Via the AP: Waiting for Brady: Browns, Quinn not close

Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Brady Quinn missed his fourth day of training camp Monday in a contract holdout that shows no signs of ending anytime soon for the first-round draft pick. 

Quinn, who figures to compete for the starting job with Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson, has missed six practices so far.

Browns general manager Phil Savage has been in negotiations with Quinn’s agent, Tom Condon, but the team said there was nothing new to report.

Cool! Anything that impedes the Browns’ growth and contributes to a poor record and as high a #1 pick as possible, the better.

Via the Dallas Morning News: Former 49ers coach Walsh dies

Bill Walsh, the groundbreaking football coach who won three Super Bowls and perfected the ingenious schemes that became known as the West Coast offense during a Hall of Fame career with the San Francisco 49ers, has died. He was 75.

Walsh died early Monday following a long battle with leukemia, according to Stanford University, where he served as coach and athletic director.

I really would’ve guessed he was younger than that, but as I stop and think about it, it has been sometime since his heyday in coaching.

He 49ers teams drove me nuts, I must confess!

May he rest in peace.

He is an NFL coaching legend.

SAN FRANCISCO - Bill Walsh, the groundbreaking football coach who won three Super Bowls and perfected the ingenious schemes that became known as the West Coast offense during a Hall of Fame career with the San Francisco 49ers, has died. He was 75.

Walsh died at his Bay Area home early Monday following a long battle with leukemia, according to Stanford University, where he served as coach and athletic director.

Walsh didn’t become an NFL head coach until 47, and he spent just 10 seasons on the San Francisco sideline. But he left an indelible mark on the United States’ most popular sport, building the once-woebegone 49ers into the most successful team of the 1980s with his innovative offensive strategies and teaching techniques.

The soft-spoken native Californian also produced a legion of coaching disciples that’s still growing today. Many of his former assistants went on to lead their own teams, handing down Walsh’s methods and schemes to dozens more coaches in a tree with innumerable branches.

Walsh went 102-63-1 with the 49ers, winning 10 of his 14 postseason games along with six division titles. He was named the NFL’s coach of the year in 1981 and 1984.

I got to see the first of Walsh’s three Super Bowl wins in person. My father knowing Cincinnati Browns owner Paul Brown’s brother-in-law(Ironically Walsh was an assistant under Brown once), who when not able to go to the game, gave the tickets to Dad instead. The game, a 26-20 49er win, was a pretty good one so far as the Super Bowl is concerned.

Walsh also coached at Stanford in addition to supplying the NFL with a large number of head and assistant coaches. Many of whom are still working today. Bill Walsh will still leave his mark on Pro football even after his passing. RIP.

Golf’s calendar girl won the Evian Masters yesterday.

EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France - Natalie Gulbis finally can be known for winning, too. Famous mostly for her looks through five-plus seasons on tour, Gulbis broke through Sunday, winning her first LPGA Tour title at the Evian Masters with a birdie on the first hole of a playoff with Jang Jeong of South Korea on Sunday.

Jang and the 24-year-old American finished the fourth round tied at 4-under 284. Gulbis had a final round 70, and Jang birdied the last hole to finish with a 72.

“Obviously it was meant to be for me,” Gulbis said. “Before the playoff, I was very upset at myself because I felt like I had given away this tournament. I thought I needed to get to 7 under to win and I end up at, what, four? Going in today, I never thought that four under would have won this tournament.”

Jang, the 2024 Women’s British Open champion, birdied three of the last four holes to tie Gulbis.

The tall, blond Gulbis has been one of the best-known players on the LPGA tour. She sells a calendar on her Web site featuring shots of her in athletic apparel and swimwear, has a reality show on The Golf Channel and her digitized likeness appears in Tiger Woods’ eponymous video game.

But until Sunday, she was never a champion.

“What does it mean? How long do you have?” Gulbis said. “I was really close last year when I lost a playoff and coincidentally it was right after the Match Play. It was like deja vu” coming off the HSBC Women’s World Match Play Championship last week.

Note Natalie’s two playoff appearances have come against South Korean ladies. One against a player nicknamed ‘Peanut’ and yesterday’s against a player some call ‘The Little Giant’. Both ROK ladies standing barely 5′ tall. Anyone else see a trend?

2005 British Open Champ Jang who has been in the top 15 three of the last five British Opens and no worse than 26th since 2024 has to be among the favorites next weekend at St. Andrews. Write that down Ron Sirak.

