Categories
New York Knicks

Larry Brown says it’s either them or me


Larry Brown says that certain members of the team have quit on him, that he’s tired of “begging guys to compete”, and that over the summer, James Dolan and Isiah Thomas have to figure out whether to keep those players or him. Is there any question that he’s talking about Stephon Marbury?


I’ve been doing this forever. I haven’t had trouble getting guys to respond. Ever. You bang heads for a little while. But eventually they get better. I’ve never had a problem like this before. I’ve never heard anyone ever tell me my teams didn’t play hard.

The only problem is how can Isiah (who hasn’t exactly pulled off any smart trades in his tenure) going to get rid of Marbury and his salary? LB says he won’t quit but we don’t see how this is going to end up other than Brown handing in his resignation.

On a related related note, Brown criticized rookie Nate Robinson for showboating and Robinson responded by taking only 1 shot in 27 minutes against the Wizards. Who the hell is Nate Robinson? I realize he won stole the NBA dunk competition this year but he’s not Kobe Bryant. When he wins 3 national champ, he can refuse to shoot.

Links:
[NY Daily News]: LARRY WANTS QUITTERS OUT
[MSNBC]: Knicks’ Brown admits he could be fired
[ESPN]: Thanks, Larry, for the worst season in Knicks history

Categories
MLB General

2006 MLB Payrolls are up 9 percent

While the Yankees lowered their payroll from 2005 (how could they possibly have gone up?) the gap between top and bottom spending teams have closed. However, we still have bottom dwellers like the Florida Marlins who are spending 8% of what the Yankees are spending this year and trail the second lowest, the Devil Rays, by $20M.

The Blue Jays did a lot of shopping in the offseason and lead the league in biggest increase, jumping 57% to $72M. Toronto fans can’t complain about management not attempting to win.

Here are the opening day payrolls for all 30 MLB teams.

Rank Team 2006 Payroll
1 Yankees $198,662,180
2 Red Sox $120,100,524
3 Angels $103,625,333
4 White Sox $102,875,667
5 Mets $100,901,085
6 Dodgers $99,176,950
7 Cubs $94,841,167
8 Astros $92,551,503
9 Braves $92,461,852
10 Giants $90,862,063
11 Cardinals $88,441,218
12 Mariners $88,324,500
13 Phillies $88,273,333
14 Tigers $82,302,069
15 Orioles $72,585,713
16 Blue Jays $71,915,000
17 Padres $69,725,179
18 Rangers $65,468,130
19 Twins $63,810,048
20 Nationals $63,267,500
21 A’s $62,322,054
22 Reds $59,489,015
23 Diamondbacks $59,221,226
24 Indians $56,795,867
25 Brewers $56,790,000
26 Royals $47,294,000
27 Pirates $40,234,833
28 Rockies $41,133,000
29 Devil Rays $35,417,967
30 Marlins $14,998,500
Categories
MLB General

The MLB Cost Index for Apr 6 2006

We’re starting a new feature here on the blog that tracks the 2006 payrolls for all MLB teams and shows how much money your GM is wasting this year. It will track the cost per each win up until the publication date. So far, the Yankees aren’t doing so good. But you knew that already.

Team 2006 Payroll GP Wins YTD Payroll Cost/Win
Marlins $15.0 3 1 $0.28 $0.28
Brewers $56.8 3 3 $1.05 $0.35
Orioles $72.6 2 2 $0.90 $0.45
Rockies $41.1 2 1 $0.51 $0.51
Tigers $82.3 2 2 $1.02 $0.51
Indians $56.8 3 2 $1.05 $0.53
Cardinals $88.4 2 2 $1.09 $0.55
A’s $62.3 3 2 $1.15 $0.58
D’backs $59.2 2 1 $0.73 $0.73
Reds $59.5 2 1 $0.73 $0.73
Nationals $63.3 2 1 $0.78 $0.78
Twins $63.8 2 1 $0.79 $0.79
Mariners $88.3 3 2 $1.64 $0.82
Braves $92.5 3 2 $1.71 $0.86
Astros $92.6 3 2 $1.71 $0.86
Padres $69.7 2 1 $0.86 $0.86
Blue Jays $71.9 2 1 $0.89 $0.89
Red Sox $120.1 3 2 $2.22 $1.11
Giants $90.9 2 1 $1.12 $1.12
Cubs $94.8 2 1 $1.17 $1.17
Rangers $65.5 3 1 $1.21 $1.21
Mets $100.9 2 1 $1.25 $1.25
Dodgers $99.2 3 1 $1.84 $1.84
White Sox $102.9 3 1 $1.91 $1.91
Angels $103.6 3 1 $1.92 $1.92
Yankees $198.7 3 1 $3.68 $3.68
Devil Rays $35.4 2 – $0.44 n/a
Phillies $88.3 2 – $1.09 n/a
Pirates $40.2 3 – $0.75 n/a
Royals $47.3 2 – $0.58 n/a

