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ekansekans's blog: "df"

created on 10/29/2012  |  http://fubar.com/df/b351055

ATLANTA -- Hawks forward Josh Smith will miss Sunday nights game at Oklahoma City because of a right ankle sprain. Atlanta says Smith wont travel with the team. There was no mention of the injury after Smith played 41 minutes in the Hawks season-opening 109-102 loss to Houston on Friday night. The Hawks said on Saturday that Smith was injured during the game. Smith had 18 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots against the Rockets. Smith set career highs by averaging 18.8 points and 9.6 rebounds last season. The Hawks say backup centre Johan Petro will also miss Sundays game because of a lower back injury. He wasnt in uniform on Friday night. Cheap Jerseys China . The 32-year-old Owen has agreed to a one-year deal with Stoke after failing to re-ignite his career at Old Trafford during three injury-blighted seasons. Stoke announced details of the signing on Twitter. Cheap Jerseys Sale . -- Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt says quarterback Kevin Kolb may miss the teams late Tuesday afternoon workout with a bruised right thigh but will return to practice on Thursday. http://facialhairstyleshq.info/cheapjerseys.html . -- Rudy Gay re-entered a close game with about five minutes left and ended the Denver Nuggets hopes of earning a win on the second night of back-to-back games.NEW YORK -- Nobody was happier about the Hall of Fame shutout than the Hall of Famers themselves. Goose Gossage, Al Kaline, Dennis Eckersley and others are in no rush to open the door to Cooperstown for anyone linked to steroids. Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa: Keep em all out of our club. "If they let these guys in ever -- at any point -- its a big black eye for the Hall and for baseball," Gossage said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "Its like telling our kids you can cheat, you can do whatever you want, and its not going to matter." For only the second time in 42 years, baseball writers failed to elect anyone to the Hall of Fame on Wednesday, sending a firm signal that stars of the Steroids Era will be held to a different standard. All the awards and accomplishments collected over storied careers by Bonds, Clemens and Sosa -- all eligible for the first time -- could not offset suspicions those exploits were artificially boosted by performance-enhancing drugs. "Im kind of glad that nobody got in this year," Kaline said. "I feel honoured to be in the Hall of Fame. And I wouldve felt a little uneasy sitting up there on the stage, listening to some of these new guys talk about how great they were." Gossage went even further. "I think the steroids guys that are under suspicion got too many votes," he said. "I dont know why theyre making this such a question and why theres so much debate. To me, they cheated. Are we going to reward these guys?" Not this year, at least. Bonds received just 36.2 per cent of the vote and Clemens 37.6 in totals announced by the Hall and the Baseball Writers Association of America, both well short of the 75 per cent needed for election -- yet still too close for Gossages taste. Sosa, eighth on the career home run list, got 12.5 per cent. "Wow! Baseball writers make a statement," Eckersley wrote on Twitter. "Feels right." The results keep the sports career home run leader (Bonds) and most decorated pitcher (Clemens) out of Cooperstown -- for now. Bonds, Clemens and Sosa have up to 14 more years on the writers ballot to gain baseballs highest honour. "Even having just been considered for the first time is already great honour, and theres always a next time," Sosa said in a statement. "Baseball has been extremely good for me! Kiss to the heaven! It was an honour just to have been nominated. Im happy about that." Bonds, baseballs only seven-time MVP, hit 762 home runs -- including a record 73 in 2001. He has denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs and was convicted of one count of obstruction of justice for giving an evasive answer in 2003 to a grand jury investigating PEDs. Clemens, the games lone seven-time Cy Young Award winner, is third in career strikeouts (4,672) and ninth in wins (354). He was acquitted of perjury charges stemming from congressional testimony during which he denied using PEDs. "If you dont think Roger Clemens cheated, youre burying your head in the sand," Gossage said. Sosa, who finished with 609 home runs, was among those who tested positive in MLBs 2003 anonymous survey, The New York Times reported in 2009. He told a congressional committee in 2005 that he never took illegal performance-enhancing drugs. He also was caught using a corked bat during his career. "What really gets me is seeing how some of these players associated with drugs have jumped over many oof the greats in our game," Kaline said.dddddddddddd "Numbers mean a lot in baseball, maybe more so than in any other sport. And going back to Babe Ruth, and players like Harmon Killebrew and Frank Robinson and Willie Mays, seeing people jump over them with 600, 700 home runs, I dont like to see that. "I dont know how great some of these players up for election wouldve been without drugs. But to me, its cheating," he added. "Numbers are important, but so is integrity and character. Some of these guys might get in someday. But for a year or two, Im glad they didnt." Gossage, noting that cyclist Lance Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles following allegations that he used performance-enhancing drugs, believes baseball should go just as far. He thinks the record book should be overhauled, taking away the accomplishments of players like Bonds, Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and Mark McGwire -- who has admitted using steroids and human growth hormone during his playing days. McGwire, 10th on the career home run chart, received 16.9 per cent of the vote on his seventh Hall try, down from 19.5 last year. "I dont know if baseball knows how to deal with this at all," Gossage said. "Why dont they strip these guys of all these numbers? Youve got to suffer the consequences. You get caught cheating on a test, you get expelled from school." Juan Marichal is one Hall of Famer who doesnt see it that way. The former pitcher believes Bonds, Clemens and Sosa belong in Cooperstown. "I think that they have been unfair to guys who were never found guilty of anything," Marichal said. "Their stats define them as immortals. Thats the reality and that cannot be denied." The BBWAA election rules say "voting shall be based upon the players record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s) on which the player played." While much of the focus this year was on Bonds, Clemens and Sosa, every other player with Cooperstown credentials was denied, too. Craig Biggio, 20th on the career list with 3,060 hits, came the closest. He was chosen on 68.2 per cent of the 569 ballots, 39 shy of election. Among other first-year eligibles, Mike Piazza received 57.8 per cent and Curt Schilling 38.8. Jack Morris topped holdovers with 67.7 per cent. None of those players have been publicly linked to PED use, so its difficult to determine whether they fell short due to suspicion, their stats -- or the overall stench of the era they played in. "What were witnessing here is innocent people paying for the sinners," Marichal said. Hall of Fame slugger Mike Schmidt said that comes with the territory. "Its not news that Bonds, Clemens, Sosa, Palmeiro, and McGwire didnt get in, but that they received hardly any consideration at all. The real news is that Biggio and Piazza were well under the 75 per cent needed," Schmidt wrote in an email to the AP. "Curt Schilling made a good point. Everyone was guilty. Either you used PEDs, or you did nothing to stop their use. This generation got rich. Seems there was a price to pay." At ceremonies in Cooperstown on July 28, the only inductees will be three men who died more than 70 years ago: Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert, umpire Hank ODay and barehanded catcher Deacon White. They were chosen last month by the 16-member panel considering individuals from the era before integration in 1947. ' ' ' 

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