Black Athletes in Sports

Today in class i thought it was interesting when the group that had the subject about African Americans in sport, that they thought that the number of black athletes was down in the three major sports. I really was interested in this because i actually had the exact opposite feeling on the situation. I really think that all three sports have had an increase in African American athletes. I could not find the information dealing with the NFL, but to think about all the athletes that come into the NFL, most of the big time players are African Americans and so i did not think that i needed to do too much research on that because i did not think it was a topic that could be argued.

However, i think that the situation with the NBA and MLB is fairly debatable. I think this because the NBA has a huge percentage of players. The article I brought up shows that this past season there were 82% of players being African American. Granted, there are many different European players coming into the league, i believe that the African American players being drafted outweighs the number of Europeans being drafted. I understand the worry of a Possible decline for African Americans, but i just do not think that there is anything to worry about at all. The percentage is high and the amount of African Americans coming in from college each year is so high and that percentage will not be shrinking any time soon.

For the MLB, I realize that the number is very low, but this past year the number of African Americans has risen from 8.7% in 2007 to 10.2% in 2009. Overall, there is obvious a large amount of Latin American, but to have the amount of African Americans on the rise, I do not think there is anything to worry about. I think the reason for the low amount of African Americans in baseball is due to both the speed of the game and also the lack of necessary equipment to play the game. So the sports that are very easy to play with little equipment are basketball and football.

I thought there were many people that agreed with this argument, so I really would be curious what everyone thought. Let me know, but before you say something, be sure to read the articles to see if that changes your opinion at all.

MLB: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/15/AR2009041503372.html

NBA: http://www.interbasket.net/news/2009/06/10/nba-lauded-for-diversity-of-players-coaches/

NFL: Said to be 70%

Hall of Fame

Today in class we talked about Michael Jordan's hall of fame speech and on the video we watched there was a man complaining about how Jordan gave his speech. He talked about how Jordan did not thank any one and seemed ungrateful for everything the Chicago franchise has given him and to a point I understood what he was saying, but then everyone in class had their points and I also agreed with them to a point.

I grew up an Indiana Pacers fan, mainly because I loved the way Reggie Miller played the game and that was how i wanted to play the game of basketball, so quite obviously I was not a Michael Jordan fan growing up. In fact, I could not stand him because I always thought he got away with so many calls. So I am not biased for the man. However, I think that this hall of fame speech is a little too much for people to be nit picking about. The man re-defined basketball, created an enormous amount of popularity in both the NBA and a pour franchise in Chicago pre-Jordan, and obviously won a ridiculous amounts of MVP's and Championships. Yet after all he has done for the sport, people can sit at there and complain about the way that he goes about giving his speech. Seems ridiculous.

The man did everything to make basketball what it is and simply because he appeared to be ungrateful for what he was given, people decide to punish him and call him a jerk and not want anything to do with him. I think it is a little unfair to do this to him. He has earned the right to talk about his accomplishments however he wants because as selfish as it is for Jordan to say it, the Bulls do not win 6 championships without him.

So maybe it was wrong of him to talk about himself in such a way, but to me he is fine and he will still be forever remembered as the greatest player of all time regardless of what he says.

Serena Williams Outburst

Today along with Tuesday in class the topic about Serena Williams came up and we talked about her outburst at the U.S. Open. There were a couple of comments about Williams that surprised me that people actually thought.

The first comment was about how if Serena was a young, white woman that had that reaction, there would not be much complaining going on. However, I completely disagree because I really think that race is not as big of a factor amongst sports as it used to be, especially within an American event. My opinion could be completely wrong, but what examples are there recently other than the NFL coaching situation where there is "discrimination" amongst minorities.

The second comment was about how if Serena was a male that this situation would not be a big deal because people like John McEnroe blew up all the time. I also think this is crazy because whether your male or female and you throw a huge fit your going to get in trouble. Blount for Oregon recently, granted he threw a punch, but he got a huge penalty. Fights in baseball games happen all the time and the males are suspended multiple games for them. It does not matter male or female, the situation will be punished based on what it is that you do.

Let me know what you all think because I have been wrong before and I could be wrong about this so just let me know.

Semenya

It has been at least a week if not two since we talked about Caster Semenya, but recently there was an article on ESPN talking about the situation. I was actually really surprised that the IAAF enforced the fact the Semenya needed to do a gender test because the article starts out instantly by saying that Semenya's test results are going to be coming out very soon.

In my personal opinion, I think that it is wrong to do this. Granted everyone in class, including me, thought she looked very much like a guy with her body featuers and how much she dominated the heat. However, the issue is the fact that an 18 year old girl, who is probably going through enough in her life already, is being forced to show that she is actually a woman. Now, it may not seem like a huge deal, but you go through 18 years of your life and have a person tell you that you may not be a male/female and try to go live a normal life. I could not imagine the amount of people that probably say stuff about her all the time and now that is her life because even after these tests come back, everyone will still think that she has some male in her, just like if there ever was a steroid test that showed that Barry Bonds never took steroids. It would not matter because everyone would still think that he cheated some how some way. There is no way around it.

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=4455424

Here is the article, but overall I would like to know what everyone feels about the situation. I understand both sides, but i just think that the age of the girl and the effects this will have on her life are far to big to have made her do this test.

Introduction

My name is Clayton Meyer and I am a junior majoring in Sport Enterprise. I am hoping to someday have the opportunity to be either an athletic director or a recreational sport director. The male athlete i would pay to see would be Adrian Peterson. I think that he was a ridiculous athlete at Oklahoma and many pro teams obviously did not think that he would be able to recover from his shoulder injury, but he obviously was very successful in his recovery. The female athlete i would pay to see would be Candace Parker. She was a big story obviously in college and ESPN really enjoyed talking about her even though women's sports on ESPN do not get talked about very often because they are not as popular as the men's sports to most people. I think she is a great athlete and possibly the most dominant woman athlete in her sport of all time.

Personally, I enjoy football, basketball, and baseball. I am a huge Ohio State fan and love watching all college teams and athletes. My favorite time of the year is the fall because football season is coming around and is there the whole time. I participated in all these sports in high school, but i am also interested in participating in sports such as tennis and swimming whenever i actually have the time to do so.

My expectations for this class are basically to hear everyone's opinions about the sport and gender. I think it has been very interesting to hear the lifestyles that everyone else has grown up with and what they think is right and wrong. There are some very serious topics out there dealing with gender and sports and everyone is going to have a different opinion and I have been really interested so far in hearing everything that has gone on to give people their opinions.