Getting to First Base

The news broke this morning that the Dodgers’ Andruw Jones is reworking his hugely bloated contract so the team can free up funds for players who will bat higher than .158.

Whether Jones did this out of the goodness of his heart, or because Dodgers’ front office people “strongly advised” (aka forced) to, I have no idea. What I do know is that plenty of athletes in all sports continue to collect huge paychecks even when their performance doesn’t add up to the dollar value on their contracts.

Here are 7 random* athletes who should follow Jones’ lead and quit taking money they haven’t earned:

Starbury: Sources indicate that Stephon Marbury might make his comeback with the Celtics after a year of sitting on the Kincks’ bench. For all that pine-riding, Marbury has made about $19 million. I can sit on a cushioned folding chair too, but you don’t see anyone throwing millions my way for that, do you? (more…)

Two stories caught my eye during my morning reading today (which actually occurred in the afternoon, but hey - it’s Saturday!). One was about a web designer for the Washington Capitals who got to suit up and take the ice as a backup goalie for one night, and the other was about Boston Red Sox reliever Hideki Okajima running a marathon.
From the first:

For a brief moment in time, 6′7″ tall Leonhardt got to see his dream of being a pro athlete come true. Thanks to a combination of injury to starting goalie Jose Theodore and scheduling conflict for their AHL goalie Simeon Varlamov, the Capitals were left without a backup goalie to start Friday’s game against the Senators. Fortunately they had their team website producer waiting in the wings.

From the second:

The Red Sox were surprised to learn that lefthanded reliever Hideki Okajima will be running in the Honolulu Marathon Sunday. One team official said the Sox were not pleased and would have discouraged him had the team been apprised of his decision…Okajima will be one of more than 14,000 competitors from [Japan] out of 23,000 entrants.

The fact that these two stories came up on the same day really tickled me; in one story we have a normal guy with a normal job getting to fulfill a dream of being a professional athlete, and in the other we have a professional athlete who is in trouble for doing something that regular* people take great pride in doing.

*very, very fit and dedicated people, but “regular” in the sense that they are not paid millions to play a sport. (more…)

Let’s just be forthright here: Good defense is hot. To me, the most boring sporting events are the ones where both teams run up the score. Doesn’t matter what sport; I just prefer games where defense rules and the points that do go up on the board are hard-earned.

I went to a hockey game last night between the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Alaska, who had tied 0-0 the night before.  I figured going in that it would be a low-scoring affair with good goalie-ing in both nets.

In the 2nd period, the game was tied at 0, and Omaha’s Dan Charleston was sent to the box for tripping. Alaska got a few shots on goal, but didn’t score. A minute later, Omaha’s Matt Ambroz earned himself 2:00 in the box for checking from behind. This now meant that Omaha had to skate two down for a full minute - a LONG stretch in sports-time. Plus, Alaska had already had control of the puck in Omaha territory for about two minutes before either of the penalties, so Omaha goalie Jerad Kaufman had to be pretty tired already.

The odds really weren’t in Omaha’s favor at this point, but the crowd got loud in support of their Mavericks as the puck dropped. Alaska won the face-off and kept pounding in toward the goal. Could the team possibly make it through a full minute of Alaska’s offensive attack two-down? (more…)

It’s well-documented how much I despise winter. To me, it’s too long between the time the World Series ends and Opening Day. Football is great, and I loves me some college basketball, but those things are just placeholders in my life - no sports season feels as complete to me as baseball season. I’m lost without baseball.

However, every year I begrudgingly accept the fact that winter has to happen, and try to manage. This weekend might have been the most perfect solution to the problem of winter. . . I went to a hockey game on Friday, watched football in a bar on Saturday, went to another hockey game after that, and went to a Nebraska basketball game today. (more…)