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August
2002 |
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TOPS |
BOTTOMS |
Aug. 31: Thanks to a
reader for alerting us that gay softball drag queens
trump even a presidential visit. A
Leah Garchik item in the San Francisco Chronicle
detailed how President Bush's recent visit to Portland,
Ore., took a back seat to the Gay World Series.
Bob Docca, gay softball commissioner emeritus, related the
story to Garchik:
"Many of the players stayed at the Hilton Hotel, and
mid-series, George W. arrived to speechify to Republican
supporters. The ballplayers had booked the Hilton two years
ahead of time, so while the series' amateur drag night went
on as scheduled in the Grand Ballroom, the presidential
party was relegated to the smaller Pavilion Room.
"When Docca arrived for check-in, he says, the site was
ringed with protesters and Secret Service agents. In the
hotel's lobby were large signs welcoming members of the
North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance to the Gay
Softball World Series.
"The signs were taken down before the president and his
entourage arrived, and posted again after his speech." |
Aug. 31: So, baseball
players and the owners reached an agreement without a
strike. Whoop-de-doo! It's nice that the season will
continue, but the negotiations left us caring even less.
From what we see, the pact does little to ensure the Yankees
won't play in the next five World Series. And we can find
nothing that stipulates that a small market team needs to
spend its revenue sharing loot on talent. Expect all this to
reoccur when the agreement expires after 2006. |
|
Aug. 30: The
International Olympic Committee used some common sense
when its executive board voted to eliminate or not allow in
18 sports. The biggest sports slated for elimination are
baseball, softball and modern pentathlon. Baseball and
softball have too narrow of an international audience and
cost a lot to stage. In addition, no major leaguers can play
because of scheduling conflicts. Pentathlon (pistol
shooting, fencing, horseback riding, swimming and running)
is a sport designed more for 1902 than 2002. The committee
also nixed allowing bowling and bridge, among others. These
decisions can be overruled by a majority of IOC delegates,
so expect impassioned pleas on why certain sports must be in
the Olympics. Two
milestones of note from the sports world:
- Mark Bellhorn of
the Chicago Cubs became the first player in National
League ever to homer from both sides of the plate, doing
the deed against the Brewers.
- Ola Kimrin
of the Denver Broncos kicked a 65-yard field goal in
Denver's final exhibition game. The kick won't count as a
record, because it's preseason, but it's two yards longer
than the NFL record.
|
Aug. 30: The thrill is
gone from baseball in Denver. Only 26,000 showed up Thursday
to watch the Colorado Rockies lose at Coors Field to
San Francisco, the smallest crowd ever at the stadium. Fans
spent much of the game booing the thought of an impending
strike. |
|
Aug. 29: This should
probably be a bottom, but this story is so good, the
story deserves a top. Green Bay running back Jason
Brookins was asked for his playbook by a team official on
Tuesday. Brookins took that to mean that he was cut
from the team. So, he got in his car, turned off his
cell phone, and headed to his home in Missouri. But,
the team had simply wanted to add some last-minute additions
to the playbooks - Brookins was not being cut. Now,
the team is considering cutting him. Doh! |
Aug. 29: It seems
that female athletes are allowed to be sexy, but male
athletes are not. As Serena Williams was cruising to
her first round victory in the U.S. Open in a tight
(nearly painted on) black outfit, Tommy Haas was told he
couldn't play tennis in a muscle shirt. Maybe Haas
should just come out naked (as he appeared in the New York
Post), since he can't wear what he wants. |
|
Aug. 28: Marat Safin and
Nicolas Kiefer gave U.S. Open tennis fans a great
match and more during a 4 hour, 31-minute marathon. Safin
wound up prevailing
6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-4,
7-6 (4) in a match that saw both players suffering from
fatigue and cramps. |
Aug. 28: Three Florida
fishermen didn't let anything as trivial as a human head
get in the way of their angling. Paul Trabulsy fished out a
head while 22 miles offshore on Friday, ESPNOutdoors.com
reports; instead of heading back to shore they continued
fishing and returned five hours later.
"We didn't want to
come in right away, so we just put it in a bag in a bucket.
It'd been out there awhile. What's a couple of hours?" said
Trabulsy.
