And his dramatic playoff win at Augusta on Sunday.

But the golf world is still talking about — who else? — Tiger Woods and the controversial two-stroke penalty he was assessed after a viewer called in to complain about where Tiger spotted his ball after plopping one in the water on  No. 15.

At first there was outrage that Tiger only given two-strokes and not disqualified for signing an incorrect card on Friday. But with the tournament behind us, there’s new photographic evidence that Tiger didn’t deserve a penalty at all:

Tiger Woods was assessed a two-stroke penalty and received a mountain of criticism after taking an illegal drop on the 15th hole of Friday’s Masters that sent the venerable tournament in chaos.

The question now, however, is whether he actually committed a violation at all, or instead was the victim of a false confession.

[The false confession was from Tiger, himself]

The Augusta Chronicle on Sunday printed two photos by staffer Michael Holahan of Woods’ two chip shots from the 15th fairway. The first hit the flagstick and rolled into the water, forcing Woods to take a one-stroke penalty and then drop his ball “as nearly as possible” to his original location.

The Chronicle circled various divots in the 15th fairway to show Woods’ second shot was in almost the exact same location as the first.

While the photos may not be conclusive evidence and they will no doubt be picked apart, Tiger does appear to be standing within inches of where he took his first shot, not the two yards that he himself thought he had moved.

Holahan maintained his location for both shots, offering a clear comparison. Television replays, on the other hand, came from different locations as an ESPN cameraman on the course set up in slightly different locations.

The new evidence doesn’t settle it one way or the other and if professional golf is going to continue using viewers at home for their officiating, there needs to be a tightening of the rules and penalties that can be assessed via one of these amateur-replay-calls.

Writing in the New Yorker, Roger Angell, now 92 years young, recalls an incident at a game in mid-July 1948. Robinson, in his sophomore season with the Dodgers, started to lose his composure standing on third at the Polo Grounds, home of the rival Giants:

Robinson, a Dodger base runner, had reached third and was standing on the bag, not far from me, when he suddenly came apart. I don’t know what happened, what brought it on, but it must have been something ugly and far too familiar to him, another racial taunt—I didn’t hear it—that reached him from the stands and this time struck home.

I didn’t quite hear Jackie, either, but his head was down and a stream of sound and profanity poured out of him. His head was down and his shoulders were barely holding in something more. The game stopped. The Dodgers’ third-base coach came over, and then the Giants’ third baseman—it must have been Sid Gordon—who talked to him quietly and consolingly. The third-base umpire walked in at last to join them, and put one hand on Robinson’s arm. The stands fell silent—what’s going on?—but the moment passed too quickly to require any kind of an explanation. The men parted, and Jackie took his lead off third while the Giants pitcher looked in for his sign. The game went on.

The essay from the “poet laureate of baseball” is short but effective, conveying to readers something of the agony Robinson felt during those first few years of his in a Brooklyn uniform.

More here.

Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make your Tax Day Monday a bit more bearable:

• As a consequence of Carlos Quentin’s rushing Zack Greinke shortly after being struck with a 3–2 pitch in a one-run game, the Dodgers pitcher suffered a broken collarbone. In response, Quentin, who has led the big leagues in hits-by-pitch for the past two seasons, was suspended for eight games. In addressing the question why Quentin snapped last week, Jim Margalus of South Side Sox blames Ozzie Guillen for not standing behind the Padres outfielder during a 2009 plunking when Quentin was on the White Sox and Greinke pitched for the Royals.
• Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports explains why this individual may be the best player on the diamond over the past four years:

A lot of his offensive value is based off walks, which are generally undervalued. He runs the bases very well. He rarely grounds into double plays. And pretty much all the defensive metrics agree that he’s a fantastic fielder. He can play shortstop in a pinch, but plays all over the field otherwise and generally does a very good job of it.

Add that all together, and it makes for a pretty valuable player.

• On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the opening of Royals Stadium (a.k.a. Kauffman Stadium), Royals Review’s Craig Brown looks back at how the magnificent ballpark came into existence.
• Writing in the Hardball Times, Matthew Callan suspects that the “crazy closer” genre began with Joe Page, a Yankees reliever in the late 1940s.
• Rob Neyer of SB Nation interviews Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine about Jackie Robinson, his teammate from 1948 to 1956, and about the new film 42:

Neyer: As I’m sure you know, for many years Jackie was publicly critical of Major League Baseball’s complete lack of black executives or managers. In fact, there wasn’t a black manager (Frank Robinson) until after Jackie’s premature death. Do you think the players of your era would have played for a black manager? Do you think Jackie would have been a good manager?

Erskine: Jackie had a sense of urgency, as though he felt he didn’t have time to wait. He had already had a long wait, so every time he had a chance, he more or less said, “Just because I made it, don’t think we’re there. Look at what is not happening.”

In a way, our team already had a black manager. We, the Dodgers, recognized that Roy Campanella was destined to become a major-league manager. He had the experience and the temperament. So yes, our team would have willingly played for a black manager.

But I don’t believe Jackie would have wanted to manage. He had ideas to help black businesses, and black businessmen and -women, excel. He co-founded Freedom National Bank in Harlem to make loans to black businesses, and he also continued to be active in the Civil Rights Movement for the rest of his life.

• The Mets are presently in second place in the National League East, but, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Brian Costa, they are No. 1 in uniform choices.
• In ESPN’s SweetSpot, Joseph Werner asks whether a modern-day Nolan Ryan would be given a chance to crack the starting rotation.
• Elaine Benes is not amused: Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick informed fans that they were prohibited from sitting in luxury seats behind home plate unless they first removed their Dodger gear. 

