Monday evening I had what is probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be at the exhibition games played by the women's and men's basketball teams from the USA and Brasil in preparation for the Olympics. (Or maybe it was just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be at the same event as the First Family.)
Of course, one of the first things I tried to ascertain is whether the USA teams' uniforms had been made inside or outside the United States, but I don't think Ralph Lauren makes basketball uniforms, so maybe that's not an issue here. (Well, I just found that Nike made the USA basketball teams' uniforms, so we still don't have any great assurance of the uniforms being "made in America.") The manufacture of basketball uniforms is classed in 687.16 Garments for special purposes, where "activewear (clothing for athletic and outdoor sports)" is in the including note.
Although there is a specific number for the Olympics (796.48 Olympic games), that is not where these games are to be classed—and not just because they were only exhibition games for two national teams and not part of the Olympic games proper. A scatter class-elsewhere note at 796.48 instructs "Class a specific activity with the activity, e.g., basketball 796.323, swimming 797.21." Thus, even were these teams to play each other in London as part of the Olympic Games, literature on those games would still be classed in 796.323 Basketball. For example, American Hoops: U.S. Men's Olympic Basketball from Berlin to Beijing is classed in 796.3230973 Basketball—United States (built from 796.323 Basketball, plus T1—09 History, geographic treatment, biography, plus T2—73 United States, following the instructions at T1—093-099 Specific continents, countries, localities; extraterrestrial worlds).
The doubleheader spotlights the fact that we have both women's teams and men's teams. Here it is worth noting the difference between women playing the standard game of basketball, classed in 796.323082 Basketball—Women, and women's basketball, an earlier variant of basketball with six players per team, which is classed in 796.3238 Variants of basketball, with "women’s rules" in the including note. (See the Manual note at 796.08 vs. 796.04 Groups of people vs. General kinds of sports and games.) For example, The first decade of women's basketball: A time capsule of media reports from the dawn of the game: Rare articles and illustrations originally published over 100 years ago is classed in 796.323082 (built from 796.323 Basketball, plus T1—082 Women). (Hmm—you ask—shouldn’t this be in the number for the variant game that uses women's rules? Not a chance! From Amazon's description of the book: "After a wild first decade, this brief flourishing of women's basketball was tamped down by social pressure and the wide-open full-court game was tamed by a partitioned court and restrictive rules that remained intact until the passage of Title IX in 1972.")
Not to let the cat too far out of the bag, but you should know that we have big plans for Olympic coverage!
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