Girls, women 'have power to change the narrative' in sport
Notre Dame women’s basketball coach Muffet McGraw called out the lack of women in head coaching roles in the sport at the Women’s Final Four.
“Women need the opportunity. They deserve the opportunity,” she said to ThinkProgress.com. Asked whether she plans to ever hire a male coach again, she said: “No.”
Her media conference at the Final Four addressed problems women face in sports and society today.
Forty-two percent of girls play high school sports, a 35 percent increase from 1972, which was before the enactment of Title IX.
Alaina C. Zanin, an assistant professor in the Arizona State University Hugh Downs School Of Human Communication, conducted a study about how girls identified themselves. The study featured two groups: one consisting of athletes and one consisting of nonathletes.
All were girls ages 8-11. They were asked to draw a picture of an athlete, a picture of a girl and a picture of themselves.
“Girls who currently or recently participated in sports were more likely to draw a girl as an athlete than the non-sport-exposed girls,” Zanin said at the Global Sport Summit in Phoenix on March 29. “And something that was more interesting that we didn’t expect to find is that there was convergence among the three drawings.”
Girls in the study who were athletes generally drew a picture of someone in their lives who was a female athlete, a picture of a female athlete and a picture of themselves as an athlete. The girls not in athletics tended to draw males as athletes.
The disconnect can be traced to identity. Girls are having a difficult time identifying with athletics because in certain situations they see a lack of representation in sports.
“We shouldn’t expect these identities to develop prior to their exposure,” Zanin said. “We should build access systems. So that they can enact these identities and see themselves as athletes not seeing themselves either feminine or athletic.”
Eric Legg, an assistant professor in the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions at ASU, conducted a similar study to Zanin, but his produced different results.
“They drew sports where the skill sets were balance, agility and grace, not speed, strength or power which I think is fascinating,” Legg said.
The identity characteristics are parallel to several social norms in society and to how women are encouraged to express their femininity.
Social stigmas make it harder for women to get the respect they deserve in the sports world. Women’s basketball is a sport where women are seen as being inferior to their male counterparts.
Pay and viewership for the WNBA is vastly different from the NBA. Two-time NCAA champion McGraw discussed the lack of women in the basketball world and sports.
McGraw’s criticism is in many ways warranted. Female basketball players constantly have to defend their sport. Junior guard and NCAA all-time triple-doubles leader Sabrina Ionescu addressed the internet trolls in an Instagram post.
Meagan Kukowski the Executive Director of Girls on the Run discussed how her organization encourages young girls to use their voices.
“We teach girls that their voice is their super power,” Kukowski said. “And they have the power to change the narrative. And they have the power to accomplish big things.”
Lamar Smith is a graduate student in the sports journalism program at Arizona State University
Leagues grapple with ways to legislate diversity improvement
Mike Haynes and Vince Pierson answer questions along with RISE CEO Diahann Billings-Buford at the Global Sport Summit in Phoenix in March. (Photo by Ashley Lowrey)
Professional sports leagues face several problems when creating policies designed to change behavior.
The Rooney Rule is one of several current policies working to add more diversity to the sports world.
One policy that has produced change, in spite of continually facing problems, is the NFL’s Rooney Rule, which was adopted in 2003. The rule’s intent was to improve diversity in coaching.
The original rule required teams with a coaching vacancy to interview at least one diverse (non-white) candidate for the position. The rule was expanded in 2009 to include interviewing diverse candidate pools for general manager and other front office positions. In December 2018, the rule was strengthened again. The rule now requires teams to interview minority candidates from a list provided by the Career Development Advisory Panel.
The panel includes former head coaches Bill Cowher and John Madden.
Incorporating the rule helped bring more minorities into NFL coaching positions over the years. However, some in the football world were opposed to the rule initially.
“I wasn’t really in favor of it,” NFL Hall of Famer Mike Haynes said at the Global Sport Summit in Phoenix on March 29. “But it was better than nothing, and that’s the way I look at it. But, I felt like it has to be something that just happens.”
Haynes, who at one point worked for the NFL after he retired, said the inclusion of diversity in sports needs to happen organically.
