Happy Tuesday everyone, here's my Top 5 for March 8, 2011 from Len Berman at ThatsSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
* College basketball tournament week kicks off big time today with the start of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden.
* Texas Tech fires basketball coach Pat Knight after 3 seasons. He's Bobby Knight's son.
* The old backtrack. After saying Sunday that some of his players were "crying in the locker room" after losing to Chicago, Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra blamed the media for blowing it out of proportion.
* Horse of the year Rachel Alexandra is pregnant. She was introduced to two-time horse of the year Curlin in a breeding shed. He had her at "neigh."
2. The Supremes
It's the end of the line for a lawsuit filed by a New Jersey attorney. He had filed a class action suit over "Spygate," the Patriots' illegally videotaping Jets signals during games. He wanted millions from the Patriots and coach Bill Belichick because fans were "deceived," and they paid lots of money to see "rigged games." The case was thrown out in lower court and made its way all the way to the Supreme Court. They dismissed it without comment. Too bad. I would have loved to hear the highest court in the land weigh-in with their thoughts on the Patriots, the Jets and their fans.
3. A Modest Proposal
Former Newsday columnist Stan Isaacs struck a chord with me. He proposes that baseball fans in the stadium should have the same replays as the fans watching at home. It's long been a pet peeve of mine. Remember game 6 between the Yankees and Red Sox when Alex Rodriguez illegally slapped the ball out of Bronson Arroyo's glove? Yankee fans threw junk on the field in protest. If they had shown the replay on the scoreboard, fans would have seen it was the correct call. But no replay. I asked umpire Joe West about it before game 7. He said you can't show any close calls because "if you show the ones we get right, then if you don't show a replay, the fans will think we got it wrong." So bottom line, the fan who pays the most sees the least.
4. Big Shot
Not a bad way to go out. Retiring Augusta Georgia high school basketball coach Robin Kelsch called his own number at the end of the game. And of course he hit the last shot. Huh?
It didn't count, and the other team was in on it. Details, details.
5. Name Game
Yesterday I mentioned Bart Scott's claim that he trademarked "Can't Wait!" The linebacker yelled it into an ESPN microphone after the Jets beat New England in the playoffs and he was looking forward to playing Pittsburgh. Attorney Thomas S. wrote "I don't understand how anyone can obtain (or enforce) a trademark for a phrase that is so common that a Google search for the phrase can return 378 million results." Gary A. responded, "If the late Tug McGraw didn't get a trademark for 'You Gotta Believe!' then no one in sports has the right to trademark anything." But I preferred Jerrold S. playing along with my premise on Facebook at "Len Berman's Top 5." I suggested Plaxico Burress could trademark "Aw, Shoot!" Jerrold countered, "How about Mike Tyson and 'Bite Me'"?
Happy Birthday: Red Sox Hall of Famer Jim Rice. 58.
Bonus Birthday: Hey Hey he's Micky Dolenz of the Monkees. 66.
Today in Sports: In the "Fight of the Century" Joe Frazier beats Muhammad Ali at Madison Square Garden. 1971.
Bonus Event: Giving the Boston Red Sox an idea of how to refer to the Yankees, President Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "Evil Empire." 1983.
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