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8.31.2006
'Billie Jean' to host U.S. Open forever: The National Tennis Center in Flushing, which annually hosts the U.S. Open, has been dedicated and named for openly gay tennis great Billie Jean King, who won the tournament singles title four times from 1967 to 1974; she also has five women's doubles and four mixed doubles titles at the Open. The new official name for the home of the Open: The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Even more so than being one of the two most decorated open lesbians in tennis history, King is probably most famous for breaking down barriers for women in tennis by winning the "Battle of the Sexes" against two-time U.S. Open champion Bobby Riggs, who was 55 at the time, in 1973.
Paul Zimmerman, a.k.a. Dr. Z, is one of Outsports management's favorite sports writers, focusing his sharp pen weekly on the NFL. He wrote an interesting column this week about his theory that Riggs threw the match against King. I don't know if I believe it, but he makes some good points. As Dr. Z says, you can draw your own conclusions. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
8.30.2006
Rain rain go away: Tuesday was a nasty wet day at the U.S. Open, and it doesn't look like it's going to get much better. All of the matches on Tuesday were pushed to Wednesday. Nine did get underway, including top-seeded and openly gay Amelie Mauresmo up one set to Kristina Barrois, 6-1, 2-5.
Scattered rain showers are forecast for much of the next 10 days, and heavier rain is expected on Saturday and Sunday as the remnants of Hurricane Ernesto pass through the Northeast. Too many pushed matches will mean back-to-back playing days later in the tournament, which could result in sloppier play. But, as long as the rain keeps coming, it will just keep delaying the retirement of Andre Agassi. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
U.S. into basketball semis: The few doomsday-ists left will have to wait at least one more game to see the United States lose in the world championships in Japan, as they dismantled Dirk Nowitzki's German team, 85-65, in the quarterfinals.
While their past wins this tournament have come with incredible offensive outbursts (they hovered around 50 percent shooting for the tournament), they shot only 37.6 percent in this one, but used a stifling defense to build on their one-point halftime lead and bury the Germans.
Next up for the Americans is Greece, which is also undefeated at 7-0. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
8.29.2006
British soccer club reaches out to gays. What is hopefully a harbinger of things to come, Manchester City Football Club is reaching out to gay fans and championing gay rights. The club is hiring openly gay workers at its stadium, which has made it the first British football club to be recognized as 'gay-friendly' by the local gay-rights group Stonewall; They have also donated to Stonewall to join the group's Diversity Champions list; They are advertising in local gay publications; And they have given free tickets and coaching to Manchester's gay soccer team.
While soccer remains outwardly homophobic in England, leadership in the sport seems to be growing in its gay-positive messages. According to an unnamed league spokesperson in the Observer, it was "a brave move by Man City. The fact that a high-profile Premiership club are taking this step to break down barriers is clearly positive and hopefully other clubs will follow their lead."
"The endgame for them is to recruit new supporters," said local gay soccer player Jason McAuley. "A lot of gay men and lesbians have always seen football as a very straight sport and very homophobic in the stands, but some gays in Manchester have been to see Man City and really enjoyed the experience, so I think the club's efforts to reach out to the gay community are paying off. They are changing people's perceptions."
If it's the pink dollars, or pink pounds, that help us continue to break down barriers and convince sports teams and leagues to embrace it, then so be it. We've got to use everything we can.
Manchester City is presently 1-1-1, just over a week into the FA Premiere League regular season. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
MNF gives us 2005 NFL flashback: The Monday Night Football game between the Green Bay Packers and the Cincinnati Bengals was like a flashback to 2005. Oh, how things haven't changed.
First, the Packers looked terrible in their embarrassing 48-17 loss to the Bengals, and quarterback Brett Favre was the worst. In his team's first three possessions, he fumbled a ball that was returned for a touchdown, he threw a pass well behind a receiver that was tipped and intercepted, he had two passes batted down (one of which was a screen pass!), and he got sacked. He left the game with a 65.8 passer rating, and that didn't even take the sack and the fumble into account! I've got to believe Favre is thinking right now, "why did I come back this season?"
On the flip side, the Bengals looked like the team that won the AFC North last season. Carson Palmer, in his season debut after recovering from knee-ligament surgery, looked like the League MVP, throwing for 140 yards and three touchdowns on just 14 attempts. The Bengals' defense also looked great, disrupting virtually everything the Packers attempted.
Finally, Joe Theismann. How did ESPN change two-thirds of their NFL crew and Theismann made the cut? I'm actually beginning to think he has a learning disability. It was just the same old thing we saw last year and the year before and the year before: He latches onto one story and that's virtually all he talks about. On Monday night, it was Carson Palmer's knee. It seemed every play he talked about Carson Palmer's knee, from how it was or was not bent to who was near it on a play to how he didn't look down at it to how he favored it to how he didn't favor it to how it affected wide receiver Chad Johnson to how fans reacted to it to how Brett Favre must feel about it to how the weather was being determined by it. It was bizarre. I couldn't help thinking several times, "Enough of Carson Palmer's knee!" The guy threw three touchdowns; the knee was the first-quarter story!
Please Bob Iger, if you're reading this, do every NFL fan a favor and can the last remaining Chucklehead. After so many years listening to his drivel, we deserve it. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
8.28.2006
Blue Jays' Pride Night gets a win. The Third Annual Toronto Blue Jays Pride Night went off without a hitch Friday, with the Jays winning 6-3 over the Kansas City Royals. The Jays are now 3-3 on Pride Night (2-2 with roof open, 1-1 with the roof closed).
The event was moved from its usual Pride Week time, and the heavy advertising and postering of previous years was eliminated to cut costs. Still, there was a turnout of about 175 to 200 people, with some lively lesbians leading the section in arm-waving and the wave, and waving rainbow flags and such (which was shown on the Jumbotron in between innings).
Billy Newton-Davis was a very popular national anthem singer. Jerry Howarth, the long-time Blue Jays radio announcer, came down to the field before the game to meet him, and many in the crowd recognized him.
Attendees seemed to be quite happy we had a more concentrated group than last year (when the gay group was somewhat dispersed among the general crowd). -Event organizer Mark Kari
CBS News on Logo's 'Out To Win' The guys and gal from CBS News on Logo spent about 10 days at the Gay Games in Chicago and three days at the Outgames in Montreal, providing daily coverage of both while they were there. On Sunday night, Logo premiered a new CBS News on Logo special about the state of gay athletics entitled, "Out To Win." They form their report around the two premiere gay-sports events this summer, talking to athletes and celebrity-athletes about where gay sports have been and where they are headed.
Jason Bellini and Itay Hod are a smart pair, each playing their role in telling the story of the growing segment of gay culture that seems to have piqued Bellini's intellect and aroused Hod's primal interest. It's particularly refreshing to see CBS News on Logo take event organizers to task and not just put out the same old "isn't everything just great" attitude that so much of the rest of gay media tends to do with seminal events like the Gay Games and Outgames.
The special also pays homage to some of the pro-athlete pioneers who have helped open doors for gay men and lesbians: Martina Navratilova, Greg Louganis and Dave Kopay sit down and talk with CBS News and offer their insights. They even found time to sit me down and let me throw out a bunch of soundbites.
All in all, the piece is pretty darn good. No one involved would call themselves a sports fan, but they showed why Logo struck a deal with CBS: They're all professionals, they're all journalists, and they know how to tell a story, whether it's about gay sports or not. -Cyd Zeigler jr
Editor's note: Outsports has entered into an agreement to co-produce a series of interstitials for Logo.