Haynes also discussed the faith he has in youth to be able to identify diversity in their communities. He used Arizona State as an example, referring to the school’s large number of female professors, the presence of a black athletic director and football coach. He pointed out those facts would let people know of the school’s commitment to diversity in contrast to a college who just recruited students for diversity and did not have anyone diverse on their staff.
Diahann Billings-Burford disagreed with Haynes to an extent. The CEO of Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE) believes people have to have diversity “put in front of them” if they are to learn to become open and accepting of it.
“Just because younger is younger, does not mean younger is more open to diversity,” Billings-Burford said. “And (it) certainly does not mean younger people are more open to inclusion.”
RISE is a national nonprofit dedicated to inspiring sports leaders to promote positive change involving race and equality in athletics.
One of the programs RISE conducted recently was called “Rise with the Rams.” It involved the Los Angeles Rams talking about issues of identity, equality, inclusion and implicit bias with young men in the Los Angeles area. The program included Morningside High School in Inglewood, California, and Oaks Christian High School in Westlake Village, California.
Vince Pierson, the Director of Diversity and Inclusion for minor league baseball, agreed with both Haynes and Billings-Burford. He discussed the Rooney Rule being a catalyst for change in sports.
“You can’t legislate change to culture,” Pierson said. “But you can legislate change to behavior. And that’s what the Rooney Rule tries to do.”
Major League Baseball deals with some of the same problems. A small percentage of major league players are African Americans. In 2018, opening day rosters had the largest percentage of black players since 2012: 8.4 percent of MLB players are African American.
Diversity in sports are at far from ideal levels. However, policies such as the Rooney Rule are making inroads into that problem.
Lamar Smith is a graduate student in the sports journalism program at Arizona State University
'Taking one for the team' may mean lower salary early for bigger payout later
Carlos Carrasco of the Cleveland Indians throws out a runner at first base against the Houston Astros during Game Two of the American League Division Series at Minute Maid Park on Oct. 6, 2018 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
A league without a hard salary cap means the more money a team has, the easier it is for it to field a competitive team.
Smaller market baseball teams have to be more mindful of their spending and utilize these techniques to stay competitive with the big-market clubs.
Of the four major North American pro sports leagues, Major League Baseball is the only one without a salary cap. As a result, the size of the market a team calls home and the amount of money ownership has available to spend are factors in a team’s success.
Team-friendly contracts are those that have team options or are long-term deals at low salary numbers.
Signing players to long-term deals at lower salary figures than they might otherwise earn through arbitration or via free-agency helps the team in multiple ways. Teams get players who, in some instances, outperform their salary figures. And if those players do not perform well, they are easier to trade.
Chris Sale signed a 5-year,$32.5 million deal with the Chicago White Sox in 2013. There were two additional years added to the deal. Before, he was traded to the Boston Red Sox before the 2017 season.
During his four years with Chicago under the deal, Sale averaged a 3.04 ERA and 235 strikeouts, and he posted a 53-39 record.
Team options help teams retain players who generally are on contracts with lower salaries. During the 2018-19 offseason, 2014 World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner and Carlos Carrasco were among valuable players who had teams exercise club options.
Carrasco has averaged a 3.27 ERA during the last five seasons. He is a part of an elite Cleveland rotation featuring Trevor Bauer and Corey Kluber. Bauer finished third in earned run average and tied for 11th in strikeouts in the majors in 2018. Kluber finished third in AL Cy Young voting in 2018 and is a two-time winner of the award.
Franchises sometimes have a hard time fielding a quality team without a large payroll. Smaller-market clubs have less money to spend on big-time free agents. They are also, less likely to be able to absorb big contracts when trying to make trades.
Teams such as, the San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds have finished in the bottom seven in payroll each of the past three seasons, according to Spotrac. None of those three seasons has resulted in playoff finishes or even above .500 finishes for the two franchises.
During the past three seasons, 11 teams have finished with winning records with below league average payrolls. Of those 11 teams, eight made the playoffs and two made the World Series.
2016 MLB Season
Seven of the 10 teams that made the playoffs were among the top 10 largest payrolls. The only playoff team below the league’s average salary was the Cleveland Indians.
