Sports Then and Now

Doesn’t Tom Watson Know How Old He Is?

2009-07-18T16:10:00.002-04:00

Evidently the only person at the British Open (referred to as the Open Championship in England) who doesn’t know that Tom Watson is nearly 60-years-old is Watson himself. Playing against a field of golfers in which many are half his age, Watson enters the final round of golf’s oldest championship with a one-stroke lead.

Now there was a time when Tom Watson leading after 54-holes of the British Open surprised no one. After all, the only player with more Open Championships than the American is Harry Vardon, who last won the title in 1916.

However, just in case you weren’t sure, this is 2009, not 1977 or 1983. Watson is no longer the young golfer who won his first major championship at age 25 and all eight of his major championships before turning 34.

Instead, with his remarkable performance at Turnberry, Watson is the oldest golfer ever to hold a 54-hole lead at a major championship.

To put into perspective just how incredible Watson’s run is, the oldest golfer to win a major championship was Julius Boros, who won the 1968 PGA Championship at age 48.

If Watson is able to ride the wave through all the way to the title, he will beat that mark by more than a decade.

There have been other golfers of similar age to Watson to flirt with a major title, but none have been able to close the deal.

Sam Snead shot a final round 68 at the 1974 PGA Championships to finish tied for third, three strokes behind Lee Trevino, at 62-years of age.

Jack Nicklaus was 58 when he used a final round 68 to tie for sixth position (four strokes behind champion Mark O’Meara) at the 1998 Masters.

And just last year, 53-year old Greg Norman led the Open Championship by two strokes after 54 holes before finishing tied for third.

But what makes Watson's run particularly impressive, and perhaps gives him a chance to hold on for victory, is that he isn't simply surviving against brutal conditions or making a late tournament charge. Instead, he has been in contention from the very beginning and so far has responded to every challenge and overcome every potential pitfall.

Following an opening round 65 that left him just one stroke out of the lead, it looked like Watson was making the kind of fade from contention expected of a 59-year old.

He birdied the first hole of his second round to take the lead, but then had five bogeys in the next six holes to fall down the leaderboard. At the same time, Tiger Woods, the current number one player in the world seemed to be recovering from a tough start and headed to his rightful place near the top of the standings.

However, a curious thing happened on the way to normalcy.

Woods suddenly ran into a six-hole stretch where he went seven over par and ultimately missed the cut.

Conversely, Watson seemed to suddenly find the kind of magic he had displayed at Turnberry 32 years earlier when he registered back-to-back rounds of 65 to beat Nicklaus by one-stroke in the famous “Dual in the Sun.”

He birdied four of the final 10 holes to shoot an even par 70 and finish the second round tied for the lead.

Suddenly, the novelty of a 59-year old competing for a major championship was wearing off and the reality that no player left in the field has more championship success than Watson started to set in.

For much of the third round, Watson looked like an eight-time major champion. Making putt after putt, he maintained the lead while others around him started to implode.

Through eight holes, Watson was even for the day and continued to maintain his lead.

After a bogey on the ninth hole, Watson finally began to reveal some mortality as he missed relatively short putts and dropped strokes at the 12th and 15th holes to fall out of the lead for the first time on the day.

Then, for the second straight day, Watson seemed to channel his past glory and remember that he was playing for a record-tying sixth Open Championship.

He birdied the 16th hole and then got a very fortuitous bounce on his second shot at the par-five 17th that led to an eagle putt that just missed. He ended up with a second-straight birdie and a one-stroke lead.

When you look at the leaderboard heading into the final round, there is no Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson, but there are a number of very talented golfers and former major champions that are poised to challenge Watson’s date with destiny.

Neither of the two players tied for second, Mathew Goggin and Ross Fisher, have ever won a major championship. While Fisher finished fifth at the 2009 U.S. Open, Goggin has never finished better than 36th in a major tournament.

Among the others in the top 10, there are three former major champions, Retief Goosen (tied for 4th, two strokes back), Jim Furyk (tied for 6th, three strokes back) and 2009 Master’s Champion Angel Cabrera (tied for 10th, five strokes back).

Also in contention are two players, Stewart Cink and Lee Westwood, who have both been close in majors, but never been able to pull out the victory.

It seems quite improbable that a 59-year old (he will turn 60 in September) who last made the cut at a major championship in 2006 and hasn’t been in the top 10 at a major since 2000 could actually beat all the other great golfers in the world over a four-day tournament at one of the most challenging courses in the world.

However, if it is ever going to happen it sure seems like Tom Watson is the guy to accomplish such an unimaginable feat. He is the essence of a professional golfer: steady, calm and single-minded in his focus.

As has been said more than once during the championship, even at 59-years of age, Watson doesn’t play the majors to be the ceremonial hand waver. He plays the majors in 2009 for the same reason he played in them 30 years ago, to win.

Sunday he will get his chance and you won’t want to miss it.

Best Players Not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Defensive Linemen

2009-07-15T22:34:00.002-04:00

Our position-by-position look at the best eligible players not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame now shifts from offense to defense as we look at the best defensive linemen who have not yet earned a bust in Canton.

From Art Donovan, Deacon Jones and Ben Davidson to Bubba Smith, Mark Gastineau, and Michael Strahan, NFL history is filled with charismatic defensive linemen who were recognized not just for their talent, but also for their showmanship and flamboyance.

Defensive line units have also regularly been fan favorites with names such as “Doomsday”, “The Fearsome Foursome”, “The Purple Gang” and “The Steel Curtain.”

Defensive linemen have also been well respected by Hall of Fame voters, as the position is second only to the offensive line in the number of modern era players enshrined in the Hall.

However, much like offensive linemen, because statistics are inconsistent and tell only a part of the story, ensuring that the most deserving defensive linemen are inducted is a tough challenge.

Though some recognition was given to the sack as far back as the 1960s and sack leaders were printed on Topps football cards in the 1970s, the sack wasn’t recognized as an official statistic until 1982.

This provides a challenge for some of the best defensive linemen of the 1960s and 1970s who were known for their pass-rushing ability, but don’t have the same “numbers” to show for their prowess as players of the last three decades.

There are, of course, also great defensive linemen who were primarily run stuffers and didn’t have impressive stat totals, regardless of whether they played prior to or after the sack became a recognized stat.

In selecting the best defensive linemen not in the Hall of Fame, I looked at the individual statistics of post-1982 candidates, but also looked at overall team defensive prowess for players from all eras.

I also analyzed how each candidate compared to players of their own era in regard to Pro Bowl and All-Pro selections.

Selecting the top 10, and event the best 25, was quite a challenge as there are many great defensive linemen who have yet to receive the call from Canton, but who were regular participants in the Pro Bowl or key performers on championship teams.

One player who ended up being ranked much lower on the list than one might expect is former Viking Jim Marshall.

At the time of his retirement, Marshall had played in more games than any other player in NFL history. On a line that included Hall of Famers Carl Eller and Alan Page, Marshall was generally considered to be equal to those two greats.

However, when comparing his credentials with those of other comparable defenders, Marshall surprisingly didn’t stack up. He participated in only two Pro Bowls and was never an All-Pro.

In addition, Marshall famously was man handled by a variety of offensive linemen in the four Super Bowl appearances for the Vikings.

Despite being eligible for the HOF for 25 years, Marshall has been a finalist only once, in 2004.

So, here is my list of the top 10 eligible defensive linemen not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I look forward to your comments, discussion, and disagreements.

Click Here to read more and see pictures of each player in the top 10.

10. Neil Smith – Kansas City Chiefs/Denver Broncos/San Diego Chargers – 1988-2000

9. Alex Karras – Detroit Lions – 1962-1978

8. Charles Haley – San Francisco 49ers/Dallas Cowboys – 1986-1999

7. Claude Humphrey – Atlanta Falcons/Philadelphia Eagles – 1968-1981

6. Roger Brown – Detroit Lions/Los Angeles Rams – 1960-1969

5. Chris Doleman – Minnesota Vikings/Atlanta Falcons/San Francisco 49ers – 1985-1999

4. Richard Dent –Chicago Bears/San Francisco 49ers/Indianapolis Colts/Philadelphia Eagles – 1983-1997

3. L.C. Greenwood – Pittsburgh Steelers– 1969-1981

2. Cortez Kennedy – Seattle Seahawks – 1990-2000

1. John Randle – Minnesota Vikings/Seattle Seahawks – 1990-2003

Arnold Palmer Led the American Invasion of the British Open

2009-07-14T19:18:00.001-04:00

The absence from The Open Championship (often referred outside of England as The British Open) of Tiger Woods last year and the decision by Phil Mickelson not to make the trek across the pond this year harkens back to a time when it was common practice for the top Americans to skip golf’s oldest championship.

Of course, both Woods (knee surgery) and Mickelson (family illness) have legitimate reasons for not competing in the only major tournament not played in the United States. However, had it not been for a decision nearly 50 years ago by popular American golfer Arnold Palmer to compete in The Open, it is possible that the list of great Americans not playing in the tournament would be significantly longer.

Though The Open, which was first played in 1860, was the oldest of the four major championships, in the 1940s and 1950s it was not a popular tournament among the top American players. The hassles associated with traveling overseas, the relatively small prize money and the stark contrast of playing on the links golf courses made it unattractive for most American players.

It had not always been that way.

Between World War I and World War II the top American golfers of the era regularly withstood the difficulties to participate in The Open.

Starting in 1921 when Jock Hutchison, who was born in Scotland but became an American citizen in 1917, prevailed in a playoff over England’s Roger Wethered, the Americans enjoyed a decade of dominance.

In 1922, Walter Hagen became the first American born champion of The Open and he went on to claim the championship four times in the decade.

Amateur Bobby Jones claimed the championship three times and in 1930 won his own unique “Grand Slam” as he claimed both the U.S. and British Open and U.S. and British Amateur Championships in the same calendar year.

Victories by Gene Sarazen in 1932 and Denny Shute in 1933 completed a stretch when seven Americans (including four born in the U.S. and three naturalized citizens) claimed 12 of 13 Open Championships.

The Great Depression and increasing instability in Europe limited the number of top Americans participating in the tournament over the remainder of the 1930s and an English player won the title each year for the rest of the decade.

After not being played from 1940-45, American Sam Snead hoisted the traditional champion’s prize, The Claret Jug, in 1946. Snead would not compete in the tournament again until 1962.

Similarly, the other great American golfer of the era, Ben Hogan, competed in The Open only once in his career, winning the tournament in 1953. During that amazing season, Hogan became the first player to win the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open in the same year. He did not compete in the fourth major, the PGA Championships, that year.

In 1960, Palmer had a chance to match Hogan’s feat having won the Masters and U.S. Open titles.

Having never previously made the trek to play in The Open, it took persuading by Palmer’s business partner Mark McCormack before Palmer agreed to participate.

While most were focused solely on the golf tournament, McCormack saw the bigger picture and recognized the enormous potential for the charismatic Palmer to become a global giant.

Palmer just missed the title in 1960, falling by a single stroke to Australian Kal Nagle. However, subsequent victories by the American in 1961 and 1962 convinced other Americans that they could win across the pond and forever sealed Palmer’s legacy as an international golf superstar.

Once Palmer opened the door, the Americans quickly walked right in and made themselves at home.

Tony Lema claimed the 1964 title in his first appearance in the tournament. Jack Nicklaus won his first of three championships in 1966.

Beginning with a victory by Nicklaus at St. Andrews in 1970, Americans claimed 12 of the next 14 Open Championships.

Leading the way was Tom Watson, who claimed the championship five times–each on a different course–between 1975 and 1983.

Between 1984 and 1994 the Americans hit a surprising drought as the only title brought back to America was by Mark Calcavecchia in 1989.

The Americans returned to prominence beginning in 1995 when John Daly claimed the title in a four-hole playoff.

He started a string of 10 victories by Americans over the next 12 years. Leading the charge was Tiger Woods with three victories, including consecutive titles in 2005 and 2006.

Ireland’s Pádraig Harrington ended the Americans’ run in 2007 and repeated as champion a year ago.

In all, since Palmer made his fateful trip to St. Andrews in 1960, Americans have claimed 27 of the 49 Open Championships.

With Woods back in the field this year and a number of young Americans, including U.S. Open Champion Lucas Glover, on the prowl, there is certainly a good chance that the 50th tournament in the American Invasion could result in another American hoisting the Claret Jug come Sunday.

Great Moments in All-Star Game History: Part 3 (1990-2008)

2009-07-12T19:17:00.003-04:00

Over the last two decades, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game has transformed from being simply a game to being a multi-day extravaganza where the game itself is simply one component. For that reason, the game has at times seemed to be anti-climatic, but has still produced some great memories.

After the National League dominated the competition throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including a stretch of 19 victories in 20 games, the rolls have completely reversed in recent years.

The American League has claimed 17 out of the last 20 meetings and has not lost to the National League since 1996.

In this final installment of the three part series in which we have reminisced about some of the great moments, games and players in All-Star history, we look at the most memorable games of the last two decades.

July 10, 1990 (Wrigley Field, Chicago)
The addition of lights at Wrigley Field allowed for the All-Star Game to be played at the storied venue for the first time since 1962.

The lights came in handy as the game endured 85 minutes worth of rain delays, which made it difficult for either team to develop a rhythm or establish a consistent pitching rotation.

The American League used six pitchers and the National League went through nine hurlers in the contest.

The game was scoreless until a two-run double by Julio Franco gave the AL all the runs they needed in posting a 2-0 victory.

July 12, 1994 (Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh)
In one of the most exciting All-Star Games in recent memory, the lead changed hands five times before the National League pulled out the victory in the 10th inning.

The NL jumped to a 4-1 advantage before the AL stormed back to claim a 7-5 lead entering the bottom of the ninth.

With Lee Smith, with 29 saves prior to the All-Star break, on the mound, the American League seemed poised to claim their fifth straight victory in the series.

However, Fred McGriff blasted a two-run home run to tie the game and send it into extra innings.

In his first All-Star Game, Moises Alou drove home the winning run with a double in the 10th inning to give the NL an 8-7 victory.

Given the excitement of the Midsummer Classic, few could have predicted that just one month later a work stoppage would end the season and deprive fans of the World Series for the first time in 90 years.

July 8, 1997 (Jacobs Field, Cleveland)
Eight American League pitchers allowed the National League only three hits as the Junior Circuit pulled out a 3-1 victory.

The game was tied 1-1 until Cleveland Indian catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. delighted the home crowd by blasting a two-run home run in the seventh inning.

Earlier in the inning, Javy Lopez became only the 11th player to hit a home run in his first All-Star Game at bat.

July 7, 1998 (Coors Field, Denver)
It was no surprise that the first All-Star Game played in a stadium known for producing runs would result in the highest scoring game in All-Star history.

A year after his brother earned game MVP honors; Roberto Alomar kept the award in the family as he had three hits, including a home run, to earn the honor.

Alex Rodriguez also homered for the AL and Cal Ripken Jr. drove home two runs.

Barry Bonds hit a home run for the National League and he and his father, Bobby, joined Ken Griffey Jr. and Ken Griffey Sr. as the only father-son combinations to hit home runs in All-Star competition.

July 13, 1999 (Fenway Park, Boston)
The final All-Star Game of the 20th Century is better remembered for the star-studded program prior to the game than actually for the game itself.

Many great Hall of Famers from the history of baseball joined the current All-Stars on the field for a special pre-game ceremony. Red Sox legend Ted Williams received the loudest ovation and was surrounded by current players as he made his way onto the field in a golf cart.

On the field, it was a current Red Sox star that took control of the game. Starting pitcher Pedro Martinez did not allow a hit while registering five strikeouts in two innings on the mound.

The AL scored twice in the first inning as Jim Thome and Cal Ripken Jr. each drove home runs. They also added two runs in the fourth inning to claim the 4-1 victory.

July 10, 2001 (Safeco Field, Seattle)
Few All-Star goodbyes have been as dramatic as the final All-Star appearance of Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr.

Having previously announced his retirement, Ripken was elected as the starting third baseman. However, when the game started, shortstop Alex Rodriguez encouraged Ripken to switch positions and return to the shortstop spot where he earned 14 of his 19 straight All-Star selections.

In the third inning, Ripken permanently stamped his mark on the game by blasting a solo home run off Chan Ho Park.

A pair of sixth inning home runs by Derek Jeter and Magglio Ordonez sealed the 4-1 victory for the American League.

July 9, 2002 (Miller Park, Milwaukee)
Over time, the All-Star Game had transformed from being a battle between rival players in the two leagues to an exhibition with the primary mission being to get as many players involved as possible.

That change in philosophy led to a nightmare scenario in 2002 when the game was ultimately declared a tie after 11 innings when both teams ran out of pitchers.

The game opened with excitement as Torii Hunter leaped high above the fence to rob Barry Bonds of what seemed to be a first inning home run. Bonds was not to be denied in the third inning as he blasted a two-run homer.

The NL led 5-2 before the AL rallied with four runs in the top of the seventh to take a 6-5 lead.

However, the advantage would be short-lived as a two-run single by Lance Berkman in the bottom of the inning put the NL back in front.

The final run of the game was scored in the eighth inning when Omar Vizquel tripled home the tying run.

Neither team scored through the first two extra innings with AL hurler Freddy Garcia and NL pitcher Vincente Padilla each throwing two scoreless innings.

As the 12th inning approached, the two managers–Joe Torre and Bob Brenly–curiously headed to the stands to confer with Commissioner Bud Selig.

As it turns out, they were relaying to the commissioner that there were no pitchers remaining for either team. Left with no other choice Selig, who ironically had been the owner of the host Milwaukee Brewers before assuming his duties, declared the game a tie.

It was the first time since 1961, when rain ended the game after nine innings that the game ended without a winner.

To make a bad situation even worse, it was decided that no Most Valuable Player Award would be given. That proved particularly embarrassing because the award had recently been renamed to honor the legendary Ted Williams, who had died a week prior to the contest.

Following the tie, several changes were made to increase the competitiveness of the game and ensure that teams would not again run out of players. Additional roster spots were added and, for the first time, the league that won the All-Star Game would receive home-field advantage in the World Series for that season.

July 11, 2006 (PNC Park, Pittsburgh)
The City of Pittsburgh hosted the All-Star Game for the fifth time with new PNC Park serving as a picturesque venue for the Midsummer Classic.

The National League took a 2-1 lead following single runs in the second and third innings. Neither squad could muster another run as the game headed to the ninth inning.

With closer Trevor Hoffman on the mound, the NL appeared poised to break their nine game losing streak to the AL.

However, after Hoffman retire the first two batters, he allowed consecutive hits to Paul Konerko and Troy Glaus. Michael Young then followed with a two-run triple to give the AL a 3-2 advantage.

The AL then turned to its own super-closer Mariano Rivera and he was able to seal the deal for the American League.

July 15, 2008 (Yankee Stadium, New York City)
In the final All-Star Game to be played at the original Yankee Stadium, the American League continued their dominance of the National League by claiming a one-run victory for the third straight year.

Unlike when the two teams ran out of pitchers after just 11 innings in 2002, both squads were able to make it through 15 innings without repeating that disastrous outcome.

The NL took the early lead with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings.

The AL tied the score in the seventh on a two-run home run by J.D. Drew.

After each squad scored once in the eighth inning, the game remained tied 3-3 through the 14th inning.

In the bottom of the 15th inning, a sacrifice fly by Michael Young scored Justin Morneau with the deciding run.

Even though the American League has won the last 11 meetings, the National League still holds an overall advantage of 40-37-2 entering the 80th installment of the series at the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

It has been a series filled with great performances, dramatic finishes and unexpected moments and there is little doubt that more special memories will be created this year and on into the future.

No-Hitters Aren’t Just For Baseball’s Elite

2009-07-11T15:24:00.004-04:00

The no-hitter Friday night by San Francisco Giants hurler Jonathan Sanchez is a reminder that one of baseball’s most hallowed accomplishments is not just reserved for pitchers with lofty career statistics. Instead, for one night anyone (even a pitcher with a 16-26 career record) can look like a Hall of Famer and stamp himself a place in baseball immortality.

No-hitters have a special place in baseball lore because, while there are other accomplishments that occur with less frequency, a no-hitter is one feat that can seemingly come out of nowhere.

That was no more evident than in the case of Sanchez.

Having spent the last three weeks in the bullpen after losing his spot in the rotation–he entered Friday’s game with a 2-8 season record–Sanchez only got the start against the San Diego Padres because future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson (owner of two career no-hitters) went on the disabled list earlier this week.

The left-hander made the most of his opportunity, as he was nearly perfect. He struck out 11 batters and had a perfect game until an error in the eighth inning. He did not surrender a walk in the contest.

No-hitters are also a special moment for an entire team because, while the pitcher gets and deserves much of the credit, it is truly an achievement that is dependent on everyone playing at a high level for the entire game.

That was quite clear in the ninth inning Friday as Sanchez’s bid would have ended two outs shy of completion had centerfielder Aaron Rowand not made an incredible catch at the wall to rob Edgar Gonzalez of an extra base hit.

Sanchez is just the latest in a long line of pitchers with otherwise forgettable careers who will forever be recognized as having been, for one night at least, un-hittable.

His no-no is the 262nd in baseball history and 220th since 1900.

While there are many Hall of Fame pitchers who have thrown no-hitters, including Nolan Ryan (seven times), Sandy Koufax (four), Warren Spahn (2), Jim Bunning (2), Catfish Hunter, Jim Palmer, Gaylord Perry, Tom Seaver and Juan Marichal, there are many pitchers with plaques in Cooperstown that never achieved such one-game greatness.

In fact, except for Johnson, the most recent additions to the 300-victory club never accomplished the feat. Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens combined to win 1,014 career games, yet none of the three ever threw a no-hitter.

Then consider that four pitchers who have thrown no-hitters this decade–Anibal Sanchez (15 wins), Clay Buchholz (5), Bud Smith (7) and Sanchez (16)–have a total of 42 career victories between them.

Other pitchers whose names may not be recognizable, but who pitched a no-hitter in the majors include Ed Halicki (55 wins), George Culver (48), Tommy Greene (38), Joe Cowley (33), Juan Nieves (32) and Mike Warren (9).

Of course, the most famous no-hitter in baseball history was the perfect game thrown by Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series. Larsen was never confused for one of the greats of his era as he posted an 81-91 career-record and never won more than 11 games in a season.

No-hitters also are magical because they can serve as the defining moment for pitchers who have battled against great odds and difficulties to gain, or return to, greatness.

The no-hitter in 1993 by Jim Abbott, who pitched 10 years in the majors despite being born without a right hand, will forever serve as inspiration for people trying to overcome adversity.

Similarly, the no-hitter by Jon Lester in May of 2008 served as his signal to the baseball world that he was completely recovered from the lymphoma that many thought might end his promising career just two years earlier. He went on to win 16 games that season and remains one of the key hurlers on the Red Sox.

It is not surprising that Dwight Gooden pitched a no-hitter during his career, but what is surprising is that it didn’t happen during his tenure as the best pitcher in the game for the New York Mets. Instead, it happened a decade later while pitching for the New York Yankees.

At the time, Gooden’s no-no seemed to serve as a re-birth for the former All-Star following his long-time battle with substance abuse. Even though his struggles continued following that moment, the memory of him being carried off the field by thrilled teammates illustrates the power a no-hitter can have to, in one night, turn mediocrity into greatness.

It is likely that Sanchez’s career peaked with his near-perfect performance against the Padres. However, for he and his father–who was in attendance–it is a memory that will never get old.

Plus, for the rest of time, Sanchez will know that for one night, he was the best pitcher in baseball.

Great Moments in All-Star Game History: Part 2 (1960-1989)

2009-07-10T15:45:00.004-04:00

After becoming an American tradition following its inception in 1933, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game evolved into the “Midsummer Classic” through some memorable moments in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

The exhibition eventually moved beyond being just a game to include a home run contest and many other activities that gave fans the opportunity to see their heroes in a completely different atmosphere than ever before.

From the very beginning, the All-Star Game was a highly competitive contest that even though technically an exhibition, lacked little in desire by the great players to win the game and claim bragging rights over the other league.

The game began to lose a little of the competitive edge following the inception of free agency in the 1970s. More players were switching from league to league and by the 1980s it started to be more important to give as many players as possible a chance to play, rather than keep your best players out there for the entire contest.

Of course, that strategy culminated with the 2002 game, which had to be called with the game tied in the 12th inning because both teams had run out of players. We will look more in-depth at that game in part three of this series.

In this second installment of the three part series, we will relive some of the legendary moments and games in All-Star history between 1960 and 1989.

July 13, 1960 (Yankee Stadium, New York City)
Between 1959 and 1962, two All-Star Games were played each year to provide the opportunity for fans in different cities to see the players up close and personal.

The second All-Star Game of the 1960 season provided a homecoming for Willie Mays, who had not been back to New York City since the Giants moved to San Francisco following the 1957 season.

He didn’t disappoint as Mays led off the game with a single and then hit a home run in the third inning.

Eddie Mathews, Ken Boyer and Stan Musial also blasted home runs for the National League as they won the game 6-0.

Also of note in the game was that it marked the 18th and final All-Star appearance for Ted Williams.

July 31, 1961 (Fenway Park, Boston)
The second meeting between the All-Stars in 1961 marked the first time that the game ended in a tie as the game was knotted at 1-1 when rain prevented the game from continuing after nine innings.

The American League scored first on a home run by Rocky Colavito in the first inning. The National League didn’t score until the sixth inning when Eddie Mathews scored on a hit by Bill White.

July 13, 1965 (Metropolitan Stadium, Bloomington)
The National League was 11-1 against the American League in the 1960s and when looking at the depth of the annual lineup the NL put on the field it is easy to understand why.

The 1965 team was a perfect illustration as three Hall of Fame outfielders–Roberto Clemente, Frank Robinson and Billy Williams–were the outfield reserves behind Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Willie Stargell.

This game also marked the All-Star debut for all-time hit king Pete Rose, who was the starting second baseman for the National League. Rose also started All-Star games at leftfield, third base and first base during his career.

Mays led off the game with a home run and the NL scored five runs in the first two innings to seize control.

However, the AL rallied to tie the game in the fifth inning thanks to home runs by Dick McAuliffe and Harmon Killebrew from the host Minnesota Twins.

A walk by Sam McDowell of Mays in the seventh led to the game winning run as Mays scored on an infield hit by Ron Santo. The potential tying run was at second base for the AL in the ninth inning, but Bob Gibson promptly struck out Killebrew and Joe Pepitone to end the game.

July 11, 1967 (Anaheim Stadium)
Until being matched in 2008, the 1967 All-Star game stood as the longest game in the fabled legacy of the Midsummer Classic.

