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11.30.2004
Favre Hits 200: Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre started his 200th consecutive game, a league record he has had for several years since he broke the old record of 116. Favre looked all the future Hall of Famer he is revered as, throwing for over 200 yards and three touchdowns in leading the Packers over the St. Louis Rams, 45-17, on Monday Night Football.
It was Rams quarterback Marc Bulger, though, who was eye-popping in his stats, hitting 65% of his passes for more than 400 yards. But the Rams self-destructed, with Bulger throwing one interception and receiver Isaac Bruce losing two fumbles that were returned for scores.
The game also probably marked a change of the guard in St. Louis as running back Steven Jackson got one more carry for 33 more yards than Marshall Faulk. While it's hard to believe Rams coach Mike Martz would ever bench Faulk, a hastened exit for the former League MVP seems to be imminent.
While Packers ball carrier Ahman Green sat on the sidelines with an ailment, Najeh Davenport rushed for a career-high 178 yards and one touchdown on 19 carries. Green, however, is not in jeopardy of losing his starting job to anyone.
11.29.2004
NFL Week 12: It was a long NFL weekend. Check out our weekly look, including the teams we'd least like to face in December, fantasy woes and our uniform appreciation.
Couples Wins Skins: Fred Couples won a four-hole playoff against Tiger Woods and took home $640,000 in winning the Thanksgiving-weekend classic Sunday. Tiger Woods finished second with $310,000; that's more money than he had won in his previous four Skins appearances.
Annika Sorenstam, who made a splash in the Skins game last year, was held without a skin this year. Aussie Adam Scott won two skins for $50,000.
Woods was jovial after his playoff loss to Couples, walking arm-in-arm with the victor. If we had his career earnings, we'd probably be pretty jovial in a $310,000 loss too.
11.27.2004
Dumb athletes: You would think that after all the controversy about the recent Indiana vs. Detroit melee that has a put a spotlight on fan and player interactions, players in all sports at all levels would be aware that now is not the time to be mooning fans and making obscene gestures in the stands. That's exactly what minor league hockey player Dan Sullivan did at a game in Wheeling, West Virginia. Sullivan is a player for the Reading Royals in the ECHL who was not playing on Thursday. For reasons that aren't clear, he dropped his pants and mooned the Wheeling Nailers crowd. He was immediately suspended by Reading.
11.26.2004
Thanksgiving NFL: One of the traditions of Thanksgiving is watching two NFL games. For as long as we can remember, it's been a game in Detroit and a game in Dallas. On Thursday, Peyton Manning and his incredible core of Indianapolis Colts receivers tore apart the Detroit Lions in a convincing 41-9 win. The Colts offense right now is a thing of beauty: quarterback Manning is on pace to shatter multiple season records, largely because he has at least six players that he can have utter confidence throwing to. It seems every week, a different receiver steps up; on Thanksgiving, Marvin Harrison and the adorable Brandon Stokley each caught three touchdown passes each. Whoever had those two in fantasy got some major points. Add in one of the best running backs in the game in Edgerrin James (105 yards on Thursday) and it seems the only thing stopping the Colts is their somewhat suspect defense.
In Dallas, however: After watching the brilliant Colts offense, it was painful to watch the subsequent Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys game. To say that both teams have quarterback problems is an understatement. The game was grim, featuring a mind-numbing 19 punts by both teams. The Cowboys started rookie Drew Henson, but Bill Parcels likes to win, so he pulled Henson for Vinny Testaverde. The Bears QB situation is even worse: another rookie, Craig Krenzel, is awful and after he got hurt Thursday, backup Jonathan Quinn was awful as well. The one bright spot in an otherwise abysmal game was Cowboys running back Julius Jones. He looked impressive in gaining 150 yards but both teams are in trouble at the single most important position on a football team. Peyton Manning of the Colts is worth every penny of his 7-year, $98 million deal at this point.
11.25.2004
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Mickelson Caps Magical Year: The guy who couldn't win the big one ended the year with an exclamation point, winning the two-day PGA Grand Slam of Golf with a 13-under 59 on the second day of competition. It was only the fourth time someone shot a 59 on the men's tour, though Mickelson's round won't land in the record books because the tournament isn't an official event.
The event pits the winners of the four major tournaments against one another. Mickelson finished five shots ahead of second-place finisher Vijay Singh.
It's nice to see Lefty finally have a year he can point to 20 years from now as a shining jewel in his career. Good for him Tiger Woods had another off year.
