Former Buffalo State Hockey player Madeline ‘Maddy’ Loftus dead at 24

She was one of those killed in the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407. From the Buffalo News-

Madeline Loftus, 24, a former Buffalo State College student who lives in New Jersey. She was on her way to reunite with 14 other alumni of Buffalo State’s women’s ice hockey team for a game Saturday. Loftus played for the school team from 2002 to 2004.

Neither my wife Leonita or I know or met Maddy, but she was the cousin of one of our church choir members. Leonita, who works at our church and is active in the choir right now, spoke to her family. They are very distraught right at this moment. Please say a prayer for Maddy’s family. God bless them and all who died in the crash and their families.

Former Los Angeles Clippers GM Baylor sues team, NBA

The Basketball Hall of Famer claims he was unceremoniously let go because of his age and race. From AP-

Elgin Baylor, the former Los Angeles Clippers general manager who left the team last fall after 22 years, has sued the franchise, the NBA and team owner Donald Sterling alleging employment discrimination.

Dr. Taylor at Poliblog nails the absurdity of this suit right on the head.

Recognizing that I have no access to the facts under dispute, as a lay person observing sports for many years now, it is difficult to take seriously such claims when Baylor oversaw, for over two decades, one of the worst pro franchises of any professional sport ever.

Indeed, I can’t think of a similar run of futility that didn’t result in multiple firings. Has anyone in recent memory been allowed to run a team for over two decades with a record anywhere similar to that which the Clippers managed?

Mikel Brown of the Cincinnati Bengals has a .351 winning percentage since taking over as the owner of the team. If anyone wants to tally up Baylor’s record and see who came out on bottom, feel free to let me know in the comments section.

NY Islanders forward Doug Weight out six weeks with MCL sprain

Not much has gone right this year for my favorite hockey team of my youth. From Canadian Press-

The New York Islanders will be without centre Doug Weight for six weeks the result of a knee injury.

The Islanders placed Weight on the injured reserve list retroactive to Wednesday, when he suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament after colliding with New Jersey’s Brian Gionta in the second period of the Devils’ 4-2 win.

Weight, in his 17th NHL season, has nine goals and 26 assists in 44 games this season with New York and is the club’s second-leading scorer.

I doubt Weight, who is 38 years of age, will play another game this season. By the time he has recovered from the injury, the 2008-09 NHL season will almost be over.

Before the injury Weight had been mentioned in trade rumors. What NHL team will give up much of anything for an unexceptional 38-year-old forward?

Florida Panthers to play two games in Europe

Wouldn’t it have been nicer to open the year after Panther’s most successful season in a decade in front of its own fans? From the Sun-Sentinel-

The Panthers will open the 2009-10 regular season in Europe.

Team president Michael Yormark said Thursday the Panthers have accepted the NHL’s invitation to play two games against the Chicago Blackhawks.

“It’s good for the profile of our franchise and our exposure,” Yormark said.

The games reportedly will take place in Helsinki, Finland, though Yormark would not confirm the site. He said an official announcement is expected in late February.

It had been rumored that the Panthers and Blackhawks would play a pair in the Czech Republic, from where five players on the roster hail.

As a fan, I don’t like seeing the teams I root for playing half way around the world in some kind of promotion. I lose, other Panther fans lose. What do I care if Finnish people get to see a Panther game, or the Brits a Miami Dolphin game. These are my teams, not theirs.

The 2009 LPGA season begins today

The US Women’s professional golf circuit tees it up for the first time at the SBS Open in Hawaii. The 2008 event was won by Annika Sorenstam who has since stepped away from the game. Also not in the field is World #1 ranked player Lorena Ochoa. The SBS field is strong however with Paula Creamer, Suzann Pettersen, and Ji-Yai Shin. Shin who won the final LPGA event of 2008, the ADT Championship, looks to begin where she left off.

So another LPGA season is about to underway. A slimmer one than the 2008 schedule, with the loss of quite a few tournaments. The 2010 schedule is looking rough already, with the SBS Open already down as history.

Some off the course news, the LPGA signed a 10-year deal with the Golf Channel. This is great news for the tour.

As much that news sounds interesting, I prefer talking about what goes on during tournaments than all off the course distractions. Here are my predictions for 2009

Player of the Year- Ji Yai Shin. Shin is ranked #5 in the world and has 26 professional wins at age 20. Last year she won 3 LPGA titles, including a major championship. She has a unflappable personality on course, and I personally think she’ll top Ochoa this year. Golf blogger Mulligan Stu is on board the Shin Express also.

Ochoa won’t lose the money title by much and will retain #1 ranking in the world.

Rookie of the Year- Shin. The 2009 LPGA rookie class is incredible with Shin, Vicki Hurst, Michelle Wie, Stacy Lewis, and a few more could have immediate impact. Shin however is going to win the ROY title in a runaway.

Comeback of the Year- Brittany Lincicome. If she is healthy, I see her returning to her 2007 form.

