http://www.buffalonews.com Latest stories from The Buffalo News en-us Sat, 25 May 2013 15:09:11 -0400 Sat, 25 May 2013 15:09:11 -0400 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130524/SPORTS/130529595/1229
He deleted his Twitter account.

Perez got into a verbal joust with fans last year over booing, and heard it again after giving up consecutive homers to blow a save Saturday followed by another ninth-inning bomb Monday. That’s when the otherwise fun feed at @ChrisPerez54 basically blew up with what’s become a sick, sad niche of sports fandom.

There was name-calling and profanity, much of it from anonymous lowlifes hiding behind cyber pseudonyms. But some came from people using their real names. Wow. By late Monday night, the Perez account was gone.

Prior to Tuesday’s game, the Indians released a statement from Perez that read in part:

“The decision to deactivate my Twitter account was a personal choice I made in order to maintain greater focus on the success of the team this season and our shared goals moving forward.

“We have an extremely positive and supportive group of players, coaches and staff members in our clubhouse and I want to participate in activities and routines that contribute positively to the culture we are building here. Out of respect for my teammates, I want to minimize any potential off-the-field distractions so this is the only time I will comment.”

Translation: Perez got fed up. I don’t blame him.

Many of you know I can be a seemingly obsessive tweeter at times at @BNHarrington. Part of that is because I’m closely following both the NHL and baseball. Part of that is because there’s a lot of solid, instant byplay with readers.

Twitter can be plain awesome and it can be plain infuriating, too. Reporters use it as a quick conduit for information but it subjects us to plenty of absurdity. If I were an athlete, I would run away. Far, far away.

Plenty of Sabres and young Bills tweet. Can’t imagine what the likes of an active and fun tweeter like Steve Ott sees at times. Good luck on that front, EJ Manuel.

People get so brave it’s ridiculous and there’s too much of a gotcha mob out there for my liking. Mets fans, still chafed by my criticism of their beloved organization the last four years, love to make that play, with the buzzards waiting for things to go their way before confronting you.

Last week, I questioned the Matt Harvey cover story in Sports Illustrated as New York City hype and they basically flipped. But funny how I didn’t hear from them Wednesday when Harvey pitched against his first top-10 offense of the season and gave up four runs and nine hits to the Reds.

I’ve had some Twitter ugliness recently with Mets fans and with a local website that’s anointed itself as some conscience of the city. I’m done with all of them. I changed my Twitter tune this week with a new policy that’s working great.

Profanity and name-calling get you blocked. No exceptions. All discourse and dissent otherwise welcome. Be civil.

Amazing what you can get. One example was an exchange with a woman Wednesday night over Vancouver GM Mike Gillis saying the media was out to get him from day one.

I thought that was absurd. She questioned my thought process. We agreed to disagree. No nasty names. Dissent but no disrespect. Too bad Chris Perez didn’t get more of that.

email: mharrington@buffnews.com ]]> Fri, 24 May 2013 09:39:29 -0400 Mike Harrington
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Daniel Paille set up the tying goal and scored the winner late in the third period against the Rangers on Tuesday to give the Bruins a 2-1 victory and a 3-0 series lead. Taylor Pyatt scored the lone goal for the Rangers after parking his 6-foot-4, 230-pound frame in front of the net and getting a piece of a shot that beat Tuukka Rask.

Such are facts, not opinions, and there’s no getting around them.

Paille and Pyatt were not stars in Buffalo by any measure, but they do serve as reminders of just how many poor decisions were made over the past seven years. That’s the starting point for the Sabres going in a downward trend that Regier either caused or failed to stop amid a barrage of poor decisions that led them to, well, here.

Take a look at the playoff teams. Watch how they play. Examine the little things. Appreciate how much effort and toughness they have shown. See how much trust the players have in one another. And then evaluate the Sabres. They’re watching because their mistakes have been pushed aside as minor transactions, as hiccups.

Do you see what I see?

We’ll start with Paille, who was traded in 2009 for a third-round pick (Kevin Sundher) and future considerations because Buffalo was convinced Tim Kennedy was a better player. A year later, Kennedy was sent packing because he had the audacity to take the Sabres to arbitration. And then they made Kennedy out to be the bad guy.

In the process, Regier sent a message to his team that they’d better not test them when it comes to money. The message received by many in the dressing room, however, was that Regier was more interested in sending messages than he was in winning. In my opinion, that was the wrong message.

I’m not here to defend Kennedy, who played on the fourth line and helped the Sharks beat the Kings and tie the series Tuesday. In fact, you could argue that Regier made the right call with him. I disagree. But if you support their decision to dump Kennedy and continue paying part of his salary for two years, you must conclude that they made the wrong call when they traded Paille.

Paille was given a defined role in Boston. The Bruins ignored his offensive shortcomings, checked his speed and made him a defensive forward and penalty killer. They asked him for little more than effort, which he provided. He was a sound role player when they won the Stanley Cup two years ago. His effort led him to the winning goal Tuesday.

“I think a lot of it is chemistry,” Paille told reporters after the game. “We’ve been together four years now. We know our roles.”

Pyatt was lost in the shuffle in Buffalo. He didn’t tap into his size enough for my liking, but he did take up space and serve a purpose. He was a big body. The Sabres thought so little of him that they traded him to Vancouver for a fourth-round pick. He’s playing his seventh season with his third team since the trade. Clearly, he’s worth something.

Buffalo flipped the pick to Calgary for two fifth-round selections, which ended up being Bradley Eidsness and Jean-Simon Allard. Who? Precisely. Pyatt scored 23 goals in his first year with the Canucks and averaged nearly 15 goals over six full seasons after leaving Buffalo. His teams reached the playoffs six times in seven years.

I’m not suggesting the Sabres are a playoff team if they had kept Paille and Pyatt. That cannot be emphasized enough. I’m not condemning Regier for trading them. I am saying that he made too many mistakes involving personnel. They are two examples among many that have led the Sabres to, well, here.

Brooks Orpik, who grew up in East Amherst, was hoping to play in Buffalo after his contract with the Penguins expired after the 2007-08 season. He couldn’t get the Sabres to engage in contract talks. He returned to Pittsburgh with a six-year deal worth $22 million, a bargain, and won the Stanley Cup the following season.

Have you watched him play? Orpik is terrific defensively. He’s a ferocious hitter. He’s also become one of the Penguins’ top leaders. He even scored a series-ending goal in overtime this year to knock out the Islanders. He’s the kind of player the Sabres needed when they were looking for toughness and leadership.

Brian Gionta wanted to play in Buffalo. Instead, he signed with Montreal and was a 20-goal scorer and captain. Cory Conacher was under the Sabres’ nose at Canisius. He signed a free-agent deal with Tampa Bay and finished third among rookies in scoring with 29 points. Too small? Maybe. He was an asset to the Lightning, who traded him to Ottawa for goalie Ben Bishop.

Robyn Regehr needed to be talked into waiving his no-trade clause and coming to Buffalo. He certainly didn’t need to be talked into leaving Buffalo. He was gladly traded to Los Angeles, where he’s back to playing good defense and throwing his body around on the Kings’ top defense pairing.

Toni Lydman helped Anaheim to the second-best record in the conference this season. Henrik Tallinder played in the finals last year. Need we revisit Brian Campbell, near tears after getting traded by Buffalo, winning a Cup with the Blackhawks? He was swapped in a package for Steve Bernier, who was here for about 15 minutes.

Brad Boyes, the first player acquired after Terry Pegula took over, was a disaster in Buffalo. He had 35 points in 48 games for the Islanders, helping them reach the postseason. Blame the coach in Buffalo? Blame the guy who kept the coach? Blame the owner who kept the GM who kept the coach? Take your pick.

Look back on who was here, who came through here, who is here and who is coming here. Ryan Miller and Thomas Vanek are headed for the exit. Players aren’t lining up to play in Buffalo. I’m beginning to wonder if Ron Rolston is having trouble hiring assistant coaches because they believe Buffalo is a terrible organization.

It’s nothing personal when you tally up the record. You don’t need me making an argument against Regier. He makes the argument for me.



email: bgleason@buffnews.com ]]> Wed, 22 May 2013 23:34:29 -0400 Bucky Gleason
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It should be no surprise that the University at Buffalo has put together its best baseball season in 33 years, no surprise when you learn they’ve won by playing hard, playing smart, playing as a team and doing the little things needed to win. Coach Ron Torgalski had the formula ingrained by his father.

“I grew up around a coach,” Torgalski said. “From the time I was 3 and 4 years old, going to the gym, going to the field, my brothers and me, we lived at St. Francis growing up. We were at every practice in baseball and basketball. Even as I was going through high school and college, I was watching my dad coach.”

Apparently, he was listening.

Torgalski was named Mid-American Conference coach of the year Tuesday, a day before taking the second-seeded Bulls (32-22) into the conference playoffs today against Toledo. Center fielder Jason Kanzler was named player of the year after leading the conference in batting, home runs, runs batted in and total bases.

“I don’t pitch it, I don’t catch it and I don’t hit it,” Torgalski said. “I’ll take credit for being smart enough to surround myself with good players, good coaches and people who find a way to get it done. They did it and did it for the program.”

UB is winning in old-school ways his father, Bob Torgalski, would appreciate. He’s been coaching high school sports for 51 years and counting. Lately, he’s been coaching baseball and girls basketball at Nichols, where all four of his sons were stars. Ron has found a way to maximize his roster at Buffalo.

Kanzler is the one true star on a team that relies on great pitching and sound defense. The Bulls have played smart and excelled at all the little things that make a difference. UB was headed for the first seed before a loss and a Kent State win pushed the Bulls to second. UB beat Kent State in all three meetings year, each by a run.

“The kids come to play every day,” Torgalski said. “We’re not a team full of superstars. They’re guys that, right now, are doing the things you need to do to win a game whether it’s coming in and making a pitch late, making a great defensive play to save a run, moving a runner over and knocking him in. We’re just grinding it out.”

It sounds about right.

Torgalski, if you remember, was named to the all-Western New York teams in basketball and baseball in 1985. He was known more for basketball after leading Nichols to a state title with Christian Laettner. Torgalski played hoops at Hamilton College, where he started his coaching career as an assistant.

Hey, whatever happened to that Laettner kid, anyway?

Torgalski was an assistant basketball coach for six seasons at UB before taking over a baseball program fighting through growing pains. Buffalo dropped baseball for 12 seasons but resurrected the program when implementing Division I sports. Starting in 2000, the Bulls averaged 15 wins in eight seasons.

The Bulls have won 20 games or more in four of the past five seasons under Torgalski. Their 32 victories this season tied a school record set in 1980, when UB had three players – Joe Hesketh, Dennis Howard and Pat Raimondo – selected in the same draft. Thirty-three years later, UB has evolved into a MAC baseball power.

“If you pitch and play D, you’re going to give yourself a chance,” Torgalski said. “We’ve been swinging it better. We’re executing offensively as far as moving guys. Late in the game, if we’re down a run, we’re able to scratch one out.”

UB has the best player in the conference in Kanzler, who batted .322 and led the conference in homers (10), runs batted in (46) and total bases (124) and was second in triples (six). He hit .456 against lefties. He’s had pro scouts following him all year, and he’s almost certain to be selected next month in the Major League draft.

Catcher Tom Murphy was picked by Colorado in the third round last year after a terrific career at UB. He’s tearing up the South Atlantic League (Class A) with a .337 batting average, 31 RBIs and eight homers in his first 27 games. Murphy drew scouts to the program. Kanzler kept them coming back.

“Defensively, there’s no comparison,” Torgalski said. “Defensively, he’s the best outfielder I’ve seen in years. He’s a difference maker as a center fielder, stealing hits, going to the gap, diving and making plays. He’s done it all year long for us. He’s just been unbelievable out there.”

UB has only 7½ scholarships, four fewer than the maximum for Division I baseball. The Bulls don’t have their own on-campus field. They play their home games at Audubon, a town park behind Northtowns Center. It makes this season even more impressive. Torgalski is doing more with less better than any coach in the conference.

Kanzler is a terrific player, but the Bulls are nowhere without their pitching and fielding. The Bulls led the conference with a 3.65 ERA during the regular season despite having the fourth-fewest strikeouts (5.38 per game). Starters Mike Burke, Anthony Magovney and Mike McGee combined for 19 wins. Reliever Ben Hartz had a 6-1 record and a 1.22 ERA. Closer River McWilliams had 12 of their 13 saves.