• Regarding the aforementioned Quentin–Greinke brawl, it would seem that not everyone on the Padres bench was in a rush to join the scrum. 

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

Whose bright idea was it to build a stadium without a roof anyway?

Finally, after years of debate and controversial goals, the Premier League has decided to use goal-line technology in the 2013–14 season, becoming the first major European soccer league to do so. Hawk-Eye, owned by Sony, which won the contract with the Premier League, is already used in cricket and tennis.

Hawk-Eye instantly sends a signal — within a second of the ball’s crossing the line — to the referee’s watch, letting him know if a goal has in fact been scored. That information comes into play if the goal is disputed and is useful paritcularly in cases where the ball has been cleared out by the goalkeeper or a defender.

Premier League executive Richard Scudamore, a proponent of the technology, welcomed the decision, saying:

Football is fundamentally a simple game; whichever side scores [the] most goals wins. So, when one is scored, or indeed not scored, and we have the ability through technology to definitively know whether the ball crossed the line, we should absolutely use it. Principally it is about getting it right. Fans, players, and managers exhort, strain, and stress respectively for their teams to score or prevent goals [from] being scored, so we as administrators should do all that we can to ensure the correct decisions are being made.

This has huge financial implications for all of the Premier clubs, especially those whose survival in the league is threatened and for which millions in revenue would be lost if they ended up on the losing side because of ghost goals.

We are a mere 8-10 games into the 162-game regular season but there is no shortage of euphoria and misery surrounding how teams and players are faring.

For example, how many of these figures do we think will hold up over time:

• The A’s lead the majors in home runs hit (16).
• The Tigers are tied for 24th in home runs (5). (Miguel Cabrera has only one round-tripper in 37 plate appearances.)
• The Mets batters are no. 1 in Fangraphs’ version of wins above replacement (2.2).
• The Amazins’ top score is in large part a consequence of perennial back-up catcher John Buck being tied for third in dingers (5).
• Carlos Santana leads all players in weighted on-base average (.601).
• Chris Davis is on pace to collect 364 runs batted in by season’s end (18 RBIs in 8 games).
• The Phillies pitching staff is dead last in earned run average (6.04).
• The Yankees pitchers have the third worst strikeout-to-walk ratio (1.74).
• The Blue Jays staff is worst in the American League in on-base-plus-slugging to opposing batters (.845).
• The Tigers are the only team in the bigs that has not committed an error. (Really? Have no balls been hit in Cabrera’s general direction?)

My guess: Only the first stat may endure much longer. Even playing at cavernous O.Co Coliseum, the A’s clubbed no fewer than 195 home runs in 2012.

Jay-Z has recently partnered with the mega-agency CAA to start a sports-agency business called “Roc Nation Sports.” 

Roc Nation has already signed Roberto Cano of the Yankees and Mr. Z will sell his stake in the Brooklyn Nets to allow his company to represent NBA players.

Now this is just speculation on my part, but maybe Mr. Z is in Cuba — thanks to his friendly ties with the Obama administration — developing a relationship for when Cuban baseball players are allowed to freely play in the MLB?

Oh, to be Jim Nantz. He moves from a courtside seat at a thrilling national championship game to a perch amid the stately Georgia pines for my favorite event of the sporting calendar.

Although a toughened and “Tiger-proofed” Augusta National has penalized the risk-takers in recent years, the back nine on Sunday at the Masters still provides some of the greatest drama in sports. I’ve looked back over my decades of Masters-watching and come up with my own top 7 Masters Moments.

7. Player’s Charge, 1978. A still-trim, still-feisty Gary Player goes wild on Sunday, shooting a 64 and erasing a seven-shot deficit to win by one. Player finishes well before the other leaders and has to wait until Hubert Green misses a three-foot birdie to tie to claim his third Green Jacket.

6. Norman’s Collapse, 1996. Star-crossed Greg Norman truly earns his crown as the king of Masters heartbreak. He squanders a six-shot lead over Nick Faldo, shooting a 78 to Faldo’s 67 and losing by five. It’s Faldo’s third green jacket.

5. Couples Defies Gravity, 1992. Nursing a slim lead on Sunday, Fred Couples comes to the diabolical par-3 12th, the scene of so many disasters, and narrowly averts one himself when his mis-clubbed tee shot somehow clings to the bank instead of trickling down into Rae’s Creek. Couples goes on to beat Ray Floyd for his only major.

4. Larry Mize, 1987. Playing a few miles from his home, the quiet, unassuming Mize hits the shot heard round the golf world, holing an impossible 140-foot pitch shot on the second playoff hole to deny Greg Norman a green jacket.

3. One for the Swoosh, 2005. The moment will always be etched in our memories — the ball hanging tantalizingly on the edge of the cup on No. 16, the Nike logo momentarily freeze-framed on our television screens before the ball tumbles into the hole, unleashing an awkward golfer high-five moment between Tiger Woods and caddie Steve Williams that detracts only slightly from the event. To answer your question, Verne Lundquist — no, in our lives, we’ve never seen anything like it. Woods goes on to wins his fourth (and most recent) Green Jacket in a playoff with Chris DiMarco.

2. Lefty’s Leap into History, 2004. Sporting a bemused grin, as though he’s actually enjoying the pressure-packed final round, Phil Mickelson gets the major monkey off his back, following up an opening-round 72 with three straight 69s to hold off a charging Ernie Els. Mickelson’s clinching putt on 18 and subsequent leap for joy provide one of golf’s great cathartic moments.

