Sports Quote of the Day:
"Build on your weaknesses until they become your strong points." ~ Knute Rockne, Legendary Notre Dame Football Coach
Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2013, And More.
So how about seven factoids to go with seven new members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2013?
Here are a few interesting odds and ends regarding this year's class and the fraternity that is now 280 members strong. Congratulations to all seven enshrinees and their families.
Bear Down Chicago Bears!!! Pope sees opportunity with Bears.
By Jake Flannigan
The Bears signed Martellus Bennett to a long-term deal in the offseason in an attempt to upgrade the tight end position. Now the team is looking to provide more experience and depth to the position with the signing of Leonard Pope.
In just over a week of training camp, Bennett has clearly given quarterback Jay Cutler a much-needed playmaker in the middle of the field. While Bennett has shined, the other tight ends have not been quite as impactful, opening up an opportunity for the veteran Pope.
“No doubt, it’s not going to be easy,” Pope said following Saturday night's Comcast Bears Family Fest. “I know what it takes to be the type of player that you need to be, so I’m just working my way up the ladder right now.”
Pope’s 6-foot-8 frame would typically be a noticeable advantage, but three of the five tight ends are 6-foot-6 (Bennett, Steve Maneri and Fendi Onobun), while Kyle Adams and Gabe Miller are only a few inches shorter on the height chart.
Regardless of measurables, Pope believes his greatest asset may simply be man-hours on the job.
“Obviously experience, going on my eighth year in the league,” Pope said. “We’ve got a great set of guys with Martellus [Bennett] and Steve Maneri and those caliber guys. Andy Bischoff is a great coach and I’m just happy to be here right now.”
Bischoff, the Bears first year tight ends coach, is one of the few Alouette staffers who made the trip south to Chicago from Montreal with head coach Marc Trestman. While Pope was inked in large part due to his past, Trestman feels the immediate future will likely be much more important in determining where the veteran will fit on this year’s team.
"He had a good workout for us, he's just getting started so it'll be a big week for him as he grows in our offense and gets to know our locker room," Trestman said.
Back in 2007, Pope caught 23 passes for 238 yards and five touchdowns with the Arizona Cardinals, but last season in Pittsburgh he only had three catches for nine yards and two scores. But Pope's production may not be necessarily about quantity, but instead about quality. The former Georgia Bulldog has been a matchup nightmare in the red zone throughout his entire career, something the Bears will certainly look to utilize if he sticks on the roster this season.
Some may recall that Pope received national attention in 2011 when he dove into a pool fully clothed, with his wallet and cell phone in his pockets, to save a drowning boy.
By Sean Leahy
Fall will be here soon enough, which means it's going to be corn maze time! As we saw in 2010 and 2011 when farms in Illinois and New Hampshire honored the Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks and Bruins with corn mazes, the trend will return for 2013.
County Line Orchard is a farm in Hobart, Indiana and beginning with their opening day on Sept. 3, a corn maze honoring the Blackhawks and Patrick Kane will be open for patrons to find their way through:
County Line Orchard
The maze will only be open during October and November, so if Kane is missing from the Blackhawks' lineup in early December, he's probably stuck somewhere in the field.
County Line isn't the only midwestern farm getting in on the act. Siegel's Cottonwood Farm in Crest Hill, Illinois, who made one in honor of the Blackhawks in 2010 as well, will have one of their own again, but with a twist ... a zombified twist:
That's the kind of Blackhawks logo we envision when we eat one too many of Wysh's famous brownies. No word on if the corn maze will look better under a black light, either.
According to the site, "Try to make your way through the 2013 'Zombie Blackhawks' Maze without being eaten. You only have 17 seconds to ecsape [sic] before Zombies score snack for the day."
The zombie maze opens on Sept. 22.
Timing bizarre on NHL Seattle expansion rumors.
By Ryan Lambert
The Phoenix Coyotes ordeal (more on that in a minute!) coming to and end -- or what seems to at least look kind of like a resolution if you unfocus your eyes and squint a little bit -- seemed, for a fantastical moment, to put to rest the idea of an NHL team playing in Seattle any time soon.
