Athletes have long been praised for their stoicism.

Tennis is notoriously punishing to the psyche, even without the complex dynamics that come with being a private person in a very public position, or a young woman of color in a sport run predominantly by white men, or an ambitious athlete who, on even her bad days, is expected to win every match. But, then, it’s impossible for any of us to know what is happening in Osaka’s mind, beyond what she tells us.

“Whenever things go wrong I blame myself 100%, I have a tendency to shut down because I don’t want to burden anyone with my thoughts or problems,”

“I think that’s so important to have a sounding board, whether it’s someone at the W.T.A. or whether it’s someone in your life,” Williams said. “Maybe it’s someone that you just talk to on a weekly basis. I’ve been in that position, too. I’ve definitely had opportunities to talk to people, kind of get things off my chest that I can’t necessarily talk to anyone in my family or anyone that I know.”

I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept that my timing was not idea and my message could have been clearer

skipping

"We have advised Naomi Osaka that should she continue to ignore her media obligations during the tournament, she would be exposing herself to possible further Code of Conduct infringement consequences. As might be expected, repeat violations attract tougher sanctions including default from the tournament (Code of Conduct article III T.) and the trigger of a major offence investigation that could lead to more substantial fines and future Grand Slam suspensions (Code of Conduct article IV A.3.).

"The mental health of players competing in our tournaments and on the Tours is of the utmost importance to the Grand Slams.

"Naomi Osaka today chose not to honour her contractual media obligations. The Roland-Garros referee has therefore issued her a $15,000 fine, in keeping with article III H. of the Code of Conduct.

obligations and warning her that she faced being expelled from the tournament.

press boycott

The world number two caused a storm on the eve of the tournament

Naomi Osaka withdraws from French Open 2021

The NBA guard Kyrie Irving, who himself has been fined a total of $60,000 for skipping media obligations this season, commented: “We are all with you Queen. Just be you, that will always be enough.”

just how badly the tennis authorities handled this situation

Withdrawing was the option to minimise her stress. With her departure, she explained that she suffers from depression and is struck by anxiety before press encounters.

With their heavy-handed statement, the grand slam tournaments have much for which to answer. They responded to Osaka as if she was a threat, an all-too-familiar sensation for black athletes who step outside of the box. Osaka said she expected to receive fines, as other players have received for skipping press in the past, and she was prepared to pay them and then discuss further solutions after the event. That should have been enough for the time being.

For some players, their thoughts and discomfort in the press room follow them home and it is logical that it can affect their mental health. Osaka is also a black and Asian woman charged with fielding questions to an audience of majority white men, a dynamic that has led to numerous uncomfortable questions over the years.

Her underlying message was received with a clear lack of empathy from many quarters.

her attempts to preserve her mental wellbeing were a distraction to her peers. I

the brightest young star across the world of tennis,

French Open’s response to Naomi Osaka

shameful moment

The issues that Osaka has raised aren’t going away. These days athletes would much rather tell their own stories than let reporters do it for them. Not long ago, players couldn’t win any power struggles against the media, much less their own league. Now they can.

That sports media in the U.S. are still overwhelmingly white and male contributes to the skepticism that many top athletes of color feel.

During the U.S. Open final against Osaka in 2018, Serena Williams lost her composure after being cited for multiple rule violations during the match. Williams got into a heated argument with an umpire after he accused her of receiving coaching from the stands. The episode culminated in Williams slamming her racquet against the ground. Following her loss, an Australian newspaper published an editorial cartoon that deployed racist imagery reminiscent of the Jim Crow era to depict Williams as a poor sport. Williams’s lips were overexaggerated, and her body was drawn ludicrously big.

cross all sports, top athletes are no longer willing to stay silent about anything—their own personal struggles or the social and political issues they care about.

The end result—Osaka completely out of the tournament—benefited no one. Osaka’s subsequent explanation for her decision made tennis officials look all the more callous.

But tournament leaders weren’t satisfied with a fine. Officials from across the tennis world felt the need to put Osaka in her place. In a statement signed by the heads of all four Grand Slam tournaments—Wimbledon, the Australian Open, the U.S. Open, and the French Open—Osaka was warned that she could face suspension from future Grand Slam tournaments and harsher penalties if she did not fulfill her media obligations.

