Wiggins eschews hero's welcome

Britain's Bradley Wiggins, wrapped in a national flag, celebrates during his parade at the end of the 120km last stage of the 2012 Tour de France cycling race at the famous Paris-Champs-Elysees Avenue on Sunday. Jeff Pachoud / Agence France-Presse
British cyclist shuns celebrations of his historic Tour de France victory
Bradley Wiggins made a low-key return home on Monday after his historic Tour de France win, even as Britain looked forward to the cyclist leading the country to more success at the London Olympics.
The 32-year-old and his wife Cath were seen leaving their home in Eccleston, a village in the northern county of Lancashire, just one day after he became the first Briton in history to pedal to victory in the race.
Wiggins, wearing sunglasses and a black T-shirt, and with his trademark bushy sideburns on display, drove off in a black Mercedes without speaking to waiting journalists.
But while he chose to stay quiet about his achievement as Britain's first Tour de France winner, his countrymen were quick to hail it.
"In terms of individual sporting achievements, I am struggling to think of a better one," Britain's Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson said.
Robertson also said that British cycling chiefs believe that Britain's success in the 2008 Beijing Olympics encouraged half a million people to take up cycling, and Wiggins' victory could give the sport a similar lift.
Jonathan Edwards, who won gold in the triple jump at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, said it was "one of the best (achievements) of all time by a British sportsman".
Wiggins said after the race that he was now completely focused on the Olympics, in which he will compete in the men's road race and the individual time trial.
"If I'm 100 percent honest, it's gold or nothing in London now, really," Wiggins said. "That's the way I'm treating the next nine days.
"I can't sit here and say I'll be happy with a silver or happy with a bronze."
Wiggins admitted that adding to the three gold medals he has already accumulated at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics would not necessarily top his Tour win, which he described as the "greatest day of my sporting life".
He moved from London to Eccleston, where he lives with his wife and their children Ben and Isabella, to be closer to the Manchester Velodrome where British Cycling is based.
The quiet village is a far cry from the media circus of the past few days.
Images of his victory parade on the Champs Elysees in Paris were splashed across the front pages of Britain's press, who were unanimous in saying the cyclist now firmly belonged in the pantheon of British sporting greats.
Many said Wiggins could now expect to be honored with a knighthood for his achievement while some reports speculated he may also now enter the frame as the man to light the Olympic flame at Friday's opening ceremony.
"Wiggo hailed UK's greatest sportsman," the tabloid The Mirror ran across its front page.
The popular tabloid The Sun said "a new British hero" had been immortalized, comparing Wiggins to cricketer Ian Botham, soccer player Bobby Moore and Olympic rowing legend Steve Redgrave.
The Daily Mail led with "20m and a knighthood next for wonderful Wiggins", echoing calls for the three-time Olympic gold medalist to be honored by the queen.
Meanwhile, The Daily Star called for Wiggins to light the Olympic flame at Friday's ceremony, although he is due to compete in the men's road race the following day.
The Times, which carried a souvenir cover celebrating the "Promenade des Anglais", said Wiggins had "proved to be a great champion of British sport. He has also shown himself to be a fine man".
Wiggins has become something of a cult figure for his plain speaking and also for his adherence to the "Mod" subculture, a British movement from the 1960s focusing on scooters, sharp fashion and music.
Richard Moore, the author of "Sky's the Limit", a book on British cycling, said Wiggins had helped to change the sport's image in the country.
"Oddballs - that was traditionally the classic loner cyclist," he told BBC radio.
"In the UK, cyling was seen as a very exotic, foreign sport. The riders spoke foreign languages. It was rooted in France and Belgium, and (they wore) funny shorts and funny clothes.
"There was a huge Beijing effect after the Beijing Olympics when British cyclists were dominant, and I think this is even bigger and I think this seems to have really captured people's imagination."

