Thursday, April 24, 2014

Holmgren "Regretting" not Coaching the Browns While the GM?

Mike Holmgren: 'I really should have coached' the Browns

Mike Holmgren forgets that he didn't want to coach the Browns. (USATSI)
By Ryan Wilson | CBSSports.com

After a forgettable three-year stint as +Cleveland Browns president, Mike Holmgren is probably better known as the guy who used Cleveland's two 2012 first-round picks on Trent Richardson and Brandon Weeden than a Super Bowl-winning coach with the +Green Bay Packers.

The year before Holmgren took over, the Browns were 5-11 under Eric Mangini. The team went 5-11 again in 2010, Holmgren's first year on the job, and Mangini was fired. Pat Shurmur replaced Mangini and won four games in 2011 and five games in 2012.

Holmgren now says he should have been on the sidelines instead of in the front office.

“I really just should have coached the team, but he [owner Randy Lerner] didn't want me to," he told +The MMQB.com's Peter King last week.

Holmgren's probably right; he had plenty of on-field success in Green Bay and later Seattle. Plus, the fact that he was outraged when the Browns shipped Richardson out of town last September raises questions about his talent-evaluation skills.

"How do you make your team better by trading your best player?'' he said at the time. "He's the best offensive player. He's a valuable, valuable guy."

Richardson, it turns out, was terrible. The Browns were right to dump him on Indianapolis for an additional first-round pick. Just like they were right to dump Weeden, the quarterback Holmgren identified two years before as the team's future.

The problem: Holmgren could have coached the Browns if he wanted. Days before he was hired as team president in Dec. 2009, he indicated that the job offer could include a return to the sidelines. But as +CBS Cleveland's Daryl Ruiter notes, Holmgren made it clear -- several times -- that he wasn't interested.

“At this stage of my life that's not what my first priority is,” Holmgren said after firing Mangini on Jan. 3, 2011. “I've relished the role that Randy Lerner had confidence to give me.”

We get why Holmgren might want to revise history -- nothing tarnishes a legacy quite like trying to salvage the Browns and failing miserably -- but the team's biggest problem wasn't going to be solved by where Holmgren stationed himself on Sundays. Because without a franchise quarterback, Paul Brown couldn't have coached that team to more than six wins.



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Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Yankees Pineda Ejected this time for "Foreign Substance" After last Suspicion Resulted in Nothing

Yankees’ Michael Pineda ejected from loss to Red Sox after pine tar discovered on neck

Home plate umpire Gerry Davis came out to the mound at Red Sox manager John Farrell’s request and checked Pineda’s uniform. Davis ran his finger over the brown spot on Pineda’s neck and immediately ejected him.

+New York Daily News
+New York Yankees starter Michael Pineda appears to be bad at cheating. Pine tar is clearly visible on his neck here. When discovered by umpires in the second inning, he is ejected.

BOSTON – After giving up two runs in the first inning Wednesday night, Michael Pineda returned to the Fenway mound for the second frame with brown goop slathered on the right side of his neck, setting in motion a series of events that likely will push the Yankees’ 5-1 loss to the +Boston Red Sox into Rivalry lore.


Pineda, now a “man of (foreign) substance” two times over, was ejected after plate umpire Gerry Davis dabbed his finger in the glistening stuff on Pineda’s neck at the request of Sox manager John Farrell. Pineda likely faces a suspension that could be as long as eight or 10 games, though +MLB officials won’t decide on the penalty until they’ve digested the umpires’ report.

And Pineda’s not the only one who could be in trouble. Yankee manager Joe Girardi moved an unmanned +ESPN camera after it turned to capture video of a dejected Pineda walking down the dugout tunnel toward the clubhouse with an athletic trainer and pitching coach Larry Rothschild. Girardi held the camera away, all of it caught by another camera angle. That could be subject to discipline, too.

Beyond the likely penalties, this storyline could keep reverberating through Rivalry games this season – now that the Red Sox have checked a Yankee pitcher, do Girardi and Co. retaliate by asking umps to look at any suspicious blotch on a Boston pitcher, just for the potential annoyance factor? Both Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz have been suspected in the past. 






In the first inning with catcher Brian McCann (l.) Pineda appears to have a clean neck, but in inning two, the substance appears just behind the right ear.

The whole grand theater is a sequel of sorts to what happened at the Stadium April 10. That cold night, Pineda beat Boston but was spotted with similar brown goo on the palm of his right hand. The Red Sox did not protest, but Farrell and several his players suggested Pineda should be less obvious if he was going to use something to improve his grip on the ball.

Pineda was not disciplined for the first offense, but Joe Torre, MLB’s VP of baseball operations, talked to Yankee GM Brian Cashman about the matter. Pineda claimed it was dirt on his palm.

Though it’s technically against baseball rules, pitchers generally use something to help them get a grip on the ball on cold nights – it was 53 degrees at first pitch at Fenway, with winds gusting at 24 miles per hour – and nobody says anything because they don’t want their own pitchers checked, too. Hitters say they’re happy that pitchers actually know where their 90-plus mph pitchers are headed.

Before Wednesday night’s game, Farrell said he expected “if it’s used, it’s more discreet than the last time.”

