John Lackey a cancer Boston Red Sox must get rid of quickly

The Boston Red Sox deserved to be eliminated from post season play if for one reason only -- John Lackey.

The notion of Lackey taking to the mound after announcing he was divorcing his wife who has what sounds like very serious breast cancer would be too much to bear.

The Red Sox should be glad they will not have to face that searing spotlight this post season.

No matter what the Red Sox did the Lackey story would have been front and center .

Not since former House Speaker Newt Gingrich divorced his wife as she lay recovering from cancer has there been a more callous act by a famous person.

Lackey is well named,

He lacks any normal decency to do such a thing to his wife Krista who is desperately ill.

For the Red Sox they now have the off season to off load the troublesome Texan who was a bust for them anyway to whoever will have him.

They should be delighted to.

A measure of how badly they were handling this is given by their press release.

"John Lackey is dealing with a deeply personal family issue, and it is one the Red Sox do not feel is appropriate for public debate," it read. "The Red Sox request that John and Krista's privacy be respected. The Red Sox will not have any further comment."

They were clearly in a no-win post season situation anyway.

They will be well rid of Loathsome Lackey.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish show they can win ugly as well as lose ugly games

After two losses that the Irish lost ugly now they are showing they can win ugly too.

The 15-12 victory over Pittsburgh will not have quieted the critics or pleased the purists.

But it is a win, albeit an ugly one.

They also showed they can win even when Michael Floyd is knocked out of the game plan.

They will have learned more from this victory than last week's blowout against Michigan State.

The team reached deep down and found a way to win. Cierre Wood was outstanding, as was Tyler Eifert, the defense on the final series as Pittsburgh threatened, found a way to make the big play.

It all shows a maturing process, especially when it comes to young players like quarterback Tommy Rees who shook off two turnovers to lead the team to victory.

Rees will never dazzle with his footwork or impress with his magnificent vision.

He is a lunch pail quarterback who shows up and more often than not gets the job done

The victory against Pittsburgh was not a thing a beauty, more a bump and grind than a Swan Lake, but in the end they have saved the season pulling back to 2-2 when it could so easily have been 1-3.

Quarterback Tommy Rees proved just what a tough competitor he is after being knocked around for three quarters and deprived of his big receiver Michael Floyd.

Yet he found a way to win on the touchdown drive.

After throwing up great statistics in the losses against Michigan and South Florida Rees ended up losing both games.

Brian Kelly would gladly substitute the winning ugly against Pittsburgh for the wonderful stats the team rolled up in their two losses.

It is fact that Notre Dame should be 4-0 and in the top ten rankings.

But the past is bygones now.

What this team can do is play with the same heart it showed against Pittsburgh, minimize the turnovers and grind out a winning season and a significant bowl game .

We have seen far worse seasons in recent years.

Coach Brian Kelly summed it up best.

"It was a tough, blue-collar kind of day, and that's what was required of everybody, and that's what we got from our team," Kelly said, "enough to get the win and get outta here."

Notre Dame rout of Michigan State leaves Brian Kelly smiling at last

In the end it comes down to defense and Notre Dame finally had it against Michigan State.

A stellar performance by the defensive unit , especially stopping the Michigan State run game, left coach Brian Kelly beaming and flashing an unfamiliar smile in his post game press conference.

“I couldn't take it any longer,” Kelly said,. “If I had to listen to you guys another week, I wasn’t going to show up.

“You know what, I think it’s like anything else. I know one thing is that they weren’t lacking confidence, but sooner or later you gotta get paid. You gotta be validated.”

Validation finally arrived and even the fake field goal play that Michigan State pulled off last year was an abject failure this year.

That play especially fired up the Irish who lost last year's game on the last second trick play.

Michigan State coach Mike Dantonio must think the Irish were born yesterday if they were going to fall for that.

They weren't and they didn't.

Despite the victory Kelly will not dwell too long on the result.

He knows this team should be 3-0 or at very least 2-1 and closing in on a major season.

He knows the old flaws were covered up yesterday but three more turnovers adds to the laughable total of 13 in three games

He knows quarterback Tommy Rees is still a work in progress when he had expected Dayne Crist to be the finished product this year.

He will take nothing for granted against Pittsburgh who lost a heart breaker to Iowa on Saturday. After that its Purdue before the schedule stiffens again.

It's been a long season and we are only three games in.

Brian Kelly at least avoided disaster yesterday and a 0-3 start that could have been fatal for his job prospects.

