Basics

I'm still me,
are you still you?
Or did you
turn into someone else too?

We the People, In Order to Form a More Perfect Sports League

Being a sports fan is what used to define me. Heck, to many people, my sports fandom is still what defines me¹. It's no coincidence; I love most sports, playing or watching. I used to memorize everything I could about the Indians. I've been known to disappear from society during Grand Slam events. I even cover basketball as a beat.
But in recent years, my enthusiasm has ebbed. There are a number of reasons for this. ESPN's dominance of everything sport has proven irksome, as has the obnoxiousness of fans in general. These are, however, minor annoyances I could probably deal with. What I find extremely off-putting is the antagonizing nature of the athletes and owners. Despite the facts these teams and leagues exist because of the fans, players, owners, and leagues treat fans like crap. Athletes regard fans with contempt, as wannabes that are jealous of their talent, fame, and fortune². Owners and leagues look at fans as cash cows to be milked for everything they're worth. We lose at every turn.

It's one thing to be subjected to MLB's ridiculous blackout rules or NFL season ticket holders being forced to but preseason tickets. Yeah, it's annoying and a little bit of a mugging, but most will gnash their teeth and deal with it. It's entirely another thing for leagues and owners to hold cities and taxpayers hostage in order to procure sweetheart deals that make the mega-rich even richer.

This is nothing new. New baseball stadia have been springing up all over America the last 15 years after every team rattled the pauper's cup. If a city hesitated, Bug Selig would swoop in and suggest a different city would be willing to foot the bill for a new palace the organization so clearly deserved. No matter if that team actually won, of course. They must have a new stadium, and when they get it, the wins will come with it. I need not cite anything that disproves that stupid argument; I need only to point in the general direction of Pittsburgh.

Then we come to the sad tale of the Seattle Sonics, and how the great fans there got totally abused by the ownership, David Stern, and eventually the city.

The straw that breaks the camel's back comes from Miami. I remember my trip there last year and seeing a number of people angry about the prospect of a new stadium for the Marlins. They didn't want what they characterized as a bailout for the team. I didn't know much about it, and most of the people that were against it were poor, so I thought that perhaps it was only the lower classes that were opposed to the idea.

Turns out they were on to something. Reports have come in detailing the way the Marlins management completely hoodwinked the city and county government, crying poor while pocketing deep profits and finagling a deal that will cost taxpayers $2.4 billion. Yeah. Billion. What makes this all the sadder is that this is only the latest episode in what has become a long-running series. Owners start to complain they're not making any money and that their venue is outdated. They threaten to leave the area, pitting local governments against fans that do not want to see their team leave³. They manage to procure a new building at little personal expense but get to keep the vast majority of the profits generated from it. This is the pattern. This is the playbook.

Do we see the problem with this? Because I do. We do not exist to pour money into the coffers of sports ownership. If they want to upgrade their facilities, they should do it themselves. If you want to make the argument that the city should chip in because it benefits from these teams, fine. But these men (not women) need to start paying their fair share, especially in these tough times.

Until they get a reality check, I'm done. These greedy people will get no more of my money. I will continue to support the ATP, as they have the crazy idea of financing themselves. But the NBA, MLB? Done. I'll go so far as to steal from them at every opportunity, just because they do it to us. We need to stand up and let them know they won't build a fortune off our tax money. I'll take a step forward. Consider coming with me.

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1 This is something I embraced in the past. Now it's something I'm trying to shed.

2 They are right at least some of the time. The cutthroat nature of fandom these days does nothing to endear a player to anyone.

3 Why is it that so many of the people that happily agree to pay more in taxes to build new arenas rail against school levies and social programs?

Lifeline

Hold on to me
let me breathe
Hold on to me
make me believe
Don't let go of me
I need to be relieved
Stay firm with me
I know not 
which me I see.

We Love Rankings

The newest U.S. News & World Report college rankings are out. We now have the most up-to-date way of calling alumni other schools illiterate morons.

The rankings are stupid. We know this¹. They weight importance of things weirdly. Different schools exist for different reasons, specialize in different things, and serve different constituencies. You can't objectively rank Cal Poly against Bard College. You just can't. And rankings can't measure the ways a person can grow as a citizen of the world. I can go on and on giving reasons why this list holds no weight. I can get on board with comparing individual programs, but not entire schools.

At the same time...

Ohio University fell to 124^th, down from 115 last year. It's still Tier I. But that is completely unacceptable. 124 is nothing to shake a stick at; there are thousands of schools in the US and 124 puts us squarely in the top 1%. Expand that to the 6 billion in the world and there's zero room to complain. Bobcats are truly among the world's intellectual elite.

