HOLD THE BACK PAGE:'THE 101 Most Despised Athletes in Sports History" is not, it has to be said, the most positive of sporting lists ever compiled. But, understandably, despite being just one man's set of opinions, it has generated quite a reaction since it appeared on American website Bleacher Report earlier this month and spread through cyberspace like wildfire. "You really stirred up the masses," as one chap commented.
When he introduced his list, Colin Ward-Henninger forecast there would be "plenty of disagreements", and he wasn't wrong, the current debate over the United States' debt limit seeming like quite a tepid affair next to the spectacularly stirred passions of those responding to the compilation. Indeed, you could tinker a little with that George Orwell line and come up with: "Sporting debates are war minus the shooting".
Mercifully, no hurlers, camogie players or Gaelic footballers make the list which, naturally in light of the source, is dominated by Americans from the nation's favourite sports.
Indeed, the highest ranked European on the list has to settle for a lowly enough 29th, Cristiano Ronaldo adding yet another "honour" to his growing collection. "When you get paid as much as Ronaldo does, people will always find a reason to hate you," explained Ward-Henninger, prompting a couple of responses along the lines of: "It's not the money, it's the diving!"
El-Hadji Diouf, Ashley Cole, Gary Neville, Nicolas Anelka, John Terry and Joey Barton are among the other footballers to be included, as well as those buddies from the 2006 World Cup final, Zinedine Zidane and Marco Materazzi.
Granted, that headbutt isn't a memory to savour, but Zidane's inclusion on the "despised" list didn't go down terribly well with the football-loving respondents, some of whom were at a loss to understand why the maestro was in there, and not the likes of Wayne Rooney, Paul Gascoigne and Roy Keane. ("I love him, personally," added Keane's nominator).
And what about the Argentinian fella? "Um, hello! How the hell is Diego Maradona not on this list? The freaking hand of God!"
There was as much sound and fury over those not omitted from the list as there was over those who were included, the failure to include Muhammed Ali, for example, irking one particular commenter. "Although he is revered today, people hated him when he refused to go to war," he said, at which point he might have been wise to head for a bunker. Eg: "Muhammed Ali gave up years and years of being the greatest fighter of all time and millions and millions of dollars for his beliefs – what have you ever given up for anything? I doubt you would give up your meagre salary for your own beliefs – if you actually had any. Idiot."
A civil debate, then.
There were no real arguments, it should be said, over some of the inclusions, mainly due to their off-the-field activities and utterances. Like former baseball pitcher John Rocker, who was ninth on the list. When he turned up at Shea Stadium in 2000 with the Atlanta Braves for a game against the New York Mets, 700 police officers were on duty – compared to the usual 60. Why? Well, when he was asked that year if he'd ever play for a New York team, his response was clear in a crystal kind of way: "I'd retire first . . . Imagine having to take the 7 train to the ballpark looking like you're riding through Beirut next to some kid with purple hair, next to some queer with Aids, right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time, right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. Its depressing."
And that was only the half of it.
Meanwhile, just two women made the list – athlete Marion Jones (31st) and ice skater Tonya Harding (17th) – which is either an indication that Ward-Henninger doesn't pay much attention to women's sport, or he just reckons most sportswomen are nice. Probably the latter.
In the end, Tiger Woods (third) and OJ Simpson (second) were pipped to the title of "Most Despised Athlete in Sports History" by a man who died 50 years ago, baseball's Ty Cobb.
"He is one of the greatest hitters the game of baseball has ever seen.
"He is also one of the worst human beings the world has ever seen," said Ward-Henninger. "If you mention the name Ty Cobb to most sports fans, you will receive a reaction of pure disgust."
He was, said the writer, a notorious racist, having "several altercations with black men in which he ended up violently attacking them". He was also known for attempting to injure opponents during games, regardless of their colour, "going in spikes up".
Was everyone happy with Ward-Henninger's choice? Well, Jordan Brugman was. "Ivan the Terrible, Vlad the Impaler, Ty Cobb, Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot . . . yep sounds like a list of the worst human beings the world has ever seen."
True enough, perspective often goes AWOL when sporting passions are stirred. (Although, by the sounds of Cobb, it's a bit rough on Vlad the Impaler lumping him in the same sentence).
Heavy sanction for Fiji
LEONE Nakarawa has been named in Fiji’s provisional squad for the rugby World Cup in New Zealand, but if he makes the cut there’s a chance he won’t be allowed enter the country. Nakarawa is an army officer and as part of sanctions imposed on Fiji following the 2006 military coup, Fijians with military or government connections are banned from entering New Zealand.
