Yankees 1, Mets 0 (bottom of the 4th, 2 outs, rain delay)
This might not sound particularly sporting, but faced with a choice of a washout and Mike Mussina taking the hill again tonight, I’l pick the former. Save for a Miguel Cairo error in the first, he’s not allowed a Met to reach first.
The Yankees’ clever employ of the Boss’ turgid “Cover Me” (as the grounds crew scrambles with the tarp), “Summertime Blues” and “(I’m Only Happy) When It Rains” (still Jaqui Delaney’s most enduring pop hit) is inoffensive enough, but Supertramp’s “It’s Raining Again”? Sorry, but that’s just irresponsible with a crowd of this size. Or any size. If the ratings for Steve Somers’ rain delay rap just spiked, by all means, lay the credit (or blame) at the feet of Supertramp.
I’ve had a fascinating chat this evening in Tier 6 with a not-so-young woman who could earn a living as a Mercedes Ruhl impersonator. Not a very good living, mind you, but not everyone has to maintain the lifestyle of the Strahans. Or the blogging elite.
Dave Winfield threw out the ceremonial first pitch prior to tonight’s Mets/Yanks game. Not to be outdone, Mike Tyson’s mother-in-law has been invited to Flushing next week.
The Yankeesa are up, 1-0, thanks to a first inning solo HR by Jason Giambi. Cliff Floyd is starting in left for the Mets, one night after going hitless in a rehab stint for Brooklyn.
Carlos Delgado was not seen saluting the ghost of Robert Merrill earlier tonight, nor is he in the starting lineup for the second evening in a row. Seems to me that if a guy wants to see the Futureheads at Webster Hall, he should just come clean and drop all this ribcage nonsense.
I checked out Monument Park for the first time in many years earlier today — I could’ve sworn Ken Phelps had a plaque the last time I visited.
Apparently, there’s not enough room in Anaheim for two guys that make Jeff Spicolli look postively high energy by comparison. From the LA Times’ Bill Shaikink.
Derek Lowe and Jeff Weaver, friends and teammates on the Dodgers last season, catch up every so often.
“We can talk about our last games and compare notes,” Lowe said.
Lowe got pounded by the Minnesota Twins, giving up nine runs in five innings, an atypical start in a fine season. Weaver got pounded by the Colorado Rockies, giving up six runs in two innings, another dreadful start in a poor season.
They could reunite soon, at little cost to the Dodgers. The Angels might send Weaver to the bullpen — or release him — if they cannot trade him. The Dodgers are looking for another pitcher.
“He’s had success here,” Lowe said. “I know he’s happy there. He probably hasn’t pitched the way he’d like to or the way he can.”
Weaver signed a one-year deal with the Angels instead, but he has not pitched well and they have not played well. The Angels would like to make room in their starting rotation for his younger brother, Jered (above)
Jeff Weaver is making $8.3 million this season, but the Angels already have paid half and might pay some of the remaining half in a trade. If they release him and he signs with another team, the Angels would be responsible for all but a prorated part of the $327,000 minimum salary.
An Aaron Sele-like no-harm flyer on (Jeff) Weaver would be a good experiment. It would be worth a shot to see if Weaver can return to the level he showed with the Dodgers at his best, at the risk of finding out he will pitch as poorly as Perez has.
“With all the great products that are apparently out there that are undetectable, for me to take something like that … when people take things that now aren’t even being tested for, does it make any sense?”
Rafael Palmiero also tells the Baltimore Sun’s Dan Connelly that he has a batting cage at home and he’s ready and willing to come back to the big leagues.
“I love baseball, and the door remains open,” he said. “There may be somebody interested and that would be great. … I don’t see myself as someone that brings a lot of luggage. I’ve never been a problem. I’m a good team guy.”
The Tour de France was thrown into its biggest crisis since the 1998 drugs scandal following the suspension of three of its biggest names on Friday.
Germany’s Jan Ullrich, Spain’s Francisco Mancebo and Italy’s Ivan Basso were all dropped after being implicated in a doping investigation in Spain. Organizers suggested even more riders could also be suspended from their teams.
The 1997 winner Ullrich, and his Spanish teammate Oscar Sevilla, were suspended by T-Mobile when fresh evidence from the ongoing doping probe — which had implicated them among a reported total list of 58 riders — arrived late Thursday.
Spanish allrounder Mancebo was suspended by his French AG2R team because his name appears on the list.
Less than an hour later, the CSC team pulled yellow jersey hopeful Basso out of the race due to the suspicions aroused by his name being on the list.
Ullrich, a hero in his native country since winning the 1997 Tour, was expected to challenge strongly if not win the Tour de France this year.
In even worse news for the Tour, Lars Ullrich (above) is still fully eligible.
(there’s no better way to celebrate than by donning yellow vests that make you look like you’re picking up trash on the New Jersey Turnpike)
Surveying the post-match scuffle, Marcelo Balboa (fast becoming the Rick Sutcliffe of international soccer) mused “It’s been a great match….we don’t need this sort of thing, players trying to get in each other’s mouths.”
Hey, he’s the expert.
Back in Bristol, a near breathless Reese Davis declared, “there’s nothing more exciting than a match decided on penalty kicks.” Perhaps there’s a commentator somewhere on earth who thinks the most exciting thing about the Super Bowl is the coin flip. But I hope not.
He is respected at home, despite his racist comments about African players competing in Europe. Earlier this year, talking about the development of Ukrainian players, Blokhin told reporters: “The more Ukrainians that play in the national league the more examples for the young generation. Let them learn from Shevchenko or Blokhin and not from some Zumba-Bumba whom they took off a tree, gave him two bananas and now he plays in the Ukrainian league.”
Replies Sam Frank,
I do like the word Zumba-Bumba, though. Couldn’t Ozzie Guillen and Jacques Le Pen be as creative?
In what he warns (!) is his last column for several weeks, the New York Post’s Peter Vescey does the unthinkable Friday morning….he defends Isiah Thomas. Or specifically, Zeke’s much maligned draft pick at no. 20 over, Renaldo Balkman.
How can I knock Isiah Thomas’ selection of Renaldo Balkman at No. 20 after recently singling out the 6-8 South Carolina spiraling hank of hair (and UCLA’s Jordan Farmar) for their recital in Orlando’s pre-draft camp? I’m also down with Mardy Collins at No. 29.
Let’s face it, nobody who was available to the Knicks this late in the proceedings, including Marcus Williams, has any chance of starting. So, it makes sense Thomas’ focus was on defense and role players.
Projected as a lottery pick last year, the 6-6 Temple product had a relatively mediocre senior season. Due to scouts’ emphasis on lighting-quick guards, Collins’ stock plummeted. Obviously, he’s not without weaknesses, but in the experienced view of Jim Clibanoff, President of ClibHoops Scouting Services (subscribed to by 16 teams), a leading independent evaluator of professional prospects, who has seen Collins play roughly 18 times, accentuates the following:
“There are a lot of things he is not – not a great shooter, not too quick, not too fast, not too athletic. Even with all those negative attributes, he has great poise and savvy and his knowledge of the game is top-notch for a college player. He plays the game as if he is an extension of a coach and it often seems as if he has the demeanor of an NBA veteran. Recognizes mismatches extremely well, rarely forces anything in the flow of a game and keeps his turnovers to a minimum.”
Isiah, all smiles on “SportsCenter” this morning, claimed that Balkman received a glowing recommendation from Florida’s Billy Donovan. Balkman’s Gamecocks, Zeke reminded the doubters, beat Florida twice last season. And Balkman a combined 22 points in those two contests. OK, I’m sold!
The two things Eddie Griffin did not do wrong in Minneapolis on March 30 of this year: punch Ty Shine and have pit bulls fighting in the back of his SUV. Everything else he pretty much nailed. From WCCO, Minneapolis’ CBS affiliate:
Minnesota Timberwolves center Eddie Griffin was drunk and masturbating when he crashed his luxury SUV into a parked Suburban outside a store in Minneapolis, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the man whose Suburban was hit in the crash…
One witness said Griffin told him he was watching pornography in a DVD player mounted on the dashboard of his Cadillac Escalade SUV when he struck a Chevy Suburban parked on University Avenue Southeast…
Abed Hassuneh, who is the brother of the victim, said Griffin told him, “That he was masturbating himself going down that street. That’s how the accident happened because he was not paying attention. He’s paying attention to that video and all of a sudden he’s shoveled somebody’s car on the top of the sidewalk.”Interim Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan ordered an internal affairs investigation of the conduct of the two officers who responded to the scene, after WCCO-TV made Dolan aware of allegations about the incident.Key questions are why Griffin wasn’t tested for alcohol and why the officers drove him out of the city to his home in St. Paul. Griffin also received tickets for not having a license and inattentive driving.
Because this report sadly lacks the AP-style insertion of the arrested athlete’s stats at the end of the article, I’ll mention that Griffin was on his way home from a 103-91 Timberwolves win over the Magic in which he scored two points and got three rebounds. Thanks to Bruce Herman for the link.
David Justice’s pointed critique of Alex Rodriguez Tuesday night on the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network was not a solo act.
A variety of moles, some embedded inside YES, said Justice (above, right), the network’s pre- and postgame studio analyst, was strongly encouraged – perhaps even ordered – to criticize A-Rod, by YES brass, including the network’s production boss, John Filippelli.
“It (Justice’s A-Rod rip) was verbatim what they wanted him to say,” one mole said.
The question is, did the order to verbally hit A-Rod come directly from the Yankees’ high command?
Justice was not the only YES voice approached to put the wood to Rodriguez, who was mired in another slump until breaking out Wednesday with a game-winning home run. The three voices who worked Tuesday night’s game on YES – Michael Kay, Jim Kaat, and Al Leiter – were also “encouraged” to come down on A-Rod. Saying Rodriguez was not the only problem the Yankees have, they flat out refused to single him out and trash him.
When asked about the situation, Eric Handler, a YES spokesman, would only say: “As always, there is a healthy give and take among production personnel regarding the direction of the show.”
