CS&T/AllsportsAmerica Friday Sports News Update and What's Your Take? 01/23/2015.

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Sports Quote of the Day:

"There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. That little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative." ~ W. Clement Stone, Businessman, Philanthropist and Author

How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? NHL All-Star Weekend 2015: Date, time, location and more.  

By Scott Rafferty                                                                

Following a two-year hiatus, the result of a lockout and Winter Olympics, the NHL All-Star Weekend returns on Jan. 25 in Columbus, Ohio. 

The combination of fan votes and NHL selections have made up the 42 players who will headline the game. Nick Foligno and Jonathan Toews have been appointed captains and, along with their assistant captains, have the task of dividing the teams through the NHL All-Star Fantasy Draft. Six rookies will join the group on Saturday for the Skills Challenge and the weekend will come to a close on Sunday with the All-Star Game.                               

NHL All-Star Game (Photo/Getty Images)

NHL ALL-STAR WEEKEND SCHEDULE                         

FANTASY DRAFT

Date: Friday, Jan. 23, 2015

Time: 8 p.m. ET

Location: Greater Columbus Convention Center

TV coverage: NBCSN

SKILLS CHALLENGE

Date: Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Location: TM Nationwide Arena

TV coverage: NBCSN, CBC, TVA

ALL-STAR GAME

Date: Sunday, Jan. 25, 2015

Time: 5 p.m. ET

Location: Nationwide Arena

TV coverage: NBCSN, CBC, TVA, NHL International

Blackhawks head to break with shootout win over Penguins 3-2.

By Tracey Myers

 

The cheers coming from the Blackhawks locker room were boisterous and, perhaps, filled with some relief. They were entering another break, at least for most of them. And they were entering it on a positive note.

Marian Hossa scored his 10th goal of the season, and Jonathan Toews got the shootout winner as the Blackhawks beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2, at CONSOL Energy Center on Wednesday night. The Blackhawks go into the All-Star break on a two-game winning streak and, with 62 points, are tied with St. Louis for second in the Central Division. The Blues do have a game in hand.

Both the Blackhawks and Penguins were playing their second game in as many nights. It wasn’t always pretty, but the Blackhawks were perfectly happy grinding this one out to get points that proved elusive in two of their last three home games.

“It was a fun game Wednesday, very competitive. We snuck in there,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “There were three games in the new year where we didn’t get any points (despite being) tied in the third. So tonight it was nice to come out of it with two.”

The Blackhawks got the early lead in this one, thanks to David Rundblad, who scored his third goal of the season and second in as many nights. Hossa scored his, a power-play goal, early in the second period for a 2-0 advantage. But like so often lately, the lead didn’t hold. Pittsburgh, missing Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin, came back to tie it in the second off goals from Zach Sill and Steve Downie.

Both teams had their prime scoring opportunities late — David Perron missed an open net after a funky bounce left the puck in the slot, and Hossa outmuscled and dodged two Pens players but pulled his shot wide. Instead it came down to a shootout, in which the Blackhawks have been successful this season. Toews and Patrick Kane got shots by Marc-Andre Fleury. On the other side, Perron hit the post and Corey Crawford stopped Sidney Crosby’s attempt.

“I think we played smart Wednesday,” Toews said. “We played an offensive team that knows how to create chances, and for the most part, we were pretty good in our own end. Our penalty kill was better, too. It’s a good road win, especially with the amount of games we’ve played in the last five or six days.”

Crawford stopped 33 of 35 shots for the victory.

The Blackhawks were stinging after losses earlier in the week. They rebounded with back-to-back victories. That, and the upcoming break for all but five of them, was definitely reason to cheer.

“We rebounded real well (Tuesday) night. Tough game Wednesday, but you find when you win these type of games, it makes you a good team,” Quenneville said. “That’s how we have to win a lot of games in our conference and division.”

Report: Blackhawks to play another outdoor game next season.

CSN Staff

This is becoming an annual occurrence.

The Blackhawks, just a few weeks removed from an appearance in the Winter Classic, are reportedly expected to play in another outdoor game next season, this one a Stadium Series game against Minnesota in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

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Bob McKenzie        ✔                                                                  Follow    
@TSNBobMcKenzie
 

MIN's opponent expected to be CHI; COL's opponent expected to be DET. BOS, of course, will host MTL on Jan. 1 in Winter Classic in Foxboro.

 

7:01 PM - 21 Jan 2015

                     

390 Retweets 153 favorites 

                                                                                

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It would be the Hawks' fourth outdoor game and third in three seasons. The Hawks hosted the Red Wings in the Winter Classic at Wrigley Field on New Year's Day 2009. Last season, they played the Penguins in a Stadium Series game at Soldier Field. This season they visited Washington, D.C., for the Winter Classic against the Capitals. This would be their first outdoor game against a team currently in the Western Conference (the Red Wings were back in 2009).

After a bunch of Stadium Series games last season — in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, plus the Winter Classic in Ann Arbor, Mich. — there'll only be one this season, in the Bay Area on Feb. 21. Next season is expected to feature two Stadium Series games, one in the Twin Cities and another in Colorado, with the Winter Classic set for Foxboro, Mass.

The Hawks are 1-2 in their three previous outdoor contests, the lone win coming last season at Soldier Field.

Just Another Chicago Bulls Session… Bulls-Mavericks Preview.

By JORDAN GARRETSON (STATS Writer)

The Dallas Mavericks have boasted one of the NBA's elite offenses all season. The addition of Rajon Rondo has their defense beginning to look more like a top-tier group, too.

The Chicago Bulls hope their own defense is back on track after shutting down the reigning champions.

Dallas seeks a fifth win in six games Friday night when it hosts Chicago.

The Mavericks (30-13) are averaging 108.1 points, trailing only Golden State, and their 47.1 field-goal percentage is also one of the league's best. It's the franchise's highest scoring average since 1987-88 when it averaged 109.3 points. Each starter scores at least 10.7 points per game.

"They're an offensive juggernaut," Minnesota coach Flip Saunders told the Timberwolves' official website after Dallas beat them 98-75 on Wednesday. "I call it popcorn basketball and the basketball is popping all around."

 Dallas has held opponents to 99.4 points per 100 possessions in 16 games since acquiring Rondo on Dec. 18, ranking sixth in the NBA in that span. It gave up 105.1 per 100 previously to rank 20th. Rondo is second on the team with 1.6 steals per game and an average plus-5.5 rating.

The Mavericks, who are a half-game behind Memphis for first place in the Southwest, have been particularly stingy during a three-game winning streak, giving up 86.3 points per game on 39.3 percent shooting. While seven of their last 10 games have come against sub-.500 teams, they're 13-10 against clubs with winning records.

Monta Ellis is averaging 22.9 points against winning teams compared to a 17.3 mark against sub-.500 opponents.

"The world we're living in here in the West, this is advance citizenship," coach Rick Carlisle said. "You've got to want it bad to win games every night. That's where we're at, and we've got to have a laser-like focus on that."

Ellis had a season-high 38 points in a 132-129 double-overtime win at Chicago on Dec. 2, Dallas' third victory in four meetings.

Prior to Thursday's 104-81 home win over San Antonio, Chicago (28-16) had lost six of eight and allowed 108.8 points per game on 50.5 percent shooting during a 1-4 stretch. It had been giving up 98.5 points on 43.6 percent shooting.

"It shows what we're capable of doing," Pau Gasol said Thursday after finishing with 12 points and 17 rebounds.

Derrick Rose shook off a couple of tough games - he was 13 of 36 from the field in losses to Atlanta and Cleveland - to go 9 of 16 for 22 points. He's also 20 for 36 (55.6 percent) from 3-point range over his last five contests after going 2 for 4 versus San Antonio.

Rose had 18 points on 6-of-20 shooting and committed a season-high seven turnovers in the first meeting. Gasol, who is averaging 13.0 rebounds while recording double-doubles in nine of his last 11 games, had 29 points and 14 rebounds against the Mavericks.

Joakim Noah and Mike Dunleavy Jr. missed their fourth and 11th consecutive games, respectively, with ankle injuries. Coach Tom Thibodeau said Noah, the team's second-leading rebounder (9.4 rpg), has looked "very good" practicing on a limited basis the past two days while Dunleavy is very close to returning.

The Bulls are 6-6 on the second night of back-to-backs with Rose shooting 35.2 percent in six games.

Derrick Rose scores 22, struggling Bulls beat Spurs 104-81.

By ANDREW SELIGMAN

Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler (21) intercepts a pass from San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan, left, intended for Kawhi Leonard (2) as Pau Gasol defends Duncan, during the first half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Derrick Rose scored 22 points and the struggling Chicago Bulls beat the San Antonio Spurs 104-81 on Thursday night.
 