Motivated theoretical buyers or not, the chances that it actually happened always seemed at least a little slim considering how closely the league had held onto Making Hockey Work in a place where hockey is obviously and completely unworkable. The sale of the Coyotes to that shadowy cabal of out-of-town money men looked like it rolled a big stone in front of the cave above which was written "The Seattle Metropolitans or Whatever."
But lo, just two months later, the stone has been rolled away and out has stepped reports of Gary Bettman, gaze averted in supplication to the league's owners begging them to consider allowing the Pacific Northwest to bring into the world an expansion team, with all the fees that would come with it.
Easy to dismiss, at first blush. After all, how many local sports personalities who had pretensions of being plugged in came forth with false news of sales being signed and sealed with the blood of another Shane Doan elbowing victim, delivered by Greg Jamison and a host of others, only to have them evaporate in the hot desert sun? (Jude LaCava, we're looking at you here.)
But then the details got specific: The team would come with an expansion fee of $275 million, about $95 million more than the agreed-to Coyotes sale price. Again, this is reasonable. Expansion costs more than buying a team on the very definition of its last financial legs, and certainly the league is always looking to make current owners richer, as is its ongoing purpose despite all the hockey it plays to distract fans from that fact.
A whole new team? Despite the fact that it would bring the number of teams in the league to a cumbersome 31, that at least gets you a little closer to the 32 needed — and probably targeted — to even out the conferences from their current absurd 16-in-the-East-and-14-in-the-West format.
Back to the mundanities, such an expansion effort would require a "solid" ownership group and a new arena. Both of which we already knew about, though one wonders what, exactly, the league would consider to be "solid" in 2013 given the kind of people it has allowed to get involved in this kind of thing in the near past: actual criminals and, more recently, guys with little more backing than a hope, a history in NHL boardrooms, and an ugly suit. The group that wanted in on the Coyotes is at least one of the current interested expansion bidders.
Obviously the arena thing is theoretically taken care of, as was explored without end during the latest Coyotes ownership shuffle (which I promise I'm getting to), because some people want to build a new arena in the Emerald City that would ideally house both an NBA and NHL team. You'll recall that the Oilers were also recently linked to such a deal because Darryl Katz was being a crybaby about Edmonton's desire to finance an arena.
Oh but here's the kicker on the rumored Seattle expansion: The team would enter the league at the start of 2014-15. You know, like, 15 months from now.
AP source: A-Rod can play during suspension appeal.
By
Alex Rodriguez will be suspended Monday, likely through the 2014 season, as part of Major League Baseball's latest drug investigation but can play while he appeals, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.
Major League Baseball informed the New York Yankees on Sunday that A-Rod will be suspended for his links to a clinic accused of distributing banned performance-enhancing drugs, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because no statement was authorized.
The Yankees weren't told the exact length of the suspension, though they were under the impression it will be through the 2014 season, the person said. The Yankees star could get a shorter penalty if he agrees to give up the right to file a grievance and force the case before an arbitrator, the person added.
A suspension from Monday through 2014 would add to 214 games, and an unsuccessful appeal could stretch serving the penalty into 2015. In the era before players and owners agreed to a drug plan in late 2002, arbitrators often shortened drug suspensions - in the case of Yankees pitcher Steve Howe, his penalty was cut from a lifetime ban to 119 days.
MLB planned an announcement for noon EDT Monday, a second person familiar with the deliberations said, also on condition of anonymity.
Rodriguez is the most famous player linked to the now-closed Biogenesis of America anti-aging clinic in Florida, and the Yankees expect him to be charged with interfering with MLB's investigation, resulting in a harsher penalty than the other 13 players facing discipline.
Barring an agreement, Rodriguez's appeal would be heard by arbitrator Fredric Horowitz.
Adding to the drama: The 38-year-old Rodriguez, a three-time AL MVP, was due to return to the major leagues Monday night when the Yankees play at Chicago White Sox, his first big league appearance since hip surgery in January.
