03.31.08
It Only Took An Hour For Rob Neyer’s Opening Day Chat To Go Surreal
If ESPN’s Rob Neyer wants to wrest the marathon chatroom record from the Sports Putz, I say all the power to him. Especially when some of the discourse went like this :
Welcome to the Fuku Dome: Jay Mariotti Rips Off CSTB Today
As long as Gerard brought it up, on a day when I was content to retire my #14 Trib rant, yeah, Kerry Wood did have a lousy day. For whatever reason, the Man With The Glass Arm is our closer and Caros Marmol his set-up man. So be it. At least when losses start to pile up on blown saves, even goat-worshiping Curse fans won’t be able to blame the supernatural when they’ve got Kerry Wood. Or so I thought, until I read Jay Mariotti’s column, devoted entirely to breaking the spirit of Kosuke Fukudome with talk of voo doo in Wrigley.
(CSTB mascot Tanner Boyle, on hearing he was traded to Jay Mariotti’s column today)
But there was a pause in the interview room. And a blank stare from Fukudome. Because even on a day when he made headlines, here and abroad, the $48-million import also received his first dose of Cubdom. It wasn’t enough to trash Milwaukee’s bearded, washed-up Eric Gagne, who was rescued when the Brewers nicked Bob Howry for a run in the 10th and won 4-3 … the Cubs turned what should have been a historic afternoon into another trademark loss. But then, this is what the Cubs do. This is who the Cubs are. Maybe Fukudome is starting to understand the pain.
“We lost the game. I wish we could have won,” he said through Araki. “It was great that I had a home run to tie the game, but since we lost the game, it values a little less.”
Mariotti went further, even disputing Moises Alou, who recently came to the defense of Curse poster boy Steve Bartman. And note Mariotti’s rather suspicious invocation of Bad News Bear Tanner Boyle in a Cub reference, done in this space not one week ago by yours truly.
Yet it also seems a good time to issue a cobwebbed reminder about Cubdom: Never, ever tempt fate. Do not pick this team to win the World Series, as a shocking number of media have done in this 100th-anniversary season. Do not coin the cryptic phrase “Cubbie occurrence,” as Lou Piniella did in spring training. Do not roll out a statue for a legend and let him declare, “This is the year,” as Ernie Banks said. Do not foresee the Cubs and Detroit playing for a championship as they did in 1908, which Sports Illustrated predicts. And do not tell the Associated Press that the Bartman Ball wasn’t catchable anyway, as Moises Alou revealed when he ran into columnist Jim Litke at a Macy’s department store in New York City.
“Everywhere I play, even now, people still yell, `Bartman! Bartman!’ I feel really bad for the kid,” Alou said. “Know what the funny thing is? I wouldn’t have caught it, anyway.”
Then why did Alou whip down his glove in left field like Tanner Boyle in the “Bad News Bears” movie? Why did he complain about it so angrily after the game? I know, I know — it was five years ago, let it go. But such revelations only reconfirm that Cubdom is spooked.
Well, Jay, maybe because either way it was a play that could have changed the game? I thought Alou showed some class, especially after the way the Cubs dumped him. As for your attempt to discourage Fukudome after his first Cubs game and a three run knock in the 9th … well, blow me. Since you don’t let readers leave comments on your column site anymore, I’m at least happy to know you’re reading CSTB for ideas.
Jeter Can’t Live Without The Voice Of God
While the Yankees’ 2008 home opener against Toronto was delayed by at least a day, one prominent Bomber has fully prepared himself for the absence of a key Stadium fixture. From the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner :
It won’t be Bob Sheppard (above) at the microphone today when the lineups are introduced here at windy, drizzly Yankee Stadium for the final opening day. Sheppard is recovering from an illness and hopes to be back by midseason.
But Sheppard’s voice will still be heard. Last season, Derek Jeter took a step to make sure of that.
“One of the things I had him do was record him introducing me,” Jeter said a few minutes ago, “so I’ll always come to the plate with Bob Sheppard.”
The Captain sense of history is admirable, but he might all sorts of recording to take care of. Michael Kay’s not gonna live forever.
Even Kerry Wood & Eric Gagne Think Tom Gordon Had A Lousy Opening Day
Courtesy of a 5 run, 4 hit, 1 walk, 0.1 IP performance by stand-in Phillies closer Tom Gordon, the Washington Nationals find themselves on pace to go 162-0, while Philadelphia is on pace…to force Brad Lidge to pitch ASAP, regardless of his physical condition. Lastings Milledge (above) hit his first HR in a Nats uniform, said blow coming off Ryan Madison after having been plunked earlier in the game by Brett Myers. The Philly starter also hit Paulie Go Nuts with a pitch — presumably, this is Myers’ way of saying he deplores Lo Duca and Da Edge’s attitudes towards women.
While DC fans can try to become accustomed to first place (and with Odalis Perez and Matt Chico as their no.1 and no.2 starters, who am I to say they can’t hang around in the race until mid-April?), Bugs & Cranks’ Jon Steiner returns to the scene of Sunday night’s crimes against broadcasting.
After tossing out the ceremonial first pitch to an angry chorus of boos, Bushie made his way upstairs to chat things over with Joe Morgan — evidently, his long-time lover. Whether Bush was a bit nervous about his upcoming trip to the Ukraine (unlikely, as Bush has not heard of the Ukraine), or just confused by all the bright lights, W. kept his comments to a minimum. When asked about an inside joke that Bush and Morgan had shared years earlier concerning Morgan being the GM for the Rangers, Bush said only, “Yeah…I remember that. Well.” Then he laughed in that schoolboy shit-eating I-can’t-believe-I’m-actually-the-president type laugh. I can’t either, Mr. President. This is the eloquence for which we’ve been waiting all these years!
When he was posed with a question about the Mitchell report, Bush again attempted to mystify his listeners: “I’m glad…I’m happy with the recognition that it was a problem.” First of all, that is a shit-sucking sentence. But it also reminds me of his response to the Iraq Study Group report: “Interesting stuff.” He didn’t read that either.
Perhaps the idiocy of the evening is best summed up by the orators’ closing remarks to one another:
Morgan: Have a good time in the Ukraine, Mr. President.
Bush: You betcha, sir. You too.
George, Joe is NOT going to the Ukraine tomorrow. You are. Please don’t screw this up.
Cubs Silence A Critic, If Not The Brewers
“I just wish (the statue) had been done 15 years ago,” Hank Aaron said today of the unveiling of Ernie Banks’ statue at Clark and Addison. “Be that as it may, I for one am going to be very proud of the fact that I had the opportunity not only to play baseball with you but to share in your dream.”
My sentiments exactly, although I only got to watch Banks play in person once in 1971. The Tribune Co. today effectively silenced me on one of my most-hated Trib embrace-the-loserdom embarrassments, which has been the lack of any proper tribute to players like Ernie Banks while Trib employees like Harry Caray were given statues. Ernie Banks received one today, which MLB.com’s Jim Molony reports is modeled on an August 29th, 1959 at-bat against Warren Spahn. Banks noted he played for “one team, one owner, and one mayor” during his entire career, none of which did him any justice. Banks hit 512 HRs on 1953-71 Cub teams. Can you imagine what he would have done on winning teams? Banks said he learned everything he knew about life from Phillip K. Wrigley. Fortunately he stopped listening when it came to baseball. So, while my list of complaints with the Cubs is down one today, I’m glad this one is gone. And unlike that beer-goggled view of Caray, Banks’ sculptor spent some time making him look good.
The Cubs then lost the opener to Aaron’s old town, Milwaukee, despite a Fukudome 3-run homer in the 9th. And if anything made me miss Harry today, it’s not hearing him struggle with pronouncing that name all year.
RJ : It’s Not The End Of The World (But Please, Don’t Make Me Watch The Knicks)
Facing all but certain elimination, the New Jersey Nets’ Richard Jefferson cannot be stopped when it comes to providing the Star-Ledger’s Dave D’Alessandro with a playoff caliber quote or two.
The only thing that will work for the Nets, meanwhile, is for Atlanta to lose eight in a row. But when they claim that they’re not going down without a fight, they say it with a straight face, so that’s a good sign.
RJ even said this with a straight face: That “controlling your own destiny” stuff is overrated.
“Let’s be real. Let’s say miraculously we were to win every single game down the stretch. I have a feeling that we would have a pretty good chance of making it,” Jefferson said. “So in turn, you still do (control your destiny). Now, in two days from now, three days from now it might change. But you have to go at it with a positive attitude. You can’t all of a sudden say, ‘Oh no, oh no, oh no,’ because what happens if you lose a game? Is the world going to end? No.”
Jefferson says for the first time, he’s going to watch the playoffs this year. His Final Four: Boston, Detroit, L.A., San Antonio. Usually he’s not especially interested in this stuff, because the disappointment of being eliminated still stings. This time, he’s into it. The games matter. The excitement is building. The climax should be thrilling.
Does that mean he’s watching the important games now, such as Knicks versus Hawks?
“No – God, no,” he said. “Knicks-Hawks. That would be like watching us and the Knicks.”
Never Mind Nellie & Webber, You Don’t Wanna End Up In Giannakis Panagiotis’ Doghouse
C Marc Jackson, who as recently as ‘06/07 played regularly for the Hornets, was the leading scorer and 2nd-leading rebounder for Olympiakos this season. Said production didn’t prevent Jackson from being jettisoned, a situation explained yesterday by the Boston Globe’s Peter May :
In a move that can only be explained by these three words – that’s European basketball – Jackson was released just before the start of a three-game playoff series with CSKA Moscow, and was replaced on the roster by Qyntel Woods. (That’s a story for another day.)
