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SEPTEMBER 2000
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9/30/00: Kudos to NBC
(believe it or not) for loosening its grip on its
affiliates. The network had said earlier this week that
it would broadcast any live MLB playoff games during the
Presidential debates. However, NBC announced on Friday
that it would leave the decisions up to its individual
affiliates, and that each station will choose for itself
whether it shows players running bases or politicians running
around in circles.
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9/30/00: Last February, NHL
thug Marty McSorley delivered a blow to the head of Donald
Brashear with his stick that sent Brashear unconscious to the
ice and knocked him out of play for several weeks. Now,
McSorley is being tried in a criminal case in Vancouver for
his attack. McSorley's lawyer, Bill Smart, argued
that players in the NHL give "explicit consent" to
on-ice contact. Maybe so, Bill, but they do not give
consent to being attacked the way that your defendant, known
all of his career for attacks like this, attacked
Brashear. Lock him up.
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9/29/00: We once pooh-poohed
Major League Baseball for adding a dreaded wild card team to
the playoffs. Thank God they did. With three teams
separated by 1 1/2 games for two spots, the wild card race
of the last weekend of the season should be an exciting one as
the Seattle Mariners and Oakland A's battle for the AL West
crown. The loser of that race will contend with the
Cleveland Indians for that wild card spot.
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9/29/00: The season hasn't
even started yet, but the Tampa Bay Lightning's Gordie
Dwyer has already been given a 23 game suspension.
In a pre-season game on September 19 against the Washington
Capitals, Dwyer was sent to the penalty box for attacking Joe
Reekie, a Capital, and pushing an official. Dwyer then
left the penalty to pursue Reekie again, and attacked another
official. More reason to shorten the season.
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9/28/00: The Weetabix Women's
British Open has won the honor of being the fourth major
in the LPGA Tour. It joins the Nabisco Championship, the
McDonald's LPGA Championship and the U.S. Women's Open as the
four majors on the tour. But enough with putting the corporate
name in front of the tournament. There's little dignity with a
tournament named after a soggy wheat cereal.
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9/28/00: Three New York
racetracks were raided on Tuesday as the Attorney General's
Office looked for evidence of money laundering. Belmont
and Aqueduct in New York City and Saratoga Race
Course near Albany were the targets.
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9/27/00: It may have gotten
boring, but it's still impressive. In a sports era when
it's hard to stay on top for too long, the Atlanta Braves
have built the closest thing to a dynasty baseball has seen in
decades. On Tuesday, the Braves clinched their sixth
consecutive NL East title, and their ninth in the last 10
years, by beating the New York Mets, 7-1. In those 10
years, the Braves have won only one World Series.
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9/27/00: Fox reportedly
paid a whopping $2.5 billion to broadcast MLB's post-season
and All Star Game from 2001 to 2006. The step-child of
the Big Three networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) has overpaid for a
League that still hasn't recovered from the players strike
years ago, and is the step-child itself to the booming NFL.
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9/26/00: Peyton Manning
continues his young journey toward the NFL Hall Of Fame.
And, when he makes it, we may all look at this game as his
best ever. Against the high-powered Jacksonville
Jaguars, Manning led his Colts to a 43-14 victory on Monday
night. But, what was more impressive were Manning's
numbers: 23-36 for 440 yards (a club record), 0 INTs and 4
touchdowns. Not even the great Johnny Unitas put up
better numbers in a Colts uniform.
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9/26/00: It has been far
too long in coming. Bruce Coslet, maybe the most
hapless NFL head coach to ever keep his job for four seasons,
is gone after being outscored a whopping 74-7 in his
Cincinnati Bengals' first three games. Coslet has never
had a winning record in 8 1/4 seasons as head coach, and is
7-28 in his last 35 games. He officially
"resigned" - but even the cheap Brown family, who
owns the team, must have seen better than to keep this guy -
"resigned, but with coaxing," no doubt.
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9/25/00: Despite losing
their game on Sunday, no team was celebrating more than the Chicago
White Sox. This year's surprise team put the first
feather in its cap by claiming the club's first divisional
title since 1993 after the Cleveland Indians' loss to the
Kansas City Royals.
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9/25/00: Weren't they JUST
playing the Stanley Cup Finals? While we love hockey,
any sport whose off-season is just three months has to
reconsider its scheduling. Now, while the NFL is
starting up and Major League Baseball is heading toward the
playoffs, the National Hockey League has already
started its exhibition season - something they sorely need to
reconsider. We never thought of ice hockey as a fall sport.
