(a rare photograph of Eddy Curry leaving his feet)
“They leave the locker room together almost always after games and when the media looks like it is about to approach, usually a code word is uttered,” writes the New York Post’s Marc Berman of the Knicks duo he calls “The DNP Boys”, lumbering, chronically injured C Eddy Curry and concentration-challenged PG Nate Robinson. “They’ve been friends before this but now they are inseparable as they share a corner of Mike D’Antoni’s doghouse.”
“Me and Nate have always been tight,” Curry said yesterday. “He’s always been one of my closest friends on the team, especially after Jamal (Crawford) left. Our families are real tight even before this. Right now it’s magnified because we’re always the last people on the bench.”
Robinson’s status appears more hopeless than Curry’s. The motivation to play Curry is stronger because he has two years left on his contract and could be traded to open up more 2010 cap space. Robinson is in his final year.
Curry is genuinely hurt, partly because Mike D’Antoni has kept him out of the loop. New acquisition Jonathan Bender, whose dealing with a sore hip, is still a health risk. So Curry should remain patient.
My only problem is D’Antoni’s communication skills, which is poor considering his rep as a player’s coach. Knowing how sensitive Curry is, would it have been so tough for D’Antoni to sit Curry down and tell him he is giving Bender a shot and to stay ready? Seems simple enough.
Unless Berman figures Curry will someday provide sensational copy on the level of the Stephon Marbury scoops the columnist was gifted the past two years, I cannot imagine under what possible circumstances he’d advocate giving the All-Decade Underachiever anything besides garbage time minutes in D’Antoni’s uptempo offense. Unless he’s rooting for Curry to drop dead, which doesn’t exactly jibe with all the TLC the New York media routinely foists upon the former Bull.
From PR USA.net comes something I can only characterize as one of the most confusing press releases I’ve ever read :
VZillion, Inc. (Pink Sheets: VZIL), innovator of the virtual Internet, has signed Mark Jackson, one of the NBA’s most acclaimed point guards and sports analysts as VZillion’s Sports Innovations Agent — a go-to source for sports figures, entertainers and other high profile individuals searching to expand their brand as well as their revenue stream. In this role, Jackson will develop corporate and celebrity sports relationships and be an advisor to the sports innovations division of VZillion. Jackson will also be ushered in to serve on VZillion’s advisory board.
VZillion has in place several on-and-offline strategies to accomplish its goals, launching Virtu-Real apartments (real entity with virtual representation) to entrepreneurs seeking to create marketing and advertising opportunities that will allow their brand partners to reach their target audience in truly unique ways.
“As we enter 2010 and beyond, we look forward to having Mark Jackson champion this new role,” said Antonio Collier, founder and president of VZillion. “Mr. Jackson will be a vital part of bridging the virtual and real sports world and will provide new cooperative resources and lead strategies for not only the celebrities involved but to introduce general audiences to the power virtual environments have on everything from Madison Avenue to Wall Street.”VZillion utilizes 3D Virtu-Real apartment concept to deliver exclusive content in the form of live concerts, virtual shopping networks, sports & television programming and many other engaging and immersive experiences. VZillion will offer freemium services and collaborative environments and provide content and the monetization strategies needed to succeed on the Web.
That University of Texas football coach Mack Brown generates — along with his unpaid roster — a tremendous amount of loot for the UT athletic department cannot be disputed, regardless of how distasteful you find reports of Brown’s recent salary increase. However, the Austin American-Statesman’s Eric Dexheimer considers another debate, one that has Brown heading an “educational charity” with non-profit status, paraphrased by Dexheimer as “the latest symptom of a haphazard public policy that lumps UT’s football program into the same category as its law school and Blanton Museum of Art.”
To tax analysts, the issue is not how much money the Longhorns football team makes — $87.6 million last year — or whether the coach deserves his salary. Rather, said John Colombo, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, the question is: “Is Texas paying Mack Brown $5 million for his contribution to the educational environment at the university, or because it wants to win football games?”
The large sums generated through advertising and media rights by schools with highly competitive sports programs raise the question of whether those sports programs have become side businesses for schools,” a May 2009 study by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office noted.
The foundation for the tax breaks for university sports programs were set decades ago in laws and tax codes that acknowledge the educational value of athletics, as well as the social value of amateur sports. Yet today’s commercially sophisticated college-sports spectacles bear little resemblance to what the programs looked like when the laws passed.
“What Congress contemplated as the Harvard-Yale game in 1950 is not the same thing as Texas-Alabama in 2009,” said Colombo.
UT President Bill Powers Jr. said the athletic department, whose annual budget is about $138 million, according to the most recent U.S. Department of Education figures, has given $6.6 million toward academics in recent years. It also subsidizes the cost of teams in unprofitable sports, such as women’s rowing and volleyball.
Yet the CBO study found that much of the money earned by athletic departments pays for expenses — stadium construction and coaching salaries — whose sole purpose is simply to enhance large, revenue-producing sports programs. “I know that there is $32 million at the University of Kentucky that isn’t going toward women’s tennis,” Colombo said. “Because it’s going into John Calipari’s pocket.”
I’m usually quick to recite the typical sports radio defense for Brown’s obscene paycheck — ie. when the science department can draw 90,000 + on a Saturday afternoon, then they’ll have something talk about — but that $6.6 million contribution seems a little on the modest side against the backdrop of UT’s budget cuts. Even just to maintain goodwill, it seems the announcement of Brown’s pay raise should’ve been accompanied by a gesture towards towards someone outside of the athletic department.
Within minutes of the shocking announcement that University Of Florida head coach Urban Meyer was stepping down — days before his 12-1 Gators play Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl — the twit/twat/tweetosphere was abuzz with all sorts of tasteless speculation. But enough about my posts, an anonymous source tells the Gainsville Sun’s Pat Dooley that Meyer, “just doesn’t have anything left in the tank”, a December 6 hospital visit under the guise of “dehydration” being sufficient cover for what are now being called “constant chest pains”.
As the Times’ Pete Thamel correctly points out, there’s no obvious in-house successor for Meyer, and barring a complete breakdown in Pete Carroll’s relationship with USC AD Mike Garrett (which couldn’t possibly happen, right?), Florida might need a hand in headhunting. And I’m more than happy to assist — the choice has to be UCF’s George O’Leary. He’s got experience coaching one of the nation’s marquee programs (albeit briefly), and he already knows a thing or two about the brutal training conditions in the Sunshine State. Heck, it’s the holiday season, Gator Nation can have this tip for free.
On Wednesday, team officials said someone has been impersonating Wharton (above) to sell prepaid gift cards at area night clubs. The suspect has scammed people out of almost $25,000 since last December.
CMPD officials said Saturday they are searching for Christon Jermaine Brewer, 24, who’s been wanted for misdemeanor cyberstalking since June. On a wanted poster, CMPD said Brewer is known to use Wharton’s name as an alias.
I realize that others can, and will, speak more eloquently to the music of Vic Chesnutt than I. Still, news of his death yesterday felt like one more punch taken in a miserable year. Sorry, as usual when an artist dies, I think of myself first and what I just lost. I can only point to how much he got done, how deeply he affected those who knew him, and his example of what can and can’t be taken away from a person. He was 45. Considering how he reportedly died, on Christmas Day, I found this lyric quoted by Ben Sisario in his New York Times obit of Chesnutt particularly moving: “I’m not a victim/Oh, I am an atheist.”
“I would rather not play on Christmas,” Van Gundy said. “This is a day to spend with your family. The league has been good to all of us in terms of what we get (big money) out of these TV games, so it would sound a little disingenuous to complain too much. But if I had my way, we’d take a five-day Christmas break.”
He said he would not be watching any of the other four games being played Friday. He did say he used to watch the Knicks and the Rockets play when his brother Jeff was coaching those teams.
“I won’t watch one second of the other four games. I have no interest. That’s not great advertisement for the league, but I actually feel sorry for people who have nothing to do on Christmas Day other than watch an NBA game,” he said. “If there’s a holiday, we’re playing. That’s just the way it is.”
Much as I appreciate Stan’s pity, here’s the deal. I’ve already been to the movies, eaten chinese food, killed Christ, made an obscene phone call to Charlie Ward, charged onerous interest rates for loans and taken part in a vast conspiracy to control the media and entertainment industries. Having accomplished all of that before 2:30 eastern time, should I be mocked for having little else left to do than watch the NBA?