A Greek mole said the main reason for the move was that Jackson and new Olympiakos coach Giannakis Panagiotis (above), who also happens to be the national coach, have not seen eye-to-eye since Panagiotis took over six weeks ago. He considered Jackson to be more interested in stats, a liability on defense, and a bad influence on Lynn Greer, one of the team’s best players (and former Milwaukee Buck, who, like Jackson, went to Temple). Former Sun/Grizzly Jake Tsakalidis is getting more time in Jackson’s spot and Olympiakos also will be able to add Baby Shaq (Sofocles Schortsianitis) for the playoffs. He has been on a weight-loss program all season.
The Association’s Craig Kwasniewski reviews the plethora of injuries suffered by the Lakers the last several years and wonders if the club’s training staff bear any responsibility.
How is it that a team like Phoenix is able to avoid similiar problems? They cured Steve Nash’s chronic back, they cured Grant Hill’s ridonkulous ankle problems and Shaquille O’Neal is moving around like it’s 2005. Even Amare Stoudemire has completely recovered a career-threatening micro-facture surgery! And didn’t Raja Bell return from a horrible-looking spained ankle? How are these guys able to go at it a nightly basis and the younger Lakers sit in designer suits?
Daniels On Vin Scully, National Treasure
On a day in which the Dodgers are doing their best to ruin humiliate the Giants — Lt. Dangle having already taken Barry Zito to, well, the truck wash — the L.A. Times’ Christine Daniels pays homage to Vin Scully, “his tenure an L.A. story unlike any other, providing a sense of permanence to a city perfectly captured by Steve Martin’s line in the movie L.A. Story’: ‘Some of these buildings are more than 20 years old!’”
Scully represents more than an era in Los Angeles sports history; he also represents an era in sports broadcasting when announcers were as indelibly linked to the teams they covered as the logo on the players’ caps.
When Scully was hired by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1950, his contemporaries included Mel Allen with the Yankees and Russ Hodges with the Giants. They were icons, with larger-than-life personas, as they served as the immediate conduits of information and news to fans hungry for details about their teams.
That was the template that served baseball for decades. Jack Buck with the St. Louis Cardinals. Ernie Harwell with the Detroit Tigers. Bob Prince with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Harry Caray with the Cardinals, then the Chicago Cubs.
Over time, that part of the job description changed. More teams meant more job movement among announcers. New media, such as the Internet, meant more sources for information.
By 2008, Scully might not be the last of the great baseball play-by-play icons; Jerry Coleman in San Diego and Dave Niehaus in Seattle remain franchise and community fixtures. But the pool is shrinking.
What has Scully meant to the Dodgers since 1958?
“Everything, with an exclamation point,” former Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley said. When the Dodgers first arrived in Los Angeles, O’Malley said, Scully was “the face of the Dodgers. It wasn’t the manager. It wasn’t a player. It wasn’t the owner. It wasn’t where they played. It wasn’t any of those things. He was the face and the voice of the Dodgers. And he made so many friends for us, then and now.”
More than just defining L.A. baseball culture, Scully invented it. For a city perpetually on the move, Scully became essential listening for harried freeway drivers who, once grounded, continued the habit with portable transistor radios — and today with audio supplied via satellite and the Internet.
“L.A. may be the most important radio market in the country,” O’Malley said, “because of people traveling in their cars. And Vinny’s impact on radio is major. We’ve all heard about the transistors in the ballpark, but that’s one thing that gets overlooked — the importance of the radio market in L.A., which has embraced and adopted Vinny.”
QPR Bernie : Mosley Was “Set Up”
Right about now might be a great time for the Football League to determine that Queens Park Rangers ought not to be associated with an organization as unsavory as Formula One.
On the other hand, who knows what Roger Goodell or David Stern get up to in the privacy of their own pleasuredomes? For a company that seems so sickened by sado-masochism, these Murdoch newspapers are more than happy to use the accounts and descriptions of such activity to generate commerce.
Meeting Of The (Simple) Minds : Francesca & Rosenberg Redefine “Effervescence”
Last Friday, Miami’s sports radio listeners were graced with Mike Francesca’s fascinating observations about You Tube, Boomer & Carlton, and a bold prediction that Pedro Martinez will be 13-5 this season. “He’s the industry standard…we’re all working today because of him,” gushed a breathless Sid Rosenberg, who apparently spends so much time listening to his old employer’s radio station, they might wanna consider a subscription service instead of free streaming audio.
Noel Gallagher Didn’t Write This Song About Stephen Curry…
…though who’s to say he might not pen one in the future? And yeah, there is a smidgeon of You Tube evidence that Davidson’s Curry is in fact, human.
Crucial Opening Day Comment Thread #1 :
Please take a crack at identifying the contents of Da Meat Hook’s briefcase. Thank you.
Hyde : Cheapskate Loria’s Screwing Miami, MLB
In a few hours, my beloved, fully-recovered-from-that-choking-thing New York Mets will commence the 2008 baseball season against the Florida Marlins, but the Sun-Sentinel’s David Hyde asks that we “not ignore the 800 pound Gorilla in the room”. Noting the hosts’ paltry $21 million payroll, Hyde snorts, “I’m no Bill James, but it seems in picking this Marlins roster the primary baseball question was, ‘Will you double-up on the road?’”
The Marlins got $600 million in public money for a new stadium and amenities. They can’t just brush the subject of their embarrassing payroll under the carpet anymore and hope no one notices. As much as they want to, they can’t just keep saying, “This is all we can afford until we get our new stadium.”
These owners get $30 million in revenue sharing from other teams, which neither H. Wayne Huizenga or John Henry got in their tenures. They also get $30 million in local and national TV money. All that before selling a ticket.
At some point, doesn’t someone like Commissioner Bud Selig or another team owner step in and ask Jeffrey Loria and David Samson, “Just what are you doing with all the money we’re giving you?”
Because it sure looks like it’s just being shoveled into their pockets. It also looks like the Marlins are keeping the decks cleared of costs to sell to a new owner as the $600 million stadium windfall nears.
No matter, Loria and Samson need to talk about why they have this curb-high payroll. If they want to answer along the lines of why dogs lick themselves — because they can — that’s fine. People understand greed. That’s their call.
But they need to say why Miguel Cabrera couldn’t be afforded when just two years ago, at the previous player purge, they said he was the anchor to the future.
I’m not holding my breath for The Used Car Salesman or a fellow owner to find fault with Loria. The former is essentially Loria’s employee, while I’m gonna assume Fred Wilpon wasn’t displeased to see Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis dealt to the American League.
Not to Mention the Premiere of “Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union”
Frank Fitzpatrick’s Philadelphia Inquirer story on Kyle Kendrick and the final Phillies exhibition also seems to tell us how a certain overly excitable #1 starter planned to spend the night before Opening Day:
The impatient Phillies regulars were set to depart for Philadelphia early, as soon as Kendrick changed his spikes and finished talking with reporters. But as his teammates filed out of the tiny dressing room, the questions kept coming.
Frank Coppenbarger, the manager of travel and equipment, reminded the pitcher that the bus was ready to roll. Pitching coach Rich Dubee nudged him, urging the writers to let Kendrick leave.
Finally, Brett Myers, who will open the season this afternoon at Citizens Bank Park against Washington’s Matt Chico, offered the compelling argument.
“Let’s go, Kendrick! ” Myers screamed. “I told you, it’s Wrestlemania night!”
Hmmmh… suddenly I like Brett’s chances for the Hall of Fame. The one Pete Rose is in, that is.
03.30.08
The New York Times’ Expert Panel Disses Shea. Repeatedly.
“It’s a dump,” says SNY’s Gary Cohen. “But it’s our dump”. WFAN’s Howie Rose puts the Mets’ ballpark in further perspective : “It’s dilapidated and obsolete, sure, but I could say the same thing about the apartment where I grew up.” The big difference being, Rose only had to risk seeing Frank Howard naked occasionally in his family’s apartment. The New York Times’ Ben Shpigel on the pending closure of the only venue I know that’s hosted both Survival Research Laboratories and Dave Kingman, Shea Stadium.
By any objective standard, Shea is bleak and outdated. It has not aged, shall we say, gracefully, its imperfections and architectural shortcomings growing more prominent over the years, particularly as glorious baseball-only parks have sprouted around the country. Those flaws are now magnified by Citi Field, the Mets’ new home in 2009, whose beatific presence beyond Shea’s right-center-field fence prompted Ron Darling, the SportsNet New York analyst and former Met, to make this comparison: “It’s like driving a VW bus with a Maserati in the lot.”
Ron Hunt said he was particularly fond of Banner Day, now defunct, when fans marched onto the field carrying signs with often-witty slogans. His favorite? One pointing out that the Mets would be in first place if the standings were looked at upside down. Al Jackson, a pitcher on the 1964 team, said he memorized flight schedules in and out of La Guardia Airport and could tell what time it was based on which planes were flying overhead.
Darling said: “Those planes just let you know that you’re not in Norfolk or Memphis or New Orleans or wherever. This is New York City, where everyone flies into. Everyone’s flying in and out of the city that you have the privilege of playing in. That’s never been lost on me.”
Even in its heyday, Shea would never win best in show in an architectural competition — Fredric Bell, the executive director of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects, said the stadium looked as if it had been designed on an Etch A Sketch. But when it opened a few days before the 1964 World’s Fair next door, it stood tall as a symbol of the future and a monument to progress.
