The Patriots run the table

Boo...hiss!

I really wanted to see them get beat, and the Giants certainly had a chance to do it...but Manning just had to throw that pick with 8 minutes to go which allowed the Patriots to score what would turn out to be the winning touch down.

There were a few bonehead plays on the Giants side that allowed the Patriots to win, plus a bogus unsportsmanlike conduct call. (A Patriot player pushed a Giant out of bounds, and as he was backing up, he was jawing with the Giants. He tripped, accidently, and the Giants were called for unsportsmanlike conduct!)

Nevertheless, the Patriots certainly looked vulnerable. The Giants came within 3 points of beating them. The Colts, a few weeks ago, certainly had their chances also. In the playoffs, facing good teams, I predict the Patriots will lose.

What teams have a chance to beat them?

Green Bay Packers, if Favre will go back to being the good Favre who didn't throw stupid interceptions.

Indianapolis Colts, of course.

Dallas Cowboys.

Who else?

Bowl Blahs

Well, the bowl season is upon us and once again it is absolutely ridiculous. A "bowl" is supposed to be a game for the celebration of great teams...or if not great than at least good.

But there are dozens of bowls, so that now two teams that are 6-6 can go to a Bowl game. (For example, the Armed Forces Bowl, where Air Force at 9 - 3 is going against California 6 - 6.) Obviously it's done for the money, and obviously these games make money, but it's just ridiculous, and really diminishes the true impact of what a bowl should be.

The Orange Bowl, the Rose Bowl, the Sugar Bowl...those are bowls!

But now we've got crap like:

the Motor City Bowl
the Liberty Bowl
the Capital One Bowl
the Chik-Fil-A Bowl
the Outback Bowl
the Champs Sports Bowl

(notice how many restaurants and businesses have their names in those bowls.)

It the teams in these bowls were each 9 - 3, or something in that neck of the woods, I wouldn't be complaining. But no team that is 6 - 6 has any business going to a bowl game.

Well, January 1 is the Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Hawaii... everyone is pickign Georgia to roll over Hawaii, because Hawaii, though undefeated, has only played cupcakes.

Nevertheless I hope Hawaii wins.

(In checking the list of bowl games, it's intersting to note that they don't give the win loss records of any of the teams... well, that's only to be expected...and in any event I have no interest in any of the bowls til the real thing starts in January.

Stanford Cardinal beat Tennessee Lady Vols

and I must admit I'm feeling mixed emotions right now.

I'm disappointed they lost - for the team I wished an unbeaten season and championship in 2008 - but on the other hand I'm enjoying the squirming and hypocrisy of certain fans on the Lady Vols message board.

According to them, the refs cost the Lady Vols the game. The Cardinal shot 32 free throws, the Vols 10. (And that is odd, actually, because normally the disparity is the other way around.)

But a couple of weeks ago, when North Carolina fell to the Lady Vols, Coach Sylvia Haskell commented - commented - about the disparity in free throws when her team was always in the paint - where those types of fouls are supposed to build up - and the Lady Vols shot so many more than they did.

And certain fans at the Summitt ripped her a new one for saying that. "Don't whine about the refs," they scolded.

But when the shoe is on the other foot...

Too funny.

Also, UConn, Tennessee's great rival (until Pat Summitt enfed the series this year) beat Stanford by 12, earlier this year, while Tennessee lost to Stanford. So cerain members of the two fan bases, who snipe at each other on the message boards, now have even more to snipe about.

Certain Summitteers are very disparaging towards the UConn coach, because of his sarcastic sense of humour (a type of humor I don't like, myself, it must be said), and after Summitt ended the series without giving any reasons they were all over speculating what it might be, etc., but now UConn is able to get a bit of their own back.

Ah....fans...more entertaining then the game sometimes....

An Open Letter to Terence Newman

Dear Mr. Newman,

I find your desire to seriously hurt Detroit quarterback Jon Kitna puzzling and frightening, and I'm wondering if you can explain to me exactly what is going through your mind.

Here's the background:

Kitna threw four touchdown passes in the regular-season finale in Dallas last year to end a 3-13 season for Detroit. In an interview the following week with a radio station in Seattle, where the Cowboys had to go for the playoffs, Kitna called out the Dallas defense, specifically linebacker Bradie James.

So, Kitna "called out" the Dallas defense. What exactly did he say that caused you to decide that next time you met, you'd do your best to cream him? What could he possibly have said to justify your intention to harm him because he dared to speak his mind?


In your satellite interview just a couple of days ago, you said the following:

"Basically what it boils down to is you've got to watch what you say. Your mouth can't write checks that your (expletive) can't cash. That's what it comes down to," Newman said. "Everybody's going to see those quotes. He better just hope I don't blitz off the edge, because I've got 15, 25, 30 (thousand dollars), however much it would be for a fine. I've got that much for one fine. Revenge will be sweet definitely."

"Revenge will be sweet," you say. But just what is your definition of revenge?

The Dallas Cowboys are 11 - 1, the Detroit Lions are 6 - 6 and have lost their last 4. They have no chance against the Cowboys, and they will probably be just as embarrassed as they were when they lost by over 30 to the Minnesota Vikings.

Why isn't that going to be enough revenge for you? Why do you find it necessary to go out of your way to hurt the man... up to $30,000 worth? And how can you gauge your intent to injure so precisely? Are you more skilled in your violence than that hockey loon, Todd Bertuzzi, who:

grabbed Moore from behind during a 2004 game, punched him on the side of his head and then landed on top of Moore, driving his head into the ice. The bloodied Colorado player was removed on a stretcher, sustaining a broken neck and a concussion.

So what's your plan for Kitna, Mr. Newman? Do you want to break his leg? Break an arm? Give him a concussion? End his career? All because he dared to say that the Dallas defense didn't play well during that game?

Is that the way you were raised? Is this the kind of "thuggish" behavior that had Sean Taylor living in Miami in fear of his life (despite the fact that his four murderers swear they hadn't intended to kill him, they just brought the gun along for kicks, eh?)

Is it thuggish behavior, or it is just "childish" behavior - the kind of behavior you should have grown out of by the time you were 13 if you'd been brought up properly.

The NFL sent you a letter, which you found necessary to post on your locker:

"Be advised that your comments will now compel us to carefully monitor your activities in this weekend's Cowboys-Lions game," read part of the letter signed by Ray Anderson, NFL executive vice president for football operations. "As you know, flagrant fouls may subject a player not only to fines, but to suspension as well. So conduct yourself accordingly."

They've called you out, Mr. Newman. They haven't asked you to act like a mature human being, they've merely warned you that you'll not only be fined but suspended when you put your hurt on Kitna.

And being the kind of man you are...you can't let that go, can you? If you react to the NFL's threat, you'll lose all the respect of your "peeps," won't you? You'll have "caved" to the NFL's pressure - and as a "man," you can't let that happen, can you. You've got to be a "man" and follow through with your threat, or your "peeps" will just laugh at you.

Well, perhaps it will be a test case. You hurt Kitna, and he'll probably sue you for assault, and hopefully have you thrown in jail for your thuggish behavior.

Mr. Newman - athletes talk trash all the time, don't they? Wide receivers strut through the endzone posing and looking like morons, defensive players celebrate with their little dances themselves, and these antics don't cause you to want to hurt that player? But because someone verbally comments on a player's defensive skills, all of a sudden you need revenge?

Were you actually brought up to behave like this? Do you not see that your behavior is childish, and not that of a "man?"