8.26.2006
Sucker!: I've never gotten in to the sports memorabilia thing. I never collected baseball cards as a kid, have refused bobblehead dolls when they've been handed out at Angels games and after nearly getting my head ripped off by Greg Lake of my favorite band Emerson, Lake & Palmer in the parking lot of the Wiltern Theater for not holding a poster correctly so that he could sign it, not even autographs.
Not so Jeff Kranz. Until this week, the former New York investment banker made his living collecting and selling autographed Barry Bonds stuff: bats, balls, shirts, gloves, the works. After seeing the Pirates rookie Bonds at Shea Stadium in 1986, he got in to the memorabilia thing from an investment angle, hitching his wagon to Bonds as it were, figuring that if Bonds became the star that he eventually did, a signed bat that had been used in a game would be a good investment. He was right: spending an estimated $250,000 over the years on Bonds related items, he could sell a single signed, used bat for $3,500.
It's a crazy market, somewhat like the market for modern art, with wild price fluctuations, absurd overbidding and so forth; there's also fraud and forgery. Kranz was so in to this as a business that he would travel to see Bonds play, then get him to sign stuff. In one case, he paid Bonds $40,000 to sign 1,000 items (!!), which he then resold. He was officially A Friend of Barry. It was all humming along nicely until Barry Bonds former business manager Steve Hoskins, whom Kranz bought most of the items from, was accused by Bonds of forging his signature on numerous items and then pocketing the dough.
Bonds went to FBI agents in San Francisco to file a complaint and this is where the story gets interesting: the FBI had him under investigation for his role in the BALCO steroids case without Bonds knowing it and when out of the blue they asked Bonds if he was juicing, he denied it. Now he's facing possible perjury charges for that statement and the one he made to a Grand Jury investigating BALCO in 2003. In a scene from a bad crime movie, former manager Hoskins was cleared of wrongdoing, so Barry Bonds basically engineered his own potential legal downfall.
Meanwhile, the accusations of forgery and steroids use allegations devastated the market for Bonds memorabilia: that $3,500 bat would now fetch $1,100. Jeff Kranz was used to face time with Barry Bonds; they'd talk on the phone, Kranz would chat with him in the dugout before games and so on. That is, until FBI agents visited him with Bonds in tow and Bonds claimed a signed glove that he had worn as a rookie was a fake.
Kranz was livid, as it came from a reputable source and auction house, but it got worse when the Feds seized a bunch of expensive stuff, held it for months and returned it without explanation. Is Kranz bitter? You bet! "I just thought, I may never get the stuff back," he says. "And I knew he wasn't going to help me. Knowing the person he is, he wasn't going to make up for my loss".
But Jeff Kranz has moved on. After an online auction of Bonds stuff that ended this week, he's out of the Barry Bonds business. He's already set his investment banker eyes on a new mark: Arizona Diamondback pitcher Brandon Webb, who Kranz thinks is a "future superstar". The "future superstar" is 44-42 in his career so that's not quite working out just yet. Pro athletes have all sorts of hangers on and people that want a piece of them around and certainly Jeff Kranz isn't as bad as the cocaine dealers that infested major league clubhouses during the Reagan administration. But it can be dicey to mix friendship with business (Kranz was at Webb's wedding); let's hope Jeff Kranz and Brandon Webb don't find that out the hard way. --Jim Allen
8.25.2006
More Danton weirdness: Outsports has followed the bizarre saga of former NHL player Mike Danton since it appeared on media radar screens in the United States in 2004. Short version: young Canadian kid falls under sway of Svengali-like coach/agent, becomes so estranged from his family that he changes his name from Jefferson to Danton, ends up arrested, convicted and sentenced to over seven years in prison for being a part of a plot to murder said Svengali. Needless to say, it could make a compelling movie.
On Tuesday, the Svengali, David Frost (not the British talk show host), was arrested in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and charged with using his status as an authority figure to coerce four boy and three girls, all between the ages of 14 and 16, in to taking part in sexual activity. He was charged with 12 counts of sexual exploitation and one count of assault.
It appears from a brief bit of Googling that the sexual exploitation charge is applied when an adult who is in a position of authority and/or trust has sex with a person under the age of 18. The police charge that in the mid-1990's, Frost had a hotel suite in the town of Deseronto, where he was coaching a team of teenagers. It seems the suite became known in the town for its wild parties and sexual activity. Frost's explanation? It was just hockey players doing what hockey players do. Hmmmm...
Frost was bailed after posting $10,000 Canadian dollars (about $9,025 US) bail from a court in Napanee, Ontario. As he was entering the court, a player Frost used to coach, Jesse Wansborough, yelled at him "I hope you rot". Talking to reporters, Wansborough said "I'm disgusted with the fact that Mike Danton is in jail and David Frost is out free, living the life". Um, dude, plotting to kill someone isn't exactly the legal equivalent of a parking ticket, but point taken.
In yet another bizarre twist to this case, Danton's biological father, Steve Jefferson, was recently arrested and released after making not-at-all nice phone calls to David Frost. The reason for the calls? A report on the popular Canadian television show fifth estate --no, the f and the e aren't capitalized-- included tapes of conversations between Frost and Danton. At one point, Frost is heard pestering Danton to say that he loved him, until Danton finally did. Ewwwwww.
I may be wrong, but there's never been proof that Mike Danton is gay or bisexual, which was hinted at in the intial stories about this case. Now, it's just become a strange sports-related case that has made an issue of the junior hockey leagues of Canada, which have a history of all sorts of misdeeds by its participants, including players, coaches and administrators. If he serves his entire sentence at the prison in New Jersey where he currently resides, Mike Danton will be released some time in 2011. I suspect, based on the latest developments, that David Frost will be in prison far past that date. --Jim Allen
8.24.2006
ESPN tape-delays f#@$ing Little League World Series: You can understand the Super Bowl being broadcast on a five-second delay. The MTV Music Video Awards? Give them a five-day delay. But, when the Little League World Series needs to be on a delay, you know the world is coming to an end.
But that's just what ESPN is doing after Staten Island manager Nick Doscher slapped one of his players following the player's audible obscenity that was broadcast over ESPN during the team's 1-0 loss to Lemont, Illinois, on Tuesday.
"Little League International was extremely disappointed in the behavior of the player and coach involved in the incident," the organization said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.
"Because the incident was not noticed by any umpire, the Little League International Tournament Committee has reprimanded the player and manager. Both have been advised that any further similar or unsportsmanlike behavior will result in removal from the Little League International Tournament."
It's not surprising that the kid might swear during a tight baseball game. The way swear words are thrown around in movies, in music and on the Internet, you really can't blame him too much for letting loose with an F-bomb or whatever else he said. But the manager smacking the kid? Maybe there's an assistant-coaching position waiting for him on the Texas Tech men's basketball team. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
Barlow compares former coach to Hitler: Running back Kevan Barlow, recently traded from the San Francisco 49ers to the New York Jets, let 'er rip against his former Niners coach, Mike Nolan, comparing him to Adolf Hitler. Barlow quickly apologized, saying he was overly emotional about his seemingly sudden trade to a team over 3,000 miles away from where he made his home.
Far too often people make over-the-top comparisons between those they vilify and Hitler. Hitler attempted to exterminate an entire race while conquering Europe. No matter how the Niners treated Barlow, there is just no real comparison between the evil impetus of World War II and an NFL head coach.
Still, it's partly understandable where it comes from. NFL teams trade their unwanted players like they were trading cards. When you've had your heart set on living in a city and playing with a group of teammates, it can't be easy to be shipped off with little or no warning. Hopefully the Jets will be a good home for Barlow and those comments will be forgotten. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
8.23.2006
An NFL mini-blockbuster trade: A starting wide receiver and a backup running back, who combined for 24 touchdowns over the last two seasons, will be switching teams this week after a three-team trade that will shift the landscape of the NFL.
