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Aug. 3, 2005 1) Rafael Palmiero’s words are coming back to haunt him. Back in March, Palmiero emphatically told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that he did not use steroids, period. On Monday, he was suspended ten games by Major League Baseball when a drug test revealed steroids in his system. Palmiero recently became only the fifth player in major-league history to hit 500 homers and collect 3,000 total hits. He’s been heralded as one of the classiest guys in any pro sport. And he even put his personal life in the global spotlight, as a pitchman for the erectile-dysfunction drug Viagra® . As much as I want to believe the Rafael Palmiero is telling the truth, there’s no doubt that this incident will tarnish the plaque that will eventually hang in Cooperstown. 2) With only three wins so far this season, the Charlotte Sting traded beloved point guard Dawn Staley to the Houston Comets on Monday, just before the trade deadline. The trade ended a seven-year stay in which she helped lead the Sting to an improbable run to the WNBA Finals in 2001 and played in three All-Star games. Staley’s long list of accomplishments also includes three Olympic gold medals and two Atlantic 10 championships as head coach of Temple’s women’s basketball team. Dawn Staley returned to Charlotte this year because the team was believed to have a good chance of returning to the WNBA Finals. It was only fitting that she be sent to a team with a chance to win it all. Right now, Houston is in second place in the Western Conference. Best wishes to you, Dawn. You are a true class act who will be missed. 3) Diehard pro football fans will want to set their alarm clocks. The Atlanta Falcons face off against the Indianapolis Colts in the American Bowl, the first preseason game of the 2005 season, at 5 AM Eastern Time on Saturday, August 6 on ESPN 2. The game is being played on the other side of the Earth—specifically, Tokyo—thus the super-early start time. The Falcons gave the Philadelphia Eagles all they could handle before falling in the NFC Championship Game last year. The Colts, meanwhile, fell once again to their old AFC East rivals, the New England Patriots, in the Divisional Playoffs. Neither team is likely to player their starters more than a series or two. That means that coaches Tony Dungy and Jim Mora will give some other folks a long look, as the real battle for roster spots begins. On Monday night, August 9, former LSU head coach Nick Saban makes his NFL debut as the coach of the Miami Dolphins, when they face the Chicago Bears in the AFC-NFC Hall of Fame Game. The cap to a weekend of festivities that will feature the induction of four great players—modern stars Dan Marino and Steve Young, and classic players Benny Friedman and Fritz Pollard—the Hall of Fame Game has in years past provided the traditional kickoff to the preseason. For players looking to stay on the team, this prime-time showcase is a great springboard. ABC will carry the Hall of Fame game, with coverage beginning at 7 PM Eastern Time. The American Bowl and the Hall of Fame games are two of the eleven preseason telecasts to be carried by the NFL’s national broadcast partners—ABC, CBS, ESPN and Fox. Local stations like WCCB in Charlotte, WUPL in New Orleans, KDKA in Pittsburgh and KFMB in San Diego will also carry games for teams in their home markets. 4) Baseball’s best division, by far, is the National League East. From first-place Atlanta to the last-place New York Mets, there is a spread of 7 ½ games. Everyone in the division is playing better than .500 baseball. And they’re all in serious contention for a playoff berth. Baseball’s worst division is the National League West. Division co-leaders Arizona and San Diego are both three games under .500, as of the beginning of the night August 2. The Dodgers, despite being 11 games under .500, are only four games back of the leaders. And San Francisco, sans Barry Bonds and listing 14 games under the break-even point, are only 5 ½ out. Only Colorado, which is challenging Tampa Bay and Kansas City for the dubious distinction of Baseball’s Worst Team, is effectively out of the running in that division. 5) On July 22, the National Hockey League’s Board of Governors approved a bevy of rule changes that will go into effect when all thirty teams take to the ice on October 5. Among those changes is the institution of the shootout to settle ties during regular-season play. In the old overtime rules, a game could end tied after the five-minute, four-on-four sudden death overtime season. With the new rules in place, each team will get three attempts to score during the shootout. Once each team gets its three shots, the shootout becomes sudden death, with the team scoring first getting the win. Officially, a shootout win will be recorded as a one-goal victory for the winning team, according to the rules digest posted to NHL.com. These new rules do not affect playoff overtime rules, which require five-on-five play in twenty-minute periods until a winner is determined. When I first heard about the NHL’s decision to go with shootouts, I was appalled. I mean, ties are as much an NHL tradition as taking an octopus to a Red Wings game in Detroit. After all, where else in sports can you see some unbelievably funky win-loss-tie lines? But it doesn’t surprise me that the NHL has gone to this format. It’s been discussed for years, and has been part of the All-Star Game since 1994 (though it’s only been used once to date). Besides, the NHL will need to do everything it can to win back those fans it lost during the strike. Hockey, of course, will be a lot harder sell in areas like Miami, Phoenix and Raleigh-Durham, where hockey is a relatively recent attraction, than in battle-hardened cities like Montreal, New York, and Toronto, with established bases of savvy fans. Game on, again! ------------ About the author: Claxton Graham has written a number of articles for Useless Knowledge. He works as a business systems analyst. Email: scifiwriter8502@email.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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