Inside Sports - insidesports's Blog - Bakersfield.com

Barry Bonds sets home run record

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 07:53:29 PDT

You may have heard by now that Barry Bonds blasted No. 756, passing Hank Aaron's 33-year-old record of 755.

Hank didn't use steroids that we know of. Barry did for awhile.

But you still have to swing a bat at blazing fast balls or wicked curve balls.

Bonds isn't that all endearing of a person, but that's a heck of an achievement.

Posted by Steve E. Swenson

Paper: Joey Porter fight wasn't one-on-one

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 13:53:40 PDT

The Miami Herald is reporting that the fight earlier this month between Joey Porter and Levi Jones wasn't a one on one affair.

Turns out surveillance tape shows Porter punching Jones and then some of his friends jumping in on the fight.

Jones called the attack "cowardly" and appeared to want to set the record straight so folks didn't think Porter kick his "butt."

I couldn't find the video on YouTube, but I imagine it will turn up eventually.

Cut the chatter on the ball field, prevent crybabies

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 14:14:16 PDT

If you want to want to say, "Hey, battuh-battuh, swing" in Cincinnati, go to a Reds game and yell at Ken Griffey Jr.

At a youth game in the Ohio city, you have to be more positive because the traditional baseball chatter has been banned in the Knothole Club of Greater Cincinnati.

The 23,000 kids in the Cincinnati area can only engage in chatter if it is positive and directed at their own team.

We don't want kids feelings hurt, because then they would cry, and we all know there is no crying in baseball.

How did we ever survive before with all this chatter? I'm tempted to call this group the Knothead Club of Greater Cincinnati, but that wouldn't be positive.

Posted by Steve E. Swenson

David Carr is waived

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:51:23 PDT

Well, it happened. The Texans have waived David Carr after five pretty lackluster years.

Carr seems to be the scapegoat for this team and his days had to be numbered after the team passed up Vince Young. Nevermind the kid was sacked like crazy.

Here's hoping he lands somewhere that he can get another change. Although he's pretty highly paid for a backup.

Check out our 2004 gallery on Carr, back when the future was still bright in Houston for him.

This big guy is a wuss in the Joey Porter fight

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 14:23:07 PDT

It's probably not good for my health to call a 6-foot-5, 307-Pound guy wuss, but that's exactly what Cincinnati Bengals offensive tackle Levi Jones is for not derailing a battery complaint against new Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter.

The two took some trash talk inside a Las Vegas casino outside where Jones suffered a small cut over his eye with the one punch Porter, 6-foot-3, 250 pounds, threw.

I'm thinking Jones gets hurt more than than on every down he plays, and he might watch out for Porter the next time the two teams meet.

I'm not condoning the fight — both guys are dumbbells for that — but if the two agree to go outside, they also agree to the consequences. That's just the way it is between men.

Posted by Steve E. Swenson

P.S. I ain't going outside with either of these guys. They can call me names if they want to but that's as far as I'm taking this fight.

P.P.S. My boss, Davin McHenry, put me up for this blog so if either of the gentlemen come to Bakersfield to make things right, they can take him outside. Seems fair to me.

Where will Joey Porter go?

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:12:26 PST

Joey Porter, that outspoken linebacker for the Pittsburg Steelers who hails from Bakersfield, has been released by the Steelers.

It begs the question. Where will he go now?

I'm thinking a loudmouth would blend with the Oakland Raiders.

Where do you think Joey's talents could best be put to use?

Posted by Steve E. Swenson

Soccer star David Beckham leaping over the pond to LA

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 08:36:40 PST

David Beckham, one of the most recognizable soccer players in the world (they even made a movie about him titled, "Bend It Like Beckham," is leaving Europe to join the LA Galaxy.

The Galaxy, for the uninitiated, is a professional soccer team. He signed a $250 million, five-year contract, which is a galaxy of money in itself.

Beckham, 31, rose to fame in England where he was captain of Manchester United.

He joined the Real Madrid team in Spain in 2003.

He wasn't treated as well in Spain where he sat on the bench a lot.

Let's say you don't care one whit about soccer.

How about women? Do you admire women? Beckham married a former Spice Girl, Victoria Adams, who was seen recently in Los Angeles looking for houses.

Beckham's glory days were at Manchester United where he won four English Premier League titles and the Champions League as they memorably won the treble in 1999.

The treble is the league, the Football (people on the other side of the pond call soccer football) Association Cup and the Champions League. That's a big deal like in Golf winning the Masters, the PGA Championship and the US Open.

