2024

Time for another entry in my annual list of things I'd like to see happen next year.  But first, let's see how this year stacked up to last year's list, with comments in ALL CAPS:

A rising stock and bond market.

STOCKS UP NEARLY 25%, BUT  BONDS FLAT.

That Vladimir Putin is purged as a leader.  Any mysterious and/or violent way is acceptable.

IT WAS A BIG ASK.

Newly remodeled bathrooms in my house.

100%

Me attending a major sporting event.

DOES A KANSAS BASKETBALL, NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL, OR INDY CAR RACE COUNT?

Elon Musk leaves Twitter, or I leave Twitter for another similar service.

NO BUT PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE.

Drought relief for the western U.S.

NOT REALLY.

Me getting a golfing hole-in-one or eagle.

NOPE.

MAGA-death, and a crop of moderate presidential candidates for 2024 who aren't aged 70s or 80s.

UNFORTUNATELY, LOST GROUND HERE.

More acceptance and usage of plant-based proteins.

I SUPPOSE YES, BUT NOT AT ALL WIDESPREAD.

And now, my new annual list of things I'd like to see happen next year:

The demise of the MAGA movement via defeat of their candidates in the 2024 elections (repeat).

Streaming service mergers and resulting price decreases.

Downside my residence -- or in the alternative, have my trailer trash neighbors relocate.

Finally get my Real ID driver's license.

Delegitimization of the LIV golf tour.

Consistently avoid working on Mondays and/or Fridays.

More pay-at-the-table restaurants.

A new technology device or service I want but don't have

Beware The Phog

If I had a written bucket list, which at this time I do not, some of the items would involve attendance at certain sports events and/or sports venues.  I was able to make it to one of those venues this month, Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas, home of University of Kansas basketball.

This is possibly the most famous college basketball venue in America.  Its history is magnified by the success of the men's team, which as of this writing has the most wins of any large university, along with several national championships (including last year).

I attended a close game between #14 ranked Iowa State and #2 ranked Kansas, so presumably I experienced everything the venue and crowd had to offer.  So did the visit meet my expectations?  Yes, but not all in a good way.....

When people refer to Allen Fieldhouse (named after former coach Phog Allen), they don't say 'old' they say 'historic' to put lipstick on a pig.  Yes, it has hosted historic games, and even has on display the original first draft of the rules of basketball by the game's creator, James Naismith.  The entrance also doubles as the KU Athletic Hall of Fame, with many trophies and pictures to be seen.

However, 'old' also means 'not contemporary'.  It has mostly uncomfortable fieldhouse seating, with hard-to-get-at wooden bleachers that have you sitting next to the feet of the people behind you.  Let's just say it isn't spectator friendly by today's standards.  Age comes with a cost, in both people and structures.

It's also not visiting-team friendly, in the sense it's small by dimension but still holds 16,000 people.  The crowd is very close to the court, and consequently, very loud.  When you can't hear the person next to you shouting in your ear, it's noisy.  It's quite a home-court advantage.  To make a football comparison, I'd refer to Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City -- another very old structure with close bleacher seating.

The Kansas fans themselves were a good group, friendly and very knowledgeable about the game. They knew when to cheer or not, when to complain about officiating or not, that sort of thing.  Put differently, they know and respect the game and opponent.  To make another football comparison, I'd refer to Nebraska football fans at their home games. -- also friendly and game-knowledgeable.

One odd thing about the Kansas fans.....there were an unusually large number of them wearing the team jersey of a current or former player.  That's something you might see at a professional sports event, but it was very strange to see it at a college basketball game. 

All told, it was a fun trip to your basic college town, with a very old, er, I mean historic basketball venue.

2023

I promised to be less optimistic in my last annual list of things I'd like to see happen next year.  For the most part, that turned out to be a good idea.  Let's review the 2021 list, with comments in ALL CAPS:

More mandates and life complications for the unvaxxed, making more of them get vaxxed.

I SUPPOSE MORE GOT VAXXED, BUT NOT FOR INVOLUNTARY REASONS

Cryptocurrency regulations.

CLOSE BUT DIDN'T HAPPEN, BUT IT'S A LOT MORE LIKELY NOW THAT BIGSHOTS LOST BIG MONEY IN THE BANKRUPTCY OF FTX.

Prosecutions and convictions of Trump administration / organization officials who had roles in the 1/6/2021 insurrection.

CALLING THIS A YES, BECAUSE ALTHOUGH IT DIDN'T HAPPEN YET FOR ADMIN FOLKS, IT DID FOR MANY OTHER INDIVIDUALS.