Apparently, this particular “give and take” lingered after Tuesday night’s postgame show ended. After hearing Justice’s spiel on A-Rod, the three voices were stunned by the length and intensity of the spew. “They (Kay, Kaat, Leiter) could not believe this —,” one source said. “They were all still steamed when they came back to the Stadium Wednesday morning (to work Braves-Yankees game).”
The timing of Justice’s soliloquy was curious for one reason: He had recently encouraged fans to lay off A-Rod and stop booing him.
Of course, this being England footballers, with their massive salaries and their glamorous girlfriends, this is not just about having a family pet, such as a humble terrier or a mongrel from the local dogs’ home. No, this is about lifestyle choices, where your dog is selected with the same care that you might lavish on the decision whether to have a Porsche or a Ferrari, for instance, or whether the built-in sound system at your country mansion is sufficiently state-of-the-art.Even so, the choice of doggy chums does reveal some intriguing selections. Is it sexist to assume that an extravagantly coiffured Maltese could not really be the automatic companion of the more bulldog-like Wayne Rooney? Do we sense the hand of his girlfriend Coleen McLoughlin here?
Similarly, one feels that the brace of chihuahuas owned by Ashley Cole and his intended, Girls Aloud member Cheryl Tweedy, probably owes more to the trend for dogs as beribboned fashion accessories you can pop in your Burberry bag than to any other consideration.
And should we draw any conclusions from the fact that those among the England squad who are less, shall we say, prone to the celebrity lifestyle – such as Paul Robinson or Frank Lampard – seem to lean towards more traditional bulldogs and boxers? Ironically, these are the very dogs that epitomise the kind of spirit the England team has been accused of lacking.
Jose Canseco returned to baseball Thursday when he agreed to a contract with the independent San Diego Surf Dawgs, planning to be their designated hitter and — get this — pitch.
The Golden Baseball League announced the deal Thursday night, saying the former AL MVP and Rookie of the Year will make his Surf Dawgs debut Monday night on the road against the Chico Outlaws.
The news release announcing the deal said Canseco will be the DH “and will showcase his knuckleball as a member of the team’s pitching staff.”
Canseco will be playing for the league maximum of $2,500 per month.
Before you smirk at the above tale, keep in mind that allowing Jose to pitch isn’t nearly as crazy as letting Kevin Kennedy manage (or host a radio program).
Greg Anderson, the Peninsula steroid dealer who was Barry Bonds’ personal weight trainer, refused to testify Thursday before a federal grand jury investigating the baseball star for perjury.
A judge said he would rule next week on whether Anderson should found in contempt of court for refusing to testify against his childhood friend, thus facing a possible return to prison.
Anderson’s attorney Mark Geragos argued that the personal trainer should not have to testify because he was the victim of an illegal government wiretap that he said resulted in a recording of Anderson saying he provided Bonds with “undetectable” drugs to help him beat baseball’s steroid testing program in 2003.
The recording was first revealed in an Oct. 2004 Chronicle story after a copy was provided to the newspaper by a confidential news source.
At an unusual hearing in U.S. District Court in San Francisco Thursday, prosecutors revealed they have obtained that recording. Federal Judge William Alsup, who closed the hearing to the public on three separate occasions, ruled that the recording was “not a wiretap, but a privately recorded conversation with a witness.”
Writes Tim Cook, “I wish SUNN O)))’s Greg Anderson (left) could one day tell his side of the story.”
Indeed, but probably not as much as Sunn O)))’s Anderson would prefer to be mentioned in another context. Still, I wasn’t gonna turn down the photo.
Days after France’s black players faced monkey chants in their round of 16 win over Spain, Front National leader / Holocaust revisionist Jean Marie Le Pen has raised the ire of France’s Lilian Thuram (above). From the Times’ Tom Dart.
Le Pen suggested on Monday that the country could not empathise with the side because there were too many non-white players. “We feel that France doesn’t totally recognise itself in this team,” he said.
“[Le Pen’s] the type of person who would turn on the television and watch a game of basketball and wonder to himself: ‘Hold on, there are black people playing in the American NBA. What’s going on?,’ ” Thuram, France’s most-capped player, who was born on the French-Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, said.
“When we take to the field, we do so as Frenchmen. All of us. It doesn’t matter if we’re black or not, because we’re French. I’ve just got one thing to say to Jean-Marie Le Pen. The French team are all very, very proud to be French. So vive la France, but the true France. Not the France that he wants.”
When Sven-Goran Eriksson says “I’m prepared to do whatever it takes”, you’d better take him seriously. Unless he wasfully clothed when he said it. From the Independent’s Andy Hunter.
“Don’t tell me that I don’t know what to do, I know exactly what to do,” said the England manager at the insinuation he will experiment with his team once again against Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Portugal in Gelsenkirchen. He added: “Of course I have a clear vision – we all have, together with the other coaches. What do you think we do – let them [the players] go out and say good luck to them, do what you want to do? If it’s right or wrong, that’s another thing. But of course it’s clear what we do. Every minute we are together it’s clear what we are going to do.”
The England manager dismissed rumours that goalkeeper Paul Robinson’s inauspicious command of his penalty area in Germany – a weakness highlighted by Portugal striker Pauleta this week – would prompt a surprise recall for David James. “No, no, no, Paul Robinson will start the game on Saturday, he has my absolute confidence,” Eriksson said. “That [Pauleta's comment] is a mind game, I suppose, and I am not interested in mind games.”
Brazil’s former media chief Ricardo Setyon told how Big Phil laid into his stars during the 2002 World Cup in astonishing tirades.
He said: “When Brazil were not playing well he would tell the players their performance was an insult to their families.
“Then he would start cursing their mothers, swearing and shouting and saying all sorts.
“He’d call them motherf***ers and bitches. At half-time he’d come in and stand in silence for five minutes, staring at them.”
Alex Barroso, who worked with Scolari at Brazilian club Cruzeiro told how he would tell players to be “more violent”.
He said: “The A and B teams were playing each other and we were being fouled by his players. Phil said to my mine they were playing like girls and yelled: ‘From now on I give you permission to break legs.’”
Scolari was caught on camera telling players to spit at rivals when boss of Palmeiras in 2002.
He spouted about one player called Edilson: “You’ve got to smash into him, kick and spit at him. Spit in his face.”
Scolari was unaware his rant was being recorded by Brazilian TV.
(there’s nothing funny about copyright infringement)
I’m not surprised there is unrest in Philadelphia concerning the state of the Phillies. But surely the disgruntled parties can muster up just a little bit of original content?
While reminding us that Mariners catcher Kenji Johjima became the first Japanese player to have consecutive multihomer games in the U.S. majors this week, Japan Baseball Daily observes Joe Mauer’s rise to prominence…in Japan.
With Ichiro tearing it up right now and appearing headed for another all star starting slot, the Japanese press has turned its attention to Minnesota catcher Joe Mauer because he is keeping Ichiro out of first place in the American League batting race by hitting at a near .390 clip. In fact, Sports Nippon frowned on this state of affairs with a headline that used the word for “shove aside” to describe how Mauer is fending the Mariners all star off by rudely collecting nine hits in his last two games. Joe doesn’t have to worry about Japanese hating him or anything, but they will nonetheless be frustrated by their hero not being on top. Heavy is the bat that is hotter than some country’s national hero.
With Oakland leading San Diego, 5-3 in the bottom of the 9th today at Petco, Ken Macha opted to have Huston Street intentionally walk Brian Giles with runners on third and second and two out. Josh Bard proceed to hit a single up the middle, scoring Josh Barfield and Mike Cameron. Adrian Gonzalez struck out to end the inning moments later, but the damage was done ; Street’s 6th blown save, with a small assist by Macha. Trevor Hoffman (above) is on for the Padres in the top of the 10th, facing Oakland’s 2-3-4 of Swisher, Chavez and Crosby.
Yammering via the OnStar Hotline (do I get paid for mentioning that firm?), ESPN’s Ric Bucher claimed today that Portland’s 31st overall pick, Joel Freeland (of the Spanish 4th Division’s Gran Canaria) lent a festive touch to last night draft by giving David Stern an England soccer jersey (and I didn’t know Umbro made them in that size).
“I’ve never seen a player give the commissioner a gift on draft night!” declared Bucher, perhaps forgetting that LaMarcus Aldridge had placed a Texas Longhorns cap atop his Sterness’ skull just a few hours earlier.
True Hoop’s Henry Abbott — whom it must be said, had a totally career day yesterday (now we know what Norman Mailer saw in him, and I’m not just saying that because I don’t want to be stabbed) — surveys the Kings’ selection of Quincy Douby (above) and surmises that Bonzi Wells is very much On The Block.
With shouts of “Fire Isiah!” – and the more suggestive “Duck Folan!” in reference to team owner James Dolan – the crowd of some two dozen roundball radicals made their displeasure known to all who would listen on the sidewalks of Times Square and Seventh Avenue.
“I’m angry – I’m gonna rip my shirt,” declared disgruntled fan Bobby Rahni, 20, who brandished a florescent pink sign reading “Sell the Knicks!”
The marchers, organized by the Web site selltheknicks.com, gathered at the Mercury Bar in Hell’s Kitchen to, ahem, prepare for the march and were led by a mystery man who goes only by the nom de guerre “Mr. Orange.”
Dolan was brutalized by the crowd as everything from a no-brain rich kid ruining his daddy’s company to a lousy guitar player.
“Dolan’s a baby,” said marcher Dave Sorani, 23. “When the baby gets nervous he makes rash decisions and wets his bed.”
The march began at Ninth Avenue and 46th Street – but the crowd of young men was not large enough to stop traffic and was forced to patiently wait until the light changed before heading off through Restaurant Row.
Some of the protesters admitted that, as social outrages go, the performance of the Knicks really isn’t that important.
“It’s not for world peace, which I guess would be better,” admitted protester Dave Hornung, 20, who came all the way from Riverhead, LI. “But it’s all for the cause of making the team better.”
