In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Tuesday.
A source reported that the Detroit Tigers have agreed to a nine-year, $214 million deal with former Brewers slugger Prince Fielder. The hefty contract was a bitter pill to swallow for Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge, who is currently being paid in worthless foreclosed Detroit homes.
The multi-talented Joe Posnanski, writer and podcaster for Sports Illustrated and SI.com, joins the podcast this week. With a book about Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, we get JoePo's take on JoePa breaking the all-time Division I record for coaching wins. Poz then weighs in on the legacy of Eddie Robinson (the previous record-holder), the impact Joe and Sue Paterno have had on State College beyond the football field, and the unlikely success of this year's Nittany Lions team.
Then we dive into World Series talk. What the hell happened with BullpenPhoneGate? Where does Game 6 rank among the most exciting games of all-time? What did August 24 Joe Posnanski think about the Cardinals' World Series chances? Is it a good thing or a bad thing that the best team, more often than not, doesn't win the World Series anymore? Finally, Joe serves up some controversial Power Rankings, breaking down his top five sporting events to cover.
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Monday.
With his team poised to kick a game-winning field goal, Chargers QB Philip Rivers fumbled a snap that allowed the Chiefs to recover and send the game into overtime, where they won 23-20. Both teams are now 4-3, but boast a perfect 7-0 record in terms of being vaguely depressing.
Talk about going out on top. Or at least going out the day after the parade celebrating your third World Series win as a manager and second in five years. According to reports, St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa has retired.
Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. made the announcement, saying, "Tony leaves behind a legacy of success that will always be remembered as one of the most successful eras in Cardinals history. I knew this day would come. I just hoped that it wouldn't."
Did you ever wonder what the dude who played The Greatest American Hero dresses up as for Halloween? Me neither. Let’s talk pigskin. Moammar Gadhafi and I had bad weeks. He lost his pulse and I lost 19,500 jermajesties (for you first time readers – Jermajesty is the REAL first name given to his son by Jermaine Jackson and a FAKE name used in this blog by me to denote a dollar value). This week –- nothing but winners. I swear to Tim Tebow’s God!
Welcome to the first edition of Rankonia, The Triangle's power rankings. Usually these kinds of things celebrate team or individual excellence. We're going another route here — we're celebrating athletes, teams, and coaches whose performances, on or off the field, speak to us in a deep, profound way that we can only articulate through the format of ranking. If you have any nominations for next week, by all means, take it to that start-up site, Facebook, or shoot us an e-mail. To the rankings!
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Tuesday.
Tony La Russa has taken full blame for the bullpen phone gaffe that may have cost his team a win in Game 5 of the World Series. He promised Cardinals fans this would be the last time he did a funny Russian accent on the phone to try to make Albert Pujols laugh. "Or at least the last time in the playoffs," he said. "You just don't give up high comedy like that cold turkey."
