From the Sun Prairie (Wisc.) Star:

The nightmare of 9/11 will live forever in our minds and memories.

Fast forward eight years later and last Friday, Sept. 11 is a night the Sun Prairie High School football team, coaching staff and Cardinal fans hope can soon be forgotten. Dealt a 22-0 halftime deficit by Madison Memorial in a Big Eight Conference football game at Ashley Field, the Cardinals made an inspiring comeback in the second half but never fully recovered, falling to the Spartans, 22-14.

Well played, Karl Raymond. And I'd be remiss if I didn't also bring your attention to the first comment on the story:

As a Madison Memorial fan, I am so grateful to have something to celebrate on 9/11. This win will forever eclipse the events of 9/11/01 in this fan's mind. Thanks for a great story.

Spartans Stun Cards [Sun Prairie Star]

Today, you know Whicker as the author of the "2 girls 1 cup" of sports columns. Back then, as now, he was writing for The Orange County Register, and back then, as now, he was using sports to convey a sense of the long and traumatizing captivity of a newly liberated hostage:

How long was it? When Anderson was captured, Wally Joyner was in Triple-A. Michael Jordan was finishing his rookie year. Ted Tollner and USC were Rose Bowl champs. Doug Flutie was the reigning Heisman Trophy winner. Jennifer Capriati was 9. And Cal State Fullerton was coming off an 11-1 football season.

Wow! That long?

On the other hand, Jack Morris had pitched his team to the most recent World Series victory, and the Clippers were missing the playoffs. So it was only yesterday.

Congratulations, Terry. You've left the subterranean Lebanese dungeon!

The column comes to us via Whicker's interview with Poynter's Mallary Jean Tenore. She writes:

Whicker said he didn't get any feedback on the Anderson column, which was published long before the paper started posting stories online. (He e-mailed the passage to me.) He doubts this week's column would have gotten as much attention were it not for the "speed and the enormity of the Internet."

"I'm a little saddened by the tone of some of the responses because I think it says a lot about what's out there in computer-land," Whicker said. "I've had some e-mailers say, 'Why don't you write about 9/11 while you're at it?' Another person said, 'Why don't you write about the Holocaust next?' I think that's a really obscene thing to say."

Whicker added, "I don't think I'll be writing about kidnapping victims anytime soon." Aww, no more sports-and-captivity columns? Now that's deprivation.

Whicker on Jaycee Dugard column: 'I Wasn't Insensitive' about Kidnapping [Poynter]

John Fabris, deputy editor at the Register, says they've been getting a ton of feedback, and that "the comments at the bottom of Mark's column are pretty representative." Said comments were, shall we say, not supportive.

Fabris also passed along a follow-up note from Whicker that will be printed on the front page of tomorrow's sports section. Here it is:

For Tuesday's Register, I wrote a column that clearly offended and outraged large portions of our readership.

It was not my intention to do so. But it's obvious that I miscalculated the effect the column on Jaycee Dugard, and the events that she might have missed during her captivity, had on those who read, buy and advertise in our newspaper.

For 22 1/2 years at The Register, I feel like I've had a good and direct relationship with our audience and I think most of the regular readers know how I go about reporting and commenting on sports.

This column appears to have disconnected that bond with at least part of our readers. For that I apologize.

It's impossible to unring a bell or to bring back a column that has already been transmitted. In many ways the damage is done. I'm hopeful that I can be forgiven for this lapse of professionalism by those who were affected most profoundly.

I'll try to earn back the trust of those customers in my future endeavors.

Again, I regret this incident and apologize to all concerned.

The Register is also publishing a few of the angry emails received, and rather than an arbitrary selection, I imagine they were the only ones without profanity.

Whicker Responds With Regret Over Dugard Column [OC Register]

It is a column by the OC Register's Mark Whicker, and it begins thusly: "It doesn't sound as if Jaycee Dugard got to see a sports page." You'll recall that Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped at 11, impregnated and forced to spend 18 years of her life in her captors' backyard shed. Jaycee was freed last month, only to find that the world she re-entered was one in which a lazy sports columnist might crack his knuckles, sit down to his computer and bang out column about all the "odd things [that] have happened in sports" during the 18 years that she was living in a shed.