The Bulls came away with a much-needed win after dropping six of eight and handed the defending champions their most lopsided loss of the season.

The Central division leaders broke this one open in the third quarter, outscoring the Spurs 31-20, and snapped San Antonio's four-game win streak.
 

Rose, who called out his team after Monday's loss at Cleveland, backed it up by going hard to the rim and hitting 9 of 16 shots. He led six Bulls in double figures.
 

Pau Gasol added 12 points and 17 rebounds after being voted to his fifth All-Star game and first as a starter.
 

Jimmy Butler scored 17. Taj Gibson added 15 points and nine rebounds. Aaron Brooks scored 15, and the Bulls snapped a three-game home losing streak.

After giving up at least 102 points in six of the previous eight games, Chicago held San Antonio to 37-percent shooting. The Spurs' Kawhi Leonard scored all of his team-leading 16 points in the first half.

 

Rose had it going right from the start with 15 points the first half, and Chicago headed to the locker room with a 46-40 lead that was about to get much bigger.
 

Tony Snell converted a three-point play with 17.3 seconds left in the second quarter to start a 14-2 Bulls run that made it 57-42 early in the third. The Bulls stayed in control the rest of the way, putting aside the chaos for at least one night.

 The recent struggles combined with Rose's criticism and a meeting between the players and coach Tom Thibodeau painted an ugly picture for a team that was rolling along before the recent slide.

There is speculation that Thibodeau's job is in jeopardy and that he is losing the locker room. But Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was not buying that.

"He's not gonna lose any team," Popovich said. "I think you guys just have to have stories. So somebody loses a few games, there's got to be a reason. I guess that's the one that was picked.

Sometimes players listen to me. Timmy stopped listening to me a long time ago. I don't even coach him. You guys think I'm kidding. He just plays. I talk to him once in a while, but sometimes some guys don't want to hear it. But as far as the team and being lost and that kind of thing, that's not what's happening here."

TIP-INS

Spurs: G Danny Green paid tribute to late ESPN sportscaster and fellow North Carolina product Stuart Scott on Thursday. He had "Stu" emblazoned on his left sneaker and "booyah" on his right one. "He was great at it and he brought a different kind of culture to the sports world," said Green, who wasn't close to Scott but crossed paths with him over the years. "He was more of how it really is, I guess, it's hard to really explain. He's the reason why I studied what I studied in school. I've got a communications degree. The media area, that's something I wanted to do growing up if the basketball thing didn't work out for me. He was somebody I looked up to from the day I met him."

Bulls: C Joakim Noah missed his fourth straight game and F Mike Dunleavy Jr., his 11th in a row. Both have injured right ankles. Thibodeau said Noah has looked "very good" practicing on a limited basis the past two days and that Dunleavy is "very, very close" to returning.

UP NEXT

Spurs: Host Los Angeles Lakers tonight.

Bulls: Visit Dallas on tonight.

Bulls: Pau Gasol named All-Star starter for first time in his career.

By Mike Singer

Pau Gasol, 34, was announced as an All-Star Game starter for the first time in his career on Thursday night, marking his fifth All-Star Game selection overall.

Since spurning other suitors in the Spurs and the Thunder this past offseason in free agency, Gasol has undergone a rejuvenated season with the Bulls. Coach Tom Thibodeau has installed him as a focal point of the Bulls’ potent offense, a low-post presence that Chicago desperately needed to complement guards Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler.

In 40 games this season, Gasol’s averaged 18.7 points per game and 11.4 rebounds. His scoring is up to its highest mark since the 2010 season with the Lakers, while his current rebounding pace would mark a career-high for the Spaniard. His 24 double-doubles is second in the NBA, while his rebounds rank sixth in the league. He’s also brought it on the defensive end throughout the first half, as he’s one of only five players averaging more than two blockers per game.

His last few years in Los Angeles were tumultuous in that the Lakers rotated through several coaches, Gasol battled various ailments, and when he did feature in the lineup, he was never utilized to his full potential. That hasn’t been the case this season with the Bulls, and Thibodeau said that not only does he feel he’s warranted All-Star status, but that the organization was fortunate to get him.

“I think he’s earned it. I think he’s played at an extremely high level the entire season,” Thibodeau said. “I know the last couple years he battled through some things, but I could see this summer how highly motivated he was, and I think that was important for him.”

Thibodeau, as he’s done all season in regards to Gasol, raved about his veteran leadership and the steadying presence he’s provided in the locker room, especially as the Bulls fight through their biggest slump of the season.

“I’ve always said that the best type of leadership is doing the right things each and every day, and he does that. He comes in every day, he’s going to give you a good honest day’s work every day. As I said, the most important things are the things that he does. I think the players look at that and they say, ‘That’s a person I could follow.’”

The Bulls very nearly never landed the All-Star big man as Chicago’s recruitment had to be better than the defending-champion Spurs. On top of the five championships San Antonio could include in its pitch, Hall of Famer Tim Duncan and the opportunity to play for coach Gregg Popovich were no doubt alluring to the worldly Gasol.

“As strong a pitch as anyone’s,” Gasol said on Wednesday. “And it was difficult. I had great options but I thought this was the best fit for me and I still believe that.”

Gasol said that Popovich was a big part of the recruitment effort from the Spurs.

“Very, very much involved. I spoke with him several times. It was great to speak with him. I have most admiration for him and respect. So it just didn’t work out that way but it was a pleasure just to talk to him. Great basketball coach, just great person just to have a conversation with. I hope in the future I have more conversations with him.

And Popovich, speaking ahead of Thursday night’s matchup against the Bulls, was nearly as effusive in his praise as Gasol was of the legendary coach.

“I’m thrilled he’s in the East. We tried to convince him to come to San Antonio but he chose Chicago. He made a good choice. He fits great. So if we weren’t going to get him I certainly didn’t want to see him on another team in the West. … He’s a really, really good basketball player. He’s as smart as a whip. He understands what wins and loses, he’s highly skilled, he’s team oriented. He can play out on the floor, he can play down on the block. He’s a special guy, when you combine his skills and his intelligence.”

And now, he’s an All-Star Game starter.

Despite injuries, Thibs still 'surprised' where Bulls are at.

By Mike Singer

You wouldn’t have known that the Bulls were mired in their biggest slump of the season and in one of the worst stretches under Tom Thibodeau considering his tone on Wednesday afternoon following practice.

“We’ve only had our starting lineup for 15 games this year,” Thibodeau said. “So I’m surprised we’ve been able to do what we’ve done this far.”

The Bulls, losers in six of their past eight games including an embarrassing 108-94 performance in Cleveland on Monday night, held an open-dialogue, off-day meeting on Tuesday to address the team’s lingering issues.

“That’s what we did in the meeting. We went over what’s happened in the last 10 games, what we have going on, and how we can correct it,” Thibodeau said, who didn’t go into much more detail than that. “You go step-by-step. The first part is the work part. Put the work in, try to make the corrections.”

Thibodeau hasn’t been one to lean on injuries as an excuse, but the reality is that the Bulls haven’t been healthy. Every starter has missed time, but Thibodeau insists that's soon going to change. Recently, it’s been two ankle injuries to Joakim Noah and Mike Dunleavy that have thrown Thibodeau’s rotations into disarray and caused the Bulls to do some serious soul-searching in the wake of several perplexing losses.

Dunleavy, having missed the last 10 games (4-6 over that span), practiced fully on Wednesday and could play Thursday night against San Antonio. Noah wasn’t a full participant in practice, but Thibodeau said he was pleased with how agile the Bulls’ power forward looked.

Noah was the bedrock of last season’s team, at times playing point guard while also winning the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year. His offseason arthroscopic knee surgery hasn’t healed as quickly as anticipated, and the Bulls have subsequently struggled with their interior defense. While no one would admit it, Noah’s recent ankle injury (three games) may actually prove a blessing in disguise in that he can rest his entire body.

And Dunleavy, even though he’s the team’s third or fourth offensive option, at least provides a presence that stretches opposing defenses. Take both of those guys out of the equation and frankly, it’s not surprising that the Bulls look nothing like the team that was 22-10 at the end of the 2014 amid a run of 13 wins in 15 games.

Asked how many times the entire team has participated, in full, and Thibodeau was blunt.

“Very few. And that’s where you build chemistry and continuity,” he said.

Injuries and continuity, though, haven’t been the only issues. There’s been a surprising lack of urgency and intensity, which has nothing to do with injury reports. In fact, after the Cleveland loss, Rose's frustration boiled over when he said the team's lack of effort was "f------ irritating."