UB is 24-4 when leading after the fifth inning. They’re playing smart. They’re playing hard. They’re competing. They’re an extension of their coach. Their coach is an extension of his father.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people who said we would never win in this league, that we weren’t good enough,” Torgalski said.

“It helps our credibility. We continue to get better every year. It’s a program that’s definitely on the rise and hopefully will continue to attract great kids and good players.”While veteran Carmelo Anthony talked about the Knicks being “right there” and Raymond Felton saying they had a “great year, great run,” second-year man Iman Shumpert refused to accept the soft landing after Indiana knocked them out of the playoffs.

“We failed,” Shumpert told reporters during locker cleanout day in New York. “We didn’t do what we were supposed to do.”

Shumpert thought the Knicks, who hadn’t won the division since 1994, needed to reach the Eastern Conference finals for anyone to deem the season a success. Anthony and Felton did not play well, and streaking shooting guard J.R. Smith was worse. The Pacers pushed around Tyson Chandler for most of the series and were the smarter, tougher team.

“Little things like not playing hard should never come into play,” Shumpert said. “Letting a game slip at home should never come into play. Getting beat on the boards when that’s an emphasis coming into a series should never happen. We have to take care of the little things and we didn’t. And it caught up to us.”Five-plus years after the trade was completed, can we agree that the Marlins’ decision to send Miguel Caberera to the Tigers is the worst in baseball history? Or does that still belong to the Red Sox for trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees for $125,000?

Three of the six players who were sent to Florida – Dallas Trahern, Frankie De La Cruz and Mike Rabelo – haven’t played professional baseball in at least two years. None of the other three – Burke Badenhop, Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller – is playing for the Marlins. The latter three are making a combined $6 million this year.

Cabrera last season became the first player since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 to win the Triple Crown. He was leading the majors Tuesday with a .387 batting average and 47 RBIs and was three homers behind leader Justin Upton. He’s making $21 million this season.PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem has long believed that belly putters gave professional golfers no advantage. He argued that anyone could anchor the putter against his body for stability.

Finchem must decide whether to join the U.S. Golf Association and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club in banning the putting technique. The idea behind the rule change was to maintain rules designed for free swinging rather than embrace the evolution of the sport. Look for the PGA to follow suit, if only because it would keep rules uniform.

If they really wanted to keep tradition, they would remove technology from the game and make the pros play with persimmon woods. Of course, equipment companies that spend millions of dollars on research, and are among golf’s biggest sponsors, would never tolerate such a change.

It would go against golf’s greatest tradition: making money.24 – Consecutive matches won by Serena Williams, the longest streak of her career, after she captured the Italian Open for her fourth straight title.

69 – Ranking of Manti Te’o’s fake girlfriend on Maxim magazine’s “Hot 100” list.

23 – Strokes over par for 14-year-old Guan Tianlong in his first three PGA tour events, two shots worse than 17-year-old Tiger Woods was after his third event.San Francisco 49ers CEO Jed York after learning the Niners will host the 50th Super Bowl in their new stadium in Santa Clara: “After losing a Super Bowl, it feels really good to win a Super Bowl.”

Quick Hits

• Rob Gronkowski has taken plenty of grief for having too much fun off the field, but is there any chance he was a step ahead of his critics? Now that the Amherst native had his fourth surgery on his forearm, I’m guessing he’ll enjoy every second of his career even more. You never know how long it will last.

• John Tortorella has been criticized for his short news conferences, but who else can pack that much entertainment into 60 seconds or less? Certainly not the Rangers, who were two for 36 on the power play going into Game Three against the Bruins. Torts doesn’t have much room to talk with his 14-20 playoff record with the Blueshirts.

• In their next CBA, major league teams should demand a clause stating players should not be paid for self-inflicted injuries caused during temper tantrums. That way, maybe fringe relief pitchers such as Ryan Mattheus, who broke his pitching hand while throwing a fit Monday, would think twice about punching a locker.

email: bgleason@buffnews.com ]]> Tue, 21 May 2013 23:24:10 -0400 Bucky Gleason
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As Williams’ critics in Houston told me after he signed here, it’s always something with the guy. But I never could have imagined that the Bills’ $100 million defensive end would have to refute reports of mental illness.

That was the case Monday afternoon, though. An hour after the team’s voluntary workout at One Bills Drive, Williams spent 10 minutes assuring the media that he had never contemplated suicide or abused painkillers, as his ex-fiancee suggested in a series of texts made public by her lawyer last Friday.

“I mean, have you seen the notion of me needing any kind of help?” Williams said when asked about the texts. “Well, I am kind of off the wall sometimes. But other than that, no.”

I reminded Williams that suicidal people often give no outward signs of their inner anguish. And the experts say that outside parties should always take it seriously when someone expresses suicidal thoughts.

“Yeah, but in my situation, I’m completely fine,” Williams said. “I’ve never had any inclination of anything that even myself would notice.”

Williams didn’t deny anything that was revealed in the messages to his ex-fiancee, Erin Marzoucki, whose lawyers retrieved the texts forensically from her cell phone. In one of them, Williams told Marzouki he had taken three hydrocodone before the game in New England last Nov. 11.

Marzouki and her lawyer, Tony Buzbee, claim that Williams was despondent over the couple’s breakup and wrote, “there’s no telling what I’ll do to myself.”

Williams said the painkillers he has taken were prescribed solely by the Bills. He pointed out that he’s a big man and can require unusual doses of medication to relieve the pain. If he talked about killing himself, it was in the heat of the moment, in a conversation he assumed would stay private.

That changed when Williams sued Marzouki in an attempt to retrieve a $785,000 engagement ring. Not surprisingly, things turned ugly at that point. Buzbee said Williams was foolish enough to “kick ant hill,” and said you know what happens when you disrupt the ants.

“I’ve made it known, this is just going to get bad,” Williams said. “Neither of us want that, but you get what you ask for.”

That cuts both ways. Look, I can’t imagine what it’s like to buy a woman a $785,000 ring and have the relationship turn sour. I don’t know who ended it. But Williams might have been wiser to let Marzouki keep the ring and write it off as a bad investment, sparing himself this embarrassment.

Really, was it worth it to have his ex-fiancee retrieve old text messages that made Williams come off as some pathetic, self-indulgent baby? Evidently, he thinks so.

“I’m not going to say I’m excited,” Williams said, “but actually I feel a lot better that this is coming out. I’m not talking about the words or the things taken out of context, but I’m glad to see someone’s true colors and their character come out now, rather than later.”

It’s hard to feel much sympathy for either party in this situation. If you’re going to feel sorry for anyone, feel sorry for the Bills, who made Williams the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history last year and got a dubious return for their investment in his first season in Buffalo.

Almost from the start of his Bills career, Williams has struck me as a fragile character, both physically and emotionally. When he got outplayed by an obscure Jets tackle in his debut as a Bill, he began his postgame remarks by accusing Austin Howard of cheap tactics and whining about the officiating.

Williams used his wrist injury as an excuse for his poor play early last season, even though the team didn’t think it was serious enough to put on the injury report. After Seattle shredded the defense in Toronto, he deflected blame to his teammates and coaches. Hey, he was only one of 11 players.

During times of crisis, he never pointed the finger at himself and said, “It’s on me,” as a gesture to his teammates. So it’s not hard to imagine that, at a difficult moment in his personal life, Williams could have fired off messages that essentially said, “Feel sorry for me.” He comes off as a spoiled athlete with a huge sense of entitlement.

The NFL is understandably sensitive about mental health issues. A number of former players have committed suicide, including Junior Seau. Last season the Chiefs’ Jovan Belcher murdered his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, and then killed himself.

So until Williams spoke publicly, the Bills and media were treating his situation as a potential mental health issue. Coach Doug Marrone spoke about the programs and support systems that the NFL has put in place to help players with emotional difficulties.

Williams assured us it was a tactic on the part of his ex-fiancee and her lawyer, Buzbee.

“If he wanted to fight and get in the ring, we could do that,” Williams said. “But we’re fighting words.”

A war of words over a failed romance isn’t what the Bills need right now. Surely, they don’t want their highest-paid player distracted by a lawsuit over an engagement ring.

“I was told a couple of weeks ago, this is a season for revealing,” he said. “The lawyer is a direct extension of her. So I’m glad it happened now.”

Williams says it won’t be a distraction.

He seemed combative and relieved by the opportunity to answer back at his ex-fiancee.

Healthy and unburdened by personal drama, he wants to be the player Bills fans expected next season. It would be great to see.

I’m just skeptical enough to wonder what the issue will be next.



email: jsullivan@buffnews.com ]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 23:59:37 -0400 Jerry Sullivan
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Sizemore, if you remember, had an abundance of talent with his speed and range in the outfield. He had a strong arm and was a complete hitter. Nearly a third of his 120 hits nine years ago were for extra bases, including eight homers. He could steal bases. His greatest strength, however, was his ability to compete. Anthony Gose is blessed with everything Sizemore had and more. If anything, perhaps he was born with too much talent. He hasn’t been through enough batting slumps to understand how to crawl out of them. He hasn’t learned the importance of getting the most out of each plate appearance regardless of the outcome.

He has had little experience in overcoming failure.

“It’s harder for Anthony than it was for Grady, but the talent is off the charts,” Brown said. “He runs better than Grady. He has more range than Grady. He has a better arm than Grady. Grady was a grinder. He never gave at-bats away. He wouldn’t fail the same way twice. That’s what made Grady, Grady. And that’s what Anthony has to learn.”

Before this season, failure was a foreign concept for the wonderfully talented 22-year-old center fielder from Southern California. Gose was on baseball’s fast track, ticketed for Toronto next year if he put together a good season with the Bisons. He instead has been confronted by the roughest stretch, and toughest test, of his career.

Suddenly, the same kid who landed on ESPN’s highlight reel after stealing home couldn’t get out of his own way. He was in a miserable 6-for-40 slump in 10 games before Sunday’s matinee against Charlotte in Coca-Cola Field. He was 1 for 4 with a walk in the Bisons’ 11-6 victory Sunday, leaving him with a .227 average through 40 games.

“Right now, I’m probably at the lowest point I’ve ever been in my career,” he said. “It’s been frustrating. It has felt like the longest month of my life, honestly. It’s part of baseball. They say everybody goes through it, but I see guys hitting .390 and it doesn’t look like they’re going through it. It’s definitely back to the learning stage again.”

Clearly, the Blue Jays weren’t overly troubled by his slump. Gose was promoted to the big leagues this morning. But he’ll need to swing the bat much better in Toronto than he did in Buffalo if he wants to stay in the majors.

How he responds over the next few months will determine the timeline on his big-league career. Now that he’s headed for Toronto, he needs out to figure out how to overcome inner demons that have shaken his confidence. It’s yet another necessary layer to stay in the majors and an integral part of the growth process.

Of course, there’s no easy way to mature. Often, major leaps are made when players are forced to overcome adversity. It takes time, sometimes a full season, sometimes more, sometimes never. First, he needs to get his head cleared. Then, he’ll need to start hitting the ball hard again. It will eventually lead to consistent production.

“Can I play? Yeah, I can play,” Gose said. “I’ve put myself into a hole mentally to where I have taken myself out of the equation. This is me battling, searching for what I need to do and how I need to do it. Out of 100 percent, it was 1 percent physical and 99 percent mental. I’ve beaten myself into a hole. Now, I’m trying to climb out of it.”

Gose batted leadoff Sunday. Two pitches into the game, the left-handed hitter opened too soon, swung at a pitch high in the strike zone and popped to short. He twice bounced out to second and did not hit the ball out of the infield. He picked up a single in the third with a drag bunt. When you’re in a slump, any hit is a good hit.

Sometimes, that’s all it takes.

Gose is a pleasant kid with a good sense of humor. He’s brutally honest with himself. He has big-league tools but would be the first to say it means nothing without production. He relied on his natural ability before this season, and why not? It pushed him through the minors and gave him a sniff of the big leagues last season with the Blue Jays.

“Look where tools got me – Triple A in Buffalo,” he said. “That stuff is overrated. That whole prospect stuff, they can save it. It’s all a gimmick. Hey, you either perform or you don’t. Right now, obviously, I’m not. Things change. It’s easy to read into a guy’s numbers and say he’s this or he’s that. It’s a big waste of time.”

Now comes the hard part. Baseball came so easy to him that he didn’t need the same work ethic as others to gain the same results. His quick bat covered deficiencies in his swing and poor pitch selection. He really didn’t know himself as a hitter and never really had a plan when stepping into the batters’ box.

It had seemed too simple.

And it was.

