As international scouting and hoops coverage become more sophisticated, it’s tougher and tougher to keep a quality player under wraps. The San Antonio Express’ Johnny Ludden on the Spurs’ covert methods surrounding French F Ian Mahinimi, a player likely to spend at least one more season in Europe before making his NBA debut.
“Coltish” was how one scout described Mahinmi (above) after seeing him for the first time in France. The Spurs had their own name for him: John Mason.
Not wanting to tip off their interest in Mahinmi before the 2005 NBA draft, the Spurs gave him an alias. “John Mason” sounded like a basketball player, so the name stuck. Anyone eavesdropping wouldn’t know the difference.
Or so the Spurs thought. With the draft only two weeks away and the Spurs in the middle of the NBA Finals, general manager R.C. Buford opened the Sports section of the San Antonio Express-News and felt his stomach drop. “When you’re talking ‘Detroit basketball,’” read the headline stretched across the top of the page, “you’re talking John Mason.”
Buford relaxed after reading further. The story profiled the Pistons’ public-address announcer, who, in addition to popularizing the chant “DEE-TROIT BAS-KET-BALL,” also happened to share the same name as the one the Spurs selected for Mahinmi.
“All I saw was ‘John Mason’” Buford said, “and thought somebody had found us out.”
Even after trading T.J. Ford to Toronto, the Bucks seemed set at the point guard position with Mo Williams and Charlie Bell still around. Williams was the Bucks’ starter two years ago, and Bell played admirably off the bench last season.
But now the Bucks traded for Portland’s Steve Blake (above), and it’ll be interesting to see how he fits into the equation. Blake was a starter last season in Portland and, if he doesn’t start in Milwaukee, the Bucks are likely to have one unhappy camper on their hands, especially since Blake is in his contract year.
Manchester United will now consider a bid for the Feyenoord striker Dirk Kuyt (above), a long-term target for Liverpool, to replace his departed countryman Ruud van Nistelrooy after it was confirmed yesterday that they have agreed an eye- watering £18.6m fee for Michael Carrick, who will inherit Roy Keane’s No 16 shirt at Old Trafford.
Kuyt has been tracked by Liverpool all summer after playing a central role in the Netherlands’ World Cup finals campaign, although the Merseyside club have refused to meet a £12m valuation of the player. They may have to revise that opinion after it emerged yesterday that United have made enquiries about Kuyt’s situation, as their manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, seeks to strengthen his forward line in the wake of Van Nistelrooy’s departure.
As revealed in The Independent last week, Carrick’s fee was settled in the early hours of Thursday morning at £18m – and Tottenham sought to present the deal in their favour yesterday by revealing that the total could rise to as much as £18.6m. That amount would be payable only if United were to achieve significant success in the Premiership and Champions’ League, but Tottenham can be sure of at least £14m.
Sven Goran Ericksson’s agent, the wonderfully tagged Arthole Still, claims to have “four managers of the highest quality” lined up to succeed David O’Leary at Aston Villa, when and if his client’s takeover bid goes down. “…thus ruling out Mr. Erickson,” quipped the Guardian’s headline writer.
(pic swiped from Subspace, used without permission)
That’s Azerroth The Jovial, above, the self-described Black Metal Comedian. He’ll be appearing at Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse tonight at 9:45pm, along with a screening of “Metal Storm : The Scandinavian Black Metal Wars”.
Tickets are only $2. If I don’t see you there, that’s cause I’m helping Xavier Nady pack.
(Gibby, right, tries to entertain on the set of “The Passion Of The Christ” with tales of Patsy Kensit’s sugar tits and his suspicions that Joe Pesci was Jewish. On the left, Jim Caviezel, naps)
As you’ve probably read, actor/director Mel Gibson is in a bit of hot water over alleged anti-semetic remarks and boorish behavior that occured after he was pulled over on a DUI charge Friday evening. Without wishing to sound cavalier about the insane rantings of a Holocaust revisionist’s son, or his putting the public at risk by driving drunk, the following points need to be made :
4) A couple of inappropriate, hateful remarks, booze-fueled or not, may or may not be the true measure of Gibson’s character. There are other ways of interpreting his nutty world-view.
Predictably, Giants TE Jeremy Shockey has been widely castigated all over the web and yack radio today for his comments in Monday’s papers (calling Tom Coughlin “an ass”, defending the party-hard lifestyle, etc.), but here’s a quote that seemed to escape notice in some quarters. From the New York Daily News’ Ralph Vacchiano.
One thing Coughlin clearly doesn’t approve of is Shockey’s on-field antics, especially when he comes off the field waving his arms or stomping his feet if Eli Manning doesn’t get him the ball. Under Fassel, Shockey said, “I could come off the field like that and he wouldn’t say anything.” But he knows that this year he has to “not look so negative if I don’t get a ball.
“That’s how I am,” Shockey said. “I’m not doing it in a negative way. I’m really hard on myself. It’s not towards Eli or anybody else. Sometimes it’s the call, sometimes it’s the play, sometime it’s the coverage they have on me when they have three guys on the tight end. It ticks me off. (Tight ends) coach (Mike) Pope says ‘You should smile when you walk off and you get double-teamed.’ Well, (shoot), I want to punch somebody.
“Everybody that’s competitive is going to get mad,” Shockey added. “Like Plaxico (Burress). Everybody makes a big deal about him, why he acts like he acts. Well hell, he’s a competitor. Would you rather him walk off, or come back with an AK-47?”
I wasn’t aware that was a possibility, but rather than doubt Shockey’s credibility, perhaps giving Burress a very wide berth would be a good idea.
I don’t wanna snitch on the New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman, but it would appear as though he’s been sneaking columns into the Post under the all-too obvious psuedonym “Andrew Marchand”.
On Friday the YES-produced Ch. 9 telecast failed to even show the crowd’s reaction as Alex Rodriguez walked to the plate for his first at-bat in The Bronx since the epic “To boo or not to boo” debate peaked with Rudy from Manhattan taking a moment from plotting a presidential run to call WFAN.
Despite the monumental buildup, Ch. 9 chose a pitch-by-pitch replay of a Jason Giambi strikeout instead of A-Rod and the fans.
When Rodriguez was neatly tucked in the batter’s box, Michael Kay said, “Here is Alex Rodriguez, who just got a very warm hand from the crowd.”
Wow. That would have been nice to see and hear.
During Rodriguez’ second and third strolls to the plate, drop-in advertisements, voiced by Kay, superseded the crowd’s reaction.
While we couldn’t see or hear for ourselves, Kay and Bobby Murcer (above) informed (propagandized?) us that Yankee fans love Rodriguez and he works really, really hard. On Saturday, Kay said his “work ethic is amazing” and “it is not for show.”
On Friday, Murcer said there were “a lot of cheers tonight for Alex Rodriguez.” Kay told us, the fans were chanting “A-Rod’s” name.
But yesterday on YES, when Rodriguez struck out three times and the boos were easy to pick up from our couch, neither Kay nor Murcer somehow heard a thing.
He’s no good. had a fluke season last year, but a bad player overall. he has yielded 20 homers in 90 innings this season . . . . . i’m not sure what the point was; whose spot on the pitching staff does he take? maybe this is the prelude to another trade — marquis for somebody.
My earlier claim that the Mets were sending Oliver Perez and Heath Bell to the Padres for Scott Linebrink is apparently, 101% bullshit. First person to write in with a joke about how long it will take Rick Peterson to sort out Perez wins a free copy of “The Making Of MLB2K6″ on VHS.
From this jaundiced perspective, Jim Bowden’s inability to get anything more out of Alfonso Soriano than a pair of draft picks in ‘07 (presuming the 2B-turned-leftfielder doesn’t sign a new pact in DC) ranks as a fireable offense. Even more so than DUI. Capitol Punishment’s Chris Needham on Soriano Staying Put :
From day one, Bowden said that he wanted each team’s best prospect. Nobody was willing to give that up, which, I suppose, is understandable. But that doesn’t mean that Bowden should’ve lowered his price. He knew what he had in Soriano: Two months of prodcution + 2 first-round draft picks.
Look at it as a reserve price auction. Let’s say that you’re selling an engagement ring because your fiancee hated your leather pants, and there was an ugly incident where she was beating and scratching you in front of a cop. When you’re selling it on Ebay, you’re probably going to set a reserve price. You don’t want some schlub like Billy Beane coming in and paying $1.75 for a ring you just laid several thousand rubles for.
