Jim Rice was a great baseball player who achieved many remarkable achievements not shown by statistics, but in honor of his Hall of Fame induction this weekend and number being retired by the Red Sox next week, LEEINKS is looking back to some other things that Jim Rice has done over the years.

This video details the story of a man who was saved by Rice when he was just a young child attending a game at Fenway Park.

Dan Kennedy explains here in his blog called Media Nation, that Rice made his personal Hall of Fame that day that he saved the boy.

This story, which appeared in Sports Illustrated in April of 1979, tells of how Rice went down to South Carolina to attend a chamber breakfast even on the day that he signed a contract with the Red Sox and had business to attend to in Boston.

This Times Union columnist (curiously with the name of another baseball player on the Hall of Fame ballot) brings up what Rice really feels about his teams back in the 70’s and how he keeps everything old school, even his speech for this weekend.

Well no matter how you look at Rice, it seems that everyone has an opinion. I think David Letterman was trying to cast him in a bright light as he told this curious story:

For today’s afternoon LEEINKS we’ve decided to showcase a bunch of athletes that have tested positive for assorted drugs, and have had a host of bizarre explanations on how the positive test came about.

The first case that we’ll focus on made news yesterday. Richard Gasquet, the 23-year-old French tennis player who tested positive for cocaine a couple months ago and was banned from tennis for a year, was cleared to resume playing.

Why did the International Tennis Federation (ITF) decide to lift the ban so early? Because the ITF’s tribunal panel ruled that he inadvertently took the drug by kissing a woman in a nightclub.

Gasquet told the tribunal hearing held in London last month that he kissed a woman, identified in the ruling only as “Pamela,” in a Miami nightclub where a French DJ was performing at a dance music festival.

The festival was apparently notoriously associated with the use of illegal recreational drugs including cocaine and the tribunal said it was likely that “Pamela” had consumed cocaine during the night, though there was no direct evidence.

As stated in the ITF’s report, Gasquet was “on the balance of probability, contaminated with cocaine by Pamela” and, therefore, not significantly at fault for the doping offense.

But this is not the first time an athlete has had what he or she thought was a perfectly logical excuse for a positive test.

In one of the most publicized sports doping stories ever, our good friend Manny Ramirez justified his testing positive for banned drug known as HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin), by saying that the drugs were prescribed to him by a physician.

Manny said that he was using them for a “personal health issue.” HCG, a drug often used to soften the effects of ending a cycle of steroids, is also used to stimulate female fertility, stimulate testosterone production in men, and to treat delayed puberty in boys.

So unless Manny’s “personal health issue” was one of those above problems — in which case, there are profound metaphysical ramifications to the notion of “Manny Being Manny” — he has no good reason to take HCG.

In another story that received a lot of publicity last month, NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield tested positive for methamphetamine during a random drug screening at Richmond International Raceway on May 9th. His explanation stated that he had been taking prescription Adderall-XR and over-the-counter Claritin-D, and that was why he failed the test.

Just yesterday, results from a second test on July 6th showed Mayfield tested positive again.

NASCAR released these findings in a U.S. District Court filing Wednesday that included an affidavit from Mayfield’s stepmother, Lisa, who said she saw Mayfield using methamphetamine at least 30 times over seven years.

This led to another round of denials from Mayfield, who accused the sanctioning body of paying his stepmother to lie about his alleged past drug use.

“They picked the wrong woman to use against me because that (expletive) is trash and has got nothing on me but lies,” Mayfield told reporters.

According to the Sporting News, Lisa Mayfield said she first saw the driver use meth in 1998 at a race shop in Mooresville, N.C. She said Mayfield cooked his own drugs until the ingredient pseudoephedrine was taken off the shelves and it became too difficult for Mayfield to obtain the ingredients. She said her stepson then began to purchase meth from others.

Mayfield continues to protest these findings and statements from his stepmother by claiming that NASCAR paid for the affidavit.

“She’s tried everything she can do to get money out of me,” said Mayfield. “I won’t help her, so I guess she found a way to get money from NASCAR by giving them an affidavit full of lies.”

Finally, in an even more curious case, this wheelchair basketball player from Germany blamed his positive test on a treatment that he was taking for hair loss.

Ahmet Coskun tested positive for finasteride, a drug used to treat hair loss but which can also mask other banned substances.

“I was thinking about my hair and had no idea that the drug contained a banned substance. I’m very upset. I never intended to do doping,” Coskun said.

One can only imagine that Coskun’s case will stand as a giant warning to athletes. If so, then perhaps Wade Boggs – spokesman for hair restoration – will be the real winner here.

If you didn’t get a chance to see the historic Wimbledon final of 2008, you really missed something special. Any sports fan that watched this terrific match where young phenom Rafael Nadal defeated defending 5-time consecutive champion Roger Federer was instantly captivated by not only the class that both players showed, but also the level of which their play was at.

With the tournament starting up again this week, let’s put in perspective how great last year’s final really was.

