Sportz Of All Sortz.com

Worse than Fitzroy! - The University Football Club!

2012-06-25T14:43:00.000+10:00

"You're worse than Fitzroy!"
It's a familiar refrain that has been levelled at several battling clubs in recent years, from Damien Hardwick's Richmond side in 2010 to an inept Melbourne fighting to find its feet under Mark Neeld in 2012.
The introduction of expansion clubs Gold Coast and GWS were accompanied by fears - since proven unfounded - that the Suns and Giants would be perennial strugglers as they pumped their talented teenagers full of senior experience.

But the stricken Fitzroy team that limped through its final season in 1996, stripped of talent and hope, was a long way from being the worst team to grace the VFL/AFL's long and colourful history.
That honour sits comfortably with the University sides of 1913-14. They remain one of the few teams to go winless through an entire season - and they did it twice in a row. Only St Kilda, in its first three years from 1897, has a worse record. Even Fitzroy die-hards got to sing the song once in their final year, celebrating a 31-point victory over Fremantle at the Whitten Oval.
And like Fitzroy, University's failings were not entirely of their own doing - although the Students, as they were known, contributed significantly more to their own demise than the luckless Lions, condemned to a merger by a league administration hell bent on expansion.
University's chief trouble was its restrictive eligibility clause. To represent the Students, prospective players had to hold a matriculation certificate (i.e. have completed their secondary education) or a higher degree. Indeed, many of Melbourne's finest future doctors and lawyers turned out in the blue and black.

University might well have been the smartest Australian football side ever fielded but that didn't help them when it came to actually putting players on the park.
Still, the Students fared better than fellow expansion club Richmond upon their simultaneous entry to the VFL in 1908. They finished above the Tigers in each of their first three seasons in the league, with a best result of sixth in their debut year with eight wins from 18 games.
However, the wheels quickly fell off the University bandwagon.
The combined pressure of exam schedules, term holidays and a chronically unstable line-up meant the club battled to compete with the established powers of the time - Carlton, Essendon and Collingwood.
In their final season, the Students finished with a percentage of just 47. A 15-point loss to South Melbourne at the Lake Oval was their best result; losses by 84 and 89 points to reigning premier Fitzroy were their worst.

The Great War was the final blow for the ailing club. Many of its players were also members of the University regiment and when war was declared it became clear the club could not go on.
But like the Lions in their final days, there were figures of hope. In Roy Park, the Students boasted the league's most prolific goalkicker in 1913. Park booted 53 of University's 123 goals that season despite the club failing to win a game.
Both Park and teammate Bert Hartkopf played Test cricket for Australia while Ted Cordner Sr - the father of the famous Melbourne quartet from the 1940s and '50s - was among the club's very best players.
No one player managed to represent the club in all of its seven VFL seasons but centreman Bert Hurrey went closest, playing 101 of a possible 126 games for the Students. He captained the club in 1913 and earned state selection against South Australia, where he was described as a "king in the centre".
And in its own way, the story of University provides a constant source of hope for supporters of struggling teams today. In an era of unprecedented professionalism for a league flush with funds, fans can rest assured that no matter how bad their team gets, they'll never have it as bad as University.

By Michael Rogers - Bigpond Sport 22/6/12

Olympic Softball Remains Don Porter's Quest!

2012-06-07T16:09:00.002+10:00

The rain drizzled and the air chilled on that dreary night of Aug. 21, 2008, in Beijing.

It was the end of something that had had such a nice beginning. It was a night when sadness was understandable, even while a group of Japanese women deliriously celebrated what they had just achieved.

Through the mist and gloom, Don Porter saw the glass half full, as usual.

In sports significance and popularity, what happened on this Olympian night didn't even make the scale of 1 to 10. This wasn't about a dream team, just a dream. This didn't have them buzzing at the water cooler back home — unless home was in Japan. Nobody was measuring network TV ratings or scrambling to get one of the stars on the "Today" show.

It was women's softball, the Olympic gold-medal game, the U.S. juggernaut versus Japan. It was played at Fengtai, a half-hour taxi ride from the heart of Beijing. The stadium seated 10,000 and it was filled. Bobby Valentine was there. So were more than the usual handful of International Olympic Committee officials. Some were there to support the show, others just to be the show.

In his office under the stands, Porter scurried and worried. It was a grand moment, the fourth gold-medal game over which he had presided as president of the International Softball Federation.

It was also his darkest time, because the fourth would be the last. At least for the foreseeable future.

Starting in 1996 in Atlanta, the Olympics had given Porter's sport a nice blip for two weeks, once every four years. They had created stars, who had created interest and role models for little girls. They had validated the hundreds of meetings and thousands of hours Porter had spent shaking hands, writing letters, doing interviews and hoping for exactly what had eventually happened.

On the field were the stars, watching in shocked disbelief as the Japanese and their pitching hero, Yukiko Ueno, celebrated. The runners-up were the women who had defined the game for the world while Team USA was going 32-5 in Olympic softball and winning the first three gold medals offered — in Atlanta, Sydney and Athens. Their names were Cat Osterman, Jennie Finch, Natasha Watley, Stacey Nuveman, Jessica Mendoza and Crystl Bustos, among others. Watching, undoubtedly, was UCLA's own Lisa Fernandez, who had retired from the gold-medal pursuit after leading her team to three of them. After Athens, the greatest female softball player ever got married and had a baby.

This group had won 22 Olympic games in a row until Ueno beat it that night, 3-1. She had pitched through the losers' bracket and a semifinal before beating the unbeatable. Her workload totaled 28 innings over two days, and nobody was yanking her out because of a pitch count.

Who needs testosterone? This was really true grit.

The drizzle and the mist hung overhead as Porter hovered nearby. IOC officials were presenting medals. Anita DeFrantz of Los Angeles was there. So was Dick Pound of Canada. Both were friends of softball. Also on hand was Jacques Rogge, president of the IOC and not so much a friend. His appearance at softball that night was either ceremonial necessity or chutzpah.

As far back as 2003, Rogge had led a movement to rid the Olympics of baseball and softball. Speculation as to his reasons included that these sports were all too much American and all too little European. Other kinder theories were that he and his backers were simply looking for more variety.

In one of the endless meetings and conclaves that the IOC has, the idea of dropping baseball and softball came to a vote and Rogge was defeated. The sports were retained, at least through Beijing. Rogge then broadened the concept by announcing that all Olympic sports would be reviewed. One can only imagine the fear and anxiety piercing the gymnastics federation.

Through it all, Porter lobbied, shook hands and worked the room at every IOC gathering. He is more politically savvy than confrontational. He disdains rants for logic.

In 2005 in Singapore, the IOC voted again. This time, softball lost, 52-52. Beijing would be its last hurrah. One more vote and Fernandez might be answering to "Coach" now and Bustos would be dreaming about how to crank one of her tape-measure homers off Ueno in London. Instead, as Finch called it the night of the final, softball took "a knife to the heart."

Porter says he never has learned who voted how. The IOC made the vote secret.

"The IOC was 112 members then," he says, "but some left the meeting early, some abstained and some recused themselves."

Softball tried again in Turin, Italy, in 2006 and lost, 47-43. Its next chance is in 2013 at meetings in Buenos Aires, for a return to eligibility in 2020. Porter says he will be there, fighting the good fight.

He is 81, born and raised in the Valley and a product of San Fernando and Canoga Park high schools. He played football for an undefeated team at East Los Angeles College that lost a spot in the Junior Rose Bowl when promoters opted for a Compton College team starring some guy named Hugh McElhenny. Porter went into the service, played military baseball in Korea, and was in a game against a group of traveling major leaguers that included Joe DiMaggio.

While he was starting a career in softball administration that has spanned nearly 50 years, Porter worked as an official for Big Eight Conference football and, for four years, the NFL.

"I remember working in one Rams game," he says, "and I got blindsided along the sidelines. I was out and when I came to, there was George Allen, telling me to get up, that they had a drive going."

The silver lining Porter saw that night in Beijing was that, if nothing else, the Japanese victory proved that Olympic softball was not merely a U.S. sport.

Mike Candrea, Team USA's coach, saw the same thing that night. More than an hour after perhaps his biggest professional disappointment, he stood in a dark, wet parking lot, surrounded by reporters, and keynoted the hope that might come from his despair.

"If this is what it takes to bring it back," he says, "then so be it."

These days, when Porter isn't traveling, he sits in his office at softball federation headquarters in Plant City, Fla., and occasionally glances at a box he keeps nearby. In it are printouts of more than 500 emails he has received since softball was cut from the Olympics. Most of them, he says, are from young girls who say their dream was taken away. Many ask him to keep fighting.

"We will," Porter says.

Article by Bill Dwyre - Los Angeles Times 2012

Cal Ripken's 2131 Night - The Night That Saved Baseball

2012-05-14T21:34:00.000+10:00

Many things intrigue players and fans about the game of baseball they enjoy so much. One of these things is a record. A record in sports is defined as the known history of performance, activities, or achievement.
Many athletes say that records are "things that are made to be broken". However, one record in sports stands the test of time. A record so laborious that men in this day-in-age have a hard time imaging it.
A man by the name of Lou Gehrig set a record for the most consecutive games played in Major League Baseball at 2,130 games. Like many athletes say, records are made to be broken. This record was indeed broken. Broken on a magical night in the confines of Oriole Park in Camden Yards.
The light shined down on the stadium as the night edged into Baltimore on Sept. 6, 1995. A sea of orange and black crowded the seats as the players swarmed onto the field.
As Cal Ripken Jr. stepped onto the turf, the crowd went ablaze. As the sun settled down on the horizon, the fans rose up in their seats to congratulate their own hometown hero. Cal Ripken Jr. had just done what many believed could not be accomplished.
Finally, the last number of "2131" was released from the warehouse seen in the twilight of right field and a new record was set. This record, many have said, can and will never be broken. Cal Ripken Jr.'s consecutive games streak may be one of the hardest to grasp in all of sports.
Just imagine playing everyday for 2,632 straight games (that's the new record). That is tiring enough. In order to accomplish this task, you must do everything right. Avoiding injuries, always being prepared, and always going out with your heart in the game.
It's something that each and every one of us should stop and think about, because it's pretty extraordinary to say the least.
As a 15-year-old sports writer, I was not able to fully grasp the night back when I was just about to turn three. Now I look back at not only how it helped the Baltimore area, but also how it helped Major League Baseball as a whole.
For that night would live in the glory of the game and would never be forgotten by any baseball fan in our modern day society.
Back in 1994, the MLB was going through a tough stretch. A 232-day strike, which lasted from August 12, 1994 to April 2, 1995. This strike led to the cancellation of 931-948 games overall, including the postseason and World Series.
The Players Union continued to this until its final days, ruining the baseball world for a period of time. Because of this, attendance went down dramatically in stadiums throughout the nation (this would eventually lead to the Expos leaving Montreal).
However, during Cal's consecutive games streak, Camden Yards began to see more faces come out to the ballpark. His streak attracted attention throughout the baseball world and Ripken would soon recognize it.
He stated, "The streak has become my identity; it's who I've become."
From then on baseball slowly began to change. Some even go on to say that the streak was one of the things that saved baseball. Ripken's streak was not only one for himself, it was one for the city of Baltimore.
It was one for baseball.

By Lawrence Barreca (Bleacherreport.com) 2008

Sportsmanship: Is It Officially Dead??

2012-04-26T16:28:00.000+10:00

Let’s be clear: Alex Rodriguez knew exactly what he was doing when he crossed Dallas Braden’s pitching mound during a Yankees/A’s game last week. Anyone who has played organized baseball at an eighth-grade level or beyond knows there are certain unwritten rules you don’t break without repercussion, and walking across the pitcher's mound when trotting back to first base after a foul ball is one of them.

And A-Rod’s repercussion is coming -- count on it.

But the Yankee slugger’s latest ego-trip outside the rules for mere mortals raises more important questions than just how arrogant one of MLB’s top stars really is. Sportsmanship: Is it dead? What is the point of these so-called unwritten rules? They exist in every sport, but why?

Sportsmanship: What happened to it?

Like it or not, the traditional notions of respect for the game (including the opponent) are dying. Perhaps they’re being replaced by subtler versions of equal value, but we’d say every absurd arrest, ostentatious celebration and NBA superstar barking on all fours argues otherwise.

Ever since big money started creating bigger reservoirs of self-regard, “me” has become the focus for a growing number of athletes. Less energy can be spared worrying about the team and even less for any concern requiring greater depth of thought.

The fall of sportsmanship: NFL and NBA already casualties

Both the NFL and NBA are faster paced, more emotionally charged leagues than MLB. It drives their popularity, but the visceral nature is a double-edged sword. The competitive juices sometimes get too hot and in their wake are some of our most egregious examples of sportsmanship’s demise. Combined, these leagues have given us the Ron Artest melee, Terrell Owens, Chad Ochocinco, Stephon Marbury, Vince Carter, and the list goes on.

Off the field, the story is even more gruesome yet -- for all his Draconian countermeasures, even Roger Goodell has been powerless to stop the decay. But what about the unwritten enforcers?

Their unwritten rules are different

These two more violent bedfellows do have some unwritten rules. The NBA’s unwritten rules say never pad your stats, don’t use full-court presses in blowouts, no threes once the margin gets too big, and others. Nevertheless, these are more like unwritten encouragements (i.e. the worst you’d get for breaking one is a little trash-talk), so who really cares?

The NFL’s oral agreements are more numerous, but they’re aimed at keeping players physically safe rather than the more trivial interests of congeniality and mutual respect. The one standard seems to be don’t run up the score, which encompasses stuff like don’t pass in a blowout, don’t go for two when the game is in hand, etc. Here again, however, we find an enforcement mechanism that lacks any serious teeth.

Baseball’s unwritten rules

For all its steroid warts and complaints about tepid action, professional baseball has an obvious and massive edge on its two most powerful competitors with regards to pastoral splendor. Much of the advantage can be attributed to the paramount importance its athletes place on sportsmanship and respect for the game.

The reverence isn’t innate; ballplayers don’t simply arrive in the Big Leagues with it intact.