''He's in there, and I'm going to play him,'' Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Sunday after New York's 6-3 loss at San Diego.
Yankees outfielder Curtis Granderson was excited A-Rod could play during an appeal.
''I want him back with us. This is arguably one of the best hitters of all-time,'' he said.
''Having him in the lineup is obviously going to be very positive for us.''
New York is a season-high 9 1/2 games out of first place in the AL East and 4 1/2 out in the race for the second wild-card spot.
''We're going to be happy to see him back in the lineup, especially the way we've been playing,'' second baseman Robinson Cano said. ''He can come up and help us win some games.''
All-Stars Nelson Cruz of Texas, Jhonny Peralta of Detroit and Everth Cabrera of San Diego were among those who could get 50-game suspensions from the probe, sparked in January when Miami New Times published documents linking many players to the closed clinic in Coral Gables, Fla.
Many players were expected to agree to penalties and start serving them immediately, but an appeal by a first-offender under the drug agreement would postpone his suspension until after a decision by an arbitrator.
Milwaukee outfielder Ryan Braun, the 2011 NL MVP, agreed July 22 to a 65-game ban through the rest of the 2013 season for his role with Biogenesis. Braun was given a 50-game suspension for elevated testosterone that was overturned last year by arbitrator Shyam Das because of issues with the handing of the urine sample.
Since spring training, the union has said it will consider stiffer penalties starting in 2014.
''The home runs that are hit because a guy's on performance-enhancing substances, those ruin somebody's ERA, which ruins their arbitration case, which ruins their salary,'' Los Angeles Angels pitcher C.J. Wilson said. ''So it's a whole domino effect.''
Rodriguez's return from hip surgery was slowed by a quadriceps injury. He completed his second minor league injury rehabilitation assignment on Saturday night, a two-day stay at Double-A Trenton. Rodriguez walked in all four plate appearances, a day after hitting a two-run homer.
Following Friday night's game, Rodriguez all but said he thought MLB and the Yankees were conspiring to keep him from getting back to the big leagues.
''There is more than one party that benefits from me not ever stepping back on the field. And that's not my teammates and it's not the Yankee fans,'' said, adding: ''When all this stuff is going on in the background and people are finding creative ways to cancel your contract and stuff like that, I think that's concerning for me.''
He last played in October, going 3 for 25 (.120) with no RBIs in the playoffs.
Rodriguez is owed $8,568,306 of his $28 million salary from Monday through the rest of the season and $86 million for the final four years of his contract with the Yankees.
Girardi didn't think A-Rod's arrival would create more turmoil than the Yankees already are used to.
''I don't suspect it'll be awkward. Most of these guys know him as a teammate and have laughed a lot with Alex and been around Alex a lot,'' he said. ''I think it'll be business as usual. I'm sure there will be more media there, obviously, tomorrow, but I think that's probably more for Alex to deal with than the rest of the guys. I don't think it'll be a big deal.''
Lawyers involved in the drug cases have been trying to reach agreements that would avoid grievances. Deal or no deal, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig was prepared to announce discipline.
Peralta didn't think the possibility of a suspension made it harder to focus on the field.
''Nothing to worry about,'' he said. ''Play the game how I play every day, and try to enjoy every day.''
Asked what action he would take if penalized, Cruz said: ''I haven't decided what I'm going to do.''
There have been 43 suspensions under the major league drug agreement since testing with penalties for first offenses started in 2005. The longest penalty served has been a 100-game suspension by San Francisco pitcher Guillermo Mota for a positive test for Clenbuterol, his second drug offense.
In addition, Tampa Bay outfielder Manny Ramirez retired two years ago rather than face a 100-game suspension. When he decided to return for 2012 the penalty was cut to 50 games because he already had sat out almost an entire season.
Colorado catcher Eliezer Alfonzo was suspended for 100 games in September 2011, but the penalty was rescinded the following May because of handling issues similar to the ones involving Braun's urine sample.
Bulls Butler on Heat three peat: "We can't let that happen."
