Lindy Ruff, Sabres Coach Since 1997, Fired

It is not a great year to be a professional coach in Buffalo.

The Bills fired their head coach Chan Gailey just as the new year was getting underway, and now the Sabres, after a 6-10-1 start, have let go of the NHL's longest-tenured coach, Lindy Ruff.

Ruff will no longer have the opportunity to pass San Antonio Spurs coach Greg Popovich for the longest tenured coach in North American pro sports -- Popovich started with the Spurs in 1996, a year earlier than Ruff.  The Sabres, arguably one of the toughest teams in the league with one of the best goalies in the league, have sputtered to a 3-7-0 record in their last 10, and a change was in the cards.

Ryan Miller spoke following their Tuesday night loss to the Winnipeg Jets.

"We’re not giving them the caliber of hockey this city deserves," he said. "Yeah, we deserve to get booed.  From the top down, every player."

There has been no word on who will replace Ruff, but there will be at least an interim coach in place by their Thursday night game against division opponent Toronto.

Syracuse's Doug Marrone Taking the Helm in Buffalo

This Buffalo Bills haven't had a winning season since 2004 and haven't made the playoffs for 13 years.  When they fired head coach Chan Gailey after going 16-32 over three seasons, at least the fans hoped that the team would be headed for a better future.  But when they hired former Syracuse head coach Doug Marrone just shy of a week after Gailey was shown the door, it became clear that the 2013 season would not be full steam ahead.

Marrone, in his first head coaching job, went 25-25 in four season with Syracuse.  The Bills, who interviewed former Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt and offensive coordinator Ray Horton, former Bears head coach Lovie Smith and Oregon head coach Chip Kelly decided to take a coach who plays in the same market, just over two hours away.

Now for the pros.  Marrone won two Bowl games -- both Pinstripe Bowls in 2010 and 2012 -- and finished 8-5 this season with the Orange.  He served as the New York Jets offensive line coach from 2002-2005, and the New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator from '06-'08.  That's about it.

The Bills had the opportunities to go with someone who was NFL ready.  Bringing in Marrone should be better for their offense, but going with someone who has been out of the NFL for four seasons is a high risk.  Marrone will have the luxury of picking his own staff, which could be an issue if he pulls from a mediocre Syracuse coaching staff.  Time will tell how the Bills form around the new coaching staff, but going with Marrone was far from anyone's first, second or third choice.

"Black Monday": Who's In and Who's Out as NFL Head Coach

With the 2012 regular season wrapped up Sunday night, the NFL is still making huge headlines on Monday.  In what has been dubbed "Black Monday," there have been five head coaches officially fired, three general managers ousted and reports of at least one more coach and GM pair getting the axe.

No longer the longest tenured coach in the NFL, the Eagles have parted ways with Andy Reid.  He finishes with a 130-93-1 record, but in the past few seasons has managed to do absolutely nothing with his team.  He leaves with a franchise record 10 playoff wins as a head coach, and this is a perfect example of the 'what have you done for me lately' mentality in professional sports.

Former Patriots defensive coordinator and now former Chiefs head coach Romeo Crennel has been relieved of his command.  He bows out with a 28-55 record, and hopefully he can find another job soon because the top line of his Wikipedia page is just sad.

As a Bills fan, I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this.  Chan Gailey has been thrown out of Buffalo, and one can only hope he takes his defensive coordinator Dave Wannstedt with him.  The Bills were 16-32 under Gailey's guidance, and even though I'm biased, I think all they need is another piece or two, like that defensive coordinator, and they're easily up from a 6-10 season to 8-8 or better.

After missing the playoffs for five of the past six seasons, the Bears have finally cut ties with head coach Lovie Smith.  Coaching since 1980, he has been a head coach since 2004 in Chicago, leading them to an NFC Championship in 2006.  Its tough to win ballgames when your quarterback is Jay Cutler, but that will no longer be Smith's concern.

The Browns are undergoing a complete overhaul after firing not only head coach Pat Shurmur, but also GM Tom Heckert.  Shurmer finished with a 9-23 record in Cleveland, and Heckert never really had a shot either, with the two of them only combining for five years of experience in the Cleveland system.

The Jets also fired their GM, Mike Tannenbaum, but chose to keep the village idiot Rex Ryan.  The Jets skidded to a 6-10 season, which seemed like an 0-16 season the way the media portrayed them.  Refusing to play Tim Tebow when Mark Sanchez gave up four turnovers?  That's just embarrassing.  Oh well, its hilarious to watch them fail, anyway.

Finally, sources say that the San Diego Chargers will parts ways with GM A.J. Smith and head coach Norv Turner, but no official announcement has been made as of yet.  In his past three seasons, Turner has gone 24-24 with a turnover differential of -11.  Can't win football games that way.