That’s where its litany of traditional no-nos comes in to play and there are tons. A sample includes no sign-stealing; no excessive celebrating unless you’ve earned it (even then, it better be limited); no breaking up a no-hitter with a bunt unless situationally appropriate; no talking about a no-hitter after the fifth inning; no calling time-out in the middle of a pitcher’s windup; and no yelling at infielders trying to catch a pop-up.

Of course, the glue that holds it all together is the beanball, which is an acceptable form of retribution so long as it isn't at the head (which is never OK unless it’s return fire for the same offense).

Sportsmanship is about respect

Former player, manager and current broadcaster Bob Brenly once described baseball’s unwritten code as being about three things: “respect your teammates, respect your opponents and respect the game.”

You can see those strains running through almost every one of its unwritten rules.

And if you don’t agree, you’ll see 108 stitches coming at you.

Apparently, that’s more persuasive than a fine.

Check out our website http://sportzofallsortz.com

Congratulations to my Softball team, Glen Eira Saints!! Premiers 2011/12

2012-03-31T21:50:00.001+11:00

It's not often that we give a blatent plug to particular teams (Apart from the SEMR team) but I have to congratulate my Glen Eira Saints womens team on winning the SEMR competition plate Grand Final today (31/3/12)
A fantastic team effort by all the girls and a well deserved win. Topped off by our pitcher, Keira, winning the best Grand Final players and then during the presentations, Kirby, was awarded the overall MVP for the season!! A brilliant effort!!!!!

Fantastic Effort Girls!! You all did Glen Eira very proud!!!!

Does Softball's Olympic Return Hinge on MLB?

2012-03-28T10:29:00.001+11:00

Jennie Finch is a wife, a mother of two and a successful businesswoman. Since retiring from softball she's run the New York City marathon, written a book and launched an online store.
In other words, she's busy. But until her voice no longer resonates on the international stage, she will always make time to campaign to get softball reinstated onto the Olympic program.
Which is why she didn't just accept an award at the recent IOC World Conference on Women and Sport in Los Angeles, she used the opportunity to deliver an impassioned, emotional speech to some of the same IOC members who had voted her sport out of the Olympics in 2005.
"Honestly, I wish there was more I could do," Finch said after delivering the rousing speech. "I didn't really know if this was the right place to do this, but I figured I might not have a better opportunity to be in front of all these IOC members so it was now or never."

Finch's conclusion was a logical one. Softball was dropped from the Olympic program when it failed to garner a majority of the 105 votes cast. The final vote: 52-52 with one abstention was heartbreakingly close. One vote cost softball its spot on the Olympic program. And when you hear many of those IOC members mistakenly thought of softball as women's baseball, it's even sadder.
"A lot of the IOC members, for whatever reasons, kept seeing us as women's baseball," said Don Porter, the head of the International Softball Federation. "We tried to do everything we could to dispel that. Our sport is similar to baseball in a lot of ways, but it's also very different. To people that are not real familiar with it, sometimes they don't see that difference."
Baseball's problems were plentiful: performance-enhancing drug use, the refusal of Major League Baseball owners to allow their players to compete and even the length of the games.
OK, so education has to be the answer, right?
Explain the differences between softball and baseball to the IOC, show them how much passion there is for the sport, use celebrities such as Finch or ESPN commentator Jessica Mendoza to raise the visibility of the cause. That would be the play, right?

Not necessarily. Not at all, actually.
No, the IOC members Finch so eloquently and passionately pleaded with a few weeks ago in Los Angeles are not the people who need convincing.
The only group with enough clout to get softball back on the Olympic program? The 30 owners of major league baseball franchises and baseball commissioner Bud Selig.
Neither softball nor baseball is getting back onto the Olympic program until major league baseball decides it's willing to create a 10-day break in its schedule to allow its players to compete in the Olympics -- as the NHL does with hockey and the NBA and WNBA with basketball.
Softball's fate is tied to baseball, so the two sports need to present a united front in their effort to re-enter the Olympic program.
"The feeling is that it might be good to combine if it's going to be advantageous to both of us," Porter said. "The problem is, if major league baseball doesn't participate, then that's not going to be advantageous."
Why is it so important for major league baseball to allow its players to participate?

We like to think of the Olympics as the last bastion of amateur sports. But that hasn't been true for decades. The leaders of the Olympic movement care about the same things major league baseball owners do: profits, popularity, corporate sponsorships and television rights fees and ratings.
Just look at the two sports that were added to the program for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro: golf and rugby. In other words, two sports that boast some of the most popular professional athletes on the planet. And those athletes will not only compete but walk in the Opening Ceremonies, boost television ratings and draw in new corporate sponsors.
"I think the IOC was also working towards looking at something different in the program," Porter said, diplomatically. "Different types of sports. Sports that they think would be more popular, for television, more sponsor interest."
Finch and Mendoza are probably the only softball players with any kind of Q-rating, and they have both retired from the national team. So talk of softball "going it alone" is somewhat naive in a world where the IOC has clearly put an emphasis on adding sports that would bring the world's most popular, marketable athletes to the Olympics.

It also doesn't fit with the IOC's guidelines, which recommend that each sport have a male and female competition -- a key reason women's boxing was added to the 2012 games.
"Unless they develop men's softball, they'll have to combine with baseball," said Ching-Kuo Wu, an IOC member from Taiwan who said he voted to retain softball in 2005.
"But baseball doesn't have women's baseball and softball doesn't have men's softball. So that's why the IOC recommended they go together in the first place. Support each other so they can become one sport. But it's not easy when you have two organizations."
No, the only way for softball to get back on the program is to partner with baseball and for the best baseball players in the world -- major league baseball players -- to participate in the summer games.
Unfortunately it doesn't seem like that will happen anytime soon.
"We remain committed to working alongside the International Baseball Federation to get baseball back into the Olympics as it should be," MLB spokesman Pat Courtney wrote in an e-mail.

"While the timing of the MLB schedule and the Summer Olympic program schedule has not been conducive to MLB players participating, MLB organizations have been very cooperative with non-major league roster players (vast pool of minor league and even 40-man players from each of the 30 Clubs) and will make every effort to cooperate in all ways feasible moving forward.
Riccardo Schiroli, a spokesman for the IBAF, also points out that many future major leaguers have competed in the Olympics.
"Team USA won their gold medal with Ben Sheets throwing a complete game in the championship game against Cuba. Team USA had Doug Mientkiewicz at first and at the time of the Games he had already played over 100 games in the big leagues," Schiroli said. "In those games Dave Nilsson was on Australia's roster and Sydney featured a few players who made it to the Majors in a matter of months: Daisuke Matsuzaka played for Japan, [Jose] Contreras was the ace on Cuba pitching staff and Jason Simontacchi represented Italy.
"Also, consider that professional players are not only the ones under contract with MLB organizations. NPB in Japan and KBO in South Korea provide pretty good competition. I would say that the fact these two teams competed for the trophy in the 2009 World Baseball Classic final is something we cannot forget."
All of these are good points. And all of them are especially valid considering the fact that soccer, by far the world's most popular sport, does not have its best players in the Olympics either. The men's Olympic soccer tournament is mostly an under-23 affair, with just three "over-age" players allowed on each roster.
The problem? It's a lot harder to get invited back onto the Olympic program than to stay there once you're in. It takes a simple majority to stay but two-thirds to get back in.

"There's this whole mechanism that you have to follow, but it's not impossible," said Nicole Hoevertsz, an IOC member from Aruba. "But I think we have to fight and continue making the efforts to fight and get softball back on the program."
There are a lot of people willing to take up that fight. Finch is ready and willing. So is Mendoza. Porter has been at it for seven years already. Softball-friendly IOC delegates like Wu and Hoevertsz will continue their support.
But it's time to consider whether the fight is being waged on the wrong battlefield. Or rather, on the wrong ball field.
Softball may have been dropped from the Olympic program because it was unfairly associated with baseball and its problems. But it might not be able to get back in without them.

By Ramona Shelbourne - ESPN March 14 2012

Check out our Softball Page at

http://sportzofallsortz.com/softball.html

The World Mourns The Loss Of Jim Stynes!

2012-03-21T15:24:00.003+11:00

WONDERFUL. An inspiration. Sorely missed. An icon. A legend. A decent man and a mate.
From the thousands of tributes to Jim Stynes who died yesterday at the age of 45, many reiterated those words above yet each carried the individual impression of a person touched by a true great, not just in football but in life.
Stynes was that kind of person, many said. A man who made a big impact on individuals in private but also someone with a vision so grand that mastering a foreign football code became achievable, as did setting up a youth organisation called the Reach Foundation to help others fulfil their potential.
Kevin Sheedy, who has often described the Stynes story as the best in the indigenous code's 153-year history, stressed his admiration for the 1991 Brownlow medallist who strung together a record 244 consecutive games and later rescued the Melbourne Football Club from the brink of disaster after he became president.
"A superb person who has made an outstanding contribution to Australia and will be sorely missed," Sheedy said.

Yet Stynes, who was awarded an Order of Australia and thrice named Victorian of the Year, would be certain to stress his story was no more extraordinary than the challenges overcome by Liam Jurrah, the young Demon who now faces his own battle.
"I saw him first-hand in Yuendumu when we went up there in the Northern Territory to visit Liam Jurrah's family," former Essendon star Tim Watson said.
"I saw him for a couple of days there and he was struggling with his health and I was just amazed by the bravery and the courage he displayed up there."
Former teammate David Schwarz said it was Stynes's work with disadvantaged youth, more than his football ability, that set him apart.
"It was something that he was passionate about and it probably sums up the whole Jim Stynes story in that it was not about him, it was about all the people he could help," Schwarz said.
"It was amazing the effect that he had on lives that were normally just forgotten about or destroyed. He saved them, he resurrected the lives of many of these young kids who now, some of them we see as just beautiful people who have been given a second opportunity, all thanks to Jim Stynes."
Those street kids are not the only ones hurting. Melbourne's joint captains Jack Grimes and Jack Trengove are barely men and stood shattered yesterday at the MCG.

"He saved the Melbourne Football Club. He's definitely the most inspirational person I have ever met and probably ever will meet," Trengove said.
"You just assume (because of) how much of a fighter he is that he would be around, so you never thought this day would ever come.
"He had an impact on so many people and me personally, being able to speak to him and learn off him and realise how much of an impact he has had."
Julia Gillard expressed her sadness, as did the man she replaced as Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd. Don McLardy, who assumed the Melbourne presidency from Stynes when he stepped down last month, penned a heartfelt tribute.
Robert DiPierdimenco, another Brownlow medallist, talked of being introduced to a then 14-year-old Stynes by Ron Barassi on a trip to Ireland and talked of his distress when he hugged him for the last time a week ago.
Sportsmen from around the globe expressed their dismay, Tour de France legend Lance Armstrong and Shane Warne among them.
The despair was also evident in his homeland. Paul Clarke, who captained Stynes in Gaelic football, told the Irish Examiner he would be remembered forever.

"We had heard he wasn't well in recent months but you just thought . . . that he was bulletproof," Clarke said.
Among the beautifully written and voiced tributes, it was AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou who delivered a line that best assesses the life of Stynes.
"It is an incredible story that if you wrote it, you couldn't believe it was anything other than fiction, yet all of it is true," he said.
"We are all the better for knowing Jim Stynes."
Stynes is survived by his wife, Samantha, and children Matisse and Tiernan.

Story by: Courtney Walsh - The Australian March 21, 2012

RIP JIMMY!!! A TRUE LEGEND AS A FOOTBALLER AND AN INSPIRATION AS A MAN!!!

YOU WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN!

Liam Jurrah - A tale of two conflicting cultures

2012-03-13T14:16:00.001+11:00

LIAM Jurrah is cause for enormous pride among his people of Yuendumu. Nothing about his recent arrest will change that. It only reinforces that Jurrah’s tribal beliefs remain strong and inviolate.

The Northern Territory has produced many fine footballers. Maurice Rioli and Michael Long, who belong to the Tiwi Islands, just north of Darwin, are the obvious names. And there are many more.
But no central Australian tribal Aborigine from the bush has ever played in the AFL apart from Brisbane’s Daryl White, who was not strictly a bush boy.

Pulling a bush kid to the national game was a breakthrough, not for central Australian Aborigines, who always knew their boys were up to it, but for the AFL.
The AFL always knew that these boys who sometimes played bootless on red-dirt grounds were different. They instinctively knew that tribal matters - which is really just another way of saying “extended family” - ran deep.
It wasn’t just about the homesickness the players felt. It ran deeper. It was about the responsibility and worries an initiated young man such as Jurrah felt about leaving his family unprotected to the jealousies and rivalries of other clans in these small and sometimes vicious towns. Those jealousies and rivalries are a 60,000-year-old tradition.

Jurrah's recruitment to Melbourne became the source of great celebration to the people of Yuendumu - whether or not they supported the Melbourne Football Club. Whether or not they were part of Jurrah’s clan.
This community, some 300km north-west of Alice Springs, has been wracked with issues, from governance problems to the petrol sniffing which caused such terrible problems from the 1980s on.
Yuendumu is dirt poor. There is no private land ownership. Many of the citizens live in real hovels. There is no alcohol allowed, but it still gets in. Tension is real. But Liam Jurrah was - and is - proof that this AFL-mad, far-flung community has something to say, something to offer.

Whatever the white court system might say about him, Jurrah’s “tribal voice”, as Yothu Yindi once put it, is more telling than the lights of the MCG.
No matter the outcome of his prosecution, no matter the ugliness of this tribal dispute, there is one thing that Liam Jurrah’s arrest tells us: Aboriginal culture is still alive.
Lawyers have for decades been arguing that Aboriginal law, which is our country’s first law, should receive some recognition on our statutes. All the talk has come to nothing.
Now that we have a true star facing court, for tribal reasons, perhaps we’ll think again what it means to drag a tribal person to a white court.

By Paul Toohey - Herald Sun 9/3/12

Visit us at http://sportzofallsortz.com for all your sporting goods!

