There’s no better way to kickoff a new baseball season than by reminiscing about the late Harry Caray. Here’s a classic quote from the legendary announcer about his beloved Cubs.
“What does a mama bear on the pill have in common with the World Series?”
No cubs
by Paul Knepper
Over the past twenty-five years there have been numerous incidents in sports that completely floored us, from an untimely death, to a gruesome injury, to a stunning upset, to the simply bizarre. Many of these moments have become universal experiences, memories shared by sports fans every where. As you head towards the top of the list, I guarantee many of you will remember exactly where you were when some of those shocking events occurred.
Here’s my list of the 50 most shocking moments in sports over the past 25 years. As always, let me know if you think there’s something I left out.
50) Dale Hunter viciously crosschecked Islanders’ center Pierre Turgeon in the back, separating his shoulder, while Turgeon was celebrating a goal in the decisive game of a 1993 playoff series with the Capitals.
49) The Metrodome roof collapsed during a snowstorm this past winter.
48) Nets star Drazen Petrovic was killed in a car accident during the prime of his career.
47) Fans at the Alamodome got drenched when the sprinkler system malfunctioned during the opening game of the Spurs season in 1994.
46) Thirteen-year-old Brittanie Cecil died after getting struck in the forehead by an errant slap shot off the stick of Columbus Blue Jacket center Espen Knutsen.
45) When the Cowboys blocked the Dolphins potential game-winning field goal attempt on Thanksgiving Day 1993, all the Cowboys needed to do was stay away from the ball and they would win the game. But Leon Lett came flying in and dove on the ball, giving the Phins another attempt, which they capitalized on. Of course, this wasn’t Lett’s first major blunder.
44) Marty McSorley struck Canucks forward Donald Brashear on the head with his stick in a game between the Bruins and Vancouver.
43) Jose Offerman hit the pitcher and catcher with a bat in an independent league game after being plunked by a pitch.
42) Roseanne Barr spit and grabbed her crotch after being booed for her pathetic version of the Star Spangled Banner at Jack Murphy Stadium.
41) Unprovoked, NBA “Bad Boy” Dennis Rodman kicked a cameraman in the nuts after tumbling out of bounds during a Bulls game.
40) Todd Bertuzzi brutally sucker punched Steve Moore, then slammed his head into the ice in a game between Vancouver and Colorado in 2004.
39) In 1989 the all-time hit king, Pete Rose, was banished from baseball for life.
38) Maple Leaf enforcer Tie Domi squirted water at a Flyers fan and then pummeled him when he jumped into the penalty box.
37) Oliver McCall started crying and refused to enter the ring for the fifth round of his Heavyweight title bout with Lennox Lewis.
36) Izzy Alcantara kicked the catcher in the facemask before charging the mound after being brushed back by a pitch in a minor league game.
35) Brandi Chastain took off her jersey after striking the winning goal against China in the final game of the 1999 Women’s World Cup.
34) In a 1993 game vs. the Nets, Shaquille O’Neal dunked the ball so hard that he brought down the entire backboard.
33) Pedro Martinez threw Don Zimmer to the ground by his bald head after Zim charged him during a brawl in the 2003 ALCS.
32) Less than a year after surgery to remove cancer from his pitching arm, Dave Dravecky’s arm snapped as he threw a pitch.
31) The Andrew Golota – Riddick Bowe fight turned into a brawl when Bowe’s people attacked Golota after he was disqualified for repeated low blows.
30) Millions of tiny bugs called midges swarmed Jacobs Field during Game 2 of the 2007 ALDS between the Yankees and Indians.
28) Roger Clemens threw a piece of Mike Piazza’s shattered bat at the Mets catcher during the 2000 Subway Series.
27) Double-A manager Phillip Wellman’s legendary tirade included crawling on the field, hurling bases into the outfield and throwing the rosin bag at the umpire as if it were a grenade.
26) Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy ended up swinging from Alonzo Mourning’s leg when he tried to break up a fight between the Heat and Knicks during the 1998 playoffss.
25) Twenty-six-year-old Robin Ventura was beat down by Nolan Ryan, 20 years his elder, when he charged the mound after being beaned.
24) Rosie Ruiz appeared to have won the 84th Boston Marathon, but was later exposed as a fraud who jumped out of the crowd near the end of the race.
23) After disposing of Lou Savarese in the first round, Mike Tyson turned his attention to the heavyweight champion: “Lennox Lewis, I’m coming for you man. My style is impetuous. My defense is impregnable, and I’m just ferocious. I want your heart. I want to eat his children. Praise be to Allah!”
