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July
2002 |
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July 31: Lisa Leslie got
high and it made history. Leslie became the first woman to
dunk in a professional game Tuesday when the Los Angeles
Sparks center did it late in the first half against the
Miami Sol. Leslie, 6-5, had dunked in practice but this was
the first time during a WNBA game. There have been five
dunks at the college level, according to AP. ...
Ian Thorpe of Australia
set a world record in the 400-meter freestyle at the
Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England. It is Thorpe's
17th world record. |
July 31: Baseball's
annual salary-dumping sale is more absurd than usual as a
flurry of trades were made to beat the deadline.
Cliff Floyd was traded for the second time in three weeks
this time from Montreal to Boston. He started in Florida.
Floyd didn't do much to help Montreal in its wild card hunt
so the team jettisoned him and his $6.5 million salary. |
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July 30: The St. Louis
Cardinals strengthened themselves for the pennant drive when
they acquired the talented but disgruntled Scott Rolen
from the Philadelphia Phillies in a trade.
The Phillies get
third baseman Placido Polanco, pitcher Bud Smith (who had a
no-hitter in 2001) and reliever Mike Timlin for the
three-time Gold Glove winner, minor league pitcher Doug
Nickle and cash. Rolen has been at odds with Phillies
management for a while so a trade was all but inevitable.
Rolen goes from last-place Philadelphia to first-place St.
Louis. We've always liked Timlin, who gave this reaction
when asked how he would deal with an openly gay teammate:
"I
already have, knowingly, and it wasn't a problem." |
July 30: If the pressure
already wasn't intense for Denver Broncos quarterback
Brian Griese, it got hotter when USA Today published the
2001 salaries of every NFL player. Topping the list was the
erratic Griese, known as much for his off-field drinking
issues as his play on the field. Including his signing
bonus, Griese made $15 million in 2001, a season that saw
him rank 13th in the AFC in quarterback ratings. In
comparison, Super Bowl quarterbacks Tom Brady and Kurt
Warner made $314,000 and $2.2. million respectively. |
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July 29: How could you
consider him any less than one of the great champions of our
time? Lance Armstrong - the same man who
battled cancer several years ago - won his fourth
consecutive Tour de France on Saturday. He won it by
over seven minutes - his second largest margin of victory -
and plans to come back the next two years to break the
race's record for consecutive wins. |
July 29: ESPN's Jayson
Stark called Ozzie Smith's Hall of Fame induction speech
one of the greatest ever given at Cooperstown. Stark
seems to have missed the mark as much as Ozzie.
Sometimes hard to follow, sometimes rambling, and self-aggrandizing
from start to finish, the speech was almost as poorly
delivered as it was poorly written. You could almost
hear Ozzie sitting down with a speech writer saying, "I
want it to be 'I Have A Dream' meets 'The Wizard of
Oz'." Two good things that came out of it:
1) we now know that even Ozzie Smith refers to himself in
the third person; 2) all those Judy Garland fans got to hear
her warbling "Over The Rainbow" as Ozzie said
good-bye. |
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July 28: Alex Rodriguez,
the Texas Rangers' $250 million man, continues to show he's
one of the top handful of players in baseball. A-Rod hit two
home runs, including a game-winning grand slam, as Texas
beat Oakland. Rodriguez has a major league-leading 34 home
runs. The Rangers stink but not because of A-Rod. |
July 28: It's an annual
rite of NFL training camps--the holdout. A surprising
one is New Orleans Saints quarterback Aaron Brooks, who
failed to report to the opening of camp. Brooks is in the
final year of his contract that pays him the league minimum
(a paltry-by-NFL-standards $400,000) and the two sides had
been negotiating, Brooks has shown flashes of brilliance in
his first two years and the Saints need him to have any
success. Expect the two sides to come to an agreement soon. |
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July 27: The Anaheim
Angels, who were 10 1/2 games out of first place in
April, took possession of the American League West by
beating the Seattle Mariners for the fifth straight time.
