Ricky Henderson and Jim Rice Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
January 13, 2009
Jim Rice after 15 years on the ballot has got his spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Ricky Henderson topped the votes with 511. Rice was second with 412.
In contrast to Rice who was elected in his final year on the ballot, Henderson became the 44th player to be elected by the BBWAA in his first year on the ballot.
Players to miss out on getting into the Hall of Fame include Andre Dawson and Bert Blyleven. They were both below the 75 per cent requirement to get in.
“I feel great about it,” said the 50-year-old Henderson during a conference call on Monday. “I love the game and I wanted to continue playing. It came to a time that I had to stop. It’s been five years and they chose me to go into the Hall of Fame. So I couldn’t be any more thrilled or pleased.”
Rice, a career-long member of the Red Sox, was in his final year of eligibility. He received seven votes over the 75 percent threshold to garner 76.4 percent, earning 412 votes on the 539 completed ballots cast. Two ballots were sent in blank. This year, 405 votes were needed. Last year, Rice fell 16 votes short.
You can read more about the election of Henderson and Rice at the MLB site.
Is Barack Obama a Sports Fan?
January 13, 2009
With a name like Barack you would think the soon-to-be President of the United States of America would have to be a sports fan.
From what I have been able to discover it Obama is a White Sox fan. He in fact threw out the first pitch of Game 2 of the 2005 World Series. This is what Obama told the Chicago Tribune at the time.
“They were 0-1 at the time, but they won eight straight. I’m not saying there is a correlation, but I e-mailed [White Sox chairman Jerry] Reinsdorf and said if they start getting in a jam, my arm was rested. I was ready to go.”
According to WikiAnswers Barack Obama is indeed a sports fan and it goes on to say that he lists Monday Night Football and Sports Center among his favorite television programs. As the wiki answers mentions Obama also enjoys pickup games of Basketball.
In Obama’s recent vacation in Hawaii who can forget all the photos of a muscular President-Elect strutting his stuff at the beach in all those bare chested photos the press published with wild abandon.
From those photos it is clear that Obama enjoys working out. I have seen that even on the campaign trail after getting almost no sleep he would make sure he did a gym workout.
At least I am in good company as my wife and I just purchased a home gym and we both workout regularly in the comfort of our own home.
Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president during the presidential inauguration on Tuesday, January 20.
Manchester United poised to take top spot
January 12, 2009
A thumping 3-0 win over second placed Chelsea sees Man Utd in a position to take top spot on the EPL ladder. With two games in hand, United will take over from Liverpool if they win both matches. They play Wigan Athletic on Wednesday.
Goals were scored by Nemanja Vidic (45), Wayne Rooney (62) and Dimitar Berbatov (86) as Man Utd handed Chelsea their worse loss in 15 years at Old Trafford.
If Manchester United defeats Wigan on on Wednesday they will take second spot with 44 points and trail Liverpool by just two after the league leaders could only manage a scoreless draw against Stoke City. For Man Utd it will be no easy task as Wigan are in good form with four straight wins to their name.
Chelsea coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said “I think it’s done some very big damage because we didn’t come here to play like this” as he spoke about the humiliating loss.
One slip and your gone, Kiefer tumbles out of Hopman Cup tennis
January 9, 2009
I don’t know how many of you caught the unfortunate ending to Nicolas Kiefer’s Hopman Cup campaign. In case you did’nt here is what happened.
Kiefer was playing Dominic Hrbaty in the men’s singles rubber in the tie between Germany and the Slovak Republic. The winner of the tie would earn a place in the final of the Hopman Cup.
Kiefer had started the match well and was serving at 3-1 in the first set. He served to Hrbaty and ran towards the net in case he needed to volley, instead his opponent ballooned a shot long over the baseline. As Kiefer casually moved towards the net he turned to watch the ball sail long.
Just as the ball went out Kiefer was unfortunate enough to turn his ankle. He lay on the court in considerable pain. Hrbaty went to see how his opponent was before further medical aid arrived.
His injury was assessed and a wheelchair was called for. That was the end of Kiefer and Germany’s chance to make the final. Kiefer has ligament damage and now is in doubt for the Australian Open which starts later this month.
Kiefer’s misfortune was good news for the Slovak Republic team of Hrbaty and Dominika Cibulkova who were gifted the tie and a spot in the final. Cibulkova had earlier put her team in the pole position with a win over Sabine Lisicki. The score in that match was 7-6, 6-4.
The Slovak Republic will meet Russia in the final after the Safina/Safin team defeated France 2-1. Dinara had signalled that she is a player to watch out for at the Australian Open with a confident 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Alize Cornet. France hit back when world no. 6 Gilles Simon defeated Marat Safin in straight sets. The tie was then decided in the mixed doubles. The brother and sister team from Russia got up 6-4, 6-3 to go into the final undefeated.
Bolt and Isinbayeva voted as male and female athlete of the year
January 3, 2009
Olympic 100m and 200m athletics champion Usain Bolt has been voted as the male athlete of the year by the international media for 2008.
Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva took sportswoman of the year honours.
The European football champions, Spain, was voted team of the year.
The winners are voted for by the International Sports Press Association journalists from around the world. 96 nations were involved. Bolt received 1673 points to beat USA swimmer Michael Phelps who received 1557 points.
