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He finished with 270 career wins. From Espn-
New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina announced his retirement Thursday, becoming the first pitcher since Sandy Koufax in 1967 to win 20 games or more in the final season of his career.
Mussina, who turns 40 next month, spent the last eight seasons with the Yankees after pitching for the Baltimore Orioles for the first 10 years of his career.
His 270 wins rank second among all active right-handers, behind only Greg Maddux.
In the final start of his career, he pitched six shutout innings against the Boston Red Sox to finish off the first 20-win season of his career.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he’s just the fifth pitcher since 1900 to win 20 games or more in the final season of his career — and the first since Koufax. He’s the only pitcher in that group to win his 20th game in his final start.
Will Mussina get elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame one day? He falls into a gray area, pitchers with similar win totals- Ferguson Jenkins, Robin Roberts, Red Ruffing, Burleigh Grimes are in the Hall. Jim Kaat, Bert Blyleven, Tommy John, are not.I am betting Mussina won’t make it. He did however go out on a high note. How many HOF pitchers have held on far past their glory days? Quite a few. Here is one example.
Yawn.
Cleveland Browns general manager Phil Savage sent an e-mail containing an expletive in response to a disparaging message he received from a fan during the team’s Monday night game against Buffalo, coach Romeo Crennel confirmed Thursday.
Crennel said he spoke with Savage, who sent the e-mail during Cleveland’s 29-27 win over the Bills.
“We all get frustrated at times,” Crennel said. “Phil generally, like the rest of us, tries to be professional and hold it in. But sometimes some things slip out. It’s unfortunate that it slipped out. Tough times, tough things happen. I’m sure that if we had it to do over again we’d do it a little bit differently.”
Savage’s e-mail exchange with the fan was first reported on sports blog deadspin.com.
Savage has not yet commented on the e-mail.
Outside the Ohio area, is there really anyone who cares about this news? A football executive used a curse word! What’s next, prostitutes will start asking for money in return for sex?
In West Palm Beach Florida. The 32 player field will start competing at Trump International when Ji-Yai Shin and Shanshan Feng go off the tee at 9:30.
That’s a interesting first pairing for a tournament, even for a limited field event. Shin is the defending British Open champion, ranked #6 in the world, and just 11 days off winning the LPGA Tour stop in Japan. Shin has to be considered one of the favorites this week. The probable reason for this early pairing is Shin not being a LPGA Tour member yet.
The ADT has a interesting playoff format. 32 players begin the tournament, but 16 are eliminated after Friday’s play ends. If there are any ties, a playoff takes place to eliminate any excess players. Then scores reset for Saturday play. At the end of Saturday, the top 8 only qualify for Sunday’s final round where the winner takes home a million dollar check. Julieta Granada won the ADT in 2006 and Lorena Ochoa won in 2007. Their good luck charm final round playing partner, Natalie Gulbis, is not in this year’s field.
How do I handicap the field. First I’ll give the Palm Beach Post’s picks for the final 8. As you can imagine, I got a bone to pick with the newspaper.
The Post in order of finish- Ochoa, Yani Tseng, Christina Kim, Paula Creamer, Inbee Park, Cristie Kerr, Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb
My picks- Shin, Ochoa, Kerr, Feng, Helen Alfredsson, Sun Young Yoo, Katherine Hull, Creamer
Post picks to make it 54 holes- Jeong Jang, In Kyung Kim, Candie Kung, Song-Hee Kim, Angela Park, Suzann Pettersen, Morgan Pressel, Yoo
My picks- Pressel, IK Kim, Kung, Webb, Pettersen, Tseng, C Kim, Ji Young Oh
My main gripes with the Post selections
1- Only South Korean player chosen.(Christina Kim) Two made it in 2006, two made it in 2007. The player who made it both years, Mi Hyun Kim, is not in this year’s field.
Inbee Park has played terrible since winning the US Open. Out of the 13 South Koreans in the field, she may well be my last choice this week. One surprise Korean player has made the final round both previous year. Last year it was Sarah Lee. I think we’ll have one this weekend too. Sun Young Yoo has been quietly been playing excellent golf for about two months.
Angela Park also was selected to make play on Saturday and she has been playing almost as poorly as In bee. The Post picked the wrong Korean major champion to be around Sunday, I’d bet Greg Stoda ten dollars its Shin over Inbee.
