Parents Gone Wild

Sports are a great way for kids to learn sportsmanship, teamwork, dedication, discipline, and hard

work. Parents play a huge role in the beginning of their children’s sports careers. First off, participating in sports is a financial investment for parents. The more kids one has, the more money and time a parent has to spend. Sports aren’t cheap. Kids need uniforms, equipment, there are registration fees for tournament and league play, and there is the possibility of private lesson. Second, parent like to see their children succeed. This is why parent push their kids so hard. Some parents yell at their kids if they feel that they should be performing better. Other parents are very encouraging especially when their kids make mistakes.

Unfortunately, sometimes parents view their kid’s sports events as life and death. Sometimes they even turn into what is called "sports rage or parent rage". These parents will physically or verbally attack another parent, player, coach, or official.

I’ve been umpiring baseball for the last five years. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen parents get out of control. One time during a 10 year-old tournament a coach was so furious at his son for walking two batters in a row. He called a stoppage in play to talk to his son, and in front of everyone started to verbally embarrass him. He started using profanity which I felt was inappropriate for that level of baseball. I quickly confronted the coach and informed him that that type of language was not acceptable. He quickly informed me to “screw myself.” As fast as his last word exited his mouth, I ejected him from the game. He continued to curse and rant at me for a minute and soon enough made his way to the parking lot.

Parents need to realize that youth sports are supposed to be fun. It’s for the kids, not the parents. It’s not worth embarrassing yourself because you feel your kid isn’t performing the way you want them to or because you feel the official made the wrong call. It’s time to take a chill pill and enjoy the game.

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Twisted Word Fume Twitter Battle

In February 2014, Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was involved in an altercation with at the time fiancée Janay Palmer. One thing led to another and while Rice and his fiancée Palmer were in the elevator, Rice allegedly struck Palmer unconscious. Rice and Palmer were both arrested following the incident by Atlantic City police.

Almost five months later, the NFL sentenced Rice with a two game suspension. Steven A. Smith and Skip Bayless discussed the suspension on ESPN‘s First Take. Some of Steven A. Smith’s comments were construed to be offensive to women, acknowledging that women need to do everything in their power to not provoke situations of domestic violence.

Michelle Beadle, another ESPN host watched Smith’s comments and went to Twitter to express her feeling on the matter. Beadle tweeted this:

“So I was just forced to watch this morning’s First Take. A) I’ll never feel clean again B) I’m now aware that I can provoke my own beating.”

Michelle then went on to tweet this comment:

“I’m thinking about wearing a miniskirt this weekend…. I’d hate to think what I’d be asking for by doing so.”

Before the days of Twitter and Instagram, Michelle Beadle would’ve had to wait until she was in front of a camera to respond to Steven A. Smith’s comments. But, with the rush of social media, Beadle was able to reach hundreds of thousands of followers without any delay. Steven A. Smith had the same opportunity as Beadle and he immediately responded to her comments in an attempt to set the record straight about what he really meant.

Smith first started off his tweet by saying that after hearing what he said on First Take, he admits that he could have articulated his statement a little better. He expressed his respect for his ESPN colleague Michelle Beadle and apologized for his comments if it offended anyone.

 Social media is a great way for athletes, reporters and celebrities alike to be able to express themselves, clear up any misunderstandings, or portray themselves in the way they want their fans to see them. Just like any tool, there are both positive and negative ramifications of social media.

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Throw Me The Heater Agnes

When you think of a professional athlete, you think of an individual that can do amazing things. They can jump and dunk a basketball. They can swing and hit a baseball over 400 feet.  Any, they can run over a defender in an attempt to score the winning touchdown. All of these amazing feats are performed by highly sculpted bodies that every fan wishes they possessed. They are chiseled, defined, and perfectly sculpted to perform when the cameras are on and the lights are shinning the brightest.

Unfortunately, no one decided to tell Agnes McKee that you need an athletic body to perform in the spotlight. Recently, Agnes McKee threw out the first pitch at Petco Park in San Diego California. Now you might be asking yourself, what’s the big deal? Well, Agnes is 105 years-young. That’s right, after countless of hours of practicing her underhand windup, Agnes was able to throw out the first pitch just days after she turned 105 years-old. Surprisingly enough, her throw was even better than individuals a quarter of her age. She had a wicked windup that any softball player could recognize and she even managed to reach catch Rene Rivera behind the plate. This made her the oldest person to ever throw out a ceremonial first pitch. She wore a custom made San Diego Padres jersey. On the back of the jersey Agnes had her last name and the number 105 representing her age.

It was also a good thing that rookie pitcher Odisamer Despaigne was taking notes during Agnes’s ceremonial first pitch because he was able to almost seal his first no hitter of his career. In the eighth inning, with two outs, Odisamer allowed New York MetsNew York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy to double into left center field for the Mets first hit of the game.

What an awesome outing for the youngster. All in all, I guess Odisamer did pretty good too.

Check out what happens when parents and coaches take it to the extreme in kid’s sports. Who's at fault in these situations? You be the judge.

Social Media Search For A Killer

In today’s world, celebrities and athletes are using social media more and more to communicate with their fans. It’s a fast and easy way to update fans on what they’re doing, where they’ve been, and what they’ve experienced. Since the boom of social media, athletes and fans are able to stay connected with one another and sometimes fans are even able to receive insider information straight from the source before the news breaks on ESPN.  A good example would be in 2010 when Kevin Durant from the Oklahomoa City Thunder announced on Twitter that he would stay in Oklahoma and resign with the Thunder.