I guess the only concern I have is whether Bowden’s obsession with Soriano and the accompanying trade talk prevented him from making deals for Ortiz, Armas or Hernandez, but given how crappy they’ve been pitching, it’s unlikely the Nats would’ve received anything useful anyway. (And there’s a chance that Armas and Ortiz could return draft picks at the end of the season anyway).
Right-hander Greg Maddux is leaving the Chicago Cubs after all: He’s headed to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who acquired him seconds before the trade deadline Monday for shortstop Cesar Izturis, CBS SportsLine.com has learned.
Maddux, who approved the deal because the Dodgers are a contender and because he owns homes in Dana Point, Calif., and Las Vegas, immediately will join the Los Angeles rotation. The move also reunites Maddux with Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti, who was an executive with the Cubs early in his career, during Maddux’s first tour with the Cubs.
If you’ve ordered an Oliver Perez Mets jersey from MLB.com, well, too fucking bad. The Mets have flipped Perez and Heath Bell to the Padres in exchange for Scott Linebrink.
There’s a chance this wasn’t Roger Clemens’ favorite portion of Monday’s Houston Chronicle, as penned by Jose De Jesus Ortiz.
Former Astros closer Billy Wagner is ready to give Mets general manager Omar Minaya scouting reports as the National League East leaders pursue a trade for Roy Oswalt (above). Wagner also has assured Minaya that he could help straighten out slumping closer Brad Lidge.“I told Omar, just put (Lidge) out there with me,” Wagner, the Mets’ closer, said via phone Monday morning. “I’ll get him straightened out.”
“What would it mean if we got Roy Oswalt?” Wagner said. “It would be called championship. Put it on the board. I don’t even think Omar would have to ask me about Roy. If he asked me about Roy, I’d tell him, ‘He’s a gamer, goes out there, takes the ball and is ready to play to win.’ That’s what I’d tell him. It’s all about pitching. It’s all about pitching.”
Pop culture maven Roch Kubatko, not content with referrencing “The Jetsons”, says of the speculation surrounding Miguel Tejada,
Forget the Rangers and their Hank Blalock proposal. The Dodgers are fixated on Alfonso Soriano, not Tejada. It hasn’t been confirmed that the Angels added local product Nick Adenhart to their package, but the Orioles would have bitten by now if they liked what was put in front of them.
If Texas was willing to part with Mark Teixeira, a deal would be completed. But what’s the rush? People close to Teixeira know he wants to play here once he becomes a free agent (and that isn’t after the 2006 season. I swear.)
Anyone still believe Tejada is leaving Baltimore?
If the Orioles wanted to deal with the Dodgers, they could have traded Melvin Mora, the player Los Angeles really coveted before he signed his extension. Like many teams, they’re sniffing around Daniel Cabrera, hoping that the Orioles lose patience and make him available.
It flies in the face of Terry Francona telling third baseman Mike Lowell last week on the West Coast that he would not be traded, but according to a major league executive who said he spoke directly with one of the three teams involved, the Red Sox are working on a three-way deal with Tampa Bay and San Diego in which they would end up with Devil Rays infielder Julio Lugo and Padres setup man Scott Linebrink, with Lowell going to the Padres. The Devil Rays presumably would end up with prospects from one or both clubs.
Late last night, the Mets were in negotiations with the Giants in an effort to acquire right-hander Jason Schmidt. The deal is a long shot, but it was intriguing enough to both sides that they were exchanging names. Interestingly, Lastings Milledge, who’d been the key name in the Mets’ murky efforts to land Barry Zito from Oakland, is not one of the names involved in talks with the Giants. San Francisco, according to a person close to the talks, would rather make Aaron Heilman the centerpiece of a Schmidt deal, adding a prospect or two around him.
The Mets likely would be willing to deal Heilman, especially for a pitcher with Schmidt’s resume, but if they did so they’d look to make another deal for a relief pitcher, possibly from the Roberto Hernandez/Salomon Torres/John Grabow group of available Pittsburgh Pirates. There are plenty of middle relievers on the market, and the Mets believe they could find someone to replace Heilman as their seventh-inning man.
Finally, for a guy who receives zero consideration when his club needs a 5th starter, Aaron Heilman has crazy trade value. The Baseball Prospectus’ Will Carroll has another scenario for the Mets’ middle reliever.
The Mets haven’t made the most of Aaron Heilman. Once expected to be a rotation fixture, the pitcher has instead found a home in the bullpen. He could find a home closer to his midwest roots if the information I got from a Mets official pans out. I’m told that the Mets are discussing shipping Heilman to the Cardinals in return for free-agent-to-be Jason Marquis. The Mets would need to fill the bullpen slot, possibly reaching out for Roberto Hernandez or shifting Brian Bannister to the pen.
The Mets have nothing working with Lastings Milledge (quick trivia question: Why is he named “Lastings”?) He was ejected, not removed, from his Triple-A game today after arguing balls and strikes. Any suggestion that this was indicative of an impending deal didn’t do the homework. It didn’t take good sources on this one, it took checking the boxscore.
Yesterday, the Phillies designated Franklin (above) for assignment. They have 10 days to dispose of his contract. The Rangers and Pirates are believed to be interested.
Did Franklin feel betrayed? Lied to?
“Yeah,” Franklin said. “They signed me to be a starter. I did nothing in spring training to show them I couldn’t start.
“After Leiber got hurt, they brought the young guys up, and I said, ‘Why? Why can’t I get an opportunity?’ ” Franklin said.
This is the latest misjudgment in Gillick’s first season. After touting their improved bench, infielder Alex Gonzalez played so badly he retired, catcher Sal Fasano broke down and was designated for assignment last week, and infielder Abraham Nunez is hitting .167. In the bullpen, Franklin, Arthur Rhodes, Aaron Fultz, Julio Santana, Ricardo Rodriguez all have failed to perform to expectations.
Franklin was failing, but hoped that starting might help him out.
Franklin said he asked manager Charlie Manuel twice, in private, and was rebuffed. Franklin finally got a chance: A spot start in Toronto. He declined, since it was made plain it would be a one-start deal.
“This really worked me mentally,” Franklin said. “I never would have signed if I had known this.”
Actually, the sweep was the first four game sweep of the Cards since 1972, if I can go by the WGN booth, and the October talk is mostly about whether Dusty Baker will be fired or not (right, Hendry still hasn’t made up his mind yet). The real news this weekend at Wrigley appears to be the introduction of The James Gang’s “Funk #49″ into the between innings play list. Given the choice, I’ll take Walsh over Buffett (if that’s the choice). Also weird was hearing WGN plug Lollapallooza’s Grant Park shows, and hearing the name Sonic Youth during a Cubscast.
What can you say as a Cub fan … it’s one of those years when you know by July you’re out of it, so sweeping the Cards two times in a year at Wrigley is about as good as its going to get. As far as the Maddux trade goes, it’s a lot of trying-to-be-polite double talk. Dusty and Hendry have made it clear, in every venue they can, that they aren’t looking for a deal. Maddux deserves real respect — so you actually have to call them. It’s kind of like E-Bay, but you can’t bid in increments of .50. The way to make clear you’re not looking to lose Maddux is to say “No.” And Maddux is equally passionate about staying, telling the Trib, “Jim [Hendry] has to do what’s best for the organization, and if that’s trading me, I’m happy to go, and if that’s keeping me, I’m more than happy to stay.” The way Dusty talks, the best thing the Cubs have to look forward to in ‘06 is Carlos Lee leaving the NL.
After the game St. Louis confirmed their acquisition of 2B Rafael Belliard from the Indians in exchange for 2B Hector Luna. This is really gonna hurt Junior Spivey’s feelings.
I’m sure there’s a lot of people in Chicago who’d like to see Cor3y Patterson hit with a pitch. Trouble is, most of ‘em are Cubs fans. There’s probably someone in Baltimore who’d like to see Miguel Tejada hit with a pitch, but enough about Peter Angelos. Not exactly a heroic afternoon in Charm City for Javier Vazquez (above), who again once again, hit the wall, big time after his pitch count passed 75. Nor did Neil Cotts or Bobby Jenks cover themselves in glory. It was a heck of a way to squander a 5 RBI day for Jermaine Dye, a yet another opportunity lost to gain ground on New York, Detroit or Minnesota.