1. Jack’s Back. It’s 1986, and Jack Nicklaus is little more than a footnote to the proceedings at Augusta. Heading into the final round, he is four shots back and still below everyone’s radar. Jack birdies 9, 10 and 11 to creep up the leaderboard. A bogey at 12 calms the frenzy, but he gets it back with a birdie at 13. Then, an eagle putt at 15, a near-hole-in-one at 16, and a birdie at 17 unleash roars that rattle the pines. Nicklaus’s 65 puts him at 9-under, and his competitors, seemingly shaken by this turn-back-the-clock day at Augusta National, stumble home one by one. Jack needs only 33 strokes to complete the final ten holes of the greatest Masters of them all.

— Rob Doster is senior editor for Athlon Sports.

Was that Leslie Nielsen Enrico Palazzo behind home plate in the ninth inning of the Rays-Rangers game last night? If so, Ben Zobrist and Joe Maddon wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised:

Despite umpire Marty Foster’s postgame admission, [Joe] Nathan still had his milestone save after a 5-4 Rangers victory Monday night that ended on a curveball that was low and outside.

“I saw the pitch and of course don’t have the chance to do it again,” Foster told a pool reporter after the game. “But had I had a chance to do it again, I wouldn’t call that pitch a strike.”

After Ben Zobrist took the full-count pitch, he started toward first base and even Nathan appeared to anticipate a ball being called. But Foster called strike three.

Zobrist put both hands on his helmet and took it off in disbelief. Maddon argued with Foster and the other umpires for several minutes after the game ended.

Soon after that Maddon tweeted, “That can’t happen in a major league game.”

Check out the chart below: See the red square located just a bit outside? Yup, that’s the pitch in question.

Consequently, instead of the Rays having two on with Evan Longoria strolling to the plate, they were saddled with a hard-to-swallow loss.

More here and here.

The leading rusher for the Nebraska Cornhukers in their spring-game scrimmage was Jack Hoffman, who sprinted 69 yards for the score in the 4th quarter. Jack is also seven and currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment for brain cancer. Here’s the video:

Turn the speakers up and enjoy the call, the fans and the team running onto the field to help #22 celebrate. 

Excuse me. It got a little dusty in here:

Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make your Monday a bit more bearable:

• Ben Lindbergh and Jon Shepherd of Baseball Prospectus remind us why we shouldn’t seek too much meaning in spring-training statistics — in this case, the hope of projecting which position players are due for breakout years at the plate.  
• A few days ago, Right Field took note of Michael Morse’s hot start. U.S.S. Mariner’s Jeff Sullivan advises Seattle fans on why they should embrace the 31-year-old left fielder in his second stint with the club, even though he is signed only through the end of the season:

And one shouldn’t overlook the fact that Morse is apparently absolutely thrilled to be in Seattle. This is a guy who the Mariners dealt away for a backup, a guy who only found success somewhere else, and this is a guy who got traded back to Seattle from a title contender. The Nationals are probably the best team in baseball; the Mariners are probably not. Morse easily could’ve reacted the way that Cliff Lee initially reacted. But Morse didn’t just go along with things — he told everyone he could get a hold of that he was beyond ecstatic with things. Unless Morse is a hell of a convincing liar, he wants to be a Mariner, and again, we get another parallel with Felix. One of the things that sets Felix apart in our hearts is his loyalty to the city and the organization. A lot of players seem like they’d be happy anywhere, just so long as they’re playing, and free agency typically bears this out. It renders as somewhat silly the idea that we should support a specific team in a specific place, since the players don’t really care. A guy like Felix, or Morse, indicates that there’s something special about this team, and it’s satisfying when loyalty feels like it’s a two-way street. Put another way: who the hell would want to be a Mariner? Michael Morse does, and that’s an unusual characteristic.

• With chatter growing louder over the possibility that the National League will adopt the designated hitter in the next few years, Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts, no fan of the DH, wonders why the NBA hasn’t gotten with the program and adopted a designated free-throw shooter.
• In an interview with Howie Rose, Amazin’ Avenue’s Chris McShane asks the Mets radio broadcaster about the use of the designated hitter. Rose doesn’t try to hide his disgust:

I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. The only thing I like about it is that it makes for a cleaner scorecard, it’s an easier scorecard for a broadcaster to keep. But I’m not interested in the DH from a clerical standpoint, I’m interested in its ramifications from a strategic and a purity-of-the-game standpoint. And I hate it, and I despise it, and I never liked it, and I like it even less now, if that makes any sense.

• Wendy Thurm of Fangraphs informs readers that the cost of going to the ballpark has remained roughly the same from 2012 to this season, although there are noteworthy exceptions. Many fans of the Nationals, Tigers, Giants, Angels, and Rangers are seeing price hikes.
• Sabermetrics has spread to the Astros’ radio booth, and, according to Steve Eder of the New York Times, it did not happen by accident:

When the Astros interviewed [Steve] Sparks, a journeyman knuckleball pitcher, and [Robert] Ford, a Bronx native who previously called minor league games, the topic of advanced statistics came up repeatedly. The Astros, who have eagerly embraced analytics, wanted to know if the broadcasters could grasp the data being used, in part, to build the team.

“We need them to tell the story of how we are making decisions and putting the organization together,” said George Postolos, the Astros’ president and chief executive, who added that the team would not want a broadcaster who was uncomfortable explaining the front office’s strategy.

