A Strike and No Boxing Fans

Several days ago, 94% of Chicago Park District employees voted to go on strike.  If negotiations between the labor union and the park district don't improve within the next couple of weeks, employees will be encouraged to walk off of their jobs.  I was part of the percentage that voted against it.  Most of my co-workers at LaFollette Park think a 'yes' vote will protect their jobs.  I've worked at enough places - most of whom were not covered by a labor union - to know that management will dig their heels in to keep situations the way they currently are. 

"I can't be fired for just anything," park district employees think in their defense of the union.  I laugh derisively because management has always found a way to show employees the door regardless.  I also shake my head because the presence of the union often allows employees who should have been let go to stay on.  Why do people think, especially in this time when technology is king, that so many are looking at working for themselves?  When I began working over 40 years ago, employers had more loyalty towards employees.  Now it's everybody for themselves, and having a union involved doesn't make much difference in my opinion. 

I don't have time to sit around twiddling my thumbs in the event of a strike.  Nor can I or the scores of other park district employees who don't have extra jobs and/or side gigs to supplement their income afford to miss paychecks during a strike. 

From conversations I've had with participants in the boxing classes, I've come to the conclusion that most are not boxing fans.  The youths who play football, basketball, and baseball in the park district follow those sports.  Very few in the boxing classes, youths or adults, watch any matches.  Most know about Muhammad Ali.  Some mention Floyd Mayweather Jr or Mike Tyson.  But that's the extent of the knowledge about boxing.  The result is a lack of connection to the sport which doesn't bode well especially for people who talk about wanting to compete.  I'm always getting a lot of odd questions about what goes on in boxing matches that wouldn't come up if people were actually fans of the sport.

The lack of boxing fans contributes heavily to the fact that LaFollette Park's boxing program is not where it needs to be and should be. 

The Greatest Of All Time

Last night, a Facebook friend of mine -- Joe -- asked me what reasons would a referee have to stop a fight.  I told him, and then the conversation turned to Muhammad Ali.  News reports had been going all day about the world's best known boxer health.  "I don't think Ali's going to make it," Joe wrote.  I wrote back, "Ali has came back from health scares before.  But this one feels different.  You may be right."  About ten minutes later, news broke that the man known as The Greatest Of All Time had passed on.  Everything stopped.  Normally, I would up for hours on a Friday night.  I shut off the computer, and went to bed, depressed.

Today, no one showed up for class at the gym.  It felt a little like a tomb, which was appropriate.  I had remarked to some staff members that if I had flags in the gym, I would have had them at half-mast.  On one of the bulletin boards, I have a picture of Ali up along with his training routine when he was an active boxer.  I had contemplated taking that as well as other items off that board after the summer camp kids picked at it all last summer.  But I've changed my mind.  I got a pen and added the date of Ali's death underneath his birth date.

When I was six or seven years old, word spread through the housing project that I lived in that Ali was on the premises.  In a lot of places, Ali was still being referred to as Cassius Clay, his given name.  That's what my mother called the boxer as she ordered me to keep watch at the window to catch him coming out.  Ma had a crush on Ali.  She went off on me when Ali never appeared, accusing me of not paying attention.  He may have left out of another entrance.  Perhaps he wasn't at the building at all.  But the mention of the man's presence was enough to get people -- including Ma -- excited.

Alan told me he met Ali in downtown Chicago.  They both were crossing the street, Ali from one side and Alan from the other.  As they approached, Ali caught Alan's eye and got into a boxer's crouch.  Alan responded in kind, and they approached each other as if they were going to fight.  Alan told me that was an extremely fun moment.  Larry, a guy I used to work with when I was employed by a social service agency, met Ali at a function.  Larry was so taken by meeting the champ that he just stood there and cried, barely able to carry on a conversation with him.