Usain Bolt winning 100m Olympic gold in Beijing
Bolt of course electrified the track in the Beijing Olympic stadium back in August. He won individual gold in world record times for the 100m and 200m. He also collected a third gold in the 4x100m relay. I was fortunate enough to be in the crowd on the night he took out the 100m final in convincing fashion.
Michael Phelps was the star in the pool in Beijing winning an amazing eight gold medals to surpass the seven won by Mark Spitz in Munich. I still remember his amazing swim in the 100m butterfly final as he snatched it in the last stroke to win by 1/100th of a second over Milorad Cavic.
Tennis world no. 1 Rafael Nadal came in a distant third with 444 points. This was despite his amazing season where he won yet again at the French Open and then followed that up by winning for the first time at Wimbledon. His match against Roger Federer will go down as a classic.
For the sportwoman of the year Isinbayeva easily took the title with 1723 points, second was another athletics star Pamela Jelimo with 631. Jelimo from Kenya won the in Olympic 800m final as well as taking the $US1 million Golden League jackpot by winning all six meetings. Jelena Jankovic the tennis player from Serbia came third with 583 points despite not winning a Grand Slam tournament.
Spain polled 1395 points to take the team title ahead of the Jamaican sprint relay team on 1154 with UEFA Champions League winners Manchester United third on 769.
Champion Marathon runner Kerryn McCann dies
December 9, 2008
Yesterday in Australia there was sad news about the passing of Dual Commonwealth Games marathon gold medallist Kerryn McCann. She died from cancer at the age of 41.
McCann was best remembered in Australia for her gutsy win the the Marathon event at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. It was one of the great finishes in Marathon history. McCann entered the huge Melbourne Cricket Ground stadium along side Kenyan runner Hellen Cherono. With the roar of the crowd lifting her she pushed ahead to win. This was perhaps her greatest moment in competition.
McCann had four years earlier led Australia to a clean sweep of the Marathon medals in Manchester.
She is survived by her husband Greg and their children Benton (11), Josie (5) and Cooper (14 months).
It was in August last year, while pregnant with Cooper that McCann was first diagnosed with breast cancer. She completed a course of chemotherapy in January 2008 but it was then discovered that she had secondary cancer in her liver.
This is a great loss for not only her family but also Australia as McCann was admired by countless mums across the country and was in inspiration to many.
Passing of Jane McGrath
June 23, 2008
On Sunday June 22 the sad news of the passing of Jane McGrath came through. It was a sad day for cricket fans and sports fans in general. Not only that the general community has lost a brave soul.
Jane McGrath was the wife of one of the best fast bowlers in cricket history, Glenn McGrath.
You can read more about Jane McGrath and read a statement from Glen McGrath at the McGrath Foundation website.
G’day Sports Fans!
March 27, 2008
Welcome to the One Man Sports Network brought to you by Rob Keating. I am 41 and live in Canberra, Australia.
What you will find here are sports stories that I am following from around the globe.
I have always loved sport. This came from my father. At the time I was born he played squash, water polo and rugby union. You could say sport was in my blood.
As I grew up I played rugby union, soccer, basketball, tennis, cricket, volleyball, badminton and rugby league. I also competed in athletics and swimming carnivals.
During my high school days a normal day for me involved some sport at school. In the afternoon I would have basketball training, followed by rugby union training and then to round out the day I had volleyball training.
You would think with all this sport that would be enough but no. I would watch anything I could on tv or read tennis, rugby league or whatever sports magazine or newspaper article I could.
Growing up, the teams I grew to love were Liverpool, Eastern Suburbs rugby league, Chicago Bulls, the now defunct Canberra Cannons, Los Angeles Dodgers and the Carlton AFL team.
Later in life I played professional beach volleyball on the beautiful Australian beaches. Those were fun days. Amongst the endless hours of volleyball training I would play tennis with my mates and also attend the Australian Open tournament as often as possible.
As a youngster Friday nights were my favourite night. Not for going out and drinking but because I played basketball each Friday and then went home and watched the ABC sports program. I also enjoyed a Moove flavoured milk or two.
I was up early the next day to play rugby union. Quite often on Saturday night it was off to watch the NBL Canberra Cannons basketball team. On Sunday afternoon it was volleyball. Frequently after volleyball I would go and watch the new Canberra Raiders rugby league team compete in the NSW Rugby League competition.
As I was growing up in Australia access to overseas sport was limited. I remember watching Wimbledon each year and also the weekly English soccer show on the ABC. Later in life I started watching the Major League Baseball, NBA basketball and the NFL. I loved the days before pay television when all this was on free to air.
I also loved the big events like the world cup soccer and of course the Olympics. My first memory of the Olympics is the Montreal opening ceremony. We had just got a colour television and I was blown away by the colour and spectacle of that day.
From that moment I always dreamed of attending the Olympics either as a competitor or spectator. I keenly watched all Olympics from that day onwards. I also started collecting Olympic memorabilia. Fortunately for me Sydney was awarded the 2000 Olympics and I was able to go along. That was a fantastic experience. I also was a volunteer… almost. You can ask me about that one day.
I am married to Tina, who lucky for me is from Beijing. This has allowed me to once again get into the Olympic spirit and my family will be in Beijing in August 2008.
That is probably enough for my introduction post. You probably get the idea that I am a true sports fan. I hope you enjoy what I bring to you from the world of sports.
cheers, Rob
