|
November
2001 |
| TOPS |
BOTTOMS |
| Nov.
30: NFL teams hate playing at Philadelphia Veterans
Stadium, a place columnist Tony Kornheiser said ‘‘had
all the charm of a Taliban cave.’’ It has by far the
worst playing surface of any in the league, akin to a
driveway covered by a thin green carpet. What’s a
surprise this year is that even the home-town Eagles
must hate it there. How else to explain their 2-4 home
record and 5-0 away record? The Iggles remained perfect on
the road Thursday with a 23-10 win at Kansas City. The
Chiefs are another team that must dislike home-cooking
since the loss dropped them to 1-5 at Arrowhead Stadium.
|
Nov. 30: If any college
football program would have disciplined players you think
it would be Air Force. But Falcon players
apparently were enjoying themselves too much after a loss
at Hawaii last week. Twelve players were suspended for
unspecified curfew violations by coach Fisher DeBerry. No
word as to how many wound up at Hamburger Mary’s in
Honolulu. |
Nov.
29: This item deserves a top for its sheer bizarreness
that drew a chuckle. As the Associated Press
reported: `` Midfielder Francisco Gallardo of
Sevilla in Spain has been charged by the Spanish soccer
federation's disciplinary committee after he celebrated a
teammate's goal by biting the player's penis. The
committee has given Gallardo, a Spanish under-21
international, until next Tuesday to prepare his defense
after his curious manner of congratulating teenage striker
Jose Antonio Reyes.''
Seems that in a celebratory pile after Reyes' scored a
goal he said, "I felt a bit of a pinch but I didn't
realize what Gallardo had done until I saw the video. The
worst thing about it is the teasing I'm going to get from
my teammates." We could find no comment from Gallardo.
Here is a link
to a grainy video image of the event.
|
Nov. 29: Something
happened in men's college basketball that hasn't in 73
years: North Carolina has started 0-3. The Tar
Heels lost at home to Indiana, and risk going 0-4 for the
first time in 92 years if they lose their next game to
Georgia Tech. |
Nov.
28: Scott Brosius won't make baseball's Hall of Fame,
but his retirement Tuesday will leave New York Yankee fans
with indelible memories. Brosius, 35, was with the Yanks
for only four years, but he played on four World Series
teams (and three that won). He was Series MVP in 1998 and this year hit
the unforgettable game-tying ninth inning home run in Game
5 against Arizona.
"I guess by Hall of Fame standards it wasn't a great
career, but I had some great moments in it," he said.
"How many people have the opportunity to really live
the dream of a 5-year-old out in the backyards playing
games?"
|
Nov. 28: It's nice to
see the school board in Sun Prairie, Wisc., has its
priorities in order. The board rescheduled its meeting
next Monday night because it would conflict with the Green
Bay Packers' game at Jacksonville.
``They were saying we are putting football ahead of
education,'' board president Mike Matzke told the AP.
``But really, if we have our meeting one day earlier or
one day later, it's not a big difference.'' |
| Nov.
27: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been playing
less-than-inspired football, but leave it to the St. Louis
Rams to bring out the best in them. The Bucs, who came in
with a 4-5 record, forced five turnovers and blocked a
punt in upsetting the heavily favored Rams, 24-17, on
Monday night. The teams have now played three games the
past three seasons, with Tampa winning two. The only St.
Louis win was a 11-6 slugfest decided in the final
minutes.
|
Nov. 27: Philadelphia
sports crowds are a notoriously tough bunch, famous
for once booing Santa Claus. But they may have hit a new
high (or low depending on how you look at it) in Sunday's
Eagles-Redskins NFL game.
As Peter King said in his weekly Sports Illustrated online
column: ``The Veterans Stadium fans booed the first of two "Canines In Flight" frisbee dogs performing at halftime when the dog, a charcoal-gray whippet-looking thing, missed a 45-yard bomb from his horrendously inaccurate human thrower.'' |
Nov.
26: We love a good rant and Indianapolis Colts
coach Jim Mora provided a doozy Sunday. Mora,
famous for a diatribe when he was coaching New Orleans,
pulled no punches when discussing his Colts' dismal 40-21
loss to San Francisco.
