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"Sports Quote of the Day"
“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.” ~ Marie, Curie, Physicist, Chemist and Nobel Prize Laureate
TRENDING: Bears wide receiver Kevin White leaves no doubt: 'It’s got to happen now'. (See the football section for Bears news and NFL updates).
TRENDING: Blackhawks offseason thoughts: on staying indoors and salary caps.
(See the hockey section for Blackhawks updates and NHL news).
(See the hockey section for Blackhawks updates and NHL news).
TRENDING: How many more championships does LeBron James have to win to be in the conversation with Michael Jordan? (See the basketball section for Bulls news and NBA updates).
TRENDING: Will Cubs starting slow impact Theo’s thinking at trade deadline? Offenses overshadow Chris Sale-Jose Quintana pitching matchup in White Sox loss. (See the baseball section for Cubs and White Sox updates).
TRENDING: Tee Times, pairings for 2017 PGA Memorial Tournament. (See the golf section for PGA news and tournament updates).
TRENDING: NASCAR Power Rankings: Martin Truex Jr. takes over at No. 1. Will there be 16 different winners before the playoffs? (See the NASCAR section for NASCAR news and racing updates).
TRENDING: Eight Fire players included on MLS All-Star voting ballot. (See the soccer section for Fire news and worldwide soccer updates).
Bear Down Chicago Bears!!!!! Bears wide receiver Kevin White leaves no doubt: 'It’s got to happen now'.
By John Mullin
(Photo/USA TODAY)
White did manage to move out to lead the Bears in pass receptions last year before the second of his season-ending leg injuries occurred. Maybe it was a tease, maybe (the Bears hope) a foreshadowing. Either way, White is unequivocal about the significance of 2017 as he and the Bears work through their OTA’s and minicamp leading into the break before training camp:
“It's got to happen now,” White said on Tuesday, a day that saw him participate fully in practice. “I've got to turn it up. You know even in year one, year two, I always want to turn it up and show what I can do.
“So to me, year three, it's time.”
“Time.” That’s the thing with White now.
He is returning under a closely monitored program, which has meant not taking part in every offseason practice. Yet that comes with its own peril, that of not fast-tracking a talented wide receiver who needs playing time to stretch and hone his abilities.
Now White, with franchise-grade natural speed, has the added task of re-learning elements of the act of running itself.
“You could say that I've just got to train the body again,” White said. “Fixing things, correcting things and just getting back to it. Overall I'm not worried about it, everything takes time but I feel pretty good.”
The Bears were cautious with White and his stress fracture of the 2015 offseason. A surgery in June would have allowed him to be back playing by midseason, but the early decision was to be conservative, turning to surgery only when the injury failed to heal sufficiently on its own.
Now a third offseason has as one of its central questions the development of a player projected to be one of the foundation pillars of the team by this time.
If there is a positive, it is that White considers himself a better receiver now than when he came to the Bears out of West Virginia.
“I think that’s common sense,” White said. “The knowledge I have, coaches I have around me.”
The time White has around those coaches remains the key.
With Mark Sanchez injured, Bears will hang on to Connor Shaw.
By JJ Stankevitz
(Photo/USA TODAY)
It only took a few hours for that question to be answered.
Mark Sanchez suffered a left leg injury during Tuesday's OTAs and is expected back for training camp in July, though he'll miss the remainder of the Bears' offseason program. That means the Bears would've been down to two quarterbacks for the remainder of their OTAs and June's veteran minicamp.
So the Bears later Tuesday announced they rescinded the waiver request on Shaw and instead waived undrafted rookie free agent wide receiver Jhajuan Seales. Shaw is the only quarterback on the Bears' roster with experience in Dowell Loggains' offensive system, as Sanchez and Mike Glennon were brought in as free agents and Mitch Trubisky was in college a year ago.
Bears coaches have spoken highly of Shaw since he put together an impressive preseason game last year, completing five of six passes for 83 yards and throwing a touchdown against the Kansas City Chiefs. That was the Bears' third preseason game of 2016; in their final preseason game, Shaw suffered a season-ending leg injury.
"Connor did play well in that Kansas City game and sparked us a little bit," Loggains said. "But he’s the only guy with any experience in the system."
Who stood out in first week of OTAs?
By Larry Mayer
Which players stood out during the first week of OTA practices?
Phil K., Evansville, Indiana
It’s difficult to draw any definitive conclusions after watching three non-contact practices, but I would say that the one thing that stood out most to me is that the Bears have a lot more quality depth at receiver and in the secondary than they did a year ago at this time. With the additions of veteran free agents
With starting quarterbacks generally getting most of the reps in training camp and even during the season, how concerned are you that
Joel N., Toledo, Ohio
I’m not really worried because the Bears are well aware of the unique situation-slash-opportunity they have in needing to get veteran
Which Bears draft pick do you think will make the biggest impact as a rookie this season?
John M., Lexington, Kentucky
My answer could change once we get into training camp and roles become more defined. But at this point I will predict that tight end
The Chicago Bears have the best roster in the NFC North.
By Lester A. Wiltfong Jr.
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(Photo/The Post-Crescent-USA TODAY Sports)
Surprise, surprise...
If you already checked out our Daily Bear’s Den, which I’m sure you have, then you no doubt noticed the first article that Ken shared was very favorable to the Chicago Bears. It was such an interesting revelation, that I wanted to give it the spotlight, all to itself.
Yesterday, our sister site that covers the Minnesota Vikings, The Daily Norseman, went through an exercise in trying to determine how the four NFC North rosters stacked up. They used the grading system at Pro Football Focus to gauge each starting lineup, and since teams spend so much time in nickel on defense and in 11 personnel (1 RB/1 TE) on offense, that was the formation groupings they used.
There was only one “elite” player on the Bears’ roster, but partly because of their NFL North leading eight “average” players, Chicago checked in with the best roster in the division. It goes Bears #1, Vikings #2, Packers #3, and the Lions at #4.
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I’m not sure what to make of this. On one hand, it helps validate that the Bears have some talent among their starters, and had they not led the NFL in games lost due to injury in 2016, that they could have won more than three games.
But on the other hand, we’re talking about PFFs subjective grading system.
One other note on the grades in the lineups. PFF has Mitch Unrein and his 51.8 grade, as the Bears’ nickel defensive tackle. That’s just silly. He’s a rotational guy. PFF has him on the field instead of Eddie Goldman, who has an 80.0 grade. So if you factor Unrein out, and Goldman in, the Bears are even better than they originally thought!
What do you guys make of The Daily Norseman’s findings? Do you feel better about the Bears heading into the 2017 season?
How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Blackhawks offseason thoughts: on staying indoors and salary caps.
By Tracey Myers
(Photo/AP)
It was such a strange sight to see you wondered if it was a typo. When the NHL released its 2017-18 schedule of special events, there were two outdoor games listed but the Blackhawks weren’t in either of them.
The Blackhawks’ participation in these games had become so commonplace that you just expected it to be part of the schedule every season. But for the first time since the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season (when there wasn’t any outdoor games), the Blackhawks will be playing all their contests indoors.
This a good thing, a bit of a relief. Listen, the outdoor games are still fun to a degree especially if they’re new to you. But with everything else, the bloom falls off the rose when you’re inundated with the same teams playing every year. You need variety of teams and you need different locations – Minnesota and St. Louis finally got their opportunities the past two seasons, and provided wonderful settings. The NHL putting games at the service academies is another great idea. Again, keep the variety going.
From the Blackhawks’ standpoint, there’s probably another reason they need a break: they haven’t fared well in these games. Most of the games have been close – we’ll not get into that 2015 debacle in Minnesota – but the Blackhawks have nevertheless lost four of the five outdoor games they’ve played. Their lone win was that 2014 snow-globe-like game at Soldier Field.
At the same time we don’t expect the Blackhawks’ absence from the outdoor games to last for long. They move the dials, whether they win or not. But for right now, the break from the spectacle game is a good one.
Speaking of recurrent themes with the Blackhawks… NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said on Monday that the 2017-18 salary cap could be anywhere from the $73 million it was this season to $77 million, depending on if the NHLPA agrees to exercise the 5-percent inflator. Chances are that happens, giving teams a little more wiggle room.
The Blackhawks will have decisions to make no matter what, but the less the cap goes up the worse it’ll be. According to Capfriendly.com, the Blackhawks’ current projected cap hit for 2017-18 is $77,520,628. That includes performance bonuses from the 2016-17 season (close to $3.56 million) and the new contracts for Richard Panik ($2.8 million) and Michal Kempny ($900K), both of whom recently re-signed.
It’s going to be another season of the Blackhawks trying to shed a medium-to-sizeable contract and leaning on young (read: inexpensive) players to fill in the gaps. Regarding the latter part of that equation, the present and future look bright. Ryan Hartman is coming off a great season. Nick Schmaltz looked better in the second half and should improve. If Tyler Motte can reach pre-injury levels, he could make an impact. But shedding the money is going to be the critical issue.
So many contracts with no-movement clauses, instances in which you’ll have to convince the player you currently have as much as the potential trade partner that his going elsewhere is a good idea. As I’ve mentioned previously the Blackhawks did do this before; Brian Campbell and his then-massive contract was traded to the Florida Panthers at the 2011 NHL draft. Can they do something like that again?
The Blackhawks should shed some salary in the expansion draft, especially if the Vegas Golden Knights pluck Marcus Kruger and his $3.08 cap hit. But again, nothing is guaranteed.
The numbers are kind of/sort of in on the 2017-18 cap. Chances are the cap will go up and give the Blackhawks some breathing room. But it won’t be much and it’ll be another offseason of serious math. Considering contracts they have on the roster, the math will just be that much tougher.
Just Another Chicago Bulls Session..... How many more championships does LeBron James have to win to be in the conversation with Michael Jordan?
The Blackhawks’ participation in these games had become so commonplace that you just expected it to be part of the schedule every season. But for the first time since the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season (when there wasn’t any outdoor games), the Blackhawks will be playing all their contests indoors.
This a good thing, a bit of a relief. Listen, the outdoor games are still fun to a degree especially if they’re new to you. But with everything else, the bloom falls off the rose when you’re inundated with the same teams playing every year. You need variety of teams and you need different locations – Minnesota and St. Louis finally got their opportunities the past two seasons, and provided wonderful settings. The NHL putting games at the service academies is another great idea. Again, keep the variety going.
From the Blackhawks’ standpoint, there’s probably another reason they need a break: they haven’t fared well in these games. Most of the games have been close – we’ll not get into that 2015 debacle in Minnesota – but the Blackhawks have nevertheless lost four of the five outdoor games they’ve played. Their lone win was that 2014 snow-globe-like game at Soldier Field.
At the same time we don’t expect the Blackhawks’ absence from the outdoor games to last for long. They move the dials, whether they win or not. But for right now, the break from the spectacle game is a good one.
Speaking of recurrent themes with the Blackhawks… NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said on Monday that the 2017-18 salary cap could be anywhere from the $73 million it was this season to $77 million, depending on if the NHLPA agrees to exercise the 5-percent inflator. Chances are that happens, giving teams a little more wiggle room.
The Blackhawks will have decisions to make no matter what, but the less the cap goes up the worse it’ll be. According to Capfriendly.com, the Blackhawks’ current projected cap hit for 2017-18 is $77,520,628. That includes performance bonuses from the 2016-17 season (close to $3.56 million) and the new contracts for Richard Panik ($2.8 million) and Michal Kempny ($900K), both of whom recently re-signed.
It’s going to be another season of the Blackhawks trying to shed a medium-to-sizeable contract and leaning on young (read: inexpensive) players to fill in the gaps. Regarding the latter part of that equation, the present and future look bright. Ryan Hartman is coming off a great season. Nick Schmaltz looked better in the second half and should improve. If Tyler Motte can reach pre-injury levels, he could make an impact. But shedding the money is going to be the critical issue.
