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He was a Pro bowl selection two years ago. From AP-
Indianapolis Colts safety Antoine Bethea has cracked a bone in his right hand, leaving him on the sideline for both of Indianapolis’ practices Wednesday.
Coach Jim Caldwell did not give a timetable for Bethea’s return. Caldwell said Bethea would be fitted for a cast and would return when he can play while wearing the cast.
Losing Bethea is a blow to a Colts defense that is still missing safety Bob Sanders. Caldwell said Wednesday morning he wasn’t sure Sanders would be back for the regular-season opener. Sanders had offseason knee surgery to clean up the same knee that kept him out of 10 games last season.
Bethea went to the Pro Bowl in 2007, the same year Sanders was the NFL’s defensive player of the year.
The Colts ranked 3rd of AFC teams in pass defense last year. I think they can weather the injury problems they have now as long as no more pop up.
The latest bad news for female professional golfers.
The LPGA Tour and the International Management Group (IMG) announced in a joint statement Monday that the China LPGA tournament scheduled for October has been canceled this year.
“The IMG-managed China LPGA tournament, originally scheduled for mid-October, will not be staged in 2009 and we are now focusing our efforts on ensuring the event’s return to China in 2010 and 2011,” the announcement stated. “We look forward to the second half of the 2009 LPGA Tour season, which will include two IMG-managed LPGA Tour events, the Samsung World Championship (Sept. 17-20) and the LPGA Tour Championship (Nov. 19-22).”
With the earlier cancellation of the Kapalua event, the LPGA now has a big gap in its October schedule. The tour will play the Navistar LPGA Classic in Alabama from October 1-4, then returns to action in South Korea on October 30th with the Hana Bank – KOLON Championship.
Now the LPGA is down to 27 tournaments for 2009 after playing 34 in 2008.
The demise of the China tournament was expected for some time. Will the LPGA Tour return there in 2010? I really don’t have a clue, but with the sport of golf expanding in Asia, I think the LPGA will return to China some time down the road.
The China LPGA tournament, a limited field event by Grand China Air, was won by Helen Alfredsson in 2008.
The winters in Southern California are so much appealing than those offered to people living on Lake Ontario. From AP-
The Toronto Maple Leafs have traded goaltender Justin Pogge to the Anaheim Ducks for a conditional draft pick in 2011.
Pogge had one win and a 4.35 goals-against average in seven appearances with the Leafs last season.
He spent most of the season with the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies, where he had 26 wins and a 2.70 GAA in 53 games.
Drafted 90th overall by the Leafs in 2004, the 23-year-old was once expected to be Toronto’s future netminder, but the Leafs signed Swedish free agent Jonas Gustavsson in July.
On Monday, they also signed free-agent goalie Joey MacDonald to a one-year deal. He was 14-26-6 with a 3.37 goal-against record and .901 save percentage in 49 games with the New York Islanders last season.
Pogge has failed to impress so far in limited NHL play. He certainly didn’t get much help from the team he played for. Toronto was not a good team at all during the 2008-09 season.
Toronto has very questionable goaltending at present. Vesa Toskala has the starting job, but he is coming off a poor 08-09 plus surgery. Joey McDonald, like Pogge, hasn’t been impressive in limited NHL duty but that may have caused by the poor team(NY Islanders in MacDonald’s case) they were playing with. Jonas Gustavsson has yet to play a minute in the NHL. For this and other reasons, I don’t see Toronto being much better in 2009-10 than they were last season.
He hopes to be back playing in the major leagues before the 2009 season is completed. From AP-
Aaron Boone is back playing baseball, appearing in a minor league game in Texas less than five months after open-heart surgery.
Boone batted second Monday night for the Corpus Christi Hooks, a Double-A affiliate of the Houston Astros. He swung at the first pitch and popped up to the first baseman in foul territory. Boone played third base against Midland and was hitless in two at-bats before leaving the game.
“It felt good to get out there and play in a real game,” Boone told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “I felt good physically. I always have nerves whether it’s a spring training game or my first game in Corpus.
“I was excited tonight. I think it went really well. I had a couple of balls come my way and got to face pitching for the first time in a long, long time. A little overwhelming, but a necessary step on the way back.”
The 36-year-old Boone had an operation in late March because of a congenital defect in his aortic valve.
Boone is perhaps best remembered for his game 7 winning homerun in the 2003 ALCS. He was a favorite player of mine during the 2001 Star Tournament season. I platooned him with Eric Chavez at both the Fort Lauderdale and Fall Orlando tournaments where I each finished 2nd.
