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Sports Outside the Beltway

Michelle Wie half way to Qualifying for Men’s US Open

AP

KAHUKU, Hawaii – Michelle Wie has been competing against men since she was 12, and still feels slightly uneasy about it.

But Wie looked totally comfortable Monday when she moved a step closer in her long-shot bid to become the first female player to qualify for the U.S. Open, shooting an even-par 72 to win a local qualifier.

“Playing with the men, I’m not sure what’s going to happen. It puts me in an almost uncomfortable place,” she said. “That’s what makes me a better player.”

The USGA believes she is the first woman to get through local qualifying for the U.S. Open. Wie and two other players advanced to sectional play next month, with Wie saying she will play in the June 5 36-hole sectional at Canoe Brook in Summit, N.J.

“The possibility of playing at Winged Foot? It’s the U.S. Open, the name speaks for itself,” Wie said. “It’s one of a kind.”

After the sectional, Wie will play in the LPGA Championship in Havre de Grace, Md.

Playing on her home island of Oahu in front of about two dozen people, Wie was steady for most of her round on the breezy, oceanside Palmer Course at Turtle Bay Resort, but missed a couple of short putts. She had four birdies and four bogeys.

Michelle’s qualifying for the Open is far from a given. Sectional qualifying is much more difficult. She’ll be competing against PGA tour members. If I were to make a prediction, it’s that Michelle won’t qualify for the Open at Winged Foot.

 

Baseball Suing Fantasy Leagues over Stats Use

Major League Baseball is suing for a piece of the fantasy baseball pie.

The dispute is between a company in St. Louis that operates fantasy sports leagues over the Internet and the Internet arm of Major League Baseball, which says that anyone using players’ names and performance statistics to operate a fantasy league commercially must purchase a license. The St. Louis company counters that it does not need a license because the players are public figures whose statistics are in the public domain.

According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, more than 15 million people spend about $1.5 billion annually to play fantasy sports, virtually all of them using an outside service to keep track of rosters, players’ statistics, trades and more. Most participate through Web sites run by CBS SportsLine, Yahoo and ESPN, which have paid Major League Baseball Advanced Media approximately $2 million apiece this year for licenses to display players’ names and photographs, team logos and varying add-ons like video highlight clips.

The St. Louis company, CBC Distribution and Marketing Inc., operates through the Web site CDMsports.com. It runs its customers’ leagues without player photographs (which are controlled by players in nonjournalistic commerce) or team logos (which are trademarks owned by the major league clubs). Like those of many smaller operators, the St. Louis company’s games present only players’ names and seasonal statistics, which the company says are newsworthy facts whose publication is protected by the First Amendment. “We’re disseminating information to the public about baseball players no different than what a newspaper does,” said Rudy Telscher, a lawyer representing CBC. “The American populace, at least a significant portion of it, has a fascination with baseball, they have a fascination with following the statistics, and I think the popularity of fantasy sports is borne right out of that passion for tracking the game and the statistics.”

Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which purchased the players’ Internet and wireless rights from the players union in January 2005 for $50 million over five years, contends that the players’ identities are being exploited in a business venture distinct from conventional journalism. “What a company like CBC is selling is not nearly a repackaging of statistics,” said Lee Goldsmith, a lawyer for Major League Baseball Advanced Media. “They’re selling and they’re marketing the ability to buy, sell, draft and cut Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols. And part and parcel of the reason that people are willing to pay for that ability is the persona of Jeter, of Rodriguez, of Pujols.”

While MLB has a legitimate legal case here, this is just another instance of sheer stupidity on the part of the league in managing fan relations. Fantasy sports, and fantasy baseball in particular, contribute to the popularity of the sport. Baseball, in particular, needs all the help it can get in this regard. Not only is the plague of steroids undermining the integrity of the numbers that make the game connect with a past in a way no other sport can, but the slow play over a 162 game regular season is a hard sell in a broadband world.

