Moronic CNBC Writer and his "apology"

[Freudian_Slit]

@Gangster_Octopus

What I don’t understand is why folks don’t think Met’s story is an ideal American story. How he came as a boy, embraced despite his cultural differences, trained here and succeeded. Why wouldn’t that be worthy of greater celebration, why would anyone make it seem less so?

Yeah. Besides, I don’t see the ringer equivalent. It’s not like he was recruited by the marathon people to come over at 12 and train for years to win the marathon in '09.

[Bryan_Ekers]

@Giles

You mean like the current President of the US has a normal American name? (Not that he was actually born outside the US.)

The presidency’s all well and good, but we’re talking about sports, man!

[brickbacon]

@mhendo

Your use of the term “value system” here is so far removed from any reasonable general use of the term as to be completely meaningless.

So this is a semantics argument? Here’s the wiki article on values.

Types of values include ethical/moral values, doctrinal/ideological (religious, political) values, social values, and aesthetic values

I believe I am using the word correctly. The things we chose to do reflect on our values. People who play professional sports choose those sports in the majority of cases based on money, prestige, social standing, and talent. How we value money and fame is directly related to why we don’t have many elite distance runners or table tennis players.

@Diogenes_the_Cynic

I think you just need to substitute some other phrase for “value system.” You aren’t really talking about “values” in the way most people talk about them. You’re talking about cultural sports preferences, which doesn’t really have anything to do with a “value system” except under a second tier definition of “values.”

Fair enough, but I think our cultural sports preferences are directly related to our values. But if the phrasing you used is more clear, I am fine with that.

@Marley23

Look, I’ll level with you here: I don’t think anyone in this thread knows a lot about the U.S. running program. I don’t. I don’t care about marathons at all, actually. And when I saw Keflezighi was winning, I wondered if he’d emigrated from East Africa because the popular story/joke with these marathons is that the winners are almost always men from Kenya.* So I wasn’t surprised to find out he’s from Eritrea.

I’ll level with you too. I thought the same thing. When I saw him interviewed on TV, and heard his story, I thought to myself, “ah, that makes sense”. Why? Because a person born in America, is generally influenced by the dominate culture that tells anyone with that kind of athletic talent to do something more profitable. I do not question the guy’s patriotism or his bona fides, I just think it’s kinda wrong to grab this coattails when the reality is that if he were more affected by the dominate culture, he would probably be playing football or something. I don’t have a problem with them calling him American or being proud of his win, I just think it needs to stop well short of the chest-pounding, gloating, and flag waving that usually accompanies these sort of things.

@Marley23

If he’d come here last year or a couple of years ago, even if he was a legitimate citizen, it might be fair to call him a ringer from an athletics standpoint. That kind of thing happens fairly often in international competition. It didn’t happen with this guy, and if the author had have done even a modicum of research before spouting off, he would have known that. This could have been avoided by a freaking Google search.

Again, the article was tactless and unfair. He is not a ringer is any common understanding of the word. However, I think that part was a joke, and was added to make the general point that his story does not really reflect on American athletics.

@Marley23

*Nice of the Kenyans to give the US the marathon after taking the presidency!

Good one!

[Sitnam]

brickbacon, you’re batting for the cycle in douchebaggery.

[brickbacon]

@Sitnam

brickbacon, you’re batting for the cycle in douchebaggery.

And you’re a fucking idiot.

[Sitnam]

I can cite this entire thread for your douchebaggery, how do you know I’m an idiot?

[chique]

@Gangster_Octopus

What I don’t understand is why folks don’t think Met’s story is an ideal American story. How he came as a boy, embraced despite his cultural differences, trained here and succeeded. Why wouldn’t that be worthy of greater celebration, why would anyone make it seem less so?

I know this thought may be coming out of left field but do you think it could possibly have anything at all to do with the fact that he’s not white? I know my theory may be just a little bit out there but, gee, ya think skin color has something to do with it? Just a thought.

[armedmonkey]

@brickbacon

And you’re a fucking idiot.

You ever see the movie Candyman? In that, this chick looks in a mirror and says “Candyman, Candyman, Candyman”, only to realize… well, you’ll have to see the movie.

But instead of seeing the movie, you could go to the mirror yourself. Light some candles to make it all spooky. Look deeply into the mirror. And then repeat what I just quoted three times.

[BigT]

I just don’t understand the need to call someone an idiot who can speak intelligently, has an opinion, and can actually explain that opinion. It seems it is being done just because you disagree with his conclusions.

I’m not saying not to say something mean to him. This is the pit after all. Just come up with something more creative and applicable.

[Marley23]

@BigT

I just don’t understand the need to call someone an idiot who can speak intelligently, has an opinion, and can actually explain that opinion. It seems it is being done just because you disagree with his conclusions.

