| Published When We Feel Like It |
Vol.
15, No.4
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Chivas USA, an off-shoot of the famed Guadalajara-based Mexican League team, will make its Major League Soccer debut next year, as MLS expands to twelve teams. Chivas owner Jorge Vergara is seen as progressive: he runs his health-supplements company, Omnilife, with stringent environmental policies and supports education reform in Mexico. "In Latin American countries we have wasted women in the workforce because of our macho education," Vergara told Sports Illustrated's Grant Wuhl earlier this year. "They have all these qualities that men don't. They're more administrative, more focused, more responsible. When you are around so much feminine energy, you get more creative." What's more, Vergara recently announced plans to start a women's professional soccer league in Mexico in 2006. Add Vergara . . . That has not stopped Chivas USA from introducing "ChivaGirls," a "female ambassador program" of "bilingual Latina women to serve as community ambassadors" for the team. According to the team's website, ChivaGirls must "possess good public speaking skills, physical conditioning and have experience in dance, choreography and runway. Candidates must be between 21 and 28 years old, weigh between 110 and 135 pounds, and be 5'4" or taller in height." Apparently, these are the "qualities" that Vergara spoke so eloquently about. The martial sport of pankration continues to misstate its Olympic status (see SportsLetter, September 2001). On the Team USA Federation of Pankration Athlima website, President John Townsley claimed, "Pankration will make its debut at Olympia on August 17, 2004. We are using the site of the ancient Games just a few hundred feet from the place from the Olympic Flame is lighted every four years, at the place where in 648 B.C., ancient pankration athletes fought for the Olive Wreath, glory and the title Olympian . . . we are the only new sport to be allowed a demonstration in 2004. We will still have to cross every T, dot every I, jump through every hoop and cut through fire to become a Medal Sport in future Olympic Games, but the ground work is now in place." In truth, the IOC recognized no demonstration sports at the Athens Olympic Games. Move over Vince McMahan . . . "Bodyslamming for God" just might be the newest trend in professional wrestling. Atlanta Journal Constitution writer Bo Emerson reports that the Georgia-based Ultimate Christian Wrestling organization stages regular wrestling cards to "get people inside the gospel tent." UCW founder Rob Fields, a high-school English teacher who doubles as "Rob Adonis" in the ring, bans blood, profanity, rude gestures, and bikini-clad ring girls during these matches. "It's live and loud and in your face, but it's something you can bring your mom to," Fields says about the matches that "alternate with testimony, gospel and prayer." Add wrestling . . . Another Christian wrestling organization is the Rockwall, Texas-based Christian Wrestling Federation. According to its website, its mission is "to be a Christian outreach ministry that shares the love of Jesus Christ, through wrestling events around the world." The CWF also offers instructional classes for aspiring professional wrestlers. "We will teach you everything from mat wrestling to high flying moves and how to work the mic . . . All trainees must attend and participate in Bible Studies, ring practice (twice a week) and event setup."
