Vin is a Philly boy who shouldn't be invited into your house because he'll judge you on your book and music collection. He owns Dawkins, Utley, Iverson, and Lindros jerseys, which is all you really need to know about him. He can be reached at [email protected].
It seems an English company is still upset at Cristiano Ronaldo for (indirectly) getting Wayne Rooney sent off in the World Cup match between Portugal and England. Check out this ad for a new action figure with “Unique Uppity-Downy” action. The ad references the wink that Ronaldo gave to the Portugese bench after Rooney was sent off.
To be fair though, couldn’t they have made this action figure for almost any of the soccers players in the World Cup?
1. The newest Bomber: The trade deadline is almost here, and there are still a few big-name players yet to be moved. There was one dealt yesterday, as Bobby Abreu joins the now-excellent Yankees lineup. Abreu will fill in the gap at corner outfielder for New York for now, though long-term this deal could be an issue. Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield are injured now, though what will happen to them next year? One of them, likely Sheffield, will be out unless he moves to DH and Jason Giambi moves to first base. Either way, the 1.5 game back Yankees should be able to pass, or at least match, the Boston Red Sox down the stretch. Meanwhile, the Phillies look to rebuild as they acquired four minor leaguers as part of the deal.
2. Line up for the deadline: The trade deadline is today, and we could see (and have seen) more activity than in the past few years. Already Carlos Lee and Bobby Abreu have new clubs, and today should be the day that Alfonso Soriano is moved. The Tigers and the Marlins have joined the list of clubs he could be moved to, according to ESPN.com. Detroit has already acquired another bat for their run at the World Series. They traded a minor league pitcher to the Pirates for Sean Casey, a three-time All Star. Casey will fill in for the demoted Chris Shelton at first base. Though he hasn’t had his best season with the bat so far (3 homers/29 RBIs in limited action), Casey has yet to make an error at first. He provides some veteran leadership to the young Tigers, and should prove to be a good move for them.
3. More trade rumors: So many rumors flying around before the deadline. Here are some of them: Dontrelle Willis to the Cardinals. Red Sox are trying to swing a trade for Ryan Shealy and getting rid of Mike Lowell in a three way swap with the Rockies and the Padres. The Astros are after Miguel Tejada but have pulled Oswalt off the market. The Mets are trying to shore up their rotation by getting Jason Schmidt from the Giants. And finally, the Dodgers are in a buying mode, trying to get Miguel Tejada and/or Greg Maddux.
4. The AL playoff picture: How will all the trades that have gone down affect the American League, and where do the teams stand as of now? While there are many excellent teams in this league, two stand above the rest: the Tigers and the Red Sox. Detroit is the class of the MLB at 70-34, and they should cruise to the playoffs barring a major breakdown. The addition of Casey should help them even more as they make their run at the postseason. The Red Sox, though only a half-game up, should also make the playoffs. Their hitting with 101-RBI David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez is just too good, and with Papelbon in the bullpen they should win many close games. That mean three teams are fighting for one spot: the Yankees, White Sox, and Twins. Minnesota has been on fire lately, though as of now they are still in third in the Wild Card standings. The White Sox desperately need a starting pitcher, though their offense is top-notch. The Yankees, meanwhile, addressed their needs with the additions of Abreu and pitcher Cory Lidle. As of now they are the most solid team, and as of now we’re giving them the Wild Card. The AL West, with the A’s, Angels, and Rangers in the mix, is just too hard to tell for now. Each team has needs that they need to address in the coming hours.
5. The NL playoff picture: No significant player has been traded to an NL team, while the league loses Lee and Abreu. The American League has gotten even stronger. Either way, there will be 4 playoff teams from this league, and right now the only shoo-ins are the Mets and Cardinals. With their 13.5 game lead in their division, the Mets are in. the Cardinals are only ahead by 3.5, though their playoff experience from the past few years will come in handy. They will win the NL Central. San Diego, though they need another bat, has excellent pitchers that should earn them their second straight NL West title. As for the other teams, it’s very hard to say who will get the fourth postseason berth. Right now the Reds have a decent lead, though they will eventually start to feel the losses of Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez. The NL West teams are too inconsistent and will need a major deal to get in. Unless the Braves rebound you can throw out the NL East teams. Milwaukee is all but done without Lee, and the Astros (despite dealing for Aubrey Huff) don’t have enough offense to provide adequate run support for their great staff. Could the Reds be playoff-bound? Unless another team gets a stud, we say probably.
