The Detroit region of Michigan is losing one of its professional sports teams. The AP is reporting that the Detroit Shock, of the WNBA, will be sold and relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Despite winning three championships the Shock become the latest fringe sport victims of this region.
The 2009 campaign of the Cincinnati Reds was yet another disappointment. Through the early part of the year the Reds looked like contenders, of course that was before losing 34 of 53 games though June and July. Much of the Reds struggles lie with Sophomore Jay Bruce, this Red mega prospect hit just .207 in 2009 and that simply is not good enough. Their star pitchers Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang were merely average. In the end their strong start was not inductive of what people expect from this team, and really what they expect of themselves.
This is a team that has never recovered from the November, 2004 brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills versus the Detroit Pistons and their fans. They recently rid, themselves of Jamaal Tinsley who was the last member of the Pacers involved in one of the most infamous acts in NBA history. Remember it was Tinsley, once most the ruckus had settled down, who grabbed a dustpan and raised it over his head in an attempt to get back into the fight. Kind of fitting that he was the last Pacer involved to be swept out of town.
Don Mattingly was and is one of the most popular New York Yankees in that team's history, he is also one of the most popular baseball players of all time, and now after spending several season under Manger Joe Torre, Mattingly says he is ready to Manage a MLB team of his own. While Mattingly greatness as a player will always be a hot debate among MLB enthusiasts it is very hard for a star player to become a great manager. Far too often in baseball, and really in all sports, once great players become very mediocre coaches and tarnish their legacy. In other sports Wayne Gretzky and Isaiah Thomas immediately come to mind. In baseball players like Alan Trammel have tried to make the transition form great player to manger of their teams with less than stellar results.
The San Diego Padres may be ready to make a little baseball history as they appear willing to give their open General Manager position to a woman. If they do it would be the first team in MLB history to give that position to a female. Kim Ng has reportedly interviewed for the position with Padres CEO Jeff Moorad. The team is looking for a replacement for Kevin Towers who was fired two weeks ago. This isn't an idea so far out of the box since Ng has interviewed for several other GM positions, and as the resume to be a fine baseball GM.
Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James tells a newspaper that a cancer scare earlier this year was "nerve-racking" and had him on edge for a few days.
Cliff Lee dominated the Dodgers, Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth provided the big swings early and the Philadelphia Phillies cruised past Los Angeles 11-0 Sunday night for a 2-1 lead in the NL championship series.
The Toronto Blue Jays are tough to figure out, sometimes the look like a team on paper that should be far better than they are, and then sometimes they look like a team that is far behind their division mates like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Tampa Bay Rays. In April of the past year, the Jays looked like a team that could compete for the American League Wild Card, and then the lost 70 of their final 118 games, and got their General Manager fired. There are rumors that the team does not like their old school manager Cito Gaston, and of course their are the attendance issues.
The normal cycle of a sports team is a team drafts a young core of players, they make strides towards the post season, they have some ups and some downs, and then the general manager blows out the roster and starts all over again. That is how it works for most teams, but the Milwaukee Bucks are not most teams. Last year was a rebuilding year after finishing last in their division in each of their last five seasons, but General Manager John Hammond blew up his roster, shredded some big salaries and drafted some project players. Good news for Bucks fans, they are rebuilding yet again.
How now, without Yao? That is the question for the Houston Rockets and their fans. Of course it is not like Yao Ming has been all that healthy since he came to Houston in the 2002 NBA draft. While he missed just two games in his first three seasons, Yao has been anything but healthy since then. Now, after having undergone bone graft surgery to repair his foot it now appears that Yao will be gone until training camp of next season. That means the Rockets are minus the player that their franchise has been built upon. They also lost Ron Artest in the off season, and the future looks very dark indeed.