However, we can and should do better. We have so much going for us and to see our gradual slide down the rankings² is profoundly sad. The opportunities and surroundings OU and Athens provides are extraordinary, and there's no way 123 schools can top it. So what is causing our tumble down the educational ladder?

In a word, money. We're in a bad way. We have too many majors and too many administrators. We can't get rid of either because of a penis-size contest between the faculty³ and the administration/trustees⁴. There's no trust between either side, so they can't work together. We all suffer as a result.

Under Robert Glidden, we refurbished, acquired, and built too much and we have a lot of debt. We're caught up in the amenities arms race and have committed a ton of resources to attracting students with shiny bells and whistles⁵. Many of our dorms are crumbling and slated for a much-needed renovating. This all costs a lot of money.

In case you haven't noticed, very little of this has to do with actual education. All of these projects, combined with a sharp decline in revenue, have taken its toll. We can't pay faculty competitive salaries, so promising young professors move on. We've cut staff to the bone and beyond, so our landscape and buildings aren't maintained as well as they should be.

All this is in the face of the fact tuition is absurdly high and going up.

More than one person has suggested the problem is the trustees are treating the university as a business. It's possible, but it doesn't matter how the place is run as long as everyone has lost sight of why OU exists in the first place. That goes for the faculty, no matter how loudly they claim they have the educational mission of the university in mind. Right now, everyone is concerned about everything other than what is being taught. We need to take a step back and look at everything we're doing honestly. What are we doing? What do we need to do? What can we do without?

Ohio State has 38,479 students and about 160 majors. Miami has 14,671 students and about 100 majors. OU has 17,176 students and more than 250 majors. Do we see the logical detachment here?

There are wonderful things going on in Athens. OU is a leader in sustainability, and the school and the town has a great tradition of social awareness and activism. In learning things that can't necessarily be taught in the classroom, we're near the top of the nation. We need to climb back up the mountain in the classroom and on the ledger, too.

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1 We know this, yet we still regard them as authoritative. It's insane.

2 We're below schools like LSU, Buffalo, Dayton, and Tennessee.

3 Faculty Senate has zero problem putting a scarlet letter on athletics but will not yield a single major or program, no matter how superfluous. Also, they either need to unionize or not. Stop talking about it and decide already.

4 The powers that be have fallen into the same trap many corporations fell prey to. They hired too many officers that do too little and are either unable or unwilling to look at themselves when trimming the fat. The Board of Trustees, meanwhile, has proven itself deaf to the needs and desires of the people they're supposed to be serving. Instead, they treat the OU community as a nuisance.

5 We spent $10.4 million on Shively Dining Hall! $10.4 million!

Not the Race, Not the Finish

Some fairly standard boilerplate here.

Yeah, it's nice to get a little affirmation every now and then, but this isn't anything I haven't seen before.  Look, yes, us "nice guys" do tend to do those things, and yes, it would be nice for that to be recognized, appreciated, and acted upon.

But let's be honest here.  Most "nice guys" find themselves in the friend zone because they don't have the balls to make a move and ask a girl out.  There's a window.  The guys who have a little courage are the ones that don't let it close.  Most "nice guys" let the window close then complain about it.  They don't try to re-open it, either.

In other words: The "nice guys" need to look in the mirror a little bit.

Equity

Who you see
and
who I am
are not
the same person.
But if I
were to show you
who I
really am
you wouldn't know
me.

A Simple Wish

All I wanna do
is to kiss you
all the way through
like the day is new
like we're true

The Man in the Mirror is Me

You've been there when you heard people complaining about a certain action. You take note of their distaste for this action. You know that it's wrong. You tell yourself that's not you. You won't do that.

But it's easy to make that promise outside of the situation. What do you do when, placed in that situation, you find yourself doing that very thing you promised yourself you would not do? That you're no better than the jerks others complained about?

A New Favorite Thing

Those who know me personally know how much I love my water bottle. I've often said that and my bed are two of my favorite three possessions. When asked what the third is, the common answer was, “I don't know.”

Well, now I know:

That's right, a pair of shoes¹. But... these are no ordinary shoes. You can probably tell that by looking at them. The idea is that you feel and walk like you're barefoot without actually having to go barefoot. It's a more natural way to walk and run, and it's a lot healthier. Wearing it feels like a glove on your feet, which is pretty cool. Walking around, I can feel the ground beneath me. And I certainly don't feel restricted like I do when wearing traditional shoes. Not having to worry about blisters on my toes constantly is pretty nice.

Yeah, they look a little goofy, but that's because we're just not used to seeing them. In time, I think they'll look as natural as they feel². And it's certainly a conversation piece. So yeah... I love them. And I think everyone should try them, provided you don't have special foot needs. They're a revelation.
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1 And I'm not even gay!

2 I can't tell you how fun it is to be able to wiggle your toes in shoes.