11.24.2004
Spurrier is a 'Cock: Steve Spurrier will replace Lou Holtz as head coach of the South Carolina football team, it was announced Tuesday. His deal is worth almost $9 million.
Spurrier spurned openings with his old team, the Florida Gators, and another foray into the NFL with the Miami Dolphins to follow another potential future Hall of Fame coach with the Gamecocks.
One advantage he should bring to South Carolina is his knowledge of the teams in the SEC. His success at the University of Florida in the 1990s was unparalleled at the school, and unrivaled in the 90s in the SEC. He has a tough act to follow, though. Holtz turned around a program that went 0-11 his first year and eventually earned a school-best 17-7 two-year record.
And when Spurrier's Gamecocks play Florida in the coming years, you know there will be blood to pay. Spurrier's departure from Florida, and the ensuing hiring of Ron Zook, has left the program a shadow of what it once was.
11.23.2004
Patriots Stuff the Chiefs: The Kansas City Chiefs, one of the favorites before the season began to win the Super Bowl, are now four games out of a playoff spot with just six games remaining after falling to the New England Patriots, 27-19, in Arrowhead.
But in the battle of two of the cutest quarterbacks in the NFL, it was Chiefs quarterback Trent Green who topped Tom Brady, throwing for almost 70 more yards and one more touchdown than Brady. Heck, he even threw one more interception!
Somehow, Willie McGinest has seemed to cap off a number of the Patriots' biggest games with a stuff in the offensive backfield. His sack of Trent Green on fourth down ended the Chiefs' hopes of sending the game to overtime.
11.22.2004
NBA Finally Gets Stern: After a melee for the ages cut short the Pacers-Pistons game Friday night, the NBA was swift and decisive in handing down the heftiest group of suspensions in league history, including a season-long suspension for Ron Artest.
Artest and several Indiana Pacers players entered the stands and began swinging fists at several fans who had thrown a cup of beer at Artest and who were taunting the visiting players. Pacers Stephen Jackson and Jermaine O'Neal were each suspended for 30 and 25 games respectively. The suspensions of Artest and Jackson both broke the previous record for longs league suspension of 26 games.
Detroit Piston Ben Wallace was suspended for six games, and several other players from both teams received short-term suspensions of as little as one game.
"The penalties issued today deal only with one aspect of this incident -- that of player misconduct," Stern said in announcing the suspensions. "The actions of the players involved wildly exceeded the professionalism and self-control that should fairly be expected from NBA players.
While the NBA Players Association will surely appeal the suspensions, the players all deserved what they got. We're hoping the fans who started the brawl by throwing things at the Pacers will be arrested and sentenced - which they certainly deserve.
11.20.2004
Basket-brawl: They had a basketball game in Auburn Hills, Mich., and a hockey game broke out. In wild scenes that will no doubt result in huge fines, suspensions and more lawsuits than an NBA player ever thought possible, the NBA game Friday night between the visiting Indianapolis Pacers and the Detroit Pistons turned into a mass brawl, with the players going head to head with the Pistons fans. It started somewhat innocently: the Pacers were well ahead and with 45 seconds to go, Ben Wallace of the Pistons scored and got shoved in the back by the Pacers Ron Artest. Wallace took strong exception to this and before you know it, the brawl between the Pistons and Pacers spilled over in to the stands, because some fans in the crowd started throwing things. Watching the clips again on ESPN, there?s no way to downplay the severity of this: the scenes inside the Palace were extremely ugly.
We were almost as disgusted with the ESPN commentators who were saying that the players had no fault in the brawl and that Artest and the Pacers were defending themselves. Let's be clear: defending yourself is walking away from the thrown beers and grabbing a cop. Defending yourself is not running into the stands and attacking a fan. And besides, it was a very hard foul by Artest and an uncalled-for attack from Ben Wallace.
Some of the fans also got what they deserved. When you throw beer at a player, or pursue a player onto the court and swing at him, you deserve what you get.
We would not be surprised if what some of these players get is suspensions of several months long. What they should all get is season-long suspensions; but, the NBA Players Association won't let that happen.