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9/24/00: Even in the
alphabet, A comes before M. And so, after 86 days atop
the AL West, the Seattle Mariners have fallen into second
place behind the Oakland A's, who are on a tear, having
won the first three of their four game series in Seattle - the
latest being an 8-2 trouncing on Saturday. "These
guys are just relentless," said Mariners short stop Alex
Rodriguez after the game.
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9/24/00: Three suspects are
in custody for the armed carjacking of Philadelphia Phillies
outfielder Rob Ducey. Ducey was held at gunpoint
Thursday afternoon as three men stole his $96,000 1999 Porsche
996. By Friday, police had recovered the car and had
three suspects in custody.
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9/23/00: And we thought
Tiger Woods was young. 14-year-old Aree Wonglukeit
has a share of the lead at the Safeway LPGA Golf Championship
in Portland, OR after one round. She hit a 3-under 69 on
Friday, tying veteran Dottie Pepper for the lead. "I pretty much just hit it where my caddie said to hit it,:
Wongluekeit said after her round.
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9/23/00: Nine games ago,
the New York Yankees held an intimidating nine game
division lead in the AL East. Today, that has dwindled
to 4 1/2 games after losing eight of their last nine games,
including a 9-6 decision at home to the lowly Detroit
Tigers. With the playoffs just ten days away, "We have to start winning some games," Bernie Williams said. "There's no doubt
about that."
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9/22/00: It may have taken
him four tries, but pitcher David Wells finally won his
20th game of the season on Thursday as his Toronto Blue Jays
topped the division-leading New York Yankees, 3-1.
Wells, 20-6, is 2-0 this season against the Yankees, his
former team. He is the first 20-game winner in the Major
Leagues this year.
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9/22/00: In the case of
Richard Bell, the football player who seven years ago killed
his gay friend with whom he had had sex, it was one moronic
juror who saved the defendant from a first-degree murder
conviction. In his second trial this summer, Bell argued
that he was found guilty because of an incompetent attorney in
his first trial. Ten jurors voted in August to send him
back to prison for first degree murder. One juror
dissented. “He basically felt that this gay guy got what he
deserved,” juror Russell Martin said. “He said that if anyone tried to do
that to him, he’d do the same thing.”
9/22/00: It was recently
released that some runners in the Berlin Marathon
earlier this month took the subway for part of the race, having forgotten that
they were all wearing computer chips to record their time at 5K intervals.
It was not hard for race officials to figure out what had
happened.
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9/21/00: Jim Edmonds' grand
slam in the third inning of his St. Louis Cardinals' game
against the Houston Astros ended up being the
division-clinching hit as the Cardinals officially won their
division for the first time since 1996. It was a sell-t
crowd that saw the home team win 11-6, and Edmonds hit his
career-high 41st home run this season.
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9/21/00: We are really
tired of Boston Red Sox manager Jimy Williams.
His loud mouth and brash attitude may be adored in Boston, but
we don't appreciate it. In the first game of a crucial
home doubleheader against the Cleveland Indians, Williams
overstayed his welcome on the playing field after a close call
by the home plate umpire and got ejected. His Red Sox
got swept Wednesday, 2-1 and 5-4.
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9/20/00: Whether you love
or hate Dennis Miller, or think Dan Fouts is a bore, Monday
Night Football continues to soar. Against the
Olympics on Monday, this week's edition between the Washington
Redskins and Dallas Cowboys got a higher rating than last
year's same week broadcast, between the San Francisco 49ers
and the Arizona Cardinals. It is the first time this
year the show has beaten last year's number.
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9/20/00: In the continuing
story of a true tragedy in the NFL, the Cleveland
Browns released Orlando Brown on Tuesday. The offensive
lineman was hit in the eye by a weighted official's flag in
week 15 last season, and has suffered permanent damage to his
eye. It looks as though his career may be over, and the
NFL will surely be paying in the $10 million range to settle
with Brown out of court. The design of the official's
flags has been changed due to the incident.
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9/19/00: Keyshawn Johnson of
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is one of our favorite athletes. He's
brash and outspoken without sounding like a jerk, not an easy
thing. He's still pissed about the way he was traded from the
New York Jets, who come to Tampa this week. He said of former
teammate Wayne Chrebet (who he once called the team mascot)
that Key was a star and Wayne was a flashlight. The latter
eventually burns out while the former shines bright forever.
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9/19/00: Daniel Snyder, the
yuppie scum who owns the Washington Redskins, spent $100
million on his toy and expects nothing short of a Super Bowl.
