Stationary Bandit

A Promise Kept in South Bend

Charlie Weis doesn't usually let anyone else call plays on offense. He made an exception for 10-year-old Montana Mazurkiewicz.  The Notre Dame coach met last week with Montana, who had been told by doctors weeks earlier that there was nothing more they could do to stop the spread of his inoperable brain tumor.

Before leaving, "Weis asked asked Montana if there was something he could do for him. He agreed to let Montana call the first play against Washington on Saturday. He called pass right." 

When the Irish started on their own 1-yard-line following a fumble recovery, Mazurkiewicz wasn't sure Notre Dame would be able to throw a pass. Weis was concerned about that, too. So was quarterback Brady Quinn.

"He said 'What are we going to do?'" Weis said. "I said 'We have no choice. We're throwing it to the right.'"

The play went for 13 yards.  Unfortunately, Montana passed away on Friday.  Story here.  Thanks to Newmark's Door for the pointer.

Finally

The NHL Lockout is over.

Jeremy Roenick on the NHL Fans

"Pro athletes are not cocky. Pro athletes care about the game. Everybody out there who calls us spoiled because we play a game - they can kiss my ass."

Roenick went on to say that the players didn't want those so-called "fans" at the rink.

"I will say personally, personally, to everybody who calls us spoiled - you guys are just jealous... We're trying to get this thing back on the ice and make it better for the fans.  If you don't realize that, then don't come.  We don't want you in the rink, we don't want you in the stadium, we don't want you to watch hockey."

Based on the fans' reaction to the cancelled season, Roenick may get his wish.  Story here.

In Lieu of the Stanley Cup Finals

Joshua Hall, at Division of Labour, relates a tale from the golden age of hockey.

During these years, the fued between [Conn] Smythe [owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs] and [Art] Ross [owner of the Boston Bruins], who didn't speak to each other for twelve years, even at governors' meetings, reached epic proportions. At one point, Ross hired two longshoremen to rough up Smythe at a game. On another occasion, Smythe took out a large ad in a Boston paper mocking Ross. "If you're tired of what you've been looking at, come out tonight and see a decent team, the Toronto Maple Leafs play hockey," it stated.

The coup de grace came at a game in the Boston Garden. Smythe, ostensibly as a peace offering, had King Clancy skate across the ice in front of the crowd and present a bunch of roses to Art Ross, who had just recovered from a painful hemorrhoid operation. "Insert these up your you know where," read the attached card, written in Latin. Ross, who couldn't read Latin, nodded his thanks to Smythe and grandly passed the bouquet over to the matron of a powerful Boston family, who, unfortunately, could.*

The best part, in my opinion, is that King Clancy later had an award named after him for "the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community."  I wonder if this incident qualified as a humanitarian contribution.

Capitalism Reborn in England?

Thad Williamson writes in the Boston Globe about Malcolm Glazer's purchase of Manchester United- the world's most well-known professional sports team.  He laments the change in ownership because of its illustration of how capitalism undermines tradition.

The anger at Glazer's takeover runs to deeper concerns as well. Soccer clubs in England have long been premised on the idea that the clubs belong to the local communities they inhabit and to the loyal fans who support them. The American practice of the professional sports franchise, movable from town to town at will and unambiguously the property of the private owner, is viewed with revulsion by the vast majority of English soccer fans.

It is particularly galling to United supporters, then, that an American investor with or little or no understanding of soccer, who has reportedly never visited venerable Old Trafford stadium, suddenly has control of what is seen as ''their" club. In response, some United supporters are planning boycotts of the club's merchandise and tickets, in hopes of bringing the club to financial ruins and forcing Glazer to sell; others are exploring the idea of forming a new independent club altogether to carry on the ''true" Manchester United tradition.

First, the community does not own the club and hence it is not theirs.  If they want to own it, then they need to raise the funds for the team.  It seems (at least to me) that Glazer's purchase undermines relatively recent socialist traditions that emerged in the 20th century.  Second, Glazer represents the true Manchester tradition.  After all, it was the Manchester School of Economics- Richard Cobden and John Bright ideas about free trade- that helped England become the wealthy nation it is today. 

