Weekly Roundup

Site Insight
I am happy to report that this site has been linked via the ATP's fansite area for Rainer Schuettler. It lists his official site and then this one as places to check for info on him, so I am proud of that... especially after only a month. People were finding it through Google and on their own, but the ATP link made an instant impact in even more traffic.

The "worldwide appeal" of the site also is encouraging... as of today there have been hits from USA, Germany, Netherlands, Brazil, Austria, France, Romania, United Kingdom, Spain, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and New Zealand! Late in the week we picked up Italy and Poland, and over the weekend Switzerland and Finland, too!
Hello to all of you!

I've been working on my photo part of the site, and hope to be adding more of my pictures from the US Open now that I figured out how to get crisper copies online. Not sure if I am going to post them within the US Open entry, or just make a separate photo entry and drop them in there. I hope to get my favorite shots from NY up in the next few days, wherever they end up being placed. Meanwhile, I redid the tile photos at the top of the site, some are the same shots but clearer while some are brand new. They are all from my shots of the US Open.



On and Off The Playing Fields...
This past week found a lot of sports news, including off-court activities/events.

• Horrible news in the NHL as Dan Snyder died from his injuries from a car accident when his friend and teammate Dan Heatley crashed in Atlanta. The black Ferrari was torn in half and the players were thrown into the street after hitting a brick wall at a reported 80mph. Photos of the crash are awful, and all you can tell about the car was that it was black. It brings back memories for me of the loss of 26-year old Pelle Lindbergh in November 1985, the Swedish goalie who was an instant star player for the Philadelphia Flyers who died when his Porsche slammed into a wall. Snyder's team, the Thrashers, begin the regular season on Thursday and will then travel to Ontario for his funeral on Friday and return to the ice again on Saturday. Heatley is the team's superstar and an All-Star Game MVP and a rising league star while Snyder was the classic hockey rink-rat - not the most skilled player and nothing fancy about his attitude or appearance. But he was the type of kid that had a dream to play pro and worked and worked and worked to achieve it, and as it was taking shape, this tragic event happens.



• In Women's World Cup, Team USA lost 0-3 to Germany in the semifinals (they face Sweden for the championship) and will play Canada for third place. As great as the US squad is (or was), Germany played a better game and converted their chances and deserved to advance. This was probably a better game than what the finals will be, but here the news is reporting it as a huge upset... I don't agree with that characteristic. Going into this event it was well-known (at least from all the previews I read) that the one team that could effectively challenge USA was the German team. Also, some great stories on German star Maren Meinert... I was practically shocked to read in this article that there is no German girls' soccer camp! Here's a quick mention on Meinert and WUSA closeness. Here is a nice story on the US team from the NY Times. This team did amazing things in the past 10-plus years that benefited women's, college and girl's athletics, and all the surge we see in America today can be traced back to athletes like these. The finals are Sunday as now heavily-favored Germany takes on Sweden. Another NY Times feature, this one on Joy Fawcett... World Champion, Olympian, and mother on the US Team. Another article on girls and women in soccer around the world, also from the NY Times.
  If everyone was saying that CBS was freaking out during the US Open when the Williams sisters didn't play and Davenport and/or Capriati didn't advance to the live Saturday night finals... ABC must have been on life support when the US fell to Germany in the semis and were faced with Germany vs Sweden Sunday afternoon. For some reason the American networks feel that we, the viewing sports public, have to see athletes from the US on the tube. I have no idea what the ratings are as of Sunday night, but the game was great to watch and I was only able to catch the first half. The game had plenty of notables riding on it - a first-time champion would be crowned, both finalists were coached by women (a first), and then the game went into OT - what more could you ask for? And I must add, that header to win it for the Germans was as close to perfect as you will ever see, in any soccer game. Congratulations to the Germans who had a great tournament, and to Sweden for putting on quite a run for the Cup - it's great to see soccer gaining in Europe for women.



• I'm not one who normally gets psyched over medical news, but this one could change the lives of thousands of normal people as well as have an enormous impact on pro sports. Sign me up, I want a six-month old knee too!



• I don't know what exactly happened in the Saturday NYY-Boston Playoff game, but I feel confident enough to say that basically all hell broke loose. I, a non-Yankee fan from New England, wasn't watching the game and had on NASCAR. (Chinese food, pajamas, watching racing under the lights - that seems like a perfectly normal Saturday night to me!) I like baseball -l as long as it isn't on TV, for watching a game on television is pure torture in my opinion. I can sit in a ballpark for 5+ hours, but after 20 minutes on TV I am ready to lose it.
  Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez threw Don Zimmer - an old man - to the ground during a bench-clearing "get together", beer sales were then suspended in the fourth inning, and in the 9th the groundscrew got into a fight with players in the bull pen, with help from an outfielder who jumped the fence!
  I can understand grabbing Zim or stiff arming him since he was running at Pedro, but there is no way you can ever convince me that Pedro had to hurl him to the grass. Both should be suspended, but Pedro better be given a real suspension - not just 5 games which means only one for him since he's a pitcher. Here are some writeups from ESPN on the incidents... Jim Caple's take; AP story; bullpen incident AP story. Oh yeah, somebody won the game, too.
  On Sunday, this article was in the Washington Post, I think a lot of people agree. Later on Sunday it was announced Zimmer was fined $5,000 and Martinez a cool $50,000. In a press conference, poor Zim was choking back tears as he apologized to the Yankees, fans, umpires and his family for his actions... the poor man! Zimmer was seriously injured in his playing days - he has a metal plate in his head - and his career was nearly ended by a beaning similar to what Pedro does from time to time, we all know headhunting when we see it (Pedro). Just ask Mike Piazza about the Rocket.



• Sports Flashback... it was fifteen years ago that Ben Johnson won and then lost the 100m gold medal in the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. He had set the world record of 9.83 at the 1987 World Championships (later this was revoked too), and then shattered that with a 9.79 run in the Games. Of course he was DQ'd for a positive steroid test and stripped of his medal 3 days later. I remember watching that race and even though I was a kid, I totally remember my mouth dropping open when they crossed the tape... shattering that 9.83 puts it mildly.
  To put that type of speed into perspective... NO ONE ran that fast again until Maurice Greene also did 9.79 in Greece in 1999 and Tim Montgomery posted a 9.78 last year in France. Even though Johnson's run was tainted, it was an incredible sight... I've since seen countless world records on TV and love it, but witnessing four records broken in person is a blast. It's a surreal feeling (remember, I am a sports freak) to see and there is definitely an excitement in the air. From swimming (Olympic Trials) to speed skating (2002 Olympics) a World Record is a World Record, and the crowds - no matter who the athlete was or where the event happened - have always gone nuts and cheered wildly for such a remarkable accomplishment.



• John McEnroe article from a few years ago, parts of it also appeared in the NY Times Magazine.



• Feature article from Australian Broadcasting Corp on Brad Gilbert.



• Totally un-Rainer related, but I have to mention that this past week one of my Top Five all-time favorite athletes had a birthday... Mark McGwire. All 6'5" and the ridiculous biceps that measure something like 18", turns the big 4-0 today. Here's a nice non-typical sports article on him from 1998 when he and Sosa were named TIME's Men of the Year.



• Not truly sports-related, but since Rainer is in France, I thought I'd throw this one in.