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The NHL trading deadline is four hours away. From CBC Sports-
The Ottawa Senators traded forward Antoine Vermette to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday.
In exchange, Ottawa receives goaltender Pascal LeClaire and a second-round pick in the 2009 NHL draft.
Vermette, 26, has nine goals and 19 assists in 62 games this season for the Senators.
He is signed through next season, when he will make $3 million, before he becomes eligible for unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2010.
Leclaire, 26, has played in 12 games for the Jackets this season, posting a 4-6-1 record with a 3.83 goals against average
Ottawa is essentially out of the playoff hunt for 2008-09. I’m doubtful Leclaire will help fill the goaltending void in Ottawa. He’s just another second stringer, and the Senators have two already in Alex Auld and Martin Gerber. Admittedly Gerber has been sent to the minors and may be destined for Europe. So he could be reasonably considered out of the picture. Still the move puzzles me.
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| Wednesday, March 4, 2009 |
 Tyson Chandler of the New Orleans Hornets took a free throw against the San Antonio Spurs in 2008. (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) I’m at best a casual fan of basketball but this is an interesting fact: Whereas just about every aspect of athletic performance in just about every sport has improved over the years, “one thing has remained remarkably constant: the rate at which players make free throws.”
Since the mid-1960s, college men’s players have made about 69 percent of free throws, the unguarded 15-foot, 1-point shot awarded after a foul. In 1965, the rate was 69 percent. This season, as teams scramble for bids to the N.C.A.A. tournament, it was 68.8. It has dropped as low as 67.1 but never topped 70.
In the National Basketball Association, the average has been roughly 75 percent for more than 50 years. Players in college women’s basketball and the W.N.B.A. reached similar plateaus — about equal to the men — and stuck there.
The explantion for why it hasn’t changed? Well, nothing has changed:
Ray Stefani, a professor emeritus at California State University, Long Beach, is an expert in the statistical analysis of sports. Widespread improvement over time in any sport, he said, depends on a combination of four factors: physiology (the size and fitness of athletes, perhaps aided by performance-enhancing drugs), technology or innovation (things like the advent of rowing machines to train rowers, and the Fosbury Flop in high jumping), coaching (changes in strategy) and equipment (like the clap skate in speedskating or fiberglass poles in pole vaulting).
The ball’s the same, the rim’s the same, the distance is the same. The athletes are stronger but it has little bearing on this aspect of the game. And coaching? Well, coaches spend about as much time on it as they always did. Why?
There is little correlation between free-throw percentages and winning percentages. Only one of the 25 best shooting teams, No. 2 North Carolina, is also in the latest Associated Press top 25 rankings. Southern Utah [ranked No. 1 at 80.5 percent] has a losing record.
Perhaps that’s because it’s one aspect of your game that the opponent can control. If you’re a good free throw shooting team, they’ll foul less.
Moreover, there would seem to be diminishing returns. If the best team is at 80.5 percent and the average is 70 percent, how much practice time do you want to devote at the expense of other skills?
via Tyler Cowen
He spent four years playing for the fins. From ESPN-
In the span of about 16 hours, two of the Miami Dolphins’ most amiable and quotable players have hit the trail.
The Dolphins are releasing defensive end Vonnie Holliday for financial reasons. He was due a $1.5 million roster bonus Tuesday. On Sunday night, cornerback Andre Goodman signed a five-year, $25 million deal with the Denver Broncos.
Holliday and Goodman were the last two winners of the Good Guy Award, given out by the local Professional Football Writers Association chapter.
Holliday, who turned 33 in December, was a defensive captain last year. He recorded 46 tackles, 3.5 sacks and a fumble recovery.
But the Dolphins have several young players emerging at defensive end. They drafted Phillip Merling 32nd overall and Kendall Langford in the third round.
The real reason Miami made this roster move was to save 2.8 million dollars this year. Real smart move Miami, 7-9 in 2009 is looking pretty good right now.
He won 59 games in a career that spanned 10 years. He won 36 games in a Yankee uniform, notching 16 victories in both 1956 and 57. He pitched in three World Series alsoRIP
Tom Sturdivant, who pitched the New York Yankees to victory in Game 4 of the 1956 World Series on the day before Don Larsen’s famed perfect game, has died. He was 78.
Sturdivant threw a complete game in a 6-2 win against the Brooklyn Dodgers on Oct. 7, 1956, to even the best-of-seven series at 2-2 and set the stage for the only perfect game in World Series history. Whitey Ford, Sturdivant, Larsen, Bob Turley and Johnny Kucks threw five straight complete games in that series — a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since.
Sturdivant was a member of the Yankees teams that played in the World Series in three straight years, beginning in 1955. He went 16-8 in 1956 and 16-6 in 1957, when he led the American League in won-lost percentage and was second with a 2.54 ERA.
He hurt his arm the following year and spent the rest of his career pitching with six different teams — Kansas City, Boston, Washington, Pittsburgh, Detroit and the New York Mets.
He finished his 10-year career in 1964 with a record of 59-51 and a 3.74 ERA. He died early Saturday at INTEGRIS Southwest Medical Center in his native Oklahoma City, said hospital spokeswoman Brooke Cayot.
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He was suspended by his college hockey team two months ago. From AP-
Andrew Conboy, suspended by Michigan State this season for an attack on a Michigan player, signed a three-year contract with the Montreal Canadiens on Monday.
Conboy opted to turn pro with Hamilton of the AHL, Montreal’s top farm team, after he was suspended. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound left wing has one assist and four penalty minutes in seven games with the Bulldogs.
The 20-year-old Conboy and teammate Corey Tropp, a Buffalo Sabres prospect, were suspended for the rest of the regular season and the playoffs by the Spartans on Jan. 26 after an incident with less than 1 minute to play in a 5-3 loss to the Wolverines.
