Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Not so wild


1. Masters of the Wild: Usually the wild card races are extremely crowded even at this point in the season, but this year things are different. The Yankees and Padres both have a relatively big lead on the rest of the field, with leads of 4 and 2.5 games respectively. Both teams won on Tuesday. The Yankees won their sixth consecutive game 9-2 over the Blue Jays as Jason Giambi hit a grand slam and Jorge Posada also homered. Phil Hughes gave his second straight quality start after three poor starts in a row. The Padres beat the Dodgers 9-4 as Jake Peavy won his 17th game. Barring a late-season collapse, Peavy will win the NL Cy Young in addition to the pitching triple crown. He leads the league by a huge margin in every major category, giving the National League version of Johan Santana’s 2006. The Padres gained a game on the division-leading Diamondbacks with the win, and are now 2.5 back of them.

2. Low Tide: The Mariners, who were leading the wild card race three weeks ago, have suffered a huge string of defeats since then. They have lost 15 of their last 18 games, dropping them to 9.5 games back in their division and 6.5 back in the wild card. Their offense has cooled down since their early-August excellency, and their pitching staff has the second-worst ERA in the majors this month. The Mariners lost 7-4 to the A’s on Tuesday, as Jarrod Washburn was shelled for six runs and the offense failed to capitalize on 11 hits. The Mariners have played themselves out of the playoff race, though they could be a sleeper team for 2008.

3. Lead Retaken: After being tied with the Cubs as division leaders for a day, the Brewers pulled ahead with a 6-1 win combined with a Chicago loss. They beat the Pirates thanks to great pitching by Yovani Gallardo, who didn’t allow a run for his second straight start. Gallardo has allowed 2 runs in his last 20 innings pitched, and has become one of Milwaukee’s better starters. Prince Fielder hit his league-leading 44th homer in the win, and Ryan Braun had three more RBIs. The Cubs were beat 5-4 by Houston in 11 innings, dropping them to one game back. The Cardinals, now at four back after five consecutive losses, are becoming less and less of a threat.

Player of the Day: Hanley Ramirez, Marlins: 4-5, 2 HRs (28), 3 runs in a 13-8 win over the Nationals. Ramirez is having the best season of any player for a last-place team, with a .332 average, 28 homer, 46 steals, and a whopping .575 slugging percentage.

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Can the Phillies overcome (being the Phillies)?


1. Wild Card Warriors: The Phillies are playing extremely well and have nearly caught up with the Padres for the wild card lead. After three straight wins, they are only 1.5 games back. They beat the Rockies 6-5 in a comeback victory. Down 5-2 in the seventh after a Matt Holliday homer, the Phillies tied the score off of Pat Burrell’s three-run shot. They won in the 10th inning thanks to Ryan Howard’s RBI double. Howard also hit his 38th homer earlier in the game. The Phillies haven’t gotten any closer to the Mets, who have four straight wins and lead the division by six games. However, they are the hottest team among the wild card contenders, with a 10-5 record their last fifteen games. That gives them a decent shot at making a playoff run.

2. Back to a Draw: The Brewers-Cubs division battle has been back-and-forth recently. After the Brewers took the lead on Sunday, their loss and the Cubs’ win on Monday has tied up the division again. The Cubs routed St. Louis 12-3, giving the Cardinals their fourth loss in a row. Ted Lilly, who is having an excellent season at 15-7 with a 3.85 ERA, picked up the win with a solid start. Chicago’s offense gave him plenty of help, as Aramis Ramirez went 4-5 with two homers and Derrek Lee had three hits and a homer. Meanwhile, the Brewers were crushed 9-0 by the pitiful Pirates. All five Brewers pitchers who appeared allowed a run, while the offense only mustered four hits. This division race, by far the closest in baseball, will be decided by which team can do better against poor opposition. Both teams have a remarkably easy schedule down the stretch.

3. Good News and Bad News: The Tigers had an up-and-down day on Monday. They beat the Blue Jays 5-4 with a four-run rally in the ninth inning. Magglio Ordonez went 4-5 and had the game-winning hit, and Curtis Granderson had two RBIs. On the other hand, they lost Jeremy Bonderman for the season. Bonderman, who had lost 7 of his last 8 decisions, has an elbow injury. It won’t require surgery, but it is severe enough to shut him down the rest of the year. The injury gives a reason for Bonderman’s struggles, as he had an 8.23 ERA his last ten starts after going 10-1 with a 3.53 ERA previously.

