DigSportsDesk News
Bonner: Rocket's Red Glare
By Jan Hubbard (Special to DigitalSportsDesk)
SAN ANTONIO – May 17, 2012 -- Apparently the fine administrators at Woodlake Hills Middle School in San Antonio see no irony in trying to improve the learning atmosphere by doing something dumb.
When a red-haired student showed up Wednesday with a haircut that had an image of Spurs forward Matt Bonner – a.k.a The Red Rocket – shaved on the back of his head, he was told that it was a distraction to other students and it had to be removed or else he would be suspended.
When Bonner heard about it, he was stunned.
“Couldn’t you just move him to the back of the class?” was Bonner’s common sense suggestion. “Then nobody would see it. It wouldn’t be a distraction. Otherwise, the nicest thing a fan has ever done for me is ruined.”
Bonner is a player of modest overall talent but exceptional shooting ability. He is capable of getting on a roll and drenching opponents with a flurry of 3-pointers, and that endears him to fans, including Gonzalez.
But Bonner is also a stickler for education. At the University of Florida, Bonner graduated with a 3.6 grade point average. His mother taught grade school for 35 years, retired for three and missed it so much that she is going to return to teaching.
“I’m not going to condemn the school,” he said. “If anyone is in support of education and academics, it’s myself – my Mom being a teacher, and my own academic success. Like I said, they could have just moved him to the back of the class.”
Gonzalez mother said she had asked school officials about the haircut and they did not object, but later a school official said that wasn’t the case.
As distracting as school officials claimed it might have been, however, their reaction caused far more PR damage to the school district. Bonner told the San Antonio Express-News that he planned to shower Patrick with Spurs memorabilia and also invite Patrick and his family to Game 2 of the Spurs-Clippers series Thursday night.
“Obviously, I’m hooking Patrick up with signed everything,” Bonner said. “But we’re also trying to get him to the game tonight. Hopefully, it works out and he can make it, and I hope he still has that [image] shaved on his head.”
Gonzalez’ mother said he would comply with the school order to remove the image, but she was frustrated with how the issue had been handled.
While there is no doubt that schools should have control over hairstyles or clothing they consider distracting, there is little doubt that the situation could have been handled in a better way without embarrassing the student and certainly without the school district embarrassing itself.
Ultimately, however, Bonner enjoyed the tribute from Gonzalez.
“I’ve seen the picture,” Bonner said. “It’s a very flattering portrait of myself.”
G3: Celtics Dominate vs. Sixers
PHILADELPHIA – Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo combined for 74 points Wednesday night and led the Boston Celtics to an impressive victory over the Philadelphia 76ers, 107-91, in Game 3 of their NBA Eastern Conference semifinal series. Garnett scored 27 points, Pierce added 24 and Rondo scored 23 points and added 14 assists as the Celtics took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven set and reclaimed the homecourt advantage. Game 4 is scheduled for Friday night in Philadelphia. Garnett, who shot 12-for-17 from the floor, also grabbed 13 rebounds.
The Celtics fell behind by seven early in the second quarter but turned the game around with a dominant 32-16 effort before the half closed at 60-49. The Celtics shot a series-high 54.5 percent from the floor over the last three quarters (30-for-55), while outscoring the Sixers 79-58. Boston, which shot 51.9 percent in all, led by as many as 27 points in the second half.
Pierce, plagued by a bad knee and matched-up against the toughest Philadelphia defender, Andre Iguodala, shot 2-for-10 in the first half but had two impressive dunks and five offensive rebounds. Pierce rallied to make six of his last 11 field goals, but, more importantly hit 11 of 14 free throws.
For the 76ers, Thaddeus Young had 22 points for the Sixers, and Jrue Holiday added 15. Holiday scored 10 of his points in the first quarter, when the Sixers shot 61.9 percent and assumed a 33-28 lead. But the Sixers, who also scored the first basket of the second period to go up by seven, were outscored 32-14 the rest of the quarter to fall behind 60-49 at halftime. Garnett crammed 13 points into that stretch.
