| Hot Reds team helps bottom lines at nearby retailers If you’re wondering how big of an impact the Cincinnati Reds’ hot season and drive for the playoffs has had on surrounding businesses, just go to a game and look around. feeds.bizjournals.com |
Brown finds voice to become a big noise After winning the fight with his stammer, back-rower Kelly Brown can now concentrate on driving Saracens forwardKelly Brown used to hate doing interviews. It was not the questions that unnerved him: he is a charming, good-humoured man, as well as one of Scotland's finest players. The problem lay within, to the point where the sound of his own voice made him cringe. Saracens's new back-row marauder expresses himself on the field with considerable force but a pronounced stammer has not always led to an easy life off it.This will be news to anyone in the bar at Headingley last Sunday who witnessed the 28-year-old accept a post-match invitation to grab the microphone and entertain supporters with his gravel-toned singing. He does a rousing Mustang Sally; his thick, dark eyebrows even prompt fleeting comparisons with the Stereophonics' Kelly Jones. "People keep asking me if they're real," Brown says, cheerfully striking his best "Monarch of the Chilterns" pose for the Guardian photographer. Sarries have definitely not signed a one-dimensional slab of Caledonian rock.Brown's main task is to help his club win big games such as Sunday's grudge-fest against Northampton. The teams do not like each other much, having played five times last season and publicly fallen out over Soane Tonga'uiha's abortive move down the M1. Brown's considerable influence will be required if the Saints' strength at the breakdown is to be successfully countered. But as the ex-Glasgow loose-forward talks, eloquently and without embarrassment, about the recent major breakthrough in his life, it becomes obvious his biggest battle has had little to do with rugby.It was primarily because of his move south – "It was a big personal challenge to come down here and meet new people" – that Brown enrolled in April on something called the McGuire Programme. It helps people who stammer, partly through a combination of deep breathing techniques and chatting to strangers in the street to boost confidence. Brown became acutely conscious during the Six Nations Championship last season that the better he played the more people wanted to talk to him and the worse he felt.Once, at a sponsors' day, he was required to do a Cricket AM-style introduction to camera that was subsequently replayed to the audience. "I was there with my now wife. She said that when they showed mine I just sank in my chair. Now I can do it. It's just nice not to have to worry if, say, someone asks for a TV interview. I look forward to it, whereas before it would have been: 'Oh, God, here we go.'"Brown's father, Nigel, a Borders vet, also has a stammer yet still does some public speaking, which may just explain his son's love of karaoke. Of more relevance to his club boss, Brendan Venter, and his national coach, Andy Robinson, is the question of whether Brown Jr's new-found confidence – he also married in the summer – will help his game. A happy player tends to be a successful one and moving south for the first time in his life – his wife, Emily, is English – will also open his eyes to new horizons in the Premiership and Europe.First capped five years ago, Brown has come a long way since he first started playing in Melrose as a four-year-old. He even served as a ball-boy at the famous Greenyards when the local team boasted Scottish legends such as Craig Chalmers, Bryan Redpath and Doddie Weir. "Growing up with those guys around you was inspiring and made me determined to follow them. I always wanted to play for Scotland."He began his professional career with the Borders, before moving to Glasgow where his back-row alliance with Johnnie Beattie and John Barclay spawned the "Killer Bs" partnership for club and country. "We dovetailed very well ... we knew exactly what each other was going to do. That made us a good unit."Even so, the demise of the Killer Bs was a necessary evil according to the 6ft 4in, 17st Brown. "Some guys like staying at home and playing their whole career at one club but it is getting rarer. For me it was about a fresh challenge and playing against different guys in a different league." He argues, slightly perversely, that his exit will make Scottish rugby stronger: "If you've only got two pro teams I think it's a good thing that some players leave." What if a youthful replacement were to steal his Scotland place? No problem, apparently. "It's all about competition, that's the nature of the business we're in."One strongly suspects, though, that Brown will be a key figure when England and Scotland share a Rugby World Cup pool in 2011, not least when they collide in Auckland a year next Saturday. Robinson and Venter have already held talks to help ensure their player can satisfy two masters and Brown sees similarities between the two coaches. "Both of them are entirely honest. As a player that's what you want. You don't want a head coach who tells you what he thinks you want to hear."Saracens, clearly, have recruited a diamond, one who generously shrugs off the predictable fines from the Sarries' player "court" for the heinous crime of "being Scottish". Even Fiji's Kameli Ratuvou attempts to mimic his Sean Connery accent – "He is terrible but he tries hard" – and Brown already sounds a popular figure in a cosmopolitan dressing room. "I can already say two phrases in Afrikaans: 'I am tired' and 'Shut your mouth.' Our South African players seem to find it amusing when they're talking in Afrikaans and I interrupt them."And if you were to take away the traffic – "It's a nightmare; in Scotland we get a bit annoyed when the