Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Yankees show em who’s boss


1. One-sided rivalry: Everyone said the Yankees-Red Sox series would tell us a lot about where these two clubs stand. And it has. The Yankees are clearly much better than the Red Sox. New York over Boston was the result all weekend as the Yankees won 4 games in 3 days. This series has showed just how good the Bronx Bombers are: they have scored 47 runs in the four games, including three double-digit games to get the series rolling. Last night the result was 8-5 in 10 innings of Sunday Night Baseball, and the game was decided by their bullpens rather than the Schilling-Mussina pitching matchup. Derek Jeter hit an RBI single off Jonathan Papelbon in the 9th to tie up the game, while Jason Giambi and Jorge Posada homered in the 10th to win the game. Giambi’s homer gave him 2 on the day as he drove in 5 runs. David Ortiz hit his 44th homer of the season for the Red Sox and Manny Ramirez hit his 100th RBI. But it wasn’t enough as the Yankees extended their divisional lead to 5.5 games.

2. The wins keep on comin’: If Roy Halladay can do anything, it’s win ballgames. While no NL pitcher has even won 14 games, Halladay captured his 16th of the year yesterday. He was perfect through five innings but eventually allowed two runs as the Blue Jays defeated the Orioles. He is now 16-3 on the season, giving him a league-leading win percentage in addition to his second-best WHIP and innings pitched totals. Could Halladay win 20 games and a Cy Young? He’ll have to defeat this next guy to do that:

3. It’s easy to be dominant: Or at least it is for Johan Santana. The pitcher won his 6th consecutive decision last night as the Twins beat up on the ChiSox. It was his 15th win of the season as he allowed just one run in 7 innings. He now leads the American League in ERA, innings pitched, strikeouts, and WHIP and could capture his second career Cy Young award. It will be a great duel to the finish between him and Halladay, but as of now Johan is leading. He ranks better than Roy at everything but wins and, as described last week, is an animal down the stretch. The Twins won the 20th game in a row he started at the Metrodome, a modern record according to ESPN.com. The Twins took the series and now are just one game back from Chicago in the divisional and Wild Card races. This one could get nasty down the stretch.

4. No signs of fading: The Cincinnati Reds have held the NL Wild Card lead for a long time, and despite increased challengers they keep on winning. Yesterday they topped the Pirates 5-1 in front of their home crowd, as Aaron Harang easily shut down the opposing offense. Harang struck out 9 and allowed just a solo Jason Bay homerun to Pittsburgh while winning his 13th game of the year. That ties him with multiple players for the National League lead. Adam Dunn (37) and Scott Hatteberg (12) both homered in the third to give the home team an early cushion. Dunn is now only 3 away from his third consecutive 40-homerun season and has been a machine for the Reds in every offense category but batting average, strangely enough. Cincy now has a two-game WC lead and is only two games back of the division-leading Cardinals. The Astros, at 7.5 back, have yet to make a push.

5. Pitching problems: Pitcher after pitcher has gone down recently. The A’s and Reds will face bullpen problems over the next few weeks, as both Huston Street and Eddie Guadardo will be put on the DL. Street was feeling groin pain and will be temporarily replaced by Ron Flores, who was called up from Triple-A and has already had three stints with the A’s this season. Guadardo, who had saved 8 of 10 chances since being acquired by Cincy, was also put on the 15 day list and has forearm problems. But both those pitchers got off easily compared to Tom Glavine. He is being examined for a blood clot and could either return next week or miss the rest of the season. The Mets could be without their top two starters, Glavine and the 15-day DL Pedro Martinez, for a while.

