Some local officials privately said they could see Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, who also owns 45 percent of the Barclays Center, potentially acquiring the Islanders to add 44-60 dates per year to help fill the arena.
A Prokhorov spokeswoman, however, said the Russian billionaire “has no interest in buying another sports team at this time.”
The arena currently is projected to host about 200 events annually, including Nets games.
Queens, Kansas City, Mo., Suffolk County and Canada have also been rumored as potential landing spots for the Islanders.
Jed Hoyer, the second year General Manager, moved contracts and got two more tremendous young minor league pitching prospects.Owner Jeff Moorad’s miniscule payroll got smaller by the shedding of two more contracts.
Mike Adams, who resurrected his career from the scrap pile, goes to Texas, currently in first place, and will have the chance to save games in a pennant race.
Ryan Ludwick, his disappointing one-year stay in San Diego over, goes to a hitter-friendly park, and will have two months to show he can still hit, after earning nearly $6 million with the Padres, while striking out much more than hitting balls out of the park.
Somewhat lost in the unsatisfying way the Atlanta Braves-Pittsburgh Pirates game endedearly Wednesday morning was the fact the best catcher in baseball — certainly he’s No. 1 in fantasy by a healthy margin this season — was forced to leave early with a strained left oblique. Brian McCann is pretty good, folks; he leads all catcher-eligible players in home runs and is second in RBIs and batting average to Victor Martinez!
I’m no doctor, but a strained oblique is obviously a big deal for anyone attempting to hit a baseball, and it’s a hindrance to playing catcher as well, but the Braves believe this is a short-term injury, one that shouldn’t cost McCann more than three weeks of playing time. Of course, there’s always a chance the problem lingers.
Quarterback Donovan McNabb(notes) will play for a different team for the third straight year, pending the final details in a trade that will send the six-time Pro Bowler from the Washington Redskins to the Minnesota Vikings. Word is that the Vikings would send a sixth-round pick in 2012 and a conditional pick in 2013 to the nation’s capitol for McNabb’s services.
It seems like labor peace in the NFL has arrived, and that can only mean one thing.. another summer of Favre comeback talk – and this time it’s the Philadelphia Eagles.
Brett Favre wonders how life would be in an Eagles uniform while backing up Michael Vick.
Philadelphia Eagles starter Michael Vick added fuel to the fire started by a Philadelphia radio sideline reporter over the weekend, saying that he would be “honored” for Brett Favre to join the team.
After Howard Eskin of WIP radio tweeted that Eagles were interested in signing Favre as a backup after Kevin Kolb is dealt, Vick tweeted Sunday:
“I would be honored to have Brett Farve as a backup. That will be amazing Learning how to toy with defenses the way he did his whole career.”
Ryan Braun is out of the starting lineup for the Milwaukee Brewers against the San Francisco Giants to rest his lingering left calf strain.
Braun says he feels fine and he didn’t re-injure his calf after playing the last two games. Mark Kotsay started in his place Friday night.
The injury sidelined Braun for the All-Star game despite being the NL’s top vote-getter. He also missed more than a week before the break, and the Brewers want to ease his transition back.
This month, Vick was re-signed as a pitchman by Nike (he was merely receiving products from them upon returning to the NFL) and has inked a deal with MusclePharm. In June, Vick got back in the promotions business in a smaller way when he signed to help promote a helmet padding system created by Unequal Technologies.
While Vick is still a long way from being the marketing dynamo he was earlier in his career, what’s happening is at least very surprising to those in the marketing business.
The Cubs dropped a 7-5 decision Sunday to the Florida Marlins, and let’s be clear about one thing: the loss was the Cubs’ own fault.
They fell to 20 games under .500 at 38-58 largely because they couldn’t get a quality start out of pitcher Randy Wells and because their offense went from the second inning until two outs in the eighth between basehits.
But that didn’t stop Quade or his troops from taking off on second-base umpire Lance Barrett for an apparent blown call on a pickoff play in Florida’s 3-run eighth inning that gave the Marlins a 7-4 lead.
