Taking a break

Sorry, folks, but I need a rest. Two Cents is taking a vacation. It will return Aug. 8 -- hopefully new and improved. And updated more often. Oh, one more thing. Look for a new show on Catch 47 ... The Press Box with Tom Jones. It will be on Tuesday nights at 6:30 and 8:30. I'll host three local media people to discuss national and local sports issues and controversies. See ya soon.

Trouble at the top

"If I were a sports commissioner for a day …'' At one time or another, every avid sports fans starts a sentence that way to kick off one of the great bar-stool conversations. But these days, the sentence might end with "… I’d quit.'' All four of the major sports league commissioners in North America are in the midst of controversies and hard times. Here's a look at the messes they are in and how to get out of them:

David Stern, NBA
The mess: Stern rules the NBA with a, well, stern fist. His league seemingly was on cruise control and Stern had became the Teflon Commish. Riding the wave of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, Stern took a league few cared about to heights it had never known and is considered the best commissioner in sports. Even the infamous brawl in Detroit and the league's "thug'' reputation could not slow the sport's popularity, and Stern received (deservedly so) much of the credit. But the league’s reputation changed dramatically last week when word came out that one of its referees, veteran Tim Donaghy, is believed to have bet on games he officiated. In a word, this is disastrous. It's the type of thing that can destroy a league because it cuts to the heart of sports' most basic mantra — that the outcomes are legitimate.

How to get out of the mess: Stern addressed the topic immediately, but not necessarily head-on. Two troubling statements came out of his first public comments. One was he said he believed Donaghy was a "rogue, isolated criminal.'' That very well may be true. But by immediately dismissing this controversy by saying Donaghy was an isolated case, Stern seemed to be taking an ostrich approach, arrogantly all but refusing to believe this could extend to other referees. That's not what fans want to hear, and it might not even be true. Stern needs to assure fans that the league will do a thorough investigation of every referee. Because, sadly, every referee in the league will now come under question from fans whenever a bad call is made. The other thing is Stern never really apologized to the fans. He needs to do that immediately. Even still, this is a crisis that could stain the NBA for a few years no matter how Stern handles it.

Bud Selig, Major League Baseball
The mess: Who's to blame for the steroid problem that has plagued baseball for years? Well, it's hard to point the finger at commissioner Bud Selig, but let's face it: All this mess has come under Selig's watch. It's easy now to second-guess him, suggesting he should’ve demanded testing years ago when it was apparent players were getting really big really fast and baseballs were zooming out of ballparks at record rates. And now, as baseball's most hallowed record is broken, Selig is faced with having to help celebrate it by congratulating Barry Bonds in person. Poor Bud. He wasn't well-liked or respected by fans to begin with, and now it just gets worse.

How to get out of the mess: Really, all Selig can do is weather the storm. He was faced with a darn-if-I-do, darn-if-I-don’t decision. If he chose to stay away from Bonds, it was as if he were admitting that he believes Bonds has cheated and had never done anything about it. If he chose to attend, it could have been seen as turning a blind eye to someone many people feel is an obvious cheater. He has probably made the right call by following Bonds' chase in person and it's doubtful he will go overboard with his enthusiasm. His response is expected to be congratulatory but reserved. That’s the best he can do. Eventually, all this Bonds stuff will shake itself out and, in the end, Selig will just be a supporting character in this drama.

Roger Goodell, NFL
The mess: Pete Rozelle invented the modern-day NFL with Super Bowl Sundays and Monday Night Football and so forth. Paul Tagliabue took Rozelle's sturdy foundation and then led football past baseball as America's favorite sport. Then along comes Roger Goodell and not even a year into his reign, he is besieged by issues. From millions of Cincinnati Bengals being arrested to "Pacman'' Jones to the biggest problem of all, Michael Vick. The Falcons quarterback is one of the league's marquee players, but now the feds believe he was running a horrifying dogfighting ring.

How to get out of the mess: Because the accusations about Vick are so heinous,  people are outraged and demanding his immediate suspension from the league. But Goodell has to be careful about setting a precedent here. He can't go suspending players every time they are arrested but before they are found guilty in a court of law. Yet, what a public relations nightmare it would be to have Vick playing and then discover he is guilty of what he is charged with. And, already, Vick has been convicted in the court of public opinion. Goodell really has no choice but to sit back and let the legal process play out. While the public would love for him to suspend Vick, what would happen if he did so and it turned out Vick was found not guilty? The best he can hope is either the Falcons or Vick himself decides he needs a leave to deal with his legal issues. Maybe Goodell can have a "chat'' with Vick to, uh, suggest how that would be a good move for Vick's long-term future in the NFL.

Gary Bettman, NHL
The mess: While the other commissioners are dealing with temporary issues that will eventually pass, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman faces a much larger problem, perhaps the most serious problem a sport can face. His league has become irrelevant. Sure, the sport still matters in Canada, but not in the United States, where 24 of the league's 30 teams play. Television numbers are embarrassingly low, and more and more major newspapers are scaling way back on NHL coverage simply because their readers don't care. The league was in danger of fading away even before a labor dispute wiped out the entire 2004-05 season. Worst of all, the league squandered its chance to take full advantage of, perhaps, the two greatest players in league history in Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. Both are retired and the league couldn't ride the wave like the NBA did with Jordan, Magic and Bird.

How to get out of the mess: There are too many teams, the schedule is a mess and the players still aren't marketed well. But the first thing Bettman can do is get the NHL back on ESPN. Nothing against Versus, but this league needs the backing of the country's No. 1 sports station. That should be his lone priority. Then he can deal with maybe contraction, fixing the schedule and marketing players. And this might seem drastic, but as he navigates through the next few years, Bettman needs to ignore how Canadian owners want to do things. If this league is to be taken off life support and become a league that matters again, everything Bettman does must be in the best interest of American fans, teams and owners. I understand how insulting that is to Canada, where hockey is like religion. But if this league isn't fixed now, the only place where it will be played is in Canada and that's bad for everyone, including Canadians.

Shooting from the lip

A look back at a weekend of televised sports ...