It’s a multi-cultural world you’re living in, V.G. OK, maybe not you, but the rest of us. The entire planet doesn’t observe Christmas, but if I’m gonna feel bad about someone working on a national holiday, there’s Walgreens and 7-11 employees across the country who’ll get my empathy far quicker.
In part it’s a gaiety-of-the-nation thing. But this is, after all, the time of year at which we traditionally display a weakness for comedy bad guys, and following blanket critical notices for his hilarious performance at that Eastlands press conference on Monday, at which he unveiled the new manager, Roberto Mancini, there is no reason why (Manchester CIty CEO) Garry Cook should not line up alongside your King Rats and your Captain Hooks.
Sitting next to Mancini, he had mastered the “bulldog chewing a wasp” face which is the stock in trade of the scuppered pantomime villain, and which is currently being deployed twice daily by national treasures from Brian Blessed (Abanazar, Wimbledon) to Nigel Havers (Fleshcreep, Nottingham). The only disappointment is that City have yet to bus in small children to throw sweets at Garry. That might be a part of “the project” to kickstart in the new year.
On Monday, our hapless antihero insisted to the assembled throng that there had been absolutely “no conspiracy” – and those who prefer to reserve the term for things such as Watergate might well agree. Alas, Mancini’s amusing decision to undermine his new chief executive’s account about 27 seconds later has left people decrying Garry’s “covert operation”, as though it were akin to the Bay of Pigs, as opposed to lining up the Italian and telling him to enjoy the complimentary shortbread in Manchester’s Lowry Hotel until the coast was clear.
[Cosloy, this afternoon, working a CSTB "hot line" lead that Tiger Woods' marriage might not be doing so well.]
For those of us born into a non-Xtian religous affiliation, who appreciate a certain “indie” sensibility to our music and bought much of it in the 1990s (if not so much now), and who don’t have any family obligations of a time-consuming nature this evening, and haven’t seen any breaking Milton Bradley news today – we turn our Xmas Eve thoughts to another important birthday, that of CSTB founder Gerard Cosloy. God Bless you GC! Please have someone buy you a beer – no, TWO – for me!
At the time of George Michael’s 1986 resignation as regular sports anchor from Washington DC’s WRC, I wrote, “Once upon a time, cable TV was unavailable in large chunks of lower Manhattan and Queens (thank you, Donald Manes), and as such, rather than bask in the dulcet tones of the young (well, younger) Chris Berman on a late Sunday night, Michael’s “Sports Machine” was the only game in town for the highlights-starved.” Michael, a DC sports media fixture for more than a quarter century, and a national name/face thanks to his syndicated highlights program was once described by The Couch Slouch as “the only guy in town who can show you five minutes of tape in a four-minute sportscast.” Michael, a former disc-jockey turned sports mouthpiece, passed away yesterday at the age of 70.
“Growing up,” recalled Mr. Irrelevent’s Jamie Mottram, “my friends and I cherished the times we were able to stay up late enough to watch Sports Machine. Along with Saturday Night Live, it was our favorite show. I think a lot of sports-obsessed kids felt that way.”
I’m a little longer in the tooth than Mottram, and I always associated watching “The Sports Machine” with the end of a weekend with the oncoming dread of a Monday morning. And make no mistake, this was a pre-blog / pre- PTI / well before WFAN became-a-ratings-juggeranut era in which guys like Michael, Boston’s Bob Lobel, New York’s Warner Wolf and Jerry Girard were hugely influential in establishing just what the next morning’s talking points would be. If even said chatter wasn’t nearly as loud (or as easy to find)
(I suspect Manny’s clean, but can we arrange a piss test for the guy on the left? image taken from Saddo Boxing.com)
Of Floyd Mayweather’s insistence that Manny Pacquiao submit to Olympic-style blood tests at any point prior to their mooted March 13 megabout, promoter Bob Arum argues such conditions prove “that Floyd never really wanted the fight and this is just harassment of Pacquiao.” Mayweather countered with “in a fight of this magnitude, I think it is our responsibility to subject ourselves to a sportsmanship at the highest level.” The Rumble’s Avi Korine seems to be in line with Arum’s assessment, opining, “Mayweather’s insistence on drug testing, to the point of threatening the biggest fight in boxing history, seems to me an acknowledgement of self-doubt.”
If the anger and distraction of being an accused steroid cheat might infuriate and shake Pacquiao’s focus, might the much more unsettling view be that the fighter opposite you has an illegal advantage you can’t compete with? Might this be the first time in his life that Mayweather has ever stepped into a ring with fear and doubt in his mind?
Mayweather has had forty fights to this point and has never insisted on special stipulations like this. Whether there is reason to be suspicious of Pacquiao or not it clearly reflects Mayweather’s concerns. He has fought forty times using the official rules of boxing, but this time he wants more. It’s kind of like asking for a 30 foot ring. Yeah, fights are always in a ring, so what’s the problem with a 30 foot ring? You can look at it like Pacquiao is scared of taking a drug test, but it is Mayweather who is asking for something unusual.
But I digress. Salon’s Kate Harding threw a media pundit shit-fit over the AP’s 2009 Female Athlete Of The Year poll, one in which Breeders Cup winner Zenyatta finished a distant second to Serena Williams, and Belmont Stakes victor Rachel Alexandra came in 7th behind UConn hoops standout Maya Moore. And to be totally truthful, I was disappointed in the AP’s results, too. No love for soccer thug Liz Lambert? Zero recognition for South African track and field pioneer Caster Semenya? Clearly, these AP voters care even less about women’s sports than this blog’s publisher.
However, that’s not the source of Harding’s gripe. “I can’t help noticing,” she wrote “that Zenyatta and Alexandra are not human, which — call me speciesist — is something I usually expect from an ‘athletes of the year’ list. Perhaps if the AP folks had given the subject a bit more thought, they might instead have chosen to honor, say, Rosemary Homeister, who in 2009 became the second most successful female jockey of all time. Or, you know, any other two women in sports, leaving Zenyatta and Rachel to duke it out for Horse of the Year. Something more like that?”
I’m sorry, but did we learn absolutely nothing this year from “District 9″? Much the way great sportspersons/pioneers such as Semenya, Renée Richards and John Kruk have forced the world to reconsider outdated gender roles, maybe the AP ought to be applauded for looking past something as ultimately trivial in 2009 as species? Certainly Harding has a point when complaining none of the male athletes on their 2009 list had to share the top ten with horses, but that list is a farce, too! Some jumpsuit-wearing d-bag driving around in a circle is a better athlete than than this glorious competitor? I (fucking) think not.
There’s some precedent for the AP’s ranking horses alongside humans. Secretariat only finished 6th amongst male athletes in 1973, despite winning the Triple Crown. Naturally, the human-biased sports media sided with such flash in the pans as Hank Aaron, Bill Walton and some nobody named O.J. Simpson. Apathy towards female athletics is regrettable, sure. Maybe even inexcusable if you fancy yourself a halfway intelligent sports fan. But must Harding diminish the achievements of my stall sisters just to advance her own horse-hating agenda?
“I grabbed his shoe, took a little tug on it, and then sort of double pumped,” Milbury said. “I don’t know if I hesitated for a minute because I thought I’d be vilified for the next 30 years, but I gave him a cuff across the leg, and then I did what I thought was probably the most egregious thing of all: I threw his shoe on the ice.”
Eighteen Bruins went into the stands. Milbury said, “If you watch the tape — and I can freely throw my teammates under the bus now after 30 years — people were throwing some serious shots down below us that were obscured by the fact that everybody was focusing on the idiot highest up in the stands hitting somebody with a shoe.”
Bruins fans, in particular, still relish the incident. E. M. Swift, who covered hockey for Sports Illustrated, played in a college game in 1972 when one of his Princeton teammates was beaten with a “stale Italian sub” by the Colgate athletic director while he grappled with Milbury. “We hate everything New York here in Boston,” he said, “so the fact that it was the Rangers and New Yorkers getting beaten with a shoe, those guys are folk heroes up here.”
“Under the same circumstances, I don’t think I’d go through a process of sorting through the rules and regulations and legal consequences,” Terry O’Reilly said. “I think I’d jump over the glass and grab the guy again.”
Phyllis Schlafly: Not happy with Win-Loss, either.
