For the first time, a team from Africa will compete in the annual Little League World Series after a squad from Kampala, Uganda called the Rev. John Foundation Little League team took the Middle East-Africa region. They beat out Saudi Arabia, which had represented the zone the last 11 years. The city of Kampala only founded its first youth team in 2005, Little League officials told the Associated Press. They open against the Canadian squad Aug. 19.
Image rehab
Give NFL quarterback Michael Vick’s handlers credit - they’re doing their best to create a new man. Vick was in the U.S. Congress Tuesday to back the “Animal Fighting Spectator Prohibition Act of 2011,” which aims to come down even harder on the kinds of things Vick did to get himself in jail for 19 months. “In prison I told myself I want to be part of the solution, not the problem,” Vick said after watching a video of a young kid watching a cockfight. Democrat Jim Moran did the requisite Congressional jock-kissing. “On the field, your leader is the quarterback,” Moran said of Vick. “We now have a leader. This is a story of redemption.”
Save here, spend there
The Japanese Fed Cup tennis team built an insurmountable 3-0 lead against Argentina in Kobe last weekend. It was then announced the fourth singles match would be scrapped, and only the doubles played in the best-of-five match event “to conserve energy” in the stricken country. It all sounds noble. But the previous day, the Japanese Olympic committee formally announced its bid for the 2020 Olympics at a top-shelf reception in Tokyo. Beyond the megawatts of energy needed to hold that affair, nearly 30 members of the International Olympic Committee were on hand. Those folks don’t fly economy.
Malone’s new mission
Former Expos general manager Kevin Malone has seen the light. “Baseball was on the throne of my life and winning was the god and idol in my life. I don’t believe that pleased God,” he told the L.A. Times’s T.J. Simers. Malone, also a former Dodgers G.M., has since gone to places like Israel and Uganda on his own dime to deliver food, water and the Gospel. He’s now a fundraiser and motivator for the Dream Centre, whose motto is: “Find a need and fill it; find a hurt and heal it.”
No unemployment insurance for NBA stars
Locked-out Denver Nuggets point guard Ty Lawson wondered if he could file for unemployment benefits. So Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer investigated. A spokesman for the North Carolina Employment Security Commission told Bonnell the answer, at least right now, is no. “Mainly due to fact the NBA season is not in session. There is a reasonable expectation on the players’ part that they may play once the season begins,” the spokesman said.
Scully to the World Series
An online petition to get legendary Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully on this year’s World Series television broadcast already has 7,500 cyber-signatures. Main Fox baseball play-by-play man Joe Buck is all for it. “I’d happily step aside to hear his voice,” Buck said. “As far as I’m concerned, he could be part of it every year. I’m not selfish. I realize who the game’s greats are.” A spokesman said the network would consider “having Vin join Joe and Tim (McCarver) for a few innings.”