So many contracts with no-movement clauses, instances in which you’ll have to convince the player you currently have as much as the potential trade partner that his going elsewhere is a good idea. As I’ve mentioned previously the Blackhawks did do this before; Brian Campbell and his then-massive contract was traded to the Florida Panthers at the 2011 NHL draft. Can they do something like that again?
The Blackhawks should shed some salary in the expansion draft, especially if the Vegas Golden Knights pluck Marcus Kruger and his $3.08 cap hit. But again, nothing is guaranteed.
The numbers are kind of/sort of in on the 2017-18 cap. Chances are the cap will go up and give the Blackhawks some breathing room. But it won’t be much and it’ll be another offseason of serious math. Considering contracts they have on the roster, the math will just be that much tougher.
Just Another Chicago Bulls Session..... How many more championships does LeBron James have to win to be in the conversation with Michael Jordan?
By #BullsTalk
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
LeBron James has made a ridiculous seven straight NBA Finals, putting him (again) at the center of the 'Greatest Player of All-Time' debate.
Ahead of his third straight championship series against the Golden State Warriors, James discussed how his streak will shape his place among the greats.
"I think it's gonna be great for my legacy," James said to reporters. "Once I'm done playing the game, when we look back on the game, and we say, 'Oh, this guy went to three straight finals, four straight finals, five, six, whatever, seven.' I think it's great to be talked about, to see what I've been able to accomplish as an individual. You talk about longevity and being able to just play at a high level for a long period of time, and I've been fortunate enough to be able to do that."
The SportsTalk Live panel discussed his comments and debated how many more rings The King would need to be in the conversation with Michael Jordan.
Here's what each had to say:
CSN's Mark Schanowski
"He would have to win three to reach Jordan's six just to be in the conversation. All those losses in the finals are obviously going to have an impact, so we'll give LeBron the sportsmanship ribbon. Michael just collects rings."
WGN Radio's Mark Carman
"I would say 100. I'm not giving that up ever. Yes, I am extremely biased. But listen, this is an incredible opportunity for him. You've got a phenomenal Warriors team. You've got, for whatever reason, Las Vegas is making Cleveland a huge underdog. This is a great chance for him"
Bleacher Report's Seth Gruen
"To me, it's not a number. To me, he's gotta stop talking like that because that's loser talk. And I don't mean to come off with this sort of meatballish take, but the reality is you would have never heard Michael Jordan say that. And that's why Lebron gets so much flack in the conversation comparing the two because he's in the business of raising trophies, not second place."
Chicago Tribune's Chris Hine
"I think when it comes to Jordan, as somebody who didn't grow up in Chicago, I want him to get closer to six titles because I wanna see this town explode over the debate between LeBron and Jordan. I think to have a legitimate case, though, and to at least put it in people's mind that he's better than Jordan, he's got to at least get to six."
Ahead of his third straight championship series against the Golden State Warriors, James discussed how his streak will shape his place among the greats.
"I think it's gonna be great for my legacy," James said to reporters. "Once I'm done playing the game, when we look back on the game, and we say, 'Oh, this guy went to three straight finals, four straight finals, five, six, whatever, seven.' I think it's great to be talked about, to see what I've been able to accomplish as an individual. You talk about longevity and being able to just play at a high level for a long period of time, and I've been fortunate enough to be able to do that."
The SportsTalk Live panel discussed his comments and debated how many more rings The King would need to be in the conversation with Michael Jordan.
Here's what each had to say:
CSN's Mark Schanowski
"He would have to win three to reach Jordan's six just to be in the conversation. All those losses in the finals are obviously going to have an impact, so we'll give LeBron the sportsmanship ribbon. Michael just collects rings."
WGN Radio's Mark Carman
"I would say 100. I'm not giving that up ever. Yes, I am extremely biased. But listen, this is an incredible opportunity for him. You've got a phenomenal Warriors team. You've got, for whatever reason, Las Vegas is making Cleveland a huge underdog. This is a great chance for him"
Bleacher Report's Seth Gruen
"To me, it's not a number. To me, he's gotta stop talking like that because that's loser talk. And I don't mean to come off with this sort of meatballish take, but the reality is you would have never heard Michael Jordan say that. And that's why Lebron gets so much flack in the conversation comparing the two because he's in the business of raising trophies, not second place."
Chicago Tribune's Chris Hine
"I think when it comes to Jordan, as somebody who didn't grow up in Chicago, I want him to get closer to six titles because I wanna see this town explode over the debate between LeBron and Jordan. I think to have a legitimate case, though, and to at least put it in people's mind that he's better than Jordan, he's got to at least get to six."
Will Cubs starting slow impact Theo’s thinking at trade deadline?
By Patrick Mooney
(Photo/USA Today)
Cubs executives repeatedly framed last summer’s blockbuster trade with the Yankees by saying the players practically forced the issue with a 25-6 start. It became part of the rationale for giving up an elite prospect (Gleyber Torres) and taking on a rental closer with off-the-field baggage (Aroldis Chapman). Team president Theo Epstein memorably put it this way: “If not now, when?”
The 2016 Cubs made it absolutely clear – Chapman joined a team with almost a 99-percent chance to make the playoffs (Baseball Prospectus odds) and a 56-1 record when leading entering the ninth inning. This never got lost in translation: World Series or bust.
A 25-26 start makes you wonder what the front office needs to see over the next 50 games before deciding this team is worth the same kind of all-in investment.
“I know that’s an easy sort of narrative that we probably play into sometimes, but I don’t look at it that way,” Epstein said before Tuesday’s 6-2 loss to the Padres made it a five-game losing streak on this West Coast trip. “I don’t think our players have to like prove to us that they care or they’re deserving of help if we can get it. They are deserving, they do care, and if we need help, we’ll try to get it.”
But the question isn’t about heart or desire or team chemistry. It’s about performance between here and the July 31 deadline, whether or not the Cubs will play at a sustained level where Epstein’s cabinet will feel the same sense of urgency to make the deal for a top-of-the-rotation starter that hasn’t materialized yet during multiple trading cycles.
“What are we, like, two games out of first place?” Epstein said. “We’re in a very competitive race. The first place you look is not into the souls of your players. You look at the standings and you look at your farm system and you look at the markets. You just try to make rational decisions.”
The 2016 Cubs made it absolutely clear – Chapman joined a team with almost a 99-percent chance to make the playoffs (Baseball Prospectus odds) and a 56-1 record when leading entering the ninth inning. This never got lost in translation: World Series or bust.
A 25-26 start makes you wonder what the front office needs to see over the next 50 games before deciding this team is worth the same kind of all-in investment.
“I know that’s an easy sort of narrative that we probably play into sometimes, but I don’t look at it that way,” Epstein said before Tuesday’s 6-2 loss to the Padres made it a five-game losing streak on this West Coast trip. “I don’t think our players have to like prove to us that they care or they’re deserving of help if we can get it. They are deserving, they do care, and if we need help, we’ll try to get it.”
But the question isn’t about heart or desire or team chemistry. It’s about performance between here and the July 31 deadline, whether or not the Cubs will play at a sustained level where Epstein’s cabinet will feel the same sense of urgency to make the deal for a top-of-the-rotation starter that hasn’t materialized yet during multiple trading cycles.
“What are we, like, two games out of first place?” Epstein said. “We’re in a very competitive race. The first place you look is not into the souls of your players. You look at the standings and you look at your farm system and you look at the markets. You just try to make rational decisions.”
Joe Maddon thinking shake-up for Cubs? ‘I have no idea what that would be’.
By Patrick Mooney
(Photo/USA TODAY)
Joe Maddon looked down at the desk, shook his head and didn’t hesitate when asked if he was thinking about making some lineup changes to jolt the Cubs.
The defending World Series champs are a .500 team through the Memorial Day checkpoint, but Maddon projected calm from the manager’s office to the cameras, expecting that message to filter out toward his clubhouse.
But this wasn’t the red-hot Dodgers pushing all the right bullpen buttons and executing a game plan almost flawlessly. The Cubs had Jarred Cosart on the ropes – and bases-loaded opportunities in the first, second and seventh innings – but still couldn’t deliver the knockout punch against a last-place team.
The Padres gave up 10 walks while the Cubs went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base.
“We came off a 7-2 homestand,” Maddon said. “Everybody loved us a couple days ago. Now all of a sudden, we’ve had a tough time scoring runs on the road. We just got to do better. That’s all this comes down to.”
Until Jason Heyward lined a 93-mph Cosart fastball into right field for a two-out, bases-loaded single and a 2-0 lead in the first inning, the middle of that homestand (May 21) had been the last time the Cubs scored without hitting a home run.
“Everybody’s proverbially trying way too hard,” Maddon said. “(Don’t) try to hit homers. Really, again, take what they give you. Play with the middle. You got to convince them to do it. They got to do it.
“It’s not complicated. You can see the big swings coming out of our zone when just a single would do. That’s it. We did it before. We can do it again. We just got to keep talking. But then you have to use the velvet hammer as opposed to a real one. Otherwise, you have no chance whatsoever.”
Anthony Rizzo insists 'We got urgency' after Cubs fall to .500: 'It’s not all peachy right now'.
By Patrick Mooney
(Photo/USA TODAY)
There’s a fine line between staying calm and not overreacting and assuming this will happen again for the Cubs just because they’ve done it before.
The Padres have an Opening Day payroll around $68 million (with more than $30 million going to guys no longer on the team), three Rule 5 picks on their active roster, two players who’ve been DFA’d by the Cubs within the last 10 months (Clayton Richard and Matt Szczur) and the No. 3 overall pick in the June draft. San Diego’s best starting pitcher – Trevor Cahill – is on the disabled list with a strained right shoulder and didn’t make any of the three playoff rosters last year as a Cubs reliever.
After flying cross-country from Washington the night before, the Padres had to wake up for a 1:40 p.m. first pitch on Memorial Day. And yet there was All-Star first baseman Anthony Rizzo standing in Petco Park’s visiting clubhouse trying to make sense of a 5-2 loss that dropped the Cubs back down to .500 after 50 games.
“It’s not all peachy right now,” Rizzo said. “We got urgency. We’re grinding. We got a lot of guys that grind and will continue to – no matter what. We’ll keep playing hard…that’s really all you can do.”
This became a microcosm of the season so far, Kyle Hendricks racking up five strikeouts through three innings, retiring the first 10 batters he faced and working with a 2-0 lead that should have meant cruise control for a National League Cy Young Award finalist and the major-league ERA leader last season.
The perfect game vanished when Hendricks gave up back-to-back singles and hit cleanup hitter Ryan Schimpf (.167 average) with a pitch. Hunter Renfroe then launched an 87-mph Hendricks fastball into the left-field seats for a grand slam in front of a sellout crowd (41,414) that didn’t come to see the Padres (20-33).
“I don’t think anybody expected us to be .500, but it doesn’t matter,” Hendricks said. “We’re at where we’re at. The only way we can go from here is focusing pitch to pitch. We got to get back to the basics, just playing the game of baseball.
“All the attention – all that – we just got to forget about it. Focus on the game and simplifying as much as we can.”
While the postgame focus became the 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and the 11 men left on base, Hendricks knows the Cubs won’t feel any sense of momentum when the rotation has a 4.58 ERA and 19 quality starts through 50 games.
“It’s got to start with us on the mound,” said Hendricks (4-3, 3.75 ERA), who gave up five runs in five innings but has been the most reliable Cubs starter next to Jon Lester. “We’re the ones with the ball in our hands, so we’re the ones that have to stop it. Regardless of how the offense is going, if we throw up zeroes, we got a good chance of winning.”
Rizzo couldn’t believe it – “Did we walk 10 times?” – when a reporter mentioned another part of the box score. “That’s a formula that usually shoots out more than two runs.”