The M's, who ran away with the West a year ago, are out of
first for the first time since April 11.It's the first time
since May 5, 2000, that the Angels have been in the lead. |
July 27: Ryan Leaf
retired on Friday and may go down as the biggest bust in NFL
history. Leaf, the No. 2 overall draft pick in 1998,
told the Seattle Seahawks (his fourth team) he was done with
football. No great loss there; it seemed Leaf was done with
football a day after cashing his bonus check in 1998. He had
loads of physical ability and the emotional maturity of a
10-year-old. He won't be missed. |
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July 26: Baseball's top
lawyer said he is optimistic an agreement can be reached
with the players union without a strike. While not as
optimistic, the union's No. 2 official said he was
encouraged by talks. This has to be considered progress
given the acrimony between the two sides in the past. There
are still serious negotiations to be held, but maybe there
will be a full season after all. |
July 26: The Ted
Williams case continues to get weirder. Two of his
children produced a document signed by them and their
father, asking that the Red Sox star be frozen. ``JHW,
Claudia and Dad all agree to be put into bio-stasis after we
die,'' reads the pact, referring to son John Henry and
daughter Claudia. ``This is what we want, to be able to be
together in the future, even if it is only a chance.''
The other members of the Williams family are fighting the
decision to freeze the Hall of Famer. We just wish the
whole clan would go into the deep freeze. |
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July 25: The Atlanta
Braves have been so good for so long (about 12 years)
that it's easy to take them for granted. But after beating
Florida, 10-0, on a combined 1-hitter, the Braves have
baseball's best record and a 13 1/2-game lead in the
National League East. |
July 25: It looks like
ex-Buffalo Sabres owner John Rigas might be doing
some time in the penalty box. Rigas, who founded Adelphia
cable and his two sons were charged with systematically
looting the firm (now bankrupt). The government contended
the Rigas' used the company as their ``personal piggy bank''
to the tune of $2 billion. The NHL took control of the
Sabres from Rigas in June. |
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July 24: Nomar Garciaparra
of the Boston Red Sox celebrated his 29th birthday in style.
He hit three home runs, including a grand slam, as Boston
beat Tampa Bay, 22-4, in Game 1 of a doubleheader. The
blasts gave Garciaparra a league-tying five home runs in two
games. |
July 24: Two National
League stars were out of action Tuesday after sustaining
injuries. The most serious was a strained right
hamstring suffered Sunday by Barry Bonds of the San
Francisco Giants. He is expected to be out possibly through
the weekend. And the Montreal Expos got a scare when
outfielder Vladimir Guerrero hurt his knee against the Mets
and came out of the game; he is expected to be OK. |
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July 23: Ah, a whiff of
fall is in the air as NFL training camps open. Soon
football will be a constant. The college season begins
in about a month, while the first NFL exhibitions are in
less than two weeks. Seems like only yesterday we watched
the Hurricanes and Patriots celebrate their titles. |
July 23: The Los Angeles
Times reports that the baseball players union has set a
Sept. 16 strike date, though the union says no dates
are set. If true, such a late date (two weeks before the
start of the playoffs) would give the sides little time to
settle and save the World Series. Let's hope this
realization brings the sides to their senses. |
July 22: The current
episode of "Arli$$,''
the HBO comedy that dealt with a gay player in baseball
deserves both pans and praise.
The plot: Grant Show (from "Melrose Place')
plays a gay pitcher in love with a flamboyant British rock
star. Show wants to come out after he and the rocker perform
at a multi-athlete recording session for charity. Show's
agent, Arliss Michaels (Robert Wuhl) is both nervous
and supportive. Arliss seeks advice from gay ex-big leaguer
Billy Bean (in a cameo role) who tells Arliss ``I
don't think he can come out. ... No matter how much progress
we think we've had, there are a lot of people out there who
would want him to fail." Show later hears some teammates say
how they made life miserable for a gay teammate in the minor
leagues, ruining his career. Show has a change of heart,
breaks up with the rocker and tells Arliss that he loves to
play baseball and will come out after he's retired.
