I remember seeing a baseball game where the fun-loving umpire Ron Luciano was working behind Ritchie Allen at first base. As Allen was warming up the infielders between innings, Luciano would throw a pebble at Allen’s back just as he was about to catch the throw. This went on for about three throws and then Allen turned and glared at Luciano in an effort to make him stop. However on the next throw Luciano threw THREE pebbles at Allen. Allen said nothing but on the NEXT throw he ducked UNDER the throw and it hit the umpire who roared with laughter.
I’ve said it before that my feeling is that Mark Cuban ownership would be good for baseball.
That having been said it seems that John Canning, who is a limited partner of the Milwaukee Brewers and a close personal friend of “Uncle Bud” Selig, was ruled out by Cubs ownership as a potential buyer. However that hasn’t halted the “stop Cuban” movement, which includes baseball power broker and Selig confidant ChiSox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, from encouraging would-be ownership groups to join forces and buy the Cubs.
When Andy Messersmith played for the Braves, owner, Ted Turner wanted him to legally change his name to “Channel” so his uniform would read “Channel” over his number 17 and make him a walking billboard for Turner’s TBS Network. MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn went ballistic.
“Next”, Conlin said, “Turner decided to manage the team himself, for a game, on the grounds the Braves couldn’t possibly play any worse. There is now a rule that owners may not manage. The baseball establishment viewed Turner as a richer and crazier Charles O. Finley.” But anybody who helped bring down the USSR by providing them with CNN so they could see what the rest of the world was up to was a mad genius.
ChiSox 1B Nick Swisher told the Chicago Daily Herald, after his teammate hit his AL-leading 28th homerun, “Carlos Quentin is hotter than doughnut grease.”
Dwight Perry said that a sure sign that your star slugger is out of shape is that he thinks that RBI stands for Ribs, Barbecue, and Indigestion.
So just how big is JaMarcus Russell, the Raiders 6-5, 270-lb. QB?
Dwight Perry said, “He beeps while backing up from center.”
“Brett The Jet” appears on the cover of the Madden ’09 video game. Dwight wondered if his getting traded to the Jets is enough to qualify him for the “Madden Curse?”
WHAT HAVE YOU GOT IN YOUR WALLET
Perry asked me “With fans getting fleeced for up to $20,000 a seat for Personal Seat Licenses at the new Giants/Jets stadium, shouldn’t they be called losing-your-seat licenses?” Do those owners believe that calling the seat charges a “PSL” is less distasteful? It is only if you believe a “perp” is less a criminal than a perpetrator.
The Sports Curmudgeon was pondering about the possibilities if Carthage had Troy on their football schedule. “Imagine all the sacks that would happen in that game.”
One thought as to why the IOC dropped Softball as an Olympic sport was that it hoped that without Olympic goals many American women would stop playing, allowing the rest of the world to catch up (the US has won every Softball Olympic Gold Medal since 1996, the first games where Softball was played). The earliest that Softball could be re-instated would be for the 2016 games with a successful vote in IOC 2009.
Can someone, anyone (anyone? Bueller?) tell me why softball and baseball have been dropped (E-IOC) as Olympic sports and Team Handball- whatever that is- has not.
Team Handball looks like a game that was invented to be played in PE class and is like “Dodge ball version 3.2” with soccer nets.
Dwight Perry asked: “With China hosting the Olympics why don’t the marquee events at the Swim Cube include ‘Marco Polo’?”
The headline on Fark.com read: “Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon sets weight lifting record- and that’s just with her name tag.”
Scott Ostler said that in 1896, the year of the first modern Games, one of the events was the obstacle course. “Swimmers had to climb a pole, scamper over one line of boats, and swim under another line of boats.
Which makes you wonder if any proposed Olympic event was ever rejected?”
I thought that the modern Pentathlon was a five game package set to play on Wii.
Michael Phelps, seeking an unprecedented eight Olympic Gold Medals, arrived in Beijing wearing a moustache as a tribute to the 1972 steroid-enhanced East German women.
Canadian Racewalker Tim Berrett, training for his fifth Olympics, said it wasn’t easy simulating Beijing’s smoggy conditions.
“Other than pulling my treadmill into the garage, starting the car, and hoping I come out two hours later,” he told the Kingston Whig-Standard, “There isn’t really a lot I can do to get ready for it.”
Dwight Perry said that Andrea Baldini an Olympic Gold Medal hopeful was booted off the Italian fencing team for testing positive for a diuretic.
“In other words, his foil is a wrap.” (OOF!)
This was supposed to be the team that made America forget the 2004 debacle. The players, to a man, said all the right things about patriotism and team play. But I’m still disturbed that Dwight Howard seems to be the only, pure, big man. After him the team looks small and might have a problem against Spain, Argentina, or Lithuania when the middle is clogged. I worry about the US long range shooting which was exhibited against a weak Chinese team where they had difficulty into the 3rd Quarter. All I’m saying here is that we shouldn’t be too quick anointing these guys and then have to say UH-OH.
