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JULY 2001
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July 31: Dan Patrick's
show on ESPN radio can tend to get just as comical as it is
informative. On Monday, he was in rare form. After
playing a Roy Jones Jr. audio clip in which Jones referred to
himself in the first person, second person, third person, and
third person plural, Patrick started a slew of listener phone
calls each of which berated either Davey Lopes or Rickey
Henderson (see yesterday's bottom) in the first, second and
third person - and one clever listener even got in the third
person plural. Next will be Jones referring to himself
as "they" - we're just waiting.
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July 31: Did anyone
watch the "Battle at Bighorn" - the
made-for-ABC event that featured a match play competition
between David Duvall and Karrie Webb vs. Tiger Woods and
Annika Sorenstam? The play was terrible, the course
seemed badly layed out and ABC rotated commentators.
Plus, while Woods and Duvall did not play well, Webb and
Sorenstam played atrociously in front of the largest
television audience ever watch female golfers perform.
Until Sorenstam hit a 10-foot birdie putt to take the match to
extra holes, she and Webb drove into the trees, sent putts off
of the green, and missed greens from very doable lies.
We can only hope next year's event sees a different venue and
the women leading the way on the course.
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July 30: Lance
Armstrong did it again on Sunday, winning his third
consecutive Tour de France. Armstrong won by a
commanding seven minutes ahead of German rival Jan Ullrich.
While Greg LeMond has won the Tour three times, Armstrong
became the first American to win it three consecutive times.
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July 30: In our
opinion, this is one of the lowest lows of anyone in sports
this year. Up 12-5, San Diego Padre Ricky Henderson
stole second base in the seventh inning against the Milwaukee
Brewers. Brewers manager Davey Lopes then came
out of the dugout and berated Henderson, telling him that he
would be hit by a pitch the next time he was at bat:
"I just told him to stay in the game, because he was
going (down). We were going to drill him." This
came just a day after the Astros blew a ninth inning 8-3 lead
against the Pirates. Lopes was way off base for his
tirade and we can only hope the League slaps a considerable
fine on him. Compete Lopes, don't whine.
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July 29: Down 8-3 in
the bottom of the ninth, things aren't looking so hot.
But, on Saturday, it was an 8-3 lead in the ninth that the
Houston Astros couldn't hold onto. The Pittsburgh
Pirates scored six runs - four off of a grand slam by Brian
Giles with two out - and stole game one of the
double-header, 9-8. The Astros did rebound and win game
two, but their chance to make up some ground on the Cubs was
blown in that half of an inning.
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July 29: Lack of
talent is finally catching up to the Minnesota Twins,
as they are 5-11 since the All Star Break and have fallen out
of first in the AL Central. Before the All Star Break,
the Twins had posted a record of 55-33 and had the second best
record in the Majors.
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July 28: The Aussie
Men's Swim Team had quite a day on Friday, breaking two world
records at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka,
Japan. Geoff Huegill set the men's 50m butterfly
record with a time of 23.44 seconds while the Aussie 4X200m
freestyle team set a record in that event with a time of
7:04.66.
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July 28: The New York Mets have
waved the white flag. 11.5 games out of first with the
sixth worst record in the National League, the Mets traded two
of their relievers, Turk Wendell and Dennis Cook, for two
minor league pitchers. And, what's worse - they traded
the players to the Philadelphia Phillies, who presently trail
division-leading Atlanta by one game. The move signals
that they are giving up on their 2001 campaign and stocking up
for the future.
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July 27: Baseball's homerun
race is heating up nicely. On Wednesday, Arizona's Luis
Gonzalez hit his 41st homer of the season. Then, on
Thursday, San Francisco's Barry Bonds responded belting
Nos. 43 and 44 in an 11-3 shelling of Gonzalez's
Diamondbacks. His second homer of the ninth was his
first grand slam in over three years.
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July 27: The
retirement merry-go-round just keeps spinning. The
latest is Vikings wide receiver Cris Carter, who now is
saying "just joking." In May, he told a
banquet in Middleton, Ohio that this would be his last year in
the NFL. Now he's saying his comments were
"misinterpreted." His comment in May was,
"I'm going to make the announcement that this will be my
last year of playing." Pretty hard to misinterpret,
if you ask us.
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July 26: Andres Galarraga, who
had been languishing on the bench in Texas, took his new San
Francisco Giants' Wednesday game onto his own shoulders and
went 3-for-5 with two RBIs in his Giants debut to lift San
Francisco to a 9-3 win over the Colorado Rockies and stop
their four game skid.
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July 26: For lack of a
better nominee, we're going to rip Dan Pompeii today.