22) Replays confirmed that Diego Maradona used his hand to score a goal to secure Argentina’s victory over England in the 1986 World Cup quarter-finals, but the referees didn’t see it. After the game Maradona coyly stated that the goal was scored by “the hand of God.”
21) Michael Jordan retired from the NBA for the first time at the age of 30 after back-to-back-to-back championships.
20) Minor league right fielder Rodney McCray ran through the outfield wall in pursuit of a fly ball.
19) A dove exploded on impact when it flew in the path of a Randy Johnson fastball in a spring training game.
18) Days after being drafted #2 overall by the Boston Celtics, Len Bias died of a cocaine overdose.
17) Warriors guard Latrell Sprewell savagely choked his coach P.J. Carlesimo at practice.
16) French midfielder Zinedine Zidane was given a red card after headbutting Italy’s Marco Materazzi in the finals of the 2006 World Cup.
15) Loyola Marymount star Hank Gathers collapsed and died on the court during a game.
14) Colombian defender Andrés Escobar was shot and killed in Medellin, presumably for inadvertently scoring on his own goal in the 1994 World Cup.
13) Mookie Wilson’s slow roller to first went through the legs of Bill Buckner to win Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.
12) “Fan Man” paraglided into the ring during a title fight between Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe.
11) Royals’ first base coach Tom Gamboa was randomly jumped by two fans at Comiskey Park.
10) Blood poured from Sabres goalie Clint Malarchuk’s throat after it was accidentally slit by an opposing players skate.
9) In perhaps the greatest upset in sports history, Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson on February 11, 1990.
8) Michael Sergio parachuted onto the infield at Shea Stadium during Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.
7) An earthquake rocked Candlestick Park minutes before Game 3 of the 1989 World Series between the Giants and Athletics.
6) On November 7, 1991 Magic Johnson announced that he was HIV positive and was retiring from basketball immediately.
5) A crazed Steffi Graf fan stabbed Monica Seles in the back during a break in the action of her match at the 1993 Citizen Cup in Hamburg.
4) Tonya Harding’s ex-husband enlisted thug Jeff Gillooly to attack Harding’s rival Nancy Kerrigan.
3) Ron Artest started a melee when he attacked a fan in the stands at the Palace in Auburn Hills in what came to be known as the “Malice at the Palace.”
2) Mike Tyson took a bite out of Evander Holyfield’s ear. Then chomped down on the other one moments later.
1) Game 5 of the 1994 NBA Finals was interrupted to show football Hall-of-Famer O.J. Simpson fleeing from the police in a white Ford Bronco.
Honorable mentions:
– Chris Webber called timeout in the closing seconds of the 1993 NCAA Tournament Championship game.
– Roberto Alomar spit in the face of umpire John Hirschbeck.
– Carl Lewis’ ceremonial first pitch in Seattle actually rivaled his unforgettable rendition of the national anthem.
– Browns tackle Orlando Brown knocked down the ref after being hit in the eye with a penalty flag.
– Donnie Moore committed suicide a few years after giving up the game-winning home run in Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS.
– Barry Sanders walked away from football in his prime.
– Serena Williams threatened a lineswoman after being called for a foot fault during her semifinal match at the U.S. Open.
– Wayne Gretzky was traded from Edmonton to the Los Angeles.
– John Chaney threatens John Calipari
– Gilbert Arenas and teammate Javaris Crittenton pulled guns on each other.
– The tragic deaths of Reggie Lewis, Nick Adenhart, Darryl Kile and Korey Stringer
– Notre Dame student Declan Sullivan died after falling from a lift while filming football practice.
by Paul Knepper
This afternoon the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced its class of 2011 and I’m happy to say that one of my all-time favorite players, Arvydas Sabonis, is one of the inductees. Joining Sabonis in the class of 2011 are: five-time NBA All-Star and member of the 1992 Dream Team, Chis Mullin and five-time NBA Champion and two-time Defensive Player of the Year, Dennis Rodman.
The other inductees are: Stanford Head Coach Tara VanDerveer; Olympic Gold Medalist Teresa Edwards; Harlem Globetrotter legend Reece “Goose” Tatum; former Celtic great Tom “Satch” Sanders; innovator of the triangle offense Tex Winter; Philadelphia University Head Coach Herb Magee; and one of the greatest players in the history of the ABA, Artis Gilmore.
This is a piece I wrote about Sabonis a few years ago for the website The Love of Sports.
Arvydas Sabonis had the most complete game of any big man over the past 25 years. That includes Hakeem Olajuwan, Moses Malone, Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan and David Robinson. Unfortunately, serious knee and Achilles tendon injuries robbed him of his mobility long before he came to the NBA at the age of 31 and most Americans never had the opportunity to see him in his prime.