• To the millions of Twins fans reading Reveille: Be sure to read Aaron Gleeman’s post on his personal blog discussing Minnesota’s chances in the AL Central this year.
• “Remember the Alamodome!” screams the Hardball Times headline for Frank Jackson’s piece explaining, among other things, why San Antonio, the country’s seventh most populous city, does not host a triple-A franchise, let alone a big-league team.
• Back when he was a Northwestern University law student, current White Sox owner Jery Reinsdorf put into a motion a fairly ambitious scheme to level the playing field in the annual student-faculty softball game.

• First baseman Chris Davis had a monster first week of the season, but Will Middlebrooks (above) has had the game of the year for any position player. Yesterday, the 24-year-old third baseman belted three home runs, a double, and a long fly ball that died on the warning track in a Red Sox rout of R. A. Dickey and the Blue Jays.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

Michael Morse, the towering outfielder who delighted crowds in D.C. with his eclectic walk-up music, had a blast during a just-completed four-game series in pitcher-friendly O.Co Stadium. In 16 plate appearances over the four games in Oakland, the 31-year-old clubbed no fewer than four home runs and posted an OPS of 1.537. One of those jacks was a three-run poke to right field off A’s starter Jarrod Parker.

If you’re trying to recall how Morse ended up back in the Pacific Northwest, here’s a primer.

Might the color of a visiting team’s locker room at a major Midwestern university be a matter of interest to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights?

Jill Gaulding, a cofounder of the advocacy group Gender Justice, claims that the University of Iowa is engaged in “pink shaming” and “cognitive bias” by making its football team’s opponents dress and undress in a locker room that is painted . . . pink:

“Most people understand the pink locker room as a taunt against the other team, calling them a bunch of ladies/girls/sissies/pansies/etc.,” according to an information sheet Gaulding and Gender Justice law partner Lisa Stratton distributed to the workshop attendees.

Gaulding’s handout quoted a passage from Fry’s autobiography where he said pink was a “passive” color and might put opponents in a passive mood. “Also, pink is often found in girls’ bedrooms, and because of that some consider it a sissy color,” according to a quote Gaulding said she took from Fry’s book.

Gaulding said she believes the university could be subject to a lawsuit if it maintains the pink locker room. The UI receives federal funding and is covered by Title IX and Title VII rules, which prohibit discrimination based on gender.

More here. 

A touching tale of the minutes following Kevin Ware’s horrific injury:

When Louisville forward Luke Hancock saw Kevin Ware lying near the sideline with a shattered right leg, he initially recoiled like his teammates. Some Cardinals were vomiting, others were crying and inconsolable.

But then Hancock thought back to last summer, when he suffered a gruesome shoulder injury in a pickup game. He remembered how others were aghast. He remembered how former Louisville guard Andre McGee was the only one to rush to his side, to rush him to the hospital. He remembered how much that had meant.

So as Ware lay there in the first half of the Cardinals’ NCAA tournament victory over Duke on Sunday, scared and alone and stunned, Hancock ran to him. He held Ware’s hand and told him they would get through this together. He told Ware he would say a prayer for him.

Ware didn’t respond at first, because he was in shock. Hancock took a deep breath, closed his eyes, clenched Ware’s hand and started the prayer.

“Lord, watch over us and let Kevin be OK during this tough time,” he began. “The Lord does everything for a reason, and He will get us through this.”

Hancock said he did all he could to keep from breaking down, to keep tears from falling onto his fallen teammate. He found out later that Ware also was trying not to cry, trying to stay strong for him.

Ware also had an excellent interview on ESPN recently about his injury. The University of Louisville guard is a soft-spoken young man who seems very humble and grounded. I’m certainly rooting for him to make a full recovery back to the hardwood next year.

Local 10 Miami-Ft. Lauerdale reports:

Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh’s house in Miami Beach was robbed Wednesday night while he and his wife celebrated his 29th birthday.

According to police, $340,000 worth of jewelry, purses, watches, and rings was missing when the couple returned to their home in the 6300 block of North Bay Road.

The couple was out celebrating Bosh’s birthday at Briza on the Bay, a waterfront venue in downtown Miami.

Two housekeepers and the couple’s children were both home during the robbery.

Only jewelry without significant markings that would make them easily identifiable were taken.

I’m actually surprised that more robberies like this don’t happen to celebrities. A 2011 survey of burglars in the U.K. (who knows how accurate that is) revealed that close to 80 percent of these criminals used social-network platforms to help find their victims. And since celebrities live their lives in the public eye, it seems criminals could target them pretty easily.

As this is an early report, I’ll post any updates or corrections as need be.

The sports-world is abuzz over this piece by former New York Times reporter Selena Roberts for a blog called Roopstigo on corruption within the Auburn football program.

However there are problems popping up with Roberts’s story. She gave an interview to AL.com in defense of the piece. An excerpt:

Roberts, an Auburn graduate, talked about her story on the AU football program, the allegations and subsequent denials by key figures, with AL.com Wednesday night. A transcript of the eight-minute conversation is below.

AL.com: Mike Blanc is now denying some of the things he said to you. What’s your take on that?

Roberts: Well, I think I mentioned this to you before in an email. It takes a lot of courage to speak the truth and to go out and have some conviction about . . . a subject that, let’s face it, at Auburn, draws a lot of backlash. I think it’s unfortunate that he’s taking that stance, but given the pressure he’s under I can see how it happens.

AL.com: Do you think he changed his story after this story got so big today?

