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May 2002 |
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May 31: Kudos to John
Powers, the brilliant media critic for LA Weekly, for
his commentary on how the media covered the Mike Piazza
I'm Not Gay issue. ``One
reason we don't hear such things is that most of our
sportswriters, columnists and broadcasters are still as
square as Grampa's checkerboard,'' Powers writes. ''It
disturbs them that some of the heroes they celebrate may not
fit our still-limited notions of masculinity.'' |
May 31: Ken Caminiti is
lying. He now denies he told Sports Illustrated that half of
major league players use steroids. He then went on and did
what everyone does when their words come back to bite them:
he blamed the media. Sports Illustrated stood by its story.
Caminiti was either lying to SI or to Jim Rome and Dan
Patrick on radio where he went to try and rehabilitate his
image. |
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May 30: The Detroit
Red Wings showed their not yet ready to go away after
beating the Colorado Avalanche, 2-0, to force a deciding
Game 7 in their NHL Western Conference final. The Wings got
a key goal from Brendan Shanahan, who had missed a wide-open
net on a shot that could have won Game 5. |
May 30: Marat Safin is a
terrific tennis player but he acts like a jerk on the court.
In beating Michael Llodra on Wednesday at the French Open,
the second-seeded Safin cursed, spit and threw his racket
into the stands. Maybe he'll grow up one day. |
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May 29: Another day,
another nail-biter in the NBA playoffs. The Sacramento
Kings beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 92-91, to take a 3-2
lead in their Western Conference Finals. The star for the
Kings was guard Mike Bibby, who scored the game's final four
points. |
May 29: Ken Caminiti won
the National League MVP award in 1996 and tells Sports
Illustrated he was a heavy steroid user that year. No big
shock when you look at the bulk and muscles many major
leaguers have added in the past decade. Caminiti estimates
that 50% of players take 'roids (David Wells excluded) and
it's amazing that the sport does not test for them. The ball
isn't the only thing that's juiced. |
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May 28: Clutch was the
word in the NBA and NHL playoffs in two crucial
matches. In the NBA, the New Jersey Nets, fresh off
blowing Game 3, held off Boston on the road, 94-92, to tie
the series. The Celtics' Paul Pierce missed the first of two
free throws that would have tied it with six seconds left.
In the NHL, Peter Forsberg scored in overtime as Colorado
beat Detroit, 2-1, to take a 3-2 series lead. The Red Wings
were clearly the league's best team in the regular season
but have the daunting task of having to beat Patrick Roy
twice in a row. |
May 28: Pete Sampras has
never won at Roland Garros and it looks like he probably
never will. Sampras was bounced from the first round of the
French Open by no-name Italian Andrea Gaudenzi, the second
time in three years Sampras has lost in Paris in the opening
round. He has now gone 28 straight tournaments without a
win. |
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May 27: Wow. That sums up
the Los Angeles Lakers-Sacramento Kings NBA Game 5 on
Sunday, one of the best playoff games we've ever seen.