Roger Clemens’ Sunday line : 7 IP, 9 K’s, 2 hits, no runs…and sure enough, a no decision. Conor Jackson’s 2 run HR off Brad Lidge in the 9th inning gave Arizona a 7-5 lead. Earlier, Eric Brynes hit a 3 run HR off Chad Qualls. Brynes made a tremendous running catch with two out in the bottom of the 9th and Adam Everett on 2nd representing the tying run, robbing Brad Ausmus of extra-bases. Jorge Julio picked up his 13th save…and Lidge’s trade value (presuming there’s even a chance of his being dealt in the next half day) seems to drop every time he touches a baseball.
The Independent’s Tim Collings wonders why Martin Allen would leave Brentford for Milton Keynes Dons. Obviously, he’s not seen the toilets at Griffin Park. Allen, however, describes his first days on the new job.
After a further chat, about budgets, ambitions and players, during which Allen (above) was assured that his wish-list was within the chairman’s price range, they reached agreement. Since then, Allen has recruited six players and is hunting for one more, but some have gone.
Two of the departed left swiftly, having failed to attend meetings to discuss their futures. He knew he had to act decisively. “If they couldn’t make their way in to see the new manager of a club that was just relegated, then I could not see they would be dedicated to turning this club around,” he said.
That was followed by the axing of the players’ buffet lunch. “The chairman here is very generous,” said Allen. “But we are just one division from the Conference… I think they needed a reality check. There was no food at Barnet [where Allen was manager for two years] or Brentford. It was all brought in. And that didn’t stop us…
“This was a challenge, to see if they were with you or not. I opened the doors into their room and took a look – and there they were with their Tupperware boxes with sandwiches, fruit salads, yoghurts, rice and pasta salads. There was a real buzz. For me, the manager, it was a joy to see. There was no sulking and moaning and they understood my reason.
The Yankees will send the Phillies 20-year-old minor-league shortstop C.J. Henry — their No. 1 pick in 2005 — and 27-year-old left-handed reliever Matt Smith, in exchange for Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle. The Phillies will also pick one other minor-league player from an agreed-upon list, while the Yankees will take on responsibility for Abreu and Lidle’s contracts. Abreu is owed $15 million for 2007 alone.
Abreu has a full no-trade clause in his contract and has the right to accept or reject the deal. In the past his agent has said any team trading for Abreu would have to pick up his $16 million option for 2008 to get him to waive the no-trade clause. However, Abreu himself recently has backed off that stance.
Abreu was pulled from the lineup prior to the first game of the Phillies’ twinbill with the Marlins.
Chase Utley’s 4th inning double in the above contest — Philly’s up, 5-2 — extended his hitting streak to 30 games.
Depite having not allowed more than 2 earned runs in any of his ‘06 starts for Houston, Roger Clemens’ return to the Astros, while undoubtedly lucrative, has done little to add to his legacy, nor vault Houston back into contention. The New York Post’s Joel Sherman rubs it in.
Faced with a four-team field from which to choose, The Rocket un-retired to the club looking the worst as the trade deadline neared.
However, Houston GM Tim Purpura said “zero” when asked if he either had considered dealing Clemens before tomorrow’s 4 p.m. non-waiver trade deadline or if the fickle righty had asked to be moved to avoid the risk of pitching in meaningless games in what is now his fourth “retirement season.”
Nevertheless, the Rangers called recently just to make sure, and the Yanks and Red Sox have stayed in touch, as well. Before signing May 31, Clemens had narrowed his final choice to Houston and Boston, and he threw such bouquets at the Red Sox upon signing with the Astros that a few executives spoken to in the last week said they wouldn’t be surprised to see Clemens wind up with Boston again. Clemens had liked the idea of mending fences in Boston, and finishing his career where it started and potentially going into the Hall of Fame as a Red Sox.
In an e-mail exchange, Red Sox GM Theo Epstein would not divulge any of Boston’s plans. Officials from other clubs cited Epstein among the most active GMs. One AL executive said “it is interesting the stuff he is trying to get done.”
The Astros were working hard to land either Alfonso Soriano or Miguel Tejada with the idea of sparking a feeble offense and, potentially, appeasing Clemens. But perhaps the industrious Epstein could acquire a power hitter and turn that hitter into Clemens. However, the Red Sox and Orioles have not re-generated their Tejada talks from the offseason.
Despite leaving yesterday’s win over the Braves after taking a pitch off his right knee, the Mets’ Carlos Delgado (above, right) has 3 RBI’s so far today, two of ‘em coming on a first inning, 2-run HR off Chuck James. Carlos Beltran hit a line-drive, grand slam into the left-field seats a shot time later, and New York leads Atlanta, 8-3 in the bottom of the 3rd. We’ve heard no chants of “bring in Baez” but that’s only because they’re a spiritual bunch at Turner Field.
With Bruce Sutter being inducted into the National Baseball Hall Of Fame & Museum today, Yahoo’s Jeff Passan would like to see Bill James and Buck O’Neil enter the same rarified air. While I have no argument with either man’s qualifications, for James, the dilemma is obvious. Which one of his biggest fans introduces him to the overflow Cooperstown crowd, Larry Bowa or Joe Morgan?
(Musselman informs Kings players that practice is cancelled and they’ll spend the afternoon doing inventory at the Darla warehouse, instead)
If everyone lost their job for a) not getting along with Danny Fortson or b) failing to see the potential in Mike Dunleavy, the unemployment rate in this country would be close to 50%. And with that in mind, check out some quotes from Sacramento Kings coach Eric Musselman’ former players during his tenure in Oakland. From the Sacramento Bee’s Sam Amick.
Many players who once seemed to despise Musselman now swear by him, perhaps because of the lesser talked-about effect of his tenure. Gilbert Arenas, Erick Dampier and Antiwan Jamison, among others, had some of their finest years under Musselman and landed huge contracts after leaving Golden State. Musselman was fired with one year left on his three-year contract.
“What happened at Golden State? He brought a team up, did what it took, and we won (17) more games than the year before with the same group,” said Arenas, the two-time All-Star Washington guard. “That should speak for itself.”
Arenas’ first impression wasn’t so flattering. On the first day of training camp, Musselman told him that Bobby Sura was going to be the opening-game starter. Musselman was, as Arenas learned, telling a white lie to motivate him into having a good camp.
“I was like, Uh, uh, not on my watch,” Arenas said. “But he got me going. He reminds me of an Avery Johnson (Dallas) type of coach. He’s fiery. He’s going to push you. He’s a player’s coach, and you rarely find that in this league.”
Months after Dampier called the coach “Musselhead”, he became the first player to invite Musselman to his house. With some Warriors teammates, they had a catfish dinner courtesy of Dampier’s mother and sisters that showed Musselman the importance of player-coach bonding.
“That was a point in time where there was pressure, and I felt we should have won the (Minnesota) game,” said Dampier, who is now with Dallas. “It was (said) just out of frustration. If I could go back and do it over, I never would’ve said that.
“Eric gave me the opportunity that no other coach has given me, the opportunity to show the real Erick Dampier. He’s a player’s coach, even though he’s never played in this league.”
Demanding that “Team USA needs to crap the bed in the 2006 tourney. Nothing will get Gil and Antawn out from under Krzyzewski’s iron fist quicker than an early, ignoble exit.”, the Daily Bacon’s Rex Chapman (whose life is not about playing games) questions Coach K’s qualifications to lead our national side in the World Championships.
I’m not sure whether Krzyzweski’s command of Japanese will be sufficient to ride the referees into calling fouls after the merest flutter of a USA Basketball player’s limb while allowing American defenders to maul and hump their opponents mercilessly on defense. More importantly, he could convince Gilbert that he is fouled every time he drives the lane – the first step towards his eventual mutation into a moose.
The more a player toils under Krzyzewski, the worse he sucks in the NBA. Remember Trajan Langdon? No, I don’t think you do. Only if you leave Duke early, like Elton Brand, do you have a chance of overcoming his anti-professionalism. (Grant Hill resisted, so before he was drafted, a team of midget orthopedists replaced his ankles with plaster and applesauce.)
Joe is now 15 (and I am 60) and he is overscheduled, which I don’t mind, except that it makes me overscheduled. I often drive him around and he plays CD compilations consisting mainly of rap tunes on the car’s player.
