Paying another Sunday morning visit to the variety store...



Falling hard

It was only a few years ago that we watched two of the greatest high school basketball players in Ashtabula County history square off at the collegiate level at the Beaghly Center in Youngstown.

Kelly Kapferer and Jessica Olmstead — former stars at Jefferson and Conneaut, respectively — were at that point playing for Bowling Green State University and Youngstown State University on the hardwood.

Since that winter night six years ago, BGSU has been built into the elite program of the Mid-American Conference and YSU is now bottoming out.

In fact, with Saturday’s loss Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the Penguins stand 0-29 and are only an opening-round loss in the Horizon League Tournament from finishing 0-30.

According to STATS LLC, that would make the Penguins the ninth women’s team to go winless for a season in the past 10 years.

Perhaps YSU should ask (beg?) another former Jefferson star to make a comeback on the hardwood.

Haley Kapfererer, one of Kelly’s younger sisters and a three-time All-Ohioan and a two-time first-team All-Ohioan for legendary coach Rod Holmes at Jefferson, just finished her junior season on scholarship at YSU in the fall — in volleyball.

The 6-foot-3 Kapferer scored 1,733 points — the second-most in Ashtabula County basketball history — and pulled down 1,380 rebounds — the most in Ashtabula County history — in a spectacular four-year career at Jefferson.

Think she might be able to help the basketball Penguins?



Minor matters

Baseball America recently named its Top 100 prospect list and the Indians fared quite well.

The Tribe has five players on the list, tied with the Cubs for the second-most. The Rays led the way with seven.

Catcher Carlos Santana (10th), third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall (31st) and pitchers Nick Hagadone (44th), Jason Knapp (64th) and Alex White (65th) are the Wahoo farmhands to appear on the publication’s Top 100 list.

Interestingly, three of those players — Santana, Hagadone and Knapp — were acquired via trades in the past two seasons. Santana came from the Dodgers in the Casey Blake deal two years ago, Hagadone from the Red Sox in the Victor Martinez deal last season and Knapp in the Cliff Lee swap with the Phillies last summer.

Chisenhall and White were selected by the Indians in the amateur draft.



Yeah, but...

Before anyone gets too excited about Baseball America’s feelings toward the Tribe minor leaguers, consider what Bill James has to say.

The famed baseball numbers cruncher doesn’t have nearly as high an opinion on the Indians when it comes to young talent.

In fact, his latest product — the Young Talent Inventory — ranks the Indians 26th among the 30 major-league teams.

Last year, he had the Indians rated seventh.

In the new Bill James Gold Mine 2010, here’s how he rates all 30 teams heading into the 2010 season, with their 2009 rankings in parentheses:

n 1. Tampa Bay Rays (3)

n 2. Colorado Rockies (8)

n 3. Minnesota Twins (1)

n 4. Arizona Diamondbacks (2)

n 5. Boston Red Sox (10)

n 6. San Francisco Giants (22)

n 7. New York Yankees (29)

n 8. Texas Rangers (19)

n 9. Chicago White Sox (25)

n 10. Florida Marlins (4)

n 11. Los Angeles Dodgers (13)

n 12. Philadelphia Phillies (20)

n 13. Atlanta Braves (9)

n 14. Los Angeles Angels (11)

n 15. Kansas City Royals (5)

n 16. New York Mets (16)

n 17. Chicago Cubs (26)

n 18. Seattle Mariners (18)

n 19. Milwaukee Brewers (6)

n 20. Baltimore Orioles (24)

n 21. Oakland A’s (12)

n 22. Toronto Blue Jays (28)

n 23. Washington Nationals (23)

n 24. St. Louis Cardinals (14)

n 25. Pittsburgh Pirates (17)

n 26. Indians (7)

n 27. Cincinnati Reds (15)

n 28. Detroit Tigers (27)

n 29. San Diego Padres (21)

n 30. Houston Astros (30)

James explains his Young Talent Formula this way: “Begin(s) by assigning to every player in major league baseball an ‘Inventory Value’ based on his age and major-league performance. We figure two scores for every major-league player, an ‘Established Value Score’ and a ‘Youth Score,’ then we put these together into a ‘Youth/Value Score’ or ‘Inventory Value.’”



Um, OK...

Soccer — and the circus that pretty much always accompanies it — makes for a never-a-dull-moment setting.

Case in point, former Real Madrid and France star Zinedine Zidane.

You may remember him from an infamous headbutting incident against an Italian defender in 2006.

In an interview with leading Spanish daily El Pais published Monday, Zidane recalled the infamous incident with a sense of shame — but he felt none toward Materazzi.

“After the game, I went into the dressing room and told them, ’Forgive me. This doesn’t change anything, but sorry everyone,”’ Zidane recalled of the moments after the game.

“But to him I can’t. Never, never,” Zidane added. “It would be to dishonor me. ... I’d rather die.”

The match was Zidane’s last after a sparkling career in which he became one of the game’s most respected players. In the 20th minute of extra time, Materazzi insulted Zidane, who responded by headbutting the Italian defender violently in the chest. He got sent off and watched France lose the match from the sideline.

“Of course I reproach myself,” Zidane told El Pais. “But if I say ‘Sorry,’ I would also be admitting that what he did was normal. And for me it was not normal.

“Things happen on the pitch. It’s happened to me many times. But I could not stand it that time,” Zidane said. “My mother was sick. She was in hospital. This people didn’t know. ... But it was a bad moment. More than once they had insulted my mother and I never responded.”

