Yahoo – When Gordon Hayward can start meeting with sneaker companies about his next endorsement deal in August, expect New Balance to make a strong push for the All-Star, according to Nick DePaula of ESPN.com. The Celtics forward has spent the bulk of his career playing in Nike shoes, but he has the chance to join a new brand before this upcoming season.
New Balance, which has its headquarters in Boston, partnered with the Celtics on their new practice facility recently as part of the company’s attempt to gain more traction in the basketball world. Currently, the shoe company does not have a section on its website for basketball sneakers.
Please make it a high top. Thats all I ask.
But in all seriousness this move would make perfect sense. The New Balance headquarters is a literal stone’s throw away from the Celtics brand new practice facility, which they partnered with to build. Odd move for a company without any basketball shoes right?
Hey if PUMA can get back into the NBA world then why not New Balance? Sure, PUMA may have Jay-Z leading the way, but Gordon Hayward would be a pretty good start for New Balance.
Now the real work here is in New Balance selling Gordon Hayward on them as his brand of choice in the prime of his career. I mean a tractor trailer full of cash always helps, but if I’m New Balance I’m pitching the fact that my CEO works 20 feet from where you practice every day. Phil Knight probably ain’t flying out to Brighton to take meetings.
Whatever you do just don’t give Gordon the Vinny Chase free agency pitch.
Of all the things that make me irrationally angry in this world, The fact that Dan “I’m a fucking asshat” Shaughnessy is SOMEHOW going to be beatified as a saint by the media when he one day dies is perhaps the most infuriating. Shank is a troll plain and simple. He is an amalgamation of the worst parts of old media and big J journalism and he delights in nothing more than writing bad stories that no one cares about while grinding whichever of his axe is the dullest that week.
Unfortunately for Mr. Shaughnessy at the turn of the millennium a new sheriff arrived in town that very simply put, was not going to put up with his shit, that was intellectually and creatively superior and who could, no matter what Shank did or said or wrote, make Boston’s worst columnist look like a child at any waking moment. To put it in terms I myself can understand better, Shaughnessy is any number of hapless, 155 pound subpar grapplers and Belichick is Khabib Nurmagomedov, just taking down, holding down, stifling, and making life absolutely miserable and humiliating for his broken opponent.
But what a weird fuckin fanbase we are for getting fired up for by this huh? While other teams have to wait for the first deep call completed in full pad drills to get stoked for the impending season, we just have to wait for our coach to verbally checkmate a jackass reporter within 3 moves.
NESN – Some Major League Baseball players like to wind down after games. Not Craig Kimbrel. The Red Sox closer has been one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball for the last decade, and it’s perhaps due in large to his impressive work ethic, which fellow Boston reliever Matt Barnes recently shed light on in a conversation with Chad Jennings of The Athletic. “Every game after he pitches, it doesn’t matter if it’s 1 o’clock in the morning or it’s 3:30 in the afternoon, (Kimbrel)’s going to go upstairs and he’s going to run a mile on the treadmill,” Barnes told Jennings. “Every game. One mile.” MLB players can be creatures of habit, with each having a specific gameday routine. Kimbrel just so happens to do more after games than before games, and it’s a strategy that’s worked well for the seven-time All-Star.
Thats it? Really?
So let me get this straight, Matt. The reason Craig Kimbrel has been one of the most dominant closers in the game for years is because he runs after the game? One mile? I am far from a peak athletic specimen, but what does that take him like seven minutes tops? That lede had me all jacked up thinking there was going to be some psychotic Tiger Woods running in combat boots military workout. Nope, he just heads upstairs to the treadmill to run one mile after pitching for like 10 minutes. Well shit, theres the secret guys. Not HIIT cardio, not running iron mans, just a solid 1,600 meters ought to do it.
This is a headline that seems to be repeating itself over and over again like we’re in the damn Matrix. American League team x adds a weapon for the stretch run, Red Sox do nothing. The Indians added Brad Hand, the Yankees added Zach Britton, and the Astros continue to be on the hunt for bullpen arms with a deep farm system to deal from. Of course this all stems back to Dave Dombrowski absolutely gutting the Sox farm system.