But the “Anchorman” theme trip has already been stranger than fiction, going through a 19-inning scoreless streak and then getting 11 hits off Clayton Kershaw in another loss to the Dodgers. The Cubs have obviously been there and done that and come back from much worse. But will that be enough?
“You just keep playing, that’s all you can do,” Rizzo said. “We just all need to take a deep breath, exhale a little bit and relax. It is what it is. It’s the grind of the season.”
Rizzo, Bryant, J-Hey among NL ballot leaders.
By Carrie Muskat
Zobrist, Schwarber, Russell, Contreras, Baez also in mix for All-Star starts.
The Cubs' infield combination of Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant lead the latest Esurance MLB All-Star Game Ballot results for the 2017 MLB All-Star Game presented by MasterCard, announced Tuesday.
Jason Heyward was third among the National League outfielders behind the Nationals' Bryce Harper and the Rockies' Charlie Blackmon. Harper, who led the NL in fan balloting in 2015, leads the voting again thus far this year, receiving 900,079 total votes. Blackmon has received 520,479 votes, and Heyward 344,166.
WHITE SOX: Offenses overshadow Chris Sale-Jose Quintana pitching matchup in White Sox loss.
By Dan Hayes
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
The pitching duel that was to be never materialized.
Instead, the White Sox and Boston Red Sox made Guaranteed Rate Field look small on Tuesday night against a pair of pitchers who have owned the place dating back to 2012. Boston blasted three of its six homers against Jose Quintana to provide Chris Sale with enough run support to survive a shaky outing of his own. The White Sox fell 13-7 in front of 21,852 at Guaranteed Rate Field. Todd Frazier homered off Sale, who earned the victory despite allowing six earned runs and 10 hits in five innings.
Devin Marrero crushed a pair of homers off Quintana, who allowed seven earned runs and 10 hits in 2 2/3 innings. Mookie Betts also went deep off Quintana, who has yielded 15 earned runs in his past two starts.
“We were both off,” Sale said. “I think people were expecting something a little different, but they came to a 7 o’clock batting practice session tonight. We were off. You just chalk it up as a bad night and come back tomorrow ready to rock.”
Jackie Bradley Jr., Xander Bogaerts and Mitch Moreland also homered for Boston. The offensive explosion helped Sale overcome his worst start of the season as he returned to face his old team of seven years.
Sale nearly gave back a four-run lead in the second inning as the White Sox put together a two-out rally. Leury Garcia singled in one run and Jose Abreu had a two-run single after a lengthy battle. Tim Anderson — who later homered — singled in a run off Sale in the third inning and Frazier homered in the fourth to get the White Sox back within 7-6.
But Bradley’s three-run blast off fellow left-hander Dan Jennings in the fifth inning gave the Red Sox all the breathing room they needed.
Instead, the White Sox and Boston Red Sox made Guaranteed Rate Field look small on Tuesday night against a pair of pitchers who have owned the place dating back to 2012. Boston blasted three of its six homers against Jose Quintana to provide Chris Sale with enough run support to survive a shaky outing of his own. The White Sox fell 13-7 in front of 21,852 at Guaranteed Rate Field. Todd Frazier homered off Sale, who earned the victory despite allowing six earned runs and 10 hits in five innings.
Devin Marrero crushed a pair of homers off Quintana, who allowed seven earned runs and 10 hits in 2 2/3 innings. Mookie Betts also went deep off Quintana, who has yielded 15 earned runs in his past two starts.
“We were both off,” Sale said. “I think people were expecting something a little different, but they came to a 7 o’clock batting practice session tonight. We were off. You just chalk it up as a bad night and come back tomorrow ready to rock.”
Jackie Bradley Jr., Xander Bogaerts and Mitch Moreland also homered for Boston. The offensive explosion helped Sale overcome his worst start of the season as he returned to face his old team of seven years.
Sale nearly gave back a four-run lead in the second inning as the White Sox put together a two-out rally. Leury Garcia singled in one run and Jose Abreu had a two-run single after a lengthy battle. Tim Anderson — who later homered — singled in a run off Sale in the third inning and Frazier homered in the fourth to get the White Sox back within 7-6.
But Bradley’s three-run blast off fellow left-hander Dan Jennings in the fifth inning gave the Red Sox all the breathing room they needed.
Even after trading him away for Chris Sale, Red Sox know Yoan Moncada is 'going to have success'.
By Vinnie Duber
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
Tuesday night is about Chris Sale and his return to the South Side.
But in the big picture, the White Sox are hoping the return for Sale — not by him — will be the defining part of the trade with the Boston Red Sox this past offseason.
Dealing Sale jumpstarted the team’s rebuilding process, bringing in a huge haul of highly ranked prospects headlined by Yoan Moncada, who on the day Sale pitches for the first time against his former team is ranked as the No. 1 prospect in baseball.
Moncada, it might be easy for White Sox fans to forget, has already had a taste of Major League Baseball. It was mighty brief, just 20 plate appearances in eight games last season in Boston, and it wasn’t very successful — he had four hits compared to 12 strikeouts — but it was enough give the Red Sox a glimpse at the kind of player he is.
“Special, talented young guy,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said Monday. “You look at the skills that he has, the athleticism is as good as you’re going to find. And he made his way pretty quick through the system to come up to us last year, and he was thrust into a pennant race.
“We were looking for a little bit of an uptick in performance at third base, he’s thrown right into it. I think he handled the situation as best possible. There were some challenges that any young player are going to go through, but there’s no denying the physical abilities that he has. A caring kid, thrown into a change in culture, a really aggressive challenge as far as on the field.
“Everything up to the point of coming up to the big leagues last year was handled all very well. And then I think he quickly found out that the big leagues is a little bit of a different animal.”
While that brief bit of big league exposure didn’t go the way anyone wanted, the Red Sox obviously saw big things coming from Moncada. They’re the ones who gave him a record signing bonus worth more than $31 million, and they launched him through their farm system, promoting him to the bigs without any time at Triple-A. He played 81 games in Low-A in 2015, then 61 games at High-A and 45 at Double-A in 2016 before the cup of coffee in the majors.
An almost identical trajectory was taken by Andrew Benintendi, currently a Red Sox outfielder with similarly high hopes as a prospect in that organization. He played at all those same levels over the past two seasons, skipping Triple-A, too. He had and has continued to have much more big league success than Moncada did in that handful of games. But the two rocketed through the minors together, and Benintendi has an up-close knowledge of the guy White Sox fans will see on the South Side.
“He’s extremely talented,” Benintendi said Tuesday. “He’s fast, he can hit, play defense. Good teammate, just a good all-around player.
“In High-A last year, he hit a ball over the scoreboard at our home stadium (in Salem, Va.). The ball doesn’t carry there at all, and he cleared the scoreboard. So that was kind of like, ‘Man, this guy’s got some pop.’”
Much like Farrell’s assessment, Benintendi talked about how well Moncada fit in on the big league team — Benintendi beat Moncada to the majors by a month — despite his struggles to produce.
“I think he fit in well, and I think coming into this clubhouse, it's easier to feel comfortable right off the bat,” Benintendi said. “He just went about his business, did his early work, things like that. I know he struggled a little bit, but I think that was just getting a little too excited or whatever it may have been. But he’s going to have success.
“(Going back to the minor leagues) kind of just get back to the basics and try not to do too much. I felt like when I came up, everybody was preaching don’t try to do too much, to keep being the same player and that’s what I did. So going back down and kind of figuring out his routine again and just sticking with that will help him a lot.”
Moncada and Benintendi were two of the top five prospects in baseball in 2016. And after splitting them up with that blockbuster Sale trade, maybe the White Sox and Red Sox are setting up a longtime rivalry between the two organizations in the American League.
Benintendi, for one, is looking forward to the day he next faces his old teammate — maybe as soon as the Red Sox next visit to the South Side — as long as Moncada doesn’t treat him like he did during All-Star Weekend last season in San Diego.
“I hope one day we’ll be able to play against each other,” Benintendi said. “The one time I did play against him was in the Futures Game. He kind of took away a hit from me. Hopefully that’s the one and only time he can do that.”
White Sox fans are obviously hoping that’s not the case.
Jose Abreu says 'everything is more loose' as he wins AL Player of the Week.
By Dan Hayes
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
Perhaps it’s the new environment in the clubhouse. Or maybe it’s freedom from the weight of all the personal issues he dealt with in 2016. And he doesn’t think he’s doing anything much different at the plate.
Whatever the case may be, Jose Abreu is knocking the crap out of the ball once again. On Tuesday, Abreu was rewarded for his efforts as he was named the American League player of the week for May 22-28. It’s the fourth time Abreu has won the award and the first since Sept. 14-20, 2015.
“Last year when the season ended, I started working on my body and my preparation, just to be ready for the season,” Abreu said through an interpreter. “It was hard work that I put into my body and to my preparation, and now I get to just let it go. You always try to do your routine and try to prepare yourself the best that you can. But now it’s like my soul, everything is more loose.”
Everything coming off Abreu’s bat of late is a rocket.
Over the week, Abreu hit .452 with three doubles, two home runs, five RBIs and seven runs. He produced a 1.194 OPS and also hit the 100th homer of his career.
Perhaps the strongest indicator of Abreu’s return to prominence after a difficult 2016 (he still hit 25 home runs and drove in 100) is the way the ball is exiting Abreu’s bat.
During a slow first two weeks, Abreu’s exit velo averaged 88.75 mph. That number has since picked up as over his last 92 batted-ball events, Abreu’s average is 92.3 mph.
But he was even better last week, averaging 95.5 mph. This season, batters carried a .539 average on balls hit at 95 mph or above through Sunday.
Manager Rick Renteria hasn’t seen any difference in Abreu’s preparation or his approach. He thinks it’s possible Abreu just feels better. Last season, Abreu learned in April that several key people who helped him get to United States from Cuba had been arrested for running a smuggling ring. Abreu testified in that trial during spring training. He also was reunited with his son, Dariel, in August after having seen him only once since he had left Cuba.
“Any human being who has anything going on their lives takes up some time in their mind and their heart, anybody would be really glad when some of those things are put to the side,” Renteria said. “It frees you up to do what you are supposed to do be doing.”
Though he appreciates the honor, Abreu would like to see it translate to more White Sox victories.
“I feel very happy for this award,” Abreu said. “Like you said, it’s a recognition for all the work every day and my preparation. That said, the most important thing is the team. You always want to help the team win games. It’s a good award, but the most important thing for the team.”
Whatever the case may be, Jose Abreu is knocking the crap out of the ball once again. On Tuesday, Abreu was rewarded for his efforts as he was named the American League player of the week for May 22-28. It’s the fourth time Abreu has won the award and the first since Sept. 14-20, 2015.
“Last year when the season ended, I started working on my body and my preparation, just to be ready for the season,” Abreu said through an interpreter. “It was hard work that I put into my body and to my preparation, and now I get to just let it go. You always try to do your routine and try to prepare yourself the best that you can. But now it’s like my soul, everything is more loose.”
Everything coming off Abreu’s bat of late is a rocket.
Over the week, Abreu hit .452 with three doubles, two home runs, five RBIs and seven runs. He produced a 1.194 OPS and also hit the 100th homer of his career.
Perhaps the strongest indicator of Abreu’s return to prominence after a difficult 2016 (he still hit 25 home runs and drove in 100) is the way the ball is exiting Abreu’s bat.
During a slow first two weeks, Abreu’s exit velo averaged 88.75 mph. That number has since picked up as over his last 92 batted-ball events, Abreu’s average is 92.3 mph.
But he was even better last week, averaging 95.5 mph. This season, batters carried a .539 average on balls hit at 95 mph or above through Sunday.
