|
Has the veteran of over twenty major league baseball seasons hit the end of the road? From AP-
The Detroit Tigers have released nine-time All-Star Gary Sheffield, who is one home run away from 500 for his career.
Detroit parted ways with the designated hitter Tuesday after a disappointing stay with the Tigers. The team was hopeful Sheffield would be a powerful presence at the plate in the final season of the $28 million, two-year contract extension it gave him after acquiring him from the Yankees for prospects.
But he failed to deliver in large part because he often was injured.
The move comes a day after the Tigers acquired outfielder Josh Anderson from Atlanta, forcing the team to make some tough decisions about its roster a week ahead of opening the season in Toronto.
Sheffield hit .178 in 18 games this spring.
The move was almost certainly made because of Sheffield’s salary. He hit only .225 last year and he’s forty-years-old. An age where most players are out of the game and whose who still remain are in decline. I still think Sheffield will play some more ML baseball and hit over 500 homeruns but I’m skeptical if he’ll be any legitimate help to any team at this stage in his career.
For the second year in a row, Tiger won at Bay Hill in Orlando Florida by making a dramatic birdie putt on the 72nd hole. Last year Bart Bryant was the loser, this year it was Sean O’Hair.
With the win the talk of Tiger not being back to form will end. It will instead be replaced by golf journalists opining on what his chances are of winning the Masters. The first men’s major championship of 2009 begins on April 9th.
Sadly another big golf tournament will get lost in the buzz of Tiger’s win today and all the hype for the upcoming Masters. The LPGA Tour’s Kraft Nabisco Championship begins this Thursday. A few years ago the tournament’s dates were shifted so it didn’t butt heads with The Players Championship any more. The TPC has since moved to May, but the Kraft still gets short changed. Golf writers and the Golf Channel rather talk endlessly about The Masters that hasn’t started yet than a major championship that is under way.
Back to Tiger. He’ll win at least one major championship this year. What a reckless golf prognosticator I am.
And he posted a video of it to the internet. From AP-
A French pole vaulting champion ran naked with his pole through the streets of Paris and posted the video on the Internet, hoping to draw attention to his quest for a new sponsorship deal.
Romain Mesnil, who won a silver medal at the 2007 Athletics World Championships in Osaka, was sponsored by Nike but says his contract expired last year and was not renewed.
“It was probably for budgetary and strategic reasons. It’s the crisis,” he wrote on his Web site.
Many athletes have reported difficulties obtaining corporate sponsorship as companies cut costs because of the global economic downturn.
In his video, Mesnil runs with his pole as if preparing for a vault at tourist spots like Montmartre and the Pont des Arts across the River Seine. A black square has been added to the footage to cover his groin area.
I don’t think too many people would want to see this pole vaulter’s ‘pole’ but I could be wrong.
While Mesnil’s stunt drew him plenty of publicity, supporting a pole vaulter who runs naked in public may not be the image a potential sponsor would want to be presenting.
Saban, who was a distant relative of Nick Saban, had a history of never liking to stay long at University or pro team he worked for. Ask the University of Cincinnati, where Saban was AD for 19 days before taking the Miami Hurricane head coaching job.
I remember him mainly for his two year tenure at the University of Miami. Army was looking for a new head coach and wanted to talk to one of Saban’s assistants. Instead Saban said he was interested in the job. His abrupt departure from Coral Gables had some local sportswriters predicting doom for the Hurricanes.(Saban was 3-8 and 6-5 in his two years at Miami) Four years later, Howard Schnellenberger took the Hurricanes to a National Championship, where as Saban would spend the rest of his coaching days at places like Peru State and the Arena Football league. RIP Lou.
Lou Saban, who coached O.J. Simpson in the NFL and ran the New York Yankees for George Steinbrenner during a well-traveled career that spanned five decades, died Sunday. He was 87.
Saban died around 4 a.m. at his home in North Myrtle Beach, S.C., his wife, Joyce, said. He had heart problems for years and recently suffered a fall that required hospitalization, she said.
Saban played football at Indiana University and for the Cleveland Browns of the NFL before embarking on an unmatched head coaching career that included stops with the Boston Patriots and Buffalo Bills of the old American Football League and the NFL’s Denver Broncos, along with college jobs at Miami, Army, Northwestern and Maryland.
Saban, who was 95-99-7 in 16 seasons of pro football, also was president of the New York Yankees from 1981-82 and coached high school football from 1987-89.
