by David Golokhov

The leg bone is connected to the knee bone, and knowing that, American figure skater Tonya Harding calculated that it would be more difficult for her rival to compete if she hired a man to take out her knee. Harding hired Shane Stant to put fellow American Nancy Kerrigan out of commission at the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, paving the way for Harding's victory. Soon after, her ex-husband cut a plea bargain deal in which he spilled the beans of their scheme to implicate Harding. When her time came, she had no choice but to plead guilty and received three years of probation, a $160,000 fine, a ban from U.S. figure skating, and was stripped of her 1994 title.

What makes it stranger: Tonya Harding didn't just climb into a grimy cave and disappear after the scandal, though, as she kept her face in the limelight with a pornographic sex tape, of which stills were posted in Penthouse magazine. She also had a brief boxing career that included a celebrity bout with well-known Paula Jones, and ran into the law on several occasions for drunk driving and domestic violence.

http://www.askmen.com/top_10/fitness/52c_fitness_list.html

by Dave Golokhov

The story started when Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy was reported missing in June 2003. A month later, after teammate Carlton Dotson was charged for murder, Dennehy's dead body was found in chest-high weeds. The police had been tipped off after Dotson told a cousin of his that he shot and killed Dennehy during an argument.

But the black eye didn't end there for Baylor University's basketball program, as Dennehy's girlfriend reported violations to the NCAA. Investigations revealed that head coach Dave Bliss had been improperly paying for Dennehy's tuition, had not reported players' failed drug tests, and had told players and coaches to lie to authorities by claiming that Dennehy had been dealing drugs. The school is now under probation until 2010.

What makes it stranger: In October 2004, Dotson was deemed to be psychologically incompetent and was sent to a mental hospital where he was evaluated. He was returned to jail after doctors doubted his accounts of hallucinations, and a week before his trial was to begin, with no plea bargain in hand, Dotson pleaded guilty in the death of Patrick Dennehy. He is currently serving a 35-year jail sentence.

http://www.askmen.com/top_10/fitness/52c_fitness_list.html

by Dave Golokhov

In 2004, Mike Danton, a former St. Louis Blues player, enlisted the help of a 19-year-old girl to hire a hit man, who was actually a police dispatcher. The FBI was quickly alerted and Danton was convicted of plotting to commit murder, with the exact target still unknown. The details were muddy and the suspected motives were varied. Some believed Danton was trying to remove a gay lover threatening to out him, while others claimed he was attempting to end a miserable relationship with his svengali-like, mind-controlling agent, David Frost. People close to the situation came forward and disclosed how Frost manipulated Danton to the point where he became his hand puppet, even forcing Danton to sever his relationship with his parents. Given these strange details, the common hypothesis was that Frost was the target.

What makes it stranger: Frost's influence over Danton was frequently discussed but remained indistinct until the transcript of a prison telephone call was revealed to the public after Danton's arrest. At the end of the phone call, Frost asked Danton, "Do you love me?" and pressed him to reinforce his positive response twice.

http://www.askmen.com/top_10/fitness/52c_fitness_list.html

by Dave Golokhov

Steroids and performance-enhancing drugs have always been the elephant in the room that nobody wants to address, but when the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative -- a sports nutrition center in California -- was exposed in 2004 for mass producing and distributing illegal anabolic steroids, the topic of drugs in sports became a hot one. BALCO's founder Victor Conte was quick to drag sports icons down with him, as he incriminated baseball legend Barry Bonds and American track star Marion Jones for steroid use. It wasn't long after that American Congress invited the executives of the four major sports leagues in for an interrogation and forced them all to beef up their drug policies.

What makes it stranger: In an interview with ABC's 20/20, Conte claimed to not only have supplied five-time Olympic medalist Marion Jones with illegal steroids and human growth hormone, but also to have sat right beside her while she injected the drugs into her thigh. She has since struggled in track and field competitions.

A hockey player who hired a hit man, a basketball murder and the craziest sports scandal ever...

http://www.askmen.com/top_10/fitness/52b_fitness_list.html

by Dave Golokhov

Canadian figure-skating pair Jamie Sale and David Pelletier performed a near-perfect program only to receive ordinary ordinals from the judges in the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. They tried to just smile it off, but they remained puzzled, along with pundits and skating aficionados worldwide. A probe ensued, exposing collusion between Russian and French judges, who agreed to swap votes in a sordid deal. Eventually, the Canadian duo was awarded gold medals and received a share of first place.