The 1967 game was also one of the most dominating pitching performances in the history of the game as the two teams combined for only 17 hits in 15 innings.

Richie Allen gave the NL a lead in the second inning with a solo home run. The AL tied the score in the sixth on a home run by Brooks Robinson.

Over the next eight innings, the two pitching staffs combined to allow only eight total hits while striking out 15 batters.

Finally, in the 15th inning, Tony Perez finally broke the deadlock when he put a pitch from Catfish Hunter over the left-field fence. At the time, there was no limit on how many innings a pitcher could throw in the game and Hunter pitched the final five innings for the NL.

July 14, 1970 (Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati)
This game is best remembered for the ferocious collision between Ray Fosse and Pete Rose that resulted in Rose scoring the game-winning run in the 12th inning. However, that moment would never have happened had the AL not blown a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the ninth.

A leadoff home run by Dick Dietz trimmed the advantage to two runs and then three straight hits and a sacrifice plated two additional runs to tie the game.

In the bottom of the 12th inning, Rose singled and then went to second on a hit by Billy Grabarkewitz. Looking to score on a single by Jim Hickman, Rose rounded third and arrived at home plate at almost the same instance as the throw from centerfielder Amos Otis. The collision with Fosse kept the catcher from securing the throw and Rose scored the winning run.

Many are quick to point to that moment, which occurred in Fosse’s first full season as a starter, as the pinnacle point in his career and the reason he never became a superstar. However, I tend to believe the moment is given too much credit.

Fosse was hitting .312 at the time of the All-Star break. He returned to the lineup immediately upon the resumption of the schedule and raised his average as high as .318 in the second half before finishing with a .307 average. The next season he hit .276 with 12 home runs and a career-high 62 RBI.

What may have been even more detrimental to Fosse’s career was the crushed disc in his neck that was suffered trying to break-up a clubhouse fight between Reggie Jackson and Billy North while Fosse played with the Oakland A’s in 1974.

July 13, 1971 (Tiger Stadium, Detroit)
The only American League victory in a 20-game stretch between 1963 and 1983 is specifically remembered for the mammoth home run that Reggie Jackson blasted off the light tower roughly 520 feet from home plate.

Jackson’s blast proved to be just one of many fireworks for the Junior Circuit, which erased an early 3-0 deficit on their way to a 6-4 victory.

Frank Robinson became the first player to hit home runs for both leagues with a two-run shot in the third inning. Killebrew also had a two-run home run for the AL.

July 19, 1977 (Yankee Stadium, New York City)
The National League seized control early as Joe Morgan led off the game with a home run and Greg Luzinski later blasted another off of starting pitcher Jim Palmer as the NL took an early 4-0 lead.

The AL trimmed the lead to 5-3 in the sixth inning, but the NL added two more runs in the eighth and won 7-5.

One interesting moment prior to the game was an argument between manager Billy Martin and pitcher Nolan Ryan.

Martin asked Ryan to replace his teammate, Frank Tanana, as the starting pitcher when Tanana couldn’t pitch due to an injury. Feeling he should have been picked originally, Ryan refused to pitch. It led Martin to proclaim that he would never again select Nolan Ryan for the All-Star Game.

Of course, Martin managed only twice more in the Midsummer Classic and Ryan was not on his staff.

August 9, 1981 (Municipal Stadium, Cleveland)
Following a strike that lasted nearly two months, baseball returned with only the second All-Star Game played in the month of August.

Gary Carter led the NL with a pair of home runs and Dave Parker and Mike Schmidt also hit homers as the Senior Circuit rallied to win 6-5.

The game marked the All-Star debut for colorful left-hander Fernando Valenzuela, who earned the start for the National League in his rookie season.

July 6, 1983 (Comiskey Park, Chicago)
Marking the 50th Anniversary of the first All-Star Game, the American League broke out of an 11-year funk to defeat the NL for the first time since 1971.

They did it in grand fashion, as Fred Lynn became the first player in All-Star Game history to hit a grand slam. The AL scored seven runs in the third inning and easily ended the losing streak with a 13-3 victory.

July 10, 1984 (Candlestick Park, San Francisco)
Fifty years after Carl Hubbell struck out five consecutive Hall of Famers in the 1934 All-Star Game, two of the best pitchers of the era commemorated the achievement with an impressive one of their own.

Fernando Valenzuela struck out three future Hall of Fame members–Dave Winfield, Reggie Jackson and George Brett–in the fourth inning. The following inning, Dwight Gooden ran the streak to six by striking out all three batters he faced– Lance Parrish, Chet Lemon and Alvin Davis.

The NL took advantage of the great pitching and home runs by Dale Murphy and Gary Carter to win the game 3-1.

July 11, 1989 (Anaheim Stadium)
From the very beginning, there was little question that the 1989 All-Star Game was all about Bo Jackson.

Jackson led off the game with a monstrous home run to centerfield and finished the game with two hits and two RBI. He made a great defensive play on a liner by Pedro Guerrero to stop a potential NL rally and also had a stolen base.

Jackson’s opening blast was followed by a home run by Wade Boggs and the American League went on to score five runs in the first three innings on their way to a 5-3 victory. Unfortunately, it proved to be the only All-Star moment for Jackson as he suffered a severe hip injury playing football in 1990 and never again appeared in the Midsummer Classic.

Be sure to check back on Sunday, July 12, for the final article in this series as we look at memorable All-Star Games and moments from 1990-2008.

Great Moments in All-Star Game History: Part 1, 1933-1959

2009-07-08T18:36:00.004-04:00

Since its inception in 1933, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game has provided fans an annual opportunity to see most of the great stars of the game on the same field. While the game is an exhibition and has withstood periods of indifference by some players, management and fans, it remains a special mid-season moment.

There have been many memorable games and moments in the first 79 incarnations of the annual meeting between the top players of the American and National Leagues.

This is the first of a three-part series where we will relive some of the great moments and games in the history of this special series.

July 6, 1933 – Comiskey Park, Chicago
The idea of bringing the top players from both the American and National Leagues together in the middle of the season for one “All-Star” game was initiated by Arch Ward, a sports editor for the Chicago Tribune. The first game was played at Comiskey Park to coincide with Chicago’s Century of Progress Exposition.

In a fitting testimonial to his legendary career, Babe Ruth hit the first home run in All-Star history when he lifted a pitch from Bill Hallahan into the right-field stands in the third inning.

The American League went on to win the game 4-2 with Lefty Gomez earning the victory.

July 10, 1934 – Polo Grounds, New York City
Though the American League scored six runs in the fifth inning and held on for a 9-7 victory, this game is best remembered for the amazing pitching performance of a National League left-handed hurler.

When Carl Hubbell surrendered a hit and a walk to the first two American League batters in the opening inning of the game, it looked like the Junior Circuit was going to jump out to a big early lead. After all, the next three batters were all-time great sluggers Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx.

However, Hubbell settled down and mowed down all three batters on strikes. He opened the second inning by increasing his streak of strikeouts of future Hall of Famers to five when he struck out Al Simmons and Joe Cronin.

July 11, 1939 – Yankee Stadium, New York City
It was fitting that in the first All-Star Game played at Yankee Stadium, New York great Joe DiMaggio would provide the fireworks. His solo home run in the fifth inning gave the American League a 3-1 lead and they would hold on for the victory.

The game was particularly memorable because 20-year old Bob Feller made his All-Star debut and allowed only one hit in three and two third innings to earn a save.

July 8, 1941 – Briggs Stadium, Detroit
The final All-Star Game before the start of World War II proved to be quite a memorable one.

The National League, behind two home runs by Arky Vaughan, scored five runs between the sixth and eighth innings to take a 5-3 advantage into the bottom of the ninth.

With one out in the ninth, the American League loaded the bases with Joe DiMaggio coming to the plate. DiMaggio hit what seemingly would be a game-ending double play grounder to shortstop Eddie Miller. However, the throw from second baseman Billy Herman to first base was wide and DiMaggio was safe while one run scored.

The next batter was Ted Williams, making his second-ever All-Star appearance. The left-handed hitter sent a Claude Passeau fastball into the fight-field stands to give the American League a come-from-behind 7-5 victory.

July 9, 1946 – Fenway Park, Boston
After the 1945 game was canceled due to World War II, baseball was able to welcome back its great stars with a special celebration at Fenway Park.

The game itself was not one of the more competitive contests in the series as the American League easily won the game 12-0.

However, the game was fittingly a return to prominence for Boston great Ted Williams. He had four hits, including two home runs, and five RBI in the game. He also was part of the most memorable play of the game as he launched the famous “Eephus pitch” (also known as the blooper pitch) from Rip Sewell into the stands for an eighth inning home run.

July 12, 1949 – Ebbets Field, Brooklyn
Just two seasons after Jackie Robinson became the first black player in the modern era of baseball, Robinson was one of four black players to make their All-Star debut.

Fittingly played at Ebbets Field, the same park where Robinson had played his first game, Robinson, Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe represented the National League and Larry Doby was on the roster for the American League.

The American League won the game 11-7 as Joe DiMaggio had two hits and drove in three runs. Robinson went 1-4 in the game, but scored three runs.

July 11, 1950 – Comiskey Park, Chicago
In the first All-Star Game to go extra innings, Ralph Kiner hit a solo home run in the top of the ninth to tie the game. National League pitchers didn’t allow a run over their final nine innings to keep the NL in the contest.

Finally, in the 14th inning, Red Schoendist blasted a leadoff home run to break the deadlock and the NL held on to win 4-3.

The American League lost more than a game as Ted Williams hit the wall making a running catch in the first inning and suffered a broken shoulder. In typical Williams’ fashion, he stayed in the game and went 1-4. It wasn’t until after the game that the extent of his injury was revealed.

July 13, 1954 – Municipal Stadium, Cleveland
In a game that tied or set All-Star records for hits, home runs and runs scored, the American League used a late rally to post an exciting 11-9 victory.

The National League took a 9-8 lead into the eighth inning.

Hometown hero Larry Doby excited the crowd by blasting a pinch-hit home run to tie the game. The AL then loaded the bases and Nellie Fox poked a hit into short center field to score two runs and give the Junior Circuit the lead.

Closer Virgil Trucks sealed the game for the American League in the top of the ninth.

July 12, 1955 – County Stadium, Milwaukee
It appeared early on that the American League would win this game in a blowout. Mickey Mantle blasted a home run to lead a four-run first inning for the AL and they led 5-0 after six innings.

However, the National League scored twice in the seventh and three times in the eighth inning to knot the game.

In the 12th inning, Stan Musial blasted the game winning home run off of Frank Sullivan to complete the comeback for the National League.

July 9, 1957 – Sportsman’s Park, St. Louis
Even before it began, the 1957 game was surrounded by controversy as fanatical Cincinnati voters stuffed the ballot boxes and elected seven Reds’ players to the starting lineup. Commissioner Ford Frick didn’t take kindly to the action and removed two of the Reds, Gus Bell and Wally Post, from the lineup. After the game, Frick changed the voting structure for the game and fans didn’t get to vote again until 1970.

The American League led 3-2 entering the ninth inning and promptly increased their edge to 6-2 with three runs. In the bottom of the inning, the National League scored twice before Minnie Minoso made a running catch of a drive off the bat of Gil Hodges to win the game.

Be sure to check back on Friday, July 10, for the second part of this series as we look at great All-Star moments from 1960-1989.

Do Records Equal Greatness?

2009-07-07T21:39:00.003-04:00

Roger Federer’s recent move past Pete Sampras in the tennis record books and the readiness by many to label Federer the “greatest men’s tennis player of all-time” begs the question of whether true greatness can really be measured through records-held.

Every sport has at least one iconic statistic or record. Whether it is the baseball career home run record, career passing and rushing yardage records in football, most major championships in golf, or most points scored in basketball, there are some numbers that are coveted and cherished.

However, in many cases the players who hold these coveted records are not the same players regularly in the conversation when discussing the “greatest player of all-time” in that particular sport.

Plus, as the nature and style of games change over time. Some statistics become easier, or more difficult, to accomplish, thus making it even more difficult to compare eras.

Let’s first look at basketball. There is little argument that Michael Jordan was the best player ever to play the game.

Yet, he ranks only third in career points scored. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was a great NBA center for 20 years, but whose name rarely comes up in conversations about the best players ever, holds that record.

Instead, Jordan, Oscar Robertson (11th), Jerry West (18th), Wilt Chamberlain (fourth), Larry Bird (29th) and Magic Johnson (66th) are among the players generally regarded as being better than Kareem.

Perhaps no record in sports evokes a greater emotional response than the record for most career home runs in Major League Baseball.

Emotions (both positive and negative) were peaked in 1973 and 1974 when Hank Aaron pursued and eventually passed Babe Ruth for the all-time home run record.

Similarly, when Barry Bonds moved past Aaron in 2007, many baseball purists believed that the alleged use of performance drugs by Bonds was just cause for ignoring his statistical accomplishment.

Yet, while the baseball world has grown to appreciate Aaron and his accomplishments, he has never really been considered to be on the shortlist for the “greatest player of all-time.”

Instead, that conversation usually includes the man he passed for the record, Ruth, as well as one of Aaron’s contemporaries Willie Mays. Others including Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio and Ty Cobb are often mentioned before you get to Aaron when looking at the best of all-time.

The discrepancy between greatness and holding a record is even more distinguishable when looking at the single-season home run record.

In 1961, Roger Maris hit 61 home runs to pass Babe Ruth for the single season record. It was a mark that stood for 37 years until being passed by three players (Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds) who all have been accused of using performance-enhancing drugs.

For that reason, many consider Maris to still be the legitimate record holder. Yet, Maris will never be considered one of the great players of all-time and, in fact, isn’t even a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Tennis is a sport where situations in different eras make it very difficult to truly be able to use records as the determining factor for deciding who might be the “greatest of all-time.”

Prior to 1968, the four “Grand Slam” tournaments—Australian, French, Wimbledon and U.S. Championships—allowed only amateurs to participate.

Because of that restriction, many great tennis players who chose to earn a living playing professionally were unable to play in the most prestigious tournaments in the sport during some of their prime years.

Australian Rod Laver won six grand slam titles as an amateur between 1960 and 1962. In 1962 he claimed all four championships.

Laver was 24-years old when he turned pro after the 1962 season and did not play in any of the four majors again for five years–until he was nearly 30-years old.

When professionals were allowed to participate in the majors in 1968, Laver won the Wimbledon title. The next year, during which he turned 31, he became the only player in the open era to earn all four grand slam titles in the same calendar year.

He finished his career with 11 grand slam titles.

Federer, who will turn 28 the day before Laver turns 71 in early August, has earned 10 of his 15 grand slam titles since turning 24.

Considering that Laver was ranked as the number one player in the world from 1964 until 1970, it is very likely that had he participated in the 20 major championships held between 1963 and 1967 he would have claimed enough victories to easily put the record for grand slam victories well out of the reach of Federer, Pete Sampras or any of the other players in the open era.

Another factor that makes it deceiving to use major championships as the true judge of tennis greatness is that for many years it was not uncommon for top players to skip one or more of the grand slam tournaments.

Bjorn Borg, who won 11 grand slam tournaments in his career, played in the Australian Open only once. Jimmy Connors, who claimed eight grand slam titles, appeared in the tournament twice, winning the championship in 1974 and reaching the finals in 1975.

The reality is that while we seem to have a great obsession with being able to label someone the “greatest of all-time,” that determination is really only subjective.

We will never be able to accurately judge players from one era with those of another in a manner that accounts for all the variables that change over time.

Whether it is equipment, medical treatment, conditioning, style of play, ease of travel, or significance of events and numbers, circumstances are different from one era to another in all sports.

So, rather than worrying about which player might be the “greatest of all-time,” maybe we should instead enjoy the moment and appreciate the fact that all sports have been blessed with many great stars who all keep us watching.

Best Players Not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Offensive Linemen

2009-07-06T12:57:00.004-04:00

In the fifth installment of our position-by-position look at the best eligible players not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, we are looking at the position that has sent more than twice as many players to the Hall of Fame in the last 15 years than any other, the offensive line.

Since 1996, 17 offensive linemen have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. By comparison, in the same time period a total of only 22 offensive skill players (8-WR, 7-QB, 4-RB, 3-TE) have been selected.

Overall in the modern era, more offensive linemen (34) have been enshrined in Canton than players from any other position. Standing second is the defensive line with 27.

Given the abundance of offensive linemen in the Hall of Fame, you might think that creating a list of the best linemen not in the Hall of Fame would be a little like making a sandwich from Thanksgiving leftovers; enough decent pieces to get a meal, but obvious that the best stuff is already gone.

Surprisingly, that really isn’t the case.

With most of the other positions I have evaluated so far there are usually 3-4 players at the top of the list who obviously have been overlooked by Hall of Fame voters and deserve induction, but then most of the others on the list have enough flaws that it is clear to see why they have not been chosen.

Of the offensive linemen on my list, you could easily make a strong case that most of the top 20 deserves to one-day be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Because offensive linemen don’t have individual statistics on which to be judged, their merit for greatness is generally based on such things as Pro Bowl and All-Pro recognition and team success.

Of the 34 modern era offensive linemen in the Hall of Fame, only seven never appeared in a Super Bowl or NFL/AFL Championship game.

One reason I believe that Hall of Fame voters have been so aggressive in selecting offensive linemen to the HOF in recent years, rather than filling the slots with offensive skill players is that you don’t have the same level of statistical confusion with linemen that you do with skill position players.

As offensive statistics have exploded over the last three decades due to rules changes and offensive styles, it has made it significantly harder to distinguish which skill position players really deserve to be labeled as the best of all-time.

At most positions the answer has simply been to select only those obvious “no-brainer” choices and put off selecting players who are at all questionable.

Those slots have been going to offensive linemen because there are a plethora of players at the guard, tackle and center positions that regularly stood out through Pro Bowl and All-Pro selections as being among the elite in the league.

However, the one flaw with that scenario is that each year a lot more offensive linemen receiver Pro Bowl recognition than players at the skill positions. While usually only two running backs, three quarterbacks and four wide receivers earn Pro Bowl selection per conference, as many as 10 offensive linemen can be selected from each conference.

Thus, there are a total of 98 eligible offensive linemen who are not in the Hall of Fame despite having earned at least three trips to the Pro Bowl (many of them five of more) during their careers.

With so many worthy candidates to select from and no individual statistics with which to differentiate players, it was a challenge to identify the best players not in the Hall of Fame at this position.

As with the other positions, I looked at how they compared to players of their own era in regard to Pro Bowl and All-Pro selections. I also reviewed how the team annually rated in offensive categories and gave special consideration to players on teams that annually ranked among the best in the league either running or throwing the football.

I also looked at team success, but primarily only when other categories were too-close-to-call.

So, here is my list of the top 10 eligible offensive linemen not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I look forward to your comments, discussion, and disagreements.

Click Here to read more and see pictures of each player in the top 10.

10. Joe Jacoby – Washington Redskins – 1981-1993

9. Mick Tingelhoff – Minnesota Vikings – 1962-1978

8. Jay Hilgenberg – Chicago Bears/New Orleans Saints – 1981-1993

7. Dick Stanfel – Detroit Lions/Washington Redskins– 1952-1958

6. Bob Kuechenberg – Miami Dolphins – 1970-1983

5. Dick Schafrath – Cleveland Browns – 1959-1971

4. Walt Sweeney –San Diego Chargers/Washington Redskins – 1963-1975

3. Dermontti Dawson – Pittsburgh Steelers– 1988-2000

2. Jim Tyrer – Kansas City Chiefs/Washington Redskins – 1961-1974

1. Jerry Kramer – Green Bay Packers – 1958-1968

Wimbledon Final Reminds Us Why We Love Sports

2009-07-05T18:39:00.001-04:00

The classic Wimbledon men’s final between Andy Roddick and Roger Federer served as another reminder of why so many of us have a lifelong love affair with sports. Even when we think we know the expected outcome, something magical can happen.

When defending champion Rafael Nadal had to pull out immediately before the tournament, conventional wisdom was that Roger Federer would have an easy time earning his sixth Wimbledon title and record 15th Grand Slam championship.

As the tournament unfolded, little was happening on the court to indicate that anything other than a Federer coronation was likely.

Federer predictably romped his way through the field while the other top players were falling by the wayside.

When Federer trounced Tommy Haas in the semifinals to earn a spot in the finals for the seventh straight year, his date with destiny seemed set.

If anything, the upset of Britain’s own Andy Murray in the semifinals by American Andy Roddick seemed to demolish the only remaining obstacle between Federer and the title.

In 20 previous career meetings, Federer had defeated Roddick 18 times, including twice in the finals of Wimbledon.

Neither of those matches, in 2004 and 2005, proved to be particularly memorable as Federer won in four sets the first time and then in three sets a year later.

Thus, when Federer and Roddick took to the court for the finals of the 2009 Wimbledon, few could have predicted that the match would turn out to be equally as compelling and well played as the 2008 championship between Federer and Nadal, which was called by many the “greatest tennis match ever played.”

From the very beginning, Roddick didn’t look like a guy who expected to finish second.

With the first set tied at 5-5, Roddick withstood four break point opportunities by Federer before closing out the game. He then quickly surprised his opponent by taking advantage of his own break point opportunity to win the set.

Roddick appeared to be cruising to a two-set advantage when he assumed a 6-2 advantage in the second set tie-breaker. However, Federer used that moment to remind everyone that he was the one vying to become the greatest men's tennis champion of all-time as he reeled off six straight points to steal the set from Roddick.

This momentary lapse didn’t affect Roddick for long as he continued to hold his serve and put pressure on Federer.

The third set ended in another tie-breaker with Federer having a slightly easier time in winning it 7-5.

In past matches between the two players, this would usually be the point where Roddick faded and Federer started preparing his victory speech.

However, this was not the same-old Andy Roddick on the court.

Roddick took advantage of a rare Federer miscue to break serve in the fourth game of the fourth set and went on to even the match.

The fifth set was a battle between two players determined not to be the one to blink first.

The set quickly reached 5-5, which meant that the next break of serve would undoubtedly decide the champion.

With Federer serving first, each service game he claimed put pressure on Roddick as he knew there was little margin for error.

Amazingly, Roddick was even better than could have been expected as he claimed 10 straight games while needing a win to stay in the match. He impressively did so without facing a single match point.

Finally, after Federer took a 15-14 lead, Roddick showed his first signs of fatigue. Three mishits gave Federer an opening and he walked right through to claim the match.

By the time it was over, the match had lasted 77 games, the most ever for a Wimbledon final. With 30 games, the fifth set was the longest final set in tournament history.

While the history books will forever recall the 2009 Wimbledon Finals as the victory that moved Roger Federer past Pete Sampras in the record books, the championship will also be remembered by anyone who watched as the tournament in which Andy Roddick forever emerged as a member of the tennis elite.

Though his name was not added to the list of Wimbledon champions on this day, Roddick forever stamped himself as a tennis champion. He was nearly flawless on the court and gracious following his heart-breaking defeat.

Roddick’s determination and refusal to quit illustrated just what is great about sports.

Even though the final outcome was technically what most expected, the way the conclusion was reached proved to be beyond anyone’s grandest expectations and truly was a special gift for sports fans.

Sports Memories: Fireball Roberts

2009-07-03T12:11:00.001-04:00

Much fanfare is being made this week regarding the 25th anniversary of Richard Petty’s record setting victory in the 1984 Firecracker 400. While Petty is certainly worthy of being honored, let’s also not forget the accomplishments of the man who won the first Firecracker race 50 years ago: Glenn “Fireball” Roberts.

When the Daytona International Speedway opened in 1959, the big summer race at the speedway was originally scheduled to be an open wheel (Indy car) race. However, after a flurry of accidents at an April event, open wheel racing was permanently barred from the track.

That left an opening for a second NASCAR event to go with the season opening Daytona 500.

Originally called the Firecracker 250, the race was 100 laps until being expanded to the current 400 miles (160 laps) in 1963.

A Florida native, Roberts actually earned his nickname for his prowess as a fireball-throwing pitcher for the Zellwood Mud Hens American Legion baseball team, rather than due to his racing style.

His racing career started at weekend dirt track races while attending the University of Florida.

He began racing on the NASCAR circuit in 1950 and claimed victory at the Occoneechee Speedway in only his third start.

Over the next 15 years, he usually raced only a portion of the NASCAR schedule, but still claimed 33 career wins and 93 top five finishes (in 206 career races).

Having been raised only an hour from Daytona (in Apopka), Roberts had particular success racing at what was basically his home track.

He led 21 laps in the first Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway in February 1959 before fuel pump problems eventually left him in 45th place.

Five months later, Roberts took the poll for the first Firecracker 250 and then led 84 of the 100 laps to claim the victory.

In 17 career starts at the Daytona International Speedway, Roberts claimed nine polls and seven victories (including qualifying races).

In 1962 he became the first driver to win both the Daytona 500 and Firecracker 250 in the same year.

Roberts enjoyed particular success in the Firecracker race as he won the race three times (1959, 1962, 1963) in five years.

Sadly, his career ended prematurely as Roberts was severely burned in an accident at the World 600 in Charlotte and he died on July 2, 1964.

Despite his relatively short career, Roberts was selected as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers and inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame.

The Sports World Provides Special Fireworks on the 4th of July

2009-07-02T09:32:00.004-04:00

The Fourth of July is known for fireworks, patriotism, and family outings, but it's also a day that has been filled with some great moments in the sports world.

No July 4th moment has been bigger than the day, 70 years ago, when Lou Gehrig stood on the field at Yankee Stadium and proclaimed himself, “The luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

The sudden transformation of Gehrig from the “Iron Horse” to a man for whom a disease would soon be named after was punctuated that day, when the baseball world said goodbye to one of the all-time greats.

Gehrig died less than two years later, but his legacy is still alive today and will be honored in special ceremonies all across the baseball world on Saturday.

Yankee Stadium was the site for another memorable July 4th moment, 44 years later. On July 4, 1983 New York Yankees left-hander Dave Righetti hurled a no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox.

The “no-no” by Righetti, who would go on to earn his greatest distinction as a relief pitcher, was the first by a Yankee since Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series.

More than any other sport though, tennis and the Fourth of July have had a very special history.

The premier tennis tournament in the world, Wimbledon, is contested each year in late June and early July and often crowns a champion on a day that isn’t recognized as fondly in England as it is in the former colonies.

The tennis greats who have hoisted the championship trophy on July 4th include Jack Kramer, Maureen Connelly, John Newcombe, Billy Jean King, Stefan Edberg, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, and Pete Sampras.

John McEnroe played in a pair of memorable championship matches on July 4th in 1981 and 1982.

In 1981 he avenged a dramatic loss from the previous year to end Bjorn Borg’s five-year run as champion and claim his first Wimbledon title.