Exit Jeremy Lin. Enter Ichiro Suzuki To New York City's Sports Market

Ichiro Suzuki (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Although Jeremy Lin is an exciting rising basketball star and Ichiro Suzuki may be a fading baseball one, New York City will once again be the toast of the Asian community as Ichiro, the most recognizable athlete in Japan, put on the pinstripes of the New York Yankees Monday night for the first time. Lin, a Chinese-American, left the New York Knicks for the Houston Rockets last week.
The move by the Yankees appears to be a brilliant one as a stopgap measure to replace left fielder Brett Gardner, lost for the season due to elbow surgery. Ichiro’s game is similar to Gardner’s – a slap hitter with speed who plays great defense.
Ichiro amassed more than 200 hits in his first 10 seasons after coming from Japan, including a major-league record 262 in 2004. Only Pete Rose has also had 10 seasons of 200 or more hits. Ichiro needs only 466 hits to reach the coveted 3,000 total and seems destined to be a Hall of Famer as a lifetime .322 batter with 438 stolen bases and 1,176 runs scored.
But the last 1 ½ years have not been nearly as productive for Ichiro as he’s hitting just .261 this year. With the Mariners in last place in the AL West, Ichiro had his agent, Tony Attanasio, ask Seattle management to trade him to a contender during the All-Star break.
The result was a bargain-basement deal for the Yanks, who only had to give up two marginal minor league pitching prospects in exchange for a 10-time All-Star and $14.75 million as the Yanks will only pay $2.25 million of the $17 million left on his five-year, $90 million deal that expires at the end of the season, according to the YES Network.
Ichiro, batting an unaccustomed eighth, delivered a clean single up the middle and stole a base in his first at-bat Monday, going 1-for-4, but, if he can get back to his .300 hitting ways, the Yanks have a steal. Especially if he can help them get back to the World Series for the first time since 2009.
The possibility that Ichiro would be re-signed by the Yankees for 2013 would seem remote considering their high payroll and Gardner’s expected return to health. But one never knows with the Yankees.

Where to find Olympics competition on NBC and affiliated networks

By David Bauder, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press

NEW YORK, N.Y. - The Summer Olympics opening ceremony takes place Friday, but the first of 5,535 hours that NBC is showing of the games begins Wednesday with qualifying rounds in women's soccer. With so many different options, viewers need a road map to make sense of it all.

NBC is promising that every competition in London will be available to U.S. consumers live, with the bulk of them seen online.
The centerpiece of coverage will be NBC's prime-time, 8 p.m. to midnight on most evenings, with Bob Costas as host. Given the time difference with England, all of the events will be shown on a tape-delayed basis, although particularly rabid fans will have the opportunity to see each of these events online during the day.
Costas will give people an overview of the day's big stories. But the prime-time package is not designed to offer a complete picture of the games. As in the past, NBC will be heavy on personal stories to make non-sports fans interested in strangers they will see competing in sports they rarely follow — with the obvious exception of known personalities like Michael Phelps. And if you want badminton or boxing, you'll have to turn elsewhere: the prime-time hours are generally concentrated on the swimming, diving, gymnastics and track and field competitions.
New to NBC this year is the amount of coverage presented during the business day, starting at 10 a.m. following the "Today" show.
The cable and satellite networks all avoid prime-time hours to funnel those viewers into NBC. Except for those hours and the overnight in London, a viewer could expect to see competition on NBC and cable the rest of the day.
The NBC Sports Network, for example, is on the air from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET on Sunday, the second full day of the competition. The cable and satellite outfit did not exist during the last Olympics and will show 292 hours of competition this year. It is being positioned as the home of U.S. team sports. The centerpiece of Sunday's coverage, for example, is the U.S. men's basketball team's game against France.
While producers want the NBC Sports Network to form an identity as a home of U.S. team sports, the truth is that NBC, NBC Sports and MSNBC are airing so much competition that they will lack clearly focused identities. The best way to keep track of their daytime schedules is to keep checking NBCOlympics.com.
As it has in the past, the CNBC business network is positioned as the home of Olympic boxing, including women's boxing for the first time. The competition will be focused weekdays on the hours between the close of financial markets and the beginning of TV prime-time.
Between July 28 and Aug. 3, Bravo will air the Olympics tennis competition.
The amount of hours available to Spanish-speaking viewers through Telemundo are also being sharply increased, and then network promises a broader look at the range of competitions than it has in the past. Still, swimming, basketball and soccer will be the sports the network concentrates upon.
Through cable and satellite providers, NBC is also running speciality channels devoted to the basketball and soccer competitions. For the first time, the Olympics will also be presented in 3-D with a special channel available to viewers with this technical capability.
With all that coverage on television, NBC will be offering even more online. That represents a change in philosophy; the network once worried that making competitions available online could cut into the number of people who want to watch on television. Now NBC's leaders believe all of the online competition will compel viewers to want to watch more online.
The NBC Olympics Live Extra App gives fans a variety of options, including live streams of what is being shown on the TV networks. Online channels will also be set up to offer coverage of every single Olympic competition taking place, and the Gold Zone will have rapidly-moving coverage of the day's most compelling live events.
To satisfy cable and satellite operators, NBC is requiring viewers to prove that they have a cable or satellite subscription in order to access the online options. This requires a username and password from the companies, so interested viewers would be advised to set those up before the games start to avoid missing out.

