Kansas City Royals send hitting coaches to the minors, replace them with George Brett

With the Kansas City Royals in free fall, having lost eight in a row and 12 of their last 13, it wasn't going to be much longer before a change was made.
Some wondered if manager Ned Yost — and his amusing quotes — would get the ax. Or if a struggling hitter, such as Mike Moustakas, would get demoted to Triple-A.
What happened Thursday was actually a bit more comical: The Royals sent their hitting coaches — Jack Maloof and Andre David — to the minor leagues. Or "re-assigned" them as the baseball talk goes.
Suppose it's better than being fired outright, but not as chuckle-worthy.
Here's the upshot: Royals legend George Brett will take over as interim hitting coach, which ought to buy team management a little bit of favor with fans who remember the good ol' days. He'll be joined by Pedro Grifol.
The Royals are definitely in need of any type of offensive boost. They've scored only 16 runs in their eight-game skid and have only two home runs as a team since May 14. Mind you, two different players hit three home runs in their respective games on Wednesday.
The Royals were 15-10 and tied for first place in the AL Central with the Detroit Tigers on May 2. Now, on May 30, they find themselves in last place with a 21-29 record. George Brett best be ready to go to work. - Big League Stew

Who's a bigger flopper....LeBron James or David West?

The NBA handed down a flurry of discipline for flopping and flagrant fouls from Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals, including a $5,000 fine to LeBron James.
Both James and David West were fined $5,000 for flopping on the same play from the fourth quarter of the Indiana Pacers' win over the Miami Heat on Tuesday. West was fighting for position on the play, and both recoiled when there was contact in the lane.
Earlier this week, James said there was a strategic advantage to flopping. - ESPN.com
 
"Some guys have been doing it for years, just trying to get an advantage," James said Monday. "Any way you can get an advantage over the opponent to help your team win, so be it."

Mayweather-Alvarez to fight at 152 on Sept 14th

Floyd Mayweather to fight Canelo Alvarez next, but at 152 pounds. What are you thoughts and who do you predict to win? 


Pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. and junior middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez signed on Wednesday night to fight Sept. 14 in the main event of a Showtime pay-per-view event at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in the biggest fight boxing has to offer.

"I chose my opponent for September 14th and it's Canelo Alvarez," Mayweather tweeted to break the news. "I'm giving the fans what they want."

“It's been talked about for a while now, and now that it's signed, sealed and delivered, I am very happy. I will be the first to beat Floyd. ” -- Canelo Alvarez

Mayweather holds a world title at welterweight (147 pounds), but he also still owns a junior middleweight title (154), which he won by outpointing Miguel Cotto in May 2012. After that fight, Mayweather returned to welterweight and defended the title against Roberto Guerrero in a lopsided unanimous decision win on May 4 at the MGM Grand.
But he is moving back up in weight to face Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KOs) with their belts on the line, although the fight will be contested at a catchweight of 152 pounds. On paper, Alvarez could be, literally, Mayweather's biggest test ever. 

Rookie Chris Colabello wears wrong Minnesota Twins jersey

They look almost exactly alike. No, not Chris Colabello and Jamey Carroll of the Minnesota Twins. Almost nobody looks like Carroll (on the right), a long-time major league guy with distinctive facial features. I'm talking about the Twins jerseys. The one that says "Minnesota" is appropriate for road games, and the Twins were on the road at Miller Park on Tuesday night. The one worn by Colabello, a 29-year-old rookie, says "Twins" and usually is for use at Target Field only. Colabello entered the game in the ninth inning as a pinch hitter and reached on an error. The Twins broadcaster didn't seem to notice The jersey foul at first, but the Brewers guys did, via The Big Lead.

Just so long as the umpires don't notice! And if they had?

Rule 1.11.a3 states:

No player whose uniform does not conform to that of his teammates shall be permitted to participate in a game.

So, if the umpires or the Brewers had noticed Colabello's improper jersey, he could have been made to change jerseys at any point. I suppose umpires would have cause to kick him out of the game, too, but they probably would have made him wear a generic jersey, or a teammate's. Just as long as everyone's said "Minnesota." Actually, it would have been funny if umpires made everyone else on the Twins change jerseys and then kicked Colabello out. That would have been Angel Hernandez's solution. - Big League Stew

Ned Yost surrounded by security guards at Kansas City Chiefs practice

Ned Yost can't stop making news! If he's not tending his garden or threatening to spank his underachieving players, the manager of the Kansas City Royals is going for a jog where he apparently does not belong.
Yost laughed off being surrounded by security guards Tuesday after he wandered into a restricted area near Arrowhead Stadium trying to check out Kansas City Chiefs practice. Oh, no, sir. Not on Andy Reid's watch! MLB.com has the details:

"I ran today and almost got arrested for a taking a peek at the Chiefs doing their minicamp. They surrounded me with their security," Yost said good-naturedly. "I'm not going to sell any secrets."

