Dein erstes Forum » dont think condensing it and lowering the

TORONTO -- The MLS schedule is just three weeks old and already the shots are coming fast and furious. Carolina Hurricanes Gear . Too many on Clint Dempsey, says U.S. coach Juergen Klinsmann. But the league decided that Dempsey was the trouble-maker not the victim when it suspended the Seattle Sounders star striker two games Friday for "violent conduct" against Toronto FC defender Mark Bloom. The incident happened off the ball in the 40th minute of Torontos 2-1 win in Seattle last Saturday. Dempsey swung an arm and caught Bloom in the groin. The U.S. international was also fined an undisclosed amount. Klinsmann stepped in after the game, saying MLS has to offer key players like Dempsey more protection. "Obviously we are a little bit worried about Clint Dempsey getting fouled I dont know how many times in this game against Toronto," he said in a U.S. Soccer video. Toronto committed 25 fouls compared to 15 for Seattle. "Im hoping MLS is having an eye on that ... What I saw there on the weekend there were certain things not within the rules any more," Klinsmann added. "So I hope that our players in a certain way get a little bit of protection because they need to be healthy going into this World Cup." Seattle was also the victim of 25 fouls in its season-opening win over Sporting Kansas City. Asked about the Klinsmann comments on protecting stars, Toronto FC manager Ryan Nelsen stuck his tongue firmly in his cheek. "I 100 per cent agree with him," he said. "Jermain Defoe, Michael Bradley and Gilberto should be left alone, they shouldnt be allowed to tackle them." "I think theres a hidden agenda with Juergens comments," he added. Bradley, a veteran U.S. international whose father Bob Bradley used to coach the American national team, also downplayed the issue. "Its a physical league for sure but when you look around the world, all the best games are physical," he said. "Theyre hard, Teams compete at the highest level. For us, when we look back at last weekend, we feel like we played hard, we competed hard, we left everything we had on the field but in an honest, fair way. "And so I think, after the fact, for people to look and to start to talk about a play here, a play there, lets be honest, theres little plays like this that go in every game. And still when you look back at 90 minutes, I think the way that we were able to get after Seattle and make the game hard on them and really win the physical battles was something we want to take forward into this game (Saturday against D.C, United) as well." Seattle coach Sigi Schmid didnt offer much on the suspension in an interview posted on the club website. "It is what it is so we have to deal with it," he said. Dempsey is eligible to return for an April 5 road game in Portland. The MLS disciplinary committee also suspended Chicago Fire defender Lovel Palmer for two games and fined him an undisclosed amount for violent conduct toward Portland Timbers forward Maximiliano Urruti last weekend. Both Dempsey and Palmer submitted appeals that were turned down. Montreal Impact midfielder Justin Mapp was also fined an undisclosed amount for simulation in a game against the Houston Dynamo. New York Red Bulls defender Armando was banned one game and fined an undisclosed amount for serious foul play against Colorado Rapids forward Deshorn Brown. Prior to the start of the season, the leagues board of governors approved a policy stating that any player receiving a red card for violent conduct or adjudged unanimously by the discipline committee to be an unequivocal red card for violent conduct will be automatically suspended for at least two games and be fined. Custom Carolina Hurricanes Jerseys . - Carter Verhaeghe scored the winner with 41 seconds to go as the Niagara IceDogs edged the North Bay Battalion 3-2 to even their first-round series at a game apiece in Ontario Hockey League playoff action on Sunday. Carolina Hurricanes Shirts . Ricciardos exclusion from the results tarnished what had been a day of celebration for local fans, who were jubilant that the Red Bull driver had apparently become the first Australian to finish on the podium at his home race. However just before midnight, stewards ruled that Ricciardos car had "exceeded consistently the maximum allowed fuel flow" and that the team refused an instruction from the races technical delegate Charlie Whiting to change the fuel-flow sensor before the race and a further request during the race to reduce the fuel flow. https://www.cheaphurricanes.com/ . Now he can be had by any team willing to pay his salary. According to a report from ESPN, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are shopping