Now those trades were made to acquire Craig Kimbrel and Chris Sale, which have worked out pretty well, but this is why I am pro-prospect. Big Z and I argue about this constantly on The 300s Podcast. He wants to dish prospects all day every day because most of them don’t pan out, which I understand. But in my opinion, prospects are more about their perceived value than their actual intrinsic value. They are poker chips. Some of them turn into Mookie Betts, others fizzle into Casey Kelly. So, no you can’t hold onto all of them, but to trade away so many of your top prospects in 2 years is just risky.
—Begin Pomeranz Rant—
This is why the Drew Pomeranz trade still bugs me. The Sox traded Anderson Espinoza, who was their top pitching prospect, straight up for the NL All-Star, who was in his first year as a starter and known to have injury issues. In 2+ seasons with Boston, Pomeranz has posted ERAs of 4.78, 3.84, and 5.70 this year.
Not to mention he’s hit the DL four different times since joining the Red Sox. Excellent trade, Dave!
Now Espinoza actually pitched pretty poorly in the Padres system before blowing out his elbow in 2017, but thats besides the point. I wasn’t against trading Espinoza because I thought he was the second coming of Pedro, I was against trading our top pitching prospect (and No. 73 prospect in all of baseball in 2016 after his first pro season) for a guy with an injury history (which the Padres’ GM was suspended for lying about) and a minuscule track record of success. Espinoza was a blue chip prospect and should have gotten a better return.
This is also why I’m always hesitant to trade from pitchers from the NL, unless they are studs with a pedigree because jumping from the NL to the AL East almost always adds a run onto a pitchers ERA. In the first half of 2016 with the Padres, Pomeranz had an ERA of 3.15, which ballooned to 4.78 for the Sox in the second half. Not impressed, Dave.
—End of Pomeranz Rant—
The Sox are an offensive juggernaut this year with a Cy Young candidate ace, pretty good starting pitching behind him, and a dominant closer. Outside of Kimbrel though their bullpen is a high wire act every night. So now the Sox, one of the best and most expensive teams in baseball, can’t make a deal for a Snickers bar because their farm system is full of JV players.
If they bow out early in the playoffs yet again because their bullpen implodes then Dombrowski should absolutely be on the hot seat. The guy who comes into town with his beautiful lettuce and does nothing but trade away top prospects and sign the highest price free agents hasn’t proved anything to me since he got here in 2015. Tony Mazz laid it out pretty well in this article from the other day. Not to mention, the biggest knock against Dombrowski over the years has been his inability to build a great bullpen. Great…
This team as currently constituted will not win a World Series, especially not with their direct competition adding weapons like Zach Britton right in their face. But, I don’t know what the Sox can really do aside from picking someone off the scrap heap and hoping to catch lightning in a bottle like they did with Doug Fister last year. If this team doesn’t make a significant move, wins 100+ games, and gets bounced in the first round again then someone needs to get fired.
ESPN – The Hamilton Tiger-Cats have traded quarterback Johnny Manziel to the Montreal Alouettes, reuniting him with the coach who recruited him to Texas A&M. Manziel, offensive tackle Tony Washington and offensive lineman Landon Rice were sent to Montreal in exchange for defensive end Jamaal Westerman, wide receiver Chris Williams and first-round picks in 2020 and 2022.
Has Johnny Football lit up the CFL like I had hoped? Not quite yet, but he hasn’t really had the opportunity to showcase himself. He didn’t even record a pass attempt with the Tiger Cats. Now is that a bad sign that he can’t beat out some CFL quarterback to get on the field? Maybe, but the guy in front of him was also putting up some crooked numbers:
“Masoli tied a CFL record with nine straight 300-yard passing games before the team’s Week 5 bye.”
So I would like to see him under center and running around like a madman before I make any assumptions because I think he can still ball.
