Category: Siguenza on Sports

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Siguenza on Sports

Stable of coincidence

It’s quite fitting that in the era of social distancing, the winner of the Belmont Stakes made a practice of it in the middle of this weekend’s race. Tiz the Law had about a four lengths margin of victory in what turned out to be the first of the Triple Crown races due to COVID-19.

NBC Sports on YouTube

There were several other connections to the pandemic evident in the race. You may notice a Smithfield logo on the pants of the jockey in the video capture from NBC. Smithfield Foods signed a deal to sponsor Tiz the Law with the horse’s owner, Sackatoga Stable (press release, June 17, 2020). A couple of months ago, the pork producer made international headlines when its South Dakota plant suffered a massive outbreak of coronavirus cases (BBC News, April 17, 2020).

The other connection, meanwhile, is that Tiz the Law is the first New York state-bred horse in nearly 140 years to win the Belmont, held on the outskirts of New York City (The Daily Gazette, June 20, 2020). As Mike Tirico of NBC Sports mentions at the end of the race, it gave the Empire State something to cheer about at a time when the people needed it. New York continues to top the list of coronavirus cases in the U.S., as well as deaths (New York Times, June 21, 2020).

There are too many conspiracy theories out there in general and I don’t want to throw in another one by suggesting that there was any manipulation to make the winning horse a feel-good story. As far as we know right now, the stars simply aligned perfectly on Saturday and that shall remain the story until proven otherwise. ‘Tis the law.

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Siguenza on Sports

Fact check: Stripped medals

It’s been eleven years since I last worked in a newsroom, yet I am constantly reminded that I have carried that experience with me into whatever tickles my fancy at the moment. Tonight, I’d like to put those skills to good use by examining something that has been shared on social media amid the current civil rights debate. It lists several things that Americans have and have not been taught about black history.

“You learned about Tommie Smith’s fist in the air at the 1968 (Summer) Olympics,” the post proclaims. “But not that he was sent home the next day and stripped of his medals.”

Before I had seen the post, my mother indicated that she thought the Olympian was forced to give back his medal for protesting on the podium. Since we didn’t know for certain, I did a little digging on the subject and here’s what I found.

The History Channel states that the iconic protest of Smith and his American teammate, John Carlos, after the 200-meter dash in Mexico City drew the ire of International Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage and resulted in the loss of their medals. NPR has also repeated the claim that the IOC took the medals away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62nHGUvO-tk
Team USA official YouTube channel

However, Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman published a 2016 column which included an interview with Carlos discussing the committee’s attempt at revoking the medals. “You come get my medal, you better bring a militia,” Carlos recalled telling Olympic officials.

Also, for what it’s worth, the official IOC website lists Smith as the gold medalist in the 200-meter and Carlos the bronze. Meanwhile, athletes such as Ben Johnson and Marion Jones who were stripped of their medals have been noted as such. It is thus my determination that neither Tommie Smith nor John Carlos had their medals stripped over the Black Power salute. Let this be a lesson: make sure that any information you share on your social media pages is verifiable.

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Siguenza on Sports

Football or no football?

We are at roughly the halfway point between when COVID-19 was first declared a pandemic, leading to the cancellation or postponement of major sporting events, and the expected kickoff of the football season. From the beginning, I have questioned the feasibility of holding games before a vaccine is ready. And it turns out, I’m not the only one.

CNN on Twitter

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the man who has been at the forefront of the U.S. response to the coronavirus, expressed doubts about football taking place this year unless personnel is frequently tested and kept away from the general public. His comments were met with pushback from the NFL, whose chief medical officer stated the league intended to forge ahead with the season as planned (CNN, 2020). Twitter users also have plenty to say, as you might expect. Some have dismissed Fauci’s claims, some are demonstrating schadenfreude over players potentially not seeing action this year. I won’t share specific comments, except for one individual who has a pretty good attitude about the possibility of no football.

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Siguenza on Sports

‘Game’ over

Some sad news to share on the sports media front: Boston NPR station WBUR today announced it would discontinue the national program Only a Game as part of cost-cutting measures that will also see over 10 percent of its workforce lose their jobs.

WBUR on Twitter

Only a Game wasn’t only a sports radio show; it was a sports radio show on NPR, which right there suggests that it had to be truly different from other content across the landscape. It didn’t rely on the traditional high-energy formula of endless debate on trivial matters between personalities more interested in being popular than informative. What Only a Game offered instead was discussion rooted in NPR’s greatest strength: good old-fashioned journalism.

If you check the show’s website, you’ll find they’ve given much of their time lately to the issue of racial injustice and how sports fit in. An entire program was once spent on amateur athletes in the big-money NCAA. Then there are the long-form stories from an Antarctic expedition to a Russian community with architecture paying tribute to the game of chess. You have to ask yourself: is that gonna be on SportsCenter?

It is, I suppose, a sign of the times. There’s more money to be made off those in-your-face shows on basic cable than a public radio program appealing to the mind. And yet, it’s unfortunate because there are so few sports shows out there that appeal to the mind in the classic NPR style as Only a Game does. This is a true loss for the curious sports fan.

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Siguenza on Sports

Take me out of the ballgame

Is a Major League Baseball season going to happen? Should it at this point? We have reached the sixteenth of June, less than a month from what would be the halfway point of the season, and players and owners are at a standstill over compensation, writes the Associated Press.

