bullets13

HOUSTON -- Shawn Chacon was put on waivers Thursday by the Houston Astros, a day after he got into a physical altercation with general manager Ed Wade. If another team doesn't claim Chacon by Monday, the Astros say they will release the pitcher and terminate his contract for cause, which would set off a confrontation with the players' association over the nearly $1 million that would remain on Chacon's deal. "Based on the information we have to date, we believe the Astros' response violates the Basic Agreement," union general counsel Michael Weiner said. "If Shawn Chacon clears waivers and is released, we will pursue appropriate relief on his behalf." If Chacon is released Monday, $983,607 of his $2 million salary would be in dispute. The union could also claim lost bonus opportunities for the pitcher, who has $1 million in available performance bonuses in his agreement, starting with 130 innings and ending with 210 innings. Houston says Chacon violated a provision in the uniform player contract that states the player may be terminated if he shall "fail, refuse or neglect to conform his personal conduct to the standards of good citizenship and good sportsmanship or to keep himself in first-class physical condition or to obey to the club's training rules." Chacon's agent, Dan Horwits, said he would wait to see if his client clear waivers before he addresses whether a grievance would be filed. "As the process unfolds there will be more facts revealed which will shed more light on the situation," Horwits said. "By no means does that mean the physical confrontation was appropriate, and Shawn knows that." Wade said the problems began when he asked manager Cecil Cooper to call Chacon into a meeting to discuss media reports that he was asking for a trade because he was unhappy with being bumped from the rotation. After Chacon refused Cooper's repeated requests to come to his office for the meeting, Wade went into the team dining room to try to get him to meet. After he said he wanted to speak in the dining room, things became heated. "I did not raise my voice to the player, curse the player," Wade said. "I did not make any defamatory remarks toward the player. Chacon responded with profane and threatening remarks and got up from his seat. He moved in front of me until we were chest to chest and then he shoved me to the ground. When I attempted to get to my feet, he shoved me a second time. At this point players and coaches intervened." Wade said this wasn't the first problem with Chacon. He said he ignored pitching coach Dewey Robinson when he asked him to throw a bullpen session during Tuesday's game. Wade said Chacon also ignored Robinson when he approached him during the first inning of a game June 1 at Milwaukee. Wade said Cooper followed Chacon to the clubhouse to "settle him down" during that game but instead had to pull him from the game. Chacon was fined for that incident. "As an organization we believe that we have fairly treated this player," Wade said. "His pattern of disrespect and defiance to me, to the manager, the pitching coach and most importantly the organization led us to this decision." Chacon is 2-3 with a 5.04 ERA in 15 starts and 85 2/3 innings for Houston this year. The right-hander set a major-league record for a starting pitcher with nine straight no-decisions to open the season. Astros owner Drayton McLane said he spoke to baseball commissioner Bud Selig on Thursday and Selig supports the position the team has taken. "It's very disappointing," McLane said of the altercation. "Our goal has always been to be very accountable and very responsible." Astros second baseman Mark Loretta, who witnessed the altercation, said McLane met with the team Wednesday before the game to discuss what happened. "He just told us to move forward," Loretta said. "Something happened that was unfortunate and let's put it behind us and move on." Houston ace Roy Oswalt said he hopes the incident doesn't ruin Chacon's career. "A lot of people said it did, but you never know," he said. "Hopefully he'll get a chance with somebody else. I don't know. You can't really judge one person on one thing." Rangers manager Ron Washington, in town to play the Astros, isn't sure if he'll get a second chance. "After that with Wade, I don't know if that will happen," he said. Astros lefty Wesley Wright, a rookie who was close to Chacon, said he helped him adjust to the majors and that he'll miss him. He's optimistic another team will pick him up. "This is America, you always get a second chance," Wright said. "Hopefully things will work out in his favor and our favor and after ties are cut with the Astros he can move on somewhere else and be successful." The Astros purchased the contract of right-hander Runelvys Hernandez from Triple-A Round Rock to take Chacon's spot on the roster. On Thursday, Hernandez moved into the locker that Chacon had occupied.

it's still amazing to me the number of these guys who come out early and either get picked in the 2nd round or don't get picked at all.

the stros' ace is liking like a #4 or #5 starter this year.

(AP) Aaron Boone became the fourth member of his family to get 1,000 hits in the majors, reaching the milestone Wednesday night in Washington's 5-4 win over the Los Angeles Angels. Boone hit the mark with an infield single in the bottom of the eighth inning. He joined grandfather Ray (1,260), father Bob (1,838) and brother Bret (1,775) in the achievement. Boone became the 1,171st player in major league history to get at least 1,000 career hits.

The badge issue is hilarious to me... this sheriff is sitting there with a heavy heart, and is devestated that he has to get his badge back, as this is an important issue to him. Shaq is off in another state, saying "who?" "What badge?" "Hmm... I'll have to see if I can find it."

I passed up on the Glock and got a Springfield HD, and I absolutely love it.

boy did i give him waaaaay too much credit. what i should've said is "i'm gonna guess that this will come out to roughly 8 million dollars a surgery."

A pretty good price that is insane? well, i figure these days, with what it costs to get out there, a little over 5 bucks a pound is better than what the guys i went with paid with their 6 or 7 pounds of fish apiece.

i caught a 13 pounder and a 6 pounder the other day, and five of us split gas, so i got a pretty good price per pound. it is insane, though.

