Byline: Tony Jackson
The saga concerning the ball the Reds' Sean Casey hit for the first home run in the history of Pittsburgh's PNC Park appears to be over.
Michael Wilmer, a custodian at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette who wound up with the ball after it bounced back onto the field and Pirates center fielder Adrian Brown threw it into the stands, sold the ball to a Brentwood, Pa., sports card and memorabilia shop owner on Monday.
THE dream of one football team for Sheffield is still alive.
Former Sheffield United chairman Michael McDonald believes the merger of the Blades with Sheffield Wednesday in a bid to create one super club is still on the cards.
McDonald believes the only way success can be achieved in the city is if the two teams join forces in a new stadium and play under a name such as Steel City or Sheffield.
He insists there is support for the scheme and is carrying out a feasibility study.
Mcdonald knows there's opposition from both sets of fans and admitted: 'At the outset it's not going to be easy but Wednesday and United have had full
houses this season.
'If you have the fans then the two clubs have to be put together to achieve success.
'I see Sheffield as the place where football started and it could be the place where football changes.'
McDonald, who quit as United chairman in November after Adrian Heath's departure as manager, still owns around 12% of the club's shares.
He added: 'Torino and Juventus share a ground and this week we have seen Swindon go into administration.
'We have to find a way to solve things. Unless the mad payments stop I can see it happening again.
'We're doing feasibility studies to find out the cost. If we can sell the two grounds and have one new stadium near the M1 and the new airport that's the way forward.'
The idea has been mooted before and there has been strong resistance from fans.
ANKENY, Iowa -Dubuque Wahlert golf stars Amy Kemp and Chris Leiserteamed up to card a sixth-place finish at the state coed golfchampionships Monday at Otter Creek.
Alternating shots, Kemp and Leiser fired 74, finishing threestrokes off the pace of runners-up Sharilyne Hoekstra and StuartSteenhoek of Pella. The duo carded a 71.
No one could stay within earshot of Ankeny's Alexis Beard and JoelBethel, the duo rifled a record 6-under-par 65 to win the tourney bysix strokes and smash the record 69 that Cedar Rapids Washington'sEllen Fry and Bennett Hammerberg shot last year.
Cedar Rapids Washington's Ellen Fry and Nick Miller finishedthird.
ISU-Iowa single-game tickets sell out
AMES, Iowa (AP) - Fans who want to attend the Iowa-Iowa Statefootball game in Ames will have to buy an ISU season ticket to getin.
Single-game tickets for the Sept. 13 contest are sold out, IowaState ticket manager Dave Crum said Monday. Fewer than 500 seasontickets remain for the general public, Crum said.
Iowa State season tickets, good for seven home games, are $215 or$170.
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — The discovery of century-old baseball cards in an Ohio attic isn't going to make anyone super-rich even though it's being called one of the most exciting finds in the history of sports card collecting. That's because the cards and the money are being evenly divided among 20 cousins.
A sampling of the treasure trove that had been untouched for 100 years was sold Thursday night during the National Sports Collectors Convention in Baltimore. The 37 baseball cards featuring the likes of Hall of Famers Ty Cobb, Cy Young and Honus Wagner fetched $566,132 in brisk online and live bidding. They were expected to bring about $500,000.
'It was a lot of fun,' said Chris Ivy, director of sports auctions at Heritage Auctions, which conducted the sale. 'The room was packed.'
He said two lots were sold to Internet bidders and the third went to a live bidder. The auction house declined to identify the winning bidders.
Family member Karla Hench, who helped find the cards, said the cards brought 'fantastic prices and we're very excited that we can all share in this find. It's like a gift from our grandfather to keep passing on.'
What made this find so special was that the 700 cards were nearly pristine, the finest examples anyone had ever seen from an extremely rare series given out with candy around 1910.
