Today’s deal is clearly a case of throwing the 30-goal scoring golden baby out with the bath water. I wouldn’t call Kevin Lowe cheap (how else can you explain the loyalty contracts to Staios or Pisani?) but we’re talking a difference of a million dollars: a couple of Toby Petersons, really.
This is Ryan Smyth. The man, who, for the record [tears of pure oil welling up in my eye], I’ve always felt was a much more important player to the Oilers than Mark Messier.
He was our last shot at a real Stevie Y type: a true blue Oiler with a special failure of imagination to think of playing anywhere else. At one time, I thought things like institutional memory were important, that we weren’t just cheering for laundry, the idea that teams could have distinct identities that could span decades.
But alas, the salary cap era has only made players even more expendable. I’m under no illusion that hockey isn’t a business, but it’s an increasingly cap-fixated, mercenary one, which totally sucks, especially today.
If I close my eyes, I can see Ryan Smyth’s ferrety face; his slinky, durable body slipping past a check on the boards; and of course, that small pile of blood and teeth left on the ice during the 2006 playoffs.
Bon Voyage, Ryan, (and say hi to Marc-Andre Bergeron for me once you get to Long Island)
The build-up to the Seville derby was dominated by arguments between the two clubs over whether or not Sevilla president Jose Maria del Nido would be allowed in the VIP box at the Betis stadium.
After mediation by the Andalucian regional government, Betis finally allowed Del Nido to attend the match although a number of fans threw objects at him as he took his seat.
There was further controversy because Betis had placed a bronze bust of Del Nido’s arch-rival, Betis owner Manuel Ruiz de Lopera in a seat just behind the Sevilla president.
The Sultan Of Surly chatted with KGO’s Ray Taliaferro last night, an interview the SF Chronicle’s John Shea claims didn’t feature “a single question about steroids, amphetamines, the BALCO scandal or a possible indictment.” Amongst some of the highlights :
. . . he tries to keep a level head amid criticisms. “If I don’t keep a level head, how’s the next person going to handle it? If Hank didn’t keep his head clear, how was I supposed to deal with it? If Jackie Robinson didn’t do what he did, how would the other African-American athletes deal with it? If someone doesn’t deal with it the right way, it sets up a very bad ending for someone who comes along and tries to do this.”
. . . the death threats he received still make him uneasy. “There’s a lot of times I want to say I’m sorry to some of the fans. But I’m mostly gun shy of what could happen. You’re only strong to a point, and then you get nervous. Someone says, ‘Hey, Barry,’ and I’m, like, whoa! I’m kind of standoffish. You can’t really explain that to anyone. Once this is all over, if I get lucky enough to (break the record) and my career ends, I’ll be able to release a little bit of anxiety or fear of what could happen.”
The paperback version of “Game Of Shadows” contains further details about Bonds’ physical dimensions over the past decade. Apparently, Barry’s hat went from 7 1/8 to 7 1/4 (despite shaving his head). We’re supposed to believe this is the first time New Era got a size wrong?
Asked if he had any idea how his name, according to a report in the Albany (N.Y.) Times-Union, appeared on a customer list of two of the pharmacies that were raided Tuesday, Matthews said, “I don’t. That’s what we’re trying to find out. We’re gathering information, and I will address the matter again, at the appropriate time.”
“I just want to tell you guys I’m really not in a position to answer any questions on yesterday’s story,” Matthews said. “I do want to say that I do expect it to resolve itself in the very near future. I’ve got my representative looking for more information, to find out stuff, and until we get more information, I can’t comment.
“I’m asking you guys to respect my position on this. I don’t want to be a distraction to my team. There are things they’re trying to do to get ready for the season. I do want to tell you guys that at the appropriate time, I will address the matter.”
When will that time be?
“Whenever I get more information and talk to my representative,” Matthews said, referring to his agent, Scott Leventhal. The outfielder said he has not retained the services of any other legal counsel.
Did Matthews order any performance-enhancing products from any Web site or pharmacy?
“I haven’t read the story myself,” Matthews said, “and don’t have all the information.”
Another name implicated in the Times-Union report, Pittsburgh Steelers team physician Dr. Richard Rydze, is about to be investigated by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Rydze is accused of having used a personal credit card to purchase to buy $150,000.00 worth of testosterone and human growth hormone. Rydze has denied providing said drugs to anyone besides his elderly private patients.
Boston Celtics radio analyst Cedric Maxwell will offer an on-air apology during Wednesday night’s game for saying that a female referee should “go back to the kitchen” after he disagreed with one of her calls, a station official said.
Maxwell made his comments during the Celtics 77-72 win over the Houston Rockets on Monday night’s broadcast on WEEI-AM, which is owned by Entercom Communications.
He subsequently said “Go in there and make me some bacon and eggs, would you?” in reference to referee Violet Palmer.
“Cedric’s comments about Violet Palmer were a poor attempt at humor, and we don’t condone what he said,” Jason Wolfe, Entercom’s vice president of AM programming and operations in Boston, said in a statement. “Cedric will apologize on air during [Wednesday] night’s Celtics broadcast.”
Is it possible that, just a couple of hours into the first exhibition game of the Spring Training season, Keith Hernandez is already getting punchy? Let the transcript below (done by hand, so probably not perfect) serve as proof that the great ones just get into shape faster. Also, although you’ll probably be able to pick this up from context, the Mets broadcasting team are talking about the MLB’s new hats.
Gary Cohen: So, you don’t like the new hats?
Ron Darling: El Stinko. (ed. note: this is apparently Spanish, translation forthcoming)
Keith Hernandez: Do I hear marketing?
Darling: What I don’t like about them is that stripe on the side. It makes it look like the players are all wearing du-rags under their hats.
Hernandez: Du-what?
Darling: Like the NFL players wear under their helmets? You know, du-rags.
Hernandez: Ronnie, watch your mouth.
Evidently, Keith wasn’t hip to Bodie’s impressive (if doomed) du-rag experimentation during the last season of The Wire. While I was typing that, Mex just said of Braden Looper’s future as a starter, “that’s not going to happen.” I guess if you’re never on message, you can’t really go off message.
As for the game: Spring Training-tacular. This means Lino Urdaneta looks like K-Rod, Julio Franco is swinging the bat with the vigor of a 38-year old, and Oliver Perez is…apparently already in midseason form as far as giving up bombs is concerned. He gave up four runs in two innings, but the Mets bullpen was effective thereafter, with Billy Wagner giving up the sole bullpen run. The Mets wound up going down 5-4, with Bobby Seay shutting the door for the Tigers to preserve the win. Between this and The Dugout being back in action, it almost feels like baseball season.
Update: SNY is currently televising the postgame running drills. Then to that car commercial with The Fall’s “Blindness” in it. Welcome back.
“7: The Mickey Mantle Novel,” Peter Golenbock’s occasionally racy account of the life of Mickey Mantle, which was canceled last month by its publisher, HarperCollins, was revived yesterday by Lyons Press.
HarperCollins canceled “7” on the day it also shuttered Regan Books, the imprint under which the book was to be published.
“It’s one of those books that a lot of people will love, but some won’t,” Golenbock said yesterday. He said that Lyons did not edit the book or alter the sex scenes in it, one of which involves Mantle and Marilyn Monroe.
“The only change was from ‘Regan’ to ‘Lyons,’ ” he said.
Gene Brissie, associate publisher of Lyons, said he and other editors read “7” soon after HarperCollins canceled it. “Making the decision to publish it and let readers make up their own mind was easy,” said Brissie, whose uncle is the former major league pitcher Lou Brissie. “I think all the negative publicity came from people who haven’t read it.”
Chuck Meehan alerts us to the following item at Radar, along with his personal disclaimer, “I have no idea how reliable this site may be,” though you could just as easily say the same of CSTB.
Billionaire bloggerMark Cuban is more serious about buying a major league baseball team than he’s been letting on. The tech entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner is set to offer $625 million to buy the Chicago Cubs from Tribune Co., according to a source familiar with the matter. “Mark is desperate to buy the Cubs,” says the source. “He wants this so bad.”
Though I’m sure Ben Schwartz will have an opinion or two on this matter, surely I’m not alone in thinking that if Lou Piniella’s locker room wrestling match with Dibble was any gauge, the inevitable blowup with Cuban would be one for the ages.
The New York Sun’s Tim Marchman stumps Tuesday AM for the Hall of Fame candidacy of former MLBPA Players Association head Marvin Miller (above), claiming “the list of 20th Century Baseball men clearly more important than Miller” is a rather short one —- Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson.
Miller didn’t just help players become incomprehensibly rich; as he knew all along, the fight over the balance of power between labor and management is never a zero-sum game. It’s one that everyone can win. His assault on baseball’s feudal structure led to a vastly improved and much more competitive game, which led to more fans being willing to spend money on it, which led to owners making greater profits and baseball becoming an ever more integral part of the culture. Great as the legacies of men like Josh Gibson, Hank Aaron, and Christy Mathewson are, no one save Ruth and Robinson was more responsible for and representative of such fundamental changes in the game. (Arguments for Kennesaw Mountain Landis and Branch Rickey, though, will be duly noted.) If the Hall of Fame only could have 20 members, Miller would deserve to be counted among them.
