My Wimbledon What If...

I was watching Wimbledon this morning. Specifically, I was watching Venus and Serena face each other. The first set was so insanely close and tough fought it was enjoyable to watch. Now I'm not an avid tennis watcher but such a close final matchup between 2 big name sisters of tennis got me thinking something I often think about professional sports. ...

Once again, I'm not an avid tennis fan ( or any professional sport for that matter ) but I enjoy the athletics of it. What I'm about to say has annoyed a few people as I've brought it up in conversation, but really it is just a what if. What if professional sports are moving more towards entertainment like professional wrestling. Long ago, professional wrestling saw the money to be made in having more entertaining matches and things got less real. What if other sports are moving in this direction?

We've seen inklings of people's greed making certain sports less about the competition and more about someone making money, but it usually doesn't benefit the entertainment value of the event. Watching the Williams sisters play together made me think, it was something for the network to sell and it was also quite entertaining. There were many things a good play by play team could discuss to make it even more entertaining.

So, despite the negative connotation that goes along with "fixed" games - what are some of the ways we could benefit in watching sports where outcomes ( or at least some level of play ) are decided before we even start watching. For example, how could it look in baseball? football? tennis? soccer? Remember, focus on how it could be made more entertaining, not just how some unscrupulous people can make money betting on the events.

Keep it up America

It keeps seeming like the bailout bill is ready to be passed. People make compromises and it looks like we will move forward with a massive financial plan that has only been discussed for a week(or less). Thanks to the strongest declaration that America is run by the people that I have ever seen, and a few congress members who are against it on principle, the "final" bailout bill got rejected by the house. And stocks plummetted. Like many people, I am worried about the affects all this will have but I know that an optimal solution can be reached as long as we slow down. My family is starting to be affected by this crisis already as my wife works for Citigroup now( so it would seem ), but that only makes me want to make sure we take the time to work out a plan to keep this kind of mess from happening again. While this was created by a failure of the entire system, I still think we need to make sure that the most heinous corporate criminals pay for their crimes against society so that in the future people take a moment before letting their greed take over.

Who is and has been talking about this for years? Ralph Nader. Along with speaking out against corporate crime he has said again and again that citizens need to take back their country. The amount of letters, emails and phone calls that our members of congress are recieving is making them balk at passing this bill. Keep it up. I am proud to be an American today.

Nader Gonzalez 2008!