Big Ten Message Board and Fan Site launched

Big Ten fans now have a new place to go to talk Big Ten football & basketball on the Web as BigTen-fans.com has launched their new Big Ten football & basketball message boards. While the remainder of the Big Ten sports fan site, BigTen-fans.com will be launched in July, the Director of the Dash Fans Network of Independent College Sports Fan Sites, said that he is pleased with the progress so far and decided that starting up the message boards/forums would give them a small head start for when the rest of the site is live. "I am very pleased with the potential for this site and we have our writing staff hard at work on our Big Ten football preview." The DFN team expects the Big Ten team previews to be ready in ealry July and plans to release 1-2 each week until the kickoff of the 2006 season.

Big Ten football & basketball message boards

Cleveland Indians: Jason Johnson Designated for Assignment

In a long overdue move, the Cleveland Indians designated Jason Johnson for assignment, giving them 10 days to trade or release the lackluster starting pitcher. Johnson was signed to a 1 year $3.5 million deal at the beginning of the year as the Indians tried to make up for the loss of starters Kevin Millwood and Scott Elarton. It appears that highly touted prospect Jeremy Sowers will take Johnson's place in the rotation.

The signing of Johnson didn't make much sense to many Indians fans, yours included, from the very beginning. Johnson had been no more than mediocre during his stints in Detroit and Baltimore. Also, as the Indians traded Coco Crisp in a deal that appeared to increase their chances of competing in '07, it only made sense to give a young starter like Sowers, Fausto Carmona, or Jeremy Guthrie a chance. Mark Shapiro missed the boat on this one... In hindsight that $3.5 million would have been better served as an investment in the bullpen, which has experienced trouble holding leads this season.

In other news, Jeremy Guthrie was optioned to AAA. Here's hoping the Indians put him back in the rotation where he belongs. Guthrie has much more value as a future starter than a quick fix in the bullpen for the sinking ship that is becoming this season.

VanDelay Sports releases MAC Football Pigskin Preview

VanDelay Sports, the Mid-American Conference’s premier site for MAC football and basketball news, picks, articles and links, has released their annual Pigskin Preview. Since the late 1990’s Nick Gerogosian, the owner of VanDelay Sports, has spent countless hours each summer preparing the annual MAC football preview which details Nick’s expected final MAC standings, his All-VanDelay MAC Football team and his predictions for any 2006 MAC non-conference game wins.

Next week it is expected that VanDelay Sports will release the team previews where Nick details all 12 current MAC football members and tells how he came up with his final record predictions.

2006 MAC Football Pigskin Preview

Roethlisberger a lucky man; condition upgraded

Ben Roethlisberger should consider himself a lucky man. Just hours after telling Cleveland's WTAM 1100 host Bill Wills that he is extremely blessed and thanks God for the good fortune in his life on Monday, Big Ben was involved in a motorcycle crash in downtown Pittsburgh.

The latest on Roethlisberger is that his condition has been upgraded from serious to fair as he recovers from fractures in his upper and lower jaws, a broken nose, multiple head lacerations, a mild concussion, and the loss of two teeth as well as several other chipped teeth.

After claiming he was "blessed" before all of this happened I am going to have to agree that Big Ben is indeed blessed and maybe a little lucky as well. This entire incident could be much more tragic; instead reports are that Big Ben has no brain damage and is completely aware of what happened. While speculation about his football career is everywhere, what matters the most is that Roethlisberger is expected to recover from this accident completely.

Roethlisberger in serious condition after motorcycle wreck

Former Miami RedHawk and current Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is in serious but stable condition in a Pittsburgh hospital after a motorcycle accident earlier today. Roethlisberger was a guest on Cleveland radio station 1100 WTAM's Wills & Coleman in the morning show around 7:45 am before news broke of his motorcycle crash around noon today.

Cincinnati Reds: First Place Reds win 8th straight

The Cincinnati Reds are on a roll as they defeated the Chicago Cubs last night for their 8th straight win moving them ½ game ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1st place in the NL Central. But what is the biggest key for the Reds success this season? They’re taking advantage of the opportunities given to them. With superstars Albert Pujols (Cardinals), Derek Lee & Mark Prior (Cubs) and Roy Oswalt (Astros) all battling injuries and Roger Clemens (Astros) pitching in the minor leagues, the Reds are beating up on their NL Central foes. During the current 8-game winning streak the Reds have defeated the Cards and Astros 3 times each and the Cubs twice, and on the season Cincinnati is 25-12 against NL Central Division teams. As a result of their longest winning streak since 1999, the Reds have erased a 5-game deficit behind the Cardinals in a week’s time, and at 36-24 the Reds lead Houston by 6.5 games and the Cubs by 12.5 games.