Sacramento led by as many as 24 in the first half before the
Lakers chipped away. The game came down to a furious last
possession. First, Kobe Bryant missed a shot for the Lakers,
then Shaquille O'Neal did. As the clock ticked down, Kings
center Vlade Divac swatted the ball out and it went to Laker
Robert Horry, who released a 3-pointer as the buzzer went
off. The shot went in, the home crowd went nuts and the
Lakers won, 100-99, to tie the series as 2-2. |
May 27:
Zinedine Zidane, the hero of
France's 1998 World Cup victor hurt his thigh in a
``friendly'' match in South Korea, less than a week before
the start of this year's tournament. If Zidane is out for
any time that will be a blow to France's chances. |
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May 26: The Colorado
Avalanche showed they are not going to give up their
Stanley Cup title without a fight, The Avalanche scored a
late third-period goal and defeated the Detroit Red Wings,
3-2, to tie their conference finals series at 2-2. It all
comes down to a best 2 of 3 for the right to move on. |
May 26: In the history of
the NBA playoffs, 171 teams had led by 19+ points going into
the final period. All had won, until Saturday when the
New Jersey Nets collapsed and lost to the Boston
Celtics, 94-90, in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference finals
series. While the Celtics did everything they needed
to do (they scored 41 points in the fourth), the young Nets
were rattled as the lead shrunk and no one made plays. The
Nets led by 26 in the third period before the Celtics staged
the greatest second-half rally in playoff history. The
Celtics lead the series, 2-1. |
|
May 25: The Sacramento
Kings made a statement by winning Game 3 of their
playoff series against the Lakers in Los Angeles. Led by
Chris Webber and Doug Christie, the Kings led by any many as
27 points before settling for a 103-90 win. The Kings lead
in the series, 2-1, and have made it extremely interesting. |
May 25: A forged resume
cost another person their job. U.S. Olympic Committee
president Sandra Baldwin resigned after she admitted
she lied about her academic credentials. You would think
people would learn it's much better to tell the truth. |
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May 24: Shawn Green of
the Los Angeles Dodgers was batting only .231 and in a
slump. All he did to get out of the slump was tie a major
league record with four home runs in a game. Green went 6
for 6 with 19 total bases (a record). |
May 24: Four ex-Notre
Dame football players--expelled from school May 2--will
be charged in the gang-rape of a female student. The
women told police she was lured to a house by the men who
said there was a party going on. |
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May 23: Fredrik Olausson
hasn't scored a playoff goal in 10 years, but he picked the
right time Wednesday. Olausson scored at 12:44 of overtime
to lift the Detroit Red Wings over the Colorado Avalanche
and give them a 2-1 series lead. |
May 23: Two days after
missing the fourth quarter with what was thought as food
poisoning, Kobe Bryant of the Lakers left practice after
vomiting twice. Doctors still think Bryant got sick from
eating a bad cheeseburger, but they haven't ruled out a
bacterial infection. If Bryant has to miss Game 3 of the NBA
playoff series with Sacramento, it would be a big blow to
the Lakers. |
May 22: In a blow for
heterosexuals everywhere, New York Mets star Mike Piazza
held a press conference to announce he's straight. "I can't
control what people think," he said prior to a game in
Philadelphia. "That's obvious. And I can't convince people
what to think. I can only say what I know and what the truth
is and that's I'm heterosexual and I date women. That's it.
End of story."
Piazza was
countering an item in the New York Post that speculated
a Met may come out. Enough details were given that Piazza
thought the item was about him.
Piazza said he didn't think a gay player would be shunned,
but he obviously wanted to assure the world he's 100%
hetero. It is strange that Piazza thinks ``dating women''
proves his claim. But we're glad he brought the issue up. A
relatively small number of people read the Post item, but
now millions will hear ``gay'' and ``baseball player'' in
the same sentence. We'll take progress anywhere we can find
it. |
May 22: The Los
Angeles Lakers have won two consecutive NBA titles and
are favored to win a third. But all they can do is whine
about the officiating in their series against the Sacramento
Kings. A day after Shaquille O'Neal said the only way to
beat the Lakers ``starts with a c and ends with a t,'' his
coach Phil Jackson threw his complaints in. Jackson said the
rules ``get changed or requalified because of [Shaq]. That's
no excuse.'' This is typical of the head games Jackson like
to play and his intent is to get the refs to ease up. |
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May 21: The Sacramento
Kings handed the Los Angeles Lakers their first road
playoff loss in 13 games with a hard-fought 96-90 win to
their series at 1-1. The Lakers played most of the second
half without Kobe Bryant, ailing with food poisoning. The
Kings almost let a 12-point lead evaporate as Chris Webber
missed three free throws down the stretch to make it more
interesting than it should have been. |
May 21: Ryan Leaf, once
the second overall pick in the NFL draft, was cut by the
Dallas Cowboys, the third team to drop him in 15 months. |
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May 20: The New Jersey
Nets, perennial NBA doormats, won Game 1 of their
Eastern Conference finals over Boston to continue their
remarkable season. Like the Lakers the day before, the Nets
never trailed. |
May 20: The NBA draft
lottery has always struck us as absurd. Houston won the
right to the first pick, despite having the fifth-worse mark
and an 8.9% chance of getting No. 1. The draft should work
like the NFL--the team with the worst record gets the top
pick. We know the lottery is designed to prevent teams from
tanking it late in the season, but this system is not an
improvement. |
May 19: Three thoroughbreds
came through big on Saturday.
