Cheaters prove

[Cynique]

Chicagoland is all abuzz with the announcement that their pride and joy, the triumphant little league baseball team which won the national championship and was hailed and feted not only at home, but all over the country including the white house, has been dethroned.  These boys became poster children for what could happen when black youngsters were encouraged to particiate in wholesome activities, and they were trotted out at every opportunity to show how Chicago was turning around its bad reputation. Then the world of these youngsters came crashing down yesterday when their adult coaches were cited for breaking the rules by recruiting and using talented players from outside their distract to assemble a winning team.  Now, instead of being the object of admiration, these players have to deal with the stigma of cheating, and the humiliation of having their title and medals stripped from them.

 

All over the local media everybody is ranting over the situation, some moralizing about the hard lesson children have to learn when adults set a bad example by breaking the rules. Others are saying the coaches who reported the infraction were racially-motivated sore losers who were white. Elsewhere, the argument is being raised that the only crime was in being caught because all teams are guilty of doing what was done. A few have even hinted at being disappointed over how black folks can't even be successful at covering their tracks when they do wrong. 

 

I have mixed emotions.  In this country everybody loves a winner. The noble espousal of "it not being  whether you when or lose, but how you play the game" is a sentiment that no longer resonates.  Nowadays it's all about "winning not being everything, but the only thing".  Worst of all, adults taint youthful sports with their competitive desire to see their kids excel.  What makes this a teachable moment? What is the lesson to be learned?  Honesty is the best policy.  But nice guys finish last.  Welcome to the real world.

[Troy]

Honestly Cynique, outside of those of you in Chicago, I'm not sure anyone else really cares. I suspect the female pitcher will still be an inspiration to girls everywhere, regardless of what happens.

 

The real problem is that youth sports has gone too way far.  Why do a bunch of children need to travel all over the county and ultimately play teams from around the world?  The competition, is what drives teams and players to cheat at every level.  Players will lie about their ages, where they live, take steroids, and do anything to win--all for our entertainment.  Playing at the local level is fine, the extra time saved could be put to much better use.

 

But as long as sports is a major industry, cheating will persist.  People will just become better at it, while the increasingly jaded public cares less about it.

 

I actually wish our professional team players had to come from the communities they were from as well.  That would be interesting, wouldn't it? Maybe the NY would have a winning team?  Lebron would have never left Cleveland.  

 

But then again, the south would dominate every sport, since all they teach Black boys to do, in the south, is play football or basketball. 

[Cynique]

What's disturbing now is that the fans and boosters of this team seem to be shifting into a denial mode.  They want to circumvent the rules solely because they think the only thing that matters is that the team beat their opponents and that should be all that matters. They are vowing to fight the decision to declare the second plalce team the new winners.     

 

Amateur athletics  are supposed to help build character and foster good sportsmanship but cheating has become a part of the game plan just as much as any other strategy that enables victory.    

 

What I long ago realized is that Life is full of ethical guidelines, - just in case people want to do what is right or fair.  But most of the time these guidelines provide clues as to what not to do if you want to get ahead.

 

BTW, the female pitcher didn't play for the the winning Chicago team. I believe she is from Philadelphia.

[Troy]

Oh, I would have bet money Janae (whatever her name is) was from Chicagoland.  I guess that shows you how much I care about all of this.

 

But Jackie Robinson West (that is the team's name right) is no different that anyone else accused of cheating.  Lance Armstrong denied it vigorously, until everyone involved came clean and he began to look stupid.  Marion Jones, A-Rod, Ben Johnson, the list of deniers go on.  

 

Actually, it make sense to deny the allegations and fight them.  You never know, you might just win.  Think O-Jay.

 

I read somewhere that the person who ratted out the winning team was also guilty of the same infraction.

 

I don't like the win at any cost mentality.  There can be pride in losing too, especially if you have a respectable game against a far superior opponent.  But I guess we don't teach that lesson.

 

We are definitely building character, it is the American character, it just happens to be one that is undesirable.  One in which your success if defined by how much more you have than the other guy.  

 

It is the same character that is completely OK with 0.1% of Americans having the same level of wealth as the bottom 90%. If they have to cheat to get it (which they do), everybody understands--we were raised that way. 

[CDBurns]

Jerry Tarkanian (who died this week) former coach of UNLV, Fresno State and Long Beach State basketball is famous for a quote.

The coach never claimed he was a saint — his problem, he said, was the hypocrisy. "In major college basketball, nine out of 10 teams break the rules … the other one is in last place," he wrote.