‘‘Let me start out saying this: Do NOT blame that game
on the defense, OK? I don’t care who you play, whether
it’s a high school team, a junior college team, a
college team, much less an NFL team, when you turn the
ball over five times ... you ain’t gonna beat anybody.
That was a disgraceful performance. ... We gave it away.
We gave them the frigging game. In my opinion, that
sucked. You can’t turn it over five times. Holy crap. I
don’t know who the hell we think we are when we do
something like that ... We’ve thrown (five)
interceptions returned for touchdowns. That might be a
league record. And we’ve still got six games left, so
there’s no telling how many we’ll have. I mean, it’s
absolutely pitiful to play like that ... Horrible. Just
horrible. Horrible. ... Playoffs? Playoffs? I just hope we
can win another game.''
|
Nov. 26: The Skins Game is a
made-for-TV golf event that proves nothing about the
caliber of a golfer. But Greg Norman, who choked
away his share of majors over the years, acted Sunday like
he just won the Masters. All Norman did was win a lot of
money, a cool $1 million in the event that included Tiger
Woods, Colin Montgomerie and Jesper Parnevik. ``Any win is
a great win, whether it’s a Skins Game or a regular
tournament,'' said Norman, who last won an event in 1998.
Don’t believe it. We wager Norman would give back a lot
of the swag he won for one green jacket. |
| Nov.
25: Oklahoma State pulled the biggest upset of the
season by stunning No. 4 Oklahoma in Norman, where the
Sooners had won 19 in a row. The Cowboys won their first
game over a ranked team in three years and first over a
Top 5 team in more than 20. The loss ended Oklahoma's bid
to repeat as national champions.
|
Nov. 25: One look at
the college football standings tells you why the
lack of a playoff makes the sport inconclusive, at least
at the elite level (smaller divisions have no trouble
arranging a playoff). Miami and BYU are unbeaten, with the
latter having zero chance at the title. Seven other Top 12
teams--Nebraska, Florida, Oregon, Illinois, Texas,
Tennessee and Maryland--have one loss. The bottom line:
Several deserving teams will be shut out of a title shot
by a system that uses biased rankings and computers to
determine the best teams. Did the same people who run
major college football run the election in Florida last
year? |
| Nov.
24: Without exaggeration, the Colorado Buffaloes'
overwhelming 62-37 victory over #1 Nebraska was one of the
greatest displays over a Top 3 team in the history of
college football. Until Friday, no team had ever
scored that many points against the Cornhuskers.
Ever. 42 of them came in the first half - again, the
most points ever allowed by the 'Huskers in any
half. Ever. Colorado's Chris Brown was
unstoppable, posting possibly the best individual
performance of any player this year, with 198 yards and
six touchdowns on just 24 carries. Said 'Husker fan
Mike Bellew to ESPN after the game, "I've never seen
anything like this in the whole time I've watched Nebraska
football and that's been since 1957."
|
Nov. 24: That
sound you hear is the sound of Nebraska quarterback Eric
Crouch's Heisman votes going out the window. In
leading his team to a blow-out loss to Colorado, Crouch
managed to throw for just 198 yards on 13-for-28 passing
(46%), no touchdowns and two interceptions. He had
another good game running the ball but, with so many
watching this game intently, this quarterback's already
shaky passing numbers suffered a blow they won't recover
from before the Heisman voting. |
|
Happy
Thanksgiving from Outsports.com
|
| Nov.
22: John Madden is best-known for his
over-the-top, sometimes indecipherable commentary on Fox's
NFL coverage. Yesterday, a column he wrote about his
football and turducken (a chicken inside a duck inside a
turkey) traditions on Thanksgiving graced the covers of a
special edition to many newspapers sponsored by the
NFL. It was a heart-felt, funny column that only a
guy like Madden could write. For one day, he's out
of our dog house.
|
Nov. 22: Every year for
quite some time now, John Madden rolls out his
turducken on Thanksgiving and rambles on and on for three
hours about the dressing and the turducken legs while we
watch the Cowboys or Lions play. We're bracing
ourselves for the worst of it. |
| Nov.
