Tag: Sports

By Leaps and Bounds

Post author By Rachel Stinson
Post date June 28, 2007

Twenty feet in the air, the young athlete seems as confident as if he were standing on the ground. Within seconds, he drops back to the surface of the trampoline, which contours to his feet for a moment before he springs even higher.

At the USA Gymnastics’ 2007 Trampoline and Tumbling National Championships, youths and young adults from around the country are bouncing about everywhere.

As the athletes warm up at the Memphis Cook Convention Center, a young woman sprints onto a mini-trampoline before catapulting herself into the air. Nearby, men with triangular torsos leap and flip in synchronization.

Clearly, no one here is scared of heights.

But it takes far more than confidence to arrive at the national championships. According to Ann Sims, trampoline and tumbling program director, “Anyone can jump on a trampoline, but to excel, you need spatial awareness, flexibility, and a strong mental attitude.”

Sims, who has been with USA Gymnastics since 1999, first became interested in trampoline and tumbling when her children participated in the sports. Now, she witnesses others determined to excel.

“They have to jump through all the hoops to get here,” she says. And, of course, they have to jump quite a bit literally.

This year, more than 1,700 athletes are competing in the championships.

Because trampoline and tumbling competitions are dangerous, safety must be taken seriously, Sims emphasizes: “All sports have liabilities, but we limit that to a minimum through the best equipment and safety.”

According to Sims, trampoline and tumbling are evolved forms of activities children enjoy anyway. “With competing, the kids just go higher and faster,” she explains.

Elite athletes soar up to 20 feet, Sims tells me. I later notice coaches and safety guards huddling around a trampoline, necks craned, while a young athlete rises higher and higher. Her turquoise leotard shimmers as she artfully twists her torso and extends her legs.

But Sims is referring just as much to passion as to physical skill when she states, “This is when they peak.”

Tags championship, gymnastics, nationals, Sports

Sports Sports Feature

Chauncey Billups’ Wife: “I’m NOT moving to Memphis.”

Post author By John Branston
Post date June 27, 2007

From the Detroit News: “Piper Billups’ ears perked up when the chatter at the nail salon turned to her husband, Pistons player Chauncey Billups.

“One woman announced Billups was leaving Detroit to sign with Milwaukee. Another brought up Los Angeles and Memphis, which piqued Piper Billups’ interest.

“‘Hmmm, I never heard that,’ Piper Billups laughed, while recounting the scene. ‘I was sitting up there thinking, Did you hear it from me? I am not moving to Memphis.'”

The story goes on to detail the Pistons’ efforts to retain Billups. It does not explain why Piper Billups thinks Detroit is so swell, compared to Memphis. She just might need to get out more.

Tags Chauncey Billups, Detroit Pistons, Memphis Grizzlies, Sports, update

Sports Sports Feature

Rick Ankiel’s “Ruthian” Journey

Post author By John Branston
Post date June 22, 2007

With 19 home runs through June 21st, Rick Ankiel has been the offensive star for the 2007 Memphis Redbirds. St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Joe Strauss calls Ankiel’s transition from the pitching mound (where he won 11 games for St. Louis in 2000) to the outfield “Ruthian.”

High praise, indeed, for someone who makes his living playing baseball. Read Strauss’ profile here.

Tags baseball, Memphis Redbirds, Rick Ankiel, Sports

News The Fly-By

Q&A: Phil Cannon,

Post author By Rachel Stinson
Post date June 14, 2007

“Golf is a good walk spoiled,” Mark Twain once famously said. But for Phil Cannon, tournament director of the Stanford St. Jude Championship golf tournament, golf is a good walk, period — especially when it benefits St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. A volunteer with the tournament since 1968, Cannon became tournament director in 2000. Last week, the Flyer spoke with Cannon during the tournament’s 50th anniversary. — by Rachel Stinson

Flyer: What is your favorite memory from the tournament?

Cannon: Working with the volunteers has generated hundreds of memories for me because they’re donating their time and raising money for children. For every five years of volunteering, we award the Volunteer Year Pin. After someone has volunteered for 25 years, we give the gold pin. This year, Gertie Tribo was the first volunteer to get the diamond pin for 50 years of volunteering.

On a more personal level, I’ve loved the opportunity to make friends with Bill Murray; he came to play in the pro-am in 2005. He is the most generous, down-to-earth celebrity in the world. Every once in a while, my cell phone rings, and it’s Bill Murray.

What about the tornado in 1986?

