Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category

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Your NFL loser update: week 7, 2025. (Plus: firings!)

Sunday, October 19th, 2025

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-17:

NY Jets

And the Sharks are 0-5 in the NHL.

Next week: the Bengals in Cincinnati. Cincinnati is 3-4, and a slight favorite at the moment.

The worthless Bills had a bye this week. The game with the worthless Chargers is in progress at the moment, and what is up with that alternate uniform?

In other news: Billy Napier out as head coach of the University of Florida. 22-23 overall in “three plus” seasons, and the team is 3-4 this season. ESPN.

Jay Norvell out as head coach at Colorado State. 18-26 overall, the team is 2-5 this season, and lost to Hawai’i yesterday. ESPN.

And a non-firing, non-loser update that I don’t have room for anywhere else: Curry College is a D-III school. They beat Nichols 71-27 yesterday, and rushed for 522 yards.

Oh, wait: did I say the team rushed for 522 yards? I mean one guy, running back Montie Quinn, rushed for 522 yards by himself. 20 carries, seven touchdowns, and a NCAA record.

Posted in Firings, Loser, NFL, Sports, Urine | Comments Closed

Your NHL loser update: week 2, 2025.

Friday, October 17th, 2025

NHL teams that still have a chance to go 0-82:

San Jose Sharks

So we’re down to the Sharks in the NHL, and the Jets in the NFL.

It’s like “West Side Story” up in here.

Posted in Loser, Sports | Comments Closed

Callahan!

Monday, October 13th, 2025

Brian Callahan out as head coach of the Tennessee Titans.

Under his leadership, the Titans finished 4-19 and ranked among the league’s worst offenses in most meaningful statistical categories.

He was coach for roughly a season and a half. The Titans are currently 1-5. Additional coverage from ESPN.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Firings watch.

Monday, October 13th, 2025

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.

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Your NFL loser update: week 6, 2025. (Plus: firings!)

Sunday, October 12th, 2025

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-17:

NY Jets

Denver 13, NY Jest 11. It was closer than I (kind of) expected, but I did say these foreign games are unpredictable.

Next week: Carolina. At the moment, the Jets are a slight favorite.

And, in an attempt to put all the norts spews in one place for everyone:

James Franklin out after 12 years at Penn State. 104-45 overall, “the second winningest coach” in PSU history, but they lost to Northwestern 22-21 yesterday. PSU was a heavy favorite in that game.

Under Franklin this year, the Nittany Lions sit 15th in the Big Ten with the 70th-ranked total offense in the country and 27th in total defense.

They are 3-3 this season, and it looks like they lost their starting quarterback for the season. More from ESPN.

Trent Bray out as coach of Oregon State, which is 0-7 this season. 5-14 over “less than two seasons”, lost 13 of his final 14 games, and OSU was defeated 39-14 by Wake Forest yesterday. ESPN.

Edited to add: Lawrence pointed out that the Jest finished with…-10 yards passing. That’s not a typo: negative 10 passing yards. 45 yards passing, 55 yards lost to sacks.

It was also the fewest in any NFL game since the Chargers had minus-19 against the Kansas City Chiefs in Ryan Leaf’s third career start in 1998.

Wow. Ryan Leaf.

Posted in Firings, Locks, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Your NHL loser update: week 1, 2025.

Friday, October 10th, 2025

NHL teams that still have a chance to go 0-82:

Tampa Bay Lightning
Buffalo Sabres
Detroit Red Wings
New York Islanders
Columbus Blue Jackets
Philadelphia Flyers
Washington Capitals
New Jersey Devils
Chicago Blackhawks
Winnipeg Jets
Utah Mammoth
St. Louis Blues
San Jose Sharks
Edmonton Oilers
Anaheim Ducks

I don’t have much to say right now. It is early in the season, and, to be honest, I don’t know that much about hockey. Any predictions I would make are guaranteed to be wrong.

Posted in Loser, Sports | 2 Comments »

Loser update update.

Wednesday, October 8th, 2025

I think I am going to try to do a loser update for the NHL. (Hattip: Angus McThag.)

However, looking at the NHL schedule, I think I should hold off on doing this until Friday. While the regular season has started (as I understand it) it looks like most of the games are Thursday night.

This might become a regular Friday thing.

Posted in Loser, Sports | 5 Comments »

Your NFL loser update: week 5, 2025.

Monday, October 6th, 2025

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-17:

NY Jets

The worthless Bills lost.
The worthless Chargers lost.
New Orleans won, but they were playing the New York Football Giants, so that wasn’t exactly a titanic achievement.
And Tennessee narrowly defeated the Cardinals.