Player of the Day: Scott Kazmir, Devil Rays: 7 innings, 5 hits, no runs, 10 strikeouts in a 1-0 win over Boston.

Categories
Oakland Raiders

Finally the Russell-Raider signing struggle wraps up



You better be worth it kid!

When the Raiders and the Lions played on Sunday, the second overall draft pick was in the lineup and in the endzone before the end of the day. Unfortunately, Oakland couldn’t say the same thing about the No. 1 pick in the draft, JaMarcus Russell. But it appears that the long, painful wait is over for Raider Nation.

Russell could sign a deal as early as today and reports have the deal being worth around $60 million over six years with a pocket stuffing, wallet busting $31 million in guaranteed jack. Seems like JaMarcus knew what he was doing by holding out all this time after all.

It just continues to sound like they are getting closer and closer,” (Lane) Kiffin said at his weekly news conference Monday. “It could be (Monday). You just never know. I know that the sides are as close as they’ve ever been.

Considering that Russell and the Raiders have been battling over money since late April, we’re thrilled that this dollar drama is finally coming to a close. We know that these guys gotta get the most money they can in guarantees and such, but there is absolutely nothing more disgusting than seeing a rookie who has never even taken a snap hold a professional sports franchise hostage over a couple of million bucks.

If it were up to us, we’d be as tough on our players in the real world as we are on our fellow GMs in the fantasy world.

JaMarcus: I really don’t think that’s proper value for a player of my caliber and potential.

SC: You will take what we give you!

Links:

[InsideBayArea.com]: Raiders, Russell agree in principle to deal

Categories
All Other Sports

Here’s to you Mr. Stadium Scoreboard Marriage Proposal Guy

Call us losers if you want to, but we have absolutely no idea who these guys are or why we should give two flips about em. However, we do like the way the nerd with the glasses and the lisp thinks.

Could it be fake? Possibly. Probably.

Do we care? Not in the least.

Links:

[Off Wing Opinion]: Don’t Try This At Home

Categories
Portland Trailblazers

Trail Blazers can’t catch a break, Greg Oden is going under the knife



Could this improper footwork have
caused the knee injury?

Scary, scary, scary, scary, did we say scary news out of Portland for all you Trail Blazers fans out there. Rookie soon-to-be phenom Greg Oden injured his right knee and is scheduled to undergo exploratory surgery on Thursday. Apparently, Oden has been having some pain in the knee for some time and doctors believe that he may have some cartilage issues.

We’re no doctors, but when you’re the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft and you’re having surgery before you ever play in a regular season game then it can’t be good. With only about a month-and-a-half until the season kicks off, there have got to be some seriously sweaty palms in Portland. After all, with a healthy Kevin Durant right down the road reminding them of what they passed on, a serious injury to the cornerstone of the Blazers would be devastating.

But we shouldn’t be getting all doom and gloom on the situation just yet, after all he recovered just fine from his tonsillectomy earlier in the year. Oh, wait, you don’t need your tonsils to battle for position down in the post against guys like Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan and Marcus Camby. Sorry, Portland, you should be holding you’re breath until the post surgery press conference with team physician Dr. Don Roberts.

Links:

[KGW.com]: Oden to undergo knee surgery
[OregonLive.com]: Oden injures knee

Categories
Cincinnati Bengals

Chad Johnson’s celebration leaves T.K. wanting more

After guaranteeing the world that he’d rock our socks off when he crossed the goal line, Chad Johnson didn’t disappoint us with his delayed creativity. While the spontaneous imagination (and by spontaneous we mean scripted) has been somewhat dampened by the NFL rule changes, if you’ve got a couple extra minutes to wait around before the good times start rollin’ then you’ll love this season’s celebrations.

Dang, we could have gone and grabbed a beer from The Drunken Clam and been back before he put on that ugly yellow jacket. Was T.O. pulling out a Sharpie or Steve Smith doing the rowboat really all that bad? Now we gotta wait ten minutes before T.O. pulls out a Sharpie or Steve Smith does the rowboat. Geez, thanks NFL.

Links:

[Awful Announcing]: Chad Johnson’s HOF Celebration

Categories
College Football

University of Arizona fan gets fried after pissing off the wrong cop


We understand that football has far surpassed baseball for the title of `America’s pastime’, but some people take their passion for the game a bit too far and end up paying for their fanaticism. Like this loser student from the University of Arizona who got so mad that the school had oversold the home opener against Northern Arizona on Saturday night that he assaulted an officer, took a couple zaps from a stun gun and then got thrown in jail. Now that’s school spirit.

