Baseball fans try to grab a foul ball during the Tampa Bay Rays' game against the New York Yankees this week. Photo / AP
NFL shows its heart despite scandal dogging it, religious cricket, Piri needs fixing and Wellington's wild side.
An interesting take on the Ray Rice saga (see B12), after he was initially given a two-match suspension by the NFL for assaulting his then-fiancee, now wife, Janay.
Jake Weisman @weismanjake:
"Remember when Michael Vick was suspended indefinitely for running a dog-fighting ring? The NFL literally cares more about dogs than women."
Goodness in NFL world too
There's Ray Rice and then, well, there's other, much more uplifting, stuff in the NFL. This from Uproxx.com.
Devon Still, a defensive tackle on the Cincinnati Bengals, was relegated to the practice squad after a disappointing training camp.
As it turned out, Still had a good reason for his mind not being on the job. His 4-year-old daughter was suffering from cancer. Had the Bengals not signed him to the practice squad, Still would be out of a job and out of health insurance.
This week, the Bengals added Still to their active roster and took it one step further, announcing that they would donate all proceeds from sales of Still's jersey to paediatric cancer research.
A team official said that 24 hours later, more of the defensive tackle's black No75 jerseys had been sold in that time span than any jersey featuring any other Bengals player ever. New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton, moved by Still's case, bought 100 of the jerseys out of his own pocket.
There's goodness out there too.
Cricket as a religious experience
The Vatican's cricket team were given a blessing by Pope Francis this week, as they prepare to travel to England to take on an Anglican XI as well as a team fielded by the Queen at Windsor Castle. The Pope, an Argentine who is a football fan but knows little about cricket, signed a bat the team will take on their five-match tour, which begins tonight.
Post-tour the bat will be auctioned online on eBay, or "possibly something more dignified", to raise money for the Global Freedom Network, a joint Catholic and Anglican campaign against slavery and indentured labour.
The team said they were looking forward to the confrontation between the two faiths.
Intimidating the opposition through sledging would not, however, be in the ecumenical spirit of the encounter, said Father Anthony Currer, the captain of the Vatican XI. "Hopefully nothing will be picked up by the stump microphones, but when you play you play to win," he said.
Jery Njaliath, a priest from Kerala in southern India, added: "I don't think there will be any sledging. We're representing Pope Francis and I don't think he would approve of that."
Father Currer added: "If one of the boys gets hit in the face by a ball it could set back ecumenical relations by decades."
Er ... Mr Fixit?
This from the Daily Mail, after a former All Black halfback's nightmare debut for London Welsh.
"Mr Fixit, as All Blacks World Cup winner Piri Weepu is known in his homeland, might need putting back together this week.
"The veteran scrumhalf swapped New Zealand for English club rugby with London Welsh in the close-season, and was looking forward to his debut for the promoted Premiership team against Exeter on Sunday, his 31st birthday."
Mr Fixit? Really?
Wellington may need wild touch
Wellington are languishing in last place in the ITM Cup premiership, with performances as poor as their crowds.
Perhaps the union could improve both by taking a leaf out of the book of their AFL namesake.
The Brisbane Lions are in discussions with zoos and wildlife parks about the feasibility of parading a live lion at their Gabba ground in a bid to enhance the supporters' matchday experience.
While the plan sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, Lions chief executive Greg Swann believed he had the backing of the league.
"We had a chat to the AFL and fortunately the boss thinks it's a great idea," Swann told Melbourne radio station SEN.
"We don't know if we can get it up. We're having a look at it.
"One of the good things about being here is we control the stadium, so it's fantastic.
"Whatever we want to do we can do."
It seemed at times last summer, as hordes of orange-clad fans chased a quick buck at the cricket, that it was a matter of when and not if someone would get hurt. Unsurprisingly, though, supporters are in much more danger from balls they never see coming, according to statistics gathered on Major League Baseball.
Bloomberg News reports that about 1750 fans are injured by foul balls or home runs every year.
Each MLB team plays 162 games, so that figure equates to at least two injuries every three games.
So an innocent bystander copping one is more common than a batter being hit by a pitch, which occurred 1536 times last season.
Of course, baseball fans, especially behind both dugouts, are a lot closer to the action than those who will be on the banks watching the Black Caps this summer.
It's still a timely reminder to keep your eye on the ball.
Look who I bumped into out and about in Chicago
New Zealander Mark Simpson, in Chicago on a two-year secondment to Illinois, ran into these two blokes this week. That's Ryan Crotty on the left and Victor Vito on the right, in town to promote the "test" against the USA in November at Soldier Field.
The 22-year-old's selection is about so much more than just statistics.