In a fascinating bit of hot stove nerdery, Nick Steiner at Hardball Times uncovers a new possible weakness in the ERA statistic in an innovative, defense-independent way. Long story short, he took AJ Burnett’s ten best 2009 outings (average outing: 1.06) and ten worst (average outing: 9.13) then looked at his stuff, location and pitch selection and found that AJ throws just about exactly the same when he’s getting shelled as when he’s dealing.
In his 10 best starts, he averaged a Game Score of 70.9. In his 10 worst starts, he averaged a Game Score of 31.9. More intuitively, his ERA was 1.06 in his good starts compared to 9.13 in his bad starts… quite the difference.
I then grabbed all of the PITCHf/x information on those two groups of starts. In case you are unfamiliar with it, PITCHf/x is a ball- tracking technology powered by SportVision, which measures certain key characteristics of each pitched ball, including speed, spin deflection (movement) and location. After manually classifying Burnett’s pitches game-by-game (yes this was a pain), I was ready to look at the data.
My agenda was simple. I wanted to see, using the intrinsic qualities of each pitch, exactly how differently he pitched in his best and worst starts of the season. I looked at three variables: stuff, location and approach.
…[I] found no meaningful differences in terms of what he threw, the velocity/movement of his pitches, where he threw them and when he threw them. I think I’ve established that there was practically no difference in how he pitched in his good starts compared to his bad starts.
With six starting pitchers after the healthy return of and contract agreement with Tim Hudson, the Braves have been looking to strike a deal all winter that would swap a starter for a hitter. With little outside interest in Derek Lowe, however, the Braves instead executed another salary dump, trading their best pitcher last season, Javier Vazquez, also with one year left on his deal, to the Yankees for Melky Cabrera. There are prospects involved on both sides, but the lesson is the same: the Braves made themselves worse entirely so that Liberty Media wouldn’t possibly have to use the red font in its spreadsheets. Vazquez makes $11.5 million in 2010, Cabrera will make about $4 million, maybe a little less (I’m guessing here, because of Cabrera’s arbitration eligibility). That’s $7.5 million in Liberty’s pockets, on top of the $7.5 million they saved on Soriano, for $15 million saved in two trades that make the team worse by maybe four games, maybe more, in 2010. Not that four wins is pretty much the difference in making the playoffs and not in the NL just about every season, and not that Liberty Media cares. They care that the Braves have positive cashflow, and everything else is irrelevant.
This stinks, and it doesn’t stink because the Yankees just added an expensive player. It stinks because there’s no reason why the Braves had to make either trade other than that Liberty Media wants this division of its billon-dollar conglomerate to spend a certain amount of money, and no more than that.
“You make investments with an eye towards maximizing returns,” argues Sheenan, ” and everything else—pointing to the Yankees, whining about the arbitration process, demonizing Scott Boras, lying about revenues—is just a distraction from that central point.” And while I’m mostly pleased to see Vazquez leaving the NL East, as Sheenan points out, this is hardly the way Ted Turner would’ve handled a team with a chance to contend in 2010.
Reduced to quoting my own tweets 3 days before Xmas! But if you think my situation is somewhat desperate, imagine the real-life work environment of Deadspin’s A.J. Daulerio, who upon learning of TMZ’s plans, wrote “I already have to worry about one scary gay tyrant breathing down my neck, now I have to worry about two? No longer will Daulerio’s highly-trafficked site have a monopoly on pictures of Ben Rothelisburger boozing it up or tales of Sean Salisbury’s phone-cam woes, but if you think A.J.’s just gonna wave a white flag, think again.
Remember — we pay, too. Probably on a less frequent basis than they do, but should the right thing come along that I feel Deadspin could benefit from, I’ll gladly pay for it. It’s only happened once before, but if I have to start being more aggressive about using this burlap sack of scuzz money I have sitting on my desk, then so be it.
The “once before” occasion Daulerio recalls was Deadspin paying $4k (after a thrilling bidding war/tie with The Dirty.com) for documentation of Josh Hamilton’s January 2009 lapse into typical hetereosexual jock behavior. Lest you find such checkbook jello-shot journalism distasteful, Daulerio argues, “if it’s a good enough story that will help keep the lights on at this organization so that Craggs, Dash, Drew, Leitch, Barry and other writers can do more less sleaze-covered stories that are the true heart of this website, I’ll do it in a second.’
There’s obviously gonna be some difference of opinion over exactly what is at the true heart of that website, but I totally empathize with A.J.’s situation. I’m losing a brutal pageview battle with high school newspapers and this paradigm-smasher, but don’t think I’m unwilling to get my hands dirty. I’ll pay $15 (fifteen) U.S. dollars for video or still photography of Mike Piazza and Sam Champion shopping at Crate & Barrel, and if that’s what it takes to allow the likes of Jason Cohen, David Roth, Rob Warmowski, Ben Schwartz, Chuck Meehan or Liz Clayton to continue posting for free when they could be doing something far more lucrative, that’s exactly what I’ll do. Despite the fact they’d probably be doing it anyway and it’s just about me keeping the Yardbarker ad money.
….over and over again! Who amongst us wouldn’t love to see Hunter The Punter throwing himself to the ground, face-first? Yes, I know the Redskins were attempting a fake field goal (TWICE), but what could be a worse result than throwing into quadruple coverage?
NBC Chicago’s Matt Barstock reports Michael Jordan is suing a pair of Chicago grocery chains for using his likeness in full page advertisements that appeared in a recent S.I. commemorative issue marking Jordan’s entry into the Basketball Hall Of Fame.
In the Jewel ad, a pair of red and white sneakers with the number 23 on the tongues are an “inaccurate and misleading copy of Air Jordan basketball shoes,” says the lawsuit. Above the shoes, a message congratulates the “fellow Chicagoan who was ‘just around the corner’ for so many years.”
Jewel’s current slogan is “Good things are just around the corner.”
The complaint says that the Dominick’s ad calls Jordan “a cut above” and then features a photograph of a cut of steak. At the bottom of the page is a coupon for a Rancher’s Reserve steak, a trademark of Dominick’s parent Safeway, reports the Chicago Tribune.
But there are already two steakhouses and an online steak company named after Jordan. There is no way he would ever allow his name to be used by the grocery store, “especially not to sell steaks in direct conflict with his restaurants,” as the suit says.
(above, Calipari shown during his tenure at the University Of Massachusetts)
University Of Kentucky head coach John Calipari shrugged off Bobby Knight’s recent criticism to lead the Wildcats to a lopsided beating of Drexel tonight, the program’s 2000th all-time victory. A day before reaching said historic mark, Kentucky Sports Radio’s Matt Jones claimed ESPN scribe/TV yapper Jemele Hill was called on the carpet by her employers after comparing Coach Cal to a former Dennis Wilson collaborator.
Hill was forced to apologize to UK on Friday after she took a shot at Calipari and the UK fanbase on the awful show ESPN “First Take.” On the show, Jemele Hill said (and I am paraphrasing) that UK fans would be fine with “Charles Manson as coach”, so long as he won. Not surprisingly, the powers that be at UK were upset with the comment and the two or three fans that actually watch that show were outraged as well.
That set the ball rolling and according to the sources, ESPN forced Hill to call Mitch Barnhart and the SEC office in order to apologize. Coming on the heels of the problems with Pat Forde and the infamous Bobby Knight comments, Hill was forced to attempt to salvage a relationship (that of ESPN and UK) that has been deteriorating over the last couple of months. According to the sources, Hill called Barnhart and actually said very little, instead listening to an irate Kentucky Athletic Director go into detail as to his problems with her comments and that of other ESPN personalities in general. She was then forced to call the SEC office and apologize (or as another source put it “explain”) the comments to them as well.
How advanced is the Iron Sheik’s brand of shoot-style dementia? I’ll put it this way : he might be the only person less qualifed to care for Frances Bean Cobain than her birth mother.
(two more guys Brett Favre isn’t listening to, either)
Of his rebuff of Brad Childress’ attempted substitution in favor of Tarvaris Jackson during last night’s 26-7 loss to Carolina, Vikings QB Brett Favre called it “a heated conversation”. How might the spurts media have treated, say, Donovan McNabb had the Iggles QB refused to leave a game? I’m gonna take a wild guess very few observers would’ve hailed McNabb’s competitive spirit. Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel considers Favre’s insubordination, writing “when you install Brett Favre as your quarterback, you don’t get to make a second decision…you’re all in with this guy, or he’s going to defy you on the sideline, argue with you in the media and keep inviting sacks while waiting to throw balls all over the field.”
