Bryant slams Schilling's criticism

Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling attended Game 2 of the NBA Finals in which Kobe Bryant's LA Lakers lost 108-102 to the Boston Celtics. Schilling, having been perturbed by the sight of Bryant shouting at his teammates during the defeat.

"He'd yell at someone, make a point, or send a message, turn and walk away, and more than once the person on the other end would roll eyes or give a 'whatever dude' look," the hurler wrote on his Web site.

At press conference soon after, Bryant was asked by reporters to respond to Schilling's criticism. The star's two-word response?--- "Go Yankees!"

何がイチロー〔一郎〕で具合が悪いですか？ (What's wrong with Ichiro?)

My Boston Red Sox defeated the Seattle Mariners 2-1 earlier today to wrap up a three-game series at Fenway Park. And one of the most striking things about the Mariners' box score is the batting average of Ichiro Suzuki, which is still at a sub-par level. At .290, this Japanese juggernaut's batting average far below what he is capable of. Since his rookie season in 2001, Suzuki has batted .350, .321, ..312, .372, .303, .322 and .351.

Surely, the right fielder-turned center fielder has not lost his touch, but something is definitely going on with the Kasugai, Japan, native. I am used to enjoying seeing him perform with such grace that slapping hits into the outfield, beating out infield singles and throwing out runners with pinpoint precision look ridiculously easy. He will obviously snap out of it, but the All-Star is about a month away and such a low batting average leaves Major League Baseball fans to wonder: What's wrong with Ichiro?

Sportscaster Jim McKay dead at 86

The sports world mourns tonight the death of legendary sportscaster Jim McKay, who passed away of natural causes at his farm in Monkton, Md., this morning. He was 86.

McKay began hosting ABC's "Wide World of Sports" in 1961 and continued this work for 40 years. But he is perhaps most known for covering 12 Olympic Games, most notably the Summer Games in Munich, Germany, in which Palestinian terrorists kidnapped 11 Israeli athletes. McKay was the one who announced to the world the shooting death of one of the captured and later the murder of the remaining 10 when a commando raid to rescue the athletes ended tragically.

According to foxnews.com, McKay won both a news and sports Emmy Award for his coverage of the Munich Olympics as well as the prestigious George Polk award.

It is fitting that McKay died just hours before Big Brown made his unsuccessful attempt to win a Triple Crown at the Belmont Stakes, as McKay considered horse racing to be one of this favorite sports.

Big Brown can't deliver

Well, the 140th Belmont Stakes is in the books and jockey Alan Garcia led 38-1 long shot Da' Tara to an upset victory, forcing the racing community to keep waiting for the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed accomplished the feat in 1978.

Instead of being the 12th winner of racing's Triple Crown, and the first in 30 years, Big Brown - the 1-4 favorite who won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes - came in last and in the 19th horse in history to win the first two legs and finish in the cellar at the Belmont, according to ESPN.com.

Da' Tara paid $79 with his win. Denis of Cork placed and Anak Nakal and Ready's Echo both showed.

Jockey Kent Desormeaux slowed up Big Brown before the 3-year-old was even finished the race.

"I had no horse," said Desormeaux. "He was empty. He didn't have anything left."

The Belmont Stakes is by far the longest and most difficult of the Triple Crown races.

Oh, what's in a (nick)name?

Baseball immortal George Herman Ruth was more commonly known by the his nickname, ‘Babe.’ Legendary defensive lineman Ed Jones was called “Too Tall.” And college basketball great Pete Maravich was “Pistol Pete.”

For as long as professional sports have been familiarized in American living rooms thanks to the invention of television, certain athletes have had nicknames bestowed upon them with which their coaches, teammates and loving fans and friends refer to them. And the Massachusetts women’s soccer team is not different.

Almost as soon as they sign a letter of content with the Maroon and White, incoming female soccer stars have a playful pseudonym given to them by UMass coach Jim Rudy. He said he likes nicknames not only because they help him reach a personal level with his players, but they also make opposing players confused when he shouts instructions from the sidelines addressed to someone with a name that is not listed the roster.

Here is a list of Rudy’s nicknames for each of his Minutewomen and how they earned them:


Junior forward Vanessa Patry (a.k.a. Bucky)- “The nickname Bucky came from her initials, which are V.P., which is short for vice president. And what did the vice president (Dick Cheney) do to his best buddy? He hit him with buckshot. And, you know what, she (understood it). It takes a stretch of the imagination to that and she got it.”

