Monthly Archives: December 2014

Cubs and Sox: Busy, Busy Bees

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By Ellen Chlumecky

Chicago baseball fans have been buzzing this week because of the amount of trading going around with the North Side Cubs and the South Side White Sox. With trading some beloved Chicago players to acquiring some big names in the baseball world, fans’ heads are spinning with the amount of tumultuous deals going on. However, not everything is running smoothly right off the bat and not everyone is enthusiastic about the players that have been acquired by each team. As the age-old story goes with fans, you don’t get to pick who’s on your team but it doesn’t mean they won’t get complain about it.

On the South Side, the Chicago White Sox have snatched up several new players for next season. The lineup of new players includes: Jeff Samardzija, David Robertson, Melky Cabrera, Zach Duke, Dan Jennings, and Adam LaRoche. Micah Johnson and Rob Brantly are currently under debate right now. While the lineup is clearly stacked, the adjustment to so many players at once currently stands to be a problem. Namely a problem with Melky Cabrera. Cabrera had been suspended for 50 games and missed the end of the 2012 season because of elevated levels of testosterone. There has been quite a bit of controversy because of his mistake. While the biggest draw for the White Sox was Cabrera’s .351 on-base percentage in 2014 and his .339 OPB over his 10-year career. General Manager stated that “he respected the fact that Cabrera accepted and served his penalty and lived with the consequences, and he’s done his best to put it behind him.” They have a great amount of opportunity, if they can use these opportunities correctly.

While on the North Side, the Chicago Cubs have not been slouching on the trades either. In addition to the hiring of new coach, Joe Maddon, the Chicago Cubs have also acquired minor league pitcher Matt Brazis. The Cubs traded Justin Ruggiano to the Seattle Mariners for Brazis. In addition to acquiring pitcher Jason Motte. Their biggest catch though is the deal of snagging all-stars Jon Lester and Miguel Montero. However fans are not too happy about the Ruggiano trade, the Cubs management are looking into acquiring impact players who will provide leadership for the team, such as: Justin Upton and Jonny Gomes. While gaining Upton is unlikely, Gomes has connections with Maddon and might be a likely option for another trade. The Cubs management is very excited about the new steps for the next season.

While the buzz among Chicago baseball fans is growing louder and louder, there is nothing they can but just watch the trades come through the door. No matter what happens at the end of the day Cubs fans will continue to say, “this is our year.”

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Drama in Chicago

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By Kia Tyus

Offensive Coordinator anonymously bashed star quarterback Jay Cutler, Cutler then gets benched, a locker room full of confused players, and the media making the team look like the coaches and executives have no control. Yes, there is “Drama in Chicago”.

The Chicago Bears are having a terrible season and will defiantly miss the 2014-15 playoffs sitting on a sub par record of 5-9. Frustrations have been brewing for some time now.

Lately, the Bears have been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Jeff Dickerson wrote an article explaining the recent headlines of the Bears.

Dickerson’s first point was how the Bears offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer anonymously said that the Bears were having doubts about giving Cutler such a big contract. Eventually, Kromer came forward out of guilt and admitted that he was in fact the one that bashed Cutler anonymously to the media. The media tour the story apart and superstars like Aaron Rogers came forward and stood up for Cutler.

The second point Dickerson touched on was the recent benching of Cutler. The Bears announced recently that Jimmy Clausen would start verse the Detroit Lions on Sunday. This is an embarrassment to Cutler someone who has brought the Bears many wins, while Clausen has a terrible record in his stint in the NFL.

To me, this moves states that the Bears are throwing the white flag on the season. Why on Earth would you change the quarterback when you are getting ready to play against the best defense in the NFL? To me, it shows a lack of professionalism.

Insiders from the Bears organization feel that the coaches handled the Cutler benching way different from the Kromer incident. They feel as though Cutler’s mistakes were leaked to the media but Kromer received a slap on the wrist.

The last point that Dickerson made was that players are very confused about what is going on within the organization. While they chose to stay anonymous, they did say that they do not object to the benching they just feel it was handled the wrong way.

Yes, the Bears season is over and they have waved the white flag. Players have trust issues with the coaching staff which Dickerson says makes them feel “confused and uncomfortable”.

