Sports Roundup

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!

World record, that is.  The US men's 800 meter freestyle relay team of Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Klete Keller and Peter Vanderkaay touched first in 7 minutes, 03.24 seconds at the world swimming championships Friday night in Melbourne, Australia  lowering the time of 7:04.66 set by Australia at the 2001 world championships in Fukuoka, Japan.  Following in the footsteps (wake?) of his record setting teammate Phelps, it was Lochte's second world record of the night to go with his new standard in the 200 backstroke.

Australia took the silver and Canada earned the bronze.

UNBELIEVA-BULL!

For a team that has found it tough to beat the Pistons at home since the Michael Jordan era (15-3 since 1998), the  Chicago Bulls were able to pull one out Friday.  Kurt Hinrich sinking two of his last three free throws with 2.8 seconds left clinched the Bulls spot in the playoffs and wiped out the monkey that appeared to be about to land on their back after blowing a fourth-quarter 12 point lead.  What's next?  Second place Cleveland on Saturday.

OW, THAT HURTS!

Let's see, who could that be.  Oh, yeah, sure Kerry Woods is hurt, but now so is Detroit Tigers pitcher Kenny Rogers.  He's been placed retroactively on the 15-day disabled list with a 'tired arm'.  Tired arm?  Of course he has a tired arm, he's a pitcher!  General manager Dave Dombrowski said Rogers was seeing a specialist and would not speculate on how long he will be out, but did say the left-hander will miss at least one start. The designation is retroactive to March 25. 

Of course, this was after pitching six scoreless innings.  I bet there are a lot of guys who would like to be suffering from that!  (Mark Prior - are you paying attention?)

NOW WHAT ELSE IS THERE?

Hmmm, there must be something else.  Let me see.  No, no NASCAR until this weekend, Opening Day isn't for a few more days.  No NFL Draft yet.  What else?  Oh, yeah, NCAA basketball.  Well, that isn't really until tonight, so guess we'll have to wait until later...