The best of the bunch was sold in three lots — one, which sold for $286,800, was a nearly complete E98 set, the name of the the series the cards were issued under, and another was a Honus Wagner card that was judged to be in perfect condition by Professional Sports Authenticator, a company that grades cards on a 1-to-10 scale based of their condition. It brought $239,000.
The highest price ever paid for a baseball card is $2.8 million for a different Wagner card — a 1909 version produced by the American Tobacco Co. and included in packs of cigarettes. Only about 60 of Wagner's tobacco cards are known to exist after being pulled from circulation, either because the ballplayer didn't want to encourage smoking among children or because he wanted more money.
Sports card experts who authenticated the find in Ohio say they came across dozens of cards that were just about perfect.
Karl Kissner, who unearthed the cards in February in the town of Defiance with Hench, his cousin, said they belonged to their grandfather, Carl Hench, who died in the 1940s. They think he gave away the cards at his meat market and stashed the extras in his attic and forgot about them. One of Hench's daughters kept the house until she died last October, leaving everything inside to her 20 nieces and nephews.
Heritage Auctions plans to sell most of the Ohio cards over the next two of three years through auctions and thinks they could bring up to $3 million. The Hench family is evenly splitting the cards and all but a few have decided to sell their share.
Kissner said the money is nice, but the best part is how the discovery has brought his family together. Fourteen of the cousins planned to be at the auction in Baltimore. Some have talked about giving some of their share to charities, he said.
Byline: Jim Benton
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
Daniel Attah was among the boxers who participated in a brief workout Tuesday for lunchtime onlookers on the 16th Street Mall.
Attah, a super featherweight who is ranked by boxing's four major sanctioning bodies, is now the featured fighter on the Fight Night Denver card at the Denver Coliseum on Friday.
Attah (21-1) and his opponent, Mexico's Manuel Bocanegra (18-3), became the main event when former middleweight champion Keith Holmes' bout with Fernando Hernandez was dropped because of a ``misunderstanding'' with M&M Sports promoter Murad Muhammad.
``We had the one fight withdrawn because of a misunderstanding with (Muhammad),'' longtime Denver promoter Barry Fey said. ``I like to call it a misunderstanding. The city had the same idea that I did, but he (Muhammad) disagreed and withdrew.''
Fey has now assumed a bigger role in the fight card.
``It was a misunderstanding between me and Murad and the city,'' Fey said. ``At the press conference, (Muhammad) explained he was taking the risk of the fighters, the city was putting up the building, and I was doing the promotion. It was a three-way split. When it came down to signing the agreement, he said he thought he should be paid for the fighters. The city said they weren't going to allow that under their deal, and I wasn't going to allow that under mine.
``In other words, if there was $100,000 left, he wanted to take $60,000 for the fighters, and then have us split $30,000. The city said, 'No, that's not the deal,' and I said 'That's not the deal.' We gave him the option of withdrawing.''
Muhammad pulled Holmes but allowed Attah - ranked No. 5 by the World Boxing Association, No. 6 by the World Boxing Council, No. 7 by the World Boxing Organization and No. 10 by the International Boxing Federation - to remain on the card.
``Things that we expected to happen did not, and I don't think it was intentional on anyone's part,'' Muhammad said. ``So therefore they could not afford at this time to have the former middleweight champion on the card.
``Then there were dos and don'ts with (Colorado State Boxing Commission director Josef Mason) . . . This is just something that M&M Sports ran into, and we felt at this time they needed to cut their losses.''
Despite the problems, Muhammad has high hopes for the sport in Denver. ``I haven't given up on Denver,'' he said.
Holmes' withdrawal was the second by a ``name'' boxer for the Friday card. The first to back out was Levander Johnson, the U.S. Boxing Association lightweight champ whose bout was billed as a co-main event.
Fey isn't worried about selling the card to Denver sports fans. ``I've never tried boxing in Denver,'' Fey said. ``I've tried Stevie Johnston in Denver, which was an easy sell. We did this in a way that is very low risk, and I can thank the mayor (Wellington Webb) for that because the city made a good deal with us. Now I have two-thirds of the risk, but it shouldn't be that much.''