This leaves the Jets as the last team standing. Their next game is against Denver in London early Sunday morning. Denver is a heavy favorite, but in my opinion there’s never anything certain about London games.

I’ll try to get the loser update up as early as I can on Sunday.

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | 4 Comments »

Mendoza!

Friday, October 3rd, 2025

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.

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Firings watch.

Wednesday, October 1st, 2025

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.

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Firings watch.

Tuesday, September 30th, 2025

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.

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Your NFL loser update: week 4, 2025.

Tuesday, September 30th, 2025

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-17:

NY Jets
Tennessee
New Orleans

The worthless Bills are 4-0.
The New York Football Giants actually beat the worthless Chargers?
And the Packers and Cowboys tied? Not just a tie, but it was also a Scorigami.

In other news, the firings will continue until morale improves. Bruce Bochy out as manager of the Texas Rangers. This is being spun as “by mutual agreement”, but I always wonder how much “mutual” there is in these.

Bochy went 249-237 with the Rangers.

That was over three years: the team was 81-81 this year.

Posted in Firings, Loser, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

Firings watch.

Monday, September 29th, 2025

The MLB regular season is over. Time for the baseball version of “Bloody Monday”.

Rocco Baldelli out as manager of the Minnesota Twins. 70-92 this season.

Baldelli finished his seven-season tenure with a 527-505 record (.511 win percentage). The only Twins managers with more victories are Tom Kelly (1,140-1,244) and Ron Gardenhire (1,068-1,039).

ESPN.

Bob Melvin out as manager of the San Francisco Giants.

Under Melvin, the Giants went 80-82 last year and 81-81 this season, which wa president of baseball operations Buster Posey’s first in his new position.

…

In 22 seasons, Melvin has a 1,678-1,588 record with the Mariners, Diamondbacks, A’s, Padres and Giants.

He was 161-163 in two seasons with San Francisco.

ESPN.

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

Your loser update: September 29, 2025.

Monday, September 29th, 2025

The NFL portion of the loser update has to wait until tomorrow. The 0-3 Jets play the 0-3 Dolphins tonight. I’m sure this will be an exciting game, if you’re a big fan of fiascos.

The major league baseball regular season ended yesterday, though.

It delights me to be able to report that Cleveland clinched their division (AL Central) and Detroit clinched a playoff berth (also in the AL Central). I will be happy if either team goes to the big show.

But I know that’s not what you are wondering about.

The White Sox finshed 60-102, for a .370 winning percentage. That’s bad, but it doesn’t even make Wikipedia’s list for the modern era.

And the Rockies? Well, I was half right. They did get swept by Seattle (who won their division: the AL West).

But they also got swept by San Francisco. I had figured they’d win one game in SF, but they managed to put together a six game losing streak.

Their final record? 43-119, for a .265 winning percentage. So, so close to a record.

As it is, they are fourth on the Wikipedia list for losses (tied with the 2003 Tigers, and ahead of the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics). If you sort by winning percentage, they come in eighth, tied again with the 2003 Tigers and just ahead of the 1952 Pittsburgh Pirates. (For the record, the 2024 White Sox were .253, for fifth place on the list. The modern era record for worst winning percentage is still the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics, at .235 over 153 games.)

Posted in Loser, Sports | 3 Comments »

Obit watch: September 24, 2025.

Wednesday, September 24th, 2025

Claudia Cardinale. NYT (archived). IMDB.

The only Claudia Cardinale movie I’ve seen is “Lost Command” (though both “8 1/2” and “Fitzcarraldo” are on our list: “Son of the Pink Panther” is not). She was on a lot of lists of “the most beautiful women in the world”.

Bernie Parent, goalie.

Parent was beloved in Philadelphia — a French Canadian known for his upbeat personality, broad smile, thick mustache and the white fiberglass mask he wore to protect his face. A bumper sticker seen on fenders around Philadelphia paid tribute to his goaltending skills: “Only the Lord saves more than Bernie Parent.”

…

Parent was unprepared for life after hockey. He fell into a depression. He drank too much and got help through Alcoholics Anonymous to become sober. He coached another Flyers goalie, Pelle Lindbergh, who won the Vezina Trophy in 1985. (Later that year, Lindbergh, 26, died of injuries from a car accident.)
“When death defeats greatness, we all mourn,” Parent said at a memorial service for Lindbergh at the Spectrum, the Flyers’ home arena at the time. “And when death defeats youth, we mourn even more.”
Parent worked for many years as a team ambassador for the Flyers, as a spokesman for an insurance company and as a motivational speaker. He also helped other recovering alcoholics.

Posted in Movies, Obits, Sports | 2 Comments »

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