The Cleveland Indians removed manager Eric Wedge today with style (katchop)
The Indians are in the early stages of what general manager Mark Shapiro referred to as a “reloading” period, and the reload will extend to the managerial position and the coaching staff.
A 1:30 p.m. ET press conference was scheduled Wednesday at Progressive Field to announce that Wedge and his coaches have all been relieved of their duties. Wedge and his staff will stay aboard for the season’s final six games, including the four-game set in Boston this weekend.
Tennessee Titans head coach Jeff Fisher stays relaxed by throwing BBQ parties on the sideline (katchop)
Kerry has been fine. He has been fine,” Fisher said. “It is a tough defense to attack and he made some great throws. I thought he did a great job, as best he could, redirecting protections.
“Kerry is not the reason. He is certainly not the reason for the situation we’re in.”
Collins was sharp in the early going against the Jets, but his last 13 passes of the game were incompletions. He finished 15-of-37 for 170 yards with a touchdown, two interceptions and a quarterback rating of 41.5.
The Seattle Seahawks new alternate jersey worn against the Chicago Bears on Sunday is being mentioned as one of the worst NFL uniforms of all time.
Once he realized that the Kryptonite uniforms were useless against the Bears, Seahawks head coach Lex Luthor tried intimidation of the officials (katchop)
At first, I thought it might be a commercial for one of those just-as-yucky lime beers. Then, I realized that those poor players actually had to run around in those things for three hours in front of millions of people. Oh, for the days of black-and-white television!
The Seahawks “throw-up” jerseys got us thinking…what’s the worst uniform in sports history?
The Toronto Maple Leafs are now the Maple Fists (katchop)
The team’s general manager took a look at the non-playoff roster he was handed when he took the job early last season, and quickly surmised he needed to make it Anaheim East as fast as possible. In other words, even if the Leafs don’t win every game, they’ll certainly leave a mark.
Burke rode the hard-nosed approach all the way to a Stanley Cup in Anaheim in 2007, thus proving a team in the Pacific Time Zone could put all the travel challenges aside and run the table. It didn’t hurt that the Ducks took the mighty out of their name, put it on the ice and ran everyone else out of the building.
Mariano Rivera gets ready to do his fire breather trick (katchop)
Andy Pettitte and the New York Yankees wrapped up the AL East title and home-field advantage throughout the postseason with a neat bow, beating the Boston Red Sox 4-2 Sunday for their 100th win of the year. Hideki Matsui’s go-ahead single in the sixth inning energized the damp fans and put them on notice that a party was coming. The first real celebration at the new Yankee Stadium began with a most familiar scene – on the mound, closing out another clinching victory.
“This one is special. We haven’t been there,” Rivera said, pausing to smile in a champagne-soaked clubhouse, “since last year.”
The honeymoon might already be over for Eric Mangini and the Cleveland Browns.
The Mangenius is now Mangolean (katchop / Footballguys.com)
In New York, they’re calling rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez “San-chise” because he’s their franchise player now. Sanchez is 2-0 with a 91.3 passer rating after knocking off Houston and New England in his first two NFL games.
In Cleveland, Eric Mangini‘s Browns haven’t scored a meaningful touchdown in two games with Brady Quinn as his starting quarterback.
Mangini not only bypassed taking Sanchez with the fifth overall pick in the April draft. He hand-delivered him to the Jets, his former team, in a trade.
To simulate home field conditions, the New York Jets often bring in Fireman Ed to shout obscenities and racial epithets at players like Mark Sanchez during practices (katchop)
The Jets’ most famous fan received a game ball from coach Rex Ryan during the team meeting Friday for helping lead a raucous Meadowlands crowd during New York’s 16-9 win over New England last Sunday.
Ed Anzalone, a New York City firefighter, has been coming to every Jets home game for years, wearing a fire helmet and leading the “J-E-T-S! Jets! Jets! Jets!” cheer.
The Dallas Cowboys recognize the need to improve their crowd control methods after some of the record 105,121 fans became unruly and threw bottles on Sunday (but not at the cage dancers).
An uninvited Kanye West interrupts the coin toss to tell everyone that the Susan B Anthony is a much better coin than the Sacagawea (katchop)
Don Crowson, an Arlington assistant fire chief, said public safety and team officials met this week and discussed how to avoid ugly scenes like the ones before last Sunday’s game, which drew an NFL regular-season record crowd of 105,121. City officials said crowd members threw bottles, and there was the fear it could have escalated.
“We have an assurance that this will not happen again,” Crowson said about discussions with the Cowboys.
The G-20 Summit and a 17th consecutive losing season kept fans away from PNC Park. Just 3,000 people showed up to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates play the Cincinnati Reds.
The upper deck of PNC Park looked like a ghost town on Thursday (katchop)
The paid attendance was 15,892—well above PNC Park’s all-time low of 8,201 on April 25, 2007, for an Astros-Pirates game—but the actual turnout was about 3,000.
The turnout was so small that the Pirates closed PNC Park’s upper deck for the first time since the 38,362-seat ballpark opened in 2001 and allowed fans to sit in first-level seats.
The Calgary Flames have been pleased with Theo Fleury’s comeback bid.
