Trade Winds

- Only 5 more days until the July 31 trade deadline. Read yesterday's blog concerning trade possibilities for Teixeira. Here's some more good stuff from Jayson Stark, ESPN.com:

THE HOT 10

1. Mark Teixeira, Rangers 1B
MARKET REPORT
Maybe Teixeira will have to call a moving van between now and next week. Maybe he won't. But whether he gets traded or not, at this point Teixeira's situation might be the only ring in this whole trade-deadline circus that's worth watching. He's a 27-year-old switch-hitting bomber. He plays Gold Glove defense. And his GM (Jon Daniels) keeps telling other teams that Teixeira is going to the Hall of Fame some day. So "of all the guys out there [on the market]," said one scout who watched Teixeira recently, "this guy is the only real difference-maker." But beware of reports that the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox and Giants are all over him. The consensus of clubs we've surveyed is that the only teams that are seriously contemplating paying Texas' Neiman Marcus sticker price are the Braves and Angels. And just the Braves appear prepared to do what it would take to make this blockbuster happen. What it would take is the inclusion of rising star Jarrod Saltalamacchia. And that, according to one baseball man who has been in touch with both sides, is a decision that is "still being debated" in Atlanta. "It's not a given. But it's not impossible. In fact, it's probable." But we're hearing that for the Braves to include Saltalamacchia, they would want more back than just Teixeira. There are rumblings they are also trying to pry loose highly regarded left-handed reliever C.J. Wilson, and Texas is balking at that. But indications are that the two teams now have the outline of a potential deal that would send Teixeira and Wilson to Atlanta for Saltalamacchia, shortstop prospect Elvis Andrus and a pitching prospect (possibly much-touted left-hander Matt Harrison). If that deal falls apart, Texas might not have nearly as many other options as advertised. Remember, it would be unlike Angels GM Bill Stoneman to give up some combination of Casey Kotchman and either his top pitching prospect, Nick Adenhardt, or his most advanced minor league bat, Brandon Wood, for a player like Teixeira, who would be just a year and a half rental. So it's noteworthy that the Angels haven't even scouted Teixeira since he came off the disabled list, and indications now are that they're looking for a more affordable alternative (Paul Konerko?). If everyone but Atlanta backs off, that leaves Daniels in a tricky position. He clearly would like to move Teixeira now, when he can influence two seasons instead of one. But this is the most important deal of the GM's career, so he's shown no signs of lowering the asking price. "This is his signature deal," says one AL executive. "This is the biggest trade he'll probably make in his tenure. They need pitching. Their farm system is not in good shape. He thinks he needs to make a franchise-turning deal. But I think he's putting too much pressure on himself to make this one deal. Somewhere along the line, he may have to get to the point where he realizes he's not going to get two or three great prospects."




- More on the Teixeira front from CNNSI.com:

People familiar with the Mark Teixeira trade talks say the Angels are belying their usual California cool and being "very persistent" in their efforts to land the switch-hitting slugger, who would be the perfect complement to Vladimir Guerrero.

Texas may be able to pry young first baseman Casey Kotchman, perhaps right-hander Ervin Santana and a third big leaguer from Los Angeles of Anaheim for Teixeira. Which sounds like a pretty fair package from here, and word has it that the Angels might offer even more.

Meanwhile, the Dallas Morning News on its Web site was portraying the Braves and Dodgers as favorites for Teixeira. The Dodgers definitely have what it takes to land Teixeira but won't trade top pitching prospect Clayton Kershaw or young outfield stud Matt Kemp, may not be all that keen about trading young first baseman James Loney, either, and appeared more interested in pitching help.



- A few non-Teixeira trade rumors from CNNSI.com

The Rangers are the team to watch, with a half-dozen players to interest contenders. But one thing hampering them is Akinori Otsuka's condition. Otsuka's arm is "barking," according to a friend, and since he's had problems going back to his days in Japan, a lot of folks are speculating now that he may need Tommy John surgery. If that's true, the Rangers better be careful about trading either Joaquin Benoit and Eric Gagne. However, another Rangers person insisted that doctors are identifying Otsuka's problem thus far as "forearm tendinitis," which sounds a little better.

• Ron Mahay, Texas will trade, and that's OK.

• While Texas has almost no chance to extend Teixeira's contract past 2008, word is that Gagne, who like Teixeira is a client of Scott Boras, is interested in staying to the point where he may consider an extension despite being only two months from free agency. Considering the uncertainty surrounding Otsuka, that might be a wise idea for the Rangers.






- Marc Stein interviews Steve Nash. Always a good guy and a favorite of mine, until he plays the Mavs, and then I despise him for 48 minutes. And then its back to normal.

1. When the Suns were eliminated by the Spurs, you said that the outcome "will forever haunt us." Roughly two months later, are you feeling any differently about the series?

I'm over it until someone brings it up again. I've tried to put it out of my mind as much as possible, because it's very frustrating to go back to that series and retrace the suspensions and all the other events.

2. In each of the past three postseasons since you went back to Phoenix, your team has had to deal with various injuries and curveballs. And now comes word that Tim Donaghy, one of the referees in Game 3 of the San Antonio series, is being investigated by the FBI for betting on games. How much does that add to the Suns' disappointment?

I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say about that right now. It's an unfortunate situation. It's a shame that something like this happened, but I believe that the game is bigger than anything. The game is strong enough to [weather] this.

3. Can you just speak generally about the Suns' recent playoff fortunes?

There have been some events that, yeah, sometimes it makes you [wonder], "How high is the mountain?" At the same time, I can point the finger at myself and my team for not overcoming some of those things. Hopefully we keep getting better as a team and I still feel like I'm still getting better individually.

4. What does Grant Hill add to the mix?

It's a really good addition for us. We are trying to [maintain] a salary structure, so to sign a veteran of that quality and experience for a veteran minimum is a great move. He's still a great player, he's a great teammate and he's going to make us older in a good way.

5. But you've lost Kurt Thomas from last season's team. If Hill is the only significant addition to the roster before camp opens, how much better are the Suns next season?

I think [Hill] does make us better, but we've still got a lot of work to do on the court. It's not just what it looks like on paper. We need a little more toughness, be a little more intelligent as a group. But I think, as a group, we're working toward that. I think we can keep getting smarter. We've still got a really young team that's growing.

6. How tantalizing was it to hear that Phoenix is where Kevin Garnett wants to go if he finally leaves Minnesota?

I love Kevin. I'd love to play with him [someday]. But I love my team, so I don't really think about it. We've got a great team moving forward. That's all I think about.

7. You and KG are said to have become pretty good friends in recent years. How did that happen?

Really just from playing in All-Star Games, but we haven't been able to spend that much time together. It would be overstating it to say we're super close. But he's a great person, great for the game. He's got to be one of the [all-time] top 50 guys, easy.

8. A lot of the speculation around the draft about KG's coming to Phoenix involved Amare Stoudemire. How involved were you in the organization's attempts to reassure Amare that he wasn't going to be traded?

I really think Amare's fine. I know he's been in the gym a lot getting ready for next season. He sent me a text [message] just before he went to [join] Team USA and you could tell he was pretty excited. It's going to be a lot of fun for him this summer to be healthy after what he went through [coming back from two knee surgeries].

9. Speaking of health, how are you feeling? After 11 seasons, have you given much thought to how much longer you want to play?

I've been getting a lot of "window" questions lately, but I don't think about stuff like that. It's not up to me as much as my body and how I feel, but I have no reason to believe that I won't be playing for a long time. I feel great right now.

10. You have three years left on your contract, which would take you past your 36th birthday. What happens if you don't win a championship in that time?

I'm going to try as hard as I can and hopefully that'll be good enough. If it's not good enough, what am I going to do? It's not like I'm going to go into seclusion if I never win one.






- Could he allow the Rangers to be able to trade Blalock next off-season for a decent package of players/prospects? I'd like to keep the tatted up Hank for as long as possible, as long as he comes back and produces. Behind Gagne, he's my favorite Ranger. Maybe Metcalf could play his way into a trade instead. Either way, both of them producing will only help the Rangers.

Rangers' Metcalf learns on the fly


11:24 PM CDT on Thursday, July 26, 2007
By MIKE HEIKA / The Dallas Morning News
mheika@dallasnews.com

Rangers rookie Travis Metcalf was asked during his recent hot-hitting homestand if he was feeling more established and comfortable in the major leagues, and his answer was telling.

"I'm not established," he said. "But I am a little more comfortable."
And comfortable is a big step for Metcalf right now. The 24-year-old third baseman started the season in Double-A Frisco and was called up in May when Hank Blalock had shoulder surgery. Drafted in the 11th round in 2004 out of Kansas, Metcalf has been on an accelerated learning curve since, and he has not always met the challenges.

"The one thing to that kid's credit: He never showed us he lacked confidence," manager Ron Washington said. "He has come in and dealt with everything."

Metcalf hit .221 in his first year in Frisco last summer. He pushed that up to .294 this season. But when given a two-week chance to fill in for Blalock in May, Metcalf lost out on a regular job to Ramon Vazquez.

He stuck around as a depth player and earned a chance to be a regular at third when Ian Kinsler suffered a stress fracture in his foot and Vazquez had to move to second base.

While nobody expected Metcalf to rip the ball, the Rangers liked the fact that he was a solid glove at an important position.

"Our coaching staff has done a good job of making sure he does what he does best – and what he does best is catch the ball down at third base," Washington said. "Whatever offense he gives us, we accept."

That said, the coaching staff also has worked on hitting. Metcalf said repeated sessions with hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo have opened his eyes – and repeated appearances at the plate has allowed those sessions to pay off.

"He taught me a lot, and there are a couple of things I'm doing right now that let me see the ball a little longer," Metcalf said. "It also helps to get up there on a regular basis and get in a rhythm."

Metcalf entered the four-game series this week against Seattle with a .184 batting average. He went 9-for-15 and raised his average to .253. He said he is getting used to the jump from the minors.

"It just seems like everyone is more fine-tuned. They don't make mistakes," Metcalf said. "If the pitchers make a mistake, the hitters jump right on it, so the pitchers are used to that up here, and they don't make near as many mistakes."

But while his batting has picked up, he has had two errors in the last week.

"That really does get to me," he said. "I have more confidence in my fielding, so I'm pretty hard on myself when I make a mistake."

But if he can continue his history of strong fielding and continue to improve with the bat, there's no telling what Metcalf can do. Yes, Kinsler is expected to be back next week, and that will make Vazquez an option at third base again.

And yes, Blalock is taking grounders and could return in the next month. But Metcalf has at least opened some eyes.

No, he's not quite "established" yet, but Washington said the rookie has definitely taken a step forward.

