Chowdah Ingredients
Presented by Bangor Buzz
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Another pretty medicore season for UMaine hockey. What now?
Photos and stories from Roger Clemens night.
Win Harlem Globetrotter tickets.
The Bam says stop messing with the rules of baseball.
Kyrie is having his best defensive season.
The strangest baseball in juries of the last decade.
UMaine women's team is ready for the big dance!
Watch a Tom Brady Rubiks Cube Mosaic being built!
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Sports Logo Trivia Thursday
at The Sea Dog!
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Be at the Sea Dog in Bangor for a fun filled evening of Sports Logo trivia!
Bring your friends and win some Sea Dog gift cards!
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Roger Clemens Rocked Bangor!
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For awhile Friday night it looked like the Rocket might not land in Bangor. His flight from Houston was diverted to Harrisburg. He eventually made it to Newark after a long delay. But it was 12:30 in the morning and there was no way to get to Bangor Friday night or Saturday. So, with the dedication and determination that won him 354 games and 7 Cy Young Awards, he grabbed a rental car and drove overnight to Bangor.
Yup. You read that right. One of the biggest stars in MLB history got a rental car, with no company, and made the more than eight hour drive, overnight, so he could take part in the Sports Chowdah event. Talk about above and beyond!
As he told me on the phone, after he bypassed our limo service and drove himself from the hotel to the Shrine building, he grabbed a lunch and a nap and was ready to power through the evening. And man did he ever.
He spent fifteen minutes or so with the local media then took part in the VIP meet and greet for the next hour. After that he hit the stage for ninety minutes of amazing stories from his career and more.
He was friendly, funny, gracious and humble. And great. It was a true honor to host the event and to emcee the evening along with Tim Throckmorton.
-SOLARI
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THANK YOU to each and every one of you who attended. I am truly humbled you would spend your hard earned money on our event.
THANK YOU to all of the sponsors! Your support for the Sports Chowdah is amazing and greatly appreciated.
THANK YOU to everyone at the Anah Shrine building. What a perfect building for the event and what a hard working team!
THANK YOU to my volunteers (and family members) who staffed the night. It took a village to pull this off.
THANK YOU to my friends in the media who covered the event. Can't wait to do it all again next year.
All photos provided by Monty Rand
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UMaine Hockey Fans Deserve Justice
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By Jeff Solari
If this were my case to present in court, I’d win in a landslide. The trial would be brief and the verdict delivered swiftly. The evidence is overwhelming and the numbers prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. Judge Judy would laugh the other side right out of the court room.
The University of Maine is charged with running an unacceptably mediocre men’s hockey program. I argue that they are guilty and justice must be served.
They actually have been guilty of this sports crime for several years. And it’s the loyal Go Blue fans who have been punished and served the time.
I submit the yearly win-loss records as evidence so crystal clear that even the OJ jurors would get this one right.
2019: 15-17-4
2018: 18-16-4
2017: 11-21-4
2016: 8-24-6
2015: 14-22-3
2014: 18-15-4
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that is honest to goodness, middle of the pack, mediocrity.
No twenty win seasons. Only two seasons with a winning record in the last six years. Not one Hockey East finish higher than sixth place.
Is this the winning legacy Shawn Walsh built, Tim Whitehead largely sustained, and fans deserve? I think not.
I also submit as evidence the seven year drought of no NCAA tourney appearances for a program that formerly went literally went almost every year.
And I’ll enter in one more piece of evidence, just to close with a bit of Arnie Becker flair: The defendant has not even taken part in the Hockey East Frozen Four in Boston in seven years. Seven years! Not since President Obama’s first term. Not once. Not even close.
In case you forgot, Arnie Becker was Corbin Bernsen's character on
LA Law
which aired on NBC from 1986-1994. During this period the Black Bears went to the NCAA tourney seven times and won a national title.
Case closed. The gavel slams down. Guilty as charged.
But even after the verdict has been rendered, the question remains…will they continue to get away with it?
(More on Maine men's hockey below from Ryan McLaughlin)
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Where Will UMaine Hockey Go From Here?