21: Is it March Madness already? Ball
State is playing giant-killer in Maui, knocking off #3
Kansas and #4 UCLA in back-to-back games. 5,000
miles away, Davidson knocked off North
Carolina.
|
Nov. 21: The NBA
needs to get with the program after they fined several
Lakers for wearing shorts that were too long last
month. Today, it's all about the longer shorts on
the playground; if the NBA doesn't want to continue to
distance themselves from their fan base, they'd be smart
to reconsider their uniform regulations. |
| Nov.
20: Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants capped off
a sensational year by easily winning the National League
MVP award, the first to win it four times. Bonds hit a
record 73 home runs and will now cash in as a free agent.
As his agent Scott Boras told the Associated Press: ``Is
this about money? Of course it is. This is a business.''
|
Nov. 20: We saw more flags
during Monday night's Minnesota Vikings-New York Giants
football game than at a veteran's day parade. The game,
won by the Vikes, 28-16, was marred by 24 penalties (15 on
New York) for 225 total yards. The capper was near the end
of the 3 1/2-hour game when there were four yellow flags
and one beanbag on the ground after an altercation between
two players. Play went so slowly there were as many
stoppages as your average French rail strike. |
| Nov.
19: Jeff Gordon is only 30, but he already has joined Richard Petty and Dale
Earnhardt in the NASCAR history books. By finishing
fourth in Sunday's NAPA race in Atlanta, Gordon has now
won his fourth Winston Cup driving title. Petty, Earnhardt
and Gordon are the only drivers with more than three
titles.
|
Nov. 19: In the
offseason, the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens
unloaded quarterback Trent Dilfer (11-1 as a starter) for Elvis
Grbac, saying it was an upgrade. The Ravens might want
their money back if Grbac keeps playing like he did Sunday
in a loss to Cleveland. The man once voted People
Magazine's sexiest athlete threw four interceptions and
fumbled once. Grbac is now 4-4 as the Ravens' starter. |
| Nov.
18: On a day of college football rivalries we were
thrilled to see Harvard beat Yale and go unbeaten
and untied (9-0) for the first time since 1913. At both
schools, the players are students first and jocks second,
and it was a refreshing change from watching the football
factories at some other institutions of higher learning.
|
Nov. 18: Hasim Raham’s
reign as heavyweight champion lasted all of seven months
after he was knocked out Saturday night by Lennox Lewis in
the fourth round. Raham was a total ass in the pre-fight
hype, calling
Lewis gay, which led to Lewis taking umbrage,
which led to a ruckus at an ESPN interview. Gay or not,
Lewis is once again the champion and Raham can go back to
just being a thug. |
| Nov.
17: When an athlete gets cut we always tend to focus
on the end of the career not on the meat of it, which is
often glorious. Such is the case with Brady Anderson,
37, released by the Baltimore Orioles after a subpar
season. But Anderson, a big fan of Outsports readers, will
be more remembered for being the only player in major
league history to have a 50-homer season and a season with
50 stolen bases. And for his
shirtless poster.
|
Nov. 17: Reason No.
1,450,546 why baseball as a business is screwed up.
Since the riveting World Series all we've heard about are
labor issues and contraction. Now, predictably, we've
entered the legal realm. A judge in Minnesota has issued
an injunction forcing baseball to have the Twins play in
Minnesota in 2002. Minnesota was rumored--along with
Montreal--to be the two teams to be contracted next year.
We can feel for Twin fans, but Hennepin County District
Judge Harry Seymour Crump went into hyperbole overdrive in
his ruling: ""The welfare, recreation, prestige,
prosperity, trade and commerce of the people of the
community are at stake," Crump wrote. "The Twins
brought the community together with Homer Hankies and
Bobblehead dolls.'' Give us a break. Major League Baseball
will appeal and this thing isn't going to end soon. |
| Nov.
16: If the first week of men's college basketball is
an indication it will be a wild season. Western Kentucky
stunned #3 Kentucky, 64-52, the Hilltoppers' first win
over the Wildcats in 30 years. And #9 St. Joseph's lost by
a point to Eastern Washington.
|
Nov. 16: The
Indianapolis Colts took a major hit when super running
back Edgerrin James announced he will miss the rest
of the season with a knee injury. James, in his third
season, had won the league's rushing title the first two
years and was critical to the Colts offense. In other
Colts news, the NFL fined head-hunting Miami lineman
Lorenzo Bromell $15,500 for a cheap shot last week that
broke the jaw of Colt quarterback Peyton Manning. |
| Nov.