The Sporting News' NFL "expert" calls the Buffalo
Bills one of the dominant teams in the AFC this year. No, we
can't count out anyone these days when the Rams and Ravens won
the last two Super Bowls - except for the Bills. Who's gonna
run the ball? Who's gonna play defense? Who's gonna throw the
ball once Rob Johnson gets knocked out for the season? Answer:
Alex Van Pelt. Better recheck your stats, Dan: the Bills
aren't an "interesting" pick to win the AFC East,
they're a stupid pick.
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July 25: Easily one of the
most tragic injuries in sports in the last two years was New
England Patriots running back Robert Edwards' seemingly
career-ending knee injury in the Pro Bowl's rookie beach
football game in 1999. A day after being placed on the
league's Physically Unable to Perform list, Edwards took a
huge step in his comeback by completing a series of sprints
that took him off the list
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July 25: Why would an
injury-prone NFL quarterback be moving furniture just a week
before training camp? We don't understand it either, but
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' brand-spankin' new quarterback, Brad
Johnson, is expected to miss the opening of training camp
because he lacerated his leg above the knee while moving
furniture and required 15 stitches.
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July 24: For those
that think something is "impossible," this one is
for you. Keegan Riley, 20, a paraplegic man,
climbed Mount Elbert, Colorado's highest peak at 14,433-foot,
in a specially built four-wheeled cycle. Reilly, a
student at Oregon State, had been paralyzed in a car accident
in 1996.
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July 24: This should come
as no surprise to anyone, but several professional athletes
could be key witnesses in the sex scandal trials of the Gold
Club in Atlanta. On Monday it was Orlando Magic center Patrick
Ewing's turn, telling the court that he had accepted
sexual favors from the girls at the Gold Club. Later, a
former stripper named several athletes including Broncos
running back Terrell Davis and 76ers center Dikembe
Mutombo as prior clients.
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July 23: It took long
enough, but David Duvall finally won a Major
tournament, taking the 2001 British Open from a tight pack of
thirtysomething golfers who all had a shot going into the
final day. He finished it up on Sunday with a fourth
round 65 - one stroke off the course record - for a three shot
victory.
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July 23: Gosh, it's late
July. The Boston Red Sox collapse is starting a
little early this year. With the Yankees struggling out
of the All-Star Break, the Bo'Sox had the perfect opportunity
to build a lead in the AL East. But not them, no no
no. They are now 2-4 in the last week against Montreal,
Toronto and the Chi'Sox - three sub-.500 teams. After
losing Sunday, they are now a game behind the Yankees and
trail Cleveland by a game for the Wild Card.
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July 22: Just a few
days ago he was 35 minutes behind the leader. Now he
leads by five minutes. Lance Armstrong is doing
it again in the mountains, using them the way he used them in
his first two Tour de France victories - to erase a deficit
and build a lead. On Saturday evening, he put on the
yellow jersey for the first time this Tour. The race
ends in Paris on July 29.
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July 22: WNBA All-Star and
Houston Comet Tina Thompson was suspended for one game
and fined $500 for throwing a punch at Orlando's Jaclyn
Johnson in Wednesday's loss to Orlando. She served her
suspension Friday night, watching her team lose their second
consecutive game, 64-50. After trailing Los Angeles by
just two games before Wednesday, Houston now faces an uphill
battle down 3 1/2 games. Not a good time to be serving a
suspension for losing your cool.
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July 21: With Pedro
Martinez certainly out of the picture, there's a nice little
rivalry brewing for the Cy Young Award in the American League
between former Cy Young winner Roger Clemens (13-1) and
Aaron Sele (12-1). And, to boot, their two teams,
the M's and the Yanks, could be on a collision course for an
AL Championship Series. While it's a little too
premature to get excited about baseball in September and
October, these two are already setting up an October classic.
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July 21: The days of
headhunting in Major League Baseball are alive and well.
Cleveland Indians pitcher Bartolo Colon was ejected in
the sixth inning of Tuesday's game in Houston after his first
pitch of the inning sailed behind batter Scott Servais' head
and hit his bat. Colon was retaliating for two Cleveland
batters being hit in the top half of the inning. Colon
was suspended for seven days - a suspension for which Colon
filed and appeal on Friday.
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July 20: Randy Johnson of
the Arizona Diamondbacks struck out 16 San Diego Padres. In
relief. Johnson took over from Curt Schilling who pitched two
innings of a game suspended Wednesday night. ``By no means do
I try to go out and strike people out,'' said Johnson.
