Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category

Landis had positive test after Stage 17

I find this difficult to believe, but only because I cannot fathom someone doing something so blindingly stupid.

If he’s truly guilty he I hope the price he pays is steep. Every American will be shamed by this if it turns out to be right.

Coker tells Miami players no guns allowed on Hurricanes

In the wake of a shooting incident last week near the Miami (Fla.) campus, Hurricanes coach Larry Coker said he plans to discourage players from owning handguns.

“I don’t really want our players to have firearms. I’d rather they would dial 911 to come and handle those type of problems,” Coker said at ACC Football Kickoff media days Monday.

Hurricanes reserve safety Willie Cooper was shot in the buttocks outside his home last Friday morning by an unknown person who fled after Cooper’s roommate, safety Brandon Meriweather, the Hurricanes’ leading tackler last season, returned gunfire. Police said Meriweather used his gun legally because he has a permit for the gun.

This story is in the USA Today, which recently explained that a bystander “tackled” a person who went on a rampage with a knife, rather than write that the bystander had used a 9mm handgun to scare off the attacker.

I’m wondering why they didn’t write this time that Cooper was tackled (he’s a football player, after all) rather than shot, and that Meriweather tackled (he’s a football player, after all, and the team’s leading, um, tackler) the attacker. (via GunPro)

…killed for not becoming a terrorist.

Tennis World: A Moment of Silence, Please

In May I noted that two Iraqi tennis players had been killed because they were wearing shorts. Peter Bodo’s blog on Tennis.com tells a different story:

Some of you may know that the Iraqi national coach and the nation’s No. 1 and No. 4 players were murdered recently – the newspaper reports said it was because they wore shorts in public. This, according to Haider, is false. They were killed because one of the players, who hailed from a town that is a hotbed of the insurgency, was approached and asked to drive a car bomb and detonate it in a neighborhood said to be frequented by Americans….

The player refused, partly because there were no longer foreigners in that neighborhood, just Iraqis. So the insurgents changed their plans and killed the tennis players instead. “It had nothing to do with wearing shorts,” Haider told me. “These guys were very traditional and correct about things like that.”

via Sullivan.

The family and some guests from out of town headed over to Detroit to catch the Tigers and Yankees on Memorial Day, and we passed this machine on I-96:

They must have been doing about 60 MPH, and didn’t seem to be part of a convoy of any sort. I didn’t see any other military vehicles at all. Probably headed out to or back from a parade somewhere, I imagine. Murdoc gave them the thumbs up and got it back in return. Looked like everyone was honking or waving as they passed.

Couple more closer pics below.

Read the rest of this entry »

The top two seeds in the West are out. Go Avs!

Hall of Famer Puckett, 45, dies of stroke
Widely popular player led Twins to World Series titles in 1987, 1991

Murdoc grew up in Minnesota, and for years a Hrbie-Kirby poster adorned the wall of my room. I think I still have it somewhere.

Of all the great moments in Puckett’s career, I’ve got to say that Game 6 of the 1991 World Series is the greatest. After making an astounding leaping catch earlier in the game to rob a sure extra-base run-scoring hit from Ron Gant, Puckett won the game with a lead-off walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th. It was the stuff of legends.

Thanks for the memories, Puck.

UPDATE: Baseball Crank notes that the baseball player Puckett (as percieved by his fans) was a seemingly far-different man than the person Puckett. As is usually the case, unfortunately.

(And please forgive the sports post, which is a departure from typical Murdoc fare. MO will return to laser-guided stuff and things that blow up other things very shortly…)

UPDATE 2: Baseball Musings has a great Puckett Roundup.

First of all, I don’t know what to say about Lindsey Jacobellis besides “what a jackass”. I mean, really.

I have no problem with hot-dogging it. But how about winning first? And I hoped she would refuse to speak to the media right after, because as bad as it would look it would be better than what she was likely to say. She didn’t, and she said the sort of thing I was afraid she would.

Without trying to make it into too big of a deal, she represents America and I gotta say that she did a piss-poor job of it today. Losing is one thing. Losing something you absolutely should have won is another. But this is something completely different. I never thought I’d be so ashamed of a US silver medal.