A Winter Olympics that actually happens.

CHECK.  BUT IT WAS SORTA BORING.

An executive order, at the least, to loosen federal rules on cannabis.

YES THIS DID HAPPEN, BUT IT'S ONLY A PYRRHIC VICTORY WITHOUT ACUTAL LEGISLATIVE ACTION.

A top-tier Minnesota Vikings football team.

12-3 AS I WRITE THIS, SO I GUESS IT'S A YES?

A loss of market cap and credibility for Facebook/Meta.

A GIANT YES.

Me playing golf at a famous course / resort.

NO.

A decline in residential home buying.

ANOTHER GIANT YES, THANKS TO HIGHER INTEREST RATES.

A repeat from 2020 – me traveling to the final four U.S. states in which I’ve never set foot.

75% YES SINCE I GOT TO 3 OF THE 4.  ONLY ALASKA LEFT NOW.

Now for my new annual list of things I'd like to see happen next year.

A rising stock and bond market.

That Vladimir Putin is purged as a leader.  Any mysterious and/or violent way is acceptable.

Newly remodeled bathrooms in my house.

Me attending a major sporting event.

Elon Musk leaves Twitter, or I leave Twitter for another similar service.

Drought relief for the western U.S.

Me getting a golfing hole-in-one or eagle.

MAGA-death, and a crop of moderate presidential candidates for 2024 who aren't aged 70s or 80s.

More acceptance and usage of plant-based proteins.

FIFA Fo Fum Fake Fans Feign Fun

Once every four years, the FIFA World Cup is held.  This is a soccer (or as it's called in every other country, football) tournament that pits teams representing countries from every continent except Antarctica.  Let's just say, it's a very big deal outside of North America, and becoming a bigger deal there, too.

This is one of those contested years.  Normally it's held in June/July, but this year it's being held in November/December, to account for the fact it's being held in Qatar, one of the hottest places on earth in June/July.

[At this point, I could go on about how FIFA is an incredibly corrupt organization, and how it accepted bribes from Qatar (as it does from every host country) to agree to hold the World Cup there.  It's another sportswashing attempt by a place that openly discriminates against gays and females.  But I'm not actually going to go on about that.]

It's strange to see what happens to Americans during the World Cup.  While the vast majority will go four years without watching so much as a minute of soccer, many of those same folks suddenly take off work to watch the U.S. team play their World Cup games.

It doesn't matter that they don't know the name of a single player, much less the rules of the game.  What matters is making sure they are part of the crowd that suddenly cares about the national soccer team.  

Yes, there are avid year-round fans out there too -- tens of thousands of them -- thanks to the growth of U.S. soccer at the high school, college, and professional levels.  The most avid even traveled internationally to watch the games.

But that number still pales in comparison to the quadrennial jump-on-the-bandwagon group.  And to those people I say, like I did ten years ago in this very blog:  You are a Pretender.  You're the person who doesn't watch a baseball game all year (and I don't blame you, it's even more boring than soccer) but then becomes a huge World Series fan.

For the World Cup, that might make you feel patriotic, but that doesn't make you a fan.

Fame, Fortune, And Sportswashing

As a golfer, I’ve been following the newly formed LIV golf tour / organization with great interest.  It’s funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which is a fancy way of saying it’s funded by the Saudi Arabian government.

LIV (which supposedly comes from the Roman numeral for 54, the score a golfer would likely have if they birdied every hole in a round of golf) bills itself as a rival to the PGA tour / organization.  It’s been recruiting golfers to play in its limited events, in some cases paying them huge up-front money – even offering 9-figure amounts to the biggest names.

The term some are using to describe LIV is ‘sportswashing’, meaning this a way for the Saudis to cover-up their awful record on human rights.  It’s the same thing China has done recently by hosting the Olympics.  Market the country through sports, in a way that obscures how that country oppresses people.

I get the money is enticing for these golfers, even life-changing for some of them.  The PGA has always operated in a way that makes the players independent contractors, there’s nothing keeping them there.

I also get and agree that organizational competition is a good thing, and LIV has already made the PGA make changes for the better to its structure.  

Regardless of whether you call it sportswashing, I would not support LIV.  But more importantly, why do some of these players?  Why would the already famous, wealthy pro golfers choose to associate themselves with a regime like this?

