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Archive for July, 2010

One of the best metal bats on the market right now is the Louisville Slugger H2 Hybrid.

For any high schooler or college student who wants to improve his game & become the envy of the neighborhood, this bat is for them.

The bat offers a great grip, huge sweet spot resulting in upgraded production, & is an all around well balanced bat. It doesn’t matter how much you weigh or how tall you are this bat will be great for you.

With this bat the stronger you are the farther you’ll hit the ball.

Slugging Homers

When teams that have been terrible up until recently like the Washington Capitals or the Pittsburgh Penguins sign their players to extremely long & extremely expensive contracts the NHL doesn’t bat an eye. When a team that wins with whoever they put on the ice due to the greatest goalie in history in the Devils tries to sign a great player to an elongated deal with reasonable money the NHL goes insane. The Devils announced they signed Ilya Kovalchuk to a 17 year deal worth $102 million, a meager $6 million a year average over the span of the contract.

The NHL decided to make up some excuse that this contract would interfere with the current salary cap in place. Due to the NHL just making up excuses in order for one of the better franchises in the league actually spending for a good player the Player’s Association has indicated they will fight the NHL on this.

An issue that may exist is now no one knows if Ilya Kovalchuk is a free agent or not. Other teams may offer contracts & be caught tampering if they don’t know what’s happening. Obviously Kovalchuk wants to be a New Jersey Devil for the rest of his career but for some reason the NHL doesn’t want two superstars in New Jersey.

After Lebron James made a circus of his free agent decision & announced he’d be joining Chris Bosh & Dwayne Wade in Miami to form a super team all we’ve heard for the past two weeks is how Chris Paul & Carmello Anthony want out of their current locations to join Amare Stoudamire in NY.

Large problems loom though. Anthony is still under contract to the Nuggets for the upcoming season & Paul has two years left with the Hornets on his current deal before he can opt out. The Knicks have no players any one wants due to poor drafting & bad trades in the past so it is fairly difficult to make this happen. The Knicks sent their only good player, David Lee, to the Warriors for players only the Warriors or Clippers would actually have on their roster.

Hopefully the Knicks can work out a deal for Paul in order to become relevant again.

Usually in the past few years when you’ve seen a Cowher in the news it is because ESPN has released an untrue report that Bill Cowher will be taking a coaching job in the NFL, whether it was the Giants or the Panthers. Unfortunately today the Cowher name was in the news for a more depressing reason. Bill Cowher’s wife has lost her battle with cancer.

Cowher retired in 2007 to spend more time with his wife & family, working once a week for CBS, instead of the daunting hours being a coach requires. Hopefully this will end silly reports Cowher will be coaching this team or that team again, as there are more pressing issues at this point.

Our thoughts & prayers go out to the Cowher family.

As the season continues to fly by MLB managers continue to sit on the hot seat or wonder about their job security due to expiring contracts. Now more than ever owners will fire managers quicker than usual & as the trade deadline approaches it is only fair to look at the managers who will be fired before the year ends & those who may move after the season ends.

Jerry Manuel: The Mets skipper is bound to be fired soon enough but no one wants to manage the Mets, so he could hang on. For months the Mets overachieved & Manuel received credit for minor league talent having career years. Now the Mets have fallen back to earth & have seemingly quit since Carlos Beltran has returned due to the unpopular decision of benching mediocre Jeff Francoeur. The only place the Mets can go manager wise at this point is Bobby Valentine, since that’s the only good manager who’d take the job.

Joe Torre: It has been proven any manager can get the Dodgers to the playoffs the last few years but no one has been able to put them over the top. That is what Torre was supposed to do. Some would say Torre just doesn’t have it any more. There is a lot of discussion of Torre leaving the Dodgers for the Cubs but that job may already have been filled behind the scenes.

Joe Girardi: Girardi will be the Yankees coach for as long as he’s productive & as long as he wants to be there. Therein lies the problem, Girardi’s contract ends at season’s end. Girardi broke in with the Cubs & is from that area, so speculation runs rampant Girardi will see if he can get the job.

Mike Scoscia: The Angels have been playoff contenders for years but Scoscia’s voice may have lost its luster. Scoscia is known for getting the Angels to win the division or the wild card then sputter in the playoffs, except in 2002 when they won it all. This year it is obvious the Rangers will run away with the division due to finally having pitching to match their great hitting. The Angels continue to replace good players with average players & it has finally caught up with them.

For as long as I’ve been a Yankees fan there have been two constants: George Steinbrenner was “The Boss” & Bob Sheppard was “The Voice” of Yankees Stadium. Within a few days both immortal legends of the game of baseball passed away. The Yankees honored the two legends as only they could.

The players have changed but these two icons remained constants. Sheppard was beloved by everyone who ever associated with him. While he retired in 2007, Sheppard’s voice could still be heard after he retired, announcing Derek Jeter coming to the plate, welcoming people to Yankees Stadium & the occasional voiceover on the YES Network commercials.

Since both legends passed away while the Yankees were out west – playing the Mariners & then the All-Star game in Anaheim the Yankees had to wait to pay their respects. The Yankees gave a great presentation to George Steinbrenner on their first home game back including roses on home plate & Jeter making a poignant speech. The following day during Old Timer’s Day the Yankees paid tribute to Bob Sheppard including introducing his widow last & having the “Yankees family” surround her while the fans roared.

As expected many memories were shared in the days after the passing of Steinbrenner & Sheppard but the most important thing to remember is they embodied the Yankees spirit. Let’s hope this year the Yankees win another one for George & win one for Sheppard.