I'm not one of your peeps, and never will be, but I'll have a little bit of respect for you if you play the game the way it's supposed to be played. But, you know, I think you're making your plans for Kitna's doom - and your own - already.

Heartbreaker for the Baltimore Ravens

I just watched this game.

The Ravens had it won... twice.

The first time when they had marched down the field...then Boller threw that stupid interception just short of the endzone...

A sad note for him as he'd played so well up until that point.

Then, on the first 4th and short...the defense STOPPED the Patriots.

But Billick had called a timeout before the play happened...so they had to do it again! Even then it turned into a 4 and 6...but then Brady was able to run for the first...

Then the other 4th and short and they stop 'em but there's a penalty...

Jesu christo, make the ganglia twitch! as Buckaroo Banzai's archvillain said in that movie...

I really feel for the defensive unit - they had the win. Why, why even call a time out at that point?????

WCBB Message Boards

At one point in time, I'd intended to keep track of all the Women's College Basketball message boards...but I simply don't have the time.

Not that I think a lot of WCBB teams have message boards...and those that have them aren't that busy...except for UConn and Tennessee.

And of course Tennessee is up to their usual hijinks. They no longer play UConn, for reasons Summitt won't come out and say (according to Auriemma, she should just say she ended the series because he's a jerk and she doesn't like him. And that's true! But by saying nothing, she's implying that his recruiting tactics are somehow unethical.)

Anyway, the drones at the Summitt have nothing but praise for her, and nothing but contempt for Geno. She ended the series, so he must have done something bad, and she doesnt' owe WCBB fans any explanation at all...

Meanwhile...most WCBB teams play to audiences of less than a 1,000...

Not that that's Summit's fault. It's just a sad fact that women's sports aren't really supported in a general way. Unless you have a championship winning team like Tennessee or UConn, there's problems putting people in the seats.

But the reason for this post is of course my monthly rant against the Summitt.

Goodness those people annoy me.

As I say everytime I make one of these rants, I'm aware that in the grand scheme of sports message boards, what the Summitteers do is typical. They hype their team incessantly, and diss every other team out there. What sets the Summitteers apart, to my mind, is their sheer hypocrisy. They criticize a team or a player for doing one thing - but when it's their player or team doing it, oh, no, that's fine...

They criticize other teams, other coaches...but when someone comes over to their board to defend the attacked...it's oh, look at these jerks, why don't they stay on their own boards.

And now, what's being planned is for access to the Summitt to go "premium" - which means you have to pay to be able to access it. So they can stay in their own little world and hype their own program and trash the others as much as they want, and no one will know.

And the families of the athletes who go there won't be able to check on what they're saying, either.

Meanwhile, the two "moderators" are just jokes who fan the flames, banning anyone who dares to disagree with the idiots there, and praising the idiots for there pathetic statements.

One bright bulb posted, a few weeks ago, that since Summitt had ended the series with UConn, UConn shouldn't be mentioned anymore. They should be called Name Redacted or NR whenever talking about them....but they shouldn't be talked about because Summitt had made her wishes clear.

Of course no one called the guy an idiot, but they haven't stopped posting about UConn, either. Despite the fact that the series no longer takes place, they won't stop dissing the coach, or certain players (i.e. Diana Taurasi) who beat them way back when, or the announcers who have an imaginary "homerism" for UConn - for example Doris Burke.

Of course the UConn board is not wholly free from such dim bulbs...a recent poster complained during a game recently that the announcers were talking too much about their opponent and not enough about UConn...didn't seem to occur to them that no one needs to talk about powerhouses like UConn and Tennessee because anyone who knows anything about WCBB knows about them - what they don't know about is the opponents, so why not give them some props?

I wish I had the time to read the Summitt more, but it just annoys me so much, and then when I see something outrageous that I feel the need to respond and simply bring some facts and clarity to the "discussion," I can't because every time I do that, I'm banned by the moderators, who don't want facts and common sense to interfere with the fun of the people there.

You just gotta laugh.

Rebecca Gray's Transition from Highshool BBall to College

Rebecca Gray's blog at Hoopgurlz.

This is a pretty interesting blog that I urge all high school bball players to read. She writes about her experiences transitioning from the high school game to the college game at North Carolina, under Coach Sylvia Haskell.

She writes well, her experienecs are interesting - highly recommended!

Tennessee vis Oklahoma

The Tennessee Lady Vols are currently playing Oklahoma. It's on ESPNU, which I don't get. I gotta tell you, I really hope the Lady Vols lose.

I really, really dislike the poor sportsmanship and egotism of the fans that post at The Summitt, but I wouldn't let that deter me from being a Lady Vol fan...but I'm afraid Pat Summitt's ditching of the UConn game - and more egregiously, refusing to say why - has cost her my respect.

So, come on Oklahoma!

Lady Vols lose to Team USA

The women's college basketball season is about to get under way. The exhibition season has started, 2 games where college teams go up against professional opponents. This year, it's been Team USA - the WNBA pros who will play in the Olympics.

They beat Maryland and UConn, and now they've neaten the Lady Vols - but only by 11 points.

Lady Vols article

To the right of the article is a link to see about three minutes of video of the game. Too bad it wasn't on TV...but ESPN was showing women's billiards instead...

What is it with guys? And gals?

The following is a link to Jason Caffey, an ex-basketball player who has fathered 8 children by 7 different women. He was only married to one.

Jason Caffey

Of course there's many factors at work here. He had to pay child support based on his earnings as an NBA player, and that money wasn't reduced once he retired and his income plummetted. (A lot of guys are taken to the cleaner like this, which is unfair. A guy shouldn't have to live in his car so that he can give all his money to his ex-wife and kids, when his ex-wife has a job and is making good money herself.)

But he's not the only "baby daddy" going around populating this planet with children whom he can't support. Travis Henry is another one with eight kids or so...Jeremy Kemp has about 12... and all of these are to women to whom he was not married.

Now, what I want to know is, after these guys have fathered about four kids, and if they're not going to wear a dollar condom, why oh why do they not just get "fixed?" They've already proven their virile, surely no one will hold it against them if they get themselves "fixed" after they've proven that fact?

But then there's the women. As a feminist, I believe that if a woman wants to have a child out of wedlock --- and can afford it so she will not be a burden on the welfare state -- then fine, have a child. But I have to admit I wonder if these women deliberately get pregnant so they can have a meal ticket for the rest of their lives.

I wonder if its possible to do a bit of research into these mothers, find out what their financial status was before they had sex with a certain athlete - without protection of any kind, apparantly (hello STDs as well as pregnancy) - and what their financial status is now. How many are professional women who use that child support money to support their kid, and how many sit at home living off the child support payment while the kid goes hungry?

Would be intersting to know.

But really, the father is the one really to blame. If he's too stupid to see what these women are doing to him...well, then he's pretty stupid.

Paul Byrd did nothing wrong, and the media should be ashamed

Guess what!

From 2002-2005, Paul Byrd took HGH, or Human Growth Hormone.

Guess what!

It wasn't a banned substance!

The news today has been full of reports that Byrd took HGH, and that his reputation has taken a hit. Well, gee, the only reason why his reputation has taken a hit is because the media is turning a non-story into a story. They keep detailing all these deliveries of HGH he got, and how much he paid for it... and don't emphasize that he was buying htis stuff openly - having it sent to the god-damned clubhouse! - because IT WAS NOT A BANNED SUBSTANCE when he was taking it. Indeed, it was prescribed to him.