They might make a greater fortune, but they'll lose their fame.  Everyone considers the LIV the minor leagues right now, with no top-20 golfers signed, and not many from even the top-100 are expected to sign.  LIV players will miss out on some major championships, and the biennial Ryder Cup.  Also, the LIV tour has no major television coverage, so no one is going to see or care about these players anymore.

That’s particularly true for the legendary ones, like my now former favorite golfer Phil Mickelson.  He says publicly he’s just trying to ‘grow the game’ by endorsing LIV (and taking a 9-figure sum) but all he’s doing is tarnishing his image.  At age 50+, he isn’t going to be much of a threat to win again anyway, even on the watered-down LIV tour.

It all sucks for golf fans, too, who want to see the best play against the best.  In terms of competition, this whole thing reminds me of Indy-car racing in the mid-90s, which split into two groups and completely watered down that sport for years.  It made even the Indianapolis 500 unwatchable.

In summary, I’d say that competition is a good thing, but not all competitors are good, and this is one of those cases.  If you want to align yourself with a new competitor, maybe make sure they don’t represent some of the worst people in the world.

Can't Spell Old-Fogie Without G-O-L-F

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog post for a message on recent news.  At age 50, somebody just won the PGA Championship, one of the four most important golf tournaments in the world.

Phil Mickelson, nearly age 51, did this a few days ago.  He's the oldest person to ever win a major golf championship.  This is a tremendous feel-good story for both sports and aging.

Over the past two decades, golf has become a sport that requires significant power and clubhead speed to be played at an elite level.  On most American golf courses, it's a huge advantage to be able to hit a golf ball longer.  The course where Mickelson won, the Kiawah Island Ocean Course in South Carolina, was played at one of the longest yardages of any tournament in history.

Just as a late-30-ish person begins to lose their agility and skill at most sports, there's no way a guy in his 50s should be able to hit the ball as far as others that are 10, 20, even 30 years younger.  But Mickelson has stayed healthy and flexible and powerful enough to do it.  That he still happens to have one of the best chipping and putting games in the world is no small feat, either.

To top it off, Mickelson has long been a crowd favorite for both boomers and youngsters, so it was a very popular victory.  He's been my favorite golfer to follow in the past 30 years, going back to when my old favorite growing up, Jack Nicklaus, stopped seriously competing in the late 1980s as he was approaching age 50.

It proves that golf is a sport that can be played competitively, even at the highest level, at an age well beyond what can be done in other legitimate sports.  (A possible exception is bowling, or maybe billiards or darts, but if you can play them in a bar, is it really a legitimate sport?)

It also proves, once again, that people can accomplish great things throughout their lives, not just when they're 'young' whatever that means.

Let It Hit The Fan

Money.  In America, it's the number one reason why most people will do most things.  If you want to understand why adults are motivated to do things, follow the money.

Attention.  In America, it's the runner-up reason why most people will do most things.  If you want to understand why adults are motivated to do things besides for money, it's for attention, which is often monetized.  (See reason one.)

Is there a way to combine these two powerful motivators to accomplish something larger?  Absolutely.  And one of the main vehicles for this has to be the major organized sports leagues.

We've seen professional sports leagues and players, most notably from the NBA / WNBA, use their platforms to drive political and social change.  Just last year, players in those leagues so far as to boycott games in response to social unrest over the treatment of blacks in America.  It had limited economic impact due to the pandemic, but it got people's attention.

There are much better, broader examples from the past.  In the 1990s, states that didn't recognize MLK Day were eliminated as hosts for crown jewel sporting events.  (The NFL pulled the Super Bowl from Arizona.)  Something similar happened later in North Carolina and Indiana when those states passed anti-LGBTQ laws, and the leagues (along with the NCAA) avoided or pulled out from those states as hosts for events like the NBA All-Star game or the NCAA basketball tournament.

These actions also had a domino effect of making corporations not host conventions in those states.  Suddenly, when states realized the loss of revenue, not to mention the embarrassing attention, they got rid of those laws.

Examples like these highlight why organized sports leagues could be doing more now, as republican-led states pass anti-voting laws, and/or anti-LGBTQ laws.  If the NFL, NBA, NCAA, or Major League Baseball had their act together, they'd simply tell these states that they won't do business there, at least not outside of regular franchise operations.  An even more effective approach would be the players associations of the pro leagues boycotting games, ending the public's great desire to watch them.  Then things would hit the fan (pun intended!) although it would be a monetary sacrifice some players would not want to make.