It sounds as if Boone was born with a bicuspid heart valve and had AVR(Aortic Valve replacement) surgery. Something I have more than a passing familiarity with. I had AVR performed on me one year ago this week. Boone is stronger than me, I don’t know if I would be swinging a baseball bat so soon. I wish him well in his recovery and comeback.
This for comments he made after winning last weekend’s Bridgestone Invitational in Ohio. From AP-
Tiger Woods will be fined by the PGA Tour for his public criticism of a rules official after winning the Bridgestone Invitational, a tour official said Monday.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the tour does not publicize fines.
They certainly don’t. Tour player Jonathan Kaye was suspended from the tour for two months for a 2001 incident. A security guard wouldn’t allow Kaye entrance to the player locker room without seeing his player ID badge. At some point Kaye attached the badge to his zipper or something else would caused the guard to take offense. Kaye was fined and suspended from playing the PGA Tour for two months.
Woods was bothered after his four-shot victory Sunday because he and Padraig Harrington were put on the clock at the par-5 16th. He said that caused Harrington to rush three difficult shots, leading to triple bogey.
Harrington is the defending PGA Champion this weekend in Minnesota. He also won back to back British Opens in 2007 and 2008.
Honestly a player as good as Harrington shouldn’t allow a rules official to ruin his tournament. It is an excuse in my opinion.
European Tour chief referee John Paramor told Woods and Harrington they were being timed.
Woods said he told Harrington after it was over, “I’m sorry that John got in the way of a great battle.”
Paramor said the final pairing was well behind most of the back nine, but officials gave them time to catch up. They were still 17 minutes out of position on the 16th tee, when they were put on the clock.
Woods and Harrington had the entire par 5 16th hole, Firestone’s signature hole, to themselves. The hole measures well over 600 yards.
The PGA Tour has rarely taken slow play seriously. To be truthful, no player has gotten a meaningful penalty in over a decade. This is unlike the LPGA Tour who has shown no hesitancy giving out two stroke penalties to even to players in contention. Angela Park was penalized two strokes during the final round of a 2008 Hawaiian tournament where she eventually finished fifth three shots behind the winner.
Were Harrington and Woods out of position on the course? Yes, without a doubt. That the PGA Tour doesn’t enforce its slow play policy doesn’t mean the official was wrong in his actions. Ryan at Waggleroom gets it right
Selective enforcement of the Rules of Golf is unacceptable. Just because the final group had no chasers, were Tiger and Paddy, and were playing for a huge first prize check does not mean that the rules should be ignored. Play slow and the players involved should be penalized.
Timeliness is a part of golf, but many players seem to ignore that part of the rule book – including Woods and Harrington. When the press questioned JB Holmes in 2008 about his lethargic manner around the course, Holmes best summed up the attitude of many players when he said, ““A lot of old habits kick in when you’re under pressure. You’re playing for $1 million. If somebody thinks I’m slow, or taking long, I don’t care. … I would rather be slow and win than rush something, hit a bad shot and not win.”
That kind of attitude is why players should be put on the clock. They should not be allowed to disrespect the rules governing the sport just because of the money on the line. Players should not get a free pass just because of their name.
No one, including Harrington and Woods, should be above the rules. I have said that before. Woods open criticism was also wrong, and under Tour rules makes him subject to a fine for what he said. The PGA Tour is again right. The rules if they are have any meaning are to be enforced against all players and under any circumstances.
There must be a ‘I need another ancient relief pitcher’ virus going around the offices of MLB teams at this moment. From the St. Petersburg Times-
The Rays had interest in adding veteran Russ Springer to their bullpen anyway. After going through two extra-inning games in four days, they believed it was even more important to make a move.
The 40-year-old right-hander was claimed on waivers from Oakland, with the Rays assuming the nearly $1 million remaining on his $3.3 million contract.
*****
Springer was 0-4 with a 4.10 ERA in 48 games with Oakland but had a 1.61 ERA over 25 games since early June.
The addition of Springer required Tampa to make another personnel move.
The Rays’ decision to designate IF Joe Dillon for assignment to make room for Springer wasn’t cut-and-dried. Ultimately, the Rays decided to go with eight relievers and three bench players in large part because they had played two extra-inning games this week.
Though Dillon rarely got off the bench, Maddon said he didn’t like having to cut him loose. In addition to being a fan of Dillon’s approach to the game, Maddon will have to be especially creative with the way he uses his bench.
