Sonstiges » Thats where Babcocks coaching comes in. He sa

Everybody has a favourite team. We suffer with them when they lose and rejoice when they win. The trouble is some teams never seem to win. Of the 30 teams in Major League baseball, eight have never won the World Series. In the American League, Tampa Bay, Seattle, Texas and Houston have never celebrated victories in the Fall Classic, but at least the Rays, Rangers and Houston got that far. Seattle, the Blue Jays expansion cousin, never has. In the National League, Washington/Montreal, Milwaukee, Colorado and San Diego have never emerged victorious, though all but the Nationals/Expos have made it to the World Series. Washington and Milwaukee have actually tasted victory, but with other franchises in the past - the Senators and the Braves. All of this made me wonder how the other "Big 4" sports compare. In the NHL, 12 of the current 30 teams have never won, though Ottawa and Vancouver did capture Cups in the early 1900s. Still, essentially that is 40 per cent of the teams that have never reached the "promised land." In the NFL, 14 of the 32 teams have never won the Super Bowl, though I must add some of those 14 teams won titles in the old AFL, or in the NFL before the merger.Still, thats just over 43 per cent who havent been Super Bowl Champs. The NBA has the worst percentage of all. 16 of 30 teams have all been also-rans for their entire current existence, or just over 53 per cent. I dont really know what any of this means. Someone once told me, its all about the journey and not the end result. The emotional ups and downs make sports what they are and why they are so compelling. The debate over the Washington Redskins name and whether it should be changed has pretty much reached the boiling point now. Im in the camp that believes it should be changed, but its interesting how the name came to be and its baseball connection. Washington wasnt the original home of that NFL franchise. They began in Boston in 1932, as the Braves. They played in the home park of Bostons National League franchise, the Braves, so owner George Preston Marshall figured it was best to stick with the same name. The following year, though, he struck a better deal and moved the team to Fenway Park; the home of the American League Red Sox. To pay homage to the Bosox, he wanted to include the word Red in the teams new nickname. It also so happened that his coach, William "Lone Star" Dietz, had a mother of Indian heritage. That lead Marshall to combine the colour with a rather strange tribute to his coach, who eventually wound up in the College Football Hall of Fame. None of that justifies the name; its just interesting to find out how it came about. There was a special anniversary this week. November 7th marked 50 years since the Yankees Elston Howard won the American Leagues Most Valuable Player Award. The Yankees have had so many great catches over their history; from Bill Dickey to Yogi Berra, Thurman Munson and Jorge Posada, that at times Howard gets pushed into the background. But he occupies a special place in Yankees history. He was the first African-American player to suit up with the Yankees in 1955. That was a full eight years after Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was to the Yankees shame that it took that long for them to employ a black ballplayer. Jackie Robinson played his first season in the Dodgers organization at Montreal with the old Royals. Elston Howard too had his Canadian connection. He was an all-star with the Pennant-winning Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League in 1954 - the year before joining the Yankees. In addition to the MVP honours, Howard won four World Series rings with the Yankees. He was also with the Red Sox in 1967 for their miracle run under Dick Williams, which ended with them losing the Fall Classic with St. Louis. That Boston club was the parent team of the Maple Leafs. Baseballs offseason activity is really going to start to percolate next week. The 13 players who were offered those $14.1 million qualifying offers will have to decide by November 12 whether to accept or reject them. At the same time, the general managers will be meeting in Orlando, Florida from November 11-13. Remember, the GMs meetings were a couple of days earlier a year ago and that is where the genesis of the mammoth 12-player deal began to evolve. That deal was completed on November 13 and was finally approved by commissioner Bud Selig on Monday November 19. Im not saying the Blue Jays are going to pull off anything close to a deal of that scope, but they have to be active; they must improve. The next week or so should be very interesting. Cheap Brazil Jerseys . A night later, he was back to help lead a rout of the Detroit Pistons. John Wall had 20 points and 11 assists, and Beal scored 10 of his 15 points during the second quarter as Washington pulled away for a 106-82 victory on Saturday. Cheap Colombia Jerseys . Granada goalkeeper Roberto Fernandez saved Morenos first two headers from corner kicks taken by Sergio Garcia, but the defender beat him on his third try after Garcia found Moreno unmarked at the near post in the 78th minute. http://www.cheapsoccerjerseysoutlet.com/...p-wales-jerseys. The former central defender calmly nodded it down and quietly went about celebrating a win with his staff. For a man who has had a lot on his shoulders this season, it was an appropriate moment. Cheap Russia Jerseys . -- Jacksonvilles offensive makeover is just