Senior midfielder Jenny Roehrig (a.k.a. J-RO)- “There’s a J-RO… there’s an A-Rod, so that’s where (she) got (hers). (That) was obvious.”

Redshirt senior goalkeeper Kristin Walker- “Walker’s just Walker. In fact, nobody knows her by ‘Kristin.’ Her mom said something about ‘Kristin this or that’ – I didn’t know who she was talking about.”

Senior midfielder/defender Kaelyn Caldwell (a.k.a. Mini)- “When I first saw her I thought she was sort of a small kid. She plays big but I thought she was a small kid so I called her ‘Mini.’

Senior forward Britt Canfield (a.k.a. Granny)- “I call her ‘Granny’ sometimes because she’s from Granville, (Mass.)” Her official name is ‘Brittney,’ but she is always addressed as ‘Granny’ or, more commonly, ‘Britt.’

Senior goalkeeper Melissa Jubinville (a.k.a. MoLiss)- “It’s sort of a sub-in for ‘Molissa,’ because they talk a little differently, you see [Though he doesn’t have a southern accent, Rudy was born in Washington D.C.]. You can’t have a ‘MELissa,’ you got to have a “MOlissa.’ And we already had a Melissa, we had Melissa Toulouse (when Jubinville transferred from St. Anselm).”

Senior midfielder/defender Christina Nunes (a.k.a. Nunezy)- “The players will call her that.”

Senior midfielder/defender Tina Rodriguez (T-Rod)- [Same reason as Alex Rodriguez]

Junior defender Melissa Toulouse (a.k.a. Mel or Melacious)- “(‘Melacious’) is the antithesis of who she is. A malicious person is a bad person and Mel is just a happy-go-lucky, good person. It’s being facetious.”

Sophomore forward Cristina Adams (a.k.a. Young Adams)- “Because she’s young.”

Redshirt sophomore defender Amy Ballew (a.k.a. Lew)- “I call her Lew and I call her Amy.”

Sophomore forward Jacquelyn Desjardins (a.k.a. DJ)- “I call her ‘DJ’ for Desjardins (French for ‘of the gardens’). I love French names. My wife is French Canadian.”

Sophomore midfielder Meghan Gould (a.k.a. Lesley)- “She was on crutches a lot of last year [after undergoing two leg surgeries] and her nickname was ‘Limp-along Lesley.’ [Rudy picked ‘Lesley’ because it is an alliteration of ‘Limp-along’]

Sophomore goalkeeper Lauren Luckey- “I don’t have one (for her). When you’re Luckey (lucky) you don’t need a nickname.”

Sophomore midfielder/forward Katie Ruggles (a.k.a. Rugg)- “It’s abbreviated and it’s quick.”

Sophomore forward Sydney Stoll (a.k.a. Syd the Kid)- [She got the nickname when she was a freshman]

Freshman defender Kelsey Anderson (a.k.a. Woo)- “It’s just a nickname that her sister told me to call her. I think when she was a young baby or something she used to just jump up and down on the bed and go, ‘Woo, woo’… I don’t know. It sounds good and it’s quick.”

Freshman midfielder/forward Ashley Hamel (a.k.a. Ham or Ash)- “Ham for Hamel. I call her Ash, too.”

Freshman midfielder Therese Smith (a.k.a. Tee or Smitty)- (Her teammates) call her ‘Tee,’ I call her ‘Smitty.’ I’ve had two (players) I’ve called ‘Smitty’ over the years. It’s quick and it works.”

Freshman defender Alyssa Visconti (a.k.a. Wee or Vava)- (Her teammates) call her Wee. That means we have a ‘Wee’ and a ‘Woo.’ I call her ‘Vava’ because she’s very technical like a Brazilian. Vava! Although she is of Italian descent.”

Mamma mia! What a player!

"Roehrig" is not Italian.

Well, Jenny Roehrig, midfielder for the Massachusetts women’s soccer team, is – it’s just her last name that’s not. That’s because her dad is German and Irish. Her mom, Maria, on the other hand, was born in Palermo, Sicily in 1959.

Maria’s parents, Carlo and Ersilia Tumminello, immigrated to America with their daughter in 1961, intrigued by the freedoms and opportunities the United States offers. In 1963, Ersilia gave birth to Maria’s younger sister, Laura.

