The last week or so around the world of sports has become increasingly depressing.
From our country’s land of wheat comes this sad news. Last weekend former Kansas director of athletics, Bob Frederick, died from injuries suffered in a bicycling accident the previous day. What makes this more tragic is that “Dr. Bob” was returning from a ride, wearing a helmet, and upon hitting a pot-hole, flipped over the handle-bars and sustained the fatal injuries. Dr. Frederick earned three degrees from KU, served as AD for 14 years, and most recently was teaching at the university in the College of Education. Under his watch, the Jayhawks reached their peek in 1992-93 when they won a basketball Final Four, a football bowl game, and made the school’s only appearance in the College World Series. People that I know and trust, who knew this man very well, say that he was known as a person who loved people, was a model of integrity in sports, and stood for what was right in college athletics, he was 69.
Also in the college arena, Alabama, no stranger to dancing outside the NCAA guidelines and time serving time on probation, was slapped with stiff penalties for a text book scandal. The end-result, as it stands now, is that the football team will have 21 victories earned over a span of three years (2005-2007) stripped from their record. There were 15 other sports involved, too. Crimson Tide athletes were caught using their scholarship to get free text books and other supplies for other students. ‘Bama is appealing the ruling.
Shifting to the professional level, in a case that makes you just shudder, especially if you have raised a daughter, former major league baseball outfielder Mel Hall, who finished his 13-year career in 1996, was found guilty this week of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl he coached on an elite basketball team a decade ago.
I remember Mel Hall because he grew up in Auburn, NY, which is only about 25 miles from my hometown.
A Tarrant County, Texas jury took about 90 minutes to convict the 48-year-old Hall on three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child. He received a 45-year sentence, and must serve at least 22-1/2 year of that term.
Cleveland Browns’ wide receiver Donte Stallworth took full responsibility for killing a pedestrian while driving drunk in Florida and began serving a 30-day jail sentence Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to DUI manslaughter. Stallworth helped himself by reporting the accident immediately, showing contrition, and cooperating with the investigation from the very beginning.
Stallworth reached a confidential financial settlement to avoid a potential lawsuit from the family of 59-year-old Mario Reyes, according to Stallworth's attorney, Christopher Lyons. Reyes was struck and killed March 14 by Stallworth, who was driving his black 2005 Bentley after a night drinking at a swanky hotel bar.
"I accept full responsibility for this horrible tragedy," said Stallworth, who was accompanied at the hearing by his parents, siblings and other supporters. "I will bear this burden for the rest of my life."
According to an ESPN report, Stallworth was covered by two insurance policies: a car insurance policy and a $5 million umbrella policy. Stallworth, 28, told Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Dennis Murphy that he hopes to get involved in drunken-driving education programs. Stallworth had faced 15 years in prison. According to the plea agreement, Stallworth needs to serve only 24 days of his 30-day sentence. After his release from jail, Stallworth must serve two years of house arrest and spend eight years on probation.
Ryan Leaf, the tragic character who was a first-round NFL pick out of Washington State the same year that Peyton Manning came out, but ended up being the poster child for “bust” draft picks, posted a $45,000 bond Wednesday in Washington state for drug and burglary charges out of Texas after being arrested by customs agents as he returned to the United States from Canada.
He is charged with burglary to a habitation, a second-degree felony. Leaf was also indicted on seven counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and one count of delivery of a simulated controlled substance. This allegedly took place while Leaf was trying to carve out a career as a college football assistant coach at West Texas A & M, a Division II school in Canyon, TX.
Finally, in a news story that has all baseball fans trying to catch their breath in shock (just kidding) a congressional committee will look into former baseball slugger Sammy Sosa’s denial that he used illegal performance-enhancing drugs in light of a report that he tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug in 2003.
In 2005, Sosa told Congress that he had never taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs. The New York Times reported Tuesday that Sosa tested positive two years before his appearance at a House hearing. Sosa’s name supposedly leaked out from a confidential report that listed 103 players who tested positive in 2003, before MLB had testing and banned drug policies in place. Alex Rodriguez was the first big name that leaked out a few months ago. This story will continue to drip, and drip, and drip
That’s enough bad news for quite a while. It’s now time to turn the page…as in Bethpage! Let’s hope for an exciting 109th U.S. Open Golf Championship this weekend being played on the Bethpage State Park’s Black Course on Long Island, in Farmingdale, NY. Given the fact that the opening round was delayed by rain, and for a whole lot of reasons like those above, we need Mother Nature to bring us some sunshine and cooperate.
By the way, who do you have…Tiger or the field?
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