Rather than figure out a way to support Osaka or come to a workable compromise, French Open officials fined her $15,000 after she didn’t participate in the mandatory news conference following her first-round win on Sunday. The fine was not a surprise. In the past, other tennis stars have skipped news conferences and received the same treatment.

Press conferences are more crucial for journalists who report on tennis than those who report on other sports.

But even for seasoned journalists, the experience can be awkward. Most of us would prefer to conduct private interviews with athletes, but logistically that’s not feasible. Even if athletes could spend one-on-one time with several different news outlets, they would be subjected to a lot of the same questions. Still, the reliance on press conferences means that journalists often have to ask intrusive questions in front of a crowd.

As a sportswriter for more than 20 years, I have attended many of the postgame news conferences that so unsettle Osaka.

Critics quickly portrayed Osaka as shirking one of her fundamental duties: communicating with the public. In reality, the episode laid bare some of the deeper tensions in big-money athletics. Who controls a sport—the leagues that organize the competition, or the athletes who actually play?

“We’re often sat there and asked questions that we’ve been asked multiple times before or asked questions that bring doubt into our minds, and I’m just not going to subject myself to people that doubt me.”

power struggle with tournament officials over whether she would attend obligatory press conferences.

Osaka, the second-ranked woman in international tennis and the highest-paid female athlete in the world,

bullied

War Within Sports

Naomi Osaka

"As a sport there is nothing more important than ensuring no player has an unfair advantage over another, which unfortunately is the case in this situation if one player refuses to dedicate time to participate in media commitments while the others all honor their commitments."

"We want to underline that rules are in place to ensure all players are treated exactly the same, no matter their stature, beliefs or achievement," top tennis officials from France, Australia, England, and the U.S. said in a joint statement on Sunday.

The French Tennis Federation announced a fine of $15,000 and Osaka was facing further fines and possible expulsion from the tournament if she continued to refuse to attend media events.

mandatory news conferences at the French Open

clash

refusal to attend news events with reporters.

standoff

walking away

Drops Out Of French Open

Naomi Osaka

The absence of someone who is among tennis's biggest drawcards is another blow to a sport whose international nature has meant it being hit harder than most by the past year's pandemic.

Osaka also has to cope with agreeing to the demands of satisfying a huge roster of commercial sponsors, who helped make her the best paid female athlete on earth last year at an income reckoned to be close to £40 million.

Osaka was also fined an initial £10,800 following her victory on Sunday. 

Following the lack of engagement by Naomi Osaka, the Australian Open, Roland-Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open jointly wrote to her to check on her well-being and offer support, underline their commitment to all athletes' well-being and suggest dialogue on the issues. She was also reminded of her obligations, the consequences of not meeting them and that rules should equally apply to all players.

stated that she had suffered 'long bouts of depression' since winning the US Open in 2018, and that she needed a break from the controversy that has enveloped her in the past week

PULLS OUT of French Open

Naomi Osaka

exasperation in the statement from the four Majors, which referred to the 'lack of engagement by Naomi Osaka' after they reached out to her.

The declaration from the French Open and the three other Grand Slams that she ran the risk of being banned, and not just fined, also took seasoned observers aback in its swiftness and uncompromising nature.

doubtful

media boycott

Shortly after her announcement, the president of the French tennis federation, Gilles Moretton, read a statement wishing Osaka a speedy “recovery.” Without any apparent awareness of the irony, he did not take questions from the press.

What was unusual was the decision to opt out of them entirely, ahead of time, and to publicly question the rules and practices surrounding them.

Her fellow-players, almost to a person, took a more nuanced view: when asked about her stance, they said that they respected Osaka but understood the need for exposure, and that talking to the press was part of their job.

The press, particularly at the Grand Slams, can include people who are not well versed in tennis; tabloid reporters; and, not infrequently, people who ask ham-handed and offensive questions, particularly of Black women. Just the other day, a reporter who wanted to get a quote from the seventeen-year-old star Coco Gauff about the possibility of playing Serena Williams began by saying, “You are often compared to the Williams sisters. Maybe it’s because you’re Black. But I guess it’s because you’re talented and maybe American, too.”

Press conferences, as a rule, are tedious and outdated.

Her image was on the cover of Vogue and on billboards towering over Los Angeles and Tokyo. She became an icon, and she did iconic things. She helped design sneakers for Nike, a salad for Sweetgreen. In May, Sportico estimated that she had earned more than fifty million dollars during the previous year, which made her the highest-paid female athlete in history, breaking her own record. A recent Times feature about her ran under the headline “How Naomi Osaka Became Everyone’s Favorite Spokesmodel.”

