Darrent Williams and Damien Nash Remembered

It was back to work today for the Denver Broncos on the first day of quarterback camp. But, there were two big holes. D Will and D Nash could only be remembered.

Denver Broncos players trotted onto the practice fields this morning for the first day of off-season workouts looking forward to a fresh start but not forgetting the tragedies that struck down two of their teammates.

Affixed to the helmet of each Bronco is a round, white decal with the numbers 27 and 29 to honor the passing of cornerback Darrent Williams (jersey No. 27) and running back Damien Nash (No. 29).

Globalizing sports

In Foreign Legion, the Baltimore Sun explores the growing globalization of American sports through the lens of the signings of major international stars by American teams. Specifically it looks at the cases of Daisuke Matsuzaka, Yao Ming and David Beckham.

Of Matsuzaka, the article considers the costs, risks and benefits of the Red Sox signing. Right now the financial benefits remain elusive.

The immediate economic benefits to the Red Sox may be more limited. They already sell out every game and charge more per ticket than any team in the league. They spent $103.1 million ($51.1 million for his rights and a six-year, $52 million contract) on Matsuzaka primarily because they wanted an ace for the next six years.”It was first, second and third a baseball decision designed to give us a better team and a better rotation,” Red Sox president Larry Lucchino said. “There are some ancillary benefits, but they are just that — ancillary. The notion that there’s some enormous pot of marketing gold is illusory.”

And I guess, if the Red Sox overpaid, it was also to keep Dice-K away from the Yankees. Still there are some benefits to the signing from a marketing standpoint.

The Sun has an accompanying list of the most prominent signings of foreign players by American sports teams.

In the case of Yao Ming, the article points out that international players are already a significant presence in the NBA, but that China was a real prize.

The league appears on 51 Chinese television stations and has accrued a viewership of 428 million this year. China accounts for 20 percent of the traffic on NBA.com, and the Rockets’ Mandarin-language Web site ranks among the most viewed sports pages in the world. NBA merchandise sells in more than 20,000 Chinese stores, and the league will open 10 NBA-specific shops in the country by the end of the year.

The benefits of the LA Galaxy signing David Beckham may not be realized only on the soccer field.

MLS receives scant mainstream attention in the United States, but it’s suddenly on the pages of People and on the lips of Access Hollywood anchors. Children in Asia and Europe who’ve hardly given a second thought to U.S. soccer will wear Galaxy jerseys. If the league can attract more international stars, it might connect deeply with immigrant populations that live in the United States but live and die with soccer teams from their original countries.

Some 30 years ago an the NY Cosmos of the NASL signed an international star. That did not work out as well.

In the 1970s, the New York Cosmos signed Pele and other international stars in hopes of popularizing soccer in America. The formula worked for a while as the Cosmos drew more than 40,000 fans a game at Giants Stadium and earned the North American Soccer League a television deal. But the NASL’s other franchises never matched the Cosmos’ aggression, and the league folded less than 10 years after Pele signed his contract.

Globalization can help a team discover new talent or a new fan base. Investing in the former could very well help develop the latter. Smarter teams are going to take advantage of the global market. Or they will risk being left behind.

Incidentally, there’s another side to the globalization of sports. There are the United Soccer Leagues in the U.S. that is affiliated with England’s Premier League. Though the leagues have been operating in Northern America for 20 years, I was unaware of them until a local club – Crystal Palace USA started advertising.

This leads to another question. When will other American major sports leagues follow the lead of NFL Europe and start partnerships with international leagues or teams? This would also extend the marketing reach (as well as the talent pool) of teams and leagues that participate.

Crossposted at Soccer Dad.

Decline of horse racing in Maryland

Two years ago the Washington Post ran a story “Making hay in a horse based economy” The gist of the article was that there are plenty of horse farms in Maryland and that it remains a growing industry. The subtext of the article is that it doesn’t matter if Maryland is losing racing to neighboring states, because the horse farms will prosper anyway. Given the anti-slots approach of the Washington Post this is an important case to make.However as this article in the Baltimore Sun makes clear, the failure of horse racing in Maryland will hurt horse breeding in the state.

The breeding industry is also suffering. Cricket Goodall, executive director of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association, said the industry “is at a tipping point where people aren’t going to hang on much longer.”"If the MJC follows through with stated plans to cut more racing days to maintain the purses, it will cut into our revenue stream and limit the amount of money we have to reward Maryland-bred horses,” she said. “If Maryland-breds don’t have the opportunity to run and make money, they’ll be encouraged to run somewhere else.”

(MJC is Maryland Jockey Club and it’s the governing body of the horse racing industry in Maryland.)