Well, maybe not so much reconsidered as discussed by a writer less prone to puns than Vecsey. Stephen Metcalf, at Slate, delivers a fairly lengthy and somewhat less than full-throated defense of the Knicks Coach/GM. It’s not a defense of Isiah’s personnel decisions — I’m stuck trying to imagine a writer smooth enough to justify yesterday’s draft picks — as a presentation of a figure we might call Isiah Agonistes, “an angry and complicated man, no one’s native son, and a poster boy for nothing redemptive.” It’s interesting stuff, although Isiah, sadly, was unavailable for comment on the piece, since he’s hiding alongside a terrified Renaldo Balkman in a secret bunker seven stories beneath Madison Square Garden. Unless Spike Lee has those tactical nukes Rummy wants so badly, Zeke should be safe there.
Anyway, here’s Metcalf at somewhat more length:
Isiah Thomas was supposed to be the greatest ex-jock of all time. He is shrewd, articulate, fiercely competitive and, at least superficially, very likable. Since retiring as a player, he has done everything an ex-jock can do: He’s been an announcer, a coach, a general manager, and even, for a stretch, a kind of mini-mogul, owning the Continental Basketball Association, the minor leagues of basketball. He has done each, according to multiple reports, disastrously, though this may be a blushing understatement. Were it only a question of incompetence, of being yet another recyclable in the hermetic ecosystem of bad managerial talent that is pro sports, Isiah would not inspire anything like the enmity he does. For all his professional shortcomings, Thomas’ biggest liability may be a perception problem, rooted in his trademark smile.
Okay, so not entirely a defense — but when combined with the biographical and contextual analysis that follows, an interesting enough profile of a man who, if not really much of a tragic figure, is at least, for the moment, the nation’s most flagrantly obvious lame duck.
Pirates fans, I’m really trying to find a silver lining. Y’know, a Rick Pitino-style quip like “Derek Bell isn’t walking down that gangplank.” Alas, I don’t have the same kind of pen pals as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gene Collier.
You have to go back through two centuries to unearth a 13-game Pittsburgh losing streak, a matter best left to academics, preferably actual historians, and that’s why yesterday’s e-mail from Purdue University professor Frank Lambert was so very welcome.
The subject line read, EXPERT SINKS PIRATES MYTHS, STEREOTYPES WITH REAL HISTORY.
Perfect.
What better accompaniment, after all, to such an historical loss as the 4-3 pie in the face from the White Sox last night than a serious, studied discussion of the all-time No. 1 Pirates myth: The House Untruth Built, the untruth being that a new baseball-only stadium would leave this franchise up to its crossbones in gushing revenue streams, the very public prescription for not only competitive baseball, but probably a return to the kind of National League plundering the city had grown accustomed to in the 1970s.
More currently, there is Myth No. 48, namely that left-handed pitcher Oliver Perez was the second coming of Sandy Koufax or Steve Carlton. Shame on us all for that little associative spasm. Now, as Perez sits in exile in the Pirates’ bullpen awaiting the next Greyhound to Indianapolis, we’re pretty sure we’d have settled for the next Larry McWilliams.
For the real sunken myths, and the import of buried treasure the Pirates never seem to find anymore, here’s professor Lambert.
“When historians try to put the Pirates into historical context, it only raises more questions about who was a real Pirate,” Lambert wrote.
Exactly, like Jeromy Burnitz. Is that a real Pirate? Bounced a 3-0 pitch from Freddy Garcia into an inning-ending double play in the third with Freddy Sanchez on third. Garcia had just walked Jason Bay, but Burnitz was apparently in no mood to let Garcia help this offense.
“You might say a Pirate is in the eye of the beholder,” professor Lambert went on. “The definition of a Pirate is a robber at sea without sanction from a nation. But under that definition, the Barbary Pirates, perhaps the most famous of all, are not Pirates. They were privateers, many from Europe, encouraged by Britain to raid American shipping because the new country was a competitor.”
Uh-oh.
“Disney is making piracy safe with these movies,” Lambert went on, oblivious to our topic. “These are romantic figures in a magical, mythical story. The Pirates in fiction, as well as the Pirates from 200 years ago, are a lot safer than the Pirates we face today.”
What sage figure could’ve been the key to Alex Rodriguez’ 12th inning HR to beat the Braves yesterday? His fair weather buddy, the shortstop? His manager? His motivational guru? Or was it his former Seattle manager? Guess which of the above took credit when speaking to the New York Daily News’ Bill Madden?
“I was leaving the park myself when Cynthia came up to me and said Alex would really like to see me,” Piniella said yesterday. “I’ve felt terrible for him, seeing what he’s been going through. You have to remember, he was our ‘baby’ in Seattle. I watched him grow up in the big leagues. I’ve always felt very close to him and I’m very proud of all he’s accomplished and if there was anything I could do to help him, I would.”
And, as a matter of fact, there was.
“Basically, I just told him to trust himself. We talked about mechanics, staying confident, being positive. This was nothing new. He needed a friend to talk about hitting and I was glad to be there. That’s all. I wouldn’t want Donnie (Mattingly) to think I was interfering or anything.”
At the mention of Mattingly, I had to remind Piniella that whenever “Donnie Baseball” would get into a slump he, too, would reach out to his first hitting mentor with the Yankees. “Yeah, I guess he did,” Piniella said with laugh, “but I’m still employed by the Devil Rays and I don’t want to get into any trouble here. I just care a lot about Alex and he wanted to talk.”
People Like Us have been gathering the best of the worst football music from around the world to bring to you, dear listener, on 3rd July at 7pm. Open up a cheap beer, tune your TV into football with the sound turned down and weep while your country gets thrashed by another far inferior to your own.
Given the promise of “worst football music”, I’m tempted to think this might represent Kunt & The Gang’s big break. But I’m also fairly certain Vicki Bennett (above) will have slightly more interesting tricks up her sleeve.
Along with the bickering about marital assets and child support, the Michael Strahan divorce trial yesterday yielded an intriguing mystery — the undisclosed nature of surgery he had last year.Ellen Marshall, Jean Strahan’s attorney, mentioned while discussing Michael Strahan’s medical expenses that he underwent some kind of plastic surgery with a Dr. Rothaus, no first name disclosed.
New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan faced no such questions because sheriff’s officers have allowed him to leave though a special exit not usually made available to parties in a divorce case.
There was no way of knowing whether the surgery was performed by Kenneth Rothaus, a Manhattan physician who specializes in cosmetic procedures, including liposuction.
The press did take note when Strahan, once 275 pounds, tipped the scale last December at a mere 248, part of what he said was an effort to improve his health and agility.
….and they’ll gladly have him back, whenever he can make it.
What looked like a pretty capable road team a few days ago has now allowed 19 runs in 18 innings since hitting Kenmore Square. While I like the odds of Tom Glavine putting on his Stopper Suit tomorrow night, Newsday’s Ken Davidoff suggests Pedro Martinez should be very grateful that facing the cream of the AL crop is rare occasion.
Chew on these numbers, entering last night: The Dodgers led the National League with a .281 batting average; five AL teams, including the Red Sox (.288), were better. The Dodgers’ .355 on-base percentage topped the senior circuit, and three AL clubs, including Boston (.371), topped that. The Mets’ .461 slugging percentage paced the NL, while two AL teams bettered it and the Tigers matched it. The Red Sox trailed here, barely, at .457.
This stretch of interleague play, with the Tigers, White Sox, Twins and Mariners joining the Red Sox as NL dominators, has exemplified how difficult life can be for pitchers trying to tame those lineups.
Last night’s winning pitcher, Josh Beckett, has defied the odds in successfully converting from the NL to the AL. Said Beckett, now a 10-game winner, of his new league: “It really makes a difference not having the ninth hole. A lot of National League teams have guys that do something specific well. In the American League, it’s one through nine. You get really good hitters.”
Enter Pedro, who, previously this season, dominated a thinned-out Yankees lineup on May 20 (Miguel Cairo started in leftfield and hit sixth) and lost to the Orioles June 17 with a respectable outing. One certainly can’t contend that Martinez would stink if he remained in the AL. But certainly, he has much more room for error against your standard NL lineup.
For the second night in a row, Lastings Milledge had great difficultly in left field. In the rookie’s defense, the warning track is murder on high heels.
The Red Sox have now gone 15 games without an error. You don’t have to be very old to recall Boston teams that couldn’t go 15 innings without an error.
Mets OF Cliff Floyd will instantly become the most accomplished active player to take the field at Coney Island’s Keystone Park tomorrow night when he begins a rehab assignment with the Brooklyn Cyclones (link courtesy Jesper Eklow). The Mets’ NY-Penn League affiliate finally won their first game of 2006 season on Wednesday beating Hudson Valley, 4-0. Starter Jeramy Simmons (above) struck out 7 and allowed just 3 hits over 5 innings.
Incredibly, the Mets’ lead in the NL East increased Wednesday, as the slip sliding-away Phillies dropped a twinbill to the Orioles. Even before this latest indignity, the Philadelphia Daily News’ Stan Hochman raised the spectre of —- who else? — Dallas Green offering his two cents on the state of the ballclub.
“Twelfth inning Monday. Ball hit to leftfield. [Shane Victorino] bobbles it and then throws home. That was the tying run that scored. Meanwhile, the winning run goes to second. That can’t happen.”
It happened. Writers would have found the wallpaper peeling after the game. It wasn’t all whips and chains with Green, though. There was the occasional pat on the back. Perhaps that’s something Bobby Abreu could use about now.
“Charlie has tried,” Green says. “I’m a Bobby Abreu fan. I know defensively he’s gone downhill lately. But I know what he brings to the table offensively, the homers, the on-base percentage. I guess everybody wants him to be a superstar. In his mind, he could care less about that status.”
And along came Bowa to muddy the waters. Had a long talk with Abreu when the Yankees were in town. Shared some of that conversation on a WFAN talk show. Said Abreu said a change of scenery could help a player. That sounds like tampering to some. The Phillies looked the other way. “With the way we’re playing and the Brett Myers stuff,” Green says, “the Bowa thing isn’t gonna get any attention.”