Kerry Wood had just put runners on with two outs on a hit batter and a walk. With Emilio Bonifacio at the plate, Wood wheeled and threw to second in an attempt to pick off pinch runner Brett Hayes.
The throw looked to shortstop Starlin Castro looked to have Hayes, but Barrett called him safe. Quade did not argue, but Wood kicked up a minor fuss.
Bonifacio then reached on an infield single before Wood issued a bases-loaded walk and a 2-run single.
Barring any last-minute snags, NFL owners and players are on a path that could lead to a new collective bargaining agreement this week.
While the end to the four-month owners’ lockout is not a done deal, substantial progress was made late in the week and indications are that ownership may vote to ratify the new labor contract at their league meetings Thursday in Atlanta, a person with knowledge of the talks told USA TODAY on Saturday.
Years of investigation, research and preparation were put in jeopardy Thursday when the government made a key error in the Roger Clemens perjury trial and Judge Reggie Walton declared a mistrial.
Just weeks from a verdict that would have either set Clemens free, or, as Walton said in the courtroom Thursday, sent him to prison, the questions on everyone’s mind are:
How badly did the government screw it up? And what happens next?
As the shock of the judge’s ruling subsided, legal experts raised the possibility of several different outcomes, ranging from a dismissal on the grounds of double jeopardy (not likely, most say) to a plea agreement between the government and Clemens (more likely Friday than it was Thursday, in the wake of Walton’s pointed message to Clemens that he would most definitely be going to jail should he be convicted).
James Harrison of the Pittsburgh Steelers said some crazy stuff about Roger Goodell.
James Harrison sounds like someone who's flown over the cuckoo's nest.
From The Washington Post
Heavily fined Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison calls NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a “crook” and a “devil,” among other insults, in a magazine article.
The 2008 AP Defensive Player of the Year hasn’t been shy about ripping the league after he was docked $100,000 for illegal hits last season. In the August issue of Men’s Journal, his rants against Goodell reach another level of wrath.
“If that man was on fire and I had to piss to put him out, I wouldn’t do it,” Harrison told the magazine. “I hate him and will never respect him.”
His other descriptions of the commissioner include an anti-gay slur, “stupid,” “puppet” and “dictator.”
Jeter’s 3,000th hit has its own campaign that has been titled ”DJ3K,” and everyone is trying to cash in on it. DJ3K has been turned into a logo that will be branded on merchandise for fans, everything from shirts to cellphone skins to bobbleheads. One popular New York sporting goods store, Modell’s, has said it will stay open past its closing time as long as fans continue shopping.
Another way DJ3K is cashing in is with the dirt on the field. After the game, a groundskeeper will scoop up five gallons of dirt from the batter’s box and shortstop’s patch into a bucket. This will be the dirt that is under Jeter’s feet as he makes his 3,000th hit. That dirt will be used in key chains, disks framed with photographs and other limited memorabilia for sale.
“He obviously said something to David,” Red Sox starter Josh Beckett said after Ortiz and Gregg attempted to throw a few haymakers, neither connecting. “David’s not the type of guy — something had to have set him off. I don’t know what it could’ve been.”
Both players are almost certain to receive suspensions. Ortiz didn’t make himself available for comment, but Gregg did. Turns out, he wasn’t happy with Ortiz’ etiquette.
“It is 3-0, they are up seven, and I think there are some ethics to this game and guidelines that you have to stay within,” Gregg said. “Run. You hit a lazy fly ball, you have to run the bases. And apparently, he didn’t like me telling him that stuff and he came out there. If he thinks there’s something wrong with me saying that, then he has other things he has to check out in this game.”
The traffic stop occurred about 3 a.m. June 26 on Hwy. 12 near Carlson Parkway, said police Capt. Scott Boerboom. Beasley was driving 84 miles per hour in a 65-mph zone, Boerboom said.
Officers who stopped Beasley, 22, smelled marijuana in the car and found slightly more than a half-ounce in the vehicle, Boerboom said.