The next year, he faced Jimmy Connors in a match between two fiery Americans. This time McEnroe was unable to hold onto his title, as Connors won the last two sets to claim the championship in a thrilling five-set match.

For many years, the annual summer NASCAR race at the Daytona Speedway was held on July 4th and known as the Firecracker 400.

Fireball Roberts won the first July 4th race at the speedway in 1959 and claimed victory in the race two more times before his untimely death just two days before the Fourth of July in 1964.

Richard Petty was victorious in the Firecracker 400 three times in his illustrious career, but the last of those wins was the most memorable.

In front of a crowd that included President Ronald Reagan, Petty’s victory at the 1984 race was the record 200th, and final, of his career.

NASCAR stopped holding the race specifically on July 4th in 1988. In fact, when the 2009 race, now called the Coke Zero 400, is held this upcoming Saturday, it will mark the first time since 1992 that the race has actually been run on the Fourth of July.

The holiday was also a favorite date for major boxing matches in the early part of the 20th century.

On July 4, 1910, Jack Johnson defeated James Jeffries in front of 22,000 people in Reno, Nevada in what was billed as the “Fight of the Century.” Two years later, Jackson defended his heavyweight title on July 4, 1912 with a victory over Jim Flynn.

Jack Dempsey captured the heavyweight title on July 4, 1919 with a punishing victory over Jess Willard in Toledo, Ohio. Willard later claimed that Dempsey’s gloves were reinforced with "plaster of Paris", but regardless, Dempsey won the title when Willard didn’t answer the bell for the fourth round.

Future heavyweight champion Joe Louis made his professional debut on July 4, 1934 against Jack Kracken in Chicago’s Bacon Casino. Louis earned a first round knockout and a total of $59 for his performance.

Another strange sports occurrence took place on the day of the American Bicentennial July 4, 1976.

In the first game of a doubleheader in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia Phillies' catcher Tim McCarver hit a grand slam home run, but had the historic blast negated when he passed Gary Maddox on the bases.

Philadelphia went on to win the game 10-5, but the strange base running blunder secured for McCarver a unique place in history.

With the Coke Zero 400, the Wimbledon Women’s Final and a full slate of Major League Baseball games set for this July 4th, there will undoubtedly be a new set of heroes adding their names to the illustrious list of athletes who have provided special fireworks on America’s birthday.

Sports Memories: 1980 Wimbledon Men's Final

2009-07-01T23:16:00.002-04:00

Before Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer played their classic match last year, there was little doubt that the best men’s final in Wimbledon history occurred on July 5, 1980 between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe.

It is a rare treat in men’s tennis for two all-time greats to meet in the finals of a major championship at a time during their careers when both players are at, or near, the peak of their abilities.

Such was the case when Borg and McEnroe met in the 1980 Wimbledon Finals.

Borg, 24 at the time of the match, was the four-time defending Wimbledon champion and number one ranked player in the world.

The 21-year-old McEnroe had claimed his first Grand Slam title at the 1979 U.S. Open and was making his first appearance in a Wimbledon final.

Early on, Borg looked like the player uncomfortable with being on the storied Centre Court at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, while McEnroe acted like the seasoned veteran.

The fiery American stormed out of the gate with a dominating 6-1 win in the opening set.

However, the steady Swede soon recovered and began to take control of the match. He won the next two sets 7-5, 6-3 and was serving with match point in the fourth set.

Suddenly, McEnroe recovered and withstood two match points to tie the set. That set up an amazing tiebreaker in which McEnroe saved five match points and Borg turned away six set points. McEnroe finally prevailed 18-16 to send the match to a final set.

In the fifth set, Borg took control as he won 19 straight points on his serve and broke McEnroe to claim the decisive set 8-6.

Until I watched with amazement the 2008 Wimbledon final between Federer and Nadal, I was convinced I would never see a better tennis match than the classic battle between Borg and McEnroe.

In my opinion, the debate as to which match was indeed the “greatest of all time” is an exercise in futility. Both matches were special “once in a generation” matches and I feel fortunate to have sat in front of the television to witness both of them.

I’m hopeful to still be here to watch the next “greatest match of all time” when it comes along in another 30 years or so.

Willie McCovey – July Vintage Athlete of the Month

2009-07-01T14:48:00.001-04:00

In honor of the upcoming Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the July Vintage Athlete of the Month was the hero of the Midsummer Classic 40 years ago.

Despite his immense stature (6-foot-4, 210 pounds), Willie McCovey was often overshadowed by more flamboyant teammates. He truly epitomized the concept of speaking softly and carrying a big stick as McCovey blasted 521 home runs during his 22-year major league career.

Spending most of his career with the San Francisco Giants, McCovey was a fixture in a lineup that at various points also included Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda and superstar Bobby Bonds.

McCovey made an immediately impact in the majors when he joined the San Francisco Giants on July 30, 1959. The left-handed batter went four-for-four in his big league debut against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Despite playing in just 52 games during his rookie season, McCovey was the unanimous choice for National League Rookie of the Year as he hit .354 with 13 home runs and 38 RBI.

After four seasons of part-time duty, McCovey became the starting leftfielder for the Giants in 1963 and led the National League with 44 home runs while also driving home 102 runs.

He became the full-time first baseman for the Giants in 1965 and hit 39 home runs that season. It started a streak of six straight years in which he blasted at least 30 homers.

In the 1969 All-Star Game, McCovey became just the fourth player in All-Star history to blast two home runs in the Midsummer Classic. He earned MVP honors as the National League won 9-3 for their seventh straight win in the series.

McCovey parlayed his All-Star success into the best full season of his career. He led the league with career-highs of 45 home runs and 126 runs batted in to earn the NL Most Valuable Player Award.

After 15 seasons with the Giants, McCovey was traded to the San Diego Padres in 1974 and later spent part of the 1976 season with the Oakland A’s.

He returned to the Giants in 1977 and responded with his best season in several years with 28 home runs and 86 RBI. In 1978 he became just the 12th player in Major League history to surpass the 500 home run milestone.

McCovey retired in 1980 with 521 career home runs, 1,555 runs batted in and a career .270 batting average. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986.

Nearly 30 years after his retirement, McCovey is still one of the most beloved players in San Francisco Giants history. The section of the San Francisco Bay located just beyond the right field fence at AT&T Stadium is known as “McCovey Cove.”

The inflated home run stats of the last 15 years have overshadowed the great performances of McCovey and other great sluggers of earlier eras of professional baseball, but there is no doubt that McCovey was one of the great power hitters in the history of Major League Baseball.

Each month, Sports Then and Now celebrates and remembers the accomplishments of a notable athlete from past generations. If you had a favorite athlete growing up that you would like to see featured as the Vintage Athlete of the Month, send me a nomination by e-mail.

Best Players Not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Tight Ends

2009-06-30T21:18:00.003-04:00

Our position-by-position look at the best eligible players not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame continues with a rundown of the best tight ends that have not earned a trip to Canton.

Choosing which tight ends deserve immortality in the Hall of Fame is a difficult challenge.

In general, you would expect the best tight ends to be exceptional receivers and powerful blockers. However, few tight ends can truly be called “great” in both areas.

Instead, most tight ends either are great blockers and adequate receivers or, as is the case more often in the last couple decades, great receivers and average blockers.

The Hal of Fame voters waited until 1988 to finally induct a tight end and it remains the least represented position with a total of seven players honored in the Hall.

The first two tight ends to enter the Hall of Fame were arguably the two that best epitomized the requisite combination of blocking and receiving prowess. Mike Ditka and John Mackey were the dominant tight ends of the 1960s as they combined for 10 Pro Bowl appearances and five first-team All-Pro honors.

The next three tight ends inducted into the Hall of Fame, Jackie Smith, Kellen Winslow and Ozzie Newsome were all recognized for their receiving prowess.

While few argued the merits of the sixth tight end inducted into the Hall of Fame, Dave Casper, there was some question of his worthiness because his tenure as a premier player in the league was relatively short.

The induction of Charlie Sanders into the HOF in 2007 caught many people off guard. Sanders had been a seven-time Pro Bowl selection and three-time All-Pro for mediocre Detroit Lions teams in the 1970s, but his career stats were considered pedestrian and he was never a Hall of Fame finalist before being chosen as a Senior Nominee and ultimately inducted in 2007.

Using statistics to validate the worthiness of a tight end for the Hall of Fame is an exercise in futility. Even tight ends from the same era can have very different levels of offensive production.

Some teams, like the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s, have used the tight end predominantly as another blocker.

In 1973, the Buffalo Bills used the seventh overall pick in the draft to select Paul Seymour, an offensive tackle out of Michigan. They then moved Seymour to tight end and over the next five years he caught only 62 passes, but was a key blocker on the unit that helped O.J. Simpson win three rushing titles between 1973 and 1977.

Other teams have used the tight end as another pass receiver who may sometimes line up in the traditional tight end spot on the line of scrimmage, but often is split out like a flanker.

Don Coryell and the San Diego Chargers forever changed the way tight ends were used when they took the long and lanky Kellen Winslow and made him their receiving tight end. Winslow caught 541 passes in nine seasons while giving Dan Fouts a third dynamic receiving option.

You will see one recurring theme in the players selected as the 10 best not in the Hall of Fame. All of them, regardless of in which era they played, caught more passes in their careers than both John Mackey and Charlie Sanders.

In fact, of the 25 tight ends chosen for this overall list, only six have fewer career receptions than Sanders (336 receptions) or Mackey (331).

As has been the case with all positions, I tried to base my selections first and foremost on how the players compared with others from the same era. How many times was he an All-Pro or Pro Bowl player, how many times was he among the top receiving tight ends in the league, how integral was he to the offensive attack for his team.

Trying to use prowess specifically as a blocker was a challenge because the actual amount of blocking done by each tight end varies greatly and is difficult to quantify.

So, here is my list of the top 10 eligible tight ends not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Click Here to read more and see pictures of each player in the top 10.

10. Riley Odoms – Denver Broncos – 1972-1983

9. Charle Young – Philadelphia Eagles/Los Angeles Rams/San Francisco 49ers/Seattle Seahawks – 1973-1985

8. Jay Novacek – Arizona Cardinals/Dallas Cowboys – 1985-1995

7. Steve Jordan - Minnesota Vikings – 1982-1994

6. Todd Christensen –New York Giants/Oakland-Los Angeles Raiders – 1979-1988

5. Keith Jackson – Philadelphia Eagles/Miami Dolphins/Green Bay Packers– 1988-1996

4. Pete Retzlaff – Philadelphia Eagles – 1956-1966

3. Mark Bavaro – New York Giants/Cleveland Browns/Philadelphia Eagles– 1985-1994

2. Ben Coates – New England Patriots/Baltimore Ravens – 1991-2000

1. Shannon Sharpe – Denver Broncos/Baltimore Ravens – 1990-2003

Best Players Not In the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Wide Receivers

2009-06-21T19:06:00.005-04:00

Our position-by-position look at the best eligible players not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame continues with a spotlight on the position where HOF voters have arguably displayed the most inconsistency in their choices: wide receiver.

Perhaps more than any other position, the role and statistics associated with wide receiver has changed dramatically over the last fifty years as the NFL record books have gone from no players with 500 career receptions in 1960 and only four in 1970 to 106 today, including 85 who have joined the club since 1990.

For that reason, the Hall of Fame selectors seem to be in a constant struggle with history to try and deduce which former pass catchers belong in Canton.

Of the 20 modern era wide receivers in the Hall of Fame, only seven were selected in their first four years of eligibility. In fact, the last wide receiver to be selected to the Hall of Fame in his first season of eligibility was Steve Largent in 1995.

Since Largent’s induction, eight wide receivers have been selected to the Hall of Fame with only Michael Irvin (third year) being chosen in his first five years on the ballot.

While Hall of Fame voters have generally withstood the temptation to select receivers to the Hall of Fame based solely on career statistics, what the explosion of receiving totals has done is overshadow the legitimate candidacy of players who played the position in the era before receivers started averaging 70 or more catches per season.

The selection of Bob Hayes to the Hall of Fame this year is a good step toward recognizing players who excelled at the position before statistics became so bloated. However, there are still many Hall of Fame deserving former receivers who were instrumental members of championship teams and possess career resumes equal or better than those of players who are already inducted.

This list includes some recently retired players who will certainly receive the call from the Hall of Fame in the next few years, but it also looks at some all-time greats who were considered legitimate Hall of Fame candidates at the time of their retirements, but have since been lost in the sea of statistics.

In developing this list, each player was evaluated in the context of the time in which he played and for many of the older players, I highlight where they ranked all-time at the time of their retirement.

I also looked at how each compared against other players (Hall of Famers and non-Hall of Famers) from that era and whether, at the time of his retirement, the player was considered a legitimate candidate for the Hall of Fame.

Below is a list of my choices for the top 10 wide receivers not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Click Here to read more and see pictures of each player in the top 10.

10. Gary Clark – Washington Redskins/Phoenix Cardinals/Miami Dolphins – 1985-1995

9. Sterling Sharpe – Green Bay Packers – 1988-1994

8. Mark Clayton – Miami Dolphins/Green Bay Packers – 1983-1993

7. Otis Taylor – Kansas City Chiefs – 1965-1975

6. Harold Carmichael –Philadelphia Eagles/Dallas Cowboys – 1971-1984

5. Henry Ellard – Los Angeles Rams/Washington Redskins/New England Patriots– 1983-1998

4. Andre Reed – Buffalo Bills/Washington Redskins – 1985-2000

3. Cris Carter – Philadelphia Eagles/Minnesota Vikings/Miami Dolphins – 1987-2002

2. Drew Pearson – Dallas Cowboys – 1973-1983

1. Cliff Branch – Oakland Raiders – 1973-1985

Interleague Play Brings Back Both Good and Bad Memories

2009-06-19T21:22:00.001-04:00

It has been a walk down memory lane for the Baltimore Orioles this week as Interleague play has allowed a renewal of rivalries with two one-time World Series opponents.

Now in its 13th year, some of the sparkle has rubbed off the notion of teams from the two leagues mixing for regular season contests. However, Interleague play still provides an annual opportunity to reminisce about past match-ups and debate whether it is a good idea or another example of the cheapening of the game.

On the field, Interleague play has been an unquestioned disaster for the Baltimore Orioles. Entering this season, the Orioles have the worst record among American League teams in Interleague play with a mark of 90-121 (.427).

Only the Pittsburgh Pirates have a worse overall record against the other league (63-103, .380).

Those records stand in great contrast to those of the two best teams in Interleague play, the New York Yankees (123-87, .586) and Oakland A’s (123-89, .580).

As a life-long fan of the Orioles who grew up during their glory years and has stuck by them through the rough road of the last decade, I actually see Interleague play as a refreshing opportunity to remember past glory and watch the Orioles face different competition.

While the memories from the 1969 World Series against the New York Mets are certainly quite painful, it was nice to get a measure of revenge (albeit a very small measure) with a come-from-behind victory in the rubber game of the three game series.

The past memories against the opponent for this weekend’s series are much more pleasant.

It is hard to believe that 26 years have passed since Rick Dempsey, Eddie Murray and a young Cal Ripken, Jr. led the Orioles to their last World Series title against the Phillies.

In past years, the Orioles have had chances to relive World Series moments against the Reds, Dodgers and Pirates.

Across the majors, this weekend includes three series between teams that have competed against each other for World Series glory.

In addition to the Orioles and Phillies, the New York Yankees are taking on their opponents from the 2003 World Series, the Florida Marlins. The other series features a rematch of the thrilling 1985 series between the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals.

By the time Interleague play for 2009 ends later this month, there will have been 12 match-ups between teams that once met on baseball’s grandest stage.

In addition to offering the opportunity for World Series rematches, Interleague play also provides an annual excuse for teams within close proximity to meet in “rivalry” games.

There is little doubt that this element of Interleague play has much more appeal in places like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, where there are actually two teams, than it does for teams like the Rockies, Pirates or Braves who have no natural local rival in the other league.

In fact, baseball has designated “rivalry series” for only 18 teams, which means the other teams mix among themselves for the six games when the Yankees are playing the Mets, the Cubs are battling the White Sox and the Orioles are playing the hated Nationals.

One problem that many players, executives and fans have with Interleague play is that it is inheritably unfair.

While division rivals play the same number of games against each other and all the other teams in their own league, schedules against Interleague opponents vary in their degree of difficulty.

The Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angeles are currently competing for first place in the AL West with the Rangers holding a one and a half game advantage.

Because of the “rivalry” component of Interleague play, the Angels are playing six games against the team with the best record in baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Conversely, the Rangers are playing their six rivalry games are against a Houston team that is currently four games under .500.

While the system certainly isn’t perfect, there is little argument that Interleague play is an important reason for the resurgence of baseball attendance in recent years.

Since Interleague play started in 1997, average attendance for these games has been 11.8 percent higher than for the rest of the regular season schedule.

In 2008, the average attendance for Interleague play topped 35,000 for the first time ever and the league recently recognized the “100 millionth fan to see an Interleague game.”

Whether it is Interleague play, the designated hitter, or the wild card playoff round, baseball has made a number of changes over the years to improve the game and spark fan interest.

While baseball “purists” may not like the changes, they can’t argue with the fact that watching the Orioles against the Braves, Yankees against the Mets or Cubs against the White Sox is inherently more compelling than another series between the Marlins and Padres or Royals and Mariners.

Best Players Not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Quarterbacks

2009-06-17T19:59:00.002-04:00

Continuing the position-by-position look at the best eligible players not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, we now turn our attention to the most visible and scrutinized position on the field: quarterback.

Many would argue that quarterbacks receive too much credit for victories and too much blame in defeat, but the reality is that more than any other position, quarterbacks are evaluated and judged based on the success of their team.

Quarterbacks including Dan Marino, Y.A. Title and Fran Tarkenton are graded down slightly because they never won a championship despite posting huge statistical numbers. At the same time, the lack of dominant statistics are overlooked in quarterbacks like Bob Griese, Troy Aikman, and Terry Bradshaw because they led teams to multiple championships.

Of the 23 modern era quarterbacks that have earned induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, only Warren Moon and Sonny Jurgensen never quarterbacked in a conference or league championship game.

In recent years, Hall of Fame voters have inducted a number of players at other positions who were never part of championship caliber teams, but that pattern has rarely extended to quarterback.

Of the 17 modern era players who didn’t participate in a Super Bowl that have been inducted into the Hall of Fame since 1995, Moon is the only quarterback.

The list of top quarterbacks not in the Hall of Fame further illustrates the inconsistencies displayed by Hall of Fame voters, as several seem to possess very similar resumes to some of the quarterbacks that have gained enshrinement.

It is an interesting mix that includes several quarterbacks who were recognized among the best in the game during their careers, but were never able to lead teams to championship heights. However, it also includes a number of quarterbacks who did play in Super Bowls while also earning individual recognition, but for some reason have never been deemed worthy of Hall of Fame induction.

Statistics can be helpful in identifying greatness and were among the criteria evaluated in selecting this list. However, because stats, especially career numbers, can be misleading and have become inflated over the last 30 years, they were just one of several factors used to create the list.

Each player was also evaluated in the context of the time in which he played and for many of the older players, I highlight where they ranked all-time at the time of their retirement.

I looked at how each compared against other players (Hall of Famers and non-Hall of Famers) from that era and whether, at the time of his retirement, the player was considered a legitimate candidate for the Hall of Fame.

Because the Hall of Fame voters give championship success such high priority in selecting quarterbacks, I did look at team success as a measure of consideration. However, I believe that the Hall of Fame voters have placed too much emphasis on that element for quarterbacks, so I did not make it as high a consideration as the voters have.

Below is a list of my choices for the top 10 quarterbacks not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Click here to read more and see pictures of each player in the top 10.

10. Bernie Kosar – Cleveland Browns/Dallas Cowboys/Miami Dolphins – 1985-1996

9. Jim Hart – St. Louis Cardinals/Washington Redskins – 1966-1984

8. Roman Gabriel – Los Angeles Rams/Philadelphia Eagles – 1962-1977

7. John Hadl – San Diego Chargers/Los Angeles Rams/Green Bay Packers/Houston Oilers – 1962-1977

6. Phil Simms – New York Giants – 1979-1993

5. Boomer Esiason – Cincinnati Bengals/New York Jets/Arizona Cardinals – 1984-1997

4. Randall Cunningham – Philadelphia Eagles/Minnesota Vikings/Dallas Cowboys/Baltimore Ravens – 1985-2001

3. Ken Stabler – Oakland Raiders/Houston Oilers/New Orleans Saints – 1970-1984

2. John Brodie – San Francisco 49ers – 1957-1973

1. Ken Anderson – Cincinnati Bengals – 1971-1986

Ryan Hanigan: From Rollins College to the Cincinnati Reds

2009-06-12T21:25:00.002-04:00

When the Rollins College baseball team hosted the Cincinnati Reds for a spring training exhibition in 2001, no one could have anticipated that one of the Tars would some day be living the big-league dream as a key member of the Reds.

But fast-forward ahead eight years and sure enough in 2009 former Rollins standout Ryan Hanigan is making a huge impact behind the plate for the resurgent Reds.

Hanigan’s road to the majors wasn’t typical or easy, but now that he has arrived, the 28-year old doesn’t seem interested in leaving anytime soon.

After a standout career at Andover High School in Andover, Massachusetts, Hanigan traveled 1,300 miles to attend college at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.

A Division II school of 1,700 students known as a favorite destination for college students from New England looking to attend school in a warmer climate, Rollins has a long baseball tradition dating back to 1954 when they became the smallest school ever to compete in the Division I College World Series.

Though recognized primarily for cultivating baseball executives–including current or former major league general managers Jim Bowden, Dan O’Dowd and Dan O’Brien–Rollins has produced a number of former major leaguers including 1979 AL co-Rookie of the Year John Castino and former New York Yankee Clay Bellinger.

Ironically, while Hanigan has earned distinction at the professional level for his great play behind the plate, most of his time at Rollins was spent playing other positions.

When he joined the Tars in 2000, the team already had an All-American caliber catcher in Kevin Davidson. Davidson went on to be selected by the Houston Astros in the 2002 amateur draft and advanced as high as Triple-A during his career.

Even as a freshman, Hanigan was too talented as a hitter to be held out of the lineup and earned playing time at multiple other positions including the outfield, first base and third base.

By his sophomore season, Hanigan had become the leading run producer on the Rollins squad and the starting leftfielder. He hit .354 with 13 doubles, two home runs and 54 RBI. Displaying the same plate protection he now shows at the major league level, Hanigan walked 23 times while striking out only 16 times.

It was during this season that Ken Griffey, Jr., Barry Larkin and the Cincinnati Reds made a preseason stop at Harper-Shepherd Field in Winter Park for an exhibition game with the Tars.

Even though the Reds brought only a handful of the players who were on their major league roster at the time, the game actually ended up including several players who would eventually become big leaguers. In addition to Griffey, Larkin and Deion Sanders, the Reds’ lineup for the game also included Adam Dunn, Austin Kearns, Rob Bell, Raul Gonzalez, and Jim Brower.

Hanigan batted third for the Tars and went 1-4 while seeing action at both rightfield and leftfield. Cincinnati won the contest by the final score of 3-1.

During the 2002 season, the Tars posted a 41-16 record and reached the NCAA Division II playoffs for the first time in nine years. Hanigan was a major factor in the success finishing second on the team with a .384 batting average while again leading the team in RBI’s with 48.

After playing only a handful of games at catcher during his first three seasons, Hanigan was slated to move back behind the plate full-time for the 2003 season.

However, after catching the attention of scouts with his play behind the plate in the Cape Cod Summer League, Hanigan chose to forgo his final year in college and sign with the Cincinnati Reds. At the time, Rollins graduate Jim Bowden was the general manager for the Reds.

While Bowden’s tenure with the franchise ended in 2003, Hanigan steadily moved up through the system.

After signing as a minor league free agent in August of 2002, he appeared in six games that season for the Reds’ Single-A team in Dayton. The next season he spent most of the year in Dayton and hit .277 with 31 RBI playing exclusively behind the plate.

Though never considered a top prospect because of his lack of home run power, Hanigan continued to rise in the organization due to his solid defensive, plate discipline and improving offensive production.

He advanced to Double-A Chattanooga in 2005 and in both 2006 and 2007 split time between Chattanooga and Triple-A Louisville.

Hanigan made his major league debut as a September call-up in 2007. In 2008, he made the Triple-A All-Star team and was hitting .324 when he was promoted to the majors in August 2008.

Seeing significant action over the final two months of the season, Hanigan made his pitch for a full-time spot on the big league roster by hitting .271 with two home runs and nine RBI. He also displayed his talents behind the plate throwing out 35% of would-be base stealers.

When the Reds traded for veteran catcher Ramon Hernandez in the off-season, it looked like Hanigan was destined for a backup role in 2009.

That proved to be the case for the first month of the season as Hanigan started only four games in April. However, he made the most of those rare chances with hits in all four starts while batting .357.

Even though Hanigan was seeing only limited action, he was obviously making a positive impression because when starting first baseman Joey Votto went down with an injury in early May, manager Dusty Baker shuffled his lineup and inserted Hanigan as the starting catcher.

Since May 6, Hanigan has been behind the plate for 22 of 29 games with Hernandez moving to first base. Overall, Hanigan has started 27 games so far this season and has registered at least one hit in 20 of those games.

He leads all national league rookies with a .320 batting average and also has a .407 on base percentage. Displaying great plate coverage, Hanigan has walked 15 times, while striking out only eight times.

Defensively, Hanigan is earning a reputation as one of the toughest catchers in the league to run against. He has allowed only seven stolen bases, while throwing out ten men (59%).

It has been a long and challenging road to the majors for the former free agent from a small Division II school, but Ryan Hanigan has proven that he belongs and seems destined to be around for a while.

Best Players Not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Running Backs

2009-06-10T19:50:00.003-04:00

The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio is where NFL greats take the next step and become immortal legends. Since opening its doors in 1963, 253 former players, coaches and administrators have received football’s greatest honor, but there is a growing list of seemingly deserving players who for one reason or another have been unable to earn a bust in Canton.

Over the next several weeks, I am going to review every football position through a series of “Top 10” lists that looks at the best eligible players in NFL history at each position who are not in the Hall of Fame. I will also look at the 10 most deserving players not in the Hall of Fame (regardless of position) and 10 players who are in the Hall of Fame, but maybe shouldn’t be.

I am starting my position-by-position rundown by looking at the best eligible running backs not in the Hall of Fame.

As is the case with all offensive skill positions, the statistical numbers accumulated by running backs has ballooned over the last three decades. Of the top 50 players in career rushing yards in NFL history, only seven played a majority of their careers prior to 1980.