All of this being true, yesterday’s announcement that the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee — which comprises living Hall of Famers and winners of awards for distinguished careers in writing and broadcasting — has once again elected no one was downright infuriating. This august body, created in 2001, is charged with giving a second chance to players unfairly overlooked by the baseball writers who vote players into the Hall of Fame and with passing judgment on umpires and executives. It has now met three times and has elected no one — not Marvin Miller, not Ron Santo, and not Joe Torre. It has become even more irrelevant than the body it replaced, a Veterans Committee that served for many years simply as a means of inducting Frankie Frisch’s cronies and, as legend had it, elected the wrong player on two different occasions. One suspects that Ted Williams wouldn’t pass muster with this bunch.
The New York Times quarterly sports magazine, Play, will be publishing a piece by Chuck Klosterman (above) on Gilbert Arenas this weekend. It’s tough not to feel bad for Chuck in this. First of all, the definitive story on the subject has already been written. (And then crudely plugged twice in one sentence) And also because Chuck walks around all day knowing that people want to sock him in the face. There are other reasons to shed a tear for Klosterman, but this case is especially poignant primarily because he has been tasked with writing about someone more interesting than him. How will he still find a way to write about himself? Henry Abbott’s True Hoop has a preview of the article and Klosterman’s first two paragraphs are innocuous enough. Abbott also does a brief interview with this hideous man — in which Chuck compares The ‘Bachi (favorably) to Courtney Love — which goes a long way towards answering that question, and is characteristically rich in the plu-certain condescension and meaningless contrarianism that are Klosterman’s signatures. Abbott’s questions are in bold.
Here’s my question, though: does Arenas flaunt the NBA’s control, or does he operate wackily within its bounds? He just seems so harmless…
I would not say Arenas is necessarily subversive, because he doesn’t do things that jeopardize the credibility or the integrity of the NBA. He probably is (as you say) “harmless.” But would you prefer the opposite? Would you prefer that he be harmful? Should he attack fans? I think the fact that Arenas’ eccentricities still exist within the conventional framework of the league is probably his greatest asset: He’s just a FRACTION beyond control.
Oh no, I certainly don’t want Gilbert taking swings at fans or being really harmful. But I guess I see at least some of the NBA’s controlling nature as over-reaching and if he were to use his position as a hard-working, charismatic, outspoken, but harmless player to loosen them up at the league a little I would like him even more.
I see what you’re saying, but I don’t know how that would really manifest itself. Should Gilbert Arenas come out and endorse Obama? I have no idea. Personally, I have mixed feelings about how negative or positive the controlling nature of the NBA truly is. Philosphically, I always find myself wanting David Stern to give the players greater freedom — but whenever I sit down and watch a pro game, it seems like the league isn’t controlling the product enough. Stern is constantly worried about things like dress codes and hip-hop and consumer image, but the NBA’s biggest problem seems pretty straightforward: How do they make the 3rd quarter of a regular season game more watchable? Because right now, that’s the crux of every other problem the NBA pretends to have.
Chuck should talk to Jason Whitlock about that last point, probably. At the risk of demonstrating a Klostermaniacal attachment to rhetorical questions, though, Chuck’s answers raise a series of questions for me. Foremost among them: how can a guy who keeps saying, essentially, “I don’t know,” manage to say it in a tone that strongly implies “you don’t know?” Also, how does Chuck manage to work Radiohead into this article? Why did he cut the Wizznutzz from the piece (James was interviewed, and wound up getting dumped in favor of, if I had to guess, a Klostermanian digression on an ex-girlfriend)? And, finally, via Dan Shanoff, what if instead of endorsing Obama, Arenas actually sort of was Obama?
Dr. Elliot Pellman (above, far left), who directed the NFL’s concussion committee since its inception in 1994, has stepped down in the wake of mounting criticism from experts in the field of brain injury, The Sun has learned.
Last fall, ESPN The Magazine documented that Pellman was selective in what injury reports he used to reach his conclusions and omitted large numbers of players from the league’s study.
Pellman will be replaced by co-chairmen of the league’s mild traumatic brain injury committee. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said yesterday that Pellman asked to be relieved of his duties as chairman.
Dr. Ira Casson, a neurologist from Nassau, N.Y., and Dr. David Viano, director of the Sports Biomechanics Lab at Wayne State University, will head the committee, Aiello said in an e-mail. Neither doctor is affiliated with an NFL team.
Of Pellman’s background, Michael Kaplen, a New York attorney who specializes in representation of concussion and traumatic brain injury victims said “this person is a rheumatologist, not qualified to be an expert on brain injuries. He’s not a neurologist, neuropsychologist, neurosurgeon, and has no training in this area at all.”
In Pellman’s defense, there’s not necessarily anything wrong with Mexican medical schools, the Steve Guttenberg star vehicle “Bad Medicine” nonwithstanding.
(memo to Suggs : there’s a guy in K.C. who thinks you’re a wannabe prison bride).
Now that Big Sexy’s characterization of a “Black KKK” has won nationwide attention, AOL Sports’ Jason Whitlock, clearly replying to his critics, writes “I don’t hate hip hop. I hate what it has become,” claiming “prison culture swallowed hip-hop culture, turning party music into a celebration of violence, hostility, disrespect and drug-dealing.”
Prison culture is winning. It has corrupted a form of music that once gave us great joy and/or offered inspiration. Prison culture — with its BET and MTV videos, popular movies, acceptance in the mainstream media and false gods — Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg — has perverted the American dream for black youth.
Our children think they’re participating in a culture that is meant to empower them. Hip hop — disguised in low-hanging platinum chains, 24-inch rims, platinum grills and other flossy material possessions — cripples black youth and infects them with a prison mindset that even NFL and NBA dollars can’t seem to shake.
Hip hop is filled with hostility and disrespect, the tools needed to survive while incarcerated. Hip hop cares little about family and knows nothing of the rewards of parenting. You don’t parent in prison; you baby-daddy in prison. Hip hop judges love by your willingness to embrace evil — ride (kill) or die.
Just like the Ebonics language, the tattoos and cornrows are straight from the prison playbook. So are the sagging pants, which started as a way for gay prisoners to signal their availability for action.
The rappers love to tell you they’re keeping it real, but they leave out so much to the hip hip/prison culture story. “Gangbanging” and being a “rider” is glorified. They don’t tell you that much of the violence played out on the streets is directly related to the love affairs that play out behind bars.
Media Out Loud is seeking Freelance Writers for Sports Out Loud, the best gay sports magazine in the world.
Requirements
Magazine experience not necessary but a plus. Be comfortable covering the gay sporting community; also be capable of interviewing high profile sports figures.
Just one question: Exactly how many gay sports magazines in the world are there?
Much as I despise University of Arizona and that, once again, the Wildcats dropped my Sun Devils (barely) on Sunday, there’s not much to laugh at in this story. UA coach Lute Olson, 72, addressed in a conference call rumors he has Parkinson’s disease.
“It’s a complete lie,” Olson said. “I have physicals like everyone else does. There is absolutely no medical indication of a problem of that type.
“It’s a vicious rumor that gets passed on. It’s totally false. If need be, I can get my doctor to indicate that it’s totally false.”
Olson said he decided to address the rumors for several reasons: A television station began to work on a story two weeks ago, a sports talk radio caller mentioned it and a fan came up to him today and asked him about it.
Plus, “This is the kind of thing you get from people you are recruiting against,” Olson said.
“If the rumor is going around here, it’s certainly going to be passed around (the nation),” Olson said.
“I’m healthy. When you get nervous, you start to shaking a little. But most people my age do (shake).”
It’d be appalling, though not unprecedented, if opposing coaches were using that dagger in recruiting. However, Lute seems to have opened the door himself to ageism attacks by saying, “Most people my age do shake.”
Having admitted Sunday after the game that he doesn’t have a “handle” on his team, Olson can’t possibly stick around at UA much longer. At least that’s the hope 100 miles to the north in Tempe.
….and still, not even a staged hug for A-Rod! From MSNBC.com and the AP :
Derek Jeter drew quite a crowd for this at-bat — President Bush waving in the stands, Mickey Mantle studying from the dugout.
Made for a perfect picture on Jeter’s new baseball card. Of course, the game never happened.
Instead, this Topps triple play was just someone’s idea of a visual gag. It was a card trick — somebody at the company produced it through digital manipulation.
“We saw it in the final proof and we could have axed it,” Topps spokesman Clay Luraschi told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “But we decided to let it run, we wanted to print it. We thought it was hilarious.”
Here’s three words I bet you hoped you’d never have to see together on the same page : “Fran Healy” and “podcast”.
“I know that the comments that (sportswriters) make are a lot of times given to them by some unnamed source in the organization, which is disappointing,” Schilling said yesterday. “Because I know it’s people talking who haven’t said a word to me. That’s the way it always works. They’ll try to get a message to us through you (media) guys sometimes without putting their name to it.”
Schilling would not name which member or members of the organization are speaking behind his back. But he did excuse Red Sox manager Terry Francona and general manager Theo Epstein (above, right) from his harangue.
“When Tito (Francona) has something to say, he’ll say it,” Schilling said. “Tito will never try to get a message to me through (the media). You know what I’m saying? But there are other people, and it’s in every organization, where they want to inspire a player, motivate a guy, they’ll go to the media and say, ‘Hey, we think so and so and so.’ You know how that works.”
