Sports Columnists

By Bob in SF

May 30, 2006 02:13 PM | Link to this

1)Theismann’s continued employment as a terrible NFL TV commentator is much more a disgrace to the game than some bi-polar kid who has had nothing but bad advice his whole career smoking some pot. Not defending Ricky but Joe-ryhmes-with-Heisman should be busting on guys like Rueben Droughns who uses his wife for a tackling dummy or Leonard Little who kills an innocent woman while driving drunk as examples of bad guys being paid to play a sport. 2) I agree 100% about Danica. While there probably is too much hype because she is a woman, anyone who straps their fanny into a 230mph missile basically 4 inches off the ground with no roll bar surrounding them and then drives with precision for 3 hours has more b*s than the weenies comparing her to Anna K.

By Joe S

May 30, 2006 03:21 PM | Link to this

How pitiful you have to lead off with the Universal White Guy Disclaimer ” I am not a racist” before criticizing a black athlete who is surpassing any white guy’s record. Forget about the lying & cheating. Color is all that matters. Only Terrance Moore can get away with taking Bonds to the woodshed for pumping up his numbers with go-go juice. Only Terrance hedges by belittling The Babe’s records as tainted because he played in a segregated era. Forget about the modern day dilution of teams (30 vs 16), the juiced balls (tossed after a flea gets dirt on them) and jet travel vs. trains. Jeff, don’t take the race bait. Barry’s a jerk, Barry’s a cheater. He doesn’t deserve our respect and for that matter, neither does McGuire or Sosa for mostly the same reasons.

By Larry

May 30, 2006 03:24 PM | Link to this

Jeff,

Please don’t lower yourself by being the least defensive about double-digit IQ comments by those who defend Bonds. Let me say this for you. Anyone who defends Bonds and uses the “race card” doing so is simply and indisputably the most ignorant piece of whale manure on earth and are not worthy of our time.

These are the type of men who always lose their women to real men like us!

By Hy Anenzede

May 30, 2006 03:31 PM | Link to this

Here’s a fairy tale for you of Grimm proportions.

Barry Bonds had an opportunity to become a baseball immortal,a multi-gazillionaire (which he may be anyway), endorsements out the wazoo due to popularity afforded almost any pro athlete (I can think of a grand total of NONE right now) a 100% lock on the Hall of Fame and most importantly a role model to millions of kids world wide.

There is more but that is enough to paint the beginning of a what could have been portrait.

He consciously elected not to do any of the aforementioned. All he had to do once he reached the 713 mark was to come clean.

“At this point of my career and at the risk of being vilified I have come to the realization that the integrity of the game of baseball and the legendary accomplishments of those who preceded me in this great game are are bigger than any tarnished feat. I have in the past used performance enhancing drugs, none of which were illegal, but used nevertheless. This was wrong of me to do. I was caught between lying and what I assumed to be total disgrace. The disgrace came with lying. I am coming forward today to apologize to all the fans and to the game that has given me everything I have in my life. I would like to have the chance to earn back the respect and dignity I have lost. As of today, I am officially retired from the game I love.”

Change a few words here and there and forward it to P. Rose of Cincinnati, Ohio too.

…..and they all lived happily ever after. The End

By Michael

May 30, 2006 05:24 PM | Link to this

About Craig Heyward…when I was a freshman in college (1995), I worked at Champs Sports in Gwinnett Place Mall. A few weeks before Christmas, about 15 minutes before closing time, in walks Ironhead with $1,000 of gift certificates given to him by his shoe sponsor. Over the next 45 minutes (we closed the store and let him continue shopping), I and several other Champs employees got to spend some time with him while he spent all of that money (and then some of his own) buying Christmas gifts for his family.

At first we were all a bit nervous approaching him (or at least I was - the dude was huge!), but it was soon apparent that he was one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. I’ll never forget how good natured he was, how he cracked jokes and gave us a hard time for not carrying any University of Pittsburgh gear (his alma mater). He was also good about asking us our names, where we lived, where we went to school, etc, and he seemed genuinely interested to talk to us on a personal level.

Because Gwinnett Place was the closest mall to the Falcons old training camp in Suwanee, we were somewhat accustomed to seeing Falcons players come through the store, but none were ever as forthcoming and down to earth as Ironhead. It was refreshing to see, in the era of arrogant jerk sports stars (see Barry Bonds), that there were still a few genuinely nice guys like Ironhead that realize how lucky they are to be playing childrens games and getting paid the sums of money they do for a living. I’m sure Ironhead was no saint, but in my eyes, he more than made up for his shortcomings with his attitude towards us for that short time that day. RIP Ironhead. May your heaven be full of all the Univ. of Pittsburgh gear you could ever imagine.

