Sports

Giant does what few athletes do: He owns up to mistake

Either David Diehl didn’t get the memo, or he just doesn’t get it.

What the Giants’s offensive lineman did last week following his DWI arrest was, by modern assorted celebrities’ standards, totally inappropriate.

Diehl stood in public and spoke a full, apparently unscripted and — who knows? — perhaps a totally sincere apology.

He made no excuses for himself, nor did he provide any “contingency” apologies, the kind that contain “ifs” — “If I offended anyone,” “If I endangered anyone.” None of that.

Diehl didn’t lean on a public relations firm, his agent, the NFLPA or the Giants to “issue a statement” expressing his remorse or regrets. He didn’t lean on anyone to cite this as a “private matter” or hammer us with reminders of his previous good, charitable deeds as a means of mitigating his crime.

And he didn’t have “an accident.” He was drunk and driving when he hit those parked cars.

Instead, he said he had committed a wrong, an inexcusable and indefensible wrong, and for that he’s terribly sorry — no strings attached.

“I’m accountable. I take full responsibility,” Diehl said.

And that’s just not the way it’s done, these days, dude, not even close. What’s up with that? Ya wanna ruin it for the rest?

Stern response shows commish’s quick temper

If This were 1994 and Jim Rome, then with ESPN, were involved in an ugly on-air verbal hassle with David Stern, there’s little question Rome’s obnoxious, shock-jock style would have provoked it. 1994 is when Rome goaded NFL QB Jim Everett into shoving him over, after Rome called him “Chris Evert.”

But that’s no longer Rome’s style, thus an examination of Rome’s ugly on-air encounter with Stern last week, after Rome, now with CBS Sports Net, asked the often-theorized question: Is the NBA draft lottery fixed?

Stern returned that with the old, can’t-win: “Have you stopped beating your wife?”

But it seemed that Stern, who has his own impetuously intemperate side, was prepped to deal with ancient Rome.

For what it’s worth, we can’t forget, years ago, when Stern, being interviewed on NBC, arrogantly scoffed at Bob Costas’ suggestion that on-court taunting leads to in-game brawls. A year later the NBA instituted anti-taunting rules to try to cut down on brawls.

* The John SterlingSuzyn Waldman team (aka Null & Void) remains a cruel and unusual punishment.

Monday, Yankees at Braves, top of the second, Yankees pitcher Ivan Nova had a rare at-bat. They went into a spiel about how, “Nothing good can happen if Nova swings the bat.” He should just stand there, take three strikes and be done with it.

Nova then hit a line-drive single.

Regardless, these two will go on and on about how important it is for the Yankees to force opposing starters to throw as many pitches as possible, to build their pitch count.

* DDG, from Connecticut, and his grown sons have a June ritual, or it least they did: Meet in Omaha, Neb., for the College World Series.

“Go to the afternoon game, 1 p.m. Warm, sunny, relax. Game over, go get a bite, get back for the second come.

“This year? It has all changed for TV [ESPN]. First game, 4 p.m., Omaha time. What time is that game going to be over? Let’s say 6:30, but who knows?

“So then clear the ballpark. The next game is supposed to start at 8 p.m., but who knows? And who’s going to be at those late games other than the fans of the teams? The late game could end at midnight.

“In essence, because of TV, no more afternoon games. We’ve been going for years. I think this will be our last.”

* At a time when more and more athletes with gang connections are entering college programs and the pros, more and more politicians are calling for more and more sports gambling as an economic quick-fix. Hmmm.

N.J. Gov. Chris Christie apparently won’t be happy until everyone has a bet on every game. He should next advocate that N.J. operate its own pawnshops. Pawnshop owners know the score. They don’t operate on a wish.

Berman bungles golf call

Allowing ESPN’s Chris Berman to work golf’s U.S. Open — or anywhere near it — is like handing a a vandal a variety pack of spray paint.

Late in Thursday’s round, Rory McIlroy left a tough chip/pitch from the rough, just above the 18th hole, when he stepped from the ball in search of a rules official. Although that at first escaped Berman, he caught up.

But when the marshal arrived and he and McIlroy began to speak — a conversation that was audible to ESPN’s audience (that’s why there are microphones on the course!) — Berman decided this was a good time to talk-talk completely over it, tromping all over the entire chat.

What did Berman find more compelling than allowing us to hear this conversation? For the third or fourth time he brought up the fact that McIlroy threw out the first pitch before a Giants’ game, two nights before, then went into a riff about big league pitchers.

That a producer in the truck didn’t holler to him to “Shut up! Let us hear what they’re saying!” was equally aggravating — unless Berman chose to ignore him.

In time, ESPN/NBC was able to show us the topic of conversation: McIlroy successfully sought relief from a sprinkler head. But the presence of Chris Berman relegated live U.S. Open coverage to second, behind the presence of Chris Berman.

Friday, ESPN cut from live golf — in the U.S. Open, for crying out loud — for a long, on-camera chat between Berman and NBC’s Roger Maltbie. It took that long for them to tell us that Tiger Woods, who was in the lead by one, is in the lead by one.

ESPN describes Berman as “the face of ESPN.” No further comment needed.

* Wednesday night, the eve of the Open, ESPN Classic presented great old video journals of Opens, including ABC’s pictures and Chris Schenkel’s narration of Jack Nicklaus’ 1967 win at Baltusrol.

But because quality control — foresight — rarely is practiced at ESPN, the ball — on big putts and big approach shots — kept cruelly disappearing behind ESPN’s relentless bottom-of-the-screen crawl.

These crawls have, for years and countless times, wrecked what ESPN Classic has presented. But ESPN isn’t all that in to sports.