Whipped Cream Difficulties

Nico Harrison out as general manager of the Dallas Mavericks. ESPN.

They were 182-157 over four seasons, with three playoff appearances. But they’re 3-8 so far this season, and…

…Harrison will long be remembered as the architect of what’s been called the worst trade in NBA history. His decision last season to trade Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis and Max Christie yielded immediate backlash from fans, whose chants of “Fire Nico” became a universal swan song anytime the Mavericks found themselves in an unfortunate position.
They chanted the phrase in the team’s first home game following the trade. They rallied together and chanted it the first time Doncic returned to American Airlines Center as a member of the Lakers. Nine months later, they’ve chanted it during home games as Harrison sat from his new seats inside the arena, several rows behind the team’s broadcast booth.

Hugh Freeze out at Auburn. ESPN.

15-19 in “two plus” seasons, 6-16 in the SEC, and they lost to Kentucky yesterday, 10-3. They are 4-5 this season.

And the NYPost is reporting that, with Mr. Freeze’s $15.8 millon buyout, the count is now up to $182 million owed to fired college coaches.

Former LSU coach Brian Kelly’s $54 million buyout would bring the amount of money owed to FBS head football coaches fired this season to $167.7 million, according to publicly available data and reports.

…

The $168.1 million applies to coaches who have been fired since the start of the 2025 season and does not include coaches who were fired over the offseason.

Trent Dilfer out as head coach of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

(Sorry this link is so mangled. ESPN, if you prefer.)

2-4 this season, 9-21 in “two plus” seasons.

UAB actually tried to shut down their football program a while back, but there were mass protests, etc. and they went back on that decision. Maybe it is time to reconsider.

It is perhaps easier to say who the NY Mets didn’t fire: manager Carlos Mendoza.

Out:

• Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner
• Hitting coaches Eric Chavez and Jeremy Barnes
• Bench coach John Gibbons
• Third base coach Mike Sarbaugh

NYPost. ESPN.

Brian Snitker is out as manager of the Atlanta Braves.

This is questionably a “firing”, as the team says he’s moving into an “advisory role”. He’s been around the organization for 49 years, and won the World Series in 2021.

He posted a record of 811-688 as manager and ranks third in franchise history in wins, trailing Hall of Famer Bobby Cox (2,149) and Frank Selee (1,004).

But Atlanta was 76-87 this season, which seems to have made the retirefiring decision easier.

(I apologize for the ESPN link, but the AJC is unreadable without a subscription. And my attempt to archive the story resulted in garbage.)

Bill Schmidt out as general manager of the Colorado Rockies. That’s the 119 loss Colorado Rockies, for those of you keeping track at home.

Schmidt has been with the organization since 1999, including the past four seasons as general manager. The Rockies turned in their third straight 100-loss season as they missed the postseason for a seventh year in a row.

Ron Washington out as manager of the Los Angeles Angels.

Interim manager Ray Montgomery also will not get the full-time manager role in 2026, a source confirmed to ESPN, as the Angels will search for their sixth manager in nine years.

Mr. Washington had medical issues that caused him to miss a large part of the season. ESPN quotes him as saying this wasn’t based on health, but on performance. He was 99-137 in two seasons.

Somewhat related: the City of Anaheim gets $2 for every ticket the Angels sell above the 2.6 million ticket mark.

The city’s cut this year? $31,012.

In better times — amid a run of six postseason appearances in eight years — the city received more than $1 million annually in ticket revenue. The high point: $1,613,580 in 2006, when the team sold a record 3,406,790 tickets.

…

The Angels have not made a postseason appearance in 11 years — the longest drought in the major leagues — and have not posted a winning record in 10 years. Attendance dropped sharply after the pandemic, and Anaheim has received a share of the Angels’ ticket revenue only twice in the past six years: this year, and $81,150 in 2023.

And the city has a $64 million budget deficit.

The Angels pay no rent under their lease, since Disney paid all but $20 million of a $117-million stadium renovation. The city said it would make its money back from development of the parking lots around the stadium, which has not happened in the three decades since the lease took effect.