After Michigan’s Steve Kampfer knocked Tropp down with an open-ice hit, he was punched to the ice from behind by Conboy, and Tropp then swung his stick at the Anaheim prospect’s head. Kampfer was taken to hospital with a sprained neck, but there was no concussion.
This guy is an animal. I swung a hockey stick at a player’s neck. The NHL could have another Todd Bertuzzi in the making.
This roster move comes a few days after the Redskins big free agent signing of Albert Haynesworth.
The Washington Redskins released defensive end Jason Taylor on Monday after the six-time All-Pro failed to accept a workout commitment.
According to a source, Taylor was asked by the Redskins to take part in 75 percent of their offseason workouts. That would have required him to be at the Redskins’ facility during eight of the 13 weeks of the offseason program, three days a week.
Family took precedence over the money.
With three children, Taylor, who has a home in the Miami area, opted not to agree to the workout provisions. The team was willing to keep his restructured salary at $8.5 million, but his desire to be with his family in the offseason was more important in his life.
For their part, the Redskins needed cap room for a six-year, $54 million contract signed last week by cornerback DeAngelo Hall.
As I noted in last week’s post, Washington will have to compensate elsewhere for the money they spent on Haynesworth. I remain skeptical about their being any improvement next year for one of the NFL’s most dysfunctional franchises. A 2nd round pick traded to the Miami Dolphins for one year of Taylor. That worked out real well.
Jason Taylor will find work with another NFL team.
Only five other drivers have reached that milestone. From Harnessracing.com-
Hall of Famer Dave Magee became only the sixth driver in North American harness racing history to record 11,000 driving victories when he guided Capture The Magic to a head decision in the 13th race at Balmoral Park Saturday night).
The always humble 55 year old, who has been a staple on the Chicago Standardbred circuit for decades, once again shrugged off his latest record setting accomplishment.
“When I was driving at the Amherst fair in Wisconsin back in the early ’70s I never would have dreamed about putting up numbers like this or having a career that would be this successful,†said Magee. “It’s just by the grace of God and all the people I’ve worked for and driven for over the years that I’m in this spot.â€
Magee, who also boasts career earnings of more than $88.2 million which ranks him 11th all time, joins Herve Filion, Dave Palone, Tony Morgan, Cat Manzi and Walter Case Jr. as the only North American drivers to hit the 11,000 mark.
I’ve seen Manzi and Filion drive and maybe Case. Cat man and I are cousins but if we ever met it was 30 plus years ago.
There are some athletes who will never learn. From AP-
Denver Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall was arrested in Atlanta on Sunday on a disorderly conduct charge stemming from a fight. His latest run-in with the law could result in a lengthy suspension from the NFL.
Marshall arrived at the jail at 5:50 a.m. on a disorderly conduct charge and was released five hours later after posting $300 bond, said Lt. Joseph, the supervisor at the Atlanta City Jail who declined to give his first name.
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ESPN first reported Marshall’s latest arrest, his fourth since March 2006.
He was suspended for three games last season for repeatedly running afoul of the law — Marshall’s suspension stemmed from seven police-related incidents with his former girlfriend, Rasheedah Wately. But he had his punishment reduced to a single game when he pledged to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell that he would stay out of trouble.
Marshall, 24, now potentially faces a longer suspension to start the 2009 season, perhaps as much as eight games, which is the punishment other players have received for repeatedly getting into trouble off the field.
The league doesn’t require convictions for the commissioner to suspend a player.
Marshall is a good pass catcher when he holds onto the ball. He has a history of drops and fumbles. To me he looks like he is fumbling away his life also. A suspension might send a signal to Marshall to straighten up his life.
He has won the tournament twice and finished second over the last four years. From AP-
Geoff Ogilvy has been better than anyone in match play over the last four years.
One of these days, he might find out if that includes Tiger Woods.
Even without the world’s No. 1 player around, Ogilvy finished off a remarkable weekend at Dove Mountain on Sunday with a 4-and-3 victory over Paul Casey to win the Accenture Match Play Championship for the second time in four years.
He played 66 holes on the weekend in 25-under par. He never trailed the final 63 holes of this event, mowing down teenage sensation Rory McIlroy and Stewart Cink on Saturday and never giving Casey a chance in the title match.
Cink won the consolation match against Ross Fisher by holing out from a sand trap on 18. I think that was the shot of the week.
Someone should tell NBC that showing two day old news aka Tiger Woods’ matches from earlier in the week is neither good journalism or a way to boost ratings. One NBC producer said it was the network’s duty to show what Tiger did. Reporting the news long after everyone not living in a cave knows of it is one of the reasons newspapers are dying from the internet era. Does television news and sports want to follow the same example all the way to extinction?
Ogilvy(The 2006 US Open Champion) is a very good golfer, but I’m not ready to crown him #2 in the world.
The Capitals got the first and last goal of the game but little went right in between. From AP-
Stephen Weiss, Bryan McCabe and Jay Bouwmeester scored power-play goals in the first period, Florida held Alex Ovechkin without a point until the final minute, and the Panthers beat the Southeast Division-leading Washington Capitals 6-2 Sunday.
McCabe finished with three assists, and Weiss had two. Florida’s other goals were scored by rookie Michael Frolik, Richard Zednik and Jassen Cullimore.
The Capitals — coming off a rousing overtime victory Saturday at Eastern Conference-leading Boston — heard boos in their own building and pulled starting goalie Jose Theodore after falling behind by three goals in the opening period.
Florida is the only NHL team to beat Washington twice at home this season. This game further proves what I said earlier this season. The Capitals goaltending leaves much to be desired. They won’t win the Stanley Cup or even make the finals if they continue to ride Jose Theodore.
The trading deadline is three days away. Your move Washington.
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