Baby Face . . . Former boxing champ Jimmy "Baby Face" McLarnin recently passed away at the age of 96. Obituaries about "Baby Face" extolled his punching power. Boxing historian Bert Sugar suggested that the term "best pound for pound" fighter started with McLarnin, not "Sugar" Ray Robinson. But, both The New York Times (November 10, 2004) and the Los Angeles Times (November 27, 2004) made the same mistake in their obituaries of McLarnin, published more than two weeks apart. In the New York Times, Jack Cavanaugh wrote that "Despite an outstanding record that included victories over Fidel LaBarba, Jackie Fields, Billy Petrolle (the Fargo Express), Pancho Villa, Al Singer, Louis Kaplan and Sammy Mandell, McLarnin did not get a shot at the welterweight title until May 29, 1933, in his 71st professional fight." Los Angeles Times boxing writer Steve Springer noted, "Today, if a fighter has a spectacular record after 15 or 20 fights, he begins demanding a title fight. In McLarnin's day, however, with only one title in each weight division and far fewer weight categories, a fighter could spend his career waiting for a precious title shot. McLarnin nearly did, fighting 70 bouts before getting his opportunity against [Young] Corbett." Actually, McLarnin's first title shot came well before his 71st professional bout. In 1928, five years before McLarnin knocked out Corbett in one round to win the welterweight title in 1933, he unsuccessfully challenged Sammy Mandell for the lightweight title. "Nat Fleischer's All-Time Ring Book" (1941) shows the 1928 title bout as McLarnin's 39th fight. The website www.boxrec.com indicates that it was his 43rd. McLarnin lost his first title bout, though he defeated Mandell in two non-title rematches. Add Baby Face . . . Both Fleischer's book and boxrec.com agree that McLarnin did not have 71 or more pro fights. Fleischer's number is 60; the website says 68. Last add Baby Face . . . The oldest living boxing champ in the world is Germany's Max Schmeling, who will turn 100 next year. SportsLetter noted in its last issue that the 20-plus doping incidents reported in conjunction with the Athens Olympic Games represented only a small percentage of all recent doping violations in international sport. In fact, during the twelve-month period between the September 3, 2003 raid on BALCO's offices and the close of the Olympic Games on August 29, 2004, more than 250 athletes were reported to have tested positive, were arrested by civil authorities for possession of performance enhancing drugs or in some other way ran afoul of doping controls. The list of athletes includes world and Olympic champions as well as sub-elite athletes. There are teenagers, masters competitors, and athletes from every region of the world. The penalties imposed ranged from public warnings to lifetime bans. Several athletes were punished for using recreational drugs such as marijuana and cocaine, but the overwhelming majority of incidents involved performance enhancing drugs. For more detail on the criteria used to compile the list see the small print following the table.
Small print: This list reflects published news stories and
reports issued by sports organizations in the year following the
BALCO raid. If SportsLetter did not find information on the nature
of an athlete's violation, we left the box blank. In some cases,
the tests and infractions may have taken place prior to September
2003, but the first reports appeared after that date.
Also included are a handful of cases in which a violation
was reported well before September 2003, but was not definitively
resolved until after the BALCO story broke (e.g. the cross country
skiers Johann
Muehlegg
and Olga Danilova, who were stripped of their 2002 Olympic medals). If SportsLetter was aware of a case in which
an athlete was reported in violation during the twelve-month period,
but later was exonerated, the name does not appear on the list. Also, excluded are names of people who tested positive during the
period, but were not reported until after the Athens Olympic Games
(e.g. Tyler Hamilton). Several
entries above refer to "un-named athletes."
We have tried not to double-count athletes whose names were
not included in initial reports of a positive test, but were later
revealed. We have tended to use the drug and violation terminology
used by the reporting news article or sports agency. Finally, it should be noted that some of the
cases cited here are under appeal.
