Jeff Cooper Is Right. .

Jeff Cooper Is Right. . . To point out that yesterday's labor settlement in baseball seems to have opened the way for a franchise (most likely the Montreal Expos) to relocate to the Washington, D.C. area. I hinted at this in my post yesterday, and both local papers here picked up on the story right quick. The Washington Post gave plenty of column inches to local baseball maven Tom Boswell for his analysis of the situation:

"This is exactly what we hoped for," said a principal in one of the area's three prospective ownership groups. "The Expos are up for grabs and there isn't another town out there that can compete with this area. Las Vegas? Portland? Charlotte? This is the place, the only place. Our competition will be among ourselves, between Washington and Northern Virginia. So we'll have to scrap it out."

That may be overly optimistic. Baltimore owner Peter Angelos, a central figure in the labor negotiations and most recently a close ally of Selig, fiercely opposes a team for Washington.

Nothing in the sport's bylaws gives him a right to block a National League team, like the Expos, from coming here. But baseball is famous for backroom deals and power brokering. Some potential local owners already concede that Angelos would need to be indemnified by millions if a team came here.

"Seeing Angelos seated so prominently at [yesterday's labor settlement] press conference didn't do my stomach any good," said another member of a local ownership group. "It was like watching the May Day Parade [in Moscow] to see who was 'in' and who was 'out' in the Kremlin."

The price to buy out Angelos: according to Boswell, $50 million. And that on top of the roughly $300 million it will take to buy the team from Major League Baseball.

And who is going to step up with a check that big? Boswell names three possible groups. The first is headed by Fred Malek, an old friend of the Bush family. Not mentioned in the Boswell piece, but also part of the Malek group is Franklin Raines, former head of the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton Administration, and now head of Fannie Mae. They're committed to putting a team in the District at RFK, and then getting a new stadium built, location TBD in the District. Take a look at the rest of his management team, which includes AOL Founder Jim Kimsey, here.

The second group, headed by William Collins, seems to have been around forever. Collins is Chairman and CEO of Metrocall, a paging company based in Northern Virginia. He'd like to decamp the team to RFK for a few seasons, and then move it to a brand new stadium somewhere in traffic choked Northern Virginia. The state of Virginia has moved stongly behind Collins, starting a baseball stadium authority. According to the Washington Times, plans have gone so far that they are on the verge of selecting an architect to design a new park. Check out Virginians for Baseball, here.

The last mentioned is the team of Redskins owner Dan Snyder and Black Entertainment Television CEO Bob Johnson. They casually mentioned once that they would like to investigate bringing a team to the area, but haven't made any other moves since. Johnson has been on the trail of a sports franchise for the better part of a decade now, having once pursued the NHL's Washington Capitals. Back then, he vowed he would turn the Caps into "black America's team," before Abe Pollin decided to sell the team to current owner Ted Leonsis.

But there are a number of problems with some of these groups, ones that weren't really dealt with in either story. Let's rewind through the list. We need to remember that Snyder's only business interest these days is the Redskins, and he needed to leverage himself pretty heavily in order to acqire the team (I also recall that Snyder's financing of the team required special approval from the NFL). Plus, the Redskins are his first love; do we really believe he would drop everything right now in the beginning of the football season in order to acquire a baseball team too? I'll believe it when I see it. In the Washington Times piece, Snyder and Johnson aren't mentioned at all as serious players.

While I give the Collins group points for their peristence, as well as for their deft enlistment of the state of Virginia in their cause, there is one huge optic problems with their bid -- namely the poor state of Metrocall, a company that's teetering on the brink of oblivion. To see a selection of recent headlines about Metrocall's bankruptcy woes, click here. While the market value of Metrocall might not track exactly with Collins' own net worth, it doesn't help his bid much at all. (As Caps owner Leonsis pointed out, the crash in AOL/TW's stock price didn't make his ownership of the Caps shaky, as he had "paid cash" for the team.) And if you're the owners of MLB, are you going to sell to somebody who's running a company in bankruptcy?

Which leaves Malek's group. Politically connected on both sides of the aisle, and with easy access to all sorts of capital. It doesn't hurt that he wants to plop the team in the District and keep it there. And that's where I'd lay my money if I was a betting man.

What could go wrong? Plenty. Baseball hasn't exactly been known for making all the right moves, and although it seems as if there isn't any choice but to move the Expos immediately, you never know with this crew. If a move to D.C. does happen, I would think we'd have to see it all sewn up before the end of the regular season. So buying up lots of sod in the District might not be a bad investment.

POSTSCRIPT: If I was one of the investors in Major League Soccer, or the Women's United Soccer Association, I'd look at all of this news with growing alarm. In terms of attendance, both D.C. United and the Washington Freedom are among the most successful franchises in their respective leagues. But whenever talk turns to baseball moving to their home field at RFK, it seems as if everyone assumes that they'd be on their own. As to where they would go, the best bet would be to George Mason University in Fairfax. At that point, you start hoping you can convince the locals to help build a soccer-specific stadium right next to the baseball field.

Cutting Off The Cash To

Cutting Off The Cash To Spite Your Foe? The very public, and at times nasty, fight over whether women should be admitted as members to Augusta National Golf Club has taken a truly bizzare turn. In an effort to blunt an avenue of attack by feminist pressure groups, the club has decided to "suspend" all television sponsorships for the 2003 Masters -- making the tournament the only major sporting event on television to run commercial free:

Club chairman Hootie Johnson notified IBM, Citigroup and Coca-Cola that the Masters ''will not request their participation.''

Those were the only companies that were allowed to run commercials during the broadcast. Their logos also appeared on the Masters' Web site.

''This year's telecast will be conducted by the Masters Tournament,'' Johnson said in a statement. ''We appreciate everything our media sponsors have done for us, but under the circumstances, we think it is important to take this step.''

The broadcast of the Masters was already nearly commercial free, with only 4 minutes per hour given over to spots. To read a copy of Johnson's statement, click here. Essentially, the club's action takes the biggest club out of the hands of the National Council of Women's Organizations, the feminist group that approached the sponsors in an attempt to enlist them in the fight to get Augusta to change its membership policies.

First question: just how much money will Augusta forfeit with this action? Hard to say, but according to the Seattle Times, weekly tickets to the Masters only cost $125 -- approximately half the cost of the other major golf championships (PGA Championship, US Open). For scalpers, the Masters is a gold mine. Back in 1998, CNNSI reported that badges that then went for $100, regularly were re-sold for $5,000 each. And in 1997, when Tiger Woods won his first Masters, the badges went for $10,000 a piece.

According to CBS Sportsline, only 30,000 badges are printed every year, and are tightly controlled by the folks at Augusta. Management is very vigilant about fighting scalping, and members who are discovered re-selling badges for greater than face value have them revoked.

The club could easily raise the price to equal the other majors, and could most likely raise them even higher. Right now, with 30,000 badges priced at $125 each, the club takes in $3.75 million from ticket sales. If they were to raise the price to $500, they could easily increase their take to $15 million. Better yet, instead of issuing weekly passes, Augusta could issue passes for individual rounds -- driving the price, and the take, even higher. For instance, they could institute a sliding scale, charging progressively higher amounts for later rounds.