After growing up in a proud Italian household where red, white and blue are among the most flaunted colors, Maria joined the New York Police Department in 1981. It was there that she fell for her partner, Willy Roehrig later in that year. There must have been amore in the midst of the NYPD, as the two married in 1983.

But this story isn’t about them. It’s about their daughter, Jenny, and her undying passion for the game of soccer. A passion that, perhaps, can be attributed to where her mother hails from.

What soccer means to Italy can be summed up in one word: everything. The love the Italians manifest for their national sport is one hard to duplicate on any continent. Every match is followed diligently on television or radio. Replica jerseys of beloved players, who are closer to rock stars than athletes, are donned by young Italian children. And little soccer games pop up spontaneously in the streets.

“It’s similar to the way Americans embrace football or baseball. They’re very enthusiastic about it. It’s their major sport,” says Maria Roehrig. “To them it’s constant action. They feel it is the true athlete because as an athlete in soccer you have to constantly be moving. And they think that in itself is skill, is excitement and they just really enjoy it.”

This may seem like the type of craze Americans have for their sports – but it’s much more than that.

“Just picture football, baseball, and hockey here in America rolled into one... that's soccer in Italy,” Jenny adds. “Soccer is everything to them.”

It’s not uncommon to see a group of people playing a game on a sidewalk or in the middle of the street. Only the severe injury or illness could ever prevent an Italian from lacing up his or her shoes and booting the ball around. A stroll through the back streets of any Italian town can remind one of the obsession for high school football that grips states like Texas and Louisiana. It is this type of fervor that Jenny Roehrig – who has been to Italy four times – has played with throughout her four years at UMass.

Just finishing her year as senior captain Jenny wrapped up a collegiate soccer career played with a passion so intense that it had to stem from Italy. For four years, she left everything she had on the field. UMass coach Jim Rudy says he always knew what he would get out of Jenny – a quality effort every time day in and day out, with a high priority of hard work.

“Usually when I give them a break – a five-minute break to go get water – she usually was of the first two or three that is back on the field right away like, ‘OK, I’m ready to go. What’s up now? What do you need?’” he says.

This is probably because of whom Jenny has in her cheering section. Rudy describes Jenny’s parents are like “the ultimate fans.” They make sure that at least one parent goes to each game. Rudy says Maria is very passionate about soccer and very supportive of all the Minutewomen, not just her own.

When the final horn of Jenny’s college career sounded, she had started all 70 games and recorded 11 goals and 14 assists, for 36 points. But these numbers didn’t spring out of nowhere. They were the result of a young life dedicated to her favorite sport.

Jenny – and her younger brother, Willy, 18 – started playing soccer just like any other kid, kicking the ball around with friends in neighborhood yards. When Jenny was four years old Maria signed her up for St. Margaret’s, a church soccer league near their home in New York. Maria thought it would be a good idea to get Jenny running around and playing a sport for an organized team.

Jenny’s dad and his friends were her first coaches and she got to play with almost the same coed group for four years, something she loved. An environment in which she got to play against friends from school and in which parents were all friends made games both competitive and fun. One year she even played on an all-boys team, which she says was a great experience. But Jenny always took it a little more seriously than her friends did.

It wasn’t until Jenny began playing for her first club team, the Newfield Lightning, however, that her parents began suspecting that what started as a recreational hobby was beginning to snowball into something else. Willy began to notice Jenny doing certain things not so typical of a girl her age – his daughter would regularly play sick or even injured. Some Italian passion leaking out, perhaps?

“At about eight years old, that’s when she started really, seriously playing hard,” Willy says. “She was getting pretty focused. I could see the focus coming in and it just got more intense as she went on.”

Jenny Roehrig would play banged up or under the weather – anything to keep her on the field. This is when it first looked like Jenny might wind up playing soccer in college. She began showing the same infatuation citizens of Italy take to soccer. If they can’t play it on a field, or in the street or in an alley, they’ll play it on the beach. There a little soccer courts set up on the sand so people can play a pick-up game whenever they please. There is an ardor for soccer incomparable to anything in America.

When the Lightning eventually folded Jenny played for the Sachem Angels of the Long Island Select Program, where she played against the best female players on Long Island. Her first year, the team won the state finals for the first time ever. It was there that Jenny developed some of her fondest soccer memories.