As of Tuesday morning, 680 tickets had been sold for the card.
``We're hoping to do 3,000,'' Fey said. ``We only need 1,600 to break even. We'll be fine.''
INFOBOX
Fight Night Denver
* What: Professional boxing.
* When: 7 p.m. Friday.
* Where: Denver Coliseum.
* Tickets: $11, $16.50, $22 and $27.50.
* Tickets: (800) 325-7328.
CAPTION(S):
Color Photo
And the one left open is supported mainly by a video store.
'From 1988 until 1996, the card industry was at its bottom,' said Rich Ladislas owner of Ideal Cards and Video in Frankfort Square.
'The product was overproduced in that era.'
Ladislas added his video shop in 1991 and said it is responsible for 70 percent of his business.
'The card shop was just not profitable on its own anymore,' Ladislas said.
Baseball lost a lot of fans in the '90s, and many were collectors.
'Public opinion was low, and there was oversaturation of the market,' Ladislas said.
'The card industry lost a lot of collectors.'
That could be changing, however.
Fewer cards in all sports are being produced, large discount stores are expected to carry fewer cards, and most companies don't sell complete sets anymore.
Ladislas has several complete sets from the late '80s and early '90s that are marked down by half.
Fleer has cut production back by one-third on its Ultra Series I for the 1997-98 basketball season.
But that also means that single packs for that series sell for $7.50.
Helping the basketball turnaround is the influx of new stars the past two seasons.
Anytime there is a great rookie crop, interest goes up.
Last year's Topps Chrome rookie card of Kobe Bryant has gone from $50 to $500 in less than a year.
Ladislas is hoping baseball enjoys that same turnaround.
'There are a handful of baseball guys to watch for, about a dozen guys expected to come on strong,' he said.
Some Travis Lee cards go for around $20 and some Kerry Wood cards around $10, and that was before either played in the major leagues.
The last big year for rookie cards in baseball was 1986, which had the debut cards of Greg Maddux and Mark McGwire.
'In this era, most people are buying as serious collectors, it used to be people were into it to try to make a profit,' Ladislas said.
'But in 10 years, that might change.
THE BIGGEST question of the week was what bright spark decided todetonate the Match of the Day controversy bang in the middle offootball's best major championship for years? It has been difficultto concentrate on the proceedings at Euro 2000 when being blastedwith news and views about what television channels are going tobring us our football ration in the 2001-2002 season.
Do they think we care that much that we couldn't wait untilnearer the date to get worked up about it? This is typical of thetelevision sell. They spend most of every evening trailing what isto be seen on subsequent evenings. Even last week, BBC and ITVwasted valuable discussion time getting Des Lynam and Gary Linekerto plug their coverage of last night's England-Germany game like apair of rival barrow boys.
They're entitled to be competitive, but I'm not sure many of usmind which channel we watch it on. Some will base their choice onwhich presenter or panel they prefer, but that pulling power is opento question. Lynam certainly seems to have retained the edge in thatcontest.
Lineker is a bright and appealing man but it is easy to beconfused as to who exactly he is; a crisp-eating muscleman, a stoogein a cheap and smutty sporting comedy quiz or a serious footballpresenter and wisdom- spreader.
Lynam hams it up at times and also does a TV ad - it's forfertiliser, which doesn't remove him far from his core job - butthere can be no confusion in his persona as a rock-hard anchormanand opinion-engenderer.
As for the panels, I am tending towards the ITV's three veteransof the international furnace, Messrs Robson, Venables and Hoddle.Not that any blinding flashes of illumination are necessary as mostof us come to our own opinions, but a few minutes of half-timecomment and chat are always welcome.