“I’m gonna get my gun!” Around our neighborhood here in South Bend, Ind., young folks do often go and get their guns.
I, of course, dislike Joe’s taste in music, but can’t keep from recalling that my parents abhorred my music. The Beatles? Janis Joplin? So, I try to temper my criticism–I don’t want to sound like too much of a hypocrite. So, I let Joe listen to his music of choice. The sexual content and language of a lot of it shocks me–me, a child of the ’60s! Petey Pablo’s “Freek-A-Leek” is one of the worst offenders.
We live in what’s called an “urban” neighborhood, which translates into poor black people living within shouting distance of the white college professors. So I make Joe listen to my anti-rap tirades. My tirades sound pretty much like the anti-rap speech the character played by the rap star Ludacris makes in the film “Crash.” Oh, the irony, Ludacris’ character sounding like Bill Cosby, or for that matter Bill O’Reilly, attacking rap for what it does to black culture, shortly after he and his buddy have carjacked a monster luxury sport-utility vehicle. I wondered, after “Crash” won the Oscar for best film this year, if a white screenwriter had penned that anti-rap monologue, or if a black writer had done it. In any case, the gangsta rap group Three 6 Mafia won the Oscar for best song, “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.” Pick your irony.
Joe has forced me to listen to Eminem and his band D12, and after a while I began to realize M&M (my preferred spelling) has some talent.
Finding something a little self-serving about the New York Jets’ various exclusive tie-ins with CotterVision (aka SportsNet NY), the New York Daily News’ Bob Raissman examines the club’s habit of treating the rest of the working media like shit.
D’Brickashaw Ferguson, practicing his postgame routine that will follow every Jets loss, ran away from the welcoming committee of boss scribes.
His actions prove he will fit right in with Gang Gone. Clearly, Ferguson is already a student of Jets history. Perhaps Eric Mangini (above) had Ferguson study film of Woody Johnson’s performance with the media last November following the Jets’ 27-0 loss to Denver in the Mile High City.
Walking briskly toward the exit, Johnson told reporters: “They gave everything they had . . . That’s my last comment.”
Unfortunately for everyone covering the Jets, and the faithful who follow them, that was not – and won’t be – Band-Aid Boy’s final public pronouncement. Moments like these are what those assigned to cover this second banana franchise have come to expect.
Still, there is a strange dichotomy when it comes to the media and the Jets. While the organization routinely has treated the print media like garbage, the current regime is overly concerned with the TV and radio products it controls and produces.
As for the players, well, some of them will oil their mouths up when they are paid for it. Who can forget those memorable words Checkbook Chad Pennington voiced during the 2004 season? “It’s not your right (to cover the Jets),” Pennington said. “It’s a privilege.” This is the same guy who, in 2003, authored his own media blackout, which conveniently did not extend to his paid gig on ESPN-1050 radio.
Actually, it isn’t even a story from this weekend. But it provides some documentation, however nebulous, that Junior Spivey is Alive, if not well, in Memphis. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Joe Strauss.
Memphis Redbirds second baseman Junior Spivey reacted harshly to a three-game suspension he served after missing a sign and then having a dugout confrontation with manager Danny Sheaffer last Sunday.
Spivey described the suspension as “absurd” and “a crazy, crazy deal” to the Memphis Commercial-Appeal. The suspension and an accompanying $250 fine resulted from Spivey swinging through a third-inning take sign. He and Sheaffer exchanged words after the manager pulled him from the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader against Iowa.
Spivey, a former NL All-Star, returned to the club Friday but did not appear in the Redbirds’ win over Salt Lake. He did, however, share his feelings over recent events.
“I can understand fining me or making a point by yanking me,” Spivey told the Commercial-Appeal. “But suspending me? That’s embarrassing. And you know how that looks in the eyes of the fans. It makes it look like I’m the problem. I can’t be blamed for the struggles of this team.”
Spivey, signed to a $1.2 million guaranteed contract last December, is hitting .173 with 12 errors in 67 games.
Newsday’s Ken Davidoff takes note of Carlos Beltran’s dramatically superior road numbers compared to his production in Flushing and suggests “Beltran, the past Shea Stadium boos still ringing in his ears, does press at Shea Stadium. ”
Perhaps, but Beltran’s ‘06 isn’t merely the “huge success” that Davidoff describes. It’s also an MVP caliber campaign from a player who was jeered repeatedly during the Mets’ first homestand. After witnessing Aaron Heilman and Carlos Delgado receive similar treatment from Queens’ cultured baseball experts last week, I have to wonder if it would take a 25 game lead in the NL East to shut some of these people up.
Todd Jones writes of Trade Deadline Nerves in today’s Detroit Free Press. To coin a recent phrase from a popular commerical, there’s a future for Todd in the beverage distribution business.
Other than my faith in our education system, I have no reason to believe the following message, received late yesterday evening, is not on the level.
Harold is a personal friend of mine (like my little brother) so I know his side of the story which will soon come out at his attorney’s discretion. Not only am I personal friend of Harold, I am a professional fact-finding investigator in discrimination cases, including sexual harassment cases.
Under the law, nothing that Harold did fits under the definition of sexual harassment. According to the law; “Any unwanted (unwelcome) words, touching, gestures or action of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment.” In order to have a case of sexual harassment the allege victim must tell the person initiating the actions or gesture that their actions and gesture is unwelcome and unwanted. If the person ignore the victims warning and persist with the behavior, that constitute sexual harassment. This never happened in the case of Harold Reynolds and ESPN’s Human Resource manager should be fired for not knowing the law and the definition of sexual harasssment.
Unwanted sexual advances are determined by the allege victim. To one woman, a hand shake can be considered sexual harassment. To another a mere look could be considered sexual harassment and to another a friendly hug can be sexual harassment.
What is unusual about the ESPN case against Harold Reynolds is that none of the white victims have been identified. In contrast, in the case of the allege black victim vs Duke University, not only was the so called black victim identified, but all of her family members and ex-boyfriends were also identified.
What about the allege hug. I believe Harold hugged the girl, because he hugs everyone. I was at the hospital when he hugged a little boy who was dying of cancer and was his last dying wish to see Harold. Not only did Harold hug the little (in his isolation tent), he knelt down besides the bed and prayed for the little boy while the boy’s cried.
I was there when he hugged a homeless bum who said he was Harold’s fan. Not only did Harold hug the man, he invited the man and his homeless friends to be his guest at the next game (in his box seats) and instructed me to take care of the tickets, food and all the arangements.
I was there when he hugged the man that sell the peanuts at the game. The man was a guest at Harold’s home for a family barbeque. Harold always invite people to his home, against my advice.
I seen him hug a little Asian girl that was part of Major League Baseball commerical.
I seen him hug (male) the head of an inner-city Little League that needed uniforms for all 13 team in the league. The hug came after he had purchased uniforms and equipment for all 13 teams.
I seen him hug his team mates, church members friends and people whom he has met for the first time (men, women, and children).
Nothing like a CSTB commentator suggesting a victory over Tampa Bay “should only count as half a win” to get the lowly Devil Rays all cranked up. They scored a club record 19 runs yesterday, chasing the nauseous (and nauseating) Randy Johnson (above) and snapping a 10 game road losing streak in the process.
The New York Times’ Jack Curry, no doubt mindful that the Yankees slipped behind the White Sox in the chase for the AL’s Wild Card bid, characterizes the deadline dealing on Mount Steinbrenner as follows :
Even as the Yankees continued their conversations with the Philadelphia Phillies about right fielder Bobby Abreu and starting pitchers Cory Lidle and Jon Lieber, they could not predict if the discussions would lead to any deals.
Because Abreu has $17.5 million left on his contract, the Yankees do not want to include valuable prospects like pitcher Phil Hughes and outfielder Jose Tabata in a deal. The Yankees believe that the Phillies could be growing more flexible about accepting lesser players or picking up a portion of Abreu’s contract.
Besides the Phillies, the Yankees are having the most active talks with the Pittsburgh Pirates, who could move relievers Roberto Hernández and Salomón Torres and outfielders Craig Wilson and Jeromy Burnitz. Cashman has been focused on adding pitching, but his continued interest in Abreu is intriguing.
