Taylor Jenkins is out as head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies.
Six seasons, 250-214 overall, and 9-14 in the playoffs.
Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category
Unbearable.
Friday, March 28th, 2025Your loser update: March 28, 2025.
Friday, March 28th, 2025The MLB season started yesterday. I guess? Sort of? Apparently, the Cubs and Dodgers played two regular season games in Japan a week or so ago, and the Cubs dropped both?
Shows how much I follow baseball.
Anyway, MLB teams that still have a chance to go 0-162:
Tampa Bay Rays
Toronto Blue Jays
Minnesota Twins
Kansas City Royals
Detroit Tigers
Texas Rangers
City to be named later Athletics
Los Angeles Angels
New York Mets
Washington Nationals
Atlanta Braves
Pittsburgh Pirates
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers
Colorado Rockies
Arizona Diamondbacks
The Cleveland Indians Guardians won, which is nice. But Lawrence still hasn’t taken me up on my offer to bet $5 on the Guardians to win the World Series. Houston won, which is nice. And shockingly, the White Sox actually won. ESPN picked them to be the worst team in MLB this season, but could they be worse than last year? I think that would be hard.
Firings watch.
Tuesday, March 25th, 2025Stanford hit the reset button on their football program.
I mean that semi-literally.
“Since beginning my role as General Manager, I have been thoroughly assessing the entire Stanford football program. It has been clear that certain aspects of the program need change,” Stanford football general manager Andrew Luck said in a statement. “Additionally, in recent days, there has been significant attention to Stanford investigations in previous years related to Coach Taylor.
“After continued consideration it is evident to me that our program needs a reset. In consultation with university leadership, I no longer believe that Coach Taylor is the right coach to lead our football program. Coach Taylor has been informed today and the change is effective immediately.”
Per the linked article, Troy Taylor had back-to-back 3-9 seasons. But the bigger problem seems to be: he was a jerk.
According to documents obtained by ESPN, the investigations began after multiple employees filed complaints against Taylor for what they called hostile and aggressive behavior, as well as personal attacks, the reports said. The school hired Kate Weaver Patterson, of KWP Consulting & Mediation, to investigate in spring 2023.
After the first investigation, Taylor signed a warning letter on Feb. 14, 2024, acknowledging he could be fired if the conduct continued, according to the documents. Additional complaints were documented in a second investigation that ended last July 24, but Taylor remained on the job.
The second investigation cited evidence “that this is an ongoing pattern of concerning behavior by Coach Taylor.” It was conducted last June and July by Timothy O’Brien, senior counsel for the Libby, O’Brien, Kingsley & Champion law firm in Maine. O’Brien, who has advised several Division I and Power 5 programs, said in his report that he has never encountered “this palpable level of animosity and disdain” for a university compliance office.
…
…
ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!
Sunday, March 23rd, 2025More than $5 worth of entertainment indeed.
Rodney Terry fired as University of Texas men’s basketball coach.
He coached for two seasons, but I can’t find an overall record. Texas was 19-16 this season, 6-12 in conference, and lost their first game in the NCAA tournament to Xavier.
ESPN, who is spinning it more as Texas is going to hire Sean Miller…the current coach at Xavier.
GONZAGA!!!!!!!!
Sunday, March 23rd, 2025Gonzaga 76, Houston 81.
But hey, they lasted longer than the University of Texas.
All debts have been paid, in front of witnesses. Photos available on request.
Obit watch: March 22, 2025.
Saturday, March 22nd, 2025Foreman’s career spanned generations: He fought Chuck Wepner in the 1960s, Dwight Muhammad Qawi in the ’80s and Evander Holyfield in the ’90s.
With his fellow heavyweights Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali, Foreman embodied a golden era in the 1970s, when boxing was still a cultural force in America. The three great champions thrilled fans with one classic bout after another. Foreman was the last living member of the trio.
…
Success came quickly in the amateur ranks; only a year and a half later he was Olympic heavyweight champion, defeating Ionas Chepulis of the Soviet Union by a second-round knockout in Mexico City in 1968.
After the fight, Foreman, who was Black, waved a small American flag in the ring, days after the track athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised clenched fists during the national anthem to protest the country’s treatment of Black people.
“I was just glad to be an American,” Foreman said afterward. “Some people have tried to make something of it, calling me an Uncle Tom, but I’m not. I just believe people should live together in peace.”
…
Firings watch.
Thursday, March 20th, 2025Keith Urgo out as men’s basketball coach of Fordham.
50-49 over three seasons. He was also suspended by the university for four games due to “recruiting violations”.
Obit watch: March 20, 2025.
Thursday, March 20th, 2025George Bell, actor, Harlem Globetrotter, and the tallest man in America.
He was 7’8″, and passed away at 67. He also served honorably with the Norfolk Sheriff’s Office for close to 14 years.
Nadia Cassini, Italian actress. Lawrence emailed this obit and added the observation that she was “the woman in ‘Starcrash’ who wasn’t Caroline Munroe”. IMDB.
