Top 5 Sports Stories

Happy Thursday everyone, here's my Top 5 for November 12, 2009 from www.ThatsSports.com.

1. Quick Hits

Mike Tyson was arrested in L.A. after an airport scuffle with a celebrity photographer. The photog was also arrested.

LeBron James says he is through talking about free agency until after the season. He says free agent talk is getting "old." Not to Knick fans who have nothing else to hang on to.

Thursday night NFL football has arrived. The 49ers host the Bears tonight.

You too can buy Joe Montana's 500-acre estate for a "49er." As in $49-million. It's so big in stretches into 2 California counties, Sonoma and Napa.

According to the New York Daily News Kate Hudson is pushing A-Rod to elope, but the big guy ain't ready.

2. Silly Season

The late great Betty Furness once told me there are two seasons. Baseball and Christmas. Breaking it down even further, the baseball season has two parts, A. In season games. B. Off season games. Part B is underway. B as in Boras. Super agent Scott Boras is already beating the drums why his client Johnny Damon deserves a big fat multi-year contract despite the fact he is really a limited player. To hear Boras talk, if it weren't for Damon batting second, Jeter batting first wouldn't have thrived so well. Before Boras is done, Damon will have cured swine flu.

3. Not so Big Mac

The St. Louis Cardinals may have a new hitting coach. What they still don't have is a news conference to introduce Mark McGwire. That wasn't always the case. I was in Jupiter in February of 1999 when McGwire took his first cuts of the spring. He had set the world on fire with his home run heroics the previous season. His ensuing news conference was the most attended spring training news conference ever, until Alex Rodriguez and steroids came along. McGwire's introduction to the media this year will be an event. His last public utterances, before Congress, were that he only wanted to talk about the future. McGwire can't escape his past. And until he addresses it, he will have no future.

4. Yeah, but

You had to love Jim Boeheim's reaction to winning his 800th game as Syracuse basketball coach. "I guess there's a 'wow' factor, winning 800. But then, it's not like playing golf with Tiger Woods. I mean, that's a real 'wow' factor.''

Boeheim knows something about golf. He's an outstanding golfer. Doesn't look like an athlete eh? The very first game I ever announced in 1965, Boeheim played in that game. He was a heck of a scrappy/heady player.

800 and a national championship? All I can say is "wow."

5. Golfing Mayhem

In Athens Georgia, two golfers were playing the 14th hole when another twosome came up and started a fight. One golfer got punched in the eye and was treated at the hospital. This has touched off a heated debate on an Athens newspaper website. The consensus is the problem must have been slow play. One guy ranted "If you slow play you deserve to get your butt kicked." Someone countered "Very sensible. Oh, and if someone cuts you off in traffic, be sure to shoot them dead, because that's obviously the right way to handle the situation." I love this game!

Happy Birthday: The first perfect 10! (And featured in my new kids book "The Greatest Moments in Sports)," Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci. 48.

Bonus Birthday: The figure skater best known for orchestrating an attack on rival Nancy Kerrigan (and not featured in my new kids book "The Greatest Moments in Sports"), Tonya Harding. 39.

Today in Sports: Mets pitcher Tom Seaver wins his third and final Cy Young Award. 1975.

Bonus Event: That man on the flying trapeze. For the first time Jules Leotard performed his act. Yup, that's why they call it a leotard! (How educational is this?) 1859.

 

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