My own interest in the game has diminished in the last couple of years, after having moved to the D.C. area from the Deep South. Part of that is a loss of local connection to the team I follow, the Atlanta Braves. Partly, too, married life is not conducive to watching 162 games. Mostly, though, I’ve lost interest because the idiots at MLB decided to treat TBS as a national network whereas the Yankees’ and Mets’ networks are treated as local. The result is that the Braves’ ownership moved most of the games to regional networks unavailable to me. The SuperStation made the Braves a national team; MLB made them local again.

OTB

 

US Hockey Hall of Fame Closes

AP

EVELETH, Minn. – The U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, a shrine for stars from all levels of American hockey the past three decades, has closed its doors.

The hall may move to the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul or the Mall of America in Bloomington, although no decision has been made, officials said. The hall’s closure was announced Friday.

Many college, Olympic and pro hockey greats have come from Eveleth, including John Mayasich, Willard Ikola and John Mariucci. A giant hockey stick stands downtown and police cars display the Hall of Fame logo.

The museum, which attracts about 10,000 visitors a year, has struggled since opening in 1972. It costs about $11,000 a month to keep it operating, said executive director Tom Sersha.

I bet many of you didn’t even know one existed. There is another HOF in Toronto

Placing a Hall of Fame three hours from any major city(Sorry Duluth doesn’t count) in a region where travelling is made difficult by the climate for 1/3 to half the year to me just seems plain dumb to me. Yes Cooperstown is a long way from New York City but Hockey is not Baseball either in America.

A move to the MSP metro area would seem a smart idea. While a mall would bring many visitors, I just think isn’t the proper background for a shrine to a sport’s history. Some how Kaybee Toys, Hockey Hall of Fame, The Limited just isn’t appealing to me.

 

Doug Flutie Retires

Doug Flutie, who is still most famous for a single play made in a college game 22 years ago, has retired from professional football at the age of 43.

Doug Flutie retired from pro football Monday, ending a 21-year career in which the Heisman Trophy winner puzzled both opposing defenses and his own coaches with his unconventional style at quarterback. The decision by the 43-year-old Flutie was announced by the New England Patriots, for whom he played five games last season.

Flutie has agreed to work as a college football analyst for ABC and ESPN. “My passion for football remains as strong as ever as I begin this new phase of life. I’m excited to see the game from the other side and look forward to utilizing my experiences to offer insightful analysis to ABC and ESPN viewers nationwide,” Flutie said in a statement.

Flutie spent 12 seasons in the NFL and also played in the USFL and the Canadian Football League. He won the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player award six times and the league’s Grey Cup championship three times. Flutie finishes with 14,715 passing yards and 86 touchdowns in the NFL, spending most of his time as a backup. Last season, he attempted just 10 passes and converted the league’s first drop kick for an extra point since the 1941 NFL title game. “If that ends up being my last play, it wouldn’t be bad,” Flutie said after the game, a mostly meaningless regular season-ending loss to the Miami Dolphins.

[...]

A resident of nearby Natick, Flutie won the 1984 Heisman Trophy at Boston College after connecting with Gerard Phelan on a desperation 48-yard touchdown pass to beat Miami as time expired. His signature play, it remains one of the most memorable in the sport. Flutie left BC as the school’s passing leader with 10,579 yards, and he remains a hero on campus; his Heisman is the centerpiece of the school’s new Hall of Fame.

He was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the 11th round in 1985 but chose to play for the USFL’s New Jersey Generals, owned by Donald Trump. When that league failed, he joined the NFL, but his freewheeling style and short stature — the Patriots generously listed him at 5-foot-10 — were a poor fit for its conservative schemes. He played five games for Chicago the next two seasons and 17 for New England from 1987-89.

Only in the CFL, with its wide-open game, did he truly find success, throwing for 41,355 yards and 270 touchdowns in eight seasons with British Columbia, Calgary and Toronto. He joined Buffalo in 1998 and played more regularly — 39 games over three years. He started all 16 games for San Diego in 2001 then spent the next three years as backup to Drew Brees. Last April, he signed with the hometown Patriots for a second time and played sparingly, making his biggest splash on special teams with his drop kick.