The 2002 movie starred Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley and was a story about the daughter of orthodox Sikhs rebelling against her parents traditionalism by running off to Germany with a football (soccer) team.

The tagline was, "Who wants to cook Aloo Gobi when you can bend a ball like Beckham?"

Posted by Steve E. Swenson

High-priced punks

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 08:00:28 PST

I wouldn't say any of this to the faces of these football and basketball players. They are too big and they've shown by their actions that they would beat me up or spit in my face.

But Terrell Owens, receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, and seven NBA players on the New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets, you are a bunch of high-priced punks.

And I'm glad Owens got fined $35,000 for spitting, both basketball teams got fined $500,000 for brawling and each of the seven players got suspended from one to 15 games for throwing fists, pushing and shoving in a Saturday fight.

Basketball and football are fiercely competitive games and good players fight hard to win. But athletes are role models to young and old alike and it's so unnecessary to fight like brats.

Referees can take care of fouls and unfairness in games. As for Owens, he knows he has a volatile reputation, so it would behoove him not to make it worse.

NBA Commissioner David Stern in addition to the fines and suspensions he imposed suggested that continued antics by players would mean they will not have long careers in the NBA. Sounds fair to me.

Posted by Steve E. Swenson

Bakersfield Jam wins first game

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 19:49:50 PST

It's like catching the first fish on a slow day at the lake.

The Bakersfield Jam won it's first game Sunday, holding on to an 87 to 86 victory over the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the Rabobank Arena.

This follows four straight defeats in games where the Jam is still trying to gel.

Sometimes it feels good not to be skunked at the lake. And it gives hope for more fish and more wins.

Let's hope the Jam team can renew its confidence and start a victory trend.

Posted by Steve E. Swenson

Mark McGwire, hall of fame or hall of shame?

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 11:05:28 PST

Mark McGwire has been nominated for baseball's Hall of Fame.

If it wasn't for that steroid thing, he'd be a shoe in.

Just last decade, virtually every American was wrapped up in home run races between McGwire and Sammy Sosa.

Bloomberg sports writer Scott Soshnick summed up the dilemma for voting sportswriters this way:

Their consternation centers on whether to admit McGwire, who finished his career with 583 home runs, which ranks seventh on MLB's all-time list. Five-hundred home runs, 3,000 hits --both are usually considered automatic entries.

Consider some of the surnames who hit fewer homers than McGwire: Killebrew, Schmidt, Mantle, McCovey and Foxx. All are enshrined at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

If only McGwire hadn't gone to Capitol Hill last year. Things might be different.

The slugger was peppered with questions from opportunistic lawmakers wanting to know what he put in his body to become Paul Bunyan.

He shed no light, instead making a half-hearted effort to plead the fifth.

Asked, point blank, if he had used performance-enhancing substances, this is what McGwire offered on national television: ``My lawyers have advised me that I cannot answer these questions without jeopardizing my friends, my family and myself.''

Only McGwire didn't stop there. He meekly uttered the now- famous, ``I'm not here to talk about the past.''

Those eight words haunt him.

The Associated Press earlier this week surveyed about 20 percent of eligible voters. Only 1-in-4 who gave an opinion said they planned to vote for McGwire this year.

That's far shy of the 75 percent needed for induction. In fact, it's closer to the 5 percent needed just to remain on future ballots.

If you were a sports writer, how would you vote on McGwire's nomination?

Posted by Steve E. Swenson

Highland HS coach fired in revenge play

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 12:33:35 PDT

Randy Tune, defensive coordinator for the frosh-soph football team at Highland High School, was fired last week immediately after instructing four defensive linemen to rush a Liberty High School quarterback before the play began.

As a result of the play when Liberty was winning 36-0, the Liberty center, 14-year-old J.J. Perez, went to the hospital with a broken left clavicle.

The four Highland players were ejected from the game and will likely be ineligible to play the next game.

The injury to Perez shows the dangerousness of such a play as he was knocked down before he was ready to brace himself.

Tune, an assistant coach who does not teach at the school, was fired immediately by Varsity Coach Cliff Bolton. Highland principal Bob Schneider said, "There's no excuse. What matters first and foremost is the safety of the players."

High school is where students go to learn things. What lesson was taught here?

Posted by Steve E. Swenson

Arnold Palmer turns amateur

Sat, 14 Oct 2006 23:36:37 PDT

In professional golf, Arnold Palmer is simply called The King.

On Saturday, Arnold Palmer painfully walked away from professional golf at the age of 77.

Now he's an amateur like most of us. We just don't have as colorful a history.

