The end of an era in Detroit.
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Twins manager Ron Gardenhire and Twins general manager Terry Ryan have been universally praised by their peers for the good work they have done with the ballclub since 2002. Their good work has started a renaissance period of three playoff years prior to last year after years of losing in the mid-to-late nineties. Successful people are also prone to making mistakes. The decision making of both men is part of the reason why this team has not had a good season so far. Managerial mistakes and personnel mistakes have just affected this team in losses.
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Raptors and Bucks make swap
The Raptors and Bucks make interesting post-draft swap.
Being the marketing chief for an NFL team can be one of the hardest jobs in the league. You have to make everything about the team sound exciting and interesting, even though in most cases it isn’t. While they could never say anything bad about their own team, I’m pretty sure some of them want to. Here is a marketing pitch you won’t hear for each of the NFL’s 32 teams.
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AFC East Breakdown
The NFL season is just around the corner and, personally, I just can’t wait. There are plenty of intriguing story lines leading up to the 2006 season. Many teams changed their look drastically in the off season. This is the beginning of an 8 part series to break down every NFL team, looking toward the upcoming year. We will look at the moves the teams made in the off season and what their strengths and weaknesses are. This is the first installment, previewing the AFC East.
The Minnesota Twins were handicapped as the favorites to win the World Series last year by baseball writers such as ESPN’s Jayson Stark and Newark Star-Ledger’s Dan Graziano. There was a good reason for that. They had the pitching and they had young hitters that were ready to break out in Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. Mauer and Morneau were so good that they were pegged as the Midwest Version of Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris by the Star-Tribune and the Pioneer Press. Twins fans had every reason to be optimistic with the pieces in place. Unfortunately, it did not work out as Mauer and Morneau went through a rough first full season. Twins offense was anemic all of last season as the pitchers were forced to throw shutouts to even have a chance to win. This year is a different story. The hitters have finally played to their potential which is the big reason why the Twins are playing very well these last few weeks.
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Home-Field Disadvantage
Place your votes and punch your ballots. Right into sheer lunacy.
I’m guilty. I just max-voted for A.J. Pierzynski on MLB.com.
25 times, I clicked on the circle next to his name and hit the “Vote Now!” button at the bottom of the page. You can also count 13 votes for Nomar Garciaparra and 12 for Billy Wagner on the National League side of my online ballots.
After all, I’m a baseball fan, and the All-Star game is my chance to point and click my way to the definition of fanatical support for my hometown team and favorite players across both leagues.
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Dance to the Music – Teams Edition
by Matt Wells
Recently, I wrote an article giving songs to some of the starting pitchers of today’s game. Josh Towers, the now-demoted Oliver Perez, and the now-promoted Jered Weaver were just some of the names who were in sync with the songs I chose from my playlist.
So, we got relievers who enter the game to their choice of music. We got some starters who had some songs hand-picked for them by me. What about the teams? (This time, I’ll go outside my playlist for a few of the songs.)
The Yankees have a song (“Here Come the Yan-kees”). The Mets have a song (“Meet the Mets”). What about some of the other teams? What songs can I give them? Read on….
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Brave New World
If Bobby Cox and John Smoltz have anything to say to each other after 17 years with the Atlanta Braves, it’s probably something like, “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
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The Balkman and Bailey Circus
By David J. Cohen
The NBA draft has hit the 2 hour mark. So far the proceedings have been chaotic, with everyone trading picks all over the place. Portland makes a trade every 20 minutes. Villanova G Randy Foye has already been on 3 NBA teams. Shane Battier is a Rocket. And somehow UConn PG Marcus Williams is still on the board. The Kings take Quincy Douby, and as the next coming of Jason Kidd lies in wait with his momma the New York Knicks are on the clock.