When the Bassmaster Classic started in South Carolina last weekend, you may have wanted to place a bet on Mike Wurm to win it all. But you wouldn’t have won the bet. The fish didn’t take the worm and Wurm finished 31st. . . . The Bassmaster Classic? It’s the Super Bowl of pro bass fishing only without the TV commercials. . . . Guard Michael Finley of the San Antonio Spurs doesn’t shy away from interviews, but says he won’t talk politics, religion or women. Mike Finger of the San Antonio Express-News tested that policy. The question: “For example, what if Britney Spears went to church and prayed about who to vote for in the next presidential election?” With a shake of his head, Finley answered: “If that happens, you should be more worried about the world coming to an end.”
The big buzz in hockey these days involves Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin and his new girlfriend. It seems he found her through the Internet and he spends his intermissions texting her. . . . Sheesh! How the intermissions have changed. When I played, one guy sat in the corner puffing on a cancer stick, blowing smoke rings and spitting through them. . . . Mark Kriegel, from FoxSports.com: “Darrell Waltrip says every time he thinks of Dale Sr. at Daytona, ‘I cry like a rat eating an onion.’ How come they can’t talk like that in the other sports?” . . . Kelvin Sampson, the men’s basketball coach at Indiana U, cheats -- again -- and then gets paid $750,000 to go away. Keith Van Horn, who hasn’t played basketball in two years but hasn’t filed his retirement papers, gets $4 million to allow himself to be part of an NBA trade. . . . Van Horn gets $148,275 for every game he doesn’t play. . . . Is this a wonderful world in which we live, or what?
When J.A. Adande of espn.com asked 15 NBA all-stars whom they would like to see with a championship ring, the winner was Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics. He got six votes; Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash got five. “It didn’t surprise me that the winner was Kevin Garnett,” Adande said. “He is beloved and respected around the league. But I wasn’t prepared for such a
slim margin of victory or the identity of the runner-up: Steve Nash. You don’t see people rushing to say they are big fans of his, much the same way people don’t voluntarily say they love Lionel Richie songs, but they definitely don’t change the radio station when he comes on.” . . . Responded Nash: “I didn’t know they cared.” . . . Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post likes what he has seen while in camp watching the Colorado Rockies: “One day at spring training and I have yet to see a syringe, a subpoena or a (wink, wink) personal trainer. And, as far as I know, it’s one man to a bathroom stall.” . . . Hey, Tom Larscheid, does this mean that not everybody loves
the Cooker?
Dwight Perry, in the Seattle Times: “Police in Evesham, Pa., investigating a minor car accident last week involving Eagles defensive tackle Mike Patterson, said they sniffed a certain odor and found marijuana in his car, so now he has been charged with drug possession. Since the baggie contained less than 50 grams, though, police could only credit Patterson with half a sack.” . . . Greg Cote, in the Miami Herald: “I don’t mind athletes on Dancing With The Stars, but it gets boring when all of them are, you know, athletic. I would rather watch Refrigerator Perry or Keith Traylor mashing the toes of a howling partner.” . . . Here’s Cote again: “(Roger) Clemens is in new trouble over photos that show him attending a 1998 party at Jose Canseco’s house in Miami, which Clemens had denied under federal oath. I’m not sure what is more embarrassing. That he lied, or that he was at a Jose Canseco party.”
Mike Lupica, in the New York Daily News: “Next time Jose Canseco has a party, they ought to have a red carpet and let that E! channel cover it. Just to eliminate the guesswork later on.” . . . And this from Lupica’s paper: “The Daily News has learned that in the days since the Feb. 13 public hearing on steroids in baseball, another major leaguer has informed congressional investigators that Clemens often joked in the clubhouse about a memorable account of the party -- a scene in which Debbie Clemens and Canseco’s ex-wife Jessica compared the results of their surgical breast enhancements.” . . . Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle adds: “Did Roger Clemens attend Jose Canseco’s barbecue? Clemens should check with his appointment and inoculation secretary, Miss Remembers.” . . . One more from Ostler, as he looks ahead to the 2008 Major League Baseball season in his neck of the woods: “The A’s are rebuilding, the Giants are fumigating.”
Would someone tell me one more time (a) why the Toronto Maple Laffs fired GM
John Ferguson Jr., and (b) what Cliff Fletcher has been doing since moving into that office? Those trades Fletcher made Tuesday? Couldn’t Ferguson have accomplished the same thing? . . . “Until now,” notes old friend The Sports Curmudgeon, “I never understood the English idiom ‘to get out of somewhere in the nick of time.’ Now I get it. Larry Brown escaped New York and the
Madison Square Garden clown show in the ‘Knicks of time.’ That says it all.” . . . Hey, whatever happened to Vince Carter on his way to the Basketball Hall of Fame? . . . If The Wire isn’t the best thing on TV these days, it’s tied at the top.
Calgary Flames defenceman Cory Sarich told the Calgary Sun he was left looking for a tooth after being struck by a puck the other night. “I don’t know if I lost it in my soup or swallowed it,” he said, “but it’s still missing.” . . . Jerry Greene, in the Orlando Sentinel: “About her appearance in the SI Swimsuit Issue, driver Danica Patrick said: “I didn’t do it the way Marisa (Miller) did it on the cover or anything. I definitely don’t have that equipment.” See? In racing, it’s always about the equipment.” . . . Among the nominees for Best Sports Picture at Sunday’s Academy Awards, according to Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel, were Michael Vick’s 101 Dead Dalmatians and Sacks, Lies and Videotape: The Bill BeliCheat Story.
Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.
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