The 4-hour 48-minute epic battle is considered by many to be the best tennis match ever. The match had everything that a tennis fan could ask for: scintillating tennis, dramatic twists and turns, and sportsmanship on and off the court.

Former world number one player and now commentator, John McEnroe, offered his words about the final, saying that indeed it was the best ever.

But I would even go as far as to say it was the greatest sporting event to take place in the past year.

Since the match, we have seen other tightly contested finals in the NFL, NHL, and Champions League. But none of them could match how great the intensity that every point brought.

Throughout the whole match, this kind of intensity was shown at all times by both players. The drive that both of them had to win was incredible and they completely sacrificed their bodies for every point, every ball, in order to be crowned a champion.

They were hampered by darkness, rain delays, fatigue, and emotions. The match was also historic because those rain delays will never be seen again at Wimbledon. This year, the club will unveil a new retractable roof that has been build over Centre Court so that no matter the conditions, matches can still continue during rain or shine.

Nadal had been on record saying that Wimbledon was his number one goal and he would do anything to win just once at the All England Club. It took him what seemed like forever but he finally captured victory.

Just last week, the Pittsburgh Penguins captured the Stanley Cup Final by defeating the Detroit Red Wings in Detroit in game seven of the series. Many fans, including myself, believe that a game seven in the Cup Finals is one of the best moments that sports can ever produce. But that entire series still pales in comparison to what was witnessed that day at Wimbledon.

The match’s score in itself just shows how tightly contested the match was. A true five setter, the final was: 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-7 (8-10), 9-7.

In the cup finals, games were decided in regulation and the players, while still giving their all, did not have to experience any rain delays or tough conditions. Towards the end of the match, it was getting so dark that both players had a tough time seeing the ball, but neither player wanted to stop the match. They just kept playing and playing.

Another sporting event that reminds me of last year’s final was during the Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament this year when Syracuse outlasted UConn in an outstanding six overtimes. But the difference between the two is that neither Syracuse or UConn went on to win the tournament. The game itself was fantastic but in the end it didn’t count for that much.

This match marked the end of Federer’s 5-year run as Wimbledon champion and also can be looked at as a turning point in his career. Nadal went on to claim the number one ranking soon after and in many fans eyes, became the best player in the world when he won that match. Neither Syracuse or UConn could say that they were the best this year, as that title clearly belonged to the North Carolina Tar Heels.

However in light of recent events at the 2009 French Open, the storyline going into Wimbledon this year is a bit different. After winning the French for four consecutive years from 2005-2008, this year proved to be different for Nadal, as he was upended in the fourth round by Robin Soderling. This paved the way for Federer to take down Soderling in the finals and win his first ever French Open title, completing the coveted career grand slam. A title that many believed he would never capture with Rafa standing in his way.

Greg Garber of ESPN.com also looked into reliving last year’s match in his latest column, shown here.

So the stage is set for this year’s tournament. But before it starts, take a look at this video for a sample of what transpired last year, and why nothing may ever top that superb match.

With the NBA finals starting tonight, everyone is focused on whether Kobe can win a championship without Shaq or if the Magic can pull off the upset.

How about another storyline? Simply put, there’s no way around it: Adam Morrison or J.J. Redick is going to win a championship.

Both were among the best college players of the last decade, but neither have actually done much in the NBA.

Morrison, who failed to make it to the Final Four in his final year at Gonzaga, is also remembered for crying after the game. His range of emotions in the waning moments of his college career was chronicled memorably by losanjealous.com; impressively, Morrison made his moment of considerable infamy a marketable phenomenon (akin to Bill Bucker co-signing pictures of his error with Mookie Wilson), promising, “I’ll cry again.”

Perhaps, however, it was Michael Jordan and the Bobcats who were left to shed a few tears after selecting Morrison third overall (ahead of some guys you might have heard of, like Tyrus Thomas, Brandon Roy and Shelden Williams) in the 2006 NBA draft. He struggled in his first season and then tore his ACL and missed the entire 07-08 campaign.

This led to Morrison being traded to the Lakers before the start of this season. Now, after only averaging 4 points per game and not really playing a role at all, Morrison is looking to ride the Phil Jackson coattails to a championship.

On the other hand, J.J. Redick has spent all three of his seasons in the NBA with the Orlando Magic. He has never averaged more than 6 points per game and has never consistently been in the starting lineup.

Previously this postseason, the Orlando Magic Daily asked the simple question: What’s wrong with Redick?

No matter which team wins, it’s safe to say that neither player will ever have as good of a year as they did in 2006 when they were named co-players of the year. Even so, for a moment, at least, one of them will be able to shed NBA mediocrity for the moment by wearing a champsionship ring. And the other? Well, maybe the loser can get his revenge through a revival of the legendary Halo rivalry between the two (documented during their collegiate glory by Sports Illustrated).

As Michael Vick is released from prison and looks for a new home after serving his sentence, there’s one thing on everyone’s mind. What team will take the risk and inherit the baggage of signing him?