11.19.2004
T.O. apologizes, of course: It seems like there's a routine for sports controversies these days: someone does or says something, there's media outrage, the person involved apologizes in varying degrees of sincerity via press release or press conference, there's a hububb for a while and then it's on to the next controvsery. In the wake of the controvsery regarding his appearance in a skit on Monday Night Football (see below), Terrell Owens of the Philadelphia Eagles held a press conference to express amazement that any was offended by the skit. As Cyd mentioned, there's a racial component to the story and the Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy weighed in: "To me that's the first thing I thought of as an African-American,'' Dungy said Wednesday. ''I think it's stereotypical in looking at the players, and on the heels of the Kobe Bryant incident, I think it's very insensitive".
One of the sidelights of this story is the way the major media gets to have it both ways. There's a tone of moral outrage to the stories--which is undercut when the media then plays the clip in question, thus helping to disseminate something that's supposed to be offensive.
11.18.2004
Sheffield Target of Extortion Plot: Paris Hilton isn't the only star of a salacious amateur porn video. The wife of Yankees slugger Gary Sheffield is apparently the star of a homemade porn video - and the owner of the video wants Sheff to pay.
"I have not seen the alleged videotape, nor do I care to," Sheffield said in the statement that Sheffield's business agent Rufus Williams read on Tuesday. "I love my wife and I vow again to stand by her through any trial or tribulation."
The man being held in the case is Derrick Mosley, 38, a Chicago resident who describes himself as a minister and has fashioned himself as a community activist, according to the Associated Press.
Sheffield said he had known about he relationship between his wife, DeLeon, and the man in the alleged video, and that the relationship ended before their marriage.
11.17.2004
Coach Gumby is the Gay Professor: TBS' new reality show "The Real Gilligan's Island," based on the '60s show, will feature a gay professor who is none other than Outsporter Eric "Gumby" Anderson. Gumby's counterpart - the other "professor" on the show - is a 64-year-old man. In a conversation with Outsports Tuesday night, Gumby said he is excited for the show to air and will be featured on many TV and radio shows in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more.
MNF Latest to Catch Football Heat: Janet Jackson, eat your heart out. Before the Monday Night Football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys, ABC aired an intro that featured blonde actress Nicollette Sheridan, clad in only a towel, throwing her arms around Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens.
On Tuesday, upstanding football fans across America called in to complain about the spot. ABC apologized, saying it was in bad taste. The Eagles said they appreciated the apology.
What? Yes, it was a mistake to do a dumb cross-promotion between the dreadful (no matter what Joe in Philly says) frosh series "Desperate Housewives" and Monday Night Football. Though, given the blowout game, maybe it wasn't such a stretch.
But why is a woman clad in only a towel (which eventually falls off) such a terrible thing? We see it in daytime soap operas all the time. They're even naked in bed with other men in those shows! Naked women are used all of the time in TV advertisements for razors, tampons, shampoo and any of a number of other products.
So, why did so many people freak out about this image? The problem wasn't the woman's lack of clothing, but the fact that she was a white woman hugging a black man. If that blonde white woman had been Condoleeza Rice, there would be no problems. Well, then there may have been other distinct problems with the spot. -Cyd Zeigler Jr.
11.16.2004
Eagles Soar: The Philadelphia Eagles remained on pace with the two one-loss teams in the AFC, staying their course to another homefield advantage in the NFC with a 49-21 victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football. Resident pom-pom boy Terrell Owens did not disappoint, catching half of his six receptions for touchdowns and rolling for 134 yards.
Dallas got as close as 14-7 in the second quarter, but there was never a question about who was the better team. Dallas tight end Jason Witten did provide a spark for the Cowboys, catching nine balls for two touchdowns and 133 points. Not drafted in many fantasy leagues, he's been a fantasy stud of late, gaining 400 yards and four touchdowns int eh last four weeks.
11.15.2004
BCS Getting Nervous? After last year's final BCS standings that left AP and Coaches Poll No. 1 USC out of the championship game, the BCS changed their formula to give more importance to the human polls. This year, they have a downright disaster on their hands.
With just two or three games left for each team, five teams remain undefeated. In the AP poll, they are No. 1 USC, No. 2 Auburn, No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 5 Utah and No. 13 Boise State. Throw in there No. 4 California, whose only loss was a last-minute loss to USC, and the Anointed Lords of College Football have got to be worried.
How can they keep an undefeated team out of the championship game? Most people could understand Boise State being left out - their schedule just hasn't stacked up against the others. Unfortunately, we're going to have to listen to a month of excuse after excuse as to why they don't have a single-elimination tournament to decide the national championship. Let the boo-birds start booing!
