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Block User(9) Hank Steinbrenner: Hankenstein is peeved because Yankees pitcher Chien-Ming Wang (8-2, 4.07 ERA) injured his right foot while running the bases midway through what would become a 13-0 blowout of the Astros and may be lost for the season. Steinbrenner ripped the DH-less National League, suggesting baseball's senior loop is loopy. "It's OK for the Yankees to fill up the seats in the National League parks, they make a ton of money off us," he said. "Then we should support each other when one of our guys gets hurt." Earth to Hank: The Red Sox and Yankees were the two biggest road attractions in baseball last year, but the next 11 teams on the attendance list were all from the National League. A year earlier, 11 of the top 14 were from the NL. So who's really subsidizing whom?
(8) The New York Mets: Leave it to Fred and Jeff Wilpon to make Hank Steinbrenner look like the voice of reason in New York's baseball scene. Their well-documented mishandling of Willie Randolph's firing in the early-morning hours on Monday will raise red flags when the Mutts try to hire top-shelf talent. You can never underestimate the lure of the obscene gobs of money the club can offer players, managers and staff, but sacking a guy after midnight local time a day after subjecting him to a cross-country plane ride (and after his job security had already been the subject of speculation for three weeks) suggests a callousness - or at least a level of tone-deafness - that should make prospective employees settle for the second-best offer even if it means leaving money on the table.
(7) Johnny Miller's apology: The great offense here is not what the NBC golf analyst said but rather the fact that he got beat up to the point of having to offer up a mea culpa. Miller's descriptions of Rocco Mediate during U.S. Open coverage - "He looks like the guy who cleans Tiger's swimming pool" and "Guys with the name 'Rocco' don't get on the trophy, do they?" - could only be construed as ethnic slurs by minds simpler than the operating instructions for a door hinge. But Miller, who's been solid in his second career on TV after a successful stint on the PGA Tour, still felt obligated to apologize to end the criticism. Had Miller stood firm, this could have been the instance in which people with brains finally fought back and broke the kneecaps of the Politically Correct. Oh, I'm sorry. Was that another perceived ethnic slur?
(6) The Notre Dame critics : It didn't take long for the bashing to commence once NBC and the Fighting Irish announced last week that the network would continue televising the school's eight home or neutral-site football games each season through 2015 despite an abysmal record (and ratings to match) last fall. Sure, Notre Dame has rarely contended for national championships for two decades now, but the notion that it's somehow unfair that the Fighting Irish are living off their reputation is nonsense. People still talk about the Fighting Irish whether they win or lose. Critics would be better advised to rail at a system that allows many Division I sports programs to rake in obscene amounts of TV money and ticket revenue while paying the talent pennies on the dollar in the form of scholarships that can be stripped away on a coach's whim.
(5) If it bleeds it leads: The death of Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta on Saturday in New Jersey normally would have been given three paragraphs on page 3 of the morning sports section and a comparable brush-off online or on TV. I know this because a typical NHRA event gets no mention in the media most weekends, so those three paragraphs would have constituted sufficient coverage in the minds of editors and producers. But the availability of video and still photos made it too easy for all forms of media to give the story bigger play in the same fashion in which the 11 o'clock news leads with a shooting if they have footage from the crime scene. Kalitta was a successful competitor, but hardly in the same league as Dale Earnhardt Sr., Payne Stewart, Pelle Lindbergh or Thurman Munson. Would the death of an SEC linebacker or Double-A pitcher in the anonymity of a distant practice field rated the same sort of treatment? Doubtful. This time, video made the difference.
(4) Overly possessive Buffalo Bills fans: The death of Meet The Press moderator Tim Russert has left Western New York residents to wonder how they might honor their native son, whose devotion to both the football team and the community was legendary. When someone suggested inducting Russert onto the Wall of Fame at Ralph Wilson Stadium, the howls were immediate from a segment of the population that regards the idea as sacrilegious because no one who's never suited up in pads is deemed worthy of such an honor in their football temple. Hey, I own a piece of that stadium - I've got the tax bills to prove it - and I'm here to say the only reason not to induct Russert is that the meaning would be lost on too many of the 75,000 fans who fill the place exactly eight times a year. Millard Fillmore has been dead for 134 years, the Rick James thing didn't work out too well and the Goo Goo Dolls now qualify as "the face of Buffalo." With Russert gone, the Bills and Sabres unwatchable and chicken wings soooo 1992-ish, the Queen City would lack virtually all positive perception if not for folk-punk goddess Ani DiFranco. Citizens should be rushing to honor Russert at the Ralph.
And, last and most definitely least, it wasn't a particularly stellar week for women in the business of sports: (3) Jemele Hill: The columnist/on-air personality (and isn't that a rather presumptive word for a good 15 or 20 percent of the people appearing on TV these days?) apparently skipped journalism school the day the professor pointed out that making tacky references to murderous Nazi dictators was not a career-enhancing tactic. Her ESPN.com piece last weekend in part read, "Rooting for the Celtics is like saying Hitler was a victim. It's like hoping Gorbachev would get to the blinking red button before Reagan." It earned her a week on the bench "to reflect on the impact of her words" according to an ESPN spokesman. To her credit, Hill offered a prompt public apology. On the down side, though, she was one of the people driving the "fire Don Imus" bandwagon last year after the shock jock's ill-advised Rutgers basketball rant. Payback's a glitch.
(2) Becky Hammon: I'm completely sympathetic to her disappointment over not getting a fair shake from the U.S. basketball officials charged with selecting the 2008 Olympic basketball team - leaving her off the initial 23-woman roster last year was inane. But Hammon's decision to play for Russia in Beijing reeks of mercenary behavior. Hammon supporters suggest a double-standard; few would care if she played for Italy or Brazil but Russia is unfairly perceived still as The Evil Empire. Hammon grew up in South Dakota, attended college at Colorado State and plays for San Antonio of the WNBA, and there's not a hint of Eastern Hemisphere blood in her ancestry. It's hard to argue that she's doing this for any reason other than to cash a check.
(1) Gwen Knapp: Here's the lead of the San Francisco Chronicle columnist's post-U.S. Open column: "Tiger Woods is an idiot. A mesmerizing, peerless, incandescent idiot." Knapp found fault with Woods for pursuing his 14th major golf championship while playing on a bum knee that will require substantial surgical repair, putting forth a premise that was the equivalent of a bogey-bogey finish to lose by one at Augusta: He has diminished his chance of ever completing a single-season grand slam and has "jeopardized his entire future to play a single event." I'm pretty sure Tiger will be able to continue to put food on his daughter's plate and has already established himself as the most dominating golfer ever even if he doesn't match Jack Nicklaus in career majors. He put no one else at risk by playing and arguably scored the signature win of his career in a 19-hole Monday playoff in the "single event" that just happens to be the most important tournament of the year for many golfers. An editor should have saved Knapp from herself and spiked this column before it ever saw the light of day.