Good question. I'm going to say in part we still have a lot of blacks outside the middle class which tennis and golf tend to require unless you're very determined like Lee Trevino.
Another factor could be cultural. Gregarious blacks aren't as much into solo sports?
When I was a kid in the 1970s it seemed every hotel, apartment complex, public park and even office parks had a couple of tennis courts attached. But now the Boomers have bad knees and hips and nobody plays tennis. Not sure why tennis dried up but maybe it's bouncing back I don't know.
Same for time-intensive golf. Amateurs like something that's over in 1 to 2 hours like ultimate Frisbee. My impression was golf's numbers were cratering but maybe they've turned it around. This gets back to one of my longtime gripes that the USGA could greatly increase the appeal of the game by a 12 hole standard course.
Around here, the County Parks & Rec department has added pickleball lines to many of the public tennis courts. Not-for-profit pickleball leagues can apply for use permits (day & time) on the same basis as tennis leagues. Surprisingly, there is (effectively) no conflict. One not-so-good reason is the low usage of the courts outside of league play. Rec-level tennis seems to have suffered a decline in popularity; is this reflected in statistics? Or maybe players have moved to private clubs?
100% agree, I've long thought this. Twelve holes can be played in two hours and it's the perfect length. It can be walked easily if you prefer.
A local nine has a "warm-up" practice hole to begin, so you're actually playing ten and scoring nine, which helps when you snap-hook that opening drive into the subdivision.
Both sports have gotten harder to make it to the top in as now you have to start young. For example, the Williams Sisters were sent off to the IMG Academy boarding school in Florida as children to study tennis. In contrast, Pancho Gonzalez, a cholo from East L.A. became the top pro in the world in the 1950s after learning to play tennis on public courts and even missing his age 16 year of tennis development because he was in juvenile hall for burglary.
The most successful black golfer before Tiger, Calvin Peete, first took up golf in his early 20s and won 12 tournaments on the PGA Tour from 1979-1986. (Larry Nelson, a white golfer, had a similar level of achievement, despite taking up golf after he got back from a tour in Vietnam.) I haven't heard of any similar late bloomers in golf ever since.
I can see why you won that Nobel prize for biodiversity. Little hands, big feet, small brains, tall bodies, beautiful looks in shithole countries, who would have known that due to your groundbreaking the NYT has joined the literate class and taken the biodiversity into the work or woke place that is Apple.
My favorite sumo wrestler is Asashouryu, who was Mongolian but on the smaller side. In fact Japanese sports writers compared him to old school wrestlers because he relied on speed, aggression and technique to beat much larger wrestlers.
His career was sadly truncated though due to character flaws.
And Wilt remained disease and child-free until the end. I doubt a connoisseur like him would use a condom. I wonder if he shot blanks or had a vasectomy.
I view all interactions between Japan and Mongolia as a cosmic struggle between the Eternal Blue Sky and Susanoo-no-Mikoto. The Mongolians humiliating the Japanese at sumo is just revenge for the Kamikazes, 750 years later.
" Before they were born, father Richard Williams was watching white women play tennis on TV for big bucks when he turned to his wife and told her they could produce better female tennis players than that. Five daughters later, they had hit the jackpot"
Not sure if this is correct. Richard and Oracene only had 2 daughters together, Venus and Serena. He had 5 children, 3 sons and 2 daughters with his first wife, Betty. Oracene had 5 daughters total, 3 from a previous marriage. Unless Richard was trying to produce tennis stars with multiple women I'm not sure your "five daughters later they had hit the jackpot" is true.
Here’s another puzzle for Steve (and others). From circa 2000-2012 I was a keen, club level cyclist. Then, as now, there was a relentless push to get East African distance runners interested in road cycling. With the exception of a few Eritreans, this attempt has been a complete failure. The usual European suspects, together with some South Americans (some of whom obviously have a decent admixture of native blood), continue to dominate the sport. Indeed, the present TDF Champion, Tadej Pogacar, is a blonde Slovenian who looks likely to become the greatest of all time. Why?
I suspect the answer lies in the aerodynamic advantages of drafting in cycling (which is circa 30% of total output at speeds above 35 km/h). Whilst an East African may be able to sustain a higher average power than a European white, the advantage is not so great as to overcome the slipstream advantage. The skinny East African couldn’t “drop” the European, but the much-more powerful European would certainly “dust” him in the sprint to the line. On the other hand, whilst a West African may be able to out-sprint a European (witness some track cyclists), he would never be able to drag his much more muscular frame over hilly terrain, where grade resistance rules.
So, what do we conclude from this? Well, first, that continued European dominance is not attributable to African poverty (viz. they can’t afford bicycles) or to the “long legacy of slavery”, potentially including Emmett Till, but merely to the fact that whites have found a sporting niche. The second conclusion is that those who make money from bicycle racing should be very glad of this fact. Expensive Italian bicycles are bought by overweight dentists who like the fact that modern day champions look like them and have names that sound appropriately and evocatively like a GP driver from the 1950s. Would overweight dentists be so interested in the outcome of Stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia if the winner were a weedy African whose name is properly pronounced by unsticking one tongue from the roof of one’s mouth? As with all things, those relentless pursuing the Africanisation of all sports should be careful what they wish for…
Good question. I'm going to say in part we still have a lot of blacks outside the middle class which tennis and golf tend to require unless you're very determined like Lee Trevino.
Another factor could be cultural. Gregarious blacks aren't as much into solo sports?
When I was a kid in the 1970s it seemed every hotel, apartment complex, public park and even office parks had a couple of tennis courts attached. But now the Boomers have bad knees and hips and nobody plays tennis. Not sure why tennis dried up but maybe it's bouncing back I don't know.