After losing Monday night to Dallas, Snyder's 'Skins at 1-2
are no better than the Saints and Panthers. It was one of the
few times we've rooted for the 'Boys.
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9/18/00: One of the best
things about sports is that (save for the Olympics on
NBC) they're live and anything can happen. In watching
Sunday's NFL games we heard ``shit'' once, saw two coaches
mouth ``fuck,'' and watched Cleveland punter Chris Gardocki
pop the finger to a Steeler player who hit him late. Up close
and personal, indeed.
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9/18/00: The Mets were the
toast of baseball three weeks ago, but they've recently
stumbled. They lost Sunday to lowly Montreal for a split of a
series that should have swept. The Mets will make the
playoffs, but we wonder if they've peaked.
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9/17/00: Pac10 football had
another outstanding weekend, with Washington winning at
Colorado, UCLA posting a surprising win over #3 Michigan, and
Stanford shocking the #5 Texas Longhorns, 27-24. Behind
the strength of their non-conference record, we should see
several Pac10 teams jumping up in the polls.
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9/17/00: The Philadelphia
Flyers have watched as their talks with star left wing
John LeClair broke down earlier this week. The loss of
LeClair, who is a free agent, will hurt the team that came
within one series of the Stanley Cup Finals last year.
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9/16/00: Ricky Henderson,
now of the Seattle Mariners, became the second highest scorer
in Major League Baseball on Friday, as he scored his 2,175th
career run in a 10-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles.
Henderson passed Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron with the run, and
trails #1 Ty Cobb by only 71 runs.
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9/16/00: What a scheduling
nightmare. Major League Baseball announced
yesterday that the Cleveland Indians are in for a treat.
After back-to-back double-headers in Boston on September 23
and 24, the Indians have to come home on the 25th and play a
third double-header, against two different teams - they will
face the Minnesota Twins and the division-leading Chicago
White Sox on the same day. They will be the first Major
League team to play two different teams in one day since the
St. Louis Cardinals did it on September 13, 1951.
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9/15/00: Mississippi
State's quarterback Wayne Madkin tore it up Thursday
night in a 44-28 win at BYU. Madkin threw 12-19 for 150
yards and 1 touchdown; he also had seven carries for 104 yards
and 1 touchdown.
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9/15/00: While gay groups
are protesting the University of Hawaii's dropping of the
Rainbow from their nickname, student groups as San Diego State
have decided to protest using the nickname Aztecs. As
well they should - it's probably more than coincidence that
the protests come when their dreadful San Diego State
football team is 0-2. They're just not a positive
representation of Aztecs.
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9/14/00: Facing a Thursday
night matchup against Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez
(8-0 against Cleveland), the Indians needed pitcher Bartolo
Colon's best on Wednesday to win a key game against the
Sox. The got just that. Colon allowed two runs in
seven innings, as his team racked up ten, and Colon got a
much-needed win for the Tribe, 10-3, who extended their Wild
Card lead to 1 1/2 games over Oakland, and three games over
Boston.
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9/14/00: The House Judiciary
Committee voted by a 19-9 margin on Wednesday to pass a
bill that outlaws betting on college sports. It sounds
like a great idea, but consider this: that office pool you
lost $10 in last March would now be a target of the Federal
government. While the purity of the sport is nothing to
sneeze at, just watch the popularity of college basketball
sink as those office pools disappear if the House and Senate
approve the bill.
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9/13/00: What a refreshing
column we read this afternoon at ESPN.com. Brian
Murphy is with the San Francisco Examiner, and he writes a
weekly "Tuesday Morning Quarterback" column for the
network's Web site. Today, he comes up with a gem,
dumping (literally) on the Eagles, laughing at the Colts,
snearing at the Redskins, and praising Kurt Warner. His
column gave us a real chuckle.
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9/13/00: The Cleveland
Indians had one of their worst slumps today against the
top teams in the American League. In the official coin
tosses to determine potential locations for tie-breaks at
season's end, the Indians lost to every team they went up
against. If they end in a tie for the Wild Card spot
with the Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox, Oakland A's,
Anaheim Angels, or Seattle Mariners, they have to hit the road
for their one game playoff.
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9/12/00: You can take
Dennis Miller or leave him, but one thing is becoming
clear: He has brought magic to Monday Night Football.
After two years of dog games, enter Miller and two amazing
thrillers to open the season, including last night's 20-19 NY
Jets victory over the New England Patriots in the final
minutes. Next week's Dallas vs. Washington game should
produce nothing less than a hat trick.
