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He replaces Dave Tippett who was just fired yesterday. From AP-
For Dallas Stars general manager Joe Nieuwendyk, it became clear in less than two weeks on the job that a coaching change was necessary. The team needed a leader with a tougher edge.
Nieuwendyk turned to Marc Crawford, a coach he once played for in the Olympics and someone similar to the coach he played for when the Stars won their only Stanley Cup 10 years ago.
“What Marc will bring is a real command at the top,” Nieuwendyk said. “The players will know who’s in charge. They will be held accountable on a daily basis. That’s what I think is necessary.”
Crawford was introduced Thursday as the replacement for Dave Tippett, who was fired Wednesday. The coaching change is the first significant move made by Nieuwendyk since he was hired May 31.
The more player-friendly Tippett had replaced Ken Hitchcock, who was fired midway through 2001-02 season. Now the Stars are going back to a more dominant coach after missing the playoffs for only the third time since moving to Dallas in 1993.
While Tippett did a good job in Dallas, he probably outlived his usefulness to the franchise. Will Crawford(Who took Colorado to a Stanley Cup Championship in 1996 over my favorite team, the Florida Panthers) make the team better? The Stars have more than their share of aging and or injury prone veterans. Michael Modano, Sergei Zubov, and Brendan Morrow. Crawford has a lot of work ahead of him.
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| Thursday, June 11, 2009 |
Alabama’s football program is getting spanked yet again by the NCAA, ESPN reports.
The NCAA will reveal later Thursday that the Alabama football program must vacate victories from 2005 through 2007 that included players who improperly obtained free textbooks for other students, the Birmingham News is reporting.
Alabama could be forced to vacate as many as 21 wins under the watch of former coach Mike Shula and current coach Nick Saban, sources at the university told ESPN.com’s Mark Schlabach. Citing a source, the News reported the number of wins to be at least 10.
The Crimson Tide will not lose future scholarships, according to the News. The university also will be placed on probation for the second time in the past eight years and ordered to pay a fine, the newspaper reported.
The NCAA alleges the violations began at the start of the 2005 season; the university reported the violations after uncovering them during the ’07 football season, when starting linemen Antoine Caldwell and Marlon Davis, running back Glen Coffee and defensive backs Chris Rogers and Marquis Johnson were suspended for four games.
Under NCAA rules, the players would be ruled ineligible from when they first received the “extra benefits” and would have been ineligible until they were suspended and reinstated.
It is not clear which additional sports programs at Alabama are affected. The NCAA’s ruling will be announced in a 3 p.m. ET teleconference.
University officials aren’t permitted to comment until the NCAA releases its findings. The investigation also included athletes in other sports that the university has not disclosed.
Alabama appeared before the Committee on Infractions on Feb. 20 to answer allegations of potentially major violations involving the improper disbursement of textbooks and “failure to adequately monitor” the textbook distribution process for student-athletes.
The violations occurred during the 2005-06 school year and into the fall of 2007. That left the university subject to potentially stiffer penalties as a repeat violator because the football program was placed on probation on Feb. 1, 2002.
The new case also reopens the five-year repeat violator window.
Saban replaced Shula as coach after the 2006 football season and suspended Caldwell, Coffee, Johnson, Rogers and Davis when the university uncovered the violations. The Tide was 5-2 at that point in the 2007 season and their only wins in the next six games came against Tennessee and Colorado in the Independence Bowl.
The sanctions come at a time when Alabama fans were celebrating the program’s return to national prominence. Saban led the Tide to a 12-0 regular-season record and a No. 1 ranking last season, before the team lost to Florida in the Southeastern Conference championship game and to Utah in the Sugar Bowl.
As an Alabama alumnus — I was enrolled when we won our most recent national football title in 1992 — I’m sick over this. Just as the program recovered from the last set of sanctions, here we go again.
It sounds like Nick Saban is uninvolved and acted correctly here. If there are sanctions beyond losing past games, though, I wouldn’t be at all surprised for him to pull a Franchione and leave for greener pastures.
As an aside, I think retroactive forfeits are silly. You can’t change history and it only penalizes fans, not students, athletes, or others responsible.
The former Ottawa Senator spent the last NHL season playing in Russia. From AP-
A year after Ottawa released the petulant goaltender, forcing him to turn to a Russian league when no other NHL team would take him, Emery agreed to a one-year contract with the Philadelphia Flyers worth about $1.5 million.
General manager Paul Holmgren believes Emery, 26, has mended his mercurial ways and again can be the player he was when he helped the Senators to the Stanley Cup finals in 2007.
“I spent a great deal of time talking with Ray,” Holmgren said Wednesday. “The thing that kept coming back is he’s recognized there was a period in his life when he made some mistakes.”
Emery missed practices and clashed with teammates in Ottawa and was charged with multiple speeding violations and a road rage incident. Emery insists he’s learned from the past.
“I learned maybe more from those bad experiences than the good times we had there,” he said. “I realize I had a great thing going and lost a lot of people that I enjoyed hanging out with. I want to get back to having those good relationships. I think that’s the reason I’m going to change.”