A police report said the marijuana was found under the front seat. Beasley said the marijuana belonged to a friend whom he had just dropped off, according to the report.
It’s been mostly bad at Fenway this season for Lackey, who has a 3-4 record and a 9.09 ERA in seven home starts.
The Jays jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first two innings before Lackey allowed four runs on five hits in the third while recording only one out on a deep fly ball to center.
The boos from the 38,072 grew progressively louder with each Toronto hit before transforming into the loudest ovation when manager Terry Francona emerged to remove Lackey with the Sox trailing 7-0.
Clearly, the Rangers’ front office decided that Brad Richards was indeed worth the risk. The immediate benefits to this Rangers team are obvious. Richards has scored at least 20 goals in 9 of his 10 NHL seasons. He has posted at least 25 power play points in 8 of his 10 seasons. He will fit an immediate need both in the #1 center slot, and quarterbacking the power play. He has a Stanley Cup ring and a Conn Smythe trophy to his credit, from his days with current Rangers’ coach John Tortorella.
The contract he signed is a nine year contract worth $58.5 million. The deal takes him until he turns, avoiding the ‘Kovalchuk’-rule cap restrictions that come with contracts that take a player past 40 years of age.
As the NBA enters what looks to be an extended lockout, team owners want fans to believe a few things. They want us to believe that the league’s economic structure is fundamentally broken, that 22 of the league’s 30 teams are losing money, and that the league’s core economic problem is player compensation. In other words, they’re saying the players make too much money.
There is a word for what they’re doing on that last point: They’re lying.
They might not be lying about losing money — but the extent of those losses is a matter of considerable debate. The owners claim they lost $370 million last year. But, when amortization and interest are removed, $250 million of those “losses” vanish.
What began as deadline day for the Pittsburgh Penguins and their pursuit of 39-year-old forward Jaromir Jagr has instead been filled with lingering questions about Jagr’s potential return to the NHL, his actual whereabouts late Wednesday and the interest of his former team in securing his services for the 2011-12 season.
Jagr was supposed to arrive in New York on Wednesday with a definitive decision on whether he would accept the Penguins’ reported offer of one year and $2 million, or if he wanted to sign elsewhere, be it in the NHL or back in Russia, where he played the last three seasons. He has also reportedly received interest from Detroit and Montreal.
Jagr can’t sign a contract with an NHL team until noon ET on Friday.
However, Jagr’s agent, Petr Svoboda, told the Detroit Free Press that he could not confirm his client’s whereabouts Wednesday night.
“I don’t know if he missed a connection,” Svoboda told the newspaper after 8 p.m. ET. “I have no clue.”
Montreal police say charges against Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara have still not been ruled out as they prepare to speak to him in the coming weeks about his controversial hit on Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty. Chara’s hit in March landed Pacioretty in the hospital and ended his season. The towering Bruins defenceman was thrown out of the game but subsequently received no suspension from the National Hockey League.
Montreal police said in March that they would investigate the incident to see if there was any criminal element.
Sgt. Ian Lafrenière of the Montreal police said the investigation was delayed because most of the witnesses were hockey players busy with the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Los Angeles Dodgers filed for bankruptcy protection in a Delaware court Monday, blaming Major League Baseball for refusing to approve a multibillion-dollar TV deal that owner Frank McCourt was counting on to keep the troubled team afloat.
The Chapter 11 financing permits the Dodgers to use $150 million for daily operations and buys time for the team to seek a media deal and ensure the team’s long-term financial stability, the Dodgers said in a news release. A judge would need to approve use of the money and a hearing is set for Tuesday.
“There will be no disruption to the Dodgers day-to-day business, the baseball team, or to the Dodger fans,” the statement said.
Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov was elected chairman of the Pravoye Delo political party as the pro-democracy movement seeks to challenge Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’sUnited Russia in this year’s election.
“We have to become a normal, transparent and efficient party of power,” Prokhorov, Russia’s third-richest man, told reporters and party delegates in Moscow today. Prokhorov said he expected Pravoye Delo, or Right Cause, to come second in parliamentary elections scheduled for December, he said.