"We were 22 miles out, so we
decided we could either run in and ruin a perfectly good day
or we could fish our way in," Trabulsy said. "Now, had it
been a freshly severed head, it would have been a different
story. But this had been out there for who knows how long."
|
|
Aug. 27: Cory
Lidle is just as hot as
his Oakland Athletics, who won their 13th straight game
Monday, 6-3 over Kansas City. In earning the win, Lidle
moved to 5-0 in August and has not allowed an earned run in
38 innings. The A's now lead the American League West by two
games. |
Aug. 27: One more sign
that the real world often intrudes on sports: The
U.S. freestyle wrestling team has withdrawn from the world
championships in Iran Sept. 5-7 after receiving an
unspecified threat. Iran said it could not guarantee the
safety of the wrestlers in Tehran.
"I was disappointed and heartbroken for the guys," national
team coach Kevin Jackson told AP. "To not have the
opportunity to compete in the world championships that you
train for your whole life, that's pretty devastating."
U.S. wrestlers have competed in Iran before without
incident. Relations between the two countries have been
under more tension since President Bush named Iran as part
of an "axis of evil," along with Iraq and North Korea. |
Aug.
25-26: The weekend that was:
-
Iowa State came thisclose to pulling off a shocker
in college football, losing 38-31 to No. 3 Florida State.
The Cyclones had a chance to tie the game from the
Seminole 1 but fell short. On the play before, Iowa
State's Seneca Wallace scrambled 20 yards to the 1, though
replays showed he might have scored.
-
The Oakland Athletics won their 12th straight game,
their longest streak since 1988.
-
The New York Liberty will get the chance to
dethrone the Los Angeles Sparks, when the two meet
in the WNBA finals. Each team clinched its conference
final this weekend.
- Thailand's Paradorn
Srichaphan became the first Asian to win an ATP tennis
tourney since 1998 when he won the TD Waterhouse Cup.
- Randy Johnson
struck out 16 Chicago Cubs as the Arizona pitcher won his
19th game. In his last seven starts, the Big Unit is 6-0
with a 0.90 ERA and 87 strikeouts in 57 innings.
|
Aug. 25-26: There is a
lot to like about ESPN's SportsCenter, but the
relentless promotion of their 25,000th show was annoying to
the extreme. The whole exercise smacked of extreme
narcissism from people who basically read a script keyed to
sports highlights. |
|
Aug.
24: College football in the third week of August is
idiotic, but at least Wisconsin and Fresno State put
on a good show. Minus quarterback David Carr (now in the
NFL), the Bulldogs nonetheless gave Wisconsin all it could
handle before the Badgers pulled out a 23-21 win at home.
Fresno State was hampered when offensive threat Bernard
Berrian went out late in the first period. The game was not
decided until Fresno State just missed converting on a
fourth-and-19 pass at the Wisconsin 35 with less than a
minute remaining. The pass was broken up by Wisconsin safety
Jim Leonhard, who also had two interceptions. |
Aug. 24: Here's a
statistic that is troubling: While blacks make up a majority
of the players, there are only four black coaches
among the 115 at the major college football level (Notre
Dame's Tyrone Willingham, Michigan State's Bobby Williams,
San Jose State's Fitz Hill and New Mexico State's Tony
Samuel.) This is 2% of the total, a drop from 5% six years
ago, a study by the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interest
Committee found. Who gets hired for a head coach is
influenced by a variety of factors including politics and
financial concerns, Floyd Keith, director of the Black
Coaches Association told the Associated Press. These kinds
of reports show how much progress needs to be made in areas
of ethnicity and power. It's still a white man's world. |
|
Aug. 23: She's not a big
name in the U.S., but Nancy Drolet is fairly
well-known in Canada as a star on the national women's ice
hockey team in the late '90s. Drolet was in the news
recently for a non-athletic reason: she legally wed
Nathalie Allaire in a civil ceremony in Quebec.