In the home loss to Orlando on Jan. 12, Pau Gasol was badly outplayed in the post by Nikola Vucevic (33 points, 11 rebound). The same thing happened in recent losses to the Wizards, the Hawks and against the Cavaliers on Monday. 

“I need to pick it up, I need to,” Gasol said of his defense. “Especially when Jo is out, I need to make myself a bigger presence in the paint. Maybe pick up a couple more fouls early on, kind of establish that presence there.” 

Gasol won’t have to resort to tone setting if the Bulls can finally dress their entire cast of players on Thursday night. Until then, injuries are as good an explanation as any to explain the Bulls’ stunning slump.

Forbes: Bulls third most valuable franchise in NBA.

By Sarah Langs

Forbes has released its annual valuation of each NBA franchise, and the Chicago Bulls came in at third most valuable.

 

The club was valued at $2 billion, behind only the Lakers’ $2.6 billion and the Knicks’ $2.5 billion. The numbers are based on calculations of revenue and income from the 2013-14 season. 

 

The Bulls had the highest average attendance in the NBA last season, leading the category for the fifth year in a row.

 

The franchise made $65 million last year, enough to make it the second-most profitable behind the Lakers’ $104 million.

 

The other teams in the top five are the Celtics at $1.7 billion and the Clippers at $1.6 billion. The Brooklyn Nets, at $1.5 billion, were also the only team to lose money. They lost $99 million over the course of the season, according to Forbes.

 

On the whole, the average team value went up 74 percent from last year. This is attributed in part to the negotiation of new, lucrative national broadcasting deals with ESPN/ABC and TNT.

 

FYI Note: Right clicking any word in blue will take you to an additional link.

Bear Down Chicago Bears!!!!! Bears' John Fox: 'When you do things better, you get better'.  

CSN Staff

Our Kip Lewis sat down with Bears head coach John Fox for a 1-on-1 interview to discuss his philosophies, Jay Cutler, how he'll rebuild the team and how he continues to have a passion for the game after all these years. You can watch the interview in the video above.

On working with GM Ryan Pace: "I didn't know a lot about Ryan, but very quickly I learned a lot about Ryan: who he is, how he does it. (Saints head coach) Sean Payton and I are very close and he knows my personality. He knows Ryan's personality, So the people that kind of knew both of us thought it would be a good match."

On moving from Denver to Chicago so quickly: "When you've survived this business for 25 years there's a lot learned along the way. There's a lot of tough situations, and in life you're dealing with adversity and you deal with prosperity, and you're dealing with one of them all the time. At the end of the day, sure it was a whirlwind but it was a great experience, one that I think will make me better."

On what he looks for in a quarterback: "I look for the same makeup of a football player, and I know the quarterback. I'm not that stupid. It's not held in higher regard when you start looking at success, you're looking at top quarterbacks. I get that, but the type of player that Ryan (Pace) and I and the Bears organization want to bring in here is one that's going to represent our organization and our city with the utmost. And trying to define that is not that easy, so as you're dealing with people we're going to do everything in our power to put the right group together. Right now (the team is) in recovery mode. They need to get away from the game. And you need that, that's all part of building a football team, too. We'll have plenty of time to have that message."

On the Bears being a quick fix: "I don't know about quick fix, but you can get better quickly. When you do things better you get better, regardless of the personnel. So a lot of this is what you're doing, how you're doing it as much as the talent you have. That'll be our objective moving forward, both Ryan Pace and John Fox."

On his continued passion for the game age 59 years old: "You don't do this if you don't have a great passion, and when that energy and passion goes I think it's very distinctive. And so like I said, I feel like I did when i was 40. I just stay away from mirrors. I'm very excited about this opportunity and I still have great passion to do what I'm doing."

Bears equipment manager to supervise Super Bowl XLIX game balls.

By C. Roumeliotis

Chicago Bears equipment manager Tony Medlin 

 

The NFL has assigned Bears head equipment manager Tony Medlin to supervise the preparations of the game balls for Super Bowl XLIX, according to ESPN.

Amid the Deflate Gate controversy surrounding the New England Patriots, in which the league found that 11 of their 12 game balls were underinflated by 2 pounds per square inch during the AFC Championship Game, Medlin will oversee the process to ensure that each football aligns with the NFL's regulations.

"Like many aspects of our policies and procedures, there are modifications for the Super Bowl," league spokesman Michael Signora said. "At the Super Bowl, the equipment manager of another team [Bears, Tony Medlin] is in charge of the game balls and arranging for the ball attendant crews, which are hired before the Super Bowl teams are determined. The officials will maintain strict control of the game balls for the Super Bowl."

"Many aspects of the regular-season process are in place. The Super Bowl teams receive balls to work with during practice as per our policies. The balls are then returned to the league late next week.

"We would expect that the Competition Committee will review all of these procedures in the offseason."

Medlin has been with the Bears for 28 seasons, 18 of them as the team's head equipment manager. He received the Whitey Zimmerman Award as the NFL's top equipment manager following the 2000 season.

MLB's new commissioner, Rob Manfred, takes over for Bud Selig with a lot on his plate.

By Aaron Gleeman

Rob Manfred (Photo/Getty Images) 

Bud Selig’s longtime right-hand man, Rob Manfred, will step into his large shoes as MLB commissioner Sunday, becoming the 10th person to fill that role.

Selig campaigned hard for Manfred to get the job and eventually got his way with a unanimous final vote from baseball’s 30 owners, but not before several rounds of voting due to Red Sox chief executive officer Tom Werner garnering initial support from at least one-third of ownership.

According to various reports many owners–chief among them Jerry Reinsdorf of the White Sox–worried that Manfred was too soft on the players’ union after serving as the owners’ chief labor negotiator during three collective bargaining agreements that avoided any work stoppages. Many owners wanted a commissioner more willing to take a hardline stance in the next CBA negotiations, following the 2016 season.

Manfred has largely worked behind the scenes, but he played a huge part in getting MLB to where it stands today, both good and bad. The sport if flush with cash after generating a record $9 billion in revenue for 2014 and internet and local television money has skyrocketed, but attendance and national television ratings have been underwhelming of late and performance-enhancing drugs remain a major talking point among fans and media.

In ridding the executive committee of owners who share Reinsdorf’s hardline stance on labor talks Manfred seemingly cleared the path for his way of thinking to gain further steam, but it’s worth noting that he’ll be negotiating with another first-time boss in new MLBPA president Tony Clark. Avoiding a work stoppage may not be so easy if Clark decides to dig his heels in right away.

And even if the next round of CBA negotiations goes smoothly, Selig left unsolved for Manfred the same ballpark-related problems he had with the A’s and Rays. Brushing that issue under the rug was often Selig’s approach, but fans in Oakland and Tampa Bay will no doubt be judging Manfred’s tenure on how things shake out for their favorite teams.

Speeding up the pace of the game and finding a way to make watching baseball at the ballpark and on television more appealing to young fans is another prominent issue facing Manfred. And in general, innovation will be crucial if MLB wants to continue raking it record revenues while also setting themselves up for a thriving future.

Baseball isn’t dying and claims otherwise have gotten absurd, but MLB needs to find a way to reach a younger demographic on a more consistent, habit-forming basis.

Can he be forward-thinking and take full advantage of technology, both on and off the field, while avoiding a labor stoppage that would halt the current momentum? Can he help change the perception of steroids in baseball versus, say, football, where similar usage by big-name players is relatively minor news? Will he continue to tinker with the number of playoff teams and playoff format like Selig did or leave well enough alone for a while?

Manfred is about to be thrust front and center after years in Selig’s shadow and there’s already an awful lot of questions waiting for him. Welcome to the spotlight, commish.

MLB: All Team Bullpen Audit.

By Brad Johnson

 
Max Scherzer has signed, leaving James Shields as the most notable free agent on the market. If you were to form a top 10 list of the remaining free agents, it would read Shields, perhaps Everth Cabrera, and a handful of former closers. That's right, we're still waiting to learn where Francisco Rodriguez, Rafael Soriano, and Casey Janssen will call home. It's also unclear if they will compete for saves.

Additionally, several clubs like the Blue Jays are unsettled in the ninth inning. The Phillies are obviously rebuilding, and they identified their closer of the future last season when Ken Giles emerged. He's blocked while Jonathan Papelbon remains under contract. 

Rather than the usual tiered rankings, let's do a team-by-team bullpen audit. Next week, we'll cover some of the ways I statistically evaluate high leverage relievers. For this week, let's 86 the “steals” component of the column. We'll get back to those soon.
 