Disgruntled Denver Bronco wide receiver Ashley Lelie will be with the Atlanta Falcons next season, and he will likely become quarterback Michael Vick's number-one wide-receiver target. The Falcons went shopping for a wide receiver when Brian Finneran went down for the season. In Lelie, they get much of what they got a few years ago when they brought in Peerless Price: a No. 2 receiver with a lot of speed but not used to getting a defense's treatment of a No. 1 receiver. Still, with Vick's arm and Lelie's speed, if the two players are dedicated to making it work, the Falcons just might finally have their game-breaking receiver they've so longed for.
In return, the Falcons had to give up their insurance at the all-important running back position, sending T.J. Duckett to the Washington Redskins. This brings into question the health of Redskins running back Clinton Portis, who injured his shoulder in the first quarter of their first preseason game. Duckett will likely be a backup again for most of the season, though he'll get the chance to start the season opener when Portis is likely to be on the sideline nursing his injury.
For their trouble, the Denver Broncos get a third-round draft pick in 2007 from Washington. -Cyd Zeigler jr
8.22.2006
Boston Sweep Party: As I said several days ago, the Boston Red Sox are back. They were overtaken for the 2004 season by a bunch of guys who forgot for eight lone games that the Red Sox are a bunch of choking dogs. Luckily, the Sox we've all known and loved and sympathized with for so many years are back.
And how fitting that it should be the New York Yankees to remind the world that the Red Sox aren't champs, they're chokers. They're a team that has, except for that ever-so-rare 2004 season, never been as good as the excellent of each of its parts. Four days ago they were only 1 1/2 games behind the Yankees in the race for the AL East division title. Now they're 6 1/2 games behind, after being swept in their five-game series with the Bronx Bombers.
The Yankees celebrated in the dugout after their fifth straight win against the Red Sox Monday afternoon, as well they should. It's been a rough couple of years for a team that had gotten used to seemingly winning at will. But, in the last two years, they've been overshadowed on the likes of ESPN by the Boston Red Sox and their storied run to the 2004 World Series championship, which included an historic come-from-behind series win over the Yankees. While a regular-season sweep doesn't make up for lost chances at a title, it sure feels good when it happens.
To make matters worse, the Red Sox are now 3 1/2 games behind the Chicago White Sox, and three games behind the Minnesota Twins, in the race for the AL's wild card. With less than 40 games to go, they'll have to turn around their current streak in which they've lost 12 of their last 16 and 19 of their last 29 games. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
Repent at Phillies Gay Night: The 4th Annual Gay Community Night at the Phillies was held last Friday night. The National Anthem was performed by the Rainbow Chorale of Delaware and first pitch thrown by Dolph Goldenburg, Executive Director of the William Way LGBT Community Center.
Attended by about 550 members of the LGBT community and friends, attendance was down from about 800 attendees last year. This decrease can be attributed to the event being held on a Friday night for the first time, as many LGBT Philadelphia-area residents go to the Delaware or New Jersey shore, as well as Fire Island, during summer weekends. Other reasons attendance was down was conflicting with the Gay Softball World Series and lingering anger over Repent America's "Homosexuality Is A Sin" banner displayed in the ballpark during the last Gay Community Night. During the off-season, the Phillies changed their banner and sign policy, restricting banners to baseball-related banners, and signs about birthdays and anniversaries. This year, Repent America marched outside the ballpark and gave out literature, but did not attempt to come inside the ballpark and display their anti-gay signs.
Unfortunately for Phillies fans, the Nationals beat the Phillies (although the Phillies won the other 2 games in the series over the weekend). This means the record for the Phillies winning during Gay Community Night is 0-4. Well, there is always next year. -Event organizer Larry Felzer
8.21.2006
PGA Championship, day 4: I knew it, I just knew it was going to happen. I mentioned gorgeous Sweded Henrik Stenson in my last post. He was leading the PGA Championship at Medinah CC in Illinois after two rounds and I noted that fact. Sure enough, he promptly collapsed on Saturday, and by the time Sunday's final round was done, he had fallen in to a tie for 14th place, 11 strokes off the lead. Take that, Curse of The Sports Illustrated Cover Subject!
As predictable as an unknown collapsing after leading a major after one or two rounds is Tiger Woods winning one. Going in to Sunday's final round, there was a bit of suspense at the top of the leader board: England's Luke Donald was tied with Woods at the start of play. That didn't last long, really, as Donald bogeyed the fourth hole, only made par on the fifth and after that, Woods ran away from the field. In winning his twelfth major tournament, only six behind Jack Nicklaus' record, Tiger ended up winning by five strokes, with 2003 PGA Championship winner Shaun Micheel finishing
second.
There actually was some drama on Sunday, however. The Ryder Cup is played between the United States and Europe and is coming up in September in Ireland. Points are accumulated by the American players throughout the season for Top 10 finishes and the top 10 players in the points totals and two wildcards named by the captain get the honor of getting beat by Europe in about a month.
Davis Love III was on the bubble this year, as was Shaun Micheel and a few other players. They didn't get the job done, so Love's only hope of making the 12 man squad is to be named by captain Tom Lehman as a wildcard entry (Micheel doesn't even have enough points to get in that way). Losers of four of the last five Ryder Cups, and seven out of the last eleven, it doesn't look good for the Yanks, despite having Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in the squad. --Jim Allen
Too much red: Tiger Woods has, for years, worn a red shirt in the final round of every tournament in which he is contending on the final day. It's become a "thing" - an homage, I'd like to think, to his two years golfing at Stanford.
On Sunday, two other wannabe golfers - Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia - showed up wearing bright red shirts, obviously trying to say "f--- you" to Tiger. I can only imagine the red Tiger was seeing when he saw his partner in the final round wearing a red shirt. But it was Donald who couldn't take the heat in the final pairing as he quickly melted. After just six holes, Tiger was already four shots up on Donald, with whom he was tied at the beginning of the round, and he ended up beating him by six shots. --Cyd Zeigler jr.
Life Is Happiness Indeed: Everton 2, Elton John's beloved Watford 1 was the score that showed up on my computer yesterday. Ah, only 37 more games to go in the English football season..... --Jim Allen
8.19.2006
PGA Championship, day 2: Wow, the Swede Henrik Stenson is gorgeous. With that out of the way, he's also playing good golf right now. After shooting consecutive rounds of 68, he's eight strokes under and is tied for the lead with three other players at the PGA Championship at Medinah CC outside of Chicago. In recent posts about the golf majors, I've mocked players for whining about how tough the courses are, but there's no such complaints this weekend: a record 61 players were under par during Friday's second round. As for my new object of sporting scorn, Tiger Woods, he's very much a contenda, not a palooka, as he's only a shot off the lead. Friday was cut day and once again, Vijay Singh is going home early. *Sigh* So is David Duval. Amazingly, there's still a lot of golf to be played.
Life begins anew: It's felt like forever, but finally the English Premiership football season starts today. I go in to the season looking at my beloved Everton and feel that vague sense of dread that I've felt for the last 15 years or so, when the last of their great 80's teams was broken up: they could get relegated year. It's irrational, they'll probably be mid-table mediocrities as usual. In fact, I'd be ecstatic if they finished sixth and got a UEFA Cup spot.
It looks like the title race in the Prem boils down to Chelsea and their 890 gazillion billion trillion pounds (or more, accurately, owner Roman Abramovich's rubles) spent on players and the dreaded Red Scum of Liverpool and their superb Spanish manager, Rafael Benitez.
Chelsea picked up two hotties, Andrei Schevchenko and Michael Ballack, in the offseason and so at least the visual aspect of the club will be good. I suspect that the airliner hangars at Heathrow wouldn't be able to contain the egos collected in the dressing room and there's gone to be some teething pains as the two are integrated in to the squad.
