Jewish World Review Nov. 1, 2001/ 15 Mar-Cheshvan, 5762

Marianne M. Jennings

Marianne M. Jennings
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Unlucky in sports


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com -- WHEN it comes to sports, there could be no people more star-crossed than those of the Grand Canyon state. Attempts to bring national caliber sporting events to Phoenix are legendarily comedic. Phoenix once wrested control of some sort of Grand Prix from Detroit. Ah, big engines on paved streets in desert heat in June. Not only can one fry an egg on the sidewalk here in June, tires have trouble enduring. Our airports are not closed for rain, sleet, wind, snow, nor dark of night. Our airports close because the specs for jet tires only go up to 120 degrees.

Ergo, a Phoenix Grand Prix in June with tire barricades is risky. With melting safety, those spectators not plowed down were baked, in the dry heat, of course, into gingerbread people as they tried to spectate. End the Phoenix Grand Prix.

St. Louis sold us a bill of goods with the transfer of the many Bidwells that accompany the Cardinals football team. St. Louis got itself a Bidwelless team that went on to the Super Bowl. For the Phoenix Cardinals the end zone is uncharted territory.

Still we keep slugging, as it were. We spent the last 2 years voting in taxes to buy the lackluster Cardinals a new stadium, to be built immediately next to the 70,000-seat Arizona State University stadium the Cardinals use currently. However, the new stadium will have much less parking. No worries. Fans can use airport parking because the new Cardinal stadium is within one mile of the airport runways and situated directly in the flight path. The FAA is getting fussy about 80,000 sitting ducks in the final landing approach. Those who own land near the site, where low-flying overhead jets make conversation impossible, insist, "Who knew?"

Four years ago when Jerry Colangelo, the man who brought us the loser NBA Suns, announced his major league baseball dreams, we did what we usually do in Arizona - voted in taxes to build a ball park. But, we got to choose the team name -- poisonous serpents indigenous to our tireless deserts.

However, the Arizona Diamondbacks making it to the World Series in franchise record time is a coup de grace on Arizona's sports curse. Nay, 'tis not to be. The opposing team is the New York Yankees. Not only are the Yankees a winning team, World Series-wise, they are the center of the national pity party. If the Diamond backs should win, and the bookies see it otherwise, they will be the relative in the red dress at the funeral. They are tolerated, but with plenty of skunk eyes.

This is a Yankees World Series and the Diamondbacks are the sacrificial lamb. Even the reporting shows a fait accompli. The stories focus on the "New York Yankees" and "Arizona." The Arizona No-Names, rooky clodhoppers from a state with tumbleweeds. Names bespeak attitude and culture. NY sportswriters are named Murray Chass and Tyler Kipner. We have Slim Smith.

If sports are a route to normal life, a temporary respite from war and terrorists, then this New York mantra of winning one for the victims is poor form. The Yankees have wrapped themselves in victimhood.

Sports has succumbed to externalities. Sports holds no charm for me, but it has been society's last bastion of merit. Affirmative action, quotas and all the formulae imposed on other employers don't apply to professional sports. The WNBA is sinking because broads playing basketball just doesn't carry the same skill or thrill. Duke may be stuck with a female place kicker under Title IX, but the 49ers aren't. The Phoenix Cardinals might try it, however, because they could do no worse.

MVPs earn their titles because of what they do in the game, not because of personal angst. Outside of sports, merit fades. At college and university graduation ceremonies, awards for outstanding graduates focus on "personal challenges."

A disproportionate number of such awards go to unwed mothers. University officials always find a woman who got her degree while being a single parent. In presenting the award, they offer details on the graduate's triumph over what was once unspoken. One year we had an outstanding graduate unwed mother praised because she was the third generation such unwed mother, finishing college as grandmother and mother babysat in their fatherless multigenerational home.

These graduates deserve our support. But what message does their glorification send to those graduates who had higher GPAs and were chaste? And what of those graduating students who married in order to give their child a home with two parents? The subliminal suggestion is pity motivates the academic awards, not merit.

It is in that pity corner that the Diamondbacks find themselves. They may well be the better students. But how can they take away a title from a victim team? Perhaps by being the better team? Nope, the Oprah cult has invaded major league sports. The cultists chip away at merit in favor of victimhood. And Arizona's sports luck continues.


JWR contributor Marianne M. Jennings is a professor of legal and ethical studies at Arizona State University. Send your comments by clicking here.

Up

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© 2000, Marianne M. Jennings