From the WaPo write-up:
ESPN’s Body Issue is... a visual testament to unforgiving training regimens, sacrifice, passion and commitment... Not everyone need look like an Adonis to perform physical feats most of us would find impossible....Via Metafilter where somebody says: "Crazy, Fielder has a basically identical body shape to mine, except he weighs 75 pounds more than me at the same height (!). That is some dense-ass muscle."
[T]he Body Issue serves to disprove the notion that you must look a certain way to reach the apex of your sport...
"Ass" is intended as an intensifier not a reference to the body part that is fully visible in the cover photo. (The topic of "ass" as an intensifier was well aired on here on the blog last summer.)
You know, just because an athlete is successful doesn't mean he wouldn't do even better if he were less fat. But performance is a mystery. Babe Ruth was fat. Yet Babe Ruth didn't pose naked, at least, I don't think he did. I Googled "Babe Ruth naked" and got "The Sultan Of Twat: Babe Ruth's Swinging First Few Years With The Yankees." Sample:
Fred Lieb said Ruth was obsessed with the penis and not merely because he was famously well-endowed. His speech was peppered with phallic allusions, such as "I can knock the penis off any ball that ever was pitched." A large stack of mail was "as big as my penis." When he aged he confided to Lieb, "The worst of this is that I no longer can see my penis when I stand up."..."Naked" comes up in the context of a husband "waving a revolver" at "a near-naked Babe."
Ruth and Bob Meusel often shared hotel suites on the road. One time Ruth brought home a woman, and they shared noisy relations, after which the Babe came out to the common room to smoke a cigar. The next day, Meusel asked how often Ruth had laid the girl. "Count the cigars," replied Ruth. According to Long Bob, there were seven butts in the ashtray.
But things were different then. These days, the possibly obese professional athlete is purveyed to boost the self-esteem of magazine readers who feel good indulging in the mythology of You can be fat and fit.
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“I ain’t an athlete, lady. I’m a baseball player.” - John Kruk
I'll bet the bambino left a few on the bed crying, eh?
You can be fat and fit.
Well, I guess I'm halfway there.
In this context how do we define overweight?
By BMI standards the fellow is severely obese. If he is 275 pounds and 5' 11" his BMI is 38.4.
If you measured his body fat I'd guess his to be around 15%. Not optimal for an elite athlete but well within the healthy range for someone his age.
Do you have an issue with ESPN's "Body Issue?"
Not if it's not displayed on grocery store or news-stand racks.
Prince Fielder is one of the best things that has happened to the Body Issue. It has turned into the most boring of soft porn. It's like the NBA Slam Dunk contest -- which would also be improved if Prince Fielder competed. Give him a ramp, if necessary.
Pleasantly surprising that he doesn't look too terribly drug-enhanced. He resembles a thick, old school ball player.
If Prince Fielder was the only top baseball player with that body type it might be an exceptionally athletic fat man. The fact is that his body type is common among baseball players. Leads me to believe that there is some advantage to that body type in the game. Hitting requires instantaneous power generation and running and fielding is incredibly damaging on the body.
His body type is ideal for his sport and his position.
Pro athletes bulk up for power purposes, not for healthy, fitness purposes.
That is the key.
Fielder has been a $23 Million disappointment for the Rangers. Even before his season-ending injury (herniated disk), his batting average was dismal.
And he was awful at first base. Fat? Yes. Fit? No.
Not a good first basemen? I thought he was a pretty good Fielder. Heh.
He needs to lose a few pounds. Never heard of him but then I’m not a sports fan. At age 30 he needs to began trimming his weight otherwise in retirement he could end looking like a sagging Charles Barkley
"his season-ending injury (herniated disk)…"
Any connection between overweight and back troubles?
