Hockey's Sides Agree!!!

Is this the lead story? On Bob’s Blog it is.

LA TIMES SAYS IT IS OVER! …

The NHL and the players' association have agreed in principle on a new collective bargaining agreement that will feature a hard salary cap linked to 54% of league revenue, a 24% rollback of existing contracts and qualifying offers, and a provision that will limit the salary of any single player to 20% of the team cap figure in any year, sources familiar with the labor negotiations said Wednesday.

For fairness, TSN says “not so fast” …

Revo breaks down the Kenny apology …

So let's talk for a moment about the "circumstances" and the "situation," since there's little doubt that at least part of what Kenny is referring to was a column I wrote in this newspaper last week about his decision to skip a start against the division-leading Angels.

No need to rehash it all, but I did raise some questions about that decision. Knowing how much courage Kenny has displayed over the years, how much pain he has pitched with in the past, I wondered in the column if there were other factors involved in his decision besides a small broken bone in his non-pitching hand that he had already pitched with once.

The essential question - and it's a legitimate one considering Kenny's history with money - was whether his then- ongoing contract negotiations played a part in the decision. Obviously, another beating at the Angels' hands wouldn't have done his league-leading ERA or his contract position any good. There were Rangers' officials wondering the same thing.

Those are the "circumstances" Rogers was referring to in his statement. Obviously, he didn't like the inference because, if the contract negotiations had anything at all to do with his decision, then it meant he was dumping on his teammates in the team's most critical series of the season.

That's why teams and players should never negotiate contracts during the season, so questions like those never have to come up, either inside the organization or out.

Chan Ho – no match for Texas Heat …

Thanks to four walks and four other counts of three balls, Park, in long sleeves, had thrown 85 pitches going into the sixth. Edgar Renteria worked him for seven pitches to start the sixth, and Park wore down quickly after that. He allowed three straight two-out hits and saw a 2-0 lead turn into a 3-2 deficit.

When Park was done, he'd thrown 110 pitches, raising his average per inning to 18.44 for the season. It's the highest average in the AL, surpassing the 18.40 by Boston's Wade Miller. By contrast, Boston's Matt Clement had just 12 more pitches than Park in 8 2/3 innings of work.

The strain of the pitch count showed in the sixth. Park got the first two outs but couldn't bury hitters.

Hot summers drain pitchers at Ameriquest Field. Park felt the drain early on Wednesday.

I missed this a few days ago, but this was brought to my attention: Buck Showalter discusses Ryan Drese …

The Rangers gave Drese only a dozen starts, and it's true, he was awful. He was 4-6 with a 6.46 ERA. He'd given up a whopping 96 hits in just under 70 innings. He has been a different pitcher for Washington.

"It's not a given that he would have done that here," Showalter noted. "He's in the National League. He's in a great pitcher's park.

"And I also think we may have done him the service of his life. He got a great wakeup call."

That hasn't kept Showalter and the Rangers from second-guessing their decision, just as most of us have.

"I know John's kicking himself, for the same reason Orel and I are kicking ourselves for not pounding the table [about keeping Drese]," Showalter said. "Who knows? A year from now, maybe it'll look like the greatest thing we ever did. Remember, [28] other clubs passed on him, too.

True, but it only took one to make the Rangers look like idiots for believing that Drese would not be able to rediscover the magic sinkerball that helped him win 14 games last season.

“Pounding the table”? To who? I thought Buck made this call, and now it appears he is distancing and placing responsibility on Hart’s lap.

Expect plenty of stories like this one in the upcoming weeks: LA Kings forward Sean Avery distances from his union …

Shortly after noon, the office phone rang.

"This is Sean Avery," said the voice.

Sean Avery?

"Of the Los Angeles Kings," said the voice.

The Los Angeles Kings?

"We were brainwashed," he said. "And we're sorry."

And so a forgotten face tapped at a shuttered window Tuesday, the Kings' tough guy calling to do something tough guys never do.

Admit defeat and ask forgiveness.

An NHL labor agreement ending a yearlong lockout will be announced soon — "a done deal," Avery said — and the center wanted to send a most unusual message to hockey's few remaining fans.

The players were wrong.

The players were whipped.

Blindly following labor leadership, the players were fools.

A year ago, their mantra was "union."

They return crying "uncle."

"We burned a year for nothing," Avery said. "We didn't win anything. We didn't prove anything. We didn't get anything. We wasted an entire season."

The salary cap that the players claimed they would never accept?

The proposed money ceiling that the players sacrificed a season trying to knock down?

It's here. And it's low. Tautly, tauntingly low.

Very interesting stuff in that must-read column. I knew the players could not win, but I also knew that the owner’s goal was not to win, but to annihilate. It appears that they accomplished that goal. But you know what? As a fan, I don’t care who won. I simply care that hockey will be back. Perhaps we will have no idea who plays where, and the Stars will no longer have an unfair payroll advantage, but I still love my hockey on your random Friday nights in the winter. Bring it on….