What are we going to do without Muhammad Ali?  Who is going to take his place?  I thought to myself after hearing the bad news.  Life will go on like it usually does.  But there is absolutely no one who can step up to the plate and take Ali's position.  The man was one of a kind, in and out of the ring.  The world has truly lost someone.

Fighting In Cicero

This photo of Brandy after she warmed up on the punch mitts is from last year's Golden Gloves.  It was held at Gordon Tech High School.  This year, it's at a new venue, Cicero Stadium, a field house that is part of the Cicero, Illinois park district.  Alan couldn't go to the matches last night, but I went because two people I know - Metzger and Eric - competed.

It took me over two hours to get there.  I was poking around at my apartment, and I left late.  When I finally got to Cicero via the Chicago Transit Authority, my poor sense of direction delayed me finding the place.  Cicero Stadium is okay, but it's a little smaller than Gordon Tech's gym.  It's way smaller than St. Andrews' Gym where the Chicago Golden Gloves were held for decades.  I know that parking at St. Andrews was a problem, and that's one reason why the Gloves aren't held there anymore.  They had a small lot, and finding parking close on the street was difficult.  But the atmosphere seemed more charged at St. Andrews than it was at Gordon Tech or Cicero Stadium.  St. Andrews had history with the sport; the other two venues don't.

I arrived just in time to catch Eric's match.  The weight class for his match was in the 112 pound category.  He and the other guy were about even in the first round, with the other guy throwing a few more punches, but near the end of the second round, Eric used his long arm reach to pin the other boxer in the corner.  In the end, the judges felt the other guy was more aggressive, and Eric lost the match.

Metzger had a time with the guy he fought.  The other guy kept banging away, and Metzger had an eight count called on him twice.  The judges' decision wasn't in his favor, either.  On Facebook, Metzger thanked everyone who came out to see his fight.

Most of the trophies and belts were handed out to the winners by current and former professional boxers.  A guy stepped into the ring with a small boy in his arms to give out one of the awards.  The guy wasn't the celebrity.  Instead, the little boy was the focus: the kid was the grandson of Muhammad Ali.  One of his younger daughters, the boy's mom, smiled proudly at ringside.

There were a couple of female boxing matches.  As I watched them, I made my usual wish that I could compete in the Gloves, but I know those days have past.

I saw a lot of familiar faces, including Alan the judge, Celestino who had refereed at last week's Battle of the Badges, Rico, who was in attendance at that match, and Percy, who always works the glove table.  It was a nice time.  The best match of the night was the very last one, the 19th one, I believe.  Those two guys really took it to each other, and they got a standing ovation when it was over.

The Gloves are always a long night.  It took about an hour and a half for me to get back to my apartment.  I got home in time to watch "The Jack Benny Program".  That comes on at 1:00 AM.

They Reminisce Over You

I had taped the documentary Facing Ali (2009) when Spike TV showed it a couple of weeks ago.  This past Saturday, I finally got around to watching it.  I've seen plenty of news stories and other documentaries about Muhammad Ali, but this was the most heartfelt of the ones I've seen.  Ten boxers who faced Ali in the ring -- Joe Frazier, Henry Cooper, Ron Lyle, Earnie Shavers, George Foreman, Ernie Terrell, Leon Spinks, George Chuvalo, Ken Norton and Larry Holmes -- talk about the experience of fighting the man known as "the greatest of all time".


They also talk about how they feel about him.  Some did not agree with Ali's alliance with the Nation of Islam, and some were not cool with his anti-Vietnam War stance.  Terrell and Frazier, in particular, talk about how they didn't appreciate Ali insulting them before, during, and after their fights.  As time has gone by, a lot of the old grudges have faded, however.  Some of the boxers -- especially Chuvalo and Norton -- had some hard times after their fighting days were over.  But the boxers have ongoing respect and affection for Ali.  Frazier, in reference to Ali's current state of health, tears up when he expresses a wish that Ali "gets to live like we all live. . .he's earned it." 

This is a great documentary, that tells another side of Ali's story, from the perspective of his opponents.