15: Eric Lindros got a measure of revenge against his
old team Wednesday and said it felt good. Lindros, who had
a turbulent career with the Philadelphia Flyers, scored a
goal for his new team, the New York Rangers, in a 4-2 win
over the Flyers. ``It was a little strange, but I got more comfortable as the
game went on,'' said Lindros, whose Rangers have playing
good hockey and are in first place.
|
Nov. 15: This isn't
sports-related but it's so outrageous that it needs
attention. An Egyptian judge sentenced 23 men to
hard labor for between one and five years for practicing
gay sex, in a case that drew international condemnation.
Homosexuality is not mentioned in the country's legal
code, and observers think the crackdown was a way to show
Islamic fundamentalists that Egypt won't tolerate
``deviants.'' Look at the charges that got the
``ring-leader'' of the group five years: debauchery, contempt of religion, falsely interpreting the Koran and exploiting Islam to
promote deviant ideas. |
| Nov.
14: Randy Johnson cemented his title as the game's
most dominant pitcher this season with 372 strikeouts and
a 21-6 record for the World Champion Arizona Diamondbacks.
He was rewarded for his great season by winning the
National League Cy Young award, his third in a row.
|
Nov. 14: Some guys just
court trouble. With the Canseco twins it's double
trouble. Baseball's Jose and his brother Ozzie Canseco
were arrested in Miami was arrested on charges of gettting
involved in a Halloween bar fight.
Jose professed his innocence, saying, ``"I know that my brother and myself were definitely victims and the girl I was with got
sexually assaulted. We got attacked. We are the victims here. We just defended ourselves."
The cops had a different take, with Police Detective Bobby Hernandez
telling the Associated Press: "This started as a verbal altercation. And then the two Canseco brothers basically beat these guys up, putting them in the
hospital. Obviously this was an
anger control problem." It'll probably be left to a jury to
decide. |
Nov.
13: If you went to bed prior to the end of the
Monday Night Football game between the Tennessee
Titans and Baltimore Ravens you missed one of the wilder
and weirder endings in memory.
The Titans, down 16-10, had driven to the Ravens' 6-yard
line and faced third down. Steve McNair hit Kevin Dyson
for a 5 yard gain as the clock was was running inside 10
seconds. The Titans scrambled to get a final play off and
McNair ran in for the game-winner as the referees signaled
touchdown and time ran out But after a five-minute
discussion the refs ruled Baltimore was offsides. They
said in this case the play should never have been allowed
to run and that they would do it over from the 1-yard line
(the refs also missed that Tennessee was in an illegal
formation). McNair tried to run it in again, was stopped
short and the Ravens won.
It was a great ending to an intense game and it's too bad
realignment means these teams won't be in the same
division next year. As
Ravens coach Brian Billick said: ``We finally had a Monday night game worth staying up
for. Unbelievable. Unbelievable sequence of events.''
|
Nov. 13: We've heard of
athletes retiring during a season but never the night
before a game. That's what Denver Bronco wide receiver Eddie
Kennison did, telling coach Mike Shanahan his heart
wasn't in it on Saturday night. Fair enough. But then
Kennison changed his mind and now wants back in. Shanahan
first said no way, but now says he wants his players
input. The fact that leading wide receiver Rod Smith has a
sprained ankle may have softened Shanahan somewhat. The
key question will be whether his teammates want back a guy
who quit on them. |
| Nov.
12: Shaun Alexander rushed for more yards in one game than all but three players in NFL history. On a misty night in Seattle (are there any other?), Alexander rushed 35 times for 266 yards and three touchdowns as the Seahawks upset the Raiders, 34-27. Only Corey Dillon (278 yards), Walter Payton (273) and O.J. Simpson (273) had better nights. Alexander was most impressive on an 88-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.
|
Nov. 12: OK, we're officially over the
Michael Jordan comeback. He's no longer the greatest, just a good player, though he was dreadful Sunday night. In the Wizards' 99-84 loss to Seattle, Jordan missed his first 14 shots and finished 5 for 26 in perhaps the worst shooting night of his career. |
| Nov.