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By Ryan McLaughlin
Well, that's about how we all expected it to end, didn't it?
By "it," I mean the unceremoniously disappointing season the University of Maine hockey team put up, a 15-17-4 campaign that culminated in a 2-1 Hockey East quarterfinal loss to Northeastern on Saturday.
Was the officiating quite questionable in this series? You could argue that. But it's hard to argue that this team was an utter disappointment this winter.
Maine finished sixth in Hockey East, the same place it finished in 2017-18. Expectations were that of a top-four league finish and TD Garden appearance this winter.
Does that put a target on coach Red Gendron's back? Does that put pressure on athletic administrator Ken Ralph to take a hard look at where this program is heading this offseason?
We have to remember Ralph came to Orono by way of Colorado College, which like Maine, is an institution that thrives on success on the ice. It's hard not to say yes to each question. I have a lot of respect for Gendron, but the natives are getting restless. Again. Tim Whitehead did take this program to four Frozen Fours while Gendron has yet to see Causeway Street.
Maine fans have every right to be frustrated at the mediocrity this program is mired in. It is in stark contrast to the success Amy Vachon is enjoying with the women's basketball program.
You can also argue that Alfond Arena is past its prime, and that you can't sell 42-1-2 and the Karyia's to kids who weren't even born the last time Maine won a national championship. Kids want to play in flashy new facilities nowadays. I love Alfond Arena, but it's not a modern, 2019 college hockey facility.
Women's basketball is getting quality recruits to UMaine and having success because of on-court results and playing in the flashy Cross Insurance Center. Imagine if Gendron had a brand new arena to sell to recruits?
The returning corps of Black Bears are talented, led by goaltender Jeremy Swayman. If we see the same results at this time in 2020, the target on Gendron's back will undoubtedly be bigger.
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Bill is on The Beach During the Start of NFL Free Agency
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There were lots of teams making some big splashes in the opening week of NFL free agency. Not the Patriots.
Sure, they made a few minor moves but mostly it was big names like Trey Flowers and Trent Brown leaving that made the news.
While all this was happening, Bill and his longtime companion were lounging on a beach in Barbados.
I hope the Pats are prepared for this offseason. I'm sure Bill will be. Just like he is obviously prepared to not let her get a sunburn. Smart.
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Travel Schedule
Presented by Bangor International Airport
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The World Champion Boston Red Sox open the season on the road by traveling to Seattle next week. This will be a four game series. They then head to Oakland for four games and finish up wiuth three games in Arizona. Now that's a road trip!
Wherever your road schedule takes you, remember to fly BGR!
There's nothing better than being close to home after your trip.
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Fourth and Goal With THE BAM!
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STOP Messing with the MLB Rules!
Mid march is officially here! While most of America is obsessed with brackets, I am very much looking forward to baseball season! Spring training is rolling along and even the hot stove is still a little warm with some big names still looking for work.
Unfortunately the commissioner of MLB is continuing to try and “fix” baseball, even though it's not broken. He is pushing for ridiculous rule changes that don't actually make baseball a better product. I wish everyone would just leave the game alone. Just enjoy it for what it is, the greatest game in America. A day or night at the ballpark is impossible to beat.
Here are your playoff teams and winners. If you go to Vegas, use this info to cash in.
Playoff teams in the American League include Division champions New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Wild card teams are Boston and Houston. The American League Champion will be the Yankees.
National League division champions will be Philadelphia, Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers. Wild card teams St. Louis and Washington. National League Champion will be Chicago Cubs. A Yankees v Cubs World Series won by the New York Yankees.
That's just free money waiting to be had right there. Take those selections and head to the pay window!
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College baseball is also well under way! UMaine picked up it's first victory of the year just yesterday. After coming up short while playing the 8th toughest schedule in the country the Black Bears broke through with a very thorough effort and got win number one. There will be many more to come.