Also of note, is the fact that the folks at Augusta have been scrupulous about keeping the tournamnet as far away from commercial influence as possible, often forgoing types of merchandising other golf tournaments eagerly embrace. But with the club needing to make up the shortfall from the suspension of television advertsing, it's clear a number of options Augusta would normally have refused to contemplate have to be on the table now.

So, in the end, Augusta National seems better positioned to whether this fight than any other private organization in the country. It seems clear that there going to do exactly what they say -- take their time and admit women to the club on their own terms. And if these preliminary figures are anywhere near the truth, they can afford to wait a heck of a long time.

Something tells me that much of the bitterness we've heard in Johnson's voice over this issue is rooted in these decisions he now clearly feels forced to make. Keeping commercial influence away from Augusta and the Masters has always been a real priority for the club, and Johnson has been confronted with a choice. Namely, which change is easier to swallow, admitting women to Augusta, or permitting a crass commercialization of his beloved event. In this case, it's clear he's chosen the former. To what effect remains to be seen.

(News links via Sportsfilter.)

UPDATE: The New York Times has some specifics on the money involved.

Now That The Baseball's Owners

Now That The Baseball's Owners and Players. . . Have settled their differences, it's time to retire our first Pulse Poll that asked my readers what they would do in the event of a baseball strike. For the record, more than 65 percent said they would, "get on with their lives." Just about 19 percent would have blamed the players, while a little more than 9 percent would have scorched ownership. A little more than 3 percent each would have blamed the media, or their parents.

In any case, onto the next poll. I'd like to ask what my readers think about the next Super Bowl champ. I consulted a random online odds maker, and listed last year's Super Bowl finalists along with the next five favorites. If you don't like any of the picks, I've included a device from paramutual betting where you can lay odds on anyone else who isn't named. I'll keep the poll up until the NFL season opener on Thursday, September 5th. As always, vote early and often.

Early This Morning. . .

Early This Morning. . . I read about the spontaneous anti-strike protest that took place in Anahiem last night during the Angels-Devil Rays game. But, thanks to the blogosphere, we can read about it first hand from blogger and Angels fan, Matt Welch. And that's far more fun, and chock full of extra details:

Yet the real fun was letting these bastards have it. The crowd, as is normal for Anaheim, was mostly well-behaved and supportive for the first six innings. Then, before the top of the seventh, the rowdies in the right field pavilion staged a beautifully Southern Californian protest -- they dumped 10 beach balls onto the field. Play had to be stopped, and people started chanting “Don’t Strike! Don’t Strike!” It felt good. Tampa Bay’s Steve Cox came up, and fouled off about 39 pitches. On the 36th or so, the teen behind the home-plate screen who caught the ball immediately fired it back onto the field. We went nuts. Every foul ball from then on was greeted with chants of “Throw it back! Throw it back!” About half the time, they did (including one from the upper deck that landed about 10 feet from Appier) In one instance, a sheepish guy handed the ball to his wife, who immediately flung toward the infield, though it didn’t quite make it over the screen. She got a standing O while being escorted out of the stadium.

For the rest of the game, the players looked spooked. The public address announcer kept trying to lecture us about the “appropriate” way to express ourselves, but he was drowned out with boos. Middle-aged men were randomly shouting out things like: “You strike you SUCK!” The bottom of the ninth began with a fusillade of toilet paper, full $4 cokes, plastic bottles and spit. The PA dude warned us about forcing the Angels to forfeit, which would have been a deliciously painful twist, especially if the season ended today (with the team out of the playoffs by a half-game, because of the fans).

Read the whole thing, you'll be glad you did.

UPDATE: Steve MacLaughlin, a fan who gave up on the game after the 1994 strike, has his own thoughts.

Baseball Strike Averted: News just

Baseball Strike Averted: News just off the wires, read the AP story on ESPN.com here. Biggest news so far -- contraction put off till 2006. How the Expos could survive in Montreal much longer I don't know, which leads me to believe that the league will find a buyer willing to move it out of town ASAP. More commentary later.

UPDATE: The players have agreed not to challenge contraction after 2007, which is as good as a guarantee that the owners won't resort to it. Most likely, this means a number of franchises will most likely move, or at least use that threat in order to extract better lease agreements on their ballparks. The piece says that steroid testing will begin next season "on a survey basis," which suggests to me that the language in the final agreement is probably closer to what the players proposed. In effect, the public debate over steroids merely handed a cudgel to the owners in the negotiations, one they probably used to get leverage elsewhere.

ANOTHER UPDATE: The 'Luxury Tax' charge paid by the Yankees and a handful of other clubs, is set to rise. Not a surprise, and in effect, it's nothing different from revenue sharing in other sports anyway. In any case, I'm wondering if Yankee owner George Steinbrenner's hiring of Microsoft lawyer David Boise will actually lead to anything. If he wanted, Steinbrenner could throw the whole agreement with a mere press conference.

Spending His Labor Day Weekend.

Spending His Labor Day Weekend. . . In Indianapolis covering the World Basketball Championships can't be a lot of fun for Washington Post sports writer Steve Wyche.

That's why I'm sure Wyche was relieved yesterday as a former Los Angeles Laker center started talking trash about his team's chances of knocking off the U.S. in the tournament:

If there were any doubt about how far international basketball has come, look no further than Yugoslavia's Vlade Divac. The starting center for the Sacramento Kings, Divac said here today that the U.S. national team's reign as the world's basketball power is in jeopardy.

"We don't think we can beat them, we know we can beat them just like somebody can beat us before we can meet [Team USA] in the finals," Divac said after his team whipped outclassed Angola, 113-63, in opening-round action of the World Basketball Championship at Conseco Field House. "They are the favorites and they are number one and the best. [Do] we have a chance against them? Yeah, we do have a chance. If we come close, we will take advantage of it."

"I want to be part of history," Divac said about knocking off the U.S. team on its home turf -- the first time this tournament has been played here. "That is why I am here."

Now, while the U.S. team in Indianapolis isn't the strongest the country has put together since we started sending NBA players to the Olympics in 1992, it isn't exactly composed of pikers either. If Yugoslavia, or anyone else for that matter, were to beat the U.S. in this tourney, it would be a monumental upset.

So why is Divac talking so loud? Why is he acting so proud? The answer my friends, which you won't find in Wyche's piece, is in the part of the paper that covers politics.

You see, while the paper says Divac plays for Yugoslavia, he really plays for Serbia. Yugoslavia was never a country anyway, more like a police force with administrative responsibilities over a crazy-quilt of ethnic groups that have really never liked each other. Blame the Huns, the Hapsburghs, or the Ottomans; whoever you choose, the place is a mess.

And, as our current events database tells us, it wasn't long ago that American jets began bombing the bejeesus out of Serbia in order to prevent them from slaughtering ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

As you might imagine, we're not exactly popular in Serbia right now. Granted, we might think of the bombing as a necessary humanitarian intervention. But the Serbs, despite the fact that they've dumped Slobodan Milosevic, don't exactly see it that way.

So, when you see Divac talk big about toppling the mighty Americans, just realize that he's playing to a crowd that wants to fight back. And this is the only way they know how.

POSTSCRIPT: I wanted to add a link or two on the U.S.-led air campaign against Serbia, so I went to Google. As it turns out, a loose cabal of Serbian-apologists and professional anti-Americans have so completely gamed Google, that I went through eight pages of references without finding one reliable source for an article on the bombing. Luckily, the search engine at Slate came to the rescue.

