Two “the rest of the story” items to kick things off:
- As we all hoped would be the case, MLB reprimanded umpire Doug Eddings for telling rookie St. Louis Cardinals rookie reliever Hancel Rincon to straighten his cap and to “Grow the hell up!” Eddings issued an apology. EA covered the episode here. But last night, as many suggested, many Cardinals wore their caps askew as a visual rebuke to Eddings, who was the umpire at third base. Interestingly, some of the Colorado Rockies had their caps tilted as well. Eddings claimed that he admonished Rincon because a Rockies batter, Hunter Goodman, flagged the rakish angle of the young pitcher’s headgear. Goodman, however denies that he said anything.
See? I said this was an ethics train wreck!
- In this post, EA discussed the absurd controversy involving “Stars and Stripes” staff maintaining that they were “independent” of the Pentagon. In a 24-page ruling this week, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden turned down the entreaty by the newspaper’s publisher, editor-in-chief and Middle East reporter to stay their firings while a lawsuit challenging the terminations as First Amendment violations works its way through the court system. McFadden found the government probably did not violate their First Amendment rights by firing them. I think their claim came perilously close to being a frivolous suit. If it were to prevail, no reporter or journalist could be fired by a government publication for an inflammatory or anti-American output because it could be framed as “censorship.” Editor-in-chief Erik Slavin and reporter Lara Korte told CBS in an interview that they “worked for Stars and Stripes, “not for the Pentagon, not for any administration, not for any policymaker.” They were asserting total independence and autonomy, despite being a Pentagon publication and funded by tax-payers.
Meanwhile…
1. The NFL is increasingly ridiculous, and I continue to wonder when it’s core audience will just say, “Enough already! Bye!” The league’s woke virtue signaling and DEI embrace is obnoxious, but its recent decision that football needs screamingly fey male cheerleaders boggles the mind. Look at this guy:
What the hell? I find female NFL cheerleaders an embarrassment, but this…any idea what the NFL is going for here or why? Tim O’Brien writes in part,
“I mean, who in the world asked for this? What market research told the NFL that what it really needed to do was complement all that toxic masculinity during the game with this? Seriously, are gay men a viable market for the NFL? How big is that market? Perhaps even more pointedly, as a percentage, how many not just gay men, but flaming gay men, watch the NFL on Sundays? Are we missing something? …[T]he NFL continues to find ways to alienate me and the millions of others who tune in because all we want to do is watch good football, see a little patriotism, and get a dose of a high-energy, traditional game-day atmosphere, nothing more….All of it is telling me the NFL no longer wants or needs people like me as fans. I’m cool with that, but if I have one message for the league, it’s this: “Be careful what you wish for.”
The NFL is already the most unethical sports league in existence (after the WNBA, of course). More on that tomorrow.
2. Speaking of the WNBA, ESPN’s headline was “Cathy Engelbert, who oversaw WNBA boom, to retire as commissioner.” It could well have read, “Cathy Engelbert, who proved completely incapable of leading the WNBA as it found itself immersed in racial and gender controversies, is running away. Good.” “Over the years, it has been amazing to watch WNBA players thrive and lead the massive cultural surge around women’s sports,” Engelbert said in a statement. “I retire knowing we have built something bigger, stronger and more enduring than we could have imagined. I am grateful to the WNBA and NBA team owners and staff, players, investors, fans and the powerhouse league office staff, who believed in what this league could become. I retire with immense gratitude and tremendous optimism for the future of the WNBA, with the best yet to come.”
Englebert is an accountant, and served as the CEO of Deloitte. She was brought in to develop the WNBA as a business, but had no skills or orientation that qualified her to deal with the league’s image and public relations problems. It took some gall for her to talk about the surge in “women’s sports” as so many of her league’s coaches speak as if they don’t know what a woman is.
Players and coaches have described her as “negligent.” One player said that the WNBA had the “worst leadership in the world.” From my observations, this was a severely limited leader who saw her job in the narrowest possible terms. She was hired to cut business deals and make money for the owners. She was good at that. Meanwhile, under her stewardship the WNBA has acquired the reputation of being dominated by lesbian thugs who resent the few white heterosexuals in their midst.
