How To Be A Bad Leader: The Hanley Ramirez Story

Today is a special day here at Ice Cold Sports. Florida Marlins star player and starting shortstop Hanley Ramirez has graciously offered to teach us all on what not to do when you are the leader and face of your franchise.

The first not to do is to make any bogus excuses why you didn't hustle or give your all. LeBron James you are guilty of this too Mr. We lost because my elbow hurt. So Hanley claimed he didn't hustle after booting the pop fly that fell over his head into left field because his ankle was hurting from when he fouled a pitch off it earlier in the game. That COULD be believable if he didn't run his little heart out trying to catch the ball on the fly. If your gonna fix up an excuse like that. At least make it somewhat believable.

This lack of hustle and lets give big credit where its due to Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez. He pulled him from the game and made him sit on the bench. And this happened early in the game. Better yet, he refused to play him until he apologized to the team. Which brings us to the next not to do on the list.



Not only did Hanley Ramirez refuse to apologize for his lack of hustle, he called out other teammates for the times when they haven't hustled. He simply threw his teammates under the bus with the "if they don't have to why should i" attitude. Saying things like "We got a lot of people dogging it after ground balls." and "They don't apologize."

Further he went after manager Fredi Gonzalez by saying he had lost respect for him and felt like he shouldn't apologize because he, meaning Ramirez can do "whatever he wants" and that Gonzalez doesn't "understand" because he never "played in the majors."

And hes right. Fredi Gonzalez never did make it to the big leagues when he played. But just because he never played in the majors doesn't make him adequate to coach a team. I was a member of my high school baseball team. And after that I never played again. But that didn't stop my teammates from telling me I would make a good coach some day. Its not about experience. Its about the understanding and knowledge of how the game is played.

Okay he managed to get the hat trick in how to piss off the entire franchise and its fans off. He didn't hustle, he trashed his teammates, and disrespected his manager with no signs of remorse or regret. But wait...yesterday he apologized. But he said he didn't need to! So what happened? Well a couple of hall of famers who happen to be special advisors to the Marlins sat him down and had a rhetorical father son chat. With the father a.k.a the hall of famers doing the talking. They told him exactly what I was thinking when this event first happened.

Hanley Ramirez has been slated as the leader and franchise player of this team. He is expected more than the others to lead by example. That means hustling on every play and respecting everybody on the field. In other words. Get your act together homeboy.

Thanks for logging in today. I hope you had as much fun as I did. We got lots more coming soon in Ice Cold Sports so be sure not to miss a thing. You can get your fill elsewhere on Facebook, just search Ice Cold Sports. Following me on Twitter is pretty fun too. You can find me on AppStIceman. Till next time enjoy the world of sports nation. This is the Radio Blog Network.

How The NBA Lottery Got It Right

The chances of winning the lotter is one hundred twenty million to one. The odds of getting struck by lighting are 244-1. The Washington Wizards had a ten percent chance of winning last nights NBA lottery. The Wizards overcame their slim odds winning the number one overall pick despite having the leagues fifth worst record.

One thing you will hear a lot today will be the worst record doesn't mean worst team.

The New Jersey Nets had the leagues worst record winning only twelve games in the season. That gave them a 25% chance to win the lottery. But again...the worst record doesn't mean worst team.

The New Jersey Nets were not the worst team in basketball this season. Winning the fewest games doesn't make you the worst teams, it just means your talent level stinks. The nets went out every night playing their hardest as a team with a goal to win a game. They are a very young team and are lacking veteran leadership.



The true worst team was the team that won the lottery, the Washington Wizards. The Wizards do have better talent than the Nets but their season despite more wins was awful.

The Washington Wizards made more headlines for off court issues than they did for what they actually did on the court. First there was the whole guns in the locker room situation with face of the franchise Gilbert Arenas and teammate Javaris Crittenton. For those who don't remember what happened its simple. They both brought loaded guns into the locker room, got into a dispute and pull their guns on one another. Both players were suspended indefinitely and Arenas got probation and had to go to a halfway house.

Real quick I just wanna say something about Gilbert Arenas. This is a man who is holding the Washington Wizards franchise hostage with his ridiculously huge contract that he signed in 2008, which totaled six years and 111 million dollars. In the first year of that contract he only played two games due to mainly injury. But bad attitude can be sited too. He refused to return when ready because he thought it was pointless since the team was so bad. The season before that he played thirteen games. And this past season before the guns deal, he played in thirty two games. So in the last three seasons your star player, the face of your team has played a half of season. In three years.