The coverage on this has just been ridiculous.

I have to admit I haven't been following the steroid controversy, and I suppose I was very naive when I assumed that all the comments about these athletes taking steroids occurred AFTER steroids were banned.

But if they were taking HGH, and steroids, and other items, that were NOT BANNED at the time, then there is no damn story!

I apology for the R-ratedness of this post, but I am just furious right now.

Rafael Palmeiro is a different story - he swore he never took steroids, and then within a week tested positive - and he tested positive when steroids were banned.

Barry Bonds, he's been swearing all along he never took steroids - at least never knowingly... so if he's proved to be a liar - well, he's a liar, but that doesn't make him a cheater if he stopped doing it AFTER the substances were banned.

I really don't like the way baseball players have taken the defensive stance on this - if you used HGH or some other substance before it was banned, (especially if it was a doctor's prescription) say so and tell the media to go to hell. That's pretty much what Byrd did, and that's what every player - in the right - should have done.

An apology to Barry Bonds

Let me preface my comments by admitting that I don't follow every baseball team each season - just specific ones, the Minnesota Twins, the Seattle Mariners, and the Baltimore Orioles.

So although I've heard of the big stars of other teams, I'd never really seen them in action, except during an occasional glimpse during Baseball Tonight, etc.

So for years and years I've disliked Barry Bonds, because of his pathetic little schtick of standing at the plate and watching while his home run balls fly out of the park. What a jerk, I'd thought. (and continue to think.)

But he's not the biggest jerk in baseball, the biggest poseur in the game - that goes to Manny Ramirez.

Bonds at least just stands there, not really showing up anyone...Manny Ramirez stands there, and holds up both arms and poses. Then he looks at the pitcher like he wants to make eye contact...then he starts his baggy-uniformed trot around the bases.

So today, of course, in an elimination game, he hits what he thinks is a home run ball. David Ortiz, bad leg and all, is running as hard as he can round the bases and scores from firstl. What does Manny do? He stands and does his pose, then the ball hits on top of the yellow line of the fence (replays showed it hit on the line, not beyond the line), so good ol' Manny ends up with a single instead of a double or triple.

They ended up winning the game anyway, thanks to the hustle of other players, but it just irked me to see that.

And then there's his other sctick he does, which I've seen three times now in the last few days... he has this habit of running the bases and when he's on second trying to get home, he'll reach up and knock his helmet off, as if to make sure that the fans see him and know he's running so fast that he loses his helmet. Does he really think that they don't know that he knocks it off deliberately?

And finally, for a wonder, Jacoby Ellsbury gets into the game, if only for the last 2 innings. Based on Coco Crisp's output in these champeenship series, it's time to replace Crisp with Ellsbury. He'll be as good defensively, and his offense couldn't be any worse and might be better.

New WNBA team in Atlanta

The WNBA is expanding - a new team will open in Atlanta next year.

Atlanta announcement

A few fans are puzzled, as they do not consider Atlanta to be that "hot" of a sports town for mens' teams, let alone women's teams. And the WNBA team in Charlotte folded just last year.

Nevertheless, things do seem to be progressing for the WNBA, so lets all think positive thoughts, and hope Atlanta fans will flock to see their new professional sports team.

Red Sox: Please Give Up on Gagne!

I don't blame Eric Gagne for being a total bust since he was traded at the deadline to the Boston Red Sox. But since he has proven to be that bust - don't ever use him again! Putting him in games now is just setting him up to fail... unless it's a game in which the BoSox have a 10 run lead and only an inning to go.

Is Gagne's failure really his fault, though?

Gagne was a closer - he worked one inning - the ninth, for much of his career. It takes a different mindset to be a closer than it does to be a middle relief or set up man. And Gagne was brought in and told to be a set up man rather than a closer, and for whatever reason, he has been unable to make the adjustment, mentally, that he had to make, in the last month or so.

And asking him to do it in the playoffs what he failed to do in the last month or so is just not an option.

To be sure, Gagne was Francona's last choice in that last game, after having used up Okajima and Papelbon, and if Gagne let two men get on, it was the other relief pitcher, Lopez, who threw a wild pitch to let the first run score, and the flood gates opened from there.

Gagne is a man without confidence now. The whole team is behind him, vocally, to the media, but you and I both know that Gagne knows that they're just saying that, and that inwardly each and everyone of them is seething - although as baseball players they too know that it's hard to ask a player to play a different position that he's not used to. Even if pitching seems like one position, it really isn't - not these days - and Gagne has been ruined for the post season, I think.

So if he's ever brought in again, and louses up again, I won't blame him - I'll blame the management that put him out there.

Eric "Gag me" Gagne

Can someone tell me why Eric Gagne is still being employed by the Boston Red Sox? Ever since he was aquired a few months ago, he has stunk the joint up. I don't think he's gone through a singe 1-2-3 inning this year.

So in the 11th he's brought into the 6-6 tie game between the BoSox and Indians, and proceeds to get one out (yay) then give up a single and a walk.

So he's gone, having opened the door, and then we get 3 worthless poitchers who throw wild pitches, ya da ya da, and now the Sox are down 13 - 6 with the bottom of the order coming up.

NO MORE GAGNE!

Boston Red Sox

Six-and-a-half hours from now and the Boston Red Sox will go up against the Cleveland Indians in the first game of the American league series.

Colorado Rockies go up against the Arizona Diamondbacks after that... once again I hope the Rockies win...

Women's soccer

Latest news on the Women's Soccer team

Solo, Scurry both chosen for U.S. team's series with Mexico

Hasn't their ridiculous coach been fired yet?

Two more days until Red Sox/Indians

Anxiously awaiting...

Meantime, Diamondbacks vs Rockies on Thurs...I wouldn't mind seeing the Rockies win.

Baseball all day

I haven't had time to watch the two early games, but I'm looking forward with great anticipation to Red Sox vs Angels.

Of course rookie Jacoby Ellsbury probably won't see any playing time until the later innings, if at all, but I also like rookie Dustin Pedroia - who has played all season long and has had an excellent year.... so the game should be fun.

How time flies

I see it's been over three months since I last posted here. Well, things happened!

I'm back now and will be posting regularly.

New at The Mudville Megaphone, a biography and "newstracker" of Jacoby Ellsbury, rookie outfielder for the Boston Red Sox. Half Navajo, his story is an inspiring one.

Ellsburybio

Also, I'm working on a project called Quantum Quarterback. Intended for the American football newbie, it will give info on team's quarterbacks through the ages.

Quantum Quarterback

Beat the Streak, June 24 07

My streak was broken a few days ago when Placido Polanco let me down. I took a couple of days off to sulk, and then decided to heck with it, and chose Ichiro Suzuki for ten games. (You can choose players for 10 games at at time.)

And Ichiro has come through for me 3 days in a row now. He now has a 17 game hitting streak. His highest is a 25-game streak...but I'm going to ride him til he lets me down. But I'll be thinking positive...

Yankees have a woman radio broadcaster: Suzyn Waldman

I listen to baseball games on the radio when I have to, but it's been a long time since I've had to, so I didn't know that the Yankees have had a female broadcaster in the radio booth since 2005.

The bio below is from the Yankees website.

Suzyn Waldman

award winning journalist, Suzyn Waldman joins John Sterling in the radio booth as the Yankees' color commentator on WCBS-AM radio in 2005, becoming the first woman to hold a full-time position as a Major League broadcaster. Waldman has spent the greater part of two decades overcoming all the obstacles that go along with being a female sports broadcaster, and has risen to the top of her profession.