"I'm very happy for him," Washington said. "You know, he's put himself on the map."


TRAVIS METCALF
Born: Aug. 17, 1982, Manhattan, Kan.

Ht.: 6-3 Wt.: 215

Bats: R Throws: R

Pos.: 3B

Notable: A 2000 graduate of Wamego (Kan.) High School and two-time All-State selection. ... Attended Kansas and set school records for home runs in a season (18) and career (29). Named Big 12's top defensive third baseman. ... Drafted by Rangers in 11th round. ... Hit .221 with Frisco last season. ... Is 9-for-15 in last four games with Rangers.






- Unleash the fury Mitch!!!!!!!!

To hear everyone around the league and within the organization talk, DeMarcus Ware is poised for a breakout season of the highest order. One of the coolest things to watch is a bad ass D-end coming off the edge and throwing a QB down. To know you have a threat there every game changes so much for the opposing offense and will free up Greg Ellis and Anthony Spencer to wreak almost as much havoc. Dallas hasn't had a game changer there since Charles Haley. I think Ware's about to break out.

Scare tactics: Cowboys will turn Ware loose

09:34 PM CDT on Thursday, July 26, 2007
By TODD ARCHER / The Dallas Morning News
tarcher@dallasnews.com

SAN ANTONIO – Two plays show what kind of difference outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware can make.

The first one had quarterback Tony Romo scrambling. The second one ended with running back Marion Barber losing his helmet.

Lining up across from tight end Anthony Fasano, Ware's burst off the snap left Fasano helpless and forced Romo up the field, hough Ware quickly tracked him down from behind. Two plays later he forced Barber to bounce outside by stoning left tackle Pat McQuistan, which gave Bradie James time to make the helmet-popping tackle.

"Monster," new free safety Ken Hamlin said. "He's doing things in games you don't see from a lot of guys. He can stop the run, and he's definitely a helluva pass rusher. I'm glad he's on our side. I've seen him get our quarterback a little bit in the past. Now, that I'm a teammate I know the pressure he creates."

Ware made his first Pro Bowl last season, picking up 11 ½ sacks and scoring the first two touchdowns of his career – the first a fumble return 69 yards against Philadelphia and the second a glue-like interception of a pass from the Falcons' Michael Vick, which Ware returned 41 yards.

But this year promises to be a little different. Among the adjustments coach Wade Phillips is bringing to the defensive scheme this year is moving Ware around the field, allowing him to rush the passer more and cover tight ends and running backs less.

"I'm at the point now where I know what I'm supposed to do before the play, and I can just go," Ware said.

Ware's sacks last season are the most in team history by an outside linebacker, but he is not putting out a number for public consumption for this year's sack total. In Phillips, however, Ware has a coach with the ability to make pass rushers into game changers.

"He's a natural pass rusher," Phillips said. "You only have a few of those guys that really have a great feel and the quick feet and the speed – the things that he has ... I've had a few of them. Bruce Smith comes to mind. He had the great feet and the quickness and the speed. They play a little bit different position, obviously, but DeMarcus is going to be a really good player for a long time."

Relying more on his hands and speed to work around blockers than power, Phillips and defensive coordinator Brian Stewart have Ware opening his hips more on his pass rush to make it more difficult for tackles to get a hold of him.

It's difficult to argue with Phillips' success.

From 1989-93 in Denver, Simon Fletcher recorded 66 sacks. In Buffalo, Bryce Paup earned defensive MVP honors when he had 17 ½ sacks in 1995. The last three seasons in San Diego, three different linebackers (Steve Foley, Shawne Merriman and Shaun Phillips) posted double-digit sacks. Before Ware's sacks last season, the Cowboys had gone 10 years without a defender posting double-digit figure sacks.

"He gets you in matchups that for the guys blocking you don't usually see," Paup said of Phillips. "A bigger guy, stronger guy against a tight end or running back or maybe a guard popping out, most of the time if you're a decent pass rusher you'll have success. He just tries to find ways to put you in position to make plays and then it's up to you to make plays. He's found guys that can do that and do a very good job."
Ware is the next in line, but he is not going to be Merriman, with whom he has been compared to since they were selected in back-to-back picks in the 2005 draft. He is actually playing the same position as Shaun Phillips, who had a career-high 11 ½ sacks in 2006.

Besides, Ware and Merriman are two different personalities, according to Stewart. Merriman's brash, "Lights out," style contradicts Ware's easy-going smile.

Wade Phillips doesn't care if Ware is mean or not.

"He knocks them down and gets to the ball and gets to the quarterback," Phillips said. "I think the guys being hit feel like he's pretty mean."


- Thursday's Camp Report

From Staff Reports


Two-minute drill: CB Aaron Glenn
The Houston native, who turned 35 on July 16, is the second oldest player on the roster

Who's more attractive: Beyonce or Halle Berry?

Beyonce because she's from Houston.

What advice would you give Lindsay Lohan?

That Hollywood life is not what you think it is. Don't get caught up in the life, leave it alone.

You're a 14-year veteran and you always stay in shape. What's you're diet like?

I don't eat fried foods.

Really?

Rarely. I got to get it every now and then. I like chicken and a lot of green vegetables. I love broccoli and green beans. I think my wife and my kids can't stand it. She knows every time I like cooking it has to be something of that nature. I don't eat a lot. I don't have an appetite to eat six meals [a day] I can't do that. I might eat twice a day and I drink a lot of water.

Your son is a junior golfer?

And a basketball player.

I know you also play golf, who would win between you two?

He would. Not even close.

Calvin Watkins


Observation deck
• Tony Romo and Jason Witten have developed a nice chemistry since 2003 and it showed Thursday when they hooked up on back-to-back plays. First, Romo sent a floater to the flat over the linebacker and then he fired a bullet between linebackers Bobby Carpenter and Kevin Burnett.

• On a reverse, Terrell Owens appeared to deke strong safety Roy Williams, drawing some, "ooohs," from the crowd. At full speed and with pads on the outcome may have been a little different, but Owens' quick two-step was impressive.

• Romo's bobbled snap vs. Seattle won't be forgotten soon, but the Cowboys prepared for another such situation in field goal work Thursday. With new holder Brad Johnson simulating a botched snap, he threw touchdown passes to defensive end Jay Ratliff and guard Kyle Kosier, who was surprisingly smooth with the reception.

• Keith Davis had an active day. He forced a fumble when he knocked a pass out of tight end Tony Curtis' hands and intercepted a deflected pass from Romo. After snuffing out another Romo pass, Davis barked, "Come on, Romo, throw the ball."

• Rookie fullback Deon Anderson had a welcome-to-the-NFL moment when he was stopped cold in the hole by defensive end Chris Canty.

• Coach Wade Phillips called the first practice in pads sloppy. Here's why: too many fumbled snap exchanges. At least three times the exchange ended up on the ground, and there were at least two other fumbles.

• The happiest offensive lineman now that third-round pick James Marten has signed? Matt Tarullo. A center and part-time guard during his practice squad days the last two years, he was forced to play right tackle in Marten's absence.

• Not long after injuring his left elbow, forcing him to wear a brace, linebacker Kevin Burnett forced a fumble on a Jackie Battle run that was recovered by Abram Elam.

• The list of former Cowboys in attendance at practice grew when former safety James Washington showed up in the Alamodome.

Todd Archer


Position battle: Third-string quarterback
With the team cutting Matt Baker, who was No. 3 on the depth chart last season, the Cowboys are looking at Grapevine native Richard Bartel and Matt Moore to backup Tony Romo and Brad Johnson. Bartel has a strong arm that the offensive coaches like. But Moore also has a good arm and played better competition in college.

During 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills in the second practice, Bartel completed of 5-for-6 passes, but in the morning session he tripped while performing a handoff. Moore went 3-for-5 during the second practice.

Despite cutting Baker, the team could still add another quarterback.

Calvin Watkins


Rookie watch: Nick Folk, sixth-round pick
He performed all the kicks in the afternoon portion of practice. Folk made nine-of-10 field goals with his longest coming from 42 yards. He hooked a 37-yards to the right side from the middle of the field. Folk is competing with Martin Gramatica for the field goal and kickoff job. Gramatica, if he makes the team, will begin his eighth NFL season. As a veteran, Gramatica has the edge, but if Folk can prove he can make kicks consistently he might get the job.

Calvin Watkins


Quote of the day
"Bill [Parcells] wasn't fined, so I'm not gonna be."

Cowboys coach Wade Phillips, joking about the possibility he could be fined for reporting to camp overweight.


Injury report

Pos. Player Injury Comment
LT Flozell Adams Knee Continuing rehab. Could return this week
LB Kevin Burnett elbow Left practice briefly. Rturned with a brace
RB Alonzo Coleman Ankle Did some jogging. Status determined
RT Marc Colombo Knee Continuing rehab. Could return next week
LB Greg Ellis Achilles Has some bursitis and pain. Is day-to-day
WR Isaiah Stanback Shin splints Running well. Is day-to-day







- Mavs top pick Nick Fazekas signs to continue a boring offseason for the Mavs. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. That mid-level exception apparently isn't burning a very big hole in Donnie Nelson's pocket.

Mavs sign top pick Fazekas

09:40 PM CDT on Thursday, July 26, 2007
By KATE HAIROPOULOS / The Dallas Morning News
khairopoulos@dallasnews.com

The Mavericks on Thursday signed forward Nick Fazekas, their top draft pick, and forward Brandon Bass to two-year contracts.

Both agreed to minimum deals, which means the Mavericks still have the full mid-level exception of $5.3 million and the $1.8 million bi-annual exception to pursue free agents.

Fazekas, 6-11, 235, was the 34th overall pick of the draft. He averaged 6.6 points and 4.4 rebounds in five games in the Las Vegas summer league. In the Rocky Mountain Revue in Salt Lake City, he averaged 12.7 points and 4.7 rebounds.

Fazekas, an Arvada, Colo., native, averaged 20.4 points and 11.1 rebounds as a senior at Nevada.

Fazekas is considered a good shooter and solid rebounder. However, scouts feel he needs to improve his mobility to be an effective back-up for Dirk Nowitzki.

"Nick's a guy that can shoot it with range," Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson said. "He's a terrific passer, and he's a skilled player."

Chris Emens, Fazekas' agent, said his client is thrilled to be in Dallas. Fazekas has an aunt, uncle and niece who live in Plano.

Bass, 6-8, 240, agreed in principle to a deal earlier this week.

Drafted 33rd overall out of LSU in 2005, Bass played the last two seasons with the Hornets. He averaged two points and two rebounds in 7.7 minutes per game last season.

