The Flop.. Good for Sports?

I was listening to cry babies, a pod cast from This American Life. It highlighted the advent of the pro athlete version that has taken all of the sports by a storm. The flop.

In its most pure form and perhaps the originator of the flop comes from World Soccer. These injures or "fake injuries" help to slow down the play. The subject claims dramatic injury from a minor or no infraction. The sport of soccer has a way of dealing with this. Additional time is added to the end of the game when time is taken and cards are displayed. Cards are displayed for inappropriate play. It is still a theft of the audience time when half the team spends time withering in pain on the field of play.

This segment from This American Life cited that even baseball and Derek Jetter were not immune to such antics. Derek faked being hit by the pitcher to get on base for the New York Yankees. Vladi Devak, the 7 foot 1 inch former center for the Sacramento Kings and later the LA Lakers had perfected the flop and introduced it to the whole National Basketball League. Its inception was exasperated by a rule change that did not allow any hand checks in the game. Fear of the flop resulted in more passing in the game and more interesting play by outside shooters.

The flop in football is fairly prolific. The quarterback fakes the smash after the ball is thrown. The receivers and the corners play with the referees on pass interference. The ultimate flop is recorded for a punter that gets hit after kicking the ball. There is even an anti flop provision that would recall the play if the kicker intentionally flops.

So where is flop when you consider sportsmanship? Does it effect games? Is it fair to effect play with acting?

I really think overall the flop is cheapening the sports experience. I have no problem with good acting. It should however not be in sports. It should not slow the play or give unfair advantage to an athlete or a team who is beaten in the play and this is the only recourse to make it even. I think that in televised pro sports the flop is inappropriate.

Flight of Passage a book to read

I know you inveterate book readers will scoff at the idea that I have finished my fourth book since retirement. I must fully commit to a book to read it because so few get completed. They better be good and pretty easy to read.

Sue picked this gem out of the costco paperback group and it is one right down my alley. The book is Flight of Passage a memoir by Rinker Buck.

With a name like that you just have to read it. It happened in the same era that I went to high school, 1964-1968. Its flight occurred 1966. While there is a lot of flying in the story, there is really very limited technical jargon needed to understand the book,

The story is of the interaction of two high school aged boys with their father. Their father was a hyperbolic magazine editor and leader of many civil rights demonstrations. Their family was a large catholic family that lived in New Jersey and flew planes. The father lost a leg in an aviation accident. This shaped some of the experiences of the boys.

Rinker's older brother, was really the idealized pilot of the two. He is the good student, but lacked the social skills his younger bother possesses.

One summer after working the entire winter restoring an 85 horsepower piper cub, the two flew cross country in 6 days, from New Jersey to California. This book covers many of their experiences in this flight. At the time others claimed that they were the youngest pair to fly coast to coast. They had no radio in their plane and limited knowledge of how temperature and altitude could interact with their flight.

Its a very nice easy read.

: ) Pat