2B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY OF DIRY KANSAN
TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2009
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Barry has been good for the game. However you create interest in our game and bring fans to the ballpark, that's a good thing."
Current San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy on Barry Bonds
FACT OF THE DAY
Bruce Bochy, father of Kansas junior pitcher Brett Bochy, was named the NL Manager of the Year in 1998. Bochy's Padres won 98 games before getting swept by the New York Yankees in the World Series.
MLB.com
TRIVIA OF THE DAY
Q: How many Major League teams has Bruce Bochy been affliated with?
A: Four. Bochy played for the Houston Astros, New York Mets and San Diego Padres. As a manager, he's been in charge of the Padres and San Francisco Giants.
@KANSAN.COM
MLB.com
Through the Uprights:
Football writer
Stephen Mon-
temayor tells you
why it's ironic
that Kansas plays Southern
Mississippi on Family Day this
fall.
First Pitch: The Kansan's baseball writers provide running commentary from the Jayhawks' game against Baker at Hoglund Ballpark.
PGA
Tiger Woods pays visit to Obama at White House
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama made room for a favorite pastime: talking sports with top professionals.
Golf star Tiger Woods visited the White House on Monday, as did members of the Chicago White Sox baseball team
White House aides said Woods happened to be in Washington and was invited to stop by. He and Obama had met in January at an inaugural event, they said.
Associated Press
Draft gurus consistently flop
COMMENTARY
The annual coverage and analysis of the NFL Draft is always good for a few laughs and the realization that yes, we all could be doing worse at our jobs.
In a ritual of high comedy, draft "experts" tirelessly scout college players and devote obscene amounts of time compiling mock drafts. Some go as far as projecting every pick in the seven-round draft. And after they
Kiper Jr.
tall miser-
ably — ESPN's draft "guru"
Mel Kiper Jr. successfully foretold just seven of the 31 first round selections in 2008 — they inexplicable
return to grade each team's draft class.
How stupid do they think we are? Well, we actually are plenty stupid. After all, we are responsible for the growth of the mock draft industry from a select few to hundreds of professional reporters and couch-potato bloggers. Kansas City Star sports columnist Joe Posnanski pored over 200 mock drafts last weekend. He may not recover.
Among the forecasts he read was a $19.95(!) Pro Football Weekly magazine. Several other media outlets also charge for their
draft forecast content. For $5-$20,
predictions that have never been
remotely accurate and never will
be can be had by all.
Coldhardfootballfacts.com analyzes the predictions of six "experts" for last year's first round and found that the group
— including Kiper, Fox Sports' Jay Glazer and Scoots Inc.'s Todd McShay — had just a 19.9 percent success rate. After taking a closer
look, it discovered that Miami had signed offensive lineman Jake Long four days before the draft, giving everyone one guaranteed
prediction. It was then obvious that defensive lineman Chris Long would go to St. Louis at No. 2, making the actual success rate 14.4 percent. And upon even further analysis, they found that Oakland and Dallas had made no
McShay
attempt to hide their desire to draft Arkansas running backs Darren McFadden and Felix Jones. Outside of these four picks, Coldhardfootballfacts.com's study found that these selected "pundits" had correctly predicted just 9.9 percent of the remaining first round picks.
And so when these pundits/ gurus/prophets/experts fall on their faces as per usual this year
— despite devoting every waking day of the year in preparation — they will immediately grade each draft class and predict the future performances of each player with equally poor results.
Rather than take the bait again, stop yourself and pick up a rag with a more rational approach, such as the April 13 Sporting News. It analyzes each team's position needs, dishes out a grade for five-year draft histories and features insight from college prospects and perspectives from previously-drafted pros.
Deserving or not of the media attention that, for a while, anointed him the face of MMA, "The Iceman" Chuck Liddell helped push the
ICEMAN MELTETH
Deserving
Liddell
Ultimate Fighting Championship into the mainstream.
A first-round knockout at the hands of Mauricio "Shogun" Rua — his fourth loss in his last five fights — effectively ended the career of the near 40-year-old Liddell. While I'd like to have seen Liddell and Randy Couture end their careers with a fourth and final fight against one another, Liddell hasn't been himself since his May 2007 knockout by Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. In fact, three of his last four losses have been knockouts, including a devastating September 2008 knockout by current light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans.
In the end, much like in boxing, all fighters regress. It's human reality. And whether you're a fan or not, Liddell's contribution to the UFC's rise will be his enduring legacy.
Edited by Justin Leverett
BOSTON MARATHON
Kenyan wins closest women's finish in history of prestigious race
BY JIMMY GOLEN
Associated Press
BOSTON — American Kara Goucher ripped off the gloves she wore for the first 25 miles and threw them to the pavement.
