Unfair officiating

Watching an athletic team when they’re playing with confidence is an impressive sight. Under those conditions, individual performances step up a notch, and team coordination increases. To watch two teams, especially basketball teams, both play with confidence, is a thing of beauty… so smooth and fluid. There was such a game tonight, between the Lakers and the Wolves. The Lakers, as an elite, powerhouse team, are naturally confident. The Wolves have new-found confidence produced by a lot of hard work.

Most of the game was close, hard-fought, and high-scoring. Despite being out-sized, the Wolves persistently stayed close, down 4 points at halftime. I especially enjoy watching a team playing at a disadvantage make up for it by just working harder. I’m not crushed if they don’t win, but I’m really impressed and thrilled if they can pull off an upset.

Unfortunately, non-elite NBA teams have to overcome another obstacle in order to win… the favoritism shown by officials toward star players.  More fouls are called against players guarding star players, so stars shoot more free throws. Non-star players have to back off on their defense, but the tragic result of such favoritism is that it harms the confidence of the non-elite team.

I’ve watched it happen so many times, and I suspect that you have too. Bad or unnecessary foul calls naturally upset players, especially young players. It’s not difficult to notice that star players come to expect that they will get favoritism… when they don’t get a call they seem shocked, even outraged. As stars, they seem to have a special relationship with officials, chatting with them between plays.

Such favoritism has been around for as long as I can remember. The NBA has some ways to try to achieve parity among teams, but the effect of calls in favor of stars compounds the advantage that well-funded teams have. Stars become superstars, not only because of their athletic ability, but because they get favored officiating. When Kevin Garnett was still with the Timberwolves, the better he became, the more favoritism he received, even though he was playing for a non-elite team; it is the star that gets the favoritism, not the team.

I’m sure that the NBA enjoys such officiating, because it helps to create star players, who draw more people to games. It’s another of the ugly parts of professional sports.

Revisiting an old shame

There are some things I cannot swallow… ever. .. some injustices I can neither forget nor forgive. They stick to me like a boil that won’t heal, so occasionally I need to vent again. I guess I have hopes of reaching a few more people and making them aware of the thoughtless destructiveness of government. Such destruction actually takes place every single day, wiping out property and dreams of individuals. It’s called eminent domain and it has been and continues to be abused. Over the past few decades, eminent domain has been (mis)used by government for developments that government simply should not be involved in. Locally, destruction of dozens of homes and many businesses to provide Best Buy space for their corporate headquarters is a monstrous example.

There are so many other examples, but there is one that will probably remain at the top of my hate list… the tragedy of the Fuji-Ya restaurant.

I wrote about it in 2005, but the restaurant was destroyed in 1968 by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, who simply stole the parking spaces of the restaurant. In court, the board ended up paying 3.5 million dollars for the property, but a woman’s dream was already dead, as was the woman.

The property, once a truly wonderful restaurant, still sits, 40 years later, unchanged and unused by the board that thought they needed it. I occasionally drive by and get angry again.

The destruction of the Fuji-ya was an example of the cruel and twisted thinking that so often occurs because government has accumulated grossly excessive power, and the ever-changing officials wield it without concern for who they hurt.

25,550 days and counting

Today I acknowlege as being my 70th birthday. Aging is strange. I certainly don’t feel 20 years older than when I was 50. What I mean is that if I could remember being 50, I surely must not have felt 20 years younger than I feel now.

When we look in the mirror every day, the change is imperceptible from yesterday, and I swear I look much younger in the mirror than in ANY photograph. Wonder how a photograph of me in a mirror would look?

Some parts of aging are kind to you. Your eyesight dimishes a bit, so you can’t see wrinkles and sags as well in the mirror. You become more relaxed (could be worn out, but I prefer relaxed) because you’ve already dealt with the crises younger people are facing for the first time. There is one aspect of aging that seems unfair. Even though my memory isn’t as good, I can still remember how much brighter I once was. I would prefer to think that I’m as bright as ever I was, but it ain’t so.

I’m unusually poor at nailing down the passage of time. There aren’t many of my life events I can place a year on. Years I got married, or divorced,  or what years I worked for a particular employer… they just aren’t there, so I have notes.

Two years ago, I had a small mini-stroke that made me mad, and I’ve been watching my diet and working out ever since then. I do both religiously. Just this morning, I pumped 10 tons of weight. If I had had the sense to do that when I was 30, I’d be built like a brick backhouse now. But… too late we get smart.

At any rate, reaching age 70 isn’t really a big deal. Lots of people do it, and a lot more would if they weren’t so clumsy. Keep reading, and I’ll write (probably the same thing) when I’m 75, and that will seem really old.

Pay yourselves on the back, Minnesotans

Faced with a temp of -20 (or colder) this morning, Minnesotans got up and hauled ass to work as usual. Sure, a lot of us are prepared and used to it, but special kudos go to the amazing number of immigrants from much warmer climates who have adopted the upper midwest as their home. Here in Richfield, I’m surrounded by immigrants from Mexico and various parts of Africa. Being an immigrant is tough under the best of conditions, but these folks must be astonished at their first Minnesota winter, even frightened. You wouldn’t know it by looking around.

Our apartment parking lot was supposed to be plowed at 11 this morning, meaning that all residents had to move cars out by then. I was relieved that my car started, but, surprisingly, ALL cars (save one that has been dead for some time) were moved.

While we native midwesterners are naturally proud to be able to cope with winter, those recent immigrants are supremely deserving of such pride. Congratulations to you… if you choose to, be proud to become hardy Minnesotans with full bragging rights.