Today I began a new blog, The Bearded Doctor Sports Blog, that will be devoted to posts about sports. As a result, A New Yorker in Exile will no longer include sports-related content, and the frequency of its posts will diminish, though I will still try to post on one of the blogs on a (nearly) daily basis. This frequency has lessened lately due to some traveling and move-related work I've been doing, but will go back to normal now.
I have decided to split my blogging between two fora because I find myself shying away from writing about sports on A New Yorker in Exile despite a frequent desire to do so. I worry about my audience's lack of interest in sports. My academic colleagues are frequently surprised when they find out that I am a passionate sports fan because they equate sports with the uneducated working class (i.e., they equate all sports fans with stereotypical NASCAR fans). This close-mindedness always annoys me, though it also makes me feel smug that I am not as elitist as they are. Just because an activity is enjoyed by millions does not automatically make it lowbrow, and of course the lowbrow can become highbrow, anyway (e.g., Shakespeare). As a friend of mine who likes pro wrestling says, "Whenever someone says to me, 'You know it's fake, right?', I say 'So what? So is theatre.'"
I believe that sports fandom has a place within intellectual life because it is not just about following the standings and worshipping idols, it is about the deeper issue of belonging to a cross-cultural community, which deserves rigorous contemplation. And, of course, fandom is enhanced by intellectual analysis, as the example of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) shows. The New Yorker's frequent sports articles illustrate that fandom and thinking are meant for each other. The Bearded Doctor Sports Blog tries to foster this connection.
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sports. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Manchester United and the European Cup
On Saturday, Manchester United plays Barcelona at Wembley in an attempt to win the European Cup (now called the Champions League, but the trophy itself is still the European Cup, which is what the competition was called until the 1994-95 season) for the fourth time. It will be the fifth time that United plays in a European Cup final, and though they have won three of the previous four, one could argue that they should have lost all of them, not just in 2009 to Barcelona.
In 1968 versus Benfica, also at Wembley, the match was drawn 1-1 in second-half stoppage time when Eusebio had a clear path to goal and should have scored for the Portuguese, but shot right at the goalkeeper instead. United went on to win 4-1 after extra time.
In 1999, United were losing 1-0 to Bayern Munich in the 91st minute and scored two goals off of corner kicks one after the other to win. Here is a link to video of the goals. I watch this whenever I feel depressed and it always cheers me up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mf8SC_UASg
In 2008 against Chelsea, John Terry had a chance to win the penalty kick shootout after the match had ended 1-1, but missed the goal, and United went onto win when Ryan Giggs scored on his kick and Nicolas Anelka's kick was saved.
But that's why each of the 90 (or 120) minutes count equally. The trophy goes to the team that has scored more goals in that span, not to the team that has played more dominantly or "deserves" to win, because the fundamental basis of the game is that the team who scores more goals deserves to win. That's why Manchester United is the greatest football/soccer club in the world, because they score more goals than the other team much more often than not, and they never believe it is impossible to do so until the final whistle sounds. WE ARE UNITED, WE DO WHAT WE WANT!
In 1968 versus Benfica, also at Wembley, the match was drawn 1-1 in second-half stoppage time when Eusebio had a clear path to goal and should have scored for the Portuguese, but shot right at the goalkeeper instead. United went on to win 4-1 after extra time.
In 1999, United were losing 1-0 to Bayern Munich in the 91st minute and scored two goals off of corner kicks one after the other to win. Here is a link to video of the goals. I watch this whenever I feel depressed and it always cheers me up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mf8SC_UASg
In 2008 against Chelsea, John Terry had a chance to win the penalty kick shootout after the match had ended 1-1, but missed the goal, and United went onto win when Ryan Giggs scored on his kick and Nicolas Anelka's kick was saved.
But that's why each of the 90 (or 120) minutes count equally. The trophy goes to the team that has scored more goals in that span, not to the team that has played more dominantly or "deserves" to win, because the fundamental basis of the game is that the team who scores more goals deserves to win. That's why Manchester United is the greatest football/soccer club in the world, because they score more goals than the other team much more often than not, and they never believe it is impossible to do so until the final whistle sounds. WE ARE UNITED, WE DO WHAT WE WANT!
Monday, May 23, 2011
The Champions League Final on TV
Saturday afternoon Fox, not Fox Soccer Channel, will televise the UEFA Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona. This is a huge milestone in the history of soccer in the United States because it will be the first time ever (or at least in my lifetime, but I am pretty sure ever) that a non-American club match will be shown in English on free television. (The Spanish-language networks televise the Mexican league and have shown European finals in the past: I became a Manchester United fan after watching the 1991 Cup-Winners' Cup final between United and Barcelona when I was 11. I was rooting for United because I liked their uniforms better, and I was impressed that Mark Hughes scored both the goals.)