Bee swarm delays game between D-backs & Giants

2012-03-05T19:10:00.003+11:00

By Steve Henson, Yahoo Sports! 5/3/2012

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Bees and baseball don’t mix. Sure, the Salt Lake City Bees and Burlington Bees are minor-league teams. But a swarm of bees flying into a stadium during a ballgame will certainly halt the action, sending players scurrying for the dugout and fans from their seats.
Talk about a buzzy story. The Arizona Diamondbacks and San Francisco Giants were in the top of the second inning of an exhibition game Sunday afternoon when the bees arrived en masse, entering the field over the right center-field wall, flying directly over the infield and settling in the Giants’ dugout.
Fire officials were summoned, and it took 41 minutes to clear out the bees and get on with the ballgame. The incident took place in the most deluxe spring-training stadium, Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. The facility opened a year ago and is shared by the Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies

The Diamondbacks and Rockies were involved in the last game delayed by bees, before the teams moved to Scottsdale from spring training sites in Tucson, Ariz. In 2005, a game at Tucson Electric Park was delayed 20 minutes. A bee delay also occurred at the same stadium in 2003.
Diamondbacks ace Ian Kennedy was pitching when the bees disrupted play. The Giants had runners on second and third and Freddy Sanchez was at the plate with one out. Rarely has a rally been halted in such a strange fashion.
As the swarm moved slowly over the outfield with most fans unaware of the situation, Diamondbacks center fielder Chris Young began making a, er, beeline for the dugout.
“I heard it before I saw it,” Young said. “It’s not the first time it’s happened, so somehow I knew what was going on.”
First baseman Paul Goldschmidt was confused when he saw Young running off the field. Then he looked to his right and understood. He immediately sought safety.
“I was trying to get away as fast as I could without looking too scared,” Goldschmidt said.
Fans above the Giants’ dugout evacuated their seats, and a message on the scoreboard explained the reason for the delay. Officials say it did not appear that anyone was stung or injured.
“When you have how many millions of bees swarming around, it’s not fun,” Diamondbacks shortstop Willie Bloomquist said. “Get out of the way and let the authorities take over.”
The game resumed 41 minutes later and apparently the Diamondbacks were the more shaken of the two teams: The Giants went on to win 11-1.

Check out our website at

http://sportzofallsortz.com/

Why do we have to be racist????

2012-02-20T19:37:00.003+11:00

THE same racial stereotypes that dogged Yao Ming early in his NBA career are now being cast upon Harvard educated, New York Knicks star Jeremy Lin.

American sports network ESPN was forced to apologise on Saturday for an anti-Asian slur directed at Chinese-American Lin that appeared in a story about the point guard following the Knicks 89-85 loss on Friday night.
The headline "Chink in the Armour" was included in an online story about Lin's role in the game that ended New York's seven-game winning streak.
ESPN said in a statement it was "conducting a complete review of our cross-platform editorial procedures and are determining appropriate disciplinary action to ensure this does not happen again. We regret and apologise for this mistake."
ESPN claimed that the headline appeared to only mobile browsers for a 35-minute period but long enough for scores of people to see it.
The Knicks have been on a magical run since former part-time player Lin was called upon with two starters missing and answered with the most points of any NBA player in his first five starts since the NBA and ABA merged in 1976.
Lin's fairy-tale story is further enhanced because he was cut by two clubs, including Yao's former team the Houston Rockets, before the season started.
While the majority of Americans are captivated by the "Lin-sanity" phenomenon, others like US African-American boxer Floyd Mayweather are not.
"Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he's Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don't get the same praise," Mayweather said in a posting on his Twitter microblogging website.
Like Lin, retired eight-time NBA all-star Yao had to face taunts and ethnic slurs when he broke into the league in 2002.
Former Detroit Piston Ben Wallace said the then 21-year-old Yao would receive a rude welcome the first time China's national team played the United States in August 2002 in Oakland, California.
"We are going to beat him up. We are going to beat him up pretty bad," Wallace said. "Welcome to the league, welcome to our country. This is our playground."
Yao also had to deal with ethnic slurs from former Los Angeles Laker Shaquille O'Neal who once mockingly told a television reporter, "Tell Yao Ming, 'ching-chong-yang-wah-ah-soh'."
The 23-year-old Lin said on Wednesday he hopes to change outlooks and stereotypes regarding Asians and Asian-American NBA players.
"I think there are definitely (Asian) stereotypes," he said.
"There are a lot of them. The more we can do to break those down every day the better we will become.
"Hopefully in the near future we will see a lot more Asians and Asian-Americans playing in the NBA."
ESPN has fired an employee and suspended an anchor for using "offensive and inappropriate comments" about NBA phenomenon Jeremy Lin.

The moves come after ESPN apologised for its "Chink in The Armour" headline that appeared on ESPN.com's mobile website following the New York Knicks' 89-85 loss to the hapless New Orleans Hornets Friday.
The phrase, which carries obvious racial overtones when used in reference to a person of Asian descent, appeared on the site for more than 30 minutes before being removed.

The expression was also used by ESPN anchor Max Bretos on Wednesday when he asked a question about Lin's weaknesses during an interview with Hall-of-Fame Knicks guard Walt Frazier.
The network announced today that it had fired the employee responsible for the headline and was suspending an anchor for 30 days for "offensive and inappropriate comments" used during its coverage of Lin. The anchor is reportedly Bretos.
ESPN also said it had learned a similar phrase was used by ESPN Radio New York. ESPN said that it had not taken action for the radio incident because the commentator was not an ESPN employee.
"We again apologise, especially to Mr Lin," ESPN said in a statement.
"His accomplishments are a source of great pride to the Asian-American community, including the Asian-American employees at ESPN.
“Through self-examination, improved editorial practices and controls, and response to constructive criticism, we will be better in the future."
Lin, the first Asian-American to start an NBA game and an adopted hero in China, committed nine turnovers in the Knicks' surprise 89-85 loss to the Hornets at Madison Square Garden on Friday night. Lin, however, still showed flashes of brilliance in the game, scoring 26 points and dishing out five assists.
The defeat snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Knicks with the previously-unheralded Harvard graduate, who emerged in spectacular fashion with a run of elite performances to lay claim to the team's starting point guard spot and garner global acclaim.

The 10 Best Things About Being An A's Fan!

2012-02-19T19:24:00.001+11:00

1. Unexpected years of contention: Baltimore, Kansas City and Pittsburgh? I just don't know how you do it. Sure, the A's are constantly in a state of roster flux, and I don't know if any team has a shorter average player tenure than the A's. But what I've learned and enjoyed over the years is that no franchise holds the ability to randomly compete in a year in which they're deemed to be irrelevant as a playoff contender.
The 1999, 2005 and perhaps even the 2002 team from "Moneyball" were all squads that didn't really have any business north of .500. Even when the A's are deemed to be in rebuilding mode, we're able to dream that the onset of highly touted prospects, and some veteran throwaways could somehow combine to form a 90-win team. On paper, the team we're fielding this year should be terrible, but perhaps the stars will align again. There's always hope.

2. We have a legitimate reason to hate Bud Selig: A's fans in the East Bay don't want them to move to San Jose. But fans to the south and the city of San Jose are all for it. Regardless of your take on the relocation, MLB's nearly three-year decision process is not only a huge abomination in leadership gone wrong, but a massive hindrance to allowing the A's to increasing their payroll and bolstering their roster.

Selig is a guy who is often begrudged by baseball fans. When pressed as to why the stodgy, awkward-looking commissioner can be public enemy No. 1 to baseball fans, all too often the case to condone his stewardship of MLB is very flimsy. However, after yet another winter of dismantling what looked to be a contending team and spending another year in relocation purgatory, there just isn't any excuse or explanation of why such a pivotal decision should take this long.

3. The best bang for your buck in all of MLB: Compared to their rivals across the bay, the A's are lacking on a lot of fronts on the game-day experience. There is no neighborhood or watering holes around the stadium, the stadium itself is one of the worst in the league, and the local businesses and residents just don't fill up the stadium like across the bay.

With that in mind, I'm unaware of any team that goes to the lengths of the A's in terms of special promotions to get fans to the park. Free parking Tuesdays! Dollar hot dogs! Two-dollar ticket Wednesdays! Beerfest! Tickets with all-you-can-eat food included in the ticket!

Plus, promos that include a handful of awesome bobbleheads, fireworks nights you can watch while sitting on the field, root beer floats served by the players, and (OMG!!) Coco Crisp Chia-Pet day. Outside of actually paying me to go to a game, the A's do more to solicit my business than perhaps even McDonald's when the McRib is back.

4. The Battle of the Bay: For six days a year, the Bay Area is a great place as a sports fan. Not particularly known as a haven of sports zealousness, those six games bring out a passion, competitiveness and excitement level that is rarely seen in the Golden State. The crowds are lively, the bars are packed, fans on both sides are chirping, and for just a quick minute, it feels like that magical October in 1989.

Unlike other rivalries pitting teams from the same geographic area against each other, the cultural and social economical divide between the fans of these two teams is great. That said, these games, while competitive and significant, typically don't erode into an unfriendly environment, as both fan bases seem to mesh well in both ballparks and are usually treated to some very competitive baseball.

5. You can get away with anything: Are you a mischievous rabble rouser? Well, Oakland just might be your place. A certain team across the bay will charge you $80 to tailgate as they require an additional parking space and even still, you're not really given the liberty to stretch out and descend into debauchery.

Not in Oakland, where the parking spaces to cars ratio is about 12:1 meaning you can setup whatever drinking game or slosh-ball field your heart desires. Need to relieve yourself? Having drastically reduced the number of porta-potties and locations they're located at in 2006, parking lot etiquette has evolved (or devolved, if you will) to allow a more organic way of relieving yourself, if so inclined.

With Oakland's close proximity to Hamsterdam and Berkeley, it seems as if the parking lot and the stadium itself have been annexed as a ganja-friendly destination. It's common place that on a trip to the Coliseum you're likely to see a higher amount of people hitting the green than players in green getting hits off the other team.

Even if you're not a big trouble-maker, the ability to sit wherever you want is a nice perk. The stadium is usually half empty and fans are late to arrive and early to leave, in addition to a good chunk of fans spending their time at the various watering holes the stadium has to offer. Out of the last two dozen or so games I've attended, I have only sat where my ticket was only a handful of times. There is something uniquely rewarding in spending $10 for a ticket and sitting in a $50 seat or even finagling your way into a luxury box.

6. "Moneyball": You're probably a tad bitter. We didn't really win anything, yet we had a best-selling book penned about one of the most memorable years in our history. Hollywood then double-downed on the book with an awesome movie. Who knows if we'll ever win another World Series in my lifetime, but for two hours, I can mentally escape the drain of being a fan and celebrate what was truly one of the more remarkable sports stories to take place in my lifetime. Have fun watching "Angels in the Outfield," Anaheim.

7. Close games: We may not win a lot, but rarely do the A's really get pummeled. With a philosophical preference for starting pitching, a strong bullpen and patient hitters, the A's are almost perennially a team that finds themselves in close, low-scoring games. In fact, last year through 47 games, more than 1/4 of the A's games ended up going extra innings, which is by no means good for your health. It's a blessing and a curse, as the A's are usually leading by just enough to blow it late or within striking distance for some late-game heroics that often never come.

8. We've Got Characters: Who is this foxy former A's ball girl below? Why that's none other than Mrs. Fields, who perfected her craft of baking delicious cookies during her time in Oakland, where she baked for those hard to bribe umpires.

MC Hammer worked in our press box growing up, the guy who invented propeller hats drunkenly walks the stadium known as Banjo Man (often mistakenly believed to be a hobo), and Tom Hanks sold soda in the bleachers back in the day.

There is nothing wrong with being a bit eccentric in Oakland as evidenced by the likes of Rickey Henderson, Catfish Hunter, Bill King and Barry Zito. I wouldn't have it any other way.

9. The upside of Yoenis Cespedes: Starting in 2003, the A's have only had one player reach 30 home runs and 100 RBIs, and that was back in 2006 with Frank Thomas. Since then, the middle of the A's lineup has been an abyss, featuring the likes of unfulfilled potential like Jack Cust, or washed-up veterans like Mike Piazza, Nomar Garciaparra and Hideki Matsui. Outside of some speed at the top of the lineup, there really hasn't been much offensively to get excited about or sell any tickets.

Enter the unexpected addition of Cespedes, who depending on who you trust, will either be as bad of an investment as Dell in the mid-2000s or could end up being the masher needed to contend with higher payroll clubs in the division.

I'm not going to pretend that I have the answer here, but it's been so long since I've been able to drink the Kool-Aid of an A's power hitting star. I'll certainly drink up (with irrational exuberance) that Cespedes is the next Vladimir Guerrero.

10. 20 straight wins will likely never happen again: Yes, I am well aware that our 20 wins did not occur in October. That said, I'll always have those memories. Especially being in attendance at games 18 and 20, which were won with remarkable walk off home runs. After the first 10 wins, it seemed that the bubble was just due to be popped. Game by game, the narrative of the winning streak grew with more momentum and significance, and culminated in what was one of the most remarkable sporting moments I've ever seen.

Only one team wins it all each year, but perhaps in 2002, A's fans were allowed to experience the height of that emotion as it certainly felt like we achieved something of similar significance. We'll always have those memories and that unique perspective. The odds are nobody else will have that experience, and if they do, I highly doubt they'll reach 20 with as much style and fireworks as the 2002 A's did.

Taken from "Big League Stew" blog, Feb 15th 2012

What About Corruption In Sport??

2012-02-02T18:37:00.004+11:00

Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone appeared in a German court this week as a witness in the biggest corruption trial the country has seen in over 60 years.

He's not in the dock, but he is accused of paying £27.5 million to an executive working for a state-owned bank. Ecclestone originally denied making the payment, but now says he was being blackmailed.

The man on trial for accepting the payment is Gerhard Gribkowsky, a former chief risk officer with the BayernLB bank. He's also charged with breach of trust and tax evasion over his part in the 2005 sale of the bank's £526 million stake in Formula 1 to private equity group CVC.