Dickerson did state however that the Bears could be playing the safety card with Cutler. In the 2014-15 season, Cutler is the highest paid offensive player banking $22.5 million. In 2015, $15.5 million and is guaranteed $10 million on March 12th. If they sit him out the last two games, he won’t get hurt and they could trade Cutler, which would save them $10 million.

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Violence Again the Topic of Another Weekend’s NFL Headlines

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By Nick Muhl

Many of this weekends National Football League games brought about more headlines discussing the violence and the aggressive nature of some of its players. Rather than game recaps and analysis, many media outlets have taken this opportunity to once again criticize the NFL for not doing a better job in educating players to avoid these types of incidents.

The largest incident this weekend by far came in the game between the Tennessee Titans and New York Jets. Late in the third quarter, Jets quarterback Geno Smith and Titans defensive lineman Jurell Casey exchanged words following a play. Jurell Casey seemed to take offense to something Geno Smith said, and threw a punch into the right side of his helmet as Smith walked away. Chaos ensued after, with both teams clearing benches into a massive brawl.

In the game between the Washington Redskins and New York Giants, Redskins receiver Santana Moss had to be ejected from the game after his furious outburst in the face of an official. Moss was upset after the officiating crew overturned a Robert Griffin III touchdown at the end of the first half.

Reporters and writers did not shy away from reporting on a heated exchange of words between Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant and Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins. The two players only seemed to jaw at each other for the most part, but the conversation did not look like a friendly one.

While some of these examples may seem petty, it brings to light an important issue the NFL must face. Since news stories of Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice, Darren Sharper, Greg Hardy and Ray McDonald broke, the NFL has tried to distance itself from being associated with questionable characters. All of these are either current or former NFL players currently under investigation in cases involving domestic violence, rape, child abuse, and other violent crimes.

This weekend is another example of how much work the NFL still has ahead of it, if it wants to repair its image and regain the respect of many. Sundays NFL games were another example of how the media will do everything it can to continue to highlight the NFL’s issue as long as it remains fresh on fans minds. The NFL may continue to grow frustrated with many media headlines, but they must focus on changing the culture of the NFL and it’s players if it wants to avoid further such headlines.

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The New York Knicks Woes

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The New York Knicks are off to their worst start in franchise history 5-21. They are becoming a laughing joke in the already terrible eastern conference. There are so many problems within the Knicks organization. Those problems can be the record itself, team chemistry, the coach, and the triangle system. The article Chris Broussard wrote about the Knicks’ woes covers the above topics.

To start everything off, Broussard jumped right into the fact that the Knicks are 5-21 on the season. With any teams, a record like that can be very discouraging. Confidence is at an all time low and frustration is at an all time high. I’m sure, many teams are beginning to not take the Knicks seriously as a basketball team especially since they are in a joke of a conference.

With the losing record, it brings me to Broussard’s second point, team chemistry. Apparently, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Carmelo Anthony, never liked each other and the fact that the Knicks can’t buy a win surely isn’t helping. Insiders have said that players are not working hard in practice and that is transferring over to games.

In fact, players have started to argue in the middle of the games even though they are fully aware that there are cameras everywhere.

The next topic of discussion is the coach Derek Fisher. Many players are used to having a soft practice like previous years with Mike Woodson. Derek Fisher has fast past hard tiring practices and some players are unhappy with that.

I believe that professional athletes can be spoiled ungrateful brats. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that you need to practice hard so the games are easy. In my opinion, Fisher is one of the most respected players to every play the game, he also has multiple championships.

Lastly, the only thing that the Knicks players seem to agree on is they feel like they should stop running the triangle offense. Players feel like it not only is the current offense not working, but also they feel as though the competition knows exactly how to guard the offense.

I feel as though that is just an excuse and if the players would listen and work hard at the offense it could possibly help them. When Knicks owner Phil Jackson was coaching the Los Angeles Lakers, they ran the triangle offense and it won them six championships.

Overall, I feel like the Knicks are starting to give up on the season and it’s so early on. I feel like Phil Jackson definitely needs to consider trading players starting with the obnoxious J.R. Smith and maybe even considering Carmelo Anthony.

