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Fun & Games for Thursday, July 31, 2008 |
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July 31, 2008 |
≡ Fun & Games ≡
 Paterno: future depends on roster or police blotter? |
= To Our Readers =
You can now find us in two different places on the Web: in addition to The Sports Examiner, we now write three times a week on Olympic sports for the World Championship Sports Network site, WCSN.com in a column called “Inside the Rings.”
Here at The Sports Examiner, we have changed our format to include a weekly intelligence briefing, with commentary, for the astute sports fan called “7 Days” on Mondays and a bonus posting called “Fun & Games” during the week. Thanks again for your continued support; please ask your friends to sign up for the Tip Sheet and the free newsletter.
= The Top Story =
>> Washington, D.C.: There have been many cries over the decline in the quality of journalism in today’s blog-infested media environment. But when high-profile and long-experienced journalists like columnist Norman Chad loses his way, it’s time to get concerned.
From his column in the Washington Post from July 28 entitled “Breaking Down the Wider World of Sports TV,” this aside:
“Notre Dame’s president, the Rev. John Jenkins, says the school and NBC have ‘a special relationship that’s about more than football.’ Actually – and stop me if I’m being too cynical here – the special relationship is about two large institutions backing up the truck to the nearest Wells Fargo and dumping large amounts of cash into already-bulging Jumbo C.D. accounts, then retiring for a drink at 21.”
Where to start? Let’s begin with the fact that Wells Fargo has no branches in New York, so it would be hard to commute to lunch at 21 . . . and if Chad thinks Notre Dame puts its money in Jumbo C.D.s, he needs to be introduced to Scott Malpass, the university’s chief investment officer. By the way, Malpass was Notre Dame’s highest-paid employee in 2006-07 – not football coach Charlie Weis – at $1,242.998 in salary plus a $364,147 in benefits and pension plan.
Being funny is fine . . . but get the facts, or at least the geography, right!
= The National Pastime =
>> Lakewood, Co.: Although the Tampa Bay Rays aren’t his favorite team, John Keiley, the owner of Johnny’s New York Pizza & Pasta in the Denver suburb of Lakewood is offering free pizzas if the Rays win the World Series.
It’s not the first time he’s made this kind of offer, primarily for publicity purposes. According to the St. Petersburg Times, he offered free pizza in June of 2007 if the hometown Rockies swept the Yankees; that cost him 2,500 pies and about $12,000.
Last fall, he offered free pizza if any team went 16-0. When New England did, about 1,500 pizzas flew out the door, gratis. Now, he says, “I’m rooting for the Rays. And if the Red Sox and Yankees don’t get in the playoffs, that would be heaven.”
≡ ¶ ≡
>> New York, N.Y.: Great comment from Jon Heyman of SI.com: “Joba Chamberlain’s head-hunting is going to get someone hurt – on his own team. Alex Rodriguez was drilled the day after Chamberlain threw at Kevin Youkilis’ own hot head.”
= College Football =
>> Bristol, Ct.: This is the fun time in college football, when every team has high hopes and every fall practice starts with each team undefeated and unscored on.
But ESPN’s Mark Schlabach noted that there are some teams fans love to hate and his top ten for the 2008 season includes Ohio State at no. 1 (“Many college football fans are hoping they don’t have to watch the Buckeyes lose in the BCS championship game again”), followed by USC at no. 2:
No team has been as dominant during the last decade as the Trojans. A lot of fans wonder why the NCAA hasn’t taken a closer look at how USC has done it.
The list continues with Notre Dame, Florida, Oklahoma, Michigan, Texas, Alabama, Miami and Tennessee. Of the Hurricanes, Schlabach notes “Coach Randy Shannon has gone a long way in cleaning up the Hurricanes’ off-field image. Unfortunately, there was two decades’ worth of garbage to clean up.”
≡ ¶ ≡
>> New York, N.Y.: Over at SI.com, college football specialist Stewart Mandel unveiled his picks of the teams most likely to over-achieve, as well as the reverse.
Picked to do better than expected: Rutgers, Utah and Alabama (“In Saban, I trust”). The three he thinks could drop from lofty pre-season expectations: West Virginia, Texas Tech (“It’s not inconceivable they could wind up as this year’s Cal”) and Wisconsin.
Mandel also included an important note about home scheduling: “Major programs like ‘Bama are dependent on having no fewer than seven home games to balance their monstrous athletic department budgets, not to mention appease their season-ticket holders and the local businesses that benefit from football weekends.”
≡ ¶ ≡
>> State College, Pa.: One pre-fall camp season that isn’t going so well is at Penn State, where the local media are noting that the ESPN “Outside the Lines” program detailed the recent off-the-field activities of Penn State players.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Bob Smizik, “The show found that since 2002, 46 Penn State players have been charged with 163 criminal complaints. Forty-five of those complaints resulted in guilty pleas or convictions. Of the 46 players charged, 27 pleaded guilty or were convicted.” The total in 2007 was 17 players charged with a total of 72 crimes.
“I think you’ve done an awful lot of probing which bothers me that you might be on a witch hunt,” said coach Joe Paterno. Smizik’s response was “The show was a damning indictment that had to leave Penn State officials both furious and embarrassed. It also might be all that was needed to push Paterno into retirement after this season, whether that’s what he wants or not.”
Comment: Wishful thinking on the columnist’s part. What if the Lions are 10-2, win the Big Ten and play in the Rose Bowl? Then what? Paterno will leave when he wants to. ≡ ¶ ≡
>> Minneapolis, Mn.: Golden Gophers coach Tim Brewster is unhappy about the commercial revenues that Rivals.com and Scout.com have, among others, generated from their reporting. “I don’t particularly like the fact that Rivals.com and Scout.com have people getting rich off kids, selling information,” he told the Minnesota Daily. “That’s not something I feel really good about.”
