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posted by Mel Ott at 6:31 AM
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"When I saw the ad on the wall I said, 'Damn, I've got to be dreaming,' " said Avinash Sookhwa, 18, a junior at John Adams HS in Queens who emigrated from Guyana in 2004.
Steve Mandle, varsity baseball coach at George Washington HS and a one-time mentor to Manny Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox, worries that the school's current budget can't afford regular purchases of expensive wooden bats.
"I'm an old-school guy. I prefer wood. But financially, it's going to be a disaster, an utter disaster," he told The Post.
At end-of-summer, wooden-bat tournaments, Mandle says, teams he coaches tear through bats. "I've got kids who throw 80, 90 miles an hour. We [just] go through bats."
At $75 a pop, this could get very expensive, very fast.
So we wondered whether the council had made any provision for replacing broken bats - like paying for them.
Yesterday, we asked Oddo.
"You think I'm going to give you the bullets to shoot me back down? You've already ripped me a new [expletive] four times. I may be crazy, but I'm not that crazy," he said.
We take that to be a no.
Which isn't at all surprising.
Pols like Oddo tend to welcome the publicity that self-aggrandizing legislation generates but are generally too ignorant to understand the consequences of their actions - or too arrogant to care.
Sometimes both.
Oddo was also dismissive of the bat-safety issue yesterday ("I don't need a study of injuries," said the councilman), leaving the last word on that to Mandle, too.[New York Post]
posted by Mel Ott at 1:38 AM
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"Tony went out and said a couple of his players said the ball was acting funny, and they made Kenny wash his hands, and he washed his hands, and he came out the second inning and was pretty clean the rest of the way," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said.
"Pretty clean" — very funny, Jim.
But "pretty clean" is a relative term.
One Cardinals player said that reserve outfielder John Rodriguez showed him balls that were discolored.
"I can't comment on that," Rodriguez said. "Tony's not talking about it. I'm definitely not talking about it."
Did La Russa institute a gag order?
"You listen to your boss?" Rodriguez asked.
posted by Mel Ott at 2:34 PM
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Philadelphia police said a father pulled out a .357 Magnum pistol on a youth football coach because his son wasn't getting enough playing time.
A fight ensued between the man and a referee, and both are now facing charges.
Wayne Derkotch, 46, is accused of pulling the gun Sunday during a game between the Oxford Circle Raiders and the Burholme Outlaws -- 5- and 6- year-olds -- in Northeast Philadelphia. No shots were fired.
Derkotch was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and reckless endangerment. He did not immediately return a telephone message left at his home Monday.
The referee, Shawn Henwood, said he said he was shocked to see a parent had brought a .357 Magnum with him.
"Everyone started screaming, 'Gun! Gun!' I immediately turned the boys and ran them to the opposite side of the field because the issue happened over this way," Henwood said.
He wasn't the only one who was surprised.
"Why would you take a gun to where a bunch of young kids are ... for no reason," asked Wayne Kohler, one of Derkotch's neighbors.
Derkotch didn't answer that question Monday night or the knock on the door of his home.
The coach involved, whose own son plays for the Outlaws, was willing to talk, but didn't offer much detail other than to say overly enthusiastic parents can be a problem.
"We get parents like that all the time ... just an unfortunate situation," said Coach Jermaine Wilson.
posted by Mel Ott at 2:59 PM
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There are voices in aggreement with us...
1) ESPN'S Gene Wojciechowski said Laughable suspensions aren't enough
2) USA Today's John Saraceno: "With moral outrage at Miami, it's time for Coker to go"
More sane voices
Fort Worth Star Telegram's Gil LeBreton: At Miami, stupidity has tenure
Philadelphia Inquirer's Mike Jensen: Tougher punishment needed in Miami-FIU brawl case
posted by Mel Ott at 3:47 AM
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"He wasn't good. He wasn't good at all," Pujols said of Glavine.
Pujols, who went 0-for-3 in Game 1 and made a baserunning blunder, was complaining that the Cardinals hadn't been rewarded for hitting some balls hard, saying, "We didn't get some breaks."
Still, reporters interviewing him were stunned that he wouldn't give Glavine any credit for shutting down the Cardinals. So they asked him again.
"You didn't think Glavine pitched well?"
"I say he wasn't good at all," Pujols repeated. "He did the same thing that he always does. Throw a changeup, fastball, and that was it. I just think we should have done a better job than we did."
