other countries. It’s not good or bad. It’s geographic reality.

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When I was a kid I followed baseball religiously. But once Rupert Murdoch, evil corporate media demon (he owns Fox), bought the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team I grew up with, I drifted away from the game. He proceeded to fire or force retire all the managers and front office staff who had been with the organization for decades and installed idiotic sycophants from hockey and investment banking who traded away the best players on the team. It was gut-wrenching and I haven’t been back to the Major Leagues since, even though the team has been sold again to a less evil corporate entity.

British Ball
It’s been a struggle to follow basketball from overseas, in a world where soccer is number one. The closest I got in the UK to watching the NBA is following the US Olympic team fall to an embarrassing third place. I was in a pub with some of my Spanish friends when the American team lost to Spain. There’s nothing worse than bearing the brunt of smack talk in both Spanish and English by people who know nothing about the sport and had watched a basketball game maybe twice in their entire lives. Other than that, I was forced to try to get into soccer, rugby, and cricket.

Rugby was alright since it resembled American football, but whenever I tried to apply football rules and strategies I found myself befuddled.

I got into soccer during the Euro Cup because the nationalistic angle of the tournament was mesmerizing. It was the one event that riveted all of Europe, more so than the World Cup, because there are more European nations represented. The racial make-up of the teams, the styles of play, the nationalist discourses, the racist chants. And the sport played at the highest levels. The best way to describe the frenzy it aroused is to compare it to March Madness, the college basketball tournament in the US, but multiplied by a thousand. It deserves a blog post all its own.

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I tried to give cricket a try. Here was an ancestral form of baseball. There’s a bat and small hard ball, some mitts and a couple of bases. Sounds pretty good so far. But here’s what I couldn’t get over. The batting team was drinking tea from fine porcelain and eating crumpets. There was not one dirt stain on their pristine white uniforms. And the score was 198 to 0. And this was just the first day of a three day match. What the hell? Once you break out the fine china, it ceases to be a sport and irrevocably enters the world of tea parties. I swept this ‘sport’ into the cardboard box where I keep my curling equipment.

Sports in Japan
Soccer is also big in Japan but it’s second to baseball. Next might be Sumo. Then there are lots of other sports that get a lot of media exposure, especially synchronized swimming, golf, and women’s volleyball.

I’m good with soccer, but I continue to follow only the international tournaments, especially the regional Asian contests.

Baseball, of course, is something I’m comfortable with. I’ll watch a Yomiuri Giants game on TV now and then, and attend a game on occasion. It’s played and watched in a completely different way than in the US. It reminds me of the disciplined strategic way baseball used to be played back home. The fans have songs and chants for each player. It’s more entertaining to watch the organized cheering section than the game itself.

Again, I really am fascinated by the international events more than the club teams. I thought the World Baseball Championships last year were brilliant. Korea’s run was amazing, beating Japan twice, and the US once. The system was flawed though when Japan took the crown after finally being able to beat Korea on the third try.

I was in a pub in Shibuya watching that game, amidst a very raucous Japanese crowd. It was surprising to observe a normally reserved people burst into a loud patriotic furor, and I sensed a frustrated national pride able to express itself. I admit I was a little taken aback. But I suppose it’s the kind of nationalist bravado that I’ve observed everywhere around the world in one form or another.

The most compelling baseball in Japan is the Koshien. The best high school teams from all over Japan compete in Osaka every year in a single elimination tournament. Like March Madness, there are perennial powers and scrappy underdogs and cinderellas. Whole villages travel to attend the games. The players cry after a loss. Folk heroes are created. And each player always takes a bit of the dirt from the field.

Sumo, as I’ve blogged before, is something I immediately enjoyed. It’s got pageantry, ritual, and enormous, surprisingly quick, powerful men pounding or throwing each other into submission. Now that’s a sport. It’s the anti-cricket.

So that’s what my sports world has become. International events that come every few years, like the World Cup and the Olympics. Sumo matches on occasion. A stray baseball game. And every morsel of the NBA that I can scavenge from the internet. So in my next post, I’ll write about what makes basketball so damn tasty.

Sumo

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in the shadow of giants

After visiting the Edo-Tokyo Museum (which I wrote about in a previous post) we dropped in at the nearby Sumo Museum. The Sumo Museum is one long room inside the Ryogoku Kokugikan, the main sumo hall for the Grand Sumo Tournaments in Tokyo.

There’s minimal English explanation throughout the exhibit but if you’re familiar with some sumo history, you may be able to identify some of the costumes and accoutrements. Otherwise it’s a lot of over-sized clothing and interesting but perplexing objects.

I liked the old bansuke banners, illustrated rankings of the wrestlers during the 19th Century. Even more cool are the portraits, illustrations and photographs of every yokozuna, or grand champion, that line one of the walls. Currently there are two yokozuna, both Mongolian. The haughty, dominating Asashoryu mixes sheer power with perfect technique. And the fearless upstart with the baby face, Hakuho, blends speed and determination.

Currently there are many Mongolians and Eastern Europeans in the ranks. It seems to be a concern among traditionalists. But it couldn’t hurt to expand the global fan base of a sport that is virtually ignored by the younger generation. There’s one high level Korean wrestler, Kasugao. I couldn’t find any information about how he became a rikishi, or wrestler. I usually follow his matches and root him on. Gotta cheer on a brotha.

My favorite rikishi is another Mongolian, Ama, an undersized and slim competitor (for a rikishi anyway), but a skillful wrestler. He’s viewed as an underdog, even though he’s one of the top-ranked, because he’s smaller than almost all his opponents. Even so, he’s 185cm/6’1” and 124kg/273lbs. Although, when I first started following his career two years ago he weighed under 100kg. His demeanor comes across as humble, with his pock-marked face and restrained manners.

Here’s a video clip of one of Ama’s matches. It gives you a good taste of the kind of power, speed and quickness necessary to succeed. These are basically football linemen brutally pounding, slapping, pushing, throwing and flipping each other without football pads or helmets. Ama is the one with the brown belt.