Paradoxically, although much more live soccer is shown in the U.S. than ever before, the amount of it on free television has decreased because ABC no longer shows the MLS Cup or the MLS All-Star game; they only televise World Cup matches. I am unaware of any other network showing any professional soccer since the NASL days. Thus it is huge that Fox is showing the UCL final, which will be the first match on free English-language television since the 2010 World Cup final. It shows a commitment to the sport from Fox that is encouraging. The fact that the final includes two of the world's most famous clubs, who are both popular in the U.S., is also helpful.
Paradoxically, although much more live soccer is shown in the U.S. than ever before, the amount of it on free television has decreased because ABC no longer shows the MLS Cup or the MLS All-Star game; they only televise World Cup matches. I am unaware of any other network showing any professional soccer since the NASL days. Thus it is huge that Fox is showing the UCL final, which will be the first match on free English-language television since the 2010 World Cup final. It shows a commitment to the sport from Fox that is encouraging. The fact that the final includes two of the world's most famous clubs, who are both popular in the U.S., is also helpful.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
A Miscellany
The combination of blogger.com being down for a few days last week and a very busy weekend hosting family has led to me not posting for nearly a week, so today's entry is wide-ranging.
I was listening a bit to the Rolling Stones the other day and was struck by the oddness of "Mother's Little Helper." What possessed Mick Jagger to write this song? Why did he, the epitome of (packaged, mainstream) nonconformity and a heavy drug user, feel the need to sing about the dangers of housewives abusing drugs and the rise of pre-packaged food products? It's bizarre.
Manchester United's clinching of their 19th league championship (12 in the Premiership and seven in the old First Division) on Saturday was incredibly satisfying. I fancy their chances of winning the Champions League final against Barcelona more than most (and not just because I am a United fan). All of the pressure will be on Barcelona, and the final is at Wembley! Don't underestimate the "home" advantage for United, as well as all of the ghosts from their 1968 European Cup win, also at Wembley. Plus the revenge factor from losing to Barcelona in the 2009 final. United have all of the intangibles on their side, and they have shown throughout Sir Alex Ferguson's tenure that they know how to use intangibles to their utmost advantage.
I just finished reading Nnedi Okorafor's novel Who Fears Death, a science fiction/fantasy narrative that is a pastiche of themes from Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Dave Eggers's What is the What. It does not explicitly acknowledge that it is an allegory of the genocide in Sudan until the very end, though this correlation is obvious from the very beginning. It was a fun read, not especially accomplished technically, but interesting as a fictionalized response to real-world catastrophe, which is an area of scholarly interest for me.
Books Acquired Recently
Dlugos, Tim. A Fast Life: The Collected Poems of Tim Dlugos. Ed. David Trinidad. Callicoon: Nightboat, 2011.
I wrote last month about how I enjoy Dlugos because of his similarity to Frank O'Hara, and sure enough, the first blurb on the back of the book is Ted Berrigan calling Dlugos "the Frank O'Hara of his generation." The back cover also claims that Dlugos is "a major American poet," which at this point is just wishful thinking, but it is a statement that deserves to be true. It also calls him the "seminal poet of the AIDS epidemic," ha ha.
Toews, Miriam. The Flying Troutmans. Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2008.
I've been meaning to read this for a while. I really enjoyed Toews's previous novel, A Complicated Kindness, and am interested to see what she does with characters that (as far as I can tell from reading about the book) are not Mennonite. Toews is also excellent as Esther in the film Silent Light, which is probably the best movie about Mennonites/Amish, beating both Witness and Hazel's People.
I was listening a bit to the Rolling Stones the other day and was struck by the oddness of "Mother's Little Helper." What possessed Mick Jagger to write this song? Why did he, the epitome of (packaged, mainstream) nonconformity and a heavy drug user, feel the need to sing about the dangers of housewives abusing drugs and the rise of pre-packaged food products? It's bizarre.
Manchester United's clinching of their 19th league championship (12 in the Premiership and seven in the old First Division) on Saturday was incredibly satisfying. I fancy their chances of winning the Champions League final against Barcelona more than most (and not just because I am a United fan). All of the pressure will be on Barcelona, and the final is at Wembley! Don't underestimate the "home" advantage for United, as well as all of the ghosts from their 1968 European Cup win, also at Wembley. Plus the revenge factor from losing to Barcelona in the 2009 final. United have all of the intangibles on their side, and they have shown throughout Sir Alex Ferguson's tenure that they know how to use intangibles to their utmost advantage.
