Kritik und Lob » want to] work on those, said Sosale.I dont k

MIAMI -- Dee Gordon walked into the Miami Marlins clubhouse four hours before game time and was greeted at his locker by a three-foot-high stack of boxes -- bats, gloves, shoes and more, all new.Three months of stuff, he said.Thats how long he had been gone. Gordon returned Thursday from an 80-game suspension for a positive drug test and went 0 for 4 batting leadoff as the Marlins lost to the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4.In conjunction with his reinstatement, Gordon issued an apology on social media addressed primarily to his young fans.I know I let you down, and Im sorry, the Marlins second baseman said in a video. Complacency led me to this, and Im hurt. I urge you guys to be more responsible than I am about what goes into your body. I wouldnt wish this on anyone.Gordon, who won the NL batting and stolen base titles last year, was suspended in late April after testing positive for two performance-enhancing drugs.At the time, Marlins president David Samson said Gordon had betrayed the team and fans. Now, Samson and the Marlins say theyre glad to have Gordon back.Were a pretty forgiving society, Samson said. Its important Dee ask for that forgiveness, and he has, and hell receive that. Hes got to continue to work to get himself back in with his teammates and the fans, and my son.Teammates -- even Derek Dietrich, who filled in capably at second base -- have said theyre glad to have Gordon return. Manager Don Mattingly said Gordon has the backing of the clubhouse and organization.Obviously there was disappointment early on, and then you really want to support him from that point forward, Mattingly said. He has been remorseful. He has paid his price.Gordons father, former major league pitcher Tom Gordon, attended Thursdays game. The elder Gordon said he both scolded and embraced his son when the suspension occurred.He has learned a lot, Tom Gordon said. He will bounce back and be an even better person.In his video, the 5-foot-11, 170-pound Gordon said he learned from his mistake.I thought being the smallest guy, I would never fail a drug test, he said. I didnt pay attention at all and I didnt meet the standards. Thats my fault and no one elses. But dont give up on me.When Gordon was suspended, he said he unknowingly took the banned substances. Speaking to a cluster of media in the dugout before batting practice Thursday, he declined to elaborate.What lesson did he learn?Dont be complacent just because youre small, he said. I got complacent and made a mistake.Gordons hitless effort Thursday dropped his season average to .255.I thought he seemed a little quiet and probably a little nervous, Mattingly said. As the game went on he seemed more like himself.To make room on the roster for Gordon, the Marlins designated for assignment infielder Don Kelly, who had two triples in Wednesdays victory over the Phillies.Even without Gordon, the Marlins have remained in contention for their first playoff berth since 2003.I kept in touch with my teammates pretty much on a daily basis, Gordon said. I told them thank you for keeping their end of the bargain. I asked them to keep it close until I got back, and thats exactly what they did. Now Ive got to keep my end of the bargain. Ive got to help us get to the playoffs.As part of his punishment, Gordon will be ineligible for the postseason.Last year he led the majors with 205 hits and 58 stolen bases, batted .333, became an All-Star for the second time and won a Gold Glove.The breakout season earned him a $50 million, five-year contract in January. Is he optimistic hell play the way he did last year?I know I can, he said. 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Gabriel Bourque scored 3:07 into the second period and Austin Watson tallied 5:15 later for Nashville. Chicago Bulls Jerseys . LUCIE, Fla.Switching roles can be a challenge for even seasoned Dota veterans. Moving from one lane to another means adjusting your positioning, your mentality, your entire playstyle. Kanishka Sosale, known to friends as Sam and the Dota world as BuLba, hasnt only changed roles this year; in fact, he has switched teams more than most players ever have in a single year.Sosale, 25, has been a member of four different teams in 2016, culminating in his new role on Team Liquid as a support. It could be a challenge for anyone to make that radical of a switch, but Sosale doesnt just have experience on his side. Having acquired new skills while playing middle and offlane for many teams, he is prepared to make adjustments.I think playing support actually fits a lot of the strengths Ive gained in the last year, Sosale told ESPN. I think Im fine playing all support heroes.A rocky startSosale has had a tumultuous career in Dota. Despite being one of the most well-known veterans of the North American scene, the past few years have been checkered. The player who popularized offlane Clockwerk and who inspired the infamous Liquid are doing it catchphrase, has found himself between teams frequently this past year.His season started at Digital Chaos, a small team at the time, where he played alongside Kurtis Aui_2000 Ling. After a mixed season, an offer came to the two from Evil Geniuses, two days before the roster lock.That was a really hard decision, said Sosale. Because we had something good going on with the team [DC].After thinking it over for a while, Sosale and Ling made the jump to Evil Geniuses, a team that Sosale felt was going well at the beginning. The team put up a solid performance at WePlay Dota 2 League Season 3, and spirits were high. Then came Epicenter.Thats when we started drifting apart, said Sosale. There was a lot of animosity between certain players on the team.Sosale described to me a pressure-filled environment. There were aspirations to live up to, with the kind of talent EG had available if things went south, and the fifth-sixth finish at Epicenter didnt build any confidence.I felt some of the EG members didnt really care as much as they normally did before, said Sosale. I thought they were kind of just waiting for Manila Major to end, so they could just replace one of us.The teams 13-16th place Manila Major results cemented the inevitable. Changes needed to come for Evil Geniuses, and failure to achieve success at the Major definitely contributed to Ling and Sosales release from the