Same-sex civil unions became legal in Quebec, a Canadian
province, earlier this summer. "We decided in 1995 to spend
the rest of our lives together," Drolet said in an interview
published in the newspaper L'Echo du Nord. "This union is a
legal document that will free us from future constraints. We
adore children and like any new couple we think about having
them, but not necessarily tomorrow morning." Wonder if we'll
ever see a couple of French Canadian male players tie the
knot? |
Aug. 23: Ex-NBA star
Jayson Williams just got more isolated in his criminal
case. Williams is charged with first-degree manslaughter in
the shooting death of a limousine driver at his mansion in
February. John W. Gordnick, a friend of Williams, pleaded
guilty to charges he helped cover up the shooting and will
testify against Williams. Gordnick said he took the
clothes Williams was wearing when the driver was shot, hid
them in a car and didn't turn them over to authorities for
several weeks, according to AP. |
|
Aug. 22: With six weeks (er
- make that one week) left in the baseball season, Arizona
Diamondback Curt Schilling notched season win # 21 on
Thursday (the most in the Majors) against the Cincinnati
Reds. Schilling's record is 21-4 with an ERA of 2.68. |
Aug. 22: Alimzhan
Tokhtakhounov, arrested July 31 in Venice, Italy, has
been indicted with trying to fix the Olympic ice skating
competitions. The Russian, a reported mobster,
apparently tried to arrange a swap of votes between French
and Russian judges, assuring each country of a gold medal. |
|
Aug. 21: On the day that
start Sheryl Swoopes was named the WNBA MVP, her team took
its earliest playoff exit in team history. The Utah
Starzz went into Houston on Tuesday and won only their
second playoff game ever, beating the storied Houston
franchise, 75-72, and advancing to the Western Conference
finals against the defending conference champion Los Angeles
Sparks. |
Aug. 21: Little League
baseball is supposed to be about kids learning the game and
having fun. Unfortunately, the Little League World
Series this year has become about big ratings, big bats,
and kids making fools of themselves. The hotdogging by
the team from Harlem, NY got so bad that the officials gave
a stern warning to the Harlem coach: any more and the
player hotdogging would be ejected. Enough of boys too
big for their britches and over zealous parents - let's send
the Little League back to the little league - no television
contracts needed. |
|
Aug. 20: Jeremy Bloom has
decided to give up endorsements from his skiing career for a
chance to play wide receiver for the University of Colorado
Buffaloes. Bloom, who could probably make a
living off posters of his body, was unsuccessful in
fighting the NCAA, which prohibits athletes from
endorsements. The NCAA rulesis very unfair and a likely
restraint of trade, but we applaud Bloom for taking this
anachronistic organization on. |
Aug. 20: Only 8,266
showed up at Olympic Stadium in Montreal for what was
potentially the Expos last major league baseball game
there. The Expos hit the road and are not set to come back
until after Aug. 30, the day players may go out on strike.
Commissioner Bud Selig wants to eliminate Montreal under a
contraction plan. If the Expos are kaput it's hard to see
many shedding a tear. |
Aug. 18-19: It's not
everybody who can survive a Tiger Woods onslaught and live
to tell about it. Rich Beem won the PGA championship
by holding off Woods by one stroke. ...
A great player and class act, Terrell Davis, will
retire from pro football Monday night as a Denver Bronco.
Davis, one of only four men to rush for 2,000 yards in a
season, has been injured with bad knees for much of the time
since 1999. ...