The come out of nowhere award- Amy Yang. She shouldn’t really be a contender for this, but even my LPGA golf buddies Hound Dog, The Contstructivist, and Ryan are not paying any attention to this golfer’s chances in 2009, so why would the golf media. Yang won twice on the LET last year and I’ll go out on a limb by putting her in the top 5 players for 2009. More on that later.

1st time winners for 2009- Wie, V Hurst, Yang, Angela Park

How many times will naturalized US citizen Angela Park be mislabeled as South Korean by the golf media in 2009- At least two times

The 2009 Solheim Cup matches- US wins 16-12

The 2009 US Solheim Cup qualifiers- Creamer, Cristie Kerr, Angela Stanford, Wie, Hurst, Christina Kim, Morgan Pressel, Nicole Castrale, Brittany Lang, and Stacy Prammanasudh

Beth Daniel’s Captain’s selections- Two potted plants Juli Inkster and Natalie Gulbis. Any Asian American golfer if they want to play in the matches, should only plan on making it via the points list. As I pointed out two years ago, the team’s Captains have done great gymnastic work in order to avoid selecting Asian golfers for the team, even if the criteria they used is in conflict with what they or past Captains have said or done.

So Wie, Hurst, Kim, Prammanasudh, Jane Park will have to make the team by performance. Daniel will pick potted plants for the US squad before choosing any of those talented ladies.

How many tournaments will the South Koreans win in 2009- Ten. Five by Shin. Plus at least two more from Wie, C Kim, and half Korean V Hurst.

How many members of the media will bemoan the Asian invasion- Three.

How many times will I say Carolyn Bivens should be fired before she gets fired the 2009 season ends- Three

How many LPGA writing related Knucklehead awards will I give out in 2009- Five, starting with this guy.

How many times I will be a credentialed member of the LPGA media in 2009- Zero

How many times will I apply- Zero because the LPGA has left the building so far as Florida goes.

2009 Major Champions- I hate picking way in advance, but I’ll go out on a limb. Shin(US), Ochoa(Kraft Nabisco), Creamer(LPGA), and someone else. Ok, that’s 3 out of 4. My crystal ball is not working too well at the moment. Put me down for Hee Won Han at the British Open.

Miscellaneous predictions-

Katherine Hull will take over as Australia’s #1 golfer from Karrie Webb
Se Ri Pak will win the Jamie Farr Classic for a record breaking sixth time
The Korean LPGA tour stop curse aka No winner of the tournament since 2003 has won a LPGA event afterwards, will finally be broken with Suzann Pettersen taking home a LPGA win in 2009

Now for my my top 30, I’ll put it beneath the fold

Champions Tour player Jim Thorpe faces tax evasion charges

He is one of a small handful of African Americans to win on the PGA Tour. From the Tampa Tribune-

Professional golfer Jim Thorpe is facing federal tax evasion charges, accused of failing to pay about $1.6 million owed to the federal government over three years. Thorpe, 59, of Heathrow, faces four counts of failing to file an income tax return and three counts of failing to pay income taxes, charges which carry up to seven years in federal prison and a fine of up to $3.2 million. The charges cover the years 2002-04.

I remember Thorpe very well. There were very few golf tournaments in the 1980′s I didn’t watch on television.

Former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito and trainer suspended

This happened as a result from what happened at a fight last month. From ESPN-

The California State Athletic Commission revoked the licenses of former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito and trainer Javier Capetillo on Tuesday, banning them for at least one year for tampering with Margarito’s hand wraps before he was to face Shane Mosley on Jan. 24 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Voting 7-0 on both motions for revocation, the panel found that they put a plaster-like substance on illegal pads inside Margarito’s hand wraps.

Prior to the fight, in which Margarito was knocked out in the ninth round, Mosley’s trainer, Naazim Richardson, had objected to the way Margarito’s left hand was wrapped. When the wrap was cut off, officials found a suspect bandage wrap inside the knuckle pad that would be placed over Margarito’s hands.

Richardson then insisted that the wrap on Margarito’s right hand be checked and another identical illegal pad was discovered. Margarito eventually had his hands rewrapped and went on to lose the fight.

The attempt at cheating didn’t work out very well. Margarito lost his title and got suspended to boot. He’ll just continue boxing but outside the United States or take a year off. One or the other. The sport of boxing of a high threshold when it comes to cheats and other scoundrels.

Shoprite II- SBS no longer a LPGA sponsor

In another supposed money grab, the LPGA has given a long-time sponsor the shaft. From Ron Sirak at Golf World-

That the LPGA came into the 2009 season with only three fewer tournaments than last year was probably a small victory given the state of the global economy. Not expected was that it would lose another event last month—the Ginn Open—before it was to be played in April, a victim of the real-estate collapse that also claimed the Ginn Championship on the Champions Tour. Now, the LPGA is taking a calculated risk for the 2010 schedule by signing a lucrative new deal for the Korean television rights to LPGA events with J Golf, a subsidiary of Joongang Daily News. The new partner means severing a 15-year relationship with the Seoul Broadcasting System, and losing the SBS Open after the season-opening tournament at the Turtle Bay Resort in Hawaii.