Alex Rodriguez breaks hand

The Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) -- Alex Rodriguez has broken his left hand after being hit by a pitch from Felix Hernandez in the eighth inning of the New York Yankees' 4-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night.

Rodriguez was the third player to be hit by a pitch from Hernandez. He immediately fell to the ground, wincing in pain and was removed from the game.
The Yankees said afterward that A-Rod had a non-displaced fracture of the left hand, and there was no timetable for his return. He will be placed on the disabled list and will see the team's doctor when the club returns to New York after Wednesday's series finale.
Hernandez also hit Derek Jeter and former teammate Ichiro Suzuki.

Viewing guide for Olympics coverage

By DAVID BAUDER (AP Television Writer) | The Associated Press
 

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Summer Olympics opening ceremony takes place Friday, but the first of 5,535 hours that NBC is showing of the games begins Wednesday with qualifying rounds in women's soccer. With so many different options, viewers need a road map to make sense of it all.

NBC is promising that every competition in London will be available to U.S. consumers live, with the bulk of them seen online.
The centerpiece of coverage will be NBC's prime-time, 8 p.m. to midnight on most evenings, with Bob Costas as host. Given the time difference with England, all of the events will be shown on a tape-delayed basis, although particularly rabid fans will have the opportunity to see each of these events online during the day.
Costas will give people an overview of the day's big stories. But the prime-time package is not designed to offer a complete picture of the games. As in the past, NBC will be heavy on personal stories to make non-sports fans interested in strangers they will see competing in sports they rarely follow - with the obvious exception of known personalities like Michael Phelps. And if you want badminton or boxing, you'll have to turn elsewhere: the prime-time hours are generally concentrated on the swimming, diving, gymnastics and track and field competitions.
New to NBC this year is the amount of coverage presented during the business day, starting at 10 a.m. following the "Today" show.
The cable and satellite networks all avoid prime-time hours to funnel those viewers into NBC. Except for those hours and the overnight in London, a viewer could expect to see competition on NBC and cable the rest of the day.
The NBC Sports Network, for example, is on the air from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET on Sunday, the second full day of the competition. The cable and satellite outfit did not exist during the last Olympics and will show 292 hours of competition this year. It is being positioned as the home of U.S. team sports. The centerpiece of Sunday's coverage, for example, is the U.S. men's basketball team's game against France.
While producers want the NBC Sports Network to form an identity as a home of U.S. team sports, the truth is that NBC, NBC Sports and MSNBC are airing so much competition that they will lack clearly focused identities. The best way to keep track of their daytime schedules is to keep checking NBCOlympics.com.
As it has in the past, the CNBC business network is positioned as the home of Olympic boxing, including women's boxing for the first time. The competition will be focused weekdays on the hours between the close of financial markets and the beginning of TV prime-time.
Between July 28 and Aug. 3, Bravo will air the Olympics tennis competition.
The amount of hours available to Spanish-speaking viewers through Telemundo are also being sharply increased, and then network promises a broader look at the range of competitions than it has in the past. Still, swimming, basketball and soccer will be the sports the network concentrates upon.
Through cable and satellite providers, NBC is also running speciality channels devoted to the basketball and soccer competitions. For the first time, the Olympics will also be presented in 3-D with a special channel available to viewers with this technical capability.
With all that coverage on television, NBC will be offering even more online. That represents a change in philosophy; the network once worried that making competitions available online could cut into the number of people who want to watch on television. Now NBC's leaders believe all of the online competition will compel viewers to want to watch more online.
The NBC Olympics Live Extra App gives fans a variety of options, including live streams of what is being shown on the TV networks. Online channels will also be set up to offer coverage of every single Olympic competition taking place, and the Gold Zone will have rapidly-moving coverage of the day's most compelling live events.
To satisfy cable and satellite operators, NBC is requiring viewers to prove that they have a cable or satellite subscription in order to access the online options. This requires a username and password from the companies, so interested viewers would be advised to set those up before the games start to avoid missing out.