|
Aug. 18-19: The New
York Mets ended a lost weekend at home by being swept by
the Dodgers, which made it 11 straight losses at Shea
Stadium. |
|
Aug. 17: The Sacramento
Kings signed guard Mike Bibby to a seven-year, $80
million contract, the most significant move the team will
make as they seek to dethrone the Los Angeles Lakers as NBA
champs. Bibby was brilliant during the playoffs for the
Kings, and if his teammates had stepped up their games as he
did in the series with the Lakers, Sacramento would have
swept. |
Aug. 17: Now that the
Major League Baseball players union has set an Aug. 30
strike date, it will be interesting to see if both sides
are really crazy enough to stop the season. Given the
mistrust the players have for the owners (who have been
caught lying many times) and the disunity among the owners,
the odds seem to 50-50 for a walkout. If this happens, we
bet most people curse both sides and go back to watching
football. The silence will be deafening to these tone-deaf
sides. |
|
Aug. 16: Michael Phelps
is only 17, but he is one of the brightest stars in
swimming. Phelps set a world record in the men's 400-meter
individual medley Thursday at the U.S. Summer Nationals,
beating out Erik Vendt by .18 of a second. Vendt's time was
the second-fastest ever in the race. On Wednesday, Phelps
set a meet record in the 200-meter fly. |
Aug. 16: It's only
preseason, but the Miami Dolphins' offense looks like
it needs two more months and not two more games to get
ready. Ricky Williams, brought in to boost the running game,
gained only 17 yards on eight carries in a 24-7 loss
Thursday to New Orleans. In two games this preseason,
Williams has gained 26 yards on 13 carries, an anemic 2
yards a carry. For good measure, quarterback Jay Fiedler
looked like the stiff he often is, throwing three
interceptions against the Saints. 'Fins fans should just
keep repeating: It's only preseason ... |
|
Aug. 15: One more sign
that United States men's soccer is no longer a
laughingstock in the world. The Americans cracked the Top 10
of the FIFA rankings for the first time, tying Italy for
ninth. This news must make the Italians just a little
nauseous, given their arrogance in things futbol.
World Cup champ Brazil is No. 1. |
Aug. 15: The Detroit
Tigers (45-74 and 25 games out of first place) are so
bad they can't even bat in the correct order. The Anaheim
Angels protested their game against Detroit after the Tigers
batted players in an order different from that of the
official lineup card. The protest became moot when the
Angels came back from a 4-1 deficit to win, 5-4. |
|
Aug. 14: It was nice to
see Martina Hingis back on the court after a nearly
three-month absence. Hingis won her second-round match at
the Rogers At&T Cup in Montreal in straight sets over Magui
Serna. Hingis had been out of action following ankle
surgery. |
Aug. 14: Steve Williams,
aka professional wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, was
released on $5,000 bond after being charged with beating his
wife. |
|
Aug. 13: The prognosis is
good for actor Jason Priestly, seriously injured
during practice Sunday in a development race on the Indy
Racing Circuit. Priestly suffered head and spinal injuries
when he lost control on a slick surface coming around a
turn. ``He does not have any injury that shouldn't fully
recover,'' said Dr. Andrew Bernard, a University of Kentucky
Hospital trauma surgeon. |
Aug. 13: U.S. Rep.
J.C. Watts (R-Okla.), was a star college football
quarterback during the '80s, but he failed to realize he's
no longer much of a jock. Watts pulled a hamstring and had
to be carted off the field while running sprints with the
Washington Redskins.
"The stupidity
kicked in,'' said Watts, who is leaving Congress this year.
The 'Skins' trainer called Watts' injury the worst of the
day. |
Aug. 11-12: It was a
weekend of some notable accomplishments:
- Golfer Karrie Webb won the
women's British Open and now has become the first to win
the Super Slam of all five majors in her career.
- Tiger Woods tuned up for
the PGA by winning the Buick Open.
- Arizona Diamondbacks
pitcher Curt Schilling became the major league's first
19-game winner, when he beat Florida.
- On Saturday, there were
two players who hot three home runs: Chicago's Sammy Sosa
(vs. Colorado) and Philadelphia's Mike Lieberthal (vs. Los
Angeles). Sosa hit four home runs and drove in 14 runs in
two days at Colorado's Coors Field.
|
Aug. 11-12: The weekend
also produced some bummers:
- Major League Baseball
players seem ready to announce a strike date as early as
Monday. Every time this has happened in the past there has
been a strike.
- Three injuries of note
occurred in NFL preseason games: Seattle quarterback Trent
Dilfer tore a knee ligament and is out indefinitely;
Linebacker Jamir Miller, Cleveland's best defensive
player, ruptured his Achilles tendon and is likely out for
the season; and Cincinnati linebacker Takeo Spikes slightly tore a chest muscle
and is gone 2-4 weeks.
|
Aug. 10: Barry Bonds
of the San Francisco Giants became the fourth player in
Major League Baseball history to hit 600 career home runs.
Bonds joins Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays in the
exclusive club. ...
It may have only been NFL preseason, but new Buffalo Bills
quarterback Drew Bledsoe made the fans forget about
the quarterback controversy of the past four seasons.
