Mattingly stakes his claim for Los Angeles

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly spent his playing career with the New York Yankees, so he should be well versed in “crosstown” battles. Not battles on the field, but for fans and a certain market share. The Yankees and New York Mets share the Gotham headlines, but the Yanks are the far more dominant team. It’s hard for a Yankees fan to convert to a Mets fan.

The Los Angeles Angels have been around for awhile. They were known as the California Angels and Anaheim Angels, before going headfirst into the Los Angeles market. They share the area with the Dodgers and have made the biggest splashes. Namely in free agency. To Mattingly it doesn’t matter. Los Angeles will always belong to the Dodgers in his mind.

“It’s kind of like Mets-Yankees,” Mattingly said just before the Dodgers’ first full-squad workout of spring training. “The Yankees are the team. [The Mets] are going to have their years when they play well, but the Yankees are still the team. I don’t want to badmouth the Angels at all. Mr. [Angels owner Arte] Moreno has done a great job down there in Anaheim, and [Angels manager] Mike [Scioscia] does a great job. But we’re the Dodgers, and that isn’t going to change.”

“We’re still going to need to play good baseball,” Mattingly said. “But at the end of the day, if we do things right, worry about ourselves and take care of business, we don’t need to worry about what another team is doing. I don’t mean this as a negative, because [the Angels] have done a tremendous job down there.

“But at the end of the day, the Dodgers are still the Dodgers.”

With the signings of Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson in the off season coupled with the Dodgers looking for a new owner, the Angels are gaining ground quickly. The Dodgers do have the name recognition and historical significance, but their product on the field has been lacking recently. They have to produce on the field to reclaim the market they held by themselves for so long.  

Hemingway calling for a Michigan upset in opener

Many oddsmakers have Michigan as a 13 point underdog in the season opener against Alabama. We all know games are won on the field and not on paper or in Vegas. The Crimson Tide should be the favorites since they are the defending national champion. But it will be a new year so it’s no guarantee the Tide will roll over Michigan.

Former Michigan receiver Junior Hemingway has the utmost confidence in his ex-teammates. In fact he thinks Michigan will pull an upset in the opener.


“They’re going to grind from day one, all the way up to that point,” Hemingway told the Birmingham (Ala.) News about the Michigan-Alabama game. “I already went through it and I know how it is.”


Bold words for someone not playing in the game. 

I’m sure Nick Saban will have Alabama working hard and grinding despite winning a national championship. If  Michigan can field a decent defense they will compete, but it’s hard not to pick Bama in this game.
 

Roy entertaining thoughts of a comeback

There was a point when Brandon Roy was one of the top young players in the game. Roy garnered Rookie of the Year honors and was a three time All-Star. Then his knees betrayed him and he wasn’t the same player. There were flashes, like the playoff comeback against Dallas last year, but due to no cartilage in his knees, Roy was robbed of his explosiveness which led him to retire at the young age of 27.

After some time away from the game and working out behind the scenes, Roy is entertaining the thought of making a comeback. Roy told Eurobasket, ‘It’s hard being away from the game. Don’t be surprised if you see Brandon Roy make his way back to the court.’ 


 ‘It burns being away from the game and watching the entire season from the outside.’


   I’m sure Roy will have his detractors, but he believes that he can make it happen. Throw in the fact that sources say that despite his knee problems, his retirement wasn’t “all health related”. That’s something he won’t talk about.

‘There’s something to it, but it’s not the right time for me to get into it right now,’ Roy said. ‘I’ve been doing some treatment and I’m trying to leave the window open to returning to basketball.’   


I think there was some team turmoil behind the scenes and Roy decided it was best for the team if he left town. Just my personal opinion. I also think he still sees himself as the All-Star level player he was before his knees robbed him of his skills. If there is some way to make it back Roy is determined to find it.

“It’s the truth. It’s really hard being so far away from the game. I spend time watching Jamal (Crawford) and following all of his games; Will (Conroy) and Tre (Simmons) are both doing their thing, so it’s driving me to wanna come back out there. If the treatment I’ve been looking into can work, I believe there’s a good chance you will see Brandon Roy back hoopin’.”


I would love to see this happen, but I just don’t see how. Roy’s knees were bone on bone and at points he reminded me of Horace Pinker from the movie “Shocker”. Unless there is some procedure that can get some cartilage in his knees, Roy will stay on the sidelines. I would hate to see him struggle trying to make a comeback.

Could there be a Haynesworth/Fisher reunion?

Jeff Fisher might want to think before he follows through with this idea. Signing free agent defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth. Yes, the same Haynesworth who has washed out since leaving the Tennessee Titans in a contract year.

