Sports Roundup from Creators Syndicate

Women's Soccer Struggles a Decade After Glory for 07/10/2009

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Mark Zeigler

A packed Rose Bowl watched the United States defeat China in the 1999 Women's World Cup soccer final. The historic match marks its 10th anniversary Friday. (1999 file photo / Union-Tribune) -

You remember the 1999 Women's World Cup final. The Rose Bowl. A crowd of 90,185 that included President Clinton. A national television audience estimated at 40 million. The sc ...

Updated: Fri Jul 10, 2009

Track Star Finally Gets Gold for 07/17/2009

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Mark Zeigler

In August 2004, U.S. quarter-miler Calvin Harrison received a two-year suspension for taking a stimulant provided by the BALCO doping empire. The positive test came at the 2003 World Championships in Paris, and the victorious U.S. 4-x-400 meter relay team — Harrison ran the lead leg — was disqualified retroactively.

Tyree Washington was on that team. Th ...

Updated: Fri Jul 17, 2009

Jockeys Know Hard Truth: Catastrophe Lurks for 07/24/2009

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Tim Sullivan

DEL MAR, Calif. — Garrett Gomez could feel the bump beneath him.

He had seen Rafael Bejarano hit the ground, and he had thought there might be enough room on the rail to avoid trampling the fallen jockey. Yet in the split second Gomez was granted to make his calculations during Wednesday's third race at Del Mar, Bejarano had spun into the path of his horse's ...

Updated: Fri Jul 24, 2009

First, a Mexico Rout; Now, a Mexico Quandary for 07/31/2009

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Mark Zeigler

Notes and observations from a busy summer of soccer:

Javier Aguirre smiled and pumped his fist following Mexico's cathartic 5-0 thrashing of the United States in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final Sunday. But the great irony of the situation is this: He woke up the next morning in a far more vexing predicament than his American counterpart.

For Bob Bradley, it's si ...

Updated: Fri Jul 31, 2009

Winslow's New Gig Is Less Flashy, More Fun for 08/07/2009

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Nick Canepa

The life circle Kellen Winslow has drawn for himself hardly is complete or perfect. It has some wiggles to it. From high school chess whiz to Missouri All-America football player to Chargers first-round draft choice in 1979 to Hall of Famer to law school to agent to broadcaster to fighting for retired players to Disney Sports to his current position of athletic director at ...

Updated: Fri Aug 07, 2009

Book on Must-See Sports a Fun Read for 08/14/2009

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Nick Canepa

If put on the spot, my immediate guess would be that, if you asked San Diego sports fans to name the one sporting event they'd like to see live before they die, it would either be the Chargers winning a Super Bowl or the Padres a World Series. But this particular book doesn't involve science fiction.

Written by highly qualified Robert Tuchman, the recently released ...

Updated: Fri Aug 14, 2009

Favre Has His Ex-Fans Irrationally Cheesed Off for 08/21/2009

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Tim Sullivan

When Brett Favre throws in the towel, it invariably comes back to him like a boomerang.

His retirements are a tease, a recurring drama evidently designed to evade the tedium of training camp. But though his pattern has become all too predictable, Favre never fails to leave some fans feeling blindsided, and never more than now.

Seventeen months since his tear ...

Updated: Fri Aug 21, 2009

No Incentive to Come Clean Once Athletes Hit the Bigs for 08/28/2009

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Tim Sullivan

Derrick Rose says he did nothing wrong. But if that's the case, he should be screaming. He should be suing. He should be expending at least as much energy to repair his reputation as he would to retrieve a loose ball.

If he's really innocent, he should probably act less guilty.

The central figure in the University of Memphis basketball scandal has effectivel ...

Updated: Fri Aug 28, 2009

Padres Say Coleman Will Remain in "Family" for 09/04/2009

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Tim Sullivan

Jerry Coleman has a new deal. What he doesn't yet have is a job description.

The Padres' 84-year-old broadcaster is an institution nearly impervious to management changes, so much so that when he inquired about his future a few weeks ago, a new contract for 2010 materialized almost instantaneously.

But though the salary proved to be satisfactory, the respons ...

Updated: Fri Sep 04, 2009

Tila Tequila Hangover Might Sober Up Chargers for 09/11/2009

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Tim Sullivan

When the telephone rings between midnight and dawn, the odds are good that the news is bad.

"You'll never guess where I am," the ballplayer said upon rousing his team's traveling secretary in the middle of the night.

"You're in jail," the groggy man astutely replied, "or you wouldn't be calling me."

If Mickey Gilley had i ...

