Allgemeines » he 2013 AL Cy Young Award winner for Detr

Three years ago, Jadeveon Clowney heard the same unsolicited advice that Leonard Fournette no doubt receives at every turn.Sit out your junior year.No more free licks.Dont risk injury when you can become a first-round NFL draft pick.Today, Clowney says he did the right thing in playing through criticism and injury during the 2013 season at South Carolina. He says he owed it to his teammates to help them chase championships.Id still have played, Clowney said Wednesday. You can get injured anywhere. It wasnt about me, it was about my team at the time. I loved the group of guys I was playing with. I like those boys like my brothers. Some of them I still talk to to this day. And I was not going to just quit on them.So I would have played and tried to win a national championship. That what its about, he continued. I always thought about it. I always wanted a ring and to go to the national championship. I didnt get it, but I knew I had the chance when I was playing for it instead of sitting at home not doing anything.Those words might as well have come directly from Fournettes mouth, although he has not been able to back up that sentiment lately. A preseason left ankle injury has hobbled LSUs All-American running back throughout the season, and Saturdays game against Florida will likely be the third hell miss by the seasons midway point.Fournette says he will keep playing once he is able to, despite what a growing number of skeptics insinuates each week while he watches from the sideline.Im fine, Fournette said the day after a Sept. 24 loss to Auburn, where the ankle visibly bothered him even as he rushed for 101 yards on 16 carries. Overall Im going to be here playing with my brothers each game. Thats not going to change. Im just ready to play again.Fournette has not played since making those comments on the day LSU athletic director Joe Alleva fired coach Les Miles and replaced him with Ed Orgeron. He sat out Saturdays 42-7 win over Missouri and Orgeron said Wednesday that he does not expect Fournette to be available against the Gators, either.But should he return at all? Fournette already plays a contact-heavy position, and his physical running style only adds to the punishment that his body absorbs.Thats part of the reason Fournettes family took out two $10 million insurance policies -- a detail first reported in May by CBSSports.com -- as he approached what will almost certainly be his final college season.But self-preservation isnt really Fournettes thing. Teammates expect to eventually see the same Leonard who happily bowled over tacklers in meaningless spring practices return to the lineup once his ankle heals.Most guys on this team dont have that sort of thing. We dont have insurance policies on our draft status, LSU fullback J.D. Moore said. But I think his goal right now, his mindset, is hes got to be as healthy as he can be. I dont think it does him or the team any good if hes playing one game and sitting out the next. Thats just not the way he wants to operate. So I think if it takes a little longer on the front end to get him healthy to have more success on the back end, where really thats the meat of our schedule at the end of the year, I think thats his mindset -- trying to be as healthy as he can be.Thats advice that Clowney would likely offer, as well. Playing is one thing. Potentially hurting yourself or your team by playing before your body is ready is another.Say he would have went out there with not that good of an ankle, he might have hurt something else or he might have done something else, said LSUs Ethan Pocic, the?top senior center prospect?in?ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr.s latest 2017 draft rankings. Say me for instance, if I cant go, Im not going to go and maybe put [running back Derrius] Guice [in jeopardy] or the quarterback, because if I cant do my job, I dont want to let my teammates down.Thats the fine line that a superstar with high-first-round potential must walk.Clowney dealt with heavy criticism when a series of minor injuries knocked him out of two games and affected his production during his junior season. Like Fournette in 2016, Clowney -- also a former ESPN No. 1 overall high school prospect and first-team All-American as a sophomore -- entered that fall as a Heisman Trophy contender whose name sat high atop NFL draft boards for the upcoming year.His junior-year downturn generated plenty of debate leading up to the 2014 draft, but Clowney still went No. 1 overall to the Houston Texans. And even if he doesnt go with the very first pick should he enter next years draft, Fournettes ceiling seems just as high. He currently occupies the No. 1 spot?on?ESPN analyst Todd McShays Top 32 list and trails only Texas A&Ms Myles Garrett on Kipers Big Board.As McShay wrote, Resting until hes right will be the best thing for his long-term future. After logging 513 total touches in his previous two seasons, Fournette has little left to prove to NFL scouts.In the meantime, Fournette has maintained his role as a team leader from the sideline, even as teammates recognize his frustration.We all know hes disappointed he isnt playing, Guice said, but whenever I come on the sideline, were hugging, were doing our little handshake or hes just giving me some advice, telling me how I did on the previous play or drive. To me, hes supportive on the sideline. So all the He looks mad, I dont know where that comes from.As Moore indicated, the meat of LSUs schedule still lies ahead. Although the Tigers lost twice in a disappointing September that led to Miles dismissal, they are still in the thick of the SEC West race since games against division rivals Alabama, Ole Miss, Arkansas and Texas A&M await them in the second half of the season. Fournette would be LSUs ace in the hole for that stretch run, assuming that he is healthy and engaged when that key portion of the schedule arrives.It remains to be seen how quickly Fournettes ankle will recover, but Orgeron, for one, does not expect to have any problems keeping his star running back engaged despite the personal interests that would convince many others to sit out.Sometimes it can be [difficult]. But you know, Leonard is a different cat, Orgeron said. Leonard has a high character. Hes a team guy. He wants the team to win, have success. I think he was happy to see the offense have success. I think he was happy to see Guice and Williams have such a successful night [against Missouri], and