Welcome back,
Your dreams were your ticket out.
Welcome back, To that same old place that you laughed about.
Well the names have all changed since you hung around,
But those dreams have remained and they're turned around.
Who'd have thought they'd lead ya (Who'd have thought they'd lead ya)
Here where we need ya (Here where we need ya)
Yeah we tease him a lot cause we've hot him on the spot, welcome back, Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.
What other words could I use to begin this segment of my blog, then the famous theme song of the 70’s show “Welcome back Kotter”. I’ve been on the IR for awhile with an injury to my typing finger, but I’m playing through the pain today, because I can’t bear to go one more day without forcing my opinion on you. A lot has changed since I’ve last posted, including: The start of the EPL, NHL, NFL and MLB playoffs.
In honour of my re-blogging, I propose a 7 day sports binge. That’s to say that with the exception of school, church and work, I will watch nothing, read nothing, think about nothing, other than sports from noon today, until noon next Saturday. I will, of course, be chronicling my every move on this very blog. Anybody else who wants to join me as I become one with sports, is of course, welcome to.
Now, as for today’s entry…
Leading Off
Answer to the last trivia question: Andrew Magee
“It’s never an upset if the so-called underdog has all along considered itself the better team.”
-Woody Hayes
Free Throws
MLB
-It would be almost impossible for me to continue this blog without mention of the debacle that is the ALCS. The Rays were riding high, with all-star Scott Kasmir going six strong, with two hits, no earned runs and a seven run lead going into the 7th. Cue Grant Balfour. He lasted 2/3 of an inning giving up four runs to put the Sox right back in it. Add a blown save from Blake Wheeler and a loss from J.P. Howell and you’ve got yourself a game six in Tampa. This adds up to be the biggest comeback in ALCS history and the 2nd biggest in MLB playoff history. But could you have really counted the Red Sox out. They’re 8-0 when facing elimination in the ALCS under manager Terry Francona, including a comeback from 3-0 against the Yanks, a series deficit that had never been overcome in MLB postseason history. I would love to keep analyzing and predicting for game 6, but there are pressing matters. Moving on!
NFL
-How ’bout them Cowboys? I’m by no means a Dallas Cowboys fan, but I just have to weigh in on this. Tony Romo broke his pinky finger, an injury that typically takes at least 3 weeks to heal. Brett Favre calls and basically tells Romo to suck it up and play next week. Romo tosses some balls on the sidelines during practice. Romo contemplates playing next Sunday against the Rams. My advice to Romo? Don’t play!!! If your backup QB can’t beat the St. Louis Rams, then it’s time to demote your entire team to the CFL. Sit it our for a week, see how it feels, then you can think about playing. Just because you can throw without pain doesn’t mean your better. Unlike pitchers in baseball, quarterbacks don’t get injured from throwing the ball. They get injured from getting hit…hard! If you play against the Rams and land on your finger after getting hit, then there goes your season. The only way to heal is time and patience. Just do me one favour, don’t hold for any more field goals.
-So much for “Pacman” trying to start off fresh.
NHL
-Any fan of hockey has truly learned the fragility of life in this past year. First we start off with Mickey Renaud of the Windsor Spitfires who died of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (sudden thickening of the walls of the heart), on February 18, in his home in Tecumseh, Ontario. Then Luc Bourdon, of the Manitoba Moose, died in a tragic motorcycle accident, on May 19th, near his home in Shippagan, New Brunswick. Finally, Alexei Cherepanov, of Avangard Omsk in the newly formed KHL, collapsed on the bench after a shift, a victim of Hypertrophic Cardiomopathy, the same disease that claimed the life of Renaud. The combined age of these three gentlemen at the time of their death is 59, not even enough to make it to the current life expectancy in North America. These tragic deaths prove the statement that bad luck comes in threes. R.I.P. Mickey, Luc and Alexei.
Daily Dose
Is there anything other than game 6 of the ALCS?
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Saturday, August 2, 2008
08/02/08
Leading Off
Who is the only golfer in PGA Tour history to make a hole-in-one on a Par 4?
Free Throws
NHL
-Scotty Bowman is making waves and he hasn’t even jumped in the pool…yet. Bowman, was without question the greatest coach to ever step behind a bench in the NHL. He never played in the NHL because a head injury ended his career in junior. But the injury sure didn’t affect his coaching as he put together 16 straight winning seasons before going 18-18 with the sabres in 1986. Bowman has been involved in the Red Wings organization in some capacity for the past 15 years, but is now gone, as he heads for the Windy city. Bowman elected to become the Blackhawks “Senior Advisor”, an unnecessary position to say the least, now intensifying the rivalry between the Hawks and Wings. Just think of Don Cherry going to TSN. Yeah, that’s about what it feels like to be a Red Wings fan right now. You’re left with the awkward situation of having Ron MacLean and Kelly Hrudey do behind the mask every Saturday night. The real reason who Bowman is joining the Blackhawks is to work with his son Stan, who is director of hockey operations (as opposed to football operations?) for the Blackhawks. As far as I know the Red Wings aren’t bitter about the transfer. In fact, I don’t think there is any controversy in this story at all. Then why am I talking about it? Moving on!
NFL
-Lots of controversy in this story. The latest episode of As the Favre Turns, shows the Packers dishing out a $20M, 10-year contract to Brett Favre. Sounds kind of low, doesn’t it? That’s because they’re paying him not to play. That’s right, the Green Bay Packers are willing to pay a Hall of Fame Quarterback more than I’ll ever make in my lifetime, to stay away from the football field. Heck, I’ll stay away from the football field for 20 bucks. Favre was apparently considering the offer, but we’ll likely have to wait until Monday to get an answer, because that’s when Roger Goodell is expected to reinstate Favre. After that happens, the Packers are on the clock with 24 hours to sign him, release him, trade him, hide him in a big block of cheese or send him to the CFL, the official garbage disposal of the National Football League since 1958.
-Now The Sports Epidemic performs: Another Day at Panthers training camp, starring Steve Smith and Ken Lucas.
Steve Smith: I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t grab me while I’m running my route.
Ken Lucas: You had a bug on your jersey. It could have been carrying Malaria, you should be thanking me.
SMACK!
Ken Lucas: What was that for?
Steve Smith: You had a bug on your face.
Okay, so maybe that’s not exactly what happened, but who’s counting anyways. That’s basically the way I see it. Receiver with anger issues angry with too much grabbing. DB defends himself. Receiver hulks up. DB gets thumped. Anyway you look at it, Steve Smith is out of the Panthers training camp for a while, with an almost definite suspension and fine. This is the 3rd such incident with Smith, the last of which, required anger management. Apparently Lucas suffered a black ey…THIS JUST IN: Brett Favre supports Snappers. Not the Fish silly, the lawn mowers.
SAL
-Fight! Fight! Fight! It’s not too often I mention the ole South Atlantic League, but when there’s a brawl like this one, I tend to stand up and take notice. There’s nothing wrong with a bench-clearing brawl, especially when tempers were as high as they were last night, but when you bring fans, no, paying customers, into to the fight with you, you’ve crossed the line. Julio Castillo was caught on video, throwing a baseball into the crowd (he was aiming at the dugout…poor aim). The baseball hit a fan in the forehead and sent him to the hospital. Fortunately Castillo was treated accordingly, being suspended for 60 games and charged with felonious assault. Fourteen other players and both managers were suspended. Which brings up one important question: Who’s going to play the next game? By the way , you can check out the video here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZHYk5NxYek). You can see Castillo throwing the ball at 0:13.
ATP
-One question: How does it feel to be #1, Nadal?
Daily Dose
Victoria Azarenka Vs. Dinara Safina (Hey, it’s what I’m watching right now.)
Who is the only golfer in PGA Tour history to make a hole-in-one on a Par 4?
Free Throws
NHL
-Scotty Bowman is making waves and he hasn’t even jumped in the pool…yet. Bowman, was without question the greatest coach to ever step behind a bench in the NHL. He never played in the NHL because a head injury ended his career in junior. But the injury sure didn’t affect his coaching as he put together 16 straight winning seasons before going 18-18 with the sabres in 1986. Bowman has been involved in the Red Wings organization in some capacity for the past 15 years, but is now gone, as he heads for the Windy city. Bowman elected to become the Blackhawks “Senior Advisor”, an unnecessary position to say the least, now intensifying the rivalry between the Hawks and Wings. Just think of Don Cherry going to TSN. Yeah, that’s about what it feels like to be a Red Wings fan right now. You’re left with the awkward situation of having Ron MacLean and Kelly Hrudey do behind the mask every Saturday night. The real reason who Bowman is joining the Blackhawks is to work with his son Stan, who is director of hockey operations (as opposed to football operations?) for the Blackhawks. As far as I know the Red Wings aren’t bitter about the transfer. In fact, I don’t think there is any controversy in this story at all. Then why am I talking about it? Moving on!
NFL
-Lots of controversy in this story. The latest episode of As the Favre Turns, shows the Packers dishing out a $20M, 10-year contract to Brett Favre. Sounds kind of low, doesn’t it? That’s because they’re paying him not to play. That’s right, the Green Bay Packers are willing to pay a Hall of Fame Quarterback more than I’ll ever make in my lifetime, to stay away from the football field. Heck, I’ll stay away from the football field for 20 bucks. Favre was apparently considering the offer, but we’ll likely have to wait until Monday to get an answer, because that’s when Roger Goodell is expected to reinstate Favre. After that happens, the Packers are on the clock with 24 hours to sign him, release him, trade him, hide him in a big block of cheese or send him to the CFL, the official garbage disposal of the National Football League since 1958.
-Now The Sports Epidemic performs: Another Day at Panthers training camp, starring Steve Smith and Ken Lucas.
Steve Smith: I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t grab me while I’m running my route.
Ken Lucas: You had a bug on your jersey. It could have been carrying Malaria, you should be thanking me.
SMACK!
Ken Lucas: What was that for?
Steve Smith: You had a bug on your face.
Okay, so maybe that’s not exactly what happened, but who’s counting anyways. That’s basically the way I see it. Receiver with anger issues angry with too much grabbing. DB defends himself. Receiver hulks up. DB gets thumped. Anyway you look at it, Steve Smith is out of the Panthers training camp for a while, with an almost definite suspension and fine. This is the 3rd such incident with Smith, the last of which, required anger management. Apparently Lucas suffered a black ey…THIS JUST IN: Brett Favre supports Snappers. Not the Fish silly, the lawn mowers.
SAL
-Fight! Fight! Fight! It’s not too often I mention the ole South Atlantic League, but when there’s a brawl like this one, I tend to stand up and take notice. There’s nothing wrong with a bench-clearing brawl, especially when tempers were as high as they were last night, but when you bring fans, no, paying customers, into to the fight with you, you’ve crossed the line. Julio Castillo was caught on video, throwing a baseball into the crowd (he was aiming at the dugout…poor aim). The baseball hit a fan in the forehead and sent him to the hospital. Fortunately Castillo was treated accordingly, being suspended for 60 games and charged with felonious assault. Fourteen other players and both managers were suspended. Which brings up one important question: Who’s going to play the next game? By the way , you can check out the video here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZHYk5NxYek). You can see Castillo throwing the ball at 0:13.
ATP
-One question: How does it feel to be #1, Nadal?
Daily Dose
Victoria Azarenka Vs. Dinara Safina (Hey, it’s what I’m watching right now.)
Thursday, July 31, 2008
07/31/08
Two days in a row, can you believe it?
Leading Off
-Fishing is the biggest participant sport in the world.
Free Throws
(It’s baseball trade deadline day today, so I’m looking at all the trades (that matter).)
MLB
-Ken Griffey, Jr. after 9 seasons of service with the Reds, has now left Cincinnati. He now joins a Chicago team that has won a World Series in the past 100 years. Griffey brings his 608 career home runs to the ChiSox, as they look to make a run for their 2nd World Championship in four years. Moving from the Sox to the Reds is pitcher Nick Masset and second baseman Danny Richar, needless to say that neither of them top the depth chart at their position. Griffey is basically a rental player, but could be with the White Sox for the 2009 season if he elects to use his contract option. Griffey brings with him his $13M/year contract, more than 16 times what Masset and Richar make combined!
-I hate these 3-team deals, so confusing, so I’ll just go over what each team got. First off we’ll start with the biggest name and that’s Manny Ramirez, who now moves his side show to the 2nd biggest market in sunny L.A. It’s no secret that “Manny being Manny” has grown tiresome to some in the BoSox organization. Manny, despite growing older with every swing of the bat, still maintains a high batting average and good power numbers. Manny always finds time to high five fans in the crowd, as well as place calls from his cubby in the green monster. Some don’t appreciate his foolishness, others are willing to look the other way as long is he delivers. Personally I would rather him take the game more seriously, but how can you argue with a .312 career average and 510 home runs. The Dodgers are one of many teams this year to put the “World Series or bust” tattoo on their forehead. The Dodgers lost a couple of prospects in the deal, so only time will tell if this pays off for the Dodgers.
-I’m sorry but the only upside I see in this deal for the Pirates is that now Andy LaRoche gets to play with his brother Adam. Bryan Morris was a first round draft pick, but after going through Tommy John surgery, he’s fallen off the table faster than a nasty curve. Andy LaRoche is a nice guy to fill a hole, but a former 21st round draft pick isn’t going to cover up the hole left by Jason Bay.
-Finally we get to the Red Sox, who won this trade in my opinion. They got Manny out of Boston and brought in a player who actually has very comparable stats to a young Manny Ramirez. Of course we don’t know how Bay will develop, but he’s Canadian, so what’s the worst that could happen. Bay is only 30 years old compared with a 36-year old, Ramirez. Manny Ramirez is also worth $19M per year, (a number which is frowned upon in the Marlins organization), while Bay is only making $6M. it’s just my opinion, but I think the Pirates got fleeced.
Daily Dose
Los Angeles Angels @ New York Yankees (As a rule I don’t encourage people to watch Yankee games, but hey, it’s “Pudge” Rodriguez’ debut)
Leading Off
-Fishing is the biggest participant sport in the world.
Free Throws
(It’s baseball trade deadline day today, so I’m looking at all the trades (that matter).)
MLB
-Ken Griffey, Jr. after 9 seasons of service with the Reds, has now left Cincinnati. He now joins a Chicago team that has won a World Series in the past 100 years. Griffey brings his 608 career home runs to the ChiSox, as they look to make a run for their 2nd World Championship in four years. Moving from the Sox to the Reds is pitcher Nick Masset and second baseman Danny Richar, needless to say that neither of them top the depth chart at their position. Griffey is basically a rental player, but could be with the White Sox for the 2009 season if he elects to use his contract option. Griffey brings with him his $13M/year contract, more than 16 times what Masset and Richar make combined!
-I hate these 3-team deals, so confusing, so I’ll just go over what each team got. First off we’ll start with the biggest name and that’s Manny Ramirez, who now moves his side show to the 2nd biggest market in sunny L.A. It’s no secret that “Manny being Manny” has grown tiresome to some in the BoSox organization. Manny, despite growing older with every swing of the bat, still maintains a high batting average and good power numbers. Manny always finds time to high five fans in the crowd, as well as place calls from his cubby in the green monster. Some don’t appreciate his foolishness, others are willing to look the other way as long is he delivers. Personally I would rather him take the game more seriously, but how can you argue with a .312 career average and 510 home runs. The Dodgers are one of many teams this year to put the “World Series or bust” tattoo on their forehead. The Dodgers lost a couple of prospects in the deal, so only time will tell if this pays off for the Dodgers.
-I’m sorry but the only upside I see in this deal for the Pirates is that now Andy LaRoche gets to play with his brother Adam. Bryan Morris was a first round draft pick, but after going through Tommy John surgery, he’s fallen off the table faster than a nasty curve. Andy LaRoche is a nice guy to fill a hole, but a former 21st round draft pick isn’t going to cover up the hole left by Jason Bay.
-Finally we get to the Red Sox, who won this trade in my opinion. They got Manny out of Boston and brought in a player who actually has very comparable stats to a young Manny Ramirez. Of course we don’t know how Bay will develop, but he’s Canadian, so what’s the worst that could happen. Bay is only 30 years old compared with a 36-year old, Ramirez. Manny Ramirez is also worth $19M per year, (a number which is frowned upon in the Marlins organization), while Bay is only making $6M. it’s just my opinion, but I think the Pirates got fleeced.
Daily Dose
Los Angeles Angels @ New York Yankees (As a rule I don’t encourage people to watch Yankee games, but hey, it’s “Pudge” Rodriguez’ debut)
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
07/30/08
I’ve been absent as of late, but I want you to know that there is a very good reason for this. It is a combination of my being on vacation and my relatively low work ethic. There, happy now? Let’s get to today’s edition.
Leading Off
-Answer to Thursday’s trivia question: Steffi Graf is the only tennis player to win all four Grand Slams at least 4 times.
“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
-John Wooden
Free Throws
(A lot of news to get to, but I’ve decided to keep this short or else I’ll never get this done.)
NFL
-If you think I’m going to talk about Brett Favre, then you’re wrong! I am indeed going to talk about the Green Bay Packers of which there is a very good chance that Brett Favre will not be a part of. I’m not sure who to blame in this scenario. I could blame the Packers for taking their time, not being decisive and giving Aaron Rodgers nightmares. Or I could blame Favre for coming back in the first place. It’s a rare occasion that I sit on the fence, but when there’s man-eating Alligator’s on either side, I find it very hard to jump off. One thing I can say though, Is that the Packers are doing nothing but hurting themselves by taking their time. The closer we get to pre-season, the less a team is going to want to bring in Favre and possibly mess up their chemistry. The Packers better make up there mind or they might find Favre showing up at Lambeau in purple.
MLB
-So, how ‘bout them Angels. I hear they just added a pretty good bat to the lineup. What’s his name again? Oh right, MARK TEIXEIRA! Yes that’s the .540 slugging, 40-home run hitting, Mark Teixeira that we’ve come to know and love. He was traded for up-and-coming 1st baseman Casey Kotchman and minor league pitcher Stephen Marek. The usually timid Angels have finally decided to drop the gloves and come out swinging for the World Series, so to speak. This deal could, however, backfire on the Angels if they don’t win the series this year. Teixeira is in the last year of his one-year contract and is expected to demand in excess of $20M per season. A figure the Angels won’t be able to pay, if they expect to keep Vlad Guerrero and John Lackey, amid others on an all-star roster.
-This is breaking news that will already be broken by the time I get this posted. The Yankees have solved their short-term catching problems by acquiring a far more likable Rodriguez. Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez was traded from his Detroit Tigers for relief pitcher Kyle Farnsworth. Instead of just calling up a minor-league catcher, Hank Steinbrenner had to prove his endless wealth by signing yet another multiple All-Star, this time a 14-time All-Star. But hold the phone just one minute, was this deal really worth it for the Yankees. When you look at the Yankees they have one glaring weakness, Pitching. Apparently Steinbrenner is more concerned with getting the better player than building a more complete team. Look at the Yankees lineup. A-Rod, Jeter, Giambi, Abreu and Damon. Do you really think that another bat will help them that much. What will the Yankees do when Posada comes back? Did you think of that hank? A $200M roster and out of a playoff spot. What does that tell you?
NBA
-Quickly moving on to the NBA and with little time to spare. Tim “the tool man” Donaghy was sentenced to 15 months in prison for his role in the NBA betting scandal. All that needs to be said is that the NBA is crazy if they think this thing is limited to “one rogue official.” I feel a feeling this thing is bigger than Barry Bonds’ right bicep. My intuition isn’t normally wrong, unless you count that Wimbledon match that I completely misinterpreted, but then again I’ve been saying that Favre will return since the beginning and look who’s laughing now. I have a feeling those calls Donaghy made to Scott Foster before and after games may have something to do with it. But It’s just a hunch.
Daily Dose
Chicago Cubs @ Milwaukee Brewers (Hurry up it’s already started!)
Leading Off
-Answer to Thursday’s trivia question: Steffi Graf is the only tennis player to win all four Grand Slams at least 4 times.
“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
-John Wooden
Free Throws
(A lot of news to get to, but I’ve decided to keep this short or else I’ll never get this done.)
