Boston Bruins announcer Jack Edwards equates Matt Cooke with Sirhan Sirhan: Jack Edwards states that Matt Cooke basically assassinated Marc Savard, also that...nominating Cooke for the Masterton Trophy last season was equal to "nominating Sirhan Sirhan as the prisoner of the year."

posted by tommytrump to hockey at 08:27 PM - 11 comments

Iggy!! Part deux?: After 16 seasons, two Rocket Richard Trophies, one trip to the Stanley Cup final, two Olympic gold medals....Jarome Iginla is a Pittsburgh Penguin. The Calgary Flames announced late Wednesday that Iginla is headed to Pittsburgh for forwards Kenneth Agostino and Ben Hankowski and Pittsburgh’s 2013 first-round pick.

posted by tommytrump to hockey at 04:21 AM - 9 comments

28 Fans Injured at Daytona by Crash Debris: A violent 12-car crash at the end of the Nationwide NASCAR race Saturday sent a tire and other debris flying over the grandstand fence at Daytona International Speedway, injuring at least 28 fans, some critically. Deadspin has video of a fan who was filming a few seats from where the tire landed. More from Reuters.

posted by tommytrump to auto racing at 07:43 PM - 7 comments

Greg Jamison asks for extension on Phoenix Coyotes deal:: In the most clear sign yet of the fragility of Jamison’s efforts to buy the Coyotes, Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers said an attorney representing Jamison called him late Wednesday night to ask for an extension on a lucrative arena-management deal. The city previously offered Jamison a 20-year deal that pays him an average of $15 million a year to manage Jobing.com Arena. However, the deal mandates that Jamison has to purchase the Coyotes from the NHL by 11:59 p.m. Arizona time today. If Jamison misses the deadline, the deal evaporates. Weiers said of extending the deadline: “Obviously, we’re not going to do that.”

posted by tommytrump to hockey at 01:03 PM - 2 comments

Maple Leafs fire G.M. Brian Burke : The Toronto Maple Leafs new ownership conglomerate of Bell, Rogers and Larry Tanenbaum pulled the plug on Burke on Wednesday morning, shocking the hockey world on a day when most of the game’s owners – included Tanenbaum – are set to vote on the collective agreement. Burke’s firing comes just 4 days before training camps are expected to open and a week and a half before an abbreviated 48-game schedule will start for the Leafs in Montreal on Jan. 19. The curious timing of the decision came after months of soul searching by new ownership, according to MLSE president Tom Anselmi.

posted by tommytrump to hockey at 03:14 PM - 5 comments

Game On!: After 6 long months of negotiations, it took one extremely long night to get the NHL out of the boardroom and back on the ice. A tentative deal to end the 113-day NHL lockout was reached Sunday morning at the end of a marathon 16-hour negotiating session. “We have reached an agreement on the framework of a new collective bargaining agreement, the details of which need to be put to paper,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told a news conference. “We’ve got to dot a lot of i’s and cross a lot of t’s. There’s still a lot of work to be done but the basic framework of the deal has been agreed upon.” “Hopefully within a very few days the fans can get back to watching people who are skating, not the two of us,” said Donald Fehr, executive director of the NHL Players’ Association.

posted by tommytrump to hockey at 07:35 AM - 8 comments

Detroit 8, New York 1: Made-to-order rout of Yankees sends Tigers to 11th World Series : The Tigers won their 11th AL pennant and returned to the World Series for the first time since 2006 by defusing the powerful Yankees in inconceivable fashion. If you subtract the four runs Jose Valverde gave up in Game 1, the Tigers limited the Yankees to two runs in four games.

posted by tommytrump to baseball at 07:39 AM - 20 comments

One-on-One With Jim Devellano, Detroit Red Wings Senior VP : "It's very complicated and way too much for the average Joe to understand, but having said that, I will tell you this: The owners can basically be viewed as the Ranch, and the players, and me included, are the cattle. The owners own the Ranch and allow the players to eat there. That's the way its always been and that the way it will be forever. And the owners simply aren't going to let a union push them around. It's not going to happen."

posted by tommytrump to hockey at 04:49 PM - 2 comments

The story of the '72 Summit Series, as it's never been told before: An oral history of what really transpired in September of 1972, with material from nearly 100 interviews.