Classy, huh?
This from a guy who went 0-for-3 and made a baserunning blunder. When Pujols was asked if he was frustrated afterward, the Cardinals' slugger grew angry.
"Why (should) I be frustrated?" he snapped. "I can't make a mistake? Am I perfect?"
This is Albert Pujols? Apparently St. Louis, no major media market, is good cover for such boorishness. Actually, St. Louis reporters aren't all that fond of Pujols. One said he hoped Pujols would "get exposed" with these comments as a less-than-friendly presence around the Cardinals, despite mostly adoring coverage.
Tony La Russa, meanwhile, resorted to blaming the media for Pujols' comments, saying reporters should have used "common sense" and basically dismissed them because they were said in "the heat of competition."
Right. Like Pujols is the only fierce competitor out there, so he should get a pass for saying something so unprofessional. La Russa knows better, but he's accustomed to having his way in a one-newspaper town.
Besides, if that were the case, Pujols had the chance to take back his comments about Glavine when he was asked about them on the field before last night's game.
"Isn't that what I said?" he replied. "Okay, then keep that one."
He didn't make himself available after last night's game, at least not until past newspaper deadlines in New York.
So what's up with Albert, anyway? He has to realize that as the most feared slugger in the game, he's going to be the focus of media coverage, particularly in the postseason.
Yet on the day before this series opened, Pujols didn't want to go to the interview room, saying he would do interviews in the tight quarters of the visitors' clubhouse at Shea. When reporters surrounded him at his locker after the workout, he complained openly, saying, "You all are a pain in the (butt)."
Eventually he answered questions, taking exception to the notion that his bat was any more important than anyone else's in the Cardinals' lineup, and saying he would be happy to take walks if the Mets chose to pitch around him.
Pujols seemed even angrier to find reporters at his locker after Game 1, flipping a chair out of the way that hit one reporter in the leg.
posted by Mel Ott at 2:20 PM
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After Duke Case, College Athletes Are Put on Notice - New York Times: "Last week, the University of Connecticut dismissed five football players for buying beer on a team trip to Florida. Earlier in the season, four Georgia players and two from Texas were suspended for as many as three games for off-the-field episodes involving under-age drinking and misdemeanor marijuana possession.
Oklahoma dismissed two football players, including the starting quarterback, after the university determined they had received money for no-show jobs at a car dealership. At Northwestern, the women’s soccer coach resigned and several players were suspended after photographs of a hazing ritual were posted on a Web site.
The vice president for student affairs at Fairfield in Connecticut has posted a letter on the university’s Web site that repeatedly mentions the Duke case, refers to reports of misconduct by former Fairfield athletes and warns current athletes of the consequences if such acts occur again. Fairfield also encouraged athletes to police teammates who act recklessly.
United Educators Insurance, a company owned by its more than 1,200 member colleges and universities, held eight seminars this year to advise member institutions on athletes’ misconduct. The seminar presents a hypothetical scandal involving a team and a coach with many elements reminiscent of the Duke situation, including a national news media frenzy. About 300 college officials have attended the seminars, most of them after the rape accusations by a woman some Duke lacrosse players had hired as a stripper.
A neighbor told the police in Durham, N.C., that during the afternoon of March 13, he saw several players drinking in the backyard of the house some of them were renting.
posted by Mel Ott at 2:13 PM
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Roger Clemens, 44, one of professional baseball's most durable and successful pitchers, is among six players accused by a former teammate of using performance-enhancing drugs, The Times has learned. The names had been blacked out in an affidavit filed in federal court.
Others whose identities had been concealed include Clemens' fellow Houston Astros pitcher, Andy Pettitte, and former American League Most Valuable Player Miguel Tejada of the Baltimore Orioles.
The discovery ends four months of speculation surrounding the possible identities of Major League Baseball figures whose names were redacted from a search warrant affidavit filed in Phoenix on May 31. The document was based on statements made to federal agents by pitcher Jason Grimsley.
Grimsley, a journeyman relief pitcher who has played on several teams including the New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles and the Angels, acknowledged using steroids, amphetamines and other drugs, investigators said in the document. He also implicated a number of former teammates, but the names were blacked out in copies of the affidavit that were made public in June after investigators used the warrant to raid Grimsley's house.