Manziel now goes to Montreal where the Alouettes are currently coached by none other than Mike Sherman, the guy who first recruited Johnny to Texas A&M. If thats not a match made in heaven then I don’t know what is. This is a guy who went on the recruiting trail to bring Manziel in just a handful of years ago so he obviously likes the guy. Not to mention Montreal is terrible so there should be ample opportunity to get on the field.
“Manziel will try to improve an offense that ranks last in the league in points scored and rushing yards, is tied for last in turnovers, and is seventh of nine teams in passing yards. The Alouettes are 1-4 and in last place in the CFL’s four-team East Division.”
Oh and one more thing.
Yea, Montreal is a mere 5 hour drive from Boston, which means The 300s Does the CFL is a very, very real possibility. And if thats happens then you know its my duty to swipe a Johnny Manziel Montreal jersey on The 300s corporate card (Red’s Visa debit card).
I don’t exactly know when the CFL season runs until because this league is ass backwards in everything they do, but I’m already planning this roadtrip. Reminds me of the English Premiere League where they basically play for 10 months, crown a champion without any sort of playoffs, take 2 months off and then they’re back on the field and I’m back in the Green Briar having a Guinness at 9 am. Round and round we go.
Now the real question is, with so many choices, which Montreal Manziel jersey do I get? Decisions, decisions.
Yahoo! – “When I first got [to New England], I thought in my head, ‘I’m better than this dude.’”
Lee pressed him on the notion several times, that Garoppolo really believes he’s better than the quarterback that’s won five Super Bowls, been to eight, and is regarded by many as the greatest quarterback in the history of the league.
“It was always a quiet confidence. I would never speak that,” Garoppolo said.
Hot take: I’m totally ok with this. Maybe it is because I will always have a “what if?” kind of fan-hood for Jimmy G, but this is the kind of confidence you like to see a franchise QB have. It suddenly makes sense why he did so well in the limited action he has seen in his NFL career – he has a fucking DEEP belief in himself and his abilities. He did a literal “hold my beer” when BB asked him to step up and take the reigns from Brady for a few games and it showed. It wasn’t that failure wasn’t an option, it just didn’t exist in his reality.
While this might come off to some, specifically the dregs of Pats Nation, as cocky, it says something that he kept this to himself. He said and did all the right things while he was here, went about his business, and was a team player, especially when it came to needing him to come off the bench. The fuck should we care how he got himself to the right place 6 years ago at age 23 to be able to survive and even thrive in the NFL?
Given “Tom Vs. Time” and the knowledge that all the pink salt and weird ass exercises weird ass Alex Guerrero gives him to do won’t sustain Brady in perpetuity, this really hits an awkward spot in my gut. We knew Jimmy G was good. Now we know he is insanely confident as well. What did we miss out on?
P.S Anyone else hear he banged a porn star? Crazy!
The British Open crowned a first time champion on Sunday, Francesco Molinari, in what was, as my girl described it, “surprisingly entertaining.” And thats exactly what it was. On Saturday Tiger had clawed his way back into contention climbing from 29th all the way into the top 10. So when Tiger walked out onto the links for the first time on Sunday morning in the *collar-less* red henley I was SWEATING.
Pure style. Pure swagger. An absolute game changer. Hell even Nike was going back and forth with me on Twitter, they know when they have a monster on their hands.
As rough as the entire course was at Carnoustie I loved it because it made golf harder for everyone, which makes me feel better because I am not good at golf.
Now say what you will about Tiger the person, but Tiger the player? Golf is hands down better when he’s playing well and in contention. And man was he in contention. Tiger climbed all the way up from the basement with a monster 66 on Saturday and continued rolling on Sunday to eventually take a share of the lead on Sunday afternoon. It looked like Tiger was going to threaten to snatch his first major since 2010.