NFL
-If you think I’m going to talk about Brett Favre, then you’re wrong! I am indeed going to talk about the Green Bay Packers of which there is a very good chance that Brett Favre will not be a part of. I’m not sure who to blame in this scenario. I could blame the Packers for taking their time, not being decisive and giving Aaron Rodgers nightmares. Or I could blame Favre for coming back in the first place. It’s a rare occasion that I sit on the fence, but when there’s man-eating Alligator’s on either side, I find it very hard to jump off. One thing I can say though, Is that the Packers are doing nothing but hurting themselves by taking their time. The closer we get to pre-season, the less a team is going to want to bring in Favre and possibly mess up their chemistry. The Packers better make up there mind or they might find Favre showing up at Lambeau in purple.
MLB
-So, how ‘bout them Angels. I hear they just added a pretty good bat to the lineup. What’s his name again? Oh right, MARK TEIXEIRA! Yes that’s the .540 slugging, 40-home run hitting, Mark Teixeira that we’ve come to know and love. He was traded for up-and-coming 1st baseman Casey Kotchman and minor league pitcher Stephen Marek. The usually timid Angels have finally decided to drop the gloves and come out swinging for the World Series, so to speak. This deal could, however, backfire on the Angels if they don’t win the series this year. Teixeira is in the last year of his one-year contract and is expected to demand in excess of $20M per season. A figure the Angels won’t be able to pay, if they expect to keep Vlad Guerrero and John Lackey, amid others on an all-star roster.
-This is breaking news that will already be broken by the time I get this posted. The Yankees have solved their short-term catching problems by acquiring a far more likable Rodriguez. Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez was traded from his Detroit Tigers for relief pitcher Kyle Farnsworth. Instead of just calling up a minor-league catcher, Hank Steinbrenner had to prove his endless wealth by signing yet another multiple All-Star, this time a 14-time All-Star. But hold the phone just one minute, was this deal really worth it for the Yankees. When you look at the Yankees they have one glaring weakness, Pitching. Apparently Steinbrenner is more concerned with getting the better player than building a more complete team. Look at the Yankees lineup. A-Rod, Jeter, Giambi, Abreu and Damon. Do you really think that another bat will help them that much. What will the Yankees do when Posada comes back? Did you think of that hank? A $200M roster and out of a playoff spot. What does that tell you?
NBA
-Quickly moving on to the NBA and with little time to spare. Tim “the tool man” Donaghy was sentenced to 15 months in prison for his role in the NBA betting scandal. All that needs to be said is that the NBA is crazy if they think this thing is limited to “one rogue official.” I feel a feeling this thing is bigger than Barry Bonds’ right bicep. My intuition isn’t normally wrong, unless you count that Wimbledon match that I completely misinterpreted, but then again I’ve been saying that Favre will return since the beginning and look who’s laughing now. I have a feeling those calls Donaghy made to Scott Foster before and after games may have something to do with it. But It’s just a hunch.
Daily Dose
Chicago Cubs @ Milwaukee Brewers (Hurry up it’s already started!)
Thursday, July 17, 2008
07/17/08
Leading Off
-Who is the only tennis player to win all Grand Slam events at least four times?
Free Throws
MLB
-Roger Clemens could possibly be convicted by a broken TV. Kirk Radomski, the alleged steroid distributor to Clemens, said that he found receipts for HGH when he went to move his broken television off his dresser. Every day there seems to be a new twist in the Clemens case and every day he seems to wiggle his way out of it. I’d be willing to bet that he still doesn’t get convicted after all this. But could someone explain to me why they can’t just give him a drug test and get this all over with.
-What an All-Star game! It was just as confusing as it always way, but enjoyable nonetheless. I watched 8 innings of the game, but only got to see half of it. That’s because the midsummer classic lasted 15 innings this year, until it was ended by a Michael Young sac fly that Justin Morneau scored on. Bud Selig said that the game wasn’t going to end in a tie like in 2002, so the game moved on. Mariano Rivera pitched 1 2/3 innings of shutout ball in front of the hometown crowd and A-Rod actually played. Canadians were represented well at the all-star game with Russell Martin Justin Morneau and Ryan Dempster all participating. J.D. Drew took home MVP honours.
NFL
-With spygate, steroid and drug use, what is the NFL pouring it‘s money into? To see if players are using gang signs in their touchdown celebrations. Personally, I hope they find some. The players using them would never see it coming. They think nobody understands the signs except gang members. Then, all of a sudden, BUSTED! I don’t see gang violence or signs as being a huge problem in the NFL. Sure you get the odd situation, but ignorance is bliss. If we don’t know they’re gang signs, does it really matter. Apparently, this (http://www.nflfootballbettingline.com/files/2007/12/peyton-manning.jpg) is the sign for victory.
Cycling
-I apologize, but I’ve become completely uninterested in le Tour de France. Maybe it’s because the Canadian is in 80th place, but I just can’t follow a race I can’t watch. Actually it’s because of all the doping surrounded around the race. AGAIN! This is starting to get ridiculous. Cycling is becoming like Track and Baseball, where HGH is just accepted. 2 riders have been ejected already. Last years winner was dethroned because of banned substances. I’m going to call right now that at least 50% of cyclists in this race are on steroids. I have a feeling this thing is bigger than we think.
PGA
-Here’s how much publicity golf gets without Tiger: I just realised that the British Open is on right now.
Daily Dose
-New York Mets @ Cincinnati Reds. Watch to see if the Mets can continue their nine-game winning streak that they started before the break.
-Who is the only tennis player to win all Grand Slam events at least four times?
Free Throws
MLB
-Roger Clemens could possibly be convicted by a broken TV. Kirk Radomski, the alleged steroid distributor to Clemens, said that he found receipts for HGH when he went to move his broken television off his dresser. Every day there seems to be a new twist in the Clemens case and every day he seems to wiggle his way out of it. I’d be willing to bet that he still doesn’t get convicted after all this. But could someone explain to me why they can’t just give him a drug test and get this all over with.
-What an All-Star game! It was just as confusing as it always way, but enjoyable nonetheless. I watched 8 innings of the game, but only got to see half of it. That’s because the midsummer classic lasted 15 innings this year, until it was ended by a Michael Young sac fly that Justin Morneau scored on. Bud Selig said that the game wasn’t going to end in a tie like in 2002, so the game moved on. Mariano Rivera pitched 1 2/3 innings of shutout ball in front of the hometown crowd and A-Rod actually played. Canadians were represented well at the all-star game with Russell Martin Justin Morneau and Ryan Dempster all participating. J.D. Drew took home MVP honours.
NFL
-With spygate, steroid and drug use, what is the NFL pouring it‘s money into? To see if players are using gang signs in their touchdown celebrations. Personally, I hope they find some. The players using them would never see it coming. They think nobody understands the signs except gang members. Then, all of a sudden, BUSTED! I don’t see gang violence or signs as being a huge problem in the NFL. Sure you get the odd situation, but ignorance is bliss. If we don’t know they’re gang signs, does it really matter. Apparently, this (http://www.nflfootballbettingline.com/files/2007/12/peyton-manning.jpg) is the sign for victory.
Cycling
-I apologize, but I’ve become completely uninterested in le Tour de France. Maybe it’s because the Canadian is in 80th place, but I just can’t follow a race I can’t watch. Actually it’s because of all the doping surrounded around the race. AGAIN! This is starting to get ridiculous. Cycling is becoming like Track and Baseball, where HGH is just accepted. 2 riders have been ejected already. Last years winner was dethroned because of banned substances. I’m going to call right now that at least 50% of cyclists in this race are on steroids. I have a feeling this thing is bigger than we think.
PGA
-Here’s how much publicity golf gets without Tiger: I just realised that the British Open is on right now.
Daily Dose
-New York Mets @ Cincinnati Reds. Watch to see if the Mets can continue their nine-game winning streak that they started before the break.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
07/15/08
I know I’ve been late a lot lately, so I’ve been trying to find a solution. I’ve been really busy lately and haven’t had the time to write. So me and my messed up logic decides that I’m going to write more! That’s right The Sports Epidemic is going daily! Instead of taking 3 hours to write an incredibly long posts that no one reads, I’m going to write for 1 hour to make more manageable posts. I’ll also be adding a new section! This new blog is now available with half the fat of the regular!
Leading Off
-The San Diego Chargers are named after a credit card.
Free Throws
MLB
-How could I write this post without mentioning the (legendary) fight between Jose Canseco and Vai Sikahema. I didn’t watch this fight anywhere (although I did see clips) because apparently there were some media restrictions, but apparently Jose Canseco got beat down! Anybody who picked Jose Canseco to win this fight either has a brain defect or didn’t know that Vai is a former boxer and fought in the National Golden Gloves boxing tournament. But even I didn’t think Canseco would get KO’d in the first round!
Canseco had a 7-inch height advantage, but even with all those steroids packed into his body, he couldn’t take down a man who would have to reach up to shake his hand. I laugh at Canseco because every time he tries to gain popularity, it backfires. He started out on the Oakland Athletics where he was part of the bash brothers with teammate Mark McGwire, then there was steroids, then who can forget his books Juiced and Vindicated and now getting beat up by a 5-9 mini-me in 96 seconds. Next up for Jose: Dancing With the Stars.
-Part of the reason I’m so late writing this edition, is because I was watching the State Farm home run derby. Colin Cowherd may not like it, but that’s his loss. Josh Hamilton put on a show. Demolishing Bobby Abreu’s record of 24 home runs in one round with 28 of his own. He has Yankee Stadium cheering all night. He didn’t win the derby because he couldn’t match Justin Morneau’s (Canadian!) 5 homers in the last round. Morneau may have won, but this was definitely Hamilton’s night. He captivated a crowd and millions of viewers around north America with his awesome power (3 bombs over 500ft.), while also being able to share his story of overcoming a heroin addiction to playing in the MLB. Sounds like a winner if I ever heard one.
NFL
-I laughed so hard when I heard this story. Many of you may have heard about this before, but I had not. It turns out the Washington Redskins have been in a 16-year debate with the American Indians over the teams name. When I first heard this story I thought it was crazy. That is until I searched a little deeper. As it turns out the Redskins name may have actually been designed to be racially offensive. Time for a history lesson. In 1932 George Marshall bought an NFL franchise and called them the Boston Braves. The Braves then moved to Fenway Park in 1936 and renamed the team. Marshall was thought to be a racist and the name Redskins was thought to be a racial slur. I still think it’s crazy to debate a team name (hey I cheer for the New jersey Devils), but it turns out those Indians, err, native Americans, have a point.
-If you thought that you could get through this blog without me mentioning Brett Favre, then you thought wrong. The Favre situation has heated up with Favre asking for a release from his contract. Then the Packers telling him to go sit on the bench and back up Aaron Rodgers. I don’t know why the Packers said that. If they sit Brett Favre on the bench, they’ll be fired before they leave the stadium, especially with a community owned team. This is starting to get ridiculous though, on the part of Brett Favre. Just give us an answer. Are you coming back with the Packers or not. We just want an answer. Packers fans in Wisconsin are having rallies with cheese perched on their head, begging you to give them an answer. I’m all for some good suspense, but the summer heat is starting to get to me and I just think enough is enough.
7th Inning Stretch
-My friend is lazy, so he probably won’t write everyday. I’m just going to post this section when he gives me something.
Buzzer Beater
(The Buzzer Beater award will only be posted on the regular Tuesday, Friday and Saturday edition of the blog. Hey, that’s today!)
-The Buzzer Beater award for July 15 goes to…Josh Hamilton. Sorry Justin Morneau, you did your best, but I’m sorry to say that you didn’t deserve that home run crown. Congratulations to Hamilton on almost winning the home run derby in the house that Ruth built.
Tiger Woods - 1
Kevin Youkilis - 1
Jie Zheng - 1
Matt Kemp - 1
Roy Halladay - 1
Conor Jackson - 1
Rafael Nadal - 1
Justin Morneau - 1
Josh Hamilton - 1
Daily Dose
(I promised you a new section and here it is. I’ll give you the game/event to watch for every single day of the year. That’s 36, 525 times a century!)
-Today’s daily dose: The MLB All-Star game, duh!
-Remember, the next edition is tomorrow and don’t forget it!
Leading Off
-The San Diego Chargers are named after a credit card.
Free Throws
MLB
-How could I write this post without mentioning the (legendary) fight between Jose Canseco and Vai Sikahema. I didn’t watch this fight anywhere (although I did see clips) because apparently there were some media restrictions, but apparently Jose Canseco got beat down! Anybody who picked Jose Canseco to win this fight either has a brain defect or didn’t know that Vai is a former boxer and fought in the National Golden Gloves boxing tournament. But even I didn’t think Canseco would get KO’d in the first round!
Canseco had a 7-inch height advantage, but even with all those steroids packed into his body, he couldn’t take down a man who would have to reach up to shake his hand. I laugh at Canseco because every time he tries to gain popularity, it backfires. He started out on the Oakland Athletics where he was part of the bash brothers with teammate Mark McGwire, then there was steroids, then who can forget his books Juiced and Vindicated and now getting beat up by a 5-9 mini-me in 96 seconds. Next up for Jose: Dancing With the Stars.
-Part of the reason I’m so late writing this edition, is because I was watching the State Farm home run derby. Colin Cowherd may not like it, but that’s his loss. Josh Hamilton put on a show. Demolishing Bobby Abreu’s record of 24 home runs in one round with 28 of his own. He has Yankee Stadium cheering all night. He didn’t win the derby because he couldn’t match Justin Morneau’s (Canadian!) 5 homers in the last round. Morneau may have won, but this was definitely Hamilton’s night. He captivated a crowd and millions of viewers around north America with his awesome power (3 bombs over 500ft.), while also being able to share his story of overcoming a heroin addiction to playing in the MLB. Sounds like a winner if I ever heard one.
NFL
-I laughed so hard when I heard this story. Many of you may have heard about this before, but I had not. It turns out the Washington Redskins have been in a 16-year debate with the American Indians over the teams name. When I first heard this story I thought it was crazy. That is until I searched a little deeper. As it turns out the Redskins name may have actually been designed to be racially offensive. Time for a history lesson. In 1932 George Marshall bought an NFL franchise and called them the Boston Braves. The Braves then moved to Fenway Park in 1936 and renamed the team. Marshall was thought to be a racist and the name Redskins was thought to be a racial slur. I still think it’s crazy to debate a team name (hey I cheer for the New jersey Devils), but it turns out those Indians, err, native Americans, have a point.
-If you thought that you could get through this blog without me mentioning Brett Favre, then you thought wrong. The Favre situation has heated up with Favre asking for a release from his contract. Then the Packers telling him to go sit on the bench and back up Aaron Rodgers. I don’t know why the Packers said that. If they sit Brett Favre on the bench, they’ll be fired before they leave the stadium, especially with a community owned team. This is starting to get ridiculous though, on the part of Brett Favre. Just give us an answer. Are you coming back with the Packers or not. We just want an answer. Packers fans in Wisconsin are having rallies with cheese perched on their head, begging you to give them an answer. I’m all for some good suspense, but the summer heat is starting to get to me and I just think enough is enough.
7th Inning Stretch
-My friend is lazy, so he probably won’t write everyday. I’m just going to post this section when he gives me something.
Buzzer Beater
(The Buzzer Beater award will only be posted on the regular Tuesday, Friday and Saturday edition of the blog. Hey, that’s today!)
-The Buzzer Beater award for July 15 goes to…Josh Hamilton. Sorry Justin Morneau, you did your best, but I’m sorry to say that you didn’t deserve that home run crown. Congratulations to Hamilton on almost winning the home run derby in the house that Ruth built.
Tiger Woods - 1
Kevin Youkilis - 1
Jie Zheng - 1
Matt Kemp - 1
Roy Halladay - 1
Conor Jackson - 1
Rafael Nadal - 1
Justin Morneau - 1
Josh Hamilton - 1
Daily Dose
(I promised you a new section and here it is. I’ll give you the game/event to watch for every single day of the year. That’s 36, 525 times a century!)
-Today’s daily dose: The MLB All-Star game, duh!
-Remember, the next edition is tomorrow and don’t forget it!
Friday, July 11, 2008
07/11/08
Leading Off
-Answer to Tuesday’s trivia question: Baseball is the most common cause of eye injuries in the U.S.
-“If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard, you’ll be hard to beat.”
-Herschel Walker
Free Throws
NBA
-I’m not a Clippers fan, but I can’t help feel sorry for them after what Elton Brand did. Brand opted out of his contract, so that he could give the Clippers more room to sign another player (which turned out to be Baron Davis), then expected to sign back with the team. Or at least until a better offer came along. I don’t think we’ll ever know all the facts, as both sides seem to be holding back information. The Clippers allegedly offered Brand a contract, saying he could take it if he wanted to or he could leave. Brand said that since he didn’t want the offer, that he decided to look elsewhere. That’s not what Mike Dunleavy, the Clippers coach, had to say. Mike said, “We raised the offer to $75M and $81M.” Each side seems to be twisting the story to make them look like the good guy, so the question is, which story is closer to the truth? I tend to lean towards the Clippers, just because this story reeks of “gold-digger athlete.” The only thing that doesn’t add up is why he only took $100K more per year, to play for the 76ers. Whatever happened to hometown discount. Brand never signed a contract, so he had the right to leave, but it will be very hard for anybody to trust what he, or agent David Falk, says in the future. I feel mostly sorry for Baron Davis. Not so sorry that I pity him, because he’s still making over $10M a year, but he’s on his own now. Maggette bolted for the Warriors and Brand’s gone to Philly. I’ll finish this story with a quote by Baron Davis after he was asked why he didn’t back out of his contract once brand left, just because it’s so ironic. “I’m a man of my word. I committed to the Clippers and they committed to me.”
MLB
-The Cubbies couldn’t let the Brew Crew get away with signing Sabathia, so they had to go and get their own ace. The Chicago Cubs acquired pitcher Rich Harden from the Oakland Athletics earlier this week. Harden (5-1) has a great ERA at 2.34, the best of his career so far. He also holds a 1.14 WHIP currently good enough for 11th in the majors and 10 points below his career average. Harden joins pitchers Carlos Zambrano and Ryan Dempster (Canadian!) to form possibly the deepest rotation in the Majors.
-An interesting fact I just found out. The 2008 all-star game is sponsored by Fruit of The Loom!
-Speaking of the all-star game, it has a new participant. His name is Evan Longoria and he’s the future rookie of the year (yes I’m calling it now). He beat out, among others, Jason Giambi’s (hooray) moustache campaign and Jermaine Dye. Dye may have been a better pick statistically, but hey, the MLB is all about biased voting. Longoria along with Geovany Soto and Kosuke Fukudome will add an interesting side story, as rookies in the all-star game.
NHL
-The Ray Emery saga is over and I hope he speaks Russian. Emery signed a one-year deal with Atlant Mytischy of the new Continental Hockey League. Emery apparently got no interest from other NHL clubs after he was released from the Senators. He will join Chris Simon as the first Canadians to join the league from the NHL. That’s a good job of killing two birds with one stone by the NHL. Well done!
NCAA
-After failing his Scholastic Aptitude Test, twice, Brandon Jennings has decided to change his route from the NCAA to Europe. Hold on a minute, failed it twice? Seriously? Remember, this is the same test that Carmelo Anthony has to pass to play for Syracuse. I don’t know much about Anthony, but I don’t think he’s the brightest crayon in the box. Besides Jennings lack of intelligence, there is the fact that he is actually playing in Europe. Will this help his stock or hurt his stock? I don’t this this will hurt him, as he’ll be playing with professionals, similar to Victor Hedman of Modo. Will this influence more players to go for Europe instead of college? Probably not, but it depends on how he does. If he comes into the NBA and starts dishing out double-double’s faster than your local Tim Horton’s, than that could be enough to persuade someone to look at Europe. But for the time being, I don’t see the NCAA as being in any kind of trouble.
-I guess this story belongs in the NCAA section. I put this in here because it involves the Rose Bowl. Don’t know what it is yet? Well, do you know this name: Jim Purol? If you Google image his name, you may find him with many straws in his mouth. Why the straws, you ask? Well he holds the record for most straws held in a mouth at once. Now he also holds the record for most seats sat in during a two-day span. He sat in 39, 250 seats in that 48-hour span. Here’s some stats for you. That’s 818 per hour and 14 per minute! But he didn’t stop there. He’s still going until he sits in all of the 92, 542 Rose Bowl seats. If any of you don’t think this is a sport, I would challenge you to try and beat it.