The good:
The fact that the subject matter was raised in a sympathetic
manner, along with Arliss' terrific words of encouragement.
... Show is a believable jock.
The bad:
The writing overall was lame and contrived (forget the
subplots, which are too silly to comment on). ... There's a
totally unrealistic scene where the soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend
of the rock star makes a leering comment to a half-naked
baseball player. ... It would be nice once to hear Bean say
he would be supportive of an out jock (why do we get the
sense that he seems to like being the only one?) |
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July 21: A big welcome
back to Lindsay Davenport, whose knee injury kept her
from serious tennis competition since last November.
Davenport beat Anna Smashnova of Israek 6-3, 6-3 in the
opening match of the Fed Cup in Springfield, Mo. ``My first
match back in so long, that I'm even walking afterwards, I'm
very, very happy,'' Davenport told AP. |
July 21: Tiger Woods
picked the worst time to shoot the worst score of his
career. Woods, who was gunning to win the third leg of
golf's Grand Slam, saw those dreams evaporate as a cold, wet
day in Scotland at the British Open. Woods, who began the
third round two shots behind the leader, shot an 81 to fall
11 strokes behind heading into Sunday's final round. |
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July 20: Pedro Martinez
dominated the New York Yankees as the Boston Red Sox won the
first game of a key weekend series. Martinez (12-2) struck
out nine as he won his fifth straight game. The Red Sox
moved to within two games of the Yanks in the American
League East. |
July 20: Talented but
troubled cornerback Dale Carter signed a seven-year,
$28 million contract with the New Orleans Saints in the
offseason, but it's nit sure when he'll see any of the
money. On Friday he was suspended indefinitely for failing a
test for alcohol. Carter is under NFL substance abuse rules
after missing 1 1/2 years in 2000-2001 for violating league
policy. |
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July 19: Lance Armstrong,
the heavy favorite to win the Tour de France, finally took
the lead after the seventh stage on Thursday and is on pace
for another victory (barring a major disaster). ... Tiger
Woods is 3 shots off the lead after the first round of the
British Open. This is good because he's close enough for
there to be a lot of drama as he shoots for his third major
win of the year. |
July 19: Baseball is
spending more time in court than on the field. The owners
have sued the umpires union for the way union president,
John Hirschbeck, has called games this season. It's a
confusing issue but the point here is that baseball is once
again making headlines off the field for the wrong reasons.
Earlier this week, some top baseball officials were sued by
former Montreal Expos partners on charges of fraud and
racketeering. The game of baseball is great; the sport at
the pro level seems f***ed up beyond repair. |
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July 18: The Minnesota
Twins, the subject of talk in the offseason that they
would be disbanded, are running away with the American
League Central race. After beating up on Cleveland
Wednesday, the Twins are now 10 games in front in the
division. The game was enlivened by a confrontation between
Torii Hunter of Minnesota and Cleveland pitcher Danys Baez.
Hunter, upset at being hit by a Baez pitch, picked up the
ball and plunked Baez in return. "I just lost it, man,''
Hunter told AP. "But that's not me. I wish I could take it
back. I'm sorry it happened. I hate that I did it.'' Baez
also said he was sorry. |
July 18: The Green Bay
Packers and their fans are saddened by the sudden
retirement of safety LeRoy Butler, one of the game's
best. Butler was forced to retire because a broken bone in
his shoulder from last season has not fully healed.
"It'll heal
eventually,'' Butler said. "It would be selfish for me to
hold a roster spot. Let those young guys play. A lot of
people where saying, 'Don't retire. Wait and see.' I am not
that kind of guy.'' Butler was a class act on and off the
field, and was one of the players who popularized the
Lambeau Leap (where Packer players jump into the first row
at Lambeau Stadium after a touchdown). |
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June 17: Pitcher
Jarrod Washburn of the Anaheim Angels won his 11th
straight start in beating Minnesota. Washburn lost his first
two starts but has since been unbeatable. |
July 17: Tony Kornheiser
is learning it's not smart to bite the hand that feeds you.