So after all that the Wizards made a bunch of trades, trading what "stars" they had remaining on the roster for one decent player and some scrubs. That one decent player being Josh Howard played only four games with the team before getting injured and missing the rest of the season.

As if their season could not get worse it did. They had a player quit during the middle of a game. Andray Blatche someone I think maybe two percent of the world have heard of refused to enter in March against the Charlotte Bobcats. The worst part about that incident was that it happened in the first quarter. The teams coach took him out because he was playing sub par and they wanted to coach him. He refused it and refused to enter the game.

THAT is what makes you the worst team in your sport. Again...worst record doesn't mean worst team. Pulling guns, quiting, stuff like that, makes you the worst team. And now we can all fear that Kentucky one year sensation John Wall will be the top pick in the draft and will have the responsibility to save the Wizards franchise. Some the now third pick Nets were hoping to have happen. Well that and signing LeBron James. Lottery got it right! So remember, worst record doesn't mean worst team.

Check me out on Facebook just search Ice Cold Sports and be sure to follow me on the fun that is Twitter. AppStIceman is the name. Stay tuned coming up next here on the Radio Blog Network, I will dab into the fun that is Florida Marlins baseball now that their star is making headlines for all the wrong seasons. See you then! This has been Ice Cold Sports part of the Radio Blog Network.

You Can't Tarnish Your Legacy When You Don't Have One

I hope I will only have to talk about LeBron James only slightly throughout the remainder of this NBA season. Not like he needs the attention from me when you got ESPN and everyone else devoting 75% of their programming to what his next move will be. In Case you were wondering the other 25% is made up of Tiger Woods (15%), other news (5%) and game highlights (5%).

With another early bailout in the postseason everybody wants to discuss LeBron's legacy. Saying things now how he can't get the job done or he can't win the big one. But its not just him, its the whole franchise. LeBron has been begging for years now for the team to bring in better players to help win Cleveland a title. So they brought in guys like Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall. Obvious that wasn't the right kind of help. Two seasons later they traded that help for guys like Ben Wallace, Wally Szczerbiak, and Delonte West. And this year the help that was going to win not the team but LeBron the championship was Shaq and Antawn Jamison. But I can still promise you that hardly anyone including myself could name Cleveland's starting five off the top of their heads with no help.

Many suggested with another disappointing season that it was time for a coaching change. Which would help. Mike Brown really isn't a good coach. LeBron practically coaches that team. You can clearly see that the players listen to him more than Brown. But the Cavs owner came out immediately saying that Brown would remain the head coach. Or in this case overpaid babysitter for rich young men with ego's larger than the arena.



Maybe ownership should fire Genernal Manager Danny Ferry. He has been the mastermind behind all these moves to help LeBron which clearly have not worked. Am I the only one thinking that Mr. Ferry here can't judge talent too well?

But back to LeBron and his so called legacy. Look people he is twenty five years old hes won two mvps, six all star appearances and a scoring title. The last three seasons they were proclaimed the best team in the east after making one finals appearance but then lost to actual teams like the Celtics and Magic.



Lets just cut the legacy crap already. Look folks, he doesn't have one yet. He hasn't done enough to be dubbed a legend of any kind. He's a top three player in the game right now. Thats it. Remember when Kobe's "legacy" was that he couldn't win a title without help? News flash. Nobody wins championships alone. Kobe didn't win those four titles alone. The Celtics and Spurs played the ultimate team basketball in the league. Even the great Michael Jordan didn't win those six titles by himself. He had a team of all stars where the guys on the bench were good enough to start for most other teams.

LeBron James has no legacy. He hasn't won anything and it is ridiculous to put all the blame on him when the team loses. The guy is only one man. Plus you can't have a legacy at 25. He's not King Tut here.

I will end todays edition of Ice Cold Sports by adding that LeBron James will not only be wearing a new number next season but a new team uniform too. I can't say where. I just know it won't be Cleveland.

Dallas Braden: From Feuding Nobody to Record Books.

It’s amazing what kind of turn of events can do for someone to change your perspective on a person. Here its no different on Ice Cold Sports, which as you know is part of the Radio Blog Network.

A couple weeks ago Oakland A’s pitcher Dallas Braden made headlines for probably the most unusual reason in the sports world. An Altercation occurred between himself and New York Yankees superstar Alex Rodriguez. It wasn’t the kind of altercation that you may be thinking of. Braden did not throw at A-Rod. There was no collision of any kind between the two that would spark what events occurred.