NL East

Washington Nationals: Drew Storen, Craig Stammen, Matt Thornton, Aaron Barrett

Miami Marlins: Steve Cishek, A.J. Ramos, Carter Capps

New York Mets: Bobby Parnell, Jenrry Mejia, Jeurys Familia

Atlanta Braves: Craig Kimbrel, Jason Grilli

Philadelphia Phillies: Jonathan Papelbon, Ken Giles, Jake Diekman

Tanner Roark is a good starting pitcher, yet the Nationals just spent a lot of money to push him into a long relief role. It seems odd that the club would “solve” a non-problem in the rotation while the bullpen remains iffy. Storen was decent last season, but he's hardly the lock down option teams want in the ninth inning. Barrett may be the closer of the future in D.C. once he knocks down his walk rate. He was stingy with the free passes in the minors, so I think he'll take a step forward this year. Still, the club is a candidate to trade for a reliever. Funny that they just dealt away Tyler Clippard to solve second base.

Cishek has a firm grasp on the ninth inning in Miami, although he did struggle late last season. He's also been the subject of trade rumors due to his increasing price tag. Ramos and Bryan Morris were the stopgaps last season, but I suspect Capps, 24, may be ready to take a late inning role.

The Mets have a bit of a kerfuffle to sort through. Parnell should be ready sometime around the beginning of the season after missing 2014 for Tommy John surgery. Until he returns, the ninth inning belongs to Mejia. The former prospect pitched well enough as the Mets closer. Parnell is a free agent after 2015, while Mejia remains under contract for another four seasons. If he's able, the Mets may want to use Parnell as the closer to keep Mejia's arbitration price under control. Closers earn a lot more coin via arbitration.

The only controversy with the Braves relates to their apparent rebuilding. Atlanta converted most of their win-now talent - i.e. Justin Upton, Jason Heyward, and Evan Gattis - into future chips. The one odd piece remaining is Kimbrel. Relievers, especially those that rely on velocity, tend to decline rapidly. Kimbrel is at the height of his value, yet the club seems inclined to retain him. If anything does happen to Kimbrel, Grilli is a perfectly adequate stopgap.

We touched on the Phillies in the outset. Philadelphia is perhaps the only team that doesn't intend to compete in 2015, so they're likely to trade their expensive, name-brand closer. If only it were that easy. Papelbon comes with a $13 million paycheck for 2015 with a $13 million option that vests with 48 games finished. He can be a media nightmare, further complicating trade talks. If and when Papelbon is sent packing, the Phillies should be in good hands with Giles. He flashed top 10 reliever stuff last season. If injuries intervene, Diekman pumps 100 mph gas from the left side.

NL Central

Milwaukee Brewers: Jonathan Broxton, Will Smith, Jim Henderson

Chicago Cubs: Hector Rondon, Neil Ramirez, Jason Motte

Pittsburgh Pirates: Mark Melancon, Tony Watson, Antonio Bastardo

St. Louis Cardinals: Trevor Rosenthal, Jordan Walden

Cincinnati Reds: Aroldis Chapman, Sam LeCure

The Brewers appear to be the only club in the NL Central with a shaky bullpen. Broxton leaned on a .234 BABIP last season, and Smith is a southpaw with platoon splits. Broxton is not one of the top 30 or even 50 relievers in baseball, so this is an obvious area of need for the Brewers. Henderson's return is unknown after he missed most of 2014 with a shoulder injury. Perhaps the Brew Crew will look into re-signing Rodriguez. Unfortunately, he's suffered from long-ball-itis in recent seasons. Cozy Miller Park certainly doesn't help.

The Cubs could actually go a lot deeper than the three I listed above. Rondon pitched well enough last year to retain the closer's mantle. In my opinion, Ramirez is the best reliever with the Cubs, so he should be next in line for opportunities. Motte was once a great closer candidate, but he lost three mph on his fastball between 2012 and 2014. We'll see if he can recover some velocity. Others to watch include Pedro Strop and Tsuyoshi Wada.

Melancon has twice wrested ninth inning duties away from Grilli. Now he's the head honcho in Pittsburgh. He relies on command and control to limit base runners and home runs. He should remain a steady source of production. Watson and Bastardo will enter the season as the setup men, but don't be surprised if other names emerge, such as John Holdzkom.

When the Cardinals acquired Heyward, they also quietly brought in some competition for Rosenthal. While he should open the season with the ninth inning, it will be interesting to see how the Cardinals handle any meltdowns. If his control continues to elude him, they could turn to Walden who features a similar approach to the late innings.

If the Reds struggle early in 2015, expect trade rumors to swirl around Chapman. The fireballing Cuban just concluded a ridiculously dominant campaign in which he struck out 52.5 percent of all batters faced. The club doesn't have an obvious front runner to take over for Chapman, but we should have plenty of time to identify the right candidate. Perhaps it's Lecure, or maybe Manny Parra, J.J. Hoover, or another player will fit the bill.

NL West

San Francisco Giants: Santiago Casilla, Sergio Romo

Arizona Diamondbacks: Addison Reed, Brad Ziegler

Colorado Rockies: LaTroy Hawkins, Adam Ottavino, Rex Brothers

Los Angeles Dodgers: Kenley Jansen, J.P. Howell, Joel Peralta

San Diego Padres: Joaquin Benoit, Shawn Kelley, Brandon Maurer

The Giants always seem to build an unassuming bullpen. Despite a notable lack of flash, they tend to get the most out of their relief corps. Last year, it was Romo leading the ninth inning with Casilla in the background. The roles reversed midseason. We may see a reprisal this summer. Keep an eye on Hunter Strickland. He flashed the kind of the kind of velocity and strikeout capabilities that teams want in a late inning reliever. He was also torched for six postseason home runs in 8.1 innings.

Reed struggled through his first season with the Diamondbacks. He allowed 11 home runs which is tied for the third most among all qualified relievers. Arizona hasn't brought in an obvious replacement. I still assert that Ziegler is a ROOGY based on his history and a lucky .190 BABIP against lefties last season. Besides, he may miss opening day with a knee injury. I think we'll see somebody unexpected emerge from their starting rotation depth. Perhaps Randall Delgado finally turns a corner, or maybe Allen Webster finds confidence in a one inning role.

The Rockies skated through 2014 with the least exciting closer in baseball – Hawkins. They'll attempt to rinse and repeat this season while hoping either Ottavino, Brothers, or somebody else can take a step forward. Brothers has never been a command and control pitcher, but he really lost his touch last season (6.23 BB/9). Ottavino had a nice breakout season if you ignore the .338/.383/.560 line posted by lefties (82 batters faced).

Like the Nationals, it's curious to see the Dodgers so thin in the pen. After Jansen, the club has a couple of Rays retreads in Howell and Peralta. They're both fine depth so long as they aren't closing. It seems Andrew Friedman and friends will hope Jansen remains healthy while they develop more internal options. The good news: Jansen still figures to be among the top five closers in baseball.

The Padres sure are in an interesting position. It's nice to see new GM A.J. Preller take an aggressive tack with the team. Benoit is a good option for the ninth, although he'll turn 38 next July. Meanwhile, Kelley pitched well for the Yankees as an interim closer last season. Maurer has top 15 reliever upside if he remains in the bullpen. Others like Alex Torres, Kevin Quackenbush, Nick Vincent, and Dale Thayer all can (and have) take a high leverage role in a pinch.

AL East

New York Yankees: Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller

Boston Red Sox: Koji Uehara, Junichi Tazawa, Edward Mujica

Baltimore Orioles: Zach Britton, Tommy Hunter

Toronto Blue Jays: Brett Cecil, Aaron Loup, Aaron Sanchez

Tampa Bay Rays: Jake McGee, Brad Boxberger, Grant Balfour

We all assume the ninth inning belongs to Betances after his fantastic breakout campaign. One of his best qualities last season was an ability to pitch multiple innings. It's possible New York will want him to retain this flexibility by using him as a setup man. Miller is being paid closer money, and he certainly has the stuff to succeed. While Miller is best against fellow lefties, he still dominated righties last year. In all probability, Miller will open the season as the setup man. He may still take a handful of saves if tough lefties are due up in the ninth.

The Red Sox watched Uehara fade down the stretch last season, which doesn't bode well for their hopes to contend. Expect Boston to manage Uehara's workload so that he may remain fresh late into the season. While it's easy to point to his age as the cause – he'll turn 40 next season – we should remember that he threw a career high 88 innings in 2013. That includes 13.2 postseason innings. Mujica and Tazawa can handle the ninth in a pinch, but I expect them to target the pen at the trade deadline.