A source with authorized access to an unredacted affidavit allowed The Times to see it, but retained it to read back what had been blacked out of the public copies. A second source and confidante of Grimsley had previously disclosed player identities and provided additional details about the affidavit. The sources insisted on anonymity.
According to the affidavit, Grimsley told investigators that Clemens and Pettitte "used athletic performance-enhancing drugs." He also said Tejada used anabolic steroids.
Clemens and Pettitte did not respond to requests for comment made Saturday through their agents and the Astros. Tejada had previously declined to be interviewed.
Grimsley was detained after he allegedly received an illegal shipment of human growth hormones. The shipment was tracked to his Scottsdale, Ariz., home by a task force of federal agents investigating drug use in professional baseball, the affidavit said.
For a time, Grimsley secretly cooperated with investigators, they said, but stopped after retaining a lawyer.
According to the 20-page search warrant affidavit signed by IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitzky, Grimsley told investigators he obtained amphetamines, anabolic steroids and human growth hormones from a source recommended to him by former Yankee trainer Brian McNamee. The former team trainer is a personal strength coach for both Clemens and Pettitte.
McNamee did not return multiple messages left with his wife and on his answering machine.
The affidavit also alleges that Grimsley told federal agents that his former Oriole teammates -- Tejada, Brian Roberts and Jay Gibbons -- "took anabolic steroids." Roberts was the American League's All-Star second baseman in 2005 when Grimsley was an Oriole.
All three Baltimore players declined to be interviewed. Roberts said he had "nothing to talk about" and didn't know why Grimsley named him. A sixth player, retired outfielder David Segui previously came forward to say that his name was among those blacked out in the affidavit provided to the public. Segui told ESPN in June that he used HGH on the advice of his doctor as recently as the 2004 season. He did not obtain approval from the league, he acknowledged.
Government officials have declined to comment about either their ongoing investigation of drugs in professional baseball.
Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner who came out of retirement to pitch for the Astros in each of the last two years, was a teammate of Grimsley on the Yankees in 1999-2000, as was Pettitte, a two-time All-Star who is nearing 200 career wins. Grimsley, Tejada, Gibbons and Roberts were teammates in Baltimore during the 2005 season.
posted by Mel Ott at 12:21 AM
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THE Crocodile Man, Steve Irwin, is dead. He was killed in a freak accident in Cairns, police sources said.
It is understood he was killed by a sting-ray barb that went through his chest.
He was 44.
He was swimming off the Low Isles at Port Douglas filming an underwater documentary when the incident happened.
Ambulance officers confirmed they attended a reef fatality this morning at Batt Reef off Port Douglas.
It is understood Mr Irwin was killed around midday, Eastern Australian time.
The naturalist and television star Steve Irwin has died in a diving accident in far north Queensland. He was 44.
Police say he was stung through the heart by a stingray while diving off Port Douglas.
He was filming a documentary when the accident occurred around midday AEST near the Low Isles.
A helicopter arrived with paramedics on board to try to resuscitate him, but it was too late.
Irwin's body is being taken to the morgue in Cairns.
His family are believed to be flying from Brisbane to Cairns this afternoon.
Irwin, who was was born in Victoria in 1962, inherited his love of reptiles from his father.
His father Bob was a keen reptile enthusiast and moved the family to Queensland in 1970 to open a small reptile park on the Sunshine Coast.
Irwin took over the family business in 1991 and grew it into Australia Zoo.
In 1992 he ventured into television, making the first series of the Crocodile Hunter.
When the program aired in the United States, he shot to international fame.
posted by Mel Ott at 1:25 AM
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Andre Agassi is only 36 years old, but these final days he has shuffled around like a senior citizen, limping into restaurants, hobbling through the hallways underneath Arthur Ashe Stadium. Four injections in five days did little to quiet the shrieking pain in his back.
He was unseeded here and his one-time No. 1 world ranking has slipped to No. 39. And yet, when he stepped onto center court for his first two matches, the eight-time Grand Slam champion came alive. Elevated by a full house of passionate believers, his aching body seemed to, fleetingly, live in the past.
On Sunday, Agassi -- his face frozen into a perpetual grimace -- walked into Arthur Ashe for a third time to play a 25-year-old qualifier named Benjamin Becker. His heart, his soul and the U.S. Open crowd were desperately willing, but this time he couldn't rise above his horrible physical reality.
posted by Mel Ott at 1:14 AM
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posted by Mel Ott at 9:02 AM
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At Northern Illinois, there are cornstalks taller than the tailback, barns bigger than the football office, and games of enormous consequence played on Tuesdays.
