Monday, 19-Aug-2002
Spurious
thoughts and idle musings from the sports week just past ...
Olympic
freestyle skier Jeremy Bloom is finding out the hard way that the NCAA has more
than just a few screws loose. Besides
being a world class snowman, Bloom is also a top shelf football player enrolled
at Ralphie U. But the suits won't let
him play for the Buffs cause he foots his own Olympic bills through skiing
endorsements. Heaven forbid someone makes
a little coin in a sport the NCAA doesn't even sanction. But even so Bloom still lost his court case
last week despite holding up a Colorado jersey ... You know, the one with the
tastefully adorned Nike swoosh sewed on it.
Sigh ... They just don't get it.
Hard to believe, Harry.
Who the
hell is Rich Beem ??? He's your new PGA
Tournament winner. Rich is now Richer
to the tune of $990,000 after he actually won a back nine posedown against You
Know Who at Hazeltine on Sunday. Of the
four golf majors, the PGA has always been the runt of the litter but it's been
delightfully pumping out first-time major winners for several years now. And now it's also coughed up Tigger's
first-ever second place finish in the big spotlight. Golf claps all around.
Nicely done, PGA.
See the
new episode of Kentucky Speedway 41017 starring Jason Priestley. Get well soon, Jason. From everything I've read about his racing
accident last week, the other Indy Pro Series drivers respect Priestley's
driving and no one's had any problems racing against him. The only problem was The Wall which forgives
no one. Not even Hollywood heartthrobs.
Reason
No. 586 to love Frank Robinson ... When he got thumbed from a recent Expos
game, it was Robby's first heave-ho of the year which made him ... along with
Casey Stengel, Leo Durocher and Don Zimmer ... just the fourth man ejected from
a major league baseball game in six different decades. Hell, forget 600 dingers. I wanna see Barry Bonds do that.
John
Henry Williams informed the Boston Red Sox that his all-too-brief and
thoroughly unspectacular career as a minor leaguer is thoroughly over. Williams admitted in light of recent, ahem,
controversies over his famous father's death on ice that perhaps he needs to
move on to other pursuits now. Like for
example, his next goal of convincing the San Diego Chargers to draft him as the
new Ryan Leaf so he can cash out and quit that gig too.
And
speaking of a dying man's last wishes, Frisbee designer Ed Headrick passed away
last week. Headrick held US Patent No.
3,359,678 issued on 1-Nov-1965 for Wham-O's first "professional
model" flying disc. He also
invented frisbee golf and founded the International Frisbee Association. And in his will, Headrick asked that his
ashes be molded into a few select memorial frisbees for family and friends and
others who donate to various charities.
Take notes, John Henry. At the
very least, you coulda made bats outta your dad. And just the hint that that makes even the slightest bit of sense
is reason enough to book an appointment with Dr Melfi.
So what
else is going on ??? Shag Daddy was The
Big Absentee at the Shaquille O'Neal Tampa Celebrity Basketball Weekend, Pay
Rod and Sammy "Keyser" Sosa are both mashing lotsa last place taters,
Terrell Davis and his shredded wheat knee are calling it quits, Scott Rolen got
some brotherly love on his first trip back to Philly in enemy doubleknits and
the Denver Nuggets will name Jeff Bzdelik as their new coach just as soon as
someone learns how to pronounce his name for the press conference.
Randall
Cunningham said last week that he wants to retire as an Iggle and will do so at
a Vet ceremony this coming Saturday night before Philly's pre-season birdoff
against the Ravens. Which should be
plenty of time to assemble a collection of some old defensive backs from the
Pokes, Jints and Skins so Randall can sling a few of his classic game-killing,
red zone picks just for old time's sake.
Shouldn't be a dry eye in the house.
And now I'm getting a little verklempt.
Talk amongst yourselves. I'll
give you a topic ... Restricted free agency is neither restricted nor
free. Discuss.
You know,
I never thought I'd miss the good old days when all you saw was the final game
of the Little League World Series on an afternoon Wide World Of Sports special
as the Taiwan team kicked ass every year.
Because now the LLWS is completely out of control with ESPN showing
dozens of prime time games complete with in-depth analysis, wired coaches,
radar guns, split screens, statistics, pitch counts and so on. I swear I heard one announcer say "And
if you're scoring at home, that's a 6-3 groundout, shortstop to first
base." You mean someone's home
keeping score of a Little League game ???
For the love of God, please get help.
Okay,
fine, so the players set their strike date for August 30th. Big deal.
I'm not gonna waste my time pissing and moaning about it. People who like baseball watch it. Folks who don't, don't. And I'm not gonna waste your time agonizing
over the issues either. Suffice to say
that baseball owners have been trying to stick it to baseball players since the
very first ticket was sold. And
baseball players are too damn stoopid or arrogant or both to realize they need
baseball owners to ruin, I mean, run the bizness. Same song, different day, that's all.
A moment
of silence for Sunday Silence, please.
Thank you.
See ya
nexted week ...
Robert E Hunt Jr
Copyright ã 2002 by Robert E Hunt Jr. All rights reserved.