2- The selection of Karrie Webb. Webb made the final 8 both times, but she has been erratic at best in 2008 and isn’t playing the best golf of any Australian right now. That designation goes to Katherine Hull, who I picked to make the final 8.
We’ll have to wait till Sunday to see who is right.
Some other notes
*- Much has been made about Annika Sorenstam’s ‘retirement‘. While Annika won’t play the tour in 2009, I bet she comes back to compete 10-15 times in a year before 2013 comes and this won’t be her last ever Tour Championship. We’ll see who is right in 5 years.
*- Randall Mell of the Sun-Sentinel writes that ADT company didn’t want to end its sponsorship but the renewal price the LPGA was asking for was too high.
Also up with previews of the ADT Championship- Hound Dog and The Constructivist
He had started all ten games this year and had 563 yards rushing for the season. From the Tampa Tribune-
It’s official. Earnest Graham’s season is over. The Bucs placed their top running back on the injured reserve list on Wednesday, along with linebacker and special teams player Geno Hayes.
The Bucs signed RB Noah Herron and LB Matt McCoy to fill the roster spots vacated by Graham and Hayes.
Graham started all 10 games this season and leads the Bucs with 563 yards rushing on 132 attempts (4.3 avg.) and four touchdowns. He also had 23 receptions for 174 yards. He left Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings after the second play with an ankle injury.
Warrick Dunn will replace Graham on the depth chart. How serious is this injury for Tampa? They will beat Detroit this weekend to go 8-3, but it will be trickier after that.
The incident happened in a NIT Tip-off game against Cornell. From AP-
BALTIMORE — It’s not often a college basketball coach passes control of his team to an assistant in the middle of a game and then climbs into the stands to watch the action.
Jimmy Patsos did both Tuesday night.
His Loyola (Md.) team lost to Cornell 82-72 in Boston during the NIT Season Tip-off, and the fifth-year coach insists his actions were warranted.
The trouble began when Patsos was slapped with a technical foul midway through the first half. According to Patsos, instead of calling the technical on the bench, referee John Gaffney told those at the scoring table, “That’s a Grade A technical foul on Jimmy Patsos.”
Patsos said Gaffney then warned him that he would be thrown out of the arena if he said another word.
“It was a very strange situation,” Patsos said Wednesday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “I really hadn’t done anything in the first place to warrant the technical, and there was no warning. But instead of arguing, I just moved to the other side of the bench and had [assistant] Matt Kovarick call the plays.”
Patsos used the time to talk individually to players on his young team. All went well until late in the second half, when Patsos contends Gaffney initiated a switch with another referee to position himself in front of the Loyola bench.
Gaffney then “yelled at me and my assistants,” Patsos said.
Patsos had no idea how to react.
“I didn’t want to get tossed out. I had my hands up in the surrender position,” he said.
Yelling and screaming at the referees, what does it get accomplished? It won’t change the outcome on the field or court, but will raise your bp through the roof, cause fans and players alike to shake their heads at your conduct, and then have sarcastic bloggers write about you. Learn a lesson coach, or you may end up with one of my Knucklehead awards.
This news comes just days before the Wolverines play arch rival Ohio State.
Michigan football practice was delayed nearly two hours late this morning after a player reported finding an unknown white powdery substance on the practice field. Head coach Rich Rodriguez immediately suspended practice while police and federal agents were called to investigate.
After a complete analysis, FBI forensic experts determined that the white substance, unknown to the players, was the goal line. Practice was resumed this afternoon after special agents decided the team was unlikely to encounter the substance again.
So what do you think the substance was? Baking soda? Talcum powder? Chalk for the football field?
Hat tip- Doug at Below the Beltway
He beat out seven other candidates for the job. From AP-
SEATTLE – Don Wakamatsu became the first Asian-American manager in major league baseball history when he was hired Wednesday by the Seattle Mariners.
The Mariners’ 14th manager, Wakamatsu was bench coach for the Oakland Athletics last season. Before that he spent five years with the Texas Rangers.
“When I started this process, there were some key attributes we were looking for,” Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik said in a statement. “We wanted energy, a passion and the skills to translate that passion to the players. We wanted leadership, a presence that could help us as we define the ‘Mariners Way’ to win. We wanted someone that both the community and the players could embrace. We wanted someone who sees the big picture and cares about the players and wants to win. Don embodies all of those traits.”