In 1980, Jim Brown and O.J. Simpson were the only members of the 10,000-career rushing yards club. Today, that club includes 24 players.

Among running backs in the Hall of Fame, 16 totaled less than 6,000 career yards rushing, but all of those players completed their careers prior to 1972.

It will probably start to sound like a broken record as I move through this series, but one of the biggest problems with the Hall of Fame selection process is that as the game changes and statistics increase, the Hall of Fame voters have forgotten an entire generation of great players who played most of their careers before the stats explosion.

That is particularly the case for running backs, as the Hall of Fame voters seem to have basically decided to ignore the position despite its obvious value in helping teams win championships. Rather than genuinely comparing stats from skill position players of all generations to determine who legitimately belongs in the Hall of Fame, voters seem to have tossed the entire issue aside by gravitating toward selecting players at positions where statistics have little impact.

Since 1995, only four running backs (Eric Dickerson, Marcus Allen, Barry Sanders, Thurman Thomas) and nine wide receivers have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Conversely, during the same period, 18 offensive linemen and 10 defensive linemen have received the call from the hall.

So, as I look at the players I consider to be the best eligible player at each position not in the Hall of Fame, career statistics will be just one of a number of factors used to create the lists.

First and foremost, I am looking at the career of each player in the context of when he played. I will look particularly at how he compares against other players (Hall of Famers and non-Hall of Famers) from that era and whether, at the time of his retirement, he was considered a legitimate candidate for the Hall of Fame.

Below is a list of my choices for the top 10 running backs not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Click here to read more and see pictures of each player in the top 10.

10. Freeman McNeil – New York Jets – 1981-1992

9. Curt Warner – Seattle Seahawks/Los Angeles Rams – 1983-1990

8. James Brooks – San Diego Chargers/Cincinnati Bengals/Tampa Bay Buccaneers/Cleveland Browns – 1981-1992

7. Floyd Little – Denver Broncos – 1967-1975

6. Chuck Foreman – Minnesota Vikings/New England Patriots – 1973-1980

5. Terrell Davis – Denver Broncos – 1995-2001

4. Herschel Walker – Dallas Cowboys/Minnesota Vikings/Philadelphia Eagles/New York Giants – 1986-1997

3. Ricky Watters – San Francisco 49ers/Philadelphia Eagles/Seattle Seahawks – 1992-2001

2. Ottis Anderson – St. Louis Cardinals/New York Giants – 1979-1992

1. Roger Craig – San Francisco 49ers/Los Angeles Raiders/Minnesota Vikings – 1983-1993

Do the Pirates Still Belong in Pittsburgh?

2009-06-06T14:27:00.003-04:00

The trade by the Pittsburgh Pirates of All-Star outfielder Nate McLouth is another reminder that the great tradition and history of the Prates is now just that, history.

It has been 17 years since the Pittsburgh Pirates last posted a winning record and for most of that run they haven’t even been close.

Since last winning the National League East in 1992, the Pirates have posted a record of 1129-1447 (.438). Despite annually having one of the first picks in the amateur player draft, the team has been getting consistently worse in recent years.

Pittsburgh has lost at least 87 games every year since 2000 and has lost either 94 or 95 games in each of the last four seasons.

It wasn’t always like this for one of baseball’s oldest franchises.

Even with all their losing of the last two decades, the Pirates still have an all-time winning record. Since the franchise began in 1882 as the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, their all-time record is 9,716-9,508 (.505).

Led by Hall of Fame shortstop Honus Wagner, the Pirates played in the first World Series of the modern era, losing to Boston in eight games following the 1903 season. They won the World Series title in 1909 and again in 1925.

Few World Series Championships have been as improbable, or as dramatic, as Pittsburgh’s seven-game victory over the New York Yankees following the 1960 season.

Pittsburgh lost games by the scores of 16-3, 12-0 and 10-0, but claimed the championship with a dramatic 10-9 victory in the seventh game of the series. Bill Mazeroski’s home run in the bottom of the ninth was the first walk-off home run to win a World Series and remains one of the most memorable moments in series history.

Between 1970 and 1979, the Pirates reached the National League Championship Series six times and won the World Series in 1971 and 1979.

Led by young superstar Barry Bonds, the Pirates reached three straight National League Championship Series from 1990-1992. They lost in six games to Cincinnati in 1990 and then dropped dramatic seven game series to the Atlanta Braves in both 1991 and 1992.

Bonds left for San Francisco after the 1992 season and the Pirates have never been able to recover.

Instead of legendary figures such as Wagner, Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Pie Traynor and the Waner brothers, the Pirates of the last 17 years have included a steady stream of forgettable players who have done little to maintain the great Pirate tradition.

Pittsburgh and the Western portion of Pennsylvania is a proud area with a great history for supporting their sports franchises.

Growing up, my family annually made at least one summer trip to Western Pennsylvania, where my mother grew up, to visit relatives. No matter what kind of season the Pirates were having, you could always count on the nightly broadcast of their games to be what people were watching all over the region.

However, fan devotion hasn’t always translated into steady attendance for the club.

The only time in team history that Pittsburgh led the National League in attendance was during their World Series season of 1925. Since 1950, Pittsburgh has never ranked higher than third in the league in attendance and, as you might expect, the numbers in recent years has been quite dismal.

In 1979, when the “We Are Family” Pirates won a seven-game World Series against Baltimore, Pittsburgh ranked only 10th in the National League with an average nightly attendance of 17,722. During their playoff seasons from 1990-1992 they never ranked better than sixth in the league in attendance with an average just below 25,000 per game.

In fact, when they faced Cincinnati in the 1990 National League Championship Series, Reds fans willing to make the trek into Pennsylvania purchased many of the tickets for the games in Pittsburgh.

Since 1993, Pittsburgh has finished near the league bottom in attendance every season and only once has averaged more than 23,000 fans per game.

That came in 2001 when the Pirates opened their new publicly funded baseball-only stadium–PNC Park–after years of sharing Three Rivers Stadium with the Steelers.

After gutting the roster and fielding a team that consistently had one of baseball’s lowest payrolls (less than $11 million in 1997), ownership claimed they HAD TO HAVE the new ballpark if they wanted to get back to being competitive.

In 2001, more people watched a baseball game in Pittsburgh than in any other season in franchise history. Total attendance of 2,464,870 was nearly 400,000 better than in the previous high season of 1991.

However, the record crowds were greeted by one of the worst teams in franchise history as the Pirates went 62-100 to finish in last place in their division.

Once the allure of the new stadium wore off, attendance went back to normal and the Pirates have not averaged more than 23,000 fans in a season since. So far in 2009, a cold spring has helped contribute to an attendance average of less than 17,000 fans per game.

It is easy to blame the fans and lack of ticket revenue for why the Pirates haven’t been competitive for 17 years, but I think it is more accurate to place the blame squarely on the front office. While other teams with similar annual revenue have made obvious efforts to try and be competitive, the Pirates’ front office seems more interested in turning a profit than in making the moves needed to put a quality product on the field.

While the Pirates may not annually generate the amount of revenue earned by teams such as Boston and New York, they also spend a far smaller percentage of their total revenue on payroll than most other teams.

When looking at 2005 revenue and total team payroll for 2006, the Pirates ranked 28th in the league in the amount of total revenue spent on payroll at 43%. Comparably, the Yankees ranked third at 74% and the Red Sox were tied with Houston for eighth at 60%.

Thanks in part to revenue sharing money received from teams like the Yankees and Red Sox; the Pirates were reportedly among the most successful teams in the league on the balance sheet with a profit of around $34 million during 2005-2006. However, on the field the team posted a 134-190 (.413) record.

In 2001, the Pirates had a team payroll of $57 million. In 2008, the payroll was $48 million, after being just $38 million in 2005.

Teams such as the Florida Marlins and Oakland A’s have proven that even without having a high team payroll you can have periods of competitiveness if you build a sound foundation through the minor league system.

Part of the problem for the Pirates has been an inability to convert high draft choices into productive major league players.

Pittsburgh has chosen in the top 10 in the amateur draft 10 times since 1995, yet only two of those players –Kris Benson and Paul Maholm–have had even limited success at the major league level.

In addition, due to the front office mentality that profits trump success, the team has become the de-facto farm team for winning franchises. Every time an All-Star caliber player like McLouth, Benson, Jason Kendall, Aramis Ramirez, Brian Giles, Xavier Nady and Jason Bay starts to show promise, the Pirates quickly trade the player for additional prospects.

The standard line is that they are building for the future, but the reality is that the player had become too expensive for the Pirates’ small salary budget.

In 2009, the Pirates posted a winning record in April (11-10) for the first time since 2002 and hopes were high that this might be the season when they finally started playing for today, instead of tomorrow. However, the trade of McLouth, who was hitting .256 with nine home runs and 34 RBI at the time of the trade, illustrates the reality that for anyone waiting for the Pirates to again be competitive tomorrow will likely never come.

With the Steelers having claimed the most recent Super Bowl title and the Penguins in the NHL Finals for the second straight season, it is clear that professional sports teams can enjoy success in Pittsburgh. However, Pittsburgh has an economy that even in good economic times does not compare with most other cities that house three or more professional sports teams.

There is little question that unless the Pirates front office is forced to increase the percentage of revenue spent on building the on-the-field product the team will continue to flounder. If that is the case, it is likely that attendance will continue to decline as fans choose to spend their limited sports entertainment budgets on teams that actually care about winning.

It is doubtful that Major League Baseball would ever actually move one of its original franchises, but if attendance continues to fall and ownership continues to show little interest in building a winner, you have to wonder if one day there will be no other choice.

Chris Evert – June Vintage Athlete of the Month

2009-06-01T12:09:00.002-04:00

The surprising loss in the French Open by the seemingly invincible Rafael Nadal got me thinking about other players who displayed clay court dominance during their careers. Many have enjoyed periods of dominance on the surface, but no tennis player, man or woman, in the modern era of tennis has been more unbeatable on clay than Chris Evert.

Between August 1973 and May 1979, the June Vintage Athlete of the Month won an amazing 125 consecutive matches on clay while losing only seven total sets. After losing a third set tiebreaker to Tracy Austin in the semifinals of the 1979 Italian Open, she rebounded to win her next 72 matches on the surface.

She won seven French Open Championships and three of her six U.S. Open titles came while the tournament was played on clay.

Even though Evert was particularly tough to beat on clay, it wasn’t like she didn’t also display dominance on other surfaces.

Easily the most consistent player in women’s tennis history, Evert won at least one grand slam title in 13 consecutive years. She reached at least the semifinals in each of her first 34 grand slam appearances and 52 times out of 56 total appearances in the four biggest tournaments in tennis.

While her total of 18 total grand slam singles titles is tied for fourth in women’s tennis history, it is likely she would have won considerably more titles had she participated in all four majors every year during her career.

Instead, Evert participated in the Australian Open only six times (winning twice). After winning the French Open in 1974 and 1975, she skipped the tournament for three years before returning to win the title five more times between 1979 and 1986.

Her overall career singles record of 1,309-146 (.900) ranks as the best of any player in professional tennis history.

Others may have done more to champion the cause of equality for women’s tennis, but there is no question that women’s tennis would not have the broad appeal it enjoys today without Evert.

She burst onto the scene as a 16-year old in 1971, making the semifinals of the U.S. Open in her first grand slam tournament. With a pretty smile and wicked two-handed backhand, Evert opened the game of women’s tennis to a new generation of fans.

Tennis in the mid-1970s enjoyed an American revival as teenage girls flocked to courts across the country because they wanted to learn to play like Chris Evert. Teenage boys naturally followed because they wanted to be where the girls were.

Her impact on the tennis world was soon obvious as teenage girls including Andrea Jaeger, Tracy Austin and Mary Joe Fernandez began popping up on the professional tour.

That Evert was able to maintain her great success for such a long period of time is especially remarkable considering that she grew up right in front of her adoring public.

Her engagement to men’s tennis star Jimmy Connors in 1974 made national headlines, as did their subsequent breakup.

In 1976 Sports Illustrated named the 22-year old Evert as their “Sportswoman of the Year.”

After being romantically linked to a number of high-profile men, in 1979 Evert married British tennis player John Lloyd.

Throughout the 1980s, Evert-Lloyd continued to rank among the top players in women’s tennis. Though Martina Navratilova had eclipsed Evert-Lloyd as the top player in the game, she ranked among the top three players in women’s tennis every year through 1988.

After divorcing John Lloyd in 1987, Evert married two-time Olympic downhill skier Andy Mill in 1988.

In 1989, she retired from the game with 157 career singles titles.

For most of the next two decades, Evert would appear occasionally as a commentator for one of the grand slam championships, but spent most of her time raising her three sons.

In 2006 Evert and Mills divorced and less than two years later she married popular professional golfer Greg Norman. Evert now can occasionally be seen walking the course during Norman’s tournaments.

Each month, Sports Then and Now celebrates and remembers the accomplishments of a notable athlete from past generations. If you had a favorite athlete growing up that you would like to see featured as the Vintage Athlete of the Month, send me a nomination by e-mail.

After Shaq: The Rebuilding of the Orlando Magic

2009-05-29T18:58:00.001-04:00

It was fitting that Shaquille O’Neal was in attendance earlier this week as the Orlando Magic posted their most important victory in more than a decade with an overtime win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in game four of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.

More than any other individual, Shaq is responsible for the years of futility suffered by the Magic since he left in 1996. He also may ultimately end up being an important reason why this time the Magic won’t let their chance to be among the NBA elite slip through their grasp.

The road to redemption has been a long and winding one for the Magic since O’Neal rebuffed the city and signed with the Los Angeles Lakers after the 1996 season.

Like a bridegroom that had been jilted at the altar by a cover girl, the Magic spent the next several years desperately trying to get back what they had lost.

Previously recognized as one of the NBA’s best franchises and widely regarded for their calculated approach to building a championship caliber squad, the Magic suddenly seemed to try anything that might help them achieve the greatness that had been deprived them upon Shaq’s exit.

The Orlando roster of the late 1990s and early 2000s reads like a “Who’s Who” of past-their-prime NBA stars. Former stars including Gerald Wilkins, Kenny Smith, Rony Seikaly, Mark Price, Dee Brown, Patrick Ewing, Vernon Maxwell, Spud Webb, Derek Harper and Dominique Wilkins all made their way through the revolving door that was the Orlando lineup.

The Magic also turned to free agency to lure some of the NBA’s top players to Orlando, but that approach produced mixed results.

After unsuccessfully attempting to convince Tim Duncan to leave San Antonio, the Magic made big noise by bringing Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady (T-Mac) to Orlando.

Unfortunately, instead of championships, the signings brought heartaches and headaches to the franchise.

One of the most popular players in the league, Hill was expected to be the Orlando’s next superstar, but injuries deprived Magic fans of ever seeing him at his greatest. A leg injury suffered prior to his arrival in Orlando limited Hill to only 200 games (out of a possible 492) in six seasons with the Magic.

McGrady’s performance on the court was electric as he won two scoring titles and averaged more than 28 points per game. However, by the time his four-year tenure with the Magic ended following the 2003-2004 season he was most often referred to in Orlando as “Me-Mac.”

The biggest problem for the Magic after Shaq left was that they were just good enough every season for the front office to believe that they just needed “one more guy” to get them back to elite status.

In the first seven seasons in the post-Shaq era, the Magic never posted a losing record and reached the playoffs five times. They also never won more than 45 games in a year and never won a playoff series.

Whether you are talking about a professional sports franchise, business or individual, the worst possible result can often be to have just enough success that you are afraid doing something dramatically different could cause it to go away. It often takes hitting rock bottom before you recognize that things aren’t working and you must make significant changes if you truly wish to see different results.

For the Orlando Magic, rock bottom came during the 2003-2004 season. After winning their season opener in overtime, the Magic lost 19 consecutive games on the way to finishing with a 21-61 overall record.

The team’s first losing season since before the arrival of Shaq came at a precarious moment for the once proud franchise.

While the fallout from losing Shaq had initially been minimal, with each subsequent misstep the relationship between the Magic and the once-loyal fans of Orlando seemed to grow more tenuous.

Just a decade after the city built a new arena to house the Magic, the team started talking about the need for a new venue. At a time when player salaries and ticket costs were escalating while the nightly effort on the court was often questionable, the request alienated many locals who publicly wondered if having a professional sports franchise was worth the expense when schools and other services were sub-standard.

The 2001 terrorist attacks severely dampened the tourism industry, which is a leading driver of the Orlando economy, and the request for a new arena was quickly withdrawn.

By 2004 the owners of the Magic had briefly thought about selling the franchise and it was widely believed that the team might be headed to greener pastures. The struggles on the court didn’t help as the fan support was at an all-time low.

It was apparent that the team had to make major changes.

A decade earlier, the young Magic franchise had been lifted from mediocrity to the cusp of greatness thanks to consecutive years in which they won the NBA Draft Lottery.

The team built around Shaquille O’Neal (drafted first in 1992) and Penny Hardaway (acquired in a trade after Orlando had drafted Chris Webber with the first pick in 1993), made a rapid rise to the NBA elite as they reached the NBA Finals in 1995 and the Eastern Conference Finals in 1996.

Unfortunately, the Magic proved unable to handle “first fame” and after Shaq left the team imploded under the weight of unrealized expectations.

When the Magic won the 2004 Draft Lottery few realized that the selection would provide the team with a second chance to build an NBA dynasty.

There was little question that the top pick in the draft would either be Emeka Okafor, a 22-year old center who had led Connecticut Huskies to the 2004 NCAA Championship, or Dwight Howard, an 18-year old 6-11 center from Atlanta, Georgia. The general consensus was that while Okafur would likely be better initially, Howard had more long-term potential and given the right tutelage could develop into a dominant center.

Given their recent track record of looking only at how to get better immediately, many expected the Magic to play it safe and select Okafur.

However, after experiencing nothing but futility through their “fill the immediate need” approach, the Magic front office finally drew a line in the sand and decided to return to the approach that had turned them into winners in the early 1990s.

Instead of making the pick that might yield the most immediate return, the Magic decided to play for the long-term future of the franchise and selected Dwight Howard.

As predicted, Okafur was named the NBA Rookie of the Year while Howard had the usual struggles seen when a player jumps from high school to the NBA. However, by the end of Howard’s first season –in which he averaged 12 points and 10 rebounds– few were questioning if the Magic had made the right decision.

The Magic won 36 games in each of Howard’s first two seasons before reaching the playoffs during his third season. Orlando then won 52 games in 2007-08 before posting 59 victories this season.

Howard has evolved into the premier center of the Eastern Conference. He has averaged a double-double in each of his five NBA seasons and earned first team All-NBA honors the last two seasons.

This season Howard also emerged as the dominant defensive player in the league and was named the Defensive Player of the Year.

Under the guidance of general manager Otis Smith the Magic front office has built a solid squad around their franchise center. A combination of draft picks, trades and key free agent signings has provided a nucleus that includes Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, Jameer Nelson and Mickael Pietrus.

Much as they have done on the court, the team also has taken great strides to repair their public image in Orlando. After taking their fans for granted for nearly a decade, the Magic returned to the grass roots, community based marketing that had been successful in their early years.

In 2007, the City of Orlando and Orange County approved the building of a new events center that will serve as the new home for the Magic. The center will open in 2010 and make the Magic the first NBA team to play in a Green-certified facility.

Given that Shaq went on to win three championships with the Lakers and another in Miami, you can’t help but wonder how many championship banners the Magic might have been able to move to the rafters in their new facility if he had never left Orlando.

Shaq may not have helped Orlando win a championship, but the lessons learned following his departure might ensure that the current team doesn’t fall short.

It took more than a decade, but the Magic finally seem to have stopped thinking about what might have been and are now concentrating on how many banners Howard and the current squad will get to hoist in their new home.

Whatever Happened to the Indianapolis 500?

2009-05-21T14:17:00.003-04:00

In case you haven’t noticed, and chances are pretty good that you haven’t, the 93rd running of the Indianapolis 500 is happening this Sunday.

It wasn’t all that long ago when the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” wasn’t just a big deal for race fans, it was part of the national fabric and as important a part of Memorial Day Weekend as cookouts, swimming pools and veteran’s celebrations.

Much like the Kentucky Derby, Daytona 500 and Wimbledon Finals, it was one of those annual “sports spectacles” that everybody followed, regardless of whether they paid attention to the sport for the other 364 days of the year.

From 1965 through 1985, ABC televised the race through tape delay on Sunday night, meaning the only way to follow it live was on the radio.

As a kid growing up in Virginia in the 1970s and early 1980s, I remember that regardless of whether we were off on a family camping trip, visiting family, or at a picnic, on the Sunday afternoon of Memorial Day Weekend we always had the radio on and were listening to the race.

I then couldn’t wait until that night when I actually got to see what I had heard through ABC’s coverage of the race. I don’t really remember it bothering me that I already knew the winner.

In fact sometimes, especially in 1981 when Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti were embroiled in a controversial finish, watching it after-the-fact actually made it more interesting and exciting.

It may have just been my childhood belief that everyone cared about the same things I did, but it seemed like listening to the Indianapolis 500 wasn’t just something our family did, it was part of the American lexicon.

In 1986 ABC began televising the race live and the first year of the live broadcast proved to be disappointing as the race was rained out of its original weekend and not run until the following Saturday.

Even though that was certainly not the start to live coverage of this prestigious event that ABC had hoped for, I don’t think moving the television coverage to Sunday afternoon can be blamed for why the Indianapolis 500 no longer carries the national weight that it did in past generations.

For that, there is plenty of blame to pass around.

Even though I grew up in a NASCAR hotbed, with the exception of Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough, the biggest names in racing weren’t in NASCAR they were in Indy car racing.

A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Rick Mears, Tom Sneva, the Unser brothers and many others were recognized names in sports and their stories were well known and documented.

Mario Andretti became synonymous in pop culture with speed and his name has been referenced in a number of popular songs.

Over time, that started to change as many of the familiar drivers from Indy’s past started to retire and the growing popularity of NASCAR led to many of the top American drivers gravitating away from open wheel racing and toward stock car racing.

This left the Indianapolis 500 with a noticeable void that seemingly was going to be filled by two sons of Indy legends, Al Unser, Jr. and Michael Andretti, along with a talented group of foreign drivers including Roberto Guerrero, Emerson Fittipaldi and Jacques Villeneuve.

Through the mid-1990s, the race remained a popular national event with these talented drivers providing some of the most exciting finishes in the history of the prestigious race.

However, a dispute between Speedway owner Tony George and CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) in 1995 stopped the momentum right in its tracks and created a credibility void that the race is still trying to overcome nearly 15 years later.

Beginning in 1996, George reserved most of the spots in the race for drivers in his new Indy Racing League Series, which led to a boycott by CART. A year later, the two series started using different equipment and drivers with little history or pedigree replaced most of the familiar names in the Indianapolis 500.

Eventually most of the top open wheel drivers in the sport started returning to Indianapolis, but the damage had been done. Interest in open wheel racing in the United States has significantly declined over the last 15 years, leading to the merging of the two series in 2008.

The continued popularity of NASCAR has also hurt Indy’s national credibility as three recent champions: Juan Pablo Montoya, Sam Hornish, Jr., and Dario Franchitti, have had mediocre –at best– success driving in NASCAR.

Perhaps sensing an opportunity, in 1993 NASCAR moved their regular Charlotte event to the Sunday night before Memorial Day.

While Indy and CART were fighting among themselves, the world also changed. The advent of the internet, cable television and a variety of new technology gadgets are among the many factors that have splintered the interests of the American public and made it significantly more difficult for any specific event to capture the interest of the public as some events regularly did in past generations.

Events like the Indianapolis 500 and the Kentucky Derby still draw near record attendance, but their appeal beyond the core audience has waned.

Even the popularity of Indy driver Danica Patrick, who has brought sex appeal to the sport, has done little to help the race regain national prominence.

Though Patrick has proven her ability with three top 10 finishes in four starts at Indy, many outside the sport see her as little more than a sideshow and publicity stunt. Her popularity has also been met with resistance by some of the more successful drivers in the sport.

Another popular Indy driver, two-time winner Helio Castroneves, tried to increase exposure for the sport as a contestant on the popular Dancing with the Stars. He won the competition and became more widely recognized, but any positive impact may have been tarnished when he was later charged –and acquitted– of tax fraud.

Though it may not have the national status it once enjoyed, the Indianapolis 500 is still one of the great American sporting events and will always be a big part of my Memorial Day Weekend.

I sure hope I can find it on the radio.

Randy Johnson: Last of His Kind

2009-05-12T22:32:00.002-04:00

When Randy Johnson wins his 300th game sometime in the next couple weeks he isn’t just going to become a member of one of baseball’s most exclusive clubs; he is likely to become the last member of that club.

While the once ultra exclusive 500 home run club has suddenly become as crowded as a phone booth during a fraternity pledge night, reaching 300 career victories is going the way of the woolly mammoth.

Earlier this season, Gary Sheffield became the ninth player this decade and 25th player in history to reach 500 home runs. Carlos Delgado of the Mets will probably be joining the club sometime in the next year as he stands only 27 home runs away from the once magical number.

With two more victories, Johnson will become the fourth pitcher this decade, and only the fifth in the last twenty years to collect 300 victories. He will become the 24th pitcher in a club that may never see a 25th member.

After Johnson, the pitcher closest to 300 victories is 46-year-old Jamie Moyer with 249 wins. Entering this season, Moyer needed to average 18 wins per season for the next three years to reach 300.

He has three wins so far in 2009, but considering that he has exceeded 17 wins only twice in his 23 year career, the likelihood that he will achieve 300 wins is pretty remote.

Of pitchers under the age of 40, CC Sabathia, who will be 29 in July, entered this season with 117 victories through his first eight seasons for an average of 15 wins per season. He will have to maintain that average for another 12 years to reach 300 wins.

There are quite a few reasons why these two milestones of greatness have swapped levels of difficulty during the last quarter century.

The combination of performance enhancing drugs, shrinking ballparks and an increase in the number of mediocre pitchers at the major league level have combined to inflate home run totals and elevate players who in other eras would have been lucky to hit 300 home runs to statistical levels once reserved for the greats of the game.

At the same time that forces have combined to increase offensive numbers, starting pitchers have become the victims of a similar convergence of factors.

Once upon a time, starting pitchers in Major League Baseball were considered warriors, heading to the mound every fourth day to carry the mettle for their team. They took the rubber each time expecting to pitch nine innings and some considered it an insult if the manager even thought about taking them out of the game.