** all $ are in millions.

Categories
NBA General

NBA Power Rankings Roundup for Apr 5 2006

While the Pistons and Spurs battle for the top of the Power Rankings, the Nets are making their case that they might be the team to come out of the east. They have a 13 game winning streak and could win out from here. The Suns are starting to drop in most polls because of the season ending injury to Amare Stoudamire. With only a couple of weeks left in the season, it’ll be interesting to see how teams end up in the power rankings.

Here are the NBA Power Rankings by top sites this week.

Rank NBA.com ESPN FoxSports Sportsline SI TeamRankings
1 Pistons Pistons Spurs Pistons Spurs Pistons
2 Spurs Spurs Pistons Spurs Pistons Spurs
3 Nets Nets Nets Nets Mavericks Mavericks
4 Mavericks Mavericks Cavaliers Suns Nets Suns
5 Heat Suns Heat Mavericks Heat Heat
6 Suns Heat Mavericks Heat Grizzlies Nets
7 Cavaliers Cavaliers Suns Cavaliers Cavaliers Cavaliers
8 Nuggets Nuggets Grizzlies Grizzlies Clippers Grizzlies
9 Grizzlies Clippers Nuggets Nuggets Suns Clippers
10 Clippers Grizzlies Clippers Clippers Nuggets Nuggets
11-30 more more more more more more

Categories
All Other Sports

Duke Lacrosse coach resigns amid damaging email



Screw this, I’m outta here

Things are not looking good for the lax boys. The Smoking Gun (how do they do it?) released the application for search warrant filed by the investigation officer. In it, an anonymous source forwarded an email from Ryan McFadyen that was sent less than an hour after the alleged sexual assault incident.


tommrow night, after tonights show, ive decided to have some strippers over to edens 2c. all are welcome.. however there will be no nudity. i plan on killing the bitches as soon as they walk in and proceeding to cut their skin off while cumming in my duke issue spandex.. all in besides arch and tack please respond

The note was signed with Ryan McFadyen’s jersey number. Now email forwarding can be easily faked (we’ve been victim to this many times as pranks) but you better believe the Duke IT folks were all over it. And I’m going to jump to the conclusion that this email was real because coach Mike Pressler immediately resigned and the AD has cancelled the rest of the season. McFadyen was also suspended from Duke.

A lawyer for one of the team’s captains immediately went into spin mode and issued this statement:


This e-mail, while the wording of it is, at best, unfortunate, if you read this e-mail and you also are aware of other e-mails that exist contemporaneous with these events, it’s quite clear that no rape happened in that house. These boys were frustrated because they, as is already been reported, they thought these women had come and taken a bunch of money and started dancing and just decided to leave

Interesting spin. This might be why he gets paid the big bucks. Still, saying that it is quite clear based on the email that no rape happened in the house is somewhat of a stretch. The only thing that is quite clear is that Ryan McFadyen has been watching Silence of the Lambs too many times.

Links:
[Duke.edu]: Statement on Release of Sealed Warrant and Cancellation of Men’s Lacrosse Season from Duke University President Richard H. Brodhead

[Charlotte Observer]: Father says accuser ID’d lacrosse players as attackers from photos
[News&Observer]: Duke lacrosse coach resigns
[News&Observer]: Lacrosse player suspended from Duke

Categories
Baltimore Orioles

Anna Benson changes her mind. It’s ok for Kris to cheat on her

It took exactly five days for Anna Benson to figure out that she could be in the spotlight more by being married to Kris Benson. Even though she caught him cheating on her with one of her friends, she’s decided to withdraw her divorce petition. Understandably, the Mets are saddened by this news.

Maybe it is true love after all. Anna revealed in the infamous Howard Stern interview that there was no pre-nup so she stood to get half of Kris’ money. Or maybe she was just worried about all those private porn tapes she and Kris made together.

