News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
Sam Priestley of England had a goal of going from a novice to one of his country’s top 250 table tennis players so every day of 2014 he practiced or played and nearly every day his progress was recorded by coach Ben Larcombe as part of the Expert in a Year Challenge.
While Sam didn’t quite make the top 250 he did become a tournament player.
Below is the little documentary Larcombe produced.
There’s good news and bad. The bad is that Dirty Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is awarding championship rings to his city’s Jackie Robinson West Little League team, despite the glaring fact that they lost their title for cheating.
The good news is that the unemployment rate will surely plummet. Since cheaters apparently prosper, and rule-breaking should have no bearing on winning, history will have to be re-written. Legal petitions need to be filed, public relations campaigns waged, — history books revised. If a challenger dare step up to the plate, the defense will be hurling the racist label quicker than a fastball.
For starters:
Lance Armstrong’s testicular fortitude while using steroids makes him deserving of his forfeited titles.
Pop group Milli Vanilli is entitled to be in sync with other cheaters, and should have their stripped Grammy reinstated.
Break the bank if need be, but Bernie Madoff should be freed, and his Ponzi-scheme money restored.
Bill Clinton’s impeachment should go up in smoke, as he deserves another crack in the Oval Office.
Coming full circle, we need to lift the lifetime bans on Shoeless Joe Jackson and his 7 other Chicago White Sox teammates.
Awarding championship rings and demanding that Little League reverse its decision sets a horrendous example for America’s youth. Whatever the reason for defending the indefensible — perceived political gain (“they are heroes,” says Jesse Jackson) sheer ignorance, or a sense of entitlement (they “earned it,” says a parent) — those backing the team are making fools of themselves and doing an immense disservice to the players.
Enough of the warped mentality that the players are being victimized and, since they did nothing wrong, deserve their championship. Not true.
Rather than being innocent, they are right in the middle of the storm. It is inconceivable that players at that level didn’t know that certain teammates lived outside the designated boundaries. These kids know each other and the rules, as much as coaches. That means they looked the other way in order to win, with cheating an acceptable means to an end.
Cheating has consequences, no matter what age. They must live with that. So what that the team worked hard and sacrificed? True, but irrelevant.
Bernie Madoff and Lance Armstrong worked hard — so what? That doesn’t make their achievements honorable, or legal.
Clearly, coaches and parents bear much more responsibility. The players are a product of their environment, with parents either reliving their glory years of youth sports, or, more likely, making up for the glory they never had.
By actively engaging in rule-breaking, their message is that it’s okay to cheat. It won’t stop at Little League, but will make its way to school, home, family, and job. The irony is the people who fostered an environment of fraud will be the same ones asking “how could this happen?” when their children get expelled, divorced, or arrested.
When are we going to stop using race as the go-to answer for everything? Every time black leaders or parents play the race card, they’re not only angering others, but doing a disservice to their own, sending the unmistakable message they’re different; that separate rules should apply to them. Resentment explodes, the racial divide widens, and the dream of a colorblind society slips further away.
Racism has absolutely nothing to do with this situation. Because it’s been injected, the message to players is that bigotry — not cheating — is the reason they lost their title. How can we possibly expect them to grow into productive citizens when we are teaching all the wrong lessons?
Where does it end? Should teams use players over the age of eligibility? How about banned bats? Corked balls? If leaders absolve cheaters, why have rules? All teams will break them because everybody does it. That’s not a defense in the court of public opinion, nor a court of law.
Where are the presidential candidates? Why aren’t they using their bully pulpits to put the apologists in their places, slam the race-mongers, imparting a vision for an America free of corruption?
Because they’re afraid to take a stand on anything controversial, not understanding that such courage is exactly what most Americans, of all races and political affiliations, are seeking.
American playwright Terrence McNally said it best, “Cheating is not the American way. It is small, while we are large. It is cheap, while we are richly endowed. It is destructive, while we are creative. It is doomed to fail, while our gifts and responsibilities call us to achieve. It sabotages trust and weakens the bonds of spirit and humanity, without which we perish.”
Let’s turn the Jackie Robinson error into a home run by showing that honor should always trump deceit.