Best analysis
  Can I have a mulligan? A few weeks back, I went on and on about how great NBC golf commentator Johnny Miller is and how he's the best golf analyst out there and he's smart and insightful and blah, blah, blah. Well, I still think all those things, but after listening to the job Nick Faldo and Paul Azinger did for ABC during Sunday's can't-take-your-eyes-off-the-screen British Open, it's impossible not to put them on Miller's level.

Like Miller, the two talk like the experts they are and like fans as well — gasping, applauding, cheering, laughing and scratching their heads right along with the viewers at home. All the while, they build drama and offer forecasts, and everything that came out of their mouths Sunday only enriched what might have been the best final day of a golf tournament in years.

Best line
I've already gushed about Paul Azinger and Nick Faldo's work, and to list every great thing they said would take about six pages. Like I mentioned, everything they said was worth listening to. But if I had to pick out just one line, it would have been this gem from Azinger when every golfer on the course started stumbling on the back nine:

"If they were playing in water, the sharks would show up,'' Azinger said, "because I sense a little bleeding.''

Best event
Even casual golf fans — and that's what I consider myself — have to admit that Sunday's British Open was about as exciting as a sporting event can be. To me, this is the best golf tournament in the world. It's an international field, and there's just something about watching the overcast skies on a links course with golfers and fans bundled up. The fact that it's coming from the part of the world where golf was invented makes it a tournament better than any other.

But ABC's Paul Azinger gave a player's perspective that shows why the British Open — and you know they call it simply the Open Championship, as if there is no other — is the best tournament in the world.

"Any style can win the British Open,'' Azinger said. "You can’t really say that necessarily at Augusta or at the United States Open. … And, of course, it's the oldest championship.''

Best point
It's easy to want to kick Falcons quarterback Michael Vick not only out of the NFL but off the face of the earth these days over these dogfighting allegations. Like everyone else, I'm disgusted by the details of the investigation, and if they are true, I think Vick should be forced to live under the same conditions as those dogs. But should he be banned from playing right now?

During ESPN's The Sports Reporters, Mike Lupica made a solid point: "I think if (NFL commissioner) Roger Goodell was going to suspend him just for being indicted, that would have happened already. You’re on a slippery slope even when you're a sports commissioner trying to look tough and keep your sport looking clean when you start convicting people before our legal system convicts them.''

Fellow panelist Jimmy Roberts needed two words to emphasize Lupica’s point: Duke lacrosse.

Biggest pet peeve
Okay, what's the deal with every coach/manager/player in the world holding their hands in front of their face while talking strategy? Football coaches hold up clipboards, and now baseball players hold their gloves over their mouths? That's the one that gets me. Do pitchers and catchers really think some guy 150 feet away can read their lips? During the weekend, I actually saw a catcher hold his catcher’s mitt in front of his face while talking to a pitcher … while he was wearing his mask!

Strongest comments
The strongest comment about sports didn't come from a sports show but from Sunday morning's Face the Nation. Host Bob Schieffer took on Barry Bonds. A part of what he said:

"We want our heroes to be good guys, but maybe we need jerks like Bonds from time to time to remind us what real heroes are — and they are not just people who have mastered a difficult physical feat. … Real heroes are not just athletes. In fact, most of them are not: the firemen who gave their lives to save the innocent on 9/11; the soldiers who go into the streets of Baghdad day after day; parents who adopt handicapped children. Heroes are those who set the examples we teach our kids to follow. Barry Bonds is no hero. He is just a guy who hits home runs. Who would want a kid to be like him?''

Best show
The British Open was the most compelling thing on TV Sunday. But a close second? A Man vs. Wild marathon on Discovery. Have you seen this show? British adventurer Bear Grylls puts himself in survival situations (deserts, mountain ranges, jungles, even the Everglades) and shows you how to survive. He does the usual stuff like make rafts, build shelters and so forth. But this guy has caught fish and bitten into them as soon as they are out of the water. He has eaten from a dead zebra, plus chomped on the usual maggots, worms and other bugs. Once, even squeezed the "juice'' out of elephant dung for hydration.

This is the best show on television, and I’m on record as saying I want to be Bear Grylls when I grow up.

Biggest controversy
If you don't think this NBA scandal with referee Tim Donaghy betting on games that he officiated is serious stuff, you need to think harder about it. I'm not saying this will bring down the league, but this is bad. It's one thing to think athletes are using steroids or fixing games. But it's quite another to think that an official — someone in charge of making sure the game is played fairly — could be playing with the outcomes and integrity of the game.

It will be interesting to see how commissioner David Stern behaves through all of this. He has supported NBA officiating to the point that he has seemed obsessed with knocking down anyone who dares question it. Although it has always been a silly joke to say, "Ah, the NBA is fixed,'' Stern saw nothing funny about that. Now, it turns out, some of the games might have been fixed after all. This will be a defining moment for Stern.

Worst use of graphics
Of everything Fox Sports covers, it covers those sports pretty much better than everyone else. I'd rather watch baseball, the NFL, college football and NASCAR on Fox than any other network. There are a lot of reasons why, but part of it is graphics. On Fox's baseball pregame, however, someone has gone a little overboard. The show had not one but two tickers scrolling news across the bottom. Two. And they rolled while analysts Eric Karros and Kevin Kennedy — two guys who usually have something good to say — were talking. Just because you have the capability to show a bunch of information at one time doesn’t mean you have to use it.

Funniest moments
It's hard to find much to laugh about when your team is getting its can kicked in, but if you stuck around to the end of the Devil Rays' 21-4 loss to the Yankees, you probably at least smiled. Yankees legendary public address announcer Bob Sheppard has a knack for racing to the elevators when a game is over. He tries to get a head start by leaving his desk and heading for the exits with two outs in the last inning.

On Sunday, Sheppard left and had to return to his seat four times because the Rays kept extending the inning and he had to keep announcing the next batter. On his fourth trip back, Sheppard slammed his papers down. It was probably the only satisfaction Devil Rays fans had against New York since Friday night. Nice job by the Rays broadcast crew to make a little story out of it.