Ottawa was a very good goalie up through the 2006-07 NHL season when he helped Ottawa reach the Stanley Cup finals. Then he entered hurt, didn’t play very well, and had the problems listed above. The Senators tired of Emery’s antics, gave his release. That the team then tried to play winning hockey with a couple of schlock career backup goalies(Alex Auld and Martin Gerber) is a whole other story.
Philadelphia had a good Goalie in Martin Biron, but he along with the Flyer’s backup Goaltender are unrestricted free agents this off season. The team didn’t want to pay Biron what he was asking for salary wise, so Philly went with the cheaper option of Emery. Emery for Biron is at best a lateral move for the Flyers. It can backfire, if Emery begins misbehaving again.
The worst team in major league baseball is expected to shell out big bucks to the fireballing righthander out of San Diego State. From AP-
The Washington Nationals selected pitcher Stephen Strasburg with the first pick in baseball’s amateur draft Tuesday night.
Considered one of the most talented prospects in the event’s 45-year history, Strasburg went 13-1 with a 1.32 ERA this season for San Diego State, leading the Aztecs to their first postseason berth since 1991.
Featuring a fastball that has been clocked at 102 mph, Strasburg leads Division I pitchers with 195 strikeouts in 109 innings. He was the only amateur on the U.S. Olympic baseball team that won a bronze medal in Beijing last summer.
“We are thrilled to select someone with the special talents that Stephen possesses,” Nationals acting general manager Mike Rizzo said in a statement. “Those talents have long been on our radar, and Stephen’s domination at San Diego State and vast experiences gained with Team USA last summer have done nothing to change our thoughts about his abilities.”
Signing the right-hander could be a challenge for the Nationals, however, because agent Scott Boras is sure to seek a record contract.
With the second pick, the Seattle Mariners chose North Carolina slugger Dustin Ackley, who has batted at least .400 for three consecutive seasons.
So what can we expect from Strasburg. Based on history, number #1 picks
Have about a 40% chance of being a All-Star during their major league careers
but
None have ever made it to the baseball Hall of Fame. Though two still active number one picks, Chipper Jones and Alex Rodriguez have the credentials to make it.
Only two were ever named rookie of the year.(Darryl Strawberry and Bob Horner)
There have been good to very good players picked first overall, Strawberry and Horner(when he was healthy), BJ Surhoff, Shawn Dunston, Rick Monday, Jeff Burroughs, Andy Benes, and Floyd Bannister to name a few. There have been marginal major leaguers(Mike Ivie, Danny Goodwin, Paul Wilsonetc.) and others who didn’t pan out at all.(Steve Chilcott, Al Chambers, Brien Taylor etc) How will Strasberg fit in? I think he could be another David Clyde. Rushed to the major leagues by a bad team seeking to keep fans coming to the ballpark. The pitcher does all right to good for a short time, then his arm falls off. It will be at least a few years before we know if I’m right or not.
He was a starter for the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI. RIP.
Pio Sagapolutele, a defensive lineman who played five years for Cleveland and started in the 1997 Super Bowl for New England, has died. He was 39.
His death was confirmed by the Patriots on Tuesday. The Plain Dealer of Cleveland said he died Saturday of an aneurysm in Chandler, Ariz., where he lived.
Sagapolutele also played for New Orleans during a seven-year NFL career. The Patriots lost to Green Bay 35-21 in his Super Bowl start. He played 97 games in the NFL, starting 34.
Sagapolutele was drafted by the Browns in the fourth round in 1991 from San Diego State. He played defensive end and tackle for a team coached by current Patriots coach Bill Belichick. He signed with the Patriots in 1996, where Belichick went as an assistant. His final season was 1997 with the Saints.
Sagapolutele was selected as part of Cleveland’s first draft class.
“We saw a tough, hardworking, dependable player and that is exactly what Pio brought to his teams on a daily and yearly basis,” Belichick said in a statement released by the Patriots. “He was a quiet leader and a significant contributor.”
Sagapolutele, who was born in American Samoa, is survived by his wife and four children.
He spent exactly two years in the job. From AP-
A homesick Brent Sutter resigned as coach of the New Jersey Devils after just two seasons, citing family reasons and scoffing at the idea that some may criticize him for leaving so soon.
“It might not be the right decision for some people and that’s fine,” Sutter said in a conference call from his home in Red Deer, Alberta. “I don’t look at it like I am quitting on anything. I threw two years of my life and made a big commitment 3,000 miles away from where my life was and tried to do everything I possibly could to accomplish a goal. So by me doing that my life has suffered in other areas, and those areas to me are bigger than the game.”
Sutter said the Devils’ crushing loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 7 of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series had nothing to do with his decision.
New Jersey, which won its seventh Atlantic Division title in 12 years this past spring, ended its season by giving up two goals in the final 80 seconds to lose 4-3 in late April.
The Devils season ended in disappointment, but honestly they had a heck of a year. Brodeur was injured for half the season and the team rode it out very well without their star Goalie. Many teams would have struggled in the same situation.
