|
October
2001 |
| TOPS |
BOTTOMS |
| Oct.
31: Roger Clemens hasn’t always been the most
reliable postseason, but he came up big when the New York
Yankees needed it most. Clemens tossed a 3-hitter in
handcuffing the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2-1. The win
narrowed the D’Backs’ World Series lead to 2 games to
1.
|
Oct. 31: Enough
already. Enough with exploiting patriotism at
sporting events. Must television relentlessly show us not
only the ‘‘Star-Spangled Banner,’’ but every
tribute at a game? It was very touching in the first weeks
after the Sept. 11 attacks, but has now been cheapened and
substitutes for anything genuine. It reached its absurd
heights when we overdosed on patriotic sentimentality at
Michael Jordan’s comeback game against the New York
Knicks. First we had Wynton Marsalis play. Then we had
Harry Connick Jr. sing. Then we had the national anthem. |
Oct.
30: Hats off to CNN/SI tennis columnist Jon
Wertheim for his thoughtful
answer to a reader's question on how a gay
male tennis pro would be treated.
``Maybe this is exceedingly optimistic, but I don't think
there would be hugely negative consequences, at least not
long term,'' Wertheim wrote. ``Sure, a few cavemen might
make some untoward remarks in the locker room. But tennis
is an individual sport and the gay player wouldn't be
dependent on tolerant teammates to pass him the ball or
drop him the puck.''
Nice to see a writer address the subject and not assume
the sky would fall and the athlete would be condemned to
the ninth circle of hell.
|
Oct. 30: The Tennessee
Titans began the season talking Super Bowl. Now, a
.500 record would be an accomplishment. After being blown
out 34-7 on Monday night by Pittsburgh, the Titans are 2-4
and look lost. The 5-1 Steelers, who had lost seven
straight to Tennessee, seemed to toy with them the second
half.
How messed up are the Titans? Twice on third down they
had stopped Pittsburgh only to be flagged for dumb
penalties that kept drives alive. The Steelers scored
touchdowns on both drives. The Titans also dropped two
interceptions and had a field goal bounce off the
uprights. If this was fishing the Titans would throw the
2001 season back. |
| Oct.
29: Randy Johnson had never been much of a baseball
postseason pitcher, going 2-7 before this season. But
Sunday night in Game 2 of the World Series, the Arizona
Diamondback pitcher was awesome. Johnson threw a
complete-game three-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts as the
D'Backs won 4-0 and took a 2-0 Series lead over the New
York Yankees.
|
Oct. 29: May I suggest Darrell,
who works as a concession worker at Qualcomm Stadium in
San Diego as Exhibit 1 of the decline of service in
America.
The situation: Halftime had just started at the Buffalo
Bills-San Diego Chargers NFL game on Sunday and I get in
line. I move millimeters in minutes as Darrell takes his
sweet time waiting on his customers. Halftime ends and I'm
still far from being served.
Darrell moves like a robot whose batteries are half-dead.
He would trudge to the far end of the station to get a hot
dog or disappear in the back for what seemed like an eternity
before reappearing with an order of nachos and cheese. He
counted out change like an American tourist counting lira
in Rome ... sloooooooowly.
The second half starts and I'll still six people away from
being served. I enviously eye the smiling workers next to
Darrell, who are moving their lines smartly (but there's
no way I'm getting at the back of any line so I tough it
out). All the while, this blonde Bills fan hits me in the
back of the head, shoulders and upper back on separate
occasions as she gestures while yakking with her friends.
I've been hit on but not like this.
Finally, I'm one away from being served (and five minutes
of the third quarter have gone by) when a crisis develops:
Darrell announces they've run out of cheese for the
nachos. More confusion sets in. The guy ahead of me
complains that he's now waited more than 30 minutes all
for nothing: he's not eating nachos without cheese. He
leaves with a Sprite.
Finally, after standing in line the entire halftime and
half of the third period I triumphantly plunk down my $4
(I made sure I had the exact change ready) and grab a hot
dog. I smile and thank Darrell and wish him a good day. He
never looks up.
--Jim
Buzinski |
Oct.