It happened in 2018, during the U.S. Open trophy presentation, after a match marred by controversy surrounding a confrontation between Serena Williams and the umpire. The crowd, which had been on Williams’s side, booed as Osaka was named the champion. Osaka cried, and tried to hide her face.

I’ve seen her half-hide her smile countless times.

Louisa Thomas

Her decision to quit the tournament rather than appear at press conferences

Naomi Osaka’s

Complicated Withdrawal

Two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry wrote that it was “impressive taking the high road when the powers that be dont protect their own. major respect.”

Tennis players are required to attend news conferences if requested to do so. The maximum fine of $20,000 is not a big deal to Osaka, the world’s highest-earning female athlete thanks to endorsement contracts totaling tens of millions of dollars.

“I feel for Naomi. I feel like I wish I could give her a hug because I know what it’s like. ... I’ve been in those positions,” Williams said. “We have different personalities, and people are different. Not everyone is the same. I’m thick; other people are thin. Everyone is different and everyone handles things differently. You just have to let her handle it the way she wants to, in the best way she thinks she can, and that’s the only thing I can say. I think she’s doing the best that she can.”

She framed the matter as a mental health issue, saying that it can create self-doubt to have to answer questions after a loss.

fined $15,000 for skipping the postmatch news conference after her first-round victory at the French Open. She also was threatened by all four Grand Slam tournaments with possible additional punishment, including disqualification or suspension, if she continued with her intention — which Osaka revealed last week on Twitter — to not “do any press during Roland Garros.”

Osaka’s agent, Stuart Duguid, confirmed in an email to The Associated Press that the world’s No. 2-ranked tennis player was pulling out before her second-round match at the clay-court tournament in Paris.

“huge waves of anxiety” before speaking to the media and revealed she has “suffered long bouts of depression.

HOWARD FENDRICH

anxiety

out of French Open

4-time Slam champ

“Mental health and awareness around it is one of the highest priorities to the WTA,” the women’s tennis tour said in a statement emailed by a spokeswoman. “We have invested significant resources, staffing and educational tools in this area for the past 20-plus years and continue to develop our mental health support system for the betterment of the athletes and the organization. We remain here to support and assist Naomi in any way possible and we hope to see her back on the court soon.”

On issues, Shapiro leads big among voters who say abortion is very important in their vote.  And he maintains his large lead from September among women, one that grows to more than 40 points among women who prioritize the issue of abortion.

The "extreme" label is hurting Mastriano among independent voters. Most independents describe his views that way, and those who do are voting for Shapiro. 

Democrat Josh Shapiro is ahead by nine points over Republican Doug Mastriano in the race for Pennsylvania governor. Shapiro led by 11 points last month.  

1,084 registered voters in Pennsylvania

between October 21-24, 2022.

The margin of error is ±4.1 points. 

CBS News/YouGov Battleground Tracker survey

QAnon is the umbrella term for a set of internet conspiracy theories that allege, falsely, that the world is run by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles.

A December poll by NPR and Ipsos found that 17 percent of Americans believed that the core falsehood of QAnon — that “a group of Satan-worshiping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media” — was true.

When conservatives take up the mantle of child sexual abuse with conspiracy theories and disinformation, they are assuming a moral position that is usually occupied by liberals: defending the powerless, the voiceless, the disenfranchised.

It’s not dissimilar to the psychological function of conservative opposition to abortion rights – it’s about conservatives’ need to see themselves not as the inflictors of pain and needless suffering, but as defenders of the innocent

None of these facts are helpful for conservatives, so they disregard them.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, about one in four girls and one in 13 boys experience sexual abuse sometime in childhood – an alarmingly high number. A sizable minority of those abuses are committed by other children. The prevalence of children being sexually abused by adults is about one in nine girls and one in 53 boys, according to Rainn – a lower but still alarming number. By and large, the adults who sexually abuse children are not strangers or traffickers (or national Democratic politicians). Instead, they tend to be men – and overwhelmingly it is men who sexually abuse children – whom the abused child knows. Ninety-three per-cent of child molesters are known to their victims. fifty-nine per-cent are acquaintances or family friends, and 34% are family members.

The conspiracy theory began on 4chan, a digital cesspool of hate speech and conspiracy theorizing

Donald Trump, according to this fantasy, is the only person willing and able to mount an attack against them.

