Bits & Pieces

By Kim J. Harmon

 

I love sports, but I also hate sports. For all those thrilling moments (like the playoff series between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox) there are those moments that just make me sick (like Kobe Bryant being accused of rape and then telling police that Shaquille O’Neal spent millions of dollars in hush money for illicit affairs … a charge O’Neal denies).

It seems like those bad moments are coming more frequently than the good moments.

Just over the past few months ...

Bad – Rickey Williams quits on the Miami Dolphins, shortly before training camp opens. Williams says he no longer has a passion to play football (as reports surface that he ‘retired’ because of a failed drug test). But when an arbitrator claims Williams owes the Dolphins nearly $9 million of a pro-rated signing bonus, Williams begins making overtures to get back into the National Football League.

Good – David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox creates a great legend with his incredible performance in the post-season and helps bring his team its first World Series championship in 86 years … which is, in itself, a wonderful story for all of baseball.

Bad – Carlos Beltran of the Houston Astros becomes a free agent and his agent, Scott Boras, starts barking about a 10-year deal in the neighborhood of $200 million (knowing there is only one team in the major leagues that would be willing to part with that kind of coinage). Lots of free agents are sitting on the fence, waiting for Beltran to set the market and because of his contract – whatever it turns out to be – a lot of mediocre players are going to be waaaaaay overpaid.

Good – The ageless Roger Clemens win his sixth Cy Young award and further solidifies his first-ballot ticket for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Sure, his baseball ethics could be questioned (remember, he signed with Toronto claiming there was no way he wanted to play in New York and yet, with his hopes of playing in the World Series dwindling, he figures what the hey and signs with the Yankees) but he is probably the best pitcher anyone in my generation has ever seen (and that, ugh, includes my hero Nolan Ryan).

Bad – The National Hockey League shuts it doors (and probably for a very long time) because of reported losses of some $300 million. The lockout will probably scuttle the season and maybe the next one, as well, since the players – who can’t understand why in the world the owners would want to tie salaries to revenues like every other business in America does – are against a salary cap.

Good – The New York Giants start the 2004-05 National Football League season with five wins in their first six games and it looks like Kurt Warner, exiled from St. Louis, has seemingly resurrected his once stellar career.

Bad – Latrell Sprewell of the Minnesota Timberwolves wonders why he should help his team win an NBA championship when they aren’t doing anything for him … except that the T-Wolves are on the hook to Sprewell for somewhere around $30 million over the next two seasons. Still, Sprewell – the guy who choked his coach in Golden State – can’t figure out how he is going to feed his family.

Good – LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers comes back for his sophomore season even better and appears to be creating a very nice image for himself in the National Basketball Association. Fans even start believing that James and Carmelo Anthony could have the same impact that guys named Bird and Magic did some years ago.

Bad – Ron Artest, Steven Jackson and Jermaine O’Neal are involved in the most disturbing fight in NBA history, which involved dozens of fans at The Palace at Auburn Hills. Artest is suspended for the length of the season (without pay) while Jackson (30 games) and O’Neal (25 games) are dealt less severe penalties. The brawl all but erases the Indiana Pacers’ chances for an NBA championship and assures us of scads of lawsuits filed by injured “fans” seeking a piece of the NBA pie.

Good – Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts gets himself “locked in” and sets a touchdown pace that should obliterate the record of 48 originally set by Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins. On Thanksgiving Day, Manning throws six touchdown passes in a win over the Detroit Lions. Fans of other teams (like me) tune in just to see the dude go to work and it almost makes us feel sorry for the guy, thinking that there is no way he – like Marino – is going to win a Super Bowl (for Marino it was the lack of a running game; for Manning, it’s the lack of a defense).

Bad – Alonzo Mourning demands that the New Jersey Nets buy out the rest of his contract and then trade him to a contender … even though the Nets already paid him about $12 million for some 10 minutes of action before he “retired” because of his kidney ailment. That act of good will by the Nets (who paid Jayson Williams his entire $90 million contract even though Williams blew out his knee five minutes after he signed that contract) apparently passes Mourning’s notice.

Bad – Maurice Clarett, formerly of Ohio State, makes the claim that coaches and Ohio State boosters provided him with no-show jobs, cash, and cars while he carried the ball for the Buckeyes. Because he denied all of these things back when the NCAA investigated the program (and found no wrong-doing), it appears as if Clarett is simply sticking it to the university. This is a player who came out early for the NFL draft, was told he was ineligible because of age and then sued to get himself included in the draft even though the NFL made it clear he was not wanted.

Good – The University of Connecticut football team defeats Rutgers and solidifies its first-ever bid to a Division I-A bowl. It wasn’t too long ago that the Huskies played in Memorial Stadium in front of a couple thousand fans (at best). Now, the Huskies play in beautiful Rentschler Stadium in Hartford in front of some 20,000 fans.

Bad – It is revealed that the New York Knicks have a $101 million team salary – which is about $57 million more than the National Basketball League’s so-called ‘soft’ salary cap. The Knicks pay four players (Allan Houston, Stephon Marbury, Tim Thomas and Anfernee Hardaway) nearly $60 million – more than 17 other teams spend on their entire rosters. A lower level ticket at Madison Square Garden? $75 per seat. The Knicks’ record? 7-6 (as of this writing). And the chance that the Knicks will win an NBA championship? Negligible.