Happy Monday, DFW!

Back with a vengeance, from the excitement that was Disneyland, I rejoin you with promises of blogging non-stop between now and July 13th, when I engage in another vacation.

I generally try to get a fill-in for this blog, but due to circumstances beyond everyone’s control, it obviously didn’t happen last week. Sorry about that.

A quick review of vacation:

Good:

Malibu Beach
Venice Beach
Dana Point Harbor
Huntington Beach (gets a bad rap; I enjoyed it – good body surfing)
Weather most days
Tower of Terror Ride



Bad:

Sunburn
Not too much else.

And now, on to sports:

Everyone have Padilla at 10 wins by the final week in June? …

On the way to a 5-3 win Sunday, Vicente Padilla fed the aggressive – almost undisciplined – Washington Nationals a steady dose of hard stuff for seven innings to earn his 10th win of the season and legitimately make himself a contender for a spot on the American League All-Star team. He is tied for second in the AL in wins and has won eight of his last nine decisions.

Closer C.J. Wilson followed suit in the ninth for his most efficient save in more than two months. It came at a time when Wilson's job was in peril after consecutive poor outings earlier in the week.

"That's the way you have to pitch," catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia said. "If you know their hitters, you know they are aggressive hitters. They will go after it really early. There's no sense throwing them breaking balls until they hit the fastball."

Padilla backed away from the slow curve that has often dotted his performances. He threw just one, which Dmitri Young hit for a long flyout, in the course of 102 pitches. Everything else was hard. Even when he went to breaking stuff, he stuck with the hard slider.

The free-swinging Nationals, owners of the lowest-scoring offense in baseball, were all too happy to try and hit those fastballs as far as possible. After a leadoff walk in the bottom of the first, Padilla got 16 outs from the next 16 batters. The only two to reach base were erased by double plays. Pinch hitter Willie Harris caught up with a fastball in the sixth. Ronnie Belliard caught up with one in the seventh to tie the score at 3-3.

"He was throwing the fastball on both sides of the plate, and when he realized they couldn't keep up with it, he kept throwing it," manager Ron Washington said.

The Rangers (39-38) scored twice in the eighth on back-to-back, two-out, pinch-hit singles by Frank Catalanotto and Ramon Vazquez. In the bottom of the inning, Eddie Guardado threw his low-resolution version of the fastball for a 1-2-3 inning.
Wilson came on for the ninth and threw consecutive fastballs to get ahead of Lastings Milledge 0-and-2, and then tried to get him to chase a slider off the plate. Milledge didn't go for it. Wilson didn't throw another breaking pitch in his 10-pitch inning. He finished off Milledge with a 97 mph fastball, then threw six more to Young (single) and Jesus Flores (double play) – all of which hit 95 or higher – to finish off the game.

It was the fewest pitches Wilson has thrown in a save opportunity since April 16.

This week with the Rangers:

Tue. 24 at Houston 7:05 p.m. Ch. 27
Wed. 25 at Houston 7:05 p.m. FSNSW
Thu. 26 at Houston 7:05 p.m. FSNSW
Fri. 27 PHILADELPHIA 7:05 p.m. Ch. 27
Sat. 28 PHILADELPHIA 7:05 p.m. FSNSW
Sun. 29 PHILADELPHIA 5:05 p.m. FSNSW

First, Mike and Greg, now Mike and Chris are splitting up? …nothing lasts forever in radio…

"Mike and the Mad Dog," the most successful, influential show in sports talk radio history, could soon be history itself.

Barring a change of heart, the partnership between Mike Francesa and Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo is not expected to survive to see its 19th anniversary Sept. 5, industry sources with knowledge of the situation said.

They may have already done their final show together; their next scheduled broadcast is not until July 11.

It is not clear which host would remain on WFAN, only that it would not be both of them. One factor appears to be a fraying of their personal relationship in recent months.

Reached on vacation Saturday night, Francesa flatly said, "No comment."

Russo, meanwhile, denied knowledge of a potential breakup, and said that his contract, including a no-compete clause, runs through October of 2009.

"That is news to me," he said. "I have not heard that... That is fascinating information."

Later, he added, "The only thing I can say is I am signed under contract for another year and a half. I don't think WFAN is going to let me out of that... I wish I had leverage like that."

Operations manager Mark Chernoff said Saturday night, "They are under contract, and we expect to have a nice, long run with 'Mike and the Mad Dog.'"

The reasons for a potential breakup are not entirely clear, and likely are multi-faceted.

Each host has had other media opportunities, and would have no trouble getting another lucrative job. And there are ways of getting out of contracts early under certain circumstances.

Clearly, though, their relationship is one element in the drama. Several WFAN staffers have observed them feuding off the air in recent months.

On the air, Francesa and Russo have had some spirited arguments, but nothing out of the ordinary for talk radio. Still, avid listeners had been closely monitoring the show for signs of a rumored rift.

Those signs were subtle, such as Francesa declining to ask Russo how he is after Russo had opened the show by inquiring into Francesa's well-being.

But beneath the surface, what had grown from a rocky start in the early 1990s into a close friendship appears to have deteriorated.

Russo did confirm strains in the hosts' relationship, saying, "I think we've been going through that," but he added, "I think we've been fine the last couple of months."

While Russo said he is under contract through '09, Francesa's status is murky. Newsday reported earlier this year he had agreed to terms on a new deal beyond this calendar year, but there never was confirmation it was signed.

Francesa has a Sunday night television show on WNBC-TV, and Russo also has done TV work, including appearing as a guest on "Late Show With David Letterman."

They are believed to be among the highest paid sports talk radio hosts in the country. In 2005, New York Magazine reported Francesa made $1.4 million and Russo made $1.3 million.

A great Tiger Woods column …

It is the summer of 1998 and a young Tiger Woods has felt a twinge in his left knee. A routine inspection of the joint reveals not a lot, but then there is a postscript. 'You've got the beginnings of a problem with your anterior cruciate ligament. Eventually it will be a real problem.' And Tiger's life went on.

Fast forward to last summer. Frustrated by his relatively mediocre showing during The Open at Carnoustie - he tied for 12th place - he returns to his home outside Orlando in Florida and does what he loves to do, which is run. If he had not embraced golf so early Woods might well have been a top-class athlete, regularly running just over 50 seconds for 400m as a teenager. He still runs as much for the joy of it as for the fitness it helps him retain. It was while he ran last July that the cruciate ligament finally gave up.

There was, apparently, no big drama, no falling to the ground like a stone as Ernie Els did three years ago when he ripped his ligament tooling around on a yacht. No, just a sort of 'swoosh' and that was it. Painful yes, but only for a short time and after that Tiger's life went on again. Despite the problem he subsequently played in 10 events and won eight of them. No one outside his special circle of friends and minders knew anything was wrong.

Then shortly before the Masters in April, he felt a different, and sharper, pain. This one brought him up short. Surgery was no longer an option, but a necessity. First, though, there was the Masters to take care of. He putted averagely and finished second and then he told us that he was going to have arthroscopic surgery. No big deal, he would be back within six weeks.

Only it was nine weeks and he had not played golf during this time, not even walked a few holes. His coach, Hank Haney, has revealed that his practice regime immediately before the US Open consisted mostly of hitting half a dozen balls before climbing back into the cart to rest his knee. His doctor did not have a problem when Woods said he wanted to play at Torrey Pines. Instead he told him to go ahead, that the knee was so bad he he could not damage the joint any more, but that he doubted he could stand the pain. Woods grinned and said he was definitely playing and, what's more, he was definitely going to win.

This was more than bravado, this was the inevitable echo of all the work his father had put in while Tiger was growing up. It was clearly a loving relationship, but it was also weird. Earl Woods, a Green Beret officer, had been taught how to deal psychologically with possible capture by the Vietcong. He never was captured in Vietnam, but he brought these skills to bear on his prodigiously talented son so he was able to reassure him that although he might occasionally encounter an opponent physically better on the day, he would never come up against anyone stronger mentally.

It was this toughness between his ears that allowed Woods to deal with the pain as he made his way around the California course he loves so much. Over 91 holes he grimaced and occasionally yelped, but never, not once, did he stumble towards quitting. 'It is what it is,' he said. And he did what he did, which was to play his part in one of the most compelling of sporting dramas. His average swing speed was a numbing 124mph, the fastest recorded. Biomechanics show that this meant he put eight times body weight on that left knee every time he hit his ball. As a right-handed golfer he had no choice, for it is this colossal weight shift from right leg to left that ignites his extraordinary power.

'Ouch' does not capture it, but, despite this, at no point did he admit to the real depth of pain Woods was feeling. His caddie, Steve Williams, a consistently unattractive character - but one who is brilliant at his job - rarely talks about the boss who has made him rich, but a couple of days ago he did just that. 'Tiger never complains,' said the New Zealander. 'That's one of his greatest attributes. I'm a bit of a fast walker and there were a few times when he told me to slow down so he could walk at my pace, but that was it.' Even Williams did not know the full extent of Woods' problem until, the US Open won, Tiger turned to him to say quietly, 'We're done for the year, Stevie.'

There always has been a refusal on Woods' part to reveal any weakness and he took this to new, and guarded, heights in California. But there was another reason and one that reflects hugely well on him. He could have told us last Sunday what the situation was after sensationally forcing an 18-hole play-off the following day. Except that Tiger did not want to unnecessarily upstage Rocco Mediate's biggest day in the game. At 45, Mediate was overachieving in this US Open as much as Woods was underplaying his knee.

To understand this gracious approach by a man who is swift to seize every other advantage we need to go back in time again to the first major Woods won, the 1997 Masters. This maiden victory was as much about the colour of his skin and the old, bigoted place he was playing as it was about his youthful exuberance and talent. The other pros paid lip service to these thoughts as that final Sunday began, but then, as usual, they finished their own rounds and hit the road so swiftly they were just a series of blurs as they exited Augusta National. This is the way it always is.
When it is over for them, it is over. It was what it was.

The big exception that day was Mediate, who enthusiastically hung around for three hours after his own round was completed to stand and applaud Tiger as he pulled on his green club blazer. Before that he had been among the first to shake the new champ's hand and, yes, there were tears in his eyes as he did so. Woods, understandably, never has forgotten that simple, yet exceptional, gesture. 'This was history in the making. You think I was gonna miss it,' he told those of us who spotted him.