CFL
-The first loss always hurts the most, but it has to happen sometime. The Al’s lost last night to the Calgary Stampeders. The Stamps came back from a 1st half 17-10 deficit to win 23-19. Terrible second half by the Al’s that’s all I have to say, because I have other things to move onto.
-More important than the Al’s losing is the Argo’s losing. Once again the Argonaut’s were beat by one player, but this time he was on defense. The Edmonton Eskimos has back-to-back Jacks(on) as Tristan Jackson scored two touchdowns: One on an interception and one on a kick return. It was a wacky game with some wacky plays that I don’t have time to get into at the moment. If you have the time, check out the highlights of the game (I know that tsn.ca has a video). You’ll be amazed by the catches Arland Bruce and Johnnie Morant made. All that’s important though, is that the Argonauts lost. It makes me feel a lot better about the Al’s losing.
-I was very glad to see some CFL news on espn.com, explaining that you can/could watch a CFL game online at ESPN360. While I think it’s great to get some exposure south of the border, I think it would also be nice if we could get some exposure north of the border!!! Whatever happened to CFL on CBC. My country’s national channel and they don’t even show the CFL anymore? What’s next, no more HNIC? We’ve already lost the HNIC anthem, next they fire Cherry and Cole, then the whole thing falls apart. You can watch every game on TSN, why not at least one a week on CBC. If CBC was not the only possible way that I could watch sports, Than I would consider boycotting CBC sports altogether! HNIC included!
NFL
-First there was Joakim Noah, now Matt Jones, wide receiver of the Jacksonville Jaguars, was arrested with possession of cocaine. Police searched Jones’ car and found a plastic bag that contained cocaine and a jar that had marijuana residue. The police found 6 grams of the white powder. Apparently Jones was cutting the coke with a credit card. I wonder if it was a MasterCard. Plastic Bag…$5, six grams of cocaine…$180, Getaway car…$25K, Using your MasterCard to cut your drugs…priceless. There are some things money can’t buy, for everything else there’s MasterCard, proud sponsor of stoned athletes since 1969.
Cycling
-I’ve been doing a lot of apologizing lately and don’t thing I’m going to stop the trend now. I would like to apologize to all you hardcore cycling fans. When I said there were no Canadians in this years’ Tour de France, I was sorely mistaken. There is indeed one Canadian in the race. His name is Ryder Hesjedal and he is currently holding down the 94th spot in the race around France. I’m got going to completely ditch Robbie McEwen, although I must admit, at the 113th spot, he might as well not be racing. Kim Kirchen currently has the yellow jersey, but I haven’t been following the tour as much as I thought I would, so I really don’t much about that. I have been following it enough to know that former yellow jersey holder/wearer Romain Feillu is now in 136th spot. That makes me feel better about McEwen.
7th Inning Stretch
Actions may speak louder than words, but words speak louder than silence!
Buzzer Beater
-The Buzzer Beater award for July 11 goes to…Justin Morneau. A five-for-five night? Are you kidding me? Morneau finished the night just a triple away from the cycle, driving in two runs. He boosted his batting average to .324, good enough for 7th in the Majors. Morneau would’ve won this award on skill alone, but the fact that he’s Canadian and shares a first name with me, definitely didn’t hurt him.
Tiger Woods - 1
Kevin Youkilis - 1
Zie Jheng - 1
Matt Kemp - 1
Roy Halladay - 1
Conor Jackson - 1
Rafael Nadal - 1
Justin Morneau - 1
Next edition coming Sunday, July 13. Until then, have a good lifelock.com 400 (It’s a NASCAR race, silly).
-Answer to Tuesday’s trivia question: Baseball is the most common cause of eye injuries in the U.S.
-“If you train hard, you’ll not only be hard, you’ll be hard to beat.”
-Herschel Walker
Free Throws
NBA
-I’m not a Clippers fan, but I can’t help feel sorry for them after what Elton Brand did. Brand opted out of his contract, so that he could give the Clippers more room to sign another player (which turned out to be Baron Davis), then expected to sign back with the team. Or at least until a better offer came along. I don’t think we’ll ever know all the facts, as both sides seem to be holding back information. The Clippers allegedly offered Brand a contract, saying he could take it if he wanted to or he could leave. Brand said that since he didn’t want the offer, that he decided to look elsewhere. That’s not what Mike Dunleavy, the Clippers coach, had to say. Mike said, “We raised the offer to $75M and $81M.” Each side seems to be twisting the story to make them look like the good guy, so the question is, which story is closer to the truth? I tend to lean towards the Clippers, just because this story reeks of “gold-digger athlete.” The only thing that doesn’t add up is why he only took $100K more per year, to play for the 76ers. Whatever happened to hometown discount. Brand never signed a contract, so he had the right to leave, but it will be very hard for anybody to trust what he, or agent David Falk, says in the future. I feel mostly sorry for Baron Davis. Not so sorry that I pity him, because he’s still making over $10M a year, but he’s on his own now. Maggette bolted for the Warriors and Brand’s gone to Philly. I’ll finish this story with a quote by Baron Davis after he was asked why he didn’t back out of his contract once brand left, just because it’s so ironic. “I’m a man of my word. I committed to the Clippers and they committed to me.”
MLB
-The Cubbies couldn’t let the Brew Crew get away with signing Sabathia, so they had to go and get their own ace. The Chicago Cubs acquired pitcher Rich Harden from the Oakland Athletics earlier this week. Harden (5-1) has a great ERA at 2.34, the best of his career so far. He also holds a 1.14 WHIP currently good enough for 11th in the majors and 10 points below his career average. Harden joins pitchers Carlos Zambrano and Ryan Dempster (Canadian!) to form possibly the deepest rotation in the Majors.
-An interesting fact I just found out. The 2008 all-star game is sponsored by Fruit of The Loom!
-Speaking of the all-star game, it has a new participant. His name is Evan Longoria and he’s the future rookie of the year (yes I’m calling it now). He beat out, among others, Jason Giambi’s (hooray) moustache campaign and Jermaine Dye. Dye may have been a better pick statistically, but hey, the MLB is all about biased voting. Longoria along with Geovany Soto and Kosuke Fukudome will add an interesting side story, as rookies in the all-star game.
NHL
-The Ray Emery saga is over and I hope he speaks Russian. Emery signed a one-year deal with Atlant Mytischy of the new Continental Hockey League. Emery apparently got no interest from other NHL clubs after he was released from the Senators. He will join Chris Simon as the first Canadians to join the league from the NHL. That’s a good job of killing two birds with one stone by the NHL. Well done!
NCAA
-After failing his Scholastic Aptitude Test, twice, Brandon Jennings has decided to change his route from the NCAA to Europe. Hold on a minute, failed it twice? Seriously? Remember, this is the same test that Carmelo Anthony has to pass to play for Syracuse. I don’t know much about Anthony, but I don’t think he’s the brightest crayon in the box. Besides Jennings lack of intelligence, there is the fact that he is actually playing in Europe. Will this help his stock or hurt his stock? I don’t this this will hurt him, as he’ll be playing with professionals, similar to Victor Hedman of Modo. Will this influence more players to go for Europe instead of college? Probably not, but it depends on how he does. If he comes into the NBA and starts dishing out double-double’s faster than your local Tim Horton’s, than that could be enough to persuade someone to look at Europe. But for the time being, I don’t see the NCAA as being in any kind of trouble.
-I guess this story belongs in the NCAA section. I put this in here because it involves the Rose Bowl. Don’t know what it is yet? Well, do you know this name: Jim Purol? If you Google image his name, you may find him with many straws in his mouth. Why the straws, you ask? Well he holds the record for most straws held in a mouth at once. Now he also holds the record for most seats sat in during a two-day span. He sat in 39, 250 seats in that 48-hour span. Here’s some stats for you. That’s 818 per hour and 14 per minute! But he didn’t stop there. He’s still going until he sits in all of the 92, 542 Rose Bowl seats. If any of you don’t think this is a sport, I would challenge you to try and beat it.
CFL
-The first loss always hurts the most, but it has to happen sometime. The Al’s lost last night to the Calgary Stampeders. The Stamps came back from a 1st half 17-10 deficit to win 23-19. Terrible second half by the Al’s that’s all I have to say, because I have other things to move onto.
-More important than the Al’s losing is the Argo’s losing. Once again the Argonaut’s were beat by one player, but this time he was on defense. The Edmonton Eskimos has back-to-back Jacks(on) as Tristan Jackson scored two touchdowns: One on an interception and one on a kick return. It was a wacky game with some wacky plays that I don’t have time to get into at the moment. If you have the time, check out the highlights of the game (I know that tsn.ca has a video). You’ll be amazed by the catches Arland Bruce and Johnnie Morant made. All that’s important though, is that the Argonauts lost. It makes me feel a lot better about the Al’s losing.
-I was very glad to see some CFL news on espn.com, explaining that you can/could watch a CFL game online at ESPN360. While I think it’s great to get some exposure south of the border, I think it would also be nice if we could get some exposure north of the border!!! Whatever happened to CFL on CBC. My country’s national channel and they don’t even show the CFL anymore? What’s next, no more HNIC? We’ve already lost the HNIC anthem, next they fire Cherry and Cole, then the whole thing falls apart. You can watch every game on TSN, why not at least one a week on CBC. If CBC was not the only possible way that I could watch sports, Than I would consider boycotting CBC sports altogether! HNIC included!
NFL
-First there was Joakim Noah, now Matt Jones, wide receiver of the Jacksonville Jaguars, was arrested with possession of cocaine. Police searched Jones’ car and found a plastic bag that contained cocaine and a jar that had marijuana residue. The police found 6 grams of the white powder. Apparently Jones was cutting the coke with a credit card. I wonder if it was a MasterCard. Plastic Bag…$5, six grams of cocaine…$180, Getaway car…$25K, Using your MasterCard to cut your drugs…priceless. There are some things money can’t buy, for everything else there’s MasterCard, proud sponsor of stoned athletes since 1969.
Cycling
-I’ve been doing a lot of apologizing lately and don’t thing I’m going to stop the trend now. I would like to apologize to all you hardcore cycling fans. When I said there were no Canadians in this years’ Tour de France, I was sorely mistaken. There is indeed one Canadian in the race. His name is Ryder Hesjedal and he is currently holding down the 94th spot in the race around France. I’m got going to completely ditch Robbie McEwen, although I must admit, at the 113th spot, he might as well not be racing. Kim Kirchen currently has the yellow jersey, but I haven’t been following the tour as much as I thought I would, so I really don’t much about that. I have been following it enough to know that former yellow jersey holder/wearer Romain Feillu is now in 136th spot. That makes me feel better about McEwen.
7th Inning Stretch
Actions may speak louder than words, but words speak louder than silence!
Buzzer Beater
-The Buzzer Beater award for July 11 goes to…Justin Morneau. A five-for-five night? Are you kidding me? Morneau finished the night just a triple away from the cycle, driving in two runs. He boosted his batting average to .324, good enough for 7th in the Majors. Morneau would’ve won this award on skill alone, but the fact that he’s Canadian and shares a first name with me, definitely didn’t hurt him.
Tiger Woods - 1
Kevin Youkilis - 1
Zie Jheng - 1
Matt Kemp - 1
Roy Halladay - 1
Conor Jackson - 1
Rafael Nadal - 1
Justin Morneau - 1
Next edition coming Sunday, July 13. Until then, have a good lifelock.com 400 (It’s a NASCAR race, silly).
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Freestylin'
(This is a new section i'll be doing from time to time with the fine people, err, person at the All-Stars Sports Blog. It's a game of sorts and sports. Each person finds threee questions, then gives the other person 5 minutes to answer it. The game goes back and forth until all 6 questions have been answeres. Questions will be in bold. "TSE" is me and "ASSB" is the All-Stars Sports Blog. Got it? Good.)
ASSB: How many weeks has Roger Federer been #1 while Rafeal Nadal been #2?
TSE: Roger Federer has been #1 for an incredible 231 weeks, which is more than four years! Nadal has been second best to Federer for 156 weeks or about three years...I have a feeling though the two are about to switch positions.
TSE: Rumours have been swirling about Barry Bonds pending return to the Major Leagues. My question is simple: Does he come back?
ASSB: No
ASSB: How many canadians have ever finished the tour de france?
TSE: There has to be at least one...or at least there will be one this year. His name is Ryder Hesjedal and he was born in British Columbia. They say he is a good climber, but living in the rockies would make anyone a good climber...basically i'm stalling because i have no idea how many Canadians finished Le Tour De France (Apparently a little over the time limit. That's -1 for me)
TSE: It's no secret that A.J. Burnett will likely find himself out of a Blue Jays uniforn by the trade deadline, so which team do you think will trade for him?
ASSB: The Okaland Athletics (Which I believe means the Oakland Athletics)
ASSB: how many team were in the NHL in 1961?
TSE: Despite my computer lagging I think I know the answer to this question. 1961 was back in the good old days when the NHL has the "original six". There was the Chicago Blackhawks, The Boston Bruins, The Toronto Maple Leafs, The New York Rangers, The Montreal Canadians and the Detroit Red Wings. The NHL chose not to expand until 1967, when they added 6 franchises.
TSE: I know it's early in the season, but who is your pick as the CFL MVP?
ASSB: Bobby Ackel
ASSB: How many weeks has Roger Federer been #1 while Rafeal Nadal been #2?
TSE: Roger Federer has been #1 for an incredible 231 weeks, which is more than four years! Nadal has been second best to Federer for 156 weeks or about three years...I have a feeling though the two are about to switch positions.
TSE: Rumours have been swirling about Barry Bonds pending return to the Major Leagues. My question is simple: Does he come back?
ASSB: No
ASSB: How many canadians have ever finished the tour de france?
TSE: There has to be at least one...or at least there will be one this year. His name is Ryder Hesjedal and he was born in British Columbia. They say he is a good climber, but living in the rockies would make anyone a good climber...basically i'm stalling because i have no idea how many Canadians finished Le Tour De France (Apparently a little over the time limit. That's -1 for me)
TSE: It's no secret that A.J. Burnett will likely find himself out of a Blue Jays uniforn by the trade deadline, so which team do you think will trade for him?
ASSB: The Okaland Athletics (Which I believe means the Oakland Athletics)
ASSB: how many team were in the NHL in 1961?
TSE: Despite my computer lagging I think I know the answer to this question. 1961 was back in the good old days when the NHL has the "original six". There was the Chicago Blackhawks, The Boston Bruins, The Toronto Maple Leafs, The New York Rangers, The Montreal Canadians and the Detroit Red Wings. The NHL chose not to expand until 1967, when they added 6 franchises.
TSE: I know it's early in the season, but who is your pick as the CFL MVP?
ASSB: Bobby Ackel
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
07/08/08
Okay, so I’m a day late again. But I refuse to take complete responsibility for this!
Leading Off
-What sport is the most common cause of eye injuries in the U.S.?
Free Throws
ATP
-Because I was at a family reunion this past weekend my sports exposure was limited. I did play a baseball game where I homered twice and made an incredible Willie Mays-esque catch. I did, however, get to watch a couple sets of the Federer vs. Nadal match and what I saw was the most amazing tennis I’ve ever seen. I picked Federer to win in five sets. Not only was I wrong, but I wasn’t even in the ballpark. Nadal completely owned Federer that game, breaking his serve four times, to Federer’s one. The only way Federer stayed in the game was by playing phenomenal when he had to. I’m brought back to the 4th set tiebreak with Federer serving down to championship point. Federer calmly serves up two aces and eventually wins the set. This is the extraordinary play that kept him in the match until Nadal finally won on his 4th championship point. But Enough on Federer, let’s get to the man of the match Rafael Nadal. I completely underestimated this guy’s grass game. He’s made great strides since his runner-up finish last year. After every fantastic shot Federer had, Nadal matched it was one of his own. His signature move of doing a 180 in the air, while backhanding the ball always leaves me speechless. This lengthy match of almost 5 hours, was filled with rain delays, but I can assure you nobody was leaving their seat in centre court. All in all a great tournament by the young Spaniard and a very deserving champion.
WTA
-This match I was unable to watch, so all I know is what they tell me on espn.com and Wimbledon.org. The elder sister took down the younger in the latest chapter of the Williams rivalry. The two sisters have fallen off the table a bit in recent years, currently ranked 5th and 7th , but none of the top 4 seeds could make it to the final on Saturday, even though neither Williams sister played a top 4 seed during the entire tournament. Venus won in straight sets 7-5, 6-4, being led by her great serve. I had Williams to win the game, so I guess this means I win?
MLB
-A short MLB section today. My lack of sports viewing over the past few day may have something to do with it. What I do know is that C.C. Sabathia has left the tribe. The workhorse has said good-bye to Cleveland and hello to the great sports city of Milwaukee. Sabathia will join the Brewers as they look to make a playoff push and knock the Cubbies out of the spotlight in the NL Central. Sabathia is one of my favourite pitchers simply because he’s a southpaw, but the man is a machine. How many pitchers do you know that pitch 220+ innings? On that note, how many pitchers do you know that are 6-7,250lbs.? Now the Brewers have a solid 1-2 punch in pitching with Sabathia and Ben Sheets. Sabathia is currently the MLB strikeout leader with 123 so far, as well as 4th in innings pitched with 122.1. The Brew Crew will need Sabathia to perform, as they have not been getting the run support they need to make the playoffs (ranked 14th in runs). Sabathia was traded for Matt LaPorta, Zack Johnson, Rob Bryson and the all-important “Player to be named later”.
NHL
-With Mats Sundin still taking his time, we’ll move onto the next big thing in hockey. It’s just been announced that the NHL will feature its next outdoor game at the famous Wrigley Field, home to the Chicago Cubs. The game will feature an original 6 matchup between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings. You knew that there had to be a sequel after last years game that saw the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres in a shootout and who better to score the shootout winner than Sid the Kid himself. Last Years game at Ralph Wilson stadium was played before a sold out crowd of 71, 217 people, who sat through frigid temperatures to witness only the 2nd regular season game played outdoors. But why play at Wrigley when you could play at Yankee Stadium. It’s the Stadium’s last year and I’m sure the Islanders and Rangers would be more than willing to leave their arenas for an NHL “subway series” showdown. But with Gary Bettman leading us, I guess we should be happy that we got Wrigley, one of the most recognizable baseball fields in the world and one of the only ones named after a chewing gum. With the game being held at Wrigley I can only hope the puck doesn’t get stuck in the Ivy.
Cycling
-Le Tour de France is well under way and while Lance Armstrong is no longer a part of it I’m trying to stay as focused as possible. It’s tough to get into a sport where doping is obviously a huge factor, seen last year with Floyd Landis, but I’m trying to follow the 22-day race more closely this year. This year a Frenchman has jumped out to an early lead as Romain Feillu currently holds (or wears) the yellow jersey. Paolo Longo Borghini isn’t far behind at just 35 seconds off the pace. These two riders are all by themselves at the moment with the next closest rider still more than a minute behind them. Yesterday’s stage has a tie at the top with Samuel Dumoulin, William Frischkorn and Romain Feillu all finishing the 208 KM stage with a time of 5h 5m 25s. There’s no Canadians in the race so I’m going to pick a rider to follow throughout the race. Let it be known that my rider in this race is Robbie McEwen, who finished in 83rd place after the first leg, but had a strong stage yesterday, finishing 5th and now finds himself in 61st spot. McEwen is not my pick to win, but simply a player I’m going to follow throughout the race. I’m going to let the race develop a little bit before I let the predictions fly.
NFL
-I’ve been trying to stay out of Brett Favre’s business, I really have. But I find myself in a position where I have nothing left to talk about except him. I wanted to wait until he made a decision, but I guess now’s as good a time as any to let out my opinion on this story. I knew the moment Brett Favre retired he was coming back. You probably think I’m just saying that, but I really did. There are some player who just can’t walk away from the game until they either get injured or become so old that they’re a hinderence to their team. Name’s like Chris Chelios and Randy Johnson spring to mind. Farve is one of these players, so there is no doubt in my mind that he’ll be back, the only question is: Will it be with the Packers? The Packers in my opinion have no obligation to keep Favre, but they will nonetheless. They will keep Favre for two reasons. Reason #1 is because if they don’t than they will have a lot of cheesed off Packers fans (get it? Cheese and Wisconsin) (ok I’ll stop), the Media will on them faster than Prince Fielder on a Twinkie and if Favre wins a Super Bowl somewhere else, then we’ll never hear the end of “The Curse of Brett Favre.” Reason #2 is because he’s Brett Favre and he is superior to Aaron Rodgers. I really feel bad for Rodgers in this scenario. It’s like waiting three years to open a Christmas present, then when you go to open it your parents take it back. But the Packers really don’t have a choice. If you put Brett Favre on the bench, then you’re going to get shot at from the stands. So expect to see Favre lining up behind the center this year and expect it to be for the Packers.
