DEAD!

1 hour ago, spartacat_12 said:

 

For anyone who doesn't have an Athletic subscription, here are some highlights:

• Melnyk was frequently intoxicated at games, to the point that staff members would try to keep him away from the cameras & the dressing room. After being eliminated by the Ducks in the 07 Cup Final, he tried to give a reassuring speech to the players in the room, but was all over the place. He claimed he used to be a goalie and started miming saves, and apparently didn't recognize most of the players, aside from stars like Alfredsson, Spezza, and Heatley.
• When Alfredsson left to sign with Detroit, Melnyk openly called him a prick & an a**hole when the front office discussed how to handle his departure. He didn't want the team promoting Alfie's first game back in Ottawa, and suggested tripling the ticket prices for that game.
• In 2019 the team released a marketing campaign for their Valentine's Day game using the slogan "Love is Love", which featured images of same-sex couples embracing each other. Melnyk was not consulted about this beforehand, and snapped on the executives who were behind it. Melnyk sneered at the images and derided the campaign: “We are the laughing stock of the NHL right now!” Melnyk’s rant continued, lumping in previous marketing efforts involving pet rescue missions: “They think we are so desperate that we have to advertise to gays now. Dogs and gays.”
• Also that year, Melnyk sent a threatening email to a female employee who had not responded immediately to an email Melnyk sent her. When she finally wrote back, reminding Melnyk she was on a scheduled vacation, he responded in all caps: “YOU :censored:ING C – – T – WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? WHEN I SAY CALL YOU DO IT. WHEN I TELL YOU TO DO SOMETHING YOU DO IT. YOU ARE DONE!”
• During “Blackout Tuesday” not long after the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota in May 2020, Melnyk sent an email to some senior staffers instructing them not to post a blank black page that many teams had posted in support of Black Lives Matter: “No social media today. People are posting completely black pages and it is some type of social distress that is causing this,” he wrote. “Let’s just not post anything today, but I would not bother posting a black screen. Check to see whether any other NHL team is doing it.” This didn't sit well with Anthony Duclair who was the team's lone black player at the time.
• Front office staff made several comments about the toxic nature of the workplace. Compensation was referred to as "a grey area" and "a crapshoot every year". Melnyk would sometimes hand out bonuses at his sole discretion and create arbitrary reasons to justify withholding them. CEO Jim Little was fired less than a year into the job after apparently getting into a heated discussion with Melnyk.

Basically Melnyk was just one of the guys...

19 minutes ago, LMU said:

*Kershaw misses playoffs due to injury

*Kershaw doesn’t even pick up a baseball until a couple months ago to avoid TJ

*Kershaw unable to build up due to lockout shortened Spring Training

*Kershaw fully happy being pulled from perfect game bid to avoid possible injury

*Hot take artists commence whining

I mean, don't get me wrong, I actually understand the decision. It's early and being in a cold, outdoor stadium doesn't help either and I did not think he would have finished the game. But I also would thought he had another 5 to 10 pitches in him. 

C'mon man... Kershaw was on 80 pitches... SMH

48 minutes ago, Dekabreak said:

 

It may not be the exact same script, but I am glad they went to a script.

32 minutes ago, Digby said:

Looks cool but it's hard not to read it as an A. One more reason to wish they were an "Athletic" or something, instead of yet another "City".

Kansas City or Philadelphia probably should have considered "Athletic"

36 minutes ago, Sport said:

Did the Orioles give up a lot of home runs because of Camden Yards or because their pitchers have been batting cage machines for the last 5 years? 

You know the answer to that is BOTH.

1 hour ago, Digby said:

 

Because I don't process change well, the Dodgers run of dominance is still a little weird to me. I'm a child of the 90s and the Dodgers thus imprinted on me as a team with a lot of cool, good players but were always barely a .500 team anyhow. 

This Dodgers era seems to remind me of the 90s Braves. They were good for so long, but had only one World Series title, which was in shortened season. 

27 minutes ago, Digby said:

With this new scheme of seeding groups, it’s hard to have a true Group of Death the way we used to, but I felt the same about that one. Maybe the Spain/Germany group too, if Japan plays their best and Costa Rica manages to stay hot.

 

It had just occurred to me that had Italy qualified and was put in this group instead of Spain, it would been quite the World War II reunion. 

27 minutes ago, MJWalker45 said:

Looking at Canada's draw, that's almost the best they could have hoped for.  If Scotland survives that playoff I don't worry about them as much as I do the other two options.  Mexico has to survive Poland and Argentina, but I think if they play their A+ game, they can beat Poland. I don't think they'll beat Argentina even with their A++ game. Ochoa would have to copy Tim Howard's game vs Belgium in 2014.  

Other than hoping they would be in Group A, this is not the worst case scenario. Who knows what state Belgium and Croatia are going to be at. It beats being in group E.

33 minutes ago, heavybass said:

 

 

At least  they waited until Joe West retired

35 minutes ago, heavybass said:

Angel Hernandez is probably plotting his get out of MLB clause...

Is that an April Fool's joke? 

I guess it is more like this

http://www.espnfc.com/fifa-world-cup/story/4628652/world-cup-finals-draw-pots-and-seedings-confirmed-for-fridays-ceremony

49 minutes ago, LMU said:

 

Can he just be suspended already?

So at least we know he's been busy during "administrative leave".

I actually would have liked Washington to have the hat logo the same as the logo in their Twitter profile pic.

3 hours ago, Sport said:

When I was a kid I thought it was hilarious how they used the literal team's logo for their captain's C. 

 

 

They should've never stopped. It's a quality bit. 

I sometimes refer to that as a redundan-C

Also, I actually like the use of the Atlanta 'A' for alternate captain 

1 hour ago, PittsburghSucks said:

 

why didn't this happen during the Matt Millen era? 

1 minute ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

I think Morris was open to make it 6-0 but Busio made a poor decision.

 

Either way, 5-1 and with a 5-goal cushion is a nice place to be in advance of Wednesday. We're so close we can taste it.

Remarkably, had it been 6-0, the US would have had a better shot at the top spot in the qualifying table. 

8 minutes ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

Wow. Panama is falling apart.

Karma 

Panama is really going to regret the draw at home against Honduras. 

Lorenzo Insigne will soon remember what it's like to play his club football in a country that is going to a World Cup

Finally!

I thought about this about the Canadian squad over the last couple rounds of qualifying, and it's something that is hard to quantify, but they have a couple of veterans that the rest of the squad to galvanize around in Atiba Hutchinson and Milan Borjan, both in their 30s, but have seen how far the program has gone over their careers. 

I wonder if the USMNT has that one player that the rest of group can do the same. The US overall probably has the better talent than Canada (but I would not argue against that having Johnathan David  and Alphonso Davies helps negate that). However, I can't help but think there is something missing in their spirit/sense of urgency or whatever else that is.

Oh great, today's Canada-Jamaica game will be played under below 0C temps with 20mph winds... 

There is something that doesn't happen every game... people evacuating the arena due to a speaker fire 

5 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

Shockingly surprised by the lack of Concacaf'ing in Mexico/USA that I missed this:

 

 

 

If Canada wasn't in first and just about assured a place in the World Cup, I would be extremely upset at this. But, I can't help but LOL at all that. I was more thrilled at the Panama draw with Honduras 

The reversible jersey reminded me that I wished I had bought the Manchester United centennary kit from 20 years ago..