Hours after guiding the Yankees to the World Series title over the Philadelphia Phillies in midweek, Girardi helped a car crash victim in suburban New York. Police say Girardi pulled over to help after a woman lost control on a highway and crashed i
nto a wall at 2.30am on Thursday. Girardi said he was "really concerned" because of damage to her car. He said he had his wife call the emergency services, then approached the mangled car. The woman had only cuts, and police arrived minutes later. Officer Kathleen Cristiano said seeing Girardi at the scene "was totally surreal." We wonder if Lex Luthor is lining up a bid for the Boston Red Sox.
GERMAN BLIGHT
ALL is not well at Bayern Munich with the former European champions now enduring discipline problems alongside their dire form on the field. Bayern have failed to trouble the upper echelons of the Bundesliga under head coach Luis van Gaal so far this season but worse followed when striker Luca Toni and club vice-captain Philipp Lahm were fined for their conduct this weekend.
Toni left the stadium at half-time of the 1-1 draw with Schalke after being substituted by Van Gaal, while Lahm criticised tactics at the club in an interview with the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. Both have been given a "considerable fine" for their conduct after being reprimanded by van Gaal and the club's chairman, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. But Bayern general manager Uli Hoeness says he can see the hand of Lahm's agent, Roman Grill in arranging the interview. "It's not going to be a good week for him either," said Hoeness. "He wants to sell another of our players again."
IDOL PURSUITS
STAYING in Germany, World Cup winner Lothar Matthäus said at the weekend he was one of the greatest players ever to emerge from Germany yet had been shunned by his country.
The notoriously arrogant Matthäus played to type with a classic outburst. "In other countries they treat idols differently and I am an idol in Germany," said the former national captain, before adding: "This may sound a little cocky but after Franz Beckenbauer I am the second most famous German soccer personality around the world. Germany should be ashamed of the way it treats such an idol."
Matthäus is believed to be in the huff because no German club will touch him with a rotten Bratwurst. This may be due to a coaching career which, unlike the man himself, can best be described as modest. He has underwhelmed with clubs in Austria, Serbia and Israel as well as the Hungarian national team. Lothar has other ideas, however and said German clubs perceived him as being too much of a Bayern supporter and too closely linked with a German tabloid newspaper to give him a job. "These two things of which I am accused of by clubs have no basis. I am neither Bayern Munich nor am I Bild newspaper. Neither of the two. And these two are my main problems in Germany."
