Haven't we been down this road before?

MassLive:

Boston Red Sox 2B Dustin Pedroia, who Manny Machado of the Baltimore Orioles spiked Friday, then expressed his frustration following the game. He seemed to take Machado's side, instead of his team's side.

"I just told him I didn't have anything to do with that," Pedroia said Sunday. "That's not how you do that, man. I'm sorry to him and his team. If you're going to protect guys, you do it right away. "

Pedroia's comments received heavy criticism over the past 48 hours. He responded today here at Fenway Park.

"We all talked about that and we're going to keep that in-house," Pedroia said. "We feel good about each other. We all have each other's backs. Everybody knows how everybody feels about each other. We're pretty excited about the group we have."

He was asked to clarify what he meant by "That's not me, that's them."

"I just did. I think the guys that should know, know how we feel about each other and things like that," Pedroia said. "It's unfortunate that the outside has an opinion. They're going to have an opinion about everything. We all know how we feel. We're moving on. We're getting ready for this series, then the Cubs, then the Orioles."

When 17 Red Sox players wanted manager Bobby Valentine fired in 2012, they were happy to spend part of an off-day at a hotel in New York complaining about their brutal lot in life to owners' John Henry and Larry Lucchino.

When the funeral for Johnny Pesky--Pesky spent over six decades with the Red Sox in various capacities-- was held on another off-day, Monday afternoon in Swampscott, four players decided to show up. David Ortiz, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Clay Buchholz and Vicente Padilla represented the 2012 Red Sox at Johnny Pesky's funeral. While transportation services were provided from Fenway Park, the near empty yellow bus for the players made the trip to the North Shore and back.

"My No. 1 priority that day was being there, being with family and just sharing that last moment with him. I said on the airplane to everybody, 'Expect his funeral tomorrow. If you can go ahead and show up, go ahead, that would be great.' If they could make it, great. ... The funeral is the last goodbye you give to a friend. There's no way you're a friend with somebody, that person passes away and you're not going to show up to his funeral." -- David Ortiz.

Johnny Pesky took the time daily to hit fungoes(a long lightweight bat for hitting practice balls to fielders) to Dustin Pedroia. Claiming he couldn't find a babysitter for his three year son Dylan, Dustin Pedroia skipped the funeral and stayed home.

Vice Sports:

Reggie Jackson did indeed play for the Baltimore Orioles for one year—1976, the lone season of his career that he wasn't a member of the Oakland A's, the New York Yankees or the California Angels.

After mouthing off to New York Yankees pitcher Dock Ellis when the latter nearly grazed the slight Orioles shortstop Mark Belanger with a homeward toss—"Why don't you hit a big guy like me?" Reggie taunted—he found himself on the receiving end of a high-and-tight fastball from Ellis, who may have also been delivering some delayed payback for the gargantuan home run that Jackson had hit off of him in Detroit during the 1971 All-Star Game. "Did I kill him?" Ellis chuckled to the home plate umpire, while Jackson writhed in the dirt, his signature aviator shades smashed to pieces.

X-rays showed no damage beyond a badly-bruised cheekbone. Jackson expressed disappointment to the press that Ellis hadn't called to see how he was doing; perhaps the pitcher was too busy counting the twenty-dollar bills that had been surreptitiously stuffed into his locker by his teammates as a tip for beaning Reggie. "Someone didn't like him," Ellis would later reflect in his autobiography. "He was supposed to get hit!"

Baltimore Orioles ace righthander pitcher Jim Palmer put aside his feelings for teammate Reggie Jackson following the near beaning by Ellis. Palmer had been critical of Jackson since his early season holdout. "The fact that Reggie is not here from the start has hurt the attitude of the club and it has hurt our performance on the field," raged the 1975 AL Cy Young winner. "Do you think it ever occurred to Jackson that there are 24 other guys over here counting on him?"

Like him or not, Palmer said to Jackson, "Should I hit the first two Yankees I face or shall I keep going"? Jackson replied, "One is plenty."

Most people only remember the New York Yankees contract—while Jackson's image on the August 30, 1976 cover of Sports Illustrated primarily elicits a puzzled reaction from those who view it: "Huh? Reggie played for the Orioles?" There isn't even a baseball card for it. Reggie's holdout prevented a 1976 baseball card for the slugger so the 1977 card, as a member of the Yankees, was airbrushed with the Orioles' logo.