In the equine variety, War Emblem won the Preakness
Stakes, two weeks after winning the Kentucky Derby. A win in
the Belmont in June would make him the first triple crown
winner in 24 years.
In the human variety, Darren McCarty of the Detroit
Red Wings scored three
goals in the third period as Detroit beat Colorado in Game 1
of their NHL
series.
On the court, the Los Angeles Lakers won their NBA
record 12 consecutive road playoff games with a 106-99 win
at Sacramento. The Lakers were led, as usual, by the
incomparable Kobe Bryant, the game's best player. |
May 19: The Sacramento
Kings faced the two-time NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers
minus Peja Stojakovic and asked Hidayet Turkoglu to
step up. Turkoglu did anything but in Game 1. His stats: 0-8
shooting, 0 points, three turnovers. Unless Peja comes back
or Turkoglu improves quickly, the Kings are done. |
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May 18: There was hardly
anybody in the stands, but Jason Giambi sent Yankee
Stadium in delirium with a game-ending grand slam in the
rain in the bottom of the 14th as the Yanks beat Minnesota,
13-12. It was only the 21st time in history that a player
hit a game-deciding grand slam with his team down by three
runs. The last to do it for the Yankees was Babe Ruth.
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May 18: Baseball
commissioner Bud Selig told the Los Angeles Times
that six to eight teams could fold if the game's economics
don't change. Don't believe it. This is just another salvo
fired by Selig and the owners in the public relations war
with the players union. The labor contract is up after this
season and already this week the union talked about setting
an August strike date. Both sides seem determined to head
down the path of mutually assured destruction. |
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May 17: The Toronto
Maple Leafs entered their NHL Eastern Conference final
against the Carolina Hurricanes with nine players hurt and
after having played two seven-game series. But the Leafs
reached deep and came away with a Game 1 win on the road,
2-1. |
May 17: Bryan Robinson's
dog was anything but his best friend. Robinson, a Chicago
Bears defensive lineman, fell down the stairs at home
after tripping over his dog. The result: two broken wrists
and surgery. Robinson has started 53 straight games for the
Bears, but was no match for his dog. We suggest he get a
goldfish. |
|
May 16: The New Jersey
Nets continued their remarkable NBA turnaround by
beating Charlotte in five games and advancing to the Eastern
Conference finals for the first time. These are the same
Nets who went 26-56 a year ago and 56-26 this year. They
were led, like they have been all season, by guard Jason
Kidd, who is making the case that he--and not Tim Duncan--is
the league's MVP. |
May 16: Martina Hingis is
often the bad girl of tennis, but we are saddened by the
news that crippling injuries may end her career.
Hingis is only 21, but suffers intense pain in her feet, one
knee and one hip and her doctor raised the possibility of
Hingis retiring. If she is sidelined, tennis will have lost
a compelling player. |
May 15: The two NBA teams
with the strongest pedigrees each qualified for their
conference finals. The Boston Celtics, who were bad
for most of the '90s, beat Detroit to reach the Eastern
Conference finals for the first time since 1988.
The Los Angeles Lakers, two-time defending champion,
beat San Antonio to wrap up their Western Conference series
in five games. We will now get the West final match we all
want to see: Lakers vs. Sacramento. |
May 15: By losing to the
Los Angeles Lakers in five games in their NBA playoff series
(see left), the San Antonio Spurs looked like a team
expecting things to fall apart. They again had a
double-digit lead (13 in the first half) and again played
stupid and tentative basketball down the stretch. League MVP
Tim Duncan disappeared--again--with the game on the line.
