The Port Arthur News
May 17, 2008 09:47 pm
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Don't think I've ever seen a hitter hotter than Lance Berkman has been on his recent tear through National League pitching. Nobody goes 25-for-38, like Berkman recently did. His month of May hitting tear raised his batting average above .390 at one point, while he climbed to the top of the league in home runs, doubles, hits, runs and RBI. It's a little early to start talking triple crown or MVP, but don't discount it. One major factor working for the former Rice star is being slotted betwen Miguel Tejada and Carols Lee. Because of it, he's going to get RBI opportunities and pitches to hit . . . How much difference has baseball’s crackdown on steroids made? A huge one, if you go by home run totals. According to former Mets GM Steve Phillips, who is an analyst for ESPN, home run totals in 2008 are on track to be down 1,000 from 2006. They were down almost 500 last season. Where have all the sluggers gone ? ? ? . . . Explain this one to me. Time magazine recently included Lance Armstrong, Andre Agassi and Lorena Ochoa as the only athletes on its list of the 100 most influential individuals in the world. Wonder if anybody at Time has ever heard of a guy named Tiger Woods? Tiger is not only one of the top 100 today, he would belong on a list of the top 100 most influential of all time. Guess he needs to hurry up and win another major.
Bravo for Sen. Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who isn’t buying the NFL’s handling of Spygate and its relative wrist slap of the New England Patriots and their arrogant head coach Bill Belichick. In case you missed it, here’s what Specter had to say about NFL commissioner Roger Goodell destroying notes and tapes confiscated in the initial investigation. “That sequence is incomprehensible. It’s an insult to the intelligence of the people who follow it.” Specter is calling for an independent investigation like baseball’s Mitchell Report and I hope he gets it. Belichick is a cheater and needs to be punished with a suspension . . . A second bravo to former Astro Bob Watson for stepping up in his role as general manager of professional baseball operations for USA Baseball and saying Roger Clemens isn’t welcome to be a part of the U.S. Olympic team. Clemens knows getting back on the field would be one way to get some fans to forgive him for being a liar and jerk, among other things, and you can bet he would have loved to be out pitching and waving the flag at the Olympics. Watson shot that down before the Rocket could even start dropping hints. Clemens needs to relocate to New England and be Belichick’s director of misinformation.
Somebody’s credibility is going to be on the line when Lamar introduces its football coach Monday. Cardinal AD Billy Tubbs insists I was totally off base last week in listing Ray Woodard of Navarro Junior College, West Brook’s Craig Stump and former North Texas offensive coordinator Ramone Flanagan as the finalists, and predicting the job would go to Woodard. In my opinion, Billy is just sending out a smoke screen. We’ll soon know . . . LU basketball coach Steve Roccaforte made an interesting offer to fill one of his assistant coach jobs. Roc knows Tom Abatemarco, his mentor at Lamar 20 years ago, is looking to get back into coaching at the college level and invited him to return to Beaumont. Abatemarco, currently an assistant for the WNBA team in Sacramento, liked the idea but not the salary. Too bad. I don’t think there’s anybody who could have been a bigger asset to Roc, both as a recruiter and on the bench, than Abatemarco . . . Sounds like Cowboy QB Tony Romo has been taking singing lessons from Jessica Simpson. Romo threw out the first pitch and tried to sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game during the seventh inning of the Cubs game last Sunday. Romo, naturally, got booed, while his singing was described as “painful.”
I’m betting on Texas A&M’s Rod Goodson to lead the Big 12 in rushing next season. New A&M coach Mike Sherman has done what all smart coaches do with great backs and put him in the I formation. He’ll be running behind massive Javorskie Lane, which should present some serious problems for opposing defensive coordinators. One of the interesting questions with the Aggies will be whether veteran QB Stephen McGee is able to hold off Jerrod Johnson or winds up splitting time . . . Add Troy Hambrick to the list of former Dallas Cowboys who wound up getting fitted for prison stripes. Hambrick, at one time targeted as the guy supposed to replace Emmitt Smith, recently plead guilty to selling over 50 ounces of crack cocaine. He was sentenced to five years in the slammer. That’s a long fall from 2003, when he rushed for 972 yards and
had a 189-yard game against the Redskins . . . Speaking of athletes who make bad choices, how about University of Florida safety Jamar Hornsby? Hornsby was recently kicked off the team after being charged with repeatedly using the credit card of a Florida student, Ashley Slonia, killed in a motorcyle accident last year. According to the charges, Hornsby used the card 70 times, starting the day after Slonia was killed while riding with Florida redshirt freshman Michael Gould who also died in the accident. Police suspect Hornsby took Slonia’s credit card while helping clean out her apartment.
Best wishes for a full recovery to former Cotton Bowl matchmaker Jim Brock. Brock, known to most football folks as "Hoss", is recovering in a Plano rehab facility after suffering his second stroke in recent months. Without Brock's ability to wheel and deal behind the scenes, the Cotton Bowl would probably never have been the major player it once was in the post-season. Brock even made a couple of trips to Port Arthur to give the Cotton Bowl a presence in golf tournaments tied to the Port Arthur News Homecoming Roasts of Jimmy Johnson and Bum Phillips . . . The Super Bowl is nine months away but NBC is already salivating over its financial windfall for getting to air the game. The network announced recently that it will be charging a record $3 million for a 30-second commercial. The figure is even more staggering when you consider it amounts to $100,000 per second . . . Also in line for a financial windfall are the Buffalo Bills, although their season ticket holders are none to happy about it. Buffalo, in return for selling eight of its regular-season home games over the next five years to a Toronto-based consortium, will receive $78 million. First of those Toronto "home" games is Dec. 7 against Miami . . . Thanks to the NCAA's Academic Progress Report that cost several schools, including Lamar, scholarships, we now know who the real brain schools in Division 1 athletics are. Based on the cumulative APR number, the top five are Stanford (986), Navy (979), Rutgers (977), Duke (977) and Air Force (976). No real surprises in that group.
Sports editor Bob West can be e-mailed at rdwest@usa.net. His Sportsrap radio show airs Mondays at 8:05 p.m. on KLVI (560-AM)
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