Kornheiser, who does a radio and a TV show for ESPN
(to the tune of $500,000), was suspended a week without pay
for derogatory comments he made about management.
Kornheiser's comments, on his radio show, were made during a
commercial break and heard only on the Internet feed. It's
weird that ESPN, which spins itself as hip, edgy and Xtreme,
would take offense to something probably heard by five
people, but the honchos who run the network are apparently
thin-skinned. |
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July 16: Lisa Leslie is
not yet ready for the old folks home. The Los Angeles Sparks
star won her third WNBA All-Star Game MVP trophy as the West
beat the East. "It's funny how all of the sudden this year
everybody is calling us old-school ... just because a new
class of young players has come in,'' Leslie said. "By no
means are any of us done.''
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July 16: What a
difference a week makes. Wimbledon runner-up David
Nalbandian lost in the first round of the Croatia Open
to Spanish qualifier David Ferrer. Nalbandian was a tennis
unknown until he came to within one win of winning
Wimbledon. More performances like Monday's and he will
revert to his former status. |
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July 15: Hats off to the
new TV campaign for ESPN the Magazine. The ad has a
montage of fans spouting off their opinions on a variety of
subjects. The one we like best has a fan saying,
"Homosexuals in pro sports should come out of the closet."
Nice to see the issue becoming more mainstream. |
July 15: Nathan Buckley,
a star in the Australian Rules Football league, faces
possible disciplinary action for wiping blood from his
forehead on the jersey of another player. "There's
definitely times in your career when you look back at things
and you're not proud of them," Buckley told
Real Footy. "It's an act I'm not terribly proud of."
Note: He was suspended one match after this was first
posted. |
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July 14: Either the
Oakland Athletics have very good pitching or the Baltimore
Orioles can't hit. Or maybe it's a bit of both. Whatever the
case, the A's shut out Baltimore for the third straight game
as Barry Zito threw seven scoreless innings. He
follows performances the previous two nights by Mark Mulder
and Tim Hudson. Zito is 23-4 in his last 33 starts. |
July 14: The Los
Angeles Dodgers began their series with the World Series
champion Arizona Diamondbacks 2 1/2 games in first place.
After the D'Backs third straight win, the Dodgers are now
out of first and struggling. Things got so bad in Saturday's
7-5 loss that the normally even-tempered Jim Tracy was
ejected. |
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July 13: Curt Schilling
of the Arizona Diamondbacks improved to 15-3 with a 3-2 win
over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Schilling probably won't get
enough starts to realistically have a chance to win 30
games, but his mastery this season has been remarkable. |
July 13: Add pro tennis
to the list of sports facing doping allegations. John
Mendoza, executive director of the Australian Sports Drug
agency, caused a stir when he said tennis is ``heavily under
the influence of doping.'' He also called drug-testing
programs a ``dud.'' His comments were criticized by tennis
officials who demanded an apology. Given that athletes can
always find ways to beat testing, Mendoza's comments don't
seem out of line though impossible to prove. |
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July 12: Landon Donovan,
an emerging star in the soccer world, said he want to stay
and play in the U.S., rather than go back to Europe.
Donovan, 20, plays with the San Jose Earthquakes of Major
League Soccer. Traditionally, the best from the the U.S.
went overseas, where the soccer and money are better.