By John

May 30, 2006 05:56 PM | Link to this

Jeff,

The bottom line is we should not look at what card is being played, but what we should be looking at is…Whose shuffling and dealing those cards? MLB and people like you that control public opinion..your subtle and sublimatical topics of race helps sell papers.

By doc

May 30, 2006 08:18 PM | Link to this

jeff, by your comments, are you then disputing the king and suggesting that women should be in racing?

By Fanatic Joe

May 30, 2006 09:08 PM | Link to this

This is my deal with the Steroids scandal and Bonds. MLB was not thinking about or worried about steroids when McGwire was chasing the single season homerun record, or his suddenly increase of homeruns per year. Nor were they looking at Roger Clemens throwing 100mph well past his supposedly declining years of a pitcher. Clemens also gained a lot of mass for a guy in his later years as a professional player. MLB knew but didn’t care as long as the money was coming in.

By Ned Gerblansky

May 31, 2006 12:10 AM | Link to this

I hope with item #2 you weren’t trying to label Ricky W. a convict because of smoking weed. There are enough lies in the mainstream media about marijuana’s effects already, the last thing we need is for you to continue spreading those lies. There are so many athletes who have done worse things than weed-smoking, things that actually affect other people.

By titothebear

May 31, 2006 12:49 AM | Link to this

Major League Baseball is to blame? It’s the establishment that encouraged and enabled players to ‘roid out? No! Major League Baseball didn’t put the first spike in a stinky butt. McGwire, Sosa, Palmeiro, Bonds and plenty of others, did the injecting themselves. They swallowed the tablets and juice, rubbed in The Cream and drank The Clear. The players are personally responsible for any decisions they may have made! As always, when the decisions revolve around illegal drugs there must be consequences. Hopefully, those consequences will include a stint in jail. For Bonds, that seems very likely. He is in jeopardy of having to answer for, what seems to be, perjury. He could also face some problems with the IRS. It is easy to blame Selig and the owners and the fans and say,”ho, it must be the money!” That doesn’t matter and it’s not a suitable excuse. There is no suitable excuse. Bonds is a bloated fraud and his theft is just as real as that of Ken Lay or any thief out of the gutter. He stole something from someone else. In fact, his thievery has been of many different ballplayers, including his dear old Godfather he’s always blathering about. Bonds, Sosa, Palmeiro, McGwire and other known steroid users are being investigated by MLB itself. If there is proof of any allegation of steroid involvement, by any of these faux greats, their inflated statistics should be erased and the book closed on them forever. Pete Rose gambled and cheated on taxes and wound up accepting a lifetime banishment from MLB. Rose was a fool and he lost much more than he won. He even bet on his own team. The evidence I’ve seen indicates he be on the Reds to win. They seldom did. There’s no evidence, so far as I know, that indicates any of his actions compromised the results of any game. Not so with the steroid crowd! Warning track power was transformed into mighty, thunderous rocket shots that sailed high and deep and wound up splatting against back walls of second decks or killing fish in McCovey Cove. It’s time to exclude the criminal element. Time to shrink the chemically inflated and remove their mantle of greatness. They don’t wear it well. It’s time to cleanse the record books of every Winstol induced homerun and every twenty strikeout performance. Time to clean up the game and put the vermin in the cages custom made for them. Time to have baseball be baseball. Time for skill, desire and God given ability to win out over chemistry!

By Willy3000

May 31, 2006 06:34 AM | Link to this

A lot of people have done a lot worse things than Bonds, for fame and money, which is what he did. You can’t really penealize the guy, because the rule wasn’t there. But, those ‘roids might just come back and bite him in the a* one day. They might actually kill him. I think the death penalty is more than sufficient. And if that’s what he gets, it was his call.

By Gene

May 31, 2006 07:21 AM | Link to this

Bonds performance is not a racial issue although racists continue to make it one. A racist is a racist, regardless of the color of his or her skin.

By Charles

May 31, 2006 07:38 AM | Link to this

For all of you who is hating on Bonds. Did he take the roids? Probaly so. Who really cares. He was an Hall of Famer regardless. The people you should be angry with is the owners. They knew what was going on. It was the popular thing and face it the stands were full for the ride.

The use of race is apparent becasue who is the Home Run king? Henry the Hammer. He does not get the recognition that Babe Ruth does who was a drunk. By the way was alcohol illegal in those days?

Steroids- Kirk Gibson hit the home run to beat the A’s in the WS. Does he play at all without an injection of cortizon which has steroids in it? I would call that a performance enhancer. Amphetamins that has been taken by players for so long because the season is so long? Give me a break!!!! Tell the whole truth and STOP making one person responsible for a culture. If it is not a color thing, what is it? I am confussed. If he is wrong then some of these pitchers? Roger Clemens, Unit, Nolan Ryan?? The questions has to be asked. Do you really want to know that?