So, here we, are. The rest of the year stretches before us. Next month The Open at Birkdale, then the USPGA Championship in Michigan and then the Ryder Cup in Kentucky in September. It is a glittering menu, but the main man will not be at any of them. The scatty mob who have complained over the years that Woods is too dominant are about to find out what life is like without him. There will still be drama, still be winners, but, clearly, it will not be the same.

Lee Westwood, whose own campaign at Torrey Pines endorses his claims to legitimate contender status now, said this week that he would still be thrilled to win The Open, even the one that Woods did not play in. 'When it goes down in the history books there won't be a note beside it to say that Tiger didn't participate,' he said. He is right, but what is also right is that he, or whoever else might win at Birkdale, will know for as long as they live that they did not beat the greatest golfer ever to draw breath. It is a short straw, even if it comes with a long bonus.

Greatest golfer ever? Hell, Tiger Woods has legitimate claims to be considered the greatest sportsman ever. No one in my lifetime has dominated their chosen game for such a length of time. No one ever has been a bigger global celebrity. Not Muhammad Ali, not Pete Sampras, not Pele, not Michael Schumacher. Back in March I tried to make this point during a knockabout debate on Radio Four's Today programme and was, predictably, howled down. There will still be howls, but, I suspect, significantly fewer now.

A girl dunks! …Now I will watch women’s basketball…or not…

Candace Parker became the second woman to dunk in a WNBA game and the Los Angeles Sparks beat the Indiana Fever 77-63 on Sunday night.

Parker took a pass from Raffaella Masciadri, dribbled the length of the court and dunked with her right hand with 29 seconds to play.

"When I caught the ball and there was an open lane, it was a good opportunity," Parker said. "I'm happy that I was able to do it in Los Angeles in front of the home fans."

Lisa Leslie, her Sparks teammate, is the only other WNBA player to do it — throwing a shot down during a game in 2002.

"Obviously, it means a lot having the first person to do it on my team," Parker said. "There's going to be more to come in the league itself."

After boredom set in, The Wall Street Journal decided to figure out who the best athlete in the world was, and came up with a confusing verdict …

The Journal's Top 10

HOW WE DID IT: We gave the performance stats and achievement records of 79 male athletes to a panel of 5 judges, and asked them to rank the competitors based on six criteria: speed; vision and reflex; stamina and recovery; coordination and flexibility; power, strength and size; and success and competitiveness. The final category examined success—records held and victories—as well as competitiveness, based on the sport's popularity. Soccer, for example, the world's most popular sport, was judged the most competitive. The panel gave a total score for each athlete in the first round. Sixty athletes were eliminated in the second round, either because of low scores or because they were not first in their field. Our panelists then made the final ranking. Yale statistician John Emerson helped normalize the scores so no single panelist could exert undue influence.

THE JUDGES: Ed Coyle, exercise physiologist, University of Texas; has studied top athletes, including cyclist Lance Armstrong. Steve Fleck, chairman of the Sport Science Department at Colorado College and former head of the Physical Conditioning Program for the U.S. Olympic Committee. Eric Heiden,orthopedic surgeon at a Salt Lake City sports medicine and training facility; won five gold medals in speed skating in 1980. Kris Homsi, director of sport science for Sparq, a training and assessment company used in college recruiting. Mark Verstegen runs a group of training facilities called Athletes Performance.

AND THE WINNER IS: ROMAN SEBRLE. The Czech decathlete could jump over Shaquille O’Neal. He could throw a 16-pound ball the length of a 53-foot yacht. From a running start, he could leap over a two-lane highway. Mr. Sebrle has ideal size, according to physiologists, and expertise over a range of athletic pursuits, employing the speed of an NFL back and the vertical jump of an National Basketball Association forward. Some judges questioned whether Mr. Sebrle could withstand a tackle by an NFL lineman, but none questioned his talent in the 10 track and field events that make up the decathlon. He has won Olympic gold and silver medals for the Czech Republic and is the current world champion.

Duke knows its place …and what a sad place it is….

A Franklin, Ky., Circuit Court judge sided with a devilishly clever argument and ruled in favor of Duke University yesterday in a breach of contract lawsuit brought by the University of Louisville.

Judge Phillip J. Shepherd agreed with Duke's lawyers -- that its football team is so bad that any Division I replacement would do.

U of L sued Duke for $450,000 -- or a series with another Atlantic Coast Conference opponent -- after the Blue Devils backed out of a four-game football contract with three dates remaining.

The contract called for a penalty of $150,000 per game if a date with a "team of similar stature" could not be arranged.

Duke's lawyers argued that the Blue Devils, who are 6-45 the past five seasons, are so bad that any team would be a suitable replacement.

Judge Shepherd agreed in his summary:

"At oral argument, Duke (with a candor perhaps more attributable to good legal strategy than to institutional modesty) persuasively asserted that this is a threshold that could not be any lower. Duke's argument on this point cannot be reasonably disputed by Louisville."

According to Shepherd, finding a suitable replacement literally meant any NCAA Division I team would suffice -- including those in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-AA).

After the teams played their initial game in 2002 -- a 40-3 U of L win in Durham, N.C. -- Duke opted out of the remaining games in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Thanks in part to Duke's cancellation, the Cardinals scrambled to find a 12th game for the 2008 season before signing an agreement with Memphis in February. U of L will play at Memphis on Oct. 10, and the Tigers are scheduled to play at U of L in 2010.

"We're disappointed with the ruling," U of L spokesman Kenny Klein said. "We will take our time to review the decision and explore our future options."

Tiger Woods Magical 3rd Round back 9 at the US Open



Violet Hill – the song currently running through my head

Last Day Before Vacation

I should probably lead with a picture of the Celtics, but I would rather offer some Larry David. Note to ABC: Rather than introducing the same 12 tired celebrities at every Lakers game, how about a little love for one of the most influential television personalities of the last 15 years?

The Lakers Title Run appears to have ended …

The Lakers didn't choke.

They blew the NBA Finals without making a sound.

They botched their entire season while standing still.

They lost a 24-point lead -- the biggest collapse in the NBA Finals in at least 37 years -- by staring dreamily into the hardened eyes of a Boston Celtics team that angrily shoved them into next fall.

Choke? On Thursday night in front of a Staples Center crowd whose early cheers lapsed into a stunned and horrified silence, the Celtics' 97-91 victory was more like a smote.

The Lakers led by 21 points after the first quarter, the biggest first-quarter lead in NBA Finals history.

The Lakers led by 20 points midway through the third quarter, an insurmountable margin for a team playing at home and possessing the MVP.

And, yeah, they lost by six.

They gave the game away, but not before one of them walked away.

You know how Los Angeles fans are famously criticized for leaving games early.

Add Kobe Bryant to their list.

He walked off the court with three seconds remaining as the Lakers were bringing up the ball for a final shot.

It was a most egregious act for a most valuable player.

Meltdowns everywhere.

Even the NBA stat folks melted down, as they have no detailed records of Finals games before 1971, thus this can only officially be the biggest collapse in 37 years.

Unofficially, though, it also probably gives the Celtics the championship, as the Lakers now trail three games to one, an historically insurmountable Finals deficit.

When asked afterward how his team was going to recover from this loss, Bryant said, "Lot of wine, lot of beer, lot of shots, like 20 of them."

That quote would have been a lot funnier if Bryant hadn't actually taken 19 shots in the game, and made just six of them.

"Some turnaround in that ballgame," said Coach Phil Jackson. "The air went out of that building."

No air, no understanding, all the gasps from all the blank-faced fans wandering into the parking lot contained the same word.

Why?

It was a question posed in a quiet Lakers locker room to Vladimir Radmanovic, who sat in a chair rubbing his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I have no explanation for what happened tonight," he said.

Why?

It was a question posed to Sasha Vujacic, standing across the room in a white T-shirt with his wet hair hanging in his ashen face.

In a play that typified the Celtics' comeback, he was beaten one-on-one to the basket by aging Ray Allen.

The play occurred with 16 seconds remaining and the Celtics leading by three.

Allen simply ran past Vujacic and, untouched, laid the ball in the basket to clinch the victory.

While Vujacic sat on the bench during the ensuing timeout, a Lakers employee attempted to comfort him, but Vujacic angrily knocked the employee's hand off his shoulder.

Then he buried his head into a towel and looked -- like many Staples Center fans looked -- as if he wanted to cry.

Why?

"He got me," Vujacic said. "He just beat me to the basket. I was afraid to foul him. He just got me."

In the final quarter-and-a-half, the Lakers seemed afraid of plenty of things, mostly success.

Lamar Odom, who scored 13 first-quarter points to lead them to that huge lead, scored just two in the fourth quarter, and was beaten badly by the Celtics' Kevin Garnett.

Pau Gasol, who also started fast, scored just four fourth-quarter points, and combined with Odom on just two fourth-quarter rebounds.

The Lakers essentially ran to a big lead amid the glitter of a dancing Justin Timberlake and preening Will Smith, then stood around in hopes that their own leading man would save them.

But Bryant, who had stood around while the Lakers garnered that lead, tried to turn it on too late.

Give the Celtics their due …

You came away from Thursday night's historic Game 4 more than ready to draw conclusions, because the record-setting rally uncorked by the Boston Celtics in this 97-91 triumph amounts to a call-the-champagne-guy comeback.

Surely you won't disagree that we just saw a virtual series clincher.

It's the unavoidable conclusion when a 24-point lead -- at home -- isn't enough for No. 24.

The 24th Finals game of Kobe Bryant's career had the Celtics trailing by 20 points halfway through the third quarter, unable until 4:07 remained in the game to snatch their first lead and then showing their steel from there by refusing to give it back ... all while Bryant could finish with only a measly 17 points on 6-for-19 shooting.

"Some turnaround in that ballgame," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said, not quite believing what he had just seen. "The air went out of that building."

Indeed. All of Lakerland -- as well as those countless know-it-alls like me who picked L.A. to win the so-called Rivalry Revisited -- has to see it now.

If Lamar Odom's near-perfect start, Boston losing yet another starter to injury (Kendrick Perkins joining Rajon Rondo on the sidelines) and that huge scoreboard edge couldn't add up to a W, it's pretty much official that the MVP trophy Kobe needed 12 seasons to win will be remembered as his only hardware in 2007-08.

If the Lakers can't hold a 70-50 lead in a must-win game -- in a building where they were 9-0 in these playoffs -- how are they going to drag themselves out of a 3-1 hole?

Which has never been done in Finals history.