"Carrying extra load in the stomach area causes the pelvis to tilt forward and the back to arch, which is known as lordosis. According to Dr. Kevin Cichocki, clinical chiropractor and founder of Palladian Health, this alteration in the position of your pelvis and lumbar spine may contribute to the wearing away of outer fibers in the back part of your disks. These outer fibers contain and protect the soft material that is responsible for cushioning and shock absorption in the spine. Over time, the wear and tear on the fibers can cause problems. "The microscopic radial tears, as they are called, may lead to a complete rupture," says Cichocki. "A rupture of the fibers allows the soft material on the inside to escape and land on a nerve root." This is how the herniated disk causes pain."
This reminded me of your post about Michael Phelps, and Robin Givhan's complaining that Phelps wasn't "cut" in the "fashion model" vision of fitness.
As long as we're developing our understanding, why don't we look at those Men's Fitness models and rethink whether they represent power? Their muscles come not from doing something admirable and powerful, but from doing what they've figured out will make them look like that. Shouldn't function underlie power? Their function is to model. Phelps's body is what real power looks like.
Per biographer Robert Creamer, the Babe was greatly outdistanced, so to speak, by Jumpin' Joe Dugan, Yankee third-sacker.
Bill James has remarked in the past how many great ballplayers have the short, squat body type.
Yogi Berra, Tony Gwynne and Kirby Puckett come to mind.
Been following him since he showed up through Beloit in the Brewer's farm system - I've always wondered, with his physical makeup, how long he'd last.
As others have mentioned, he's built for his job - and the new pic - it's actually not as bad as I had imagined.
I think he does look good in the photo, but I've long thought thin people don't look so good naked. We like thin because it looks good in clothing.
I have done many hours of life-drawing over the years, and (as I've said on this blog a few times) I have preferred not to have a thin model. The best models are overweight. Some overweight models are bad (if they don't pose well or if their fat is distributed uninterestingly), but given the choice for a nude model, I like someone fairly meaty.
"These days, the possibly obese professional athlete is purveyed to boost the self-esteem of magazine readers who feel good indulging in the mythology of You can be fat and fit."
I think it can be somewhat true. I regularly run 10 miles on Saturdays, and 3-5 every weekday. I lift weights and have fairly strong muscles. I have great blood pressure, low cholesterol, and am healthy. However, I am still 15-25 pounds overweight (depending on the time of year). I would say I am more fit than many, including many skinny people. Sure I could be more fit than I currently am, but I wouldn't same I am unfit. Unless your definition of fit is not fat.
When I ran my second marathon, I was easily 15 pounds overweight. Can an unfit person run a marathon? I know a fat person can.
All that said, I don't really care if others perceive me as unfit. I know I am generally healthy, though fat.
Fielder has serious core strength to consistently rip the ball like he does and his shoulders and arms are muscular.
Barry Sanders was 5'8" and over 200 lbs. He was fast, strong, and had a great vertical leap.
BMI is for Europeans who have no muscle and most of whom are pretty shitty athletes, which is why they play soccer and depend on Americans for their national defense. It's a 200 year old measurement.
The fact the Michael Phelps is not "cut" probably contributes to his success. All the world class swimmers are well built but have a soft look about them Having that extra fat allows them to spend less energy just staying afloat.
Sydney Crosby works out at my gym in the summer; the guy is built like Charles Barkley below the waist. Like Barkley I'm sure he uses his generous rear end to keep defenders off of him, a big contributing factor to his success.
"Adonises" in the sports world are probably a small minority.
Any connection between overweight and back troubles?
Perhaps, but up until this year Fielder was one of the most durable players in major league baseball. In 5 of the last 6 years, until this year, he played all 162 games. In 2010, he played 161.
The whisper-thin Clay Buchholz was injured for half the season last year because he fell asleep with his baby on his shoulder.
It is Fielder's unnatural health that is the anomaly.
Fielder's surgery was on his neck. He had the same procedure ad Peyton Manning. So I don't know if his weight was a factor.