If David Ortiz is gonna be shift-proof, it might be time for an opposing pitcher or manager to just set up a tee at home plate and have his club head to the showers. Late in the game, preferably. The Globe’s Gorden Edes reported earlier today that a Red Sox trade proposal that would’ve sent Coco Crisp to Chicago in exchange for Mark Buehrle was rebuffed.
Shawn Green brings his own soap on every road trip. Mike Cameron never forgets his lavender linen spray and orange-scented spray for the room. Ichiro Suzuki depends on an electric massager that takes up nearly half his suitcase.
And then there’s Detroit closer Todd Jones (above), who wears only one pair of underwear when the Tigers leave town.
“I don’t pack any underwear,” he said. “I wear it into the park, it gets washed every day and I wear it out of the park. I guess that’s weird. I’m not proud of it, but I’m cutting down on space.”
As noted earlier, the BBC is pulling the plug on “Top Of The Pops” after 42 years. With the final transmission scheduled for Sunday evening, Slade’s Jim Lea shares his fond memories with the Guardian’s Dave Simpson and Dorian Lynskey.
There was a lot of rivalry. When we first went straight in at number one [with Cum On Feel The Noize], I remember walking in and other acts went quiet. Ray Davies came up to me in the BBC bar and said, “Don’t keep doing the same thing”, and I hummed his hits at him and said, “It didn’t stop you!” He threw Coca-Cola over me and it all kicked off. We were banned from the BBC bar for months. Jimmy Savile gave me the best advice: “Always remember the tide comes in and goes out again.” We were regular blokes who treated it like a night’s work and had a pie afterwards, and I think that’s why people loved us. But we went to town on the outfits, especially Dave Hill. He’d get changed in the bogs and every time he came out I held my head in my hands. Someone said, “Have you seen the state of your guitarist? He looks like a metal nun!”
According to the LA Daily Times’ Mike DiGiovanna, The Angels are amongst those eager to gain the services of Orioles 3B Miguel Tejada, while the Baltimore Sun’s Dan Connolly cites no fewer than 4 other clubs in on the bidding.
Baseball Prospectus’ Will Carroll gamely attempts to shift through the clutter :
The Astros and Angels have made their final offers on Miguel Tejada. The Orioles now have to decide if it’s enough to give up their star shortstop. The Astros have a backup plan in Julio Lugo, but need to act quickly because Toronto is also in on the Devil Rays shortstop. Tejada is more likely to move if the O’s are willing to absorb a bit of salary in return for him. One other team took a look at Tejada and decided to pass. “There’s some questions there. The Palmeiro thing and he’s checked out on the O’s. I don’t know if going to a contender changes him if it’s not the right manager,” I was told.
Aside from Lugo, could the Rays trade some of their disgruntled minor league studs? The organization seems to be at the end of their rope with B.J. Upton, Delmon Young and Elijah Dukes. Young won’t be traded–the Albert Belle comparisons are ringing more true, but remember Belle’s bat. Upton likely won’t be moved either, but Dukes could be sent out despite not getting value back just to send a message to the more talented pair.
Everyone’s still watching the Red Sox, an organization that’s plugged most of their former leaks. Whispers of Coco Crisp and Mark Loretta being shopped are coming from other organizations. The chattering masses (myself included) are trying to connect the dots here without much luck so far. Some of this–but not all–is smart use of misdirection. We’ll know soon, I’m told. One of my best sources says the first of the Red Sox deals will happen this afternoon
Having spent the better part of Friday in airports and hotels, I’m not quite sure how I managed to miss the following article by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, but if you enjoy following the career trajectory of Devil Rays prospects BJ Upton, Delmon Young and Elijah Dukes, it was a doozy.
Devil Rays general manager Andrew Friedman, who called Upton two weeks ago and told him switching to third base could mean a quick call-up to the big leagues, isn’t tipping his hand. He is listening to trade offers for shortstop Julio Lugo and third baseman Ty Wigginton. So far, no trades.
No trades means no call-ups.
“I don’t know what they’re waiting for,” Young (above) says. “They’re what, 30 games (actually 20) out of first place? They think we’re going to mess up their clubhouse chemistry. B.J. should be up there. What are they waiting for? They always have excuses.”
Dukes is staring disgustedly at his baseball jersey while talking. It has dark stains around the collar. His pants have tears by both knees.
If this were the big leagues, the uniform would be in the garbage.
But this is Durham.
“In the big leagues, you throw your uniform on the ground, and it’s washed and hung up nicely in your locker,” Dukes says. “Here you do that, you come back the next day and find it still on the floor. Those guys up there (in the big leagues) shower in Evian. Here, we use sewer water.”
“It’s pretty clear how they feel,” Andrew Friedman said. “I think it shows a lot of disrespect toward the game and the achievement of becoming a major-league player. The whole article is something we take great exception to.”
“I don’t know what qualifies people, at any age, to disrespect anybody in the manner that that article indicated to me,” Joe Maddon said. “It speaks to disrespect, and it speaks to the sense of entitlement that the athletes seem to have today and I totally disagree with.”
Rays veteran Ty Wigginton, when informed of Dukes’ remark about the Evian showers in the majors, begged to differ.
“Actually, we get individual scrubs from the trainers,” Wigginton said. “I go back there and I sit in a big Jacuzzi and [trainers Paul] Harker and Ronnie Porterfield give me a sponge bath.”
“If I could beg, I would beg. Send me where you want, but not to San Francisco,” said Pirates reliever Salomon Torres, who stressed he loves the city and people. He even made peace with Bonds and they chatted Friday. But Torres had such a rotten time in San Francisco, from 1993-95, the idea of going back revolts him.
“A terrible feeling went through my body because all of a sudden all the bad memories that I have, especially from ‘94 and ‘95, somehow I relived them in a matter of seconds,” Torres said. “It was a very difficult time for me, in part because of lack of experience and different issues I had to deal with, with Barry, at the time. It made my life miserable.”
Torres said he asked for a trade because Bonds often berated him. The Giants eventually sent him to Seattle.
“Many times I cried myself to sleep, because I was looking for a brother on the team, a mentor who could help me out, coming from another country, a different culture and all that,” the Dominican Republic native said. “I didn’t get that, because the clubhouse was very divided at the time and I was in the middle of it.”
“By far, that’s the worst time I had in my career,” Torres said, referring to his dealings with Felipe Alou. “It prompted my (temporary) retirement. He didn’t treat me the way I felt he should have been treating me. … He never went straight to me and told me what was going on, and I resent him for that.
“I don’t want to relive what I went through, especially in ‘97 with the Expos with Felipe. I have the utmost respect for him, but if I stay away from him, it’s better. I’m just looking for my future sanity.”
Though Jason Stark and a few chat radio hounds were howling about the likelihood of Wily Mo Pena being traded, the Boston Herald’s Michael Silverman claims Coco Crisp is the Red Sox outfielder who might be dealt.
In order to add another starter to the rotation for the remainder of this season and possibly beyond, the Red Sox are making two-thirds of their starting outfield – center fielder Coco Crisp and right fielder Trot Nixon – available to other teams while also making it clear that young pitchers Jonathan Papelbon, Jon Lester, Craig Hansen and Manny Delcarmen are not going anywhere.
A major league source yesterday said the Red Sox had recently made a concrete offer that included Crisp to another team for a starter.
Crisp’s availability can be read any number of ways. The 26-year-old is having a mildly disappointing season so far – .275 batting average and 11 stolen bases after his 2-for-4 effort in an 8-3 loss to the Los Angeles Angels last night – but his upside is still considered quite high. Cost control is another factor that would make him attractive, considering that he and the Red Sox agreed this April to a three-year contract extension worth $15.5 million, plus an $8 million option for 2010.
Newsday’s Bob Herzog echoes a Stark claim from yesterday, that the Phillies are looking to move Jon Lieber and Bobby Abreu as a combo platter, and the Yankees might be one of the only suitors with enough of an appetite.
Heilman is only six months younger than Zito, and he’s accomplished almost nothing in comparison. Olney mentioned Heilman’s “upside”, but Heilman is running out of time for upside. His ERA is 4.47. In a weaker league. As a reliever. If Heilman is the return, I’d much rather keep Zito, try to win this year, and get two draft picks in what is supposed to be a very strong draft class.
The bigger question is a philosophical one: should the A’s trade Zito at all, when they’re still tied for first place with 62 games remaining? Is there any way they could get anything for Zito that wouldn’t decrease their chances of winning the division this year?