All this news comes just one day after the season concluded, so it is unknown if more moves or firings are on the way, but I don't think we'll be hearing any of it until after the postseason.

Should the Lakers Fire Mike Brown? Well, They Just Did

The Lakers are off to a 1-4 start, their worst since the 1993-94 season.  In a city without a football team and where the defending World Champion Kings are sidelined by a lockout, basketball reigns supreme.  So with their worst start in almost two decades hanging over their heads going into a six-game homestand, will there be jobs on the line, namely the head coach's spot occupied by Mike Brown?

When the Lakers attempted to create a "super team" by signing Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, it was easy to pick them as the NBA Finals favorite.  But no one picked this kind of start.  The new system the players...

So right there is as far as I got writing this post, before the breaking news came out that head coach of the Lakers Mike Brown has been fired.  He only made it five regular season games into his second season with the team, writing a strange ending to the chapter following his stay in Cleveland where he won Coach of the Year in 2009.

Firing Brown was ultimately the wrong choice by the Lakers.  They have too many egos to control and too much to learn to start over with a new coach.  This essentially erases all they learned from him over the summer, but the one good thing that comes from this is that they weren't very good at applying what they learned, so hopefully a new coach can bring a quick fix.

From 3,000 miles away, even I could feel the pressure the media was putting on the purple and gold.  Kobe Bryant's "death stare," Steve Blake mouthing off to a fan and Howard's constant internal battle over whether he is defined as a center or a forward are all cases of how the team is already starting to wear themselves down. 

Howard has fired back at Shaquille O'Neal and then the NBA itself, declaring himself a true center and taking things very personally when someone says otherwise.  He first needs to work on lightening up, then he needs to work on adjusting to his new role.  His selfishness is hurting the team's defense as a whole -- a defense that has only held opponents to under 23 points per quarter four times through five games.

The Lakers defense has always been streaky, at best, as shown here in January and here two months later during last season.  This year will not be a rebuilding year for the Lakers, even with their head coach out of the picture.  In a way, the Lakers have hit the reset button on their season.  Lucky for them, they are only five games in, shrinking the blast radius of the news, but they have a long road ahead of them to get this train back on track. 

They have the talent to do so, but the removal of Brown will push this team to the brink early in the season, and I think it will take significantly more time to get this team on track.  While I don't agree with the firing, I do think this team will get back on track and most likely make the playoffs.  They're just too good.  But then again, take a look at the 2012 Boston Red Sox...

It's Official

Well, that was a fun season, wasn't it?

After WBZ-TV Boston reported Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine was on his way out the door, official releases started flying about a half hour later.

ESPN, MLB, NESN and the Red Sox organization has made it official, Valentine is out as manager, and general manager Ben Cherington will be leading the search for a replacement.  The organization will owe him $2.5 million for the year left on his contract, which is a small price to pay for what Red Sox Nation suffered through this season.

So begins a wild offseason in Beantown.

CBS Boston Reporting Bobby Valentine Will be Fired Before the Weekend

"The Price is Right" ended and I wasn't quick enough to get to the remote to change the channel, but today, that turned out to work in my favor.

WBZ-TV, the CBS affiliate in Boston, MA, is reporting that Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine arrived at Fenway Park early Thursday morning and is either meeting with now, or scheduled to meet with Red Sox brass including general manager Ben Cherington.  The reports indicate that these will be his exit meetings, and his termination is imminent.

I'm still not entirely sure where these reports are coming from.  Jon Heyman of CBS Sports is reporting with information from "people familiar with the situation."  I think all of Boston is familiar with the situation by now, but there has been no solid proof to support these claims.  I guess if enough people wish hard enough, right?

Heyman had a text conversation with Cherington in which Cherington responded to the idea of Valentine hitting the bricks by saying "No comment."

After watching how the season ended last night, its clear that Bobby Valentine was not the biggest problem this season, but he was absolutely not the solution.  Being around the game for that long, Valentine has become one of the best minds in the game, but this experiment just didn't pan out.

WBZ has a reporter outside of Fenway Park to await official word.  Stay tuned to Three If By Strike for any breaking developments.

Red Sox Fire Bob McClure, One Small Step Closer to Figuring It Out

Red Sox finally put their first man up against the firing squad Monday night.

Pitching coach Bob McClure was sacked as the pitching rotation continues to struggle nearly into September.  That wasn't the only problem McClure has had all season as early on, his relationship with Bobby Valentine was constantly questioned by the media.

The issues arose when Valentine was hired and did not have the ability to bring on his own coaching staff.  McClure was in place before him, and rumors started to swirl, even to the point of stating that the two coaches did not even communicate.  McClure's replacement will be Randy Niemann, the team's assistant pitching coach, the sole coach that Valentine brought on himself.

Time will tell if this is just a quick fix to assuage Red Sox Nation's frustrations with the pitching staff, or if McClure was a low piece in the season-long game of Jenga.