“There’s no redeeming architectural value in Shea,” Bell said bluntly. “It looks like it was built in a hurry. It’s a temporary structure that has outlasted its usefulness. It’s an expansion stadium for an expansion team and a replacement stadium for a replacement team. If Yankee Stadium is like visiting the Metropolitan Museum, then Shea is like a visit to the dentist’s chair.”
Former Rangers Owner Masters Color Commentating
So who are we Phillies and Mets fans supposed to pull for on Opening Night? The Braves currently trail the Nationals 2-1 in the middle of the fourth at D.C.’s brand new ballpark, where the guy who threw out the first pitch just stopped by the TV booth.
Jon Miller: Chipper Jones whacks one, deep left…
George W. Bush: …looks like he may have the first home run in this ballpark…
Miller: As called by President George W. Bush.
Bush: It is… first home run… that thing was a rope…. He blasted that thing didn’t he? Here it is. Yeah.
Joe Morgan: Pretty much down the middle.
Bush: Yeah. Down the middle.
Q: What Do You Do On A Saturday In Toronto?
A : Drive to Columbus, OH. And drink.
“They came, they drank, and some of them urinated next to a church,” says The National Post’s Sean Fitzgerald of Toronto F.C.’s traveling supporters and their hard partying ways, before and after yesterday’s 2-0 loss to the Crew. Hey, at least they’ve stopped rubbing it in.
One man was arrested and a fleet of Columbus police cars was pressed into duty before Toronto FC even kicked off on Saturday, after more than 2,400 supporters traveled from Canada to central Ohio to watch their team open the Major League Soccer season. They left disappointed, but some left their mark.
Toronto supporters filled the entire south stand at Crew Stadium, while other pockets of red could be spotted throughout the venue. Their largest impact might have been in a muddy field next to the stadium, where a pre-game tailgate party created mounds of garbage and debris.
“They’re pissing all over the damn place, and as you can see, they’ve littered it up considerably,” Columbus police lieutenant Kevin Conley said. “And then they decided that they were going to surround one of our cars like they were the Indians and the car was Custer.”
Most of the visiting fans seemed well behaved, but some were feeling the effects of several hours spent on a bus with alcohol close at hand. Some taunted their hosts with insults and profanity.
“You know what? Part of the sporting spirit is being antagonistic,” said Andrew Gorsky, a 22-year-old Toronto fan. “You can’t deny it.
Juan Pierre Tries To Convince Dodger Fans His Suckiness Is Confined To Spring Training
“What’s Juan so upset about?” asked The Fanhouse’s Eamonn Brennan earlier this week. “It’s not as if Torre’s benched him for the beginning of the season”. Not so fast, buddy, that might be exactly what the soothing Green Tea proponent has in mind. And who can blame him? From the LA Times’ Dylan Hernandez :
“If they want to go a different route,” Pierre said, “I can live with it and I have to understand it but it’s something I don’t get.”
Pierre signed a five-year, $44-million contract a year ago to be the Dodgers’ starting center fielder, but was moved to left field before the start of spring training this year to make room for newly signed Andruw Jones. Today, Pierre could be moved again, this time to the bench.
“It’s a tough situation that they put not only all of us in,” Pierre said, referring to the three outfielders, including Matt Kemp, who are competing for the two corner spots. “But me too, because you sign here for one thing, a five-year deal, and you put up the same numbers you put up every year, and it seems like it doesn’t hold any weight or anything.”
Last season, Pierre had a .293 average, 196 hits and 64 steals. He has had a rough spring, entering Saturday’s exhibition game at the Coliseum batting .173. Ethier had six home runs and a .361 average.
“It’s spring training,” Pierre said. “I bat .200, but then I get 200 hits and do my thing. I work what I need to work on. I bunt a lot. . . . [But] if they go out and put a lot of weight on spring training, then it’s justified for them to do whatever they want to do with me.”
Bob Timmerman published a lovely photograph from last night’s exhibition tilt at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and it’s nice to learn the event was probably about as much fun to follow from the cheap moderately priced seats as it was to watch on television. The Boston Herald’s Jeff Horrigan is amongst those who’d probably like nothing better than to give Frank McCourt a big hug for such a well-executed event.
Franchise F.C.’s Moment Of Triumph
With all due respect to shorthanded Arsenal coming back from a two goal deficit to win at Bolton yesterday, 3-2, and the likes of jetlagged megastars David Beckham and Landon Donovan being humbled by Colorado in the Galaxy’s MLS Opener last night, the soccer story of the weekend might well be Milton Keynes Dons beating Grimbsy Town, 2-0, to take the…uh….Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.
Before anyone wonders if this piece of silverware is enough to raise a fuss about, keep in mind the victors are only a few years removed from being considered national pariahs after abandoning South London. And not everyone has forgiven or forgotten, reports the Observer’s Jamie Jackson.
‘I don’t know anyone who’s changed their minds. MK Dons isn’t a football club – while they do seem to have created growth, let’s hope that’s a temporary blip before a downward spiral to oblivion,’ says Kris Stewart, the driving force behind AFC Wimbledon, who were formed by angry fans once the FA allowed owner/chairman Pete Winkelman to uproot the club in May 2002, and who now play in the Ryman Premier.
The hostility caused by the relocation was followed by a near-financial disaster that sparked a firesale of 11 players – including Nigel Reo-Coker – after administrators arrived in May 2003. The club were relegated the following season from the old First Division, before arriving in the basement league in 2006.
‘Its been a difficult birth,’ says Winkelman, who grew up as a Wolves fan. ‘Because I hadn’t been involved in football I didn’t know the horror of moving a club. But Luton have tried to move here at least three times in the past 30 years. For some it’s difficult to forgive, which I understand. And I certainly now would not want to move the club.
‘But on Wednesday I was telling Portsmouth’s chief executive, Peter Storrie, how we’re the biggest city in the region outside of London. We’re only 40 years old, and in 20 years time we’ll be among the 10 most populated places in the UK. We attract the highest proportion of under-16s for games at any League club. Some 200,000 people moved here, and began new families – it is an audience that will not come to fruition for another 10 years.’
Paul Kinge is one convert. The 20-year-old student, who will be at Wembley today, says he ‘used to watch Chelsea with my dad. It was £16 for both of us, but around 10 years ago prices suddenly rocketed. I was born in Milton Keynes and the Dons are my team. I have friends from school the same – some supported Spurs or Arsenal, but it’s at least £100 for the day. We went to see MK Dons at Accrington Stanley last Monday and it was £16. I can sympathise with Wimbledon fans, but AFC seem to be doing OK.’
Sacramento’s Hawes Vs. Clay Bennett
When and Kings C Spencer Hawes hits free agency, can we safely assume the Oklahoma City Whatevers will not be amongst the bidders? Seattle native Hawes vented to the Sacramento Bee’s Sam Amick about the poor state of affairs for his hometown’s basketball fans.
“It’s a sad situation they’ve got going up there,” he begins. “It’s sad the way … everyone’s handling it, from the league to the city, especially. It’s being poorly mismanaged. As a Sonics fan, you sit hoping someone is going to come in and intervene, that the people with the power will come in and put an end to it, and it doesn’t look like that’s happening.”
“You get a rich owner from Oklahoma City who is dead set on moving the team, and that’s it,” said Hawes, who spent his one collegiate season at Washington after attending Seattle Prep High School. “At first, he tried to hide (his intentions), and everyone saw right through that. Everyone from Seattle knew his intentions from the beginning. It was obvious.”
The Haweses have been Sonics season-ticket holders for as long as their only son can remember. Their house is a relative skybox to KeyArena itself, located in the Queen Anne neighborhood that overlooks the Sonics’ home floor from a hillside. When the Haweses come to tonight’s game to see their son play in his hometown for the second time in his career, they will walk to the game, just as they did when he was a child.
Hawes, who will decide today if his sprained left ankle is healed enough to participate, said he might have to take on a political battle that he can likely win: convincing his father, Jeff, to put an end to the family’s loyalty should the Sonics stick around for one or two more seasons.
“When your organization is getting snatched from underneath your feet as a fan, that’s a tough thing to deal with,” Hawes said. “I’m going to ask my dad, If they stay, what is he going to do with the season tickets? Are you getting rid of those? It’s hard to support a team where there’s no future for them.”
For Hawes, the situation could only be more personal if he was wearing a Sonics jersey. He can claim the next best thing, though, as he is the best of friends with Sonics rookie Kevin Durant, the resident face of the franchise.
“I know he likes the city, (and) he likes being there,” Hawes said. “But at the same time, he realizes that business is business and sometimes that’s how it goes.”
The Post Dangles A Delicious Detail Regarding The Matsui Wedding
“Shotgun”, huh? Either Hideki’s dad gave the Post more information than they could’ve dreamed of, or there’s an intrepid web reporter who isn’t entirely sure what the expression means.
Has Weiland Checked Out Rich Harden Yet?
Of the enigmatic A’s starter Rich Harden, Inside Bay Area’s Carl Steward writes, “for a fan of power pitching, is like crack cocaine, heroin and LSD all rolled into one.” If nothing else, Oakland might have some new candidates for those “I Live For This” commercials (link swiped from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory)
The man is like a powerful drug, even at 3 a.m. from 5,000 miles away, as he was this past week while pitching in Japan. Harden still possesses the most seductive live arm in Oakland franchise history since Vida Blue circa 1971, albeit one that’s about as stable as Britney Spears’ psyche.