That was FedEx’s first year as title sponsor, and it was then that we really saw FedEx’s “can-do” spirit. The storm came in about 6 p.m. the night before, and it blew down trees everywhere. The PGA tour accessed everything and said we were in jeopardy of not being able to have the tournament. Either we were going to need hundreds of people to clean up, or we were not going to have it.

The next morning at 5 a.m., there were 250 people out there working as human vacuums. They weren’t even trained volunteers; they were just hard workers. That really was an indicator of FedEx and the local community.

Which hole is the most difficult?

The 14th hole is the most challenging. It’s over water, and [with the wind blowing] 15 to 20 mph, it’s difficult.

The slogan for the tournament used to be “Hush, Y’all,” but it changed this year. Why?

Early on in conversations with Stanford, we came to the realization that this was much more global for them than for FedEx; certain things that translated well in the Mid-South didn’t translate well globally. “Hush, Y’all” may have fit the Mid-South and been endearing here, but it wasn’t global. Our new slogan is “Desire Knows No Bounds.”

How long does it take to plan the tournament?

We have 1,850 volunteers this year, and they’ve worked a combined 22,500 hours. They love the family atmosphere, and they love the chance to combine effectively into big teams to raise money for St. Jude children. We also have six full-time staff members year-round. On Monday, June 11th, we start planning the next tournament.

Tags FedEx, interview, Sports, St. Jude Golf Tournament

Opinion Viewpoint

Getting the Shaft (Again)

Post author By Frank Murtaugh
Post date June 7, 2007

Eldrick Woods (you know him better as “Tiger”) will not be playing in this year’s Stanford St. Jude Classic. For the 11th consecutive year since he turned pro, the greatest golfer of this generation has, in golf terms, given the shaft to Memphis.

Tournament director Phil Cannon takes a dignified stance each year — no surprise there — when asked about the absence of Woods. He tells anyone within earshot that the greatest golfers in the world “playing golf” this weekend will, indeed, be playing in Memphis. And he’s spot on. But Cannon, his professional colleagues, and the legion of volunteers who make the tournament hum deserve better from the preeminent personality in their sport.

As a journalist, I find myself objectively rationalizing Eldrick’s continued absence. He has more money than anyone outside of Bill Gates’ accountant could manage. He’s all about winning majors, having won 12 before his 32nd birthday and chasing Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 like Ahab did that pale whale. Eldrick’s handlers would tell you their moneymaker is “resting up” for the U.S. Open (to be played next week in Oakmont, Pennsylvania), which is like the Cleveland Cavaliers coming to town and LeBron James staying home to “rest up” for the Cavs’ next game in Detroit. When the spotlight is brightest, says Eldrick Woods, I’ll show up. And when convenient.

What Woods is forsaking in his continued dismissal of our local tournament is the very heritage — golf’s heritage, mind you — that makes him so famous and wealthy today. There would be no “major” PGA event were it not for the weekly tournaments that gave the tour weight in the middle of the last century.

The rise of Arnold Palmer’s “army” made golf a sport that could be embraced (and played!) by hoi polloi. As public courses sprouted across the country, no longer was a country club membership a prerequisite to swinging a two-iron with all your unrefined might. (Palmer, by the way, played in Memphis five times between 1958 and 1972.)

Growth in popularity, Woods well knows, means growth in sponsorships, television coverage, and yes, money. When the Memphis Open was first played in 1958, the total purse was $20,000. This week, the field at Southwind will split a cool $6 million. Find me another enterprise that — even allowing for inflation — grows 300-fold in a half-century. Tiger is cashing the check that tournaments like ours in Memphis have made possible. And he can’t make one appearance per decade to say thanks?

In a city with as large an African-American presence as Memphis, you think Woods spending a weekend here wouldn’t have some impact? When Venus Williams came to town last February and stormed to victory in the Cellular South Cup, she had the entire city wrapped around her media-friendly finger. It was an exchange of affection that will last years, whether or not Williams returns to the Racquet Club on an annual basis.

Woods, alas, is too culturally blind to see the impact — off the golf course — he might have in the Mid-South. If it’s not mere blindness, I’d argue, the annual snub is that much more damning.

Nicklaus won two majors the first year he played in Memphis (1963). He won his second Masters the same year he won the Memphis Invitational Open (1965). He won two more majors in 1966 and picked up $4,650 for finishing 4th in Memphis. However many majors Woods eventually accumulates, for Memphis fans he’ll never be able to match the Golden Bear. Matter of fact, he’s not even on the same course.

