Daily dump: Why are we supposed to care about TV ratings?
We’re not going to rehash the painful episode that unfolded Sunday in the world of sports. And no, we’re not talking about “The ESPYs”, although we’re proud to say we’ve still yet to watch one second of that televisual farce in all the years The World Wide Follower has been inflicting it upon viewers.
We’re talking about the British Open and Tom Watson’s now-infamous meltdown during the last hole of regulation and beyond. In case you missed it, Fanhouse has a solid wrap-up of the tourney here. Stories of Watson’s good will and good-natured personality have been plentiful the past few days, all of which made his tribulations Sunday even more difficult to stomach.
Yelena Isinbayeva
The good news for Watson fans is that no one really cared about what happened in the British Open this weekend anyways. How do we know? Well, had you tuned into a sports radio show Friday (local or national), then you would have known that the tournament no longer mattered since Tiger failed to make the cut and Mickelson skipped the event to tend to his wife. Preposterous, you say? Not if you’re the host of a radio show. In a span of three hours Friday, we were treated to no less than four different shows that helpfully pointed out to us that the British Open was indeed “pointless” from that point forward. One particular blowhard even informed us that the world’s oldest major had been reduced to a “Nationwide event” without Tiger and Phil. Most of the hosts then proceeded to explain to us in painstaking lengths how bad the weekend TV ratings would be for the event.
Which all leads us to one of our favorite cultural questions: Why exactly would anyone other than a television executive give a frog’s fat ass about ratings? Why are we supposed to care whether the British Open gets a 2.5 rating or an eleventy-billion rating? Here’s a novel idea, sports fans — stop waiting for ESPN to tell you if something is cool or not. Watch what you want to watch, whether that’s a Tiger-less British Open, the Tour de France, or some motocross event in a swarthy European outpost.
Let the suits worry about the numbers. That’s what they get paid (way too much) for.
Monday’s linkapalooza …
- Yelena Isinbayeva apparently won some big pole vaulting meet on Friday in Paris. This is important because a) it gave With Leather a reason to post a gallery of her photos; and b) it gave us a reason to link to it.
- At some big-time football schools, star players get paid copious amounts of money (allegedly) by fat cat alumni (allegedly) for doing virtually nothing (allegedly). And then there’s the opposite end of the spectrum, in which kickers at second-rate programs plunge 35 feet while performing safety checks at amusement parks. (TB Sports Blog)
- Deaf Buckeye fan incurs wrath of sports blogger. (Sports by Brooks)
- Can’t wait to hear Jim Calhoun berate the reporter who dares to ask him about this one: UConn partial-qualifier freshman who toyed with idea of entering NBA Draft now claims he’ll be getting his “law degree.” Uh-huh. (Sox and Dawgs)
- Mr. Blackwell, meet Cecilio Guante.
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La massa e la resistenza muscolare del cielo
di Erika Prezerakou e Yelena Isinbayeva
Lo sport puramente locomotorio della Prezerakou e della Isinbayeva richiede una forza muscolare alta come la solidità di articolazioni e legamenti.
L’elevata capacità di rilassarsi permette che l’equilibrio tra massa muscolare e resistenza muscolare e cardiorespiratoria faccia eseguire le prove con grande abilità.
L’atleta, sia la greca che la russa, nel circuito di flessibilità, viene vista dal visionatore di Morin nell’”autotrasfusione”, in cui cammina lentamente con le braccia alzate sopra la testa stringendo ripetutamente le mani a pugno, e nella “bicicletta”, in cui, sdraiata sul dorso con le gambe all’aria e le anche sollevate sostenute dalle mani, pedala per cicli di 60 giri; fino al “sollevare le anche”, in cui sempre sdraiata per terra mette le piante dei piedi sul pavimento vicino ai glutei e alza lentamente le anche tenendole staccate dal pavimento cosicché la parte bassa della schiena sia stirata.
Il visionatore di Morin visualizza il risultato che l’atleta desidera e il corpo dell’atleta farà del suo meglio per compiacerlo: il corpo segue i suggerimenti della mente, perché l’intero sistema nervoso motorio è collegato al segnale visuale; “visuale” significa qui non semplicemente quello che si vede, ma anche quello che si concettualizza: l’atleta visualizza il risultato; il visionatore, su questo pensiero che organizza l’esecuzione, visualizza l’assolutezza anonima dell’esecuzione atletica.
Tra l’asta, con cui si dovrà correre, e l’inversione del “salto del canguro”, con cui ci si cala dal cielo, c’è tutta questa “attesa” che lega il risultato dell’atleta all’esecuzione del visionatore; nel campo visivo, in quell’angolo di 45° che è la finestra dell’impatto estetico, c’è l’”iconicità pregnante” che dà massa e resistenza muscolare al cielo, e la “polisemia iconica” che di nuovo rende infinita la mobilità del pondus dell’atleta, che è ritornata sul piano dell’orizzonte del visionatore.
V.S.Gaudio