Gose didn’t just fall into a hole. He grabbed a shovel, dug it himself and slipped into a burlap sack. He allowed a four-game hitless streak to seep into his head, essentially talking himself into the slump that lasted three weeks. His biggest problem was drawing up an exit plan because he never needed one.

Gose hit .286 with 10 triples last season in the Pacific Coast League. He was hitting .309 through his first 14 games this season before inexplicably going into a funk. Lately, he’s been simply trying to put his bat on the ball after striking out 15 times in 36 at-bats before Sunday. Earlier this month, he struck out four times twice in a four-game stretch.

His toughest opponent isn’t pitching.

Lately, it’s been himself.

“To some degree, that’s what keeps guys out of the big leagues,” he said. “I could have all the talent in the world, but if I’m not there mentally it’s never going to show up on the field. That’s what’s happening lately. I’ve beat myself down so bad that I haven’t given myself a chance to play on the field.”



email: bgleason@buffnews.com ]]> Mon, 20 May 2013 10:34:19 -0400 Bucky Gleason
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“Until you just said that, that hadn’t even crossed my mind,” Brandon said Friday. “I swear to God, on my three kids … ”

I had asked Brandon if he felt a sense of pride that, having elevated Doug Whaley to general manager, he suddenly had a franchise quarterback and GM who were both African-American.

Brandon said he was proud for Whaley, a long-time friend who worked his way up from NFL scout to GM, and who had great mentors along the way. The implication was obvious, that Whaley was a football guy who paid his dues. It’s not the color of his skin that defines him, but the quality of his character.

“We have great respect for the Rooney Rule and the implementing of the process through the league,” Brandon said. “But when it comes to evaulating individuals and talent, Doug Whaley certainly was on top. He created a high-water mark.”

It’s for the rest of us to decide what it means for the Bills to have black men in two of football’s most vital, cerebral, positions. And as Brandon was quick to point out, the Bills’ new director of college scouting, Kelvin Fisher, is also African-American.

Perhaps it’s coincidental. But just months after Ralph Wilson gave him full control, Brandon has changed the essential makeup of the organization. People are saying it feels different these days. It certainly looks different.

The Bills are younger, more vibrant and diverse. That doesn’t guarantee success on the field. The roster is still deficient in many areas. The new coach, Doug Marrone, has a lot to prove. But at least it’s a sign that the franchise is emerging from a dysfunctional old-boys network into a more hopeful, progressive era.

It’s a big deal, just as it was a big deal seven years ago when the University at Buffalo became the first school in Football Bowl Subdivision history to have African-Americans (Warde Manuel, Reggie Witherspoon, Turner Gill) in the three most visible positions in the athletic department (it just occurred to me that all three are now gone from UB).

We can pretend it doesn’t matter to have a black GM in a mythical “post-racial America.” But it does matter. It surely matters to people in Buffalo’s black community, who have watched white executives mismanage the team for more than a decade and waited since the brief James Harris experiment in the late 1960s for another black quarterback.

You can’t tell me most black Buffalonians won’t be rooting a little harder for their own.

Robert Griffin III was seen as a long-awaited hero for the black community in Washington, D.C., when he burst onto the scene as the Redskins’ quarterback last season. Black parents pointed to Griffin, as they would to Barack Obama, as evidence that anything was possible.

Griffin didn’t want to be defined by his race, either. He said, “You want to be defined by your work ethic, the person that you are, your character, your personality. That’s what I’ve tried to go out and do. I am an African-American in America. That will never change. But I don’t have to be defined by that.”

Later, a black ESPN commentator named Rob Parker suggested Griffin was a “cornball brother,” that he was “not one of us” and pointed out that Griffin “even has a white fiance.” Post-racial, indeed. Parker was fired by ESPN.

Progress is slow and complicated in these matters. The NFL instituted the Rooney Rule in 2003 to mandate that at least one minority candidate be interviewed for every head coaching and senior operations job. That was one year after Ozzie Newsome became the first black GM in league history.

Whaley is the seventh African-American to get a GM job. Six are still on the job. Two of them – Newsome and the Giants’ Jerry Reese – ran the last two Super Bowl winners. So might it actually be an advantage to have a man of color running the personnel department in a sport whose players are roughly 70 percent black?

There were 15 openings for NFL head coaches (eight) and GMs (seven) after last season. None was filled by a minority. Whaley was the GM-in-waiting since coming to Buffalo from the Steelers in 2010. He got the top job when Buddy Nix stepped aside this past week.

Nix, 73, said he would leave after drafting a franchise quarterback. He got his guy in Manuel. But it’s hard to believe that Nix was the driving force in April’s draft. Why would you let him run the show, knowing he was on his way out? As far as I’m concerned, it was Whaley and Doug Marrone’s draft.

I know Nix wanted a quarterback. He wanted Cam Newton two years earlier. But Manuel had to be Whaley’s guy. He was on the verge of taking over as GM. I suspect Whaley was the one leading the move toward Manuel, a raw but athletically gifted quarterback with tremendous upside.

Manuel was seen as a reach. He had been criticized as a passer who had trouble reading defenses, who wasn’t the quickest decision-maker on a football field. One draft analyst said he had “slow eyes,” whatever that means.

Skeptics in the black community heard “slow eyes” and wondered if it was the latest code for dim intellect. Manuel was an honor student at Florida State. He seemed bright and quick on his feet at his opening press conference. Manuel joked that he didn’t know what “slow eyes” meant, either.

Of course, even in a supposedly “post-racial” world, where Newton and Griffin are thriving in the NFL, there’s still a tendency to pigeonhole players by race. Manuel was mentored by Donovan McNabb before the draft. They had some long talks at dinner. Evidently, the subject of race came up.

Later, Manuel told a Philadelphia reporter, “They try to fit us all into the same category, as African-American quarterbacks. We’re always going to be compared to players similar to us.”

Generally, that means blacks are seen as primarily runners. The white quarterbacks are pocket passers. The league has become more open to mobile quarterbacks, but the black quarterbacks still fight the stereotype that they’re not as adept at reading defenses.

The Bills looked beyond the stereotypes and put their faith in Manuel.

It’ll be convenient to blame Nix if Manuel falls flat on his face. But Whaley’s reputation is the one on the line here. He has to own this pick. Marrone and Brandon, too.

Brandon promised he would take the franchise in a bold new direction when he took over on New Year’s Day. He has entrusted his personnel department to the team’s first black GM. At some point, the team’s on-field fortunes will be in the hands of its first black franchise quarterback.

After 13 years, fans can only hope the Bills got it right. For Brandon, it’s not so much about skin color but the fact that, this time, his new GM might actually be the smartest guy in the room.

email: jsullivan@buffnews.com ]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 00:24:36 -0400 Jerry Sullivan
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Will Whaley prove to be a forceful, “full-service” general manager? We don’t know. You never know what you’re getting when a man steps into the GM post for the first time.

But the more Whaley asserts himself — even though we don’t know about his ability to push the right buttons — the better the Bills’ football results stand to get.

Why? Whaley’s resume is as good as you’re going to get for a first-time general manager. He’s now the man with the best eye for talent in the organization. His resume and title say that’s the case. In reality, sometimes that might mean he’s judging which of his scouts is sending the best evaluation across his desk. So be it. He needs to parlay his judgment into getting what he wants.

It’s encouraging that he brought in two of his own top lieutenants right away. The Bills hired Jim Monos from New Orleans and another Pittsburgh guy, Kelvin Fisher, from the Steelers. Monos, formerly Southeastern scout for the Saints, becomes the new right-hand man. The Saints picked five Pro Bowlers in the third round or later over that span; no other team has more than two. Fisher, a scout in the West for the Steelers, becomes the new overseer of college scouting.

A skeptic might wonder: Does this give the Bills three guys new to their positions, all of whom are in over their heads? We’ll see. But the hirings are an example of Whaley putting his stamp on the football department. He wanted his guys in place.

Good GMs have to get their start somewhere. Baltimore’s Ozzie Newsome, the New York Giants’ Jerry Reese and Atlanta’s Thomas Dimitroff all were unproven young GMs at one time. Now they’re three of the five or six best in the business.

Talent evaluation is the most important part of the job. Whaley needs to keep talent coming through the pipeline of the draft, especially in Buffalo, where it’s harder (no matter what anybody says) to woo free agents than it is in Miami.

However, the best general managers are more than just glorified scouts. The general manager also needs to have a forceful personality. The GM is operating in a world of forceful personalities, both inside and outside the organization. Administrators, coaches and scouts in the NFL all tend to be passionate and convinced their judgment is correct. Job security is tenuous in the NFL. Those realities breed a “protect-my-turf” mentality. All of that works against a cohesive, smooth-running football department.

It’s up to both team president Russ Brandon and Whaley to breed organizational trust. The coaches aren’t complaining: “We’re teaching them but the scouts aren’t getting us the right guys.” The scouts aren’t complaining, “We’re finding talent but the coaches don’t know what to do with it.” Communication among a player, his agent, his coach and the general manager flows freely. People aren’t talking behind each others’ backs.

A lot of that is eliminated if the general manager is setting a commanding tone. The Bills’ organization was in lock-step with Bill Polian when he was running it, and that was a good thing. It wasn’t just because he ruled with an iron fist. Tom Donahoe ruled with an iron fist in Buffalo, too, but the team didn’t have organizational trust.

At least when it came to his football staff — his coaches and scouts — Polian was listening to and empowering his people enough that a good consensus was reached over and over. (It helped Polian that his personality was balanced by Marv Levy in Buffalo and Tony Dungy in Indianapolis, both of whom enhanced organizational trust.)

So a good GM is a great communicator within the organization. A good GM has relationships with agents to enhance the credibility of the organization. A good GM also has a good handle on the salary cap and the true market value of players.

This is an area where Whaley potentially could be an improvement over Buddy Nix. Nix was more involved in the cap and negotiations than Levy, who took a Sgt. Schultz approach to that sphere. But the perception here is Nix wasn’t as influential in those areas as Dimitroff, Newsome and Reese. Not that Whaley should be lording over Jim Overdorf, the chief cap analyst and negotiator. But he has to be an important part of the decision-making, and he must have a good handle on planning three and four years down the road.

Whaley seemed very comfortable letting Nix be the front man and in letting Nix deliver the organization’s message to the fans. Nix was good at it. Is it a sign Whaley is too low-key? Ex-Bills executive Tom Modrak said he never saw Whaley back down from a tough spot. Hopefully that holds true. It would be good if Whaley communicated clearly and well in public, because that’s part of setting the tone inside the organization.

Nix set a good tone within the organization. People trusted him, from the players to the owner. The Bills spent money, in part, because there was faith that Nix’s evaluations were on the mark. To that end, Whaley is starting out on good footing with Brandon.

Make no mistake, Brandon holds the ultimate power in the Bills’ organization. He’s the president. He’s a forceful personality. Brandon says he takes pride in delegating power to his top lieutenants. There’s plenty of evidence that happens in regard to other Bills executives.

It’s in Brandon’s interest to see Whaley succeed. Brandon executed the transition of power from Nix to Whaley. Whaley is going to have to be very good at selling his views to Brandon, especially when times get tough. In that regard, his job is similar to that of his predecessors in the GM seat. They dealt with Ralph Wilson, who was hands-on. So is Brandon.

Is Whaley up to all that? Is he the total package as a leader?

We’re going to find out.



email: mgaughan@buffnews.com ]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 00:24:23 -0400 Mark Gaughan
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The Giants struggled for most of the 2010 season, which ended with their first Series title in 52 years out West. And they were 7½ games out of first place in their division last May before sweeping to their second Series crown in October in Detroit. This season has been a different story.

The champs look good right out of the gate, especially at home (15-7). They entered the weekend atop the NL West and with only St. Louis and Cincinnati owning better records among National League teams. The talk of a Yankees-like run of three titles in four years is certainly legitimate.

“It’s always good to get off to a good start but you have to remind yourself it’s just that, a start,” manager Bruce Bochy told this corner. “Sometimes it hasn’t been our best baseball and we know that. Our pitching hasn’t been quite as sharp as we’d like but guys have been doing a great job of grinding every day trying to find a way to win ballgames.”

The Giants were outscored, 21-9, in dropping the two games against the Blue Jays. Starting pitchers Barry Zito and Ryan Vogelsong got pummeled in the first inning as the Blue Jays batted around both nights to score 11 runs while the Giants were committing four errors.

“That’s unlike us,” Bochy said. “I can’t think back to when we had two games, identical games, where we made mistakes there in the first inning. The big number there killed us, took us out of our game. It’s hard to explain.”

