Category Archives: Sports

The Best Piece of Advice: We’ll See…

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever come across is one with regard to . I’ve written about perspective and having a in posts before, but I think that this particular post, or more accurately, the content of this post, is the best summary of my “perspective” when it comes to perspective.

The I’m quoting this from says the story is Taoist, but I’ve heard other people say it’s from different traditions:

[There was] an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit.

“Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.

“We’ll see,” the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses.

“How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.

“We’ll see,” replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.

“We’ll see,” answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.

“We’ll see” said the farmer.

This kind of story could keep going on and on and on — and it has relevance to every subject (you’ll notice that I’ve placed it in every category that I currently have for the posts I write). While there are some things that I categorically disagree with (the death penalty being one), I could see this story or as the answer to many hardships in people’s lives. Having lived through *some* hardships so far, I can understand how hearing these words are not necessarily comforting with regard to certain instances, but well after the fact (in my experience), the perspective created by these words can illuminate some unexpected insights.

~

I thought I’d present some examples from the news where we could apply this wisdom:

– Many Toronto Blue Jays’ fans are pleased (myself included) that they acquired Colby Rasmus (via trade). He may turn out to be a great player for the Jays, or he may not. We’ll see.

– Most economists (and people) following the “” will tell you that the US needs to raise its debt ceiling or there will be ramifications of epic proportions. Most of what I’ve heard/read on the issue seems to be a whole lot of politicking. If the US defaults on its loans will that be the worst thing in the world? If the US averts this “disaster,” will that be a good thing? We’ll see. (This particular We’ll See might not have a concrete answer for another 30 years).

– As Borders’ stores continue to close their doors for the final time, many speculate on what this may mean for other businesses similar to Borders. The outlook isn’t usually positive, but maybe this will free up time for other endeavors. We’ll see.

– (An odd bit of news, to say the least). This particular example is quite similar to the farmer’s son falling off the horse and breaking his leg. While I don’t expect Alex Trebek to be drafted to the military, who knows what this injury will do for his “perspective” on life. And the answer is: We’ll see.

As you can see, these “three” words can apply to pretty much anything you can come up with. I’d like to invite you to share with us in the comments some situations that you initially thought were poor (or great) that turned out to be great (or not so great) with us in the comments section.

For the folks who are visual learners:

Should Influential Athletes Be Doing More With Their Celebrity?

released their list of the a few days ago and to my surprise, topped the list. Johnson, a athlete, along with two others from the sport, made the list: and . Admittedly, I’m quite shocked to see so many NASCAR drivers in the . Truth be told, I’m not one who follows NASCAR, but I understand that it has . Given the , I would have assumed athletes from the would have filled the list. As I read the article, it was easier to understand why the lack of big 4 athletes was the case.

The author explains that the list only includes active athletes (so the likes of and other Winter Olympics athletes like and ) have fallen off of the list. More than that, with the decline of and no singular identifiable face of or the , the picture of more NASCAR athletes seems to make sense. Another reason cited by the article is the potential or (in-progress) labor strifes, which understandably, would limit the viewership of certain athletes. Although, I’m still surprised by the total make-up of the list. There were three NASCAR drivers that I already mentioned, four NFL athletes (, , , and ), two NBA players ( and ), and one Olympic Athlete ().

At first blush, Shaq isn’t someone I would expect to see in the top 10, especially so late in his career, but then when I go and look at some of the things that he has done off the court (music, acting, TV, etc.) I’m reminded that he has quite a lot of exposure. Another athlete that surprised me was Troy Polamalu, but I suppose those have really escalated him to a household name. I wouldn’t expect Tim Tebow to be on this list, but I guess with his , that can also be explained.

The most important takeaway from this article for me is the potential for these athletes to really make a difference in the lives of people. Most athletes do some and I think that’s great! With the influential power that the athletes from this list have, I think it’d be pretty cool if one of them decided to do something on the . She was as saying, “As much as I would love to never have to visit Washington, that’s the way to move the ball.” Maybe it’s a little too much to ask athletes to put time and energy into “moving the ball” in Washington.