When it was pointed out to Schilling that New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner often has criticized players through the media, Schilling said, “He never did it anonymously, which I like.”
Asked specifically which Red Sox employees he believes are making anonymous comments about him to the media, Schilling’s response, verbatim, was as follows: “People. No specific person. And nobody in mind. I just know that this is one of those organizations that there will be things said in the paper from a writer that you know didn’t come from the writer that came from somebody here that wanted to get a message to a player without telling him themselves.”
In an unrelated story, GPS manufacturer Tom Tom have enlisted Schilling as one of 70 preloaded voices that can be selected the next time you’re lost in Southie. Though if you’re in a hurry, you might wanna opt for another celebrity.
Quote Of The Day Award goes to Feeding The Monster’s Seth Mnookin, who after reading Murray Chass’ latest Times column (”for the longest time, I had no idea what VORP meant and didn’t care enough to go to any great lengths to find out. I asked some colleagues whose work I respect, and they didn’t know what it meant either,”) was compelled to respond, It’s been a good long time since I’ve heard a reporter actually brag about his total and utter lack of curiosity regarding his work
I loved watching baseball in the days when I couldn’t identify a breaking ball from high and tight heat. But if it was my job to watch baseball games and then inform the public about these very same games, I’d sure as shit make sure I knew everything I could about the sport, regardless of what language I used to write about what was taking place on the field.
Slugger Albert Pujols and wrestler Kurt Angle took turns slugging balls in the Cardinals batting cages while Pujols took part in spring training.
Angle was present as part of Team Eckstein, named after World Series MVP David Eckstein. Eckstein is a lifelong wrestling fan and played the role of manager for a professional wrestling match in Orlando earlier this month.
Angle took Pujols’ batting pointers to heart.
“By the time he retires, he’ll be considered one of the best ever. It was an honor him telling me what to do in there. It would be like me getting him in the ring,” Angle said.
“I really admire these guys because of their work ethic and the way they go all year long,” Angle said.
Bud Selig and George Mitchell might be interested to know that last August, Angle was granted his release from the WWE for unspecified “personal reasons”. Such a move is analogous to the San Francisco Giants making Barry Bonds a free agent in the middle of the season.
The morning after one of the Knicks’ more encouraging results of the year — a 99-93 defeat of Miami that included some sterling 4th quarter play by Stephon Marbury (25 points, 18 in the final stanza), shockingly competent D from Malik Rose, and yet another clutch 3-pointer from Jamal Crawford (shown above, Zapruder-stylee!) — New York’s playoff hopes were dealt a serious blow. WFAN is reporting this afternoon that Crawford has suffered a right ankle stress fracture and is unlikely to return this year.
Since I’ve been all-too willing to link to those eager to dump on Jason Whitlock, in the interests of equal time, True Hoop’s Henry Abbott has stressed that Big Sexy (cough) wasn’t totally out to lunch.
I do not startle easily, and I’m telling you, Whitlock is not wrong when he says that the crowd at All-Star was dangerous. Forget baggy pants. Forget skin color. The scene was bad, and any event organizer would tell you that if you were organizing this event again next year, you’d want to make sure it went better. I have no expertise in this area, I’m not sure what crowd control changes (no guns might be one, come to think of it…) to recommend. But I’m pretty sure you don’t want that many people that drunk and violent in that way again, if it’s avoidable.
He is often referred to as “Smoke”. May I make the humble suggestion that, whenever Smolinski scores a goal in a Canuck uniform, celebration must include torching a bowl, or – at the very least – digging a roach out of the ashtray and sparking it.
- One Chicago forum guy hates the deal and is posting a minute-by-minute countdown to when he can go home and drink the six-pack he bought on his lunch hour. It’s Monday, by the way.
(UPDATE : WFAN is reporting the Rangers have dealt D Aaron Ward to Boston for player to be named later. I’m pretty sure he won’t be named Derek Sanderson.)
I’ll be delving deep into my vast archive of recorded material this evening at the Beauty Bar (617 E. 7th St., Austin) from 10pm ’til closing. While I hope to see you there, please be advised that while I’d love to take requests,
a) I strongly dislike Hall & Oates. Especially Oates.
b) if it was just about hearing your favorite shit, we’d go over to your house and I’d pay you $5 for a drink while you looked (in vain, hopefully) for that Hall & Oates record
c) I won’t be taking requests.
All of that said, I can promise you it will be a fun evening. For me, at least. And unless you’re some kind of selfish creep, isn’t that really the most important thing?
You can argue that Las Vegas was not the ideal site for an event that traditionally attracts thrill seekers hoping to attach themselves to celebrities and their posses. But the casting of the weekend as a lawless referendum on the N.B.A. product has become exaggerated to the point of being imbecilic and has left Commissioner David Stern in a delicate position, between a Pacman and a hard place.
In an e-mail message, Stern said he was inclined to let the Vegas storm pass, move on as the regular season hits the homestretch. He also said he was “not necessarily a majority among N.B.A. management,” meaning the strategy is “subject to change.”
He may yet ask why nobody blamed Nascar for the death of a motorist who was shot in a road-rage encounter during a traffic jam after leaving the Daytona 500.
He may have to point out again that no N.B.A. player was involved in any Las Vegas transgression, compared with a number of N.F.L. players who over the years have turned Super Bowl week into episodes of “Miami Vice.”
He may crunch crime statistics relative to other sports events and large gatherings like New Year’s Eve that, he said, would prove that All-Star weekend was no behavioral aberration.
Opening an offensive may also be subject to critical interpretation, Stern acknowledged, writing: “It sounds so damn defensive to throw other numbers out there to defend what has to be acknowledged as bad behavior, although of the 400-plus arrests in Vegas, almost 200 were for prostitution — there I go again.”
A few hundred arrests over several days, roughly half for prostitution in a city that is the home office for Hookers R Us — how does this qualify as an indictment of a certain (read: African-American) element now said to have been running rampant everywhere but between Dick Bavetta and Charles Barkley during their charity race?
Isn’t it possible that a fair percentage of those arrested included some from among the tens of thousands in town for conventions unrelated to the N.B.A. or to celebrate the Chinese New Year? Or are only black people vulnerable to the seductions of Las Vegas?
“The subject is just so delicious that everyone from Imus to Letterman thinks it’s just hilarious to dump on the ‘hip-hoppers,’ ” Stern wrote. “Of course, race plays a part in the perceptions. Do you doubt that there were more African-Americans in Las Vegas last week than at any time in its history, and some people felt threatened by that simply as a matter of culture?”
Hopefully, George Mitchell has Randy Velarde’s phone number. Until then, here’s one prominent superstar’s point of view, as quoted by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.
Tigers slugger Gary Sheffield joined Barry Bonds on Monday among players who don’t plan to cooperate with former Senator George Mitchell’s steroid investigation.
“The (players) association told us this is just a witch hunt,” Sheffield told USA TODAY. ”They don’t want us to talk to them. This is all about getting (Bonds).
“If this was legitimate and they did it the right way, it would be different. But this a witch hunt. They’re just trying to collect a lot of stuff that doesn’t make any sense and throw the (expletive) against the wall.”
“Come on, it’s baseball season,” Sheffield said. ”Nobody’s got time for this stuff now.”
Who’d have thought Danny Fortson would wield so much influence over his new paymasters? From the Stranger’s Josh Feit. (link swiped from True Hoop)
The campaign finance records I’ve reviewed show that Sonics/Storm co-owner Tom Ward (above) has contributed $475,000 to Gary L. Bauer’sAmericans United to Preserve Marriage. And another Sonics/Storm co-owner, Aubrey McClendon, contributed $625,000.
Both men made their first contributions to the group, $250,000 apiece, on September 8, 2004—the day after the group was formed.
As I said, the controversial group doled out $1,056,962 in the 2004 election cycle, which means Storm owners Ward and McClendon basically bankrolled the whole thing. Indeed, records show that between the 2004 and 2006 cycles the group spent $1.3 million total while Ward and McClendon’s donations total $1.1 million.
Amongst the pithier reader comments,
“I will feel especially good about NOT going to see any Sonics games ever.”
“There is no way in Hell that one PENNY of our tax dollars should be used to build these fuckers another sports arena so that they can continue to transfer funds from that enterprise to their favorite hate groups.”
“Clay Bennett gave money to Pat Buchanan, Tom Coburn, Bush I, Bush II, Bill Frist and others.
Howard Schultz ran the Sonics into the ground, but at least his politics were somewhat reflective of the community’s.”
“Clay Bennett & gang’s politics are reflective of the community. Only that community is Oklahoma City.”
Coming next week : Donald Sterling – Misunderstood Scumbag or An Acceptable Alternative To James Dolan? But for now, we’ll have to settle for a profile of Royals president Daniel Glass, who as the KC Star’s Bill Reiter explains, “uses words like “cool” and “dude.” He’s nervous on a first meeting and wickedly funny on a second. He wears nice clothes that aren’t quite fancy enough to mark him a rich man, and he eats at a Subway that shares space with a gas station even though he lives in a million-dollar mansion.”
He sounds a lot like me, really. Except for the parts about being funny on a second meeting and living in a million-dollar mansion. Oh, and the nice clothes. And Subway. Can’t fucking stand that place. But other than that, this was like reading about myself.