The Giants hit the road Wednesday night for Denver and fell behind the Rockies, 6-0, in Thursday’s series opener. They then roared back to win, 8-6, beating the Rox for the 10th straight time.

At the plate, Marco Scutaro and Pablo Sandoval are both batting over .300 and Sandoval entered the weekend with seven home runs. So did Hunter Pence. Sandoval had 30 RBIs and Buster Posey had 25. The middle relief has been solid and closer Sergio Romo has converted 13 of 15 saves.

The starting pitching is the area of concern, and that’s where the Giants looked strongest on paper coming out of spring training. Tim Lincecum (4.07) and Matt Cain (5.43) both entered the weekend at 3-2 with poor ERAs. Vogelsong is 1-4, 8.06, the highest ERA among NL qualifiers. Bochy said Vogelsong, an all-star in 2011, will stay in the rotation for now.

Only Madison Bumgarner (4-1, 2.18) is pitching at or above what was expected at the start of the year.

“These guys are veterans. They’ve been around. They know what they need to do,” Bochy said. “If it’s something mechanical or something really out of sync, sure. We’ll help them. But it’s just more a matter of time and concentration too for these guys to get on track.”

The biggest thing Bochy said he liked about his team was its attitude. No complacency. No early-season boredom after the push through last October. Many of these players have now gone through two World Series and understand the long grind it takes to get there.

“They’re fighting hard. We have so much baseball left but I really like the attitude they have right now,” he said. “That’s play hard every day and try to find a way to win a game. You can look at all these guys and it seems like it’s somebody different most of the time doing something different to win the game for us. That’s been the way we’ve gone through it before.”Speaking of the Giants, they brought Melky Cabrera’s World Series ring to Toronto and presented it to him in a private meeting in the clubhouse tunnels with Cabrera and Bochy. The Giants skipper said that was Cabrera’s preference rather than an on-field presentation like teams often do for players who move on after a Series title.

After the game, however, Cabrera said it was Bochy’s decision to do the ceremony that way. Giants reporters jumped on Cabrera for that, pointing out he lied to them when asked about PED accusations last season a couple of weeks before his 50-game suspension.

The Giants, of course, never returned Cabrera to the roster for the postseason and he left town without ever acknowledging his teammates. His credibility rating isn’t the highest.Jordany Valdespin is part flash and dash and part spoiled brat. We saw it last year in Buffalo and so did the Mets. And the Amazins are getting a huge dose of it again this year. For a guy who can’t hit .250, Valdespin has an awful lot of mustard on his hot dog.

He pimped a pinch home run last weekend against the Pirates with the Mets in a 7-1 hole, drawing ire in both dugouts. The next day, he reportedly tried to get out of a pinch-hitting appearance fearing reprisal and finally strode to the plate with an elbow guard to take his plunking. He went quietly to first after he was hit but threw a dugout tantrum after the inning and didn’t talk to the media afterward, again earning no points in his own dugout.

Mets manager Terry Collins is certainly tiring of this bunch and a part-time player being in the middle of the New York maelstrom was a little much for Collins to take. Especially when talk radio lit up with fans complaining the Mets didn’t back a teammate.

“I don’t answer to fans,” Collins said in St. Louis. “They don’t play this game. They have no idea what goes on. They have no idea what goes on in there. They have absolutely no idea what it means to be a professional teammate at this level.”

Ouch. That’s just not going to end well for the Buffalo Baseball Hall of Famer in the lame-duck year of a contract. Especially if the Mets keep playing like, well, the Mets.The biggest-early season chatter in Philadelphia was about Roy Halladay’s drop in velocity that finally resulted in shoulder surgery on Wednesday. Another hot-button item is Ryan Howard’s alarming lack of speed on the bases.

Howard, remember, blew out his Achilles tendon with his swing for the final out in the 2011 division series against St. Louis and needed surgery. He struggled at times last year with his footwork, and the 33-year-old is regularly getting pinch-run for after manager Charlie Manuel did it just five times combined in 2010 and 2011 prior to the injury.

Said one veteran scout to the Philadelphia Inquirer: “It looks like he’s running on pieces of glass.”• Great Sports Illustrated cover story this week on Mets phenom and former Bisons ace Matt Harvey, who continues to prove how bored he was in Triple-A last year by the way he’s throwing in the big leagues. Still, the story is also a lot of New York City hype early in the season. There are other young pitchers thriving too and Harvey doesn’t get that kind of pub if he pitched in, say, Milwaukee. Let’s talk again in July before anointing him some kind of Dark Knight of Gotham. Yeesh.

• When the Indians beat Justin Verlander last weekend in Detroit, it gave them a stunning 6-1 record this season against former Cy winners. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 2013 Tribe is the first team ever to do that prior to June 1. The Indians have beaten Verlander, Toronto’s R.A. Dickey, Tampa Bay’s David Price, Philadelphia’s Halladay and Cliff Lee, and Oakland’s Bartolo Colon. The lone loss was to Jake Peavy of the White Sox.

• All-time stolen base leader Rickey Henderson is a fan of Louisville center fielder Billy Hamilton, who leads the International League in steals one year after setting the all-time single season record in 2012 with 155 between Class A and Double-A. Said Henderson to the San Francisco Chronicle: “He reminds me so much of me, I had to go hug him. At Stockton, we did everything to stop him, but he’s just going to steal when he wants to.”

• The Gwinnett Braves snapped a 14-game losing streak with last Sunday’s 7-6 IL win at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, which broke an 0-10 run in May that included Jason Heyward’s rehab stint. Too bad the Bisons didn’t catch them in their cold spell. Buffalo meets Gwinnett eight times in a 12-game span from June 17-28. And get this: The G-Braves had a 15-game skid last year. Ouch.



email: mharrington@buffnews.com ]]> Sun, 19 May 2013 00:23:54 -0400 Mike Harrington
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What the Sabres do in preparation for the draft June 30 in Newark, N.J., through free agency and the rest of the summer, is utterly fascinating to ponder. If you were to forecast their still-no-name division for next season, you might pick them seventh out of the eight teams (wasn’t Detroit on a downward spiral?). That’s largely because of who might be going without knowing who’s coming. But at least things will be different in many ways other than, of course, in the general manager’s office.

It would seem the Sabres want to keep Thomas Vanek. From listening to him at the end of the season and at locker cleanout day, he wants out.

It would seem the Sabres are more set on dealing Ryan Miller. It would seem with the farewell-tour atmosphere around his 500th game that Miller is fine with that.

It stands to reason there’s a good package out there to be had for Vanek. Not so sure about Miller. Especially with the salary cap going down, teams are going to be very discerning about spending more than $6 million on a 33-year-old goalie, even if it’s only for one year.

So I really question whether a goalie-challenged team like, say, the Florida Panthers, gets involved in any Miller deal. Too bad, too, since the Sabres would love Florida’s No. 2 pick.

So how does it all fit with the playoffs? My theory is Miller’s likeliest landing point might be a team that thinks it’s close to a Cup but not getting the job done in net. Somebody in that scenario might take that one-year flyer on him.

What would clearly be Miller’s first choice? Anaheim. Jonas Hiller, who has one year left at $4.5 million, was OK against Detroit (2.46 goals-against average and .917 save percentage) but was beaten three times in overtime and a No. 2 seed that once had a 13-game home winning streak can’t go out in the first round. Viktor Fasth, who had a great rookie year, never got off the bench.

Who else might want to move on Miller? I’d peg St. Louis. While Brian Elliott had a 1.90 GAA, he lost four straight to Los Angeles and gave up a weak OT winner in Game Five. And Jaroslav Halak is clearly tiring of coach Ken Hitchcock.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported last weekend on a heated argument between Hitchcock and Halak prior to Game Four against the Kings in Los Angeles. Halak was reportedly late to a team meeting and then vented at his coach about ice time when Hitchcock confronted him.

Halak didn’t play in the Blues’ final 14 games of the season or any of the playoff games in the wake of ineffectiveness and a groin injury. Both Halak and Elliott are heading into the final years of their deals as well.

There certainly are teams General Manager Darcy Regier is unlikely to consider sending Miller to. Doubt he deals Miller within the East, so forget Washington, which could use an upgrade from Braden Holtby. Same with Pittsburgh, which might have to ponder its goaltending in the wake of Marc-Andre Fleury’s meltdown on Long Island even as Tomas Vokoun carries the Pens through this round.

Montreal is a no-chancer, albeit with growing issues in net. Carey Price came up small against Ottawa (3.26 and .894) and then admitted the Montreal fishbowl has him rattled.

“That’s one thing I miss, just being anonymous,” Price said on the Habs’ locker day. “It’s tough to do that here. I don’t even go to the grocery store anymore. I hardly do anything anymore. I’m like a hobbit in a hole.”

Miller seems tired of the fishbowl life here as well. But if he doesn’t land on a team that’s already close to Cup contention, how about a currently bad outfit that could improve quickly and not be in the middle of a fan/media circus? Think about Colorado.

The Avs are about to add defenseman Seth Jones as the No. 1 pick in the draft. They have two Stanley Cups and went to the Western Conference finals six of their first seven years in Denver, so they have some idea. Now Joe Sakic is back in the fold for real, taking over hockey operations. That will help.

Whoever the Avs name as coach can build around Jones and defense. And that could include an upgrade from Semyon Varlamov and the washed-up J.S. Giguere in goal. In a big winter sports market, Miller’s 2010 Olympic run will sell. The Avs have a center in Paul Stastny the Sabres could certainly use. Hmmmm. Point to ponder.



email: mharrington@buffnews.com ]]> Sat, 18 May 2013 00:11:42 -0400 Mike Harrington
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Whaley kept his answers short, vague and, dare I say, boring. He cautiously made sure he didn’t say anything he would later regret or could be used against him. A few times, he stopped himself from expanding on answers, checking his swing on softball questions that a polished speaker would have hit a mile.

I’m not sure how many times he said, “The sky is the limit,” but he surpassed his limit. His reply after being asked what made the Steelers so successful: “They don’t accept losing. They set the standards of winning and competing for championships. If we instill that here, we’ll be in the right direction.”

It was difficult to determine whether he was shy, extremely cool or trying to blanket his nerves, but there somewhere was elegance to his guarded answers and direct message. Whaley has a quiet, unassuming way about him. You can only hope he has enough intelligence and confidence to make the right decisions.

Whaley isn’t going to become a motivational speaker any time soon, but that’s not what the Bills needed in their new general manager. They needed a young, motivated executive who can evaluate players and restore credibility. He has been atop their list for years, which made Thursday’s announcement little more than a formality.

“Our main goal is to give the fans of the Buffalo Bills a team that consistently competes for championships,” he said.

Zzzzz.

Whaley showed a different side to his personality once the cameras were turned off and the assembled media began heading for the door. Reserved throughout his news conference, his voice began cracking with emotion later when he talked about telling his father he was named an NFL general manager.

It’s an accomplishment for anyone, a greater one for an African-American kid from Pittsburgh who never played in the NFL.

Whaley, who started as an assistant in the Steelers’ personnel department 17 years ago, becomes the sixth African-American general manager in the league.

Bob Whaley told his son it was one of the proudest moments of his life. Coming from him, that’s saying something.

Bob Whaley earned a football scholarship to Michigan State. He transferred to West Point and was among the first black football players. He graduated in 1967 and was an Army Ranger in Vietnam.

“I have the utmost respect for him,” Whaley said. “The things he’s gone through makes me being a general manager seem like nothing. For him to say he was proud of me in his lifetime, for lack of a better term, it’s a crushing blow to my ego. It was emotional for him to say that. Everybody is looking for acknowledgement of their parents.”

You get a better sense of Whaley when you hear him talk about his parents. You understand how he built a reputation as a bright young scout who was destined to manage his own team someday. You can see that he’s a selfless, team-first guy who knows the meaning of hard work and sacrifice. He knows the importance of intangibles.

His mother, Gaynell, was a school administrator who offered a soft touch. A few days ago, she was still telling him to remain humble and stay true to their family values. Bob Whaley spent 30 years in management, overseeing a highway-construction company. Doug grew up tarring roads in the Pittsburgh area.

“Hard work. That’s where I got it from, every summer, working with him,” Whaley said. “We did road construction, heavy highway draining and sewage, laying asphalt. Did you know that asphalt comes off the truck at 220 degrees and you can only stay on it for six minutes before your feet blister in the summer?”

Um, no.

