All In A Day’s Sports

Nuts And Bolts

By Jim Riggs, Sports Editor
Traditional Doubleheaders — Because of rainouts on Sunday, the Cleveland Indians and Pittsburgh Pirates played traditional doubleheaders on Monday.

Cleveland was rained out against the Toronto Blue Jays and played a twin bill at 4:05 on Monday while Pittsburgh’s rainout was against Atlanta and they made it up as part of a doubleheader at 12:35 p.m.

And that meant the fans got two games for the price of one, something that doesn’t happen any more.

According to an Associated Press article, the traditional doubleheader at Cleveland was the first one there in more than 10 years. The last was on Aug. 13, 1997.

And it was probably about the same for the Pirates.

Now teams prefer to make up a rainout on an off day or as part of a day-night doubleheader, which means they can charge two admissions.

I can remember first hearing about day-night doubleheaders in the 1960s when the Houston Astros had a few. It was hard to comprehend the teams playing one game and then waiting a few hours before playing again.

Now it’s not hard to comprehend when it comes to dollars and cents.

Years ago, the first thing fans used to to do when their team’s schedule was released was to check when there would be doubleheaders. That’s because there would always be at least four or five regularly scheduled every season. Some teams played numerous doubleheaders on Sundays and then more were always expected on Memorial Day, July 4 and Labor Day. Then even more came up due to rainouts.

But those days are long gone. Getting two for one doesn’t exist any more for the fans.

But it does for the owners. who enjoy getting two admissions in one day.

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Just A Wedge Shot — Golfers love to watch The Players Championship because of the 17th hole, which features the famous island green. Everyone enjoys watching the best players in the world dunk shots in the water.

But during the opening round of this year’s tournament, I was taking note of the club everyone was using on No. 17. The hole was playing at 148 yards that day, but all the pros were using a pitching wedge. And most were taking an easy swing.

What would most of you be hitting to a pin 148 yards away?

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Handy For Callups — If the Pittsburgh Penguins or Philadelphia Flyers needed to call up a player from their American Hockey League teams during the Stanley Cup Eastern Conference Finals, they didn’t have far to go. Both team’s farm clubs were also meeting in the AHL Playoffs.

Some of the games were in Philadelphia and played at the old Spectrum, now called the Wachovia Spectrum. It is part of the Wachovia Complex that includes the Wachovia Center that houses the Flyers.

If either team needed to call up a player, all the player had to do was walk across the parking lot.

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Super Bowl Hype Is Nothing — We’ve heard plenty of complaints about having to put up with two weeks of hype between the NFL’s conference championships and then the Super Bowl. By the time Super Sunday comes, most fans just want to get the game going after two weeks of endless game analysis, predictions and hoopla.

Well, the Super Bowl hype now is like nothing when compared to the 2008 presidential election coverage. The election won’t take place until this fall, but we’ve been putting up with news coverage of it since back into 2006. When election night finally rolls around, a lot of us will be relieved it’s just here no matter who wins.

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Smooth Retirement Announcement — Annika Sorenstam’s retirement announcement this week was first class, just like her career.

One touch of class was it was not rumored coming for days. And when Sorenstam announced on Tuesday that she will retire at the end of this LPGA Tour season, you could tell it was coming from someone very comfortable with their decision.

She had notes, but rarely looked at them as she confidently announced her intentions and then fielded questions as calmly as if she was standing over a 2 foot putt.

There were no tears, just the comments one of the best women golfers ever who appears to be ready to begin numerous other careers, including motherhood.

What was interesting while watching Sorenstam’s totally calm and poised announcement was to think about her amateur days back in Sweden. It has been reported numerous times that she often purposely finished second in tournaments so she wouldn’t have to make an acceptance speech. Now it appears she’s ready to host a talk show.

Hey, Golf Channel. Are you listening?