First I'm sure most of you are sitting there scratching your head wondering who the heck is this Dallas Braden guy and maybe thinking this guy must be pretty brave to be calling out Alex Rodriguez. Well by the end of todays discussion you will know all about Dallas Braden and you will probably be on his side rather than A-Rod's.

So here’s what happened. A-Rod took off on the pitch and went from first to third on a foul ball that was hit by I want to say Robinson Cano. Instead of going back to first the way he came, A-Rod proceeded to take a shortcut across the infield grass. Of course there is nothing wrong with that but what A-Rod did do that sent Braden off the deep end is what we know as a hidden baseball rule.

A-Rod...set foot...on the....pitchers mound. A-Rod broke maybe the biggest rule of the unwritten baseball rules. Its just one of those things you don't do as a player. The mound is for the pitcher only and you can easily tell it is when the pitcher will step off it when the catcher comes out to talk to him. Not even the manager who pulls him and calls the pen steps directly on the mound. I guess you can say the mound is sacred. Never in my life as a player and spectator did I ever see anyone other than the pitcher step on that mound. I have talked with other players and they too have never seen someone other than the pitcher on the mound. Dallas Braden was within his rights to get pissed off at A-Rod. Of course A-Rod did what A-Rod does in that case. He just brushed it off and didn't understand what the deal was and felt it was "silly".

I want to stray off Braden for a moment and just run down other Alen Rodriguez antics. The list is long so sit tight.

He admits to regretting signing with the Texas Rangers back in the year 2000. Saying he should have picked the Mets. He put the blame on his agent Scott Boras who advised him to take the money.

...really? The guy who gets a cut of your dollars told you to take the money. Excuse me while I recover from the shock.

Lets look at the 2004 ALCS against the Boston Red Sox. You remember that series. First 3-0 lead to be blown yada yada yada. In game six of that series A-Rod slapped the ball out of pitcher Bronson Arroyo's hand has he reached to tag him running to first. A-Rod looked around and acted like he did nothing wrong.



Early that season at Fenway Park A-Rod got upset at a pitch thrown by Arroyo that lead to the fight between him and Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek. I am a firm believer that if that moment never happened, Bill Mueller would of never hit that walk off home run and the Red Sox would have not made that amazing run to get into the postseason.




Fast forward to the 2007 world series where during the 8th inning of the deciding game A-Rod announced that he was opting out of his contract to become a free agent. He wanted the worlds attention and got it. Not many were pleased.

There was an event when during a game against Toronto where he yelled "mine" as he passed the second baseman. Which is another unwritten no no. Its okay when you do it in the movies like Major League. But thats another case where you just don't do it.

Then you have the Toronto prostitute incident, his divorce from his wife, and reporting having an affair with Madonna, and lastly supposivly dating Kate Hudson during the end of last season into the playoffs.

Oh...and we can't forget the admittance to using performance enhancers.

So its clear that A-Rod has done a lot and then we added the mound thing to the list. At first I supported Braden but then there was a point where Braden got screwy with it. He just wouldn't let it go. During this past week he kept talking and taunting like he was gonna make A-Rod pay for it when they meet next month. But then Sunday came.

It was mothers day. Dallas Braden is on the mound against the current best team in baseball Tampa Bay Rays. He goes out and throws a perfect game. Only the 19th perfect game in baseball history. It marked the second time in a year that the Rays were no hit.

But Braden's mom was not in the stands yesterday. He died when Braden was in high school from Melanoma. But his grandmother was in the stands. She took over raising Braden after the death of his mom. Braden is still very close to his grandmother and hometown community of Stockton, California. He has the home area code 209 tattooed on his chest, he still lives there, and had as many residents of the town in attendance yesterday after getting them a special deal in section 209. After he lost his mom he went through a rough patch in his life and his grandmother pulled him out of it and got his life on track.



So now we aren't looking at Dallas Braden like hes a psycho that can't let a little incident go. He is now in the history books pitching a perfect game for his mother on mothers day with his replacement mom a.k.a grandmother in the stands.

After the game his grandmother gave A-Rod a special message on national tv. A message they claim that just happened to slip out. That message to A-Rod was to "stick it" A-Rod's response after he got word? "Uncle"

Is this the end of the feud? I can't say. The A's host the Yankees in early July. It appears that the last shots have been fired and its over with but we won't be totally sure till that series. Personally I think it. If your Dallas Braden you certainly can't thinking about A-Rod when you just pitched a perfect game on your mound. I say feud over.

You can give me your thoughts on this topic and more on the fan page on facebook. Just search Ice Cold Sports. You can also follow me on Twitter at AppStIceman. Till next time folks this has been Ice Cold Sports part of the Radio Blog Network.