On the Ball: Good sports

The athletics news you can't live without

Posted by Sarah K. Burkhalter at 10:15 AM on 16 Mar 2008

Here's a fun game for the whole family: You name a sport; I'll tell you how it's jumping on the green bandwagon. Ready? OK!

Baseball: Milwaukee Brewers first basement Prince Fielder has become a vegetarian after his wife gave him a copy of the book Skinny Bitch. He's probably not in their target demographic, but whatevs.

Photo: Kingdafy

Major League Baseball has teamed up with the Natural Resources Defense Council for a Team Greening Program, designed to "support and coordinate the many environmentally sensitive practices now pursued by virtually every Major League Baseball Club." (Who knew?)

The New York Mets have also announced that their new Citi Field will boast exciting eco-features like recycled steel, energy-efficient lights, and waterless urinals. Cue groan-worthy statement by EPA Regional Administrator Alan Steinberg: "We know that Citi Field, with its green grass and green facilities, will make the National League and the entire American League green with envy." Please, someone, assure me that Grist's puns aren't quite that bad.

Golf: Pro swinger Tripp Isenhour is accused of intentionally hitting and killing a red-shouldered hawk with a golf ball. Isenhour has been charged with two misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals and killing a migratory bird, which carry a maximum penalty of 14 months in jail and $1,500 in fines. Isenhour says he wasn't trying to hit the hawk, but witnesses disagree.

In happier birdie news (see what I did there?) a luxury golf course community in Florida is sharing space with bald eagles.

Hockey: An impressive 523 members of the National Hockey League Players' Association are participating in the "NHLPA Carbon Neutral Challenge," which means that they're -- you guessed it -- purchasing carbon offsets for their hockey-related travel and accommodations.

At least one player is going further: the Vancouver Canucks' Willie Mitchell traded in his SUV for a Prius. "I'll be honest; I had an H2 at one time," says Mitchell. But now: "I'm not perfect, by no means, but you've got to start somewhere. I recycle. I changed out the light bulbs, put in the LEDs. I put my newspapers in the blue box, take the labels off cans. I just feel like it's my obligation."

Biking: Worksman Cycles, the oldest bicycle manufacturer in the U.S., is going to start powering its operations with solar energy. The business specializes in adult tricycles and hot-dog vending carts, which is awesome.

Beijing Olympics: The Olympic Village in Beijing is designed to be "energy-saving and environmentally friendly." It's powered partly with solar energy and will recycle waste water, among other things.

Marathon world-record holder Haile Gebreselassie will aim to qualify in the 10,000 meters instead of the marathon, in fear that the air quality would affect his asthma.

In response to concerns about water availability, Beijing officials say they are confident there will be enough.

The city also says it plans to compensate residents who will face driving restrictions during the games.

And while Beijing is rushing to get green for the Games, city officials aim to maintain a longer-term focus on reducing pollution: they've begun gathering data on 90,000 pollution sources, which will be publicized next year.

London Olympics: London plans to hold a car-free Games in 2012 -- except for the 3,000 chaffeur-driven cars that the International Olympic Committee is demanding for fancy folk. Green Assemblymember Jenny Jones: "I am appalled that so many bigwigs will be chauffeured around on dedicated lanes when there is going to be a superb public transport service as well as a special coach service. It is against the whole spirit of the Games, which is meant to be the greenest ever."

Sorry, friends, no green news hot off the presses about curling or ping-pong today. Perhaps next week.

For story: On the Ball: Good sports
7 Comments | Post a Comment

Not so green sports

I'll just toss out a couple observations on the lack of greenness in my sports.

Gymnastics - massive amounts of chauffeuring around of children to distant gyms. >_< No easy way around this but the best bets involve better public transit, making neighbourhoods safer for cycling, carpooling, and improved fuel economy standards for personal vehicles will also make a difference.

Rowing - it's human-powered and looks great on the surface but usually involves participants driving some distance to facilities. Since more of the participants are adults, there is greater ability to make personal decisions reducing fuel use.

by katakanadian at 3:09 PM on 16 Mar 2008

Go Red Sox!