Following the completion of his 21 year career, which included five World Series titles and two-time World Series MVP, Reggie Jackson stated that the 1976 Baltimore Orioles were "the best team he ever played on." Dustin Pedroia may want to read up on that.

Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

Canada's best athlete has it all over Michael Jordan

Wikipedia:

Lionel Pretoria Conacher, nicknamed "The Big Train", was a Canadian athlete and politician. Voted the country's top athlete of the first half of the 20th century, he won championships in numerous sports. His first passion was football; he was a member of the 1921 Grey Cup champion Toronto Argonauts. He was a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team that won the International League championship in 1926. In hockey, he won a Memorial Cup in 1920, and the Stanley Cup twice: with the Chicago Black Hawks in 1934 and the Montreal Maroons in 1935. Additionally, he won wrestling, boxing and lacrosse championships during his playing career. He and Carl Voss are the only players to have their names engraved on both the Grey Cup and Stanley Cup.

Conacher was a prolific athlete, excelling in numerous sports at the same time. He played with 14 different teams, winning 11 championships. He was 16 years old when he won the Ontario lightweight wrestling championship, and at 20 won the Canadian amateur light-heavyweight boxing championship. In 1921, he fought, and was knocked out by heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey in an exhibition match.

Numerous organizations have honored Conacher's career. In addition to being named Canada's athlete of the half-century, he was named the country's top football player over the same period. He was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1955, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1964, the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1965, the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1994, and the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1996. The Canadian Press gives the Lionel Conacher Award to its male athlete of the year.

Wayne Gretzky, who was voted Canada's top athlete for the second half of the 20th Century, has won the Lionel Conacher award six times.

Conacher's younger brothers, Charlie Conacher, and Roy Conacher, were also Hall of Fame hockey players. His namesake, Lionel Jr., was a first round draft pick in 1960 and played a season with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. Brian Conacher, a second son, was a member of The Toronto Maple Leafs 1967 Stanley Cup championship team. This was the last year that the Maple Leafs won the title.

Cory Conacher was born with a rare condition in which his bladder was outside his body. As a result, he underwent a ten-hour surgical procedure at only five days old in which doctors reconstructed his pelvis in order to place his bladder back into his body. The situation was so severe that doctors informed his parents that he might never walk properly. Conacher is a distant relative of Hockey Hall of Famers Charlie, Roy, and Lionel Conacher. Cory graduated from Canisius College and plays for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Greatest American Athlete of the 20th century, according to the SportsCentury program on ESPN, is basketballer Michael Jordan, apparently in a close call with baseball player Babe Ruth.

Not only did Ruth belt 714 home runs in addition to 2,214 Runs Batted In, he also pitched, winning 94 games while losing 46 with a lifetime ERA of 2.28. He won all three of his World Series starts before becoming a full-time outfielder with the New York Yankees following his trade from the Boston Red Sox.

In 1994, Jordan played for the Birmingham Barons, a Double-A minor league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, batting .202 with three home runs, 51 runs batted in, 114 strikeouts, 51 base on balls, 30 stolen bases and 11 errors. Jordan struck out 26.1% of his plate appearances. New York Yankees great outfielder Joe DiMaggio struck out only 5.4% in his at bats, never more than 39 times in any of his 13 seasons.


Try as he might, Michael Jordan has found baseball beyond his grasp. That might be an understatement.

Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

Gross Misconduct follows in the family

Dennis Kane:

Imagine how proud Roy Spencer must have been. Roy’s boy Brian was about to play, on national television, for the fabled Toronto Maple Leafs in his first NHL game.

Brian Spencer had been no angel growing up, not by a long shot. The boy was quick-tempered, and quicker to fight, but everyone in Fort St. James, a dark, blue-collar town in northern British Columbia, knew he was a chip off the old block. After all, old man Roy was known in those parts as a fiery, hard-living, no-nonsense type of fellow, and his family, for all intents and purposes, was a tough family in a tough town.

When Brian learned he was going to Toronto, he quickly made his own call. It was to his dad Roy back home who, by that time, was dying from kidney disease. He was playing, he told his dad, and his game was to be aired on Hockey Night in Canada from coast to coast!

Bad kidneys or not, it must have been one of the best days of Roy’s life. For a proud hockey dad, something like this just doesn’t get any better. In the end, it couldn’t have gotten any worse.