“It was hard manual labor, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” he said. “It taught me what work was all about. In the construction business, there’s a tangible asset that you see that you accomplished. You feel like you accomplished something. You look at the long road, absolutely. And when the alarm rings, you answer the bell.”

Whaley has a long road ahead of him with the Bills, who haven’t made the playoffs in 13 consecutive seasons. That, alone, is alarming when you consider how many teams have gone through the cycle of success. The Bills have been stuck in the same ditch with five coaches, counting Perry Fewell, and four general managers.

It’s time for Whaley to answer the bell.

He has remained mostly behind the scenes over his 17 seasons in the NFL after playing for the University of Pittsburgh. He spent a dozen years with the Steelers and showed an eye for personnel before climbing the ladder. The Steelers hoped he would continue growing with them, but he jumped to become an assistant GM under Buddy Nix.

Whaley was Nix’s top aide, which is enough to make any Bills fan leery. Nix made his share of mistakes with Whaley at his side. It was enough to make you wonder whether Whaley played a role in a few blunders along the way. Russ Brandon made it clear that the general manager ultimately makes the final call.

Now, that responsibility falls on Whaley.

Nobody knows for sure how well he will perform when faced with the same pressure, and it will be interesting to see how he handles the responsibility. Five months ago, I suggested that Whaley be given a chance to run the show. I’m certainly not backing off now.

Whaley, 40, brings a new perspective and closes the gap between the old ways of building teams and the new ways of today’s game. Bill Polian was an unproven 44-year-old when he climbed aboard in 1986. I’m not suggesting Whaley is the next Polian, the best general manager of his time, but there’s only one way to find out.

At least the Bills are trying something new, unlike the other major professional sports team in town. Brandon has been given full control of the organization. They hired a new head coach in Doug Marrone. They hired Whaley, who immediately hired Jim Monos as director of player personnel and Kelvin Fisher as director of college scouting.

And they have a rookie quarterback in EJ Manuel.

Bills fans are hoping they can grow together and get this thing turned around. The answers will eventually be revealed in the results.

Let’s face it, there is no better time for a new regime to talk about the sky being the limit than when it’s sitting near the bottom. They might as well start with someone who knows how to build a road.

email: bgleason@buffnews.com ]]> Fri, 17 May 2013 01:30:57 -0400 Bucky Gleason
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They’ve had all kinds of problems at the plate but they’ve also had plenty of trouble on the mound. Their starting rotation is a mess, with Josh Johnson and J.A. Happ both on the disabled list and Ricky Romero toiling with the Bisons. Mark Buehrle has one win and a 6.19 earned-run average.

But a key point to all the winter optimism was they had traded with the Mets for a Cy Young Award winner. But where has R.A. Dickey, circa 2012, and his dancing knuckleball gone?

Dickey took the mound Tuesday at 2-5, 5.06 in eight starts. He left it following a strikeout to end the sixth, pumping his fist after his season-high 10th whiff and getting a standing ovation from more than 31,000 Rogers Centre fans. The Blue Jays won, 10-6, and Dickey felt a lot more like himself.

“You just feel like it’s about time that you’re getting the swings and misses you’re accustomed to getting and you’re ahead of hitters the way you normally are,” Dickey said of his outward emotion. “I have not been as efficient as I’m accustomed to being with my pitch counts. I’ve been behind hitters a lot and not feeling the knuckleball.”

Dickey has had several issues this year. Neck and back soreness have haunted his delivery and cut back on his velocity. Yes, it’s a knuckleball but Dickey has been known for throwing one of the harder ones, in the mid-70s. And his fastball was in the mid-80s. Those numbers have dropped from 3 to 5 mph and that has made a major difference.

Dickey found that extra oomph again Tuesday because he said he’s feeling healthier. It kind of mirrors his team. The Blue Jays bolted to a 6-0 lead in the first off Barry Zito, piled up a season-high 18 hits and have their second three-game winning streak of the season. They’re 6-3 in their last nine and have collected 25 runs and 38 hits in three games since getting one-hit Friday in Boston by Jon Lester.

“The offensive output was great,” Dickey said. “It’s great to see a lot of guys get involved. It was a real community win tonight and it can be fun when that happens.”

Dickey had one of his best innings as a Blue Jay in the sixth. Hunter Pence led off with a double – but it came two pitches after he swung wildly and sent his bat helicoptering 15 rows over the third-base dugout.

It was a sign how much Dickey’s ball was moving. Brandon Belt, Gregor Blanco and Nick Noonan followed with strikeouts and Dickey clenched his fist in celebration.

Prior to the game, General Manager Alex Anthopoulos pretty much called a breakout outing by Dickey – even though the 38-year-old’s last two trips to the mound resulted in a seven-run meltdown against Seattle and a five-walk outing in a loss at Tampa Bay.

“Prior to the Seattle outing, he had a 2.84 ERA in four starts and we just weren’t scoring any runs for him,” Anthopoulos said. “He had pitched really well and continued to give us innings. Seattle was obviously a bad outing. Tampa was solid but not as sharp as he can be. You don’t expect him to walk five. I’m not concerned.

“I think R.A. is going to get on track, pitch really well and be able to provide a lot of innings for us.”

Last year Dickey averaged 14.4 pitches per inning, the lowest rate in baseball. That number was 16.7 this year and it was 19.2 on Tuesday in a 115-pitch outing. So he’s still got work to do.

There were plenty of rumblings in New York about Dickey taking a little too much of the focus on to himself with his revealing autobiography, with his climb up Mount Kilimanjaro and with last winter’s trip to India to visit a Christian missionary group that fights sex slavery.

You don’t hear similar chatter around here – yet. But Dickey spent spring training getting followed by a crew from “60 Minutes” and has been profiled in the New Yorker. Just Monday, Dickey was awarded an honorary doctorate of Sacred Letters from Wycliffe College, the University of Toronto’s Anglican theological school.

“I gotta say the way the Blue Jays have been playing early on this year, it’s nice to come to a place that abounds with grace,” Dickey said during his acceptance speech, drawing big chuckles from the crowd.

All the outside attention is fine, so long as Dickey is the ace he needs to be. He hasn’t been so far and it’s no coincidence where the Blue Jays are in the standings. More nights like Tuesday will get both Dickey and his team back to their spring billing.

“I certainly think it can be a jumping-off point for us,” Dickey said. “But we’ve tried to take the mentality of just win today. Don’t try to get eight games back in one night and that’s what we’re going to try to stick to going forward.”

email: mharrington@buffnews.com ]]> Wed, 15 May 2013 01:34:14 -0400 Mike Harrington
]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130513/SPORTS/130519607/1229 So I was eating dinner in the press room Sunday night at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto and a longtime colleague from one of Canada's big publications sat down across from me.

“Came to see some playoff hockey?”

“Yep. Not seeing any in my town.”

“What a town you got. Who ever thought 1999 would be the high point for Buffalo sports?”

Eh.

I just went for another forkful of macaroni and cheese. Not much I could say.

In '99, of course, the Sabres got to Game Six of the Stanley Cup final and the Bills had their last playoff team. Save for a couple Sabres seasons, our two pro teams have carried us mostly into a black hole since.

And they do it in utterly bizarre, changing-the-narrative-as-we-go fashions. It happened again Monday, when the Bills suddenly announced that Buddy Nix was taking the exit-stage left everyone expected him to take after the draft, even though team president Russ Brandon said just three weeks ago that Nix ain't going nowhere but staying in the GM office “and will be for a long time.”

(OK, so Brandon didn't say Nix “ain't going nowhere.” Couldn't resist. Sorry).

The Bills didn't name a replacement, even though the entire football world assumes Doug Whaley is taking over. Brandon was adamant it was “Buddy's day” and the focus was not going on to his replacement. Guess the Bills wanted to relive the drafting of Torell Troup or that 16-32 record the last three years.

The Bills tweeted the announcement of Nix's departure by saying he will “tradition to Special Assistant.” Nice malaprop there since they've found it basically impossible to “transition” to a winning team and the only tradition they've built is becoming the most irrelevant franchise in the league.

Brandon then said he wasn't going to document the new plan for a GM “anytime in the very near future.” The way things sound in Orchard Park, you might want to pencil the Whaley presser into your planner for, oh, about Wednesday.

But let's not be too harsh on the Bills. They're not trying to tell you they started rebuilding 15 months ago by trading Paul Gaustad, like the charade Darcy Regier is pulling. Never mind the fact Regier's rebuilding plan included throwing money last summer at Zach Parise, Ryan Suter and Shane Doan.

There are parts of the Bills' plan you at least have some shreds of respect for. Nix said he needed to draft a franchise quarterback as part of his legacy before he departed. We'll see how things go with EJ Manuel but at least the pick was finally made.

The Bills have transitioned (there's that word again) away from the train wreck that was Chan Gailey eschewing 50-yard field goals and Dave Wannstedt's defense not stopping anybody.

That's good too. No one really knows how Doug Marrone & Co. will do but they'll be a fresh look.

That's a start. Brandon met the irrelevance factor head-on in January when he took the reins from Ralph Wilson and admitted the brand is damaged. That was refreshingly honest.

And now that Nix is gone, the Bills won't be tempted to rekindle the man-crush on Shawne Merriman that had the odd feel of the one going on with Jochen Hecht downtown. Another plus.

So it's good there's lots of fresh looks coming in 2013, which has exploded as a major transition year in Buffalo sports — and not just for the Bills and Sabres.

Gailey, Lindy Ruff and UB's Reggie Witherspoon have all been fired. Nix stepped down. Joe Mihalich left Niagara and so many key players are following him out the door you wonder if the last one left has to turn off the Gallagher Center lights for poor new coach Chris Casey.

There was an NHL lockout that aggravated fans — and then the season started to aggravate them more. You wonder what changes are coming with the Bandits, who were the only team in their league to miss the playoffs.

Dadgummit, Buddy. Look what you're leaving behind.



email: mharrington@buffnews.com
]]> Tue, 14 May 2013 06:58:56 -0400 Mike Harrington
]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130513/SPORTS/130519728/1229
Blue and white flags flapping in the breeze atop cars on the Queen Elizabeth Way. Remember those?

Signs festooning the outside walls of the ACC facing Bay Street that read, “The Passion That Unites Us All.” And outside the rink, in an area exploding with high-rise condos and restaurants known as Maple Leaf Square, was a crowd that most folks expected to push 10,000. Yes, outside.

Remember the Party in the Plaza? All that blue and gold the night Chris Drury tied the Rangers in the final seconds? Maxim Afinogenov’s overtime goal? Same kind of feeling, just like it was in downtown Buffalo a little more than six years ago.

Giant HD screen. Crazy fans. Jerseys and funny costumes everywhere. Of course, beer. Lots of it.

(Memo to LeafsNation: Someone needed to tell the dude in the Leafs jersey wearing the bear suit that a “Bruin” is a bear. Might try a different costume next time).

And, oh, did they have something to scream about whether they were inside or out. Leafs 2, Bruins 1. Game Seven tonight in Boston. Not many signature moments in this building since it opened in 1999. This certainly ranks as one of them.

“It’s a special situation for sure, one of those memories you’ll look back on when this is all over,” said goaltender James Reimer, who had a shutout until the final 25 seconds and had the crowd chanting his name all night. “The fans have been unreal and the reception was unbelievable. The atmosphere was better than anything you could have imagined.”

Left for dead after a crushing overtime defeat here in Game Four when captain Dion Phaneuf foolishly pinched in and the Bruins broke down the ice for the winning goal, the Leafs have won two straight as Reimer has stopped 72 of 74 shots. Phaneuf atoned for that gaffe by breaking a scoreless tie at 1:48 of the third period, darting to the net and tipping home a Nazem Kadri shot.

“It felt good for me to be able to get that one,” Phaneuf said. “With our last game in here, I didn’t feel great about the outcome and obviously my decision. I felt I owed it to the guys and luckily I was able to tip that.”

If the Leafs win tonight, it will be the first time they wiped out a 3-1 deficit since winning four straight over Detroit in the 1942 Stanley Cup final. The noise in the building was deafening and word was the scene outside was crazy Sunday.

Imagine what the Square and what Yonge Street might look like with one more win.

“It gives me goosebumps every time I see video of people in Maple Leaf Square going crazy every time after we score,” Kadri said. “That’s the dedication, the passion that people have for this organization.”

“I love the fact the people that couldn’t get ahold of tickets or didn’t want to spend that kind of money still support our team and show up like that,” added winger Clarke MacArthur, the former Sabre. “It makes you want to go out and play extra hard and do what’s right for those people out there.”

