Cup Crazy, distraction from lousy baseball and football

Thank the Good Lord for the Chicago Black Hawks reaching the Stanley Cup Finals. Thanks to them, I don't pay as much attention to the lousy baseball that the Seattle Mariners are playing. Additionally, the Cubs and White Sox are no threat to the 1998 Yankees.

Sports thoughts

1) Congratulations to the Chicago Black Hawks for beating Vancouver in 6 games in the NHL's western semifinals. Now it's on to San Jose for the Western Conference Championship. Because I was at a social event, I missed a good portion of the game.

2) Can the Mariners do me a favor and a) cut Sweeney, b) Sign Jermaine Dye and c) trade for A.J. Pierzynski? The Mariners need a bad-ass or a guy with an attitude.

3) If I was running the Seattle Times sports section, I would consider bringing in another sports writer to replace Steve Kelley, who's hopelessly drifting off into liberal rants and stories on rejects like Ryan Leaf. I would consider taking the job.

affirmative action in sports journalism

Affirmative action isn't just giving a chance to "historically oppressed ethnic groups" like Blacks and Spanish speaking people or even those from the Indian subcontinent or of Arabic descent. It also means in sports hiring unattractive women or "tom boys" as sports reporters.

Let's take Fox Sports Northwest for example: They have Jen Mueller and Angie Mentink as their reporters. Neither of them is particularly attractive or that knowledgeable about sports, yet Fox Sports Northwest (or FSNW) continues to trot them out there much to the displeasure of young males, who comprise the majority of the viewing audience. Why? I have no idea.

In Portland, Comcast Sports Northwest (CSNW) has Rebecca Haarlow as the Blazers sideline reporter who a) knows sports, having been a student-athlete at Princeton and b) is an attractive blond woman. She's not as well known as Erin Andrews, but she's clearly superior to the FSNW tom boys.

I wonder if many Northwest sports fans agree with me on this or I am in the minority.

Great Book

I heartily recommend a new book that came out this year, called The Score Takes Care of Itself, by Bill Walsh, with Steve Jamison and Craig Welsh. It's a book about leadership and teaching and getting organizations to improve. For anyone who wants to be a better leader or teacher or executive, this is the book for you.

sad month for Seattle's Jewish community

This month, the Seattle Jewish community lost four people. One was a gentleman who is one of the primary families in Seward Park. I actually was at his house on the Friday night before he passed away as there was a Mincha/Maariv Minyan held at his house on Friday nights as it would be difficult for him to go up the hill coming back from synagogue.

Then my contemporary and friend from high school lost his son to brain cancer last week. That was very very sad. We said a lot of Tehillim (Psalms) for him and someone sold purple wristbands with his Hebrew name on it to raise money for Children's Hospital of Seattle.

On Monday my second cousin's father passed away. She married someone from the community who is a Jewish Studies professor at the University of Minnesota and they have a two year old daughter who is a doll. Her father was sick for quite some time, it's still sad, even if he was much older than my friend's son.

Then the Baal Tefillah of one of the synagogues for many years passed away on Monday afternoon. So it has been a rough month.

One bit of good news, my cousin's wife had a boy two weeks ago.

couple of things

1) Great event last night in Shoreline, Washington at the Shoreline Senior Center. The Shoreline Political Caucus had two guest speakers, Elizabeth Scott, who's running for 21st District State Representative as a Republican, and then they had Susan Hutchison, who I strongly support, for King County Executive. Both ladies spoke well and laid out a new vision for our state and county, which we so desperately need. Go to www.susanhutchison.com and www.elizabeth4state.com for more information on these fine candidates.

2) Congratulations to Megyn and Doug Kelly on the birth of a baby boy this morning. Are they Jewish? No. So who are they? Megyn Kelly is a Fox News Channel Anchor who is attractive, smart and tenacious. She will be on maternity leave for a couple of months. Here's a suggestion: Put S.E. Cupp or Ainsley Earheardt in that time slot.

3) Check out, Fat Guys Shouldn't Be Dancin' At Halftime, by my buddy Chet Coppock. What a funny read and great history of Chicago Sports. It's available on www.Amazon.com and most bookstores.

tom boys and affirmative action

For some strange reason, the sports television world is enamored with hiring sideline reporters who are tom boys or to put gently, women who wouldn't make the cut for homecoming queen. I understand that there are the Erin Andrews' of the world, but it seems like the tom boys rule the day. This is affirmative action in my humble opinion and should be discontinued.

People think that affirmative action is about giving blacks and Spanish speaking people an opportunity. Yes that is true, but we also see that women take advantage of it as well.

What is wrong with a tom boy such as Jenny working the Fox Sports Northwest Mariner game? Well, she put together a whole bunch of puff pieces like on the players' wives, the Mercer Island Little League team that made the Little League World Series throwing out the first pitch at the Mariner game, etc. Why someone who's more attractive such as Lisa Gangel of KING 5 or Nicole Zaloumis, who seems to have disappeared from Fox Sports Northwest, can't do these stories is beyond my conservative, male chauvinistic pig point of view. I must be re-oriented to think like a more sensitive male, even a metrosexual.