| |
Mariano Rivera earned the save in Game 4 of what has been a classic Subway Series. |
The week goes on and the great stories keep coming. The Bruins fire Pat Burns and bring in Mike Keenan. What are they doing in Boston? Jeremy Jacobs is as strange an owner as Bill Bidwill (see below).
The Subway Series showdown was a classic.Derek Jeter wins the MVP on a team full of MVPs as the New York Yankees capture their third straight, fourth-in-five-years, all-time most 26th World Series Championship. The dynasty is complete.
Darryl Strawberry is arrested again while his two of his former teams play in the World Series. Sad.
On to some of the other stuff in the news.
Andrew Golota- Mike Tyson fallout
We all knew he would win and we all knew it wouldn't be his last fight. Mike Tyson, for years, has just said whatever he wants to say and then follows up on it only if he feels like it.
Often that's good like when he said he wanted to eat Lennox Lewis' children. Coming from the guy who bit Evander Holyfield twice, that comment was as truly scary as it gets in sports. Yeesh.
Anyway, if you want to know about Tyson's next fight, just follow the money. In boxing that often leads to bribery, but you can also use the trail to determine who will meet whom because the sport isn't really about anything other than money. And Mike Tyson is still a pretty good meal ticket.
Lewis or Holyfield have to be coming up next for him. Maybe David Tua. But Tyson is in the on-deck circle for the next big heavyweight bout. You have to fight him if you want a serious pay day. That comes with the territory.
Tyson-Lewis would be a hugely bankable bout, and the unpredictable nature of it only adds to the drama.
I said that Tyson would be fighting for the title in a year when he was out of the picture a bit. But the sport needs and wants him to be back in the mix as the boorish brute who cusses at press conferences.
For years, he tried to be respectful of the sport and talk about the great fighters and the great fights of yesterday. He loved and understood the sport.
Now he's just a sideshow freak who doesn't respect himself or what is left of his sport. He's like Dennis Rodman who knew what sold. Tyson now knows. Why not make a buck off it while you still can?
Tyson the boxing student already knows what his special on ESPN Classic will be about anyway: How he squandered his talent and carved out a legacy of true weirdness.
Arizona Cardinals
Let's see. Your defense gives up 48 points to the Dallas Cowboys. You fire the head coach and replace him with the defensive coordinator.
It makes me wonder about who's running that team. Then I remember it's Bill Bidwill, and the move makes perfect sense.
Corey Dillon
During what was supposed to be a mail-it-in year as he awaits free agency, Corey Dillon breaks one of the NFL's great records with 278 yards rushing in one game. A record that was held by the late, great Walter Payton no less. And in an era that we turn to the pass much more than the run.
Just another strange Bengal moment.
The irony is that Dillon wants out of Cincinnati. And if the Bengals even want to try to keep their best player, his price went up because of what he just did for them on the field.
Another irony is that Dillon probably stands for everything the NFL does not like and broke the record of a guy that did stand for everything the league wants to be.
Don't get me wrong. He's a good player. Dillon also ran for 246 yards in a game his first year, breaking Jim Brown's single-game rookie rushing mark.
At least he and Brown have the same sense of citizenship.
Joe Smith
An arbitrator decides that Joe Smith's contract violates the salary cap (bringing the total number of people who understand the NBA salary cap to seven).
David Stern has declared Smith a free agent. Stern also punished the Timberwolves for a clandestine agreement with Smith -- to the tune of five first-round draft picks and a $3.5 million fine.
Remember this: Alonzo Mourning's kidney trouble has given the Heat a $4 million medical allowance. Pat Riley has a good story to tell Smith. Who knows? Stay tuned.
Along with the probation slapped on the University of Minnesota basketball program by the NCAA for those pesky tutoring problems under Clem Haskins, it's a tough time for hoops fans in Minnesota. Well, there's always the Wild.