Well, NFL teams are notoriously guarded about their practice activities, and this area, unknown to Yost, happened to be off-limits.

"Hey, I just wanted to see what was going on," Yost told the security guards. "They said, 'Well, you can't be here, it's closed.'"

The Royals and Chiefs share the Truman Sports Complex, and Yost has been manager since 2010, but that doesn't mean he's automatically recognized around town, or anything. Regardless, Yost has taken precautions in the past to remain under the radar, even calling himself "Frank" at Starbucks when going for coffee and biscotti. Obviously, this tactic backfired. He had to come out as manager of the Royals, and he had to do it now, if he wanted to avoid getting tasered by Chiefs security. - Big League Stew

Believe it or not, washing a car with university water can be an NCAA violation

(Getty Images)

At a time when college athletics is overrun with rogue agents, unscrupulous coaches and handlers who exploit athletes for money, it's reassuring to know not every unrepentant rule-breaker goes unpunished.
Hearty congratulations to the NCAA for penalizing a student-athlete from a West Coast Conference school for the unspeakable crime of washing her car with the university's water and hose.
Portland basketball coach Eric Reveno tweeted about the violation Wednesday after he learned of it during conference meetings, punctuating his message with the hashtag #stopinsanity. A spokesman for the WCC did not know any further details, but a source familiar with the circumstances revealed what happened.
A WCC school self-reported an extra benefits violation to the NCAA when university officials caught one of their women's golfers washing her car on campus, according to the source. The NCAA ruled a secondary violation had occurred because the water and hose were not available to regular students and requested the golfer pay back $20, which was deemed to be the value of the water and use of the hose. - The Dagger

David Wright delivers when young fan asks him for a home run — and later gives the kid a big hug

Top football prospect pledges to Michigan with elaborate live televised rap verse

 

Of all the ways to announce one’s pledge to a college football program, rapping about one’s future is a rather creative one. Meet Jabrill Peppers. If you haven’t heard of the Paramus (N.J.) Catholic High superstar yet, you probably will when he wears a maize and blue uniform beginning in 2014, assuming he remains loyal to the decision he announced on Sunday. As noted by the Detroit Free Press, Peppers -- who is among a growing legion of top prep prospects who engage in a side passion of rapping -- announced his commitment to Michigan on Sunday during an interview with ESPN. More notable than the commitment itself (a handful of pundits had already said they expected Peppers, a lifelong Wolverines fan, to pick Michigan) was the way he made the announcement. He rapped about it. - Prep Rally

UFC fan uses guillotine choke to hold off attempted carjacker after watching UFC 160

Stockton, Calif., is the home of UFC fighters Nick and Nate Diaz, but another Stocktonian made the news for his MMA moves over the weekend. Abel Simmons was returning home from watching UFC 160 with his family when he used a guillotine to hold off a man who was attacking his family.
Simmons' two children were in the backseat of his SUV when the family car pulled into their driveway. A man walked up to the car and started banging on the windows, and then tried to open the door. Simmons, who was in the passenger seat, got out and scuffled with the man until he had him in a guillotine.

"I had him in a guillotine choke. And he wasn't getting out of that. I had that lock really tight," said Simmons. "I just held him in place and said, 'Well, guess you are going to jail tonight buddy.'"

Simmons' wife called 911. When the police arrived, the man tried fighting them, as well. He was arrested for attempted carjacking, battery and resisting arrest.
Watching UFC fights is not meant to be educational, but at least Simmons did learn something from tuning into Saturday's bouts. Now, if you've watched a few fights and haven't had any kind of training, you probably shouldn't go patrolling the streets looking to stop injustice with a choke hold. But it's nice to know that watching fights helped one family stay safe. The same can't be said for people who tuned into the basketball playoffs this weekend. - Cagewriter

D's Highlights "3 Day Weekend" Edition!!

RGIII Sends Thank You Note To Gift-Givers

Robert Griffin III may have a busy summer ahead of him, but it doesn't mean he's not minding his manners. In response to at least one of the many fans who showered the Redskins quarterback with gifts before his upcoming wedding, he wrote a signed thank you note, the DC Sports Bog first pointed out.
Keith Elgin, the fan who posted the note, wrote to ThePostGame that "people are loving it in DC."
"[He's] just an all around solid guy," he wrote. "We just wanted to buy them a gift to send some encouragement their way, and it turned into a really fun story!"