Dan Glass sits at a conference table and talks about the criticisms that have been leveled at him and his family.
“I always look at it as it’s a lack of talent on their part to take a cheap shot here and there,” he said.
Then, after a pause and some thought: “Another cliche, but you’re never as good as people say you are and you’re never as bad as people say you are,” he said. “I hear about it. I used to (hear) it. I (hear) it still to some degree. It’s hard to take it serious.”
But the image that’s been painted of him has become so widespread, it makes friends and family bristle. They’ve heard it all before, though they don’t understand where it’s come from.
“He gets a bad rap sometimes for not knowing anything about baseball or just being the owner’s son — whatever people say — but it’s not true,” said his 25-year-old son, Dayne. “They don’t know him. They think he’s just hiding away. But he’s not. He’s just private; that’s his style.”
Dan Glass strolls into a broadcast booth for a photo shoot, trying to smile.
“Ah, the price of fame,” he quips.
He’ll be heading to spring training soon, and, as the photographer snaps pictures, you can see in Glass’ eyes that he’d rather be anywhere else in the world than here, having his photo taken, another moment that’ll thrust him back under that spotlight.
He leans back toward the open window with the steep drop that looks out over the diamond. His lips purse together. He’s polite but impatient.
“Move your hand back,” the photographer says.
Glass smiles. “Like I’m about to jump out of here?”
Mets pitching guru Rick Peterson is the subject of David Lennon’s Monday entry at Newsday, and The Jacket’s taste in cinema leans, typically enough, towards Judy Garland.
“One of the greatest movies of all time is ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ What a great story,” Peterson said. “If you take a look at all the pitchers with untapped potential, I tell them that they are one of those three characters. It’s in there, and you don’t have to take all the time traveling down the road to get to it.”
“I’m a big ‘Seinfeld’ fan,” Peterson said. “I told him that his show actually is very helpful to be a better communicator with these guys. Because when you use the things he talks about, they laugh about it. There’s a human element to it, and once you get someone to laugh, you can exhale and see things a different way.”
Peterson has yet to break out a puffy shirt as a prop. But getting his pitchers to step outside their own heads for a few moments, and forget the ball and glove, can be a useful tool on the mound.
“He did one last year when I was pitching a side session,” John Maine said. “He asked me, ‘Do you like ice cream?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ Then he said, ‘Do you like ketchup?’ And I said, ‘Um, yeah.’ Then he asked me, ‘Would you put ketchup on top of the ice cream?’ When I said no, he told me, ‘Well, that’s what you’re doing right now.’
Lennon’s colleague Bob Herzog reports the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League have acquired former Met Edgardo Alfonso. While I’m thrilled to learn Fonzie will be wearing the colors made famous by John Rocker, Pete Rose III and Bill Pulsipher, it does seem like the Jersey City Snakes let a coveted free agent slip thru their fingers yet again.
24 hours on from the red mists and red card he suffered during Arsenal’s 2-1 Carling Cup defeat against Chelsea, Kolo Toure couldn’t quite bring himself to say the ’s’ word. “I apologise. I regret my actions,” he wailed, thumbing through a thesaurus. “But Chelsea were winning and were starting to waste time, and I was not happy.”
Indeed he wasn’t. But remarkably, Toure reckons he has done enough to avoid a thumping ban when referee Howard Webb’s report is posted through the door of the Football Association. “I do not think I will get banned,” Toure insisted, sheepishly. “When they look at the tape, they will see I have done nothing wrong,” he continued, shoving the Fiver to the floor before we could say ’so why apologise, then?’ and adding: “The people who run football know who is bad and they know that I am always trying to do my best.”
But while Toure was begging for forgiveness, John Terry was showing no ill-effects after turning bluer than Weird Uncle Fiver’s Best Bongo Compilation XVIII following his collapse on the pitch yesterday. “I was just saying to the lads I don’t remember, you know,” Terry told Chelsea TV. “I remember walking out for the second half and nothing else until waking up in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. But I’ve had the scan and they said it’s OK. I’m still feeling a bit groggy, though.”
Meanwhile Petr Cech has been getting out his Black Sabbath albums in tribute to his captain who, incredibly, was able to join his team-mates in celebrating victory last night. “I told John afterwards that if there is some trophy for ‘Iron Man of the Year’, I think it is him,” he growled, crunching out a Tony Iommi solo and making a devil sign. “After the injury in Porto, he came back and played. Now he is fine, he was laughing and OK. He is unbelievable.”
Not content with taking all of our money via satellite fees and taven admissions, Setanta have announced plans to bring 2007-08 Premiership coverage to your craptop. If nothing else, the end of DirecTV’s near monopoloy on Setanta telecasts will come as good news to Senator John Kerry, who will now be free to follow his favorite footballer, Manny Ortiz, without signing up for a satellite dish.
Rob Bradford’s doing a bang up job of making the mundane seem interesting this Spring Training, but even miracle workers need some downtime. I’m not sure how the intrepid Eagle-Tribune reporter missed out on The Greatest Television Program of All Time until now, but better late than never.
My surreal television moment of the day: Watching a show called “Cheaters” last night, which has a camera crew and private investigators follow suspected cheaters in relationships. The victim in this case was an 88-year-old named Lightning McLeod, who was in a relationship with a 33-year-old. After they built their case against the woman (obviously finding she had been unfaithful to McLeod), the host of the show, a man named Joey Greco (above), a team of cameras, and a cane-wielding McLeod confronted the two. Things got a little feisty, with the older gentleman (whom Greco had called a “dashing young man” earlier in the episode waving his cane at the cheaters.
Then came the Hallmark moment when Lightning McLeod warned his younger no-good doer: “Watch out, I’ll strike twice!” I’ve got a feeling Lightning was using this same threat back in days of prohibition. Oh, and did I mention Lightning made a Mohawk out of whatever hair he had left?
Though Jason Whitlock’s confusing, self-congratulatory coverge of All-Star Weekend hasn’t escaped notice at CSTB (pt. 1, pt. 2), Edge Of Sports’ Dave Zirin (above) is especially aggrieved at the AOL columnist he accuses of “acting like the love child of Clarence Thomas and Haystacks Calhoun.”
When you have the unholy arrogance to compare your crusade against “ghetto acting” black people to the actions of Rosa Parks, when you call young African American kids “the Black KKK”, and when you liken walking the Vegas strip to being in “the yard at a maximum security prison”, it’s simply time to say, “enough.”
In your own words, “Instead of wearing white robes and white hoods, the new KKK has now taken to wearing white Ts and calling themselves gangsta rappers, gangbangers and posse members. Just like the White KKK of the 1940s and ’50s, we fear them, keep our eyes lowered, shut our mouths and pray they don’t bother us.”
Please, please, please take a moment to listen to yourself. The Klan at its peak had 4.5 million members. They organized campaigns of lynching and terror to keep people of color from voting, holding jobs, or even existing in peace. To compare an NBA player’s entourage with this bloody nightmare makes you sound scared, small, and simple.
You actually write, “This must be the way Rosa Parks felt on that bus. She was just tired of eating white racist (spit). I’m tired of eating black racist (spit).”
Wow. You, Jason Whitlock. The new Rosa Parks. I suppose it is Black History Month, the one time we hear a great deal about Ms. Parks and her contribution to building a better world. I don’t quite recall her droning on about strip clubs and lap dances the way you do (maybe I just missed it). I don’t remember her reveling in the excess that seems to define your personal life. I’m not positive but I don’t think she ever referred to herself as “Big Sexy”. I do know she cared more about fighting for the less fortunate than cozying up to power. Maybe she was just “bojangling.”
(the bad news is that there’s no sign of Bill Bellamy quitting)
The New York Post’s Marc Berman reports Knicks PG Steve Francis’ ailing right knee might result in early retirement.
“You know a terrorist alert, when a security alert is orange,” Francis said. “That’s my frustration level.”Francis’s comeback lasted all of five games. He had rehabbed in Houston for five weeks before returning two weeks ago on the West Coast trip entering the All-Star break.
After missing Friday’s foul-aided 95-93 win over Milwaukee, Francis sat out last night’s 101-92 loss to the Nets. Asked if this may be it, Francis said, “I don’t know. I don’t want to say something that isn’t there but I’m not sure. You just got to be smart.”
The following tidbit appeared in the Nets.com pregame notes yesterday :
Bernard Robinson slipped on the ice outside of his hotel, hurting his knee.
“I made a decision back when I left college at Tulsa and went to the CBA that this (NBA) is the route I would go and that’s where I’m at,” Saunders said. “When I am old — and I am not that old, yet — I could see myself coaching a high school team or a small college team, just to coach, but I am not at that point yet.”
Rick Pitino and Tim Floyd were unavailable for comment.
“Life is good for Jason Giambi,” insists the NY Daily News’ Marc Feisand, though reminding us that ” it hasn’t been so easy for the Yankees’ slugger for the past few years, as he found himself embroiled in the BALCO steroids controversy, battled a mysterious illness and watched his status as one of the fiercest hitters in the game wither away in the blink of an eye.”
Those experiences could have destroyed Giambi’s career. Instead, they strengthened his resolve.