In 2001: All-Pro offensive tackle Korey Stringer collapsed on the field of the Minnesota Vikings training camp at Mankato State University and was taken to the hospital. Stringer suffered from heatstroke in the 90-plus degree heat. The 335-pound Ohio State grad, one of the most popular players on the team, would die of heart and kidney failure early the next morning at the age of 27. Stringer’s death sent shockwaves through the sports world, and it caused the NFL and its teams to closely review their policies on training in excessive heat and humidity. Stringer was survived by his wife Kelci and three year-old son Kodie. His widow unsuccessfully sued the NFL and the Vikings in 2002.
In 1990: Pitcher Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers notched career victory no. 300 in an 11-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. Ryan became the 20th member of the 300 Club, the first since Don Sutton in 1986. Only Roger Clemens has joined the club since, in 2003. Ryan won a total of 324 games as a member of the Mets, Angels, Astros and Rangers. He also holds the career strikeout mark with 5,714, and he threw a major league record seven no-hitters (including two after his 300th win). Despite the fact that his real first name was Lynn, the “Ryan Express” was one of the toughest pitchers ever, lasting 27 years and pummeling a young Robin Ventura after he charged the mound. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999.
Remember when we made fun of TSN for putting the Twins in their number one spot? Well, perhaps #1 is still a stretch but no one can argue that the Twins are the hottest team in baseball. On the flip side, the team they just caught up to are 2-8 since the All-Star break. Maybe TSN wasn’t so crazy after all.
Here are your MLB Power Rankings by major sites this week.
| Rank | Sportscolumn | ESPN | FoxSports | Sportsline | USA Today | TSN.ca |
| 1 | Tigers | Tigers | Tigers | Tigers | Tigers | Red Sox |
| 2 | Red Sox | Yankees | Red Sox | Red Sox | Red Sox | Twins |
| 3 | Mets | Red Sox | Yankees | Mets | White Sox | Tigers |
| 4 | Yankees | Twins | White Sox | Yankees | Mets | Blue Jays |
| 5 | Twins | Mets | Twins | Twins | Yankees | Mets |
| 6 | Cardinals | White Sox | Mets | Blue Jays | Twins | Yankees |
| 7 | White Sox | Cardinals | Blue Jays | White Sox | Blue Jays | White Sox |
| 8 | Blue Jays | Blue Jays | Cardinals | Cardinals | Cardinals | Giants |
| 9 | Padres | Angels | Padres | Angels | A’s | Angels |
| 10 | A’s | A’s | Rangers | Padres | Rangers | Padres |
| 11-30 | more | more | more | more | more | more |
1. Time to Deal: The first big-name trade before the deadline has occurred. Carlos Lee, the Brewers’ slugging, underrated All Star outfielder, is heading to one of the least likely places. The Texas Rangers, who already have hitters such as Michael Young, Hank Blalock, and Mark Teixeira, are trading for Lee as part of a multi-player deal. While the Rangers were rumored in many deals, none included an offensive improvement. They will send outfielders Kevin Mench and Laynce Nix along with former closer Francisco Cordero to Milwaukee. The Brewers will give up Lee, a minor-leaguer, and the all-important player-to-be-named-later. Lee is hitting .286 with 28 homeruns and 81 RBIs on the year, and also has 12 steals. The Brewers will get some much-needed bullpen help in Cordero. They recently demoted closer Derrick Turnbow and are now using Dan Kolb in that role. Cordero, though he has had a bad season, has been an All Star in the past with 49 saves in 2004.
2. Ready to move: Alfonso Soriano just played in perhaps his final home game for the Nationals. With the trading deadline 3 days away, no player has had more rumors about him or is more valuable in the market than Soriano. He gave Nats fans one last look at how good he is yesterday. Soriano homered to lead off the game, his 32nd of the year. He walked twice and scored two runs to lead Washington to a 6-5 win over San Francisco. Soriano is on pace for the first ever 50/40 season, having narrowly missed 40/40 earlier in his career. Any team with interest will probably have to give up just prospects in order to get this slugger.
3. Passing the torch: The Houston Astros, who have won the Wild Card for the past two years, lost yesterday to the team most likely to win that title this year. The Cincinnati Reds, who lead the WC standings by 2.5 games, disposed of the Astros 8-4. Adam Dunn homered and drove in four runs, and for the second straight day was perfect. He followed up a 4-4 performance with a 3-3 one, and now is hitting .261. That doesn’t seem very impressive until you consider that Dunn was hitting .227 at the beginning of the month. In July he is hitting .356 with 5 homers and 19 RBIs, and he is now on pace for 49 and 113. He has 189 career homers, and is only 26. Houston is six games back of Cincy now.
