Fast Break
Baseball
Spokane Indians bring back Hulett
Tim Hulett will return to manage the Spokane Indians for the third straight season, the club announced Monday.
Hulett led the Indians to the Northwest League championship last season. The team finished with a 51-25 regular-season record and won the NWL title three games to one over the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes.
Hulett is a former major league player with the Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles and St. Louis Cardinals.
The Indians also announced that Jeff Andrews, who was the major league pitching coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates last season, will serve as the club’s pitching coach. Former Texas Rangers player Jason Hart will assume coach duties in Spokane after assisting the Rangers former Midwest League affiliate, the Clinton LumberKings, last season.
NFL
Three teams fire coaches
Lofty expectations did in Eric Mangini and Romeo Crennel, as their teams’ seasons crumbled from high hopes to demoralizing finishes.
Little was expected of the Detroit Lions, though not the worst season in NFL history. That cost Rod Marinelli his job, too.
“You can’t go 0-16 and expect to keep your job,” Marinelli said.
Now two interim coaches who breathed some life into downtrodden clubs – the Rams’ Jim Haslett and the Raiders’ Tom Cable – await word on their fates.
Three NFL clubs fired coaches Monday, less than 24 hours after the regular season ended. Out were Marinelli, the New York Jets’ Mangini and the Cleveland Browns’ Crennel.
Only Mangini’s firing came as a bit of a surprise. The Jets harbored Super Bowl aspirations after an 8-3 start that followed an off-season spending spree, including the trade for Brett Favre. But they didn’t even make the playoffs, losing four of their last five games.
The Browns’ search to replace Crennel is already off to a disheartening start: Bill Cowher told owner Randy Lerner on Saturday that he doesn’t intend to coach in 2009.
College football
Masoli named Ducks’ 2009 QB
Sophomore quarterback Jeremiah Masoli will lead the Oregon Ducks into the Holiday Bowl against Oklahoma State today – and into next season.
In a program that has featured several years of competition and instability at the position, Masoli has earned the spot, says Ducks coach Mike Bellotti.
Masoli came to Oregon after a season at City College of San Francisco, where he led the Rams to the 2007 national junior college title.
At one point as the Ducks began work on this season, he was No. 5 on the depth chart.