With this year's Summer Olympics. I mostly like to see how the women are doing. Not so much in their abilities but their attitudes concerning feedback from their coaches, family, friends, and peers. What I see bothers me. Lack of goodwill towards other women from other countries. I call it the Hillary Rodham Clinton complex. They are so to themselves; competing for their countries to make they coaches, family, friends, peers or husband, happy. The mutual respect of women just isn't there like you see in men's competition, sometimes?
Many years ago, I read an autobiography of basketball legend, Wilt Chamberlain from 1992. In it, besides his sexual conquests, he mentioned sponsoring women's sports like amateur track, volleyball, basketball, and so on. I appreciated his respect for the opposite sex besides looks. According to the female participants, he was very respectful to them, never hit on them or pressured them. Likewise, he appeared in a cover of woman's sports magazine. His sponsorship included Florence Griffith-Joyner, Jeanette Bolden, Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Yet, I was curious why his sponsorship affiliations with women sports didn't last long. Mind you this was 1992 and he died, seven years later.
Then comes a recent Wilt Chamberlain's bio by Robert Cherry. The book mentions about how Wilt dealt of being slighted or bullied by his peers in high school. He would get his sister to run with him everyday before school even though she didn't want to and wasn't interested. Eventually, she became a good runner with incredible endurance. Unbeknownst to her, he was preparing her to beat the bullies in a race in which Wilt would bet that they couldn't beat her. Wilt would goad them and her sister would naturally win. This wasn't just an isolated situation. He would do this with his girlfriend track star, Lynda Huey, where he would constantly train with her and then challenge NFL legend, Jim Brown to a race. Who won? In some ways, that is how society is and when it comes to women's sports, men using women as a tool to defeat intense masculinity pressures by other men.
Mind you, I think Wilt was sincere in his support of women's athletics but he always had to deal with masculinity pressure like his sex life. Many basketball peers still maintain that they never saw him with a woman. Many men have always questioned and tried to test Wilt's courage. Lynda mentioned that she never married because Wilt scared off any man that came close to marrying her. Likewise, he never invited her to her family events and treated her rudely in front of people (Robert Lypsyte article, Oct. 13, 2002, New York Times). In short, he remained Peter Pan. However, one thing about Wilt, he never cheated in competition. When he found out that a famous track coach was supplying his athletes with illegal drugs, Wilt immediately withdrew his support to the track team.
I came across her from the Sports Illustrated story discussing Roy Campanella in 1990 by Ron Firmite. It mostly discussed his career with the Dodgers, Jackie Robinson, and the accident that paralyzed him life and the afterwards. It briefly discussed his first wife, Ruthie and how the accident caused the separation. Roy accused of her adultery and then Firmite mentioned her death in 1963. Tommy Lasorda mentioned about her leaving due to his paralysis and about making you wonder why she died? This theme held true in the 1974 movie Its Good To Be Alive where the Ruth showed her alcohol problems and mentioned about him not being to perform due to his paralysis. When Roy died in 1993, same kind of deal but the next week his former teammate, Don Drysdale, died of a heart-attack. That is when things started to change for me, slowly.
When Don died, the whole Dodger was talking about him being a man's man and so on (who could forget about Hawk Harrelson crying). Now, Don was a great guy and very honest in his broadcast but he had drinking issues. I mean, two years before, he got busted with a D.U.I. and sent a lady to the hospital. In his book, Once a Bum, Always a Dodger, every other paragraph seemed to mention about alcohol consumption. Many people have said this death was attributed to his drinking including Mickey Mantle who died two years later. It gave me an impression that Roy was pushed aside for Don. At first, I thought it was a racial but the Edward Murrow show 'Person to Person" which featured Campanella showed me something else.
The background of this was that Roy hit a game winning homer to win Game 3 of the 1953 World Series. Now, he comes home to his family and does the interview. What really stuck was the unhappiness and uneasiness of the whole family including the children. With the exception of Roy Jr., nobody was smiling when Morrow was throwing questions to them. Ruthie looked miserable and sort of tired-passive as if the family got into an argument before the show. What blew me away was how Roy, Sr. behaved? He was smiles and all that but when it came to talking about his kids, he was just praising Roy, Jr. and how he was going to be the star of family-- in front of his other children. He didn't talk about them at all only introducing them to Morrow.
Now, mind you I have seen this with other parents like Richard Williams but this is Roy Campanella after hitting game winning homer in the World Series. Likewise, he acted like it was another ho-hum game (The Dodgers were trying to win their first World Series). The kids acted like his father struck out. I have seen the children of Jackie Robinson look unhappy but I never saw that weariness and unhappiness in his wife, Rachel when they were interviewed for pictures and magazines. But, Jackie showed favorite to his slowest child, Jackie Jr. Maybe reading too much into it but something just wasn't right in Dodger town.
Ruth with Roy and daughter after the accident.
This was in the mid-90's. No blogs then and no commercial publications were going to break myth about Roy and Ruthie Campanella. Only time could do it. But I did look at stories of the Negro-Leagues. There were mentions about Roy having a wife and two girls by the time he was 20 years old. That they were living in his parents home. They mentioned her name as Bernice Ray and why he didn't fight in World War II. Then he divorced her and married Ruth. People didn't divorce back then because it was expensive and Roy was Italian and black living in his parents home! Now, separate, yes. No mention about Bernice. For that matter with Roy's parents. They just seem to disappear when it comes to written when he joined the Negro Leagues. When did they die and so on? Did they care for him when he got paralyzed, too? But this one is about Ruth not Babe but Ruthie.