'Take Me Out' on the Road: Tony Award-winning "Take Me Out," the play about a professional baseball player coming out of the closet, is hittin the road and again garnering rave reviews in Seattle. In addition to good writing and highly regarded performances, the play features a shower scene that will certainly leave you with something to talk about.
11.13.2004
Bowl boredom: The college football bowl system is pretty much a joke these days. College bowl games used to have cachet: the Rose Bowl, the Cotton Bowl and the Orange Bowl were special. Now it's a bloated system of pretty meaningless games, played by pretty mediocre teams. However, there might be warning signs that the whole shebang might collapse at some point soon. There are 117 teams in the top division of college football and if everything goes according to plan, by next season more than half of those teams will be playing in a bowl game. One of the guidelines for choosing teams to play in a bowl is six wins but in 2004, with the season almost over, there are not enough teams with six wins to fill all the available bowl slots. If this means that some of the more than 30 bowl games cease to exist, that can't be a bad thing.
11.12.2004
No baseball replay: The recently completed World Series had its share of controversial calls: a disputed homerun by the Red Sox, Alex Rodriguez' karate chop interference call and so forth. After an initial call, in every case the calls were debated by the whole umpiring and the initial decision overturned. This lead to the serious consideration--for all of one day really--of baseball using instant replay to decide calls. The other major sports use replays to differing degrees, but it's probably not a great idea in baseball. The games are too long as it is, but more importantly, umpires' decisions are part of the fabric of the game. We'd never admit this to our major league ump that answers questions for us on the message board, but we think that the umpires are so good that they get 9 out 10 calls absolutely correct. It's a slippery slope down from using replay to see if a home run ball has dipped fair inside the foul pole to using automated balls and strikes. Baseball is stodgy and old-fashioned in a lot of ways, but having the umpires be the sole arbirters of calls, not someone in a replay booth, is the correct decision.
11.11.2004
The Dumbest Thing A Football Player has Ever Done? It's a pretty strong statement, given some of the dumbass things football players have tried to pull in the past. But this one might take the cake. Two Michigan State football players were arrested for planting homemade bombs that blew up outside of campus apartments. Terry Love and Irving Campbell, both 19-year-old redshirt freshmen receivers, were behind the explosions.
In years past, this may have been passed off as two kids having fun. But, in post-9/11 America, two kids probably couldn't have picked a dumber prank to pull. While they are presently charged with misdemeanors, it's never a safe bet that officials will let the prank be punished for what it was - a prank - instead of the more sinister charge of terrorism.
Chances are these two won't be graduating with honors.
Liquor Companies Get NASCAR Green Light: NASCAR gave liquor companies the OK to sponsor cars on their circuit. Liquor company Diageo immediately announced Wednesday that it will sponsor a team next season.
11.10.2004
Dolphins Coach Says, "Adios": No one will be happier to know that Miami Dolphins head coach Dave Wannstedt has resigned than Dolphins fans. The Dolphins have struggled this season with a 1-8 record, leaving the club just one loss away from their first losing season in 15 years. Defensive coordinator Jim Bates will act as interim head coach.
While many may point to the sudden retirement of Pro Bowl running back Ricky Williams, or the season-ending injury to David Boston, as the reasons for Wannstedt's struggles in 2004, many others point to his poor coaching that left disappointment many other years and that has failed to replaceme quarterback Dan Marino since his retirement.
Rumors are swirling about who the next 'Fins head coach would be. Former Florida Gators head coach Steve Spurrier is a popular rumor; though, if his performance at the helm of the Washington Redskins is any indication, that might not be the best idea. If the Dolphins are smart (which the jury is out on), they'll wait until the postseason and hire one of the New England Patriots' coordinators - defensive coordinators Romeo Crennel or offensive coordinator Charlie Weis.
11.9.2004
Mike Danton Sentenced: The strangest sports story of the year has come full circle. Mike Danton, the NHL player who plotted to kill his agent, was sentenced Monday to 7 1/2 years in prison. There is no parole at the Federal level.
At Danton's sentencing, U.S. District Judge William Stiehl said he could not remember a stranger case in his 18 years on the bench. Danton is expected to seek a transfer to a prison in Canada, where he is from. If he is transferred to Canada, it is expected that he will not be allowed back in the United States.
The story left many scratching their heads in April. Many were left wondering if Danton had tried to kill a male lover in what continues to be a case full of mystery. Questions about the relationship between Danton and his agent, Dave Frost, still abound. But we may never know the deepest, darkest secrets about the relationship that took Danton from his family at a young age, drove him to change his name and, eventually, plot to kill the man.