As Brett conveniently mentioned, he was sacked four times and rushed a million more. Julius Peppers(notes) all but lined up in the Vikings backfield. The offensive line was terrible.
Then again, did Brett Favre really need to mention it? When it goes bad for Tom Brady(notes), he takes the blame and defends his teammates’ talent, effort, performance. When it goes bad for Favre, he starts talking about secrets.
While Favre was rushed and pressured as he went 17-of-27 for 224 and one pick, he could’ve avoided at least a couple of those sacks. The guy holds onto the ball forever trying to make crazy plays, just one reason he’s become so easy to take down. Yes, his line was lousy, but he could’ve adjusted.
Perhaps that’s why Childress was willing to sit a man he all but begged to come out of retirement, allowed to skip training camp and watched earn MVP talk – for Jackson, presumably, a player who’s thrown 15 passes all season.
Chip Caray received an early Christmas present on Monday morning, when Fox Sports Net hired him to serve as their play-by-play announcer for all the Braves games televised by Fox Sports South and SportSouth.
This arrangement will allow Caray to once again call a majority of the televised Braves games. During the past two seasons, he saw his workload with the Braves limited by the travel requirements that came with TBS’ national baseball package
A couple of days after The New York Daily News’ Frank Isola suggested the Knicks send Eddy Curry to the D-League (perhaps he thought the “D” stood for “dinner”, “dessert” and “delicious”), Isola and colleague Matt Gagne report fellow benchwarmer Nate Robinson is demanding a trade.
“I can’t allow Nate to rot on Mike’s bench and not do anything about it. I can’t allow this to happen to his career,” Aaron Goodwin told the Daily News in a telephone interview. “It’s clear that Mike D’Antoni doesn’t want to play him.”
Before the game in Chicago, D’Antoni insisted that he had nothing personal against Robinson and joked to reporters that he would “play Satan himself” it would help the Knicks win.
Goodwin, however, believes D’Antoni has issues with his client that are not basketball-related.
“When he says that he’d play Satan to help him win, I don’t know what type of message he’s trying to convey,” Goodwin said. “But clearly this is personal.”
It is unclear if the Knicks have given Goodwin permission to seek trade possibilities on his own. By re-signing with the Knicks as a restricted free agent, Robinson is in position to veto any potential trade, although he likely wouldn’t do so given the circumstances.
Over the course of the diminutive point guard’s benching, the Knicks have won 5 of 8 games — more than half their total wins this season. It’s a small sample size, but at the moment, D’Antoni can be excused for focusing on something other than the 2-time slam dunk champion’s career.
“Marked down from like $5 million per year?” asks intrepid wine reporter David Roth. “(In Schneider’s case) I have no idea how this is still going for $10, but… yeah. I’m waiting until it hits $3, at which point I’ll write a prissy Robert Parker-style review at CSTB.” There’s at least one person in the NYC area that might consider a bottle of “Abreu’s Finest” an appropriate aphrodisiac, but I’m not about to forward the message.
(former Sonics/Bucks/Knicks fixture Vin Baker — who knows how his career might’ve been extended by a few extra hours in bed?)
Maybe Allen Iverson was onto something after all? The morning shootaround “may soon be extinct, another dusty exhibit in basketball history, next to the peach basket, the two-handed set shot and John Stockton’s short shorts,” writes the New York Times’ Howard Beck, of a growing trend amongst NBA clubs to prioritize sleep.
Three teams — the Celtics, the San Antonio Spurs and the Portland Trail Blazers — have dropped the morning shoot-around. The Knicks now hold them only for road games. The Denver Nuggets dropped them last week. The Washington Wizards are experimenting without them, though only in spots.
A growing interest in sleep science — and a recognition that players need more time to recharge — is fueling the trend. Simply speaking, N.B.A. players often fail to get enough sleep.
The typical night game ends at about 10 p.m. By the time players shower, dress and speak with the news media, it is close to 11 p.m. They are usually famished, so everyone eats a late dinner. Even the most conservative players — those who do not frequent nightclubs — will not get to sleep until at least 2 a.m. If the team is traveling, players may not reach their hotel until 3 a.m.
For a shoot-around or practice that starts at 10 a.m., players have to arrive as early as 9 a.m. to lift weights, receive treatment or be taped.
“If you go three, four, five days in a row with less than six hours of sleep, your reaction time is comparable to that of someone legally drunk,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “You’re trying to play a basketball game where just a 10th of second, a degree off, throws your whole game off.”
[Pictured: a high maintenance, overrated, unreasonable impediment to the 2009 Cubs. And on the right, Milton Bradley.]
Has the ship sailed on “cash for clunkers” as a punchline? Bradley goes to the Mariners and the Cubs receive $9 mil in cash over two years plus P Carlos Silva. Bradley is owed around $21 mil (although reports now say 23) and Silva is owed slightly more over two years including a minimum $2 mil buyout in 2012 (or $12 mil if he plays, as reported on ESPN). As for Silva, the Cubs managed to keep Rich Harden up and running against all odds (albeit, odds set by sports writers) and the North Siders managed to rehabilitate Kerry Wood into a closer before trading him. The Cubs turned Ryan Dempster into a starter. For everything lacking in Hendryville, handling pitchers hasn’t been a problem, esp following Dusty Baker. Ok, ok, they can’t get Zambrano to eat all his bananas and get his Lasik surgery, but no one’s perfect. Worst case scenario, the Cubs just ate $12 mil. Best, Silva can rehab into a starter or mid-game reliever. That said, I hope Silva likes Iowa in July.
As for the Bradley autopsy, his 2009 stats – .257 BA, 12 HRs, and 40 RBIs – speak for themselves. He’s a player with a laundry list of embarrassing public outbursts, no perceivable filter in choosing when to stand one’s ground or blow up over slights/imagined insults. MB’s confrontational career, willingness to publicly make accusations of racism about fans, players, and dismiss the sporting press as Uncle Toms or with total silence – all of that is well documented. As for his saying Wrigley was a negative environment in which to play, well, given his past, you could argue he thrives on that. So what happened? Bradley got hurt early-on and his average for the season never recovered. It’s certainly fair to point out how overpaid Bradley was in his $30 mil deal given his considerable history of bench surfing.
However, for the Bradley mess, I blame Jim Hendry. The day he signed MB, Chicago sports hacks and beat reporters attacked Bradley personally as, among other things, a “nutbag.” Most disturbing to me was the argument that given Wrigley’s history of racist fans taunting their own players, Bradley would not hold up under the pressure. The total acceptance of racism as an unquestioned Given at Wrigley, and that it was only Bradley’s problem to deal with, is sick. You’d think Jim Hendry woulda fired back – defended his $30 million deal, denounced racist fans, or deny and defend the Cub fan base (well, if he seriously could do the last, which he can’t). Hendry did none of it. It set the tone for the season, of hanging the combative Mr. Bradley out to dry. Injuries, the 2-game suspension (which MLB reduced), and other gaffes and errors were left to a hateful press corps and disgruntled fans. I covered the Chi media racism angle here, here, and here. Sports on My Mind’s MODI pretty much summed my complaints here, and added some points of his own worth reading.
For Milton Bradley, 2009 was a relatively calm year: did he charge fans, announcers, or call a Cub player racist, as he did the Dodgers’ Jeff Kent? Instead, Hendry stood by as Cub fans got labeled racists by the press and other ballplayers (one of whom, OF Mike Cameron, he hoped to sign as Bradley’s replacement ). But Bradley finally went Too Far for Hendry by snapping back at fans who grew to hate him, saying, “And you understand why they haven’t won in 100 years here, because it’s negative.” That comment and pulling himself from the line-up in the Cubs’ (by then) futile division bid brought about a temper tantrum from Hendry in the form of a 15-game suspension. The resulting message to MLB: Bradley is impossible. It damaged him as a trade option so much that Hendry sucked up the Silva deal yesterday. Nicely handled, Mr. H, it only cost the Cubs $12 mil to shut Milton Bradley up and scapegoat him for a mediocre season all-around. The press greeted Bradley’s signing by saying Wrigley fans were trash. Bradley got a 15-game suspension for finally coming to agree with that.