By Kurt Helin
(Getty Images)
Opening night of the NBA season, the Miami Heat are going to raise another banner and get their second set of championship rings.
Then they will have to take on the Chicago Bulls, now with Derrick Rose. The Bulls and Heat have started to develop a nice rivalry and this coming season promises to build on that (if everyone can just stay healthy).
Adding a little fuel to that fire is Bulls two guard Jimmy Butler, who went on ESPN Radio in Chicago and said the Bulls players don’t want to watch the Heat ring ceremony and have to shut down a Heat three-peat (as transcribed at ESPNChicago.com).
That said the Heat are the team to beat still — they are the back-to-back champs, won 66 games last season and had a 27-game win streak. For all the cracks we saw in their armor during the playoffs, they are still the guys standing on top of the mountain. The Bulls are one team that could knock them off that perch.
Then they will have to take on the Chicago Bulls, now with Derrick Rose. The Bulls and Heat have started to develop a nice rivalry and this coming season promises to build on that (if everyone can just stay healthy).
Adding a little fuel to that fire is Bulls two guard Jimmy Butler, who went on ESPN Radio in Chicago and said the Bulls players don’t want to watch the Heat ring ceremony and have to shut down a Heat three-peat (as transcribed at ESPNChicago.com).
“I don’t think anybody wants to watch (the ring ceremony) on our team so we won’t pay too much attention to it,” Butler said Tuesday on “The Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN Chicago 1000. “They deserved it. They won a championship, definitely, but they got to deal with the Chicago Bulls for 48 minutes coming out right after that, they get their rings….
“I think so,” Butler said when asked about the dislike between the teams. “But it’s not just us, it’s the city. That rivalry, it’s crazy. They’re the back-to-back champions and when you think three-peat, you think Chicago so we can’t let that happen.”The Bulls — along with the Pacers, plus maybe the Nets and Knicks — can make it a lot harder for the Heat to even get out of the East. Miami basically has stood pat with their roster and are going to have to improve just to get out of their own conference. And that’s not even talking about who comes out of a deep West.
That said the Heat are the team to beat still — they are the back-to-back champs, won 66 games last season and had a 27-game win streak. For all the cracks we saw in their armor during the playoffs, they are still the guys standing on top of the mountain. The Bulls are one team that could knock them off that perch.
Tiger Woods' critics are missing the point.
By Brian Murphy
Tiger Woods holds the trophy after winning the Bridgestone Invitational. (AP)
It's a mean and cynical world we live in, sports fans. What, you haven't been on social media of late? Or, as rapper Macklemore asks, have you read the YouTube comments lately?
So, when Tiger Woods obliterates the world's best players in a World Golf Championship event, winning the Bridgestone Invitational by seven whopping strokes, when he looks the world's top 50 practitioners of his craft in the eye and says: "Tell me how my Nikes taste", you'd think you wouldn't hear what I heard at a local golf clubhouse this weekend:
"Hey, look!" said a fellow duffer. "Tiger's winning another tournament that's not a major."
In case you were wondering, yes, the commenter was applying a liberal amount of snark.
Or you'd think I wouldn't get a text from a fellow golf fanatic that read: "His year's still a failure if he doesn't win next week [at the PGA Championship]."
Or you'd think I wouldn't get a text from a fellow golf fanatic that read: "His year's still a failure if he doesn't win next week [at the PGA Championship]."
Here we go again, the devil and angel on each shoulder, warring over Tiger's relative place in golf history:
• Tiger Woods wins for the fifth time this year in ten stroke play starts! So what? He hasn't won a major since George W. Bush was president.
• Tiger Woods just won at Akron for the eighth time! So what? That's all he does, win on courses he owns like Torrey Pines and Bay Hill. Let's see him at Oak Hill for the PGA Championship, where he's never won.
• Tiger has now won 12 times by seven strokes or more, and since he turned pro, the next highest total by a player is two! So what? Have you seen an Instagram of his last major win? No, because he hasn't won one since Instagram was launched.