UPDATE: Well, if you're going to shoot your mouth off about beating the U.S., you'd figure you better make short work of Spain, right? Wrong. The trash-talking Divac and his Yugoslav teammates just dropped a 71-69 sqeeker to NBA rookie of the year Paul Gasol and his compatriots. I caught the last two quarters on NBA TV, and I never knew basketball could be played so close to the floor. It's as if the players' sneakers were lined with Titanium, and the court was a giant magnet. Something tells me the U.S. still has little to fear.

Freudian Snap Count: While some

Freudian Snap Count: While some coaches score points with the media with their candor, Arizona Cardinals coach Dave McGinnis has to get by with comedy. After all, he's coach of the Cardinals, and what choice does he really have:

NFL teams have to reach the 53-man roster limit by Sunday, and McGinnis faces some tough decisions. "That's why I get $5 million a year. Oh, I'm sorry. That's Spurrier," he said, referring to Washington Redskins coach Steve Spurrier.

McGinnis makes about $900,000.

But It Didn't Count: In

But It Didn't Count: In Denver last night during a 31-0 Broncos' victory over the Seattle Seahawks, Denver placekicker Ola Kimrin hit a 65-yard field goal as time expired in the first half. Unfortunately, because the kick took place in an exhibition game, it won't go down in the record books. That record is still held by the man Kimrin is trying to beat out for a job, Jason Elam, who hit a 63-yard kick in 1998 to tie Tom Dempsey for the longest field goal ever.

With A Possible Baseball Strike.

With A Possible Baseball Strike. . . Somewhere around 12 hours away, sportswriters are pulling out all the stops on stories with angles trumpeting how it might be the last time, fill in the blank. Some discuss topics we should lament the end of -- such as the possible end of the career of Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell; or even the certain demise of the Montreal Expos.

But Joe Kay of the Associated Press has just penned an elegy to Cinergy Field, nee Riverfront Stadium:

Cinergy Field

The stadium that's been center stage for some of baseball's greatest plays -- Aaron's homer, Fosse's tumble, Rose's hit -- may not get a curtain call.

If players strike and the rest of the season is wiped out, the Cincinnati Reds' 7-0 victory Thursday over the St. Louis Cardinals will stand as the final baseball game at their 32-year-old stadium.

The possibility of an unscripted ending left fans and players feeling that something was missing. "It'll be a shame if they don't get to take it out in style," said Lou Ann Walden, 50, watching batting practice from the second deck. "There's a lot of good memories here."

The stadium that brought sliding pits and the Big Red Machine to baseball is scheduled to be torn down after the season. The Reds plan to move into Great American Ball Park, just beyond the left-field wall, next season.

Now, for Reds fans, I'm sure the end to Cinergy comes with a bundle of memories. Unfortunately, I come to bury Cinergy, not to praise it. If anything, along with cookie cutter multi-use stadiums in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, the stadium formerly known as Riverfront came to symbolize everything that was wrong with baseball stadium design. In the end, ironically, it was dumps like Riverfront, Three Rivers, and Veterans that paved the way for the retro baseball palaces fans enjoy in so many cities today.

After Some Questions About An

After Some Questions About An Insurance Policy. . . Nearly derailed his attempt to come back from an amputated leg to play football, it looks like San Jose State football player Neil Parry is going to get to play after all. Why? Well, because the insurance company covering him, Mutual of Omaha, has made a special exception to his policy:

Two days after notifying Parry that the lifetime insurance coverage for his prosthetic legs could be canceled if he returned to football, Mutual of Omaha -- the NCAA's catastrophic insurance carrier -- made a special modification to the NCAA's policy Thursday that will keep Parry covered. The news left Parry overjoyed as he prepared to continue workouts with his teammates at the Spartans' training complex.

"The last couple of days, I've been thinking, 'What am I doing all this for?'" Parry said. "I haven't even worked out this week for just about the first time since my accident. I was thinking it was just pointless. It's just the best news. I'm really happy."

Parry's leg was severely broken Oct. 14, 2000, during a game against UTEP, and it was removed below the knee nine days later. After more than a dozen surgeries, Parry is able to walk normally on a prosthesis, and he can run at nearly full speed on a specially designed sports prosthesis. Representatives from the NCAA, Mutual of Omaha and San Jose State had several days of discussions over the matter before agreeing to a special arrangement.

As with most active amputees, Parry expects to face as much as $1.5 million in expenses for a lifetime of prosthetics and subsequent care, including a new prosthesis every two years costing nearly $15,000. All of those expenses were covered under the NCAA's policy.

Now, I know insurance companies just about always get a bad rap, but I wonder if anyone will give some credit to Mutual of Omaha for making this decision. Ok, well then I will. Good for Mutual of Omaha, a company I haven't thought much of since the Marlon Perkins days.

The Tennis Doubles Team. .

The Tennis Doubles Team. . . Of Amir Hadad and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, an Israeli and a Pakistani, are at it again in the U.S. Open. The pair played together at Wimbledon, where they advanced to the third round amidst carping from Pakistani officials who didn't like the fact that one of their citizens was playing with an Israeli citizen.

With an assist from the International Tennis Federation, Quereshi was able to fight off officials from the Pakistani Tennis Federation, and continue playing. And bravo to the ITF. Siding with Quereshi was a rare show of backbone. Most international sporting bodies are usually willing to roll over to have their bellies scratched by despots everywhere.

They advanced again on Wednesday night, and here's hoping they go all the way.

The Guardians Of PC Get

The Guardians Of PC Get Ready To Grill Another: Poor Jennifer Capriati. It's bad enough that she's going to have to contend with the Williams sisters -- perhaps the most dominant duo in the history of tennis, male or female -- for the rest of her career. But after a press conference tonight, something tells me Capriati is going to spend some time in the media-industrial penalty box:

"President Bush has been holding town meetings across the country about Title IX," the reporter said. "He's considering changing this important legislation that's helped women get involved in sports. If you could say something to President Bush, what would you say?" The 26-year-old Capriati's reply was a stunner.

"I have no idea what Title IX is," she said. "Sorry."

Uh-oh. Here comes the PC brigade.

Donna LoPiano, executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation, wasn't shocked that Capriati knew nothing about the federal legislation mandating equal opportunity for women in college sports. The law marked its 30th anniversary last month.

"It doesn't surprise me," LoPiano said. "So many of this generation of tennis players never played in college. They started young. They never played in the Title IX construct. They never ran into it. "Any athletes who didn't come through the school system, I'd be shocked if they knew about Title IX.

She's been totally sheltered from the issues for a long time."

But I'm sure she's in for some Maoist-style re-education for the next 48 hours. God help her, thinking that it was actually her talent and hard work that resulted in her success. Good luck Jennifer, you're going to need it.

Baseball, Softball On Olympic Endangered

Baseball, Softball On Olympic Endangered List: The International Olympic Committee, looking to thin the herd of Summer Olympic sports, may decide to eliminate baseball and softball, amongst other sports:

As major league baseball players and owners worked to prevent a strike, the sport endured a setback on the international stage Wednesday, as an IOC panel recommended dropping baseball from the Summer Olympics.

The panel also proposed getting rid of softball, another game the United States excels at, while adding golf and rugby for the 2008 Beijing Games.