What makes it stranger: As the investigation continued, there were allegations that implicated a famous Russian mobster as one of the masterminds behind the scandal.

http://www.askmen.com/top_10/fitness/52b_fitness_list.html

By Dave Golokhov

The advantages of a fake ID are usually to ameliorate the opportunities for underage drinking and clubbing, not to play in Little League Baseball. In 2001, Danny Almonte led his Bronx, New York team all the way to third place in the Little League World Series when he pitched the first perfect game since 1957, but a conflicting birth certificate surfaced during his team's run. His family's copy stated that he was born in 1989, but his Dominican home town's official copy stated he was born in 1987, making him two years too old for eligibility. His pitching feats were erased from the record books and the Rolando Paulino All-Stars were forced to part with their accolades.

What makes it stranger: Danny's father, Felipe de Jesus Almonte, appeared on Good Morning America to defend his son. Investigations by the Little League determined that his father had registered Danny's birth twice.

http://www.askmen.com/top_10/fitness/52b_fitness_list.html

by Dave Golokhov

The simple things in life can be completed without breaking a sweat, but not a 26.2-mile race. When 23-year-old Rosie Ruiz crossed the finish line of the 1980 Boston Marathon with the third-fastest time ever for a female runner while barely glistening, speculation started to mount. That wariness was justified when a few onlookers communicated that they saw Ruiz join the race in the final mile, where she sprinted to the finish line. She was stripped of her olive wreath and the rightful winner, Jacqueline Gareau, was crowned.

What makes it stranger: Two years later, Ruiz was imprisoned for stealing $60,000 in cash and checks from a Manhattan real estate firm, and 19 months after that, she was arrested again for trying to facilitate a cocaine deal to undercover FBI agents in Florida.

http://www.askmen.com/top_10/fitness/52b_fitness_list.html

By Dave Golokhov

A night to remember took on a new meaning for basketball superstar Kobe Bryant after a sojourn at The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera Hotel in Edwards, Colorado. The Los Angeles Lakers guard was charged with sexual assault after a 19-year-old woman accused Bryant of raping her in his hotel room. A couple of days later, Bryant held a press conference, claiming that he did have sexual relations with her, but that the sex was consensual. When the trial began, Bryant's lawyers focused their efforts on sullying the credibility of the accuser, and with minimal tangible evidence, the case was dismissed.

What makes it stranger: The young female complainant received several death threats from Bryant fans, including one from a Swiss bodybuilder named Patrick Graber, who offered to commit murder for a $3 million fee. He was caught in a sting operation by the FBI and was sentenced to three years in jail.

A marathon cheater, Skategate and more scandalous sports stories...

http://www.askmen.com/top_10/fitness/52_fitness_list.html

by Dave Golokhov

Pretending to be stupid generally has minimal benefits, but the Spanish Paralympic Committee saw otherwise. They produced fake documents for 10 of the 12 members on their 2000 Paralympics basketball team, falsely claiming that they had IQs below 85. With an amazing performance, their intellectually able team captured the gold medal in a tournament for the intellectually disabled. It was soon discovered that the majority of their team members had no mental deficiencies to speak of and their medals were stripped.

What makes it stranger: The story was brought to light by a Spanish journalist who joined the basketball team to uncover the scandal. To make the roster, it was not required of him to complete any medical or psychological tests; all he had to do was complete six sit-ups and a blood pressure test.

http://www.askmen.com/top_10/fitness/52_fitness_list.html

By Dave Golokhov

Money won is much sweeter than money earned, but when Flockton Grey, a British racehorse, won a race at Leicester racecourse in 1982 by an unconscionable 20 lengths, the mood around the track was more sour than sweet. The margin of victory provoked suspicion of fraud and an investigation ensued. It was uncovered that the horse's owner, Ken Richardson, had switched the two-year-old Flockton Grey for a seasoned three-year-old ringer. Furthermore, Richardson and trainer Stephen Wiles had backed the horse with 20,000 pounds dispersed over several betting outlets. They were both convicted of conspiracy to defraud, fined 20,000 pounds and received long bans from horse racing.

