导出博客文章ST. PETERSBURG, Florida - J.A. Happ and Alex Cobb stood side by side on Sunday
afternoon and called on Major League Baseball to provide pitchers with the
option to wear protective head gear. "Whether that pitcher wants to pitch with
head gear or not is up to him but I definitely think there should be an option,"
said Cobb. "I havent heard too much but I do know that its moving in the right
direction and hopefully there will be an option by next year." The league has
been studying different prototypes, including caps with enhanced padding, since
last offseason. So far nothing has been approved. "I think youd be crazy not to
look into it if it was available," said Happ. "I think function is the big
issue. We were struck in the ear so like I said it would almost have to be a
helmet situation. If it was functional and comfortable and didnt hinder the
performance at all then absolutely." Both pitchers are linked by separate,
equally scary, incidents at Tropicana Field this season. It was May 7 when Happ,
pitching to Desmond Jennings in the second inning of an eventual 6-4 win, was
struck in the side of the head by a line drive. He crumpled to the ground.
Onlookers thought he was out cold even though he wasnt, and eventually he was
carted off the field. Happ suffered a minor skull fracture behind his left ear.
Stitches repaired a nasty gash to his ear. The worst of his injuries, however,
were to his right knee. He suffered strained MCL and PCL ligaments when his leg
buckled underneath him. Happs return, which came exactly three months after the
incident, would have been much sooner if not for the knee trouble. Almost six
weeks after Happ was hurt, an Eric Hosmer line drive hit Cobb in the head in the
fifth inning of the June 15 Rays-Royals game. Cobb suffered a concussion and had
to work through the effects of his head trauma before returning to the majors on
Thursday, exactly two months after the incident. The two men didnt know each
other beforehand and since, theyve kept in touch via text messages and have
struck up a friendship. While neither relied on the other for support through
the recovery process, they share a bond very few can understand. "Not too many
people know what youve gone through on a personal level so to know his battles,
although they were different, they were almost more severe and more troublesome
in some cases with his knee," said Cobb. "Its really nice to see him back out on
a big league field and pitching well, too." Happ happened to be watching at the
time Cobb was injured. "It was just such a surreal thing," said Happ. "Again,
just to see him and be able to catch up and see that the healing has taken
place, thats the biggest thing. Definitely a scare with some of the issues that
he had to deal with that I didnt. "He had a little bit more to overcome in that
sense and really glad to see he was able to do that."
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Williams Jersey Large . "Theyve both been real good," said Babcock.
"Havent changed our minds." A decision has seemingly been made - Sundays Group
B-deciding tilt against Finland ahead - but it could not have been an easy one.
Price opened the tournament with a sturdy 19-save performance against the
Norwegians, yielding just one goal.
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Banks Jersey Large . MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Miami-Dade County
Mayor Carlos Gimenez also will attend the session, which was announced Monday.
The league has discussed placing its next two expansion teams in Miami and
Atlanta.
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.J. -- New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz will miss the rest of the
season after having surgery on his left knee.
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Kerry Wood Jersey . "Were just throwing s--- at the wall hoping something
sticks," said Tortorella about the possible line combinations for Fridays game
against Columbus. The Canucks have lost five straight games and six of their
last seven, leaving them in a logjam in the Pacific Division, currently sitting
fifth - good for ninth in the Western Conference.
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Ron Santo Jersey . The third-ranked Ivanovic, who won the event in 2008
and 10, served five aces and broke Wickmayer, also a former winner in 2009, five
times. "The result looked easier than it really was," Ivanovic said.
Financially-stricken Durham have secured a financial rescue package from Durham
County Council which will further help to secure the future of professional
cricket in Englands most northerly outpost.Durham County Council has agreed to
convert loans of ￡3.74m into shares, so freeing the county from interest
payments on long-standing debts.Under the ECB-brokered settlement, Durham County
Council has agreed to convert its debts into redeemable preference shares. The
ECB has restructured Durham as a community interest company, which enables it to
distribute up to 35% of profits - should they become available - to
shareholders.The council has received interest payments of around ￡700,000 on
their loans since 2009 - variously charging 4.7% and 7% annually on the loans.
The councils own calculations state that with interest rates at record lows they
would only have made ￡140,000 interest in the same period by conventional
investments. The agreement follows the ECBs own ￡3.8m rescue package, which
included writing off nearly ￡2m of its own loans to the county.That bailout came
with punitive measures: the sacking of the Durham board, relegation from
Division One of the Championship and penalty points in all three competitions at
the start of next season.But Durham can stage ODIs and T20Is and it is here,
combined with stringent cost cutting and a growth in their mediocre T20
attendances, where it is hoped future profitability lies.The terms of the ECB
rescue package were enforced by the ECB after Durhams long-standing failures to
attract investment into the club brought their financial problems to a head this
year. Payments to service debt interest were running at nearly ￡1m a year.The
ECB told the council that only one party - unnamed - had showed interest, but
the approach was rejected because of their fit and proper person guidelines,
which are designed to prevent clubs being bled dry by investors without its best
interests at heart.Council representatives were told if they also failed to
agree to the rescue there was a significant risk that the club would enter
administration, leaving the bulk of their loan lost. Durham County Council
already owns the land the clubs Riverside ground is built on, and leases it to
the club.A cursory Durham statement said: The clubs difficult financial position
was brought to a head earlier in the year by the unexpected calling in of a long
term loan and the challenge of securing, in time, private development
investment.The club is pleased that this has been achieved without the need ffor
significant public debt write off as has been the case elsewhere in
cricket.ddddddddddddDurhams secrecy has long been illustrated by their refusal
to reveal the identity of two long-term financial backers in the Middle East who
are no longer involved with the club.Durham County Council has shown rather more
detailed commitment to local democracy than the cricket club it has now helped
to save.A council report available here states: DCCC had hoped that commercial
and residential developments on the site could have provided much needed
financial security but it was unlikely that these benefits could be realised
quickly enough.Over the last three years the council has worked with DCCC to
significantly reduce their costs with circa ￡1million in costs taken out of the
business - mainly from a significant reduction on player costs.Similarly, the
council has worked closely with the club to drive forward commercial development
of the site including a hotel and conference centre which would help derive
additional income for the club.Without additional financial support from the ECB
via an all creditor agreement and a restructuring of loans or a significant
injection of capital from an alternate source, the club could not continue to
run on a solvent basis and across the summer appointed an insolvency
practitioner to advise the Board on options available to it.The appointed
insolvency practitioner (RSM UK) undertook soft market testing to gauge interest
in purchasing the club across the summer, although they were unable to find
suitable buyers.There has been less support so far in writing off or converting
debts into equity from other creditors.Both CR Financial Solutions, a
London-based company which focuses on real estate, bought out Durhams
outstanding bank debt of ￡788,000, and the North East Local Enterprise
Partnership, is owed ￡771,000. Both have been unresponsive. The clubs outgoing
directors depart with collective debts of ￡415,000 still owed to them.The ECB is
expected to take on the bank debt from CR Financial Solutions, so protecting the
future of the ground, and further increasing its own indebtedness.It has already
agreed to write off nearly ￡2m of loans and, as part of the deal, has withdrawn
Durhams Test match status, a convenient solution to the recognition that the
dash for growth over the past decade or so has left more grounds seeking Test
fixtures than are sustainable. ' ' '
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