It's alleged that Ecclestone wanted the CVC deal to go through because that would enable him to stay in firm control of the sport. Ecclestone says he did pay Gribkowsky the money, but only because he was worried the bank executive would tell the Inland Revenue that Ecclestone was really in charge of an offshore family trust called Bambino, which is controlled by his wife Slavika.

Ecclestone says that allegation is false, but it would have sparked an expensive tax investigation. Gribkowsky denies blackmailing Ecclestone, saying the fees he received were for legitimate consultancy. The court also heard that Gribkowsy had authorised the payment of £26 million to Ecclestone as commission for easing the F1 sale – a payment that was totally above board.

Pakistani cricket scandal

It's yet another tale which is causing many to question how much sport remains sport. This year we've seen three Pakistani cricket internationals jailed for spot-fixing, something which shook the sport even more than the revelations of match-fixing 11 years ago by South Africa captain Hansie Cronje.

In 2006, Italian football giants Juventus were stripped of two league titles and relegated from the top division after taped conversations of club officials influencing referees were released. AC Milan and Fiorentina also had points deductions imposed as the investigation unveiled more corruption.

In Turkey, an ongoing investigation into match fixing, bribery, corruption, extortion and intimidation in football has seen 61 people arrested and put the results of at least 19 matches under the spotlight. Fenerbahçe, the club at the heart of the scandal, has been banned from playing in the Champions League.

In England, despite whispers over the years, there's no evidence of serious corruption of the sort that has disfigured football in Italy and Turkey. But with vast amounts of money at stake, and greater profits to be made, the temptation is surely there.

Ben Johnson

What does all this do for sport, and our enjoyment of sport? For sport to really work, spectators have to believe that what they are seeing is fair competition. Otherwise the spectacle is spoiled. It took me years to enjoy athletics again after watching Ben Johnson's amazing 9.79 second gold medal-winning 100m victory at the 1988 Olympics, only to find that his performance was aided by steroids.

Sport is certainly a business now and, at root, there's a fundamental clash between successful business and successful sport. In business, you need to guarantee success as much as possible. In sport, the more success is guaranteed, the less sporting the spectacle becomes. We have to believe we are watching real competition.

That's why sport is increasingly covered as entertainment, the thing itself becoming secondary to the narrative of character and confected controversy. Writing in the latest issue of football journal The Blizzard, Telegraph journalist Rob Smith refers to the headlines the morning after Barcelona's exceptional Champions League victory last year.

They were all about Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger complaining that striker Robin van Persi had been sent off. "The beauty of Barcelona was relegated to second billing behind the whisper of illusory controversy," he says. The sport has become secondary to the story.

Football bubble

While I don't see much evidence of the pull of sport diminishing seriously just yet, and certainly not of the long-predicted bursting of the football bubble, there is an underlying worry that sport is not what is was or what it could be. It is a great money-spinner because of the passion and affection it inspires, and there is some evidence that passion and affection are being tested by what sport is becoming.

Perhaps ironically, it was the founding father of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre du Coubertain, who turned the phrase that is at the heart of people's affection for sport. He said "the most important thing in the Olympic Games is not the winning, but the taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well."

That concept of fair play and honest effort is central to sport's attraction, and to why businesses want to be associated with sport. As sports turn themselves every more into businesses, they need to retain the ability to strike a balance between business and sporting values. Otherwise the whole house comes tumbling down.

Ricky Ponting - Never Underestimate a True Champion!!!

2012-01-25T11:17:00.000+11:00

You should never underestimate a true champion!! Ricky Ponting has been a champion for over 10 years but in recent years has struggled to find consistant form. This has led to him standing down as Australian Captain and many in the media writing him off and suggesting his career is over. But Ricky has had the last say and made many people eat their words!!!

Ricky Ponting hit his second century in three matches and became the third batsman to score 13,000 Test runs before laughing off suggestions he might be about to retire.

The 37-year-old was unbeaten on 137 at the close on the first day of the fourth Test against India having rescued Australia's innings with a stand of 251 for the fourth wicket with his successor as captain Michael Clarke.
His effusive celebration of the century sparked conjecture that he might be about to retire, but the gritty Tasmanian dismissed the idea with a wry smile.
"How did I know I'd come here and get asked questions about retirement?" he said at a news conference.
"It was a celebration mate, I usually do a similar celebration when I score a Test match hundred.
"I won't be retiring at the end of this Test match."
Ponting has revived his career in the India series, scoring his first century in two years in the second Test in Sydney, where he shared a 288-run stand with Clarke, before his more fluent effort at the Adelaide Oval.
"I felt I played better today than I did in Sydney, it was probably a better wicket to bat on today, there wasn't much in it for any of the Indian bowlers," he said.
"It's Michael and my responsibility to make sure we start well tomorrow and see where that takes us.
"But I'm not going to be satisfied with where I am at. You go through too many ups and downs in your career to let moments like this slip."
Ponting's century was his fourth in four Test matches against India at Adelaide, including a 242 in a losing cause in 2003.

13,000 and counting

Before notching up his 41st Test century - the former Australian captain who made his debut against Sri Lanka at Perth in 1995 - hit his 13,000th run.
The only two men to have scored more Test runs than Ponting, India's Sachin Tendulkar (15,432) and Rahul Dravid (13,262), were both fielding on Tuesday.
Despite his long career, Ponting said he was as motivated - and as nervous - as he had always been.
"It's never been about making 13,000 runs or 14,000 runs," he said.
"It's about doing what I can when it's required of me to get my team through a certain situation in a game. That's what motivates me.

"It's never been about making 13,000 runs or 14,000 runs. It's about doing what I can when it's required of me to get my team through a certain situation in a game."
Ricky Ponting

"Winning Test matches and winning games of cricket for Australia is what motivates me to keep playing.
"I still get nervous before every innings. If the day comes when I'm sitting in the dressing room and haven't got sweaty palms, it probably means that it doesn't mean enough to me."
Australia resumes at 3 for 335 on Wednesday's second day in Adelaide and Ponting warned Australia would need to tread a fine line between batting India out of the fourth Test and killing the match.
Ponting said he and Clarke would seek to build their unbroken 251-run partnership, but they would have to balance the run scoring with a desire to push for victory on a batter-friendly Adelaide Oval pitch.

"You have to be careful not to bat too long. It will be a tough wicket to take 20 wickets if you want to win this game," he said.
"We need to make sure we're not killing too much time. We'll be nice and positive, hopefully we'll score our runs in a reasonable slick and see how we go."

Well done Punter!!! It's great to see you back and proving all your critics completely wrong!!!!

http://sportzofallsortz.com

Aussie Pride finish in 4th place after heart breaking extra innings loss in semi finals of World Championships!

2011-12-19T21:19:00.002+11:00

Australia's U19 Women's team have gone down in a nail biting extra innings semi final at the World Championships in Cape Town, Sth Africa!
After defeating New Zealand in the morning, the Pride had to back up again later the same day to play Chinese Taipei for the right to contend for a medal.
The Aussie Pride ultimately lost to Chinese Taipei in a marathon 9 innings game 3-2. The Aussie Pride never gave up and should be proud of their efforts. Special efforts by all players, particularly Lana Tye who pitched 15 innings in total for the Pride today, including the 9 innings in the last game.
This meant the Aussie Pride finish 4th at the ISF IX Junior World Championships.

The entire Australian softball community is proud of the achievements of the Aussie Pride.
Here's how it all unfolded.

OK guys, here we go!! Aussie Pride v Chinese Taipei, past results mean nothing, its time to do our job. Lana Tye is back on the mound. GO PRIDE!!!

Chinese Taipei score in the 1st innings. 1-0 Chinese Taipei. Come on Pride.
Side away, Chinese Taipei score in the top of the 1t, plenty of game to be played Pride. Let's go. Now its our turn. Softball fans are you awake?? its really early in the morning in Australia, but let's get up and support the Pride
No score for the Aussie Pride in the bottom of the first. Here we go fans, let's get these Aussie Pride girls going
Top 2 Lana Tye strikeouts out two hitters, K2 count now at 4 in 2 innings. Casey, Meyer and Bahn up to bat. Go PRIDE!!
Good chance here Pride, two runners on, 2 out Walker up to bat.
‎2 strikeouts and a great catch by Jess Bahn retire the Chinese Taipei team in the top of the 3rd. Come on Pride, get those bats working!!
Base hit to Tsitsikronis to left field, bottom 3. one out. go Pride
Top 4, two out, two runners on for Chinese Taipei
Close call at first, Casey not happy. 1 out for Aussie Pride in the bottom of the 4th
Two runners on, 2 outs. COME ON PRIDE..... great chance here with Walker up to bat.
Great effort out there in left field by Taylah Tsitsikronis, plenty of hustle and never say die. Good job Taylah!
Runners on 1 and 2, ball takes a bad hop into Casey. Time has been called while the coaches make sure she is OK.
Walker to SS and Freegard in at 2nd base while Casey gets some attention from our sensational physio
Great defense Aussie Pride to get out of the innings. Bottom 5, let's score some runs Aussie Pride. Casey is still in the line up hitting, McGovern has utilised the DP/OPO rule. Freegard is up, then it is back to the top of the order. GO PRIDE!!
Here we GO!!! lead off single to Freegard. Great job. Come on Pride!
Sacrifice fly by Webber, 1-1 GREAT JOB PRIDE!!!
Casey being a true captain, after being hit in the face, she is back out there in the box trying to give the Pride the lead
STRIKE OUT TYE. Shuts the Chinese Taipei down. Bottom 6, 5 hits a piece. Jess Meyer up to bat. GO PRIDE
Aussie Pride is retired, hit to left field, McGovern sends Sechi home, great play by Chinese Taipei to get her out at the plate.
Bottom of the 7th. 1-1. Up for the Aussies Marina Walker, Jemma Freegard and Taylah Tsitsikronis. COME ON PRIDE!!!!!! let's go!
Bottom 7 - Ella Ross pinch hot for Pride - F8. Freegard FF6. Tsitsikronis K2. Heading into the tie breaker. GO PRIDE!! You can do this. Good defense!
Chinese Taipei score their tie breaker runner on a error. 1 out, double by the number 3 hitter for Chinese Taipei. Runner on 2.
Bottom of the 8th. 2-1 Chinese Taipei. Tsitsikronis the runner on 2nd. ONE PITCH AT A TIME AUSSIE PRIDE. You can do it!
Horne sacrifice to advance the runner to 3. Webber up, dropped a foul fly ball, come on Webber make them pay
WEBBER RBI!!!! second for the game 2-2 Aussie Pride!!
Top 9 2-2. Lana Tye has been courageous for the Aussie Pride. This will b her 15th innings of work today. GO LANA! GO PRIDE!!
Squeeze play - Controversy on the play, McGovern out discussing with the umpires. Umpires in conference.Run scored for Chinese Taipei. 3-2. McGovern is now appealing to ISF. McGovern returns to dugout run counts
Side away Chinese Taipei leads 3-2
Side away. Come on! Meyer, Bahn and Sechi. Casey is our runner
Great job Meyer, runners on the corners. 0 out. NEVER GIVE UP PRIDE!!!!
Hold your heads up high PRIDE. 4th place. Softball Australia and all the softball fans in Australia are proud of you. You have all done your country proud. To all the staff and officials it has been a long road and your dedication to this team has been outstanding. To the supporters in South Africa, thank you for being there for the girls.
Congratulations to all the players and staff for a mighty fine effort against the World's best! You can hold your heads high!!
Australia is Proud of you!!!!

Dont forget to check out our softball page for all your softball equipment needs

http://sportzofallsortz.com/softball.html

Aussie Pride start World Championship Campaign in Sth Africa!!

2011-12-08T20:19:00.002+11:00

On the eve of their first game at the ISF IX Junior Women’s World Championships, the Aussie Pride team is ready to start their campaign to win the first gold medal for Australia. Their goal is to be playing on the last day of competition, needing to beat seven nations along the way to achieve this outcome.

Australia has medalled at two previous Junior Women’s World Championships: a bronze medal in 2007 (Netherlands) and 2003 (China). Australia first medalled in this competition in 1995 in Normal, Illinois. However, the Aussie Pride want to make their own history and with the character and determination within this team, Head Coach Paula McGovern believes this is possible.

Paula is excited about the challenge ahead and is full of confidence. “The key was the team believing that they are going to do well, have a lot of talent they just need to be in the right frame of mind”.

Aussie Pride has five players in the team who have international experience and McGovern believes this is critical to the team performing well on the international stage. Captain, Georgia Casey (University of Oklahoma), Megan Horne (Florida International University), Ellen Roberts (University of Memphis), Stacey Webber (Tallahassee Community College) all play in the strong US college system and Lana Tye (BSC Legnano) has played in the tough Italian Softball League for the past two years. McGovern will be looking to these players to lead the way for their teammates to control their emotions and play the game regardless of the situation.

The Pride arrived in Capetown after a travel time of over 20 hours from Australia. The team got straight into familiarising themselves with Capetown which will be their home for more than two weeks. Team officials believe it is as much about the cultural experience as it is about the softball by taking in the local attractions. However the Pride girls have never taken their attention off softball, training and playing with intensity. In the lead up to tonight’s match against Russia, the Pride girls have played three practice matches against USA (7-1 loss), South Africa (12-3 win) and Canada (2-1 win). All players have made good contributions in the practice matches, in particular Jessie Meyer, Georgia Casey and Aimee Palmer. Commenting on the match against South Africa, McGovern said “It was great to play the host nation. They challenged us early but we were pleased with how the Pride reacted, kept their heads and executed the plays we needed”. Aimee Palmer only made her debut for New South Wales at an Australian Championship in January 2011 and is now playing for the Aussie Pride after being added to the team in October. She is an example of what McGovern and her coaching staff are looking for in all 17 players during the tournament.