roster, as Sosale himself described it.Secret tensionsIn the post-Manila trade, Sosale found himself at Team Secret, a roster that had suffered similar failures in Manila. He said Secret and EG shared another similarity: a growing sense of bad blood between teammates.Before I joined the team, there was a lot of animosity between certain members on our team too, said Sosale. Its kind of shared, with EG and Secret, having personal conflicts on the team as we joined.As he described it, animosity within teams is usually related to whether teams are losing or not. When the wins are coming in, its easy to be friends and compete together, but the greatest test of teams is how they react to defeat, especially for the five players on roster.Its harder to fix Dota teams, in general, than other sports teams, said Sosale, referring not just to other esports but to sports as a whole. Sosale describes the esports scene as being at an infant stage.There isnt the same infrastructure of support staff and management and coaches, so emotions and stuff can run amok more and ruin teams, said Sosale. Unlike sports teams that are more professional than a young group of guys.According to Sosale, players have most of the power in esports. Unlike traditional sports, coaches and management dont have as much say in matters. Despite this imbalance, bringing on Sosale and Ling as a coach helped ease tensions within the team. Sosale said that Secret was bonding, taking pictures together, going out to eat and playing games together.The good times wouldnt last though, as the LAN losses began to stack up. The tipping point for Team Secret was, in Sosales opinion, the StarLadder Grand Finals. Secret went into a finals series against Natus Vincere feeling confident, coming off the first half of their TI boot camp having beaten everyone the team scrimmed. The 3-1 loss to NaVi though, even though it was in the Grand Finals, tilted Secret.Suddenly, it [felt] like the team [was] really bad at dealing with losses, saaid Sosale.dddddddddddd Theres just one second place, and all the stuff that happened before on the team came back. I could sense theres so much animosity between people; the atmosphere became way worse. It was harder to play for everyone.It was a cancerous environment, Sosale added.An environment that carried over into the second half of Secrets TI boot camp. Sosale described the second boot camp week as hell and it was like night and day compared to the Secret before StarLadder. There was plenty of potential in Secret, according to Sosale, but the problems kept stacking up.I think our problem with the team was maybe there was too many egos on the team, said Sosale. Too many people that, instead of just taking responsibility for what had happened, saying we just played bad as a team, they just point at each other instead. No one wanted to take blame for anything that went wrong. People didnt work together like they used to.Scrims led to conflict, as multiple voices started speaking out after losses. The phrase too many cooks in the kitchen might be conservative in terms of the intensity in the air; Sosale told me there were two coaches and five players in the room, and everyone had a different opinion on what went wrong.I dont like when people scapegoat each other on teams, because in the end, everyone can take some blame, said Sosale. If you all take blame, it also helps build confidence for each other, and trust for each other, you know?The subsequent results at The International 6 spoke for themselves. Secret failed to live up to its potential, a performance Sosale describes as a huge train wreck. The shot at the Aegis came and went for this all-star team, and thoughts began to drift to the fall roster shuffle.HomecomingBefore all the drama, before the many other rosters, Sosale had made a name for himself on Team Liquid. Playing in the mid lane, his Tinker and Invoker were well-known and feared. Now he returns to Liquid to fill the four-five support role, an offer that surprised Sosale. He had been in talks with Jacky EternaLEnVy Mao, working to create what would become Team NP.I really liked EnVy, I love playing with him a lot and I really liked him as a person, said Sosale. I was really good friends with [Theeban 1437 Siva] and Aui, as well. We just wanted to make a team of friends, and try and make a team that gets along with each other.Sosale had heard rumblings about Jesse JerAx Vainikkas departure from TL for OG, but didnt know for sure until he was approached by Kuro KuroKy Salehi Takhasomi to fill the spot. Sosale found himself caught in a difficult situation, between a team of friends and returning to Liquid.I debated about it, and I just said, Im going to do Liquid, said Sosale. I really want to play with Kuro and Mind_Control and MATUMBAMAN. At the time, we didnt know who our mid player was going to be, but I knew I really wanted to play with those three.Now, Sosale is in a short break period before the 2017 season starts. Hes preparing for a role he hasnt played in a long time, but the BuLba of today has grown a great deal.Ive played the five position before, Ive played support before, but I was really inexperienced, Sosale says about his early support play. Now, though, Sosale has learned and grown from his years in competitive Dota.Ive been through all these teams and I know what my weaknesses are as well, so [I want to] work on those, said Sosale.I dont know, maybe it sounds like a big cliché, Sosale tells me. But going through all these things, all these losses and defeats, really makes you think about stuff.Though the fall has been unexpectedly quiet for him, BuLba has been busy playing in mixed scrims, honing his support skills and training for the upcoming season. He said hell miss playing offlane, especially his Dark Seer and Sand King, but hes excited to play support and to rejoin the Liquid organization.A lot of the people I used to know before on the team are still the same, said Sosale. So I have quite a bit of friends. All my favorite memories from Dota were from Liquid too.Sosale has support from his captain KuroKy and managers like Mohamed Morad. Hes training to hopefully co-captain alongside Kuro, a role he feels confident in and wants to play in Liquid. The last year has been tumultuous for BuLba, but a homecoming to Team Liquid seems to be the perfect fit for North American Dotas wayward son. ' ' '