"I think it's preposterous,'' said former Los Angeles Dodgers Manager Tom Lasorda, who coached the U.S. baseball team to the gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. "I don't know what the reasoning would be for this. The baseball park was full for all the games we played in Sydney.

"Also, the softball I saw at the Olympics was an awesome competition and the crowds were great. It's just a tremendous mistake if they drop these sports.''

While I can see why Lasorda, a baseball booster like no other, would be upset, the rest of us shouldn't give it a thought. The team Lasorda brought to Sydney in 2000 was a gritty bunch of minor leaguers, and it was incredible that they were actually able to defeat the Cuban National Team for the gold medal. As great a story as it was, did it do anything to advance the sport? Something tells me no.

Going Into Half Time At

Going Into Half Time At FedEx Field. . . The Redskins trail the New England Patriots 21-0. Even worse, New England has scored twice with its second team offense, quarterbacked by journeyman Damon Huard of the flying Huard brothers. This is the worst of possible worlds for Redskins fans, as the first half of exhibition games are the only time when first string players regularly face one another. As I've mentioned before, I think it's going to be a long season for the team, and rough sledding until Redskins coach Steve Spurrier gets the sort of quarterback he needs to run his offense.

&**#&@ You! And The Horse

&**#&@ You! And The Horse You Rode In On: What else can you say to the offer from the Saudi Royal family to donate thouroughbred race horse War Emblem to the familes of those killed on 9-11?

War Emblem, of course, won both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness earlier this Summer, before failing in a bid to take the first Triple Crown since 1978. Fittingly, perhaps, his road to glory ended at the Belmont Stakes on Long Island, only 20 minutes from lower Manhattan.

Prince Ahmed bin Salman, who owned the horse, died of a heart attack a few weeks ago, the first of three mysterious deaths inside the Saudi royal family. Don't worry, at last count there were more than 7,000 Saudi princes, all still doing their best to suck the country dry of its oil wealth.

Apparently, the offer is part of a multi-pronged publicity campaign to help repair the damage the attacks inflicted on American feelings toward the desert despots. If so, it's too damn little, far too late. Something tells me that the families, who have filed a multi-billion dollar law suit against Saudi Arabia, aren't going to want to accept an offer that's simply blood money.

If the Saudis are really serious about patching up relations, they can start by letting us use our bases in the kingdom to attack Iraq. They can follow that up by granting visas to any and every American citizen that's being held hostage in Saudi against their will. Once we see real acts of contrition like these, Americas will start thinking about letting the Saudis keep their oil. Otherwise, all bets are off.

Then again, Prince Bandar could insist on giving us the horse. Remember what happened when Jack Woltz wouldn't give Johnny Fontaine the role he wanted?

Last Night In St. Louis.

Last Night In St. Louis. . . The Raiders handcuffed the Rams, escaping with a hard fought 17-11 victory. The normally high octane Rams offense was stymied, with Raiders cornerback Charles Woodson bedevliling Rams receivers. He finally put the game away with a sack on Kurt Warner on 3rd and long as time ran out. The Rams effort wasn't helped as running back Marshall Faulk was sitting on the sideline recovering from a twisted ankle he suffered last week in a victory against San Francisco.

The win put the Raiders over .500, trailing both the Bronocs and Cheifs in the AFC West by 2.5 games. The Rams are still leading the newly constructed NFC West by four games over both Seattle and San Francisco.

How can this be? Well, it's all on my Play Station, where I've been simulating the upcoming NFL season using NFL Gameday 2003.

Do I really need to say that I'm anxious for the season to start?

A Bit Of Blogrolling For

A Bit Of Blogrolling For My Friends: Now that my two-day visitor total is nearing 1,000 thanks to National Review, I'd like to say thank you to some of my online friends who took it upon themselves to flak my work when nobody else was paying attention. Formost among them is Jeff Cooper, my favorite left wing law professor, fellow Native New Yorker and Mets fan. Jeff and I tripped over one another during the World Cup, and he's been a daily stop for me ever since. Jeff's been very generous with the links as of late, especially since he's been attracting attention from the big boys.

There are others: Radley Balko of Cato; the mysterious 'Robert Musil'; Justin Sodano; South Knox Bubba; The Leper Messiah; Matt Moore; Matt Haws; Eric Olsen; Martin Devon; Charles Austin; Charles Tupper; and Howard Feinberg, who graciously let me contribute to Puck Hog.

I've also had numerous exchanges at plenty of other places, and if I've forgotten anyone for now, please forgive me. In any case, you'll find those folks down the left hand margin in the links section. Check them out early and often.

Now back to regularly scheduled programming.

UPDATE: I shouldn't forget John Hawkins and Dan Lewis either.

China Screws Wang Zhi Zhi:

China Screws Wang Zhi Zhi: For some time now, I've been following the saga of Chinese basketball star Wang Zhi Zhi, formerly of the Dallas Mavericks, but now an NBA free agent.

Last week, as the Chinese National Team arrived in the U.S. for the World Basketball Championships, Wang, who had been missing in Southern California, and AWOL from the National Team's training camp, went back to the team, hat in hand, asking to be reinstated:

In Oakland last week, Wang was told by a Chinese Basketball Association official that he could rejoin the national team if he signed a contract promising to play for China at the Asian championships in early October.

Such a commitment would conflict with the opening of NBA training camps.

"He's at a point in his career where he wants a full training camp before beginning his third NBA season,'' Chan said. "He hasn't attended a training camp yet.''

The latest development was all but certain to widen the rift between Wang and Chinese authorities, who were angered earlier this summer when Wang twice refused to report back to China for national team training.

As I've said before, the real problem here is the stance on the part of Chinese officials that a man's labor is not his own. When Yao Ming, the first pick in the 2002 NBA Draft, signed a contract with the Houston Rockets, he had to agree to fork over somewhere around the equivalent of 80 percent of his salary.

Now, if Wang where to return to China for the Asian Championships, odds are officials would attempt to put the screws to him in regards to his next contract. Something which is sure to cost him millions of dollars. Heck, with that kind of money at stake, who wouldn't go AWOL.

Davy Crockett Rolling In His

Davy Crockett Rolling In His Grave? Some college football fans in the Volunteer State have taken offense at an ESPN commercial -- a reaction that has actually prompted the cable giant to pull the spot:

The commercial showed Lee Corso, one of the College GameDay analysts, waiting for an elevator. The doors open, and the elevator is filled with orange-clad Vols fans. A pig runs out, and an overweight woman holding another pig and wearing a shower cap and robe yells, "Come here, Rocky Top!"

Excuse me, but I saw the spot more than once, and it was funny. And if I was a graduate of the University of Florida, I'd think it was even funnier. But I digress. . .

ESPN spokesman Mike Humes said Tuesday the commercial will no longer be shown.

Make way for the gutless guy in the suit. . .

"This spot was one of many we created for the tongue-and-cheek style College GameDay campaign," Humes told The Tennessean newspaper of Nashville. "We've traditionally had the most fun at our own expense in our promotional spots. It is never our intention to offend anyone, and we are sorry if we did in this case."

Yep, sorry is the word. I'd love to know what my friend, South Knox Bubba thinks of this.

UPDATE:Then again, if a simple commercial mocking the folks in Tennessee evoked such a response, how about a whole TV show mocking all of Appalachia?

CBS is bringing back "The Beverly Hillbillies." This time, however, the family members we laugh at won't be played by Hollywood actors; they'll be real live rubes from the South.

