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)
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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!