Sports, Ink

Live from the Honda Indy Toronto: Dario wins from the pole

TORONTO -- We're coming to you live from Exhibition Place, site of today's Honda Indy Toronto. Another week, another mini-road trip to an IndyCar Series event. We'll have to see what's in store for today -- Justin Wilson's win for victory-starved Dale Coyne Racing was a pretty great story last week at Watkins Glen.

10:50 a.m. I was dropped off out front and joined a lot of fans making their way to the venue.

This is such a great city. Everytime I cover this race I promise myself that I have to make the short trip up here -- truly one of the world's best cities. And of course, I haven't tripped here since I last covered this race a few years ago.

10:54 a.m. Arrive in the media room, which this year is located outside the track as part of Exhibition Place's National Trade Center. You can actually walk out of the media room and across the busy, wide hallway to see the frontstretch leading to the very sharp Turn One -- from where I'm sitting, I can see some sunshine and a grandstand through the doorway. Kind of nice to have a glimpse of the track.

In past years that I covered the race here, the media room was inside the track in the Automotive Building. But it wasn't easy to step out of the room and see the track -- you literally covered the race from a room without windows without seeing the track at all. I always feel like I'm giving away a trade secret when people ask me where I get to watch the race -- essentially the only way to effectively cover a race (especially on a street/road course) is by watching television -- not unlike what a lot of people will do on their couch today.

11:28 a.m. A whole lot of photographers are on the move out of the media room. That means only one thing -- the food is being served.

11:34 a.m. A nice selection of tasty wraps and sandwiches. But nothing to drink! Advantage, Watkins Glen -- by at least a few laps.

11:37 a.m. Race grand marshal Gene Simmons, the famous tongue-brandishing member of KISS, is shown on the closed-circuit television awarding the winner of Miss Honda Indy Toronto. Shockingly, he looks like he is enjoying his role.

12:37 p.m. After some housekeeping, I'm heading outside to get a look at prerace activities.

12:50 p.m. Firehawk, the Firestone tire mascot, throws T-shirts into the bleachers. A few attempts are weak. He is booed by the crowd. Good to see mascot taunting is a universal language.

1:17 p.m. Here's some video of Gene Simmons' command to start engines, from outside the frontstretch, looking across to pit lane (thank you, new iPhone). From right to left, the frontstretch goes past pit lane and on to Turn One.

1:19 p.m. We're off and racing and Will Power has a bummer of a start from the second spot -- while all the cars made the sharp turn into Turn One, he coasted into the corner with a cut tire due to contact on the start. No such problems for Dario Franchitti. Graham Rahal had some contact on the start, which forced him in for a pit stop. Ryan Briscoe had a flat right rear, necessitating a pit stop. 

1:31 p.m. We're back to racing after Dan Wheldon's spin brought out the yellow. As soon as I typed that, Ed Carpenter's nose of the No. 20 car is stuck into the wall.

1:45 p.m. Paul Tracy got a huge roar in prerace introductions, and he's getting more cheers from the hometown fans as he's moved up to fifth in the running ourder after starting 15th. Alex Tagliani leads with Tracy second after Franchitti went to the pits. 

1:55 p.m. Tagliani left in front as Tracy comes in for a great pit stop. Tracy comes out roaring and passes rookie Mike Conway; Conway tries to catch up and really slams his back end into the wall. Ouch. 

1:57 p.m. Tagliani in and out smoothly on lap 35 (of 85); Mario Moraes assumes the lead.

2:07 p.m. Helio Castroneves leads Ryan Hunter-Reay and Tagliani and we're more than halfway through -- 44 of 85 laps.

2:13 p.m. Castroneves into the pits and surrenders the lead, leaving Tagliani and Tracy on top again. On lap 51 of 85. After a couple of early yellows, this race is flying.

2:20 p.m. Speaking of flying, check out the view from the outside of near start/finish. The sounds alone are pretty cool (thank you again, iPhone).

2:23 p.m. Graham Rahal spins as Castroneves was coming into the pits; Rahal went inside Carpenter in a turn and Carpenter's rear banged into Rahal's front. Tagliani leads Dixon, Moraes and Matos -- all four only have had one stop so they will be coming in with nearly everyone else.

2:32 p.m. Jimmy Vassar is "flabbergasted" that Tracy had to allow Franchitti in front of him after a pitting issue related to the start of the caution period. Soon after, Dario makes a slick move past Helio for the lead as we approach 20 laps to go. Tracy is now stalking Helio. 

