Isaiah Crowell
TAKING A DIVE: Georgia RB Isaiah Crowell (diving past Auburn’s Erique Florence last fall) was dismissed from the team after being arrested (inset) for gun felonies on campus last week. (AP (2))
Perhaps because they no longer seem incredible, incredible stories hardly make news, a paragraph in big-city dailies, nothing on radio or TV, no buzz, no nuthin’.
Isaiah Crowell, 19 and about to be a sophomore running back at Georgia, was arrested at 2:30 a.m. Friday and charged with two felonies — possession of a concealed weapon and of a gun with an obscured serial number.
Even uglier, Crowell, who last season was benched for drug and misconduct issues, was arrested on campus.
So why would a major university, ostensibly a citadel of higher learning and an institution parents work and save to have their children attend, be inclined to even recruit — in exchange for a full scholarship — a “student-athlete” capable of such on-campus, criminal behavior?
The answer could be found in the last sentence of the AP paragraph that appeared in a Saturday newspaper: “As a freshman, Crowell led Georgia with 850 rushing yards.”
Crowell, over the weekend, was dismissed from the team.
Sanders Commings, a Georgia cornerback, wasn’t dismissed from the team after he agreed to university-mandated drug and alcohol testing and “anger management counseling” after his arrest for assaulting his ex-girlfriend.
Commings will miss the first two games this season. The opener is at home against Buffalo.
What makes Georgia different from other lost-their-minds-and-souls football and basketball colleges? Well, the answer is another incredible story that doesn’t seem incredible: nothing.
These stooges are nothing but wise guys
If you’re going to be a wise guy, remember that wise is a by-product of wisdom.
Friday night, the Diamondbacks’ Aaron Hill hit for the cycle — for the second time this season. Saturday on Ch. 7’s 6 p.m. news, sports anchor Rob Powers reported the last man to do that was Brooklyn’s Babe Herman, in 1931.
Then Powers sarcastically added, “Remember him?”
Hah, hah, hah.
While few in the audience were likely to remember Herman, knowledgeable baseball fans were likely to know of him.
Playing mostly for the Robins — who became the Dodgers in 1932 — Herman was legendary as a poor fielder but a superb hitter, with a .324 lifetime average. He still holds a pile of franchise hitting and slugging bests. In 1930, in 153 games, he hit .393, with 241 hits, 35 HRs, 130 RBIs and 143 runs.
Also Saturday, on Ch. 4’s 11 p.m. news, it didn’t matter that the Yankees’ Hiroki Kuroda had shut out the White Sox that afternoon, or that the Mets’ Johan Santana had shut out the Dodgers that night. Sports anchor Scott Stanford, perhaps on orders, led with the Olympic trials, NBC being the Olympics network, as if no one knew.
But with Stanford a payrolled WWE regular, neither WNBC nor Stanford can be much concerned with his credibility as a newsman.
* Michael Kay is downright confounding. At the close of Yankees telecasts over several consecutive seasons, he noted the time of the game in terms of “manageable” and “unmanageable.”
The distinction line seemed to be approximately three hours. He was eager to emphasize the legitimate point that too many Yankees games were dragging on longer than the reasonable should expect or suffer.
Yet, “manageable” and “unmanageable” seemed confusing because some long-running games logically would run long and still be appealing to the good baseball senses. Did Kay mean “tidy” versus “untidy”?
Then, three years ago, as if out of the wild blue yonder, he delivered an in-game speech mocking those concerned about how long games run; real baseball fans don’t care about such irrelevancies; all should anticipate games that run 3:30 — and be happy with it.
Boing! He never mentioned he’s the guy who made times of games a steady issue!
Saturday, after the Yankees’ 4-0 win over the White Sox, Kay said, “Time of game: a delightfully manageable 2:25.” Yesterday’s 4-2 win was “a manageable 2:48.” Boing!
* Watching golf Saturday from Congressional on CBS — few on-site spectators were allowed due to dangerous, weather-related conditions — was kinda neat. No fools screaming “Get in the hole!”, “You da man!” or “Ty-grrrrr!” … Hey, in 95 degrees, $650-$2,500 up-close Yankees seats make even less sense!
A futbol game for real fans
If you knew little about soccer, except you don’t like it, but were told in advance of yesterday’s Spain-Italy European championship on ESPN to watch how Spain mostly allowed Italy the ball only in benign places while playing patient, wait-for-it and unselfish offense, you couldn’t help but at least appreciate soccer and admire Spain’s approach in a 4-0 final.
ESPN’s lead play-by-player, Englishman Ian Darke, remains a great get. When a Spanish player shanked a scoring chance in front — an irrelevancy given the play was ruled offside — Darke simply said, “Saves him the embarrassment.”
* From trusted reader DDG: “My friend was with his 6-year-old, watching the Red Sox. Upon seeing the replay of David Ortiz standing and watching the home run he just hit, his son said, ‘Daddy, why is he standing there? You get more bases if you run as soon as you hit the ball.’ ”
It’s fascinating how often players who don’t run after hitting long fly balls — posers — are forced to risk injury by turning it on late before sliding into second. Rather than reach second standing in a slow-down jog, they’re forced into full-out slides and dives.
In other words, when it’s time to jog, they’re in a desperate, dangerous all-out slide. But when it’s time to run, they’re jogging. Big league baseball!
* Baseball broadcasting chronicler Curt Smith’s latest, “Mercy! A Celebration of Fenway Park’s Centennial Told Through Red Sox Radio and TV” (Potomac Books), includes a chapter of special interest to Yankees fans.
It’s about team ownership and management’s carefully considered decision whether to tear down Fenway or to sustain it with improvements.
With Yankee Stadium destroyed and replaced by the world’s largest piggy bank, Fenway has replaced it as America’s go-to place to see a ballgame.