Happy Thursday everyone, here's my Top 5 for November 18, 2010 from Len Berman at www.ThatsSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
* The Managers of the Year are Bud Black of San Diego (barely beating out Dusty Baker of the Reds), and Ron Gardenhire of Minnesota.
* Portland's Greg Oden has morphed into Carl Pavano when he played for the Yankees. He's out for the season again with knee surgery. In his four NBA seasons, he has played just 82 games.
* FIFA has suspended two executive committee members in a bribe scandal over which country gets to host future World Cups. Just curious what qualifies for a lifetime ban in soccer?
* Coming off her only loss, the great mare Zenyatta is officially retired.
* And I guess this is a sports story. Actress Eva Longoria files for divorce from Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs. They were married in 2007.
2. Tiger Paws
Get ready for Tiger Woods, the remake. He wrote an introspective piece for Newsweek, "How I've Redefined Victory." He was scheduled to go on ESPN radio this morning for a rare live interview. And tada, he's now using Twitter. When word got out, he immediately amassed around 150,000 Twitter followers in hours. It proves, despite it all, people are interested in what he thinks. So far, he's only following 7 Tweeters. I'm personally crushed that @LenBermanSports isn't one of them.
3. Stan The Man
I was hoping to meet Stan Musial on my trip to St. Louis this week. I've met 13 of the 25 in my book, The 25 Greatest Baseball Players Of All Time, but not Stan. He probably thinks I'm stalking him, so I'll lay low for awhile. It was announced yesterday that the White House will honor him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. Not a bad present for one of the all time greats who turns 90 years young this Sunday.
4. Awards
Yesterday we ran a poll for the Top 5 Sportsperson and Team of the year. The U-Conn women's basketball team nosed out the San Francisco Giants for top honors. How quickly you guys forgot about the New Orleans Saints. As for Sportsperson of the year, the top vote-getter was Elin Nordegren for how she's handled her former husband's transgressions. And Top 5 subscribers being "Top 5 Subscribers," your comments about the Chilean miners (finalists for Time's Person of the Year) didn't really surprise me. David R. wrote, "what did they do other than NOT DIE?" And Peter A. scoffed, "Talk about being in the right place at the right time."
This is a tough room.
5. Killjoys
Harvard University announced that for the 127th meeting between Harvard and Yale this Saturday vuvuzelas will not make an appearance. They have banned the pesky noise makers that were all the rage (scorn) during World Cup soccer in South Africa. In a slightly pretentious press release, Harvard proclaimed, "Artificial noisemakers will not be permitted inside the ticketed footprint of Harvard Stadium." Presumably global warming is still allowed.
Happy Birthday: The Red Sox Big Papi, David Ortiz. 35.
Bonus Birthday: Actor Owen Wilson. 42.
Today In Sports: Ouch! The Giants Lawrence Taylor does a number on the Redskins Joe Theismann's leg, ending his career. 1985.
Bonus Event: Mickey's debut. The first sound cartoon premieres, Steamboat Willie, starring none other than Mickey Mouse. Take a look. 1928.