(AP) New Castle County police have arrested a New Castle man accused of biting a referee who ejected him from a soccer game. Police say the man surrendered on Friday morning. According to police, the referee gave the soccer player a "red card" for unsportsmanlike conduct during the game Thursday evening at Weiss Parkland near Newark. That's when the soccer player allegedly grabbed the official and bit his face just below his lower lip and underneath his chin. Police say the bite caused deep cuts. The assailant ran off, but police obtained an arrest warrant after using the team roster to identify him. The man was charged with felony assault, abuse of a sports official, terroristic threatening, and harassment.

here's what i ended up doing, and it was a lot simpler... i marinated the snapper with melted butter, tony c's, red pepper, white pepper, black pepper, and jalepeno juice. then i sauteed bell peppers, jalepenos, and onions in a pan. when they were going good, i threw in the fish, and scattered the veggies on top while they cooked. when they were ready, i made a lemon butter sauce to spread on top, and ate the hell out of it. it was fantastic, and only took about 30 minutes between prep and cook time.

any ideas?

you getting into hunting? there are tons of options, depending on where you are hunting and the distance you plan on shooting from.

i must say i like the DH, because it allows teams the opportunity to play aging superstars who can still draw the fans in at the plate, but can't really field anymore. i'm ok with things staying the way they are, but if i were going to change something, i would rather see the DH in both leagues rather than pitchers batting in both leagues.

Tiger wins it in 19 holes!!! What a performance by Tiger on a bad knee!!!!!! Rocco Mediate was fantastic as well, and Tiger had to birdie 18 just to send it to extra holes. A fantastic tournament for both players!

hehehe

it looked to me like the refs were trying to reverse fix the game in order to end the series early to avoid any speculation that they might have fixed the series. ;D

i declare shenanigans

what an unbelievable round by tiger today! two extremely long eagles and a chip-in birdie on the back nine to finish 1-under for the day after starting out 3-over after 4 holes. he was five strokes back with 6 holes to play, and enters the clubhouse alone atop the leaderboard. oh yeah, did i mention he's doing all this on a knee that looks like it's going to go out every time he swings?

I'm going! Let's hope that Joba still looks like he needs to go back to the bullpen!

I hope this isn't true, but even if it is, the $250 Million lawsuit great reduces my sympathy for her. Hopefully any of these allegations that are proven will be dealt with swiftly and firmly by NASCAR, and hopefully any juror who hears her case will have the good sense to realize that she's out of her mind for asking for this much money.

so what happens when players who are holding players on start jumping out of bounds in order to not be involved with the play? it's not real likely, but it could happen on corner kicks and other set pieces around the area.

play as many as you want! I started out playing 3 sports when I got to high school, and finished playing two, simply because of scheduling conflicts. Soccer was my biggest sport, but I wouldn't have missed football for the world, even if there was a risk of injury that could later affect my soccer season. Every sport has something different to offer a kid, and every coach he comes in contact with has the opportunity to teach him and mold his character.

I'm watching Holland play Italy in the Euro Cup, and there was a goal allowed earlier that all of the announcers said should've been offsides. Anybody with a reffing background have any input? Here's the situation: On a flighted ball in, the Italy keeper came out and punched the ball away. When he did this, he ran into one of his own players, who was knocked over the endline out of bounds. A Holland player collected the punch, and tapped it back to a player at the 18, who drove it back in. A Holland forward was a yard offsides or so and redirected the ball into the back of the net. He would've clearly been offsides, but the Italy defender was still on his back out of bounds. The linesman did not raise his flag, and the goal counted. I thought it was a good call, but the announcers said it was offsides. If a goalie knocks his own player over the endline, how can that player not be counted in the play during an offsides call? Should this have been a goal or not?

How many cheap fouls did Argentina have in the last 10 minutes? 0-0 finish, which is a TREMENDOUS result for the US. If they had played like this the last two games, they could've maybe finished 1-0-2 instead of 0-2-1. We created some quality chances and the defense managed to keep a clean sheet. To piggyback on Bon_Mot, here are my top 5 positives and negatives from the game. POSITIVES: 1. EJ looked like he was actually good enough to be on the field. he got a couple of tough headers on goal, and distributed the ball well. He might have looked better tonight because he didn't have any chances to roll a shot to goal, but i still think he looked much better. 2. Heath Pearce. Solid. I've got no problem with him getting a regular starting role in the back. 3. We frickin' tied the #1 team in the world! 4. Marcus Beasley looked really good tonight. He was all over the place defensively, and was making some of those long runs that used to make him so valuable. 5. Tim Howard is a monster. honorable mention: adu looked great off the bench, and wolff did not make it onto the field NEGATIVES: 1. Cherundolo wasn't very good. he got used and abused in the 1st half, and the 2nd wasn't much better. 2. The defense as a whole was allowing a lot of possession in and around the box. It's not a good thing when you're opponent is consistently stringing 7 or 8 passes together in the attacking third. 3. Although our attack was better, there is still not nearly enough of an offensive presence when we get the ball up field. The support is too slow, so our only threats remain counterattacking and set pieces. 4. Bradley is a good player, but he hasn't shown me much lately, and today was no different. At least the coach/dad took him out at the half rather than leaving him in for the whole game. 5. EJ grabbed a dude's junk. that was kinda creepy.