Arnold Palmer is the reason I got excited about golf. He was a common man who played in an uncommon way.

You rooted for him because he let you know in so many ways that he would put himself on the line for you.

You were excited about him because he got excited when he did something exciting, and that was often.

I'm glad Arnold Palmer is an amateur again. He's still one of us.

Posted by Steve E. Swenson

Ten reasons to rename CSUB

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 19:37:51 PDT

Andy Kehe has a fun column on ten reasons we should rename CSUB to 'Bakersfield State.'

I think being able to make lots of BS jokes is reason enough. What do you all think?

Anyone out there got a better name?

New home for the Blaze?

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 17:06:20 PDT

Retail reporter Ryan Schuster has a blog post up asking folks if they think we ought to build a new home for the Bakersfield Blaze.

South High rising again

Sun, 20 Aug 2006 11:35:01 PDT

I posted this on my personal blog, but wanted to make sure to get it on here too.

*****

I write this in total fear of the storm it's about to start in blog comment land. But I'm going to write it anyway.

A few of us on the sports staff had the distinct pleasure of going over to South High for their scrimmage the other night. That's right, I said pleasure and South High in the same line!

This just in: Things are looking up at South, and not just on the actual football field.

There was a certain feeling in the air as we watched the team scrimmage. The buzz on the sidelines was kind of fun to be around. It certainly didn't feel like a team that won just two games the year before.

I think there are a lot of people that are pushing for positive change over there, so I won't begin to go into the names because I'd surely leave someone off.

But as we munched on some of the best barbecue I've ever had, you could see that people are really starting to care about the whole product of a student-athlete at South.

If you haven't been over to South lately, I'd encourage you to go check things out. Spend a few minutes in awe of the new weight room. Spend some time listening to the coaching staff laugh and joke about old times as Rebels. Spend some time munching on some great catered food (from a South High alum no less). Spend some time listening to some of the players talk ... they sure don't sound like kids that believe they are going to go 2-8 this year.

Oh sure, we can go on and on about how things have been in the past. We could also debate that this year may end up being a tough year again on the football field. But even if that does happen, you can see things heading in the right direction.

No, South doesn't have the resources that some of the other schools might have. But I once heard a bit of advice that seems to be the theme for the Rebels this year:

Never let a lack of resources get in the way of a good idea.

South high coaches and players have a good idea, and they are making the most of what they have. And that's something I was happy to see.

Posted by Assistant Sports Editor Brandon Plotnick

What's the best football movie?

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 12:48:13 PDT

Football season is nearly upon us, and coming with it is a new spate of football movies.

"Invincible," a Disney film starring Mark Wahlberg as a 30-year-old bartender trying to win a job with the Philadelphia Eagles, is scheduled to come out later this month. Due out in September are "Gridiron Gang," which stars The Rock as a coach who puts a team together at a juvenile detention center, and "Facing the Giants," which tells the tale of a Christian football coach struggling with issues of faith.

With that in mind, here are my picks for the best football movies of all time:

1. "Remember the Titans." The true story of how black and white players at newly-intergrated T.C. Williams High School came together to win the 1971 Virginia Class AAA state title confirmed my belief that yes, Rodney King, we can all get along. The best scene: Titans coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) tosses a banana at a coach who called him a "monkey" after humiliating that coach's team in a state playoff game.

2. "Rudy." There aren't too many movies made about undersized, walk-on scrubs who appeared at the end of one college game for all of eight seconds. However, the story of Rudy Ruettiger (Sean Astin), who went to incredible lengths just to get into Notre Dame and then got pounded on mercilessly for two seasons as a scout-team player for the Fighting Irish, is one of the most inspiring films ever.

3. "All the Right Moves." Tom Cruise gives a moving performance as a high school cornerback who sees a college scholarship as his ticket out of a Pennsylvania steel town but makes a bad choice that puts his chances in jeopardy.

4. "Knute Rockne, All-American." It's kind of eerie to watch Ronald Reagan as ill-fated Notre Dame halfback George Gipp and think, "That's a future president."

5. "Everybody's All-American." Dennis Quaid is worshipped as a god as an LSU football star and Jessica Lange is his beauty-queen bride, but the fairy tale ends once Quaid turns pro.

6. "Any Given Sunday." The best scene: Linebacker Luther "Shark" Lavay (played by real-life Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor) cuts quarterback Willie Beamen's van in half with a chainsaw after Beamen (Jamie Foxx) rips the Miami Sharks' defense during a TV interview.