What makes it stranger: Richardson would become the chairman of a football club, which he later conspired to burn down in order to collect on insurance money. He was convicted of attempted arson and spent four years in jail.

http://www.askmen.com/top_10/fitness/52_fitness_list.html

Posted 8/2/2004 7:18 PM
by Mike Lopresti

Just got back from vacation and picked up the papers to see what's been happening. The usual turmoil, shock and strife. And that was the sports page.

Let's see … Mike Tyson has become a punching bag for tomato cans. ... Bobby Fischer is in a holding cell in Tokyo. … Ricky Williams showed up in Miami Dolphins camp long enough to quit … and Wrigley Field is starting to fall faster than the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Gee, we were only gone barely a week.

Also came across the item about Roger Clemens being thrown out of a game for spitting sunflower seeds at an umpire over a call at second base.

That seemed routine enough, until finding out that the team involved was the Katy Cowboys, and the second baseman was 10 years old. Roger was told to leave his son's little league game, and we'll just have to assume there were no little Piazzas on the other side.

A big week, then, for the bad and the sad and the mad.

Tyson comes tinged with the pathetic now, a 38-year-old shadow pounded by someone named Danny Williams. If he returns, it will only be to pay the bills of a lifetime of wretched and wasteful excess. He will be a bankrupt circus show, with tattoos.

Sad, I suppose, but the figure due more sympathy the past days was Fred McGriff, a career class act cut loose by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, with only seven home runs to hit to get to 500.

He is so close, but the market is sparse for a 40-year-old hitting .181. He may never get there.

Poignant, too, is the obvious crumbling of Wrigley Field, where the ivy is pretty but stands are crumbling. The Cubs fans may consider it a holy place, but now they must beware of falling concrete, as well as foul balls.

Meanwhile, Williams apparently wants his freedom from football — and presumably the drug tests he keeps flunking. So be it, but his timing left his teammates stunned and stranded on the front porch of training camp. He has no defense for that.

Neither does Clemens, who has been around enough baseball long enough to know how not to be a Little League father.

And as for Fischer, he once was declared an American hero for beating a Russian in chess. Now he is a wanted man in his homeland, for defying sanctions against Yugoslavia 12 years ago to play a match.

He had become a cranky recluse — emerging sporadically to berate the United States, including praising the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — until he was stopped trying to leap from Japan to the Philippines.

Japan must decide whether to deport him to the United States, but for now, he ponders his next move in his cell, where it is said he is driven crazy by the cigarette smoking of his fellow detainees.

And if that isn't enough of a blow to American sport pride, a Japanese guy just became the first foreign fisherman to ever win the Bassmasters. (Clearly nothing we hold sacred is safe from Japan, for this follows one of its native sons wolfing down 53 1/2 wieners to maintain his dynasty in the 4th of July hot dog eating contest at Coney Island.)

Several days of the odd and pitiable, I missed. And we haven't even mentioned soccer, which is always up to something. Seems last week in South Africa, a coach went on the field to confront an umpire about a yellow card. The official pulled out a gun and shot him dead.

If there's a moral to the story, it's that maybe Roger Clemens is lucky he doesn't have any sons who play soccer.

By Leitch, 3:08 PM on Mon Jun 27 2005

Warne, whom the British tabloids have been tracking for years, is being divorced by his wife after he was nailed for cheating on his her for the umpteenth time. This in itself is not necessarily newsworthy; athletes, we hear, are known to sleep around a bit, maybe, not sure. But the story here is pretty amazing.

Apparently, Warne met Laura Sayers, a 25-year-old London financial student, in a club last week, and "propositioned" her. It didn't quite turn out as he planned.

Warne was with his county team-mate, England star Kevin Pietersen. A friend of Laura's was going out with Pietersen and she turned up to make up the numbers. Laura said she didn't even know who he was when he introduced himself in a swanky private members' bar.

She said: "My friend was dating Kevin and they invited me out. They introduced me to their friend Shane, but I don't follow cricket and had no idea who he was.

"The first thing he said was: 'How about a foursome?' Shane laughed but I told him off and was quite offended. I thought, who is this creep?"

After moving to Umbaba nightclub and drinking until the early hours, Kevin and Laura's friend decided to go back to Kevin's London flat.