Former Baltimore Orioles stalwart Jim Palmer was known for expressing frustration when he was removed from a game before it was finished. Considering that between 1969 and 1978 he averaged 18 complete games a year, you have to wonder how Palmer would react today when most managers are looking to the bullpen by the sixth or seventh inning.

Sending the game to the bullpen earlier is one reason that when a pitcher now wins 16 games in a season he often in the discussion for the Cy Young Award.

The other major reason is that in this era of five-man pitching rotations, pitchers get several fewer starts per season than when most starting rotations included only four men.

When Palmer won 20 or more games in eight of nine seasons between 1970 and 1978, he averaged 37 starts per season and exceeded 300 innings pitched four times.

Johnson is generally recognized as one of the workhorse pitchers of his generation, but he has never started more than 35 games in a season and his career-high for innings pitched is 271.

It is telling to consider that Johnson’s career total of 100 complete games ranks first among active pitchers and is nearly double the second place total. Yet, when compared with the all-time list, Johnson is tied with Dennis Eckersley and two others for 399th place on the career complete game list.

Baseball has always been a game of numbers. Reaching 500 home runs or 300 victories has always meant nearly automatic induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Yet, as the value of these milestone numbers becomes a little murky, other factors will have to be used to determine Hall of Fame credentials.

With the recent positive test for performance enhancing drugs by Manny Ramirez, seven members of the 500 home run club have now been linked to PEDs.

The Hall of Fame selection earlier this year of Jim Rice, who hit 382 home runs as baseball’s premier slugger of the late 1970s and 1980s, could indicate a shift away from bloated numbers and toward excellence within an era as criteria for Hall of Fame selection.

A shift toward that kind of evaluation could bode well for some of the premier pitchers of the last two decades.

There has been much debate recently as to whether Curt Schilling –with 216 career wins– is deserving of Hall of Fame recognition. While his win total, along with that of Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz –with 214 and 210 career wins respectively– falls well short of pitchers from previous eras, it looks more impressive when compared with his contemporaries.

Even if Johnson had not been able to continue his push toward 300 wins, a total that Palmer did not reach despite having eight 20 victory seasons and 211 complete games, there is little doubt that his dominance during the late 1990s and early 2000s would have earned him a spot in the Hall of Fame.

That Johnson has been able to withstand the test of time is a testament to his ability and proof that he is indeed one of the greats of all-time.

He also is going to be the last of his kind, so you won’t want to miss his milestone victory. If you do, it might be quite a while before you see another one quite like it.

Walt Frazier – May Vintage Athlete of the Month

2009-05-01T18:34:00.003-04:00

Imagine if you played the best game of your career to lead your team to victory in the seventh game of an NBA Championship Series and yet when historians discuss the game you get little mention as they spend most of their time talking about someone who scored only four points in the game and could barely get up and down the court.

Such is the case for the Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month for May, Walt “Clyde” Frazier.

To most, the defining image of the 1970 NBA Finals between the New York Knickerbockers and Los Angeles Lakers is that of New York center Willis Reed limping out of the locker room prior to game seven and then hitting two baskets that set the tone for the Knicks ultimate victory over a powerhouse Lakers team that included Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor.

However, while Reed’s performance provided the emotional lift the Knicks needed, it was Frazier who dominated the game on the court.

Frazier scored 22 points in the first half as New York raced out to a 61-37 lead. The Knicks point guard finished the game with 36 points and 19 assists as New York claimed their first-ever championship with a 113-99 victory.

While Reed may have received all the attention during the 1970 run to the NBA Championship, there was no doubt who made the New York Knicks go during the 1970s.

Known for both his offensive and defensive prowess, Walt Frazier was an integral part of a Knicks team that made three trips to the NBA Finals and claimed the only two titles in franchise history. He was a four-time first team All-NBA selection and was an All-Defensive team pick seven times.

On the court, Frazier directed the show and often yielded the spotlight to his well-known teammates, including Reed, Bill Bradley, Jerry Lucas, Dave DeBusschere and Earl “The Pearl” Monroe.

However, off the court Frazier’s flamboyant sense of style and classic smile put him in a class with only “Broadway Joe” Namath as the most recognized New York City sports figures of the era. Nicknamed “Clyde” after wearing a similar hat to one that Warren Beatty had worn while portraying folk hero robber Clyde Barrow in the popular 1960s movie Bonnie and Clyde, Frazier was known for his flashy wardrobe and for arriving to games in his Rolls Royce.

Frazier’s Madison Square Garden debut in 1967 was a memorable one that proved to be foreshadowing for his decade of success with the Knicks.

A high school standout in Atlanta, Frazier attended Southern Illinois University and was a Division II All-American in 1964 and 1965. He led SIU to the 1967 National Invitational Tournament (NIT), played at Madison Square Garden, and was named tournament MVP as they defeated Marquette 71-56 to win the title.

The Knicks chose Frazier with the fifth pick in the 1967 NBA Draft and he went on to earn All-Rookie Team honors during his initial season in New York.

As part of a talented young nucleus, Frazier helped the Knicks snap a streak of eight straight losing seasons during his first season with the squad. They won 54 games while reaching the Eastern Division Finals the next season and then during the 1969-70 season won a franchise record 60 games and the first championship in team history.

The Knicks lost the NBA Finals to the Lakers in 1972, but won the rematch the following season for their second title in four years. Frazier spent 10 seasons with the Knicks and averaged 19.2 points and 6.3 rebounds per game during that stretch.

He completed his career with three injury-plagued seasons for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Since his retirement, Frazier has remained visible in New York as a color commentator for Knicks games on the MSG Network. He also has appeared in a number of national commercials, most notably as a spokesman for Just for Men.

He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987.

Each month, Sports Then and Now celebrates and remembers the accomplishments of a notable athlete from past generations. If you had a favorite athlete growing up that you would like to see featured as the Vintage Athlete of the Month, send me a nomination by e-mail.

Small Schools Still Have an Impact on the NFL Draft

2009-04-22T15:46:00.002-04:00

As teams prepare for the upcoming NFL Draft, scouts and analysts have scoured the country to find the college football players who can provide an immediate impact for the 32 teams competing to reach Super Bowl XLIV next February. In a world of “draft experts” and the internet, there really is no such thing anymore as an “unknown.”

Every potential draft pick –no matter whether they played for a major college or a Division II school– has a Wikipedia page and his 40-time posted on multiple draft boards floating around the World Wide Web.

When the draft starts this weekend, most of the players selected will hail from schools with names that are familiar to college football fans, such as the University of Southern California, Penn State, Oklahoma and Georgia.

However, there will be a few players selected who attended schools that you need a Google map to find. Places such as Western Illinois, Central Arkansas, Liberty, Sam Houston State and Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo.

While today most of the players selected from these obscure schools will be chosen in the middle or late rounds, there was a time not so long ago when all NFL scouts were regularly finding future NFL stars in some out of the way places.

Since 1960, a total of 3,623 players (22% of all draft selections) have hailed from schools that were not classified as NCAA Division I-A (now known as the Football Bowl Subdivision). However, the percentage of small school players has significantly declined from 28.5% in the 1960s and 27.6% in the 1970s to only 10.3% in the current decade.

The list of great players from small schools is long and illustrious –including many Hall of Fame members and All-Pros. It would take pages to list all the great small school players, but among the names at the top of the list are Walter Payton (Jackson State), Jerry Rice (Mississippi Valley State), Gene Upshaw (Texas A&M-Kingsville), Don Maynard (Texas Western), Willie Davis (Grambling State), Art Shell (Maryland-Eastern Shore), and Willie Lanier (Morgan State).

Twice in the 1970s, the first pick in the NFL Draft was from a school that –at the time– was not a Division I-A school. Terry Bradshaw was chosen first overall in 1970 out of Louisiana Tech and Ed “Too Tall” Jones was the first pick in the 1974 draft from Tennessee State.

Overall, a total of 80 small college players have been selected in the first round of the draft since 1960. Like the overall number of picks, however, that number has steadily declined from 19 in the 1960s and 34 in the 1970s to only five in this decade (including Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Joe Flacco in 2008).

There are certainly a number of reasons that NFL rosters are regularly including fewer players from small schools.

Probably the most significant is that after decades of reluctance, the 1960s and 1970s saw many major football conferences finally start recruiting talented African American players. From the 1950s through the early 1970s, historically black colleges such as Grambling State, Jackson State and Morgan State became known as pipelines to the NFL as they offered talented athletes who could not find a scholarship at schools in the Southeastern Conference and other major Division I conferences a place to showcase their talents.

While major colleges once let future Hall of Famers such as Elvin Bethea, Buck Buchanon, Charlie Joiner and Lem Barney toil away at small schools, big-time programs are now eagerly scooping up all the top talent.

The past decade has also seen an influx of schools that previously competed at the I-AA (Football Championship Subdivision) level to Division I-A. This has slightly reduced the talent level at Division I-AA as many talented players who once fell to those schools are now going to Division I-A schools.

Another move that has increased the availability of Division I-A scholarships is the change over the last 20 years by the NFL to allow college players to enter the NFL before the completion of their college eligibility. This has increased the churn rate at some of the top colleges and had trickle-down impact at all college levels.

In 1993 the NFL cut the NFL Draft to eight rounds and the following year trimmed the draft to its currently size of seven rounds. It is apparent that the reduction in draft size has impacted the draft philosophy of many schools.

Whereas teams were once willing to spend low round picks on players from small schools, they are now choosing to use their lower round picks on players from major Division I-A conferences and instead sign players from non-BCS (Bowl Championship Series) and non-Division I-A schools as free agents.

In 1992, the final year of a 12-round draft, 36 players from non-I-A schools were chosen in the first seven rounds of the draft. The last three drafts have seen an average of 25 players from small schools chosen.

However, the impact of players from smaller schools on the NFL is still significant.

In addition to Rogers-Cromartie and Flacco, other players from recent NFL drafts that have made an impact in the NFL include Marques Colton (Hofstra), Donald Driver (Alcorn State), Brian Westbrook (Villanova), Aaron Smith (Northern Colorado), Antoine Bethea (Howard), Jahri Evans (Bloomsburg), Zak DeOssie (Brown), Rashean Mathis (Bethune-Cookman), Jared Allen (Idaho State), Robert Mathis (Alabama A&M) and Willie Colon (Hofstra).

In fact, of the 21 small college players selected in the 2006 draft, 20 made NFL rosters and 17 were still in the NFL in 2008. If the 2009 NFL Draft goes as expected, you will probably see about the same number of small college players chosen in the draft as in recent years.

It is doubtful that a non-I-A player will be picked in the first round this time, but after hearing all the big schools repeatedly called it will certainly be refreshing when the draft experts start talking about players from places like Richmond, Tennessee State, Furman and Stillman.

I just hope someone is ready to break out the maps.

Check out this list of the top Late Round Draft “Gems” from Small Colleges

Isiah Thomas: Latest Big-Time Coach Looking for Success at a Small-Time Program

2009-04-16T11:32:00.003-04:00

You can now add the name of former NBA player, coach and executive Isiah Thomas to the long list of “big time” coaches who have retreated to the perceived safety of non-major college basketball to try and rehabilitate a damaged reputation.

With the announcement that Thomas will take over as head basketball coach at Florida International University (FIU), he is following a path that has been tried by many, but with surprisingly mixed results.

The history of college basketball is filled with coaches who enjoyed tremendous success at the highest level of competition, but for one reason or another fell from grace and no longer commanded the interest of top programs.

Many smaller schools are constantly looking for opportunities to increase exposure and contend with the major athletic programs, so lower-level Division I schools are often willing to overlook any baggage and accept their new coach with open arms.

What is different about the hiring of Isiah Thomas is that he has absolutely no experience coaching at the college level. You can also argue that with the exception of his stint as head coach of the Indiana Pacers, where he posted a 131-115 record in three seasons, his post-playing career has been anything but successful.

Thomas was an abysmal failure during front office stints with the Toronto Raptors and New York Knicks. During two seasons coaching the Knicks, he posted a record of 56-108.

He also is credited with driving the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) into bankruptcy during his stint as owner of the league.

Most coaches who have made the transition from a major program to a lower-level Division I school have struggled not only with the increased challenge in recruiting players to a non-marquee school, but also with the realization that they are no longer at a school where the coffers of the athletic foundation are filled with cash.

Because in most cases the school is paying their marquee coach significantly more in salary than they had previously paid, there is immediate pressure to increase revenue through ticket sales, advertising, and booster contributions.

However, while the addition of a big name coach usually provides an immediate bump in interest and exposure, that increase is often temporary. If the new coach isn’t able to immediately put a winning team on the floor –often a challenge because the coach generally inherits a team that has not had recent success– it isn’t long before the new coach must begin to accept the realities of life at a non-major program.

When Lefty Driesell coached at James Madison University –after being forced out at the University of Maryland following the death of Lenny Bias– the quote floating around the school was that Driesell “had an unlimited budget, and he exceeded it.”

Driesell arrived at James Madison in 1989 amid great fanfare and expectations that he could raise the national profile of the college. After posting first round NCAA Tournament upsets each year between 1981-1983, the basketball program had struggled with only one winning season in the immediate three years before Driesell’s arrival and fans were excited about the prospect of “Lefty” taking the team back to the NCAA Tournament.

He immediately elevated expectation and alienated the other members of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) by saying that getting to the NCAA Tournament should be easy because all you have to do is win the conference tournament.

It proved to be an ominous statement as Driesell took JMU to the championship game of the CAA Tournament five times during his eight-year tenure, but registered only one tournament title. After he left in 1996, the JMU program struggled for more than a decade before registering a winning season in 2009.

Driesell finished his coaching career a peg further down the coaching totem pole at Georgia State University. He retired ranked 9th all-time among Division I coaches with 786 career victories.

In addition to Driesell, a number of other former big-time coaches posted only moderate success at smaller schools.

Hugh Durham, who led both Florida State and Georgia to the NCAA Final Four, became head coach at Jacksonville University in 1997 and posted a 106-119 record in eight seasons.

After leading the University of Alabama to eight NCAA appearances and four SEC Championships, Wimp Sanderson became head coach at Arkansas-Little Rock in 1994. In five seasons, he led UALR to an 85-58 record, but never reached the NCAA Tournament and made only one trip to the NIT.

After leading the Los Angeles Lakers to an NBA title and Loyola-Marymount to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, Paul Westhead arrived at George Mason University in 1993 amid high expectations. In four seasons, he led the Patriots to a 38-70 record. After spending most of the past decade as an NBA assistant, Westhead was recently named the head women’s basketball coach at the University of Oregon.

One coach who was able to parlay his reputation into success was Gene Bartow. After leading Memphis State to the NCAA Championship game in 1973 and UCLA to the Final Four in 1976, Bartow left the spotlight to start the athletic program at the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB).

Bartow enjoyed tremendous success during his 18 seasons at UAB, including nine trips to the NCAA Tournament. The team made seven consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament from 1981-1987 –including a trip to the Elite Eight in 1982.

A number of current coaches have also found success away from the bright spotlight of major college coaching.

Despite registering a 146-104 record and reaching the NCAA Tournament five times during eight seasons at the University of Virginia, Jeff Jones was fired after posting an 11-19 record during the 1997-98 campaign.

In 2000 he moved from the bright lights of the ACC to the shadows of the Patriot League as head coach at American University. Jones recently completed his ninth season at American by leading the Eagles to a 24-8 record and their second consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament –where they gave eventual Final Four participant Villanova all they could handle in a first round matchup.

Todd Bozeman experienced amazing highs and dramatic lows during his turbulent tenure as basketball coach at the University of California, Berkley, from 1993-1996. In 1993 he became the youngest coach ever to lead a team to the “Sweet 16” of the NCAA Tournament.

Three years later –following a number of NCAA rules violations– he was slapped with a “show-cause” order than basically prohibited him from coaching in college basketball for the next eight years.

In 2006 he became head coach at Morgan State in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and in 2008-09 led the Bears to a 23-12 and their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

It is difficult to predict whether Thomas has the patients and temperament that will be needed to overcome the pitfalls and build Florida International into a successful winner. He inherits a team that has posted a 23-39 mark over the last two seasons and hasn’t had a winning record since the 1999-2000 season.

Given the reputation hits that Thomas has taken in recent years, the job at FIU may be exactly what the one-time NBA star needs. Being in the Miami market will provide him with some notoriety and exposure, but he shouldn’t have the constant scrutiny that he endured during his tenure in New York.

If he is able to turn FIU into a consistent winner, Thomas will not only be resuscitating the Panther basketball program, but also his own damaged reputation.

It won’t be easy, but considering the flair for the dramatic that Thomas has shown throughout his career, you can bet that his time at FIU will be interesting to watch.

What Does "Best Ever" Mean?

2009-04-15T15:44:00.002-04:00

Over the last couple weeks, I have started following and submitting material to a web site called “Bleacher Report”. It is a sports web site full of user generated content that provides a forum for bloggers and sports fans to post material about sporting events, players and sports news that are of interest to them.

For the most part, the people who submit to this site seem to be dedicated sports fans, rather than actual members of the mainstream media. Some, like myself, are trying to break into the field of sports blogging and looking to increase exposure for themselves and their own sports blogs, while also creating a following of readers.

There are also a large number of high school and college age young men writing for the site who love sports and like the opportunity to show off their knowledge and abilities to a potentially large audience. I can tell you if this kind of opportunity had existed 25 years ago when I was in high school, I would have been all over it.

While I applaud the concept and embrace the opportunity to have some of my thoughts and opinions spread to a larger audience, I also am starting to see some of the potential traps that come with the growing trend toward sites that emphasize user generated content.

There is no question that everyone is entitled to an opinion and the opportunity to express such, but the prominence of web sites that provide anyone with an interest and something to say with a platform as well as a measure of instant credibility also has the potential to assist in the dissemination of inaccurate or flawed information.

I encountered one such example when checking Bleacher Report this morning.

As a life-long football fan and connoisseur of the NFL’s 90-year history, I am always interested to see lists that claim to give a comprehensive history of something by using the moniker “Greatest Ever” or “Best of All Time.” For that reason, I was immediately drawn to an article entitled “The NFL’s 25 Best Undrafted Players of All Time.”

The picture slideshow that followed was nicely presented, but it basically was a chronicle of the best undrafted players of the last 15-20 years, rather than a truly comprehensive list of the greatest undrafted players of all-time.

The list included only two players, Warren Moon and Dick “Night Train” Lane, who started their careers before 1990. It excluded 11 undrafted free agents who are members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, including Emlen Tunnell (79 interceptions, nine Pro Bowls), Willie Brown (54 interceptions, nine Pro Bowls), Marion Motley (4,720 rushing yards, two-time All-Pro), Joe Perry (9,723 rushing yards, three Pro Bowls), Lou “The Toe” Groza (1,608 points, nine Pro Bowls), Larry Little (five Pro Bowls) and Jim Langer (six Pro Bowls).

It also did not include four undrafted players from the 1970s who were all part of Super Bowl Championship teams and arguably belong in the Hall of Fame. Omitted from the list were Drew Pearson (489 receptions, 7,822 yards, 3 Pro Bowls) and Cliff Harris (29 interceptions, six Pro Bowls) from the Dallas Cowboys, Donnie Shell (51 interceptions, five Pro Bowls) from the Pittsburgh Steelers and Bob Kuechenberg (196 career games, six Pro Bowls) from the Miami Dolphins.

The list did include current Green Bay Packer running back Ryan Grant, who has rushed for 2,159 yards in his two-year career, as well as defensive back Nick Harper (20 interceptions, no Pro Bowls), linebacker Bart Scott (16 career sacks, one Pro Bowl), linebacker Antonio Pierce (7.5 sacks, one Pro Bowl) and wide receiver Wes Welker (319 career receptions, 3,461 yards, one Pro Bowl).

I applaud the author for picking an interesting subject and doing a nice job identifying current players for the list. However, I wish he would have either done the required research needed to recognize that NFL history is full of great players who were undrafted or that he would have narrowed the scope of his title and called it the “Top Undrafted Players of the Last 20 Years” or something else that better articulates the reality of his list.

In my opinion, this slideshow illustrates both the danger associated with the lack of checks-and-balances for sites that emphasize user generated content and the even greater issue that young sports fans of today –as well as many members of the media– seem to forget that there is a plethora of history that occurred prior to the last 20 years.

Since the slideshow was posted, it has been viewed more than 3,500 times, which is a very impressive number. The slideshow also has received more than 75 comments and only three (including one from me) expressed any significant concern that the list missed players from the pre-1990 era.

This perfectly illustrates why I created the “Sports Then and Now” blog earlier this year. Too often the media and fans of today forget that sports actually started before 1990. Most of today’s top stories and great moments can be tied to moments and stories from the past to provide context and history. That element is often missed in the rush to brand something that happens today “the best ever” or “greatest of all-time” when in reality something pretty similar has probably happened before.

While my focus in this particular column is a slideshow created by a 25-year old sports fan, veteran members of the national media –who should know better– are also guilty of throwing around superlatives as if they were free t-shirts.

The first column I posted on “Sports Then and Now” back in February focused on the declaration by several members of the mainstream media that with their sixth Super Bowl victory the Pittsburgh Steelers cemented their claim as the “Greatest Team in NFL History.”

My question then was exactly when does sports history start given the fact that while the Steelers now have more Super Bowl victories than any other team, the NFL held annual championships for nearly 50 years before the first Super Bowl was ever played and the Steelers never even played in one of those title games.

Through this column I am not at all trying to dismiss the great talent of today’s athletes. Athletes accomplish amazing feats every day and I think they deserve to be celebrated. However, rather than just recognizing them “in the moment”, it is my hope that the media and young sports fans will look at them in context with the past and therefore celebrate not just the current player or accomplishment, but also remember those who came before.

In my opinion, looking at the today’s greats in context of the past makes their accomplishments all the more impressive and special. That is what I will continue to do with “Sports Then and Now” and I invite you to continue checking in as I look at today’s sporting events, players and news with a historical perspective.

Player Finally Ending Battle Against Father Time

2009-04-07T17:44:00.004-04:00

The announcement that Gary Player will be making his final appearance at the Masters in 2009 is just another reminder that even great golf champions can’t outrun Father Time forever.

However, no one has done a better job of holding off the inevitable than the Black Knight from South Africa.

While professional athletes in most other sports begin dealing with the inevitability of decreased skills and retirement while still in their 20s or 30s, golf is one sport where top performers seemingly can play forever.

Sure the window for a golfer to be at the peak of the profession is not unlimited, but with the opportunity to start a career as a teenager and then to continue playing at a competitive level –whether on the regular or senior tour– for decades to come, there can be a long time between hello and goodbye.

Player turned professional at age 17 in 1953 and as a 20 year old made his first appearance in a Major Championship a memorable one with a fourth place finish at the 1956 British Open.

He made his first trip to Augusta National as a 21year old in 1957 and in 2009 will be making his record 52nd consecutive appearance in the tournament. Of the 95 competitors teeing it up at the Masters this week, 89 weren’t yet born when Player traveled down Magnolia Lane for the first time.

Having finished second at the 1958 U.S. Open (his first appearance in that tournament), claimed the 1959 British Open title, and finished in the top 10 at both the 1959 and 1960 Masters, it wasn’t much of a surprise when Player became the first non-American to win the tournament in 1961. When he won the title at the age of 25 years and five months, only Byron Nelson had won the title at a younger age. Player still ranks as the fifth youngest player ever to win a Masters title.

By the time he claimed his third Masters crown 17 years later, the 42-year old Player was the oldest competitor ever to put on the Green Jacket (Jack Nicklaus and Ben Crenshaw would eventually become older champions).

Player never won another Major after the 1978 Masters, but his career was nowhere near over. Known for staying in great shape, Player finished second at the 1979 U.S. Open and –at the age of 48– very nearly became the oldest player ever to win a Major Championship as he finished second at the 1984 PGA Championship.

In 1995 he made the cut at the U.S. Open at age 59 and three years later, at age 62, became the oldest player ever to make the cut at the Masters. Despite now being in his 70s, Player has registered at least one round below 80 in each of the last four Masters.

Joining the Champions Tour in 1985, Player again flourished against golfers of his own generation. He won a total of 19 official Champions Tour events and all-told claimed 32 senior tournament titles. Included in that total were nine Senior Major Championships. Player last won a Champions Tour event in 1998 and his last victory of any kind came at the 2005 Nelson Mandela Invitational.

Player’s retirement officially concludes one of the greatest eras of golf history as he combined with Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer to form the “Big Three” during the 1960s and 1970s. The trio helped expose the sport to an entire generation of fans as their regular battles on the links were shown across the nation on television.

Time may have finally run out on Gary Player’s professional career, but given his incredible accomplishments and longevity, it is pretty clear that Player and his legion of fans were the real winners.

Celebrating the Greatness of Hank Aaron

2009-04-05T15:11:00.003-04:00

Given how much emphasis sports put on championships, it may seem a little strange that the most significant home run in Major League Baseball history was not hit during the month of October, but instead was struck in early April by an aging player on a team that wouldn’t come close to reaching the postseason.

Such was the case 35 years ago this week, on April 8, 1974, when Hank Aaron forever cemented a place for himself in baseball lore with his record breaking 715th home run.

Every die-hard sports fan has a number of moments that are forever etched in their subconscious memory – to the point that even years after the fact they can recall not just the special moment, but also where they were and what they were doing at the time.

Though I was only six-years old, the night when Aaron set the home run record is one of those moments for me.

My family was paying special attention to the record because we had family friends who were from Atlanta and thus big fans of Aaron and the Braves. “Hammerin’ Hank” had tied the record during the season opener in Cincinnati and there seemed to be little doubt that he was going to set the record during the home opener, which was being shown on national television by ABC. However, for a while there was some doubt whether we would be able to see it.

It was a stormy Monday night in my hometown of Keysville, Virginia, thanks to a powerful early spring thunderstorm that brought lightning, thunder and heavy rains. There was no such thing as cable television in our town in 1974 and because we were about 75 miles from the closest television station, even with having an antenna on the roof we never really had crystal clear reception. The general practice at that time was also to unplug the television during electrical storms so that the TV wouldn’t get zapped.

As the storm continued and it got closer to the 8 p.m. start time, there were serious concerns around my house as to whether we would get to watch the game. Fortunately, by game time the lightning was over and we were able to see the game.

As the game got underway, I remember anxiously sitting in front of the television waiting to see if Aaron would do it. The magical moment came in the fourth inning when Aaron launched into a pitch from Al Downing and sent the ball majestically through the air and over the fence. The ball was caught in the Braves’ bullpen by reliever Tom House, who quickly raced to the field and presented it to Aaron.

Even though the home run happened after 9 p.m., my mom and I were so excited that we called our friends and relived the moment with them.