28: What a day for college football:
Teams ranked #1, #3, #5, #8, #10, and #15 in the BCS all
lost; Joe Paterno became the winningest coach in
college football history as his team rallied to beat Ohio
State, JoePa's 324h career win; and a backup running back
on the West Coast dominated a day when college football
was in all its glory. The Heisman hype in Oregon may
have been for the wrong guy. Onterrio Smith of
Oregon had an amazing game subbing for the starting RB,
Maurice Morris. Against Washington State, Smith set the
record for the most rushing yards in a game by an Oregon
Duck, formerly held by Ahmad Rashad--a dazzling 285 yards
on 26 carries with three touchdowns - that's a shocking
average of 11 yards per carry.
To top it all off came the play of the year in college
football: Nebraska's gutsy pass off a reverse from
freshman quarterback Mike Stuntz to regular QB Eric Crouch
for 63 yards and the game-clinching score as the Huskers
beat No. 1 Oklahoma, 20-10.
|
Oct. 28: The World
Series started on Saturday, and if the rest of the
games are like Game 1, will anyone care? The 9-1 victory by the Arizona
Diamondbacks was dull and lacked the drama Major League
Baseball sorely needs for this "fall classic"
that seems to be in a downward spiral. You could hear
millions of sets click off by about the fourth inning.
Wonder how many were like us on the West Coast and
switched to the thrilling Oregon-Washington State game on
ABC that went down to the final play? |
| Oct.
27: With his Hawaii Rainbow Warriors trailing
19th-ranked Fresno State, 17-6, late in the second
quarter, wide receiver Ashley Lelie caught on fire,
scoring his first of three touchdowns that downed the
Bulldogs, 38-34. The last was the game-winner with
13 seconds left - a fade into the right corner that was as
acrobatic of a catch as you'll ever see in football.
Oct. 27: The World Series arrives today and the only
question is: Can the Yanks be beat? The Diamondbacks
certainly have a shot with pitchers Curt Schilling and
Randy Johnson, but it gets dicey after that. New York has
proven over and over it is resourceful. To that end,
expect tight games but in the end it'll be the Yanks in 6.
|
Oct. 27: Venus Williams
announced she will not play in next week's women's tennis
championships (the WTA) in Germany because of a sore
wrist. According to AP: ``Bart McGuire, chief executive
officer of the WTA Tour, said Friday the injury will be
investigated. He said Williams could lose as much as
$140,000 in year-end bonus money if her injury was not
legitimate.''
Venus has pulled up lame from tournaments with mystery
ailments before. We hope her wrist really is hurt. if
she's faking it it'll just confirm the notion that there
are two sets of rules: one for the Williams' sisters and
one for everyone else. |
Oct.
26: Montreal was awarded the right to host Gay Games VII in 2006 by the Federation of Gay Games, meeting in South Africa. The Canadian city beat out entries from Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles for the quadrennial event. We congratulate Montreal and wish them the best in organizing the premier event on the gay sports calendar.
The Games have been a tremendous success in terms of increasing the visibility of gay athletes. But they’ve been a financial bust in recent years as organizers struggle to raise the millions needed minus the enormous television revenue generated by the Olympics. We hope and trust that Montreal has the leadership, vision and skills necessary to do the
event justice. |
Oct. 26: We know a guy who thinks Kansas City Chiefs quarterback
Trent Green is the most breathtaking jock alive. That may be, but Chief fans have come to curse Green this season, not
worship him. Traded for a valuable first-round pick, Green leads the AFC in passing yards but also in interceptions.
In K.C.’s 35-28 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday, Green threw for 320 yards, but had three huge picks, including one in the end zone with 2 minutes to go. One fourth-quarter sequence summed up Green’s season: He throws an interception, but is saved by a roughing-the-passer call against the Colts’ Mike Peterson. Being a nice fellow, Green on the next play throws another interception, this time to Peterson. |
| Oct.
25: The great thing about football being once a week
is it gives fans plenty of time to argue and get psyched.
This Saturday's college football games are ones to get
geared up for. The ones we're most eager to see are
Oklahoma-Nebraska; Florida-Georgia; Stanford-UCLA and
Syracuse-Virginia Tech. Bring it on! |
Oct. 25: The Dallas Cowboys
have had a long, rich quarterback history. Don Meredith.