Hendry was named Cubs GM in 2002. There’s always been drama on his watch. This is the same Hendry era that treated Sammy Sosa like a dog on his way out, no matter how much he did to turn the Cubs around in the public’s mind as a team that could win. Spin it this way – he treated Sammy like a dog no matter how much f’n money Sosa minted for the Cubs. Yeah Sosa was a pill toward the end, but he was LEAVING. Hendry’s tenure in the front office has been one long class-free high-maintenance soap opera: Sosa, Baker, Jones, Pierre, and Hawkins all left the Friendly Confines on bad terms (ok, Hawkins was awful). Even Greg Maddux left on bad terms on his second run with the Cubs. Of course Milton Bradley didn’t work out with Hendry. Who does?
Wait, you know who had a great time on Hendry’s Cubs? Kerry Wood. Hendry dumped years and 10s of millions into that guy, and for what? Wood picked up bonus money and options and sucked up to fans. He started a charity bowling event and took out big newspaper ads thanking fans when he left town. Wood slipped in hot tubs and missed spring training, sat on the bench for years, all while resisting a lower-paying closer job (and contributing nothing while he did it), and reminding us all what an amazing rookie year he had. Kerry Wood’s inability to heal any injury makes me wonder if he isn’t lost Russian royalty. Kerry Wood is Wrigley personified, all Aw Shucks charm and no results.
The question in my mind isn’t who will replace Bradley in CF, but who will replace him as Hendry’s next problem player. I’m guessing another mediocre year from Zambrano will mean Big Z v Hendry in 2010. Z fits the pattern right now: expensive, once great, an ego problem, and possible trade bait. He’s also not white, which is another unfortunate pattern here.
While one New York paper raises the possibility the Mets are only bidding against themselves for Jason Bay, Fox Sports’ Bob Klapisch advises GM Omar Minaya to pursue an entirely different path and trade P Johan Santana while the talismanic starter’s value is still relatively high. “Dealing the franchise’s best pitcher would be tantamount to surrender,” admits Klapisch, “but it would be at least be an honest admission to fans.”
Santana was supposed to deliver the Mets a pennant when he signed in 2007, so in a sense he has failed them. But it’s the Mets who are the guilty party; they’ve sabotaged Santana from Day 1.
They’ve given him no help with pitchers who’ve either been injured (Maine), have regressed (Pelfrey) or were never worth the money (Perez, $36 million for three years).
Still, the Mets have to make peace with the idea that the Santana experiment has failed, just as the Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez and Billy Wagner gambles all turned to vapor. Yet, they continue to chase The Next Great Star as if this was 2006 and they were one player away from greatness.
Actually if the Mets were capable of making a cold business decision, they’d even dangle David Wright and Jose Reyes. Wright, in particular, could bring a bundle of prospects in return — and who knows, he might just welcome a trade since he’s playing in a new ballpark he obviously hates.
But the Mets could never part with either Wright or Reyes. They’re Home-grown talent; the emotional attachment is too strong. Santana’s place in the Met family is cemented only by cash.
Though the entire article, Klapisch makes a number of salient points. No one in their right mind (or for that matter, Minaya) believes giving Benjie Molina a three-year deal is going to solve anything. But I have a slightly hard time with the assertion Santana has “failed”. Short of serving as his own catcher and/or pitching on zero days rest, could Santana have done any more to put the club on his back during September of ‘08?
“One of the most common headlines in sports writing is an insistence on using ‘insist’, one of the few legacies of the recently deceased, but stylistically unlamented, Ceefax” insists (ahem) When Saturday Comes Daily’s Ian Plenderleith. Let’s not even consider whether not the mutinous players of QPR insisted they’d never play for head-butt specialist Jim Magliton, as Plenderleith has some other brazen examples ;
Before Liverpool’s home game with Man Utd, the Daily Telegraph ran a story on its site with the headline Jamie Carragher insists United will face backlash. The image you have is of Jamie Carragher picking up the phone, chin out, all aggrieved and badgering a Telegraph reporter time and again with his views, then waiting outside his house to repeat himself once more for good measure. OK, that image fits pretty well with the Liverpool captain, but what he actually said in the story was: “We’ve got a lot of fight and character and will want to show that against United, particularly after what happened against Lyon.” Nothing quite as violent as a “backlash” and more the sound of a man responding to a question than of someone insisting on anything.
On to the Independent, where a story about Leicester City’s attempt to sign Edgar Davids was headed Mandaric insists Foxes have muscle to sign Davids. Then you read the story and find that Leicester’s owner Milan Mandaric is not really insisting anything at all but pointing out: “We are in conversation with Edgar and his agent, and at this point that’s all I can say. We are progressing and it is potentially exciting, of course, but we are not there yet.” And there was nothing about having big muscles either.
The same paper managed to cast a quasi-sexual shadow over the story that Fabio Capello said the issue of whether or not he will select Michael Owen had turned the player into his tormentor. I’m tormented by Owen obsession, says Capello ran the headline, evoking pictures of the fiendish England manager in his cellar surrounded by walls covered in Owen memorabilia, with the striker himself gagged, chained and locked inside a cage wearing nothing but a leather thong.
Mets SS Jose Reyes appeared on WFAN’s “Mike’d Up” Wednesday, an occasion that caused the New York Post’s Phil Mushnick to focus on topics thoroughly unrelated to Reyes’ physical condition or the Amazins’ chances in 2010. Instead, our Phil insists Reyes “seems eager to sustain his reputation as a knucklehead.”
Wearing a wool ski cap pulled down low, throughout the (indoor) studio interview, Reyes looked like a squeegee man who used to stand outside the Lincoln Tunnel.
Yeah, I know, you can’t judge books by their covers and clothes don’t make the man. But they can offer a pretty good clue. Is there no one — his agent, someone with the Mets — who can provide one of the team’s best known players with some basic social guidance, especially in public?
By comparison, new Yankee Curtis Granderson yesterday met the media in tie and jacket.
Perhaps that’s because there is a world of difference between an introductory press conference and appearing on a radio show. Granted, said program is simulcast on YES, but can Reyes really be castigated for not being aware there are persons (like myself and Phil) that willingly watch Francesa on TV? Keep in mind, Reyes is accused of looking homeless by a guy who either can’t afford a razor on a NewsCorp salary or actually believes it is socially acceptable to have bugs crawling out of one’s beard.
A quick gander at the photo above is rather telling. Francesa, despite possessing no shortage of extra padding, appears to be nearly as bundled up as his young interviewee. Maybe it was genuinely chilly in the WFAN studios that afternoon?
In April of ‘07 we linked to the sickening tale of thespian Joseph Petcka, a 30th round draft selection by the Mets in 1998, charged more recently with the violent murder of an ex-girlfriend’s cat. Today, reports WNBC.com, Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus allowed Petcka to walk free, following completion of extensive (?) community service.
“I am confident that there will be no further allegations about abuse of animals on your part,” Obus said.
Prosecutors said the actor and former New York Mets minor leaguer attacked the 8-pound, declawed cat in a drunken, jealous rage after complaining that his then-girlfriend loved the cat more than she loved him. He said he overreacted after being bitten by the tabby, named Norman.
Since his plea last year, Petcka has completed 500 hours of community service at a soup kitchen, children’s art program and youth club where he taught pitching, prosecutors and his lawyer said.
“We’re just glad that it’s over, and we feel that he’s paid his debt,” defense lawyer Charles S. Hochbaum said. Petcka declined to comment.
Not to make light of the serious charges, but given Petcka’s extremely limited baseball resume (not to mention genuine anger management issues), what “youth club” in their right mind would allow him to serve as a pitching tutor? Even Kenny Powers thinks this is fucked up.
Damein Bland, 36, and Quincey Williams, 25, said this week they believe Las Vegas police have ample evidence to arrest the assailant who fired at them multiple times Aug. 23 outside the Crystal Palace Skating Center. The suspect, identified by police only as “O.C.,” is described as 6 feet tall, black and about 220 pounds. He has brown eyes and wore his black, shoulder-length hair in dreadlocks.
Bland and Williams identified O.C. as the Mayweather’s bodyguard. Police have not confirmed that.
The men reiterated what they told authorities: Williams was threatened by Mayweather shortly before the shooting. Bland said Mayweather, upset by a text message from Williams that said he hoped the undefeated boxer would lose, threatened Williams.
