A Week of Two Halves

I apologise for not having my column out last week¹; new school, new job, new term, Nan's birthday - all the rush got on top of me and I missed some damn fine sport. So, by way of a round-up of the last fortnight, here is a broadsheet-supplement-style rundown of winners and losers since the Olympics:

This Week's Winners

1. Tim Henman. A second Grand Slam semi-final this year shows Tim is branching out to cover all surfaces. Indeed, it may be that grass is now his weakest surface as time ticks by and his speed levels aren't quite what they were. Whatever his failings, Henman should not give us any cause for criticism come the BBC Sports Review of the Year.
2. Andrew Murray. Yes - we have two good tennis players! Young Murray has taken the US junior title. Maybe it would seem that the money that the Government has thrown at the sport is paying off. Labour's only decent decision in the last 7 1/2 years?
3. Everton. **Grits teeth as he has to be nice about Egon's team**. David Moyes has propelled Everton to their best ever Premiership start, despite having a severely under-strength squad and selling their best player² to Man United.
4. Warwickshire. Congratulations to the Bears as the County Championship returns to the Midlands for the second year running. Warwickshire have played solid cricket this summer without really shining - the Championship will be wide open next season.
5. Michael Schumacher. Another world championship. He may be German, he may be arrogant, and he may do very comical things at his own charity football matches, but on the track he is equal to none, and that has to be respected. Mr Cobbler, I tip my hat to you.
6. Alan Shearer. By keeping to a back seat over the ridiculous hype surrounding the Newcastle manager's job, Shearer has upped his credibility in the nation's eyes once again. The nearest thing we have to a football legend still playing.

This Week's Losers

1. The England Football Team. Well, they won against Poland, but the rubbish draw against Austria and the pathetic media silence that followed has reduced the team to overpaid schoolboys. Again.
2. Manchester United. Sir Alex is beginning to sweat. The big signings of Kleberson, Djemba Djemba and Bellion are not performing, and he hasn't got the kids to rely upon this time. I wouldn't back him to keep his job until May.
3. Matthew Pinsent. Selling out to each and every tabloid hasn't done him any favours. What we admired about Sir Steve was his dignified modesty and restraint. You wouldn't catch Redgrave splashing his personal life all over the papers.
4. The Jockey Club. Another scandal and a big police raid. Racing is long overdue for a big overhaul, but who can take it on after years of decay?
5. Tiger Woods. Whinging about the rankings won't excuse your dip in form. The petulance of Tiger has kicked in at completely the wrong time, and I expect him to blow up in the Ryder Cup as usual.
6. Mike Halsey. The second large-scale refereeing cock-up of the Premiership season, and we're less than a month in. To think that five years ago people were advocating professional refs as being a step forward...

Hello, AmSports fans.

A hearty congratulations to Swiss-born Roger Federer, who added the US Open to his titles at Wimbledon and in Australia, and to Russians Svetlana Kurnetsova and Elena Dementieva on the women's side, a moment of joy amidst sadness; a happy 699^th home run to Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants; and to Canada and Finland, who played earlier this week in the World Cup hockey championships.

Of course, this week is Ryder Cup time and all its storied history. With the Jack Nicklaus-led move to include golfers from The Continent in 1979, the Euros boast a formidable lineup and have an advantage in that they have much more two-man match experience than the Americans. It certainly showed in last week's Junior Ryder Cup, where the Euros handily beat their US teenage counterparts 8.5 to 3.5 behind England's Oliver Fisher, Ireland's Rory McIlroy, Spain's Carlota Ciganda and Germany's Valerie Sternebeck, who tallied 22 of the 36 birdies for the slightly-older Euros, with Fisher scoring an eagle.

AmFoot kicked off its regular season last weekend, too, with the stat line of the week going to Jerome Bettis of the Pittsburgh Squealers who rushed five times for a net one yard gained - and scored three touchdowns in doing so. This week's better matchups include Indianapolis at Tennesee and Carolina at Kansas City on Sunday, plus the Monday Night matchup between Minnesota and Philadelphia. The first and the last games feature four of the star quarterbacks in Peyton Manning-Steve McNair and Daunte Culpepper-Donovan McNabb. The other notable stat from last week's play was that the beloved Cleveland Browns held Baltimore's Jamal Lewis to 57 yards rushing after he had games of 295 and 205 yards against the same defense last season.

On the baseball front, the aforementioned Bonds is poised to become only the third player with better than 700 home runs, behind only Hammerin' Henry Aaron at 755 and the legendary Babe Ruth at 714. It's made doubly special for Bonds, since his Giants are in the run for a playoff spot. One matchup this weekend seems to be the Boston Red Sox at fabled Yanker Stadium, if I read my scribblings correctly. Other international baseball news has it that a player strike has been averted in Japan, after the two leagues had voted to merge the Orix BlueWave and Kintetsu Buffalos. Nothing was really decided, further talks are upcoming. The Nippon Professional League had better watch out - American baseball tried to 'contract' a team two years ago and the Expos still don't have a home, either in Canada, Puerto Rico or outside Washington DC.

Baseball is also being affected by the recent severe hurricanes, with Florida's Marlins perhaps meeting the Montreal Expos in Chicago this week, depending on when and where the latest storm, 'Ivan', hits land.

Team Canada skated off with the World Cup trophy, beating Team Finland 3-2, but it sadly appears professional hockey will not be on ice this winter due to a longstanding labour/management dispute. Just when hockey has reached its international peak, National Hockey League owners are expected to impose a lockout this week to prevent the start of training camps for the regular season. Perhaps the most fitting quote comes from Kris Draper of Canada and the Detroit Red Wings:

'It would be nice if everything that we've done, the momentum we've gained, could be rolled over into the start of training camp and the start of the NHL season. But the reality is, that's not going to happen.'

Canada, which has won the last two Worlds, went ahead for good when an unchecked Shane Doan slipped a goal past Finnish goalie, Miikka Kiprusoff, some 34 seconds into the third period and Canadian goalie, Martin Brodeur (New Jersey Devils), made ten saves in the final minutes to preserve the lead.

The only man standing on both sides of the labour/management issue is Pittsburgh Penguin owner/player (All-Star) Mario Lemieux, who issued the following comment:

'The next few weeks are going to be very important for the game and the future of the game. It's not a question of going to war or winning a battle. It's just a question of what makes sense for the business and what makes sense for the players. We have two different views.'

Some reports have it that 75% of NHL revenues go to paying the players and a season-long strike will severely jeopordize the league's television contracts, both in Canada and America (and worldwide.)

My personal opinion is that the two sides will settle this thing before the second paycheck is due, when the teevee networks threaten to pull their funding. The Almighty Dollar (Euro, Kroner, Ruble) will have the final say.

As always.

In non-sporting news, a $266 million space probe crash-landed instead of para-gliding to earth landing, but scientists are currently optimistic that at least some data on solar flares can be recovered... and don't forget, AmSports fans, Friday is national talk-like-a-pirate day, so shiver me timbers³!

As always, questions and comments will be cheerfully forwarded to a post office box under the sand in a Utah desert.

Avastingly yours, over and out.
Several a.k.a. Random

Did I Leave The Iron On? Archive

Master B

with Several a.k.a. Random 

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