Materazzi recently told Italy’s La Republica paper he was still waiting for Zidane to apologize and that he was still so angry over the incident that he won’t even watch this year’s tournament in South Africa.

“If it was Kaka, an ordinary guy, a good guy, of course I would have apologized. But to this one!” Zidane said. “If I ask forgiveness of him, I lack respect for myself and for all those I love with all my heart.”

Zidane won two Series A titles with Italy’s Juventus and two La Liga titles and a Champions League with Real Madrid, along with the 1998 World Cup. He was voted FIFA World Player of the Year three times.

Now 37, he acts as an informal adviser to Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.



Toe... nailed

And we thought Curt Schilling’s bloody sock was a big deal.

Florida relief pitcher Derrick Turnbow is so determined to win a spot in the Marlins’ bullpen that the big toe on his left foot being “a bloody mess” last week didn’t stop him from throwing a bullpen session.

“My toenail jammed up in my shoe about a week ago and it caused it to swell up,” Turnbow said. “It got infected and it affected my command a lot the first two times I was out. I didn’t say anything. Today, it busted open and all the blood came out. It felt better immediately.”

Turnbow’s toe “exploded” just before he stepped onto the bullpen mound. The pitcher removed his left sock to allow a trainer to apply a bandage, then began throwing and feeling better than ever.

Outfielder Cody Ross described his teammate’s toe as “disgusting” when the pitcher showed it to him recently.



Fore on the floor

While we’re on the subject of the wild and wacky game of soccer comes this:

Wales rugby star Andy Powell has been banned from driving for 15 months after admitting driving a golf buggy while unfit through drink.

Powell was arrested at services at junction 33 of the M4 near the team hotel in the Vale of Glamorgan.

He was taken into custody with another man hours after a Six Nations match.

Powell pleaded guilty before Cardiff magistrates and as well as the ban, was fined and ordered to pay costs and a victim surcharge.

Powell’s lawyer Conrad Gadd told the court Powell, from Brecon, already admitted he had been “foolish”.

“He is regretful that any young boy who may see him as a hero might think this behavior is acceptable and he wants to make it plain that it isn’t,” Gadd said.

The 28-year-old was arrested with another man in the early hours of Feb. 14, the day after he had played in Wales’ dramatic Six Nations win over Scotland.

The buggy had been taken from the Vale Hotel, Golf and Spa Resort, where team members stayed before and after the match.

The other man was released without charge.

Gadd said the win over Scotland had been a great day for Wales with the team snatching victory in the final minutes.

“Beer is a staple of any rugby side and here there was more than a few pints of beer. Mr Powell was out until the early hours of the morning,” he said.

“By 5.30 a.m. he and one colleague were hungry. There was no intention to drive but they got in the golf buggy and Powell drove it about a mile-and-a-half to the services.”

“He stayed on the hard shoulder. The buggy was capable of doing about 20 mph but it was nowhere near that speed. Someone saw them and reported it to police. As soon as the police arrived, he realized he had made a mistake and without hesitation he accepted blame.”

“It is a tremendous blow to somebody who is proud to play for Wales,” Gadd said.

Powell said after the case that he fully accepted the decision and sentence of the court.

“In doing so I am mindful of those whom I have let down by my actions and I again offer a full public apology, especially to my fans who have been so supportive, my family, who have stood by me, and the senior officers, management and coaching staff of both the WRU and Cardiff Blues,” he said.

“I would also like to thank the police officers involved in the incident and the management of the Vale Hotel, Golf and Spa Resort for the sympathetic way that they dealt with the situation.

“I now intend to put this matter behind me and to get on with my rugby career and the remainder of the Cardiff Blues season.”



Rusky to judgment

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev is demanding that all his country’s top sports officials be ash canned after their athletes’ disappointing performance at the Winter Olympics.

The officials should consider themselves fortunate they weren’t in charge back when the “Miracle on Ice” occurred in 1980.

Heads might roll... literally.



Breaking the ice

Speaking of the Olympics, Americans love football and Super Bowl Sunday has become another national holiday, but the Canadians’ devotion to hockey is outrageous.

Canada’s 3-2 overtime victory over the United States in the Olympic gold medal game was watched by an average of 16.6 million Canadians, about half the population. It’s estimated that 26.5 million (80 percent of the population) watched at least some portion of the game.



On thin ice

However, in the wake of last Sunday’s USA-Canada gold medal game in Vancouver attracting 27.6 million viewers for NBC, ratings were down for three games on Versus, the NHL’s cable partner.

The three games — Colorado-Detroit, Philadelphia-Tampa Bay, Washington-Buffalo — came in at 263,000 viewers, about 15,000 below the season average.



The write stuff

Reggie Hayes, columnist for the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel on Adam “Pacman” Jones holding a workout for NFL scouts on March 19:

“According to NFL.com, he’ll run a variety of drills and then, to simulate his in-season skills, everything will be suspended halfway through.”



Random thoughts

n Is bobsledding named after some guy named Bob?

n My three favorite films fit for family consumption — “Simon Birch,” “Forever Young” and “My Dog Skip.”

n Motorcycles seem really cool to ride, but then again, skydiving seems pretty cool, and I’m not going to do that, either. The tragic death of a Conneaut woman at a motorcycle rally in Daytona Beach last week only magnifies why you’ll never see yours truly on a bike. Motorcycle deaths went up for the 11th consecutive year in 2008, the latest year of available data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The number rose to 5,290 in 2008.



McCormack is the sports editor of the Star Beacon. Reach him at donmac@suite224.net.