YSL 15/03/23 - Gary Lineker: It's not a culture war, it's a class war

I have been feeling a little below par the last week. A concerned friend of Germanic extraction told me to take the time off as other people would care only for themselves and not others. She's probably right about that in a fundamental sense but I've mostly just continued working because I've known in my heart I was up to it. To palm off my responsibilities on others when I'm capable myself would simply not be fair. I believe, as does Charles C.W. Cooke that one of the fundamental values held by British people is an unerring sense of fairness. 

I think the public views the Gary Lineker story through the lens of fairness. I think in the long term that bodes ill for both him and the BBC. What's fair and what's good and principled do not always line up but what's fair is usually right and necessarily just. What's just is to understand that when people talk about the culture war, what's really happening more and more is a class war.

Before talking more about what's right and what's fair, let's talk about the facts after the jump.

YSL 01/01/23 - A WTA cocktail of optimism and trepidation in the new year

 I've written here in the past about MMA, the NFL and a little on my first, true original love of football so it's really time I devoted at least one piece to the fourth sport I follow - women's tennis. Even when I was a boy I preferred women's tennis to men's. Perhaps it's because I was always a sceptic and an asshole contrarian who instinctively refused to believe that Tim Henman was anything particularly special contra to the media narrative, but I would always pay close attention when the women played.

The emergence of contemporary foxes like Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova certainly helped but the player who really caught my attention and defined what attracted me to the sport was Justine Henin. She could move and play every shot with preternatural grace and elegance, flowing across the court as she would systematically break down her opponents with her signature one hand backhand. 

Henin does not seem to be held in the same kind of high regard by the most vocal online tennis fans who tend to be devotees of Serena Williams. True sports fans have long memories and they resent henin for a supposedly unsportsmanlike gesture she made at Roland Garros in 2003 during an extremely tight semi-final match the two played. Henin would go on to win the title that year, her first of seven majors. 

While there's no denying Williams' unparalleled brilliance in the women's game, her power-based style never really appealed to me. It's a combination of the beauty in motion and creativity represented by Henin that won me over and is also why I generally prefer watching the women to the men, at least in tennis. The drama that almost always follows is added spice. 

In the past three years, tennis has been beset by schedule and rankings chaos caused by a mysterious virus of unspecified origin. For the women, this was compounded by the rank incompetence of the WTA, the women's professional tour. After Peng Shuai was detained by the Communist government in China, the WTA made the decision to withdraw from that country. My belief then and now is that it had a lot less to do with principles than the practical concern that China had closed their borders at a time the WTA had structured their entire fall schedule around access to multiple cities. 

Just two years later I feel vindicated - The WTA will be returning to China in 2023 and the borders have duly been opened. No promises were ever made regarding Peng Shuai's safety but the WTA was flailing and that's what's really important here. For what it's worth, I think Peng is safe and "free" to live her life as long as she does not resurface the sexual assault allegations that initially landed her in trouble - certain players who are quick to point fingers at America would do well to take note and appreciate the liberty they are afforded. 

How will 2023 unfold for some of my favorite players? More after the jump.

YSL 16/12/22 - When should we boycott?

 

As usual I find myself getting in arguments online with people I probably agree with on more than I disagree. I really don't have much interest in going back and forth with Serbian nationalists all day so I'll make my comments here instead. But it got me to thinking on a larger subject I've been pondering - where do we draw the line? Who and what do we choose to support or give a pass to?

Is it right to treat Russians or Chinese as pariahs on the world stage? Should we do business with dictatorial regimes and rigid theocracies such as Qatar? I don't have all the answers but I ahve some thoughts after the jump.

YSL 26/11/22 - Breel Embolo and how Globalization undermines national teams

When Cameroon-born Breel Embolo scored the winning goal for Switzerland against the nation of his birth, he declined to celebrate and seemed quite emotional. Journalists and pundits described the moment, which occurred in the opening match of Group G in this year's World Cup in Qatar, as "powerful". I would describe it instead as slightly perverse.

More on this after the jump...

Yamanose Sports Ledger 10/29/17 - Yuli Gurriel, Bob McNair & Some Guy I've Never Heard Of

I had some sports musings that I was going to include in my UFC 217 picks column but it got really long really fast just by itself so I decided to forego them. However, within a matter of days three very similar stories with varying degrees of severity popped up and I felt like throwing in my opinion for whatever it's worth. So I decided to create an entirely new feature, the Yamanose Sports Ledger, a general sports column. I'll probably never do a second edition of YSL but it's here if I need it!

When people are offended now, it can be difficult to judge whether or not the outrage is justified. Clay Travis often says that social media is a funhouse mirror that distorts reality. "Sides" such as they are become polarized and people becoming entirely incapable of debating issues rationally; Everything is either classified as a world ending indignation or the wailing of whimpering snowflakes with no in-between.

Of course, the truth is that everything should be judged on a case-by-case basis and all of reality exists on a scale - a concept those who are especially gender-conscious ought to already be intimately familiar with but often actually aren't. I feel like I'm a very reasonable, moderate person so I'm happy to serve as the arbiter and rank three offensive acts in order of least to most concerning.

Analysis after the jump