By Roger Wallenstein

The hiring of managers can be lumped together with closers, set-up men, five- and six-man rotations, and defensive shifts when it comes to ways in which the game of baseball has changed the past few decades. Robin Ventura is a prime example.
Ventura is just one of a number of skippers – St. Louis’s Mike Matheny, Colorado’s Walt Weis, Detroit’s Brad Ausmus, Cincinnati’s Bryan Price are in the club – who had zero managerial experience prior to being hired to lead their respective teams.
Robin never was so much as a minor league coach before following Ozzie Guillen for the 2012 season. Same with Ausmus, who had been considered for managerial jobs with the Red Sox, Marlins and Astros before being hired to succeed Jim Leyland. Ausmus at least had the auspicious, sought-after position of managing the Israeli national team in the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

Read More

Posted on September 22, 2014

By Mike Luce

1. Florida State.
Beat #24 Clemson 23-17 (OT).
Florida State pulled out a win without star quarterback Jameis Winston. The sophomore served a one-game suspension after reportedly screaming obscenities in the quad. The game gave Winston time to research the next hot internet trend and, presumably, reflect. Or whatever.
(As a further result, Winston is also being accused of ruining a perfectly good (NSFW) internet meme. Winston, along with these Florida State fans, apparently didn’t know that the meme itself was based on an elaborate hoax.)

Read More

Posted on September 22, 2014

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

In Tresty We Trusty. Plus: Brandon Marshall And Gloria Allred Grind Coach Coffman’s Gears, No Tears For Lovie, and California Uber Alles! Cubs And White Sox Under Alles.

Read More

Posted on September 19, 2014

By Thomas Chambers

A calendar year in horse racing can be divided into four quarters:
– Two-year-olds, who may have gotten a taste of the bigs in their limited rookie seasons swing into the Spring shakeout and jump onto the Triple Crown trail. Or not.
– Several survivors go to the Kentucky Derby, and perhaps the Preakness and/or Belmont after that. If “selfie” can make it to Webster’s Dictionary, so can “elusive Triple Crown.”
– The Summer season, where the green and gawky three-year-olds and the experienced horses at four come into their respective own, sometimes crossing paths.
– The Fall season, where trainers look to get their charges ready for the big wrap party, the Breeders’ Cup Championships (Oct. 31 – Nov. 1, Santa Anita Park), where it’s the most serious kind of racing, no goofin’.
The concept isn’t mine. We retain the four-quarters paradigm from the shrewd battlefield tactician Lovie Smith, who was capable of, like Chuck Norris, taking it more than one game at a time.

Read More

Posted on September 19, 2014

By Carl Mohrbacher

The San Francisco Feat
Well golly-gee, we have ourselves a winner!
It came at the expense of Jay Cutler’s sternum, Chris Conte’s shoulder, Jeremiah Ratliff’s brain and Charles Tillman’s career, but a win nonetheless.
Or nonethemore. Whatever you call it when you lose three starters on defense for some amount of time/forever and your quarterback nearly has a pizza-sized hole punched in his chest.
That said, the value of this victory simply can’t be understated; this was a season-saving win for the Chicago Bears and a wildly entertaining 32 minutes of football.

Read More

Posted on September 18, 2014

By Dan O’Shea

I’m beginning to think that there are so many criminals, degenerates and questionable characters in the NFL that perhaps teams should just go with the flow and start drafting guys who are already in prison. All the games could be played within the confines of various “yards,” and at the end of the games, we could all rest assured for another week that pro football stars wouldn’t be running around among the rest of us committing their crimes.
As it is, however, we seem to be getting fresh news every week of another player who has gotten himself into trouble, and will miss games, and in general become a major distraction. For fantasy football gamers, trying to predict who will have a breakout year and who will stay healthy is no longer enough – we need to start studying police reports and rap sheets, too. Our Week 2 review discusses the latest troublemaker, and more:

Read More

Posted on September 16, 2014

By Mike Luce

What did we learn in Week Three? We like to think that, for those who pay attention, some less-than-obvious teams and players surfaced.
1. The Pittsburgh Panthers (3-0, 1-0 ACC).
Pitt leads the ACC Coastal division with one conference win (over Boston College in Week Two) and an overall 3-0 record including a 42-25 foregone conclusion victory over Florida International on Saturday. With games ahead at home against Iowa and Virginia Tech, and on the road at North Carolina and Miami, the Panthers look like a contender to reach the conference championship game.

Read More

Posted on September 15, 2014

By Jim Coffman

Sports fans admire toughness, but more importantly, sports peers revere it.
If a leading athlete can find a way to demonstrate his grit in the right way – if he can show his teammates that he can fight through significant pain and continue to play hard – the sky is the limit.
That enduring truth was on display Sunday night as the Bears pulled out a 28-20 victory and, more importantly, exorcised the demons that had haunted them for almost 30 years. It had been that long, since the Super Bowl championship regular season for goodness sake, since the Monsters had won in the San Francisco area.
And they did so primarily because the highest paid guy on the team, the guy who plays the most high-profile position in any major American sport, took a brutal shot, took a few moments to gather himself, and then got back up and did the job. Before Jay Cutler was speared by 49er Quinton Dial, the Bears trailed 17-0 and were trying to somehow, some way get something on the board before halftime. Afterward, they outscored their foes 28-3.

Read More

Posted on September 15, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

“A season of questionable in-game decisions by first-year Cubs manager Rick Renteria found another spotlight in the seventh inning of Wednesday’s 11-1 loss,” Gordon Wittenmyer reported this week in a sort of first crack of the shield around the Cubs’ hapless rookie skipper.
“That’s when a quick succession of pitching changes in a three-run game, early in the inning, turned into a five-run inning, with Kyuji Fujikawa left in to take the brunt of the beating and face seven batters.
Renteria’s bullpen use – which includes a penchant for frequent changes combined with an apparent paranoia over how much he uses a guy – has drawn criticism and head-shaking throughout the season from within the organization as well as among baseball people outside the team.”
Whoa. And we’re just hearing about this now?

Read More

Posted on September 15, 2014

By Roger Wallenstein

To play or not to play? That was the question last winter when Paul Konerko toiled with his decision about one last year with the White Sox after Rick Hahn opened the door for a swansong season at a reduced salary.
Of course, Paulie chose to return for his 16th season albeit in a defined role where his responsibilities have included mentoring Jose Abreu and other young players along with pinch-hitting, DHing against left-handers and playing an occasional first base.
So how has the plan worked out? It depends on how you look at it.

Read More

Posted on September 15, 2014