Jim Bowden resigned Sunday after four seasons as the Washington Nationals general manager, leaving under the cloud of a federal investigation into the skimming of signing bonuses given to Latin American prospects.
He has maintained his innocence in the matter, but said Sunday, “I’ve become a distraction.”
“It’s an emotional decision. It saddens me. But I feel it’s in the best interest of two of the things I love the most, and that’s the Washington Nationals and baseball,” Bowden added.
Seated at a table with Nationals president Stan Kasten before a small contingent of reporters and team officials, Bowden read from a prepared statement, sometimes deviating from the script as he struggled to contain his emotions.
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Bowden’s resignation came three days after Jose Rijo, a special assistant to Bowden, was fired by the Nationals.
That was fallout from a MLB investigation that determined a top baseball prospect from the Dominican Republic who received a $1.4 million signing bonus from the Nationals lied about his age and name.
An ongoing FBI investigation would certainly be a distraction. Bowden’s record in Washington doesn’t help. The Nationals lost over 100 games last year and had the worst record in the majors.
He only needs four more to have the most in NHL history. From AP-
Martin Brodeur has found the New Jersey Devils have changed during his almost four-month injury absence. This is a team that not only plays defense, it scores early and often.
Brodeur earned his 100th NHL regular-season shutout with a 27-save effort, and the Devils extended their lead in the Atlantic Division with a 3-0 victory over the second-place Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday.
The shutout was the second in three games since Brodeur returned Thursday following recovery from elbow surgery, and this one moved him within three of tying Terry Sawchuk’s mark of 103. It was also Brodeur’s 547th career victory, moving him within four of tying Patrick Roy’s league record.
Brodeur gave up two goals in the other game, a 7-2 rout of the Florida Panthers. With their ace back in net, I think New Jersey is the team to beat in the Eastern Conference.
The course that hosts the Preakness Stakes continues to have financial difficulty.
Magna Entertainment Corp. said Friday it has defaulted on a loan that is secured by its Maryland racing properties, including Laurel Park and Pimlico Racecourse.
According to Magna, the bank that holds the loan, PNC Bank, has “chosen not to exercise its rights and remedies under such loan agreement at this time.” According to Magna’s most recent financial statements, the loan had net borrowings of $1.6 million as of Sept. 30, 2008.
Magna, the largest racetrack operator in the U.S., recently hired bankruptcy lawyers as advisers. The company has lost $500 million over the last five years and is in danger of defaulting on hundreds of millions of dollars in loans beginning in mid-March. The majority of the debt coming due is held by its parent company and controlling shareholder, MI Developments.
Magna also said that it has notified Well Fargo Bank that it has not met the financial conditions for a $40 million line of credit extended by the bank. Wells Fargo has also chosen not to exercise any of its options on the loan, the company said.
These latest problems for horse racing in Maryland comes as no surprise to me. Rosecroft Raceway had to discontinue live racing. Attempts to prop up the Sport of Kings with other forms of gambling on site continue to fail and I’m afraid horse racing could die one day in the United States.
Oklahoma wide receiver Corey Wilson has been critically injured in a rollover collision on Interstate 35.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says the 20-year-old from Carrollton, Texas, was flown in critical condition with head and internal injuries to OU Medical Center after the crash about 1 p.m. Friday near Pauls Valley. A hospital spokesman says Wilson’s family asked that his condition not be released.
The patrol says Wilson was southbound on I-35 when his Chevrolet Trailblazer collided with a pickup, ran off the road and rolled twice, throwing him about 45 feet from the vehicle.
Stars center Steve Ott was suspended indefinitely by the NHL on Sunday after he received a penalty for attempting to injure Anaheim’s Travis Moen at the end of a game one day earlier.
Ott missed Sunday’s home game against Pittsburgh and won’t be eligible to play until after a hearing with league officials that will determine a specific length of the ban.