11: In a day of wild action and surprises in college
football, perhaps none was more shocking than North
Carolina State's 34-28 win at Florida State. The win
ended the Seminoles 39-0 home streak against ACC teams. It
also have Bobby Bowden his first homecoming loss in 26
tries. The arhcitect of the Wolfpack's win was longtime
FSU assistant Chuck Amato. ``I'm still undefeated in
homecoming games here in this stadium,'' Amato joked
afterward.
|
Nov. 11: College football
is a compelling sport with a major flaw: no playoff. It is
the only sport in the world (as far as we can determine)
where the opinions of pollsters (in this case writers and
coaches) help determine the national champion. Of course,
we're only talking about the elite teams, Division 1A. The
smaller divisions still find a way to play a full season
and have playoffs, but an incestuous relationship between
the big boys and the bowls have doomed a similar setup for
Division IA.
In the last month of the season, probably only four teams
have any shot at playing for the title. A team like Texas,
which might be playing better than anybody right now, is
screwed because it has one loss (Oklahoma) and doesn't
play Nebraska. If we had a 16-team playoff (very doable)
imagine how much more excitement there would be. In the
end, the tournament is why college basketball trumps its
football cousin. |
| Nov.
10: The Arizona men's basketball team was supposed to
be in a rebuilding year, but try telling that to #2
Maryland and #6 Florida. The Wildcats dropped both Top 10
teams in consecutive nights to win the Coaches vs. Cancer
tournament. If this is an indication the college
basketball season promises to be wacky.
|
Nov. 10: Charles Oakley
was brought into the Chicago Bulls to provide leadership,
but he's now $50,000 poorer after being fined by the team
for badmouthing coach Tim Floyd a day after the Bulls most
lopsided loss ever. ``They're used to losing like this,''
said Oakley, according to AP. ``They don't win but 15
games a year. It's different breeds I guess. Different
breeds of coaches and players. I guess I'm too old for the
game.'' Said Floyd: ``Guys that typically speak out
usually are putting up big numbers. And I haven't seen
those numbers from our guy.'' |
| Nov.
9: The Minnesota Vikings are stumbling and the Twins
might be disbanded, but the NBA’s Timberwolves
are giving Twin Cities fans something to cheer about. The
T’Wolves crushed the Chicago Bulls, 127-74, to improve
to 5-0, their best start in their 13-year history. It was
the worst loss ever for the Bulls, who started play in
1966. ‘‘We couldn’t beat a snappy junior high team
with this group tonight,’’ said Bulls coach Tim Floyd.
‘‘What you saw was a pathetic effort.’’ Pathetic
to the Bulls but glorious to the Wolves.
|
Nov. 9: Italian
prosecutors have indicted the president of the AS Roma
soccer team on charges he helped two players falsify
papers to make it easier for them to get Italian
passports. The move was an attempt to get around
restrictions on the number of non-European soccer players
a team can have. The Italian soccer federation didn’t
mess around, fining the club $1.5 billion lire (about
$700,000). |
| Nov.
8: Twelve ounces made all the difference at the world weightlifting
championships in Turkey. Abbas Nader of Qatar and
Arsen Melikyan of Armenia both lifted a combined weight of
803 pounds in the men’s 169 1/2-pound weight class. But
ties are decided by body weight, and Nader weighs 12
ounces less than Melikyan, who probably regrets having
those two Krispy Kremes right before the meet. Nader took
the gold, with each man having lifted 357 1/2 pounds in
the snatch and 445 1/2 in the clean-and-jerk.
|
Nov. 8: DeShaun Foster’s
chance at the Heisman Trophy took a major hit when the
UCLA running back was suspended by the school for
Saturday’s game against Oregon. Foster, who is averaging
138 yards rushing a game, was suspended for a possible
‘‘extra benefits’’ violation. Apparently, Foster
received use of a booster's car, an NCAA no-no. |
Nov.
