Stormin Norman Rumack

It’s not unusual for the fans of a struggling team to sometimes dislike or even hate the owner of their favorite club. This becomes a certainty, if the perception is that the owner holds the team back from succeeding, either because of financial reasons, or due to incompetence. Manchester United has been one of the most successful sports franchises anywhere in the world, especially under the leadership of their manager since 1986, Sir Alex Ferguson. Historically, the Red Devils have won a total of 18 league titles, 4 League Cups, and 11 FA Cups. In 1998-99, they became the first to win the “Treble”, in capturing the Premiership, The FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League.

 

 

The fans of the Manchester United Football Club, have been hoping to find other ownership, especially local people in England,  and  it seems they want almost anybody other than the Glazer family, who purchased the team in 2005.  They are also the owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League. Some...

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Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo ripped into his former franchise player, on the team’s flagship station, the Fan 590, on Monday. The summary of  the interview is detailed in an ESPN.com article. Colangelo feels that “CB-4”, as he was known around Toronto, could have given a better effort towards the conclusion of the season, in spite of injury concerns. Bosh was also questioned by the general manager as to how he worked with new players who Colangelo brought in over the years. The two high profile players were Jermaine O’Neal and Hedo Turkoglu. Both of them underachieved as Raptors, especially Turkoglu, who at times seemed completely disinterested in playing basketball as a Toronto Raptor.

As it pertains to Chris Bosh, Colangelo began his radio interview, by commenting on his play near the end of the season, while playing hurt:  “ Despite limited swelling and any excessive damage on an MRI, he felt like he needed to sit for six more games………..I’m not even questioning Chris’ injury. I’m...

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Rookie receiver Dez Bryant of the Dallas Cowboys, had decided, until Tuesday, that he would not take part in any of the traditional rookie initiations that are part of nearly all professional sports, and for the most part, are thought of as rite of passage, and over the long haul, are perceived as a method of bonding young players in with the veterans.

According to ESPNDallas.com, veteran receiver Roy Williams gave his pads to Bryant after Sunday’s morning practice, but Bryant declined to carry them. In response to the rookie’s ritual refusal, Williams threatened to take his response to “step two”, while being vague as to what might be involved in that next escalation.

Even if Bryant turns out to be an outstanding player, his initial refusal to take part in rituals that are a decades old tradition, and are harmless in nature, was not going to earn him any respect from his teammates or peers elsewhere in the NFL.  If anything, it would have isolated him from the rest of the team, who would...

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Mike Bonanno is a 23 year old Toronto area native, just starting his career as an agent for Major League Baseball players. His company, Oak Sports Management, already has a certified MLB agent working in the firm, Jeff Cordova,  and they have 21 ball players who they represent. Mike played college baseball in Florida, with the Brevard College Titans, who are coached by Ernie Rosseau. He has 700 wins as a junior college bench boss. Mike is certainly quite ambitious, as he is not only starting out as an agent, but he also plays professional baseball for the Brantford Red Sox of the Intercounty Baseball League, in southern Ontario.

 

Those who make it in any venture, all have to learn to accept, and overcome adversity as well as failure. A background in baseball as a player, is certainly the right one for this line of work,  where very good hitters in the sport fail 7 out of every 10 trips to the batter’s box. Many of the names may not be familiar, but Mike’s agency already has a few ball players, who...

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Soccer fans in France and elsewhere wondered, what kind of discipline would Les Blues face when the dust had settled, and the implosion of the national football team of the country, had been fairly analyzed. Now that the autopsy report, figuratively speaking, has been examined, the new coach, Laurent Blanc has decided to utilize collective punishment on the team, as a method of sending out a message of strong disapproval, pertaining to the team’s strike against former coach Raymond Domenech,during the World Cup group games in South Africa last month. The suspending of striker Niclas Anelka, after he ripped into his coach during the halftime of a tournament game, in which France lost to Mexico 2-0, set the stage for the strike, which occurred before a practice the next day, after the Chelsea player had been sent home.

 

The punishment of the entire team, in which all 23 World Cup players will be dropped for Laurent Blanc’s first game, a friendly against Norway on August 11 in Oslo, seems to be a...

