Bad sports, good sports: Indecision was the wrong decision for the New York City Marathon

Posted on November 5th, 2012 by Alan Spoll

Since I last wrote, the East Coast took quite a shot from Hurricane Sandy. My family was far more fortunate than most, as we only lost power for 24 hours, and we had no damage to our home or property at all. Many people along the Jersey shore and in New York City were not nearly so fortunate. There are still many without power, and as it gets colder, the problem will be even more magnified. In the middle of all of this, the New York City Marathon was scheduled to happen on Sunday. On Tuesday, as the storm was just clearing out, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that the marathon would go forward as planned. After several days of backlash about that decision, he reversed field and called off the race on Friday.

It may seem like it should have been an obvious choice to cancel the race, but I feel for the mayor. With the information he had at the time, he expected that the power would be back on by the weekend and things in general would be in much better shape. He said that no emergency crews would be taken away from helping victims of the storm, and no resources would be diverted. In addition, he knew that the race would generate a lot of money for the city and its businesses, and that money would be needed in the wake of the destruction. As bad as I felt for the people who were displaced from their homes, if the race was not going to impact that one way or the other, then I felt it would be a shame to penalize all of the people who had trained for months or years for this event, who had spent money on travel, and who could still have their event if not for the complaints of people that seemed to have more to do with political correctness than reality. As the week went on and the pace of recovery remained glacial, it became increasingly evident that a cancelation was the correct decision. On Friday, the race was nixed.

Unfortunately, Bloomberg trying to please everyone resulted in him pleasing no one. I don’t know if the runners could have recovered some of their spent money to a greater extent on Tuesday than on Friday, but it stands to reason that, if they were going to call this thing off, the earlier the better, right? I don’t know what percentage of the expected 45,000 runners were coming from out of town, but I would bet it was significant. The NYC Marathon is a huge event, and people from all over are interested in doing it. People enter themselves into a lottery to get a spot in the race, and even though it is not a race you actually have to qualify for (like the Boston Marathon), it is clearly a very popular event. Many of them ended up traveling in anyway, which makes sense, considering that airfares are generally not refundable. Some people even went out and ran the 26.2 miles anyway. Good for them.

Clearly a marathon is not something that should take precedence over people in need in any way. The idea that hotels, some of whom had been filled all week with displaced residents, would have to kick those folks out in order to make room for the travelers coming in for the race is a pretty awful one. I feel for the runners, but I imagine most of them were sympathetic to the cause. I would guess they would have been even more sympathetic had the cancelation come a few days earlier.

Bad sports, continued:

2) Steve Spurrier showed that he may not get as much publicity as he did when he was the head football coach at Florida a while back, but he is still just as much of a jerk as he was then. Last week, his star running back, Marcus Lattimore, suffered a gruesome knee injury. A few days later, Dabo Swinney, the head coach at rival Clemson, said some really nice things about Lattimore. Spurrier, at a rally in support of Lattimore, decided he would take a few shots at Swinney and Clemson in his remarks. Classless.

3) Has anyone other than Rocky ever gotten away with the “come on, hit me, I’ll give you a free shot” move? Seems like a bad idea. It didn’t work out too well for this guy last week.

4) Former MLB pitcher Pascual Perez was found stabbed to death in the Dominican Republic on Thursday. Police believe he was killed during a robbery.

5) Jamal Fenton, a guard for the University of New Mexico basketball team, has been suspended for three games for accepting a discount on a room he rented for a birthday celebration last spring.

6) Skier Lindsay Vonn has been denied in her quest to race against men in a World Cup race later this month by the International Ski Federation. She has been incredibly successful at the course where the race will be held, and wanted to prove herself against the guys.

7) The Alabama Crimson Tide had a remarkable comeback to defeat LSU on Saturday. The win was marred, though, by the winning quarterback bawling on the sidelines before the game was even over. Come on, dude. I get that you’re happy. Cry when you get to the car.

8) Kevin Harvick’s car was slightly damaged during pre-race festivities in Texas on Sunday when a skydiver’s equipment nailed the driver’s door as the jumper himself just cleared the hood. Harvick finished in ninth place, so I guess it did not hurt him too much.

Good sports:

1) A fourteen-year-old kid will be competing in the Masters next spring. Guan Tianlang, who is in eighth grade in China, won the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship on Sunday, earning him the invitation to the one of golf’s biggest events.

2) Conventional wisdom says you play for a tie on the road. The TCU football team is anything but conventional, however. The Horned Frogs trailed West Virginia 38-31 in the second overtime of their game on Saturday when they scored a touchdown. An extra-point kick would have tied things up and sent them to a third overtime. Instead, coach Gary Patterson elected to go for a two-point conversion, which is a much lower percentage play. They made it and won the game, 39-38.

3) If you are a NASCAR fan, you have to love how this year’s Chase for the Cup is shaping up. The top two drivers, Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski, are separated by only seven points with two races to go. Johnson won the last two races, with Keselowski finishing 6th and 2nd in them, turning a seven point deficit for Johnson into a seven point lead.

Bad sports, good sports appears every Monday

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Alan Spoll

Alan Spoll is a software quality assurance director from the suburbs of Philadelphia where he lives with his wonderful wife and children. He has spent his entire life as a passionate fan of the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, Flyers, and Penn State. Recent Phillies success aside, you will understand his natural negativity. Follow me on Twitter - @DocAlan02