Cleanin' out the inbox

Time to catch up on things that I have missed over the last few days with the Christmas season upon us along with the work season getting busy as well.

The Devils went to the Canadian Left Coast to start a road swing and were crushed by the Vancouver Canucks 5-0.
Not much to say,the effort wasnt bad,but the Canucks came to play and put together an excellent performance.
The Devils battle the Oilers in Edmonton tomorrow.

On the Canucks-great uniforms.
The Colors go well together and keeping the original logo on the shoulder adds to the look.

The Hagerstown Suns announced their coaching staff for the 2008 season.
Former Pirate Darnell Coles and former Brave Tony Tarasco are moving up from Vermont to take over as Manager and Hitting Coach.
Paul Menhart remains as Hagerstown pitching coach next season.

Gabe Kapler leaves managing after one year to return as a player with a one year deal with the Brewers.
Not sure about the remaining skills.but he looks in good enough shape when he visited Hagerstown last season.

If West Virginia does not hire Terry Bowden as their head coach,they are way off base.
You have a name coach that wants to coach for you,you already have questions about living up to commitments and you want to hire an assistant from another school?????

We kinda like the minor league signing of power righty T.J. Beam by the Pirates.
Another high upside low risk gas thrower that could be a bullpen plus.....

And finally-another Bill Parcells signing in the NFL,this time in Miami.
Over/Under on how long Parcells lasts-2 years.
I never understand why teams throw money at these older coaches that really dont want to do this anymore,their hearts arent in it and they leave before the job is finished.

Smashing through the snow

As the snow fell from the sky and with visibility limited,the Cleveland Browns used two tremendous field goals from kicker Phil Dawson and one snap that went awry from the Buffalo long snapper to earn a huge 8-0 win in a blizzard over the Bills.
The victory puts the Browns in a position of controlling their own destiny for a wild card and with some luck keeps their AFC North title hopes alive.
For the Browns to clinch a wild card,they simply need to win 1 of their remaining 2 games or have Tennessee lose one of their remaining two,while with Pittsburgh's loss to Jacksonville,Cleveland can win the division with wins over the Bengals and 49ers combined with a Steeler loss .
Test follows this post-LOL
This game set up pretty much as I thought it would.
Jamal Lewis needed to have a big game to control the clock and field position and he did,as Lewis finished with 163 yards on 33 trips with the football.
I also thought that Buffalo rookie passer Trent Edwards would struggle with his first attempts to deal with bad conditions and he did so- as only the last ditch Bill drive was any concern to Browns fans.
Edwards had better use this as a learning experience,when you play in Buffalo,one needs to adjust to adverse weather quickly!
The Cleveland passing game was not a factor with the exceptions of a few excellent grabs by Braylon Edwards,but was just dangerous enough for the Bills to need to respect any Cleveland attempts.
Great game by the Browns defense,as they did not allow Marshawn Lynch to break away with a big run in a one score game.
Dawson's 48 yarder into the wind and snow might have been one of the best kicks that I have ever seen.
I was watching them line up and commented "this could be a quick kick".
I never thought they would actually attempt it and then to drill it?
A memorable effort by Phil Dawson yesterday.
Super effort,now here is hoping that the Browns do not take the trip to Cincinnati lightly,just this season,the win over the Bengals was considered a huge upset,so Cleveland needs to go into the game with the right attitude.

An example of the wrong attitude was the Seattle Seahawks cruising into Charlotte against a rookie QB and a team playing poor football.
The Seahawks left Charlotte with a 13-10 loss before massive amounts of empty seats and a loss that doesn't affect the big picture much,but none the less-a poor effort by the offense.
A game that saw nothing but field goals for all but the final 1:38 then was followed by with each team swapping late useless touchdowns was pretty dull as one can imagine.
Matt Hasselbeck had one of those games that looked good in the stat line,but it was as quiet as a game could be in results,while the running game continues to be non existent.
Plus Hasselbeck's 4th quarter fumble (a result of not tucking the ball away) ended a scoring drive that could have given the Hawks the lead,but instead resulted in the drive that enabled Carolina to put the game away.
I am a running proponent of course,but the team has flourished using the pass first ideology.
So I cannot understand the thoughts of changing things that are working,but Mike Holmgren
( all the Bill Walsh spin-offs for that matter) seems to have the "Lets fool them and show how smart I am mentality".
Nice defensive effort,I suppose,but that is about all.
Seattle comes local next week to battle the slumping Ravens next week.

