Archive for July, 2008

Floyd Mayweather and Winky Wright think that HBO boxing announcers are biased against Black fighters.

“They talk about Kelly Pavlik, a white fighter, like he’s the Second Coming. Or they go crazy over Manny Pacquiao. But I’m a black fighter,” Mayweather said. “Is it racial? Absolutely. They praise white fighters, they praise Hispanic fighters, whatever. But black fighters, they never praise.

“I’ve noticed it for a long time but I couldn’t say anything because I had to do business with them. I’ll still do business with them, but I’m done holding my tongue.”

I’ll tell you what: I have noticed that HBO’s announcers can be biased. When Floyd won me that dough in his fight against Hatton, if i hadn’t actually been watching the fight myself, I would’ve thought that Hatton was walking away with the thing. Jim Lampley is nowhere near unbiased, and Larry Merchant…well, at one time he was the best in the business, but Larry Merchant has no more business announcing a boxing match than Larry Holmes has fighting in one. At this point, Larry Merchant is strictly on unintentional comedy status. But he’s definitely opinionated, and it definitely favors a certain type of fighter. Unfortunately for Pretty Boy Floyd, it’s not really based on race. Winky actually hits at the real reason, but he allows himself to let the racial angle stick.

“Black fighters, we have different styles,” Wright said. “But the announcers, they want someone that just walks out there face-first. Boxing is supposed to be an art. Black fighters, we’ve got style, we’ve got pizzazz. All they want is for us to just go out there and slug.

“I think they’re just always looking for the next white hype. They just don’t give black fighters the same credit that they do for a white fighter, or a Hispanic fighter like De La Hoya. They definitely have their favoritism.”

Now, what Winky Wright said, if you exclude race, is exactly true: announcers and fans want to see a fight. Speaking for myself, while I appreciate a strategically-executed boxing match, that’s not really what I prefer to watch. Those aren’t the fights that get me excited while they’re happening and they’re not the fights I look back on with fond memories. The fights that get me excited were actually fights. Maybe Winky forgot, but Hagler and Hearns were both Black. So was Larry Holmes. So were a whole lot of other fighters. Again, don’t get me wrong, I understand the scientific, strategic aspect of boxing, but that’s not what I’m tryin’ to see. Especially not if I’m dropping pay-per-view money on it. If I dropped 45, 50 dollars on a fight, you better believe I want somebody to get dropped. So except for the fact that I have always and probably will always root for the Black fighter first, I want the one who’s bringin the action to win. I think the announcers call the fights the same way. As far as I’ve been able to observe, the announcers tend to favor the active fighters. But it’s not about race, or even “racial” style, it’s about activity in the ring. You wanna be a fan and announcer favorite? Go in there to wreck.

But this is a funny thing, because I definitely understand the picture from the perspective of the boxers. We’ve all seen what kind of a toll boxing can take on those who have been willing to get in there and slug it out. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants to come out brain damaged or physically disfigured. Roy Jones was famous for saying that he didn’t want to hurt anybody and he didn’t want to get hurt. I can respect that. It’s a job, not a lifetime sentence.

But, and this is a sofa, fighters hafta understand where the fans are coming from, too. This is America. Soccer has a following, but it ain’t nowhere near football. That’s because football has scoring. If a fighter wants to leave the ring looking exactly the same as he did when he came in and fights with some impregnable defensive style that leaves him invulnerable while allowing him to pick his shots from round to round, that’s his prerogative, but he can’t feel some type of way when the fans and the announcers don’t like it. He can play goalie if he wants to, but we’re lookin to see blitzes and bombs. If he’s unwilling to do that, it’s disingenuous to act like there’s some racial bias afoot. Even if the feet are in the mouths of Lampley and Merchant.

Stevie 54
Little Brother 53
Public Enemy 37
Oscar Peterson 28
Take 6 25
Kirk Franklin 23
ATCQ 23
James 21
Elvis 20
LL 20

First time ever Elvis cracked my top 10 listens in a week. I’m actually surprised.

Nuff Respect Due

Although I’m not one to revel in anybody’s misfortunes, I think there’s something…ironic (?) about the passing of Jesse Helms on July 4th. Perhaps it’s because as much as he signifies traditional conservatism to white conservatives, he represents a whole lot more to me. And in his case, that’s not a good thing. At all.

May his soul rest in peace.

As opposed to other years, I fully intend to enjoy this year’s July 4 festivities. Barbecue some pork chops, fry up some chicken wangs (cuz grilled don’t quite capture the essence), bust down on some watermelon, and drank up a some red Kool-Aid and a li’l high gravity lager, if I’m feelin’ just so.

And some spades. Gotta play spades.

What’s yours lookin like?

Uhhhh…what in the blim-blam? It’s bad enough when it’s girls. If it was a boy, there’d be a REAL problem.

Speaking of real problems, what’s goin on with these teachers messing around with their students? For real. I just don’t understand it. But the killer part about these stories in particular are the names of two of the towns.

1. Mentor, OH
2. Trustville, AL. (okay, it’s trussville, but still…)

can’t make this stuff up.

While most of us are trying to figure out exactly what’s going on with these gas prices, there are those among us who say that it boils down to the basic question of supply-and-demand. Nothing more than that. But usually, when somebody’s all like, ‘nothing to see here,’ it’s cuz there’s something to see. I’ll buy the fact that prices went up due to supply and demand over the course of the last few years. The last few months, though?

Think of it like this: in 2003, we permanently broke the $2 threshold. It took 5 years to permanently break the $3 threshold. Then in less than 6 months, we’re either breaking or kissing the $4 mark? So in six months supply and demand alone can explain a price increase that equals the previous 5 years? For real?

So keeping it cool contributes to global warming, huh?

On a hot summer day, 35 percent to 40 percent of electricity use is “weather sensitive,” says Ray Dotter, spokesman for PJM Interconnection, which operates the region’s electricity grid.

In other words, mostly air conditioners. (His office, by the way, is 77 degrees.)

Michael Wood with Peco Energy Co. says when daytime temperatures rise from the 70s to the 90s, electricity use spikes 50 percent or more. It’s the grid’s busiest time of year.

Also the most expensive. Peak energy is priced at a premium. And to avoid brownouts, the grid itself - the plants and transmission lines - have to be sized not for “normal” use, but for the spikes. It’s like building all the shore roads big enough for Memorial Day traffic.

Here’s the math on conservation: Every degree the thermostat goes up translates to a 3 percent savings in energy and dollars.

So what could be simpler? It doesn’t take a government program or a scientific breakthrough. Just press a button.

Around the region, many temperatures are in the low 70s - even the eco-friendly Eagles offices.

At Philadelphia’s City Hall, known for its hot atmospherics, Mayor Nutter’s office last week was 72 despite a priority to reduce energy use.

So a tip of the sun hat goes to Gov. Rendell, who this month directed that thermostats in state buildings go from 74 degrees to 75. He says it will save 5.3 million kilowatt hours a year - nearly what 500 households use.

All that’s true, but I’ll tell you what: I have central air. My mom doesn’t. Because of that, I definitely take a look at the weather report before I go up there.

At the same time, living in Maryland, which was a slave-holding state, every once in a while, I allow myself to wonder what the enslaved people who lived here 150 and 200 years ago did in this kind of weather. Not just the heat, but the fairly impressive thunderstorms that crop up regularly. As hard a time as I sometimes have sleeping when it’s “too hot,” I can’t imagine what it was like with no fan, let alone no AC.