Laura said: "Shane said he was going back with them and asked me to come. We were just going as a group so I went along. When we got there, Shane and I left Kevin and my friend alone. Shane made it clear he wanted to get laid. I told him I didn't want to, but he was persistent.

"He left me in the lounge and went into the bedroom and called out for me to join him. I walked into the bedroom but I told him I wasn't interested in having sex with him. He took off all his clothes and I asked him if he had a condom, I guessed he didn't, so I thought that would be the end of it."

Laura said Shane ran out of the room and returned with a condom. She added: "When he came back I just gave in."

She said Warne failed to put in a match-winning performance under the covers. She said: "He's a bit chubby, but he's quite fit. It was all over very quickly and he wasn't very well-endowed. He just wanted to get laid."

Why can't this ever happen in America? We mean, honestly.

http://deadspin.com/110205/cricket-star-not-well+endowed-kind-of-chubby

By Leitch, 12:08 PM on Wed Jul 6 2005

If you're hanging around East Dublin, Georgia, this weekend — and if you are, be careful of all those disputes with the Irish Republican Army — you would be remiss not to drop by the 10th annual Summer Redneck Games. (We find it infinitely amusing that the event organizers have a Tripod site. We're almost surprised it's not written in BASIC. Hey, guys: Register a domain name. It ain't that hard, honest.)

We've been playing around with this site for a while, and we keep coming back to the schedule, or, as the site puts it, Here tis the ofishal skedyule! Events include:

Hubcap Hurl
Armpit Serenade
Buttcrack Competition
Bobbin' For Pigs Feet

At the end, there are of course fireworks, a.k.a., "throwing things in the air and shooting them."

http://deadspin.com/111323/john-kerrys-worst-nightmare

By Leitch, 3:47 PM on Fri Jul 29 2005

We tend to find European sports terminology hilarious, mainly because it points to how equally absurd American sports terminology is. So here's a look at the big news of the week in odd, confusing sports in other lands, with our translation.

The return of Brad Ottens from a midseason bout of osteitis pubis will help, but the Cats cannot rely on one man's groin to arrest their slump. [The Australian]

Face it, their sportswriting is just more lyrical than ours.

Sourav Ganguly will remain suspended from international cricket, but his ban has been reduced from six matches to four. Justice Albie Sachs ruled on Thursday that Ganguly's original punishment for slow over-rates was "too severe." [Cricinfo.com]

Apparently you can get into trouble in cricket for wasting time. We thought that was the whole idea.

Former All Black Andrew Hore faces NZRU disciplinary action after conviction in court for his role in the death of a protected fur seal. [Scrum.com]

Ah yes, we're familiar with this. Have you seen Brett Favre's freezer? Full of walrus meat.

http://deadspin.com/115017/this-week-in-weird-foreign-sports

By Leitch, 5:50 PM on Mon Oct 24 2005

To close out this sleepy Monday, we bring you sport from the other side of the pond; more specifically, the banning of such. The BBC reports that in New Zealand — wait ... that's not really "the other side of the pond," is it?; sorry, we went to grade school in the United States and thusly know nothing about world geography — the popular practice of "sheep tackling" will no longer be tolerated.

Apparently, sheep "wrangling" is used as training for rugby players, which, frankly, tells us more about rugby than we necessarily wanted to know. The halftime show had involved children running after the sheep and bringing them down, which sounds like a really scary dream we had once, but that's a whole other story.

Says a SPCA spokesperson: "The message that these young people are getting is that it's OK to get out there and bully animals for entertainment." As opposed to, you know, rugby.

http://deadspin.com/132844/there-will-be-no-sheep-tackling-here-no-sir

By Leitch, 12:15 PM on Wed Oct 12 2005

We were pretty sure that the end of civilization was near when we discovered Korfball. After a close examination of Korfball, it became very clear that humans have too much time on their hands, and it would be better for everyone if we just gave everything back to the lower mammals, letting them start the evolution process all over again.

Now meet Chessboxing, which is even more pointless. It's what one might imagine — wherein opponents square off in alternate rounds of boxing and chess. Played exclusively in Europe, the sport is organized to the point where there's a world champion, and devotees claim that it's headed to the U.S., having already made inroads through — wait for it — the Wu-Tang Clan.