A’s fans know this story by heart, and by heartbreak. Harden spins a lethal game, pronounces that he’s finally healthy and that it’s going to be all good from here on in. Then he pitches two or three more times and really starts to convince everyone that he finally can be counted upon to avoid a breakdown.
Yoo-hoo, deja vu. Harden’s back again to tantalize those of us who resolutely said they wouldn’t become dependent on his mound magic again. In Tokyo, the right-hander rolled out some of his addictive stuff ever. The smoking heater. The criminal changeup. The filthy slider and the underwear-twisting split-finger.
Maybe the breakdown won’t happen this time. Maybe Harden will walk the training-room tightrope and make 30 or more starts in 2008. Maybe he’ll pitch 200 innings. Maybe he’ll finally win 17-20 games, help keep the A’s compelling throughout the summer and make a run at the Cy Young Award virtually every baseball writer has forecast for him since 2004, his last reasonably healthy season.
I don’t mind saying I’m rooting hard for Harden. I love watching the dude pitch. What’s encouraging is that he’s still only 26 and can still salvage a sweet career if his body will just play along. He’s an exceptional young man and a fierce competitor. He deserves a break, as do A’s fans and the organization that has pinned so many hopes on his incredible potential to become one of baseball’s best pitchers. Face it, with a healthy Harden, the A’s might have a couple of World Series trophies by now.
Cuban Amends His Blogger Invite, Chaos To Follow
“Now that my ban on bloggers in the locker room has been lifted by the NBA,” writes Mavs owner Mark Cuban, “the ‘Joes’ of the blogger world will have the same access as the ‘Pros’. Those that get paid. I can’t wait to see the results.”
Suffice to say, the submissions at BlogMaverick are pretty embarrassing. Rather than leave this issue in the hands of his media relations department, the very Owner With A Boner expects the blogging rank & file to openly audition in the comments section of his own blog. And much as i would love to give Cuban some credit for getting his hands dirty over a matter issue most owners are barely conversant with….this is a total dick move on his part.
His sports blog/ Talk Soup analogy isn’t totally whack, though it’s a gross generalization. We all know there are decent NBA-specific blogs and/or general sports blogs that would consider Mavs press credentials surplus to their requirements. But Tim MacMahon is much closer to a traditional beat reporter — that the work appeared online rather than in print merely provided Cuban with an excuse to pull the plug.
We also should be aware there are blogs — some popular, some not — that would take these credentials pretty seriously and would probably bring far more to the table in terms of knowledge, insight and intellectual curiosity than Tim Fucking Cowlishaw.
By sanctioning these open auditions — Blogging Idol, with Mark Cuban playing the part of Simon Cowell — it might not necessarily be designed to humiliate bloggers and make a mockery of the medium. But this is most certainly an act of ego-ism above and beyond the OWAB’s usual standard. Though I poke fun at Cuban quite often, most of the time I figure he’s got the best interests of his team and Mavs fans in mind. This is case is a pretty big exception.
Klugman : Big In Germany, Stiffed By NBC
Your favorite chief medical examiner is a bigger sensation than Nein Nein Nein and Tokio Hotel combined. Just ask the Associated Press :
Former “Quincy, M.E.” star Jack Klugman sued NBC Universal Friday, claiming the studio is lying about the show’s profits and owes him money. Klugman, 85, played the crime-busting Dr. R. Quincy on the show from 1976 to 1983.His 1976 contract with NBC entitles him and his company, Sweater Productions, to 25 percent of the show’s “net profits,” according to the suit filed in Superior Court. Klugman claims his copy of the contract was lost when his agent died, and NBC has refused to provide a copy.
The lawsuit aims to force NBC to divulge the contract and award Klugman attorneys’ fees. It also asks the court to clarify the terms of the agreement.
“I recently heard that they made $250 million and it’s still on TV in Germany. I don’t want their money. I want my money,” Klugman told The Associated Press. “I worked my tail off. I got up at four in the morning and stayed at the studio. I did rewrite, I edited.”
NBC provided Klugman with an accounting statement showing the series had lost $66 million through 2006, according to the suit. However, Klugman said he believes NBC is lying, and that it made money.
If this case goes to trial and a judge sees the above clip, it doesn’t matter how much money Klugman is seeking. He earned every penny.
03.29.08
A Dining Tip For Anyone Visiting Seattle : Don’t Order The Roethlis-Burger
KOMO TV’s Kitsap Sun reported Friday on the most serious violation of the public trust in Greater Seattle area since the Dwarves faked the death of He Who Cannot Be Named.
Deputies said at 37-year-old man in Steelers garb took his daughters to a Mile Hill Drive fast food restaurant Saturday evening, and “began trading friendly barbs about his team and their victory over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL,” reports said.
One employee told the man that he’d “better not say that to the guy that’s making your food,” but the man thought it was a joke, reports said.
That is, until he opened his “clamshell-style” hamburger container and discovered what he called a “loogie” on his hamburger.
The 37-year-old told his daughters to stop eating, demanded a refund and called the restaurant’s district manager.
A deputy was informed by the manager that the person responsible may be a 24-year-old South Kitsap man who was near his quitting time when the incident occurred.
Eventually, the man confessed to spitting in the 37-year-old’s hamburger container to “gross him out … because he was a Steelers fan,” deputies said.
Yard Work Channels THEKING610
It’s hard to know who to trust when previewing the 2008 Major League Baseball Season. Clearly, in an age where the credibility of David Pinto is under fire, we’re gonna have to turn some new sources for soothsaying, and if that means absorbing a Phillies prospectus penned in-the-style -of WIP’s Charlie Manuel-baiting Howard Eskin, so be it. From Yard Work :
Out in left field, there’s good old Pat the Fat, good for a sterling .260 average, a remarkable 70-80 RBIs, and stone-cold defense that could be improved upon by fielding the Venus de Milo. If this dope wasn’t sticking it to a centerfold, he’d be more useless than a DeVry graduate. Now in center field, there used to be Aaron Rowand, a gamer’s gamer, a guy that would literally run into a wall for you. Sure, we’ve got supercuzz Shane Victorino sliding over, which is great, but who’s going to be in right field? The only guy I can see going there is Geoff Jenkins, and since the best thing he’s known for is resembling Brett Favre, color me unimpressed. This ain’t Cheese Country, Mr. Bratwurst — this is CheeseSTEAK Country. At least it’s a safe bet that Jenkins knows not to throw across his body fifty yards downfield into triple-coverage, unlike some water-walking drunks we all know and blow. Maybe good ol’ Geoffie can two-sport it and save us from another season of boy genius Donovan McGagg, how about it?
In the infield, we’ve got three all-time greats, an up-and-coming catcher and now Pedro Feliz, a guy that was let go by the San Francisco Giants. You know what that means — he was on the same cocktail as that broke-down clown Barry Bonds, so don’t expect a miracle from that walking slump. And of course it’s only a matter of time before Utley or Rollins or Howard breaks down. Betcha it’ll happen write after they ink one of those ridiculous multi-million dollar deals ballplayers seem to be getting. Seriously — how much bling-bling does a brother need before the dope with the gold fronts and more sparkle than a gay pride parade says, “You know, maybe I’ll accept that ten-million dollar deal instead of holding out for something bigger?” Unless there’s some sort of price spike on tricked-out spinners or putting TVs into the TVs in your rear-view mirror, I don’t get it.
You dopes realize that the only reason the Phils actually won the division was because the Mets played like Darryl Strawberry’s crack-addled family for the last month of the season, right? And you saw what happened to the Phils in the playoffs, right? They were manhandled by a bunch of Sally League Born Again Christians! News flash, kiddies — not much has changed. Sure, the NL’s still like a quadrapelegic slap fight when it comes down to it, so the one-handed team that’s not busy rubbing one out wins. That don’t mean much, though — if weak sisters like the Cubs and Dodgers and (seriously?) Brewers are the league’s shining lights, then it looks like someone’s forgotten to pay the electricity bill.
The Phillies, bless their inbred little hearts, don’t even measure up to those chumps. Three hitters and one pitcher do not a championship team make — if that were the case, the Yankees would win every year, without fail.
Classic stuff, though I’m hopeful that Mike Missanelli won’t be lobbying for equal time.
Q: What Did The Wizard Of Westwood & Bill Walton Once Have In Common With Tom Troccoli’s Dog?
(Other than being members of that great mutual admiration society all true artists belong to, of course?)
A: All three were at one time or another, members of the SST Records family. In the case of John Wooden and his Deadhead center, a pair of spoken word albums for SST offshoot Issues Records.
While UCLA leads Xavier, 33-24, at the half in the West Regional Final, Greg Ginn and The Texas Corrugators are making their local debut at Emo’s on April 25.
Sean Avery’s Gubernatorial Campaign Dealt A Serious Blow(job)
From the New York Daily News’ Jose Martinez and Tracy Connor :
Rangers hockey star Sean Avery’s name and private cell phone number are in the little black book of Manhattan madam Kristin Davis.
Avery, 27, a trash-talking enforcer who has dated a string of models and actresses, is listed as a $500 client of brothel Maison de L’Amour.
Contacted Friday at the number in the records, the pretty boy known in the NHL as “The Animal” at first laughed when told where his name had turned up.
“For some reason, I highly doubt that,” Avery told the Daily News, insisting he was the target of a practical joke.
“It’s April Fools’ Day coming up and I’m not going to fall for it.”
It’s no joke. His name is one of more than 2,000 on a computer spreadsheet, detailing Davis’ X-rated operations, obtained by The News.
In a later statement, Avery denied using Davis’ services.
