| Published When We Feel Like It |
Vol.
14, No.3
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Extreme, dude . . . Blame it on Tony Hawk. The fascination with extreme sports - from skateboarding to BMX to wakeboarding - has gone beyond mere fascination, driven in large part by television coverage. ESPN produces the X Games, NBC produces the Gravity Games, while Fox Sports Network produces the extreme-sports show called "54321." There are now two all-extreme sports television networks airing 24-7, the European-based Extreme Sports Channel and FUEL, a property of the Fox Cable Networks Group. At this year's X Games in Southern California, ESPN drew a 1.8 rating for its Thursday slate of competition. ABC's August 17 Sunday night broadcast of the X Games marked the competition's first prime time network exposure, registering a 2.2 rating. Add extreme . . .The extreme sports industry is now a mature force - and one of the fastest-growing segments of the fitness market. According to a recent survey conducted by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, the top five participatory sports in the category are: inline skating (21.5 million athletes), skateboarding (13 million), paintball (8.6 million), snowboarding (7.6 million), and artificial wall-climbing (7.1 million). According to the SGMA, "The South is the home of 49 percent of all frequent paintball participants. Since 1990, participation in snowboarding has increased by 263 percent."
Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah . . . The growth of extreme sports can only translate into one thing: extreme sports camps. The Southern California School of Skateboarding just opened in - where else? - Venice, Calif. Meanwhile, Camp Woodward, located 30 miles east of State College, Pa., remains the granddaddy of them all, having opened its doors in the early 1970s. Every summer, according to Newhouse News Service, "about 10,000 aspiring athletes - representing all 50 states and 30 countries - flock . . . to attend one of the 14 one-week camps." The camp boasts "85 acres of metal bike ramps and concrete skateboarding bowls . . . [a] 9-acre race course for motorcycling and a 12-foot-high, 112-foot-wide ramp for bikers and skaters."
Add hello . . . The camp, which costs $845 per week and is booked a year in advance, is so popular that the owners recently opened Woodward West, located in Stallion Springs, Calif., about two hours north of Los Angeles. Woodward West served as a competition site for the just-concluded X Games. Woodward West has a 54,000-square foot indoor skate-park, a 20,000-square foot outdoor skate-park, and BMX trails. Lost in translation . . . As expected, the United States dominated the competition at this summer's 14th Pan American Games, winning a quarter of all of the medals awarded. Despite fears that the Dominican Republic was unprepared to host the Games, the country managed to stage the Games without major problems. The same cannot be said for the automatic translation software, Babel Fish, utilized on the Games' official website, www.santodomingo2003.org.do. When English-speaking fans logged onto the site for updates, they found some surprising results. A few samples: "The successes of Cuba in the Pan-American Games of Santo Domingo are been from kindness of the social system of the island, according to Fidel I castrate. 'Our revolution has created the ideal conditions. We will be in a tenth floor having begun by the cellar,' said I castrate during a speech Wednesday at night, shortly before starting off for Paraguay." "The United States today classified for the end of the match of baseball of the Pan-American Games Santo Domingó2003, after surpassing 3x2 in 14 entrances to Mexico, party disputed in the stage of Quisqueya for more than four hours." "To the compass of merengue and samba, the Pan-American Games of Santo Domingo lowered to Sunday their drop curtain, shouting to all lung of which it knew to be to the height of a sport joust of great profile." "The closing ceremony was a waste of music and fireworks, in which Santo Domingo passed the slug to Rio de Janeiro, the seat of the games of the 2007." "Until Pedro, Dominican and capital genuine it affirms that a heat does not remember like this in Santo Domingo and the sweat of the forehead is dried, while is felt sorry of the cyclists who pedalean to total sun 20, 50 and more kilometers." "Felix Sanchez, to whom they questioned the gold medal to him not to consider it product of the Dominican system, kissed the hot Dominican earth when he finished running and he received the tribute of thousands of Dominican in the stage and million viewers in all the nation, stopped to see it run and jump. Who said that the money all can buy it?" Chico Escuela could not have said it better.