First I like to know who she was and what she was before she met Roy? I heard she had a son before Roy named David that Roy adopted. He was a do-wop singer before drugs and alcohol killed him at age 41. A newspaper clips mentions him in 1959 about being getting arrested for juvenile gang fight while his father was recovering from his paralysis. You know, I don't remember him on that Edward Morrow interview? With Roy, I now hear the stories about his womanizing and that he was at a mistress's house before the accident. So, Ron Firmite can you stop the "B.S.ing" and your obsession of Reggie Jackson selfishness. Second, I like to hear from Roy, Jr. and how he felt about his mom and what really went on. That goes for Tony and John as well as the daughter's view which we never heard a thing about. Finally, I like to hear about how things really went down with Ruth and was it a Tiger Woods thing?
Ruthie Campanella has been vilified wrongly for all these years to cover Roy's indiscretions. She is no angel but I don't think Roy was either and the truth is slowly coming out. Likewise, I think he followed the Kubler-Ross theory about his paralysis instead of the optimism one that his former teammates talk about. The people in Dodger land history, Campanella family, and the Robinson family need to step up and tell the truth. This is totally wrong. The writers and the truth seekers from that time need to be punished severely for still covering up the truth. Because, Ruthie Campanella is still being punished for no good reason by print.
I hear that Brittney Griner reads comments of what people say about her in the negative. Well, here something in the positive. You have and will make continuous impact on basketball. There. Here is why: Yes, she can dunk, run the floor, and post up like men do. But she takes more abuse than men do from her women compatriots with the trash talking, physical harassment (Sorry, Jordan Hardcastle, you flung her), and ignorance for her achievement by media, fans, and players. ESPN and Fox are trying but the websites, the papers, and magazine give her no love. Yes, she is protected but still you still did a story on Steve Carlton and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
I compare her game to Kareem in his UCLA days as Lew Alcindor in this sense. Shaq and Wilt have said that they should be judged on impact instead of their abilities. One being, did they change the rules due to their dominance. Rule changes? There will be one like the 10 sec. time-line for women. But I don't think the dunk will be outlawed? With her and her team going 40-0. Something has got to give or maybe they will accept her dominance as well as her team? "Sports Century" did a feature on Wilt Chamberlain. It discussed why his team lost concerning that North Carolina played the same way of defense but a 2-3 zone and his teammate, guard, Maurice King, couldn't hit that mid-range shot. The big girl showed her small girls how!
She has a leadership that you don't see in dominant centers then or now. Its quiet but very effective. For instance in that Stanford game, her teammates had open shots due to her opponents all surrounding her in a umbrella man/zone defense. Her teammates started pressing by missing easy open shots from mid-range distance. At open point, they missed something like four in a row. Well, Brittney goes outside and the Stanford defense lets her shoot. She hits one, swish in the first half to keep Baylor tied with Stanford. In the second half, she hit another to extend the lead to eight. She hit only three shots from the floor: two outside, a layup, and free throws for thirteen total points. But her teammates got the message real quick because they started hitting their outside shots.
Credit should go to her coach, Kim Mulkey, for developing her game and so on by getting advice from NBA coaches who coached big men. But the one thing, that coaches have never done for the big guys is to stand up for her when opponents gotten rough with some exception. You hear Wilt, Kareem, Bob Lanier, and other big men complain about coaches' lack of ability of not standing up to the roughness. Hence, they lose respect. I'm sure they will say that Kim Mulkey is tougher than the coaches that they played for and wished they played for her.
But ultimately when it comes to taking responsibility for her team, Brittney Griner is a class by herself from the center position. I have watched women's basketball since 1987 (The 1984 Olympics but U.S. was too dominant and boring due to Russia boycott) due to the restlessness of wanting to see the men's finals the next day. I started to really watch it in 1990 with Stanford winning it, Tennessee responding the next year, and Stanford winning it in 1993. Afterwards, Charlotte Smith, Rebecca Lobo, and Shamique Holdsclaw on their respective teams. But the game really didn't evolve when the WNBA started to get players from college that made immediate impact which took awhile. Yeah, you can say Candace Parker, Lindsay Whalen, and Angel McCoughtry. But all they get asked if they are married to ugly guys. With Brittney, its about her play and how she impacts her team. Period. None of that nonsense.
The talk shows and other discussion outlets are nothing but hypocritical hustlers. They talk about guys shouldn't leave college and how college basketball is missing something with high-schoolers leaving for the pros. They don't have anybody or teams to dislike or like to have rivalry like Duke with Christian Laettner. The whiny stuff. But when it comes to women who stay all four years, good citizens, and students, its "they don't dunk" bull. With Brittney, its wondering about her sex, literally. Well, I don't care because she has impacted the game with such ferocity that I don't bother watching the men. Nothing personal but Brittney's impact is greater than then the guys which you have to go back to Wilt, Kareem, and Shaq. One more of Brittney in college? Wow. New Orleans, here I come even if the talk won't.