Slava Voynov’s Domestic Violence Case Worse Than Expected

By Savannah Malnar

When defenseman Slava Voynov of the Los Angeles Kings was initially arrested on domestic violence charges and suspended indefinitely by the NHL in late October, the media didn’t have a lot of information on the case. Voynov and his wife both claimed it was an “accident,” but the case still went to court.

Fast forward roughly two months to Voynov’s preliminary hearing on Monday. In this hearing, what at first seemed like a possible misunderstanding became much worse. A police officer offered his testimony to the case; apparently, Voynov had pushed his wife to the ground multiple times, kicked her, choked her multiple times, and pushed her into a television which caused a gash above her eye requiring stitches.

Pretty bad, right? The people in the sport media largely agree. Big names such as Yahoo! Sports and the Bleacher Report say it like it is, calling the incident “shocking,” “bloody,” and “horrifying.” An article in the Bleacher Report praised the NHL for its initial suspension, along with its decision to fine the LA Kings $100,000 when they violated suspension protocol and allowed the defenseman to take part in a practice with the team. The NHL’s lack of toleration for both the suspected domestic violence and violation of suspension protocol shows their dedication to ensuring a high standard of how the players act off the ice. This reflects good on the league in comparison to the NFL’s mishandling of the Ray Rice case.

While the large national media outlets highlighted the moral aspect of Voynov’s case and suspension, a more local source, the LA Times, stayed completely objective on that front. In comparison to the headlines “NHL’s Hard Line with Slava Voynov Remains Justified as Horrible Details Emerge” (Bleacher Report) and “Slava Voynov kicked, choked, bloodied wife according to police” (Yahoo! Sports), the LA Times headline was simply “Domestic violence case against Slava Voynov will proceed, judge rules.” This is an extremely stark difference and reflects the habits of local sources tending to be less critical of athletes in these sorts of situations.

With domestic abuse becoming a hot topic in the sports world, both the league itself and the hockey media must be sensitive to the broad audience that the sport invites. Even with the LA Times remaining objective, the media and the NHL have done a good job so far showing this sort of behavior by a player is unacceptable and disappointing.

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Another knock to Tiger Woods’ Performance

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By Alex O’Connor

With the monster year that Rory McIlroy had in 2014, the golf world is starting to wonder if a new trend setter has emerged in the industry. McIlroy has won four major championships, including two in the past year and is only twenty-five years old. The phrase “future of golf” has been connected to his name as he has won two majors in the past year and had numerous other top-10 finishes in 2014. Recently, golf legend Colin Montgomerie exalted McIlroy while putting a struggling Tiger Woods down even further. In regards to McIlroy’s current playing, Montogmerie reported to Kicca.com that “Is he going to be able to get back, not just to the levels he was, but better than that? Because that’s where Rory McIlroy’s taken the standard of golf: to one level beyond where Tiger was.” In regards to the potential of McIlroy wining all four majors in a year, “That’s another question on people’s lips within our game. Can he win all four in a year, never mind two.” The level of dominance McIlroy has shown in the last year has been impressive, but a question needs to be risen if the high praise from Montgomerie is warranted in the right ways.

The UK Daily Mail took numerous excerpts from Montgomerie’s interview to shape their article about how McIlroy is on the rise, though editor Chris Cutmore did emphasize Woods’ impressive resume. Cutmore noted the fourteen majors that Woods has won as well as his longest-standing number one record for a large majority of his McIlroy’s career. Once Cutmore acknowledged Woods’ accomplishments, he emphasized Montgomerie’s comments while incorporating McIlroy’s impressive performance over the past few years. While Woods has recently had a change in swing coach and has been hampered by injuries for the past year, media presence has been relatively negative surrounding him. Woods has not won a major since the 2008 U.S. Open, and played competitively in a limited capacity in 2014. The new reports by The UK Daily Mail as well as on Kicca.com have supplemented the negative media attention around Woods.

In the current state of golf, there may be a changing of power in golf. Tiger Woods has been the face of the gold world for almost fifteen years, but his injuries may be limiting him. Currently, Rory McIlroy has been given the rank of Number one in the world and has no signs of slowing up. Colin Montogmerie’s comments are yet another knock to Tiger Woods and he will need to overcome his troubles in the media as well as on the golf course.

