Olympic Quiz: What famous track athlete won both the men”s
5,000 and 10,000 meters in both the 1972 and 1976 Olympics?
Answer below.
Johnny Mac vs. The Williams Sisters
So it was last Sunday when former tennis great John McEnroe
unleashed his broadside in London”s Sunday Telegraph.
“What they have done is great – but they lack respect and
humility.They are all cold as ice.”
Now, personally, I can”t say I”m a fan of the Williams. But
mostly, I can”t stand their father, Richard, whose actions I have
described in this space before. McEnroe continued.
“Serena started it when she said a year ago that she should play a
couple of men”s tournaments. Do women golfers say they could
go out and beat Tiger Woods, do women boxers think they could
knock Lennox Lewis out? Of course not.” And.
“Would it kill them to say hello to people in the locker room? Is
it that hard?
WFAN sports host Chris Russo, a big time tennis fan, concurred
with some of what McEnroe said.
“There”s this feeling they think they don”t need tennis, that tennis
needs them.”
[Source: New York Post]
But Venus fired back later in the week.
“I”ve never had a conversation with him. He doesn”t know me.
It just seems that people are always knocking at me, myself, my
dad, for one reason or another.”
Survey says? Richard Williams is one big jerk. We”ll let the
sisters slide, for now. They are, after all, awesome players.
U.S. Gymnastics
Well, the U.S. women didn”t win a medal in the team
competition. The Washington Post”s Sally Jenkins reports.
“There is an ugliness in the USA gymnastics program right now,
and small wonder some of it has seeped into the performance of
the Americans (in Sydney). Our little animatronic dolls placed
fourth in the team competition (and) don”t stand much of a
chance at individual glory either.”
Gymnast Jamie Dantzscher accused coach Bela Karolyi of being
the problem. “Bela takes credit when we do good, and blames
everyone else when we do bad; it”s not fair. He has too much
control, too much of the U.S. team. It”s horrible.”
Oh, stop complaining, kid. As Jenkins says, Bela Karolyi is
everything the USA needs. Before Karolyi defected to the United
States from Romania in 1981, America had won exactly one
Olympic gymnastics medal, a team bronze in 1948. Since Bela”s
arrival, we have won 18 medals, including the first team gold in
1996.
Karolyi was largely absent the past four years after the success of
Atlanta. He was brought back ten months ago to try and
resurrect the program but USA gymnastics didn”t give him full
control; the girls still got to use their individual coaches.
Karolyi”s rough style isn”t for everyone. But you can”t argue
with the results.
Mary Lou Retton was molded into a national figure by Bela.
“Is he tough? You bet,” says Retton. “But he creates champions.
You go to him and come home with a medal.”
Retton gave an example of Karolyi”s genius. When he felt Retton
was giving him less than her absolute best, he would turn away in
the middle of her performance and watch another gymnast. “It
made me furious,” said the 3-foot, 4-inch Retton. Then in the
same breath, “I loved working with him. He was a second father
to me.” We need more Be-la!!!
Mr. Snyder
Now one of the truly despicable people of any time is the
Redskins owner, Daniel Snyder.or rather, Mr. Snyder, as he
demands to be called.
The Skins loss on Monday night to the Dallas Cowboys dropped
the team with the mammoth payroll to 1-2 on the season.
In Washington, the Skins are front page news more often than
not. And this past offseason Snyder went on an incredible
spending spree, bringing in players like Jeff George, Bruce Smith
and Deion Sanders. $100 million was paid out in signing bonuses
and salaries. The Skins aren”t just expected to make the playoffs,
they are expected to win the Super Bowl. As the Washington
Post”s Mark Maske put it on Monday, the Skins could turn into
“one of the most expensive failures in professional sports
history.”
On Wednesday, Snyder perched himself on the 50-yard line at the
Redskins practice. The Star-Ledger”s Brad Parks described the
scene.