Born in Lithuania, Sabonis earned a reputation as the “best big man in the world” while playing in the Soviet Union during the 1980’s. He carried the Soviets to a Gold Medal in the 1988 Olympics, defeating a U.S. Team led by David Robinson, Danny Manning and Mitch Richmond along the way.
The Portland Trailblazers selected him with the 24th pick in the 1986 NBA draft, but in one of the great casualties of the Cold War, he was barred from playing in the United States at the time. However, after suffering the first of many knee injuries in 1986, Soviet officials allowed him to rehabilitate with the Trailblazers’ training staff.
In between rehab sessions, “Sabas” played pick-up games with many of the Blazers. His outlet passes and shot-blocking presence were the perfect compliment to Clyde Drexler and Terry Porter, and the Portland guards were giddy over the prospect of playing with the great Lithuanian.
To their disappointment, when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, Sabonis chose to play ball in Spain instead of coming to the U.S. Over the next six years he led his team to two European Championships and was named European Player of the Year four times. Finally, in 1995, with nothing left to prove to in Europe, “the best big man in the world” came to the NBA.
It was soon apparent that the Sabas that joined the Trailblazers wasn’t the same player who had dominated David Robinson in the 1988 Olympics. After several major injuries, it took him an eternity to make his way up the court and at times appeared as if he were playing on one leg. Still, he was one of the better big men in the league.
There was nothing Sabonis couldn’t do on the court. At 7-foot-3, 280 pounds, he was an immovable force in the low post, the one center in the league Shaquille O’Neal couldn’t push around. He used his size to control the defensive backboards and pester opposing players when they drove the lane.
Sabas’ skills on the court were well refined. He possessed an impressive array of post moves, with the ability to finish with either hand and was also equally adept at knocking down an 18-footer. The most impressive aspect of Sabonis’s game was his brilliant passing. Early in his career with the Blazers, they ran the offense through him in the high post, where he’d palm the ball like a grapefruit before throwing a nonchalant, behind-the-back bounce pass to a cutting teammate. He also ignited Portland’s fastbreak with one-handed outlet passes that always hit his guards in stride.
The Blazers made the playoffs in each of Sabas’ seven seasons with the team, coming within one game of the NBA Finals in 2000 before succumbing to the eventual champion Lakers in Game Seven of the Western Conference Finals. He averaged 12 points and 7.3 rebounds over his NBA career, while playing just 24 minutes per game. Projected over 36-40 minutes, those are All-Star numbers.
Many NBA enthusiasts refer to Sabonis’s career in terms of “what could have been.” Portland fans are quick to say there’s no telling how many championships the Blazers would have won if Sabonis had joined the nucleus of Drexler, Porter, Buck Williams and Jerome Kersey in the late 1980’s.
I for one am just grateful for the opportunity to have seen such a skilled practitioner work his craft. His extraordinary combination of size, talent and skill made him a thrill to watch and even in his diminished capacity, it was evident that Arvydas was one of the greatest big men to ever man the paint. I congratulate on him on his well deserved induction into the Hall of Fame.
by Paul Knepper
Kevin Johnson was one of the elite point guards in the NBA during the early to mid 1990’s, a natural leader known for his quickness, precision passing and efficient shooting. He made three All-Star games as a member of the Phoenix Suns and joined Oscar Roberston and Isiah Thomas as the only players in NBA history to average over 20 points and 10 assists per game for three consecutive seasons.
K.J. has reached even greater heights since his retirement; he was elected mayor of his hometown, Sacramento in 2008. In the midst of a national recession, he inherited a city facing rising unemployment and difficult budget cuts, though ironically, Johnson’s biggest challenge as mayor may come from the world he knows best, professional basketball.
A decade ago the Sacramento Kings were the model “small market” NBA team. After purchasing majority ownership of the team in 1999, Joe and Gavin Maloof built the Kings into a title contender without breaking the bank, through shrewd trades and draft picks. The team played an exciting brand of up-tempo basketball and the city rallied behind them. The Kings sold out every game and Arco Arena turned into one of the biggest home court advantages in the league.
In the mid 2000’s, the team took a downturn. Management was unsuccessful in replacing the team’s top players who had departed via trade or free agency and the team soon fell into financial trouble. During the 2005-2006 season several of the King’s sponsors terminated their affiliation with the team. As the product on the court continued to diminish the attendance followed. On November 6, 2007, the Kings’ 354-game home sellout streak came to an end.