I hope people will get out this spring and support this team. Three of their top pitchers are all graduates of Bangor High School. These are your local kids performing at a high level. Take the time to go to Orono on a sunny weekend and support them. This program competes at a high level and coach Nick Derba runs a clean program. They are a stellar representation of the state of Maine. It's not too much to ask to go up there, get in for free, and watch some great baseball.
Good luck to our Maine women's hoops team! This team appears to be more than capable of getting a win in the big dance!
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Weekly Poll
Presented By The Cigar and Smoke Shoppe
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HOW MANY NCAA BRACKETS WILL YOU FILL OUT?
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Last week we asked:
WHICH FREE AGENT IS MOST IMPORTANT FOR THE PATS TO SIGN?
TREY FLOWERS: 41%
TRENT BROWN: 31%
GOSTOWSKI: 28%
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UMaine Women's Basketball Team is Off To The Big Dance... Again!
Tonight The University of Maine women's basketball team will find out who they play in the 2109 NCAA Basketball Tournament.
The Black Bears captured thier second consecutive America East Championship, and ninth overall league title, with a 68-48 victory over No. 2 Hartford on Friday evening at the Cross Insurance Center.
The Black Bears will make their ninth appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
Maine will find out who its next opponent will be during the NCAA Selection Show, set for Monday, at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
The Black Bears are riding their longest winning streak since 2016 with 14th consecutive victories.
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Maine's Amazing Female Sports Heroes
Presented by Hero's
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March is National Women’s History Month.
So we have decided to put a sports spin on this by celebrating amazing women in Maine sports history. We’ll add to this list the next couple of weeks.
Let’s start with
Clara Swan
from Husson. When she was born she weighed one pound one ounce and the doctor told her mother to take her home and keep her warm, as she would not live long. On April 28, 2014, Clara celebrated her 102nd birthday.
In 1939 she returned to Husson, and for the next 34 years she served the students of Husson in many capacities—as a teacher, administrator, and coach. She coached women’s basketball for 19 years and achieved a win-loss record of 240-34-7, including two undefeated seasons. She was very active with the Association of Women’s Basketball Coaches and was a national judge for the Women’s Basketball Coaches.
Abby Spector
won four state golf championships during her career at Waterville Senior High School and claimed the first of seven state women’s amateur titles when she was 15.
Awarded a full golf scholarship at North Carolina, Spector won the New England Women’s Amateur in 2001. Her ability continued to emerge in college . She won awards as top freshman in 2000, sportsmanship in 2001 and best overall for the Tar Heels in 2003. Among her victories was the 2002 Pine Needles Invitational, a Division I NCAA event.
In 1983
Joan Benoit Samuelson
set the women's world record at the Boston Marathon with a time of 2:22:42. Winning the 1984 Olympic trial marathon, she went on to win the first ever Olympic Marathon for Women with a time of 2:24:52 on August 5, 1984.
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3 FROM WAAAAAAAY
DOWNTOWN!
Presented By Machias Savings Bank
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By: The Unnamed Source
The "Unamed Source" is famous in media circles these days. This one in particular works in local sports media, but for any number of reasons, wants to stay anonymous.
3 Takeaways from the
Roger Clemens event
I don’t know if you heard, but legendary pitcher Roger Clemens was in Bangor over the weekend. (Though if you’re reading this right now or own a television, have the internet, listen to the radio or read a newspaper you know damn well that the Rocket came up to visit!)
I pride myself in knowing a lot about a lot when it comes to sports history. It makes me feel good to know important numbers like 4,256 off the top of my head (Pete Rose’s all-time hits record) or that Nolan Ryan struck out 5,714 career batters.
That’s why the Clemens event was great: 1 is that it was well run (tip of the cap to Jeff Solari and Tim Throckmorton, true pros) and 2, you’re going to find out so many tidbits and stories from the man himself that you’d never know otherwise. This week, its 3 things I learned from an evening with Roger Clemens.
Oil Can Boyd believes that Cleveland is on the ocean story.