Links:
[Baltimore Sun]: Anna Benson reverses course on divorce
[Gorilla Mask]: Anna’s photo spread in FHM’s 2006 Baseball Preview

Categories
General Sports

NBC Dateline thinks all the bigots gather at NASCAR events

At least this is the conclusion I get from this story. We never ever cover NASCAR on Sportscolumn, mostly because we think it sucks and mostly because we don’t like sports where half the participants think a wife beater is “business casual” — but we get to stereotype redneck NASCAR fans because we’re just a small site and, well… they are rednecks. NBC on the other hand, might want to rethink this.

An email went out from a person associated somehow with an NBC Dateline producer that was soliciting Muslims to attend a NASCAR event.


They are looking for men who actually “look Muslim”. They want a guy with no foreign accent whatsoever, a good thick beard, an outgoing personality, and someone willing to wear a kufi/skullcap during the filming.

I’m urgently looking for someone who can be filmed this April 1st weekend at a Nascar event (and other smaller events) in Virginia. NBC is willing to fly in someone and cover their weekend expenses.

…
A few weeks later, NBC will fly all the filmed participants to New York City to interview them as a group about their experience and thoughts on discrimination they’ve faced in America.

NASCAR officials can’t be happy about this, especially in light of their efforts to make NASCAR minority friendly. This sting operation seems kind of wrong somehow. Like sending some girl scouts to R. Kelly’s house.

And no, this wasn’t an April Fools joke. Filming has actually been pushed back to this Saturday, 4/8. Maybe they couldn’t find enough people brave enough to go to a NASCAR event.

Thanks to Off Wing Opinion for the pointer.

Categories
NFL General

NFL announces flexible scheduling



T.O. in Philly on Christmas day

Remember all the boring games last year on Sunday night? The NFL is trying to do away with those by having a flexible schedule for Sunday games from week 10 on. (The sole exception will be Week 16 which is Christmas day so no games will be switched.)

Sunday games will be listed with either a 1:00 or 4:00 start time and then at least 12 days prior to the game, the NFL will announce which games will be played on Sunday night. CBS and NBC will each have the option to protect 5 games during those weeks so the NFL network won’t steal the best games every week.

This is a great move by the NFL because now we won’t be subjected to boring games between teams that have no stake in the playoff race. Coupled with not having to listen to Mike Patrick, Joe Theisman, and Paul Maguire, Sunday nights should be fun again.

The NFL will also announce the full season schedule this Thursday at 2PM EST. They are taking a page from CBS’s Selection Sunday show. I’m not sure that it’s as intriguing as the brackets but most football junkies will be tuning in to see the matchups, even though we’ll see the schedule online within minutes. The talking heads will take us through the compelling matchups like T.O. and the Cowboys visiting Philly on Christmas day.

Links:
[AP]: NFL unveils plans for Sunday night TV
[NFL.com]: NFL.com and NFL Network to unveil regular-season schedule

Categories
General Sports

SC’s Weekly Sports Roundup Podcast for April 4 2006

You can download this week’s podcast directly (running time 37 mins) or subscribe to the feed.

If you use iTunes, go to the advanced menu, click on “Subscribe to Podcasts” and enter this url: http://feeds.feedburner.com/scweeklyroundup and iTunes will take care of the rest.

This week’s topics include:

  • Disappointing Final Four
  • Brett Favre
  • Barry Bonds (the syringe, the billboard)
  • Duke lacrosse scandal
  • Celebrity birthdays
  • Broke, Dead, or In Jail
  • Women We Love nominees

If you’d like to be a guest on the podcast (which is recorded Tuesday nights) drop me a line at [email protected].

If you enjoyed the podcast, please go to this page on Yahoo and give us a good rating.   We’d appreciate it. If not, leave some feedback below or send me a note and tell us how to improve. Thanks.

Categories
General Sports

Vote for the next Woman We Love

We are saddened today because we had to remove a woman we love. This is the first time that it’s happened in the history of Sportscolumn. Our celebrity loves usually last but Katie Holmes has gone ahead and ruined it by being tied to Tom Cruise.

Never fear, we have plenty of women in the wings. This week’s nominees are:

Ali Larter aka whipped cream bikini girl from Varsity Blues

Amy Smart

Carmen Electra

Nikki Reed

Tori Wilson (Editor’s Note: This is Trevor’s nomination and I want nothing to do with it.)


Vote Now