There are so many sacrifices that have been made by the staff and players to be ready for the first pitch tonight. Stories of success and strength have been present and have made this group a strong unit. McGovern is one person who has had to have the strength to get through challenges to take her position in the coach’s box tonight. She leads by example for her young Aussie players and shows them that no matter what is presented before them, you have to keep your head up and look forward. Six months ago she was diagnosed with a brain tumour and underwent surgery and a long rehabilitation process to ensure she was in full health to be able to prepare the team for the World Championships. There was never a moment that McGovern didn’t think that it would be possible to take her spot at the helm of the team, however she could not have done it without the support of the team management around her. Only a few hours away from the first pitch of their campaign, McGovern and the Aussie Pride team are focussed and ready to put aside the challenges of the past and play together as a team who pride themselves on teamwork, fun and passion.

The Turfhall Softball Stadium, in Belthorn Estate, Athlone, was originally planned as part of Cape Town’s 2004 Olympic bid programme. The 2400- seater stadium has contributed to the upliftment and benefit of the community at large. A part of the Table Mountain chain provides a backdrop to the stadium, housed within the Turfhall Sports Complex. The project was completed in 1999 and became the new home of the Western Province Softball Federation.

Sportz Of All Sortz.com wishes the Aussie Pride all the very best of luck in their quest to become World Champions!!!!!!

We are especially proud of Jess Bahn & Marina Walker from the Glen Eira Moorabbin Softball Association in Melbourne who we have a great connection with. Go Girls!!

See our previous article on Jess & Marina here

http://sportzofallsortz.blogspot.com/2011/06/congratulations-to-marina-jess-on-their.html

Check out all our softball goodies on our softball page

http://sportzofallsortz.com/softball.html

Softball In The Outback - The Game of Choice!!!

2011-11-30T23:59:00.003+11:00

Softball has proven to be the game of choice for the indigenous women & girls in the remote communities of outback Australia. Most communities have their own softball team that compliments the football team for the men & boys. The Northern Territory state government has worked with Softball Northern Territory to implement a series of shire softball carnivals where teams from the remote communities within each shire compete in shire tournaments with the winners from each shire competition then coming together to find the champion community. The champion community team then was invited to Darwin to participate in the Northern Territory State Championships.

Sounds like a pretty normal tournament style competition but you appreciate it much more when you realise that some of the communities have to travel hundreds of kms just to participate in their shire carnival. That's hundreds of kms in a 4 wheel drive troopcarrier with the whole team and supporters from the community along unmade roads.
Many of the Shire Sport & Recreation divisions organise training courses for coaches, umpires & scorers to accompany the carnivals. These courses are all aimed at giving the communities the tools to help make the sporting groups within the communities self sufficient.

In 2009, I had the pleasure of being asked to attend the Central Desert Shire community carnival at Yulara.

The first Shire Softball Tournament was hosted over May and June 2009 and was played across two regions. The tournament was a huge success with a great turn out of players and was a welcome support of women in sport. The winning teams from each region travelled to Alice Springs to play in the finals. The grand final, between Nyirripi and Laramba, saw Nyirripi victorious and go on to represent their community and the shire at the NT Softball Championships.

The Nyirripi team was one of the first remote central Australian teams to compete at this level and the players were excited to attend, even forfeiting the long tradition of the Yuendumu Sports Carnival. The Nyirripi women were true ambassadors for their community, the shire and the sport, winning their division and pool and being great sportswomen throughout the tournament.

The Yulara tournament was preceded by coaching & scoring accreditation courses held at Erldunda Roadhouse. Most of the communities came together at the roadhouse to take the opportunity of completing the training courses. Community elders were joined by some of the younger girls and team members in completing the training. It gives the ladies the opportunity to take the information back to their communities and help develop the sport within their community region.

The tournament itself was a fantastic opportunity to see softball played at its absolute purest! The teams played their version of softball, not worrying about complex rules, simply playing the game for the sake of playing. The only equipment that was used were gloves, bats & bases. We were playing on a green oasis in the middle of the desert at the Yulara resort near Uluru. I even had the opportunity to umpire some of the games. Great fun!!! I have to thank the Central Desert Shire and Softball Northern Territory for the opportunity to participate in the shire carnival! A brilliant experience!

Dont forget to check out the softball page on our website

http://sportzofallsortz.com/softball.html

Jason Day - Still Hunting That No 1 Spot!

2011-11-24T11:37:00.001+11:00

Four years after causing plenty of raised eyebrows when he declared he wanted Tiger Woods' No.1 ranking, Jason Day is preparing to make his pro debut on Queensland soil at the Australian PGA Championship a wiser, more mature player.

But make no mistake, the only thing that has as far as his ambition goes is the player he is now striving to unseat, Englishman Luke Donald.
Late in 2007 as he was preparing for his debut season on the US PGA Tour, and also recovering from a serious wrist injury, the-then 20-year-old boldly said 'I'm sure I can take him down' in reference to Woods, who is clearly the player of his generation and arguably the greatest golfer of all time.
Plenty were critical of him for making such big statements without having proven himself but four years on and the Queenslander is coming off a year in which he didn't win but did finish tied second at the US Masters and outright runner-up at the US Open.
And having now moved to No.8 in the world, Day was happy to reflect on the storm those comments caused.
"You say anything about getting to the top, taking down someone or being the best, or being the best you can be at such a young age obviously it can be taken a totally different way," Day said.
"You know back then I was very young, I really didn't know how to handle myself when it came to talking publicly with the media."

"I feel like I have learnt a lot over the years, it has been a good learning curve over the last four to five years being on the PGA tour and dealing with the media."
Day admitted he could have made his ambitions known a little more cautiously back then but his burning desire to set the benchmark in the game has not changed.
"Like I said back then it has always been my ambition to get to the No.1 spot (but) I have a long way to go, it's small steps, it's a slow process and I need to keep working hard and the biggest thing is I need to get out there and win tournaments and that is how you get to No.1," he added.
"Probably the way I put it was dumb, but my intentions weren't to go out there and act as cocky as it sounded."
"I wanted to go out there and be that guy to take down Tiger and obviously it was tough for me."
"I grew up in a small country town and my mum would always tell me to be humble and to make sure if you are going to say something to make sure that it is always nice, nothing stupid like that, but you know like I said, it was a little bit of inexperience with the media."
"I still want to become the number one player in the world, obviously Tiger wants to get back on top of the world, I’m sure he does, like everyone else, they want to get to that No.1 spot."
"It has always been a goal of mine but if I had that chance again I would probably rephrase it a little bit differently."

"I just want to keep improving, if I keep improving on course and off course I know I can one day get to that No.1 spot."

Check out our Golf store at

http://sportzofallsortz.com/golf__soccer.html

for all your golfing needs!

Autograph of 19th Century Baseball Icon could fetch $100,000!!

2011-11-18T15:04:00.000+11:00

Written by Steve Henson - Yahoo Sports

It was a grand occasion, the Boston Beaneaters' 1887 home opener and the first chance for fans to watch newly acquired star Mike "King" Kelly, whose batting and baserunning exploits were exceeded only by his élan.
He'd been purchased from the Chicago White Stockings for the unimaginable sum of $10,000 after leading the league with a .388 batting average and 155 runs. He'd invented the hook slide and the hit-and-run play, and stole as many as 84 bases in a season. He liked to address the crowd between pitches, banter with the umpire and bait the opposition, blurring the lines between baseball and performance art.
After the game, Kelly was off to the Boston Theatre, then to a banquet in his honor at the Elks Lodge. Mayor Hugh O'Brien presented him with a gold watch and chain. The 5½-by-9½ rigid card-stock program given to guests was festooned with red velvet ribbons. Its edges were gold leaf, its centerpiece a studio cabinet-style photograph of the striking, mustachioed Kelly.
He'd made fashionable the notion of signing an autograph when he rose to stardom with the Chicago White Stockings under legends Cap Anson and Albert Spalding. The post-Civil War era produced the first wave of American celebrities, from Mark Twain to Buffalo Bill, from John D. Rockefeller to John L. Sullivan.
Kelly was the first larger-than-life pro baseball player, and many of the Elks had him autograph their programs as the evening progressed, whiskey flowed and toasts became grandiose.
He dipped a black fountain pen into an inkwell, and signed, "Truly Yours, M.J. Kelly." One of the programs surfaced 124 years later, and it's in mint condition. Kelly's autograph is a rarity, and this one is perhaps the most valuable ever for a baseball player.
Many of the programs never even left the building that night. Thoroughly soused, Kelly was loaded into his carriage, normally horse-drawn. But on this night Elks and other admirers lifted the carriage and lugged it through the streets to his home.

It was a great night to be a Bostonian, a great night to be Irish, a great night to be King.
Within two years Kelly was the subject of America's first pop music hit, recorded on a wax cylinder and played on the phonograph Thomas Edison had invented in 1877. The song was titled, "Slide, Kelly, Slide," which is what fans in Chicago would chant when he flew around bases in his prime. It was sung on stage by dance hall star Miss Maggie Cline and covered by numerous artists as 78 rpm records proliferated in the early 20th century, well after Kelly's death.
Within four years he was moonlighting as a Vaudeville act, reciting "Casey at the Bat," often substituting Kelly for Casey. His pet monkey sat on his shoulder and a beer or shot of whiskey was invariably in his hand.
Within seven years he'd drank himself out of the major leagues and was a player/manager for an Allentown, Pa., farm team. After the 1894 season he contracted pneumonia during a boat trip from New York to Boston and died Nov. 8 at age 36, leaving a wife and small child. Legend has it he slipped off a stretcher at the hospital, looked up from the ground and said, "This is my last slide."
In 1945 Kelly was inducted in the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. By the second half of the 20th century, the player who'd been as beloved in his era as Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle were in theirs faded into obscurity.
All the while, one of the autographed programs from the Elks tribute dinner in 1887 was preserved in mint condition, buried in a trunk beneath newspapers, letters and some other Elks mementos in the attic of a wealthy family in the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. When the matriarch died in 1985, the family had yard sale. The trunk of mostly junk sold for $25.
The man who bought it was a lifelong Elks member who enjoyed collecting pins and other relics from the club's early days. So he was thrilled to find the perfectly preserved program from the 1887 dinner. He had no idea who Mike Kelly was and didn't care. He just liked the way the program looked behind glass in his home office, and there it stayed for 25 years.
A couple years ago the man's 12-year-old nephew was hanging around his office, picking up and setting down Elks memorabilia. He saw the autograph and said, "That's King Kelly! He's in the Hall of Fame!"

Now the autographed photo and program are in an online sports memorabilia auction that will conclude Saturday. The consigner -- the Elks aficionado who bought the trunk at the yard sale and kept the program all these years -- asked not to be identified.
SCP Auctions estimates that fewer than 10 authentic Mike King Kelly autographs are known to exist, and most are on contracts or other documents. This is the only known Kelly autographed photograph.
Kevin Keating, perhaps the foremost sports autograph authenticator in the country, said the value should be substantially more than $100,000. And he said that no baseball autograph has ever sold for six figures on the inherent value of the signature.
"I can think of some Babe Ruth items that sold for more, but the signature was on a Babe Ruth home run ball, or a home run bat," he said. "What carries the value of the Kelly piece is the autograph itself. It's so aesthetically pleasing. If you could bring Kelly back to life to sign one thing, you'd be hard-pressed to find anything nicer for him to sign. It's breathtaking."
Kelly's voice is preserved in an autobiography he produced with a ghostwriter in 1888, the first ever by a baseball player. The home opener and Elks dinner of a year earlier were fresh in his mind.
"I shall never forget the opening game of the season in Boston," he wrote. "It was the most memorable night of my life."

Kelly became an active member of the Boston Elks chapter. Celebratory and charitable, blue-collar and benevolent, the Elks were a great fit for him. The Elks started in New York shortly after the Civil War, spinning off a group launched by vaudevillian Charles Vivian called the Jolly Cork Club so named because of a trick new members fell for every time.
Everyone would set a bottle cork on the bar. The new man was told that on a count of three the last man to grab his cork must buy a round of drinks. At three, everyone but the new man would remain still, so, of course, he had become the last to grab. Everybody had a good laugh and another drink.
The Jolly Cork members soon began raising money for local causes and eventually they voted on a new name. The Elks beat out the Buffaloes.
By 1887 in Boston, the Elks had become one of the few places where men of English and Irish descent mixed amiably. The Irish, long treated with disdain, gradually became accepted. Hugh O'Brien was the city's first Irish mayor. The purchase of Kelly by the Beaneaters was one more hugely symbolic gesture for the Irish.
Kelly became something of a labor pioneer when he and most other top players from the National League broke away from owners they believed were exploiting them and started the Player's League in 1890.
He refused to break ranks even when the powerful Spalding, owner of the Chicago White Stockings, privately offered him more than double his $4,000 salary to defect back to the NL (the American League didn't yet exist).
Kelly thought it over and, according to Spalding's memoirs, turned down the offer, saying, "I want the $10,000 bad enough, but I've thought the matter all over and I can't go back on the boys."

The Player's League fell apart after one season, however, and Kelly was never the same. Overweight and slovenly from years of boozing, he was released by Boston in 1891 and signed by an American Association team based in a suburb of Cincinnati that was known as Kelly's Killers.
He'd swim across the Ohio River after games, once nearly drowning after taking a few shots of whiskey, according to Marty Appel's biography, "Slide, Kelly, Slide." Kelly's career was coming to an end: He'd finish with a .308 average with 1,813 hits in 16 seasons, but having made an impact far beyond statistics.
Kelly went from being baseball's best player to barely hanging on.
Yet throughout his career he was an innovator and an entertainer, helping baseball become a favored spectator sport.
Saloons that long had a painting of Custer's Last Stand hanging on the wall behind the bar replaced it with one of Kelly sliding into home plate.
He was a hero in Chicago, revered in Boston and marveled at by the rest of the country at a time when exploits not eye-witnessed spread slowly through newspapers, magazines and word of mouth.
And thanks to at least two people clueless as to what they had acquired, one mint-condition autographed photograph of King Kelly has survived into the 21st century, and is about to become one of the most valued pieces of baseball memorabilia ever.

You can find other sporting memorabilia at our website

http://sportzofallsortz.com

Softball Keep Exploring Options For 2020 Olympics!