Danton's alleged accomplice, Katie Wolfmeyer, was acquitted in September of helping Danton with the plot.
Michael Phelps Arrested: Six-time Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps was arrested last Thursday night for drunk driving, Maryland state police announced Monday.
Phelps also was charged with violation of a license restriction and failure to obey a stop sign. The legal drinking age in Maryland is 21; Phelps is 19.
"I want to say that last week I made a mistake. I wanted to share my feelings and I know that getting in a car with anything to drink is wrong, dangerous and is unacceptable," Phelps told The Associated Press.
11.8.2004
NFL Week 9: Sunday was another wild day in the NFL. Check out our weekly look, including the teams we'd least like to face in December, fantasy woes and our uniform appreciation.
New York Marathon Notes: We watched some of the New York Marathon from 70th Street and First Avenue on Sunday. For a cithy that is so diverse, so huge and so cold, it was wonderful to see a sporting event bring the city together like not even a Yankees World Series championship would do.
Riding up the 6 train, we saw young kids, old kids, kids in strollers, kids carrying thunder sticks. There were people cheering on their girlfriends, their boyfriends, their moms and dads, their kids. And the streets all through Manhattan were mobbed - five or 10 people deep in some spots.
We joked a lot about how we would never attempt to traverse the 26.2 miles from Staten Island to the Bronx and back to Manhattan that these 35,000 runners had set their hearts on completing for the last six months. While it may take something between insanity and inspiration to attempt the race, many of those people on that warm Sunday in November inspired us, and the hundreds of thousands lined up to watch them, to something maybe a bit greater than a sour puss on our daily stroll to work.
The women's race was the closest ever - four seconds giving Britain's Paula Radcliffe the first non-Kenyan victory in the marathon since 2000. To think that, after a race of over two hours, four seconds might be the difference between victory and oh-so-close, is at the same time disheartening and inspiring. That woman who finished second will hit the streets again tomorrow, aiming at a first-place finish the next time around.
We won't be running next to her, but we'll be glad to cheer her along next year al the same.
11.6.2004
D'backs are dumb: The Arizona Diamondbacks have some serious egg on their face. Earlier this week, the team announced with great fanfare their new manager, former Met Wally Backman. A mere four days later, Backman is gone. Apparently, the Diamondbacks don't know about the Internet or Google searches, because a minute of research would have revealed why the team should have had second thoughts about the hiring. Backman has been in legal trouble and declared bankruptcy a few years ago and those aren't things a baseball team want on the resume of a manager. After losing a staggering 111 games last season, the Diamondbacks needed to get the manergial choice right but instead end up looking incompetent.
11.5.2004
European Women's Tour Welcomes Transsexual: The first transsexual golfer were participate in the Ladies' European Tour next year. Mianne Bagger, a 37-year-old Australian golfer, qualified for the tour this week when tour organizers decided to amend their rules and allow post-operative transsexuals to compete.
The change in policy comes on the heals of Bagger's tenth-place finish in a qualifying match in Italy last weekend.
You can learn more about Bagger at her Web site, Miannegolf.com
In men's golf, Viajy Singh is two shots back in the Tour Championship, which kicked off Thursday at East Lake Gofl Club in Atlanta, Ga. He is joined two shots back by John Daly and six other golfers.
We wonder how a post-op Vijay Singh might do on the women's tour. A post-op John Daly: we'll pass on that thought all together.
11.4.2004
NHL Slipping Toward the End: Major League Baseball suffered dearly from a cancelled second half of a season. The NFL is now staring down the barrel of a cancelled season it will not survive. On Wednesday, the league cancelled its All Star Game that had been scheduled for Atlanta in February.
With arenas releasing dates on a rolling 45-day basis, the next big announcement from the league will surely be the cancellation of the entire season. And if baseball could barely survive being out a couple months, we have seen the last NHL game.
11.3.2004
Pack-'Skins Wrong? There are still lots of votes to be counted. But, at 12:45am, it does not look good for John Kerry. Or the long-standing Washington Redskins stat. For the last 70+ years, when the Redskins have lost their last home game before the election, the incumbent has won. Until, it looks like, 2004. The Redskins lost to the Green Bay Packers, 28-14, last Sunday; yet, it looks like incumbent George W. Bush will win re-election.
NBA Underway: The NHL may be on hold, but the NBA got its kick-off witht three hot match-ups Tuesday night.