The Kings’ decline coincided with the Maloof brothers’ own financial troubles. They owe a significant amount of money on their Palms Casino in Las Vegas and possibly other investments as well. Their financial issues have been compounded by the team’s struggles have. The Kings have lost money in each of the past few seasons.
Since the Maloofs purchased the team they’ve been lobbying the city for a new arena. Arco Arena (now called Power Balance Pavalion as of a few weeks ago) is decrepit and ancient by NBA standards. The NCAA won’t even schedule tournament games their anymore. The team’s difficulties, as well as the Maloof’s personal troubles, have added urgency to their pleas.
For many years, the brothers stated that it was their intention to keep the team in Sacramento. They negotiated with the city to build a new publicly funded arena, but in 2006 a proposition to do so was severely defeated on the ballot. The negotiations were highly public and damaging to the Maloofs’ reputation, so they asked the NBA for assistance and stepped into the background.
The league funded research for a possible solution and in March 2009, announced a plan to build a new arena. The deal called for Cal Expo – an independent state agency – to sell a huge block of land where the state fair is currently held to an undisclosed third-party developer, who would use the proceeds from the development of a conference center, shops and housing on the land to fund a new stadium on the property. The Maloofs were on board, but this past September the Cal Expo Board decided that the plan wasn’t in the organizations best interest.
That was the last straw for the Maloof brothers and the NBA. Soon after Cal Expo backed out of the deal the NBA stated that it would no longer actively seek to keep the Kings in Sacramento. Desperate for a new arena to rejuvenate the franchise and out of options in Sacramento, the Maloofs began to look elsewhere.
During All-Star weekend, Commissioner David Stern confirmed that the Maloofs were in negotiations to relocate the team to Anaheim. Last week the plan took a big step forward when the Anaheim City Council voted unanimously to approve up to $75 million in lease-revenue bonds to enable the Kings move to Anaheim in time for next season.
The team would play in the Honda Center, currently the home of the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks and it appears that if the move goes through the franchise will not retain the name Kings. On March 3, attorneys for the Maloofs filed for federal patent trademarks for the names “Anaheim Royals, “Anaheim Royals of Southern California,” “Orange County Royals” and “Los Angeles Royals.”
Mayor Johnson and Sacramento city officials aren’t ready to concede defeat. Last week, John Dangberg, Sacramento’s Assistant City Manager, sent a letter to Anaheim City Manager Thomas Wood urging the Anaheim City Council to cease negotiations with the Kings. He said the move could cause “irreparable harm to the City of Sacramento,” citing concern that the Maloof’s wouldn’t pay off a $73.8 million loan from the city if the team relocates. The letter prompted Joe Maloof to lash out at the mayor and city officials, saying, “We would appreciate that they not interfere with our business.”
This is one of my all-time favorite sports quotes. When asked by a reporter if he preferred grass or turf, former Mets hurler Tug McGraw famously responded,
“I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf.”
by Paul Knepper
Basketball fans generally embrace Cinderella stories in the Big Dance. George Mason became the darling of the 2006 tourney, when they shocked the nation by advancing to the Final Four. Last year’s bracketbuster Butler captured the hearts of fans during their magical run, which fell a few inches short of a championship.
Oddly, this year’s Cinderella VCU hasn’t conjured up the same emotion. The dark horse Rams are an 11 seed and had to beat USC in a play-in game just to get into the tournament. Then they won their next four games, culminating in a stunning upset of #1 seeded Kansas on Sunday, which landed them in the Final Four.
Second year coach Shaka Smart built the team around defensive ball pressure and ball movement. Ignited by their scrappy, diminutive point guard Joey Rodriguez, they play with an intensity that is all too uncommon in today’s collegiate game. They have a legitimate inside-outside threat in forward Jamie Skeen and Smart has instilled the confidence in his team that they can beat anybody.
One would think that basketball fans and reporters would be climbing over one another to jump on the Rams bandwagon, but since their victory over Kansas all I’ve heard is negativity and cynicism about their success. It seems as if most fans are annoyed that VCU is in the Final Four, for any number of reasons.
America likes to root for David against Goliath, but in this case the Rams are playing another David in long shot Butler, take two. The drama and intrigue surrounding an underdog requires a nemesis in the form of a national powerhouse like Duke or Ohio State. VCU already beat their Goliath in Kansas. Two David’s clashing doesn’t carry much sizzle.
Many members of the media have speculated that VCU’s presence in the Final Four will lead to low TV ratings and merchandise sales. According to Darren Rovell of CNBC, since this past weekend’s games the average price for a three-game ticket strip on StubHub for the two Final Four games and Final game has dropped from $748 to $631.
