Final Words

This is my farewell speech. The last blog entry of 2009! I made it through the first half of my senior year! When I started out blogging, I was kind of nervous. After I blogged a few times, I began to like it a lot. I had so much fun blogging about class topics and discussions this year. I was able to say my thoughts and think about them before I said them, as opposed to talking out loud in class and not being able to think of what I want to say before I say it. I am a very opinionated person. There were subjects and discussions that I didn’t say a word in class because of my feelings, I didn’t want to offend anyone. I was able to go home, think about what everyone said, and think about it and add my personal feelings. Then people would give me feedback and I got a good idea of what other people liked and disliked about me. I really enjoyed that aspect of blogging! Kobe Bryant is the greatest basketball player ever! I will be back, as for now, so long and farewell world. God is love, Scott Ritchey.

Where Would Sports Be Without...

Where would sports be without their best and most famous athletes? In a poll taken by ESPN a few days ago, they asked the world who is the team and individual players of the decade. Imagine the NBA without Kobe Bryant or Lebron James. The NFL without Peyton Manning or Tom Brady. The WNBA without Lisa Lesley or Candice Parker. In the poll for the team of the decade, the Los Angeles Lakers were number one, followed by UConn women's basketball, then Boston Red Sox, Indianapolis Colts and the University of Texas football team. The top two were basketball teams, one men and one women's team. Both of those teams were lead by (arguably) the best of player of all time. Kobe Bryant in the NBA and Diana Taurasi in college basketball. Tiger Woods was the individual player of the decade, followed by Serena Williams, Kobe Bryant, Lance Armstrong, and Peyton Manning to round out the top five. Both of these polls caught my attention. The fact that men and women, both made the top five in each was a shock to me. I was glad to see that the world feels the same about men and women's sports. So I was thinking, if these sports didn't have their best players, would these sports still be where they are today?

Men and Women Media

It doesn't take a rocket scientists to know the differences between men and women. There are many differences, especially in the sports world. Men get the majority of the TV coverage, media coverage, and publicity. Women get the short end of the stick. I will start with the sports themselves. Women have almost as man sports as men do, but they do have less then the men do. Women get volleyball, WNBA, college basketball, and softball on national television, of those four, softball and volleyball are on only during their tournaments. Men get national television for all their major sports on a game by game basis. That is really messed up! I believe in fair media and television coverage! Why do women sports get less attention than men sports? I believe that they are not advertised as much as men sports do. Also, the market is not as big in women sports, as opposed to men sports. There should be a law passed, stating that women and men TV coverage should be equal on a yearly basis, of all sports combined. A way to get people attracted to women's sports would be to advertise, like the picture of Maria Sharapova to the left. That will get people's attention and get them to watch more women's sports. After all men advertise just like women do, like the picture to the right of Adrian Peterson. When it is all said and done, women and men sports should have equal everything, especially in the media.

Racism in Athletics

Racism in Athletics is no new issue. First off there has always been people who are afraid of what's different. In class, we discussed how racism is in sports, examples, and what should be done about it. Needless to say this is a controversial topic, and the class was divided. It's tough to talk about such a touchy subject. I'm glad we did. I can usually tell a lot about people and what they believe in. I saw that in our class, we have a variety of people. The variety includes sex, age, weight, color, height, intellectual level, athletic knowledge, and so on. When racism came into the subject, people we hesitant to talk about it. I have experienced racism first hand my junior year of High School, while playing soccer. We were at Rossford, which is a suburb of Toledo. On our soccer team we had white, Hispanic, Asian, Spanish, and Indian people. The whole game Rossford was saying racist things and doing dirty play toward my non white teammates. I got a yellow card earlier because I was protecting to people on my team by throwing a punch to shut up these racist comments. It was totally worth it to me, but the comments didn't stop. We won seven to zero, and as we were going through the whole "good game thing" to the one I punched I said no hard feelings. He then said fu** you and your (racists name) teammates, that's when my goalie and I got really pissed and pushed these two guys. A huge brawl broke out and was eventually stopped. My parents were proud of me for standing up for my teammates. My mom was not mad at all that I got in a fight. There is one thing that bothered me throughout this whole situation, and that is: Rossford had black, Asian, and Mexican players on their team. What could they have felt like when their own teammates were making racists comments toward their own nationality? To this day, I have no regret for fighting to protect my teammates and more importantly my friends!

