Blips, Blurbs & Blasts

By: John M. Crist

Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s …… In honor of “Superman Returns,” it’s another edition of Blips, Blurbs & Blasts:

After his riches-to-rags fallout in Boston and subsequent “he’ll never be the player he used to be” treatment in Chicago, perhaps this season’s most deserving All-Star is Nomar Garciaparra. It must have been painful for him to be traded mid-season and watch from a distance as the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, but not nearly as painful as the torn groin that derailed his 2005 campaign with the Cubs before it ever really got going. Now Mr. Mia Hamm is leading the National League in hitting at .359 entering Thursday night’s action, and despite having never played first base before, he’s only made one error all season and sports a Steve Garvey-like .998 fielding percentage…

The Chicago Bears already have all their draft picks signed, a welcome change from the Cedric Benson fiasco that festered well into training camp a year ago. I guess it’s a little easier for GM Jerry Angelo to get the new Bears to Bourbonnais when he trades out of the first round and doesn’t even make a pick until 42nd overall. Now I’m sure safety Danieal Manning will add some depth in the secondary and cornerback Devin Hester could make a difference in the return game, but I’m still absolutely floored that the Bears waited until the sixth round to address their anemic offense, and even then, fullback J.D. Runnels wasn’t exactly who I had in mind…

The class of the 2003 NBA Draft has hit extension time after three years of service, and with one notable exception, a generation of budding young stars looks to be staying put for quite a while. No. 3 overall pick Carmelo Anthony has already agreed to a maximum contract (five years and $80 million) with the Denver Nuggets. The same can be said for No. 4 selection Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors. Ditto for NBA Finals MVP Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat. The name curiously missing from this list is overall No. 1 LeBron James, and considering what he means not only to the Cavaliers but to the entire city of Cleveland, I’d be rubbing a rabbit’s foot right now if I were GM Danny Ferry…

The future of women’s golf may belong to Michelle Wie, but the present is still comfortably held in the overlapped grip of Annika Sorenstam. The Swiss assassin captured her 10th major on the LPGA Tour by defeating Pat Hurst in an 18-hole playoff at last week’s U.S. Women’s Open, moving her closer to the all-time mark of 15 major victories held by Patty Berg. There had been silly talk recently of Sorenstam being mired in a slump, but if you look at the raw data, she’s entered 10 tournaments this year, scored eight Top-10s, won twice, and sits second on the money list at over $1.2 million…

Northwestern head football coach Randy Walker died suddenly of an apparent heart attack last week despite being just 52 years old. Pigskin fans might look at his 37-46 career record with the Wildcats, including three bowl appearances in seven seasons, and assume he was just another run-of-the-mill guy with a whistle in his mouth. But when you consider he was the first field general at Northwestern (the one small private school in a conference of large state schools) to amass four six-win seasons in over a century, with his wide-open offense and wide-open relationship with the media, Walker truly was the Annie Sullivan of the Big Ten…

The finals of the World Cup are all set as Italy and France will square off this Sunday. It should be quite a match as two of the most dominant programs in all the land battle for soccer supremacy. I’d write more about this topic, but I’m currently writhing on the ground and holding my knee in agonizing pain even though I was barely touched…

Just like at the U.S. Open last month at Winged Foot, the Tiger Woods camp already has its spin on the story no matter what happens in this month’s British Open at Royal Liverpool. If he wins, it will be because of all the emotions he was going through surrounding his late father. If he doesn’t win, it will be because of all the emotions he was going through surrounding his late father …

I can live with the United States Olympic basketball team not winning a gold medal in Athens. I can deal with the U.S. not making the finals in the inaugural World Baseball Classic. But when Takeru Kobayashi, a 160-pound Japanese kid with a stomach flatter than a dead man’s EKG, won his sixth consecutive Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island this past Independence Day weekend, I officially started to question our nation’s once-superior athletic ability …

Superstar high school point guard O.J. Mayo of Cincinnati announced this week that he will play college basketball (albeit for just one year, most likely) at USC. This could work out great since Matt Leinart’s old roommate, wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett, is probably still looking for a place to live. He just might have to downgrade his expectations on a new pad since Leinart’s father won’t be picking up the majority of the rent check this time (and violating NCAA rules in the process) …

Kudos to the “Superman Returns” braintrust for casting super-tasty Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane this time around. How for the love of Krypton did Margot Kidder land that role in the original movie back in `78? Who’d she beat out, Joyce DeWitt?

John Crist is a longtime contributor to the CSR, and the Editor-in-Chief of Bear Report Magazine. Check it out and become a Bears Insider. You can contact him at johncrist@yahoo.com.

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