Monday, 28-Oct-2002
Spurious
thoughts and idle musings from the sports week just past ...
Say it
slowly ... World Series Champion Anaheim Angels. First baseball team since the 1912 BoSox to win a Series without
a ringbearer from a previous champ. Not
to mention the first rookie, John Lackey, to win a Game 7 posedown since Babe
Adams for the 1909 Pirates. And clearly
the first ever world champeen with a hyperactive primate hopstarting epic
late-inning comeback rallies. Nicely
done, Halos.
NFL Week
8 ... The Vicks rubbed out the Saints Be Praised in a wild bayou battle while
the Chiefs' D finally earned a paycheck over the suddenly gasping
Oaklanders. The Texans beat the
Jagwires for their first-ever road win which should do wonders for Tom
Coughlin's morning mood. Also, the
Stillers seem like they're back in the saddle as are the Niners, Doncs and
Bucs. Bungles are still bungling,
J-E-T-S are still sputtering and the Dead$kins are back to playing musical
quarterbacks. And no, I don't want to
talk about the Panthers.
Despite
record low ratings, that was one helluva Series ... Both teams went 2-2 in
one-run games and 1-1 in blowout thrashjobs setting up the fun finale. Exhausted pitchers, relentless top-to-bottom
lineups, Barry crushing anything even remotely close to the plate, little kids
almost getting run over, weird manager moves, Taco Bell targets and by an
amazing coincidence ... Every single Tinseltown celeb currently starring in a
FOX television show calmly sitting in the stands waiting for his or her obligatory
pan and scan.
Dear
Cowboys ... For future reference, next time your stud running back completes
his 13-year quest to break the all-time NFL record for career rushing yardage
with his family and lots of his old pals on hand plus the national media in full
slobber not to mention a videotaped message from the widow of the previous
record holder ... Well, you might wanna go ahead and, you know, win the
game. I know, I know, minor detail.
You know
that old saying about how you can't fire all the players so you hafta fire the
coach instead ??? Well, check that
cause apparently you really can dump them all.
After getting waxed in its first two matches at the European Challenge Cup
by record scores of 87-11 and 151-0, the board of directors of the Dinamo Bucharest
rugby union team has banned the entire squad from playing in any more matches
in 2003 and 2004. No truth to the rumor
that NC State wants to schedule them for homecoming next year.
It's
starting to get just a little uncomfortable for the Anti-Rudys, isn't it
??? Not many teams go into Tallahassee
and spank the Criminoles so perhaps these Irish might just be for real. Of course, the last time the Domers beat
Florida State back in 1993, they honked against Boston College the next
week. The same BC visiting South Bend
this coming Saturday.
Hold the
phones, we have yet another winner in our Dumb And Dumber sweepstakes ... Two
fans watching last week's Pistons-Wizards exhibition game in Detroit were
arrested after stealing costume parts of Zap, the WNBA Detroit Shock's dingo
mascot. The two geniuses were picked up
in a bar across the street from the arena when they walked in wearing ... yep,
you got it ... a massive furry dingo head and a jumbo-sized dingo foot. Nice try, fellas. Hope you look good in orange.
Yao Ming
has arrived in Houston. But he hasn't
had a lotta time to settle in just yet.
Seems one of the first things Ming did was travel 100 miles to College
Station, TX last week to meet for the very first time ... drum roll, please ...
Chinese president Jiang Zemin. Yes
indeed, China's 7'-5" basketball superduperstar can now look back fondly
at his introduction to his country's head of state ... On the campus of Texas
A&M. The NBA. I love this game.
I'm sorry
but how can Cal Ripken's breaking Lou Gehrig's record be the No. 1 Most
Memorable MasterCard Moment when it took 14 years to get there ??? For that matter, how could Bobby Thomson's
1951 dinger not be on The List ??? And
what happened to Bill Mazeroski's Yankee killer ??? And lemme tell you about the time Michael Jack Schmidt took Stan
Bahnsen deep to win the 1980 NL East ???
What, you don't think that's a Memorable MasterCard Moment ??? Guess you had to be there.
Still
more Theater Of The Absurd ... Three-time Olympic pairs figure skater Kyoko Ina
... Yeah, I know, I never heard of her either ... Anyway, Ina faces a possible
lifetime suspension and a $1,000,000 fine after a rep from the US Anti-Doping
Agency showed up unannounced at her home at 10:30pm on the night of July 18th
demanding a urine specimen. In her
jammies and ready for bed, Kyoko couldn't produce a sample and asked to meet
them the next morning at her training site.
That, of course, spells r-e-f-u-s-a-l in their books and so her ice
career is on ice. And in case you're
wondering, Ina's been tested dozens of times before and came up squeaky clean
each time. M-o-r-o-n-s.
The
Commissioner's Office would like to remind teams that new managers should not
be announced during the World Series ... The New York Mets have hired Art
Howe. The Commissioner's Office is
concerned that its directive asking teams not to announce new hires during the
World Series may have been misunderstood ... The Tampa Bay Devil Rays have
hired Lou Piniella. The Commissioner's
Office is deeply troubled that teams may be ignoring its instructions regarding
press leaks of new manager hires while the World Series is still being played
... The Chicago Cubs will pursue Dusty Baker.
The Commissioner's Office is sick and tired ...
Boy, if
we thought Barry Bonds was surly before ...
See ya
nexted week ...
Robert E Hunt Jr
Copyright ã 2002 by Robert E Hunt Jr. All rights reserved.