Women Sports Recognition

What exactly does a women's athletic team have to do to get national recognition? It is sad to say, but apparently physically hurt and be a total jerk to other women, during a game. Elizabeth Lambert of the New Mexico Women's Soccer team did just that. She was caught on tape elbowing a BYU player in the face, kicking a women while on the ground (with no attempt at the ball), and worst of all pulling a BYU forward down to the ground by her ponytail! What is wrong with this chick? We will find out eventually, she is seeing a psychologists for the hair pulling incident. She was recently suspended indefinitely from the New Mexico team. She had two separate quotes that I would like to mention. The first one is "I think the way the video came out, it did make me look like a monster. That's not the type of player I am, I'm not just out there trying to hurt players. That's taking away from the beauty of the game. And I would never want to do that." How else did she want to look, the video evidence doesn't lie, it was down right brutal! The second quote is "I am deeply and wholeheartedly regretful for my actions. My actions were uncalled for. I let my emotions get the best of me in a heated situation." She is sorry now that she got punished, but not during the game. Also, she created the "heated situation" she spoke of, no one during the game from BYU retailed. Is that what it takes to get national attention in the world of women's sports? I sincerely hope hot, but as of now, that's the way it looks and that is very sad.

Racism at Indian Wells

We have talked about the Williams Sister's protesting The Indian Wells Tournament every year since the incident. The incident started when Venus Williams forfeited her semifinals match right before she was supposed to take the court (that was when the announcement was made, that is). Serena makes it to the finals to play against Kim Clijsters. Serena, 19 years of age at the time, was about to play when her father, Richard Williams, and sister Venus entered the stands to watch Serena play her finals match. Upon their arrival, there were racists comments yelled by fans were directed toward the Williams family. Richard Williams stuck up his fist, like the the two black people did in the 1968 Olympics. That probably did not help the situation, but due to the things being said, I am a fan of what he did. Eventually, the match starts and Serena is booed the entire time, especially when she messed up. Racists comments were made toward Serena, while she was playing. Due to her mental toughness, even at age 19, she won the Indian Wells Championship. I am 100% in favor of the Williams' Sisters protesting Indian Wells. I am very strongly against racism and racist people. That being said, I respect the Williams family, and am sorry that they had to go through it one time, which is one more time then they should have.

This week in class we have been talking about the US Open. To be more specific, the blow up by Serena Williams and the choice words by Roger Federer. We have talked about why it was a big deal. To start off, Serena Williams' blow up was controversial for a couple of reasons. The first being that she got called for a foot fault in the semifinals of the US Open, not to mention at a point in the match where she was a game from losing. the next reason is because of how she reacted, it was very uncharacteristic of her. The last reason is that she has never been called for a foot fault then all of a sudden in her countries Open, she was continuously being called for it. I think she handled the situation in an extreme manor. She did not need to threaten the line judge the way she did. I'm not saying that it was ok for her to threaten anyone, but the way she did was horrible. I still love Serena Williams and know she is one of the best in the world. Now I would like to talk about Roger Federer. Before I start, I do not like Roger Federer at all, that being said he is a great tennis player. During his finals match in the 2009 US Open, he began to cuss at the chair umpire after a late challenge by Juan Martin del Potro. He did have a legit argument, but had no right to cuss at the chair umpire. Overall, tempers can flair in the heat of a sporting event, but the athlete must have the restraint to handle it in a calm and rational manor.