“This assertion is false and defamatory,” Avery said. “I was never a client of Ms. Davis, nor of any prostitute.”
A subsequent Daily News report this afternoon from John Dellapina and Carrie Mellago includes has Avery claiming “we’ve been laughing hysterically about this all morning,” and “I do know that if I ever was to venture into one of these establishments, I definitely wouldn’t use my own name.”
In a barely related note, the Rangers’ AHL affiliate in Hartford are hosting a pregame celebrity sled hockey game before their April 6 tilt with Lowell. This could be a terrific opportunity for Vin Baker to make his return to the public eye.
The Big O : Stern’s Age Limit Is Illegal
Amidst rumors the NBA is considering raising the league’s minimum age requirement from 19 to 20 when the next basic agreement comes up for discussion, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Bob Woofley had the pleasure of speaking with Hall Of Famer Oscar Robertson (above).
Q. What do you think of the NBA’s age requirement?
A. Actually I have checked this with some attorneys before I got here. It’s illegal. It’s illegal. If you can go into the Army at 18 and fight in Iraq and maybe get killed, why shouldn’t you be able to come into the NBA? That (rule) is only to appease colleges. That’s what it’s all about. . . . I’m glad you brought this up. The problem is that you don’t have to give a kid a contract. Why give a kid a contract if you don’t want him on the team? If he’s 18 and you don’t want him on your team, don’t give him a contract.
Q.Who is the best player in the NBA today?
A. I don’t know. There are so many. LeBron. Naturally, Kobe. Chris Paul, who may be the MVP this year. But they (media) are not pushing him for that award. Isn’t that amazing? When Steve Nash was the MVP, they pushed him all year to be the MVP. Why don’t they do the same thing with Chris Paul?
Q. Can a great team have an average coach and win an NBA championship?
A. A lot of them have done that. Sure.
Q. So great players make great coaches?
A. I’m going to tell you a little story. This was (1980) . . . when Louisville beat UCLA in the final up in Indianapolis. The game was tight and Darrell Griffith made three or four jump shots and won the game. So they asked Denny Crum about his strategy. He said, “I had no strategy. I had Darrell Griffith.”
Braves Acquire Gotay, Mets Mysteriously Cling To Tatis
Out of minor league options, IF Ruben Gotay (.295 BA in 98 big league games last season) was waived on Thursday by the New York Mets, and picked up on Friday by the Atlanta Braves. While it’s unlikely Gotay will turn out to be the next Marco Scutaro, it’s somewhat infuriating to note the former is considered surplus to requirements, while there’s still a chance Fernando Tatis (.215 this spring) might make the club’s 25 man roster. Mets Blog’s Matthew Cerrone is amongst those wondering what precisely Tatis’ appeal might, beyond an alleged ability to play multiple positions.
the whole reason behind tatis making the team instead – is because tatis is a better hitter against left-handed pitching and is more versatile…whatever…i’m not so sure tatis can hit lefties, as much as he can stand in the box against lefties…i’ll believe he can hit them when i see it…also, versatile…really…hey, i can play outfield too…it doesn’t mean i can play it well, but i can stand out there and run after the ball…so, to call tatis versatile may be a slight stretch…
The Journal News’ John Delcos is presumably with the Mets today in Memphis, but during the team’s stint at Port St. Lucie, Delcos bemoaned “the unbelievable rudeness and attitude”. No, not on the part of Bart Hubbach, but rather, the snot-nosed, underage patrons at Tradition Field.
Easley, let me have your hat,’’ said the voice that couldn’t have been more than 13 or 14 as the Mets third baseman ran off the field after the game.No please, no thank you. Of course, mom and dad are usually standing beside them yelling the same things.
Hats, bats, jerseys, gloves. They ask for everything. Of course, it is to sell. Why don’t they ask the players to just write a check?
These ugly scenes must be distinguished from what happens during the regular season. That’s when adults lean over the railing and demand that Paul Lo Duca write a check.
Collateral Damage : Do Sports Blog Readers Make Decent Cannon Fodder?
That the NCAA would allow the US Army to use tourney highlights as part of their new batch of online advertisements is hardly surprising — both organizations know a thing or two about exploiting certain segments of the young American population (though the NCAA have done so more successfully of late). Nor am I surprised that a successful author / TV pundit like Will Leitch, even at the height of his commercial success, would turn a blind eye to such advertisements appearing on Deadspin. Will’s already on record as saying “politics scare me” and he established himself as the Piers Morgan of sports bloggery sometime ago.
Nah, what I find surprising is that the U.S. Army, in their infinite wisdom, have gone for such a stiff presentation while trying to appeal to a readership that considers themselves slightly sharper than the average sports fan. Host Brian Fasulo combines the serious analytical presence of Tom Ellis with the tones of a less manic Sean Salisbury. Which is to say, you’ve met can openers with more personality.
With the very real possibility we might find ourselves colonizing occupying Iraq for the next 100 years, the American military desperately needs to get their shit together on the recruiting front. Though they’ve proven savvy enough to recognize the audience for the nation’s most popular sports blog might consider a tour of duty to be a career upgrade, that’s not nearly enough. Sponsoring sports blogs, xtreme motocross competitions and underground rock fests are certainly a foot in the door with a confused, gullible patriotic portion of the population, but they’re gonna need a compelling spokesperson other than Fasulo.
I humbly nominate (retired) Private Francis Soyer.
Cards’ Duncan : Kevin Slaten Sucks
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Dan Caesar (link swiped from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory) :
Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan is angry at KFNS radio, saying he was put on the air without his consent by afternoon drive-time host Kevin Slaten and is contemplating legal recourse.
The incident happened Thursday, when they had a contentious conversation that Duncan said he thought was private, but was being broadcast. In it, he called Slaten a “nasty man” and Slaten accused Duncan of slander.
“It certainly was unethical what he did, and probably unlawful,” Duncan said Friday via phone. “But that’s the way Kevin Slaten is, and that’s why I wasn’t interested in going on his show. Kevin Slaten over the years has said a lot of things that have made me angry, and this is just typical of how he operates.”
Duncan said he was contacted first by a producer and declined to go on the air, but that Slaten called anyway. In an unconventional move, listeners heard the call being placed and Duncan answering rather than the normal procedure of the person being interviewed already being on the line when the host begins the conversation.
“He’s either a liar or he’s the dumbest man on the face of the earth,” Slaten says. “He either lied when he said he didn’t come on, or he’s so stupid he doesn’t know he was on. … Does this give you an insight what’s going on with this organization? Do you need any more?”
Caesar provides a transcript of the call, and one of Duncan’s main points of contention is that he’d prefer not talk to somebody who gave Tony La Geninus such a hard time over his 2007 DUI charges. (Slaten responds “I’m the only guy in this town who has defended Tony La Russa”). In the Post-Dispatch’s account of Slaten’s call to Duncan, the broadcaster doesn’t inform the Cardinals’ pitching coach that he’s speaking live on the radio until well into the pissing match (and long after Duncan has insisted he didn’t want to chat with Slaten).
Lottery-Bound Owner With A Boner Boldly Opens The Mavs’ Locker Room To Bloggers
Of Mark Cuban’s Assocation-mandated about face in promising to make the Mavericks’ locker room accessable to bloggers “whether they be someone on blogspot who has been posting for a couple weeks, kids blogging for their middle school Web site or those that work for big companies”, Will Leitch wrote, “at last, those with Movable Type software can finally have the opportunity to see Devean George’s penis”. Amongst those vying for a chance to gaze at said cock is Matt Moore of Hardwood Paroxysm, who penned the following on Friday :
I may never hear back from the Mavs regarding the situation. But I wanted to try. I think this could be a great opportunity for us to show that we’re not all a bunch of idiots that (yes, you guessed it) live in our parents’ basements and wait for opportunities to catch athletes in embarrassing moments. (NOTE: Not that I condemn such things. Lord knows they’re in my Reader and I laugh just as hard.) It’s a chance to show that while we’re not journalism, (well, not all of us), per say, we can still be a valuable media source that deserves respect.
It is in that spirit that I say this. I’m asking you, bloggers, the internet, my fine friends in the series of tubes, not to get carried away. Let’s not bombard them with application for anybody that’s got a blogspot. (*Matt checks URL of his own blog.) Okay, bad example. What I’m saying is, if you’re just going to get the access, if you don’t have a genuine interest in covering the game, please don’t apply. If you’re a small blog, and you feel like you have something to contribute? By all means. All I’m saying is, let’s be responsible with this. Basically, we’re being tested.
I have no way of knowing precisely how many blogs the Mavericks are likely to be approached by, but Michael Wilbon already raised the spectre today of Cuban’s media relations department under siege from losers who just wanted to attend a game for free. To which I can only reply, why is it considered so impossible for Dallas or any other professional sports franchise to develop some criteria, loose or not, for which non-print outlets might receive credentials? Whether it’s a matter of traffic or the subjective quality of a particular blog, why is Cuban so hesitant to develop a serious policy? Merely because his companies are obliged to be equal opportunity employers, that doesn’t mean he’s obliged to hire every candidate that emails a c.v. And likewise, a rational businessman would conclude it was no more or less discriminatory to limit locker access to a small cross-section of bloggers than it would be to deny credentials to print journalists who toil for coupon shoppers, college newspapers or The Sporting News.
03.28.08
The Alleged Mrs. Matsui Plays It Very Close To The Vest
Thank you, Sam Frank, for digging up the crucial, social-networking profile of Hideki Matsui’s mysterious new bride. They say there’s somebody for everybody, and in Godzilla’s case, it just happens to be a woman who isn’t very popular.