“He has been my friend and mentor for over 50 years, and one of the people who helped shape my life,” Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement. “Lou was tough and disciplined, and he earned all the respect and recognition that came his way. He spent a lifetime leading, teaching and inspiring, and took great satisfaction in making the lives around him better. This is a tremendous loss to me personally.”
Saban shared the last name of another prominent football coach, Alabama’s Nick Saban. Joyce Saban said the two men might have been second cousins, but said the families weren’t exactly sure whether they were related.
Louis Henry Saban was born in Brookfield, Ill. in 1921 and was a 1940 graduate of Lyons Township High School. After starring at Indiana, Saban played for the Browns from 1946-49 and the next year accepted his first head coaching position — at Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland.
In 1955, he took over at Northwestern for a year, then moved to Western Illinois until entering the pro ranks in 1960 to coach the Boston Patriots of the newly formed AFL.
From there, Saban went to the Bills in 1962 and guided them to AFL championships in 1964 and 1965, the only championships the Bills have ever won. After a stint with the Broncos, Saban returned to Buffalo. During his second stint with the Bills from 1972-76, he oversaw O.J. Simpson’s record-breaking, 2,003-yard rushing season in 1973.
“He was like a father to me,” former Bills defensive back Booker Edgerson said. “He steered me in the right direction. He gave me advice. Some of it, I didn’t like, but isn’t that what a father does?”
Edgerson, who also played for Saban at Western Illinois and with the Broncos, said he last saw Saban in October at a Western Illinois banquet honoring the coach.
“Lou Saban was a great teacher,” Edgerson said. “He knew how to build football programs. He could have built any program — football, baseball, basketball, whatever. Even though his patience was short-tempered, he allowed players to let out their anxieties and frustrations.”
After quitting the Bills in midseason of 1976, Saban spent two years as athletic director at Miami, where he recruited future Buffalo quarterback Jim Kelly.
Saban later became known for how quickly he changed jobs. He coached Army in 1979, was AD at Miami and spent 19 days as athletic director at Cincinnati. He went on to coach high schools, colleges and in the Arena Football League.
Saban spent the 1990s starting or rebuilding programs at places like Peru State, Canton Tech and Alfred State, where he left before the team played its first game. He coached Central Florida in 1983-84.
“I’ve coached at all levels, covered the gamut, and I’ve never really seen any difference,” Saban said after being hired to coach Alfred in upstate New York in 1994. “My coaching techniques are pretty much the same, with some adjustments for what younger players can and can’t do.”
Saban spent five years at Canton Tech in northern New York — the longest stint of his career — before leaving after the 2000 season. In one of his last jobs, he coached Division III Chowan State in North Carolina, leaving in 2002 after the team went 0-10.
“He was an original,” Joyce Saban said. “He was one of a kind.”
Funeral arrangements were incomplete. Joyce Saban said the family would have a mass at Our Lady of the Sea Catholic Church in North Myrtle Beach on Saturday.
« Hide it
The eighteen-year-old from South Korea dominated the competition. From AP-
Queen Yu-na, indeed!
Kim Yu-na won the title at the World Figure Skating Championships on Saturday night, setting off celebrations from Southern California to South Korea. Already treated like royalty at home — her nickname is Queen Yu-na and she wears tiny, sparkling crowns in her ears — her popularity is sure to grow now that she’s given South Korea its first world title.
“I’m sure the whole globe shook,” said Kim’s coach, two-time Olympic silver medalist Brian Orser. “The whole country of Korea must be elated.”
Kim won in record fashion, too. Her 207.71 points were the highest scored under figure skating’s current judging system, shattering the old mark by eight. She was more than 16 points ahead of Joannie Rochette. Main rival Mao Asada was almost 20 points behind, falling to fourth.
How big a rout is that? Think one of those nonconference football games the big names play, and you get the idea.
As things stand and in light of this win and Kim’s other recent victory, she has to be considered the overwhelming favorite for the gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics to be held in Vancouver.
He was not much of a defensive player but because of his good hitting did a good job filling in for the Yankees at catcher, first base, left fielder, and as a pinch hitter. RIP.
Johnny Blanchard, who played in five consecutive World Series for the New York Yankees in the early 1960s, died Wednesday of a heart attack in Minnesota. He was 76.
A key player off the bench when the Yankees won five AL pennants from 1960-64, Blanchard batted .345 (10-for-29) in the World Series overall and hit a pair of home runs as New York defeated Cincinnati in the 1961 Series.
