Sports Quote of the Day:
"To succeed... You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you." Tony Dorsett, NFL Running Back (Dallas Cowboys)
How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Heritage Classic added to ambitious outdoor schedule.
Reuters; Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto
The Vancouver Canucks will host the Ottawa Senators in a return of the Heritage Classic next season, the National Hockey League said on Wednesday, adding a sixth date to the league's ambitious schedule of outdoor games.
The Canucks will become the first NHL team to host a game in a retractable-roof facility and just the third Canadian NHL team to stage a regular-season game outdoors, following the Edmonton Oilers in 2003 and Calgary Flames in 2011.
The site, BC Place, was also the venue used for the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, marking the first time the opening of a Winter Games had been staged indoors.
"With one of the world's great facilities as the setting, and one of the world's most scenic cities as the backdrop, the 2014 NHL Heritage Classic at BC Place in Vancouver will honor hockey's Canadian heritage," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. "With the excitement, the entertainment, the competitiveness and the fun of this game, the Canucks and Senators will create special memories for hockey fans everywhere."
Following a bitter lockout that cut the NHL to just 48 games last season the league is betting on the outdoor series to help bring back fans and attract new ones.
The Vancouver game is the latest addition to the NHL's outdoor extravaganza, which will kick off on New Year's Day with the Winter Classic between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs.
The game, played at Michigan Stadium known as the 'Big House', is expected to attract a record NHL crowd of close to 110,000.The Winter Classic, which was scrapped last year due to of the lockout, will be followed by what is being promoted as a four-game Stadium Series that kicks off on January 25 in sunny Los Angeles with the Kings hosting the Anaheim Ducks at Dodger Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The series will also include two games at Yankee Stadium with the New York Rangers facing off against the New Jersey Devils on January 26 and the New York Islanders on January 29 in the first hockey games to be played at the iconic Major League Baseball stadium.
The series concludes March 1 when the Chicago Blackhawks host the Pittsburgh Penguins at Soldier Field, home of the National Football League's Chicago Bears, followed by the Canucks and Senators on March 2.
The NHL has marketed the outdoor games with great success trading on the romanticism of the sport's outdoor roots.
The 2014 matchup between Vancouver and Ottawa recalls and celebrates some of the earliest history of the Stanley Cup.In 1915, the Vancouver Millionaires, the first professional hockey team on the West Coast, were crowned champions of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association.
At the same time, in the rival league from the East, the National Hockey Association, which two years later became the National Hockey League, the Ottawa Senators were skating to a league title.
The two leagues had agreed to play a series between the champions of each league with the Stanley Cup, which was established in 1893, awarded to the victor.
The Millionaires swept a best-of-five series to claim the 1915 Stanley Cup championship.
Better follow the NFL dress code.By Ray Frager
Merton Hanks is now the NFL’s vice president of football operations. One of his many responsibilities is to make sure that players adhere to new rules this coming season about wearing thigh and knee pads.
Hanks used to play safety in the league. And back in his playing days, once it was no longer mandatory, sometimes he wouldn’t wear thigh and knee pads. But that was then, and this is now.
If a player is caught in the game without the required pads, not only will he face a fine of at least $5,000, as in any other case of being non-uniform in his uniform, but he will also get yanked from the field until he becomes pad-compliant.
"The more important deterrent, quite frankly, is that player will be removed from the game, and no player wants to miss time on game day," Hanks told USA Today. "The coaches certainly have voiced their opinion — that's not something they're willing to tolerate. Can you imagine having a player that you've designed a play for not in the game because he's chosen not to adhere to the padding options that every other player has to adhere to?"
Plus, the pads have evolved to the extent that they shouldn’t be slowing anyone down. Players will use a "lighter, stronger, more up-to-date pad," Hanks said.
No one is supposed to make it onto the field minus the pads, because each team has an NFL minder assigned to make sure everyone is appropriately dressed.
"If we have a player that … slips through the cracks and he is on the field, at that point, we will notify the sideline team designee,” Hanks said, “[and] we will notify the back judge of the officials group to give this young man an opportunity to make the adjustment. And if he refuses, he will be removed from the game."
The NBA just might be learning from the lessons of the disastrous 2011 lockout.
By Kelly Dwyer
In the months leading up to and during the 2011 NBA lockout, NBA commissioner David Stern did a masterful job of keeping all of his owners in line. The group, 29 strong at the time (the NBA owned the then-New Orleans Hornets), absolutely obliterated the Players Association by delivering a consistent, deliberate message of heartbreak and woe. The players had taken too much of the pie, the owners stated, and it was time to right the ship – no matter how many chickens the league took out of the pots of the thousands who make their livings working actual NBA games.
(During the holiday season, you’ll recall. It was shameless.)
The subtext to that owner-driven plea was that this was in reaction to years of Stern being unable to keep those 29 and sometimes 30 owners in line. Years of various interests and bouts of mania leading to unending terrible contracts and deals, moves made even with ownership having the leverage in the transaction over the players.
Season after season, owners and general managers ignored restricted free agency, advanced statistics, past history and common sense on their way to a series of moves that made it so a nation’s worth of ticket takers and food vendors had to wonder how they were going to fill the bottom of that tree on Christmas in 2011.