Team manager Talemo Waqa said they were aware of the sanctions when they selected Nakarawa but are hopeful that the authorities will relent in this case and allow the player entry. Foreign Minister Murray McCully, however, insists there will be no exemption for Nakarawa. Considering he’s 6ft 5in and weighs 258 pounds, it’d be a brave New Zealand soul who’d turn him back.
Women’s football on TV über alles
HAVING INITIALLY refused to back down on its decision to relegate England’s quarter-final against France in the women’s World Cup to their interactive red button service, the BBC gave in and showed the game, which England lost on penalties, live on BBC2.
The match was watched by an average of 1.8 million viewers, the audience peaking at 2.8 million.
Such is the enthusiasm in Germany, though, for the tournament the country is hosting, its public-service channel, ZDF, had an audience of 6.88 million for the England versus France game, a significantly higher figure than in either of the two competing countries.
French free-to-air channel Direct 8 had an average of 1.04 million viewers for the quarter-final, peaking at 2.54 million for the penalty shoot-out.
Germany’s World Cup run ended at the same stage of the competition, the hosts losing 1-0 to Japan in the quarter-finals, with the game attracting viewing figures of 16.95 million, a record audience for a women’s game in Germany – 59.3-per-cent of television-watching Germans that day opted to view the match.
Those ratings don’t include pan-European broadcaster Eurosport’s figures, but in Germany at least, the women’s World Cup has proved to be a television success.
Taxing times for Lopez end well
THERE WOULD appear to be a happy ending to what has been a rather bizarre episode in the life of 23-year-old mobile phone salesman Christian Lopez.
Last weekend he was the seemingly lucky New York Yankees fan who caught the home-run ball hit by Derek Jeter that made him the first Yankee to reach the 3,000 hits career milestone.
That ball, the experts on these matters reckoned, would have been worth $250,000 to Lopez – who owes more than $100,000 in student loans – if he chose to sell it, but he opted to give it to Jeter, asking for nothing in return. Business Insider described the gesture as “giving away a winning lottery ticket”.
As a thank you, the Yankees showered Lopez with goodies, including season tickets, signed bats and balls, worth an estimated $50,000.
Problem?
Tax experts reckoned he could end up owing the Internal Revenue Service between $5,000 and $13,000 in “gift taxes’’.
It was at this point that a depressed Ron Borges of the Boston Herald noted that if you Googled “Christian Lopez is stupid” you got “7,270,000 possible places to go read blogs, threads and screeds commenting on what a fool this guy was for doing the right thing.
“He’s an idiot in the opinion of many for not cashing in, because isn’t that what America is about these days?”
Lopez, though, was remarkably relaxed about the whole business. “The IRS has a job to do,” he said, “so I’m not going to hold it against them.”
Well, happily, USA Todayrevealed that "several savvy marketers" had come to his rescue, offering him "wads of cash".
MillerCoors promised to pay any tax bill he receives, Modell’s Sporting Goods will give him five per cent of its Yankee merchandise sales this week, the company’s president has presented him with “his Yankees-issued 2009 World Series ring, valued at $40,000” and Steiner Sports will give him at least $25,000 from an auction of memorabilia.
A happy ending, then. Unless he taxed on all those gifts too.
Help get Peamount United packing for the Champions League
The Final Straw: IF you've paid a visit to a supermarket in the west Dublin region any time recently there's a fair chance that your bags were packed – hopefully neatly – by members of Ireland's representatives in the qualifying phase of the womens Champions League, Peamount United.
Since winning the FAI Cup last year, the club has been busy fundraising for their participation in the qualification round of the competition, which is made up of eight groups of four teams, with the group winners and two best runners-up going in the to the draw for the rounds of 32 and 16.
Their draw sees them travel to Slovenia next month where they will be up against hosts ZNK Krka, Parnu FC of Estonia and Rayo Vallecano de Madrid.
The FAI has helped the club towards the cost of the trip, but they've had to do plenty of fundraising themselves – thanks to bag-packing and the like they've added €13,000 to the fund. "But," says Peamount goalkeeper Linda Meehan, "we're hoping some last-minute sponsors step in and save us from bag-packing for the next two years to pay off our debt."
Having lost two of their top players – Katie Taylor, who's focusing on boxing these days, and Ireland international Áine OGorman, who joined English semi-professional side Doncaster Rovers Belles earlier this year – Peamount will be up against it in Slovenia.
They certainly could do without any injuries between now and then.
Speaking of which – from the club's Twitter account (@peamountutd) this week: "Excuse of the week goes to Rachel, unable to play cuz a cow stood on her foot. Swear. To. God."
If you need any bags packed – or, better still, if you'd like to sponsor the team – get in touch on Twitter or at peamountutd.com.