7: This item happened Sunday, and we thank a
reader for alerting us to it. ``Just in case you did not
know, U.S. National Champion Sean Townsend won the
gold in the parallel bars at the 2001 World Artistic
Gymnastics Championships in Ghent, Belgium.'' It was the
first world championships gold for a U.S. male gymnast
since Bart Connor in 1979.
The win helped Townsend erase the memories of a few days
earlier when a bad mistake cost him an almost-certain gold
in the all-around. ``I was just anxious to come back and do something really good because I didn't want to go out like I did in the
all-around,'' Townsend said.
The U.S. men won an unprecedented team silver, while the
women took two bronzes.
|
Nov. 7: Can't Major
League Baseball do anything right? Just days after one
of the most exciting World Series in memory the owners
voted to eliminate two teams next season. Montreal is
almost certainly one of them, while Minnesota is likely
candidate No. 2.
This would be OK if baseball was a financially strapped
business, but it's not (despite how much poor-mouthing the
owners do). These guys are all multimillionaires afforded
federal antitrust protection, with a billion-dollar TV
contract and given sweetheart stadium deals. If owners
cared so much about some franchises not doing as well as
others, they would figure out a revenue sharing system
that makes sense.
This smells as more of an attempt to screw the players'
union out of 80 jobs and to threaten Minnesota to spend
public money on a new park or lose the Twins. Fortunately,
Minnesota politicians from both the Democratic and
Republican parties and independent Gov. Jesse Ventura have
told baseball to go screw itself. Good for them. We can
imagine the state has more pressing uses for its tax
dollars than a new baseball stadium.
--Jim
Buzinski |
| Nov.
6: Yeah, Al Davis looks like an aging socialite with
that outfit and weird glasses and half the fans have done
time at San Quentin, but there's no denying the Oakland
Raiders are a terrific football team this year. The
Raiders dismantled the Denver Broncos, 38-28, to end a
seven-game losing streak between the teams. At 6-1,
Oakland right now is the AFC's best team.
|
Nov. 6: Can't we all
just get along? Family members of Atlanta Falcon
players Chris Chandler, Bob Christian and Shawn
Jefferson got into an altercation with each other and some
fans at Sunday's NFL game at the Georgia Dome. It seems
some fans sitting in the family section cheered when
Chandler got hurt, because they wanted to see top draft
pick Michael Vick play. Chandler's wife Diane took umbrage
and confronted the fans. As AP said, ``an argument ensued
and someone threw a can at her. Fullback Bob Christian
said his father, Jim, caught the can and argued with those
cheering, including relatives of receiver Shawn
Jefferson.'' The players apologized to each other for
their relatives behavior. |
Nov.
5: In the end, it was only fitting that the Arizona
Diamondbacks won the World Series over the New York
Yankees. The D'Backs outscored New York, 38-14, over the
seven games, and led in 59 of the 67 innings played. They
were the dominant team.
But the way Arizona won was amazing. Coming back in the
bottom of the ninth to score two runs and win, 3-2, just
doesn't happen against the Yanks. Not when closer Mariano
Rivera had gone 23 for 23 in postseason save chances. But
it happened and hats off to Arizona. We got three
memorable games in the first Series to go into November.
|
Nov. 5: Kyle Turley's
impersonation of a WWF wrestler cost the New Orleans
Saints a chance at victory Sunday night against the New
York Jets. Turley, an offensive lineman, went ballistic
after Jets defender Damian Robinson grabbed Saints QB
Aaron Brooks by the facemask and pulled.
Turley yanked Robinson's facemask. So far, no problem.
Both got penalties--which canceled each other out--and the
result was the Saints with the ball inside the Jets 10,
down 16-9 with less than a minute to go. But Turley
couldn't stop. He picked up a Jets player's helmet and
flung it across the field. He then made an obscene
gesture. The result? A 15-yard penalty that backed up the
Saints, who failed to score and lost the game. Hope Turley
likes the hefty fine he'll likely receive. |
Nov.
4: The Arizona Diamondbacks gave an emphatic
answer to the whether the two shattering losses to the
Yankees in Games 4 and 5 of the World Series would
adversely affect them: 15-2, D'Backs in Game 6, with a
record 22 hits. Up next: The first Game 7 since 1997 and
first for the Yankees since 1984.