While the matter of Korean television rights for LPGA events might seem like a minor issue, it is not. The income from those rights is the tour’s largest single revenue stream.

I prefer to follow the play of the tours than the economics, but I’m well aware of how big a part the television contracts with Japan and South are so far as LPGA revenue sources go. The LPGA has to buy air time in the United States for most of their tournaments and then sell advertising to recoup their costs.

Here’s the stinking part of this whole deal.

The contract with J Golf, which has yet to be announced by the tour or the network, but details of which were obtained by Golf World, is a multiyear deal likely worth in excess of $4 million annually, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. That is up significantly from the $2.25 million SBS says it paid to broadcast 30 events in Korea this year. Asked if his company would continue to sponsor the SBS Open when coverage moves to J Golf next year, Sang Y. Chun, president and CEO of SBS International, said: “Absolutely not.”

Chun, who said he was “disappointed, upset really” at losing the contract, said his feelings were “not about the money [but] about the way we were treated.”

In Asian society, saving face is important. It looks like to me the LPGA has really stomped on these people, otherwise Chun wouldn’t have said the words he did.

So what has that meanace Carolyn Bivens done? Alienate and lose a long-time LPGA sponsor for a slightly better deal with a company with no track record of backing women’s golf. We all know what happened when the tour gave the Shoprite Atlantic City tour stop the finger and replaced it with tournaments sponsored by Ginn Resorts. A little over two years later there are two holes in the schedule after Ginn pulled out of these events and Shoprite is gone too. The deal with J Golf isn’t for another tournament, but the effect is two fold. First the SBS Open is gone in 2010 when the LPGA already has 1/3 of its tournaments up for renewal at the same time an economic downturn is happening. Perhaps more importantly, the latest actions of the LPGA could make current sponsors re-think their relationship with the LPGA. For they can be dispensed with by this crazy commissioner who chases dollars at the same time she kicks sponsors in the pants.

Hound dog writes-

As I mentioned last night on Inside The LPGA, the increase in rights fees (approximately $2 million per year, almost double the previous amount) from the new deal is significantly offset by the loss of the $1.2 million purse from the SBS Open. If this event isn’t replaced on the 2010 schedule, the deal isn’t nearly as impressive.

If what Sirak wrote above is true, the difference between the deals was only a million. To me the LPGA came out a loser, 4 million from J Golf compared to 3 million from SBS plus the 1.2 million tournament purse. That’s a net 200,000 loss to me. Can Carolyn Bivens add?

Ryan at Waggleroom has a differing opinion-

On the surface, it’s easy to recall the situation with Ginn that led to the demise of the ShopRite event in Atlantic City. The LPGA Tour took the allure of big money from an organization with not nearly as sure footed as ShopRite. And now it is paying dearly. Still, given that the LPGA Tour is losing significant revenue by losing several tournaments this year, this may have been a forced move.

I don’t see anything forced at all in the changeover from SBS to J golf. All I see is another step on the road to disaster for the LPGA Tour if they allow their present commissioner to keep making these decisions.

I’ll say it again. Fire Carolyn Bivens now!

A year later- Florida and Richard Zednik defeat Toronto 5-4

Florida who was behind 4-1 at one point last night, came back to tie the game and then win it in regulation. Richard Zednik scored the last two goals of the game.

This is noteworthy because of what happened a year ago yesterday-

Richard Zednik sustained a major gash in his neck when the right skate of Panthers’ teammate Olli Jokinen with his back to Zednik caught him with 9:56 left in Sunday’s game at Buffalo and the Sabres leading 4-3. The game was suspended temporarily.

Sabres’ doctors stopped the bleeding and Zednik was transported to Buffalo General Hospital in “stable condition,” said Panthers team spokesman Justin Copertino. Sabres’ team doctor William Hartrich and Dr. Les Biffon worked on Zednick to stop the bleeding.

Blood poured out of Zednik’s neck as he skated to the Panthers’ bench and was quickly escorted off the ice with a white towel on his neck. A trail of blood remained from the goal line in the Sabres’ zone all the way to the Panthers’ bench.

Jokinen was tangled with Buffalo’s Clarke Macarthur near the boards and while falling down kicked his skate up into the air. It sliced his linemate’s neck.

Zednik was quite fortunate to survive the type of incident he did. Now he’s trying to help the Florida Panthers make the playoffs for the first time in nine years.

As it stands Florida is in 8th place or the last playoff slot in the Eastern Conference. Which is deceiving because they have played one less game than the 5th place Montreal Canadians and only trail them by five points. I really think Florida will make the playoffs this year and Richard Zednik will be a key reason why.