According to a police report, Williams said Mayweather said he could have him “trumped.” After the shooting, Williams told the Review-Journal that he thought Mayweather meant: “He’s got enough money to get me hit.”
Nobody was injured in the shooting. The BMW 650 that Bland drove was struck by six bullets.
The men complained that the wheels of justice are moving slowly and that Mayweather should be scrutinized in the investigation. Mayweather has not been named by police as a suspect.
“They say you should believe in the justice system,” said Williams, who now fears for his life. “But I guess the justice system only works when you’re a high-profile person and you have millions of dollars.”
Mayweather’s manager and lawyer have vehemently denied his involvement. I’ve no insights as to Mayweather’s guilt or innocence, but if he was in the habit of having everyone who antagonized him gunned down, how is it that Brian Kenny is still alive?
While Knicks GM Donnie Walsh is said to be trying to put together a package for Tracy McGrady and his expiring $23 million contact (particularly one that has Jared Jeffries at the bottom of the box), at least one member of the Knicks’ roster is already planning his exit, as C Darko Milicic explained to the New York Post’s Marc Berman.
“Whatever happens, I’m going back next year,” the 7-foot-1 Milicic said after yesterday’s Knicks practice at Moody Bible Institute. “It’s 100-percent certain. I have to be real and not lie. I’m not going to get it done in the NBA. I’m not going to get another opportunity and there’s nothing wrong with going back to Europe. I don’t want to create a bad atmosphere here, but it’s not working in the NBA.”
“I don’t give a bleep about the money,” Milicic said. “I just want to enjoy the basketball. I’d like to have the ball in my hands and have an offense run through me. I’m not just a defensive player.”
Berman points out Milicic received a DNP – Coach’s (Wise) Decision in 15 of the Knicks’ last 16 games, prior to the signing of Jonathan Bender.
(Longhorns quarterback Colt McCoy being helped to his feet by two persons who don’t work for newspapers)
Believe it or not, there’s someone out there with even less respect for the Austin American-Statesman’s Kirk Bohls than Gary Cartwright. The former selected Nebraska’s Ndamukong Suh and ‘Bama’s Mark Ingram ahead of UT QB Colt McCoy on his Heisman ballot, an act of non-boosterism reminiscent of Bohl’s 2005 vote for Reggie Bush ahead of Vince Young. Of the resulting 250 emails received by Bohls, co-worker John Kelso writes they were running “about 6-1 in favor of sending him to hell in a handbasket and various other locations.”
One letter writer even called Bohls a “Ding Dong.” Not sure what that means, or what evidence you use to prove someone qualifies as a Ding Dong.
“You are scum and you know it,” one wrote. “I hope your kids get the tar beat out of them and harassed to hell (worse than 2005) because you’re a moron.”
“Unbelievable that you would not support Colt McCoy for the Heisman,” wrote another. “Colt should have won this trophy before and you show no loyalty by not voting for him. You have always dogged the Longhorn coaches and players and seem to find it difficult to find something positive to say.”
Here’s the problem. I suspect a lot of people don’t understand what Bohls’ job is. Bohls’ job is not UT cheerleader. For starters, he wouldn’t look good in the skirt and the pompoms. Second, he is not paid by the University of Texas to cover Longhorn games. He is paid by the Austin American-Statesman.
And he is paid to watch the games, observe what he sees, then come back and tell what he saw and what he thought about it.
This is what we, on the edtorial board, call “wearing your board hat.” It’s not that I don’t agree with what I wrote, just that I wrote it in our official board voice.
Still, I have to admit, in doing my research for this, I truly respect McCoy. He’s got so many traits that most Aggies admire, including a commitment to community service, a strong faith, a sense of purpose and, of course, incredible talent. I celebrate him as a Texan, even if I rooted against him as a Longhorn.
Last winter, Omar’s Mets were part of a blockbuster three team trade which included Mariners and Indians. In the biggest trade of his reign, at least in terms of player volume, he gave up four Latino players and received (gasp!) three white players in return. It had nothing to do with race. Omar wanted to upgrade the bullpen at seemingly any cost and he got his guy, J.J. Putz. Flawed evaluation of players? Almost certainly. Racial bias motivating a transaction? No, sorry. It’s curious how transactions like this are conveniently ignored once the Omar racism watchdogs come out of their holes to spout absurdity. Usually, Oliver Perez, Moises Alou, Orlando Hernandez and Luis Castillo are brought up with nary a mention of Tim Redding, Scott Schoeneweis, Darren Oliver or Gary Sheffield.
If you think Omar Minaya only goes after “certain players” it’s because you want to believe the poorly performing GM of your favorite baseball team favors one race over another. It’s because you want to believe he has some sort of scheme to decrease the number of non-Latinos in baseball, or to increase money paid out to Latinos in this country. Criticizing his moves in the strict baseball context is not enough for you – it has to become personal, an assault on Omar’s character. As always, you’re free to have these beliefs, but you’re flat-out wrong.
Indeed, Minaya’s acquisitions have included the likes of Billy Wagner, Paulie Go Nuts and Chris Coste. Under Omar’s stewardship, the club continued to insist Daniel Murphy was qualified to play left field and/or first base and gainfully employed the not-at-all hispanic Razor Shines to supervise a succession of ‘09 baserunning blunders.
[Holliday ready to bolt Cardinals? This Cub fan can only hope.]
The Cubs countered the Cardinals’ aggressive off-season bid for OF Matt Holliday today by announcing their boldest move of the off-season, signing WGN radio Cubs color commentary man Ron Santo for a reported 3-year extension. Given what the Cards have done this winter and what the Cubs have not, we can look forward to lots more of Santo’s patented “Ah, jeezs” and “Oh maaaanns” during Cubcasts. Like Harry Caray before him, Santo specializes in giving the fan’s point of view at Wrigley. Odd, since Santo actually played the game.
As to the Holliday deal, the Cardinals are still in heated talks with Holliday and his agent, Scott Boras. The package St. Louis Today’s Joe Strauss describes is $15-16 mi over 8 years. Boras points out that Holliday is worth more, because Mark Teixeira got $180 mil package last year, and Teixeira isn’t anywhere near as good as Holliday. Boras should know, he reps Teixeria, too. Stay classy, Scott. Worse news for the Cubs is that with Jason Bay apparently looking to leave Boston for NYC, the Red Sox are chasing OF Mike Cameron, who the Cubs had eyed. For a player as blunt about fan racism as Cameron, I’m sure he’ll be relieved to play at Fenway instead of Wrigley.
So, while Jim Hendry chases his Holy Grail deal of dumping Milton Bradley – and only then will he think about improving the 2010 Cubs – Joe Strauss reports the following on the hoped for collapse of the Holliday deal (by me anyway):
Increasingly impatient to reach a resolution, sources familiar with talks believe it possible Holliday could reach a verdict before Christmas.
The proposal exceeds the average value of the seven-year, $100 million extension the Cardinals and first baseman Albert Pujols negotiated in February 2003. However, the Cardinals’ bid does not meet the average annual of a deal that the Colorado Rockies offered – and Holliday rejected – in 2008. Aside from the 6½ years that have passed since Pujols’ signing, Holliday is available as a free agent. Pujols’ signed his deal after his third major-league season, allowing the club to avoid three years of arbitration while guaranteeing Pujols four additional seasons and including a club option for 2011.
Boras has attached Holliday’s market value to first baseman Mark Teixeira, who signed an eight-year, $180 million deal as a free agent last winter. Teixeira also is a Boras client.
The Cardinals steadfastly refuse to enter that neighborhood; hence, a seeming impasse. Though classifying a continuation of talks as encouraging, a source familiar with the process denied significant movement in the past several days.
The agent makes the case that Holliday has been a more productive player than Teixeira in the last three years. Holliday has compiled scored 36 more runs and also run up higher on-base and slugging percentages in the span. Teixeira has narrowly outpaced Holliday in RBI (336-334) in that time.
Indeed, Holliday and Pujols are the only players to amass a .300 batting average with a .500 slugging percentage in each of the past four seasons. Holliday, Pujols and New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez are the only players to achieve a .900 on-base-plus-slugging percentage each of the last four seasons.
Photograph by James McNew. Assuming the shop’s action/drama section is as well stocked as their sports DVD dept., maybe there’s a laser disc of this Abel Ferrara classic?
