Aaron Crouse - "The Next One"???

There is a constant debate amongst NBA analysts regarding whether LeBron James or Michael Jordan will be seen as the better player in the eyes of history.  While many of us have heard these arguments countless times (more than we would have liked to), the same debate can be made in the NHL between Sidney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky.  Using the criteria that most NBA critics use of individual statistics, supporting cast, and overall public image and influence I have compared Gretzky and Crosby to determine whether or not Sidney Crosby could truly be “The Next One”.

Individual statistics

During his 20-year NHL career, Wayne Gretzky played in 1,487 regular –season games recording 894 goals, 1,963 assists and 2,857 points (all NHL records).  He holds the records for goals in a season (92), assists in a season (163) and points in a season (215).  Additionally, he played in 208 playoff games recording 122 goals and 260 assists for 382 points.  “The Great One” captured 9 Heart Trophies (league MVP), 10 Art Ross Trophies (most points), five Lady Byng Trophies, five Lester B. Pearson Awards, and two Conn Smythe Trophies (playoff MVP).  In total, he holds over 40 regular-season records, 15 playoff records, and six All-Star records.  Gretzky won the Stanley Cup 4 times (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988) each of them coming with the Edmonton Oilers although he twice lost in the finals.  Internationally, Gretzky won 3 gold, 2 silvers, and 2 bronze medals playing in the World Cup, Canada Cup, and World Junior Championships but never medals at an Olympic event.

Throughout his 7-year NHL Career, Sidney Crosby has played in 434 games registering 223 goals, 386 assists and 609 points.  He has also participated in 68 playoff games and accumulated 33 goals and 57 assists for 90 points.  Crosby has won 1 Hart Trophy and 1 Art Ross Trophy.  Crosby has captured 1 Stanley Cup championship (2009) in two total appearances.  Internationally, Crosby lead Canada to a Gold Medal at the 2010 games located in Vancouver by scoring the game-winning goal in overtime to defeat the United States (his “signature” moment to date).

Verdict: Gretzky by a mile (except for international play).

Supporting Cast

All through his illustrious career, Wayne Gretzky was fortunate to play along side some other legends in NHL history (though he played a major part in helping to boost their stats).  During his time with the Edmonton Oilers, Gretzky played with Hall of Famers Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson, Jari Kurri, and Paul Coffey (along with goaltender Grant Fuhr).  Together, this group captured all of Gretzky’s four Stanley Cup Championships.  With the Los Angeles Kings, he played alongside another group of current and future Hall of Famers including Luc Robitaille, Bernie Nicholls, and Rob Blake.  In St. Louis Gretzky teamed up with Brett Hull and Al MacInnis and later joined the New York Rangers to play with Mark Messier (again), Adam Graves, and Brian Leetch.

During his brief time in the NHL, Sidney Crosby has been privileged to play with the great Mario Lemieux and top draft picks including Jordan Staal, Marc-Andre Fleury (goaltender), James Neal, and 2011 MVP Evgeni Malkin.  However, a constant theme throughout his time in the NHL has been Pittsburgh’s inability to find the “perfect” wingers to play alongside Crosby.  With the rule changes that the NHL has gone through in limiting obstruction plays and offense in general, it would be nearly impossible for Crosby to post the type of stats Gretzky did regardless of the surrounding talent.

Verdict: Gretzky’s 1980s high-flying Oilers teams and many of his future NHL stops allowed him to be surrounded by greater talent that Crosby’s current Pittsburgh team.