This year, the Major League Baseball All-Star game is supposed to be in Atlanta, Georgia, the state most actively passing voter suppression laws.  They should move that game, and let the money and attention flow to states with smarter elected officials.  Then let's see what happens -- if the past is prologue, things will change fast.

2021

The worst year of virtually everyone's lifetime is just ending.  This should make it very easy to complete my annual list of things I'd like to see happen next year.  It will also make it very difficult to review what I wanted to have happen in 2020, and see a near total failure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Let's start with that review, with comments in ALL CAPS:

Me traveling to the final four U.S. states in which I've never set foot.
HAHA -- I RARELY TRAVELED OUTSIDE OF IOWA, OR EVEN OUTSIDE OF THE DES MOINES METRO AREA, THE ENTIRE YEAR

A new president-elect and a corresponding surviving, independent, democratic republic.
ONE WINNER AND ONE PROBABLY WINNER -- IT WILL STILL BE A FEW WEEKS TO PRESIDENT-ELECT BIDEN'S INAUGUARTION DAY TO SEE IF THE REPUBLIC ACTUALLY SURVIVES.

More chances to make a hole-in-one (which means more time to play golf).
GOLF WAS ONE THING THE PANDEMIC DID NOT ALTER MUCH, BUT I DIDN'T PLAY OFTEN UNTIL AFTER MEMORIAL DAY.

Widespread acceptance of plant-based meats on restaurant menus.
PLANT-BASED PROTEINS DEFINITELY EXPANDED THEIR FOOTPRINT, BUT NOT IN RESTAURANTS WITH LIMITED-TO-NO CUSTOMERS.

The Minnesota Twins to break their streak of 16 consecutive playoff game losses.
ACTUALLY WENT BACKWARDS ON THIS.  THEY MADE THE PANDEMIC-SHORTENED SEASON PLAYOFFS AND THEN PROCEDED TO LOSE ANOTHER TWO GAMES TO BRING THE STREAK TO 18!

Consolidation in the video streaming service industry.
THIS ALSO WENT BACKWARDS, THERE ARE MORE STREAMING INDUSTRY PARTICIPANTS THAN EVER, AND MORE TO COME THANKS TO THE PANDEMIC.

A Summer Olympics without scandal.
I GUESS YOU CAN SAY THIS HAPPENED, SINCE THE OLYMICS WERE CANCELED.

Greater federal regulation of Facebook, and less people using it to show me pictures of their food.
THERE WAS MORE EMPHSIS ON REGULATION, BUT FACEBOOK IS BASICALLY SELF-REGULATING, WHICH IS TO SAY THEY AREN'T DOING MUCH.

A new artist who brings back the sound of classic rock.
THIS WAS ALWAYS A PIPE DREAM.

That I never order from a bar that tells me it has no Crown Royal Apple.

I WAS NEVER AT A BAR TO ORDER ALL YEAR, SO AGAIN, TECHNICALLY THIS WISH CAME TRUE.

Now for 2021, let's see these things happen:

A non-pandemic world where people live without fear of contracting COVID-19.

A less-friendly social and legal environment for those who help spread malicious propaganda and conspiracy theories.

A Summer Olympics that actually happens.

Revelations and prosecutions of Trump administration / organization officials who broke laws.

More time to read, more time to listen to podcasts.

An easy integration of administration and technology between Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade.  (A rare professional ask in this annual list.)

A full return of college and professional sports.

The Minnesota Twins to break their streak of 18 consecutive playoff game losses.

Less interaction with people who make every conversation about them.

An awesome vacation.

The Stadium Experience

I've been an avid competitive sports enthusiast since I was a child, both as a fan and a participant.  My participant days are long gone (with the possible exception of golf), but I still follow sports closely, primarily major college and professional team sports.

An offshoot of this interest is an interest in the stadiums in which these teams play.  There was a time when I could name the stadium called home by every single professional team, and most major college teams.  I wouldn't be able to do that anymore, mostly because teams now sell stadium naming rights that change regularly.  But I'm still quite good at being able to see a stadium on TV and be able to name the home team.

I recently attended a Minnesota Vikings football day game at the relatively new U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.  (I even got to be on the field the day prior for a charity event.)  Such a neat stadium environment, with a translucent roof and enormous 'doors' that open at on end -- effectively being indoors but having the sun shine in and feeling fresh air.