Mushnick’s Confusing Crush On Country Time
You’d figure the same NY Post columnist who lambasted Orestes Destrade for calling Manny Ramirez “the consummate professional” would be the last guy on earth to lionize a me-first reliever whose sullen critiques of teammates, paying customers and his own manager have scaled the heights of self-importance. But that’s the wild, unpredictable Phil Mushnick for you, today declaring his devotion to Mets closer Billy Wagner.
Country Time has agreed to do a weekly radio spot on Michael Kay’s ESPN 1050 show. Beware, gushes Phil, tough talking Wagner “will say something that causes anything from a stir to a calamity. It’s a virtual lock.”
Wagner is a terrific interview. Ask him a question and he answers it candidly and almost always in some detail. He can’t help himself. Those kinds of answers made issues when he pitched for the Phillies and they’ve caused some heat in his two years with the Mets.
Wagner’s pre-game sessions with Ed Coleman on WFAN have been special. Coleman asks him a question – any question – and Coleman could leave to do his taxes and get back before Wagner’s done. It’s like when a disc jockey plays the FM version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.
Wagner pitches hard, dies hard. The Mets have some players who don’t always play hard. The guess here is that when asked about something like that, he’ll eschew the politically evasive answer to say what he thinks. And it’ll make for headlines and talk show chow. Just wait; you’ll see.
As always, I appreciate Phil’s timely cultural references, and look forward to a future column where a Tim McCarver monologue is unfavorably compared to Joe Walsh’s “Life’s Been Good To Me”. There have been no shortage of allusions since last September that certain Mets vets —- usually those named Beltran and Delgado — should’ve taken a harder public stance in the midst of the club’s historic collapse. Wagner, easily the most deocrated member of the Mets’ bullpen, is apparently immune from such criticism so long as he bitches to a radio host after the dust has cleared.
No Matter How Excited You Might Be About Opening Day…
…MLB’s Extra Innings Package really isn’t worth it. Rod Hull is unavailable for comment. Mostly because he’s dead.
Top This, Caliendo
The Freewheeling Chuckster, as grilled by Dan LeBatard on 790am yesterday (mp3 link swiped from The Big Lead). Proof that for even the lamest/laziest radio host on the planet, a phone call to Barkley is a broadcaster’s ultimate get-out-of-jail card.
Karl Rove Never Would’ve Let This Happen : Paulie Go Nuts Dissed By White House
Days after one columnist raised the point that the battery of George W. Bush and Nationals backstop Paul Lo Duca might make for an awkward photo opportunity Sunday evening, the Washington Post’s Barry Svrluga reports that DC skipper Manny Acta will instead, catch the ceremonial first ball from our beloved Commander In Chief.
The choice has symbolic implications. Lo Duca was one of the primary figures in the report by former Senate majority leader George J. Mitchell on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. Bush, in turn, is an avid baseball fan and former owner of the Texas Rangers who has publicly denounced the use of steroids, both in professional sports and by America’s youth.
The White House said it played no role in determining who would catch the pitch.
“Whatever the decision the Nationals make is up to them,” White House spokesman Tony Fratto said by telephone Thursday. “In no way did we, or would we, raise any issues.”
Lo Duca said after Thursday’s final Grapefruit League game that he had no animosity about the situation.
“I’m not upset,” Lo Duca said. “I’m just not catching it. They just told me that was the decision, that they’d go with Manny.”
I applaud Captain Red Ass for taking the high road in this instance. Rather than moaning about how his reputation might’ve taken a hit were he seen fraternizing with a known cocaine abuser, Boogie Shoes knows he had little to gain from such an encounter. Even if Lo Duca emerged from Sunday’s ceremonies with Jenna Bush’s phone number, she’s a little long in the tooth for the former Mets catcher.
Rucker & The Cage Can Fuck Off : Oden Knows If You Want A Real Game, 24 Hour Fitness Is The Place To Be
Ripping mad in Rip City might be one way of describing (oh, thank god I didn’t employ that headline) either the reaction of Blazers execs to the following item, or perhaps the questionable actions of one Greg Oden. Way to knock last night’s loss to Golden State off the front page, Greg. From the Oregonian’s Jason Quick.
The Trail Blazers on Thursday were alerted to an internet rumor that Greg Oden had participated in a pickup basketball game at a 24 Hour Fitness facility in Tualatin on Wednesday night.
Turns out, the rumor was true.
And naturally, the Blazers were none too pleased.
“We heard about that, and I talked to him today,” coach Nate McMillan said. “I let him know he can’t do that.”
Oden is in the sixth month of his rehabilitation from microfracture surgery on his right knee, and is on schedule – if not ahead – to return to the court in time for the start of training camp in October. Oden has been cleared to participate in light drills during practices, but the team wants to control his running and jumping to controlled environments.
“I know he is excited to be moving again, but as I talked to him about it, he said ‘Coach, I promise I wasn’t running hard …’. And I was like – ‘I really don’t care’,” McMillan said. “The thing is, we were surprised. So we let him know that he doesn’t need to be there. We have plenty of workout equipment and gym space at our facility.”
Oden apparently took part in two pickup games on Wednesday night, after which one of the participants came home and posted his account on the internet. By Wednesday morning, word had gotten back to the Blazers, who were in Oakland, Calif., for Thursday’s game against Golden State. McMillan said he then called Oden in Portland.
“Young guys,” McMillan said, shaking his head. “Right now, these young guys don’t know their value. That’s part of growing up and maturing. In a couple of years he will understand how stupid that was. I understand it, because I’ve done it. You are a pro, you want to walk into a building like that and feel good about yourself, you know, play with some guys. You don’t move hard, you know, just shoot some jump shots … yeah, I’ve done it. But we just have to remind him, especially in his situation, where he is coming off an injury. That … that, you just can’t do that.’
While the New York Post’s Peter Vecsey steadfastly insists Donnie Walsh isn’t fibbing when he denies having a deal in place to run the Knicks (”Walsh is about to end his 24th season in Indiana, and I defy anyone to testify he ever has broken his word”), Hardwood Paroxysm’s Matt Moore might’ve unwittingly provided a hint about Isiah Thomas’ next assignment in the midst of an illuminating chat with D-League President Dan Reed ;
HP:Has there been any discussion at this time of expanding a team to New York, and do you see it as a viable D-League market?
DR: There’s been a lot of discussion. There’s a lot of interest. The most prominent one is the Knicks’ interest in putting a team in Harlem. We’re going down that road and looking at pros and cons. I think it’s pretty viable. They say New York has the best basketball fans in the world, and I’ve seen nothing here to dispute that. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a team there in the next few years, but there’s a long way to go. I think it would be pretty cool.
Filip Bondy has already suggested the most appropriate punishment for Isiah Thomas would be to make him coach the Knicks for another season (”Thomas says he wants this job. Call his bluff”). Though I suspect the NBA wouldn’t look favorably on a James Dolan owned D-League franchise, who amongst us wouldn’t want to see Zeke as the player-coach-GM for a new Harlem minor league team?
Yeah, But Where’s My Milo Hamilton Statue?
(Pioneers in square eye wear: Harry Caray and Jack Brickhouse,
the Cubs’ two big winners in 60 years of WGN baseball)
“It was the perfect storm,” Vorwald said. “The rise of the superstation, the team winning [the division] in 1984 and then Harry becoming this icon changed everything. Harry totally took it to the next step about this idea of wanting to be at Wrigley Field. The bases would be loaded, the fans are yelling and Harry would say, ‘Don’t you wish you were here?’ ”
Of course, the bases were usually loaded with Reds and Dodgers in my childhood, but that’s beside the point. While I personally feel CSTB has fallen far short of its goal to be the leading Cubs blog on the Internet, my thanks to Gerard for sending along this item by Ed Sherman of the Chicago Tribune. I give Cubs owner Phillip K. Wrigley credit for two plusses in my childhood, every Cub game free on WGN and, of course, the Doublemint Twins.
For all that’s said about Bill Veeck and crazy marketing, Wrigley managed one simple idea – giving every game away free – into a moneymaking machine that never fielded a pennant winner much less a World Series Champ, yet remains one of the iconic brands in baseball today. How much money has George Steinbrenner blown to do the same? There’s a reason Chicago built statues of Caray and Brickhouse, and no Cub player.
The Boss Jr. : A-Rod’s “A Friggin’ Natural”
It’s been awfully difficult for members of the Fourth Estate to drag candid opinions from the gaping jaws of Hank Steinbrenner, and somehow, someway, the Bergen Record’s Pete Caldera pulled it off on Thursday morning. As you know, ‘Lil Stein doesn’t often comment on controversies surrounding the New York Yankees, and one must wonder, could yesterday’s remarks herald the start of a new frankness on his part? Might Hank every now and then, see fit to tell us what he thinks about Joe Torre, the Boston Red Sox, Brittany Murphy’s acting career, which Jarboe album would you buy if you could only buy one, etc.? Let’s keep our fingers crossed, because cogent baseball historians like Hank are increasingly difficult to find.
n his spirited defense of A-Rod on Wednesday, Steinbrenner told The Record that “if [Sandy] Koufax, [Mickey] Mantle, [Babe] Ruth, [Willie] Mays or [Hank] Aaron were playing today, they all would be suspected of doing something — and of course, they didn’t do it. There was no such thing in their day.
“This is the age of paranoia.”
In his soon-to-be released book, “Vindicated,” Canseco writes that he once introduced Rodriguez to a trainer with connections to a steroids supplier, and later heard that A-Rod “had signed on.”