Tiger Woods just won for the 79th time on the PGA Tour, and is only three wins from tying Sam Snead's all-time record – and Tiger is just 37 years old, with at least another decade of prime play to obliterate that record! So what? The only number that matters is Jack's 18, and Tiger's 14 ain't there yet.
And so it goes.
Tough crowd, those Tiger Judgers.
The same way LeBron James was scolded by the sporting public for never winning a championship; the same way Alex Rodriguez (pre-Biogenesis shame) was held in disdain for woeful October numbers; there is something about us as fans that often sees us shelve common sense in place of crazed and delirious expectations.
What Tiger Woods has done in 2013 is nothing short of remarkable, staggering and, perhaps put best: Tiger-esque. By winning percentage of starts-to-wins, no player in golf history wins with the frequency of Tiger Woods. Not even close. He's won 27 percent of starts. Jack won 12 percent of his starts. So that essentially answers any questions about his place in history, right?
Apparently not, given some of the shoulder shrugs of some fans this weekend.
With Tiger, we'll just have to agree to let his career play out before overly simplistic conclusions – "He's done"; "He'll never pass Jack" – are tossed out. He could easily be the type of player who is winning majors consistently into his mid-40s, given his historic work ethic and desire. Heck, I think the guy who won the British Open last month at Muirfield was 43, wasn't he?
In the meantime, Tiger heads to Oak Hill with a .500 season win percentage, with the résumé of a Player of the Year, and with the nagging whispers from some you'd usually reserve for an also-ran, a disappointment. It's the damndest thing.
SCORECARD OF THE WEEK
67-72-69-72 – 8-under 280, Stacy Lewis, winner, LPGA Ricoh Women's British Open, St. Andrews Golf Course, St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland.
Look at Stacy Lewis, getting her Philly Mick on.
Both are Americans, winning in golf's birthplace. Both stole thunder from bigger stories – Mickelson from Brit Lee Westwood's quest for his first major; Lewis from Korean Inbee Park's bid for four consecutive majors. And best of all, both finished in brilliant fashion – Lefty making birdie on the final two holes of a legendary final-round 66; Lewis making birdie on the final two holes, to chase down and pass leader Na Yeon Choi. That birdie-birdie finish featured an approach on 17's Road Hole to two feet, a shot Lewis called "the best shot I've ever hit, for sure."
Both are Americans, winning in golf's birthplace. Both stole thunder from bigger stories – Mickelson from Brit Lee Westwood's quest for his first major; Lewis from Korean Inbee Park's bid for four consecutive majors. And best of all, both finished in brilliant fashion – Lefty making birdie on the final two holes of a legendary final-round 66; Lewis making birdie on the final two holes, to chase down and pass leader Na Yeon Choi. That birdie-birdie finish featured an approach on 17's Road Hole to two feet, a shot Lewis called "the best shot I've ever hit, for sure."
So much was accomplished by Lewis, perhaps most of all an end to the American drought in majors. It had been 10 LPGA majors since a Yank last won one, back to the 2011 Kraft Nabisco won, of course, by Lewis herself.
With Park under almost impossible pressure to win a fourth consecutive major, it was nice to see a worthy and likable talent swoop in to pose with hardware on the Swilcan Bridge. After all, we sometimes forget Lewis was No. 1 in the world before Inbee Park's World Domination Tour launched, and that Lewis is still No. 2 in the world right now.
It was also nice to see proper respect given to the Home of Golf. Lewis said her 5-0 record as a Curtis Cup participant for Team USA at St. Andrews in 2008 came because of the same reason she dug deep for the win on Sunday – her awe and wonder at playing the historic links course. Inspired by merely being on the property, Lewis was able to summon and channel golf karma.
BROADCAST MOMENT OF THE WEEK
"…and the joy of walking away, with his son in his arms." – Jim Nantz, CBS, on the surprising and memorable sight of little Charlie Woods running into the grasp of his Daddy, Tiger Woods, after the win at WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
Whoa. This one made me sit up and take notice on my living room couch.
My first thought was: I don't think we've ever seen this, and then Tiger confirmed it to the golf media. No, little Charlie, age 4 ½, had never seen Daddy win in person.
