The Final Score

Read this headline:

A Meg Ryan moment for Andy Murray's enraptured girlfriend as he wraps up victory at US Open

Now, go here and check out the story about Andy Murray's girlfriend, Kim Sears, at the U.S. Open.

This is a bigger non-story than The Final Score's old El vs. subway debate.

And we at The Final Score are proud to share it with you.

It's from some 1980 hockey game in Lake Placid, NY.

The Chisox concerned about the Twins - and shaving cream pies in the face. Pretty much anyone who goes on camera for the postgame show gets nailed by Toby Hall and his band of sillies.

I don't know what to say about this story. I'm at a loss of words.

CINCINNATI - The Cincinnati Bengals say No. 85 is officially Ocho Cinco.

He changed his name last month in Broward County, Fla.

What's next? Are players going to hail from parts unknown?

I'll admit, it was really neat to speak to Bob Sheppard on the phone.

I was half expecting him to answer by saying,

Good morning...

to my Baldwin residence.

Anyway, I called him to inquire about his health (he feels good) and whether he is going to make it to Yankee Stadium for the final game (he hopes so).

One possibility, he said, is to have Jim Hall sit by his side during the game in case he gets tired. "He would be my relief speaker, like a relief pitcher,” he said.

Here's my Web column on Bob Sheppard.

So Jamal Crawford is now a Newsday blogger?

Maybe this is my in to play point guard for the Knicks in a game?!!?

MLB officially used instant replay last night for the first time, so what better time to discuss its merits - and whether it should be used on plays other than home runs.

ANTHONY: It’s a slippery slope . . . so let’s slide all the way down!

I loved the first use of instant replay. It was quick and efficient and they got the call right.

Someone called it a “slippery slope” – meaning, we’re all going to slide to our demise if replay is used or even expanded.

To which I say: p’shaw.

Technology usually enhances our lives. Trust me, I’m not a gadget person, but I can’t imagine living without my Blackberry. Or my DVR. Or my Facebook account, even though every body is now on Facebook and it’s kind of getting cluttered.

Instant replay is too much? I say it’s not enough.

If you have the technology, use it. Use replay for everything except balls and strikes. Where’s the romance in a guy being called out at first base when he’s clearly safe? Have someone sitting in a room in New York beep the umpire and overturn the call. How long will that take? A few minutes? Isn’t that worth it to get the call right?

Football hasn’t been ruined by replay. Games aren’t any longer than they used to be. People still watch/bet.

Use the technology.

You know how I know I’m right? Ken Davidoff agrees with me. And that doesn’t happen often.

JIM: Instant replay works for home runs, but that's it

I think Major League Baseball got it right on this one. An umpire messing up a home run call has a direct and immediate impact on the game, and without a doubt baseball should go to every length possible to make sure umpires get those calls right.

Jeffrey Maier, anyone?

But, sorry Anthony, but I don't see the merits of including instant replay on anything and everything. You have to draw the line somewhere, because if you don't before long you'll have managers calling for instant replays of a checked swing. And you know they would.

(Cough, cough, Tony LaRussa, cough, cough).

Besides, we already have games lasting more than three hours each night. No reason to extend the play for no good reason. Use it to get the home run calls right, and we can all sleep well at night.

But if you really, really want to expand instant replay, I see only one way: do it like football does. Each manager gets one chance every game to fight a call with the use of instant replay. If he proves to be right, great. But if he proves to be wrong, he loses his instant replay rights for the next three games.

A little tedious? Yes. So let's just leave it the way it is.

Thanks to Chicago Norm for the shout-out!

Yes, I was at Tropicana Field for the first official use of replay.

But it was not the first time instant replay has been used in baseball.

Help me out here, TFS nation. A few years ago, an umpire ON HIS OWN used replay to help decide a call. He was told not to do it again. Anyone remember the details?

And of course, there was the 1978 hit song "Instant Replay" by Dan Hartman, which has been in my head since last night.

Here's the video. Enjoy.

So I watched the Sarah Palin speech at the RNC after the Yankees game last night.

It was cute to see all of the "hockey moms" in hockey jerseys in the crowd.

I'm not getting into the politics of it -- Newsday has many fine political blogs if you want to talk about that aspect of it -- but I do have two observations about the speech:

1) If you know me, you know I love sarcasm. But wow. Palin sure loves the sarcasm. At times the speech reminded me of a Comedy Central roast of Barack Obama. I half-expected live cut-ins to Obama in a tux fake-laughing at Palin's digs. And where was Joey Bishop?

