By Phil Mushnick
Why strain to write words that have already been spoken?
Or sung?
So I again call upon the British rockers and balladeers, The Kinks, to do my heavy lifting.
In their 1971 song “Muswell Hillbillies” they rhapsodized Appalachia, with, “Take me back to those black hills that I ain’t never seen.”
How did we get here and how do we return people to a place they’ve never been?
Sports have been so purposefully and senselessly denuded of sportsmanship — modesty, self-respect, respect for the sports and their audiences — that at least one entire generation has entered adulthood not knowing right from wrong, and worse, has been encouraged to choose wrong over right.
Consider the forces of media, marketing, political pandering and money that are now in the process and business of destroying girls’ and women’s sports the same way they did a number on boys’ and men’s sports.
As of last week, the three most celebrated and rewarded American female athletes in recent times have been Serena Williams, Megan Rapinoe and now LSU basketball star Angel Reese, who ostensibly is an amateur, though suddenly enriched by NIL deals totaling more than a million dollars. All of them have the same character traits conspicuously in common.
They are obnoxious, conditioned low-roaders who once would have been rejected for their antisocial, desensitized public conduct.
They are all unabashedly vulgar.
They are all rude, rotten winners.
They have been antithetical to the minimal ideals of their sports and all sports.
And they are a turn-off to those who know what ails us, the nation and kids born and raised to excessively ugly scenes and words that so clearly afflict their social growth to maturity.
Yet look at the rewards they have reaped for acting like creeps.
President Biden bestowed on Rapinoe the country’s highest civilian medal, apparently for behaving like a preening, stage-hogging, me-first, bully who brought dishonor to America throughout and beyond an internationally televised World Cup.
Randy Arozarena celebrates his home run against the Yankees on May 5.
Getty Images
How do we fix this?
It’s too late.
The assigned authorities of the sports — adult men and women — are either compliant or eager to have the sport removed from their sports rather than risk ridicule as being out of step.
That’s why “End Racism” Roger Goodell invites vulgar, N-word-spewing, crotch-grabbing rappers to “entertain” at the Super Bowl.
On May 5, Rays star Randy Arozarena hit a home run against the Yankees.
As he approached third base, he stopped and posed, arms-folded like a smug braggart — a stance mimicked by third base coach Brady Williams.
Then he did it again on the way to the dugout, in unison with teammate Wander Franco.
Hitting a home run — or even a double — no longer speaks for itself.
It must be followed by some excessively immodest demonstration that is rationalized and excused by pandering modern media as professionals merely “having fun” — even if violence naturally follows.
In fact, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has certified such conduct as a great way to attract our children to baseball.
The MLB Network regularly presents home-plate posers and bat-flippers as the cool guys of The Game.
Naturally, as if Manfred doesn’t know better — and he may not — Arozarena became a target, twice hit by pitches.
A brawl was naturally anticipated, but was unplugged by umps quickly acting as cops.
I guess that those who didn’t see the fun in it at all were not genuine fans of what baseball and nearly all sports have become.
Two days later, during a Denver-Phoenix playoff game — these NBA playoffs have been infested with selfish, personal, all-about-me incivilities — Suns team owner Mat Ishbia became involved in a sideline shoving incident with Denver star Nikola Jokic.
But this season, from Dallas to New York, we’ve seen that dignity is not required to own an NBA team.
We can run, but short of surrendering sports to those who are destroying them, we can’t hide.
Not even if we return to the black hills we ain’t never seen.
So where do we go when nothing is beneath us?
For some — as in many — we go away, never to return.
Why strain to write words that have already been spoken?
Or sung?
So I again call upon the British rockers and balladeers, The Kinks, to do my heavy lifting.
In their 1971 song “Muswell Hillbillies” they rhapsodized Appalachia, with, “Take me back to those black hills that I ain’t never seen.”
How did we get here and how do we return people to a place they’ve never been?
Sports have been so purposefully and senselessly denuded of sportsmanship — modesty, self-respect, respect for the sports and their audiences — that at least one entire generation has entered adulthood not knowing right from wrong, and worse, has been encouraged to choose wrong over right.
Consider the forces of media, marketing, political pandering and money that are now in the process and business of destroying girls’ and women’s sports the same way they did a number on boys’ and men’s sports.
As of last week, the three most celebrated and rewarded American female athletes in recent times have been Serena Williams, Megan Rapinoe and now LSU basketball star Angel Reese, who ostensibly is an amateur, though suddenly enriched by NIL deals totaling more than a million dollars. All of them have the same character traits conspicuously in common.
They are obnoxious, conditioned low-roaders who once would have been rejected for their antisocial, desensitized public conduct.
They are all unabashedly vulgar.
They are all rude, rotten winners.
They have been antithetical to the minimal ideals of their sports and all sports.
And they are a turn-off to those who know what ails us, the nation and kids born and raised to excessively ugly scenes and words that so clearly afflict their social growth to maturity.
Yet look at the rewards they have reaped for acting like creeps.
President Biden bestowed on Rapinoe the country’s highest civilian medal, apparently for behaving like a preening, stage-hogging, me-first, bully who brought dishonor to America throughout and beyond an internationally televised World Cup.
Randy Arozarena celebrates his home run against the Yankees on May 5.
Getty Images
How do we fix this?
It’s too late.
The assigned authorities of the sports — adult men and women — are either compliant or eager to have the sport removed from their sports rather than risk ridicule as being out of step.
That’s why “End Racism” Roger Goodell invites vulgar, N-word-spewing, crotch-grabbing rappers to “entertain” at the Super Bowl.
On May 5, Rays star Randy Arozarena hit a home run against the Yankees.
As he approached third base, he stopped and posed, arms-folded like a smug braggart — a stance mimicked by third base coach Brady Williams.
Then he did it again on the way to the dugout, in unison with teammate Wander Franco.
Hitting a home run — or even a double — no longer speaks for itself.
It must be followed by some excessively immodest demonstration that is rationalized and excused by pandering modern media as professionals merely “having fun” — even if violence naturally follows.
In fact, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has certified such conduct as a great way to attract our children to baseball.
The MLB Network regularly presents home-plate posers and bat-flippers as the cool guys of The Game.
Naturally, as if Manfred doesn’t know better — and he may not — Arozarena became a target, twice hit by pitches.
A brawl was naturally anticipated, but was unplugged by umps quickly acting as cops.
I guess that those who didn’t see the fun in it at all were not genuine fans of what baseball and nearly all sports have become.
Two days later, during a Denver-Phoenix playoff game — these NBA playoffs have been infested with selfish, personal, all-about-me incivilities — Suns team owner Mat Ishbia became involved in a sideline shoving incident with Denver star Nikola Jokic.
But this season, from Dallas to New York, we’ve seen that dignity is not required to own an NBA team.
We can run, but short of surrendering sports to those who are destroying them, we can’t hide.
Not even if we return to the black hills we ain’t never seen.
So where do we go when nothing is beneath us?
For some — as in many — we go away, never to return.
Huggins keeps job after slur, but guy who blasts him on air does not................
Rays’ Randy Arozarena joins growing list of stage-hogging athletes disrespecting game
Hitting a home run, or even a double no longer speaks for itself.
nypost.com