Prokhorov, the 46-year-old owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, will lead Pravoye Delo, a party with 56,000 members, into December elections for the State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian parliament. His party will compete against United Russia, which currently holds 315 of the 450 seats and has about 2 million members.
Then around 3 p.m. Eastern time, the sound you heard was everyone’s jaw hitting the floor at the same time, because Paul Holmgren totally went off the deep end.
Mike Richards and Jeff Carter, and their more than $110 million in combined salary through 2020 and 2022, respectively, were traded about 35 minutes apart. Then they signed 31-year-old Ilya Bryzgalov for nine years. None of it, seemingly, made any sense.
(Of note: Holmgren seemed genuinely upset to have made the deals at the press conference, so one gets the feeling this was all coming from way upstairs, which is stupid and inexcusable.)
Fredette had the college basketball world buzzing throughout the winter and spring, electrifying fans by leading the nation with a scoring average of 28.9 points per game. He was the consensus national player of the year, which partly explains all the hoopla surrounding him. But he has also made waves in recent days, particularly in this city, for stating that he would love to play for the New York Knicks.
“It would be incredible. It would be a lot of fun, to play with those guys and in Coach (Mike) D’Antoni’s system,” Fredette, who is a native of Glens Falls in upstate New York, said on Wednesday. “We’ll see what happens.”
The revenue share will be 48 percent of all revenues for the players, minus any miscellaneous agreed upon credits for things like stadium building. The percentage, though will not go below 46.5. The owners will no longer take a billion off the top before splitting.
Players not under contract after three seasons will be restricted free agents and unrestricted after four, as it was before the uncapped 2010 season.
The salary floor will, at least to start, will be very close to the salary cap (approximately 90 percent).
The 18-game schedule will be something that will be negotiated in the future and cannot be mandated by the league.
Starting in 2012, there will be a 16-week Thursday night TV game.
The oldest big-league manager was Connie Mack, who led the Philadelphia Athletics in a straw hat and suit until 1950, when he was 87. McKeon will wear a ballcap and uniform with No. 25.
McKeon made no mention Monday of Mack, but said he draws inspiration from 84-year-old Joe Paterno, who will coach Penn State’s football team for a 46th season this year.
“I’ve managed since I was 14 years old,” McKeon jokingly said. “I’ll probably manage until I’m 95.”
Actually, McKeon was 42 when he began managing in 1973. None of his current players were yet born, but none objected to the prospect of taking orders from someone older than their grandparents.
Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols will miss four to six weeks with a small fracture in his left forearm, an injury that creates a gaping hole in the St. Louis lineup while vastly altering the dynamic of the National League Central race.
The Cardinals announced today that an MRI showed a non-displaced fracture of the left radius and that the All-Star’s arm was placed in a splint.
That’s what it’s come to: the world’s best players are thisclose to conceding the U.S. Open to the 22-year-old McIlroy. That’s how dominating, how, well, Tiger-ish, he’s been. McIlroy isn’t just atop the leaderboard, he’s hovering over it, almost golf god-like.
“I don’t really know what to say,” said McIlroy, almost sheepishly, after shooting a 5-under-par 66 on Friday. “It’s been two very, very good days of golf.”
Nobody knows what to say, except, “Wow.” You can’t describe some of what he’s done because it’s never been done before. McIlroy has taken a chalkboard eraser to all sorts of previous Open accomplishments and records. And in the process, he’s made us sort of forget about what’s-his-name.
McIlroy actually reached minus-13 for the Open when he birdied No. 17. Never been done before.
Three Super Bowl wins, two World Series titles and an NBA Championship. Yet something was missing.
After all of Boston’s triumphs over the past decade, the party never quite seemed complete. No matter how much fun the city’s had or how memorable the moments have been, there’s always been that one little X factor that has kept the party from being a full-fledged blowout for the ages.
Ah, yes, it’s a Bruins Stanley Cup victory. Well, rejoice.
Places not as good as Katchop that you still might go to anyway:
