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.