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.