I’d heard this quote before from a game in Cleveland that was called because of fog and Can said “That’s what they get for building a ballpark next to the ocean.” Of course Cleveland is NOT located by the ocean, (spoiler alert if you’ve never been to Cleveland) the city is bordered by Lake Erie, which is also my guess on any Jeopardy question that the answer (or the question?) is one of the Great Lakes. Roger added all the backstory though and to hear him tell about Dwight Evans winning the game by running the other way on a test fly ball just to prove that he couldn’t see was worth the price of admission.
Teammates shortened Clemens’ nickname from “Rocket” to just “Rock”.
This shouldn’t blow my mind but it did. Maybe it was something to do with “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson, or Mick yelling for Rocky Balboa.
IF Roger gets into Cooperstown, he’ll have a Red Sox cap on if he has any say in it.
This was a big one and kudos for asking the question, I know the Hall of Fame now has a lot of say in what cap a player wears now, but it was refreshing to know that if Roger Clemens gets voted in (he was up to 59% of the vote this year, just 26% away from enshrinement) that he’d be sporting the same cap as Pedro Martinez. That felt pretty good as a Red Sox fan.
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A Unique Tribute to Tom Brady
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A Fourth grader has made an amazing tribute to his hero, Tom Brady.
Its a mosaic made from 999 Rubiks Cubes!
Check out a time lapse video of how the art came together!
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The Wildest Player Injuries of The Last Decade
Gabrielle is a lifelong Red Sox fan. Welcome to
Girl At The Game
, her outlet for all things sports, but mostly baseball, specifically Red Sox.This article comes from her website
Girlatthegame.com.
It’s always a bummer when a baseball player gets injured. They’re forced to sit out, sidelined, watching their teammates have all the fun. But whenever a player gets injured in a weird way, it’s always an interesting story. And so many players have gotten hurt in ways ranging from insane to simply hilarious.
Already this Spring Training, the New York Mets alone have been beset by a plethora of injuries, so let’s look at some of the craziest, funniest, wildest boo-boo’s in baseball history, starting with this decade!
Chris Coghlan (2010)
At the beginning of the decade, Marlins player and reigning Rookie of the Year, Chris Coghlan had a little too much fun with one of his teammates during a postgame interview. While applying a shaving cream pie to Wes Helms’ face, he somehow managed to tear the meniscus in his left knee.
Matt Holliday moths off (2011)
He didn’t land on the DL, but the St. Louis Cardinals outfielder
did
have to leave an August 2011 game when a moth flew into his ear.
Stephen Strasburg heats up (2012)
The righty had to leave a start after just four innings after an uncomfortable pregame mishap. He’d accidentally applied Icy Hot to his genitals.
Francisco Liriano alARMs his kids (2013)
In the weirdest Christmas story ever, Francisco Liriano broke his pitching arm slamming it into a door in an attemp to scare his children. In the process, he lost $11 million in guaranteed money.
Erick Aybar Chickens Out (2016)
The Braves’ veteran shortstop had to miss a game when he got a chicken bone stuck in his throat. To safely remove it, the doctor had to sedate Aybar, which required him to miss the next game.
Trevor Bauer’s drone draws blood (2016)
The 2016 postseason would have been memorable enough due to the epic showdown between the Chicago Cubs, who hadn’t won a World Series since 1908 and the Cleveland Indians, who now hold the longest World Series drought, since 1948.
But Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer’s pitching hand dripping blood on the mound during the ALCS gave it a little something extra. While repairing his drone, the propellors cut his pinkie finger, and though he tried to pitch through it, he left Game 3 when the stitches opened up during the first inning.
Martin Perez Gets Bullish (2017)
Luckily for Perez, his ridiculous injury came during the offseason, so the pitcher didn’t miss any playing time, but it’s wild enough that I’m including it anyway. While home at his ranch in Venezuela, Perez was startled by a bull. He fell and fractured his non-throwing elbow, but Perez got his revenge: he later killed and ate the bull.
Salvador Perez injures knee moving his suitcase (2018)
This one is extra sad now, because Sal just had Tommy John Surgery last week, but last spring, just two days before Opening Day, the Royals announced that their star catcher would miss over a month of the season due to a torn MCL in his left knee. But it wasn’t a game injury; Perez fell trying to carry his luggage up the stairs in his house.
Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease for everyone! (2018)
This disease, which is generally known for afflicting children under the age of five, has also befallen quite a few baseball players over the years. In 2018, pitchers JA Happ and Noah Syndergaard had it.
Carson Smith injures shoulder tossing glove into dugout(2018)
Last season, amidst the Red Sox’s bullpen woes, pitcher Carson Smith injured his shoulder when, in a moment of frustration, he threw his glove into the dugout after a pitching appearance against the A’s last May. He required season-ending surgery, a shame, considering he’d already missed most of 2016 and 2017 (he made his first appearance in September 2017) due to Tommy John surgery.
Brandon Morrow pants-ed himself (2018)
Clothes are a tough concept for athletes, apparently, because Cubs pitcher Brandon Morrow is only one of many MLB players in this series who had dressing-related injury. Last June, he injured his back while taking off his pants.
Joe Kelly’s back is raging from cooking Cajun (2019)
Former Red Sox pitcher turned Dodgers defector Joe Kelly is currently experiencing back soreness from standing too long while cooking Cajun food.
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WIN HARLEM GLOBETROTTER TICKETS!
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The Globetrotters are coming to Bangor next week!
The Sports Chowdah has a four pack of tickets to give away.
Plus we’ll add in a $25 gift card to the Sea Dog Brew Pub in Bangor so you can have some dinner before the game.
Just drop me an e mail at
jeff@sportschowdah.com
and we’ll put you in the random drawing to be held Sunday March 24.
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Celtics Report
Presented by Hammond Lumber
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Kyrie Irving: Defender and Rebounder
By Chase Whitney
Before I say anything, I would like to send a personal and heartfelt thank-you to the National Basketball Association for scheduling the Celtics to a 12:30p.m. tip-off. I am eager to make it to bed by 6:00p.m. tonight for the first time in weeks. This was a pleasant reward for soldering through the past week-and-a-half of 10:00/10:30p.m. start times.
In a game that featured 249 combined points, it was Kyrie Irving's well-known clutch defense that sealed the Celtics' win over the Hawks.
The Celtics, up by 25 at one point, squandered another second-half lead and had to outscore the Hawks 15-8 over the last six minutes in order to avoid a collapse that likely would've brought out the annoying "does this team play with effort?" questions, yet again.
As the case has been for most of the season with this team, consistency is not a strong suit, and after jumping out to a 103-78 lead with 3:12 to play in the third, the Hawks went on a 34-9 to tie the game at 1:12 with 5:53 to play in the final frame.
This blown lead really had nothing else we hadn't seen from them before. They went ice cold from the floor, failed to generate opportunities at the rim, and didn't play stellar defense either.
Hustle Kyrie is the purveyor of defense
What has become increasingly more common as this year has gone on, though, is Kyrie making brilliant hustle plays in critical moments. This season, he's averaging career-highs in rebounds per game (5.1), blocks per game (0.5), tying his career-highs in plus-minus (5.6) and steals per game (1.5). He had a near-triple-double today with nine assists and 11 boards, and posted 30 points and 10+ rebounds for the second straight game.
Marcus Morris addressed this a week or so ago when he said Kyrie is a "great leader," but it's really becoming evident that he means business when it comes to setting an example. His "hustle stats" are nearing career-highs across the board, and even the advanced stats are in his favor.
He has a positive defensive box plus-minus for the first time in his career (0.3), which isn't fantastic but he's improved quite a bit. His defensive win shares are 2.5, which is 0.2 off his career-high from last year.
This team is so much more pleasant to watch when everyone's crashing the boards, getting ahead in transition, and knocking down the open shot. With the exception of a 10-minute stretch during the third and fourth quarters today, that's largely the reason they played so well. It's not easy to put up 129 points, not to mention playing a quarter of ice-cold offense, too.
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Ethics Problem in Major League Baseball?