7. "Varsity Blues." James Van Der Beek makes a surprisingly sympathetic hero as a backup quarterback who, after being thrust into the starting role when his team's star gets injured, takes on his win-at-all-costs coach (Jon Voight) in football-mad West Texas.

8. "The Longest Yard." Adam Sandler's 2005 version was surprisingly true to the 1974 film starring Burt Reynolds (who also appeared in this one) as an imprisoned former NFL quarterback who leads a ragtag team of convicts against a semipro team of prison guards. Sandler's version was funnier, however, which is why it gets the edge.

9. "The Program." Pretty much every evil the NCAA tries to keep under wraps comes out in this film about fictitious ESU, from coaches who clean up their players' messes in and out of the classroom to boosters handing out cash under the table.

10. "Necessary Roughness." The flipside of "The Program" with a comedic twist: After its championship program is dismantled for committing pretty much every NCAA violation in the book, fictitious Texas State University tries to field a team led by a 40-year-old quarterback (Scott Bakula). This film gets bonus points for having Kathy Ireland play the team's kicker.

Honorable mention: "Wildcats," a comedy featuring Goldie Hawn as a female coach at an inner-city high school; "North Dallas Forty," which (penned by former Dallas Cowboy Peter Gent) exposed the world of sex, drugs and general machismo that is professional football; "Friday Night Lights," a true story about football in West Texas that doesn't quite measure up to the book; "The Replacements," which features Keanu Reeves as a quarterback who leads a team of scabs during a players' strike.

What are your picks, Bakersfield?

Aren't we studs supposed to have a lot of testosterone?

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 09:18:43 PDT

It not only bugs me that Tour de France winner Floyd Landis is now under suspicion for doping his way to victory, but that the science of all this can't figure out exactly what he took.

And while Landis is fighting this latest report and has denied cheating, he's acknowledging that step B in the testing process probably won't be much different than step A. He's hired a doctor to help him dispute the results.

The test was taken at the time Landis made a stunning comeback during the race — an almost unbelievable comeback.

It will probably take days or weeks to sort all this out, but in the meantime we are left with yet another sports star — like Barry Bonds — who both denies doping but leaves the possibility that something could have gone awry.

Landis suggested that a small amount of hormone he's been taking for a thyroid condition, or the cortisone shots he gets for hip pain skewed the result.

We regular folks don't have these problems. My medication is pretty much limited to Advil. And any testosterone levels I have come naturally with my studliness.

I suspect my studliness is greater in my own mind than in actuality. I wonder about these athletes who can't say the same.

Posted by Steve E. Swenson

Whatever happened to sportsmanship?

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 15:07:54 PDT

When I played sports as a kid, I was taught that whether I won or lost, I was to conduct myself with the utmost class.

It's funny how, on the grandest stages in sports, the sportsmanship kids are taught at the lower levels suddenly get thrown out the window.

The incident I'm specifically referring to is French soccer star Zinedine Zidane's head-butt on defender Marco Materazzi in France's 6-4 loss to Italy on penalty kicks in Sunday's World Cup final in Berlin.

The match was in overtime, and the situation was understandably emotional — to the rest of the world, the World Cup is the Super Bowl times a million in terms of magnitude. It's understandable that, in the heat of the moment, some nasty words were exchanged, as Zidane and Materazzi appeared to be doing at the time.

But there is no excuse — none — for what Zidane did to Materazzi. I don't care if Materazzi made insinuations about Zidane's mother, insulted his nationality or questioned his manhood. None of that warranted Zidane walking up to Materazzi and slamming his head into Materazzi's chest.

Zidane — France's captain, which means he of all people should have been setting an example by being level-headed — was red-carded. For those who aren't soccer-savvy, that means he was ejected and France was forced to play a man down for the rest of the match— at a crucial juncture when his team needed his leadership most, I might add.

To make matters worse, it was Zidane's last match before retirement. Could there have possibly been a more disgraceful way for Zidane to go out? Whether he wants to or not, he'll be remembered more for that head-butt than for leading an underdog French team farther into the tournament than it was ever expected to go.

What do you think, Bakersfield? Is losing your cool on the field of play and physically attacking an opponent ever justified? Is it OK for athletes to have a little anger burning under the surface if it gives them an edge?

— Ray Hacke

Do you love a loser?

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 19:00:49 PDT

I once worked with a man who said he rooted for the Chicago Cubs because "no matter how they do, you're never disappointed."

I had to think for a moment when he said that — after all, the Cubs have done nothing but disappoint their fans since 1908, when they won their last World Series, and even more so since 1945, when they made their last appearance in the Fall Classic.