I understand, from my own brief stint as an NCAA athlete, that to be a professional athlete takes a lot of hard work. Many fans think that athletes just play the game and collect their paycheck. There are hours and hours of work that go into strength & conditioning, not to mention the hours and hours (10,000+ hours?) of work that go into perfecting one’s skills at their given sport. I’m not saying they deserve the money they get for what they do, but I’m also not saying that they don’t deserve that money, either.

Most importantly, I want to make a difference in the world. A very positive and noticeable difference in the world. So, when I see a list like this that come out identifying influential athletes, I can’t help but vicariously live through one of them and imagine the enormous good that I could create.

Note: I couldn’t find a way to access the dataset compiled by E-Poll and Nielsen Media Research that help to populate this list (if you can, please post it in the comments), but it seems to me that they only interviewed American adults. I would say that this contributes to there being very little international flavor on the list with the likes ,  (or even a famous cricket player like ).

Luongo and the Canucks Need Energetic Help!

I had the chance to watch the end of the Stanley Cup Playoffs . Vancouver won the first three games of the series and Chicago has won the most recent two. The coach of the Canucks pulled a bold move in benching his starting goaltender, , for game 6. It had seemed that the recent play of Luongo versus the Blackhawks in the last two games ( and ) where Luongo had let in 10 goals on 40 shots (for a save percentage of .750 over the two games) warranted a shake-up, in the coach’s mind. Typically, a good goalie will have a save percentage somewhere above .900 (meaning, the goalie will stop 9 pucks for every 10 shots he faces). Conversely, goalies who aren’t regarded so well, usually have save percentages that are below .900. Almost no starting goalies have save percentages below .850, much less .800!

Some fans have tried to draw meaning from patterns of Luongo’s play against the Blackhawks during other years of playoff games. For instance, last year, in the , Chicago was the team that knocked Vancouver out of the playoffs, winning 4 games out of the 6. In the final three losses of the series, Luongo allowed 16 goals (: 5 goals; : 6 goals; : 5 goals). His save percentage in those three games: .821.

In the , the Blackhawks, again, were the team that eliminated the Canucks from the playoffs, winning 4 games out of the 6. In , Luongo allowed 5 goals and in the game-deciding , Luongo allowed 7 goals. The evidence would lead one to believe that Luongo might have a tough time of it when the game is on the line, but I don’t think that’s the case.

In Luongo’s international play, he has , most recently during the that were held in Vancouver. Not only were the Olympics being held in Canada, they were being held in Luongo’s home building! This would also seem to negate the argument by some that Luongo has a hard go of things playing in his home building (looking at the stats, there seem to be more games where Luongo allows more goals when playing at home than playing on the road in the series against Chicago).

Luongo is not a ‘green’ or rookie goalie by any stretch of the imagination. He’s been around the block. In fact, he’s reached some pretty important milestones. Earlier this year, he became the . At the age of 32, he’s the 6th youngest goalie to reach 300 wins. In his NHL playing career, he’s never had a season with a save percentage below .900 and his career save percentage is .919, which puts him at . Some would argue that save percentage is a useless stat given that the career save percentage leaderboard is full of goalies playing in today’s modern hockey era. When looking at career leaders for (a system developed in an effort to more accurately measure a goalie’s performance), . When looking at the single season leaders for this same stat, (including the #1 single season).

So, to say that Luongo is not a good goalie would be a fallacy in the largest way. There has to be something else at play here. You can’t even really say that Luongo doesn’t perform when the game is on the line. In probably the , against the United States in the Gold Medal Game, in Canada, in his home arena, being watched by over two-thirds of the country — — that’s a big-time game. If he was going to crumble under pressure, it would have been there (he allowed 2 goals on 36 shots, save percentage = .944).