He was playing cocky too. He wasn’t playing it safe, he saw a field crumbling around him and knew he’d have to take some chances if he wanted to steal a win. Mickelson was playing out the string, Rory was making a charge but up and down, Speith was forcing his way out of contention with a brutal short game and a drop after hitting it into a goddamn bush. So Tiger saw his chance. Tiger was playing so well that he should have been cocky, but that might have been his downfall.
After crushing it all day, he suddenly imploded with a double bogey on 11 and a bogey on 12 that sealed his fate. Tiger landed in some rough patches and some bunkers and rather than two hit it and play it safe he opted for the Happy Gilmore approach to try and win it now.
Didn’t quite work out the way he had planned, as he bogeyed and double bogeyed, sinking any chance he had of winning. Thats where the flashbacks of old Tiger vanished.
I am far from an old school golf purist, but with that being said, I want that dude’s head. More so than the lady who brought her baby in a carriage to the front row of the gallery. You gotta be a special breed of dickhead to go all the way out to the British Open just to yell in Tiger’s backswing on 18.
Now Tiger would have had to essentially eagle it to even force a playoff, but still what the fuck dude? Take that shit to a public course, not the 18th tee at the British goddamn Open.
So Francesco went on to win his first major ever. I cant say I’m familiar with his work, but its hard not to root for a guy who was doing this not too long ago.
These pictures from the ’06 Masters of Molinari caddying against Tiger (and Stevie!) are priceless pic.twitter.com/Hb39YHuuoH
I know there has been a lot of hate directed at Tiger the last few years because he can come off as a phony at times, but I don’t know man I just love the redemption story. Winning a shit ton of majors when you’re young is awesome, but being the old guy, the last samurai, the old wily vet, playing with nothing but grit and balls trying to grind out a victory is way more entertaining to me. You can just tell it means more to him than it ever did before, despite having put 20+ years into the sport already. Just look at this quote from Tiger about what he said to his kids after he came off the 18th green.
“I know that they know how much this championship means to me and how much it feels good to be back playing again. I’ve won a lot of golf tournaments, but they don’t remember any of them.
“The only thing they’ve seen is my struggles and the pain I was going through.”
As Bodhi says in one of my all-time favorite movies Point Break:
I’m rooting for old Tiger to pull one out and it looks like he’s closer than he’s been in a long time.
Fox News – Customers at a Burger King in Jacksonville, Fla., believe a woman waiting in line took the restaurant’s “Have it your way” slogan a little too literally when she hopped behind the counter and started preparing an order.
Witnesses say they watched the woman ─ who was photographed wearing a tank top and shorts ─ leave the slow-moving line and step into the food prep area, where she proceeded to slap on a pair of gloves before getting down to work…
In a statement to Fox News, Burger King said that the woman was an off-duty employee, but confirmed that the incident should not have happened. It also stated that the manager, and the woman, had been fired.
FIRED? This woman deserves a medal from the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce for her dedication to service. We’ve all waited in slow-moving lines at fast food restaurants (usually Taco Bell), and finally someone did something about it. This employee shouldn’t have been fired, she should have been promoted. It’s gotta be hard for a fast food joint to find an employee who cares that much about their craft.
Whatever happened to the expression “many hands make light work?” This poor woman got fired for her dedication to teamwork. Why? Because the fashion police happened to be waiting in line at the same time?
“I said, ‘No, you’re not about to fix my food. You’re not in uniform,'” Marcelita [Jones] claims.
Take it easy, Marcelita. You’re at Burger King, not the Four Seasons. Also, it’s Florida in July. I can’t imagine how hot the back of a BK in Florida in July is. I’d rather my fast food worker there wear a tank top and shorts instead of business casual. And she was wearing gloves. I don’t see the issue.
I just hope this employee isn’t out of work for long. If I owned a fast food restaurant I’d offer her a job tomorrow. I don’t ever remember meeting a fast food employee that dedicated to their job.
I can’t do basic math, I’m bad at directions, and I’m terrible with names, but I can still rap Jay-Z’s verse on Frontin’ word for word in my car 15 years later.
The 300s 