4. Take that, Angels: The LA Angels and Oakland A’s, as reported yesterday, were tied for the AL West lead for three straight days. While the Angels were off yesterday, Oakland took a half-game lead with a win over Toronto. Joe Blanton, who defines the average pitcher, won the start with a decent performance. Blanton is 10-8 with a 4.78 ERA and 1.45 WHIP, all of which are, well, average. The losing Toronto squad, who have been on the heels of the Red Sox and Yankees all year, are finally dropping back in the standings. They are 6 back of Boston and 4.5 back of Wild Card-leading New York despite the hot bat of Troy Glaus. Glaus has hit .458 in the last week with 10 RBIs. For the A’s, Huston Street continued his scoreless streak with his 21st save.
5. Is Dusty safe?: Cubs manager Dusty Baker, who seems to be one of the most likely managers to be fired this season, apparently is still safe. Cubs GM Jim Hendry said that he told Baker that he will continue on as manager for the rest of the year. Baker’s underachieving team produced many rumors that he would be fired, but he apparently will carry out the season. This is the last year of his contract, and there is no question that the Cubs will have a new manager for next year. But now, the 39-61 team will have to live with what they’ve got.
In 1991: Dennis Martinez of the Montreal Expos tossed the 13th perfect game in Major League history with a 2-0 gem over the Dodgers in L.A. It is the second time in four years the Dodgers have been the victims of a perfect game by the opposing pitcher (Tom Browning of the Reds did it in 1988). From the Wow Your Friends with Baseball Trivia department: Expos catcher Ron Hassey became the first catcher to be behind the plate for two perfect games, as he caught Len Barker’s masterpiece for the Indians in 1981. Also, the Dodger’s Alfredo Griffin went hitless in the game, just as he did in Browning’s perfecto in 1988 and in Barker’s, as a member of the Blue Jays in ‘81!
In 1994: On the same day that the players voted to strike on August 12, Kenny Rogers of the Texas Rangers threw the 14th perfect game in Major League history with a 4-0 shutout of the California Angels in front of the largest crowd in the history of the Ballpark in Arlington. He became the first left-hander in American League history to accomplish the feat as he struck out 11. The perfect game was saved in the bottom of the ninth inning by Rusty Greer’s diving catch in centerfield. More useless trivia: the last perfect game in the American League before this also took place in Arlington, and was also between the Angels and Rangers, with California’s Mike Witt shutting down Texas ten years earlier in 1984.
In 2001: In what was probably the most amazing comeback in baseball history, the Pittsburgh Pirates rallied to defeat the Houston Astros 9-8 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Trailing 8-2 in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and nobody on base, the Pirates scored seven runs to stun the Astros and take the first game of the day/night doubleheader. Brian Giles of the Pirates hit a game-winning grand slam off Astros’ closer Billy Wagner to the delight of the very few fans remaining in the ballpark. What was even more amazing, however, is the fact that the Pirates lost 100 games in 2001, and it was the only game they won all year when trailing after eight innings.
The Canadian Cannonball Championship was held yesterday and there’s some grumbling about the champion. Mark Russel is about 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds yet he came away the winner for the second year in a row. Of course, all the fat guys are saying that the competition is more about style than substance now.
I felt the judges were giving more credit to the costume than the actual size of the splash. I was booming them over five metres high and I’m getting a 7. If I had a wig on and a pair of balloons in my shirt, I would’ve got an eight or a nine.
We love controversy at second rate sports competitions.
In othew news..
[USA Today]: Harold Reynolds doesn’t want his job back
[Digital Golf]: Inside Phil Mickelson’s head
[Hudson]: IT CAME FROM JAPAN: Crazy Japanese Baseball Fans!
[ESPN]: Chuck Klosterman: Reality and fantasy don’t mix
We don’t know who MediaTakeOut.com is but they have an “exclusive” photo of Michael Vick “embracing” a blunt and what appears to be a herpes cold sore on his mouth. (First, “embracing a blunt”? Second, how exclusive can it be if they got the photo from a myspace profile page. Then they put their website address on it. Jesus guys, we know you want more traffic but myspace is only read by 60 trillion people. If that’s exclusive, then so is Paris Hilton’s cooch. That site is absolutely worthless but since they found the photo, we’ll follow the blogging rules. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming…)
We find this story to be hilarious not because of the blunt in his hand but because of the cold sore. We always knew the story of Ron Mexico was true but here’s actual proof. We gotta say this about Michael Vick, a little cold sore doesn’t keep him from partying, unlike, say, those guys from Spinal Tap.
