Sports

Frequency of sports stars’ deaths desensitizes fans

In February 1964, Ken Hubbs, second baseman for the Cubs, was killed in the crash of a small plane.

I was a kid. And that hit me.

I would stare at Hubbs’ 1963 baseball card. It told that he was the 1962 NL Rookie of the Year. How could he be dead? He’s a big leaguer. He’s 22. I saw him play a few months ago, in person and on TV.

I now think of Hubbs, it seems, every week, whenever a pro athlete dies young, whenever one’s killed or kills. I wonder if today’s 10-year-old fan is as shook up about it as I was when Hubbs was killed.

Given the increased frequency of opportunities, I wonder if kids are inured to such feelings. I suspect that they must. Josh Brent’s alleged killing of Jerry Brown, Saturday; Javon Belcher and his child’s mother, the Saturday before that; Macho Camacho, the week before that.

From Ray Lewis to Rae Carruth, Ken Caminiti to dozens freshly dead, TV-delivered pro wrestlers, how can kids possibly not be desensitized?

That Belcher murder/suicide? They have been there, in reverse. Steve McNair, 2003 NFL MVP, was shot and killed by his mistress, who then killed herself.

NFL DB and career trouble-magnet Adam “Pacman” Jones and crew — drawn to Las Vegas for the NBA All-Star Game — started a riot in a strip club that led to the shooting paralysis of an employee (Jones would be court-ordered to pay the victim $11 million), and he soon was back, playing in the NFL.

He played yesterday for the Bengals — against the Cowboys, Brent’s and Brown’s team, and Jones’ previous last-chance team. During the game, FOX’s Thom Brennaman and sideliner Laura Okmin, carefully eliminating details, declared Jones changed, cured. How would they know? Jones told them.

Jones was a teammate of Chris Henry’s in college at West Virginia. Henry, a Bengals receiver, had been arrested five times before he was killed — thrown from a truck in an argument with his girlfriend — five months after McNair was shot dead.

Dime a dozen. It doesn’t even matter that J.R. Smith’s NBA and police rap sheet includes dodging a grand jury indictment on a manslaughter charge. He was, however, sentenced to 90 days, and served 30. He ran a stop sign, causing a crash that killed his best friend.

But now Smith more widely is regarded as one of the Knicks’ 3-point threats.

The Cowboys’ Brent, at 4 a.m. Saturday, was charged with intoxicated manslaughter for the death of Brown, passenger and teammate since college. It was reported Brent was “involved in a deadly accident.” Huh? Had it been an accident he wouldn’t have been charged with manslaughter.

But in a world stricken by diminishing sensitivity, sensibility and outrage, “involved in a deadly accident” is the polite way of saying “caused a deadly crash.” No big deal. Not any more. Next.

CBS voices miss chances to roast ‘icing’

With 3 seconds left in the first half and Army about to try a field goal, Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo called timeout, not one, but two — consecutively — that dubious strategy designed to “ice” the kicker.

On CBS, Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson giggled, uneasily. I would have preferred to hear what each thought about it. After all, up until then we were told how “the spirit” and all-that’s-right about college football is displayed in this game.

Niumatalolo’s decisions didn’t rhyme with that theme. They seemed the equivalent to a yahoo stomping and waving a “Miss!” sign behind the basket while the visitors shoot free throws. Had a feeling Lundquist and Danielson didn’t approve. Wish they would have told us how they felt.

* If you delivered as much misinformation and got it wrong as often and irresponsibly as does WFAN’s Mike Francesa, you couldn’t get work outside a tunnel as a squeegee apprentice.

In a particularly comical week — he authoritatively, condescendingly and erroneously told a caller that New York State’s 1960 population was greater than today’s — he claimed he missed his vote for the Heisman because he lost track of the deadline. Francesa said it always is the Monday after Army-Navy, which, he explained, this year was played later.

Garbage. Army-Navy has been played on Heisman day the past four years.

It gets better. In what has been described as one of the closest votes in Heisman history, Francesa predicted Johnny Manziel, a freshman, would not win. That made Manziel a lock.

So, if we are to assume Francesa would not have voted for Manziel, might his uncast ballot have affected the outcome?

If so, good! He only speaks as if he knows what’s going on in college football — and everything else, for that matter. His non-vote should be regarded as an abstention. All voters who know as little as Francesa should abstain!

Oh, there are now 2.7 million more New Yorkers than in 1960. He just missed.

Comment 100 percent insightful

Nice touch from CBS studio panelist Aaron Taylor after Army-Navy. Of despondent Army QB Trent Steelman, 0-for-4 vs. Navy and whose fumbled handoff killed his and Army’s last chance, Taylor said, “Life is 10 percent what happens to you, 90 percent what you do about it.”

* Odd, Army-Navy was played the same time Army’s basketball team played at Penn State on the Big Ten Network.

* Yesterday’s first-quarter interception returned for a TD by Saints Elbert Mack? Next week it will appear on TV — in the Giants’ defensive stats. Same with David Wilson’s kickoff TD return on the next play. That will appear within the Saints’ defensive stats. Ridiculous.

* How TV-approved zany is Dennis Rodman now that he can’t pay child support?

* At the end of Georgetown 46, Towson 40, a Big East Network telecast on SNY Saturday, play-by-player Jason Knapp: “The Hoyas, for a third time in a row, hold a foe to under 40.” Please. That had far less to do with Georgetown’s defense than its 30-second possession offense.

* Now CBS’ Gary Danielson is unable to say, “fumble” (just two syllables). He has joined the “putting the ball on the ground” club. Yesterday, during Jets-Jaguars, CBS’s Solomon Wilcots said it twice in less than 10 seconds.

* In Syracuse’s 108-56 win vs. Monmouth on Saturday, coach Jim Boeheim played star Brandon Triche 30 minutes, six bench players three minutes or fewer.

Reader Tom Murphy has no gripe with Johnny Manziel winning the Heisman, but he recalls when a 20-year-old was a “first-semester junior, not a freshman.”