National Digest
Sportsman
NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Phelps achieved another unprecedented feat: the first swimmer honored as Sports Illustrated’s sportsman of the year.
Phelps broke Mark Spitz’s iconic record with eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in August and became the winningest Olympian ever with his 14 career victories.
Olympians in other sports have earned the award before in its 54-year history, but never a swimmer. In 1972, the year Spitz won his medals, UCLA basketball coach John Wooden and tennis great Billie Jean King were honored by the magazine.
The 23-year-old Phelps follows a more traditional winner, NFL quarterback Brett Favre. Sports Illustrated Group editor Terry McDonell called the selection of Phelps “the easiest choice I have made.”
BC holds on
BOSTON (AP) — Boston College was 0.4 seconds away from escaping with another victory in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge when the Eagles made another mistake that put the game in jeopardy.
After the BC defense kept Iowa from getting a good look at a game-tying or -winning shot, Corey Raji grabbed Andrew Brommer as he tried to turn and put up a desperation 3-pointer to beat the buzzer. The freshman backup forward clanged the first shot off the front of the rim as time expired, and BC could finally exhale with a 57-55 win.
BC (5-2) improved to 3-0 in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge — the only team other than Duke with a perfect record — but the Eagles almost gave it away by scoring just one point after taking a 56-45 lead with 4:45 left.
Intrastate game
DES MOINES (AP) — Iowa State hasn’t had much of a problem playing at home. It’s those pesky road games the Cyclones can’t figure out.
Iowa State, winners of 10 straight over non-conference teams at Hilton Coliseum, have dropped 10 straight road games dating back to last season. Though the Cyclones are off to a 4-1 start, they won’t be taken seriously until they can show they can win away from home, coach Greg McDermott would like nothing better than to snap the streak Wednesday night at Northern Iowa (4-2).
The game represents a homecoming for McDermott, a former player and coach with the Panthers. More importantly, it kicks off a stretch of four games in 10 days — at Northern Iowa, home against Oregon State and Drake and at Iowa — that will show what the Cyclones are truly made of.
“The next four games will tell us a lot about our team, and I think we’ll learn a lot about what’s to come this season based on what happens here the next two weeks,” McDermott said.
PRO FOOTBALL
IRVING, Texas (AP) — The Dallas Cowboys placed Adam “Pacman” Jones on their 53-man roster after the NFL lifted the cornerback’s suspension.
Jones missed six games for violating the league’s player conduct policy. He previously was suspended for the entire 2007 season while with Tennessee and played in only six games for the Cowboys before the most recent suspension after an alcohol-related scuffle at a Dallas hotel.
The NFL allowed Jones to return to practice last week and said he would be able to return to play Sunday at Pittsburgh.
Jones’ suspension in 2007 came after multiple off-field incidents. He was traded to Dallas during the offseason and given another chance by commissioner Roger Goodell.
But on Oct. 7, Jones got into a scuffle with a bodyguard that was part of a team-employed security detail. A week later, Goodell suspended the cornerback indefinitely. Jones spent part of his time away taking part in an alcohol rehabilitation program.
CLEVELAND (AP) — After weighing his options, Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn has elected to have surgery on his right index finger, which he initially broke on Nov. 17 at Buffalo and then made worse by playing in the Browns’ game a week later against Houston.
The team said Quinn’s operation will be performed on Wednesday in Birmingham, Ala., by hand specialist Dr. Thomas Hunt. The procedure, which will likely involve a pin being inserted in Quinn’s finger to stabilize the bone and damaged tendon, will require up to 10 weeks of recovery time.
In his second career start, Quinn broke the tip of his finger when he banged it against a Bills defender in the first half of Cleveland’s 29-27 win. Although he was given the option of having the operation or rest, Quinn played in a Nov. 23 game against the Texans and sustained further damage to the finger on his throwing hand.
BASEBALL
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Next season, San Francisco Giants fans buying single-game tickets for an April game against Milwaukee might pay half as much as they would for a weekend game with the rival Los Angeles Dodgers later in the year.
The club is trying something new with ticket sales in a few tough-to-sell upper-deck outfield sections of its waterfront ballpark for 2009: cost based on demand.
The walk-up sales price for up to about 2,000 seats could even go up or down on game day. The change would be minimal, say somewhere between 25 cents and $2.
Team president Larry Baer calls it “dynamic pricing” and figures it might just become the way of the future for professional sports franchises. The Giants have partnered with a software company that will make it possible to quickly change the ticket prices based on the popularity of a given game — not to mention weather, a possible milestone or a player from a visiting team who brings extra interest.
NEW YORK (AP) — Citi Field will remain the name of the New York Mets’ new ballpark following a government bailout the team believes will help the struggling bank survive its economic crisis.
Citigroup agreed in 2006 to pay the Mets $400 million over 20 years for naming rights to the stadium, scheduled to open next year. Two New York City councilmen said last week that the $800 million ballpark’s name should be changed to Citi/Taxpayer Field.
After Citigroup’s shares lost 60 percent of their value within a week, the government agreed last month to give the company a $20 billion cash injection — following an earlier $25 billion infusion.
Signage for Citi already is visible at the ballpark, which is adjacent to Shea Stadium, and more is to come.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Lane Kiffin has already discovered one thing that comes with the job of being Tennessee’s coach: needling from Steve Spurrier.
The South Carolina coach, who had a history of taking verbal jabs at Kiffin’s predecessor, Phillip Fulmer, questioned whether Kiffin broke NCAA recruiting rules by contacting Tennessee recruits before he was cleared to do so.
The NCAA requires coaches to take a recruiting certification test before they’re allowed to contact recruits.
Jarvis Giles, a running back recruit from Gaither High School in Tampa, Fla., told several media outlets that Kiffin contacted him early Sunday morning — a day before he was scheduled to be introduced as the Vols’ new coach.
Spurrier noted that he didn’t retake the recruiting test until after he was introduced as the Gamecocks’ new coach and joked that Kiffin might have called Giles as “an interested observer.”