Roberts: I think any time athletes talk and have interviews, I think they’re used to, maybe a smaller market or something like that, I don’t know. I don’t know why he would change his stance, to be honest with you. I don’t know what goes on in his head.

AL.com: Neiko Thorpe says he was misquoted in the story.

Roberts: Like I said, I think it’s very difficult to take a strong stance and to tell the truth and then to have to deal with the consequences in a place where I think the story even shows that there is a great deal of pressure to keep what’s in-house, in-house. I think the entire sort of umbrella of the story explains just what’s at risk for people who step outside the bounds. In some ways, it almost dovetails with the story that they may not know exactly what’s going on. They may feel that kind of pressure to then alter what they said to me.

A couple of things. One: she doesn’t have the players on tape? It’s not just one player saying she stretched the truth, but many. And two, Selena Roberts is a name recognizable to anyone who followed the 2006 Duke Lacrosse rape case. Let’s take a walk down memory lane thanks to our friends at the Media Research Center, who were critical of her reporting for the New York Times from the get-go:

As the “case” winds down to its ignominious end, Roberts returned to the subject on Sunday (Times Select $ required), whining about some of the “loquacious bullies” who emailed her in support ofthe lacrosse players and against her biased columns- “several hostile lacrosse advocates have burned a hole in my in-box as well over the past year.”

But Roberts had nothing to say on Sunday about local North Carolina district attorney Michael Nifong’s unethical behavior in pushing rape charges against the Duke lacrosse players (the most she could muster was to call him “one part district attorney, one part clueless Columbo”), or the assumptions of guilt by liberal Duke faculty, or the false charges from the alleged rape victim.

Roberts started off with snottiness: “The ubiquitous ‘Innocent’ wristbands of the yellow ‘LiveStrong’ variety have become a wardrobe accessory akin to a watch for some Duke lacrosse supporters.”

Later on, Roberts tried to conflate the false rape charges with what she considers athletic misbehavior on campus (as if non-athlete students have never done similar things).

“What happens if all the charges are dismissed? There is a tendency to conflate the alleged crime at the Duke lacrosse team kegger on March 13, 2006, with the irrefutable culture of misogyny, racial animus and athlete entitlement that went unrestrained that night.

“Porn-style photos of two exotic dancers – one of whom was the accuser – emerged from cellphone camera downloads. Heated exchanges between players and dancers occurred. Racial slurs were heard. And in an ‘American Psycho’ reference, a repulsive e-mail message depicting the skinning of strippers was sent by a player, Ryan McFadyen, who, to his credit, has since apologized.”

Note the double standard: While the woman who made false charges of rape has yet to be named in the media, but Roberts still feels free to criticize lacrosse players by name in print.

Keep in mind, the MRC piece above was written a year before Nifong was eventually disbarred for his conduct in this case.

As far as the Auburn story from Roberts, I’m not putting much faith in its accuracy at this point. Stay tuned for updates.

Noah posted on basketball coach Rice’s tirade at his players yesterday, and today we learn he’s been fired.  Good riddance.

And for the record, I stand by my statement calling for Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly to have been fired in 2011. 

Yes, coaches yell at players as they should. But there is a line and both of these men crossed it.

Yu Darvish came oh so close to pitching a perfect game this evening in Houston.

The 26-year-old Rangers hurler and 2012 American League Rookie of the Year threw 111 pitches over 8 2/3 innings and K-ed 14 batters in tonight’s mastery against the Astros.

Alas, ninth-place hitter Marwin Gonzalez came up with the score 6–0 and Darvish just one out from a perfecto. The light-hitting shortstop swung at the first offering — a down-the-middle, 90-mph fastball — and knocked it through the pitcher’s legs and into center field.

Darvish was removed after the base hit, but the next Astros hitter, Jose Altuve, struck out to end the game.

Congrats, all the same.

There’s isn’t much more to add to this video (courtesy of ESPN) of Rutgers coach Mike Rice physically and verbally abusing his players:

Of course, no one is shocked that a coach uses obscenities directed at his players. After Tyler Clementi’s suicide, though, it’s jarring to hear a coach — a Rutgers coach — call one of his players a “faggot.” There’s a time and a place for yelling and screaming. It’s unlikely, though, that Rice deployed his obscenities strategically to maximize his players’ intensity and readiness to play.

Bobby Knight was one of the all-time great college coaches when it came to winning games. But he too was abusive toward his players, and he ultimately got fired for violent behavior against them. Here’s a news flash: Mike Rice is no Bobby Knight, and Rutgers basketball is no Indiana. Some argue that Indiana should have fired Knight long before they finally did. I say Rutgers should fire Mike Rice today. 

For more information about the story, read here and here. 

After Monday afternoon’s 8–2 loss to the Red Sox, the Yankees find themselves one full game out of first place with only 161 games left to go.

All kidding aside, it is clear that the mood among many sportswriters and the team’s fans is anything but optimistic. Feel free to check out my recent interview with diehard supporters Guy Benson of Townhall, Robert George of the New York Post, and Rick Klein of ABC News to learn their thoughts on the state of the Bronx Bombers in 2013.

Here’s a snippet:

EPSTEIN: The Yankees haven’t experienced a losing season since 1992. How should fans too young to remember names like Mel Hall, Eddie Whitson, Andy Hawkins, and Brien Taylor prepare for the possibility that the bottom drops out in 2013?