29) New York, Mardy Collins, PG, Temple
30) Portland, Joel Freeland, PF, Gran Canaria
31) Portland, James White, SG, Cincinnati (highest pick ever for a former Ze recording artist)
32) Houston, Steve Novak, SF, Marquette
33) Atlanta, Solomon Jones, C, S. Florida
34) Clippers, Paul Davis, C, Michigan State
35) Toronto, P.J. Tucker, SF, Texas
36) Minnesota, Craig Smith, PF, Boston College
37) Minnesota, Bobby Jones, SF, Washington
38) Golden State, Kosta Perovic, C, Partizan Belgrade
39) Milwaukee, David Noel, SF, North Carolina
40) Seattle, Denham Brown, SG, UConn
41) Orlando, James Augustine, PF, Illinois
Both Justin (who had to go up to the Egyptian for some function) and I saw Renaldo Balkman live at the Great Alaska Shootout last Thanksgiving weekend. Balkman had a nice game against Marquette, but seemed to find himself out of position on the floor constantly — which is a product of not having a position. He turned the ball over eight times against eight assists and was in foul trouble throughout the invitational. It’s a lousy pick for the Knicks who, unless they’re wed to Nate Robinson, could’ve used Marcus Williams. Watching Balkman for a full week from the fifth row in Anchorage, there was nothing that screamed NBA career, even thought he shot at a high percentage against the likes of Alaska-Anchorage and Monmouth.
The features of the new ball include “a new design and a new material that together offer better grip, feel, and consistency than the current leather ball,” as well as “moisture management that provides superior grip and feel throughout the course of a game.”
Whatever. Funniest part of the press release is where they assure us that the ball has been tested thoroughly, by using it in All Star Weekend activities, and the fact that “NBA retired players Steve Kerr and Mark Jackson participated in testing the new ball as well.”
Oh good, with Mark Jackson testing it we can see how the ball will perform when handled by an overweight point guard who makes crosses to praise God during game play, and with Kerr testing it we know that the ball handles well when used by a slow white guy who can’t dribble and just jacks up 3s. Hell, if that was the criteria, they might as well have had me test it.
Of the Sonics’ selection at no. 10 overall, Saer Sene, Supersonic Soul’s Paul Merrill writes,
Wait a minute, didn’t we already draft this guy? Like four times? I guess you can never have too many 7-foot “projects” that no one has ever heard of.
Russ Granik comes out to announce the second round of the draft for the last time. He always reminded me of the stripper that comes on stage after the feature dancer and right when last call is announced. I’ve always kind of felt a little sorry for him.
The gentleman on the right is LaMarcus Aldridge, the highest draft pick in Texas Longhorns history. Barring a mooted swap with Portland, he’ll be suiting up for the Bulls next Autumn. Eddy Curry, however, is all yours! Nice work.
(ADDENDUM – Portland steps up to get Aldridge, Chicago has the rights to Tyrus Thomas, plus the Bulls acquire Viktor Kyrapa as part of the deal.)
Your draft results thus far :
1) Toronto – Andrea Bargnani, F, Benetton Treviso
2) Chicago – LaMarcus Aldridge, F, Texas (rights traded to Portland)
3) Charlotte – Adam Morrison, F, Gonzaga (highest Gonzaga player selected since John Stockton)
4) Portland – Tyrus Thomas, F, LSU (supposedly grew 8 inches between his sophmore and senior years of high school — imagine how tall he’d be had he never graduated!…negotiating rights held by Chicago in exchange for Aldridge)
5) Atlanta – Shelden Williams, F, Duke
6) Minnesota – Brandon Roy, G, Washington (traded to Portland)
7) Boston – Randy Foye, G, Villanova (traded to Minnesota via Portland) Houston – Rudy Gay, F, UConn (rumors of a trade to Memphis flying around)
9) Golden State – Patrick O’Bryant, C, Bradley (a smart move — a team full of perimeter threats that sorely needs an inside presence, one they aren’t likely to get from Adonal Foyle)
10) Seattle – Saer Sene, F, Senegal (lots of talk about a 7′8″ wingspan, but I am assuming he has arms rather than wings)
11) Orlando – J.J. Redick, G, Duke (I’ll drink to that!)
12) New Orleans – Hilton Armstrong, C, UConn
13) Philadelphia – Thabo Sefolosha, G, Angelico Biella
14) Utah – Ronnie Brewer, G, Arkansas
15) New Orleans – Cedric Simmons, F, NC State
16) Chicago – Rodney Carney, F, Memphis
17) Indiana – Shawne Williams, F, Memphis (groans are heard in the Knicks war room, and not merely because J.D. is tuning his guitar)
18) Washington – Olexisy Pecherov, PF, Paris Basket Racing
19) Sacramento – Quincy Douby, SG, Rutgers
20) New York – Renaldo Balkman, F, South Carolina (the crowd is booing, presumably they know that Isiah has not drafted Ronaldo Blackman. Balkman hasn’t turned up, perhaps warned that he might have to attend a J.D. & The Straightshot gig after the draft. Stephen A. is “almost speechless”, the key word being “almost”.
21) Phoenix – Rajon Rondo, PG, Kentucky
22) New Jersey – Marcus Williams, PG, UConn (amazing, the Nets have not attempted to trade the 22nd and 23rd picks)
23) New Jersey – Josh Boone, C, UConn (shot-blocking demon, has also chosen to skip this beauty pageant. I like him already!)
24) Memphis – Kyle Lowry, PG, Villanova
25) Cleveland – Shannon Brown, SG, Michigan State
26) Los Angeles – Jordan Farmar Superstar (above, left), PG, UCLA
27) Phoenix – Sergio Rodriguez, G, Adecco Estudiantes
Your frequent outpourings of emotion on behalf of your employer are neither unexpected or without precedent in your chosen field. That said, repeated references to home runs hit by Alex Rodriguez as “an A-Bomb by A-Rod” only serve to diminish the suffering and devestation experienced by those who were victims of a genuine atomic blast.
I do hope you’ll take this into future consideration.
Thank you.
A Loyal Listener.
Other than that, Suzyn Waldman’s postgame wrap was unusually informative, in that we’ve learned John Smoltz “still has the groin.” Were he functioning without one, then, I think Suzyn would really have a story.
The Tribune has declared it’s own ‘buyback’ program of its stock a major success, and despite the urging of major shareholders in LA (who most likely have been taking their financial advice from my posts here) to sell the Cubs, the Trib has chosen to keep them and base it’s new financial structure on pissing me off. As far as buyback plans go, I just finished watching Batman Begins in which Bruce Wayne pulls the same move on his own corrupt company and it proved devastatingly effective. I advise anyone wanting more info on money matters to watch this movie.
Today at Wrigley, Carlos Marmol has held the Brewers scoreless through 4, as the Cubs lead, 1-0, courtesy of a Juan Pierre solo HR off Dave Bush in the 3rd.
If the Rangers miss the playoffs by one game, or lose the division title by one game, they will look back at the night of June 27 with even more anger than they felt Tuesday.
If it’s any consolation, Texas will probably miss playoffs by more than one game.
Chien-Ming Wang and John Smoltz are currently dueling at the Stadium, with the Braves holding a 2-1 advantage in the top of the 7th. Following a nifty Andy Phillips scoop of a low Derek Jeter throw from deep in the hole between 3rd and short, Gary Thorne and Buck Martinez praised Jeter….for thanking Philips.
“So many professional athletes today,” intoned Thorne, “…I’m thinking of the NBA in particular, because it drives me nuts…guys make great passes, great assists….never acknowledged. A guy goes in, slams it, never points to the guy who set him up, there’s no ‘hey, nice play, I appreciate it.’…it’s part of being a good teammate.”
Indeed, the next time someone argues that Jeter is a sucky shortstop, just quote Gary Thorne and cite the Captain’s sense of etiquette.
Johan Santana has allowed pair of doubles and one walk this afternoon against the Dodgers, as the Twins lead, 6-0. Joe Mauer has a pair of hits (single, double, one RBI) and his batting average stands at a ridiculous .392. That said, Minnesota are unlikely to gain ground on the AL Central-leading Tigers, who are currently up, 5-0 over the Astros after 7 innings. Closing in on his 10th win, Justin Verlander has struck out 7 and given up just a pair of singles and a Jason Lane double.
1. Toronto, LaMarcus Aldridge, Texas : Most refined big in the field, but a deal remains very possible.
2. Chicago, Tyrus Thomas, LSU : Bulls’ chance to get bigger, tougher and upwardly mobile.
3. Charlotte, Rudy Gay (above), UConn : Perfect fit with young frontcourt; may be the best player in draft.
4. Portland, Adam Morrison, Gonzaga : No way he gets past this point. Wait ’til they find out he can’t defend.
5. Atlanta, Shelden Williams, Duke : Another year goes by without a point guard. Adds muscle, though.
With all due respect to D’Allessandro, I’m pretty sure the Blazers know about Morrison’s D. But I still suspect they’ll grab him if he’s available.
D’Alessandro has Bragnanni slipping all the way to the Rockets at no. 8, and predicts the Spartans’ Shannon Brown and ‘Nova’s Kyle Lowry will still be around when the Nets make their picks at 22 and 23.
On behalf of all white basketball players with tremendous flair and a crap work ethic, I’d like to nominate Basketbawful for sensitivity training.
One NBA source said he’d be shocked if the Cavaliers took Texas point guard Daniel Gibson with th 25th pick.
”He’s not a first-rounder in anyone’s mind,” the source said. ”There was some question whether he was going to stay in the draft. The world could be wrong and the Cavs could be right. Maybe the rest of the league is missing the boat?
”If you get a player of any ilk in this draft, you’re OK. Gibson (above) is barely 6-foot-1. That would be really out of the box.”
If Gibson was picked with the Cavaliers’ 42nd overall pick, that would make more sense.