After spending decades trying to shed the Bubba image it contracted in the 1960s when its prime-time lineup included a slew of backcountry characters, CBS has decided to embrace once again its biggest hick hit of all. The network already has a crew of casting agents combing "mountainous, rural areas" in Arkansas, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky in search of a "multi-generational family of five or more -- parents, children and grandparents -- who will be relocated for at least a year" to a mansion in Beverly Hills, said CBS spokesman Chris Ender.

Hmm. The possibilities here are endless. Why not a real-life version of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air? I wonder why that idea didn't occur to the folks in Television City in Hollywood?

Case May Break Steroids Racket:

Case May Break Steroids Racket: I've written plenty about steroids, and just how some athletes use them while attempting to maintain "plausible deniability" in the eyes of international doping agencies. Well, yesterday a court case wass filed that might close down one avenue of steroid use:

Norwegian weightlifter Stian Grimseth has sued a U.S. food supplement maker, claiming its product caused a positive doping test that forced him to leave the 2000 Olympics. Grimseth, who competed at the 1996 Atlanta Games, was sent home from Sydney after the results of a test taken two weeks earlier showed traces of the banned steroid nandrolone.

The weightlifter insisted he did not knowingly take any llegal drugs and said the only possible source of the steroid was a food supplement called Ribose that he started using just before the failed test. Grimseth said he'd cleared the product with Norwegian team doctors.

Later tests of the product by an independent German doping laboratory detected two substances -- nandrostenedion and norandrostenediol -- that break down into nandrolone in the human body but were not listed on the contents. The substances were found in samples of the product that Grimseth had used, as well as in an unopened box of Ribose.

Grimseth wants $1 million in damages from Univerasal Laboratories, the maker of the product. Currently, the FDA does not regulate the contents of nutritional supplements, although it is well known in international sporting circles that such supplements are regularly contaminated either with steroids, or with compounds that break down into steroids once they are ingested into the body. I'll be keeping a close watch on this case. I'm betting Universal will settle out of court, and quickly. Prolonged publicity here would be a bad thing for them, as well as a number of other companies that dope supplements.

For Those Washingtonians. . .

For Those Washingtonians. . . Still lamenting our region's loss as an Olympic Bid City, I'd like to remind you all about what sort of characters we won't be dealing with as a result:

The IOC executive board decided Wednesday to recommend the expulsion of Indonesian member Mohamad "Bob" Hasan.

The decision followed a report from the International Olympic Committee's ethics commission, Director-General Francois Carrard said.

Olympic Ethics Commission? Hey Bullwinkle, isn't that an oxymoron?

Hasan, an IOC member since 1994 and a business partner of former Indonesian strongman Suharto, is in an Indonesian jail serving a six-year sentence on corruption charges. He was sentenced by a Jakarta appeals court last year for his role in a multimillion-dollar scam involving a forest mapping project in the early 1990s.

But don't fret my friends, there are more than a few folks like him already making travel plans to New York City and San Francisco, where they will expect to be wined, dined, and bribed courtesy of the taxpayers of those fine cities and the states they reside in. I hope they all enjoy themselves.

And Up In Buffalo. .

And Up In Buffalo. . . Scotty Bowman, the greatest ice hockey coach ever, got to take home the Stanley Cup one last time. Bowman, who had his name enscribed on the Cup 10 times, announced his retirement immediately after the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Carolina Hurricanes to win the Cup earlier this year. Good luck to Bowman, a man who deserves a long, and active retirement.

But Will He Miss The

But Will He Miss The Prom? Ty Tryon, the youngest person ever to win a PGA Tour Card at 17, is back from a rehab stint, and will return to competition at the Buy.com Utah Classic next week. With a rehabilitation exemption, Tryon will be able to join the tour for up to 23 event between now and 2003 in an effort to keep his card, and a place on the tour. Tryon starts his senior year in high school in a few days.

Welcome To Readers Of. .

Welcome To Readers Of. . . The Corner, over at NRO. Here's hoping you stay a while, click some of the links, and maybe even add me to your bookmarks. Thanks to NRO's Robert A. George for the link, and some very gracious words.

I'm Glad Keith Olbermann Is

I'm Glad Keith Olbermann Is Writing For Salon. . . And his latest article on how he believes a potential baseball strike will unwind is one reason why everyone should read him. I'd love to place a permalink to an archive of Olbermann's articles on Salon, but the folks there have yet to construct one. I wonder what the hold up is?

(Link via Jeff Cooper.)

Over At The New York

Over At The New York Press. . . C.J. Sullivan chronicles the death throes of the Montreal Expos, slumping their way through what looks to be their last year in the Majors:

Now that they’re at endgame it’s easy to forget that it all started out with such promise. The Montreal Expos’ first game was on April 8, 1969, when they came into Shea Stadium and beat the Mets and their ace pitcher, Tom Seaver, 11-10. Led by sluggers Mack Jones, Coco LaBoy and Rusty Staub, this expansion team would go on to be the lovable gang that earned the nickname "Nos Amours." Canada had a Major League team and the city of Montreal was now bigtime.

Coming off their renowned World’s Fair of two years earlier–Expo ’67–and now with a big W against the Mets, Montreal was ready to step up to the rest of the cities in North America and declare that they were players. And they were for a while. In 1976 Montreal hosted the world’s best athletes with their wildly successful summer Olympics. Baseball heated up in Quebec and by 1979 the Expos were playing before more than two million people a year, and winning more than 90 games a season. In the strike-shortened 1981 season the Expos made it to the playoffs–their first and only time–and were dubbed "the team of the 80s." The future of baseball looked like it might be north of the border.

But as we know now, it was not meant to be. Sullivan's piece, as much a travel story about Montreal as it is about the Expos, deserves a read.

Now Calling The Plays --

Now Calling The Plays -- Alan Greenspan: Last month, it was a mathematician who said that major league managers had it all wrong when they placed their weakest hitter in the lineup batting ninth. Now, an economics professor from Berkeley is telling NFL coaches that they should all make more like Bill Parcells and go for it on fourth down:

[David] Romer's working paper, "It's Fourth Down and What Does the Bellman Equation Say?" pulls off a dramatic turnover of this conventional wisdom.

"The results are striking," he said. "The analysis implies that teams should be quite aggressive...In practice, however, teams almost always kick on fourth down early in the game."

Teams would often fare better if they went for a first down or touchdown on fourth down, Romer said in his research, presented this summer to the National Bureau of Economic Research. The private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization is dedicated to promoting greater understanding of how the economy works.

You can find a copy of the study here, while Sportsfilter has started a discussion string here.

Just a few thoughts. It was only two weeks ago that I caught an interview with John Madden. The topic was his popular video/PC game, Madden NFL 2003. Apparently, during the early years of the game's development, Madden had a short conversation with his son about some independent play testing he and a pal had done. Madden was shocked that the game simulating a match between the Vikings and the Bears ended with both teams scoring more than 100 points.

What was the problem? Both players had discovered that their chance of success on fourth down was as good as it was on any other down -- something which Madden made sure his programmers corrected in the next version of the game.

What does this tell us? Well, for one thing, mathematical and economic modelling aside, the proof for theories like these comes in real world testing. And when an NFL coach decides whether or not to go for it on fourth down, he's acessing a lifetime of experience and information that can't be boiled down into an equation. In fact, you could even posit that the almost automatic decision to punt on fourth down is based on decades of real-life field testing dating back to the first football game ever played.