2011-11-09T22:03:00.002+11:00

International softball leaders will continue to explore a possible joint bid with baseball to try and get both sports back into the Olympics in 2020.

Representatives from about 70 countries attended the International Softball Federation Congress in Oklahoma City this weekend and approved a resolution to move forward with talks with the International Baseball Federation.

“We’ve got a long ways to go yet,” ISF President Don E. Porter said Sunday. “I think it’s just right now it’s an expression of, ‘Yes, we want to explore the possibility to move ahead with it.’”

Porter said the group still doesn’t have clarity from the International Olympic Committee on the guidelines for submitting a combined bid between two similar sports that still have plenty of differences in their rules. He and ISF Secretary-General Low Beng Choo of Malaysia hope to meet with IOC officials in the next month or so to find out.

“It’s not a unanimous thing either way but we wanted to give everybody a chance to really air it out and see how people felt about it,” Porter said.

“Now, we’re going to push ahead and see if we think that’s going to work. The IOC’s still got to say you can do it or you can’t do it, or what you need to do.”

Porter has expressed concerns, shared by other softball leaders, that entering a bid as women’s baseball could jeopardize the sport’s identity.

In its last bid to get reinstated to the Olympics, softball focused its case on a lack of problems with steroids or doping, an ability to bring the sport’s top players from around the world and additional opportunities for women — all ways to distinguish itself from baseball.

Now, the two sports are considering working together because neither will be in the London Games next year or the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

“We still need to have a lot of discussion and meeting because if you want to put up a proposal, you need to agree on certain things,” Low said.

It won’t be until 2013 — after the IOC decides whether to drop any sports that are contested in London — that softball and baseball make their case to get back in.

But the sports are already must consider what angles they’ll use to convince the IOC they are deserving of another chance.

The first step is hearing from softball federations around the world what tactic they believe is best.

“That was why it was important for us to give the members a chance to speak at the forum, so that at least we know and hear from them because every federation is different, every country is different, every level of development is different,” Low said.

The congress also awarded the 2014 women’s world championships to the Netherlands and the 2015 men’s world championships to Canada.

By Associated Press, Published: October 31, 2011

Check Out Our Softball Page for all Your Softball Equipment Needs.

http://sportzofallsortz.com/softball.html

Larry Doby - He Crossed The Colour Barrier - But He Was Second!

2011-11-09T13:49:00.004+11:00

Larry Doby remembers clearly his first day in the major leagues, that day 50 years ago when he broke the color barrier in the American League. It was 11 weeks after Jackie Robinson had played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the National League. Doby remembers the excitement of that day when he became only the second black player in the major leagues -- he had hardly slept in four nights leading up to it -- and he remembers the dismay.

Saturday, July 5, 1947, a sunny morning in Chicago: Lou Boudreau, the manager of the Cleveland Indians, took the 22-year-old second baseman into the visiting team's locker room in Comiskey Park and introduced him to the players. Each of Doby's new teammates stood at his locker and looked over the young black man who had just been purchased by the Indians' owner, Bill Veeck, from the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League. Doby and the manager went from player to player.

"Some of the players shook my hand," Doby recalled recently, "but most of them didn't. It was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life."

When the 6-foot-1-inch, 185-pound newcomer, born in South Carolina but raised in Paterson, N.J., stepped onto the field before the game with the White Sox, he stood on the sideline in Cleveland uniform No. 14, glove in hand, for what he recalled as five or ten minutes. "No one offered to play catch," he said. Then he heard Joe "Flash" Gordon, the All-Star second baseman, call to him: " 'Hey, kid, let's go.' " And they warmed up.

Doby, a left-handed batter, was called in to pinch-hit in the seventh inning and after "hitting a scorching drive foul," he, according to a wire-service report, struck out.

But he was officially a big-leaguer, one who the following year would help the Indians win the pennant and the World Series. He became the first black player to hit a home run in a World Series, made six straight American League All-Star teams and, at one time or another over a 13-year big-league career, led the American League in homers, runs batted in, runs scored and slugging average, as well as strike outs. When he retired in 1959, he did so with a .283 career average and 253 home runs.

As major league baseball and the nation prepare for a season of homage to the breaking of the color barrier in the big leagues, virtually all of the attention is centered on Jackie Robinson, which is understandable, since he was the first. The Jackie Robinson commemorative coins, the Jackie Robinson commemorative video, the Jackie Robinson seminar.

"And that's the way it should be," said Doby. "But Jack and I had very similar experiences. And I wouldn't be human if I didn't want people to remember my participation."

Doby went through much the same kind of discrimination and abuse that Robinson suffered -- not being allowed to stay in the same hotels and eat in the same restaurants as the white players, hearing the racial insults of fans and opposing bench jockeys, experiencing the reprehension of some teammates. But while Doby will be honored at the All-Star Game -- which, coincidentally, will be played in Cleveland on July 8 -- he in some ways seems the forgotten man.

"Jackie Robinson of course deserves all the credit he gets," Boudreau said last week. "But I really don't think that Larry gets the credit he deserves for being the pioneer in the situation he was in."

About Robinson, Doby said: "I had the greatest respect for Jack. He was tough and smart and brave. I once told him, 'If not for you, then probably not for me.' "

Lou Brissie, who pitched for the Philadelphia A's beginning in 1947, recalled: "I was on the bench and heard some of my teammates shouting things at Larry, like, 'Porter, carry my bags,' or 'Shoe-shine boy, shine my shoes,' and, well, the N-word, too. It was terrible."

Brissie, who was from South Carolina, had been shot and left for dead in Italy during World War II. He pitched with a large steel brace on his left leg and instinctively felt an identity with the young black player. "He was a kind of underdog, like me," Brissie said.

Doby has not forgotten the abuse: the "N-word" being used every day, the calls of "coon" and "jigaboo," the times when he slid into second base and the opposing infielder spit in his face.

"I never sought sympathy or felt sorry for myself," Doby said. "And all that stuff just made me try harder, made me more aggressive. Sometimes I'd get too aggressive, and swing too hard, and miss the pitch."

But he cannot forget the sense of loneliness, particularly after games. "It's then you'd really like to be with your teammates, win or lose, and go over the game," he said. "But I'd go off to my hotel in the black part of town, and they'd go off to their hotel."

Doby is now 72, his hair sprinkled lightly with gray. He is huskier than in the old photos of him breaking in with the Indians. He works for Major League Baseball, handling the licensing of former players. Wearing a tie and suspenders and an easy smile and forthright manner, this father of five, grandfather of six and great-grandfather of three reflected on his years as a ballplayer as he sat recently in a sunny 29th-floor room at the Baseball Commissioner's office in Manhattan.

"When Mr. Veeck signed me," Doby said, "he sat me down and told me some of the do's and don'ts. He said, 'Lawrence' -- he's the only person who called me Lawrence -- 'you are going to be part of history.' Part of history? I had no notions about that. I just wanted to play baseball. I mean, I was young. I didn't quite realize then what all this meant. I saw it simply as an opportunity to get ahead.

"Mr. Veeck told me: 'No arguing with umpires, don't even turn around at a bad call at the plate, and no dissertations with opposing players, either of those might start a race riot; no associating with female Caucasians' -- not that I was going to. And he said remember to act in a way that you know people are watching you. And this was something that both Jack and I took seriously. We knew that if we didn't succeed, it might hinder opportunities for other Afro-Americans."

Doby had been leading the Negro National League in batting average, at .415, and home runs, with 14, when he was signed by the Indians. He began as a second baseman, but was switched to the outfield, where he would be assured of starting. But he was unaccustomed to playing there, and in an early game, in center field, and with the bases loaded, he misjudged a fly ball in the sun and the ball hit him on the head. It caused his team to lose.

After the game, Bill McKechnie, an Indian coach who had befriended Doby, said to him, "We'll find out what kind of ballplayer you are tomorrow." Doby recalled that McKechnie smiled. "It was a challenge and a kind of vote of confidence," Doby said. "The next day I hit a home run to win the game."

Doby appreciated Gordon and McKechnie and the catcher, Jim Hegan, in particular, who would seek to salve his disappointments and perhaps take a seat next to him after he had struck out or made an error. "They were tremendous," Doby said. "But there were others who don't remember, or don't want to remember, some of their actions. And sometimes I'd see them later and they'd say, 'Hey, Larry, let's go have a beer.' I thought, 'When I needed you, where were you?' I forgive, but I can't forget. I politely decline their invitations."

Doby spent his grammar-school years years in Camden, S.C. He recalls seeing the white people riding in fringed, horse-drawn buggies through the black neighborhood, and tossing dimes and nickels at the small black children. And then they would rub the children's heads for good luck. "My grandmother warned me never to pick up the money," Doby said. "She thought it was undignified.

"And then I always tried to act in a dignified manner. When I was in the major leagues, some people thought I was a loner. But, well, when Joe DiMaggio was off by himself, they said he just wanted his privacy. And midway through the 1948 season the Indians signed Satchel Paige, and they made him my roommate. Well, he was almost never in the room. I'm not sure where he went. But he was a character and he enjoyed being perceived that way. He'd come into the clubhouse and clown around, and did some Amos 'n' Andy stuff. I didn't think it was right -- at least, it wasn't right for me."

Eddie Robinson, the Indians' first baseman when Doby broke in, said by telephone from his home in Fort Worth, Texas: "I thought it took a lot of courage for Larry to go through what he did. He handled himself quite well."

But when Boudreau put Doby at first base to start the second half of a doubleheader on Doby's second day in the major leagues, Robinson wouldn't let him use his glove. "I didn't want anyone else playing my position -- and it had nothing to do with black or white," Robinson said. As Doby recalls, the Indians were able to borrow a first baseman's glove for him from the White Sox.

Doby had been the only black player on the East Side High School baseball, football and basketball teams in Paterson. He went briefly to Long Island University and Virginia Union before being drafted into the Navy. He first learned of Jackie Robinson's signing with the Dodgers' organization when he was on a Pacific Island in 1945. "I wondered if I might have a chance to play in the big leagues, too," Doby said. "Until then, I thought I would just go back to Paterson and become a high-school coach."

Robinson and Doby were followed into the big leagues in 1947 by three other blacks: Henry Thompson and Willard Brown, who joined the St. Louis Browns in late July, and Dan Bankhead, who came up to the Dodgers in August. Thompson and Brown lasted for only a few weeks (though Thompson returned in 1949 to play several years with the New York Giants), while Bankhead pitched the rest of the season for the Dodgers.

Roy Campanella joined the Dodgers in 1948 and Don Newcombe made it in 1949. But by 1950, only five major league teams had been integrated. By 1953 there were 20 blacks on 7 of the 16 teams. And it wasn't until 1959, when the Boston Red Sox played Pumpsie Green, that every major-league club had a black player.

Doby gives talks at schools, and discusses the changes in American life. "I know people are critical and say that not enough progress has been made in baseball, or sports in general, particularly in the coaching or administrative levels," he said. "And I believe there has not been enough progress made either. But when you look at other elements of American society, then sports stacks up pretty good. If Jack and I had a legacy, it is to show that teamwork -- the ability to associate and communicate -- makes all of us stronger."

In 1978, Doby was named manager of the White Sox, taking over for Bob Lemon midway through the year. He held the position for just 87 games, posting a record of 37-50.

"I was the second black manager in major league history," said Doby, "after Frank Robinson." Frank Robinson managed the Indians starting in 1975.

"Funny thing," Doby said, with a smile, "I followed another Robinson."

Lou Gehrig, Kurt Russell & The Lost Bat

2011-11-08T16:17:00.002+11:00

By Steve Henson (Yahoo Sports)

Consider the bat a baton, handed from a distinctly American sports legend on his last legs to a youngster about to embark on a distinctly American adulthood. Just don't call it pure Hollywood: Bing Russell knew fact from fiction, and the story of Lou Gehrig giving him the last bat he used to hit a home run is reality without a show, not yet anyway.

SCP Auctions is currently taking bids on the bat, and it's projected to be one of most valuable baseball pieces ever sold. How it went from Gehrig's python-like grip to the trembling hands of a 12-year-old boy in the dugout to safekeeping for more than 70 years is a fascinating tale, one that Bing's children (who include veteran leading man Kurt Russell) and grandchildren (who include former major leaguer Matt Franco) want made public.

Bing died in 2003 at 76. Kurt starred in the acclaimed sports movie "Miracle" in 2004. Matt's 20-year pro career ended in 2006. All the while, the bat rested under an umbrella stand in the home of Kurt's sister and Matt's mom, Jill Franco.

Matt visited her earlier this year, and there it was. He lifted the bat, so heavy, so formidable, just the way he remembered the first time he held it as a kid. He thought about his grandfather, the man the family called "Pa," how he'd traveled to every one of the dozen or so minor and major league cities Matt played in just to watch his at-bats. The pride he felt. The tales he told.

"It's time the world knows Pa's story, and the best way to tell it by getting this bat to someone who can display it," Matt said to his mom.

They called Kurt and talked it over. The decision came down to letting the lumber breathe.

Get it out from under the umbrella stand and into the sunlight. Let it become a conduit connecting Lou Gehrig's stately greatness to Bing Russell's rollicking life to new owners who ideally would display their acquisition. The story might spread.

Turns out it's not the first auction the bat's been through. Shortly after Bing turned 70, he looked around and decided it was time to de-clutter his house and disperse the possessions. Memorabilia, somebody called it. He said, no, it's a lifetime. He'd spent his adolescence in the Yankees dugout and then became an actor, owner of a ballclub, father of an even more famous actor, and grandfather of a big leaguer.

Yes, Bing did a whole lot and accumulated magnificent memories. And because he'd taken a piece with him at every turn, his home was full of interesting stuff. So he and his wife, Lou, summoned their four children and said let's have some fun, let's have a family auction.

It was a draft, really, youngest to oldest. Daughters Jamie and Jody treasured their dad's roles as the deputy sheriff in "Bonanza," as Robert in "The Magnificent Seven" and his dozens of other parts in TV shows and films. Their picks reflected that. Kurt, whose own acting career in films ranging from "Backdraft" to "Silkwood" to "Tombstone" overshadowed a deep love of baseball, took seats from the original Yankee Stadium given to his dad by pitcher Lefty Gomez, who'd been a father figure to Bing.

