KAC ATTACK

Seriously, Network has actually swallowed very hard and will present Hornets v. Bucks as one of its games on Sunday. In addition, the Lakers will only being playing in one game.

This weekends appearance by Network in Milwaukee is being met with much fanfare locally. There has been a flood of calls in recent weeks to sports talk radio with callers asking why the Bucks are hardly ever put on Network TV games, and why the team doesn�t get �respect� nationally. The callers note that even teams like the Raptors and Kings are on the Network regularly while the Bucks are ignored. One caller pointed out that the Kings are a more �electric� team than the Bucks, which must mean that Mark Pope needs to get a funky hair style and Sam Cassell should commit a silly turnover trying to make a crazy pass on every third posession. Fans even complain about a half-page ad the Network put out in USA Today featuring the playoff brackets, along with pictures of Shaquille O�Neal and Allen Iverson. Of course, Iverson�s right hand happens to cover part of the word �Milwaukee� on the bracket, just exposing the �aukee� part of it. Grassy knoll theories are everywhere, including one that the Bucks PR director pissed off a Network representative during a game several years ago, putting Milwaukee on Network�s Stool List.

As a lifelong Bucks fan I have only one answer for this, WHO CARES. Network also gripped once when saddled with a Cleveland-Florida World Series, with an executive actually saying publicly that he was praying for a sweep. This so all the women out there could watch ER on Thursday night. Network got a seven-game classic instead, the final game going into extra innings. And network was bitching the whole while, as game 7 went past midnight. Pretty funny, Network wasn't bitching when Carlton Fisk forced game 7 with a 12th inning HR. If it's Boston it's great drama, if it's Cleveland or Milwaukee they'd rather run Dateline, or Weakest Link, who I'm sure network feels the Bucks are. Network sure fell for the XFL however.

I do know this for a fact, however. There are only eight teams left for the Association Championship. The Milwaukee Bucks are one of those teams. And if they are truly flying under the radar screen, so be it. Worked for Tina on Survivor. I am glad the Bucks do not get national attention. It can actually be a great thing not to get national attention. If the Bucks had somehow lost the last three games to the Magic, they would have got plenty of national attention. Something like George Karl blew a 2-0 lead, just like when he was with Seattle. Then all the Buck-haters would have come out of the woodwork, trying to figure out which maritime disaster to compare the meltdown to, the Titantic, Kursk, or Edmund Fitzgerald???

The only respect that matters is collecting wins. Sports is not a popularity contest. If the object of basketball was �getting over� with the public � like profession wrestling, the Bucks would be near the bottom of the league. �Getting Over� only matters in the BCS in college football, where teams are trying to climb the rankings to get to either the National Championship Game, or one of the two at-large spots in the other lucrative BCS games. That�s a topic of for another KAC ATTACK.

NASCAR HAUNTED

I kind of got a laugh hearing about something Darrell Waltrip said during the Daytona 500. In what turned out to be a final act of �road rage� Dale Earnhardt flipped off rookie driver Kurt Busch during the race. Upon seeing that, DW quipped to Mike Joy, �Look, Dale just said Hi to Kurt!!!� Nobody should never, ever, flip off anyone named Kurt on any road (lol).

On a much more serious note, NASCAR�s nightmare is not going away. It would be nice if NASCAR got back to normal, with the leading news being who�s starting on the pole, what role will tire wear play, who won the race, who�s leading the points standings, etc. Unfortunately, the focus for the foreseeable future will be #3 fallout, #3 fallout, and more #3 fallout. In particular, NASCAR�s biggest problem is the lack of disclosure in the Dale Earnhardt Investigation, preventing any chances for closure in the sports most tragic event ever.

Myself, the seatbelt failure does make some sense to me. It wasn�t just the automatically fatal basal skull fracture (think internal decapitation) that Earnhardt suffered. Dale also suffered count them, eight broken ribs, a fractured breastbone, and a fractured ankle, among other injuries. That has to lend some credence to the seat belt theory, though an EMT cutting away a seat belt to get a trapped driver out makes sense as well.

My problem with NASCAR is how they are handling some of these things. After the two separate fatalities at the Louden, NH track last year (Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin) NASCAR did not even bother to inform the local coroner. Everywhere else in this country, someone dies, regardless of the reason, a coroner has to be informed, so he can rule cause of death. But since Bill France, Mike Helton, and the boys felt that it was above whatever local authority exists in the community where they are racing, that this was not necessary, that they could do their own policing.

Meanwhile, the supermarket tabloids, in sick fashion, are having an absolute field day with NASCAR�s handling of the Earnhardt investigation, picking on this like no event in sports ever. One tabloid had as a headline this week, �NASCAR SHOCKER, WHO CUT EARNHARDT�S BELT� above the now famous picture of Ken Schrader ramming into the Earnhardt car pinned against the wall. The same tabloid has also done stories in recent weeks on �Teresa Earnhardt�s agony� and speculating that Earnhardt �blacked out� just before the crash, as he did at the beginning of the 1997 Darlington race where Dale wasn�t quite back from his catnap when the green flag fell. The National Enquirer even chimed in with a report on the investigation.

Earnhardt's memory will continue to burn...

It appears that the Earnhardt reminders will haunt the sport wherever it goes for the foreseeable future. Last weeks race in California marked what would have been Earnhardt�s 50th birthday. Memorial Day weekend marks the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, Earnhardt�s home area. The July 4th weekend marks a return to Daytona for the Pepsi (Firecracker) 400, where the events of February 18 will no doubt be relived yet again. The following week NASCAR makes the first of two trips to Loudon, where the two deaths occurred last year. Earnhardt also figures to be remembered in particular when NASCAR debuts in Chicago and Kansas City later on in the year. In the fall White-Knuckle Weekend in Talledegha will mark the anniversary of Earnhardt�s last victory, and Dale will no doubt be remembered when the season champion is crowned at years end. And of course, next season opens with the 2002 Daytona 500, the first anniversary � lets hope by then NASCAR finally gives us some answers, along with some closure, and the Drudge Report type crap can finally end.

RANDOM CLOSING THOUGHT

Look for a SportsCentury episode this coming week on Mark �The Bird� Fidrych�s magical 1976 rookie season (19-9 2.34 ERA) with the Tigers, only to see his career go to ruins due to arm problems the following year.

Also, in yet another attempt at expanding market share, PepsiCo unveiled its newest hue of the soft drink Mountain Dew this week, dubbed �Code Red�. It is Mountain Dew with Cherry soda mixed in, and is of a reddish color. Or would that be Mountain Dew with an urinary tract infection�

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