Even at his advanced (for a professional athlete) age, he could likely have stayed on another several years as a backup. After all, he has pretty low mileage on him. At some point, though, it’s time to move on.

 

Andre Reed Joins Bills Wall of Fame

Andre Reed has been selected as the 23rd member of the Bills’ Wall of Fame.

The Buffalo Bills announced Sunday they will add the name of retired receiver Andre Reed to the Ralph Wilson Stadium Wall of Fame. Reed is the team’s career receptions leader with 941 catches for 13,095 yards during a 15-year career in which he helped the Bills win an unprecedented four AFC titles in the 1990s. He also has 87 career touchdowns, tied for first on the team with running back Thurman Thomas. Reed ranks fourth on the NFL list with 951 catches for 13,198 yards.

[...]

He will become the 23rd member of the Bills’ Wall of Fame, an honor created in 1980 to reward the team’s former members, including coaches and administrators.

There’s little doubt that Reed is deserving. Still, it strikes me as strange that a team that has never won a championship has 23 members in its hall of honor. By contrast, the Dallas Cowboys have five Super Bowl wins and another three appearances, has only 17 in their Ring of Honor–and three of those were inducted this year.

 

Michael Jordan’s Big Brother

Michael Jordan’s older brother James recently retired as the top sergeant major in the Army’s Signal Corps. The Fayetteville (NC) Observer has an interesting profile.

CSM James Jordan Photo James R. Jordan, who retired as a command sergeant major last month, took his 35th Signal Brigade troops to Iraq in 2004. Staff photo by Marc Hall James R. Jordan asked himself a question when his younger brother Michael became a NBA star in the mid-1980s. The elder Jordan, who had already spent about a decade in the Army, said, “OK, what are you going to be? Are you going to ride a coattail or are you going to keep doing like you are doing?”

James Jordan opted to keep doing what he was doing. Now, at age 48, he can look back on a 31-year Army career in which he became command sergeant major of the Army’s only airborne signal brigade, which is based at Fort Bragg. That’s the top job for an enlisted signal soldier.

[...]

Jordan always made his own way as a soldier. He didn’t hesitate to speak up when something needed to be said and made a point of downplaying his family tie, Allen said. “He would hardly let anybody ever come up and ask him about it,” Allen said. “He would probably flame you out if you said that to him.”

Jordan was bumping up against his 30-year retirement date when the 35th Signal Brigade got orders to go to Iraq in 2004. He talked to his family and decided he should go. “Jordan put his life on hold to go to deploy to Iraq with his soldiers,” said Allen, who made the same decision as command sergeant major of the 1st Corps Support Command. Jordan and Col. Bryan W. Ellis took the signal brigade to war in November 2004 and had responsibility for as many as 4,000 soldiers during a yearlong combat tour. “When I made the decision, I knew it was the right thing,” Jordan said.

[...]

Jordan went out his own way during an April 13 retirement ceremony on Fort Bragg. “Do you know that even though Michael Jordan was out there, everybody was still in line to shake Sergeant Major Jordan’s hand, not to pay homage to his brother,” Allen said. “I thought that was so cool. It was about Jordan the man.”

The Jordan family work ethic served both brothers quite well, taking them to the top of their careers.

 

LaRoche Doesn’t Hustle, Has Attention Deficit Disorder

Braves first baseman Adam LaRoche made a huge error in Sunday’s game caused by lack of hustle, a condition that has plagued him throughout his career.

The most embarrassing moment of LaRoche’s career occurred with Washington leading 1-0 and a runner at first with two outs. Nick Johnson hit a weak grounder inside the base line, and LaRoche came up perhaps 15 feet to field it. He looked to tag Johnson, but seeing the runner slow down, LaRoche turned his back and casually jogged toward the base in his familiar non-chalant manner. “I thought he was going to stop, so I basically walked to first,” LaRoche said. When LaRoche turned his back, Johnson sped up. To the astonishment and/or horror of teammates and 31,062 in the seats, LaRoche did not.