To most of the country, the Northern Illinois Huskies look all mixed up. To the Mid-American Conference, they are a model member.
The MAC is made up of 13 universities, most of them spread across the heartland, in towns like Ypsilanti, Mich.; Oxford, Ohio; and Muncie, Ind. Despite fertile soil, the teams are traditionally undersized and underfinanced. They play in whatever time slot ESPN gives them, even if it means rescheduling homecoming.
And yet, when a major upset happens early in the season, a MAC team is often the one pulling it — Toledo over Penn State, Northern Illinois over Alabama, Bowling Green over Purdue, Miami of Ohio over North Carolina, all on the road and all in this century.
The MAC is to college football what the Missouri Valley Conference is to college basketball, and if the bowl season were traded for a 65-team N.C.A.A. tournament, Northern Illinois would be that pesky team seeded No. 12 that no one wants to play.
On Saturday, the Huskies will go to Ohio State with a tailback who is 5-foot-7, a coach who once lost 23 consecutive games, and a group of tight ends who meet on a racquetball court. Sandbagging is part of their strategy.
posted by Mel Ott at 10:00 AM
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The idea that Guillen would have a pitcher throw at Young to regain the good graces of umpires was the theory he found most preposterous.
''It's funny when people say this kid got hit because of Major League Baseball and this kid got hit because Ozzie don't get along with the umpires,'' Guillen said. ''I don't get along with the umpires. I never got in trouble playing; I got in trouble managing because that's my job. When people talk about me that way, I hate it. It's not true.
''Again, if people think we did it, that's too bad. When I make mistakes, I have enough guts to apologize for what I did. Now I am not guilty, and people think [I am]. It's not fair. Not for me, the reputation of me and my team.
''You can call me anything you want -- don't call me a liar, don't call me a headhunter. You can call me crazy, idiot, loudmouth, whatever you want to call me. Don't say we're losing my team because of me, we're not playing now because of me. That thing is out of proportion, out of hand. People are saying stuff they don't know.''
posted by Mel Ott at 9:41 AM
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Zito outpitched Curt Schilling, who became the 14th pitcher with 3,000 strikeouts, Mark Ellis and Bobby Kielty each hit solo home runs and Oakland beat the Red Sox 7-2 Wednesday to complete a three-game sweep.
The A's won their season-best ninth straight at home and 15th in 19 overall.
Zito (15-8) pitched 6 1/3 strong innings to win his third straight start.
Schilling (14-7) lost his third straight decision. Boston has lost six straight and 12 of 14.
"It's very bittersweet," he said. "When 14 people in the history of the game have done it, that makes me proud to have achieved it. But going through what we're going through and doing what I did today kind of sucks a lot of the enjoyment out of it - most of it, if not all of it."
posted by Mel Ott at 9:50 AM
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The Yankees suddenly have a larger division lead than the Tigers, the result of the recent five-game sweep of the Red Sox and a three-game sweep of the reeling Red Sox by the Seattle Mariners.
The Red Sox are not in good shape. Jason Varitek, their catcher, captain and soul, has not played this month, having had knee surgery. Manny Ramírez has been in and out of the lineup the past week with leg and knee problems. Shortstop Álex González is on the disabled list with a strained oblique muscle, and right fielder Trot Nixon is on the list, too, with a strained biceps.
David Ortiz had to be hospitalized overnight during the disastrous Yankees series because of stress.
Imagine the Red Sox’ stress when they discover there’s no room for them in the playoffs. After last night’s 9-0 loss at Oakland, they are nearly as far behind the Twins (six games) as they are behind the Yankees (seven), and there’s no other way for them to get to the postseason. They have to overtake the Yankees, or the Twins and the White Sox.
posted by Mel Ott at 9:23 AM
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Because if Portis were to miss extended time, more than the next few weeks with a partially separated shoulder, it's not as much of an emergency situation. Yeah, Gibbs misses Portis's explosiveness and the offense becomes more predictable.
But Al Saunders, the man Gibbs hired to run the offense, loves short-yardage backs who will make three yards out of minus-1. Ladell Betts is that kind of back. Rock Cartwright, who plunged in from the 1 against the Jets for a touchdown, is that kind of back.