This is a team in need of a fairly major retooling if they
hope to compete not only with the Lakers, but with
Sacramento and Dallas in the West. |
|
May 14: The Carolina
Hurricanes, that hockey mainstay, scored five
first-period goals in wiping out Montreal, 8-2, to advance
to the NHL's Eastern Conference Finals. The Hurricanes, who
were the Hartford Whalers, have now gone further than any
team in the franchise's history. |
May 14: The only good
news the Boston Red Sox received on Manny Ramirez's
broken finger is that he won't need surgery. But
Ramirez, an irreplaceable part of the Red Sox lineup, will
be out at least four weeks. With a tougher schedule coming
up, this will be a major test to see if the Sox can keep
baseball's best record. |
May 13:It's apparent that
the San Antonio Spurs curl up into a ball whenever they face
crunch time against the Los Angeles Lakers. This was
clear after the Spurs choked away a 10-point lead with five
minutes to go and lost to the Lakers, 87-85, to go down 3-1
in their NBA playoff series.
Consider each team's last possession with the score tied at
85. Lakers: Missed shot, offensive rebound by
Shaquille O'Neal; another missed shot, an awesome one-handed
rebound by Kobe Bryant, who lays it in for an 87-85 lead
with 5 seconds left. Spurs: Almost take too much time
in getting the ball in; in-bounds pass goes to Terry Porter,
who slips and ball rolls away; picked up by Tim Duncan who
throws up a no-chance shot as time expires. Duncan walks off
with his uniform top pulled over his face in embarrassment. |
May 13: Michael Schumacher
won a Formula I race in the Austrian Grand Prix in the
cheapest way possible. Schumacher won on the last lap when
Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello was ordered by team
officials to left Schumacher pass so he could get points in
pursuit of the overall title. The crowd roared its
disapproval and the mood was best summed by Patrick Head,
technical director of BMW-Williams, who told AP ``In
22 years of auto racing I had never seen something
disgusting like this." |
|
May 12: Two Northern
California teams posted exciting playoff wins on
Saturday. The Sacramento Kings beat the Dallas Mavericks,
115-113, in overtime to take a 3-1 lead in their NBA series.
The Kings came back from a 14-point second-half deficit to
win in one of the most exciting playoff games in recent
years. This series has been terrific from the start. ... In
the NHL, the San Jose Sharks scored three third-period goals
to win at Colorado, 5-3, and take a 3-2 series lead. |
May 12: The Tampa Bay Devil
Rays beat Baltimore, 6-4, to snap a 15-game Major League
Baseball losing streak. They still suck and should be
disbanded. |
|
May 11: Andre Agassi
and
Andy Roddick reached the semifinals of the Italian
Open, the first time two American men have gotten this far
in the tournament in nine years. Agassi was especially
impressive in a straight-set win over Albert Costa and seems
primed for the French Open later this month. In the German
Open, Jennifer Capriati reached the semis and will
regain the top ranking in the world by winning the title. |
May 11: The Boston
Celtics and Detroit Pistons set a record for
fewest combined points in an NBA playoff game in Boston's
66-64 win. The 130 points was 12 lower than the previous
mark. It was a dreadful game, with awful shooting (a
combined 25% in the third quarter), muggings where no fouls
were called and poor decision-making. The last play was
exciting when Jerry Stackhouse's 3-point attempt left his
hand .1 of a second too late and didn't count. Keep a tape
of this game to use as a sleep aid. |
|
May 10: The Sacramento
Kings and Dallas Mavericks are playing basketball
the way it's supposed to be played--up tempo, fast breaks,
great shooting. In Game 3 of their NBA playoff series,
Dallas scored 119 points ... and lost. Sacramento shot 53%
for the game and scored 125 points in a highly entertaining
contest. This is a long way removed from the ugly, thug-ball
series the Heat and Knicks used to play. |
May 10: The New
Orleans Saints fired general manager Randy Mueller, the
NFL's executive of the year in 2000. The move is typical for
the Saints, who have won one playoff game in their 35-year
history. Owner Tom Benson cited different management
philosophies and said he he would be more hands-on. Uh, oh.