 

I always revert to my experience in basketball when discussing sports. I coached at a neighborhood school in San Diego. I never cheated. Our rival down the street was a comparable program. Then they hired an AAU coach. The starting lineup at this school went from being  5-8 to 6-4 to having three 6-8 kids over the summer and the number 1 ranked player in the city. They also had a Reebok deal with fresh new uniforms and free shoes whenever the kids wanted. Now this is the poorest area in the city.  I had worked hard to build my program and heading into my fifth season the team had improved every year with homegrown neighborhood talent. I didn't recruit at all. I tried, but I had nothing to offer, so I worked. 

 

We played this new neighborhood school. My tallest kid was 6-6 and played soccer for most of his life and weighed about 100 pounds. At the end of the game this AAU, new high school coach came to shake hands and I had bad sportsmanship. I said "Fuck you man". The dude had taken the job from a brother who was a teacher at the school and who worked hard after hours to help the kids in life. There weren't many brothers as head coaches in San Diego. Besides I was pissed about this all star team, but I was more pissed that we had a chance to win, but I blew it through mental mistakes. The dude yelled that I couldn't coach and I lost it. 

 

I had worked so hard to build everything the right way. I was working ridiculous hours and building my guys up as best as I could in a gang infested neighborhood and all of a sudden even the kids I was helping outside of basketball wanted to transfer and leave. It was frustrating. I even had coaches leave and go to the other school. At the end of that last season, I finally gave in and recruited a dad/coach who was at another school so he could bring in the top rated freshman in the state to my school. I gave the dad the assistant coaching job and the JV job. I guaranteed him control just so he could bring in his son, and this 6-6 kid who ended up being the number one leading scorer in the state. In the process my actions told my kids by default I didn't believe we could win against these AAU teams masquerading as high school teams. I told them by my actions that you have to cheat. I couldn't really face them because I had become a hypocrite. I never coached that team. I left and moved to Memphis. They went on to win the League championship and were the city runner ups and went to the state tournament. All firsts for the school.

 

Every sport cheats, but the biggest cheat and scam in all of sports is the NCAA.

[Troy]

Chris that is an unfortunate story.

 

Do you ever listen to the sports commentator Frank Deford?

 

[CDBurns]

Yes he gets it and his exposes and op eds on sports are very good.

 

Ed OBannon and Sonny Vaccaro have been fighting to sue the NCAA and begin getting money owed to the players who have participated in collegiate athletics that are making major money. http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/11/11/the-latest-ruling-in-ed-obannon-vs-the-ncaa-is-a-win-for-both-sides/

 

He's right and this is seen in the players from Northwestern who just won a lawsuit to form a union: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-03-26/northwestern-players-can-become-first-college-union-nlrb-rules

 

Man the whole of youth athletics is so corrupt it's terrible. I can tell stories, but these two articles really shed light on how the discussion is about to play out.

[Cynique]

I am frustrated because my old school the University of Illinois was once a powerhouse in the Big !0 but now is only a shadow of what it used to be. Chicago is a gold mine of young athletic talent, but these high school players are intensely recruited by other schools and seldom end up playing for their home state. The alumni are really disheartened by this.

 

In addition to the corruptness at all levels in sports, there are the health hazards that show up later in life in the form of dementia, arthritis and other ailments, not to mention the immediate threats of injuries, fatalities and mental stress. Sports are about games and games are a microcosm of life; individual stars and outstanding teams all competing for the holy grail of victory while the herd cheers on the side they identify with.  Over time,  a situation has developed to the extreme detriment of those who provide recreation for the spectator population.  Modern day gladiators risk their lives and their well-being for glory and the adulation of the roaring crowd. Rah! Rah! Rah.  Let's hear it for winning at any cost! 

 

 All of this is a sign of the times which include the computerization of a society wherein the organic is being replaced by the electronic, eroding the sensibility and humanity of a significant portion of our population, We are seeing the result of embracing the new because it is new rather than because it is better.  If this keeps up we are going to evolve ourselves into oblivion. 

 

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY    

[CDBurns]

I know the Fighting Illini people are simply crushed every darn year. Your shining basketball jewel Simeon produces the best basketball player in the country every year, but Illini never lands their own kids. That's primarily a shoe issue. Kids go to the schools that their shoe programs/AAU teams direct them towards. That's how the cash keeps flowing. The Mean Streets program pushes guys towards the premier programs based on the shoes they wear. 

Simeon's Derrick Rose wore Adidas and went to Memphis with Coach Cal (on fraudulent test scores...)

Simeon's Jabari Parker wore nike and went to Duke

 

Both guys were number one picks

 

Jahlil Okafor (Whitney Young) was a Nike kid he went to Duke as well. I mean the story for Chicago is so deep and twisted it's amazing. You are right again though.