10/17/11

Article 1

The first article that I chose might come as a surprise for some. It deals with the fact that the Boston Red Sox owner, John Henry, actually was opposed to signing big time free agent Carl Crawford this past off season. After signing Crawford, the all-star left fielder had a more than disappointing season. On Friday, the Red Sox owner came out and spoke to the media, being the Crawford situation as a main point in the press conference. Henry said that he was actually opposed to signing Crawford due to the fact the the Sox already had plenty of left handed hitting. Henry went on to say that that aspect of the game is not his to deal with . That is up to now former General Manager, Theo Epstein. Continuing on, Henry said that the Crawford signing was not a PR move and neither was the Adrian Gonzalez signing. This could be in the heat of the moment but I highly doubt that. With all the money that the Sox have spent in the last two years, totaling up to nearly $400 million on 3 players, you can see that the owner John Henry would be upset at the fact that the team has not made the playoffs in two straight years, a troubling sight for an owner. With GM Epstein gone, I took this as a "I told you so" type of thing. Saying that he (John Henry) knew what he was talking about in the sense that the Crawford signing was a bad idea. It will be interesting to see how the Crawford signing plays out in the next 6 years of his $142 million dollar contract.

Article 2
Yesterday after the great game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Detroit Lions, the intensity was still not over. After a tremendous game that had the 49ers coming out on top 25-19, not the players, but the two head coaches of the two teams got into it with one another. After time had run out in the 4th quarter, giving San Fran the win, 49ers head coah, Jim Hardbough was pumped. So happy that his team had beat the undefeated Lions that he was jumping up and down from excitement. As the two coaches went to shake one anothers hand in the middle of the field, the 49ers coach was still on his winning high. Instead to just nicely shaking the hand of the Lions head coach, he jumped, slapped his hand, while yelling. Almost gloating in a way to the Lions that they are no longer undefeated. After that scene, the 49ers coach went jogging into the lockeroom as any other coach would. Out of no where came the Lions head coach, purposly running into him and bring up his concerns. As the coaches started talking, it quickly escalated to arguing and then it got physical. The two coaches and some players had to be restrained. Since the incident, the NFL has released a statement that they will review the actions of each coach and then take it from threre. I expect a fine for each coach, proabably a little bit heftier one the the 49ers coach considering his actions started all this.