There really must be some other reason that Luongo can’t seem to exercise his “ghosts” with regard to playing against the Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I haven’t watched all of these games (either this season or the last two seasons), so I can’t really say whether or not Luongo is being supported by his defense or if he’s just letting in what some would call “easy” goals. From just collecting some data for this post, it is clear to me that something else is at play.

There has to be some sort of energetic dissonance. Let me explain a little more. A few months ago, I wrote a post that briefly touched on and how there may be beliefs at play that affect the way players perform. Additionally, I pointed to the idea that there could also be a need for some work to be done on the energetic relationship of a team. There could be dissonance on an energetic level that requires work (just like when there are psychological issues you see a therapist). However, these energetic relationships are sometimes harder to see (with the naked eye). They need to be — for lack of a better word — intuited.

between the Canucks and Blackhawks is Tuesday night in Vancouver. I have no idea how well Luongo (or the Canucks) will play. If Luongo and/or the Canucks enlist the services of someone capable of effecting change on an energetic level, I have no doubt that the Canucks will win the game (as they have seemed to have been then better team all year — for the best record in the NHL). If the team fails to recognize that there is an energetic dissonance, it is quite possible that the Blackhawks send the Canucks to early “tee-times” for the third straight year.

Behavior of Sports Fan(atic)s Rival Behavior of Religious Fanatics

A couple of days ago as I was driving into town, I heard the guy on the radio talking about some sort of . Given the , my attention wasn’t immediately tuned into what was happening. As the reporter expanded upon the story, I was appalled. The reporter proceeded to tell the listeners that one, , 42-year old and San Francisco Giants’ fan, is showing signs of brain damage after having been severely beaten by, Los Angeles Dodgers fans.

The history of violence involving fans is well documented, and typically, violence in spectator sports is more closely associated with football (or soccer for those folks in the US and Canada). The last incident of “fan violence” in baseball was in August of 2009, when a at and hit, Philadelphia Phillies centerfielder, Shane Victorino. The outfielder had some beer land on him, which is unacceptable of course, but other than that, nothing too serious.

Some of the more recent incidents of violence include a match between Italy and Serbia in October of 2010. The start of the game was delayed over half an hour. Once the game got underway, before they were ten minutes into the 1st half, a flare was thrown onto the field causing more rioting. The game was called and one team was later awarded the victory based on the fans that were causing trouble.  In March of 2010 during a game, climbed over the glass, into the bench of the opposing team, and proceeded to strike one of the goalies over the head several times with a stick. The goalie had to leave the bench area, as blood was running down his face, and he was later diagnosed with a concussion. If you’re interested, there’s a .

On the face of these myriad incidents of violence by fans in sports, I can’t help but think of the true meaning of the word fan. The word fan, comes from the word fanatic, which means, “. . .” In my opinion, these fans are definitely exhibiting “extreme enthusiasm” in support of their team. In the definition I provided, I left out five words that appear after the word zeal. These five words: “as in religion or politics.”

When I hear about these horrendous acts of violence committed in the “name of one’s team,” I can’t help but make the connection to another brand of fanaticism — religious fanaticism. After the events of , the world was led to believe that these attacks were committed by religious fanatics (and that may well be the case, but I don’t think anyone can be absolutely certain of any of the explanations for what happened). Since then, opening up the or the to find an article about someone killing in the name of religion has become somewhat normalized because of how often it happens. Is there really a big difference between religious fanaticism and sports fanaticism?

If there is, to me, the difference is negligible, and I for one, think this is awful. Fans identify with their teams so much so that they feel compelled to harm another human being! I was an athlete and I can tell you, after the game is over, life still goes on. You go on and eat your meals, sleep, read books, and do all of the other things that people do. To some fans, when the game ends, their life, in a way, ends. I think this kind of attachment to sports is unhealthy. Similarly, I think the attachment to religion that is displayed by those who believe they are doing right by their religion by killing in the name of their deity is also a little bit too far. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the thinking that goes into their decision and prosper in the afterlife, but it is my opinion, that there is never a valid reason to kill another human being, (or one’s self for that matter).