Roger Staubach. For the last 12 years Troy Aikman. But now
look at them. They started the season with Quincy Carter
and he got hurt. They then went to Anthony Wright and he's
likely out. This week's starter? Try Clint Stoener,
whoever he is. Ryan Leaf, we kid you not, will likely get
a chance this season. |
Oct.
24: There is talk of Major League Baseball contracting
by two teams for next year. Montreal (which drew 8,000
total for one three-game series this year) and either
Florida or Tampa Bay are rumored candidates.
It sounds like a great idea for a sport that has teams
that only a handful of loyalists care about. We don’t
see it happening, though. Lawsuits would be filed by the aggrieved
cities and the players’ union would put up a stink over
the resulting job cuts. Baseball will buckle under the
pressure. So expect that exciting Marlins-Expos series to
open the season in 2002. |
Oct. 24: The Western
Athletic Conference suspended Fresno State’s Kendall
Edwards for one game after his cheap shot on a Boise
State player on a punt last week. Edwards was kicked out
of the game after he drilled punt returner Tim Gilligan
while the ball was still in the air. Edwards seems to like
to hit defenseless players. He pulled a similar stunt
against Oregon State, breaking a player’s hand on a
punt. |
| Oct.
23: If at first you don't succeed .... That should be
the motto of the Philadelphia Eagles, who prior to
Monday night had lost to the New York Giants nine straight
times. The Iggles fell behind, 9-0, in a first half where
they had the ball for slightly more than three minutes.
But they plugged away and prevailed late, 10-9. |
Oct. 23: Sorry, Seattle
Mariner fans. Their record 116 regular season wins
mean nothing. Their 4-6 postseason mark this year is more
telling of a team that went down without a fight in the
ALCS to the New York Yankees, 4 games to 1. Next up: a
World Series we predict will get lousy ratings, a
few-will-care affair between the Yankees and Arizona
Diamondbacks. We played 162 regular season games and two
rounds of the playoffs to get this? |
| Oct.
22: Wow, the Yankees do it again. Alfonso
Soriano’s two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth
lifted New York over Seattle, 3-1, and gave them a 3-1
series lead. Seattle went up, 1-0, on a Brett Boone homer
in the eighth, but Bernie Williams tied it for the Yanks
in the bottom of the inning. Seattle won 116 regular
season games but somehow the Yanks find a way to pull it
out in the postseason. |
Oct. 22: Talk about falling
fast and far. Clemson dropped from 13th in the AP
college football Top 25 poll entirely out of it. Losing
38-3 to North Carolina will do that to anybody. The Tar
Heels, though, joined Stanford and Illinois as new Top 25
entrants. Hmmm, this sounds an awful lot like a basketball
poll, not football. |
Oct.
21: It was a wild day in college football, not
a surprise as the play as gotten as crisp as a cool autumn
day:
--It seemed to take forever, but Penn State's Joe Paterno
tied Bear Bryant for career Division I coaching wins. It
may take another century until he breaks it.
--We saw another unbeaten team go down as #5 Oregon lost
at home for the first time in 24 games, 49-42 to Stanford.
--North Carolina, which drilled Florida State earlier this
year, did in Clemson, 38-3.
--Maryland and UCLA, both known more for their basketball
teams, each stayed unbeaten. UCLA will almost certainly
gain a spot in the national championship game if it can
stay way through a tough November. |
Oct. 21: The Arizona Diamondbacks-Atlanta
Braves National League Championship Series has been
the singularly most uninteresting major sports playoff in
recent memory. The D'Backs lead, 3-1, and we can only hope
they win Game 5 to get this thing over with. In the
Braves, we have a team with zero personality and seemingly
little heart, one that always does well in the regular
season before rolling over in the playoffs. Take pitcher
Greg Maddux, a four-time Cy Young winner. He was shelled
on Saturday, which has become par for the his playoff
course. He's 0-4 with two no-decisions in his last six postseason
starts, AP says, allowing 17 runs in 34 innings, a 4.50 ERA.
What a clutch performer!