Cleveland spent $105.97 million on team payroll. The average adjusted salary on the team was $1,656,326. This number does not include suspended players or those on injured reserve at the conclusion of the World Series.
During the last month of the season, two of the team’s top three pitchers, Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco, sustained injuries and missed the rest of the season and postseason.
Cleveland overcame the injuries and made it to the World Series thanks to Kluber and a strong bullpen led by Cody Allen and midseason acquisition Andrew Miller. The Indians lost to the Cubs in extra innings in Game 7 at home, despite having a 3-1 series lead.
Kluber, Allen and Miller were fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively, in salary on the team and accounted for 11.33 percent of the team’s payroll. The three combined for almost 11 wins above replacement (WAR) during the regular season.
The highest-paid player on the team was first baseman Carlos Santana, who posted 34 home runs and 87 RBIs. Santana was the only player on the team to make more than $8 million.
Young talent was one of the reasons the team’s payroll was low. More than 70 percent of the team’s 40-man roster were 30 years old or younger. A majority of the team was either on arbitration-eligible or pre-arbitration contracts.
Arbitration is open to players that have at least three years of MLB service time and who cannot agree on multi-year deals with their clubs. Once the player reaches six years of service, they can become free agents.
2017 MLB Season
The gap in success between low-payroll and high-payroll teams decreased tremendously.
Half of the playoff teams possessed below league average payrolls. The Milwaukee Brewers finished with a winning record and missed a wild card berth by one game.
The Brewers had the league’s lowest payroll, and almost half the team’s payroll was invested in veterans Ryan Braun and Matt Garza. Neither player produced at a high level.
Garza finished 6-9 with a 4.94 ERA, and Braun produced 17 homers, 52 RBIs and a .268 batting average.
The team thrived behind its pitching. Finishing in the top 11 in ERA and opponent batting average in the majors and led the majors in saves.
Excluding Garza, Braun and Neil Walker, everyone on the team was either on a pre-arbitration or an arbitration deal.
Arizona was one of the more surprising teams during the season. The Diamondbacks enjoyed a 24-win improvement between 2016 and 2017 en route to finishing tied for the fifth-best record in baseball. The organization accomplished both despite spending roughly $5 million dollars more in payroll in and 2017 than in 2016.
Pitching was the biggest reason the team enjoyed success in 2017. The pitching staff improved from having the worst ERA in baseball in 2016to the third-best ERA. Pitchers Robbie Ray, Zack Greinke and Archie Bradley saw their earned run averages improve by more than a run.
Arizona’s two most effective pitchers (Ray and Bradley) earned a little more than $1 million combined. J.D Martinez, another important piece to the Diamondbacks’ division series run, hit 29 home runs and slugged better than .700 during his 60-plus games in a D-backs uniform. Martinez had an adjusted salary of close to $5 million.
The Astros, who won the World Series, had a team full of veterans and players on arbitration and pre-arbitration deals. Houston also benefited from a late-season trade with the Tigers to acquire Justin Verlander.
Houston had to pay Verlander only a little more than $4.7 million in adjusted salary because Detroit paid the majority of his salary for the year.
The Astros also had half as many players with salaries of more than $10 million than the San Francisco Giants, who had the fourth-highest payroll.
A strong farm system helped produce several of Houston’s standouts. Carlos Correa, Lance McCullers Jr., Alex Bregman and George Springer arrived from the team’s minor-league system within the three seasons prior to the title season. Springer, the leadoff man, had 34 HRs and 85 RBIs. He also won the World Series MVP.
2018 MLB Season
Three teams won 90 or more games with below the league average payrolls.
Two of the three made the postseason, and the Milwaukee Brewers reached Game 7 of the National League Championship Series.
Milwaukee had a 10-game improvement from 2017 to 2018 and finished with thebest recordin the NL.
The team benefited from having several players on pre-arbitration deals and several veterans on relatively cheap deals. Two of the most team-friendly contracts were those of NL All-Stars Jesus Aguilar and Josh Hader. Aguilar finished the season with 35 HRs, 108 RBIs and a .274 batting average. Hader led all relievers in strikeouts and received the Trevor Hoffman Reliever of the Year honor. Hader and Aguilar each made a little more than $500,000.