Best scoop
Fox baseball insider Ken Rosenthal ran through his usual list of players on the trading block. Nothing earth-shattering, but there was something mildly interesting with local ties. Rosenthal said the Angels are in the hunt for Texas first baseman Mark Teixeira. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal, but Seminole High's Casey Kotchman plays first for the Angels and is having a pretty decent season. What would happen to him if the Angels do acquire Teixeira?

Ten best sports movies ever

Slap Shot was on Friday. Unfortunately, it was the edited version, but even that goes down as the greatest hockey movie ever made. By the way, did you know it was written by a woman? True: Nancy Dowd, who wrote for Saturday Night Live in the 1970s, wrote this gem. In fact, not only is it the best hockey movie ever, it's my pick for the best sports movie ever. Here are Top 10 sports movies ever:

1. Slap Shot. Wickedly funny even if you're not a hockey fan. If you are, you can quote every line. Too bad it's too raw to quote most of them here.

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2. Bull Durham. Baseball's version of "Slap Shot.'' Gets extra points because Kevin Costner has the best baseball swing on screen -- from both sides of the plate.

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3. Raging Bull. Not an easy movie to watch, but Robert DeNiro's performance is brilliant.

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4. The Natural. Call me a sap, but I still get goosebumps at the end of this movie.

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5. Field of Dreams. Not the same as the incredibly spellbinding book (Shoeless Joe) but equal in its enjoyment. (And if you say you don't cry when Ray asks his dad to play catch then you're a liar.)

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6. Rocky. The tired and predictable sequels make you forget just how inspiring and good the original was.

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7. Eight Men Out. Great ensemble cast and a meticulous attention to the detail of the era (1919 Black Sox scandal).

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8. Jerry Maguire. Yeah, I know it's not cool to like anything associated with Tom Cruise these days, but this is a good movie.

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9. Hoosiers. If this were complete fiction, it probably wouldn't fly with me. But the fact that it's based on a true story puts it on my top 10 list. Plus, I love Gene Hackman.

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10. Caddyshack. I have to admit, this movie isn't aging well. I get less enjoyment each time I watch it, but it just doesn't seem right to leave it off the list.

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Also receiving votes: Bad News Bears, When We Were Kings, Hoop Dreams, A League of Their Own, North Dallas Forty.

Dog meets bicyle in Tour de France

Marcus Burghardt of the T-Mobile team plowed into a dog that walked into the roadway during the Tour de France, Tuesday. The front wheel of his bike buckled and he was thrown to the ground. Neither Burghardt nor the dog appeared hurt.

Watch the video from European television.

Shooting from the lip

A look back at a weekend of televised sports ...

Best smackdown
I found someone who is getting as tired of Gary Sheffield popping off as I am. Fox baseball's pregame analyst Mark Grace ripped into Sheffield for his remarks on an upcoming HBO Real Sports segment when he accused Yankees manager Joe Torre of treating African-American players differently than other players.
"Gary Sheffield is very confusing,'' Grace said. "Last month, he was taking Latin players to task. This week, he takes a segregated Yankees clubhouse to task. Who is it going to be next month? Is it going to be Ichiro (Suzuki) and the Asian players? It's always something with Gary. He needs to leave that stuff alone and just go play.''

Best discussion
ESPN's Outside the Lines had an interesting roundtable to talk about the legacy of Hank Aaron. Bob Ley, one of the real pros out there, moderated the discussion with Dusty Baker and Tom House (two of Aaron's former teammates and good friends), as well as Frank Robinson and author Lonnie Wheeler, who helped Aaron write his autobiography.

The discussion centered around Aaron breaking Babe Ruth's homer record in 1974 in the face of racism and hate mail. It also talked about Aaron's role in the African-American community then and now.

Meantime, Baker explained why Aaron will not be in attendance when Barry Bonds breaks the record. Aaron, 73, says he is too old to be chasing Bonds around the country, and Baker added that Aaron just doesn't want to face all the questions about whether or not he believes Bonds has cheated. But Baker's best point was that you never see Aaron anyway. He's a quiet, private man. He doesn't attend big baseball games, you don't see him doing commercials or going to things like the ESPYs. As Baker pointed out, he's a senior executive with the Braves and you wouldn't know it. That's just who he is, and now I better understand his decision not to be there when Bonds hits 756.

Best quote
In the Hank Aaron roundtable on Outside the Lines, Dusty Baker had the best line of the weekend when talking about Aaron. "He played hurt all the time,’’ Baker said. “He’d come limping in like Fred Sanford. Then the game would start and he would run like Bob Hayes.’’

Strongest comment
This will probably get me in trouble with some people, and I admit I'm stereotyping here, but the biggest problem I have with female sports analysts is they are rarely critical. Yes, many men are too soft, too, but it seems to be more prevalent among female analysts. They don't seem to want to offend others they might have played with or for or those who are friends.

Not ESPN's Julie Foudy, who is quickly establishing herself as a strong soccer analyst. This weekend, she blasted USA soccer for naming only 18 of the 21 spots for the World Cup team, saying leaving spots open creates unnecessary tension and keeps the team from completely bonding. She didn't yell it or beat it to death. She wasn't harsh about it. She explained her point rationally in 30 seconds. And it was a good one.

Worst result
I'm going to watch this week's British Open no matter what. I think it's the best golf tournament in the world, particularly on television. But how much more fun would it have been if Phil Mickelson had gone into it with a little momentum? Watching Tiger and Phil battle it out takes golf to another level. It's like Jack and Arnie. It makes golf better.

But no, Lefty decided to have another meltdown in Scotland, bogeying three of the final five holes to end up in a playoff, where he bogeyed again and lost to some guy I had never heard of. Nice job. Now who knows where his head will be this week.

Best point
You know, ever since Jean Van de Velde's infamous crash on the 72nd hole at the 1999 British Open, all you hear are people saying, "He only needed a double-bogey 6 to win. How could he make a triple-bogey 7? How?!''