I've pasted the whole thing below, so one can appreciate the warp and woof of the single worst piece of sports journalism ever committed to the page:

It doesn't sound as if Jaycee Dugard got to see a sports page.

Box scores were not available to her from June 10, 1991 until Aug. 31 of this year.

She never saw a highlight. Never got to the ballpark for Beach Towel Night. Probably hasn't high-fived in a while.

She was not allowed to spike a volleyball. Or pitch a softball. Or smack a forehand down the line. Or run in a 5-footer for double bogey.

Now, that's deprivation.

Can you imagine? Dugard was 11 when she was kidnapped and stashed in Phillip Garrido's backyard. She was 29 when she escaped. Penitentiary inmates at least get an hour of TV a day. Dugard was cut off from everything but the elements.

How long before she fully digests the world she re-enters? How difficult to adjust to such cataclysmic change?

More than that, who's going to explain the fact that there's a President Obama?

Dugard's stepfather says she's going to need a lot of therapy - you think? - so perhaps she should take a respite before confronting the new realities.

So, Jaycee, whenever you're ready, here's what you've missed:

•Barry Bonds, who was just leading the Pirates to their second NL East title, wound up breaking Henry Aaron's home run record. How did such a skinny guy manage that? We'll deal with that later.

•Well, actually, some baseball players began taking drugs in order to hit more home runs and throw faster fastballs. Football players, who had cornered the market on most of their drugs, began driving drunk, slapping their wives, selling drugs, and killing people. The baseball players caught more grief.

•Michael Jordan did indeed win the big one, and five others.

•Yeah, this golfer really is named Tiger Woods.

•Stock car drivers now marry international models and are invited to the White House.

•Domed stadiums, like the ones in Houston and Minneapolis, are considered obsolete, or at least unfit for baseball.

•John McEnroe became a respected television analyst, just as tennis adopted a replay system that eliminated the need for McEnroe to argue.

•Magic Johnson is a billionaire businessman, and most of us have forgotten just why he had to retire.

•You missed absolutely no Servite victories over Mater Dei in football.

•Or World Series championship for the Dodgers.

•Or Stanley Cup championships for the Kings, even though Wayne Gretzky took them to the Finals in 1993.

•Mike Tyson now makes fun of himself in movies.

•The Anaheim Ducks won the Stanley Cup in '07. Yeah, a hockey team came to Anaheim. Yeah, they built an arena in Anaheim.

•I know you've had trouble digesting all this so far, but they also built a basketball arena at USC. Honest to God.

•A guy from East L.A. named Oscar De La Hoya now makes boxing contenders rich and famous. Just as he did when he was boxing.

•The Angels won a World Series. When you learn who they beat, you'll understand why.

•Speaking of the Giants they did not move, but they did get a new stadium downtown. The Florida Marlins, who did not exist when you left, won two World Series and are getting their own ballpark. Even if you were there, it's hard to believe.

•For the most part, fans have stopped doing The Wave.

•In fact, you don't see many beach balls in Dodger Stadium or Angel Stadium anymore.

•The two NFL teams that we used to have? They've been gone for 15 years. You haven't heard anyone complain about that? Neither have we.

•Jackie Autry isn't in charge of the Angels anymore, as you might have surmised by looking at the standings.

•Joe Torre now manages the Dodgers, after a fruitful detour through New York. Tommy Lasorda? Sure, he's around. He hasn't called?

•You disappeared a couple of months before John Daly came into our lives at the '91 PGA. Who's John Daly? Never mind.

•Todd Marinovich showed why careers aren't played on paper.

•USC is one of college football's elite programs, three coaches later.

•The Red Sox won two World Series, which proves that history is bunk. The White Sox even won one. But not the Cubs.

•Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played but never threatened Vladimir Guerrero's record for most consecutive swings.

•One blessed constant remains: Vin Scully.

•And ballplayers, who always invent the slang no matter what ESPN would have you believe, came up with an expression for a home run that you might appreciate.

Congratulations, Jaycee. You left the yard.

