UPDATE: CRAWFORD DONE FOR THE YEAR!!

NBA.com just announced the suspension of Joe Crawford for the rest of the year. David Stern was really left with no choice. He did what he had to do.

Oh... and that didn't take long. His wikipedia page has already been updated as well.

Update via NBA.com:
San Antonio’s Tim Duncan has been fined $25,000 for verbal abuse of a game official, it was announced today by Stu Jackson, NBA Executive Vice President Basketball Operations.
The incident occurred after Duncan's second technical foul and ejection, with 1:04 remaining in the third period of the Mavericks' 91-86 win over the Spurs on Sunday, April 15 at American Airlines Center.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Tim walk off the court calmly? First ejected for laughing, and then fined for cooperating with a horrible call. Wow... rough day for Duncan. I think I'm gonna email Mark Cuban about this.

Correction: Apparently Duncan called Crawford a "piece of S***" I guess it's standard anytime a player curses out an official to fine them, but I think under these circumstances the NBA should have cut Duncan a break. Either way - it's still just pocket change for the man making a little more than 17 mil per year. I think he can afford it.

Joe Crawford needs to check back into Anger Management

I'm sure by now, you have seen the video or heard the story of what happened to Tim Duncan during yesterday's Spurs/Mavs showdown in Dallas. Personally I do believe that Tim Duncan is one of the many guys in the NBA who frequently complain and argue with the officials about every little ticky tack no-call, but what he did yesterday was in, under no circumstances, worthy of a technical foul (and his 2nd!) meaning an automatic ejection. After the game, Duncan went onto say that Crawford challenged him to a fight, which is probably most definitely what Duncan and Horry were laughing about on the bench. If you haven't seen the video, it's a good one: Courtesy of AA:



Side note - is it just me, or has the world become a better place since AA purchased his Tivo - do yourself a favor and subscribe to his you tube page - good stuff always!

Anyway - back to Crawford. According to his wikipedia page:

Joe developed a reputation early in his NBA career for being "the guy handing out all the technical fouls, throwing guys out of games, a hothead, a real red-ass." Among his fellow officials, he became "the guy you wanted to go to war with, someone who’d have your back and take care of business." He firmly stood behind his profession and did not tolerate players or coaches who disrespected it. His philosophy was that he had to be aggressive. Crawford would later discover about himself that he had problems controlling his temper and sought anger management after an altercation with a coach. To this day, Joe continues to battle his temper problems.

Despite his short temper on the court, Crawford is considered one of the premier officials in the NBA. He has worked more playoff and NBA Finals games than any other active referee in the league and has appeared in the Finals every year since 1986.

The best comment I have seen so far about this - and I agree, comes from reader tarheels28 over at the fanhouse. He said:

3. If David Stern is half as interested in improving the quality of his game as he is in improving the "image" of his game (dress code, zero-tolerance on griping), he needs to suspend Joey Crawford for the entire playoffs. The finals last year were an absolute debacle with regard to officiating, and the last thing we need is a situation like this ruining what could be an incredible playoffs. This game meant nothing, but what if this happened in the Western Coast Finals with the Spurs and the Mavs? A referee should not think he's the main attraction, which unfortunately, is exactly what Joey Crawford thinks.

However, now that the Lakers have clinched a playoff spot. Stern could arrange for Crawford to officiate the Lakers home games under one condition: He spends the afternoon with Jack Nicholson...

Um.... yeah, I'll take the screwball, hold the onions please

Remember Mark Mallory? The Cincinnati mayor who became famous last week when he almost took off the head of the umpire who was standing in front of the dugout during the ceromonial first pitch on opening day? Of course you do, the video has been plastered all over the web and he tried redeeming himself by going on Jimmy Kimmel live, which didn't go so well either. Well, now fans in "The Blue Chip City" will be able to pay tribute to their humble mayor each and every time they visit Izzy's deli... by ordering the soon to be famous Mark Mallory Screwball.

via comcast:

The ingredients for the sandwich at Izzy's deli will be "any two meats tossed in the general direction of a bun or two pieces of bread." The Screwball will be served with a potato pancake and pickles for $7.75.

"This is wonderful," Mallory said Monday. "Who wouldn't want a sandwich named for them?"

"There's so much negativity that you hear about the city of Cincinnati all the time," said John Geisen, president of Izzy's, which is a block from City Hall. "But the mayor has brought some fun to it. So we wanted to, too."

The Bengals, Mayor Mallory, Shrutebag's comments on the city... man, things haven't been going so well for this city recently. But hey, at least they get to play their home games... you know, at home.

It's going to be a long (couple of) year(s) for Nats fans!

Via mlb.com

"Nationals manager Manny Acta had a closed-door meeting with general manager Jim Bowden on Wednesday afternoon. Neither talked about what was said, but both made it clear that they are going to remain patient even though the team was 1-7 entering Wednesday's action. They are both willing to take their lumps, because they are building for the future."