I guess it's all in how you look at it. The sun rises every morning and sets every night; it has for thousands of years. It's something you can count on. The Cubs have been about as reliable when it comes to missing the World Series, so in that sense, I guess they haven't been disappointing at all.

Still, I have to wonder: What keeps people rooting for perennial losers?

I ask this question as the fan of the NBA's biggest joke of a team (thanks to the Los Angeles Clippers' recent success), the Golden State Warriors. Every season I try to convince myself this will be the year the Warriors finally make the playoffs for the first time since the 1993-94 season, and every year I find I was more wrong than ever.

Maybe it's because I'm from the Bay Area and I'm loyal to my roots. Maybe I just think it will be that much sweeter when the Warriors finally do break into the postseason. And if God ever decides it's time to perform another miracle and lets Golden State win an NBA title, I'll be able to honestly say I pulled for the team all along.

I think it's that last thing that keeps fans loyal to consistent losers. I lived in Oregon when the Oregon State Beavers broke their streak of 28 consecutive losing football seasons in 1999, and even fans of the rival Oregon Ducks celebrated that day. Ask fans of the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox how sweet it was when their teams broke 80-plus-year world championships droughts.

I also have to wonder one other thing: Why are some losing teams more lovable than others?

The Cubs, for instance, have legions of fans, but the Milwaukee Brewers, who have made just one postseason appearance in their history, are nowhere near as beloved. In the NFL, Minnesotans love their Vikings and Buffaloans love their Bills, even though both teams are 0-4 in Super Bowl appearances; the Arizona Cardinals, who have only been to the playoffs once since moving to Arizona and weren't very good even before that, can barely give tickets away.

So tell me, Bakersfield: How long would you pull for a losing team before jumping on another's bandwagon? Would you jump at all? Why keep rooting for a team that keeps letting you down? What makes a losing team lovable?

— Ray Hacke

Should baseball dump interleague play?

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 15:32:16 PDT

The novelty has worn off for fans, and die-hard traditionalists like me can't stand it.

Players don't care for it either because they feel it adds unnecessary travel to an already grueling season and unfairly impacts playoff races.

So why doesn't Major League Baseball dump interleague play?

Unlike most major sports, which have two conferences under one league banner whose teams play each other all the time, MLB consists of two separate leagues, National and American, that play with different rules. (Designated hitters are allowed in the American League, for instance, but not the National.)

Before 1998, baseball was the only major U.S. sport in which the two teams that played for its championship had no chance of meeting during the regular season. The only time American and National League teams met before the World Series was in preseason exhibition games.

In an effort to boost fan interest following the strike-shortened 1994 season, however, MLB commissioner Bud Selig introduced interleague play in the expansion year of 1998. With interleague play, he reasoned, fans would get to see stars they wouldn't otherwise get to see; Atlanta Braves fans, for instance, could see New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter come to their home park.

Selig also saw an opportunity to capitalize on potential regional rivalries — the Dodgers and Angels in Southern California, the A's and Giants in the Bay Area, the Yankees and Mets in New York, the Cubs and White Sox in Chicago, etc.

However, Selig didn't look at all the logistics.

Take the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, for instance. They're only a half-hour away from the Dodgers on Interstate 5, but San Diego's reasonably close too (90 minutes away), and the Angels and Padres have a rivalry dating to the old Pacific Coast League. So who is the Angels' true regional rival?

And what about teams that don't have a nearby opponent from the other league to compete with? Are fans of the NL's Arizona Diamondbacks supposed to get excited over an AL orphan like the Minnesota Twins?

Then there are playoff races to consider. Last year the Indians went 11-1 against the woeful NL West and vaulted into playoff contention. An NL team that has to face clubs from the perennially competitive AL East is going to have a much tougher time contending.

Wouldn't more intradivision games give playoff races more spice? Imagine the St. Louis Cardinals duking it out with Cincinnati in a heated battle for NL Central supremacy instead of feasting on the awful Kansas City Royals to put some distance between themselves and the Reds.

Then there is the issue of stars visiting different parks than usual. Each MLB division faces a division from the opposite league in two-year cycles; for instance, the NL West will face the AL West this year and next before moving on to either the Central or East. If, say, the Giants go to Boston one year, the Red Sox will come to San Francisco the next.

In other words, stars will only visit certain parks once every six years — which might provide short-term boosts at teams' box offices, but not enough to make it worth fans' while.

A Giants-Red Sox matchup probably wouldn't hold much appeal except to fans of those teams anyway.

What do you think, Bakersfield? Is it time for interleague play to get the heave-ho? Or does it bring more excitement to the game?