Ott and Moen squared off in a fight after the final horn sounded in Anaheim’s 4-3 victory Saturday over Dallas. Ott’s hand made contact with Moen’s eye, which game officials ruled was an eye-gouge and gave him a match penalty for attempting to injure.
Ott left the ice with two cuts on his face.
The bout ensued after Ott cross-checked Ducks defenseman Scott Niedermayer during the final seconds of the game. Once time ran out, Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere whacked Ott in the knee with his stick and punched Ott behind the head.
Moen saw Ott involved with Giguere and began punching Ott, who has a broken bone in his right hand and can’t punch back. Ott said the eye-gouging was an accident.
Here’s the You Tube video of the incident.
The video is too unclear to pass judgment. If its determined Ott tried to gogue out Moen’s eye(s), I’d suspend him for the rest of the 2008-09 season. Realistically I expect no more than a 10-game suspension.
Sports agent Ron Del Duca said his client, Detroit Lions defensive end Corey Smith, and Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper were two of the four boaters who were reported missing Sunday morning by the Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard issued a statement saying the boaters were on a 21-foot vessel that left Clearwater Pass on Saturday morning for a fishing trip and did not return as expected. Crews used a helicopter and a 47-foot motor-life boat to search a 750-square mile area west of Clearwater Pass on Sunday.
He was the only British fighter to win a medal at the Beijing games. From AP-
Olympic middleweight gold medalist James DeGale won his first pro fight Saturday night, a dominating points win over Vepkhia Tchilaia.
Despite winning each round, jeers rang out at the National Indoor Arena as Britain’s lone boxing champion from the Beijing Games failed to provide the excitement sections of the crowd were demanding.
“I had to track him down and bang him around and it was tough,” DeGale said. “I’m never happy with my performances — even at the Olympics — that was just 30 percent of me.”
A systematic approach lacking urgency was adopted against the 21-year-old Georgian, who dropped to 9-9. The tactical fight was a stark contrast to DeGale’s sloppy Olympic gold medal bout with Cuba’s Emilio Correa.
“It was a learning curve. What do you want me to do?” DeGale said. “I don’t want to be silly and get knocked out. He’s running, he’s tucking up. I still had a couple of good shots.
“You lot are going to see the best of me when someone is there and wants it just as much as me.”
Two less than impressive fights don’t mean DeGale isn’t championship material. With the many weight categories there are in boxing today, not to mention the myriad of boxing federtaions(IBF, WBC, WBA,), I wouldn’t bet against him holding at least one title before his boxing days are over.
The number one woman player in the world didn’t take long to win a LPGA tournament in 2009. From AP-
A few minutes after finishing off her 25th LPGA Tour victory, Lorena Ochoa was asked if she thinks she’s mentally tougher than her rivals.
“Yes,” Ochoa said.
She’s simply better than everybody else, too.
That was obvious again Sunday when she rallied to win the Honda LPGA Thailand.
Three strokes behind playing partner Paula Creamer at the start of the round, Ochoa shot a 6-under 66 for a three-stroke victory.
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Ochoa finished at 14-under 274 — shooting 71-69-68 the first three days — on the Siam Country Club’s Plantation Course, and earned $217,500 for her second straight season-opening victory. Last year, she opened with a victory in Singapore in the HSBC Women’s Champions and went on to win five of her first six events.
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South Korea’s Hee Young Park shot a 65 to finish a career-high second. The third-ranked Creamer had a 73, leaving her four strokes back at 10 under.
I was surprised by Creamer’s poor Sunday finish. She opened the final round with a three-shot lead.
Two LPGA events this year, and both have seen a golfer of Korean heritage finish second.(Michelle Wie was second in Hawaii) If they start winning, will the Asians are ruining the tour talk return?
Thai-American Stacy Prammanasudh’s strong finish will help her efforts to qualify for the 2009 US Solheim team.
Lorena Ochoa won her first LPGA event of 2009. How many tournaments will she end up winning this year?