Same News, Different Perspective

The 2011 trade deadline for the National Hockey League () is nearing and with that, the propensity to move players from team-to-team has increased. Late last week, there was a particular trade that sent one player, , from the to the in exchange for a couple of . While this seems a bit like inconsequential news in the scheme of things, I found it absolutely perfect to illustrate a point about how the same facts can be talked about in different ways in the media.

We have a fact: Mike Fisher was traded to the Nashville Predators. It would seem that there really isn’t anything more to this story than one team is trading a player and one team is acquiring a player, right? Well, that’s what most people would think, at least. But, it just so happens that Mike Fisher is married to a very popular female in the country music business and… it just so happens that Nashville is the “seat of power” for country music.

Quickly, the news that became . To the sports world, it mattered that it was , and to the entertainment industry, it mattered that . It’s of no surprise that news can be important to different people for different reasons and as such, the news will be reported in different ways to different people.

I find this fascinating because it’s the same piece of news being reported on differently. The NHL is of seemingly little importance to the political arena, national security, or education reformation, but these are all different areas of news that can be reported on in just the same way. Meaning, there are going to be different angles on the same piece of political news (the angles reported to the Democrats and the angles reported to the Republicans are the angles we hear the majority of the time).

In my research of collecting articles/links for this post, I noticed that one of the articles I found actually spoke to both of the angles in the same article. That is, , addressed that Mike Fisher was traded to the Predators and that Carrie Underwood’s husband was traded to Nashville. While the trade’s importance may not be of global importance, I was still happy to read that the author was reporting on more than just the sports-angle or the entertainment-angle. I wish that all news was reported in this fashion, with at least an acknowledgement to the implications of the facts from more than one perspective.

The Superbowl and Twitter

Earlier today, I took the time to watch the . While I watched the Superbowl, I also followed things on Twitter — something I have never done before. I currently do not have a Twitter account and so the ‘‘ is something that is quite foreign to me. I do find myself onto Twitter from time-to-time, to read various updates about things, but I am by no means an expert on the social networking site.

I think part of this is because I currently do not have a cell phone. For some reason, to me, Twitter goes hand-in-hand with a blackberry or an iPhone and just seems a little odd to be tweeting solely from a computer. But really, what do I know?

Anyway, as I was following some of the things happening on Twitter, I was treated to a number of good laughs. The Late Show writers were jokes throughout the whole game. Some of them were quite funny. I also noticed something that is probably known to most people who use Twitter: . “Top Tweets algorithmically selects and retweets some of the most interesting tweets spreading across Twitter,” (straight from the bio page for Top Tweets). I found many of the ‘top tweets deserving of an “lol” as I watched the game and followed the tweets.

As the game wore on, I noticed that as a player would perform well on the field or something would happen, almost immediately, it would become a trending topic on Twitter. There are nearly (or maybe are now), 200,000,000 users on Twitter. For things to be immediately trending so quickly, it’d mean that quite a few of those users would have to tweet that topic.

I don’t think it is a surprise to anyone the popularity of the Superbowl around the US. People gather at parties all across the nation whether they enjoy football or not. The Superbowl has become one big social event and as such, it shouldn’t be a surprise that things that happen during this ‘massive social event’ would be ‘revealed on Twitter’ — instantaneously. I can’t help but think of the possibilities for using Twitter for “good.” As some have written about, for their ‘revolutionary’ actions. I’m thinking beyond one country and thinking globally.

What if we used Twitter to organize a worldwide day of silence or mass meditation? I’m sure I’m not the first person to have come up with this idea given how long Twitter has been in popular culture, but I think that it would be, downright awesome if something like that could happen. A day organized through Twitter where everyone meditated at the exact same moment. I like how has a domino effect, but I think it’d be cool if there were a day where there was also a simultaneous event. Something that is positive and contributes to the greater well-being of our planet.