The Cup Commeth?

Could there be a Stanley Cup Final this year after all?

Toronto lawyer Tim Gilbert is filing a claim against the NHL and the trustees of the Stanley Cup in Ontario Superior Court yesterday. "Stanley Cup season is about to begin," said David Paciocco, a University of Ottawa law professor and expert on trusts who helped Gilbert prepare the case.

If successful, the court action indicated could force the trustees to free up the Stanley Cup for competition at a time when the NHL has shut down because of the lockout and the famous trophy had been expected to remain shelved in Toronto's Hockey Hall of Fame.

Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson already suggested in February that if the NHL won't award the Stanley Cup this year, then it should be the top prize in women's hockey.

Here is the story.  The main question is whether or not the NHL owns the Cup or if the cup has been placed in the NHL's trust.   I hope that the courts allow for a Final this year.  It might remind both sides that the fans appreciate the game itself rather than the individuals who fill the jerseys.

The Disgraceful NHLPA

An interesting bit of information was reported this weekend regarding the National Hockey League labor woes.

[Mario] Lemieux and Phoenix managing partner Wayne Gretzky, two of hockey's most-respected figures, were invited to participate in that session by the NHLPA. They accepted, in the belief that the union planned to submit a new CBA offer, with a salary cap of $45 million as its centerpiece.

"The only way that Wayne and I would have gotten involved is because we believed there was a new proposal coming from the Players' Association," Lemieux said. "We were told by some of the players we were talking to that there would be a new proposal on the table at the $45 [million] level."

No such offer was forthcoming, however, and NHLPA officials said later they never intended to make one. They insisted they went to New York only because the league had requested a meeting.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman subsequently suggested the NHLPA had "set up" the league to inflict a public-relations blow. Lemieux avoided such inflammatory rhetoric, but acknowledged he felt he was misled by the players, even though he hasn't figured out their motivation for doing so.

"It's a mystery to me," he said.

What was the NHLPA thinking?  Why waste the time of two of hockey's greatest players?   Lemieux and Gretzky are in a unique situation to resolve the problems.  Both have been on both sides of the game.  Unfortunately, the NHLPA believed that it was a better strategy to waste their time. 

The Minister of Defense

Thanks to ESPN for the image.

More on Barry Bonds

The most astounding number to come out of the Barry Bonds steroid controversy is not that 93 percent of the 40,000-plus voters on a SI.com poll don't believe Bonds' claim that he was unaware he took steroids. The more intriguing number comes from Stats Inc., which reports that Bonds had never hit a home run longer than 450 feet before the 2000 season, when he turned 36. Since then, he's hit at least 21 homers of 450 feet or farther. Where can the 10 Spot sign up for flaxseed oil? That stuff is obviously dynamite.

Enough said.  Here is the source.

The Classless Barry Bonds

In answers that sometimes rambled, Bonds sought to vouch for his trainer as a good and honest person who would never traffic in illegal drugs.

"Greg is a good guy, you know, this kid is a great kid. He has a child," Bonds said. At another point, he told the grand jury:

"Greg has nothing, man. ... Guy lives in his car half the time. He lives with his girlfriend, rents a room so he can be with his kid, you know?

"... This is the same guy that goes over to our friend's mom's house and massages her leg because she has cancer, and she swells up every night for months. Spends time next to my dad, rubbing his feet every night."

Bonds told the grand jurors that he had given Anderson a $20,000 bonus and bought him a ring after the 73-home run season. He also bought the trainer a ring to commemorate the Giants' 2002 World Series appearance. When a juror asked why the wealthy ballplayer hadn't bought "a mansion" for his trainer to live in, Bonds answered:

"One, I'm black, and I'm keeping my money. And there's not too many rich black people in this world. There's more wealthy Asian people and Caucasian and white. And I ain't giving my money up."

Here is the full story.