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      Nationals should shut down Stephen Strasburg for the rest of 2010

      August 22, 2010 /
      Washington Nationals' Stephen Strasburg wipes sweat from his face after the second against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Nationals Park on on August 15, 2010. UPI/Kevin Dietsch Photo via Newscom

      After throwing a 90 mph changeup and grimacing on the mound in pain during the fifth inning of Saturday’s game against the Phillies, the Nationals have little choice but to shut down Stephen Strasburg’s 2010 season.

      This is the second time this month that Strasburg has dealt with an injury. A couple of weeks ago he had a shoulder problem that caused him to miss some time and yesterday’s injury has been diagnosed as a strain of the flexor tendon in his right forearm. Considering this is a club that’s 17 games below .500 and 19 games back in the NL Central, this should be a no-brainer decision for the Nationals. Regardless of what a MRI reveals – his season should be over. Why risk further injury here?

      Something that will be lost in the injury news is how well Strasburg pitched yesterday. He threw 56 pitches before departing the game, throwing 38 for strikes and allowing just one run on two hits to go along with his six strikeouts. He showed the type of mastery of hitters last night as he did when he was first called up in June.

      But again, regardless of how good he looked or how many tickets the Nationals want to sell from here on out, they have to look at the bigger picture. Just because he has suffered a couple of injuries this year doesn’t mean that he’ll have issues the rest of his career and in fact, the early indication is that he should be fine. But why take any chances right now? Both the Nationals and Strasburg have more to look forward to than the rest of this season, which essentially means nothing.

      Shut his season down, have him take a MRI and then proceed with how to handle the results. Getting the young phenom back onto the mound should be the least of the Nationals’ concerns right now.

      External Sports, MLB

      Albert Haynesworth rips Redskins following preseason loss

      August 22, 2010 /
      Washington Redskins' Albert Haynesworth is seen on the sidelines as the Redskins play a pre-season game against the Buffalo Bills at FedEx Field in Washington on August 13, 2010. UPI/Kevin Dietsch Photo via Newscom

      Following the Redskins’ 23-3 loss to the Ravens on Saturday night in which he didn’t play until the third quarter, Albert Haynesworth ripped the team in 90-second post game locker room interview.

      From CSN Washington:

      Haynesworth said he wasn’t injured enough to be held out of practice last Wednesday and Thursday.

      “I was told I had ‘headaches’ or whatever and that’s why I couldn’t go out and practice,” he said. “I think it was a little bit more than that.”

      Haynesworth added: “[Headaches] was part of that but it wasn’t all of it. They left out a lot of stuff.”

      Asked for specifics, he said: “You would have to ask them.”

      Haynesworth said the Redskins were holding him out of practice as punishment for skipping the OTAs and mini-camps.

      “I guess to make me look bad for not going to their offseason conditioning program,” he said. “Next year, I’m not coming either. I’ll be with my trainer again and come back in the same shape I’m in and feel good about myself.”

      Haynesworth did not play in the first half against Baltimore and was upset he was on the field in the second half.

      “I’m a ninth year pro,” he said. “I don’t think I should have been out there in the third quarter, but having ‘headaches’ again, that’s what they wanted to do.”

      It sounds like both sides are playing the power-trip game right now. Mike Shanahan doesn’t want to just give Haynesworth back his starting job (which is why the DT didn’t play until the third quarter last night), while Haynesworth probably feels like he’s done enough to move forward and put the offseason mess behind him.

      Either way, there’s obviously still a lot of tension between Haynesworth and Shanahan and neither of them are ready to sit down to a Sunday picnic together and share their feelings. At some point though, Shanahan is going to have to turn this into a positive situation and move forward because Haynesworth gives the team their best chance of winning. When he’s on top of his game (which includes him not being a malcontent), he’s the Skins’ best defender.

      External Sports, NFL

      Documents show that J. Edgar Hoover tracked Alabama’s Bear Bryant

      August 21, 2010 /
      28th February 1961: American President John F Kennedy (1917 - 1963) at the White House with his brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy (1925 - 1968) and head of the FBI J Edgar Hoover (1895 - 1972). (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

      Former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover secretly kept an eye on a civil lawsuit filed by blacks against legendary Alabama head coach Bear Bryant starting in 1969.

      From ESPN.com:

      Documents released to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act show that for almost two years, agents tracked the suit filed by a prominent black lawyer against Bryant, the University of Alabama and others to make Bryant recruit black football players.

      Building a file, agents followed the court docket and snipped stories from newspapers about the case, sending the findings to the agency’s office responsible for investigating civil rights crimes.

      The FBI won’t explain why it was interested in a civil lawsuit by a black student organization against a prominent white football coach. The agency kept track of possible civil rights violations and often monitored public figures and civil rights leaders under Hoover.

      But one of the FBI forms in the Bryant file is marked twice with a handwritten capital “H” — a clear indication that Hoover both saw the document and approved of the snooping, said author Curt Gentry, who wrote “J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets,” a definitive biography on Hoover and the FBI under his leadership.