Manager Rick Renteria hasn’t seen any difference in Abreu’s preparation or his approach. He thinks it’s possible Abreu just feels better. Last season, Abreu learned in April that several key people who helped him get to United States from Cuba had been arrested for running a smuggling ring. Abreu testified in that trial during spring training. He also was reunited with his son, Dariel, in August after having seen him only once since he had left Cuba.
“Any human being who has anything going on their lives takes up some time in their mind and their heart, anybody would be really glad when some of those things are put to the side,” Renteria said. “It frees you up to do what you are supposed to do be doing.”
Though he appreciates the honor, Abreu would like to see it translate to more White Sox victories.
“I feel very happy for this award,” Abreu said. “Like you said, it’s a recognition for all the work every day and my preparation. That said, the most important thing is the team. You always want to help the team win games. It’s a good award, but the most important thing for the team.”
Golf: I got a club for that..... Tee Times, pairings for 2017 PGA Memorial Tournament.
By Golfweek Staff
Here are the tee times and pairings for the 2017 PGA Tour Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio:
Eight of the world’s top 10 players are scheduled to appear in Jack Nicklaus’ event, including No. 1 Dustin Johnson. Among the other notable names: Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Jason Day and 2014 champion Hideki Matsuyama. Defending champion William McGirt is also in the field.
This week’s winner will receive 500 FedExCup points, as well as a three-year PGA Tour exemption.
TEE TIMES
7:31 a.m. – Sean O’Hair, Ricky Barnes, Jason Kokrak
7:42 a.m. – Camilo Villegas, Scott Brown, Anirban Lahiri
7:53 a.m. – Charley Hoffman, Scott Piercy, Alex Cejka
8:04 a.m. – James Hahn, David Lingmerth, Vijay Singh
8:15 a.m. – Matt Every, Webb Simpson, Keegan Bradley
8:26 a.m. – Tony Finau, Steven Bowditch, Steve Stricker
8:37 a.m. – Billy Horschel, Ben Martin, Stewart Cink
8:48 a.m. – Kevin Chappell, Mackenzie Hughes, Luke Donald
8:59 a.m. – Brendon de Jonge, Soren Kjeldsen, Kevin Tway
12:10 p.m. – Kevin Streelman, Lucas Glover, Morgan Hoffmann
12:21 p.m. – Martin Laird Glasgow, Ryo Ishikawa, Harold Varner III
12:32 p.m. – Gary Woodland, Kyle Stanley, Grayson Murray
12:43 p.m. – Brendan Steele, Danny Lee, Retief Goosen
12:54 p.m. – Brian Harman,Fabian Gomez, K.J. Choi
1:05 p.m. – Aaron Baddeley, Jason Dufner, Hunter Mahan
1:16 p.m. – Rickie Fowler, Hideki Matsuyama, Jon Rahm
1:27 p.m. – Si Woo Kim, Jason Day, Adam Scott
1:38 p.m. – Adam Hadwin, Charl Schwartzel, Emiliano Grillo
1:49 p.m. – Peter Uihlein, Ryan Ruffels, Scott Gregory -a
7:31 a.m. – Kyle Reifers, Patrick Rodgers, Byeong Hun An
7:42 a.m. – Daniel Summerhays, Rafa Cabrera Bello, J.J. Spaun
7:53 a.m. – Hudson Swafford, Zach Johnson, Nick Taylor
8:04 a.m. – Marc Leishman, Patrick Reed, Ryan Moore
8:15 a.m. – Bubba Watson, Chris Kirk, J.B. Holmes
8:26 a.m. – Kevin Kisner, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas
8:37 a.m. – Dustin Johnson, William McGirt, Phil Mickelson
8:48 a.m. – Jonas Blixt, D.A. Points, Pat Perez
8:59 a.m. – Ryan Armour, Matthew Griffin, Curtis Luck
12:10 p.m. – Carl Pettersson, Graham DeLaet, Luke List
12:21 p.m. – Patton Kizzire, Patrick Cantlay, Michael Kim
12:32 p.m. – Sung Kang, Ollie Schniederjans, Tommy Fleetwood
12:43 p.m. – Cameron Smith, Rod Pampling, Russell Knox
12:54 p.m. – Brian Stuard, Padraig Harrington, Matt Kuchar
1:05 p.m. – Jim Herman, Vaughn Taylor, Smylie Kaufman
1:16 p.m. – Greg Chalmers, Shane Lowry, Jim Furyk
1:27 p.m. – Billy Hurley III, Brooks Koepka, Bill Haas
1:38 p.m. – Johnson Wagner, Roberto Castro, Bud Cauley
1:49 p.m. – Sam Saunders, Yuta Ikeda, Brett Coletta
Course: Muirfield Village GC.
Yardage: 7,392.
Par: 72.
Purse: $8.7 million (First prize: $1,566,000).
TV: Thursday-Friday, 2:30-6:30 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 12:30-2:30 p.m. (Golf Channel); 3-6 p.m. (CBS Sports).
Defending champion: William McGirt.
Last week: Kevin Kisner won the Dean & DeLuca Invitational at Colonial.
FedEx Cup leader: Dustin Johnson.
Of Note: Rory McIlroy withdrew last week to rest his ailing ribs and focus on the U.S. Open.
Dustin Johnson (1), William McGirt (60), Phil Mickelson (40): Johnson, the FedExCup leader, is playing alongside the defending champion (McGirt) and a World Golf Hall of Famer (Mickelson). Johnson finished third at last year’s Memorial, one shot out of the playoff won by McGirt. Tee time: 8:37 a.m. (ET) 10th tee.
Si Woo Kim (22), Jason Day (43), Adam Scott (65): These three will likely be teammates Presidents Cup teammates on the International squad. Day, a Muirfield Village member, leads the International Team standings, while his countryman Scott ranks third. Tee time: 8:37 a.m. (ET) off 10th tee.
(Note: FedExCup ranking in parentheses)
Eight of the world’s top 10 players are scheduled to appear in Jack Nicklaus’ event, including No. 1 Dustin Johnson. Among the other notable names: Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Jason Day and 2014 champion Hideki Matsuyama. Defending champion William McGirt is also in the field.
This week’s winner will receive 500 FedExCup points, as well as a three-year PGA Tour exemption.
TEE TIMES
Thursday (1st tee)
7:20 a.m. – Jamie Lovemark, Zac Blair, C.T. Pan7:31 a.m. – Sean O’Hair, Ricky Barnes, Jason Kokrak
7:42 a.m. – Camilo Villegas, Scott Brown, Anirban Lahiri
7:53 a.m. – Charley Hoffman, Scott Piercy, Alex Cejka
8:04 a.m. – James Hahn, David Lingmerth, Vijay Singh
8:15 a.m. – Matt Every, Webb Simpson, Keegan Bradley
8:26 a.m. – Tony Finau, Steven Bowditch, Steve Stricker
8:37 a.m. – Billy Horschel, Ben Martin, Stewart Cink
8:48 a.m. – Kevin Chappell, Mackenzie Hughes, Luke Donald
8:59 a.m. – Brendon de Jonge, Soren Kjeldsen, Kevin Tway
12:10 p.m. – Kevin Streelman, Lucas Glover, Morgan Hoffmann
12:21 p.m. – Martin Laird Glasgow, Ryo Ishikawa, Harold Varner III
12:32 p.m. – Gary Woodland, Kyle Stanley, Grayson Murray
12:43 p.m. – Brendan Steele, Danny Lee, Retief Goosen
12:54 p.m. – Brian Harman,Fabian Gomez, K.J. Choi
1:05 p.m. – Aaron Baddeley, Jason Dufner, Hunter Mahan
1:16 p.m. – Rickie Fowler, Hideki Matsuyama, Jon Rahm
1:27 p.m. – Si Woo Kim, Jason Day, Adam Scott
1:38 p.m. – Adam Hadwin, Charl Schwartzel, Emiliano Grillo
1:49 p.m. – Peter Uihlein, Ryan Ruffels, Scott Gregory -a
Thursday (10th tee)
7:20 a.m. – David Hearn, Kelly Kraft, Ross Fisher7:31 a.m. – Kyle Reifers, Patrick Rodgers, Byeong Hun An
7:42 a.m. – Daniel Summerhays, Rafa Cabrera Bello, J.J. Spaun
7:53 a.m. – Hudson Swafford, Zach Johnson, Nick Taylor
8:04 a.m. – Marc Leishman, Patrick Reed, Ryan Moore
8:15 a.m. – Bubba Watson, Chris Kirk, J.B. Holmes
8:26 a.m. – Kevin Kisner, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas
8:37 a.m. – Dustin Johnson, William McGirt, Phil Mickelson
8:48 a.m. – Jonas Blixt, D.A. Points, Pat Perez
8:59 a.m. – Ryan Armour, Matthew Griffin, Curtis Luck
12:10 p.m. – Carl Pettersson, Graham DeLaet, Luke List
12:21 p.m. – Patton Kizzire, Patrick Cantlay, Michael Kim
12:32 p.m. – Sung Kang, Ollie Schniederjans, Tommy Fleetwood
12:43 p.m. – Cameron Smith, Rod Pampling, Russell Knox
12:54 p.m. – Brian Stuard, Padraig Harrington, Matt Kuchar
1:05 p.m. – Jim Herman, Vaughn Taylor, Smylie Kaufman
1:16 p.m. – Greg Chalmers, Shane Lowry, Jim Furyk
1:27 p.m. – Billy Hurley III, Brooks Koepka, Bill Haas
1:38 p.m. – Johnson Wagner, Roberto Castro, Bud Cauley
1:49 p.m. – Sam Saunders, Yuta Ikeda, Brett Coletta
The Memorial At A Glance
Site: Dublin, Ohio.Course: Muirfield Village GC.
Yardage: 7,392.
Par: 72.
Purse: $8.7 million (First prize: $1,566,000).
TV: Thursday-Friday, 2:30-6:30 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 12:30-2:30 p.m. (Golf Channel); 3-6 p.m. (CBS Sports).
Defending champion: William McGirt.
Last week: Kevin Kisner won the Dean & DeLuca Invitational at Colonial.
FedEx Cup leader: Dustin Johnson.
Of Note: Rory McIlroy withdrew last week to rest his ailing ribs and focus on the U.S. Open.
Thursday’s Featured Pairings (via PGA Tour.com)
Kevin Kisner (7), Jordan Spieth (5), Justin Thomas (3): This group features three players who will likely team up at this year’s Presidents Cup. Spieth, Thomas and Kisner are Nos. 2-4, respectively, in the U.S. Team standings. The top 10 players in the standings on Sept. 4 will automatically qualify for the team that will play for Captain Steve Stricker at Liberty National Golf Club from Sept. 26 to Oct. 1. Kisner and Spieth finished 1-2 at last week’s DEAN & DELUCA Invitational. Tee time: 8:26 a.m. (ET) off 10th tee.Dustin Johnson (1), William McGirt (60), Phil Mickelson (40): Johnson, the FedExCup leader, is playing alongside the defending champion (McGirt) and a World Golf Hall of Famer (Mickelson). Johnson finished third at last year’s Memorial, one shot out of the playoff won by McGirt. Tee time: 8:37 a.m. (ET) 10th tee.
Friday’s Featured Pairings (via PGA Tour.com)
Rickie Fowler (10), Hideki Matsuyama (2), Jon Rahm (4): Fowler is the eldest member at age 28 — highlight this group. All three players rank in the top 10 of the FedExCup, as well. Matsuyama, a two-time winner this season, ranks second in the standings. He could overtake Johnson for the top spot with a win this week. Rahm ranks fourth in the standings. Tee time: 8:26 a.m. (ET) off 10th tee.Si Woo Kim (22), Jason Day (43), Adam Scott (65): These three will likely be teammates Presidents Cup teammates on the International squad. Day, a Muirfield Village member, leads the International Team standings, while his countryman Scott ranks third. Tee time: 8:37 a.m. (ET) off 10th tee.