Public Image:

The list of Wayne Gretzky’s endorsements is second to only Michael Jordan (and possible Peyton Manning) in terms of athletes.  It includes Anheuser-Busch, Pepsi-Cola Canada, McDonald's Canada, JVC, McFarlane Toys, Wayne Gretzky clothing line at Hudson's Bay Co., Ford, Wayne Gretzky's Restaurant, Toronto, Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey (video game), NBC cartoon "Prostars", Head and Shoulders Shampoo, Bud Light, Imperial Oil, and EA Sports.  In a 2004 series launched by the CBC, Gretzky was tabbed as the 10^th greatest Canadian of all-time (the 2^nd highest rated athlete behind Terry Fox).  His only public downfalls were the trade that sent him along with Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski, to the Los Angeles Kings for Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, $15 million in cash, and the Kings' first-round draft picks in 1989, 1991 and 1993 and his failure as the coach of the Phoenix Coyotes.  "The Trade" upset Canadians to the extent that New Democratic Party House Leaders demanded that the government block it.  Gretzky was considered a "traitor" by many Canadians for turning his back on his country and Edmonton as the trade was widely rumored to be largely linked to his wife’s career as an actress, although he did receive a standing ovation upon his first return to Edmonton as a member of the Kings.

Sidney Crosby has endorsement deals with Reebok (largest endorsement deal in NHL history at $10 over 7 years), Tim Horton’s, Bell Canada/Verizon USA, Frito Lay, and Gatorade. While some hockey fans have called him “Sid the Kid” or “The next one”, others have deemed him “Crysby”, “Cindy Crosby”, and “Cry Baby”.  These terms are a reference to his perceived tendency to complain to refs about hits against him and the belief that he “dives” to draw penalties.  During the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 seasons, Crosby missed a total of 101 games due to concussion-like symptoms stemming from a soft neck tissue injury.  Many fans questioned his toughness at this time and a few wondered if he would ever be cleared for game action again.  However, he eventually returned and started right where he had left off, earning him a 12-year $104 million extension after the 2012 season.

Verdict: Gretzky is regarded as the more respected, influential figure.

At this time, there seems to be strong similarities between Gretzky and Jordan and James and Crosby.  Like Michael Jordan, Gretzky has the edge in individual accomplishments, statistics, championships, and endorsements.  It can also be argued that he played on better teams for the majority of his career.  The trade of Gretzky can be compared to Jordan attempting baseball or signing with the Wizards, and both of these historic players made terrible coaches and GMs/owners.  Like LeBron James, Crosby was drafted with the burden of hype that would be nearly impossible for any 18-year old to live up to.  Both have been perennial all stars, put up great individual numbers, and captured a championship and gold medal already as well.  As people question LeBron’s “clutch” abilities so too do they question Crosby’s toughness.  Clearly Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan currently stand in a class by themselves as figures for the NBA and NHL respectively.  However, it is not out of the question that within the next 10-15 years, LeBron James or Sidney Crosby could surpass them.  There are several circumstantial differences in the era that these athletes played in that will always lead to debate and questioning.  Regardless of what side you take, the one thing that is certain is that when a fan has the privilege to watch any of these four athletes, they were watching something special.

Comparing Muscle and Fitness Magazines

We looked at two magazines as a group over the past week. The men's magazine was called Fitness Rx, and the women's was called Shape. The study done by White and Gillett (1994) found that dietary supplements are usually 52.7% of the ads, equipment 19.7%, knowledge systems 12%, clothes 8.5%, cosmetics 2.6%, and finally competitions 5.3% and this was for male magazines. For our male magazine we found that dietary supplements was still the highest at 70.6% while equipment and knowledge systems were both at 10%. Clothes had 5.1% of the ads while cosmetics and competitions were both 1.7%. Our numbers from the men's magazine clearly followed White and Gillett's numbers they found in their study. However, from the women's magazine we found something completely different. Out of the 99 ads we found in Shape magazine, dietary supplements and equipment both only had 6 ads a piece. This resulted in 6% each. Knowledge systems was also very low with it being only 8% of the ads. Clothing had 18 ads white resulted in 18%. Cosmetics was the highest of any category with it being 43% of all the ads. There was only 1 ad for competitions which is 1%. We also found that some of the ads didn't fit into any of these categories so we came up with our own. We came up with Transportation, Medicine, Normal Food, and TV. Normal Food was the highest of any of those with 13%, followed by Transportation's 8%. Medicine had 7% of the ads while TV took up only 3%.