“I’ve gone through some tough times, so I’m definitely stronger,” Giambi said yesterday. “I might have come over here as a boy, but I’m a man now. There’s no doubt about it.”
Giambi has realized his desire to win outweighs his desire to post numbers for the back of his baseball card.
“Over the last couple years, being hurt with my wrist and my knee, I didn’t go on the DL,” Giambi said. “I may have sacrificed some personal numbers, but it gave me more gratification when we won. It was better than hitting .290 and not making the playoffs. You learn that as you get older that it’s all about winning.”
More importantly, Giambi has erased the fear of failure from his head. After all, when you’ve hit .208 with 12 home runs as recently as three years ago – and survived – what is there to be afraid of?
An indictment? Dropping dead? Shrinkage? Anybody else have an idea?
That was one brutal 3rd quarter. But if your idea of fun TV is watching Vince Carter repeatedly blow past an overmatched No. 1 Point Guard In The NBA Stephon Marbury, this was probably more entertaining than Joan and Melissa Rivers.
I don’t know how many malls they have in that part of the world, but Channing Frye might wanna get the heck out of the way the next time Bostjan Nachbar drives the lane unless his wants to be a fixture at Slovenia’s version of Spencer Gifts.
Along with taking shots at Otis Smith and Scottie Pippen in Sunday’s Hoops Du Jour column, Peter Vescey couldn’t lay off renowned sprint champion Charles Barkley.
Just when I thought Mike D’Antoni had reached the penthouse in my esteem, he crushed Charles Barkley with the truth. During a recent TNT telecast the monotonous mope criticized the Suns coach’s stunted rotation, ignorantly claiming Phoenix had the deepest bench in the league and arguing the reserves should be used more.
D’Antoni responded by saying he wasn’t sure he should take basketball advice from someone who “choked” away championships and had his own playoff conditioning questioned.
Last year during the playoffs, I told Jerry Colangelo I was aghast he had retired Barkley’s number. For a decade or so he ostracized his former franchise player with good reason; the Suns outgoing chairman/CEO believed Barkley’s after-hour playoff carousing had cost him a championship.
“Two championships,” Colangelo replied.
At the risk of Dan Steinberg claiming I’m making fun of a guy with serious issues, I sincerely hope Darryl Strawberry had a good seat for Maryland’s wild 89-87 win over Carolina yesterday afternoon in which son D.J. had a career high 27 points. While the Terrapins got off to a 2-5 start in the ACC, they’ve now won 5 straight against conference opponents and look likely for an NCAA tournament invite.
It’s a violent game and always has been. It’s a game of physical intimidation and it always has been. Chris Drury should have kept his head up.
They can add all the gimmicks to the NHL they want, they can attempt to turn the game into a skills competition, but the attraction of hockey is primal.
It’s taken nearly two full seasons, but the pendulum is slowly beginning to reset itself. Toughness is reasserting itself as a value. Look around. The NHL is again becoming more rocky road than vanilla.
Sixth Avenue should understand that those who would assail the sport because of the images from Thursday featuring the fight between goaltenders and coaches screaming at one another from the tops of their benches have no interest in the sport under any circumstance.
Sixth Avenue should recognize that its primary focus must be on maintaining its core base. Sixth Avenue should be concerned with the astonishing number of empty seats in the lower tier in both Detroit and Dallas on Friday night. These were seats that always were filled before the lockout and before the administration accelerated its program to sanitize the game.
“Basic Instict 2″ won the Razzies for Worst Film and Sharon Stone was recognized as Worst Actress yesterday. From the AP :
Razzies founder John Wilson said that while Stone (above) still looked good in her late 40s, the movie had no other reason to exist.
“Yes, she still has some excuse to drop her robe, but the dialogue, the story, the overall attitude of the character is cartoon-like,” Wilson said. “You have to sort of wonder, is she vamping the movie or does she think she’s giving a serious performance? Is she the lone person on the project who got the joke?”
No other reason to exist? Excuse me, Mr. Film Snob, but I will maintain (once again) that Sharon Stone is far too easy a target, but shouldn’t “B.I. 2″ (as us hardcore fans like to call it) receive some credit for launching the cinematic career of noted dogging enthusiast / Ulrika-beater Stan Collymore?
Though I’ve have given this one a miss had Setanta U.S. charged $20 for the privilege, as it turned out, what might be the last major cup final in Cardiff would’ve been more than worth such a tariff. Dieder Drogba (above) scored both goals for Chelsea, including an 85th minute header off a cross from Arjen Robben. Theo Walcott gave the Gunners an early lead with a terrific give-and-go collaboration with Justin Hoyte ; moments earlier, Petr Cech had prevented Arsenal from opening their account with a terrific save of shot by Julio Bapiste.
John Terry, made a surprise (for anyone who didn’t read yesterday’s papers, anyway) start after passing a late fitness test ; the Chelsea captain made an early exit after taking Abou Diaby’s boot to the face in the 66th minute. It took about 5 minutes for Terry to be carried off, which partially accounts for the 11 minutes (!) of stoppage time.
The other delays can be blamed in part on a late brawl that ensued after a John Michel Obi challenge on Arsenal’s Kolo Toure’ (still doing excellent work long after his dismissal from “The Real World”). The pair were ejected and a red card was also shown to Emmanuel Adebayor, who seemed willing to take on anybody he could find, whether or not they were wearing a blue shirt. Brian Cox and Vernon Maxwell both agree — Manny’s got to cool it in the future.
Though I hate to find myself parroting the Sky announcing team, it would be a shame it this match were remembered mostly for the ugly scenes in the final minutes (y’know, someone running a headline about Adebayor going nuclear) rather than fixating on one of the year’s more exciting matches. Chelsea have shown that Abramovich’s zillions were enough to guarantee at the very least, their bringing the 3rd most important domestic trophy back to Stamford Bridge. And for Henry-less Arsenal, this was nothing short of a coming out party for the club’s teenagers. And if that conjures the uncomfortable image of Arsene Wegner double checking the catering plans on “My Super Sweet 16″, that’s your problem, not mine.
Perhaps the camera loves The Sultan Of Sloth. If so, he most assuredly does not love it back, as told to the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo.
“Outside the ballpark, it was hard. You can’t go anywhere, especially if you’re not pitching well. You get the business from [fans]. You can’t enjoy your family time. Your alone time is gone because you’re subject to photographs nonstop. It was the worst. You go to a mall with your kids and you have people always wanting to take pictures. They should call it ‘Picturetown’ not ‘Beantown.’
“Listen, I know the people are Red Sox-friendly. They love the Red Sox. I understand that. They have to understand that when we’re not at the ballpark, we’re not subject to autographs and pictures and we need to be able to enjoy ourselves. I don’t think they see that and don’t get it.”
New York, where Wells spent four seasons, “is a cakewalk compared to Boston,” he said. “But you know what? Boston is a great town. When I was playing against them, it was great coming in. Great stuff in that town. Great restaurants and nightlife. Historical stuff.”
“But you have to be able to deal with it. That’s why Manny [Ramírez] is always a little loopy — because he can’t do stuff. If you want to be subject to that kind of stuff, God bless you. But as you get older, you want to relax.”
What particularly upset Wells in Boston was the obscenity-laced heckling he — and his family — would be subject to when leaving the park.
“Once I heard that, with my family there, I just shut everybody down,” he said. “I ignored everybody. To me, fans aren’t going to make or break me. If they overstep the boundaries, then we’re going to have a situation. They can say all they want about me and it’s not going to reflect on the field how I do. It never has.”
As rich as the contract is, a record $252 million over all and salaries of $27 million in each of the final three years, there is no need for Rodriguez to walk away from the contract after its seventh season for economic reasons. But had Rodriguez stayed with Texas for the first seven years, the opt-out clause might have served as a way for him to go where he really wanted to go six years ago.
The Mets were Rodriguez’s first love, but Steve Phillips, then the Mets’ general manager, shattered that desire by recoiling at the initial asking price uttered by Scott Boras, Rodriguez’s agent, and running as fast as he could in the opposite direction.
By having the opt-out clause, Rodriguez, now 31, preserved his ability to go to the Mets while he was still young enough to make a difference and to give the Mets a chance to make up for the mistake they made in December 2000.
“Mistake they made”? The Rangers and Yankees have won as many World Series with Rodriguez on their payroll as the Mets have without him in the last 6 years. Given the emergence of David Wright and Jose Reyes, not to mention a Flushing clubhouse that seems the very picture of tranquility compared to that of their crosstown rivals, this “mistake” is surely a matter of Chass imagining Rodriguez and Boras’ point of view.
Your Sunday morning dose of the (Bob) Klap(isch) in the Bergen Record concerns MLB & Rawlings’ latest online poll to select the finest defensive players of all time. Klapisch regurgitates a debate that raged through many a NYC tavern a generation ago, “Just who was the area’s best first baseman of the 1980s, Keith Hernandez or Don Mattingly?”
Yankee fans defend Mattingly to the (virtual) death, insisting he was the superior athlete, not to mention the more productive hitter. Met fans say no one could match Hernandez (above, left) for quick hands, his ability to field bunts and the gift for anticipating where the ball would be hit.
“Come on, you know I’m not going to touch that one,” Joe Torre said with a laugh. “I’ve always hated Keith because he took my job [with the Cardinals in 1975]. But there’s no way to choose between them.”