      Per the article, Bryant had black players on his team as non-scholarship, walk-ons, but it wasn’t until five months after the federal suit was filed that ‘Bama signed its first black football player to an actual scholarship (Wilbur Jackson).

      It’s interesting that Hoover had files on high-ranking sports profiles, although as the article notes, he had dirt on everybody – actors, authors, pool cleaners, etc.

      College Football, External Sports

      Chauncey Billups on the Carmelo situation

      August 21, 2010 /
      Denver Nuggets' Carmelo Anthony (15) and Chauncey Billups (7) argue the call in Game 1 of the Los Angeles Lakers vs. Denver Nuggets Western Conference finals at Staples Center in Los Angeles on May 19, 2009. The Lakers defeated the Nuggets 105-103 to lead the best-of-seven series 1-0. (UPI Photo/Jim Ruymen) Photo via Newscom Photo via Newscom

      The Denver Post spoke with Chauncey Billups, who had some advice for Carmelo Anthony:

      “It’s tough, but I think that’s the one thing he has to do, is whoever it is in his camp that’s speaking and talking and doing whatever, he has to take that up with them and say ‘Listen, where’s all of this coming from?’ ” Billups said. “That’s something that internally he has to fix.

      “Honestly, I think that the publications and things are out of control. None of this stuff has come out of Melo’s mouth. He has not once said he didn’t want to be a Nugget. He loves Denver, he loves the Nuggets, he loves the fans. So, it’s a part of him that I’m sure is eating him up a little bit because he’s taken all this press, and he’s not said one thing to support or to not support what they are saying. He’s just trying to enjoy his summer, chill out.”

      The news is leaking out, and that may be planned or unplanned, but according to Ric Bucher and people of his ilk, Anthony isn’t keeping his desire to play for the Knicks a secret.

      Hell, even his new bride, LaLa Vasquez, is talking about possibly moving to New York:

      “Us being in New York is a possibility,” LaLa told the Daily News’ Amanda Sidman. “It depends on ‘Melo’s career and where it takes him. There’s a lot of talk about the Knicks, I mean, there’s a lot of teams out there, he’s a great player and I think collectively we just need to think about what makes sense for our family. But I would never say that being in New York is not an option, I’d be lying to you if I said that.”

      LaLa, who is from Brooklyn, admitted that she’s always been a Knicks fan “until I met my husband, then I jumped ship to the Nuggets. ‘Melo will tell you, and all the players will tell you no matter where their loyalty is, there aren’t many places like Madison Square Garden. They’ll all say that, and it’s nothing against their teams but there is a different energy in there, and you really can’t top that.”

      One reason that Carmelo isn’t really discussing his situation is because he will be fined if he publicly requests a trade.

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, NBA, News, Rumors & Gossip

      Report: Roger Clemens turned down plea agreement

      August 21, 2010 /
      New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens testifies before a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the Mitchell Report and its allegations that Clemens used performance enhancing drugs on Capitol Hill in Washington on February 13, 2008. (UPI Photo/Kevin Dietsch) Photo via Newscom Photo via Newscom

      According to a report by ESPN.com, Roger Clemens was offered a plea agreement but his attorney Rusty Hardin said that his client declined the offer.

      “The government made a recommendation [for a plea agreement] and we declined,” Hardin said. “I will tell you the recommendation they made was a very good one if he was guilty. And if he was guilty we would have jumped on it. Everybody has all this great solicitous advice, all the media and you guys — ESPN. Nobody is answering the question: What if he didn’t do it, what should he have done? And everybody wants him to confess.

      “I have even heard people suggest that even if he didn’t do it he should have said he did so that everybody will move on. That is a helluva commentary.”

      Hardin reiterated he and his staff have drilled Clemens on the need to fess up, if he did steroids or human growth hormone.

      “He’s been told from the beginning if he did it he ought to do exactly what Andy [Pettitte] did. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that. And everybody assumes it is his arrogance and his ego that kept him from doing it.

      “He wasn’t the greatest witness before Congress, I understand that. But I got to tell you, we’ve sat on him probably for 100 of our hours over the last two-and-a-half years, always with the same thing: ‘If you did it, the best thing to do is just admit it and move on and we’ll deal with it.’ He has never, ever wavered.”

      Talk about rolling the dice. If he’s guilty and he didn’t accept this deal when he had the chance, then he’s absolutely out of his mind. The government has essentially given him a nice out and he decided not to take it, so he’s either truly innocent or clinically insane.

      I will give Clemens this – he has maintained his innocence throughout this whole ordeal. He’s never wavered in his denial about talking steroids and obviously he’s willing to go to extreme measures to prove his innocence. One would think that if he were guilty, he would have taken the deal and then faced the public scrutiny to avoid jail time.

      Of course, I wouldn’t put it past Clemens to go to jail and maintain his innocence, rather than accept a plea agreement and admit that he’s been lying this entire time. Even if he’s proven guilty in the court of law, he could continue to tell the public that he never juiced and that he was screwed by the judicial system.

      What a mess.

      External Sports, MLB

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