Hunter entered last season as the Orioles closer, but the job was quickly stolen by ground ball specialist Britton. A 95 mph fastball, 75 percent ground ball rate, and decent 2.71 BB/9 really limit the opportunities for damage. So long as Britton remains healthy, Baltimore should be secure in the ninth inning. They also have Darren O'Day who often fills a ROOGY role.

The Blue Jays have a guy who looks like a closer – he just doesn't have experience in the role. Cecil emerged as a devastating southpaw reliever last season, and he was tougher against opposite-handed opponents. He did post a high walk rate (4.56 BB/9). The Jays are supposedly looking to add depth in the bullpen. One option is to sign James Shields, which would push Sanchez into a relief role. Loup strikes me as a middle reliever.

The Rays' biggest strength is their bullpen. While McGee will probably open the season the disabled list, that may open the door for Boxberger to run away with the ninth inning. Boxberger is coming off a fantastic breakout campaign, which could allow the Rays to move the left-handed McGee back into a situational role. Balfour is still hanging around, as is former Angels closer Ernesto Frieri. Kevin Jepsen and Kirby Yates have also shown enough to fill in as interim closers if the depth chart suffers a plague.

AL Central

Kansas City Royals: Greg Holland, Wade Davis, Kelvin Herrera

Cleveland Indians: Cody Allen, Bryan Shaw

Minnesota Twins: Glen Perkins, Casey Fien

Detroit Tigers: Joe Nathan, Joakim Soria, Al Alburquerque, Joel Hanrahan

Chicago White Sox: David Robertson, Zach Duke

The postseason has made the Royals bullpen quite famous. Followers of the column know I think very highly of Holland. One of the few pitchers I like more than Holland is Davis. Bullpens are inherently unstable, but we can probably pencil the Royals in for another dominating season. Herrera has growth potential with his triple-digit gas. Prior to injury, Luke Hochevar looked like he might be better than all of them. We'll see what he looks like when he returns to the late innings.

Allen performed well after John Axford collapsed last season. I expect to find Allen to be underpriced on draft day, which is fine by me. I'm not sure why he's so easy to overlook, but he possesses more than enough talent to remain an effective closer. Shaw is more at home in a setup or middle relief role, which is probably why the Indians are rumored to be looking for relief help.

Twins closer Glen Perkins dealt with some late season arm trouble, but the club isn't concerned. Perkins will be backed up by a solid pitcher in Casey Fien. Nobody will go out of their way to stash Fien since he lacks any exciting quality beyond proximity to the ninth inning. Prospect Jose Berrios might factor into the pen at some point.

Last October, the Tigers were knocked out of the postseason in large part due to a terrible bullpen. Detroit intends to return Nathan to the role for another season. If it goes sideways again, Soria is waiting in the wings. Alburquerque hasn't shown enough to be considered a closer candidate while Hanrahan hasn't been healthy since 2012. The AL Central looks pretty tough this year. If I were the Tigers, I would have spent some money or prospects on a pitcher I could trust.

The White Sox overhauled the roster this offseason. As part of the effort, they sank considerable money into the bullpen. The combination of Robertson and Duke should help to prevent any more disasters involving Zach Putnam or Jake Petricka. Both Robertson and Duke have experience pitching in a bandbox like U.S. Cellular Field, so there isn't much reason to expect a sudden decline. I'm looking forward to some closer stability in Chicago.

AL West

Los Angeles Angels: Huston Street, Joe Smith

Seattle Mariners: Fernando Rodney, Danny Farquhar, Tom Wilhelmsen

Oakland Athletics: Sean Doolittle, Tyler Clippard

Texas Rangers: Neftali Feliz, Shawn Tolleson, Kyuji Fujikawa

Houston Astros: Luke Gregerson, Pat Neshek, Chad Qualls

Street succeeds by allowing hardly any base runners to score. He's a finesse pitcher in an age where most closers depend on overwhelming velocity. He's familiar with the disabled list, so the Angels should be prepared to turn to Plan B. Last season, that was Smith. He pitched perfectly fine out of the ninth inning, but the club felt the necessity to bring in outside help at the trade deadline. Expect to experience deja vu if Smith is closing games in July.

No fantasy owner feels safe owning Rodney despite a strong 2014 campaign. When he falls apart, walks are usually the culprit. Fortunately for the Mariners, they have a couple excellent setup men in Farquhar and Wilhelmson. Either pitcher could take on the closer role without missing a beat. Seattle's a good place to speculate on saves.

Doolittle was excellent as the A's closer last season, but I wonder if he's in for a little competition with Clippard. The former National will be paid like a closer and is a free agent at the end of the season. As with the Mets and Parnell, using Clippard as the closer could save the club money. It also frees Doolittle to be used earlier in the game against tough left-handed hitters. We should soon learn if there will be a competition for the job.

The Rangers appear committed to Feliz. He showed signs of recapturing his form late last season. While he struggled to consistently maintain upper-90's velocity, it's a good sign to see him get there most days. Feliz was overrated at his best, so don't get too excited about his potential this season. Even if everything breaks his way, we're probably looking at one of the bottom 10 closers. Tolleson has destroyed minor league hitters for years, but he doesn't quite have the stuff for high leverage work in the majors.

The Astros attempted to woo some of the biggest free agent relievers. They ultimately settled on Gregerson. The long time setup man won't win the strikeout category for you, but he shouldn't blow too many leads either. Houston also brought in Neshek to help shorten the game. They still have Qualls, Tony Sipp, and Josh Fields, all of whom flashed potential in their own way.  

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Rooftop owners sue Cubs over Wrigley renovations.

AP - Sports

The owners of two rooftop businesses overlooking Wrigley Field are suing the Chicago Cubs and owner Tom Ricketts to try to block plans to erect outfield signs.

The federal lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses the Cubs of breaching the terms of the team's revenue-sharing contract with rooftop owners. The suit contends the team and Ricketts are engaging in deceptive business practices and acting in violation of anti-trust laws.

The rooftop owners are seeking a financial judgment and a ruling barring the Cubs from blocking views into Wrigley from the rooftops.

Cubs attorney Andrew Kassof says the team will contest the lawsuit and move forward with renovations.

The demolition of the ballpark's famous bleachers is underway. The work is part of the Cubs' privately funded $575 million renovation project.

Golf: I got a club for that; Montgomerie: Phil Mickelson should step up and be '16 Ryder Cup captain. What's Your Take?

By Ryan Ballengee

Colin Montgomerie has a bright idea: Phil Mickelson should be the 2016 U.S. Ryder Cup captain. 

Monty, speaking with Kicca.com, a new sports-geared social media site in the U.K., laid the gauntlet to the left-hander.

"Phil Mickelson's comments were heard and read around the world," Montgomerie said. "A lot of people were thinking 'Stand up to the plate. OK, if you feel that strongly about the situation become captain yourself.'"

After the U.S. loss the Ryder Cup for the third-straight time to the Europeans at Gleneagles in Scotland in September, Mickelson torched captain Tom Watson, saying Watson did not listen to player input on any decision. Mickelson also wondered aloud why the PGA of America had abandoned the system 2008 captain Paul Azinger employed to win the matches at Valhalla, suggesting Azingers' "pod" system of grouping similar players together in terms of social functions and in match pairings was a great fit for the American side.

 

Mickelson's comments, in part, spurred the PGA of America to form an 11-man task force, whose mission it is to audit how the U.S. approaches the biennial matches and make changes. The task force, on which Mickelson is a participant, is also likely to identify a 2016 captain for Hazeltine, the next U.S. home match. That captain is expected to be named sometime in the first half of 2015. Three-time winning Presidents Cup captain Fred Couples has said he has been contacted by the task force, leading many to believe he's the target for captain. 
 

John Daly has also lobbied for Mickelson, or Tiger Woods, to take the reins.
 

Montgomerie also realized putting Mickelson at the helm might attract even more scrutiny on a U.S. team that has only won two matches in the last 10 tries.
 

"The trouble there, of course, is Phil would have to win the Ryder Cup," Montgomerie said, "having said what he said, so it does put pressure on the whole system."

Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica take: We golf fans have had enough and know that now is the time for the American professional golfers to show what we are made of. It's time for us to show the world how good we really are. We don't want Phil as the Ryder Cup captain yet. His time will come. He has too much good play left within him. With all of the good young players coming up, we need a mixture of veteran leadership, (Phil & Tiger), to help steady the younger players. Paul Azinger or Fred Couples would be excellent choices to captain our 2016 team. They can bridge the gap between the older golfers and younger golfers, the older fans and younger fans plus they both have charisma and lots of enthusiasm. What more do we need?