In l987, Waldman became the first female voice heard on WFAN, the first All-Sports Radio station in the country, and was a mainstay on that station for almost 15 years, creating the job of the radio beat reporter, covering both the New York Yankees and New York Knicks. Her news-breaking reports, exclusive interviews and always original and controversial opinions won her countless journalism awards. Among her accolades include: the International Radio Award for her live and emotional reporting from the upper deck of Candlestick Park during the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, the l996 NY Sportscaster of the Year, by The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters the American Women in Radio and TV's Star Award for Radio in l999. Waldman became a popular talk show host at WFAN and co-hosted the coveted mid-day slot until leaving WFAN to join the YES Network.

The word "first" invariably precedes the name of Suzyn Waldman in every facet of her television and radio career. The first woman to work on a nationally televised baseball broadcast, Waldman added another first, being the first woman to provide play-by-play for a Major League team, when she started broadcasting New York Yankees games for WPIX, MSG Network and WNYW/FOX5 in the mid ‘90s. The first and only woman ever to host an NBA pre- and post-game show, working in that capacity for the NY Knicks on WFAN, Waldman provided play-by-play for the WNBA on Lifetime TV and was an analyst on St. John's Basketball games for MSG and WFAN.

She has been honored by countless organizations, including the Thurman Munson Foundation, the March of Dimes, the B'nai B'rith, the Jimmy Fund of Boston, the NY Baseball Scouts and the US Federal Women's Program for her contributions as a role model and a pioneer in women's sportscasting. She is a tireless motivational speaker at schools and cancer centers around the country, encouraging young women to pursue their dreams despite any pitfalls they may encounter.

Waldman's life and struggles have been the subject of hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles, and chapters in books, including the "MacMillan Book of Baseball Stories," "You Go Girl" and "That's Outside My Boat" both by Charlie Jones and Kim Doran. She has been profiled on the Today Show, CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, ABC's 20/20 and NBC's Dateline.
A native Bostonian, with a degree in Economics from Boston's prestigious Simmons College, Suzyn spent 15 years on the Broadway Musical Stage, and is proudest of her two years starring opposite Richard Kiley in "Man of La Mancha." She now lives in Westchester with her German Shephards, Kiley and A.J.

Pat Summitt cancels TN-UConn yearly game

Every year for the last 10 years, UConn and Tennessee played at least one game a season - the marquee matchup of the year, on ESPN TV, etc. Pat has now ended it, and isn't telling anyone why. Supposedly she's not allowed to talk about the schedule until after its set, because of SEC rules.

Nevertheless, the sportsworld is buzzing. Even people who don't care for WCBB would tune in for this game. The bad blood between Pat and Geno Auriemma was well known - Geno has made several unkind remarks and jokes about Pat, something that classy lady wasn't used to dealing with.

So speculation on the Lady Vols board is that she was just tired of Geno, didn't like the fact that ESPN was trying to move the game to February, and ended the series.

I've been reading the two message boards, The Summitt and The Boneyard, and I must say the Summitteers are annoying as usual. They are the most arrogant fans on the planet, call everyone else names - and yet when they talk about the Boneyard that's what they criticize over there!

I first discovered the Lady Vols because of the yearly UConn-TN game... a lot of WCBB fans did. With that marquee matchup over...what's to bring new fans to the game? What rivalry will be of interest???

Beat the Streak for June 12

Ichiro came through for me today, on his final at bat - and hit a 2-out, 2-RBI single, tying the game vs the Padres. So I'm going with him tomorrow.

James Follett's journey through his writing career

Edited to say.... this actually belongs on my The Thunder Child Science Fiction webzine blog, but for some reason I put it here and never noticed.... that's the problem with having two blogs and not enough time in a day to concentrate....

Beginning on Saturday, June 9, and continuing for 7 days at BBC 7:

Men, Martians and Machines

James Follett's journey through his writing career, including The Devil to Pay, The Man Who Invented Yesterday, and The Bionic Blob.

End of a marquee matchup in women's college basketball

http://cbs.sportsline.com/ncaawbasketball/story/10218852
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/womensbasketball/2007-06-08-uconn-tennessee_N.htm

UConn has issued a news release stating that Tennessee has elected to end the marquee matchup between the two teams.

This game was always on TV, and brought a lot of new viewers to the game.

The various message boards are buzzing with the news, and wondering why.

Some say it's because ESPN wanted to move the game to February (typically it has been played in January), others say it's because Pat Summitt doesn't like Geno Auriemma and some of the comments he has made in the past, others say it's because she's upset that Maya Moore signed with UConn and she doesn't want to lose Della Donne, etc. etc.

Stay tuned for more buzz about this unfortunate occurrence.

MLB TV on my computer

A week or so ago I decided to bite the bullet and subscribe to MLB TV so I could watch games while I work on my computer. This was necessary for two reasons - I'm a Seattle Mariners fan and I live in Virginia, so I haven't a hope in heck of ever seeing a game on TV, except when they play against the Yankees or the Red Sox, and even then it probably won't happen...

I also like the Twins, who used to be my hometown team before I moved to VA.

Anyway, it cost only $60 for the package (I didn't opt for the "high-definition" package, I can see it just fine the way it is) and not only can I watch the game on the day, I can also watch previous games, whenever I want.

The only thing that really, really annoys me is this blackout nonsense. Because of my zipcode, I'm blacked out from watching the Orioles and the Nationals. (Except after the live game has passed.)

And this is just ridiculous. For example, the Orioles are currently in Seattle playing the Mariners, and I'm blacked out! This despite the fact that the Orioles are not on TV - normally they're on Channel 4 or 43 in my area, when they are on, and they're not on! So why should I be deprived of seeing them in Seattle just because they're not playing in Baltimore???

And apparently every game is blacked out on Saturday afternoons. [From TV, I can still listen to them all via digital radio.)

Presumably, they do this so people will have to watch commercial TV when the games are on, but this is just ridiculous. I played my money to watch these games -I should be able to watch them, period.

Anyway, the Twinkies are stinking it up again today.... come onTwins!!!!

Anyway, it's a good

Fantasy picks 6/6/07

Ichiro and the Mariners came through for me yesterday. Today, I'm going with Magglio Ordonez to get a hit, and the Mariners to win again.

I'm happy for the Mariners...but you've got to look at the quality of the teams they're facing. If they can continue their good hitting, not to mention pitching against the San Diego Padres...then they might really have something.

Wie Watch

I'm not a golf fan, and I'm not a Michelle Wie fan - in fact I think she needs to grow up a great deal and learn some class - but I'll just share any news that comes by...

June 6, 2007
Okay, it's official - I do not like Michelle Wie.
http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/news?slug=reu-lpgawiedc&prov=reuters&type=lgns
Rehashing the fact that Annika Sorrenstam didn't like Wie's practicing 2 days after withdrawing from a golf tournament with a "bad" wrist, and now apparently two of Wie's playing partners at a pro-am tournament have lodged a complaint.

But she doesn't care. "That's insulting." Plus, she's made $20 million in endorsements this year. She's not as bad as Paris Hilton - but she's no class act, by a long shot.

June 5, 2007
http://www.sportsline.com/golf/story/10214140
Who says you can't learn anything reading the sports pages?
In an effort to edify America, here's a geography lesson on how the name of the host city for the LPGA's second major championship, held this week in a Maryland town called Havre de Grace, is properly enunciated.