The result was a lockout, with the NBA deciding en masse to not pay the contracts of players they had willingly signed in the years prior, under a legal and supposedly binding collective bargaining agreement. And though the one-sided fight ended just under 20 months ago, that stalemate feels like it wrapped up in another decade, especially because of the jumps in knowledge and scads of front-office turnover since then. Not just turnover in terms of personnel, but in approach, and acknowledgement of a 1999-2010 run gone terribly wrong.
With the 2013 offseason having its official start on Wednesday, have we moved an inch? The 2011 offseason, created just days after the lockout ended, was a massive rush. The 2012 offseason was a mess fueled by dueling campaigns still trying to find their way after the labor strife, with the Olympics unofficially cutting things short. This turn? With bigger brains in the front office and a litany of past mistakes to run from, has it changed? Grown? Bettered itself from within?
In some ways, happily, yes.
Josh Smith signed a $54 million deal in Detroit, and Brooklyn’s Billy King be Billy King'in'ing, but by and large things have changed. Nobody, to date, has thrown their lot at someone like Andrew Bynum, with the only sustainable offer thus far coming from Cleveland, who made it known that the second year of their two-year, $24 million deal was a team option, only to be picked up after Bynum made good, with the Cavaliers getting the benefit and only crack at his 2014-15 services after a potentially $12 million-worthy 2013-14.
Big brains like Toronto’s Masai Ujiri managed to take advantage of lost types like New York’s Glen Grunwald (once fired from the job Ujiri now has) in somehow dealing Andrea Bargnani for picks, and a player in Steve Novak that plays the whole Andrea Bargnani-thing better than Andrea Bargnani. To the confusion of message-board denizens and website commenters everywhere, Kyle Korver will make as much next year as J.R. Smith. Reclamation projects like Darren Collison and Devin Harris were picked up on short deals, and not giddily by the teams that inked them.
Scads of teams have either cap space and a few own workable trade exceptions, and yet none of those teams has chosen to parlay that financial freedom into taking on the eight-figure contract of a player that another team doesn’t want anymore (Bargnani, sent to the taxed-out Knicks, doesn’t count). Nobody, outside of the usual suspects (your Knicks, Nets, Pistons and Bucks) is talking themselves into anything. Everyone is tied for first, right now, and yet teams are choosing to work around the edges, instead of wowing their clueless owner into The One Big Move That Will Save Us All.
There are reasons for this, and a few of them are even hopeful!
Daryl Morey’s signing of Dwight Howard (which, stupid NBA, cost his team $150K along the way) wasn’t a triumph of smart machinations and analytic savvy. It was the four years that led up to this signing that were the triumph. Morey frustrated many, both within the Rocket fan base and outside of it, by trumping up a "wait-til-next-year" line of assets and hope, but he also smartly took advantage of a smart Rocket Nation, a curious and willing owner, and other way-behind GMs along the way to put himself in place to pounce on the league’s most confused superstar.
The Rockets have won just two playoff games in four years, and it took quite a bit of timing and luck along the way, but Houston now fields two maximum-salaried superstars who actually deserve the money, alongside a crew of properly paid role players, while still somehow retaining a curious batch of assets to deal and work with.
As a result, the league is now littered with GMs who know their way around a world wide web that has spent years calling NBA GMs idiots. Perhaps more importantly, the NBA is also staffed with a series of GMs who have started to listen to the sort of young minds that see favor in adding a player like Mike Dunleavy Jr., or showing patience and letting the market decide with a restricted free agent. The sort of minds that roll their eyes at the mere mention of Monta Ellis.
One mustn't give this generational shift all the credit. The rules have, literally, changed.
Teams stuck in luxury-tax hell can't sign and trade for players without dealing themselves out of the "tax apron." The Brooklyn Nets will pay more than three times the tax penalties the Los Angeles Lakers did last year, for existing at about the same level salary-wise that the Lakers worked last season, the last year of the dollar-for-dollar tax penalty. The cap and tax levels barely budged this summer, a far cry from the sort of bump the league saw following the 1999 and 2005 CBA agreements.
The influences don’t stop with the tax. Owners have to keep up appearances, two years after locking out the players and crying poverty (just a year after throwing huge gobs of cash at players like Josh Childress and Drew Gooden). Not only that, but once Howard and Chris Paul signed their name to the dotted lines, this became a weak free-agent class. Teams aren’t willing to lose cap space for what could be a fantastic free-agent class in 2014, and they're not willing to trade draft picks and deal themselves out of what is rumored to be a deep 2014 NBA draft. To make Winston Wolfe basic cable-palatable, let's not start slapping each other's backs quite yet, gentlemen.
In spite of the caveats, though, things are changing. The spend-happy Nets, Knicks and Lakers may combine for only 145 wins next season, and even in the face of the "back-in-the-pool" luxury-tax dollars they'll send so many other NBA teams in penalty, those other teams haven’t gone all cannonball in throwing their own cash around. Yes, 29-year-old Andre Iguodala was almost given $56 million to join a rebuilding team in Sacramento, but that contract was pulled. Nobody but Milwaukee, that hopeless lot, is talking up Brandon Jennings. Bryan Colangelo saw the glorious new landscape, it burned his eyes, and he decided to quit.
It's a shame it took a decade of stupid spending to learn this lesson. It's a shame that it took the cancellation of games and the loss of millions of earnings from NBA workers (not its players, but those who help bring those players to you on TV, radio, or in person) to get here.
And it’ll also be a shame if, in 2014, the NBA goes right back to its old habits. Backslap for now, dubious glare until next summer.
