Make It or Break It

A show about female athletes and their sport.

I'm watching the rerun of the premiere on ABC Family. However, I'm a little tired, so here are some quick initial thoughts.

Quite the look at economic hierarchy. I like that they do not ignore the fact that competition in gymnastics, as it currently set up, is expensive. There is even a middle class family that keeps discussion from being a flat dichotomy.

Why can't female athletes have relationships? No boys, no dating. Why do female athletes have such rules put on them? Male locker room culture is full of talk about girls, so why do we not see the opposite? I'm not an expert on gymnastics, but how common are such rules, especially since movies about gymnasts (and cheerleaders) are all the female athletes movies are being made about.

Oh, the show's over. Part of me wants to say this ending is melodramatic, but I have seen similar performances from second-rate spoiled girls that resulted in a coach being fired.

While I'm too tired to form a definite opinion on the show, I know I will be posting more on this show and will tune in next week.

"Pinstripes are slimming"

So last night, it was late and I was flipping through channels and watched "Summer Catch" with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jessica Biel. I was never in a hurry to see it, as I don't watch a lot of romantic-comedies, but now that I have sat through it, I have to share the joy.

It was so cliched and predictable that I barely noticed the familiar faces in the supporting cast: Marc Blucas (Buffy), Christian Kane (Angel, Leverage), Brittany Murphy (Clueless) and Jason Geddrick (Iron Eagle). Then again, it's not as if any of these characters were developed during the movie. I also think that I either blanked out during the (sexist) post-practice bar scenes and/or MTV may have cut some of them because some are in the trailer that I don't remember seeing in the film.

Anyone, there was something I couldn't block out: Jessica Biel as love interest Tenley Parrish.

I remember her as the athletic oldest daughter on Seventh Heaven who's leaving left the show in shambles. So, I definitely expected her to pull off a sports movie.

Oh how wrong I was. Or at least, how wrong the writers were to write such an awful character for Biel.

At the beginning of the movie, it is made clear that Tenley does not know anything about baseball. She's daddy's little princess, so somehow she has missed the fact that baseball is the center of the summers in Chatham. She even has a scene where she rambles about the uniforms, saying things like "pinstripes are slimming."

OK, some women don't know about sports. But she spends the movie falling in love with a baseball player who's only dream is to pitch in the Majors.

At the end of the movie, she stops by the ballpark and is told that her man is pitching a no hitter. Her response: "What's a no-hitter?"

What? It's a pretty basic, self-explanatory term, and she is in love with a pitcher! How could she not know? Can women not know anything about sports unless they are the tomboyish-ten-year-old team mascots?

So, as many of you probably already know about this Hollywood-old movie, it failed.

Michael Chang

It seems to be the day of interesting links and looking back at past sports victories.

Here is a post from Angry Asian Man about Michael Chang, the youngest male Grand Slam champion. Be sure and also read the article that is linked on there.

Belmont Stakes

In case you missed it like I did, here is a video of yesterday's Belmont Stakes. It was pretty good, because I love underdogs.

During my musings, I also found this little article about African Americans in the Belmont Stakes. And in case you are curious like I was, here's a little more on Ed Brown, the first African American Belmont-winning jockey who became a winning trainer.

Not a stepping stone

Here is an interesting blog post from Mechelle Voepel.

This kind of disrespect for female athletes happens all too often. I'm glad the Lynx are getting a female coach with experience after having this guy.

Food for thought: When will we see female coaches in the NBA?

Athlete does not equal student-athlete

Since I read Dan Wetzel's column on the Derrick Rose thing yesterday, I have been contemplating the relationship between college and pro sports.

Not that I think Derrick Rose is blame-free of any wrong doing if he did have someone else take his SAT. Cheating is cheating, but I also think there are bigger issues here. I see a problem with how society created a situation in which Rose would do anything to get past the academic standards that don't really make sense for someone wanting to pursue athletics.

Cultural norms currently tell us that basketball players should attend and play some college ball before going into the NBA. The players need to perform in the classroom before we see them on the court.

However, the players most affected by all this are predominantly black, which makes me wonder about the sports that are predominantly white. Wetzel gives the examples of Danica Patrick (car racing) and Shawn Johnson (gymnast). (I'll save the gender issues for another day.)

College was not the main consideration as these women turned pro in their sport as teenagers, but it's not as if they ignored education. Shawn Johnson is an honor roll student at a public high school while Danica Patrick dropped out of high school and earned her GED in order to pursue her racing. The point is that they had choices, choices that let them pursue their sport and have whatever education they wanted without being judged.

Then again, why does the NBA get to use the NCAA as its minor league at all? We have minor league baseball and college baseball which are able to coexist, why not the same in basketball?

I was a student-athlete. However, note the word that comes first - student. What is the point of sending kids to college when the athlete is their priority? Some kids are skilled enough to earn a living with their athletic talent. Why don't we let them without vilifying the fact that they aren't academically inclined?

I went to college knowing that it would be the highest level I would probably play. There is a difference between a student-athlete and a professional athlete, so why are the two forced together in basketball?

Do we as a society think that basketball is the only way black males will reach college? Or is the only way to justify having black males in the college classroom is if they are leading the school to a Final Four?