Agassi and McEnroe Bring Back Rivalry
Tennis Greats Stump for World Team Tennis and Charity Event this July 19
By TERRY LYONS (Special to DigitalSportsDesk)
NEW YORK, MAY 15, 2012 -- Tennis greats John McEnroe and Andre Agassi took to their global communications pulpit to blast the tennis establishment during a full-scale stump for the virtues of World Team Tennis during a media conference conducted by team tennis organizers on Monday. Agassi will join McEnroe this summer in their attempt to raise funds for McEnroe's now-annual "give-back" to the New York city tennis programs that transformed him from an unknown Douglaston, Queens teenager to one of the greatest athletes and winners the sports world has ever seen.
The two tennis Hall of Famers, along with women's tennis great Martina Hingis, will compete as part of a World Team Tennis match between the New York Sportimes and Boston Lobsters in a July 19 event with proceeds to be donated to the "Johnny Mac" Tennis Project (JMTP). The charity program provides scholarships, coaching, transportation and other financial assistance to qualified young tennis players in the greater New York area. The special, one-time performance by Agassi will take place at Sportime Stadium on Randall's Island in New York City.
"Back in the '70s, when World Team Tennis started and Billie Jean King spearheaded the league, the matches were played in places like Madison Square Garden," noted McEnroe, a tennis participant at every level of the game from exhibitions, to team tennis to Davis Cup to the Grand Slam tour. "The top players in the world were all playing, and I remember that they didn't let Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg play in the French Open one year because they were playing team tennis.
"Now, the powers that be in tennis have made little effort to give this, perhaps, what it deserves. It would be beneficial to all to give this a real chance, and I don't think it's being given that chance. Billy Jean has been battling for it for years and she's trying to get a place in the schedule for it for years. It's a fun (event) to play and it gives tennis something for kids to look at it in a slightly different way than being out there by yourself. Certainly, there's a lot more work to be done," added McEnroe of his noteworthy belief on the importance of team tennis in the sport's hierarchy.
"I've always loved team tennis and I've always thought there's a huge place for it in our sport," said Agassi during a conference call with a global contingent of tennis and sports writers. "I've always loved the format but John can speak more of its history."
Last year, McEnroe faced tennis legend Bjorn Borg in the first JMTP benefit in front of a sold-out Sportimes Stadium crowd. Johnny Mac Tennis Project recipients train at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy which is now its second year at Sportime Randall’s Island.
“This year’s Johnny Mac Tennis Project Night will highlight three of the most popular and exciting players ever to play the sport,” said Sportime Clubs and NY Sportimes CEO Claude Okin. “Andre Agassi has become a notable humanitarian and ambassador for tennis as a life changing opportunity. We are thrilled that he will be part of this great night and join our efforts to improve the lives of young people and young players here in New York City. Hopefully one will become the next John McEnroe in the not too distant future."
Since its launch in 2010, the John McEnroe Tennis Academy has outgrown its original home on NYC’s Randall’s Island to expand to create two new annexes of the academy, scheduled to open on Long Island and in Westchester County this fall. The Academy’s expansion will give young people who live in nearby suburbs a chance to train while they attend their own schools, much like McEnroe and his siblings did in Queens.
“We need to continue to find good athletes and expose them to tennis, and that’s what this program has done,” said McEnroe. “The tri-state area has thousands of kids, some of whom will excel in tennis if we give them the chance. That’s what we are doing, giving them a chance to have well-rounded lives as they play the great game of tennis.”
Part of the opportunity born through the McEnroe program will come in the form of scholarships to be partially funded from the July 19th event, Ticket prices for the event are a steep $250, $150 and $60 but tax deductions are to be considered. Tickets for the Benefit night on July 19 and for all NY Sportimes home matches can be purchased by calling 1-888-WTT-NYC1 or by visiting www.nysportimes.com online.
Red Sox, Fans and Baseball Lost an Icon in Carl Beane
By TERRY LYONS -- (Special to DigitalSportsDesk)
BOSTON, MAY 11, 2012 - When we go about our normal, everyday lives, we take an awful lot for granted. The sun, the moon, the skies, the wind, the earth are a huge part of our lives but we rarely stop to think of them. Sometimes, we thank our lucky stars, usually after a near-disaster. In the normal course of life, we cherish our family, especially our Moms and Dads, siblings and our wonderful children, but we leave the house everyday with the expectation we'll see our loved ones at dinner time.