Well, bring it on, chessboxing. We'll grind you under the heel of our future national pastime, the competitive staring contest. And, of course, Calvinball.

http://deadspin.com/130520/presenting-the-stupidest-sport-ever

By MJD, 5:43 PM on Sat Mar 4 2006

Our nation's courts have recently been home to some vicious legal battles about the sport of kickball. The WAKA (World Adult Kickball Association) has beef with DCKickball about... well, I have no idea what it's about. The news here is that there are adults out there who play kickball.

I'm always going to have a soft spot for kickball. Without it, I might never have learned about the birds and the bees. True story: In 3rd or 4th grade, one of the really smart kids wanted to be on my kickball team, and I said he could, if he would define "sex" for me. And he did. And that is the beginning of how I became the ultra-masculine Lothario that you're reading today. It's all because of kickball.

I just wonder what other recess activities people are taking seriously. Is there a Professional Hopscotch Lleague? A Worldwide Tetherball Tour? A National Smear the Queer Association?

http://deadspin.com/158421/the-cold+blooded-world-of-competitive-kickball

By MJD, 2:40 PM on Sun Mar 26 2006

In case you missed it on SportsCenter, today continues the 23rd annual World Pooh-Sticks Championship Race in Oxfordshire, England. The Japanese have returned to defend their title against... a lot of people with nothing better to do.

Pooh Stick racing might sound kind of dirty, but it's not. Pooh Stick racing actually consists of finding a stick, dropping it in to a river, and then seeing how long it takes to get to the finish line. That's it. That's all they do. It's inspired and named after Winnie the Pooh, as he and Christopher Robin used to play the same game. Pooh would routinely win and then get in Christopher Robin's grill and sing "Whoop That Trick."

Actually, as lame as it sounds, it's the sort of thing that, if you're with the right people and have the right sort of beverages, is probably a hell of a lot of fun. I can think of worse things to do today. Listening to Jim Nantz and Billy Packer is just one of them.

Big thanks to tkurjan of The Sports Frog's Swamp for shedding some light.

http://deadspin.com/163002/one-shining-moment-of-pooh-sticking

By Leitch, 3:00 PM on Mon Apr 17 2006

You know something is an excellent sport when they hold its world championships in a pub.

The 2006 British and World Marbles Championship took place in Tinsley Green in London over the weekend, and the Germans were the big winners.

Interesting notes on the "tournament:"

• Two hundred spectators showed up, which was just higher than the number of competitors (six teams of 22).
• The tournament was held on the parking lot ground of a bar near the airport. It's amazing they weren't able to get more sponsors.
• We didn't know this was how the game of marbles was invented: "In 1588, two young men from the county played a game with small, round glass objects for the hand of a young lady." Who says it's tough to meet girls?

Germans Crowned World Champs As Brits Lose Their Marbles.

http://deadspin.com/167705/the-sport-of-kings

12:30 PM on Mon Feb 9 2009
By Dashiell Bennett

Billiards and high-stakes poker are not exactly riveting spectator sports, but you know what would make them surefire TV entertainment? If at the end of each contest, players beat the crap out of each other.

Man has long yearned to answer the life-affirming question: "Who is the toughest pool player in the world?" That was the initial brainstorm behind "Pool, Poker, and Pain," an as-yet-unrealized reality show that looks to combine three of the seediest up-and-coming pastimes in America—pool, poker, and mixed martial arts. This is right up there with the modern pentathlon, chess boxing and whatever the heck this is, as one of the great sports-hybrid ideas of all time.

After all, all three arenas have a knack for attracting shady, untrustworthy characters willing to risk almost anything to scam somebody out of ten bucks. Throw in the high-rolling gambling element and the potential for seeing untrained, nonathletic pool players put each other in choke holds and I really don't understand why this isn't on Spike already.

Extreme billiards! Angry card players seeking revenge for a bad beat! (Literally!) If they would just let them take broken pool cues into the octagon, the pay-per-view alone would bailout our economy.

Jul 12, 5:34 pm EDT
By DAN GELSTON, AP Sports Writer

JOLIET, Ill. (AP)—Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson traded paint. It might be awhile until they exchange pleasantries.

Busch was fuming with Johnson after two of NASCAR’s top stars got into some late-race bumping Saturday night at Chicagoland Speedway that left each of them wondering if one has a problem with the other.

