- 05:43 PM
- 07/05/08
| Name: | David Fleming |
|---|---|
| Homepage URL: | http://scabrous.org |
| Location: | Charlottetown, PE, Canada |
| Gender: | Male |
| Member since: | January 12, 2004 |
| Last visit: | June 5, 2008 |
dfleming has posted 4 links and 245 comments to SportsFilter and 2 threads and 67 comments to the Locker Room and has written 1 column.
Steve Downie at it again. Already suspended this year, Steve Downie takes a cheap "thumb" at the eye of Jason Blake. At what point does the NHL do something serious about the Flyers, who have already been suspended 52 games this season for a variety of cheap shots. Is it a team mentality or just a series of unfortunate events?
posted on Jan 6, 2008 - Go to the detail view for this result
Donovan McNabb unhappy? After being prevented from travelling with the team to their playoff game to New Orleans (The team's rule is players on injured reserve don't travel; a policy not disputed previously) and subject to the talk about Jeff Garcia's unexpected drive to the playoffs, it looks like Donovan's not pleased with the situation in Philidelphia.
posted on Jan 23, 2007 - Go to the detail view for this result
Jean Van De Velde goes for Ladies British Open. Honestly, with girls crossing over to the men's tour, is there a viable argument to prevent men from doing the same thing? Sexism goes both ways on this one, I would think, and a gender only policy in the Ladies Golf Union is just as exclusionary as one in the Men's tour.
posted on Oct 27, 2005 - Go to the detail view for this result
Man Crushes in Sports Have you ever wondered what it’s like for Dick Vitale to sit courtside at a Duke Basketball game?
Imagine being a teenage boy and sitting just a few feet away from Lindsay Lohan. And I’m talking red hair, big jugged Lindsay, not freakishly skinny, slowly decomposing in front of our very eyes, Lindsay.
Very simply put, Dick Vitale has a man-crush.
posted on May 26, 2005 - Go to the detail view for this result
Chiefs trade Jared Allen to Minnesota: League leading sack specialist Jared Allen has been traded to Minnesota for first and third round draft picks.
posted to Football at 11:36 AM CDT
Jays release Frank Thomas: After a slow start, and a dispute over benching the aging star, the Blue Jays release Frank Thomas
posted to Baseball at 11:28 PM CDT
Not really, it seems to be almost entirely a money move. Gibbons and JP are developing a shitty track record of people management in Toronto.
Really? This move frees up 10M for a more productive player next year in addition to getting a young player who looks ready for the MLB some at-bats. 10M can get you a lot more than 25HR/85RBI and two months of almost zero production from a slow starter like Thomas.
Shea Hillenbrand was a cancer in the locker room; they turned him into a closer/setup man.
They're managing the players like assets which, in the business of baseball, they are. It's a reality of doing business with teams who can eat a salary like Thomas much easier than they can.
posted at 9:05 AM CDT on April 21
Apologies on the wording. Pre-coffee.
Sure, but that's an interesting approach for a GM & manager who might not see next year. How long will Toronto fans be willing to wait?
Toronto fans have a competitive team in a division where they are largely outmatched in terms of payroll. If JP wants to effectively manage the limited resources he has, he's going to have to make difficult decisions like this.
Adam Lind is ready to play. Matt Stairs is a productive veteran. If either one can fill a hole this year and play productively, they will have 10M next year to invest in upgrades and make this team even better. It'll give players like McGowan, Litsch, League, Lind and hill a year to mature. They may even compete this year.
Thomas was clear that he didn't want to platoon/sit on the bench until he heats up. If that's the case and Gibbons and JP think the at-bats could be better served elsewhere, they didn't have any options but to let him go.