A cursory glance at the New York Times’ website late Tuesday night reveals something approaching actual news from the Mets camp, with Japanese reliever Ryota Igarashi expected to sign a two-year pact to replace J.J. Putz as K-Rod’s setup man. The real highlight/death knell for next season, however, comes at the very end of David Waldstein’s coverage of the team’s annnual Xmas bash, an event that featured more words of delusion reassurance from GM Omar Minaya (”I feel comfortable. We have a plan and I like our plan.”)
To wit, Waldstein points out that by serving as Santa Claus yesterday, Mets OF Jeff Francoeur has all but assured himself of serious injury and/or career-lows next season.
In 2004, Mike Cameron played Santa, then had a serious outfield collision with Carlos Beltran the following August that put him on the disabled list for the remainder of the season. In 2005, Kris Benson (above, left) was Santa and was then traded to the Orioles a month after the party. It is believed his wife Anna’s provocative attire at the party contributed to the trade. In 2007, John Maine was Santa and had an injury-plagued season, and last year it was Mike Pelfrey, who struggled in 2009.
I don’t know if you’ll make it thru all 9 minutes of the above clip —- for CSTB’s notoriously ADD-afflicted readership (not to mention publisher), it’s a big challenge. But said video — culled from The Two Man Game via True Hoop — might be the most intense (only?) glimpse inside the rich, off-court life of Mavericks head coach Rick Carlise you’re likely to see anytime soon.
Sometimes it’s not so bad when mommy and daddy fight. The fallout from the divorce battle between L.A. Dodgers owners Frank and Jamie McCourt is paying dividends on the South Side with today’s painless acquistion of OF Juan Pierre for two minor league hurlers. Arriving with Pierre is a check made out to the Sox for $10.5 million, the remainder of his $18.5M contract after payouts of $3M in ‘10 and $5M in ‘11. Some call it the unloading of an overpaid backup, others wonder if manipulation of the McCourt’s marital assets net value isn’t the real story. As WSCR’s Steve Stone put it “The toughest part of the deal was figuring out if Frank or Jamie was sending the cash.”
Pierre’s stand-in performance for the suspended Manny last season along with his league-leading bunts and respectable career .301/.348/.372 suggests the Sox have done well in finding a lead-off hitter whose mastery of the basepaths is a clear improvement over that of Scott Podsednik.
White Sox fans who are confused about the unfamiliar batter strategy called bunting can pick up a copy of the informational pamphlet Hey, Why Didn’t He Swing? at all US Cellular outlets beginning in April.
Awful Announcing found the above Xmas ornament via the Boston Herald earlier today, and it is very safe to say Sportress Of Blogitude’s Weed Against Speed isn’t going to shell out $16.50 to hang one on the S.O.B. tree.
You have got to be shitting me. Who in their right mind would want one of these? Better yet, who would be willing to humiliate themselves and walk into a Hallmark or Kohl’s store and purchase one of them? I don’t care if for some reason or another you find yourself with a half-witted, mouth-breathing, ham-fisted mongoloid on your holiday shopping list that would actually want one of these abominations, don’t go and buy one. This will not stand. This affront to Christmas will not stand, man.
I’m a bit less offended, but do hope at the very least, Vince Doria’s family got a few of these for free, what with his likeness being used.
“Christ says, don’t consider yourself better than someone else because one guy screws a whole bunch of women while the other guy is loyal to his wife. The guy who’s loyal to his wife ought not to be condescending or proud because of the relative degree of sinfulness.” So mused former President Jimmy Carter in a 1976 Playboy interview, words that may or may not provide consolation for one Tiger Woods, though if Woods requires more contemporary wisdom, Lakers F Ron Artest has much to offer ;
Dear Tiger,
In reading the statements you have made, I can tell you are a stand up guy. Please remember only Jesus is perfect. You made a mistake and you admitted your infidelity.
I have made the same mistakes. Before I got married to my wife, I had a baby with another young lady, after I already had two by my girlfriend who is now my wife. We also had another baby which makes three for us and four for me. Two boys and two girls.
My wife is a much better wife than I am a husband. We still argue and disagree after being together 16 years. and I still cope with the fact that there are so many women out there and I choose to stay loyal to my wife.
I want to be home every night, but with traveling I can’t, and sometimes I might want to go to a bar or club and be one of the fellas. Most of the time I stay in, because I have my kids and wife.
I cannot sit here and say the thought to have many women has never crossed my mind. If I were Jesus I could.
I have known my wife for 16 years– since I was 14 years old.
She was my first.
On the way to 2010 we had many ups and downs on the way, mostly my fault. But I really choose to work hard and play ball to support her and my kids. The same reason you are building your legacy.
I have been disturbed by this because there are many people who are happy that this bad news has come out.
There are a lot of sports announcers and regular reporters who are not perfect in their own homes, yet they want to bring you down.
You have done so much for people, the sport of golf, and your family and you gave your wife a life that people can’t even dream of.
I thought you were 36 or 37 until I read the news today. A 33-year-old man who has been a model citizen with so much at stake. This is your first publicly known issue since you started your career, compared to my 50 or more publicly known issues and mistakes.
You have been the perfect role model for me and my sons for longer than anyone I have known.
With the exception of a few legends.
As your fan, I can’t wait to see you golf again.
Fanhouse’s Brett McMurphy reported Monday that USF head coach Jim Leavitt (above)throttled and struck sophmore Joel Miller during halftime of a November 21 game against Louisville. Leavitt allegedly apologized to Miller a day after Mark Mangino’s tenure at Kansas ended (thanks in no small part to claims the oversized educator was verbally abusive to players) Leavitt and Magino were assistant coaches together at Kansas State, and depending on the veracity of McMurphy’s work, they might be reunited soon on the unemployment line.
Though Leavitt has denied the charges in McMurphy’s post, and Miller’s father is disavowing remarks he made to the AOL reporter (”you do something like that [on the street], you put them in jail,”), that’s not nearly enough to satisfy the Tampa Tribune’s Martin Fennelly, who opines Tuesday morning, “USF is on the clock.”
It’s hard to imagine something more serious than a coach bullying his players. It’s hard to imagine why any university would want such a coach, or why any parent would send their son to such a university.
USF needs to conduct a thorough investigation. Maybe it should be conducted by USF athletic director Doug Woolard, maybe not. Maybe it should be someone in the university, but outside the department.
Me? I’d call in every player or coach who was in that locker room at halftime of the Louisville game, one by one. I’d make them describe what they saw – to tell the truth, with no fear of retribution. That’s what I would do.
Jim Leavitt says it’s all a lie. That said, he should have nothing to fear if people look under his program’s hood.
Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson’s consultancy role with League Two’s Notts County came to a sordid end this weekend when prior owners Swiss Commodity Holdings essentially skipped town, leaving Erikkson’s hopes for a massive payday and/or equity in the club in serious jeopardy. From The Guardian’s Matt Scott :
As revealed by the Guardian last month, Eriksson demanded immediate payment of the funds in order to substantiate the former owner Qadbak Investments’ claims of vast wealth at the club. But the situation became even more complicated when on Saturday Peter Trembling, Notts County’s executive chairman, was handed 90% of the shares in the club in a £1 management buyout.
Trembling says all corporate ties with Qadbak and SCH have been cut. Given that SCH was supposed to be the source of the funds that would boost Eriksson’s otherwise meagre wage at Meadow Lane, all the indications are now that Eriksson will quit over what he considers to be broken promises. Lawyers are poring over agreements between the former England manager and SCH, the Zurich-registered company whose logo forms part of Notts County’s club crest.
In the meantime, the Swede will not receive any assistance from Trembling in his attempts to recover the funds. “We are aware that Qadbak had an arrangement with Sven but the club cannot comment on issues which are independent of the club,” Trembling said yesterday. When asked specifically what he will do to help Eriksson, whom Trembling described last week as a “friend and confidant”, he added: “Anything outside of Notts County is for Sven and his advisers.”
[When a restaurant offers antacid with the meals, can the word franchise be far behind?]
I know the owner of this blog is some sort of musical elitist or something, but I throw down the following to GC: rock or ribs? I pit your love of trans fats and music against one another, and await the answer. News that Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain’s new place, Rock and Roll Ribs has opened in Coral Springs, Florida means I just may be making the trip East if the Cubs do indeed move their 2010 Spring Training camp to Naples, Florida. Especially encouraging is the guarantee that Nicko “brings his vast musical knowledge and powerful name to Rock n Roll Ribs.” The menu includes Road Crew Onion Loaf, Hot Chix Backstage Sandwich, Security Staff Stuffed Potato, and the $49.95 rack and a 1/2 of ribs plus known as the Appetite of the Beast (Feeds 4 Regular Rocks or 2 Metal Monsters) that includes antacid. Well?