Sgt. Eugene Mejia, a UA police spokesman, said one of those students had to be stunned after he assaulted an officer.

Mejia said the student was treated by medical personnel but became combative again and was stunned a second time.

Officers arrested the student on suspicion of aggravated assault on a police officer.

We can somewhat sympathize with the crazy kid’s situation, after all, he was all psyched up to see Arizona and Northern Arizona go at it. We personally wouldn’t have taken it that far for such a lousy game, but that’s just us. We typically refuse to take 10,000 volts for anything less than a match-up between two Top 25 teams.

Links:

[KVOA.com]: Police use stun gun on student turned away from football game

Categories
All Other Sports

Pacman Jones is the champion of the world!


Pacman Jones isn’t playing in the NFL this season, but that doesn’t mean he’s not still ballin’ because Mr. Jones is now wearing TNA gold after winning the tag team championships.

In a title bout against the then champs Sting and Kurt Angle, Pacman showed his selfish side by refusing several attempted tags from his partner Ron “The Truth” Killings. Of course, once Angle did all the dirty work by turning on Sting and hitting him with the Angle Slam then Pacman got busy and simply covered Sting for the easy 1-2-3.

Yea, we’re as shocked as you that Team Pacman came up with the gold, after all it’s basically a one man show with Killings doing all the heavy lifting. What’s worse is that in addition to not being able to wrestle thanks to restrictions placed on him by the Titans, Pacman totally sucks being behind the mic.

So, he can’t wrestle and he can’t shoot the crap to the fans; how the hell is he gonna be a wrestler worthy of carrying any professional title? Oh well, looks like we’ve got another Hulk Hogan on our hands. Maybe commissioner Goodell would cut some time off that suspension Pacman’s serving if he’d just start pushing prayers and vitamins.

Links:

[TNAWrestling.com]: Official Results From Sunday’s No Surrender PPV

Categories
All Other Sports

Who’s up for some Groinball? (Yup, it’s basically what you think it is)

We make no secrets about it; we just love watching guys crumple in pain after a perfectly placed shot to the nuts. Then we found out that there is an entire sport dedicated to our passion. It’s called Groinball and it’s got rules and everything. At least the YouTube description says it does.

Groinball is a game with a rich tradition. It was invented by the Japanese shortly after the second world war, but stolen by the white man and brought back to America, where it was developed into the modern game we all love. Two teams of two compete in Groinball. Two opposition players face each other inside a box marked on the ground and place their hands on each others’ shoulders whilst their respective partners stand behind them. The object is for the players outside of the box to bounce tennis balls between their team mate’s legs so that they hit the opponent in the groin. The game is scored much like boxing in that points are given for hits (2X points for friendly fire) and the match ends after a pre-determined period or through a KO (defined as a player crumbling and hitting the floor).

And all these years we never realized that by trying to whack little Timmy from down the street in the package with a racquetball we were really on the verge of creating sport. With just a lil’ more innovation, we could have been these losers. Damn!

Categories
Buffalo Bills

Kevin Everett’s injury is a sobering reminder of how brutal football really is

Opening weekend of the NFL season is normally a time reserved for loud cheering, beer drinking, barbecue eating and unmatched hope for the upcoming season.  It’s supposed to be a time when fantasy football GMs feel the bitter pain and overwhelming joy of defeat and victory.  It’s supposed to be all those things, but how can it be when the football gods use opening Sunday to send a message that there’s more to life than winning and losing?

The Bills’ Kevin Everett is in ICU at a Buffalo hospital after a fairly routine tackle on the opening kickoff of the second half of the Bills/Broncos game.  Everett sustained a “cervical spine injury” that doctors believe could prevent him from ever walking again.  He’ll be sedated for the next 24-48 hours before doctors can determine more.  

(Brian) Overstreet (Everett’s agent) told the AP late Sunday that his client had some “sparse movement.”

“The next couple of days is going to be critical,” said Overstreet, responding to a question about paralysis. “Our concern is for him to come out of this healthy and, hopefully, be able to walk again.

This certainly makes Sunday’s highlights seem rather trivial and it has to be hard for any professional player to focus solely on the game when reality strikes down like a bolt of lightening.  We’d like to think these guys are superhuman the way they take a lickin’ and so often keep on tickin’, but it’s times like these that you realize why guys like Larry Johnson decide to hold out for more money.  Sure, some of it has to do with market value or simple greed, but these guys really are putting their health on the line each and every snap.  If that doesn’t deserve adequate compensation then nothing does.  

Links:

[AZCentral.com]: Bills’ Everett under sedation