The next part of the men's magazine we looked at were the three main themes. These were positioning the reader as inferior, promise of transformation, and hegemonic masculinity. On page 21 there is a man clearly looking at the reader in a very pissed off state of mind, and also flexing in the process telling you to take this dietary supplement. The next theme was promise of transformation and this can be found on page 1. There is an advertisement of a 90 minute workout saying that if you take the pill and push yourself to the limits of this workout then your body will be transformed in just 90 minutes. Finally hegemonic masculinity can be found on page 43. By using the machine found on page 43 you can expect your body to look like the ideal man.

We found a couple themes in the women's magazine called Shape, but decided to focus on two. These would be Sex Appeal and Style. The first theme of sex appeal can clearly be seen in almost every ad in this magazine. Every woman they have is attractive, has a great body, nice smile, etc. They never use girls that are overweight, but use what they think people is the ideal image of a woman's body. On page 72 they had a bra advertisement, and the girl they used show off the bra had an athletic body, and was very beautiful. I think they were trying to capture the reader by saying look if you wear this bra you can be like her too. On page 159 they had an ad about cold sore medicine. Once again a very beautiful woman was shown using the product. The words in the advertisement even said you can't look hot if your feeling cold. The next theme was Style. No matter what these girls were working out, or how sweaty they looked they always had the best clothing on for whatever they were doing. Target's ad on page 25 showed a girl working out, but she wasn't wear a sweatshirt and sweatpants, she was seen in a tight skin outfit showing off every curve. It was implied that these clothes could only be found at Target. Also on page 57 they showed a girl running outside in the snow, but once again she was found to be wearing a Northface jacket, which can be quite costly. 

For us we found way more differences than similarities between the two magazines. For instance the men's magazine followed the original study of White and Gillett (1994), while the women's was completely different and focused on clothes and cosmetics. Also in the men's magazine they were willing to show the male body before it got transformed more often. The women's magazine never showed what the woman looked like before working out, or getting on the right track she was always seen in her best condition. Some of the similarities consisted of showing the reader what they thought the ideal body was for each gender. The male was seen a muscle bearing brute, while the female was shown as a beautiful healthy woman. That is exactly how these magazines portray masculinity and femininity.  The male is seen as this gigantic, veiny, biceps the size of a basketball type man, while the women have a nice athletic, slim, fit body. This is what these ads focus on too. They want men to buy these supplements hoping to one day look like some of these guys and add muscle. While they focus on women losing weight, and having that tight body.

- Pat McFall, Adam Dolezal, Drew English, Jonathan Barone.

Racism in professional sport - Aaron Keyer

Last week we talked about racism in sport, which I believe is a big problem for all sports. Everywhere people talk about sports it's a white basketball player either having to be a good shooter or a seven footer, a white quarterback in the NFL is automatically determined to be a set pocket passer. White wide recievers are expected to be possession recievers, not deep threats and black quarterbacks can't throw, they can only run. I think racism in sport has gotten better in terms of discriminating against one race or vulgarity toward a race, however the stereotyping that goes into recruiting and drafting players at certain positions has only gotten worse.

Leading up to the NFL draft a big topic of concern is always off the field issues. Doesn't it seem like black players are far more likely connected to not being as hard of workers off the field and more trouble in the locker room? Jamarcus Russel had all the talent in the world but completely flops as an NFL quarterback because of his off the field issues and his laziness but when Matt Leinhart fails as a quarterback it was because he was never in the right situation or maybe his skills weren't what we thought they were. That's not right, stereotyping a failed black quarterback as lazy and blaming the white quarterback's failures on alternative circumstances has gotten to be pathetic.

As a high school football player I saw stereotyping first hand. As a senior in high school I was being recruited as a wide reciever. I can't tell you how many times I got passed on for a black reciever who was the same size as me, had all the same attributes as me but I had better stats. A division one recruiter who had recruited me for several months ended up telling me I was simply "too white, too light and too slow" when at the combine workout we all participated in I ran the second best 40 yard dash time out of everyone.

