As reports swirl in about General Manager Rick Dudley being let loose by the hockey team formerly known as the Thrashers, True North Entertainment appears to be setting the team up for a longer rebuilding process.

Dudley is a well-respected man in the league and for good reason. A man known for working the phones relentlessly and being instrumental in rebuilding both the Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning before their latest Stanley Cup championships, Dudley was clearly on course to do the same with the Thrashers.

After just one season at the helm in Atlanta, the hockey guru pulled off two blockbuster deals that changed the face of the franchise, plucking two players from Chicago’s over-capped roster.

Those players, Dustin Byfuglien and forward Andrew Ladd responded by having the best seasons of their careers. Big Buff was moved to defense, a gutsy move criticized by many hockey minds around the country, but by season’s end, Dudley looked like a genius. Anchoring the blueline, Byfuglien (20g, 33a, 53 pts.) made the All-Star team and was a Norris Trophy candidate.

Ladd was named team captain and responded by scoring 29 goals and adding 30 assists for 59 points; all career-highs.

When Dudley first took over for Don Waddell, he was faced with replacing a huge chunk of the team’s offensive production with franchise leading scorer and fan favorite Ilya Kovalchuk skating off to New Jersey but the man found a way to get the job done by pulling off a slew of trades.

Those close to the Thrashers know Dudley had the team on the right course. After a franchise tying six game win streak that included wins over four first place teams in November 2010 (Detroit, Montreal, Boston and Washington) Dudley’s team sat in first place in the Southeast Division well into December.

Like a rebuilding team, they sputtered out toward the end of the season, ended with 80 points and finishing 12^th place in the Eastern Conference while again not making the playoffs. Regardless of that finish, Dudley was the man responsible for the partial resurrection in Atlanta and appeared on course.

Now as it is being reported that he will not be retained as the Winnipeg team’s GM, many expect the team to be set back in their rebuilding process.

Shortly after Byfuglien committed to the team by signing a five-year 26 million contract, the player said in a post-practice interview that one of the motivations for him to sign was Dudley; that he “trusted Dudley” that “Dudley was here”.

Now that he isn’t you have to wonder how inspired Byfuglien and some of these other young players will be under the eye of a rookie GM and possibly new head coach.

Targeted for front office jobs in Winnipeg are Blackhawks assistant GM Kevin Cheveldayoff and Craig Heisinger, the GM of the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, another team owned by True North.

Dudley signed a four-year extension in January with the Thrashers and is said to have been offered an 8-year buyout by the Winnipeg team.

Originally from Detroit, Tom is an Atlanta-based sportswriter whose work has been published in the New York Daily News, Washington Times, Detroit Free Press and national hockey mags including The Hockey News (Canada) and USA Hockey Magazine. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomFerda

Copyright ©2011 Sports Climax, LLC

Just days after Minnesota Twins starter Francisco Liriano hurled a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox, Tigers ace Justin Verlander repeated the feat in a 9-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. The right-hander was on fire, mixing a fastball that topped the radar gun at over 100 MPH with breaking balls that hand-cuffed the Blue Jays all afternoon.

Verlander became just the 30^th player in MLB history to pitch two no-nos with this one being just one walk away from a perfect game. That walk came in the 8^th inning when rookie J.P. Arencibia won a 12-pitch battle at the plate that ended with umpire Jerry Meals calling a 3-2 pitch barely outside.

“I knew it was just a hair outside and it was,” said Verlander. “It was a ball and you’ve got to give Jerry a ‘Good job’. He called it a ball and it was.”

What’s with these Tigers showing so much love to these umpires after missing perfect games?

Last season Tigers starter Armando Galarraga was robbed of a perfect gem when umpire Jim Joyce botched an obvious call at the end a game earning him our Bitch Slap of the Week.

Verlander (3-3) looked like he was having more fun than succumbing to the stress in the final inning when he smiled throughout his final three outs. J.V. who had 12 K’s in his first no-hitter against the Milwaukee Brewers on June 12 , 2007 finished this one with four when he struck out Rajai Davis for the game’s final out.

IN all J.V. threw 108 pitches (74 strikes) against the Blue Jays who were missing their anchor Jose Bautista.

MLB Box Score here.

Used with permission of the author.

Jay Donetelli is a Tampa-based freelance sportswriter and contributor to Sports Climax. With an opinion sharper than an Ovechkin skate blade with the sting of an Ali jab, Donetelli has a loyal cult of readers who have found a way to love him.

Copyright ©2011 Sports Climax, LLC

This year’s debate on who deserves the 2010-11 NBA MVP award is expected to come to a close on Wednesday night when Chicago Bulls point guard Derek Rose will take home the hardware.