Christian Yelich was the NL MVP and led the NL in batting average. Yelich made only $7 million last year in what was his second year of arbitration.
The other two frugal 90-win teams were in the AL: Oakland and Tampa Bay. The Athletics won 97 games behind a strong bullpen and offense, which ranked in the top five in on-base percentage, on-base percentage plus slugging percentage and home runs.
Oakland had one player who made more than $10 million: Khris Davis. Davis produced more than 40 homers and 100 RBIs each of the past three seasons. This past year, he led the ML in HRs (48) and was second in RBIs (123). Both were career-highs.
Blake Treinen had a career year after finishing with an earned run average of almost four in 2017. Treinen had a 0.78 ERA, which was the best ERA amongst all pitchers with a minimum of 50 appearances.
Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run during the first inning in Game Six of the National League Championship Series at Miller Park on Oct. 20, 2018 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
The Athletics made the postseason, losing to the New York Yankees in the wild-card game 7-2.
Tampa Bay had the lowest payroll in baseball spending close to $70 million. None of the players on the team made $6 million or more.
The Rays finished sixth in team ERA despite having only one starter, Blake Snell, start 30 or more games. Snell won the AL Cy Young with a 1.89 ERA despite pitching a little more than 180 innings. He earned a little more than half a million dollars on a pre-arbitration deal.
A strategy of using “openers”and “bulk guys”helped the Rays play at a high-level even when numerous starting pitchers were lost to the disabled list.
In the Tampa Bay approach, openers are relievers who generally pitch one to three innings to start the game. The opener is followed by a bulk guy, who pitches three to five innings.
The approach helped the team outperform initial expectations when the team first employed the method. Rays manager Kevin Cash plans to use the strategy once again in this upcoming season.
Pre-Arbitration and Arbitration Deals
Teams with below-average payrolls who win at a high-level all have one thing in common: High levels of production from low-salary players. Teams try to negotiate team-friendly deals with good players, who may take less money in order to win.
However, baseball is constructed where the pre-arbitration period and arbitration-period deals help lengthen a team's success time horizon. The goal for players is to reach free-agency.
Some will not reach that point until they are in their 30s because of lengthy time in the minors.
Players generally need six years of MLB experience before qualifying for free agency. Though, in some instances, players can attain the service time requirement after five. Guys who hit free agency after five years are a part of the “Super Two’ exception.
“Super Two”allows players with between two to three years of service time in the majors to become eligible for arbitration. Players who qualify for the distinction must rank in the top 22 percent in service time among other players that have between two and three years of service time.
However, teams have grown more hesitant to spend large amounts of money in free agency than in years past. From Nov. 2, 2017 through Jan. 29, 2018 teams spent a little more than $26 million in free agent spending (not including the signing of Martinez).The Marlins, Braves, Pirates and Rays did not spend any money during this free agency time period.
The Red Sox played the waiting game and signed Martinez on a 5-year $110 million deal after he was reportedly seeking a seven-year $210 million deal.
Major league general managers, VP of baseball operations and team ownership have become hesitant due to several factors. One is the frequent drop in a player’s production toward the end of long-term deals.
The New York Yankees were put in a long-term financial bind due to several lengthy deals agreed to during the offseason before the team won the 2009 World Series. Mark Teixeira and Aaron Rodriguez both were in jeopardy of getting released in the 2016 season. The Yankees were trying to shed payroll and both struggling, one-time stars were in the middle of deals that paid them more than $20 million per season. The Yankees ultimately released Rodriguez toward the end of the season; Teixeira retired.
Teams also have to worry about players performing at a high-level once they receive a big contract. Both Mark Melancon and Wade Davis played terribly after signing multiyear contracts.
Colorado signed Davis to a 3-year, $52 million deal following a season in which he had a 2.30 ERA and blew one save with the Chicago Cubs. The 2015 World Series champion posted a 4.13 ERA last season with the Rockies.
Davis’ ERA rose due to his control issues. He threw his lowest percentage of pitches for strikes in his career. Also, throwing the second most wild pitches in his career.