I'm loathe to say it because I hate them more than the Dallas Cowboys, Notre Dame football and USC in general combined, but Liverpool has a real shot at winning their first title since 1991 this year. Benitez has done a fantastic job at getting rid of the crap players he inherited and the team has quality at every postition. Steven Gerrard is another Premiership hottie so while I'm cursing Liverpool on the telly (they'll be on a lot this year), I can least admire his looks.
After that, there's a marked drop off in quality. Manchester United failed to land the big playmaking midfielder they desperately need in the offseason and the Wayne Rooney Hates Ronaldo For The Porteguese Player's Actions In The World Cup sideshow could be a yearlong distraction. It remains to be seen how the loss of Ruud van Nistleroy's scoring will affect the team, but they should be good enough for a Champions League place, but not the title, which in England is the big prize.
Arsenal move in to their shiny new Emirates Stadium (it'll always be Ashburton Grove to me) but while they made a great Champions League run last year, the loss of Swiss hottie Philippe Senderps to inury for the first part of the season to a shoulder injury he suffered at the World Cup leaves a hole in the defense.Arsenal lives or dies on the form of the best striker in England, Thierry Henry. He might have to carry them more than usual this year.
Their rivals from up the road in north London, Tottenham Hotspur, are tipped to make a big splash this year, but while they'll be in the hunt for a Champions League spot, they nowhere near Chelsea or Liverpool's calibre. A Champions League spot and beating Arsenal twice would mean a successful season for Spurs. One team I'll root for this year is Elton John's beloved Watford (he owned them for a spell), who won promotion at the end of last season.
I'm looking forward to the season and shall live and die with Everton match. Go you Blues! --Jim Allen
8.18.2006
PGA Championship, day 1: I'm a major, major opera queen. I love the operas of Wagner, but I sometimes get questioned why I would love the work of someone who was a vile anti-Semite, as Wagner undoubtedly was. It's because the art is one thing, the personal life another. I'm the same way about sports: I admire athletes for what they do on the field, what they do or say in their off time doesn't usually concern me anymore.
I'm pretty neutral on Tiger Woods as a sports personality. Amazing golfer, obviously, a man who, unless he dies or suffers a major injury, will rewrite the record books when he's done. I know some people who think he's a soulless corporate shill --maybe-- and others for whom he could drown a basket of kittens on live television and they'd still go "OMG! OMG! I love Tiger!!!11!!L!". I felt neutral until this week that is.
Astute, longtime readers of my blatherings here know that I love the real football, aka soccer. So when Woods was quoted as saying this week that he hopes any son he has plays American football, "no, not soccer, something more physical", I suddenly started to hope that he shoots 187 in every round he plays for the rest of this life and any others he might experience.
First, a golfer --a farking golfer-- dissing any other sport for not being physical enough is almost a farce worthy of Joe Orton. Secondly, there's that weird undercurrent of "I don't want my son to be a sissy" in his statement which is kind of creepy. Creepy, and dumb, because Tiger Woods wouldn't last ten minutes in a real football match before he was limping off with cleat marks all over his body.
On Thursday, the final major tournament of 2006 started with the first round of the PGA Championship at Medina CC in Medina, Illinois. Of course, a lot of sportswriters before the tournament beat the Tiger v. Phil (Mickelson) angle to death, with one site expressing disappointment yesterday that they didn't engage in a fistfight. Both played fine, shooting -3 to go three strokes behind the de riguer Anonymous Golfer Who Leads A Major After One Round, in this case hottie Lucas Glover. Lot's of golf to go etc.
Place your bets: England has had legalized gambling for a while now --they're sensible about things like that-- and people there will place bets on anything and the bookmakers will take those odd bets and pay out if needed. Case in point: the dad of Wigan footballer Chris Kirkland placed a bet ten years ago at 100/1 odds ago that his son would play for the English national squad before he was 30. Pops Kirkland was right, and is 10,000 pounds richer (about $19,000) after goalkeeper Chris made his England debut on Wednesday in the second half of England's 4-0 thrashing of Greece.
Obviously, the bookmakers aren't happy about this. "We have bets on our books for youngsters to grow up to play football for England, to win medals at the 2012 London Olympics, to win Wimbledon, the Open Golf Championship and to become world heavyweight boxing champions" said a spokesman for William Hill, a huge bookmaker in England. If only a few of those bets pay off, William Hill could be out some serious pounds sterling. So, if you live in England and think little Nigel or Graham will someday captain the England cricket squad, a visit to your local William Hill might be in order. It could be your retirement nest egg at stake. Seriously though, *that's* kind of creepy to me as well, the idea that your child is somewhat like a racehorse that you root for to succeed so you can cash in. --Jim Allen
8.17.2006
Are the Vikings cursed? Maybe Randy Moss just took him out for a night on the town after their game on Monday. Maybe purple is just an unlucky color. Whatever the reason, Minnesota Viking wide receiver Koren Robinson was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, fleeing police, and three other misdemeanors. Fleeing police is a felony. Doh!
Robinson was apparently driving 100 miles per hour in a 55 m.p.h. zone and refused to stop for police Tuesday night. Hi blood alcohol level was measured at 0.11 percent; the league limit to operate a motor vehicle in Minnesota is 0.08 percent.
This is not the first time Robinson has had a run-in with alcohol. While with the Seattle Seahawks, he served a four-game suspension in 2004 for a second violation of the NFL's substance-abuse policy. In 2005, he pled guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol and was released by the Seahawks. This latest incident comes at a bad time. It was on a day off after a preseason loss to the Oakland Raiders in which he was thrown to four times and caught two passes for 19 yards; I imagine new head coach Brad Childress won't be giving the players many more days off after this. It also comes with team owner Zygi Wilf continuing to try to clean up the act and the image of a team that was embarrassed by a much-publicized boat party last year.
I understand that alcoholism is a very tough nut to crack. But, how does someone like Robinson, who seems to be turning a corner in his life and his career, get drunk and then get into a car and drive 100 miles per hour, then decide to start a car chase by fleeing police? And now the bigger question for Robinson: Can the Vikings, with their new squeaky-clean image, afford to keep Robinson on the team? Don't be surprised if Robinson isn't wearing purple come opening day. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
8.16.2006
Let reporters fry in Bonds case: A federal judge has ordered two San Francisco Chronicle reporters, Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, to testify in court as to the identity of the person who leaked secret testimony of Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and other athletes regarding steroid use. The two reporters have hidden behind some bullshit code of journalism that says you should disobey court orders when protecting sources.
According to the Associated Press, the Hearst Corp., which owns the Chronicle, will be appealing the decision. They're claiming that, of course, it's in the "public's best interest" to reveal secret testimony in a federal court case.
As a reporter, I don't buy for a second these reporters who get on some moral high ground claiming it's their job to not divulge sources who give them protected information. This information is not in the public interest, though the public may be interested. The use of the secret testimony served simply to advance the careers, profiles and profits (they wrote a book about it) of these two sleazy reporters; and their keeping quiet about their sources protects only their own interest.
I imagine the judge will put them in jail for a couple months, but I wish he'd put them in jail permanently until they divulge their sources. Maybe then guys like this wouldn't try to cheat the judicial system for their own personal gain. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
Good to know the Red Sox are back: It was a little scary in 2004 when the Boston Red Sox won the World Series. It was a given every year that they'd choke; when they didn't, it suddenly threw the balance of the sports universe out of whack.