Bledsoe went 9 for 11 and two touchdowns in less than a half
of work. |
Aug. 10: Serena Williams
can't win them all. Williams, who had won 21 consecutive
matches, lost to Chanda Rubin at the quarterfinals of the JP
Morgan Open. Williams was not the only player upset. No. 2
seed Jennifer Capriati lost to unheralded
Ai Sugiyam of
Japan. |
|
Aug. 9: Once a starter,
John Smoltz of the Atlanta Braves now shines as a
relief pitcher. By saving Thursday's win over Arizona,
Smoltz recorded his 40th save, the most in team history. It
was also the fastest anyone in history has ever reached 40
saves (in 114 games). |
Aug. 9: Gays and lesbians
should think long and hard before ever supporting the NBA's
Orlando Magic or WNBA's Orlando Miracle. According to AP: "Pat
Williams -- senior vice president of RDV Sports, the
parent company of the WNBA's Miracle and the NBA's Magic --
issued a written statement, calling a letter sent to the
Orlando City Council expressing opposition to the Chapter 57
amendment "a personal action." Chapter 57 would ban
discrimination against gays.
The letter, while on plain paper, was mailed in a company
envelope with his name and title on it. While Williams is
certainly entitled to his opinion, so are we and we urge
gays and lesbians to consider what Williams is opposed to
before spending any money on his teams. |
|
Aug. 8: Terrance Long of
the Oakland Athletics had one of the great catches in recent
memory and it saved a game. Long reached into the bullpen to
rob Manny Ramirez of what would have been a game-ending
three-run home run for the Boston Red Sox. ``A little bit of
surprise, and a little bit of luck, " said Long. A Red Sox
security guard was so certain it would be a home run that he
raised his arms in premature celebration. |
Aug. 8: The St. Louis
Cardinals lost their seventh game in a row and have been
outscored 45-14 in the process. The Cards once led the
National League Central by five games but now have both
Houston and Cincinnati breathing down their necks. |
|
Aug. 7: There were a
couple of home runs of note Tuesday: Mets catcher Mike
Piazza hit his 327th career home run to tie Johnny Bench for
second on the all-time list. And San Francisco Giants
slugger Barry Bonds hit career No. 599. |
Aug. 7: Pity the
Oklahoma Sooners college football team. The suffered the
journalistic equivalent of a tornado--they were named Sports
Illustrated's preseason No. 1 team. It is a sure kiss of
death. The Sooners have as much chance now of being No. 1 as
AOL/Time-Warner (SI's parent company) does of being worth
$30 a share. |
|
Aug. 6: Chick Hearn, the
legendary Los Angeles Lakers broadcaster who died Monday at
85, was always a top in our book. The inventor of the terms
"slam dunk" and "air ball," Hearn hadn't lost much in his
later years. Though he was employed by the Lakers, Hearn was
unsparing in criticism of the team if it deserved it. Hearn
had a great way of declaring the Lakers had a game in the
bag: "This one's in the refrigerator: The door is closed,
the light is out, the eggs are cooling, the butter's getting
hard and the Jell-O's jiggling." In an age of
cookie-cutter announcers, Hearn was an original and will be
sorely missed. |
Aug. 6: The New York
Mets made several offseason moves designed to win a
pennant. They've almost all backfired and the team is once
again below .500. The Mets have lost five straight and our
bet is that Manager Bobby Valentine gets shown the door at
season's end. |
|
Aug. 5: Here is what
Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez has done since
he lost consecutive games in mid-June: 8-0 with a 0.98 ERA
and a streak of 23 scoreless innings. Martinez was dominant
against the Texas Rangers on Sunday, striking out 10 in
seven shutout innings for his 15th win. When he's healthy
Martinez has no peer. |
Aug. 5: Tony Stewart
faded at the end of the Brickyard 400 auto race and he took
his frustrations out on a photographer. Stewart had the pole
in the race and was in contention until the final few laps
when he faded and fell to 12th. Gary Mook, a freelance
photographer for the Indianapolis Star, followed Stewart as
he left the pit area at the race's end. Stewart turned and
punched Mook in the chest and stomach before he was pulled
away. NASCAR is investigating. Stewart was fined $10,000 in
2001 after an altercation with an official then with a
reporter at the Pepsi 400. |
|
Aug. 4: Longtime Buffalo
Bills quarterback Jim Kelly gave a very moving speech
during his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on
Saturday. The focus of Kelly's words was his 5-year-old son
Hunter, who is terminally ill with
Krabbes disease, a rare
degenerative disorder of the nervous system that robs him of
motor skills.