(Note: FedExCup ranking in parentheses)
DUI affidavit states Tiger asleep in parked car.
By Golf Channel Digital
According to an incident report, Tiger Woods' 2015 Mercedes had: "fresh damage to the vehicle. Both driver's side tires were flat along with minor damage to both respective rims. There was also minor damage to the front driver's side bumper and rear bumper, and the passenger rear tail light appeared to be out."
Dash cam footage and audio are expected to be released Wednesday afternoon.
Original story:
More records were released Tuesday regarding Tiger Woods’ DUI arrest early Monday.
According to a breath alcohol test affidavit Woods took a breathalyzer test and twice blew a 0.000, first at 4:28 a.m. and again at 4:31 a.m. “The subject was observed for at least twenty-minutes prior to the administration of the breath test to ensure that the subject did not take anything orally and did not regurgitate,” the records said.
The DUI probable cause affidavit produced more in-depth details.
Officer Palladino observed Woods’ car was stopped in the roadway in the right lane, he was alone in the driver’s seat and had his seatbelt fastened. “It should be noted that Woods was asleep at the wheel and had to be woken up. The vehicle was running and brake lights were illuminated as well as the right blinker flashing.”
Jupiter police spokesperson Kristin Rightler told GolfChannel.com senior writer Rex Hoggard that dashcam video from the incident was available and expected to be released Wednesday, including audio from Woods' arrest.
Under the section labeled driver’s statements, it reads: “Woods stated that he was coming from LA California from golfing. Woods stated that he did not know where he was. Woods had changed his story of where he was going and where he was coming from. Woods asked how far from his house he was. It should be noted that Woods was heading southbound away from Hobe Sound. Takes several prescriptions.”
Woods told the officer that he was taking Solarex, Vicodin, Torix and Vioxx, the last of which the officer added a note indicating "not taken this year."
The warning listed by the FDA for hydrocodone painkillers like Vicodin states "may impair the mental and/or physical abilities required for the performance of potentially hazardous tasks such as driving a car or operating machinery; patients should be cautioned accordingly."
Under the walk and turn section, it reads: “Could not maintain starting position. Missed heel to toe each time. Stepped off line several times. Used arms for balance.
Did not return. Explained instructions and again did not maintain starting position, stepped of line, used arms for balance, also stopped walking to steady self.”
Here is a look at part of the DUI probable cause affidavit:
Dash cam footage and audio are expected to be released Wednesday afternoon.
Original story:
More records were released Tuesday regarding Tiger Woods’ DUI arrest early Monday.
According to a breath alcohol test affidavit Woods took a breathalyzer test and twice blew a 0.000, first at 4:28 a.m. and again at 4:31 a.m. “The subject was observed for at least twenty-minutes prior to the administration of the breath test to ensure that the subject did not take anything orally and did not regurgitate,” the records said.
The DUI probable cause affidavit produced more in-depth details.
Officer Palladino observed Woods’ car was stopped in the roadway in the right lane, he was alone in the driver’s seat and had his seatbelt fastened. “It should be noted that Woods was asleep at the wheel and had to be woken up. The vehicle was running and brake lights were illuminated as well as the right blinker flashing.”
Jupiter police spokesperson Kristin Rightler told GolfChannel.com senior writer Rex Hoggard that dashcam video from the incident was available and expected to be released Wednesday, including audio from Woods' arrest.
Under the section labeled driver’s statements, it reads: “Woods stated that he was coming from LA California from golfing. Woods stated that he did not know where he was. Woods had changed his story of where he was going and where he was coming from. Woods asked how far from his house he was. It should be noted that Woods was heading southbound away from Hobe Sound. Takes several prescriptions.”
Woods told the officer that he was taking Solarex, Vicodin, Torix and Vioxx, the last of which the officer added a note indicating "not taken this year."
The warning listed by the FDA for hydrocodone painkillers like Vicodin states "may impair the mental and/or physical abilities required for the performance of potentially hazardous tasks such as driving a car or operating machinery; patients should be cautioned accordingly."
Under the walk and turn section, it reads: “Could not maintain starting position. Missed heel to toe each time. Stepped off line several times. Used arms for balance.
Did not return. Explained instructions and again did not maintain starting position, stepped of line, used arms for balance, also stopped walking to steady self.”
Here is a look at part of the DUI probable cause affidavit:
Nicklaus on Woods' arrest: 'I feel bad for Tiger'.
By Nick Menta
(Photo/Golf Channel Digital)
“Not really,” Nicklaus deadpanned, eliciting laughter, then silence.
It was the first of many questions about Woods posed to Nicklaus on Tuesday, and after a moment, the Golden Bear did indeed comment.
“Obviously, I don’t really know what happened, what went on,” he said. “But I feel bad for Tiger. Tiger is a friend. He’s been great for the game of golf. And I think he needs all our help, and we wish him well.”
Asked again later about Woods’ use of a “mix of medications” at the time of his arrest, Nicklaus again threw up his hands with regard to the specifics but reiterated his sympathy and support.
“I know zero about that,” he said, referencing the pills. “But maybe the operation – what I saw in the press is what you probably reported, that he was out of pain and hadn’t felt that good in years. That’s all I know, until I read yesterday [he had been arrested]. So I don’t know anything about that.
“But I’m a fan of Tiger’s, I’m a friend of Tiger’s, and I feel bad for him. I think that he’s struggling, and I wish him well. I hope he gets out of it, and I hope he plays golf again. He needs a lot of support from a lot of people and I’ll be one of them.”
NASCAR Power Rankings: Martin Truex Jr. takes over at No. 1.
By Nick Bromberg
(Photo/Getty Images)
1. Martin Truex Jr. (LW: 2): The sequel wasn’t as good as the original for Truex at Charlotte. Though in fairness, it was like the Godfather II compared to the original. The bar for success was absurdly high.
A year after leading 392 of 400 laps to win his first Coca-Cola 600, Truex led 233 laps. Though he finished third after he was passed by Kyle Busch on the final lap.
The good news is that coupled with Kyle Larson’s woes, the finish was good enough for Truex to inherit the regular-season points lead for the first time in his career. He’s up four points on Larson and has only finished outside 16th once so far in 12 races.
2. Kyle Busch (LW 8): Busch’s demeanor in his post-race press conference has been well-documented and criticized. Brad Keselowski had this to say, which was followed up by this response by a Toyota executive.
Yeah, Keselowski could have directly tagged Busch in his tweet instead of being passive-aggressive. But racing fans knew who he was talking about and there’s merit to his point.
Professionally, Busch’s conduct is slightly annoying though expected. After he wins, Busch can be a candid and thoughtful interview. If you want to know the details about something, Busch is generally happy to provide when he’s in a good mood.
When he’s not, well, things like what you saw Sunday night/Monday morning happen. Most of us will never understand the competitiveness that it takes to become a champion in a major sport. But while we grapple to figure out the fire that burns in a competitor after a close loss, it’s also OK to expect the competitor to understand that he’s got a job and income that 99.99 percent of the world can only dream of having and at least understand the real-life context of the disappointment.
3. Kevin Harvick (LW: 4): Harvick finished eighth after starting on the pole. He was competitive at the beginning of the race, but led for the final time on lap 106. The rest of the way he had a top-10 car, but one that wasn’t capable of challenging for the lead.
Most hilariously, he was the victim of Fox’s bad statistics during the 100-minute rain delay that halted the race. Fox attempted to show the top 20 in the points standings at the time of the delay and ended up forgetting Harvick, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski. Fox’s NASCAR coverage is struggling mightily this year in the stats department.
4. Brad Keselowski (LW: 1): Keselowski drops three spots after he ran into the back of Chase Elliott 21 laps into the race. The wreck wasn’t Keselowski’s fault, of course. Elliott’s engine blew up — literally — after hitting debris from Jeffrey Earnhardt’s car which had something explode inside of it and litter the exit of turn 4 with debris.
“Somebody broke in front of him and then he ran over what they broke and then he broke, so there were two cars broke in front of me and just oil everywhere,” Keselowski said. “You couldn’t stop and turn. You couldn’t do anything.”
5. Kyle Larson (LW: 3): Larson lost the points lead because he hit the wall during Sunday’s race and ended up 33rd after a tire exploded. It’s the first time all season he hasn’t finished on the lead lap. He’s now four points behind Truex.
“I just hate it that I made a mistake there in Turn 3 and got in the wall,” Larson said. “I was not even running hard up there. I just got loose and then I hit it and it ruined our day”.
He should be pretty good Sunday at Dover. He finished second to Matt Kenseth a year ago at the concrete oval.
6. Jimmie Johnson (LW: 7): Here’s another guy who’s pretty good at Dover. Johnson was in position for his third win of the season with two laps to go but run out of gas, handing the lead over to Austin Dillon.
It was a good gamble by Johnson. A win would make him the winningest driver in the Cup Series this season and add five points to his tally at the start of the playoffs. Had he pitted, he probably would have finished between 5th and 10th. He ultimately finished 17th. That’s not a huge risk.
7. Jamie McMurray (LW: 6): McMurray had to work his way through the field a couple of times during Sunday’s race. After getting up front the first time McMurray had to make an unscheduled pit stop for a flat tire. He ended up passing more cars and finished 12th.
8. Austin Dillon (LW: NR): Sunday’s winner is 21st in the points standings — it’s not that often you see a winner from outside the top 20 in the standings. He’s also the fourth driver since 2000 to get his first Cup Series win in the 600 joining Matt Kenseth, Casey Mears and David Reutimann. Dillon’s hoping that his career is much more like Kenseth’s than it is like Mears’ or Reutimann’s. Though Reutimann won a race the following season.
9. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (LW: 5): Stenhouse’s consistency continues. He was an unspectacular 15th Sunday but he’s 13th in the points standings, ahead of race-winners Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman and Dillon and also ahead of Matt Kenseth and teammate Trevor Bayne.
10. Denny Hamlin (LW: NR): Hamlin is two spots ahead of Stenhouse in 11th. Crazily, he ranks sixth among drivers who haven’t gotten wins in the first 12 races of the season. Nine drivers have already won, so if the pace keeps up — it probably won’t — and Hamlin stays winless, he’s on the edge of making the playoffs.
We’ll be very surprised if he misses out.
11. Clint Bowyer (LW: 9): Bowyer is 11 spots ahead of Hamlin. He continues to be haunted by his lack of stage points. After finishing eighth in the second stage Sunday night he has 31 stage points — 15 less than Erik Jones, a driver who is nine spots behind Bowyer in the standings.
12. Joey Logano (LW: 10): Logano just didn’t have much speed all weekend. He finished 21st and was passed by Bowyer in the standings.
Lucky Dog: Matt Kenseth’s fourth-place finish is just his third top-10 finish of the season.
The DNF: Chase Elliott, for obvious reasons.
Dropped Out: Ryan Blaney, Elliott
Bump & Run: Will there be 16 different winners before the playoffs?
By NBC Sports
By NBC Sports
(Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
Nate Ryan, Dustin Long and Daniel McFadin tackle this weekend’s questions:
Austin Dillon became the eighth driver to be eligible for the playoffs with a win. With more than half the regular season to go and 13 of the top 20 drivers in points not yet qualified for the playoffs with a victory, will there be 16 different winners before the playoffs begin?
Nate Ryan: No. I see the possibility of a maximum seven more drivers earning wins – Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney and Matt Kenseth. And I’m not convinced all seven of those will win in the next 14 races.
Dustin Long: No. I still think at least two drivers will make the playoffs on points. Some drivers who have wins will grab more in the next 14 races.
Daniel McFadin: We’re bound to get at least two new multi-race winners – Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch – and one Chris Buescher-like freak winner. But I don’t think we’ll get to 16 separate winners.
