NHL Lawsuit – Wednesday

Posted by Lee Hacksaw Hamilton on August 20, 2014 • 0 Comments • Full article

It took them 10-years, cost a player his career, allowed a player to earn millions more, and this is supposed to be justice.

The NHL lawsuit involving Todd Bertuzzi and Steven Moore has been settled out of court, a decade after one player assaulted the other, ending his rookie career. It never went to trial, it was a cash payout.

Bertuzzi, a brute of a center, while playing for Vancouver, jumped Moore, a smallish center icemen for Colorado, from behind in a game, Punched him into unconsciousness, fractured his neck, broke vertebrae, and ended his career.

The NHL suspended Bertuzzi for some 50 games and the playoffs. He was found guilty of simple assault in court, but never served a day in jail. It hurt his team in postseason, and it cost him 502,000-in salaries.

Steven Moore has never been the same since the ambush attack. He forever has concussion symptoms, not only gave up hockey, but cannot hold a job because of headaches, eyesight problems, vertigo and emotional trauma. A career ended at age 25.

Allegations of a vendetta against the Colorado player, because he had leg whipped a Canucks player earlier in the season. Legal action that dragged coach Mark Crawford into the incident for putting a bounty of Moore’s head. Threats of litigation against then GM-Brian Burke.

Moore filed a 68M-lawsuit for damages. Tied up in red-tape, it never saw the light of day in court. It dragged on for a decade.

All the while, Moore sits at home in darkened rooms, his hockey life and his work life forever gone. Bertuzzi has played on, earning $47M in salaries as a multi-time free agent.

A 6’4 giant of a player, jumping on the back of a 5’10 checking center, pounding him senseless, leaving him in a pool of blood on the ice.

They settled, reportedly for 8M, a pittance of a fee for a rich man Bertuzzi, no where’s near enough for the damages forever done to Moore.

The legal system, and the NHL, you tell me who is served by this end result.

Tuesday August 19th, 2014

Posted by Lee Hacksaw Hamilton on August 19, 2014 • 0 Comments • Full article

The numbers are just staggering, not the won-loss record of the Padres, or the perpetual drought of playoff seasons under Manager Bud Black.

No, the numbers of surgeries to their pitching staff.

You don’t really know Max Friend, but the Padres scouts do, and the organization in spinning like a top, with the news, he is the next one to need the so-called Tommy John elbow surgery.

San Diego is in lst place right now, first place for the wrong reason, first place in most elbow surgeries in recent years.

In a baseball season marred by 36-surgeries to players for torn elbow ligaments since February 15th, the Padres have set their own high water mark. Not for home runs, nor stolen bases, nor for wins, but for guys on the mound cut on by team doctors.

Fried becomes the 12th Padres pitcher to have surgery in 17-months. Everyone of their young minor league arms have had surgery now. The so-called ace of the staff Andrew Cashner has had six different arm issues in three years, but luckily has escaped the knife.

Corey Leubke is recovering from his second elbow surgery in two years, and won’t pitch till sometime in 2015. Casey Kelly has had surgery and multiple setbacks in rehab. Joe Wieland finally pitched in a game in El Paso last weekend, after surgery and additional elbow woes. Robbie Erlin avoided surgery and is just coming off the DL.

Josh Johnson, the ex-Blue Jay-Marlin, who was once the feared right-hander in the National League, is recovering from his second Tommy John surgery and his 3rd operation overall. He never got to throw a pitch for the Friars.

It goes on and on, the body bag count. From Jason Marquis to Dustin Moseley, and everyone in between, the numbers are staggering for this club alone.

The Padres have researched it, but don’t have an answer, at least no common thread reasons.

Is it innings per year; stressful innings per outing; variety of pitches used; too much throwing; not enough throwing between starts; or just bad luck?

It’s not like the Billy Ball era of the Oakland A’s, where Billy Martin had all four starters go for over 225-innings in a season, and they all broke down within a year. It’s surely not the era of Glavine-Maddux-Smoltz and all the wins, starts and innings in the Atlanta Braves era, where they had just 1-surgery combined for all three pitchers.

Bad luck, bad handling of pitchers, no one knows.

What is known is that the future of the team was built around these young arms, they all got here, and they got hurt.

And because of the injuries, the numbers are staggering, no playoffs in 8-Bud Black seasons and 11-losing seasons in 16-years.

They say good pitching beats good hitting. Hurt pitching gets you buried in the standings and you sometimes never recover for that.