There is a trickle down effect. The big money in horse breeding is in racing. If the racing industry in Maryland collapses, resources for raising horses will go elsewhere and the horse farms – even for non-racing purposes – will leave the state too.

It’s not likely that the industry will survive unless the purses can match those of neighboring states. That won’t happen unless slots are approved.

I’m against subsidies to any industry. I’m also not convinced that slots are a great idea. It might just be it’s time to let horse industry in Maryland die.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Complaints led University of Georgia golf coach to quit

More has learned about why the Bulldog women’s golf coach resigned last week.

ATHENS, Ga. – Todd McCorkle’s sudden decision to resign as the women’s golf coach at Georgia last week followed complaints from players about his inappropriate sexual comments and jokes, according to documents obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

McCorkle’s resignation was announced May 7 and came three days after a memo in which he was told he would have to go through extensive anti-harassment training and would be suspended without pay for July. McCorkle instead quit, but athletic director Damon Evans said he would remain employed in another undisclosed job with the athletic department.

In the memo, University of Georgia executive director for legal affairs Steve Shewmaker told McCorkle several players had complained about the coach’s behavior.

*****

The memo was one of several documents obtained in response to an open records request by the AP. The documents included 48 pages of handwritten notes by school investigators from interviews with current and former players.

McCorkle was said to have shared a sexually explicit Paris Hilton video from the Internet with the team. Players reported McCorkle shared remarks about bras and underwear color. Other comments were more explicit, referring to male anatomy. There was a mention by one player of inappropriate physical contact.

“He is randomly rubbing your back or flipping hair, or pat on butt — and otherwise not think anything about it — but with all the other stuff feels wrong,” the unidentified player wrote.

The university’s investigation began in April. Art Leon, the father of Georgia’s No. 1 player, Taylor Leon, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution his complaints to Evans led to the investigation.

“I’m the person that initiated it,” Leon told the paper. “He doesn’t need to be a coach of women’s golf anywhere. He got what he deserved.”

McCorkle said he resigned to remove the cloud over the golf program. My own opinion is he showed poor judgment. Did he deserve to get fired? No and the University of Georgia didn’t take that action. It may have for the best that McCorkle left so any controversy would die away. Hopefully the Georgia golf program can move on from this experience and beat the Florida Gators! LOL, I live in Florida but am not a UF fan.

Soccer stars wins sex toy suit

Some sports news out of Germany you don’t hear every day.

BERLIN (Reuters) – German sex shop chain Beate Uhse must pay German soccer stars Michael Ballack and Oliver Kahn 50,000 euros ($67,380) each for using their names for vibrators without permission, the company said Monday.

The company had marketed the sex toys, dubbed “Michael B.” and “Olli K.,” before Germany hosted the World Cup in 2006.

Although the surnames of the two German soccer stars were not used, it was clear they referred to Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack and Bayern Munich goalkeeper Oliver Kahn.

Kahn and national team captain Ballack sued Beate Uhse in court for unauthorized use of their names and won.

“The products have been withdrawn,” the spokeswoman said. “We have to pay 50,000 euros to each of them.”

Good for Kahn and Ballack. Now can someone sue to have Barry Bonds name taken off the MLB record books after he ‘breaks’ Hank Aaron’s home run record?

Clemens in Tampa helping Hughes

The Rocket is worth $28 million just to teach the younger guys, nevermind actually pitching for the Yanks.

Roger Clemens made 47 throws during a seven-minute session in the outfield on Monday during his first workout at the New York Yankees’ minor league complex.

Clemens is scheduled for a bullpen session Tuesday. Barring any problems, he will make his first minor league start Friday night for Class-A Tampa and could be pitching for the Yankees during the last week of May or first few days of June.

The seven-time Cy Young Award winner spent 4 1/2 hours at the complex. He was on the field for 65 minutes doing running, agility work and fielding drills.

Clemens did not speak at length with reporters, When departing and reporters asked questions, all Clemens said about the workout was that it was “good.”

Clemens played catch with Phil Hughes, the promising rookie right-hander on the 15-day disabled list with a hamstring injury. Clemens also spent 30 minutes standing on a mound discussing pitching mechanics with Hughes.

I’d love to hear of him helping Ian Kennedy, Joba Chamberlain and Dellin Betances as well.

We’re all excited about Clemens…

but will he actually succeed? Rick Hummel thinks so -

Roger Clemens, who officially will be a New York Yankee again in a couple of weeks when he finishes his version of spring training, last pitched in the American League in 2003, when he was 17-9 with a 3.91 earned run average for the Yankees.

