Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Yankees blow 9th inning lead to Rangers after 3.5 hour rain delay

In a Yankees season full of disappointing defeats, Monday night’s crushing loss to the Rangers might go down as the worst — if not the longest.


With New York leading 6-5 and a Texas runner on first base following a leadoff walk in the top of the ninth inning, the game entered into a three-hour, 35-minute rain delay, beginning at 10:40 p.m. with play resuming at 2:15 a.m. before finally ending Tuesday morning at 2:45 a.m..

After the early morning locker room wake-up call, Kirby Yates entered the game to pitch for the Yankees and couldn't get his second career save, allowing a two-run single to Adrian Beltre and an RBI single to Elvis Andrus as the Rangers went on to stun the home team, 9-6.


Joe Girardi — who successfully lobbied for a rain (which never came) delay to suspend the game 20 minutes at the start — got the tarp on the field once again after the leadoff walk (which the Yankees manager later denied) in the ninth.

The choice to delay the game belonged solely to crew chief, first-base umpire Paul Nauert, not Girardi or Rangers manager Jeff Banister. Being that the game had lasted longer than five innings, it was reasonable that Nauert could have called the game then, but he elected not to, leading to the extended delay later in the ninth.

Prior to that, when the rain did come in the 5th inning, umpires decided to let the teams play through the soggy conditions. Rangers fielders had trouble fielding some balls, slipped a couple of times and overall had a tough time with the slick grass, but the game pressed on until the ninth.

Before the stoppage, the Yankees broke out offensively with 15 hits. Mark Teixeira provided the big blast, smacking the Yanks' first non-single of the day, a home run to lead off the seventh inning that extended the Yankees' lead to 6-4. But it was the Yankees bullpen which let them down.

Happily for the Rangers, their 50th win of the season was worth the wait.

As for the Yankees, they might be glad to know the stands were empty and TVs off by the time they blew the game. 


Maybe if Girardi didn't call for that bogus pre-game suspension things might have ended differently for the Yankees — well, at least a whole lot earlier.
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Saturday, June 25, 2016

Mom drops off Giants’ Eli Apple at first day of practice (VIDEO)

New York Giants cornerback Eli Apple may be 20 years old, but he's still not grown up enough to deny his mother the pleasure of driving him to his first day of practice as an NFL player.

Early Thursday morning, the NFL rookie's mom, Annie Apple, posted a video to Twitter of herself driving Eli to the training facility at MetLife Stadium. According to mom, she's been driving her son to football practice since he was a kid and couldn't pass up the chance to drop him off at training camp again.


"It's Eli's first day," Annie says, with excitement in her voice.


The proud mother then posted a video of her son walking toward the bus, narrating his every move, with the hashtag #MommyCam.

"Look at Eli," Annie, a Twitter star in her own right, says, proudly. "Aw, he's putting in his bag in the bus with other grown people."



Apple — a New Jersey native who was the 10th overall pick in the NFL draft in April — is probably hoping his new teammates don't see the 'aww...mom' moment.

But really, who hasn't been in that situation? At least before you got your driver's license.
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Lightning's NHL draft strategy leaked on Twitter by Sabres fan

A sneaky Buffalo Sabres fan got his/her hands on a piece of Tampa Bay’s draft playbook Thursday afternoon and the slick Twitter user decided to put images of the Lightning’s purloined trade strategy online.


The piece of computer paper, titled “Trade Ideas - 2016”, lists potential Lightning trading partners based on draft picks.

The user said that his friend found the paper in a hotel lobby. The conversation between the two was later obtained by @TheDailyHockey twitter account and posted again.


No players are listed on the posts — only picks. But it listed past trades involving the franchise’s draft picks, and teams’ tendencies when it comes to trading up and down in the draft.

The original tweet was taken down but not before a screen-shot of it was posted by @kikkerlaika, who sent it to her almost-2,000 followers and turned the incident into a sort of Draftgate.

“We’d like to ask you to please take the tweets down and ask that your friend not share it either,” the Lightning pleaded via Twitter after the images were posted.

The leaker had a snarky suggestion in his reply.

“Sure as long as (Lightning star Steven) Stamkos signs with the Sabres.”

Stamkos is expected to become one of the most coveted free agents in league when he hits the market on July 1. Buffalo is one of the front-runners to land the former 60-goal scorer and have the salary cap to do it.

Whether or not the Lightning ended up sticking to their script is unknown but the team did take Brett Howden, a center out of Manitoba, with the 27th pick.
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Thursday, June 23, 2016

Derrick Rose could bring rape case PR nightmare to Knicks

The newest member of the New York Knicks, Derrick Rose, is bringing more than just his talent to the NBA team and, if the former MVP's sexual battery case goes to trial Oct. 4, the first day of preseason and Rose is liable, the Knicks organization could start the season with a PR nightmare.


Outside of suffering numerous injuries with the Chicago Bulls, the star point guard has been accused in a lawsuit of drugging and gang raping a woman along with two of his close friends.

The woman, identified as "Jane Doe" in the suit which was filed in 2015, claims that Rose and two of his friends entered her California apartment and gang raped her in August of 2013.

The 27-year-old Rose denied the allegations but did acknowledge that he had a consensual sexual relationship with the woman. 

In court documents, the woman claims that she became involved, both romantically and sexually, with Rose at a party he was hosting in Los Angeles in October of 2011. The woman, who is suing for $21.5 million in damages, says that she was attracted to Rose because he was "quiet, shy and reserved."

However, she says in the lawsuit that the former Chicago Bulls player's sexual demands made her uncomfortable.

The woman says the 2008 first round NBA draft pick reportedly asked her to have sex with him and one of his friends named Randall Hampton in 2013. 

Hampton along with the point guard's childhood friend, Ryan Allen, are also named in her lawsuit as defendant and was first filed in Los Angeles Superior Court before being transferred to federal court.
  
The trial was scheduled for October 4 by U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald. That is also the same day that the NBA preseason tips off.
  
The Knicks have yet to comment about the lawsuit against Rose. 
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Saturday, June 11, 2016

Man with 'Trump Sucks' painted on chest crashes court during Game 4 of NBA Finals (VIDEO)

Television viewers saw Game 4 of the NBA Finals get pretty physical with LeBron James mixing it up with some rough play and verbal scraps with both Draymond Green and Stephen Curry. But what they didn't see was see was what happened in the fourth quarter when a shirtless fan with "Trump Sucks" painted on his chest made a mad dash across the court during a stoppage in play.


Security quickly tackled the knucklehead fan — who ABC refused to show — before escorting him off the floor. Mark Jackson, the former NBA star and Warriors coach praised security for the speed in which they removed the idiot.




Golden State won Game 4 in Cleveland and looks to clinch its second straight NBA title Monday at home.
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