Bass averaged 14.8 points and 6.2 rebounds for the Mavs in Las Vegas and 10 points and five rebounds in Utah.

"Brandon just turned 22 and he probably came out a little too early," Nelson said. "He's probably like DeSagana Diop and had to learn his way a little bit."


- Picks O'the day

Yesterday - 5-7
YTD - 82-72

1) Toronto +120 - Hot lately (5 in a row), and pitcher is 1-1 with a 2.66 ERA in his last 3 starts.
2) Baltimore +135 - Another hot team, and you can get them as a home underdog, which you always must take. Pitcher is 2-1 with a 3.78 ERA in his last 3. Not bad.
3) Colorado -120 - Colorado at home is usually a good play. Pitcher is 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA in his last 3.
4) Milwaukee +105 - Team is 14-3 in pitcher's starts and Milw has a decent record vs. LHP (21-16).

SWEEP!

- Rangers get to 10 games under .500 finally. If you remember correctly, they were 21 games under at some point in May. Pitching, pitching, pitching.

Great, exciting game. Rangers get lead, blow it, and then score 2 in the 8th on the best closer in the league this year. He is now 29 of 30 for the year.

With the upcoming schedule in August, can they get to .500 by Sept. 1? Stay tuned............

Rangers' sweep ends with a bang


02:05 AM CDT on Thursday, July 26, 2007
By MIKE HEIKA / The Dallas Morning News
mheika@dallasnews.com

ARLINGTON – Rangers manager Ron Washington has talked all week about the Seattle Mariners' hitters. He noted they're selective at the plate, they can extend at-bats and they do a great job finding openings in the field.

But as good as the Mariners are, they could have learned all sorts of lessons from the Rangers.

Texas came up with key at-bats throughout the lineup in a 7-6 win over the Mariners on Wednesday that completed a four-game sweep.

Ramon Vazquez had the big hit, a two-run homer in the eighth inning that bailed out Joaquin Benoit, who had allowed two doubles in a three-run Seattle eighth inning. And Vazquez's blast came off Mariners closer J.J. Putz, who blew a save opportunity for the first time this season in 30 tries. Putz had converted 31 consecutive saves dating to last season.

"I was looking middle-in and trying to pull the ball," Vazquez said. "I got the pitch I wanted."

Vazquez worked Putz to a 2-0 count and then launched a fastball 414 feet over the center-field fence. But he wasn't the only Rangers player to swing the bat well.

Rookie Travis Metcalf continued his hot streak with a single and a double and was 9-for-15 in the four-game series. Catcher Gerald Laird added a patient at-bat in the second inning before ripping a two-out double to score Frank Catalanotto. Metcalf and Kenny Lofton then each delivered hits with two strikes in the third inning. Metcalf singled and Lofton followed with a two-run homer.

In the fifth, Vazquez worked for a leadoff walk and then scored on a Lofton single to give the Rangers a 5-3 lead.

Vazquez said the experience for players like himself and other newcomers to the lineup has been important.

"We're at a point where a lot of the guys have plenty of at-bats and we're feeling pretty good," he said. "It's a lot of work, a lot of work that hopefully will help us win."

The win gave the Rangers an 8-2-1 record in their last 11 series. Texas has won 23 of its last 37 games.

The Rangers' Michael Young said the team is focusing on doing the little things and not on its 46-56 record or place in the standings.

"That's how we've been able to play well over the last month or so," Young said. "We haven't been thinking about anything, big picture-wise. I don't know what our record is right now, I don't know how many games we are under .500, I don't know how many games we are behind Oakland. I really don't care."

Instead, the players are putting their focus on fouling off changeups to get to fastballs, working counts early to get opposing pitchers behind and going with pitches to open spots on the field.

On a night when the Mariners had 15 hits, including seven doubles (one shy of a franchise record), it might be difficult to say the Rangers were the better hitters. But the way Texas worked Seattle starter Miguel Batista and Putz, they were certainly the smarter hitters.

"If you get to the point where you are trying to win the division or you are trying to get into the playoffs, you've got to learn to grind these kind out ... and we're doing that," Washington said. "These guys have never quit since Day 1, and they're getting rewarded for it."






- Meanwhile, on the team cancer front, rumors are starting to fly concerning Mark Teixeira. The Dodgers and the Braves appear to be the frontrunners. Each trade scenario addresses a different team weakness.

I'll say right now before I analyze these trade scenarios that I'm not saying Mark Teixeira isn't going to go on and have killer seasons. I fully expect him to hit 35+ HR's a year with 130+ RBI's and win many Gold Gloves. But the guy is cancer and a prick, will cost you over $20 million a year, and just doesn't seem to want to be here. So in the best interest of your organization and improving it, the time is ripe to ship him out.

Deal #1 - Teixeira and a reliever (Gagne or Ron Mahay) for 22 year old C-1B Jarrod Saltalamacchia (considered the Braves' top prospect), either 23-year-old right-hander Kyle Davies or 21-year-old left-hander Matt Harrison, and infielder Elvis Andrus. Lefty Jo-Jo Reyes is likely not a part of the deal.

Reaction - You'd get a major league 1B to replace Tex who is 22 and just breaking into the majors. He's a switch hitter with power and above average catching skills. Also get a major league starter who's very young and well thought of regardless of his record this year (4-8), but who's also only 23 and has tons of time to improve. John Smoltz has already given his seal of approval, claiming he's a future 15-game winner. He can touch 95 mph on his fastball and has decent secondary pitches. Although he's only 23, he's been in the Braves' rotation for 2 years, which should say something. The AA shortstop Andrus is unknown but apparently is a decent prospect.

You'd inject your rotation with youth with Davies, have a starter at 1B for a long time who could also possibly replace Laird at C, and have a potential Mike Young replacement at SS.

So your rotation would look like this in 2008.
1. Millwood
2. Padilla
3. McCarthy
4. Davies
5. Loe

I like it, but don't love it. It's not the home run I'd expect. Davies and Salta could be very good, but right now it's about a 70% sure thing they develop into something great. And if you're giving up on Mark Teixeira you want sure things. I'd really want JoJo Reyes, apparently that kid is pretty salty. That said, I could still live with this trade.

Grade - B



Deal #2 - Teixeira and a reliever (Gagne and Benoit) for 1B James Loney, OF Andre Ethier, and a minor league pitcher (preferably Clayton Kershaw, LHP who is supposedly the top starting pitching prospect in a loaded minor league system).

Reaction - I agree more with this move for a few reasons. One, I watch more Dodger games than Braves games, so I know these guys a little better. Two, I feel better about the Dodger guys' production this year than the Braves' guys. Davies having a bad year may have something to do with this.

I wouldn't want to part with Gagne, because I believe a dominant bullpen can cover up a lot of warts and is a must on a contending team, and if the Rangers contend in 2008 or 2009, you're going to need a closer. But if that's what it takes to get it done, then I guess that's what it takes. Maybe you can convince him to re-sign here in the off-season. But if he gets out west again, he may never come back. That would be the risk you may have to take.

Loney is a tall, rangy 1B with great defensive skills and big time potential to be a power hitter who also hits for average. He has shown that already in his short time in the majors. Ethier is a speedy corner OF who can be a .280/25 HR/95 RBI guy with great defensive skills. Kershaw I know nothing more than he's from Highland Park and is regarded as a top starting pitching prospect in the Dodger's loaded farm system. Although the Dodger seem reluctant to part with him.

Immediately you inject your lineup with more youth, cheap youth at that, and it gives you the ability to go sign Torii Hunter and fill the CF void that's plagued Texas for many years. Along with that, re-sign Marlon Byrd this offseason, and your starting lineup looks like this in 2008.

LF - Byrd
CF - Hunter
RF - Ethier
3B - Blalock
SS - Young
2B - Kinsler
1B - Loney
C - Laird
DH - Botts

I love that lineup, only Hunter and Young are the old guys and the rest are cheap, young, and talented. If Hicks is going to penny pinch and still try to contend, this is the trade he wants to make.

Grade - A




Deal #3 - Teixeira for Casey Kotchman and a an OF (minor leaguers Terry Evans or Nathan Haynes).

Reaction - Kotchman is young, plays 1B, and is projected to be a very good hitter. I know the Angels are very high on him. The OF prospect they would get would have a high probability to be a good player. And the Rangers wouldn't have to throw in a piece of their bullpen, arguably a top 3 bullpen in the league.

I think they could bargain for more from the Angels. I would want one more high level prospect or a major league ready arm. Kotchman and an OF prospect alone wouldn't satisfy me as much as the other 2 deals.

Grade - C





- Gagne proves once again he can get the job done on back to back days. Or in the case of the Seattle series, 3 times in 24 hours. Hopefully he's locked up for a few years and isn't needed in any trades with Teixeira.

Gagne erases doubt about his durability

Reliever proves mettle with three appearances over 24-hour period


01:52 AM CDT on Thursday, July 26, 2007
By MIKE HEIKA / The Dallas Morning News
mheika@dallasnews.com

Any questions concerning the health of Rangers reliever Eric Gagne have been answered, manager Ron Washington said on the heels of Gagne closing out both ends of a doubleheader Tuesday.

"After what he's done the past two days, he's probably proved it to the people who have some skepticism about him," Washington said. "He went well beyond the call of duty, especially against the type of team he had to do that against."

Gagne, who joined the Rangers in the off-season after battling arm and back injuries, pitched the ninth inning in each of three victories over AL West contender Seattle in a 24-hour span.

Pitching coach Mark Connor called it the ultimate test and a display of Gagne's desire to help the team. He said nobody can question Gagne's health or endurance.

"It's huge for us right now," Connor said. "He pitched both ends of a double and threw 25 pitches the night before. Nobody's going to do more than that."

Gagne said he knew he was healthy and could pull off the feat. In fact, Washington said he had to be talked into allowing Gagne to pitch – and that Gagne did most of the talking.

"I knew it personally," Gagne said, "but it proves it to everybody else, and that's a big thing to me."

Gagne said he has learned in recent games that he really does like to have the game on the line. Twice he came in with four-run leads and gave up runs. Twice he came in with one-run leads and shut things down.

He said he didn't want to believe the situation made a difference, but he does now.

"I think if you look at every closer in a non-save situation, that's a problem," he said.

He said he likes the way the Rangers are using him, and said his appearances in the two games with four-run leads probably made Tuesday's performance possible.

"You want to have the best stats possible but it doesn't really mean anything," Gagne said of allowing four runs in those two previous games. "I want saves. That's my job."