Nice pic of Fenway. Home opener is just a few short weeks away.

by Sir Oolius at 7:01 AM on 17 Mar 2008

The Beijing Olympics, and Tibet

Have the GHG emissions of international travelers going to attend the various Olympic Games on various continents been compared, with other attendance patterns being taken into account? If it is true -- which perhaps it is not -- that most such travelers are from Europe and North America, then would locations of Olympic Games in, say, Athens, Barcelona, Atlanta, and, in four years, London, elicit a smaller amount of GHG emissions than Beijing, or, mein Gott!, Sydney?

By the same token, though, do venues outside of Europe and North America tend to draw fewer visitors? Was Sydney well-attended, relatively?

Will very many Chinese from outside of Beijing be attending the Olympics? -- whether willingly, or encouraged by the government. If so, how will they be traveling?

Are there any fans and lovers of the Olympic Games, who are saying, "I would love to go to Beijing, but, for the sake of the planet, I am just going to stay home and watch the Games on TV"?

As for Tibet: Certainly Jacques Rogge and the IOC do not think there is any reason to boycott the Beijing Games at this point, and that seems reasonable. And the poor Dalai Lama is doing all he can not to seem to push the Chinese too much, while still expressing strong solidarity with the protesters:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/17/world/asia/17tibet.html ....

A cynic would say he is just struggling to remain relevant, after he has failed to establish a more satisfactory arrangement with the Chinese. Well, that is not impossible; but I think it would be hard to doubt that he really does have the best interests of his people at heart, and that these include cleaving strictly to non-violent forms of protest, and achieving autonomy within China, not full independence. How realistic he is being, is another matter.

I have never felt sorrier for him. He is as aware as anyone of the significance of the Beijing Olympics in the background; and without calling attention to that particularly, he rather piteously calls on the international community to speak out for human rights in Tibet -- piteously, I say, because we in the international community, cowards and opportunists, are not going to say anything of consequence, and nevertheless the Chinese government will feel all the more justified to treat the Dalai Lama as a bitter foe.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 8:24 AM on 17 Mar 2008

Isenhour and the hawk

Golf balls are not easy missiles to aim, sure. But this pro golfer had a few shots at the hawk, to make corrections on his aim. If all he was trying to do was to scare the hawk away, then he went about it in a quite brainless way.

Sibley says of the Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus), a smallish buteo:
<<
Population in southern Florida has much paler and grayer adult plumage than northern birds .... Voice: Very vocal and often heard. High, clear, repeated keeyuur keeyuur ...
>>

And there is a picture of the Florida subspecies, with grey and buff plumage, in contrast with the brown and orange plumage of northern birds.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 8:42 AM on 17 Mar 2008

Team competitive sports

It seems to me that you could compete in sports like weightlifting, cheerleading and gymnastics remotely, with enough standardization. You'd still have to meet up for wrestling and tennis, but technology will catch up....

by malechem at 9:07 AM on 17 Mar 2008

remote competition

Nice idea, MaleChem. But I am sure there are thousands of sports aficionados who would always feel that the conditions were never quite even and fair, if the competitors were not in the same place at the same time.

It never made total sense to me, why, if an athlete broke a record or beat his/her personal best in a fair and well-monitored pre-Olympic competition, he/she could not just send in those statistics in lieu of showing up at the Olympics. But that is the way it goes. There are lots of examples, are there not, of athletes who performed fantastically well in the year prior to an Olympics, who then did not nearly so well at the Olympics themselves. That seems so cruel and unfair -- but where, really, does justice lie?

In terms of ancient Greek religion and theology, and the relationship between gods and human beings -- the Olympic Games of course having been a religious festival in honor of Zeus -- , that makes perfect sense. But we are supposed to be much more enlightened nowadays, no?, and religion should never count any more.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 9:40 AM on 17 Mar 2008

"happier birdie news"

(Yes, Sarah, I see what you did: very cute.)

Bobby Ginn is a genius, maybe even a saint at times. God bless him! And God bless the beleaguered wild animals of Florida, and their human friends!

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 9:43 AM on 17 Mar 2008

Super Bowl Champions

I think you forgot to mention the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants. That game is going to be talked about forever.

P.S. Lets go Yankees!!!

Check out some great football paintings by Sports Artist Edgar Brown.

by JBro123 at 11:31 AM on 24 Mar 2008

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