CFL
-Boy did I have a good laugh this past weekend. Although this happened last Thursday, I had to mention it in my blog. The Toronto Argonauts got beat, wait scratch that, they got thumped by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 32-13. For those of you who don’t follow the CFL, getting beat by the Tiger-Cats is the eqivalent of getting swept by the Seattle Mariners this year. We’re talking about a team that went 3-18 last year, we’re talking about a team that has one good player. Speaking of that one good player, his name is Jesse Lumsden and he single-handedly beat the Argos. He ran 20 times for 189 yards, which is almost 10 yards per carry. That’s almost as many yards as the Argonauts passing yards for the entire game and in a passing-dominated game, that’s pretty incredible.
-Do you want to know what team didn’t lose? The Montreal Alouettes, my team. With the new and improved Anthony Calvillo, the Al’s beat the Defending East Conference champion Bluebombers 38-24. Calvillo rushed (that’s right, “cement legs” was running) for 57 yards, while passing for 372 yards and 4 touchdowns. Ben Cahoon was his usual awesome self, completing 3 passes for 32 yards. Now the Alouettes own the Eastern conference lead with a 2-0 record. Next game’s up against the Stampeders of Calgary. The Stamps haven’t won yet on the road, so let’s hope that trend continues.
Olympics
-One Month from today! One Month to Beijing!
7th Inning Stretch
-You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.
Buzzer Beater
-The Buzzer Beater award for July 8 goes to…Rafael Nadal. If you beat a five-time defending champion at anything in Sports, you will win this award plain and simple. Congratulations to Rafa on winning Wimbledon and the French Open in the same year (the first to do it since Bjorn Borg).
Tiger Woods - 1
Kevin Youkilis - 1
Jie Zheng - 1
Matt Kemp - 1
Roy Halladay - 1
Conor Jackson - 1
Rafael Nadal - 1
Next edition coming Friday July 11. Until then, have a good AFL playoffs (ok so there was nothing else).
Leading Off
-What sport is the most common cause of eye injuries in the U.S.?
Free Throws
ATP
-Because I was at a family reunion this past weekend my sports exposure was limited. I did play a baseball game where I homered twice and made an incredible Willie Mays-esque catch. I did, however, get to watch a couple sets of the Federer vs. Nadal match and what I saw was the most amazing tennis I’ve ever seen. I picked Federer to win in five sets. Not only was I wrong, but I wasn’t even in the ballpark. Nadal completely owned Federer that game, breaking his serve four times, to Federer’s one. The only way Federer stayed in the game was by playing phenomenal when he had to. I’m brought back to the 4th set tiebreak with Federer serving down to championship point. Federer calmly serves up two aces and eventually wins the set. This is the extraordinary play that kept him in the match until Nadal finally won on his 4th championship point. But Enough on Federer, let’s get to the man of the match Rafael Nadal. I completely underestimated this guy’s grass game. He’s made great strides since his runner-up finish last year. After every fantastic shot Federer had, Nadal matched it was one of his own. His signature move of doing a 180 in the air, while backhanding the ball always leaves me speechless. This lengthy match of almost 5 hours, was filled with rain delays, but I can assure you nobody was leaving their seat in centre court. All in all a great tournament by the young Spaniard and a very deserving champion.
WTA
-This match I was unable to watch, so all I know is what they tell me on espn.com and Wimbledon.org. The elder sister took down the younger in the latest chapter of the Williams rivalry. The two sisters have fallen off the table a bit in recent years, currently ranked 5th and 7th , but none of the top 4 seeds could make it to the final on Saturday, even though neither Williams sister played a top 4 seed during the entire tournament. Venus won in straight sets 7-5, 6-4, being led by her great serve. I had Williams to win the game, so I guess this means I win?
MLB
-A short MLB section today. My lack of sports viewing over the past few day may have something to do with it. What I do know is that C.C. Sabathia has left the tribe. The workhorse has said good-bye to Cleveland and hello to the great sports city of Milwaukee. Sabathia will join the Brewers as they look to make a playoff push and knock the Cubbies out of the spotlight in the NL Central. Sabathia is one of my favourite pitchers simply because he’s a southpaw, but the man is a machine. How many pitchers do you know that pitch 220+ innings? On that note, how many pitchers do you know that are 6-7,250lbs.? Now the Brewers have a solid 1-2 punch in pitching with Sabathia and Ben Sheets. Sabathia is currently the MLB strikeout leader with 123 so far, as well as 4th in innings pitched with 122.1. The Brew Crew will need Sabathia to perform, as they have not been getting the run support they need to make the playoffs (ranked 14th in runs). Sabathia was traded for Matt LaPorta, Zack Johnson, Rob Bryson and the all-important “Player to be named later”.
NHL
-With Mats Sundin still taking his time, we’ll move onto the next big thing in hockey. It’s just been announced that the NHL will feature its next outdoor game at the famous Wrigley Field, home to the Chicago Cubs. The game will feature an original 6 matchup between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings. You knew that there had to be a sequel after last years game that saw the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Buffalo Sabres in a shootout and who better to score the shootout winner than Sid the Kid himself. Last Years game at Ralph Wilson stadium was played before a sold out crowd of 71, 217 people, who sat through frigid temperatures to witness only the 2nd regular season game played outdoors. But why play at Wrigley when you could play at Yankee Stadium. It’s the Stadium’s last year and I’m sure the Islanders and Rangers would be more than willing to leave their arenas for an NHL “subway series” showdown. But with Gary Bettman leading us, I guess we should be happy that we got Wrigley, one of the most recognizable baseball fields in the world and one of the only ones named after a chewing gum. With the game being held at Wrigley I can only hope the puck doesn’t get stuck in the Ivy.
Cycling
-Le Tour de France is well under way and while Lance Armstrong is no longer a part of it I’m trying to stay as focused as possible. It’s tough to get into a sport where doping is obviously a huge factor, seen last year with Floyd Landis, but I’m trying to follow the 22-day race more closely this year. This year a Frenchman has jumped out to an early lead as Romain Feillu currently holds (or wears) the yellow jersey. Paolo Longo Borghini isn’t far behind at just 35 seconds off the pace. These two riders are all by themselves at the moment with the next closest rider still more than a minute behind them. Yesterday’s stage has a tie at the top with Samuel Dumoulin, William Frischkorn and Romain Feillu all finishing the 208 KM stage with a time of 5h 5m 25s. There’s no Canadians in the race so I’m going to pick a rider to follow throughout the race. Let it be known that my rider in this race is Robbie McEwen, who finished in 83rd place after the first leg, but had a strong stage yesterday, finishing 5th and now finds himself in 61st spot. McEwen is not my pick to win, but simply a player I’m going to follow throughout the race. I’m going to let the race develop a little bit before I let the predictions fly.
NFL
-I’ve been trying to stay out of Brett Favre’s business, I really have. But I find myself in a position where I have nothing left to talk about except him. I wanted to wait until he made a decision, but I guess now’s as good a time as any to let out my opinion on this story. I knew the moment Brett Favre retired he was coming back. You probably think I’m just saying that, but I really did. There are some player who just can’t walk away from the game until they either get injured or become so old that they’re a hinderence to their team. Name’s like Chris Chelios and Randy Johnson spring to mind. Farve is one of these players, so there is no doubt in my mind that he’ll be back, the only question is: Will it be with the Packers? The Packers in my opinion have no obligation to keep Favre, but they will nonetheless. They will keep Favre for two reasons. Reason #1 is because if they don’t than they will have a lot of cheesed off Packers fans (get it? Cheese and Wisconsin) (ok I’ll stop), the Media will on them faster than Prince Fielder on a Twinkie and if Favre wins a Super Bowl somewhere else, then we’ll never hear the end of “The Curse of Brett Favre.” Reason #2 is because he’s Brett Favre and he is superior to Aaron Rodgers. I really feel bad for Rodgers in this scenario. It’s like waiting three years to open a Christmas present, then when you go to open it your parents take it back. But the Packers really don’t have a choice. If you put Brett Favre on the bench, then you’re going to get shot at from the stands. So expect to see Favre lining up behind the center this year and expect it to be for the Packers.
CFL
-Boy did I have a good laugh this past weekend. Although this happened last Thursday, I had to mention it in my blog. The Toronto Argonauts got beat, wait scratch that, they got thumped by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 32-13. For those of you who don’t follow the CFL, getting beat by the Tiger-Cats is the eqivalent of getting swept by the Seattle Mariners this year. We’re talking about a team that went 3-18 last year, we’re talking about a team that has one good player. Speaking of that one good player, his name is Jesse Lumsden and he single-handedly beat the Argos. He ran 20 times for 189 yards, which is almost 10 yards per carry. That’s almost as many yards as the Argonauts passing yards for the entire game and in a passing-dominated game, that’s pretty incredible.
-Do you want to know what team didn’t lose? The Montreal Alouettes, my team. With the new and improved Anthony Calvillo, the Al’s beat the Defending East Conference champion Bluebombers 38-24. Calvillo rushed (that’s right, “cement legs” was running) for 57 yards, while passing for 372 yards and 4 touchdowns. Ben Cahoon was his usual awesome self, completing 3 passes for 32 yards. Now the Alouettes own the Eastern conference lead with a 2-0 record. Next game’s up against the Stampeders of Calgary. The Stamps haven’t won yet on the road, so let’s hope that trend continues.
Olympics
-One Month from today! One Month to Beijing!
7th Inning Stretch
-You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.
Buzzer Beater
-The Buzzer Beater award for July 8 goes to…Rafael Nadal. If you beat a five-time defending champion at anything in Sports, you will win this award plain and simple. Congratulations to Rafa on winning Wimbledon and the French Open in the same year (the first to do it since Bjorn Borg).
Tiger Woods - 1
Kevin Youkilis - 1
Jie Zheng - 1
Matt Kemp - 1
Roy Halladay - 1
Conor Jackson - 1
Rafael Nadal - 1
Next edition coming Friday July 11. Until then, have a good AFL playoffs (ok so there was nothing else).
Friday, July 4, 2008
07/04/08
Okay so maybe it’s not July 4th where I live, but it’s still July 4th somewhere, so I’m going to stick this with the 07/04/08 title. Deal with it!
Leading Off
-The baseball home plate is 17 inches wide.
Free Throws
NBA
-The big news in sports recently is the departure of the Seattle SuperSonics and the relocation to Oklahoma City. The team name, logo and colors will remain in Seattle, so now there’s an NBA team in Oklahoma with no name. Everybody knows that they should be called the “No Names” because they aren’t good enough to be a name brand. Seattle fans argued that they are the 13th biggest market in the U.S, but they also ranked 28th in attendance last season, which basically voids their argument. The team was bought by Clay Bennett in 2006 and he has always wanted to move the club back to his home state of Oklahoma. Now for a cool $75M he can terminate the lease with KeyArena and move the team to Oklahoma City for the 2008-2009 season. I’m not sure how a city of 1.2M people can support an NBA franchise, when Vancouver (about double the size of OKC) couldn’t support the Grizzlies. To me this move has bankruptcy written all over it. After a few years in Oklahoma, David Stern and Clay Bennett will come crawling back to Seattle.
-In other crazy basketball news, Derrick Rose, the 1st player selected in the 2008 NBA draft, was caught speeding on a street in the Chicago suburbs. What’s the big deal you say, I mean everyone speeds once in a while right? The problem is, he was 40 MPH over the speed limit! Most of the self-proclaimed experts are taking the, “boys will be boys” approach on this one, but I’m not quite so lenient. Perhaps it’s because I just finished drivers ed. and am now more cautious and aware of the dangers of driving, but whatever the scenario, driving 105 in a 65 zone is unacceptable! Nobody was hurt, but what if somebody had of been. What if somebody had of walked out in front of his car. What if he hit a pothole and careened off the road. We’ve already had one young athlete die in a motor vehicle accident and we don’t need another.
MLB
-I found this quite funny when I first heard about it. Not quite as funny as the Barry Bonds debacle, but still good for a small chuckle. The Oakland Athletics have signed 6-7 pitcher Michel Inoa, out of the Dominican Republic, to a $4.25M deal. What makes this story special is that Inoa is only 16 years old! They say he’s a great pitcher and that his fastball is around 94 MPH. I’m also 16 years old and I top out at around 60 MPH. But then again, I’m not 6-7, so maybe there’s hope for me yet. I’m not sure what the rules are for signing players this young, but I do know it’s been done before. It has also failed miserably before. Clemente Nuñez was the first player ever signed by the Florida Marlins, signing at the age of 16. Nunez looked like a great prospect at the time, with a 88 MPH fastball. He, however, never made his Major League debut, ending his baseball career in 1996 with the Portland Sea Dogs of the AA Eastern League. Let’s hope that Inoa isn’t another Nuñez and has a very successful career. Let’s also hope that this successful career is with the Blue Jays.
-I dislike A-Rod almost as much as I dislike the Yankees, so with him playing for the Yankees it just makes it that much worse. After A-Rod has been seen with his “friend” ,Madonna, his wife decided she’d had enough and the couple untied the knot after 5 years of marriage. Cynthia Rodriguez also has her own “friend” in Lenny Kravitz, as she has visited his apartment in Paris. This only makes me feel sorry for the couple’s two children Natasha and Ella, who will now have to live their entire lives with only one parent. Shame on you Alex! Now all we have to do is wait for Alex to pull out of the all-star game because of, “emotional trauma caused by the break-up.”
-The great Roger Clemens debate continues! I must admit, I can’t get enough of this, “Yes you did” “No I didn’t”, steroid scandal. Brian McNamee has submitted syringes that he says that he used to inject HGH into Roger Clemens. He says that it will test positive for his DNA. Then when the test results come back we’ll hear Clemens say, “I tripped on a chair in the clubhouse, then landed in a big box of syringes.” I’m inclined to believe McNamee on this one. He’s got nothing left to lose. He’s already admitted that he’s injected many other players with performance-enhancers, saying that he thought it was just an accepted part of the game. Now he’s lost all credibility, but Clemens still has his honour to fight for. How many hall of fame votes do you think he’s going to get if he’s convicted of doping. I would, however, like to see those syringes in the hall. Put them right beside Barry Bonds’ asterisk-marked ball.
NHL
-As promised, I have more NHL signings to deliver. We start off with the (not so) surprising news that Masrian Hossa has left the Penguins. What is surprising is that he took less money to do it. For an annual salary of $7.4M he will play up in Motown for the Red Wings. Hossa wants to play for a winner and he has definitely found it. Listen to some of these names: Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Nicklas Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski, Johan Franzen and now add Hossa to the list. It makes me feel sorry for the other teams in the Central Division.
-Markus Naslund has ended his 12-year stay in Vancouver as he left the Canucks to move a little closer to Sweden and play for the Rangers. A find this story mostly funny because Roberto Luongo left the Florida Panthers so he could play for a contender and now finds himself on a rebuilding Canucks team. His stats have taken a slight dip the past couple of years, from the 80-90 points he usually generates, so the Canucks couldn’t bring themselves to match the 2-year, 8M contract offered by the Blueshirts, so Naslund will be spending the next little while in the big apple. I tend to think this will work out well for both clubs. Naslund will never be the point producer that the Canucks needed him to be and the Rangers didn’t overpay for him, so Naslund, welcome back to the Eastern Conference. You have been missed.
-With Naslund coming in, Jagr is moving out. He won’t be moving to another NHL town though. Jagr has signed a contract with the Russian club Avangard Omsk, for a deal worth about $5M-per-year. This means he won’t be playing in the Rangers regular season game in the Czech Republic. This also means no one will be at that game. I would’ve rather seen Jagr retire outright or keep playing in the NHL, but hey, if he wants to play over in Russia that’s his prerogative. At least now we won’t have to endure the animal that was growing under his lip during the playoffs.
WTA
-I have a good one: What do you get when you cross the winner of the U.S. Open and the winner of the Wimbledon ladies’ singles? A forward for the Toronto Maple Leafs (see Tiger Williams). Okay so maybe I do have some interest in the ladies final, but only because it’s a Venus/Serena rematch. So, just like I picked the Bulldogs to win the College World Series, I’m picking Williams to win Wimbledon.
ATP
-Surprise! Surprise! Guess who’s in the Wimbledon final. We have good ole’ Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. I lot of people had written Federer off in Wimbledon, including Novak Djokavic, mostly because he was routed by Nadal earlier in the year. Here’s why I picked Federer to win and why I’m still sticking with my pick. Grass is a very different surface than hardcourt or clay. Grass is a slower surface. I’m not saying that Federer is slow, but compared to Rafael Nadal he would qualify as the tortoise if I were making a “tortoise and the hare” comparison (remember, the tortoise won in that story). But like I was saying, grass is a slower surface. It will reward accurate shots more than powerful shots and I can say with confidence that Federer is the more accurate player. It allows players who are very beatable on other surfaces, to still be dominant at Wimbledon, a la Pete Sampras. The only way I can see Nadal winning is if he can push the match to five sets, as I believe Nadal has the greater endurance. That’s why I’m taking Federer to win in 4. That’s right, 4. No 5th set required.
7th Inning Stretch
-Coming soon to a blog near you…
Buzzer Beater
The buzzer beater award for July 4 goes to…Conor Jackson. As you’ve probably realised, I give style points if players are involved in something incredible and Jackson definitely was. Jackson went 2-for-5 in the game, but I’m only really concerned about his last hit. It was a walk-off single, which isn’t really that incredible at first glance, but when you look more closely you’ll realise that the Diamondbacks were down 5-0 going into the bottom of the 9th. The D-backs scored 6 runs in the 9th capped off by Jackson’s single. Now that’s something you don’t see everyday. I’m still waiting for somebody to throw a no-hitter to make my decision easier.
Tiger Woods - 1
Kevin Youkilis - 1
Jie Zheng - 1
Matt Kemp - 1
Roy Halladay - 1
Conor Jackson - 1
I’ll be away for the weekend, but don’t worry. I’ll have another post up on Monday July 7. Until then, have a good Tour de France.
Leading Off
-The baseball home plate is 17 inches wide.
Free Throws
NBA
-The big news in sports recently is the departure of the Seattle SuperSonics and the relocation to Oklahoma City. The team name, logo and colors will remain in Seattle, so now there’s an NBA team in Oklahoma with no name. Everybody knows that they should be called the “No Names” because they aren’t good enough to be a name brand. Seattle fans argued that they are the 13th biggest market in the U.S, but they also ranked 28th in attendance last season, which basically voids their argument. The team was bought by Clay Bennett in 2006 and he has always wanted to move the club back to his home state of Oklahoma. Now for a cool $75M he can terminate the lease with KeyArena and move the team to Oklahoma City for the 2008-2009 season. I’m not sure how a city of 1.2M people can support an NBA franchise, when Vancouver (about double the size of OKC) couldn’t support the Grizzlies. To me this move has bankruptcy written all over it. After a few years in Oklahoma, David Stern and Clay Bennett will come crawling back to Seattle.
-In other crazy basketball news, Derrick Rose, the 1st player selected in the 2008 NBA draft, was caught speeding on a street in the Chicago suburbs. What’s the big deal you say, I mean everyone speeds once in a while right? The problem is, he was 40 MPH over the speed limit! Most of the self-proclaimed experts are taking the, “boys will be boys” approach on this one, but I’m not quite so lenient. Perhaps it’s because I just finished drivers ed. and am now more cautious and aware of the dangers of driving, but whatever the scenario, driving 105 in a 65 zone is unacceptable! Nobody was hurt, but what if somebody had of been. What if somebody had of walked out in front of his car. What if he hit a pothole and careened off the road. We’ve already had one young athlete die in a motor vehicle accident and we don’t need another.
