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Report: Panthers won’t fire coach, GM

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Injury-riddled and out of the playoff race before December, the Carolina Panthers seemed certain to have their first season of at least 10 losses under coach John Fox.

Instead,
they’re playing their best football of the season, just in time for the
embattled Fox to have a shot at returning in 2010.

A day after the Panthers (7-8) routed the New York Giants
for their third win in four games, The Charlotte Observer reported Fox
and general manager Marty Hurney will be “offered the opportunity to
return next season” by owner Jerry Richardson.

However, the
report Monday said Fox will not be given a contract extension. He’s due
to make more than $6 million in 2010, the final season of his deal.

The team declined to confirm or deny the report. Team
spokesman Charlie Dayton said Fox and Hurney are under contract for
next season, and he’s heard nothing to indicate they won’t return.

Fox’s
Monday news conference came before the report, and Hurney didn’t
immediately return a phone message left by The Associated Press.
Recovering from a heart transplant on Feb. 1, Richardson hasn’t spoken
to reporters in months.

Fox has been heavily scrutinized since
starting the season 0-3, a year after Carolina went 12-4 and captured
the NFC South before an ugly 33-13 home playoff loss to Arizona.

It
follows a familiar trend. While Fox led Carolina to the Super Bowl
after the 2003 season two years after inheriting a 1-15 team from
George Seifert, he’s never had consecutive winning seasons in his eight
years on the job. The Panthers have also never finished worse than 7-9.

They were 5-8 this year before stunning wins over Minnesota and the Giants the last two weeks. Backup Matt Moore has thrown six touchdown passes and no interceptions in those games.

“He
played well. I think he’s gotten better each week,” Fox said. “He’s got
more comfortable managing the game. I think there are certain things
he’s a little more comfortable doing that we’ve had to tweak a little
bit. But I think he’s gotten better each week and I think he’ll
continue that.”

Fox stubbornly stuck with Jake Delhomme
as his quarterback despite a horrendous 18-interception season until he
broke the middle finger on his throwing hand against the New York Jets
on Nov. 29. The Panthers are 3-1 with Moore, who could challenge
Delhomme for the starting job next season despite Delhomme’s big
contract.

“I knew this would come up, but I’m just worried about
next week,” Fox said when asked about the quarterback situation.
“Tomorrow first and then we get ready to play the New Orleans Saints. What the week after that brings and all that, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

Fox
is 75-60 in Carolina, including his three playoff appearances. He’s
widely respected around the league and it’s believed he could quickly
find another head coaching job if he left.

That could make things
interesting if Fox balks at not getting a contract extension and wants
to seek another job. Fox’s agent, Bob LaMonte, did not immediately
return messages seeking comment.

Fox was upbeat earlier Monday, a day after the Panthers’ 41-9 win ended the Giants’ playoff hopes. Jonathan Stewart rushed for a franchise-record 206 yards filling in for the injured DeAngelo Williams, and Steve Smith held onto a 27-yard touchdown catch despite breaking is left forearm on the play.

Smith
underwent surgery Monday and will be the 12th player to go on injured
reserve. But despite being without their starting QB, running back,
both offensive tackles, defensive tackle and weakside linebacker, the
Panthers have outscored the Vikings and Giants 67-16 in the last two
weeks.

Moore has outplayed Super Bowl-winning QBs Brett Favre and Eli Manning the last two games and will face Drew Brees and New Orleans (13-2) in the season finale Sunday.

Several players have come to Fox’s defense, including center Ryan Kalil, who last week said “it would be a mistake to make any kind of changes.”

The late-season success is nothing new to Fox, whose Carolina teams are 24-13 in December and January regular-season games.

“You
get dealt the cards you have,” Fox said of the numerous injuries. “To
see young guys get that opportunity and have success is definitely
rewarding.”

Installers Deliver More Than a TV at Christmas

Posted on 29 December 2009 

New_Family

Audio-visual installation technicians got more than they bargained for on Christmas Eve.

Installers Ivan Moelleux and James Blaque, both from Naples
delivered a 50″ plasma screen and a baby boy weighing in at 9 pounds 4
ounces. The unexpected double took everyone by surprise, the mother
included, as the baby wasn’t due for another three weeks.

The birth took place in the living room in the presence of
paramedics, but Ivan and James held the fort until they arrived on
scene.

The mother, Lisa Jackson said she was “both surprised and delighted at the double delivery.”

Ivan and James called to deliver a TV ordered from local business Specialty Electronics.   Both of them are qualified to install audio-visual systems but not babies.
Ivan commented at an interview afterwards, saying “I have three
children of my own, so I have seen and done it all. I was present at
their births but didn’t really have to do any of the work. This was a
bit of a shock. I don’t know who was more surprised, the mother or me.”

New mother, Lisa, 36, began having contractions just as the men were fitting the new television. With her husband serving in Afghanistan until New Year,
she had hoped he would be home for the birth. Nature had other ideas
though and decided Christmas Eve was a more appropriate time for the
baby to arrive.

