For the Record
Shelved
For the remainder of the NBA season amid mounting woes, 76ers guard Allen Iverson, 34. The four-time scoring champion (above) first left the game on Nov. 7 after 13-plus seasons with the 76ers, Nuggets, Pistons and Grizzlies, but he unretired a month later to sign with Philadelphia. Seemingly recharged, he was averaging 13.8 points before he missed nine games over the past month (as well as the All-Star Game), citing the undisclosed illness of his daughter, Messiah. On March 2, the same day that Iverson's wife, Tawanna, filed for divorce, Sixers president Ed Stefanski made the exit official, saying that Iverson "no longer wishes to be a distraction to the organization and teammates that he loves very deeply." On Sunday, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Stephen A. Smith reported that Iverson was undergoing other struggles: Smith wrote that numerous NBA sources had suggested Iverson would "either drink himself into oblivion or gamble his life away." At press time Iverson had not commented.
Passed
By unanimous vote in the Missouri state senate, a bill that would remove former Cardinal Mark McGwire's name from a stretch of St. Louis freeway. In 1999, one year after Big Mac broke Roger Maris's single-season home run record, the state christened a five-mile chunk of I-70 (formerly the Mark Twain Highway) as the Mark McGwire Highway. But the senator who handled that bill, Ryan McKenna, says he reconsidered after McGwire's admission in January that he used steroids during his career. "When he finally came forward, that's when I decided," McKenna told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "He was cheating." The bill, which would reinstitute Twain's name, now goes to Missouri's House of Representatives where it is expected to be approved. "If it turns out [that way]," McGwire said on March 2, "I was honored to have it for 10 years."
Diagnosed
With diabetes, 20-year-old Georgetown junior Austin Freeman, who leads the No. 22 Hoyas in scoring average (17.3). The 6'3", 227-pound guard was suffering from a cold and stomach virus--like symptoms on Feb. 27 when he received intravenous fluids before coming off the bench against Notre Dame, a game in which he appeared pale and shaky while scoring five points over 23 minutes. Two days later team officials rushed Freeman to a Washington, D.C., emergency room where his ailment was identified. Freeman will continue to compete (though doctors have not yet identified his specific type of diabetes or the medication it will require), and last Saturday, with a specialist from Georgetown's Diabetes Center on hand, Freeman scored 24 points in a 74--47 win over Cincinnati.
Banned
In minor league baseball this spring, the use of several types of maple bats. The particularly light lumber first received approval in 1997 and gained popularity as Barry Bonds established single-season and career home run records in 2001 and '07, respectively, while using maple. A survey by one manufacturer estimated that somewhere between 60 and 70% of major leaguers used maple in '09. Recent MLB studies, however, found that maple bats splinter into more pieces when broken than do their heavier ash or hickory counterparts. The safety measure, meant to prevent flying debris from injuring fans, umpires and players, will apply only to those who have never played in the majors or who aren't on a big league 40-man roster, but officials will also consult with and recommend changes to major league players who broke at least 10 bats of any sort in '09.
Investigated
By police after being accused of sexual assault for the second time in eight months, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger whose lawyer described his client on Monday as "completely innocent of any crime." Authorities in Milledgeville, Ga., 30 miles from the two-time Super Bowl champion's vacation home, say that Roethlisberger (above), was accompanied by a 20-year-old college student at local bars last Thursday. Early on Friday the unidentified woman reported being "sexually assaulted and sexually manipulated" by an attacker, whom she described as 6'5" and 241 pounds. (Witnesses also placed Roethlisberger at the scene.) Police have met with—but as of Monday had not questioned or charged—Roethlisberger, who is also facing a civil suit for an incident alleged to have occurred in July 2008 near Lake Tahoe, Nev., in which he has denied wrongdoing and filed a motion for dismissal.
Requested
By the Golf Writers Association of America, that the PGA Tour suspend John Daly after the golfer made public the phone number of a Florida Times-Union reporter on his Twitter feed last week. Daly's beef with the Times-Union dates to 2005, when he tried suing the paper for libel. That case was thrown out of court—but not before Daly's 456-page PGA Tour disciplinary file was made public record during the proceedings. On March 2 the Times-Union referenced parts of that report, noting that from 1991 to 2008 Daly had been ordered seven times to undergo counseling or alcohol rehab, that he had been suspended five times and that he had been cited 21 times for "failure to give best efforts." That evening Daly posted on his Twitter feed the cellphone number of writer Garry Smits, whom Daly called a "jerk," imploring his fans to "call & flood his line" and "tell him how we feel." Daly later removed the number, but not before Smits had received more than 100 phone calls.
Go Figure
5.78
Seconds it took Iowa guard Dace Richardson to run the 40-yard dash, slowest at the 2010 NFL draft combine.
6.25
Seconds it took 40-year-old football analyst Rich Eisen to run the 40. Eisen sprinted for an NFL Network segment.
20,562
Promotional Snuggies donned by Cavaliers fans at Quicken Loans Arena last Friday, setting a Guinness World Record for "largest gathering of people wearing fleece blankets."
21.9
Average television rating in Salt Lake City for the 17 prime-time Vancouver Olympic telecasts, the highest among all U.S. markets for the third time in the last four Olympic Games.
$5
Added cost per ticket to sit on the south side of the Dolphins' Sun Life Stadium next season. During 1 p.m. kickoffs, temperatures on the north side can be as much as 15° higher than those opposite.
$250.8 million
Domestic box-office take for The Blind Side, whose star Sandra Bullock on Sunday won the Best Actress Oscar. The movie is the highest-grossing sports film ever at U.S. theaters.
THEY SAID IT
Bob Feller
Ninety-one-year-old Hall of Fame righthander, on rookie Reds lefty Aroldis Chapman (left), who defected from Cuba and signed a $30.25 million contract: "He must've got Obama stimulus money. Wake me when he wins his first 100 games."
PHOTO
MICHAEL J. LEBRECHT II/1DEUCE3 PHOTOGRAPHY (IVERSON)
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JASON COHN/REUTERS (ROETHLISBERGER)
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BRAD MANGIN (CHAPMAN)