Defending NBA champion Detroit Pistons knocked off the Houston Rockets, with new star Tracy McGrady, 87-79. It was a big win for the champs, taking a road game against one of the teams picked to challenge for the title in the West.
The Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers also posted wins over conference rivals.
11.2.2004
Make Your Voice Heard: Let?s face it?for many of our American readers the most important contest is not happening in a sports arena or a stadium but in the voting booth. The 2004 Presidential Race is ending and we have never seen such interest in any election. This site has always been non-partisan so we would never suggest who to vote for. But after all the ads and polls and pundits, the final decision is really up to you.
Anyone who doesn?t vote (it doesn?t matter for whom) has little right to bitch about what happens the next four years. As Paul Krugman put it in the New York Times: ?By coming to the polls, citizens are literally giving a vote of confidence in American democracy.? That?s a sentiment even Yankee and Red Sox fans can agree on.
Monday Night Snoozer: How boring was Monday night?s 41-14 New York Jets rout over the Miami Dolphins? ABC brought Kelly Ripa into the booth in the second quarter. That?s when we turned off the set.
Jim Buzinski
11.1.2004
No Sunshine in This State: On Saturday, for the first time since 1978, all three major Florida football universities went down to defeat. Florida lose to Georgia, 31-24, No. 5 Florida State lost to Maryland, 20-17, and No. 3 Miami was shocked by North Carolina, 31-28.
The Miami loss was the biggest as far as the race for the national championship was concerned. Hurricanes coach Larry Coker called it ?mind boggling.? The game was won by freshman kicker Connor Barth, who booted a 42-yard field goal as time expired. The fans in Chapel Hills swarmed the field and tore down both goal posts. ''It's the best feeling in the world,'' Barth said. ''I've never made a game-winner like that. That was the first one ever, and what a game to do it in.''
NFL Week 8: Sunday was another wild day in the NFL. Check out our weekly look, including the Patriots? first loss in 399 days.
Everybody Loves a Winner: The Boston Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years and both presidential campaigns hope some of the magic rubs off. Curt Schilling, the Red Sox star pitcher in Game 2 of the World Series, endorses President Bush in automated recordings that will be used in three competitive states -- New Hampshire, Maine and Pennsylvania -- before Tuesday's voting, the Associated Press reports.
Not to be outdone, Democrat John Kerry, who frequently mentions his hometown team and donned a cap this past week, appeared Sunday with Boston's principal owner John Henry, part-owner Tom Werner and general manager Theo Epstein at a campaign stop in Manchester, N.H.
10.30.2004
College hoops: Now that the baseball season is over and football, pro and college, are roughly at the mid-point in their respective seasons, let's take a look at college basketball. The USA Today/ESPN preseason coaches' poll was released this week and it can be used a general guide to the relative strengths of teams going in to the season. Kansas is ranked No. 1, based on the fact that three of their top scorers are returning seniors. The ACC looks to be strong again this year, with Wake Forest ranked second and North Carolina third. Defending champion Connecticut is ranked seventh, while the loser in the title game last season, Duke, is 12th. There's still a long way to go, of course, but unlike college football and their lack of a playoff system, the college basketball rankings are a guide, not the final determining factor in deciding a champion.
10.29.2004
Parade on Saturday: The Boston Red Sox' players will never have to buy themselves another beer in New England as long as they live after their sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals to win the World Series for the first time since 1918. The traditional victory parade will be held on Saturday. The team says there could more than two to three million people along the parade route, which will stretch from The Fenway to City Plaza. For a comparison, about 1.5 million were on hand for the New England Patriots celebration after their Super Bowl win in January. One slightly odd feature is that, due to safety and security concerns, there will not be the usual rally at the finishing point. The players will ride along the three mile route equipped with microphones to be able to address the crowd. Unfortunately, the weather forecast is showing rain for Saturday, but we suspect that will not deter anyone. Here's to a great time and no violence.
10.28.2004
No More Curse: The Boston Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-0, to win the World Series in four game for their first title since 1918. It was one of the longest droughts in pro sports and one many people thought would never end.
What was surprising about this World Series was how easy it was for Boston. After being tied going into the bottom of the night in Game 1, the Red Sox never trailed again at any point. The key was impressive pitching as the Sox allowed only three runs in the last three games. Derek Lowe pitched seven scoreless innings for Boston in Game 4 to get the win.