There’s also a chorus of voices arguing that the Rams didn’t deserve to be in the tournament in the first place. They point to their underwhelming 23-11 record in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) and that they lost five of their last eight games prior to the tournament. ESPN “bracketelogists” were stunned when the Rams were selected to participate in the tournament and some analysts like Jay Bilas were outraged by the decision. Shaka Smart was surprised himself. His team didn’t even watch the selection show because he didn’t want the disappointment of not being selected to be the defining moment of their 23 win season.
There are also fans and analysts who are rooting against VCU because they opposed the addition of eight teams and four play-in games to the tournament. They believe that the tourney was perfect with 64 teams and fear that VCU’s success as a play-in team will propel the push to expand the tournament to 96 or even 128 teams.
Several members of the media have sought to minimize the Rams accomplishments on the court during this stellar Final Four run. Certain analysts contend that VCU’s success is evidence that the quality of play in college basketball has deteriorated. Others argue that reaching the Final Four this year wasn’t that impressive because there weren’t any great teams in the tournament.
The most blatant disrespect thrown VCU’s way has been attacks on the quality of the competition they’ve faced. Many people believe that their first round opponent USC didn’t deserve to be in the play-in game. Georgetown, who they met in the second round, had been in a free-fall since losing their best player Chris Wright to injury.
The Purdue team they defeated in the third round was also playing without their star Robbie Hummel, though critics failed to mention that the Boilermakers played well enough to earn a #3 seed and were still one of the best defensive teams in the country without him. Plus, VCU didn’t just beat Purdue, they trounced them. The Rams then “squeaked by” a mediocre Florida State team in the fourth round to advance to the Elite Eight.
Even after beating Kansas, the #2 overall seed in the tournament, the Rams received minimal credit. Postgame analysis focused on why Kansas lost, not how VCU won. Rather than discussing the Rams sensational three-point shooting, analysts zeroed in on Kansas’ inability to make shots and their lack of rhythm offensively, as if VCU’s pressure defense had nothing to do with it.
Soon after VCU’s victory over Kansas, Las Vegas released the odds for each of the four remaining teams to win the tournament. Not surprisingly, VCU’s are by far the highest, at 13-2. If I were a betting man I’d jump all over that. You know the Rams are going to bring it on the defensive end, they’re not turning the ball over and if they remain hot from behind the arc, where they’re shooting 44% for the tournament, they’ll be very difficult to beat.
The funny thing is, Shaka Smart loves every one of these disparaging remarks about his team. It’s fuel for them. Smart’s been playing the underdog card all tournament. Now with people rooting against VCU, they’re not just an underdog, it’s them against the world. In yesterday’s press conference Smart summed up VCU’s situation by quoting another underdog, Jake Taylor, from the movie Major League:
“There’s only one thing left to do. Win the whole f-ing thing!”
Call me a curmudgeon, but it seems as if every time I watch a ballgame I develop a new pet peeve. There’s a countless number of things in sports which piss me off. I intended to make this a top ten list, but it just kept growing. Ultimately, I capped it at the top 25. Feel free to share your sports pet peeves with me.
This is a list of the top25 things in sports that piss me off.
25) People who wear suits to hockey games
I silently hope for these guys to get pummeled by the blue collar fans.
24) Yankee jerseys with names on the back
Any self-respecting baseball fan knows that the Yankees don’t have names on the back of their uniforms. Yet if you go to a game at Yankee Stadium you’ll see hundreds of fans with Jeter, Posada or Rodriguez on the back of their jerseys. If you don’t know who the jersey belongs to you shouldn’t be wearing it in the first place.
23) Tennis players apologizing after a net ball
Why do tennis players apologize when they hit a shot that clips the top of the net and falls on their opponent’s side of the court? They didn’t do anything wrong. Fortuitous breaks are part of every sport. You don’t see hitters apologize to the pitcher when they mishit a ball, but it bloops in for a hit.
22) Flopping in soccer
Nobody likes a flopper and soccer players have made an art form of it. It disrupts the fluidity of the game and far too often ends up determining the outcome.
21) Politically correct college team names
I grew up a fan of the St. John’s Redmen. About a decade ago the school changed their name to the Red Storm. I support ending the use of racist team names, but what the hell is a red storm? A few years ago Syracuse dropped the “men” from Orangemen. As if Orangemen wasn’t bad enough, they’re now just the Orange.
20) Players that celebrate when their teams are way behind
We’ve all seen these guys in action; the receiver who dances in the end zone when his team is down 28 points in the fourth quarter; the selfish shooting guard who does a little shimmy after dunking the ball with his team trailing by 20. Hand the ball to the referee and get your ass back on defense!