God bless Michael Vick. Everytime we see the Valtrex commercials on TV, we start thinking about Vick looking confused in the pocket as Paul McGuire continues to talk about how great he is and we always have a good laugh.
Sir Charles announced that he could run for governor of his home state of Alamabama in 2010.
Alabama, that’s my home. I’m thinking about running for governor; they need the help. I really believe I was put on Earth to do more than play basketball and stockpile money. I really want to help people improve their lives, and what’s left is for me to decide how best to do that.
This is a big turnaround from last year when he was asked about running for office: “I saw what the governor makes. That’s like four hands of blackjack.” And because of Barkley’s admitted gambling problem, we know he wasn’t exaggerating either. That really is four hands of blackjack.
We’re hoping that Barkley does run for governor. Sure he might have an arrest record and no political experience but at least we know we can bet on the election.
Links:
[Fox Sports]: Barkley could run for Ala. governor in 2010
1. Another Brick in the Wall: Going into their series against the Twins, the White Sox enjoyed a three-game lead over the team. But now that the series is over, that lead has disappeared. The Twins did what they needed to do, sweeping three close games to tie the defending World Champs for second place in the venerable Central. For the White Sox and pitcher Mark Buehrle, winning has just been harder to come by recently. The White Sox have gone just 2-9 since the All Star break, with Buehrle going 0-3 with an 11.15 ERA in that span. Since the end of June, Buehrle has gone 0-5 and seen his ERA inflate from 3.22 to 4.89. Now they have lost what once seemed like an insurmountable Wild Card lead, and the Sox are 8.5 back of Detroit. Conversely, Minnesota cannot seem to lose a game. Could the White Sox, universally considered the best team in baseball about a month ago, miss the playoffs? It’s possible.
2. Back in Business: With the numerous injuries, struggles, and poor play that the Yankees have experienced this season, many thought that this would be the year that they miss the playoffs. Well, if the season ended today, the Bronx Bombers would be in the postseason. With a win yesterday, the Yankees swept the Rangers and moved into first place in the American League Wild Card standings. They can thank Jason Giambi, who broke out of a 4-32 slump with a game-winning homer. Giambi has struggled hugely this month, with a .195 average and .727 OPS. But last night he stepped up in a crucial situation, homering off Akinori Otsuka in the ninth. The Yankees scored 6 of their 8 runs in the last two innings, and the Rangers could not keep up despite all of their key players having excellent games. New York is now 1.5 back of Boston and a half game ahead of Chicago for the division and Wild Card leads, respectively.
3. Ready to collide: The Mets and Braves have not met since Atlanta became one of the NL’s hottest ballclubs. But on Friday, the teams will start a three-game series that could turn the Mets’ longstanding double-digit lead into an 8-game lead should the Braves take the series. But more importantly for New York, the series will finally mark the return of Pedro Martinez, who has missed nearly a month. Pedro, who has a 3.45 ERA and 7-4 record this year, will pitch on Friday in his returning start. This series is huge for the Braves, who won last night against the Marlins and are fighting multiple teams for the Wild Card. Currently they are 4.5 games back of Cincy and in fourth place, but we all know how quickly things can change in the crazy National League this season.
4. It’s good to share: The LA Angels and Oakland A’s have now shared the AL West lead for three days now. The teams have coordinated winning and losing, and last night was a good night for both teams. Despite Bartolo Colon leaving after one inning due to injury, the Angels crushed the D-Rays 15-6 in an offensive outburst. They produced so well that they moved up to 10th in both OPS and runs in the AL. That’s not saying much until you consider that Oakland is below them in both categories. How could two of the AL’s worst offensive teams be co-leading a division? The answer is pitching, and both teams are solid in that aspect. The A’s pitching was showcased last night when they nearly blanked the tough Boston offense. Dan Haren allowed the only run of the night and Huston Street continued his scoreless July. He has recorded two saves and two wins in a month in which his ERA has plummeted almost a point. Both teams stand at 52-49.
5. Ring my Belle: Albert Belle, the former Indians slugger who hit almost 400 homeruns in his career, has joined the extensive list of pro athletes in jail recently. Belle pleaded guilty to stalking his girlfriend and could face a 3-month jail sentence. Belle had apparently attached a GPS system to his girlfriend’s car and threatened her. (Insert your own Cincinnati Bengals-in-jail reference here).