Comment: Grow up, coach. Under your theory, all news media should be eliminated. Every heard of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution?
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Berkeley, Ca.: “After the way Washington and Stanford happened,” said Cal coach Jeff Tedford – referring to last season’s losses to two tail-of-the-conference teams during Cal’s free-fall at the end of 2007 – “it was evident that we all needed to come together and look at accountability issues. That’s what we did.”
What Tedford did was eliminate the names on the back of Cal’s jerseys this season, as was done for the Golden Bears’ appearance in the Armed Forces Bowl in a salute to the troops. “It was taking identity off of individuals and putting it back on the team.”
Good idea, assuming the Cal players actually introduce themselves to one another during the pre-season.
= The NBA =
>> Houston, Tx.: The impending move of Ron Artest from Sacramento – where he became a liability after he said he made a mistake in not opting out of his contract at the end of last season – to Houston brings a talented, 28-year-old star to the Rockets. But also a ticking time bomb.
For all of Artest’s considerable ability, especially as a defender, he seems never to be too far from trouble. From his participation in the 2004 melee at the Palace of Auburn Hills to a 2007 arrest and subsequent conviction for domestic abuse and plenty in between, Artest is now on his fourth team as he starts his 10th year in the league.
The pressure is on Rockets coach Rick Adelman, who coached Artest in Sacramento in the 2005-06 season, to make the acquisition work. Artest’s presence certainly gives the Rockets more front-court power, with Shane Battier and Yao Ming, plus Tracy McGrady now able to move to shooting guard if desired.
≡ ¶ ≡
>> London, England: The NBA announced that the pre-season game between Miami and New Jersey to be held in London’s 16,500-seat O2 Arena has sold out a full three months prior to the October 12 match.
The league has scheduled three other European pre-season games: in Paris on October 9 (also Miami and New Jersey), in Berlin on October 14 between New Orleans and Washington and between the same two teams in Barcelona on October 17.
Says NBA observer Bruce the Moose: “I wonder which four European cities are being considered for NBA expansion teams?”
= Soccer =
>> Vienna, Austria: The 2008 European Championships, co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland, were widely considered to be a great success, not only on the field, but as one of the only events in history in which every ticket was sold out in advance.
Just how great a success was underlined on Wednesday, when the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) announced that the tournament had generated $2.03 billion (converted from Euro) in total revenues and a profit of $389.4 million (a little over 19%).
The largest components of the revenue side came from the sale of radio and television rights ($1.25 billion), sponsorship ($436 million), tickets ($130 million) and corporate hospitality programs ($203 million).
Viewership was also at record levels with at least 155 million people viewing each match live and a record 62 million visitors to the euro2008.com Web site.
= The Five-Ring Circus =
>> Lausanne, Switzerland: The International Olympic Committee is all about protecting athletes, except if its own rules are at issue.
That’s the message of this week’s tussle over the participation of Iraq in the Games. It wasn’t that the seven Iraqis who wanted to compete weren’t eligible, but that the National Olympic Committee of Iraq didn’t meet the IOC’s requirements for independence. So did the IOC ask the international federations responsible for the management of the affected to hold the places for the Iraqis while talks ensued? No.
Thus, when the Iraqi government and the IOC came to an agreement about the election of an “independent” national Olympic committee later this year, the IOC stated that only the two athletes who were slated to compete in track & field would be able to compete in the Games.
Comment: Look for special dispensations to be made for Iraqi entries in some of the other sports, such as archery and rowing and perhaps weightlifting. It may, in fact, be too late to include an additional entry in judo.
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Beijing, China: Condoms have been a popular item in the Olympic Villages in recent Games and Beijing appears to be no different.
About 130,000 condoms were made available in the village in Athens in 2004, but in 2008, a Chinese condom manufacturer called Elasun, has had its commercials become a viral sensation in China, according to the British newspaper, The Telegraph.
The ads picture condoms involved in cycling (as bike wheels), basketball (as a net), archery (a target) and as still rings in gymnastics, among others. There’s no indication in the ads, however, that Elasun is an Olympic sponsor or supplier, however. Where is the ambush marketing crew?
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Moscow, Russia: “The Russians are coming” trumpeted the New York Times on Tuesday, reporting the enormous new influx of money into athletic training in a bid to return Russia to the top of the medal standings in future Olympic Games.
Thanks to the oil wealth of the country, funding is now available to rebuild the training facilities for sports amid a patriotic fervor that will be aided by the selection of Sochi to host the 2014 Winter Games. The article includes a comment from former NHL star Vyacheslav Fetisov, who noted that the budget for facility improvements at Rossport, founded in 2002, started at just $200,000 per year, but is up to $1 billion today. “We can give our athletes the opportunity to train in the best facilities. We have the means for this.”
= Potpourri =
>> Singapore: In a circus atmosphere with 300 screaming fans, Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi took the measure of American vacuum cleaner Joey Chestnut in a match over Singaporean Chicken Saute. The 5-8, 161-lb. Kobayashi downed five kg of chicken (about 11 pounds) in 12 minutes while the larger Chestnut (6-2, 216) could stomach only 4 kg (about 8.8 lbs.). “The sauce was sweeter than expected and that slowed me,” said Chestnut. “I couldn’t find my rhythm.”
According to the story from the Associated Press, Kobayashi, 30, takes home about $200,000 a year from his eating competitions, about double that of Chestnut, 24, an engineering student at San Jose State. The event was part of the annual Singapore Food Festival.
~ Rich Perelman
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