The conspiracy has spread widely during the pandemic, migrating out of the dark shadows of the internet and on to Facebook, where it is now spreading among an audience of frightened and credulous parents.

“Either you are Pro-pedophile and Pro-transgender biological men or you defend children and women. Period. There is no other option.”

“This is the party of their identity, and their identity is the most disgusting, evil, horrible things happening in our country,”

“top Democrats are involved in elite child sex-trafficking rings,

Almost half of Republicans and more than half of Trump 2020 voters think top Democrats are involved in pedophilia cabals

Cabals

That was a perfect game in Game 5 in 1956, when catcher Yogi Berra famously leaped into his arms to celebrate. Wednesday, Houston catcher Christian Vázquez had his choice of pitchers with whom to celebrate.

Astros Combine for Second No-Hitter in World Series History

Cristian Javier

Astros for a 5-0, World Series-tying win in a Game 4 classic.

The way Javier was pitching, that was all Houston needed.

Though Alvarado jumped ahead of the next hitter, putting Alex Bregman into an 0 and 2 hole, Bregman fought back by belting a two-run double to push Houston’s lead to 3-0. Kyle Tucker’s sacrifice fly and Yuli Gurriel’s R.B.I. single extended it to 5-0.

Astros hitters continued spinning the combination lock that was their offense until the right numbers appeared

But one too many losses and, suddenly, the nights turn restless and the days jittery.

Only Don Larsen of the Yankees has ever thrown a solo no hitter in the World Series

lifted the Astros into the history books

throwing six no-hit innings at Philadelphia to start the first combined no-hitter in World Series history.

Cristian Javier put on a clinic

Pitching like a Game 1 starter,

Javier started hot and turned blazing as his pitches piled up.

You know you’re a serious economics nerd when you’re waiting on pins and needles for the latest JOLTS — Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey — results.

Philadelphia Flyers coach John Tortorella had just gotten out of his car at the adjacent Wells Fargo Center when the Phillies broke loose in a playoff game."It was shaking over where I was. That was pretty cool," Tortorella said. "That's what I love about being here."

Noah Syndergaard

His last start came on Oct. 15 in the NL Division Series against Atlanta when he gave up one run in three innings.

good, not great compared with several top teams - the Phillies have become monster mashers at home in playoffs.

After going 47-34 at the Bank this season

Think that was loud? Just wait till the World Series returns to Philadelphia for the first time since 2009. On Halloween night, too, with the Phillie Phanatic sure to be in rare form.

Philadelphia went 5-0 at home in eliminating defending World Series champion Atlanta and San Diego in the playoffs, outscoring them by a total of 35-15.

Schmidt is widely expected to be at the ballpark for the pregame festivities when the Series resumes after a travel day. And he's certain to draw a standing ovation and hear loud cheers - indeed, the City of Brotherly Love is in love with all of its Phillies these days.

Prescott was stellar,

emphatic start expected of the Cowboys franchise quarterback.

The police said he forcibly entered through the back door of the Pelosi house in San Francisco,

Federal prosecutors charged the man accused of breaking into the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with attempting to kidnap Ms. Pelosi and with assaulting a relative of a federal official, according to charging documents filed on Monday.

I think Eagles GM Howie Roseman isn’t done.

demanded

erupted

I hate cancel culture

Corden, who gained widespread notoriety for his “Carpool Karaoke” segments, is set to depart from his role as host of “The Late Late Show” by summer 2023, he announced in April.

But late Monday evening, McNally said he was reversing the ban on Corden after the comedian called to apologize.

publicly banned

McNally has a reputation for being provocative, at least in his Instagram posts and defenses of controversial celebrities; he has defended Woody Allen, whose daughter Dylan accused him of sexual abuse.

McNally’s ban on Corden was not the first time he had taken to Instagram to bar a customer from one of his restaurants.

A representative for Corden did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A manager at Balthazar declined to comment when reached by phone late Monday evening.

citing a manager’s report from the incident.

which was apparently the last straw for Corden.

said in an Instagram post on Monday that he did not often “86” a customer — meaning banning or refusing service to someone — but that Corden had earned it after two incidents when he mistreated workers at the French restaurant.

Keith McNally,

‘abusive’

NYC restaurant and celeb hot spot briefly bans ‘abusive’ James Corden

James Corden

Bryan Pietsch

Cretin

Balthazar