 

The note reads "Dear Keith and Emily, Thank you for your kind gift. Even as nothing was expected from you, out of the love in your hearts you sent us one anyways, and made our wedding experience even more special. Thank you!"
Griffin is set to get married to Rebecca Liddicoat on July 6, according to multiple reports. But there's still time for them to update their wish list for gifts and add a few more. - The Post Game

Joe Theismann wants to make LeBron James a quarterback … and serve as his agent

It's long been said that as great as Miami Heat forward LeBron James has been at basketball through his life, there's a lot of untapped football potential there, as well. James played quarterback as a freshman on the St. Vincent-St. Mary High School team in Akron, Ohio in 1999, and then switched to receiver for the 2000 and 2001 seasons. He quit the game to focus on basketball in 2002, and that decision seems to have gone pretty well for him. But there is an undercurrent of football people who have always wondered, "what if?" What if a 6-foot-8, 250-pound elite athlete, with an obvious ability to jump at the right time and get free in tight spaces with defenders all around him, actually trained for the NFL?
Most think that James could be an amazing NFL receiver if he really put the time in, but one former NFL quarterback truly believes that LeBron might be best-served at his old position. Joe Theismann, who played for the Washington Redskins from 1974 through 1985, thinks that if the hoops star ever wants to make that switch, he's the man to make it happen.
"I would love to work him out and also serve as his agent," Theismann told FOX Sports Florida last Saturday. "I'll go wherever he wants this summer. He could play another four years in the NBA before seriously trying the NFL. ... There are not a lot of 38- or 39-year-old basketball players, but there are 38- and 39-year-old quarterbacks, so there's always time for him."
James was asked about the possibility of quarterback success at the NFL level, and to the surprise of some, he seemed intrigued by the possibility.
"I think so," he said after the Heat beat the Indiana Pacers in overtime in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. "I have the ability. I can see and read plays. I study a lot, so I know defenses and things of that nature. So I would have been pretty good if I had decided to go for it." source- shutdown corner

Sergiy Stakhovsky takes picture of disputed spot, tweets it out after French Open match

Sergiy Stakhovsky — AP 

Athletes use social media for a number of things and you can add "rules question" to that long list thanks to Sergiy Stakhovsky. The 27-year-old Ukrainian disputed a call during his first round match at the French Open, saying the ball was in while the chair umpire called it out. Stakhovsky was so set on the fact that the ball was in that he pulled out his cell phone, took a picture of the spot and eventually tweeted it out after the match.
The picture there clearly shows the mark to the left of the line and it does look like it's very, very close to touching the white, meaning the ball would be in and Stakhovksy was right.
Stakhovksy lost the match 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 to Richard Gasquet but you have to give the guy credit for having the wherewithal to think of snagging his phone and using social media to argue against the chair umpire. The act didn't go unnoticed, as he did land a warning for using his cell phone, and as Beyond the Baseline points out, this isn't the first time Stakhovsky has done this. At the event in Munich he pulled a similar stunt, but it's a little easier to see why he was upset thanks to the French Open clay.
So, your call - after looking at the picture, was it in or out? - Busted Racquet

Spurs guard Tony Parker denies he was denied service by famed Memphis restaurant

A local chef claims he denied service to Tony Parker on Friday night because the San Antonio Spurs point guard didn't have a reservation. Parker says that would have been impossible – because he says he never went to the chef's restaurant.Tony Parker and the Spurs will try to close out the Grizzlies in Game 4 on Monday in Memphis. The culinary tiff began the night before Game 3 of the Western Conference finals when renowned Memphis chef Kelly English confirmed a Twitter user's question asking if Parker tried to eat dinner at English's Restaurant Iris that evening and was "denied service."

English, a Grizzlies fan who has the team's "Grit, Grind" slogan written on his arm in his Twitter profile photo, then explained the decision in a subsequent tweet, saying Parker wasn't given a table at the restaurant because he didn't have a reservation.

Parker, however, said he ate room service dinner from his hotel while watching the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers play Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals that night. Parker said he never even left his hotel room. source: Yahoo

College Baseball Team Masters the Art of the Photo-bomb [VIDEO]

The University of Cincinnati Baseball team has perfected the photo-bomb, or the video-bomb…In a series of video interviews, the team can be seen in the background photo-bombing the live shot!  Some of them are pretty creative! Nice job Bearcats TV!  My favorite is the back stroke…

The Indy 500 winners’ trophy might be the most terrifying thing you’ve ever seen!

Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves, demonic trophy, Dario Franchitti. (Getty Images)

 One of the most coveted trophies in sports is also one of the most terrifying. Above is the Borg-Warner Trophy, presented to the winner of the Indy 500. It now stands more than five feet tall and weighs more than 150 pounds. Looks reasonable enough from a distance, though, right? Let's zoom in a little closer...
 
The souls of Helio Castroneves and Dario Franchitti. (Getty Images)

OH SWEET HEAVEN. Those little knobs on the trophy ... they're faces! Yes, the trophy has carved faces of every single winner since 1911, arranged in a checkerboard fashion. Despite, or perhaps because of, that, the trophy is valued at about $3.5 million. (Also, as For The Win notes, the guy on top is naked.)
At least they're smiling. If the faces were screaming, though ... hey, wait a second. A trophy that captures your soul when you win it? That's one fine movie idea there. And it's mine. - From The Marbles