2:35 p.m. The media room -- and many living rooms -- erupt in an "OHHHHH!" Tracy roared along side Helio, and the two went side-by-side before Helio banged Tracy into the wall. Wow. Helio made it to the pits, but he has too much damage and his day is done.

2:41 p.m. Under caution, Dario leads Briscoe, Justin Wilson, Will Power and Danica Patrick. Going green, some nice action as Will Power gets past Wilson and Wilson holds off Patrick.

2:45 p.m. Dixon passes Patrick for fifth while E.J. Viso and Moraes have some troubles. Speaking of troubles, Kanaan is out of his car after a bad day.

2:47 p.m. Moraes, Thomas Scheckter and Tagliani involved in an incident that brings out the caution. With 11 laps to go, Franchitti had more than a one-second lead on Ryan Briscoe, who was followed by Power, Wilson, Dixon and Patrick.

2:49 p.m. Scheckter waited for Tagliani to come around again and he threw something at his car before finally ducking into a safety vehicle. Replays showed Sheckter waiting, waiting, then pointing to his head as he hurled his golves at Tagliani. Good stuff.

2:54 p.m. The field takes the green -- there are seven laps to go. Dario and Briscoe check out on Power, although he catches on to Briscoe soon enough. Dario doesn't look like he'll be caught, especially with all the racing behind him -- Wilson and Dixon are battling each other, and they're not too far behind Power. Great move by Dixon to pass Wilson.

2:57 p.m. Approaching five laps to go, Dario leads Briscoe by 1.8 seconds; four laps to go it is 2.2; three left 2.3; two left 2.1. 

3 p.m. White flag for Franchitti, who has a 2.1-second lead.

3:01 p.m. Dario Franchitti WINS the Honda Indy Toronto. 

Ashley Judd, his wife, is being interviewed by ESPN. Hey, bring her in the media center!

Time to write. Final top 10 according to scoring monitor: Dario, Briscoe, Power, Dixon, Wilson, Patrick, Hunter-Reay, Andretti, Tagliani, Matos.

5:44 p.m. My story is complete at buffalonews.com. Dinner, drive and a ??-minute wait at the border to come.

---Keith McShea

This Day in Buffalo Sports History: Edwards departs

   July 12, 1976 -- Defensive lineman Earl Edwards played for four National Football League teams in his career. It's safe to say he's best remember right here in Western New York.

   Edwards came to Buffalo from San Francisco and was a good-sized part of the Bills teams that had some good years in the mid-1970's. He played with the team in 1973 through 1975, when the Bills were above .500 in each season.

   Alas, good moments don't last forever, and Edwards was traded to the Cleveland Browns for draft choices on this date. He spent three seasons there before playing one last season with Green Bay.

--- Budd Bailey

This Day in Buffalo Sports History: It's May's Day

   July 11, 1979 -- If you have a soccer team and you don't have a goaltender, you're going to give up a lot of goals.

   On this date, the new Buffalo Stallions of the Major Indoor Soccer League got themselves a goaltender. Jim May became the first player to sign a contract with the team, which would beginning play later that year.

   May was a top college goalie at Brockport and went on to play for the Rochester Lancers of the North American Soccer League. May was an all-star with the Stallions in 1981. He came back to Western New York as vice president and occasional coach of the Buffalo Blizzard in the 1990's. May is a member of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame.

--- Budd Bailey

This Day in Buffalo Sports History: The Bills begin

   July 10, 1960 -- There had been plenty of talk about pro football returning to Buffalo in 1960. Today is the day that the Buffalo Bills actually gathered for the first time. They opened the first training camp in team history in East Aurora on this day.

   Maybe this American Football League would lead somewhere after all.

   The Bills used the Roycroft Inn for housing and team meals. They practiced on the Knox polo fields, and dressed and undressed at East Aurora High School. The new Bills -- about 100 strong -- were guided by coach Buster Ramsey.

--- Budd Bailey

Running notebook: Off to Utica

Plenty of runners are off to Utica for Sunday's annual running of the Boilermaker. It's one of the best 15-kilometer races in the country, and always draws a huge crowd. I'll have more on it in Sunday's running column.

The weekend actually started tonight, with the Old Home Days 5K in Williamsville. Ted Sullivan always does a nice job with that one.

The Tuscarora Nation 10K will be held on Saturday morning, as will the Tom Drake Memorial 5K in Mayville. Also on Saturday morning, Wilson will host the Padre's Cup, as Pastor Gary of Hamburg continues to try to reach his goal of staging a race every single weekend of the year. Well, maybe not, but he's personally keeping the calendar busy.