Name one driver outside the top 16 in points not yet qualified for the playoffs via a win you think could make the playoffs.
Nate Ryan: Erik Jones. If he can match teammate Martin Truex Jr.’s speed and build some consistency, he can make it on points. Dale Earnhardt Jr. can make it by winning Daytona, of course, but I’m not sure there are many other avenues for him reaching the playoffs in his last season.
Dustin Long: Kasey Kahne will surprise some and pull out a win to earn a playoff spot.
Daniel McFadin: Driver: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Reason: Daytona.
If you were given the choice of taking Jimmie Johnson or the field to win at Dover this weekend, which would you take?
Nate Ryan: The field. It’s been two years since the last top five at Dover for Johnson, and he hasn’t finished on the lead lap there since his May 31, 2015 win, either. He probably hasn’t lost his edge, but the dominance has dissipated.
Dustin Long: The field. Could see Martin Truex Jr. winning.
Daniel McFadin: I’ll take the field because answering with Jimmie Johnson is frankly boring.
NASCAR’s entry lists for Dover International Speedway.
By Daniel McFadin
By Daniel McFadin
(Photo/nbcsports.com/yahoosports)
For the first time since February, all three of NASCAR’s national series will be at the same track this weekend. The Cup, Xfinity and Truck Series travel to Dover, Delaware, to race at the “Monster Mile.”
The Cup Series competes in the AAA 400 Drive for Autism, Xfinity teams gear up for the OneMain Financial 200 and the Truck Series starts things with off with the Bar Harbor 200.
Here are the preliminary entry lists for each race.
Cup Series – AAA 400
There are 39 cars on the entry list for this race.
The only blank driver entry is on the No. 43 Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports. The team has not announced who will drive in the place of the injured Aric Almirola.
Regan Smith drove the No. 43 in the All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600.
Ross Chastain, a Xfinity Series regular, will make his Cup Series debut driving the No. 15 Chevrolet for Premium Motorsports.
Ryan Sieg will also make his Cup debut driving the No. 83 for BK Racing.
In this race last year, Matt Kenseth won after a battle with Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott in the closing laps. Last fall, Martin Truex Jr. led 187 laps on the way to winning the Dover playoff race. It was his third win in six races.
Xfinity – OneMain Financial 200
There is a full field of 40 cars entered into the race, including six Cup drivers: Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson and Erik Jones.
The only driver not announced is for the No. 93 Chevrolet owned by RSS Racing.
Last year, Erik Jones won this race after leading 76 laps in the main event. Daniel Suarez won the fall race.
Truck Series – Bar Harbor 200
There are 32 Trucks on the entry list. None will be driven by Cup regulars.
Todd Gilliland is entered into his first career Truck race driving the No. 46 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Harrison Burton will make his second Truck start of the season in the No. 51 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
There are four truck without drivers attached: the No. 97 Toyota, the No. 63 Chevrolet, the No. 36 Chevrolet and the No. 12 Chevrolet.
Matt Crafton won this race last year for his first win at the “Monster Mile.”
SOCCER: Eight Fire players included on MLS All-Star voting ballot.
By Dan Santaromita
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
As host of the 2017 MLS All-Star Game and currently sporting the second-best record in Major League Soccer, the Chicago Fire will be expected to land at least a couple players in the game.
The league announced the list of players eligible for voting for the All-Star Game, which will take place at Soldier Field on Aug. 2, on Tuesday. Each team has eight players on the ballot with at least one goalkeeper, defender, midfielder and forward included in those eight players. Media members were selected to vote to determine which players from each team would be included on the ballot.
Forward Nemanja Nikolic leads MLS in goals and was the lone forward from the Fire included. Midfielders Bastian Schweinsteiger, Dax McCarty and David Accam could also do well in voting.
Brandon Vincent was the Fire's lone All-Star last year. Johan Kappelhof joins him as defenders from the Fire on the ballot.
Midfielder Juninho and goalkeeper Jorge Bava were also included.
Voting opens June 3 on MLSsoccer.com. The full list of 176 players is listed here.
The MLS All-Star roster will include 24 players, 10 of which will come from fan balloting.
Another forward will be selected via a contest through scoring goals with a selection of players on FIFA 17. Fire coach Veljko Paunovic, who will coach the MLS All-Stars, will select 11 more players and commissioner Don Garber will add two players to the roster.
Manchester United, Real Madrid rated as joint-top valuable clubs in Europe.
By Nicholas Mendola
(Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)
Manchester United and Real Madrid have been rated as dead even on KPMG’s annual study of the most valuable soccer clubs in the world.
Both hit the table at approximately $3.25 billion, about $100 million more than Barcelona.
The report rates Manchester as the most valuable club city in the world, with United and City placing ahead of three London clubs (Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs) and third place Real and Atletico Madrid.
Barca is enough to make its city the next on the list, followed by Munich. Liverpool is the sixth-richest football city in the world thanks to Liverpool and Everton, with Turin, Milan, Paris, and Dortmund next.
How does a team qualify for the list? It has to be one of the Top 50 performing teams in Europe by UEFA coefficient, and also one of the Top 50 by operating revenue. The only exception was made for clubs that have 30 million or more Facebook fans.
Here’s the whole report.
USMNT eyeing the table as it kicks off training camp.
Associated Press
Goalkeeper Tim Howard‘s uniform was filled with grass stains after the first day of training camp.
And this was considered a light workout.
“Just getting everybody back together, getting a sweat,” Howard said Monday after the U.S. squad went through a roughly 60-minute workout. “Day by day, we’re just trying to add on to the pile, put some concepts in and get some understanding between players.”
What awaits the squad in resumption of the final round of World Cup qualifying is certainly a gantlet. They have a game against Trinidad and Tobago on June 8 in Commerce City and then at Mexico three days later.
There’s little margin for error, with the U.S. currently in fourth place in the six-team standings. They have three home and three away matches remaining. The top three teams qualify, with the fourth-place squad going to a playoff against Asia’s No. 5 nation.
“We need to keep climbing that table. We feel like this is a good opportunity to do it,” said Howard, now with the Colorado Rapids and who will feel right at home with the Trinidad game on his turf at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. “One game, that’s as far as you can look. You can’t look to next week or the week after or two months from now.”
For now, Howard will be coach Bruce Arena’s goalkeeper over Brad Guzan, Ethan Horvath and Nick Rimando, who all were invited to camp. But it’s an ongoing evaluation.
“We have good goalkeepers here. That’s the least of my worries, to be honest,” Arena said.
Given the short amount of time between games, Arena fully plans on using more players than usual. One particular competition to watch will be at right back between Timmy Chandler and DeAndre Yedlin.
“I have a close eye on everything,” Arena said. “We have a bunch of good players here. … We’re watching everybody and thinking about how we can best utilize everyone.”
The roster features a solid blend of youth and experience. Leading the youngsters is Christian Pulisic, the 18-year-old Borussia Dortmund midfielder who last weekend became the youngest American to win a club medal in Europe.
On the veteran side are players such as Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore, DaMarcus Beasley, Michael Bradley and Howard, all of whom have more than 30 World Cup qualifying appearances.
“We’re past the experimentation phase. These are all guys who the manager believes in whole-heartedly,” Howard said. “They’re not here for anything other than to play minutes, play important minutes.”
Arena couldn’t agree more.
“This is a nice group we have here. Hopefully, we can find the right balance in the team, putting them in the right position to complement them both individually and collectively,” Arena said. “If we can accomplish that, there’s no reason to believe we can’t be successful in these two games.”
Joining the camp in Colorado are a few players who weren’t with the squad in March. Guzan, Chandler, Fabian Johnson, Bobby Wood and Yedlin are all on the field. Guzan didn’t participate because his wife was expecting their second child, while the others were dealing with injuries, illnesses and yellow-card suspension.
Now, it’s a matter of getting their timing down – and accustomed to the altitude.
“There’s no reason to make it an excuse,” midfielder Paul Arriola said. “Just doing the best we can to acclimate to it.”
Arena’s squad will get things rolling in a friendly against Venezuela in Sandy, Utah, on Saturday.
“That’s a good game for us,” Arena said. “It gives us a little bit of exercise at lower altitude, which isn’t perfect for what we need to do to get ready here and Mexico City, but it’s a start. Think it will be good to give a chance to 16 players and build from there – get us ready for Trinidad and Mexico.”
NCAAFB: Nick Saban: 'I've never been in favor of free agency' in the SEC.
Both hit the table at approximately $3.25 billion, about $100 million more than Barcelona.
The report rates Manchester as the most valuable club city in the world, with United and City placing ahead of three London clubs (Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs) and third place Real and Atletico Madrid.
Barca is enough to make its city the next on the list, followed by Munich. Liverpool is the sixth-richest football city in the world thanks to Liverpool and Everton, with Turin, Milan, Paris, and Dortmund next.
How does a team qualify for the list? It has to be one of the Top 50 performing teams in Europe by UEFA coefficient, and also one of the Top 50 by operating revenue. The only exception was made for clubs that have 30 million or more Facebook fans.
Here’s the whole report.
USMNT eyeing the table as it kicks off training camp.
Associated Press
(Photo/Getty Images)
Goalkeeper Tim Howard‘s uniform was filled with grass stains after the first day of training camp.
And this was considered a light workout.
“Just getting everybody back together, getting a sweat,” Howard said Monday after the U.S. squad went through a roughly 60-minute workout. “Day by day, we’re just trying to add on to the pile, put some concepts in and get some understanding between players.”
What awaits the squad in resumption of the final round of World Cup qualifying is certainly a gantlet. They have a game against Trinidad and Tobago on June 8 in Commerce City and then at Mexico three days later.
There’s little margin for error, with the U.S. currently in fourth place in the six-team standings. They have three home and three away matches remaining. The top three teams qualify, with the fourth-place squad going to a playoff against Asia’s No. 5 nation.
“We need to keep climbing that table. We feel like this is a good opportunity to do it,” said Howard, now with the Colorado Rapids and who will feel right at home with the Trinidad game on his turf at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. “One game, that’s as far as you can look. You can’t look to next week or the week after or two months from now.”
For now, Howard will be coach Bruce Arena’s goalkeeper over Brad Guzan, Ethan Horvath and Nick Rimando, who all were invited to camp. But it’s an ongoing evaluation.
“We have good goalkeepers here. That’s the least of my worries, to be honest,” Arena said.
Given the short amount of time between games, Arena fully plans on using more players than usual. One particular competition to watch will be at right back between Timmy Chandler and DeAndre Yedlin.
“I have a close eye on everything,” Arena said. “We have a bunch of good players here. … We’re watching everybody and thinking about how we can best utilize everyone.”
The roster features a solid blend of youth and experience. Leading the youngsters is Christian Pulisic, the 18-year-old Borussia Dortmund midfielder who last weekend became the youngest American to win a club medal in Europe.
On the veteran side are players such as Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore, DaMarcus Beasley, Michael Bradley and Howard, all of whom have more than 30 World Cup qualifying appearances.
“We’re past the experimentation phase. These are all guys who the manager believes in whole-heartedly,” Howard said. “They’re not here for anything other than to play minutes, play important minutes.”
Arena couldn’t agree more.
“This is a nice group we have here. Hopefully, we can find the right balance in the team, putting them in the right position to complement them both individually and collectively,” Arena said. “If we can accomplish that, there’s no reason to believe we can’t be successful in these two games.”
Joining the camp in Colorado are a few players who weren’t with the squad in March. Guzan, Chandler, Fabian Johnson, Bobby Wood and Yedlin are all on the field. Guzan didn’t participate because his wife was expecting their second child, while the others were dealing with injuries, illnesses and yellow-card suspension.
Now, it’s a matter of getting their timing down – and accustomed to the altitude.
“There’s no reason to make it an excuse,” midfielder Paul Arriola said. “Just doing the best we can to acclimate to it.”
