In defense of a free press…

Stacy Jacobs (otherwise quite an interesting blogger) really can’t resist taking a swing at me, can she?  OKay, I admit I screwed up — another whoops, I’ve now edited the previous blog so that it properly refers to this year’s world bridge competitions as Olympiads (although with the WMSG happening, I’m not sure that’s their correct title). They certainly are not the BB and VC, which take place in odd years only. My bad.

Stacy took exception, however, to my remark about the fortuitously comfortable number of entries — not sure why, but she seems to feel I’m getting at somebody, and taking it very personally.  All I meant was that it’s very convenient for the WBF to have nice even numbers of teams, and I wondered whether they had ‘encouraged’ some of the smaller countries to send a team to make up the numbers.

I haven’t responded before, but this sniping at me by Ms. Jacobs has been going on since I wrote a blog a year ago from Shanghai about playing sponsors, and mentioned her husband George.   She describes that as ‘ignorant’.  Well, if it’s rude (that sense of ignorant, which I assume is what she means) to speak your mind, I plead guilty.  Along with many others, I find the ‘playing sponsor’ system in bridge distasteful, while recognizing its probable necessity.  I’m not saying these nice folks are bad players — indeed some of them are quite good — just that they’re in almost all cases not world-class. How would those who watched the Ryder Cup last week feel if the first foursome had included some 4-handicapper who was funding the US team?  That’s almost always the situation in bridge, and I think it’s a pity that world events aren’t contested among teams of the very best players.  That’s all.  Sorry, Stacy, I’m unrepentant, and if the truth hurts, too bad.

Let me once again point out the shining example of the right kind of sponsorship — Mrs. Lavazza, the non-playing sponsor of a series of very successful Italian teams.  These guys have won a lot, partly because they are all world-class players, and partly because they have a huge advantage over any US team they face: they’re not carrying a client.