LaRussa accuses MLB umpire of sabotage

Proving once again that some Major League Baseball umpires are more desperate for attention than Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, veteran crew chief Jerry Crawford abused his power so badly Saturday night he would have made Fidel Castro cringe.

In Kutcher terms, Crawford severely "punk'd" St. Louis Cardinals catcher Mike Matheny during a crucial division matchup between the visiting Cards and Houston Astros. According to Matheny, who is a Gold-Glove backstop, the portly Crawford was crowding and pushing the St. Louis catcher before every Matt Morris pitch (the Astros won 2-0).

"Umpires have their hands on you and that's not a big deal," Matheny told espn.com. "I was trying to make some catches on breaking balls and as the ball was coming in I was getting shoved forward."

After a barrage of verbal assaults from the Cardinal dugout, Crawford gave pitching coach Dave Duncan and Matheny the boot in the third inning.

Cards manager Tony LaRussa believes that Crawford's unprofessional actions are part of a pattern of odd behavior the ump has displayed while calling St. Louis games. "He's made it a point to get us," LaRussa said. "Who knows if we would have won, but when you keep getting kicked in the guts like this guy did ... He's going to get us worse the next time."

Crawford's childish act follow in the long line of foolish decisions made by MLB umps. In August 1999, fearing owners would lock them out after their labor contract expired in late December, the umpires agreed to resign en masse. But all hell broke loose when some fearful umps started defecting and rescinding their resignations. Commissioner Bud Selig didn't waver, accepting over a dozen of them and hiring 25 new laborers.

Women's pro soccer league calls it quits



The three-year-old WUSA, the world's only women's professional soccer league, decided Monday it did not have enough funds to continue operations for a fourth season this fall.

Proving they have worse timing than Michael Moore at last year's Academy Awards ceremony, the league's board of governors chose to disband the WUSA just five days before the start of the Women's World Cup.

Even with owners investing more than $100 million in the venture and elite players like Mia Hamm taking pay cuts to guarantee the WUSA's survival, chairman John Hendricks told espn.com that the move was inevitable.

"A shortfall in sponsorship revenue and insufficient revenue from other core areas of the business proved to be the hurdles which the WUSA could not overcome in time for planning the 2004 season," Hendricks said.

AOL Time Warner will sell Hawks, Thrashers



The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday that media conglomerate AOL Time Warner plans to sell the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and NHL's Atlanta Thrashers, plus the operating rights to Philips Arena to an investment group that includes Boston businessman Steve Belkin.