The Michael Jordan Syndrome
May. 25th, 2003 01:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
libertangoThoughts about Annika Sorenstam:
There seems to be this undercurrent -- even by Ms. Sorenstam herself -- that somehow the whole venture was a failure.
This mystifies me. Even if we have seen it before.
It's true, Ms. Sorenstam didn't make the cut, that halfway winnowing of the field.
But.
But she did beat eleven other players, and tied with five. Even though this was her first PGA tournament ever. Even though she was, basically, a rookie.
I'm reminded of the progress that's been made in the marathon.
Back in 1969, the men's world record for the marathon stood at 2 hours, 8 minutes. The women's record was at 3:07.
Today, a full generation later, the men's record stands at 2:05. Male marathoners today are a whole 3 minutes faster than they were 34 years ago. And the women's record?
2:17.
That would be fifty minutes faster, and a mere 12 minutes behind the men. At that pace, the handwriting is clearly on the wall -- within my lifetime, women will quite probably be beating men in the marathon.
My point? My point is that, sure, Ms. Sorenstam didn't make the cut -- this time. But what would happen next time? Or the time after that?
Still, don't look for Ms. Sorenstam to be out there anytime soon. She's been quoted as saying, "I've got to go back to my tour, to where I belong. I'm glad I did it but this is way over my head."
Which is wrong on both counts.
We've seen this all happen before, of course. Which is where the title of this post comes in.
A few years back, many may remember how Michael Jordan tried to break into Major League Baseball. An effort that, again, while not stellar, was certainly better than about 1/4 to 1/3 of the players currently out there.
The trouble was... He wasn't a star. He wasn't MICHAEL JORDAN.
And, apparently, that was more important than his "dream" of being a professional baseball player. The clause we never heard about was that he wanted to be a baseball star.
Now Ms. Sorenstam appears to be falling into the same trap. Could she play at the PGA level, and even make a living at it? Based on this weekend, yes, she could.
But would she be a star, the way she is in the LPGA?
Well, no.
But, sooner or later, the number two or the number three player in the LPGA is going to realize, "You know... I might not beat eleven the first time out, but I bet I could beat five.... And I bet I'd get better..." In other words, sooner or later, some woman is going to realize that successfully playing the game is more important than being a star.
And that's when history will be made.
There seems to be this undercurrent -- even by Ms. Sorenstam herself -- that somehow the whole venture was a failure.
This mystifies me. Even if we have seen it before.
It's true, Ms. Sorenstam didn't make the cut, that halfway winnowing of the field.
But.
But she did beat eleven other players, and tied with five. Even though this was her first PGA tournament ever. Even though she was, basically, a rookie.
I'm reminded of the progress that's been made in the marathon.
Back in 1969, the men's world record for the marathon stood at 2 hours, 8 minutes. The women's record was at 3:07.
Today, a full generation later, the men's record stands at 2:05. Male marathoners today are a whole 3 minutes faster than they were 34 years ago. And the women's record?
2:17.
That would be fifty minutes faster, and a mere 12 minutes behind the men. At that pace, the handwriting is clearly on the wall -- within my lifetime, women will quite probably be beating men in the marathon.
My point? My point is that, sure, Ms. Sorenstam didn't make the cut -- this time. But what would happen next time? Or the time after that?
Still, don't look for Ms. Sorenstam to be out there anytime soon. She's been quoted as saying, "I've got to go back to my tour, to where I belong. I'm glad I did it but this is way over my head."
Which is wrong on both counts.
We've seen this all happen before, of course. Which is where the title of this post comes in.
A few years back, many may remember how Michael Jordan tried to break into Major League Baseball. An effort that, again, while not stellar, was certainly better than about 1/4 to 1/3 of the players currently out there.
The trouble was... He wasn't a star. He wasn't MICHAEL JORDAN.
And, apparently, that was more important than his "dream" of being a professional baseball player. The clause we never heard about was that he wanted to be a baseball star.
Now Ms. Sorenstam appears to be falling into the same trap. Could she play at the PGA level, and even make a living at it? Based on this weekend, yes, she could.
But would she be a star, the way she is in the LPGA?
Well, no.
But, sooner or later, the number two or the number three player in the LPGA is going to realize, "You know... I might not beat eleven the first time out, but I bet I could beat five.... And I bet I'd get better..." In other words, sooner or later, some woman is going to realize that successfully playing the game is more important than being a star.
And that's when history will be made.
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no subject
Date: 2003-05-25 07:59 pm (UTC)"...the world marathon record by a woman is actually now 2 hours 15 minutes 26 seconds - and has been since Sunday 13th April this year, when Paula Radcliffe beat her previous record in the Chicago marathon."
Ah. Thank you. Amother fine illustration ot Tom Digby's observation that the best way to get information on the Net isn't to ask for it, but post the wrong information and wait for people to correct you. :)
I had been using this list of women's marathon records, and the reason was that I wanted the historical data. So, they need to do an update.
Still, this just makes my case stronger, IMHO. Beating her own record by two minutes... Hell, that's one year for her to have made two-thirds of the progress the men have made over 34.
There was an article in the Guardian sports section, many years ago (I'd guess, in 1988) that I clipped out and kept for some time. It was about the British women's judo team, who were having a record year: they'd picked up gold and silver medals at the Olympics in several events, plus winning at a couple of other world-class judo events. Except that the writer spent most of the article bemoaning how unfair this was, because the British men's judo team were having a really bad year - not a single medallist. I could not imagine the same thing in reverse: if the British men's judo team had won several Olympic medals, and the British women's judo team none, it's possible that the article writer might have spared a single sentence for the women's team, but more than likely they would simply never have been referenced.
{Nod of head in agreement}
Yes, I saw this at my own college, where the women's basketball team cleaned up year after the year, while the men were schlubs.
The former unsuccessful college coach is now coach of the NBA San Antonio Spurs, and is in the playoffs. I have no idea what happened to the highly successful women's coach.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-26 01:26 am (UTC)I have a kind of interest in women breaking sports records - I hardly ever recall the actual data unassisted, but I usually manage to recall that there was a record-breaker, which (given google) is usually enough to look it up.