Chargers in Camp

Posted by Lee Hacksaw Hamilton on August 18, 2014 • 0 Comments • Full article

NFL preseason games may be viewed as meangingless, but they are really not. They are to evaluate players, game situations, strengths and weaknesses.

Two games into the exhibition schedule, the Chargers have as win against a wretched Cowboys team, and a blowout loss to the team with the Super Bowl trophy, Seattle.

Time to stop talking platitudes over at the Fortress, time to talk plights. Time to deal with reality not fantasy.

The Chargers will be as a good an offensive team as their is in the NFL, because QB-Philip Rivers will see to that. They will score a lot of points and they will have to because the defense cannot stop anyone.

Yes it was preseason, but it was awful on Friday night. The Seahawks ran up 41-points, put up (403Y) in offense. San Diego’s defense was awful, breakdowns, guys running open all night, poor gap play, even worse tackling. And more than anything else, it was as if no one wanted to compete.

Last season we witnessed the Chargers secondary ranked 29th in pass defense. This past weekend, they gave up 20-plays of 8-yards or more, including chunk plays that covered 24-37-39-41-47 yards. Sure looked like last year, this year.

No one wearing a Bolt on their helmet, ever made a defensive play, and that was with virtually the entire starting defensee on the field. Yes it was Russell Wilson and his dynamic talents leading the Seahawks, but no one stepped up to slow any facet of the Seattle package down.

And this came a week after Dallas’ first unit, playing without QB-Tony Romo, went up and down the field when it was their first unit vs San Diego’s number ones. .

And now to complicate things, nagging injuries are everywhere.

Weak at nose-tackle, now Sean Lissimore has an ankle injury. Defensive end Cory Liuget has been on and off the field with a strained foot. Linebacker Manti Te’o now has a sprained left foot, luckily not the right one that was hurt last year. Newly acquired Brandon Flowers has yet to show any form that made him special in Kansas City. And lst round pick Justin Verrett, he of red-jersey fame, still has not been in contact coming off shoulder surgery, and seems way behind everyone. Mental reps don’t mean much if you cannot get on the field.

Mike McCoy is great at cliches, the positive platitudes and all, but he needs to deal with the plight of his team, the specifics, the shortcomings. They don’t seem to have enough people on defense, and the ones they have seem awful young and mistake prone. They don’t seem to be tough enough up front either.

Granted it was just a preseason game, but it counts lots for showing what you might have (offense) and what you really don’t have (defense). Another preseason game with the 49ers, then Arizona, then you start playing real people, and you know who is on that schedule once they start playing for real.

3-weeks to fix it, but I think they need more than just time to solve what they have seen in camp. They need more people.

The Vote…

Posted by Lee Hacksaw Hamilton on August 15, 2014 • 0 Comments • Full article

Baseball has a new commissioner; he’s the old commissioner’s hand picked replacement.

It was nasty and ugly in Baltimore, but heated arguments gave way to cooler heads, and it took just two votes for the 30-owners to choose Rob Manfred to replace Bud Selig.

There was in-fighting thruout the day, rancor, a call for renewal of hostilities, and then peace. The owners interviewed each of the finalists, and a session with Manfred, Selig’s longtime assistant, got testy during questioning from Jerry Reinsdorf, the White Sox owner.

Reinsdorf was the owner who tried to lead a coup at the last minute, and get Tom Werner of the Red Sox voted in.

The Chicago owner went after Manfred about his tact in negotiations with the Union, criticizing him and demanding responses why there is no salary cap, why there is increased revenue sharing, and why the union seems to win at the bargaining table.

Manfred held his ground, and though the first vote was (22-8), it wasn’t enough to get Manfred the job.

Then there were meetings amongst Selig and owners, and the realization of what the current MLB leadership has been able to produce. Revenues have gone from 2B a year to 9B. There is more competitive balance in the game than ever before as witnessed by the fact there are 12 teams fighting for wild card spots with 5-weeks left in the season.

Common sense conversation reminded the owners of the labor peace over the last 20-years, upgraded drug testing, the growth of all things MLB-Media related.

When they re-voted, it was unanimous (30-0) for Manfred.

A win for Selig definitely. More so a terrible blow to the power hungry Reinsdorf, his attitude and his candidate Tom Werner.

Baseball’s back when common sense form people like Ron Fowler of the Padres and Stan Kasten of the Dodgers prevailed.

Continuity, not confrontation, will help grow the game.