Given Tiger's well-publicized family woes, given how often he was the butt of jokes for years, given the scorn that has often been pointed his way, it was as human a moment as we've seen with Tiger since perhaps his tears at the 2006 British Open after his father's death. It was made more so when Charlie realized there were cameras everywhere and tightened his hug around Daddy's neck, burying his head into Daddy's shoulder. What father hasn't carried a child who clings to the neck and shoulder area like a cute little koala clings to a branch?
At the risk of too much dime-store psychoanalysis – what 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh disdainfully calls the media's attempts to "peel back the onion" – let's just say that Charlie in Daddy's arms was a positive moment for Tiger Woods in the public's eye.
MULLIGAN OF THE WEEK
What, you think we're going to find a worthy Mully o' the Week from Akron, where Tiger was moonwalking past the field in as non-competitive an event as we'll see all year? No way.
Let's turn our attention to St. Andrews, where Stacy Lewis' thrilling finish must have stunned Korea's Na Yeon Choi. One minute, Choi had the outright lead. The next minute, Lewis came to the Road Hole and assumed her Road Runner persona, flying past Choi like she was Wile E. Coyote.
Choi had a 6-foot putt for par on 17 to stay one shot back of Lewis, and if she made it, as you presumed she would, she'd come to 18, a very birdie-able hole, with a chance for some drama.
Except . . . Choi missed the 6-footer for par. Like, badly missed it. Like, never gave it a chance. It died, far away from the cup. Oof.
For Lewis, this was great news, as Choi would now have the unlikely task of holing out for eagle on 18, which of course she would not do. But for the rest of us, looking for a little Sunday morning drama from St. Andrews, Choi could have helped keep the storyline alive by making par on 17, not bogey.
So let's go back out to the Road Hole, remind Choi that it's her obligation to entertain us and keep drama alive, remind her that it's just a little ole 6-footer and ... give that woman a mulligan!
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Yes, the PGA of America calls the PGA Championship, "Glory's Last Shot", and while that slogan has a cheesy "One Shining Moment" ring to it, I'm here to tell you: I love "One Shining Moment." So there.
So bring on "Glory's Last Shot", at venerable Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., where Cary Middlecoff won the 1956 U.S. Open, where Lee Trevino won the 1968 U.S. Open, where Jack Nicklaus won the 1980 PGA Championship, where Curtis Strange won the 1989 U.S. Open and where Shaun Micheel – hey, now! – won the 2003 PGA Championship.
If you're counting, that's four World Golf Hall of Famers, and Shaun Micheel. But! Did any of those four big-name players hit a 7-iron from 175 yards out to two inches on the 72nd hole for a two-stroke win like Micheel? I think not, friends. Micheel's shot is one of the greatest in major championship history.
Who will create such heroics at Oak Hill, a notoriously brutal golf course that winnows out the weak and only rewards the strong? Well, if 2013's pattern holds, it won't be Tiger Woods. The world's No. 1-ranked player has had to watch Adam Scott win his first Masters, Justin Rose win his first U.S. Open and then his old rival Phil Mickelson win his first British Open. There's no rule that says the winner has to be a first-time PGA Championship winner, but there are several names who would fit that bill: Brandt Snedeker ... Zach Johnson ... Jason Dufner ... Bill Haas ... you get my drift.
If Tiger is going to end this drought and shut up doubters once and for flippin' all, he'll have to overcome a strong field at a place where he doesn't have great history.
He finished tie-39th at the '03 PGA and never once broke par at 12-over for the tournament.
He finished tie-39th at the '03 PGA and never once broke par at 12-over for the tournament.
In 2007, Tiger won the WGC event at Bridgestone, then marched to victory at Southern Hills in Tulsa, a place where he had no positive history. So, there's that.
There's also this: Seven times since then, Tiger has won his final start before a major, and he is 0-for-7 at the ensuing major.
As a wise man once said: That's why they play the games. Let's see what he does.
Kasey Kahne regains lead on Green-White-Checker restart to win at Pocono.