posted by tommytrump to hockey at 09:15 AM - 0 comments

Tulane Safety Devon Walker Breaks Neck: Tulane safety Devon Walker suffered a broken neck and collapsed lung Saturday from a helmet-to-helmet collision with a teammate right before halftime against Tulsa. Walker stopped breathing when emergency medical workers removed his jersey and shoulder pads, Fox reported. He was revived and a tracheotomy was performed before he was taken to a hospital.

posted by tommytrump to football at 04:29 PM - 7 comments

Oakland A's pitcher Brandon McCarthy hit in head with line drive, has surgery: The A's flew to Seattle on Thursday for their biggest series of the season, but their minds were on something bigger still. Their teammate, pitcher Brandon McCarthy, lay in a hospital bed recovering from surgery for an epidural hemorrhage, brain contusion and skull fracture caused by a line drive that struck him in the head while he was pitching a day earlier.

posted by tommytrump to baseball at 09:56 PM - 6 comments

Augusta National adds first 2 female members: For the first time in its 80-year history, Augusta National Golf Club has female members. The home of the Masters, under increasing criticism the last decade because of its all-male membership, invited former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore to become the first women in green jackets when the club opens for a new season in October.

posted by tommytrump to golf at 11:55 AM - 20 comments

Perfect! Mariners' Felix Hernandez : Whenever Felix Hernandez takes the mound, the possibility of seeing something special, of witnessing immortality, is always lurking. On Wednesday, on a brilliantly sunny day, that possibility became reality, as Hernandez threw the 23rd perfect game in major-league history, and the first in Mariners history. "I don't have any words to explain this," Hernandez said in a TV interview after the game. "I've got to throw one. I've been working so hard to throw one, and I got it. It was in my mind the whole game."

posted by tommytrump to baseball at 06:24 PM - 17 comments

New Jersey Devils' Cam Janssen telling us how he really feels NSFW: On his Devils losing to the Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup finals: Host: "The first time I did a fat chick, a buddy picked me up from a party and I was hung over and he goes, 'Do you realize what you just did?' ... I would imagine it's something like that. It's like you had a chance, and then it's like ..."Janssen: "Damn fat broads, man." Host: "So the L.A. Kings are the fat broads?"Janssen: "They are. They're the fat broads that you regret bangin', and I've been there and done that." ... Janssen: "There's some shit-talkin' that goes down that pisses some people off. There's a lot of personal shit, man, like, guys know personal shit. ... You wanna get in people's heads to get them off their fuckin' game and don't get me wrong, you don't wanna go too deep with shit because we all have our issues here. Let's be honest."

posted by tommytrump to hockey at 09:06 PM - 5 comments

Minnesota Wild agrees to terms with Parise and Suter: The Wild scored a major coup, agreeing to terms Wednesday with Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, considered the two biggest prizes in this year's free-agent class. Parise, a forward who is a Minnesota native, and Suter, a defenseman, each received 13-year, $98 million deals according to people familiar with the terms. Parise and Suter will form a star-studded tandem that will be expected to alter the fortunes of a franchise that has missed the playoffs four consecutive seasons.

posted by tommytrump to hockey at 01:04 PM - 7 comments

Devils nip Kings to force Game 6: New Jersey danced down a tightrope during a wild final minute Saturday to stay alive in the Stanley Cup final. They held on as Los Angeles stormed their net with an extra skater to get a 2-1 win and cut the Kings’ lead in the NHL championship series to 3-2. Game 6 goes Monday in L. A. Now it is the Kings who finally have to sweat a little, although they brushed aside the question of pressure, 25 times in NHL history a team took a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Cup final, 20 of them won in a sweep. No team has won in Game 6 after letting its lead slip to 3-2, one team (the 1945 Toronto Maple Leafs) went on to win in seven games and one, the 1942 Detroit Red Wings, blew a 3-0 lead and lost in Game 7 to the Maple Leafs, meanwhile, in the boardroom, the Devils appear to be on very thin ice.

