Categories
New York Yankees

Steinbrenner-Lucchino Feud?

“Everybody knows that the rivalry is a heated one, and we have a lot of respect for them, and they for us,” Lucchino said. “But I don’t see what good it does to make bold predictions the first day of Spring Training.”

The rivalry may be more heated than ever before, but maybe Larry Lucchino (Red Sox CEO) is just upset he couldn’t get away with saying something like that in Red Sox Nation.

Here in New York, we embrace that kind of confidence, with open arms and no hesitations.

“I’m sure the optimism of spring flows through every camp in baseball, and I’m glad he’s optimistic, but I’m not going to comment on that,” Lucchino said. “We still see ourselves as David against Goliath.”

Is it any coincidence that Nomar Garciaparra once said, “That’s why nobody wants to play for us [in Boston].”?

Categories
New York Yankees

Steinbrenner guarantees 2006 World Series title

Steinbrenner guarantees 2006 World Series title

George Steinbrenner sure is feisty this year. First he criticizes the WBC. Then he runs over a reporter’s foot with his golf cart. Now he’s guaranteeing a title for the Yanks this year.


We haven’t won it in a while. We are going to win it this year.
We are going after it this year.

I love how 5 years is “a while” when the Cubs haven’t won it in almost 100 years. I wish I could listen to WEEI in Boston tomorrow.

[NY Post]: GUARANTEED: YANKEE TITLE

Categories
NFL General

Is Vince Young trying to lower his draft value?


There can be no other explanation for admittting that he’s like Michael Vick.


We are similar. We both do what it takes. We’re both great leaders for our teammates. We’ve got much respect from our teammates, in a similar way as I can see, with keeping the game real balanced with running and throwing the ball.

If you want to be respected as a quarterback in this league and ready to learn a pro offense, perhaps comparing yourself to Ron Mexico isn’t the smartest thing in the world. Young is already taking a page from Vick’s book, saying that his critics don’t understand. Good start, Vince.

[Florida Today]: Young intriguing, but will he throw?

[Mercury News]: Young suffers by comparison to Vick

Categories
Indianapolis Colts

Reggie Wayne is more important than Edge



6 years $40 Million

At least that’s what the brass in Indianapolis think. Reggie Wayne got a six-year $40M contract, including a $13.5M signing bonus. This basically means the Edgerrin James era is over in Indy. Edge knew it was coming, even saying his time was over when he appeared on the NFL Network’s Super Bowl coverage.

To retain both James and Wayne, he added, would require significant changes in the roster. That probably would entail “drawing a line through” the names of several players, cutting them to make room for Wayne and James under the projected salary cap of roughly $95 million.
“And I don’t know if you can draw enough lines, even if you wanted to,” Polian said. “And you may not want to because it would weaken the team so much in other capacities.

[Indy Star]:
WR Wayne is Colts’ $40 million man

Categories
NHL General

US and Canada Hockey both bounced



End of the road

I don’t think anyone thought the US had any shot at winning a gold at the Olympics but the team embarassed itself by only winning one game and getting bounced in the quarterfinals.

Afterward, Mike Modana melts down off camera and criticized USA Hockey for managing poor management and said that players had to make their own travel arrangements for their families. Modana said that the organization needed a complete overhaul, to which the General Manager shockingly disagreed.

The Canadian Hockey team is another story. They were gold medal favorites and lost in the quarterfinals, shut out by the Russians 2-0. Gretzky took the blame for the failure but said he’d be back in 2010. The Canadian press has been critical of the team but seems to be pretty even keeled in the assessment of the loss. Perhaps because the columnists haven’t had a chance to digest the loss yet. We’ll turn to the bloggers for their opinions on the Canada debacle:

[James Mirtle]:
To be honest, I really can’t come up with an example of a best-on-best hockey tournament in which Canada played worse than this one in Turin. Even from the start, when a heavily overmatched Italian team played the Canadians to a 1-1 draw through 22 minutes, it was ugly.

[HockeyAnalysis.com]: The player selection committee has to take some blame for this loss. I criticized the selection committee for taking Draper and Doan and you could have made a strong argument against Martin St. Louis being on the team as well. When I selected my Olympic team I suggested that one of the Tampa players should have been left off the team and St. Louis would have been the obvious choice. Certainly Eric Staal, Sidney Crosby, Patrick Marleau, Alex Tanguay or even Brendan Shanahan would have all contributed more offense than Doan, Draper and St. Louis.

[Canucks Hockey]: To all the armchair GM’s out there, would you have left Joe Thornton and Jarome Iginla, two of the best power forwards in the game but were non-factors for most of the tournament, off the team for Sidney Crosby and Eric Staal? Would you have left Chris Pronger, All-Star and Olympic gold medallist but struggled on the big ice, for Dion Phaneuf? You can go on and on and on for every player on this roster – they were, after all, shut out for three of the six games they played – but hindsight is 20/20.