The D'Backs represent the worst of modern baseball--a team
built by opening the wallet the widest and buying a
championship-level team. Plus, the stands look about
two-thirds full in both ballparks. Few seems to care and
we can see why. |
| Oct.
20: Curt Schilling continues to amaze in the
postseason. The Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher, who looks
more like an office manager than pro athlete, pitched a
complete game in knocking off Atlanta in Game 3 of the
National League Championship Series on Friday. In the
playoffs, Schilling is 3-0 with an 0.67 ERA. |
Oct. 20: Thanks for
nothing Fresno State. We really wanted the Bulldogs
to go unbeaten in college football season and gum up the
works for the Bowl Championship Series. But the ’Dogs
played like pooches when it counted, blowing a
two-touchdown lead at home Friday and losing to Boise
State, 35-30. The same Boise State that was cooked by Rice
two weeks ago. |
| Oct.
19: We're not sure if this is a coming out statement,
but we loved the quote from tennis player Mark
Philippoussis in this week's Sports Illustrated. The
magazine did a short piece on ``Beyond the Baseline,'' a
50-minute film by two ex-tennis pros. Philippoussis is
asked in the film why he has a
tattoo of Alexander the Great on his right bicep:
``He was a fucking
conqueror of the world, he was fucking Greek and he was
gay."
The film, an intimate look at the men's tennis tour by
Geoff Grant and Mark Keil, was shown in England during
Wimbledon to good reviews, will be shown in Australia next
year but still does not have a U.S. distributor. We'll
keep you posted. |
Oct. 19:
We know this is a non-sports matter, but we're pissed by
the jackass in the U.S. Navy who wrote ``High
Jack This Fags'' on a bomb destined for
Afghanistan. Navy brass apologized and said steps would be
taken that it wouldn't happen again. Nothing was said
about discipline against the person who did it.
Wonder if the jerk who doesn't know how to spell
``hijack'' knows that a fag
was a hero for bringing down one of the hijacked
jets and was eulogized by Sen. John McCain. Or that in
Afghanistan fags are put to death, usually by knocking a
brick wall down on them. Shame on whoever wrote this. |
| Oct.
18: Eric Lindros got a measure of revenge against
Scott Stevens. Lindros, now with the New York Rangers,
scored a goal and assisted on the game-winner in overtime
in a 4-3 win over Stevens’ winless New Jersey Devils.
The last time the two met, back in the 2000 playoffs,
Stevens gave Lindros a concussion that almost ended his
career. Their time on the ice Wednesday was generally
uneventful. |
Oct.
18: Tennis rankings are really no big deal, but Andre
Agassi would have liked to reclaim the top spot.
Unfortunately for Agassi he was upset by Hicham Arazi in
the second round of the Stuttgart Masters Series. His loss
gives third-ranked Lleyton Hewitt the chance to be No. 1
if he can win in Stuttgart. ‘‘Unfortunately, you’ve
got to win to be No. 1,’’ Agassi said. |
| Oct.
17: The Big Unit finally showed up big. In a
match-up of pitchers who have seven Cy Young Awards
between them, Randy Johnson led his Arizona
Diamondbacks over Greg Maddux and the Atlanta Braves with
a three-hit, 2-0 victory in game 1 of the NLCS.
Johnson had lost his previous seven playoff starts. |
Oct.
17: It's been long apparent that baseball has
ceased being the National Pastime (try back in the Ford
Administration). But this was reconfirmed Monday night. A
truly dreadful NFL game matching the 0-4 Cowboys and the
0-4 Redskins drew more viewers than the deciding game of
the Yankees-A’s baseball playoff series. The football
game drew a 9.9/16 with the baseball game pulling only an
8.4/13. Monday Night Football and playoff baseball
have gone head-to-head five straight years. Football has
won all five. It must be the Hank Williams Jr. theme song. |
Oct.
16: What can you say about the Yankees that
hasn't been said? They get behind Oakland, 2 games to none
heading to the West Coast and look old and ready to
topple. A clutch 1-0 Game 3 win then sets up a stirring
series comeback, highlighted by Monday's 5-3 thriller. For
the second year in a row the A's had the champs on the
ropes and let them up. The Yanks are truly a great
team.