posted by tommytrump to hockey at 10:49 AM - 3 comments

Seattle Mariners no-hit the Dodgers with six different pitchers: The 3rd no-hitter thrown by the Mariners in their 35-year history was far from conventional. Shortstop Brendan Ryan wasn't sure if in some ways that wasn't a little better. "It was kind of fun to get so many people involved," Ryan said after the Mariners used 6 pitchers to no-hit the Los Angeles Dodgers in a spellbinding 1-0 victory at Safeco Field on Friday night. "It just felt like a really collective team effort." The game tied the major-league record for the most pitchers used in a no-hitter, accomplished once previously in 2003 by the Houston Astros, and was the 10th combined no-hitter in major-league history.

posted by tommytrump to baseball at 10:09 AM - 4 comments

Red Wings' Nicklas Lidstrom: I don't have drive to play another season: Citing a lack of motivation and a knowledge that he no longer had the drive needed to play at the only level acceptable to himself, Lidstrom retired from hockey today after 20 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings. Lidstrom, 42, retires with four Stanley Cups, seven Norris Trophies and a Conn Smythe Trophy. Mike Ilitch ~ “I hate to say this, but we’re not going to see anybody like him again,” the Detroit Red Wings' owner said at Lidstrom’s news conference today at Joe Louis Arena. “We’re going to get some good players, we’ll have good teams, but there won’t be another Nick Lidstrom.” Ilitch called today “one of the most emotional days in Red Wing history.” He called Lidstrom “a Rock of Gibraltar” and marveled that, for 20 years, there never was an off-ice misstep, never an embarrassment and he always was the epitome of class. “There were no variations.”

posted by tommytrump to hockey at 01:37 PM - 16 comments

Phoenix Coyotes' Raffi Torres Suspended 25 games: There is throwing the book, and then there is launching the entire library, which is what the NHL has done at the Phoenix Coyotes' Raffi Torres.

posted by tommytrump to hockey at 12:51 PM - 20 comments

Fair Ball Uganda Documentary: Short film on the Uganda/Canada Pearl of Africa Series Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Aftershow travelling through Uganda, Jimmy Rollins raps in Uganda, Uganda's Mr Baseball & Images of Uganda

posted by tommytrump to culture at 06:12 PM - 0 comments

Magic Johnson-led group is picked as Dodgers' next owner: Johnson, who guided the Lakers to five NBA championships during the "Showtime" era of the 1980s, is a partner in the group along with longtime baseball executive Stan Kasten and movie executive Peter Guber. The controlling owner would be Mark Walter, chief executive officer of Guggenheim Partners, a Chicago-based financial services company. The winning group paid $2 billion for the team -- a record for a sports franchise.

posted by tommytrump to baseball at 09:58 AM - 8 comments

Seattle Seahawks sign quarterback Matt Flynn to multi-year deal : Seattle has signed Matt Flynn, Green Bay's backup quarterback whose stellar New Year’s Day performance made him one of the offseason’s most desirable free agents, the deal is $26 million over three years, with $10 million guaranteed. Flynn hasn’t had many opportunities to show his stuff. He’s started just two NFL games — one against New England in 2010 and the big 1 this past New Year's Day against Detroit. The Packers drafted Flynn in 2008, in the 7th round out of L.S.U.

posted by tommytrump to football at 06:21 PM - 7 comments

Sam Gagner has NHL's highest one game point total in 23 years: The Edmonton Oilers forward not only registered his 2nd NHL hat trick, he added an exclamation point by finishing with four goals and four assists in an 8-4- victory over the Chicago Blackhawks Thursday at Rexall Place. Gagner’s eye-popping night puts him in elite company. He tied Wayne Gretzky & Paul Coffey for points in a game by an Oiler.

posted by tommytrump to hockey at 12:48 AM - 4 comments

Super Bowl Mayor’s Bet: Politicians' bets over sporting events tend to fall into one of a few categories: There's the Food Bet, in which both sides offer up local delicacies. There's the Good Deed Bet, in which the losing mayor (or governor, or whatever) must perform some sort of community service. There's also the Do-Something-Embarrassing Bet, which usually involves wearing the winning team's jersey in front of cameras, but can take other forms as well.

posted by tommytrump to culture at 09:38 PM - 6 comments

Fausto Carmona Roberto Hernandez Heredia arrested in Dominican Republic for using false identity; may be age 31, not 28: "We were recently made aware of the situation that occurred today in the Dominican Republic and are currently in the process of gathering information," Indians GM Chris Antonetti said. "We are not prepared to make any additional comment at this time."

posted by tommytrump to baseball at 07:44 PM - 1 comment