Yankees rely on old rage, young sage
Apparently, it was the hand – actually, the mouth – of George Steinbrenner, propelling the New York Yankees to a 19-8 blowout over Tampa Bay.
That would be the easy way to view the Yankees’ victory last Monday night, one day after Steinbrenner’s explosion over his highly paid team’s poor start.
Maybe, though, it also had something to do with the presence of youthful sage Patrick McCarthy, the 8-year-old who was pulled out of the path of a truck last week in Boston by Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez.
On Tuesday, CNN’s “American Morning” played a clip of Monday’s visit to the studio by McCarthy and his father Joe.
“When I go there, the Yankees are gonna have a long winning streak,” Patrick said of his plan to watch the game in person. … I think when I get there, the Yankees are gonna win lots and lots of games.”
•Steinbrenner’s blast got the folks at AOL Sports thinking, and they offered this question for online readers: Who is sports’ most meddling owner?
Not surprisingly, the man in the news, Steinbrenner, led the way with 58 percent of the votes, followed by Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, 19 percent; Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks, 12 percent, and Daniel Snyder of the Washington Redskins, 11 percent. As of Monday night, there were 19,025 votes in the poll.
Bambino wear
FortuneFun.com President John Wallis announced Friday that his firm intended to purchase Babe Ruth’s “so-called called-shot jersey” from Game 3 of the 1932 World Series against the Chicago Cubs.
“Babe Ruth’s ‘called shot’ is one of the single most famous moments in sports history,” Wallis said in a news release. “We will win this auction; I will display the jersey in my home for a short period, and then raffle it off to one of our hundreds of thousands of players.”
The on-line auction house Grey Flannel will start the bidding in mid-May and is set to finish in late June with the minimum bid reported to be $400,000.
Pick of faith
Columnist Martin Fennelly of the Tampa Tribune, on all NFL draft talk, all the time:
“Vatican sources tell Mel Kiper Jr. the new supreme pontiff has good knee bend and can deliver an accurate Hail Mary. Some thought Benedict a reach at No. XVI. The cardinals considered trading down to stock up on archbishops. Spiritual leaders at One Buc Place cringe at his youth. The new pope is only 78. And they just hate praying rookies. OK, maybe we’re thinking about the NFL draft too much.”
Words of wisdom
St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times columnist Gary Shelton listed six ways to avoid a lousy draft selection. Among them: Be careful where you shop.
“Avoid Tennessee receivers,” Shelton wrote. “Avoid Nebraska quarterbacks. Avoid Penn State running backs unless they are named Franco Harris.”
They said it
St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Jeff Gordon wondered this about a certain ESPN draft analyst:
“Does Mel Kiper Jr. put a coat of primer on his hair helmet while preparing for the NFL draft telecast?”
•Dave Thomas of the Fort Worth Star Telegram:
“Eagles receiver Terrell Owens releases a statement through a public-relations firm stating that he no longer will discuss reports of his desire for a new contract. … So, the media recently has been credited with pushing Barry Bonds into a break and getting Terrell Owens to shut up. Can we at least get a thank you?”