R.I.P. R.T.M.M.S.

Let's play a game. In this game, I'm going to give you a set of initials and you need to identify the wrestler whose name matches these initials.

Here's an easy one: ATG. And another easy one: HH (Note: There's actually two answers: one very easy, the other not so much). And now: BTHH Or: JSS. How about PMWO, or RRR, or CBO? ... I could go on ...

And in the mid- to late 1980s, my brothers and I would go on. We all watched professional wrestling, and we made up this game as a way of passing time on long car trips, weekend and summer afternoons, and any other time we might be bored. I even made a master list at one point--probably around 1987 or 1988--that has long since been long lost. The funny thing is, I could easily start making a new one, and occasionally one of my brothers and I talk about doing exactly that, after we've played a few minutes of the old wrestling initials game. We could even add newer wrestlers to the list and have more available choices for the game.

Of course, if we add newer wrestlers, I'm not going to know very many names since I don't watch anymore, and I haven't paid much attention in about two decades. But, at one time, I would have known most of the names because I was a WWF fan.

I don't remember when I became a WWF fan. It had to have been around 1984 or 1985 or so ... maybe as early as 1983. I joined a number of close friends as wrestling fans who, like many of the boys at school, talked about the latest developments we witnessed on USA coverage of WWF (now WWE) wrestling on Sunday mornings (before Kung Fu Theatre) and on Monday nights, or alternately on TBS coverage of WCW wrestling when that league rivalled the WWF. I watched the Saturday morning Hulk Hogan cartoon in the mid-1980s. I still pull out my Jesse "The Body" Ventura toy figure sometimes when we talk about his successful 1998 Minnesota gubernatorial campaign in my political communication class. I went with a friend and his dad to a pay-per-view screen in Lima, Ohio, to see Wrestlemania II. A year later, another friend hosted a party for a bunch of us at which we watched Wrestlemania III via pay per view at his house. Again, I could go on, just as I could with the wrestler initials game. (And, by the way, here are your answers to the initials above: ATG = Andre The Giant, HH = Hulk Hogan and Hercules Hernandez, BTHH = Bret "The Hitman" Hart, JSS = Jimmy "Supefly" Snuka, PMWO = Paul "Mr. Wonderful" Orndorff, RRR = "Ravishing" Rick Rude; and CBO = Cowboy Bob Orton).

And, so, I join numerous folks around the country and the world who were saddened to learn the news the other day that Randy "The Macho Man" Savage (that's RTMMS in the wrestler initials game) died in an automobile accident at the age of 58. I don't know that I have a lot to add to the many things I've heard and read in eulogizing The Macho Man over the last few days. Perhaps ESPN's Bill Simmons sums it up the best in a piece posted today, though I will note that, unlike Simmons, Macho Man was not my favorite wrestler. Rather, in what is probably a sign that I took everything way too seriously as a kid just as I do as an adult, my favorite wrestler was the other guy (the winner, I might add) in Macho Man's classic match from Wrestlemania III, which until the last few days I hadn't realized was more than just my favorite match of all time. My favorite wrestler was Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat ... or, alternately, RTDS, for those playing along.

The Macho Man and The Dragon shared more than just that epic match. They also shared a space in the wrestling game that my brothers and I created. You see, you could do variations on names, including names without nicknames, to create another layer to the game. And, so, "RS" could be given, with two possible answers: Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat (unfortunately, my name didn't count ...).

And, as Simmons notes about Savage, The Macho Man and the Dragon also shared the good fortune of having the height of their success coinciding with the height of the WWF's popularity. The Macho Man was able to sustain and build upon that success more, even becoming known beyond wrestling audiences in later years for his Slim Jim advertisements, like the one featured above.

In that commercial, Savage asks, "Art thou bored?" and "Need a little excitement?" Indeed, I was, and I did, and for a while in the mid- to late 1980s, Randy "The Macho Man" Savage (or, RTMMS, that is ...) helped my brothers and I remedy that situation. For that, I remember him fondly.

MLB Integration at 64

Today marks 64 years since Jackie Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers, initiating the process of racial integration of Major League Baseball and, thus, opening the door for many African-American ballplayers to play in the majors in the time since. Still, within 15 years of that integration, the Negro Leagues were gone, and to this day Major League Baseball remains without African-American ownership. For more on this, please read my post on the subject from two years ago.