- Jean Jacque says TO needs to be on his A game all year in order for this team to do something. I happen to agree and I think he's going to motivated as hell this year. Which is always a concern with him. He can drift and float into indifference if he's not getting the ball in good situations. I think he's relieved the drill sergeant is gone and believes Jason Garrett will get him the ball downfield and open up the passing game a little bit. Can't wait to see how this plays out. We've all seen the damage a motivated TO can cause.


Cowboys need an elite T.O.

01:55 AM CDT on Thursday, July 26, 2007

SAN ANTONIO – Stats don't impress me. They never have. Too many times they don't tell the entire story.

These days way too many players – the sport is irrelevant – post gaudy numbers while their teams lose. There's nothing more aggravating than watching guys accumulate empty numbers.

That's why Terrell Owens' 2006 season never impressed me – and it has nothing to do with his league-leading 18 dropped passes.

Actually, his numbers were fine: 85 catches, 1,180 yards and a league-leading 13 touchdowns. But his impact was negligible.

You know it's true. So does T.O. Trust me, that's a positive because it means he's being honest with himself about his performance last season.

T.O. had three 100-yard games and two multitouchdown games last season, which is usually a good month for him.

And in two of the Cowboys' most important games – December home losses against New Orleans and Philadelphia – Owens caught a combined five passes for 79 yards and two touchdowns as Dallas suffered a pair of blowout losses, ending the chances for a home playoff game.

If you think about it, how many games did T.O. dominate last season? One. Maybe, two. It's not that he wasn't productive, but there were times when he played for Philadelphia and San Francisco that he was unstoppable.

That's the guy Jerry Jones signed to a three-year, $25 million contract. We never saw that player. And he knows it.

"The numbers might have looked good," he said after the Cowboys' first training camp practice, "but I don't feel like I dominated last season."

Now, you can blame Bill Parcells for not making him the focal point of the offense, though Tony Romo and Drew Bledsoe directed a team-high 152 passes in his direction.

Or you can blame T.O. for not learning every aspect of the playbook and falling asleep in meetings.

Or you can blame fate for the hamstring and finger injuries that limited his effectiveness.

In the end, it doesn't really matter. The bottom line: Last year, he wasn't an elite player.

That must change for the Cowboys to end their embarrassing 10-year drought without a playoff win and legitimately contend for a spot in the Super Bowl.

They can't make a deep postseason run without T.O. being dynamic. It's Jason Garrett's job to make sure it happens.

Garrett, the first-year offensive coordinator and play-caller, has apparently made getting T.O. the ball one of the tenets of his offense, and every other veteran receiver already knows it.

In Wednesday's practice, T.O. lined up at various spots. He spent much of last season on the left side of the formation, making it easy for defensive coordinators to eliminate him with their game plans.

This season, Garrett will make it more difficult for opposing defensive coordinators to predict where he will line up by using shifting and motion to create matchup problems that put T.O. in position to make big plays.

Garrett has also designed the passing game to get T.O. the ball on the move on short crossing routes that take advantage of his run-after-catch skills, the element of his game that makes him a special player.

Last year, T.O. ran more vertical routes, which didn't accentuate his strengths. For now, T.O. is happy, which you would expect. The key is to keep him happy by involving him in the offense without alienating Jason Witten and Terry Glenn, who are also key parts of the passing game.

T.O.'s critics will suggest he's no longer capable of being an elite receiver because he's lost a step and he struggles with bump-and-run coverage.

Whatever.

He's still 6-3, 226 pounds, with terrific speed. And he showed that he can still hit another gear Wednesday afternoon, when he burst past Anthony Henry and caught a deep ball for a touchdown in practice. He couldn't do that last season because of the strained hamstring that forced him to miss a chunk of training camp.

"I want to be the go-to guy," he said. "That's one of the responsibilities that I put on myself. We're going to mix it up this year, and I'm going to be all over the field. I'm definitely going to do better than I did last year."

But it won't matter unless the Cowboys win.



- Big 12 Media Days News/Notes






- Leach strikes again. As much as I can't stand Tech, I love Leach when he spews gold like this.

• The highlight of media days so far has been Mike Leach’s detailed review of a film the NCAA distributes to schools about the dangers of gambling. The film, one he’s shown his teams about five times, came up when Leach was asked about the gambling scandal that has rocked the NBA. Here’s Leach’s blow-by-blow review:

“OK. They get these mobsters on there talking about how they fix games with the refs. They’re really ‘Goodfellas’ types of guys. The best part, though, is there’ll be some athlete. And the mob guy tells him, ‘That was a great game you played.’ He’ll pat him on the back after practice. He tells him, ‘I’ve got a party I’d like you to go to. Just a couple friends. No big deal.’ So, the athlete goes over. He goes to the party, some cocktail party. Then two killer looking women start hanging out with the guy, kinda hanging on him and all this stuff. They were whispering in his ear and all that stuff. Now we’re getting into the ‘Silk Stalkings’ part. So, they say, ‘Let’s go someplace more comfortable.’ The guy’s like, ‘OK.’
“So, then they go back to this room, right. He lays down on the bed and they’re kind of kissing on him. He lays down on the bed, and one of them kind of seductively blindfolds him. He’s like, ‘Wow!’ They’re pulling stuff off and got his hands tied to the bed. No, wait, he’s just blindfolded. The girls are both kissing on him and all that. So, then a guy walks in. A guy not wearing too many clothes walks in. One of the girls gets off. The guy replaces the girl. The girl gets a camera. The other girl gets the blindfold. The guy’s all over the other guy. The girl takes off the blindfold. She’s snapping a picture. Mob guy comes out and says, ‘We just need one little favor and we can make all of this go away.’ ”

Leach highly suggested the movie, telling one reporter, “You and your wife should watch that one.”






- Mack speaks. Evangelist/politician/butt kisser or football coach? I still haven't decided. He's way too nice for my liking. He got saved by a once in a lifetime talent in 2005. That team as a whole was good, but it was no different than any other top-level program or the other teams he's constructed. VY added a level of arrogance and not taking sh*t from anyone attitude that Mack lacks. You need that to win. That's why I think it will be a long time before he sniffs the title again.

UT now has several leading men

Brown has already noticed a difference from last season


01:12 AM CDT on Thursday, July 26, 2007
By CHIP BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
chipbrown@dallasnews.com

SAN ANTONIO – The greatest example of what Mack Brown hopes is new-and-improved leadership at Texas this season came from sophomore quarterback Colt McCoy during an impromptu exchange Wednesday.

As Brown was answering questions from reporters during the Big 12's annual media days, McCoy interrupted from a balcony and asked his coach, "How do you feel about small-town guys? Are they good guys?"

"Well, some of them are. Ones that stay healthy," Brown replied, drawing laughter.

Brown was referring to a stinger that forced McCoy to leave a 45-42 loss at Kansas State in the first quarter and left McCoy weak-armed in a 12-7 loss to Texas A&M last season.

After pausing a moment, Brown added, "It's amazing what a year of confidence does to a young quarterback."

Brown then revealed Wednesday that he didn't think the leadership on last year's 10-3 team was as good as the two previous years, including during UT's 2005 national title run.

"One of the really unique things three years ago was when Vince Young, Michael Huff and Cedric Benson began meeting with the team during the summers," Brown said. "Last year, I didn't think it was as good. Part of it was Colt was young. Part of it was we'd just won it all and guys were talking about their rings. So before I left them for the summer, I said, 'I can't do it. I'm gone. They won't let me meet with the team.' So I told them, 'You've got to help me by stepping up.'"

McCoy, senior defensive tackle Derek Lokey of Denton Ryan, senior defensive tackle Frank Okam of Lake Highlands, senior receiver Limas Sweed and senior safety Drew Kelson said players have been meeting after 7-on-7 conditioning to help build chemistry.

"Last year, I don't think the older guys on the team did as good a job as we should have getting to know the younger guys," Lokey said. "So we're trying to make sure we're all on the same page."
Brown said he's already noticed a difference.

"Our players think this team is really ready to go, so that's exciting," Brown said.

Briefly: Brown said his team's top concerns going into fall camp are finding a punter, a backup quarterback, a backup running back, getting the offensive line to jell and building confidence in an inexperienced secondary. ... Lokey got married over the summer and went on a cruise to the Caribbean with his wife, Charlie, a teacher in Copperas Cove. "She's really supportive," Lokey said. "She knows that football can afford us some opportunities, so she understands my crazy schedule." ... Okam said he hopes to have a breakout season after having surgery to repair a knee injury suffered in the fifth game of last season. ... Brown said projected starting offensive guard Cedric Dockery (knee) should be medically cleared when the team starts practice Aug. 6.


- Picks O'the day

Yesterday - 8-4
YTD - 77-65

Get the brooms out?

- Is this possible? A sweep?

Kam Loe comes back after 2 bad outings and goes 6.2 innings strong. 2 more quality starts for the starters and another 1 run victory for the Rangers. And of course, Gagne closes it out for his 3rd save in 2 days.

Where did John Rheinecker come from????? This guy has been John Koronka-like for the past 2 years and pulls this out of his ass. Keep it up pal and you'll be here a while.

Rangers take over 1st place for best team ERA in the month of July? Isn't this the month the pitchers usually tank because of the sweltering heat? Wow. They just keep proving to me that the only thing this team lacks to contend for the division is decent starting pitching. Take away those first 2 months when the starters couldn't get out of the 3rd inning on a nightly basis (yes it was that bad), and we're watching a contending team.

Rangers take 3rd straight from Seattle and look for the sweep tonight.

ARLINGTON – When manager Ron Washington finally persuaded Kameron Loe to leave the mound in the seventh inning Tuesday night, the crowd of 26,842 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington reacted in a strange and unusual manner.

They stood up and started clapping. Loudly.

Guess it's the appropriate way to salute the AL's best pitching staff for the month.

Thanks to a job-securing start by John Rheinecker in the afternoon and a gutty team effort by Loe, C.J. Wilson and Eric Gagne in the evening, the Rangers swept a doubleheader from Seattle 2-1 and 4-3 Tuesday. And they overtook Detroit for the league's best ERA for the month.

The Rangers allowed just three earned runs in 18 innings Tuesday to lower their ERA for July to 3.49. Only the Chicago Cubs (3.16) have a lower mark for the month.

"It feels absolutely great to hear that," said Loe of the seventh-inning ovation. "I know I've left it all out on the field and I think the fans recognized that. Rheinecker went out there and just did a great job and that set the tone for the rest of the day. I think everybody did a great job."

Rheinecker (seven innings) and Loe (6 2/3) each made quality starts. Joaquin Benoit in the first game and Wilson in the second combined for 3 2/3 innings of no-hit relief. And Gagne, for the first time in his career, saved both ends of a doubleheader.

Everything, however, started with Rheinecker.