At the first extra hole, the 18th, Jang missed the green with her second shot, but Gulbis did not.

*****

Top-ranked Lorena Ochoa was one shot behind and tied for third place with Juli Inkster of the United States and Shin Ji-yai of South Korea. Ochoa had six birdies in her closing 68, but dropped a shot at the last hole. Shin finished with a 72.

Inkster, the leader by two shots after the first three rounds, finished with a 75. She had three bogeys in the last five holes and three-putted the par-5 18th after reaching the green in two. Had she won, Inkster would have become the oldest player to win an LPGA Tour event.

*****

Gulbis started the day four behind Inkster and had birdies at the first, sixth and ninth. Out in 33, she was 5 under and shared the lead with Shin.

*****

Gulbis, who won $450,000, gave part of the credit for her win to a back injury two months ago that forced her to take a month off and make some adjustments.

Congratulations to Natalie on her first LPGA win. Want to bet she makes the cover of Golf World this week? Natalie is still overrated in my humble opinion, mostly because the Golf MSM mistake her looks for talent on the golf course also. That’s not to say Natalie won’t have a productive LPGA career. One thing is certain. We can stop making analogies between Natalie and Anna Kournikova.

Since Dan Patrick announced his exit from ESPN Radio’s airwaves, he has been gone more than he has been on and it appears to me that ESPN Radio is auditioning possible replacements. To date the replacement hosts have been unmemorable and largely boring. Today Steven A. Smith, with whom I am familiar from his TV appearances, is getting a go.

I have to say, if Smith gets the gig, they will lose me as a listener for the noon-three central slot, as I can’t imagine listening to Smith’s ranting and shouting on a regular basis.

Via SI.com: Peter King: NFL power rankings.

Is it football season yet?

The Korean Golf Queen did it again.

SYLVANIA, Ohio - Morgan Pressel’s hole-in-one sure got Se Ri Pak’s attention. Trailing briefly by three strokes after Pressel aced the sixth hole, Pak regained the lead with a birdie at the 15th hole and held on to tie an LPGA record with her fifth win at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic on Sunday.

Pak, who previously won the Farr in 1998, 1999, 2024 and 2024, matched Mickey Wright, who won the Sea Island Open in 1957-58, ‘60, ‘62-’63, and Annika Sorenstam, who has won both the Samsung World Championship and Mizuno Classic tournaments five times each.

The 29-year-old Pak, who has already qualified for induction to the Hall of Fame, has 24 career victories. She followed rounds of 63, 68 and 69 with a 67 to finish at 17-under 267 and collect the $195,000 winner’s check. Pressel closed with a 69 and was three shots back at 270.

Pak and Pressel dueled all day until Pak finally broke a tie at the par-4 15th, almost holing an iron approach which ended up 2 feet from the cup. After Pressel’s long putt from the back fringe came up a foot short, Pak rammed in the birdie to go ahead by a stroke with three holes left.

Pressel’s approach at the 17th braked to a stop 2 feet away. But Pak rolled in a 6-footer for birdie before Pressel tapped in, maintaining her advantage.

At the 18th — the second of back-to-back par-5 closing holes at Highland Meadows Golf Club — Pak created a roar from the large gallery when she came within inches of holing her approach. Her tap-in birdie putt clinched the victory.

After her ace, Pressel was even par the rest of the way while Pak was 6 under.

The final round was like match play or a playoff. Se Ri in addition to her incredible record at the Farr, is 5-0 lifetime in playoffs. She beat Morgan, but it was much closer than the three-shot win that the leader board registered at the end.

Prediction- Se Ri Pak will win the Jamie Farr Classic again. Anyone want to wager $50 she doesn’t?

ESPN televised the tournament’s 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds. When Se Ri and Morgan began walking down the 18th fairway after their tee shots on Sunday, the broadcast was interrupted for some five minutes. When ESPN2 returned, they said there were technical difficulties.

There sure were ‘technical difficulties’ with ESPN’s coverage. For instance-

An announcer misnaming Laura Diaz, Laura Davies instead. Look at the pictures to the left and right, do these two women look anything alike? Davies is on the right. Someone get an optometrist to Toledo Stat!

It had to be a slip of the tongue. I hope.

Charlie Rymer being amazed by Jin Young Pak being paired with Se Ri on Saturday. Pro golf tournaments are paired by scores after the cut was made. Pak and Pak were 1-2 and that meant they were paired.