Trading places . . . The International Olympic Committee's decision to look into the case of sprinter Jerome Young probably will determine whether the United States men's 4 x 400-meter relay team keeps its gold medal from the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. The Young case underscores the difficulty of dealing retroactively with situations in which athletes may have broken rules or officials made mistakes. In the Olympic Games, the most publicized type of rule breaking is doping. When doping involves a medal winner, the typical remedy is to strip the athlete of the medal and move up everyone else one place. If the offense involves the first place finisher, the second and third place finishers receive gold and silver medals respectively and the fourth place finisher becomes the bronze medallist. At Salt Lake City that scenario played out in cross country skiing. In Sydney, gold medal winners in wrestling, gymnastics and weightlifting got busted and lost their medals. Add places . . . Things in the Olympic Games are not always so cut and dried, though. Dutch cyclists finished third in the team time trial, in 1972. When one member tested positive for the stimulant Coramine, the entire team lost the bronze medal. The Belgian team had finished fourth, but the IOC decided not to award the Belgians the bronze medal because no member of the team had been drug tested following the competition. Add places . . . Finding a remedy for the human failings of Olympic judges can get complicated, too. At Salt Lake City, in 2002, the IOC demanded that the International Skating Union review the judges' decision in the pairs event. The ISU recommended that the Canadian and Russian pairs share the gold medal. The IOC quickly accepted the recommendation. The Canadians, David Pelletier and Jamie Sale, moved up from silver to gold. The Russian pair of Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze kept their gold. There was, however, no change for the third and fourth place pairs. More than a year after the 1992 Olympic Games, the IOC awarded a gold medal to Canadian synchronized swimmer Sylvie Fréchette after determining that her score in the solo event had been incorrectly recorded during the competition in Barcelona. Kristen Babb-Sprague of the United States, declared the winner in Barcelona, was allowed to keep her gold medal. In 1924, Anders Haugen of the United States competed in ski jumping, apparently finishing fourth behind Norway's Thorleif Haug. Decades later a researcher discovered that judges had made an error compiling his score. Haugen received his bronze medal, at age 83, in a 1974 ceremony in Oslo. The IOC moved Haug, who died in 1934, down to fourth place. Last add places . . . One of the best-known cases of medal juggling involved Jim Thorpe. Thorpe finished first in the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Games. The following year, the IOC, at the request of the American Olympic committee, stripped Thorpe of his medals after learning that he had earned a meager income, in 1909 and 1910, playing minor league baseball. Thorpe's fellow competitors each moved up one place. In October 1982, following many years of lobbying by Thorpe's admirers in the United States, the IOC reversed itself. IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch returned Thorpe's medals to Thorpe's children in a ceremony, in 1983, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. The award ceremony did not affect the standing of the athletes who moved up one position in 1913. The IOC now recognizes two gold medallists plus one silver and one bronze medallist in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon events.
Pretty vacant . . . The NCAA has a more codified approach to dealing with rule violations. Basically, it works like this. In individual competitions, in which results are recorded by "time, points or stroke totals" the individual is disqualified and the competitors who finished behind him or her move up one place. "For those championships in which individual results are recorded by advancement through a bracket or head-to-head competition," the results of the offending athlete are stricken from the record, but there is no adjustment of placement. In team events, "the record of the team's performance may be deleted, the team's place in the final standings may be vacated, and the team's trophy and the ineligible student's award may be returned," according to the NCAA. Add vacant . . . In the men's Division I basketball tournament 20 teams have had their "position in the tournament vacated." The most-vacated team in Division I history is the University of Memphis, which retroactively got the boot for five years, from 1982 through 1986. Last add vacant . . . One of the more curious cases in the NCAA Record Book is the 1995 UCLA softball team. UCLA won the 1995 tournament, but then lost it following revelations that the Bruins had awarded more scholarships than allowed by NCAA rules. The most notorious scholarship recipient was the team's star pitcher, an Australian named Tanya Harding (no, not "Tonya"). Harding arrived at UCLA about halfway through the season, pitched the team to victory in the tournament and then almost immediately returned home, never to return to the university. UCLA's participation was vacated, but Tanya Harding remains in the record book as the tournament's "Most Outstanding Player." What's in a name? . . . The appearance of Australia at the recently completed FIFA 2003 Women's World Cup reminded us of the Aussie penchant for national team nicknames. The women's soccer team is the Matildas. The men's team is the Socceroos. Other names include Wallabies (men's rugby), Boomers (men's basketball), Opals (women's basketball) and Hockeyroos (women's field hockey). We could go on. One of the newer nicknames in Oz belongs to the men's under-17 basketball team - the Emus. "Named after the tall, very fast Australian native bird, the nickname reflects the team's speed and size," the Emus got their moniker after Basketball Australia solicited fan suggestions on its website. There's one in every crowd . . . Leave it to Cricket Australia to be the contrarian. A 1998 survey by the Australian Cricket Board polled "891 members of the cricketing community" and found that 69 percent were opposed to the Australian team having a nickname." Some respondents complained that all the "worthwhile" species names had been used already. Add crowd . . . Turning down a nickname did not deter Cricket Australia from adopting a team song. Maudlin, mawkish, sappy . . . Words alone cannot describe it. Listen for yourself to the very special song styling of "GoAussieGo."
Say it loud . . . The two African entries in the 2003 Women's World Cup also have nicknames. Nigeria is known as the Super Falcons. Ghana's women's team is the Black Queens. Nicknames of other Ghanaian national soccer teams include Black Stars (men), Black Meteors (U-23 men), Black Satellites (U-20 men) and the Black Starlets (U-17 men). See the "definitive web page on African national soccer team nicknames" at, http://www.sportscheduler.co.sz/african_teams_nicknames.htm.
From the Department of Bad Timing. . . Cool Springs Press has just published a book titled "WUSA Girl's Guide to Soccer Life."