Well, Nick Faldo had the most sensible explanation I've ever heard during ABC's British Open preview show on Sunday. Faldo said if someone tells a golfer that he needs only to make 6 to win (as Van de Velde's caddie did that fateful day), a "golfer’s brain scatters.'' In other words, a golfer is not built to think of making 6. There is no strategy for making double bogey.

"Now,'' Faldo said, "if someone tells you have to make a 4, then that makes sense. You can plot out how you want to play that hole.''

Makes sense, no?

Most disappointing event
CBS had the brilliant idea to air a behind-the-scenes look at how a golf broadcast is put together. The network took an hour during Saturday’s otherwise pedestrian John Deere Classic to take viewers into the production truck. Great idea. Poorly executed. Mostly all we saw were people with headsets staring at TV screens, and it was nearly impossible to hear anything worthwhile because so many people were talking at once.

I learned some things, such as it takes a crew of 130 to put on a golf broadcast. And, the good point was made about how difficult golf is to broadcast because instead of having two teams and one ball to follow (like a football or a baseball), there are dozens of golfers and dozens of balls in the air at all times. There was a funny moment when a producer screamed at a screen, "Come on! Hit the ball already!'' to a golfer who was taking too much time.

Overall, the main problem was that Gary McCord, who is fun to listen to normally, hosted this little experiment and didn't seem well prepared. He tried to interview production people, but they were too busy doing their jobs to talk. CBS would have been better off having an expert explain in detail what each person was doing then focus on that person for a few minutes. The whole thing was too helter-skelter.

All in all it was an ambitious plan and not a total waste. Covering a golf tournament is more intense than most of us realize. But CBS bit off a little more than it could chew. I’d like to see it try again with a better plan.

Best interview
Fox's taped interview from the All-Star Game with Derek Jeter and Ken Griffey talking to Willie Mays was a treat. It was even better than had a regular reporter asked Mays questions. I don't know whether someone fed Griffey this question: Most assume that Mays' over-the-head catch in the 1954 World Series was his greatest ever, but Griffey asked if that, indeed, was his best catch. And the response was surprising.

"No, that wasn't my best catch,'' Mays said. "But it was my best TV catch.''
Mays said his best catch was crashing into the fence at old Candlestick Park in San Francisco and holding onto the ball despite getting knocked out. Showing good hustle, Fox found tape of the catch and Willie was right. It was a better catch.

Best ideas
I'm not going to watch an entire triathlon on a Sunday afternoon. And I'm not going to watch an entire leg of the Tour de France. But, you know, I might watch a little. That's why NBC and CBS get high marks this weekend. NBC has hit on something, taking a triathlon (which drags on and doesn't have a huge TV following) and showing it on tape after boiling it down to a tight hour broadcast. The good direction and storytelling creates drama, and you get your result without spending half the day on something that, really, is not all that compelling to watch. I mean, it's just people running and swimming and biking.
Meantime, the Tour de France falls into the same category. It's guys biking all day long. But CBS used the same tactic and showed it in an hour on tape.

My prediction
If Alex Rodriguez ends up opting out of his contract with the Yankees, where will he end up? I say the Cubs. It makes too much sense. It's a team with great tradition. It's a big market, but it's not New York. It can pay, especially if Mark Cuban ends up taking over as owner and wants to make a big splash. But the biggest reason of all? A-Rod loves Lou Piniella. And Lou loves him.

Summer cleaning

As you know, the day after the All-Star Game is typically the worst sports day of the year. There's no major sport playing. Baseball is off unless you count some minor-league all-star game (and I don't). But it is a day to catch up on a few things sports-wise, so here goes:

The Bronx is Burning
  I like John Turturro. Anyone who has been in the Do the Right Thing, Miller's Crossing, The Big Lebowski and O Brother Where Art Thou is all right by me. And I like Oliver Platt even though I can't really think off the top of my head anything he has been in. (Wait, wasn't he in that movie with Julia Roberts where people die for like a couple of minutes and then come back all messed up? Julia Roberts ended up marrying Lyle Lovett after that, so apparently life imitated art. But anyway...) And I liked the 1977 Yankees, which is what the whole thing is about. So how come I was disappointed in the first hour of this series? First, Platt does a decent imitation of George Steinbrenner's voice, but looks nothing like him. And Turturro is a dead ringer for Billy Martin, but is over-the-top Southern accent sounds nothing like Martin. Then there's the whole Son of Sam murders dropped in the middle of the baseball stuff like an anvil. Basically, here's how the first hour went: Billy and George fight. People get shot. Reggie Jackson acts like a jerk. More people get shot. Billy fights with his wife. Billy fights with George. People get shot. Reggie fights with Thurman Munson. People get shot. Billy and George fight. Closing credits. So far the show is 0-for-1.

The Lightning schedule
The Lightning schedule came out Wednesday and apparently they play four teams: Washington, Carolina, Florida and Atlanta. Do they play anyone else? Seems like they play one of those teams ever other game. And yet they don't play the defending champion Ducks. Nice. The season hasn't even started yet and I'm bored with it.

The Yankees are in town
  Is it me, or does it seem like more women in flimsy outfits show up at the Trop when the Yankees are in town? Ever notice that? They line up behind the Yankees dugout during batting practice in their halter tops and short skirts and bat their eyes at Derek Jeter. Then they go take their seats in the second level. Ladies, you do realize that Jeter has dated Scarlett Johannson, Jessica Alba, Mariah Carey, a Miss Teen USA and a Miss Universe, right? And he dumped all of them! Somehow I don't think he's going for someone who doesn't have enough pull to get a ticket in the first 10 rows at a Devil Rays game.

Topics to discuss amongst yourselves
Can we please kill the Home Run Derby? And you know the worst part? Like five months from now you're going to home with the flu and you're going to flip on ESPN and they're going to be showing a replay of the damn thing. And yet, I miss those old Home Run Derby re-runs from the 1960s. Go figure.

Bet you can't name right now who Venus Williams beat in the Wimbledon women's finals, who is leading Tour de France, who won the Preakness and who won the Boston Marathon.

Can you honestly ever see Major League Baseball holding the All-Star Game at Tropicana Field?