MLB
-I found this quite funny when I first heard about it. Not quite as funny as the Barry Bonds debacle, but still good for a small chuckle. The Oakland Athletics have signed 6-7 pitcher Michel Inoa, out of the Dominican Republic, to a $4.25M deal. What makes this story special is that Inoa is only 16 years old! They say he’s a great pitcher and that his fastball is around 94 MPH. I’m also 16 years old and I top out at around 60 MPH. But then again, I’m not 6-7, so maybe there’s hope for me yet. I’m not sure what the rules are for signing players this young, but I do know it’s been done before. It has also failed miserably before. Clemente Nuñez was the first player ever signed by the Florida Marlins, signing at the age of 16. Nunez looked like a great prospect at the time, with a 88 MPH fastball. He, however, never made his Major League debut, ending his baseball career in 1996 with the Portland Sea Dogs of the AA Eastern League. Let’s hope that Inoa isn’t another Nuñez and has a very successful career. Let’s also hope that this successful career is with the Blue Jays.
-I dislike A-Rod almost as much as I dislike the Yankees, so with him playing for the Yankees it just makes it that much worse. After A-Rod has been seen with his “friend” ,Madonna, his wife decided she’d had enough and the couple untied the knot after 5 years of marriage. Cynthia Rodriguez also has her own “friend” in Lenny Kravitz, as she has visited his apartment in Paris. This only makes me feel sorry for the couple’s two children Natasha and Ella, who will now have to live their entire lives with only one parent. Shame on you Alex! Now all we have to do is wait for Alex to pull out of the all-star game because of, “emotional trauma caused by the break-up.”
-The great Roger Clemens debate continues! I must admit, I can’t get enough of this, “Yes you did” “No I didn’t”, steroid scandal. Brian McNamee has submitted syringes that he says that he used to inject HGH into Roger Clemens. He says that it will test positive for his DNA. Then when the test results come back we’ll hear Clemens say, “I tripped on a chair in the clubhouse, then landed in a big box of syringes.” I’m inclined to believe McNamee on this one. He’s got nothing left to lose. He’s already admitted that he’s injected many other players with performance-enhancers, saying that he thought it was just an accepted part of the game. Now he’s lost all credibility, but Clemens still has his honour to fight for. How many hall of fame votes do you think he’s going to get if he’s convicted of doping. I would, however, like to see those syringes in the hall. Put them right beside Barry Bonds’ asterisk-marked ball.
NHL
-As promised, I have more NHL signings to deliver. We start off with the (not so) surprising news that Masrian Hossa has left the Penguins. What is surprising is that he took less money to do it. For an annual salary of $7.4M he will play up in Motown for the Red Wings. Hossa wants to play for a winner and he has definitely found it. Listen to some of these names: Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Nicklas Lidstrom, Brian Rafalski, Johan Franzen and now add Hossa to the list. It makes me feel sorry for the other teams in the Central Division.
-Markus Naslund has ended his 12-year stay in Vancouver as he left the Canucks to move a little closer to Sweden and play for the Rangers. A find this story mostly funny because Roberto Luongo left the Florida Panthers so he could play for a contender and now finds himself on a rebuilding Canucks team. His stats have taken a slight dip the past couple of years, from the 80-90 points he usually generates, so the Canucks couldn’t bring themselves to match the 2-year, 8M contract offered by the Blueshirts, so Naslund will be spending the next little while in the big apple. I tend to think this will work out well for both clubs. Naslund will never be the point producer that the Canucks needed him to be and the Rangers didn’t overpay for him, so Naslund, welcome back to the Eastern Conference. You have been missed.
-With Naslund coming in, Jagr is moving out. He won’t be moving to another NHL town though. Jagr has signed a contract with the Russian club Avangard Omsk, for a deal worth about $5M-per-year. This means he won’t be playing in the Rangers regular season game in the Czech Republic. This also means no one will be at that game. I would’ve rather seen Jagr retire outright or keep playing in the NHL, but hey, if he wants to play over in Russia that’s his prerogative. At least now we won’t have to endure the animal that was growing under his lip during the playoffs.
WTA
-I have a good one: What do you get when you cross the winner of the U.S. Open and the winner of the Wimbledon ladies’ singles? A forward for the Toronto Maple Leafs (see Tiger Williams). Okay so maybe I do have some interest in the ladies final, but only because it’s a Venus/Serena rematch. So, just like I picked the Bulldogs to win the College World Series, I’m picking Williams to win Wimbledon.
ATP
-Surprise! Surprise! Guess who’s in the Wimbledon final. We have good ole’ Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. I lot of people had written Federer off in Wimbledon, including Novak Djokavic, mostly because he was routed by Nadal earlier in the year. Here’s why I picked Federer to win and why I’m still sticking with my pick. Grass is a very different surface than hardcourt or clay. Grass is a slower surface. I’m not saying that Federer is slow, but compared to Rafael Nadal he would qualify as the tortoise if I were making a “tortoise and the hare” comparison (remember, the tortoise won in that story). But like I was saying, grass is a slower surface. It will reward accurate shots more than powerful shots and I can say with confidence that Federer is the more accurate player. It allows players who are very beatable on other surfaces, to still be dominant at Wimbledon, a la Pete Sampras. The only way I can see Nadal winning is if he can push the match to five sets, as I believe Nadal has the greater endurance. That’s why I’m taking Federer to win in 4. That’s right, 4. No 5th set required.
7th Inning Stretch
-Coming soon to a blog near you…
Buzzer Beater
The buzzer beater award for July 4 goes to…Conor Jackson. As you’ve probably realised, I give style points if players are involved in something incredible and Jackson definitely was. Jackson went 2-for-5 in the game, but I’m only really concerned about his last hit. It was a walk-off single, which isn’t really that incredible at first glance, but when you look more closely you’ll realise that the Diamondbacks were down 5-0 going into the bottom of the 9th. The D-backs scored 6 runs in the 9th capped off by Jackson’s single. Now that’s something you don’t see everyday. I’m still waiting for somebody to throw a no-hitter to make my decision easier.
Tiger Woods - 1
Kevin Youkilis - 1
Jie Zheng - 1
Matt Kemp - 1
Roy Halladay - 1
Conor Jackson - 1
I’ll be away for the weekend, but don’t worry. I’ll have another post up on Monday July 7. Until then, have a good Tour de France.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
07/02/08
I apologize for my late entry. It was a combination of my strict bedtime and severe procrastination. I can (not really) assure you this will never happen again.
Leading Off
-Answer to Sunday’s trivia question: Drew Bledsoe threw 70 passes in a game against the Minnesota Vikings on November 13, 1994.
-“The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it.”
-Lou Holtz
Free Throws
MLB
-Much has been made about the incident with Manny Ramirez and the Red Sox travelling secretary. Apparently Manny asked for 16 tickets to a sold out game coming up against the Houston Astros. When the travelling secretary said it would be tough to do, Manny pushed him to the ground, while shouting, “Just do your job.” Manny has since apologized for his actions. I’m going to try and take a different perspective on this one. I’m not saying that this was the scenario, but just assume for a moment that it was. Manny is from the Dominican Republic, so let’s assume he had a few family and friends coming up to watch the game in Houston. His family just assumed that Manny would arrange the tickets because most people think players have unlimited tickets (they don’t). So Manny procrastinates, than the day before the game Manny asks the secretary for 16 tickets. The secretary says it might be a problem, so then Manny, who doesn’t want to let his family down, gets frustrated and pushes the secretary to the ground. I’m not condoning Manny’s actions, I’m just saying that maybe we don’t know the whole story.
-In other Red Sox news, the Sox reportedly received a letter threatening black and Latin players. First of all, this guy is a disgrace to the world. I don’t know what would possess someone to write a letter like this and I hope they find this guy, so they can chuck him in prison for a while. Second of all, I think David Ortiz said it best, “Somebody wants to hurt Papi? If you hurt Papi, the world’s against you. There are some people out there who have nothing to do and like to send letters to people like Manny or myself. I guess it’s part of what we do and I don’t think there will be anything crazy coming out of it.” Ortiz is exactly right. Nothing usually comes of these threats, but needless to say there was lots of extra security at the game and rightfully so. The BoSox lost the game 5-4, but nothing came of the threat.
-These next couple of ones are good if you need a laugh. If you’re looking to find Barry Bonds’ 756th home run ball in Cooperstown look very carefully: The ball is marked with an asterisk to display Bonds alleged steroid use. The owner of the ball, Marc Ecko, held an online vote to decide what should be done with the ball. “Brand it with an asterisk and donate it to the hall was the winner.” Bonds said that he plans to Boycott if the hall displays the ball with an asterisk. Just yesterday it looked like the ball wasn’t headed for the hall, because Ecko had allegedly changed his mind from donating the ball. But Ecko said today that the ball is on it’s way to New York. It will be interesting to see what happens to the ball when it reaches it’s destination. I think they should put it up on a pedestal, with a sign explaining what the asterisk means. Then we’ll see what Barry does. All in all, a pretty funny story.
-Also funny and kind of stupid story is Alex Rodriguez’s pulling out of the home run derby. He has gotten the most votes out of all the players in the American League, which shows you the voting power of New York. He pulled out of the slugfest because as he put it, “My responsibility is to the New York Yankees. I need my swing to be at its best.” Well A-rod, how about showing some respect to the people who pay your salary: The fans! Let’s take a look at the last 3 winners of the home run derby and how their swings have been this season. Last years’ winner Vlad Guerrero is batting .283, with 13 home runs. Didn’t mess up his swing. Two years ago Ryan Howard won. His stats this year: slugging .460 with 20 home runs. Didn’t mess up his swing. Now we go way back to 3 years ago, when Bobby Abreu was crowned champ. He’s now the owner of a .283 batting average and has knocked 10 shots over the wall. Didn’t mess up his swing either. So Alex, don’t give us this song and dance about how you might tweak your swing, when your real problem is laziness.
NHL
-One of my favourite days of the year is July 1 and not just because it’s Canada day. It also coincidently happens to be the start of the NHL free agent signing period. Some big names are always bound to move. I keep crossing my fingers the Devils will pick up a high-end talent and every year I’m let down. Last year they even let Scott Gomez walk to the Rangers and haven’t been able to fill that hole all year. But enough about the Devils, let’s take a look at the big names who will be moving. Wade Redden has left Ottawa for the Big Apple to play for the Rangers. He signed a 6-year, $39M deal with the team. The Rangers desperately need the defense and Redden will consistently put up 35+ points. The fact that they’re giving him just over $6M a year tells me that Jagr’s days with the Rangers are over.
-Finally! The Devils brought in just what the doctor ordered: A puck-moving forward to replace the departed Gomez. Although I would’ve rather the Devils go for a center, Rolston will fit in perfectly with the Devils system. Like Lou Lamoriello said, “Rebuilding is not something in our vocabulary.” Rolston will be a great compliment to emerging star Zach Parise. I’m officially “pumped” for the Devils 2008 season.
-Chicago is also in the midst of building a powerhouse team. They’ve just acquired the rights to defenseman Brian Campbell and will be paying him $56.8M over the next 8 years. Normally I would say that they are overpaying him except for a couple of things. One, in 8 years $7M a year won’t be nearly as much and it’s good to lock up a franchise player for a long time. Two, Campbell has proved that he IS a franchise player and can change the complexion of a game. He burst onto the scene in 2005, collecting 44 points and has been a 50-point defenseman ever since. A great pickup for the Hawks.
-Jose Theodore has bolted for the Nation’s capital. No, not Ottawa, Washington. I would’ve liked to see Theodore stay in Colorado where he turned his career aroung, but with athletes, they will go wherever the money is. With Olaf Kolzig gone to Tampa (hooray the lightning got a goalie), Theodore will fit in nicely along with goalie Cristobal Huet, to make the latest 1-2 goalie punch in the NHL. More signings to come in the next edition of the blog, as the signing period pushes forward.
Olympics
-I have one name for you to watch out for in Beijing: Tyson Gay. There is no doubt in my mind that this guy is the fastest person to ever grace this planet. I have no idea what the doping is like in Athletics, but I’m assuming that most people do it and it is basically accepted. Steroids or not, Gay still broke the world record for the 100-meter dash at 9.76s, even though it was unofficial because he had too much wind at his back. Tyson still says that he can get his time down to below 9.7s, which is unheard of in a sport where milliseconds determine the difference between 1st and last. If this guy doesn’t break the world record “officially” in Beijing, than I don’t know who ever will.
WTA
-I apologize for my past reference of Women’s Tennis as the “ATP”. I have just come to realize that women’s tennis has their own league (yes, that’s how much I know about women’s tennis) called the WTA. Any further inclusion of women’s tennis will be marked WTA. Once again I’m sorry for any heart attacks, strokes or seizures that may have been caused due to my misinformation. Anyways on to Wimbledon, where history has occurred (in a bad way). Wimbledon 2008 is the first major to have all of the top four seeds in either gentleman’s or ladies singles knocked out before the quarter-finals. Aside from this being completely ridiculous, Sharapova’s out and I STILL don’t care.
ATP
-I watched a match that I’m sure none of you saw. That’s because nobody currently ranked in the top 20 was playing in it. The match was between Fernando Verdasco and Mario Ancic. Right now you may be asking yourselves, “Why is this so special that he would put it in his blog?” Well nothing is special really, except for the fact that the game went to five sets and in the 5th set there was a total of 24 games played. In the total match there was 62 games played. Just for comparison, in Federer’s first match he played 25 games. So basically Verdasco and Ancic played an entire match in the 5th set alone. It was amazing. Back and forth, nobody could break serve, until Ancic broke it in the 23rd game, then won in the 24th. Ancic is playing Federer in the semis today.
7th Inning Stretch
-When I get something, you’ll be the first to know…
Buzzer Beater
The buzzer beater award for July 2 goes to…Roy Halladay. No, I’m not a homer, all I know is that the Doc threw a complete game 4-hitter to blank the Mariners and win the game 2-0. It also helped his case that nobody did anything really incredible over the past couple of days.
Tiger Woods - 1
Kevin Youkilis - 1
Jie Zheng - 1
Matt Kemp - 1
Roy Halladay - 1
Next edition coming Friday July 4 (I hope). Until then, have a good NBA UFA signing period.
Leading Off
-Answer to Sunday’s trivia question: Drew Bledsoe threw 70 passes in a game against the Minnesota Vikings on November 13, 1994.
-“The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it.”
-Lou Holtz
Free Throws
MLB
-Much has been made about the incident with Manny Ramirez and the Red Sox travelling secretary. Apparently Manny asked for 16 tickets to a sold out game coming up against the Houston Astros. When the travelling secretary said it would be tough to do, Manny pushed him to the ground, while shouting, “Just do your job.” Manny has since apologized for his actions. I’m going to try and take a different perspective on this one. I’m not saying that this was the scenario, but just assume for a moment that it was. Manny is from the Dominican Republic, so let’s assume he had a few family and friends coming up to watch the game in Houston. His family just assumed that Manny would arrange the tickets because most people think players have unlimited tickets (they don’t). So Manny procrastinates, than the day before the game Manny asks the secretary for 16 tickets. The secretary says it might be a problem, so then Manny, who doesn’t want to let his family down, gets frustrated and pushes the secretary to the ground. I’m not condoning Manny’s actions, I’m just saying that maybe we don’t know the whole story.
-In other Red Sox news, the Sox reportedly received a letter threatening black and Latin players. First of all, this guy is a disgrace to the world. I don’t know what would possess someone to write a letter like this and I hope they find this guy, so they can chuck him in prison for a while. Second of all, I think David Ortiz said it best, “Somebody wants to hurt Papi? If you hurt Papi, the world’s against you. There are some people out there who have nothing to do and like to send letters to people like Manny or myself. I guess it’s part of what we do and I don’t think there will be anything crazy coming out of it.” Ortiz is exactly right. Nothing usually comes of these threats, but needless to say there was lots of extra security at the game and rightfully so. The BoSox lost the game 5-4, but nothing came of the threat.
-These next couple of ones are good if you need a laugh. If you’re looking to find Barry Bonds’ 756th home run ball in Cooperstown look very carefully: The ball is marked with an asterisk to display Bonds alleged steroid use. The owner of the ball, Marc Ecko, held an online vote to decide what should be done with the ball. “Brand it with an asterisk and donate it to the hall was the winner.” Bonds said that he plans to Boycott if the hall displays the ball with an asterisk. Just yesterday it looked like the ball wasn’t headed for the hall, because Ecko had allegedly changed his mind from donating the ball. But Ecko said today that the ball is on it’s way to New York. It will be interesting to see what happens to the ball when it reaches it’s destination. I think they should put it up on a pedestal, with a sign explaining what the asterisk means. Then we’ll see what Barry does. All in all, a pretty funny story.
-Also funny and kind of stupid story is Alex Rodriguez’s pulling out of the home run derby. He has gotten the most votes out of all the players in the American League, which shows you the voting power of New York. He pulled out of the slugfest because as he put it, “My responsibility is to the New York Yankees. I need my swing to be at its best.” Well A-rod, how about showing some respect to the people who pay your salary: The fans! Let’s take a look at the last 3 winners of the home run derby and how their swings have been this season. Last years’ winner Vlad Guerrero is batting .283, with 13 home runs. Didn’t mess up his swing. Two years ago Ryan Howard won. His stats this year: slugging .460 with 20 home runs. Didn’t mess up his swing. Now we go way back to 3 years ago, when Bobby Abreu was crowned champ. He’s now the owner of a .283 batting average and has knocked 10 shots over the wall. Didn’t mess up his swing either. So Alex, don’t give us this song and dance about how you might tweak your swing, when your real problem is laziness.
NHL
-One of my favourite days of the year is July 1 and not just because it’s Canada day. It also coincidently happens to be the start of the NHL free agent signing period. Some big names are always bound to move. I keep crossing my fingers the Devils will pick up a high-end talent and every year I’m let down. Last year they even let Scott Gomez walk to the Rangers and haven’t been able to fill that hole all year. But enough about the Devils, let’s take a look at the big names who will be moving. Wade Redden has left Ottawa for the Big Apple to play for the Rangers. He signed a 6-year, $39M deal with the team. The Rangers desperately need the defense and Redden will consistently put up 35+ points. The fact that they’re giving him just over $6M a year tells me that Jagr’s days with the Rangers are over.
-Finally! The Devils brought in just what the doctor ordered: A puck-moving forward to replace the departed Gomez. Although I would’ve rather the Devils go for a center, Rolston will fit in perfectly with the Devils system. Like Lou Lamoriello said, “Rebuilding is not something in our vocabulary.” Rolston will be a great compliment to emerging star Zach Parise. I’m officially “pumped” for the Devils 2008 season.
-Chicago is also in the midst of building a powerhouse team. They’ve just acquired the rights to defenseman Brian Campbell and will be paying him $56.8M over the next 8 years. Normally I would say that they are overpaying him except for a couple of things. One, in 8 years $7M a year won’t be nearly as much and it’s good to lock up a franchise player for a long time. Two, Campbell has proved that he IS a franchise player and can change the complexion of a game. He burst onto the scene in 2005, collecting 44 points and has been a 50-point defenseman ever since. A great pickup for the Hawks.
-Jose Theodore has bolted for the Nation’s capital. No, not Ottawa, Washington. I would’ve liked to see Theodore stay in Colorado where he turned his career aroung, but with athletes, they will go wherever the money is. With Olaf Kolzig gone to Tampa (hooray the lightning got a goalie), Theodore will fit in nicely along with goalie Cristobal Huet, to make the latest 1-2 goalie punch in the NHL. More signings to come in the next edition of the blog, as the signing period pushes forward.
Olympics
-I have one name for you to watch out for in Beijing: Tyson Gay. There is no doubt in my mind that this guy is the fastest person to ever grace this planet. I have no idea what the doping is like in Athletics, but I’m assuming that most people do it and it is basically accepted. Steroids or not, Gay still broke the world record for the 100-meter dash at 9.76s, even though it was unofficial because he had too much wind at his back. Tyson still says that he can get his time down to below 9.7s, which is unheard of in a sport where milliseconds determine the difference between 1st and last. If this guy doesn’t break the world record “officially” in Beijing, than I don’t know who ever will.