Organizational Systems in Sports: A Decided Advantage

The 1st round of the wrapped up this evening and as I took in some of the games, I couldn’t help but think about how an organizational systems consultant could have a major impact on a sports team. I have no doubt that there are people similar to organizational consultants who do work within the organization and focus on these kinds of issues, but I don’t know that this would be enough. I’ve mentioned before that I think it is important to have someone from outside the organization be involved because the outsider will look at the organization without any bias — at least, that would be the hope.

Just as there are in companies, sports teams have many levels, different departments, and on top of this, all of the ‘stuff’ that the employee of a given position will bring to their job. Meaning, if Joe is the Director of Media Relations for a sports team who just had a major fight within the locker room and Joe has come into work after having a major disagreement with one of his teenage daughters, that disagreement from home will likely (no matter how well-intentioned Joe is) bleed into his meetings with various media personnel. An organizational systems consultant may see something like this coming and have put something in place so that instead of Joe talking with the media (and potentially causing bad press for the team), Joe’s second-in-command handles the media for that day.

Even beyond these kinds of incidents within someone’s family or a dispute between a player and a coach, sometimes there just isn’t the right gelling of players together to create a cohesive environment for success. This is where an organizational systems consultant could use their abilities to work with the underlying energies behind-the-scenes affecting the output of the players, coaches, and team personnel. Have you ever seen a player get traded from one team to another and just completely underperform on his new team? Often, this is because the new player has not been ‘energetically’ disconnected from his old team and ‘energetically’ connected to his new team. It’s amazing how simple procedures like this can have the player flourishing that night.

This example is quite small in terms of the power of affecting the energetic relationships of a sports team. Let’s take a baseball team, for instance. The pitchers and catchers need to have a good relationship for their to be any success for the pitcher. Another important relationship is between the players on the field and the pitcher on the mound. Let’s say that the pitcher has a belief system that whenever he pitches and Richie is playing shortstop, Richie makes an error. While this may be the case (statistically speaking), the pitcher’s belief of this to be true has an effect. The pitcher takes the mound and looks to the shortstop’s area where Richie is standing in the ready position. The pitcher thinks to himself, ‘oh no, not Richie again. He always boots the ball when I’m on the mound.’ The pitcher throws the next pitch and there’s a soft groundball to the shortstop. Without fail, Richie makes an error.

An instance like this can be avoided if there was a shift in the energetic relationship between the two players (and an alteration in the belief system). These kinds of fixes are very easy to facilitate on the energetic level and they always have an effect on the way a player plays. When this kind of change is made, energetically, often you will find that the player will just forget that they ever used to have that belief system — it’s like it just disappeared. The next time the pitcher takes the mound, he doesn’t even think about Richie playing shortstop and when the ball gets hit to him, Richie makes the play easily.

These kinds of examples for on-the-field performance are useful, but it is also important to have a fortified connection within the personnel (coaches, managers, owner, etc.). Let’s say that the Director of Scouting (DoS) doesn’t like the General Manager (GM). This could be for something that actually happened between the two or it could be something more subtle. It could just be that the GM was never liked by the DoS and the DoS never knew why. It could be that the reason there is a rift between these two people of the team personnel is because there is some other energetic charge that is influencing the relationship. Maybe the GM reminds the DoS of his father of which he had a poor relationship with – who knows! Regardless, it would be important for someone to be able to positively effect change in this relationship, so that the DoS doesn’t keep sending players to the GM who have below-professional talent.

In looking at the state of the sports world, I wonder if teams that appear to be very successful from year-to-year are employing someone who can bring about the kind of change that I am talking referring to. Something tells me that this is probably not the case. This makes me wonder, which sport, or even which team, will synchronistically meet someone like who is capable of actualizing this kind of change and reap the benefits for years to come.