getting starting. Cheap AC Milan FC Jerseys .com) - Nino Williams posted 18 points and seven rebounds, as Kansas State edged No.CALGARY -- Sidney Crosby would like to be on the ice this week at Hockey Canadas Olympic orientation camp. So would Roberto Luongo. Instead, the high cost of insurance will limit them to some optional off-ice workouts and maybe some golf on the side. But Hockey Canada figures that no skating is no problem for the players who travelled to Calgary for a few days of meetings, bonding and information-sharing in preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. "It would be nice, but its not the case and I still think we can get a lot out of these few days without skating," said Crosby, the Pittsburgh Penguins captain who scored the gold-medal-winning goal in Vancouver in 2010. "There will be a lot of information being thrown out there and well have to learn a lot in a short period of time, but I think everyone is kind of excited for that." Those who went through this experience four years ago before the Vancouver Olympics remember it fondly. They were able to skate then, something that allowed coach Mike Babcock to at least get a rough idea of line combinations. General manager Steve Yzerman would have liked that extra preparation, but as assistant coach Claude Julien of the Boston Bruins pointed out, not having the luxury of skating gives the staff a "great opportunity to do something different." "What you do in the next three days, weve learned over time really matters," said assistant Ken Hitchcock, who coaches the St. Louis Blues. "The terminology that Mike talks about that we put in the next two days, the systems, the walk-throughs, are really, really important because all of us at the end of this event, we get onto our own teams and we dont think about it until we get on the plane. Having that information that the players can draw from, we can go back and hit familiar ground right away." Creating some familiar ground is one of the main goals in the next couple of days. Many of the players at least know each other, but as Kevin Lowe, president of the Edmonton Oilers, noted, theres no way to underestimate "camaraderie and relationships" going into the Olympics. Spending time together is one thing players said theyre trying to get out of this experience. "I know a lot of them are going to be my opponents during the season; some of them are pretty close friends that I havent seen in while, so its a plus," said Ottawa Senators defenceman Marc Methot. "And being around some great hockey people, theres always an opportunity to learn a lot of cool new things. And were still getting a couple workouts in. Theyre optional workouts, but we are working out, so its not a complete loss, physically." Anaheim Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf emphasized the need to stay in a workout routine, which also might be the biggest downside of not skating at this camp..dddddddddddd "I dont think it matters from a standpoint of preparing for the Olympics. I think that were all professional players here, were all playing relatively the same game. Theres no big hockey secret out there," Getzlaf said. "I think that the only thing that would be nice to keep on skating because were getting prepared for our own (NHL training) camps. This is a big chunk, this is almost a whole week where were not going to get our skates in." San Jose Sharks defenceman Dan Boyle, 37, was "thrilled" not to be skating because he hadnt ramped up his off-season regimen too much before going to Calgary. Oilers left wing Taylor Hall would love the opportunity to skate with a lot of talented potential teammates, but he was relieved because hes not yet in peak shape to do so. Players generally didnt protest the lack of on-ice activities because the insurance issue was out of their hands. Hockey Canada president and CEO Bob Nicholson estimated that with contracts totalling about $1.5 billion, it just got too expensive to insure them and allow players to lace up their skates. "I dont think its anything major," said Luongo, who won gold in Vancouver in 2010. "Its always fun to go on the ice with the countrys best players and it kind of kicks off your season a little bit one you do that. Its going to be a good time here even though were not skating. But it wouldve been nice to maybe stop a few pucks." These players will get their chances to skate with teammates soon enough, when NHL camps open next month. "Guys have been working out and guys have been skating a lot recently," Tampa Bay Lightning forward Steven Stamkos said. "Maybe a little break is going to be nice before you really go hard for two weeks heading into (training) camp. ... Its not like even if we were going on the ice were going to be doing a lot of tough, tough situation things. Were probably going to get the same results by going over things with coaches, watching video and things like that." Thats where Babcocks coaching comes in. He said theres "no sense worrying" about not skating, simply adjusting to the situation on the fly. The Detroit Red Wings coach singled out everyone getting to know each other and implementing the details of how Canada is going to play in Sochi as two important pieces of camp. The third element is far more wide-ranging. "Being an Olympian to me is much bigger than just being part of a regular hockey team," Babcock said. "Youre part of a bigger team: the Canadian team. Thats not just the Canadian hockey team, thats the Canadian Olympic te