When asked by a reporter if there was any interest in Haynesworth, Fisher didn’t completely dismiss the notion of having the big man sign with the Rams.


“There’s some unrestricted free agents out there now that are not under contract that we’ve been talking about,” Fisher said. “He’s one of them. Whether we go ahead and do something, that remains to be seen.”

Don’t do it Jeff. Save yourself the headache. Haynesworth has battled back, weight, and knee problems, not to mention a bad attitude while washing out in Washington, New England, and Tampa Bay. Fisher might not want to entertain the thought of reuniting with Fat Albert. It could turn out to be the worse offseason signing this year.

Rockets’ Morris receives citation for bar fight

Houston Rockets rookie forward Marcus Morris proved that all homecomings aren’t good ones.

After watching his former team, the Kansas Jayhawks pull out a thrilling overtime win over Missouri, it seems that Morris may have partied too hard.

Morris faces a misdemeanor battery citation over a reported Lawrence bar incident several hours after his former Kansas teammates beat Missouri on Saturday.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Supervising City Prosecutor Jerry Little confirmed the citation Monday afternoon.


The citation stems from a 2:37 a.m. Sunday police call to a Lawrence bar.


Police spokeswoman Kim Murphree says a male employee was punched twice and that two men received citations. Little says those citations show that Marcus Morris is scheduled to appear March 20 in Lawrence Municipal Court.


Marcus attended the game with his twin brother Markieff, who’s also a former Jayhawk. Markieff was not implicated in any wrongdoing. Maybe there was alcohol involved, maybe not, but Morris, Marcus that is, needs to get it together before he torpedoes his own NBA career.

Barry Sanders seeks a divorce

It looks like Deion won’t be the only Sanders getting a divorce. According to a report in the Detroit News, former Detroit Lions great Barry Sanders is seeking a divorce from his wife of 11 years Lauren Campbell-Sanders. Campbell-Sanders is a news anchor at WDIV in Detroit.

In his divorce filing in Oakland Circuit Court, Sanders, 43, of West Bloomfield Township, said there has been a breakdown in his 11-year marriage with native Detroiter Lauren Campbell-Sanders, who works at WDIV (Ch. 4).

In the lawsuit assigned to Oakland Circuit Judge Lisa Gorcyca, Sanders seeks joint custody of their three sons, aged 4, 8 and 10, until they are 18 years of age, but is asking the court to make his wife responsible for all of their health insurance and health care expenses.

Sanders said in the lawsuit he intends to provide child support in accordance with state guidelines.

As much as I hate to see the disintegration of a marriage, but hopefully this doesn’t get ugly and played out in public like the Deion/Pilar Sanders divorce. Hopefully all ends well and they can be civil to each other.

Aldridge had thoughts of leaving Portland

Since the days of Bill Walton it seems like the Portland Trail Blazers have been cursed by injuries to their stars. Either injuries or bad apples in the locker room. The latest blow to the Blazers has been Greg Oden’s latest setback trying to recover from knee surgery, which will probably end his Blazers career and put his NBA career in serious jeopardy.

There was once a time when the Blazers were thought to be an up and coming force in the NBA. I was one of those believers. They had Brandon Roy, the team leader and All-Star. LaMarcus Aldridge, a big man with tons of potential. Then there was Greg Oden, who was thought to be the next dominant big man in the NBA. With the three young guns on board. Aldridge felt out of place and low in the pecking order behind Roy, Oden, and Andre Miller. So Aldridge was at a point where he thought leaving Portland would be better for his career.

“I was the last of the Big Three,” Aldridge said, referring to his importance. “I even remember Coach telling me that the team is really good, but you are the glue,” referring to a term for a role player who does the little things to keep the team together. “And I was like, ‘Aw man, I’m the glue?’ I mean, that’s not a bad role, but I saw myself being so much more.” 


Aldridge is now the cornerstone of the franchise since the Blazers lost Roy to retirement (bad knees) and Oden to chronic knee problems. But Aldridge had doubts about being in Portland and him being an All-Star if Roy and Oden remained healthy.


“No. No. No. I wouldn’t,” Aldridge said. “I mean, I would go as far to ask would I even still be here?”

“I probably would have ended up signing somewhere else,” Aldridge said. “Think about it. I was the last option out of those guys, so they both would have gotten max deals, and they wouldn’t have given me my deal (five years, $62.5 million). They only signed me because I was the only low post threat left on the team. If they had Greg, they don’t give me the number I wanted, and I’m somewhere else. I think about it all the time. I wouldn’t even be here had Greg not gotten hurt.” 


