
| Posted: Monday April 17, 2006 10:13AM; Updated: Monday April 17, 2006 1:30PM
1. That's got to hurt: English golfer David Lynn managed to finish third at this weekend's China Open despite a painful problem. Lynn developed a large boil on, well, the top of his groin from an insect bite. The boil became so inflamed and painful that a medic cut it away on Friday, leaving Lynn with a gashed groin. Unfortunately for Lynn, the travails of his crotch region were fair game for the sporting press. That got us thinking -- what are the most embarrassing injuries/ailments in sports history? Not embarrassing in the sense that an athlete did something foolish or clumsy to get injured, but an ailment that an athlete would simply rather not discuss in public. Our leader in the clubhouse would be the bout of hemorrhoids that Royals star George Brett battled along with the Phillies in the 1980 World Series. We'd also include Duke guard Bobby Hurley's diarrhea during the 1990 NCAA semifinal and championship games, which we would have all been happy to call a stomach virus until Coach K actually used the d-word in public. Any other nominations? 2. Kobe Bryant scored 43 points on Sunday as the Lakers clinched a playoff spot. Unfortunately, that still won't be enough to prevent Bryant from becoming the first NBA scoring champ with a per-game average exceeded by his negative Q-rating. 3. In Friday's 10 Spot, we cast moody Nationals outfielder Alfonso Soriano as A.J. Soprano in our television-meets-the-sports-world piece. We may have been hasty with that call. Perhaps Meadow, who aspires to be a doctor (when she's not aspiring to be a lawyer), would be a better fit given the potential healing power of a Soriano line drive. In a remarkable twist of fate, Soriano smoked a foul ball into the stands last May as a Ranger and hit a woman named Jenny Sorrell in the gut. Sorrell went to the doctor to make sure the ball's impact hadn't ruptured anything. It hadn't, but the CAT scan revealed 15 tumors from a rapidly advancing case of ovarian cancer. A year later, after surgery and chemo, Sorrell's cancer is in remission and both she and her doctor believe that Soriano's foul ball may well have saved her life. 4. Two children were injured in Michigan on Saturday during a minor league baseball team's promotion in which $1,000 was dropped from a helicopter. In retrospect, it probably wasn't wise to use Susan B. Anthony dollars. 5. Lawyer Ron established himself as a Kentucky Derby favorite by winning Saturday's Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park, the horse's third big win at Oaklawn. Then again, Lawyer Ron's detractors point out that Oaklawn parks its track ambulance right beside the finish line. 6. Home Depot has launched a sports-themed paint line that offers customers over 400 colors representing more than 125 pro and college teams. Still, the biggest order so far is for a massive amount of plain white paint for the MLB committee headed by Sen. George Mitchell. 7. The Trail Blazers have disciplined forward Darius Miles after he abruptly changed out of his uniform into a suit during halftime of last Wednesday's loss to the Clippers. On the bright side, at least Miles was following the NBA dress code. 8. Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols hit three homers on Sunday against the Reds to give him eight for the season, tied for the most in the majors with Chris Shelton and one ahead of Jim Thome. Hmm, which of these names doesn't belong with the others?... 9. The Big 12 and Mountain West conferences are still waiting for the full payouts from the 2005 EV1.net Houston Bowl. In related news, the EV1.net Bowl will now be nicknamed the Chronically Destitute Younger Brother of Them All. 10. The 110th Boston Marathon will be run on Monday afternoon. Among those not favored to win are Red Sox pitcher David Wells.
|
| ||||||||||||||