If you have corrections to the list or have questions about
it, please contact SportsLetter. Geoffrey
Ward Several techniques characterize Ken Burns' idiosyncratic filmmaking style: the super-slow-moving panning shots over black-and-white photographs, the judicious choice of music, and the savvy "talking heads" who steal the show (like Negro League star Buck O’Neil in "Baseball"). Another constant in Burns’ work, from "The Civil War" to "Jazz," are the writers whose intelligent words bring still images to life. Historian Geoffrey Ward has been one of Burns’ go-to writers since 1984, when he consulted on the film "The Shakers: Hands to Work and Hearts to God." His numerous writing credits for Florentine Films — the name of Burns’ production company — include "The Civil War" (1990), for which he won an Emmy; "Baseball" (1994), and another Emmy; and "Jazz" (2000). Born in Ohio, Ward graduated from Oberlin College before becoming the senior picture editor at the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He then co-founded and edited Audience Magazine before serving as the editor of American Heritage Magazine from 1977 to 1982. He turned to writing books in the 1980s. He is the author of "A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt," nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and has co-written several books with Ken and/or Ric Burns, including "The Civil War: An Illustrated History" and "Baseball: An Illustrated History." His latest project with Burns is "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson." The two-part documentary, which airs on PBS stations on January 17-18, 2005, examines the turbulent life and times of boxing’s first African-American heavyweight champ. Ward has also completed a full-length biography of Johnson, what his publisher (Knopf) describes as "the first full-scale biography of Johnson in more than 20 years." In the Washington Post, reviewer Bruce Schoenfeld writes that Ward "has drawn a portrait of a fascinating figure, whose oversized personality fills every page." Hard at work on his next project with Burns — what he describes as "the last episode of a series about World War II," to be called "The War" — Ward, 64, spoke with SportsLetter via telephone from his home in New York City. Geoffrey Ward: After I left American Heritage, Ken needed someone to look at the rough cut of his film on the Shakers. I went up and did that, and he asked if I had ever thought of writing a film. After that, I wrote "Huey Long" for him - and it was great fun. That was 21-22 years ago. SL: What’s the difference between writing books and writing for documentary films? GW: Film is a narrative medium, and so are books. But they’re very different forms of narrative story-telling. With books, you can put in everything you run across in your research. With film, you have to learn to be very spare. SL: Was the Jack Johnson project your idea or Ken Burns’? GW: It was neither of ours. Dave Schaye, who worked with Ken on "Baseball," came to him a long time ago - I think it was over 10 years ago — with the idea. We did some other things in the interim, but it was an idea we always kept on the back-burner because of Dave’s enthusiasm for the project. SL: When did you start researching and writing for this project? GW: I wrote the script two-plus years ago. As soon as I finished, I started in on the book. I got real interested in this guy and just read through mountains of material. SL: You co-wrote books based on "The Civil War" and "Baseball" shows with Ken Burns. How come you didn’t co-write this book with him? GW: The books we’ve done together have always been illustrated histories. Initially, with Jack Johnson, we thought of doing an illustrated history, but this guy is so interesting that we felt he deserved the full treatment. And Knopf agreed. SL: Was it difficult to find photos of Jack Johnson? GW: No, we found plenty because during his prime he was the most famous black man on earth. Everything he did was covered thoroughly and was captured on film. I just wish we could have used more photographs in the book. SL: What’s it like to work with Ken Burns? GW: It’s a pleasure because I’m a big believer in public history. Today, so many people get their information from television. These documentaries — this body of work — give ordinary people access to a reliable source of history. SL: How long does the process take? GW: Basically, I take a couple of months to write the script. We do the interviews separately and fold them into the script. Meanwhile, the staff starts searching for images. Usually, they try to find images to match the words, although very occasionally we will change something to match an image they’ve found. The average documentary takes 2 ½ years to make, with the editing and the score. SL: With the Jack Johnson project, how did you find primary research material about his life? GW: Over the course of his life, he wrote four autobiographies. I was just the second historian to have access to the one that was published in France, in magazine and in book form. I also got very lucky. Through Tim Rives, an archivist at the National Archives office in Kansas City, I was able to read through material Johnson wrote in his own hand while he was a prisoner at Leavenworth. All of that material is in the book because it is so clearly his voice. He wrote about everything in his life up to when he won the title. Then I think he got bored with the project. But in that material is where I found what I believe is the real key to his character. He wanted people to know that he was, first and foremost, "a pure-blooded American" whose ancestors were born