AP Sports on Twitter

Sound familiar? Then you lived through the summer of 1994 when the season abruptly ended without a World Series for roughly the same reasons. What I remember from the last time was how angry the fans had become over the spat between employer and employee. I’ve seen a lot of the same threats of walking away from the game should the Major League season not happen.

But you have to remember: these are different times. There was no major health crisis to deal with in 1994 (no, OJ Simpson’s high-speed chase across the freeways of Los Angeles was not a major health crisis). The AP report mentions that tests on several MLB players for coronavirus came back positive. With that in mind, do we want to put more players at risk for our enjoyment? And do we want a season that goes into December? The idea of playing baseball in the middle of the holidays just feels wrong.

I’m not in the position to make this sort of decision, but no matter what anyone else says, it doesn’t seem worth it to even have a 2020 MLB season. The league should cut its losses and work toward possibly coming back in 2021.

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Siguenza on Sports

If it’s in the game…

We’re going to switch gears here a little bit to talk about the collision between virtual and actual sport, and how the former can help the latter get back on track in the absence of fans. The Associated Press writes that crowd noise for soccer matches in England and Spain will come courtesy of Electronic Arts, maker of the popular sports video game franchise based on FIFA as well as the Madden NFL series.

AP Sports on Twitter

Per the report, the media partners for sports organizations began approaching EA Sports about the use of ambient sound from their games to resemble some sense of normalcy in the pace and energy of play. So networks are gaining access to a library of more than 800 cuts which are customized according to the home venue.

A separate AP story ponders what the game atmosphere in North American sports will look like during the pandemic. Perhaps EA will bring its archive to NFL broadcasts in the fall. One thing is certain: the way we consume sport is changing out of necessity.

AP Sports on Twitter
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Siguenza on Sports

As the Ball Dribbles

Lost in all the news of late were announcements by the NBA and Major League Soccer to return to action later this summer at Walt Disney World in Florida, music to the ears of fans desperate to see live competition after the coronavirus suspended most leagues for three months now. But tonight, the NBA’s grand reopening has taken an unexpected turn.

Shams Charnia on Twitter

This comes on the heels of an earlier report stating that players expressed unhappiness with not being consulted before the decision to restart was made. According to Yahoo Sports, players were already hesitant about the plan to self-isolate with the pandemic still in effect. Then came the death of George Floyd. With protests calling for racial harmony intensifying, sources tell Yahoo, some players feel it’s not a good look for a mostly-black group of athletes to risk their health just so fans can be entertained and the NBA can stop its financial bleeding from not holding games.

Chris Haynes on Twitter

Legitimate concerns, to be sure. Also quite predictably, there is a lot of mixed reaction on Twitter to these reports. Just another episode of the soap opera that is 2020. Be sure to tune in next week.

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Siguenza on Sports

Landmark day for NASCAR

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death is a self-reflection on long-held beliefs and customs leading to a massive overhaul in the way Americans conduct themselves. We have discussed some of those changes in this blog–the NFL overruling its previous stance on player protests and diversity initiatives at Adidas. While these are certainly key to the larger discussion that we as a society must have, the steps taken today by NASCAR are nothing short of seismic.

It was already to be a big night for the stock car association with a race at Martinsville Speedway including a Black Lives Matter-themed car from driver Bubba Wallace.

NASCAR on Twitter

As significant as that was, it wouldn’t prepare us for the news that dropped just hours before the first lap regarding a symbol that has been associated with NASCAR.

NASCAR on Twitter

There are, of course, detractors to NASCAR’s announcement. You can click the tweet above to see the responses that users left if you think you can handle them. In all, the move from NASCAR indicates a turning point in race relations that is long overdue.

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Siguenza on Sports

Adidas takes action

Some news on the sneaker front today related to the civil rights movement occurring right now. The Wall Street Journal reports that Adidas has announced plans to select people of black or Latin origin for at least 30 percent of jobs the company is creating. It’s part of a larger effort by the shoemaker to support diversity in the community after black employees shared instances of mistreatment internally.

The Wall Street Journal on Twitter

The practice of affirmative action is controversial, intended to give minorities more opportunity for representation within an organization (Kenton, 2019). However, federal law states that employers may not discriminate “based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin” (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.). Additionally, the Supreme Court of the United States has found the use of racial quotas to be unconstitutional (CNN, 2013).

For what it’s worth, human resources expert Ruth Mayhew (n.d.) says that recruitment initiatives generally yield “a diverse applicant pool” to select the most qualified candidates. Adidas will need a solid HR strategy to promote diversity while at the same time staying compliant with anti-discriminatory regulation.

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Siguenza on Sports

The game-changer

According to Jason Reid of ESPN’s The Undefeated, the NFL’s reversal on its response to player protests may have been triggered by the involvement of a particular athlete in a video pressing league officials to acknowledge the injustices that persons of color face in everyday life. The athlete? Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

NFL on ESPN via Twitter

“(T)he importance of Mahomes’ involvement in the video can’t be overstated,” said Reid, citing league insiders. “He’s not only the game’s top black star. He’s the face of the entire NFL.”

As a Chiefs fan myself, I’ve had the luxury of watching Patrick Mahomes change things practically overnight, bringing a half-century of what honestly felt like comical ineptness in Kansas City to an end with his mystifying style of play and picking up accolades (Super Bowl MVP, regular-season MVP) and endorsements (Helzberg Diamonds, State Farm) along the way. Now here he is, as Reid suggests, changing the NFL even further through his assertion in the video that “Black Lives Matter.”

Scott Silva via YouTube