2013 British Open field: Tiger Woods heads near-final entrants list for Muirfield.
By Brendan Porath
(Ross Kinnaird)Qualifying is now complete and the field is almost set for the season's third major, an Open Championship that returns to a Muirfield layout for the 16th time, but for the first since 2002.
It seems like yesterday that Phil Mickelson came in just shy at a sixth U.S. Open on a Merion layout that was debated for weeks, but the top players in the world are already in full prep mode for the season's next major: the 2013 Open Championship at Muirfield. The British Open is the oldest and most unique of the season's four majors, played abroad typically on a links layout in extreme weather conditions.
The field at the British Open is also unique, comprised of many more relatively unknown European and Asian players who rarely appear stateside. The Royal & Ancient does employ a qualifying process similar to the one put in play by the USGA for the U.S. Open, using several international and local qualifying sites to fill out a field and keep the tournament truly "open." In addition to the open qualifying spots, the R&A utilizes many of the same exemptions in place for the U.S. Open and the Masters. It's usually not as large a field as the U.S. Open or PGA Championship, but is far closer to those two than the exclusive Masters invitee list. With only a few more spots left to be filled, here's the current field as the season's third major rapidly approaches.
Exemptions
Like any major, there are obviously many players in the field who have earned multiple exemptions. These are usually the biggest names in the sport, players with lengthy resumes that are entrenched at the top of the world rankings. Tiger Woods, for example, has qualified for eight different exemptions via his past success at all the majors, his world ranking, Ryder Cup membership, and PGA Tour success this year. Luke Donald, Ernie Els, Rory McIlroy, and Louis Oosthuizen are the closest to Woods' resume with six separate exemptions.
The breakdown of exempted players below lists each with the first possible method of entry according to the 29 separate ways a regular touring pro gets access. Again using Tiger as an example, Mr. Woods will appear only under the first exemption method (past champions) but could technically be listed seven more times after that. With that multi-exemption note in mind, here's the field to date for the 2013 British Open.
Past champions
The British Open finds a middle ground between the season's first two majors when it comes to inviting past champions. It does not grant a lifetime invite to former winners, like the stodgy green jackets at Augusta, but it also salutes more than just the past 10 winners, the limited reward the USGA hands out for winning America's national championship. Instead, the R&A grants exemptions to all former champions who will be 60 years old or younger as of the tournament's final round on Sunday.That age requirement mitigates the course-clogging seniors who often fire rounds in the mid-80s at Augusta before they're gently asked to stop competing. But 60 is still a pretty generous ceiling, so most of the former winners, including the one-hit wonders such as Todd Hamilton, will be in attendance. This adds a bit of extra entertainment with players such as John Daly, David Duval, and Nick Faldo (a two-time winner here who's coming out of the broadcast booth for a rare appearance) teeing it up. Here's the list of former winners 60 or younger:
| Past Open Championship winners (60 and younger as of Sunday, July 21) |
| Mark Calcavecchia |
| Stewart Cink |
| Darren Clarke |
| Ben Curtis |
| John Daly |
| David Duval |
| Ernie Els |
| Nick Faldo |
| Todd Hamilton |
| Padraig Harrington |
| Paul Lawrie |
| Tom Lehman |
| Justin Leonard |
| Sandy Lyle |
| Mark O'Meara |
| Louis Oosthuizen |
| Tiger Woods |
Unlike Faldo, however, Ian Baker-Finch, Greg Norman, and Nick Price are expected to abstain from a comeback via this exemption.
Past champions finishing T10 or better the last 5 years
There are three exemptions for former champions -- the past winners listed above who are 60 or younger, the past winners of the last 10 British Opens, and past winners who have at least tied for 10th in the last five British Opens. Of course, almost every past champion still competing falls under the first category of being younger than 60 years old. This includes the second exemption for the past 10 winners, all of which are under 60. But old Tom Watson nearly qualified via that rare exemption when he almost pulled off the most incredible major win in golf history at Turnberry in 2009. Instead, that playoff loss and second-place finish were good enough to qualify for the equally as rare 60 and over former champion who has finished T10 within the last five years.| Past Champions, 60 and older, Finishing T10 in past 5 years |
| Tom Watson |
Top 10 (and ties) from 2012 Open Championship
As is custom at the majors, the top 10 from last year's tournament at Lytham get the return invite. While it will best be remembered for Adam Scott's giveaway coming into the clubhouse, three players who quietly placed in the top 10 can thank this exemption as their sole method of qualifying. Thomas Aiken, Geoff Ogilvy, and Vijay Singh are so out of form this year that none would have qualified if not for their strong showing in 2012. Aside from those three, last year's top 10 are the leaderboard regulars:| T10 from 2012 Open Championship |
| Thomas Aiken |
| Nicolas Colsaerts |
| Luke Donald |
| Miguel Angel Jimenez |
| Zach Johnson |
| Dustin Johnson |
| Matt Kuchar |
| Graeme McDowell |
| Alexander Noren |
| Geoff Ogilvy |
| Thorbjorn Olesen |
| Ian Poulter |
| Adam Scott |
| Vijay Singh |
| Brandt Snedeker |
Official World Golf Rankings Top 50 (as of May 26, 2013)