Mets fans, poised to watch their club struggle against Halladay 4-6 times a year, can bask in the knowledge Omar Minaya is hardly inactive this December, addressing his own starting rotation vacancies with an offer to free agent Kelvim Escobar. The former Angel is said to be recovering from shoulder surgery and is expected to be ready by Opening Day, 2010 (though under the supervision of the Mets’ medical staff, that might mean opening day of next year’s NFL season).
(this is what it sometimes looks like after Randy Moss runs a route to completion)
“That’s a lot of conversation coming from a team that just lost another game.” That’s how the Hooded Casanova responded to claims by Panthers CB Chris Gamble that Patriots WR Randy Moss put the “I” in “quit” during New England’s 20-10 defeat of Carolina Sunday. While Belichick and Tom Brady have Moss’ back, it will comes as no surprise to learn the Boston Herald’s Ron Borges, does not. “Wednesday he showed up late for work; yesterday he never showed up at all.”
Art Shell coached Moss for one season in Oakland, and although he quit on the team that was paying him, Shell came away not disliking the player. Instead Shell simply says when asked about Moss, “Randy was a great player. He’s just easily daunted.”
The Patriots are not playing well at the moment, and they know it. They have problems in their locker room and on their defense, and they know it. They have a coach trying to maintain order in a room where some of his hired hands are not quite true believers in the “In Bill We Trust” school of thought.
Where Moss stands on all that is unknown because, after he did nothing on the field yesterday, he said nothing off it. He simply dressed in funeral black and walked through the locker room and out the door, declining offers to chat. It was the most elusive he was all day.
There didn’t appear to be much fight in Randy Moss this week, or really since Darrelle Revis of the Jets shut him down for the second time this season four games ago. His catches have gone down, down, down – down from five to three to two to one (with an asterisk for the fumble). Not even constant carping how opponents “play a safety over the top” can explain away his lethargic play of late.
Note to fans of minnows that dare challenge the University Of North Carolina ; you’re free to attend Tar Heel games, but just be very careful not to audibly root for UNC’s opposition (video link courtesy Jon Solomon)
MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann makes the bold assertion the forthcoming “The Bullpen Gospels : A Non-Prospect’s Pursuit of the Major Leagues and the Meaning of Life” by relief pitching journeyman Dirk Hayhurst “may be the best baseball autobiography since Jim Bouton’s ‘Ball Four’”. “‘The Bullpen Gospels’” gushes Keef, “is a baseball book the way “Is That All There Is?” is a Leiber-Stoller pop song by Peggy Lee from 1969. It is the primordial battle of hope and faith and inspiration versus disillusionment and rust and inertia.” In other words, it wasn’t ghost-authored by Art Rust, Jr.
Hayhurst repeatedly rediscovers the absurd hilarity of it all, and the book is consistently laugh-out-loud funny. And like all great artists, he pulls back curtains we never thought to investigate: from how assiduously minor leaguers debate which “Come-out songs” they will choose or which numbers they will wear, to the pecking order of seat locations on the ever-infamous bush league bus trip.
My favorite is probably the mechanics of something the average reader will have never heard of before, let alone have contemplated. It’s “the host family” – the living arrangements by which the non-first-rounders survive their seasons in the minors. Hayhurst hilariously defines such temporary homes as ranging from Wackford Squeers’ Dotheboys Hall, to the visitations from In Cold Blood:
“Some families are the perfect model citizens, Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Host family with their white picket fence and adorable little children with their cherub faces who can’t wait to be just like their new older brother. Some families are wealthy and treat you like the draft pick you always wanted to be. Some host families aren’t even families at all; some are just one person: a well-toned Cougar looking for an after-hours power hitter to keep her company between filming.”
“Depending on the makeup of the player, all these choices are desirable. However, they only represent one side of the coin. On the flip side, there is the family who has a pack of misbehaved trolls for children with parents who don’t believe in discipline. The reason your PlayStation has peanut butter leaking from the optical drive can be chalked up to “youthful curiosity.” You may live with a super fan who wants to play coach, manager, and parent. He’ll live vicariously through you and evaluate, criticize, judge, blog, and call the organization about you. Or you may end up with a miserable old spinster who loves cats and hates men…”
“Players aren’t saints either, and it takes a special family to agree to house one. If you’re a devout Catholic family, getting a Mormon player can make things a tad awkward. If you’re parents of little children, getting that Bostonian player who uses “****” for greetings, good-byes, pronouns, adjectives, verb, and prayer, might be more than you bargained for…”
Though The Host Family Situation was well tackled in Matt McCarthy’s entertaining (if discredited) ‘Odd Man Out’, I’m thoroughly lookng forward to Hayhurst’s tome.
[A hurt Jim Hendry takes his jersey back from Milton Bradley.]
If MTV endures all the heat from “Jersey Shore,” I’m hoping my pitch for “North Shore,” a show about real life dumb ass Cub execs running wild at the Winter Meetings is green lit. Yes, arrogant white-collar loudmouths nationwide will object, but I just call that good press.
Gordon Wittenmyer’s wrap-up of the Winter Meetings appears today in the Sun-Times. The upshot, of course, is that after a week of Jim Hendry psychodrama over Milton Bradley, no team in baseball is willing to take MB unless the Cubs eat the majority of his $21 million two-year deal. Dusty Baker, Greg Maddux, Sammy Sosa, Jacque Jones, Juan Pierre, and now Milton Bradley’s probable exit from the North Side, it’s becoming obvious that leaving the Cubs on bad terms is about the only way to go. Hendry, of course, is the one factor that hasn’t changed in all those exits. More and more, it looks to be about him.
Hendry let Bradley dangle when reporters baited him on race, when reporters called him a “nutbag,” and then when MB refused to talk to the media, the Cubs scolded Bradley over it. Hendry’s 15-day suspension of Bradley sent the word to baseball that MB was impossible. Then Hendry, genius that he is, decides to put Bradley on the market because he feels he has no choice. Yes, there’s a choice. Hendry needs to get over himself, and as one unnamed manager put it re Bradley, bite the bullet and play him.
Curiously, Breen (above) rang in immediately following Tierney’s chat to discredit Donaghy, a stunt Raissman compares to “Marv Albert stealing Breen’s microphone to call the last 1:30 of the seventh game of the NBA Finals”
When Breen started hammering Donaghy, did David Stern see a guy charging over the hill on a white horse yelling: “It’s only Donaghy. It’s only Donaghy. All other NBA refs are clean?” After all, Breen has a well documented history of being sympathetic to the fraternity of NBA officials.
Cue the sad violin.
“… These guys (NBA refs), it breaks their heart, it rips their insides out … this guy (Donaghy) is questioning everybody else’s integrity,” Breen told Tierney. “… For him to question the integrity of these guys who do an incredible job and care about their job is really disgraceful. That’s the part that drives me crazy.”
Pass the Kleenex.
If someone had walked up to Breen in 2003 and said Donaghy is a crooked official who is betting on games it’s not a reach to suggest Breen would have scolded that “someone” for daring to question the integrity of an NBA official.
A team source said yesterday that the Mets’ offer to Bay (above) is heavily backloaded, with roughly $10 million committed in the first year before the deal balloons to around $20 million in the final season.
The ball is in Bay’s court now that the Mets have awakened from their offseason slumber to make offers to him and veteran catcher Bengie Molina while keeping an eye on John Lackey and secondtier starters Joel Pineiro and Jason Marquis.
Skepticism remains high, especially in Boston, that the Mets are serious contenders to land Bay if the two offers stay roughly the same and the Red Sox ultimately decide against pursuing Matt Holliday, considered the premier free-agent left fielder in this year’s market.
A fifth year from the Mets could be the deciding factor, though, because the Red Sox reportedly are adamant about not going to five years in their offer to Bay.
The Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham reports this evening that Bay’s agent claims he’s rejected the Red Sox’s proposal, leading Abraham to sneer, “good luck with the JV team in New York”. Hey, at least he didn’t call the Mets an intramural squad.
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