I have to admit I thought Melky Cabrera was just a relatively expensive mistake by the Blue Jays. The organization gambled that Cabrera could bounce back from last years PED suspension and be a credible bat, and left fielder hitting near the top of the order. When he struggled, we looked at each other knowingly saying this was simply a guy, who couldnt do it anymore without the "Juice". Cabrera looked achingly slow in the outfield, unable to cut off balls hit into the gap, and get to them quickly when they were driven into the corner. He had a litany of knee, leg muscle and ankle problems and finally shut it down on August 1st. You had to wonder, if the Jays were going to waive him in the off-season and effectively eat the final year of his contract or if Cabrera might even retire. Either way, it looked as though he was done as a member of the Blue Jays. Then the real story, the more concerning story came out over the weekend. Melky had been playing for months with back pain, and hadnt told anyone, trying to play through the agony. Finally on a visit, to his own personal doctor, it was discovered Melky had a benign tumour on his spine. It was pressing on the nerves and was causing general leg weakness. Melky underwent successful surgery and should be ready for spring training. While, this might not explain every aspect of why Cabreras game faltered this season, it certainly qualifies him for another chance. This story reminds me very much of one of the most dominating right handers of his generation. James Rodney Richard, or J.R. as we knew him, was a giant of a man at 68 and 222 pounds. He was the number two overall pick of the Houston Astros in 1969. He was a slow, but steady developer, going 23-16 over his first five seasons, before it all clicked for the intimidating power pitcher. Over a four year span between 1976 and 1979, he went 74-48 winning 20 games once and 18 games three times. In 1979, he set an Astros club record with 313 strikeouts that still stands. Over 221 career starts Richard had 76 complete games and 19 shutouts. However, that would-be Hall of Fame career came to a crashing halt in 1980. J.R. got off to an incredible start that season, winning five straight and striking out 48 over that span. At one point he pitched three straight shutouts. As the season wore on though, it was clear something was wrong as Richard complained of various arm and back troubles. No-one was buying, some members of the media thought the pressure of playing for an Astros team with high expectations was too much for Richard to handle. Others felt he was jealous of a big contract given to his new free-agent teammate Nolan Ryan. In any event, he kept going. In a game on July 14th against Atlanta, his condition worsened. He had trouble seeing the signs flashed by his catcher Alan Ashby and his right arm just wasnt functioning properly. Richard left that game in the 4th inning, saying his arm was dead, and he couldnt even manipulate his fingers to grasp a ball. It proved to be his final Major League game. He was placed on the 21-day disabled list and nine days later checked in to Methodist Hospital in Houston for a full battery of tests. Doctors found two sets of arteries in his arm were obstructed. But later tests found no problems with the arteries in his neck. On July 30, Richard went to a Chiropractor, who rotated his neck, to improve blood flow in his upper body. Later that day, while playing catch in the Astros pre-game warm-up, Richard suffered a full blown stroke. He had to undergo emergency surgery later that night to clear a blockage in an artery in his neck. Doctors discovered he had actually suffered three separate strokes. J.R Richard tried to mount a comeback the following season, but it never worked out. He didnt have the same strength or body control. Richards life spiraled out of control for a few years after that. Bad investments and two broken marriages left him destitute and at one point living penniless under a bridge. J.R Richard found salvation through the church and ultimately became a minister and motivational speaker who specialized in helping underprivileged youth. I guess the morale of this story if there is one, is try to make sure you know all the facts before you judge a players performance. Air Max 720 Pas Cher Homme . Which is to say, the top of this years draft class is not as dynamic or exciting as the 2013 class of Nate MacKinnon, Sasha Barkov, Jonathan Drouin and Seth Jones and its not as strikingly promising as the highly-anticipated 2015 slate of Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin. Nike Air Max 95 Destockage . Vonn "reopened" the idea of competing in the season-opening World Cup event on Oct. 26-27 in Soelden, Austria after returning to the slopes last month in Portillo, Chile. https://www.grossistechaussurepascher.fr...ckage-282a.html. Mark Van Guilder, Austin Watson and Colton Sissons also scored for the Admirals (22-13-10), who are 2-0-2 in their last four outings, while Roussel tacked on an assist for a two-point night. Greg Pateryn scored once for the Bulldogs (20-22-4), who lost their fifth straight contest, and also assisted on Gabriel Dumonts goal. Nike Air Max Pas Cher Destockage . The Redskins announced Monday that the quarterback who