It’s an interesting question. The A’s upper farm system is so barren, that it’s hard to imagine the A’s getting much better than they are now in the next couple of years. This may be there best chance to win a division for a while. On the other hand, Zito is probably their best, or only, tool they have to restock the upper levels of the farm system with some talent.
Perhaps the Zito dilemma shouldn’t be viewed in a vacuum. There are ways Beane can improve the A’s in other areas to make up for the loss of Zito, and give the A’s a chance to compete this year and next. For example, I’d like to see the A’s go out and nab a third baseman like Joe Randa, just so they can let Eric Chavez hit the DL and fix his tendonitis with rest. Randa, mediocre as he is, would still easily improve on the .100 batting average that both Chavez and Antonio Perez are putting up there right now. Then maybe you have a healthy Chavez for September.
The Knicks signed the defensive-minded forward Jared Jeffries to an offer sheet yesterday, although it is possible he will never pull on a Knicks jersey.
Jeffries, who has played his entire four-year career in Washington, is a restricted free agent. Under N.B.A. rules, the Wizards have seven days to match the Knicks’ offer. (That window will not begin until Monday, when the Knicks are expected to file the paperwork with the league.)
It is believed the Knicks gave Jeffries the maximum terms allowed using the midlevel salary-cap exception — about $30 million over five years. His starting salary would be $5.215 million.
The Wizards seem likely to match the offer. All of the Wizards’ key officials — the owner, Abe Pollin; the president, Ernie Grunfeld; and Coach Eddie Jordan — have said they want to keep Jeffries.
On Thursday, an NBA GM told me the Blazers chances of trading Darius Miles before the season are “impossible.” Then, he said, “unless… the team was willing to part with either Brandon Roy or LaMarcus Aldridge as part of the deal.”
Take a minute with that one. Kick it around. Then, let it settle in the part of your brain that remembers how volatile, apathetic, disinterested and destructive Miles can be to a team.
There is no clean, easy way out of this for the team that gave him that awful six-year, $48 million free-agent contract two summers ago. If the Blazers trade Miles now, they will have to give up a promising young player to do so. If they keep Miles around, they put him in the center of a young, impressionable bunch.
You can cut Miles, and keep the prospects. Insiders will tell you that the franchise isn’t a fan of doing that because money is guaranteed and it sets a bad precedent. But I think letting Miles walk isn’t the worst idea around.
Miles by himself is unpalatable, but an NBA team would be willing to swallow him in order to get a sexy asset. If the Blazers had better veterans to use as carrots, they wouldn’t be here. Apparently, dangling Juan Dixon isn’t getting it done.
The Atlanta Braves made another trade to bulk up their bullpen Friday night, acquiring reliever Danys Baez and infielder Willy Aybar from the struggling Los Angeles Dodgers for infielder Wilson Betemit.The deal was announced after the Braves’ 6-4 loss to New York, which left them 13 games behind the Mets in the NL East. Atlanta’s best hope for making its 15th straight playoff appearance is the wild card, and they are counting on Baez to provide a reliable set-up man for new closer Bob Wickman.
ESPN’s Buster Olney is claiming Oakland will send Barry Zito to the Mets if Lastings Milledge is part of the package the A’s receive in return. The other pieces of the package weren’t specified, but presumably their last names are either Pelfrey or Heilman.
One night after the Staten Island Yankees honored their onetime pitcher with a commemorative bobblehead, the full-sized Chien-Ming Wang baffled the Devil Rays en route to a complete game, 2-hit shutout, as the Yankees defeated Tampa Bay, 6-0. Bernie Williams hit his 8th HR of the year, Derek Jeter was 3 for 5 with a double and a pair of RBI’s, and Alex Rodriguez….wasn’t charged with any errors (sorry).
The Phillies have traded David Bell to Milwaukee for 22 year old RHP Wilfrido Laureano. The latter was placed on the West Virginia Power’s suspended list earlier this month for undisclosed reasons, though perhaps a premonition that he’d someday be linked in baseball history with David Bell was enough to provoke some violation of club rules. Ned Yost’s son, Ned IV, is the Power’s first baseman (and presumably, the resident snitch), so perhaps there’s some greater insight at work. Greater than mine, anyway.
The Marlins’ Ricky Nolasco took a no-hitter into the 7th inning tonight in Philadelphia, only to see his bid at semi-immortality busted up by Abraham Nunez’ two out single. Chase Utley singled in the bottom of the 8th to extend his hitting streak to 28 games.
It’s a Salvation Miracle! David Wright just hit a solo HR to right field off Atlanta’s Oscar Villareal in the 7th inning, extending a Mets lead to 6-4. Last night, the Chicago Tribune’s Dave Van Dyck has floated the possibility of Greg Maddux (above) donning one of the Mets’ half dozen or so uniform styles. Presumably, Maddux can he had for a far more modest price than Barry Zito or Dontrelle Willis (and by the same token, would probably cost more than Tony Armas Jr. or Livan Hernandez).
Non-sports fans love baseball and soccer, two sports you can have a conversation while watching, but I’m more entertained by a dog show. If not for Zidane’s head butt, the recent World Cup Soccer tournament would’ve been completely forgettable. All that nonsense — up and down, up and down the field — and then it’s settled by penalty kicks. That’s like, instead of overtime, a tied NBA championship game would be decided by a free-throw contest. Here’s something that would make soccer interesting: land mines. Each team gets to plant one before the game.
Have you noticed how they don’t keep turnover stats for soccer? That’s because there are about 600 a game. Possession means next to nothing in soccer because players score about as much as a dweeb in a Member’s Only jacket on the prowl at Emo’s. Soccer is a worldwide sensation only because it’s affordable to poor people, who comprise about 80 percent of the world’s population. You can play soccer with a wad of masking tape; no need for a mitt or a hoop or a bag full of clubs.
Aside from watching one fewer prodigious power hitter in the National League, I’m getting a headache trying to figure out how many 11-10 home games the Rangers will have to win between now and the end of September. As for the Brewers, perhaps the fan-friendly Cordero will fare better than Derek Turnblow.
Lee being off the market may or may not heat up talks on the Alfonso Soriano front, but if nothing else, some kind of price has been established for a premium two month rental.
“It’s a cool way to get the message across about Jesus Christ. No pressure or anything,” said Jamal Womble, who came from Augusta with friend Ben Palacz.
After emptying the ballpark from the game crowd, hundreds of spectators re-entered to fill the left field bleachers. They passed through a sponsor alley where groups such as Focus on the Family, Toccoa Bible College and Gospel Music Channel gave out camouflage Bibles and baseballs resembling Veggie Tales, a Christian comic series.
The 90-minute program began with John Smoltz — who did not pitch in the game — urging the crowd to avoid a “no decision” about God.
Smoltz said he once worshiped baseball. He planned charitable works, figuring that once he retired from the mound he would turn control of his life to God.
In 1995, when the Braves were headed to the World Series, a talk with the team chaplain made Smoltz realize that he had no guarantee of even his next breath. So he decided to give his life and plans to God.
“No-decisions — I currently have 10, and that doesn’t bother me,” he said of games he has started and neither lost nor won.
“Because of the decision I made in 1995, I know where I will be [after death], and I can only hope and wish everyone here knows where they will be, too.”
The promotion, which included a concert by local contemporary Christian musician Aaron Shust, riled some longtime Braves fans. They complained online that Smoltz should stick to pitching and skip the proselytizing. They accused the Braves of seeking to profit off religious beliefs.
Though I respect the rights of such Christ-haters to badmouth the wonderful John Smoltz and the Braves organization, I would ask them to keep in mind that in this great land of ours, all sorts of crazy, even stomach-turning religious practices are protected under the law.
Earlier in the day, the Braves lost to the Marlins, 6-1. First person to write in with “where’s your God now, Smoltzie?” is banned from the CSTB comments section for 30 minutes.
Tonight, the Mets return to action at Atlanta’s Turner Field, where Pedro Martinez — making his first start in a month — will take on the Braves, winners of 14 our their last 21. Whether or not Martinez can hold his own as a member of New York’s new 6 man (!) rotation remains to be seen, but the Boston Globe has more compelling matters for us to fixate upon. In a Cribs-esque frenzy, the Globe’s Real Estate secton has seen fit to showcase the former abodes of Pedro, Nomar Garciaparra and Johnny Damon, all 3 of which are on the market.