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July 20: The Kansas City
Wizards have as much trouble scoring as a horny guy
at a eunuchs convention. The Major Soccer League team played a
thrilling (editor's note: he's being sarcastic) 0-0 tie
Thursday, their eighth scoreless outing in 19 games this year.
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July 19: Welcome
back, Barry. After struggling to hit homeruns over the
last four weeks, Barry Bonds belted two of them, Nos.
41 and 42, in a 10-0 win over the Colorado Rockies.
Bonds is now tied with Mickey Mantle for ninth on the all-time
homer list at 536.
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July 19: What in hell is
going on at the baseball parks of MLB? On
Wednesday, two of them had to be evacuated. First was
Camden Yards which was forced to postpone its Orioles-Rangers
game because of a nearby train derailment. Then Qualcomm
Stadium in San Diego had to suspend its Padres-Diamondbacks
game in the third inning because of explosions in the light
fixtures over left field. Both games will be made up as
double-headers on Thursday.
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July 18: Colombia scored a
2-0 victory over Chile on Tuesday and completed the sweep of
the first half of its first-round games in the Copa America
soccer tournament. And, they did it with three shut-outs,
posting a combined score over their three games of 5-0.
Colombia is the only team of the 12 in the tournament without
a loss or tie.
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July 18: Not even a
month after the Atlanta Braves sent John
Rocker to the Cleveland Indians, the Braves are tied
for first place in the division and Rocker has already been
demoted. After going 2-4 blowing half of his save
opportunities and posting an ERA of 8.31, Rocker has been
replaced as the Indians' closer. Rocker also yelled
profanity at a fan after a dreadful loss Monday night.
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July 17: A day after Tampa
Bay Devil Ray Fred McGriff rejected a trade from his
last-place club to the first-place Chicago Cubs, McGriff hit
his third homer in two days at Turner Field. He dropped
his latest in the ninth inning of a 6-5 victory over the
Atlanta Braves.
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July 17: Sometimes
it's better to be lucky, and right now the Chicago Cubs
are thanking the heavens that they play in the NL
Central. While putting up a miserable 8-16 record since
June 18, they Cubs have managed to maintain a two game lead
over the Houston Astros (who are 9-15 over that period) and
have watched the St. Louis Cardinals creep to within seven
games with a 15-9 record in that period. Plus, the Cubs
got a slap in the face on Sunday as Fred McGriff rejected a
trade that would have sent him from the basement of Tampa Bay
to the penthouse of the NL Central.
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July 16: It was all about
timing for Peter Thliveros. The native of
Jacksonville, Fla. won his second consecutive gold medal in
ESPN's Great Outdoor Games Bass Fishing Tournament with a five
bass limit totaling 12 pounds, 5 ounces. Thliveros had
been having trouble landing the bass in the grassbeds the
whole tournament. On Sunday that changed.
"I'm just lucky I was there when they got hungry,"
he said.
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July 16: A year ago, he was
Jim and Cyd's surprise selection in the 17th and final round
of their fantasy football draft. Late Saturday, Paul
Edinger, the starting kicker for the Chicago Bears, was
arrested for driving under the influence and leaving the scene
of an accident in Punta Gorda, Fla. Edinger, better
known to the Outsports founders as "the little fella,"
knocked in three field goals in Game 1 last season - and was
quickly cut in Week 4 after three dismal showings last season.
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July 15: The United
States women's lacrosse team won its fourth consecutive
World Cup on Saturday, taking the title game 14-8 over
Australia. Virginia alum and team captain Cherie Greer
was named the MVP of the tournament.
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July 15: Did you have any
clue that the WNBA All-Star game is on Monday, July
16? How can a League that only lasts for two months even
have an All-Star game? And the starters don't feature
anyone from the Eastern Conference first place Cleveland
Rockers or the Western Conference first place Los Angeles
Sparks. AND, the ten starters voted in were from a total
of four teams. More signs that the WNBA, in its fifth
season, still has plenty of work to do.
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July 14: Two
Americans continued to showcase the best track and field
sprinting team in the world at the Bislett Games in Norway on
Friday. Tim Montgomery ran the third fastest time
ever in the 100 meters, clocked at 9.84 seconds, just .05
seconds off the world record, in winning that event. Marion
Jones extended her win streak in the 100 to 51 races,
taking her race in 10.94 seconds.
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July 14: Michael Jordan.
Back practicing with the Wizards just weeks after breaking his
ribs and claiming that his potential comeback is on
hold. Is this guy a drama queen or what?
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July 13: Jacque Jones,
Corey Koskie and Torii Hunter each hit two homers
for the Minnesota Twins Thursday night, tying a Major League
record for the number of players on a team with double homers
in a game in their 13-5 romp over the Milwaukee Brewers.