19) The charge-block call in college b-ball
It’s the most difficult and arbitrary call in basketball. A couple of weeks ago I saw a player on Carolina take off a few feet from the basket, dunk the ball and get called for a charge. Why doesn’t the NCAA just add that dotted line the NBA uses?
18) Fans who talk above their knowledge level
I don’t discriminate against non-sports fans. It’s not your thing, that’s cool. However, I will hold it against you if you pretend to know more than you do. When you make comments or argue a point and don’t have a solid grasp on what you’re talking about, the people who do will sniff you out immediately and you’ll look like a fool.
17) Athletes who thank god
If there is a god, he’s got a lot more to worry about than the outcome of a game. Narcissistic athletes who point to the sky after every base hit are trivializing the very god they’re thanking. Keep your religion to yourself pal.
16) Baseball fans who reach onto the field and touch a fair ball
Not only should they be kicked out of the game, they should be banned from the stadium for the rest of the season.
15) When football announcers don’t know anything about the teams they’re covering
The NFL is aired exclusively by major networks so unlike other leagues there aren’t regular home team announcers. There can be a difficult color man doing the game every week. The broadcasters read up on teams before they cover a game, but it’s often apparent that they don’t know the intricacies and patterns of the team and its players as well as hardcore fans do. Some broadcasters fake it better than others. Phil Simms is not one of them.
14) Using correlated statistics to prove causation
For example, an announcer may conclude that since a team has a great record when their running back gets 25 carries, they won those games because the back got 25 carries. To the contrary, very often that back had 25 carries because his team was up big and he just ran out the clock in the fourth quarter. The carries could be a product of the win, not the cause.
13) Calling teams “World Champions”
When the Lakers won the NBA championship last year they weren’t “World Champions.” They were NBA champions. Period. They didn’t compete against any European, Asian or South American teams. The same goes for the league champion of every other major sport in this country.
12) Fraternizing with opponents
If you want to get dinner with your opponent the night before the game or give him a hug during warm-ups that’s your business, but anything more than a quick hello is fraternizing with the enemy. Once the whistle blows I don’t want to see so much as a smile between opponents. Pat Riley had the right idea when he fined his players for helping their opponents up off the floor.
11) The smelly guy in pickup ball
At the end of a long run everybody stinks, but sometimes on the first possession of the first game you find yourself fighting for position with a guy who wreaks before even working up a sweat. As Keyshawn would say, “C’mon man.”
10) Shooting shirts into the crowd
I paid to watch a ballgame, not the circus.
9) Hockey teams get a point when they lose in overtime or a shootout
And people wonder why nobody follows hockey anymore.
8) Timeouts before field goals
I don’t have statistics on this, but I don’t think freezing the kicker by calling a timeout at the last second before he attempts a field goal makes a difference. The pressure on the kicker is the same after the timeout and sometimes the strategy backfires because the kicker misses the first attempt, then makes it after the timeout.
7) Slapping five after free throws
This began in the last ten to fifteen years and I can’t get used to it. What exactly is the purpose of the other four players on the floor slapping a guy five between his foul shots? These are free throws we’re talking; If the shooter makes the first one it’s not a big deal and if he misses he’ll be okay. He doesn’t need encouragement from teammates before shooting the next one.
6) Guys who don’t run out ground balls
What, they don’t get paid enough?
5) The BCS
I know I speak for the whole country on this one. The champion should be decided on the field, not by a computer.
4) People who say “You don’t make that call at that point in the game.”
This one infuriates me. Some people say that certain fouls should not be called late in a basketball game. Their argument is that the refs should leave it up to the players to decide the outcome. I say the player decided the outcome when he committed the foul. The refs would be deciding the outcome if they ignored the rules and swallowed their whistles. The most important aspect of officiating is consistency. If it’s a foul early in the game, it’s a foul in the closing minutes too.
3) Mets fans
There’s no need to elaborate on these goofballs, their inferiority complex, delusional expectations or ridiculous mascot. They speak for themselves. Exhibits A, B and C…
2) Too many men on the field
Jim Bouton said it well…“Baseball players are smarter than football players. How often do you see a baseball team penalized for too many men on the field?”
Is there any stronger evidence as to the damage caused by concussions? Kids in Pop Warner know how to count to eleven. I get aggravated whenever one of my teams commit a stupid penalty or foul, but this one makes me ANGRY.