Mark Dobies, actor. Other credits include “Nash Bridges”, “CSI: Miami”, and “Law and Order: Criminal Intent”.
Gonzaga!
Thursday, March 20th, 2025Not that I care about basketball, but I love saying “Gonzaga!”
So Lawrence and I have, once again (after a few years layoff) bet on the NCAA tournament. I’m taking Gonzaga, Lawrence is taking the field.
I have a pretty good feeling about Gonzaga. I think this just might be their year…
Obit watch: March 15, 2025.
Saturday, March 15th, 2025I lost pretty much the entire day yesterday to various things. I didn’t even get any pie.
One of the things that went by the wayside was obits, so here’s a quick and lazy roundup from the past few days. I have to rush off in a little bit to a wedding shower, and I’m not sure when I’m going to be back.
John Feinstein, sports writer and author. The only one of his books I’ve read is The Punch, which I wrote about a while back and thought was pretty good.
Chris Moore, artist. He illustrated quite a few SF books, and also did album covers for Fleetwood Mac and Rod Stewart.
Carl Lundstrom, who was one of the people behind the Pirate Bay website, died in a plane crash on Monday.
Ron Nessen, Gerald Ford’s press secretary, and one of the 892 Saturday Night Live hosts who have not committed murder. (I think that count is right, but it may be a little out of date.)
Larry Buendorf, retired Secret Service agent. He’s the guy who wrestled the gun away from Squeaky Fromme.
“Squeaky was back in the crowd, maybe one person back, and she had an ankle holster on with a .45,” he said, referring to a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol. “That’s a big gun to have on your ankle. So, when it came up, it came up low, and I happened to be looking in that direction, I see it coming, and I step in front of him, not sure what it was other than that it was coming up pretty fast, and yelled out ‘Gun!’ When I yelled out ‘Gun!’ I popped that .45 out of her hand.”
He added: “I got a hold of her fingers, and she’s screaming — the crowd is screaming — and I’m thinking, ‘I don’t have a vest on, I don’t know where the next shot is coming from,’ and that I don’t think she’s alone. All of this is going on while I’m trying to control her.”
“She turns around, and I pulled her arm back and dropped her to the ground, and agents and police come from the back of the crowd” as Ms. Fromme shrieked in disbelief, he said.
“She’s screaming, ‘It didn’t go off!’” he continued. “I had it in my hand. I knew what she was doing, she was pulling back on the slide, and I hit the slide before she could chamber a round. If she’d had a round chambered, I couldn’t have been there in time. It would’ve gone through me and the president.”
If the Times account is to be trusted, she had four rounds in the magazine and the hammer cocked, but she hadn’t chambered a round.
Kevin Drum, leftist political blogger.
Alan K. Simpson, former Republican senator from Wyoming.
Raul M. Grijalva, current Democratic House rep from Arizona.
Obit watch: March 12, 2025.
Wednesday, March 12th, 2025Junior Bridgeman, former NBA player and businessman.
He played at a time when NBA salaries were not what they are now:
ESPN ran a profile of Mr. Bridgeman back in September of last year, which I commend to your attention.
…
…
For several years, beginning in in the late 1990s, Bridgeman stood before nearly 60 rookies in a hotel conference room as part of the league’s Rookie Transition Program, which the league founded in 1986 as part of its first efforts to help teach basics about financial literacy: budgeting, saving, taxes.
Bridgeman shared what he’d heard from former Bucks head coach Don Nelson: Their job was to play as hard as they can and make as much money as they can. He offered guardrails: Know the business well and put someone in charge who you trust, who is qualified. “More guys have lost money investing in deals with their second cousin on their mother’s side running it than anything else,” Bridgeman said. Doing something like that, he said, was a “blueprint for failure.”
He said that during a player’s career, doors would open, phone calls would be returned. So if a player were on the road in Detroit and wanted to become involved in the automobile industry, they would have the chance to reach out to the head of one of the automotive giants. Opportunities were everywhere. All they had to do was ask.
I’ve never been a big basketball fan, but Mr. Bridgeman sounds like a heck of a guy.
Obit watch: March 10, 2025.
Monday, March 10th, 2025It has been a rough few days for baseball.
Frank Saucier, outfielder for the St. Louis Browns. He had a limited career due to injuries and the Korean War. Baseball Reference.
He is perhaps most famous as a historical footnote.
Yes, he was the player who got benched in favor of Eddie Gaedel.
Art Schallock, pitcher for the Yankees and Orioles. He was, at the time of his death, the oldest living major league player. Baseball Reference.
Athol Fugard, South African playwright. He’s another one of those folks I’ve heard a lot about, but have no personal experience with his work.
It also hasn’t been a good time for music. D’Wayne Wiggins, of Tony! Toni! Tone!.
Joey Molland, the last surviving member of Badfinger. I feel like this is one of those areas where pigpen51 is better equipped to comment than I am.
Geoff Nicholson, author. I’ve never read any of his books, but the NYT obit makes him sound interesting.
…