The scoreboard never lies, as the big WD by Michelle Wie's name shows. (Getty Images)
It's "Have-uh-duh-Grace," which despite its auditory similarity, should not be confused with the pronunciation of the preceding LPGA event, "Have a Disgrace."
Last week at the Ginn Tribute, two giggly teenage girls served as the biggest news pegs for the inaugural tournament, ultimately for all the right and wrong reasons. Mega-star Michelle Wie, 17, was making her first start since reportedly breaking a wrist four months earlier. MacKinzie Kline, a 15-year-old amateur who was born with a debilitating heart defect, played with the assistance of an electric cart and oxygen device so she could walk the course without fainting.
____________
Basically, the story is that Kline shot over 88 and is disqualified from events for the rest of the year, wheresas Wie withrew just before she would've shot over 88, saying that her wrist was too sore for her to continue. A couple of days later, she was playing again.

NOTE: Much is being made of the fact that she never complained about having a sore wrist prior to pulling out - but if she had complained to playing partners, etc., she would have doubtless been called a whiner...nevertheless I think it's true that she pulled out because she didn't want to miss the rest of the season... seems like a stupid rule to have, anyway.

Female Race Car Drivers Watch

June 5, 2007

http://www.sportsline.com/autoracing/story/10214136

IRL flags nobody in Patrick-Wheldon flap
June 5, 2007CBS SportsLine.com wire reports

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indy Racing League will take no punitive action for the on-track collision or the subsequent postrace confrontation between Dan Wheldon and Danica Patrick at Milwaukee on Sunday.

Patrick, who started 17th in the 18-car field in the ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt 225, went low on the track in an attempt to pass Wheldon on the 88th lap. The cars touched, sending Patrick's car spinning into the infield grass. She straightened the car out, but the collision bent the suspension and forced a long pit stop for repairs. She finished eighth.

____
Wheldon had this to say: "She's probably feeling the pressure of not winning races when her (Andretti Green) teammates are," Wheldon said. "She's just feisty. ... She's messing with the wrong person if she wants to get feisty."

Now is feisty something that he calls all drivers, or just female drivers?

Sue Bird and Diana Taurasia (WNBA) have a blog

http://www.wnba.com/news/birdanddee.html
Is the URL. Here's the description:

Throughout the 2007 WNBA season, these two longtime friends, teammates, roommates, competitors and fellow fun-loving troublemakers will exchange correspondence in this "Buddy Blog." They will talk about anything and everything that comes to mind, all the while keeping each other up on how the other is doing in their travels and the march towards the Playoffs. And thanks to either kindness or dumbness, they have decided to share their letters with the world...

June 5 Fantasy Picks

Ichiro is my pick for a hit today, and the Mariners, who are hot, are my pick for the win.

RIP: Mountain climber Mizuki Takahashi

This happened May 17...


Mizuki Takahashi, climber known for skills, smarts, dies at 36 in fall on Alaska peak
By Linda Shaw
Seattle Times staff reporter
PREV of NEXT

Mizuki Takahashi twice climbed Mount Rainier solo.
Mizuki Takahashi didn't start climbing mountains until she was in her 30s. But once she did, she quickly became an elite climber, admired for her athleticism, her smarts and her focus.
In seven years, she successfully reached about 50 peaks, almost never the same one twice. When she wasn't working, she was climbing, or training to climb. Her friends joked that she never sat down to eat a single meal at her kitchen table. Mostly, she dined in her car, on the way to a climb or back.
Ms. Takahashi and Brian Massey fell May 17 while climbing Mount McKinley in Alaska. Ms. Takahashi died at the scene. She was 36. Mr. Massey died the next morning.

cick on link to see complete article
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003719746_takahashi24m.html

Racer Chicks

In surfing the web trying to find info about Kelly Sutton, I saw that her website is currently down - I betcha hits on it have gone through the roof thanks to Freeman's story and the site's bandwidth has been reached... -

and found this site called Racer Chicks, which apparently deals with all female racers.

So I share it here:

http://www.racerchicks.com/

Kelly Sutton

http://www.sportsline.com/columns/story/10212155

I'm not a fan of any kind of race car driving - my interest piques only when there's women involved and then only because I hope they do well - I still won't watch the races.

Which isn't to say that I don't know some women who aren't big fans of the.... well, I guess you have to call it a sport...

Anyway, Mike Freeman's column today was about Kelly Sutton, a woman driver on the "gritty, tough-guy NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series."

A woman with multiple sclerosis who spent a year in a wheel chair, but now thanks to the drup Copaxone is back to racing again.

Very inspiring story - and very interesting - as apparently she can't get any "big-time" sponsors....

Criminitleys

Well, fantasy picks yesterday were a dead loss. Ichiro had 2 non-intentional walks - when was the last time Ichiro had 2 non-intentional walks in a game, that's what I'd like to know! And he was 0-3 and my streak is over again.

Well, I've chosen him again today, because he verrrry rarely does not get a hit in 3 consecutive games.

And the Red Sox lost to the Yanks. Darn them! So, today, will try to start a new streak with the Dodgers.

Book: Swimming to Antarctica

A book I'm reading and hope to review in the future:

Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer
Lynne Cox
2004

Inner flap:
*At age 14, she swam 26 miles from Catalina Island to the California mainland
*At ages 15 and 16, she broke the men and women's world records for swimming the English channel
* At 18, she swam the 29 mile Cook Strait, was caught on a massive swell, found herself after five hours farther from the finish then when she started, and still completed the swim
*She was the first to swim the Strait of Magellan, the most teacherous 3-mile stretch of water in the world.
*The first to swim the Bering Strait from Alaska to Siberia, thereby opening the US/Soviet border for the first time in 48 years
*The first to swim the Cape of Good Hope (and almost attacked by a shark)

In this extraordinary book, the world's most extraordinary distance swimer writes about her emotional and spiritual need to swim and about the almost mystical act of swimming itself.

... She tells us how she conceived of, planned, and trained for each, and recreates the experience of swimming (almost) unswimmable bodies of water, including her most recent astonishing one-mile swim to Antarctica in 32 degree water without a wetsuit.

Fantasy picks, June 3

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/fantasy/index.jsp

MLB Survivor
My current streak is 1. I chose the Red Sox last night over the Yankees and they won. I have the Red Sox again today. Tomorrow, 6/04 I have the Dodgers over the Pirates. 6/05 I've decided to go with the Diamondbacks.

Beat the Streak
My current streak is 7. Yesterday, although I was hoping Ichiro could continue his hitting streak past 25 games, he didn't have a good history with the pitcher he was facing, so I chose Luis Castillo of the Twins instead. (Funnily enough, Castillo is the only one of the Twins who got a hit yesterday...)

Anyway, today I chose Ichiro...he's got a good history with the pitcher he's facing and, after having had his streak stopped at 25, hopefully he'll be able to start a new one.

Lou Gehrig began his streak today in 1925

On June 2, 1925, Lou Gehrig, who had been playing for the Yankees for two years, but never as a regular player, took over for Wally Ppp.

From Wikipedia:

On June 1, 1925, Gehrig was sent in to pinch hit for light-hitting shortstop Paul "Pee Wee" Wanninger. The next day, June 2, Yankee manager Miller Huggins started Gehrig in place of regular first baseman Wally Pipp. Pipp was in a slump, as were the Yankees as a team, so Huggins made several lineup changes to boost their performance. Fourteen years later, Gehrig had played 2,130 consecutive games

C-Rod (Cheat Rod)

Okay, yes, cheating goes on in baseball all the time. Less now than formerly, when pitchers put substances on their gloves to affect the ball and didn't get caught (do they still try to do that?), batters thrown out at second or home who know they're out, but are called safe, say nothing. Outfielders sometimes pretend they've caught the ball when they've only trapped it. But that's them, effecting their own play. The hitter still has a chance to hit the messed-up ball, for example.