The Globe’s helpful caption for the above photo : “Before baseball fame, Martinez lived in a typical house in Manoguayabo, built with palm wood, dirt floors and a tin roof.”
Though it was the legendry supergroup Steps that sang “Words Are Not Enough”, those sentiments were echoed yesterday by the New York State Supreme Court, which ruled that sending sexually explicit e-mail to a minor is permissible so long as you’re too lazy to attach a jpg of your private bits. From Newsday’s Ann Givens.
The decision by the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court, Second Department, hung on the meaning of the word “depict.” Jeffrey Koslow, a Manhattan lawyer who was convicted last year of attempted disseminating indecent material to a minor, appealed his case saying that his e-mails did not “depict” sexual conduct because they contained only words, not pictures.
The fact that the appeals court agreed with him means that local law enforcement officials who work to lure pedophiles on the Internet by pretending to be children will now have to convince those pedophiles to e-mail them sexually explicit photographs in order to secure a felony conviction.
I don’t mean to tell the experts how to do their jobs, but they might also consider discouraging children from learning to read. Based on what I’ve seen of the public school systems in Givens’ hood, some of the educators might have already taken this bold step without any prompting.
Despite presiding over what could well become the most successful Mets campaign in a generation, owner Fred Wilpon has been keeping a super low profile this season. Good thing too, as I’d use every available opportunity to knock him for everything from his daughter in law’s cooking to Chris Cotter’s hair. Fred’s nobody’s fool (except maybe the Glavine family’s) and as much, he’s in no hurry to chat with the New York Times’ Murray Chass.
What is Wilpon’s reason for not talking? Has the Mets’ owner taken a vow of silence? Is he superstitious? Does he think if he talks about his terrific team he will jinx it, that the Mets won’t win the National League East title? Or does he want to stay out of the way and let his baseball people get the credit for the great job they have done?
Wilpon, who at 69 is seven years younger than George Steinbrenner, has not been heard from throughout the Mets’ march to October. A request was made through Jay Horwitz, the team’s vice president for media relations, for an interview with Wilpon, but the owner declined, preferring to have General Manager Omar Minaya serve as the public spokesman for the team.
Now New York has two invisible owners. Wilpon never wanted to match Steinbrenner’s bombast. Now he has matched his silence.
Truth is, Fred is very aware that any one-to-one discussion with members of the Fourth Estate is bound to bring up the matter of Scott Schafer’s Cock or David Wright’s faith.
Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but there might be a feud brewing at the Worldwide Leader that has nothing to do with A-Rod trade talk.
Professional dipshit Colin Cowherd has already stated his opposition to Prince as CBS and the NFL’s choice for the next Super Bowl halftime show. On today’s “Sports Bash”, ESPN Radio’s Eric Kuselias (above) took an opposing viewpoint, insisting that Prince was “very cool”.
“Who doesn’t like Prince?” wondered Kuselias. “If you’re not into Prince, you’re the kind of person that still champions grunge music and says ‘that’s how I roll’. ”
He forgot to add “and beats off to Courtney Love”, but I do understand this is mainstream radio. Anyway, not only would it be neat if Cowherd responded, but a knife fight in the parking lot remains a possibility, however remote.
I’d like to add the new Jimmy Buffett 2-DVD set to the list of reasons to demolish Wrigley. It should surprise no one that the people who brought us the 2006 season are the same highly placed Tribune executives that Buffett describes as “parrotheads.” I have other names for them, but that will do. Btw, a quote deep in this article from Buffett demands credit for the Red Sox World Series win.
Aside from Jake Peavy flashing the power (above), the big moment in yesterday’s Dodger loss to the Padres happened when Brad Penny and Kenny Lofton squared off in the L.A. dugout. For the LA Times’ DePodesta-hating Bill Plaschke, it was yet another reason to cuddle up with the Paul Lo Duca pillow and blast Penny.
Penny was mad because he felt Lofton lazily played an apparent third-inning single by San Diego’s Dave Roberts into a double.
Lofton was mad because Penny, as usual, decided to air this grievance in public.
Earlier this year, Penny yelled at Little on the mound while being removed after an awful outing in Atlanta.
Then, this month, Penny questioned his teammates’ effort after another awful outing in St. Louis.
And now, this, a tantrum over one base hit in a string of six consecutive base hits against him.
Penny was mad because he thought Lofton, who has struggled defensively, should have held Roberts to a single on a ball that rolled in front of him.
That was probably a fair assessment.
What wasn’t fair is that Penny didn’t get mad at himself for, one batter earlier, allowing a double to .152-hitting Jake Peavy, who later even homered off him.
And he didn’t get mad at himself for allowing a leadoff single to Geoff Blum, he of the .298 on-base percentage.
And he didn’t get mad at himself for putting his poor-hitting team in a hole for the second time in three starts, this All-Star game starter allowing four or more runs in four of his last seven starts.
“As a father, I’d be embarrassed to have a MySpace page,” insisted ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd (above) during his Thursday broadcast. Declaring those who waste their time on such trival matters to be “irrelevent…with irrelevent careers,” Cowherd stated with some authority that “no adult who is any sort of a player would be on MySpace,” comparing those who frequent such sites to “the sort of person who drinks 14 beers and pukes at a Hawks game, or someone throwing batteries at an Eagles game.”
Much as I hate to publicly disagree with a morning host whose grip on the cultural zeitgeist barely extends past disc one of ‘Buzz Ballads’, Cowherd is, as usual, hopelessly, out of touch and full of shit for a living. Gilbert Arenas isn’t a player? Scott Schafer isn’t happening? Jessica Hopper, “irrelevent”?
Still, there was some slight qualification in Cowherd’s hate fest. “Now, if you’re a record company executive,” he reasoned, “I suppose you have a good reason to be on MySpace.”
(Yankee prez Randy Levine unveiling plans for a bust of Rudy Giuliani in Monument Park)
Though the Mets are running away with the NL East and the Yankees are in a dogfight for the AL Wild Card, there will always be one realm in which the Highlanders are far and away, the superior of the two clubs. And that’s when it comes to fucking over the people of New York. From the Village Voice’s Neil deMause (link courtesy Wojohowicz).
City documents newly uncovered by the Voice reveal that the New York Yankees billed city tax- payers hundreds of thousands of dollars for the salaries of team execs and high-powered consultants to lobby the city and state, thanks to the team’s sweetheart lease deal engineered by the Giuliani administration.”You’ve created this weird circular situation where the city is, effectively, paying with taxpayer money to have itself lobbied for potentially more taxpayer money,” says Common Cause’s Megan Quattlebaum, one of several government watchdogs who were dumbfounded when the Voice told them last week about the deal. “Taxpayers would not be pleased at all to hear that the city is subsidizing someone to come back and hold their hand out to lobby for more.”
The Yankees are apparently taking advantage of a clause in their lease with the city that allows “planning costs” of their new $1.3 billion stadium—groundbreaking for which could take place as soon as next week—to be deducted from the team’s rent. The planning deductions date back to a lease renegotiation arranged by Mayor Rudy Giuliani in his final days in office. Under the December 28, 2001, lease deal, both the Yankees and the Mets were allowed to deduct up to $5 million apiece from their annual rent payments to the city, to be used for planning the new stadiums that Giuliani proposed to build, with city aid, across the street from the teams’ existing homes.
One month later, incoming mayor Mike Bloomberg scotched Giuliani’s stadium plans, declaring it was “just not practical this year to go and build stadiums.” But he let the new Giuliani leases stand, even as Comptroller William Thompson insisted they were unnecessary giveaways and demanded they be renegotiated. As a result, according to the city parks department, which oversees the teams’ leases, from 2001 to 2005 the Yankees charged the city $15.97 million under the “planning cost” clause; the Mets, $20.2 million.
For starters, Yankees president Randy Levine (a former deputy mayor under Giuliani) and the team’s chief operating officer, Lonn Trost—the two top Yankee officials working for passage of the stadium deal—received a combined $312,500 in city money in 2004. The Yankees’ justification, according to the documents: The amount totaled 30 percent of Levine’s annual salary and 20 percent of Trost’s, representing the time each spent working on the stadium project.