led the team to the Super Bowl championship in the 1987 season will serve as a personnel executive. Air Max 95 Pas Cher Femme .C. Lions 35-14, was named the CFLs offensive player of the week Tuesday. Sheets recorded his ninth 100-yard rushing performance of the season to tie the Riders club record.With an overall record of 37-39, including 9-6 last week, TSN football analyst Chris Schultz is back with his Week 6 selections in the NFL in Risky Business. Indianapolis (-2.5) at Houston The last four out of five Thursday night games have been dominated by the home team. No doubt that is a consistency worth being respected. Still, Andrew Luck had a four-turnover game and still beat Baltimore 20-13. And the Colts defence is improving, allowing only 17, 17 and 13 points. Arian Foster is back for the Texans and that fact helps Ryan Fitzpatrick out immensely. This is the game where the injury absence of Jadeveon Clowney could have made a difference. Even though it is on the road I cant go against the luck and ability of Andrew Luck. Can you imagine the second career contract waiting for Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson? Colts. Pittsburgh at Cleveland (-2) The strengths of the Steelers are the no-huddle offence run by Ben Roethlisberger, running back LeVeon Bell and receiver Antonio Brown. The weakness is the injury absence of cornerback Ike Taylor, and linebackers Jarvis Jones and Ryan Shazier. Cleveland has strengths of come from behind ability and Brian Hoyer, who has suppressed any and all talk about Johnny Manziel. The weakness is not playing well to begin games and in Week 1 they fell behind 27-3 to this same Steeler team. Yet I wonder if the Browns are improving and the Steelers only surviving. Browns. New England (-3) at Buffalo This will be fun. The Patriots opened the Cincinnati game by running play after play right at the interior heart of the Bengals and made a toughness statement and won the line of scrimmage. They may not be so successful this week as the Bills run defence after five games is No. 1 in the NFL allowing only 71 yards per game. Kyle Orton played well last week but with two tight ends back in Rob Gronkowski and newly acquired Tim Wright (in the Logan Mankins trade) I like the Patriots chances to continue their success moving the ball that they established last Sunday. Brady is an astonishing 22-2 against the Buffalo Bills. Patriots. Carolina at Cincinnati (-7) Cincinnati is a much better team at home and were humbled last week against New England 43-17. Before the 43 points the Bengal defence had allowed a high of 16 points so I expect a focused Bengal team at Paul Brown Stadium on Sunday afternoon. On the opposite side Carolina on defence has allowed more than one touchdown pass in four of five games this year. Thats significant in that last year they only allowed multiple touchdown passes once. Sometimes its when you play a team, not who you play. The Bengals were humbled last week, while Carolina won even though Matt Forte ripped em. So can Giovani Bernard. Bengals. Jacksonville at Tennessee (-6) I guess the best thing to focus on in Jaguar football is that they only allowed 17 points against Pittsburgh. Thats important in that the previous four games it had been 33 or more. Not sure who is going to be at quarterback for Tennessee, could be sixth-round pick Zack Mettenberger out of LSU. The Jaguars are 0-5 and the pressure is on. Tennessee is 1-4 and if they dont turn it around soon the playoff dream becomes a nightmare. Different type of pressure both ways. Jaguars. Green Bay (-3.5) at Miami Both teams have time advantages in preparation for this game. Packers are coming off the Thursday night game and Miami the bye week. The Packers have outscored opponents 80-27 in the last two weeks with wins at Chicago and home to Minnesota. And those are divisional games. If the Packer offensive tackles have a good pass blocking day against the Dolphin defensive ends this could be a repeat of previous success for Green Bay. In what is the amazing statistic of the week, Aaron Rodgers has seven touchdown passes and only 11 incomplete passes over the last two weeks. And in October Rodgers plays his best football. 56-13 is the won-lost ratio with 20 touchdowns and just six interceptions. Joe Philbin knows Rodgers well as he coached him not so long ago in Green Bay. But when Rodgers gets time he will produce, and if pocket time is an issue he can roll out and still produce. Packers. Detroit (-2) at Minnesota Calvin Johnson and Reggie Bush are battling injuries while Teddy Bridgewater should be over his. Mike Zimmer as a head coach will not let the 42-10 loss to Green Bay from last week pass without learning and improving. On the road Detroit lost in Carolina and won by seven against the Jets. Now they go to Minnesota and TFC Bank Stadium, not the Metrodome of years past. This one is a risky pick but that was not the Vikings of earlier this season, I anticipate a much more intense performance back home against Detroit. Minnesota. Denver (-8) at NY Jets The Broncos are going to score points but how many can the Jets possibly score? To get shut out 31-0 says a lot on how inefficient the Jets are on offence, not only Geno Smith but Michael Vick too. Last week Peyton Manning