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      Lou Piniella needs a reality check

      June 12, 2010 /

      It’s hard to blame Lou Piniella for being frustrated these days. His Cubs are currently 7.5 games back in the NL Central behind the Reds (the Reds!), his No. 3 and No. 4 hitters couldn’t hit a beach ball if one were lobbed in their direction and he probably gets the sense that his time is almost up in Chicago.

      But if you’re Lou, why pick on little ol’ Steve Stone?

      For those of you who aren’t familiar with Stone’s work, he’s a former broadcaster for the Cubs and now a current broadcaster for the White Sox. Earlier this week, he criticized Piniella on Comcast SportsNet for not playing rookie outfielder Tyler Colvin more.

      This is exactly what Stone said (via ESPN Chicago):

      “I think that means that Lou doesn’t have a great grasp on what to do with young players,” Stone said in the interview. “Because with Tyler Colvin, if you take a look at what he has accomplished in a short period of time, with limited play, you realize that he very well could be the one thing the Cubs have been looking for for six years. That’s a left-handed run producer. Colvin could be that one guy. But he can’t do it on the bench, so you make a decision that you play the guy.”

      What Stone said was hardly venomous and the guy does have a right to share his opinion. (He is a broadcaster after all.) But apparently Piniella took exception to the criticism and before the Cubs got their ass kicked by the Sox yesterday, Lou went off.

       

      Continue reading »

      External Sports, MLB

      Fact-checking Tim Donaghy

      June 12, 2010 /

      Tim Donaghy is still around, mostly because he’s in financial trouble and is trying to find a way to parlay his history of gambling on (or fixing?) NBA games into some semblance of a post-officiating career. Henry Abbott put together a nice post about Donaghy that seems to debunk much of what he has said.

      * Donaghy recalls a conversation he had on the court with Phil Jackson that Jackson tells ESPN’s J.A. Adande never happened.
      * He describes relationships between Allen Iverson and referees Steve Javie (who he says hated Iverson) and Joe Crawford (who was allegedly a fan) that biased their calls, and made picking Iverson games easy ways to make money. But those betting rules, in fact, would not have led to winners.
      * He told a stirring tale of locker room run-in with Charles Barkley, but Barkley told ESPN’s Mark Schwarz no such thing occurred.
      * The three palming violations Donaghy remembers in some detail that were really two.
      * He wrote that he won bets relying on Dick Bavetta’s habit of keeping games close, but looking at scores proved betting like that would not win you money.
      * He described in some detail the friendship between referee Joe Forte and then-Grizzlies coach Mike Fratello, which inspired him to pick Fratello’s team to beat the spread when Forte reffed. But in that period, Fratello’s teams beat the spread less than half the time.

      Even Donaghy’s publisher has severed ties with him.

      Generally speaking, I don’t think there is a lot of game-fixing going on. To err is to be human, and NBA referees make a LOT of bad calls. It doesn’t mean they’re doing it on purpose. It’s an impossible job to do perfectly.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

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

      World Cup Reminder: United States vs. England, 2:30 PM ET on ABC

      June 12, 2010 /

      At this point, I shouldn’t need to remind any of you. In addition to the ubiquitous FIFA ads over the past couple of months (you saw them, even if they hadn’t registered), our country’s most powerful sports resource, ESPN, is judiciously handling the 2010 World Cup coverage (with the help of ABC). It’s the one time (every four years) that the Worldwide Leader has the opportunity to reach mass markets that don’t care for Yankee/Red Sox games. And although the lucrative task isn’t quite as burdensome as the heft of the Olympics, I’m glad the World Cup is out of the clumsy grasp of NBC.

      Of course, their soccer-centric coverage has to do with what is on as much as what isn’t. With the Stanley Cup decided, the achingly-long NBA Finals on an off-day and baseball offering underwhelming rivalries (Cubs/White Sox, Dodgers/Angels), today is all about an American second-tier sport. Do you remember anything about the 2006 World Cup? Maybe so, but what about our national team’s showing? Who scored? Who did we beat? Right.

