Meschery's Musings of Sports, Literature, and Life

What my musings are all about...

Blogging might well be the 21st century's form of journaling. As a writing teacher, I have always advised my students to keep a daily journal as a way of organizing their thoughts for future writing projects, a discipline I have unfortunately never consistently practiced myself. By blogging, I might finally be able to follow my own good advice.

The difference between journaling and blogging is that the blogger opens his or her writing to the public, something journal- writers are usually reluctant to do. I am not so reticent.

The trick for me will be to avoid cluttering the internet with more blather, something none of us need more of. If I stick to subjects I know: sports and literature, I believe I can avoid that pitfall. I can't promise that I'll not stray from time to time to comment on ancillary subjects, but I will make every attempt to be interesting and perhaps even insightful.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Huh?

Back to blogging with a new idea. In the future, I'm going to include a section in my blog called, "Huh?" I could call it "I don't get it." but "Huh?" to me sums up my gut reaction to certain beyond stupid stuff that happens in sports.

SUCH AS: In today's sporting news, I read that the IOC has refused to conduct viral tests of the waters at the Olympic waterways ahead of the start of the Olympics even though the Brazilian government' own medical labs found the waterways filled with all manner of disease causing viruses and bacteria and our Junior Olympic crew team and other country's teams recently suffered many types of stomach disorders. HUH?

What is going on with NFL Commissh Roger Goodell? Why is he wasting his time on Deflategate when, according to news sources, 206 NFL players were arrested - some repeatedly- during one 260 day period for domestic violence, gun violations, drugs, DUI's and other infractions HUH?

My last blog had Jason Thompson still playing with the Kings. Since then, he's been traded to the 76er's and re-traded to the Golden State Warriors. I had to give this acquisition by my Dubs a lot of thought, and finally decided that Bob Meyers, the Warrior GM, might have pulled off a gem of a move. The Warriors needed a back up for Draymond Green, preferably a defender and a rebounder. Jason at 6'11" can do both well, albeit he has to grow as a consistent rebounder and defender. Consistency has always been his problem - one good game followed by three disappearances. In addition, the kid needs to stop complaining on every call against him, a stupid character trait that the excellent Warriors' coaching staff ought to rid him of pronto. In terms of the rest of his game, if Jason Thompson can ever consistently knock down his 15 foot jumper and consistently shoot his freethrows, the Warriors may have wound up with a strong rotation player. It's every game, not every three games, Jason. You got It? Good, Now go out and make the Warriors proud?

From my upcoming chapbook of poetry entitled Sky Hooks written in the style of the Asian masters, here's a poem written about a soccer match I witnessed in Algeria while I was there coaching basketball.

Football in Algiers 1965 by Tom Meschery

Backwards scissors-kick
Day before the revolution
Crowd on its feet cheering