8:00 PMJeRome Wilkins, a former University of New Hampshire football player accused of sexually assaulting a woman outside a house, said in court Friday that he did have sex with the woman but that it was consensual.
7:30 PMRafael Nadal says he was given a surprise drug test Saturday a few days after a French TV show lampooned doping allegations against Spanish athletes.
The NFL Draft has become a big television event in recent years, thanks in part to incessant hype from both the NFL and ESPN. This year’s draft featured it all - celebrity “entertainers”, celebrity college athletes, and the inimitable Mel Kiper, Jr. Even casual fans tune in to catch the pageantry of it all and to see the NFL’s stars of tomorrow; heck, it’s such a big event that they’re turning it into a three-day primetime extravaganza, as SPORTSbyBROOKS reported just this morning.
The Major League Baseball draft, on the other hand, is none of these things. Instead of celebrity entertainers and athletes, it features obscure high school kids, obscure college kids, and the loathsome Scott Boras. In fact, some of the most notable stories from the MLB draft are not tales of superstar athletes busting on the scene, but of wasted potential and busts. None of this, however, matters to the ridiculously-arrogant MLB, which has decided to copy the NFL and turn its sports footnote of a draft into a three-day primetime event. In the words of NFL Draft aficionado Bill Cosby…riiiight.
You could say that Mariners slugger Richie Sexson is wrapping up a bad week. The first baseman’s team has lost nine of their last 10 games. He missed a game Wednesday night after an undisclosed family emergency kept him away from the team. On Thursday, he charged the mound on a pitch that arguably wasn’t even inside.
Yesterday, Sexson’s punishment was announced, and it was pretty harsh. Read more…
Though the joy in Atlanta is surely tempered by the loss, all of the boys and girls on Peachtree rejoiced as Felipe Lopez struck out, making John Smoltz the 16th pitcher to record 3000 strikeouts in a career.
In the bottom of the third, Smoltz utilized his signature split-finger fastball to retire Lopez. Lopez was effusive in his praise, “that guy is good,” Lopez said. “He’s freaking nasty. He’s tough. He never follows a pattern. He changes it up.” Quite effusive, wouldn’t you agree? Read more…
Baseball gives itself a lot of credit for pioneering integration, even though favoritism of white players continued well after Jackie Robinson’s big league debut in 1947, and other teams had grudgingly integrated their teams to keep up.
Their latest effort of patting themselves on the back, the so-called Civil Rights Game played yesterday in Memphis, was so self-congratulatory that someone could have torn a rotator cuff.
Phillies pitcher Scott Mathieson was a big “Pee Wee’s Playhouse” fan growing up, so imagine the major leaguer’s surprise when he found himself sharing a cross-country flight with Paul Reubens, the former comedian who portrayed Pee Wee Herman in TV and film during the 1980s.
They were on their way to Sarasota, where Reubens grew up and his mother still lives, and the pair hit it off and became friends. Mathieson actually left tickets for Reubens for Sunday’s spring training game.