“This is a sad day,” Hall of Famer Yogi Berra said. “Johnny was a good friend and a great teammate. He was proud of being a Yankee and always fun to be around. We’ll miss him.”
Blanchard was among the fan favorites at the Yankees’ fantasy camps, held twice a year at the team’s spring training complex.
“Johnny was a funny guy and a great storyteller,” former Yankees pitcher Bob Turley said. “He was always happy. Everybody loved him and loved being around him.”
Blanchard was signed by the Yankees in 1951 and made his major league debut four years later at 22. He is one of four players in Yankees history to homer in four consecutive at-bats, accomplishing the feat over three games from July 21-26, 1961.
“He would do anything it took to help win a ballgame,” said Ralph Houk, who managed the Yankees from 1961-63. “Johnny was a true Yankee, there’s no doubt about that.”
Is anyone shocked by this news?
An x-ray analysis of the bones of competitors in the Youth Games in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong discovered that 3,000 of the 15,000 athletes, or 20 per cent, had misrepresented their age.
Two thousand of them were too old to be eligible for youth competition, while one offender was seven years older than he claimed.
Suspicions of age-faking have dogged Chinese sport and caused embarrassment for China during last year’s Olympic Games in Beijing. He Kexin, a gold medal-winning gymnast was investigated by the International Olympic Committee after being accused of being only 14 years old and ineligible.
Although Miss He was eventually cleared by the IOC, suspicions linger on and Bruno Grandi, the president of the International Gymnastics Federation recently gave an interview to the German press in which he said that there was “strong circumstantial evidence” of age falsification by the Chinese.
Steps are being taken to prevent a repeat at next year’s Asia games. What happened in Beijing has so tainted Chinese sports, its going to be awfully hard to accept anyone’s word that age shenanigans won’t be happening there also.
The NASCAR driver was surprised by the empty seats last weekend in Atlanta.
Despite warm temperatures and sunny skies, Atlanta Motor Speedway was a tough draw on Sunday. Though the announced crowd was 94,400, the grandstands were at most two-thirds full for the Cup race.
“To me, this is some of the best racing we’re putting on in the series anywhere we go,” Jeff Gordon said. “I know there’s a lot of race fans around here. I’m a little baffled by it. I’ve been hearing that they were going to have some empty seats. It’s hard to say.”
When people fear losing their job or have trouble paying their bills, they naturally cut back on luxuries. Like listening to what bozo athletes think they should be doingspending money to go to sporting events. Someone please inform Gordon that US unemployment right now is higher than it has been in 25 years. Thank you.
The former #1 pick of the 2005 NFL draft and the 49ers re-worked the contract they had.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith has had a disappointing start to his career, but he was adamant about one thing — he wanted to stay.
As a result of his loyalty, Smith was able to rework the final two years of his contract and stay with San Francisco. According to a source, Smith will make $4 million a season in 2009 and 2010, in addition to base salaries that weren’t immediately made known.
Less pay is better than a chance of no pay at all.
In his previous contract, he was scheduled to make $24.6 million in the final two years.
*****
Other teams had shown interest in Smith, who is only 24 years old and has four years of NFL experience. Those teams were willing to pay him more than his 49ers deal, according to a source, but Smith was insistent on making something work in San Francisco.
A perennially disappointing QB is offered more by other teams and he decides to stay with his original team. Does anyone else have a hard time believing this?
Smith, the first pick in the 2005 draft out of Utah, had 30 starts in his first three seasons, but was placed on injured reserve for the entire 2008 season because of a shoulder injury.
His best season may have been in 2006, when he completed 257-of-442 passes for 2,890 yards, with 16 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. Part of his rocky path may be because of the 49ers’ annual change in offensive coordinators — Smith has had a new one in each of his four seasons.
Coaching upheaval hasn’t helped, but I see no reason not to think Smith would still be a NFL draft bust if he had the same coordinator every year.
Gary Roberts is retiring from the NHL after 21 seasons.
The Tampa Bay Lightning left winger made the announcement Tuesday. He had already said he would retire at the end of the season.
Roberts retired in 1996 because of a chronic neck injury but returned the following season. A Stanley Cup winner with the Calgary in 1989, he has 438 goals, 471 assists and 2,560 penalty minutes in 1,224 career games with the Flames, Carolina Hurricanes, Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Lightning. He has three goals and four assists in 30 games this season.
« Hide it
|
|