The sprint was on.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kenya's Salina Kosgei outkicked Goucher and defending champion Dire Tune in the last mile of the Boston Marathon on Monday, going back and forth with Tune in the final blocks of Boylston Street to win the closest women's finish in event history.
Deriba Merga of Ethiopia raises his arms as he breaks the tape to tap in the 113th Boston Marathon Monday in Boston.
Ethiopia's Deriba Merga won the men's race, with Ryan Hall picking up another third place for the Americans — their best showing in more than 20 years.
"I've never experienced anything like this, and I've been in
the Rose Parade. So that's a pretty big deal," said Hall, who finished 10th in the Olympics and threw out the first pitch at a Red Sox game over the weekend.
"The bar's continuing to get raised, and I think it's time for Americans to step up and meet the challenge. It's just going to keep getting better and better and faster and faster. ... I know I have a lot to learn. But it's exciting."
Hall took the early lead with a blistering pace and was shoulder-to-shoulder with the leaders until they passed from Wellesley into Newton, with about 10 miles to go. Merga had pulled away by the bottom of Heartbreak Hill, winning in 2 hours, 8 minutes, 42 seconds — 50 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Daniel Rono of Kenya, with Hall another
8 seconds back.
Merga led much of the Olympic marathon last summer before he wilted in the Beijing heat and was passed in the last quarter-mile, finishing fourth.
His victory Monday gave Ethiopia its second in five years; Kenya had won in 16 of the past 18 years, and will have to be satisfied with a women's title — its seventh since the turn of the century.
"Boston is one of the biggest marathons in the world," Merga said. "Because of that, our people are very happy."
...
Goucher led the three women as they crossed above the MassPike into Kenmore Square with 1 mile to go, but the two Africans began to pull away from her as they dued. One year after Tune outkicked Alevtina Biktimirova to win by 2 seconds in what was then the closest women's finish ever, the Ethiopian traded places with Kosgei several times on the last long stretch to the tape.
"I was a sprinter before," Kosgei said. "So I know about the sprinting."
The only closer finish in the 113-year history of the event was the men's race in 2000, when Eljah Lagat beat Gezahegne Abera with an identical time of 2:09:47.
FOOTBALL D.A. will investigate altercation further
The investigation into an incident that injured sophomore offensive lineman
Ben Lucken has been forwarded from the KU Public Safety Office to the office of Douglas County District Attorney
Ben Lueken
Lueken
Charles Branson, Capt.
Schuyler Bailey said.
The investigation is stemming from an April 5 altercation in the Jayhawker Towers parking lot in which Lueken was hospitalized with head injuries, including several lacerations when he was either struck by or fell from the hood of an SUV. Lueken was released from the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kan., in good condition on April 9 and did not appear at Kansas' spring game on April 11.
Stephen Montemayor
THIS WEEK IN KANSAS ATHLETICS
TODAY
Softball Tulsa, 3 p.m. Tulsa, Okla.
Softball
Tulsa, 5 p.m.
Tulsa, Okla.
WEDNESDAY
Baseball Baker, 6 p.m. Lawrence
SDAY Baseball Missouri, 7 p.m. Kansas City, Mo.
THURSDAY
Softball
Drake University,
7 p.m.
awrence
Track
Drake Relays,
All Day
Des Moines, Iowa
Tennis
Big 12 Championships, All Day
Norman, Okla.
FRIDAY
Baseball
Nebraska, 6 p.m.
Lawrence
Tennis
Big 12 Championships, All Day
Norman, Okla.
Women's Golf Big 12 Championships, All Day Lubbock, Texas
Track
Drake Relays,
All Day
Des Moines, Iowa
SATURDAY
Softball Baylor, 2 p.m Lawrence
Baseball
Nebraska, 6 p.m.
Lawrence
Track
Drake Relays,
All Day
Des Moines, Iowa
Women's Golf Big 12 Championships, All Day Lubbock, Texas
Tennis
Big 12 Championships, All Day
Norman, Okla.
Rowing
Minnesota, TBA
St. Paul, Minn.
VOLLEYBALL Jayhawk team goes 2-1 in final spring tournament
In its final tune-up of the spring season, the Kansas volleyball team went 2-1 Saturday in a tournament hosted by Kansas State at Parkhill South High School in Kansas City, Mo.
Kansas swept Colorado State and Creighton in two sets while
Junior Karina Garlington led the Jayhawks with 22 kills while junior Jenna Kaiser added 15 kills on Saturday.
losing in two sets to St. Louis University.
Garlington
Junior Melissa Manda had 25 digs in the tournament.
Jayson Jenks
.