This is the same Benson who sent a questionnaire to head
coaching applicants a few years ago that had a box that
asked, ``Will you be able to work Sundays?'' |
|
May 9: Curt Shilling
became the first seven-game winner in the major leagues by
beating Pittsburgh, 4-3. The World Series star hasn't slowed
down at all this year, a sign that the Arizona Diamindbacks
may not be a one-year wonder. |
May 9: A day after
throwing a temper tantrum, Allen Iverson was told by
his coach Larry Brown that he won't be traded from the
Philadelphia 76ers. ``I told him, 'You can tell your
daughter not to worry about it. Daddy's going to be living
in Philadelphia,''' Brown said. A day earlier, Iverson
railed for 30 minutes against even the suggestion that he
might be traded, saying that such talk upset his 7-year-old
daughter. We get the sense AI's daughter is the more mature
of the two. |
|
May 8: Gary Sheffield and
Brian Jordan switched teams this baseball offseason,
Jordan from Atlanta to Los Angeles and Sheffield the other
way. The met in Atlanta on Tuesday and engaged in a game of
one-upsmanship. Jordan hit two home runs, but Sheffield sent
the game into extra innings with a dramatic ninth-inning
blast. The two teams played seven more innings before the
Dodgers won, 6-5, in the 16th. |
May 8: Brian Griese,
quarterback of the Denver Broncos, was knocked out and
needed seven stitches above his eye ... after tripping and
falling in the driveway of teammate Terrell Davis' house on
Saturday. The Broncos refused to say whether Griese had been
drinking, though witnesses say it was simply an accident.
Griese had served 12 months probation for driving while
impaired. |
|
May 7: Steve Nash of the
Dallas Mavericks is the best Canadian import since Molsons.
Nash, the terrific guard, was sensational in leading the
Mavs to a Game 2 NBA playoff win at Sacramento. He scored 30
points and took over the game with about three minutes left
as Dallas extended a three-point lead to nine. Most
impressive was his no-look, behind-the-back pass to Dirk
Nowitski for a dunk. The series is tied at 1-1 and is easily
the most entertaining of the four conference semifinals. |
May 7: Why do the
Tampa Bay Devil Rays exist? Virtually no one cares about
this baseball team and they are awful on the field. The
Rays, 9-21 overall, lost their 11th game in a row Monday.
Baseball is talking about contracting Minnesota and
Montreal; Tampa Bay should move to the head of the line. |
|
May 6: The Seattle
Mariners proved again they can dominate the New York
Yankees, at least in the regular season. By winning Sunday,
the Ms swept their weekend series in New York and have now
won 11 of their last 12 regular season games between the two
teams. Yankee fans, who see their team 4 1/2 games out of
first, can only say: Wait until October. |
May 6: After watching
San Antonio fall apart in the fourth quarter of their
NBA playoff opener against the Los Angeles, one gets the
sense the Spurs are spooked by the Lakers. The Lakers played
for long stretches of the second half without Kobe and Shaq,
yet the Spurs kept missing wide-open shots and failing to
get key rebounds, and turning a five-point lead into an
86-80 loss. Even if David Robinson returns from his injury,
it looks as if the Spurs will not advance. |
|
May 5: The Detroit Red
Wings lost the first two games of the their opening
playoff series and now have won six straight. The Wings'
Steve Yzerman scored on the game's first shot Saturday as
Detroit shut out St. Louis, 2-0, for a 2-0 lead in their
series. ... Predrag
Stojakovic scored 26 and the Sacramento Kings rode
the energy of the NBA's loudest crowd to take a 1-0 series
lead over Dallas. ...