It's why they're still here, the longest-tenured players drafted by the organization after Jansen and Chris Samuels in 1999 and 2000, respectively. Betts and Cartwright went from the misery of the ol' ball coach to the majesty of the really ol' ball coach.
"Class of '02, that's us," Betts said earlier this week. "We've seen a little of everything in five years."
"When we got here, we had Coach [Steve] Spurrier and there wasn't much discipline," Cartwright said. "Just didn't feel like an NFL atmosphere, you know. Now, with Coach Gibbs, you can't even compare. Different world, man."
posted by Mel Ott at 9:29 AM
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My bosses won't allow me to say which six announcers I would deport to Eastern Europe, but here are their initials jumbled together backwards: WBMABCMJMTBJ.
posted by Mel Ott at 5:40 PM
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MSNBC: LANDIS OFFERS NEW DRUG TEST THEORY TO JAY LENO
Jay Leno didn’t let Floyd Landis off easy, and the embattled Tour de France champion responded with yet another theory as to why he flunked a drug test.
Questioned by the “Tonight Show” host Tuesday, Landis said he may have unknowingly ingested something that made him test positive for a high testosterone ratio.
“I see you on these shows and I do want to believe you and evidence seems — I don’t know if it’s overwhelming — but it seems pretty conclusive, right?” Leno said.
Landis said yes, if one goes by the tests, and Leno shot back, ‘Why should we not go by the tests? Tell me why.”’
Landis responded that there were several possibilities, saying, “The tests and the people doing the tests would like you to believe that the only possibility is that I essentially took some drugs and that’s why the test is that way.”
He offered still another new theory: “Now there’s also the possibility, and it’s an argument that has been used by other people. At this point, I don’t know if it’s somehow or some way I ingested something that caused the tests to be that way.”
Landis went on to repeat some possibilities he and his defense team had floated earlier, that there was some type of natural occurrence in his body that caused the positive tests.
He added, “And I’m beginning to wonder about this myself after the way the situation’s been handled, is that after the (sample) leaves my hands ... after I give them the sample, I don’t know where it goes.”
posted by Mel Ott at 5:54 AM
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[NYDailyNews]: Yet sources close to the Brooklyn-born four-time All-Star told The News that his divorce fight was only part of his woes. The sources said Lo Duca also had gambling debts, accumulating a big enough tab that Mets management was aware of it.
The morals clause within Major League Baseball doesn't prohibit a player from gambling at casinos or race tracks, but the league becomes concerned when one of its players runs up unmanageable gambling debts.
Lo Duca insisted to The News yesterday that he only gambled on horses, never on sports. He admitted betting through the Internet, but said all his wagers were legal.
He would not address his wife's allegations, saying only, "We decided to get a divorce six months ago and I wish it didn't happen, but it happens."
Sources told The News that the MLB security office would likely probe whether Lo Duca had engaged in any activity that would require intervention.
Mets General Manager Omar Minaya said the team was "definitely going to ask him about" the gambling allegations. "Once we ask him, we'll go from there," Minaya said.
[NYPOST:] A sexy Long Island teen revealed in an explosive interview yesterday that she and married Met catcher Paul Lo Duca have been carrying on a steamy affair since April, enjoying secret trysts at his pad and sharing intimate phone calls.
"He's fun - for an older man," bombshell brunette Krista Guterman, 19, said of the All-Star stud, whose wife recently slapped him with divorce papers charging adultery.
Lo Duca also was hit yesterday with the announcement that the Mets will probe claims that he has heavy gambling debts.
As the ball player tried to deflect both stories, Guterman told how she first met the 34-year-old dad while with a pal at "18 and Over Night" at the trendy Bridgeview bar in Long Beach in April. Lo Duca had just returned from spring training, she said, and she was home from college.
The fashion major said she and her friend, who corroborated Guterman's story to The Post, used a contact to land a spot in the hip club's VIP section, a celebrity stomping ground. That night, Met and Cincinnati Red players abounded, Guterman said.
The tanned teen said she and her pal were first approached by a member of Lo Duca's entourage, who pointed out the hunky player and asked if they knew who he was.
Guterman said she had no idea - she doesn't watch baseball.
"Paul thinks you're cute," Guterman said Lo Duca's pal told her.
"I thought he was cute," too, the teen said. "But I didn't have any idea who he was."