That is about where my personal memory of the evening ends, but having now watched the moment hundreds of times over the years on various television programs, I know the home run itself was only part of the larger story.

The 1974 season would be Aaron’s last in Atlanta as he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers following the season. Though he had spent his entire career with the Braves organization, the team had been in Milwaukee until 1966, so returning to Milwaukee provided Aaron with a chance to complete his career where it began.

Around that same time, I wrote Aaron a letter congratulating him on his accomplishment and asking for an autograph. I still proudly have the auto-stamped picture of Aaron, wearing a Brewers’ uniform, which I received back.

It was only years later that I learned that many of the letters that Aaron received around the time of his special accomplishment were not as pleasant as the one I sent.

When I re-watch Aaron’s record-breaking home run, as well as interviews he gave during that time, I can’t help but feel a little sad.

I don’t at all mean to downplay the social significance that Aaron’s accomplishment represented, but it seems to me that too many people got caught up in that part of the story. Because of that, they weren’t able to appreciate Aaron’s tremendous talent and milestone achievement with the joy that I did as an innocent six-year old.

All the interviews I have seen of Aaron and his family during that period clearly illustrate that an experience that should have been so joyful was anything but.

One such interview described how Aaron’s mother raced to the field and put her arms around her 40-year old son to protect him in case anyone started shooting.

Aaron’s own comments right after the home run seem to sum it up pretty well. “I just thank God it’s all over with,” he said to the crowd on hand at Fulton County Stadium.

Over the 35-years since that glorious night, the sports world has struggled to completely understand and appreciate Hank Aaron. For some, the reluctance to embrace Aaron was certainly racially motivated. However, I also think there was a segment of baseball purists who would always consider Babe Ruth to be the greatest home run hitter in baseball history and thus believed that embracing Aaron would minimize the larger-than-life stature of Ruth.

Ironically, now that someone else technically has the MLB home run record, Aaron’s greatness is finally being fully recognized.

It has only been in the last few years – perhaps because the dramatic super-sizing of offensive statistics has distorted their significance – that many baseball purists have started to embrace Aaron. They seem to now acknowledge that while the basic rules of the game have always been just about the same, each era has had its own nuances and therefore the players within that era should be viewed on their own merits and appreciated accordingly.

The reality is that regardless of the era, Hank Aaron was a special player. I could spend all day talking about Aaron’s impressive statistical numbers, but instead will share just this one thing. Aaron finished among the top-17 in the National League MVP voting for an unprecedented 19 consecutive years (13 times in the top 10). In other words, Aaron wasn’t just consistently good; he was consistently one of the best players in the game.

In 1990, while interning for the Richmond Braves, I had the great pleasure to meet Aaron, who was representing the Atlanta front office at the Triple-A team’s season opener. He was amazingly gracious and spent time talking to me as well as to many other fans. Aaron even returned to the park the next morning and posed for a photo with our entire front office staff.

I am no longer the six-year old who watched Aaron’s record setting home run through a veil of awe and innocence. However, now as a 41-year old, when I think of Hank Aaron and how he has lived a life of grace and dignity despite all he had to withstand, it reminds me why I have loved sports for my entire life and why, contrary to what Charles Barkley and others may say, some athletes can indeed be our heroes.

Opening Day Doesn't Bring Same Hope for All Teams

2009-04-02T11:44:00.004-04:00

With Opening Day of the 2009 baseball season just around the corner, it is time for the obligatory comments about how the start of the season is so great because every team starts at the same place and has a renewed sense of optimism and hope.

While it is true that every team starts the season with the same record, we all know that teams don’t really start with the same sense of hope. I’m willing to bet that fans of the Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies are significantly more confident about the potential for their team to reach the playoffs in 2009 than fans of the Royals, Orioles, Pirates or Reds.

Now I know that every year at least one team surprises the experts and makes an unexpected run at the title. Last year at this time many were ready to sell playoff tickets in Detroit while few predicted that the Tampa Bay Rays would finish out of the American League East basement. Of course, the Rays reached the World Series while it was the Tigers who finished last in their division.

It is likely that again in 2009 some team will rise from the ashes to contend for the playoffs while at least one predicted contender will have a disappointing year. Rather than fill this space with a futile attempt to predict which teams will rise and which will fall, I thought it would be interesting to look at four franchises that were once considered among the elite of the game, but in recent years have fallen on difficult times.

Between 1960 and 1997, the Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates combined for 10 World Series titles, 17 Pennants and 32 Division titles. All four franchises had extended periods of success and were considered among the top franchises in the sport. However, over the last dozen years all four teams have gone from the penthouse to the outhouse as their performances have been among the worst in the game.

Baltimore Orioles
Then: The most consistent team in baseball for more than two decades, the Orioles registered a winning record in 24 of 26 seasons between 1960 and 1985, including 18 straight winning seasons from 1968-1985. The Orioles registered 17 seasons of 90+ victories and reached 100 wins five times. Baltimore appeared in the World Series six times and won three titles. The opening of Orioles Park at Camden Yards in 1992 ushered in a new period of economic prosperity for baseball as the Orioles regularly sold out every game and the retro-stadium led to similar stadiums popping up around the league.

Now: You could call it the curse of Davey Johnson as since the former Orioles player and manager was fired despite leading the team to the American East title and American League Championship Series in 1997 the Orioles have posted a losing record for 11 straight seasons. They have not won more than 78 games in any season this decade and annually seem to swoon as the season reaches its final months. It used to be almost impossible to get a good seat for an Orioles game without planning months in advance, but now the team plays almost every game in front of thousands of empty seats.

Future: After years of trying to make a quick fix, since Andy MacPhail became team president in 2007 the Orioles seem to finally have a plan for rebuilding. The Orioles of the glory days were built through a solid farm system and a foundation of pitching and defense. MacPhail has reloaded the farm system and the Orioles are believed to have one of the deepest pools of minor league pitching talent in the league. Baltimore will probably not contend in 2009, but it shouldn’t be many more years before they are challenging in the toughest division in baseball.

Cincinnati Reds:
Then: Baseball’s first professional team, the Cincinnati Reds have produced some of the greatest squads in baseball history. Between 1961 and 1995 the Reds produced 26 winning seasons, three World Series champions, six pennant winners and eight division champions. The “Big Red Machine” of the 1970s is still considered one of the greatest collections of talent in baseball history.

Now: Like the Orioles, the downfall of the Reds could perhaps be traced to a curse from former manager Davey Johnson. The Reds have not made the playoffs since Johnson was fired after leading the team to a division title in 1995. Cincinnati did win 96 games in 1999, but lost a one game playoff with the New York Mets for the wild card spot. The team has not had a winning season since 2000. Bad luck is partly responsible for their disappointing performance after the team made a bold move to sign Ken Griffey, Jr. in 2000. Unfortunately, Griffey suffered from a variety of injuries during his tenure with the team and never displayed the ability that made him the best player in the game in the 1990s.

Future: After failing in attempts to rebuild through trades and free agency, the Reds have showed promise for the future due to the development of several homegrown players. The team has also jettisoned several veteran players in exchange for young players who can develop into regulars. The result is a young nucleus of position players and pitchers that could eventually make the Reds contenders. Because the National League Central is a very difficult division to predict, the Reds could find themselves in the playoff hunt either this season or in 2010.

Kansas City Royals:
Then: From the time they joined the league as an expansion team in 1969 until the player’s strike of 1994, the Royals were a regular contender. Excluding their first two expansion seasons, the Royals posted winning campaigns in 17 of 24 years, including eight years of 90 of more victories. They won the American League West seven times in a 10-year period from 1976-1985 and claimed the 1985 World Series Championship.

Now: Since baseball labor peace was restored in 1995, the Royals have registered only one winning season (83-79 in 2003). They have lost 100 or more games in a season four times and reached 90 losses four other times. Along with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Royals have been hit the hardest by the changing financial structure of the sport. Always a “small market” team, the Royals have been unable to build a consistent winner as most of their homegrown stars have ended up leaving for greener pastures with other teams.

Future: The Royals have increased their victory total in each of the last three seasons and last year finished out of the Central Division cellar for the first time since 2003. The team has a young nucleus of talented players and has tried to supplement that by signing a number of veterans. As has been the case over the last decade, the key will be whether the Royals are able to keep their young players long enough for them to mature into a cohesive unit.

Pittsburgh Pirates:
Then: Another storied franchise with a history dating back to 1882, the Pirates registered 21 winning seasons between 1960 and 1992 while winning three World Series titles. The team claimed six division titles in the 1970s and then won three straight division crowns from 1990-1992.

Now: Since losing to the Atlanta Braves in the 1992 National League Championship Series, the Pirates have not finished a season with a winning record. For nearly a decade they said that building a new stadium was essential if they were to compete in the current economic structure, but since moving into their new publicly funded facility in 2001 the Pirates have averaged 93 losses per year, with at least 94 losses in each of the last four seasons.

Future: Unlike the Orioles, Reds and Royals who all at least seem to be trying to build a winning franchise on the field, the ownership of the Pirates seems to be most interested in increasing the profit margin. That is really a shame for Pirate fans, which have traditionally been among the most loyal in the sport. As a kid my family annually visited our relatives in Northwest Pennsylvania during the summer and it seemed like every television in town was always tuned into the broadcast of the Pirates game. I expect that MLB will do everything they can to keep a franchise in Pittsburgh, but unless the next labor agreement includes a clause that forces all franchises to reach a minimum payroll, don’t expect the Pirates to break out of their current streak of losing seasons.

Something is Rotten in Denver

2009-04-01T21:59:00.002-04:00

Isn’t it amazing how quickly things have changed in Denver? Seems like just yesterday that the Denver Broncos were considered one of the more stable franchises in the NFL with a veteran head coach and an owner who generally knew well enough to leave the football decisions to his front office staff.

I don’t know if Pat Bowlen suddenly decided to take a page out of Al Davis’s book or if he just got bored, but things have spiraled downward amazingly fast for this proud franchise.

First Bowlen decided to jettison his two-time Super Bowl winning coach Mike Shanahan in favor of a 32-year old “flavor of the month.” Then, after new head coach Josh McDaniels tried to secretly orchestrate a trade of the Broncos’ franchise quarterback in exchange for one of his former pupils, the young quarterback with the a big arm and a big ego got mad and threw a tantrum.

According to many NFL experts, what should have happened next was that McDaniels and Jay Cutler should have realized that sometimes the best moves are the ones that don’t happen and decided to play nice together in the sand box. After all, the NFL is a business and you can’t take things too personally.

No one outside of the organization seems to know exactly what has transpired over the last ten days, but for sure no one is kissing and making up. Instead, the ordeal has evolved into a “he said, he said” that now seems destined for a messy divorce.

Bowlen claims that he and McDaniels have made numerous attempts to contact Cutler without any success and therefore now believe the only recourse for the team is to trade the young quarterback. Cutler and his agent, Bus Cook, have asked for a trade, but also claim that no one from the Broncos tried to reach Cutler until this week.

Since very little about the NFL surprises me anymore, the two sides could eventually realize that they need each other and this could all blow over, but that seems very doubtful at this point. What is more likely is that Cutler will be wearing a different uniform next season and McDaniels will have the added pressure of being a 32-year old rookie head coach who ran the franchise quarterback out of town.

NFL history isn’t plush with examples of three-year veteran quarterbacks with a proven pedigree (Cutler has passed for 9,024 yards and 54 touchdowns in three seasons) and secure position in the lineup demanding a trade. Generally starting quarterbacks only get traded after they have lost their job or if the team believes they have a better option.

Considering that Denver moved up in the draft to select Cutler with the 11th pick in the 2006 draft and the only other quarterbacks on the roster are a former free agent from Alabama-Birmingham (Darrell Hackney) and a recently added veteran who hasn’t started an NFL game in more than two years (Chris Simms), it is pretty obvious that trading Cutler was not part of the team’s plan for the upcoming season.

One example that has some similarities is the case of Jeff George, the first pick in the 1990 draft. After four seasons with the Indianapolis Colts, George became disgruntled and was traded to Atlanta. At the time it was believed that George could be a franchise quarterback, but that theory was eventually disproved. His career statistics were relatively impressive (27,602 yards, 154 touchdowns, 113 interceptions), but his record as a starting quarterback was an abysmal 46-78. George was eventually labeled as a malcontent and cancer and though he still is trying to find a job hasn't been on an NFL roster since 2001.

The Broncos have a losing record (17-20) with Cutler has their starter, but part of the blame should certainly go to a defense that has annually ranked among the worst in the league. There seems to be little doubt that Cutler has the physical tools to be a standout NFL quarterback, but George proved that it takes a lot more than just a strong arm to become a winning NFL quarterback.

It will be up to potential suitors to determine if the ego, pride and stubbornness that Cutler has displayed in this disagreement with the Broncos is something that can be controlled or if it is the flaw that will keep him from achieving NFL glory. Considering that the Broncos are reportedly asking for at least two high draft picks and a starting player in return, the price to find out is awfully steep.

Boog Powell - April Vintage Athlete of the Month

2009-04-01T12:12:00.002-04:00

This month I am introducing a new regular feature, the Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month. The purpose of this monthly post will be to celebrate and re-visit the accomplishments of notable athletes from past generations. I will start this month by highlighting the career of one of my childhood favorites, Boog Powell. If you had a favorite athlete growing up that you would like to see featured as the Vintage Athlete of the Month, send me a nomination by e-mail.

Given the super-sizing of professional baseball players in recent years, a 6-4, 240 pound player may not seem all that special, but in the 1960s and 1970 when most players were shaped like string beans, Boog Powell was hard to miss. With tree trunks for arms that looked even larger when wearing the Orioles tight fitting gray uniform top, Boog Powell spent more than a decade launching mammoth home runs and playing first base for the Baltimore Orioles.

A fair-skinned giant with reddish hair, Powell looked like a farm boy from the Midwest, but actually was born in Lakeland, Florida and grew up in the Sunshine State. Though his given name was John Wesley Powell, he earned the nickname “Boog” as a kid due to his mischievous nature. He seemed to always be getting into something and became known as Booger, as in, “What’s that little Booger doing now?” The nickname was eventually shortened to Boog, probably around the time he got big enough to beat the snot out of anyone who would dare call him Booger.

Powell’s prowess on the baseball field was evident from an early age. In 1954 he was part of the Lakeland Little League squad that played in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Signed as a free agent by the Baltimore Orioles in 1959, Powell quickly made his way to the majors. He led the International League in home runs in 1961 and made his major league debut that September.

The next season he became the starting leftfielder for the Birds and was an important reason the Orioles were steadily moving from perennial doormat to contender in the American League. Powell blasted 25 home runs in 1963 and the following season hit 39 homers and led the American League with a .606 slugging percentage despite missing several weeks with a broken wrist.

In 1965 Powell moved to first base and for the next decade his soft hands helped make infielders Davey Johnson, Mark Belanger, Luis Aparicio, Bobby Grich and Brooks Robinson regular Gold Glove recipients. Despite the presence of so many Gold Glovers in the Orioles infield, and the fact that Powell posted a better fielding percentage than the league’s Gold Glove first baseman on several occasions, he never won a Gold Glove.

The 1966 season proved to be a breakout year for Powell and the Orioles. Baltimore won the American League Pennant for the first time and then defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers to claim the World Series title. Powell finished third in the voting for Most Valuable Player, behind teammates Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson, after hitting 34 home runs and driving in 109 runs.

Injuries hampered Powell and the entire Orioles team the next two seasons, but they rebounded in 1969. Baltimore led the league with 109 victories and Powell finished second in the American League MVP voting after hitting .304 with 37 home runs and 121 RBIs. Baltimore lost the World Series in five games to the New York Mets.

The following season, Powell finally earned the AL MVP Award with another productive season. The Orioles also won the World Series in five games over the Cincinnati Reds. The lasting memory of the 1970 World Series is the stellar play of third baseman Brooks Robinson, but Powell also had a pretty good series hitting .294 with two home runs and driving in five runs.

Baltimore returned to the World Series in 1971, losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates in seven games, but Powell struggled with injuries during the season and his productivity started to decrease. He followed up seasons of 22 and 21 home runs in 1971 and 1972 respectively by hitting a combined total of only 23 home runs during the 1973 and 1974 seasons. The Birds won division crowns in both 1973 and 1974, but Powell was no longer an everyday starter.

The Orioles parted ways with their popular first baseman following the 1974 season as he was traded to Cleveland for journeyman catcher Dave Duncan. The move reinvigorated Powell as he was reunited with his former teammate Frank Robinson, who was the player-manager for the Indians. Returning to the everyday lineup for the first time in three years, Powell responded with his best season since winning the MVP Award. He hit .297 with 27 home runs and 86 runs batted in while finishing third in the league in slugging percentage.

That proved to be Powell’s final productive season as he hit only nine home runs during the 1976 season before being released by the Indians during the 1977 spring training. He latched on with the Los Angeles Dodgers for much of the 1977 season, but with no designated hitter in the National League and Steve Garvey firmly planted at first base, Powell was relegated to a role as a left-handed pinch hitter. He struggled in this new position and was released late in the season.

While Powell’s play on the field was outstanding, the key to his great popularity was his status as a “gentle giant” of the game. Known for his sense of humor and fan-friendly attitude, Powell was a beloved figure in Baltimore and across baseball. That larger-than-life personality made Powell a popular figure in a number of Miller Lite television commercials following his retirement. When the Orioles opened their new Orioles Park at Camden Yard in 1992, it made perfect sense that Powell would play an important role in setting the atmosphere of baseball’s best park. A trip to the stadium isn’t complete without a visit to “Boog’s Barbeque.”

Though his career numbers (339 home runs, 1187 RBIs, .266 batting average) aren’t worthy of consideration for the Baseball Hall of Fame, the accomplishments and personality of Boog Powell should never be forgotten. For that reason, I am proud to name him the first Sports Then and Now Vintage Athlete of the Month.

Final Four is Full of Nostalgia

2009-03-31T15:42:00.004-04:00

Just when it looked like all the nostalgia talk at the 2009 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Final Four was going to be about 1985, the Michigan State Spartans threw a wrench in the plan and ensured that the 30th anniversary of their first championship would be properly remembered.

By trouncing top seeded Louisville 64-52, the Spartans denied the Big East’s bid at taking three teams to the Final Four for the first time since 1985. With the Final Four being played in Detroit, Michigan State is looking to be the first team since UCLA in 1975 to win the national championship in their home state*.

Of course, the return of Villanova to the Final Four for the first time since winning the title in 1985 ensures that there will still be lots of talk about that unbelievable upset.

While I personally believe that North Carolina State upsetting Houston in the 1983 finals was a little more improbable, it is hard to dispute that Rollie Massimino and his 1985 Wildcats played one of the best games in tournament history to defeat defending champion Georgetown.

Having twice faced the Hoyas during the regular season and lost close games both times (52-50 in overtime in Philadelphia and 57-50 in Washington), Villanova wasn’t intimidated by the defending NCAA Champions and their lineup of stars, which was led by senior All-American Patrick Ewing.

In the era before the shot clock and three-point line, the Wildcats knew that the key for them was to break the pressing defense of the Hoyas and then to make the most of every possession by waiting for the opportunity to take good shots.

What ensued was a 40-minute clinic in which Villanova executed that game plan to perfection.

Villanova connected on an amazing 72.2 percent (13 of 18) of their field goal attempts in the first half and led 29-28 at intermission. The hot shooting made for a great half of basketball, but surely they would cool off in the second half and Georgetown would pull away for the expected victory.

Not only did the Wildcats not cool off in the second half, they actually improved. Villanova connected on nine of 10 field goal attempts in the final 20 minutes to finish the game at 78.6 percent, easily the best showing ever for an NCAA final. And it wasn’t as if Georgetown was throwing up bricks. They hit on a very respectable 54.7 percent of their field goal attempts.

A 6-0 run late in the second half gave Georgetown a 54-53 lead with just under five minutes remaining. The Hoyas tried to run off some clock, but a steal by Dwayne McClain and a basket by Harold Jensen gave Villanova a lead and they would never again trail. The final score was Villanova 66, Georgetown 64.

The 1979 NCAA Championship victory for Michigan State was not quite as surprising, but it did prove to be just as memorable.

Unbeknownst to those watching the game that night, the meeting between the undefeated Indiana State Sycamores, led by senior Larry Bird, and the Michigan State Spartans, led by sophomore Magic Johnson, would serve as the trigger to a rivalry that would forever change professional basketball.

Still the most watched college basketball game ever, the 1979 Championship game wasn’t a barnburner with a final pivotal moment. In fact, Michigan State pretty much controlled the contest throughout and won 75-64.

However, in an era before ESPN and the over saturation of college basketball on television that exists today, the game served as a coming out party for two future legends. The game introduced the nation to a 6-8 point guard who had the charisma, smile and all-around basketball ability that would eventually captivate a nation. It also gave fans across the country a chance to see the grit and determination of a farm boy from French Lick, Indiana, who didn’t play his best game, but still did everything he could to keep his team in the game.

Of course the game was the final college game for both players and, as they say, “the rest is history.” Bird went on to lead the Boston Celtics to three NBA Championships, including a win over Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1984 Finals. Johnson would play in nine NBA Finals for the Los Angeles Lakers and the team won five championships. After losing the 1984 title to Boston, the Lakers edged Boston in both 1985 and 1987.

The game also helped usher in a golden era for the NCAA Basketball Division I Tournament. The 1979 tournament featured 40 teams, but over the next six years the field was twice expanded until it reached 64 teams in 1985. NBC paid only $5.2 million to broadcast the tournament in 1979, but by the time CBS snatched the rights away in 1982 it was $48 million. The current contract for rights to what is now known as “March Madness” is $6 billion over 11 years.

While both Villanova and Michigan State bring nostalgia to the 2009 NCAA Final Four, the championship pedigrees of the other two Final Four participants are also pretty impressive. Like Michigan State, which claimed the title in 2000, Connecticut (2004) and North Carolina (2005) are looking to join Florida as the only school to claim two titles this decade.

The Tar Heels are looking to join UCLA (11), Kentucky (7) and Indiana (5) as the only schools with at least five NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championships. If Connecticut can claim the championship, Jim Calhoun would become only the fifth coach in NCAA history (joining John Wooden, Adolph Rupp, Bobby Knight and Mike Kryzewski) to lead a team to at least three championships.

(*Note: The University of Kansas won the 1988 title at Kemper Arena, where they regularly played one home game a season, but the arena is located in Kansas City, Missouri, rather than in the state of Kansas)

“Much Traveled Lou” Embodied a By-Gone Era of Professional Football

2009-03-30T13:58:00.002-04:00

The sports world lost a legendary character on Sunday with the death of former football player, coach and administrator Lou Saban.

Known as “Much Traveled Lou” for his penchant of hopping from job to job, Saban is best remembered for his 16 years as a head coach in the AFL and NFL.

Though it has been 33 years since he last coached in the NFL and he spent most of the last three decades floating from one small college coaching job to another, Lou Saban’s fiery personality will forever be immortalized in some of the most memorable moments in NFL Films history.

If you have ever watched any of the NFL Films where they show coaches on the sidelines or in the locker room, then you have probably seen Saban’s antics. His intensity and spontaneous comments reflect a truly by-gone era in professional football. While the NFL of today is part sport and part entertainment, Saban thrived during an era when both the players and coaches reflected the brutality and harshness of the game.

After hearing of his passing last night, I went back and re-watched some of the segments in which he and other coaches from the 1960s and 1970s display the emotion and passion of the times. Unlike modern coaches whose passion and intensity are perhaps slightly tempered by the safety nets of guaranteed contracts, you can see in their sideline antics how Saban and other coaches of his generation truly lived and died with every play.

In one set of clips from while he was coaching the Denver Broncos, Saban first yells, “My daughter could do better, my daughter could do better.” At another moment he brutally cries out to an assistant “They’re killing me Whitey.”

Perhaps Saban’s most famous NFL Films moment occurred before and after a 1974 battle between his Buffalo Bills and the defending Super Bowl Champion Miami Dolphins. In a rare glimpse into an NFL locker room, the piece starts with Saban telling his players not to be too proud to take in all the fluids they might need to make it through the South Florida heat. He then reflects to them the urgency and opportunity of the moment.

“If we die, we die together,” he bellowed in a gruff tone. “You can get it done, you can get it done. What’s more, you’ve got to get it done.”

Despite a dramatic late game rally led by rookie backup quarterback Gary Marangi, the Bills lost the game when Miami marched down the field to score a touchdown in the final minute.

After the game, Saban is shown not standing at a podium as is the custom today, but sitting in the locker room with reporters gathered around him. Even after a disappointing loss, he reflects the straightforward approach that was part of that era of NFL football.

“Boy oh boy, 56 seconds and we let them off the hook,” Saban said. “We’ve got to beat these people one of these days and we haven’t been able to do it. We’re coming after them again next week.”

After playing college football at Indiana University, Saban was twice a first team All-AAFC selection while playing for Hall of Fame coach Paul Brown and the Cleveland Browns from 1946-49.

In 1950 he started his coaching career as the head coach at Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland. He also coached at Northwestern and Western Illinois University before embarking on his professional coaching career.

Saban joined the fledgling American Football League as head coach of the Boston Patriots in 1960 and amassed a 7-12 record before leaving midway through the 1961 season. In 1962 he joined the Buffalo Bills and led the team to back-to-back AFL titles in 1964 and 1965. However, he left the franchise after a disagreement with owner Ralph Wilson and spent the 1966 season as the head football coach at the University of Maryland.

Resurfacing in Denver in 1967, Saban coached the Broncos for four and a half years, but never won more than five games in a season. Perhaps the most significant accomplishment of his tenure occurred in 1968 when Saban became the first modern AFL or NFL coach to start a black quarterback. Marlin Briscoe started five games for the Broncos with the team posting a 2-3 record.

Briscoe moved to Buffalo the next season and spent the rest of his career as a wide receiver, but Saban’s decision to give a black quarterback an opportunity to start put the wheels in motion for other coaches and black quarterbacks.

Saban returned to Buffalo in 1972, but the Bills he inherited were a far cry from the championship team he left nearly a decade earlier. He did manage to post three winning seasons and make one playoff appearance, but the team was never a championship contender.

His second tenure with the Bills is best recognized for serving as the launching pad for O.J. Simpson’s amazing five-year stretch as the best running back in football. After not rushing for more than 742 yards in any of his first three NFL seasons, Saban made Simpson the emphasis of the offense when he arrived in 1972. Simpson responded by leading the NFL in rushing in 1972 and the next season became the first running back (and only one in a 14 game season) to break the 2,000-yard mark. Overall, Simpson gained 7,699 yards between 1972-1976 and led the NFL in rushing four times.

