Grazing in the grass

At an event in the New York offices of an on-demand labor services company this week, a panelist stated “companies are putting older workers out to pasture, and replacing them with younger workers with different skill sets and pay levels.” He may have stated the obvious, but it’s a fact no major company is willing to admit.

Another panelist pointed out that unemployment statistics are misleading “because they don’t capture people who’ve been unable to get a full-time job, and have turned to freelancing and contract work.” Again, he may have stated the obvious, but it’s a fact few U.S. government officials will admit.

A CNN piece, “Workers over 50 are the ‘unemployables,’” provides a quick overview of the situation facing many displaced professionals with deep experience. It also includes a very telling comment from Michael Harper, a Boston University professor and leading authority in the area of labor, employment, and employment discrimination law.

”It’s very difficult to prove hiring discrimination, because unless somebody says, ‘you’re too old for this job,’ you don’t know why you weren’t hired,” said Harper.

The CNN piece also touches upon the experiences of a job seeker who is often told she is “overqualified” and wonders if that’s just a euphemism for “too old.” Like many of her contemporaries, she has taken on temporary jobs for the past several years.

A PBS segment, “The Unemployment Numbers as Sham: Where Are the Freelancers?” explores the misleading unemployment reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It includes insightful comments from Sara Horowitz, founder and executive director of Freelancers Union.

“The problem is that the unemployment numbers are wrong. They just aren’t keeping up with the changes we’re seeing in the new workforce,” said Horowitz, who also stated that over 42 million people were independent workers either by choice or circumstance. “That’s nearly one-third of the workforce. The BLS surveys haven’t kept up. They don’t capture this type of independent, variable employment because they’re not asking the right questions.”

The PBS segment concludes with the observation, “We do have an employment problem in this country, but we’re not going to figure out what it is until we start asking the right questions.”

At this week’s New York event, another panelist and investor in on-demand labor ventures sounded skeptical of U.S. politicians’ abilities to effectively address the impact of the changing workforce. “They’re not leading us,” he said. “We’re leading us.”

Yes, experienced professionals will continue trying to apply their knowledge and skills to challenges that business operations and other organizations face, even as companies question this wisdom and effort at a price. And, even if government officials aren’t recognizing the reality of today’s labor situation.

Ringer

A few fast claps of the hand

after my favorite soccer team

scored a third quick goal 

and off it slipped.

I looked down and saw it

catch the late afternoon

rays of the sun 

as it descended 

to the section of seats below

and bounce

and bounce again.

I fixed my eyes on its resting spot

and looked at the people 

sitting around it, unaware.

I paused for a whole second

before quickly making my way

down to retrieve it.

I rushed past the usher

and down a few rows 

to where it rested,

its gold skin still glistening,

and put it back on my finger.

"No way I'm losing my wedding ring

after 34 years with my wife

at a game where the Red Bulls 

are winning,"

I explained to a curious onlooker.

And just as quickly

I returned upstairs to my seat,

to be with my wife 

for the rest of the match

and, God willing, 

another 34 years with my ring.

Wowii!

When I watch a local band, Eastbourne, play around the Long Branch area this summer, I'm reminded of a group I enjoyed seeing in clubs during the mid/late-1970s, Wowii.  Like Eastbourne, Wowii was mostly comprised of young Latinos who created outstanding original music and performed great covers of familiar songs.  Wowii had a strong following of fans who appreciated the energy they projected from the stage, just like Eastbourne. Wowii's powerpop/glam-rock sound was different than Eastbourne's reggaeish-based sound, but the vibe to their young fans was similar.

Based in New Rochelle, N.Y. while playing in clubs throughout the New Jersey/New York City area, Wowii was comprised of Rafael Melendez (rhythm guitar, vocals), Heppi Pettit (lead guitar), Mark "Wolfie" Resnick (guitar), Peter "Zepol" Lopez (bass, vocals) and Chino Cabal (drums).  Mother's in Wayne and the Towpath in West Paterson were among the many New Jersey clubs they played at regularly during 1977-78.

After signing with a major label, Wowii's first album was never released. The band splintered by the early 1980s and, except for reunion shows in the Miami area many years later, they never got back together.  A Facebook page about them, Wowii Eightiesband, exists. 

Thanks to YouTube, some of Wowii's wonderful original music is still accessible, as are some photos of the band from their '70s' heydays.  In fact, old fans of Wowii can even enjoy a short documentary about the band:   http://youtu.be/Ln7oVj7duzc

Three Wowii singles available on YouTube are:

-- I'm So Bad: http://youtu.be/SSz1FY30iMY

-- Hoods: http://youtu.be/0JXlUGdP1fI

-- Rock 'n' Roll Singer: http://youtu.be/rmAqg90aWvM

A live version of another of the band's original songs, Dream Angel & Juranda, recorded at Trax in New York City, can also be enjoyed at http://youtu.be/DcO5aWTho1Q.