All My Children; All My Mother

While I did not write a post specifically about it, I have noted on this blog that my mother passed away last May (May 14 to be exact). I've also noted in a blog entry a couple of years ago that I became attached in the mid-1980s to the ABC daytime soap opera All My Children because my mom, who was a loyal fan of the show since it began in 1970, watched it regularly.

After not watching the show much in the late 1980s, in the early 1990s, I got back into watching the show. My college roommate, whose mom is also an original fan, and I used to put it on every weekday in our dorm room while eating lunch, following the adventures of Tad and Dixie and Erica and Dmitri and Brooke and Edmund and so on. The show became so significant to me in connection with my mom that in 1995, when the show's creator, Agnes Dixon, gave a keynote speech at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association annual meeting, I attended Nixon's speech, met Nixon, and got Nixon's autograph (personally addressed to my mom), which I framed for my mom for Mother's Day that year.

Today, exactly 11 months after my mom passed away, ABC has announced that, as of this coming September, the show will be cancelled.

While I was initially surprised, I can't say that this is something that no one could have seen coming. Soap opera ratings are not what they once were, particularly because people have daytime cable options to watch instead, and the kinds of shows that ABC is proposing to replace All My Children as well as One Life to Live, which will be cancelled as of this coming January, typically have lower production costs. I, for one, haven't watched, but for catching a scene or two here or there, in well over a decade. Still, All My Children did influence my life, and it certainly means that another connection to my mom will drift into the realms of personal and collective memory.

In 1995, when I met Agnes Nixon, I thanked her for the hours of wonderful television programming that she created. Today, I thank her again for that and, more importantly, for the connection to my mom that her show has provided me. There's probably not much chance of this, since the show is likely to have its last episode on a Friday, not a Monday, but if All My Children's last episode comes on September 12, which would have been my mom's 65th birthday, it'll be hard to believe that my mom's not somehow involved.

Thanks, Nick, for the Memories

Last week, CNN.com ran a story detailing the story of former sports anchor Nick Charles' battle with bladder cancer. He was diagnosed nearly two years ago, and while, as of this month, he has exceeded the life expectancy quote that he received upon diagnosis, he has stopped treatment, and it appears that it just a matter of time until he passes away.

As some of us surely remember (and some of us likely do not), Charles was one half of the main hosting duo during the heyday of CNN Sports Tonight, which once rivaled ESPN's SportsCenter as the place to go for a sports round-up show. While SportsCenter quickly rose to prominence after its debut in 1979, that rise did not happen without facing some challengers, and perhaps its stiffest competition came in the late 1980s and early 1990s from CNN Sports Tonight, which aired on CNN from 1980 through 2001. Over the years, Sports Tonight featured a number of hosts, including folks like Dan Hicks, Gary Miller, and Hannah Storm, who would become known later for their work on networks such as NBC and ESPN. Craig Sager, who stayed in the same corporate fold by moving on to TBS and TNT, also appeared on the show. And can anyone out there who saw the show forget the inimitable Van Earl Wright?

The main hosts of the show at the height of its run, though, were Fred Hickman (who would later go to ESPN himself) and Nick Charles. And, though I disliked that CNN's hosts tended to give away results before playing highlights, in the late 1980s and early 1990s I grew to like Sports Tonight over SportsCenter. I don't think I was alone, and indeed, I think it's arguable that the moderate success of Sports Tonight pushed SportsCenter toward bettering its broadcast to produce "The Big Show" with Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann in what might have been SportsCenter's finest time as well.

In the meantime, I have many fond memories at home with my dad and in the lounge at my college dorm watching Hickman and Charles, especially as they gave the "play of the day" each day. I don't know if there's any possibility out there that Nick will get to read this post, but in case he does (and even if he doesn't), I'd like to say thanks, Nick, for the memories. May you always know that you played a significant role in the development of this sports fan/sports studies scholar.

New Developments

I have two new developments to report that relate to the kinds of things that I try to do on this blog:

First, as I noted a couple of weeks ago, I have begun a radio show with my friend and colleague Mike Butterworth that runs from 2:00-4:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on WBGU, which is 88.1 FM on your radio dial in the Bowling Green, Ohio, area and can be found online at wbgufm.com. After a month and a half or so on the air, we've finally come up with a name for the show: After Further Review. Mike explains the rationale for this name on this post on his blog, The Agon.