Well, they are definitely going to need their patience. With exception of single A team Potomac Nats, the farm ain't doing so well either. Here are the records of the Nationals Minor League Affiliates:

(AAA)
Columbus Clippers: 2 - 4

(AA)
Harrisburg Senators: 0 - 6

(A)
Potomac Nationals: 4 - 1

(A)
Hagerstown Suns: 2 - 5

Combine those records with the scorching 1 - 8 start by the Major League club and that's a grand total of 9 - 24. Not a bad start for Manny Acta... as mentioned, he is going to need a lot of patience. Oh, and the Nats face John Smoltz tonight.

Fire Colin Cowherd

So far over 15,000 signatures... join the fight:

Petition to fire Colin Cowherd

Who's got 2 thumbs and is now known as Shrutebag? This Guy!

I'm sure Colin Cowherd has listeners today that he never had before because of this little stunt. Many people had never heard of Colin before yesterday. Particularly because the majority of his listeners are West Coast or small market listeners. Colin knows the blogosphere is powerful and "family", but he also knows the blogosphere cannot do battle against the powers of ESPN. I used to be a fan until about 6 months ago - I got sick of his bullyish attitude and claiming to callers to not bring that stuff on my show because this is "big boy radio". I believe the purpose of his little game was to generate internet publicity for his crappy show (which just so happens to now be available on the web). He knew that he needed an internet audience now that he is available on the web, so he pulled this little stunt to try and get us. Howard Stern knows there is no such thing is bad publicity in the world of shock jocks, and so does Colin. Is it working? I think so - as I mentioned, he probably has more listeners today and plenty of extra viewers to his stupid little webcam thing today because of kicking around the little guy.

So... how should we approach this little battle?

I'm suggesting that the way to win this little war is by starting and promoting a massive boycott. And when I say boycott, I mean boycotting anything and everything that is ESPN. I mean seriously - hit them where they can feel it. I personally started this boycott in my own mind back when they got rid of Shanoff, and started charging for anything and everything over on their site. It was made official about 6 months ago when the whole Harold Reynolds thing happened. Just by complete irony, TBL was the blog that was all over that story.

So... (and I know some of you have already done this) on with the boycott:

If you watch ESPN, specifically Sportcenter, start watching something else. Find another source for your demanding sports information. FoxSports is not the greatest and I know they're not as good, and don't have the resources, but be patient - this is going to be a long battle. There will soon be other shows to choose from - they're coming.

If you listen to ESPN the Radio - Mike & Mike, Shrutebag, Dan Patrick - switch to FOXSports Radio immediately, or better yet - get XM or Sirius and listen to all things but ESPN. It has even been mentioned that Tony K is now available on XM in the mornings. (I personally don't mind Mike & Mike, but you gotta send a message)

If you subscribe to ESPN, the magazine - cancel today! Go back to SI.

If ESPN.com is your homepage - change it to SI.com; Sportsline.com, Mlb.com, Deadspin.com, something, anything but the 4 letter!

If you like watching ESPN baseball games - take one for the team, and subscribe to MLB.tv or the Extra Innings package. ESPN's ratings will take a hit, the Extra Innings package and MLB.tv link you to the local affiliates channels, not the ESPN broadcast.

Ratins are the bottom line for those guys - they are already afraid of the Blog community and the recent reports of Foxsports.com taking over the ratings lead in the .com race is bad news for them as well.

Someone with knowledge of the web and more time on their hands could also start a petition on a boycottespn.com website. Then we can all sign - it'd take thousands of signatures, but with enough star power we could have guys like Colin removed from the airwaves before we would lift our boycott.

This is just an idea - but I think it could work, as long as someone powerful and credible was leading it - and we all stayed committed to the cause.

p.s. - As for the guys at TBL - I hope you guys have a nice weekend actually enjoying the outside world, it's just ashame the weather sucks this weekend. But seriously - get that blog back up and running soon... because we really miss it!

Oh... and Colin has a myspace page? Is this true? Now THIS we could have fun with!

Colin's myspace page

Update 1: this doesn't appear to be Colin's actual page - just a tribute page to his greatness.

Update 2: boycottespn has been launched... but honestly - it would require much more than this. A petition would need to be started, stating that we decide to boycott espn until they can Colin Cowherd for starters. This petition would need to signed by thousands - then emailed to espn repeatedly. Would the blog world be willing to launch an attack like that on Espn? Well... I guess that's to be determined. My initial thoughts are we as bloggers (after a day of ranting and raving) will probably decide to let it slide by, and just forget about it and accept the fact that ESPN just landed a major blow. We need a big name: Deadspin, KSK, With Leather, or TBL to spearhead this attack and push it in the right direction. Can enough of us convince them to do that - or are you thoughts that it is not worth the fight?

Barry Marches On...

So after yesterday's slow day in sports, (even though thanks to the good guys at With Leather, we had our highest rated day in the brief history of AO) last night Barry Bonds provided the sports world with the start of what is sure to be a season long discussion:

How will you (and the MLB officials for that matter) react when he hits 755 and 756?

