The Behrend Beacon You bet, First off, I am not writing about Puff Daddy or P. biddy or Huffy Puffy or whatever he calls himself. If you want more on talent-less artists go to MTV.com. No, what I'm talking about is good old fashioned mullah, the big green, the almighty dollar, the, well, you get the point. You see, it's that time of year, between Christmas and Thanksgiving, when people are beginning their holiday shopping and snow is accumulating (usually). This is also the time of year when baseball owners hand out enormous multi-million dollar contracts to free agents in hopes that these players can bring home a championship to their club. Although we will not see the any contract as huge as A-Rod's $252 million package last year, this year looks like yet again one more step towards the continued separation of the haves and have-nots. Word on ESPN.com is that the Yankees, the worst of the haves, offered Oakland first-baseman Jason Giambi a deal worth $ll9 million over seven years. I want to know where Steinbrenner comes up with this money. He already has players like Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams. Mike Mussina, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and Mariano Rivera, who, along with Giambi if he signs, would eat up $lOO million of The thoughts and general ramblings of professional snowboarder Brodie McNei by Andy McNeil staff writer Life as a pro snowboarder is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you'll pull next. For one such rider, Brodie McNeil, corn ing from Vail, Colo. to Mammoth Lakes, Ca lif. proved to be his turning point. From his start on the mogul monster to M 3, here are his thoughts (many of them irrelevant) as asked by the Beacon's Andy McNeil, Brodie's cousin. Beacon: So what's it like to be an old man (23)? McNeil: I wouldn't go quite that far there greenhorn, but yeah, as far as the sport is con cerned, I'm pretty much in my bedwetting Beacon: Isn't your real name James? McNeil: Yes, my first name is James, hut I've always been Brodie. I'm pretty psyched be cause girls react to hearing my name, "Oh, like in 'Mallrats', and then get their numbers. Women's Basketball School C.R. Overall La Roche 0-0 2-0 Penn State Altoona 0-0 1-1 Pitt-Bradford 0-0 1-2 Penn State Behrend 0-0 1-4 Lake Erie 0-0 0-3 Pitt-Greensburg 0-0 0-3 Frostburg 0-0 0-4 NASCAR 2001 Winston Cup Final Standings: Race 36 of 36 Pos. Driver 1 Jeff Gordon Tony Stewart 4763 Sterling Marlin 4741 Ricky Rudd Dale Jarrett 6 Bobby Labonte 4561 7 Rusty Wallace 4481 8 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 4460 • Kevin Harvick 4406 10 Jeff Burton 4394 11 Johnny Benson 4152 12 Mark Martin 4095 13 Matt Kenseth 3982 14 Ward Burton 3846 15 Bill Elliott 3824 Jimmy Spencer 3782 Jerry Nadeau 3675 Bobby Hamilton 3575 Ken Schrader 3480 Elliott Sadler 3471 Ist_ iMIOII (311 St,rP's it's all about the benjamins the team's salary. How much money can one owner throw at a club? No wonder baseball is considering contraction; there's no way the have-nots can compete with this sort of money. That's why there are roughly 12 teams that are annually fighting for playoff spots. The rest can't afford the to pay the high salaries for the players that carry teams. The have-nots have to rely on homegrown talent, like this year's Minnesota Twins. That almost never works though. Just look at the Pirates. Even by eliminating two teams, baseball's financial future still is in jeopardy. As long as the bigger market clubs continue to increase their payroll at a faster rate than the smaller market clubs, the sport is headed for a breakdown. The Yankees, uncoincidentally, are worth nearly seven times as much as the Expos. You can't expect salaries to continually increase without eventually running into major problems. I'm just sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting for an owner to declare bankruptcy because he was too stupid to realize you can't spend a lot more than you make. Speaking of debt, commissioner Bud Selig told reporters at a news conference to announce his Beacon: Really? McNeil: OK, I never get any didgies Beacon: How long have you been a rider