In college football, Mississippi and Arkansas played an
epic, 7-overtime affair won by Arkansas, 58-56. It was the
longest game in major college football history.
|
Nov. 4: Stanford, UCLA
and Michigan each took major spills in Saturday
college football that will cost them either a chance at a
conference title or the BCS game. Stanford, which had
beaten Oregon and UCLA in consecutive weeks, lost at
Washington. UCLA, unbeaten eight days ago, lost to
Washington State. Michigan lost on the final play to
Michigan State. |
| Nov.
3: Yes, it's only three games of a season that will
last until June. But the Los Angeles Lakers look
like a solid choice to repeat as NBA champs assuming they
don't lose either Shaq or Kobe or get too bored. On Friday
night, Shaq was even hitting free throws, shooting 16 of
18.
|
Nov. 3: A sore throat cost Jennifer Capriati the No. 1 ranking for
the year. JenCap battled a very bad sore throat that kept
her in bed prior to losing a three-setter to Sandrine
Testud at the Sanex Championships in Germany.
``I just felt out of it,'' Capriati said. ``I was delirious. In the first set I didn't even know what the score is. ... It's just bad luck. I feel like I couldn't give 100 percent.''
Lindsay Davenport claimed the top spot by winning her
semifinal match. |
Nov.
2: Can you believe it? It was deja vu all over again.
The New York Yankees won Game 5 of the World Series
in a fashion as stunning as the night before, 3-2, over
the Arizona Diamondbacks in 12 innings.
With two outs in the ninth, Scott Brosius hit a game-tying
two-run home run off Byung-Hyun Kim. A single by Alfonso
Soriano in the 12th scored Chuck Knoblauch with the
winning run and the Yanks go up in the series, 3-2,
heading back to the desert.
How amazing was it? Prior to Game 4, only twice in World
Series history had a team come back from a two-run-or-more
deficit in the ninth inning to win (the last in 1923). The
Yankees did it twice on consecutive nights. Perhaps
the two greatest nights in World Series history.
|
Nov. 2: Byung-Hyun Kim
of the Arizona Diamondbacks joins the ranks of Ralph
Branca, Donnie Moore, Mitch Williams and Tom Niedenfuer as
pitchers who gave up colossal postseason home runs. But
poor Kim, a 22-year-old from South Korea, did it twice on
consecutive nights with his team one our away from
winning. Unless it's John Rocker or Goran Ivanisevic, we
hate to see an athlete fail, and it was hard to watch Kim
as he seemed on the verge of tears after giving up the
game-tying home run. Let's hope his major league career
isn't over since it will be mentally hard to overcome two
gaffes like this, especially if the Diamondbacks lose the
series. Safe prediction: There's no way Kim touches a
baseball the rest of this series. |
Nov.
1: Wow! What a comeback. What an ending. As announcer
John Sterling says, ``Yankees Win! Thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeee
Yankees Win!''
We still can't believe the New York Yankees--down
to their last out, down two runs and in danger of going
down, 3 games to 1, in the World Series to the Arizona
Diamondbacks--pulled out a 4-3 win to tie the series.
First, Tino Martinez blasted a game-tying two-run homer
off of Byung-Hyun Kim to tie it. Then in the 10th, Derek
Jeter became Mr. November with a home run right after the
clock struck midnight in New York. The Yanks are truly an
amazing team and Arizona must be wondering what it will
take to beat them.
|
Nov. 1: By losing Game
4 to the Yanks, Arizona manager Bob Brenley will be
second-guessed big-time for starting pitcher Curt
Schilling on only three days rest. As the AP's Jim Litke
pointed out, of the last 15 postseason pitchers to go on
only three days rest, their record is a dreadful 1-14.
Schilling was great, allowing only one run through seven
innings. But one wonders if he could have pitched a
complete game if more rested. Three of his four wins this
postseason have been complete games. ``I felt good. I told him there was no reason take me out
right there,'' said Schilling of Brenley. ``You
know, he's the manager. I just had to be honest with him. The sixth and seventh inning, I made a lot of what I call
big pitches. That can take a lot out of you, but I felt fine.''
If Schilling pitches again it will be in Sunday's Game 7,
when he will again be on only three days rest. |
