Category: Sports

Paul Hamm should have given back the gold medal he won for the all-around in gymnastics. Two reasons — only one of which has to do with doing the right thing.

The South Korean, Yang Tae Young, was shortchanged in his score by goofball judges. A technicality in reporting the mistake prevented the error from being corrected in time. On merit, Hamm should have relented.

Second, from the perspective of enlightened self-interest, Hamm would have benefited. Everyone saw that — after a pratfall landing on vault — he gave a marvelous, comeback performance under incredible pressure to put himself back into gold contention. That can never be taken away. Moreover, Hamm had gained on Yang, in part, because the South Korean had faltered under the pressure that Hamm was ascending above — literally.

Even if Hamm had exchanged his gold for silver, he would have been the winner in the minds and hearts of all Americans and many in the international community. He would have been saluted for his sportsmanship — as well as his inspiring grace under pressure. And he would have remained the de facto gold-medal winner.

Let’s get rid of the juvenile “dream team” appellation that seems misapplied to talented lounge acts on the basketball court.

But if it must be used, let it be applied to the U.S. women’s softball team. It was awesomely dominant and utterly classy — with a nice local touch in assistant coach Ken Erickson of USF.

Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski recently turned down a lucrative offer to coach the Los Angeles Lakers. In doing so, he answered one question — while raising another.

After a period of highly publicized deliberation, Krzyzewski finally declined the Lakers’ offer and put an end to the “Will he?”-“Won’t he?” queries. In the end, he chose to stay where he had become — over the past 24 years — a wealthy legend and the personification of Duke basketball. The 57-year-old “Coach K” has led Duke to three national championships. He was a hardwood Steve Spurrier — only more successful and nicer.

He had also come to represent consummate class in an arena where too many schools routinely earn public scorn for win-at-all-cost practices.

In the final analysis, explained Krzyzewkski, “you had to follow your heart.”

That other question? Why a rich, college coaching icon with a lifetime contract — in a program that symbolizes all that is still good with big time intercollegiate athletics — would even consider moving on to the hip-hop circus that is the National Basketball Association? A league where Kobe Bryant, who personally intervened to try and recruit Krzyzewski, is one of the “good guys.”

The resurgent Devil Rays have not gone unnoticed in the national — even international –media. Among their accomplishments were a 12-game winning streak and a move up in the standings to third place — at the expense of the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Toronto press has been giving the Jays a hard time about being passed by the Rays and for flirting with last place in the American League’s East Division. In fact, a joke making the rounds of the Jays’ press box is a sarcastic reference to Rob Bradford’s new book, “Chasing Steinbrenner,” which offers an in-depth look at Toronto General Manager J.P. Ricciardi during the 2003 season. Toronto pundits have suggested that the book should be renamed “Chasing Naimoli.”

It’s that season again.

That magical hockey run is now a warm-fuzzy, Stanley Cup memory. Basketball finally ended, and Kobe is now a full-time defendant. Baseball, where the locals are no longer the Bedeviled Rays or the Bob and Rays, is still in its pre pennant-race prelude.

But football is already into its mini camp hold-out mode. Sportswriters are writing about something other than who looks good running around in shorts and helmets. Those on the Buccaneer beat are writing about the strife and times of the obscenely underpaid Keenan McCardell.

This is not one of those columns that deplores the fact that some people are fortunate enough to make a whole lot of money playing a game. That’s capitalism. That’s supply and demand. That’s show biz.

This is about “principle,” however oxymoronic that can be among those who play for pay. The issue, as McCardell explains it, is about what is “fair.” He and his agent have some league-average statistics that purport to show he’s underpaid. “I’m fighting over a principle,” says McCardell. What is fair and just

It’s been more than a week now that the Stanley Cup has needed serious sunscreen. Presumably all of Canada — and perhaps Philadelphia — have now accepted that the Cup is in the Tampa Bay area, where hockey will never be more popular than football or NASCAR, where Channelside Drive will never morph into a frozen tundra and where the Forum will never be an NHL cathedral.

But the Cup does accompany the best hockey team in North America, and the Lightning has been embraced for the classy, hard-working winners they are. No team had more skilled players than the Bolts or more resilience. None had better coaches or a savvier front office. Tampa might as well be Toronto-South right now. A lot of locals may not yet know a poke check from a pork chop, but the Stanley Cup flat-out belongs here.

Moreover, people who know will tell you this run to the Finals may not be an aberration — as it was with other expansion franchises in non-traditional markets such as Carolina or Anaheim. This is no one-hit wonder. The team was good last year — and then kept on getting better. A Sun Belt Cup may not be a novelty for long. One prominent ex-skeptic, ESPN hockey analyst Barry Melrose, now thinks playoff runs into late spring could become commonplace around here.

“This team is deep and it’s young,” Melrose noted after the Calgary series. “The future is very bright for Tampa Bay.”

That future, of course, is clouded by variables ranging from a September labor lockout to a rash of injuries to key players. For the here and now, however, this much was evident:

*What just happened here is about as good as it gets in the context of sports. For two months, culminating in climactic series against Philadelphia and finally Calgary, the Tampa Bay Lightning was able to give fans and bandwagon passengers a most welcome respite from, well, you know. All the reminders of what’s wrong with the world. No need to repeat them here. The timing couldn’t have been better. Certainly beats “Day After Tomorrow” for escape.