Jason Giambi picked Mattingly for sentimental reasons – “Donnie was my favorite player” – while Alex Rodriguez was on the verge of choosing Hernandez because, as a die-hard Met fan growing up, “I watched every single Met on WOR for four straight years. I saw so much more of Mex than I did Donnie.”
A-Rod didn’t officially choose Mattingly, however, because as he said with a rueful smile, “Yankee fans already hate me.”
Mattingly wasn’t surprised to hear the vote was split even in his own clubhouse. This is, after all, a debate for the ages – one that Mattingly helped fuel in 1986 when he said he’d move to left field if Hernandez were ever traded to the Yankees.
But that’s not to say Mattingly was conceding to his Mets counterpart. Quite the contrary. Donnie Baseball said, “I could pick it with anyone.”
Yet, Mattingly had nothing but praise for Hernandez, standing by his assertion that if it would’ve meant becoming teammates with the Met first baseman, he would’ve vacated the position.
“I meant what I said, I would’ve moved to left for Keith,” Mattingly said Saturday. “I would’ve done it because we would’ve been a better team with the two of us on the same field. I wouldn’t have minded if he played first instead of me.
“Funny thing is, I didn’t get to see him play that much, maybe once in a while on TV. But whenever I saw Keith field bunts up the first base line and make that throw to third, I’d say, ‘Wow, that’s incredible.’ I remember thinking how great he was on plays like that.”
Posting at Sons Of Sam Horn Friday, Boston’s Curt Schilling (above) sought to assure his fans that his recent discussions with Red Sox brass were “comfortable” and that “we’ll just have to let hacks and idiots like CHB stir up something that does not exist.”
I’d love to tell you I look like Gabe Kapler with my shirt off, I don’t. However I weigh 243 pounds right now, which is exactly 2 pounds under what I weighed in at at seasons end last year. The clothes make me look fat…….
I’ve forever needed baseball a whole hell of a lot more than it needs me, I’ve always known that. I have also always known that it is a business, even when you don’t want it to be.
Please trust me when I say, and have said, this will have zero bearing on my preperation or performance this season. I don’t pitch for contracts, never have. My three best years were in the first year of new contracts. I pitch to win, just like most of the other guys in this game do.
One of the lines CHB failed to put into the article he wrote a few weeks back was me, on the phone, calling him an asshole. He knows as sure as he’s reading this right now that I think he’s a giant sphincter.
At some point soon he’ll realize that the dislike for him here is not because he’s the guy always taking the ‘other side’ while trying to illicit opinions and responses from readers, but rather he’s disliked because he treats people like shit.
Tragedy struck the Broncos for the second time in less than two months Saturday when backup running back Damien Nash died after a charity basketball game he was hosting in St. Louis, his agent, David Canter, said Saturday night.
Nash was 24. Officials at Christian Hospital said Nash was pronounced dead at the hospital at 6:41 p.m. local time. The St. Louis coroner’s office confirmed the death but said they had no further details.
Signed as a free agent in August, Nash played in three games for the Broncos last season and finished with 18 carries for 66 yards. He started as a rookie in 2005 with Tennessee, which drafted him in the fifth round. He played in three games for the Titans.
Nash was hosting the game at Riverview Gardens High School to benefit the Darris Nash Find a Heart Foundation, a charity that raises funds for heart transplant research. Damien Nash recently founded the charity in honor of his older brother, Darris, who has had a heart transplant.
Tonight’s news is as shocking as it is sad. When was the last time you saw the words “death” and “charity basketball” appear in a news item with no mention of Sean Combs?
No. 12 Georgetown’s 61-53 defeat of No. 10 Pittsburgh yesterday moved the Hoyas into first place in the Big East and on the brink of their first regular season conference title in a decade. The revival of the once proud program that launched the careers of Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo and Allan Iverson amongst others is unquestionably one of the bigger stories of this college basketball season. Dwill of Sports On My Mind, however, contends “the NCAA’s biggest nightmare is a successful Georgetown Hoyas basketball team.”
How can Georgetown a Jesuit Catholic school with a white student body rivaling those of Marquette and Notre Dame field and all-black team, save for the inter-racial guard Jeremiah Rivers, son of Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers?
Ahhh, it’s the coaches. John Thompson III is black – and the son of legendary Hoya head coach John Thompson. But JTIII came to Georgetown from Princeton where he fielded a predominantly white team, so what’s the deal at G-town?
The answer white people come up with which is often parroted by black people is Thompson III is surrounding himself with players with whom he is comfortable. Oh wait, that’s the answer these people come up with to excuse the whiteness surrounding their own white leaders; not true for black people. For schools like Marquette and Notre Dame and other schools like them, the excuse is high academic standards. Blacks just don’t have the SAT scores to enter schools with such high academic standards like Notre Dame, Marquette, Duke, Vanderbilt, Stanford, etc. They don’t have the ability to match the standards people like Irish alum Paul Hornung say should be lowered to allow black athletes in colleges and universities like Notre Dame.
The apologists for these schools, and they are legion, shrug and say, “It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it is.” And for JTII and his father before him it is some sort of Underground Railroad and a secret test-lowering standard alliance with the Georgetown academic department that allows the Hoyas to put an all-black team on the court and the bench.
That’s the real reason Georgetown’s recent 11-game winning streak has barely caused a blip – if you discount the local Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area – on the national and Internet sports radar. And if you don’t think it is the reason, it certainly is the reason no one wants to hear or read. It’s the reason the Hoyas entered the week at only #12 in the country a scant one spot ahead of Air Force. To think of the national fervor such a streak would cause if it was happening on Tobacco Road and on the pristine floor of Coach K Court. We’re talkin’ about Air Force! Not North Carolina, not UCLA – Air Force!
Today there are no writings implying academic improprieties at Georgetown, no cries of thuggish, sullen athletes playing defense as if they were committing assault. Today there is no talk of the JTIII-led renaissance of the Hoyas’ program from its ebb time during the Craig Esherick, post “Big John” era. And there is certainly little talk of how good a college coach JTIII is, no consideration for national coach of the year – or, for that matter, Big East coach of the year.
I don’t think it would be unfair to say the Clippers have underachieved this year, and while LA’s less glammy squad is engaged in a dogfight for the 8th spot out West with Golden State and New Orleans, Dunleavy Sr.’s charges put some distance between themselves and the former with today’s 103-90 dispatch of the Warriors.
Elton Brand (above) tied his career high with 8 blocks, while scoring 31 points and hauling in 12 rebounds, showing signs of the dominance he displayed all too often last season. Von Wafer, who’d previously been tearing up the D-League, celebrated taking Doug Christie’s spot on the Clippers roster with a DNP.
Though Vince Carter was on hand last night for Jason Kidd’s 84th career triple double (22 points, 10 assists, 13 rebounds) in Jersey’s 109-96 win over Sacramento, the New York Post’s Marc Berman suggests a sign and trade resulting in Carter moving across the Hudson might be possible in the offseason.
It’s clear Nets brass Rod Thorn and Ed Stefanski have the hots for Channing Frye, whom the Knicks deem expendable because of the emergence of David Lee. And there’s been indications they also like rookie Renaldo Balkman, who was not available during their recent talks.
(There’s a sense the Nets would rather let Carter go to Orlando for nothing than trade him across the river. The last Nets-Knicks deal was 25 years ago in the Len Elmore compensation package.)
Noting that traveling Manchester United supporters had to shell out £45 to see their club defeat Fulham at the aptly named Craven Cottage earlier today, the Observer’s Paul Wilson opines “all-seat stadiums might have been an appropriate and necessary response to a dreadful tragedy, but they changed football in ways that few could have foreseen at the time.”
Lord Justice Taylor tried his best, specifically recommending that clubs should not use seats as a means of ramping up prices, but his wishes were ignored and seats, wages, television deals and almost everything else have been ramped up to a level that everyone in Life on Mars except John Simm would find staggering.
Yet as events at Lens so vividly demonstrated, seats in themselves are no panacea. Not when fences still exist, Uefa stage games at unsatisfactory venues as if Heysel had never happened and the police default mode is to treat all fans as hooligans. Even in this country, where the high cost of seats is rather loftily held to have solved the hooliganism problem now plaguing Italy (by pricing out the young and the troublesome), being forced to sit down is proving divisive. Hardly a game goes by at Anfield or Old Trafford without repeated Tannoy requests for fans to show consideration for other supporters and sit down. There is nothing more annoying than paying a fortune for a seat then being forced to stand because people in front of you are standing, and this ongoing argument itself is likely to provoke a major disturbance before long.
So should we bring back standing areas, as more than 100 MPs have requested? I would say yes, because they improve atmosphere, allow easier and cheaper admission, are still enjoyed in Europe and in other sports, and need not be considered inherently dangerous in modern stadiums with CCTV and improved stewarding. But I was not at Hillsborough, nor did I lose a friend or relative in the crush, and I fully respect the view that even a slight risk of a repeat is too much of a risk to take.