If you simply just look around the NFL, you can stereotype by position. Even the NFL players see it. Last year Green Bay's wide reciever Jordy Nelson even said in an interview with the Green Bay Press Gazette, "Honestly, being white is a factor. Defensive backs don't respect my speed because white." His own black teammate Greg Jennings agreed also commenting in the Green Bay Press Gazette saying "people look at Jordy and say, oh he's just like those other slow white recievers. He's not."

Stereotyping has become a major problem in sports. Just because a player is black doesn't mean he can't learn the playbook or he is trouble off the field and just because a player is white doesn't mean he isn't as athletic. There has been so much bias created in which color player can be successful at which position and it's not right.

Racism In Hockey - Marc Horwitz

The NHL has been relatively clean when it comes to the existence of racism, much in part to the fact that the vast majority of athletes in the league are white. Whether it be at the youth level or the NHL, there is no denying the fact that the sport is predominantly white.  Through the efforts of grassroots movements and more development programs in urban areas in the NHL's push to target minorities, there has been a young talent entering the league with African American heritage such as Evander Kane, Kyle Okposo, and PK Subban.

Another young, black player who has developed into a very impressive winger is Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers.  In his first season with the Flyers organization, Simmonds has recorded career high point totals, but has also faced adversity as a result of his lineage. Since last season, Simmonds has been involved in two instances of racism that led to significant media coverage, with him also noting alleged occurrences aside from the two that were covered in the press.

The first incident that brought plenty of media attention to this problem in sport occurred last season when the Flyers played the Red Wings in London, Ontario in an exhibition game.  During a shootout, as Simmonds was approaching the goaltender, a banana peel was thrown onto the ice in Simmonds' direction, in an act to insinuate a common stereotype of African Americans.  Fortunately, Simmonds handled the situation professionally, stating that such an occurrence, while unfortunate, is expected.  In an interview after the game, Simmonds said "I guess it's something I obviously have to deal with - being a black player playing in a predominantly white sport.  I've grown a lot playing in this league and throughout my whole life. I'm not going to dwell on that, it's over with now" (Custance, 2011).

As if one act of racism against a player wasn't enough, just yesterday Simmonds had to deal with more disrespectful fan behavior.  Playing for a Czech Republic team due to the current NHL lockout, Simmonds was showered with racial taunts following a fight with an opponent of the home team.  The fans of the Czech team Chomotov began chanting "opice" following the fight, which translates to "monkey" in english.  Simmonds was unaware of what the chanting meant until following the game when teammate Chris Stewart (also African American), informed him of the translation.

Apologies were made on behalf of the Red Wings and Chomotov organizations immediately following both incidents.  London Mayor Joe Fontana apologized to Simmonds on behalf of the city, stating "it was a stupid and mindless act by one individual, however, it reflects badly on the entire community."  Chomotov general manager Jaroslav Veverka also issued an apology following the incident on Sunday, saying "it was embarrassing, pathetic, and small" (Allen, 2012).

While these apologies are a small step in the recovery process, they are still no reason to ignore the fact that these racist incidents have occurred.  A sport such as hockey has been fortunate enough to have very few isolated incidents of racism, but we see it quite often in sports such as football and baseball where organizations are more diverse.  Sport, as anywhere, is no place for racism.  Hopefully these incidents that have arisen in just one season will open the eyes of not just NHL fans, but also fans of all sports, and change the way some fans view the athletes.  We should be applauding their athleticism and performance, not holding their heritage and skin color against them.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/7007219/fan-throws-banana-philadelphia-flyers-winger-wayne-simmonds

http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2012/10/29/nhl-wayne-simmonds-racial-incident/1666947/

Reverse The Racism - Joey Durant

This might be a somewhat controversial blog post, but I believe it is worth being discussed and hopefully I will get some good feedback and conversation out of it! I believe that in today's sport society there exists a reverse racial role. Take, for instance, the NBA as an example; the majority of the exceptional players are african-american. This is no knock on those players, they are great at what they do and deserve to be recognized as the best. However, does the ratio of great black basketball player to great white, latino, and european basketball players automatically create a stigma to the lesser part of the ratio? As another example, the number of white starting cornerbacks and running backs in the NFL is a total of zero athletes. Does this number create an automatic assumption that non-black athletes cannot play these positions? I would love to hear everyone in class respond to this question because it is a question I have had to discuss in prior classes and have heard mixed opinions.