They've got a weird sense of both urgency (not wanting to wait for Thomas to get hot) and vision for the future but I think the move was the right one, given the circumstances. They get locked into money they might not want to spend by providing a player with unproductive at-bats. That's foolish.
posted at 11:26 AM CDT on April 21
That being said earlier, I do think the Reed Johnson release makes less sense now than it did before. Reed's a productive top of the lineup kind of hitter who might've filled in well as a platoon at LF or DH.
posted at 12:22 PM CDT on April 21
Ideally, I think that Thomas gets released either way. His salary next year and declining production would've made sense to offer him a reduced role with the team, one he wasn't willing to accept. They needed to keep him under a certain number of at-bats this year unless he came out and slugged a ton of homeruns. He wasn't doing that.
Johnson, even if he was recovering, was a better option in LF than Stewart. Their production is similar but Johnson's a better fielder and a sparkplug offensive player. Lind eventually takes over but Stairs/Johnson at DH is better than Stairs/Stewart will be.
If they can spend 10M replacing Overbay next year and Lind gets 300-400 at bats at the major league level and his bat arrives, they're going to really have a neat team next year. Stairs is not a long term DH option but he might be a platoon option with a lefty hitter through trade or FA.
posted at 12:38 PM CDT on April 21
Fukudome doesn't find racist T-shirts in Wrigleyville funny A Fukudome T-shirt with a racist image is the hottest-selling item at a souvenir stand that sells unlicensed Cubs-related merchandise across Addison Street from the ballpark.......... The Cubs front office was flooded with angry emails from fans in response to a Sun-Times story about a controversial T-shirt being sold outside of Wrigley Field. The ballclub does the right thing (update inside) after the uproar, for those of you who feel we've licked the problem of Racism in America, Guess Again!
posted to Baseball at 10:43 AM CDT
If you are a white person and you feel guilty about your heritage maybe you should forgive yourself and others will forgive you.
Now men with purple hearts, carry silver guns.
And they will kill a man for what his father has done.
But what my father did, you know it don't mean shit.
I'm not him.
- Don't Know When But a Day is Gonna Come, Bright Eyes
I have nothing to forgive. I'm not my heritage.
Also, it's important to have an emotional song on a trainwreck like this.
posted at 9:23 AM CDT on April 23
School team hit for 66 runs in two innings Opponents Shunshukan were officially credited with a 9-0 victory, giving the scoreline a tinge of respectability for the luckless Kawamoto school.
posted to Baseball at 6:17 PM CDT
What coach allows their team to run up score to 66-0 in the second inning? That embarrassing and downright obscene.
What do you do? Ask a kid to strike out?
posted at 8:22 AM CDT on April 18
Sean Avery does his best to reduce the NHL to the level of the WWE (single link to a Youtube video). The NHL responds.
posted to Hockey at 10:53 AM CDT
It would be stupid to allow a player to wave his stick blindly in the air. If you look at the video, the tip of his stick is all over the place.
I don't care what he's doing to distract the goalie; it might be unsportsmanlike but it's life for NHL goaltenders. His disregard for the safety of everyone else around is grounds for a penalty.
posted at 12:21 PM CDT on April 16
WHAT GIVES, GUYS? Nelson says there's no problem, Davis says very little For Warriors coach Don Nelson, the mind-boggling question everyone wants answered is really a no-brainer. Why didn't he play Baron Davis in the second half of Monday's playoff-elimination game in Phoenix?
posted to Basketball at 8:05 AM CDT
Isn't both of those "guesses" more likely to occur given his play in the first half?
You can't claim that things aren't facts and then claim that things which also aren't facts are more or less likely. Science doesn't work that way.
It's completely unconventional, as far as coaching is concerned, to bench your best players in crucial parts of the game, no matter what their performance is, especially if it's contrary to what you've been doing all season. The theory is that despite their struggles, great players still have more talent than bench players do. Noone forgets how to shoot; it is a matter of streaking and getting into a groove. He might've; he might not've. The upside to him streaking is greater than the upside of a bench player streaking. It's a no-brainer.