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Here are some stories you may be hearing more about in the near future. The Phoenix Coyotes, without a sudden avalanche of season ticket sales this season, will most likely move to Winnipeg in 2011-2012, now that it’s clear that the incredible playoff run for the desert dogs, did not lead to a boost at the box office in Glendale. Reliable rumors ( my source) suggested to the latenightvampire.com, that the Coyotes may have around fifteen hundred, to two thousand season ticket holders.  This means that the league owned team, needs huge walk up crowds, just to get a respectable turnout at the games. There is still no local ownership on the horizon in Arizona.  So after this coming season, Canada will quite likely, have its seventh NHL franchise. Too bad Jim Balsillie didn’t play by the league’s rules, or he might have been the owner of the team, although it never would have been relocated to Hamilton, Ontario, as has been stated many times, in latenightvampire.com. The American owners would object, fairly...

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I wrote yesterday about the financial fallout for the Premiership, as a result of England’s poor showing in the World Cup Of Soccer. Conveniently, there was an intelligent solution from a very wise and respected gentleman, as to what may have been a factor in the Three Lions lousy showing in South Africa. None other than the esteemed manager of Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson, suggested that the heavy schedule of weekly games required to meet Premiership TV commitments, is what may be a major factor in Fabio Capello’s club, looking as lethargic as they did in their World Cup games,including their embarrassing 4-1 loss to Germany in the first knockout round match, in which they were completely outclassed in the second half, after getting a bad break on a blown call by a game official, who did not see Frank Lampard’s shot go into the net, even though the rest of the world clearly knew the match should have been tied at 2 at the half.

 

In an exclusive interview with ESPN, Ferguson explained his...

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In an extremely candid conversation with ESPN soccernet, West Ham United co-owner David Sullivan shared his concerns and revelations, about the fallout from England’s embarrassing effort at the World Cup in South Africa. According to him, there is already a financial impact right across the board for the Premiership. He claims that soccer fans  in England were so turned off, by the shabby showing of the Three Lions last month, that ticket sales are down for many teams. “ There is no doubt that this has alienated the fans……..they have no more heroes. No more Bobby Moore or Bobby Charlton, or Stanley Mathews.  Not even a new David Beckham, who was a real icon.  There are no icons. Instead, we have our players up on assault charges, or involved in sex scandals with their team-mate’s girlfriend……….The public think to themselves that these players are over indulged, they earn too much money for too little return. We’ll all see the results of such a poor performance ………The whole of the Premier League will be 10% down...

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It was most refreshing to read reaction comments from both Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley in ESPN.com, pertaining to LeBron James signing with Miami, joining Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, as opposed to remaining in Cleveland. The basic message from both men, was that if you want to be considered among the very best of all time, then you have to compete against the very best and beat them, not align with them on a fantasy like All-Star team. They were 100% right on that, and when you speak with basketball fans who are not attached to the Miami Heat, most seem to agree that even if James gets one, or several championships with his new teammates in south Florida, he will never be thought of as being in the same league with Jordan, or other all time greats, who could not choose their fellow players. They had to make the best of what their general manager could assemble.  Even with his superb regular season statistics, LeBron has not been able to elevate his team in the post season,the way many thought he would....

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Most of us have heard or read the expression, “ when God gives you lemons, make lemonade.” It’s one of those lines you think of when times get a little tough for any number of reasons. Most people involved in professional sports, especially the athletes and the owners, are quite wealthy, and have more money than they know what to do with. With that in mind, I got a kick out of reading an associated press story, about some kids in the Cleveland suburb of Rocky River, who decided to sell lemonade, in order to help the Cavaliers owner, Dan Gilbert, pay the $100,000 fine that he was assessed by the NBA, for what they thought was excessive criticism of LeBron James, after he announced that he was signing with the Miami Heat.

 

Gilbert was completely outraged by James decision, and that he was using a televised one hour special, to convey his announcement.  Gilbert questioned James character,by accusing him of quitting on his team, in several playoff games, including post season matches this year...

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