I suppose you could counter with a reminder that the Celtics just pulled off their own Finals first. The largest recorded comeback in championship series history before this one, since they began keeping such stats in 1970-71, was Houston's rally from 20 points down to Orlando in 1995's Game 1.

Yet it's a serious reach to suggest that now it's the Lakers' turn to do something we've never seen.

Paul Pierce, after all, has been the best go-to guy in this series. Which is to say better than Bryant, no matter how many of us billed these Finals as some sort victory lap for the MVP.

Pierce out-closed the game's foremost closer again by asking to switch onto Kobe defensively for the second half, helping to prevent the explosion we all expected after Bryant failed to register a first-half field goal. Boston's team scheme is just too good for Bryant to turn it on, especially after he failed to find a rhythm while Odom and all those role players were getting off early.

"People will look at his offense," Boston coach Doc Rivers said of Pierce's 20 points and seven assists, "but I thought we won the game because Paul was a tremendous defensive player tonight."

Two more killer factors: L.A. was outscored, 31-15, in the worst of its four successive third-quarter outages ... and Boston has clearly stolen the Lakers' comeback mojo.

The Lakers erased deficits of 20 and 17 here to stun San Antonio in Games 1 and 5 of the Western Conference finals at Staples, but it looks now as though the assist they got from the schedule-makers -- with such a short turnaround between rounds for the Spurs and no more than one day off between games -- was bigger than we knew. In this series, L.A.'s furious rally from its own 24-point deficit in Game 2 at Boston fell agonizingly just short, followed up by Lakers sinking to new levels of despair with this collapse.

"We just wet the bed," Kobe said. "A nice big one, too. One of the ones you can't put a towel over. It was terrible."

US Open begins with the big group trying to find a groove …and not having much luck…

A day that began with the glamour threesome of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott — the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 players in the world — ended with the 608th-ranked Streelman and the 722nd-ranked Hicks leading the United States Open.

This should come as no surprise. Longtime United States Open watchers are accustomed to what played out on the firm, fast Torrey Pines layout in the first round.
Streelman, playing in his first United States Open, and Hicks, playing in his
second, are the latest stars in an old Open story line titled “Unknowns Lead Open.”

An appealing story line it is, complete with twists of fate, hope and luck. Hicks, 33
, is a Nationwide Tour player who has played on so many minitours he has trouble remembering them all. Often mistaken for a San Diego club professional with the same name, Hicks has had a life complicated by a series of identity foul-ups that nearly prevented him from playing an event he had entered because the other Justin Hicks was playing in an opposite tour event on the same dates.

He got into this field by surviving a playoff in the sectional qualifier at Columbus, Ohio, two weeks ago — 11 players, 7 spots available. He birdied the first playoff hole with a 15-footer. Was he shocked to now be holding the lead by one stroke over the PGA Tour winners Rocco Mediate, Stuart Appleby, Geoff Ogilvy and Eric Axley?

“Hopefully not too surprised,” he said. “I thought it was a pretty good round. I guess, you know, certainly I’m not shocked, but a little bit surprised at the thought of it, at the top of the leader board currently.”

It started with the top three players in golf battling the course and one another to a relative standoff — 71 for Mickelson, 72 for Woods and 73 for Scott. With thousands lining the fairways and encircling the greens, filling every available line of sight at Torrey Pines, there were a few flashes of the transcendent brilliance of which Woods is capable. But he was not himself, and it showed from the beginning.

He hit a pull hook that bounced off a tree into a bad lie in the primary rough on his first tee shot. A pitch out into the fairway, a wedge that took one bounce and hopped into the heavy stuff behind the green, and he was en route to a two-putt double.

“It’s just a terrible way to start,” said Woods, who hit just 6 fairways and 11 greens in his first round of competitive golf since the Masters. “It’s one thing to hit the ball left off the first tee, that’s fine, pitch out. But the wedge shot, I had all the room short of the hole and I fly it past the hole. That’s just a terrible mistake.”

Woods flashed some of the old stuff with a birdie at No. 4, hitting his approach from a fairway bunker 209 yards to 4 feet from the hole.

Prepare for Primetime Golf …

Should make for a marvelous Father's Day nightcap.

Prime-time golf on KXAS/Channel 5.

The U.S. Open Championship at Torrey Pines.

Sit in your North Texas living room Sunday and watch the final group walk up No. 18. That image should roll cross your TV screen about 7:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m., San Diego time).

How about Tiger vs. Lefty?

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will be paired for the first two rounds. Talk about television ratings off the charts if they're still together and last off the tee Sunday.

Any TV exec would gladly trade in an SUV tankful of gas for a chance at that prime-time ender.

"The later we go into the evening, the more diverse an audience we'll have," NBC Sports producer Tommy Roy said, referring to the prime-time dynamic in which the casual fans will join up with the diehards.

"We need to keep in mind that we're speaking to an audience that may need a few more things explained to them."

Analyst Johnny Miller vows not to change his routine.

"I try to explain [golf] so that anybody can understand," Miller said. "I don't just assume that somebody out there knows a lean-and-squeeze, upshoot fade."

Phew. For a minute there, I thought we were going to be quizzed on this stuff.
Late golf, long holes: Channel 5 is scheduled for 16 hours of high-def U.S. Open coverage: 2-4 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 3-9 p.m. Saturday and 2-8 p.m. Sunday.

"It's the longest course in U.S. Open history -- 7,643 yards," Miller said. "That's 379 yards longer than the next closest, which was Winged Foot, site of the '06 Open. That's almost a crazy amount of distance."

The Par 4s at Torrey Pines are "massive," prompting course reporter Mark Rolfing to target the middle- to long-irons as a key to taming this seaside beast.

The greens (especially on 3, 4 and 14) offer cliff hazards. If you miss on these, you can roll downhill ... a long way.

The rough isn't bad. "But with the course playing 7,643 yards," said Miller, "if you had the Winged Foot rough, it would be a blood bath."

As it is, Miller predicts the winner will be at 4 under par -- maybe lower.

The Rangers face a struggling Mets team at Shea this weekend, and If I were a betting man, I would bet the New York Media may enjoy a discussion or two with Milton Bradley….Bradley discussed his attempted transformation yesterday …

"It's amazing when you actually meet somebody how different they become," Bradley said.

He heard the comments on a clubhouse TV as he watched video of previous at-bats while serving as the designated hitter.

"Get to know me," he said. "Ask me some questions. But the stuff you're talking about is not called for."

Royals TV announcers Ryan Lefebvre and Frank White spent a few minutes comparing Bradley, who leads the American League in batting, to teammate Josh Hamilton, a recovering drug and alcohol addict who leads the AL in home runs and the majors in RBIs.

White, who played 18 years with the Royals, asked whether Hamilton's feel-good story was balanced out by Bradley but didn't elaborate. Lefebvre, son of former big league player and manager Jim Lefebvre, said Hamilton would be a good role model for Bradley and that Bradley has refused to allow fans to embrace him like they have Hamilton.

Bradley came to the Rangers last winter with a history of on-field and off-field incidents that included suspensions and scrapes with the law. He wasn't physically ready for opening day, still healing from off-season knee surgery necessitated when he was tackled by Bud Black, his manager in San Diego, after being ejected from a game; the umpire in question was suspended for using obscene language during the argument.

As a Ranger, Bradley has displayed intensity and emotion during games – endorsed recently by Washington – and has been ejected from two games.

"I've done some things that could be construed as violent or temperamental, but I've never physically harmed anyone," he said. "I think it's a pretty amazing story that I'm having this kind of year right now. That goes by the wayside because of my reputation."

Wednesday night's excursion wasn't his first attempt this year to seek an audience with announcers. Bradley said he met with Rangers TV broadcasters Josh Lewin and Tom Grieve during spring training to discuss on-air comments made about him while Bradley was playing for Oakland.

"I let him know that I knew what he had said and left it at that, and now we're cool," Bradley said to a small group of media members, referring to Lewin, who nodded in agreement.

"I've got no problem with that," Lewin said afterward. "We told him we'd work to win his trust."

Daniels just happened to be outside the visitors' clubhouse after Wednesday night's game and saw Bradley climbing the stairs toward the booth. He caught up to Bradley, wearing a T-shirt and shorts, in the press box and accompanied him back to the clubhouse after Bradley was told by Royals personnel that the announcers weren't available.

Daniels said he doesn't want players seeking out media members after games and noted that Bradley used no foul language or aggressive behavior while he observed him. He said he isn't worried about Bradley, who appeared near tears after returning to the clubhouse and said to no one in particular that he wondered if he is strong enough to handle what he considers unfair criticism.

Hamilton said Thursday that he didn't appreciate Lefebvre's on-air suggestion that Hamilton be a role model for Bradley.

"Nobody needs to try to be like anybody else," said Hamilton, who has participated in some Bible studies with Bradley. "You need to be your own person. It would be different if Milton has done something wrong, but guys are just going on what happened in the past. He's the spark plug of this team when it comes to firing guys up."

Bradley said he can't be "cookie-cutter perfect" as a player. He said two of his teammates with the Los Angeles Dodgers, J.D. Drew and Shawn Green, were often criticized in the media for not displaying much emotion.

"I just get tired of people choosing to talk about negativity," he said. "I'm extremely complex. I'm not easy to understand."

Ovechkin cleans up at award night – like he did all season …

Washington Capitals star forward Alexander Ovechkin made history on Thursday night.

Ovechkin won both the Lester B. Pearson Award (NHL Players' Association's most outstanding player) and Hart Trophy (MVP) at the NHL awards show in Toronto to up his total to four major awards. He earlier was awarded the Maurice Richard Trophy (league leader in goals scored) and Art Ross Trophy (league leader in points scored).

It's the first time in history a player has won all four major awards in one season.

"It's all about my team. They give me a lot, and my coach gives me a lot of ice time," Ovechkin said shortly after winning the Hart. "I am very happy and thanks to the Capitals and to the fans."

Ovechkin shredded the competition with great regularity this season. He ripped home 65 goals and led the league with 112 points. He led all players in power-play goals (22) and game-winning goals (11) during the regular season. His 65 goals were a single-season NHL record for goals by a left-winger and the most by an NHL player since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96.

Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames were the other nominees for both awards.

For the sixth time in the last seven seasons, the James Norris Memorial Trophy was awarded to Detroit Red Wings captain Nick Lidstrom.

Lidstrom scored 10 goals and added 60 assists during the regular season for the Stanley Cup champions, and added another three goals and 10 assists in the Wings' 22 playoff games.

