Month: July 2006 (Page 4 of 10)

Cowboys’ safety Davis stable after being shot…again

ESPN.com is reporting that Dallas Cowboys’ safety Keith Davis is in stable condition after the 27-year old was shot twice while driving on a Dallas highway Sunday.

Davis was reportedly struck in the back of the head and in the right thigh by an unknown driver at around 5 a.m. Sunday morning.

Apparently, this wasn’t the first time that Davis has been shot.

This is the second time in three years that Davis has been shot. He was an innocent bystander last time, and this time Stephens said the player was driving home from a family vacation.

In June 2003, Davis was shot in the hip and elbow while picking up a friend at a topless club. Coach Bill Parcells released Davis about a month later, on the first day of the coach’s first training camp with the Cowboys. Davis did not play football that season, but rejoined the club in 2004 and became a full-time starter last season.

How in God’s green earth can a guy be shot two times in three years and not be involved in any trouble to warrant the bullets? That has got to be as hard to do as getting struck by lightening doesn’t it?

One of the other amazing things from this story is that Davis’ agent said that if the Cowboys’ training camp started tomorrow, his client would be there. I don’t know how you rebound from being shot in the back of the head, but hey, I guess Davis is experienced in this sort of injury.

Hopefully Davis recovers without any serious damage.

Free agency update (7/16)

It looks like Alonzo Mourning is set to re-sign with the Heat for another season. It must be tempting to walk away after winning the title, but maybe he has dynasty on his mind. Mourning is still playing at a high level and was one of the most efficient centers last season…Flip Murray has agreed to sign with the Pistons for two years and $3.6 M. The signing gives Detroit the appearance of a bench…Allen Iverson says that he wants to stay with the Sixers, but only if they still want him. Considering all the trade rumors surrounding the tumultuous guard, it doesn’t appear that they do…When Peja Stojakovic agreed to sign with the Hornets, it looked like the Pacers would not get any compensation for trading away Ron Artest. But Indiana convinced the Hornets (with an undisclosed cash payment) to trade a $7.5 M trade exception, which may allow the team to complete a sign-and-trade for Al Harrington.

Looking back on a terrible trade

It’s trading time in the MLB and what better way to welcome this important point in the season than to revisit what is turning out to be one of the worst trades in the past three years?

When the Minnesota Twins’ wanted to see more of a young catcher named Joe Mauer in 2003, they decided to send their current starting backstop A.J. Pierzynski to the San Francisco Giants for relief pitcher Joe Nathan and two young prospects.

At the time, Pierzynski was an All-Star catcher and the Giants were in desperate need of catcher after relying on the likes of father-time ridden Benito Santiago for three years.

And sending young prospects that never seemed to pan out for proven players was GM Brian Sabean’s specialty for a long time. It was how Sabean built the 2002 World Series Giants.

What followed, however, was a disastrous situation that seems to only be getting worse for Sabean and the Giants. Pierzynski only lasted one year in San Francisco’s organization with sporadic play and worse yet, being labeled as a cancer in the clubhouse.

Nathan, who wasn’t regarded as closer material in the Giants organization, immediately took over as a dominant closer for the Twins and made the All-Star game in 2004 and 2005. Currently, Nathan is 5-0 with a 1.70 ERA, has converted 15 out of 16 save opportunists and has 53 strikeouts.

The news gets worse for the Giants. One of the two young prospects that San Francisco packaged up for Pierzynski was Boof Bonser, who is 2-2 with a 5.30 ERA as the fifth starter for Minnesota.

The other young prospect?

Rookie left-hander Francisco Liriano, who is one of the baseball’s biggest stories and who is currently 10-2 with a 2.12 ERA and who has 108 strikeouts.

Making matters even worse is that big mouth Pierzynski has a World Series ring after signing with the 2005 Champion Chicago White Sox after being cut by the Giants.

By the way, Mauer was the starting catcher for the AL All-Star team after hitting .373 with seven dingers and 45 RBI in the first half of the season.

To say that the Twins robbed the Giants would be a vast understatement.

Couch Potato Alert

This is a light weekend for sports, but ESPN and FOX have their usual MLB coverage, while TNT has two NASCAR races in New Hampshire.

MLB
Fri, 2:20 PM: NY Mets @ Chicago Cubs – ESPN
Sat, 1:20 PM: Chicago White Sox @ NY Yankees – FOX
Sat, 1:20 PM: LA Dodgers @ St. Louis – FOX
Sat, 4:05 PM: Philadelpha @ San Francisco – FOX
Sun, 6:05 PM: NY Mets @ Chicago Cubs – ESPN

Auto Racing
Sat, 3 PM: NASCAR Busch Series New England 200 – TNT
Sun, 1:30 PM: NASCAR Nextel Cup LENOX Industrial Tools 300 – TNT

Salmons a Raptor

John Salmons, one of my free agent gems, has been traded to Toronto as part of a 5-year/$23 M sign-and-trade deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. By most accounts, Salmons is a talented player that struggled fitting in with the Sixers and Allen Iverson, but the guard/forward shined in games that AI missed, averaging better than 14 points per contest. The Sixers will receive a second round pick and $2 M trade exception in return, which seems like a very good deal for Toronto.

Salmons had a choice between the Suns and the Raptors and apparently chose to have a shot at starter’s minutes in Toronto as opposed to playing in a reserve role in Phoenix. I wouldn’t be surprised if he doubled his stats next season, averaging around 15 points, five boards and around five assists per game.

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