Happy Wednesday everyone, here's my Top 5 for November 11, 2009 from www.ThatsSports.com.
1. Quick Hits
After all the botched umpire calls, baseball general managers don't bother to discuss expanding the use of instant replay at their annual meeting. I would have used replay to determine fair or foul down the lines.
Don't you love the experts who proclaimed that Derek Jeter was among the worst shortstops? Overrated, limited range. Yesterday he won the Gold Glove for fielding.
Using the slower low-tech bathing suit, Michael Phelps fails to qualify for 2 of the 3 finals at a Stockholm swim meet.
2. Crime and Punishment
Former top ranked tennis player Marat Safin says Andre Agassi should give back the trophies and money he won by winning Grand Slam tournaments after failing a drug test and lying about it. The tennis people let Andre Agassi slide when he said, oops I didn't mean to do it. Then again these same people bought Richard Gasquet's story that he flunked a drug test because he kissed a girl who had been using cocaine. And we know all about Serena Williams' slap on the wrist for her behavior at the U.S. Open. If I ever break the rules, I want tennis people as my judge and jury!
3. Role Models
On this Veterans Day, Top 5 subscriber Bill V. an Air Force veteran, offers this poignant thought: "The Yankees championship parade up the Canyon of Heroes on lower Broadway attracted thousands. It's a shame that if the real heroes marched up that same canyon today very few would come."
4. The Miracle on Ice
When I asked yesterday about which moment I might have ranked #1 in my new kids' book The Greatest Moments in Sports, many of you correctly guessed The Miracle on Ice. (Sorry no prizes.) I loved subscriber Phil G.'s story.
"On that night in 1980 I was at MSG. Sha Na Na opened for Jay and the Americans. The scoreboard kept giving updates and when they posted the final score the place went nuts. Jay came out, did his opening song, then said 'We haven't done this next song in years, but we just decided to add it today because WE BEAT THOSE F***ING RUSSIANS!' They then launched into a spirited version of "Only in America" and you can imagine the reaction."
I guess Jay Black summed up so "eloquently" what most Americans were thinking.
5. Code of Conduct
A New Mexico women's soccer player has been banned after punching, kicking, and pulling the hair of a BYU player on the field. A girls high school game in Rhode Island also degenerated into hair pulling and brawling. That was tame compared with Australia. At a soccer game there, police were called to quell a disturbance among the fans. Nothing new in soccer. But some of the fans were wielding spears and axes. What started it all? When one of the players was awarded a free kick. They have a cheer in Australia that goes "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oy, Oy, Oy." They've got the oy part right.
Happy Birthday: Former Masters and U.S. Open champion Fuzzy Zoeller. 58. Bonus Birthday: Actor Leonardo DiCaprio. 35.
Today in Sports: Now we're having fun. The New York Knicks played their first game at the old Madison Square Garden. (Yes they lost.) 1946.
Bonus Event: On this date, the 11th hour, the 11th month, the 11th day World War I effectively ended. 1918. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11th to be Armistice Day. In 1954 President Eisenhower signed a bill honoring all veterans.
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