The New Jersey Devils apparently either had a bad game Saturday vs Phoenix or Brent Sutter gave them the ass-kicking they needed,as the effort picked up and the result was a 4-2 win over the hated Flyers at the Rock.
A three goal explosion in the second period led to the win as John Madden scored at even strength and shorthanded for goals 9 and 10,while Brent Sutter's whipping boy Arron Asham drilled his fourth of the year in the stanza.
In addition,the second period saw the rare penalty shot from Philly's Daniel Briere against the World's Best Goaltender.
After Brodeur stopped the shot,one could feel the momentum and my feeling was "we have this game"!
The Captain,Jamie Langenbrunner ended the scoring late with an empty netter (5) and send the spirally downward Flyers back to Philly.........
I was pleased with the high energy that the team played with after the dead legs that showed on the previous day and the Devils needs to keep this type of effort up on the three game road trip through Western Canada.
Game 1 of the tour is Tuesday at Vancouver against the Canucks.

Bullpen Notes

Words cannot explain how thrilled I am with "West Virginia North" and their hiring of Rich Rodriguez.
Rodriguez will quickly learn that the spread offense and his "trickiness" do not go far in the Big Ten.
Plus the competition is tougher here than the laughably lousy Big East.
And here is more-only Michigan would hire a guy that needs to beat a 4 win and 28 point underdog at HOME to qualify for the national title and LOST!!!!!
Thank you WVN!!!!!

And on the topic of thrilled.
The Miami Dolphins win their first game and it is over Baltimore and resident "genius" Brian Billick!
Plus noted "all about love" Ray Lewis breaks his hand in the loss!
Let the excuse from Baltimore begin!

The Los Angeles Dodgers signed Hiroshima righthander Hideki Kuroda over the weekend.
The veteran from the Carp was 12-8 with a 3.58 ERA last year.

Congrats to former Hagerstown Suns coach Jerry Browne for his promotion to Potomac for 2008.
Harrisburg's coaching announcement was Friday,Potomac today,so it might follow that the Suns coaches could be announced tomorrow.

Note to CBS on NFL game caller Gus Johnson.
Will someone there please explain to Mr.Johnson two things.
1) Screaming loudly on every play does not create drama-it makes you sound like the loud drunk at a party.
2) Please leave the catch phrases to the Rock and Steve Austin.
I counted 5 times that Johnson uttered this beauty "Cleveland is now Believeland".
Yuck....

Until tomorrow,which shapes up to be a slow day,which means random ramblings or something else.

Photo Credits
Dawson-John Kuntz-Cleveland Plain Dealer
Hasselbeck-Mike McCarn-AP
Brodeur-Rich Schultz-AP

Bad and Ugly

The less I say about the New Jersey Devils 4-1 loss to the visiting Phoenix Coyotes the better.
But to be fair,Marty Brodeur played well even though he allowed four goals.
Without his effort,Phoenix could have easily had twice that many and Zach Parise did score a shorthanded goal (15) to avoid a shutout.
Otherwise,nothing nice to say.
Poor skating,Far too many dumb penalties (10!) and a general theme of being pushed around.
Was this a bad night or a lack of effort?
I couldn't tell you,ask me after today's game against the Flyers.
I should have a better idea then.

Mount Union shockingly lost to Wisconsin Whitewater in the Division III title 31-21 in a rainstorm.
Many good reasons for the loss between a bad call that gave UWW 7 points,an astonishing lack of ball carrying fundamentals (3 fumbles) considering the conditions and as much as I hate to say it,some poor play calls by Larry Kehres.
Early with UWW up 7-0 and after a review of a Mount Union TD resulted in the ball being placed at the one foot line on 4th down,the scene seems perfect for a QB lean.
Instead a running play was called and stuffed.
Big swing there.
It seems to me that for a while,the Purple Raiders had video game syndrome.
As any of you out there that play video football know,sometimes you feel so confident of winning,you make dumb decisions and play call and before you know it-you are in deep trouble.
In any case,a nice game by Whitewater and a good season for Mount Union despite the loss.

The Cleveland Browns are at home today in an expected blizzard vs the Buffalo Bills.
A Cleveland win would wipe out another contender for the wild card spot.
The conditions seem to be made for Jamal Lewis and despite the Bills being a cold weather team,they are using a rookie QB in Trent Edwards and Edwards is a Stanford guy-watch for this to be a factor.
Our Pick-Browns 21-10

The Seattle Seahawks travel to Charlotte to take on the Carolina Panthers.
Short and sweet here.
Our Pick:Seahawks 35-13.

Bullpen Notes

Looks like the Batavia Muckdogs of the NY-Penn league could be looking for a new home soon.
The team is losing money and without a new owner could be leaving town.
Two unnamed cities are reportedly interested in moving the team.