And, thank you, Eastbourne, for unknowingly rekindling memories of Wowii. Here's hoping you have much success with your first album and many more years of making great music!

(Wowii photo from limestonelounge.yuku.com)

"They played baseball"

Cap Anson was a racist
Sam McDowell, a hopeless drunk
And except for one no hitter
Bo Belinsky mostly stunk

John Rocker was a dumb ass
Ty Cobb was filled with bile
Samy Sosa had his cork
Joe Niekro had his file
Yeah, it’s on file

But someone loved them all
Someone loved them all
’Cause they played baseball

Dick Allen had detractors
Matt Stairs, his ups and downs
Ron Leflore had Jackson State
St. Louis had the Browns

Durocher had his lip
And Bob Welch his grapey wine
Piniella had his temper
Mendoza had his line
Oh, and it’s a fine line

But someone loved them all
Someone loved them all
’Cause they played baseball

Yeah, we cheered for them all
We cheered for them all
’Cause they played baseball

Scott Spiezio went psycho
Milton Bradley couldn’t take the stress
LaMarr Hoyt was a coke dealer
Poor Steve Howe was just a mess

And Barry Bonds had a swollen head
Cesar Cedeño may have killed
When Jose Canseco reached deck 5
I admit to being thrilled

Brooklyn called their own team The Bums
Mantle had his bum knees
The White Sox threw the Series
Lou Gehrig got his own disease
His own dang disease

And we cheered for them all
We cheered for them all
’Cause they played baseball

Now Mark Reynolds has his strikeouts
Delmon Young could be a boor
Ryan Braun’s confessing
And A-Rod, well he’s a, he thinks he’s a centaur

No need to idolize them
Or cut them too much slack
You take the bad times with the best
And keep on coming back
I’ll keep coming back

But someone loved them all
Someone loved them all
’Cause they played baseball

Yeah, we cheered for them all
We cheered for them all
’Cause they played baseball
--"They Played Baseball" words and music by Scott McCaughey, copyright 2014

To hear the catchy tune that accompanies these lyrics on The Baseball Project album, 3rd, click on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccqm2Bbj2Lc

A belated birthday wish for a friend

More than 30 years after we had last spoke, the sound of his voice brought a big smile to my face. And, joy to my heart.

"This is he," is what the voice said when I asked if he was the same Kevin Chisolm who went to grade school with me in New York during the mid-1960s. We proceeded to speak about the stations our lives had passed through since we last got together.  It was as if we were reconnecting after almost 33 days, or 33 weeks, not almost 33 years.

We agreed to get together a few weeks later, in the same neighboorhood in which we both grew up. I met his family and he met mine, which included a son who I named in fond memory of my childhood friend. We visited our playgrounds and walked past the apartment buildings in which we previously lived. When we stopped at the very spot in which he taught me how to play baseball, he astonished me by pulling out of his pocket a self-portrait I had sketched and mailed him shortly after moving to New Jersey while we were in sixth grade.

It was as if an old friendship had been rekindled. In truth, it was more like the continuation of a young friendship that had been interrupted by the nature of life in the pre-Internet age, when frequent phone calls to a different area code were beyond the means of most people.

In the 12 years since our reunion, Kevin and I have stayed in regular contact. We've met for coffee several times, enjoyed a few basketball games, a concert, and taken a ferry ride to a baseball game. We hooked up at a reunion of former classmates at St. Paul the Apostle School.  Our families have gotten together for visits. Mostly, we've spoken on the phone about the ups and downs of our lives, his happy times and challenges and mine.

I learned that while I was completing my high school and college studies in New Jersey, he was doing the same in the Bronx and Maine, respectively. As I was launching my communication career, he was starting his career in biology in New York City. He was also acting on television daytime dramas and in commercials.  I married and raised a family in New Jersey. Several years later, he did the same. In hindsight, our paths were destined to converge again.  Fortunately, our friendship has stayed on track as our careers have taken a few twists and turns and lives have gone through some other changes.

Just as he was a positive part of my life during our grade school years, his thoughtfulness, ambition, patience and positive outlook are an inspiration for me today.  His focus on being present in the moment, free from distraction, while we're together is refreshing in this age of smartphones (and watches). After we talk, even about some difficult topics, I feel a better person.

A day after his birthday, I thank Kevin for his good friendship -- before and after its 33-year break -- and wish him many more years of happiness and health.

A needed alternative to FIFA

Let's hope sports historians will look back at this week as the beginning of the end of FIFA, the organized crime family that has ruled global soccer competitions for decades. As if the arrests of some of its members on Wednesday wasn't sufficient evidence of how institutionalized corruption is within FIFA, the re-election of Sepp Blatter to a fifth term as president on Friday proves the organization can't be salvaged.