After having a breakout season that included averaging 25 PPG, 7.7 APG and 4.1 RPG, Rose will end LeBron James’ two-year MVP streak. Recently, James told the media Rose should receive the award.

Rose led his Bulls to a 62-20 record this season, a mark that placed the Chicago Bulls at the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference going into this year’s playoffs. At 22 years old, Rose will become the youngest player to take home the award.

A game-changer, Rose has rejuvenated a team that saw icon Michael Jordan take home the MVP five times throughout his career (1988, ’91, ’92, ’96 and ’98).

After being drafted No. 1 overall in the 2008 NBA Draft, Rose was named the Rookie of the Year and has improved steadily becoming a member of the East All-Star squad this season.

This won’t be the first award dished out to the Bulls this season. Head coach Tom Thibodeau was named the NBA Coach of the Year earlier this week.

Although the NBA has not officially announced Rose as the winner, sources told ESPN that the award will be presented prior to the Bulls’ Game 2 against the No. 5 seed Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday.

That series started in the Windy City on Monday night with the Hawks pulling an upset on the road, 103-95. In that game Rose ended with 24 points after shooting 11-of-27 from the field. As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Rose stepped on the foot of Hawks guard Jamal Crawford and twisted his ankle, limping off the court.

Used with permission of the author.

Jay Donetelli is a Tampa-based freelance sportswriter and contributor to Sports Climax. With an opinion sharper than an Ovechkin skate blade with the sting of an Ali jab, Donetelli has a loyal cult of readers who have found a way to love him.

Copyright ©2011 Sports Climax, LLC

Philadelphia Phillies fans chanted “USA USA” during last night’s game against the NY Mets after President Obama announced that Osama bin Laden being killed in a raid by U.S. Navy Seals.

While Americans celebrated in the streets in front of the White House and at Times Square as shown in this photograph, baseball fans diverted their attention from the game to acknowledge the incident.

Normally we don’t mix politics with our sports site unless it’s important enough like when a Prima Donna female is traveling around the country dropping pucks at NHL games while trying to fool her way into office by taking the identity of a “hockey mom” or like this incident coupling MLB wi.

Here’s the video below and when you watch it, pay take notice of the game being in the 9th inning with a 1-1 score.

Used with permission of the author.

Jay Donetelli is a Tampa-based freelance sportswriter and contributor to Sports Climax. With an opinion sharper than an Ovechkin skate blade with the sting of an Ali jab, Donetelli has a loyal cult of readers who have found a way to love him.

Copyright ©2011 Sports Climax, LLC

Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Derek Lowe was arrested Thursday night and charged with DUI, making an improper lane change and reckless driving. Here’s the police cam video of the arrest:

Lowe was taken to the Atlanta city jail, posed for the mugshot shown here and later released after posting his $2,944 bail.

According to the Atlanta police report, Lowe was approached by the officer at about 10 p.m. after troopers spotted two cars racing down Peachtree Road. After noticing “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage” on Lowe, the officer initiated a field sobriety test and arrested Lowe.

Lowe refused to take a breathalyzer test and was booked and cheesed for the mugshot shown here.

Here’s another recent MLB arrest, this one the DUI arrest of Indians’ outfielder Shin-Soo Choo with his arrest video and police cam sobriety test.

The FBI is investigating a Wisconsin-based manufacturer of the Pittsburgh Steelers Terrible Towels after the product malfunctioned during a crucial part of yesterday’s Super Bowl.

In a game that normally produces more than $10 billion in bets; the Feds felt the need to get involved after a credible tip accusing the company of foul play came in shortly after the game.

An FBI spokesman said the caller identified himself as an employee of McArthur Towel & Sports in Baraboo, Wisconsin who is the manufacturer of the Terrible Towel. Sources say the caller then shared video of his superiors instructing him to remove the proven active ingredient normally placed in the towels then watching over the employee while he replaced it with traces of Cheesehead Foam to reverse the effects of all the towels being shipped to Dallas.

The FBI confirmed they are using the video provided by the caller as well as video from the Steelers last game-winning drive attempt to piece together their case. With the Packers leading 31-25 and the game on the line with less than two minutes to play in regulation time, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger lined up his offense with an opportunity to make a final game-winning drive. Steelers’ fans reached for their Terrible Towels, waving them in a frenzy.

Seeing the towels filling the stadium, football fans throughout the Pittsburgh area began celebrating their victory while others in Las Vegas lined up at the window to collect their winning payoffs. Five plays later the Steelers handed the ball over on downs and the game was over.

After the game, FBI crime units collected several towels from fans leaving Dallas Stadium to take back to Washington to test in the agency’s crime lab. If these accusations are proven, the company is sure to be shut down and charges for creating a product with the intent to alter the outcome of the game would be a felony in the first degree.