Joey Durant

Linsanity

In class Thursday, we talked about the different stereotypes that Asian Americans receive from fans for example players like Jeremy Lin and Yao Ming. People, assume that Asian Americans are weak, slow, nerdy, are only good at math and are out of place. Asian basketball players have been fighting stereotypes throughout their basketball careers. They have to overcome not only their opponents on their respective playing fields, but also the perception that Asians Americans are not real athletes or that they really are not American athletes. Asian Americans have done well in America in many areas, but not so much in basketball, but ever since Jeremy Lin entered in to the world of basketball, that all has changed. Lin has a new and different appeal to him. Lin is one of the rarest of Asian Americans to play the game of basketball. Lin is giving Asian men a more attractive look when it comes to sports. What Lin has done has been thrilling and exciting to witness. It is amazing to see that he has been able to break through the different stereotypes to prove that Asian Americans can play alongside and beat the best in the NBA. Lin’s story has been embraced by the American public, with fans from all races cheering him on, but we have also been reminded of the ugliness with which Asians have often been depicted in American culture. I just can’t imagine the racist taunts that he receives from opponents and fans. Is the ‘Linsanity’ hype caused by race?

Alicia Jefferson 

Lost In Translation - Geoff Roberts

When I was at my apartment here in beautiful Bowling Green this summer, I saw something at a Reds game that really caught me off-guard.  As I was sitting and watching the Reds play, they showed in the dugout Joey Votto having a conversation through a translator with Johnny Cueto.  Cueto is of course from Latin America and has little English skills.  I started to think about it and I came to the realization that in the 25 years of my life, this was the first time I had ever seen a Spanish translator in the dugout for a Latin American player. 

I have seen translators be used for Asian players who come from Japan such as Ichiro (who was still speaking through a translator when he was traded to the Yankees this season), Hideki Matsui, Hiroki Kuroda, and Yu Darvish have all used translators at some point.  This has festered with Latin American players as a huge issue.  Latin American players are generally not afforded a translator for a few reasons.

One reason I could think of was because baseball is heavily populated with Latin Americans.  This number is far more than Asian players coming from overseas.  This allows the Latin Americans with better English skills on the team to kind of act as an impromptu translator for the Latin Americans on the team that have lower skill in the English language.

Another reason I could see being plausible is the sheer disparity in the languages.  If you speak Spanish, English is much easier to learn than if you speak Japanese.  I think the opposite is true as well.  How many college students and high school students do you see take Spanish?  Compare that with the number that decides to take Japanese, Chinese, or Korean.  The reason is because the East Asian languages are highly intimidating and feature symbols and characters to represent whole ideas instead of just letters that form words which form phrases.  East Asian languages are also spoken at a faster rate than English generally.  This can be a hard adjustment for either an English-speaking person or an East Asian native speaker.  Spanish at least shares a lot of similar words with English.

So, players coming from Asia were afforded the opportunity to have a translator.  There have been a few Latin American coaches and players who have spoken out about it and the most recent is Ozzie Guillen (see attached article).  Ozzie Guillen is of course known for speaking out about anything and everything though so many of his comments get swept to the side.

Either way, we now see at least one team utilizing a Spanish translator in the dugout.  Johnny Cueto and Aroldis Chapman use this man heavily.  I don't watch the Reds much, as they only serve to give me my baseball fix since I do not get Fox Sports Detroit in BG.  So, I wanted to open it up and ask a few questions:

1. Do you think MLB is taking a step in the right direction by letting Latin American players use Spanish translators in the dugout? 

2.  Have you seen any other teams with Spanish translators?

3.  Do you think in the future that every MLB team will have a Spanish translator in the dugout, and should they?




http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2010-08-03-baseball-interpreters-translators-guillen_N.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/sports/baseball/25translate.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0