Given one shot to earn a spot in the rotation, he pitched seven efficient innings with a bit less velocity and a whole lot more command. It all but guaranteed him another start and another 10 days – at a minimum – on a big league roster.

Rheinecker had made one earlier emergency start for the Rangers and came into the game so jumpy he didn't come anywhere near the strike zone.

"I was too amped up the last time," Rheinecker said. "I was trying to throw everything through the catcher's chest protector. I made sure to take something off the fastball this time. I woke up thinking about that and I kept thinking about it. I was just going to take it nice and easy, play catch."

The result was more command. When Rheinecker needed to find the strike zone early in counts, he was able to do it to get ahead. When he got ahead, catcher Adam Melhuse moved to the edges of the plate and Rheinecker was close enough to get those calls. He threw first pitch strikes to 16 of the 28 batters he faced and threw 60 percent of his 94 pitches for strikes.

And when he needed to throw strikes Tuesday, he was able to get them. That was clearly evident in the fifth inning. With the game tied at one, Rheinecker allowed one-out singles to the Nos. 8-9 hitters to bring Ichiro Suzuki to the plate. Rheinecker got ahead, then threw consecutive sinkers with two strikes. Ichiro took the first, but couldn't lay off the second. Jose Lopez struck out to end the inning.

In the seventh, clinging to a one-run lead, he got a double-play ball from Willie Bloomquist after allowing the first two runners to reach base.

But with Robinson Tejeda down (in the minors) and Vicente Padilla out (due to triceps tendonitis), the Rangers need another pitcher for at least one more start on August 4 at Toronto. Rheinecker, it appears, has won that opportunity.

In the second game, Loe overcame a contested call in the fifth that led to a pair of Seattle runs. It was ruled that Gerald Laird dropped Raul Ibanez's foul-tipped third strike and the at-bat was extended. Ibanez then doubled home two runs to give Seattle the lead. Loe got the next out to end the inning, then retired his final five hitters as the Rangers rallied back.




- Check out the schedule coming up. Some major ground can be covered, it's there to be taken. Outside of a trip to Cleveland, no team is higher than 3rd place in their division. If the starters keep giving them 6-7 innings a night, no question they can have a killer month of August.

Wed. 25 Seattle 8:35 PM FxSW Rangers Ballpark McCarthy (4-7) Batista (10-7) Tickets
Fri. 27 at Kansas City 8:10 PM FxSW Kauffman Stadium Wright (3-2) Bannister (6-6) Tickets
Sat. 28 at Kansas City 7:10 PM KDFI Kauffman Stadium Millwood (7-8) Perez (5-9) Tickets
Sun. 29 at Kansas City 2:10 PM KDFW Kauffman Stadium Loe (5-8) Elarton (2-4) Tickets
Tue. 31 at Cleveland 7:05 PM KDFI Jacobs Field Rheinecker (1-0) Carmona (12-4) Tickets
Aug. '07 OPPONENT TIME (ET) TV LOCATION
Wed. 1 at Cleveland 7:05 PM FxSW Jacobs Field
Thu. 2 at Cleveland 12:05 PM KDFW Jacobs Field
Fri. 3 at Toronto 7:07 PM FxSW Rogers Centre
Sat. 4 at Toronto 1:07 PM KDFI Rogers Centre
Sun. 5 at Toronto 1:07 PM KDFW Rogers Centre
Mon. 6 Oakland 8:35 PM FxSW Rangers Ballpark
Tue. 7 Oakland 8:35 PM FxSW Rangers Ballpark
Wed. 8 Oakland 8:35 PM FxSW Rangers Ballpark
Fri. 10 Tampa Bay 8:35 PM FxSW Rangers Ballpark
Sat. 11 Tampa Bay 8:35 PM KDFI Rangers Ballpark
Sun. 12 Tampa Bay 8:35 PM KDFI Rangers Ballpark
Tue. 14 Kansas City 8:35 PM FxSW Rangers Ballpark
Wed. 15 Kansas City 8:35 PM FxSW Rangers Ballpark
Thu. 16 Kansas City 8:35 PM FxSW Rangers Ballpark
Fri. 17 at Minnesota 8:10 PM FxSW Metrodome
Sat. 18 at Minnesota 7:10 PM KDFI Metrodome
Sun. 19 at Minnesota 2:10 PM KDFI Metrodome
Mon. 20 at Baltimore 7:05 PM FxSW Camden Yards
Tue. 21 at Baltimore 7:05 PM KDFI Camden Yards
Wed. 22 at Baltimore 7:05 PM FxSW Camden Yards
Thu. 23 Seattle 8:35 PM FxSW Rangers Ballpark
Fri. 24 Seattle 8:35 PM FxSW Rangers Ballpark
Sat. 25 Seattle 8:35 PM KDFI Rangers Ballpark
Sun. 26 Seattle 8:35 PM KDFI Rangers Ballpark
Tue. 28 Chicago Sox 8:35 PM KDFI Rangers Ballpark
Wed. 29 Chicago Sox 8:35 PM FxSW Rangers Ballpark
Thu. 30 Chicago Sox 8:35 PM FxSW Rangers Ballpark






- Some good stuff from Evan Grant concerning the looming trade deadline. I love his line of thinking on all of it. Rid yourself of players to make room for their replacements who are younger and most of the time cheaper. Sosa (Botts), Lofton (Byrd or in the offseason, Torii Hunter), Teixeira (whatever stud 1B you get in a trade), Wilkerson (Cat-man of the Americas), and Benoit (not sure who you replace him with as your long reliever, maybe Wes Littleton, but he has great value right now).

There is less than a week to go to the trade deadline, so I won't tip-toe around. Here's the rundown on who I think is staying and who is going:

Kenny Lofton (Going): The Rangers may talk a hard line on Lofton, suggesting he'll stay put if they're not going to get value. But when all the talking is done, they will still move him. They simply have no need for Lofton past Aug. 1. They need to look at Marlon Byrd in center. I expect Lofton to end up in Cleveland for a low-level minor leaguer.

Sammy Sosa (Going): The Rangers will find somebody in a race to take Sosa on, even if that means offering him up for nothing. This won't be about Sosa's failure – he really didn't fail here – but rather about the Rangers giving him a fairly honorable discharge while creating room for Jason Botts. Sosa ends up with the New York Mets as a pinch-hitter.

Eric Gagne (Staying): The Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees are both interested, but Gagne has the right to veto a deal with either team. He would most certainly do that unless given the closer's role or unless the full value of his contract ($11 million) is guaranteed. The Tigers won't bump Todd Jones and the Yankees aren't about to bump Mariano Rivera. Gagne stays and the Rangers spend August and September trying to work out a multi-year extension.

Mark Teixeira (Going): It's pretty clear the Rangers would like to trade Teixeira to the Los Angeles Dodgers because the NL club is loaded with young talent. But James Loney's excellent play at first has given the Dodgers no real motivation to make such a deal. Atlanta, on the other hand, started Julio Franco at first recently. Teixeira would be a huge acquisition for the Braves, very much in the hunt for both the NL East and wild card. Get used to pronouncing the last name of Jarrod Saltalamacchia (pronounced just like it looks), or you can just call him Salty. The Rangers should get a minor league pitcher in the deal, too.

Brad Wilkerson (Going): The Rangers currently have a left field platoon of Wilkerson and Frank Catalanotto. Wilkerson, a left-handed hitter, plays vs. lefties. That's not normal. If San Diego has interest, Wilkerson could be a decent pickup, maybe even in August. What if a Wilkerson trade brought back first baseman Vince Sinisi, whom the Rangers drafted and then traded to the Padres last season?

Joaquin Benoit (Going): His value is the highest it's ever been. He either completes a blockbuster package along with Teixeira to the Dodgers or he goes there by his lonesome.

Akinori Otsuka (Staying): He won't pitch in a game before the weekend. I see no way he's active in time to bring the Rangers back significant value.

Ron Mahay, Jamey Wright (Staying ... for now). Both could be moved after Tuesday's trading deadline if they clear waivers. Both would be perfect emergency plug-ins if a contender loses a lefty reliever (Mahay) or a starter (Wright) to injury.

Final count: Five soon-to-be-ex-Rangers. That would make for a very busy next few days for team management. Hey, the deadline is Tuesday afternoon. There's lots of time left.






- Now this is cool right here. Have a good feeling about this upcoming season for some reason.

Cowboys in San Antonio, driving for Arizona

By TODD ARCHER / The Dallas Morning News
tarcher@dallasnews.com

SOMEWHERE ALONG INTERSTATE 35 – On the tiny TV screen inside the Ford Expedition, Journey's Steve Perry is singing "Don't Stop Believin' " from a 1981 concert stop in Houston.

It's a fitting song title for the car's occupants.

In the driver's seat, Jason Witten is belting out the lyrics, while Terence Newman mimics playing the drums in the passenger seat. In one of the back seats, Tony Romo hits the highest of high notes, sounding like a karaoke singer at a local club.

"It's because I think I can sing like him," Romo said of his Journey infatuation. "I'm kidding. I can't."

More than three hours later, Witten, Newman and Romo have arrived at the San Antonio Marriott Riverwalk, the Cowboys' training camp headquarters, slightly stiff from the drive but full of hope.

In 2003, they arrived in San Antonio with different expectations. Newman came in as the fifth overall pick; Witten arrived as a third-round pick; and Romo was an undrafted free agent.

This year they are among the most important players on the roster as the Cowboys hope to end the season at Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Ariz.

"There's a lot of energy around here with Wade [Phillips]," Witten said of his new coach. "I think we're all just excited about where we're headed. There's a lot of work to do, but this is the process."

Cowboys beat writer Todd Archer rode along with Witten, Newman and Romo on their trip from Dallas to San Antonio.

The following is a chronicle of their journey:

10:44 a.m. – Witten's Ford pulls out of the Cowboys' Valley Ranch complex now that Romo has arrived and heads to Newman's Uptown home. Witten's wife, Michelle, has baked some chocolate chip cookies and brownies for the ride.

"Watch, Romo will eat all of them," Witten said.

11:08 a.m. – "We're going to die," Romo says out loud as Witten eases (ahem) his way onto I-35E South. That will be a constant refrain from the quarterback, good-natured teasing of his buddy, although Witten's late braking gets to even Newman later.

11:30 a.m. – The trip begins down an alley where Newman's neighbor, running back Julius Jones, is waiting in his Range Rover.

"Let's ride," Jones says.

"We're just the Griswolds in here," Witten shouts back, referencing National Lampoon's Vacation.

11:34 a.m. – I-35 is filled with traffic thanks to an accident – not a good start to the trip. Newman finds an "I love Mommy" bib belonging to Witten's son, C.J., and quickly hangs it from the rearview mirror.