And, speaking of The Agon, Mike has invited me, along with some other colleagues who study sport communication (Dan Grano, from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Abe Khan, from the University of South Florida; and Korryn Mosizek, from Indiana University), to contribute to The Agon, which is a blog that focuses on "rhetorical contests of sports, politics, and culture." I will still be posting here about sports, particularly as sports connect to personal experience, but you'll also be able to read some of my thoughts on sports at The Agon as well.

The Future of Women in Auto Racing

This past weekend, the Indycar Series auto racing league opened its 2011 season with the Honda Grand Prix in St. Petersburg, Florida, and a female racecar driver finished fourth. I'll give you one guess who that driver was....










... That's right. The correct answer to that question is none other than Simona de Silvestro. Now, if you're not an ardent follower of the Indycar Series, you're likely to be asking, "Who?" After all (and this was the basis for the very trick question I just asked), Danica Patrick is likely the only female racecar driver to register in the consciousness of most folks who do not follow the series. However, those of us who do follow the series are likely to know that de Silvestro was the Indycar Series' rookie of the year last year, finishing a very modest 19th in the standings but showing a lot of potential to improve upon that showing in future seasons, including leading four laps in St. Petersburg and garnering Rookie of the Year honors at the Indianapolis 500 with a 14th place finish.

For many folks, both among those who follow Indycar and those who don't, Danica Patrick has been a figure who brings out conflicting feelings. On the one hand, she's the most accomplished female driver in American auto racing, and those accomplishments are cause for celebration for the advancement of women in sports. On the other hand, the degree to which she participates in the very blatant and active sexualization of her public image has caused many of us to wonder if she does more harm than good. While other female racers, from Milka Duno to Sarah Fisher to Lyn St. James to Janet Guthrie, have participated in auto racing in general and Indy racing in particular without such overt active participation in the sexualization of their identities, none have had the success of Patrick, who won in Motegi, Japan, in 2008; finished sixth and fifth, respectively, in the Indycar points standings in 2008 and 2009; and has finished in the top 10 in five out six Indy 500 races, including fourth in 2005 and third in 2009.

Enter Simona de Silvestro. To date, she has not participated in such levels of sexualization of her identity. Meanwhile, she has shown significant enough levels of skill and potential in the racecar that we might reasonably think she has a bright future in the sport. Her finish this past week could be a sign of the progress she is making and the successes that the future may hold for her. It's too early to tell whether de Silvestro will continue to build successes in U.S. auto racing and/or will participate as Patrick has in the sexualization of her image, but if the past year (as well as de Silvestro's auto racing career before joining the Indycar Series) is any indication, we might reasonably believe the answer will be in the affirmative for the first part and in the negative for the second.

In the meantime, this may point to one other question that may be worth consideration. Namely, has Patrick's overtly sexualized image helped set the stage for the likes of de Silvestro (as well as Ana Beatriz and other women to come in the future of the sport) to seek and achieve racing accomplishments without such a sexualized image? In other words, perhaps the overkill of sexualization with Patrick's image has led to enough distaste for that kind of image that de Silvestro, Beatriz, and others will be evaluated much more fully just on their racing performances than on their sexualized identities.

Perhaps not. This latest development in the image of Serena Williams, as well as the continuing sexualization of the likes of Maria Sharapova and other female tennis players, may indicate that the overt sexualization of Anna Kournikova did not remove that aspect from the identification of women in professional tennis. However, at least for now, I believe I have a new rooting interest in auto racing: Simona de Silvestro.

Sports Talk Radio Show

So, I have been really busy lately, which has meant little action on this blog. One of these days, I'm hoping to be able to build a good schedule and fuller momentum with this thing. It'll probably happen once I realize how to make blog entries here that are as thorough as I want them to be, but are shorter both in their length and in the time it takes to write them.

In the meantime, a few weeks ago, my colleague Mike Butterworth (who can also be found blogging at The Agon) and I started a radio show in which we apply critical, cultural, and rhetorical analysis to sports. It's on the air this semester from 2:00-4:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on Wednesdays on WBGU radio. That can be found at 88.1 FM in the Bowling Green, Ohio, area, or you can listen live by going to www.wbgufm.com.