Homesickness as a reason to quit coaching(or politics). I never heard that one before. On the other hand, the arguably best known family in North American professional hockey has been known to be close knit.
Would you believe- ‘Rumors- Emery* to eat cockroaches in Philly?’
That is not just sick sounding but what does it possibly have to do with this reporting by the Sports Leader?
Emery in at Philly, Giguere out in Anaheim?
Goalies are seemingly a-movin’ around.
So rumors, whispers and speculation abound.
Ray Emery’s Russian team confirms he might leave.
He’s off off to Philly to make Flyers fans believe.
No mention of disgusting insects there or in the Philly sports article that ESPN links to. So the what the hell is going on up at ESPN? Two months ago they were proclaiming Michelle Wie was playing in her first major championship. Is everyone running that website complete morons?
*- Ray Emery is a former NHL goalie who last played in the league for the Ottawa Senators.
What is the penalty for impersonating a member of the golf media? From Alex Miceli at Golf World:
In one of the best cases of chutzpah in modern media centers, a fan sneaked into Tiger Woods’ news conference Sunday after The Memorial and sat amongst the ink-stained wretches, two rows from Tiger, waiting for a chance to get a Woods autograph.
After 19 questions, the guy could wait no longer.
“Jack’s going to hate me for this,†the interloper said, standing. “Tiger, congratulations for winning The Memorial. I’m a normal person that snuck in here with a patron badge. I was just wondering if I could get an autograph.â€
After a lot of stunned media looked at one another, Tiger snickered before red-faced security staff escorted the man out of the interview room.
Nicklaus was classic with his response.
“If he’s got that much guts, he can get it, right?â€
And then the patron’s badge was passed up to Woods, who signed it and passed it back to security to deliver to the very gutsy patron.
Since he was so sucessful in the media room, if I was there I would have given the person a chance to impersonate Ron Sirak or Doug Ferguson. Who knows, they may have done a good job of reporting the tournament. Cue the sarcastic laughter.
From personal experience at the two tournaments I have blogged, the security person by the media room door was always the same. After the first day they would recognize me and not ask to see my credential.
At the ADT Championship, there were two ways of getting in the media center. The main entrance where a guard was, and a back entrance door alongside the interview room. This was next to a parking lot that was used by officials and tournament cars. All someone would have to do was walk past the signs warning not to go further (but didn’t have any guards around) and get to the interview room via the parking lot.
If the LPGA ever reads this post, they probably won’t appreciate my sharing these secrets. Well, I could have said something worse. Like what if a woman tried to impersonate….never mind. If you want to keep non media members out of the press area, all exits and entrances need to be covered.
This was her second career LPGA triumph. IK won last year’s Longs Drugs Championship. From AFP-
South Korea’s In-Kyung Kim fired a seven-under par 65 Sunday to capture the LPGA State Farm Classic, winning her second career tour title by one stroke over compatriot Se Ri Pak.
Kim, whose prior triumph came in the 2008 Longs Drugs Challenge, finished 72 holes on 17-under par 271, edging five-time major winner Pak. Koreans Hee-Won Han and Jee Young Lee and American Angela Stanford shared third on 273.
Kim opened with a birdie on the par-5 first, added back-to-back birdies at the par-3 fifth and par-5 sixth before a bogey at seven which she answered with a birdie on the eighth.
A four-under run on the back nine brought Kim the triumph, with birdies at the par-4 11th, the par-5 13th and 18th and par-3 17th holes.
Pak opened with three birdies and sandwiched two more at six and eight around her lone birdie of the round. She matched Kim with birdies on 13 and 16 but fell one stroke short of her first title since 2007.
Next weekend is the LPGA Championship. A tournament Pak won in 1998, 2002, and 2006. Her dramatic 06 victory was at Bulle Rock, where play will begin this Thursday also. Based on this, and Se Ri’s strong finish at the State Farm, she has be considered in the mix of golfers able to win the 2nd LPGA major championship of 2009.
Inky has to be in that group also. She is currently the 10th ranked golfer in the world, and was 8th on the LPGA money list going into today. After the win today, In Kyung could be 2nd on the money list only to Cristie Ker.
To win the State Farm, Inky didn’t just have to hold off a strong challenge from Hall of Famer Se Ri Pak, but also from Hee Won Han and Amy Hung. The State Farm for the third consecutive year featured one of the best finishes of the year. Will the tournament be back in 2010? Stay tuned.
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OTB Sports linked with In Kyung Kim wins Omega Dubai Ladies Masters...
He also served as athletic director for 9 years. RIP.
Jim Owens, who played at Oklahoma for Bud Wilkinson and coached the University of Washington for 18 seasons, has died at his home Saturday. He was 82.
Washington confirmed Owens’ death.
Owens coached at Washington from 1957 until his retirement in 1974, leading a resurgence in West Coast football. He went 99-82-6 in his nearly two decades as Huskies coach, including three Rose Bowl trips. He also served as athletic director at UW from 1960-69.
His accomplishments at UW were honored in 2003 when the university dedicated a statue of Owens outside one of the entrances to Husky Stadium. But that honor came with protests about his treatment of black players during his time at Washington.
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