I just finished reading Nnedi Okorafor's novel Who Fears Death, a science fiction/fantasy narrative that is a pastiche of themes from Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Dave Eggers's What is the What. It does not explicitly acknowledge that it is an allegory of the genocide in Sudan until the very end, though this correlation is obvious from the very beginning. It was a fun read, not especially accomplished technically, but interesting as a fictionalized response to real-world catastrophe, which is an area of scholarly interest for me.
Books Acquired Recently
Dlugos, Tim. A Fast Life: The Collected Poems of Tim Dlugos. Ed. David Trinidad. Callicoon: Nightboat, 2011.
I wrote last month about how I enjoy Dlugos because of his similarity to Frank O'Hara, and sure enough, the first blurb on the back of the book is Ted Berrigan calling Dlugos "the Frank O'Hara of his generation." The back cover also claims that Dlugos is "a major American poet," which at this point is just wishful thinking, but it is a statement that deserves to be true. It also calls him the "seminal poet of the AIDS epidemic," ha ha.
Toews, Miriam. The Flying Troutmans. Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2008.
I've been meaning to read this for a while. I really enjoyed Toews's previous novel, A Complicated Kindness, and am interested to see what she does with characters that (as far as I can tell from reading about the book) are not Mennonite. Toews is also excellent as Esther in the film Silent Light, which is probably the best movie about Mennonites/Amish, beating both Witness and Hazel's People.
Friday, April 29, 2011
HBP
The Mets are currently losing to the Phillies (8-0 in the sixth), but they've hit two Phillie batters (Ryan Howard and Shane Victorino) with pitches, which has made me happy. The Mets have been playing with some grit lately under Terry Collins, but I still think what they need, and have needed since the beginning of 2008, is to get into a brawl. They need something to help them cohere as a group. The 1986 Mets got into four brawls during the season, and, while the game is different now and that is an outrageous number, one or two wouldn't hurt.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
"We would have been safe" (and game six)
I just finished re-reading Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close to teach it tomorrow, and even though this was the sixth or seventh time I have read it, the last quarter of the book still makes me cry. It concludes about as happily as it possibly can--Oskar's father is still dead (no magical realism here), but he solves the mystery of the key, he and his mother are reconciled, and he realizes he has to/will be able to move on with his life--though the actual ending is heartwrenching. Oskar's final words, "We would have been safe" (326), signify the final loss of his childhood innocence, which is normally a healthy, important moment of growth. Foer does such a good job of making readers care about Oskar, though, that we hope he can just stay protected and happy forever. Oskar grows up instead, and we are left with the fact that for all of our childhood nostalgia, we live in a world where, as Abby Black says, "people hurt each other" for no good reason, even when we try our best not to (290).
Oskar's last sentence, coupled with the flipbook that shows a body falling back up into the World Trade Center, is also a public lament for Americans' pre-9/11 hopeful naivete that we were somehow in the violent, messy world, but not of it. We all share that desire for safety, but as Oskar says, "In the end, everyone loses everyone" (74), so we must confront the danger and live our lives to the fullest.
Anyway, to cheer myself up I watched the tenth inning of game six from the 1986 World Series. It still always amazes me that the Mets win; I get nervous every time I watch it.
Today I watched both halves of the inning (usually I just watch the bottom half), and it was shocking how much it looks like Boston is destined to win. I can't imagine having watched it as a Red Sox fan. Just before Dave Henderson hits a home run to put Boston ahead, NBC replayed his home run from game five of the ALCS, so it plays like he was pre-ordained to hit another one. Shortly thereafter, there is a shot of Henderson and Bill Buckner with their arms around one another in the dugout, laughing. Later in the inning, Buckner comes up with a runner in scoring position and Rick Aguilera hits him. Buckner glares out toward the mound and the home plate umpire has to get in front of him and guide him toward first base. This reaction is completely ridiculous on Buckner's part because there is no way Aguilera would be throwing at him intentionally. It is like the baseball gods punish Buckner for his reaction in the bottom half of the inning. As gods are wont to do, their punishment far outweighs the crime.
My favorite part of the bottom half of the inning* is Ray Knight screaming with joy to the heavens (I use this term intentionally--Knight explicitly thanks "the good Lord" in his post-game interview with Marv Albert [so does Mookie Wilson]) as his teammates mob him after he scores the winning run. It looks like he is barely able to breathe, like he is drowning in a sea of Mets. It is also wonderful how once the run crosses the plate Vin Scully stops talking and just lets the crowd noise and the camera shots speak for themselves.
* For those of you unfamiliar with the bottom half of the inning, here's a re-creation of it using the old Nintendo game RBI Baseball with the original NBC audio:
Oskar's last sentence, coupled with the flipbook that shows a body falling back up into the World Trade Center, is also a public lament for Americans' pre-9/11 hopeful naivete that we were somehow in the violent, messy world, but not of it. We all share that desire for safety, but as Oskar says, "In the end, everyone loses everyone" (74), so we must confront the danger and live our lives to the fullest.