the veteran CB and plan on releasing him Wednesday if they cant find a trade partner.NEW YORK, N.Y. - Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz already consider themselves relics.Baseball transformed during the second half of their careers and has been revolutionized in the five years since their final pitches.Out: big boppers.In: strict pitch limits, a profusion of relief pitchers and sudden swell in defensive shifts.Old goats is what Martinez called the newest Hall of Famers, products of another age — remember back before high definition TVs and mobile Internet browsers were commonplace?So much has changed so quickly.The game has kind of gone to a Stratomatic-type baseball game, where hitting is difficult because youre facing nine and 10 pitchers combined per team, Smoltz said Wednesday. Guys are not going attain 3,000 innings. Theyre not going to get 3,000 strikeouts.Vive le difference! seemed to be the motto of their joint news conference.Smoltz, pretty much average for a pitcher at 6-foot-3, stood on a chair to drop a cap onto the head of Johnson, the tallest of 215 Hall of Fame players at 6-foot-10. All the while, the Big Unit struggled to button his cream-colored jersey with Hall of Fame in red script, unable to line up the buttons with the correct buttonholes.Those left-handers, Johnson quipped.At 5-foot-11 the shortest pitcher picked for Cooperstown since Whitey Ford in 1974, Martinez held both hands up with fingers raised and smiled broadly.The trio of pitchers, elected to the Hall on Tuesday along with Craig Biggio, are among the all-time greats statistically, given the era they pitched in.Martinezs 2.93 career ERA is 1.47 below the big league average during the years he pitched, easily the best margin in major league history among pitchers with 1,500 or more innings, according to STATS. The next best are Carl Hubbell and Lefty Grove at 1.15, Hoyt Wilheim at 1.14, Greg Maddux at 1.13 and Roger Clemens at 1.12.Johnsons 1.01 is 13th and Smoltzs 0.97 is 15th.Speaking at a Manhattan hotel, Johnson said the game is just starting to get back into whack. He thinks pitching became more onerous in the 1990s and early 2000s because smaller ballparks replaced multiuse stadiums and Major League Baseball introduced QuesTec, a computer system put in place in 2001 to evaluate ball-strike calls. Umpires responded by shrinking strike zones back toward the rule-book ddefinition. Wholesale Hurricanes Jerseys. .When I watch old footage of pitchers throwing strikes from the letters to the knees, its black-and-white footage, back when dinosaurs roamed. Thats not the strike zone that I pitched in, he said. Things still are slighted towards offence. Offense is what creates fan base. But theres still well-pitched games out there, and things are starting to balance out now, yes, absolutely.Drug testing has played a part, too. Since urine samples started to be collected in 2003, offence has shrunk along with muscle mass. And the rise in computing capability has led to defensive shifts that take away hits, too.At the tail end of the Steroids Era in 2000, scoring rose to 5.14 runs per team per game and ERA to 4.76, the highest for both since 1930. By last year, runs dropped to 4.07 and ERA to 3.74, the lowest since the early 1970s.Every team seems to have hard-throwing relievers heading in from the bullpens in earlier and earlier innings.We never had a pitch limit, Smoltz said. Your managers eyes and pitching coach knew when your pitch limit reached the mechanical failures or the fact that you werent getting it done.Johnson won 303 games and struck out 4,875, second-most in major league history. Martinez was 219-100 and struck out 3,154. Smoltz went 213-155 with 154 saves and 3,084 strikeouts, the only pitcher with 200 wins and 150 saves.Martinez believes theres more of a level ground for every team these days because of changes such as revenue sharing and the luxury tax, which has created additional home-cooked product, made more teams contenders and heightened competition.I can only imagine, he said when asked whether his stats would be even better now. I dont know what it would be like. Im not going to try it. But Ill tell you what, I enjoyed the way I did it. I enjoyed my era. I enjoyed the way I competed. And thats the way I wanted it.Smoltz predicts additional evolution, perhaps a return to the era when starters went deeper into games. He thinks babying arms has led to more catastrophic injuries. He had a ligament replaced in 2000, then spent most of four seasons in the bullpen before returning to Atlantas rotation.Somethings got to change, he said. And I dont think condensing it and lowering the pitch limit is the reason that were going to save arms. ' ' '