WTA
-I apologize for my past reference of Women’s Tennis as the “ATP”. I have just come to realize that women’s tennis has their own league (yes, that’s how much I know about women’s tennis) called the WTA. Any further inclusion of women’s tennis will be marked WTA. Once again I’m sorry for any heart attacks, strokes or seizures that may have been caused due to my misinformation. Anyways on to Wimbledon, where history has occurred (in a bad way). Wimbledon 2008 is the first major to have all of the top four seeds in either gentleman’s or ladies singles knocked out before the quarter-finals. Aside from this being completely ridiculous, Sharapova’s out and I STILL don’t care.
ATP
-I watched a match that I’m sure none of you saw. That’s because nobody currently ranked in the top 20 was playing in it. The match was between Fernando Verdasco and Mario Ancic. Right now you may be asking yourselves, “Why is this so special that he would put it in his blog?” Well nothing is special really, except for the fact that the game went to five sets and in the 5th set there was a total of 24 games played. In the total match there was 62 games played. Just for comparison, in Federer’s first match he played 25 games. So basically Verdasco and Ancic played an entire match in the 5th set alone. It was amazing. Back and forth, nobody could break serve, until Ancic broke it in the 23rd game, then won in the 24th. Ancic is playing Federer in the semis today.
7th Inning Stretch
-When I get something, you’ll be the first to know…
Buzzer Beater
The buzzer beater award for July 2 goes to…Roy Halladay. No, I’m not a homer, all I know is that the Doc threw a complete game 4-hitter to blank the Mariners and win the game 2-0. It also helped his case that nobody did anything really incredible over the past couple of days.
Tiger Woods - 1
Kevin Youkilis - 1
Jie Zheng - 1
Matt Kemp - 1
Roy Halladay - 1
Next edition coming Friday July 4 (I hope). Until then, have a good NBA UFA signing period.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
06/29/08
Leading Off
-What Quarterback threw 70 passes in a single game?
Free Throws
MLB
-It’s been a very boring past little while in baseball, with the exception of one thing. Last night, in interleague play, the Dodgers and the Angels were playing the 2nd game of their 3-game series. Then in the 5th inning, baseball history occurred. Matt Kemp hit a ground ball down the 1st base side, Jered Weaver bobbled it and Kemp was safe on the e-1. Matt Kemp then stole 2nd base, but the throw was high and Kemp advanced to 3rd. The next batter was Blake DeWitt. He hit the ball deep to right field, scoring Kemp on the sac fly. Jered Weaver and Jose Arredondo combined to pitch 3 more innings of no-hit ball to complete the no-hitter. The only problem is, the Angels never got a run! They became only the 5th Major League team since 1900 and the 1st since 1992 to lose, despite having a no-hitter. This also marks the 1st time a team has lost a combined no-hitter (when two or more pitchers pitch) and this is also the 1st time it has occurred in interleague play. This isn’t a legitimate no-hitter because they only pitched 8 innings instead of the required 9, but it’s still pretty crazy to think that this has only happened 8 times in Major League history. The only “legitimate” no-hitter loss occurred on April 23, 1964, when Ken Johnson of the Houston Colt 45’s (now the Astros) lost to the Cincinnati Reds 1-0. Pete Rose was the batter who scored.
-The only other semi-interesting news in baseball is in Minnesota, where the Twins went on a 10-0 run (now 10-1). They swept the Nationals, Padres and Diamondbacks during their run before losing to the Brewers yesterday, 5-1. Their streak, however, didn’t allow them to eclipse the White Sox, who still hold a 1.5 game lead over the Twins for the lead in the AL Central division.
NFL
-Marshawn Lynch, Running Back for the Buffalo Bills, had his drivers license revoked and was forced to pay a $100 fine, after he ran over a Canadian Woman, Kimberly, Shpeley on May 31st. First of all, the $100 fine is ridiculous. He probably has pencils that are worth at least that much. Fortunately the woman is ok and she only suffered a bruised hip and a cut on her thigh, but she could have been seriously injured or even killed. Lynch said that it was late at night, raining hard and he didn‘t know that he ran over anybody. Part of me wants to believe him, he hasn’t been involved in legal trouble as much as a Mike Vick or Pacman Jones, but to say that you didn’t know that you ran over somebody, I find that very hard to wrap my head around. I wasn’t there when the crash happened, so I’m not sure about where was hit and where she ended up, but I’m going to compare it to running over a stop sign, or any sign for that matter. When you run over it, you’ll know it. You won’t just say, “Well that was a big bump in the road.” Same thing with a person. You’ll realise if you hit somebody. Even when a big bug hits your windshield, you can hear it. So I’m sorry Mr. Lynch, but I don’t buy your excuse.
-“Ridiculous!” That’s what Roger Goodell thinks about paying rookies who haven’t even played a down large sums of money. Goodell used as an example the contract Jake Long recently received from the Miami Dolphins, a 5-year deal worth $57.75M. Doesn’t the commissioner have better things to worry about than rookie salaries. Something maybe like Spygate or Marshawn Lynch’s hit-and-run? If they can afford to sign him and still be under the cap I really don’t see what the big deal is. If the Dolphins run into salary cap problems down the road, then you can say I told you so. But, if a team wants to waste $11M per season on a center, than that’s their problem. Goodell needs to re-prioritize his schedule.
-Goodell seems to be doing a lot of running around lately. He has recently dismissed the idea that the Buffalo Bills will be shipped off to Toronto. Ok Roger, you keep telling us that while you add games in Toronto. 1 game this year a couple more the next and just keep slowly moving the team to Toronto. I would be willing to bet that in 10 years the Bills will be playing half of their games in Toronto. Goodell, you’re doing the right thing by reassuring Bills fans, but just don’t be surprised when their season ticket holders are burning down your house in 2018.
NHL
-The Tampa Bay Lightning made a big splash in the NHL waters when they acquired Gary Roberts and Ryan Malone from the Pittsburgh Penguins. This is a good move for the Lightning to acquire these two big names, but they keep skirting around their main need: A starting goalie! They haven’t had one since Nikolai Khabibulin bolted for the windy city. They acquired Mike Smith at the trade deadline, who is a good back-up, but doesn’t have the Skills to be a full time starter. Then they drafted Stamkos, signed Melrose and now acquired Roberts and Malone. All of the pieces are in place, except a starting goaltender. Maybe they’re going to test the free agent waters. Jose Theodore is slated to become a UFA this year and is expected to test the market. Personally I think Theodore would be a great fit in Tampa, but knowing the Lightning, they’ll be more likely to sign Wade Dubielewicz.
-Another day, another buyout. This time it’s the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have bought out the remainder of Andrew Raycroft’s contract. For those of you who don’t understand logic, this means they will go with Vesa Toskala as their starter. I enjoy watching the Leafs lose, so I’m glad they pulled this move. Toskala is the superior goalie, but would it have really hurt the Leafs to keep a goalie around, who has a .900 save pct.? Even as a back-up? Not to mention that Raycroft is a former Calder trophy winner who had a couple of bad years in Toronto. The Leafs might have to now promote Justin Pogge or Scott Clemmensen, both of them unproven at the NHL level. After this year it will have been 42 years since Toronto last hoisted Stanley. Yes, I’m counting.
ATP
It’s the traditional rest Sunday at Wimbledon today, so let’s recap the last week over in England. Sharapova’s out, I don’t care anymore.
UEFA
-Because I value my job, I decided to work instead of watching the Euro cup final. Fortunately, I have wonderful grandparents who taped the game for me and I watched it later in the evening. Obviously Spain won, because I had picked them earlier. Not 2-0, but it should’ve been. I couldn’t believe it when Marcos Senna missed that easy tap-in late in the game. But none of that was important, because in the 33rd minute, speedy Fernando Torres, chipped a beautiful shot over goalkeeper Jens Lehman. That was all that the Spaniards needed to win their first Euro cup since 1964. As I type this, there is 710 days, 19 hours, 44 minutes and 50 seconds left until the World Cup in South Africa. Let the countdown begin!
7th Inning Stretch
Nope…still nothing
Buzzer Beater
The Buzzer Beater award for June 29th goes to…Matt Kemp. I can almost guarantee that Kemp will be the only batter who wins this award without even registering a hit, but when you’re involved in history, you have to get some recognition. Kemp will always be remembered as that guy who scored against a no-hitter. Thanks to Jair Jurrjens for making it close, but Kemp takes the honours this time.
Tiger Woods - 1
Kevin Youkilis - 1
Jie Zheng - 1
Matt Kemp - 1
Next edition coming Tuesday, July 1st. Until then, have a good NHL UFA signing period.
-What Quarterback threw 70 passes in a single game?
Free Throws
MLB
-It’s been a very boring past little while in baseball, with the exception of one thing. Last night, in interleague play, the Dodgers and the Angels were playing the 2nd game of their 3-game series. Then in the 5th inning, baseball history occurred. Matt Kemp hit a ground ball down the 1st base side, Jered Weaver bobbled it and Kemp was safe on the e-1. Matt Kemp then stole 2nd base, but the throw was high and Kemp advanced to 3rd. The next batter was Blake DeWitt. He hit the ball deep to right field, scoring Kemp on the sac fly. Jered Weaver and Jose Arredondo combined to pitch 3 more innings of no-hit ball to complete the no-hitter. The only problem is, the Angels never got a run! They became only the 5th Major League team since 1900 and the 1st since 1992 to lose, despite having a no-hitter. This also marks the 1st time a team has lost a combined no-hitter (when two or more pitchers pitch) and this is also the 1st time it has occurred in interleague play. This isn’t a legitimate no-hitter because they only pitched 8 innings instead of the required 9, but it’s still pretty crazy to think that this has only happened 8 times in Major League history. The only “legitimate” no-hitter loss occurred on April 23, 1964, when Ken Johnson of the Houston Colt 45’s (now the Astros) lost to the Cincinnati Reds 1-0. Pete Rose was the batter who scored.
-The only other semi-interesting news in baseball is in Minnesota, where the Twins went on a 10-0 run (now 10-1). They swept the Nationals, Padres and Diamondbacks during their run before losing to the Brewers yesterday, 5-1. Their streak, however, didn’t allow them to eclipse the White Sox, who still hold a 1.5 game lead over the Twins for the lead in the AL Central division.
NFL
-Marshawn Lynch, Running Back for the Buffalo Bills, had his drivers license revoked and was forced to pay a $100 fine, after he ran over a Canadian Woman, Kimberly, Shpeley on May 31st. First of all, the $100 fine is ridiculous. He probably has pencils that are worth at least that much. Fortunately the woman is ok and she only suffered a bruised hip and a cut on her thigh, but she could have been seriously injured or even killed. Lynch said that it was late at night, raining hard and he didn‘t know that he ran over anybody. Part of me wants to believe him, he hasn’t been involved in legal trouble as much as a Mike Vick or Pacman Jones, but to say that you didn’t know that you ran over somebody, I find that very hard to wrap my head around. I wasn’t there when the crash happened, so I’m not sure about where was hit and where she ended up, but I’m going to compare it to running over a stop sign, or any sign for that matter. When you run over it, you’ll know it. You won’t just say, “Well that was a big bump in the road.” Same thing with a person. You’ll realise if you hit somebody. Even when a big bug hits your windshield, you can hear it. So I’m sorry Mr. Lynch, but I don’t buy your excuse.
-“Ridiculous!” That’s what Roger Goodell thinks about paying rookies who haven’t even played a down large sums of money. Goodell used as an example the contract Jake Long recently received from the Miami Dolphins, a 5-year deal worth $57.75M. Doesn’t the commissioner have better things to worry about than rookie salaries. Something maybe like Spygate or Marshawn Lynch’s hit-and-run? If they can afford to sign him and still be under the cap I really don’t see what the big deal is. If the Dolphins run into salary cap problems down the road, then you can say I told you so. But, if a team wants to waste $11M per season on a center, than that’s their problem. Goodell needs to re-prioritize his schedule.
-Goodell seems to be doing a lot of running around lately. He has recently dismissed the idea that the Buffalo Bills will be shipped off to Toronto. Ok Roger, you keep telling us that while you add games in Toronto. 1 game this year a couple more the next and just keep slowly moving the team to Toronto. I would be willing to bet that in 10 years the Bills will be playing half of their games in Toronto. Goodell, you’re doing the right thing by reassuring Bills fans, but just don’t be surprised when their season ticket holders are burning down your house in 2018.
NHL
-The Tampa Bay Lightning made a big splash in the NHL waters when they acquired Gary Roberts and Ryan Malone from the Pittsburgh Penguins. This is a good move for the Lightning to acquire these two big names, but they keep skirting around their main need: A starting goalie! They haven’t had one since Nikolai Khabibulin bolted for the windy city. They acquired Mike Smith at the trade deadline, who is a good back-up, but doesn’t have the Skills to be a full time starter. Then they drafted Stamkos, signed Melrose and now acquired Roberts and Malone. All of the pieces are in place, except a starting goaltender. Maybe they’re going to test the free agent waters. Jose Theodore is slated to become a UFA this year and is expected to test the market. Personally I think Theodore would be a great fit in Tampa, but knowing the Lightning, they’ll be more likely to sign Wade Dubielewicz.
-Another day, another buyout. This time it’s the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have bought out the remainder of Andrew Raycroft’s contract. For those of you who don’t understand logic, this means they will go with Vesa Toskala as their starter. I enjoy watching the Leafs lose, so I’m glad they pulled this move. Toskala is the superior goalie, but would it have really hurt the Leafs to keep a goalie around, who has a .900 save pct.? Even as a back-up? Not to mention that Raycroft is a former Calder trophy winner who had a couple of bad years in Toronto. The Leafs might have to now promote Justin Pogge or Scott Clemmensen, both of them unproven at the NHL level. After this year it will have been 42 years since Toronto last hoisted Stanley. Yes, I’m counting.
ATP
It’s the traditional rest Sunday at Wimbledon today, so let’s recap the last week over in England. Sharapova’s out, I don’t care anymore.
UEFA
-Because I value my job, I decided to work instead of watching the Euro cup final. Fortunately, I have wonderful grandparents who taped the game for me and I watched it later in the evening. Obviously Spain won, because I had picked them earlier. Not 2-0, but it should’ve been. I couldn’t believe it when Marcos Senna missed that easy tap-in late in the game. But none of that was important, because in the 33rd minute, speedy Fernando Torres, chipped a beautiful shot over goalkeeper Jens Lehman. That was all that the Spaniards needed to win their first Euro cup since 1964. As I type this, there is 710 days, 19 hours, 44 minutes and 50 seconds left until the World Cup in South Africa. Let the countdown begin!
7th Inning Stretch
Nope…still nothing
Buzzer Beater
The Buzzer Beater award for June 29th goes to…Matt Kemp. I can almost guarantee that Kemp will be the only batter who wins this award without even registering a hit, but when you’re involved in history, you have to get some recognition. Kemp will always be remembered as that guy who scored against a no-hitter. Thanks to Jair Jurrjens for making it close, but Kemp takes the honours this time.
Tiger Woods - 1
Kevin Youkilis - 1
Jie Zheng - 1
Matt Kemp - 1
Next edition coming Tuesday, July 1st. Until then, have a good NHL UFA signing period.
Friday, June 27, 2008
06/27/08
Leading Off
-The average life span of a Major League baseball is 7 pitches.
Free Throws
NBA
-For the 3rd straight blog, the National Basketball Association takes priority (maybe this should be telling me something). The lasted edition in the Kobe vs. Shaq saga has arrived. While doing some freestyle in a bar, Shaq called out Kobe, asking him how his (synonym for “bum”) tastes. Aside from the obvious choice words and general profane language, I see nothing wrong with what Shaq did. This is just an example of the biggest kid in the world acting like a kid. I found it pretty funny and that’s just what it was, funny. It wasn’t meant to be a serious shot a Kobe, rather just a little nudge to remind him he still hasn’t won a championship without him. On the other hand, Shaq deserved to have his “deputy sheriff” badge taken away. Obviously the Sheriff takes his job seriously and he didn’t think that Shaq’s actions were appropriate. That’s ok with me. Now what we have to wait for is to see if Kobe will respond. Hopefully he sees it as the joke that it is and doesn’t go overboard with his response. Maybe Kobe is working on his “comeback rap” as we speak. “Shaq, tell me how my 81-point game tastes!”
-The Gatorade-stained shirt of Doc Rivers has made a lot of people happy recently. At a local auction, the item sold for approximately $55, 000. The money raised will be donated to the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation. This was a great idea by the Celtics. It’s not like Rivers is going to wear a Gatorade-stained shirt around town. If somebody has money floating around to buy a $55 000 shirt, than they should be donating money to charity. Next up for auction, Kevin Garnett’s left sock.
-With the first pick in the 2008 NBA draft, the Chicago Bulls select…Michael Beasley. If you heard those words, then you should have your head examined, because the Bulls in fact selected Derrick Rose from the Memphis Tigers. Rose said that he wants to be the MVP in his first year. Maybe a bit too lofty of a goal, but better to aim too high than too low.
-What a shocker. After Pat Riley said that he wasn’t too high on Michael Beasley, guess who the Heat picked? Michael Beasley! The Heat were obviously trying to build suspense and see if anyone would try and trade for the #2 pick. But, no one did, so the Heat will just have to settle for a player who led the NCAA in points-per-game with 26.2 and averaged 12.4 rebounds-per-game. He averaged a double-double playing 40-minute games!
PGA
-In a day and age where you can buy almost anything on eBay, it should surprise no one that you can buy an apple core there too. But not just any apple core, the apple core that Tiger Woods ate on the 16th hole during his playoff round with Rocco Mediate. This is an apple core that you can own for the low, low price of $700. I just have one question for whoever wins this bidding war that has now reached 53 bids. Are you insane? For one thing, It’s an apple core. Not even an entire apple. You can’t eat it, it is of no value except to gaze at before you go off to bed at night. What if it isn’t even Tiger’s apple? What if some dude on eBay is fleecing you out of what could possibly be $1000. I’m not sure, but I don’t think eBay has a very good return system. Let’s just assume this is the apple that Tiger ate. Here’s the thing. You’re going to have time to show a few people this prized possession, then do you know what’s going to happen? It’s going to get mouldy! Your precious apple is going to shrivel up and die. I have a suggestion to whoever buys this apple. Take a seed and plant a tree. In 10 years, when that tree grows, you can sell those apples on eBay and say, “This is the offspring of the apple Tiger Woods ate on the 16th hole at Torrey Pines, while playing Rocco Mediate in the playoff round.” You can call me crazy, but I’m not the one bidding for an expired fruit!
MLB
-You know it’s been a slow day in baseball when I start talking about maple bats. I was trying to avoid this whole situation, because it was so boring. But since I don’t want to talk about Shawn Chacon, ok maybe I do, Chacon you’re officially mentally unstable. Forrest Gump is a Mensa member compared to you. That’s all that needs to be said. Anyway, back to maple bats. They are extremely dangerous and need to be taken out just as fast as instant replay needs to be put in. Just Google, “problem with maple bats”, go to images, take your first hit and you will see how funny Twins fans are. You will also see the danger of maple bats. These things break faster than offensive linemen doing wind sprints. Besides, making maple bats takes maple trees (surprise, surprise), maple trees make maple syrup, so once you run out of maple trees, what are you going to put on your pancakes?
-Miracles do occur. There was proof of that Wednesday night when Barry Zito won a game. It sounds hard to believe at first, but you’re going to have to trust me on this one (or go to mlb.com and see for yourself). Barry Zito lowered his ERA to the almost unbelievable level of 5.91. Despite Zito’s heroic efforts, the San Francisco Giants still find themselves 6 games back in the easiest division in baseball. The Giants need Barry’s help, but his last name isn’t Zito!
ATP
-HA! HA! HA! That’s all I could think of when I heard that Novak Djokovic lost his 2nd round Wimbledon match to Marat Safin. I told you Novak, you don’t call out former Wimbledon winners until YOU win Wimbledon. Now you’re going to be known as that guy who shot off his mouth, but couldn’t back it up. Good luck explaining your early exit to the media.
-Noooooooooo! That’s all I could think of when I heard that Maria Sharapova lost her 2nd round Wimbledon match to Alla Kudryavtseva, who has unnecessarily extended this blog just from the use of her name. Any future reference of her name will be posted as AK.
-This is going to be the worst Wimbledon ever. #1 ranked Ana Ivanovic lost to #133 ranked Jie Zheng in her 3rd round match. Oh well at least I can still watch Andy Roddick. Wait, he’s out too!