and how did you become one? McNeil: I've been riding for about 12 years now. I started at this sledding hill about three blocks from my house. I saw some kids from the neighborhood building a jump and hitting it. For the next few days, I wouldn't stop nag ging my parents to get me a board. They fi nally broke down and got me a Black Snow Mogul Monster from Target. It was basically a P.O.S. Just a plank of plastic with two ghetto straps. Beacon: That sounds like my first board too. The real question is what's your favor ite brew (alcoholic/non)? McNeil: I really don't have a favorite: I like "lawn mower" beers, Pabst Blue Ribbon, MMMMM Beacon: How much is Red Bull and Vodka Men's Basketball School C.R. Overall Penn State Behrend 0-0 2-2 Frostburg 0-0 1-1 Lake Erie 0-0 1-3 La Roche 0-0 0-1 Penn State Altoona 0-0 0-3 Pitt-Bradford 0-0 0-3 Pitt-Greensburg 0-0 0-3 National Basketball Association League Leaders Points Per Game(PPG) Player Team POS PPG K Bryant LAL G 27.4 A Iverson PHI G 27.3 P Pierce BOS F-G 26.9 N Van Exel DEN G 26.7 V Carter TOR G-F 26.5 Points 5112 4706 Rebounds Per Game (RPG) Player Team POS 'RPG D Forston GS F 13.4 T Duncan SA F-C 13.3 K Garnett MIN F 12.4 L Wright MEM C 12.2 D MutomboPHl C 11.9 4612 Assists Per Game (APG) Player Team POS APG A Miller CLE G 10.7 J Kidd NJ G 9.6 G Payton SEA G 9.3 J Tinsley IND G 9.2 J Stockton UT G 9.0 Field Goal Percentage (FGP) Player Team POS FGP D Marshall UT F .603 J Smith MIN F .538 W SzczerbiakMlN G-F .533 S O'Neill LAL C .533 R NesterovicMlN C .530 SORTS Friday, November 30, 2001 Personal foul Mike Bello contract extension that baseball owners lost a combined $5OO million this year. Only five of the 30 teams actually made a profit. According to my computer calculator, that equals $2O million for the other 25 clubs. Hmm, I bet we'll hear owners crying very soon about how they are unable to support their teams. If these numbers are true, and if Selig isn't blowing them out of proportion just for the Senate hearing next week on baseball's antitrust exemption, then owners can only look in the mirror for a source of blame. They didn't curb the wild spending by general managers, and now they are in Mammoth? McNeil: Too much Beacon: Favorite trick? McNeil: Rodeo 7s, Underflippers, Switch B/ S 7s, B/S 180 double grabs, and the "Taliban Tripod" Beacon: Describe your style? McNeil: Kamikaze Huckster vs. Smooth Tran sistor- Lanky, hut I hope its smooth. Beacon: Who's writing the checks/ hand ing out freebies? Sponsors? McNeil: Val ,Surf in California, 686 Cloth ing, M 3 snowhoards, emagenetwork.cotn. Beacon: So how many cars have you to taled? McNeil: I haven't "totaled" any cars, but I just recently got in a little wreck, my fault of course. I also "Tommy Boy'ed my door ear lier in the summer "Whudchudewwww?". Beacon: Are you a millionaire? SCOREBOARD BEHREND SPORTS Men's Basketball Stats Player PPG RPG James Curren 11.0 8.7 Steve Merrill 10.0 1.3 Randy Conley 9.7 6.0 Casey Ponsoll 8.3 1.7 Matt Keith 7.0 1.3 Dave Hairston 6.3 2.7 Marty Timm 5.7 0.7 NATIONAL SPORTS National Hockey League League Leaders Points (Pts) Player Team POS J Iginla CGY RW B ShanahanDET LW S SamsonovßOS LW M Parrish NYI RW D AlfredsssonOTT RW Player Team POS J Iginla CGY RW B ShanahanDET LW M Parrish NYI RW P Demitra STL RW P Bondra WSH RW Goals Against Average (GAA) Player Team POS Yds B Boucher PHI G 1.50 T Conklin EDM G 1.62 P Skudra VAN G 1.75 J Hackett MTL G 1.80 P Roy COL G 1.84 Penalty Minutes (PM) Player Team POS PM K Sawyer ANA LW 109 P Worrell FLA LW 85 J Weimer FLA C 82 B ShanahanDET LW 80 D Brashear VAN LW 80 Goals Goals 20 17 16 15 15 paying the price (literally). The revenue sharing plan that baseball executives said would pull the game off its teetering financial pedestal a few years ago has done almost nothing. The money the large market clubs give to the small market ones isn't enough to help them land even an average position player, much less bring the teams out of debt. Revenue sharing doesn't seem to bother the Yankees; their payroll grows by at least $5 million per season. Contraction won't help baseball either, because the players on the two