He is nearly four years older now — he will be 45 in August — but there is little reason to suspect he won’t be as successful, or more so, this time.

Brownback Praises Manning in Wisconsin, Gets Booed

Sam Brownback got into a bit of hot water with a Wisconsin crowd Friday by implying Payton Manning wasn’t as good as Brett Favre.

The GOP presidential hopeful drew boos and groans Friday at the Wisconsin Republican Party convention when he used a football analogy to talk about the need to focus on families. “This is fundamental blocking and tackling,” he said. “This is your line in football. If you don’t have a line, how many passes can Peyton Manning complete? Greatest quarterback, maybe, in NFL history.”

Oops, wrong team to mention in Wisconsin, once described by Gov. Tommy Thompson as the place “where eagles soar, Harleys roar and Packers score.” Realizing what he had said, the Kansas Republican slumped at the podium and put his head in his hands. “That’s really bad,” he said. “That will go down in history. I apologize.”

His apology brought a smattering of applause and laughter. He tried to recover, saying former Packer Bart Starr may be the greatest of all time, but the crowd was still restless. “Let’s take Favre then,” Brownback said. “The Packers are great. I’m sorry. How many passes does he complete without a line?” “All of them!” more than one person yelled from the back. “I’m not sure how I recover from this,” Brownback said. “My point is we’ve got to rebuild the family. I’ll get off this.”

Pretty amusing.

From a political angle, this is probably a wash for Brownback, since his recovery was handled well enough. Not to mention the fact Starr and Favre both have far more chance of getting elected president in 2008 than he does; Manning would, too, were he old enough to be eligible.

In a football context, comparing quarterbacks from three eras is tough. Starr is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and Starr and Manning will surely join him the first year they’re eligible. Starr led the Packers to five NFL championships, including the first two Super Bowls. That’s an unmatched achievement. That was in a much smaller league in an era long before free agency, though, so a great team could stay on top much more easily than today.

Favre is a three-time NFL MVP, the only man with that distinction. He led the Packers to two Super Bowls, winning the first. He has been famous in recent years not so much for his excellence, though, but his endurance and tenacity. He’s started more consecutive games, by far, than any quarterback in history, a streak that looks like it’ll only be broken in retirement. That streak is all the more impressive because of the personal tragedies he’s endured in recent years.

Manning is fresh off his first Super Bowl win and is statistically the best passer of the three. He may, indeed, be the best pure quarterback ever to play the game from a technical standpoint. He’s got a ways to go, however, to move ahead of the likes of Starr, Favre, Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, Joe Montana, and Troy Aikman on the accomplishments scale.

Mi Hyun Kim gives $100,000 to Kansas Tornado victims

The South Korean born LPGA golfer known as Peanut made the announcement shortly after her win last weekend. Golf World’s Ron Sirak writes-

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – There may be no one currently playing the LPGA Tour who gets as much out of their ability as Mi Hyun Kim. She says she is 5-foot-1, and when you look down at her smiling beneath those pigtails that measurement seems like a stretch. If she tops the scale at more than 110 pounds, it is not by much. And more that 120 players drive the ball farther than she does, meaning she often is hitting a 5-wood into a green while her playing partner is hitting a 5-iron. Still, Kim has won eight LPGA events, second among Koreans only to the 23 won by Se Ri Pak.

Clearly, Kim’s competitive heart is a lot tougher than her disarming smile would ever lead one to believe, as demonstrated last week when she won the SemGroup Championship in storm-battered Oklahoma on the first hole of a playoff against the prototype of the ultimate grinder, Hall of Famer Juli Inkster. But the shy Kim, who often tees up her answer to a reporter’s question with a giggle, also has a heart that appreciates the world around her. That’s why after she saw the disaster ravaged on Greensburg, Kan., by a tornado last Friday that killed 10 and demolished 95 percent of the town she decided to donate $100,000 to people she had never met living in a state she had never visited.

“Honestly, I make a lot of money in the U.S.A,” Kim said Tuesday at the Michelob Ultra Open at the Kingsmill Resort & Spa. “Mostly, I have made donations in Korea. But I wanted help here, too.” How often are those words spoken by a professional athlete? Not often enough, is the simple answer. And how often is a sentiment like that expressed by someone who was born and raised half a world away? Maybe that explains why Kim sometimes seems to do only one thing right on the golf course – get the ball in the hole. She is all heart.

Amen to that Ron. Kimmie shows she has a big a heart as her John Dalyesqe golf swing. $100,000 is a good chunk of change for an LPGA player. Women golfers play for one fifth the purses the men play for, nor do they get the lucrative endorsement deals seen on the PGA Tour.