He can be thankful for that at least.

Brian Kelly and Notre Dame must end losing streak by defeating Michigan State

Until the Michigan loss last week it is doubtful if a loss hurt more than the last second defeat to Michigan State last year.

Remember the scenario with seconds left instead of having Don Conroy kick a 46-yard field goal for a tie in extra time Coach Dantonio called for a fake field goal on 4th-and-13 from the Notre Dame 29 – and pulled off a touchdown.

Notre Dame were stunned, every bit a much as they were last week against Michigan.

Now they know they cannot afford another loss to Michigan State and start the season 0-3.

Something has to change and a bit of old fashioned Irish luck would surely help.

Under Brian Kelly the team seems snake bitten.

Think back to the start of the fourth quarter last week with the ball on fourth and one and Michigan fumbled but Dennard recovered to score the touchdown.

Nine times out of ten when you fumble that close to the goal line it’s a turnover.

Not for Brian Kelly’s team however.

They came into the Michigan state game last year after a last second loss and they will do the same this year.

But Kelly is a year older and hopefully wiser. But the fact is that last year’s mistakes were far more justifiable than this years.

It was Kelly’s first season, getting to know the players and seeking to win their confidence.

By the end of last season he seemed to have achieved all that as they blew past opponents, yet this year it appears to have reverted to that error-strewn early season play again

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly still says he believes --- but the doubters are mounting

Brian Kelly says he still believes but the Notre Dame coach is starting to sound like General Custer waiting for the cavalry to arrive.

Meanwhile his team is getting scalped.

His team ranks last, yes last of 120 colleges in turnovers, having committed 10 in just two games.They are ranked 103rd in conceding penalties.

That is enough to cancel out that they are ranked an excellent 13th in offense and a decent 52nd in defense.

Kelly claims however, he is sticking with his plan.

"We're shaping our team every single day," Kelly said. "There are so many details to that – all you guys care about and our fans (care about) is that it equals wins. And I understand that. We're not doing that for them.

"I understand the frustration, but we're building it the right way. We’ll get them there. We're not there yet, I know this journey all too well. I've been on it before. It's frustrating, it's disappointing, it's all those things. But there are too many good things happening out there for us not to break through."

"Every school, every place I've been has challenges," Kelly said. "Not one school is the same. I had challenges at all the schools I've been at in terms of getting the team over. There's inherent challenges here. But we'll get through those as well.

"The product we're putting out on the field, I understand we gotta win. Our players want to win. We've got the chance to be a good team. We can't be a good team until we take care of the little things. Until we get those things taken care of on Saturdays, we'll be mediocre."

Mediocre doesn't describe what they were in the fourth quarter against Michigan.

Awful dreadful, ridiculous just might.

Coach Brian Kelly's job now on the line as Notre Dame lose sensationally to Michigan

Michigan pulled of a sensational last second victory 35-31 against Notre Dame before 114,000 fans last night in The Big House.

This was be Brian Kelly’s worst loss since being head coach of Notre Dame, especially as the boo birds were out in force after last week’s debacle against South Florida.

It asks fundamental questions about whether he is able to step up from Cincinnati to the most visible job in college football.

The jury is still out after this loss.

The Irish could have won by twenty points, so dominant were they in ‘The Big House’ with 114,000 Michigan fans in attendance.

Yet the fourth quarter became another heart attack that ended with an incredible Irish loss.

Ahead 24-7 the Irish were unable to out away their opponent despite outplaying them for the vast majority of the game.

It leaves Kelly with a major loss and a season already in tatters after just two games. A decent season and a major bowl game are pipe dreams now.

Cruising 24-7 they conceded an unlucky touchdown at the start of the fourth quarter but nonetheless looked certain to hang on for the victory especially when Tommy Rees put them ahead with a touchdown with 30 seconds left.

But once again, as with South Florida, Notre Dame could not finish out the game and let it slip incredibly in the dying seconds.
There will be be major questions about Kelly’s team preparation after this loss.

Nine turnovers in just two weeks has led to a deep sense that this team lacks the discipline that a truly top class coach could instill.

Instead it is another heartbreaking loss and a wonder how else this side can lose games after being so dominant.

Kelly is playing for more than his season now, he is playing for his job. Entering his second year at the helm his team has got a case of snakebite as bad as anything they experienced last year.

This will be very hard to come back from.