The best players in the world almost never have to grind through the qualifying processes at the two major opens, especially if they're in form and settled into prime position in the OWGR. The R&A allots positions for the top 50 in the world rankings, but closes the door early in the season almost two months prior to the actual tournament. In contrast, the USGA reviews the top 50 both a month out from the U.S. Open and the week before, allowing golfers to play their way into the field in the intervening events. But here, not even a player's strong performance at the U.S. Open would count when it comes to OWGR points. This exemption wipes out almost all of the most recognizable names in the game still looking for bids:| Top 50 in World Rankings as of May 26 |
| Keegan Bradley |
| Tim Clark |
| Jason Day |
| Jamie Donaldson |
| Jason Dufner |
| Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano |
| Rickie Fowler |
| Jim Furyk |
| Sergio Garcia |
| Robert Garrigus |
| Branden Grace |
| Bill Haas |
| Peter Hanson |
| Thongchai Jaidee |
| Martin Kaymer |
| David Lynn |
| Hunter Mahan |
| Matteo Manassero |
| Rory McIlroy |
| Phil Mickelson |
| Francesco Molinari |
| Ryan Moore |
| Carl Pettersson |
| Scott Piercy |
| D.A. Points |
| Justin Rose |
| Charl Schwartzel |
| Webb Simpson |
| Henrik Stenson |
| Kevin Streelman |
| Michael Thompson |
| Bo Van Pelt |
| Nick Watney |
| Bubba Watson |
| Lee Westwood |
Top 30 in the Race to Dubai
The "Race to Dubai" is the European Tour's equivalent of the season-long FedExCup chase. It covers a 46-tournament stretch over the Euro Tour's season, with players accumulating points in the same way FedExCup points are up for grabs at every PGA Tour stop. The R&A rewards those finishing in the top 30 on the Race to Dubai list from 2012, with eight Euro Tour regulars using this exemption as their only way into the field.| 2012 Race for Dubai Top 30 |
| Rafael Cabrera-Bello |
| George Coetzee |
| Marcus Fraser |
| Shane Lowry |
| Richie Ramsay |
| Marcel Siem |
| Bernd Wiesberger |
| Danny Willett |
2012 TOUR Championship Qualifiers
This is the American tour's answer to the Race to Dubai, with the FedExCup finale in Atlanta featuring the last 30 standing in the PGA Tour's "playoffs" system. Only two players who snuck into the season finale are relying on this exemption this year.| 2012 FedExCup TOUR Championship Qualifiers |
| John Huh |
| John Senden |
Major Championship Winners from Past 5 Years
Like its sister majors, the British gives a nod to those winners at the biggest tournaments from the past five seasons. Only one former winner from each of the other majors does not qualify through one of the aforementioned exemptions, although Angel Cabrera is making a strong push this season to get back towards the top of the world rankings.| Last 5 U.S. Open Winners |
| Lucas Glover |
| Last 5 Masters Winners |
| Angel Cabrera |
| Last 5 PGA Championship Winners |
| Y.E. Yang |
Last 3 Euro Tour BMW PGA Championship/PGA Tour Players Championship Winners
The BMW PGA Championship and the Players are both recognized as the biggest non-major events on each tour. There's really no such thing as a "5th major" but these tournaments claim that status on their respective circuits. Much like the USGA, the R&A does assign a little extra weight to these winners by doling invites to the last three winners. The past three BMW winners, Luke Donald (2x) and Matteo Manassero, have already qualified through other exemptions, leaving only 2011 Players champion K.J. Choi in this category.| Last 3 Players Championship Winners |
| K.J. Choi |
Order of Merit Winners from other world tours/Japan Tour exemptions
The R&A also opens up several exemptions for the other tours from around the world, namely the Asian, Australasia, Japan, and South African Sunshine tours. The exemptions are reserved for last year's order of merit winners and money list winners, with an additional six spots up for grabs at last month's Japan Tour Mizuno Open. Some of these players are recognizable names who repeatedly pop up on the American tour and at WGC events, while others are completely unknown heading into Muirfield.| T1 Order of Merit on 2012 Asian Tour |
| Thaworn Wiratchant |
| T1 Order of Merit on 2012 Australasia Tour |
| Peter Senior |
| 2012 Japan Open Winner |
| Kenichi Kuboya |
| T2 on 2012 Japan Tour Money List |
| Hiroyuki Fujita |
| Toru Taniguchi |
| T4 at 2013 Mizuno Open |
| Brendan Jones |
| K.T. Kim |
| Makoto Inoue |
| Shingo Katayama |
| T2 on 2013 Japan Tour Money List after Mizuno Open |
| Satoshi Kodaira |
Senior Open/Amateur Winners
The R&A also provides the customary spots for the reigning senior and amateur champions. Fred Couples has not played in a British Open since 2006, but Boom Boom is back thanks to a Senior Open win last year at Turnberry. The amateurs who qualify through the game's most coveted am events are often elite college players, with some of the older more traditional amateur players getting their shot at open qualifying sites. Steven Fox, Rhys Pugh, and Garrick Porteus are the three ams who will be on hand at Muirfield. Ironically, Pugh, a Welshman, and Porteus, an Englishman, both play their college golf in the state of Tennessee. Porteus earned the late invite by capturing last week's Amateur Championship, the first Englishman to do so since 2003.| 2012 Senior Open Champion |
| Fred Couples |
| 2012 U.S. Amateur Champion |
| Steven Fox |
| 2012 Euro Amateur Champion |
| Rhys Pugh |
| 2013 Amateur Champion |
| Garrick Porteus |
Remaining Exemptions
There are four more ways that a player can get last minute entry into the Open Championship. The R&A extends an invite to the winner of the Euro Tour's Scottish Open and PGA Tour's John Deere Classic, the two events held on each side of the pond in the week preceding the Open.Finally, any players T5 or better in the Euro Tour's 2013 Race to Dubai standings and the PGA Tour's FedExCup standings at the end of this week's tournaments will also sneak in to the group at Muirfield. Billy Horschel, Boo Weekley, and Russell Henley are three candidates on the PGA Tour who could settle in the top five by the end of this week's event at The Greenbrier. Brett Rumford, Mikko Ilonen, and Richard Sterne are some of the prime candidates to qualify through next week's Race to Dubai standings. Horschel and Rumford are already inside the top five on their respective tours.
