Sports Notes REAL MADRID STARS AMONG FIFA's Nominees for Players of the Year - October 2006

James Loving - National Radio Text Service - Thursday October 19, 2006 -

MLB's Buck O'Neil - The Contender - Ultimate Fighter Loses Plot - Bolton joltin with Allardyce - NBA's Toni Kukoc - Thai & Cambodian Football Khemara win CPL title

REAL MADRID STARS AMONG FIFA's PLAYER OF THE YEAR NOMINEES

At the beginning of December, FIFA will reveal in alphabetical order the names of the three men and women who have received the most votes for FIFA Player of The Year.

The 16th FIFA World Player Gala will also include prizes for outstanding performances at the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany.

The tournament’s three best players (Zinedine Zidane, Fabio Cannavaro and Andrea Pirlo) and top scorers (Miroslav Klose, Hernan Crespo and Ronaldo) will be presented with awards in Zurich, as will the two fairest teams (Brazil and Spain) and the outstanding goalkeeper (Gianluigi Buffon).

Former Real Madrid star Luis Figo is also included among the 20 nominees for Player of the Year. - REAL MADRID FULL STORY

TRIVIA QUESTION

What former NBA mega star left the league to pursue a career in Major League Baseball but failed in his quest only to return to the NBA and be a member of an NBA championship team? (Answer below)

MLB LOSES BUCK O'NEIL

Major League Baseball (MLB) lost one of its pioneers when John "Buck" O'Neil, one of baseball's all-time greatest ambassadors, who passed away October 7. He was 94 years old. Buck passed away from complications of congestive heart failure and recently diagnosed bone marrow cancer.

Buck was a smooth-fielding first baseman who twice won Negro Leagues batting titles and then became a pennant-winning manager of the Kansas City Monarchs. O’Neil joined the Chicago Cubs in 1956 and later signed Hall of Famers Lou Brock and Ernie Banks. He became the first black coach in Major League Baseball history with the Cubs in 1962. FULL STORY

ULTIMATE FIGHTER LOST THE PLOT

When you think of sports there are two kinds, team and individual. In a team sport when a club has invested millions of dollars in a player they are concerned about a players health. Not s with the Ultimate Fighter reality TV show that is a team sport when the TV season begins until they go through the elimination process until a winner is crowned and wins a now six figure contract to fight in the UFC.

I was in favor of the show until two weeks ago a fighter was SHAMED into fighting an opponent although he had a partial shoulder tear that required surgery.

If this were truly a team sport with millions of dollars invested in the athlete he would not have been asked to compete until he had surgery and was healed. Since this is a dog eat dog blood sport event he competed after his teammates complained that he was getting on their nerves taking about the pain he had in his shoulder. He fought, lost and his shoulder was completely torn.

This sport and its UFC organization need to be more responsible for the athletes. It appears that the UFC doesn't don't care; all they want is a fight regardless of the situation. There concern is to have a TV show for blood.

It's one thing to play through and injury and pain when it occurs during an event. It's another thing to compete in a sports knowing that one needs surgery beforehand.

You can say what you want but that situation does not prove one is tough… ITS JUST PLAIN STUPID AND THE UFC SHOULD BE MORE RESPONSIBLE. Who paid for the fighters operation?

The sport has a history of controversy. In the past the nature of the burgeoning sport quickly drew the attention of the authorities and UFC events were banned in a number of American states.

After repeated criticism, and letter writing campaigns led by Senator John McCain (R-AZ), the UFC was dropped from the major cable pay-per-view distributor Viewer's Choice, and individual cable carriers such as TCI Cable. NOTE: The Ultimate Fighter TV show that is currently being televised in Southeast Asia was televised in the USA last year.

THE CONTENDER

The mystery (to me at least) surrounding boxer Steve Forbes is finally solved. Forbes was touted as being the favorite to win the The Contender reality TV show title in the very first episode since he was a former champion. Champion of what was never mentioned.

