T.O. Wants the Ball Earlier

TO spent his time telling the media he’d like to get the football earlier in the game. TO says it’s boring going so long without any action.

Owens can make plays, but he’s got to understand Bill Parcells won’t change his offense for any player. Oh by the way, one Parcells guy tells me the Tuna thinks Terry Glenn is a better receiver.

TO had it better in the West Coast offense where they like to set up the run by using the pass. He can fight it all he wants to, but he’s wasting his time.

Newy Scruggs
www.newdawg.com

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Stars Lose

The Stars lost for the first time last night. The Sharks got ’em 2-0.

No shame in that. It was a long West Coast roadie. Maybe the Stars are onto something. Most predicted the demise of the Stars. Not so fast my friends as ESPN’s Lee Corso says.

This Stars club should be a playoff squad. It be nice if they won the Western Conference since NBC 5 will have the Stanley Cup Finals in June.

Newy Scruggs
www.newdawg.com

Interesting Monday Nights Stats

The 3-2 Cowboys host the 3-2 New York Giants on Monday Night Football.

The Cowboys are ranked #1 against the run. The Giants are tied with Dallas for rushing at 151.8 yards a game.

The Cowboys average 29.4 points a game. That’s fourth best in the league. The
G-Men score 25.4 a game. Sixth in the NFL.

The Cowboy D is 6th in Total Defense.

The Giants have 40 penalties for 323 yards. The Cowboys have 39 for 366 yards.

The Cowboys are tied with Miami for the most Monday Night Football wins, 39.

The Dallas offense is 3rd best in the NFL on 3rd Down….the Cowboys defense is 5th best at stopping 3rd Down conversions.

For all the beating Drew Bledsoe has taken, the offense is 2nd in the league in red zone scoring.

Newy Scruggs
www.newdawg.com

Avery Finally Gets Paid

It took way too long, but Mavs owner Mark Cuban paid head coach Avery Johnson.

His 4-year $20 million extension was warranted after leading the Mavericks to the NBA Finals and winning the NBA Coach of the Year award.

All in his first full season as head coach.

Johnson is the best pro coach in the DFW market. Some may say Bill Parcells of the Cowboys, but the man has yet to win the NFC East or a playoff game in Dallas.

The Mavs probably won’t repeat as Western Conference champs. It’s hard being the one all teams are chasing. The West is tougher than ever.

But at least with Avery on board, you know the Mavs will be in the thick of the chase.

Newy Scruggs
www.newdawg.com

Rangers Fans Are Upset At Tom Hicks

Got a great email from a Ranger Fans about my column that appeared in the Star-Telegram last Saturday.

I got a bunch of emails from fans who thought I was right on about cancelling their season tickets because of Tom Hicks’ organizational management.

Newy,

I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your “In My Opinion” article in the FWST last Saturday about the Rangers. You nailed it in my opinion.

It all goes back to Hapless Hicks . . . he has no emotional investment in this team. Compare Hicks’ emotional investment in the Rangers to that of Jerry Jones or Mark Cuban. Nutty as both can often be, you cannot question that they both burn with a passion to win. Hicks doesn’t, he doesn’t care at all.

And as for the financial investment of Hapless Hicks in the Rangers? It’s minimal, at least by MLB standards. Number 4 or 5 market in the country, with the 22nd ranked payroll (out of 30 MLB teams). It’s a shame for all fans of The Great Game here in DFW, who are treated as if we live in Omaha or Birmingham or Quad Cities, USA.

Hicks is a liar, you were right on the money with the ARod trade going down less than 24 hours after season ticket bills were due. He’s a fraud of an owner, who sold the name of The Ballpark (paid for by bondholders and Arlington citizens like me), promising to put that money back into the team on the field, and he hasn’t spent a dime of it. The payroll here is only about 2/3 what it used to be. By the way, have you seen any of that “Financial Flexibility” Hicks espouses, or that “player specific payroll”? What does that #%&!#*% mean anyway? Hicks should sell to someone who cares, or else he should resign in disgrace, a la Richard Nixon.