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9/12/00: It's the story of
the week, so we'll stick with it. In the latest chapter
of the IU basketball saga, the Indiana basketball players
on Monday demanded that assistant coaches Mike Davis and John
Treloar be retained and that one of them be named interim head
coach, or there would be "serious
repercussions." Bobby Knight himself made an
appearance at a student rally on Sunday night, saying that he
would meet with all interested students on Tuesday to tell his
side of the story. The guy broke the rules and got
axed. Enough teen angst melodrama, already.
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9/11/00: They gave him
every chance, but he just couldn't pull it off. Indiana
University handed head basketball coach Bobby Knight his pink slip
for a series of inappropriate actions that culminated in his
accosting a student last week. IU had issued a no
tolerance policy with Knight last spring and upheld that
policy to the letter.
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9/11/00: It was an embarrassing
weekend to be an Indiana sports fan. Though deserved, the
firing of Bob Knight brought unwanted focus on a school that
tolerated abuse for years. And scenes Sunday of a mini-riot by
IU students standing up for Knight (including burning a
student in effigy) was disturbing. On the field, IU blew a
double-digit lead Saturday and lost in college football to
North Carolina State. On Sunday, the NFL's Indianapolis Colts
blew a 21-0 lead were beaten by Oakland.
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9/10/00: It was deja vu all
over again at the women's final of the U.S. Open. Venus
Williams beat Lindsay Davenport in straight sets on
Saturday, the same outcome as their Wimbledon final. Pete
Sampras, the men's Wimbledon winner, can claim the Open title
as well today if he can beat the surprising Russian Marat
Safin.
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9/10/00: It's hard to be
too critical of Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez,
whose ERA is well below 2.00. But with the Sox in a battle for
the wild card spot, Martinez lasted only seven innings in a
5-3 loss to the hated Yankees.
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9/9/00: Two top stars
matched wits on Friday for the claim of #1 in the world.
Present #1 Martina Hingis and #3 Venus Williams
played an incredible U.S. Open Semifinal match, showing how
women's tennis can be far more exciting than the hard-hitting
men's game. In the end, it was Venus Williams coming
back from two games down in the third set, winning the match
4-6, 6-3, 7-5 to advance to the Finals against #2 Lindsay
Davenport, who beat the younger Williams sister, Serena, in
the Quarterfinals.
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9/9/00: OK, it is only an
accusation at this point. But, why do we believe every
word of it? Indiana head basketball coach Bobby Knight
is under police investigation for an alleged incident in which
he apparently attacked a student at Indiana University.
Apparently, the student passed Knight in a doorway and said to
the coach, "Hey, Knight." Allegedly, Knight
then grabbed the boy by the arm and started yelling at him,
saying that it is "Coach Knight" and telling the
student that he shouldn't refer to people by their last
name. COACH Knight disputes the allegations. If
they are found to be true, he would immediately be fired as
head basketball coach, as he is under a no tolerance policy
after an investigation earlier this year into past attacks on
his players.
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9/8/00: Kevin Sutherland
found himself in an odd place. Sutherland, who wasn't
even planning on coming to the Canadian Open until this week,
is leading the event, seven strokes under par and, shockingly,
seven strokes ahead of Tiger Woods. Sutherland's 65 is
his best opening round of the year.
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9/8/00: The White House
issued a 107-page report today about drug use in Olympic
sports. The report claims that up to 90% of athletes in
some sports are using performance-enhancing drugs, and that
the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is to
blame. The report says that, between patriotic nations,
corporate sponsorships, and the IOC that looks the other way,
there is an atmosphere within the Olympic community that
promotes the use of drugs. Tell us something we didn't already
know.
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9/7/00: It was great to see
a couple hundred gays and lesbians at Dodger Stadium last
night as GLAD (Gays & Lesbians Against Defamation)
hosted a "Night With The Dodgers." While it
had nothing to do with the "Dodger Kiss" incident in
which two lesbians were removed from the stadium during the
seventh inning of a game last month, the kiss was on
everyone's lips as the seventh inning rolled around.
And, while the Dodgers tried their best to put everyone to
sleep, getting rolled by the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-3, we
entertained ourselves with plenty of dancing checking out the
ballplayers with binoculars.
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9/7/00: Leave it to a
Texan. When Bob McNair, the owner of the NFL's new
Houston expansion team, revealed his team's nickname and logo,
we gasped. They had so much to work with. The
Rebels. The Lone Stars. The Stallions was one of
the final names on the list. Hell, even the Wifebeaters
could be  befitting.
