We usually share the Onion Headline of the Day toward the end of this feature, but this one was too good to bury.
“They were entering the final turn when Keen Ice spun out and hit the wall, sending him airborne and spiraling uncontrollably at full speed into the first few rows of the crowd,” Derby announcer Travis Stone told reporters, adding that paramedics immediately rushed to attend to onlookers struck by debris and extract jockey Kent Desormeaux from the wreckage. “You could see from the way Keen Ice was wildly careening around the top of the stretch that it wasn’t going to end well, and once he made contact with the wall, it was carnage. You try to keep fans safe, but you can’t always prevent these kinds of freak accidents, especially a horse tumbling end-over-end into the crowd like that. It was truly horrifying.”
Meanwhile …
☛ Canadian Basketball League championship decided by forfeit. Remember that time your pickup basketball game ended because of a fight over who owned the ball? Yeah, that happened in the Canadian NBL Finals as well … in Game 7, no less. A brawl broke out between the Halifax Rainmen and the Windsor Express prior to the deciding game when, and this is true, one of the Express basketballs rolled over to the Halifax side of the court during the shootaround, and the Halifax players wouldn’t give it back.
Gerry Brumpton, the assistant coach of the Windsor Express, said Thursday that the Halifax Rainmen showed up too early for their scheduled for 1 p.m. shoot around.
Brumpton said Bill Jones, the Windsor Express head coach, tried to retrieve a basketball from one of the Rainmen players. He said when the player refused to hand the ball over, an altercation ensued.
A rather large brawl ensued, and the police were called. But before they arrived, Halifax had piled onto the team bus and departed, saying that it wouldn’t play the game. So Windsor won by forfeit.
The Rainmen were fined $90,000 Canadian — $20,000 as an organization, $10,000 to the head coach and $5,000 for each player and one assistant coach.
Now, may we address the Halifax team name?
☛ Axl Rose was not happy with the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. Rose on Twitter: “May/Pac the Free-Match. No injuries. No holding. No PPV. Boxing greats don’t duck the fans.”
☛ Maradona says it’s time for Sepp Blatter to go as president of FIFA. “Inside FIFA there is total anarchy.” The election is less than a month away.
☛ Warriors win championship, enjoy victory parade.
Thanks to everyone who joined us for our Championship Parade! Santa Cruz you're too good to us! #Champs pic.twitter.com/VOQVdtgBjv
— Santa Cruz Warriors (@DLeagueWarriors) April 30, 2015
That would be the Santa Cruz Warriors, who won the NBA D-League championship.
☛ One last dance … Mayweather, Pacquiao attend prom.
Fantasy Baseball Team Name of the Day: Stolen Hunter Pence Signs.