It wasn’t. It was just in a different place.

Farrell likely asked Davis to examine Pineda because it was the second time television cameras easily spotted Pineda using something. With Grady Sizemore batting with a 1-and-2 count and two out in the second, Davis came out to the mound and checked Pineda’s uniform and the ball, felt the brown substance and ejected the pitcher.



David Phelps replaced Pineda and struck out Sizemore to end the inning, one of the few Yankee highlights on a dismal evening that included three errors.

Pineda, who entered the game with a 1.00 ERA, had been wildly successful in his first three starts, a bright rotation surprise. Pitching with a clean neck in the first inning, though, the Red Sox scored two runs off him, a scoring burst that started with Sizemore’s leadoff triple. In his abbreviated outing, Pineda (2-2) allowed four hits and two runs in 1.2 innings.

It’s worth wondering how the Yankees let Pineda go to the mound with a foreign substance so apparent on his neck. And why would he do it again after being caught last time? Couldn’t he and the Yanks have found a better hiding place? Maybe Girardi and his coaches didn’t know he was using it Wednesday night. 



A foreign-substance free John Lackey dominates the Yankees over eight innings.

They do now. And now they’ll have to figure out how to deal with the fallout, as well as the potential rotation problems a suspension for Pineda will cause. They are already down a starter with Ivan Nova on the disabled and Pineda could be banned for two starts, meaning they’ll be using their seventh starter of the season.

There is precedent for suspensions as long as eight or 10 games – In 2012, +Tampa Bay Rays’ Joel Peralta was slapped with an eight-game suspension for having pine tar on his glove. The +Los Angeles Angels’ Brendan Donnelly was hit with a 10-game ban in 2005 for having a foreign substance on his glove and the +St. Louis Cardinals’ Julian Tavarez was suspended for 10 games in 2004 for doctoring baseballs. 

How long will Pineda get?
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Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/pine-tossed-yankees-pineda-ejected-red-sox-game-pine-tar-neck-article-1.1766894#ixzz2zljzKvee
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Boston Marathon winner Meb Keflazighi

Boston Marathon 2014: Meb Keflezighi, UCLA alum, wins men's marathon

By Justin Karp, +Pac-12 Staff
Jim Rogash/Getty Images

The +Pac-12 Conference track champion runs Boston.

For the first time in 31 years, an American man won the Boston Marathon on Monday as UCLA alum Meb Keflezighi crossed the finish line in 2:08:37, 11 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Wilson Chebet.

An American man hadn't emerged victorious at the world's most famous marathon since 1983, when Greg Meyer won the race in 2:09:00.

Keflezighi was downright dominant during his time in Westwood, taking home four NCAA championships in indoor and outdoor track competition. During the 1996-97 season, Meb cleaned up on the podium, earning national titles in both the indoor and outdoor 5K, the outdoor 10K and the cross-country championship.

Here's Keflezighi approaching the finish line, courtesy of For The Win:




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Florida Gators Gymnastics are Back to Back National Champs




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Regular Season Schedule to be Released

Regular Season Schedule to be Released, Davis Wants Super Bowl Ring, Rolando McClain Retires

Taylor Price 
Senior Reporter
@TaylorPrice49

Each weekday morning, 49ers.com reviews the most newsworthy and engaging content from around the web involving the 49ers and the NFL. We seek it out, so you don't have to.

Feedback in the comment section is HIGHLY encouraged. Enjoy.

1. Big News On the Way

The wait is over. The 2014 regular season schedule is coming out today at 5 p.m. PT.

49ers.com will have you covered on the schedule release, but before the news gets out, take a look at the most anticipated games of 2014.

The 49ers will also have a 1/8 chance of visiting the Seattle Seahawks to open the 2014 season on Thursday, Sept. 4. We'll also know the team's first opponent at Levi's® Stadium. The options for the big game at the billion-dollar stadium include: St. Louis, Arizona, Seattle, Chicago, Kansas City, Philadelphia, San Diego and Washington.

Who do you want to see the 49ers play first at home? Leave YOUR thoughts in the comments section of this post.

2. Davis Wants New Jewelry

+Vernon Davis has stocks for sale, and he has a deep desire to win a Super Bowl ring.

"We must win a Super Bowl title," Davis recently told NBC Sports Network. "You play this game, that's what you play this game for. You play the game to go to the Super Bowl and that's the only reason why we play to win and make it to the Super Bowl. So anything short of that would not be acceptable and I think my teammates know that as well."

>>Pro Bowl outside linebacker Ahmad Brooks is confident in the new-look secondary helping the +San Francisco 49ers win a ring in 2014.

>>Fourth-year offensive lineman Daniel Kilgore explained how he's progressing in the competition to be the team's starting center.

3. Around the League

>> +Mizzou defensive end Kony Ealy told the USA Today that he's the best player at his position in the 2014 NFL Draft. Jadeveon Clowney surely disagrees.

>>Oakland Raiders linebacker LaMarr Woodley appeared on 95.7 The Game and said that his new team will be in the playoffs in 2014.

>>Former Raiders linebacker Rolando McClain told +ESPN that he's officially retiring from football.
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