Sports Anchor Rafer Weigel

It was a moment I’ll never forget.

It was 1982. I was 13.

All summer, my friends and I would ride the “El” train from Evanston, Illinois, down to the north side of Chicago to Wrigley Field at least once a week.

Cubs Manager Lou Piniella couldn't help shake the curse, the team lost in the playoffs to the Dodgers.

Our moms gave us each $10. Cubs bleacher seats were only $5. The El was a buck each way. Still, we’d always spend our return dollar on an extra hot dog or something and would have to jump the fence at the Addison stop and sneak on the back of the train.

This memorable day was in June. I was with my two best friends, Doug Rouse and Dick Wildman. I loved hanging out with Dick because he was the only kid whose name drew more negative attention than mine.

We were sitting behind left field watching the Cubs lose … again. That 1908 banner waved above us reminding everyone of the last time they’d won a World Series.

I looked at it flapping and said. Somewhat jokingly, “I hope I get to see the Cubs win a world series in my lifetime.”

That’s when the bitter face of reality hit me.

An old man—in his late 60’s early 70’s—sitting in the row in front of me turned around to scowl at me. With a look of heavy disdain and his voice rasp with bitterness he said, “Son. You’ll NEVER see the Cubs win a World Series. NEVER!”

Then he turned back around.

I was stunned. I couldn’t figure out which was more jarring—his tone or his presumptuousness. The thing is, he meant it. It was the voice of a man who’d followed the team his whole life and he was out to destroy my innocent optimism.

Later, as I hung on the back of a speeding El car I wondered, “How could he say that?” I was only 13. There was so much life and time ahead of me. How could he be THAT pessimistically declarative? It stuck with me for years.

Well, as Neil Young once sang, “Old man, take a look at my life. I’m a lot like you were.”

This year, the Cubs collapsed again. The Los Angeles Dodgers swept them in the first round. It’s the second straight year they were swept after winning the division. They’ve now lost 8 straight playoff games going back to 2003.

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From Sports Anchor Rafer Weigel

The LPGA is venturing into uncharted waters—making all of its players learn English if they want to play golf. Starting next year, players will go through an “oral evaluation” and unless they can carry on a "reasonable" conversation in English, they’ll be suspended.

LPGA players who don't speak English could find themselves in the rough.

Sound crazy? Maybe a little. Can you imagine the PGA doing this? Last year's U.S. Open winner Angel Cabrera wouldn’t have been hoisting the trophy.

The tour says the mandate is about improving communication with the players and helping them succeed on and off the course, especially in terms of earning endorsements for themselves and the tour.

The sad reality for the LPGA is that it's losing sponsors. Their most marketable star, Annika Sorenstan—who’s Swedish by the way and speaks perfect English—is retiring. They’re looking for replacements.

Many of the LPGA’s 121 players are from countries outside the US. 46 are from South Korea and some of them say they feel that they’re being unfairly targeted.

The tournament is not coming out and saying this, but it appears that this is about … money. If you can’t speak English, you’re not marketable in America.

But South Korean Seon Hwa Lee, the only Asian with multiple victories this year, agrees with the decision. She’s even hired an English tutor because she wants more sponsorship opportunities.

“The economy is bad, and we are losing sponsors,” Lee said. “Everybody understands.”

But while it’s a good suggestion, can the tournament demand the players know how to speak English? And if they don’t, is suspending them a bit harsh? If that happens, how do you get your suspension lifted? If you don’t currently know English are you going to be able to learn it in two months?

Is this American arrogance or just good business?

Let us know what you think.

From Sports Anchor Rafer Weigel

If you watched the Olympics this weekend—like me—you were probably disappointed when you sat down with a pizza, grabbed the remote … only to see table tennis or marathon running.

Sure marathon running is hard, but good TV, it is not. Unless you stayed up until 2:30 a.m. to watch the Redeem Team or managed to catch the men’s volleyball final, the games that started out great, ended with a resounding “thud”.

Rafer Weigel thinks the scoring sytem in Olympic boxing is in dire need of some updating.

Just like the games don’t feature nude men or deny women anymore, it’s time for the Olympics to make some more changes: cut some events, cut a few days, and get in a few more modern sports. That way at least there will be something worth watching every day and catastrophes like my Saturday night can be avoided in 2012.

Keep sports like baseball and softball—which are both sports and watchable—and get rid of “events” that aren’t, such as:

Table Tennis. Anything resembling a parlor game shouldn’t be in the Olympics. They may as well have darts or Pop-A-Shot. If they do keep it, bring in “kick-the-can” and “hide-and-seek” too. That would be good TV.

Dressage. This is horse dancing. The rider isn’t even the athlete. Baseball and softball don’t have a broad enough appeal but this does? It was introduced as a way for leaders of countries to show off their steeds. Send it the way of the Archduke Ferdinand into history.

Speed walking. Many of my co-workers didn’t even realize this was in the Olympics. It’s good TV for about five seconds because it’s funny. Then it just gets creepy. It deserves a “Saturday Night Live” parody.

Shooting. It would be different if the U.S. dominated like we should. Maybe make it more spectator-friendly by having the shooters walk down a street like an action hero and make the targets jump out at them.

Rhythmic gymnastics. This was on TV Sunday—the last day. Call it what it is: dancing around with a ball, a ribbon or a hula-hoop. Just go all out and bring in Cirque de Soleil.

Trampoline. More parlor games. This gets in but golf doesn’t?

Boxing. The sport that introduced such greats as Cassius Clay has become irrelevant. The scoring system is undecipherable. Bob and I watched as one boxer wailed on another and didn’t even get a single point. If we don’t understand the scoring system we aren’t going to watch. While you’re at it, change the gymnastics scoring system too. Too subjective.

If you think these changes would be drastic, consider many “sports” have come and gone from the games. Here are some of the more memorable casualties.

Tug of War. Yes, tug of war was actually an Olympic event. Afterwards the two teams had potato salad and punch.

Solo synchronized swimming. Isn’t that an oxymoron? How do you become unsynchronized with yourself? Interesting that they tried this before men’s synchronized swimming. That WAS a Saturday Night live parody.

Live pigeon shooting. Over 300 pigeons killed in France in 1900. PETA formed 80 years later.

Pistol dueling. Participants shot at dummies dressed in fancy frocks with a bull’s eye on their chests. People for the Ethical Treatment of Dummies got it cancelled.

Club swinging. Does this really need any commentary?

Long jump for horses. Removed because the horses couldn’t stand on the podiums.

They recently added beach volleyball and BMX—two very good, TV friendly, events. I’d like to also see golf added. What do you think should be taken out? What do you think should be added? Feel free to chime in with ideas of your own.