Calgary's Dion Phaneuf and Boston's Zdeno Chara were fellow nominees.

The sentimental choice for coach of the year came through to win the Jack Adams Award. Washington's Bruce Boudreau had been a career minor-league coach before being handed the Capitals job early in the season. Boudreau replaced Glen Hanlon on Nov. 22 with the Capitals last in the Eastern Conference. He righted the ship with a 37-17-7 mark the rest of the way and Washington captured the Southeast Division title in the season's final game. Boudreau beat out Guy Carbonneau of the Montreal Canadiens and Mike Babcock of the Stanley Cup-winning Red Wings.

"I can't forget to thank my wife," Boudreau said near the end of his acceptance speech to a roomful of laughs. "But my wife and our four children have followed us everywhere, and in those minor-league towns, I've played and coached in a lot of them, you need a strong woman behind you if you're going to remain a coach."

The Calder Memorial Trophy, for rookie of the year, went to Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks, who beat out teammate Jonathan Toews and Washington's Nicklas Backstrom.

"(Blackhawks GM) Dale (Tallon), thanks for picking me last year. I know it was a gutsy move picking a (five-foot-nine), 160-pound guy first overall, but I appreciate it. . . . It looks like we have the Hawks going again," said Kane who had 21 goals and 51 assists in 82 games this past season after being the No. 1 pick in the 2007 NHL entry draft.

The top goalie in the league this season is New Jersey Devils stopper Martin Brodeur.

"It's a great honour. The older you get and you see these young guys come up and dominate and it's still nice to be able to compete with these guys," said the Vezina Trophy winner.

San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov and Henrik Lundqvist were runners-up.

Meantime, Red Wings forward Pavel Datsyuk won two awards - the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, given to the player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability, and the Frank J. Selke Trophy, given to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.

"I wanted to make my speech longer, but my English is short," Datsyuk said with a laugh after accepting the award.

The Wings' Henrik Zetterberg and Devils forward John Madden were the other nominees for the Selke award, while Jason Pominville of the Buffalo Sabres and Tampa's Martin St. Louis were also up for the Lady Byng.

Sharks get a coach from Detroit …

The San Jose Sharks named former Detroit Red Wings assistant Todd McLellan their new head coach on Thursday.

McLellan, who was assistant to Red Wings coach Mike Babcock the past three years, was formally introduced as the seventh coach in San Jose history during a press conference at HP Pavilion. He agreed to a three-year deal with the Sharks.

"Todd McLellan has an excellent track record and has had success at every level of coaching in his career," said Wilson. "He comes from one of the top organizations in all of sports and has been exposed to some of the brightest hockey minds in the game including Jim Devallano, Ken Holland, Scotty Bowman, Steve Yzerman and Mike Babcock, along with Jacques Lemaire, to name just a few. We feel that Todd is an excellent fit for our hockey team."

Before joining the current Stanley Cup champion Red Wings, the 40-year-old McLellan spent four seasons as head coach of the Houston Aeros in the American Hockey League. He led the Aeros to the 2003 Calder Cup championship. The Aeros went 154-111-37-18 under his watch.

"It's a very good feeling," said McLellan in a statement released by the team Wednesday night. "From the first moment Doug called to the moment he offered the job, I felt comfortable. I think the Sharks have done a tremendous job. You don't get that close to 50 wins for a number of years in a row without a lot of talent. It's a matter of getting over the hump. There are some real parallels between the Wings and the Sharks."

In honor of Summer Bash, here is Lazer from 2006’s Summer Bash…



Halen 88 is really mad – Cheer up, your next bandwagon team starts in a few months!

David or Dale Murphy?

Wow, an eventful night in Kansas City! First, David Murphy continues his effort to shut-up Dan McDowell by continuing to latch on to a full-time OF job moving forward with production.

Of course, as discussed the other day, Dan really never said anything about Murphy that most of us were thinking – that there is no way he can maintain this level of production. He is Top 5 in the AL in extra base hits! But, if he does keep it going, wow.

David Murphy to the rescue. …

For the second straight day, the Rangers scored late, erased a 5-1 deficit and got a reprieve when it came to sloppy play. The win puts the Rangers above .500 for the third time this season.

David Murphy, who continues to prove he's an everyday outfielder, was the hero Wednesday, with two home runs and five RBIs. His first long ball was a grand slam that gave the Rangers a two-run lead during a seven-run seventh inning.

Murphy knows the task now is to stay above .500, something the Rangers haven't been able to do.

"It sounds so simple to do, but obviously it's not that easy or else we would have taken off already," Murphy said. "It's definitely time for us to make a move, and hopefully, we can get the quality play we want so we can leave the .500 mark behind."

Wednesday, the Rangers did more than hit long balls. They played small ball after the grand slam, when Frank Catalanotto bunted Marlon Byrd to third and Gerald Laird drove in the insurance run with a sacrifice fly to center.

The inning exemplified the Rangers' two-pronged offensive approach. They rank second in the American League with 28 homers and lead the league with 28 sacrifice flies.

Milton Bradley has an issue with Royals TV guy? …

Milton Bradley is an emotional player. That emotion overflowed in the clubhouse after Wednesday’s game in response to something Kansas City Royals television broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre said about him on the air during the Texas Rangers' 11-5 win.

Bradley left the clubhouse after the game and reached the press box but never talked to Lefebvre. General manager Jon Daniels and manager Ron Washington chased after Bradley, and Daniels escorted him back to the clubhouse.


Bradley then walked around with tears welling up and his voice breaking as he spoke.

"All I want to do is play baseball and make a better life for my kid than I had, that's it," Bradley said to a quiet clubhouse. "I love all you guys. ... I'm strong, but I'm not that strong."

Many players tried to console Bradley, who had his head down at his locker.

Lefebvre said, from what he remembers, that he was complimenting Josh Hamilton and how he's been accountable for his mistakes and said "it doesn't appear Milton Bradley has done the same thing in his life."

"It is an interesting contrast between the two guys," Lefebvre said. "We also spent a lot of time complimenting Milton Bradley, but that's not what he heard when he was in the clubhouse."

Lefebvre talked with Daniels and Washington but did not speak with Bradley, who probably heard the comments while in the clubhouse between at-bats as the designated hitter.

"He was upset that somebody that doesn't know him was passing judgment on TV," Daniels said. "The guy's been a tremendous teammate for us, and it's obvious he was hurt by those comments. That's my understanding."

Eric Hurley Day! …1:10 today…

The DVD the Rangers promised us three years ago never got delivered. That only increases the pressure on Eric Hurley to make good in "the show."

Hurley is the 22-year-old right-handed pitcher who will make his major league debut Thursday afternoon against Kansas City. When the Rangers drafted him at the end of the first round of the 2004 draft, obviously, the club had high hopes for him.

But management thought the pitcher coming out of a Jacksonville, Fla., high school would be behind DVD – John Danks, Edinson Volquez and Thomas Diamond – in development.


Danks was a high (ninth) first-round pick in 2003. Diamond was a high (10th) first-round pick coming out of college in 2004. Volquez had been signed as a free agent out of the Dominican Republic and was already pitching Class A ball when Hurley was drafted.

In fact, as impressed as the Rangers were, they didn't even know his name and were still referring to him as Edison at the time.

Well, you know the rest of the story, and it's not pretty for the Rangers.

Danks is a vital member of the first-place Chicago White Sox rotation. Volquez is pitching for the Cincinnati Reds and has to be considered the league's leading Cy Young candidate.

General manager Jon Daniels got Josh Hamilton in return for Volquez, so you can argue the merits of that move. Unfortunately, all Daniels has to show for Danks is Brandon McCarthy, who wasn't very good while pitching hurt a year ago and hasn't taken the mound in 2008.

In addition, Daniels traded Chris Young after his rookie season. It was Daniels' worst trade as general manager. Don't make the mistake of saying the Rangers can't develop young pitching. They are developing it for teams all across the major leagues.

Hurley looked good in the spring, but then Kason Gabbard and Luis Mendoza looked pretty good, too, and they began the season in the Rangers' rotation, and where are they now?

As a first-round pick, Hurley should be able to deliver the goods. The question is when?

The answer, almost certainly, is not now.

Good young pitchers tend to struggle for their first 30 to 40 starts in the majors before finding it. Great young pitchers do, too.

There hasn't been a more highly touted pitching prospect in the American League in recent years than Seattle's "King" Felix Hernandez. In his first full season with the Mariners, he went 12-14 with a 4.52 ERA.

Meanwhile, on to the Father’s Day tradition that we love: THE US OPEN!

Some dude named Jason Sobel ranks the Top 10 …

1. Phil Mickelson

If it's ever going to happen, this is the year. Mickelson has been scouting out Torrey Pines, where he played much of his junior golf, for months now and the four-time U.S. Open runner-up is more determined than ever to capture the elusive third leg of the career Grand Slam. "I've played well in U.S. Opens," he said. "Even take away the four second-place finishes, and there were a couple other opportunities as well. I think that as you adjust as a player, you just adjust to your environment and if you have short tight fairways or narrow fairways with thick rough, you just kind of adjust it and hit something different off the tee and try to get it into play." Phil Mickelson? Just trying to get it into play? We'll believe it when we see it ... but if we see it this week, it could mean an Open title for Lefty.

2. Tiger Woods

Yes, even with an eight-week hiatus entering the Open, he is still the prohibitive favorite. No, the surgically repaired left knee won't cause him too much trouble on the course. (And even if it does, we may never know, because Woods won't admit it.) Tough to ever pick against the 13-time major champion, but if you're ever going to do so, this is the time. Tiger hasn't been tournament tested since the Masters and hasn't won this tournament since 2002 -- his longest drought at any of the four majors. Playing a course on which he's captured the Buick Invitational six times will help, and you'd better believe Woods will contend. But if offered the age-old question of "Tiger versus the field" this week, take the field.

3. Geoff Ogilvy

Has any recent major champion received less credit for winning than Ogilvy, who prospered at the shaky hands of Mickelson & Co. two years ago at Winged Foot? The Aussie has become one of the poster children for a new kind of contender at the U.S. Open -- one who can hit the ball a long way and wedge out from there. "Length is important everywhere," he said. "It should be an advantage. It always has been." Here's a fun stat that shows the difficulty of the U.S. Open in recent years: Ogilvy has finished T-42, Win, T-28 the past three years, without ever breaking par for a single round.