2) I LOVE the wacky Palin family. If they don't win, there has to be a reality show built around them. Here's Bristol and Willow and Trig and Truck and Trap and Boomer! Or whatever they are all called.

So, what do you think the theme song of the new Oklahloma City NBA team will be?

A. Oklahoma

B. Thunder Struck

C. 24 Hours to Tulsa

D. Don't care, but that logo is hurting my eyes.

The one-hitter stands and it's a good thing.

Baseball is a great game. Let's not screw it up.

Can you imagine telling your grandchilden about the thrill of reading the paper to find out that the game you had witnessed three days earlier was a no-hitter?

The fact that MLB's scoring review committee even got involved is a bad thing. I'm not wild about instant replay, either.

It won't be long before umpires and scorers are replaced by machines. And eventually, the entire MLB season will be played on X-Box.

I've witnessed some amazing pitching perfomances, but never a no-hitter. Once, Larry Jackson's threw one-hitter beat Joey Jay's two-hitter in an hour and 40 minutes. I'd rather remember that amazing game for what it was, rather than having it tarnished if Pete Rose's seventh-inning hit had later been ruled E-8 by some committee a couple of days later. (This is just an example; I recall the hit by Rose being squeaky clean.)

How do you feel about this? (Big Brother in baseball; not my personal memories.)

In case you missed it, Alex Rodriguez became the first player to hit an instant replay home run last night in Tampa, and Anthony was there to witness it.

Hopefully, he can tell us what it was like to be in A-Rod's presence after this historical event. In the mean time, here's his game story.

Thank goodness for instant replay. Otherwise we might not have been blessed by this immortal quote from A-Rod:

"There are probably 800 players in the big leagues. The odds of me being in some controversy are probably 2-1."

Guess it's probably just as well that NYC did not get the 2012 Games.

Tom and Rita Glenister don't want to pay the £33.33 levy (appx. $60) imposed on Londoners to help pay for the Olympics and say that they'd rather be martyrs and go to the pokey.

I can understand how they feel. That's, like, a whole tank of gas.

"Why should Londoners alone pay for the Olympics? We are two old age pensioners who might not even be here in 2012.," said Torn, 78.

Anyone who has ever walked the streets of New York at night can relate to that, too.

Although London mayor Boris Johnson that the Olympics will not cost more than £9.3billion ($16.6 billion) , that number is four times higher than the estimate in the 2005 bid. And if London's estimate was that low, consider how much more building supplies would have cost in NYC.

Here's more from the Daily Mail.

This guy is just plain crazy.

Darren Taylor, 47, calls himself Professor Splash and is the king of shallow diving. He set a world record by diving 35 feet, 4 inches into what looks like a kiddie pool filled with 12 inches of water.

Check out this video.

According to a story in the Daily Mail, he has never been injured in a shallow dive, but has broken his heels, ankles, teeth and jawbone in other high dives.

Here's the story.

Holy ABBA!

The Swedish star says he doesn't know if he wants to play....but he isn't retired.

Read it here.

Chicago Norm has absolutely nothing bad to say about any of them.

In fact, here are my rankings:

1. Oreos (double-stuff)
2. Serena
3. Venus
4. Eli
5. Peyton

In the event that only regular Oreos are available, then Serena would move into the No. 1 position and Oreo cookies would drop to No. 2.

You're welcome to post your rankings as long as you keep it clean.

I'd like to see Baumbach run in this race

It's called the Stiletto Sprint, in which a bunch of (mostly) women wearing three-inch heels run around an 80-meter track. This one took place in Sydney, Australia, and the winner took home a prize of £2,500, or a little less than $4,500 of our greenbacks.

Brittney McGlone, an 18-year-old professional hurdler won the race and the 255 competitors set a record for the largest stiletto race field ever.

Go here for the Telegraph story and a video.

And come back next week for a video of our pal, Jim, running from Shea Stadium to Citi Field in three-inch heels.

It would've been much bigger had the Jets voted for someone else other than Favre.

About two hours from now Michael Kay will welcome Chris Russo onto his ESPN Radio show, a funny meeting of minds between two people who went head-to-head for years.

Russo, as part of the Mike and the Mad Dog program, typically crushed Kay's show in ratings. A few years ago they had their own public spat, with Russo/Francesa and Kay exchanging verbal jabs. And, also, Russo used to complain that ESPN voices weren't allowed to appear on WFAN.

But now that Russo has cut ties with Francesa to do his own Sirius show (for $15 million!), he'll go anywhere to publicize it, including Francesa's top competitor. Too bad Francesa won't be on the air at the same time - he's off because of the Mets' day game.