By Nick Bromberg
Sunday's race at Pocono could have been a race that was a sizzling filet mignon for the NASCAR conspiracy set.
Kasey Kahne was leading by over seven seconds with 11 laps to go when a caution flag flew on lap 149 for debris. Just like that, the lead was gone, and Kahne was restarting with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon to his inside for an eight-lap dash to the finish.
A race that had become just a matter of counting laps was suddenly set up for another wild and potentially four-wide restart heading into turn one.
On that restart, the field fanned out and Gordon took the lead. Uh oh, the grill was getting hot and the meat was prepared. But those plans got put on hold when Matt Kenseth spun to bring out another yellow and set up a two-lap sprint to the finish.
This time, it was Kahne's restart to own. After getting beat at the flag, Kahne powered alongside Gordon through turns one and two, and drove away for his second win of the season. That filet mignon was instead another unmemorable boring slab of unseasoned ground beef.
"I about gave it away, Jeff got by me," Kahne said. "And then on that final restart I spun my tires and he got a great jump. Kurt (Busch) pushed me all the way into (turn) one which really helped and I had one opportunity; it was either go for it and make it work or not."
Kahne was a couple carlengths back of Gordon heading into one, but was suddenly alongside Gordon as the two exited turn one. They stayed that way down the Long Pond straight, but as Kahne inched ahead and kept Gordon down low as the two headed towards the tricky tunnel turn, Gordon wisely got off the gas and Kahne was gone.
It wasn't the 42nd birthday present Gordon thought had fallen into his lap moments earlier.
"It's so funny how our emotions go up and down in this sport," Gordon said. "Going into the race if you would have told me I could finish second I'd have said that was a great birthday gift. When your leading -- take the lead away from Kasey the way we did on that restart, I thought we had him. He was better than us, but I thought out in front we could hold him off."
"I got a perfect restart on that last one, probably jumped him a little bit. Got in front of him and looked like I needed to block the inside so I kind of protected the inside and he just blasted up there on the outside and flat outdrove me through one."
Before the penultimate restart, Kahne had built the advantage thanks to some quick work on pit road by his crew during the final cycle of pit stops for the leaders. In a day dominated by differing pit cycles throughout the field, Kahne took over for teammate Jimmie Johnson in the role of dominant car fo the day after Johnson cut a tire and hit the wall while leading on lap 76. Kahne led 66 laps while Johnson, the polesitter, led 43.
Busch finished third, while last week's winner Ryan Newman was fourth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was fifth. Despite the run-in with the wall, Johnson finished 13th and his points lead actually grew by a point as Clint Bowyer finished 16th.
Pele, New York Cosmos greats encourage new Cosmos to continue club's history of success.
By Tess Quinlan
When asked if he had spoken with any of the legendary New York Cosmos from the 1970s, defender Chris Rodd said, "Well, we went to lunch with Pelé."
He shrugged, almost as if to ask, "Does that count?"
He shrugged, almost as if to ask, "Does that count?"
Any sports fan in the world knows Pelé, so yes, it counts. The Brazilian superstar, who sparked a Cosmos championship run in 1977 in the old North American Soccer League, returned with his teammate Carlos Alberto to see the club's first match in 29 years – a 2-1 victory over the Fort Lauderdale Strikers at Hofstra's Shuart Stadium on Saturday night.
In early June, the Cosmos' players and coaches attended a lunch with Pelé in New York, and he offered them advice on life – on and off the pitch. According to Peri Marošević, one of just 14 signed players at the time, Pelé talked about his passion for the club, declaring that it was the new Cosmos' turn to be successful and to not worry about the greats that came before them.
"It was really an honor to be able to sit down with a legend like that," Marošević said.
"That day is a little bit about what we are," Cosmos chief operating officer Erik Stover recalled. "We'll always honor the history, but we will treat our players with a tremendous amount of respect, knowing that they're the ones that are going to get us back there."
"That day is a little bit about what we are," Cosmos chief operating officer Erik Stover recalled. "We'll always honor the history, but we will treat our players with a tremendous amount of respect, knowing that they're the ones that are going to get us back there."