“Consider the source, that’s No. 1,” Steinbrenner said of Canseco. “He wouldn’t have been able to hit the ball out of the infield without steroids.
“And No. 2, if Mantle or Ruth were playing today, with the 550-foot home runs they hit, everybody’d be saying they were on something. They didn’t even lift weights in those days. They played on alcohol and hot dogs.
“There are certain naturals. There are guys who can just do it, and Alex is one of those guys,” Steinbrenner said. “He’s just friggin’ great.”
03.27.08
Bogut’s Invisible Buddies
Even Gregg Jefferies had more friends. Video swiped from Brew Hoop.
The Fiver Struggles To Find Levity In England’s Sucky Display
Lest you believe David Beckham’s 100th cap was the only interesting storyline coming out of England’s 1-0 friendly defeat to France yesterday, the Guardian’s Ben McFarland and Ben Doyle take time to consider the glass-is-half-full optimism of the losing side’s manager and captain.
Despite a performance as disjointed, lacklustre and senseless as a Rio Ferdinand soundbite about fireplace furniture, Fabio Capello (above) defied lazy national stereotyping and refused to throw the towel in just yet. “As I told the players, I’m happy about what they did,” he somehow deadpanned in a display of blind optimism not witnessed since Stevie Wonder insisted on playing that game where you have to get the metal hoop from one end of the wire to the other without it going “bzzzzzzzzzzzz!”.
“We made progress compared to the Switzerland game, even though we won that game,” he mumbled before not adding. “But on the hand, I’ve got four fingers and a thumb. I was in the attic the other day with the wife. Damp and dusty … but she’s great with the kids,” … and so on and so forth. Straightening his Fez and thrusting his arms down the sleeves of a suit jacket stuffed with doves, rabbits and linked handkerchiefs, Fabio added: “Another thing I’m happy about is that I made the team play in two different ways.” Sadly, neither of them were very good.
Despite “taking up the mantelpiece” of the England captaincy in rather uninspiring fashion, Rio Ferdinand was similarly upbeat: “You could say we took a stride forward in certain areas: the players were not scared to get on the ball, we were passing it very well at times, maybe without creating many openings but I’m sure that will come.”
Will it Rio? Will it really? Or is that nonsense coming from your curvy lips again? Still, the future may still be bright for England’s manager and players. Taking time out from clowning around with Bunsen burners, some white-coated boffins recently revealed that those with a sunny outlook on life tend to experience a 50% lower rate of early/premature death.
SF Presses The History Eraser Button On The Sultan Of Surly
The SF Chronicle’s Scott Ostler attended the Giants’ Media Day and is struck by the absence of any monument to Barry Bonds’ career accomplishments at AT&T Park, the stadium he arguably helped construct. Even worse, I bet Ostler couldn’t find a statue of Rod Beck, either.
Bonds’ locker-stall nameplate has been replaced by Matt Cain’s. Last season, that entire four-locker wall of the clubhouse was shared by Barry Zito, Bonds, Bonds’ home-entertainment unit, his emotional baggage, and the stragglers of his infamous posse/staff. Now it will be Zito and Cain.
And come Opening Day, instead of dozens of pesky media people milling about the clubhouse waiting to not talk to Bonds, there will be dozens of pesky media people milling about the clubhouse waiting to talk to players about how nice it is not to deal with the Bonds circus.
The team’s new motto alludes to the sans-a-Bonds look. The motto is “All out all season,” because “Now 240 pounds lighter!” would have been too mean-spirited.
The ballpark itself has been de-Bondsed. Gone are the huge cloth murals of Bonds and “756″ that hung from the lighting towers flanking the centerfield scoreboard. Gone is the Bonds career-home-run “scoreboard.”
The leftfield fence now features a long green blank between the ads for Chevron and Bud Lite. Last season, that space was devoted to Bonds – first a mural of Bonds and three other Giants’ legends, and then a “Road to History” mural featuring a photo of Bonds and a highway sign with his name and team logo.
It makes sense that those temporary tributes would be removed. But for the last few years the Giants milked Bonds’ home-run-record chase for all it was worth, and now not even a simple “756″ sign or some other visible nod to the man and the record?
There is a small sign urging fans to “Remember ‘51,” the year of Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard Round the World.” But nothing to help them remember 756.
I asked team president Peter Magowan if management considered some kind of visible tribute to Bonds and his record.
“No,” Magowan said, eloquently.
The A-Bones Launch Naval Attack On Flushing Bay
(Billy Joel, above right, relieved at the kid glove treatment from Billy and Miriam)
Shea Stadium’s featured no shortage of musical moments both sterling(doubleday!) — Grand Funk, anyone? — and wretched (have Black 47 stopped playing yet?). The following event can safely go in the former category (thanks to Don Smith for the link).
SAT. JULY 26 – THE A-BONES BOOZE CRUISE TO SHEA STADIUM! Get your tickets
early – 200 lucky and/or unsuspecting Met fans will be treated two a two hour sea cruise with the A-Bones providing the musical hi jinx! This is Shea Stadium’s final year and what better way to go out than with the three chord mayhem of your favorite music makers followed by a trouncing of the St. Louis Cardinals? (By the way, Billy Joel is scheduled to perform the last ever concert at Shea. In an act of mutual respect, we will not perform any songs by the Piano Man and he will lay off our beloved Benny Joy repertoire.) Last A-Bones brush with baseball? Roger Clemons and Red Sox teammates tanked up at Washington DC’s 15 Minute Club while the A-Bones serenaded them with the gift of song. Everyone who buys a ticket gets seats in the same section at Shea Stadium. Do not miss this event! GO GO GO FOR JOHAN SANTANA’S PLACE!!!
If Only There Was Video Footage Of Buddy Bell Trying The Same Stunt
circa 2002, Royals OF Joey Gaithright proved he’s got greater claim to fame than having his ass kicked by Julian Tavarez. (video link from Baseball Think Factory)
Say It Ain’t So : Even The Captain Thinks You’d Prefer A CD By Juice Newton
The business section of Wednesday’s New York Times included a lengthy item about a joint venture between Creative Artists, hedge fund Pequot and Major League Baseball to launch WePlay.com, a social networking site tailored for young athletes and the people who love to exploit them. Amongst the site’s investors….Yankee SS Derek Jeter.
Mr. Jeter, who in addition to receiving equity in WePlay in exchange for his involvement also invested some of his own money (he will not say how much), began filming clips for the site in mid-December. Having equity, Mr. Jeter said in a telephone interview, is “very important, because you can really feel good about something if you help build it.”
The focus of the business also fits with Mr. Jeter’s own philanthropy. “What it boils down to is, it’s a really outstanding idea,” he said. “I have my own foundation, and we are trying to get kids to be active and play sports. Kids today spend too much time playing video games, and there’s a huge obesity problem in this country.”
Perhaps kids wouldn’t spend nearly as much time playing video games if the likes of Jeter weren’t on television convincing them it might be a fun thing to do?
While Jeter is certainly entitled to his opinion, it’s shameful that he’d seek to torpedo Jose Reyes’ moment in the sun.
Ken Berger’s Fascinating Chat With Someone Who Might Not Be A Lame Duck
While the Knicks managed to beat the hapless Heat, 103-96 in OT last night at the Garden, Newsday’s Ken Berger was in the midst of a bigger story earlier Wednesday. “Donnie (Walsh) gave him life,” said a Berger source of the incoming Knicks president’s history with Isiah Thomas. “There’s no way he’s going to cut off his legs.” And there’s also no way Zeke’s gonna provide a straight answer, either.
Given his relationship with Walsh, and Walsh’s reputation as a man of character and honesty, it is inconceivable that Walsh would enter into any talks with the Knicks without speaking with Thomas. So I asked Thomas Wednesday if they’d talked
Thomas has an answer for everything, but this time he paused for 13 seconds, his eyes darting all over the practice gym in Greenburgh.
“To answer that type of question would leave, you know … I can’t,” he said, pausing five more seconds before turning to the P.R. man.
“How do you answer something that hasn’t happened?” Thomas asked him.
Well, usually people say they either had Fruit Loops for breakfast or they didn’t.
“Let’s deal with today,” Thomas said. “My direct report is Steve Mills and Jim Dolan. So any questions you have about that type of stuff, you should talk to those two.”
It’s always risky to interpret body language, but Thomas’ reaction to that question seemed important. And it only supported a notion that three NBA executives proposed Wednesday: Thomas is not a bystander in the transfer of power under way at the Garden. He’s involved in it.
Which is as good an explanation as any for why nothing has happened since Walsh reportedly agreed to take over the Knicks’ basketball operations on Monday night.
“What possibly could be the holdup?” a person involved in the coaching business said. “Parking spaces?”
It was meant as a joke, but parking spaces translate to power; the top guy gets the best one. Power is what this is about — who gets it and how much, who gives it up and how much.
03.26.08
Dr. Pepper’s G’n'R Stunt : Because David Naughton Isn’t Walking Thru That Door
The following item from CNN.com was forwarded by Brian Turner, who adds “I’m offering a case of Mr. Pibb to Velvet Revolver if they can stop bitching at each other over the blogosphere.”
Tired of a world in which Americans idolize wannabe singers and musicals about high schoolers pass as rock ‘n roll music, Dr Pepper is encouraging (ok, begging) Axl Rose to finally release his 17-year-in-the-making belabored masterpiece, Chinese Democracy, in 2008.In an unprecedented show of solidarity with Axl, everyone in America, except estranged GNR guitarists Slash and Buckethead, will receive a free can of Dr Pepper if the album ships some time — anytime! — in 2008. Dr Pepper supports Axl, and fully understands that sometimes you have to make it through the jungle before you get it right.