Im sure he wants to get back in there as soon as he possibly can.ESPN Texans reporter Sarah Barshop contributed to this report.? Pittsburgh Pirates Gear .S District Court against Major League Baseball, the Office of the Commissioner and his own union, the MLBPA. Pirates Jerseys 2019 . -- Tony Stewart is 20 pounds lighter and has a titanium rod in his surgically repaired right leg. https://www.cheappiratesjerseys.us/ . -- Cam Newton pranced into the end zone, placed his hands over his chest and did his familiar Superman pose. Fake Pirates Jerseys . The Croatian served 21 aces and hit 42 winners against Sijsling, who double-faulted to give Cilic a 4-3 lead in the deciding set. "All the players, they know me and they were really happy to see me and they were really happy that this is over for me," Cilic said. Wholesale Pirates Jerseys . Jon Montgomerys gold medal in skeleton at the Whistler Sliding Centre and his subsequent auctioning off of a pitcher of beer in the village square elevated him to folk-hero status. WASHINGTON -- Clayton Kershaw was hardly at his best.Nothing new when it comes to October.He allowed eight hits and three runs. He needed 101 pitches just to make it through five innings. His career postseason ERA even rose a bit, up to 4.65.Didnt matter a bit to the lefty. Only this did: He earned a rare playoff victory.Backed by early homers from rookie sensation Corey Seager and Justin Turner off Max Scherzer in a matchup of Cy Young Award winners that promised more than it delivered, Kershaw helped the Los Angeles Dodgers edge the Washington Nationals 4-3 Friday in Game 1 of their NL Division Series.It was a grind. A lot of guys on base all the time. Definitely wasnt easy, Kershaw said. As close as you can bend without breaking, I guess.His work done, Kershaw was able to relax in the dugout, chewing gum and blowing bubbles while watching relievers Joe Blanton, Grant Dayton, Pedro Baez and Kenley Jansen combine to give up one hit over four scoreless innings. Jansen got his first five-out save since April.Whatever weve got to do to win, right? Those guys are up to the challenge, Seager said about LAs bullpen. And theyve been up to it all year.Game 2 in the best-of-five matchup is Saturday at Washington.Facing the NL East champs, Kershaws three runs might not sound like an exorbitant total, but an opponent scored that many only once in the leftys preceding 16 starts. And there was a stop-and-start feel to the evening, because of plenty of boo-inducing mound visits from catcher Yasmani Grandal.I wanted to be sure on the signs. We were trying to change `em up pretty often, said Kershaw, who improved to 3-6 in the playoffs , a far cry from his regular-season record of 126-60 with a 2.37 ERA and three Cy Young Awards. It was mainly that I had so many guys on second base.Certainly did.Kershaw left the bases loaded in the second, and stranded two runners in both the third and fifth -- striking out Danny Espinosa along the way each time.We had him on the ropes a couple times, Nationals manager Dusty Baker said, and, you know, the big hit just escaped us.There was also a baserunning blunder by NL MVP contender Daniel Murphy in the seventh inning.Murphy, who hadnt started a game since Sept. 17 because of a strained glute muscle, reached when Baez walked him, but then was thrown out trying to steal second. Baker said it was Murphys decision to run there and acknowledged being surprised by the attempt.Theres two choices on that, Murphy said. Either be safe or dont run.In all, Washington went 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position.That meant the Nationals repeatedly let Kershaw off the hook. He sat out more than two months with a bad back before returning to the NL West winners in September and hadnt thrown more than 91 pitches since coming back.So what if he struggledd?It feels good to win, and it feels good to win in this situation, Kershaw said.dddddddddddd If I had pitched seven shutout innings and we lost, its a different feeling. At this time of year, you kind of just throw the stats out the window and you just win the game.He was staked to a 4-0 lead thanks mainly to Seager and Turner, before slowly giving back most of that margin.Kershaw allowed only one stolen base during 149 innings in the regular season, then allowed two on a single pitch in the third, when Bryce Harper (who had doubled) and Jayson Werth (who had walked) moved up. That became big when Anthony Rendon ripped a single to left field on a slider that didnt really slide, bringing both runners home and getting Washington to 4-2.Trea Turners sacrifice fly in the fourth cut LAs lead to a run.Like Washingtons Turner, LAs Seager is a rookie who has not played like one all year long.On the first pitch he saw from Scherzer, Seager turned on a 97 mph fastball and hit it to the deepest part of Nationals Park, beyond the 402-foot sign in center field, for a 1-0 lead.Scherzer plunked the next batter, Justin Turner, on the left arm. For whatever reason, the 2013 AL Cy Young Award winner for Detroit -- and a 20-game winner whos a leading contender for the NL honor this year -- never truly settled in.The Dodgers made it 4-0 in the third on Chase Utleys RBI single, then Justin Turners two-run shot on a 77 mph curveball. The ball sailed over the head of Werth, who jumped in vain to try to make a grab, then slammed his glove against the left-field wall.Homers have been Scherzers biggest problem the past two seasons: He allowed 27 in 2015, and a major league-high 31 in 2016.I made some mistakes, and they cost me, Scherzer said. I take ownership of that, and Im accountable for that.MAKING HISTORYBaker and LAs Dave Roberts became the first pair of black managers to face off in a postseason series. During pregame introductions, they met near home plate for a long embrace.TRAINERS ROOMNationals: RHP Stephen Strasburg threw a bullpen hours before Game 1 -- his first time on a mound since he hurt his right elbow a month ago. He was ruled out for the NLDS, but the Nationals hope he could return if the team advances. ... All-Star C Wilson Ramos, out for the season with a torn knee ligament, threw out the ceremonial first pitch.UP NEXTIn Game 2, RHP Tanner Roark (16-10, 2.83 ERA) starts for the Nationals, taking the assignment that likely would have gone to Strasburg if he were healthy. LHP Rich Hill (3-2, 1.84 ERA in six starts after a trade from Oakland) will pitch for the Dodgers. He was let go from Washingtons Triple-A Syracuse affiliate last year. ' ' '