Doug Mientkewicz also homered for the Twins, but they were
still one shy of the single game team home run record of
eight.
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July 13: Steffi
Graf and Andre Agassi should be ashamed of
themselves. On Thursday they announced that Graf is
pregnant with their child. Agassi, 31, and Graf, 32,
have both won all four Grand Slam events in tennis - two of
just a handful of players to ever do that. Can you
imagine the expectations on this poor child? We hear he,
or she, has already been seeded #1 at Wimbledon in 2021.
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July 12: The best
three weeks of sports are about to get better. The NCAA
is about to announce a new scheme to improve the NCAA
basketball tournament in March. The new bracketology
calls for certain locations potentially hosting games from two
regions at the same time to keep the highly seeded teams
closer to home.
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July 12: The Bowl
Coalition Series (BCS), which determines who plays in the
college football National Championship Game, will be
announcing changing to its selection process also on
Thursday. However, instead of pro-active changes that
will dramatically improve the selection process, the BCS will
tinker with what already doesn't work - a reaction to Florida
State making it to the Orange Bowl last year instead of Miami,
to whom they lost earlier in the season. What the BCS
needs is to completely reshape their process - not bring
reactionary changes.
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July 11: After all of
the talk that he didn't belong as a starter in the All-Star
Game, Cal Ripken saved his best for last. Ripken
was named the game's MVP after belting a home run that gave
the AL the lead for good in this, his last All-Star Game
before retirement. Many believed that Ripken, whose
numbers this year are sub-par, did not deserve the starting
spot on the roster.
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July 11: Just hours after
finally winning Wimbledon and capturing the hearts of many, Goran
Ivanisevic opened his mouth and out came homophobic
slurs. He used the word "faggot" several times
in referring to a line judge who Ivanisevic says got a call
wrong, and to refer to himself when he didn't play well.
So, according to the new Wimbledon champ, faggot's don't play
tennis well and don't have good eyesight. Tell that to
Martina.
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July 10: It just goes
to show - you can't keep a great player down forever.
Ranked No. 125 in the world, Goran Ivanisevic won
Wimbledon on Monday, becoming only the second unseeded male
player to win the tournament. He upset Patrick Rafter,
6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 2-6, 9-7.
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July 10: Quick - when
was the last time Barry Bonds hit a home run? Try
June 23. That was 15 games ago. After averaging a
homer every three games until then, Bonds has gone cold--and
the rumblings that he simply isn't a clutch player are boiling
up again. As well they should. Injuries or
distractions or not, his team needs him and he's not
performing.
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July 9: Venus Williams has
had an off 2001 thus far, but she looked in good form on
Sunday in winning Wimbledon for the second straight year.
Williams beat Justine Henin and afterwards did not try and
leap over the net. `I couldn't leap because it was raining a little bit, and I didn't want to fall,''
Williams joked.
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July 9: As we hit
baseball's All-Star break things don't look good for five of
the eight playoff teams from a year ago. Only the
Yankees, Mariners and Braves are having playoff-like years.
The other five postseason teams from 2000 are faring from
so-so to bad: Giants (5 1/2 out); Cardinals (8); Mets 12 1/2);
White Sox (13) and Oakland (19).
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July 8: We haven't been
able to watch too much Wimbledon, so we were pleasantly
surprised at the commentary of John McEnroe on NBC. Mac
was opinionated, direct and funny, everything you want a color
man to be. He was especially good in criticizing the passive
British fans as their countryman Tin Henman was struggling and
could have used their support. Jolly good show.
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July 8: The Boston Red Sox,
who resemble a M*A*S*H unit more than a baseball team. got
some more bad news when Pedro Martinez--maybe the best pitcher
in the game--said he won't be back until August.
`The reality is that I will need 30 full days of rest instead of 15,'' Martinez told the Dominican newspaper Ultima
Hora. ``I prefer to wait a bit more and return with my arm in good shape.''
The only question is can the Sox hang in there that long?
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July 7: Will the Seattle Mariners
be stopped? On Friday, the M's rolled into Los Angeles to face a Dodger team that had won nine of its last 10 games. No problem as the Mariners romped, 13-0. Two days prior to the All-Star break Seattle is 39 games over .500 and might clinch its division by Labor Day.