Categories
Green Bay Packers

August 21 in Sports History: Packers join the NFL



Curly Lambeau

In 1922: The Green Bay Packers franchise gained admission into the fledgling NFL. The Packers – named for a local packing company – were owned and coached by the legendary Curly Lambeau (not Brett Favre, as he would like you to believe) and finished 4-3-3 in their first NFL season, including a 3-0 loss to the Chicago Bears (who they would play another 169 times through 2005). They have won the most championships in league history with 12. (packers.com)

In 1967: Ken Harrelson became baseball’s first free agent when he was released by the Kansas City Athletics. The “Hawk” was let go by A’s owner Charles O. Finley after he called Finley “a menace to baseball.” The Red Sox won Harrelson’s services for the rest of the season for $73,000, and he helped them win the pennant in 1967. He retired in 1971 to join the pro golf tour and went on to become the most annoying broadcaster in history with the White Sox. (baseball library.com)

Categories
MLB General

MLB Power Rankings Roundup for Aug 18 2006

Despite their recent troubles (4-6 in their last 10) most sites still deem the Tigers to be the best team in the league. Meanwhile the Yankees, Red Sox, and White Sox all fit somewhere in the top 5 yet one of those teams won’t make the playoffs. This should be a very interesting race down the stretch.

Here are your Top 10 MLB Power Rankings this week:

Rank Sportscolumn ESPN FoxSports Sportsline USA Today TSN.ca
1 Tigers White Sox Tigers Tigers Tigers Yankees
2 Mets Tigers White Sox Mets Yankees Dodgers
3 Yankees Yankees Yankees Yankees White Sox Tigers
4 White Sox Mets Twins White Sox Mets Red Sox
5 Twins A’s Red Sox A’s Red Sox Angels
6 Red Sox Twins Mets Red Sox A’s Reds
7 A’s Dodgers A’s Twins Twins Mets
8 Cardinals Red Sox Blue Jays Dodgers Blue Jays White Sox
9 Blue Jays Angels Dodgers Blue Jays Dodgers A’s
10 Dodgers Blue Jays Twins Cardinals Cardinals Blue Jays
11-30 more more more more more more

Categories
NFL General

Maurice Clarett tied to Israeli mobster


The Maurice Clarett story is getting weirder and weirder everyday. ESPN is reporting that Slo Mo has been bankrolled by a member of an Israeli crime organization since he left Ohio State. Clarett was introduced to Hai Waknine of the Israeli crime organization The Jerusalem Group (Sounds more like an investment firm to us.) by a “rapper friend”. Waknine provided Clarett with cash, a BMW, bodyguards, drivers and beachfront lodging in Malibu in exchange for 60% of his rookie contract. Since Clarett was cut by the Broncos, quick math tells us that 60% of $0 = $0.

Clarett’s lawyer is offering up this tie as the reason that Clarett was arrested with all those guns. Mango claims that a threatening postcard sent to his office might have come from Waknine.

I believe he owes [Waknine] money, and I think [Waknine] is probably not the only one” he owes, Mango said. “Whether it’s someone all the way on that coast or more on this side of the country; it’s no one that I’d want to owe money to. … A call came to our office [about Waknine], kind of giving us a rumored story. It’s been kind of tossed around by us, and quite frankly, Youngstown has quite a reputation — if you don’t know it already — for the Italian side of that ballgame. And everyone here thought, ‘Well, you wonder with money changing hands …’ Having heard the things we’ve heard, this is a little more concerning.

Maurice Clarett really is an idiot. How exactly do you get tied up with Israeli mobsters? Why can’t he just do what most on-the-brink athletes do and get a cushy job or a “loan” from a college booster. Those guys might end up getting you kicked off your team but they would never send a threatening postcard.

Links:
[ESPN]: Lawyer: Clarett has ties to alleged Israeli mobster

Categories
Soccer

We need more things to bet on


Talk about pressuring your kids. A man in England placed 100 pounds at 100/1 that his son would play for the English football team by the time he was 30. Well, that son got to play Wednesday in the second half of a game between England and Greece. That man is now 10,000 pounds richer.

Another man put 20 pounds at 5000/1 that his grandson would become the captain of the England team. For those mathematically challeged, he stands to collect 100,000 pounds if it comes to pass.

As far as we know, there is no such wagering in the United States. And even if there were, what is the point? Making it to the professional level is already like winning the lottery. What’s an extra $10,000 or $100,000 when phenoms are signing $50M contracts out of college?

