Top 5 Sports Stories

1. Quick Hits

The U.S. Open begins its two week run today in Flushing Meadows. Heath Slocum wins the Barclays golf in Jersey City at 9-under par. Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington and Steve Stricker finish one shot back. Chula Vista California wins the Little League World Series beating Taiwan 6-3. Minor league baseball players will wear safer helmets next season, able to withstand 100 mph fastballs. Some major leaguers think the helmet is too bulky. Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi is announcing his retirement today. The 3-time Super Bowl Champion overcame a stroke to return to football.

2. Bern Baby Bern

The shadow of Bernie Madoff will continue to be long and arduous. Fred Wilpon went public this weekend to deny assertions in a new book that he'll have to sell the Mets because of the Madoff mess. His denials over the "Madoff effect" have been loud and consistent. Of course fans, being fans, and the media being the media, will read Madoff into every Mets financial move. The cliched truth is, only time will tell. But given Fred Wilpon's reputation we should take him at face value until he proves otherwise.

3. Andre the Giant

They say "you never get a second chance to make a first impression." Not true. Andre Agassi burst on the scene with his vapid "image is everything campaign." Years later, he's a serious family man devoted to "giving back." It's fitting he'll be honored tonight at the U.S. Open. He once told me he regrets the whole "image thing." I'm sure he does. Few people in the public eye get mulligans. But if I can mix metaphors, he took his mulligan and hit it out of the park.

4. Grouching Tiger

Tiger Woods snubbed the media two days in a row at the Barclays. In any other sport he'd be "punished." Remember LeBron James? Not in golf. Tiger runs the show. The inmate runs the asylum. Message to Tiger: You are not stiffing the media, you are stiffing your fans. Although keep up the petulance and you'll have fewer of them by the day.

5. Live From New York

Andrew Giuliani, Rudy's kid, turned pro this year in golf. The other day he won his first tournament, the Met Open Championship at Ridgewood Country Club. People still think of Andrew as that precocious kid mimicked by the late Chris Farley on Saturday Night Live. I played golf with Andrew a couple of years back. Great golfer, obviously. More important, a really nice young man. Good going kid.

Happy Birthday: Some Giants coaches. Current Giants coach Tom. Coughlin. 63. And the man he replaced, Jim Fassel. 60. Bonus Birthday: Actor Richard Gere. 60.

Today in Sports: Undefeated Heavyweight Champion Rocky Marciano dies in an airplane crash. 40 years ago today. 1969. Bonus Event: Another tragedy. The passing of Princess Diana. 1997.

Follow Len Berman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lenbermansports