WNBA
-So Candace Parker dunks twice in consecutive games and now she’s an American hero? Here’s the thing. Candace Parker is an amazing athlete. She’s the most dominant player in the WNBA. But, she’s also 6-4! If I was 6-4, I’d be throwing it down with the best of them. To say that it’s an amazing dunk just because she can reach up and touch the rim is absurd. It’s great publicity for the WNBA and publicity that they definitely deserve, but until I see a tomahawk from her, she’s just another gifted athlete.
NCAA
-The Fresno State Bulldogs won the 2008 College World Series, but it’s not the Cinderella story that you’ve been sold. I’m sure you’ve all heard this by now, because I get my info the slow way, but Fresno State actually won 2 more games during the regular season than Georgia. However, for some odd reason, that I can’t fully explain, Georgia was the 8th ranked seed in the nation and Fresno was only the 4th ranked seed in their region. Until somebody tells me that Fresno was ranked 7th or higher, I’ll continue to call this an upset. If you want to know who I was cheering for, it was the Bulldogs.
UEFA
-Hmm, who was that guy who correctly picked both of the teams who would appear in the Euro 2008 final? Oh right, that was me. I may have been off slightly with the scores and I may have picked the winners for the wrong reasons, but none of that is important as long as I guessed correctly. My pick for the final? Spain! It has to be Spain. They proved how much depth they have when they beat Russia 3-0, with all of the goals scored in the second half. None of those scorers were named David Villa either. Goals were scored by Xavi Hernández, David Silva and Daniel Güiza. Also Spain has only given up 3 goals in the tournament. Germany? 6. My prediction, Spain 2-0 Germany.
CFL
-Woo hoo! Down south they have to wait until August for the pigskins to start flying, but in Canada we get our football fix in June. Calgary took down the Lions 28-10. Burris passed for 274 yards. The Calgary defense got to the QB 3 times behind the line of scrimmage. Javier Glatt led the game with 8 tackles. Montreal (go Al’s) beat down the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 33-10. Tre Smith rushed for 73 yards, due in large part to his 75-yard touchdown run. Markeith Knowlton leads the league in tackles with 14. Anthony Calvillo moved up past Danny McManus on the all-time passing yards list. No picks in either game. If you don’t like the CFL just remember, we have bigger balls!
7th Inning Stretch
If you’ve made it this far, you read WAY too much…
Buzzer Beater
The buzzer beater award for June 27th is…Jie Zheng. I’m not at all happy about this. Sharapova and Ivanovic both out. Some dude named Novak lost too, but that’s unimportant. Ivanovic, you’re the #1 seed, how could you do this. Do you realize how much ratings will go down if you or Sharapova are not in the final. This is not at all good for women’s tennis. Marat Safin and AK made it close, but Zheng took down the top seed, so I reluctantly give her this award.
Tiger Woods - 1
Kevin Youkilis - 1
Jie Zheng - 1
Next edition coming Sunday, June 29th. Until then, have a good Wimbledon.
-The average life span of a Major League baseball is 7 pitches.
Free Throws
NBA
-For the 3rd straight blog, the National Basketball Association takes priority (maybe this should be telling me something). The lasted edition in the Kobe vs. Shaq saga has arrived. While doing some freestyle in a bar, Shaq called out Kobe, asking him how his (synonym for “bum”) tastes. Aside from the obvious choice words and general profane language, I see nothing wrong with what Shaq did. This is just an example of the biggest kid in the world acting like a kid. I found it pretty funny and that’s just what it was, funny. It wasn’t meant to be a serious shot a Kobe, rather just a little nudge to remind him he still hasn’t won a championship without him. On the other hand, Shaq deserved to have his “deputy sheriff” badge taken away. Obviously the Sheriff takes his job seriously and he didn’t think that Shaq’s actions were appropriate. That’s ok with me. Now what we have to wait for is to see if Kobe will respond. Hopefully he sees it as the joke that it is and doesn’t go overboard with his response. Maybe Kobe is working on his “comeback rap” as we speak. “Shaq, tell me how my 81-point game tastes!”
-The Gatorade-stained shirt of Doc Rivers has made a lot of people happy recently. At a local auction, the item sold for approximately $55, 000. The money raised will be donated to the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation. This was a great idea by the Celtics. It’s not like Rivers is going to wear a Gatorade-stained shirt around town. If somebody has money floating around to buy a $55 000 shirt, than they should be donating money to charity. Next up for auction, Kevin Garnett’s left sock.
-With the first pick in the 2008 NBA draft, the Chicago Bulls select…Michael Beasley. If you heard those words, then you should have your head examined, because the Bulls in fact selected Derrick Rose from the Memphis Tigers. Rose said that he wants to be the MVP in his first year. Maybe a bit too lofty of a goal, but better to aim too high than too low.
-What a shocker. After Pat Riley said that he wasn’t too high on Michael Beasley, guess who the Heat picked? Michael Beasley! The Heat were obviously trying to build suspense and see if anyone would try and trade for the #2 pick. But, no one did, so the Heat will just have to settle for a player who led the NCAA in points-per-game with 26.2 and averaged 12.4 rebounds-per-game. He averaged a double-double playing 40-minute games!
PGA
-In a day and age where you can buy almost anything on eBay, it should surprise no one that you can buy an apple core there too. But not just any apple core, the apple core that Tiger Woods ate on the 16th hole during his playoff round with Rocco Mediate. This is an apple core that you can own for the low, low price of $700. I just have one question for whoever wins this bidding war that has now reached 53 bids. Are you insane? For one thing, It’s an apple core. Not even an entire apple. You can’t eat it, it is of no value except to gaze at before you go off to bed at night. What if it isn’t even Tiger’s apple? What if some dude on eBay is fleecing you out of what could possibly be $1000. I’m not sure, but I don’t think eBay has a very good return system. Let’s just assume this is the apple that Tiger ate. Here’s the thing. You’re going to have time to show a few people this prized possession, then do you know what’s going to happen? It’s going to get mouldy! Your precious apple is going to shrivel up and die. I have a suggestion to whoever buys this apple. Take a seed and plant a tree. In 10 years, when that tree grows, you can sell those apples on eBay and say, “This is the offspring of the apple Tiger Woods ate on the 16th hole at Torrey Pines, while playing Rocco Mediate in the playoff round.” You can call me crazy, but I’m not the one bidding for an expired fruit!
MLB
-You know it’s been a slow day in baseball when I start talking about maple bats. I was trying to avoid this whole situation, because it was so boring. But since I don’t want to talk about Shawn Chacon, ok maybe I do, Chacon you’re officially mentally unstable. Forrest Gump is a Mensa member compared to you. That’s all that needs to be said. Anyway, back to maple bats. They are extremely dangerous and need to be taken out just as fast as instant replay needs to be put in. Just Google, “problem with maple bats”, go to images, take your first hit and you will see how funny Twins fans are. You will also see the danger of maple bats. These things break faster than offensive linemen doing wind sprints. Besides, making maple bats takes maple trees (surprise, surprise), maple trees make maple syrup, so once you run out of maple trees, what are you going to put on your pancakes?
-Miracles do occur. There was proof of that Wednesday night when Barry Zito won a game. It sounds hard to believe at first, but you’re going to have to trust me on this one (or go to mlb.com and see for yourself). Barry Zito lowered his ERA to the almost unbelievable level of 5.91. Despite Zito’s heroic efforts, the San Francisco Giants still find themselves 6 games back in the easiest division in baseball. The Giants need Barry’s help, but his last name isn’t Zito!
ATP
-HA! HA! HA! That’s all I could think of when I heard that Novak Djokovic lost his 2nd round Wimbledon match to Marat Safin. I told you Novak, you don’t call out former Wimbledon winners until YOU win Wimbledon. Now you’re going to be known as that guy who shot off his mouth, but couldn’t back it up. Good luck explaining your early exit to the media.
-Noooooooooo! That’s all I could think of when I heard that Maria Sharapova lost her 2nd round Wimbledon match to Alla Kudryavtseva, who has unnecessarily extended this blog just from the use of her name. Any future reference of her name will be posted as AK.
-This is going to be the worst Wimbledon ever. #1 ranked Ana Ivanovic lost to #133 ranked Jie Zheng in her 3rd round match. Oh well at least I can still watch Andy Roddick. Wait, he’s out too!
WNBA
-So Candace Parker dunks twice in consecutive games and now she’s an American hero? Here’s the thing. Candace Parker is an amazing athlete. She’s the most dominant player in the WNBA. But, she’s also 6-4! If I was 6-4, I’d be throwing it down with the best of them. To say that it’s an amazing dunk just because she can reach up and touch the rim is absurd. It’s great publicity for the WNBA and publicity that they definitely deserve, but until I see a tomahawk from her, she’s just another gifted athlete.
NCAA
-The Fresno State Bulldogs won the 2008 College World Series, but it’s not the Cinderella story that you’ve been sold. I’m sure you’ve all heard this by now, because I get my info the slow way, but Fresno State actually won 2 more games during the regular season than Georgia. However, for some odd reason, that I can’t fully explain, Georgia was the 8th ranked seed in the nation and Fresno was only the 4th ranked seed in their region. Until somebody tells me that Fresno was ranked 7th or higher, I’ll continue to call this an upset. If you want to know who I was cheering for, it was the Bulldogs.
UEFA
-Hmm, who was that guy who correctly picked both of the teams who would appear in the Euro 2008 final? Oh right, that was me. I may have been off slightly with the scores and I may have picked the winners for the wrong reasons, but none of that is important as long as I guessed correctly. My pick for the final? Spain! It has to be Spain. They proved how much depth they have when they beat Russia 3-0, with all of the goals scored in the second half. None of those scorers were named David Villa either. Goals were scored by Xavi Hernández, David Silva and Daniel Güiza. Also Spain has only given up 3 goals in the tournament. Germany? 6. My prediction, Spain 2-0 Germany.
CFL
-Woo hoo! Down south they have to wait until August for the pigskins to start flying, but in Canada we get our football fix in June. Calgary took down the Lions 28-10. Burris passed for 274 yards. The Calgary defense got to the QB 3 times behind the line of scrimmage. Javier Glatt led the game with 8 tackles. Montreal (go Al’s) beat down the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 33-10. Tre Smith rushed for 73 yards, due in large part to his 75-yard touchdown run. Markeith Knowlton leads the league in tackles with 14. Anthony Calvillo moved up past Danny McManus on the all-time passing yards list. No picks in either game. If you don’t like the CFL just remember, we have bigger balls!
7th Inning Stretch
If you’ve made it this far, you read WAY too much…
Buzzer Beater
The buzzer beater award for June 27th is…Jie Zheng. I’m not at all happy about this. Sharapova and Ivanovic both out. Some dude named Novak lost too, but that’s unimportant. Ivanovic, you’re the #1 seed, how could you do this. Do you realize how much ratings will go down if you or Sharapova are not in the final. This is not at all good for women’s tennis. Marat Safin and AK made it close, but Zheng took down the top seed, so I reluctantly give her this award.
Tiger Woods - 1
Kevin Youkilis - 1
Jie Zheng - 1
Next edition coming Sunday, June 29th. Until then, have a good Wimbledon.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
06/24/08
Leading Off
-Answer to Friday’s trivia question: Bobby Orr wore number two when he played as a junior for the Oshawa Generals, but couldn’t wear the number for the Boston Bruins because it had already been retired by Eddie Shore.
-“If your work is not fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”
-John Mazur
Free Throws
UEFA
-The semi-finals are set for Euro 2008 with Germany facing off against Turkey and Spain, after beating the defending World Cup champions 4-2 in penalty kicks, will match up against Russia.
-It’s about time for some predictions in this tournament so I have some. It’s been a great run for Turkey, but I think their run ends. The Germans have already knocked off the extremely talented Portuguese and have a legitimate striker in Lukas Podolski. The Germans have only allowed 4 goals in 4 games, while Turkey has allowed 6. It would take a great team effort, particularly from star midfielder Arda Turan, for Turkey to advance to the finals. A great performance that I don’t see happening, so I’m taking Germany with a 2-0 win over Turkey.
-I think the Russia vs. Spain game will be a closer game than everyone expects. Spain is no doubt the favourites after they routed the Russians 4-1 earlier in the tournament. Russia has since picked up their socks and won 3 straight, outscoring the opposition 6-1. The Russians have two multi-goal scorers, while the Spaniards only have one and that should figure into play in this game. I’m looking forward to a goal-filled affair in this one and expect Spain to take it 3-2.
NBA
-I don’t normally get into the NBA draft and I probably still won’t watch this one, although I’d be lying if I told you that I was not intrigued by the whole Beasley/Rose ordeal. http://www.dcprosportsreport.com/ has an interesting feature, where they have a list of all the different mock drafts across the web along with their top 5 picks. Yours truly had nothing better to do with his time than to count every single vote for either Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley. As it turns out, 79 of these “experts” had Rose slotted in the 1st spot, while 33 of them had Chicago taking Beasley. It seems really tough to bet against Rose in this spot. Beasley is one beast of a man at 6-8, 239 lbs., but the guard position has become extremely valuable in the NBA and with Rose being a hometown Chicago boy, you’d have to think the odds are in his favour. The Miami Heat will have no problems making their pick, as they will definitely go after the Bulls leftovers.
-The Men’s U.S. Olympic basketball team was recently announced and the winners are: Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Jason Kidd, Chris Paul, Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd, Dewayne Wade and Deron Williams. Since Canada is without a basketball team for the Olympics, I might as well root for our neighbours to the south. I’ll consider Chris Bosh at least a semi-Canadian and root for the U.S. for the first time in my life.
NHL
-ESPN will have to look for a new NHL correspondent, as Barry Melrose has left for greener pastures and sunny skies over in Florida. Barry Became the head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning today, after taking a 13-year absence from behind the reins of an NHL franchise. Melrose has since been ESPN’s top hockey analyst for the last 12 years, but said he couldn’t wait to say yes after he was approached for a job by the Lightning. It was obvious that Melrose wanted to get back into coaching and hopefully this this is just what Tampa ordered to get back into playoff contention.
-The Toronto Maple Leafs once again proved their stupidity, by trading up all the way to 5th spot to pick…Luke Schenn? Nothing personal against Schenn, he is a fantastic prospect and the best defensive defenseman available in the draft, but this pick leaves me with one question. What about Filatov?
-It sure feels great to be from Moncton, New Brunswick recently. Three players from my hometown of approximately 120 000 people, were drafted in this year. They are: Chet Pickard taken 18th overall by the Nashville Predators; Patrice Cormier, who is actually from Cap-Pelé (Tow-may-tow, tow-maa-tow), taken 54th overall by the New Jersey Devils and Kelsey Tessier taken 110th overall by the Colorado Avalanche.
-The Ottawa Senators have finally ridded themselves of the plague that is Ray Emery after they bought out the rest of his contract allowing him to become a UFA as of July 1st. This is a great move for Ottawa to finally get the “Ray Emery” taste out of their system. The Sens will now have to make a decision on what to do with current goaltending situation. They could either search the free agent market for a goaltender or promote up-and-comer Jeff Glass from Binghamton.
MLB
-I seem to be bad luck on the MLB managers. There has been three managers fired since the start of this blog. Willie Randolph of the Mets, John McLaren of the Mariners and now John Gibbons of the Blue Jays have all been given the shaft. Gibbons was replaced by former Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston. Welcome back Cito!
-We may have to hold off the “Should Curt Schilling be in Cooperstown” argument because Schilling’s doctor Fred Morgan announced that Curt could be throwing off the mound in January (they play baseball in January?) and that there was no permanent damage to his rotator cuff. It’s all Schilling’s decision now, but I think a comeback is in order.
NFL
-Don Imus, host of the WABC radio show, Imus un the morning, was caught with his foot lodged in his mouth. I was shocked to hear what Imus had to say about Dallas Cowboys CB “Pacman” Jones. If you haven't already heard it, you can listen to it here (www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLVupPtrmYA). This isn’t the first time Don Imus has been involved in controversy. He has been fired before for this kind of thing, but was somehow let back on the air. It is ignorance like this that makes me feel sorry for African-Americans. Hey Don, before you go off insulting other people’s race, why don’t you look at your own. What color is Roger Clemens? Mark McGwire? Jose Canseco? What color was Pete Rose when he gambled on Baseball? What color was Marty McSorley when he was charged with assault? How can somebody with as little knowledge about anything as you, be qualified to share your opinion with people over the radio. I never say that I want anybody to lose their job, so I’ll just say this: I hope that ABC makes the right move.
7th Inning Stretch
Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out to the crowd,
Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks,
I don’t care if I ever go back,
‘Cause it’s root, root, root for the home team,
If they don’t win it’s a shame,
For it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out,
At the old ball game!
(Note to All-Stars Sports Blog: I’m DYING out here!)
Buzzer Beater
The Buzzer Beater award for Tuesday, June 24th goes to…Kevin Youkilis for his walk-off home run in the bottom of the 13th inning leading Boston to a 5-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Once again it was a tough decision, especially with Mark Teixeira’s 3-homer game. I’ve also decided to all a list of former buzzer beater award winners, just for fun.
Tiger Woods - 1
Kevin Youkilis - 1
Next edition coming Friday, June 27th. Until then, have a good NBA draft.
-Answer to Friday’s trivia question: Bobby Orr wore number two when he played as a junior for the Oshawa Generals, but couldn’t wear the number for the Boston Bruins because it had already been retired by Eddie Shore.
-“If your work is not fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”
-John Mazur
Free Throws
UEFA
-The semi-finals are set for Euro 2008 with Germany facing off against Turkey and Spain, after beating the defending World Cup champions 4-2 in penalty kicks, will match up against Russia.
-It’s about time for some predictions in this tournament so I have some. It’s been a great run for Turkey, but I think their run ends. The Germans have already knocked off the extremely talented Portuguese and have a legitimate striker in Lukas Podolski. The Germans have only allowed 4 goals in 4 games, while Turkey has allowed 6. It would take a great team effort, particularly from star midfielder Arda Turan, for Turkey to advance to the finals. A great performance that I don’t see happening, so I’m taking Germany with a 2-0 win over Turkey.
-I think the Russia vs. Spain game will be a closer game than everyone expects. Spain is no doubt the favourites after they routed the Russians 4-1 earlier in the tournament. Russia has since picked up their socks and won 3 straight, outscoring the opposition 6-1. The Russians have two multi-goal scorers, while the Spaniards only have one and that should figure into play in this game. I’m looking forward to a goal-filled affair in this one and expect Spain to take it 3-2.
NBA
-I don’t normally get into the NBA draft and I probably still won’t watch this one, although I’d be lying if I told you that I was not intrigued by the whole Beasley/Rose ordeal. http://www.dcprosportsreport.com/ has an interesting feature, where they have a list of all the different mock drafts across the web along with their top 5 picks. Yours truly had nothing better to do with his time than to count every single vote for either Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley. As it turns out, 79 of these “experts” had Rose slotted in the 1st spot, while 33 of them had Chicago taking Beasley. It seems really tough to bet against Rose in this spot. Beasley is one beast of a man at 6-8, 239 lbs., but the guard position has become extremely valuable in the NBA and with Rose being a hometown Chicago boy, you’d have to think the odds are in his favour. The Miami Heat will have no problems making their pick, as they will definitely go after the Bulls leftovers.
-The Men’s U.S. Olympic basketball team was recently announced and the winners are: Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Jason Kidd, Chris Paul, Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd, Dewayne Wade and Deron Williams. Since Canada is without a basketball team for the Olympics, I might as well root for our neighbours to the south. I’ll consider Chris Bosh at least a semi-Canadian and root for the U.S. for the first time in my life.
NHL
-ESPN will have to look for a new NHL correspondent, as Barry Melrose has left for greener pastures and sunny skies over in Florida. Barry Became the head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning today, after taking a 13-year absence from behind the reins of an NHL franchise. Melrose has since been ESPN’s top hockey analyst for the last 12 years, but said he couldn’t wait to say yes after he was approached for a job by the Lightning. It was obvious that Melrose wanted to get back into coaching and hopefully this this is just what Tampa ordered to get back into playoff contention.