*Sports success — with its collective psychology and vicarious achievement — has the unique capacity to rally a region, galvanize a city and unite its residents. More than, say, getting a new art museum out of the ground or bringing reclaimed water on line — as important as those projects are. It just does. To quote the legendary Alabama football coach Bear Bryant: “It’s hard to rally around the Math Department.”

And this metro area, where a bay can sometimes seem like a gulf, can benefit more than most. To that end, last week’s Bolt’s parade and rally also reserved roles for St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker and Clearwater Mayor Brian Aungst. Nice touch. We are neighborhoods and cities –and a regional market.

*While national TV ratings were weak, the Finals played well across Canada and were televised to more than 200 countries. The media crush was unlike anything since the last Super Bowl. It was priceless exposure for the area, and the chamber of commerce and the convention and visitors’ bureau felt blessed — as did hoteliers and restaurateurs. Even contrarian economists would acknowledge that there was significant outside money injected into the local economy.

*It couldn’t have happened to a better bunch. Too often sports is about the spoiled, especially at the pro level. Hockey players are largely from blue-collar backgrounds and haven’t forgotten their roots. It’s not a hip-hop culture. They remember what it was like to have Stanley Cup dreams and look up to the Wayne Gretskys. They’re more than accommodating to fans — especially kids. These are uniformly high-character guys.

Before the Bucs had their rings, they were already attracting notoriety with a weapon-waving, road-rage incident and a domestic assault. Don’t expect to see Lightning players showing up on police blotters in the off season.

*As with the Bucs’ Super Bowl victory, the ad hoc post-game celebration and the parade-rally went off without incident. Tampa — unlike Los Angeles, Oakland, Detroit, Denver and a number of other big league cities — can be Titletown without trashing itself.

*Kudos to the Bolts’ organization for prominently recognizing all its support personnel — from trainers to equipment managers — at the parade and Forum celebration that followed. It reinforced the club mantra that, indeed, “It’s all about team.” General Manager Jay Feaster, when he wasn’t doing his best Howard Dean impersonation at the podium, put it succinctly when he described the Bolts as 25 guys who “played for the logo on the front, not the name on the back.”

*To the uninitiated, the chorus of cheers that greeted Lightning goalie Nikolai Khabibulin at the post-parade celebration might have sounded like booing. What were bona fide boos, however, were the sounds emanating in response to the name of Gov. Jeb Bush, who issued a proclamation in honor of the Lightning. So much for that respite from reality.

*Head Coach John Tortorella directly and appropriately acknowledged the world apart from sports. He prefaced his accolades and expressions of gratitude to players, families and fans by saluting America’s armed forces, including personnel at MacDill AFB, some of whom were in attendance. The “real stuff,” he said. Another classy touch.

*The taciturn Brad Richards, MVP of the playoffs, summed up the mood with a comment that could not have been scripted better by Mayor Pam Iorio or her civic songwriter: “We love playing here, and we love living here.”

Cue: “We Are the Champions.”

And cue Jay Feaster again: “Yeeeeaaaah!”

Friends have asked if I, as a Philadelphia native , had mixed allegiances over the Bolts-Flyers Eastern Conference finals. The answer: A resounding “Hey, yo — no way.” Like many Tampa residents, I live here by choice — not by an accident of birth or a function of inertia.

There’s something ironic and incongruous about a sport where the archetypal joke is that “during the fight a hockey game broke out, ” and yet at season’s end players actually vie for something called the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, emblematic of “sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct.” For all the slashing, bone-rattling hits, periodic brawls and generic mayhem, the players are the best spoken of the major team-sport athletes. And that’s in French, Russian, Ukrainian, Swedish, Finnish and Czech-accented English. An unshaven John Lynch on skates comes to mind.

Bill Marcum, head coach of the Tampa Bay Storm, on players making the adjustment to the Arena Football League with its midget field and customized rules: “Some players pick it up right away like Freddie Solomon Jr. He played four years in the NFL and still didn’t miss a beat when he joined us. Others, well, we only have one game left, and they still haven’t picked it up.”

Doug Woolard, USF’s highly regarded, new athletic director, has a formidable set of challenges awaiting him. The former AD at Saint Louis University will oversee USF’s transition from Conference USA to the Big East. He will have to manage an athletic budget that needs ratcheting up. He will take the hit if the Bulls’ basketball program isn’t exhumed. He will ultimately answer for oxymoronic “student-athletes.” And more.

But here’s something he can address — and correct — right away. Seeing to it that on matters athletic the University speaks with one voice. It didn’t when it hired Woolard.

A vice president and a spokeswoman weren’t on the same page when announcing Woolard’s hiring in the context of matters relating to the other finalist, Jon Oliver. At issue, among others, was whether Oliver had received a contractual “draft” or “offer” before Woolard received his offer. The result: The heralding of his hiring was awkwardly undercut by media references to Woolard as USF’s “second choice.” Addressing that kind of embarrassing snafu should be Woolard’s first order of business.