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July 7: Andre Agassi took losing his Wimbledon semifinal a bit too hard. Upset with calls
in his five-set defeat to Patrick Rafter, Agassi lost it after the final point. As the AP reported, ``walking toward the net, Agassi pulled a ball from his pocket and belted it at the lineswoman who had infuriated him in the next-to-last game. She dodged out of the way and the ball slammed against the backstop.'' What pissed off Agassi was the lineswoman walking over to report him for using
obscenity late in the match. ``That's quite upsetting and a little classless for Centre Court, to go running up there,'' Agassi said. ``I got upset at a shot I missed, and I didn't think anybody could hear it. But apparently the lady sitting closest to me can.'' He will be fined $2,000 for using the obscenity.
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July 6: Justine Henin of
Belgium ended Jennifer Capriati's drive toward a tennis grand
slam with a victory in the Wimbledon's semifinals. Henin, 19,
will face defending champion Venus Williams in Saturday's
finals.
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July 6: Could it be the end
of the line for Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire? It could
be, after he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he doesn't expect to be back at
full strength from a knee injury for at least a year.
When asked if that could lead to his retirement and the end of the season,
McGwire, mired in an 0-29 slump, said: ``Good question. You talk to people about it and they say, 'You're not done.
You're not done.' ... I think I'm still realistic. You have to look yourself in the mirror. There will be a day when you have to say, 'I don't have it anymore.'''
We always will admire McGwire for the classy way he handled
the pressure when he broke the single-season home run mark in
1998.
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July 5: Goran Ivanisevic
says he has three personalities-- "Crazy Goran, Good
Goran and Emergency Goran." Tennis' Sybill will take all
three into Wimbledon's men's semifinals after beating Marat
Safin. Ivanisevic became the first wild card to reach the
semifinals. As has become his custom, Ivanisevic ripped off
his shirt after the win.
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July 5: A small raspberry
to Yankees manager Joe Torre, who will skipper the
American League in the All-Star game. Torre picked seven
Yankees to fill out the All-Star roster, one-fourth of the
total team. It is one more player than the Seattle Mariners
have and they've won 12 more games than New York. It's also
six more players than Boston has, and they trail the Yanks by
only a half-game. One can make a case for most of Torre's
picks, but seven is too many.
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July 4: Hats off to
Jennifer Capriati for her stirring three-set comeback over
Serena Williams in the Wimbledon quarterfinals. She's now two
wins away from going 3-0 in Grand Slam events this year.
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July 4: Over the winter the
Los Angeles Dodgers signed pitcher Darren Dreifort to a
$55 million contract. Their investment and his season went up
in smoke after it was announced Dreifort will undergo surgery
to repair a torn ligament in his pitching elbow and miss at
least a year.
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July 3: Roger Federer, a 19-year-old Swiss, pulled one of the great tennis shockers when he defeated seven-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras in five sets. It was Sampras' earliest exit from Wimbledon in 10 years and ended a streak of 31 matches on the grass courts. ``You know something so great isn't going to last forever,'' Sampras said. ``Today I just came up a little bit short.''
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July 3: The Cincinnati Reds lost again at home on Monday. This is becoming routine for the Reds, who are an astounding 10-29 at their home park. Maybe they perform better when they're not surrounded by their loved ones.
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July 2: Mike Hampton of the
Colorado Rockies hit his sixth home run of the season on
Sunday. Nothing unusual except Hampton is a pitcher, and he
hadn't hit a home run before in his career. Hampton's six are
the most by any pitcher since 1971.
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July 2: They're still
talking about Pete Sampras' failed attempt at humor
Saturday during his Wimbledon match. Sampras slipped as he was
trying to return a serve and the ball ran up his shorts and
lodged between his legs. The player then asked
the school-aged ball boy to retrieve it, and the obviously
uncomfortable boy shook his head no. "Well, I said it was all his," Sampras
said after, smiling. "He can pick up the ball if he
wants. He declined. I guess he didn't want to go up my shorts."
Sampras said he was only joking, but it was in totally bad
form. Especially when one considers that Sampras' ex-coach had
been jailed for molesting adolescent boys.
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July 1: Indianapolis Colts
quarterback Peyton Manning is a breath of fresh air in
a sports world grown stale by the frequent rude behavior of
above-it-all jocks. Manning was recently at a summer football
camp in Denver and wowed the kids by staying all day and
taking an active interest. Said Chad Meyer, 17, Northglenn
(Colo.) High School's starting quarterback to the Denver Post:
"We thought we were going to have a pro come in as a
guest speaker, talk for about 15 minutes and then leave in a
big Mercedes. It was cool that he hung out with us."
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July 1: With the Major
League Baseball season basically half over, 12 teams are at
least 10 games out of first place, icluding such preseason
favorites as the Mets (12 back), Reds (14), A's (20) ... and,
finally, Texas, 27 games behind. Gee, if he Rangers didn't
have A-Rod they'd probably be 28 back.
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