Author: Vin

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].

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Mets’ hot start fading fast


1. Cold at the Wrong Time: The Mets are in the middle of one of their tougher parts to the schedule, and they’ve struggled through it. In June so far they’ve played Arizona, Detroit, Philly, and LA, all teams with winning records, and their record is 2-8 for the month. The Mets started their series against the Dodgers with a 5-3 loss, as Orlando Hernandez had one of his worse starts of the year. The only player that’s been good for the Mets recently is David Wright, who had a four-game homer streak snapped yesterday and has a 13-game hitting streak going. The rest of the team is in a slump, which has allowed the Braves to climb back within two games despite their own struggles. The red-hot Phillies are also only four games back after winning seven of their last ten. The interleague schedule for the Mets doesn’t get any easier, as they travel to Yankee Stadium and then play the Twins and A’s.

2. Surprise Contender: Besides the four elite teams in the American League (the Red Sox, Indians, Angels and Tigers), could anybody guess who has the next best record? Shockingly it’s the Seattle Mariners, who have come out of nowhere with a 34-26 record. Sure, their payroll is over $100 million, but most of that is spent overpaying players like Richie Sexson and Jeff Weaver. The reason why they are winning is an excellent lineup, which has the second-highest batting average in all of baseball and the eighth-most runs scored. Ichiro is tearing it up with a .337 average and is on pace for 232 hits and 46 steals. Catcher Kenji Johjima is batting .330, Raul Ibanez has 41 RBIs, and five players have at least 30 RBIs. Also, their underrated closer, JJ Putz, has been excellent. He has 18 saves in 18 chances, a 1.23 ERA, and a microscopic 0.58 WHIP. The Mariners out-powered Cleveland on Monday in an 8-7 win as Ibanez hit two homers and five RBIs. They are holding off the A’s for second place in the AL West, though Oakland has a winning streak going as well.

3. Bonds finally homers: Barry Bonds came into Monday’s game in a huge slump, with no homers in his last 13 games and one since May 9. He was finally able to reach career homer number 747 though, with a solo shot off Josh Towers of the Blue Jays. Bonds is still struggling though in every area except walks. The nine remaining homers he has to break the record will take him until after the All Star break, unless he heats up. The Giants won 4-3 by the way, with Matt Morris tossing a complete game.

Player of the Day: Carlos Zambrano, Cubs: 8 innings, no earned runs, 8 strikeouts, homerun (2) in a 2-1 win over the Astros.

Categories
Detroit Lions

Do you know who I am? Well I’m gonna grope you either way


Lions defensive tackle and supergenius Shaun Rogers has been accused of forcibly groping a stripper in her dressing room at The Players Den, a strip club in Detroit. According to the police report, Rogers walked in, asked, “Do you know who I am?”, had a handgun in his waistband, and proceeded to grope her because he was Shaun Rogers.

The stripper called for help but was told that she shouldn’t worry about it because Rogers was just drunk. The club manager wasn’t aware of an incident on Friday night.

Just last month, Rogers talked about stepping up his game this year. We assumed he meant on the football field, but it turns out he probably meant in the clubs.


I just feel high expectations will bring about more prosperous things. The higher you set the bar and the closer you can get to it, the higher you achieve. I’m happy that (Marinelli) has so many expectations for me. I’m not going to do anything but try to live up to them.

If guilty, expect him to get some time in Roger Goodell’s penalty box and Rod Marinelli to look like an idiot for talking him up.

Links:
[Detroit Free Press]: Lions’ Rogers accused of criminal sexual conduct

Categories
Golf

Odds and Ends: John Daly’s wife is insane


John Daly’s wife Sherrie decided to celebrate the 6th anniversary of their meeting by assaulting him with a steak knife and clawing up his face. Big John showed up Saturday with a scratched up face. According to the sheriff’s department, he called them to report an assault by his wife on Friday night. The couple met six years ago at the St. Jude Classic and married 53 days later. Unfortunately for John, in redneck circles, the 7th anniversary is known as the “chainsaw anniversary”. Watch out big guy.

In other news…

[USA Today]: Nugget DerMarr Johnson tasered outside nightclub

[Chron.com]: Nugget JR Smith injured in SUV accident

[KOAA]: Two Trinidad men are accused of murder after arm wrestling match

[AJC]: Georgia Bulldogs football: running a tight ship since… never

[Sports By Brooks]: He’s an actor so maybe he can act like she doesn’t look like a man

[TrojanWire]: Who the hell is Charlie Weisu?