By Charles

May 31, 2006 07:44 AM | Link to this

For all of you who is hating on Bonds. Did he take the roids? Probaly so. Who really cares. He was an Hall of Famer regardless. The people you should be angry with is the owners. They knew what was going on. It was the popular thing and face it the stands were full for the ride.

The use of race is apparent becasue who is the Home Run king? Henry the Hammer. He does not get the recognition that Babe Ruth does who was a drunk. By the way was alcohol illegal in those days?

Steroids- Kirk Gibson hit the home run to beat the A’s in the WS. Does he play at all without an injection of cortizon which has steroids in it? I would call that a performance enhancer. Amphetamins that has been taken by players for so long because the season is so long? Give me a break!!!! Tell the whole truth and STOP making one person responsible for a culture. If it is not a color thing, what is it? I am confussed. If he is wrong then some of these pitchers? Roger Clemens, Unit, Nolan Ryan?? The questions has to be asked. Do you really want to know that? BY THE WAY WHO CARES ABOUT JOE THEISMAN????

By br

May 31, 2006 10:12 AM | Link to this

Charles,

Get a life man! You are one of the reasons racism still exists. Oh, and you condone steroids too, wow, you are on quite a roll!

By stump

May 31, 2006 11:12 AM | Link to this

Joe Theisman had to change his name to promote himslef for the Heisman Trophy. I guess his family name did not matter to him. When his family has a homecoming, what name they use. Another “I” person.

By Brendan

May 31, 2006 03:46 PM | Link to this

Hey, (NHL Commissioner) Bettman is doing just fine, Jeff. All of Canada is united behind the Edmonton Oilers. I bet TV-ratings north of the border are as good or better than ever before. It’s the lower 48-states that are the issue, TV-ratings-wise.

If it’s the Oilers vs. Sabres, at least those are two “traditional” hockey markets, with “die-hard,” knowledgeable hockey fans, who would truly appreciate a Stanley Cup victory. Buffalo hasn’t had one in 36-years!! Edmonton, in case anyone’s curious, is 4th all-time, with five (5) Cup wins in six trips to the finals. This will be their 7th trip.

Compare that to Raleigh vs. Anaheim, the other “potential” Stanley Cup Finals. Anaheim entered the NHL in 1992, I think. And hockey can trace its history to Raleigh, NC all the way back to 1999. Woo-hoo!! They played the first two seasons in Greensboro, NC, I believe. At least Greensboro, NC had some minor league hockey history. Edmonton traces its history to ice hockey back to invention of skates.

Stop and think about this for a moment. The Atlanta Thrashers have been in the NHL since 1999. In 2001, the Thrashers actually finished ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning won a Cup in 2004. In 2003, the Carolina Hurricanes finished LAST in the league. If they win Thursday night, they become the “odds on favorites” to hoist the silver chalice this Summer.

So?

So the Thrashers have watched teams from within the division surpass them in every way possible while the Thrashers continue to strive for their 1st ever playoff berth.

Considering that the Thrashers have never made the playoffs, their farm system must just be chock full of young, faster, highly-skilled prospects, no? Ya know, since they enjoyed such “favorable draft position” lo these many years.

And yet, in seven years of drafting, only two players taken after 30th overall have ever cracked the starting lineup of the Atlanta Thrashers. The rest have played NHL games in “call up” situations.

But don’t blame the GM of the Thrashers. He inherited this team from his precedessor, the Abominable Snowman, who replaced the Easter Bunny after an unfortunate run-in with the law.

But shhh. Don’t tell Mark Bradley that. He thinks anyone who thinks Don Waddell should be fired is “out of their mind.” As a side note, Pat Quinn spent the balance of the past decade in Toronto, functioning as either Head Coach or GM, and sometime “both,” of the Maple Leafs. This season marked the 1st time the Maple Leafs didn’t make the playoffs. This summer, he was summarily “fired.” Yes, for failing to reach the post season ONE (1) time. With his tenure with the Leafs, Quinn made the Conference Finals twice (1999 and 2002). The Leafs made it to at least the 2nd round of the playoffs all but one of those years. I repeat. He got “fired.”

Someone recently asked me if Don Waddell were caught in a crack house, with a crack “damsel,” while doing crack, if that would be sufficient cause for his removal.

I had to “think” about it. But inevitably, I shook my head, “no.” He’ll be here next year. And the year after that.

By Barry

May 31, 2006 04:25 PM | Link to this

Amen, Brendan…We’re now entering YEAR SEVEN of brilliant Don’s “FIVE-YEAR PLAN” (hey, those were his words and, umm, “vision”).

Yep.

Unfortunately, we’re saddled with pulseless, spineless beat writers and general columnists (Schultz) who are more interested in witty one-liners than in doing their jobs…Or completely incompetent ones (Bradley)…

Competition and accountability bring out the best—but these are foreign concepts in Atlanta…Sigh…