One shocked Steelers fan who asked to not be identified volunteered to hand his towel over for testing. “Here, take it, I don’t want this piece of shit,” said the disgruntled fan. “I knew something was different with this towel, there was nothing Terrible about it. I was waving it early in the game on the play when Ben went back to pass and threw a pick-six.”

When asked about the allegations, McArthur Towel refused comment.

This is a sports parody piece and is used with permission of the author.

MORE NFL Satire: Mark Sanchez’ booger sells for $125,000 on eBay

Copyright © 2011 Sports Climax, LLC

With New York Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie moving his war with words on the union toward some of the reps from opposing teams, it’s time to wonder what team outside the Jets would even consider bidding on his services.

Cromartie has proven in the past he is cancer for public relations and he’s doing his best to prove that again.

A player who takes it upon himself to step up to a microphone or let his fingers offend and assault, recently hit his keyboard and Tweeted, “You got our head union rep acting like an asshole. They got their guys acting like a-holes. So they just need to get their shit together and just get it done.”

Realizing how hurtful communications like that could be in a difficult negotiation period, Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck who is one of his team’s union reps wrote back on Twitter:

“Somebody ask Cromartie if he knows what CBA stands for.”

Cromartie who sometimes reacts like a man relying on two brain cells fired back:

“hey Matt if u have something to then say it be a man about it. Don’t erase it. I will smash ur face in.”

I will smash your face in? That is not only a direct threat that falls under the definition for “assault” last time I looked but it also verifies non-uniformity for the players; but Cromartie doesn’t appear to be smart enough to figure that out.

Hasslebeck should not have Tweeted back the crack about what CBA stands for but you have to seriously wonder if Cromartie knew what the acronym did represent. . . or even what an “acronym” is, seriously.

Hasselbeck apologized back to his union bro writing: “Sorry for the joke man. No hard feelings. DB’s & QB’s have a hard time getting along I guess sometimes. lol””

As you might imagine there was no apology back from Cromartie who is developing a reputation that is surely to cost the player a ton of cash in his upcoming new contract negotiations.

If anyone can’t afford to come up shorter in a contract it’s Cromartie who was said to have received a front from the Jets in March 2010 for $500,000 to help cover the back child support payments that go to some of the nine children he fathered with eight different women in six different states. With the Jets needing to restructure his contract to keep him out of legal trouble with some of these women, what will happen to Cromartie if and when his paychecks come to a halt with a lockout.

While some are praising Cromartie for “wanting to play” others are realizing it may be more of a selfish reason that the player is suddenly so interested in the union and league’s contract. In reality, wanting a quick deal under any circumstances is a selfish stance to take. The NFLPA has an obligation to represent well over a thousand players and not just pacify an individual like Cromartie.

This season is not the first that Cromartie has been a P.R. nightmare on Twitter. Before getting dumped by the San Diego Chargers, he was fined $2,500 for a Tweet he made blaming bad food at the team’s facility for a failing season. Afterward the man with the mouth that runs like a faucet, said: I think I’m going to keep my mouth shut from here on out,” he said. “I ain’t going to say nothing else. I want to make sure I keep everything positive.”

Well it appears that calling Tom Brady, the NFL and his union negotiators all “asshole” and telling one of another team’s union reps he’s going to “smash his face in” is Cromartie’s form of keeping his mouth shut.

Cromartie’s reputation has clearly followed him to New York and chances are it will follow him wherever he goes. That said; how much would you be willing to spend on a guy like this?

I’d like to ask Redskins’ owner Dan Snyder that question after what he just went through with another player that was signed when “questionable character” was ignored.

NFL: “Fat Albert” Haynesworth gets Bitch Slapped

What NFL players get paid for Super Bowl win

Copyright © 2011 Sports Climax, LLC

Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins skated away with the 2011 XM NHL Hardest Shot crown after firing a rocket that set the radar guns off at 105.9 MPH. That blast is a record for the three-time defending champion who performed the feat in front of a crowd of 18,176 at the RNB Center in Raleigh.

Chara’s closest competition was Nashville Predator Shea Weber who actually was sitting in the lead after the first round after shooting a 104.8 MPH laser.

Chara, a Slovakian native who stands a towering 6ft-9 and tips the scales at 255, credited the new sticks and thinks his 105.9 won’t stand the test of time.

“Records are meant to be broken. I don’t know, it could be all the way to 110. It’s really with the technology of the sticks and the players getting stronger and bigger, the record could be pushed to that number.”

Known for his crushing body checks and hard slapshot, Chara has scored 121 NHL regular season goals in 897 games. In the 2009 hardest slapshot competition, he broke Al Iafrate’s record that had been sitting comfortably from 1993 until that time. The speed of that blast registered 105.4 on the gun.