GEORGE: After seeing those names listed, I’m rapidly thinking that this entire exercise is a sadistic venture on the part of Met fan Epstein to take joy in suffering of Yankees fans pondering the aimless late ’80s to early ’90s era. One interesting point about that period, though, is the year 1993 — the last time the Yankees and the Red Sox missed the playoffs. Considering how good Toronto and Tampa look in the East, that could possibly happen again in 2013.

BENSON: Whoa, I don’t remember any of those names. I came of age as a baseball fan in the waning years of the Mattingly era, so a losing Yankees season has literally never been on my radar. The question is, will fans fork over top dollars to see a lousy team in a nice new (and expensive) stadium? I think Mets fans have answered that question resoundingly over the last few seasons.

KLEIN: We didn’t know we were bad back then, or at least we tried to forget. This will sting more if they’re sub-par — probably like the post-Mantle, Shea years. Hurting more because we had so much plenty so recently.

GEORGE: Guy brings up a great point: There’s a whole generation of Yankee fans who’ve only known playoffs every single year and a World Series appearance every three years (on average). The team has only missed the playoffs once since 1995 — and they won it all the year afterwards. We could be heading into alien territory for many in Guy’s generation.

BENSON: And the 2008 playoff miss was sort of appropriate. A somber benediction for the old stadium. They certainly christened the new stadium appropriately the next year, though.

More here.

Amazing. ABC News:

Kevin Ware is already up and walking, and he’s got a nice souvenir to keep him company until he’s cleared to return to Louisville.

Cardinals coach Rick Pitino brought the Midwest Regional championship trophy when he visited Ware, who remains hospitalized after surgery to repair a gruesome fracture in his right leg.

“He was real excited about (the trophy),” Pitino said after visiting Ware again Monday morning. “I said to him, ‘You want me to bring it back or stay with you?’ He said, ‘It’s staying with me.’ I said, ‘All right, just make sure you don’t lose it.’”

During a 2-hour surgery Sunday night, doctors reset Ware’s broken tibia and inserted a rod into the bone. Because the bone broke through the skin, Pitino said doctors are monitoring Ware to make sure no infection develops. If there are no complications, he should be released Tuesday.

The rest here.

Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make Opening Day a bit more interesting:

• With season three of Game of Thrones and the 2013 regular season having started within one hour of another, Larry Granillo of Baseball Prospectus proposes 10 sigils for current MLB players.
• The Tigers signed Justin Verlander to a seven-year contract extension totaling $180 million. The average annual value — $25.71 million — is the highest ever for a multi-year deal, topping the one that Felix Hernandez signed in mid-February.
• Buster Posey inked a nine-year extension with the Giants valued at $168 million. According to MLB Trade Rumors’ Zach Links, “Posey’s contract covers his three remaining years of arbitration and five years of free agency, plus an option [worth $22 million] that could take care of a sixth free agency year.” Overall, Grant Brisbee of McCovey Chronicles gives the extension a thumbs-up, but briefly wonders why the Giants needed to do the deal now, considering that he was still three years away from free agency:

There’s a great chance Posey makes a lot of money for a little production by the end of it. But that’s not really the point — they’re paying him a premium to make sure he’s around for his 29-through-32 seasons in addition to the 26-through-28 seasons that he was already locked up for. As happy as this deal makes me, I still would have waited a year. But when you’re complaining about too much Buster Posey, you’re kind of an ass. So I won’t.

• Meanwhile, San Francisco’s ownership group extended the contracts of general manager Brian Sabean and skipper Bruce Bochy through the 2016 season.
• Two other noteworthy contract extensions were signed last week: The Cardinals and Adam Wainwright agreed on a five-year deal worth $97.5 million, while the Diamondbacks and Paul Goldschmidt agreed on one worth five years and $32 million, with a team option for 2019 worth $14.5 million.
• The final free agent of consequence, Kyle Lohse, signed a three-year deal with the Brewers worth $33 million.
• RIP Bob Turley, 82. He may have earned the 1958 Cy Young Award while playing for the world-champion Yankees, but Orioles fans will always remember Turley for starting and earning the win in the franchise’s first ever home game four years earlier.
• RIP Gus Triandos, 82. When Turley and Don Larsen were sent to the Bronx after the 1954 season, Triandos was one of the players Baltimore received in return. The catcher spent eight seasons with the Orioles and slugged 142 home runs and was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 1981.
• The Jays sent Ricky Romero, their Opening Day starter for the past two seasons, to their Single-A affiliate in Dunedin, Florida. Beyond the Boxscore’s Andrew Ball explains what prompted Toronto to take such drastic action and why Romero stands to benefit from the demotion.
• Wendy Thurm of Fangraphs says that confusion reigns on the question of whether MLB intends to allow teams to opt out of the current mandatory defined-benefit pension system for non-union employees.

• A re-tear of his shoulder capsule means that Johan Santana has almost certainly thrown his last pitch for the Mets and may not take the mound again, period. Sports Illustrated’s Jay Jaffe believes that the catatrsophic injury has probaly doomed his chances for entry into Cooperstown.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

P.S. My foolish fearless 2013 predictions may be found here.

Had Eddard Stark spent his years in the United States, rather than Westeros, he might have uttered during winter, “Baseball is coming.”

After an unbearably long period of anticipation, this evening’s match-up between the Rangers and Astros at Minute Maid Park will mark the beginning of a six-month odyssey otherwise known as the 162-game regular season.

Below you will find my 2013 MLB predictions and a few comments. For a good chuckle, check out my 2012 prognostications.