That’s an understatement. Only three bench players severely limits a manager’s options. One of those backups has to be a catcher, the most likely player to get injured in any given game. Managers are a cautious lot, and will be cautious in using their only backup catcher. That limits a team’s strategy moves with only three bench players even more.
Springer, like the recently traded David Weathers, has been all over the major leagues for fifteen plus years. He is a decent reliever, but for the reasons I already stated, I don’t understand why Tampa needed this guy.
She defeated Jennifer Johnson 3&1 in the finals. Song joins Pearl Sinn as the only woman to win both the Amateur and Public Links Championship in the same year. Sinn did the feat in 1988.
Song, like Sinn and 2007 U.S. Women’s Amateur Champion Kimberly Kim, is Korean-American. Unlike Song and Kim, Sinn was born in South Korea.
Beth Ann Baldry of Golfweek recently wrote a profile of Jennifer Song.
Now will Mark Reason of the Daily Telegraph burst a blood vessel because another golfer with a Korean Dad has come to prominence in American Golf? Last weekend Reason in an incredible outburst of bigotry for someone writing for a mainstream publication, accused golfers not just from Asia from who are of Asian Asian heritage, of putting ladies professional golf in both the United States and Europe on the path to destruction. I took Reason’s column to a shredder in a post here. Asian Americans have often felt they are regarded as second class citizens by both Madison Avenue and the media. It’s hate filled writing like that produced by Mark Reason that gives credence to these opinions. A respectable newspaper published the column and Reason is one of the dwindling number of media members who still cover pro and amateur golf and nothing else in the non-golf mainstream media.
Reason’s column was illogical too. In the end he advocated the selection of Michelle Wie for the U.S. Solheim Cup team. The last time I looked Michelle had a Korean Dad. It is no wonder the MSM is cutting back on golf coverage.
This hockey player is going to pay a lot more than twenty cents for his attorney. From the Buffalo News-
Chicago Blackhawk right winger and South Buffalo native Patrick Kane and a relative face robbery and other charges after allegedly assaulting a cab driver and failing to pay their fare after getting a ride from Chippewa Street early this morning.
Kane, 20, and James M. Kane, 21, were arrested about 5 a.m. on Eastwood Place, according to Buffalo police reports.
The pair allegedly punched the cab driver and grabbed money they had handed him after he told them he didn’t have twenty cents in coins to give them their change, the report said.
Their fare was $13.80 and they handed the driver $15, according to a report.
The cab driver told police he was punched in the face and head, grabbed by the throat and had his glasses broken during the incident.
A torn $5 bill was found in James Kane’s pocket while in the Erie County Holding Center, the report said.
Buffalo Police Department spokesman Michael J. DeGeorge confirmed Patrick Kane and a relative were arrested after an incident involving a cab driver.
Both men were charged with second-degree robbery, a Class C felony, as well as fourth-degree criminal mischief and theft of services, both Class A misdemeanors.
I am betting alcohol is involved. Why would a well paid athlete need the use of a cab? That and the incident being all about twenty cents just seems to make the most sense.
He is one of the last original Florida Marlins to still be playing in the Major Leagues. From AP-
The Milwaukee Brewers have acquired Cincinnati right-hander David Weathers for a player to be named later.
Weathers is 3-3 with a 3.32 ERA in 43 games. He pitched one inning and got the win in Friday’s 10-5 comeback win over the San Francisco Giants.
The 39-year-old reliever starts his second stint with Milwaukee. He previously pitched for the Brewers from 1998-2001.
Weathers, who first came up with Toronto in 1991, is still putting up decent numbers. Anyone want to take a guess how much longer he can keep on pitching in the majors?
The 84th edition of trotting’s biggest race is now in the record books. From AP-
Muscle Hill delivered as expected Saturday in the $1.5 million Hambletonian at the Meadowlands Racetrack.
The dominant 3-year-old trotting colt cruised to a six-length victory in record time. The overwhelming 1-5 favorite, Muscle Hill led all the way from the rail in the mile trotted in 1:50.20, erasing the Hambletonian mark of 1:51.20 set by Glidemaster in 2006.
Muscle Hill extended his winning streak to 13 in the richest race of the year in harness racing. He lost his first race and is undefeated since. Brian Sears drove for trainer Gregory Peck as Muscle Hill won for the fifth time this season.
Sears also drove the winner of the Hambletonian Oaks yesterday. That was the first time in the history of these racers that the same person drove the winners of these races in the same year.
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