The Leafs haven’t been to the playoffs since 2004 and haven’t won a Cup since 1967, but they used to be postseason regulars. They made it 10 times in 12 years from 1993-2004 and lost in the conference finals four times, including the epic seven-gamer against Wayne Gretzky-led Los Angeles in 1993 and the five-game defeat to the Sabres in 1999.

Say what you want about the Leafs and their fans, especially the ones that like to take over First Niagara Center. But the fact is the NHL is far better when this franchise is relevant.

And the Leafs are now. Thanks to Reimer, there’s no more talk about Roberto Luongo – who actually tweeted “Reims for Sochi” after the game. Phil Kessel, Joffrey Lupul and James van Riemsdyk are top-notch forwards. Phaneuf leads a defense full of young talent, with Jake Gardiner looking like a future stud. Randy Carlyle is an upgrade at coach over Ron Wilson. At GM, Dave Nonis has pushed forward with the plan Brian Burke started.

Thanks to cranky fans and a huge, relentless media corps, this is a tough place to play when times are tough. But it’s a great one on nights like Sunday.

“In the early stages of my tenure here, I found my team was nearly paralyzed at home,” admitted Carlyle. “We’ve changed that dramatically. We wanted a new identity, to be a different type of hockey club and make sure this rink was going to be a tough building to come in.”

“Our fans respect what we’ve done this year and we think that goes for not just our fans too,” Kadri said. “I think that goes for everyone else around the league as well.”

Sure does. No matter what happens tonight, it’s pretty obvious the Leafs aren’t waiting nine years for their next playoff party.



email: mharrington@buffnews.com ]]> Mon, 13 May 2013 00:08:22 -0400 Mike Harrington
]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130512/SPORTS/130519761/1229
Yes, he made mistakes at the University of Oregon, also known as the location where Animal House was filmed in the 1970s. In fact, he screwed up big time. He was arrested for driving under the influence in 2010. Fifteen months later, he passed out in a stranger’s house, bringing new meaning to the term “all-out blitz.”

The incidents could be viewed in numerous ways. One is that he may very well have a drinking problem. Another is that his behavior should be filed under Young & Dumb. A third possibility is that it’s a combination of both. Alonso immediately pleaded guilty to the middle option.

“Definitely college-kid stuff,” he said. “I was a young kid, immature, and I made mistakes. I’ve put it in my past. I’m just trying to focus on football.”

Alonso’s answers sounded rehearsed, but what else can he say? The last thing he needed after his first NFL workout was a discussion about his heavy boozing in college. He’s a polite kid. He didn’t shy away from the subject, but he sounded shy. Ask him for his two cents, and he gives you a penny and makes you scrounge for the other.

Fortunately, his actions didn’t end in tragedy. Rather than pass judgment and jump to conclusions, consider the facts and be realistic. Take a look in the mirror, too. Raise your hand if you have a few regrettable moments from your college days. I’ll raise two hands, only because I don’t have more.

For most kids, the stunts they pulled never reach their parents let alone the newspapers. Amen. That said, nobody is condoning his actions, either, or giving him a free pass after two alcohol-related arrests. He was sentenced to two years probation, 200 hours of community service and ordered to counseling. He said he hasn’t had a drink in years.

“I just put it in my past,” he said. “I’m moving forward and focusing on football.”

Fair enough, it’s time Alonso learns from his mistakes and becomes a functional adult. He’s being held to a higher standard. If he’s going to be a professional athlete, he needs to carry himself like one. The same goes for free agent receiver Da’Rick Rogers, who was signed after failing multiple drug tests. Doug Marrone made his message clear Friday when answering a question about Rogers. This is your second chance, fellas, and there might not be another. Straighten out whatever problems you had before arriving in Buffalo. You’re playing with men now, and it’s time to start acting like one.

“I’ve talked to them just like I have spoken to other players,” Marrone said. “You have an outstanding opportunity. People are going to be watching. It is probably going to be your last shot. As long as you understand that, that is what you get yourself into. It’s all on you.”

Evidently, the Bills saw minimal risk when selecting Alonso with the 46th pick. They’re not looking for angels on defense. They’re desperate for a middle linebacker who has a nose for the ball and can attack the line of scrimmage. If he can stay out of trouble and perform on the field, his troubles in college will be forgotten.

The early returns were promising. He’s 6-foot-3 and 238 pounds but doesn’t have a hulking frame. He’s long and athletic and has good speed after coming back from a torn ACL. In fact, he was rehabbing when he was busted for DUI. He was suspended for the 2010 season, but likely would have missed the entire year, anyway.

Alonso was an energetic and exciting player at Oregon, which was in stark contrast to his quiet demeanor in rookie camp. Marrone planned to talk to him about containing himself from hitting teammates without pads during seven-on-seven drills. Moments later, Alonso barely made a peep.

“I’m much different on the field than I am off the field,” he said. “Football is a lot different from regular life. Football is intense. I save that for the football field.”

Alonso was a standout baseball player as a kid but gave up the sport because he was hooked on the speed and contact that comes with football. He’s been a tackling machine since he played at Los Gatos High, the same school in Northern California that produced Trent Edwards.

Alonso was born in Boston, lived in Texas for 10 years and landed in California before high school. His father is a computer engineer who grew up in Puerto Rico. His mother is a Spanish teacher. Alonso and his two brothers are fluent in English and Spanish, and all three are good athletes.

His older brother, Carlos, is a middle infielder in the Phillies organization and currently playing in Class A Clearwater. His younger brother, Lucas, has aspirations to become a mixed martial arts fighter. Kiko is the biggest, so the other two ganged up on him when they were growing up. He can expect more double-teams next season.

He sounds like he’s ready.

Alonso might have been a first-round pick last month if not for his problems off the field. Scouts liked his instincts for the game, his ability to take on blockers and his ability in pass coverage. He had four interceptions last season and was defensive MVP in the 2011 Rose Bowl, when Oregon beat Wisconsin and quarterback Russell Wilson in a shootout.

It’s funny how things work out. Tom Brady grew up about 30 miles from Los Gatos in San Mateo, Calif. Brady is a legend in Boston but arrived after Alonso moved to Texas. He was a star in Northern California but was gone before Alonso showed up in Los Gatos. Alonso will be chasing him twice this season.

He’s taking the next step.

“I’m ready to come in here and compete,” Alonso said. “I’m grateful for the opportunity. It’s surreal. I’m still in shock. It’s just awesome, and I’m excited.”

email: bgleason@buffnews.com ]]> Sun, 12 May 2013 00:11:05 -0400 Bucky Gleason
]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130511/SPORTS/130519771/1229
Wambach, of course, grew up in Pittsford and this year returned home to play for the Western New York Flash in the National Women’s Soccer League. While any fan of the sport will find plenty to like in “Abby Head On,” the interviews with her parents, siblings and high school coach — all of whom speak in various upstate accents — serve to make you feel that Abby was once one of us.

Wambach is among the greatest female soccer players of all time. She is four goals away from breaking Mia Hamm’s record for career goals in international competition. And she has provided some Michael Jordan-like moments of drama in international play.

None was bigger than her game-winning goal in the 2004 Olympic gold-medal game against Brazil. Kristine Lilly lofted a corner kick toward the goal and Wambach headed the ball into the net to stun the Brazilians in overtime.

A broken leg suffered in a 2008 exhibition match kept her out of the Olympics that year. But four years later, Wambach helped the U.S. capture the gold medal in the London Summer Games.

A World Cup title has eluded Wambach. In 2007, she and her teammates suffered a humiliating 4-0 defeat against Brazil in the tournament. They rebounded four years later, ousting Brazil in the quarterfinals; the game was decided on penalty kicks after a Wambach header goal in stoppage time tied the score. (Abby’s goal won the ESPY Award for 2011 Play of the Year.)

It is no coincidence that many of Wambach’s most dramatic goals were produced by heading the ball. Her coach back at Our Lady of Mercy High in Rochester, Kathleen Boughton, says in the film that Abby would stay after practice just to work on diving headers. It’s a maneuver that involves throwing your whole body into the play, which embodies her approach to the game.

“She plays women’s soccer like a man — and that’s a compliment,” says Becky Burleigh, Wambach’s coach at the University of Florida. “She will do whatever it takes to win.”

Wambach was one of the nation’s most sought-after players coming out of high school. She chose Florida over soccer power North Carolina and helped the Gators to an NCAA championship during her freshman year.

There have been disappointments, also. Boughton, the Our Lady of Mercy coach, chokes up while recalling Abby curling up on the field after their team lost its state championship game against Massapequa her senior year. Though Wambach had a sterling career at Florida, her freshman season was the only one that ended with an NCAA title.

In 2002, Wambach was drafted by the Washington Freedom of the Women’s United Soccer Association. She and teammate Hamm helped the Freedom to a WUSA championship in 2003, but the league folded later that year.

For all of Wambach’s honors in the sport, it was not entirely clear early in her career that she had the dedication necessary to become an elite player. Boughton recalls Wambach consuming six cans of Coke for breakfast, or her grabbing meals at a fast-food drive-through window.

Jerry Smith, a coach from the U.S. Under-21 national team, was one of the mentors who made Wambach realize that her raw skills wouldn’t be enough to carry her in the international game. “It has to be a full-time commitment,” Smith told her.

Wambach took the feedback to heart.

“I’ve always been motivated more by negative comments than by positive ones,” she says. “I know what I do well. Tell me what I don’t do well.”

Andi Sellers Goodwin, a teammate at Florida, observed Wambach’s new level of dedication.

“She saw it as, ‘This could be my livelihood. This could be my career.’ And as she grew older and college went on you saw that focus really sharpen and you saw her training just really intensify.”

Wambach was honored as FIFA Player of the Year in 2012. She has achieved almost everything in the sport, except for a World Cup trophy.

“Abby Head On” ends on a thought-provoking note.

“The World Cup kicks off June 6, 2015,” the filmmakers write. “Just four days after Abby Wambach’s 35th birthday.”Dr. Jack Ramsay, the Basketball Hall of Famer who once coached the NBA’s Buffalo Braves, took a leave from ESPN Radio’s playoff coverage last week to seek treatment for an unspecified medical condition.

“I’m going back to Naples (Fla.) and will start the treatment on Monday there,” Ramsay told The Miami Herald.

Ramsay, 88, had earlier said this would be his last season in the broadcast booth, meaning his career is likely over. NBA fans will miss his wit and wisdom on radio broadcasts.

“I’ll miss doing the broadcasts,” Ramsay said in a statement, “but I’ll be watching and listening.”

email: gconnors@buffnews.com ]]> Sun, 12 May 2013 17:37:29 -0400 Greg Connors
]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130509/SPORTS/130509191/1229
I’ll save you the trouble before you ask. Nobody has a sensible reason for building the stadium in the suburbs rather than downtown. When the stadium opened in 1973, the city’s population was about 200,000 higher than it is now. The population figures are a tad misleading. Many left the city for the suburbs, such as Orchard Park.

Wait, it just dawned on me that you weren’t questioning the location of your new home. You wanted to know why there were only seven home games rather than eight.

That’s easy: Money.

The Bills have one game in Toronto every year under the guise they’re expanding their fan base into Canada, which is just across the Peace Bridge (DO NOT ask about the Peace Bridge). It’s true only to a point. The Bills have fans in Southern Ontario, but most would rather drive to Orchard Park than Toronto to watch a game. The atmosphere is better here than in Toronto, which is to say there’s atmosphere.

Toronto doesn’t really have any allegiance to Buffalo, but the Bills franchise does appreciate the fat paycheck that comes with playing one game there every year. For years, players have complained about the game because TO feels like an away game and OP is definitely a home game. It should be stopped ASAP, but it continues because they can’t resist the $$.

In return, the Toronto Maple Leafs of the NHL play a few home games in Buffalo. That’s just a little inside joke, but that leads me to another point. This is a hockey hotbed. If you’re interested in seeing a quality hockey game, Canisius College and Niagara University are a short drive away.

Otherwise, you’re out of luck.

But that’s for me to say, not you.

Remember, you’re a rookie. Keep your ears open and your mouth closed. It will take you a long way in the locker room and a longer way in the community. Buffalo is a small town, but it’s not Mayberry. The people here love their connection to big-time football players, but they never fully embrace big-time attitudes.

EJ Manuel, ask your godfather.

Do not admit to reading this. It equates to breaking a cardinal, although unwritten, rule of every professional athlete. Today, you will be told to ignore what’s being said in the media. You probably learned that in college, but around here it really means don’t read anything unless your team is headed for the playoffs. Then, read everything.