In theory at least, standing areas offer the hope of turning back the clock to a time when the cost of admission to a football ground did not exclude anyone, when you could choose your immediate company, make as much noise as you wanted and feel part of a crowd rather than a member of an audience. All the things that used to distinguish football from a visit to the theatre, in other words. Clubs used to peddle the line that they were offering similar entertainment to the theatre and were entitled to charge similar prices to seat spectators in comfort, but this is clearly nonsense. Half the fans don’t want to be seated, in any case who goes to the theatre every week, and how many theatre-goers make away trips to Sunderland and Wigan?
Though I’ve alluded to this story on two previous occassions, CSTB’s Ombudsman (who may or may not look like this) has helpfully reminded me that not everyone might know what I’m talking about. From the AP :
Los Angeles Lakers forward Vladimir Radmanovic admitted Friday that he lied to the team about how he injured his shoulder during last week’s All-Star break.
“The truth is that I hurt myself in a fall while snowboarding,” Radmanovic said in a statement issued by the team.
He apologized for covering up what happened last Saturday in Park City, Utah . Initially, he told the Lakers he fell on a patch of ice while walking and separated his right shoulder. He is expected to be out two months.
“Being young and sometimes immature, I initially panicked and made up a false story about how I hurt myself,” the 26-year-old forward said. “However, over the past few days my conscience has been bothering me terribly. I am not a dishonest person and could no longer live with this deception.”
While Texas is 20 minutes away from a season sweep of Oklahoma (the Longhorns are leading, 41-28 at intermission behind — surprise, surprise — 19 points from Kevin Durant), you might wanna keep an eye on LSU’s budding upset of Florida. The Tigers hold a 34-21 advantage at the break, and I can’t remember the last time Corey Brewer and Joakim Noah combined for less than 10 points in a half. Not that I’m willing to look it up, either. CSTB’s bill with the Elias Koteas Sports Bureau is long overdue, and their skip tracers are even meaner than the company founder.
No doubt wearing his HDTV hat, the Owner With A Boner calls online video “a snack”, while television is “a meal.” Clearly, Mark Cuban does not own a chain of movie theatres.
Amanda from You Go Live In Utah observered the Heat making a late run against Dallas Thursday night and concludes Miami is DOA. And not the good kind that wrote “Fucked Up Ronnie”, either.
The Mavs should have won by 30 or more. Barea, Agar and Croshere really know how to squander a lead and I thought they should have been pulled WAY sooner than they were. But back to the Heat, with Shaq only able to play 30 minutes, getting stupid fouls and having a free throw shot that is somewhat akin to an epileptic fit I don’t think they will survive without Wade. And of course, Dwyane Wade himself has told us what a fabulous leader he is.
Sammy Sosa made his return to the club that first drafted him in 1985 yesterday, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Jim Reeves suggests the Rangers’ spring training invitee could use a hand dealing with the inevitable PED inquiries.
Sammy sounded positively Mark McGwire-like in insisting that he didn’t want to talk about the past, becoming evasive and even slightly combative at times.
“Today it’s about Sammy Sosa and Texas… I mean it’s about the Texas Rangers and Sammy Sosa,” Sammy stammered, remembering that it’s supposed to be team first, then Sammy. “Today I don’t want to talk about Joe Blow or anybody else because my life has been too busy lately and I don’t want to go into other people’s business.
“I don’t have to convince nobody. I’m a baseball player. Whatever the individual person is thinking outside, whether it’s good or bad, I don’t have no control over that. You know what I mean?”
‘d hoped and somehow expected Sosa to be better prepared to answer the steroids question after a year away from the game to think about it. I thought he would tell us that he understands why the questions have to be asked but that he didn’t do steroids. Remind us that he’s never failed a steroids test. Point out that he’ll be tested just like every other player in the game now.
“I understand what you’re saying and everybody knows that, but let’s talk about baseball, let’s talk about 2007 and the talent we have in Texas and what we can do this year,” he said.
“All those things I want to accomplish, I want to talk about that. I don’t want to talk about whatever happened in the Congress, or whatever. This is not my problem. I have to make the team.”
Oh, but it is his problem and will be all season, assuming he makes the team. It’s part of what he must deal with mentally in returning to baseball. Answer the questions as best he can and even reporters will understand and eventually let it alone. But to dance around them only leaves the questions hanging, unanswered.
Given the questionable status of Orlando Hernandez and the uncertainty surrounding Pedro Martinez’ return, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney delivers his best Paul Caporino impersonation and bemoans the lack of depth in the Mets’ starting rotation.
The Mets don’t need a No. 4- or No. 5-type starter; they’ve got plenty of candidates for those roles, from young prospects Mike Pelfrey and Philip Humber to veterans Aaron Sele and Chan Ho Park. What they need is someone who has a chance to be a frontline starter or at least a middling starter — someone who can eat innings and consistently contribute a solid six. It’s unlikely that the only team with excess starting pitching — the Phillies, with Jon Lieber — would even consider making a trade with the Mets; if New York wanted Lieber, it would have to try to work through a third team, but you have to assume that Philadelphia GM Pat Gillick would be very careful to make sure that wouldn’t happen.
So what’s next? Well, the Mets may have to wait until some teams start to fall out of the race in late-May and June, and veteran starters become available. Depending on the standings in June, the Mets could take a look at Mark Buehrle of the White Sox, Jake Westbrook of the Indians, or the Astros’ Jason Jennings, three pitchers who will be eligible for free agency after next season.
But wanting and getting are two different things, and even if the Mets were to target someone like the Marlins’ Dontrelle Willis, they would have to bid against multiple teams to make a deal, and a lot of other organizations have better, deeper farm systems to trade from.
While hailing Tim Linecum’s first workout of the spring, the SF Chronicle’s Henry Schulman reports Barry Zito drilled the Sultan of Surly during BP yesterday. “Bonds had fun with it, feigning a charge to the mound,” wrote Schulman, no doubt mindful that Zito is the one guy on the Giants roster the soon-to-be-HR king couldn’t get away with beating to death.
Much as I’m enjoying the Knicks’ improbable push for the no.8 spot (aided in no small part by the Heat losing D-Wade), in the event New York actually sneaks in, I’m starting the petition right here to give referee Courtney Kirkland a partial playoff share (at least as big as Jerome James’) after he whistled Andrew Bogut for breathing on Channing Frye with 8 tenths of a second remaining last night at MSG. For the free-falling Bucks, losers of 7 straight, 11 in a row on the road, there might be some consolation in their odds improving a tad in the Greg Oden/Kevin Durant sweepstakes, but Milwaukee didn’t play like a team tanking it on Friday.
David Lee left the game after landing on Bogut’s foot in the third quarter. His status is unknown (by me, anyway), though New York is lucky they didn’t lose Jamal Crawford (above) to a broken hip after yet another big-shot-celebration initiated by that most highly paid Knicks City Dancer, Nate Robinson.
After the T-Wolves stood pat at the trade deadline, would anyone blame Kevin Garnett (29 points and 19 boards in last night’s 116-104 loss to Phoenix) for showing his frustration with the organization? The following is culled from Saturday’s St. Paul Pioneer Press and Rick Alonzo.
Garnett wrapped up a two-minute interview after Friday morning’s shootaround by saying, “Thank God for opt-outs.”
The term opt-outs was a reference to opt-out clauses in some NBA player contracts. Garnett has one, and he can exercise it following the 2007-08 season, leaving the final year of his deal worth $24 million on the table to become a free agent.
Garnett made the comment after a question about whether the passing of the trade deadline might lift a cloud that had been hanging over the team.
Garnett said he didn’t know, and then he dropped his opt-outs comment on reporters as a parting shot as he turned and walked away.
A few minutes later, Garnett emerged from the locker room and was asked if he wanted to clarify his comment about opt-outs.
“I didn’t say that,” Garnett said over his shoulder as he exited down a corridor. “I said ‘opts.’ I said ‘outs.’ “
Garnett’s word games aside, it was interesting nonetheless.
The interview began with Garnett hinting he was disappointed the Wolves’ front office didn’t make a trade to improve the team.
“We’re trying to get better, right?” Garnett said. “It is what it is.”
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and third baseman Scott Rolen shared a firm handshake and a brief but congenial exchange outside La Russa’s office Thursday. After talking past each other during the team’s World Series run and literally walking past each other during last month’s Winter Warm-up, the four-time manager of the year and his seven-time Gold Glove infielder agreed to “turn the page” on a disagreement that had turned ugly and public.
“It’s not an issue. We’ve got other things to concern ourselves with now, like how to get ready to win ballgames,” La Russa said Friday afternoon.
Asked if he believes he and La Russa should discuss the matter further, Rolen said, “I don’t know if there’s value in that. It’s better to turn the page and move on. It’s certainly a happier existence than digging it up and continuing to disagree.”
La Russa, who makes a practice of phoning his players during the winter, did not contact Rolen, and the two failed to speak during a fundraiser in January.
Rolen said the lack of communication weighed on him as spring training approached. The matter became a source of concern to ownership and Jocketty.
“They knew it had to be resolved,” Jocketty said. “It needed to be done.”
“I wouldn’t be telling the truth if I said it didn’t cross my mind,” Rolen said following Friday’s workout. “The closer you get, the more you think about it. You’re going to see each other and you haven’t spoken about anything. You’re going to be in the same place at the same time in a suit at the White House. Regardless of everything — who, what, when, where and why — it’s unhealthy and there’s no benefit.”