Same for time-intensive golf. Amateurs like something that's over in 1 to 2 hours like ultimate Frisbee. My impression was golf's numbers were cratering but maybe they've turned it around. This gets back to one of my longtime gripes that the USGA could greatly increase the appeal of the game by a 12 hole standard course.
A lot of poor boys once learned to play golf as caddies. Now we have motorized golf carts.
Boomers have had the tennis courts converted to pickleball.
Around here, the County Parks & Rec department has added pickleball lines to many of the public tennis courts. Not-for-profit pickleball leagues can apply for use permits (day & time) on the same basis as tennis leagues. Surprisingly, there is (effectively) no conflict. One not-so-good reason is the low usage of the courts outside of league play. Rec-level tennis seems to have suffered a decline in popularity; is this reflected in statistics? Or maybe players have moved to private clubs?
100% agree, I've long thought this. Twelve holes can be played in two hours and it's the perfect length. It can be walked easily if you prefer.
A local nine has a "warm-up" practice hole to begin, so you're actually playing ten and scoring nine, which helps when you snap-hook that opening drive into the subdivision.
Would be nice if we had more clay courts like in Europe. Does wonders for your knees. However you have to be a member of a club to get access.
Both sports have gotten harder to make it to the top in as now you have to start young. For example, the Williams Sisters were sent off to the IMG Academy boarding school in Florida as children to study tennis. In contrast, Pancho Gonzalez, a cholo from East L.A. became the top pro in the world in the 1950s after learning to play tennis on public courts and even missing his age 16 year of tennis development because he was in juvenile hall for burglary.
The most successful black golfer before Tiger, Calvin Peete, first took up golf in his early 20s and won 12 tournaments on the PGA Tour from 1979-1986. (Larry Nelson, a white golfer, had a similar level of achievement, despite taking up golf after he got back from a tour in Vietnam.) I haven't heard of any similar late bloomers in golf ever since.
Improvements in training effectiveness favour those with early commitment and more resources.
I can see why you won that Nobel prize for biodiversity. Little hands, big feet, small brains, tall bodies, beautiful looks in shithole countries, who would have known that due to your groundbreaking the NYT has joined the literate class and taken the biodiversity into the work or woke place that is Apple.
Hall of Fame, Nobel, Pulitzer, why quibble.
The NBA has so few Pygmies due to its racist "No Pygmie" policy.
If Sumo had weight classes, Pygmies could win.
My favorite sumo wrestler is Asashouryu, who was Mongolian but on the smaller side. In fact Japanese sports writers compared him to old school wrestlers because he relied on speed, aggression and technique to beat much larger wrestlers.
His career was sadly truncated though due to character flaws.
Fun.
Among Wilt's conquests was actress Kim Novak. I wonder if she liked sharing the spotlight with 18,000 other women?
And Wilt remained disease and child-free until the end. I doubt a connoisseur like him would use a condom. I wonder if he shot blanks or had a vasectomy.
Basketball still invented by a Canadian though, right?
If you think Bluesky is genteel try saying that trans women (ie men) shouldn’t compete in women’s sports. You’ll be attacked savagely.
I view all interactions between Japan and Mongolia as a cosmic struggle between the Eternal Blue Sky and Susanoo-no-Mikoto. The Mongolians humiliating the Japanese at sumo is just revenge for the Kamikazes, 750 years later.
" Before they were born, father Richard Williams was watching white women play tennis on TV for big bucks when he turned to his wife and told her they could produce better female tennis players than that. Five daughters later, they had hit the jackpot"
Not sure if this is correct. Richard and Oracene only had 2 daughters together, Venus and Serena. He had 5 children, 3 sons and 2 daughters with his first wife, Betty. Oracene had 5 daughters total, 3 from a previous marriage. Unless Richard was trying to produce tennis stars with multiple women I'm not sure your "five daughters later they had hit the jackpot" is true.
Here’s another puzzle for Steve (and others). From circa 2000-2012 I was a keen, club level cyclist. Then, as now, there was a relentless push to get East African distance runners interested in road cycling. With the exception of a few Eritreans, this attempt has been a complete failure. The usual European suspects, together with some South Americans (some of whom obviously have a decent admixture of native blood), continue to dominate the sport. Indeed, the present TDF Champion, Tadej Pogacar, is a blonde Slovenian who looks likely to become the greatest of all time. Why?
I suspect the answer lies in the aerodynamic advantages of drafting in cycling (which is circa 30% of total output at speeds above 35 km/h). Whilst an East African may be able to sustain a higher average power than a European white, the advantage is not so great as to overcome the slipstream advantage. The skinny East African couldn’t “drop” the European, but the much-more powerful European would certainly “dust” him in the sprint to the line. On the other hand, whilst a West African may be able to out-sprint a European (witness some track cyclists), he would never be able to drag his much more muscular frame over hilly terrain, where grade resistance rules.
So, what do we conclude from this? Well, first, that continued European dominance is not attributable to African poverty (viz. they can’t afford bicycles) or to the “long legacy of slavery”, potentially including Emmett Till, but merely to the fact that whites have found a sporting niche. The second conclusion is that those who make money from bicycle racing should be very glad of this fact. Expensive Italian bicycles are bought by overweight dentists who like the fact that modern day champions look like them and have names that sound appropriately and evocatively like a GP driver from the 1950s. Would overweight dentists be so interested in the outcome of Stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia if the winner were a weedy African whose name is properly pronounced by unsticking one tongue from the roof of one’s mouth? As with all things, those relentless pursuing the Africanisation of all sports should be careful what they wish for…