Baby Nationals

Lets stop calling it minor league baseball, they might get offended. This thread is pretty dumb. I have respect for FAST d3 runners. The fact is there are not many. It has absolutely nothing to do with them as person. It is a simple fact; they are not running fast, and more often than not, they do not work as hard at their sport than D1 runners. I hate all this crap about working just as hard as D1 runners. Who cares??! The fact is, on the track most d3 athletes are running like donkeys around the track (barring a few of the top guys...i.e Will Leer last year). Has nothing to do with how I view anyone as a person though. I think that's what he was trying to say.

WeJo, since DI nats is smaller in size and depth than USATF nats, please be consistent and refer to the coverage as "toddler nats this weekend" or "adolescent nats". This will help the international visitors to the site who aren't familiar with the difference between the two.

Cheap, cheap slap. You lack the class found on Track and Field News.

????????? wrote:

So you are implying School doesn't matter as much to someone at Stanford, Northwestern or any other school?

If you want to see a real condescending cock, go look in the mirror.

Not at all. I was just pointing out that there is at least one legitimate reason for running D2 or D3 over D1. And, odds are if you can name at least one reason then you can name more. It's obvious that D1 athletics has a stronger pool of athletes. No one here is disputing that.

The issue is, and always has been, there is common misconception that the other divisions aren't as good... simply because they aren't as fast. Make that argument if you want, but last time I checked people compete in collegiate athletics for a multitude of reasons.

If you want to talk about bottom line results then discuss the pros.

And why dont you have respect for slow D3 runners? I ran D1, dindt make nationals, and maybe I would have enjoyed running more at the D2/3 level. Mind you I ran at a small school with alot of slow runners, so maybe I was really running D2 or D3 anyways. And props to western/adams, who would stomp many D1 teams..

Wejo,

I'm insulted that NJCAA didn't even make the "Baby Nationals" collection.

Guess we're the "Fetus Nationals."

Damn.

(Actually, I don't care. I ran D1 in the Big 10 and plenty of smaller-school guys were way better than me. No biggie. Keep up the excellent site and stop worrying so much.)

i've never had an affiliation with any school for track/cross country purposes but i think it is a statement meant to demean and make oneself feel a bit superior.

honestly, i don't see many dii, diii guys taking offense though, i mean come on it is running, we know where we stand by our times, whether someone wants to use the word baby or not is going to change a thing

i like to think of the running world as one big club

anyway, i would think anyone who runs a website should try to meet certain standards - as far as using the phrase 'baby nationals'; is this a phrase you would see NY times, track and field news, etc. use --- i doubt it

Small College Nationals...

Most NCAA II, III, and NAIA schools are "small colleges".

Big/Small does not denote performance in out sport, therefore this would be the best justified moniker.

My 2 cents...

REUTERS. Santiago, Chile: Downtown Santiago, Chile is in flames as rioters have flooded the streets to protest recent inflammatory comments made by members of the independent news media online. Internationally renowned elite running website Letsrun.com published a headline on its front page (well, its only page) today screaming bloody hell to all sub-elite runners of the world. The headline read: "Baby Olympics this weak (sic)" referring to the Pan Am Games, set to be held here over the next 10 days.

Members of the Pan Am committee, athletes, fans, family members, and concerned citizens, in a vehement show of disapproval of the brutally insensitive wording, spontaneously rose up to defend the integrity of their track meet. "This is ri god dam diculous!" shouted Jose Martinez, who by the way holds a 10k track pr of 28:57.34, just so you know he's not slow, like you probably think from the comment. "Just because I didn't make the Olympics doesn't make me a baby!" he continued. As he broke down wailing and crying, he moaned: "I'm just as good as you, Wejo, I'm just as good as you! And I'm better than almost everybody else, too! See how special I am? Don't you understand I'm special too?" Letsrun.com co-founder Wejo could not be contacted for this story. He went missing hours after the blasphemous headline was caught by the Associated Press. NOONE HAS SEEN HIM SINCE. .

Twin brother and co-founded Rojo was available for comment. The contrite and defeated brother of the unmasked fascist egomaniac Wejo quipped, "I don't know what that asshole was thinking writing such garbage. Why couldn't he just write 'Pan Am Games set for this weak (sic)?' Why Wejo, why?!"

Former Pan Am Games participant Mick Simmonds was contacted by our staff and had this to say of the dastardly, inflammatory, reprehensibly, despicable, deplorable rhetoric from Wejo: "As a former Pan Am Games participant, and now famous athlete, I have the right to speak for all Pan Am Games peoples, or as we are better known, the underground warriors of usually lesser but sometimes greater talent than thou elitist olympians. And we say: 'Up yours, Wejo!' Scum of the track world, you are. You and your 'opinions'. All you want to do is make money by charging us to read your site. You can't even spell words right you elitist and seemingly uneducated jerk face! Yea, you're so freakin elitist because your site isn't sophisticated and owned my multinational corporations! Die, jerk! All of us nice, kind hearted people are tired of having to deal with your free quotes and message board and opinion pieces. So us nice, kind hearted non-elitists have this to say: you suck!"