But shame on Fox for prematurely cutting away from the
post-game celebration. With the loudspeakers blaring ``New
York, New York'' we wanted Fox to stay until the end.
Given all that has happened the past month it could have
been an emotional moment. But the network that
thinks it's cutting edge but isn't, cut it off and went to
commercial. Fox would've broke away from the Gettysburg
Address with three paragraphs to go to show ``When Pets
Attack.'' |
Oct.
16: Monday night's Dallas Cowboys-Washington Redskins
NFL game was truly a classic. A classic bomb; a classic
bust; a classic piece of you-know-what. Each team came in
0-4 and so it was fitting that the game came down to the
last play, with Dallas kicking a field goal to win, 9-7.
Of course, the Redskins played their part in giving the
game away, as Stephen Davis fumbled inside the Cowboy 30
with 2:40 to go.
The highlight was the pre-game shot of Cowboy kicker Tim
Seder being charged by a horse on the field in some sort
of ceremony. |
| Oct.
15: The Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees showed
they won't go quietly in the baseball playoffs by forcing
decisive Game 5's today against Cleveland and Oakland
respectively. The M's rebounded from a 17-2 drubbing
to beat the Indians, while the Yanks kept the home team 0
for 4 in their series. |
Oct.
15: Pro athletes train and train to avoid dumb
mistakes. Germane Crowell, receiver for the Detroit
Lions must have been sleeping when they discussed time
management. The Lions were trailing the Minnesota Vikings,
31-26, with no timeouts and 15 seconds left. Crowell
caught a pass at the Viking 27 and could have easily
stepped out of bounds, giving the Lions one shot at the
end zone. Instead, he turned up-field, gained seven yards,
was tackled with eight second remaining and his stunned
teammates could only watch the clock run out. |
| Oct.
14: DeShaun Foster made a strong case for himself
Saturday as the Heisman Trophy frontrunner. The UCLA
tailback rushed for for a school-record 301 yards and four touchdowns as the No. 7 Bruins
routed No. 10 Washington, 35-13. There are a lot of worthy
candidates this year, including Clemson's Woodrow Dantzler
(six TDs on Saturday) and Eric Crouch, Nebraska's
quarterback. |
Oct.
14: The Major League Baseball playoffs have been less
than scintillating so far. It's not just that we've
already had one sweep (Braves-Astros) but that most of the
other games have featured few lead changes or drama. The
worst was Saturday's Cleveland 17-2 drubbing of Seattle.
Even the Browns have trouble scoring 17 in a game. |
| Oct.
12: The Oakland A's are one win away from ending the
New York Yankees three-year reign as World Series
champions. The A's, who started the season 8-18 but were
the hottest team after the All-Star break, won their
second straight in New York to lead the best-of-five
series, 2-0. |
Oct.
12: Sebastian Janikowski, the ‘‘Polish
Partier,’’ is keeping quiet about an incident this
week where police found him outside a Bay Area nightclub
‘‘incoherent and wildly flailing on the floor.’’
Patrons at the club told police the Oakland Raider kicker
said several patrons believed Janikowski had ingested GHB
(the date-rape drug). This is not the first incident for
Janikowski, who was in hot water while a player at Florida
State. No wonder he's a Raider. |
| Oct.
11: After watching games in trendy, corporate-named
places such as Bank One, Safeco and Enron, it was great to
see baseball at Yankee Stadium. The tradition is
evident and the crowd gets into it, unlike in those
non-baseball towns of Phoenix and Houston. Home or not, it
didn’t help the Yankees, who lost Game 1 of their
playoff series to Oakland, 5-3. |
Oct.
11: The Houston Chronicle
ran a San Jose Mercury news story about Mark
Bingham, one of the heroic passengers who brought
down hijacked Flight 93 on Sept. 11. But they edited out some important facts.
As reported by the Houston
Press: ‘‘Snipped from the Chronicle’s
version of the story: two paragraphs with passing
references to the fact that Bingham was openly gay,
including a quote from Paul Holm, who was described as
‘Bingham’s domestic partner for the past six years.’
