Posted on September 6th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
Letters from team management can mean bad news for Major League Baseball fans.
Pittsburgh included some good news last month in its correspondence, instructing season-ticket holders on how to buy tickets for what would be the Pirates’ first postseason games since 1992. But the missive also mentioned, by the way, a price increase for 2013 tickets.
The Pirates need another 10 wins to assure their first winning season in two decades and they were 11/2 games out of a wild card berth entering Thursday, but at least their fans have reason to cheer.
They could be in Houston, supporting the majors’ worst team by far, which might be on the verge of signing 50-year-old Roger Clemens to pitch in a game/delay his Hall of Fame eligibility.
The Astros are so horrid (91/2 games behind the next-to-worst Chicago Cubs), Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow was led to write a long letter to season-ticket holders last month, outlining the team’s plan to return to respectability.
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Posted on September 6th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
Everything in life is relative, and sports are no different.
New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez has signed two $200 million contracts during his career, earning $275 million from his present employer after getting $252 million from the Texas Rangers. Kobe Bryant has cashed Los Angeles Lakers paychecks worth $221 million thus far, with another $27.8 due next season. Ferrari once paid Finnish driver Kimi Räikkönen $153 million to race its cars for three years.
But a PGA Tour golfer reaching nine figures in career earnings was unprecedented … until Monday. It’s fitting that Tiger Woods is the first to pass the mark, because he’s the main reason prize money has risen so drastically since he debuted as a pro.
“It just means that I’ve come along at the right time,” Woods said Wednesday, on the eve of the BMW Championship. “We’ve had purse increases. Sam Snead won more tournaments than I did, and obviously he didn’t make the money that I did, just because it was a different era. I think, all that said, I’m not opposed to it.”
No one on the tour should mind, either, even though Woods’ presence tends to overshadow everyone else and whole tournaments at times. It took some getting used to, a black kid from Stanford who hadn’t won a pro event but who drew larger galleries and more face time on TV. He finished tied for 66th place in the 1996 Milwaukee Open and cashed his first PGA Tour paycheck, good for $2,544.
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Posted on September 4th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
There’s quite a drama playing out in Maryland’s athletic department, where it’s the best of times and worst of times in the Terrapins’ “Tale of Two Programs.”
Both have head coaches in their second season. Both coaches enjoyed success before relocating to College Park. Both men registered disappointing results in their initial campaign.
But Mark Turgeon has his men’s basketball team pointed in the opposite direction of Randy Edsall’s football team. The latest indication came Tuesday, when highly coveted Xavier transfer Dezmine Wells announced that he chose Maryland over Kentucky, among others.
(If Turgeon is beating John Calipari on players, it might not be long before on-court victories follow. Perhaps not as soon as Nov. 9, when the Terps and Wildcats play in the first college game at the Brooklyn Nets’ Barclays Center. But soon enough.).
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Posted on September 4th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
With all due respect to President Obama, Mitt Romney is no Jeremy Lin.
Romney, scion of a heavyweight businessman and politician, enjoyed a life of power, privilege and prestige en route to becoming the GOP presidential nominee. Lin, the son of a computer engineer who emigrated from Taiwan, overcame rejection from major colleges and numerous NBA teams en route to becoming an international superstar.
But I understand where Obama was coming from in using a basketball analogy to compare his re-election effort with Romney’s campaign. According to a New York Times story on the president’s competitive nature, in February Obama was asked about the election and likened it to the raging “Linsanity” that enthralled the nation until cooling drastically after a trip to South Beach.
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Posted on August 31st, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
Allen Pinkett, a former star halfback and current radio analyst for Notre Dame, was sincere Wednesday when he said the Fighting Irish need “a few bad citizens” on their roster in order to succeed at the highest levels of college football.
“I mean, that’s how Ohio State used to win all the time,” Pinkett said Wednesday in a radio interview. “They would have two or three guys that were criminals. That just adds to the chemistry of the team … You can’t have a football team full of choirboys. You get your butt kicked if you have a team full of choirboys, so you’ve gotta have a little bit of edge.”
Not surprisingly, that was followed by a swift rebuttal from Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbick and a suspension for Pinkett. Swarbick said that the comments were “nonsense. Of course, Allen does not speak for the university, but we could not disagree more with this observation.”
However, Pinkett was half right in his assertion, even though he subsequently apologized. “It’s clear that I chose my words poorly and that an apology is in order for these inappropriate comments,” he said in a statement. “My words do not reflect the strong pride and passion I have for the Notre Dame football program. I am deeply sorry and did not intend to take away the focus from the upcoming season opener.”
But we can’t have a frank and earnest discussion about top-level football — college or the NFL — if we overlook the sport’s violent nature and some of the personality types it attracts.