We remember being in New York on June 30 when the Yankees beat the Red Sox in an extra-innings thriller and put Boston so far behind in the division that the New York media declared them dead. But Boston made the playoffs as a wild card and became the third straight team to win the World Series despite not winning the division.
One side benefit about the Series being over is that we don?t have to listen to analyst Tim McCarver, who tries way too hard to be erudite but too often is just annoying. And no more endless promotions for Fox series, especially the one about an obnoxious fat boss, or something like that.
Congratulations fans of Red Sox nation. There will be no more ?Wait ?Til Next Year? because Next Year has finally arrived.
10.27.2004
Sox Up 3-0: The Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-1, to win Game 3 of the World Series and take a 3-0 Series lead. The Sox are primed to make history by becoming the first team to ever blow a 3-0 Series lead. It would be so Sox-like.
But don?t expect it to happen. This Boston team seems not to fear history and came back from being 3-0 down to beat the hated and dreaded Yankees in the ALCS. And St. Louis simply doesn?t have the pitching to contain the Red Sox bats.
The key in Game 3 was a serious base-running blunder by Cardinals pitcher Jeff Suppan. In the third inning, he was on third base with none out, when a ball was hit to the right side of the infield. Suppan could have walked home and tied the score at 1-1. For some reason, though, he froze and got caught between third and home and was an easy out. What should have been one run wound up being a double play. Suppan seemed rattled the rest of the game and the Sox took advantage to get three more runs and ice the game. ''Basically, I screwed it up,'' Suppan said. ''I really don't know how to describe it or explain it.''
10.26.2004
Bengals Win on Monday Night: The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Denver Broncos, 23-10, in their first home Monday night game since 1989. The 2-4 Bengals looked like a playoff team in spanking the Broncos, who came into the game 5-1. Receiver Chad Johnson was superb, with 149 yards receiving and two touchdowns. And fans of Bengals lineman Justin Smith got to see him flex his immense biceps after he recorded two consecutive sacks in the fourth quarter.
Zook Out in Florida: The University of Florida fired head coach Ron Zook, who had gone 20-13 in two-plus years in Gainesville. He will coach the remainder of the season.
Zook was responsible for much of went wrong (by Florida football standards) and it didn?t help when he got into a shouting match with fraternity members a few weeks ago. But he was never given a fair shake and this was exemplified when the website fireronzook.com sprang up two days after he was hired. As AP wrote about the site, ?In a sense, it was funny and original. ? But it was also cruel, and it took the nasty and personal nature of the ubiquitous internet-driven rants against coaches to a new level.?
Zook?s firing again shows what?s wrong with big-time college sports, where it is not enough to have a winning record. In all the stories I read about Zook?s firing, I could find nothing that dealt with academics or the graduation rates of his players (failure in these areas would have been legitimate reasons to fire him). Instead, the people in Gainesville are simply obsessed with wins and losses and are pining for the return of bully-boy Steve Spurrier, a guy who was great running up the score on collegiate patsies but a total failure in the NFL. I guess they deserve each other.
Jim Buzinski
10.25.2004
Sox Up 2: The Boston Red Sox capped a magnificent week by winning the first two games of the World Series, 11-9 in Game 1 and 6-2 in Game 2 over the St. Louis Cardinals. This followed the four-game comeback against the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.
In Game 2, the Sox committed four errors for the second game in a row, but it again didn?t matter. Curt Schilling pitched six strong innings and Mark Bellhorn had another key hit.
This series is far from over, though. The next three game are in St. Louis, which is 6-0 in postseason play. If Boston keeps playing such sloppy defense, the Cards will capitalize. While the two games in Boston were played in cold temperatures in the upper 40s, the forecast for St. Louis calls for it to be in the 60s, but rain is possible.
NFL Week 7: Sunday was another wild day in the NFL. Check out our weekly look, including how some players see the presidential election.
Huh?: The weird college football score of the season had to be Iowa 6, Penn State 4. on Saturday. We can't remember ever hearing of a team scoring exactly 4 points (which means two 2-point safeties for you football novices.) A reader today did let us know that in 1929, Penn St. beat Syracuse, 6-4.
Iowa must have thought the Penn State was totally inept, since they took an intentional safety in the fourth quarter that brought the Nittany Lions within a field goal of going ahead. Said Penn State center E.Z. Smith: "It's pretty bad when a team pretty much shoves it in your face that they don't think you can score on them. We definitely took that as a personal slap."