American League East: Tampa Bay, Toronto, New York, Baltimore, Boston

Despite the loss of workhorse James Shields, the Rays have the fewest roster question marks in the division, which should enable them to hold off the new-look Jays in the final week. Third, fourth, and fifth place are up for grabs.

AL Central: Detroit, Cleveland, Kansas City, Chicago, Minnesota

With Victor Martinez back in what was already a powerful lineup and return of a similarly dominant starting rotation, the Tigers run away with the division. The Indians improve markedly but fall just short of the second wildcard berth.

AL West: Texas, Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, Houston

Between Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and newcomer Josh Hamilton, the Angels have tremendous offensive firepower, but the Rangers possess the superior pitching staff. Like Cleveland, the A’s fall narrowly miss out on the postseason.

AL Wild Card Winner (Play-in): Angels

AL Champion: Detroit

AL MVP: Albert Pujols (runner-up: Robinson Cano)

AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander (runner-up: Matt Moore)

AL Rookie of the Year: Jurickson Profar (runner-up: Wil Myers)

National League East: Washington, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York, Miami

A surplus of above-average talent and weaker division pushes the Nationals over 100 victories for the season and enables the Braves to finish with a wild card berth. As for the Phillies, Ryan Howard is healthy again but otherwise the Phillies pitchers will have to carry the load.

NL Central: Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Chicago

These teams will sorely miss the deprated Astros, who took their 55-107 record and staggered over to the AL West. The Reds will cope the best while the Pirates, Cardinals, and Brewers battling each other to stay at .500.

NL West: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Arizona, San Deigo, Colorado

The Dodgers go into ‘13 with a starting rotation arguably better than their hated rivals, the defending world champion Giants. Although some Diamondback offseason transactions raised eyebrows, the club still has sufficient talent to make a run at a wildcard spot.

NL Wild Card Winner (Play-in): Atlanta

NL Champion: Cincinnati

NL MVP: Joey Votto (runner-up: Matt Kemp)

NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw (runner-up: Stephen Strasburg)

NL Rookie of the Year: Gerrit Cole (runner-up: Travis D’Arnaud)

World Series Champion: Detroit in five games

Your thoughts on these picks, constructive and otherwise, are always appreciated.

The Miami Herald reports:

A quick NCAA/UM update on a day the Dolphins got back in the free-agent market by signing Bears guard Lance Louis:

### The NCAA investigator who took over the University of Miami case last May attempted, as her fired predecessor did, to use Nevin Shapiro’s attorney to help build a case against Miami – a detail curiously omitted from the NCAA-commissioned report detailing the NCAA’s improper handling of the case, according to an email exchange between the parties that was relayed to me by two people.

Meanwhile, UM also will allege that NCAA investigators lied to interview subjects by claiming that other people interviewed made comments they never made, in order to trick the subjects into revealing incriminating information they otherwise might not have, according to multiple officials familiar with the NCAA’s case against UM and former coaches. UM believes such behavior is unethical, and it clearly is.

Both of these details will be included in UM’s motion to dismiss the case that will be submitted to the NCAA on Friday.

UM also will claim that significant charges made against UM in the NCAA’s notice of allegations are uncorroborated by anyone besides Shapiro, and that tainted evidence has not been fully purged from the case.

The NCAA already has informed UM that the infractions committee does not have the authority to dismiss the case before a full hearing in mid-June, but UM is disputing that contention.

Among the new details in the case: Stephanie Hannah, an NCAA director of enforcement who took over the UM case late last May from fired Ameen Najjar, continued Najjar’s policy of working with Shapiro’s attorney, Maria Elena Perez, to try to build a case against UM.

The Cadwalader law firm, asked by the NCAA to investigate its handling of the case, indicated that Najjar ignored the NCAA legal counsel’s instructions and accepted Perez’s proposal to use bankruptcy subpoenas to compel depositions from witnesses who had refused to cooperate with the NCAA. In exchange, Perez would be paid; Perez claimed it would be for her time and expenses, Najjar claimed it would be only for expenses.

“The Perez proposal was unquestionably a bad idea for the NCAA,” the report said.

The rest here.

Miami Herald:

Just another ho-hum, typical offseason Wednesday for the Dolphins.

They announced new concessions on the stadium deal. They signed offensive guard Lance Louis. And they made general manager Jeff Ireland and CEO Mike Dee available to season-ticket holders to discuss anything they wanted.

Didn’t matter. It was all logo, all the time in Miami.

The day after confirming that the logo leaked in recent weeks was indeed the real deal, the Dolphins embraced the local and national notoriety.

They even sent Jared Odrick to a community event wearing an off-the-rack T-shirt, with the sleek — albeit controversial — new design. Fans took to Twitter to praise or harangue the new look; Dee acknowledged the reaction was mixed.

But the extreme makeover got the thumbs-up from two respected voices: Don Shula and Dan Marino.

“Glad to see new logo has all the same colors from our great 70’s & 80’s teams. A new look for a new era,” Shula tweeted. . .

It looks like a spaceship if you ask me, but I like it better than the old one:

At Kalyani Stadium near Kolkata (Calcutta), India, over a dozen poisonous snakes invaded a soccer field very soon after a game between Mohun Bagan’s 3-2 victory over Arrows in the I-League on Sunday. Said Bagan midfielder Rahim Nabi, “I for one would be afraid of playing there again.” No one was bitten and authorities attribute the summer heat to the serpent invasion, not snakes released to kill a federal witness.

Talk about trading places . . .

