UC football
AP: UC won't play games at Paul Brown Stadium
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Reds
I know...I know....it's "just" Spring Training.
Consider opponents are hitting .325 vs Reds starting pitching this spring.
Starting pitchers have allowed 15 HR in 89 innings. Bullpen: 15 HR in 144.2 innings.
Starting pitchers have just 50 strikeouts in 89.1 innings.
Starting staff ERA this spring: 5.94
Team ERA this spring: 5.67
Team ERA would be highest in spring since at least 1970 (as far back as game notes track).
Offense
Reds out hit .295 to .260
Reds outscored 151-122
Reds out homered 30 to 19
More K's 238 to 176
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Jinx?
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Reds
Here we go...Masset to DL
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NCAA hoops
Kentucky-Duke: The Greatest Game Ever Played
Mike DeCourcy, The Sporting News
Where were you on March 28, 1992? You might not know the answer to that question without a bit more information. Better question: Where were you when Christian Laettner hit "The Shot"?
For a generation of college basketball fans, sports fans, it is one of those seminal questions most everyone can answer: At home, in a college dorm, in a bar, in a hotel room. Several thousand fortunate souls were seated in the stands at the Spectrum that Saturday. A few hundred were seated at the courtside press tables. For them, it was work, but it rarely felt like it that night.
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MLB opens in Japan and on tape delay?
Welcome to MLB Opening Day 2012. What a day for our national pastime!
Did you know the Oakland A's and Seattle Mariners start the season today, a week ahead of the rest of baseball, in Japan? First MLB ships the game to Japan, which means first pitch is 6:10AM eastern time. Next MLB opts to not broadcasts the game live. I was actually fired up this morning to watch a game that mattered. I woke Casey up at 6:15 and he said, "is the game on?". We turned on the TV to find no live coverage of Opening Day 2012. The sport has a 24-hour MLB Network and doesn't show Opening Day live? The game is shown on tape delay at 9AM? Hey Bud, that is sheer marketing brilliance.
Way to target the Stay at Home Mom demographic. Are you kidding me? Have I been transported in a time machine back to 1980? Are the NBA Finals: Lakers-76ers on after the 11pm news tonight?
I can just imagine Roger Goodell and the NFL shipping this year's Opening Night game (Dallas-NY Giants) out of the country and then showing it on tape delay.
Uh wait, no I can't. Look, I get trying to globalize your sport. I get how important the Japanese market is to MLB. 70% of MLB's international revenue comes from Japan.
I don't get selling out your sport's soul for another country. MLB already sent an All-Star team to Taiwan to play this offseason. And how about the A's and Mariners? They play two regular season games in Japan, THEN fly back to spring training for 5 games, THEN re-start their MLB season.
Remember the good old days when tradition still meant something and ML allowed Cincinnati the honor of opening the season first?
Baseball, hot dogs, applie pie and Japan on tape delay. Shame on Bud Selig.
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20 years ago today: The Shot
This ESPN Sports Century feature is fantastic!
The box score of the game
20 years after The Shot: A new start for Laettner
AP
Twenty years later, through an up-and-down NBA career and an even more turbulent venture into real estate, The Shot still follows Laettner. He’ll always be the subject of "Whatever happened to ..." questions. Even more so as the NCAA tournament gets underway and especially this year, on the 20th anniversary.
The answer, for now: After a three-year period during which creditors have obtained judgments totaling more than $26 million against Laettner, a business partner and their companies, the former NBA All-Star is trying to rebuild and make a new mark in basketball — as a coach.
New book rekindles memories of 1992 Duke-UK game
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Congrats to a Butler Bulldog
Butler guard Ronald Nored will be named head coach at Brownsburg High School this morning. Nored will start his job after his graduation from Butler in May. Brownsburg won the 2008 Class 4A championship, led by Julian Mavunga (Miami) and Gordon Hayward (Butler/Utah Jazz).
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Bengals
Lewis praises Gruden
Tampa Tribune
"He has a bright future, we all know that,'' Lewis said, "but Jay Gruden is a guy who has his head down, focused on what he's doing. He's not worried about what's coming down the line. Jay also had a few opportunities with some major universities as well after the season, and he's going to have opportunities to move on in the future. In my mind, he made a big statement about the city and the organization when he said he was staying with the Bengals.''
Hobson: Breakfast under the radar
Lewis: Don't fret over wide receiver
Love this
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Final Four
(Getty Images)
Why you should feel sorry for UK fans
Wall Street Journal
This should be a moment of elation for Kentucky fans. Their team plays a ruthlessly beautiful brand of basketball. Their starting lineup is better than the New Jersey Nets.
And yet there is something lurking underneath: A sense that winning is, in its own odd way, making UK's fans miserable. Their expectations of triumph—be it recruiting battles or tournament games—has hardened into a coarse entitlement. It's gotten to the point where even a championship will feel like anticlimax.
My best friend, a rare species of Louisville-turned-Kentucky turncoat, admits it. "It's not fun," he says. "We expect it."
UK-UL is no ordinary rivalry
Yahoo
For fans on both sides of the most heated rivalry in college basketball, Saturday is Armageddon. In a state that cares the most about this sport – check the NCAA tournament TV ratings every year – there never has been a game with this much on the line. In a commonwealth bereft of pro franchises, where there is genuine enmity between the two celebrity coaches and the programs always are measured against each other, this is the sporting event of a lifetime.
Huge favorite Kentucky is on a collision course with history, and nothing short of winning its eighth title will suffice. Underdog Louisville stands in the way, positioned to strike a mortal blow to its archenemy.
“For Kentucky fans, it would be the worst thing that ever happened,” Jeff Duncan predicted.
Pitino: UK-UL has lead to bad marriages
Fist fight erupts between UK and U of L fans during dialysis
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Check it out!
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Reds
Marshall confident he can close
Mark Sheldon, MLB.com
"I've definitely pitched at least three days in a row and been hot and ready to pitch a fourth game, too, and felt good," Marshall said. "It really depends on how many pitches I throw in an outing. It depends on how many days I pitch in a row and how many times I get up and get down. Those are big factors as a reliever. I've definitely done it before and had good success pitching consecutive games. If it's necessary, I'm more than capable of doing it."
Sheldon: Lefty reliever Mike Gonzalez auditions for Reds
Gonzales file:
LHP
2011: Baltimore and Texas
2-2 4.39 1 SV, 56 G, 53.1 IN, 51 H, 21 BB, 51 K, .250 BA
Career:
387 ML appearances: 17-21 2.94 with 56 saves
24 saves for Pirates in 2006
Career splits: .217 vs RHB, .213 vs LHB
2011 splits: .287 vs RHB, .214 vs LHB
Scott Boras client
Baseball-Intellect: Cincinnati Reds Top 15 prospects
Interesting read on Dusty Baker's approach to his bench...vets vs youth
Building benches faster
Baseball-Prosectus
Maybe Baker has relinquished his need for veteran presence because he trusts in Walt Jocketty’s vision. Or maybe Baker just feels the Reds develop more wholesome young players than his previous organizations did. A more extrovertly creative manager might receive credit for thinking outside of the box in Chicago. Did Baker, realizing that the Cubs play a day-game-heavy schedule, favor veterans who might take their rest more seriously than late-night benders? Heck, maybe it’s all statistical noise and Baker just goes with the flow. The only way to ever find out is to ask the man himself—and even then, we probably wouldn’t like how he gave his answer.
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Events
May 12, 2012 Glenview Golf Course - Glendale, OH S3C Golf Classic (1:30 PM) Pay it Forward Car Show (9 AM - 5 PM)