The Baltimore Sun’s Ray Frager reports the Orioles have a new policy prohibiting team officials (GM Jim Duquette, manager Sam Perlozzo, etc.) from taking calls from listeners when they appear on WBAL.
The Orioles say the policy is designed to enhance the programming for its radio rights-holder, CBS Radio. On flagship station WHFS (105.7 FM) and CBS’ all-sports ESPN Radio 1300 (WJFK, 1300 AM), no such prohibition would apply, the Orioles say.
”The club has always had its policy,” said Greg Bader, Orioles director of communications.
Not so, said Jeff Beauchamp, vice president and station manager of WBAL, which was the Orioles flagship for the previous 19 years.
”It’s never been the case for the past 20 years,” Beauchamp said.
Stan Charles, a regular sports talk host in Baltimore on five radio stations from 1981 to 2001 — with only four of those years on the Orioles flagship — said he never experienced such a restriction during his time on the air.
In fact, when Steve Davis spoke about the issue on his program tonight — after interviewing pitching coach Leo Mazzone but taking no calls — the host said the policy wasn’t in place as recently as three weeks ago.
That said, I wasn’t alone in giving Johnson’s pre-Toros history short shrift. As the Boston Phoenix’s Adam Reily reveals, the following October 21, 1997 report from the Boston Globe escaped the notice of most media outlets yesterday.
According to the police report, which was obtained from Channel 4, Dwayne Johnson [Johnson's 17-year-old son] saw the argument as it escalated to the point that Dennis Johnson grabbed his wife in a choking manner with his left hand and held a knife in front of her face.
According to the report, Donna Johnson yelled, “What are you going to do, kill me? Go ahead.” Dennis Johnson replied, “You don’t think anybody will hit you?”
After a few moments, Johnson let his wife go but was still yelling and holding the knife, the report said. When Dwayne attempted to stop the argument, his father said, “Don’t you even, or I’ll knock you the [expletive] out.” Donna Johnson replied, “No you won’t. You won’t touch him.”
Dwayne Johnson told police he believed his father would hit him, so he ran to a neighbor’s house and asked her to call 911. He then returned to the house, saw the argument had died down, and called 911 himself.
Writes Riley,
The Herald’s Steve Bulpett doesn’t mention the knife incident in his obit or “appreciation“–even though he covered it for the Globe at the time, and later chronicled its impact on Johnson’s coaching career.
Over at the Globe, meanwhile, columnist Jackie MacMullan alludes to the incident but steers clear of ugly details: “DJ dreamed of being an NBA coach, but a messy domestic abuse incident involving his wife, Donna, hampered his efforts to earn a legitimate shot at such a job.” Shira Springer ignores it completely. So does AP, so does Sports Illustrated’s Jack McCallum, and so does ESPN’s Bill Simmons in an otherwise fantastic homage.
Johnson was an amazing player, and he may have been a good man who just made a terrible mistake ten years ago. But pretending the events of that day never happened–or eliding them as “messy”–is awfully tough to justify.
Mused Josh Alper, “one thing you’d never think a major league baseball player would have to do to get laid is put up an ad on Craigslist.” Yeah, well, you’ve obviously never spent a Friday night as Todd Jones’ wingman.
Congrats to the folks at 2K7 Sports for finding a licensor that’s really willing to play ball, in this case Colin Cowherd dream date, The Widow Cobain. From Chart Attack (link swiped from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory)
Game developer 2K Sports has included Nirvana’s “Breed” on the soundtrack of its Major League Baseball 2K7 video game.
The Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 game, which hits stores on Feb. 27, will also feature cuts from The Stooges, The Pixies, Wolfmother, Death From Above 1979, Cities In Dust, Editors and others.
The company will also use “Breed” in a commercial for the game, making it the first-ever Nirvana track licensed for advertising purposes.
The jury’s still out on Cobain’s penchant for gaming and/or baseball, though a quick trip to Wikipedia reveals that he apparently hated “America’s favourite pastime” as a kid.
I’m sure had Kurt lived long enough to see all the great things Bud Selig has done for the game (interleague play, an All-Star game that “counts”, a drug program that’s really working, etc.) the Bard Of Aberdeen would’ve changed his tune.
And not that I have any right to tell someone else how to do their job, but where’s the money-spinner for the El Duce estate? Surely there are some video-game friendly compositions waiting to be exploited.
Though Woody Paige’s quiff was the subject of much mockery on today’s episode of “Around The Horn”, can anyone explain just what the devil is going on with Jay Mariotti’s hair these days?
I’ve had some fiendishly bad haircuts in my time, but whoever told Mariotti (above, right) that emulating a young Macho Camacho was a good look for a middle-aged man has a really sick sense of humor.
(hardcore journalist Carl “The Night Stalker” Kolchak. His gig ain’t what it used to be)
It’s an unnerving time to be in the newspaper business. Circulation is dropping and papers are taking some drastic measures to keep up and stay profitable.
At the Akron (Ohio) Beacon-Journal, the standalone business section will be “relocated” and combined with the sports section Monday through Friday. That doesn’t sit well with some intellectuals, who apparently find stock listings more important than NBA standings.
Let me ask all business editors where this is being considered to go to their editors and ask them this question: What is more important to people, knowing information about their jobs and the economy, or knowing whether their favorite sports team won last night? (And I went to the UNC-NC State game last night.) At some point, newspapers will have to decide whether they want to improve society or not.
I’ve refrained from watching Fox Sports’ “The Best Damn Sports Show Period” since Tom Arnold’s departure from the program. Though I’m not sure I saw it more than twice beforehand, either. Anyway, Taurine Dream’s Mr. Hotshit College Student interrupted his busy studies and caught a bit of the wit and wisdom from the Wolverine who once observed, “ain’t nothing open at 2am in Detroit but hospitals, jails and legs.”
In the Jalen’s Jumpshots segment the Bulls’ former “maximum player” was asked what he thinks about Britney Spears’ shaved head. I’m not a regular viewer so I’m going to assume that was one of the toughest questions ever asked on the show. Jalen replied negatively, and described Spears as a “cancer patient.”
The positives here? The obvious one is women going through chemo therapy don’t have to worry about Jalen Rose trying to fuck them. I’d say Rose riding the bench in garbage time while the talent-deficient Pat Burke nearly had a double-double is pretty positive too.
Currently making all sorts of new friends in Angels camp, Shea Hillenbrand take the opportunity provided by the Toronto Sun’s Bob Elliot to trash virtually everyone in the Blue Jays organization.
“I’m not a guy like Gregg Zaun who claims he’s a leader, I’m a competitor,” Hillenbrand said.
“I like Gibbons, but J.P. puts so much pressure on him. Gibbons keeps everything inside until he reaches the boiling point and can’t keep it in any longer.” Hillenbrand remembers being in the training room at Rogers Centre after a game early in 2005. “J.P. comes in ranting, knocking Vernon for a lack of work ethic and saying how he couldn’t stand Eric Hinske,” Hillenbrand said. “I hardly knew the GM and he’s saying this to me?”
Hillenbrand spoke of a dugout scene against the New York Yankees in 2005 when Alex Rios didn’t run out a ball and Gibbons lifted Rios from the game.
“The manager had the situation under control; at the end of the inning in comes (third base coach) Brian Butterfield, he’s yelling, swearing, hitting the Gatorade bucket and crapping on Rios. “I tap him and say ‘it’s okay, John handled it,’ and Butterfield turns and goes off on me. We didn’t need him distracting everyone. (Butterfield) said later I didn’t know him well enough to say anything to him.”
Following yesterday’s pseudo bombshell that former Mets LF Cliff Floyd thought manager Willie Randolph and bench coach Jerry Manuel to be “confused” during the fateful bottom half of the 9th inning of NLCS Game 7, the New York Daily News’ Adam Rubin has Cliff’s ex-mates circling the wagons.
“That’s his viewpoint on what he thought he knew. If I give it validity, then that means he knew what he was talking about,” Randolph said. “You guys are getting bored talking about the Yankees, I guess, so you start a little stuff on this side. That’s all this is. I understand what this is. I’ve been around the block. I know how it works here. I have no control over what Cliff Floyd said. Why should I respond over something he said to a writer?
“There’s no way he could know what I said to any of my coaches. He wasn’t sitting on my shoulder, right next to me, when we were talking about it. I knew what I wanted to do. I made the decision. I said to you guys what I did over and over and over, on radio and TV. I’ve been very cooperative on this.”
David Wright, a close friend of Floyd’s, shrugged off the popular outfielder’s latest remarks. Floyd’s other notable exclamations have included calling Port St. Lucie “that hole,” saying “there’s no light at the end of the tunnel,” and pronouncing himself near retirement at a trade deadline because of physical ailments, which wiped out any interest from other teams.
“I’ve got to go read it, then I’m going to bury him,” Wright said with a laugh yesterday afternoon. ” … I have to have my weekly chat with him anyway.”
Manuel called the whole thing “a cloud with no rain” – meaning a nonstory.
Given that Phillies starter Brett Myers has already demonstrated he’s not well versed in respecting the human rights of others (ie. when did he stop beating his wife?), is it any surprise he’d suggest that Citizens Bank Ballpark actually ban Mets fans from the premises?
Currently making all sorts of new friends in Angels camp, Shea Hillenbrand take the opportunity provided by the 