In terms of years, it’s been a baker’s dozen since the Bills reached the postseason. You were likely working on fourth or fifth grade. Many years ago, around the time you were born, the Bills reached four straight Super Bowls. DO NOT ask anyone over 35 years old what happened in those games, especially the first one.

Here’s some advice: If the kicker misses to the right side of the post, avoid saying publicly that he missed the kick wide right. It’s a communal kick in the stomach. People accuse you of being insensitive and clock you with a left hook. And that’s just the women. Just know there’s a reason Wide Right is capitalized in these parts.

However, there is no better place – and I mean NO BETTER PLACE ON THIS PLANET – to play than Western New York when the Bills A) make the playoffs; B) win a playoff game; or C) contend for a championship. At least that’s how it was 18 years ago, which was the last time anyone experienced B.

Good heavens, that was before the Internet.

That’s not true, according to the Internet.

And that brings us to social media. Stevie Johnson is a must-follow on Twitter for entertainment purposes only. Examine his Twitter feed. Study his approach. Make note of the things he says and the message he’s trying to convey. When you have it figured out and are prepared to tweet, write the direct opposite of what Stevie would say.

Looking for a true leader? Follow guys like Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller.

Jackson never forgot that he was an undrafted free agent from a Division III college, worked his tail off, has had quite a career and made a good buck. Spiller was a first-round pick out of Clemson who never whined about playing behind Jackson and is now an emerging star. Kyle Williams is another consummate professional. All are class acts.

You can learn a different lesson from Mario Williams, who signed a $100 million contract before last season. The Bills spent two days wining and dining him. They flew his fiancee into town to show her around. He vanished for the first half of last season. She vanished with a $785,000 engagement ring, and plenty more, after the season.

My point: Be careful. People will try to capitalize on your fame and fortune. But it helps to inject common sense into the equation, too. If you feel it’s necessary to buy a 10-carat engagement ring, which is about 10 times the median price of a home in the city of Buffalo, find a girlfriend who doesn’t care about your job title.

After all, good people are easy to find in Buffalo. They’re everywhere. Really, for six days out of the week, they don’t ask for much. You can have fun without being hassled. It just takes a little while to understand the region. Before long, you will fall in love with the place the way Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Steve Tasker and many others did.

When family comes to town and wants to see Niagara Falls, take them to the Canadian side. The Anchor Bar is known for its chicken wings, but there are a zillion other places. They are not Buffalo wings. They are definitely not buffalo wings. They aren’t even chicken wings. They’re just wings. And they’re only for kickers and punters.

Don’t let me forget the weather. It’s not what you see on television. It’s much worse. Just kidding. The national news only shows up after a storm. It was beautiful for a week before you arrived. It doesn’t snow in May, not usually, anyway. Summer and autumn are gorgeous. The winter is … you know this is Buffalo, right?

Take comfort knowing that warm people and hot quarterbacks offset cold winters.

During the glory days, the Bills used the weather to their advantage. Kelly & Co. approached cloudy and 20 degrees like sunny and 80. I don’t remember the Bills complaining about the weather when they were stacking up AFC championships. I do remember opponents being petrified, however.

Anyway, the snow isn’t the problem.

The Bills are the problem.

That’s where you guys come into play. This city has never won a Super Bowl or a Stanley Cup. That’s a whole bunch of losing, and it never gets easy. What happens in Orchard Park on Sunday directly affects the mood in the 7-1-6 on Monday. The sooner you understand that, the better for everyone.

Welcome to your new home. Now, get to work.



email: bgleason@buffnews.com ]]> Fri, 10 May 2013 01:49:01 -0400 Bucky Gleason
]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130508/SPORTS/130509265/1229 Column as I see 'em:

Darcy Regier says he intended to search for a permanent coach after hiring Ron Rolston as the interim in February. I don’t buy it. This smacks of being another example of the Sabres reshaping history to suit their own needs – like telling us the rebuilding began when they traded Paul Gaustad.

I felt Rolston was the choice all along. It was only a question of when the Sabres would get around to announcing it, and to what extent they would pretend he wasn’t the only candidate. All he had to do was not fall flat on his face. Regier said the player exit interviews convinced him to keep Rolston. Really? What did you expect them to say? Sure, boss, bring in some unknown coach from the outside who might hold us to a higher standard, a guy who’s not on board with this whole suffering thing.

Rolston is the perfect choice, because he is no threat to the general manager. He’s not a well-connected guy in the NHL. He worked for the USA national developmental program. He was an assistant at four colleges. Rolston is indebted to Regier for handing him a head job without glowing credentials.

Elevating Rolston ensures the team’s insular nature. There can be no critical outside voice, no competing hockey vision. By making Rolston the prince of the realm, Regier attaches the crown more securely to his own head. It’s a predictably uninspired move by a tough-talking outfit whose actions come off as strictly small time.

• One of my favorite things about the NBA playoffs is seeing unheralded but vital players rise up in the big moment for their teams. It happened four times recently in deciding games of first-round series:

Chicago’s Marco Belinelli, forced to play big minutes due to injuries, scored a season-high 24 points in the Bulls’ win at Brooklyn in Game Seven.

The Knicks’ Iman Shumpert, a 6.8-point scorer during the regular season, has scored in double figures in his last five playoff games. Shumpert, a terrific defender, scored 17 points in New York’s clinching win at Boston.

Tony Allen, the veteran Memphis guard, equaled a season high with 19 points in the Grizzlies’ clincher against the Clippers. Allen, better known for his defense, guarded Kevin Durant down the stretch Tuesday when Memphis evened its second-round series with the Thunder at a game apiece.

Golden State rookie Draymond Green had a season-high 16 points in the Warriors’ clinching win over the Nuggets in Game Six. Green, whose role expanded when David Lee went down, has become a key player in Mark Jackson’s rotation.

• If you get the impression that the pitchers are having their way in baseball, you’re right. As of Wednesday, runs and hits were at their lowest point in more than 20 seasons; pitchers were on pace to break the record for strikeouts per game.

Striking out is all the rage. The average team is striking out 7.66 times a game, a pace that would break the record for the seventh year in a row! Runs (4.26) are at their lowest level since 1992. Hits (8.35) are the scarcest since '89.

Hitting tends to heat up with the temperatures, but this is obviously a trend. The steroid era is over. Teams are more determined to develop pitchers and pay them. More kids see pitching as their ticket to the big time.

Every other day, it seems, some pitcher is flirting with a no-hitter. Get used to it. I’ll bet we see at least a couple more no-hitters before the season is through.

• The Bills would love to see EJ Manuel win the starting quarterback job this summer. It’s probably his job to lose. It figures to be a very close competition. But I don’t get the widely held assumption that Kevin Kolb has the clear edge over Tarvaris Jackson.

Career-wise, there’s little to separate the two. Jackson has started 34 games, Kolb 21. Jackson has completed 59.4 percent of his passes, Kolb 59.5. Jackson has 38 touchdowns and 35 interceptions, Kolb 28 TDs and 25 picks. Kolb got sacked about once every 10 throws, Jackson one every 12.

At 28, Kolb is two years younger. He was a hot free agent not long ago. Maybe that’s why he has an edge in some people’s minds. I want to see Manuel as soon as possible. But after seeing Jackson sit all last year, it would be nice to find out if the guy can play.

• Are Vancouver fans due for some suffering? In the aftermath of a first-round sweep by the Sharks in the first round, there’s talk that the Canucks might have to break up their core.

The Sedin twins, Henrik and Daniel, have a year left in their contracts. Neither scored a point in the first-round series. They’ll be 33 by the start of next season. Management must decide whether to move one or both (can they be separated?) while their value is high.

GM Mike Gillis has been criticized for not trading goalie Roberto Luongo when he had a chance last summer. Does all of this sound vaguely familiar, Buffalo fans?

• I keep expecting Jim Negrych to drop below .400, but he keeps hitting. The Buffalo native had three more hits Tuesday, raising his average to .427. This is more than a little hot streak. We’re well into May. And remember, Negrych hit .394 in spring training.

At some point, you reward this kind of hitting. When a player is far and away the top hitter in Triple-A, he’s earned a chance to prove himself in the big show. Let’s hope it comes soon for the St. Francis grad.

• It’s nice to know Rick Jeanneret will be back next season. But it’s too bad that it ends talk of splitting the Sabres’ TV and radio broadcasts. This is another way in which “hockey heaven” comes off as small time. Hey, a radio-only announcer might even tell us the score once in awhile.

• Luckily, J.A. Happ wasn’t seriously injured when he took a line drive to the head Tuesday. But baseball should continue to study the possibility of headgear for pitchers. Players will resist, but if batters wear helmets, why not protect pitchers? Sooner or later, someone is bound to get killed.

• Can’t believe we’re nine months from the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Opening Ceremonies are Feb. 7. Women’s ski jumping will debut in Sochi. What took them so long?

• Alex Rodriguez is working out in Tampa and says he has “unfinished business.” What, seeing his slugging percentage drop for a sixth straight year?

• Mel Kiper has South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney as the top pick in next year’s NFL draft. Of course, last year he had Matt Barkley.



email: jsullivan@buffnews.com
]]> Wed, 8 May 2013 23:56:39 -0400 Jerry Sullivan
]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130507/SPORTS/130509378/1229
The Sabres are rebuilding. That’s actually true. They traded captain Jason Pominville. Franchise goalie Ryan Miller has his house up for sale. Leading scorer Thomas Vanek has his bags packed. Management is planning to find their replacements and structure a foundation through the draft.

Ron Rolston’s resume outlines a man dedicated to developing young players. He became the first coach in USA Hockey history to lead three under-18 teams to the gold medal in the world championships. He had a winning record after taking over for Lindy Ruff last season. All of that happens to be true, too.

Of course, there’s a difference between what’s true and what’s right when it comes to professional sports. Therein lies the problem of Rolston remaining the Sabres’ coach as part of Regier’s genius master plan. This isn’t Slap Shot Camp. The last time I checked, the Sabres played in the National Hockey League. Fans are spending good money, big money, with the idea their favorite teams are doing whatever they can to succeed in the best league in the world.

The objective isn’t developing players.

It’s winning.

Let’s not kid ourselves. There was nothing “interim” about his job title when he signed a multiyear deal in February. He was the guy all along. This is nothing against Rolston, really, but retaining him without completing an exhaustive search goes to the heart of what’s wrong with an organization that’s bent on taking the easy way out.

In two-plus years since Terry Pegula purchased the franchise, management took a team that was a few players away from becoming a Stanley Cup contender and turned it into a small-time operation. They keep selling, and people keep buying whether it’s ownership or an apologetic minority of the fan base or, in this case, both.

The Sabres already jacked up ticket prices after missing the playoffs last season for the second consecutive season and the fourth time in six years. They retained a general manager to clean up a mess he created. And they’re asking fans to pay major-league prices for minor-league hockey, as if they haven’t suffered enough.

Shame on them or shame on you?

Regier isn’t fooling anyone who has a shred of common sense and certainly not anyone inside the game based on hundreds – yes, hundreds – of conversations I’ve had with current and former players and employees. It’s sad they don’t publicly speak up for the sake of change because, really, at one point does it all become insufferable?

It’s a question for Pegula. Good luck getting any real answers out of him.

Pegula should know that Regier had options before keeping Rolston. He could have sent Rolston back to Rochester, thereby making best use of his teaching ability. He could have waited until the playoffs ended to see if any good candidates became available.

You never know what might happen between now and next season. The Rangers could fire John Tortorella, for example, if they get bounced from the first round. Or maybe Alain Vigneault will be kicked to the curb in Vancouver. Coaches are replaced often in other cities, a concept that has been foreign in Buffalo no matter how much the need for change.

There are good, young coaches out there who have good reputations and are ready for the NHL. Toronto Marlies coach Dallas Eakins is considered among the better up-and-comers. Mike Haviland, now in Norfolk, is widely respected. Patrick Roy was another possibility. Something tells me the Sabres didn’t bother calling them.

Looking for someone older with more experience? Former coaches like Marc Crawford and Ron Wilson are available, the way Ken Hitchcock was a few years ago. Or how about Craig Ramsay, who is known for helping players at the NHL level? It wasn’t as if Regier had to worry about teams lining up to steal Rolston away.

Regier instead chose the path of least resistance because that’s what he does. When his decisions fail to work out, he revises history, convinces his bosses that it wasn’t his fault and makes a plea for patience. He talks about making players accountable without being held to the same standard. He takes advantage of naive owners.

