Moving violation
THE CHAIRMAN OF A Moldovan soccer team became so incensed when a penalty kick was awarded to the opponent that he drove his car onto the field and tried to run over the referee.
No one was hurt, and the game was called off.
During Saturday’s first division game in Floreni between Roso Floreni and Politehnica Chisinau, referee Vitalie Onica gave Politehnica a penalty kick with the score 1-1.
After Politehnica made the kick, Roso chairman Mihai Macovei drove onto the field and attempted to run over the referee several times. Onica dodged the car each time.
Macovei left the field and was stopped by police officers when he tried to return. Macovei has made no comment. The Moldovan soccer federation on Monday fined Macovei about $1,900, and an investigation is under way.
That Kobe, what a man
Sports Illustrated’s Franz Lidz, asked to name his choice as the magazine’s “Sportsman of the Year” for an SI.com story, selected Kobe Bryant.
Lidz said he made the choice “in the grand tradition of Time, which has conferred its ‘Man of the Year’ prize on the less-than-admirable likes of Adolf Hitler (1938), Josef Stalin (‘39 and ‘42) and the Ayatollah Khomeini (‘79).
“Time’s award (now called the Person of the Year) isn’t supposed to be an honor, just a recognition of impact. And this year no sports world newsmaker had a greater impact than Bryant.”
Out of bounds
NFL wide receiver David Boston, now with the Miami Dolphins, recently was charged with simple assault for allegedly bull-rushing and head-slapping an airline gate attendant who tried to stop Boston from boarding a plane.
Wrote Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Boston is expected to argue that contact occurred within the 5-yard bump zone.”
Bay Area blues
Wrote Larry Stewart in the L.A. Times: San Francisco reader Janice Hough says, “A thought for you folks in Los Angeles: There are worse things than not having an NFL team.”
The San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders have combined for four victories.
Only in America
From Pete McEntegart of Sports Illustrated.com:
“Giorgio Armani has filed a suit against boxing promoter Don King, alleging that King stiffed the company for a $75,000 shopping spree at an Armani store in Manhattan last year. King claims that it was probably just somebody who looks like him, given his common appearance.”
Good question
Actor Charlie Sheen, during an appearance on FSN’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period,” was asked what he’d give for an official major league baseball at-bat. “I would trade an Oscar,” Sheen said.
Responded Tom Arnold: “Whose Oscar would you give them?”
Time travel
NBA referee Hue Hollins, speaking at the recent Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission “Basketball 101” seminar, admitted that not every traveling and 3-second violation is called.
“If we called them all, 7:30 games would be ending at 11:30,” Hollins said.
The last word …
“It is when ESPN fills the programming void with repeats of ‘Dream Job’ that I truly realize how much I miss the NHL.”
Tim Kawakami, San Jose Mercury News