This made me think about a 'bucket list' of other famous and/or unique sports venues in which I want to attend a game.  I've already checked a few of these off of my list, but here are my top ten for now in alphabetical order:

Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, KS 
AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX
Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, NC
Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles
Fenway Park in Boston 
Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, IN
Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA (done)
Soldier Field in Chicago (done) 
U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis (done)
Wrigley Field in Chicago (done)

Outside of the U.S., I'd also add Wembley Stadium in London. Unfortunately, there are also some great old stadiums that have been replaced with new ones I'm not as interested in seeing.  Otherwise, I'd have included old Yankee Stadium in Bronx, NY, and old Chicago Stadium in Chicago.

While my 'event' sports bucket list would of course include things like the Super Bowl, World Series, and The Masters, this stadium list would be fun to accomplish, too.

Too Much Snowboarding

After watching the 2012 Summer Olympics, I made a comment about every sport.  All 36 of them.

In contrast, there are only 15 official Winter Olympic sports.  With the exception of the kinda-crazy bobsled / luge / skeleton, most of them are related in some way to your basic skiing or skating.  (One sport that refuses to be categorized is curling, a family favorite, and one that deserves as much attention than the media darling of figure skating.)

One of the newer sports is snowboarding, and that's my topic today -- how the events within the snowboarding sport have gotten completely out of hand.

It started out simple enough, with half-pipe and aerial events.  But now the list includes big air, parallel slalom, giant parallel slalom, slopestyle, snowboard cross, and team ski-snowboard cross.  These all apply separately to men and women.

I'm not saying I don't enjoy watching these thrill sports.  I'm saying that we don't need this many Olympic events for snowboarding.  We've taken these boutique, millennial-driven, X-Games activities and put them on the same level as mainstream sports that require far more fitness.

Whatever.  At least it's good for the United States' medal count, because the U.S. tends to dominate these snowboarding events.  Suck it, Norway!

Just Name Three

Last year on election day, I wrote about my disgust for bandwagon-ing fans, and, for that matter, bandwagon-ing voters.  Today I'm going to write about a larger offshoot of bandwagon-ers, which essentially includes the bandwagon-ers plus the 'fear of missing out' (FOMO) folks.

To identify, these are people who spend money, sometimes hefty amounts, to attend events for which they have little or no passion.  They go solely because they know other people are going.  You see this all of the time with both sporting and music events.

An example:  Last week, I attended a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert.  The following day at lunch, I overhead a 30-something year-old woman talking to others about it.  She admitted she didn't really know any of his music, but tagged along with friends anyway.  This way she could say she was there, not to mention she could party / drink beer.

Who knows, maybe she didn't have to pay between $60 - $100 to go to the concert like the rest of us.  But probably she did, and regardless, she took away a ticket for a sold out show from a real fan who wanted to go.

I've called people out on this before, and when they get all defensive about it I give them a simple test.  That is, for a big-time concert, can you name three songs (just titles, not even the lyrics!) by that artist?  And for a sporting event, can you name three players on the team for which you're supposedly a fan?

The vast majority of those I ask cannot successfully answer.  If you can't do that, you aren't a fan, and definitely not a passionate one.

However, that isn't going to stop them from paying big bucks to take a seat that a true fan would love to have.  (By and large, the artist or athlete would love for the true fan to have that seat as well.)  But never mind all that.  What's important is being seen as a cool person partying with others at a big event.  And of course, posting their fake superfan-dom on social media.

I suppose it's really not that surprising, in the age of reality TV and social media stars.  People make entire careers out of being seen at events they couldn't care less about.

The difference is, those people get paid, rather then paying for the right to do nothing more than warm a seat.

The Pretenders

No, this is not an entry about the 1980s English rock band with hits such as Back On The Chain Gang and Middle Of The Road.  They are not worthy.

This is about people who jump on the bandwagon.

We've all seen this before, in a variety of ways.  In the past couple of weeks, I've witnessed no less than three manifestations of it....

It's the person who doesn't give a damn about a sports team the entire regular season, and then suddenly acts like the team's biggest long-time fan when they get to the championship game.  Never mind that the person can't name more than one or two of the team's players.

It's the person who claims to not like a certain musician, and then suddenly acts like the artist's biggest fan when they are coming to town for a concert.  Never mind that the person can't name more than one or two of the artist's songs.

It's the person who claims not to like a certain part of the country, and then suddenly acts as if they should be the tour guide when that place is chosen for a group trip.  Never mind that the person can't name more than one or two tourist destinations in that region.

The Pretenders don't actually care about the team, or the musician, or the trip.  They care about not being a part of something, even if they couldn't care less about that something.

So to all of the Pretenders out there, stop your phony coat-tailing and go away, and let the people who really care take your place.