Baby Nationals

After college you realize that all the D1 hype doesn't count for much. I was in an Olympic development program for rowing after college and saw plenty of big school guys get crushed by guys from small schools and no-name programs. To date, some of America's most successful runners have come out of D3 schools (eg Bill Rogers went to Wesleyan). Plus, if my kid had some talent as a runner but had the choice to go to an good D3 school or some crappy university with D1 status you can be sure I'd put junior in the better academic setting. Not one of you reading this is going to be a professional runner so you might spend a bit more time worrying about the quality of your educations and less time posturing about in which division you run.

These complainers are in the same class of hypersensitive morons as those who complain when people use the term "black" when "African-American." That headline is probably the LEAST offensive thing ever posted to this site. Screw 'em.

I went to a d3 school and do not find this offensive one bit. Wejo don't worry about these worked-up oversensitive people.

I'm generally not sensitive, but calling it "baby nationals" was simply disrespectful. When you put up links for DII and DIII cross nationals you have never referred as anything but that. It portrays an elitist attitude and contributes to the "trolling" which already occurs here way too often.

You could probably just call them D2 D3 and NAIA Nationals.

the idea that the runners at the D2, D3 and NAIA levels consider the DI athletes their older brothers is idiotic. why not just change it? what would that possibly hurt?

cutter wrote:

After college you realize that all the D1 hype doesn't count for much. I was in an Olympic development program for rowing after college and saw plenty of big school guys get crushed by guys from small schools and no-name programs.

big deal. that's because rowing is a niche sport reserved for those few who happen to be at a school with a program that needs some bodies (outside of a small number of rich communities in the US).

anyway, it was childish of wejo to call those other meets "baby nats". what do you think you're doing? just pissing off a huge portion of your site's visitors for no reason? of course DIII nationals is crap compared to DI for the most part, but there's no need for you to write stuff like that when you're trying to attract visitors here.

You know a lot about rowing, eh?

You've offended me, my family, my country and Allah.

Take down the 'Baby Nationals' or I'll go on a march or something.

I love the excuses people make...we're just too damn sensitive these days...

It was intended to make fun of those other divisions, ie. disrespect them. Some folks took it to be disrespectful. Big surprise.

you know I have seen you post and write some really stupid stuff over the past couple of years but this wins the prize for the most ridiculous posting you have ever made. you are the ONLY one arguing that it was not meant to be insulting (besides the original author himself)...your post(s) are absurd.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

Right, and now it looks like I have to share him with Julia Rudd. Wow. This reminds me of kids fighting at school and everyone else standing around watching...speaking of insecure middle school boys. How dare I defend him on this? I don't always agree with wejo, I just don't bother telling him to f*** off when I don't. I never even said *I* agree with calling it "Baby Nationals," just that it's obvious that it's being misinterpreted. I think some of you argue for the sake of arguing, which is why the "dictionary" is usually the final authority around here.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

I never even said *I* agree with calling it "Baby Nationals," just that it's obvious that it's being misinterpreted.

No. Pretty much everyone is interpreting it the same way, so either almost all of us are obviously wrong, or the guy who wrote it offered up a B.S. excuse. The guy who wrote that is a grown man who graduated from an Ivy league college!?! He knows the connotations of what he wrote. If he wants to play the misinterpreted angle, I challenge him to headline the upcoming U.S Trials or D1 results with 'Gay Nationals' and defend it by saying all the runners are happy to be running in the championships.

Ranting aside, why would anyone care what some dude thinks? He's insecure. He's idiotically insulting what is probably a huge portion of his traffic. So what? It's only offensive if you let it bother you. The guy who wrote it was never even close to the world champ at any event, so, by his own definition, he's never been more than a baby jogger either.

I'm really surprised so many of you read the front page. I go straight to the message board. The last time I read the front page, I made the mistake of clicking on a link to a 'week in review' article. The writing on that page was shockingly similar to my 4th grade book report on Where the Red Fern Grows. I changed my bookmark to the message board that very day.

Harry Kooter, your post killed me. I think you should retire the moniker and let it go out on top. It was a great run, but you officially peaked. Under the handle Harry Kooter, you will never post anything funnier than a rant on th merits of internet decency. Bravo.

Poor attempt at humor by WeJo and completely disrespectful; very poor judgement for someone in his position and risking offense to an audience that makes up his fan base and supports the site. An apology would be acceptable.

d3 runner with my $.02, its not offensive, just not smart from a business angle. I have to imagine the vast majority of traffic on this site comes from non d1 runners and you are playing a dangerous game by slamming your base...you have an enjoyable niche website enjoyed by many running nerds of whom most are d3, that has never worked for a politician and house money says it won't work for you. Just call it what it is, it's simple, I enjoy the website, but this is not a smart play on your part.

baby nationals is accurate. look at all the freaking crybabies...

Poll up on the homepage. all the DII, DIII guys trying to check results this weekend and express their disgust.

Glad someone else agrees, it's only offensive if you let it be. Wejo is insecure...which should just make the whole thing funny. At least that's the effect it has on me.

And txRunnergirl, seriously, I usually don't condone the mean stuff I read here. But you are ridiculous, often...and I have to admit, I laugh a lot at how much crap you get on here. Seriously, why do you make yourself wejo's tool? I don't think I've ever seen him stick up for you.

100 - t-shirt time!

I'll tell you exactly what happened to cause this wejo. You, for some reason, don't think D2 D3 or NAIA especially should be on the front page (obvious from past non-coverages) so when people continually email you asking that it be put up, it gets under your skin for some reason. So begrudgingly to get them to shut up you put it up, but to get back at them you name it "baby nationals"...now you know its offensive or at least mean it as demeaning; however, knowing that the majority of your traffic is from those "baby athletes" you come up with this back story of little brother crap to cover your tracks so that you can leave up baby nationals which makes you feel good becuase you are getting those suckers but at the same time are defensible becuase they are just being "too sensitive"...

really not that hard to see whats going on...more typical of teenage girls but I guess you have stooped to that level...I think you will find the results of your poll will show that generally there is know reason for the "baby" statement. Just call it what it is, DII, DIII, NAIA not that hard or confusing.