Lance gets his own day, Big Mac takes another step up the homerun ladder and Carter cashes a very big check. Heres a look at hills, homeruns and heatwaves from the world of sports.
Lance gets his own day, Big Mac keeps climbing up the homerun ladder and Vince Carter gets a truckload of cash to stay in Toronto. Here's a look at the hills, homeruns and heatwaves from the sports world.Vinsanity will be flying high in Toronto. Vince Carter has signed a new contract which will pay him more than 90 million dollars to play for the Raptors for the next six seasons. Carter averages 27.6 points a game and helped the Raptors get within a shot of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2001 (too bad Vince was the one that missed the shot.) Another Dream come true for Raptors fans is that Hakeem Olajuwon is going to be helping Vince get the team into next year's Finals. The Dream signed a four year contract with Toronto.
There are now just four players in baseball history who have hit more homeruns than Mark McGwire. Big Mac hit his 573rd homerun on August 1st to move into a tie for fifth place with Harmon Kilbrew. The next person for McGwire to catch on the list is Frank Robinson who has 586 homeruns.
The city of New York declared August 2, 2001 Lance Armstrong Day in honor of Lance winning the Tour de France on July 29th. It's the third straight year Lance has been the fastest man to climb the hills of France on a bike. New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, told Lance, "The people of New York love you and admire you, and respect your achievements as an athlete and a role model for taking on a deadly disease and dealing with it and thriving." Lance had testicular cancer in 1998. He almost died and had to have one of his testicles removed. Even with just one nut, Lance recovered and took his first Tour de France title in 1999.
The world's best runners, jumpers and throwers have arrived in Edmonton, Alberta for the 2001 World Championships in Athletics. Marion Jones, Maurice Greene and Donovan Bailey will be among the athletes competing. The competition includes 46 different track and field events and runs from August 3rd to August 12th. For more info, click here.
The heat was just too much for Minnesota Vikings lineman, Korey Stringer. He died of heat exhaustion on July 31st after a training camp practice in humid and very hot weather. The day before, Korey was puking his guts out after another practice in the intense heat. Why didn't the doctors, trainers or coaches notice these signs of heat exhaustion and give Korey medical treatment sooner?