As Cannon would remind us, there will be some great golf played in Memphis this week by the likes of Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Sergio Garcia, David Toms, Justin Leonard, and defending champ Jeff Maggert. Whether following them on the course or watching on TV in your living room, find one — or many — of these players to cheer.

Just remember, Memphis golf fans, to cheer them the following week, too. And the week after that. Until Woods pays Memphis a visit, I’ll be cheering his competition along. And the only Tigers I’ll be backing are those wearing blue and gray.

Go to MemphisFlyer.com for Frank Murtaugh’s weekly sports column,”From My Seat.”

Tags Golden Bear, Golf, memphis open, Sports, Tiger Woods

Opinion

The Hype Hall of Fame

Post author By John Branston
Post date May 24, 2007

Twelve stories, and not one of them hit the nail on the head.

The Commercial Appeal‘s two-week Grizzlies-palooza failed to identify the real reason the newspaper is so fired up about Tuesday’s NBA draft lottery.

It’s not, as the headline over columnist Geoff Calkins’ story said, because the “Future of Griz riding on right bounce.” Nor is it, as the headline over Grizzlies beat writer Ron Tillery’s story said, “Why the Grizzlies NEED to win the lottery.”

It’s because the future of the CA is riding on the right bounce, and the CA NEEDS to win the lottery.

Daily newspapers and sportswriters are always among the big winners when a professional sports franchise comes to town, but they rarely admit it. Major-league sports is one of the few subjects that can still attract a mass audience of fans and readers. The news operations of television stations — there are five of them in Memphis — can make it on murder and mayhem and weather. A daily newspaper — there is one of them in Memphis — and good writers like Calkins and Tillery need headliners and big stories.

No Grizzlies means nothing but the Redbirds, golf, and prep sports to “fill” the space between Tiger basketball and SEC football. And that would mean further declines in a readership that is already shrinking.

So, come on, guys, go ahead and say it: Professional athletes are overpaid mercenaries but good local reporters and editors are here for the long haul. If the Grizzlies win the lottery and get one of the top two draft picks, it’s good for the franchise and it’s also good for the daily paper (and to a lesser extent the Flyer). I don’t care if Pau and Stro stay or go, but I do care if Geoff, Ron, Mark Perrusquia, Mary Powers, Otis Sanford, and the Flyer‘s Chris Herrington and some others stay gainfully employed.

Whether the Grizzlies are all that important to Memphis is another question. Some pretty strong evidence runs the other way: The Detroit Tigers went to the World Series last year; the Detroit Pistons are three games away from the NBA Finals; the Detroit Red Wings are two games away from the NHL Stanley Cup Finals. But the city of Detroit is about 0-5 against the world in the 21st century, with half its population gone since the 1950s, Ford and General Motors bleeding jobs and profits, Chrysler putting its fate in the hands of private-equity investors, and Comerica Bank — the corporation that bought the naming rights to Comerica Park, the home of the Tigers — moving its headquarters to Texas. Not coincidentally, Detroit still has Mitch Albom and two daily newspapers, thanks in no small part to their healthy sports sections.

Pittsburgh has three major-league teams but is also bleeding residents and jobs. And, of course, there is New Orleans, proud home of the Saints.

If the Grizzlies help keep FedEx in Memphis, then FedExForum was worth every dollar. If FedEx were to move a substantial number of jobs, then it wouldn’t matter a hoot if the Grizzlies won the NBA championship.

A case can be made that colleges, medical centers, safety, and good public schools are more important to cities than pro sports teams. Think Oxford, Tupelo, Hattiesburg, Cleveland, Mississippi, Nashville, and Murfreesboro. Then think Batesville, West Memphis, McComb, Greenville, and Memphis.

What Memphis needs is a Hype Hall of Fame. The obvious location would be The Pyramid, with plaques commemorating Sidney Shlenker, the inclinator, the Big Dig, the Hard Rock Café, and Rakapolis. The music wing should include a tribute to tributes to Elvis Week. The football wing would feature highlights from the Arena Football League, the USFL, the Mad Dogs, and the uniform and oversized shoulder pads of Albert Means, the greatest football prospect who never made all-conference in college. The basketball wing should have a place for Dajuan Wagner, Bryant Reeves, and The Commercial Appeal‘s breathless build-up to “Christmas in May,” “the ultimate birthday party,” and “the biggest thing to happen to Memphis since God invented fire and the pig,” otherwise known as the NBA draft lottery.

Tags Memphis Grizzlies, NBA Lottery, Sports

News News Feature

Extra Innings

Post author By Greg Akers
Post date April 19, 2007

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

From the outside looking in, baseball is the most cliché-riddled institution in America.