threw for a career-high 479 yards, just passing. And that was against Arizona cornerbacks Patrick Peterson and Antonio Cromartie. Denver is going to scoore points.ddddddddddddDenver. Baltimore (-3) at Tampa Bay The only game the Bucs have won was in Pittsburgh where the Steelers imploded late and Mike Glennon hit Vincent Jackson to win under a minute to go. The Ravens are coming off their worst game of the year. They went 1-for-11 on third down and were dominated in time of possession as the Colts had the ball for 39 minutes. Now is the time for Joe Flacco to shine. Coming off a loss and back on the road this one may be very close. I can see the Bucs losing two in a row, they are evolving and developing. I just cant see the Ravens doing the same. They must win their division. Ravens. San Diego (-7) at Oakland Tony Sparano will be the eighth head coach since 2003 for the Oakland Raiders. Now whenever there is a head coaching move made in-season the team usually responds well. But they are playing a 4-1 Chargers team whose only loss was by one in Arizona in Week 1. Philip Rivers is thriving again with Mike McCoy as a head coach and Frank Reich as his offensive coordinator. And Brandon Oliver has stepped in at running back, looking like Darrin Sproles, and producing 182 total yards against the Jets. If Donald Brown cant play Oliver may start as Danny Woodhead and Ryan Matthews are previous backs who cant go. I think this would be the upset of the year if Derek Carr beats Rivers. With a 12-to-2 touchdown to interception ratio Rivers should match what Ryan Tannehill did with his 38 points in London on the Raiders. Some say the Raiders are the 32nd-best team in a 32-team league. The Chargers are currently a top-five club. Chargers. Chicago at Atlanta (-3) This is a really interesting one because of all the wide receiver talent everywhere. Atlanta has Julio Jones and Roddy White. Chicago has Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery. At running back, proven Matt Forte and surprise performer Antone Smith in Atlanta. The Bears do have a tight end advantage with Martellus Bennett but the Falcons play their best in the Georgia Dome. If it becomes a touchdown for touchdown game, give me Matt Ryan for one extra touchdown. Falcons. Washington at Arizona (-3.5) Known and unknown at quarterback for Arizona. The known is that Carson Palmer is out. The unknown is the status of Drew Stanton due to concussion. The other known is that Logan Thomas is not ready to play as a fourth-round draft pick from Virginia Tech. I though Kirk Cousins redeemed himself in the loss to a good Seattle team 27-17. But there was a lot of tension that some Washington players took the loss too lightly afterwards in the post-game locker room interaction. Interesting subject. The NFL precautionary measures regarding concussions are pretty intense and if he was truly knocked out in the Denver game then you will not see Stanton against Washington. In an upset...Washington. Dallas at Seattle (-8) Best game of Week 6. The Dallas Cowboys are simply a better line of scrimmage team on offence. Its reflected in the success of DeMarco Murray and Dez Bryant but third down is a productive moment. On offence 55 per cent of the time third down becomes first down and on defence only 39 percent of the time does an opponent make the successful transition. For Seattle Russell Wilson and his success as a runner changes everything in defending the Seahawks offence. It was the only reason for the 27-17 win at Washington. You can physically beat Seattle. San Diego proved that in Week 2. Yes, Wilson has only lost one game in his Seahawks career at home and with Percy Harvin it may be a while until number two. But for Harvin, Dallas has Bryant for Marshawn Lynch while Dallas has Murray. And as elusive as Wilson is, Romo can move in a similar way, not downfield, but in the pocket. Dallas. NY Giants at Philadelphia (-2.5) The Philadelphia Eagles have scored touchdowns in seven different ways. Rushing and passing, kickoff return and punt return, fumble return, interception return and blocked punt return. They are getting contributions from everyone but when do these unusually unpredictable moments end? The Eagles are winning in an oddball way. For the Giants coming off the Thursday night dominant win over Washington confidence is high. And it should be. They are averaging 35 points a game and DeMeco Ryans is going to be a game day decision for the Eagles and Michael Kendricks is a possible injury issue as well. Andre Williams is key - as a probable starter as a rookie can he produce? But another rookie Odell Beckham is also key as a receiver. Giants. San Francisco (-3) at St. Louis Home underdog so here we go. The 49ers have yet to score a touchdown in the fourth quarter this season so far, definitely a bit of a surprise. Austin Davis for St Louis is completing 67 per cent of his passes, again a bit of surprise. Every game this year has been a struggle - win or lose - and now on the road a struggle may happen again Monday night for the 49ers. St. Louis may have lost to Philadelphia 34-28 but overcame a major deficit to make it a game. Rams may only be 1-3 but should make it tough for San Francisco to win on the road and in the division. Rams. ' ' '