Now is the perfect time for major soccer powers around the world to withdraw from FIFA. Germany, Argentina, Holland, Brazil, Spain, Italy, France, England and other countries -- including the United States -- should pull out of the qualifying rounds for the 2018 World Cup and organize their own tournament for 2017.

By withdrawing now, these countries will once and for all destroy whatever legitimacy FIFA retains after this week's events. The 2018 World Cup, cynically awarded to a country, Russia, where racism in soccer stadiums is among the worst in the world while FIFA was launching an anti-racism campaign, would be a shell of a competition without the top teams.  Major sponsors would pull their support, further making the tournament a huge money loser. 

Bankrupt by no longer having its World Cup piggy bank, FIFA would implode. The 2022 World Cup, its hosting rights sold to Qatar by corrupt FIFA executives, would never happen. The slave laborers building the 2022 World Cup infrastructure in Qatar would be liberated. 

Among the leaders who can help organize an alternative international championship tournament and governing body is Sunil Gulati, head of the United States Soccer Federation.  A bright and fair man not tainted by FIFA, Gulati nominated the opponent to Blatter this past winter and was among the 73 country soccer heads who voted against Blatter's re-election on Friday.  Along with major soccer powers, some of these 73 countries may jump at the chance to be part of an alternative to FIFA.

FIFA must be dismantled. It needs to be stripped of its power. Hopefully, when this happens, lovers of the beautiful game around the world will commemorate this week's events as the start of an era when soccer got rid of the relic known as FIFA.

Sunil Gulati with Charley Bruns, February 2015








(Deflated soccer ball photo from korifaeusmagazine.files.wordpress.com)

100 years ago. 100 years from now?

A hundred years ago, the three most popular spectator sports in the U.S. were horse racing, boxing and baseball. Although college football was played, it would be another seven years before the National Football League was founded. The National Hockey League wasn't launched until 1917, and the National Basketball Association not until 1949. The first significant professional U.S. soccer league wasn't established until 1921.

What were some of the major sports highlights of 1915?

The Boston Red Sox won the World Series by beating the Philadelphia Phillies, four games to one. A 20-year-old rookie pitcher named Babe Ruth led the team with four home runs in 42 games. More importantly, he won 18 games and lost only eight on the mound, completing 16 of the 28 games he started. He sat on the bench during the World Series, however, going hitless in one plate appearance and never setting foot on the mound.

Jack Johnson, the first black world heavyweight champion, lost his title to Jess Willard on a 100-degree spring day in Havana, Cuba.  Johnson said he threw the fight in the 26th round, others felt age and heat finally got to his 37-year-old body. Many boxing experts felt the fight was indeed fixed, which was not uncommon at the time.

There was no triple crown winner in horse racing in 1915, but it was the only year that fillies won two of three legs.  Regret won the Kentucky Derby and Rhine Maiden won the Preakness Stakes, but neither filly competed in that year's Belmont Stakes, in which The Finn earned the lowest winner's share in the race's history, only $1,825.

No one could listen to these big events on radio, which wouldn't begin broadcasting sports for five more years.  Only those fortunate enough to have an admission ticket could experience them live.  Otherwise, bulletins posted in public or word-of-mouth is how news about them spread until the next newspapers were published or news reels screened in movie theaters.

Television wouldn't begin broadcasting sports events until the late 1930s, when hardly anyone had access to TVs, anyway. The World Wide Web wasn't a source of news until the early 1990s, believe it or not.  Periscope, the social media app used by many to watch this month's Floyd Mayweather, Jr. versus Manny Pacquiao fight, was launched just this spring!    

Although baseball remains popular today, few would argue that football, boosted by the rise in televised games during the 1960s and 1970s, commands greater attention from most sports fans in the country. Basketball and ice hockey follow, although a good case can be made for pro soccer matching the latter's popularity in the U.S. today, especially with cable television easily making many international matches available.

The years have not been as kind to horse racing and boxing. Aside from the Saturdays in which the triple crown is contested, interest in horse racing has declined. Tracks around the country now look to casino gambling and sports betting to save them. 

The number of boxing fans has decreased since before heavyweights like Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Mike Tyson were champions. In fact, the most intriguing figure in a ring these days for many people is neither a boxer or a heavyweight, but a Universal Fighting Championship bantamweight named Ronda Rousey.

Try imagining 100 years from now.

It's hard to picture pro football remaining the most popular sport in the U.S. by the year 2115. Perhaps basketball or soccer will continue their ascent and overtake football at the top. Maybe some extreme or hybrid competition that won't be organized until later this century will be more popular.  Or, as media continues evolving, will personal interactive entertainment make spectator sports as we know them today obsolete?

What do you think?

(Jess Willard versus Jack Johnson photo from fightsaga.com)