With this morning’s revelation that 2006 Tour de France victor Floyd Landis has flunked a drug test, I might have to finally accept the most sobering reality of all :
Lance Armstrong was the only competitive cyclist on the planet who wasn’t cheating. Maybe even the only person who has looked at a bicycle and not been on something. Well, that, or he’s the only guy who managed to stay one step ahead of the investigators. And it is all about being the best, I suppose.
Reynolds told the New York Post he wanted his job back, explaining he was fired for “giving a woman a hug” that he felt was “misinterpreted.”
But Reynolds told USA Today he was ousted because: “They (ESPN suits) made a decision to have a change in direction. I respect their decision, but I don’t necessarily agree with it.” Reynolds added he already was considering several job offers while his attorney was working on a financial settlement with ESPN. This would seem to indicate he either does not want his ESPN job back or already knows ESPN won’t take him back.
When I asked Reynolds what happened, he said something about a difference “in philosophy” that he might talk about in a “couple of” days. “Don’t press me,” he said. “I’m a nice guy.”
That’s not really the issue here. Until someone offers concrete proof, Reynolds’ ultimate transgression will be open to speculation. This is bad news for him. It’s also bad for anyone who values the truth. And it has everything to do with the way ESPN brass chose to handle this situation.
By offering no reason for firing Reynolds, ESPN suits released a torrent of rumors. They also provided cover for Reynolds, allowing him to provide different answers to what likely were the same questions. Reynolds, a former major leaguer, certainly knows how to cover all the bases.
when reports of Reynolds’ firing surfaced, it was no shock that ESPN suits elected to stonewall. They have done it before. They have reasons for their silent treatment. An ESPN executive might ask a reporter that if someone at “your newspaper” gets fired, would it publish a story about why it happened? Or would your boss offer the media a reason for a particular dismissal?
This rationale fails to take into account that unlike your average newspaper reporter, Reynolds, like other high profile ESPN talent, is a celebrity. ESPN is a national TV network that goes into 90 million homes. When someone is suddenly fired, those who watch the network want to know why. They care about a guy like Reynolds.
Someone at ESPN also might tell you there are legal issues to consider. Or how there is no need, after someone is fired, to ruin his or her chances of ever getting another gig by releasing the gory details.
In some respects this is admirable. Still, like it has in the past, the policy allows some deviant who has preyed on a woman to move to another network and do it again.
…you’ve got nothing on Mene Gene Okerlund. However, much the way Track Star owed a stylistic debt, however superficial, to early Pavement, I think we can conclude the above video might have been in frequent rotation in the home of the young James Dolan.
Hulk Hogan, though guilty of innumerable aesthetic crimes over the years, reveals himself to be every bit as awesome a bassist as Michael Anthony.
The link to the above clip is courtesy of the Jackie Harvey of the blogosphere, Sports By Brooks.
After reading the Dibster’s latest — a fascinating treatise on short term goals versus long term planning — I’ve decided that his considerable skills are being wasted on Fox and XM.
PBS sorely needs to re-run the entire 9-part “Baseball” series, except with Dibble providing new commentary for each episode, free-association style. If Ken Burns objects, just send him a link to Rob’s most recent column. You’ll hear no further complaints, because Burns will probably have shot himself before he reaches the end.
Charles Barkley, declaring himself a Democrat, said Tuesday he is seriously considering a run for governor of Alabama, maybe as early as 2010.
“Alabama, that’s my home. I’m thinking about running for governor; they need the help,” Barkley said as the crowd laughed. “If it wasn’t for Arkansas and Mississippi, we’d be dead last in everything. I think we can do better.”
“I’m serious,” Barkley said. “I’ve got to get people to realize that the government is full of it. Republicans and Democrats want to argue over stuff that’s not important, like gay marriage or the war in Iraq or illegal immigration. They push those issues because they play well on TV and because they deceive people. When I run – if I run – we’re going to talk about real issues like improving our schools, cleaning up our neighborhoods of drugs and crime and making Alabama a better place for all people.”
While Barkley said he has been mulling a run for governor for years, he believes he will soon reach a place in his life where he will stop thinking about it and start doing it.
“I really believe I was put on Earth to do more than play basketball and stockpile money,” he said. “I really want to help people improve their lives, and what’s left is for me to decide how best to do that.”
It really isn’t my place to suggest Barkley is unqualified for the position — even in his current state of physical fitness, he can probably get up and down the court faster than George Wallace in the latter’s prime. And if Chuck can do something to ban Big & Rich in ‘Bama, I might become a campaign contributor.
Back in March of this year, a semi-gag interview with the Phillies’ 1B Ryan Howard ran in City Paper and provoked just a bit of discussion in this forum about a) the nature of Philadelphia fandom and b) whether or not it was appropriate to compare Howard to Dick Allen.
Could it be that the Phillies will finally produce their first bona-fide black superstar?
“I think the city’s ready, don’t you?” said Dick Allen, the former Phillies all-star first baseman, now a Phillies community relations executive who works extensively with the team’s Reviving Baseball in the Inner City youth-development initiative. “A lot depends on the Phillies. If this opportunity does not happen, a lot will go out the window, because this is a very marketable guy.”
“That’s a wonderful kid we’ve got here, and we’ve never really had a billboard, marketable kid like this,” Allen (above) said. “I love Howard. I’m proud of him – not for what he’s done, but for what he really could be. And that’s a shining star for the 8-, 10-, 12-year-olds.”
Howard also gave the organization more evidence that he might finally be the guy the Phillies can count on to close a gap that has existed since, well, 1947.
“I’ll speak from my heart,” Allen said. “Jackie Robinson made very large footprints. He endured so much. But a lot of that has gone down the drain because his contributions and legacy have somehow been lost. What, only 1.9 percent of African American youth play baseball? Everyone wants to play basketball or football. Question is, where did it start to fall apart?”
“It was tough back then, particularly for a black man in the ’60s,” said Allen, who was rookie of the year in 1964 but became a bigger star in Chicago, where he was the American League MVP in 1972. “Things were crazy, going from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali – like they say, the times were changing,” Allen said. “Hippies, street gangs, the mob. But I looked at it like Joe Frazier – toughness was in the heart, that’s how you dealt with segregation and people coming at you, wanting to hurt you.”
Philly’s Chase Utley extended his hitting streak to 26 games with a 2nd inning, 2-run HR off the Snakes’ Brandon Webb, as Arizona dropped a 6-4 decision. David Delucci added a solo shot off Webb in the 3rd.
It’s Alex Rodriguez’ 31st birthday today, but the Rangers’ pitching staff was handing out the early gifts on Wednesday night. Texas relinquished leads of 4-2 and 7-6 during the 8th and 9th innings respectively, losing 8-7. Antonio Otsuka allowed a leadoff single to Derek Jeter in the top of the 9th, then grooved one to Jason Giambi that might still be traveling had it not collided with a satellite. Even more embarrassing for the Rangers was the massive ovation that greeted the Giambino’s blast — presumably there are sports fans in the Dallas area with bigger things on their mind than Cowboys training camp, but you can’t hear them when the Yankees are in town.
Why do we need 16 players going into camp (most of which are really young)? Is this another Will Bynum deal? I’m convinced that Bynum was signed last year as insurance in case Banks was packaged with Blount in an early season deal that never panned out. This could mean that the C’s are looking for similar coverage. Or maybe they really, really wanted to replace Raef with another big, slow, white guy that shoots 3’s.
He played poorly in the Rocky Mountain Revue, but I guess Danny Ainge liked enough of what he saw in college.
Forum Blue & Gold attempts to draw some parallels between Mitch Kupchak’s playing career and his tenure as the Lakers’ GM. Beats stealing his son’s diary, I suppose.
Seattle acquirred 1B Ben Broussard earlier today from Cleveland in exchange for OF Shin-Soo Choo and a player to be named later. Earlier in the day, Carl Everett was designated for assignment, while OF Chris Snelling was summoned from Tacoma. Attempts to glom something insightful from U.S.S. Mariner have proven fruitless, as their server is under attack. I really have to feel for those guys — not being able to post on the day Carl Everett is DFA’d…for me, that would be like having my power supply blow up the day David Weathers was traded. That actually happened, too.
In light of Harold Reynolds’ recent departure, I paid special attention to Eric Karros’ microphone fiendnishness prior to this evening’s Yankees/Rangers game on ESPN. Let it be noted that Karros accomplishes the impossible : he manages to make Mark Gubicza sound like a cogent orator by comparison.