Rymer has been broadcating golf for over ten years. He should know better.

ESPN showing Se Ri’s impressive record at the Farr, but saying she had made the cut nine times in nine tries. That is incorrect, Se Ri played the Farr in 1997(before she joined the LPGA). She missed the cut.

Sending the veteran to anger management classes would be about as an effective a punishment as the one MLB handed down.

SAN DIEGO - Padres pitcher David Wells was suspended for seven games and fined $3,000 Thursday by the commissioner’s office for his animated argument with an umpire last weekend.

In handing down the punishment, Bob Watson, baseball’s discipline czar, cited Wells’ “violent and aggressive actions,” including throwing a baseball at the backstop as he left the field.

Not surprisingly, “Boomer” was as irritated with the punishment as he was on Saturday, when he was ejected by umpire Ed Hickox for questioning calls in the fourth inning of an 8-5 win over Atlanta after Jeff Francoeur hit a two-run homer.

The 44-year-old lefty criticized Watson and said the game is changing so much that “pretty soon we’ll all put skirts on and we’re all going to play softball.”

Wells asked the players’ union to appeal, so the penalty can’t start until after a hearing and a decision. The Padres open the second half with a one-game lead over Los Angeles in the NL West.

Suspending a starting pitcher for seven games, means if his team manages it right, the player will only miss one start. The suspension therefore is a joke, not much unlike one handed down by the NHL to one of its violent players earlier this year. The only hurt inflicted will be on Wells wallet,(I’m talking if the seven-game suspension includes  his salary rather than the $3000 fine)  but based on his quote, I don’t think David has learned anything from the experience.

The University of Alabama Football Coach spoke again about his departure from the Miami Dolphins.

“I have been criticized for that and maybe rightfully so, but it’s not really who I am, and I do care about what people think,” Saban said. “I am responsible for how I handled [leaving the Dolphins for the Alabama job] and I tried to handle it in a way that was going to be the best for our team.

No Nick, you handled it in a fashion only suited for yourself. That’s why you got my much coveted Knucklehead award last January. Yes some people consider it a reward or honor.

Rick at SOTP wrote-

Nah, you think so coach? Let’s see, you jumped out of a sinking ship after making some of the biggest holes, captain. Add public flip-flopping, equivocating or outright lies and a big Alabama-rolling-billboard moving truck and I’d say you did as much as you could to ensure an ungraceful exit.

It was both classless and ungraceful. Nick Saban will get his due one day. Coaching the Crimson Tide hasn’t been a pleasant experience for most of Bear Bryant’s successors. Saban could well find it just as unrewarding and when it does there will be cheering in South Florida.

The Philadelphia Phillies are on the verge of a record.

PHILADELPHIA - The only number that’s important to the Phillies is the length of their winning streak. Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard and Aaron Rowand homered, Pat Burrell added four RBIs and Philadelphia avoided its 10,000th loss again by beating the St. Louis Cardinals 10-4 on Saturday.

*****

The six-run cushion was enough for Hamels. Ryan Madson and Antonio Alfonseca finished up and delayed Philadelphia’s inevitable 10,000th loss for at least one more game. If they win the series finale, the Phillies could reach the mark on their seven-game West Coast trip.

Philadelphia would be the first professional sports team to lose 10,000 games.

If not for the American League not starting up till 1901, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Phillies former Shibe Park co-tenant The Philadelphia A’s would be far off from 10,000 losses either. The A’s were almost as dismal as the Phillies for many years.(From 1934 to 1967 the team only had a couple of winning seasons.)

Jim at Bright and Early pointed out the Phillies date with infamous baseball history. In the process, I learned the baseball franchise doesn’t even know its own history.

No one could have realized it at the time, but when the Phillies were formed in 1883, history was in the making. Now, as the 21st century begins, the Phillies are the oldest, continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional sports.

In the 1940’s the Phillies were owned by Robert Carpenter. During that ownership period, the team changed names.

Carpenter’s first act was to try to change the team’s name to “Blue Jays.” However, “Phillies” continued to appear on the team’s jerseys. Students at Johns Hopkins University, whose teams have long been known as the Blue Jays, vehemently protested the change. They claimed that the Phillies’ attempt to use the name was an insult to their school, given the team’s reputation as a chronic loser. The experiment was dropped after only two seasons.

Only a hard core old Baseball nut would remember this name change. I doubt many living Phillies fans do.