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Goodbye, Bob Brenly. Good grief, Major League Baseball. Good riddance, Lance Armstrong. In case you are wondering if there was anything newsworthy Wednesday (Oct. 17) in the wonderful world of sports.
BOB BRENLY: Chicago Cubs television analyst Brenly will not be returning for the 2013 season. “Working here in Chicago was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my professional career,” Brenly, 58, said in a statement. “The Ricketts family, everyone associated with the Cubs and WGN and, most importantly, Cubs’ fans everywhere, will always be in our hearts, and Joan and I wish nothing but the best for the organization moving forward.
If we're going to feature something Nike-related, better this Oregon cheerleader than discredited cyclist Lance Armstrong.
“I was very blessed to have the best play-by-play man in the game as my partner for eight years and Cubs’ fans are very fortunate to have Len Kasper as the voice of the Cubs. I’ll miss working with him and we look fondly toward returning to Chicago in the future.”
It is unlikely the Cubs will find a better broadcaster than Brenly. If they can find one who is close to Brenly’s level, they will be lucky.
MLB ALCS RAINOUT: Game 4 of the American League Championship Series was postponed by rain in Detroit, thereby delaying the possibility of the Tigers sweeping the New York Yankees from the postseason. The postponement made perfect sense — as long as you didn’t expect rain to go along with the decision to call the game.
About 90 minutes after the game’s scheduled start, rain did fall and fall for hours. Major League Baseball officials said the game was postponed “in an effort to preserve the integrity of an uninterrupted full nine-inning game.” Meaning MLB didn’t want the teams to lose their starting pitchers after a lengthy rain delay. Maybe commissioner Bud Selig can guarantee rain won’t interrupt the rescheduled Game 4 on Thursday.
Elsewhere in the postseason, the San Francisco Giants and host St. Louis Cardinals endured a 3:28 rain delay in their Game 3 that ended with the Cards winning 3-1 to take a 2-1 series lead. Both starting pitchers were gone before the delay, so presumably the “integrity” was not a factor. But what if the starters had been still pitching and then had to depart because of the long delay? Isn’t that baseball? Or is it merely a case of MLB not wanting to shortchange television partner Fox, especially concerning the large-market Yankees?
LANCE ARMSTRONG: The man who won seven Tour de France cycling titles has had better days than Wednesday. Nike, Anheuser-Busch, Trek and other companies said they will end endorsement deals in the wake of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s report that makes it fairly clear he was deeply involved in doping use. Armstrong also stepped down as chairman of Livestrong, his foundation dedicated to fighting cancer.
“Due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade, it is with great sadness that we have terminated our contract with him,” Nike said in a statement. “Nike does not condone the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs in any manner.”
No doubt Armstrong, 41, still will have his supporters — even though he is a fraud. He built a personal fortune estimated at $125 million by being a fraud. He raised money for cancer based on his fraudulent success. His heroic story of battling cancer and winning titles is far less heroic. His name reportedly will be coming off the Armstrong Fitness Center that Nike has on its Oregon headquarters.
Is this the end of Lance Armstrong? Well, some would hope so. Chances are they won’t be so lucky. Armstrong will disappear temporarily from the public eye and resurface somehow. Provided that he wants to. He has the chance to write a tale of redemption — after all, junk-bond king Michael Milken, who went to jail for securities fraud, was able to do that. Provided that Armstrong wants to go through that redemption process. Maybe if someone tells him doing so would provide a far better ending — as well as the chance for another book and more time in the spotlight — he might consider it.
Ann Sheehan is on the Oct. 18 "Sports & Torts" show.
If today is Thursday (and the odds are excellent that it is — mainly because yesterday was Wednesday and tomorrow is scheduled to be Friday, if you happen to be reading this on Oct. 18 or any subsequent Thursday), then it is time once again for another edition of “Sports & Torts” with co-hosts David Spada and Elliott Harris at noon Chicago time on talkzone.com.
The guests on the Oct. 18 show are actress/model Ann Sheehan and former football standouts Bob Brown and James Lofton. If you are unable to be online for the live airing of the highly acclaimed (well, it is in the Spada and Harris household, as well as reportedly elsewhere), the program will become available later on podcast.
Ann is a former cheerleader for the short-lived XFL Chicago Enforcers and was a member of the Adrenaline Rush Dancers of the Arena Football League’s Chicago Rush. And fun to be around — in case anyone out there was wondering.
Once again, the video-research department at elliottharris.com spent considerable time in quest of suitable footage to use around here. You can make the call on whether this is suitable or not (well, at the very least it is swimsuitable:
Now that we have your attention (if those bikini videos didn’t do that, please check to see if you have a pulse), your humble correspondent/overlord of this web site would like to wish Robert Harris (aka my brother) a happy birthday. This is one of the joys of running your own site. Which reminds me that I forgot to wish myself a happy bosses day. Maybe next year.
Of course, today provides another chance to see if I can spend more time in search of binders of women (rumor has it that there’s some political implication attached to that). Going through binders of women on Wednesday led to a less productive day than usual — if that’s possible.
And now a brief musical interlude:
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