Tied for last-place today in Murdoc’s mind is the local NBC affiliate’s coverage. At least twice we were promised, by our local news crew, coverage of the story. So I fired this off to our affiliate (WOOD-TV 8) and NBC:

How about not giving away the results of the events you’re going to televise later?

It’s tough enough trying to ignore other television stations and the internet in order to enjoy tape-delayed coverage without the station carrying the Olympics spilling the beans.

At least twice, once at the beginning of Olympic coverage and then AGAIN later in the evening we were promised local news coverage of the US snowboarder who had to settle for silver after blowing her chance at gold. I knew what had happened because I had inadvertently seen it online, but my wife and kids (who are following the Olympics closely) were unhappy to have a fun new event spoiled.

I will also be contacting NBC directly about this.

Don’t apologize. Just stop it.

I just want to watch and be proud of our athletes. Tough day for that, I guess.

And does CNBC stand for CURLING-NBC, or what? Sheesh…

As this site has grown, I’ve pretty much quit blogging about sports. But there’s one thing that Murdoc has to say:

It’s a crime that Art Monk has been denied entry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame for a third consecutive year.

Between his retirement and his eligibility, others have surpassed his then-record numbers. This surely lessened the significance of his 106 receptions in 1984 or his 940 career catches. Both were records when he retired, though both have since been eclipsed as NFL offenses have opened it up through the air.

What stands out for me (Full Disclosure: Murdoc’s a major Redskins fan) is the fact that Monk was a big guy when all the receivers were little guys. He wasn’t fast, he was in the right place at the right time. He wasn’t flashy, he was on the field doing his job and doing it well.

Virtually every season, the WR opposite Monk was the one that was in the highlight reels. But virtually every season it was Monk that made the clutch catches when it mattered the most. Gary Clark might catch the winning pass in the fourth quarter, but Monk caught two third down conversions on the way to the red zone.

Monk was the consummate professional. He was a solid member of many good (and a couple great) teams. He deserves the Hall.

I noted linebacker Robert McCune when he was drafted by Washington and when he arrived at training camp. Unfortunately, McCune was cut by the team yesterday as they pared their roster to the regular season limit.

Early on, McCune earned quite a bit of praise from the coaching staff. Hopefully, they’ll consider adding him to the practice squad or another team will grab him.

The real world has been putting a major damper on posting today. Job security and all, I guess. Anyway, here’s a quickie on the former US Army soldier drafted (heh…drafted) by the Washington Redskins:

McCune Takes Long Way To Redskins’ Rookie Camp

Inside linebacker Robert McCune was taken in the fifth round last weekend and has an excellent chance to make the team an contribute:

Because of a three-year stint in the Army, followed by a three-year commitment to the National Guard while at the University of Louisville, McCune, 26, has experienced situations foreign to the Redskins’ other rookies: He spent April 1998 to April 1999 in South Korea as a petroleum specialist, supplying fuel for an infantry unit. A six-month assignment on a peacekeeping unit in Kuwait followed.

Despite McCune’s age, the Redskins used their fifth-round choice (154th overall) on the linebacker. “A lot of people probably backed off because of his age,” said Coach Joe Gibbs, “but for us, he’s a value.”

The Redskins liked McCune’s mix of speed and strength. At 6 feet, 243 pounds, he had the most impressive physique among the 70 players at camp. He hopes to fit in at a position, middle linebacker, that has been in flux since Antonio Pierce departed in March for the New York Giants.

And

McCune was disappointed that he didn’t get scholarship offers from Division I-A football programs and turned down offers from smaller schools such as Alabama State and Grambling. He had a plan: Enlist in the Army, then use money from the GI bill toward a Division I-A college before joining the football team as a walk-on.

In the Army, McCune killed time by complementing its rigorous exercise regimen. In the desert in Kuwait, McCune picked up rocks to use as dumbbells. McCune kept one rock, despite its sharp edges, for three months because of its ideal weight. When other soldiers teased McCune for his maniacal workouts, he told them of his goal to play college football.

After completing active duty, McCune ended up at Louisville partly because his cousin, Tiger Jones, recommended the school after receiving a scholarship out of high school. Only hours after drafting McCune, the Redskins signed Jones as an undrafted free agent wideout. “I was just like, ‘Wow, here we go again,’ ” McCune said yesterday.