War Emblem, a 20-1
long-shot, won the 128th Kentucky Derby wire-to-wire, and
promptly asked to renegotiate his contract. |
May 5: The Olympics
hockey tournament was awesome and showed how beautiful the
game could be. Played with the more wide-open international
rules, the Olympics featured a pulsating style of play with
clean, fast play that made converts of non-hockey purists.
So it's a shame that the NHL playoffs have more
resembled back-alley brawls, with hits that would land a
civilian six months in prison. The latest thug to be given a
suspension was Jeff O'Neill, the Carolina Hurricanes'
leading scorer, who will sit Game 2 after decking Montreal's
Sheldon Souray from behind in the series opener. The
Canadiens lost Richard Zednik, a top scorer, in their first
series against Boston after a nasty hit by Kyle McLaren.
With this kind of play it's no wonder hockey has remained a
regional sport. Bring back the Olympics! |
|
May 4: Hope springs
eternal for Boston sports fans and this has been a
great 2002 so far. The Patriots (?!) win the Super Bowl, the
Red Sox have the best record in baseball while the Celtics
advance to the second round of the NBA playoffs for the
first time since 1992. Only the Bruins, who fell in the
first round of the NHL playoffs, have been a disappointment. |
May 4: It's too bad the
NBA playoffs can't have the East and West mixed. It's
clear that the league's four best teams all play in the
West--Los Angeles, Dallas, Sacramento and San Antonio--and
it's a shame they will have to play each other. By contrast,
the four East semifinalists--New Jersey, Boston, Charlotte
and Detroit--will be lucky to win one game in the Finals. |
|
May 3: Mike Cameron of
the Seattle Mariners tied a Major League Baseball record
when he fit four home runs in a game. Cameron becomes the
13th player accomplish the feat, the first in the American
League since 1959. ...
Wow! What else can one say about the New Jersey Nets'
heart-pounding 120-109 double-overtime win over the
Indiana Pacers in the deciding game of their playoff series?
Reggie Miller of the Pacers hit an amazing 35-footer at the
end of regulation to force OT, then sent in to a second OT
with a dunk with 3.1 seconds left in the first extra period.
The Nets were led by the brilliant Jason Kidd and are now in
the second round for only the second time in their NBA
history. |
May 3: We know Mike
Tyson is nuts, but we didn't know he was a Biblical
scholar. In an interview with CNN/SI's Josie Karp, Tyson
kept asking whether Jesus would love him (how would we
know?), then added the heretofore unknown nugget that
``Jesus smoked weed.'' Oh, now we remember ... Jesus, Hunter
S. Thompson, Jerry Garcia and Abbie Hoffman all toked one
over the line back in the '70s. |
|
May 2: They call him "The
One," and this is why. Facing two straight elimination games
at home against the Boston Celtics, Allen Iverson
went cold in Game 4, down 2-1 in the series. But, after
missing 17 of his first 20 shots, Iverson scored the
Philadelphia 76ers' last eight points and forced a Game 5,
83-81. |
May 2: The fate of former
NBA player Jayson Williams got much graver Wednesday
as he was indicted for the manslaughter of a limo driver at
his estate in February. If convicted, Williams could be
sentenced to as much as 30 years in prison. |
|
May 1: For all the flack
he got with his $250 million contract with the Texas
Rangers, Alex Rodriguez became the second youngest
player to his 250 home runs in his career, second only to
Jimmie Foxx who did it eight days younger. A-Rod's
250th came off of Toronto's Luke Prokopec for his ninth of
the season. Rodriguez, considered by many the best player in
baseball despite playing on a lousy team, is 26 years, 277
days old. |
May 1:
Two people implicated in "Skate Gate" at the Winter Olympics
were served with stiff penalties on Tuesday. Both judge
Marie-Reine Le Gougne and French federation chief
Didier Gailhaguet were suspended until 2005 and banned
from participating in the 2006 Winter Olympics. We can't
confirm that the Nevada Boxing Commission has offered them
judging jobs in the meantime. |