After starting the 1976 season with a 2-3 record, Saban quit as coach of the Bills during the week of his 55th birthday and never again coached in the NFL.

Saban became the head football coach the University of Miami in 1977 and though the Hurricanes posted a 9-13 record during his tenure, he is credited with laying the foundation that led to Miami’s emergence as a national power in the 1980s.

He spent the 1979 season as the head football coach at Army and later made a brief foray outside of football serving two seasons as President of the New York Yankees, which happened to be owned by longtime friend George Steinbrenner. Steinbrenner had served as an assistant football coach for Saban at Northwestern. He also spent 19 days as the Athletic Director at the University of Cincinnati and reportedly quit during halftime of an early season football game against Ohio University.

Saban also spent two seasons as the head coach at the University of Central Florida from 1983-84. He helped set the wheels in motion for the Golden Knights to move from Division II to Division I, but again didn’t stick around long enough to reap the rewards of his labor.

Over the next two decades, Saban continued to wrack up lines on his resume with each position seemingly taking him further and further away from the limelight. He coached at the high school level in the late 1980s and except for a brief stint coaching in the Arena Football League spent the remainder of his career starting or building college programs at a number of small schools including Peru State, Canton Tech, Alfred State and Chowan.

The numerous obituaries about Saban that have emerged on the internet say that he had a short temper and that may partly account for why such a decorated professional coach completed his coaching career at such off-the-beaten-path locations.

Dick Finnegan, an Orlando area businessman and a friend of this blog, crossed paths with Saban when they both worked at the University of Miami in the late 1970s and he described Saban as being “gruff...thick-bodied, harsh tone. You got the impression he lived a full life and showed the fun side to close friends only.”

There is no doubt that Saban was a true sports character the likes of which we will probably never see again. However, while Saban may be gone, thanks to NFL Films, his intensity and passion will never be completely forgotten.

(Click Here to watch Saban and other NFL Coaches from the 1960s and 1970s in a classic NFL Films montage)

Perfection is Never Easy

2009-03-28T18:12:00.000-04:00

When they led by 14 points early in the second half of the NCAA Finals, it looked like the University of Findlay would cruise to the 2009 NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Championship and an undefeated season. However, in the end it took overtime and a three-point basket as time expired to help the Oilers complete the season with a perfect 36-0 record.

Regardless of the level of competition, completing a college basketball season undefeated is never an easy task and deserving of appreciation. Findlay became just the fourth team in Division II history, and first since Fort Hays State in 1996 to accomplish the feat.

They join the George Fox University women’s basketball team, which claimed the NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Championship with a perfect 32-0 record, as undefeated NCAA basketball champions this season.

With four more victories, the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team could add their name to that list. The Huskies are aiming for the third undefeated season in their history and the fifth such season in NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball history.

For the 33rd straight season, there will not be an undefeated national champion at the NCAA Division I men’s level. No men’s Division I champion has finished undefeated since Bobby Knight led Indiana University to an undefeated campaign in 1976.

It has been 30 years since Larry Bird and the Indiana State Sycamores became the last Division I team to reach the NCAA Finals with an undefeated record. They were 33-0 before losing the national championship game to Magic Johnson and the Michigan State Spartans.

Since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, the 1991 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels are the only team to reach the Final Four with an undefeated record. They lost in the national semifinals to eventual champion Duke.

A few teams, including Illinois in 2005 and Memphis in 2008, have flirted with entering the NCAA Tournament undefeated. However, eventually the grind of a long season, pressure of perfection and difficulty of maintaining such a high level of play for every single game have proven to be too much for even the best teams.

If a team is ever to again go undefeated in NCAA Division I men’s basketball, it will probably follow the pattern of Indiana State, UNLV and Memphis. All three of those teams, along with the University of Massachusetts, which started the 1995-96 season with 26 straight wins, hailed from a conference not considered among the “power” conferences of the NCAA.

While conferences like the ACC, Big East, Pac 10 and Big 12 annually boast at least two teams capable of winning the national title, top teams from other conferences can often run the table in their league and depending on their non-conference schedule could conceivably be undefeated come time for the NCAA Tournament. The question then becomes whether a team that hasn’t faced significant challenges on a regular basis will be able to withstand the rigors of the NCAA Tournament.

Memphis, which lost in the Sweet 16 in 2009 after coming within a last-second shot of winning the title a year earlier, has proven that a rigorous conference season is not necessarily mandatory. The Tigers have won 61 straight Conference USA games since last losing to a conference opponent in March 2006. However, I’m willing to bet that John Calipari and supporters of the Tigers would trade in a couple Conference USA wins if it helped them claim that elusive national title.

While no school would turn down an undefeated season and it would be fun to watch a team make that kind of magical run, the reality of college basketball is that unlike football’s Bowl Championship Series when an undefeated season is no guarantee of a title (just ask Utah) and one last second loss can end your chances at a championship (see Texas), in college basketball a teams final record isn’t going to have a real barring on who claims the national title.

Come the first week of April, the only record that matters is how your team performed in the climactic NCAA Tournament and to cut down the nets at the Final Four you don’t have to be perfect for four months, just for the final three weeks of the season.

NASCAR Remembers Its Roots

2009-03-26T20:10:00.000-04:00

The National Association of Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) will return to its roots this weekend with the running of the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 in Martinsville, Virginia.

The last original NASCAR sanctioned track still hosting a Cup Series event, the Martinsville Speedway is the shortest track on tour at .526 miles. The Bristol, Tennessee track, which hosted last week’s race, is the second shortest at .533.

Constructed more than a decade before the Daytona International Speedway, the Martinsville Speedway hosted its first NASCAR sanctioned race on July 4, 1948 and a year later was one of eight tracks to host a race in the initial year of what was then called the Strictly Stock Series and is now known as the Sprint Cup Series. After hosting one race in 1949, Martinsville has hosted two Sprint Cup races every year since 1950. Other than being paved in 1955, the track configuration has not changed from its original design. The track originally had seating for 750 spectators, but today has a capacity of 60,000.

While short tracks played an important role in laying the foundation for the success of NASCAR, as the national and international appeal of the sport has increased over the last two decades, a number of smaller tracks with longstanding traditions have been removed from the Sprint Cup schedule in favor of larger tracks in locations that expand the exposure of the sport to new audiences. Bristol, Martinsville and the Richmond International Speedway (.75 miles) are the only tracks remaining on the Sprint Cup schedule with a lap distance under a mile.

Richmond hosted its first race in 1953 and has held two NASCAR Sprint Cup events every year since 1959. Originally a half mile track, it expanded to .75 miles in 1988 and has a spectator capacity of just over 112,000.

The Bristol Motor Speedway was completed in 1961 and has hosted two NASCAR Sprint Cup races every year since. The Speedway began with 18,000 seats for its initial race on July 30, 1961 and has undergone a number of grandstand renovations to increase capacity to its current level of 160,000.

Though NASCAR made its initial foray into the Mid-West and West Coast markets in the 1950s, it took the sport decades to finally gain a solid foothold outside the traditional Southern hotbed. Since 1988, NASCAR has brought the NASCAR experience to strategic locations across the country including Chicago, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Phoenix, Sonoma, Fort Worth and Las Vegas.

The price for this nationalization of the sport was the reduction of NASCAR races at traditional home tracks, primarily in the South. While Bristol, Martinsville and Richmond have managed to survive, other places such as Rockingham, North Wilkesboro and Nashville did not.

However, there has been talk that Martinsville could be the next casualty of the nationalization of NASCAR. Because the region around Martinsville has never had a booming economy, even in good economic times the track has struggled to sell out despite having one of the lowest spectator capacities on the circuit.

While the global economic crisis might at first blush seem to increase the pressure on NASCAR to move at least one of the Martinsville races, I contend that the opposite is true.

Though the overall fan base has grown over the last decade, the greatest concentration of loyal die-hard fans remains in the South and specifically in rural areas of Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. Many of these fans have been life-long NASCAR lovers and cherish the history and tradition of the sport.

As the last original NASCAR track, Martinsville represents an important connection to the past and at the same time can also be a key part of the future for the sport. NASCAR generally has done a very good job walking the tight rope of embracing the past while also looking toward the future. At a time when they are needed most, many loyal fans could become disenchanted with NASCAR if it eliminates the annual trips to Martinsville.

Rather than consider dropping Martinsville from the schedule, I hope NASCAR will instead recognize the value of its oldest track and ensure that the Martinsville Speedway remains an important part of the annual circuit for decades to come.

Is Curt Schilling Hall of Fame Worthy?

2009-03-24T15:25:00.000-04:00

The recent retirement of Curt Schilling offers the opportunity to rekindle the timeless debate of just what makes a player worthy of being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

It has been very interesting reading impassioned sports writers and fans debate the question. Those who believe Schilling is worthy of the Hall of Fame are quick to highlight his postseason prowess as well as his status as a clear staff ace for a portion of his career. His detractors quickly point to his relatively low career victory total and significant number of pedestrian seasons within a 20-year career.

Both arguments certainly have merit, but I believe the real issue goes beyond just Curt Schilling and instead is really about how modern era pitchers are viewed by those who decide induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Of the 72 pitchers in the Hall of Fame, only 23 have pitched a game in the last 50 years. While three modern era relief pitchers (Dennis Eckersley, Bruce Sutter and Rich Gossage) have been inducted into the Hall of Fame in the last decade, a modern era starting pitcher has not received such recognition since Nolan Ryan entered the Hall in 1999.

Hall of Fame voters of the last two decades have tended to give excessive merit for lifetime statistical achievement while virtually ignoring short-term dominance. That is among the reasons it took Jim Rice 15 years to earn a spot in the Hall and why starting pitchers from the modern era have been completely overlooked.

The Hall of Fame includes 16 starting pitchers with fewer wins than Schilling’s career total of 216, but only two of those pitchers, Don Drysdale, who retired in 1969 with 209 wins, and Sandy Koufax, who amassed 165 victories before retiring in 1966 are from the modern era. The last starting pitcher with fewer than 300 wins to be elected into the Hall of Fame through the regular voting process was Fergie Jenkins in 1991.

The debate has been waging for years over whether modern era pitchers Tommy John (288 career wins), Bert Blyleven (287) and Jim Kaat (283) deserve induction into the Hall of Fame. While their contemporaries Phil Niekro, Don Sutton and Gaylord Perry reached the 300-victory plateau and cruised into the Hall of Fame within their first five years of eligibility, John, Blyleven and Kaat have had their entire careers picked apart to find the flaws that justify their exclusion.

Another modern pitcher who has received little support from voters is Jack Morris. Despite amassing more wins than any other pitcher in the 1980s and finishing his career with 254 career victories, Morris has never received more than 44% of the vote in his 10 years on the ballot. What could prove to be telling is that like Schilling, Morris was known for his postseason heroics and clear status as a staff ace.

The increased reliance on five man rotations and relief pitchers over the last two decades has made it significantly more difficult to rely on victories as an accurate measurement for pitching greatness. Assuming that Randy Johnson (currently sitting at 295 career victories) joins Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens and Tom Glavine as pitchers who have reached the 300-victory total this decade and becomes the 24th pitcher all-time to reach that mark, it is likely that the club will never see a 25th member.

Excluding Glavine and Johnson, the active pitcher with the most career wins is 46-year old Jamie Moyer with 245 career victories. While Moyer won 16 games last season for the World Series Champion Phillies, he would have to nearly match that total for the next four seasons to pass the 300-win plateau.

Among pitchers under 40, 36-year old Andy Pettitte is the leader with 215 victories, but there was some question as to whether he would be back this season and it is highly unlikely that he will pitch long enough to get anywhere near 300 wins. CC Sabathia, who will be 29 in July, has 117 victories through his first eight major league seasons for an average of 15 per year. He would have to maintain that average for the next 12 years to reach 300.

What this means in relation to the Hall of Fame is that in the coming years HOF voters will no longer be able to rely solely on wins and losses or other traditional statistics when evaluating career accomplishments. The other prominent stat generally used to assess greatness has been the earned run average (ERA). While ballparks have shrunk and players grown larger over the last two decades, ERAs have steadily increased. Statisticians have developed a concept called ERA+ to try and quantify pitching success compared to the overall rate of run production in the league. This concept has attempted to level the playing field when comparing the low ERAs of many old-timers with the higher averages of modern pitchers, but has yet to gain universal acceptance.

There is little doubt that Maddux, Glavine and Johnson will be easy decisions for the Hall of Fame voters in the coming years (with Clemens falling under his own category due to his alleged steroid use), but in addition to Schilling, there will be other tough choices regarding starting pitching candidates over the next decade.

Given his sharp decline in recent years and inability to find a club to offer him a contract this spring, it is doubtful that Pedro Martinez will add too many more wins to his career total of 214. With a .684 winning percentage and 2.91 career ERA, Martinez is expected to earn easy entry, but the reality is that for all his dominance he posted only two 20 win campaigns and he has fewer career wins than Charlie Hough or Kenny Rogers. If the HOF voters typical pension for gaudy career numbers remains, Martinez may meet some resistance.

Another interesting case will be how the voters view John Smoltz. He enters his first season with the Red Sox with 211 career victories despite spending nearly two decades playing on consistent winning teams for the Braves. While his 24 wins and Cy Young award in 1996 provide Smoltz with a signature season, it marked his only campaign with more than 17 victories. What might help his cause is the four years he spent during the middle of his career as a dominant closer. Much like the case for Dennis Eckersley, the combination of success both as a starter and reliever could help get Smoltz into the Hall.

So, is Curt Schilling worthy of a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame? I started writing this column convinced that he was not deserving, but now at least recognize that he merits serious consideration. The question is whether Hall of Fame voters will start recognizing that while career statistics are one way to evaluate greatness, in an era when statistics tell only a small portion of the story they cannot be the only guide.

Time for Cinderella to Dance

2009-03-18T15:10:00.000-04:00

So how does your NCAA bracket look? If yours is anything like mine, the toughest choices have not been in picking Final Four teams, but instead in trying to predict which school will come out of nowhere to crash the party.

Almost every year at least one school that is familiar only to people within its home area code suddenly becomes a national darling thanks to an upset, or near upset, of a team with significantly more national recognition. These schools are often referred to as “Cinderella” and just to avoid the kind of confusion that occurred at my house the other night when my four-year old daughter heard a promo for the NCAA Tournament and thought it meant one of her favorite princesses was going to be playing basketball, in this case Cinderella does not have flowing blonde hair, a glass slipper or a Fairy Godmother.

Rather, the typical Cinderella of the NCAA Tournament is a school that has been playing good basketball throughout the year, but has stayed under the radar while schools from the power conferences hog the national television spotlight and spots in the national polls. One of the endearing elements of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament is that the opening rounds of the tournament are the one time each year when those power conference schools must share that spotlight with schools that aren’t so familiar to a national audience.

Unlike during any regular season match-ups that are almost always played at the home site of the power conference school and come with all the trappings of a home court edge including rowdy student sections and officials assigned by the host schools conference, when power conference schools face schools from smaller conferences on a neutral court in the NCAA Tournament anything can happen.

Over the years, the results have included some of the most memorable upsets in NCAA Tournament history. Over the last 30 years many schools have played the role of Cinderella, but I have chosen to highlight five schools that wore the glass slipper with particular distinction and helped create the concept of “March Madness.”

James Madison University – 1981, 1982, 1983 – Few outside of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley had heard of James Madison University, which had been known as Madison College until 1977, when the Dukes made their first trip to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament in 1981. However, under the guidance of head coach Lou Campanelli, they quickly developed a reputation as a team higher seeds did not want to play. The 10th seeded Dukes defeated seventh seed Georgetown 61-55 before losing to second seed Notre Dame 54-45. The following season, JMU defeated Ohio State in the opening round before quite nearly pulling off the upset of the century. Facing top-seeded North Carolina, JMU gave the eventual national champions everything they could handle in a 52-50 decision that wasn’t decided until the final minute. The following season, JMU made it three straight years with an NCAA Tournament victory as they defeated West Virginia 57-50 before being eliminated by North Carolina in the second round.

University of Richmond – 1984, 1988, 1991, 1998 – During the 1980s and early 1990s, no team wanted to play Dick Tarrant and his “Giant Killers” from the University of Richmond in the NCAA Tournament. The Spiders made their initial NCAA Tournament appearance in 1984 a memorable one as they defeated fifth seeded Auburn, led by Charles Barkley, before dropping a tough 75-67 decision to Indiana. Four years later, the Spiders got their revenge on Bobby Knight and the defending NCAA Champions as the 13th seeded Spiders defeated fourth seeded Indiana 72-69 in the first round of the tournament. However, they weren’t done as they reached the Sweet 16 with a 59-55 victory over fifth seed Georgia Tech. The top seeded Temple Owls finally eliminated them in the round of 16. In 1991 the Spiders became the first 15th seed in NCAA Tournament history to win a game in the tournament as they shocked second seeded Syracuse, led by Derrick Coleman, 73-69. Though Tarrant’s retirement in 1993 signaled the end to a period of dominance for Richmond, they did return to the tournament in 1998 under the guidance of head coach John Beilein, now the head coach at the University of Michigan, and continued their upset tradition with a 62-61 win over third seeded South Carolina.

Loyola Marymount – 1990 – Few teams have tugged at the heart strings of college basketball fans the way Loyola Marymount did during the 1990 NCAA Tournament. An exciting team that set a new NCAA record by averaging 122 points per game under the guidance of former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Paul Westhead, LMU entered the 1990 West Coast Conference Tournament looking to secure a third straight bid to the NCAA Tournament. However, tragedy struck late during their first round conference tournament game against Gonzaga when All-American center Hank Gathers collapsed and later died due to a heart condition. The tournament was immediately suspended with the regular season champion Lions awarded the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Few expected the Lions to make much noise when they started play in the NCAA Tournament as the 11th seed in the West just 13 days after the death of their star player. However, led by emotional leader Bo Kimble, the Lions captivated the nation by defeating sixth seeded New Mexico State 111-92 in the opening round and then whipping defending national champion Michigan 149-115 to reach the Sweet 16. LMU then edged Alabama 62-60 before losing to eventual national champion UNLV 131-101 in the West Regional Final.

Gonzaga – 1999, 2000, 2001 – Consistent success over the last decade has earned Gonzaga a tentative spot among the “Big Boys” of NCAA Division I basketball, but they most certainly wore the Cinderella slipper when they reached the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament in 1999 and then followed that run with consecutive trips to the Sweet 16. Gonzaga had made only one previous trip to the NCAA Tournament (losing to Maryland 87-63 in 1995) when they earned a bid to the 1999 tournament. The Bulldogs ripped through the field with wins over seventh seeded Minnesota, second seed Stanford and sixth seeded Florida before losing to eventual national champion Connecticut in the West Regional Final. In 2000 the Zags defeated seventh seeded Louisville and number two seed St. John’s before falling to Purdue in the Sweet 16. In 2001 they edged fifth seeded Virginia and dominated Indiana State before losing to top seeded Michigan State.

George Mason – 2006 – Of all the Cinderella teams from non-power conferences that have made runs in the NCAA Tournament, George Mason is the only one ever to make it all the way to the Final Four. The 2006 Patriots had needed a surprising at-large bid just to get into the tournament, but proved that the committee knew what they were doing. GMU upset sixth seeded Michigan State 75-65 in the opening round. They then shocked defending national champion North Carolina to reach the Sweet 16. After defeating fellow Cinderella Wichita State in the round of 16, the Patriots defeated top seeded Connecticut 86-84 in overtime to advance to the Final Four. Though they lost to eventual national champion Florida 73-58 in the semifinals, George Mason proved to the country that teams from smaller conferences deserved the chance to hang with the big boys in the NCAA Tournament.

Playing for All the Marbles

2009-03-13T13:03:00.000-04:00

The six-overtime thriller between Syracuse and Connecticut in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament will certainly go down as one of the greatest conference tournament games in college basketball history. The game included all the highs and lows associated with a classic tournament confrontation, but imagine just how much greater the intensity might have been if the loser knew that their season and chance to win the National Championship was over without even having the opportunity to compete in the NCAA Tournament.

That was the scenario 35 years ago on March 9, 1974 when North Carolina State and Maryland met in the finals of the ACC Basketball Tournament. The game would go down in history as one of the greatest games in college basketball history and directly result in changes that helped turn the NCAA Tournament into “March Madness.”

When the Wolfpack and Terrapins took the floor at the Greensboro Coliseum, the stakes couldn’t have been higher. Both teams were ranked in the top-5 in the country, but only the winner would get a chance to unseat seven-time defending NCAA Champion UCLA. While today 65 teams reach the NCAA Tournament with 34 of those bids going to at-large teams, back in 1974 the NCAA Tournament included 25 teams with all bids reserved for conference champions and major independents.

Both teams were filled with All-Americans and future NBA stars. High-flying David Thompson, center Tom Burleson and guard Monte Towe led N.C. State while the Terrapins had their own stars in guard John Lucas, forward Tom McMillen and center Len Elmore. In all, the NBA would eventually draft a total of ten players from the two teams.

Despite playing their third game in three nights, Maryland, which had easily defeated Duke and North Carolina to reach the finals, raced to an early advantage and led by as many as 13 points in the first half. The top-seeded Wolfpack received a first round bye in the seven-team league and had easily dispatched the University of Virginia in the semifinals.

The Wolfpack recovered from their early deficit and in the second half was clearly the fresher team as they rode the hot shooting of Burleson and Thompson to catch the Terrapins. With the game tied at 97-97, Maryland had the ball with time running out in regulation. John Lucas missed a last second shot as the game went into overtime.

A basket by Phil Spence with 1:59 remaining in overtime gave the Wolfpack the lead and a pair of free throws by Monte Towe in the finals seconds ensured the 103-100 victory and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

N.C. State went on to defeat UCLA in double overtime of the NCAA Semifinals and then earned the national title with a win over Marquette. Despite finishing the season ranked number four in the country, Maryland’s season ended with that loss as they chose not participate in the National Invitational Tournament. The 1974 Terrapins are still considered the best team not to participate in the NCAA Tournament.

Recognizing the need to ensure that future top teams did not suffer a similar fate to the Terrapins, the NCAA expanded the tournament to 32 teams in 1975 to allow for at-large participants. The field expanded to 40 teams in 1979, 48 teams in 1980 and to 64 teams in 1985.

So, while Connecticut fans may be disappointed that their team will not claim the Big East Tournament Championship, they can take solace in the fact that the Huskies still have a chance to cut down the nets next month at the Final Four in Detroit.

Conference Tournaments Play Key Role in March Madness

2009-03-09T16:07:00.000-04:00

With conference tournaments underway and the Division I men’s basketball pairings to be announced on Sunday, we are officially in the middle of “March Madness.” For college basketball fans, the next four weeks are nirvana as every basket, steal or turnover has the potential to catapult one team to a title while leading to the end of the line for another.

For teams from major conferences already sure that they have secured one of 34 at-large bids into the NCAA Tournament, conference tournaments provide a dress-rehearsal for the real show the following week. However, for teams from conferences that rarely receive more than one tournament bid and for those schools from major conferences who are “on the bubble”, conference tournaments provide an opportunity to guarantee a spot in the greatest dance in college sports.

One of the enticements of this time of the year is the feeling of hope that perpetuates among basketball fans on college campuses across the country. After a long season, slates are wiped clean and any team winning their conference championship can earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament, regardless of how they performed during the regular season.

College basketball history is dotted with teams that struggled during the regular season, but parlayed a late hot streak into a conference tournament win and trip to the NCAA Tournament. One need look no further back than to last season when the University of Georgia, which had won only four Southeastern Conference games during the entire regular season, rattled off four amazing wins, including two in one day thanks to wind damage to the roof of the Georgia Dome, to claim an improbable conference title and a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Perhaps the greatest example in college basketball history of a team making the most of an unexpected conference tournament run is the famed 1983 North Carolina State Wolfpack under the guidance of the late, great, Jim Valvano. After registering a 17-10 record during the regular season, in large part due to a broken foot that forced star guard Dereck Whittenburg out of action for much of the season, Valvano knew that his team probably had to win the conference championship to earn a spot in the 48-team NCAA Tournament field.

The Wolfpack edged Wake Forest 71-70 and then defeated defending NCAA Champion North Carolina 91-84 to reach the ACC Tournament final. Facing the University of Virginia and All-American center Ralph Sampson, the Wolfpack completed their miraculous weekend with an 81-78 victory to reach the NCAA Tournament.

That victory sparked an improbable run that included a double-overtime victory over Pepperdine, a last second win against UNLV after trailing by 12 points in the second half and a thrilling 63-62 victory over Virginia in a rematch of the ACC tournament final. NC State then secured the NCAA Championship with a semifinal win against Georgia and a memorable last-second victory over top-ranked Houston in the NCAA Finals.

Even for teams already assured of playing in the NCAA Tournament, winning the conference tournament is often a determinate of future success. Of the last five NCAA champions, only the 2005 North Carolina Tar Heels didn’t claim their conference tournament championship. Last season all four Final Four teams had previously won their conference tournament championship.

So, as you get ready to set your NCAA Tournament brackets, you might pay close attention to what teams are cutting down the nets at conference tournaments. It is very likely one of those teams will also be cutting down the nets at the NCAA Finals in Detroit.

Nothing is Free about Free Agency

2009-03-05T14:52:00.000-05:00

If he were still alive, I wonder what NFL Hall of Fame center Jim Ringo would think about the $100 million contract that Albert Haynesworth recently signed with the Washington Redskins.

As legend has it, Ringo, an All-Pro center and anchor of the Packer’s vaunted offensive line, brought an agent with him to contract negotiations with Green Bay Packer head coach Vince Lombardi prior to the 1964 season. Lombardi then excused himself and when he returned five minutes later told Ringo and his agent that they would have to go to Philadelphia to discuss his new contract because he had just been traded to the Eagles.

Some historians claim that the actual incident between Ringo and Lombardi is just a myth, but what isn’t a myth is the sacrifice that many athletes from the past made to ensure that the players of today are able to freely negotiate and sign contracts like the one inked by Haynesworth.

For more than a half-century, the contract of every player in Major League Baseball included what was known as the “reserve clause”, which bound a player, one year at a time, in perpetuity to the club owning his contract. Basically, it meant that the player was tied to the team until the team chose to trade or release the player and he had no opportunity to pursue employment with another organization on his own terms. As professional sports leagues started in football, basketball and hockey, owners in those leagues essentially emulated baseball’s “reserve clause.”

As a result, the only recourse for a player was to quit.

Such was the case for future NFL Hall of Fame member Cliff Battles. After rushing for a career-high 874 yards while helping the Washington Redskins win the 1937 NFL Championship, Battles reportedly asked Redskins owner George Preston Marshall for a $1,000 raise to his $3,000 contract. When Marshall refused, Battle retired from pro football after just six seasons and became an assistant coach at Columbia University where he was paid $4,000.