But, what did they settle on? Drumroll please . . . The Houston
Texans. That's like the Green Bay Wisconsonians, or
the Tampa Bay Floridians. And the logo they unveiled . .
. well, just take a look at it above. That's all the
League needed was another team using a combination of red,
white and blue. And what is supposed to be a steer looks
more like one of those aliens from "Independence
Day". Pride runneth over in Texas . . . but the
popularity of this team won't be running anywhere else.
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9/6/00: Todd Martin
continues his march back to the U.S. Open Finals, winning very
early Wednesday morning in thrilling fashion. After
falling behind two sets to none (both tiebreaks) to Spain's
Carlos Moya, Martin rallied to win the match after four hours
and 17 minutes, 6-7(3), 6-7(7), 6-1, 7-6(6), 6-2. Martin
lost in the finals to Andre Agassi last year.
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9/6/00: With his team
embroiled in one of the tightest playoff races in the last ten
years, Oakland A's pitcher Kevin Appier (12-11) could
only blame it on greasy balls. After just 2 2/3 innings
on Tuesday against the Boston Red Sox, his shortest start all
season, Appier was yanked after giving up 8 runs. After
the game, Appier said the balls felt "greasy."
Funny - Red Sox starting pitcher Pete Schourek had no
complaints.
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9/5/00: After seven months
of fires, new hires, and odd attires, Monday Night Football
finally kicked off with a bang on Monday, featuring a slightly
toned down (except his jacket) Dennis Miller waxing poetic
about Skittles. Oh, yeah, the game was awesome, too,
being won by the hometown and defending Super Bowl Champion
St. Louis Rams in the final four minutes. This wasn't
just the best game of the weekend, but it might have been the
best Monday Night game in two years.
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9/5/00: Mother Nature
simply won't listen to any of us in the sports world, as she
has wrecked havoc on the New York sports world. For the
last week, rain and thunderstorms have interrupted play at the
U.S. Open, including two match-deciding tiebreaks on the men's
side. On Sunday, players on the field in the New York
Giants - Arizona Cardinals game cringed as thundered and
lightning rolled through the area, causing a delay in the
game.
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9/4/00: As his Cleveland
Indians try to snatch a Wild Card spot from the jaws of four
other teams, a veteran made a strong statement this
weekend. Kenny Lofton scored in his 18th straight
game (tied for MLB record), stole five bases and hit the game
winning home run to lift the Indians over the Baltimore
Orioles, 12-11.
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9/4/00: The ESPN/USA
Today Coaches Poll is in, and we're at a loss for
words. On Saturday, we watched the UCLA Bruins dominate
the Alabama Crimson Tide in every aspect of the game, beating
them 35-24. But, 59 coaches in America saw fit to rank
the Tide 14th this week . . . three spots ahead of UCLA.
This was, after all, the same group that gave handed 1-loss
Nebraska a share of the National Championship with undefeated
Michigan a few years ago.
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9/3/00: The U.S. Open Tennis tournament
continued to surprise on Saturday as seeds Conchita Martinez,
Anna Kournikova, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Mark Philippoussis all
fell. And four-time winner Pete Sampras had a hard-fought
straight sets win.
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9/3/00: The worst aspects
about college football are the early season mismatches,
as top-ranked teams look to fatten up on cupcakes, who go home
bruised but richer. Less-than-competitive matchups on
Saturday: Nebraska 49, San Jose St. 13; Michigan 42, Bowling
Green 7; Florida 40, Ball St. 19; Kansas St. 54, Louisiana
Tech 10 and Purdue 48, Central Michigan 0.
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9/2/00: It's the first
Saturday in September and college and pro football are
starting. Life is good.
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9/2/00: Zippy Chippy may be
a horse, but he's been nothing but a dog on the track.
The 9-year-old ran his record losing streak to 87 on Friday, finishing second by a neck
at a race in Massachusetts.
Zippy's owner has become attached to the horse despite its tendency to bite and
kick its keepers. Typical athlete.
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09/01/00: The Mets ended
August as they began ... on a high note after a 1-0 win over
Houston. New York leads Atlanta in the N.L. East for the first
time since April and is on a 31-16 tear since the All-Star break.
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09/01/00:
It's been a rough summer for Andre
Agassi and it continued Thursday when he lost in the second
round of the U.S. Open to Arnaud Clement of France, 6-3, 6-2,
6-4.
``It was just a brutal day,''
Agassi said.
This year Agassi has had
second-round exits in the French and U.S.
Opens, and a semifinal loss at Wimbledon.
He also learned his mom has breast cancer and hurt his back in
a car accident.
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