``It's been written that the
trademark of my career was toughness,'' Kelly said. ``The
toughest person I ever met in my life was my son, my hero,
Hunter. I love you, buddy.''
Kelly brought an estimated 1,200 people to the event in
Canton, Ohio, 240 miles from Buffalo. Also inducted were the
late coach George Allen, tight end Dave Casper, defensive
lineman Dan Hampton and wide receiver John Stallworth |
Aug. 4: Sad news for
anyone who is a Los Angeles Lakers fan. Chick Hearn, 85, who
has called games for 36 years suffered brain hemorrhaging
when he fell at his home Friday night. Hearn is a legend in
Southern California and the single most recognizable person
with the Lakers. He invented the terms ''slam dunk" and "air
ball." Doctors say Hearn is in critical condition and
if he survives will likely not call another game. |
|
Aug. 3: It was hard to
tell how organized and large the Lesbians for Liberty
protest was at Madison Square Garden. The group, angered
at the WNBA teams refusal to acknowledge its large lesbian
fan base, staged a kiss-in and encouraged fans to bring
banners. The protest was mentioned by Associated Press in
its game recap and AP also moved two photos of the event.
A neat-capacity crowd of 17,344 turned out at the Garden
as the Liberty beat the Miami Sol to take over first place
in their division.
|
Aug. 3: The
Milwaukee Bucks acknowledged that they were heading in
the wrong direction when they traded former top pick Glenn
"Big Dog'' Robinson. A year ago the Bucks came within one
win of the NBA Finals but slumped badly to a 33-49 record.
Robinson has had some run-ins with the law but he's a
two-time All-Star who should help the long-woeful Hawks.
Robinson was traded for forwards Toni Kukoc and Leon Smith
and a 2003 first-round draft pick.
|
|
Aug. 2: Montreal Expo
slugger Vladimir Guerrero did what almost no one else
had this season--beat Curt Schilling. Guerrero's home run in
the bottom of the ninth lifted the Expos over the Arizona
Diamondbacks, 2-1, and handed Schilling only his fourth loss
(against 18 wins). Guerrero also won Tuesday's game against
the D'Backs with a ninth-inning home run. |
Aug. 2: This one gave us
a good laugh--New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner
complained about a trade. The Boss was upset that Montreal
traded Cliff Floyd this week to the Boston Red Sox, the
Yanks main rival. "If
Major League Baseball owns Montreal and they get (Floyd) and
(three) weeks later they trade him to our biggest
competitor, that's hard to believe," Steinbrenner told The
New York Post. "What's that say?" This is the same
Steinbrenner who routinely picks up star players for the
pennant drive, creating a competitive imbalance in baseball. |
|
Aug. 1:
Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe is on pace to win seven
gold medals at this week's Commonwealth Games in Manchester,
England. Thorpe, he of the size 17 feet, won his third
swimming gold in the 200-meter freestyle. Thorpe is
attempting to join American swimmer Mark Spitz as the only
swimmers to win seven golds at a major meet. Spitz
accomplished his feat at the 1972 Olympics. |
Aug. 1: In the Boys
Will Be Idiots category, Kansas City Chiefs offensive tackle
John Tait will miss two weeks of training camp after
a fight with Eddie Freeman left him with cuts that
needed 17 stitches to close. Tait, the starting right
tackle, also broke his nose in the fight with Freeman, a
rookie ."He had my helmet and hit me with it. It wasn't his
fist," Tait told the AP. "It's common knowledge he had my
helmet in his hand and he swung it back and hit me with it.
... I definitely think disciplinary action should be taken.
It's not my place to say what or how much." Freeman, who
Coach Dick Vermeil called a "hothead," has been involved in
several fights. Showing the macho world NFL players occupy,
neither will be disciplined, Vermeil said. |