4. Justin Rose

He's played extremely well in recent majors. Rose finished in the top 12 at all four last season and held the opening-round lead before falling to T-36 at this year's Masters. "I prepare hard for them," said the 2007 Order of Merit winner, "and it's nice to see that generally that preparation pays off." Now it's time for the soon-to-be-28-year-old to seriously contend once again, as he did last year at Augusta National before being undone by a late triple-bogey. If he gets into the situation again, expect a more composed, experienced Rose to stay in the moment.

5. Pat Perez

He attended Torrey Pines High School, grew up working at the course and estimates that he's played "more than 1,000 rounds" at this week's host venue. No one in the field has been looking forward to this event more than Perez, a seven-year PGA Tour veteran who has never won, but recently intimated that he'd forgo a victory at the prestigious Memorial if it could mean a spot in the U.S. Open. Now that he's here, don't expect the intensity to wane at all.

6. Sergio Garcia

Is Sergio finally starting to realize his potential? Sure looks that way. He has the confidence of the recent Players Championship title under his belt and in his final tune-up prior to the Open, Garcia finished 1 stroke out of the playoff at the Stanford St. Jude Championship. Of course, as always, it will all come down to how he rolls the rock. If his recent work with short-game guru Stan Utley continues to pay off, expect Garcia to be in the mix come Sunday.

7. Ian Poulter

Earlier this year, the braggadocios Brit claimed, "I know I haven't played to my full potential and when that happens, it will be just me and Tiger." Asked for his Masters prediction, Poulter said, "Put Tiger down for that one." His U.S. Open pick? "You can put me down for that one." Poulter's prognosticating has already led to one close-but-no-cigar selection; here's saying he has another one this weekend.

8. Boo Weekley

Contending at a U.S. Open requires patience and a positive attitude. Weekley, who comes from the "see-ball, hit-ball" school of golf, may just be the perfect candidate to give it a run. "I think I got a little [momentum] going," he said after missing the playoff in Memphis by a stroke on Sunday. "I'm starting to get where I'm feeling a little more confident with what I'm trying to do with the ball and putting the ball decent. That helps out a hell of a whole lot." If he keeps it up, expect the Torrey Pines galleries to bellow "Boooooo!" well into the final round.

9. Stephen Ames

After a final-round even-par 72 at The Players Championship last month, Ames glibly declared, "I'll take that at San Diego right now. Do you think I have a chance?" While four rounds at level par would have been enough to win each of the past two U.S. Opens, it may be asking a bit much from Ames. Then again, he's a guy who can grind out pars and when he gets hot, he stays hot. Considering he's finished 13th or better in each of his past three starts, that can only signal good things for this week.

10. Luke Donald

The common knock on Donald's game at major championships? He doesn't hit the ball long enough to contend. Sure, the 30-year-old from England isn't a big bomber by any means, but his usual driving distance of 280 to 285 yards is good enough -- if he keeps it in the short stuff. That's been an issue for Donald this season; his accuracy rank (138th) is even worse than his place on the distance list (111th). Lower still is his rank in the greens in regulation category (162nd), leaving one remaining glimmer of hope: At least he can putt.

Does the US Open want its winner over par? …

The official U.S. Open philosophy -- and really, doesn't invoking such a thing already make it seem like the organization is in full explanation mode? -- states the following: "The USGA intends to make the U.S. Open the most rigorous, yet fair, examination of golf skills, testing all forms of shot-making." The philosophy then goes on to list 14 different factors that are taken into "careful consideration," though apparently, "reverse foot wedges" and "flagstick mirages" aren't among them.

Based on recent history, it sure seems like the USGA is intent on protecting par as a winning score. The past two champions have finished with scores of 5-over-par, while no one has gotten into the red since winner Retief Goosen and runner-up Phil Mickelson at Shinnecock Hills in 2004.

"I know that they don't want to see 15-under win this golf tournament, but I'm not sure that the even-par score is all that important," 2003 U.S. Open winner Jim Furyk said. "As far as protecting par, I firmly believe the USGA wants to make the golf course as difficult and as testing a golf course as they can without going overboard. And you know what, for the best players in the world ... shooting somewhere around even par is a good score. Do I think par is important? I surely don't think they want to see five guys break the all-time scoring record in one week. But if it's 5-under or 5-over, I don't think it really matters."

Bill Simmons prepares us for Game 4 …

"So far, [Lamar] Odom has backed down -- in fact, he did everything short of rolling over like a puppy in Game 3, earning Phil Jackson's disgust more than once -- and [Pau] Gasol seems afraid to fight for position on the low post because he doesn't want to bang bodies with the likes of [Kendrick] Perkins and P.J. Brown. On the flip side, the Lakers realized something in the fourth quarter of Game 2: If their guards pressure Boston's ball-handlers full-court, it throws Boston's offense out of whack and causes a variety of bad things to happen . . .

"The Lakers seemed woefully unprepared to start this series. For one thing, anyone who watched the Celtics this season knew their ballhandlers were suspect, they're truly awful on fast break . . . and that good things happen to opponents who pressure them -- only the Lakers waited seven quarters to play that card even though they have guys such as Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar who are great baseline-to-baseline agitators. On top of that, it took the Lakers until Game 3 to stick Kobe on Rajon Rondo -- the logical move, since they could dare Rondo to shoot 20-footers and use Kobe to swarm everyone else."

More Simmons: He predicts a potential ESPN Classic game. "The table has been set for a dramatic, memorable basketball game Thursday night. After three choppy games, these teams are about to bring out the best in each other. Now, if they could only do the same for the Laker fans, we'd really have something." . . .

Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan calls Paul Pierce the greatest scoring machine in Boston history. What do you think? Larry Bird had four 50-plus games and averaged more points and made 50% of his shots, to Pierce's 44%. At the free-throw line, Bird hovered around 90% for his career, and Pierce has been around 80%. . . . According to Coasttocasttickets.com, the cheapest ticket for Game 1 in Boston was $281. The most expensive available was over $2,300. At Staples for Game 3, the cheapest available was $368, and for a courtside seat, over $22,000. . . . According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 168 combined points in Game 3 is the fewest ever scored in the 64 Finals games between these two teams. The previous low was 177 in Game 4 in 1969 (Boston won 89-88).

Chicago Sports Radio Wackiness …

WSCR-AM 670 afternoon hosts Dan Bernstein and Terry Boers were not exactly hospitable Wednesday to new Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro.

The station carried his news conference live, but Boers and Bernstein continued their tradition of speaking over some of the question-and-answer session with sarcastic comments and employing audio "drop-ins."

Among them: the Rev. Michael Pfleger screaming, "I'm white!" Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat character asking, "What?" and Pat Summerall, from the "Golden Tee" video game saying, "He's headed for the drink."

At one point Del Negro responded to a reporter by saying: "Those are fair questions …"

"Then answer them," Bernstein interjected.

Later Bernstein said of Del Negro: "I would say that in five months, he'll be a full-blown alcoholic … standing in the middle of the street waving a paper bag."

Boers then added facetiously: "I'm done with this guy."

Bernstein said Wednesday night that listeners had come to expect a level of irreverence from him and Boers.

"It's a satirical sports radio show," he said. "We do lampoon, but we do it with a wink. For nine years our audience has understood that sports needn't be taken as seriously as the things that really matter."

The Score is not the Bulls' flagship station. WMVP-AM 1000 will carry Bulls games through the 2011-12 season.

More Unintentional Comedy …

Campaigning is tough to do perfectly



Language Warning: Bug in mouth reporter goes wild



Lake Delton (Wisconsin Dells) is washed away

Lakers Hang On

Mark Heisler calls the Lakers win one of the worst finals games ever …

The NBA has had a lot of memorable nights but none like this . . . for which the league is eternally thankful.

This was the NBA's Lost Tuesday. In a game appropriate to the ugly controversy that blew in from disgraced referee Tim Donaghy's case earlier in the day, the Lakers beat the Celtics, 87-81, in the first mud-wrestling match held in lieu of a Finals game.

The Lakers led by 11 points early but saw the Celtics come back to take the lead midway through the third quarter, at which point Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom had combined to score no field goals.

Even with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett combining to miss 27 of their 35 shots, that was how close the Celtics came to taking a 3-0 lead and effectively ending this eagerly-awaited series on a grisly note.

Talk about your lost opportunities . . .

"Well, either that or they should have blown us out, one of the two," said Boston Coach Doc Rivers, laughing.

" . . . I look at it as the opposite of that. We had a chance to steal a game here when our guys were off."

On the bright side for the NBA, if it got through this night with this series still going and ABC hasn't canceled the contract, there's still hope.

How bad was it?

Veteran NBA writers -- Jack McCallum of Sports Illustrated and I -- ruled it the worst NBA Finals game in history.

However, McCallum did think there may have been some others that were close.

"Those games last spring between the Cavaliers and the Spurs weren't any classics," he said. "Of course, I don't remember much of what went on."

This was like a 100-yard dash between two caterpillars.

Bob Ryan calls it a blown chance for the C’s …

This one screamed for tape delay. This was not exactly a great demonstration of the product.

The Lakers won it, but how happy can they be, needing all that huffing and puffing to put away a Celtics team on a night when Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett are shooting 8 for 35?

As for the Celtics, what a stinkbomb.

What else do you need to know? Oh, that's right, the score. It was Los Angeles 87, Boston 81, and what it means is that there will be a Game 5.

"It was not a beautiful ballgame," acknowledged Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who had no cause to say anything about the officiating after this one. "That's a transition game from East Coast to West Coast. Short rest period. There should have been a day off, probably, between the transition between coasts.

"But we'll have a day to catch up tomorrow, and, hopefully, both of us will play better basketball Thursday night."

It was one of those coulda/woulda games for the Celtics, who had gained at least moderate control of things during the third period, and were still leading by 2 at 68-66 with 7:59 to go. But it was not a shoulda game. No way anyone in the Celtics camp could possibly have the audacity to claim that they should have won this game.
One sequence encapsulated it all. After being down by 7 at 77-70, the Celtics had crawled back to a 2-point deficit, and were in possession of the ball with 2:17 to go when Eddie House - remember him? - missed a nice little 13-footer in the lane. OK, he's human. That wasn't the problem.

The problem was that at the other end, the Celtics committed a completely unforgivable sin. Sasha Vujacic had been the second-best LA player (no need to ask who was the best). He had already scored 17 points on 6-for-9 shooting. He had swished a pair of threes and a couple of very long twos, and he was the one man who simply could not be left alone on what was, quite simply, the single biggest defensive moment of the game for the Boston Celtics.