Theo Fleury looks seasoned in his comeback attempt (katchop)
I thought he was fine,” said head coach Brent Sutter. “He played a smart game. I thought he played within the confines of our team play.
“Whatever happens, he’s accomplished a lot.”
Has he accomplished enough to earn a job with the Flames? Or, perhaps, the Abbotsford Heat of the American Hockey League?
Stay tuned.
“I know for me personally, I’ve enjoyed the fact that he’s been here,” Sutter said. “With everything he’s been through, it’s certainly been a very positive step — not only on Theo’s part, but for everyone inside the organization, too.
“Regardless of what happens, it’s been a real positive experience for everyone involved,”
UPDATE: Deal is done pending NBA approval. Prokhorov paid 200 million and picks up 80% ownership of the Nyets Nets, but he also agrees to pay the remaining tab on building the new arena, housing and retail locations.
Nets coach Lawrence Frank reacts with a Russian folk dance after learning that Mikhail Prokhorov has purchased the NJ Nets (katchop)
Prokhorov, considered Russia’s richest man, said Tuesday on his blog that he sent team shareholders an offer over the weekend. Under the proposal, Prokhorov’s holding company Onexim would obtain a controlling share in the Nets in return for loaning the money to build a new arena.
No monetary figures were given, but the blog posting says the controlling shares would be obtained for “a symbolic price.”
Georges Laraque hits like Kimbo, eats like Bambi (katchop)
No dairy, no poultry, no fish, no more leather shoes or animal byproducts. Laraque has been on a strict diet of vegetables, fruits, grains and legumes since June 1.
While he says he was partly motivated to improve his health for the hockey season, Laraque insists the decision was made primarily for political, rather than nutritional, reasons.
Everything changed, Laraque said, after he saw Earthlings, a 2006 documentary that is widely celebrated in animal-rights circles.
“It’s unconscionable what’s happening to animals in this country and the way we treat animals we eat. … I realized I had to make some big changes,” Laraque said.
Though Laraque said he will no longer buy leather of any kind, he hasn’t rid his closet or hockey bag of previously purchased leather products because “that would be a further waste. And this way I don’t forget.”
Mathias Kiwanuka of the New York Giants thinks that Flozell Adams of the Dallas Cowboys is a dirty player.
Flozell Adams drops back to protect Tony Romo (katchop)
This is the NFL,” Kiwanuka said. “People put their careers on the line everyday, in every practice, in every game. You don’t want to risk somebody getting hurt off something cheap like that. You understand that they have a job to protect their quarterback, but there are rules in a game for a reason.”
Herschel Walker has had many roles in his life, from dominant college football player to author of a book about his mental health problems.
Along the way there was a stint as one of the faces of the United States Football League and a decade-long career in the N.F.L. He also competed in the 1992 Olympics in the bobsled.
At age 47, he is taking on a new challenge: mixed martial arts.
Walker has signed a multifight contract with Strikeforce, an MMA organization that is trying to challenge the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Milton Bradley broke the ice and has been suspended (katchop)
In a move that was long overdue and basically admitted to making a giant mistake in signing Milton Bradley(notes), the Chicago GM suspended the always angry right fielder for the rest of the season and said he wasn’t sure if the situation was “fixable” for the remaining two seasons on Bradley’s three-year, $30 million contract.
Though Bradley had written his share of controversial headlines this season — from being sent home early by Lou Piniella during a game against the White Sox to accusing Cubs fans of racism — it took some negative comments made by Bradley to the Daily Herald on Saturday for Hendry to finally write out a bus ticket on Sunday.
Well, the reason I hate the Cowboys so much – I am going to put me in this, I am going to take my team out of this – is because they have so many fans,” Jacobs said Wednesday. “Everywhere you go someone is always saying, ‘Big D! Go Big D!’ I don’t want to hear that (stuff). That’s what makes me hate them.”
The image of McNabb as a wussy “Momma’s boy” was reinforced this past weekend when he was seen leaving the stadium on crutches with his parents. Good Lord. What professional athlete is escorted out of a stadium by his mommy and daddy? Something tells me Donny has some serious oedipal issues.
Delonte West of the Cleveland Cavaliers was arrested for speeding on a motorcycle. He happened to be carrying two handguns and a shotgunin a guitar case at the time.
Delonte West may be heading to Mexico to look for an evil drug lord (katchop)
Prince George’s County police spokeswoman Sgt. Michelle Reedy said Friday the Cleveland Cavaliers player was arrested about 10 p.m. Thursday
Reedy said West was riding a Can-Am Spyder motorcycle north on the Capital Beltway in Upper Marlboro when he cut off an officer, who pulled him over.
Police said a handgun was found in his pocket, another in his pant leg and a shotgun in a guitar case strapped to his back.
Calgary Flame Dion Phaneuf terminated flattened Kyle Reese Okposo of the New York Islanders and Puck Daddy is asking questions.
Dion Phaneuf, the pride of Skynet (katchop)
He cut through the middle and kind of fumbled the puck and looked down,” Phaneuf said. “I stepped up. I definitely thought it was a clean hit.”
“You never like to see guys get hurt,” Phaneuf said. “But from what our doctors say, he’s OK. So that’s a good thing. … It’s a big part of my game to play that physical style. When the hit is there, I’m definitely going to take it.”
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