Los Angeles is finally legalizing playing catch in front of your home. Yes, you read that right. Playing catch has been, and still is, illegal on the streets or sidewalks of LA. A little-known and rarely enforced provision in the LA municipal code prohibits ball games on most streets or sidewalks. Violators could face a fine of up to $1,000, six months in jail or both.
Staff members for Los Angeles City Council member Bob Blumenfield stumbled upon the provision last year, prompting him to put forward a motion to repeal the law. The council approved the motion 14-0 without discussion. The law appears to have been on the books since 1945, when LA’s population was expanding rapidly along with its traffic. Ah, America. Hopefully, all LA teams will catch better in the future.
The QB Clap
In college football, quarterbacks are now using hand claps rather than vocal signals to tell the center to hike the ball. If this trend takes over in the NFL, there will be no more Peyton Manning’s “Omaha” or Aaron Rodgers’ “Green 319.” Expect home field fans to be encouraged to render thunderous applause to create confusion rather than vocal noise.
Tennis for Longevity
The New York Times Science section recently published an article claiming that tennis is the best sport for longevity. Studies found that playing tennis can add 10 years to your life span. Take that, pickleballers.
Crotchgate
If you’re a regular reader of this column, you may know that I used to teach a Sport Ethics course at Fort Lewis College. I’ve always been fascinated by the creative ways that athletes – and in this case, coaches – cheat.
Recently, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation’s ethics committee handed down a harsh 18-month suspension to two disgraced former coaches and the former equipment manager of Norway’s ski jumping team. The trio admitted conspiring to manipulate the suits of the team’s top jumpers to help them beat the competition at the Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim, Norway, last year – after a whistleblower filmed them through a curtain and posted the video on YouTube.
Magnus Brevig, head coach of the Norwegian national team, and Adrian Livelten, team suit technician, were caught inserting illegal stitching into the crotch area of the suits of star jumpers Marius Lindvik (the reigning Olympic champion) and Johann Andre Forfang after the suits had already passed inspection. The stitching made the suits more aerodynamic, allowing the jumpers to fly farther than the competition. This latest scandal has been dubbed “Crotchgate.”
One would think that a streamlined, tight-fitting suit would be more aerodynamic for flying through the air. This is true – however, in ski jumping, lift is even more important than drag. If drag is decreased by 1%, the jump increases by one meter. If lift is increased by 1%, the jump distance increases by two meters. A competitor wants the suit to act as part sail and part balloonlike parachute to create more lift for a longer jump.
Rules dictate that the athletes’ crotches are actually measured, as are the crotch parts of their suits. The suits may be no more than 4 cm larger than the wearer’s body. The guilty seamstress coaches were given 18-month suspensions. The athletes, apparently unaware of the tampering, were given three-month suspensions, which they’ve already served over the summer, so they’re eligible for the current Winter Olympics in Italy. Hmmm?
The indignity is that we won’t be able to watch the ski jump competition without checking out and analyzing the competitors’ crotches – which will be mostly air.
Jim Cross is a retired Fort Lewis College professor and basketball coach living in Durango. Reach him at cross_j@fortlewis.edu.
