FOR THE RECORD
| DIED | At age 82, of congestive heart failure, former All-America basketball forward Sherman White. The 6'8" Long Island star was named The Sporting News's college player of the year in 1951 while leading the nation with 27.7 points per game, but his career was derailed when he was among three Blackbirds players arrested in a widespread point-shaving scandal that also involved players from Bradley, City College (N.Y.), Manhattan College, NYU and Toledo. White (above) led detectives to $5,500 in payoffs he had accepted during 1950 and '51 and served more than eight months in prison for misdemeanor conspiracy. Barred from the NBA, he played semipro ball and later coached inner-city youth teams while volunteering at a community center. "It took some time for the bitterness to go away," he told The New York Times in '84, "but you realize there are other values in life besides basketball."
| DIED | At age 76, of cancer, former Giants and Packers punter and kicker Don Chandler (below). A fifth-round pick out of Florida in 1956, Chandler played his first nine NFL seasons in New York, where he punted for six Eastern Conference championship teams. It was not until his seventh season, in '62, that he replaced Pat Summerall as the Giants' place-kicker, swapping his traditional punting shoe for a square-toed high-top when called on for kickoffs, field goals and extra points. In '65, Chandler was traded to Green Bay, where his first season was highlighted by a 90-yard punt and the game-tying and -winning field goals in the Packers' OT win over the Colts in the Western Conference championship. Chandler's final game was Super Bowl II, in which he set a record (since tied) for field goals in a Super Bowl with four. He was selected as the punter for the NFL's 1960s All-Decade team.
| CONTENDED | By a pair of private investigators hired by the manager of boxer Arturo Gatti, that the three-time champion's mysterious death was not a suicide. The popular fighter was found dead at a Brazilian resort in July 2009, leading police to arrest his wife, Amanda Rodrigues, on murder charges. Less than three weeks later, however, authorities released Rodrigues and concluded that Gatti had hung himself with Rodrigues's handbag. But last week one of the investigators concluded that it was "not physically possible" for the fighter to have killed himself, terming the Brazilian autopsy "incomplete" and the investigation "half-assed." A full report is expected to be presented on Aug. 30.
| RETURNED | To MLS after playing for five European clubs in four years, new Philadelphia Union midfielder Freddy Adu. The 22-year-old, who emigrated from Ghana to Maryland in 1998 after his family won a green-card lottery, was hailed as the future of U.S. Soccer when selected, at age 14, by D.C. United in the 2004 MLS SuperDraft. Instead, he became a magnet for criticism during three up-and-down years Stateside, signing in '07 with Portuguese club Benfica, which subsequently lent him to teams in France, Greece and Turkey. In May, after a two-year absence from the U.S. national team, Adu was selected to rejoin the squad for the CONCACAF Gold Cup, earning praise for helping set up three goals in the semifinal and final.
| DIED | At age 62, of Lou Gehrig's disease, former heavyweight boxer Scott LeDoux (above). Nicknamed the Fighting Frenchman, the 6'1", 225-pound LeDoux fought 50 pro bouts between 1974 and '83, finishing with a 33-13-4 record that included 22 knockouts. Though he never held a title, LeDoux faced eight future or former champions, including George Foreman, Ken Norton and Leon Spinks, earning a draw with the last of them less than four months before Spinks defeated Muhammad Ali in '78. In retirement, LeDoux worked as a pro wrestler and ESPN analyst before being elected commissioner of Anoka County (Minn.) and serving as the state's boxing commissioner.
| ABDUCTED | From the Plateau State capital of Jos, in Nigeria, the father of Chelsea and Nigeria national team midfielder John Obi Mikel. According to police, Michael Obi disappeared around 6 p.m. last Friday after leaving work. Authorities had yet to receive any ransom requests by the time Mikel went on TV on Monday, one day after playing for Chelsea, to address the abductors. Said Mikel, who in June was listed by Forbes magazine as the seventh highest-paid African player in Europe, "I have always tried to help the country in every way I can.... This is the time for the country to help me.... Whoever knows where my dad is should please contact me and hopefully he should be released."
GO FIGURE
98
Age of Keiko Fukuda Shihan, the sole surviving student of judo founder Jigoro Kano and the first woman of 15 people to attain the sport's highest rank, 10th-degree black belt.
143
Total points scored in the Jacksonville Sharks' 73--70 ArenaBowl XXIV win over the Arizona Rattlers last Friday, an AFL title game record.
4
Lead changes in the last minute of that game, which ended on QB Aaron Garcia's 10-yard TD pass—his eighth of the game—on the final play.
1:53
Time, in hours and minutes, of the Aug. 9 Rays-Royals game, 58 minutes shorter than the average contest this season and the first in 2011 to be played in under two hours.
11
MLB batters, of the last 11 with hitting streaks of at least 30 games, who played in the NL. Braves 2B Dan Uggla saw his streak end at 33 on Sunday.
17
Consecutive losses by the Rockies in games played on Sundays, a new MLB record.
$70,000
Bonus awarded by UFC prez Dana White to Brian Ebersole after Ebersole TKO'd Dennis Hallman. White had been angry at Hallman for wearing revealing briefs during the fight.
SOLD
By former Raiders punter Ray Guy last week, his three Super Bowl rings, for $96,216. Is that a deal? Ask these recent sellers.
2011
Fuzzy Thurston, SB II
Sold for $50,788
2007
Steve Wright, SB I
Sold for $73,409
2007
William Perry, SB XX
Sold for $27,472
2002
Paul Hornung, SB I
Sold for $39,181
2000
Lester Hayes, SB XVIII
Sold for $18,200
MLB PLAYERS POLL
Who is the best umpire in baseball?
Jim Joyce 35%
Tim McClelland 18%
Jim Wolf 7%
Laz Diaz 6%
Joe West 5%
FAST FACTS McClelland, who's 60, carried 28% of the vote with 30-something players—a hair behind Joyce—but got only 12% from the under-25 set. He also found favor with nonpitchers (23%), as opposed to pitchers (just 13%).... In a similar SI poll, players overwhelmingly named West the worst of MLB's 85 working umpires with 41% of the vote; the other four umps above combined for just 1% of that vote.
Based on 237 MLB players who responded to SI's survey
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AP (WHITE)
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MALCOLM EMMONS/US PRESSWIRE (CHANDLER)
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FRED KAPLAN (GUY)
FIVE PHOTOS
DAVID N. BERKWITZ (RINGS)
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DARLENE PFISTER/STAR TRIBUNE (LEDOUX)
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RICK OSENTOSKI/CAL SPORT MEDIA (JOYCE)