You left the yard. Because what woman — having been kidnapped, impregnated and forced to spend 18 years of her life in a shed (no, Mark, that's deprivation) — wouldn't appreciate a little light punning about the whole ordeal? For my money, the hero here is the poor copy editor, who had the unenviable task of writing the headline atop the single worst piece of sports journalism ever committed to the page: "Many odd things have happened in sports the past 18 years." A fine choice — almost intentionally bland, as if to tell the reader, "Nope, nothing to see here, might I suggest you check out the lifestyle section?"

Now, Whicker is not a bad columnist by any means. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt: Maybe he was having a bad day and decided to do what sportswriters often do when they're having bad days: throw a bunch of bullet points at the screen and channel his inner Hallmark card. Rick Reilly has become a very rich man doing precisely this sort of thing. But even Reilly has the good sense not to hang a few lame sports yuks on the story of a woman who was kidnapped, impregnated and forced to spend 18 years of her life in a shed. Jeebus. Let's hope the poor woman didn't see this sports page, either.

Many odd things have happened in sports the past 18 years [OC Register]

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Thanks for your continued support of this sports page. Petchesky's coming on soon.

The supplement came thumping onto the doorstep of Nashville Scene's Jack Silverman yesterday; attached to it with a rubber band was a letter from president and publisher Ellen Leifeld:

To our readers,

This edition of Davidson A.M. includes a story about former Titans quarterback Steve McNair.

The story, including an interview with Mr. McNair, was prepared before his death last Saturday. This edition of Davidson A.M. was printed last Friday. It is common practice for newspapers to print some feature sections several days before their distribution.

We apologize for the timing of the story.

The story was a thoroughly disposable interview with Steve McNair, who was opening the first of several "Gridiron9" restaurants. McNair is now, you might have heard, dead. The newspaper thought long and hard about this uncomfortable fact and decided it wasn't worth the trouble to pull all the supplements. Per Joe Strupp of Editor & Publisher:

"That had all been done and processed Saturday morning," said Bob Faricy, the Tennessean's vice president/market development. "We really could not find a feasible way to pull all of them back and re-do it in a reasonable time."

Faricy said copies of the Davidson edition that would have been delivered with subscribers' papers were removed and replaced with a new version. But he said the version that goes to non-subscribers was not pulled back, with those copies going out carrying the McNair story.

[...]

Faricy said the key element of the decision involved the ad inserts that had to be distributed and the timing involved in repackaging. He declined to say how much money it would have cost the paper to repackage and distribute the non-subscriber copies. "We made the decision that that did not seem feasible," he added. "We have only gotten feedback from one customer, but we will probably hear more today."

Yes, probably. I'll just note here that the Tennessean is a Gannett paper, and therefore run by greedy, middle-minded nitwits whose idea of a great American newspaper is the Thrifty Nickel, if that wasn't obvious already.

Yesterday's Davidson A.M.: "McNair opens Gridiron9, hopes to add others" [Nasvhille Scene]
Readers Get 'Tennessean' Interview With McNair — After His Death [Editor & Publisher]

This guy is Rob Leth with Global Television Network in Toronto. And nothing — NOTHING — is gonna stop him from filing a story, to completion. We salute you, Rob Leth.

The paper had to post a correction last night, but the damage was done. (The cached version of the story is at the end of the post.) How did all go down? A poster on a KU Fan board explains:

So here is how this deal went down....This was a very professional hoax.

Apparently, Wood gets a call around dinner from somebody that there are rumors surrounding Mangino to West Virginia and he is given the number to Neil Cornrich who is indeed Mark Mangino's agent.

Ryan calls that number and gets a very professional voicemail saying that this is the office of Neil Cornrich. Wood leaves a message.

Moments later a man calls wood claiming to be Cornrich and says he is releasing the news of Mangino and his contract negotiations with West Virginia .

Ryan posts the quotes and the story and waits call backs from the Sports Information Dept and other sources.

Eventually they call and tell Ryan he has been tricked. Wood changes he story on the website.

We feel bad for Wood, whose only real mistake was not checking Phone Cornich's number against the real one, though in a story as explosive as this one, it's a big one. But come on, random Internet people: Be nice to the beat reporters. Their lives are hard enough.

Mangino To West Virginia Rumors A Hoax [Lawrence Journal World]