We did our due diligence and found that Forbes was indeed the IBF and USBA Super Featherweight titleholder. He lost his IBF title when he could NOT make the 130-pound weight limit. He competed in the Contender at 149 pounds and lost to 35-year-old Grady Brewer.

Forbes turned pro in 1996; he won the IBF belt on December 3, 2000, after it had been vacated by Diego Corrales, by an 8th round TKO of John Brown.

On August 18, [2002]], he lost the title when he couldn't make weight for a fight against David Santos, whom Forbes had previously beaten for the USBA belt.

The IBF title remained vacant until Forbes fought Carlos Hernandez for it on October 14, 2003, a fight that Forbes lost by unanimous decision when the bout went was stopped in the 10th round, due to an accidental head butt, giving the belt to Hernandez.

Excuse me… there is lineage here… in The Contender reality TV show. Sylvester Stallone the star of the Rocky boxing movies and also Rambo films was one of the creators of The Contender TV show. Fighter Joey Gilbert who fought on the show in the first season of The Contender has joined forces with Frank Stallone, Sly's brother to create a website that you can talk to boxers. FULL STORY…

We thank all of our French language readers as your participation in reading our NBA MAX stories rated # 10 in our latest NR Top 10 polls for September that we will publish soon. The primary focus was on our Dominique Wilkens story who was born in France.

Word has it that former Thailand national team star Kiatisuk 'Zico' Senamuang is contemplating returning to the squad. He is currently playing in Vietnam's top league. Zico left the squad after then Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra criticized them teams effort.

The brew ha ha a BBC television show has caused accusing Premiere League managers of accepting money in deals involving transfers pointed the finger at Bolton manager Sam Allardyce.

Though Allardyce admitted after a game against the up till then undefeated Portsmouth that the incident was capable to distracting his team fortunately didn't turn out that way as his side walked away with the victory.

Bolton currently has a 5 win 2 draw 1 loss record and 17 points trailing only Manchester United and Chelsea's 19 points at the top of the table.

After the Portsmouth fixture Bolton captain Kevin Nolan said the victory was for Allardyce.

Allardyce is recognized and respected as being a top fight manager that is credited in building a solid squad in a short period of time by making player acquisitions of £2 million or less.

History repeated itself as Khemara defeated PPFC (Phnom Penh Football Club) 5-4 with a goal by substitute Douglas Santos in the 78th minute in a heated contest Saturday October 14 at Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh..

Like last season PPFC then known as Hello United won the regular season only to lose the championship game to Khemara. After the game PPFC manager and former national team star Hok Sochetra was dejected as he sat on the PPFC bench. He had the look of a not so happy camper.

When asked his thoughts on the result he blurted out, "We lose goalkeeper." I didn't have a clue what he was talking about. Sochetra speaks some English but not fluently.

The communication problem was compounded by the fact that it was a bad time to talk to him given the loss. My knowledge was limited since I watched portions of the first half of the game on television and due to travel time missed most of the second half.

Former Cambodian Football Federation official Tola May later said the PPFC goalie was red carded in the previous semifinal game and had to sit out the championship match.

Much of the festivities were missing form this years final. Missing was the Khemara team sponsor Prince Norodom Ranariddh Sihanouk who we deem Cambodia's greatest football fan. He sponsors two of the 10 CPL squads. Like Elvis who left the building, Ranariddh left the country due to reasons we will not get into.

With his presence last year he had his band playing music at the game to entertain the crowd. Within 15 minutes after the contest he was on the field congratulating the players. None of those festivities occurred in this championship final.

After the contest the biggest question that we had was answered... who is the Brazilian striker named only DOUGLAS that plays for Khemara?

We first noticed him at the end of last season in a friendly against a German club side. Since that time we have asked numerous people who is this guy and nobody had the answer.

TRIVIA ANSWER - MICHAEL JORDAN

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