Ireland pull off miracle draw against Russia 0-0 in European Championship

Led by an incredible display by Richard Dunne and a marvelous exhibit of goalkeeping by Shay Given, (pictured) Ireland somehow managed a 0-0 draw against Russia in Moscow on Tuesday.

Russia had several open goal chances but missed them all while Ireland had only one good shot on goal the entire 90 minutes

However, Richard Dunne in particular and Shay Given played powerfully to keep Ireland in the hunt for a place in the European Nations finals next summer.

The draw leaves Ireland two points behind Russia with two games to play.

Slovakia is the other team in the group challenging Ireland and with one team to qualify automatically and one to reach a playoff for a final place Ireland still stands a chance.

After the game, Irish manager Giovanni Trapattonni was happy

"They had many chances, but our defence was fantastic, Shay Given, Richard Dunne and O'Dea... "this is a good point because they they have another game against Slovakia.

He added: "I think Russia have a very different game against Slovakia. But at the moment it is better to look at ourselves. Armenia and Andorra, we must believe in the result we had here."

Hero Richard Dunne stated.

“It was a tough game and we knew we had to come here and do something similar to what we did in Paris,” he said. “I think it’s seven games without a goal now and hopefully it’s kept us in the competition.

He ended the game cut and bleeding when he fell on the training track head first after making a tackle but added: “I take bangs and knocks all the time in games, but to come here and get a point is a good result. We knuckled down and gave a performance I think we can be proud off."

Kilkenny are hurling All Ireland champions defeating Tipperary

Kilkenny had a well deserved All Ireland final win over Tipperary at Croke Park on Sunday, winning the title by four points.

It was Kilkenny's fifth victory in six years and they were the better team throughout. They won by 2-17 to 1-16.

Tipperary kept the game close enough but a strong finish by Kilkenny saw them score a critical point to leave four points between the teams.

The legendary Henry Shefflin (pictured)made a winning comeback for Kilkenny and he was ably assisted by fellow veteran Eddie Brennan who set up the critical Kilkenny second goal.

Kilkenny always looked the more committed side right from the throw in and took the game to the favorites Tipperary.

In the minor game Galway easily defeated Dublin.

Is there an Irish curse on Notre Dame football? Latest incredible events really beg the question

Notre Dame must have though they wandered into the Twilight Zone after Saturday's truly extraordinary events surrounding their season opener when they lost to University of South Florida.

As the lightning crashed and the thunder rolled and the players resembled the Three Stooges with dropped passes, interception,stupid penalties, I found myself wondering if there was something more at work.

Bad enough that they lost the game, but the fact that it took well into the evening hours to finish it after an afternoon start made the Twlight Zone truly a reasonable comparison.

No game in the history of Notre Dame had been interrupted and ended in such a way.

The lightning bolts and thunder rolling reminded me of the opening scene of Macbeth where the witches gather to brew their evil spell. ‘Hubble bubble toil and trouble.” they incant.

Toil and trouble is how it has been for Notre Dame recently.


I’m beginning to feel there is a curse on the Irish and there is precedent.

Back in the 18th century an Irish witch called Biddy Early cursed her native county of Clare because they mistreated her and they never won an All Ireland final for generations.

Then of course there was the Babe Ruth curse that Boston finally overcame after generations.

Notre Dame have slumped through the most unlikely and crazy losses in recent years form the ‘Bush Push; against USC to the Tulsa defeat in 2010 and now the South Florida debacle.

There was the tragic loss of the young Sullivan lad last year and various other bad happenings that really test the patience of even the most committed domer.

As a good Irishman Brian Kelly will be keenly aware of the superstitions and fable that surround Notre Dame folklore.
But even he could not in his wildest dream have imagined the bizarre circumstances of the latest defeat.

Maybe there is a curse.

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly already in a must win in his first game against South Florida

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly is in a must-win even before his first game of the season.

A loss against South Florida will derail the careful narrative that the Irish will improve greatly from last season and play in a major bowl game, perhaps even a BCS game.

But a loss to South Florida would put all that to an end before the season really kicks off.

With tough games against Michigan and Michigan State upcoming a loss to South Florida would be devastating.

Unlikely as it sounds I have one word for the true believers.

Tulsa.

Notre Dame needs to get off to a fast start and hope that Crist and Floyd can look as good as they did in the early games last season.

Both have had their problems. Crist with injury, Floyd with DUI.

Hopefully they can put all those problems behind them and get the Fighting Irish off to the flying start the program needs.

Anything else would be a disaster.