11:50 a.m. – Romo cracks open his playbook while Witten and Newman discuss the cost of cars. When it's suggested Romo is studying because he knows it will make the newspaper, he's ready with an answer.

"No, I don't want to get yelled at when I get down there," Romo says.

11:59 a.m. – Construction and a convoy of construction vehicles has Witten and Jones stuck. Four minutes later, they exit onto an access road and speed ahead of the convoy as the construction lightens up. Jones, however, nearly gets caught behind another set of trucks but makes it through.

12:14 p.m. – "Tiger right, Jay?" Romo says, quizzing Witten about the playbook. "Tell me where everybody is at."

Witten gets the answer right. The players continue with the questions with Newman giving the defense's reaction to different formations.

12:21 p.m. – Italy is the home of safety Keith Davis, but more important, a McDonald's and Subway. Oh yeah, a gas station, too. Romo quickly makes his way to the Subway for a sub.

Newman and Jones go to McDonald's. Newman goes with a couple of Filet O' Fish sandwiches, and Jones gets the two cheeseburger meal.

1 p.m. – Witten's Expedition becomes a mobile I Love the 80's headquarters with Journey's "Don't Stop Believin' " blaring from the speakers. Seamlessly, Romo adds, "Oh, my gosh, we're going to die" into the lyrics as Witten moves onto the highway.

1:11 p.m. – More Journey. Specifically, more "Don't stop believing'." Only this time it comes from Witten's iPod, and Romo, holding onto his hat, sticks his head out the window to sing.

Finally some diversity in the music selection as Witten punches up Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight."

"Best warmup song out there," Witten said.

Newman pulls a blue mouthpiece from his backpack.

"You got me pumped right now," he says.

1:26 p.m. – "Oh, he's got us," Witten says.

A police car appears behind Witten, but Witten is not speeding. Witten moves into the middle lane, and the police car drives by harmlessly.

"Jason might be the only person in the history of the world to pull over before he even gets pulled over," Newman jokes.

1:53 p.m. – Tired of the music, Romo puts Hannibal Rising into the DVD player.

2:05 p.m. – A quick rain storm is a sign of things to come, and Witten keeps the wipers on a little too long.

"I think it's stopped raining," Newman points out.

2:24 p.m. – The rain returns, and they are about 100 miles from San Antonio. Traffic is crawling along with little visibility as the highway floods a little. Three minutes later, pea-sized hail starts to pelt the car but not too seriously.

2:46 p.m. – To the right is the indoor practice facility at the University of Texas. In the distance are the lights to Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

"Did it get loud there?" Witten asks Newman, who played at Kansas State.

3 p.m. – In need of a bathroom break, Witten pulls into a Shell station. Romo picks up some water and beef jerky. Newman gets an orange juice and peanuts. Witten goes with some sunflower seeds and a Gatorade. Jones gets a share of snacks too, but he's got another problem: a nail of some kind is in his left rear tire. He wonders if he should take it out but opts against it.

3:14 p.m. – "You ever been in an accident?" Newman asks Witten.

"No."

"How the heck you ever do that?" Newman replies as Witten gets back onto I-35.

3:22 p.m. – Romo calls Bruce Mays, the Cowboys' director of football operations, to tell him they are about an hour from San Antonio. Tiring of the movie, he fast-forwards to the end and decides to lighten the mood with Talladega Nights.

3:38 p.m. – "Thirty-eight miles, boys," Witten said in a mix of relief and anticipation. Soon all three are quoting lines from the movie and laughing.

4:10 p.m. – The Alamodome is finally visible in the distance. Newman, acting as co-pilot, is reading the directions as Witten pulls off the highway onto Commerce Street.

4:13 p.m. – A little boy is wearing a Witten jersey. At a red light, Newman puts the window down and screams, "Jason Witten is right here. That's Jason Witten."

A woman, however, yells back, "Terence, Terence," as Witten turns onto Alamo.

4:15 p.m. – Witten makes the left onto Market Street toward the hotel with his window down, and fans instantly recognize him. He pulls down the ramp into the garage.

One trip is over. Another begins.



- Big 12 Media Days News/Notes





- So this is finally the year where the Aggies aren't going to be too young and injury-riddled? And they finally have all Fran-recruited players? Seems like that's always the excuse, "we're playing freshman and sophomores," "we had too many injuries," "those are Slocum players," etc etc etc. It's time to put up or shut up in College Station.

The thing is, they actually may have the most talented team in Fran's tenure, but with that schedule (4 out of 5 conference games on the road late in the season and Miami early on), the results could be brutal. So expect some spin control, I'd say more than likely about late November. And expect all the usual suspects from the excuse bag to come out.

And PLEASE quit talking about near misses and how your record WOULD have looked. Every team across the country can make those claims. Give it a rest. I just have never liked Fran, seems like a pushover and whiner. The quote about the scenario for them to be Big 12 South champs last year is just comical.


A&M's Fran a cool, calm contender


11:16 PM CDT on Tuesday, July 24, 2007

SAN ANTONIO – Texas A&M coach Dennis Franchione went all in Tuesday. He put his chips in the middle of the table by putting his team on equal ground with Oklahoma and Texas in the Big 12 South race this season.

He said his team is capable of winning all its games. And in a move certain to win points in Aggieland, Fran even referred to the Longhorns as "t.u." while discussing A&M's 12-7 victory in Austin last year.

"We beat Texas and with two more points in the OU game or an upset by Oklahoma State against OU, we're Big 12 South champions," Franchione said to reporters during the Big 12's annual media days. "That's probably been overlooked a little bit. We were right there. We could almost feel it and touch it."

Franchione repeated several times that A&M was "two points" from being Big 12 South champions last season, referring to a 17-16 loss at home to the Sooners.

"That's something that I think has left our guys with a lot of purpose and is motivating for them," said Franchione, whose team went 9-4 (5-3 Big 12) in 2006.

This was not the same Franchione who was visibly uncomfortable at last year's Big 12 media days, coming off a 5-6 season. This coach was calm, cool and confident while talking about his team's 5-0 road record during last year's regular season.

He pointed out at least a dozen A&M players to keep an eye on for postseason awards. He raved about his team's leadership, offensive line, run-pass balance and mental and physical toughness. He couldn't say enough about quarterback Stephen McGee, and not just because McGee, a junior, will graduate with a degree in business/marketing in two weeks and then begin graduate school.

"I think the things that make you feel good are the experience, what we accomplished last year, the road record," Franchione said. "I like our guys a lot. We have more talent on this team than we've had. I couldn't sit here and mention 13 or 14 guys for postseason honors a year or two ago."

But what about that 45-10 dismantling by Cal in the Holiday Bowl? Didn't that diminish a season in which the Aggies ended a six-game losing streak to the Longhorns?

"It would have if I let it, but I wasn't going to let that happen," Franchione said. "So what you do is turn that into a motivator and say, 'Hey, we're not there yet. We want to take those next steps.'

"When you reflect back on Cal, my brothers in the Big 12 probably won't like this statement. But Cal was the best team we played last year."

What made Franchione's swagger all the more remarkable is a schedule that includes road games at Miami, Texas Tech, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Missouri. Since the Big 12 formed 11 years ago, A&M is 2-12 in games at Tech, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Missouri.

When asked if his team could be better than last year and have a worse record than 2006, Fran said, "I think you could have a better team and not a better record. That happens a lot of years. And that's possible. We've got our challenges in this one, but that's life in the Big 12. That's what we do."

For A&M, the key to success will be improving a defense that allowed 4.3 yards per carry and 20.7 points per game in 2006. Franchione said second-year defensive coordinator Gary Darnell has been able to add more schemes in year two.

"I would say there's probably 25 to 30 percent added in spring practice that we were really not able to do a great deal with any confidence last fall," Franchione said.

Franchione has been linked with futility for most of his four seasons at A&M. Two years ago, A&M had the worst pass defense in the country. There have been two losing seasons and a combined record of 2-10 against OU (0-4), Texas (1-3) and Texas Tech (1-3). Franchione is 0-2 in bowl games, losing those games by an average of 33 points.

But he made it clear Tuesday that's all history, and that A&M is back.






- What a broken record this is. Another season in which Vince Gill says his defense is improved. When you suck at time of possession because your offensive drives are either quick strike or 3 passes and punt, I don't care if it's the 85 Bears, they can't be fresh and effective the whole game. He makes the game so long, he basically takes his defense out of it.

Red Raiders' success depends on D

Moving the ball and scoring not a concern; stopping opponents is

By BRANDON GEORGE / The Dallas Morning News
bgeorge@dallasnews.com

SAN ANTONIO – Many prognosticators have Texas Tech finishing fifth in the Big 12 South and theorize that the team is still a year away from being a contender.

But coach Mike Leach has been here before.

"I don't care about all that," Leach said. "I've been picked worse than that on some other stuff."

Leach said the last time his team was picked fifth, Tech had the nation's top-ranked offense. But it's not Tech's offense that usually dictates the team's success.

Offense is a given at Tech, so when it comes to wins and losses, all eyes must be on the Red Raiders' defense.

And that unit faces some major questions.

Tech ranked sixth in the Big 12 last season in total defense (333.5 yards allowed per game) and eighth in scoring defense (25.1 points allowed per game). Tech led the Big 12 in pass defense last season (182.4) but ranked 10th in rush defense (151.1).

There are several holes to fill this fall. Tech returns only five defensive starters.

Many young players will be counted on to mature quickly in an effort to minimize Tech's Leach-era trend of having to pile up points to win.

Despite Tech's many unknowns on defense, Leach remains confident that this year's group could be better than last year's.

"We're more athletic than we were last year, and this unit plays together better," Leach said. "This unit has more explosion to it."

Leach points out that though only five starters return on defense, many players who saw regular playing time are back, including sophomore defensive tackle Rajon Henley.

"The fact that a guy is sitting on his couch eating a sandwich and isn't familiar with our defensive players or our receivers, whatever, I don't think that has a great deal to do with what they're going to end up doing," Leach said.

The team's defensive strength should again be its secondary, where three starters return. Leach said it's one of the best he's been around.

Senior safety Joe Garcia, who was second on the team in tackles last year with 87, said "it's going to be interesting" to see how quickly the defense develops.

"Basically, what we're looking to bring into the season is being a well-meshed defense and being able to rely and count on one another on the field," Garcia said. "We feel a little bit of pressure, but I think we handled it will last year. Our defense is only getting better. I think we're on the right track."





- A report from the Elite 11 QB Camp. 2008 Nebraska QB recruit apparently tearing it up. Happy excited about this news.

A couple snipits from the Student Sports Writeup....