Johnson, though, seemed more ready to move on and let the incident slide.

Busch might still be upset when the Sprint Cup series picks up July 26 at Indianapolis.

Johnson had lost his lead to Denny Hamlin late in the race and fell back into three-wide racing with Busch and Jeff Gordon. Gordon appeared to get under Johnson, and the three-time defending Cup champion’s No. 48 Chevrolet got loose and made contact with Busch.

Angry at the contact, former champion Busch appeared to deliberately turn into Johnson. Their cars connected, causing a spark of excitement in a 400-mile race that Mark Martin won in mostly dominating fashion.

“The No. 2 (Busch) and I touched and he bodyslammed me after that,” Johnson said.

Busch and Johnson also spun together and tangled at Sonoma, perhaps one reason for Busch’s ill feelings. Johnson slid into Busch and later apologized.

Another reason could be while Johnson salvaged an eighth-place finish after seemingly having the race won until Hamlin caused him to lose control, Busch fell all the way to 17th.

“It looked like it was pretty crazy up there, but it worked good for me,” said Gordon, who ended strong with a runner-up finish.

Busch said he was starting to lose faith in Johnson’s “ability to be a three-time champion on the track.”

“A couple of runs spoiled by the 48 car,” Busch said. “I’m not digging it.”

Johnson claimed Busch was coming again to intentionally tag him for a second time.

“He’s one of those guys that his temper can get away from him,” Johnson said. “When he first hit me it was like, all right man, this is racing. This isn’t necessary. And then he backed off.”

The bumping was just part of racing and Johnson seemed perplexed about the steady line of questioning after the race. Johnson said he was willing to let it go unless Busch was still really angry at him after a cooling down period.

“The good thing is each week we end up running into one another again and talking at driver intros or something,” Johnson said. “It never fails.”

Johnson did refuse to blame Busch for costing him the victory. After all, the 50-year-old Martin had the car to beat all night long and led 195 of the 267 laps.

Martin and Gordon made it a 1-2 finish for Hendrick Motorsports—and made a Colorado couple $1 million richer.

It was part of a promotion run by LifeLock, the title sponsor for the June race in Michigan and Saturday night’s race at Chicagoland. Donna and Richard Musgrave correctly predicted Martin and Gordon, in any order, would finish 1-2 at Michigan, earning them the trip to Joliet, Ill. to see if they could repeat the feat.

If Martin and Gordon both finished in the top two again, the Musgraves would win the life-changing payout.

Martin won, Gordon was second and the Musgraves went home to New Castle, Colo., to celebrate.

Certainly they went home happier than Busch and Johnson.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/news?slug=ap-nascar-chicagoland&prov=ap&type=lgns

July 12, 2009
By TALES AZZONI

SAO PAULO (AP)—Brazilian authorities detained the wife of former boxing champion Arturo Gatti and formally accused her Sunday of killing him at a posh seaside tourist resort in Brazil.

Police said 23-year-old Amanda Rodrigues was taken into custody after contradictions in her interrogation and presented a formal accusation against her. Prosecutors will later decide whether she will be charged.

Rodrigues, who denies any involvement in her husband’s death, was the first to find the slain boxer’s body early Saturday inside the vacation apartment they were renting at the Porto de Galinhas resort in northeastern Brazil, police said.

The former junior welterweight champion was apparently strangled with the strap of a purse, which was found at the scene with blood stains, said Milena Saraiva, a spokeswoman for the Pernambuco state civil police. She told The Associated Press that the Canadian also sustained a head injury.

Police said Rodrigues, a Brazilian, could not explain how she spent nearly 10 hours inside the residence without noticing that Gatti was already dead.

Rodrigues told police she had a fight with Gatti after dinner Friday night and he pushed her to the ground during the altercation, causing her to sustain minor injuries to her elbow and chin. She told authorities Gatti was drunk and that a third party likely committed the crime after he went to the apartment by himself.

Witnesses had reported to police that the couple fought and that Gatti was drunk.

