On Waxen Wings - Page 4

On February 23 2010 04:17 WWJDD wrote:
Why is this in Final Edit again? How can this post possibly be awesomer??

And if you want to compare someone in cricket to Flash, look no further than Virender Sehwag. The man scores triple centuries easier than Don Bradman did in his prime. And seemingly nothing can be done to stop him going on a streak.

On February 23 2010 07:44 aidnai wrote:
Great article! The way you wrap it all up is especially poignant! But I wonder, how do athletes like Tiger Woods or Kobe Bryant fit into your starting assumption that "bonjwa's" are becoming harder and harder to find?

On February 23 2010 14:46 Cauld wrote:


Awesome article. It inspired me to register just to respond.

Alethios mentioned Tiger woods in that sports like Golf don't count because you're not directly competing against your opponent. I disagree that as competition rises in general, exceptional players become more rare. There are certainly examples of athletes who far exceed the rest of their competition.

Bryant was there for a couple years and may be there for one or two more. Lebron is really the NBA superstar. Ovechkin is the new hockey "bonjwa", I think (though I don't follow hockey much). And Pujols is certainly the best baseball player who hasn't been tainted by the steroid era. Jimmie Johnson absolutely dominates NASCAR (but again I don't follow it). Payton Manning in the NFL is another example.

Perhaps we're just seeing some stagnation at the elite levels of the bw pro leagues as so often happens in any other sport. I've noticed recently that when everyone finally succumbs to the idea that a sport has truly reached 'parity' (usually a term used only in team sports), something will happen to change the game again.

While it's unlikely we'll see a .400 hitter again in baseball there have been some serious challengers the past few years (Ichiro, Chipper Jones, Mauer, and Pujols have each batted over .350 in only the least 2 seasons). Nobody ever thought Ruth's home run record could be touched or Lou Gehrig's, but Maris and Ripkin eclipsed them. Wilt's 100 point game was thought untouchable, but Kobe put down 80 in what looked to be effortless performance only a couple years ago, seemingly doing it just to show the world he could. (Doing it a few days after some were disappointed he didn't play the 4th quarter of a blowout when he'd already scored 60 through 36 minutes).

Hopefully no one's upset at my 1st post being so verbose.

Edit: I forgot Federer! Him too.

On February 23 2010 10:01 Simplistik wrote:
But what about Federer?

On February 23 2010 14:46 Cauld wrote:


Awesome article. It inspired me to register just to respond.

Alethios mentioned Tiger woods in that sports like Golf don't count because you're not directly competing against your opponent. I disagree that as competition rises in general, exceptional players become more rare. There are certainly examples of athletes who far exceed the rest of their competition.

Bryant was there for a couple years and may be there for one or two more. Lebron is really the NBA superstar. Ovechkin is the new hockey "bonjwa", I think (though I don't follow hockey much). And Pujols is certainly the best baseball player who hasn't been tainted by the steroid era. Jimmie Johnson absolutely dominates NASCAR (but again I don't follow it). Payton Manning in the NFL is another example.

Perhaps we're just seeing some stagnation at the elite levels of the bw pro leagues as so often happens in any other sport. I've noticed recently that when everyone finally succumbs to the idea that a sport has truly reached 'parity' (usually a term used only in team sports), something will happen to change the game again.

While it's unlikely we'll see a .400 hitter again in baseball there have been some serious challengers the past few years (Ichiro, Chipper Jones, Mauer, and Pujols have each batted over .350 in only the least 2 seasons). Nobody ever thought Ruth's home run record could be touched or Lou Gehrig's, but Maris and Ripkin eclipsed them. Wilt's 100 point game was thought untouchable, but Kobe put down 80 in what looked to be effortless performance only a couple years ago, seemingly doing it just to show the world he could. (Doing it a few days after some were disappointed he didn't play the 4th quarter of a blowout when he'd already scored 60 through 36 minutes).

Hopefully no one's upset at my 1st post being so verbose.

Edit: I forgot Federer! Him too.

On February 23 2010 20:48 sc4k wrote:
What you say about golf is absolutely ridiculous. You can't throw out its validity because competition is not directly between 2 people. It's usually between a group of people who have established good leads and have to up their games to overwhelm their opponent. Most of the greatest golfing moments have been races between two people to outdo each other, and they are deeply mental affairs. Golf is possibly the most mentally demanding sport in the world and one of the hardest, because you have SO much time to think about your moves and you can't rely on reactions, you have to embrace your doubts and fears or suppress them for freakin' ages.

Manning, Federer and Woods easily put paid to your argument, I don't see what's going on here, sorry. Federer has been an unstoppable machine of death, Woods is simply double the greatness of any of his rivals, Manning accounts for about 50% of his team's win chance. There are greats in every era including ours and including the future in an equal spread. I don't know why you so desire to beat down the present you are living in. Diego Maradona was pretty much as good if not better than Pele. The 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and 00's all have their even spread of sports geniuses, there is no decline imo.

Other than that, I enjoyed the read, even if the ending is fairly saddening. I'm not sure it's dead certain they'll make the switch on the proscene though.

Oh and not to mention Usain Bolt, Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stephen Hendry, who are all modern behemoths. And Phil Taylor of the darts world, literally the best by a country mile.

On February 24 2010 08:56 Alethios wrote:

"Systematic changes in variation lead to changes in the frequency of outstanding players. Some sports obviously allow more scope for reduction in variation to occur, which as a general rule, are the sports i've talked about.
.

On February 24 2010 00:52 anotheracc wrote:


There are, of course, exceptional players in competetive sports, and you name good examples of them. But I believe the point behind the article is that there is no longer "a" dominant player that you could point out as the absolute leader and master of the sport/game. Competition has gotten so fierce that there is no significant difference between those at the top and those that follow, they can all beat each other and none is assured a victory. Unlike, for example, Roger Federer who is a good example of being "the" player to beat in Tennis.

Soccer fans may agree that non-competitive football leagues, like those in South America, follow an opposite trend. In Chile, Uruguay and Argentina (to some extent), even in Brazil, leagues are dominated constantly by the same "big teams" year after year. Colo-Colo, Boca Juniors, River Plate, Peñarol (though this one has declined as of lately), Nacional, Universidad de Chile, all these teams vastly dominate their countries' leagues. Colo-Colo has won 6 out of the last 8 tournaments, with a total of 29 titles, the follower, Universidad de Chile has only 13, and consider that most of the first division teams in Chile haven't got any. River Plate has 33 argentinian titles, Boca Juniors has 22, other small teams have 1 or none in their first division. Same occurs is Uruguay and Brazil. Even in the international scene the "big teams" dominate, though some smaller teams have won some international titles, it's very rare. Big teams, as big players ("bonjwas"), dominate because there is no competition around them to take their dominance.

All in all, the competition makes the players.

ps: Hope someone likes southamerican football.