It appeared from replays that LaRoche’s foot touched the base a split second before Johnson’s, but it was close. Umpire Mark Carlson signaled Johnson safe. LaRoche looked at Carlson in disbelief and said he beat Johnson to the bag. Cox came out of the dugout to argue. Cox was ejected after the inning for continuing to complain from the dugout about the call. “The ump was wrong [with the call], and the player was wrong,” said Cox, whose Braves remained six games behind NL East leader New York and slipped to five behind second-place Philadelphia.

[...]

LaRoche said when he got to the dugout, Cox told him, “[Johnson] was out. But it shouldn’t have been close. You have got to start hustling.”

Amazing. But there’s more to the story:

LaRoche has attention-deficit disorder, which causes occasional mental lapses, like forgetting the number of outs or when he’s due to bat. He took medication briefly years ago but didn’t like how it made him feel. LaRoche believes going without medication helps him stay relaxed. He believes that approach has benefited him, but was reconsidering Sunday. He was warned since minor league ball by instructors to at least give the appearance of being intense in the field. “That’s a good point,” he said, “because when something like this happens, [having a laid-back demeanor] makes it look 10 times worse.”

Indeed it does.

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Milwaukee Brewer: Pretty in Pink

Milwaukee Brewers shortstop/second baseman/outfielder Bill Hall gave his mother a Mother’s Day gift neither one will forget. It was the bottom of the 10th inning with the score tied at 5 with the New York Mets. Taking part in Major League Baseball’s breast cancer awareness campaign Hall came to the plate with a pink Louisville Slugger. In his four previous at-bats he struck out three times. This time with two outs he launched a Chad Bradford pitch into right field to win the game 6-5.

 

Knicks Might Fire Larry Brown

ESPN reports that the Knicks are considering firing Larry Brown after one miserable season.

Larry Brown’s dream job with the New York Knicks could end after only one season. Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan, who’s upset over Brown’s record and the coach’s public criticism of his players, is considering buying out the final four years of the coach’s contract, the New York Daily News and New York Post reported in Sunday’s editions. The buyout is worth at least $40 million, the newspaper reported. The Knicks declined to comment. One published report indicated Knicks president Isiah Thomas was in line to replace Brown as head coach, the newspaper said, but the team would not confirm nor deny it.

Brown, who led the Knicks to a 23-59 season, has indicated that he will not resign. But the club could avoid having to pay another coach upward of $5 million a year if Thomas takes the job, the Daily News reported. One source told the newspaper that Thomas — who coached the Pacers from 2000-2003 — would be amenable to coaching the Knicks.

In April, one day after the Knicks completed one of the worst seasons in franchise history, Thomas said the Hall of Fame coach would return to coach the team for a second season. The underachieving roster was another story. “I am loyal to winning and I am not loyal to any singular individual,” Thomas said then. “I’m going to do what I need to do to make our team better.

It would be bizarre indeed to spend $40 million to have Larry Brown, widely considered one of the top two coaches in the league, not to coach the team. It takes any new coach a while to turn around a bad team, which is almost always the result of poor player personnel decisions.

 

USC Starting Point Guard Ryan Francis Killed in Louisiana

From AP

LOS ANGELES – Southern California freshman point guard Ryan Francis was shot and killed early Saturday while riding in a car in Louisiana, where he was visiting his mother.

The 19-year-old Francis was killed about 3:30 a.m. in Baton Rouge, said Tim Tessalone, USC’s director of sports information.

“We understand he was in a car and somebody shot into the car,” Tessalone said.

*****

Francis was USC’s starting point guard and averaged more than seven points a game.

*****

“We’re all devastated,” said USC coach Tim Floyd. “We’ve lost a special young man who in his short time at USC made an impression that will last forever.”

How sad.

 
 


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