The Washington Post’s Ivan Carter hints the Wizards — sitting on the 18th and 48th picks, might be interested in Milwaukee’s Jamal Magliore. The Bucks will enter this evening’s festivities without a first round selection.
There’s no truth to the rumor the above video was compiled and uploaded by someone with a stake in Andrea Bargnani or Tyrus Thomas being picked no.1 by Toronto.
The owner of radio stations WEEI and WRKO, fresh from signing one of Major League Baseball’s most expensive radio rights deals, has found a way to get some money back: selling naming rights to the Red Sox radio network.
“We’ll be right back on the WEEI/WRKO (Your Company Name) Red Sox Radio Network,” proclaims promotional material for the deal. Entercom Communications Corp., parent of the two stations, plans to mail out requests for proposals to 25 top advertisers this week to gauge their interest in the five-year agreement.
The asking price: several million dollars a year.
The naming rights sale comes shortly after Entercom won a contentious bidding process for the right to air Red Sox games. Under the company’s new rights deal, estimated to cost about $13 million to $14 million a year, games will be split between WRKO and WEEI starting next season. The idea to sell naming rights came from the Sox during negotiations, said Kahn, the Entercom executive.
Entercom executives are promoting the deal as the last big naming rights opportunity in Boston sports. The Patriots’ home, Gillette Stadium, already has a name, while the Celtics’ and Bruins’ arena was recently renamed TD Banknorth Garden.
“We really believe this is an ocean front real estate opportunity,” Kahn said.
The Tigers recently inquired about the availability of Cliff Floyd, but were told the outfielder was not being traded, according to two baseball officials.
Floyd has been on the disabled list for three weeks with a sprained left ankle, but could return this weekend against the Yankees. After homering as a DH on Monday, he was scheduled to play the outfield last night for the first time with the Gulf Coast League Mets, but the game was rained out. GM Omar Minaya expected Floyd to at least miss the Red Sox series. “One game is not going to cut it,” Minaya said.
The Mets haven’t made a final determination about which player to demote when Floyd is activated, but the plan seems to remain returning Lastings Milledge to Triple-A Norfolk. The Mets finish a nine-game stretch with the DH this weekend at Yankee Stadium, and Minaya is committed to Floyd and Xavier Nady as his left and right fielders, respectively.
I’ll say as little about last night’s game at Fenway as possible other than Alay Soler was dreadful…and Jose Reyes might think twice in the future about challenging Manny Ramirez’ arm, green-light or not. Not that Reyes will have many opportunities to consider it, but for all of Manny’s ballyhooed concentration problems, he’s fairly adept at making such a routine play (ie. throwing out a baserunner who hasn’t even reached third by the time Ramirez has picked up the ball in shallow left).
A boo? Someone would be obtuse enough to boo Pedro Martínez when he returns to Fenway Park as a Mets starter tonight? Say it isn’t so.
“You can’t possibly want to boo this guy,” proclaims Gehrig38, a regular contributor to the Sons of Sam Horn website. “What you got a chance to see included three of the most dominating seasons in baseball history.”
“Gehrig38,” as many of you know, answers to the real-life name of Curt Schilling.
Boo Pedro Martínez? Why? Because he left town? Because he may have sworn allegiance to the Red Sox and the city of Boston before he discovered that, when push came to shove, the Mets offered him a much better contract? Anyone who is bothered by that needs to get over it. It’s the 21st century. Business happens.
I don’t know if Electronic Arts will sell one extra copy of NBA Live ‘07 on the back of their Adam Morrison commericals. Perhaps Gillette would’ve had more luck. But the publisher could’ve done far worse considering there’s actually conversation taking place about a game that isn’t out for another 3 months.
In advance of Portugal v. England, you can file this one under lame stunts. From the Mirror.
ASDA wants to sign Portuguese striker Luis Figo for its advertising campaign – in the hope its injury jinx will strike a third time.
The supermarket saw Wayne Rooney get hurt after signing him up for ads, then his stand-in Michael Owen was sent home from Germany injured. A straw poll in Asda’s offices found Figo was the Portugese player most likely to score against England.
Asda’s Nick Agarwal said: “We want him to do some nice publicity shots and get injured in training. Nothing too serious. We are speaking to Figo’s agent at the moment.”
Either you saw France’s old guard come back from a goal down yesterday against Spain or you didn’t. I mean, it’s too late to sort that one out, much to Luis Aragones’ chagrin (and I don’t think Saturday’s rematch between the 1998 finalists is going to turn out well for Zindane and Vieira). But it’s never too late to scoff at terrible commentary by ill-informed, biased mouthbreathers with little insight to share.
But enough about Marcelo Balboa, apparently they’ve got problems on Chinese TV, too. From the Times’ Tom Dart.
The Associated Press reports that Huang Jianxiang, commentating on Italy v Australia for Chinese television, certainly had no qualms with the penalty award in the 93rd minute.
He is quoted as saying: “Penalty! Penalty! Penalty! Grosso’s done it, Grosso’s done it! The great Italian left back! He succeeded in the glorious traditions of Italy! Facchetti, Cabrini and Maldini, their souls are infused in him at this moment! Grosso represents the long history and traditions of Italian soccer, he’s not fighting alone at this moment! He’s not alone!”
And after Francesco Totti scored…
“Goooooal! Game over! Italy win! Beat the Australians! They do not fall in front of Hiddink again! Italy the great! Left back the great! Happy birthday to Maldini! Forza Italia! The victory belongs to Italy, to Grosso, to Cannavaro, to Zambrotta, to Buffon, to Maldini, to everyone who loves Italian soccer!
“Hiddink … lost all his courage faced with Italian history and traditions … He finally reaped fruits which he had sown! They should go home. They don’t need to go as far away as Australia as most of them are living in Europe. Farewell!”
Would you have wagered a week ago that A.J. Burnett would prove to be a more valuable mid-season addition than Roger Clemens? Granted, Burnett isn’t being paid like a mid-season addition (then again, neither is the Rocket).
No Surprise Dept. : Pittsburgh, losers of 12 straight, are doing their best to out-lousy the Cubs in the race to determine the NL Central’s Worst.
Despite my increased senility, I am aware, by the way, that the Brewers/Cubs game (tied at 4 in the bottom of the 8th), is not, in fact, an interleague encounter. But I am wondering who ought to be more embarassed, Zach Jackson for serving up a two run homer to Carlos Zambrano, or the Oklahoma duo of Lee and Bukvich for allowing Round Rock’s Alan Zinter to homer from both sides of the plate last night. It’s 2006, gentlemen. Matt Stairs. Alan Zinter. Pull yourselves together!
Describing Jose Reyes’ explosion of late as “not a hot streak; this is one of the brightest young talents in baseball becoming a superstar,” the New York Sun’s Andrew Marchman pays the Mets shortstop the ultimate compliment. If your name is Michael Kay.
The hitter we saw up until two weeks ago – a .250 hitter with solid line-drive power and excellent speed, taking a walk two or three times a week – was a very good one, and given that Reyes turned 23 a few weeks ago, his performance was the kind you could project toward a Hall of Fame career along the lines of Roberto Alomar Jr.’s.
What happened to turn Reyes into Alomar, rather than a player you could see developing into Alomar? He figured out how to hit a curveball, and the league hasn’t figured that out yet. When word gets around, he’ll come back to earth, but I expect his current numbers (.302 AVG/.361 OBA/..495 SLG) are a lot closer to what you can expect out of him going forward than the .246/.315/.407 line he was sporting before his hitting streak began. We’re not only seeing a quantum leap forward in his development, but a sustainable one.
This wasn’t inevitable, but now that it’s happened, Reyes’s prospects have become unbelievably bright. Before this season, Reyes had a better chance of turning into Garry Templeton than Alan Trammell; having demonstrated that he can play at this level, precisely the opposite is now true. It’s something like what happened to David Wright last year, when he went from a first-tier prospect to a player on a clear Hall of Fame career path. (That Wright has since improved is a subject for another day; what he’s doing this year may be even more unlikely than what Reyes is doing.) To put it another way, salary considerations aside, I not only wouldn’t trade Reyes for Derek Jeter straight-up, I would laugh at the idea. His numbers will go down, but Jose Reyes has arrived.
Besides a first inning walk to Carlos Beltran (subsequently caught leaning the wrong way) and a 2nd inning solo HR allowed to Carlos Delgado, Boston’s Jon Lester has looked awfully sharp against the Mets, as Boston leads 3-1 through 3 innings. Alay Soler, having already thrown 72 pitches, seems destined for an early shower. Or, a long night stinking up the dugout, depending on how much hot water is available in the visitors’ clubhouse at Fenway.
Philadelphia’s Brett Myers is going on extended Wife Beater Break. During Myers’ hiatus, he’s expected to be spending more time with his family…which should work out just fine just so long as A CERTAIN SOMEONE LEARNS WHEN TO SHUT THE HELL UP.
The Mets placed Jeff Keppinger on the Temporarily Inactive List last Friday. I’m not sure if that is better or worse than extended Wife Beater Break, but it doesn’t sound very promising.
During NESN’s pregame report, hyping tonight’s Mets/Red Sox meeting, the Boston Globe’s Gordon Edes confirmed that Peter Gammons is undergoing medical treatment. Earlier, NESN had claimed Gammons had suffered an anyeurism.
The frequent Buffalo Tom jokes from this corner aside, here’s wishing Gammons the fastest possible recovery.
Thomas Gregory Arthur, the baseball stadium concessionaire whose foot-long Nathan’s knockoff came up short and became the beloved Dodger Dog, has died. He was 84.
Arthur died of a heart attack on June 8 in St. Louis, his son Steve said Tuesday.
The former New Yorker came up with a foot-long hot dog – borrowed from his favorite Nathan’s dogs – to put excitement into the ballpark menu when the team moved from the Coliseum to Dodger Stadium in 1962.
“He called it the foot-long dog, but it was actually only 10 inches. It was before truth in advertising, but he decided to call them Dodger Dogs,” his son said.