Though she played only four years with the Angels, Jenny says she and her teammates were like sisters and that the parents – especially the cheering posse of moms – grew very close as well. Then, like everything else good, the squad started to diminish and it was time Jenny, who had also been on a New York State Olympic Developmental Program (ODP) team (a higher level than Long Island Select Program) to move on to the Massapequa
Spirit.

It was her success there, cocktailed with her accolades at Newfield High School in Selden, N.Y., that first caught Rudy’s eye. As a Wolverine, Roehrig tallied 39 goals and 42 assists (120 points) en route to becoming the school’s all-time leading scorer. During her senior year, she amassed 39 points on nine goals and 13 assists. Her stats got her named All-County twice, All-League three times and All-Conference twice throughout her high school career. Rudy saw the love the young Roehrig had for soccer and recruited her to the Maroon and White.

Where did this passion come from? Was it the product of good parenting? An upbringing that preached hard work? Or both, combined with having a mother from a foreign shore where enthusiasm for soccer is as pure as it can get?

“My cousins play soccer, indoor soccer and outdoor soccer, even though now they’re professionals, they’re doctors, dentists and lawyers, they still play soccer at least once a week. It’s really big for them,” Maria says.

“The last time we were down in Sicily, [Laura’s husband] Danny and my cousins, who are younger than I am but older than Jenny, had started a soccer game out on the street,” she recalls.
Willy remembers one instance when Jenny was about three or four years old that defined the Italian love for soccer. The Roehrigs were visiting Maria’s aunt, Franca, and uncle, Giuseppe, at their home in Italy. Jenny started playing soccer with Franca and Giuseppe’s kids, Piero, Fabbio and Mario, in the house surrounded by glass and expensive ornaments and decreatives.

“I’d be like, ‘Be careful!’ and the aunt and uncle were like, ‘Oh, no problem,’” he says. “You know, like nice, laid-back Italians – ‘Oh, don’t worry about it. Let them play, let them play.’”

But the Tumminellos’ embrace of soccer is only a small sampling of the type of romanticism the Italians take to the game.

“Soccer is everything to them. They play soccer everywhere,” Jenny says. “They cherish the moments they have when they play. I mean, they have fun, but at the same time they take it seriously. Everyone is so competitive but shows such passion for the game, even if it isn’t on an actual soccer field.”

It is with this sort of zeal that Jenny tries to exhibit in every game she plays. Though her UMass career is over, she says soccer will always be in her. If she can find the time from her job at Goldman Sachs, a full-service global investment banking and securities firm she has committed to, she would like find some intramural soccer leagues to play in.

Even though the family is not rooted in the old country anymore, the Roehrigs hope to make sure by exercising such a for the European game and such close family ties that their Americanism and pride in their heritage will never die. And though they love calling Italy a second home, the family couldn’t be happier that they came to the United States and now have – on top of the liberties and opportunities of this country – have having an American soccer player to show for it.

Like Carlo Tumminello says, “It’s the besta move I ever make in my life.”

Locals give their 2 cents about war in Iraq

Congress isn't the only place where frustration with the Iraq War is on the rise, yet there seems no clear consensus about what to do next.

Average Americans - area residents included - also hold divergent views.

"I don't think you can pull the troops out of Iraq," said John Riskalla, 40, of Attleboro, Mass., "Once you committed to doing that, you're stuck. I think we have to stay. I felt the same way (when U.S. forces invaded in March 2003)," Riskella said. "I felt it was a bottomless pit, and I think that's why so many other world leaders didn't think it was such a good idea."

Riskella said he couldn't suggest a timetable for when U.S. troops should withdraw, adding only that it will take "a long, long, long, long time."

Wayde Wilson of Lexington, Mass., disagrees.

"I think (the troops) should (come home). They shouldn't be there anyway," he said.

Wilson said he has no political affiliation and was not initially against the war, but thinks now that the military situation has deteriorated since the capture of Saddam Hussein in December 2003.

"Who knows where (Osama bin Laden) is. If you can find him, we go after him and leave everybody else alone," said Wayde, 40. "Let (the insurgents) blow up themselves. We're killing more of our own than saving (Iraqis)."

Robert Voyer, 83, who served with the Marines from 1942 to 1944 is no stranger to war. A member of the 3rd Marine Division, he fought in Guam during World War II.

Voyer, of Attleboro, says invading Iraq was the right idea, but is critical of the way the war has been executed.

"(We should stay) until we start fighting our real war," said Voyer, who identified himself as a staunch Republican. "I think we need to use our Air Force so we can get what we can. We have enormous power."