“I began having contractions just as Ivan and James arrived. I sat
down and waited for them to pass, but they didn’t. Then my water broke
and they started in earnest. Ivan called for an ambulance but I don’t
think the baby wanted to wait. Contractions came thick and fast and it
was time. The guys were really helpful, laying me down, getting towels,
water and making me comfortable. Ivan helped me while James held my
hand. The baby’s head was out and we were doing the final push when the
paramedics arrived and took over, much to Ivan’s relief I think.”

John Ivan James Hertigan was born at 3.15pm to a proud mother and
father. Weighing in at 9lb 4oz and three weeks early he is a fit and
healthy baby boy. His father, still serving overseas with the army is
due home in eight days and can’t wait to see his new son. Bitterly
disappointed that he couldn’t make the birth, he said via satellite
phone that he was “ecstatic and happy that both Lisa and John are happy
and healthy.”

The Re-casting of “Major League”

The Re-casting of “Major League”

Joe Sports Fan
needed more questions for his podcast a few weeks ago and I thought
that it would be fun to re-cast the movie “Major League” with current
Major League baseball players. He thought it was a good idea and may
touch on it in a future podcast. I started brainstorming ideas about
who would play each character and thought it deserved its own post.
Here is the player-by-player re-casting of the movie “Major League.” (I
had to thrown in other sports figures for the female characters).

Jake Taylor – This character needs to be played by a catcher who is on his last legs, but is enjoying a nice season. I choose Jason Varitek
since he seemed washed-up last year and it playing great this season.
He is also the captain, which Taylor certainly was in “Major League.”

Rick Vaughn – I know what you’re thinking, he
should be John Rocker. That would have been the answer about 7-8 years
ago, but we need a current baseball player to play “Wild Thing.” I
think Joba Chamberlain is a great fit to play Rick
Vaughn. He was arrested for a DUI, so he has the sketchy criminal past.
He is pretty wild on occassion, especially his celebratory fist pumps.

Roger Dorn – Dorn’s character has to be a guy who
has made a lot of money during his career and is just out there for
endorsements and maybe some road-tail. He has to play 3rd base, so I’m
going with Alex Rodriguez, although A-Rod would probably be the one that would try and sleep with a player’s wife, not the other way around.

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Willie “Mays” Hayes – My early vote would have gone
to Torii Hunter, since Mays had a great glove and made a few nice
catches in center. I couldn’t do it, ’cause Hunter is a 5-tool player
and Hayes couldn’t hit well and possibly floated around in the minors
awahile. I have to go with Joey Gathright since Mays
would probably put up YouTube videos of himself jumping over things
too. Gathright isn’t known for his bat, but if he hits grounders, I’m
sure he could leg out a few infield singles.

Eddie Harris – Harris was the old-timer that used
Vagisil, among other foreign substances, to get movement on the ball.
He probably threw a 75mph fastball. This pick was easy, Jamie Moyer is the unanimous choice. He is in his later 40′s and hasn’t see 90 on the radar gun since he married Digger Phelps’ daughter.

Pedro Cerrano – Cerrano prayed to the voodoo gods to help him hit a curveball. He had crazy power, but he was a little crazy. Milton Bradley
is the perfect player, although the voodoo religion ties are unfounded.
I could see Bradley using bat-warmers and lighting gunpower to awake
his bat.

Coach Lou Brown – Brown was a lifer coaching in the
minors and came up to coach the Indians. I think he is a smarter coach
than he portrayed in the movie. I assume that he was one of the first
coaches to use VORP and BBIP to revise his daily line-up of characters.
I’m going to throw a curveball here and say that Trey Hillman,
the coach of the Kansas City Royals. Hillman coached all over before he
was given the shot at the Royals. He is known as a smart guy and a
little of a hardass.

Rachel Phelps – She was the ex-showgirl that
received the Indians when the owner died. He wanted the team to tank so
she could move the team to Miami. I thought long and hard about this
and think that Monica Seles would fit the role of
Phelps. Seles has been dating the owner of the Buffalo Sabres for
awhile and think that she may be in it for the long haul. If he kicks
the bucket, Seles could be in line to own a small-market sports
franchise.

Lynn Wells – Wells was the character that ended up
with Jake Taylor at the end. She clearly has a thing for baseball
players, possibly a fetish. I would like Alyssa Milano
to play the role of Lynn Wells. Milano has dated many players and she
is a huge fan. This could also help the eye-candy factor for the movie.

Harry Doyle – Doyle was the play-by-play announcer
for the Cleveland Indians. He was played by Bob Uecker and he did a
fantastic job. I would like to see Uecker reprise his role, since he
was still the play-by-play guy for the Milwaukee Brewers.

That was my re-casting of the movie “Major League.” It was the 20th
anniversary of the movie’s release on Monday. The Cleveland Indians
gaveaway a Rick Vaughn bobblehead and had Bob Uecker throw out the
first pitch. The pitch was “just a bit outside.”

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