Monday, August 8, 2005

The Olympics sell out...

On this date in 1992, the Olympics reached the point of no-return when the 'Dream Team' completed a successful mission to bring back gold to the U.S. but at what price ?

Commercialism had started rearing it's ugly head filled with dollar signs as early as 1968 with corporate logos being displayed on uniforms but it wasn't until Peter Ueberroth initiated corporate sponsorships in 1984 that the floodgates opened in earnest, capped by the NBA team that captured a gold medal for basketball in 1992...

To no one's surprise, America's Dream Team led by Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and John Stockton crushed the Tony Kukoc led Croatians to win the gold on August 8th, 1992...

Perhaps the New York Times said it best labelling the Dream Team, "a boorish pack of prima donnas."

My take on the commercial sell-out of the Olympics follows in my commentary at the end of this blog...

More August 8 Memories...

1963) The Kingsmen release "Louie, Louie"...

1966) Surgeon Michael DeBakey installs the first artificial heart...

1968) Richard Nixon and Spiro T. Agnew are chosen for running mates at the Republican National Convention...

1969) The Beatles shoot the cover photo for the "Abbey Road" LP...

1970) The Yankees retire Casey Stengel's #37 uniform number...

1970) CCR's "Looking Out My Back Door" is released...

1976) The Chicago White Sox suit up in shorts...

1986) David Crosby is released from prison after serving a sentence for drug and weapons possession...

1987) U2 top the charts with "With Or Without You"...

1988) The renovated Central Park Zoo reopens after 4 years...

1988) A high of 88 degrees is reached on 8/8/88 in New York City...

1988) After 74 years of day baseball, the Cubs try to play their first night game at Wrigley Field but rain halts action...

1998) The Rolling Stones rock Russia in a driving rain...

Happy Birthday to...

1923) Esther Williams...

1937) Dustin Hoffman...

1938) Connie Stevens...

1944) Smokey the Bear...

1949) Keith Carradine...

1949) Stylistics' lead singer Airrion Love...

1952) Howard Stern sidekick Robin Quivers...

1958) Deborah Norville...

1961) U2's The Edge a.k.a. Dave Evans...

1968) Patricia Arquette...

Commentary...

Don't get me wrong, I'm as patriotic as the next guy when it comes to America winning as much bling as possible in every Olympics we play but how do we justify using professional players to get it done ?

The original Olympics rewarded the victors with a crown of wild olives but most importantly was contested by guess what ? Amateurs. Whoa, what a concept ! If your argument is that every other country uses professionals, here's my answer to that...

In the future, any country using a professional athlete is disqualified from competition, period, end of story. If we can only find a handful of countries willing to conform to these standards, that's okay. Don't think there will be enough countries to compete ? Cancel the Olympics until we reach a point in this 'win at all costs' sports world to get back to the original intent of the Olympics which is competition featuring international athletic contests using amateur contestants...