There's a task force working on the Ryder Cup prerogatives and priorities to establish a formula for winning the Ryder Cup in 2016 and for years to come. Look out world, here comes American exceptionalism at it's best. We will win the Ryder Cup in 2016 and yes you did hear it here first!!!

 As always, now you know what we think and how we feel, we'd love to know what's your take? Please take a moment and post your thoughts in the comment section at the bottom of this blog. Marion P. Jelks, Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica blog editor.   

Three-way tie for lead at Qatar Masters, Sergio Garcia 3 shots back.

By NBC Sports

Oliver Fisher carded eight birdies on the opening day to take a one-shot lead at the Qatar Masters on Wednesday.

The Englishman's only blemish in a 7-under-par 65 was when he bogeyed the 13th hole, but he edged Rafael Cabrera-Bello by one stroke on an eventful first day at Doha Golf Club.

Ernie Els and Paul Lawrie were among 11 players tied for third at 5 under.

Fisher started in the afternoon from the 10th hole and posted a hat trick of birdies from the 16th hole before carding three more on Nos. 4, 6 and 8.

Defending champion Sergio Garcia, making his first European Tour start of the season, finished the day at 3 under.

Journeyman Putnam goes low to set Humana pace.

Reuters; Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank Pingue

The "light switch" clicked for journeyman Michael Putnam as he piled up nine birdies in his last 12 holes to seize a one-shot lead in Thursday's opening round of the $5.7 million Humana Challenge at La Quinta in California.

Still seeking his first victory on the PGA Tour, the 31-year-old American fired a sparkling nine-under-par 63 in ideal scoring conditions on the Jack Nicklaus Private course at PGA West, one of three venues hosting the pro-am event.

Putnam covered his back nine in a sizzling seven-under 29 to finish a picture-perfect day a stroke in front of compatriots Blake Adams, John Peterson, Scott Pinckney and 2012 champion Mark Wilson, and Italian Francesco Molinari.

Holder Patrick Reed, who won the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii 10 days ago, launched his title defense with a 65 while twice former winner Phil Mickelson, playing his first competitive round since late September, carded a 71.

"It was like a light switch," Putnam told Golf Channel about the transformation in his game from the seventh hole onwards. "I said I needed to make some birdies, so I did.

"I played decently solid before that, just made a few mistakes to make bogeys, but I just lit it up coming in."

Putnam, a three-times champion on the lower-tier Web.com Tour who has never finished better than fourth in a PGA Tour event, was not planning to dwell on his opening round for long.

"You've kind of got to forget about it because we are playing a totally different golf course tomorrow ... so kind of put that out of my memory and now I am focused on the Palmer (course) for tomorrow," he said.

"There were a lot of low scores shooting out there too so you've still got to make birdies because 25, 27 under (par) wins this thing."

Five-times major winner Mickelson, who has not played competitively since the United States lost to Europe at the Ryder Cup, mixed four birdies with three bogeys at La Quinta Country Club.

"Even though this feels like the worst day I've had in months, I am excited about my game and getting back out tomorrow," the left-hander said after totaling 31 putts.

"I feel like I played a little bit tight today, kind of steered it a little bit. I'll loosen up and hopefully the way I am playing will show in the score. Today it just didn't."

2015 will be Jeff Gordon's final full-time NASCAR season.

By Nick Bromberg

.

Jeff Gordon

Jeff Gordon has one more shot for a fifth Sprint Cup Series championship.

The four-time Sprint Cup Series champion announced Thursday that 2015 will be his final full-time season in the Cup Series.

“As a race car driver, much of what I’ve done throughout my life has been based on following my instincts and trying to make good decisions,” Gordon said in a team statement. “I thought long and hard about my future this past year and during the offseason, and I’ve decided 2015 will be the last time I compete for a championship. I won’t use the ‘R-word’ because I plan to stay extremely busy in the years ahead, and there’s always the possibility I’ll compete in selected events, although I currently have no plans to do that.

“I don’t foresee a day when I’ll ever step away from racing. I’m a fan of all forms of motor sports, but particularly NASCAR. We have a tremendous product, and I’m passionate about the business and its future success. As an equity owner in Hendrick Motorsports, I’m a partner with Rick (Hendrick) and will remain heavily involved with the company for many years to come. It means so much to have the chance to continue working with the owner who took a chance on me and the incredible team that’s stood behind me every step of the way."

 
Gordon, 43, won NASCAR titles in 1995, 1997, 1998 and 2001. He has 92 career Sprint Cup Series wins, good for third all-time behind Richard Petty and David Pearson. His best season was that 1998 campaign, when he won 13 races and had a crazy 28 top-10 finishes in 33 races. For good measure, he won the final race of that season and finished with a 364-point lead on second place Mark Martin.

“Jeff Gordon transcends NASCAR and will be celebrated as one of the greatest drivers to ever race," NASCAR CEO Brian France said in a statement. "We have all enjoyed watching his legend grow for more than two decades, and will continue to do so during his final full-time season. His prolonged excellence and unmatched class continue to earn him the admiration of fans across the globe. Today’s announcement is a bittersweet one. I’ll miss his competitive fire on a weekly basis, but I am also happy for Jeff and his family as they start a new chapter. On behalf of the entire NASCAR family, I thank Jeff for his years of dedication and genuine love for this sport, and wish him the very best in his final season.”

Gordon finished sixth in the 2014 standings after missing out on the final race at Homestead by a single point. He crashed after contact with Brad Keselowski at Texas (leading to a scuffle replayed more times than you can count) and then failed to advance to the championship race after Ryan Newman knocked Kyle Larson out of the way at Phoenix, sliding into the fourth spot ahead of Gordon. He won four races last season, including the Brickyard 400.

To say that Gordon was a revolutionary driver in the Cup Series isn't an understatement. He entered the series full-time in 1993 and quickly became an adversary to Dale Earnhardt, who he eventually formed a good friendship with. He was the perfect anti-Earnhardt. While the veteran had his black No. 3 and legion of fans, Gordon represented the "new" NASCAR of sorts as a young kid from California with a rainbow-colored car.

Coincidentally, his first race in 1992 was the last race of Petty's career.

He helped NASCAR become mainstream too, immediately becoming one of the most recognizable figures in sports. When he made his Cup debut, the thought of a NASCAR driver married to a Belgian supermodel would have made many an observer pass out from disbelief.

“There’s simply no way to quantify Jeff’s impact,” Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick said. “He’s one of the biggest sports stars of a generation, and his contributions to the success and growth of NASCAR are unsurpassed. There’s been no better ambassador for stock car racing and no greater representation of what a champion should be. I will never be able to properly express the respect and admiration I have for Jeff and how meaningful our relationship is to me. I’m so grateful for everything he’s done for our company and my family, and I look forward to many more years together as friends and business partners.”

The team said plans for Gordon's car in 2016 will be announced at a later date but the odds-on favorite is Chase Elliott, the 2014 Xfinity Series champion. Elliott, 19, is considered one of NASCAR's next big stars and has a developmental contract with Hendrick Motorsports.

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Michael Bradley: MLS players willing to strike over free agency as CBA talks continue.

By Joe Prince-Wright

As you may have heard for a while now, players in Major League Soccer are getting serious about the ongoing collective bargaining negotiations with the league as the current CBA runs out at the end of January.

Talks between the two sides resumed in Washington D.C. this week as many discussions will take place between the MLS Players Union and the league between now and the start of the 2015 season on March 6. Two of the many sticking points for players, as CBA talks continue behind-the-scenes, is to increase the minimum salary in the league and to also bring in free agency for players who are out of contract.

During the MLS media tour out in California over the past few days, prominent MLS and U.S. national team players have been sharing their thoughts on the negotiations. Speaking to assembled journalists, including ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle, here’s what USMNT and Toronto FC star Michael Bradley had to say about the impending threat of a player strike and how it can be avoided.

“The goal is to find a new agreement, one that works for the league and one that works for the players,” Bradley said. “Nobody is sitting here right now saying to themselves, ‘We want a work stoppage.’ That’s not the end goal for anybody.”

The MLS Players Union are standing firm that players across the board, but especially those in the lower echelons, should get a pay hike, especially after the league just signed a new TV deal with Fox Sports and ESPN plus plenty of star players like Frank Lampard, David Villa, Steven Gerrard, Sebastian Giovinco and Kaka enter the league on huge Designated Player contracts.

Bradley went on to say that he believed things would be figured out in everyone’s best interest before the start of the season, but he did reveal that the players are willing to strike before the 2015 season begins if an agreement cannot be reached.

“Should we get to a point before the season where things and negotiations aren’t where they should be, we are ready to strike,” Bradley said. “And we are united as a group to make real progress in terms of the way players get treated in this league.”