M8 jams up and you get a 30-minute delay ... here it's unbelievable" – the man in the AC/DC T-shirt would be in heaven. Emily is pregnant – the couple already have a daughter – and Sunday's game offers "Broon from Hitchin" the stage he craves. "I watched Northampton's win over Bath and, like everyone else, I was very impressed. They're obviously the form team of the Premiership and tests don't come much bigger. It's up to us to play to the best of our potential; by no stretch of the imagination do I think I've peaked." The search for the hero inside goes on.SaracensScotland rugby union teamPremiershipRugby unionRobert Kitsonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Purdue loses QB Robert Marve for season with knee injury Purdue junior quarterback Robert Marve will miss the remainder of the season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. rssfeeds.usatoday.com |
Commonwealth Games 2010: Boxer Simon Vallily gets redemption with gold • Heavyweight wins five years after being sentenced to prison• England's Saunders, Ogogo, and Smith lose their finalsSimon Vallily took less than two minutes to complete his journey from a cell in a young offenders' institution to the top of a Commonwealth Games podium today, and said he hoped his triumph would inspire similar feats of sporting redemption.Five years ago the 25-year-old, from Middlesbrough, was facing up to a life and promising sporting career in ruins when he was sentenced to four years in prison for a vicious, unprovoked knife attack on the streets of his home town.But Vallily was today proudly wearing a gold medal around his neck having outclassed Northern Ireland's Steven Ward in their heavyweight final at the Talkatora Stadium, knocking Ward to the canvas in the first round.Such have been the speed and power of Vallily's performances in Delhi that his coach Rob McCracken insisted: "He's frighteningly good. We've got two years to work with him and there's a real possibility he could win the Olympics."Vallily, a former Middlesbrough trainee, appeared intent on making up for some of the time he lost during his near six-year break from the sport, when he was lured down the wrong track and his talent seemed destined to go astray.Vallily jolted Ward's head back with the first punch he threw – a straight left – and quickly burst into a 6-1 lead before another left badly wobbled Ward and the following right toppled him heavily to the canvas.Vallily's win ended England's night on a good note but could not hide the disappointment of defeats for Bradley Saunders, Anthony Ogogo and Callum Smith. Earlier, Tom Stalker won England's other boxing gold medal."It feels brilliant," Vallily said. "I have proved a lot of people wrong. I have got a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games and a lot of people back home wouldn't have thought I would get to where I am now."Boxing has kept me on the straight and narrow. I have kept my head down. Where I come from I can show the younger lads the right way and if you are good at something to stick at it and in the end it will pay off."Stalker was quick to turn his attentions towards London 2012 after winning the lightweight title in style with a convincing 11-3 triumph over Scottish teenager Josh Taylor."I'm over the moon. It was just a case of me pulling away and getting in the groove," he said. "It's a long way to 2012 and a lot can happen but I've just got to keep working and keep focused and keep my feet on the ground. If I can do that I think I can qualify and represent Great Britain at the Olympics."There was disappointment elsewhere as the light-welterweight favourite Saunders, middleweight Ogogo and welterweight Smith were all forced to settle for silver medals after out-of-sorts defeats.Saunders suffered an 11-2 defeat to Indian favourite Manoj Kumar and was disappointed by the margin of defeat rather than the result, insisting: "I'm not saying I won but I was in the fight and I hit the lad more than twice."I'm devastated. I didn't expect to get beaten. I didn't perform to the best of my ability but I did better than score two points. As soon as I heard I was four down I thought 'here we go'. It disheartens you, to be honest."Ogogo also fell flat after his semi-final heroics against the Indian superstar Vijender Singh, failing to find a way out of first gear and falling to a heavily one-sided 16-4 defeat to the Northern Ireland veteran Eamonn O'Kane.Ogogo admitted: "The last 10 days have really taken it out of me. I tried my best but no disrespect to O'Kane, I've beaten better guys. I got in the ring confident but I felt it in the first clinch. I didn't feel myself and it's all down to fatigue."Smith had to settle for silver after he was beaten 11-6 by Ireland's Paddy Gallagher, falling short of emulating his brother Stephen who won gold at featherweight four years ago.But McCracken deflected the disappointment of three final defeats for his team, asserting his conviction that tiredness had not played a significant factor in the trio's relatively lifeless performances. He said: "I don't think fitness is an issue with GB boxers. I think they all boxed well and they looked fit. I think in their finals they looked tired but then everyone looked tired after so many fights."They're a young inexperienced team. Some of the boys have really stepped up and performed out here. And Tom Stalker has been outstanding – for me he was the best boxer of the tournament."Commonwealth Games 2010Boxingguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Heat's Mike Miller sidelined with thumb injury By TIM REYNOLDS 2010-10-21T16:50:13ZMIAMI (AP) -- A freak injury to Mike Miller's right thumb is expected to keep one of the NBA's top 3-point shooters sidelined for several weeks, yet another blow to the injury-prone Miami Heat.... hosted.ap.org |