Yes, I'm infringing on Neil Best's ground. But he's on vacation. So ha.

(Gotta give credit to mikefrancesa.com for finding this.)

That's what one Jersey man did. Here's an excerpt from The Coaster, a central Monmouth County area...

Ryan Ward, 29, was reported to Belmar Police Aug. 1 after telling workers at Belmar Bagels that he was the famed pitcher and accepting free food from girls working at the shop.

“He’s been thrown out of bars,” he said.

Brian Cashman revealed last night that, as far as Joba Chamberlain is concerned, 2009 will look a lot like '08.

So he'll begin in the bullpen and transition to the rotation around June. Again.

We see what the Yankees are doing, but we don't agree with it. They place inning limits on their pitchers for a reason - they don't want them throwing 200 innings and then breaking down the next year. But what good does it do the Yankees - the team trying to make the playoffs - if it takes him three or four years of bouncing back and forth between the bullpen and the rotation before finally reaching 200 innings?

If he's not ready to be a full-fledged major-leaguer, which is what the Yankees essentially are saying, then he shouldn't be here. If you're going to restrict a pitcher like this year after year, it's a legitimate to wonder whether it's even worth bringing him up. Maybe it's better to take care of this process in the minors. And when you think he can play with the big boys, with no seatbelt, then it's time to call him up.

Because here's the scary part: this won't end in 2009.

Let's say Joba finishes this season with 100 innings. The Yankees will probably place his '09 inning limit somewhere around 140. What are the chances he actually hits that number? Maybe 70 percent? What happens if he feels a twinge in his shoulder next May and it turns out to be nothing, but they decide to play it safe - because he's Joba! - and they DL him for a month. Then he finishes with, say, 120 innings, and the next year he can only pitch 160. This game is endless, and it's a distraction for his major-league teammates.

If the Yankees want to contend next season, they need to suck it up. Free Joba.

No, not to play for the Raptors, silly.

King James is going to the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend for the unveiling of "More than a Game," a documentary flick about how basketball made him what he is.

Here's a lovely story/press release for the flick.

James said he hopes the film will inspire kids . . .

"We set out with a goal when we were 8 and we accomplished it when we were 18," he is quoted as saying. "It's a great story and I wanted to get it out to kids that have a dream, that they should continue to go after it, believe in it and live it if they want to accomplish something."

Inspiration is nice, but being the best darn player in the whole wide world is the best way to success.

As Steve Martin used to say: "Here's how to become a millionaire. First, get a million dollars."

I know a bunch of people who are WWE fans and doubt that any of them would fit in them.

So, Here's one of her new listings on eBay:

"WELCOME !! STACY KEIBLER FANS: UP FOR AUCTION IS MY SEXY GREY SEQUINED BRA USED IN MANY PROMO ADS INCLUDING WWE MINI MAGAZINE"

Also up for sale from Stacy's closet: A white dress (worn) and her "Flirty Fringe Bando BIKINI
exclusively from me, STACY KEIBLER!"

There's no truth to the rumor that John McCain's campaign originally vetted Stacy for VP consideration but found that she was too young.

And here's a wacky story about Stacy from back in June when she wasn't wearing her sexy grey sequined bra.

Twins and White Sox remain tied for the AL Central lead.

Both teams lost last night, with the Twins blowing a four-run lead to Toronto and the White Sox getting a swirly that included Victor Martinez hitting his first home run in almost a year.

Chicago is 4-6 in its last 10 games and Minnesota is 3-7.

This is kind of like following the Newsday softball league.

Random drug testing is likely to be expanded for the 2009 season, chairman Brian France said.

I guess that was bound to happen once former truckie Aaron Fike (pictured) admitted that he was using heroin during races.

Here's a Charlotte Observer story via thatsracin.com.

Ken Davidoff, on his MLB blog that has no catchy title, tells people they can vote for the Ford C. Frick award, which goes to a baseball broadcaster.

Broadcasters (and sports writers) don't belong in the baseball Hall of Fame. Ballplayers do. But that's another debate.

Here's the scary part: John Sterling is on the ballot.

Maybe he can go in as a tandem with his old buddy Charley Steiner.