Thankfully, the Red Sox are back. They choked hard in the playoffs last year, and they're choking away the division title this year. They're 5-10 in August; they were 3.5 games up on the Yankees on July 22; they're now 3 games back. All is right again in the sports world. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
8.15.2006
Pardon The Monday Night Football: While it's not the biggest game on TV anymore, Monday Night Football still has a place in my heart. So, it was with great interest that I tuned into the first 90 minutes (because really, who can stand more than 90 minutes of Tarvaris Jackson throwing passes to Ryan Hoag) of Monday night's match-up between Tony Kornheiser and Joe Theisman . . . I mean, the Oakland Raiders and the Minnesota Vikings.
The match-up on the field was secondary to the match-up in the booth that, for the next five months, will hopefully add a bit of excitement and style to an ESPN booth that for the last couple of years came to be known by me as simply "The Three Chuckleheads."
Kornheiser felt a little uncomfortable through the start of the broadcast but seemed to ease into his role. His voice started the evening a little soft, and a little high-pitched, but as he relaxed a bit, his voice became more natural, and it was a little like listening to an episode of Pardon The Interuption when Mike Wilbon is MIA.
Joe Theismann is just awful. Always has been and, likely, always will be. He has a way of stating the obvious in inane fashion, like saying that the team that wins the game will be the team that scores the most points (which I'll be waiting for him to observe). He's also one of these guys and Michael Irvin is the same kind who has to defend virtually every quarterback and coach. He wants to be liked by the players and coaches, and he ends up being respected by precious few real fans who are looking for insight the game.
Mike Tirico was fine. His voice and style have always seemed a little overbearing in the moment, yet completely forgettable 30 minutes later. It was more of that on Monday.
Still, I'll be tuning in every Monday. Whether this all pans out or not, the Monday Night schedule is actually better than I remember seeing a few months ago. Week 5 is Baltimore at Denver; Week 6 is Chicago at Arizona; Week 13 is Carolina at Philadelphia; Week 15 is Cincy at Indy. Though the "premiere" game of the week is supposed to be on Sunday nights, the Monday night schedule looks very promising. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
8.14.2006
Little League coach would rather win by forfeit: Not that this should come as any surprise to anyone, but a Little League game between the Vermont and New Hampshire state champions became more about the coaches, and one coach's desperate need to win, than about the kids who were playing the game on the baseball diamond.
According to Little League rules, every player on a team has to play in each game for at least three consecutive outs and have an at-bat. It seems Vermont substitute Adam Bentley hadn't been at bat yet when his team took the field up, 9-7, in the bottom of the fifth and final inning. The Vermont manager, Denis Place, realized the error and attempted to allow New Hampshire to score two runs, which would have forced extra innings and given Bentley the chance to get his necessary at-bat.
Unfortunately, after New Hampshire had cut the deficit to 9-8 and Vermont was intentionally walking New Hampshire batters, New Hampshire manager Mark McCauley figured out what was going on and ordered his batters to start swinging and missing every wild pitch so they would strike out. They did. With the game over, McCauley quickly filed a protest, saying that Vermont had not used one of their players for the minimum amount of time. They won their protest and, despite losing, 9-8, got their win.
"It's crystal clear to me that (Vermont's manager) was not going to let the kids decide the outcome of the game," McCauley told the Associated Press. "He was going to cover his tail."
Uh, sorry buddy, it's you who didn't want the kids to decide the outcome of the game.
Despite Vermont trying to let the game be settled on the field in extra innings, McCauley decided that it was better to win the game on a technicality than potentially lose the game on the field. It's a sorry state of affairs when a Little League coach puts a "W" above letting his kids play. McCauley should be ashamed of himself. (Thanks to Fark.com for the item.) -Cyd Zeigler jr.
8.12.2006
No more bending for Beckham: Although they reached the quarterfinals, England's recent World Cup squad was widely considered a bust. They played
dull, plodding, uninspired stuff and after they were put out of their misery by Portugal, it was expected that changes would be made to the set up. One was
already pre-ordained, when manager Sven-Goran Eriksson left/was fired with extreme prejudice (take your pick). On Friday, the first of the player changes
were announced.
Having been an employee in companies that went through mergers, it's a given that a new management team will come in with a broom and
make changes to get the people they want. New England manager Steve McClaren got the broom out and announced that former England captain David Beckham was
not going to be in his squad for a friendly against Greece next Wednesday. It wasn't unexpected but still, it took some guts for McClaren to axe gay
friendly Becks, who has been an integral part of the England squad for ten years.
"I told him I was planning for the future, looking to change things and go
in a different direction, and David wasn't included within that" McClaren said and that "different direction" is having wingers who actually have quickness
and speed, qualities nobody has ever said Beckham possessed. He's not banned from the team, but unless something serious happens due to injuries to his
replacements, it looks like David Beckham's career for England is over.
I think he's been kind of living off of his reputation for the last five years or so, but when he was on, he could change a game with one of his patented long crosses. Of course, he still plays for Real Madrid and makes millions in Euros a year, so
it's not like we should be breaking out the crying towels any time soon.
Athletes gone bad: While football player Maurice Clarrett was having
his sad mugshot splashed all over the news this week for his apparent attempted murder plan being foiled, another athlete with a world of promise actually
appears to be worse off than the former Ohio State running back.
Jeff Allison was the Florida Marlins number one draft pick in the 2003 baseball
draft, the 16th player overall taken. Scouts were drooling over the very talented right handed pitcher from Peabody, Massachusetts who went 9-0 with a 0.00
ERA (!!) and 142 strikeouts in just under 64 innings of high school ball during his senior year. Since signing a $1.85 million contract, it's all gone
hideously wrong for Allison: after using the "hillbilly heroin" pills OxyContin in high school, he became a full blown heroin addict in 2004. He overdosed
in July, 2004 but survived. On Monday of this week, he was found in his bathroom by a totally freaked out friend, OD'd on the floor with heroin
paraphernalia by his body. He survived but unless he gets serious help, he's always going to be one fix away from being an obituary subject.
I'm no saint when it comes to recreational chemicals, but I've always avoided opiates like there was no tomorrow. As Neil
Young sings in his great song The Needle and the Damage Done: "I've seen the needle and the damage done/A little part of it in everyone/But every
junkie's like a settin' sun". Junkie queer writer William Burroughs (Naked Lunch, Junkie and Queer) has a character say in Junkie, regarding heroin, "If God made anything better, he kept it for himself". Somehow I don't think Jeff Allison would agree with that sentiment these days.
--Jim Allen
8.11.2006
Too gay for a gay sport: I'll get this out of the way up front: I instantly turn the channel when I'm watching the Olympics and synchronized swimming
(aka water ballet) comes on. Fine, I realize that it's a very tough sport to do, the whole holding your breath and forming poses like a ballet dancer while
under water thing, but it just does nothing for me (see also: rhythmic gymnastics).
With that disclaimer out of the way, after reading about this, I
had the same reaction I always do when reading about the anti-gay attitudes of people in the male figure skating world: what is their farking problem? The
basic story is this: a gay and lesbian aquatics club in the San Francisco area called the Tsunami's have an male/female (mostly male) synchronized swimming
team that was hoping to do an exhibition during the FINA World Masters Championships being held at Stanford University, the school with the best mascot in
the known (and probably unknown) universe, The Tree.
They were turned down by FINA on the basis that synchronized swimming is a female sport, end of
story. The local organizers of the meet gave them the go-ahead, but they were denied by the international ruling body.
While the rules are clear,
there's probably an element of homophobia involved in this decision; it's also rather shortsighted. It's my experience that more men compete in sports than
woman and you'd think that the ruling poobah's would be happy to do all it can to attract fans and participants in a niche event within a niche sport that. "It's a bit of a disappointment and I feel bad for the local organizers" said Tsunami's member Stuart Hills. It doesn't seem likely that FINA can hold out
forever on this issue but it will take a critical mass of GLBT aquatics teams with synchronized swimming teams willing to push the point before any change will
happen.