On Wednesday, cherished Boston-area radio man, Carl Beane, went off to work in Western Massachusetts to fill-in at WARE-Radio in Palmer - a small, rustic town near Sturbridge and Springfield. Beane reportedly suffered a massive heart attack while driving home from his three-hour morning gig, he fell unconscious and his SUV crashed into a tree. There were no passengers in his vehicle and no others were injured in the accident, according to police reports. Beane was pronounced dead at Harrington Hospital in Southbridge a short time later, according to a release from the town's District Attorney, Joseph D. Early Jr.. Carl Beane went off to work Wednesday morning but didn't come home.
The midday news put a terrible cloud over the Greater Boston sports scene as the Red Sox played at Kansas City, losing 4-3. Upon returning home to Fenway Park for a six-game homestand, the talk of the town turned to Beane via his colleagues in sports radio, with press room banter at the Boston Celtics playoff game against the Atlanta Hawks and at the press box of Fenway where the Red Sox took on the Cleveland Indians in a quiet park with no public address announcements and only somber organ music filling the spring air.
Over at the raucous TD Boston Garden on Thursday night, the pregame talk was much about the quiet, unassuming manner of Beane, a fixture at nearly all Boston sporting events for some 30 years.
"The thing that most people don't know, in general, about Carl Beane is that he had a lot of gigs. People have come to know him as the voice and the public address (PA) announcer at Fenway Park but we all, in the media, knew him as this incredibly diligent radio guy from Central Massachusetts," said Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan, the dean of the greater Boston media contingent. "He's a fixture at Fenway, at the Garden and at Foxboro. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that there's nobody in the media business, print or electronic, who has spent more nights at the combination of the Garden, Fenway and Foxboro than Carl Beane did over the last 25-30 years.
"You'd see him every single night. At the Garden, before and after every single game, doing his radio stuff. At Fenway, he was doing his radio job before and after his PA gig. He never stopped and apparently loved every second of it. He had to scrap to earn out a living doing this and he did it," added Ryan.
"Obviously, the culmination of everything for him was having the PA job at Fenway. He relished it, he respected it. He loved baseball and was so honored to be following in the tradition of Sherm Feller. People have now become aware of the fact that there is a picture outside the broadcast booth and he would 'give a little touch' on the way in. I think there was some kind of spiritual communication between Carl and Sherman who he thought was watching over him these last ten years while doing such a great job. There was nobody who was happier doing their job at Fenway than Carl Beane and he was very, very good at what he did. This is a huge loss. We lost a very nice, smiling, jovial man. I associate him with smiling and laughing and just enjoying life. He will truly be missed," said Ryan.
Veteran Celtics play-by-play man Mike Gorman spoke for so many people, both in the media and from fandome, stating, "I really didn't know Carl all that well but I knew his work really well. In that sense, he will sorely be missed. Professionally, talking of his work, his work was outstanding. He had such a great comfort level. There's a real art to doing public address announcing. Guys like Bob Sheppard, in New York, had it. Carl had it and he understood it. He understood less was better and he understood how to punctuate the moment. He was very, very good at what he did and he will be missed," noted Gorman.
A contemporary of Beane's, Steve Holman of Lawrence, Massachusetts, was in town calling the NBA game for the Atlanta Hawks. "I've know Carl since the 1970s, he was one of those guys who kept plugging away. he would get tape every night and he was a hussler, feeding tape to all the different media outlets. He was the nicest guy and everybody really liked him," said Holman.
"We all covered Red Sox games or here, covering Celtics and Bruins games and he was a fixture. While I've been in Atlanta since 1980, I'd see him every so often and I was so happy for him when he got the PA job. That's a job of a lifetime. I know he always wanted to do something like that and he did a terrific job. I'd watch the games on Direct TV and I would tell my kids, 'I know that guy!' He sounded so much like Sherm Feller. I grew up with Sherm Feller and after Sherm had retired and then passed on, the Red Sox went through a few guys but when Carl came in there, he was Sherm Feller again. He made everyone feel comfortable and was just a great guy."
"Sherm was always around in the press room after the games. Ken Harrelson was doing the games back then and Sherm would come into the press room and start to tell stories and everyone would always laugh and have a great time. He was one of those 'Man about town' or 'the World's Most Interesting Man." He had that voice," recalled Holman, one of the most long-serving and respected voices of the NBA.