The New York Times corrects its article on Florida Gulf Coast College’s huge win over Georgetown on Friday:

An earlier version of this article included several errors. Georgetown’s record is 25-7, not 25-6. Florida Gulf Coast’s record in the Atlantic Sun was 13-5, not 17-1. Florida Gulf Coast became the seventh No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 seed, not the sixth. Georgetown has now failed to advance past the Round of 16 in the past six years under Coach John Thompson III, not the past seven. Florida Gulf Coast forward Eddie Murray was incorrectly referred to as Eddie Murphy. Florida Gulf Coast was misidentified in some instances as Gulf Coast College.

Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make the final Monday before the start of the regular season a bit more bearable:

• In the past week we learned that at least three everyday players — Adam Eaton, Derek Jeter, and Hanley Ramirez — and two top pitchers — Jason Motte and Johan Santana — will almost certainly begin the regular season on the disabled list.
• Twenty years ago last Friday, two Indians pitchers, Tim Crews and Steve Olin, were killed in a boating accident, “the first active major leaguers to die since a small plane piloted by New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson crashed in 1979.” A third pitcher, Bob Ojeda, was badly hurt. Jon Saraceno and Bob Nightengale of USA Today talk with Crews’ widow about the horrific accident.
• Steve Treder of the Hardball Times poses and then answers five questions concerning the world-champion Giants. Among them:

Whither the Freak?

Tim Lincecum has now logged five full major league seasons, and dazzling though his overall performance has been, a disturbing sequence is emerging.

In 2008 and 2009, Lincecum was completely spectacular, racking up 7.5 and 8.0 WAR and sweeping twin Cy Young Awards. In 2010 and 2011, he was very good, but less than spectacular, his WAR totals at 4.7 and 4.1. And in 2012, at age 28, Lincecum labored through a dismal campaign, his walk rate and home run rate both bloated, and he squeaked out just 1.5 WAR over 33 starts. Giants’ fans really don’t like where this movie seems to be heading.

There are rays of hope to be found. One is that Lincecum, demoted to long-reliever status in five outings during last fall’s post-season, performed like the Freak of yore, and how: 13 innings, three hits, one run, two walks, 17 strikeouts. Another is that Lincecum reported to this year’s spring training sporting a good 10 pounds of newly-added muscle—as he had done in 2011, and, pointedly, not in 2012.

For whatever it’s worth, Lincecum is also now sporting a neatly-trimmed coiffure, which is probably trivial but might symbolize a newfound maturity, the sort which tends to discover motivation in the looming presence of a massive contract year.

The Giants won the 2012 division title despite a terrible season from Tim Lincecum. That’s a formulation highly unlikely to be repeated. In 2013, an outcome far more liable to play out is simply this: as goes the Freak, so will go the Giants.

• Having failed to convince the Orioles to move up the starting time of their home game against the White Sox on the evening of Thursday, September 5, the Super Bowl–champion Ravens will instead kick off the 2013 NFL season that night in Pittsburgh.
• When Andy McCollough of the Newark Star-Ledger asked Brian Cashman about the Yankees’ newfound thriftiness, the general manager responded, “Look at Vietnam. The biggest payroll didn’t win there, either.” (Come to think of it, the Yankees didn’t win during the Vietnam years, either.) Cashman subsequently acquired contract albatross Vernon Wells from the Angels but will need to pick up only $10–13 million of the $42 million that remains on the outfielder’s deal.
• Meanwhile, Red Sox principal owner John Henry gave an interview to the Boston Herald’s Steve Buckley. Here’s what Henry had to say about the future of Fenway Park:

The architects and engineers tell us Fenway Park will be viable and usable in its present form for at least 30 to 40 more years, with regular maintenance and care, of course. Our recent 10-year renovation plan was more than cosmetic; it was also highly structural, containing elements such as massive waterproofing.

• Twenty-five-year-old Sami Samir Hassoun, a native of Beirut, apologized to a U.S. district-court judge for dropping what he believed to be a bomb in a trash receptacle on a crowded street next to Wrigley Field in 2010. Federal prosecutors are seeking a 30-year sentence for Hassoun, who last year pleaded guilty to weapons charges.

• Here’s a must-read: Grantland’s Jonah Keri sits down with Coco Crisp, 33, and gets the center fielder, who has posted a highly impressive 88.2 percent success rate for attempted steals over the past three years, to reveal trade secrets.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

From the can’t-make-this-up department, “conservative” John McCain is showing his true colors with his Final Four picks: he’s using the Huffington Post for his bracket. The HUFFINGTON POST!?!?!?

To be fair, it was probably a staffer who passed these around the office for everyone to fill out, which makes it worse. What are his staffers doing on HuffPo?

But what I really have a problem with is — shocker — Senator McCain’s hypocrisy. In 2011, this is what he had to say about college sports:

How do you feel about problems in sports, like the BCS, get brought to Congress to discuss being fixed?:“First of all, I’m embarrassed that Congress would have to get involved in something like this. There’s neither the talent nor the expertise residing in Congress. Second of all, I’m disgusted with these institutions that call themselves higher learning and education because it’s all about money. … It’s all about money and your own television network and your own players and then they expect these players to adhere to a very high code of conduct. And I do, too, but come on. This is destroying, really, any semblance of the word amateur in college sports.”

So, rather than use the NCAA tournament to reiterate a legitimate point, he buys into the hype and fills out a bracket because all the cool kids are doing it? If you think there’s too much money in college sports, don’t celebrate March Madness.

And if you’re a conservative, certainly the last place you celebrate the tourney is on HuffPo.