But he was left completely alone in the left corner, and he seized his moment, drilling a three that made it a 5-point game and enabled the Lakers to play from a comfort zone for the remainder of the contest.

Leaving him alone at that moment was absolutely criminal. You deserve no sympathy when you do something like that.

A strong case can be made that the Celtics blew a tremendous opportunity.
"Either that, or they should have blown us out," said Doc Rivers. "I thought our defense was pretty good, but our offense was not. Paul has a night like he had [2 for 14, and no jump shots], and Kevin had a game like he had [6 for 21], but we had a chance to steal the game."

Of course, to do that, you can't leave a great shooter having a hot night alone, but I think we've already covered that.

But Vujacic deserves his say. This may have been his seminal game as a Laker, and that big three was the killer basket in the game.

Tim Donaghy steals the night …with a Mavericks tie-in…

Was Game 3 of the 2008 NBA Finals held at the scene of a crime?

Disgraced ex-referee Tim Donaghy alleged as much Tuesday in a filing made by his attorney in U.S. District Court in New York, saying the highly controversial Game 6 of the Lakers-Kings playoff series in 2002 was impacted by the actions of two of the three referees who worked the game.

NBA commissioner David Stern vehemently denied the allegations, saying they are the desperate act of a convicted felon. He also disclosed that the league has already briefed members of the U.S. Congress on certain facets of the Donaghy investigation.
"We welcome scrutiny here. This is something that should be scrutinized," said Stern, who called Donaghy a "singing, cooperating witness" and repeatedly referred to him as a felon as he spoke with reporters for more than eight minutes near the loading dock of the Staples Center as he arrived for Game 3 of the Finals.

The allegations are some of the strongest ever made against the NBA, coming at a time when the officiating of this year's Finals between the Celtics and Lakers has come under heavy scrutiny.

In the letter submitted by Donaghy's attorney, the following "manipulation" is alleged:

"Referees A, F and G were officiating a playoff series between Teams 5 and 6 in May of 2002. It was the sixth game of a seven-game series, and a Team 5 victory that night would have ended the series. However, Tim learned from Referee A that Referees A and F wanted to extend the series to seven games. Tim knew referees A and F to be "company men," always acting in the interest of the NBA, and that night, it was in the NBA's interest to add another game to the series. Referees A and F heavily favored Team 6. Personal fouls [resulting in obviously injured players] were ignored even when they occurred in full view of the referees. Conversely, the referees called made-up fouls on Team 5 in order to give additional free throw opportunities for Team 6. Their foul-calling also led to the ejection of two Team 5 players. The referees' favoring of Team 6 led to that team's victory that night, and Team 6 came back from behind to win that series."

Although no teams are specifically named, it is not hard to deduce the game in question. The Lakers-Kings series was the only one that postseason that went seven games, and the officiating in Game 6 was so questionable that consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader called for a formal investigation.

The Lakers attempted 40 free throws to the Kings' 25 in that game, and Los Angeles made 21-of-27 from the line while Sacramento converted 7-of-9 in the fourth quarter alone.

In addition, a foul was called against Mike Bibby of the Kings after he was shoved and elbowed by Kobe Bryant, denying the Kings an opportunity to try for a tying basket. Also in that game, Kings centers Vlade Divac and Scot Pollard fouled out, and Kings coach Rick Adelman was highly critical of the officiating afterward.

"My first thought [upon hearing Donaghy's allegation] was: I knew it," Pollard said Tuesday night. "I'm not going to say there was a conspiracy. I just think something wasn't right. It was unfair. We didn't have a chance to win that game."

The Lakers went on to win the 2002 NBA championship.

• The letter also alleges that during a 2005 Rockets-Mavericks playoff series, "Team 3 lost the first two games in the series and Team 3's Owner complained to NBA officials. Team 3's Owner alleged that referees were letting a Team 4 player get away with illegal screens. NBA Executive Y told Referee Supervisor Z that the referees for that game were to enforce the screening rules strictly against that Team 4 player. Referee Supervisor Z informed the referees about his instructions. As an alternate referee for that game, Tim also received these instructions."

Mavs owner Mark Cuban did in fact complain after his team lost the first two games of the series, and Dallas went on to beat Houston in seven games. Jeff Van Gundy, then the coach of the Rockets, said that an NBA official had told him about the league's plan to closely monitor moving screens by Yao Ming, and Van Gundy was ultimately fined $100,000 for his comments regarding the situation. Van Gundy later backed off his comments.

I was featured on the Rangers podcast with Jamey Newberg and Adam Morris – hosted by Ted Price – this week. Please check it out and see if I expose myself as not the expert the rest of the panel is….

Rangers steal Game 1 in KC …

Ultimately, the Rangers had the last laugh.

They scored four unearned runs to tie the game in the eighth, and Ian Kinsler came home with another unearned run after a passed ball with two outs in the ninth to prevail 6-5 and move back to .500 at 33-33.

The winning rally -- on five unearned runs -- came after the Rangers spent the first seven innings committing mistakes that allowed the Royals to open a 5-1 lead.
"It lets us know to never give up," Kinsler said. "We battled all the way to the end. That's huge for a team, especially starting a road trip when you know you'll have to win some games from behind."

A two-out walk in the eighth to Michael Young appeared to be of little consequence after shortstop Michael Aviles fielded Josh Hamilton's grounder. But the throw was low to first baseman Mark Teahen, who snagged the ball but never controlled it.

The Rangers took advantage as the next five hitters reached base, a string that started with a two-run double by Milton Bradley. Chris Shelton, who entered with a .200 average against right-handed pitching, provided the game-tying hit with a single off righty Yasuhiko Yabuta (1-1).

Kinsler doubled to lead off the ninth and went to third on a groundout by Young. Hamilton then struck out on three pitches from Ramon Ramirez, and Bradley was walked intentionally.

That brought up David Murphy, and a 1-1 pitch from Ramirez got away from John Buck. Kinsler slid across just ahead of Buck's toss to Ramirez for the lead.

"If the ball got by him, I was going," Kinsler said. "There's really no thought
process sometimes. In that situation, a tie game and two outs, if he let one go, I was going."

C.J. Wilson got the first two outs in the ninth, but had to pitch around a single
and then an error on Shelton before striking Teahen out to end a game that started with the Rangers on the bad end of some gaffes.

They had two mistakes on the base paths and two in the field in the first six innings. Manager Ron Washington said only the questionable running by Gerald Laird and an error in right field by Bradley hurt.

That error aided the Royals' two-run sixth inning that built a 5-1 lead against Kevin Millwood. Josh Rupe, Eddie Guardado (1-1) and Wilson held the Royals in check the rest of the way.

And now, a trip inside my head.

I spent some time last night pondering another stellar start from CC Sabathia. CC shut down the Twins, 1-0 …

The only thing C.C. Sabathia did not beat Tuesday night was the sunset. He missed that by 11 minutes.

But he had little trouble setting down the Minnesota Twins as the Indians bested their Central Division rival, 1-0, in a compact 2 hours and 6 minutes. There was little to complain about during the shortest Tribe game of the season as Sabathia sent the Progressive Field crowd of 26,874 home happy and early.

"I knew it was pretty early because it was still light," said Sabathia, who had his second shutout of the season and third complete game. "I was thinking maybe I could catch the Laker game [in the NBA Finals]. I just found the zone on both sides of the plate."

The big man, who gave up five hits, was definitely in the zone down the stretch as he retired the last 17 batters. The Twins, who had not lost to the Indians by a 1-0 score since Sam McDowell beat them in May 1969, put their last man on base when Joe Mauer singled leading off the fourth.

Anyway, as I was watching him do his thing, I also recall reading several items about the idea that the Indians are going to trade him. Then, I recalled that the Rangers needed an ace. 2 was added to 2 and I wanted to imagine the amazing possibility of CC anchoring the Rangers rotation from August 2008 until 2013 with a nice 5 year $100 million extension after the trade (it isn’t my money).

CC is 27 years old, and most of the time, is flat out over-powering. I think he would set up the Rangers for contention for years to come.

So I asked Jamey Newberg what he thought a fictional trade between the two teams might cost:

maybe Andrus, Feliz, Kiker, and Madrigal?

In other words, Ranger prospects #1, #5, #7 (according to Baseball America) and Madrigal, who was the Angels #9 prospect when the Rangers snatched him away last fall. Wow. Not sure I want to do that deal, given that you could try to wow CC for no player compensation 2 months later when he href=http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2002/02/2008-09-free-agents.html> hits free agency . Of course then, you must deal with the Yankees in an off-season that will include the following front of the rotation pitchers:

Sabathia
AJ Burnett
Brad Penny
Ben Sheets
John Lackey

Here are some things I found about CC last night:
Ken Rosenthal …

Here's an idea: C.C. Sabathia for Adam Dunn.

The Indians probably wouldn't do it, not even after Fausto Carmona returns in a month to restore their surplus of starting pitching.

But the concept — pitching rental for hitting rental — merits consideration for a Cleveland team that ranks first in the American League in rotation ERA but only 11th in runs per game.

Dunn, Pat Burrell, Bobby Abreu, Mark Teixeira — any of those potential free agents would lift the Indians' sagging offense. Teixeira, the only plus defender, is by far the most appealing. Then again, as badly as the Tribe is going, a little creativity might be required.

Dunn and Burrell would be difficult fits; neither can play right field, and their defensive shortcomings would partly offset their offensive contributions.

Teixeira would not be available unless the Braves were desperate for starting pitching and positioned to deal for a suitable replacement at first base.

Abreu? An interesting thought, considering that the acquisition of Sabathia would give the Yankees exclusive negotiating rights with the pitcher until he reached free agency. But the Indians surely would want more than a fading 34-year-old right fielder for a 28-year-old ace.

Second baseman Robinson Cano, 25, would be more intriguing, but the Yankees can control Cano through 2013 and would not trade him unless they received younger pieces such as left-hander Aaron Laffey and outfielder Ben Francisco in addition to Sabathia. For the Indians, who need young players to balance their payroll, such a deal would be self-defeating.

OK, what about Abreu to satisfy short-term objectives plus one or two of the Yankees' better young pitchers to satisfy long-term needs?

Such possibilities are worth exploring, at the very least.