[Jes Golbez]: Many will expect Wayne Gretzky to shoulder the blame, but I’d put much more of it on the shoulders of coach Pat Quinn. Did Canada look like a poorly coached team to you? To me, Canada lacked exactly what a good coach would provide.

Categories
High School Sports

Autistic kid scores 20 in basketball game


There’s a story about a kid named Justin McElwain, the trainer for a high school team, who finally gets in his first game on “Senior Night” and sets a record with six 3-pointers in the final minutes of the game. Not a big deal right? Just like Ollie in Hoosiers. Turns out the kid is autistic.

I’m kind of a sucker for these stories. The last time I cried was the episode of Baywatch where they had the Special Olympics at the beach and one kid falls down but his opponent comes back to help him finish the race. You guys know what episode I’m talking about, don’t even pretend you don’t.

Anyway, after missing his first shot by six feet, he drained five 3-pointers in a row.


Teammates on the bench would hold their heads and scream, fans would stomp, tears would flow. [After the game], his teammates and friends stormed the court. They raised him on their shoulders… wide-eyed and in awe of what they had seen. They asked Jason for his autograph.

“I was focused on the game. You gotta be focused on the game. Not anything else.

Excuse me a sec, I got something in my eye.

[R News]: Beyond Rudy: Athena Senior Inspires
[CBS]: Video coverage

Categories
General Sports

Odds and Ends for Thursday Feb 23 2006: Tiger kicks ass

In a match play whitewash, Tiger wins every hole on the front nine to dispatch Ames and head to the clubhouse early.

[MSNBC]: No joke — record rout for Tiger in Match Play

[AP]: Clarett pleads not guilty to charges

[Baltimore Sun]: Ray Lewis wants out of Baltimore but has only self to blame

[Yankee Despiser]: More hating on the WBC

[You Tube]: NBA 2006 Dunk Contest video

[SignOnSanDiego]: Man pays $85k for possibly fake baseball card

Categories
Olympics

Sasha Cohen in first and a saucy little minx


I’m blogging way too much about ice skating but it is the highlight of the winter olympics and the U.S. hockey team stinks. (Does this make me gay?)

In any case, Sasha Cohen is leading the way after the short program but according to people who follow the sport, she’s the Byung-Hyun Kim of ice skating – can’t close.


She has the most tantalizing talent, and yet she can’t seem to do two clean programs in a single competition. In fact, in skating circles, Cohen is often discussed in the shorthand of a baseball scout. “Can’t hit the curve” becomes “can’t put together two programs.”

I don’t know why but I will be watching the rest of the Olympics to see if she can win it. I guess she is NBC’s favorite person right now.

In other news, Sasha Cohen is a saucy little minx, and toying with Shaun White: “Yeah, I’m fond of gold medals. I’ll probably see him at Closing Ceremonies.” Better get your rap ready, Shaun.

[SF Gate]: Drama queens ready to skate

Categories
New York Knicks

Knicks to acquire Steve Francis


Stevie ex-Franchise

[Update] It looks like I was wrong about Isiah, he did trade away an expiring contract for dead weight. Trevor Ariza and Penny were traded to the Magic for Francis.

By the time you read this, it might already be a done deal. The New York Times is reporting that a deal to send Francis to the Knicks was “more likely than not” and the deal could be done by as early as Wednesday.

The Knicks would get Francis and Pat Garrity for Jamal Crawford, Maurice Taylor, and Trevor Ariza. Penny Hardaway’s expiring contract isn’t part of the deal. Maybe Isiah Thomas finally figured out that at least keeping some dead weight that’s going to expire is better than taking on more dead weight. Who am I kidding, the entire Knicks team is dead weight.

[NY Times]: Knicks’ Deal for Francis Is More Likely Than Not

Categories
Olympics

Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick round 2



Chad is this big

After Davis and Hedrick took silver and bronze in the 1500 meter, the rivalry heated up in the post game press conference with Shani Davis at one end of the table and Chad Hedrick on the other end.

Hedrick has said previously that he was upset at Davis for not skating in the team pursuit and he reiterated that he felt betrayed and that Davis should support his country and give his team the best chance to win.

Shani Davis let loose about Hedrick’s post 1000 meter snub.


I’m just putting it out there….I’m just putting it out there….I would have thought that another American would have shook my hand after I’d won the 1,000 meters the way I shook his hand – the way I hugged him – after he won the 5,000. He only shakes my hand when I lose. Typical Chad.

Davis then walked out of the press conference. This should get very interesting in the future if the two ever skate in the same heat On the other hand, it’s too bad this rivalry isn’t between Johnny Weir and another male figure skater. Could you imagine that bitch fight?

[NY Daily News]: Shani-Chad ice storm rages