Here are some of the other broadcasters on the ballot with Yankees or Mets ties:

Joe Angel, Lorn Brown, Gary Cohen, Hank Greenwald, Wayne Hagin, Ken Harrelson, Fran Healy, Tommy Hutton, Jim Kaat, Michael Kay, Ralph Kiner, Tony Kubek, Tim McCarver, Frank Messer, Bobby Murcer, Dave O'Brien, Paul Olden, Phil Rizzuto, Ted Robinson, Tom Seaver, Ken Singleton, Dewayne Staats, Rusty Staub, Gary Thorne, Bill White

Here's the full ballot.

Jim Kelley of SI.com wrote an interesting piece about Scott Gordon and the Islanders a few weeks ago. Can't believe I missed it.

Some exerpts:
-- Islanders ownership is, well, inept. General manager Garth Snow is ambitious but wildly inexperienced, and the team attracts the kind of talent usually too young, too old and to erratic to form any kind of cohesive unit. It is, in essence, the kind of situation that essentially has the 45-year-old Gordon, the reigning Coach of the Year in the American Hockey League, placing nail one in the soft wood of his eventual coaching coffin simply by accepting the job.

-- Gordon, no doubt, understands that. He didn't get this job because he was the best man available. He got it because he's an up-and-coming coach who deserves his shot at the NHL -- and also because of the combination of having more experienced men not wanting it and a general manager who probably wouldn't be comfortable with them if they had.

-- It's possible it could all work out for Gordon. Owner Charles Wang might suddenly develop some patience and Snow might forge a relationship that would allow Gordon to grow as a coach while Snow grows as a general manager. (Hey, it worked in Buffalo where the never-head-coach, Lindy Ruff, paired off with the never-general-manager, Darcy Regier, and a 10-year relationship was both forged and continues to this day.) In addition, Gordon is known for his communication skills and is a former goaltender, facts that should hold him in good standing with Rick DiPietro, who, with 13 years left on his contract, some would argue holds as much or even more sway with Wang than Snow. (See Nolan firing for some evidence in that regard.)

-- Kelly didn't call the Islanders a "laughingstock" franchise. (Who would do that?) But he did call them "one of the NHL's most downtrodden franchises."
You say potato, I say turnip...

Here's the link to the Wang story in today's Newsday.

Click here.

I'll take mine wid wiz. And one with provolone and a mater for my friend.

I'd be just a little suspicious if I were Orlando Sentinel reporter Iliana Limón or any other member of the media.

If you recall, George O'Leary had a cow over a very serious subject back in July and gave the Sentinel the silent treatment for several days.

Plus, there is a very heated rivalry with South Florida, the UCF Knights' opponent on Saturday night. The two schools are 60 miles apart and are ending a four-game series. USF was rather merciless last year, winning 64-12 before a full house at Raymond James Stadium.

But I'm sure the phone-sex thing was just an accident.

By the way, the USF-UCF game will be carried nationally on ESPN2. Check out the USF drumline and wave to Chicago Norm Jr.

Actor-singer Jerry Reed, who passed away on the 31st, was best known for his music and Burt Reynolds movies, but his last film as an actor was the Water Boy.

He played the extremely nasty Coach Red Beaulieu in the 1998 Adam Sandler flick. Go here if you want to hear the clip of him telling the Waterboy that he's fired.

And now here's your Chicago Norm story about Jerry Reed:

A couple of years ago, the Chicago Norm clan was taking a Sunday ride out east somewhere when Mrs. Chicago Norm told Chicago Norm Jr. to tell a story, which he bumbled through. Then she asked me to do the same.

Now, I was tired and cranky from a tough, long Saturday at Newsday and came up with this tale:

"Well me and Homer Jones. . . and Big John Talley , , , had a big crap game going back in the alley. I kept rollin' them sevens and winning all them pots. My luck was so good I could do no wrong and just kept on rolling and controlling them bones."

And, boy, did she get mad. Furious. I don't think she said a word to me the rest of the day.

Here are the actual lyrics to "When You're Hot, You're Hot."

According to the Miami Herald, the 18-year-old boyfriend of Bristol Palin is a HUGE hockey fan.

Yo Levi, you are welcome to post hockey comments on TFS whenever you like!

Levi also, on his MySpace page, writes:

'I'm a ---- redneck who likes to snowboard and ride dirt bikes. But I live to play hockey. I like to go camping and hang out with the boys, do some fishing, shoot some --- and just --- chillin' I guess. Ya --- with me I'll kick ----."

I think the "Juno" comparisons are over. The boy in "Juno" was not at all like Levi.

And everyone knows all the cool kids are on Facebook now, not MySpace.

Tiger announced this news on his web site.

I dont have a web site, but I have a blog. So when I got two cats, I announced it here.

Further evidence that my life and Tiger Woods' lives are a little different.