Maybe the WNBA should acquire the NFL’s gay cheerleaders…
The other Stars and Stripes reporters should have been nervous about this lawsuit. Had they prevailed, I guarantee Pete Hegseth would have shut down Start and Stripes before he let it be turned into an anti-American rag at the expense of the US taxpayers.
The courts rightfully refused to block the defunding of NPR and it would apply here too.
I think it would be safe to say the plaintiffs have gotten a little too big for their britches. They’re not journalists, the work for a company newsletter.
Speaking of the WNBA, have you been following the antics of Enis Kanter and Royce White? Both are former NBA players who’ve declared themselves eligible for the WNBA draft. Kanter led the way and White followed along. Kanter is being very serious and well spoken about his advocacy, while White is more playing up the humor aspect.
Kanter is a smart guy and is using their own rules against them. Given that the position of those that advocate the unrestricted ability of men to play in women’s sport lacks any logic and critical thinking, he’s twisted people up who are opposed to them. He’ll get them to say things that are contrary to their own previously stated positions. He got ejected from a recent game and is now suing because the reality is that he broke no rules and it was his mere presence that triggered a player.
https://people.com/enes-kanter-freedom-files-lawsuit-against-chicago-sky-after-ejection-from-wnba-game-12108340
I’d argue that the article is biased against Kanter, just watch the video. He did NOTHING against the rules and the player went nuts.
1, I would not be surprised if the NFL has done some serious market research that indicates there is a significant gay demographic among their fan base. All those sweaty, muscular guys in really tight pants smashing into each other. There are some pretty sadistic sexual overtones. It’s not too far removed from professional wrestling. And that cheerleader guy is probably just appealingly camp for the gay fans. And if there’s a demographic out there that the NFL thinks can be appealed to in order to increase viewership and income, the NFL will go after that demographic hammer and tong.
Well, it looks like you are finding more points for your “Why Haven’t We Had A Female President” series. When you look at Hochul and Englebert, their management style is terrible. Englebert’s competence is also in question here.
A good example of this competence and management style issue is probably Carly Fiorina. Despite eliminating ~50% of HP’s value, she was still held up as a role model for female CEO’s. When you look at how she ‘succeeded’ in eliminating half the company, it becomes worse. From what I could tell, she never understood what HP did as a company. She new it was a tech firm, and in her mind that meant PC’s. When she found out they weren’t a major PC player, she decided that they needed to be because that is what ‘tech companies’ were. HP was an innovation company and survived by selling cutting edge, niche products with massive profit margins.
Fiorina cut the scientific instrument division because it required a lot of R&D and sold few units. Yes, it did. However, unlike a PC, that had $5 profit built into each unit sold, the scientific instruments were selling for $30,000 each with a profit of $20,000 for each one. You would need to sell 4000 PC’s to get the same profit as 1 scientific instrument.
She stopped HP from making their high end scanners for macs because macs were only 5% of the PC market and it was 50% of the development budget. Well, the high end scanners had a 90% profit margin and were only sold to graphics professionals. Those professionals were 90+% mac users. So, she cut the scanner R&D by 25% (they still made low end scanners for Macs), but she cut profits by over 70%.
Rinse and repeat.
Then she ran for president. I told a Carly Fiorina supporter that Fiorina’s campaign slogan should be “Carly Can Do for THE US What She Did for HP”. The supporter thought that was a great idea.
Another prominent female leader would be Mary Bara. As CEO of GM, she has committed to a strategy of turning GM into an all electric and autonomous vehicle company. Her successes include pulling completely out of the European, Russian, Indian, and South American markets. She got rid of sedans to focus on trucks and SUV’s exclusively. Her main accomplishments are in equity and diversity and profits due to selling off units and shrinking the company.
You can compare these 2 CEO’s to Sergio Marchionne and Steve Jobs or Larry Ellison (or Scott McNealy or Bill Joy if you want people who were less chaotic).