Trading Sabathia for multiple prospects only would make sense if the Indians fell out of contention, which is unlikely in the surprisingly mediocre AL Central.

But keeping Sabathia, then losing him for draft picks, only would make sense if the Indians looked poised for a World Series run. At the moment, they hardly resemble that kind of a team.

The Indians could almost name their price if they were willing to move Sabathia before the July 31 non-waiver deadline.

Let their due diligence begin.

Yankees options …

Though not obtaining Johan Santana continues to hover over the organization, the Yanks do not view the rotation as a major priority. Sure, they would love to add an ace. But the best starters that could be available -- Cleveland's C.C. Sabathia, Milwaukee's Ben Sheets and Toronto's A.J. Burnett -- are in their walk years. The Yanks will not give up big prospects for a rental (nor should they), and the health risks on all three are too great to do a trade-and-sign.

Chicago Sun Times …

LHP C.C. Sabathia: This is how sad things have gotten for the Cleveland Indians, who once were considered favorites in the American League Central: They are letting teams know they will listen to offers for the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner if things don’t turn around quickly. Sabathia, 27, is 3-8 with a 4.81 ERA, but he had a 2.44 ERA in six starts in May. Suitors might have to settle for troubled right-hander Sidney Ponson, who was designated for assignment Friday, leaving the Texas Rangers without a fifth starter. Ponson, 31, was 4-1 with a 3.88 ERA, but recent outbursts on and off the field ended his stay under Nolan Ryan’s regime.

Nolan Ryan becoming more involved with the young pitchers …

Ryan is said to be taking a very active role in his new position as Rangers club president, and sources indicate that he spoke to the pitchers throughout Texas' minor league system in an effort to re-emphasize the goal of throwing complete games. Ryan wants things back the way they were when men were men and pitchers finished what they started.

In today's game that's revolutionary talk. Rangers officials say they are very cognizant of Ryan's desires. But they also won't take chances with anyone's arm and will set complete games as a goal only for those pitchers that may be able to handle it. Rangers executives remain mindful that Ryan himself was a "freak of nature,'' and all in all are making sure "not to do anything crazy.''

Complete games are a noble goal. But the guess here is that their time may be gone. Too bad.

Matti Norstrom retires …

Dallas Stars defenseman Mattias Norstrom officially announced his retirement Tuesday.
"Yes, I have retired," Norstrom said in a statement issued by the Stars. "This wasn't a rash decision by any means, and I am comfortable with it. I knew going into the season that this was the last year of my contract, and I didn't want to make a big distraction out of it.

"The last game of the Detroit series was my final game in the NHL."

Norstrom, 36, had only 13 points during the regular season but had five points (two goals, three assists) and a plus-five rating in Dallas' 18 playoff games despite having a sports hernia.

His inspired play generated some hope that he might return, but the 14-year veteran cited family as his primary reason for retiring. His family lived in Sweden while Norstrom was playing for the Stars.

"It's maybe giving up something I love for something I love more," Norstrom told the Star-Telegram last month."Family is first. That doesn't change."

Norstrom's retirement leaves the Stars with eight defensemen who played for them during the regular season and helps Dallas with the salary cap. He made $4.25 million last season.

Mike Heika ponders the blue-line …

With the retirement of Mattias Norstrom, the Stars now have eight defensemen under contract. Yes, Matt Niskanen and Mark Fistric are on two-way deals, but they are NHL players now, so you have to count them. That just leaves Dan Jancevski as the swingman.

So how do you pair these guys if they are all healthy?

My guess is:

Matt Niskanen-Sergei Zubov
Nicklas Grossman-Stephane Robidas
Trevor Daley-Philippe Boucher

That would leave Mark Fistric as your seventh and Jancevski in the minors.

You could also try Grossman with Zubov and move Niskanen with Robidas or Boucher, or you could try Niskanen on his natural right side with Daley.

There is also the thought that they could trade a defensemen and either upgrade at the position or simply let the kids play. Any chance we could see:

Grossman-Zubov
Daley-Robidas
Fistric-Niskanen

with Jancevski as your seventh?

It's certainly something worth discussing.

My personal feeling is if they trade someone like Boucher, they need to get another D-man to replace him. Yes, you want Grossman, Niskanen and Fistric all playing, but you need depth on defense over a long season.

Pacific Bunk-mate Los Angeles fires Marc Crawford …And Ron Wilson takes the Toronto job…

So, with the Lakers' NBA Finals drama providing deep cover, the Kings quietly cut Crawford loose Tuesday, two years and one month after saying they liked his "juice," General Manager Dean Lombardi's description of the energy Crawford displayed during his job interview.

That juice soured quickly, even for the Kings. The 21st coach in their history lasted only two seasons and missed the playoffs both times.

Lombardi made the right move to fire him. He probably should never have hired Crawford, who had unlimited skill at his disposal in Colorado with Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Co. and couldn't get some solid Vancouver Canucks teams past the second round of the playoffs.

The Kings had more hope than skill and Crawford couldn't function under those circumstances, couldn't be patient with kids who were learning and making mistakes and needed a teacher more than they needed a screamer who demanded more than they were capable of delivering.

Greatest. Commercial. Ever.



Celtics Coolness

Now or Never, Kobe

Our last chance for a reasonably interesting and exciting NBA Finals rests on the Lakers chances for tonight. Otherwise, it is all Rangers all the time…
David Moore Remembers 2006 for inspiration ..ouch…

The Celtics have put themselves in position to win the title, nothing more. Three consecutive games on the road, beginning tonight at Staples Center, can quickly cut into a team's confidence and shift momentum.

"It is what it is," Kobe Bryant said of the Lakers deficit. "It's not the end of the world. We've come too far to really sweat being down 0-2."

I don't buy that part. The Lakers are sweating. The key is how they respond.
It starts with Bryant. The Lakers don't need him to be the heir apparent to Michael Jordan.

They need him to be the next Dwyane Wade.

Bryant hasn't been bad the first two games of this series. But he hasn't been special, either.

The Celtics have built a wall between Bryant and the basket, forcing him to stay outside and beat them with the jump shot. Boston has stayed at home on the Lakers 3-point shooters and kept them from finding a rhythm until late in Sunday's game. The combination has kept Bryant in a confined space, squeezed the side screen-and-roll he likes to run and made it difficult on LA's halfcourt offense.

The Mavericks had similar success against Wade in the first two games of the Finals in 2006. Wade shot a lower percentage (.369) in those two games than Bryant (.408) has in these two against Boston.

Then he took over. Wade attacked the basket, got to the free throw line and averaged 39.2 points over the final four games to lead Miami to the championship.

Bryant must do the same to turn this series around. The Lakers can't post him as much as they did in Game 2, a move coach Phil Jackson acknowledged got his team out of rhythm. Bryant has to attack from the perimeter and get to the free throw line.
And he needs help. Lamar Odom can't be as confused as he was in the first two games in Boston. Pau Gasol must be a bigger force on the boards early in the game.

Vladimir Radmanovic must offer some defensive resistance against Paul Pierce or take an early seat on the bench.

The Lakers compete in a superior conference. They were playing at a higher level than Boston entering the series. It's hard to imagine that won't kick in now that the series moves to LA.

You might think you have a feel for this series, but no one does yet. Too many variables remain in play.

The Mavericks can put together a power point presentation on the danger of variables if you care to listen.

And Kobe needs to be MJ …

Kobe Bryant's Michael Jordan moment has arrived.

Game 3 of the NBA Finals will take place tonight in Los Angeles. The Lakers lost the first two games of the series in Boston. By supernatural standards, Bryant was average.

That will likely change tonight.

It would be silly to suggest that Bryant and the Lakers have the Celtics right where they want them because a Boston victory effectively ends the series. No team has ever overcome an 0-3 deficit to win the title, and it's doubtful that any team ever will.

But, as Mavericks fans painfully know, several teams have lost the first two games on the road and come back to win the series. In the 2006 Finals, Dwyane Wade had his Michael Jordan moment with 42 points and 13 assists to lead the Heat to a 98-96 Game 3 victory over the Mavericks. Miami went on to win four straight.

Bryant is a special player with a special opportunity. The 0-2 deficit provides him with a chance to further demonstrate his greatness. It provides him with the opportunity to advance his legacy.

That's motivation enough, but, if he needs additional incentive, he can listen to Celtics fans and Boston-area analysts who note with an air of inevitability that the Celtics are halfway to their 17th championship. Mathematically, of course, they are. But there is a rather large Kobe in their way.

Jordan was confronted with a similar situation in 1991 when he won his first of six rings. The Lakers and Magic Johnson came to Chicago for the first two games, and when the Bulls captured Game 2 to salvage a 1-1 split, the basketball eggheads nodded and said the Lakers had the Bulls exactly where they wanted them. They would head back for three games in LA, where they would win the title.

Instead, the Bulls went to LA, won three straight and the championship. Jordan was not particularly magnificent. He averaged 28.6 points and shot 48 percent from the field in those three games. But he also averaged 10.7 assists, 6.0 rebounds, played unforgiving defense and led his team to the title.

Bryant struggled with his shot in Boston. He scored 54 points in the two games, but he had 49 field-goal attempts. By comparison, Paul Pierce had 50 points while attempting only 26 shots.

What that means is that Bryant is due for a monster game, and it actually began in the fourth quarter Sunday. In the last 7:51, Bryant had 13 points. He made 4 of 6 field-goal attempts and had two rebounds and two assists. The Lakers were 24 points behind when that stretch started, but, with 38 seconds left, they had reduced the deficit to two and easily could have won the game.

They didn't, but they could at least be encouraged by the explosiveness of their offense. They pelted the best defensive team in the league with 41 points in the fourth quarter or, as Bryant said, "we had to make a stand a little bit."

The last 7 minutes of Game 2 created momentum for the Lakers. Playing in front of their fans will create more. And, if Bryant can unleash one of his games of 40-plus points and also get Pau Gasol a little more involved -- Gasol is shooting 57 percent but has taken only 23 shots in the series -- then the Lakers will make the series much more interesting.

And, amazingly, The Cedric Benson Era comes to a close …

Not long after Cedric Benson showed contrition Monday for his latest arrest, the Bears showed him the door.

The team released the troubled former first-round draft pick as a result of Benson's arrest early Saturday morning in Austin, Texas, on a charge of driving while intoxicated. It was Benson's second alcohol-related arrest in five weeks and enough to convince the Bears he just wasn't worth the possible distractions.