Soccer More Dangerous Than Football — Noted strength trainer Mark Rippetoe of StartingStrength.com points out that soccer is a more dangerous game than football. Soccer players get 6.2 injuries per 100 participation hours compared to football players who only get .1 injury per 100 participation hours.
Rippetoe says the stronger the athlete the less likely a joint will be shoved out of position.
Just proving that Far From Over’s name means what it says here’s what might be the ultimate comeback in all sports. The race was the 8th one at Aqueduct Racetrack on Feb. 7, 2015 according the New York Racing Association’s Facebook page.
Hat tip Bob Guzzardi
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The video below of Lars Andersen, super archer, is making the rounds of the web. Andersen is a Danish writer and painter who has decided to make his fame as an archer, investigating and relearning the forgotten skills known by our bow fighting ancestors.
Concerning the video, he told Snopes.com that none of it is digitally enhanced but many of the shots required much practice and multiple takes, and that there were some tricks involved such as using bamboo arrow and weaker bow for the shot in which he shoots an arrow from the air.
Bryant Gumbel in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine brought up the National Rifle Association in a response to a question regarding his story on the Eat What You Kill hunting movement:
There are a few things I hate more than the NRA. I mean truly. I think they’re pigs. I think they don’t care about human life. I think they are a curse upon the American landscape. So we got that on the record. That said, I’m willing to separate that this story had nothing to do with that. It’s not a gun story. So I would like to think that I would have done it, but I don’t know. Obviously, that was my first experience around killing and guns and hunting.
So, we would like to ask Mr. Gumbel, whose fame comes from his descriptions of men playing children’s games, how many NRA members — figure 100 percent armed — commit murder versus non-NRA members with guns? Hmmm? Do you, Mr. Gumbel, have the guts to take on those who really are the ones who “don’t care about human life”?
And how do you feel about abortion?
We have heard some sad news. Old friend Harvey Pollack was in a car accident, Thursday, in Philadelphia.
As of Friday night, he was in critical but stable condition at Hahnemann University Hospital.
Harvey is director of statistical information for the Philadelphia 76ers and wrote the Through the Hoops column for the Press Newspapers of Delaware County.
He is a member of the NBA Hall of Fame entering in 2002 as winner of the John Bunn Award.
Harvey is 92. He is a great guy. Remember him in your prayers.
The Eagles play the Dallas Cowboys at 4:30 this afternoon. Both teams have 8-3 records.
Since 2002 when the NFL expanded to 32 teams, six of the 144 playoff contestants reached the post season with but eight wins. As there have been 47 teams that finished the year 8-8 or 8-7-1 — that would be you Green Bay — the Birds would have about a 13 percent chance of making the playoffs if they don’t win another game.
If they just win another game that increases their chances to 42 percent as 16 of the 38 teams that wound up with nine regular season wins went to the playoffs in the last 11 years.
If they win 10 they have a 84 percent chance of making it since 37 of 44 such teams did since the expansion.
It they win 11 it goes up to just under 97 percent chance. Only the 2008 New England Patriots, of the thirty 11-win teams failed to make the playoffs.
Every team with 12, 13, 14 or 15 wins made the playoffs as did obviously the regular-season undefeated 2007 New England Patriots.
The 2010 Seattle Seahawks made the post season with a 7-9 record. One could argue that that means there is a 2 percent chance of a seven-win team making it — there have been 39 seven-game winners since 2002– but as Seattle was the only team in the league’s 93-year-history to reach the post-season with a losing record, we will suggest it is much less.
The NFL went to a 16-game schedule in 1978. Five years later, it expanded from 28 to 30 teams then to 31 in 1999 before reaching its present status.
It began having a 12 team playoff in 1990.
Ex-NFL quarterback Tim Tebow may be off the field but he’s still “tebowing.” The image of a prayer session held by SEC channel commentators and led by Tebow was shared by Christian singer Tanner Clark on Facebook, Nov. 16.
Papa John’s in October launched a Philadelphia-area promotion entitled “76ers Win, You Win” in which online pizza orders were half price the day after a 76ers win.
It didn’t worked out for them.
So they switched it.
It’s now half price for menu price online orders the day after the Sixers score 90 or more points.
It’s working out better for them a little bit as the NBA team still has yet to win but has managed to score 90 points.
The 76ers have achieved legend status in the realm of pathos it can be safely said.