Shooting from the lip

Looking back at the best and worst from a weekend of televised sports

Best coverage
NBC's Wimbledon coverage, particularly Sunday's men's singles final, was flawless. At first, I was disappointed that Mary Carillo was not working the men's final with John McEnroe because the two work so well together.
But when McEnroe is the lone analyst, he is just as good. In fact, Sunday, he was at his absolute best as he got into a great rhythm to the point that everything that came out of his mouth was worth listening to.

What makes McEnroe so strong is his ability to take what is happening at the moment, give it perspective, then project how it can affect the rest of the match. For example, when the fourth set started, it appeared Roger Federer was well on his way to victory, but early on McEnroe pointed out that Federer had lost his focus.

"I’ve never seen him this unnerved on this court. … He's totally unglued,'' McEnroe said. I honestly don't think a lot of analysts would have even picked up just how out of sorts Federer was. But McEnroe was dead on as Federer went on to lose the set.

After Federer rallied to win in the fifth, McEnroe simply, but accurately said, "It's one of the all-time matches I’ve seen here at Wimbledon. No doubt about it.''

McEnroe is the best analyst in tennis. No doubt about it.

Strongest quote
With all the controversy surrounding Barry Bonds, ESPN's Outside the Lines did a timely and interesting take on the fallen legacy of former Cards slugger Mark McGwire. Did you know that a statue of McGwire commissioned by the Cardinals for the purpose of displaying outside their stadium is sitting in a warehouse collecting dust? How appropriate. His then-record 70-homer season has been erased in a cloud of suspicion since his "I-don't-want-to-talk-about-the-past'' speech before Congress.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bryan Burwell minced no words when interviewed: "This isn't a court of law we're talking about. We're talking about the forum of common sense. The forum of common sense tells me and should tell everybody else that Mark McGwire did something, that there was some additional fuel in his gas tank to get him there.''

Best point
On ESPN's The Sports Reporters, Mike Lupica smartly pointed out that Venus Williams won her fourth Wimbledon on Saturday and now has more Wimbledon titles than John McEnroe, Chris Evert, Bill Tilden, Don Budge and Jimmy Connors. That is impressive.

Best exchange
NBC tennis analysts Mary Carillo and John McEnroe talking about how Wimbledon doesn’t play on the middle Sunday of the fortnight.
Carillo: “Part of the reason is that this magnificent facility is nestled in a neighborhood and they want to get the people who live here a day off.’’
McEnroe: “They got the other 50 weeks a year to have off.’’

Best send-off
NBC gave tennis analyst Bud Collins a nice send-off for his 35 years of service. Know what would be an even better send-off? Renewing his contract. I'll say it again. NBC is making a mistake letting Collins go.

Tour de train wreck
So this year's Tour de France is under way. But have they even figured out who won last year's Tour de France? Seriously, is that thing still being appealed and tested and all that? Seems as if they should show the race on Versus and then you flip over to Court TV to see who won. To Versus' credit, the network is not shying away from mentioning the drug controversies that have, essentially, turned this event into a mess. Oh, where have you gone Lance Armstrong?

Most tired subject
Fox baseball does get a thumbs-down from me. What in the world is the network's fascination with Mark Buehrle? I realize the White Sox pitcher was going through contract talks and might have been traded before he agreed to stay with the team Sunday. But we're talking about a guy who is 6-4 this season. He has never won 20. He is 103-70 in his career with a 3.77 ERA.
Fox seemingly couldn't go two minutes without an update that didn't really say much. I mean, he's good, but he's not Sandy Koufax or Steve Carlton. I just didn't understand all the attention.

Best use of time
My favorite broadcaster of the weekend (well, outside of John McEnroe) was Fox pregame baseball analyst Eric Karros. This guy knows how to do it. He's on camera for about four minutes and if that's all the air time you're going to get, you better come strong. He did.

About Alex Rodriguez, Karros said, "Barring injury, he'll go down as the greatest offensive player of all time.''

He said if the All-Star Game is going to determine who gets homefield advantage in the playoffs, then all teams should not have to be represented with a player in the game.

And he said Indians (and, ahem, former Rays reliever) Joe Borowski "has more heart than any pitcher in baseball.''

He also stole some of my thunder. I planned today to tell you how sick and tired I am of baseball's Home Run Derby, how it has become as boring as the NBA’s Slam Dunk competition. I swear I was going to say that. But Karros beat me to it.

Biggest nonstory
Just thinking out loud here, but is that ESPN Now segment the dumbest thing you’ve ever seen? I can't get news on hockey free-agent signings but four guys can sit around and tell me who is more popular — Amanda Beard or Peyton Manning.

Best moment
For the all criticism boxing takes about its brutality, it was a pleasant and humane sight to see trainer Buddy McGirt stop Saturday's heavyweight bout on HBO between champion Wladimir Klitschko and Lamon Brewster when he realized his man, Brewster, had no chance. McGirt threw in the towel after the sixth round because Brewster was slowly but relentlessly being pummelled.

"He was just a better man,'' Brewster said. "It was an accumulation of punches. I knew at some point that I (couldn't) keep getting hit like that. I have a wife and four kids. I want to be in my right mind  … down the road.''

Amen.

That's why it was a little disturbing to hear the Detroit Free-Press' Mitch Albom make fun of the whole thing on ESPN's The Sports Reporters. Albom said, "Wladimir Klitschko won after his opponent Lamon Brewster's trainer said, 'You’re not fighting hard enough' and called the bout after six rounds. It's not boxing. It's HBO.''

That's not how it went down and Albom's comments were irresponsible at best and flat-out wrong at worst. Had the fight not been stopped, Brewster might be in a coma right now or dead and then we would all be demanding to know why someone didn't stop the fight. Thankfully, McGirt isn't making us wonder that today.