"I know Carl was very proud of his daughter and he always told me about her. I know he was proud of her and proud of his work. I heard he had worked the morning shift, so he kind of went doing what he wanted to do. He was just a good guy and we were all so happy for him when he got the PA job. I watched that 100th Anniversary ceremony and it was a real crowning moment that will always be remembered."
From the Boston local television side, there is no better representative of the nightly news and the challenge of capturing a broadcast-worthy sound byte than Mike Lynch, the sports director at WCVB-TV, Channel 5 in Boston.
Said Lynch, in a perfect and succinct summation of Beane, "There are few people who get to do what they are put on this earth to do and Carl Beane was put on this earth to use his marvelous voice that was booming, yet gentle and tender, and informative at the same time," said Lynch.
"Every stadium and every arena seems to have yahoo announcers who all want to out-scream each other. Carl respected his job, he respected the Red Sox, he respected Fenway Park and he respected the game of baseball every time he sat down behind that microphone."
***
The Boston Red Sox organization took a number of classy steps to recognize their beloved employee. Among the first class actions taken, the club issued a heartfelt statement which read:
The Boston Red Sox lost a member of their family, Public Address Announcer Carl Beane, who died after suffering a heart attack while driving his car in Sturbridge, MA. Beane, 59, had been the “Voice of Fenway Park” since the start of the 2003 season. The veteran Boston sports reporter began his work at Fenway Park Opening Day, 2003, after winning a competition held after the 2002 season.
“We are filled with sadness at this tragic news,” said Red Sox President/CEO Larry Lucchino. “No one loved his role with the Red Sox more than Carl did his. He adored the opportunity to pay homage each game to Sherm Feller, and to contribute to the culture of Fenway Park, a place he loved passionately. His legion of friends with the Red Sox and the media will miss him enormously, and all of Red Sox Nation will remember his presence, his warmth, and his voice.
Beane was born and raised in Agawam, MA. He graduated from Agawam High School in 1971 and the Career Academy School of Broadcasting in 1972, when he began his broadcasting career at WMAS in Springfield. He provided national updates for ESPN Radio, Sirius Satellite Radio, Westwood One, Associated Press, and MetroNetworks, and also worked for WBZ Radio in Boston, WBRK in Pittsfield (1974-76), WARE in Ware (1976-94), and WESO in Southbridge (1994-98). He taught sports broadcasting and play-by-play classes at the Connecticut School of Broadcasting in Needham, MA. He has also been a national spokesman for The American Diabetes Association, and served as a narrator for Talking Books at the Perkins School for the Blind.
The Beane family asked that contributions in his memory be donated to the Holland Congregational Church Building Fund (11 Sturbridge Road, Holland, MA 01521) and the American Diabetes Association www.diabetes.org
The Silence was Golden
Amazing feat goes unoticed in great weekend of NBA Playoff Games
By Terry Lyons
(Special to DigitalSportsDesk)
BOSTON - MAY 6, 2012 - A funny thing happened at an NBA Playoff game this weekend and it wasn't even noticed. No, it wasn't Oklahoma City's impressive sweep over the defending champion Dallas Mavericks or the San Antonio Spurs handling of the formidable Utah Jazz in four straight games. It wasn't accounting firm Ernst & Young screwing up the ballot count for the NBA's Most Improved Player award nor the impressive play of David West for the Indiana Pacers. What happened this weekend went unreported, un-posted, un-blogged, un-tweeted. One of the greatest feats in NBA Playoff history and the story never even made the ESPN highlight reel.
So what the hell happened?
On Friday night at the TD Boston Garden in front of a sellout crowd of 18,624 which included a heavy dose of NBA brass, the officiating crew of #10 Ron Garretson, #13 Monty McCutchen and #33 Zach Zarba called a (near) perfect game.
Every referee worth his whistle swears the perfect game is an unattainable goal. At the highest level of basketball, an official doesn't stand a chance of getting them all right because the players are just too big, too quick, too strong. They are so talented and athletic, they're just too everything. They play so far above the rim and they can contort their bodies in midair to avoid contact or collision that the naked eyes can't compute the optical illusion occurring before them. The NBA game cannot be compared to hoops at any other level. It's even more impossible to compare officiating. To the novice fan, comparing NBA ball to college basketball or Euroleague Basketball, is harder than trying to compare apples and oranges or The Rolling Stones to The Who to The Beatles. It just can't be done.