“It took a little patience to perfect Dr Pepper’s special mix of 23 ingredients, which our fans have come to know and love,” said Jaxie Alt, director of marketing for Dr Pepper. “So we completely understand and empathize with Axl’s quest for perfection — for something more than the average album. We know once it’s released, people will refer to it as “Dr Pepper for the ears” because it will be such a refreshing blend of rich, bold sounds — an instant classic.”
Lee Mavers, Kevin Shields, while not necessarily unavailable for comment, really don’t deserve to be bugged about this, either.
Derrick Coleman Named In Pizza Cheapskate Scandal
(D.C., offering his paperboy some of his junk mail in lieu of an Xmas bonus)
Whilst discussing the retirement of C-Webb earlier today on ESPN 1050, Max Kellerman argued for the former Fab Five lynchpin’s inclusion in the Basketball Hall Of Fame, though dismissing Derrick Coleman as “the poor man’s Chris Webber”.
At around 12:30pm eastern, Kellerman and Brian Kenney took a call from a listener that shared the former’s low opinion of Mr. Whoop De Damn Do. Coleman, he claimed, once paid a $60 bill for pizza delivery with 6 ten dollar bills, and then attempted to tip the driver with a D.C. basketball card. “And not a rookie card, either!”
These outrageous charges were followed with a call from an alleged pal of Coleman’s who insisted the story was bogus. “I’ve been out with Derrick plenty of times, and he’s dropped thousands of dollars in a night.”
I usually forget to listen to Kellerman’s show, but if there’s even the tinniest chance of someone ringing up with a tale of Chinese food delivery to Don Nelson’s crib, I will make a greater effort to tune in.
Russian Millionaire’s Tall-Lady Collection Exposed in Los Angeles Times
Let me speak for all the adjunct staffers of CSTB when I say this: we have heard your message. Your voice has been heard. And so you shall have the women’s basketball coverage you demand!
Or…well, I don’t think anyone was asking for it. But as part of working on a post this morning for the Wall Street Journal’s Daily Fix blog — I’ll be picking up a few days a week there, for I don’t know how long — a reader of said blog forwarded an article from the Los Angeles Times about a Russian plutocrat’s sports-related hobby. (No, WSJ doesn’t require that a plutocrat or millionaire appear in every article) (Or rather, not that I know of) You expect flamboyant wastefulness and outrageously shitty taste from Russian oligarchs, but Shabtai von Kalmanovic isn’t about show horses or dipping random things around his house in platinum or competitive jet-sailing or whatever it is that tacky ultra-billionaires do. He is, explains Megan Stack, more of a Diana Taurasi guy:
He has been linked romantically to Liza Minnelli. He did prison time in Israel, accused of being a Soviet spy. He has amassed what he says is the largest collection of Judaica in Eastern Europe. This is a man who can do just about anything that catches his fancy.
As it turns out, he’s got a thing for basketball, a sport he played growing up in Lithuania. He has dumped millions of dollars into rebuilding Spartak, the franchise he owns, into what is now one of Europe’s best women’s basketball teams.
Kalmanovic cherry-picks the brightest stars from the Women’s National Basketball Assn., pays them as much as 10 times more than they earn in the United States, and brings them to Moscow in the WNBA off-season, where they live in luxury and play before halfhearted audiences…
Nobody is making money off Spartak. On the contrary, it’s better described as an extravagance than a business: Kalmanovic has to pay Russian television to air the games, and they often end up being broadcast in the middle of the night. Nobody even bothers to sell tickets to the games. Too much bureaucracy, Kalmanovic says. The spectators are mostly schoolchildren, soldiers and locals looking for a free night of entertainment.
On this point, the players are defensive. Basketball is different in Russia and the United States, they say, but that doesn’t mean the interest in it is lower.
“You can’t compare the two,” Diana Taurasi, one of the team’s stars, says firmly.
Meanwhile, Kalmanovic says his players are on par with George Michael and Madonna, and he spoils them rotten. A staff of 25 assistants, not counting drivers and housekeepers, caters to their whims. They are chauffeured in Mercedes-Benzes, put up at Europe’s finest hotels and greeted with bouquets at every airport, whether they’ve won or lost. They aren’t allowed to carry their own luggage — they’re women after all, Kalmanovic says.
“If [the players] will go to the game and think, where’s her child or is the TV working at home and where will she eat after and is the flight home booked and will the money arrive on time — if she has any concern other than basketball, I cannot demand the maximum from her,” he says. “I have to take away each and every concern.
“They should be treated like people of art, like stars.”
Bisher’s Opening Day Bomb
For the second time this week, a columnist from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has managed to find fault with MLB’s decision to open the 2008 season in Japan. First, Jeff Schultz weighed in, followed Wednesday by the venerable Furman Bisher (link swiped from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory), who presumably didn’t get up in time to watch Rich Harden (above) baffle the Red Sox this morning. Perhaps the AJC can go for the hat trick tomorrow with a guest editorial from John Rocker?
Money can change any habit. Eight springs ago the Mets and Cubs opened the season, not in Cincinnati. Guess where? Tokyo. That Tokyo, the guys who gave us Pearl Harbor. Some people don’t like you to bring that up, trade with Japan is so hot. But I’ve got a long memory. I saw what a few bombs can do to our property.
Oh, well, ‘scuse me. It’s just tough to get away from it when you turn on your TV in the morning there are the Boston Red Sox playing the Oakland A’s in the Tokyo Dome. Not only that, but the Red Sox pitcher is Daisuke Matsuzaka, who didn’t grow up in Wampole.
Why not? A Japanese newspaper chain, Yomiuri, foots the bill for this Oriental excursion. Yomiuri is not exactly the Chicago Tribune of Japanese baseball. Yomiuri owns several teams. The Tribune owns only one team, and that team hasn’t been in a World Series since World War II. (Sorry to have to bring that up again.) Yomiuri’s team has been the Yankees of Japan, and I’m not sure, but I think they call themselves the Giants.
It would be my guess that in Japan, emperors don’t throw out first balls, or even have any kind of presence at such a sweaty game. I saw a game in the Tokyo Dome once, but it was more dome-shaped then. It now appears to have gone oblong to oblige the new long-ball society. Managers are interchangeable, it seems. Bobby Valentine is still managing a team in Japan, and Trey Hillman, who managed five seasons in Japan, is now managing the Kansas City Royals, which, on the surface, appears to be a demotion.
The Japanese might know a thing or two about bombs being dropped on their property as well, but they’ve somehow managed not to let horrific events of more than 6 decades ago prevent their embrace of what oughta be considered one of American’s finest cultural exports. It’s astonishing that neither Bisher nor his colleague Shultz take much positive away from this.
Is The Hick From French Lick Covered In Teflon?
While the Pacers continue to insist to anyone who will listen that Donnie Walsh has no agreement in place with the New York Knicks, Sports On Mind’s dwil has the temerit to use, well, actual results to challenge the notion Larry Bird is an appreciably better franchise executive than Isiah Thomas.
Isiah Thomas has been just crushed in the press for his basketball decisions and presiding over a floundering franchise. The year Larry Bird arrived in Indiana, they were 61-21. Since they have won 44, 41, 35, and have won only 29 games so far this season. Yet in yesterday’s press conference in Indianapolis Bird said now that Walsh is gone he can remake the franchise. And according to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, Bird overruled Walsh on many key team and player decisions, leaving Walsh as a figurehead general manager. Bird is generally attributed – acclaimed – for the firing of Thomas as head coach, according to longtime Indianapolis Star columnist, Bob Kravitz, “Bird was the one who pulled the trigger on Isiah Thomas, replacing him with Rick Carlisle.”
However, it is safe to say that Bird has been atrocious in his capacity as decision-maker and has been the primary reason for the recent downturn of the Pacers franchise. But Bird blamed Walsh for his own failings and said:
“Now it’s one voice; it’s mine. Now it’s a real challenge,” Bird said about replacing Walsh and cleaning up a franchise that has struggled on and off the court. “It’s something that will be great for me to turn around. We have to make changes necessary to make it better, and I think I can do that.”
Larry Bird gets a pass for his failings (this fact has been chronicled by MODI at Cosellout better than by any other writer or sports media outlet) while Thomas has been excoriated for least three years.
Larry Bird remains “Larry Legend” while Isiah is a pariah. When we fill positions and perform as poorly as the next white guy, their history is obfuscated to the point where we don’t know where fantasy meets reality in order to provide them with yet another chance to excel.
03.25.08
Michael Wilbon Flunks Out Of Current Events
From the Washington Post’s Chat House, Monday, May 24, 2008 :
I can sympathize with Wilbon. Where could someone possibly find out about “this situation”? Living in our Information Overload, how can a pundit for a major newspaper / major cable network manage to discern who this mystery blogger might be?
The story’s been a well kept secret, and only the cagiest characters amongst us can claim to know the players without a scorecard. Should a journalist of Wilbon’s vintage really be expected to keep up the most obscure and “underground” web outlets?
The Nature Boy Turns Back The Clock
I probably won’t be shelling out the PPV cash for Wrestlemania XIV this Sunday night, not unless the Braves/Nats game is rained out. And besides, no matter what happens when Ric Flair takes on Shawn Michaels, I think we might’ve already seen a superior performance from the former last night.