Then there's the dirty play of C-Rod.

Below is the excerpt from the recap of the Yankees vs Toronto Blue Jays game of May 30, 2007:

"Rodriguez hit an RBI single with two outs in the ninth that made it 7-5. Jorge Posada followed with a high infield pop and Rodriguez ran hard, cutting between Clark and shortstop John McDonald.

Replays showed Rodriguez shouting something, and Clark backed off at the last second. McDonald was only a few steps behind Clark, but couldn't make the catch and ball dropped for an RBI single.

"I just said, 'Hah!' That's it," Rodriguez said. "Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."
McDonald started jawing with Rodriguez, and third base umpire Chad Fairchild got between them. Toronto manager John Gibbons came out to argue, and exchanged words with Rodriguez and third base coach Larry Bowa before leaving the field as plate umpire Eric Cooper intervened. Rodriguez stayed on the bag with a smirk.

When Jason Giambi stepped up to hit, he seemed to get into it with catcher Jason Phillips and Cooper settled them down.
Advertisement

Giambi followed with a two-run single. When the game ended, many of the Blue Jays stayed on the bench, staring at Rodriguez and the Yankees.
"They have their opinions," he said, adding he pulled the trick to help the Yankees "win a game. We're desperate." "

My own thought is, by interfering with the play he should have been called out. It's easy for players to ignore shouts of "Drop it" from the dugout, but when it's said on the field it interferes with the play.

C-Rod is also the guy who, a couple of years ago, slapped the ball out of Bronson Arroyo's hand as he tried to get to first base. He was called out for interference, and serve him right. This should have gone the same way.

Fantasy picks for Tues, May 29

Well, gee whiz. Ichiro got his hit - thank you Ichiro. The Detroit Tigers were 3 outs from winning their game for me - and lost it in the 9th inning! Grrrr.

So time for a new streak.

Mariners are hot... I'm going for Ichiro to extend both his and my streak, and for the Mariners to defeat their division-leading rivals, the Angels.

Softball College World Series

I have looked in vain on CBSSportsline.com for any news on the softball college world series, which had regionals this past weekend. Not a peep of news about it.

I can't say that they're ignoring it because it's a woman's sport - I caught a glimpse of a men's college baseball world series regional game as well - and CBSsports isn't mentioning that at all. Ditto lacrosse..which I think is also going on.

Actually, with the end of the school year coming up I bet all kinds of sports - gynmastics, swimming, etc,. are also winding down their season - and if I paid more attention to my local paper (Yorktown, Virginia) I'd probably know what was going on with those - but for reasons I won't go into at the moment I haven't had time to read a paper in 2 weeks.

But, that's what I hope the Mudville Megaphone will eventually become - a central clearing house for professional and college sports, treating each with equal weight. The difference between the MM and other sports sites, for example SportsPageMagazine (http://www.spmsportspage.com/) is that we'll deal with personalities, while they deal with scores, recounts of games, etc. SPM features the WNBA and lots of women's college sports, so check them out.

Anyway, CBSSportsline does have a button called WorldSports, under the Other Sports tab, which deals - a bit - with college sports and there are a few headlines there
http://www.sportsline.com/worldsports

But for covering women's college sports I think ESPN is better. Unlike CSB Sportsline, they actually have Womens BB as a tab on their front page, instead of buried as Sportsline has it. They also have a tab called ESPNU - covering University sports, and are covering the various college championships there.

http://espn.go.com/
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/index

MLB Fantasy Picks May 27

Well, Derek Jeter let me down yesterday..typical. But...time to start a new streak.

Now, Ichiro is hot, but he is also now at a 19-game hit streak. So he's due for a 0-fer, isn't he? Nevertheless, he's my choice.

Boston RedSox to win again, also.

Meantime, do the Jazz have any other players apart from Carlos Boozer? He's the only guy CBS Sportsline ever shows in their front-page page photos between the Jazz and Spurs...starting to get annoying.

MLB Fantasy picks May 26

Well, Derek Jeter is one shy of his longest hitting streak (he's at 19), and he's going up against a pitcher whom he has hit well. So I'm going with Derek Jeter to get a hit today. My streak is currently at 9. The Beat the Streak player with the top streak is now at 30 (there was someone with 36, but he chose Placido Polanco yesterday....and Placido didn't get a hit.)

Boston Red Sox won yesterday - and I'm going with them again today.

Commercial hunting reservations

You know what these are, eh? Places where tamed animals are let loose so that hunters can go and shoot them, and then act like they'd actually done something? Or other animals with no natural enemies can grow to enormous size and feel no fear...until they feel a bullet entering their body....

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/25/monster.pig.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
is the URL.

Here's the excerpt that struck me:

Jamison, who killed his first deer at age 5, was hunting with father Mike Stone and two guides in east Alabama on May 3 when he bagged Monster Pig. He said he shot the huge animal eight times with a .50-caliber revolver and chased it for three hours through hilly woods before finishing it off with a point-blank shot.

Through it all, there was the fear that the animal would turn and charge them, as wild boars have a reputation for doing.

"I was a little bit scared, a little bit excited," said Jamison, who lives in Pickensville on the Mississippi border. He just finished the sixth grade on the honor roll at Christian Heritage Academy, a small, private school.

His father said that, just to be extra safe, he and the guides had high-powered rifles aimed and ready to fire in case the beast, with 5-inch tusks, decided to charge.

In other words, the boy chases this suffering animal for 3 hours with a hand gun, meanwhile Dad and guides had high-powered rifles and could have [perhaps] finished it off immediately, but they didn't because they wanted the boy to get the honor of killing the pig all to himself.

To get that big...I wonder how old it was?

"It feels really good," Jamison said. "It's a good accomplishment. I probably won't ever kill anything else that big."

Other than that... well, at least they're making sausage out of it so they'll get food out of it, as opposed to just taking the head to mount and leaving the rest of it to rot...

Ichiro watch

Articles specifically about Ichiro

May 25, 2007
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070524&content_id=1983955&vkey=news_sea&fext=.jsp&c_id=sea
The 1,000th game of Ichiro Suzuki's Major League career started with the kind of hit that makes him almost impossible to defend -- a one-hopper to the right of the first baseman that turned into an infield single.

Businesswomen and sports Watch

May 25, 2007
http://cbs.sportsline.com/autoracing/story/10197346
AUSTIN, Texas -- A former stripper was sentenced to nearly three-and-a-half years in federal prison Friday for attempting to embezzle more than $1 million from a bank to start her own stock-car racing team. Fatemeh Angela Harkness, 31, pleaded guilty in January 2004 to conspiring with banker Gary Jones to embezzle more than $1 million from his Austin bank from 2000 to 2003. She received a 40-month sentence.

I don't really think car racing is a sport, but I thought I'd include this anyway because of that fact that they call Fatemeh Harkness a "former stripper." Not a former "exotic dancer" but a "stripper." And the fact that they felt it necessary to mention this at all, instead of a "businesswoman who conspired with banker"... yada yada yada.