“It was our staple,” his son said, adding, “100 percent of the people who came to the ballpark had a Dodger Dog. It was pretty popular. Vincent Price was a big baseball fan and he put it in his cook book back then.”
The fear about acquiring Seo was that his 2005 performance was a fluke. There should be an even greater fear that Mark Hendrickson’s 2006 performance is the same.
In the meantime, trading catcher Dioner Navarro for catcher Toby Hall is a clear damning of Navarro’s future by the Dodgers. Though he perhaps will give Dodger manager Grady Little the confidence to rest Russell Martin an extra day each week, Toby Hall isn’t a win-now or win-for-the-future player. No backup catcher is. Maybe Navarro deserves that evaluation, but I think there’s considerable doubt, considering how much time he has to develop.
On top of it all, the Dodgers have taken on additional salary (although they are getting some cash from Tampa Bay) and are throwing in a player to be named later. The transaction just doesn’t make sense to me.
Dodger general manager Ned Colletti’s best work on the pitching staff have been the acquisitions of players who didn’t look that hot – Aaron Sele and Takashi Saito. The favorable return was unlikely, but investment was appropriate. He seems to do better when staying away from the flavor of the month, which is all Hendrickson appears to be.
The Red Sox plan to honor their 1986 AL Championship team with some sort of pregame ceremony before tonight’s tilt with the Mets. I’m fairly sure Mookie Wilson wasn’t invited, but apparently, Bill Buckner won’t be there, either. From the Providence Journal’s Steven Krasner.
Several members of the 1986 team were on hand last night, after the Red Sox’ marathon 8-7, 12-inning victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Those players were Oil Can Boyd, LaSchelle Tarver, Dave Stapleton, Jim Rice, Bruce Hurst, Marty Barrett,
Wade Boggs, Ed Romero, Steve Crawford, Pat Dodson, Joe Sambito and Tim Lollar, along with coach Joe Morgan and general manager Lou Gorman.
“We fooled everyone,” said Rice. “We went out and played good baseball.”
“We had great team camaraderie,” said Stapleton. “That 1986 season was special.”
Last night, they made it a point to take Buckner off the hook. Buckner elected not to attend the reunion.
“The biggest thing that bothers me is all the blame on Buck,” said Stapleton, echoing a theme brought up unsolicited by Boggs and Boyd. “He had a great career. He was one of the main reasons we even got that far that season.”
“He was our Big Papi,” said Boggs, referring to Boston’s clutch-hitting David Ortiz.
Boyd, meanwhile, says his irritation at being bypassed for Game Seven in favor of Bruce Hurst didn’t last long.
“I was a winner. I wanted to win. At the time I felt like I could go out and (beat the Mets). I felt like I was a guy who rose to the occasion,” said Boyd. “But at the same time they handed the ball to Bruce, and that was all right. He had already beaten them twice.”
Four years ago, U.S. coach Arena lauded Major League Soccer as a reason for the Americans’ run to the quarterfinals of the World Cup. Now, some think he’s trying to blame the 11-year-old league for a first-round exit from Germany 2006 .
“I think it’s ridiculous,” MLS commissioner Don Garber said. “If I were him I’d take a deep breath and think about what I say before I criticize anyone in American soccer.”
Six months after the 1998 showing, fired coach Steve Sampson blamed MLS for the failure, saying veteran players who left their European and Mexican clubs to come home for the start of MLS two years earlier had become “soft.”
While not identifying MLS, Arena’s comments in the past several days strike many in the American league the same way.
“And the way for us to get our players to get better is: We do need to get more of our younger talented players in Europe,” said Arena, who won two of the first three titles in MLS with D.C. United. “We need them in a year-round soccer environment. We need them playing in more intense games to help develop them mentally, as well as soccerwise.”
In a subsequent interview with ESPN on Monday, Arena, a member of MLS’ strategic technnical committee, said specifically he was not blaming the league. Others believe he was suggesting it was inadequate.
“The reality to so many out there is that coaching the U.S. national team is the easiest job on the planet,” said U.S. national team alltime scoring leader Eric Wynalda, now an analyst for ABC/ESPN. “You do have a league that provides you with a great team. For him to be so arrogant, to not recognize that fact. …The one thing his agent said as the reason that he should have the job was because of his success in MLS.”
Wynalda, who played in Germany from 1992-1996 and spent six years in MLS, put the blame for the U.S. failures squarely on Arena.
“He can take a team to a certain level, but he has no idea where the next level is,” Wynalda said. “How much does he know about playing in Europe, other than having a hot dog and a beer in the stands? Hearsay? Does he talk to the players? That’s justification to know? Has he ever coached there and have that pressure? No. Sorry, I’m just pointing out the obvious.”
It’s hard to pick which individual quoted above is the least sympathetic character. I don’t think Arena’s remarks are outrageous, but DaMarcus Beasley has played in a Champions League semi-final. Somehow, that in and of itself wasn’t great preperation for this World Cup.
If Wynalda is offended by the notion that playing in Europe is a higher echelon of competition compared to the MLS, maybe he should have a word with Freddy Adu, who used his 5 Good Minutes on PTI last week to state he wants to sign with a European club side as soon as possible. If a 16 year old who isn’t even close to the domestic league’s best player (and didn’t make Arena’s US team) is worried about his development (if not earning power) being stunted in MLS, it is hardly arrogant for others to wonder aloud whether the league has made any impact.
Spain have taken a 1-0 lead over France, courtesy of David Villa’s 28th minute penalty kick. Moments prior, Lillan Thuram brought down Pablo — how dumb would you have to be to not hit the floor dramatically in this competition?
No one has pointed out the incredible resemblance between Fabien Barthez and Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer. And I’m already sorry I’ve done so.
The Times is reporting that Juventus general manager Gianluca Pessotto (above) was badly injured following an attempted suicide leap. Pessotto jumped from his office window, bounced off one car and landed on another. No word on the condition of the cars, nor can we confirm the rumor that Isiah Thomas has asked to be moved to a higher floor.
If you have good news, like the coronation of Larry Brown as the Knicks’ coach last year, let all the credentialed members of the news media attend a Garden news conference and fill them with fresh cold cuts from the Carnegie Deli.
•If you expect to fire Brown but refuse to say anything until you are ready, you have your security forces summon police officers in Greenburgh, N.Y. Reporters wanting to interview Brown are then threatened with arrest if they don’t leave the parking lot of the team’s practice facility.
Then, if you have bad news, like firing Brown and replacing him with Isiah Thomas, first issue a news release (Thursday’s strategy), then invite seven newspaper reporters who regularly cover the Knicks, including The New York Times’; The Associated Press; and your own MSG Network to 2 Penn Plaza (yesterday’s plan), but keep out all other writers and television reporters.
Len Berman, the sports anchor for Channel 4, was displeased at being left out. “By excluding portions of the media,” he said, “it’s telling fans to take a hike, which is what they’ve been doing for years with the teams they’ve put on the floor.”
Berman’s producer complained to the National Basketball Association. Berman added, “I’m not a fan of managed news.”
Along with unfortunate references to Green Day and U2, the South Florida Sentinel’s Mike Bernadino hails the young Marlins (”what Joe Girardi’s boys have done over the past five weeks has been nothing short of remarkable”) and proposes what would’ve been unthinkable just a few weeks ago — Jeffrey Loria should increase the payroll!
Despite using 20 rookies, these Marlins have pulled within 6½ games of the wild card. By comparison, the 2003 Marlins were 4½ games from the wild card when they made the epic July trade for Ugie Urbina.
I’m not saying they are one deal away from winning their third World Series. But it is intriguing to consider what they might be able to accomplish with a few choice additions to an impressive young core.
Of the eight teams ahead of the Marlins in the wild-card standings, just two have better run differentials. And the Padres (plus-9) and Giants (plus-5) were hardly blowing away the Marlins (plus-3).
America hasn’t seen this much mediocrity under one heading since the Backstreet Boys’ farewell tour.
This is also the first year of testing for amphetamines, which means youth should be served even more than usual once the dog days arrive.
There’s also the Marlins’ farm system, which is rolling out top arms the way Honda does hybrids. Yankee-killer Anibal Sanchez is the latest, and more are on the way.
But first, the Marlins should step up their search for an upgrade in center field, where their production ranks 13th in the league and they recently passed on Joey Gathright after an earlier flirtation.
So far the Marlins have used rookies Reggie Abercrombie and Eric Reed out there. They have used utility infielder Alfredo Amezaga, bless his heart.
For some reason they have not used slugging Joe Borchard, who came up through the White Sox system as a center fielder and said Monday he is “very comfortable” at the position.
Lately, they have started throwing Jeremy Hermida, a natural right fielder, into the mix. On Monday’s second pitch, Hermida and right fielder Cody Ross let a Julio Lugo fly ball drop between them for a double.
You know who might have caught that ball? Juan Pierre, that’s who.
Yeah, I know, he’s having a horrible season for the Cubs. And, yes, he is making $5.75 million as he straggles toward free agency.
But once the Cubs decide to pack it in, the Marlins should consider taking Pierre off their hands. They won’t have to give back Ricky Nolasco, and they might even get the Cubs to pay the bulk of the remaining money.
The Astros may be souring on Willy Tavares. Luis Matos is buried on the Orioles bench. And if Choo Freeman keeps improving in Colorado, maybe the Rockies would talk about speedy Cory Sullivan.
Calling for the firing of Dusty Baker, saying the Cubs manager “accepts no blame for a Cubs team headed toward its first 100-loss season since 1966″, the Chicago Sun-Times’ Chris DeLuca is struck by the lack of accountability.
Big-money managers earn their paychecks by guiding teams through troubled times. Baker has spent the last two months quietly complaining about the loss of Lee and pitchers Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, bemoaning on a regular basis, ”I just want my team back.”
It seems that would send a message that Baker can’t win with the 25 healthy players remaining. That kind of talk is counterproductive when trying to motivate players.