Final thought
One last thing about ESPN's The Sports Reporters. It's a good show. I like it. And I have nothing against the panel, but must we see Mike Lupica, Bob Ryan and Mitch Albom nearly every week? Same thing with ESPN's Around the Horn. We always get Woody Paige, Tim Cowlishaw, J.A. Adande and Jay Mariotti. ESPN needs to mix it up. There are some fabulous voices out there. Tom Boswell from the Washington Post. Joe Posnanski from Kansas City. Jim Souhan and Pat Ruesse from Minneapolis. Tom Powers from St. Paul. Ann Killion from San Jose. David Steele from Baltimore. Mike Bianchi from Orlando. David Hyde from Fort Lauderdale. Rich Hofmann from Philadelphia. And what about the St. Petersburg Times’ own Gary Shelton and John Romano? I just think a few fresh faces would give the show a fresh perspective.

Can anyone break these records?

Sometime soon Barry Bonds will break Hank Aaron's home run record. And then our next question will be: Will anyone break Bonds' record?

Here's my take, as well as some of baseball's other great records and feats.

All-time home run record
My guess — and it's just a guess — is Barry Bonds will end up with around 775 lifetime homers. So can anyone break that record? Ken Griffey, 37, had 586 coming into the weekend, but he still needs four more 50-homer seasons, and I don't see that. No, the best chance is by Alex Rodriguez. He has 493, and say he ends up with 510 or so by season's end. He turns 32 this month. If he can play another 10 years and average 26-and-a-half homers, he'll be at 775. If he averages 30 over nine seasons (that seems very doable), that would put him around 780.
Chance of record being broken: 75 percent.

Single-season home run record
Barry Bonds holds this record with 73 in 2001. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa are the only others to hit at least 65 in a season, and we know the rumors surrounding all three. Ryan Howard hit 58 last season. A-Rod's best is 57 in 2002. That's still 16 homers short. Bottom line is no one, aside from 1998 when McGwire and Sosa played home run derby with one another, has really come close.
Chance of record being broken: 5 percent.

Career victories: pitcher
There's a reason baseball's best pitchers each season win an award named after Cy Young. The guy won 511 games. Of course, it came in an era (1890-1911) when they pitched until their arms were about to fall off. Young started 815 games. By comparison, 44-year-old Roger Clemens has started fewer than 700 — and he only has 350 wins. So think about it. If someone pitched for 25 seasons and averaged 20 victories, he would still be 11 shy of Young.
Chance of record being broken: None.

30-win season: pitcher
Detroit's Denny McLain was the last to win 30 when he went 31-6 in 1968. Those were the days of four-man rotations, so McLain had 41 starts that season. Compare that with, say, Greg Maddux, who has never started more than 37. With 162 games and five-man rotations, pitchers, at most, will get around 34 starts. (That's how many the Twins' Johan Santana had last season when he went 19-6.) Could a pitcher win 30 of 34 starts? Statistically, it’s possible. Realistically? I'm thinking no.
Chance of record being broken: 5 percent.

Hitting streak
  Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak always has been one of baseball's magic records, mostly because it has stood since 1941 and has never really been threatened. Pete Rose came the closest in 1978 with a 44-game streak. Other than that, no one has broken 40 games. (By the way, DiMaggio, immediately put together a 16-game hitting streak after the 56-game streak was snapped.) I'm not sure why more haven't come close to this record. I'm guessing the use of relief pitchers, especially the specialty one-batter relievers, has made this record tougher to break. But you would think that a speedy contact hitter — a guy such as Ichiro who can leg out infield hits and bunts to keep a streak alive — might have a chance.
Chance of record being broken: 15 percent.

Career hits
  When Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb's hits record and ended with 4,256, most assumed Rose's record would never be broken. But do you realize Derek Jeter has more hits at this stage of his career than Rose did at the same point of his career? Jeter, in his 13th season, came into the weekend with 2,266 hits. He's only 33. By season's end, he will be about 1,900 hits short. That's another 10 years of 200-hit seasons, so it’s possible. But two things: Will Jeter still have the desire to play at, say, age 42? And the other thing: There is no way he will break the record if he keeps playing the highly demanding position of shortstop. He'll eventually have to move to first base.
Chance of record being broken: 50 percent.

Stolen-base career record
Rickey Henderson holds the record with 1,406. Kenny Lofton is the active leader, and he has only 619. People just don't steal bases anymore. Jose Reyes led the majors last season with 64. Henderson had more than that 10 times, including six seasons of 80 or more.
Chance of record being broken: 5 percent.

The RBI record
Hack Wilson's record was made even more unbreakable just a few years ago when baseball research discovered a missing RBI. So his record of 190 RBIs in 1930 jumped to 191. Of the top-25 RBI seasons, only two have occurred in the past 50 years — Manny Ramirez with 165 in 1999 and Sammy Sosa with 160 in 2001. Any hitter cleaning up like that probably won't be pitched to in crucial situations. With so many more teams hanging in the pennant race because of the wild card, teams need to win and simply will pitch around big run-producers.
Chance of record being broken: 5 percent.

Baseball's Ironman streak
  Baltimore shortstop Miguel Tejada had the fifth-longest in major-league history when he recently went down with a broken wrist, snapping his streak at 1,152 consecutive games. And he wasn't even halfway to the record of 2,632 by Cal Ripken. The longest active streak? No one is even at 400. Some said Lou Gehrig's record of 2,130 would never be broken. Well, I'm saying Ripken's mark will never be broken.
Chance of record being broken: None.

Another .400 hitter
Like the hitting streak, there hasn't been a .400 hitter since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941. Again, relief specialists have made this a tough number to crack. The guys with the best chance are speedy contact hitters. Problem is, they usually hit near the top of the order and simply bat too many times in a season. The only chance a guy has is if he's like George Brett in 1980 when he hit .390. Brett only played 117 games that season because of injury, and there was a question if he would get enough at-bats to qualify.
Chance of record being broken: 10 percent.

Just your average Joe?

So, what's the deal with Devil Rays manager Joe Maddon?

Our baseball writer, Marc Topkin, pointed out in Thursday's Times how, uh, well Joe had taken the team's 10th straight loss. Joe talked about it being a "growth moment'' and "lesson learned'' and that sort of rah-rah stuff.

You know, some days I see and listen to Joe and I think what a nice man. Kinda like your grandfather. Of course, when I say grandfather, I mean a really old guy who dozes off while eating pudding for lunch, pretty unaware of what's going on around him.