"The 2007 Elite 11 kicked off earlier tonight and workout No. 1 is now in the books. Although we still have three workouts to go, one player was clearly head and shoulders above the rest of the group and will be tough to catch as this year's Top Gun."

"Ballwin (Mo.) Parkway West signal caller Blaine Gabbert put on an absolute show earlier today and had as good a 1st workout as anyone we can remember since we've been putting on the Elite 11 QB camp."

"Simply put, Gabbert was a man among boys today and brings so much to the table."


- Picks O'the day

Yesterday - 2-3
YTD - 69-61

1)

Heads are about to roll..............

- A great, great column on the state of the NBA and the current scandal. So many good points.

Bill Simmons has long cried foul on the NBA officiating conspiracy theory. He has claimed in the past that the NBA has an agenda that it carries out through the assignment of officials to certain games.

For example, if the NBA wants to see a high-profile series go 6 or 7 games, it will assign certain refs to games to get the desired result. I.E. sending its worse officials to a game in which the home team is the underdog or is trailing in the series, and this ref will subsequently be easily influenced by a racuous crowd. Thus the home team has a better chance of winning, extending the series, drawing big TV numbers, expanding the exposure of the league, etc.

I always dismissed his claims of this "ref baiting", claiming Simmons is operating under his own agenda, it's so "mafia" like that you would only see something like that in the movies, and no way a credible sports league does this due to the HUGE impact it would have on the league and its credibility should they ever get caught.

But after this scandal and watching some of the games on YouTube, and doing some research, I am starting to believe this is true.

There are so many questions that need to be answered, mainly why did the league allow him to continue to referee games if they knew in January he was involved in this?

I can't wait for this ref to go scorched earth in court, a la Ray Liotta at the end of Goodfellas. This could be one of the most influential/high impact scandals in sports history.


On Friday afternoon in southern California, you could hear the cacophony of frustrated screenwriters pounding their desks in disgust. The Tim Donaghy scandal doubled as the easiest movie pitch ever.

Imagine how simple it would have been to sell that script. A white NBA referee with a gambling problem (Matt Damon) loses too much money to a bookie (Timothy Olyphant) who's connected with a dangerous family of mobsters (led by head boss Alec Baldwin). One of their muscle guys (Turtle from "Entourage") threatens to beat up the ref unless he gives them inside information. Which he does. Now they have him. They tell him to start throwing a couple of games or they'll go after his wife (Evangeline Lilly) and daughter (the little girl from "Little Miss Sunshine"). He agrees to affect the over/under of games by whistling more fouls than usual, which should drive the scores above the over/under because everyone will be shooting more free throws. For a couple of games, it works. Eventually, they want more. Fearing for his life, he crosses the line and helps fix a few outcomes without realizing the mobsters will never say, "All right, we're good. Nice working with you."

Meanwhile, a renegade FBI agent (Ryan Gosling) overhears the ref discussing one of the games on a tapped phone line, then gets tipped off by a mob informant (Joe Pantoliano) that they turned an NBA referee. They track the weasel for a solid year, gather all the evidence they need, then break the news to the NBA commissioner (Ron Silver) and his staff that their league has been compromised. It's too late. Too much damage has been done. The referee resigns, the feds swoop in and that's that. The movie ends with a sobbing Damon going to jail, Gosling getting promoted and Silver glumly watching the tape of a pivotal playoff game from the previous spring, a horribly officiated game that could have potentially affected the championship ... and the sight of that same compromised referee jogging down the court, ready to blow the whistle at a key moment.

The end.

That should have been a movie. Now, it allegedly looks to have happened in real life. If true, it's the rarest of sports scandals, a shocker that shocked absolutely nobody but might end up becoming more significant than anyone imagines. After the most damaging NBA season in three decades, after a series of deep-rooted problems -- almost entirely self-inflicted -- that already had everyone concerned about the league's immediate future, we reached the tipping point with Tim Donaghy.

Guilty or innocent, we will never watch an NBA game the same way. He's going to hang over everything -- every referee, every shaky outcome, every bad call -- in ways the average fan doesn't fully realize yet. Maybe they'll throw Donaghy in jail, maybe they won't, but he'll linger over every court like a black cloud. You'll hear his name more than you think. You and your buddies will make "that guy looks like he's pulling a Donaghy!" jokes every time a referee is making calls against your favorite team. Hecklers will gleefully play the Donaghy card after every bad call against the home team. For honest referees still working games, it doesn't matter what happens from this point on -- their collective integrity will always be questioned, their collective track record won't matter, and that will be that.

So that's one problem. The second problem is more complex. When news of the scandal broke on Friday, as J.A. Adande pointed out in his column on ESPN.com that day, every diehard NBA fan had the same reaction. They weren't thinking, "I can't believe it!" or "Oh my God, how could this happen?" They were thinking, "Which one was it?" This was like finding out that your grandfather who smoked three packs a day for 50 years just came down with lung cancer. It was sad but inevitable. It was only a matter of time. These guys never made enough money (as we learned from the airplane ticket scandal) and struggled at their jobs consistently enough that there was no way to tell the difference between blowing a call and intentionally blowing a call.

More than any other professional league, an NBA referee can directly affect the outcome of every game. We've seen it happen time and time again, only we always assumed that the refs in question were working for the best interests of the league, that they were following orders like Luca Brasi (even if there was no definitive proof) -- like the guys who worked Game 6 of the Kings-Lakers series in 2002, or Game 7 of the Suns-Sonics series in 1993, or the infamous Hubert Davis Game in 1994. After Dwyane Wade and Miami received some Vince McMahon-level assistance in Games 3 and 4 of the 2006 Finals, I wrote an angry column about the "officiating crisis" (my words) that prompted Mavs owner Mark Cuban (tired of being fined) to post the link on his blog along with the sentence, "I never have to say a word again." After Dallas squandered that series, Cuban was so traumatized by the officiating that he nearly sold the Mavericks before family and friends talked him out of it.

For anyone who loves the NBA, the officiating has always been the proverbial "elephant in the room." No league has endured more jokes along the lines of "I'm not sure where the NBA ends and the WWE begins." Whether it's because of bad luck, poor training, measly pay or the thanklessness of the profession itself -- maybe it's all of those things -- the NBA employs a handful of good referees and an astonishing number of bad ones. In the playoffs, there never seems to be enough quality officials to go around. If that wasn't bad enough, the league displayed a nasty "habit" (note: I'm using quotation marks because you could never prove anything more than a series of coincidences) of assigning better referees if they needed road teams to prevail (like a marquee team trailing 2-1 and playing Game 4 on the road) and weaker referees if they needed home teams to prevail (because weak referees are more likely to have their calls prejudiced by a raucous home crowd). This "habit" was miraculously cured this past spring, one year after the fallout of the 2006 Finals, when the officiating assignments became noticeably more haphazard and we ended up with just one Game 7 in four rounds. Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe not.

And that's before factoring in the public's perception (well-earned, by the way) that superstars receive more favorable calls than nonsuperstars. It's like Chris Rock's bit about dad getting the biggest chicken leg at the dinner table -- once you reach a certain level in the NBA, the whistles will come. This perpetual leeway allows gifted athletes like Wade, Gilbert Arenas and LeBron James to drive recklessly into traffic in crunch time, knowing they can either score or draw a foul. (Even when Michael Jordan won the '98 Finals on what everyone believed was his final shot ever, he famously shoved Utah's Bryon Russell to the ground before launching that jumper. No whistle.) If anything, LeBron's pre-2007 game depended on this leeway so much that he was completely ineffective in the 2006 World Championships; he kept bowling his way into the paint and waiting for calls that never came. The international refs almost seemed amused by him. The NBA refs would have been bailing him out.

So when news of the Donaghy scandal broke, everyone's reaction was the same: "Which one?"

That's why I had one group of friends frantically organizing a "Who was the crooked ref?" office pool on Friday morning instead of wondering, "How could this happen?" That's why Stern ignored the FBI's advice and used such harsh language in his official statement on Friday; nobody understands the gravity of this crisis more than someone who grew up in New York in the '50s during CCNY's famous point-shaving scandal. This was his worst nightmare, worse than a repeat of the Artest Melee, worse than a repeat of Kermit Washington's punch, worse than anything except a terrorist act during an NBA game. Over everything else, David Stern always wanted his fans to feel completely safe when they're attending games, and he always wanted them to believe that the integrity of the game was intact. Now, they don't feel that way. At all.

So that's two significant problems. Problem No. 1 will fade away over time, although it will never completely disappear. Problem No. 2 can be fixed, although it will take some major work. But Problem No. 3 can't be fixed. If the allegations are true, Tim Donaghy didn't just violate the integrity of the league and rig some games. There's a good chance he altered the course of the 2007 championship. Only three teams had a chance last year: Dallas, Phoenix and San Antonio. When Dallas choked against Golden State in the opening round, the NBA's refusal to fix a broken playoff system came back to haunt it in Round 2, thanks to a Spurs-Suns matchup that suddenly doubled as the NBA Finals. In Game 1, San Antonio stole home-court advantage with a convincing win that everyone remembers because Steve Nash busted his nose open. The Suns rallied back with a blowout win in Game 2. Here's what I wrote after the third game -- the Spurs were favored by four, with an over/under of 200.5 -- after San Antonio prevailed, 108-101, thanks to Amare Stoudemire playing just 21 minutes because of foul trouble:


Congratulations to Greg Willard, Tim Donaghy and Eddie F. Rush for giving us the most atrociously officiated game of the playoffs so far: Game 3 of the Suns-Spurs series. Bennett Salvatore, Tom Washington and Violet Palmer must have been outraged that they weren't involved in this mess. Good golly. Most of the calls favored the Spurs, but I don't even think the refs were biased -- they were so incompetent that there was no rhyme or reason to anything that was happening. Other than the latest call in NBA history (a shooting foul for Manu Ginobili whistled three seconds after the play, when everyone was already running in the other direction), my favorite moment happened near the end, when the game was already over and they called a cheap bump on Bruce Bowen against Nash, so the cameras caught Mike D'Antoni (the most entertaining coach in the league if he's not getting calls) screaming sarcastically, "Why start now? Why bother?" What a travesty. Not since the cocaine era from 1978-1986 has the league faced a bigger ongoing issue than crappy officiating.

Now ...

Before the Donaghy scandal broke, if you told me there was a compromised official working a 2007 playoff game and made me guess the game, I would have selected Game 3 of the Spurs-Suns series. There were some jaw-dropping calls throughout, specifically, the aforementioned Ginobili call and Bowen hacking Nash on a no-call drive that ABC replayed from its basket camera (leading to a technical from D'Antoni). Both times, Mike Breen felt obligated to break the unwritten code that play-by-play announcers -- don't challenge calls and openly questioned what had happened. The whole game was strange. Something seemed off about it.