Sing it sister! On a slightly happier note, a pretty cool thing happened in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday night as the Gay Men's Chorus
of Washington, D.C. performed the national anthem before the Washington Nationals game with the Florida Marlins. It was the annual Night Out at the
Nationals event and from the sketchy reports I was able to find, there were about 1,100 gay fans in the upper deck, not a bad number at all for a group event.
It's becoming something of a tradition
for teams that have Gay Nights to also invite the local gay men's chorus along to sing before the game. I can't tell, however, if any of the choruses get to
sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame. That would only be fair considering that they had to sing the musical abomination known as The Star Spangled
Banner before the game. Congratulations, in any case, to GMCW! --Jim Allen
8.10.2006
New York fans show some class: It bothers me to see fans turn on players when the athletes decide it's in their best interest to leave their team, or when their team decides they can't afford them anymore. We see it all the time, fans calling a discarded player a "traitor." So, it was really refreshing to see how New York Mets fans welcomed back Mike Piazza as his new team, the San Diego Padres, paid a visit to Shea Stadium. And when Piazza hit not one but two home runs off of his former teammate Pedro Martinez, not only did the crowd cheer and Martinez tip his hat, but when Piazza got to the dugout, they continued to cheer until he came out and acknowledged their appreciation.
You can say a lot of things about New York sports fans, but one thing I've found over and over again is, they know their sports. And apparently, they know how to show their appreciation to their favorite departed athletes. And it didn't hurt that the Mets ended up winning the game, 4-3. -Cyd Zeigler jr
Maurice maced: Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Former Ohio State running back and national champion Maurice Clarett was apprehended early Wednesday morning after a highway car chase. Police found four loaded guns, a hatchett and a half-full bottle of Grey Goose vodka in his car; and they had to use mace to subdue him because their stun guns were thwarted by the bullet-proof vest he was wearing. No word yet on where he was headed when he was discovered, though he was near the home of a woman set to testify against him on an armed robbery charge from earlier this year.
Clarett has been making headlines of sports pages since he won the 2002 national championship with the Buckeyes. His legal battle with the NFL, which did not allow him to enter the draft until 2005, was a storied precedent that he ultimately lost. He was drafted in the third round in 2005 by the Denver Broncos, but he was cut before the season started.
I can't help but feel so very bad for Clarett. If he just kept his nose to the grindstone and followed the rules, he'd be a million-dollar starting running back in the NFL. Instead, he likely faces many years in jail. -Cyd Zeigler jr
8.9.2006
Human Rights in Montreal. Thanks to Cyd and Jim and all participating athletes for the detailed - and balanced - coverage on both the Gay Games and the Outgames. I wasn't in Chicago, but talked to a number of athletes who were. It seems to me that Outsports has nailed a fair expression of comparative opinion.
From my viewpoint and my four days there, Montreal was an outstanding event. A few glitches, but successful in its overall execution, with significant logistical support from GLISA. Many who competed in both events felt that Montreal did a better job of meeting athletes' needs.
An important development that hasn't been mentioned yet is Outgames' hooking up with the human rights movement. During the pre-Games international conference, a Montreal Declaration of LGBT Human Rights was adopted by the conference-goers, and the Outgames signed onto it. This is the first time that LGBT athletes and sports are linked in a human rights declaration. The last section of the Declaration says: "We call on leaders of sport around the world to create safe places for the LGBT community to participate openly and fully, without discrimination of any kind."
Montreal, with its rich ethnic history and strong international consciousness, would seem to be the perfect home base for a new surge of global LGBT activism. So the Outgames is setting its course, with Copenhagen 2009 ahead and its organizers discussing other cities around the world with a similar atmosphere. -Patricia Nell Warren
Landis digs a deeper hole. Tour de France champion Floyd Landis, who has had two urine tests come up positive for excessive amounts of testosterone, left the morning shows behind and hit and hit late-night TV on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno." His new argument (since the other ones have sunk like led baloons), is that he somehow ate something - maybe one of those fancy truffle-type mushrooms - that spiked his testosterone levels.
I have a better answer: He fell too far behind in the race and shot up to win. Seems simple, yes?
Watching him, he seems soooo nervous about this interview. Maybe it's just because he hadn't done much TV until two weeks ago, but it just doesn't help his cause.
When Leno asked Landis if Lance Armstrong had contacted him, he said yes, and that Armstrong was one of the few people who could relate. I bet! -Cyd Zeigler jr.
8.8.2006
Johnny Weir puts on the heels: Gawker has gotten ahold of the Johnny Weir pic in the BlackBook we mentioned a while back. The Gawker reader comments say it all: "The Ice Princess wears Choos;" "But where's Camille?" "Those are Gucci darling...not Choos."
While some people may say these reader comments are "homophobic," it's hard not to think the same thing when you see Johnny in a leotard and high heels. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
There is whining in cycling: Testosterone-filled cyclist Floyd Landis, who allegedly won the Tour de France while he was jacked up on performance-enhancing drugs, is saying that because he was not able to see the test results before they were released to the public, he is somehow less able to defend himself. Uh yeah, because he didn't get to the media first. By the time he got the chance to tell his side of the story, everyone who cared about cycling, and many who don't, had heard that he not only tested positive for high testosterone levels and synthetic testosterone in his system, but that he failed two tests.
While he says he probably won't be able to clear his name (oh, I wonder why that is&), he sure is trying. He hit all of the four networks' morning shows on Monday, claiming that, gosh, he doesn't know how the tests came back positive, and gee, he doesn't have any backup for his notion that someone is out to get him.
I just wish that Landis, along with all the other cyclists (including Lance Armstrong), would just come out and tell us the truth about their use of performance-enhancing drugs, so we can accept it and move on.
And by the way, Landis is trying to say that the testosterone tests must have come back positive for some other reason, like the idea that exercise increases testosterone. I'm thinking these agencies have a way of isolating those possibilities. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
8.7.2006
The NFL kicks off on NBC: The annual Hall Of Fame game ended the six-plus-month NFL hiatus and debuted their new format which features the premiere game of the week every Sunday night on NBC. The game showed off the post-T.O. Philadelphia Eagles and the new-look Oakland Raiders with new/former head coach Art Shell and new quarterback Aaron Brooks.
The Philadelphia first-team beat the Oakland first-team, 7-0, in the first quarter before the subs came in. Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook both looked particularly strong, marching the ball to a touchdown on the only drive the two offensive stars played. McNabb went 3-for-3 and Westbrook averaged over five yards per carry with a touchdown. Reggie Brown, who is supposed to be the Eagles' replacement for Terrell Owens, caught one pass for eight yards. The Oakland offense was virtually nowhere to be found.
In the end, the Raiders won the game, 16-10, on three Sebastian Janikowski drunken field goals. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
NFL refs get new look - ewwww: We finally got an on-field look at the new referee jerseys. Ugh. A straight man is obviously designing the uniforms for the National Football League. I certainly didn't like what I saw. The new jerseys have stripes that extend from the neckline to the end of the sleeves. They look more like a soccer official's jersey than proper jerseys for referees of the real football.
I just don't understand what was wrong with the old ref jerseys. They were simple and classic and the refs looked good in them. Oh well. I guess since every team feels like it has to change its jerseys every few years, the refs can change their look too. Just next time, get a gay man to design it. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
Reggie White speaks from the grave. Sara White, the widow of deceased NFL Hall of Fame inductee Reggie White, told sideline reporter Andrea Kremer during the Eagles-Raiders game that she spoke to her late husband before the ceremony to ask him for strength.