Rumors are abound that this year will be the last year for the South Atlantic League in Columbus Georgia.
Word is that a money man has an option to buy the team and move it to Bowling Green,Kentucky for the 2009 season.
If true,that would likely force one of the Carolina teams to move to the Southern Division for good.

Until tomorrow

Photo Credits
Hockey-Bruce Bennett-Getty Images
Helmets-Helmet Project

The Mount Union Machine

The powerhouse that is Mount Union football competes for yet ANOTHER Division III championship today in Salem, Virginia, against Wisconsin-Whitewater for the third season in a row.

How would you like to be the Warhawks, where you beat everyone you play, but the monster is always waiting for you in the end?

I made the trip to Salem five years ago for a Mount Union title game, and it was well worth the trip.

Larry Kehres has built a dynasty in Alliance that is unmatched in sports, with the possible exception of the John Wooden UCLA basketball teams of the '60s and '70s.

Kehres has an interesting program, and he does things that few other coaches do.
One is his policy of never cutting a player.
Any player who can put forth the effort to be part of the team makes the team, and Kehres seems to make a special effort to get as many of those kids into the game as possible in blowouts, which is quite often in Purple Raider games.

Another thing he does to save money and allow more kids to be part of the program is that when the Raiders go on the road, they bring prepared bag lunches for the ride home instead of stopping somewhere to eat.

The savings enable the team to travel with extra players who would not otherwise be on the travel team.
On-field, Mount Union adjusts its offensive system to the personnel it has.

I have seen Kehres coach running teams, passing teams, and balanced teams, and that shows confidence in his ability and his players.
Most coaches have a set system and get the players for their system, and that makes sense, but Kehres has a knack for finding players, and then he makes adjustments to them.
The D-III title game is on one of the ESPN networks today at 4:00

Bullpen Notes

The New Jersey Devils take on the visiting Phoenix Coyotes at the Rock in a 1:00 matinee, coverage here tomorrow.

That assumes that we have power, as a big winter storm is supposed to be heading through tonight and tomorrow.
I have become quite interested in the weather and watch the Weather Channel often at work, but I can never understand how the on-air hosts are always so chipper about bad weather!
Maybe they don't have to drive in it!

Going to miss Dan Haren in Oakland, but the prospects that are going to the Athletics are quite impressive.
Carlos Gonzalez and Brett Anderson are highly thought and so is former Kannapolis Intimidator Chris Carter, but one of our favorites is in the deal as well.

Former Intimidator and Winston-Salem Warthog Aaron Cunningham was involved in the transaction.
Aaron is a guy that has to be met to be believed, and let me tell you-if he makes it to the show, his personality will make him an instant media favorite.
This looks like a great deal for both Arizona and Oakland...

On the way to work last night, listening to Home Plate on XM radio, C.J Nitkowski was a guest on a show talking about Japanese baseball.
The well-traveled journeyman is currently pitching there for the Fukuoka Hawks and had two interesting notes on the actual baseball used in games.
One is that the Japanese baseball is slightly smaller than the MLB version and the other is that they do not "rub" the baseball down before using as is done here.
Nitkowski said this makes the ball slicker and harder to grip......

Until next time........

Photo Credit
Kehres-Mount Union College

Devils stop Bruins in the snow

No,the game was not played in the Boston snow,but it was dumping huge amounts of snow outside.
Heavy enough to allow only 1,500 fans to get to the arena to watch the New Jersey Devils defeat the Bruins 3-1.
Brian Gionta's breakaway second period goal gave New Jersey a lead that would never be equaled and the captain Jamie Langenbrunner scored a 5 on 3 power play goal in the second before finishing the scoring in the waning moments with the clinching goal into the empty Boston net.
A great defensive performance by the Devils as they allowed Boston to have just 19 shots on net and few of those were legitimate scoring chances.
Not the most exciting of games,but considering the lack of fans and the general domination on defense-I enjoyed it.
Plus the game featured a pretty good fight between middleweights David Clarkson and Milan Lucic.
The Devils return to the Rock for two weekend games against the Phoenix Coyotes and the Flyers before a three game Canadian swing that will see New Jersey visit Vancouver,Edmonton and Calgary before returning home.

Bullpen Notes

Good move by the Blue Jays in signing David Eckstein to a one year deal.
Eckstein is coming off his career year,but smart decision to pay Eckstein based on his career in total not one season.
It works well for Eckstein too,as if he can repeat his 2007 season,he will be back on the free agent market with fewer questions.