It would be different if, say, the bench player shot 6-6 in the first half and was spot on. That wasn't the case.
posted at 12:18 PM CDT on April 17
Rushin' to the Olympics: Former Silver Stars guard Becky Hammons becomes a naturalized Russian citizen in order to compete in the 2008 Olympic games.
posted to Olympics at 11:12 AM CDT
Well, Becky, which is it? Maybe I'm old school, but the dream of playing in the Olympics, for me, has always been about the unique responsibility/privilege of representing your home country and winning for your home country. Without that, it's just another sporting event. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But that's not what the modern olympics have been about.
I thought, at least, it was more about the best athletes in the world competing than it was the countries. It is a grand stage for athletes who don't get the recognition for 3+ years to grab a little bit of that spotlight.
It's why I don't balk at the idea of professionals playing or athletes competing for countries that aren't their own. It's about the quality of the talent above the flags that are being flown. The nationalism in the Olympics is divisive and in a world that needs fewer defined lines between people, it would do everyone a world of good to see people of every nation competing together at the highest level.
posted at 8:22 AM CDT on April 11
Kumbya my lord kumbya.....In the modern Olympics like it or not an athlete competes for his or her country. All of this meeting on a mountain top and singing about buying the world a Coke is bullshit. When the U.S. hockey team beat the CCCP at lake Placid it was as it should be, the Americans beating them. Nationalism is a good thing. She's taking a crap on America and she should be soundly boo'ed when she returns home....or wait a minute...this isn't her home anymore.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the only country in the world that could generate that kind of opinion is the U.S, this "you're either with us or against us" kind of nationalism.
posted at 11:02 AM CDT on April 11
Every team sport I can think of has teams that represent a city, state or college/university. How else would you put together a team for the Olympics? Let the richest countries buy the best athletes? Draw straws? I'd be very interested in how you see this working.
I'm not saying that the current system is flawed, I'm just saying that if someone isn't going to be on their home country's team and wants to join another country's team and that country is okay with it, the public shouldn't lambaste her for her lack of patriotism. She wasn't on the US' list of players invited to the team, signed elsewhere and then was contractually obligated not to play.
There's nothing patriotic about sitting at home when your country doesn't invite you to play with them.
posted at 12:24 PM CDT on April 11
Chasing Perfection One boy's search for glory.
A short story by sportsfilter's own dfleming.
posted to Baseball at 6:42 PM CDT
Not to parse words here, but its a no-hitter, not a perfect game.
Aye. Good call on that.
posted at 11:17 AM CDT on April 9
Barry Bonds signs with Yankees!
The New York Yankees have pulled out all the stops to win this season and have signed Barry Bonds to act as their DH. This comes on the heels of Jason Giambi being diagnosed with another stomach tumour (his first one was in 2004). Bonds is expected to practice with their Florida State League team for a couple of weeks before being called up to the majors. The terms of his contract are currently unavailable.
posted to Baseball at 12:14 AM CDT
I never read the articles anyways. I come for the snark.
posted at 5:56 AM CDT on April 1
The San Francisco Giants have now removed prominent tributes in the stadium to Barry Bonds The left-field wall no longer bears an image of Bonds chasing Hank Aaron for the home run crown, nor elsewhere is the number of Bonds' home runs in relation to Aaron posted. There are no "756" signs -- signifying the home run he hit to break Aaron's record -- anywhere in the park, in fact. A team spokeswoman said the Giants would put up a plaque to note where he had hit his last homer with the team.
posted to Baseball at 6:10 PM CDT
Use a guy to make huge amounts of money, look the other way to any potential problems because you're making money, then deny all involvement you had with any of the same individuals when the heat comes down.
Barry's bank account shows that it wasn't a one way exploitation for profit.
posted at 8:57 AM CDT on March 28
This is a good trade. The Chiefs have a ton of holes and can shore up multiple positions this draft. A couple of years down the road, this will probably be the kind of thing that gets them back to winning.