Donovan hopes to convince the German club
Leverkusen, which owns his
rights, to release him. |
July 12: Philadelphia
76ers star Allen Iverson will turn himself into
police on charges of criminal trespass, simple assault,
terroristic threats and gun offenses. The charges stem from
an incident July 3 where Iverson and his uncle allegedly
entered his cousin's house looking for his wife. The duo
allegedly threatened those inside. Even if Iverson gets off
on the charges, this only enhances his image as a thug,
which some unfortunately will admire him for. |
July 11: Sports
Illustrated has a terrific issue this week, with a focus on
``Where Are They Now,'' highlighting what the jocks of
yesterday are doing today. Among those profiled is David
Kopay, the former NFL player who came out in the
mid-'70s.
Kopay, 60, tells the magazine: ``Everyone talks about me as
if I'm the only gay football player who ever lived. Well,
trust me, I'm not." |
July 11: We hate to keep
dumping on Major League Baseball, but they make it so
easy. A day after calling the All-Star Game a tie,
commissioner Bud Selig revealed that one unnamed team may
not be able to meet its Monday payroll. This sounds like
another ham-handed attempt by a group of multimillionaires
to plead poverty in an attempt to win public support should
there be a strike. By the way, Tuesday's All-Star Game drew
its lowest ratings ever in prime time. |
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July 10: There is no Top
today. There are just some days when there's nothing in
sports to praise. Don't believe us? The witness these
headlines from Yahoo:
--All-Star game finishes in 7-7 tie
--Police to ask for warrant for Iverson
--Augusta chairman blasts women's group
--Selig says work stoppage is possible
--Al Unser Jr. charged with hitting woman.
Note: After seeing our
list, Carol, a reader, sent us some positive news she saw:
--Sheri Sam made a season-high 5 3-pointers in leading Miami
Sol to a road win over the Charlotte Sting.
--Shortstop Khalil Green won the Golden Spikes Award as the
top amateur player in the country after leading Clemson to
the College World Series. Greene hit .470 with 27 home runs,
a school record, and 91 RBIs..
--Stanford is hosting the World Champion pentathlete
competition. Athletes, male and female, compete in sharp
shooting, fencing, equestrian jumping, swimming and running. |
July 10: How screwed up
is baseball? It can't even get the All-Star Game
right. For the first time the game ended in a tie that was
not weather-related, 7-7 after 11 innings. The reason? Both
teams had run out of pitchers. Commissioner Bud Selig, doing
his best Col. Klink impersonation, seemed befuddled as to
what to do before finally calling it. The fans,
understandably pissed, started booing and many chanted
``refund." Why not adopt the World Cup rules and have the
baseball version of a shootout? Five batters each in a home
run contest, with Selig pitching. We'd even pay to see that. |
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July 9: In another sign
that women's tennis is where the big interest is
these days, the women's doubles finals, featuring the
Williams sisters, beat the men's Wimbledon final on NBC in
the ratings. It didn't help that the men's match featured
top-ranked Lleyton Hewitt against 28th seed David Nalbandian
in a dreary affair where the highlight was a streaker racing
on to the court. |
July 9: On the eve of the
All-Star Game, the news that dominated Major League
Baseball had nothing to do with play on the field. The
players' union, meeting in Chicago, decided to not yet set a
strike date if negotiations with the owners break down.