Qualifying
Of course, with this being an "Open" Championship, any weekend hacker -- or scratch, more accurately -- can play their way into the field. The U.S. Open reserves almost half the field for local qualifying on "golf's longest day" but the R&A opened up only 38 spots at different qualifying sites.
There were five international sites which featured qualifying sessions from January through June. As expected, the United States site in Dallas and the English site yielded some of the more accomplished qualifiers, with regular touring pros like Alvaro Quiros, Bud Cauley, Robert Karlsson, and Josh Teater getting in the hard way.
Here are the 26 qualifiers from the five international sites:
| Australia - Kingston Heath Golf Club, Melbourne |
| Mark Brown |
| Steven Jeffress |
| Stephen Dartnall |
| Asia - Amata Spring Country Club, Bangkok |
| Kiradech Aphibarnrat |
| Hideki Matsuyama |
| Daisuke Maruyama |
| Ashun Wu |
| Africa - Royal Johannesburg & Kensington |
| Justin Harding |
| Eduardo De La Riva |
| Darryn Lloyd |
| America - Gleneagles Country Club, Dallas |
| Josh Teater |
| Johnson Wagner |
| Camilo Villegas |
| Scott Brown |
| Brian Davis |
| Robert Karlsson |
| Luke Guthrie |
| Bud Cauley |
| Europe - Sunningdale Golf Club, England |
| Brooks Koepka |
| Oliver Fisher |
| Alvaro Quiros |
| Gregory Bourdy |
| Richard McEvoy |
| Gareth Maybin |
| Niclas Fasth |
| Scott Jamieson |
With Higgins and Monty headed home, here are the 12 who did make it through the rounds of regional and local qualifying:
| Local Final Qualifying - All Scotland Venues |
| Dunbar |
| Grant Forrest |
| Shiv Kapur |
| John Wade |
| Gullane No. 1 |
| Ben Stow |
| Oscar Floren |
| Matthew Fitzpatrick |
| North Berwick |
| Jimmy Mullen |
| Gareth Wright |
| George Murray |
| The Musselburgh |
| Steven Tiley |
| Lloyd Saltman |
| Tyrrell Hatton |
And there you have it, the 2013 British Open field with just two weeks to go before Muirfield. There could be up to six late exemptions through the methods noted above, but save for a withdrawal or two, the field is pretty much final with qualifying now over. Let's just hope that if there are any WDs, a certain elbow injury nagging Tiger Woods is not the cause of one.
Ryan Braun’s 'I have nothing to hide' rings hollow amid MLB's Biogenesis investigation.
By Jeff Passann
Ryan Braun is so, so good in public. This kills the people at Major League Baseball who believe he used performance-enhancing drugs and want to suspend him for it.
He is handsome, well-spoken, authoritative. He projects as an alpha assurance special even in a sport of alphas. Braun could swear the grass is blue and the sky green, flash a smile and sure enough some people would believe him. He’s that smooth.
“I have nothing to hide,” he likes to say. This is funny. For somebody with nothing to hide, Ryan Braun is a fireproof safe inside of an armed vault behind a Scooby-Doo pull-a-book secret door. All he does is hide. When MLB asked him questions about his positive testosterone test more than a year and a half ago, he wouldn’t answer them, and now he’s all Mr. Fifth Amendment again as the league investigates players’ links to Tony Bosch, the alleged PED pied piper of the Biogenesis clinic near Miami.
Braun’s refusal to talk – first reported Tuesday by ESPN.com and confirmed by Yahoo! Sports – came as no surprise, and not just because he has spent almost two years running from questions that could help clear his name. The MLB Players Association doesn’t want anyone saying anything, not after Bosch, his associate Porter Fischer and others have agreed to varying levels of cooperation with MLB. The unity of members is sacred, the strongest defense against a pursuit some within the sport fear has veered into witch-hunt territory.
Of course, Braun could break from the pack if truth-telling were his ultimate imperative. It isn't. It never has been. He drives his narrative, saying what he wants while dodging anything that might actually answer how he ended up entangled in this mess. Braun's conduct throughout the process – the vehement denials against strong evidence, the unconscionable smearing of sample collector Dino Laurenzi, the grand and sweeping statements of innocence and, yes, the public vows that he has nothing to hide – have steeled MLB in its pursuit of him. Like its other marquee target, Alex Rodriguez, it’s not just Braun’s name that puts him in the league’s cross-hairs; it’s his stringent denial of what MLB believes to be the truth.