The Canadian Broadcasting Company knew nothing about Roy and Brian Spencer and the big debut in the Toronto Maple Leafs uniform, and for whatever reason decided to air the Vancouver-Oakland game instead. It was a decision that led to tragedy. Roy, once he realized what was happening, rose from his chair in front of the television, got into his car with his rifle, and drove 85 miles to the nearest television station, in Prince George.

At the station, Roy demanded they show the Leafs game, a demand that was refused, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were called. Roy found himself in a shoot-out with the police, and the proud dad, who only wanted to see his boy playing in his first NHL game, was quickly shot and killed.

Brian Spencer’s career lasted 10 years, with stops after Toronto in Long Island, Buffalo and Pittsburgh. In 1987, while living a drifter’s life in Florida, Spencer was indicted by a Florida grand jury on charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping with the death penalty on the table. Former teammate, Buffalo Sabres' star left wing Richard Martin came as a character witness in Spencer's defense. Brian was acquitted for lack of evidence.

Three months later, while he was beginning to get his life back in order, he was murdered by a young hoodlum trying to rob him. His friend Greg Cook told police that they had just purchased drugs and had stopped to grab some cigarettes. They were then confronted by a robber, who Cook claims shot Spencer and ran off.

The life of Aaron Hernandez is eerily similar to that of Brian Spencer. Both were athletes whose lives spun out of control.

Kevin Armstrong, NYDailyNews:

Aaron Hernandez negotiated a narrow path to such luxurious living. Born and raised in Bristol, Conn., a two-hour commute from his current home, Hernandez excelled as a prep star at Bristol Central High, establishing several state receiving records before losing his father, Dennis at age 36, to complications from hernia surgery. The roots of Hernandez’s unraveling begin there, by most accounts, but can be traced through his time in Florida and in his first three seasons as a New England Patriot. Coaches, ranging from Geno Auriemma in AAU, to Urban Meyer in Gainesville, Fla., and now Bill Belichick, have gotten the most out of him on the basketball court and football field, but many also expressed concern about his behavior and maturity as he won a college title and played in a Super Bowl.

Bill Belichick was actually issued a subpoena and just openly defied the request to appear in court for Hernandez' double murder trial. I am confident Bill wasn't going to say anything nice so he said nothing at all. He said "enough."

Gross Misconduct - The Life of Brian 'Spinner' Spencer by Martin O' Malley, 1988. The book was made into a TV film. The sequel should be a bestseller.


Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

Brad Marchand is another Eddie Haskell

Eddie Haskell – America’s Bad Boy! The act of overt flattery to put someone at ease so you can take advantage of their lowered defenses.

“When child actor Ken Osmond stepped onto the set of Leave it to Beaver in 1957, he not only entered our living rooms, he homesteaded a permanent place in the American pop culture. The poster child for sneaky, rotten kids everywhere, he was the reference point for cautious mothers to warn their children about. And everyone in America knew an Eddie Haskell at some point in his or her lives….”

Joe McDonald, ESPN:

Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct and was ejected for spearing Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Jake Dotchin in the groin at 19:20 of the first period Tuesday night at TD Garden.

The puck was in Tampa Bay's zone and Dotchin was defending the front of the net when Marchand attempted to play the puck, but finished with the spear. Lightning trainer Tom Mulligan tended to Dotchin, who remained on the ice for several minutes before skating off on his own.

He will have a hearing with NHL Player Safety on Thursday morning.

Marchand has been suspended or fined three times previously for infractions directed at an opponent’s lower body. While slew footing and clipping are not identical plays, they involve an attack on an opponent’s lower body that can cause a defenseless player to crash dangerously to the ice. Here, Marchand again attacks the lower body of an opponent in a manner that causes him to cartwheel to the ice in a dangerous fashion. He also has a tomahawk chop on his record.

Marchand’s first suspension came in March 2011, for two games on a hit. Columbus Blue Jackets' center, R.J. Umberger was in a vulnerable position: off-balance, low to the ice, with his back to Marchand. Marchand stuck an elbow out and nailed him in the back of the head.

Slew footing the New York Rangers’ forward Derick Brassard. He was unhurt, and Marchand got away with a two-game suspension.

Marchand dropped low and hammered Vancouver Canucks' defenseman Sami Salo in the knees, resulting in a concussion for Salo and a five-game suspension.