All About Jack . . . Move over Oprah - here's Jack. As in Nicklaus, a glossy magazine "inspired by the career, the life and the lifestyle of Jack Nicklaus," according to the Golden Bear's website http://www.nicklaus.com. Inaugurated in 2002, the magazine's premiere edition attempted to answer this burning sports question: "What if you could visit Pebble Beach and money was no object?" The hard-hitting journalism did not stop there as the magazine took readers to a private game reserve in Africa, onto the decks of the world's most luxurious cruise ships, and into the kitchen with recipes from Jack's wife Barbara. Add Jack . . . According to Washington Post media critic Peter Carlson, Nicklaus magazine was conceived by publisher Mark Peterson of Park City, Utah-based Luxury Publishing Inc. Nicklaus himself does not edit the articles, but he does have final approval of the contents. "In Nicklaus," writes Carlson, "even the ads are Nicklaus-related. There's an ad for Nicklaus Golf Equipment. And an ad for Nicklausart.com, which sells golf photos autographed by Nicklaus. And lots of ads for luxury resorts and ritzy developments that contain Nicklaus-designed golf courses." Last add Jack . . . The glossy quarterly is available at select newsstands for $6.95; it also will be "distributed in private country clubs worldwide, mailed to members of Nicklaus Design courses, distributed on private jets, placed in luxury hotels and resorts," according to the website. Of course, some of us are waiting for Walrus - the magazine inspired by the lifestyle of Craig Stadler. Making a list . . . Sports Illustrated's recent ranking of "The 50 Greatest Sports Movies of All Time!" (August 4) included seven documentaries (eight if you include "Best in Show," Christopher Guest's hilarious "moc-umentary" about dog shows). Five of SI's top 15 choices were documentaries. And yet, the editors ignored many critically-acclaimed sports-themed docs, including two films that won the Academy Award for best documentary feature: "One Day in September" (1999), about the Palestinian terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympic Games, and "The Man Who Skied Down Everest" (1975), about Japanese adventure skier Yuichiro Miura. ("When We Were Kings," about the Muhammad Ali-George Foreman bout in Zaire and ranked number-10 by SI, won the Oscar for best documentary in 1996.) Add list . . . SI ignored other much-admired sports docs, including Kon Ichikawa's "Tokyo Olympiad," about the 1964 Games, which the reference book Sports Films calls "one of the best sports documentaries ever made." "Vision of Eight," David Wolper's award-winning account of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games featuring the works of eight prominent filmmakers including Ichikawa, Arthur Penn and Milos Forman, did not make the list. Meanwhile, documentaries about the 1960 and 1968 Games - "La Grande Olimpiade" and "The Olympics in Mexico" - were nominated for Academy Awards and yet excluded by SI, as were several compelling boxing-themed docs: "On the Ropes," nominated in 1999, "The Legendary Champions" (1968), and "Jack Johnson" (1970). Perhaps the most glaring oversight was "Spellbound," about the rough-and-tumble competition of spelling bees (and nominated last year for an Oscar). Final list . . . What's wrong with Oscar? Other sports films overlooked despite Academy Award-winning performances were "The Champ" (1932), for which Wallace Beery won for Best Actor, and "The Color of Money" (1986), with Paul Newman taking Best Actor. Next time, the editors might want to expand the article into a "Top 100" list.
Making plays . . . You cannot fault ESPN for the effort. In its attempt to expand the brand, ŕ la MTV, ESPN has turned to producing "original entertainment" to augment the "SportsCenter" franchise, live game broadcasts and other properties. They have already aired two made-for-TV movies: "Season on the Brink," adapted from John Feinstein's best-seller, and "Junction Boys," from Jim Dent's book. Now comes "Playmakers," a soap opera - er, dramatic series - about a fictional NFL team that has drawn comparisons to Oliver Stone's "Any Given Sunday." The TV show has riled critics with its depiction of drug use and boorish off-the-field antics. The New York Post's Phil Mushnick writes "The show might have been a creative success if it were not laced with vulgar language and nudity, but this is cable, so you don't risk it. You load up on the low stuff because you can, because it can attract an audience that favors the visceral over the genuinely artistic." Add plays . . . Meanwhile, over at Fox Sports World, they have offered up the "Dream Team," "a bold combination of the sex appeal and the behind-the-scenes scandal" in the world of professional English soccer. The show apparently has won several awards in Britain. After seeing an episode, all we can say is that these are the same people who thought Benny Hill was funny. Add plays . . . Sports-themed television shows have met with mixed success. There have been some short-lived critical successes such as "The White Shadow," "The 'Slap' Maxwell Story" and "Sports Night," lasting anywhere from one to three seasons. NBC's 2001 sitcom "Inside Schwartz" bombed with general viewers and critics alike. The critical consensus on "ARLI$$" was lukewarm at best, but the show lasted seven seasons on HBO. While several long-running hits have used sports as a departure point - "Coach," "Everybody Loves Raymond," "The Odd Couple," "Cheers," - none is really a "sports show." Writes ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons: "It's easier to create a 35-inch television from scratch than it is to create an entertaining TV show that relates to sports." Last add plays . . . Network executives have not given up on sports. NBC is developing a show loosely based on the life of Los Angeles Lakers executive Jeannie Buss. And, according to the Washington Post, CBS has tabbed Jason Alexander to play a character named Tony Kleinman, based on the life of ESPN commentator and Post columnist Tony Kornheiser. It is only a matter of time before someone gets a clue and adapts the film "Kingpin" to the small screen.
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