Instead, we think there are much better things to wager on. For example, how much of a sure thing was it that Kate Hudson would dump her husband (over the hill rockstar Chris Robinson) for Owen Wilson (the hour long buttlicker) after You, Me and Dupree? That could’ve been easy money. If there’s one thing that England has over us, it’s the ability to make basically any bet you want.

Here are some other sure things we’d bet on:

  • Paris Hilton diagnosed with an STD
  • Britney Spears ends up a fat disgusting pig with 5 kids. (almost there…)
  • The Smoking Gun finds a copy of Tiger Woods’ deal with the devil
  • Barry Bonds is proven to have knowingly used steroids
  • A Trailblazer and a Bengal get together to knock over a liquor store
  • and finally… Jessica Biel’s ass will cause a traffic accident

Links:
[Yahoo]: Man bets that son would play for English soccer team

Categories
New England Patriots

Junior Seau comes out of retirement after 3 days



psych!

So much for the story that Junior Seau would retire as a Charger. Boltstalk said, “The good news: he will be signing a one day contract with the Chargers and will retire as a Charger. No date has been set for that. Given Junior’s honesty, I’m guessing it’ll be sooner rather than later.” Ooops.

Looks like Junior will be signing a contract but it’s a one-year $1M contract with the Patriots who need some help at the linebacker position with Tedy Bruschi hampered by wrist surgery.

Of course, Seau did say in his retirement press conference that he wasn’t retiring (“So please, understand when I say this.I’m not retiring. I am graduating. Today is my graduation day. Retirement means that you’ll just go ahead and live on your laurels and surf all day in Oceanside.It ain’t going to happen.”) so perhaps he meant graduating from the Dolphins to the Patriots. Either way, this is the fastest turnaround since Dan Marino decided he didn’t want the Dolphins VP of football operations job after three weeks.

Everyone who wrote the puff pieces on how great of a player Seau was can just save them and dust them off when he retires again next year.

Links:

[SI]: Belichick, Pats convince Seau to play one more year

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Royal pain in the ass


1. Beating the Royals: We’re not sure whether defeating Kansas City is getting harder or if teams are just taking them lightly. Either way, the Royals, who swept Boston last week, were in position to take a four game series against Chicago yesterday. But the White Sox won to split the series at two games a piece. Mark Buehrle was victorious for the first time in 9 starts, with two earned runs allowed in a quality start. Jim Thome, Paul Konerko, and Jermaine Dye each drove in runs for the White Sox, who held onto the Wild Card lead with the 5-4 victory. With a Minnesota loss last night they lead the Twins by 2.

2. Embarrassment avoided: The Mets hadn’t just been beaten by the Phillies for three straight games, they had been crushed. Philly won the first 3 games of a 4 game set by a combined score of 27-4, including two shutouts. But the Mets retaliated with a little offense and slick pitching of their own in a 7-2 victory. Their 3-4 punch of Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado was very effective in the win. Beltran went 4-5 and hit his 34th homer of the year. He now has a team-high 99 RBIs on the season. Delgado was even better, with 2 homeruns and 4 RBIs on the day. He has a respectable 28 and 78 this season. Pitching-wise, John Maine was effective again, with 6 solid innings and two runs allowed. The runs were because of Ryan Howard’s 42nd shot of the year, tying him with David Ortiz for the ML lead. With the win the Mets kept a 13-game lead in the division.

3. Lack of focus?: Maybe the Yankees couldn’t concentrate with all the hype that is already surrounding their upcoming 5-game set with the Red Sox. Whatever happened, they didn’t look like themselves in their 12-2 loss to Baltimore. While their offense could only muster two solo shots against pitiful starter Rodrigo Lopez, the Yankees’ pitching was even worse. Jaret Wright, who is very inconsistent, had one of his worst days yesterday with 5 earned runs allowed. He also allowed a homerun for the first time in over 50 innings, snapping a major-league long streak. Octavio Dotel, in his second appearance of the season for New York, allowed 3 runs in less than an inning. New York now heads into the Red Sox series with a 1.5 game lead over their heavy rivals.