Most seem to agree that there is a team out there who will chance their reputation on him returning to form. But who?

Bleacher Report offers one suggestion of a team that can always use some help: The NFL All-Felon Team.

John Clayton seems to think that the Patriots might be an option in his new column. “This is an example of a great organization with a head coach (Bill Belichick) who is strong enough to take a gamble on talent.”

If Vick is as serious in shaping up as he sounds, for instance, working with the Humane Society to put an end to dog fighting, it seems that his reinstatement is imminent. Clayton goes as far as saying he could be at training camp with a team in August.

With or without Vick, the Patriots are going to need all the talent they can get if they are going to live up to the hype that seems to be growing exponentially for the upcoming season.

Remember the days when all of the Boston sports teams weren’t finishing atop the standings? As recently as 2000, none of the four major Boston teams qualified for their respective league’s playoffs.

Those days might be long gone with all the young talent on the Sox and Bruins, Jerod Mayo terrorizing opponents’ offensive lines for the Pats, and Rondo taking over during the playoffs.

Could Boston be turning into the new New York – the most hated place in the rest of the sporting universe?

These guys are not the first ones to raise the subject.

Back in 2005, Greg Garber of ESPN had this to say after the Patriots collected another Super Bowl trophy.

And with Bill Simmons writing about Boston’s teams almost every week in his columns, there’s no end in sight for sports dominance in Beantown.

But what about New York, the city that until recently was winning championships left and right? Besides the G-Men’s improbable Super Bowl in 2008, what else do they have going for them?

The Yankees have had pretty much zero positive news out of their clubhouse since their infamous collapse in 2004. Their fans seem to want to complain about anything and everything even after they go out and spend $400 million in the offseason. (Seriously, isn’t it common knowledge to an average fan attending a game that there is no re-entry?)

MSG’s Knicks and Rangers could be looking even worse. The last time that the Knicks made the playoffs was in 2003-2004, and the Rangers seem to be having more problems with their coach than even the most troublesome player in the league.

Things have gotten so bad with the Knicks that Stephon Marbury, once a player who was brought to New York as a centerpiece, was run out of town in a very peculiar way by his team’s own front office. He had to plead to come to Boston for limited minutes as a willing role player off the bench. Now, after it seemed like he didn’t have much to offer to the C’s, he has come up big in the playoffs, scoring 12 points in the 4th quarter during Game 5 with the Magic, and may have resurrected his career with that performance in the Hub.

On the diamond, imagine what Sox fans would have done if their team blew the division on the last day of the season two years in a row. The Mets completed that very feat the past two seasons and to top it all off, closed their stadium by driving their fans off the edge.

After all those years of Red Sox heartbreak, it seems that the winning ways might be around for a while.

The latest evidence is the newest member of the Sox bullpen, Daniel Bard. In his first outing last night, he dominated an Angels offense that had already put up 7 runs in the game against the best Sox starter this year, Tim Wakefield. Barring the unthinkable, Bard looks like yet another stud from the farm.

So with both the Bruins and Celtics playing tonight for the right to move on to the conference finals of their respective sports, what’s going on in New York tonight?

Finally, after what seemed like months, the Bruins have their second-round playoff opponent as they continue their pursuit of the Stanley Cup. The sixth-seeded Carolina Hurricanes are fresh off eliminating Marty Brodeur’s New Jersey Devils in a quarterfinal series for the history books.

The Canes won two games in the series via last-second go-ahead goals, including Game 7 on Tuesday, in which Jussi Jokinen and Eric Staal scored 48 seconds apart with less than two minutes to play.

In Game 4 of the series, the Canes scored with just 0.2 seconds left on the clock to win the game, which obviously didn’t please Brodeur.

The Canes are hot and could pose a serious threat to the Bruins, who weren’t troubled too much in the first round by their rivals, the Montreal Canadiens.

Looking for guys to watch going into the series? Look no further than the Game 7 goal scorers. Staal, a franchise player and one of the brightest future stars in the NHL, has already had his share of great moments.

Back when he was on the Dallas Stars, Jokinen had a couple highlight goals in shootouts, most notably against the Bruins:

The mention of the Hurricanes in the New England area also brings up fond memories of the team before it  made the move to the hockey hotbed of Raleigh, North Carolina. Formerly known as the Hartford Whalers, no one who went to a Whalers game could ever forget their goal song, Brass Bonanza.

Brass Bonanza is still found all over the place today even though the team that popularized it ceases to exist. The song is used by a bunch of colleges during sporting events, including Northeastern University, Quinnipiac University, UConn, and RPI. At Fenway Park during Red Sox games, the song can be heard in between innings or after run-scoring plays.

The website brassbonanza.com is a blog focusing on the song and the Whalers in general. They have an in-depth history of the song and include multiple versions of the tune available for download.

Finally, Craig Kilborn had Carmen Electra do an impromptu dance to Brass Bonanza during one of her appearances on The Late Late Show.