1) “We’re doing this for the fans”
Whenever the owner of a sports team utters this phrase he’s lying through his teeth and dipping deeper into your pocket. It’s condescending and insulting to our intelligence. Using my tax dollars to build a new stadium in order to charge ticket prices I can’t afford and install luxury boxes I’ll never step foot in is not in my best interest.
After ten years in Seattle, Junior signed with the Cincinnati Reds following the 1999 season. That’s where the story took a dark turn. In what later came to be known as the steroid era, home run totals spiked and Mark McGwire’s Popeye-esque forearms were the rave. But as sluggers like McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds and Rafael Palmeiro grew stronger with age, Griffey began to break down. It’s a cruel reality which athletes face on the other side of 30, their bodies, the core of their identity, vocation, fortune and fame, slow down and eventually fail them. Some athletes break down younger than others. Griffey’s body began to give out at the age of 31.
by Paul Knepper
San Diego State was the surprise team in college basketball this season, compiling a 32-2 record and securing a two seed in the NCAA tournament. Of course, Aztecs Coach Steve Fisher is no stranger to success, having coached in three NCAA Tournament Finals while at Michigan in the late 80’s and early 90’s. But this time around is different because Coach Fish is the one in the spotlight.
Fisher’s foray into big time college coaching was rather abrupt. He replaced Bill Frieder as Michigan’s head coach just days before the NCAA Tournament in 1989. Frieder had announced that he would be leaving Michigan for Arizona State at the end of the season and Michigan’s Athletic Director Bo Schembechler responded by famously stating that “a Michigan man is going to coach Michigan.” He fired Frieder immediately.
Fisher was handed the job on an interim basis and Schembechler intended to hire a big name coach after the season. Nobody expected Michigan to advance very far in the tournament after changing coaches days before it started, but a funny thing happened. The Wolverines won the whole thing behind the sweet shooting of Glen Rice and two clutch free throws by Rumeal Robinson and Bo removed the interim tag from Fisher’s title.
Still, the ’89 championship team was viewed as Frieder’s guys and after two disappointing seasons Fisher’s job was believed to be in jeopardy. Then he landed perhaps the greatest recruiting class in the history of college basketball, five extremely talented and athletic kids who came to be known as “The Fab Five.”
Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson all started as freshmen and shocked the college basketball establishment by advancing to the finals of the NCAA Tournament before being trounced by a more experienced Duke team. The following year they returned to the championship game only to suffer a heartbreaking defeat at the hands of North Carolina, in a game best remembered for Chris Webber‘s ill-fated timeout call.
Despite recruiting the Fab Five and leading them to unprecedented success, Fisher received more criticism than credit for their tenure in Maize and Blue. It has often been portrayed, as was the case in the Fab Five documentary which recently aired on ESPN, that Fisher got Howard to commit and then Howard took care of the rest, convincing the other four to join him in Ann Arbor.
Fisher also never received any credit for the team’s accomplishments. Their wins were attributed to the players, yet he took a large share of the blame for the losses. There was a common perception that the Fab Five were undisciplined and that Fish just rolled the balls onto the floor and told the talented youngsters to play. Anybody who follows basketball closely knows that’s ridiculous. No matter how much talent a team has that talent must be directed and molded into a cohesive unit on the court.
Very few sportswriters addressed the unique challenges that Fisher faced in dealing with five freshmen starters or praised the coach for channeling their creativity, individualism and swagger into production on the court rather than stifling it as many coaches would have. The only time the media discussed Fisher’s coaching ability was in the context of explaining why the Wolverines fell short of that elusive National Championship, especially in the game against North Carolina.
After the loss to the Tarheels, Webber left for the NBA. The following year the remaining four members of the Fab Five advanced to the “Elite Eight”, then Howard and Rose followed C-Webb to greener pastures. Fisher recruited several more highly touted freshmen over the next few years, but they yielded mediocre results on the court, the pinnacle being an NIT Championship in 1997.
In light of a growing scandal centered around Michigan booster Ed Martin, Fisher was abruptly fired prior to the 1997-98 season. The investigation continued until 2003, when the NCAA concluded that Martin had given over $600,000 total to Webber and three other Wolverines coached by Fisher, Robert “Tractor” Traylor, Louis Bullock and Maurice Taylor. The NCAA’s report indicated that Fisher had left complimentary tickets to a game for Martin and that the coach failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance within the program. The university removed the 1992 and 1993 Final Four banners from the ceiling of Crisler Arena.
After being fired by Michigan Fisher took a year off and then worked as an assistant coach for the Sacramento Kings for one season. In 1999, he took over as the head coach of San Diego State where he inherited a program that hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament in 17 years, suffered 13 losing seasons over the previous 14 years and won just four games the season before.