Melancon was a coveted free agent when he hit the market two years ago, and he signed a 4-year, $62 million deal with the San Francisco Giants. He had a 4.50 ERA in 2017 before posting a 3.23 ERA this past season. He also allowed opposing hitters to hit better than .300 in each of the last two seasons.
Signing free agents is always a gamble since past production does not necessarily indicate future performance.
Max Scherzer won the 2013 AL Cy Young with the Tigers before signing with the Washington Nationals during the offseason before the 2015 MLB season. Scherzer has played at an even higher level since he moved to the National League. Making the NL All-Star team each of the last four seasons and winning back-to-back Cy Young awards in 2016 and 2017. He finished second in the voting in 2018.
Moneyball
Team-friendly contracts are a part of the history of baseball. Though the term did not earn a place in the cultural landscape until the mid 2000s, the Athletics and general manager Billy Beane had adopted the “Moneyball” philosophy years earlier.
The small-market teams use statistical analysis to identify undervalued and overlooked players. Then take advantage of the lack of a market for them to sign them to team-friendly contracts. They built their rosters by focusing on guys who had certain skill sets such as the ability to draw walks or post high on-base percentages.
Beane also did not believe in overpaying for closers.
Andrew Miller of the Cleveland Indians celebrates after striking out Josh Donaldson #20 of the Toronto Blue Jays in the top of the eighth inning during game two of the American League Championship Series at Progressive Field on Oct. 15, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Cleveland’s Allen and Miller, who shared closing duties during the 2016 postseason combined to make a little more than $7.2 million. Both players were stellar in the 2016 postseason. Miller had a 1.40 ERA in 10 appearances and was the 2016 ALCS MVP, becoming the fifth reliever to win a League Championship Series MVP. Allen gave up zero runs in 10 appearances and finished six for six in save opportunities during the 2016 postseason.
Teams have since adopted some of the methods Beane established.
The Moneyball strategy is still used today by several small-market teams. Players signed under this strategy have a short lifespan because once undervalued players outperform the amount of money they are paid, those players start to demand more money.
Big-market clubs were strengthened. The first few seasons after Moneyball gained acclaim (2004 to 2006) there was 27.1 percent in the variation in teams winning percentage among teams’ payrolls.
Between 1986 and 1993, there was only a 2.2 percent variation in a team’s winning percentage. Spending more money became indicative of team success.
The Dodgers, Yankees and Red Sox are among several teams with consistently high payrolls who are willing to spend lots of money to give their teams the best opportunity to win.
Small-market teams still look for undervalued players whether via free agency, trade or farm systems. The difference being there are a variety of ways to field competitive teams in baseball, whether they involve Moneyball principles or not.
Lamar Smith is a graduate student in the sports journalism program at Arizona State University
Athletes joining the ranks of esports investors
The growth of esports is leading to high-profile athlete investors putting up money to support teams.
The growing popularity of esports is bringing in a bevy of investors.
Esports revenue has continued to grow but, so has the popularity. The esports audience is projected to grow by almost 100 million people by 2021.
Esports revenue has jumped significantly during the past three years from $493 million in 2016 to $905.6 million in 2018, according to a market analysis report by Newzoo, a games, esports, and mobile intelligence company.
Viewership in esports is already higher than the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball and is on pace to be as popular as the National Football League by 2022.
This growth has not gone unnoticed by athletes in other sports. Several current and former athletes have invested in esports during the past year.
Michael Jordan, the majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets and 2003 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, is one of the biggest high-profile investors, having put $26 million into aXiomatic Gaming.
aXiomatic Gaming is an esports startup that owns Team Liquid, the third most valuable esports team in the world at $200 million. Jordan joins a group of several NBA owners and executives who have stakes in aXiomatic Gaming, including Los Angeles Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson.
Current Golden State Warriors Steph Curry, Andre Iguodala and Kevin Durant have invested in esports teams.
Durant was the first of his teammates to jump into the esports world. In February 2018, he was among the investors in a $38 million capital raise by Vision Esports with an ownership group that included New York Giants wideout Odell Beckham Jr. Vision Esports is the largest shareholder in Echo Fox, which is the fourth most valuable esports team. Echo Fox was founded by former NBA player Rick Fox.