She said Lo Duca then approached her and her friend, and the trio partied until 3 a.m.
The teen said that as the night wound down, Lo Duca's pal suggested that she and her girlfriend give him a lift to his posh spread in Oyster Bay.
The young women declined, saying they wanted to get home. But before she left, Guterman gave Lo Duca her cellphone number.
She said that less than hour after leaving the bar, she received a casual text message from Lo Duca, telling her "hi." She said they met again soon after, and he began calling her several times a week.
The first time they went out, Guterman said, the red-hot slugger told her he was divorced - and that he had agreed to give his ex-wife $7 million in the settlement.
She said she learned that he was still married to his wife of six years, Sonia, only after reading The Post on Monday.
"I didn't know he was married. If I knew he was married, I wouldn't have dated him," insisted the leggy teen, who lives with her parents.
Asked how she felt after learning that the catcher was still hitched, Guterman replied, "He's a scumbag for lying to me."
The teen said that since Lo Duca is on the road a lot, they're left to burn up the phone lines until they can hook up. Her parents knew about the relationship, she said, adding that on nights they were getting together, he would pick her up at the house.
The couple went out only once in public, Guterman said, to a Manhattan restaurant.
Otherwise, "We would go to his place [in Oyster Bay] and hang out," Guterman said.
She described their dating as casual, explaining that they could both still date other people. Guterman said she didn't expect it to go anywhere.
"It was fun," she said. "I would call it a fling."
When asked if he was her boyfriend, she said, "No. We dated."
"He's a fun guy. He has a good personality," Guterman said. "We're good friends. We still talk a lot on the phone."
The teen even dedicated part of her myspace.com Web page to Lo Duca - and posted a sexy photo of her perched on his lap at The Coyote bar in Island Park.
She also showed two photos of the slugger in action - tagged to romantic lyrics from Jessica Simpson's song "Angels."
"And through it all, he offers me protection. A lot of love and affection. Whether I'm right or wrong . . . my love," it read under the photos, which mysteriously disappeared along with the rest of her page yesterday.
At another place on the page, Guterman wrote: "I have an obsession with the Mets . . . OBV [obviously]!!!!"
Guterman said she last heard from the Brooklyn-born Lo Duca when "he called me a couple of nights ago."
Lo Duca wanted to warn her that some news about him might hit the papers in the coming days, she said.
She said that two days ago, he text- messaged her, saying, "I have to speak to you."
posted by Mel Ott at 4:40 AM
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Thomas, though, hasn't given up the idea of running the ball. He wants to start as a linebacker and still carry the ball as a tailback.
"That's absolutely the vision," he said. "It's something I've been working toward all this summer. Playing offense is the love of my life. I love running the ball."
Weis said he will evaluate the move after about a week.
"I'm interested just like you to see what this project looks like," Weis said.
“National championship,” said quarterback Brady Quinn, the school’s Heisman Trophy candidate. “That’s the only thing we are thinking about.”
Notre Dame is bold and back in every conceivable way, not just as a team capable of winning it all but also as a program that has shed its woe-is-me skin and is full of the swagger missing since Lou Holtz was stomping the South Bend sidelines.
And college football is better for it. College football always is better when Notre Dame is Notre Dame.
This rebirth is the work of Weis, the second-year coach who overnight didn’t just turn the Notre Dame offense into a potent, powerful force but who also restored the appropriate arrogance that makes people either love, hate, love to hate or hate to love the Irish.
“I think that good or bad, we are judged … like we almost have an attitude, like we are holier than thou, which we certainly are not,” said Weis, who returns 16 starters from a team that went 9-3 last season.
For the first time since the Lou Holtz era, Notre Dame also has a coach that affords no middle ground. Trenton-born Charlie Weis is a Jersey guy to the core, which means he's brutally honest, unflinchingly confident and as abrasive as sandpaper on sunburned skin.
"I try use the analogy that growing up being a Yankees fan I always found nationally, wherever you went, people had an opinion on the Yankees," said Weis. "You know they either liked them or they disliked them.
"I think that's very similar in its own vein to what we have to deal with. We're just trying to do things right. I would like to think people respect us for the way we run the program. Whether you like us or not is not really relevant."
So much for popularity contests. When asked prior to spring football who would back-up quarterback Brady Quinn, Weis said the job was up for grabs with Demetrius Jones, Zach Frazer and Evan Sharpley doing the reaching. Many coaches would coddle players vying for such a key position. Not Weis.