Little changed for another 30 years until one player dared to challenge the system.

When veteran St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Curt Flood balked at being traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in October 1969 after playing 12 years for the Cardinals, initial sentiment questioned why a star athlete making $80,000 would dare to challenge the authority of his employer. However, once the general public began to understand the power baseball ownership enjoyed through the “reserve clause” sentiment began to shift.

Nonetheless, Flood personally paid a tremendous price for his role as a martyr for professional athletes. After missing the entire 1970 season (one in which he had been scheduled to make $100,000), Flood appeared in 13 games for the Washington Senators in 1971 and was out of baseball at age 33.

Flood’s case against Major League Baseball eventually reached the Supreme Court and while the court ruled in favor of the league, the wheels were in motion to change professional sports forever. The “reserve clause” was officially overturned in 1975 and soon professional athletes were able, for the first time, to choose the team for which they would play. It also led to provisions that provide some veteran players the opportunity to decline a trade if they choose not to play for a certain team.

The advent of free agency also led to a rapid escalation of player salaries in all professional sports.

In 1967 the average salary in professional baseball was $19,000. By 1980 the average had risen to $143,000 and the average passed $1 million in 1992. The average salary for a professional baseball player in 2008 was $2.93 million. Average salaries for players in the NFL, NBA and NHL have risen at similar rates over the last forty years.

As the players of today enjoy the spoils of their multi-million dollar contracts, I hope they realize the high price that Ringo, Battles, Flood and many others paid to ensure that they could truly be free agents.

Jerry's Team

2009-02-25T21:29:00.000-05:00

It is hard to believe that 20 years have passed since a then-unknown Arkansas Oilman shook up the framework of the sports world and forever changed the history of one of the storied franchises in professional sports.

From their inception as an expansion franchise in 1960 through 1988, the Dallas Cowboys were the epitome of stability in the NFL. Under the triumvirate of General Manager Tex Schramm, Head Coach Tom Landry and Scouting Director Gil Brandt, the Cowboys created a culture of success that was unparalleled in NFL history. Beginning in 1966, the Cowboys registered 20 straight winning seasons, with 18 playoff appearances, five Super Bowl appearances, two Super Bowl Championships and 12 appearances in the NFL/NFC Championship Game.

However, by the time Jerry Jones purchased “America’s Team” in February 1989, the Cowboys had been on a downward slide for a number of years. They were coming off their third straight losing season and had not won a playoff game since 1982. Accustomed to winning, faithful Dallas fans were enthusiastic that the new owner might reinvigorate the franchise, but they had no idea what was ahead.

Determined to put his own stamp on his new purchase, Jones immediately fired the stoic Landry after 29 seasons and replaced him with Jimmy Johnson, a brash college coach who had been a college teammate of Jones. Within weeks, Schramm and Brandt were also gone and the future of the Cowboys was squarely on the shoulders of the two pro football newcomers.

When the 1989 season opened with Dallas losing eight straight games while also trading their best player, skeptics wondered if the “Boys from Arkansas” were in over their heads. In reality, Jones and Johnson were actually sly as a fox and following their plan to create a football dynasty.

Recognizing that the Cowboys they inherited didn’t have the talent to compete in 1989, or the near future, they were willing to sacrifice short-term success for long-term glory. The trade of Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings for five players and eight draft picks was the first of several deals that helped the Cowboys build a championship foundation.

Johnson, who coached the University of Miami to a national championship and a 52-9 record in five season, was well acquainted with the top collegiate talent and it was quickly apparent that Dallas was bringing in players capable of helping them regain their winning tradition.

After winning just one game in 1989, the Cowboys quickly began to show marked improvement. They won seven games in 1990 and in 1991 won 11 games and reached the playoffs for the first time since 1985. The following year, Dallas won 13 games for the first time in franchise history and reached the NFC Championship Game for the first time in a decade.

Facing the San Francisco 49ers, a team poised to claim their fifth Super Bowl title in 12 years, Dallas was clearly a team on the upswing, but few believed that they were ready to take the torch of greatness from the 49ers. Displaying an outward bravado that was in complete contrast to the reserved confidence of championship Dallas teams from the past, the Cowboys didn’t just take the torch from the 49ers they ripped it out of their hands.

Dallas defeated the 49ers 30-20 and then completely dominated the Buffalo Bills to win Super Bowl XXVII 52-17. The following season, Dallas repeated the feat by again beating the 49ers in the NFC title game and then defeating Buffalo to win their second straight Super Bowl.

However, just as the Cowboys were beginning to look unstoppable, they began stopping themselves. Just weeks removed from their second straight Super Bowl win and only five years after coming together to rebuild the Cowboys, Jones and Johnson parted ways following a clash of egos. The future success of the Cowboys was now squarely on the shoulders of Jones.

Initially it didn’t look like the Cowboys would skip a beat. Led by their own triumvirate of future Hall of Famers, Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin, the Cowboys lost the NFC Championship to San Francisco following the 1994 season, but the next season rebounded to win their third Super Bowl in four years.

However, over time free agency, missteps in the draft and the NFL’s salary cap started to impact the quality of player on the field. The Cowboys finished 10-6 in 1996 and after defeating Minnesota in the first round of the playoffs they lost to the Carolina Panthers, a team in only their second NFL season, in the second round. Over the ensuing 12 seasons, Dallas has posted the same number of losing seasons, five, as they have playoff appearances and have not earned another playoff victory.

While Jones has served as the team’s general manager throughout this entire stretch, he has employed five different head coaches. The team has also received more recognition for some of the outrageous antics and legal issues of members of the team than they have for performance on the field.

Though the Cowboys have faltered on the field, Jones has been very successful in turning his franchise into a marketing juggernaut. According to Forbes Magazine, the Cowboys are the most valuable sports franchise in North America with a value of $1.6 billion. After spending nearly 40 years playing at Texas Stadium, the Cowboys will move into a brand new $1.1 billion stadium in 2009. Not bad for a franchise that many thought Jones over paid for when he purchased the team for $140 million in 1989.

If there is an owner in modern sports history with which to compare Jones, it is probably long-time New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. Like Jones, Steinbrenner dared to challenge the status quo of sports after purchasing the Yankees in 1973. Within four years, Steinbrenner had his team in the World Series and the team claimed back-to-back championships in 1977 and 1978. They again reached the World Series in 1981.

Then, like Jones, Steinbrenner and the Yankees went through an extended playoff drought. From 1982 through 1994 the Yankees annually had the leagues highest payroll, but failed to reach the postseason. During that stretch, Steinbrenner employed 10 different managers as well as numerous general managers and the Yankees regularly made more headlines off the field than on the diamond.

Steinbrenner eventually realized that for the team to be successful he could not continue the revolving door policy in the front office and needed to allow his baseball experts to handle most of the decision-making responsibilities. With Steinbrenner stepping into the background and offering only occasional insight, the duo of manager Joe Torre (who served as manager of the Yankees from 1996-2007) and general manager Brian Cashman (general manager since 1998), led the Yankees to their greatest era since the team’s hay-days of the 1950s and early 1960s. They appeared in the playoffs in every season from 1995-2007 and claimed four World Series titles.

Returning the Cowboys to their previous level of greatness might be a little tougher for Jones. Unlike Major League Baseball, the NFL currently has a salary cap, which means that teams can't just spend more money than anyone else to buy the best talent and compensate for errors in player evaluations. NFL teams must build through a combination of productive drafts and thoughtful free agent acquisitions. While Jones and Johnson originally built the Cowboys using that philosophy, in recent years Jones has gotten caught-up in trying to make the "quick fix" with glamorous free agent and trade acquisitions that have not always panned out.

The Cowboys of 2009 are certainly on firmer ground than the Cowboys he inherited 20 years ago, but you have to believe that Jones won't be satisfied until his new stadium is recognized as both the most financially viable stadium in sports and as the home to the best team in the NFL.

Tiger's Greatest Challenge

2009-02-23T15:49:00.000-05:00

In 13 years on the PGA Tour, Tiger Woods has proven that he can handle any challenge, but those facing him in 2009 may prove to be the toughest of his career.

Woods will make his first tour appearance since limping to the U.S. Open title last June when he tees it up for the World Golf Championships - Accenture Match Play Championship this week.

In a sport where repetition and consistency are crucial, it will be interesting to see just how much “rust” the greatest player in the world shows. There is little doubt that over the last eight months Woods has approached his rehab from major knee surgery with the same kind of competitive drive, determination and focus that made him the best golfer in the game. However, while he will likely be physically in better shape than in recent years, it will be interesting to see if going several months without playing the game will have any impact on his performance.

If history is any indicator, Woods is going to be just fine.

Woods would certainly be pleased if his return to the game this spring follows the form of that charted by another golfing great who returned to the game after an extended absence. In January 1950, just 11 months removed from a major automobile accident that nearly cost him his life, Ben Hogan made a triumphant return to the tour at the Los Angeles Open (now known as the Northern Trust Open).

Hampered by circulation and leg injuries that would impact him for the rest of his life, few expected Hogan to contend for the tournament title. However, Hogan had other ideas and finished the event tied with Sam Snead for first place. Though he lost to Snead in the playoff, Hogan showed everyone that he was still a force to be reckoned with.

Later that year, Hogan won the U.S. Open in an 18-hole playoff and went on to claim six of his nine Major titles after his accident. In 1953, Hogan became the first player in golf history to win three Majors in the same year. His accomplishment was not equaled until Woods won three Major titles in 2000.

Unlike Hogan, who was never able to play a full schedule following his accident, the knee injury suffered by Woods is not expected to seriously limit his future schedule. However, we are unsure how the other recent major event involving Woods will impact his future golf schedule.

Earlier this month, Woods and his wife, Elin, became members of the prestigious “two under two” club. Charlie joins his 20-month old sister, Sam, to form a dynamic duo that will undoubtedly liven things up for their parents.

As a former member of the “two under two” club, I can tell Tiger that regardless of whether he has any responsibilities for changing diapers, his life will never again be the same.

Now I recognize that Tiger and Elin probably have more assistance than most of us in the day-to-day upbringing of their children. However, from everything I have heard Tiger say about parenthood, I am pretty sure that he is determined that his children will not see more of him on television than they do in person.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that Tiger can’t be a good Dad and still be the best golfer in the world. It just means that it is going to take even greater effort and energy than before.

When on the course, golfers have to be completely focused on the moment and not thinking about potential distractions (like the crowd, wind or shot you missed at the last hole). Spending time with your young children often takes the same kind of single-minded focus.

Kids rightfully expect, and often demand, that when their parents are with them they are 100% with them (both physically and mentally). In Tiger’s case it will mean that when he is reading books or playing blocks with his kids he can’t be thinking about the putt he missed on the 17^th green at Augusta, how his swing felt in practice that morning or the tournament he has the following weekend.

Throughout his career, Tiger has strived not to be great, but to be the best. He has reached that level on the golf course and I’m willing to bet that he plans on also being the best parent for Sam and Charlie that he possibly can.

I recognized soon after my children were born that having kids and giving them my love and attention didn’t mean I couldn’t still be just as successful at my job as in the past. It just meant that I would need to find additional energy to ensure that I was giving the kids the attention they needed at home while saving enough in reserve to still do a quality job at work.

The other golfers probably don't want to hear that Woods may have to push himself to an even greater level moving forward just to stay at the top, but that may be the case. His ultimate professional desire is to be the greatest golfer of all-time and I don't think a knee injury or dedication to his family will keep him from reaching that goal.

Will LeBron Be Like Mike?

2009-02-20T17:11:00.000-05:00

The NBA season has just moved past the midway mark, yet many teams and members of the media seem to be just as focused on an event that is still 18 months away than they do on who will win the 2009 NBA title.

It used to be that when teams made trades the number one purpose was to make your current team better. While some teams, like the Orlando Magic with their recent trade for point guard Rafer Alston, are still focused on making themselves better for a run at the 2009 NBA title, many teams have been making trades with more of an eye toward the summer of 2010.

To NBA media and general managers, the summer of 2010 has the allure of Utopia. If things work out as some predict that summer could see the greatest free agent class in the history of the NBA. Superstars including LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Amare Stoudemire and Chris Bosh highlight a potential class of free agents that already has many league executives salivating.

In anticipation, some teams have already begun making deals that will ensure that they have the financial flexibility to compete for the big names.

Before the 2008-2009 season was even a month old, the New York Knicks traded its top two scorers to clear more than $27 million in salary cap room for the “LeBron Sweepstakes.” Other teams have not been quite so blatant in dumping top performers for minimal return, but have also made moves designed to create room under the salary cap.

Since coming into the NBA as an 19-year old phenomenon in 2003, LeBron James has displayed the kind of talent and all-around basketball ability that invokes comparisons with Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and many other greats from the games past. Like Jordan, James has displayed the ability to significantly lift the level of performance for his team. In only his fourth NBA season, James led a mediocre Cleveland Cavaliers squad to the NBA Finals. This season, his sixth in the league, James and the Cavaliers are competing with the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic for the best record in basketball and are a legitimate contender for the NBA title.

For more than a decade, the NBA has been looking for “the next Michael Jordan” and as could be expected, James has constantly been compared with his childhood idle. Unlike others who have been unable to live up to such a high level of expectation, James, who honors Jordan by wearing his legendary number 23, seems capable of filling Jordan’s role both on and off the court.

Not only is James arguably the most talented player to come into the league since Jordan, he also possesses the kind of commercial appeal and likeability that helped make Jordan a mega-star. James isn’t as polished in his appearance as Jordan, but like Jordan, he has been able to catapult his success beyond simply being known as a great basketball player and become a desired television “pitch-man.” Much like NFL star Peyton Manning James has endeared himself with today’s buying public by not taking himself too seriously in television commercials. He comes across genuine and amicable and has been able to raise his exposure beyond the sporting world.

However, if James hopes to one-day reach the level of recognition and greatness enjoyed by Jordan, he must be able to reach the pinnacle of on-the-court success by proving that he is capable of leading his team to multiple championships.

After allowing the Chicago Bulls to spend six years surrounding him with a quality supporting-cast, Jordan led the Bulls to the NBA championship in his seventh season. They ultimately claimed the NBA championship in each of Jordan’s final six full NBA seasons.

To this point, James career has followed a similar trajectory. Though he has already played in one NBA championship, James and the Cavaliers have now developed the nucleus of a team that appears capable of consistently contending for an NBA title.

However, it is hard to tell at this point if James plans to be there to see the Cavaliers plans through to the finish. Though he grew up in nearby Akron and has had the rare opportunity to play before his hometown fans, James has made little attempt to hide his fascination with New York City. When the New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians played in the 2007 Major League Baseball playoffs, James was criticized for appearing on TV wearing a Yankee hat. After the Knicks made their moves to free up salary cap room for 2010, James did nothing to quiet rumors and conjecture that he was very interested in eventually playing for the Knicks.

While I am certainly not in a position to tell LeBron James what to do, I can provide some historical perspective of how his future decisions could impact his lasting legacy.

Instead of shopping his services for the best contract or place where he could receive the most exposure, Jordan realized early in his career that the money and exposure would be there anywhere if he concentrated on being the best player in the game and winning titles. He did everything he could, including taking a significantly reduced salary, to help the Bulls build a championship team.

In essence, the Cavaliers have spent the last six years trying to prove to James that they are the rightful caretakers for his enormous talent. They have annually done everything they could to make their team better and contend for the title that season, instead of looking toward the future. Though they were unable to secure another big player before the recently passed trade deadline, many believe that Cleveland already has all the pieces needed to be a contender this year.

Regardless of whether he leads Cleveland to a title in the next two seasons, if James chooses to leave Cleveland for New York (or anywhere else) in 2010, the likelihood that he will be able to match the lasting team success of Jordan is minuscule. With James in the lineup, the Knicks could be a playoff caliber team in 2010-2011, but it will probably be another several years before they would be able to surround James with the kind of talent needed to win a championship. By then, James would be nearing 30 years of age and would have spent nearly a dozen years enduring the pounding of NBA basketball.

Perhaps the clearest example of what James might expect should he leave Cleveland can be found in Shaquille O’Neal. When he left the Orlando Magic for the bright lights of Los Angeles following four seasons and one appearance in the NBA Finals, O’Neal joined a Laker team that had won 53 games the year before his arrival. Over the next three seasons, the Lakers lost twice in the Western Conference semifinals and once in the conference finals. It wasn’t until O’Neal’s fourth season with the team, after the arrival of Phil Jackson as the head coach and emergence of Kobe Bryant as an All-Star, that the Lakers were able to win a championship.

If James does indeed leave Cleveland for New York, he will probably not be joining a team coming off a 50+ win season. The Knicks are currently mired in their eighth straight losing season and have reached the playoffs only once in the last eight years.

So, the question remains: Will LeBron follow the lead of his childhood legend and lead his original team to greatness or will he follow the lights of the big city into a much more uncertain future? We won’t know the answer for 18 months, but you can bet we will hear a lot more about it between now and then.

Florida is No Longer Dodger Blue

2009-02-17T16:38:00.000-05:00

The crack of bats and smell of leather may be the same, but there is something noticeably different at spring training for one of baseball’s most storied franchises in 2009. For the first time in 60 years, Los Angeles Dodgers greats from the past and present are not holding court at “Dodgertown” in Vero Beach, Florida.

In another illustration that generating revenue is a much more influential element for sports teams than sentiment, history or tradition, the Dodgers have abandoned their long-time home in Florida for a new state-of-the-art facility in Arizona.

In fairness to the Dodgers, they are not the first team (nor will they be the last) to leave long-time winter digs for the allure of more money and nicer facilities. However, because of the history and tradition that spring training with the Dodgers represented, their move from Vero Beach truly represents the end of an era.

When the Dodgers located their entire major and minor league spring training to Vero Beach in 1949, they became the first team to have a true spring training complex complete with facilities for the entire organization. Beginning in 1952, the players stayed in the former Naval barracks, which by the mid-1970s had been replaced by villas. For a month each year, Vero Beach truly became “Dodgertown” as the local community became the home-away-from-home for the Dodger players.

Holman Stadium, which the Dodgers spent $100,000 to build, was the perfect stadium for old-time spring training as it was a compact stadium (only 17 rows) that provided the fans close access to the players. It also did not have dugouts, which meant the players were visible to the fans at all times.

For many years, the Dodgers prided themselves on the fact that they concentrated on molding their team through the camaraderie of spring training. There were no advertisements on the outfield fence and relatively few concession stands for a stadium that seated nearly 7,000 people. However, as times changed and spring training became another opportunity for teams to generate revenue, the quaintness of Dodgertown and Holman Field no longer seemed to fit.

So, when Glendale, Arizona offered the Dodgers the opportunity to play in an $80-million stadium that is much closer to their regular season home in California, there was truly little Vero Beach could do to keep the Dodgers. In addition to the Dodgers, the Cleveland Indians have also left their long-time home in Winter Haven, Florida for Arizona and next year the Cincinnati Reds will leave Sarasota.

Spring training is still a special time of the year, but with ticket and concession prices that rival regular season games, it just isn't quite the time of innocence and rebirth that it once was.

NBA All-Star Game is a Star-Studded Event

2009-02-15T13:33:00.000-05:00

Professional sports All-Star games are kind of like new pennies. They are too bright and alluring not to pick up, but you quickly realize that they aren’t really worth much.

Of the “big 3” sports, the NBA All-Star Game is probably the best, if only because the rosters are small enough that you have some of the best stars on the court from opening tip to final horn. It is also the only one of the three where you rarely hear of a player getting a mysterious injury in the days leading up to the event.

In recent years, the NBA has turned the concept of the All-Star Game into a star-studded three-day extravaganza where the actual game can almost be anti-climatic to all the events that precede it.

The idea of special events in advance of the All-Star Game actually dates back to the ABA when Julius Erving dazzled fans with his famous foul line dunk. The NBA created its own dunk contest in 1984 and added a three-point shootout two years later. The weekend now also includes skills and horse competitions, a celebrity game and a game between first and second year NBA players.

By the time the actual All-Stars take to the court tonight, seemingly half the players in the NBA will have participated in one event or another.

Because the game rules seem to prohibit anyone from actually playing defense, the average score of the NBA All-Star Game is generally much higher than what you will see in the regular season. Last year the East won the game 134-128 and the last time that both teams didn’t score at least 110 points was in 1976 when the East won 123-109.

LeBron James has won two of the last three game MVP Awards, but watch for Amare Stoudemire of the host Phoenix Suns to have a big game. The subject of trade rumors the last couple weeks, this could be his final game as a member of the Suns and I’m sure he would like to go out in style.

Daytona 500 is Full of Surprises

2009-02-15T08:38:00.000-05:00

Today’s 51^st running of the Daytona 500 is sure to be full of thrills and excitement, but it will have a hard time topping the “battle” that occurred 30 years ago.

The hot-tempered drivers of today have nothing on old-time drivers Donnie Allison, Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough as 30 years ago the trio came to blows on the infield after Yarborough and Donnie Allison crashed on the final lap of the 500 mile race.

With Allison clinging to the lead, the two cars tangled in the final turns and both men soon found their cars off the track and stopped in the infield. They were helpless as Richard Petty held off Darrell Waltrip and A.J. Foyt to claim the sixth of his record seven Daytona 500 titles.

As Petty celebrated, the CBS cameras quickly turned back to Donnie Allison and Yarborough, who had both gotten out of their cars and were jawing in the infield. Donnie’s brother Bobby soon joined the duo and his arrival helped escalate the war of words into an actual physical battle.

Of course the tradition of temper displays by NASCAR drivers is alive and well as recent battles between Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick as well as Kurt Busch versus Tony Stewart illustrate.

No doubt the racing on the track will be exciting today, but let’s see if tempers off the track come close to reaching those experienced 30 years ago.

The Legacy of Favre

2009-02-13T10:24:00.000-05:00

Now that Brett Favre has officially announced that he has taken his final snap in the NFL, it is time to begin analyzing where he fits in the history of NFL quarterbacks.

Given his past track record, it may be wise to wait until after training camps start in July to write such a column, but I choose to believe that he learned from his missteps of last season and has indeed made a lasting decision.

First of all, while I think his antics of a year ago cost Favre some reputation points in the short term, I expect that as time passes memories will fade and thoughts will return to what he accomplished on the field. His relationship with the Packers organization and some Packer fans may be strained now, but once a couple years come and go and he makes a triumphant return to Lambeau Field to have his jersey retired, all will be forgotten.

Besides, though his divorce from Green Bay was pretty messy, Favre is just the latest in a long line of future Hall of Famers who finished their careers playing in a jersey different from the one for which they earned their place in Canton. That list includes quarterbacks such as Johnny Unitas (Chargers), Joe Namath (Rams) and Joe Montana (Chiefs), as well as other legends including Franco Harris (Seahawks), Emmitt Smith (Cardinals), Alan Page (Bears), Sam Huff (Redskins) and Jerry Rice (Seahawks).

Favre retires from the NFL as the career leader in touchdown passes, passing yardage and completions, but trying to identify the place of a quarterback in terms of all-time NFL greatness based purely on stats can often be misleading. Just by the nature of the differences in offensive philosophies and how long a player is in the league, statistics can often give the wrong impression.

For example, at the time of his retirement, Fran Tarkenton held the NFL records for touchdowns, yardage and completions, yet few considered him equal to other quarterbacks of his era including Johnny Unitas, Roger Staubach and Terry Bradshaw. In fact, while the other three were all first ballot inductees, it took three cracks before Tarkenton received his bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Of the 23 quarterbacks from the NFL’s modern era who are in the Hall of Fame, only eight rank among the top 20 in career passing yardage. Instead of names like Aikman, Jurgenson, Dawson, Starr, Bradshaw or Staubach, the top 20 is dotted with such names as Testaverde, Bledsoe, Krieg, Esiason, Hart, DeBerg and Hadl. While all were excellent NFL quarterbacks, none will likely ever earn a spot in Canton and certainly are not in the conversation when looking at all-time greatness.

Unlike for any other position, championship success tends to play a significant factor in determining the greatness of a quarterback. Never playing on a championship team didn’t negatively impact the inclusion of Dick Butkus, Deacon Jones or Ozzie Newsome in the conversations for being the best to ever play their positions. However, Tarkenton, Y.A. Title, Dan Marino, Dan Fouts and Warren Moon are rarely mentioned among the highest echelon of quarterbacks because they never won the big one.

In reality, winning a championship takes being part of a special team. A great quarterback can certainly help lead a team to a title, but even average NFL quarterbacks have been able to claim a title when leading a superior team. Favre is among 16 quarterbacks to claim one Super Bowl championship. Included in that group are Hall of Famers Joe Namath, Len Dawson, Johnny Unitas and Steve Young, but also on the list are Jeff Hostetler, Jim McMahon, Mark Rypien and Trent Dilfer.

The Packer squads of the mid-1990s were great teams with Favre and Reggie White leading a dynamic squad that included many Pro Bowl caliber players. Though they claimed only one Super Bowl title, they remain one of only 14 teams in NFL history to have played in consecutive Super Bowls. And while Favre was unable to lead the Packers back to the Super Bowl, he did take a team with limited talent to the playoffs five times in the last decade.

While statistics and championships are certainly part of the equation when determining the all-time greatest quarterbacks, another element to consider is how the player compared to his contemporaries. Was he always in the conversation for All Pro, MVP and Pro Bowl recognition or was he steady, yet unspectacular. In other words, while he was playing did people know and recognize that he was one of the greats.

There is no question that when Favre was at the peak of his career he was one of the greats of the game. He remains the only player to ever earn three straight NFL Most Valuable Player awards and his selection to the 2008 Pro Bowl marked the 10^th time in his career that he received such recognition. He led the league in passing yards twice and touchdown passes four times.

Of course, there was also a flip side to Favre’s greatness. His detractors are quick to point out that he ranks first in NFL history with 310 passes intercepted and led the league in that category three times. He is also second all-time in career fumbles and eighth in yards lost from sacks.

The reality is that Favre was the true epitome of an NFL gunslinger. He had the big arm and, for good or bad, used his arm to make things happen. Consider that in addition to being the most durable quarterback in NFL history with 269 consecutive starts, Favre’s 169 regular season victories ranks as the most for a quarterback in league history.

So, is Brett Favre the greatest quarterback in NFL history?

There is little doubt that when all factors are considered, Favre deserves a spot in the conversation. However, I just can’t put him ahead of Montana, Elway and Unitas. So, in tribute to the jersey number he wore for 18 years, I put Favre fourth on my list of all-time great quarterbacks.

Now, what do you think?