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Posted on August 31st, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
In cases involving a man, a woman and a closed door, the difference between accusations and actualities can be difficult to assess. Verdicts rendered by the criminal justice system aren’t always accurate, no matter which side they favor. Unfortunately, regardless of who’s lying and who’s not, both parties are stained.
That’s simply how society views accusers and the accused in sexual assault cases. But we don’t have to accept it quietly.
Dezmine Wells, a sophomore forward, was expelled from Xavier University on Aug. 21 for “a serious violation of the Code of Student Conduct,” according to a school statement. This week, an Ohio grand jury declined to bring criminal charges against Wells for an alleged sexual assault. The county prosecutor raised serious questions about Xavier’s decision, rendered by the school’s Conduct Board, which is composed of faculty, students and administrators.
“There is something seriously flawed with a procedure where a young man and his accuser appear before a group of people, which I would suggest probably isn’t very well trained in assessing these types of cases, and they sit there and tell their stories,” prosecutor Joe Deters said in a statement. “No lawyers, nothing. There’s just something wrong with that.”
It’s a wrong that Xavier won’t right. There was no acknowledgment that Deters has a point. No apology to Wells for a rush to judgment. No invitation to return to school and rejoin the basketball team.
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Posted on August 31st, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
Robert Griffin III wasn’t seen on the field Wednesday in Washington’s preseason finale, but all eyes will be on him once the season starts.
Who he has his eyes on downfield will be another story, one of the biggest questions surrounding the 2012 campaign. But no matter who winds up on the receiving end of RG3’s passes, the Redskins will boast a deep and talented corps of wideouts.
Griffin’s transition was made easier the moment Washington acquired Pierre Garcon. Presumably a No. 1-type receiver, Garcon simply has to prove that his success wasn’t based solely on Peyton Manning’s arm and smarts. We’ve watched great quarterbacks elevate middling receivers (Tom Brady and Deion Branch).
But we’ve also witnessed veteran pass-catchers propel rookie QBs (Steve Smith and Cam Newton).
RG3 and Garcon haven’t had much time together in live action, but they’re bonding nonetheless. Of Griffin’s 31 attempts and 20 completions in the preseason, Garcon was targeted 15 times and made eight receptions. They just missed hooking up on a couple of long throws Saturday, but their budding relationship looks promising.
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Posted on August 29th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
Graham Gano wasn’t the longest-tenured member of the Washington Redskins. He wasn’t among the team’s most popular and recognizable players. He doesn’t have 33 touchdowns, 4,703 receiving yards and a franchise-record (for tight ends) 428 receptions.
That describes Chris Cooley, whose primary connection to Gano was severed Tuesday when they were cut and became former Redskins.
But like the kickers who preceded him, and those yet to come, Gano’s tale can’t be compared to players at other positions. The job is too peculiar, too isolated and too psychological, putting Gano’s fraternity in a cruel, self-devouring clique.
One day you’re celebrating because the competition was released, suggesting that you won the training-camp battle. The next day, you’re looking for work because the Redskins signed another team’s discard and gave him your job.
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Posted on August 29th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
I’m glad that troubled Dallas Cowboys star receiver Dez Bryant realizes the error of his ways. I’m glad that he wants to make some changes. And I’m glad that people are in place to help him.
But I don’t like the notion of special rules that essentially relieve Bryant of all responsibility.
According to multiple published reports, the Cowboys have a set of guidelines in place to hold Bryant accountable. But if he has a rotating three-man security team with him at all times that drives him to and from practices, games and all team functions, that doesn’t leave much room for personal accountability.
The guidelines might include a midnight curfew, twice-a-week counseling sessions, a ban on alcohol and a ban on attending strip clubs. An adviser, David Wells, said that Bryant asked for guidance, and the exact plan hasn’t been finalized. But it could resemble the procedures put in place for Adam “Pacman” Jones, another former client.
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Posted on August 24th, 2012
By DERON SNYDER
The NFL’s stranglehold on our collective sports’ psyche is almost incomprehensible. In a Harris Poll released earlier this year, 36 percent of sports fans chose pro football as their favorite, more than twice the number of the next two sports combined (baseball and college football, at 13 percent apiece).
The league’s Midas touch is legendary, proved again recently when it fetched an increase that’s more than 50 percent higher for broadcast rights from NBC, CBS and Fox, and a 73 percent increase from ESPN. Throw in DirecTV, and the NFL collects about $4 billion per year from TV rights. Combined with other assorted and sundry revenue streams, the league is a $9 billion beast.
But despite its majesty, might and money, the NFL is poised to start this season without its regular officials.
That’s like embarking on a trip in your luxury sedan with a set of temporary “doughnuts” on the wheels. It not only looks terrible, but the ride won’t be nearly as smooth.
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