Its case against Braun was strong. Synthetic testosterone appeared in his urine. Multiple people familiar with Braun’s testimony at his arbitration case said he never tried to explain how it mysteriously showed up there. His attorneys simply, and brilliantly, worked the chain-of-custody defense. Even though Braun’s sample was legitimate – the testing lab, run by the foremost expert in the doping industry, said it had not degraded – Laurenzi keeping it in a cooler in his basement broke the chain outlined in the league’s drug agreement. Braun should’ve escaped suspension.
That in no way makes him innocent, and it is what chapped MLB the most – the declaration of such in his victory speech, and the hubris it took for him to say: “I have nothing to hide.” He had told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel the same thing through a proxy when news of his positive test broke, and he said it again five months ago when Yahoo! Sports first reported his name showing up in Bosch’s logbooks.
As much as MLB wants to rid the sport of PEDs, it understands the reality: That’s never happening, not with the money so big, the stakes so high, the incentive so great. In lieu of that, it wants the next-best thing: the truth. And it’s not naïve to seek that, because with regards to PEDs, it has proven the best tack.
Think about who told the truth: Andy Pettitte and Jason Giambi. Each used PEDs. Each eventually owned up to it. Pettitte, 41, is the oldest starting pitcher in the game. Giambi, 42, is the oldest position player. Not only did the game forgive them, it valued their experiences enough to welcome them back long past their best years.
Baseball values the truth because it deserves it. Even if the rules are draconian – no professional sport has yet to have an honest discussion about PEDs, because it would go against so much of what the last decade-plus has established – they are rules the players themselves bargained through their union, rules by which they agree to adhere and rules with clear punishments for those who run afoul.
To compound that rule breaking with lies is the ultimate insult to a game that made them stinking rich and the people with whom they play. And seeing as Braun has habitually lied about his willingness to be an open book, the depth of this false reality he spins only assures his fall will be that much greater when it happens.
Braun declined comment to reporters through the team Tuesday, like he’s done since releasing his statement following the Biogenesis link. The Braun truthers will do what they’ve done from the start and focus more on the peripheral aspects of the case – MLB’s supposed vendetta, or Bosch’s credibility, or the sample being spiked – because it’s easier to do that, to believe a smile and empty words, to rail against the system when the player is the one corrupting it.
The league believes Braun is guilty of the same things as A-Rod – using PEDs and lying about it – and while A-Rod is a pariah, shunned by the Yankees and their fan base, Braun remains a centerpiece of the Brewers. Part of that is because Braun is still an elite player, part of it because Milwaukee isn’t the pressure cooker of New York, but it goes beyond that.
A-Rod’s years of playing the fool publicly destroyed any benefit of the doubt he might have been given. Not Braun. He stuck with his story, played the victim, charmed his way into minds and hearts. He’s still doing it, doubling and tripling and quadrupling down on his hypocrisy. The man with nothing to hide, still hiding everything.
Is it time for NASCAR to consider midweek races? What's your take?
By
Ahhh, the dog days of summer - and those nights when there's nothing exciting on television.
Four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon believes auto racing could fill that void. Gordon grew up in the ''Thursday Night Thunder'' era when he raced at tracks that hosted USAC races across the country that were televised on ESPN2.
NASCAR doesn't venture into that territory with the elite Sprint Cup Series, but the addition of Eldora Speedway to the Truck Series will mark three midweek races. The trucks ran on a Thursday night at Kentucky in June, are scheduled to run Wednesday, July 24, at Eldora and Wednesday, Aug. 21, at Bristol.
Gordon thinks maybe it's time for other series to try a midweek date.
''I think when 'Monday Night Football' ends, we should start 'Monday Night Racing,''' Gordon said. ''But that's just me. Of course I came from 'Thursday Night Thunder,' and 'Thursday Night Thunder' was ridiculously successful back in the day.''
Alas, Gordon says NASCAR officials have been cold to the idea.
''It seems like every time I talk to NASCAR about doing a weekly race or one midweek, they say 'Oh well if you do it on this day, you won't get as many people coming to the track, so the track suffers, and if you do it on this day, then maybe the track does well but then the people at home won't watch it because of this', so it always seems to be some kind of obstacle,'' he said.
''I am not saying we need to do it every week, but if we could find the right week in the schedule and mix it up, make it special, and make it make sense for the fans at home as well as the ones that could attend, then I think it would be awesome.''
There was a buzz last weekend at Daytona about returning the night race back to its traditional early morning start, when teams were at the track for breakfast and on the beach by lunch. But Gordon believes running the race on July 4, regardless of what day it falls during the week, is a better solution and could start the midweek trend.
''I think July 4th might make sense because everybody is off on that day and looking for something to do,'' he said. ''Of course, we are not off, but I think that is why it could work.''
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POSITIVE POCONO: For years, about the only thing in NASCAR as popular as Dale Earnhardt Jr. was bashing Pocono Raceway.
The track wasn't safe. The races were too long. The facility was outdated. On and on it went.
But, slowly, the track has won over Sprint Cup drivers with a series of upgrades to the track - everything from additional SAFER barriers to a repave of the 2 1/2-mile surface - that left them raving about the new look the last two years.
Of course, slicing the two Cup races from 500 to 400 miles in 2012 certainly helped.
Pocono Raceway CEO and president Brandon Igdalsky has led the push for the overdue makeover.