Clipped Ottawa Senators' defenseman Mark Borowiecki from behind earning a three game suspension.

Jonathan Willis, Bleacher Report:

January 26, 2017 - There is every reason to think that Marchand is going to keep kicking out his opponents’ feet and hitting them from behind and going low on hits. It doesn’t seem like the NHL is all that interested in stopping him. There simply isn’t any question. He's a dirty player and a danger to his peers.

Brad Marchand is an overwhelming choice when representatives from Make-A-Wish or Team IMPACT need a volunteer to meet with their children. He has a gift. Maybe Brad can eliminate his phoniness on ice to match his off-ice behavior.

The fictional Eddie Haskell grew up and became a Los Angeles policeman.


Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver needs to get his eyes checked

SBNation:

We warned that NBA commissioner Adam Silver will soon come down on teams that rest their marquee players for national TV games without advance notice. That time may be here.

In a memo obtained by ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, Silver told NBA owners there will be “significant penalties” for teams that fail to give the league “adequate notice” a key player will be rested for a game. Silver also said the owners cannot simply delegate the responsibility of resting players to other members of the organization.

Just how severe will those penalties be if Silver follows through on his warning? In 2012, then-commissioner David Stern fined the San Antonio Spurs a whopping $250,000 for sending Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Danny Green home for a TNT game against the Miami Heat.

The memo comes after the league’s two marquee teams sat their top stars for consecutive ABC Saturday showcases. The Golden State Warriors sat Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Iguodala for a March 11 game against the San Antonio Spurs. Warriors coach Steve Kerr justified the decision by noting the Warriors were at the end of a grueling travel schedule that featured eight games in eight different cities in 13 days. All four players are on pace to play in at least 80 of the 82 regular season games.

"It's my call and it's the right thing to do in terms of the way the season is playing out and the way the minutes have gone and (Kevin Durant's) injury," Kerr said when announcing the decision. "It's the right thing to do, so we're doing it."

A week later, the Cleveland Cavaliers sat LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love for a game against the Clippers in Los Angeles. The Cavaliers were just beginning a four-game road trip and had a back-to-back in the same city against the Lakers the next day. Irving picked up a minor injury two days prior and Love is still not playing back-to-back games as part of his recovery from arthroscopic knee surgery. James has no injury, though he has logged heavy minutes as he does every season.

The playing career for Earvin 'Magic' Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers covered 12 seasons from 1980-1991. The Lakers averaged 58 wins per season for a winning percentage of .741 and won five NBA titles. Magic was rated the greatest NBA point guard of all time, earning three regular season MVP and three NBA Finals MVP Awards. Johnson became the only rookie to win the NBA Finals MVP award, and his clutch performance is still regarded as one of the finest in NBA history. He also became one of four players to win NCAA and NBA championships in consecutive years.

The first move by Magic Johnson since taking over as President of Basketball Operations for the Los Angeles Lakers in mid-February was made for the future by trading sixth man Lou Williams to the Rockets for Corey Brewer and a first-round pick. Sports Illustrated:

Really, Williams was worse than useless in LA, he was counterproductive. Every foul he drew, every four-point play he converted, and every 20-point outburst increased the chances that the Lakers don’t retain their top-3 protected first-round pick. This year, Williams is averaging a career-best 18.6 PPG and shooting a career-high 38.6% on threes, and the Lakers’ offensive efficiency rating has jumped from 98.9 to 108 when he’s been on the court.

The next move was to shut down veterans Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov for the rest of the season. Forward Deng, 31, and center Mozgov, 30, are healthy, but the Lakers want to give more minutes to the younger players over the final regular season games. Deng and Mozgov were free agent acquisitions last summer, signing contracts worth a combined $136 million over four seasons.

The team has managed but two wins in 27 games for a sparkling 0.925%. There are six games remaining in this dream season. Let us hope the commissioner can make it to see the finale on Wednesday, April 12@ Golden State 10:30 PM. Will he have an issue if Golden State rests its entire starting lineup? A bigger issue may be that 1,068 tickets are available from $92.00 and up.

Magic Johnson: My 'Showtime' Lakers would beat the Warriors. I don't know about that, but 69 year old center Kareem Abdul Jabbar would have a field day against these present day Lakers. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver should be more worried about the integrity of the game than some poor fan not getting to see an unrested superstar.


Paul Murphy

Follow me on Twitter at @_prmurphy