Finally on Sunday morning, there's the Run for Rover at LaSalle Park in Buffalo. The 5K race is followed by a walk for dogs and their escorts, which is always one of the cutest events of the year.

Full details are at buffalorunners.com, and you can find the latest standings for the News' Runner of the Year series as well. Those standings will also be in Sunday's newspaper; the men's overall race is as close as I've ever seen it.

By the way, Bob Dimmig of the Lancaster Striders has posted a video of the July 4 race in Lancaster. You can see it here.

--- Budd Bailey

Bandits notebook: Faceoff help?

The Buffalo Bandits didn't do much in the dispersal draft of the Portland LumberJax earlier this week, but they did add some potential help in a key area.

Jamison Koesterer is 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds, and he won more than 50 percent of his faceoffs for Portland last season (57 of 103). The Bandits were the worst team in the league in that department last season, so Koesterer might have a role to fill there.

Buffalo opted to pass in the second round of the draft, so Koesterer -- a native of Cazenovia (outside of Syracuse)  -- was its only acquisition. Brodie Merrill was the biggest name in the draft; he went to Edmonton but is said to be arguing that he should be an unrestricted free agent.

New York acquired Ryan Powell from Portland in the draft, and then traded him to Colorado on Thursday for forward Matt Danowski. Powell supposedly wanted to be closer to his business interests in the West. Meanwhile, it's nice to see the Titans showing a sign of life with the deal. Now all's the team needs is a definite place to play.

--- Budd Bailey

This Day in Buffalo Sports History: Destroyers roll an 11

   July 9, 1999 -- The Buffalo Destroyers had spent more than a year trying to break into the minds of Western New York's sporting consciousness. It was about at this point when it was easy to wonder when, and not if, those efforts would end.

    The Destroyers lost to San Jose, 52-46, to fall to 0-11 for the season. Little had gone right during the season, as could be guessed, as the team turned over its roster in furious fashion to find some sort of winning combination. The team never did find the right formula, moving to Columbus. Here's the beginning of the story of loss number 11:

    After nearly falling apart, the Buffalo Destroyers almost pulled off a miracle for their first-ever win.

    However, a fourth-down pass in the end zone fell incomplete and the Destroyerssuffered a bitter 52-46 loss to the San Jose SaberCats Friday night at San Jose Arena.San Jose seemed to have the game in hand after recovering an onside kick with 34 seconds left. But Buffalo defensive lineman John Dewitt recovered a fumble to give his team life. But the Destroyers were unable to snap their season-long losing streak, now at 11 games.

--- Budd Bailey

Prince of Wales winner draws from experience

FORT ERIE, Ont. --- Instead of hiring a famous hockey player or show business personality to preside over the annual post postion draw for the Prince of Wales Stakes, management at Fort Erie Race Track reached into its own stable area to come up with a distinguished ceremonial celebrity for this year's edition of the track's marquee race.

Sam McComb, who trains a family-owned stable that currently consists of just two horses, did the honors of randomly pulling the slips that assigned the numbers for Sunday's $500,000 race, the 74th edition of what some call the Preakness of Canada.

Why McComb?

Well, for one reason, McComb, a retired jockey originally from Northern Ireland, was the only person in the room who has actually ridden a winner of the Prince of Wales. That came in 1965 when he directed Good Ole Mort to victory in the race's 30th edition.

McComb's Prince of Wales came during the era when the race was a marathon on the grass. It was 1 3/8 miles of turf in 1965 and the distance was later extended to 1 1/2 miles in 1976, where it remained until after several runnings in boglike conditions, the surface was switched to dirt and the distance reduced to 1 3/16 miles in 1988.

While being interviewed by Fort Erie TV analyst Elissa Blowe, McComb recalled that another rider had claimed foul against him but the judges dismissed the complaint.

"It was a happy day for all," he said.

McComb, who recently turned 80 and still looks like he could make riding weight next week, said he recently had another happy day.
 
It came when he passed his automobile driver's test again and was allowed to remain on the road. However, he warned his Fort Erie neighbors to keep an eye out for him on the highway, and joked "I do better galloping horses in the morning than I do in a car."

Asked his opinion or today's Fort Erie jockeys, McComb politely deflected comment. He praised Robbie King Jr., now retired after being the Fort's top rider for two years. He also mentioned Hall of Famer Sandy Hawley, who was not present, but who is remembered for winning the 1988 Prince of Wales on Regal Classic, whose red and gold Sam-Son Farm colors will be worn Sunday by favorite Eye of the Leopard.