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Mumps Outbreak Spreads Through NHL

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By Nick Muhl

Yes, you did in fact read that last headline correctly. The National Hockey League is currently experiencing a moderate outbreak of the mumps. While NFL headlines argue whether Johnny Manziel should or shouldn’t be a starting quarterback and the NBA is going wild watching the Golden State Warriors fast start to the season, the NHL is investigating one of the strangest stories to hit a major sports league in 2014.

Mumps is “an acute, inflammatory, contagious disease caused by a paramyxovirus”. Symptoms include fever, headaches, muscle pains, fatigue and swollen glands but can be prevented by a vaccine and mostly only affects children.

Currently multiple teams and players have contracted the disease including players on the Anaheim Ducks, St. Louis Blues, New York Rangers, and several superstars including the Duck’s Cory Perry, the Rangers Tanner Glass, Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Suter, and now most recently the Pittsburgh Penguins Sidney Crosby.

Crosby, like many other NHL players, received a mumps vaccine booster shot prior to traveling to Russia for the Winter Olympic games in Sochi. In an interview with ESPN, Dr. Greg Wallace, a lead epidemiologist at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said that “considering the lengthy incubation period of the mumps, it’s virtually impossible to predict how long this outbreak will affect the league.”

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, also known as the CDC, also reports several hundred to a couple thousand cases of the mumps every year. The high number of cases in a little over a month in the NHL is alarming. However, with close contact locker rooms and multiple games in different cities each week – it is understandable why the disease has spread somewhat quickly and yet the origin cannot be traced.

According to USA Today, the NHL released information to each team regarding the mumps outbreak and how to prevent the spread of the disease. It remains to be seen if the NHL will provide additional support to prevent the spread of the disease, because of its nature there is no telling when the outbreak may end for the league.

While many fans, players, and media want the NHL to track down “patient zero”, it may be more important for the NHL to find a way to prevent the further spread of this disease before the NHL becomes subject to more serious headlines.

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From WWE to UFC: Phil “CM Punk” Brooks makes the transition

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By Kaleb Page

In the MMA world there are always opportunities for new talent to come along and add new life to the scene. This past weekend saw a very big name join MMA and the UFC organization from another big organization. This move sent waves throughout the entire MMA universe and made buzz around the UFC on Saturday night explode.

For years Phil Brooks was a member of WWE and quite the success. Known as CM Punk, Brooks was a superstar under one of the biggest entertainment entities in the world. Headlining pay-per-view events, having global advertising and even action figures made Brooks a household name as his character CM Punk. Even though there was all the fame and things that come with being a professional wrestler; Brooks had a falling out with management. This falling out saw Brooks out of the WWE and wondering what would come next.

For Brooks he found himself at as he said “a fork in the road,” either go back to the WWE or make a new path. This is where the UFC stepped in.

After going through the legal aspects of a contract and finding the logistics of moving Brooks into the UFC; the deal was made. The rumors had been swirling for weeks about CM Punk making a decision on what he would do, and yet people had no idea when he would make an announcement. At Saturday’s UFC 181 pay-per-view event, which was filled with great match-ups and story lines, there was one moment that added an unexpected jolt. During the broadcast Brooks stepped in front of the camera and made his announcement to join the UFC.

This announcement gained a mix of reactions to what took place. There were fighters stepping out to welcome Brooks to this new world and wish him the best, and then there were those calling him out to fight since he was a “fake wrestler.” Many media outlets looked to this move in amazement since this is a WWE star who never had any experience in fighting or even wrestling for that matter.

However I think it is only fair to be level-headed in what goes on in this case. Yes it is a guy who is high-profile and was a WWE wrestler, but what makes it any different from a new guy entering in the UFC for their first fight? There has to be time to actually watch him fight and prove himself in this organization just as anyone else would have to do. That is why I think it is unfair to judge this move before Brooks even fights. If the 36-year-old Phil “CM Punk” Brooks is as dedicated to this as he says, then it will be interesting to see what happens. As a fan of the UFC and MMA this is exciting to add him to the roster and see what he does with this opportunity.

Brooks is scheduled to fight sometime in 2015 to give him time to hit the training hard and get to his projected weight class of middle weight (185 lbs). Also his opponent will be another new fighter or a fighter that is only 0-1, 1-0, 1-1, 2-1 or 1-2 in order to make it a fair fight. In the time until his debut it will be hard to wait and see who the opponent is.