"That morning I opened up my Bible and I prayed, and I said, 'Reggie, you gotta help me. You know, the Father has to help me. Because, I don't really know what to say. I can't be you today. There's no way I can fill your shoes. People want you here, not me.' And he just comforted me and said, 'You'll be OK.' And he reminded me of some of his old coaches."
Reggie White died in December 2004. He is infamous among gay people for repeatedly making anti-gay comments, among which was this beauty: Homosexuality is a decision, it's not a race. People from all different ethnic backgrounds live in this lifestyle. But people from all different ethnic backgrounds also are liars and cheaters and malicious and back-stabbing."
It's interesting to note that former Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott couldn't be mentioned without talking about her racist comments from 1993, but I heard nothing about White's anti-gay comments this Hall of Fame weekend. -Cyd Zeigler jr.
8.5.2006
Chase ends: Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak for the New York Yankees in 1941 is probably the second most hallowed record in baseball history, Henry Aaron's 755 home runs being the first. It's always nice to see a player make a run at the Yankee Clippers feat. Gorgeous Chase Utley of the Philadelphia Phillies had his 35-game streak come to an end on Friday at Shea Stadium in New York, going 0 for 5. "It was a good run" he said after the game and indeed it was.
There must be something in the clubhouse food in Philadelphia: shortstop Jimmy Rollins had a 38 game streak over two seasons, 2005 and 2006. Before anyone thinks seriously of challenging DiMaggio's record, they have to first match Pete "Baseball Pariah" Rose's streak of 44 consecutive games with a hit from 1978. If anyone gets in the high 40's, it'll be fun to see the media circus surrounding such a feat.
Throw a flag: For practical reasons, the NFL decided to change the uniform tops of the league's referee's in the offseason. I may not be a fashion expert and know all the latest designers working in the great couture houses of Paris and Milan, but I do know sports uniforms. My review of the new NFL referee's uniforms is short: they look kinda lame.
The practical aspect of the new uniforms is that they are of better, more versatile material that is comfortable in both hot and cold weather. Aesthetically, they look like chocolate syrup being poured over vanilla ice cream.
Here's a shot of them, so you can be your own fashion critic. Frankly, my major criteria for the new uniforms is simple: will Ed "The Guns" Hoculi and his great body look good in it? I can't wait for the NFL season to find out. --Jim Allen
8.4.2006
Expensive ball: A few days ago I was reading a story about how the baseball card collectors market has collapsed, mainly due to greed, companies
flooding the market with crap and outrageous prices. It lamented that collecting cards had become like investing in mutual funds, not something you did just
so you had all the Jim Thome cards ever produced. Then I read a story today that made that seem pretty quaint.
Ever since comics genius Todd "Spawn"
McFarlane bought the baseball that Mark "Androstenedione" McGwire hit for his then-record 70th home run in 1998 for $3 million (about the equivalent of $3.5
mil now), the memorabilia market has gone nuts for "historic" baseballs. On Thursday, the ball that Barry Bonds hit for his 715 home run, which passed Babe
Ruth's 714 for second place on the all-time list, was sold on eBay for $220,100. The seller, Andrew Morbitzer, must be bummed though. Until the recent
allegations of juicing against Bonds in the book Game of Shadows, it was thought that the ball would sell for a cool million dollars. Timing is everything, eh?
Cable
TV wars: I've had Comcast as my cable TV provider for years now. I've had no complaints, really, apart from them not carrying some soccer channels that
would let me watch the Spanish and Dutch leagues. Mmmmmmm......Dutch men. When I got a notice the other day from Time Warner Cable that my area of Los Angeles
was now [evil scientist voice] under their command buwahahahaha [/evil scientist voice], I didn't give it much thought. Then I read a story in the Los
Angeles Time and I was hopping mad.
It's a common enough scenario: a content provider --in this case, the NFL Channel-- and a conglomorate cable
company haggle about the what the cable company will pay the content provider in fees to carry the channel. Now, to be honest, I'm normally not a big NFL
Channel watcher unless they're running profiles of guys I think are hot (see: ref Ed Hoculi last year) but this year is different since the NFL Channel will
air a package of games during the second half of the season.
However, due the switchover of systems, unless the two parties reach an agreement, I
won't be able to watch those games unless I go to a friends house who has a different cable system because Time Warner and the NFL are in a rates dispute.
Time Warner wants the channel on a higher priced tier of channels, the NFL wants it on a more basic package. There's huge $$$ involved, of course, but as
usual with these disputes, it's the mooks who watch the games and have to suffer through the awful commercials that suffer. The normally useless FCC stepped
in on Thursday and ordered Time Warner to carry the channel until the dispute is settled one way or the other. In the end, I expect Time Warner to cave
because the NFL is golden with advertisers, as it captures the elusive male 18-34 audience in big numbers. --Jim Allen
8.3.2006
Oklahoma Boots QB: The University of Oklahoma kicked its starting quarterback Rhett Bomar off the team after is discovered he was being paid by a booster for work he didn't do. Whatever prompted the school to dump Bomar -- because it was the right thing to do or fear of an NCAA investigation -- it should be applauded. I like this take from OKC Sooner on our Discussion Board:
"Normally, I would take great interest in this story. That was until yesterday when I attempted to buy two tickets from the OU ticket office for the Oklahoma-Washington game (the only decent opponent on the home schedule, and that ain't saying much). The cost of the tickets was $70 apiece for nosebleed seats. I declined the purchase.
"$70 per ticket for a lower-tier Pac-10 opponent is ridiculous in my opinion. Now with the "Bomar-is-out" news, I'm really glad I didn't buy those tickets. And in the back of my mind, I'm thinking OU got exactly what it deserves. Bomar has been arrested twice already, convicted once, for [drinking as a minor]. Not necessarily a big deal until it comes out that he was collecting large paychecks for doing no work. Makes me wonder who was doing his homework for him. The whole thing just stinks. And the University of Oklahoma wants me to pay $70 per ticket to support all this? This is hard for a life-long OU football fan (and OU alum) to say, but the University of Oklahoma got exactly what it deserves today."
A Head-Butt Hit: A single about the World Cup head butt by Zinedine Zidane is the No. 1 song in France. " Coup de Boule, French for "head-butt", was written by the three associates of La Plage Records, a small label specializing in jingles and sound effects, the day after France's July 9 defeat in Berlin. & More than 150,000 copies of the single have been sold since it came out last week and it has been downloaded more than 100,000 times," the CBC said. It is always amazing how people can make money out of just about anything. --Jim Buzinski
8.2.2006
Short Takes: --The mayor of a town outside of Berlin has accused boys soccer players from Norway and Sweden of using the Nazi salute when they played a German team in a recent tournament, the Norway Aftemposten reports. "There was quite a bit of unpleasantness, and that can happen even when 15-year-olds play football. The German team was no better than anyone else, but that doesn't excuse Nazi salutes and 'Sieg Heil' chatter," Stefan Mansson, a Ronneby football organizer, told a Swedish website. The boys deny the allegations.
--Chase Utley extended his hitting streak to 33 games after another hit Tuesday. It's the only thing keeping Philadelphia Phillies fans interested.
-Carlos Guillen of the Detroit Tigers hit for the cycle against Tampa Bay as the Tigers continue to have the best record in baseball. Guillen had an RBI triple in the second, a solo homer in the third, a single in the sixth and a double in the eighth.