So it is that when former big-league ballplayer and now Memphian John Denny says he played “for love of the game,” he is, strictly speaking, using a cliché, but he himself is not a cliché; he’s worthy of a pass (and no one cry foul).

Denny has had a charmed life in baseball. He came up with the St. Louis Cardinals organization, with his first full season coming in 1975. In 1983, with the Philadelphia Phillies, Denny posted career bests: 19-6, 2.37 ERA, 150 strikeouts, winner of the Cy Young Award for best pitcher, pitched in and won game one of the World Series.

Following the season, Denny was invited to a state dinner at the White House. Included at his table of eight were President Ronald Reagan, the Queen of Nepal, Carol Burnett, the secretary of the Treasury, and a general.

All told, Denny played 13 seasons for the Cardinals, Cleveland Indians, Phillies, and Cincinnati Reds, retiring in 1986. In 2001, as a rehab pitching coach with the Arizona Diamondbacks, he won a World Series ring.

A few years ago, Denny moved to Memphis. Even this, it must be admitted, seems scripted: “I met this girl on the steps of Graceland,” Denny says.

Now Denny is getting back into the swing of things. At his school, JAD Baseball Experience, Denny instructs students of all ages on the finer points — and some not so fine — of pitching. As a teacher, Denny is part anatomist, part psychologist, part friend, part father to his students.

“I want them to understand that this is an art form. This is something that not everyone can do. It takes a real commitment to spend the time to do something right.”

Denny’s coaching stint with the Diamondbacks was a key stepping-stone to his current career in Memphis. “I felt like I had a talent to teach pitching,” he says. “Some of these [Diamondbacks] guys I had to rebuild. It seemed like I was able to see things and do things with them that other guys couldn’t.”

What it all comes down to is focus, he says: “Focus is certainly a common denominator that all players at the professional level need to have. You can’t be distracted by what you’re trying to do. If you are, you’re going to have a problem.”

For instance, take game one of the 1983 World Series in Baltimore. President Reagan was in attendance, and Denny had just given up a first-inning home run. “The crowd noise was so intense,” he says. “I could feel the vibration in the pitcher’s mound.” Denny recovered to win the game.

Denny’s decision to stay in the game as an instructor, long after playing, is owed in some part to early teammates, including Joe Torre, Tim McCarver, Bob Gibson, and Lou Brock. “Brock was one of the best teammates I ever had,” Denny says. “He took me under his wing. One time he said, ‘John, you need to learn to play the game within the boundaries of fair play.’ There’s an unwritten code of ethics. You act very professional. Be dignified, a class athlete, someone that people would respect.”

These principles, Denny feels, connect him to an earlier time in baseball history. Torre, McCarver, Gibson, and Brock “learned from the players [who started] in the 1930s and ’40s,” Denny says. “What was common in those players was a real passion and love for the game. It wasn’t so much money and notoriety; it was just loving the game.

“It has been a way of life. I can do it now in a different capacity and try to pass some of it on, because it means that much to me. [Baseball is] a game you’re set up to fail. Maybe that’s the beauty of it: It’s a game you’re set up to fail, but because of that, you still want to try to prove that you’re not going to.”

Tags baseball, Cardinals, interview, Sports

We Recommend We Recommend

Boxing Day

Post author By Greg Akers
Post date April 12, 2007

CREDIT: Karen Samuel | Dreamstime.com

People who can’t keep their hands off each other in a public display of affection are told to “get a room”; those who can’t stop touching each other in a public display of aggression are commanded to “take it outside.” Guess which one applies when Zab “Super” Judah and Ruben “Modern Day Warrior” Galvan tangle Friday night?

Judah and Galvan headline the newest installment of the Fights at the Fitz series of boxing matches at Fitzgeralds Casino in Tunica. This Friday, the Fitz is literally going to “Take It Outside” — staging their bouts just outside the casino on the banks of the Mississippi River in a ring specially constructed for the evening.

In the main event, former welterweight champeen and all-around badass Judah needs to defeat Galvan to get to a tentatively scheduled match against undefeated WBA World Champion Miguel Cotto in June at Madison Square Garden. But the Judah-Galvan 10-rounder is just one of five bouts on the card. Among other pugilistic highlights Friday night, the NABO flyweight title will hang in the balance as Rayonta Whitfield grapples with Jonathan Perez, and Southaven, Mississippi, homeboy Jason Ross gets in the clinch with Bo Skipper in a light heavyweight scrum.