In common with any sports fan worthy of the description, I am atthe moment keeping tabs on the football, the Test match and the USOpen, and as long as I get access to each I am not very concernedwith who is delivering it or whether I am paying for it throughsubscription, annual licence or having to watch adverts which, attimes, is the most irritating price.
We have a traditional tendency to watch the BBC when it is aquestion of choice, but it has turned out to be a treacheroustendency as far as the Beeb are concerned and has undoubtedlycontributed to the arrogance that has preceded the catastrophic lossof each of a series of major sporting events. The tradition card wasstill being played last week when the director general, Greg Dyke,did his dance of frustration when they were outbid for Match of theDay by ITV.
It was an understandable reaction but they had only themselves toblame. If the BBC prized MotD that much it is strange that theydidn't take better care of it. Later events were to suggest thatlosing their flagship football programme was more the result of anegotiation goof. They judged that ITV wouldn't challenge them forthe highlights rights, but would instead make a big attempt toretain the FA Cup.
Hence, the BBC kept their largest bid for the FA Cup and a shareof England matches. They succeeded in that move but lost MotD in theprocess. Had they attained both they would have been justlyapplauded but, as it is, they have got the inferior end of thebargain. We don't know how accurate are the reported figures but atpounds 60m a year MotD is better value than pounds 70m for the FACup and England matches.
What makes it so newsworthy is that MotD has carried an impact onthe nation's Saturday nights for well over 30 years. Whether youwatched it or argued about watching it, there was little chance ofescaping its presence.
When it was first introduced, the programme was a treat forsupporters who were deprived of live football, apart from the Cupfinal, on the dubious grounds that watching the game live ontelevision would ruin their appetite for visiting the grounds.
For years it kept us entertained and well-informed about the gameto the benefit of both football and the BBC. When live TV footballwas permitted and eventually given saturation coverage on satellitetelevision, the days of a highlights programme would have seemednumbered. It was not so.
To those without a satellite dish and others who still preferredthe expertly edited and presented Saturday-night show, MotD retainedits attraction. But by then the BBC's grip on sport had beenloosened to the extent that it seemed to play no part in theirstrategic planning. Long before Lynam departed for ITV he had beenwarning that by edging it later into the night - some nights itdidn't finish until well past midnight - it was losing viewers'attention.
This was the Birt Era, however, and whatever priorities they hadin his day, sport was nowhere near the top. You didn't need to be asports fanatic to recognise its importance in building andsatisfying a mass audience. Rupert Murdoch saw that fact only tooclearly. Even Channel 5 used football to muscle their way into thepublic awareness before soft porn became more attractive to them.
The BBC resolutely deprived sport of the funding it needed tocompete and chose instead to favour big investments in such as theappalling News 24.
But not even Birt should be blamed entirely for the BBC'sattitude to sport. Although every sporting event they covered wasdone so extremely well, the organisation never seemed interested insport as a subject. They covered events but they didn't cover sport;not adequately, anyway. Their coverage of Wimbledon was brilliantbut tennis barely received a second glance during the rest of theyear. A cricket Test series in England would get exhaustiveattention but they never covered a Test in the West Indies, forinstance.
There's more to covering sport than pointing a dozen cameras atit. You may need a dedicated sports channel to provide thediscussions, the analysis and the background programmes thatmillions of sports fans relish, but the BBC hardly bothered to try;neither did ITV for that matter. Without the competition fromsatellite services, it was all too easy for them to cherry-pick.
They had started to lose MotD long before the bidding envelopeswere opened last week. Lynam's departure was more of a tombstonethan a milestone. Had they listened to him and positioned it earlierin the evening - and had they broadened it out from its old format -they might have greatly improved its appeal and made it worthfighting harder to keep.
When it first began in 1964, the programme went out at 6.20,which was a good time to catch the homecoming fan before he went outfor the night. I will be very surprised if ITV don't make it anearly-evening show.
The BBC have every right to regard MotD as their own creation butthey should have learned that they don't own sport, much as theylike to feel they do.