It is not unusual for baseball teams to fire managers right after the season is over. There were sufficient rumors flying around that the firing of Jerry Manuel by the White Sox and the firing of Mike Hargrove by the Orioles were not surprises. I would not be shocked to read in the next couple of weeks that either Larry Bowa or Art Howe had been fired.
What was surprising was that the KC Royals fired bullpen coach Tom Gamboa saying they felt the need to upgrade in that area. The Royals' bullpen had the worst ERA of any bullpen in the majors last season. So of course, you fire the coach and not the pitchers, right? Gamboa was the first base coach who was attacked in Chicago by fans a little over a year ago. I'm not exactly sure what critical function the bullpen coach performs other than to keep the relief pitchers from drinking so much beer during the games that they sweat foam when they are called into a game. So I guess I don't understand how the Royals will be better next year after they “upgrade” that area of the coaching staff.
Another surprising move was the firing of John Mackovic at the University of Arizona. I've been saying here that his job had to be in serious jeopardy after the season, but colleges rarely fire coaches in the middle of a season. Mackovic was fired yesterday and it will reportedly cost the school a little over $900K to buy out his contract. Arizona has lost to Purdue, Oregon and LSU (all decent teams to be sure) by a combined score of 166-30 and the closest game of the three was a 38-point loss to Oregon. In addition, Arizona has lost 11 consecutive home conference games. Nonetheless, it is very unusual for a college coach to be fired in mid-season.
Notre Dame is 1-3 so far this year and their next four games are against Pitt, USC, Boston College and Florida State. That could easily have Notre Dame looking at a 1-7 record; that would not make the alumni proud; that could begin to “call down the thunder from the skies”.
Marty Schottenheimer's San Diego Chargers have lost 8 consecutive games going back to last season. That is not a good way to keep your job when your owner is trying to get a bond referendum passed in town to build a new stadium. Good records make voters feel a little less squeamish about these tax funded sweetheart deals. To make matters worse, the Chargers lost last Sunday even though they ran the ball for 222 yards; normally a team that does that wins in a walk.
I watched the Bears lay an egg in their inaugural game in the renovated Soldier Field last night. The press in Chicago is all over Dick Jauron and his staff. One columnist always writes “coach-for-now Dick Jauron” and also refers to offensive coordinator John Shoop as “SpongeJohnSquarePants”. I can't provide any defense of the coaches there on the basis of what I saw on the field last night; but somehow and somewhere there has to be some blame put on the GM that assembled the players for this team. Both the offensive line and the defensive line looked overmatched; the Bears' receivers don't get open; the pass attack seems to devolve into Kordell Stewart facing the choice of forcing a ball into coverage (a very bad thing) or running for his life (also not a good way to keep him upright if it continues for the whole season). This staff is not working with an abundance of talent and someone else needs to be accountable for that.
On the other side of the coin, Mike Tice's Minnesota Vikings have won their last 7 games going back to last season. In December last year, the Vikes were 3-10 and going nowhere. They won their last three games and this year, they have played as well as any team in the NFC.
The Steelers held the Titans to 198 yards of total offense on Sunday and the Steelers gained 376 yards on offense. Normally, those stats would produce a Steeler victory by at least 10 points and maybe 17. On Sunday, they generated a Steeler loss by 17 points.
These days, coaches and GMs - and even owners - cut and sign place kickers as frequently as some teenage boys change their socks. However, there once was a place kicker who only made 12 of his 38 field goal attempts in a season and was never in danger of losing his job. Back in the 60s, many place kickers had other 'jobs” on the team and this particularly inaccurate kicker in 1964 was named Paul Hornung.
I do not know whose idea it was to have the NFL players “talent show” at halftime on MNF, but I would not mind if that person's sensitive private bodily areas were infested with fleas and fire ants. There is a reason that these folks play football and are not in the music industry and it took about 30 seconds to figure it out across America. In case the geniuses at ABC and/or Disney can't figure it out, let me be clear about this:
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If you televise the NY Philharmonic doing a Christmas concert, would you pause between numbers to show a football game between the violinists and the cellists? No you would not because the musicians cannot play football. Now see if you can connect the dots here…
When Tim Couch got the starting assignment at QB for the Browns last Sunday, he said that he was sorry that it had to come at the expense of Kelly Holcomb getting hurt but that he liked the starting role. Think about what that means. It would be better if he got the assignment because Holcomb had stunk out the joint for so long that the coaching staff pulled him? That really would help the team's chances for a playoff spot. After the Browns loss to the Bengals on Sunday, there should not be much of a controversy in Cleveland about who gets the start when Holcomb's leg is healed.
The NFL schedule has an interesting wrinkle. The Jacksonville Jaguars are home for October with a bye week thrown in. They do not travel again until the first week of November when they head to Baltimore.
If the story in Jim Armstrong's column in the Denver Post on 29 September is correct, I think I have a new hero. According to Armstrong, a reporter asked Bronco LB, John Mobley, to talk about being 4-0 at this point and going into Kansas City. Said Mobley, “We're 4-0 and going into Kansas City.” I've always thought the best response to one of those “talk about…” statements would be, “Excuse me, is there a question in there somewhere?”
Back in April and May, Big East Commissioner, Mike Tranghese, was in high dudgeon about the evil ACC raiding the Big East for schools. He even got nine US Senators to sign a letter to the presidents of the targeted universities urging them not to change leagues. He was quoted as saying; “This will be the most disastrous blow to intercollegiate athletics in my lifetime. It's wrong.” Now the AP reports that the Big East is planning to coax four schools from Conference USA (Marquette, Cincinnati, DePaul and Louisville) to join the Big East. I wonder if those same nine senators will write letters to these university presidents urging them not to jump? I wonder if Mike Tranghese will be skewered for the hypocrite that he is? Not likely…
Jim Harrick has another job. He will be a scout and coaching consultant for the Denver Nuggets. I certainly hope that he is not consulting with the team on matters related to the strength of character possessed by players they are thinking about signing…
Oh yeah, NBA training camps open today. Did I hear someone in the back of the room say, “So what?”
Finally, I'd like to propose a pre-season college basketball tournament held in round robin fashion between the Harvard Crimson, the Southern Nazarene Crimson Storm, the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Calumet College Crimson Wave. Loser goes home red-faced.
But don't get me wrong, I love sports...
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