Given the long-standing animosity between the two sides and
the fact that there have been work stoppages after the last
eight contracts expired, a strike looks like a better bet
than Atlanta winning its division. |
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July 8: Barry Bonds
is finally starting his latest MVP campaign, homering for
the second straight game against the Diamondbacks, leading
his team to their second straight win against Arizona, 5-2. |
July 8: It's great that
79% of Major League Baseball players polled by USA
Today said that they would agree to independent steroid
testing. But, what about that 21% that did NOT say
they would agree to it? And, what's worse, how about
the 3% of players polled who said that not a single Major
League ballplayer takes drugs? After they clean up the
drug problem in baseball, it's time to focus on the
ignorance problem. |
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July 7: As Tiger Woods is
dominating the whitewashed sport of golf, two black sisters
have asserted themselves in the whitewashed sport of
tennis. Serena Williams became the #1 player in
the world, passing her older sister Venus and beating her
older sister in the Wimbledon final, 7-5, 6-3. It was
the third time in the last four Grand Slam finals the
sisters have met one another. |
July 7: Major League
Soccer is being dominated by the West the same way the NBA
was all this year. It's so bad that fourth place
Dallas, at 5-3-5, would be leading the Eastern Division
by two points right now; and last place Kansas City would be
in second. |
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July 6: Considered one of
baseball's greatest players ever, Ted Williams passed
away on Friday at the age of 83. Williams was the last
player to hit over .400 for a season (in 1941) and finished
his career with 521 home runs. He will be sorely
missed by many in sports. |
July 6: Roger Lemerre,
whose team failed to win a single game in the World Cup last
month, has been fired as the coach of the French national
team. France was the first soccer team in 36 years to
win the World Cup and fail to get past the first round four
years later. Their coach won't get a second
chance. |
|
July 4: Out lesbian Amelie
Mauresmo, Wimbledon's ninth seed, upset third-seeded
Jennifer Capriati in straight sets to advance to a semifinal
showdown with Serena Williams. "I don't think I
really had a chance," Capriati said after Mauresmo's
6-3, 6-2 domination of the Australian Open champ. |
July 4: Another big win;
another big celebration; another big celebration gone
bad. This time, it was in Rio de Janeiro where Brazilians
celebrating their team's World Cup victory threw rocks at a
team bus after the team cut short a rowdy victory
parade. God forbid the players would want to go home
at 2 a.m. - when they finally called it quits. |
|
July 3: Johnny Damon of
Boston and Andruw Jones of Atlanta won the ``30th
man'' contest, in which fans voted on the Internet for the
final slots on the American and National League All-Star
teams. Larry Walker, one of the five choices in the National
League, was not please that he was left off the team despite
hitting .341.
''I think that
30th thing is stupid. I just happen to be one of the idiots
in there,'' Walker said. Nice way to be fan-friendly. |
July 3: The Detroit
Red Wings solidified their reputation as the Yankees of
the NHL with their signing of goalie Curtis Joseph for three
years at $8 million per year. It's checkbook team-building
at its best, as Joseph will be brought in to replace Domick
Hasek. Hasek retired after one season in Detroit following a
Stanley Cup win. Joseph said he didn't sign with Detroit for
the money (it's never about the money, according to
athletes) but for the chance to win the Cup. |
|
July 2: Sanity took over
as Wimbledon started it second week. Top seeds Venus
Williams and Lleyton Hewitt won easily, joined by #2 Serena
Williams and #4's Monica Seles and Tim Henman. |
July 2: Further sign that
baseball's economics are nuts: Raul Mondesi was
traded from Toronto to the Yankees. He's hitting .244. He
will make $11 million this year and $13 million next. This
will increase the Yankees' payroll to about $133 million.
Wanna bet who will represent the American League in the
World Series again? |
|
July 1: All hail
Ronaldo and Brazil, World Cup champions in 2002.
The Brazilians, led by the incomparable Ronaldo, beat
Germany, 2-0, to win their record fifth Cup. Ronaldo scored
both goals in the second half, and he had eight in the
tournament. The Brazilians are a fun team to watch, playing
with verve and style. The Germans, plodding and methodical,
had a good first half but had no answer for Ronaldo. |
July 1:What is it about
single-elimination championship futbol and
football that is generally less than scintillating? Most
Super Bowls have been dull blowouts. The Bowl Championship
Series in college football has produced dog upon dog. And
Sunday's World Cup final was, in the words of US player Eric
Wynalda, "ugly." The game lacked much drama and the Germans
did a good job of keeping the excitement level down; it took
the brilliant Ronaldo to liven up things in the second half.
The biggest cheer in the first half came when a Brazilian
player finally got a new jersey on properly after fumbling
with it for a minute. In the past four Cup finals, the loser
has scored a total of zero goals. |