Sports above all else leads to huge Penn State penalties

By Christine Brennan, USA TODAY

Unprecedented atrocities demand unprecedented action, and that's exactly what the NCAA did Monday.

NCAA President Mark Emmert didn't give Penn State's football program the so-called death penalty, but he might as well have. Clearly wanting to make an example of Penn State in this run-amok era in big-time college sports, the NCAA essentially decimated the Nittany Lions' football program for the next decade in the wake of the reprehensible Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal.

Emmert's actions were stunning and appropriately devastating for Penn State football. And his words resonated far beyond the Happy Valley campus to a much broader audience. It was as if he were speaking to every university president, conference commissioner, bowl official, football coach, booster and football fan in America when, time and again, he spoke of the Penn State scandal as a "gut check," asking, "Do we have the right balance in our culture?"

We all know the answer for years has been a resounding no. But, perhaps, what Emmert's NCAA did Monday will begin to force everyone in college football to reassess just how out of control big-time football has become on the nation's campuses. It was just last year that Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee, when asked if he would fire coach Jim Tressel in the midst of a growing scandal involving his football players, uttered the immortal words: "I'm just hopeful the coach doesn't dismiss me."

Set against this backdrop, the magnitude and depth of the NCAA's action against Penn State must have turned the heads of even those in the most insulated and untouchable of college football programs.

That's clearly what Emmert was hoping. "Football will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing and protecting young people," he said Monday. "These events should serve as a call to every single school and athletics department to take an honest look at its campus environment and eradicate the 'sports are king' mindset that can so dramatically cloud the judgment of educators."

Now the NCAA is saying that if the school won't do that, it will - to which we all should say: It's about time.

"We cannot look to NCAA history to determine how to handle circumstances so disturbing, shocking and disappointing," Emmert said. "As the individuals charged with governing college sports, we have a responsibility to act."

Clearly, Penn State's anemic leaders could not be trusted to make any of the correct or tough decisions against their football program, so Emmert did it for them, basically ensuring that Penn State football will be a shell of its former self for the next 10 years.

He fined Penn State $60 million, which amounts to one year of gross revenue for the football team - all of it going to programs that will serve the victims of child sex abuse. He banned Penn State from bowl games for four years. He took away dozens of scholarships. He told any football player who wants to transfer that he can do so right now and immediately play wherever, which certainly will further gut the Nittany Lions roster. He is sending an academic-integrity monitor approved by the NCAA to watch everything Penn State does for the next five years.

And he vacated 112 wins from the football team from 1998-2011, in the process taking away Joe Paterno's title as the winningest coach in big-time football. For his major role in enabling the actions of a child rapist in Penn State's football facility for 13 years, Paterno deserved to have those victories stricken from the record.

Paterno lied, deceived and covered up Sandusky's awful behavior for so long simply because he was the venerable head coach at one of the most powerful football institutions in America. There are many others coaching major-college football today with the same kind of power. No one is saying they are wielding it in the devastating manner Paterno did, but we also don't know that they aren't.

If the NCAA is truly interested in finding out, the remarkable Penn State punishment won't be the end of the story. It will be only the beginning.