Updated: Fri Sep 11, 2009

A Worrisome Win, a Feeling of Defeat for 09/18/2009

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Nick Canepa

It was not, as Churchill rightly said of the England vs. Germany decision after Munich, a total and unmitigated defeat. It wasn't nearly so serious — it was a football game, not the harbinger of world war — and it wasn't a defeat, anyway. To so many who expected a slaughter, it just seemed that way.

Me, I thought San Diego would win by three touchdowns, ...

Updated: Fri Sep 18, 2009

SDSU Extends Coach Fisher's Contract for 09/25/2009

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Nick Canepa

As modern revelations go, this one likely will be bypassed in future Bible addendums: "San Diego State exercises its option on basketball coach Steve Fisher's contract through the 2012-13 season."

Pearl Harbor may have been a surprise — to everyone but the conspiracy theorists. Just say it was not Buster Douglas flattening Mike Tyson.

"Th ...

Updated: Fri Sep 25, 2009

Cushman's Book on Ali and His Era Is a Knockout for 10/02/2009

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Nick Canepa

"The Sweet Science is joined onto the past like a man's arm to his shoulder." — A.J. Liebling

When you've been a part of a quarter-century's-worth of Super Bowl weeks, they tend to run together like watercolors. So I'm not sure at which Roman numeral event this took place, but I know it was in Florida, and I'm almost positive it was Tampa, 1991. Tom ...

Updated: Fri Oct 02, 2009

L.A. Uses Right Strategy to Stump Carpenter for 10/09/2009

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Tim Sullivan

LOS ANGELES — The scouting report on Chris Carpenter should be succinct.

He throws hard. He works ahead. He does not nibble. He makes a hitter's patience problematic.

In line for his second Cy Young Award, the St. Louis Cardinals' right-handed efficiency expert threw fewer pitches per inning this season (13.9) than every major-league starter except his ...

Updated: Fri Oct 09, 2009

NFL Should Give Limbaugh the Bum's Rush for 10/16/2009

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Tim Sullivan

Rush Limbaugh has as much right to invest in the National Football League as does anyone else.

Which is, to be exact, none at all.

Repeat: None.

Despite keen public interest and significant taxpayer subsidies, the NFL is a private club, not a public institution. It has the same prerogative to screen its members as does Augusta National, and an identic ...

Updated: Fri Oct 16, 2009

Sabathia Leaving Angels Batters Feeling CC-Sick for 10/23/2009

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Tim Sullivan

ANAHEIM — Carsten Charles Sabathia prefers that his initials are not interrupted by punctuation. Thus he goes by CC, not C.C.

But the man himself is a double-wide exclamation point, big enough for a billboard. Big enough for Broadway.

Period.

The New York Yankees committed $161 million to woo the large free-agent lefty last winter, and for preci ...

Updated: Fri Oct 23, 2009

Left-Hander Lee Masterful in Shutting Down Yankees for 10/30/2009

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

By Tim Sullivan

NEW YORK — The ball left Robinson Cano's bat on a path that closely paralleled its trip to home plate. This caught Cliff Lee slightly out of position on the pitcher's mound, but not nearly out of tricks.

Philadelphia's resourceful left-hander obtained the first out of the eighth inning last night with a reflexive reach, a blind stab and a stunning snag of Can ...

Updated: Fri Oct 30, 2009

Rivers, Manning Forever Linked by Draft for 11/06/2009

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

By Kevin Acee

SAN DIEGO — For all Philip Rivers and Eli Manning have been mentioned together, they have hardly ever met.

So much time has passed, and the whole thing never was personal between them anyway. And they don't really play against each other. So this is all a little bit about nothing pertinent, really.

Except that one will never be extricated from the other. ...

Updated: Fri Nov 06, 2009

Norv Knows Emotion for 11/13/2009

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

By Nick Canepa

SAN DIEGO — All it really took were about two New York minutes. Just 125 seconds of Eastern Standard Time, that's all, to expose the side of Norv Turner those outside his personal orbit rarely catch without Galileo's contraption. You know, the side Norv's Legion of Loathers claim doesn't exist.

But it does. He sometimes may be as emotional and spontaneous as a ...

Updated: Fri Nov 13, 2009

Fining Ochocinco Over Bribery Jest Is a Joke for 11/20/2009

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

By Nick Canepa

I like Chad Ochocinco. He breathes fresh air into the NFL's stuffy room. But the jocular, innovative Bengals receiver once known as Chad Johnson has to understand The League rarely opens a window. Premier Roger Goodell and his comrades have the sense of humor of Soupy Stalin's Politburo.

This time, 85's antics have cost him $20,000, which is $19,999 too much. If the ...

Updated: Fri Nov 20, 2009