The newer, brighter & shinier Random Thoughts Thread [R]

maybe we should refuse to go as a protest. that'd work for me.

 

my wife and i are driving to Central Washington to attend the graduation of her older son's older daughter. i will be offline for about 10 days.

enjoy my absence.

 

Beautiful country this time of year.

 

Just boarded the plane in SFO for the last leg of my trip from Shanghai.
My old bum bones are sore. 11 hours for the 1st leg. Just another hour or so now. Then another hours drive.
Looooooong night and day.

 

Ok, probably going to open myself up to some criticism for this, but here goes.

I'm so sick and tired of every article written about the USWNT having to delve into the politics of the "pay gap."
Is it any surprise that we are so divided when things (ie, sports) that were supposed to be joyful and entertaining are now being used, with no end, to tell us how men are evil, the USSF is a bunch of sexist woman haters, the 'boys club' is as hateful as ever, etc.?

I find it quite amusing the women are suing the federation for 'equal pay' - if you want more money negotiate for it, why do you have to sue? I'm sure that the federation would get the picture if you guys just didn't show up for a few matches. Yep, accept the call up, go through training for a couple weeks, and on match day just be no-shows. Hell, get on Twitter to tell the fans to not buy tickets because no team will be showing up at the stadium. At a certain point the federation would have to change, no?

The best woman's player in the world, Hegerberg from Norway, actually had the balls to say "good luck without me" over what she views as unfair treatment. None of the U.S. women had the balls to even sit out a friendly. None of them have said they're foregoing what they believe to be below-market pay.

While Alex Morgan rakes in $3M a year in her sponsorship deals, I'm wondering if she is going to advocate for her teammates all to earn the exact same as her. If she's so concerned about the 'pay gap' between men and women, surely sharing some of her dollars with her fellow females would even up the pay gap that exists on their roster, no?

 

I like that analogy. Alex Morgan makes $3 million therefore all women should get at least $3 mill.

Or all men should receive the same pay as Pogba, Messi or CR7.

Then that leads us to anyone who kicks a ball should be payed equally.

Rubbish I know. But if women went on strike, right now, during their WC. I for one wouldn't even notice.
Well sure I'd miss games that end up 13-0 with the winning team gang banging after every goal.

 

Plus isn't the USSF paying the majority of the women's yearly pay vs the men who get (next to) nothing from the federation and live off of their club money?

That's what I've read at least. What annoys the shit out of me is when the USWNT is doing well (which is 99% of the time), all the fan girls (and some stupid men) love saying "ohhh, the women are so much better than the men. Why are they getting paid less than the men? When have the USMNT won a World Cup game 13-0?!?" Absolute nonsense. A total apples to oranges comparison. The USWNT would consistently get beat by a well-oiled U-15 boys team and that's not a joke or hyperbole. They literally got beat by FC Dallas' U-15 squad a few years ago 5-2 (https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/ne...-the-u-s-womens-national-team-in-a-scrimmage/). So, it's not the same game. It's not supported by the same number of people and therefore it won't be the same pay. The women's game has grown exponentially over the last 30 years but it's still growing. Expecting it to be equal to the men's, at this point, is a joke.

 

OK now for something completely different.
Aimed at the likes of tips and other fitness freaks. Like I used to be.

The new wellness drink. Now you can get shitfaced as you run. Imagine your hydration station with a table full of fun. Instead of water. New records anyone. Whoo hoo...!

 

And now back to our scheduled program, woman's soccer.
There's a play off for trophys in everything now. Charity shield for example. FA Cup winners v League Cup winners.
This year we could introduce the Mens WC Winners. France. Vs the Womens WC Winners. TBD.

What a fantastic concept.

 

I like the women's WC. what's the problem?

does this help?
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2019/jun/12/womens-world-cup-shoved-down-mens-throats
the men’s World Cup prize fund is $400m ..... the women’s is $30m ....... the men’s gets four times the viewers of the women’s, but 13 times the prize money.

 

I've shared this anecdote before, but I'll share it again.

When I was 13, our state ODP team was out in Cali training for the ODP national tournament (don't know if they still do this with the way the Academies have changed the landscape). We got the chance to scrimmage the women's national team when the likes of Akers Stahl, Hamm, Foudy, etc. were around. We were set to play 3 25 minute periods so there would be plenty of breaks and would allow for plenty of lineup changes, formation changes, etc.

We start playing and at first we were kind of hesitant as none of us had played against a girl in years. About 5 minutes in one of their defenders slides through the back of one of our best players and hurts his achilles/ankle and he's done. So we then said, "it's on." At the end of the first 25 we're up 3-0 and it could have been worse but we essentially started playing keep away and stopped trying to score because we didn't want to embarrass them (we were too naive to know that not scoring was more of a slap in the face than scoring six was).
DiCicco is on the sideline ranting and raving at his players and then at us and he refuses to send them back out for the second 25 and our scrimmage was called. We could hear him yelling at our coach in the hall of the trailer (there were mobile trailers for locker rooms at the facility) about everything under the sun. When our coach came back in we all had a good laugh about it.

A few of the women's team came into our trailer after to speak to us and sign autographs and take pictures, which we all really liked as even we could appreciate that being world champions is deserving of recognition. I had met, and played with, Michelle Akers Stahl the previous winter in an exhibition game to help promote the World Cup (I played in goal and our team also included Joe Max Moore, Bruce Rioch, and Paul Mariner among others) and she remembered me and asked why I wasn't in goal today - I always appreciated that.

 

I like the women's WC too and I agree that the pay structure should be even as far as percentages go. I just get annoyed when the two sexes are compared too intensively.

 

old news ... you should try this ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_mile
A beer mile is a 1-mile (1,609 m) drinking race combining running and speed drinking. Typically, the race takes place on a standard 400-metre or 1/4-mile running track. The race begins at the 1-mile starting line with the consumption of a 12-US-fluid-ounce (355 ml) beer, followed by a full lap around the track. The second lap continues in a similar manner; another 12-ounce beer is consumed before commencing the running of the second lap. This process is repeated for the next two laps. Following the completion of the fourth running lap (and four beers), a competitor has finished the race

 

I agree. it's an argument that nobody ever wins, since there's no real "right" answer, and after about 2.5 milliseconds the issue gets completely wound up with all other aspects of gender politics and ends up going round and round and round.

it's kinda like VAR, with gender politics added.

 

No big deal. Roger Banister did it in under 4 minutes.

Didn't he?

 

yep and apparently he was pissed as a newt* at the time which made it more of an achievement.


* note: newt, not newterp.

 

newterp could've been used interchangeably there though.

 

Dear Lord - what happens if we beat Qatar 13 - 0?!?!? Imagine the angst!

 

I'd bust a gut if I tried anything like that now. According to my Fitbit. Yeah that's right. Fitbit.
I put in about 5 miles a day walking with Ringo.
That's like 3 different periods.
6 this am was the south jetty beach.
Noonish the tides up so I'll do a circuit of the lake. And a beer with lunch after. Then about 6 pm another beach. From access to the river estuary is about a mile each way. And a beer.

Gonna have to give serious thought to a new hip soon. It's a bugger gettin old but it far outweighs the alternative. Besides Ringo gets a kick out of chasing the eagles off his beach.

 

I played a game (invitational pick-up) against Alex Morgan once in Berkeley. She scored twice, I recall, I scored once. My team won! (7-5 i think it was)

 

I can still see Mia Hamm going down in a heap because she was tapped on the shoulder, to win the first WWC by a PK. .