Anyway, to cheer myself up I watched the tenth inning of game six from the 1986 World Series. It still always amazes me that the Mets win; I get nervous every time I watch it.
Today I watched both halves of the inning (usually I just watch the bottom half), and it was shocking how much it looks like Boston is destined to win. I can't imagine having watched it as a Red Sox fan. Just before Dave Henderson hits a home run to put Boston ahead, NBC replayed his home run from game five of the ALCS, so it plays like he was pre-ordained to hit another one. Shortly thereafter, there is a shot of Henderson and Bill Buckner with their arms around one another in the dugout, laughing. Later in the inning, Buckner comes up with a runner in scoring position and Rick Aguilera hits him. Buckner glares out toward the mound and the home plate umpire has to get in front of him and guide him toward first base. This reaction is completely ridiculous on Buckner's part because there is no way Aguilera would be throwing at him intentionally. It is like the baseball gods punish Buckner for his reaction in the bottom half of the inning. As gods are wont to do, their punishment far outweighs the crime.
My favorite part of the bottom half of the inning* is Ray Knight screaming with joy to the heavens (I use this term intentionally--Knight explicitly thanks "the good Lord" in his post-game interview with Marv Albert [so does Mookie Wilson]) as his teammates mob him after he scores the winning run. It looks like he is barely able to breathe, like he is drowning in a sea of Mets. It is also wonderful how once the run crosses the plate Vin Scully stops talking and just lets the crowd noise and the camera shots speak for themselves.
* For those of you unfamiliar with the bottom half of the inning, here's a re-creation of it using the old Nintendo game RBI Baseball with the original NBC audio:
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Sunday Afternoon Sports Stuff
Overall, this has been a pretty good sports weekend. The Mets crushed the ball and pitched rather well against the Diamondbacks in their three-game sweep, Manchester United beat Everton to continue their run to a record nineteenth league championship, and (almost as good in terms of the chuckle it gave me) Arsenal lost to Bolton Wanderers to basically end their title challenge.
For better or worse, Sunday sports results always really affect my mood going into the week. It's nice to get this week started on a good note--the Mets winning, the sun shining.
For better or worse, Sunday sports results always really affect my mood going into the week. It's nice to get this week started on a good note--the Mets winning, the sun shining.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
"New York" Soccer
I just got back from class this evening and am watching the second half of the DC United-Red Bull New York match, so no post today other than to say that I can't wait for MLS to get a second team in New York, one that actually plays in New York (hopefully the Cosmos) so that I can root for a New York team rather than one that plays in Jersey whose star player is fucking Thierry Henry.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Glory Glory Man. United!
I am sure I will feel ecstatic later, but right now, I am mostly just relieved that Manchester United won the Champions League today against Chelsea 1-1, 6-5 on penalties. Chelsea deserved to win after weathering United's offensive storm in the first half, playing better in the second, and having an opportunity to clinch the championship in the fifth round of penalties (John Terry, my sympathies are with you). But the same good fortune that helped United score two second half injury-time goals in the 1999 final to beat Bayern Munich showed its face again today in Moscow, and it was too much for Chelsea to overcome. Manchester United thereby complete the Premiership-European Cup double, edging Chelsea in both competitions. Well done, lads, well done.
__________________
PS I will be writing much more frequently now than I have been recently. Stay tuned!
__________________
PS I will be writing much more frequently now than I have been recently. Stay tuned!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Intellectuals' attitudes toward sports
Following up on a point from the Bacon essay I just posted, yesterday (28 February 2008) on his excellent Uni Watch blog (http://www.uniwatchblog.com) Paul Lukas wrote a bit about how his artsy intellectual friends don't understand his obsession with sports. I also share this problem. All of of my intellectual/artist friends, including my wife, who is a sculptor, think following sports is a waste of time, and don't understand why I am so passionate about them, especially baseball, which they view as the most boring sport ever (a puzzling viewpoint, since baseball is widely regarded as the most "intellectual" of the four major North American sports [yes, I still count hockey as a major sport]).
I think this anti-sports attitude (which is not simply a lack of interest, but an active dislike of sports) among intellectuals is simply a form of snobbery. Because the less-educated often like sports, sports are viewed as being somehow "beneath" those of us with advanced degrees. This view may stem from a patriarchal privileging of activities of the mind over activities of the body (though sports are, of course, activities of both).
I think this anti-sports attitude (which is not simply a lack of interest, but an active dislike of sports) among intellectuals is simply a form of snobbery. Because the less-educated often like sports, sports are viewed as being somehow "beneath" those of us with advanced degrees. This view may stem from a patriarchal privileging of activities of the mind over activities of the body (though sports are, of course, activities of both).
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