As for this new intersection between sports and scientific research, I have to site a passage from Don DeLillo's excellent Underworld. In it, a radio producer is talking to his engineer during the famous "Shot Heard Round The World" game in 1951 between the Giants and Dodgers.

For you sports novices, that year the Giants trailed the Dodgers by as many as 13 1/2 games, yet still came back to tie them and force a three game playoff to determine the winner of the National League Pennant. The teams split the first two games, with the deciding game three to be played on the Giants' home field of the Polo Grounds:

Over on the radio side the producer is saying, "See that thing in the paper last week about Einstein?"

Engineer says, "What Einstein?"

"Albert, with the hair. Some reporter asked him to figure out the mathematics of the pennant race. You know, one team wins so many of their remaining games, the other team wins this number or that number. What are the myriad possibilities? Who's got the edge?"

"The hell does he know?'

"Apparently, not much. He picked the Dodgers to eliminate the Giants last Friday."

That same human factor in sports that humbled Einstein in 1951 is the same factor that keeps us coming back to sports for more. Let's hope it's always with us.

POSTSCRIPT: Then again, Einstein didn't know that the Giants were stealing signs down the stretch.

No Olympics? No Problem! There's

No Olympics? No Problem! There's more in this morning's papers concerning the U.S. Olympic Committe's decision to choose New York and San Francisco as the finalists to become the U.S. bid city for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Apparently, Washington-Baltimore washed out of the competition because of the perception that the International Olympic Committee would still be upset over some rough treatment it once received from Congress:

Chairman Charles H. Moore said that his team today discussed substantively for the first time their concern that the IOC might harbor resentment toward Washington on political grounds, including talk of a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq and Congress's 1999 questioning of IOC then-president Juan Antonio Samaranch and other officials over the Salt Lake City Olympic bribery scandal.

"Washington did not fall down," Moore said. ". . . It was very close -- very, very close. We did not make a decision just on raw scoring. We were looking for the city that could win the international competition. . . .

"We felt Washington made an outstanding candidate. . . . On the other hand, it does take that anti-American [sentiment]. [Congress] brought Mr. Samaranch in and grilled him quite a bit. You could say some of that lingers. . . . Washington did all the right things . . . but you have to look at both sides of that coin with how we perceive the IOC."

A similar explanation was offered to the Washington Times, and quite frankly, I could care less. As I've said before, locals should be glad that we won't have to endure endless visits from the same sort of international cons who turned the run-up to the Salt Lake City Olympics into such a carnival of bribery and corruption.

Others, of course, had a healthier take on these developments. Take the Post's Tony Kornheiser for instance:

Believe me, I share the disappointment of thousands of people who were looking forward to having the Olympics here in 2012. I had my welcoming speech written. It said, "Four bedrooms, two baths, nice deck, convenient to venues, shopping and transportation; $50,000 a week."

Though I'm Not The First

Though I'm Not The First One To Notice. . . I think everyone should read this post by Kieran Lyons on what baseball is really about.

It's Obvious. . . That

It's Obvious. . . That President Bush doesn't belong in Cooperstown as a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. What I'd like to know is who exactly got him on the ballot and why? Link via Dan Lewis.

Glad We're Not The Only

Glad We're Not The Only Ones. . . Burdened with labor strife when it comes to professional sports:

Chilean soccer players went on strike Tuesday to protest unpaid salaries and changes in tournament rules.

The work stoppage could wipe out this weekend's national tournament.

"We won't take any more lies and unfulfilled promises," said Carlos Soto, president of the professional soccer players' union. The coaches' federation said it would honor the strike.

Claude Raines Would Be Shocked.

Claude Raines Would Be Shocked. . . And Inspector Clouseau would be proud at news of this investigation:

Alarmed by accusations that two skating competitions at the Salt Lake City Games were fixed, the IOC is looking for any evidence that organized crime influenced any other Olympic sports.

The International Olympic Committee also warned Tuesday that some sports could be kicked out of future games if they fail to comply with a proposed global anti-doping code.

On the first day of a three-day meeting, the IOC executive board discussed the arrest of a reputed Russian mobster on charges he conspired to manipulate the pairs and ice dance events at the 2002 Winter Games.

Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov was arrested in Italy on July 31 and indicted in New York last week. He's accused of working to ensure gold medals for the Russian pairs skaters and French ice dancers.

Just a few thoughts here. First of all, I think it's funny that it's taken U.S. law enforcement to spur the Olympic movement to such a moment of introspection. As much abuse as our legal system takes, it's still the one least susceptible to corruption and political influence. Could anyone think of the French legal system taking a stab at investigating the international Olympic movement?

As for the threat that certain events could be expelled from future games, be certain that any event evicted from the games would be ones that draw the lowest television ratings. For this reason, and this reason alone, I remain pretty confident that the folks at the IOC will find a way to clean up mob influence and judging irregularities in figure skating. At the end of the day, there is simply too much money on the line for it to be any other way.

UPDATE: The IOC has confimred that figure skating is safe.

57 Channels And Nothing On.

57 Channels And Nothing On. . . Coming soon to your neighborhood cable system, the Tennis Channel.

The Carolina Courage. . .

The Carolina Courage. . . Are the new champions of the WUSA, having beaten the Washington Freedom 3-2 Sunday in Atlanta. Unfortunately, the rest of the news in and around the world's premiere women's soccer league isn't nearly as good.

After Nearly 25 Years, Forgiveness:

After Nearly 25 Years, Forgiveness: When you think about the massive entertainment enterprise that the NBA has morphed into, it's hard to remember that there was a time when the league couldn't even get all of the games of the final onto to live network television.

In fact, in the mid-to-late 1970s, the NBA was considered to be radioactive in the minds of many marketers and advertisers. The reasons were many: lack of major stars, rampant drug use, and a reputation for thuggery that was unmatched in professional sports.

But after 25 years, it looks as if the protagonists in the most infamous on-court incident in NBA history have finally decided to move on:

They touch again. Skin connects with skin. Kermit Washington's right hand -- that right hand -- reaches out to Rudy Tomjanovich. This time, after all these years, it is a welcome sight.

Inextricably linked for the worst reasons for almost 25 years, Tomjanovich and Washington greet each other like old army buddies, sharing stories over laughs.

Washington, 50, jokes that Larry Smith, Tomjanovich's assistant coach with the Rockets, still looks as if he could be a punishing player, and they talk about how that in their day, every team came equipped with such powerful men. They seem unaware of the irony of such a conversation between them because it no longer matters.

That horrible night, and all the pain that has followed it, finally are behind them.

The rest of the world would not let Tomjanovich and Washington escape arguably the most horrific moment in NBA history. On Dec. 9, 1977, in the Forum in Los Angeles, Washington threw the hardest of straight rights into the face of a running Tomjanovich, sending Tomjanovich close to his death; to months of surgeries, years of pain and nightmares; and to a lawsuit and labels neither has escaped.

If I were Tomjanovich, I'm not sure I could ever begin to forgive Washington for what he did. It tells me something about the man that he has.

I'm Wondering Why It Was

I'm Wondering Why It Was Never In My Links Before. . . But today I'll make it official: the Sports Center Altar is now a permanent part of my links list.

Tennis Was Back. . .