here. And, that’s how he acted all his life — he saw no reason to accept any limitations on himself. Everyone knows about the book Johnson did in 1927, "In the Ring and Out," written with a hack ghost-writer. That’s the one that gets cited all the time — and it’s probably the least reliable. SL: Were there parts of his life that were difficult to research? GW: I wish I could have found out more about the women who married him and the women who traveled with him. About all we know about them is that they married him; their fame was that they were his companions. SL In your research, did you watch any of the previous documentaries produced about Johnson? GW: I didn’t look at them. I had seen them years ago, except for the one that Miles Davis wrote the music for. I don’t like to look at films about the subject we’re working on because every film requires narrative choices. There are an infinite number of stories to tell. So, I don’t like to see them before we create our own film. I looked at endless footage of Johnson in action hundreds of times. What’s great about the magic of digitalization is that now we can view the fight footage much better than previously. Before, we had to take people’s word that Johnson talked to opponents while they were fighting. Now, in the film on PBS, you can see him doing that. It’s magnificent. SL: Do films of all his fights exist? GW: There’s footage of all of the big fights once he became champ — Burns, Jeffries, Willard. Unfortunately, there’s no footage of him when he fought other black fighters, like Sam Langford. That’s a shame. SL: Was there anyone that you interviewed who personally knew Johnson or had seen him fight? GW: No. We didn’t find anyone who had seen him fight. SL: You write that he was the most celebrated and reviled African-American of his age: why did he so upset white America? GW: I think it’s largely because of his sex life. He not only consorted with lots of women, but he was with numerous white women. He married three of them and traveled with half a dozen others. At that time, that was enough to get you hanged. There was a crazy courage to the life he led. Of course, he was just acting the way that other heavyweight champions and athletes acted — it was just that he was black. John L. Sullivan was surrounded by women, he traveled with women who weren’t his wife, he drank too much and beat up women. [Jack] Dempsey married a prostitute. Babe Ruth worked his way through whore-houses. But they were white, and no journalist would write about their behavior. SL: You point out that many blacks viewed Johnson unfavorably. Why? G: I think for a number of reasons. Most of the objections were that his behavior would rub off on them and they would be hated and vilified because of it. He wasn’t interested in being a representative hero-role model because he didn’t see himself as a part of any group. He was Jack Johnson. SL: Johnson broke through the "color line" in that, previously, no white heavyweight champ would fight black opponents. Was John L. Sullivan the Cap Anson of boxing? GW: That’s a good parallel — or else Cap Anson was the John L. Sullivan of baseball. In sports, all the doors were closing for blacks at the same time. Sullivan was the first to make it a matter of racial principle, but really he was afraid to be beaten by a black boxer like Peter Jackson. He and his successors, including Jim Corbett, who fought Jackson before he became champion, managed to duck black contenders for 22 years. SL: What was Jack London’s role in Johnson’s career? Was he the "worst" of the white commentators against Johnson? GW: No. London wasn’t near the worst. The standard view was much worse: cartoonists who drew Johnson depicted him as an ape. London was a socialist, but he was very much of his times. The actual tone of his writing is less blatantly, hopelessly racist than others. It’s just that he was a better writer. SL: Pundits have called the two Louis-Schmeling fights the most significant heavyweight fights of the century: How does that match-up compare with Johnson versus Jim Jeffries? GW: Everything’s always the greatest and the biggest in sports — and especially in boxing. I never make claims — there are lots of fights of the century, including the "Thrilla in Manila" and Ali-Foreman in Zaire — but up to its time, Johnson-Jeffries was the most important fight there had ever been. There were something like 300 reporters in Reno, and the wire accounts of the fight went all over the world. As for Louis-Schmeling, the first fight was not that big a deal even though the result shook up boxing because it was an upset. The second one, of course, was more than just a fight, and it ranks among the biggest sports events of all-time. SL: Your description of Johnson before the fight — and, in contrast, Jeffries’ dour demeanor — reminded me of the descriptions of Ali before he fought Sonny Liston and George Foreman. GW: You bet, including Ali, when he’s sparring, doing a running commentary. That’s what Johnson would do: ‘Here Johnson throws a left, then comes the right.’ Ali came to that separately, but when he learned of Johnson, he became this huge figure in his mind. He once told a reporter, ‘You think I’m bad? Well, Jack Johnson was the baddest cat of them all.’ Ali went to see the play "The Great White Hope," with James Earl Jones as Jack Johnson, on Broadway, and he was just bowled over. He said something like, ‘If you took the women out of this play and replaced it with religion, that’s my story.’ It’s interesting because most people don’t know that this was the second Broadway play based on Johnson’s life. 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