The fights will go down rain or shine — the ring will be covered. Spectators can view the jabfest ringside or via broadcast in the casino’s Great Hall. The sweet science will also be televised live on ESPN2.

Fights at the Fitz, “Taking It Outside,” fitzgeralds casino, Friday, April 13th. Gates open at 7 p.m., fights begin at 8 p.m. $75 reserved seats/$35 general admission. For tickets, call 800-766-5825.

Tags boxing, Review, Sports

Sports Sports Feature

Sweet, Again

Post author By Frank Murtaugh
Post date March 22, 2007

For at least a week, the Tennessee legislature should consider replacing the three stars on the state flag with basketballs. For the first time in the history of the NCAA tournament, all three regions of the Volunteer State will be represented in the Sweet 16, with the University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt, and Memphis each two wins shy of the Final Four. Better yet, with Ridgeway High alum Derrick Byars starring for the Commodores and White Station’s Dane Bradshaw starting for the Vols, Memphis will have a say in this event, dammit, one way or another.

As for the Tigers’ second-round win over Nevada Sunday, it was as gutsy as any 16-point victory you’ll ever see. When the Tigers’ top scorer, Chris Douglas-Roberts, went down with an ankle injury with eight minutes to play, Tiger apologists had their excuse should the U of M wilt against the Western Athletic Conference champions. Instead, Memphis outscored the Wolf Pack by nine the rest of the way.

Guts, you say? With the Tiger lead down to two points, sophomore Antonio Anderson took the plank, er, free-throw line and dropped a pair through the twine, lifting the chin of every foul-shot-fearing fan between New Orleans and Memphis. When Joey Dorsey — he of the sub-50-percent ratio for the season — made his first free throw to extend the lead to five, one got the feeling the U of M had a vice grip on this one. When Anderson saved the ensuing miss from going out of bounds — retaining a valuable clock-killing possession for Memphis — the Tigers seized enough momentum to carry them to the final buzzer.

Guts? Find the smallest Tiger on the floor Thursday night and you’ll see the term personified. Dorsey and Douglas-Roberts (missing free throws, injured, or otherwise) are the most valuable Tigers. Anderson and Jeremy Hunt are clutch at both ends of the floor. But this is fast becoming Andre Allen’s team.

It takes some doing to join the club of elite Memphis point guards. Recent history has seen Andre Turner, Elliot Perry, Chris Garner, and Antonio Burks provide the electric pulse for NCAA tournament teams. (Some would include Penny Hardaway on this list, though Hardaway’s greatness shouldn’t be confined by any positional boundary.) Despite being, technically, Willie Kemp’s backup, Allen made an imprint on the Tiger wins in New Orleans that was second to no one. A steal and driving layup by Allen were key to a 10-2 run early in the second half of the first-round win over North Texas, a game in which the backup point guard played 36 minutes, compared with the starter’s nine. Allen’s hyperactive defensive presence in the backcourt establishes the standard for his teammates and serves as the pressure point through which Memphis opponents must begin their half-court offense.

“Andre’s motor is going 100 miles per hour,” said Coach John Calipari after the Tigers won the Conference USA tournament March 10th. “The greatest thing ever to happen to Willie Kemp is Andre Allen. Willie can’t cost us a game. He won’t cost us a game, because I won’t leave him in long enough. I’ll bring in Andre.”

Energy — and guts — will be a prerequisite to winning the South regional. Thursday night in San Antonio, the best player on the court will be Texas A & M guard Acie Law. The Aggies will be playing in their home state and in the Sweet 16 for the first time since Michael Jordan was a junior in high school (1980). With enough defensive help from Anderson — and a reasonably healthy CDR — the Tigers might escape the long arm of Law, and you couldn’t ask for a juicier foe in the regional final, regardless of who wins the Ohio State-Tennessee contest. If the favored Buckeyes are victorious, Memphis fans will be booing the very man-child they hope to cheer (as a Grizzly) next season: Ohio State’s freshman center, Greg Oden. And if UT wins? Merely a chance to avenge the 18-point drubbing Memphis suffered in Knoxville in December.

Here are the Memphis Tigers, with 24 consecutive wins and — for the first time since 1985 — a second straight dance card in the NCAA’s Sweet Sixteen. Seems they deserve better than a four-word cliché for their performance to date … and their chances ahead. But it’s a great cliché: no guts, no glory.

Tags basketball, Memphis Tigers, NCAA tournament, preview, Sports, University of Memphis