Tennis Was Back. . . Yesterday in Flushing Meadows for the 2002 U.S. Open. And if the players needed to be reminded that a New York crowd will turn on you in a minute, it didn't take long for them to get an example:

Anna Kournikova was booed by fans hoping for autographs when she quickly left the court after committing a whopping 40 unforced errors -- nearly one per minute -- in a 6-3, 6-0 loss to Angelique Widjaja of Indonesia. Widjaja won without the benefit of a single forehand or backhand winner.

40 unforced errors? But I bet she looked beautiful doing it.

I've always loved the Open. Of all the major international sporting events, this one lives and breathes like New York. My childhood is pockmarked with memories from the Open, most prominently of the Men's semifinal which is always played in the midst of the heat of a late Summer evening. For years that match meant Connors-McEnroe, with New Yorkers abandoning Johnnie Mac, one of their own, to pull like made for James Scott Connors. After matches like that, it was hard to care a whit for the final.

In 1992, that's exactly what happened as Connors made one last march to the semifinals. By some quirk in scheduling, a 40-year old Connors was never scheduled to play in the heat of the day, but always seemed to get the late night matches. Once he outlasted Patrick McEnroe in five sets during one early round match, it seemed as if the die was cast. Though Stefan Edberg would win it all that year, nobody cared. It was Jimmy who got to steal the show one last time, which is exactly what all the fans wanted anyway.

When I got to see the Men's Final back in 1981, it hadn't been many years since the Open had moved from the beautiful West Side Tennis Club to take advantage of a far more spacious Louis Armstrong Stadium at the new National Tennis Center. Today, all the big matches are played in Arthur Ashe Stadium, far larger than Louis Armstrong, something that Peter Dizikes of Slate has a problem with:

Arthur Ashe Stadium is a disaster, possibly the worst sports venue in America. Some stadiums are unfriendly to fans. Some are disliked by players. And some come across poorly on television. Arthur Ashe Stadium accomplishes all three at once.

There's more, like the fact that the upper deck at the new stadium begins where the upper deck at Louis Armstrong used to end. Dizikes blames the luxury seating that's been placed closer to the action, but that's something that's simply a fact of life in spectactor sports. Ultimately, that seperation between the rowdiest of fans and the action will take a toll, but for now, as long as corporate dollars are paying the freight, expect the status quo ante.

Boston Orders A Heaping Helping

Boston Orders A Heaping Helping Of Agbayani: Another New York Mets post season hero has a new address, this time Benny will be coming off the bench to provide some right handed power. Agbayani is super-clutch, with game winning home runs in both the NLDS and the World Series in 2000. Boston fans be forewarned: you'll love Benny when he pinch hits late in the game; just pray he doesn't have to patrol left field for more than an inning or two at a time.

Ah, Excuse Me, But. .

Ah, Excuse Me, But. . . It looks like every player isn't exactly jacked up to go on strike. Todd Pratt, a backup catcher for the Philadelphia Phillies (but one who will always warm the cockles of the hearts of Mets fans), begs to differ from the union line. Dan Lewis tells us why.

A Little More Than Two

A Little More Than Two Weeks Ago. . . I posted that I thought the baseball players association proposal for steroid testing was a joke. Just a little while ago, the AP's Steve Wilstein basically agreed with me:

Along with copies of the drug-testing plan that's being worked out, baseball should send players free samples of anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, andro and other testosterone-boosting supplements.

They'll be free to use them, anyway.

They'll be able to juice up on illegal steroids all they want during the winter, building strength for the season ahead. They'll just have to taper off, maybe take some masking agents, to slip through a urine test in spring training or later in the season, whenever it's most convenient.

Even if one or two players per team flunk the test, that's OK.

Under the union's initial proposal, 60 players in the majors -- 5 percent of all 1,200 players on the 40-man rosters -- could bust the seams of their jerseys with steroid-inflated muscles. That would still be considered "insignificant use" under this sham of a plan.

Go read the rest. What the players have laid on the table isn't even the beginning of a serious proposal. Don't think for a second that the owners might not compromise either. If there's a way they can give in on steroids in order to get what they want elsewhere, then they'll do it. Worse yet, I'm beginning to believe that neither side really wants steroid testing, especially when increased power numbers seem to put folks in the seats.

Now That Much Of The

Now That Much Of The Blogosphere. . . Has written off The New York Times as a "corrupt institution," under Executive Editor Howell Raines, some have begun to turn to the Washington Post as the nation's new "newspaper of record."

But as a Washington area resident of 17 years, I'd like to warn all of the paper's new fans (ones it richly deserves to have, I might add) that the folks over on 15th and L aren't without biases of their own. One of those is a general feeling that anyone who is forced to leave the comfortable confines of the Beltway may as well have been exiled to Siberia.

The other, of course, concerns the Redskins, which Style only deigns to deal with when the team is winning -- otherwise why would there be a reason for anyone on the Georgetown social scene to bother talking about them? And with new coach Steve Spurrier launching the team to an undefeated start in the pre-season, I guess the folks at Style wanted to look back at all the unfortunates who are going to miss out on a turnaround.

There were updates on ex-coach Norv Turner (now offensive coordinator with the Miami Dolphins), John Cooke (son of the late owner Jack Kent Cooke), and even Marlene Ramallo, the late owner's ex-wife who became infamous for her associations with drug running, as well as a famous incident in Georgetown as she gunned her Jaguar through the streets with a twenty-something man clinging for dear life on its hood.

But the most interesting words came out of the mouth of Charlie Casserly, the former general manager:

After 23 years with the team, including a decade as general manager, he resigned in 1999, forced out by Snyder shortly after the new owner's purchase. Now Casserly is general manager of the Houston Texans, a brand-new NFL team.

He says he has enjoyed the unusual experience of building a football operation from scratch. But the blank slate also feels a little strange to a man who came from a franchise with such deep history.

"You don't inherit a tradition. You have to build a tradition," Casserly says.

Take that, Dan Snyder. Left unsaid by the football brainiacs at Style is that if the Redskins enjoy any sort of success in the future, they'll owe much of it to Casserly's foresight. It was on draft day 1999 that Casserly stepped up and dealt the team's first round pick to Mike Ditka, then coach and general manager of the New Orleans Saints. Ditka openly coveted Texas running back Ricky Williams, and basically offered the world to anyone who would put him in the position to draft him.

After more than a few teams inexplicably passed on Ditka's offer, Casserly played his cards right. As a result, one year later, the team was able to draft offensive lineman Chris Samuels and linebacker LaVar Arrington with the second and third pick in the draft -- each player becoming the bedrock of each unit for the forseeable future.

Another player the Style folks liked to mock, and with good reason, was ex-starting quarterback Gus Frerotte. An unknown sixth-round draft pick out of Tulsa, Frerotte stole the starting job out from under first round pick Heath Shuler (now making millions in real estate back in Tennessee, thank you very much). Frerotte wasn't half bad, which unfortunately meant that he was good only about half the time. The low point of his Redskins career came in a Sunday night game against the Giants at home. After scoring a game tying touchdown, a joyous Frerotte inexplicably rammed his head into the stadium wall.