Soccer-U.S. women's keeper Solo suspended by federation.

Reuters; Reporting By Simon Evans in Miami. Editing by Steve Keating

United States women's team goalkeeper Hope Solo. (Photo/AP)

United States women's team goalkeeper Hope Solo has been suspended for 30 days by U.S Soccer following an incident during the team's training camp.

Solo's husband, former Seattle Seahawks NFL player Jerramy Stevens, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Media reports said Solo was in the car but was not cited in the incident by Manhattan Beach police officials.

U.S. Soccer said, "the suspension stems from an incident that occurred during the current WNT training camp being held in Carson, California."

Solo has been released from training camp and will miss the USA's matches in Europe on February 8 in France and five days later in England.

"During our current National Team camp, Hope made a poor decision that has resulted in a negative impact on U.S. Soccer and her team mates," said U.S. Women's National Team head coach Jill Ellis in a statement.

"We feel at this time it is best for her to step away from the team."

The suspension comes a week after charges against Solo in a domestic violence case were dropped by a judge in Washington state.

The U.S are preparing for the Women's World Cup in Canada in June when they will aim to win their third title following victories in 1991 and 1999.

Ellis has three other goalkeepers currently in the training camp - Nicole Barnhart, Ashlyn Harris and Alyssa Naeher.

Barnhart deputized for Solo in 2010 and 2011 when she was recovering from a shoulder injury.

Mike Krzyzewski's road to immortality started on a minor note Nov. 28, 1975.

By Pat Forde

One thing that has never changed about Mike Krzyzewski: his intensity. (Photo/AP)

On Nov. 28, 1975, a college basketball game was played that resonated almost nowhere:

Army 56, Lehigh 29.
 

Nobody knew that game played in the dark, dingy old U.S. Military Academy Field House on the banks of the Hudson River in West Point, N.Y., was the start of something big.

Well, maybe Bo Gill, sports editor of the Evening News in Newburgh, N.Y., had an inkling, given the breathless first sentence of his story on the game in the next day’s paper: “They ran with gusto, they swarmed over the enemy offense like hornets, they drove for the loose basketballs and did just about everything that could be expected of a first-game team Friday.”
 

But the story got second billing to the upcoming Army-Navy football game. The basketball news was shouldered onto the page alongside a series of bowling notes. Faye Peters bowled a 601 series to grab an Evening News headline.
 

Not a big deal.
 

Army-Lehigh matched a pair of frighteningly young rookie head coaches with long and interesting roads ahead – divergent roads that would lead them to far bigger venues and brighter stages.

The 28-year-old Lehigh coach would go on to win nearly 300 games in the NBA, taking Orlando and Shaquille O’Neal to the 1995 Finals. His name is Brian Hill.

The 28-year-old Army coach would go on to win 998 more games – the most in men’s Division I college basketball history – and counting. Sunday in Madison Square Garden against St. John’s, just 54 miles but several light years from where he earned his first victory, he will go for No. 1,000.

His name is Mike Krzyzewski.

Backup Army forward Joe Barto was a small part of that small first game, scoring two points against Lehigh. He remembers Krzyzewski going to the chalkboard and writing the jersey numbers of the five Army starters, and next to that the jersey numbers of the five Lehigh starters they would be guarding. Defense was all that mattered. Fellow backup Paul Aiello recalls that Lehigh ran two sets for a hotshot freshman guard to get open, and Army had scouted the sets so thoroughly that the Engineers’ guard was totally shut down.

Hill, Lehigh's coach, believes it might have been more a case of freshman nerves.

“We won the opening tip exactly the way you practice it,” said Hill, now a TV analyst who works Magic games. “We passed it ahead to that freshman guard for a wide-open layup, and it hit the glass and went three feet over the rim. We got off to a horrible start, missing layups and easy shots, and it was a disastrous opener for us.

But they were obviously very well-coached.”

If there was any soaring pregame or postgame oratory in that locker room, any revelatory glimpse of the man who would become the winningest college coach of all-time, it’s been lost amid the fog of time.

It was an unremarkable beginning to a most remarkable career. The only thing those first K-coached Cadets knew for sure was this: The new guy was unbelievably intense.

“From the first meeting, you knew he was business,” Aiello said. “Practice was unbelievable – all defensive stuff. The first two weeks was all half-court drills and box-outs. It wasn’t until the third week that we played full-court.”

Barto was a shooter who had been recruited out of Atlanta in 1973 to the U.S. Military Academy Prep School by Krzyzewski. At one point during his recruitment, K told Barto, “It’ll be the best decision you ever make in your life. I guarantee it.”

More than 40 years later, Barto laughed at the memory.

“Over the next four years, I thought about 1,000 times it was the worst damn decision of my life.”

Practices were relentless. Critiques were frank and profane.

“You rarely had a conversation with Coach that didn’t have a four-letter word in it,” Barto said. “The master stroke was having Pete Gaudet as an assistant. Pete was the relationship guy. It was a good cop-bad cop situation, and Pete was the good cop.”

The bad cop was busy driving a team that went 3-22 the previous season to 11 wins that first year. That was followed by seasons of 20-8 and 19-9 – great years after the low ebb of the early ’70s, but still not enough to get Krzyzewski to ease up.

There was one night, after a bad loss, when Barto remembers the bus pulling back onto campus at 2 a.m. and Krzyzewski ordering everyone into the gym to practice. Right then and there.

Some players thrived. Forward Gary Winton, who scored 13 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in that Lehigh game, became a star. He went on to become one of the best players in Army history and might have made the 1980 Olympic team, if not for the U.S. boycott of those Games.

Others struggled. Barto was one of them.

“I didn’t play for Bob Knight, but after playing for Coach, I’m not sure it could have been worse,” he said.

After coaching Barto, Winton and others on the Prep School team in ’73-74, Capt. Michael Krzyzewski resigned his artillery commission and jumped into civilian coaching. He joined his mentor and former coach, Knight, at Indiana as a graduate assistant. That Hoosiers team went 29-1, being upset in the NCAA regional finals after forward Scott May broke his arm. But when the varsity job at his alma mater came open that spring, Coach K left a juggernaut that would go undefeated the next season to rebuild Army basketball.

(Interesting aside: Krzyzewski and another member of Knight’s staff were hired the same day – April 16, 1975– for their first college head-coaching jobs. That’s when Dave Bliss went to Oklahoma. While Krzyzewski would go on to coaching immortality, Bliss would find infamy for his role in the awful Baylor scandal of 2003.)

Shortly after Krzyzewski returned to West Point, Barto walked into his office to get reacquainted. He was coming off a season averaging 18 points per game for the Army junior varsity and feeling good about his chances of making an impact on the varsity under the coach who recruited him.

“I understand you had a pretty good year,” Krzyzewski told him. “So I guess I’m going to have to teach you to play defense.”

Said Barto: “I don’t think I touched the ball the next six months.”

He never touched the ball much more after that. Barto’s two varsity seasons under Krzyzewski were spent primarily on the bench, watching others play.

“We had a tough relationship,” Barto said. “I didn’t understand. I didn’t get it back then.”

He would get it more than a decade later. By then Joe Barto was serving in the Middle East, part of Desert Storm.

Barto was the Chief of Operations for the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) during the Persian Gulf War. It was during the stress of combat with the Iraqi Republican Guard that the hard lessons learned in Gillis Field House began to hit home.

“My experience playing basketball for Coach Krzyzewski better prepared me for Desert Storm than any other experience I had at West Point,” Barto said.

He would retire a lieutenant colonel and start his own business – TMG, a Virginia-based company that specializes in talent acquisition and retention, as well as leadership development. And in 1995, when Krzyzewski was inducted into the Army Sports Hall of Fame, Barto and his coach were at last able to come to an understanding.

“I wasn’t ready to be the right coach,” Krzyzewski told him. “And I don’t think you were ready to be the right player.”

Said Barto, “He became a much better friend and mentor after playing basketball than while he was coaching me.”

Krzyzewski has an undying loyalty and affection for almost all of his former players, but perhaps an especially soft spot for some of the first guys, from back in the mid-’70s. Aiello, who was a coach at Wagner and Colgate after his military career, has worked Krzyzewski’s Duke camp from 1983 to the present – though his old mentor regularly needles him that they’d never give him one of the defensive drill stations.

Barto also visits Durham annually, and has sent his kids to Krzyzewski’s camp. When K broke Knight’s victory record by winning his 903rd game in 2011, Barto was one of a handful of players from that first team to present their old coach with a different game ball.

One commemorating the first win: Army 56, Lehigh 29.

Nobody knew what it meant on that November night in 1975. But it was the first step down a path that would lead Mike Krzyzewski to the brink of 1,000 wins, a place no coach has gone before.