"Come August, I don't have time to worry about it," he said. "And I'm not here to make friends."
Weis has made admirers, if not friends, after one season in South Bend. He took over a team with a predictable offense, soft personnel and all the confidence of a squirrel stranded without a tree.
Notre Dame went 9-3, including a thrilling loss to USC in the best college football game of the season. That has propelled the Irish to the Top 10 in most preseason polls. Many coaches would be scrambling to restrain such expectations. Not Weis.
He told his players in the spring that their No.1 objective was to raise expectations. That message hadn't changed as Notre Dame begins spring practice today.
"We don't hide from anything here," said defensive coordinator Rick Minter. "Not under Charlie. You can't be afraid to face great challenges."
Notre Dame players felt Weis' wrath when they didn't meet the challenge. After an uninspired 34-10 win over Syracuse, Weis told his players about life on the Jersey shore. "He said, 'You don't put one toe in the ocean to find out if it's cold,'" said defensive tackle Derek Landri. "'You jump in with two feet.' The guy is nasty."
posted by Mel Ott at 3:52 PM
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Things had never turned this ugly in San Francisco's 7-year-old waterfront ballpark. Fan behavior this bad brought everybody back to the rowdiest of days at Candlestick Park.
Yorvit Torrealba hit a three-run homer against his former team and also scored a run on a balk, leading the Colorado Rockies past the San Francisco Giants 5-2 Friday night in a wild game that featured Barry Bonds' 723rd career home run and later the ejection of the slugger.
Bonds hit a solo shot to center in the seventh for his first home run since July 20 against San Diego, a span of 26 at-bats. He was batting in the ninth when he began arguing with plate umpire Ron Kulpa about a called second strike. Kulpa immediately ejected Bonds, who got in the umpire's face and began yelling.
"There were two unprofessional people out there at that moment," Bonds said. "He was very unprofessional and so was I. What happens on the field stays on the field and that's all I have to say about it."
Bonds returned to the dugout, sat down and crossed his arms as fans responded by throwing garbage, including beer bottles, onto the field from all directions. The Rockies left the field and retreated into their dugout to avoid being hit while fans chanted "Barry! Barry!"
"I don't care about that," Bonds said of the fans' actions. "We're trying to win games, that's all. It happened, it happened. It's over with. Let's go get ready for tomorrow."
Security came onto the field and so did a large cleanup crew, causing an 11-minute delay. Fans also threw things at the umpires as they were escorted off the field after the game.
posted by Mel Ott at 2:05 PM
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BBC: Landis returns positive B sample
Floyd Landis is set to lose his Tour de France title and faces a two-year ban after returning a positive B sample for excessive levels of testosterone.
The American, who could also lose his contract with the Phonak team, produced levels more than twice the legal limit after his solo victory on stage 17.
Landis, 30, has said the high levels detected were a "natural occurence".
He would be the first Tour winner to lose his title, with Spaniard Oscar Pereiro set to be declared the winner.
Pereiro, who would become the first Spaniard to win the Tour since Miguel Indurain's last victory in 1995, finished second overall behind Landis in the race which finished in Paris on 23 July.
The analysis of Landis' B sample took place at France's national laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry in the presence of the American's Spanish lawyer, Jose Maria Buxeda, and experts from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and the International Cycling Union (UCI).
"In accordance to the anti-doping rules, the Anti-Doping Commission of the UCI will request that the USA Cycling Federation open a disciplinary procedure against the rider," the UCI said in a statement.
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HONG KONG --Jackie Chan disrupted a concert by Taiwanese singer-songwriter Jonathan Lee and exchanged insults with the audience, a news report said Tuesday.
Ming Pao Daily News quoted the 52-year-old action star as saying onstage that he was drunk.
Chan suddenly jumped on the stage Monday night and demanded a duet with Lee. He then tried to conduct the band but stopped and restarted the music several times, the newspaper reported.
As the awkward interruption dragged on, audience members started to heckle Chan, who replied with an insult, according to the report.
A spokesman for Chan, Solon So, said he hadn't seen Chan since the alleged incident and had no immediate comment. He said he didn't attend the concert.
Concert organizers didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.
Chan, whose Hollywood credits include the "Rush Hour" series and "The Tuxedo," was an invited performing guest at Lee's show Sunday night. [Boston.com]
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