Author: Mikesportz
Tony Vitello has become the face of college baseball. He just led Tennessee to the national championship. He was named national coach of the year. And he’s scheduled to be one of the television analysts for the MLB Draft coverage on July 14. But Vitello had achieved prominence before he won a national championship. His 2022 Vols went 57-9 and were heralded as one of the greatest teams in the history of the sport even though it fell one game short of the College World Series. He has accomplished this as a first-time head coach at a program that seemed anchored…
It’s not every day you get an autograph for the ages by one of the premier coaches in college sports. Knoxville native and diehard Vols fan Larrmosha Hollis struck gold when Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello signed a “V” on her chest during the parade honoring the team’s first national title. Coach asked me, ‘Where do you want me to sign it?’ and I yelled, ‘Anywhere!’ And he signed right there. Now the world’s going crazy over my picture. It’s great,” Hollis told Knox News. In a matter of minutes after the signing, Hollis saw the moment replayed on TV…
John Currie wasn’t exactly one of the most popular people in Knoxville for a good long while. The former Tennessee athletic director, who was dismissed on December 1, 2017 after the fiasco with the botched football coaching search and attempted hire of Greg Schiano, drew ire from fans who after reportedly calling them “wacko” to a journalist in an email during that process. However, one thing Currie did that was brilliant was hire Tennessee head baseball coach Tony Vitello back in June 2017. Currie managed to pull Vitello, an Arkansas assistant at the time, away from Fayetteville to take over…
The Dallas Cowboys have not come anywhere close to meeting the expectations set for them over the past few years. This is, in many ways, surprising given the immense amount of talent that they have on both sides of the ball. On offense, especially, the Cowboys have an NFL MVP candidate in Dak Prescott and an All-Pro wide receiver in CeeDee Lam Prescott and Lamb, of course, have been making headlines all spring due to their contract situations. Lamb is holding out for a massive extension and has not attended any team activities. Prescott is entering the final year of…
Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora is in the final few months of his contract. The Red Sox haven’t shared whether or not they plan to resign the skipper, but Cora understands he has leverage over the front office. He supported Rafael Devers after his preseason comments about Boston’s needs as a team, and now Cora has suggested he wants the front office to buy at the trade deadline — he seems to share the recent change of heart among fans that his team has a chance to pull off something big.
White Sox manger Pedro Grifol talks about getting shut out by the Dodgers in two out of three games in the series Shohei Ohtani was nearly on the wrong end of a stray baseball during Wednesday’s series finale at Guaranteed Rate Field against the White Sox. But the Dodgers’ batboy saved Ohtani from being hit by the ball. ame earning at least one RBI on Wednesday with his solo home run to start the game. He’s the first Dodger to complete the feat, and the first since Matt Kemp between the 2011 and 2012 seasons to record nine straight games.…
Jackson applauded Holland’s work, especially the signing of Toronto free-agent Zach Hyman and trading for Mattias Ekholm in 2023 Hired last summer to run hockey operations for the Edmonton Oilers, Jeff Jackson says he had a great working relationship with his GM Ken Holland and it was an amicable parting of the waysafter the Hall of Famer’s five years here Holland, 68, wasn’t kicked to the curb, kicking and screaming. “Ken and I met yesterday (Wednesday) to formalize a discussion that had been ongoing during the season,” said Jackson in a Thursday Zoom call. “It’s not a surprise…
The Toronto Raptors have to be feeling good about the OG Anunoby trade. They felt pretty good in the weeks immediately after the December trade, when Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett were balling out and there was genuine chemistry forming between them and Scottie Barnes. Injuries disrupted everything about the last two months of the season, but Toronto picked up two legitimate starters and building blocks of the future in the deal. The Raptors officially fleeced the New York Knicks The last two days, however, have only cemented how much the Raptors won the trade by putting into place the…
disappointing 10-game stint to start his MLB career hasn’t swayed Jackson Holliday from a return to the majors in 2024. He wants to rejoin the Baltimore Orioles at some point this season. Holliday said as much on June 26 when asked about his recovery from elbow soreness. “I’m going to take some time and get it all healed up to hopefully make a run at the big league team after the All-Star break,” Holliday told David Hall of The Virginian-Pilot.
The bid to stage the planned open water swims in the River Seine for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games triathlon appears set to go right down to the wire next month. The 1.4bn/1.18bn/$1.5bn cleanup operation to make the waterway swimmable for the first time in a century continues, as yet without the desired results. Tests last week showed the water in the Seine was not yet up to the standard required for swimming – with the Games just over a month away. The results of recent tests on the water (carried out on June 16) showed the presence of two kinds…