Former olympian Jabe Gennings had this to say: "Dude. Someone gets (sic) these people some reefer. In the end, man, we're all in this thing together. Wejo's a nice guy, helped me out when I got attacked by a bandito in Brazil, even though my 10k pr isn't as fast as his. Took a lot of guts for him to even talk to someone as low as me on the totem pole. I guess you could say he was watching out for us little guys on that day." Gennings trailed off before being overcome by a mob of "peaceful olympic destroyers".

A random guy walking down the street had this to say: "Baby Olympics? What? Why say that? That's so unnecessary, bro. Just because they don't run as fast, he has to call them babies? Well, they try really hard, don't they? Why does he have to bring the size of my genitals into this?" When reminded by this reporter that Wejo didn't say anything about how hard they tried, how much he respected them or the size of his genitalia, the random man replied, "It's a free country, man, so I can interpret this harmless quote however I want, and I am going to get my money's worth out of this one, because I am chock full of a false sense of amazingness and bruised ego. So excuse me, reporter guy, I've got a website to bash."

To say the least, it was a crazy scene down here on the streets. It appears everyone attached somehow to the Pan Am Games had simmering frustrations and insecurities just waiting to explode. And today, explode they did. Will the Commonwealth Games be the next to face the wrath of Wejo's mighty electronic pen? Or the All African Games? Great, meaningful events not named the olympics all around the world are braced for the aftershocks of this gigantic blow to the ego of the Pan Am Games. Before today, nobody seemed to realize that the OLYMPICS ARE A BIGGER DEAL THAN THE PAN AM GAMES TO THE AVERAGE TRACK AND FIELD HARD CORE FAN, even though the worth of the people in both competitions is the same. Now, with reality staring all of us Pan Americans in the face, the question becomes, how can we face ourselves in the mirror tomorrow? Will it be like staring at the Hunchback of Notre Dame, or the Beast in Beauty and the Beast? Or perhaps Shrek, an ugly, but still lovable green ogre played by Mike Myers? The damage will be deep, surely. But we, like so many oppressed and humiliated people before us, we shall overcome this tyranny. We shall overcome!!!

Juco Johnny wrote:

Actually, I don't care. I ran D1 in the Big 10 and plenty of smaller-school guys were way better than me. No biggie.

If that's the case, you probably shouldn't have revived a thread with such combative overtones almost two days after it had faded away.

I actually do not know a single person who pays attention to D-3 or NAIA sports.

i don't know a single person who pays attention to d-1 running either

Ach Du Lieber wrote:

I actually do not know a single person who pays attention to D-3 or NAIA sports.

wejo wrote:

I'm editing what I originally wrote to make it clearer

I got an email from someone complaining that we weren't coverng NAIA, DIII, DII Nationals.

So I put up a link to the results.

For my headline above the results I said, "Baby Nationals Underway".

And now I've received a few emails saying its offensive.

So my question is do a lot of people really think this is offensive. (after looking in the archives I see this happened last year)

Obviously if I called it "lesser nationals" or something that would be just a slap in the face. But "baby nationals" the attempt is just to designate that these are like the kid brother to the big Kahuna. Are people overreacting and too sensitive or am a jerk?

Just admit that the whole baby thing was unnecessary. I know this your site and what not, but you really can't call non division I nationals baby. Could you have one DII, DIII, and NAIA nationals while you were in college? If the answer is no, (which it probably is) than you can't call them baby nationals. And why would call it "lesser nationals"? I know it's just an example, but you're really just splitting hairs. You won't lose face by apologizing.

Wejo's BN remark was lame, but so is the endless discussion of it.

Especially so because running is one of the few sports where you can accurately compare results and times for competitors who do not directly face each other.

If you're a D3 volleyball champion and you think you could have played for a D1 program you don't have any good way of testing that theory.

But if you run, say, 30 minutes for 10,000 meters on a track ... well that's how fast you are. It does not matter what division you were in when you logged the time.

So baby or not baby ... the proof's in the PR. Yes, racing is more complex than just a time trial result, but it's still pretty clear that your fastest time at a given distance pretty much defines the extent of your ability.

Wejo, I think its funny you call it baby nats but half your athletes wouldnt even qualify for that.

you are a tool wrote:

Wejo, I think its funny you call it baby nats but half your athletes wouldnt even qualify for that.

I think it's even funnier you are too stupid to know wejo doesn't "have" any athletes?

Or do you know something? Who are wejos athletes?

Personally, I don't take much offense to it. I run DII (transfrerred from a national podium D1 school), and I know I am still faster than probably 80% of those who are DI runners, and nearly good enough to be a DI All American. That is what matters. Call DII what you want, I'm still faster than most D1 runners. And there are many other d2 runners than can say this. Heck, Bauhs has made a case for being the best collegiate distance runner out there.

I don't think it was offensive, but I'm sure a better term could have been used or just stay with the regular names.

On the front page it says Baby Nationals Part 2... Notice now how no one is getting all riled up about this. Just goes to show that the real nationals happens in July. Is it time for all you people who were so offended to relax and realize how stupid you were for complaining about Wejo's comment.