The 45-year-old was among a field of seven candidates interviewed by Zduriencik. None of the seven had previous major league managerial experience. The overwhelming fan favorite was former Seattle second baseman and current Chicago White Sox bench coach Joey Cora.
Will Wakamatsu, who played only 18 games on the ML level as ballplayer back in 1991(And I remember him from Strat-O-Matic baseball) fare any better than the other recent Mariner managers? Seattle lost 101 games last year. I see Wakamatsu as having a lot of work to do.
Click here if you want to check it out. Here are the lowlights and highlights
*- There will be 31 tournaments instead of 34. Ginn Tribute, Semgroup, ADT Championship, and Fields Open are gone. Honda Thailand is back.
*- Overall prize money is down roughly 10% from 60 million to 53 million with one tournament’s purse(Ginn Open) still to be determined.
*- There will be no LPGA events in South Florida next year. Besides the ADT Championship being no more, The Stanford International is leaving Aventura for somewhere in the Houston Texas area. In addition Stanford will become the LPGA’s year ending championship.
*- 11 of these events are international.
Not much to cheer about if you’re a ladies professional golf fan. After considering the present state of the US economy, the LPGA could be far worse. Though things do look shaky for 2010 and beyond.
Ryan is also commenting.
Nothing comes easy for the cats.
The Florida Panthers are finding ways to win. The same can’t be said for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Bryan McCabe scored twice in regulation and Nathan Horton had the lone goal in a shootout for the Panthers, who beat Tampa Bay 4-3 on Tuesday night.
Tomas Vokoun made 49 saves, and David Booth added a goal for Florida, which has won three of four following a six-game losing streak.
“We got some great goaltending,” McCabe said. “We were lucky. The score didn’t quite dictate how we played. We were up 3-0, but they were outshooting us and outchancing us.”
Tampa Bay, which trailed by three goals in the second period, tied it at 3 when Steve Eminger snapped a 63-game, goal-scoring drought with 2:51 left in the third
.Florida blowing a big lead has happened alot since I began watching the team. Last night was different, Florida won in a shootout.
Florida can’t expect their goaltenders to continue being miracle workers. 52 shots on goal is ridiculous. The Panthers also need to get some goal scoring from people other than their defensemen. Lets review the team’s leading scorers.
Wingers and Centers
David Booth 8
Nathan Horton 6
Cory Stilman 5
Richard Zednik 3
Stephen Weiss, Gregory Campbell, Rostislav Olesz, 2
Radek Dvorak, Anthony Stewart 1
Ville Peltonen, Bret McLean, Kamil Kreps, Wade Belak, Michael Frolik all zero in over 10 games played
Defensemen
Keith Ballard 2
Bryan McCabe 3 and he was hurt and missed nine games
Nick Boynton 2
Karlis Skrastins 2
Noah Welch 1
What I’m trying to say is Florida is getting rotten offensive production from the people who should be their scorers. McCabe is tied for 4th on the team in goals, two lines worth of Panther forwards have produced next to nil. If Florida isn’t to have another disappointing season, defensive players need to start clearing the puck out of the Florida zone and the underperforming forwards need to start putting goals in the net.
Will the last US based non-major LPGA event turn off the light. From the Tulsa World-
The annual LPGA tour stop in Tulsa won’t be back in 2009.
The tour that includes the highest level of women’s professional golfers was forced to cancel its event in Tulsa after SemGroup — the title sponsor — filed for bankruptcy this year. No title sponsor could be found as a replacement during an economic downturn, according to a press release from Octagon, the organization that operates the event.
“The support of the Tulsa community has been tremendous throughout this process,” said tournament director Doug Eibling, of Octagon, in a press release. “However, given our current economic climate, finding someone to commit the needed money has proven to be an extremely difficult task.”
The LPGA had been making tour stops in Tulsa since 2001 and was scheduled to return the final week of May in 2009.
The event annually attracted the world’s top players and had been expanding in recent years — raising purses and increasing the number of championship rounds. But SemGroup’s sudden
collapse and eventual bankruptcy filing on July 17 left the golf tournament’s future uncertain. Event organizers tried to find a title sponsor for months as the economy worsened.
It’s possible the LPGA could return after 2009, Eibling said in the press release.
This news doesn’t come as a surprise. The tournament was in jeopardy as soon as Semgroup filed for bankruptcy. Juli Inkster won’t get to lose a playoff in Tulsa 3 years in a row now.
In all seriousness, how many mainland US LPGA events will there be in 2009?
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