''I got tired of people talking bad about us, plain and simple,'' he said. ''If you have drivers and people in the industry that aren't talking positive, that translates to what the fans hear and how they react. Last year, drivers started talking about how great things here are now. It changes the mentality of the fans.''
Igdalsky's latest gamble appears to have paid off: He brought the IndyCar Series back to Pocono after a 24-year absence and the first race last Sunday was considered a success. The grandstands weren't completely full, but the estimated crowd of 30,000 did exceed most expectations. Unlike the NASCAR stars, IndyCar drivers didn't have to warm up to Pocono. They loved it from the first test session.
''I love this place. Pocono, the fans, just everyone has been fantastic,'' race winner Scott Dixon said. ''It's great to be back.''
There's more to come. Igdalsky said he wanted to ''dress up'' Pocono by improving everything from the seats, traffic patterns and adding permanent or temporary videoboards to enhance the fan experience.
The fans did clog the single-lane roads entering the track and many of them complained about heavy traffic on social media. Igdalsky said he would meet with state and local officials about the issue and made a ''solemn promise'' to fix the traffic woes.
Of course, it's better than the alternative - fans not showing up at all.
With at least two more years of IndyCar racing at Pocono on the schedule, there's time to fix everything. Igdalsky has proved in a short time he's eager to please.
''It makes me feel awesome, but it's not about how I feel,'' he said. ''It's about the perception of the facility. We are a great facility for motor sports in America. Are we the best? No. Do I want to be the best? Hell no. It would cost us a fortune. I don't want to be the best. But I don't want to be at the bottom of the barrel. I'm happy about being at the top of the middle.''
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DRIVER STANDINGS IndyCar is standing pat.
The open-wheel series is set to introduce standing starts for this weekend's doubleheader in Toronto.
Drivers will take their starting positions with the front wheels of the car remaining within its designated orange grid line. The starts are similar to the format in Formula 1. IndyCar traditionally uses rolling starts, but is experimenting with the standing starts in Toronto and Houston.
Four-time series champion Dario Franchitti said he wasn't looking forward to the change.
''Not particularly,'' he said. ''I like the traditional rolling starts. We'll see. It might be good. Who knows? I might be completely wrong. But it's going to be bloody interesting, let's put it that way.''
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GOODWOOD: Michael Waltrip Racing co-owners Michael Waltrip and Rob Kauffman are headed to Europe this weekend for the 20th annual Goodwood Festival of Speed in England.
It will be Waltrip's second appearance at Goodwood, which features a hill climb in historic motor racing vehicles in front of 150,000 global motorsports enthusiasts.
Waltrip, the two-time Daytona 500 winner, will drive a 2012 Toyota Camry that Clint Bowyer won three races in last season while finishing second in the Sprint Cup standings.
''It is so cool to fire up a NASCAR Sprint Cup car and see the reaction on the faces of everyone there,'' said Waltrip, who also visited Goodwood in 2010. ''You wouldn't believe all of the people who are interested in NASCAR in jolly old England.
''For many of them, this is as close as they'll ever be to a Sprint Cup race. I'm honored they asked me to make a few runs and it's also cool that Rob Kauffman will make some runs too.''
The Goodwood Festival includes everything from modern concept cars to historical vehicles dating back to 1902, along with racecars from all disciplines. NASCAR stock cars, Formula 1 Grand Prix racers, Le Mans style cars and various forms of motorcycles will all make their run up the hill at Goodwood.
After reading this article, we'd love to know, what's your take? Is it time for midweek races?List of Live Soccer Games on US TV for July 12 to July 14.
By Zac Wassink
This weekend has something for every soccer fan living in the United States. Gold Cup action has you covered each day beginning on Friday evening, the FIFA U-20 World Cup comes to an end, and Major League Soccer will also be featured on television. Those with access to ESPN3/Watch ESPN can use that service to stream live soccer matches every day during the second weekend of July.
All times listed below are ET
Live soccer games on US TV July 12
FOX Soccer/UniMas/Univision Deportes: Begin your weekend with back-to-back Gold Cup games. Trinidad & Tobago will play against Haiti at 7:00 pm. After a short break, Honduras vs. El Salvador will begin at 9:30 pm.
ESPN2/ESPN Deportes: A single live game, DC United vs. Chivas de Guadalajara, will air on these stations at 8:00 pm.
Live soccer games on US TV for July 13
FOX: One Gold Cup game will air live on FOX on Saturday afternoon. The United States will look to take care of business when they face off against Cuba at 3:00 pm. Univision will also show this match live.
FOX Soccer: Tune into this station at 8:55 am to watch Manchester United play against the Singha All-Star XI. Later on that evening, Costa Rica will play against Belize in a Gold Cup game. Kickoff for that match is scheduled for 6:00 pm, and you will also be able to watch it live on UniMas and Univision Deportes.
beIN Sport: One friendly will be shown live on Saturday morning. Preston North End vs. Liverpool will begin at 9:55 am.
ESPNU/Univision Deportes: Coverage of the FIFA U-20 World Cup third place game, Ghana vs. Iraq, is scheduled to start at 10:45 am.
ESPN/Univision Deportes: France will play against Uruguay in the FIFA U-20 World Cup Final. That match will begin at 2:00 pm.
ESPN Deportes: Fluminense vs. Internacional kicks off at 5:25 pm.
NBC Sports Network: Plan for another late Saturday night in July. Portland Timbers host LA Galaxy, and the pregame show for that contest begins at 11:00 pm.