-New England Patriots receiver Deion Branch is holding out, but at least he knows quarterback Tom Brady has his back. "Deion is the most important player on our offense," Brady told SI.com. "When I look at the elite receivers in the game, he is second to nobody. He doesn't get a lot of the credit, because we do spread the ball around here, and he doesn't feel a need to promote himself like so many guys at that position. But he is that good." Brady, a three-time Super Bowl champion, is the only player on the Pats with the stature to challenge a management that generally low-balls top performers, forcing them to get their big paydays elsewhere. --Jim Buzinski
8.1.2006
OK By Him, Sort Of: Seattle Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander was interviewed at the ESPYs by a reporter for the Howard Stern radio show. He asked Alexander if he'd have a problem with a gay teammate. "Not really. I think everybody's going to do their thing." He did say he didn't think it was "right," but he knew gay people and it wasn't a problem. He also said he didn't know of any gay athletes in the NFL. He also said he was a virgin until he got married.
Gee, how nice that Alexander would tolerate a gay teammate, even though he doesn't think being gay is "right." So big of him.
Blowing Off Bush: Miami Dolphins coach Nick Saban turned down an invitation to have dinner with President Bush in Florida, saying he was too busy with training camp. "It was really a tough decision," said Saban, who did meet with Bush in 2003 while coach at LSU. "I feel like my first responsibility is our team. That in no way disrespects the importance of the opportunity I would have loved to have had to spend dinner with the President." News flash -- it's the first week of six weeks of practice. What a lamoid excuse and it shows how one-dimensional so many NFL coaches are. I would have respected Saban had he said no based on some principled political disagreement with the president; at least it would show Saban believed in something other than the X's and O's of football. The Miami Herald also reported that Saban once turned down a chance to play Augusta National golf course because of practice.
Streak Continues: Chase Utley of the Philadelphia Phillies got a hit Monday against the Florida Marlins, extending his hitting streak to 32 games.
Bad Blood in Soccer: Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo are teammates on Manchester United. They also played against each other in the recent World Cup, as Rooney (with England) got tossed from the game against Portugal after he was egged on by Ronaldo. Don't think Rooney, a notorious hothead has forgotten. British tabloids say that Rooney told teammates he would like to bury the hatchet, but only I if it "is in Ronaldo's head." --Jim Buzinski
7.31.2006
More Doping Scandals: U.S. sprinter Justin Gatlin is the latest elite athlete to be caught up in a drug scandal, after he admitted he tested positive for high testosterone in April. If the test is confirmed, the man who shares the world record in the 100 meters faces a lifetime ban.
Like most who test positive, Gatlin has no idea how any banned substance wound up in his body. But his coach Trevor Graham is at least getting creative, telling the Washington Post that Gatlin "had testosterone cream rubbed into his legs by a massage therapist who carried a grudge against him before the April race at which he tested positive for steroids. & Graham said Gatlin, who faces a lifetime ban from track and field for the positive test for the anabolic steroid, thought the cream was a harmless lotion. Graham said when he walked in on the massage session the therapist hurriedly stuffed a white jar of the substance in his pocket."
Excuse me while I laugh. This is like Barry Bonds saying he thought his huge muscle growth could be explained by him thinking he was using flaxseed oil. Graham's alibi, though, doesn't quite match that of Tour de France winner Floyd Landis, who now says his positive steroid test may have been caused by him drinking Jack Daniels the night before the test.
While both Gatlin and Landis might be acquitted, the use of drugs is so prevalent that we can only scoff at their spin; better they just shut up and wait for all the tests to come through.
Philly Fire Sale: The rich get richer as the New York Yankees acquired Bobby Abreu, a two-time All Star outfielder and starting pitcher Cory Lidle from the Philadelphia Phillies for four minor leaguers. It's a sign the Phillies have given up on the season, while the Yankees are gearing up for the stretch run against the Red Sox.
There was some good news out of Philly, as Chase Utley extended his hitting streak to 31 games. He still is 25 behind the all-time mark of 56, set by Joe DiMaggio in 1941. --Jim Buzinski
7.28.2006
Tour de Doping: The Tour de France, already reeling from suspensions of top riders before the race, may have to disqualify winner Floyd Landis after he tested positive for "an unusual level of testosterone/epitestosterone." If a second test confirms this, Landis could be stripped of his title. Landis, an Ameircan, told Sports Illustrated he did not inject testosterone.
"No, c'mon man," he said. SI gave this as Landis' possible explanation: "The next step, he says, is to submit to an endocrine test that may help him prove that he just happens to be a guy walking around with an inordinate amount of testosterone in his blood. He raised the possibility that the cortisone shots he's been taking for his ravaged right hip -- the hip he'll soon have replaced -- may have had some effect on the test. Then he revealed this: 'I've had a thyroid condition for the last year or so and have been taking small amounts of thyroid hormone. It's an oral dose, once a day.' He raised the possibility that that medication may have skewed the test that appears to damn him."
Arlene Landis, his mom, was less than 100% supportive, telling AP that she wouldn't blame her son if he was taking medication to treat the pain in his injured hip, but "if it's something worse than that, then he doesn't deserve to win. I didn't talk to him since that hit the fan, but I'm keeping things even keel until I know what the facts are. & I know that this is a temptation to every rider but I'm not going to jump to conclusions ... It disappoints me."
It seems that every cycling story has a drug angle; the now-retired Lance Armstrong has been lucky to have never tested positive, meaning he was either the only clean rider out there among the elite riders, or has doctors that know how to beat the test. These days, everyone is under suspicion.--Jim Buzinski
7.27.2006
College Football Homoeroticism: Sports Illustrated's feature on how college football teams bond had straight sports blogs atwitter, especially this shot from Troy University in Alabama. Deadspin quipped, "This photo, from Sports Illustrated's "College Football Summer Bonding" story, is rather obviously more gay than anything at the Gay Games in Chicago last week." I can assure you the football players at Gay Games were in much better shape than these guys. The blog "Everyday Should Be Saturday" held a caption contest; some of the entries were lame, but I did like: ""Hey, you got semen in my offensive linemen! No, you got offensive linemen in my semen!"
What always gets me, though, whenever provocative shots of male jocks are shown, is how squeamish straight guys are. The "ick" factor is quite high for them. "We apologize for this whole post," Deadspin said. "Well that was a nice way to open my Deadspin day. I need to see some girls or something, pronto," said one poster. "Quick, someone post a picture of Anna Benson naked!" said another. I doubt that straight women would feel such a need to demand man flesh if confronted with a picture of a bunch of female athletes cavorting. It just shows how insecure most men are when it comes to sexuality.
Dodgers Blue: In losing to San Diego on Wednesday, the Dodgers are off to their worst post-All Star Game start since 1944. "The Dodgers are 1-13 since the All-Star break, a stretch of futility never before seen by fans in L.A. Since moving from Brooklyn after the 1957 season, they have gone 2-12 on 18 occasions," the L.A. Times said. --Jim Buzinski
7.26.2006
Tom Brady, Watch Model: Would you pay $1,300 for a watch because Tom Brady models one? The folks at Monvado think so. "Movado is all about style and precision and that fits exactly what I try to bring both on and off the field, so I hope it's a long term association," the New England Patriots quarterback said, according to Fashion Week Daily. "A professional athlete's life is highly scheduled. I practically need military discipline to keep pace, so time is definitely something I'm interested in." I've never understood why anyone would buy a product just because an athlete endorsed it, but there's a reason companies spend billions a year doing just that.
From David Letterman: "Did you see the Miss Universe last night? This was ugly -- Miss France was eliminated for head-butting."
Baseball Weirdness: In Major League Baseball this season, it pays to play in the right division. The Oakland A's and Anaheim Angels are each a pedestrian 51-49, but tied for first, with 51-50 Texas only a half-game behind. In contrast, the Chicago White Sox are 59-40, third-best majors record, but 7.5 games behind Detroit, and only a half-game up on the New York Yankees for the wild card. It looks like one good team in the American League will miss the playoffs, while a mediocrity in the West gets in. --Jim Buzinski