Because he behaved like an idiot, BigT. His explanation for his opinion was “Oops, I didn’t do any research on my subject.” That’s idiotic. By itself, the ability to speak intelligently is not worthy of that much respect.

[Gangster_Octopus]

@Marley23

Because he behaved like an idiot, BigT. His explanation for his opinion was “Oops, I didn’t do any research on my subject.” That’s idiotic. By itself, the ability to speak intelligently is not worthy of that much respect.

I think (although I may be wrong) that he is referring to brickbacon’s earlier post.

[DanBlather]

@brickbacon

What the fuck does freedom and democracy have to do with anything? The reality is that people here generally don’t give a shit about distance running, as evidenced by the fact that we generally suck at it. Americans (by and large) do not value distance running, hence, it’s not highly regarded in our value system.

Really? The home of Nike which was started by a track star from University of Oregon? Come to Oregon sometime, Steve Prefontaine, Mary Decker, and Alberto Salaazar are fucking heroes. Or Boston, the home of one of the most famous marathons in the world, where 20,000 people completed the race last year.

[Gala_Matrix_Fire]

All that shows is that Oregon and Boston don’t share American values, which are lazing around, watching TV, and eating more calories in a single meal than you should eat all day.

Personally, I’m not understanding why I’m supposed to feel that it’s better for an American to win this marathon than a citizen of any other country. We could always disinvite the rest of the world, like in the “world series” of baseball.

[Freudian_Slit]

@Gala_Matrix_Fire

All that shows is that Oregon and Boston don’t share American values, which are lazing around, watching TV, and eating more calories in a single meal than you should eat all day.

Personally, I’m not understanding why I’m supposed to feel that it’s better for an American to win this marathon than a citizen of any other country. We could always disinvite the rest of the world, like in the “world series” of baseball.

Hey, as long as a human won. Screw those androids, intelligent apes, and extra terrestrials!

[sinjin]

@DanBlather

Really? The home of Nike which was started by a track star from University of Oregon? Come to Oregon sometime, Steve Prefontaine, Mary Decker, and Alberto Salaazar are fucking heroes. Or Boston, the home of one of the most famous marathons in the world, where 20,000 people completed the race last year.

Bleh, I hate you. I was just coming in to mention Pre, who was my son’s hero forever. My son was also a long distance runner in HS and College. I guess we didn’t embrace “American Values” either. Who knew? Where does “America” stand on swimming and skiing? I might have to move.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@Gangster_Octopus

What I don’t understand is why folks don’t think Met’s story is an ideal American story. How he came as a boy, embraced despite his cultural differences, trained here and succeeded.

In Obama’s America, these horrible things happen on a daily basis, you know.

[R.P.McMurphy]

@brickbacon

I agree with him. It’s kinda like when people thought Freddie Adu was gonna be the next big soccer phenom. At the Beijing Olympics, we had 33 foreign-born athletes, including 4 Chinese-born table tennis players. Why? Probably because Americans generally don’t play table tennis. They may have done all their training here, but, in all likelihood, he still grew up in a household that did not share American indifference to soccer, table tennis, or distance running.

The fact is the US has a long history of unfairly taking all the credit for foreign-born athletes winning under our flag. Nobody is claiming that they aren’t American, just that it’s worth noting their background because people who actually grow up here, and embrace our value system don’t tend to gravitate towards those things.

I suspect the reporter was trying to make a joke, so I don’t come down on him too hard. The reality is that this wouldn’t be story except that they can play up the angle that American distance running mediocrity is coming to an end, and that attitudes that have lead to that mediocrity are waning. But the reality is that it’s not.

What a bunch of BS. If you would watch even a few minutes of any recent Olympics you would hear all this crap about foreign athletes (a lot of track and field stars but also tennis players, etc.) that came to the US (oftentimes on scholarships) trained in the US and went back to their native countries to compete on their national teams.

It’s all a big, “So what?” It is individuals that deliver the performance, not a bunch of ethnocentric wannabees that get their jollies by taking ownership of the hard work of someone else.

As for tonight, is Hideki Matsui a “Yankee”?

[orcenio]

I don’t see how he can’t culturally identify as both American and Eritrean? It’s not like one “cancels” the other. He was born in Eritrea and he chooses to live/work his life in the USA; that’s reality, not a contradiction.

Legally both countries call him a citizen:
[

Eritrea has complicated citizenship laws and does not recognize renunciation of Eritrean citizenship. Dual nationals who enter the country on Eritrean documents are treated as Eritrean citizens, regardless of their other citizenship. U.S. citizens born in Eritrea, or who otherwise are considered to have acquired Eritrean citizenship, may be subject to certain obligations, including being drafted into national service, regardless of the documents they present at entry. (National service is approximately six months of military training, followed by an often unspecified number of years in military or other government service.)

](http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1111.html)