[James Mirtle]: Probably best not to read this article if you don’t like Gary Bettman

Categories
Toronto Blue Jays

War with Canada narrowly avoided


We almost had a political disaster on our hands Saturday night when the Toronto Blue Jays played the LA Dodgers. A Canadian fan was harassed by a Dodger Stadium security guard for waving a Canadian flag. The offending fan was Lee Fraser who is the president of Canadians Abroad, a bunch of expats who attend games together when teams from Canada visit.

The Dodgers have a policy prohibiting signs and banners and that includes any flags, even the U.S. flag. Security officials warned Fraser that he could hold it up during the Canadian national anthem but not to wave it during the game. When he did start waving it during the sixth inning, a security guard tried to confiscate it and that lead to a 100-person brawl heated discussion between security, LAPD, and 100 or so Canadians. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed and nobody was seriously injured, although there was a report of an “inadvertent shove.”

Even though Fraser had the last word (“The whole crew went crazy. They sent down three or four security guards, the LAPD. Because, you know, Canadians are such a big threat.”), we have to side with the security guards in this case. They were just following rules. If the Canadians can wave a flag, next thing you know, those crazy rabid fans from SF will be waving a Giants flag and then we’ll end up with 51 states.

Links:
[The Star]: Canadian fan hassled for doing wave with flag

Categories
Atlanta Falcons

Michael Vick’s cousin trying his best to take one for the team


Davon Boddie, Michael Vick’s cousin and the man who ran the house where alleged dog-fighting took place, knows exactly where the gravy train is.


I want him (Goodell) to know that everything going on is really my fault. I want to apologize to Atlanta Falcons fans for what’s going on. It’s a lot of drama.

They’re just making Michael look like something he’s not. Michael is the type of dude who would do his sit-ups and crunches every night, read his Bible and go to bed.

Come on Davon, let’s not go overboard here. Vick does sit-ups, crunches, reads the Bible and goes to bed? You’re seriously trying to tell us this is a typical night for Ron Mexico? The only way this could have been a more obvious lie is if he claimed Vick also studied game film of opposing defenses before being tucked in.

Do you think the whole ‘reads his Bible’ thing was written by Vick’s publicist or Boddie’s lawyer?

Links:
[AJC]: Vick’s cousin says it’s “my fault”

Categories
MLB General

MLB Cost Index for June 11 2007

The MLB Cost Index is one measure of how well your GM did over the course of the offseason and during the season. The Index takes a look at the payrolls for each team and calculates a Cost per Win number. Pretty simple stuff right? But in the wide open world of baseball with no salary cap, it’s the best way we can think of to judge teams on a level (monetary) playing field.

There was not much change in the Cost Index this week except for the Mariners. After winning 5 of their last 6, the Mariners have jumped to within 4.5 games of the Angels for the division lead and to #21 on the Cost Index. That’s still not great but better than 24th and looking like the St. Louis Cardinals.

On another note, the Yankees look even worse, as if there were possible, because we’ve just added $18.5M of Roger Clemens‘ contract after his first start.

The complete MLB Cost Index after the jump.

Continue reading “MLB Cost Index for June 11 2007”

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: The most offensive team in the game…


1. Powerhouse: Two years ago, it would have been laughable to think the Tigers’ offense would soon be the best in baseball. Now, that is the reality–and no one else is even close. The Tigers piled on a season-high 15 runs and 21 hits against the Mets–all without their best hitter in the lineup. Magglio Ordonez didn’t play, but it didn’t matter as Detroit roughed up Tom Glavine for 9 earned runs and 11 hits. Gary Sheffield continued to dominate with a 4-5, two RBI outing. Brandon Inge knocked in five RBIs, Ivan Rodriguez had three hits and three runs, and Placido Polanco went 3-6 to increase his average to .348. The 15-7 win over the Mets sent the Tigers to 1.5 games behind Cleveland, while New York dropped to 3-7 its last ten games. The Tigers now have 374 runs this year–a whopping 32 more than the next-best team, the Yankees. They also lead the MLB in hits, batting average, slugging, and OPS. Last year the Tigers were carried by their starting pitching. This year, they are winning because they can flat-out mash.

