CALLING YOU OUT - RAPID FIRE

by WCT, The Ship of Fools

“Calling You Out!” is a periodic segment where WCT takes people to task for irresponsible journalism, foolhardy activities, or just general douchebaggery. Nothing is sacred, no one is spared, watch your ass mister! You could be next!

This time, we lay the wood to three of 'em one-by-one! Lets go!

NHL GMs - Admittedly, I am not a huge fan of the NHL (oh, sorry - For the benefit of about 90% of our American readers, that acronym stands for National Hockey League) but I do follow the sport casually, and one thing that I have always been amused by is the bizarre manner in which NHL GMs handle head coaches.

Lets start with last year, and the New Jersey Devils. In the final week of the season, with three games remaining, and the Devils in first place in their division, GM Lou Lamoriello saw fit to fire first-year head coach Claude Julien, and hire, well, himself, as head coach. Only in hockey.

Its happening again this year. Wednesday, with just 18 games remaining in the season, the Ottawa Senators who were in (you guessed it!) first place in their division, fired head coach John Paddock. GM Brian Murray replaced Paddock with (you guessed it again!) himself. Only in hockey.

I don't even know where to begin. Can you even imagine this happening in any other sport? Can you imagine the Yankees, in first place in September, firing Joe Girardi, and Brian Cashman taking over on the bench? (To be fair, Girardi was fired from the Marlins after winning Manager of the Year, so maybe that is a bad example, but you know what I mean) Could you imagine an NFL team firing its head coach with one game left and the team in first place? Am I the only one that thinks this type of thing happening in two consecutive years is weird?

Tennessee Vol Haters - Why is it that in college sports, haters are so quick to throw around the "F" word when a highly ranked team loses? By the "F" word, I of course mean "Fraud."

I have been reading and listening to countless columnists and bloggers who were ready to scream "Fraud!" before the final buzzer even sounded Tuesday night in Nashville. The Vols were forced to play back-to-back road games, versus ranked, in-state rivals, within 72 hours of each other. Can we cut them a little bit of slack? Tennessee still has only three losses, at Texas, at Kentucky, and now at Vandy. If they are able to beat Kentucky on Sunday, you can make a legitimate argument that they still deserve to be ranked #1, even with the Vandy loss.

So lets just hold off on dropping F-Bombs on a Tennessee team that really doesn't have any "bad" losses, even though UNC, Texas, UCLA, Kansas, and Duke all have at least one.

That idiot baseball player from Michigan - Far be it from me to criticize a student-athelete from the University of Michigan, but here goes.

During the fourth inning of this week's spring training game with the New York Mets, this kid (I don't know his name nor do I care to look it up) attempted a sacrafice bunt with a runner on second and Billy Wagner on the mound. Luckily for him, and whomever bats behind him in the lineup, the bunt went foul, because Wagner was livid. "If he would've gotten that bunt down," Wagner said, "I would've drilled the next guy."

Way to go kid. You lay a bunt down to try move a runner along, in a goddam spring training game no less, and almost start a beanball war with a Major League club. How often does this young, aspiring douchebag think he is going to get a chance to step in the box against a 5-time Major League all-star? Kid, you won't be able to tell your grandkids about the time you sacrificed a runner from second to third against a Big Leaguer! Swing the bat for crying out loud! If I were the coach I would've cut him on the spot.