Live soccer games on US TV for July 14
FOX Soccer: A trio of live games will air on FOX Soccer on Sunday, starting with two Gold Cup matches. Panama vs. Canada will begin at 3:30 pm. Martinique will play against Mexico at 6:00 pm. Both of those games will air live on Univision and Univision Deportes. End your weekend with a live NWSL game. Seattle Reign will host Washington Spirit at 8:30 pm.
beIN Sport/beIN Sport en Español: Both channels will have two live games on Sunday. Supersport United vs. Manchester City will get underway at 8:55 pm. Fortuna Dusseldorf will take on AS Monaco at 11:25 am.
GolTV: Two games will air on GolTV on Sunday. Gremio vs. Botafogo starts things off at 3:00 pm. Vasco will play against Flamengo at 5:30 pm.
As always, be sure to check your local listings for channel availability, and also to learn about games airing via replay and tape-delay on the stations that are mentioned throughout this piece.
Cycling-Kittel pips Cavendish again to take Tour stage 12.
Reuters; By Julien Pretot
* German Kittel outsprints Cavendish for third victory
* Britain's Froome retains leader's yellow jersey
* Froome team mate Boasson Hagen abandons after crash (Updates with Boasson Hagen withdrawal)
German Marcel Kittel claimed his third victory on this year's Tour de France when he pipped Mark Cavendish on the line to take the 12th stage on Thursday.
Kittel, who won the first and 10th stages, stayed behind the Briton's wheel in the final straight and went past Cavendish at the very last moment.
Britain's Chris Froome avoided a late pile-up in the bunch and retained the overall leader's yellow jersey.
Kittel became the first German rider to win three stages in the same Tour since fellow sprinter Erik Zabel in 2001.
With Tony Martin winning Wednesday's time trial and Andre Greipel taking the sixth stage in a sprint, German riders have now won five stages on the Tour.
"I can go back and look at it over again, he was just faster," Cavendish told reporters.
"I don't think myself or the team could have done anything different. He was just simply better, you know? The guys were really really incredible for me today.
"It was a good duel between Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Argos and ultimately the guys went at the right time. They delivered me at the right time. I was just beaten by a better guy," added the Manxman.
Slovakia's Peter Sagan took third place at the end of the 218-km flat dash from Fougeres. He leads the points classification with 307 and Cavendish moved up to second on 211.
The top positions in the overall standings remained unchanged with Froome leading Spain's Alejandro Valverde by 3:25 and Dutchman Bauke Mollema by 3:37. Fourth-placed Alberto Contador of Spain is 3:54 off the pace.
Dozens of riders were involved in the crash but as it occurred inside the last three kilometres all were credited with the winner's time.
SHOULDER FRACTURE
Froome's team mate Edvald Boasson Hagen was one of those affected and the Norwegian was later forced to pull out of the race with a shoulder fracture.
"Edvald Boasson Hagen has been forced to abandon the Tour de France following a fractured right scapula on stage 12," Team Sky said in a statement.
"Fortunately this doesn't require surgery but Edvald will return home to Norway for further investigation and treatment." It is the second time in this year's race Kittel has beaten Cavendish in a sprint.
Another specialist, German Andre Greipel, did not contest the finale having been held up behind the crash.
Five men formed an early breakaway to open a nine-minute gap but the sprinters' teams reeled them in with five kilometres left.
Both Kittel's Argos-Shimano and Cavendish's Omega Pharma-Quick Step teams took the front to lead their sprinters. Kittel, with no lead-out man left, took Cavendish's wheel and perfectly timed his final effort.
"It's crazy, I'm speechless. My team really worked well today," he said.
"As we say in Germany, good things come by three. I want to congratulate (team mate) Tom Veelers for his hard work despite what happened to him," Kittel added.
On Tuesday, Dutchman Veelers crashed in the finale after bumping shoulders with Cavendish, who was cleared of wrongdoing by the race commissaires.
Friday's 13th stage takes the peloton over 173 km from Tours to Saint Amand Montrond.
Steve Stricker will skip the British Open to spend anniversary with his wife.By Shane Bacon
In what has to be one of the rare moments a professional athlete has put a spouse first, Steve Stricker announced he will skip the British Open next week to spend time with his wife.
Stricker and wife Nicki will be celebrating 20 years of marriage, and the Golf Channel's Ryan Lavner landed the scoop that the 12-time PGA Tour champion is planning on spending that time with family instead of the links of Muirfield.
How crazy is this? Well, not as much as you think. Stricker already announced before the 2013 PGA Tour season started that he planned to only play about 10 events this year, and this week's John Deere Classic marks eight starts for the 46-year-old. If you toss in the PGA Championship that he plans to play, that makes nine, and then you have some of the FedEx Cup events and such that he might sprinkle in at the end of his season (he did say that he will not be at the Tour Championship as he already has a trip planned during that week).
Another reason that Stricker might ditch out on the Open is he hasn't had a lot of success across the pond in his career. Stricker has played in 13 British Opens, never finishing in the top-five and carding just two top-10 finishes. His game is pretty simple, so coming up with creative ways to play wedge shots around the green, bump-and-runs and putter from 20 yards off the green just doesn't seem like something that would totally fit his game.
Still, if you're going to miss a major championship for something, it better be the wife. She probably thinks he golfs enough as it is already.***********************************************************
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