Bengals
The Bengals today signed G/C Trevor Robinson of Notre Dame as a college free agent.
Robinson (6-5, 310; Elkhorn, Neb.) played in 48 games with 40 starts in his Notre Dame career, including 13/13 last season. He is the Bengals’ 15th college free agent signee. The CFAs will have their first work with the team during the team’s minicamp for rookies and eligible first-year players May 11-13 at Paul Brown Stadium.
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Down on the Farm
CINCINNATI - Class A Bakersfield SS Billy Hamilton and LHP Tony Cingrani have been named the Cincinnati Reds' Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Month for April.
Hamilton, 21, in 23 games in April led all of professional baseball with 29 stolen bases and led all Reds farmhands in batting average (.398). He also led the California League in batting average, stolen bases, on-base percentage (.481), triples (4) and runs scored (24) and ranked among the leaders in hits (T-2nd, 35) and total bases (T-4th, 52).
The switch-hitter entered the 2012 season ranked No. 48 on Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects list and was rated the second-best prospect in the organization. Hamilton was selected by the Reds in the second round of the 2009 first-year player draft out of Taylorsville (MS) High School.
"This is a great honor," Hamilton said. "I've worked extremely hard to get better at the plate, be more patient and pick my spots. Another goal now is to keep this up for the whole year and I'll work hard to make that happen."
Cingrani, 22, led all Reds minor leaguers and tied for second among all minor league pitchers with a 0.39 ERA in April. He ranked fourth in the organization with 28 strikeouts in 23.0 innings while leading the California League in ERA, batting average against (.117) and WHIP (0.61). Cingrani allowed just 1 earned run on 9 hits and 5 walks while posting a 2-1 record.
Cingrani was selected by the Reds in the third round of the 2011 first-year player draft out of Rice University.
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Bengals/NFL
Jordan Palmer talks about his departure from Bengals
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Adam Yauch, co-founder of Beastie Boys, dead at 47
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Kentucky Derby
Picks and stuff from Dan Clasgens, GetSportsInfo.com
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UK news
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky men’s basketball coach John Calipari and assistant coaches Orlando Antigua, Kenny Payne and John Robic have signed multi-year contracts with the University of Kentucky, UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart announced on Friday.
“It’s rare, in this day and age, to be able to keep a staff together that has helped produce a national championship and back-to-back Final Four runs,” Barnhart said. “We want to show them how appreciative we are of their hard work and dedication, and how much they mean to this program.”
Calipari, who signed a new eight-year deal last spring, was awarded an 8.3 percent increase annually in guaranteed compensation from media rights and endorsements over the remaining seven years of his current contract. Calipari’s contract amendment also added a retention bonus of $1 million on July 31, 2015.
Antigua, who has been at Kentucky for three seasons, signed a two-year deal worth $525,000 plus incentives. Payne, who just completed his second season at UK, signed a three-year deal worth $1.05 million plus incentives, and Robic, who has also been at Kentucky for three seasons, signed a two-year deal worth $575,000 plus incentives.
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UC
Hoard: Two more years not enough for Kirkpatrick
Nice touch
We got this by email yesterday
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Show preview
3:05, ESPN 1530
6:05, Inside Pitch, 700 WLW
Topics
Reds: Let's prioritize and rank the players the Reds need more from
Jinx?: Should a baseball announcer inform his audience of a no-hitter in progress (see story below)
Off Beaten Path: In honor of Flying Pig Marathon weekend...the Top 20 Running Songs All-Time from Men's Health.
Reds
Cairo a model for young Dragons
Reds 4 Cubs 3 (With a little luck)
Todd Jones, Columbus Dispatch
CINCINNATI — Baseball’s arduous season begs for patience, but high expectations surrounding the Reds tempt everyone to paint the team with immediate broad strokes.
Frustration has greeted the Reds, and understandably so in this Twitter-mad culture, for they are 12-12 in a year in which many forecast them to win the National League Central.
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MLB/Superstitions
Should announcers say no-hitter is in progress?
LA Times
"Why are you keeping that a secret from your audience?" Steiner said. "In the 21st century we have this thing called the Internet. People in Swaziland know a no-hitter is going on. If you have those baseball superstitions from 40 years ago, OK, but do you not have some obligation to inform the audience?"
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College basketball
No good reason is good enough for IU-UK to end
Mark Story, Lexington Herald Leader
It was a bad day for Kentucky and its basketball rivalries with other traditional titans. Barnhart indicated UK's series with North Carolina also is close to ending.
"I'd say right now that's probably closer to being true than not," he said.
End of IU-UK shows need for significant scheduling reform
SI
It's no secret that the sport is being perceived more and more as a six-week product, that college and then pro football rule the roost into early February and then casual fans maybe start paying attention to conference races. The importance of those conference races are, for most intents and purposes, diminished by this nation's obsession with knockout tournaments and brackets. Championship week, bubble talk and then the NCAAs define our sport. Nothing else matters much at all to outsiders. The best regular-season matchups have ratings dwarfed by mediocre college football games.
Crawford: You can charge this unforced turnover mostly to Calipari
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Off The Beaten Path
Do you run? What do you listen to when you run? What fires you up?
In honor of the Flying Pig Marathon this weekend I have the perfect Off The Beaten Path topic for today:
The 20 best running songs of all-time
Men's Health
This song didn't make their list....it's #1 on mine...fantastic song...fantastic movie:(Language warning once movie dialogue begins at 2-min mark)
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MLB
If it's closing time for Rivera, it's one sad ending
NY Post
But in the shocking immediacy of this injury there is mostly just sadness. Look, no one wants to see any athlete injured, as much as this is a reality of the livelihood. And perhaps you can make the case Rivera had avoided the reality better than almost anyone. On April 29 he reached nine years since he was last on the DL. His durability in a job that generally eats its young has contributed to his relentless aura.
Yet I feel sadness. Because when you go the ballpark you would like to see greatness and — if at all possible — nobility, and no one has combined those two qualities like Rivera. I would dare say I have never heard an opponent speak badly of Rivera. Heck, I don’t think I have ever heard an opponent speak in anything but deference about Rivera. Teammates and foes alike sound like they are talking about an apparition as much as a player.
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NFL
NFL veterans have reason to be worried
St Louis Post Dispatch
America's most popular sport and most violent game has a big problem on its hands. When a 43-year-old former superstar spends 20 years in the league head-banging his way toward a certain Hall of Fame career, then barely lasts one year in retirement before he ends his life senselessly, and it happens a week after Easterling killed himself and within 15 months of Duerson's suicide, it's impossible not to wonder if there's a connection.
Fantastic
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Kentucky Oaks
From Dan Cronin