Arena’s squad will get things rolling in a friendly against Venezuela in Sandy, Utah, on Saturday.
“That’s a good game for us,” Arena said. “It gives us a little bit of exercise at lower altitude, which isn’t perfect for what we need to do to get ready here and Mexico City, but it’s a start. Think it will be good to give a chance to 16 players and build from there – get us ready for Trinidad and Mexico.”
NCAAFB: Nick Saban: 'I've never been in favor of free agency' in the SEC.
By Nick Bromberg
Alabama initially didn’t grant Maurice Smith a grad transfer waiver in 2016. (Photo/Getty)
As graduate transfer rules are set to be the dominant topic of this week’s SEC spring meetings, Alabama coach Nick Saban is staying consistent regarding his feelings for graduate transfers within the SEC.
Alabama reluctantly allowed defensive back Maurice Smith to follow former defensive coordinator Kirby Smart to Georgia as a graduate transfer in 2016 and Saban said during a brief media availability Tuesday that he wasn’t a fan of “free agency” within the SEC.
“What is the intent of the rule to start with?” Saban rhetorically asked. “I think the intent of the rule to start with was based on the fact that somebody was changing schools for academic reasons. That was the intent of the rule to start with — that was the way I understood it. And that was why we allowed people to transfer to other places. So now that doesn’t matter. So that’s not the intent of the rule anymore.
“I’ve never been in favor of free agency in our league. I don’t think that’s a good thing. I wasn’t for it last year, I don’t think I’ll ever be for it. Why should guys leave your team and go play for somebody else and then you have to play against them? I don’t think that’s fair.”
Smith’s mom said last summer that Saban told the family that he felt not transferring was in Smith’s best interest before getting up and walking out of the meeting.
While Smith departed Alabama, the school had a prominent grad transfer on offense for 2016. Former Bowling Green wide receiver Gehrig Dieter came to the Tide as a grad transfer and had 15 catches for 214 yards and four touchdowns in 2016.
Smith’s saga was the grad transfer angle last summer. This summer, it’s the rule that governs graduate transfers from other conferences. Florida is currently restricted from taking graduate transfers by a rule implemented after former Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli played for Ole Miss because previous graduate transfers didn’t fulfill their academic responsibilities.
If the rule is changed, Florida is reportedly likely to get the services of former Notre Dame quarterback Malik Zaire. Tuesday, when Florida coach Jim McElwain was asked if he was lobbying to change the rule, he said “if it happens, it happens and we’ll all move forward.”
“I probably will say like I do with all the rules,” McElwain said when asked what he would say in the discussion about the rule change. “If we have rules in the Southeastern Conference that are different than the other conferences than we’re playing against and competing against, I don’t know what we’re trying to prove there I guess, maybe.”
Ex-Illini football player who claimed abuse settles for $250,000.
By John Taylor
(Photo/Getty Images)
Simon Cvijanović played a rather sizable role in Tim Beckman losing his job at Illinois. A couple of years later, the former Fighting Illini football player has cashed in for his troubles.
As posted to social media, the former offensive lineman and the university have reached an agreement that resolves “all potential claims arising from Cvijanović’s participation in the Illinois football program.” In exchange for the resolution, Cvijanović will receive a one-time payment of $250,000.
Said payment will “compensate [Cvijanović] for injuries and medical expenses he sustained during his time as a football player at Illinois.”
In a thermonuclear Twitter attack in May of 2015, Cvijanović accused Beckman of, among other things, misuse and abuse of power as well as attacking a former teammate of Cvijanović’s. After initial support from the athletic department hierarchy, Beckman was fired a week before the 2015 season opener.
Not long after it was reported in August of 2016 that Beckman would serve as a volunteer assistant at North Carolina, Beckman stepped down from that volunteer position amidst a public outcry.
At least in any type of official capacity, Beckman has been out of the sport at this level ever since.
University of Michigan Interim Athletic Director Jim Hackett introduces Jim Harbaugh as the new head coach of the University of Michigan football team at the Junge Family Champions Center on December 30, 2014 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
NCAABKB: ACC's Swofford says NCAA Tournament hurts regular season; evidence says he's wrong.
As posted to social media, the former offensive lineman and the university have reached an agreement that resolves “all potential claims arising from Cvijanović’s participation in the Illinois football program.” In exchange for the resolution, Cvijanović will receive a one-time payment of $250,000.
Said payment will “compensate [Cvijanović] for injuries and medical expenses he sustained during his time as a football player at Illinois.”
In a thermonuclear Twitter attack in May of 2015, Cvijanović accused Beckman of, among other things, misuse and abuse of power as well as attacking a former teammate of Cvijanović’s. After initial support from the athletic department hierarchy, Beckman was fired a week before the 2015 season opener.
Not long after it was reported in August of 2016 that Beckman would serve as a volunteer assistant at North Carolina, Beckman stepped down from that volunteer position amidst a public outcry.
At least in any type of official capacity, Beckman has been out of the sport at this level ever since.
Ford's New CEO Already Has a Comeback Story: Saving Michigan Football.
By Jennifer Calfas
By Jennifer Calfas
Jim Hackett is no stranger to turnarounds.
When the new CEO of Ford began his 16-month tenure as interim athletic director at the University of Michigan in 2014, the embattled program was in one of its most tumultuous periods in its history. With a controversial athletic director having just resigned, a losing football team and concerns rising over the safety of student athletes, Michigan athletics were at a tipping point.
But Hackett, a Michigan alum and former football player under coach Bo Schembechler, turned it around with a key hire and a brand overhaul — and top school officials and student leaders credited him with revitalizing the spirit of Michigan athletics and inspiring its fans. Appointed as President and CEO of Ford Motors last week, Hackett now faces another challenge in revitalization, this time in returning one of America’s most beloved car brands back to a leading force in the auto industry.
So how will he do it? Hackett said his stint as Michigan’s athletic director will help inform his new role.
“Leadership principles apply in both cases,” Hackett told MONEY in an email about his experience at Michigan and now at Ford. “People want to be with people who have a vision of being the best, upholding the institution or enterprise values and are humble enough to get better.”
While Hackett’s tenure at Ford has been brief, his ability to climb the ladder there has been anything but. He started as a board member back in 2013 and was elevated to executive chairman of Ford Smart Mobility LLC last March. Hackett’s appointment as CEO comes during a volatile time at Ford. Just a week before he assumed his new role, the car giant announced it was eliminating 1,400 jobs. The auto industry is also in the midst of a cultural shift as Silicon Valley gains traction in the market with a push toward autonomous vehicles. For the first time, Tesla’s market valuation surpassed that of both Ford and General Motors in April.
When announcing Hackett’s appointment, Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford, described him as a “a true visionary who brings a unique, human-centered leadership approach to our culture, products and services that will unlock the potential of our people and our business.”
And Hackett displayed those same qualities while at Michigan when he stepped in to fill the coveted role vacated after Dave Brandon, now the CEO of Toys ‘R’ Us and a former CEO of Domino’s Pizza, resigned.
“Just his perspective on problem solving really seems applicable [for all of his work], from furniture manufacturing and workplace design to running an athletic department to running an enormous automobile manufacturer,” University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel said in an interview with MONEY.
Brandon’s tenure was plagued with problems including fan unrest over rising ticket prices and a high-profile sexual assault case involving a football player. There were also questions about athlete safety after a Michigan quarterback was kept in a 2014 game after he suffered a concussion.
When Hackett arrived, he said the sports program was focused on television revenue and “an arms race for football excellence.”
“Michigan lost sight of how to invest in this in a future way that supported the values of the football program and its university,” he said. “By restoring its vitality, we were able to prove that not only did football improve, but the morale at the whole university improved.”
Hackett worked under intense media scrutiny, quickly ousting football coach Brady Hoke and replacing him with fan-favorite Jim Harbaugh — the first of several decisions that cemented his legacy at the university. An NFL coach, former Michigan quarterback and entertaining character, Harbaugh, like Hackett, has a knack for turning around fallen and suffering programs quickly.
The Harbaugh hire was all thanks to Hackett, Schlissel said.
“As you might imagine, we had back-up candidates in mind, but it was the personal relationship that Jim Hackett developed with Harbaugh that led to our ability to recruit the best coach possible that was available to us,” Schlissel said.
With the noteworthy hire, football ticket sales rebounded. Hackett also extended the contract of beloved basketball coach John Beilein — who this year led his team to a surprising Big 10 victory — and secured an 11-year contract with Nike for Michigan apparel.
Schlissel, who even as Hackett’s boss sometimes felt like one of his mentees, said Hackett’s contract negotiations were one of his greatest accomplishments at Michigan. “He was masterful at playing these companies off of one another and getting for the university at that time the best contact in college athletics,” Schlissel said.
Hackett also connected with students and fans in a way his predecessor didn’t. After Michigan’s stunning defeat at the hands of the Michigan State Spartans in 2014, Hackett penned a letter to fans and students amid threats against Michigan players, asking “our community not to lose this game twice by condoning thoughtless comments.”
“He really had a great sense of the moment and stepped up with a wonderful message — and that’s what a lot of corporate leadership is about and what a leader needs,” Schlissel said.
Now Hackett faces a challenge on a national scale at Ford, where he faces big expectations to serve as a visionary leader ready to change Ford from a less of a traditional car company to one that’s more flexible and forward-thinking.
“He seems like the right man at the right place at the right time,” Schlissel said.
By Mike DeCourcy
(Photo/The Sporting News)
The 1992-93 college basketball season was what fans — and particularly administrators — might call the game’s “good old days.” Michigan had the Fab Five. Kentucky had Jamal Mashburn. Dean Smith, Rick Pitino, Roy Williams and Steve Fisher all coached in the Final Four.
The game was so much bigger then, right? More fans going to games, more people caring about college hoops, more attention from the media …
If only any of this was true.
On Tuesday, in an interview with Louisville television station WDRB, ACC commissioner John Swofford said the popularity of the NCAA Tournament has damaged interest in the college basketball regular season in certain areas of the nation.
He added that his conference has been hurt less than others. What Swofford said isn’t an uncommon position. The only problem with it is it’s not supported by the facts.
Go back to ‘93, when men’s college basketball was the favorite sport of eight percent of the American population, according to the Harris Poll. In that season, 21,281,917 people attended Division I basketball games. In 2016, with only four percent of the population claiming college hoops as their favorite sport, 24,787,180 attended Division I games.
Wait, that’s an increase in attendance, isn’t it?
OK, so some of that is a product of the growth in the number of Division I teams. But a sport declining in popularity wouldn’t see its attendance rise. If you want to break it down more fairly, though, you’ll still see that regular-season attendance has been fairly firm.
In 1992-93, a total of 12 teams averaged 15,000 fans per game, 29 averaged more than 12,000, 37 averaged more than 10,000 and 58 averaged more than 8,000.
In 2015-16, it was 11 teams at 15,000-plus, 30 schools with more than 12,000, 43 with more than 10,000 and 60 with more than 8,000.
There is no significant problem here.
The reason Swofford’s words matter is that he’s one of the most powerful people in college sports — and also because this contention has been used by others to suggest NCAA basketball should abandon its November-to-April calendar by starting its season later, supposedly to escape the conflict with college football.
Now, what that conflict might be has never been properly explained. No big-time college program is scheduling men’s basketball games for the same date and time as its football games. That’s easy enough to avoid.
There’s no evidence that the obvious rising popularity of big-time college football is eating into men's hoops attendance. Even the expansion — some could argue dilution — of the major conferences has not led to diminished attendance. In 1993, the Big Ten averaged 12,728 fans a game to lead all conferences. The SEC averaged 10,626, and the ACC was at 10,548. In 2016, the Big Ten was at 12,555, the SEC was at 11,144 and the ACC drew 11,131.