Another graf quoted a friend as saying Bingham ‘wasn’t
anybody’s stereotype’ and had the ability to ‘bring
together politicians, students, the gay community,
artists.’ ''
The story brought this rebuttal from a Chronicle staffer,
who wrote to MediaNews:
From Craig Hines, Washington Bureau Columnist, Houston
Chronicle: A snarky item you picked up today from the
Houston Press leaves the impression that an editor at the
Houston Chronicle took pains to deliberately edit any gay
reference out of a 9/23 story (picked up from the San Jose
Mercury) about the memorial service for Mark Bingham.
According to my reading of the Chronicle version (and
after comparing it to the SJM version from the KNT wire),
a Chronicle copy editor made a general cut, one assumes
for length, at least two paragraphs before the quote from
Bingham's partner -- the first indication in the story
that I can find that Bingham was gay. Also, at least one
earlier story in the Chronicle following the 9/11 attacks
had referred to Bingham being a member of a gay rugby
team. |
| Oct.
10: Curt Schilling painted a masterpiece in Game 1 of
the National League playoffs. The Arizona Diamondback
pitched a 3-hit shutout with nine strikeouts in a 1-0 win
over St. Louis. Matt Morris, the Cards' pitcher, was also
on, but Schilling stole the show. |
Oct.
10: The Seattle Mariners won a record-tying 116
regular season games, but to keep their season alive
they'll have to win 3 of 4. The M's went meekly in Game 1
of their American League playoff series, losing at home,
5-0, to the Cleveland Indians. Seattle won 25 more games
during the season than Cleveland, but that all means zip
now. |
| Oct.
9: As baseball's regular season finishes, a tip of the
hat to two sure Hall of Famers who called it quits--Tony
Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. Both were consummate
pros who gave a lot to their communities. And in an age of
free-agent movements both did something as rare these days
as executing a bunt: Gwynn (San Diego) and Ripken
(Baltimore) played their entire careers with one team. |
Oct.
9: Even ``Everyone Loves Raymond'' is sounding better
than Monday Night Football. What a crap schedule
after four games. The average margin of victory has been
21 points, and the trend continued Monday as the Rams
drilled the Lions, 35-0. Even Dennis Miller couldn't save
this one. Next up? Washington at Dallas, a combined 0-8.
What's on the Home Shopping Network? |
| Oct.
8: Rickey Henderson did it again, reaching another
milestone in his incomparable career. The future
Hall of Famer got his 3,000th hit on Sunday in the last
game of the season. He is only the 25th player to do
so in Major League history. Just last week,
Henderson also broke Ty Cobb's career runs scored record. |
Oct.
8: This season was supposed to be another run at the
Super Bowl. Instead, the Tennessee Titans are
in a heap of trouble after being embarrassed by the
Baltimore Ravens, 26-7. Now, at 0-3, with all three
losses coming within their conference, the Titans sit 1
1/2 games out of fifth place in the AFC Central. "It was supposed to be two heavyweights. One
heavyweight showed up," declared Ravens tight
end Shannon Sharpe. Presently, the Titans rank 29th in
points scored and 25th in points allowed. |
| Oct.
7: With Josh Heupel no longer the quarterback,
defending national college football champion Oklahoma
is winning with defense and some trickery. The #3 Sooners
beat #5 Texas, 14-3, on Saturday for their 18th straight
win. They set up their two touchdowns by running an option
on fourth-and-2 and using a pooch punt on a fake field
goal. The Sooner defense also picked off Chris Simms three
times. |
Oct.
7: Three years ago, Mark McGwire was the toast
of American sports. Now his career may be toast. McGwire
is batting .188 and has struck out an average of once
every 2 1/2 at bats this year. He’s seriously
contemplating retiring. ‘‘I’m fried and
embarrassed,‘' McGwire said. He always has the playoffs
to redeem himself. |
Oct.
6. Barry Bonds set a major league record for home runs
in a season when he hit his 71st and 72nd against the
Dodgers. Bonds beat Mark McGwire's record of 70, set in
1998.
We watched the live feed from Los Angeles, with the great
Vin Scully calling the action, and frankly the whole
moment seemed anticlimactic. The San Francisco fans
cheered and his teammates surrounded the plate as Bonds
crossed, but the moment seemed to lack genuine affection.
The applause seemed merely an acknowledgment for a job
well done, for a player having a fabulous season.
