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Tuesday, May 30, 2006
For what it’s worth …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
… and then some: Let’s see, if we Americans are to continue to follow our sporting games, we must get better acquainted with the pronunciation of some puzzling names. The Cubs started a pitcher Sunday named Jae Kuk Ryu (pronounced “You”); the LPGA tournament was won by Hee-Won Han; there are six Kims playing the LPGA Tour, and another coming along, Song-Hee Kim, who won the Underwood Futures Championship, all of which makes the PGA Tour’s Aaron Oberholser sound rather commonplace… . And whatever became of Keith Clearwater?
• These golfers who turn 50 and move from the PGA Tour into the Champions Tour usually break out in a rash of winning, as did Craig Stadler, Peter Jacobson and just the other day, Jay Haas in the Senior PGA Championship. Wonder if a handicap system shouldn’t be a way to even the playing field for the first couple of years?
• Divorce is breaking out among golf professionals, and among the upper level. It was a shocker when Greg Norman announced that he and Laura are breaking up, joining an all-star lineup of Fred Couples, Seve Ballesteros, Colin Montgomerie and on the LPGA side, Annika Sorenstam. You’d have thought that the worst part of it would have been behind them. The Normans’ two children are 23 and 20 years old.
• It ain’t Notre Dame, but I guess you’d say that George O’Leary has completed the comeback from the biographical glitch that cost him the job in South Bend. A 10-year contract at Central Florida is pretty good assurance that he has finally righted his craft.
• Oops! Apologies to Charismatic, who came within 30 yards of completing the Triple Crown in ‘99, then was sold to breeding interests in Japan. He has not been reduced to drayage, as I suggested the other day, but is still busy in the breeding shed, according to Cot Campbell, a man who should know. Dogwood Stable raced Preakness winner Summer Squall, who sired Charismatic.
• In the rating system of Blackie Sherrod, the retired Dallas columnist, he saw only one old Southwest Conference player better than Doak Walker. He was a linebacker: Tommy Nobis, a Texas Longhorn before he became a Falcon.
• A San Francisco company put up a $100,000 check for the ball that became Barry Bonds’ 715th home run. A man standing in line at a beer counter had it roll off a ledge into his unsuspecting hands. He had 24 hours to claim his prize, last I read.
• The golfing pastor from Cullman, Ala., Bob Kurtz, has another feather to put in his halo. Starting at 5:21 in the morning, he played 168 holes by 7:38 at night, and he wasn’t just hacking away. He played one stretch of 18 holes in 63. Lest you forget, Kurtz was once a sportscaster on WCNN before turning to the ministry at St. John’s Church in Cullman.
• Jack Nicklaus has spread his course designing wings to Croatia, the 28th country for him. It was a deal made at the highest level, signed with the prime minister.
• Some off-the-wall airline statistics: The wingspan of the Boeing 747 is wider than the Wright brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk was long; American Airlines said it saved $40,000 a year by putting one less olive in salads, and think how much Delta has saved by no longer serving courtesy drinks in first class. In fact, no first class, all business elite up front.
• Shoeless Joe Jackson’s last house has been moved from the mill village in which he grew up to a site next to the new ball park, home of the Greenville minor league team. It will be converted into a baseball museum.
• Wait a minute, what’s this? The NCAA has approved four more postseason bowl games, which makes 32, if I’m not missing something. Four more that will only have to blush when they refer to themselves as “bowl teams.” Where in heaven’s name are they going to find eight more teams without taking some that only break even?
• Keith Jackson retiring again. How many retirements do you get?
Selah.
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The Tuesday Countdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
10: Three-day weekends make the Tuesday Countdown feels like a Monday Countdown, even though I worked on Monday, which come to think of it felt like a Sunday. OK. Let’s get to it. I’m due back on Neptune by dinner.
9: I’m not a racist - liars, cheaters and jerks come in all colors. I don’t care who passes Babe Ruth in home runs - Ruth and I aren’t related and, besides, I hate the Yankees. I’m not jealous of Barry Bonds - I’ve covered great athletes or all colors and nationalities from all sports for 25 years. There. That should cover it for anybody who felt I stepped over the line by calling Bonds’ 715th home run an embarrassment for baseball.
8: Also this: I merely tried to make the point that Bonds’ juiced, late-career home run totals, which carried him to historical levels, was one of baseball’s five most embarrassing moments ever. I didn’t rank the five. Actually, I listed them chronologically: The “Black Sox” scandal; Pete Rose’s ban for gambling; collective bargaining problems forcing the cancellation of the 1994 World Series; Congressional drug trials; Bonds.
7: If any good came out of this, it was that ESPN gave up air time like a stripper sells a table dance with “Bonds on Bonds,” only to have the mini-series go splat.
6: Please. No more parallels between Danica Patrick and Anna Kournikova. Patrick is not a fraud. I’m not saying she’s going to win the Indy Racing League title one day. But to finish eighth in a field of 33 cars in the Indianapolis 500 this early in her career makes her legitimate. Kournikova played tennis between Maxim spreads and risked breaking a nail. Patrick just drove a race car 500 miles — and risked her life doing so.
5: Edmonton will play either Buffalo or Carolina for the Stanley Cup. Either way, do you want to be Gary Bettman right about now?
4: Look, I’m a hockey guy. But the winner of Phoenix-Dallas against the winner of Miami-Detroit is going to do a lot more for the NBA then Oilers-Sabres or Oilers-Hurricanes will do for puck central.
3: Former Falcon Craig “Ironhead” Heyward, who died Saturday after a long battle with a brain tumor, battled some demons in his 11-year career. But he was as tough as they come - yet at times also was one of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet. Len Pasquarelli, my comrade and former co-worker, wrote a nice tribute on ESPN.com
2: Some people can’t figure out why a tough disciplinarian like Nick Saban is still sticking by Williams. Isn’t it obvious? He can play football. It’s the old SEC training of sticking by convicts who can block and tackle.
1: Joe Theismann just called Ricky Williams a “disgrace to the game.” It’s not that I don’t agree with Theismann. I just never wanted to be on the same side of an issue as him.
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