When the red carpet was rolled out on Friday, plush with NBA Commissioner David Stern seated near his trusty deputy, Adam Silver, they both witnessed the feat alongside a bonafide CNN anchorman, John King, who could've broken into programming to report the news. However, not a single news bulletin, nor a word of congratulations was spoken to the men ultimately responsible for how their game is called. In the post-game press conferences, nobody brought up the subject of officiating. There were no kind words. No headlines written. World Series perfectionist Don Larson's name never came up when the Celtics defeated the Atlanta Hawks, 90-84, in overtime, and the NBA registered the best officiated game of the year. It might've been the best officiated game of the the century.
An unofficial review of the game brought about four or five "possible" missed calls or miscues, none of them even close to being significant. The only blip on the screen was a moment when Boston Coach Doc Rivers sauntered way out onto the court but he wasn't arguing a call and the referring crew let it go, as they should. Rivers was trying to get the attention of his point guard Rajon Rondo who was not on the same page as his coach when the All-Star point guard returned to play in Game 3 after being suspended for a single playoff date for bumping NBA ref Marc Davis in Game 1 of the series. After that contest, there was quite a bit of focus on the officiating and, after the game, there was a constant banter on the steps the NBA would take to discipline Rondo for his obvious disregard of the sacred personal space around an official.
Rightfully, the NBA suspended Rondo a single game for his indiscretion but Avery Bradley, Sasha Pavlovic, Keyon Dooling and Marquis Daniels all stepped up quite nicely for the Celtics as they tied the series 1-1 with an 87-80 win over the Hawks at Atlanta. The Celtics' win brought the series to Boston for the "so-called" pivotal Game 3 where the stakes were raised so high, the people of Kentucky would start singing "My Old Kentucky Home." The game was important and the players delivered a hard-fought, entertaining, defensive chess match that saw Boston hold Atlanta to 38-percent shooting from the field and 20-percent from three-point land. Much of that defensive intensity is credited to the amazing play of Kevin Garnett who has played with the youthful exuberance of the high schooler who entered the league in 1995. Garnett recently switched to center after teammate Jermaine O'Neal went down to injury and had season-ending surgery on his left wrist in March.
Out on the perimeter where real defense happens in game of basketball, Bradley has become the stopper. Complemented by the speedy Rondo, the consistent Paul Pierce, the hard-working and the deep bench of Daniels, Dooling, Mickael Pietrus and important minutes being played by Ray Allen, now as a reserve the past two games, Bradley has become the difference maker for the Boston Celtics as they plot their way through the 2012 NBA Playoffs with the window of opportunity showing a shade pulled three-quarters of the way down. This might be it for this era of Celtics basketball and the NBA's cut-down season provides an opportunity to hang banner No. 18 in the rafters of TD Boston Garden.
In this year when NCAA officiating was a downright disgrace to the game and when NBA bad boy Metta World Peace earned a seven-game suspension for nearly decapitating Oklahoma's James Harden, the whistle blowers are always the visiting team. It was once said that officiating is the only profession in the world where the ultimate compliment is silence. That is certainly true. No news is good news when the refs are escorted off the court by a security detail that rivals the US Secret Service presence in a Colombian strip joint. The attention brought upon NBA referees in the past five or six years largely revolved around the criminal activities of one Tim Donoghy and the sniping by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and his "couldn't run a Dairy Queen" viewpoint of the dedicated group of professional refs who call the game at the very highest level. They run, they pivot, they get screened by giants on the court, they peek around bodies, scramble for better position, work their rotations all in an attempt to "just get it right." Then, they have their judgements reviewed by partisan television commentators who make their references from observing 12 high-definition television cameras situated so far away from the court, they create bad angles and optical illusions which often prompt erroneous reporting or legions of fans scowling when the replays are shown on jumbo in-arena screens.
On Friday night, the crew of Garretson, McCutcheon and Zarba, a young rising superstar official, got it right. No one noticed, but that's alright. They reviewed the game themselves and probably second-guessed a judgement call or two. They showered, dressed, then left the building without so much as a pat on the back or a single cheer from the fans.
Only the funeral directors, morticians and undertakers could relate.