Bonds being a standoffish, generally unfriendly loner
(even with teammates) over his career didn't help. Plus,
with balls flying out of parks at a record clip, the feat
seemed less impressive than when McGwire was chasing a
37-year-old mark. Hard to imagine many people will
remember where they were when Bonds hit 71. |
Oct.
5: One record fell and another was tied Thursday night
in baseball. Barry Bonds hit home run No. 70
against Houston to tie the all-time season mark. He has
three more games to pass Mark McGwire.
In San Diego, Rickey Henderson homered in the ninth
to give 2,246 runs for his career, besting Ty Cobb. As he
promised, Henderson slid into home to celebrate.
``Sliding into home plate was really a treat for my
teammates,'' Henderson said. ``I think they were expecting me to go headfirst into home plate
but I told them I hate sliding into home plate headfirst, so
I eventually went feet first. |
Oct.
5: Gerard Warren of the Cleveland Browns was fined
$35,000 by the NFL for his cheap-shot hit that knocked
Jacksonville quarterback Mark Brunell out of last Sunday's
game. That's all well and good, but Warren should have
been suspended. We favor the eye-for-an-eye rule in these
cases: apply a flagrant cheap shot that injures a player?
Then you sit as long as the injured player does. |
| Oct.
4: Barry Bonds set the record! Barry Bonds set the record! Oops, wrong record. Bonds did not set the all-time mark for home runs; he remains stuck at 69, one behind Mark McGwire. But after being walked three times by the Houston Astros, Bonds has 171 walks this season, which beats the 170
by Babe Ruth in 1923. The Astros even walked Bonds with men on first and second. Pretty wimpy behavior that even had the hometown Astro fans booing. |
Oct.
4: What a weird way to be knocked out of commission. Seattle Mariners starting shortstop Carlos Guillen will miss at least the opening round of the American League playoffs as he remains quarantined for treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. |
| Oct. 3: With all the focus on Barry Bonds, the achievements of Chicago’s
Sammy Sosa have gotten lost. Sosa hit his 60th home run Tuesday night, and is the first player ever with three, 60-homer seasons. He is also the first player since World War II to have a season of at least 50 home runs and 150 RBIs. |
Oct.
3: Someone forgot to tell Atlanta there's a
pennant race on, or maybe people just don't care. During a
crucial game Tuesday night against the Philadelphia
Phillies, the Braves' home crowd was 20,000 below
capacity. Guess fans figured the team would just choke
again in the playoffs even if they won the division. |
| Oct.
2: We won't be subjected to Allen Iverson's rap
album after all. The Philadelphia 76er star
decided against releasing his album a year after preview
lyrics revealed it to be homophobic and misogynistic.
"I'm through with it," he told AP. "It's something I always wanted to do. It was a childhood dream of mine, just like basketball. But I feel like people took it the wrong way. It kind of took all the excitement out of it."
Gee, Allen, it was really
easy to take these lyrics the wrong way ... not:
"Come to me with faggot tendencies, you be sleeping
where the maggots be." |
Oct.
2: Major injuries continue to devastate the NFL, the
most violent of our team sports. On Sunday, the following
were lost for the season: Jamal Anderson (Atlanta running
back); Antuan Edwards (Green Bay safety); Trace Armstrong
(Oakland defensive lineman.) In addition, Carolina rookie
linebacker Dan Morgan is out six weeks with a broken leg;
Tampa's Warrick Dunn three weeks with a bad foot, while
Jacksonville's Mark Brunell is still dazed after what
appeared to be a late-hit cheap shot by Cleveland's Gerald
Warren that knocked him out of the game. |
| Oct.
1: The Cleveland Indians won the American League
Central on Sunday and complete the playoff picture,
joining New York, Seattle and Oakland. It looks like the
Indians will play Seattle, unless they can somehow pass
the Yankees. |
Oct.
1: Moving the Super Bowl to New York is a dumb idea.
It was one floated Sunday by Sen. Chuck Schumur as a
‘‘symbol of triumph over terrorism.’’ That sounds
nice, but there are many, more meaningful ways of honoring
the city. Absent a dome, hosting a football game in New
York in February is silly. |