2. The Yankees are Back: The Yankees’ season may have seemed over when they were 14.5 back in the division. But now they have new life, thanks to a 6-game winning streak as well as recent struggles by the Red Sox. The Yanks started off interleague play with a sweep of the Pirates, including a 13-6 win on Sunday. Alex Rodriguez, who hit two homers, drove in five runs, and scored four times, is now back to his April self. Bobby Abreu went 4-4 with 4 runs and is on a ten-game hitting streak that has raised his average 44 points. Overall, the Yankees outscored the Pirates 27-13 on the series. Their next two series are against tougher teams, the Diamondbacks and the Mets, but both are at home. The Red Sox are still 9.5 games ahead, but they are only 4-6 in June compared with the Yankees’ 8-2 mark. This race could get much more competitive as the year goes on.

3. Early Ejection, Late Win: The first inning of the Cubs-Braves game featured plenty of controversy. The Cubs’ starting pitcher, Ted Lilly, was ejected in the first after hitting Edgar Renteria with a pitch. It didn’t look like he was intentionally throwing at him, but the umpire was convinced. Both dugouts cleared but there was no fighting between the teams. Renteria then elbowed Cubs second baseman Mike Fontenot when he came in with a hard popup slide on a steal attempt. Renteria was not punished for this action, however, even though it seemed much more intentional than Lilly’s pitch. Anyway, the Cubs were able to take the lead, 4-2, through seven innings despite having to overwork their bullpen. But then in the eighth, the Braves scored three runs off Ryan Dempster to pull ahead and eventually win 5-4. It would be interesting to see what would happen if these two teams played again, but their season series is over. The Braves moved up to just 2.5 games behind the Mets.

Players of the Day: CC Sabathia, Indians: 9 innings, three hits, no runs, 6 strikeouts. Aaron Harang, Reds: 7 innings, three hits, no runs, 10 strikeouts. The Reds and Indians had one of the best pitcher’s duels this season, with a 0-0 tie through the first 11 innings. The Reds won in the 12th off Alex Gonzalez’s RBI single.

Categories
General Sports

Vote for June’s Woman We Love

In the end, the may vote for Woman We Love wasn’t very close. Katherine Heigl won with 25% of the vote so she joins our illustrious list of women we love.

Here are six new nominees for the June Woman We Love:

–Amanda Beard
–Megan Fox
–Lauren Graham
–Julianne Hough
–Sienna Miller
–Naomi Watts

Vote Now

Categories
General Sports

Odds and Ends: Amanda Beard Playboy pics

Well, folks, that certainly didn’t take much time for someone to leak the scans of the photos of Amanda Beard’s playboy spread onto the internet. They are fairly decent but more of an artsy Herb Ritts kind of photos (which is probably what she is going for) than actual, man that’s sexy type photo shoot. There’s no denying that she’s very hot but she wouldn’t be “Playboy material” if she wasn’t a famous olympic swimmer. Oh, and by the way, this is the first time real breasts have appeared in Playboy since 1976.

There’s one PSFW pic after the jump. But for now, here’s your other news… (as if you care)

[Washington Post]: That reality racing show with celebs sucks

[MLB]: Win a date…er.. meeting with Alyssa Milano

[The Sporting Orange]: Chad Johnson is a centaur

[SI]: Former ASU RB Loren Wade convicted of second-degree murder

Continue reading “Odds and Ends: Amanda Beard Playboy pics”
Categories
MLB General

June 7 2007 MLB Power Rankings Roundup

There isn’t much change in the Power Rankings this week but we expect there to be a bunch next week after the recent troubles of the Red Sox and Mets. Curiously, ESPN (going totally against their east coast bias!) put the Padres at #1 in their Power Rankings. We’ll see if that holds up next week.

Here are your MLB Power Rankings this week:

Rank Sportscolumn ESPN FoxSports Sportsline USA Today TSN.ca
1 Red Sox Padres Red Sox Red Sox Red Sox Mets
2 Angels Red Sox Indians Angels Mets Red Sox
3 Mets Angels Mets Mets Indians Padres
4 Indians Indians Angels Indians Angels D’backs
5 Dodgers Mets Padres Dodgers Dodgers Brewers
6 Padres Tigers D’backs D’backs Padres Dodgers
7 Tigers D’backs Dodgers Padres Tigers Angels
8 D’backs A’s Braves Tigers Braves Indians
9 Braves Dodgers Tigers Braves D’backs Braves
10 Brewers Mariners Brewers Mariners Brewers Tigers
11-30 more more more more more more