For now enjoy the new jolt of excitement added to an already anticipated 2015 year for the UFC.

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All-American Diver Celebrates Being Gay

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By Ellen Chlumecky

In a world where professional and collegiate athletes’ lives are put on display for the rest of the world to see, it becomes harder and harder for these people to keep a secret about themselves private. Secrets especially are hard to keep when one is in the spotlight often. Conor Murphy is one of the few athletes that found it easier to reveal the secret to the rest of his team and the rest of the university, that he was gay.

Conor Murphy is an All-American diver at Indiana University. Conor owns two Big Ten titles and two top-five finishes at the NCAA Championships in platform diving. He finished his sophomore year fifth at NCAAs in platform diving. In 2012, he competed at the Olympic Trials that summer. As a junior, he captured the Big Ten title in platform diving and took third at NCAAs in platform diving. He is also the first Indiana University athlete to say publicly he is gay.

Conor Murphy speaks only positive things about how his teammates and university have been behind him in his coming out. While he has always been comfortable with his identity, his classmates, teammates, and university made him feel even more at ease. Conor expresses how Bloomington is an accepting place, where many different people come from many different places. While he knows not everyone holds these liberal views, he states that everyone is very tolerant and welcoming.

Conor is just one of many gay collegiate athletes in our sports world today. The difference between him and quite a few of them though, is that not all gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender student athletes don’t always feel welcome or comfortable with telling others their secret. Playing on any collegiate team requires trust between teammates. When a teammate does not feel comfortable expressing their secret to other teammates in fear of being judged, it affects the individual and the team.

While Conor Murphy’s story is a positive one, not every collegiate or even professional athlete has received open arms when they decided to come out. Conor Murphy and several of his fellow athletes recently stated that they want to be able to teach more confidence to fellow athletes or anyone in general having difficulty coming out. While the world has slowly become more accepting, there are still people out there who are road blocks to people’s happiness. Everyone in the sports world, especially athletes, need to do their best to be welcoming and accepting to their fellow teammates, coaches, or anyone else working in sports when one decides to come out. No one should ever be discouraged to play or work in sports because of their sexual orientation.

All information in this story came from the story “All-American diver and Big Ten champion Conor Murphy celebrates being gay at Indiana.”

http://www.outsports.com/2014/12/9/7354125/conor-murphy-gay-diver-indiana

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A Carolina Miracle: Panthers QB Newton Sustains Minimal Injuries After Severe Accident

By Savannah Malnar

December 9th could have been a tragic day for the NFL. Cam Newton, starting quarterback for the Carolina Panthers, was hospitalized in what looked like a deadly car wreck. Every image of the accident looked like something out of an action movie.

The initial reports of the accident included a picture of Newton smiling at the camera while being attended to by paramedics at the scene. He came out of the accident with just a few fractures in his back and was transported to Carolinas Medical Center for precautionary measures and has since been released. His fractures are extremely similar to the injury that sidelined Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback Tony Romo for one game early in the season. Newton had been going the posted speed limit in an intersection notorious for being dangerous; a car clipped the back of his truck and caused it to flip multiple times.

Just a few days later, Newton spoke directly to the media regarding his accident. He strayed away from talking about himself, saying “As far as when I’m coming back, who cares.” He expressed his concern that his injury was an unnecessary distraction and that the media and fans need to be instead focused on supporting the Panthers’ backup Derek Anderson in Sunday’s key game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Panthers need to win against Tampa Bay in order to keep their postseason hopes alive.

Despite not wanting his accident to become a distraction, the media certainly has pounced on it. Many articles have been published simply quoting Newton’s entire Instagram post that included a picture of his demolished truck and a lengthy yet inspiring caption all about living life to the fullest and not holding grudges.

Newton has retained an exceptional attitude throughout the days following his accident. His words to the fans and the media have been encouraging and uplifting and truly show his thankfulness that he survived a crash that many would not. Reports said that initially he seemed upset that he had let his team down, which sounds funny coming from a guy who did nothing to cause the accident. But on Thursday he said, “It’s no time to sulk. There is something that has to be done come Sunday. I’m excited about it. I’m going to be the biggest supporter.”

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