Glad to not say the same about the latest move by the Philadelphia Flyers.
A 12 year contract to Mike Richards???
Richards is certainly playing well,but this is really odd.
If this is a guaranteed deal,the Flyers are even stupider than I gave them credit for

My thoughts on the Mitchell Report?
Few surprises to me,so not really worth mentioning much about until sometime when the Hall of Fame topic comes up.
The one surprise to me is that Sammy Sosa's name was not mentioned though.

Until tomorrow

Photo Credit
Boston-Charles Krupp-AP Photo

Xavier wins Shootout over Bearcats

Missed a few days when things were slow,so lets clean up a bit today.

The New Jersey Devils lost in Washington to the Capitals 3-2 on Monday.
It was a Kevin Weekes start in goal,so to a certain degree,one doesn't expect to win the backup starts anyway.
However,the Devils scored early on a John Madden (8) goal.
Cannot tell you much about it as a video miscue caused the tape to start 10 minutes (game time) into the game,but the Capitals pretty much controlled all but a few minutes of the game that I watched.
The only Devil flurry came in the middle of the third after David Clarkson trimmed the margin to the eventual final of 3-2 with his 4th goal of the season.
After that,the Devils played better,but were unable to tie the game.
New Jersey travels to Boston for a battle with the Bruins tonight at 7.

I don't watch nearly as much basketball as used to,so the coverage here will be sporadic.
Actually outside of Maryland,Xavier,Ohio State and Wake Forest,I hardly watch any until the conference tournaments.
So last night,I settled in to watch probably my favorite regular season rivalry between Xavier and Cincinnati.
As a big Musketeer fan (my dining room is painted in Muskie Blue),my loyalty is clear,even though I do not dislike UC at all.
Actually I have no problems with the Bearcats,which is likely blasphemy to the average Muskie fan!
Anyway,in a closer game than expected,Xavier took home the win 64-59.
The first half was very sloppy by both teams,but the second half was as good as it gets.
Between lead changes,Up tempo basketball,technical fouls and both teams losing a starter to injury-there was not much missing from the second half.
But in the end,the 17th ranked Musketeers had one thing the Bearcats did not in Derrick Brown.
Brown was the difference in the end with 11 of his career high 17 points coming down the stretch to enable Xavier to pull away in the waning minutes and improve to 8-1 on the season.
Fun game to watch and be looking for more Musketeer coverage as the season permits.

The Crosstown Shootout is always sponsored by Skyline Chili and if Skyline wants to get into the ad business on the blogosphere,they can feel free to start here!
We would be more than willing to deal in product for the sponsorship!
We can see it now=Thoughts of RS brought to you by Skyline Chili............

The Orioles had the right idea in dealing the faded and high priced Miguel Tejada.
And it always is an added bonus when you deal him to the other league,but only 1 player seems to have huge potential of the 5 players that they acquired from Houston yesterday.
So basically,the Orioles may have botched yet another personnel move.
Of course,less than two years ago,they could received Roy Oswalt for Tejada.
One can see that this package was worth the wait (eye roll here).
Luke Scott could be a helpful fly-chaser next season and I do like lefty Troy Patton a lot.
Third sacker Mike Costanzo (who the Astros just picked up in the last month) needs more minor time,but could be a 25 homer man,while pitchers Matt Albers and Dennis Sarfate have question marks.
Albers does not strike me as special,but Sarfate has a great arm,but little control of it.
Nice try by the Orioles,but the jury is still out on this one.

Texas added former Cleveland first baseman Ben Broussard for minor leaguer Tug Hulett.
Seems like a nice pickup for the Rangers for a reasonable cost.

Cannot say the same for the San Francisco Giants in their signing of Aaron Rowand.
I like Rowand a lot as a player,but 5 years and 60 million?
And his power numbers by the Bay will not be near what they were in the hitter friendly Philadelphia park.
I see the desperation by the Giants to add a bat to their weak lineup,but long term-they might regret this one.

But on the topic of 12 million a year outfielders,at least Rowand has a track record.
The Chicago Cubs gave Kosuke Fukudome the same 12 million per year as Rowand,but over 4 years to patrol right field for them.
The lefty swinger could be cheap or over priced.
When it comes to Japanese players,one always gambles.
We will try to find out more on Fukudome.

The Angels (no long name for us) declined to tender once hot prospect Dallas McPherson a contract and made him a free agent.
McPherson missed all of 2007 with a bad back,but is the type of player that at low risk and cost that Neal Huntington and the Pirates should be taking a look at.

Purchased the DVD on World Class Championship Wrestling and I will post a review on it here on an upcoming slow day.

On the signing front-2 EBAY purchases for reasonable prices in
former Cleveland Cavalier World B.Free and current WWE Champ Randy Orton.