Coach Fish quickly turned the program around, building them into a .500 team in his second season. In his third year on the job the Aztecs won 21 games and earned a trip to the NCAA tournament. Since then, they’ve made four appearances in the NIT and returned to the Big Dance in 2006 and 201o. Still the school has never won an NCAA tournament game, though that may be about to change.
San Diego State returned five starters this season from a team that came within three points of knocking off Tennessee in the first round of last year’s tournament and were considered the favorites in the Mountain West Conference, but nobody expected them to be this good. The Aztecs won 32 games and lost just 2, both to BYU, and they avenged those losses in the finals of the Mountain West Conference Tournament. That earned them the second seed in the West Region, where they’re set to open with a first round matchup against the University of Northern Colorado.
Unlike, Fisher’s Michigan teams San Diego State’s roster isn’t replete with bluechip prospects. The Aztecs are comprised of kids that other teams didn’t want and Fisher has coached them up. They’re tough upfront with Kawhi Leonard, who averaged 15.2 points and 10.7 rebounds per game and Malcolm Thomas and Billy White. The Aztecs also have the balanced scoring, depth and coaching experience to make a run deep into the tournament.
Steve Fisher’s head coaching career started with a blast, morphed into a national phenomenon and then crash landed in scandal. Now, at 65-years-old, he has a major player in the Big Dance once again and this time there’s no star on the team for the media to shine the spotlight on. The name mentioned in the lead-in to Aztec games is the coach’s. This is Steve Fisher’s team.
by Paul Knepper
Former North Carolina coach Dean Smith was one of the greatest basketball coaches of all-time. He won 879 games, 17 regular-season ACC Championships and made 11 trips to the Final Four, winning two championships. Strangely, both championships were won on two of the greatest blunders in the history of the NCAA Tournament.
Smith’s first championship came in 1982, when his Tarheels defeated John Thompson’s Georgetown Hoyas 63-62, in what is commonly known as Michael Jordan’s coming out party. The game was replete with star-power, with Sam Perkins and the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player James Worthy joining the freshman Jordan in the starting lineup. Georgetown countered with a freshman phenom of its own, seven-footer Patrick Ewing, and slick point guard Eric “Sleepy” Floyd.
The game was tightly contested from start to finish, with the lead changing hands several times. Floyd put the Hoyas ahead 62-61 with just over a minute to play. Then as a foreshadow to a legendary career to come, Jordan swished a shot from the wing with 17 seconds remaining to give the Tarheels a one point lead.
Hoyas guard Fred Brown brought the ball into the frontcourt and dribbled for a few seconds before he threw the ball right to James Worthy, on the other team. Worthy had been overplaying the passing lane and his man went back door. Brown didn’t realize and thought Worthy was his teammate. Georgetown fouled Worthy, and though he missed both free throws, the Hoyas were out of timeouts and had to heave a desperation three, which was off the mark at the buzzer.
Brown’s gaffe was the most memorable blunder in college basketball lore until eleven years later when Coach Smith and his Tarheels once again found themselves in the Championship Game. This time Carolina faced a brash Michigan team coached by Steve Fisher, known as the “Fab Five.” Led by All-American Chris Webber, the Wolverines were anxious to atone for the drubbing they received in the Championship Game the previous season at the hands of the Duke Blue Devils.
Carolina was an experienced team led by Donald Williams, Eric Montross and George Lynch and they jumped out to an early lead, behind Williams hot-shooting, but the Wolverines slowly clawed their way back. T
he Tarheels led 73-71, with 19 seconds remaining when Webber grabbed 
the rebound off a missed free throw by Carolina’s Pat Sullivan. What happened next remains indelibly embedded in the memory of every college basketball fan.
C-Webb didn’t know what to do after he snatched the board. He looked like he was about to call time out and then clearly traveled as he looked to the bench for guidance, but the referees didn’t call it. Unable to get the ball to point guard Jalen Rose, he dribbled into the frontcourt and then signaled for a timeout. The problem was the Wolverines were out of timeouts. They were assessed a technical foul, giving Carolina two free throws and the ball. That was the game. Eighteen years later, Webber hasn’t lived it down and the average basketball fan doesn’t remember anything about that game other than his timeout call.
Brown and Webber’s blunders in the closing seconds of those two championship games in no way tarnish the accomplishments and legacy of Dean Smith or those Carolina teams. The Tarheels deserved to win both games. Smith’s good fortune is just an interesting quirk in college basketball history for you sports conspiracy theorists out there to ponder as we dive head first into another year of March Madness.
Paul Knepper