Authorities were told the couple was extremely jealous of each other and that Gatti constantly complained about her clothing when she traveled to Brazil, Saraiva said.
FILE - In this July 14, 2007 file photo, Alfonso Gomez, right, of Whittier, Calif., ducks out of the way of a punch from Arturo Gatti during the fifth round of a boxing match in Atlantic City, N.J. Officials say Gatti has been found dead in a hotel room at the seaside resort of Porto de Galinhas in northeastern Brazil on Saturday, July 11, 2009, where he arrived on Friday with his wife and one-year-old son. The spokesman said it was unclear how Gatti died. He was 37.
FILE - In this July 14, 2007 f…
AP - Jul 11, 5:58 pm EDT

Acelino “Popo” Freitas, a four-time world champion Brazilian boxer, told Globo TV’s Web site on Saturday that he was a close friend of Gatti and his wife and that he “knew they were having some sort of problem and were about to separate.”

They had planned to spend one month in Brazil on vacation.

The couple’s 1-year-old son, who was unhurt, was handed to Rodrigues’ sister, Saraiva said.

The 37-year-old Gatti, whose epic trilogy with Micky Ward branded him one of the most exciting fighters of his generation, retired in 2007 with a career record of 40-9 and 31 knockouts.

Known for his straightforward punching and granite-like chin, Gatti captured the super featherweight title in 1995, when he defeated Tracy Harris Patterson in Atlantic City, N.J. He won the junior welterweight title in 2004.

http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news?slug=ap-gatti-death&prov=ap&type=lgns

November 24, 2008 by
Jesse Podoll

Just 20 months removed from being diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, Boston Red Sox Pitcher Jon Lester pitches the first no-hitter of the season on May 19, 2008. In 2008, Lester went 16-6 with a 3.21 ERA. For anyone
that has ever dealt with, or known anyone who has ever dealt with this type of cancer - they know exactly what kind of a miracle this is. To not only recover so quickly, but to build back up to the strength required to pitch at the major league level is almost unimaginable. Lester was the 2008 recipient of the Hutch Award which is given out yearly to the MLB player who best exemplifies the fighting spirit and competitive desire to win - but even more fitting in this case, the award was created in 1965 to honor former player and manager, Fred Hutchinson, who died of cancer in 1964.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1242121/top_sports_stories_of_2008_pg2.html?cat=14

November 24, 2008 by
Jesse Podoll

On September 9, 2007, Kevin Everett suffered one of the worst injuries in recent NFL history - a fracture and dislocation of his cervical spine. Many categorized the injury as "life threatening" and most said he would never walk again. Everett has since proved everyone wrong and is gaining more strength with each passing day. In a true class act, the Buffalo Bills did not immediately waive Everett - keeping him on the active roster to finish the season - so he could fulfill the requirement of three full NFL seasons and be eligible for a full NFL pension. Everett was awarded the "Jimmy V Award for Perseverance" on July 20, 2008 during the 2008 ESPY award ceremony.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1242121/top_sports_stories_of_2008.html?cat=14

In weird baseball news we check in with an aggressive umpire that took a dislike to the entire crowd, ejecting them all! An umpire has emptied the stands at a high school baseball game, ejecting the entire crowd of more than 100 fans for being unruly.

Umpire Don Briggs said he had no problem with any of the student athletes during Thursday’s game between Winfield-Mount Union and West Burlington.

He said he had to take action because fans were being unruly, yelling and arguing. However, West Burlington Superintendent James Sleister said he didn’t see any unusual behavior and said he thought the umpire overreacted.

The game resumed after a 40-minute delay. West Burlington won 12-11. The umpire called police as a precaution. West Burlington police did not immediately respond Saturday to a call seeking comment. It is rumored that the umpire has also hired a personal security detail because of threats he received, one of them was a dead ant being left on his doorstep with a note saying, “you will be crushed like an ant for embarrassing us”.

(http://allweirdnews.com)

One of my collecting businesses is all eBay, all of the time. One day, my partner listed for sale a newspaper from October of 1932 that reported on the famous incident in which Babe Ruth supposedly (I am a lifelong New Yorker so to me this story is indisputable) pointed to the bleachers in a World Series game against Chicago and then proceeded to hit a home run to that vicinity.

Well, we got a somewhat agitated email response to our listing from one Ms. Root a grand-daughter of Charlie Root, who was the Chicago pitcher in that immortal game. She told us that her grandpa had always maintained that the story was fabrication and that, furthermore, if the Bambino had been so bold as to point an intended home run before the pitch, he (Root) would have thrown the ball right at Ruth and knocked him on his ass!