The reaction - on Twitter at least- to his picture was interesting. Some women really liked it. Some were more " Ewww". I am in the "Ewww" camp, followed by, he's not actually as fat as I thought. To each her own.
@ John Scott - That's the power skater physique. Like skiers- the "big ski ass" - and sprinters.
"The mythology of You can be fat and fit."
That's not a myth - people are not cookie-cuttered. The idea, we should all be thin, is as ludicrous as thinking we should all be white.
Because of the NewAgers, the West's whole concept of "health" has spun out of control into the Nazi's "Aryan Superman" territory - now becoming this insane "Wellness":
Health Beyond Health.
Or the Emperor's New Clothes.
Suckers,...
I was wondering, though- do they photoshop the men? Because the Venus picture was heavily photoshopped. There were pictures of her rear view a while ago, when she was wearing one of her weird outfits- undies that were her flesh color, so she appeared to be. Not wearing any- and, well she did NOT look like the ESPN photo.
Was Babe Ruth actually obsessed with his penis? Or was Mr. Lieb merely obsessed with collecting Mr. Ruth's penis references?
Ctmom4,
Not that I spend time staring at Sydney Crosby's arse, but believe me when I say that you would not confuse it with Eric Heiden's (sp?).
Ill timed. Does ESPN have no optics concept. Fielder's out for the season for an injury that does indeed come about when someone out of shape exerts themselves physically. He is persona non grata for the season. Plus he's a dude. news-stand sales will take a dive across the board. I refuse to try and make any more sense. Rude, tattooed and lewd!
Fielder's extra weight is properly though of as a design compromise. He does a thing (hitting for power) that takes a ton of muscle. Most men cannot carry that much muscle deep into adulthood without also carrying a fair amount of fat. Other athletes in power specialties (football linemen, powerlifters, etc.) tend to look like this too.
As a rule, the only dudes who carry as much muscle as Fielder without also carrying fat are bodybuilders and WWE types. They do it by being on all kinds of gear that real sports prohibit.
Does this mean Fielder is "fat and fit", or that anyone should emulate him? No. It means his body is intelligently built to do what he does --- which is not "fitness." If you want to see what real, broad-based fitness looks like, have a look at a Marine.
Baseball players need to have really good fast twitch muscles. I read somewhere about a young baseball player (Bryce Harper maybe), who will do amazing feats of strength, but not for longer than 7 seconds, because no play lasts longer than that. I think that could be one reason why baseball players can be fat. They just need to be extraordinary 7 seconds at a time. That kind of exercising doesn't lend itself to tight physiques.
PS I thought the cover was great.
Baseball players need to have really good fast twitch muscles. I read somewhere about a young baseball player (Bryce Harper maybe), who will do amazing feats of strength, but not for longer than 7 seconds, because no play lasts longer than that. I think that could be one reason why baseball players can be fat. They just need to be extraordinary 7 seconds at a time. That kind of exercising doesn't lend itself to tight physiques.
PS I thought the cover was great.
Pro linemen can go well over 300 pounds, and run 40 yards from a standing start in 5 seconds, give or take a couple ticks.
By BMI standards even running backs tend to be rated as overweight up to obese. But that's because muscle is the densest tissue in the body and pro football players are heavily muscled.
"peppered with phallic allusions"
Reminds me of this SNL skit, about which (if I recall correctly) some aggrieved congressman claimed had some record-breaking number of uses of the word "penis".
These days, the possibly obese professional athlete is purveyed to boost the self-esteem of magazine readers who feel good indulging in the mythology of You can be fat and fit.
The mythology they really want to indulge in is "You can be fat and attractive."
Prince Fielder is a heart attack looking for a place to happen.
And to be more responsive to the title of your post, yes. Some things, once seen, cannot be unseen. (I'm sure that sounds more dignified in Latin.)
"That is some dense-ass muscle."
http://xkcd.com/37/
Move the hyphen one word to the right.
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