Recently, another NBA basketball player used social media, but this time is wasn’t to update his fans on his basketball career. Matt Barnes from the Los Angeles Clippers cleverly used the social media channel Twitter to start a man hunt for an individual who murdered his aunt. Unfortunately, family reported that Barnes’s aunt, Tanganyika Williams was on her way to visit her estranged husband Michael Williams. Tanganyika died due to a fatal stab wound to the neck.

Barnes posted two picture of 51 year-old Michael Lee Williams on Twitter with this quote: “This dude stabbed my auntie in the neck last week & left her for dead on the sidewalk, she ended up dying on the way to the hospital in the ambulance. If you have any info on his where abouts contact the #SacPD.”

The second that Matt Barnes hit the send button on his Tweet, he instantaneously reached out to over 262,000 followers. Barnes could have waited until the ten o’clock news to voice his concern but he didn’t, he decided to take matters into his own hands. It’s amazing that with the technology we have today, Barnes was able to voice his concern in less time than it takes to order a burger at a fast food restaurant.

Join the social media frenzy by joining Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram

Argentina! Sore Losers!

The World Cup is the biggest stage for the sport of soccer. Fans from both Germany and Argentina filled not only the Estadio do Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, but also every city around the world. At every location you can find the whole spectrum of fans. From your social fans whose interest in soccer and the World Cup is primarily a social aspect or a way to gather with friends, to your highly vested fan who is so emotionally attached that they wear their team and fan pride on their sleeves.

Unfortunately, there is another type of fan that rears his ugly head every once and a while. These fans are classified as dysfunctional fans. Dysfunctional fans are normally overly aggressive towards the opposing team, its fans, the officials, and sometimes each other and law enforcement. In the case of Argentina’s one to nothing loss against Germany, tens of thousands of fans decided to take out their emotions on the town of Buenos Aires.  Fans started taunting law enforcement and destroying public property. Riot police were forced to step in to control the crowd. Cans of tear gas as well as water cannons were shot at the rioter’s in an attempt to control the situation. Police were even forced to use their nightsticks while riding a two manned dirt bike. 

In the end, at least 15 police officers were wounded from the angry rock chucking fans. In addition to those wounded officers, countless fans were injured and more than fifty rioters were detained. If you ask me, I see this whole riot situation as a huge temper tantrum.  I’m sure these fans were all happy jolly at the beginning of the game, but once they lost then that’s when the vested fan turned into the dysfunctional fan.  

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LeBron Says I'm Coming Home

In 2010, LeBron James became a free agent for the first time in his career. Being the most coveted free agent in the NBA, LeBron decided to have a one hour television special to announce where he would be playing for the next four years. LeBron decided to use the most popular source of media possible, ESPN. He was courted by the New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, New Jersey Nets, Miami Heat, Los Angeles Clippers, and his current team and hometown Cleveland Cavaliers.

In the end, LeBron chose to take his talents to South Beach and join NBA  All-Stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. His hometown of Cleveland was devastated, fans burned his jersey and all the pictures of LeBron in the state of Ohio were immediately taken down. LeBron was widely criticized for the way he went about announcing his decision and his image took a huge hit. Unfortunately, the way he did it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, especially the city of Cleveland.

 Four NBA finals and two championships later, LeBron once again became a free agent. This time around LeBron played things a little closer to the vest. He had his agent meet with potential teams that he was interested in. When it was finally time for LeBron to make his final decision on where he would be playing, he didn’t take the same route he did last time. He decided to go old school and release a statement to Sports Illustrated. He eloquently poured out his heart and soul by putting pen to paper and expressing how much his hometown of Akron Ohio meant to him. He explained his thought process for leaving as well as the reasons he wants to return to the Cavs. He forgave the fans and Cleveland owners for all the heart ache and pain he suffered while at the same time sympathizing and empathizing, then apologizing for his own short comings. 

In the end once again, LeBron demonstrated maturity and class when announcing his decision.  This does show that the way you deliver your message is just as important as the message itself. Welcome home LeBron. Good luck next season.

How did LeBron celebrate his return home to Cleveland? By going to Brazil and attending the World Cup Finals.

Fights, Franchise, and Freaks

On July 5^th and 6^th, the UFC not only had fights at the Mandalay Bay hotel, they also held the UFC Fan Expo. This is an event that the UFC puts on several times a year to allow its fans to interact with the superstars of MMA. From the moment you walk in, you notice a couple of things right away.

The first thing is that there are booths all over the place. Every booth is a franchise/company commercializing their brand name to lure individuals to see their products. It’s a free market for those companies to not only get their name out in the MMA community but to also show their new and returning customers some of their new products.



Some of the companies who had booths at the Expo



The second obvious thing that you’ll notice is that there are a ton of fans. Every fan has his or her own level of interest in the sport, and it’s very easy to discern between the real fans and the fake one. There are fans that are there who range from being there just because her boyfriend or husband is a UFC fan (social fan), to the super freak who is deck out in UFC appeal and stand in an hour and a half line just to get a signature or their favorite fighter or ring girl (Vested fan). But no matter whom you are, every person there has some tie or knowledge of the UFC. It’s a social gathering of comrades.

The last thing you might notice is that there are fights going on the in and next to the Expo. Fans are able to watch up and coming fighters duke it out in the cage while shopping for their favorite MMA brands. You might also notice that there were two huge tournaments that were associated with this Expo. One for Jiu-Jitsu, and one for wrestling.

All in all, the UFC Fan Expo had a little of everything. It had something for every type of fan. Whether you were there to watch your niece and nephew compete in Jiu-Jitsu like me, or to get a poster signed from UFC heavey weight champion Cain Velasquez, the UFC Expo was super fun.

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