Back tomorrow with Devils-Bruins.

Photo Credits
Hockey-Nick Wass-AP Photo
Brown-Bruce Crippen-Cincinnati Post

Browns struggle by Jets,Seahawks clinch West.

The Cleveland Browns might have shown yesterday that they are a playoff team despite a less than glamorous effort in a 24-18 win over the New York Jets.
Playoff teams win when they are not at their best and are able to win "ugly" games and the Browns showed that in the victory.
Jamal Lewis was able to rush for over 100 yards in the mush that passed for turf in New Jersey and with the exception of the always deficient "prevent defense",the defense kept the Jets under control.
I never understand why teams go to the prevent so early and it always results in teams getting back into a game that they have no business being in.
Something works successfully for the entire game and when you near the finish line,you start changing things?
I am not just hammering the Browns for doing this,just about every team does the same style of tactic.
A few more Browns notes that struck me as odd.
Have you ever seen a team kick three on-side kicks in the final few minutes and recover two as the Jets did yesterday??
I might have,but don't recall any off hand.
You can never get too mad about touchdowns,especially when you figure in the boom of fantasy football,but the irony of Jamal Lewis and his late romp for a TD is that the Browns would have had a better chance of winning if he grabbed the first down and fell to the ground.
The Jets had just 1 timeout and then it would have been kneeldown time.
Instead after the touchdown run,the Jets were able to get a quick field goal from Mike Nugent and had they recovered the resulting on-side kick could have won with a touchdown.
I understand that players don't and can't think that way,but in this case it was true.
Cleveland returns home for a battle against fellow Lake Erie border town Buffalo in a game that could either almost clinch a playoff berth or make things very difficult.
The Browns lead the Bills by one game for the final playoff spot in the AFC.

The Seattle Seahawks clinched their 4th NFC West title in a row with a 42-21 win over the Arizona Cardinals in the emerald city that was not a close as the lopsided score indicates.
I have'nt watched the tape yet,but the box score shows a game that was never in doubt.
Matt Hasselbeck tossed four touchdown passes to four different pass catchers and Patrick Kerney dumped Kurt Warner three times for sacks in the game that proved the Cardinals are still not ready to challenge the Seahawks for division supremacy.
Seattle improves to 9-4 on the season and looks to be locked in on the 3rd seed in the NFC unless Green Bay would have a total collapse in the last three weeks.
Seattle visits the lowly Carolina Panthers in Charlotte next week.

The New Jersey Devils traveled to the big cesspool for a battle vs the Rangers and fans of great goaltending were not disappointed as the Rangers Henrik Lunquist and the Devils Marty Brodeur matched zeros for regulation.
Then the winning streak ended as Brendan Shanahan ripped a one timer laser by Brodeur that ended the game in overtime to give the Rangers the 1-0 win.
Still not bad for the Devils as they at least were able to pick up one point for the visit.
Not much offensively to talk about as the Devils really didn't force Lundquist to make the amount of saves or the amount of quality saves as Marty had to all evening.
Not a great effort but still a point and Brodeur was awesome.
New Jersey battles Washington tonight in DC.Yuck

Bullpen notes

Why is it always bad when the Devils play Washington?
Because I move from having the best play by play man in the business with the Devils Doc Emrick to a poor one in Washington's Joe Beninati and THE worst color analyst in the game in Craig Laughlin.
These two make me just reach for the mute button.
I feel for the Washington fans that are forced to listen to them every night.
Yuck.

Finally have time to note a few players that signed for us in the past that were moved in the Triple A phase of the Rule 5 draft.
Most notable was former Hagerstown second baseman/shortstop Marcos Cabral,who was selected from the Nationals organization by the Blue Jays.
Pitcher Ryan Rodriguez (Winston Salem) moved from the White Sox to the Orioles,while his Winston-Salem teammate Garry Bakker was selected by the Mets and yet another Warthog was involved as outfielder Daron Roberts joined the Marlins organization.
Lefty hurler Victor Garate (Lexington) was a Dodger pick and Scott Mitchinson (Lakewood) travels to the left coast as a member of the Oakland system.

If any of you out there have read Moneyball (and what seamhead hasn't) two notable names were taken from the Athletics.
Pitcher Ben Fritz was a Tiger draft pick while first sacker Brant Colamarino moved to the Blue Jays.
If you have read the book,you are likely getting a chuckle out of these.

Until tomorrow

Photo Credits
McDonald-Bill Koustroun-AP
Hasselbeck-Otto Greule Jr-Getty Images
Brodeur-Bruce Bennett-Getty Images