-The Toronto Maple Leafs once again proved their stupidity, by trading up all the way to 5th spot to pick…Luke Schenn? Nothing personal against Schenn, he is a fantastic prospect and the best defensive defenseman available in the draft, but this pick leaves me with one question. What about Filatov?
-It sure feels great to be from Moncton, New Brunswick recently. Three players from my hometown of approximately 120 000 people, were drafted in this year. They are: Chet Pickard taken 18th overall by the Nashville Predators; Patrice Cormier, who is actually from Cap-Pelé (Tow-may-tow, tow-maa-tow), taken 54th overall by the New Jersey Devils and Kelsey Tessier taken 110th overall by the Colorado Avalanche.
-The Ottawa Senators have finally ridded themselves of the plague that is Ray Emery after they bought out the rest of his contract allowing him to become a UFA as of July 1st. This is a great move for Ottawa to finally get the “Ray Emery” taste out of their system. The Sens will now have to make a decision on what to do with current goaltending situation. They could either search the free agent market for a goaltender or promote up-and-comer Jeff Glass from Binghamton.
MLB
-I seem to be bad luck on the MLB managers. There has been three managers fired since the start of this blog. Willie Randolph of the Mets, John McLaren of the Mariners and now John Gibbons of the Blue Jays have all been given the shaft. Gibbons was replaced by former Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston. Welcome back Cito!
-We may have to hold off the “Should Curt Schilling be in Cooperstown” argument because Schilling’s doctor Fred Morgan announced that Curt could be throwing off the mound in January (they play baseball in January?) and that there was no permanent damage to his rotator cuff. It’s all Schilling’s decision now, but I think a comeback is in order.
NFL
-Don Imus, host of the WABC radio show, Imus un the morning, was caught with his foot lodged in his mouth. I was shocked to hear what Imus had to say about Dallas Cowboys CB “Pacman” Jones. If you haven't already heard it, you can listen to it here (www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLVupPtrmYA). This isn’t the first time Don Imus has been involved in controversy. He has been fired before for this kind of thing, but was somehow let back on the air. It is ignorance like this that makes me feel sorry for African-Americans. Hey Don, before you go off insulting other people’s race, why don’t you look at your own. What color is Roger Clemens? Mark McGwire? Jose Canseco? What color was Pete Rose when he gambled on Baseball? What color was Marty McSorley when he was charged with assault? How can somebody with as little knowledge about anything as you, be qualified to share your opinion with people over the radio. I never say that I want anybody to lose their job, so I’ll just say this: I hope that ABC makes the right move.
7th Inning Stretch
Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out to the crowd,
Buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks,
I don’t care if I ever go back,
‘Cause it’s root, root, root for the home team,
If they don’t win it’s a shame,
For it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out,
At the old ball game!
(Note to All-Stars Sports Blog: I’m DYING out here!)
Buzzer Beater
The Buzzer Beater award for Tuesday, June 24th goes to…Kevin Youkilis for his walk-off home run in the bottom of the 13th inning leading Boston to a 5-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Once again it was a tough decision, especially with Mark Teixeira’s 3-homer game. I’ve also decided to all a list of former buzzer beater award winners, just for fun.
Tiger Woods - 1
Kevin Youkilis - 1
Next edition coming Friday, June 27th. Until then, have a good NBA draft.
Friday, June 20, 2008
06/20/08
Due to circumstances beyond my control, I was forced to post this blog today, Instead of on the 21st.
Hello sports fans,
Welcome to my new blog, The Sports Epidemic. This blog is composed of four parts which I will thoroughly explain during this edition. Hopefully, unless prevented, I will make a blog post on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. I will also be working on some special editions which I will post once completed. So without further delay, I present you my blog!
Leading Off
(I’ll start off each blog with something interesting and fun. Either a sports trivia question, a sports quote or a sports fact. Today I’ll start out with a trivia question.)
When Bobby Orr played Junior, what number did he wear and why couldn't he wear that number when he advanced to the pros?
Free Throws
(This is the part where I broadcast my opinion of the last few days in sports. Whether it be expressing my extreme excitement or venting my frustration, you’ll get it all here.)
NBA
-The NBA steals the headlines for this edition. The newly crowned Celtics defeated the Lakers Tuesday night in the 6th game of a best-of-seven series. I’m not sure what the point spread was, but I don’t think anyone expected a 131-92 victory! Garnett and Allen led the way with 26 points apiece, while Pierce chipped in with 17. I’m admittedly not a big basketball fan and must admit that when CP3 and CB4 were eliminated, I lost a lot of interest in the NBA playoffs. But I was secretly cheering for the Celtics to take it home, if for no other reason than to see Garnett, Allen and Pierce get their first championship. That and I’m really tired of hearing about Kobe and the Lakers. It will do Phil Jackson some good to lose once in a while. So in short, enjoy the championship Boston, because it will never last long enough!
-Why is everyone blaming Kobe for the loss. The man can’t do it on his own. Teams, not players, win championships. Kobe put up 22 points in the final game. That’s more than Gasol and Fisher combined! Yet I don’t see anyone blaming Pau for the loss. Let’s try this, The Los Angeles Lakers, not Kobe Bryant, lost the 2008 NBA championship.
PGA
-A short congratulations to Tiger woods for winning the U.S. Open this past week at Torrey Pines. It took you 91 holes to finally take down Mediate, but you did it and deserve all the credit on winning your 14th major.
-What a gutsy performance by Rocco Mediate. He’s ranked 153rd on the money list, he has won five, that’s right FIVE PGA tournaments, none of them majors, yet he went toe-to-toe with possibly the most dominant athlete in the sports world right now. I can only say that I hope this isn’t his last chance at a major and I’m officially the newest member of the Rocco Mediate fan club (if there is such a thing).
-But now to focus on the real story, Tiger’s injury. Everybody had their doubts about it. Mike Milbury referred to him as “Tiger Wuss” (which was more of a response to Tiger’s comments about hockey than anything). Retief Goosen showed us all how classy he is by saying that he thought Tiger was faking his injury. Well Mr. Goosen, that puts you around…Rory Sabbatini on the coward scale. If you have a bone to pick with Tiger, settle it like a NASCAR driver. Go up to him and tell him (hey it works for Danica Patrick). Don’t hide behind the blanket that is the media. But I’ve gotten off topic (something you better get used to). Anyway, back to Tiger’s injury. I must admit Tiger was never my favourite golfer and insulting my favourite sport didn’t help his case either, but there is no doubt left in my mind that Tiger is the most mentally and physically tough golfer to ever play the game. He knew he was injured and he knew that he wasn’t going to do himself any good by participating in this event. He also knew that he wasn’t going to let a major championship pass by if he had anything to do with it. He played and he won, damaging his ACL in the process. Some call it crazy, some call it stupid, I call it incredible.
MLB
-Excuse me for digging into the past a little bit, but there has been a lot of news lately and I want to cover it all. I’m sure everyone knows that Willie Randolph was let go from the Mets on Tuesday. But first of all, Randolph deserved to be fired. He couldn’t bring together an underachieving team that had the 3rd-highest payroll in the league, so he deserved to go. What I don’t agree with is how the situation went down. The Mets GM Omar Minaya didn’t want to fire Randolph at home in New York, because that would just be too easy. Instead he decided to wait for the team to fly all the was across the country for a series against the Los Angeles Angels that are actually from Anaheim. The Metropolitans won the first game 9-6, then Minaya flew in all the way from New York to not only fire Randolph, but also Pitching coach Rick Peterson and First Base coach Tom Nieto. Good job killing three birds with one stone, or should I say, plane ride? If you really wanted to fire him, would it take so much effort to wait until he got back to New York. Maybe it’s this kind of controversy that is keeping the Mets from performing to their potential. Did you think of that, Omar? Who did Omar decide to get as Randolph’s replacement? None other than Jerry “The Gangster” Manuel, who said that the next time Jose Reyes threw his helmet that he was going to cut him. Just because he’s gangster like that. Good move Omar, good move.
-In other managerial firings, the Mariners parted ways with John McLaren, after he led the team to a league-worst 25-47 record. League-worst record = Low job security. It had to happen sooner or later.
-Chien-Ming Wang pulled up lame while running the basepaths and will be out until at least September. Yankees owner Hank Steinbrenner took the blame-everybody-but-myself routine and took out his anger on the National League. Hank said and I quote, “The National League needs to join the 21st century. They need to grow up and join the 21st century.” Hank also mentioned that the rule of pitchers hitting was a rule from the 1800’s. Well Hank, do you know what else was a rule from the 1800’s? Running the bases!!! I must admit that I enjoy listening to Hank, mostly because he thinks having a pool full of money makes him intelligent and invincible. Well guess what Hank, injuries happen. Your money might buy him better doctors, but it’s not going to make him rehab any faster. Your star pitcher is out until September and there’s nothing you can do about it.
-I don’t like the Yankees and I don’t like recognizing their achievements, so I’ll make this brief. The Yanks have one seven straight games (as of June 20th), which is worthy of a mention on this blog even if it is the Yankees. They’ve vaulted all the way to 3rd in the AL east leaving the woeful Blue Jays in the basement of the division.
ATP
-Wimbledon kicks off Sunday. Roger Federer drew Dominik Hrbaty for his first match, #2 ranked Rafael Nadal drew Andreas Beck and the #3 seed Novak Djokovic drew Michael Berrer. I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Federer, Nadal and Djokovic will all win. I know it’s a risk, but I feel very confident with my decision.
-Novac Djokovic is staring down Roger Federer, saying, “I think he’s a little bit shaken with that loss to Nadal and mentally he’s been struggling the last couple of months. New manes are coming; Fresh, talented players who believe more they can win against him and I am one of them.” Well, I consider myself to be neither an optimist, nor a pessimist, but rather a realist. The stats tell me that Federer has won 5 straight Wimbledon championships, a feat that has only been matched by the great Bjorn Borg. How many Wimbledons have you won Novak? That’s right, none! Once you win Wimbledon, then and only then can you call out former winners. In case you were wondering, I’m taking Federer to win his 6th straight Wimbledon. Better luck next time Djokovic!
UEFA
-Euro 2008 is starting to take shape with Germany already advancing to the semi-finals with a win over Portugal 3-2. Other quarter-final match-ups are Turkey vs. Croatia, Russia vs. the Netherlands and Spain vs. Italy. The defending World Cup champion Italians will have a tough time containing Spaniard David Villa, who leads the tournament in scoring, with four tallies so far.
-I’m a sucker for cool stats, so I had to include this. There has been 16 goals scored between minutes 61 and 75, which is the most of any 14-minute span. The next closest is 16 to 30 minutes with 10 goals being scored during this period.
NHL
-The NHL takes a back seat in this blog, but still gets a mention because of the draft coming up tonight. Everyone knows Stamkos will be taken 1st overall, Bogosian and Doughty will be 2nd and 3rd and Filatov will drop. But who will be this years’ dark horses or diamonds in the rough (whichever you prefer). I’ve taken a look at some of the prospects who aren’t ranked in the top 30, but could very well find them selves taken in the 1st round. Remember these names! Tyler Ennis, Mikhail Stefanovich, A.J. Jenks, Daulton Leveille, Corey Trivino, Kruise Reddick, Mark Barberio (yeah, I’m a homer, deal with it!) and Kelsey Tessier. All of these players have great skill and anyone of then has a legitimate chance of hearing their name called tonight.
7th Inning Stretch
(Written by the fine people at the All-Stars Sports Blog)
***Free Advertising Space***
Buzzer Beater
(This distinguished award goes to the best performer of the past few days.)
The buzzer beater award for June 20th goes to…Tiger Woods. Okay, so maybe it happened way back on Monday and maybe if Bush had of completed his no-no than he would’ve won it. But winning the U.S. Open is hard enough to do when you’re healthy, let alone on a broken leg. So congratulations Tiger on winning the inaugural buzzer beater award.
Next edition coming Tuesday June 24th. Until then, have a good NHL draft!
Hello sports fans,
Welcome to my new blog, The Sports Epidemic. This blog is composed of four parts which I will thoroughly explain during this edition. Hopefully, unless prevented, I will make a blog post on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. I will also be working on some special editions which I will post once completed. So without further delay, I present you my blog!
Leading Off
(I’ll start off each blog with something interesting and fun. Either a sports trivia question, a sports quote or a sports fact. Today I’ll start out with a trivia question.)
When Bobby Orr played Junior, what number did he wear and why couldn't he wear that number when he advanced to the pros?
Free Throws
(This is the part where I broadcast my opinion of the last few days in sports. Whether it be expressing my extreme excitement or venting my frustration, you’ll get it all here.)
NBA
-The NBA steals the headlines for this edition. The newly crowned Celtics defeated the Lakers Tuesday night in the 6th game of a best-of-seven series. I’m not sure what the point spread was, but I don’t think anyone expected a 131-92 victory! Garnett and Allen led the way with 26 points apiece, while Pierce chipped in with 17. I’m admittedly not a big basketball fan and must admit that when CP3 and CB4 were eliminated, I lost a lot of interest in the NBA playoffs. But I was secretly cheering for the Celtics to take it home, if for no other reason than to see Garnett, Allen and Pierce get their first championship. That and I’m really tired of hearing about Kobe and the Lakers. It will do Phil Jackson some good to lose once in a while. So in short, enjoy the championship Boston, because it will never last long enough!
-Why is everyone blaming Kobe for the loss. The man can’t do it on his own. Teams, not players, win championships. Kobe put up 22 points in the final game. That’s more than Gasol and Fisher combined! Yet I don’t see anyone blaming Pau for the loss. Let’s try this, The Los Angeles Lakers, not Kobe Bryant, lost the 2008 NBA championship.
PGA
-A short congratulations to Tiger woods for winning the U.S. Open this past week at Torrey Pines. It took you 91 holes to finally take down Mediate, but you did it and deserve all the credit on winning your 14th major.
-What a gutsy performance by Rocco Mediate. He’s ranked 153rd on the money list, he has won five, that’s right FIVE PGA tournaments, none of them majors, yet he went toe-to-toe with possibly the most dominant athlete in the sports world right now. I can only say that I hope this isn’t his last chance at a major and I’m officially the newest member of the Rocco Mediate fan club (if there is such a thing).
-But now to focus on the real story, Tiger’s injury. Everybody had their doubts about it. Mike Milbury referred to him as “Tiger Wuss” (which was more of a response to Tiger’s comments about hockey than anything). Retief Goosen showed us all how classy he is by saying that he thought Tiger was faking his injury. Well Mr. Goosen, that puts you around…Rory Sabbatini on the coward scale. If you have a bone to pick with Tiger, settle it like a NASCAR driver. Go up to him and tell him (hey it works for Danica Patrick). Don’t hide behind the blanket that is the media. But I’ve gotten off topic (something you better get used to). Anyway, back to Tiger’s injury. I must admit Tiger was never my favourite golfer and insulting my favourite sport didn’t help his case either, but there is no doubt left in my mind that Tiger is the most mentally and physically tough golfer to ever play the game. He knew he was injured and he knew that he wasn’t going to do himself any good by participating in this event. He also knew that he wasn’t going to let a major championship pass by if he had anything to do with it. He played and he won, damaging his ACL in the process. Some call it crazy, some call it stupid, I call it incredible.
MLB
-Excuse me for digging into the past a little bit, but there has been a lot of news lately and I want to cover it all. I’m sure everyone knows that Willie Randolph was let go from the Mets on Tuesday. But first of all, Randolph deserved to be fired. He couldn’t bring together an underachieving team that had the 3rd-highest payroll in the league, so he deserved to go. What I don’t agree with is how the situation went down. The Mets GM Omar Minaya didn’t want to fire Randolph at home in New York, because that would just be too easy. Instead he decided to wait for the team to fly all the was across the country for a series against the Los Angeles Angels that are actually from Anaheim. The Metropolitans won the first game 9-6, then Minaya flew in all the way from New York to not only fire Randolph, but also Pitching coach Rick Peterson and First Base coach Tom Nieto. Good job killing three birds with one stone, or should I say, plane ride? If you really wanted to fire him, would it take so much effort to wait until he got back to New York. Maybe it’s this kind of controversy that is keeping the Mets from performing to their potential. Did you think of that, Omar? Who did Omar decide to get as Randolph’s replacement? None other than Jerry “The Gangster” Manuel, who said that the next time Jose Reyes threw his helmet that he was going to cut him. Just because he’s gangster like that. Good move Omar, good move.
-In other managerial firings, the Mariners parted ways with John McLaren, after he led the team to a league-worst 25-47 record. League-worst record = Low job security. It had to happen sooner or later.
-Chien-Ming Wang pulled up lame while running the basepaths and will be out until at least September. Yankees owner Hank Steinbrenner took the blame-everybody-but-myself routine and took out his anger on the National League. Hank said and I quote, “The National League needs to join the 21st century. They need to grow up and join the 21st century.” Hank also mentioned that the rule of pitchers hitting was a rule from the 1800’s. Well Hank, do you know what else was a rule from the 1800’s? Running the bases!!! I must admit that I enjoy listening to Hank, mostly because he thinks having a pool full of money makes him intelligent and invincible. Well guess what Hank, injuries happen. Your money might buy him better doctors, but it’s not going to make him rehab any faster. Your star pitcher is out until September and there’s nothing you can do about it.
-I don’t like the Yankees and I don’t like recognizing their achievements, so I’ll make this brief. The Yanks have one seven straight games (as of June 20th), which is worthy of a mention on this blog even if it is the Yankees. They’ve vaulted all the way to 3rd in the AL east leaving the woeful Blue Jays in the basement of the division.
ATP
-Wimbledon kicks off Sunday. Roger Federer drew Dominik Hrbaty for his first match, #2 ranked Rafael Nadal drew Andreas Beck and the #3 seed Novak Djokovic drew Michael Berrer. I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Federer, Nadal and Djokovic will all win. I know it’s a risk, but I feel very confident with my decision.
-Novac Djokovic is staring down Roger Federer, saying, “I think he’s a little bit shaken with that loss to Nadal and mentally he’s been struggling the last couple of months. New manes are coming; Fresh, talented players who believe more they can win against him and I am one of them.” Well, I consider myself to be neither an optimist, nor a pessimist, but rather a realist. The stats tell me that Federer has won 5 straight Wimbledon championships, a feat that has only been matched by the great Bjorn Borg. How many Wimbledons have you won Novak? That’s right, none! Once you win Wimbledon, then and only then can you call out former winners. In case you were wondering, I’m taking Federer to win his 6th straight Wimbledon. Better luck next time Djokovic!
UEFA
-Euro 2008 is starting to take shape with Germany already advancing to the semi-finals with a win over Portugal 3-2. Other quarter-final match-ups are Turkey vs. Croatia, Russia vs. the Netherlands and Spain vs. Italy. The defending World Cup champion Italians will have a tough time containing Spaniard David Villa, who leads the tournament in scoring, with four tallies so far.
-I’m a sucker for cool stats, so I had to include this. There has been 16 goals scored between minutes 61 and 75, which is the most of any 14-minute span. The next closest is 16 to 30 minutes with 10 goals being scored during this period.
NHL
-The NHL takes a back seat in this blog, but still gets a mention because of the draft coming up tonight. Everyone knows Stamkos will be taken 1st overall, Bogosian and Doughty will be 2nd and 3rd and Filatov will drop. But who will be this years’ dark horses or diamonds in the rough (whichever you prefer). I’ve taken a look at some of the prospects who aren’t ranked in the top 30, but could very well find them selves taken in the 1st round. Remember these names! Tyler Ennis, Mikhail Stefanovich, A.J. Jenks, Daulton Leveille, Corey Trivino, Kruise Reddick, Mark Barberio (yeah, I’m a homer, deal with it!) and Kelsey Tessier. All of these players have great skill and anyone of then has a legitimate chance of hearing their name called tonight.
7th Inning Stretch
(Written by the fine people at the All-Stars Sports Blog)
***Free Advertising Space***
Buzzer Beater
(This distinguished award goes to the best performer of the past few days.)
The buzzer beater award for June 20th goes to…Tiger Woods. Okay, so maybe it happened way back on Monday and maybe if Bush had of completed his no-no than he would’ve won it. But winning the U.S. Open is hard enough to do when you’re healthy, let alone on a broken leg. So congratulations Tiger on winning the inaugural buzzer beater award.
Next edition coming Tuesday June 24th. Until then, have a good NHL draft!
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