Then there are days when I think Joe knows exactly what's doing. That he firmly believes showing patience and optimism are his best options while he tries to guide a young, fragile team from worst to future contenders. And that any criticism will crush his kids. I mean, is yelling and breaking chairs going to suddenly make the bullpen better? Will it magically heal Rocco Baldelli and B.J. Upton? Will it turn Edwin Jackson into a 20-game winner?

I go back and forth. What about you? What do you think of the job Joe Maddon is doing with the Devil Rays?

Happy Fourth of July!

One of my favorite trick questions for kids is, "Hey, do they have the Fourth of July in England?'' The kid says no and you say, "Yeah, they have the Fourth of July everywhere. Only we celebrate it.''

Ah, teasing kids. Who doesn’t love it? Anyway, with that, we celebrate the Fourth of July here at Two Cents. I don't have hot dogs or fireworks for you, but I do have some interesting tidbits about sports on July 4. So, happy Fourth of July.

Famous sporting events from July 4
July 4, 1910. The first so-called "Fight of the Century.'' Jack Johnson defeats James Jeffries, who is fighting for the first time in six years. Jeffries quits after the 15th round. The African-American's victory sparks riots in the nation's biggest cities and 23 African-Americans are killed in the most tragic Independence Day ever.

July 4, 1919. Jack Dempsey wins the heavyweight championship with a savage knockout of champion Jess Williard. In the first round alone, Williard suffers a broken jaw, a broken cheekbone and cracked ribs, loses several teeth and claims to have permanently lost hearing in one of his ears. Somehow Williard wills himself for another two rounds before finally quitting in the third.

July 4, 1934. A kid has his first professional boxing match in Chicago, knocking out a guy named Jack Kracken in the first round. Maybe you heard of this kid. Name was Joe Louis.

July 4, 1939. It was on this day that the legendary Lou Gehrig considers himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. His famous speech comes less than two years before his death on June 2, 1941 at age 37.

July 4, 1983. On the anniversary of Lou Gehrig's famous speech at Yankee Stadium, Yankees lefty Dave Righetti throws the first no-hitter in franchise history since Don Larson’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. He no-hits Boston, 4-0, striking out Wade Boggs on the last pitch.

July 4, 1985. One of the greatest and strangest and longest games in baseball history started on this date. The Braves and Mets play a rain-delayed marathon slugfest. The Mets lead 11-10 in the bottom of the 18th when the Braves, out of non-pitchers, are forced to send up pitcher Rick Camp to hit. Incredibly, Camp hits a tying homer. The Mets ultimately win, 16-13, in 19 innings in a game that ends just before 4 a.m. When it is over, the few hundred fans left are treated to what they came to see in the first place: fireworks.

July 4, 1987. Martina Navratilova, still perhaps the greatest women's tennis player ever, wins her sixth straight Wimbledon. Think a second just how incredible that is. She beats a young upstart named Steffi Graf 7-5, 6-3.

July 4, 1999. In an American showdown at Wimbledon, Pete Sampras is nearly flawless in beating long-time rival Andre Agassi in straight sets. After the match, Agassi simply shakes his heads and says that Sampras "walks on water.'' It is American tennis at its finest.

Born on the Fourth of July
1. George Steinbrenner. Yankees owner. The Boss turns 77 today. Will the Yankees reward the owner with 77 wins this season? Stay tuned.

2. Al Davis. Oakland Raiders owner. Happy 102nd birthday, Al! What? You’re only 78? Geez. Sorry.

3. Vinny Castilla. Former Devil Rays third baseman turns 40. A member of the Rays' infamous "Hit Show,'' Castilla smacked eight homers and hit .218 in 109 games with the Rays. They could've come up with a more appropriate name than Hit Show.

4. Pam Shriver. Tennis player. Shriver turns 45 today. A grinder who won a 1991 doubles championship and went on to become a tennis commentator.

Four patriotic names
1. World B. Free. Former NBA player. Legally changed his name from Lloyd in 1980. He currently works for the Philadelphia 76ers as a director of player development.

2. David Justice. Former MLB player. Truth, David Justice and the American way.

3. George Washington. Chicago White Sox pitcher. (Uh, that's not him to the left. It's another George Washington). The George Washington I'm talking about played in 1935-36. He had a wooden bat, but I don’t think he had wooden teeth.

4. Lincoln Kennedy. Tampa Bay Storm defender and former NFL player, above. Two presidential names in one.

Three patriotic sports terms
1. Statue of Liberty Play. Football term when the quarterback fakes a pass, holds the ball over his head or behind his back and the receiver grabs it and takes off. Works about as much as when the pitcher fakes a pickoff to third and then first.

2. Eagle. When a golfer shoots two-under par on one hole. At least that’s what they tell me it’s called.

3. Double reverse. Everyone knows it’s a football term. And, of course, a political term. Our senators and congressman do it all the time.
Stockton and Malone.  The Americans won the Olympic gold medal with a 117-85 victory over Croatia.

Shooting from the lip

The best and worst from a weekend of televised sports ...

Best coverage
  Maybe it's that cool music. Maybe it's the grass. Whatever it is, I love watching Wimbledon. Actually, I know what it is more than anything else — the analysis of John McEnroe and Mary Carillo. They know their stuff, have great charisma and one can tell that they have a friendship that goes back to when they were kids by their easy-going-back-and-forth with one another.

Here are some of their better moments over the first week of the tournament:
Carillo, on a roof being built to cover centre court for the rainy days: "I think the whole country should be covered.''

Carillo, on Maria Sharapova winning on a rain-shortened day: "She should go to Acapulco for a few days and find some sun.''

McEnroe, on whether Roger Federer has an edge playing most of his matches on centre court: "The bigger edge is that he’s better than everyone else.''