      I love supporting our national teams. I was pumped up when the U.S. hockey team made it to the gold-medal game at the recent Olympics. And although I’m not a soccer or hockey aficionado, I look forward to getting together with groups of people around a television and sharing in the joy, sorrow, surprise and dismay. And really, the Olympics and the World Cup are the prime times we do this as Americans — it’s all so rare.

      No, we aren’t going to win the World Cup. (At this point, considering soccer’s popularity in America, it would be sin.) But what our team can do is advance into the knockout stage. We’ve landed in Group C, likely the easiest overall selection of teams. As two teams advance from each group, our chances look great. From then on, it only gets hard or harder. That’s what make today’s outcome against England so important. If the U.S. defeats Wayne Rooney and company they could face Austria/Serbia en route to France. But if England comes out on top the U.S. could be at the mercy of Germany.

      That last paragraph may have been more than you wanted to know about the World Cup. I can’t apologize, because the rewards far exceed the effort.

      Watch the game. Watch all of them.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      External Sports, Soccer

      Glen Davis and Nate Robinson’s funny postgame interview [video]

      June 12, 2010 /

      Want to know how it feels when you’re a reserve and you have a direct impact on the outcome of Game 4 of the NBA Finals? Watch this video of Nate Robinson and Glen Davis. They don’t hold anything back…

      There is definitely a different mindset as a starter versus a reserve. As a starter, you expect to be in the game at crunch time and are prepared to play with the game on the line. There will be games where you decide the outcome.

      As a reserve, you go in and do your thing, but you’re usually pulled with five or six minutes remaining (or earlier) because the coach wants to get his starters back in. Doc Rivers made the decision to let a unit that featured four bench players continue to play deep into the fourth quarter because they were performing so well. Both Davis and Robinson admitted that they kept looking at the clock wondering when they were going to get pulled.

      External Sports, Fantasy Basketball, Humor, NBA, Video

      Top 10 active base hits leaders

      June 12, 2010 /

      I read yesterday that one of Pete Rose’s bats was being auctioned off, the one he used for his last hit, number 4256. And it made me wonder if that will ever be topped. I can’t imagine it will be, but stranger things have happened. Of course, the Baseball Hall of Fame still fails to recognize what Rose did on the field because of what he did as a manager off the field. But that’s for another post. Here is a look at the Top 10 active leaders in base hits:

      1. Derek Jeter, New York Yankees (2824)—The classiest player by far in the big leagues today, and the epitome of someone who plays the game right and just gets it. I look forward to Jeter notching his 3000th hit, which will likely be next season.

      2. Ivan Rodriguez, Washington Nationals (2781)—In his twentieth season this year, I-Rod is batting .331. No loss of bat speed with this guy, that’s for sure.

      3. Omar Vizquel, Chicago White Sox (2724)—Amazingly, Vizquel is in his 22nd season and still looks like he’s 28 years old. I got to see him play in his prime in Cleveland, and he was/is the best defensive shortstop I’ve ever seen. But he has clearly racked up hits too.

      4. Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees (2596)—Well, duh. The question is, though, will he eventually be the all-time home run king?

      5. Manny Ramirez, Los Angeles Dodgers (2530)—Yeah, he juiced, and so did A-Rod. But these two guys still have to be incredibly talented ball players to rack up this many hits.

      6. Garret Anderson, Los Angeles Dodgers (2515)—Steady and classy as well, but it’s just hard to believe Garret Anderson is 38 years old. Didn’t he just break into the bigs?

      7. Johnny Damon, Detroit Tigers (2482)—Scrappy, solid player, and he just keeps on grinding. But do any of you remember Damon’s days with the Royals? I sure don’t.

      8. Chipper Jones, Atlanta Braves (2444)—Another guy who defines playing the game the way it was meant to be played, and he just keeps on hitting well into his thirties.

      9. Vladimir Guerrero, Texas Rangers (2326)—He’s hitting .339 with 53 RBI on June 11. Vlad is another ageless wonder.

      10. Edgar Renteria, San Francisco Giants (2213)—It’s kind of amazing that Renteria is on this list, even though he’s never had a 200-hit season. But he’s been reliable and consistent all these years.

      Source: Baseball Reference

      External Sports, MLB

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