Let's face it, Barry is a household name and between him and A-Rod, they are by far the face of baseball today. Nobody cares about anyone else right now unless you are a fan of that team. But on opening day - Sportscenter spent the first 5 minutes analyzing A-Rod's every at bat, and as soon as Karl Ravech and Buster Olney busted in with the highlights of Barry's 1st home run last night during the Mets/Cards game, it sent the 3 guys in the booth immediately into this discussion. (Granted... it was 10-0 Mets at the time)

Oral Hershiser immediately piped up and said the commissioner should be buying his plane tickets now. One of them also said MLB officials should try and arrange it so he breaks the record at home and not on the road. (not sure which one said this... but what????) After the game, Sportscenter led off with this story - it was the topic of conversation this morning on Mike and TIMMY! (Tim Kurctian - how the heck do you spell his last name!) Heck, they even mentioned the fact that Barry Bonds hit his first homerun of the season during the news update on a local non-sports radio station! Folks - get ready, he's got 20 more to go, we're gonna be spending lots of time discussing this topic this year... but why wait. Let's start now.

My opinion is this. Barry Bonds is the greatest baseball player I have ever seen play. I am 27 years old, so I am biased to my generation of course. Were there better guys? Possibly - but to have the opportunity to witness someone getting ready to surpass perhaps the greatest record in all of sports is something special to consider. I know the whole steroid situation has a whole lot of poeple up in arms and many people want his name etched out of the record books, or an asterisks beside his name. Listen - Barry may have been the one calling the shots, and ordering whatever it was that he was taking, but this is not Barry's problem, this is MLB's problem for not having a better testing system in place. This might not make any sense, but considering Bud Selig is in charge and is responsible for all that is good and bad with the sport... what if instead of the asterisk saying "steroid era", it said "Bud Selig era"?

Bottom line - people cheat. Always have, always will. You yourself have probably done things from time to time to gain an edge in the field of work you are working in. As a matter of fact, if you were running a little late for work this morning - you may have even exceeded the speed limit - I know that usually happens to me pretty much everyday. Does that make me a bad person? No. Does that make me a law breaking citizen. Yes, and if enforced properly I can and will have to pay the consequences. Are the consequences for Barry being kept out of the record books? Perhaps being left out the Hall of Fame? Getting boo'd as he rounds the bases for the 756th time? Simply being known for being a cheater? Where do we draw the line?

As a baseball fan, I think Barry reaching, tying, and eventually breaking the record is good for baseball and deserving of praise. I think the commissioner and his staff need to embrace the record - treat it as it is - absolutely amazing! Push the whole steriod, balco scandel behind them, and move on. I personally am not saying Barry Bonds is a good guy, but lets give the guy the credit he deserves.

So again... I ask the question, How will you react when Barry reaches 756?

Congrats Mendy

Although the familiar names of the 2007 Basketball Hall of Fame inductees are Phil Jackson and Roy Williams, here at AO we'd like to focus our congratulations in the direction of Mendy Rudolph. I am much to young to remember Rudolph or even recognize his name. So I decided to do a little research. What I found was very interesting...

Mendy (1926-1979), a Philadelphia native and known to many as the pioneer of officiating in the NBA, is best known for officiating over 2,100 NBA games in his career. Just to put that in perspective, the ancient one Dick Bavetta just recently eclipsed the 2,100 game mark (2,134 as of Feb 8, 2007). Officiating was in Mendy's blood as his father Harry was also a basketball referee and a baseball umpire in nearby Wilkes Barre. Mendy positioned the number 5 on the back of his jersey and to this day no NBA official has ever worn that number during an NBA game. Back in 1975, he became the first referee to hit the 2,000 game plateau. He worked in 8 NBA All-Star games, and for 22 seasons in a row, he appeared in at least 1 game during the NBA finals. He first began officiating along side his father in the Eastern League back in the 1940's. According to cbahoopsonline.com Mendy helped keep the peace in the Eastern League where fistfights between opponents was not uncommon. I'm sure Ron Artest, Latrell Spreewell and Carmello Anthony wish they could have somehow been apart of that league. That would have surely resulted in fewer suspensions for them.

Mendy was known as a heavy gambler. According to his wife, he was once in debt to a Las Vegas gambler who made him an offer. Shave points during games and I'll erase your debt. Mendy said the following, "It goes against all my principles. I love the game too much, respect it too much. I couldn't do it to you. I couldn't do it to the memory of my father, and I couldn't do it to myself. If I have to go into bankruptcy, something I'd hate to do, I'd do it." Hmmm, if only Pete Rose would have had the same philosophy.

Long time friend and colleague Earl Strom has been trying to get Mendy nominated and elected into the Hall of Fame for sometime now - and thankfully his work has finally paid off. On April 2, 2007 Mendy Rudolph became the 12th official to be elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

During the 1979-1980 basketball season, all NBA officials wore a number 5 patch on their sleeve to honor Mendy.

Congralutions Mendy, this achievement is well deserved and long overdue.

See more at:

Wikipedia.com/Mendy_Rudolph

cbahoopsonline.com