An Austin, Texas newspaper calls her a stripper:
http://www.news8austin.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=184873

This 2004 entry calls her a former kindergarten teacher.
http://www.news8austin.com/content/your_news/?SecID=278&ArID=97168

Bike Watch - May 23, 2007 onward

This page will feature chronological links regarding bicycle racing:

May 23, 2007
http://www.sportsline.com/cycling/story/10193587
MALIBU, Calif. -- They turned out the lights on the Floyd Landis courtroom drama Wednesday, a whopper of a case that whirled wildly between arguments about wardrobe choices, malfunctioning machines, shoddy science and much more.

May 25, 2007
http://www.sportsline.com/worldsports/story/10197311
ROME -- Italian Olympic Committee prosecutors on Friday recommended that 2006 Giro d'Italia cycling champion Ivan Basso be banned for 21 months for his involvement in the Spanish doping scandal, the news agency ANSA reported.

May 25, 2007
http://www.sportsline.com/worldsports/story/10197236
SANTUARIO DI OROPA, Italy -- Marzio Bruseghin won the 13th stage individual time trial of the Giro d'Italia on Friday, and Danilo Di Luca finished third to retain the overall.
Advertisement

May 25, 2007
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/more/05/25/bc.cyc.riis.doping.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
Bjarne Riis, the 1996 Tour de France winner, admitted on Friday he used performance-enhancing drugs during his career.

Fantasy choices, 5/25

MLB Survivor - time to start a new streak. Thanks loads, Mariners! Anyway, for the next three games I'm going with the Boston Red Sox over Texas.

By the way, MLB Survivor is easier than ever. Last year, you could only choose a team 3 times. This year, you can choose the same team as many times as you like. Of course the prizes are no longer that great - free tickets to the All-Star game, but no transportation! Well, just to keep my hand in...

Beat the Streak - Up to 9 now thanks to Placido Polanco yesterday. Am taking Derek Jeter today.

Josh Hancock's dad needs to get a grip

Not only is he suing the restaurant where Josh Hancock drank for over 3 hours, but he's suing the driver of the stalled car and the tow truck that was trying to pick up the stalled car.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2881602

This is just ridiculous. Sure it would seem as if the restaurant shouldn't have let the idiot drink so much - but they didn't force the liquour down his throat. If they'd said, "no more drinks" he'd just have gone to a bar and gotten sloshed there. As someone on the message board at this story said, some people can be drunk as skunks and not show it.

Josh Hancock is to blame for his death - no one else is. His dad should just realize that - but of course he's got the chance to get millions of dollars from these people - or from their insurance companies, rather...and of course all that money will repay for the loss of his son.

If he does win a big settlement, I hope he starts a foundation for Dads on how to teach their sons not to drink and drive...

Fantasy choices for Thu, May 24

MLB Survivor: Mariners (the Royals are surging, I hesitate to bet against the Yankees - they can't be this bad! so I've decided to go with the Mariners).

Beat the Streak: Placido Polanco

MLB Survivor and Beat the Streak

Prior to founding The Mudville Megaphone website (www.themudvillemegaphone.com), I had a blog called MLBSurvivorStrategies, in which I shared my strategy for MLB Survivor and Beat the Streak. Now that I've founded the Mudville Megaphone blog, I've moved that info here.

So, what happens is, before noon each day, I'll share my choice for the player each day who'll get a hit, and the team each day that will win.

I chose the Minnesota Twins to win today, and they did, so my MLB Survivor Streak is now at 1. (I had a streak going until yesterday, when the Arizona Diamondbacks let me down.)

I chose Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners to get a hit today, and he did. That gives me a 8 game streak (I'd had a longer streak - but Alex Rodriguez decided to cool off on the very day I decided that he'd stay hot....)

What has your teenager done recently?

That was the headline at the CBS Sportsline website a few minutes ago, when I went there to check on the scores of various baseball games. I was wondering why a report on the laziness of today's teenagers was on a sports website, and clicked on the link, only to learn that they were talking about 18 year old Samantha Larson, who has become the youngest individual to climb Mount Everest.

And of course I was surprised by the fact that the headline hadn't called out the fact that she was a female. Indeed, I'd seen headlines about this in the last couple of days and hadn't bothered to read them - I don't th ink any of them specified it was a girl/woman who'd done it.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/19/eveningnews/main2828885.shtml

Which on one hand is good. The fact that someone who accomplishes something physical/adventurous/dangerous is no longer newsworthy, only what's been accomplished, and apparently the age, is. Equality at last?


.....and....wow.

Just checked out her blog: http://www.samanthalarson.com/

(Hate the design of the site, but that's by the way).

At age 13 she climbed Mt. Aconcagua, now with Everest out of the way she is the youngest person to have climbed the Seven Summits... I am soooo impressed. Of course she did all these climbs with her dad and climbing partners, nevertheless the courage and fitness required for all this.

Wow.

Three women in the Daytona 500

I'm not a fan of car racing - and in reading the antics going on in the last few years - drivers deliberately causing crashes because they're upset when someone passes them - I'm less interested in it than ever.

Nevertheless, since there's a chance that history will be made this year, thought I'd share the first few paragraphs of this CBS Sportsline article:

Duno will be third woman in Indy field if she survives Sunday


May 19, 2007
CBS SportsLine.com wire reports

INDIANAPOLIS -- Milka Duno made it a three-woman race Saturday.
The rookie driver from Venezuela turned some of her fastest laps all month to tentatively qualify for the May 27 Indianapolis 500 with a four-lap average of 219.228 mph.
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Now all she has to do is survive one long Sunday of waiting. If she does, it would mark the first time in the 91-year history of the race three women have been in the same field.
She would join Danica Patrick and Sarah Fisher, both veterans at Indy, on the 33-car grid.
"I sleep very well tonight," Duno

http://cbs.sportsline.com/autoracing/story/10188738

More articles
5/25/07
http://cbs.sportsline.com/autoracing/story/10198904
Sizing up the 500: It's anybody's race
May 26, 2007By Pete PistoneSpecial to CBS SportsLine.com
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indy 500 might not carry the prestige it once did, but this year's 91st edition carries more storylines than an episode of Desperate Housewives.

Fathers vs. sons, a record number of women drivers [3], former winners looking to repeat and veteran drivers looking for redemption -- this year's 91st running of the 500 has it all.

5/27/07
List of all the women in the Indianapolis 500 over the years - except for the extra 2 in this year's race.
http://cbs.sportsline.com/autoracing/story/8516333

5/27/07
http://cbs.sportsline.com/autoracing/story/10200270
Danica Patrick was third when rain delayed the race, ended up in 8th place. Comments from the other two women as well.

Floyd Landis

I picked up the June 2007 issue of Bicycling yesterday, the one with FLoyd Landis on the cover and inside, making like a boxer. This magazine of course came out before the revelations of 5/18-19/07, that someone in the Floyd Landis' camp attempted to blackmail Greg Lemond into not testifying by threatening to reveal that he'd been sexually abused as a child.

Now, I really haven't been keeping up with this saga. I had hoped Landis was innocent but didnt really believe it, any more than I believe most of the athletes who say they "accidentally" ingested steroids.

Certainly the drug testing program needs work [I wouldn't trust a lab in France very much at all..]- but then every program where reporters learn information from people "close to the subject" who don't want to reveal their names because they don't want to get into trouble, needs work. [That's not like whistle blowers at businesses where public safety is affected, where this needs to be done, but in the world of sports, it's disgusting and those people should be found and upended into a toilet bowl for a swirly.]