”No, I don’t think that sends a message,” Baker said. ”The players who are there aren’t Derrek Lee. The young pitchers that are there, they realize they are not Mark Prior or Kerry Wood yet. I don’t think that sends a bad message. That’s an honest message. It’s no slight against them.”
But it’s ridiculous to blame the Cubs’ collapse on the loss of one position player — albeit the reigning National League batting champ — and two pitchers who have a history of injury problems. Even the Florida Marlins, with 15 rookies and a payroll less than $15 million, have a better record than Baker’s Cubs.
Meanwhile, broadcaster Bob Brenly, who guided the Arizona Diamondbacks to a World Series championship in 2001, has stepped up his on-air criticism of Baker. A year ago, Brenly seemed terrified to say anything that would upset the overly touchy Cubs brass.
”I don’t have a response,” Baker said. ”Bob is doing his job. That’s what he sees.”
If Brenly is doing his job, what is Baker doing?
”We’re not playing well, for whatever reasons, but no alibis, no excuses,” Baker said. ”We just have to get it done, simple as that. Please, no more ‘Are you getting fired?’ questions.”
A player of Tejada’s caliber is rarely dealt at midseason, though one high-ranking team source said Baltimore has already received several inquiries about the 2005 all-star, who is hitting .312 with 16 home runs. The club, according to another Orioles source, would ask for a major league pitcher as part of any package for Tejada.
“If the return is right — two to three pieces that could be core [major league] players quickly, I think they would have to consider it,” said an executive for one American League team. “The reality, however, is that deals like that are not often out there and they would need to be sure they were right on the guys they bet on.”
Those who have spoken to Tejada recently about the subject said he is happy and does not want to be traded. But Orioles executives and Manager Sam Perlozzo have met several times, though not in the past month, to discuss how to deal with Tejada’s tardiness in arriving for games.
One team source said Baltimore has tried to fine Tejada, but those fines have been ignored. The source said it was possible team officials had not pushed Tejada to pay the fines or disciplined Tejada publicly because they did not want to risk alienating him or hurting his trade value.
“I can’t remember the last time I heard anything about it at all,” Orioles Executive Vice President Mike Flanagan said. “Sometimes this business of being late is a matter of interpretation.”
Flanagan said Duquette spoke with Tejada on Sunday and “felt really good” about the conversation. But Tejada arrived at 12:10 p.m. for Sunday’s 1:35 game against the Washington Nationals.
Several team sources said they have noticed Tejada sulking some of late, perhaps stemming from his name being linked to the investigation into an affidavit from former Oriole Jason Grimsley, which appears to link several of his ex-teammates to the use of amphetamines and perhaps other substances. (The names in the affidavit have been redacted.) Since it became public on June 7, Tejada is hitting just .236 (17 for 72).
For about a year, speculation has persisted that the franchise would be sold — or McClatchy would jettison his stake in the team — after the Pirates hosted the Major League Baseball All-Star Game on July 11.
With that date fast approaching — and with the Nutting family’s purchase of Seven Springs Resort becoming public earlier this month — the rumors have intensified. One possibility is for the Nuttings to buy out McClatchy, who spearheaded the most recent ownership change in 1996.
Pressed further on the subject, McClatchy did indicate he would explore his options later in the season.
“I’m going to look at it as we get to the end of the year,” he said. “I’m comfortable with the job and all that. We’ll take a look at it. Right now, we’ve got an All-Star Game coming here. That’s all I care about. That’s where all of my focus is now, making sure we put on the best All-Star Game for the city of Pittsburgh. That’s what we’re working on.”
While most of us were too busy laughing at the oft-replayed meltdown of Ashville Tourists manager Joe Mikulik from this past Sunday night, Bad Altitude’s Mark Donohue took the time to fully analyze the performance.
1) Hat toss
2) Headfirst slide into base at which contested play took place
3) Removal from moorings of base
4) Toss (underhand style) of base
5) Kicking dirt on home plate
6) Kneeling down and using hands to complete covering of home with dirt
7) Chucking of several bats onto field from dugout Return to field from dugout to empty water bottle on home plate
9) Blown kiss to umpire
10) Crouching behind home catcher-style into grand finale spike of water bottle
Mikulik managed to accomplish all of the above while never actually making physical contact with any of the umpires. Watch his body control between 1 and 2 and then again after 10. The Rockies organization should be proud to call this guy one of their own, and be careful to make sure he’s not snatched up by an offer of a higher-level job somewhere else.
Diagnosed in 1991 with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a kidney disease, Hearn has endured three kidney transplants and two bouts with cancer. He often needs the aid of a breathing machine and takes more than 50 types of medication daily in his home in Lenexa, Kan., a suburb of Kansas City.
Tonight, when the three-game series starts in Boston, he will watch the crawl on ESPN, look for a score and feel a pang as the forgotten Met. He hopes this will be an excuse for someone to call.
“I’m doing good for how I feel,” Hearn said from his home. “Twenty years? Heck, it feels like it’s been 40. I hope the next 20 years aren’t as tough as the last 20 years. But somebody has to take the bullets and I was chosen.
“It would be great to hear from an old teammate. It would be great for someone to pick up the phone and say, ‘Ed, how are you doing, man?’ But life moves on. And I know there are a lot of guys on that team who wouldn’t ever give a hoot.”
For all their grittiness, the 1986 Mets, Hearn says, really weren’t that tight. They were 25 guys committed to winning, but driven mostly by individual statistics and the lure of a big contract. When the team dissolved, so did a lot of the friendships.
“I see guys at card shows, guys who were very tight when they played together, and they’re hugging each other and saying, ‘Hey, man, I haven’t talked to you in 10 years!’ How does that happen?” Hearn said. “How can you be close to someone and let them drift out of your life like that?
“But I figure, ‘Hey, if they were really close and they haven’t spoken in years, then I can’t take it personally that no one has called me.’ I was a rookie. I wasn’t a main cog. I was traded the next year.”
“I’ve had flash points in my life when I’ve thought, ‘Why me?’ I’m not going to lie,” Hearn said. “I’m human. I’ve gone through it all — cancer, kidney transplants, dialysis. And I’ve done it multiple times. Any man would start to question why he had to endure so much.”
And when he watched the sports world congratulate former teammates Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden each time they screwed up and saved themselves, only to fail again, Hearn wondered about justice. But that never stopped him from leaving supportive messages for Strawberry and Gooden. Neither ever called back.
Owner Fred Wilpon helped Hearn before his first kidney transplant, but that was about the only contact he has had from the Mets, he said.
“I’ve watched guys get second, third and fourth chances, when people have bent over backwards for guys who have screwed up over and over again, and I’ve been very bitter,” he said. “I mean, I’ve fought just to stay alive. Nobody gave me million-dollar contracts. Nobody gave me jobs. Nobody has given me anything, really.”
Without wishing to diminish Hearn’s plight, it should be pointed out that he had a further two seasons of big league service time with the Royals after leaving the Mets. Whether or not Hearn’s bitterness towards old teammates is limited to those that actually won something, isn’t mentioned.
Despite having more money than God, Dolan is classy enough not to upstage Al Trautwig by turning up for an interview looking any better than your average homeless person. Mark Cuban looks like he shops at Target? No problem, Dolan can go much further downmarket, if need be.
(Yankee fans salute Jason’s campaign to win the Comeback From Comeback Player Of The Year Award)
Though most of tomorrow’s accounts of this contest will center on Randy Johnson’s scoreless 7 innings of work (4 hits, no walks, 9 K’s), Jason Giambi’s ownership of Tim Hudson (2 HR’s, 5 RBI’s) is the 2nd most obvious storyline. Jason could tell Tim a thing or two about the toll NYC nightlife can take on a World Class Athlete. Nothing he wouldn’t already know, however.
(another afternoon game against the Phillies, same old Papi)
Hey, Jonathan Papelbon blew a save today. The good news is that Keith Foulke doesn’t want to talk about it. The bad news for the Phillies is that they wasted a wild comeback at Fenway by refusing to walk David Ortiz with Kevin Youkilis on 2nd base representing the winning run in the bottom of the 12th. It’s going to take more than a shift to stop Ortiz, though perhaps sneaking a 9th or 10th position player onto the field might be a good idea.
The Twins’ 8-2 thumping of the Dodgers — a strong outing for Carlos Silva (8 innings, 2 runs, 6 hits, no walks) — provides us with the following factoids to mull over ;
* – Joe Mauer (4 hits, 5 RBI’s) raised his average to an All-Universe .377. If he’s not the AL’s starting catcher in Pittsburgh, perhaps the NL can draft him.
* – Minnesota has won 15 out of their last 17. During that stretch, they’ve narrowed Detroit’s 11 1/2 game lead to uh, 11 games.
I-Rod’s 3 RBI night — including a 7th inning HR off Wandy Rodriguez — paced the Tigers in their 10-4 obliteration of the Astros, a game that featured Lance Berkman (above left) and Phil Garner being tossed. Arguing over whether or not flag football is a legitimate sport is kind of unseemly.
Congrats to the busy Beavers of Oregon State on capturing their first College World Series title, courtesy of tonight’s 3-2 win over North Carolina. Red Sox first round pick Daniel Bard (7 2/3′rds innings, 2 K’s, 3 runs, 6 hits) took the loss for the Tar Heels, and was victimized by a Bryan Steed throwing error that allowed OSU’s Bill Rowe to score the winning run in the bottom of the 8th. Kevin Gunderson earned the save for Oregon State retiring both batters he faced with the tying and winning runs on 3rd and first. Gunderson had already pitched 5 and 1/3 innings in OSU’s Game Two victory on Sunday.
My own anti-social calendar isn’t nearly as packed — mostly on the advice of a qualified mental health care professional. That said, I’ll be at Yankee Stadium this coming Friday and Saturday, and the beers are on me. That’s usually what happens when I wear a Mets hat into the building.
For a moment I thought Al Trautwig needed my bank account information for a major wire transfer from Nigeria.
Dear Gerard,
Tonight at 10 PM…. Catch an in-depth interview with Madison Square Garden Chairman James Dolan and Knicks President Isiah Thomas discussing Isiah’s new role as coach and the future of the franchise.