Where the Cosmos want to be is back in the American soccer spotlight. Their return to the recently reborn NASL was thought to be a short stay on the way to the U.S.'s new top division, Major League Soccer, but that dream appeared to be dashed when MLS surprisingly chose New York City Football Club, a partnership between the New York Yankees and Manchester City of the Premier League, to become its 20th franchise and join the Red Bulls as its second team in the New York area.
MLS commissioner Don Garber announced last week that the league will add four more teams by 2020 to give the Cosmos new hope of joining MLS. Stover, however, admits he isn't sure if the Cosmos' long-term future will be in MLS. The uncertainty isn't stopping the club from pursuing plans to build a privately funded, 25,000-seat stadium at Belmont Park.
"We don't worry about it," said Stover of the Cosmos' MLS expansion chances. "Our focus – we talk about this all the time – is building a proper club. That's our players on the field, our front office, our relationship with supporter groups – all of that is building a club. … We're not worried about those other guys, whoever they are, except when we have the opportunity to play against them."
"They want to be at the pinnacle of soccer for the day," ex-Cosmos goalkeeper Shep Messing said of the new Cosmos. "Whether that means the route they're taking now through NASL or different business approach that Major League Soccer has taken, I see these guys as wanting to be the best of the best. Who knows where it goes five years from now?"
Alberto, who also played with Messing and Pelé on the '77 NASL championship team and is serving as an ambassador for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, said he believes that within two years the Cosmos will be making their own name in American soccer.
"[Their play] will be at a very high level," he said. "They will bring in great players."
Meanwhile, the Cosmos embrace the greats of their past.
When Messing and Alberto come to the club's training sessions, midfielder Dane Murphy said he and his teammates realize exactly what they are tasked with. For the current Cosmos, the presence of past stars adds an extra motivation to succeed.
"If there wasn't the history that there is to this club, it wouldn't be special," Murphy said.
Messing worries about the pressure the Cosmos could be feeling, though. He compared it to sending your children off to college – you want them to succeed but also to make their own destiny.
"We don't want them weighted down by the burden," Messing said. "We want them to know they have a history, know that there have been very good players that wear the uniform, and have fun. We don't want them looking in a mirror or looking at us as a shadow."
On Saturday, the new Cosmos took a step toward creating their own identity. After yielding a late equalizer, Alessandro Noselli scored in stoppage time to make the Cosmos' season opener a victorious one.
"We'll always have pressure going into every game," Marošević said. "As long as we do our job right, stay focused, committed to the task at hand, and really enjoy the game, [winning] will take a little bit of the pressure off."
If you are, please read the link below!!!
Link: http://allsportsamerica.blogspot.com/2013/07/are-you-ready-for-some-football-no.html
Remember, (1) Competition breeds excellence and (2) You can't win if you aren't in!!!
Remember, (1) Competition breeds excellence and (2) You can't win if you aren't in!!!
Baseball Results, Sunday, 08/04/2013.
Reuters
Results from the MLB games on Sunday (home team in CAPS)
DETROIT 3 Chicago White Sox 2 (12 innings)
St. Louis 15 CINCINNATI 2
Cleveland 2 MIAMI 0
Seattle 3 BALTIMORE 2
BOSTON 4 Arizona 0
PITTSBURGH 5 Colorado 1
TAMPA BAY 4 San Francisco 3
MILWAUKEE 8 Washington 5
MINNESOTA 3 Houston 2
Seattle 3 BALTIMORE 2
BOSTON 4 Arizona 0
PITTSBURGH 5 Colorado 1
TAMPA BAY 4 San Francisco 3
MILWAUKEE 8 Washington 5
MINNESOTA 3 Houston 2
LA Dodgers 1 CHICAGO CUBS 0
Toronto 6 LA ANGELS 5
Texas 4 OAKLAND 0
SAN DIEGO 6 NY Yankees 3
Atlanta 4 PHILADELPHIA 1
Atlanta 4 PHILADELPHIA 1
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