At the time, I assumed the league had given us another "coincidence" where three subpar refs (and calling that crew "subpar" is being kind) were assigned to a Game 3 in which, for the interest of a long series, everyone was better off having the home team prevail ... just like I anticipated another "coincidence" in which one of the best referees would work Game 4 to give Phoenix a fair shake in a game that, statistically, they were more likely to win. After all, it's easier to win Game 4 on the road than Game 3, when the fans are pumped up and the home team is happy to be home. (Which is exactly how it played out. Steve Javie worked Game 4, a guy who Jeff Van Gundy deemed "the best ref in the league" during the Finals. Hmmmm.) Look, this could have been an elaborate series of connected flukes. I'm just telling you that none of it surprised me. Which is part of the problem.

But here's what I didn't expect: That a potentially crooked ref was working that game.

Imagine being a Suns fan right now. You just spent the past two months believing that your team got screwed by the Stoudemire/Diaw suspensions, that you would have won Game 1 if Nash didn't get hurt, that you would have taken Game 3 if you hadn't been screwed by the officials, that you would have cruised in Game 5 if two of your best guys weren't suspended for running toward their best player as he lay in a crumpled heap. Now it looks like an allegedly compromised referee worked Game 3.

Well, how much did Donaghy affect the game? How many calls did he whistle on Stoudemire? How many of Bowen's potential fouls did he not call? Was he the seemingly incompetent schmuck who made that three-seconds-too-late call on Ginobili? Did Tim Donaghy cost you that game?

If David Stern wants to do right by the fans, then he should order NBA TV to rerun the tape of Game 3. We need answers. We need to know for sure. Hell, they can start a series called "NBA Hardwood Classics: The Tim Donaghy Collection" and we'll spend the rest of the summer combing through games and figuring out how many Donaghy could have fixed. Like Game 6 of the Raptors-Nets series, which New Jersey won by a point in the final seconds. Did he swing that one? What about Game 2 of the Orlando-Detroit series, when the Magic rallied for a late cover in the final seconds with Donaghy jogging around? What about the Heat-Knicks game from last February in which the Knicks were given a 39-8 free-throw advantage and covered a 4.5-point spread by 1.5 points? Did Donaghy call those two technical fouls on the Miami coaches? Is there footage of Pat Riley screaming at him?

Stern promised us that "we would like to assure our fans that no amount of effort, time or personnel is being spared to assist in this investigation." And really, that's great. Thank you. But I'd rather see tapes of those games. I want to see all five playoff games that Donaghy worked last spring, as well as that Heat-Knicks game and any other contest that's relevant. Before we worry about justice, let's get some answers. Especially for Game 3 of the Spurs-Suns series. I left that series believing that the Spurs were better, that their offensive execution was unparalleled, that Tim Duncan was the best player on the court, that they would have figured out a way to win that series whether the suspensions happened or not. Now? I'm not so sure. What if an allegedly crooked referee hadn't been working Game 3? What if the Suns won that game? What then?

If you're a diehard Suns fan, this now becomes the toughest playoff loss in NBA history. You have a legitimate case that you were screwed.

If you're a diehard NBA fan, you're horrified but strangely hopeful, because we needed a tipping point to change a stagnant league that was headed in the wrong direction ... and maybe this was it.

Look, we already knew the officiating needed to be improved. We knew the NBA needed to solve the problem of nonplayoff teams tanking down the stretch and shelving stars who could have played (and yet continuing to charge fans full price for these games). We knew the NBA needed to solve a lottery system that hasn't quite worked for 20 years. We knew the NBA needed to solve a screwed-up playoff system that only works when the conferences are perfectly balanced, and more importantly, we knew the league needed to start taking some chances. This is a league that hasn't swung for the fences with a major change since 1979, when it brought in the 3-point line from the old ABA. For nearly three decades, it has been making cosmetic changes here and there -- the draft lottery, zone defenses, hand-checks, the charging semicircle, improved rating systems for officials, flagrant fouls, the leaving-the-bench rule, the dress code -- while continually ignoring the bigger picture.

What's the big picture? Well, the regular season is effectively meaningless. Contenders can only improve to a point because of the luxury tax, so everyone searches for that same half-assed "we want to contend for a title, but we don't want to lose $20 million this season" competitive zone that leads to deals like Kurt Thomas and two first-round picks for a second-round pick, and another 2006 trade deadline in which the biggest move involved Anthony Johnson. Fan interest peaks at three points -- at the start of the season, at the start of the first round of the playoffs, and right before the draft -- and dips at every other point. For seven of the past 10 seasons, the best two teams in the league played before the Finals -- which seems so incredibly shortsighted, I can't even begin to fathom how it's allowed to continue. And worst of all, when an NBA official was accused of fixing games, the prevailing reaction was "Which one?"

So yeah, they could make a movie about Tim Donaghy's story. And they probably will. Let's just hope we're not watching a documentary about the death of the NBA some day, because we're headed that way. Wake up, fellas. Rome is burning.






- Sammy!!! Picks himself up off the canvas after a ridiculous month of July with 5 RBI's and finally hits a HR. Rangers hold on, 8-7.

ARLINGTON – Sammy Sosa made one thing perfectly clear Monday night: He's not about to just take a gold pocket watch and quietly leave the building.

The Rangers officially celebrated Sosa's entrance into the 600-homer club Saturday and at the time, it was looking like a farewell party. Sosa was slumping. The trade deadline was – and still is – looming. Jason Botts is about to resume ripping up the Pacific Coast League.
All of which could force the Rangers into making delicate, difficult decisions about Sosa's future. If that's the case, Sosa gave the Rangers something else to ponder by homering, doubling and driving in five runs in an 8-7 win over Seattle.

"I'd love to finish my career here," he said. "But I'm not the guy who pulls the trigger. I don't want to go anywhere, but if something happens, something happens."

The Rangers needed all of his production. Reliever Eric Gagne, called on to finish an 8-4 game, allowed a three-run homer to Richie Sexson before retiring a batter in the ninth. He put the tying run on base before getting out of the jam.
It allowed the Rangers to get back to the clubhouse and ponder the Sosa situation. As Botts' production has increased – he's hitting .319 with a .436 on-base percentage – the Rangers have tried to trade Sosa but have received little, if any, interest. Minnesota is one team that could use a right-handed hitting DH. But going into Monday, there had been no contact between the clubs.

The Rangers' main selling point: Sosa has been very good against lefties. He entered the game hitting .329 against them this season. Both of his hits Monday came off lefty Horacio Ramirez.

In the third, Sosa doubled to complete a three-run inning that brought the Rangers back from a 2-0 deficit. Two innings later, he broke a three-week homerless spell with a drive to left that broke a 3-3 tie.

Since July 1, Sosa has mostly looked every bit his 38-plus years. His bat had slowed to a crawl, and his production had tailed off dramatically. Manager Ron Washington acknowledged as the second half was about to begin that Sosa had looked a little fatigued leading up to the All-Star break.

The break didn't seem to refresh him. Sosa went without a homer for the first 22 days of the month, and his season batting average fell to .239 entering Monday – its lowest since April 29.

But what the break couldn't do, maybe a little adulation could. Sosa was robbed of a chance to rebound on his big night Saturday. After making a warm speech to the crowd, he was hit in the helmet by a pitch in the third inning and taken out of the game as a precaution. He did not play Sunday. It gave him more time to work with hitting instructor Rudy Jaramillo.

"I think he's motivated; he should be motivated," Jaramillo said. "And I don't think he's taking anything the wrong way. He's Sammy Sosa. He knows he has to do something, and he did it tonight. He can still hit. He can still be explosive."






- What a dumb whore. Will she win the award for being the youngest Hollywood star to get tore up, strung out, rode hard, and officially out of any kind of job? I'm calling by age 23 she'll be in jail or dead.

SANTA MONICA, Calif - Lindsay Lohan, who just finished a second stint in rehab for substance abuse treatment, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and possession of cocaine early Tuesday, authorities said.

Lohan, who is already facing a drunken driving charge in Beverly Hills, was stopped near the Santa Monica Police Department after authorities were called about a car chasing another vehicle, said Sgt. Shane Talbot.

Authorities conducted a field sobriety test and then transported Lohan to the police department.

A breath test was conducted and her blood alcohol was between .12 percent and .13 percent, Talbot said. California's legal limit is 0.08 percent.

The 21-year-old actress was booked on two misdemeanor charges of suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and driving on a suspended license and two felony charges of possession of cocaine and transport of a narcotic, Talbot said.

During a pre-booking search, police found cocaine in one of Lohan's pants pockets, Talbot said.

Lohan has been released on $25,000 bail, police said.

A call to Lohan's publicist was not immediately returned.

Police said they received a call around 1:30 a.m. from passengers in a black Cadillac Escalade sport utility vehicle who said they were being chased by a white Denali SUV. Police met up with the SUVs in the parking lot of Santa Monica's Civic Center, about a block away from the police department.

When police approached the Denali, they recognized Lohan as the driver. The passengers in the other vehicle apparently know Lohan, but did not realize she was chasing them.

Lohan had two passengers in her vehicle. There were three people in the other vehicle, police said.

Last week, Lohan turned herself in to Beverly Hills police to face charges of driving under the influence in connection with a Memorial Day weekend hit-and-run crash.

Lohan's blood-alcohol level at the time of that crash was above the legal limit, authorities said. They wouldn't disclose how high it was. She also faces a misdemeanor charge of hit and run in that case.

Lohan and two other adults were in her 2005 Mercedes SL-65 convertible when she lost control and crashed into a curb and shrubs on Sunset Boulevard on May 26, police said.

Lohan got into a second car and was driven to a hospital in Century City for minor injuries, police said. The others in her car were not hurt.

Officers received a 911 call about the accident and traced her to the hospital.

Two weeks ago, Lohan checked out of a rehabilitation center after more than six weeks. In January she also had checked into rehab for substance abuse treatment.




- Picks O'the day

Yesterday - 7-4
YTD - 67-58

1) DET -115 - Bonderman 10-1 for season and team is 13-5 in his starts. DET hot right now.
2) SEA -115 - Rheinecker sucks!!!
3) SEA -120 - Loe has been sucking and Washburn is a good pitcher who's been pretty decent in his last 3 starts, 1-1 with a 3.98 ERA.
4) SD -140 - Chris Young rocks
5) ATL -140 - Tim Hudson quietly having a good season, 10-5 with a 3.24 ERA. Team is 14-7 in his starts. He's 2-0 with a 3.71 ERA in his last 3 starts.