Anyway, how stupid are these people that they'll try to blackmail someone to keep him from testifying? Especially about something like child abuse - as long as he's the victim and not the abuser, why should he be ashamed about it?

Did Landis know what his camp was doing in this regard? Is Lemond going to sue the jerk who phoned him for millions of dollars? [I'd be surprised if he doesn't.]

Does anyone care, or do people read it like they watch the Jerry Springer show, in fascination at how people make complete idiots out of themselves and don't even apparently realise it.

Where are all the women in Bicycling magazine?

I picked up Bicyling magazine, the June 2007 issue, today.

I paged through this issue, and in over 69 advertisements that appeared in its pages, 5 featured women. All the rest featured either men (about 70% of the resy, while 30% didnt' have any people in it - just photos of cars and bikes.)

Now obviously a lack of female representation in advertising is not the fault of Bicyling but of the advertisers, nevertheless it's an interesting and saddening trend.

And what were the 5 ads that did feature women? Well, one only featured the side view of a woman's naked buttock. It was advertising a bike seat. So, that features a woman as a sex object. ("So comfortable you don't need shorts," is the logo, but still...)

One features a woman doing yoga in silhouette and relaxing in a hot tub - this was an ad for Arkansas toursim. (Also featured the only blacks I saw in any of the ads.)

The next was of a woman putting a bike into the back of a car, advertising something called Thelma. The woman is dressed in shirt (not revealing her belly button!), skirt (down to her knees, can you believe it?) and Crocs, rather than biking gear.

There's a full page ad for GU energy gel. Has tiny inset photos, one of kids running a race and one of a woman rider. I'm not sure but I think one of the riders in the full color center ad is also a woman... the first time a woman in a bicycling mag ad is shown actually doing any biking.

There's a beer ad that's got a skinny woman and man dancing, the woman of course wearing a tank top and swaying her hips, the guy with unbuttoned shirt revealing his abs...In silhouette on the bottom of the page are a man and a woman on bikes...and the woman is biking in front of hte man, leading instead of following...

Another ad for GU, featuring two road cyclists, the one behind being a woman...

A full page ad for Diamond Back racing featuring their women specific bike - way back on pg 128

A Dahon ad featuring the back of a woman - dressed in shirt covering her torso and blue jeans, as she runs out of the picture.

And then an ad in the very back "classified" sections or whatever it's called, featuring a woman in an ad for a pajama gram - the ad is for the man to send this to mother or wife.

It's been some years since I last read Bicycling magazine, but I noticed this dearth of women in advertising even then... it hasn't gotten better.

WNBA started today

I was surprised and pleased to see that there was a WNBA game on national TV today, ESPN or some channel like that. I didn't watch it...I was trying to find out if the DiceK-pitched Red Sox game was on TV, but it wasn't.

I have too much to do lately to watch any sports on TV, although I would have taken a break to see DiceK. It does seem as if this Japanese rookie has gotten his stuff together and is now being the great pitcher that the Red Sox hoped for when they paid so much money for him. I hope so - I would like him to succeed.

Anyway, there are a couple of WNBA teams that I will watch if they show em on an appropriate channel - Shanna Zolman has been a pro for a year, Sidney Spencer starts her inaugeral season this year. They're both former University of Tennessee Lady Vols players. I'd also like to see Chamique Holdsclaw play. There are a few other Lady Vols in the pros but I'm not too interested in them ... I would like to see Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird... not to mention Lindsay Whalen (I'm an old inhabitant of Minneapolis, Minnesota - Lindsay was a Lady Gopher.)

But I simply didn't have time to watch the WNBA game today...and I won't make time to watch any NBA games until the Finals come on. I hope it'll be Detroit vs the Jazz.

Wherefor art thou, sportsmanship?

From Monday, May 7, 2007 game Seattle against Yankees:

"We'll take it," Willie Bloomquist said. "It's just a good thing there's no instant replay in baseball."

Bloomquist was out by a foot in his attempt to steal second base, but was called safe. He later went on to score.

It's unclear from the article whether Bloomquist knew he was out at the time, but he probably did.

Of course, this is not an isolated incident. Umpires blow calls all the time and players say nothing (unless the call goes against them, of course.)

And of course it's been going on since baseball began. Over a hundred years ago.

I've seen it myself hundreds of times in the three decades I've been watching the game.

But it's still rather sad, that players remain on base even though they know they're out. Of course if Bloomquist had said, "Hey, ump, I was out by a mile," he would have been made the laughing stock of the team and the baseball world... and that also says a lot about our society.

(Though let me emphasise that in other countries where a soccer player who misses a goal is shot and killed by a fan, and soccer games need to be played in areas where there are no fans - says a lot about their society!)

SI's Referee study - C - R- A -P

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/basketball/nba/05/02/bc.bkn.refereebias.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

is the URL for an article which states that white refs call fouls more often against black players, (and that's the headline) and black refs call fouls more often against white players (but of course that's not in the headline.)

The NBA is disputing this, but I'd say that any basketball fan can dispute this. For one thing, most basketball players are black...so gee, I think more fouls would be called on black players than on white players.

When Shaquille was *the* name, ever watch a white center try to guard him? From Luc Longley of the Bulls to Arvydas Sabonis of the Trailblazers, they'd be standing straight up with arms extended, Shaquille would shove them out of the way - they'd be called for the foul.

In other words - superstar athletes always get the call vs rookies - yet I've yet to see a study about that.

Book: The Lobster Chronicles

This blog will cover not only the wide world of sports but the wide world of the outdoors as well...so I can get in a plug for a book that I think everyone with an interest in the water will enjoy.

The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island
Linda Greenlaw
2002

Anyone who's read The Perfect Storm may remember that Linda Greenlaw was in it - she was a swordfish captain at the time. She retired a few years later to become a lobsterman, and this is her story.

It's a bit fictionalized in places, which I don't really care for but at least she tells you this ("I have taken the liberty of composite characters in a few cases" "I have also played with thre chronology"), unlike some people who make up their biographies/memoirs out of whole cloth and pretend its the honest truth....

She's a good writer, she's got an interesting story to tell.

I've Been Around the World...

I've been a freelance writer for the last 20 years. What this means is I can go where I want to go, when I want to go, and stay for as long as I can afford it, because I can do my work from anywhere.

My sister, on the other hand, has been in the Air Force for 20 years, and has lived in England, in Japan, and now in Germany. And since she's the bestest sister in the whole world, I've been able to travel to these countries and stay with her for months at a time. (She's been married for ten years, I have not.)

And in each country, I've usually discovered a new sport to watch and enjoy. In England it was cricket (and the game of snooker). In Japan it was sumo wrestling (although admittedly it was at the time when two Hawaiian rikishi were at the top of the heap - Akebono was yokozuna and Musashimaru was an ozeki and then, (very briefly), a yokozuna...although the one I really enjoyed watching was Terao, a "small" rikishi who was well muscled with only the slightest of paunches...)

In Germany, however, it didn't happen. I was there while the World Cup of soccer was going on, and I diligently watched a couple of games...but it was bor-ring.

However, while I didn't find a new sport to watch I did find a new sport - rappelling. My sister and I went with a group to Luxembourg to go caving - a small cave - three very short rappels and we were done. But we were first taught how to rappel off a short cliff, and I loved that rappel and each suceeding journey downwards.

I haven't sought out the opportunity to do it since, but I'll be returning to Germany in August so hopefully will have a chance to go back toLuxembourg and do some more caving - and rappelling.