In turn, they allow the practice to continue. Shame on Regier or shame on them?

You would think that Pegula was aware that Rolston wasn’t even a finalist for the Penn State job. Rolston wanted the gig but was politely turned away and landed, of all places, in the Sabres’ organization. Two years after joining the professional ranks for the first time in his career, he’s now the Sabres’ head coach.

And now Regier has Rolston precisely where he needs him. Rolston will forever be indebted to Regier for giving him an opportunity when nobody else would. Little does Rolston know that he’s setting himself up to be fired after Regier fails to give him the proper personnel and starts looking for a fall guy.

The decision to keep Rolston was another layer of the same-old, same-old ways of thinking that have led this organization nowhere. Regier made sure he didn’t hire a coach with a strong personality who might actually challenge him. Instead, he wrapped a extra blanket of insulation around him.

Although predictable, Regier never ceases to amaze me.

It shouldn’t be long before he says Rolston was his man all along, you know, going back to the Paul Gaustad trade last year. For him to suggest the Sabres’ rebuilding plan started during the 2011-12 season was an insult to the intelligence of anyone who has watched his work for the past 16 years – and counting.

If the Sabres were rebuilding, Mikail Grigorenko would have been playing 16 minutes per game right away. He wouldn’t have been sent back to junior. He would have certainly played immediately upon his return. After all, given Rolston’s credentials, Grigorenko would have been in good hands in Buffalo, right?

Right.

And so we’re clear, Jochen Hecht was re-signed last summer as part of the master rebuilding plan, too, and not because Regier made a desperate and ill-fated attempt to find a center. Forget that Hecht’s best days were long gone or that the Sabres needed major upgrades. Are Vanek, Miller and Drew Stafford part of the rebuilding plan? I notice that all three, once part of an untouchable core, are still here.

Regier is trying to relieve pressure with the idea that fans and the bloodthirsty media, their term, will be slow to criticize young players because, well, they’re just kids. I don’t own kid gloves. It doesn’t matter if you’re a 19-year-old player or an inexperienced coach. This is the NHL, where only wins and losses matter.

The master plan, you see, is not rebuilding so much as lowering the standards, making them easier to attain and selling it off as achievement. After 16 years, a good decade after the Sabres should have fired him, Regier is adding up simple facts, ignoring history and trying to buy more time.

It’s true. But it’s not right.



email: bgleason@buffnews.com ]]> Thu, 9 May 2013 16:53:19 -0400 Bucky Gleason
]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130506/SPORTS/130509445/1229 It wasn't as big a deal as, say, an NBA player announcing he's gay. But Gary Washburn, a Boston Globe sports writer, was the center of a media firestorm Monday when he came out and admitted he was the guy who didn't vote for LeBron James as most valuable player.

James won his fourth MVP, getting 120 of 121 first-place votes. A year after winning his first NBA title and second Olympic gold medal in the same year, James got better. He had career highs in field-goal percentage, three-point shooting and rebounds, leading Miami to the league's best overall record.

He was a worthy MVP. But judging from some of the reaction, you'd have thought Washburn had ruined LeBron's big moment by denying him a unanimous selection. There were suggestions that Washburn was trying to draw attention to himself, that he invented excuses not to vote for James, or that he was plain stupid.

I didn't have a problem with Washburn's vote. I wanted to applaud him. It's not that I wouldn't have voted for James. I haven't voted on the NBA awards in 25 years. But I tried to avoid running with the pack. I'm one of those contrary people who enjoy arguing a contrary opinion, sometimes to a fault.

It's not Washburn who bothers me, but the sports writers who vote in lockstep and rarely form an independent opinion. Virtually no one in the NFL media ever supports a defensive player for MVP. It kills me every year in the middle of the college basketball season when all 60 voters pick the same team for No. 1.

This isn't about who's right and wrong, it's about a diversity of opinion among a supposedly informed and intelligent group. You want to see the minority view represented, especially on something as subjective as an MVP. The notion of most valuable is hard to define. That's what makes it fun. It's not a scientific judgment. Radical views should be welcome, even encouraged.

My problem wasn't that Washburn didn't vote for James. It was the guy he picked instead: Carmelo Anthony.

Washburn contended that Anthony is more valuable to the Knicks than James is to the Heat. It's a defensible position, the kind that makes for a vigorous MVP debate. I just don't happen to agree with it. In fact, I'd sooner pick Anthony as the NBA's most overrated player than its most valuable.

There are at least half a dozen players I'd vote for before Anthony: James, Kevin Durant, Tony Parker, Stephen Curry, Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul. I'd consider Joakim Noah, Paul George and Marc Gasol, too. It's hard to believe that not one of the 121 voters felt Curry, Noah, George or Gasol was worth of a top four vote.

Yes, Anthony was first in the NBA in scoring at 28.7 points a game. He helped the Knicks finish second in a weak Eastern Conference with 54 wins. At times, he had to carry them offensively. But his supporting cast wasn't as bad as people say, and Anthony's winning value is overestimated.

Anthony simply isn't a great player, a superstar. He doesn't make other players better. He shoots too much. He doesn't do enough to get his teammates involved offensively. He's too willing to settle for jump shots. He's not a good defensive player. He wants things to be easy.

He's no leader, either. If Anthony was a leader, he would have discouraged the Knicks from wearing black to the Garden for Game Five of the Celtics series, in anticipation of a Boston “funeral.” They embarrassed themselves on and off the court that day.

The biggest criticism is that Anthony doesn't win. In his first eight years in the NBA with Denver, his team was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. His career playoff record is now 21-42. That's an even .333, perhaps the worst of any supposed superstar in league history.

Granted, the Knicks staggered past the Celtics in the first round, despite Anthony's poor shooting. But if Sunday's loss to Indiana is any indication, the Knicks are in deep trouble. The Pacers were the tougher, more resourceful team, manhandling the favored Knicks in Game One in Madison Square Garden.

Anthony, as usual, was reduced to firing up long jumpers. He scored 27 points in Game One, but shot 10 for 28. It was a continuation of the Boston series, when Anthony averaged 29 points but shot 27 times a game to do it (at 38 percent). He has missed 23 of his last 25 shots from three-point range.

This is the main reason I couldn't take Anthony seriously as an MVP candidate. In the playoffs, when the stage gets bigger and the game gets more rugged, his game gets exposed. His team begins to mirror his shortcomings as a player. His teammates become accomplices to his selfishness.

The MVP award is given for regular-season performance. But most of the men who win it are players who carry teams in the playoffs, who lift their game and their team when the NBA game tests the competitive mettle of its true stars.

Anthony had a very good season. He might yet carry the Knicks to a showdown with Miami. But I could never support a player for MVP if I didn't believe that value translated into the postseason. His name doesn't belong on the same trophy as great winners like Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Larry Bird.

Oh yes, I almost forgot to include LeBron James, a true superstar and deserving MVP. I admire Washburn for casting a dissenting stance. I just wish he'd cast it for someone I actually respected.



email: jsullivan@buffnews.com
]]> Mon, 6 May 2013 23:37:44 -0400 Jerry Sullivan
]]> http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130506/SPORTS/130509540/1229
She provided the pertinent details.

“Well,” little Jairus replied, “mine is going to be 10 times as big!”

Sometime soon, Byrd will be able to afford the biggest pool he can find. He can buy the company if he likes. The Bills’ free safety has completed his rookie contract, and he is in line for a big raise that will make him among the highest-paid players at his position, and a very wealthy young man.

The question is whether that rich new deal will come from the Bills, who picked him in the second round of the 2009 draft. The Bills have slapped a one-year, $6.9 million, non-exclusive franchise tag on Byrd.

Byrd has not signed it. He wants a long-term deal commensurate with the top-paid safeties in the NFL. Under the non-exclusive tag, he can entertain offers from other teams. In that unlikely event, the Bills have the right to match or let him go and take two first-round picks as compensation.

So Byrd sits and waits. He was the only veteran who skipped the recent “voluntary” minicamp.

Before the draft, General Manager Buddy Nix said he hadn’t given Byrd much thought, though he wanted to sign him to a long-term deal and expects him in training camp. But Nix also said “the ball’s in his court.”

Byrd’s agent is Eugene Parker, whose unbending demands got Jason Peters traded from Buffalo four years ago. You can bet Parker wants Byrd to get top market value and will urge him to stand his ground – even if it means holding out of training camp or, in the worst case, sitting out the start of the season.

The Bills shouldn’t let it come to that. I’m not privy to negotiations, but it would be imprudent to play hardball with Byrd and risk alienating one of the top players and good guys on the team. It’s only May, but drafting safeties in consecutive rounds was a troubling sign that this could get ugly.

Why go to the mat with one of the few legitimate stars on your team? Go ahead, name the stars on the Bills. C.J. Spiller. Mario Williams, maybe. The list runs out fast, eh? When you’re trying to keep the affections of a dubious fan base, you celebrate your stars. You don’t go to war with them.

Here’s a quiz question: Going back to the 2002 draft (the first with Tom Modrak running the show), how many players have the Bills drafted who were voted to the Pro Bowl as position players?

The answer is one.

Byrd was voted to the AFC team as a rookie in 2009. That’s it. One guy in 11 drafts. Amazing. Other players were added as alternates (Spiller, Marshawn Lynch), or as special teamers (Terrence McGee).

So it’s not as if the Bills have been showering cash on their draft picks over the last decade or so. Yes, they’ve paid for production at times. They gave big extensions to Kyle Williams, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Stevie Johnson. They gave Leodis McKelvin an overly generous four-year, $20 million deal a few months back.

But Byrd is one of the top players in the NFL at his position, a gifted playmaker who was the most consistent player on a weak defense. Byrd led the Bills with five interceptions and was fourth in tackles. On a better team, he would have made the Pro Bowl immediately (he wound up in Hawaii as a replacement for the Ravens’ Ed Reed). Prime example: Donte Whitner made it last year.

It’s clear from the draft that Doug Marrone wants playmakers. Byrd makes big plays. His diving interception in the Thursday night game against the Dolphins last November was the defensive highlight of the season. There’s no telling how many big plays he’ll make if the Bills get legitimate pressure in Mike Pettine’s defense.

When your draft picks hit big, you pay them. The Bills get criticized for their misses, but they nailed two second-rounders in 2009, Byrd and Andy Levitre. I saw the logic in letting Levitre walk. He’s a guard; they’re more easily replaceable. The Titans gave him six years, $46.8 million in free agency.

The Bills had better ways to spend Ralph Wilson’s money. Eric Wood, the other solid pick from the '09 draft, will come later. Now it’s Byrd’s turn.

How much? Eric Berry of the Chiefs is the highest-paid safety at $10 million a year. Berry, the fifth overall pick in the 2010 draft, got that contract a year before the rookie wage scale went into effect. The Bills can argue that Berry’s deal came in an old system and is no longer the standard.

A more relevant comparison is Tampa free safety Dashon Goldson, who recently signed a five-year, $41.25 million free-agent contract with the Bucs.

Goldson made his second Pro Bowl last season with the NFC champion 49ers. He played last season on a $6.2 million franchise tag.

If I’m the agent, I make the case that Byrd is Goldson’s equal and more. Byrd has 18 career interceptions, third-most among NFL players in his four seasons.

Imagine the stats Byrd would accumulate on that San Francisco defense.

Parker might be shooting higher. I wouldn’t blame him after the Bills gave McKelvin, a borderline starting cornerback, a $5 million salary. But five years, $42.5 million seems reasonable. That’s $8.5 million a season, a tad more than Goldson. Byrd is two years younger.

Byrd is also a solid citizen, the product of a strong, religious family. His father, Gill, was a star defensive back in the NFL and a coach with Chicago until Lovie Smith was fired. When Jairus got the franchise tag, he tweeted out a link to a Bible passage. He and Gill have a program called Legacy Enterprises, which helps fathers and sons build closer relationships.

The Bills drafted some players with checkered backgrounds this year. Some fans welcomed it, saying the team could use an edge. There’s some truth to that. If you wrote off every football player who had an off-field indiscretion in college, there wouldn’t be a league.

But you don’t get many players with the talent and character of a Jairus Byrd.

He’s the sort of athlete you reward, and whom you build upon. The Bills say they believe in keeping their own. They can send a strong message to their fans, and to their locker room, by giving Byrd the deal he deserves.

Byrd has earned the right to think big. He’s a star. You don’t get better by throwing them back in the pool.



email:jsullivan@buffnews.com ]]> Mon, 6 May 2013 00:03:41 -0400 Jerry Sullivan
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