Oh yes, McComb said he also plans to enter a horse he trains in a race on Sunday's undercard. Bet it if you like, and If Apogee wins, McComb and his friends surely will have another happy Prince of Wales day for all.

--- Bob Summers

Bird faces race issue

Indianapolis Star sports columnist Bob Kravitz caused a stir with his column on Wednesday, in which he wonders if Indiana Pacers President and NBA legend Larry Bird is trying to build a team dominated by white players.

In a league that is nearly 90 percent African-American, half of the Pacers' roster is white. They also drafted North Carolina All-American Tyler Hansborough, who is white, with their first-round pick.

Bird once said in an interview that the NBA needed more white players to create excitement among its mostly white ticket-buying fan base. There also is the issue of those embarrassing incidents, including that brawl in Detroit, involving some African-American Pacer players that turned off Indy's white fans who fill most of the seats at Conseco Fieldhouse.

There might be a racial component to the Pacers' roster, but I don't think Bird is being a racist.  It should be noted that eight of Bird's last 10 draft picks were African-American. The Pacers' best player, Danny Granger, is African-American as well.

For anyone to suggest that Bird's player moves are racially motivated is crazy. He was color blind as a player and he still is as an NBA executive. The make up of his roster is purely coincidental. Bird needs to win to stay employed, so it wouldn't be smart to put together a team that can't.

---Allen Wilson 

More notes on MMA in WNY

Mixed martial arts (MMA) events are still banned here. New York is one of 10 states still stonewalling events. But with gyms and fighters galore, the sport thrives in Western New York.

Here are a couple more notes on MMA’s evolving impact here in addition to today’s story in the print editition.

--- The biggest event in MMA history is set for this weekend with UFC 100 at Mandalay Bay drawing some heavy hitters. Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir headline a card of 11 matchups for the historic 100^th Ultimate Fighting Championship. 

Among the matchups is one fighter that grew up only a few hours from Buffalo — Jon “Bones” Jones of Endicott, N.Y. I caught up with Jones last week by phone. Jones from Rochester sounds familiar? It you follow Syracuse football, it should. Both of Jones’ brothers, Arthur and Chandler, are on SU’s defensive line.

Arthur and Chandler had the bulk. Not Jon. Thus the nickname, Jonny “Bones."

The three of them always wrestled around in the living room. “Bones” said his mom routinely replaced coffee tables and couches. A 177-pound defensive lineman in high school, Jones wasn’t big enough to play football in college. So wrestling was his ticket. After winning a juco national title at Iowa Central Community College, he dove into MMA.

“Mixed martial arts is exploding,” Jones said. “It has taken over boxing. Just a few years ago, everybody knew who Tito Ortiz was and Chuck Liddell. Now, UFC fighters are really becoming mainstream athletes. You see them on TV every day.

This weekend, Jones (8-0) will battle Jake O’Brien (11-2). The training has been grueling. Jones even joined his brothers for some of the Syracuse football team’s cardio-intensive workouts. Saturday's rumble is by far the biggest fight of his life so far.

“We’re both wrestlers,” Jones said of his matchup with O’Brien. “So, it’ll be interesting to see who wrestles better than the other and can pull the trigger first."

Like Jason Trzewieczynski in today’s story, Jones isn’t the blood-thirsty fighter you’d expect. His UFC entry song is hardly something you’d do a bench press to. No, “Angry Johnny” by Poe is more like something you’d listen to at the beach.

“It’s pretty much about walking soft and carrying a really big stick,” Jones said. “It’s a woman singing.  A lot of guys like rap and rock but this is really smooth. I love it.”

--- Also caught up with Assemblyman Joe Giglio (R-NY) last week. Giglio represents Cattaraugus, Chautauqua and Allegany counties. The Raging Bull events in Irving, N.Y., and Knockout Factory in Salamanca took him by surprise. On the reservation, MMA events are legal.

“I didn’t realize that was happening on Seneca land, that they had mixed martial arts,” Giglio said.

Giglio pointed out that assemblymen have talked about the economic value of mixed martial arts, and that it could potentially help New York’s struggling economy. He hasn’t taken a hard-line stance on the issue himself, admitting that he hasn’t paid much attention to the controversy.

“I’ve heard everybody else say, ‘Look, it’s in New Jersey, in Ohio, in Pennsylvania. We’re missing the boat. We would regulate it the same way everybody else regulates it.’ They want it passed also because in a lot of ways we are the capitol of athletics.

“To get into the argument, what’s the difference between boxing and that? There’s more drama here in the cage and all but in the end, they’re both trying to knock each other silly.”

---Tyler Dunne