Now Aldridge holds no grudges and wished the two had stayed healthy to see how things would’ve turned out. But there is no doubt that he might’ve been forced to leave to advance his career to the level it is now. Aldridge is happy in Portland and not because he’s option number one. He just wanted a bigger role on the team, but he happened to get it because the other two stars were felled by injury. I’m sure Aldridge would like to rewrite the script but if the Blazers could get a few pieces to surround Aldridge they could be thought of as a contender once again.  
 

Is Saunders trying to line himself up for the Golden Gophers job?

To some in the Twin Cities, Minnesota Golden Gophers head basketball coach, Tubby Smith, might be a disappointment. When Smith arrived in Minneapolis, there were some hoping that he could recreate the magic that Clem Haskins had during his run at Minnesota. Instead there has been mediocrity that could land Smith on the proverbial hot seat with two years left on his contract.

Flip Saunders is an ex-NBA coach and Minnesota alum. Since he is unemployed he has a lot of idle time on his hands. So in an interview with KFAN’s Dan Barreiro, it almost sounds like Saunders is doing a bit of politicking on his behalf for the Minnesota job. 

When answering questions about why college coaches have failed in the NBA, Saunders unintentionally sounded as if he wanted the job.

“One thing I’ve always said a lot is college coaches don’t always translate to the NBA. But yet guys have been college, gone to the NBA, that maybe fail in the NBA even their experience when they go back to college, they always say they’re much better coaches in college after they’ve been to the NBA.”

After Barreiro jumped on the reply, Saunders back-pedaled, saying ” No, no, no, no don’t throw that out there. I’m just saying if you look at guys like Larry Brown, [who] went from a pro coach and then goes back to UCLA and Kansas, has a lot of success; you look at [John] Calipari, as far as [Rick] Pitino. And if you talk to a lot of those guys, you’ve got to realize you spend 24/7 on basketball; it’s the purest you can be from a standpoint of basketball that there is as far as just working on basketball and just working on different plays, different schemes. So when you’re doing that, and you’re playing so many games, 110 games a year when you’re in the playoffs, those are the things that are going to make you better as a coach because the more situations you see the better you’re going to get.”

I get what he was saying, but Saunders could’ve used a better choice of words. As much as I dislike Saunders as a coach, I don’t think he was trying to get a jump on the Minnesota gig. I think he might be content in his unemployment right now and would like a few years away from the game.  

Abreu: Play me or trade me

At age 37, Bobby Abreu isn’t exactly washed up as a Major League Baseball player. If he’s hid in a good lineup he could still produce. Not at a high level, but he can still produce. Put him with the Detroit Tigers at DH or in leftfield and I think he could go for 15-20 homers and a .275 average. I just don’t think he’s an everyday player at this point in his career.

Don’t tell that to Abreu. He still wants to be an everyday player and if the Los Angeles Angels don’t give him that chance he wants to be traded.

“I’m an every-day player. I can still be in the lineup for a Major League team,” said Abreu from his native Venezuela. “I will not be on the bench knowing that I can play.


“If the Angels don’t have a position for me, then the best thing is to trade me. It would be the correct (thing) to do. I won’t be able to do nothing sitting in the bench.”


“I want to play, and I believe I can help this team. But if there is no spot for me, then I would prefer to play somewhere different,” said the left-handed hitter and two time All-Star.


At this point Abreu is no more than a platoon player. He can still be an effective player, just not an everyday player. I’m not saying he is ready for spot duty, but if he wants to play everyday it might be as a DH.

Iverson gets a contract offer…from indoor soccer league

It looks like another obscure indoor sports league is making big news again. After Terrell Owens signed with the Allen Wranglers of the Indoor Football League, the Rochester Lancers of the Major Indoor Soccer League announced they have offered a contract to former NBA star Allen Iverson. 

Under the contract offered, Iverson would make $20,000 per game, with a $5,000 bonus for each goal scored. There would also be win bonuses and merchandise bonuses. There’s only one problem. There are only two games left in the season.


“Allen Iverson is one of the premier athletes of our time,” said Rich Randall, Lancers vice president.  “With his athleticism and competitive hunger, I think he can be a great fit with our team and fans as we make an important playoff push, while also driving interest to an exciting, growing sport.”  


I find it nothing more than a ploy to get your team and league in the news. I guess any publicity is good publicity in this case. Don’t look for Iverson to be kicking it on a soccer field near you. Even though Iverson has been reported to be in dire straits financially, the money wouldn’t be enough to satisfy Iverson and his lavish lifestyle. But if he wants to stay over here in the U.S. this would be his chance.