"Cedric displayed a pattern of behavior we will not tolerate," general manager Jerry Angelo said. "As I said this past weekend, you have to protect your job. Everyone in this organization is held accountable for their actions. When individual priorities overshadow team goals, we suffer the consequences as a team. Those who fail to understand the importance of 'team' will not play for the Chicago Bears."

Coach Lovie Smith, who brushed off reporters earlier in the day after Monday's practice, had no comment.

The move came less than an hour after Benson issued a statement he had hoped to make at Monday's organized team activity before he was sent home. The statement, crafted with the help of longtime ally and noted sports attorney David Cornwell, attempted to show remorse for putting the Bears through the latest ordeal.

"I apologize for making the poor decision to drink and drive," Benson said in the statement. "Given the incident last month, it was a particularly bad decision. I have no excuse for this lack of judgment. Though I strongly believe that I am not guilty of any crime, I realize that the public and the Bears organization hold me to a higher standard. Though my local attorneys will continue to work hard to prove my innocence, I confess to using poor judgment. Please accept my deepest apology."

Cutting Benson will save the Bears his $820,000 base salary but count about $3 million against the salary cap once pro-rated bonuses are calculated. The team will take a $2.5 million "dead-cap" hit in 2009.

If Benson signs with another team, he still could face league discipline. Greg Aiello, the NFL's vice president for public relations, said, "As with any law enforcement matter involving NFL employees, we are looking into it."

New Bears Starter? Tulane’s Matt Forte


Owens confusing situation …

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell Owens has drawn scrutiny from the NFL, which couldn't reach him for a day as it tried to set up drug testing.

Owens has since passed a test for performance-enhancing drugs and, according to a source, has never failed a test.

"This was a communication problem involving cellphone numbers," Owens said in a statement released by his publicist. "It was openly discussed and cleared up in a meeting that I had at the NFL office last week. I have been in the NFL for over 12 years and have never had a positive test for substance of any kind. That includes tests that took place as recently as last month. The matter was resolved to everyone's satisfaction last Tuesday, and everyone has moved on."

Still, the league thought it was important enough to summons Owens to New York for a meeting and an explanation.

The meeting occurred last Tuesday -- the same day Owens and the Cowboys came to terms on a four-year, $34 million contract that included a $12.9 million signing bonus.

Owens missed organized team activity practices that day. Upon signing the contract, he acknowledged his absence Tuesday was due in part to him being in New York to "meet with the league," among other things.

"This was a procedural matter that was resolved last week," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said in a statement. "We were aware of all of the facts prior to Terrell's meeting in New York, and we had no reservations about extending his contract. We make those decisions based upon our knowledge of a player over the course of his entire career. We signed Terrell to the new contract, because there are no issues with Terrell."

According to ESPN, the NFL accepted Owens' explanation for the missed calls.
So instead of fining or suspending him -- which are two possible outcomes when a test is missed or delayed -- they have placed him in the reasonable cause testing program, ESPN reported. Owens is now subject to random testing for performance enhancers, up to a maximum of 24 annual screenings, and these additional screenings can be required, if the NFL chooses to do so, for the remainder of his NFL career.

Michael Strahan calls it a career …

Michael Strahan, the longtime leader of the Giants’ defense, is retiring from the N.F.L., leaving his lone Super Bowl victory as the final game of a 15-year career.
Strahan, a defensive end and a likely first-ballot Hall of Famer, told the Giants of his decision on Monday morning. A news conference was scheduled for 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday at Giants Stadium.

“It was important that my teammates knew which way I was going before they got on the field to start the work to defend our title,” Strahan, 36, told Foxsports.com, which first reported his decision. “It’s time. I’m done.”

The Giants will conduct a three-day mandatory minicamp at Giants Stadium beginning on Wednesday. Training camp begins in late July.

“I’m happy for him, in a lot of ways,” Giants General Manager Jerry Reese said in a telephone interview. “He’s going out on top, which every athlete dreams of doing. He’s one of the all-time greats, and we’ll miss him.”

Strahan will retire as the Giants’ leader in games played (216 in the regular season) and sacks (141 ½). He was named to the Pro Bowl seven times, and set the league’s single-season sack record in 2001, with 22 ½. He won numerous defensive player of the year awards.

After pondering retirement before last season, Strahan returned and had nine sacks, including one in the Super Bowl upset of the New England Patriots. He also recorded three tackles, two quarterback hurries, four hits and knocked down a pass in the 17-14 victory over the Patriots.

Along the way, he helped groom defensive ends Osi Umenyiora (13 sacks last season) and Justin Tuck (10), and, despite never shying from controversy or keeping his opinions to himself, became a trusted locker-room leader for Coach Tom Coughlin.

Junior hits 600 …

The ultimate import of Ken Griffey Jr.'s feat Monday night - hitting his 600th home run - will be determined by historians, but it is significant given that it was accomplished in what is now regarded as Major League Baseball's "steroid era."

The two players who immediately preceded Griffey into the 600 club - Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa - are under clouds because of suspected steroid use.

"There's so much difference in what he's accomplished and what he will continue to accomplish than what Barry Bonds did," said Reds radio man Marty Brennaman. "Barry Bonds will forever be tainted, long after he's gone. I don't think people truly cared that he hit 756 home runs.

"I think baseball fans will look at what Junior did and be quick to point out that he did it the right way, as opposed to some other guys who didn't."

The other three members of the club would have a place on baseball's Mount Rushmore, if such a monument existed. They are Babe Ruth, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.

In a video tribute that was being produced by the Reds, Aaron passed along his congratulations to Griffey.

"Congratulations on hitting your 600th home run," Aaron said, according to a transcript of the video that was released by the team. "I got a chance to see you at the boys and girls club function just recently, you and your lovely wife, and you know you've always been a favorite of mine.

"I played with your dad, I know him very well, but you know I've always said that if anybody was going to reach 700, with no punt intended to anybody, I thought you had an excellent chance. Of course we can't, we don't know how injuries played a very big part, but congratulations to reaching 600."

Griffey's place in baseball's Hall of Fame is secure; his stature among baseball's legends is still growing.

"(Griffey will) be seen as a guy who accomplished things honestly," said Kevin Grace, author, teacher and archivist at the University of Cincinnati, "and will probably be compared to Aaron."

Here is the top 15 list of Home Runs All-Time

1 Barry Bonds 1986-2007(22) 762
2 Hank Aaron 1954-1976(23) 755
3 Babe Ruth 1914-1935(22) 714
4 Willie Mays 1951-1973(22) 660
5 Sammy Sosa 1989-2007(18) 609
6 K Griffey Jr.1989-2008(20) 600
7 F Robinson 1956-1976(21) 586
8 Mark McGwire 1986-2001(16) 583
9 H Killebrew 1954-1975(22) 573
10 R Palmeiro 1986-2005(20) 569
11 Reg Jackson 1967-1987(21) 563
12 Mike Schmidt 1972-1989(18) 548
13 Mickey Mantle1951-1968(18) 536
14 Jimmie Foxx 1925-1945(20) 534
15 A Rodriguez 1994-2008(15) 528

Toby Peterson earned a 2 year deal …

Toby Petersen worked a long time for his big break, and it came Monday afternoon. The 29-year-old center signed his first "one-way" contract in the NHL, hooking up with the Stars for two seasons at $550,000 a year.

The one-way contract is important, because it guarantees Petersen will be paid at that level whether he's sent to the minors or not, but it's even more important because the Stars are sort of declaring that they plan to keep Petersen at the NHL level for the next two seasons.

"He received an opportunity to play in the playoffs, and he played very well," Stars co-general manager Les Jackson said. "We feel he's going to be a very important part of this team going forward."

Petersen played eight games during the regular season with the Stars after a call-up from the minors, but he played 16 of 18 playoff games, including some strong performances against Detroit in the Western Conference finals. He is a checking-line center who has some offensive upside and some strong leadership skills with several of the team's younger players.

"He has some intangibles," Jackson said. "He was the captain in Iowa, and he still is looked up to by a lot of our young players. I think that can only help."

Petersen, who is married and has a 1-year-old son, said the contract is a nice piece of stability in an eight-year pro career that has featured stops with three minor league and three NHL teams.
"It's a great feeling of accomplishment, but at the same time it's just the beginning," he said.

The Stars also signed veteran defenseman Dan Jancevski Monday. Jancevski signed a two-year, "two-way" contract, meaning he is paid one salary at the NHL level and another if he is in the minors. Jancevski, 26, will make $525,000 next season and $550,000 in 2009-10 at the NHL level. He will make $225,000 next season and $250,000 in 2009-10 if he is playing in the AHL.

Minor League chaos for the Stars in 2008-09 …

Moving the Stars' American Hockey League affiliate to the Austin suburb of Cedar Park makes sense on a business level and performance level, but that doesn't mean it's going to be easy.

When ground is broken today on the Cedar Park Entertainment Center, the Stars have more to do than just construct the 6,800-seat building in time for the start of the 2009-10 season. They have to obtain an American Hockey League affiliate willing to move from its current city, they have to make decisions on where they will put their prospects for next season, and they have to figure out a deal for their two minor league coaches, Dave Allison and Paul Jerrard, who are under contract for next season.

"It's a complicated process, but it's one we believe will be worth it," said Stars co-general manager Les Jackson. "To be able to move the affiliate closer to our team and to an area like Austin, that's going to help us long term."

Finding the right home for the team's affiliate has been a challenge for years. Since they moved to Dallas in 1993, the Stars have been in Michigan, Utah and Iowa. They also split their prospects between Hamilton and Houston in the AHL for one season.

When the Stars announced this season that their intention was to build an arena in Cedar Park and change their affiliation in 2009, the Iowa organization ended the agreement early, sending the Stars looking for a temporary home for next season.

Already, Iowa has formed a new affiliation with the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks have said they hope to keep some of the Stars' prospects in Iowa.

Jackson said he is already studying where to place the Stars prospects. Among the potential affiliates are Iowa, Hamilton, Manitoba and Peoria.

"While it would be nice to put the majority in one place, I think we're looking out for what's best for each of these players," Jackson said. "If it helps them to develop, then that's what we're going to do. We want consistency, but we can bring them all back together the next year."

Jackson said he is prepared to lose Allison and Jerrard, who will probably want to find places to coach next season.

Kyle Gass’ appearance on Seinfeld – don’t blink – he is on today’s show at 2:15



Greatest Goals Ever Scored