Small-school prospects angling for NFL jobs at Senior Bowl.

By JOHN ZENOR (AP Sports Writer)

Ali Marpet knows none of his Senior Bowl counterparts from Ohio State and Texas have ever heard of his school.

Hobart College is hardly a football factory, but Marpet still made it from the tiny private liberal arts college in upstate New York onto the radar of NFL scouts and ultimately to the Senior Bowl. And this week he's finally getting to compete on a level playing field with those major college guys in their shared pursuit of pro careers.

Marpet, an offensive lineman, isn't alone. The rosters for Saturday's Senior Bowl have 14 players who competed below Football Bowl Subdivision, including Division III non-scholarship Hobart.

''Honestly, just to be here is awesome but I do want to show that I can dominate this level of competition,'' Marpet said.

Quarterback Bryan Bennett, who transferred from Oregon to FCS Southeastern Louisiana, joined South practice Wednesday, five hours after arriving in Mobile to replace Auburn's Nick Marshall (now playing defense). The group also includes Ivy Leaguers Tyler Varga (Yale) and Zack Hodges (Harvard).

Some of the small-school guys, like Marpet and Tennessee State offensive lineman Robert Myers, started their college careers with few other options. Bennett left Oregon after getting beaten out by eventual Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota, while linebacker Lynden Trail moved from Florida to FCS Norfolk State in pursuit of playing time and a more academically centered life studying mass communications.

''The biggest knock is being a small-school guy or playing against lesser competition,'' said Trail, Norfolk State's first Senior Bowl participant. ''But being here is an opportunity to show that, yes, I am a small-school guy but at the same time I am able to play with major D-I prospects as well. I'm just here to showcase my versatility.''

The 6-foot-6, 262-pounder, who had been a highly touted recruit, thrived in three seasons at Norfolk State after leaving Florida, where he couldn't get on the field. He was a two-time finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award as the top defensive player in FCS.

They're all trying to follow the route of players such as Tusculum's Ricardo Colclough, who became a second-round pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers after playing in the 2004 Senior Bowl.

Myers also wants to follow former Tennessee State teammates Daryl Richardson and Edmond Gates into the draft. He has gone from introducing himself to scouts checking out those players to drawing an increasing amount of NFL interest himself during his career.

''My mentality is to come down here and prove that I can play with these guys at this level and most importantly play at the next level,'' the 6-5, 329-pounder said. ''It's motivating. It's a positive pressure. I know I've got to come down here and work hard and show them that I can make my way there and I can be successful in the NFL.''

Marpet has followed a more unlikely route. The Liberty League co-offensive player of the year cheerfully offers some insight into Hobart: about 2,300 students. Located kind of in between Syracuse and Rochester. And an unlikely destination for NFL scouts.

Marpet didn't have a fancy training table but bought a gold meal plan so he could eat every meal in the school cafeteria, fighting every step of the way to put on weight. Marpet went from 205 pounds as a high school junior to 255 pounds as a college freshman to a 6-4, 307-pound NFL prospect.

''It's not easy for me,'' Marpet said. ''This is not my natural weight. Every meal is a struggle. It's a job.''

Now he's trying to make football a job, too.

NCAA says it is currently investigating 20 schools for academic fraud. (This story is going to be with us for awhile and that's not a good thing for collegiate sports)

By Sam Cooper
                                                                                                            

While North Carolina has been the most notable university to be investigated for academic fraud in recent years, the NCAA maintains that UNC is not being singled out.

In fact, representatives from the NCAA’s enforcement department told The Chronicle that is currently investigating academic misconduct in athletic programs at 20 schools – 18 from Division I, one from Division II and one from Division III.

From The Chronicle:

The cases are at various stages, from preliminary inquiry to awaiting a hearing with the Division I Committee on Infractions, and they involve a variety of missteps, including allegations that players received impermissible assistance from professors, academic advisers, or people outside of an athletic department.

Last year, the NCAA named Katherine Sulentic, a former academic adviser at Colorado, the chair of a new academic integrity group in its enforcement department. Now, the NCAA’s vice president for enforcement, Jonathan Duncan, says that unit will be beefed up while the NCAA’s investigators receive additional training on “what constitutes academic fraud and how to handle potential academic violations.”

“The timing is right to dedicate more resources to this,” Sulentic said. “Everyone’s antenna is up about academic fraud on a college campus in general.”

Academic misconduct is on the rise in college sports and the NCAA says many of the recent cases follow a similar pattern.

Mr. Duncan and Ms. Sulentic attributed the increase in alleged academic violations to a variety of factors, including stricter NCAA academic standards and a rise in cheating among college students in general. They said that many of their current cases involved people who had relationships with an athletic department or a particular sports program, but who were not necessarily employed by the department. Those include professors, academic advisers who work outside of athletics, and people in the registrar’s office.

Coaches get involved sometimes, too.

In some cases, head coaches have urged members of their staff—secretaries, athletic trainers, people in the weight room—to "get this young man or woman eligible," Ms. Sulentic said.

"It’s not necessarily a directive about what to do—‘I need you to write this kid’s paper,’" she said. But she said coaches were making "proclamations" to a broad network of people, encouraging them to cheat on behalf of current players or recruits.

Unsurprisingly, Sulentic says others like agents and financial planners can also attempt to get involved with an athlete.

“They might say, ‘I exchange for you working with me in the future, I’m going to get you eligible to play Division I ball,’” Sulentic said. “What consistently surprises me is the definition of the word ‘help.’”

While none of these things seem like very new issues, at least the NCAA is bolstering its resources and focus on academic fraud. And if we know anything about the NCAA, the results of these investigations won’t come to light for quite a while.

30 most popular athletes, according to Millennials.

120 sports

120 Sports, a digital broadcast network involving multiple sports leagues and media properties, surveyed over 1,400 Millennials (defined as 18 to 34-year-olds) to choose the professional, Olympic and collegiate athletes that matter most to them. To determine the top athletes, Ranker uses an algorithm designed to balance various dimensions of agreement, popularity and positivity.

No. 1 Stephen Curry, 26, NBA
No. 2 Mike Trout, 23, MLB
No. 3 Russell Wilson, 26, NFL
No. 4 Kevin Durant, 26, NBA
No. 5 Madison Bumgarner, 25, MLB
No. 6 Aaron Rodgers, 31, NFL
No. 7 J.J. Watt, 25, NFL
No. 8 Andrew Luck, 25, NFL
No. 9 Lionel Messi, 27, La Liga
No. 10 Odell Beckham Jr., 22, NFL
No. 11 Alex Morgan, 25, USWNT
No. 12 Damian Lillard, 24, NBA
No. 13 Marcus Mariota, 21, NCAAF
No. 14 Calvin Johnson, 29, NFL
No. 15 Cristiano Ronaldo, 29, La Liga
No. 16 Clayton Kershaw, 26, MLB
No. 17 Jonathan Toews, 26, NHL
No. 18 Patrick Kane, 26, NHL
No. 19 Tom Brady, 37, NFL
No. 20 Tim Howard, 35, USMNT
No. 21 Anthony Davis, 21, NBA
No. 22 LeBron James, 30, NBA
No. 23 Rickie Fowler, 26, PGA
No. 24 Tim Duncan, 38, NBA
No. 25 Marshawn Lynch, 28, NFL
No. 26 Rob Gronkowski, 25, NFL
No. 27 Giancarlo Stanton, 25, MLB
No. 28 Shaun White, 28, snowboarding
No. 29 Steven Stamkos, 24, NHL
No. 30 Maria Sharapova, 27, WTA

On This Date in Sports History: Today is Friday, January 23, 2015.

Memoriesofhistory.com

1879 - The National Archery Association was organized in Crawfordsville, IN.

1944 - The Detroit Red Wings set record for the most goals, most consecutive goals and most points in a game. The Red Wings beat the New York Rangers 15-0 and had a total of 37 assists.

1950 - NFL owners approved the unlimited substitution rule that had been used on a trial basis for 1949.

1966 - The Detroit Red Wings ended a streak of 47 straight wins when leading after two periods. The streak started on November 21, 1964.

1982 - Diana Ross performed the U.S. national anthem at Super Bowl XVI.

1985 - O.J. Simpson became the first Heisman Trophy winner to be elected to pro football’s Hall of Fame in Canton, OH.

1988 - At the Quaker State Open, Bob Benoit won a $100,000 bonus and became the first bowler to win a televised tournament by rolling a perfect 300 game.

2002 - The NHL fined Theo Fleury (New York Rangers) $1,000 for making an obscene gesture to fans after a game the night before.
 

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