Cincinnati Reds: Griffey ties HR record then wins game for Reds with another HR

Some have thought that Ken Griffey, Jr., was washed up in the past few years. Battling a plethora of leg injuries including hamstring problems that would lead most any athlete to call it quits, Junior quieted (but not silenced) the critics last year with 35 HR and 92 RBI. But an early-season stint on the DL caused some in Cincinnati to voice concern over Griffey’s defensive play in CF and whether he should move to LF or RF. While it seems that, too, has quieted down, it is apparent that Griffey’s bat is not remaining quiet for the Reds. After hitting a walk-off, game-winning homerun to beat Washington on May 11th in his first game back from the DL, Griffey began a stretch that would see him hit 5 HR with 21 RBI in 19 games in May.

So far in June he has connected for 5 HR and 10 RBI in just 3 games, including 2 HR and 4 RBI last night. The first of Griffey’s 2 HR came in the 5th inning as Junior homered in the 43rd ballpark of his career, tying Fred McGriff for the Major League Baseball record. Then Griffey came to the plate in the 9th with the Reds trailing 7-5 and St. Louis closer Jason Isringhausen on the mound. Junior sent the ball over the fence for the second time in the game giving the Reds their 5th straight win while cutting the St. Louis lead in the NL Central to just 2 games over the Reds.

With all of Griffey’s success comes the obvious question “can he stay healthy?” While that remains to be seen, it is obvious that the man that was once supposed to be the heir-apparent to Hank Aaron’s HR record is still producing when he is healthy. Griffey currently has 10 HR and 34 RBI in 31 games in 2006. At his current rate he is on pace to hit 44 HR with 149 RBI in just 136 games. If Junior can put season-ending numbers like that up he may just lead the Reds to a playoff berth in 2006. With 546 career homeruns, Griffey now trails former Ohio Bobcats and Philadelphia Phillies 3B Mike Schmidt for 11th on the career HR list.

Ohio Baseball Update: Reds surge, Indians stumble

The weekend was a great one for one Ohio Major League Baseball team and a not-so-great one for the other. While the Cincinnati Reds were coming off a 2-1 series loss in Chicago to the Cubs, they didn’t seem to let that bother them as the slugged their way to a 3-game series sweep in Houston. The sweep of the Astros marked the first 3+ game series sweep by the Reds in Houston since they swept the Astros in 4 games during the 1999 season. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Indians were unable to capitalize on their momentum from their 3-1 series win over the Chicago White Sox as they dropped 2 of 3 games to the team with the dumbest name in the history of professional sports, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The entire 3-game series was a slugfest seeing the Indians lose game 1 by a score of 10-3, winning game 2 by a score of 14-2 and losing game 3 by a score of 14-2.

The Reds begin a 3-game series in St. Louis to face the Cardinals who lost superstar 1B Albert Pujols on Saturday to the DL. The Reds are now 32-24 and in 2nd place in the NL Central trailing the Cardinals by 3 games. Meanwhile, the Indians remain in 3rd place in the AL Central at 28-28 trailing the Detroit Tigers by 8.5 games and the Chicago White Sox by 6 games. The Indians begin a 3-game series at home against the Oakland A’s on Tuesday before a 3-game series at the Chicago White Sox which begins on Friday.

Cleveland Indians: Tribe comebacks lead to 3-1 series win over White Sox

Last season it was the Chicago White Sox who haunted the Cleveland Indians while the Chi Sox were on their way to a World Series Championship. This season the roles seem to be reversed. Consecutive 4-run innings in the 6th and 7th led the Tribe to a 12-8 win last night as the Indians now have a 6-3 season advantage over their AL Central Division rivals the Chicago White Sox.

Ronnie Belliard powered the Indians with a HR and 4 RBI while Jason Michaels, Grady Sizemore and Ben Broussard each added 2 RBI as well. With the win the Indians are now 27-26 on the year and trail the Detroit Tigers by 8.5 games and the White Sox by 6 games. While those deficits may seem large, the Tribe has momentum on their side having gained 3 games on the White Sox and 2 on the Tigers in the past 3 days.

So have the Indians finally turned the corner? Will we see the team that went into the final week of the 2005 season as a strong playoff contender? Indians broadcaster Matt Underwood think the Indians might have hit “rock-bottom” in their 11-0 Memorial Day loss to the White Sox at home. But with 3 straight wins over the defending World Series Champions and a struggling LA Angels of Anaheim coming to town for the weekend, it is time to see the Tribe ride this momentum to a long hot streak and gain even more ground on the White Sox and Tigers.