teams (most likely Minnesota and Montreal) will be drafted into other teams. The small market clubs won't be able to afford the decent players (Vladimir Guerrero) and instead will be stuck with the Derek Bells from the two teams . Contraction just gives clubs like the Braves, Mets, and Dodgers a chance to snag the players worth multi-million dollar contracts. Speaking of those, I wonder how many zeros the likes of Bonds, Gonzalez, Alou, and Boone are gonna see soon. Bonds, despite being 36 years old, is most likely going to see a four and five year contract worth $2O million per. It's a given he won't equal this year's stats, and when he's 40 he'll he struggling to McNeil: Nope. Beacon: What was the last book you read? McNeil: The Perfect Storm, I'm now reading Tale of Two Cities and The Tao of Pooh. Beacon: Have you won/ been in any con tests? McNeil: 1 won a game of horse with one of my friends in Mammoth. As far as legitimate con tests, no wins, but I've gotten third in a slopestyle and ninth in a Big Air. I didn't com pete much last year, just focused on riding and having fun. Beacon: Views on contests? Selling out? McNeil: Contests suck, I get so freaking ner vous, and almost never ride well. I guess they're kind offun if you're there with all your buddies, and it's a jam format. They need more of those. Beacon: What do you think about America's War on terrorism? MCNEIL'S RAMBLINGS continued on page 16 Women's Basketball Stats Player PPG RPG Kate Costanzo 13.0 3.0 Erin Phillips 9.5 7.5 Erica Mozdy 8.8 7.0 Christine Charnock 7.5 1.8 Danielle Bemis 7.5 1.8 Crystal McGarvey 5.5 4.3 Carly Cochran 5.3 2.5 NFC Statistics Passing Yards (Yds) Player Team POS Yds K Warner STL QB 3000 B Favre GB QB 2530 J Plummer ARI QB 2473 D CulpepperMlN QB 2472 K Collins NYG QB 2468 Rushing Yards (Yds) Player Team POS Yds A Green GB RB 938 R Williams NO RB 912 S Davis WAS RB 842 G Hearst SF RB 776 M Faulk STL RB 682 Receiving Yards (Yds) Player Team POS Yds D Boston ARI WR 1065 T Owens SF WR 970 K Johnson TB WR 891 I Bruce STL WR 842 J Horn NO WR 834 Sacks Player Team POS Sacks M Strahan NYG DE 16 K Biamila GB DE 11 C Clemons NO LB 9.5 L Little STL DE 9 P Kerney ATL DE 9 hit 25 home runs and a .275 average. Is that worth $2O million? By these standards, Sammy Sosa, the most complete player in the game, should be worth $lOO million. Baseball's future is looking pretty grim right now. The growing disparity between the haves and have nots might eventually force the top 15 teams to buy out the other 15. Then you'd see ratings and attendance fall faster than Pamela Lee's chest size. Let's not mention the fact the players' contract expired in early November. We've been fortunate not to have a repeat of '94, but that doesn't mean labor troubles won't come back to bite baseball next year. Especially if the players' union and Bud Selig lock horns over the salary cap issue. Who loses in this constant seesaw battle between owners and players? You, the fan. The only way to pay for these salaries is to raise prices on tickets, merchandise, refreshments, hot dogs, programs, BEER, etc. As long as salaries increase, then it will cost the average fan more and more to attend a single game. After all, you hear about clubs raising ticket prices all the time, but when was the last time you heard of a club lowering ticket prices? Yeah, that happens as often as Britney Spears wears bras. National Football League behrcolls@aol.com Brodie McNeil doing, well, some sort of trick PELT BEHREND LIONS AFC Statistics Passing Yards (Yds) Player Team POS Yds P Manning IND QB 2709 T Green KC QB 2344 R Gannon OAK QB 2324 B Griese DEN QB 2318 D Flutie SD QB 2195 Rushing Yards (Yds) Player Team POS Yds J Bettis PIT RB 991 C Martin NYJ RB 983 P Holmes KC RB 902 S AlexanderSEA RB 894 L TomlinsonSD RB 869 Receiving Yards (Yds) Player Team POS Yds R Smith DEN WR 1029 M Harrison IND WR 934 Troy BrownNE WR 885 Tim Brown OAK WR 862 J Smith JAC WR 850 Sacks Player Team POS Sacks J Abraham NYJ DE 10 M Wiley SD DE 9.5 J Kearse TEN DE 9 R Johnson SD DE 9 2 tied with 8 Page 15 CONTRIBUTED PHOTO TATE
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers