Marion Jones has been the queen of women’s sprinting.  She racked up three Olympic gold medals and five total medals at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney Australia.  The U.S. Olympic team once named her the “the world’s fastest mom.”

Well, she won’t be running any longer as she announced her retirement after pleading guilty to charges of steroid use. The allegations have hounded Marion Jones for many years.  For sports fans,  yet another idolized sports hero has admitting to using steroids.  Who’s next?  http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/more/10/04/jones.ap/index.html – Full article

Joe Torre was offered a one-year contract with a pay cut, to remain manager of the New York Yankees.  He turned it down, even though it still would have made him the highest paid manager in Major League Baseball.  His legacy of four World Series titles and 12 consecutive years making the playoffs, apparently wasn’t enough for George Steinbrenner.

The rumors of whether Torre would be offerred a deal at all, surfaced during the season.  He finally was, but didn’t meet his expectations, so he said so long to New York. Full article

Now that Barry Bonds has become baseball’s home run king, the spotlight soon will shift to New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, the player in best position to take the record from Bonds. Full article

It’s been almost 20 years since hitting golf balls into the ocean was banned. For golf junkies with the urge to play, it’s the next best thing. Using real balls and clubs, plastic grass, electronic sensors and a video screen, the simulators combine the feel of playing golf with the visuals of a live P.G.A. event. Full Article

The gentle giant Al Oerter died from heart failure at the age of 71. Along with sprinter Carl Lewis, Al Oerter is the only other athlete to win the same track & field event in four consecutive Olympics. Al Oerter overcame many obstacles along the way, but always came out on top. Full article

Back in 1998, It seemed crazy when Todd McFarlane — a brilliant but eccentric comic-book artist turned action-figure mogul — paid $3 million for the ball Mark McGwire hit for his then record-breaking 70th home run.

It seemed even crazier when he paid about $500,000 for Barry Bonds’s record-breaking 73rd home run ball in 2003. Steroids scandals were by then casting shadows over home run records, and McFarlane was riding the memorabilia market down. But it doesn’t seem so crazy now that McFarlane Toys is the official distributor of action figures for all four major American sports.

Riding the grueling Tour de France bike race takes strength, stamina — and perhaps a heart nearly 40 percent bigger than normal. Researchers who examined the hearts of former Tour cyclists and bikers found that the athletes’ hearts were from 20 to 40 percent larger than average. Full article