Jill's first pick was an old wooden sign from a lake in Maine where the family vacationed when she was a little girl. When it came to keepsakes, sentiment won out over resale value. Jamie, Jody and Kurt made their second-round picks and still the Gehrig bat leaned against the wall. Maybe Jill's siblings deferred because Matt played for the New York Mets at the time.

Before she took her second pick Jill asked why she had the last pick every round just because she was the oldest. Bing agreed that the draft should reverse each round thereafter. And that gave Jill two picks in a row.

She took a different bat to end the second round, one Joe DiMaggio had used that was signed by the entire 1941 Yankees and given to Bing near the end of his eight-year childhood association with the team. He wasn't a bat boy or a clubhouse attendant, more of an errand boy the players liked having around. He'd sneak them peanuts, even hot dogs, against the wishes of manager Joe McCarthy, who forbade eating during ballgames. Bing was home-schooled, so he was able to travel with the team and do whatever the players asked. He sat in the dugout during games.

The family auction continued, and with her newly acquired first pick of the third round, Jill selected the bat Gehrig had handed her father upon returning to the dugout April 13, 1939. It was the Iron Horse's second homer of the game, an exhibition against the Brooklyn Dodgers in Norfolk, Va. Already weakened by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis what would come to be known as Lou Gehrig's disease, he played only eight games when the regular season began before retiring. He died two years later at 37.

"My grandfather would bring out that bat every time we had people over and the conversation turned to baseball," Matt Franco says. "He'd pass it around the table and he'd tell stories about all the guys on those teams."

The coolest aspect to Kurt Russell was that the bat was handed directly from Gehrig to Bing. His dad's story never changed: "The bat boy, Timmy, picked it up while Lou was circling the bases and gave it to Lou when he touched the plate. Lou carried it back to the dugout and handed it to me."

It's all been verified. SCP Auctions sent the bat to a third-party authenticator that confirmed it was one of the last professional models shipped to Gehrig by Hillerich & Bradsby. The venerable bat-making company keeps meticulous records, and an invoice shows the shipment of four bats was delivered in August, 1938. It was Gehrig's last order.

The highest auction price for a bat was $1.265 million in 2005 for the one Babe Ruth used to hit the first home run at old Yankee Stadium on opening day in 1923. Shoeless Joe Jackson's Black Betsy is the second highest, selling for $577,610 in 2001, and Kirk Gibson's 1988 World Series home run bat went for $576,000 last year.

SCP managing director Dan Imler puts the Gehrig bat in the same league as the Jackson and Gibson bats: "This is the single finest Lou Gehrig artifact we’ve witnessed in the thirty-two year history of our company. It has all the characteristics of a record-setting piece."

The auction ends Nov. 19. Two other of Bing's bats are also taking bids: The one DiMaggio used that the 1941 Yankees signed and one used by Babe Dahlgren, who replaced Gehrig at first base in 1939.

Bing grew up in St. Petersburg and would hang out during spring training at the Yankees facility there. One day in 1935 at age 9 he outraced other kids for a foul ball only to have to fight them off to keep it. Lefty Gomez, the ace of the Yankees' pitching staff, noticed the kids scuffling, picked up Bing by the collar and said, "Kid, you'll never have to fight for a ball the rest of your life."

Bing spent the next eight years with the team and was in the dugout for six World Series. Gomez became a father figure to him, saying, "Bing was the only person who took it harder than I did when I lost." Although Gehrig would shoot him a grin and a nod, Bing kept a respectful distance because he was in awe of the quiet superstar first baseman.

When spring training rolled around in 1939, it was clear something was wrong with Gehrig. Bing would give Gomez a quizzical look whenever Gehrig stumbled or fumbled a ground ball. Gomez would return a stare as if to say, "You didn't see that." Nobody knew anything about the incurable, fatal neuromuscular disease ALS, and to see the powerful Gehrig losing his strength and coordination so rapidly was horrifying.

The Yankees were on their way from Florida to New York for the start of the regular season, making stops up the Eastern seaboard for exhibitions. They played a doubleheader against the Dodgers on April 14 and somehow Gehrig summoned the strength to belt two home runs. He handed Bing the bat after the second blast.

Two years later Bing was given the autographed DiMaggio bat, and a year after that he and his parents moved away from Florida, ending his association with the Yankees. He maintained a lifelong friendship with Gomez, and was at his bedside when he died in 1989.

Bing went to Dartmouth, then played a season and a half of Class D pro ball with the Carrollton Hornets of the Georgia-Alabama League before heading to Hollywood and embarking on a career as an actor.

Bing raised his family in the Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks and got his son into acting at an early age. Kurt starred in the TV show "The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters" at age 12 and as an adolescent appeared in shows ranging from "Gilligan's Island" to "The Virginian" to "Lost in Space." Kurt's film career took off when he signed a 10-year deal with Disney, but he made time for baseball, playing second base for Thousand Oaks High.

Bing jumpstarted Kurt's pro baseball career in 1973 by purchasing the Portland Mavericks, the only team unaffiliated with a major league franchise in the Class-A Northwest League. It was a labor of love for five years.

Bing hired the first female general manager in professional baseball one year, and the first Asian American GM the next. His buddy Hank Robinson, like Bing a character actor with a love of baseball, was his first manager. The Mavericks set Northwest League attendance records and won two division championships. Their mantra was a three-letter word. Not "win, but "fun."

Everybody thought "Ball Four" author and pitcher Jim Bouton was washed up when he joined the Mavericks in 1977, but he perfected the knuckleball and made it back to the major leagues at age 39. The team was forced to leave Portland after that season because the Triple-A Pacific Coast League wanted a team there. Bing was paid $206,000 on his way out.

On many summer Virginia evenings Bing would settle into a seat near the dugout and watch his grandson get his four at-bats. And his mind would drift back to 1939 and the day in Norfolk that Lou Gehrig handed him his bat, the last he used to blast a baseball out of a ballpark.

Billy Slater Named Best Rugby League Player In The World!

2011-11-03T12:27:00.001+11:00

Kangaroos and Melbourne Storm fullback Billy Slater has been crowned the world's best player at a glittering awards presentation at the Tower of London that was dominated by Australian players.

Slater, who won the Dally M medal as the NRL's best player of 2011, was named the Rugby League International Federation player of the year after edging out Australian and Storm team-mate Cameron Smith and New Zealand skipper Benji Marshall, the only non-Australian award winner on the night.

The Melbourne Storm player scooped the International Player of the Year award following a memorable 12-month period which which saw him steer Queensland to State of Origin success, establish himself as one of Australia's all-time greats and collect the NRL's Dally M medal after playing a pivotal role in guiding his side to a minor premiership title.

Billy Slater was crowned the best player in the world for the second time in four years at the Tower of London on Wednesday night as England were left in no doubt about their lowly standing ahead of Saturday's Four Nations Test against Australia at Wembley.

Slater, the 28-year-old Melbourne Storm and Queensland full-back who was once a track jockey for the colourful Australian racing trainer Gai Waterhouse, edged out his Kangaroos team-mate Cameron Smith and the New Zealand captain Benji Marshall at the International Federation's annual awards night to regain the title he first won during the 2008 World Cup.

Slater enjoyed another stellar season in the No. 1 jersey as he represented Storm, Queensland and the Kangaroos with his reliability, freakish skills and match-winning feats. Slater sits as one of the all time greats, adding the Golden Boot to a raft of other prestigious awards, including the Dally M medal he won in September.
The dual Golden Boot winner (Slater claimed the prize in 2008) held off a strong field to win the award which included teammate Cameron Smith and New Zealand captain Benji Marshall.
It was a proud night for Storm with Cameron Smith named Hooker in the Team of the Year and Slater named at fullback.

Congratulations Billy!!! You are a Superstar!!!!

Check out our website for all your sporting equipment & apparel needs

http://sportzofallsortz.com

14 Of the Worst Sporting Team Nicknames!!

2011-11-02T13:42:00.001+11:00

The world of sport is the province of the Tiger, the Bear, the fierce Wolverine, and the proud Lion. Unfortunately, that same world is also the home to many, many ridiculous team names, too many to list here. Honestly, this list could have been 50 names long. Or 100. Or… you get the point. But this list is reserved for the worst of the worst, those team names that are so dumb, so ridiculous, that they deserve special ridicule. These names are culled from both the college and pro ranks (Oh, and one high school whose name was so ridiculous that I couldn’t ignore it.) I tried not to include redundancies. For instance, there are seemingly a million schools with harmless animal nicknames -– Ducks, Beavers, hell, even Squirrels -– but rather than list them all, I thought I’d just let the Turtle stand for them all. And with all that said, let’s just hold our noses and get on with it. Here are the 14 worst sports team names.

14 Virginia Tech Hokies
What the hell is a Hokie? Well, apparently, according to Virginia Tech’s own Web site, back in 1896, some weirdo student liked to yell the word “Hokie.” When asked what it meant, the student said that it meant nothing and that he had just made it up. Well, hell! How could the school not adopt that as its official name? Sheesh. Anyway, they still needed a mascot and so they came up with the following definition of a “Hokie”, again taken from Virginia Tech’s own Web site (this means they actually endorse this crap): “The bird is a “HokieBird” which has evolved from a turkey. Virginia Tech teams were once called the ‘gobblers’!” Yes, a “Hokie” is a meaningless gibberish word and the mascot itself is a mutant turkey. Enough said.

13 New York Knickerbockers
I know some Knicks fans who will be pissed about this, but come on. Knicks is short for Knickerbockers, which can mean either one of two things. Either it is a term for Dutch settlers, essentially created by Washington Irving, who wrote a book called Knickerbocker’s History of New York, and wrote the book from the perspective of a dude named Diedrich Knickerbocker, or it is a term for short pants. Look, either way is kind of dumb, right? Either the team was named for a fictitious character named Diedrich or after a pair of short pants. Sure, it’s alliterative, but when you’re naming a team you really don’t want to conjure up the image of a dude named Diedrich in a pair of short pants. Call me crazy.

12 Maryland Terrapins
A Terrapin is a turtle. A turtle! Of all the creatures in this strange world, why in the hell would you want to pick a turtle to represent you? I mean, at least ducks can fly. Hell, a squirrel can run fast. But a turtle? A slow, dumb looking beast that hides under a shell at the first sign of danger? Good choice, Maryland. Good choice.

11 Campbell Fighting Camels
Look, I know the people of Campbell University thought they were being clever with the whole Campbell/Camel thing, but someone really should have stopped them. I mean, come on, a camel? Yes. The people of Campbell proudly and willingly chose as their mascot a humpbacked beast that spits at its enemies. Oh, but it is good at wandering the desert. All qualities you want in your sports teams to be sure, but –- and maybe it’s just me -– I think they could have done just a little better.

10 Wake Forest Demon Deacons
The only reason this isn’t higher on the list is because Wake Forest had the good sense to add the “Demon” to the name “Demon Deacons”. That at least implies some sense of ferocity, because last time I checked, a simple Deacon doesn’t exactly send his enemies cowering in fear. And look, I get it, Wake Forest was founded as a Baptist university and the schools original team name was the “Fighting Baptists” so by comparison “Demon Deacons” seems damn near ferocious. But still, at its very best, “Demon Deacons” is just confusing. Is it a demon or is it a deacon? It’s kind of hard to be both. And at its worst, “Demon Deacons” conjures up the image of a pissed off old churchman, which isn’t really scary as much as it is funny and kind of sad.

9 Southern Arkansas Muleriders
Muleriders? Really? What in the hell? So many questions. Who thought Muleriders was a good idea in the first place? Do they have an old mule as a mascot who hangs around the sidelines looking broken and depressed while a student whips him on? What sparked such a terrible idea in the first place? I suppose I could look it up, but… come on, there’s no way there is a reasonable explanation for this. Muleriders. Honestly.

8 Washington Wizards
The Washington Wizards made this list because once upon a time they actually had kind of a cool name: the Washington Bullets. But then, the “Oh Lord, won’t somebody think of the children?” crowd got all bent out of shape and decided that since bullets were, well, bullets, that the name set a bad example for the kids. And thus was born the Washington Wizards, apparently chosen purely for its alliterative value. But let me ask you this, people of Washington: do you think that a wizard is somehow a better example of wholesome family values than a bullet? Wizards are capable of all sorts of heinous shit. You saw Lord of the Rings. Saruman was breeding Orcs and straight up possessing people. Is that the kind of example you want to set for the kids of Washington? See, suddenly a simple bullet doesn’t seem that bad. In fact, it seems downright wholesome.

7 Providence Friars
At least the people of Wake Forest had the good sense to add the word “Demon” to their name. Providence, on the other hand, apparently feels like the Friar is an appropriately fearsome nickname. Which,well… uh, last time I checked, a friar was basically just a poor wandering priest. Then again, maybe that makes the Friar the perfect mascot for Providence, which spends its time wandering around the Big East in poverty and sadness. Sure, sure, there are exceptions, warriors like Friar Tuck, but even he was just some old fat drunk. If that’s the best you can do, you’re doing something wrong.

6 Utah Jazz
The Utah Jazz make this list for no other reason than the name makes absolutely no sense. In fact, the name is so incongruous that it is kind of funny. Is there a more oxymoronic name than the Utah Jazz? If anyone in Utah actually tried to play jazz, they would probably be rounded up and drowned in the Salt Lake as heretics and witches. Yeah, I know the name is a relic from the team’s days in New Orleans, but if ever there was a team that should have changed its name after moving, it was this one.

5 Nebraska Cornhuskers
Look, you know you’ve got a bad team name when said name inspires images and thoughts of a hick basically jacking off an ear of corn. I know, I know, that will enrage our proud farming friends from Nebraska and I will probably wake up to find Tom Osborne doing a drive by of my house in a hay wagon tossing corn through my windows, but some things just need to be said, you know?