Worst coverage
Who was the numbskull who decided to give TBS the Major League Baseball All-Star Game Selection Show? What a train wreck. Even host Ernie Johnson seemed embarrassed as he kept telling viewers to hang in there until the end of the Braves-Marlins game. The show was supposed to come on at 4 p.m. — or just after the Braves-Marlins game. Of course, the game in South Florida was delayed 90 minutes by rain, went to extra innings and didn’t end until 5:52 p.m. — nearly two hours late. Seriously, I was pulling for a 22-inning game just to further embarrass baseball for this idiotic scheduling.

Why anyone would schedule an important show like this after the conclusion of a baseball game is beyond me. What if the game had gone 13 or 14 innings? A four-hour plus baseball game is not unprecedented.

This show needed to be on at a set time. Just give it back to ESPN, which was smart enough to know when to schedule a show like this. Put it on at 7 just before the Sunday Night Baseball. The show itself — with Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn — was fine, but by that point I was too aggravated to enjoy it.

So-so coverage
The Storm playoff game Saturday was about as exciting as Arena Football can get and yet the telecasts still come off as a bit flat unless you’re a huge Arena fan — and, admittedly, I'm not. ESPN does a good job miking the players so we can hear the coaches and the call of the next play. Of course, that's only good if the analyst — in the Storm's case,  Merril Hoge — interprets the confusing set of numbers and words and tells you what is coming. Hoge did that.

But this device of telling what's about to happen is something ESPN relies on too heavily and it eventually turns boring. The announcers, ultimately, need to tell me more about the players, offer some human interest. Or why should anyone care what happens?

Day in the Life
ESPN kicked off its NFL "Day in the Life'' series on Sports­Center. It's a short segment about what NFL players do on a typical day in the offseason. The Dolphins' Jason Taylor was featured Sunday. Tonight it's new Bucs quarterback Jeff Garcia at his celebrity golf tournament in California. The rest of the series will have San Diego’s Shawne Merriman (Tuesday), Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson (Wednesday) and Indianapolis’ Dwight Freeney (Thursday).

MVP of the weekend
Steve Phillips has turned out to be ESPN's best baseball analyst behind Peter Gammons. His work on Sunday morning's extended SportsCenter has become must viewing for baseball fans. On Sunday, he broke down the buyers and sellers leading up to baseball's trade deadline at the end of the month.

Here's what he said:
AL buyers: Mariners (starting pitching), Angels (power bat), Tigers (bullpen help).
AL sellers: Rangers (Mark Teixeira ), White Sox (Jermaine Dye), Orioles (Melvin Mora, Jay Payton, Steve Trachsel).
NL buyers: West Division (offense), East Division (starting pitching), Brewers (an experienced leader).
NL sellers: Astros (Brad Lidge), Reds (Adam Dunn and maybe Ken Griffey).
It was the most informative five minutes of sports television over the weekend.

Bargain of the weekend
NBC's Jimmy Roberts pointed out that fans who attend Wimbledon get a full refund if rain prevents them from seeing less than an hour's worth of tennis.

"That means fans at centre court (Saturday) got to see the defending champion, Amelie Mauresmo, polish off Mara Santangelo in 57 minutes and because there was no more tennis, they all get a full refund. Rain is usually a bummer for fans but today it actually soaks the All England Club itself … to the tune of a million and a half dollars. Ouch. Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug. Somebody, please send this policy to Major League Baseball.''

Fight of the weekend
So golf's diva, Annika Sorenstam, had the gall to say she is still hoping to get an apology from Michelle Wie after Wie withdrew with what Soren­stam thought was a shady injury from a tournament Soren­stam sponsored a few weeks back. I know that Wie withdrew a few weeks ago to avoid shooting an 88 and getting knocked off the tour. But that wrist injury is part of the reason she was in danger of shooting an 88. Now that Wie withdrew from the U.S. Women's Open because of the same wrist injury, I'm thinking Sorenstam owes Wie an apology.

Favorite quote of the weekend
Just the other day, the guys around the office were talking about whatever happened to old NFL coach Jerry Glanville. Well, ESPN's Outside the Lines gave us the answer. Glanville, 65, is the new football coach at Portland State. And he delivered this gem as to why he would go to such a place:
"Anybody can be the head coach at Ohio State or Texas or Michigan. What's the fun in that? Here, you’re managing the bus. The bus is going down the road at Portland State and just about every other day, we get a blowout, we have a flat tire. And as the head coach here, you have to get off the bus, fix the flat tire and get it rolling again. And I wouldn't want it any other way.''

ESPN/ABC Football
ESPN/ABC has set its announcing teams for college football. The biggest change is Bob Davie is moving from the ABC game to ESPN2 where he will work with Mark Jones. The ABC Saturday night game will have a two-man booth of Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit. I would prefer Davie staying as part of a three-man booth, but … oh well.

Herbstreit has been an animal over recent years, working Thursday nights, Saturday mornings on College GameDay and then Saturday nights. ESPN smartly is pulling him off the Thursday night games to give him a break. Doug Flutie and Craig James will now do the Thursday games with Chris Fowler.

The Saturday night ESPN game will still have Mike Patrick and Todd Blackledge, who make up what might be the best college broadcast team going right now.

Whatever happened to …?
"Oil Can'' Boyd. Remember him? The old Red Sox pitcher? This Week in Baseball did a cool feature on him. He has formed a barnstorming team in the tradition of the old Negro teams of the early 20th Century. And he has been joined by two former major-leaguers: Delino DeShields and Bill "Spaceman''’ Lee. Did you realize that the Spaceman is now 60 years old? Man, we’re getting old.

Another TWiB feature
As cool as it was to see Oil Can Boyd, This Week in Baseball's best story was a feature about singer Paul Simon and the line about Joe DiMaggio in his song Mrs. Robinson. Initially, DiMaggio thought he was being made fun of in the song and was insulted. Later, he found out Simon actually wrote the line in honor of him. Simon said he ran into DiMaggio in a New York restaurant and DiMaggio invited him to sit down.

DiMaggio said, "Why do you say, 'Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?' I haven’t gone anywhere. I’m still here. I do coffee commercials.''

Simon said he laughed, and said, yes, he had seen the Mr. Coffee commercials, but what he meant was he missed that what Joe DiMaggio — the legend, the bigger-than-life athlete, the hero — represented was no longer a part of our society.