As you call for in your article, it’s about time fans starting voting with their feet and with their pocketbooks. Then, and only then, under new ownership, can we eliminate the sleazy slimy stench that emanates from the very top of this organization from Hick’s office.

One final stat for you that you ought to point out to your listeners and readers sometime, think about this one . . . 8 years as an owner (EIGHT YEARS!), and from 1998-2006 the Hapless Hicks has a won-loss record as Rangers owner of . . . . . .491

Numbers don’t lie . . . and Hicks is a LOSER as an owner.

For The Love of The Game, and the good of all baseball fans in north Texas, the ONLY solution is to tar and feather the Hapless Hicks and run him out of town on a rail. Or just stop supporting him financially until he resigns in disgrace himself. That’s what I did – same as you apparently. And how many other baseball fans must Hicks drive away from The Ballpark and The Great Game until he gets the message?

Ron Morgan
Arlington

Newy Scruggs
www.newdawg.com

Rangers Just Aren’t Worth It

Dear Texas Rangers season ticket holder,

Save your money. This century has been one big mess.

The Rangers are the only team in the AL West that hasn’t made the postseason since the new millennium.

Let Tom Hicks know you’re fed up with his wayward ship by not renewing your tickets.

Serving up Buck Showalter as a scapegoat won’t improve the starting pitching.

Hicks thinks you will buy tickets to see his club next year with a new skipper in the dugout.

Puleeeze!

Last time I checked, fans paid to see players, not managers.

Before you plunk down your hard-earned dollar to see another third- or last-place team, ask yourself, “What are the Rangers? Where are they going?”

Doug Melvin was fired as general manager because Hicks didn’t want to rebuild. He also advised the owner not to give Alex Rodriguez a $252 million contract.

In February 2004, I was one of those former season ticket holders who heard Hicks preach about how A-Rod wasn’t going to be traded, only to see A-Rod shipped off to the Yankees…a day after season ticket holders had to pay in full.

Ask former GM-in-waiting Grady Fuson if you can believe what Hicks says. He was run out of town after being promised the job.

How’d that John Hart Era work out?

Paying customers should be tired of the carousel of executives, managers and players being run out of town and their names besmirched in the process, all in the name of trying to sell tickets.

This team has become the joke of the Metroplex.

Somebody keep the owner off the radio so he stops insulting fan favorite Michael Young. Hide the phone and pray he’ll stop taking calls from agent Scott Boras.

GM Jon Daniels should be the only voice he listens to, but someone always seems to bend Hicks’ ear and the organizational plans change in an instant.

They stick to the plan in Oakland. They stick to the plan in Minnesota. The Yankees and Red Sox will spend to be winners.

What are the Rangers? Hicks seems to spend just enough to keep you coming back, hoping the team can catch magic like the 2004 club.

I understand some of you diehard fans still need to be at the ballpark having a hot dog and watching the great game of baseball.

But don’t buy season tickets. Just wait ’til after the All-Star break, when disgruntled fans start giving them away.

You can demand a better organizational plan by saving your paycheck.

Sincerely,
Newy Scruggs
www.newdawg.com

Haynesworth Deserves An 8-Game Suspension

The NFL and/or theTitans need to suspend defensive lineman, Albert Haynesworth, for at least 8 games and hit him with a major fine.

Haynesworth turned thug by using his cleat to step on the face of Cowboys center Andre Gurode. Gurode, a free agent after the season, needed 30 stitches above his eye.

I’m outraged as a fan of the NFL. Haynesworth is messing with another man’s craft. The game is tough and rough enough without that dirty type of play.

Gurode’s helmet came off as the O-line mashed Haynesworth and company for a
1-yard touchdown run by Julius Jones. The Titans D-Line got its butt kicked all day. Instead of being a real man and just playing the game, Haynesworth decided to become a thug and put another player’s livelihood in danger.

That bum should sit out 8 games so his team is hurt and he can look at his teammates try to win games while he sits out to think about the privilege it is to play in the NFL.

Newy Scruggs
www.newdawg.com