4 Washington Redskins
I am not one to get all bent out of shape about politically incorrect names. In fact, in general, I loathe that kind of thing. But Redskins? Come on, that is just a bridge too far. With Braves or Indians, you can at least make the argument that you are somehow honoring those people, but Redskins is just straight up strange in this day and age. I mean, could you get away with calling a team the Boston Blackies? Hell no. You’d have people marching all over your stadium in protest. Al Sharpton would circle you in a helicopter with a megaphone around the clock until you either changed the name or went crazy. And yet, people are just sort of used to the name Redskins, I guess just because it’s been around for so long now. Well that, and because racism against Indians is one of the few forms of racism that is still generally acceptable to a lot of people. I mean, yeah, Andrew Jackson would be a HUGE Redskins fans, but he died over 150 years ago so, uh, maybe it’s time for a change. Then again, team name changes are almost always stupid and terrible (the people of Washington are already far too familiar with that kind of nonsense thanks to the Wizards) and so I’m not sure what the Redskins should do. I guess, in the end, all they can do is accept that their team name is awful and eat the occasional plate of shit for it.

3 UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs
Uh… what? It’s bad enough that the people of UC Santa Cruz named their teams after a giant ground slug that looks like a banana, what’s worse is that the name itself sounds like nonsensical gibberish. Yeah, the banana slug is an actual thing, but it just sounds like two random words thrown together, like they just got stoned one day and picked two random words out of a hat and decided to call it good. Maybe that is what they did. Hell, I don’t know. What I do know is that the name is ridiculous and there is no defensible explanation for it. None.

2 Butte Pirates
If I need to explain this, you are in the wrong place and we have nothing to talk about.

1 Webster Gorloks
From Webster University’s own website: “The Gorlok is Webster University’s school mascot. It is a mythical creature designed in part by Webster students and staff through a school contest. It is reported to have the paws of a speeding cheetah, the horns of a fierce buffalo and the face of a dependable Saint Bernard. The myth of the Gorlok ‘embodies the highest standards of speed, agility and stamina in an atmosphere of fairness and good conduct.’”
Well, I, uh…wait, it gets worse. Here is the origin of the Gorlok, again from Webster University’s own Web site: “The name ‘Gorlok’ was derived from the combination of two streets that intersect in the heart of ‘Old Webster,’ Gore and Lockwood avenues.”
Yes, the people of Webster University named their teams after a combination of two street names and then made up a stupid mascot with the face of a St. Bernard to accompany it. Why would anyone think this was a good idea? I mean, the original mascot came complete with a completely nonsensical pump sprayer because… because… uh, look, your guess is as good as mine, and my guess is that they were high off their asses when they thought this thing up.

Check out our Sports Apparel page and find some authentic apparel from many different college teams as well as professional sports teams.

http://sportzofallsortz.com/sports_apparel.html

Marathon Runner Catches The Bus To The Finish Line!!!

2011-10-13T22:14:00.003+11:00

This is one you have to put in the "Is this for real" category!!

Rob Sloan claimed third place in the Kielder Marathon after completing the 26.2 mile course in an impressive time of 2:51:00.

But suspicions were raised by fellow runners bemused that they had not seen Sloan pass them during Sunday’s race.

After initially denying any wrongdoing, Sloan admitted to hopping onto a bus at the 20-mile mark because he was feeling tired. He then re-emerged from a wooded area of the course and picked up the bronze medal.

Witnesses reported seeing him hide behind a tree until the first and second placed runners went past, then rejoining the race behind them.

The 31-year-old now faces dismissal from his club, Sunderland Harriers, and could be banned from taking part in future marathons.
Steve Cram, the former world record holder and organiser of the race in Kielder Water, Northumberland, said: “He was the only runner in the whole of the race who ran the second half quicker than the first half.”
Sloan, a former Army mechanic from Downhill, Sunderland, was seen boasting to reporters minutes after completing the event. He described the race as “absolutely, unbelievably tough”.
When his placing was brought into doubt, he was indignant.
“I’m upset and angry that someone wants to cast these aspersions. It’s laughable, is what it is,” he insisted.
However, after organisers launched an investigation, he confessed to hitching a ride.
The bus was one of 12 laid on to ferry spectators around the lakeside course, which has been dubbed “Britain’s most beautiful marathon”.
A statement from the organisers said: “The athlete who was disqualified on Sunday after initially placing third has admitted that he failed to complete the whole course of 26.2 miles.
“Rob Sloan of Sunderland Harriers had apparently made the decision to withdraw from the race at approximately 20 miles due to fatigue and after returning to the Leaplish Park area he decided to run the closing section of the course and crossed the finish line in third place.
“This was rightly questioned by several witnesses including the rightful third place finisher, Steven Cairns of Peebles, Scotland, who has been awarded the prize.”
Sloan won a 10k race on Saturday and that result appears to hold firm.
He joined Sunderland Harriers a few months ago. Ann Lillie, club treasurer and vice-president, said: “It’s a bit of a shock. We have a good reputation and obviously this has brought the club into disrepute.
“It’s not the kind of advertising we need. We’ll be discussing Rob’s future when the executive committee meets next week.”
The runner later awarded the bronze medal, Steven Cairns, was one of those who shared their suspicions with organisers.
Writing on Facebook, he said: “I was third the whole way but somehow I crossed the line and was given fourth! He has stolen my glory and my moment on the podium.
“I started to doubt myself as he was adamant he had gone past me. I could understand him taking the goody bag and the t-shirt but to do the press interview claiming he was third…”
In 2009, Anthony Gaskell, 69, became the fastest pensioner to run the London Marathon when he finished in a record three hours and five minutes.
However, it emerged later that he took a short cut that knocked 10 miles off the course and his name was removed from the results.

Who really believes that there's no corruption in FIFA????

2011-10-13T14:23:00.002+11:00

Can anyone ever believe this sport is free from corruption when it seems to go right to the halls of power at FIFA itself? If this is how business is done at the highest levels of the so-called "World Game" then the sport is a joke!!!!!!! You want something, then show me the money!!!!

The controversial former vice-president of world football's governing body FIFA has been caught on tape telling the organisation's Caribbean delegates they must decide whether to accept 'gifts' of £25,000 from disgraced former Presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam. The Telegraph (UK) has obtained footage of a meeting on 11 May, the day after Jack Warner is alleged to have offered delegates the money in brown envelopes.

Warner is taped opening the meeting by asking "Is the media here?" He then goes on to explain that Bin Hammam had wanted to bring some gifts – Warner refers to a "silver tray and some trinkets" – but that to do so for 30 people would be "too much luggage". So, says Warner, he asked Bin Hammam to bring cash.

"I said to him if you bring cash, I don't want you to give cash to anybody, but when you do you can give it to the CFU (Caribbean Football Union) and the CFU will give it to its members. Because I don't want [it] to even remotely appear that anyone has any obligation to vote for you because of what gifts you have given them."

Business is business
Later in the same meeting, Warner issues a typically robust challenge to anyone tempted to turn down the 'gift'. He says: "I know there are some people here who believe they are more pious than thou. If you are pious go to a church friends, but the fact is that our business is our business."

Bin Hammam was forced to withdraw from the election for the presidency and has been banned from football for life after being found guilty of attempted bribery. Warner also faced charges of paying bribes, but resigned in June before FIFA's ethics committee could complete its procedures.

Warner said at the time that any investigation would see him "fully exonerated" and that "gifts have been around throughout the history of FIFA". He went on "What is happening now for me is hypocrisy." FIFA said the ending of investigations following Warner's resignation meant "the presumption of innocence is maintained".

Ernst & Young

Warner's time at FIFA was dogged by controversy. In 2006, FIFA's auditors Ernst & Young found Warner's family had made a profit of at least $1m from reselling tickets to that year's World Cup. He was fined $1m and asked to sever all ties with the company concerned. But Warner's son and personal assistant remained at the company throughout 2006, and only $250,000 has been repaid.

Scottish FA President John McBeth says that Warner asked for money for a friendly between Trinidad and Tobago and Scotland to be paid into his personal account in 2004. Warner responded by calling McBeth a racist bigot.

In 2011, allegations that Warner asked for personal payments to back England's World Cup bid were aired by former FA chief Lord Triesman, and the BBC published correspondence from Warner to the English FA requesting funds for the purchase of Haiti's World Cup TV rights.

What a Joke!!!!!!

Sportz Of All Sortz.com

Worse than Fitzroy! - The University Football Club!

Olympic Softball Remains Don Porter's Quest!

Cal Ripken's 2131 Night - The Night That Saved Baseball

Sportsmanship: Is It Officially Dead??

Sportsmanship: What happened to it?

The fall of sportsmanship: NFL and NBA already casualties

Their unwritten rules are different

Baseball’s unwritten rules

Sportsmanship is about respect

Congratulations to my Softball team, Glen Eira Saints!! Premiers 2011/12

Does Softball's Olympic Return Hinge on MLB?

The World Mourns The Loss Of Jim Stynes!

Liam Jurrah - A tale of two conflicting cultures

Bee swarm delays game between D-backs & Giants

Why do we have to be racist????

The 10 Best Things About Being An A's Fan!

What About Corruption In Sport??

Pakistani cricket scandal

Ben Johnson

Football bubble

Ricky Ponting - Never Underestimate a True Champion!!!

13,000 and counting

Aussie Pride finish in 4th place after heart breaking extra innings loss in semi finals of World Championships!

OK guys, here we go!! Aussie Pride v Chinese Taipei, past results mean nothing, its time to do our job. Lana Tye is back on the mound. GO PRIDE!!!

Chinese Taipei score in the 1st innings. 1-0 Chinese Taipei. Come on Pride.

Side away, Chinese Taipei score in the top of the 1t, plenty of game to be played Pride. Let's go. Now its our turn. Softball fans are you awake?? its really early in the morning in Australia, but let's get up and support the Pride

No score for the Aussie Pride in the bottom of the first. Here we go fans, let's get these Aussie Pride girls going

Top 2 Lana Tye strikeouts out two hitters, K2 count now at 4 in 2 innings. Casey, Meyer and Bahn up to bat. Go PRIDE!!

Good chance here Pride, two runners on, 2 out Walker up to bat.

‎2 strikeouts and a great catch by Jess Bahn retire the Chinese Taipei team in the top of the 3rd. Come on Pride, get those bats working!!

Base hit to Tsitsikronis to left field, bottom 3. one out. go Pride

Top 4, two out, two runners on for Chinese Taipei

Close call at first, Casey not happy. 1 out for Aussie Pride in the bottom of the 4th

Two runners on, 2 outs. COME ON PRIDE..... great chance here with Walker up to bat.

Great effort out there in left field by Taylah Tsitsikronis, plenty of hustle and never say die. Good job Taylah!

Runners on 1 and 2, ball takes a bad hop into Casey. Time has been called while the coaches make sure she is OK.

Walker to SS and Freegard in at 2nd base while Casey gets some attention from our sensational physio

Great defense Aussie Pride to get out of the innings. Bottom 5, let's score some runs Aussie Pride. Casey is still in the line up hitting, McGovern has utilised the DP/OPO rule. Freegard is up, then it is back to the top of the order. GO PRIDE!!

Here we GO!!! lead off single to Freegard. Great job. Come on Pride!

Sacrifice fly by Webber, 1-1 GREAT JOB PRIDE!!!

Casey being a true captain, after being hit in the face, she is back out there in the box trying to give the Pride the lead

STRIKE OUT TYE. Shuts the Chinese Taipei down. Bottom 6, 5 hits a piece. Jess Meyer up to bat. GO PRIDE

Aussie Pride is retired, hit to left field, McGovern sends Sechi home, great play by Chinese Taipei to get her out at the plate.

Bottom of the 7th. 1-1. Up for the Aussies Marina Walker, Jemma Freegard and Taylah Tsitsikronis. COME ON PRIDE!!!!!! let's go!

Bottom 7 - Ella Ross pinch hot for Pride - F8. Freegard FF6. Tsitsikronis K2. Heading into the tie breaker. GO PRIDE!! You can do this. Good defense!

Chinese Taipei score their tie breaker runner on a error. 1 out, double by the number 3 hitter for Chinese Taipei. Runner on 2.

Bottom of the 8th. 2-1 Chinese Taipei. Tsitsikronis the runner on 2nd. ONE PITCH AT A TIME AUSSIE PRIDE. You can do it!

Horne sacrifice to advance the runner to 3. Webber up, dropped a foul fly ball, come on Webber make them pay

WEBBER RBI!!!! second for the game 2-2 Aussie Pride!!

Top 9 2-2. Lana Tye has been courageous for the Aussie Pride. This will b her 15th innings of work today. GO LANA! GO PRIDE!!

Squeeze play - Controversy on the play, McGovern out discussing with the umpires. Umpires in conference.Run scored for Chinese Taipei. 3-2. McGovern is now appealing to ISF. McGovern returns to dugout run counts Side away Chinese Taipei leads 3-2

Side away. Come on! Meyer, Bahn and Sechi. Casey is our runner

Great job Meyer, runners on the corners. 0 out. NEVER GIVE UP PRIDE!!!!

Aussie Pride start World Championship Campaign in Sth Africa!!

Softball In The Outback - The Game of Choice!!!

Jason Day - Still Hunting That No 1 Spot!

Autograph of 19th Century Baseball Icon could fetch $100,000!!

Softball Keep Exploring Options For 2020 Olympics!

By Associated Press, Published: October 31, 2011

Larry Doby - He Crossed The Colour Barrier - But He Was Second!

Lou Gehrig, Kurt Russell & The Lost Bat

Billy Slater Named Best Rugby League Player In The World!

14 Of the Worst Sporting Team Nicknames!!

Marathon Runner Catches The Bus To The Finish Line!!!

Who really believes that there's no corruption in FIFA????

Ernst & Young

Squeeze play - Controversy on the play, McGovern out discussing with the umpires. Umpires in conference.Run scored for Chinese Taipei. 3-2. McGovern is now appealing to ISF. McGovern returns to dugout run counts
Side away Chinese Taipei leads 3-2