Curry and Iguodala pursued a joint investment together where they among a group of investors in a $37 million capital raise in the esports organization TSM (Team SoloMid). The organization is run by 26-year-old creator Andy Dinh, who recently appeared on Forbes 30 under 30 Game’s List in 2017.
The growth of esports is not just a trend. Esports revenue is expected to increase to about $1.4 billion by 2020, according to Newzoo.
The National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) has more than 100 member colleges and universities that participate in their nonprofit league that includes over 1,500 student-athletes.
Seventy-nine of those schools provide partial or full scholarships to student gamers. NACE has $9 million in esports aid and scholarships overall. NACE’s goal is to increase its reach in esports in the varsity space.
On the high school level, esports has grown thanks to the creation of the High School Esports League (HSEL). The league works with high schools to create esports programs and gives students the opportunity to compete in esports competitions.
The HSEL site also helps students find esports scholarships and aid provided by NACE, which includes schools such as the University of Missouri and the University of Oklahoma.
Esports may not fit most conventions when people think about athletics, but the amount of money invested into and the growth of esports signals they will be around for a long time.
Lamar Smith is a graduate student in the sports journalism program at Arizona State University
Overlooked impact of sleep can be key for athlete's performance
(Photo courtesy Getty Images)
Athletes require peak health to perform well. While they focus on physical fitness, nutrition, mental health and wellness, one aspect of their well-being is often overlooked.
That aspect is sleep. The average person needs seven to nine hours of sleep according to webmd.com. Athletes need more than the average amount of sleep to perform at a high level.
The average athlete sleeps eight to 10 hours a night, sometimes longer, according to sleep.org. The more sleep an athlete gets, the more time their muscles get to recover and repair.
There is a positive correlation between sleep and athletic performance.
A 2002 study by Cheri Mah on the Stanford men’s basketball team examined how additional sleep each night affected the team’s performance. Players were told to sleep six to nine hours for two to four weeks and then 10 hours for the next five to seven weeks.
Sleeping 10 hours helped increase the 3-point and free-throw percentages of the team during practice by 9.2 and 9 percent, respectively. Players also ran 282-foot sprints 4.5 percent faster.
Before the test, Mah and her colleagues had the players fill out a questionnaire rating their overall sleepiness. The results showed most were suffering from chronic sleep loss and daytime sleepiness.
The training schedule of athletes contribute to poor sleeping habits.
Gwen Jorgensen, a two-time gold medalist in the triathlon, trains six days a week. Her routine involves 90-minute swim sessions of 3,000 to 6,000 meters along with several other pool exercises. Every afternoon she does a series of exercises on her bike.
Jorgensen functions better when she gets the right amount of rest. Her high value on sleeping contributes to her performing at a high level.
“I've learned to make sleep a priority by sticking to my personalized bedtime routine,” Jorgensen told the Huffington Post. “I try to go to bed by 9 p.m., keeping the room dark and the outside noise to a minimum.”
Getting the right amount of sleep at night keeps her energized as opposed to feeling lethargic when she is not getting the right amount of sleep. Jorgensen generally sleeps eight to 10 hours a night.
Dr. Mark Rosekind, a sleep specialist who has previously worked with NASA and several Olympic athletes, described the importance of sleep to the Huffington Post.
“As athletics become more and more competitive to where a millisecond can be the difference between a gold and silver medal, everyone is looking for any possible edge they can get — sleep is that edge,” Rosekind said.
Techniques that help improve sleep are taking naps, establishing a sleep schedule, avoiding sleep medication and reducing alcohol and caffeine consumption, according to Gatorade Sports Science Institute.
Taking naps help on the days when a person is not able to get enough sleep or they are simply tired. The problem with extensive napping is long naps will make you more tired and feeling groggy and sluggish.
Taking 10- to 30-minute naps can give a two- to three-hour energy boost in performance, according to the National Sleep Foundation.
Sleeping well is not a replacement for other methods when it comes to improving athletic performance, but it is essential to performing at a high level.
Lamar Smith is a master's journalism student at Arizona State University