Again, where is the problem here? College basketball has an incredibly popular postseason. It's much more popular than its regular season; that's true, though, for the NBA, NFL and NHL. The NCAA Tournament is not a curse. It's part of what fuels the significant interest in the regular season that provably does exist.
Television ratings cannot be presented as an issue, because so many more games are televised now, with so much more competition for viewership, that it’s not even an apples-to-oranges comparison. It’s apples-to-aardvarks. TV is paying the big conferences more than ever, though; the biggest conferences are making nearly double what they did just at the start of the decade.
Those who argue for the shifted schedule ignore that the NCAA Tournament as positioned in March fills a hole in the television calendar that would not be available if college hoops chose to compete with the NFL and NBA playoffs and the baseball regular season in later April or May. They ignore that the Tournament is worth around $1 billion annually just for those three weeks of March Madness.
Would altering that fix whatever problems exist in college basketball? No, because one would have to find a problem first.
Ortiz brings winning touch to Lookin At Lee.
By David Grening
Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. said it wasn’t easy to sit out the first two legs of this year’s Triple Crown. He had opportunities to ride the Kentucky Derby but turned them down to ride in New York that day and won two stakes. He did not have the opportunity to ride the Preakness, even though he had ridden Cloud Computing, the Preakness winner, in his previous start.
“It was a little hard; you want to be in those races,” Ortiz said Monday at Belmont Park. “You never know what’s going to happen. Any horse can win [the Derby], but at the end of day, we made the right decision.”
Ortiz will be back in the Triple Crown picture in the 149th Belmont Stakes when he rides Lookin At Lee, the Kentucky Derby runner-up, in the “Test of the Champion.”
The last time Ortiz rode in a Triple Crown race, he won last year’s Belmont aboard Creator, giving the Steve Asmussen-trained runner a sensational ride and catching Destin in the final jump. Ortiz picked up the mount on Creator after Asmussen opted to go with a locally based jockey rather than sticking with Ricardo Santana Jr., who had ridden him in the Kentucky Derby.
Ortiz is once again the benefactor of that thinking as Asmussen, the trainer of Lookin At Lee, has tabbed Ortiz to replace Corey Lanerie, who rode the horse in the Kentucky Derby and to a fourth-place finish in the Preakness.
“I’m so excited. I can’t wait to ride in the Belmont,” Ortiz said. “I watched the Derby and the Preakness. He’s an honest horse. He ran good both times, so hopefully he repeats and stays at the same level. Hopefully, we can do a good job with him, maybe improve. Who knows?”
Lookin At Lee has a running style similar to that of Creator, who was 10th early on in a 13-horse Belmont Stakes field before advancing along the inside down the backside, splitting horses in the stretch, and catching Destin at the wire.
A large field – possibly as many as 14 horses– is expected for this year’s Belmont. There figures to be speed, and Ortiz knows one thing about Lookin At Lee.
“He always comes running,” he said.
Lookin At Lee was originally scheduled to breeze at Belmont Park on Monday, but that workout was scrapped due to the wet tracks from morning rain. Asmussen, via text, said Lookin At Lee will now have just one workout leading up to the Belmont, presumably next Monday.
2017 Belmont Stakes Odds
By VI News
2017 Belmont Stakes takes place on June 10th from Belmont Park in New York.
The final leg of the Triple Crown is lacking some luster as Preakness Stakes winner Cloud Computing and Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming are not running.
The game was so much bigger then, right? More fans going to games, more people caring about college hoops, more attention from the media …
On Tuesday, in an interview with Louisville television station WDRB, ACC commissioner John Swofford said the popularity of the NCAA Tournament has damaged interest in the college basketball regular season in certain areas of the nation.
He added that his conference has been hurt less than others. What Swofford said isn’t an uncommon position. The only problem with it is it’s not supported by the facts.
Go back to ‘93, when men’s college basketball was the favorite sport of eight percent of the American population, according to the Harris Poll. In that season, 21,281,917 people attended Division I basketball games. In 2016, with only four percent of the population claiming college hoops as their favorite sport, 24,787,180 attended Division I games.
Wait, that’s an increase in attendance, isn’t it?
OK, so some of that is a product of the growth in the number of Division I teams. But a sport declining in popularity wouldn’t see its attendance rise. If you want to break it down more fairly, though, you’ll still see that regular-season attendance has been fairly firm.
In 1992-93, a total of 12 teams averaged 15,000 fans per game, 29 averaged more than 12,000, 37 averaged more than 10,000 and 58 averaged more than 8,000.
In 2015-16, it was 11 teams at 15,000-plus, 30 schools with more than 12,000, 43 with more than 10,000 and 60 with more than 8,000.
There is no significant problem here.
The reason Swofford’s words matter is that he’s one of the most powerful people in college sports — and also because this contention has been used by others to suggest NCAA basketball should abandon its November-to-April calendar by starting its season later, supposedly to escape the conflict with college football.
Now, what that conflict might be has never been properly explained. No big-time college program is scheduling men’s basketball games for the same date and time as its football games. That’s easy enough to avoid.
There’s no evidence that the obvious rising popularity of big-time college football is eating into men's hoops attendance. Even the expansion — some could argue dilution — of the major conferences has not led to diminished attendance. In 1993, the Big Ten averaged 12,728 fans a game to lead all conferences. The SEC averaged 10,626, and the ACC was at 10,548. In 2016, the Big Ten was at 12,555, the SEC was at 11,144 and the ACC drew 11,131.
Again, where is the problem here? College basketball has an incredibly popular postseason. It's much more popular than its regular season; that's true, though, for the NBA, NFL and NHL. The NCAA Tournament is not a curse. It's part of what fuels the significant interest in the regular season that provably does exist.
Television ratings cannot be presented as an issue, because so many more games are televised now, with so much more competition for viewership, that it’s not even an apples-to-oranges comparison. It’s apples-to-aardvarks. TV is paying the big conferences more than ever, though; the biggest conferences are making nearly double what they did just at the start of the decade.
Those who argue for the shifted schedule ignore that the NCAA Tournament as positioned in March fills a hole in the television calendar that would not be available if college hoops chose to compete with the NFL and NBA playoffs and the baseball regular season in later April or May. They ignore that the Tournament is worth around $1 billion annually just for those three weeks of March Madness.
Would altering that fix whatever problems exist in college basketball? No, because one would have to find a problem first.
Ortiz brings winning touch to Lookin At Lee.
By David Grening
Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. said it wasn’t easy to sit out the first two legs of this year’s Triple Crown. He had opportunities to ride the Kentucky Derby but turned them down to ride in New York that day and won two stakes. He did not have the opportunity to ride the Preakness, even though he had ridden Cloud Computing, the Preakness winner, in his previous start.
“It was a little hard; you want to be in those races,” Ortiz said Monday at Belmont Park. “You never know what’s going to happen. Any horse can win [the Derby], but at the end of day, we made the right decision.”
Ortiz will be back in the Triple Crown picture in the 149th Belmont Stakes when he rides Lookin At Lee, the Kentucky Derby runner-up, in the “Test of the Champion.”
The last time Ortiz rode in a Triple Crown race, he won last year’s Belmont aboard Creator, giving the Steve Asmussen-trained runner a sensational ride and catching Destin in the final jump. Ortiz picked up the mount on Creator after Asmussen opted to go with a locally based jockey rather than sticking with Ricardo Santana Jr., who had ridden him in the Kentucky Derby.
Ortiz is once again the benefactor of that thinking as Asmussen, the trainer of Lookin At Lee, has tabbed Ortiz to replace Corey Lanerie, who rode the horse in the Kentucky Derby and to a fourth-place finish in the Preakness.
“I’m so excited. I can’t wait to ride in the Belmont,” Ortiz said. “I watched the Derby and the Preakness. He’s an honest horse. He ran good both times, so hopefully he repeats and stays at the same level. Hopefully, we can do a good job with him, maybe improve. Who knows?”
Lookin At Lee has a running style similar to that of Creator, who was 10th early on in a 13-horse Belmont Stakes field before advancing along the inside down the backside, splitting horses in the stretch, and catching Destin at the wire.
A large field – possibly as many as 14 horses– is expected for this year’s Belmont. There figures to be speed, and Ortiz knows one thing about Lookin At Lee.
“He always comes running,” he said.
Lookin At Lee was originally scheduled to breeze at Belmont Park on Monday, but that workout was scrapped due to the wet tracks from morning rain. Asmussen, via text, said Lookin At Lee will now have just one workout leading up to the Belmont, presumably next Monday.
2017 Belmont Stakes Odds
By VI News
2017 Belmont Stakes takes place on June 10th from Belmont Park in New York.
The final leg of the Triple Crown is lacking some luster as Preakness Stakes winner Cloud Computing and Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming are not running.
Sportsbook.ag has opened early fixed odds for the event, which could have a generous payday with the aforementioned winners skipping.
Odds to win 2017 Belmont Stakes (6/10/17)
Classic Empire 3/1
Epicharis 4/1
Lookin at Lee 6/1
Tapwrit 6/1
Senior Investment 7/1
Irish War Cry 9/1
Conquest Mo Money 10/1
Gormley 15/1
Irap 15/1
Twisted Tom 15/1
J Boys Echo 20/1
Patch 20/1
Master Plan 25/1
Meantime 25/1
Multiplier 25/1
West Coast 25/1
Bonus Points 30/1
Time To Travel 35/1
True Timber 35/1
Hollywood Handsome 40/1
Note: Odds Subject to Change - Updated 5.30.17
Churchill Downs moves online wagering operations to Kentucky.
(Photo/Getty Images)
The parent company of Churchill Downs racetrack, home of the Kentucky Derby, has moved its online wagering operations from Silicon Valley to Kentucky.
A decade ago, when Churchill Downs Inc. was building its TwinSpires online wagering business, the operations were based in California to tap into that region’s high-tech prowess.
Company CEO Bill Carstanjen said Tuesday that Churchill Downs is confident it can fill those high-tech skills in its hometown of Louisville.
Churchill says that in 2016, $1.1 billion was wagered through TwinSpires, amounting to 10 percent of total betting on U.S. horse races.
TwinSpires, which also has operations in Lexington, Kentucky, employs more than 200 people. TwinSpires plans to add 25 more Louisville employees. Churchill is investing $2.2 million to expand its Louisville offices to house the TwinSpires headquarters.
A decade ago, when Churchill Downs Inc. was building its TwinSpires online wagering business, the operations were based in California to tap into that region’s high-tech prowess.
Company CEO Bill Carstanjen said Tuesday that Churchill Downs is confident it can fill those high-tech skills in its hometown of Louisville.
Churchill says that in 2016, $1.1 billion was wagered through TwinSpires, amounting to 10 percent of total betting on U.S. horse races.
TwinSpires, which also has operations in Lexington, Kentucky, employs more than 200 people. TwinSpires plans to add 25 more Louisville employees. Churchill is investing $2.2 million to expand its Louisville offices to house the TwinSpires headquarters.
On This Date in Sports History: Today is Wednesday, May 24, 2017.
Memoriesofhistory.com
1879 - New York's Madison Square Garden opened.
1880 - The first U.S. national bicycle society was formed in Newport, RI. It was known as the League of American Wheelman.
1921 - Suffy McInnis began an errorless streak of 1,700 chances.
1927 - Johnny Neun (Detroit Tigers) made an unassisted triple play.
1937 - The Brooklyn Dodgers ended Carl Hubbell's (New York Giants) 24-game winning streak.
1880 - The first U.S. national bicycle society was formed in Newport, RI. It was known as the League of American Wheelman.
1921 - Suffy McInnis began an errorless streak of 1,700 chances.
1927 - Johnny Neun (Detroit Tigers) made an unassisted triple play.
1937 - The Brooklyn Dodgers ended Carl Hubbell's (New York Giants) 24-game winning streak.
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