“Daniel Snyder sat stiffly, his legs folded, his olive suit jacket
draped on the back of the chair, his blue oxford shirt and tightly
knotted tie clinging to his neck, his brown eyes squinting from
behind his glasses.
“And he watched. Intently. Saying nothing. Seeing everything.”
Snyder is just 35-years-old. He is unbearable to work for. Forget
the players and coaches who stand to lose their jobs if
performance doesn”t pick up. This major league a——, (“Oh
yeah, big time,” echoed Dick Cheney) has seen 70 organization
employees leave in less than two years, either through being fired
or walking out.
And the road doesn”t get any easier for Washington. Here are
their next 8 games, including Sunday”s matchup against the 3-0
Giants.
New York, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Jacksonville,
Tennessee, Arizona, St. Louis.
You”ve probably noticed that 4 of the 8 are against last season”s
conference finalists.
Wild Animal Chat
–Now this is a tragedy. A 2-year-old boy died of a bite from a
diamondback rattlesnake in Lakewood, Florida last week. A local
handler of venomous snakes said they are prevalent in eastern
Manatee County and commonly found in the yards and golf
courses in new developments.
–Mike Vaccaro of the Star-Ledger newspaper is down in Sydney
and he is a man after my own heart. He seems to take pleasure in
reporting about the weird animal life Down Under.
“There was an alert yesterday that a brown antechinus had been
spotted.
“This would only be a problem if you have a problem with the
brown antechinus. Which you probably don”t unless you are a
bird. Or the husband of a brown antechinus, which looks an
awful lot like a rat to these eyes.
“The brown antechinus,” the Internet tells us, “is a small mammal
indigenous to Sydney, Australia, that turns the skins of its bird
and mice prey inside out while feeding. The male antechinus has
sex once, then explodes and dies.” Yeesh!
–Michael Ybara of the Wall Street Journal recently took a little
trip to Thailand and told the tale of his trek through the snake-
infested jungles. Thailand has 175 species of serpent, half of them
poisonous. But Ybara reports that only 20 die a year from
snakebites in the country. But he also writes that 20,000 (that”s
right) die in India each year. Geezuz. That would mean I”d have
to launch a separate link to report all of it!
Actually, I loved Ybara”s description of the handler at a snake
farm who was trying to milk a cobra. Now cobras can hurl
venom 6 feet into a person”s eyes.
“He lunged at the snake to make it mad and get its hood up, then
grabbed it by the neck and milked out enough venom to kill
everyone in the audience.”
Mine Chat
World War II isn”t over. This past Tuesday, two Russian border
guards were killed when they ran over a World War II-era mine
near the border with Norway.
Evidently, there are tons of unexploded mines in western Russia
and there are frequent reports of blasts and casualties.
Top 3 songs for the week of 9/21/63: #1 “Blue Velvet” (Bobby
Vinton) #2 “My Boyfriend”s Back” (The Angels) #3 “If I Had A
Hammer” (Trini Lopez…good defense against snakes)
George W. vs. Tom Petty
Bush was using Petty”s 1989 hit “I Won”t Back Down” and this
week Petty said remove it from the campaign list.
“Any use made by you or your campaign creates, either
intentionally or unintentionally, the impression that you and your
campaign have been endorsed by Tom Petty, which is not true.”
Said the Bushmen, “We do not agree that the mere playing or use
of a particular song at a campaign event connotes any impression,
either intentional or unintentional, of endorsement.”
You”ll recall that a few months ago the Gore campaign was asked
to remove Bachman Turner Overdrive”s “You Ain”t Seen Nothin”
Yet.”
Golf / World Rankings
[2-year rolling basis]
Just wanted you to see, again, how Tiger ranks…no one has ever
come close to such a lead.
1. Tiger Woods 29.57
2. Ernie Els 11.98
3. David Duval 9.88
4. Colin Montgomerie 9.12
5. Phil Mickelson 9.06
Olympic Quiz: Why if it isn”t that blood-doping Fin, Lasse
Virren. [Years later, everyone realized what Lasse was doing.]
Next Bar Chat, Monday.