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By Jordan Kobritz
Jordan Kobritz is a former attorney, CPA, Minor League Baseball team owner and current investor in MiLB teams. He is a professor in and chair of the Sport Management Department at SUNY Cortland and maintains the blog,
sportsbeyondthelines.com
. The opinions in this column are the author’s. The Sports Chowdah receives Jordan's blogs weekly and on occasion passes them along here.
The New York Mets’ hire of Brodie Van Wagenen as general manager last year was viewed as unconventional, an out of the box move by a team desperate for change, on and off the field. In his previous life, Van Wagenen had been a high-profile player agent for Creative Artists Agency. Among his clients were two of the Mets’ top players, outfielder Yoenis Cespedes and pitcher Jacob deGrom, last year’s National League Cy Young Award winner.
Now Van Wagenen is paying it forward. He recently announced that the team had hired ESPN Sunday Night Baseball analyst Jessica Mendoza as a Baseball Operations Advisor. Mendoza will focus on player evaluation, roster construction, technological advancement, and health and performance. Van Wagenen said Mendoza will also continue her role at ESPN where she has contributed to baseball, softball and college football coverage since 2007. Mendoza’s first assignment as an analyst for an MLB game came in 2015 and she has been part of the Sunday Night Baseball crew since 2016.
Although she’s one of this country’s all-time greatest softball players, Mendoza brings no baseball experience to her new job beyond her broadcasting career. She is a four-time, first team All-American at Stanford and a two-time Olympian with the U.S. women's softball team, winning a gold medal at the 2004 Athens Games and a silver medal in Beijing in 2008.
Mendoza’s dual responsibilities immediately raised questions of conflict of interest. Can she effectively fulfill both roles, commenting accurately and fairly – even critically – during ESPN broadcasts that involve her new employer without offending the team or its players? And what of the inside knowledge on players she will acquire working for ESPN? Will she share that information with the Mets?
The standard response is she is neither the first nor the only current individual faced with such a conundrum. Her fellow Sunday Night Baseball commentator, Alex Rodriguez, is also an adviser with the Yankees. Others who currently have dual roles include ESPN’s David Ross, who is a special assistant with the Cubs, and David Ortiz and Frank Thomas, both of whom do studio work for FOX Sports while working for the Red Sox and White Sox, respectively.
In response to questions related to potential conflicts of interest, Van Wagenen said Mendoza’s deal includes a confidentiality agreement, which prevents her from sharing on air anything she gleans from the Mets’ operation. The agreement also prohibits Mendoza from conveying to the Mets anything she learns about other teams through her ESPN duties. Good luck with that. It’s difficult for anyone to remember exactly what they heard or learned at specific times and places and from what sources.
Nonetheless, those who raise the issue of ethics take sports – and perhaps themselves – too seriously. We’re talking about entertainment – that’s what the “E” in ESPN stands for - not public service where there are laws governing ethical conduct. Mendoza’s dual role doesn’t affect the integrity of the game on or off the field, which means there is no downside to the arrangement.
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Lots of opinions from our bloggers again this week. As always they are just that, their opinions, and not necessarily shared by Jeff Solari and The Sports Chowdah, or our sponsors. We also from time to time share articles from other publications and websites. Obviously sharing links is very common today but we also like to share great content in its entirety. The authors' opinions and content belong to them, not the Sports Chowdah or Rock Lobster Media LLC.
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Who Is This Jeff Solari Guy Anyway?
Jeff Solari is the President and owner of Rock Lobster Media and The Sports Chowdah. Jeff is also a former co-host of the regions most listened to afternoon sports talk show, The Drive on 92.9FM The Ticket in Bangor.
He has been in sports media since he was 17. He is not shy with his opinions or unique perspective on the world of sports.
Jeff is a graduate of Mount Desert Island High School and the University of Southern Maine.
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THE SPORTS CHOWDAH IS A PROPERTY OF ROCK LOBSTER MEDIA LLC
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Jeff Solari | Sports Chowdah | (207) 735-7323 | jeff@sportschowdah.com
| www.jeffsolari.com
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