Immediately removed due to a neck injury (who would have guessed?), the game degenerated into a defensive struggle eventually ending in a tie -- a tie that was the difference between the Redskins making the playoffs and staying home. After leaving, Frerotte bounced around to a couple of teams (actually getting into the playoffs with both the Lions and the Broncos), and today he was named the starter for the Cincinnati Bengals -- a job in which Frerotte ought to see more victories than any of the quarterbacks the Redskins have under contract this season.

Racing Manager Expects Priestly To

Racing Manager Expects Priestly To Be Back: Just a few weeks after suffering a major accident, former actor and race car driver Jason Priestly is entering rehabilitation and planning to start on the long road back behind the wheel, according to his manager:

Kelly Racing general manager Jim Freudenberg said Monday he expects to see his driver back behind the wheel.

"I would be surprised if his racing days are over," Freudenberg said. . . He is now at a rehabilitation center, and doctors expect Priestley to make a full recovery. . .

The 32-year-old former "Beverly Hills 90210" star was badly hurt Aug. 11 when his open-wheel car spun out of control at 180 mph and hit the wall nearly head-on during practice for the Infiniti Pro Series, a developmental circuit for the Indy Racing League.

Freudenberg said Priestley will be in the rehabilitation center for 3-to-8 weeks.

"He's in some pain," Freudenberg said. "His pain tolerance is higher than most individuals. He's not complaining at all. He's got the best attitude."

Though The Little League Team

Though The Little League Team From Worcester. . . Fell in the U.S. final to eventual champion Louisville, their appearance did trigger one happy memory from my late teens. It was hard not to notice that their shortstop was Gordon Lockbaum, Jr. -- the son of Gordie Lockbaum, the two-way football star from Holy Cross who was a serious Heisman Trophy candidate during both the 1986 and 1987 college football seasons.

Unfortunately, it looks like I wasn't the only one to notice that the Lockbaum family was out of town.

Glad I'm Not The Only

Glad I'm Not The Only One: Looks like one of my Puck Hog pals, Charles Austin, is having a hard time caring about the baseball strike.

If There's One Sports Story

If There's One Sports Story I Missed This Year. . . It's the one that's been happening literally right in my neighborhood -- the hiring of Steve Spurrier to coach the Washington Redskins. As a casual college football fan, I'd been vaguely aware of how hated Spurrier was, but I never realized the depth of that hatred until he was hired as Redskins coach earlier this year.

Over the weekend, I saw two interviews with Spurrier. The first was with Armen Keteyian on Real Sports; the second with Suzy Kolber on Sports Center Sunday Conversation feature. And after watching both, I can honestly say that at first blush I didn't think I knew anything more about Spurrier than I did before.

But after thinking on it, I'm sure that was exactly what Spurrier had in mind when he agreed to these interviews. In the Real Sports piece, Keteyian was wily enough to uncover one popular misconception about Spurrier -- namely, that he doesn't work very hard. That's an impression Spurrier has sought to cultivate, especially in the press conference announcing his hiring. It was then that Spurrier made this now infamous crack:

"I read where (Saints coach) Jim Haslett gets to work at 4:30 in the morning, and it doesn't seem to do any good,"

But once Keteyain, perhaps the toughest interviewer in sports, got hold of him, Spurrier was quick to admit that he was no stranger to long hours breaking down game film. If anything, Spurrier seems to be conciously cultivating what former Packers GM Ron Wolf has called a "devil may care" attitude -- the one that's certain to give Spurrier the best edge over his opponents on the field. After listening to so many of his critics, it's hard not to come to the conclusion that many of them are so consumed with hating Spurrier, that it gets in the way of coming up with a rational plan on how to beat him.

Unlike many of the locals here in the D.C. area, I think Spurrier will have a tough time adjusting to the NFL. However, I'm pretty sure that adjustment period won't last any longer than a single season. I'm looking for the Redskins to post a 6-10 or 7-9 record this year -- something that Spurrier is sure to improve upon once he's able to collect more highly skilled personnel on offense than he has right now.

Like Most Sunday Nights. .

Like Most Sunday Nights. . . Tonight, I'm wrapping up the weekend watching ESPN's 11:00 p.m. ET edition of Sportscenter. Of course, tonight's edition marked what the network says is number 25,000 in the history of the program. If you've watched ESPN at all over the past few weeks, you couldn't help miss the blizzard of "SC 25K" promotions the network has been running to hype the event.

As I've been watching tonight , I can't help but remember that we'd been this way before. After all, didn't we celebrate the 20th Anniverary of ESPN itself just three years ago? Sure, tonight's show has been more than entertaining, but I can't help but feel as if show #25,000 is nothing more than an artifical milestone the network created in order to goose ratings during a time period where television viewing is normally depressed.

In that sense at least, the "SC 25K" promo program has been a success for the network, as I'm sure the ratings numbers will soon reveal. One last thing: apparently, it's only been seven years since the network started running its "This Is Sportscenter" promo campaign. Which means that we're only 3 years away from the show celebrating the 10th anniversary.

Last Night, Louisville, Ky. .

Last Night, Louisville, Ky. . . Took the Little League World Series title with a 1-0 victory over Sendai, Japan. I watched the broadcast on ABC, and quite frankly, it was just the right dose of Little League as far as I was concerned. Pitcher Aaron Alvey was the hero, with his first inning home run the difference as he also struck out 11 batters and broke the tournament strikeout record that was set in 1971.

And while plenty of people have been complaining about how televising so much of the tournament was overkill, I think it's safe to say that we'll probably see more Little League Baseball in the future than we do now. I couldn't help but notice that ABC moved the final game to a 6:30 p.m. EDT start. For many years, the game was aired on a Saturday afternoon, often on tape delay as part of ABC's Wide World of Sports.

But by moving the game to 6:30 p.m. EDT on a Sunday, the suits at ABC have made sure that the television ratings for the game will show up in Nielsen's prime time television ratings book. Now that Little League is part of prime time programming, that means ABC will be raking in major league advertising dollars. I'll be interested to see how the game did ratings wise, and I can't imagine that it won't stay in the same time slot for the forseeable future.

POSTSCRIPT: For anyone who follows sports, it's easy to remember how uncommon names seem to attract uncommon amounts of attention from broadcasters. And this year's LLWS provided another one of the best, as we were introduced to Hairo Polonius of Willemstad, Curacao. Good to see Mr. Polonius take a break from advising King Claudius to play some ball.

One Story That I Let

One Story That I Let Pass By Last Week. . . Was the bulletin that former New York Islanders winger Bobby Nystrom had been charged with assault in connection with an incident that occurred August 9th at a gas station in Montrose, N.Y.:

State Police said Nystrom became abusive after an attendant asked him to move his car. Police said that after they exchanged obscenities, Nystrom got out of his car and punched the attendant. When the other station attendant tried to intervene, he too was hit, and Nystrom then drove off, police said. A license plate check connected police to Nystrom's home in Oyster Bay Cove, and he turned himself in to police on Aug. 14.

Bobby Nystrom Scores in OT to end the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals.

This one hurts. As a Long Island native, I worshipped the ice the Islanders skated on as a boy, and Nystrom, an original Islander, was always a fan favorite. He was known as a gritty winger, one who would go into the corners and muck it up on one shift, fight on another; and then score on a third. I met him at an autograph session following one of my ice hockey practices, and the autograph I got that night was something I've treasured for many years. And when Nystrom scored an overtime goal to win the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals, his place in Islanders and NHL history were secure. It's a shame this history may now include a postscript like this one.