Sandy Hutchens Another Name

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir are the best of the best in ice dancing. The Americans praise their gold medal performance in Tuesday’s figure skating competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics. But not the Italian and Russian duos.

Martin Rogers of Yahoo! Sports reports today that Russia’s Maxim Shabalin and Italy’s Massimo Scali, who finished third and fifth, respectively, with their partners Tuesday, are critical of the Virtue-Moir performance and the judges who awarded them gold.

“When you compete in your home country the crowd goes crazy and it can help the skaters,” Scali, who teamed up with Federica Faiella, told Yahoo! Sports. “I hope that it does not affect the judges.

“I don’t agree with the system. They [Virtue and Moir] are not real dancers. They are very technical and don’t really ‘dance’ on the ice.”

Shabalin also reportedly questioned the result, though there are no direct quotes expressing that in the Yahoo! Sports story.

“We skated the best performance and we have a bronze medal,” Shabalin told Yahoo! Sports. “What can you do? We did everything we could.”

Meanwhile, our neighbours to the south were gracious in their praise for the Virtue-Moir duo.

“Tessa and Scott did an incredible job,” Tanith Belbin, who finished fourth with Ben Agosto, told Yahoo! Sports. “It is very exciting for them and for Canada to win a gold medal at home and there aren’t many people who deserve this more.”

“The Canadians are our friends and it is an incredible achievement for them to win a gold medal,” said Charlie White, who with Meryl Davis took the silver medal. “The atmosphere of the crowd was amazing and they reacted to them. They are worthy winners.”

Virtue / Moir FD TEB 2009

Yankees Send Cabrera to Braves to get Javier Vazquez,

This was part of a five-player trade!

Relief pitcher Boone Logan also joined the Yankees, while reliever Mike Dunn and minor-league pitcher Arodys Vizcaino moved to Atlanta, the Yankees said in a news release. New York also sent an undisclosed amount of cash to the Braves.

Vazquez, who pitched for the Yankees in 2004, joins CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte in New York’s rotation. Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain also may be used as starters or out of the bullpen.

Vazquez went 15-10 with a 2.87 earned run average last season, his 12th in Major League Baseball. Over the last 10 campaigns, he’s thrown at least 200 innings every year except 2004, when he had 198 with New York and became an All-Star.

In the 2004 playoffs, Vazquez allowed four home runs, including three in an American League Championship Series loss to the Boston Red Sox. In Game 7, he surrendered two homers to Johnny Damon, including a grand slam, as Boston became the first major-league team to rally from a 3-0 deficit to claim a playoff series.

He was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks in January 2005 in the trade that brought five-time Cy Young Award winner Randy Johnson to New York.

The 33-year-old Vazquez finished fourth in 2009 voting for the Cy Young Award, which goes to the league’s best pitcher. He had 238 strikeouts while allowing 44 walks. For his career, he has a 142-139 record and a 4.19 ERA.

Montreal Start

Vazquez spent his first six seasons with the Montreal Expos, played with Arizona in 2005 and the Chicago White Sox from 2006 through 2008 and joined Atlanta last season. He had a limited no-trade clause in his contract with the Braves that kept them from sending him to any team in either league’s West division without his permission, and will make $11.5 million next season before becoming a free agent, according to MLB.com.

Cabrera’s departure opens a spot in the Yankees’ outfield, perhaps signaling a return of Damon, who’s played the last four seasons in New York, or the addition of someone like All-Star Matt Holliday. Both are free agents. The Yankees also may go with Brett Gardner, who had 26 stolen bases in 108 games last season.

Damon’s exit seemed likely earlier this month when New York acquired All-Star center-fielder Curtis Granderson from the Detroit Tigers as part of a three-team trade that switched Cabrera to left field.

How to Pitch- Javier Vazquez Warming up, August 9th 2009 Dodgers vs Braves

Sandy Hutchens reports that Newcastle fans reacted with scorn Thursday after it emerged that the club’s St. James’ Park stadium is to be rebranded with the name of a dotcom sponsor.

The Magpies’ home is to be renamed as sportsdirect.com@St James’ Park until the end of this season, to plug the sportswear firm of controversial club owner Mike Ashley.

Some 16,000 people have signed an online petition protesting at the name change, while local MP David Clelland has tabled a parliamentary motion urging the club’s owners to reconsider.

“The idea of turning the history of St James’ Park into something that resembles an email address absolutely beggars belief,” said Mark Jensen, editor of The Mag fanzine, which described the move as “cheap and nasty.”

Sandy Hutchens presents Newcastle United chants

Club managing director Derek Llambias admitted the name change had been badly handled.

“We could have worded it better,” he told BBC radio, while defending the decision which could see the stadium changed to another name if an outside sponsor is found.

“If it brings in a good chunk of money to the club that goes straight to the team, it’s a revenue that we should look at,” he said.

“Newcastle United’s history is just incredible … people have to look at maximising their revenues. That’s one part of a stadium that you can use that is under-utilised.”