Here are the full results of the competition:

Brent Burns: (98.4 mph) vs. David Backes: (96.9 mph)

Tyler Seguin (95.7 mph) vs. Cam Fowler (93.7 mph)

Patrick Sharp (94.6 mph) vs. Anze Kopitar (94.5 mph)

Shea Weber (104.8 mph) BEATS Zdeno Chara (104.1 mph)

Dustin Byfuglien (102.4 mph) vs. Rick Nash (91.4 mph)

Steven Stamkos (101.9 mph) vs. Alex Ovechkin (98.2 mph)

FINAL ROUND

Zdeno Chara (105.9 mph) vs. Shea Weber (103.4 mph)

The NHL All Star Game will be played on Sunday January 30 with the puck drop scheduled for 7PM.

Here are the full rosters and how the All Star Draft played out.

Used with permission of the author.

Copyright ©2011 Sports Climax, LLC

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has agreed to accept a $1 annual salary in the event there is a lockout with the NFL players this upcoming season. That salary would place the commissioner well above several retired NFL players who had either retired after three years of service or are in the red each year from skyrocketing injury rehab costs.

When asked where the remaining $9,999,999 of his salary was going, the commissioner responded, “It’ll be added to my bonus whenever the players get back to work, what a bonehead question.”

While the union and league continue to hammer things out, New York Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie took it upon himself to become the unofficial spokesman for the union and stepped up to try to smooth things out saying:

“You got our head union rep acting like an asshole. They got their guys acting like a-holes. So they just need to get their shit together and just get it done.”

When told about the comment from Cromartie, Goodell responded by sticking his tongue out.

Referring to Cromartie’s comments, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said he would prefer for Cromartie to step down from the microphone and allow more respected players like Albert Haynesworth and retired Giants player Lawrence Taylor to handle the P.R. duties from here on out.

Concerning his

We will keep you abreast to the lack of progress in these negotiations as more news becomes available.

This is a sports parody piece and is used with permission of the author.

Copyright ©2011 Sports Climax, LLC

So what happens when an NFL quarterback hurts his knee early in the NFC Championship game and decides to sit the rest of the game out? If you’re Jay Cutler and can stand and walk the sidelines afterward and are seen riding a stationary bike to “try to loosen it up” then you’re toughness is going to get questioned.

After falling behind to the Green Bay Packers by a 14-0 score, the Bears somehow were staying in the one-sided game when Cutler who was clearly struggling completing 6-of-14 passes for 80 yards and one interception, pulled himself from the game. As most people know by now, that game ended 21-14 after back-up quarterback Todd Collins went 0 of 4 and was yanked in favor of youngster Caleb Hanie who finished the game.

While Hanie (13-of-20, 153 yds, 1 TD, 2 INT) battled hard against one of the league’s fiercest defenses, many of us were sitting home or out at a tavern scratching our heads at Cutler who appeared to have just plain quit. If a guy is too injured to return to a game on his home field with his team fighting for an opportunity to go to the Super Bowl, most people think he shouldn’t be able to stand, walk and ride a bike.

NFL players and analysts were taking the opportunity to light up Twitter with a bunch of comments concerning Cutler’s actions.

Maurice Jones Drew threw one of the first jabs on his @Jones_Drew32 Twitter account writing:

“Hey I think the urban meyer rule is effect right now… When the going gets tough……..QUIT..”

Then he followed with an uppercut:

“All I’m saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee… I played the whole season on one…”

Former Tampa Bay linebacker and analyst Derrick Brooks jumped on the Twitter dogpile with:

“FOX HAVENT SHOWED ANY TRAINERS LOOKING AT CUTLER, UMMM @ DBrooks55

Kirk Morrison outside linebacker for the Jaguars Tweeted:

“If my knee was hurt or acl/mcl/pcl sprain, I would not be standing up on the sideline.”

Then Darnell Docket @ddockett threw the knockout punch:

“If I’m on chicago team jay cutler has to wait till me and the team shower get dressed and leave before he comes in the locker room!”

While the Jets got eliminated by the Steelers yesterday with no controversy coming from the guys in New York, this Cutler issue is sure to gain some attention during this week’s sports talk shows.

In a rival game of that magnitude with the team and fans still in it, if one of the team leaders can ride a bike and walk with a limp he may want to consider becoming a hometown hero and stay in the game. Win or lose that’s how athletes become respected. People couldn’t say enough about Matthew Stafford when he returned to the game against Cleveland two seasons ago and pulled off a miraculous win in front of his hometown Detroit fans with his shoulder hanging to his side. And how many times has ironman Brett Favre limped and staggered off the field playing through adversity and pain through his 297 ironman consecutive game streak.

Performances like those are what make players into champions and after yesterday’s debacle in front of his hometown fans, Cutler appears to be far from that.

Copyright © 2011 Sports Climax, LLC