Don’t miss Al Trautwig’s exclusive interview… Tonight at 10 PM… Only on MSG SportsDesk.
Though I’m sure Newsday’ Greg Logan would be very intimidated at the thought of his interviewing technique being compared to that of Al Trautwig, the former tried just the same, to sit through a Dolan press conference with a straight face earlier today.
“It’s my contention Larry never intended to coach this team beyond this season,” Dolan said Monday in a meeting with six Knicks beat writers and The Associated Press. Holding one hand about 18 inches above a conference table, Dolan added, “If there’s any doubt about that, there’s a stack of evidence that high.”
>Reviewing the decision he made to hire Brown at the behest of team president Isiah Thomas and Madison Square Garden sports operation head Steve Mills, Dolan admitted, “We made a mistake.”
If anyone pays, it will be Thomas, who was ordered by Dolan to succeed Brown as coach and given an ultimatum to right the ship in one season or follow Brown out the door. “This is his team; he made this bed,” Dolan said of Thomas, who is responsible for bringing in every player on the 15-man roster. “There’s no one better than him to make this go forward. If I can say there has been significant progress after one year, he’ll be here. If we can’t say that, he will not be here.”
As of 8pm, the much ballyhooed A.I.-to-Boston deal is supposedly, not happening. A shame, too. This could’ve done wonders for WEEI’s ratings during the wintertime, regardless of how the Patriots do.
As a proud American, I think it is very important — particularly during wartime — to concentrate on the good things about this land of ours. So what if we crashed out of the World Cup? Who cares if the likes of Larry Brown and Buck Martinez can’t lead our national teams to greater heights in sports we actually invented? Big fucking deal if the only things that differentiate our President from a vegetable are the facts that vegetables a) aren’t nearly as duplicitous and b) don’t do nearly as much blow.
Not only is America a land of Burgers A Plenty, but we’re swimming in such a rich river of consumer products, we’ve got burgers made of marshmallows.
You can take Naismith’s peach basket, jazz, the automobile, the Salk vaccine, genome research, etc., and keep every one of ‘em. I’ll take the Mallow Burger. FUCK OFF, Linus Pauling, let us know when you’ve come up with something nearly as astonishing.
(Fabio Grosso makes a meal of it, and not an appetizing one, either)
93 minutes in and you can look at Lucas Neill’s decisive trip (above) one of two ways ;
a) you can’t possibly put yourself into such a position where a penalty might be called at that moment, especially for such a soft challenge
b) not since Chevy Chase picked up the pain killer addiction has anyone so carefully fallen over themselves as Fabio Grosso.
The first half of this match had a strangely Princetonian basketball vibe to it. Only without the precision or innumerable references to back-doors.
I’m pretty certain the massive exposure afforded to Giorgio Chinaglia this week is going to make him the Shelby Lyman of 2006.
Despite Shevchenko missing the first of his side’s penalty kicks after extra time, the Ukraine have advanced, putting 3 past Switzerland’s Pascal Zuberbuehle, while Oleksandr Shovkovsky provided the goalmouth heroics.
Having already advocated the employ of video replay, the Guardian’s Sean Ingle found Portugal/Holland to be “a cynical fandango of cheating, skulduggery and rampant play-acting.”
At this rate, the World Cup final – one of the great events in any sport – will be played between two reserve teams. That can’t be right.
Immediately after Portugal’s victory, Blatter played the blame game, saying: “I consider that the referee was not at the same level as the participants, the players. There could have been a yellow card for the referee.”
He should be looking closer to home. Last night’s farce was largely of his making.
Yes, the referee made some mistakes – missing Luis Figo’s head-butt, for one. But generally he applied Fifa’s pre-tournament directives on foul play, unsporting conduct and timewasting to the letter. He was only obeying orders. Blatter’s orders.
5 time World Champion Roberto Duran played little league baseball and has always had a great passion for the sport. He considers himself a big league fan, flattered for this invitation to participate in the Diamondbacks pre game festivities. “I’ve got a strong arm, the catcher better be ready,” stated Duran.
Said ceremony will take place Wednesday night before a meeting with the Mariners. It seems a shame this couldn’t have waited for the Dodgers to come to town — the long awaited Nomar / No Mas photo opportunity could’ve finally taken place.
Though I’m sure Wizznutzz will have something to say about this chilling story, I’m sure he’s well aware that any dissenting viewpoint might result in a lifetime selling flowers by the side of the highway. From the Washington Times’ John Mitchell.
Desiring to play for a championship contender, Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas will seriously consider opting out of his contract in 2008 if he doesn’t feel the franchise is committed to building a title-caliber team, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.
“Gil has made it clear to me that his number one priority is to play for championships,” said Dan Fagan, Arenas’ agent. “Right now the Wizards aren’t a championship-caliber team. But we are confident that [president of basketball operations] Ernie Grunfeld can put one together.”
Arenas, 24, said he would like to have his jersey retired in Washington. But heading into the fourth year of his six-year, $65 million deal, the two-time All-Star wants to make sure the Wizards are progressing toward a championship before he makes a long-term commitment to the club.
The Wizards this season reached the playoffs for the second straight year, ending a league-high streak of 18 seasons in which the franchise failed to make consecutive postseason appearances.
But Arenas saw the Wizards’ loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round as a step back from the previous season. Washington defeated the Chicago Bulls in the first round in 2005 before losing to Shaquille O’Neal and the Miami Heat in the second.
“I don’t want to take a step back,” he said. “It’s hard to recover from that sometimes.”
Arenas said he wants to spend his prime years knowing he will compete for a championship every year. Washington last won a championship in 1978 and is not considered a threat to win the Southeast Division, let alone compete for a championship.
“That is what I play this game for,” Arenas said. “Ninety-five percent of the players in this league want to win a championship more than anything else. I won’t be happy just making it to the playoffs every year and that’s it. I want to compete for a championship in my young years.”
Arenas also has indicated he would be disappointed if coach Eddie Jordan does not receive a contract extension. Jordan is in the final year of his contract.
“I’ll even say, if he’s not here I don’t want to be here,” Arenas said after the playoff loss to Cleveland. “I’ll even go that far. That’s how badly I want him here.”
The conscience of sports tv/radio says “enough with the scare tactics.” From Monday’s New York Post :
If we didn’t get the point the first 100 times, we’re not going to get it. It’s time for that anti-smoking ad, the one featuring the poor soul with the hole in his throat – the one that seems to appear 10 times per Met telecast – to take a week off.
Indeed, where are all the public service announcements about late start times for ballgames, overpriced sneakers or the struggles faced by white athletes charged with rape? Amazing that no one at News Corp. has thought of putting Phil in charge of one of their many television properties.
Essentially a one-trick remote control, TV-B-Gone quickly spits out roughly 200 infrared codes and, within customary remote-control range, turns off most televisions in a few seconds. “Restaurants and the Laundromat, those are the big ones for me,” Mr. Altman said, leaning over from his workbench, which was surrounded by at least five computers and covered with arcane chip-programming gear, a soldering iron and an ancient (though functional) oscilloscope.
“Whether TV is on or off is a choice, and I would love for it to be a conscious choice,” he said. “All over the place, TV’s very often are just on, and no one put a lot of thought into whether to put it on or not. And then people don’t really have a choice of turning it off. TV-B-Gone is about giving people that choice.”
I can only admire the tenacity of an inventor that would spent years and tens of thousands of dollars developing such a product rather than, say, eat at home. Or purchase a washer/dryer.
Earlier this month, Altman told a writer from the AP that he first got the idea for TV-B-Gone a decade ago when he was out with friends at a restaurant and they found themselves all glued to the perched TV instead of talking to each other. No one was around to turn the TV off.
Once again, we’re talking about a brilliant man that would go to such lengths to turn remotely off televisions rather than say, find an eatery with no set blaring. Or get some friends who were better conversationalists.
Speaking as one of the few who will openly admit to enjoying the intrusion of CNN, ESPN, Maury Povich and the like in bars, waiting rooms, restaurants, airline terminals, etc. perhaps Altman (above) could spare a thought for those of us who have other, less universal hang-ups about daily interaction with the rest of the human race? Where’s my “Annoying Chit-Chat B Gone” remote, that would allow me to render blowhards, know-it-alls and their ilk mute while I’m trying to concentrate on more important issues (like how to kil them with my bare hands?) How about all of the taxi drivers that insist on playing crap music or hate-fest radio? Where’s my ‘lil remote that will put the kibbosh on such an annoyance? I mean, I could always ask the driver to turn the fucking thing off (much as Altman and his acolytes could humbly ask the owner of an otherwise empty tavern or restaurant to kill the TV for 5 minues) , but wouldn’t it be so much easier to pretend I’m the only person alive with thoughts or feelings?
Apparently, there’s not much of a cottage industry in politely saying “would you mind turning that off, I’m trying to read the Times’ “Circuits” section?”
Poured into a tight-fitting black leather skirt, a shear half-blouse that exposed his bare midriff, and wearing a wig that one of his teammates said made him look like tennis star Serena Williams, Lastings Milledge struck a pouty pose.
”I’m hot,” said the smiling Mets rookie, vamping for television cameras and his teammates that snapped away using camera phones. “You know I’m hot. I’m a 9 or a 10.”
When yesterday’s game ended after Billy Wagner worked out of a mess of his own making in the ninth and the players returned to their clubhouse, Milledge and Cuban-born pitcher Alay Soler found their clothes gone and some garish women’s wear in their place.
The roundish Soler looked rather fetching in a hot-pink plaid skirt and a top that exposed his ample stomach. Soler, who is scheduled to start tomorrow night against the Red Sox, was also given a black wig complete with long braids.
“Don’t get mad because I’m hotter than you,” a laughing Milledge yelled at a woman from a local television station.
Tomorrow, Mike McGann decries the modern definition of “5 tool player.”
Houston – Rudy Gay, F, UConn (rumors of a trade to Memphis flying around)