4. What happened?: The Padres had seemingly captured the division lead until the Dodgers went on their tear. Now it seems like San Diego can’t even win a game. They just took a four game sweep to San Francisco and have lost 8 of their last 10. Jake Peavy lost yesterday to bring his record to an outstanding 6-12, the second most losses of any NL pitcher. He didn’t even have a bad start, but the Padres failed to support their staff until a pinch hit grand slam in the 9th inning by Josh Barfield. Suddenly the Padres, who had led the NL West for about two months, find themselves with a losing record and in 3rd place.

5. You’re out!: As suspected, eight members of the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels were suspended for their roles in Wednesday’s brawl. Managers Mike Scioscia and Buck Showalter were among those who will miss some action. Showalter will miss four games, while Scioscia will only miss three for some reason. Adam Kennedy, who started the fight by charging the mound, will only get 4 games compared to reliever Scott Feldman’s 6. Feldman did hit Kennedy with the pitch, but we think that the person who actually started the fighting should get a more severe punishment. A few other players won’t see action over the weekend for both teams.

Categories
MLB General

August 18th in Sports History: Cheating in Little League


In 2001: “12-year-old” Danny Almonte of the Bronx pitched a perfect game against Apopka, FL in the Little League World Series. Almonte’s team, however, would be stripped of their victories when it was found out that the star pitcher and other players on his team were too old to be participating in the games. Almonte went on to become a top prospect in high school (although he went undrafted) and in 2005 married a 30-year old hairdresser.

In 1967: Almost 47 years to the day Ray Chapman was killed by a bean ball, Boston Red Sox outfielder Tony Conigliaro was severely injured when he was struck on the cheekbone with a fastball by Jack Hamilton of the California Angels at Fenway Park. Tony C., one of the most popular Red Sox of the sixties, would miss the rest of the 1967 season and all of the 1968 season due to loss of vision. The 1964 Rookie of the Year was a talented player who was often beset by injuries throughout his career. He was named Comeback Player of the Year in 1969, but never really recovered from the beaning and retired early in 1971 and made an abbreviated comeback attempt in 1975. He suffered a massive heart attack in 1982 and died in 1990 at the age of 45. Many New Englanders (where Conigliaro was from) blamed his hard luck story on the Curse of the Bambino that supposedly befell the Red Sox for decades. baseballlibrary.com

Today’s Birthdays: Roberto Clemente was born on this day in 1934 in Puerto Rico and RJ Warner was born sometime during a rowdy bicentennial celebration in Pittsburgh.

Categories
New York Knicks

Odds and Ends: Stephon Marbury’s $15 shoe

There aren’t many good things you can say about Stephon Marbury or the Knicks, which is why the news that Starbury is launching a $15 shoe so that kids can afford them is surprising news. We don’t have much to say except kudos to Marbury for doing this. We hope it outsells Shaq’s chinese shoes.

In other news…

[Sportsline]: Titans and mascot won’t face sanctions for hitting Saints backup QB with a golf cart

[MSNBC]: Air Force Academy assistant coach suspended after allegedly striking player

[SI]: Parcells: “Look, you tell Terrell that tomorrow I want him out here for practice. Tomorrow’s the day. I don’t care. Tomorrow’s the day.”

[There’s Your Karma, Ripe as Peaches]: Woman Cycling runner up says, “that’s a man, baby!”

[Lit’s Controversial Sports Chanting]: 2001 NBA Draft Review and Analysis

Categories
Fantasy Football

Fantasy Football costs employers $1.1 billion a week



Putting the interns to work

According to consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, people checking their fantasy teams costs employers $1.1B a week in lost productivity. CEO John Challenger says that fantasy football, online poker and eBay are the biggest time suckages in the workplace. This is surprising because with all the time we spent on sports blogs, we didn’t have any time left over for online poker or eBay.

Still, Challenger says that employers shouldn’t ban fantasy football from the workplace.


The potential damage to morale and loyalty resulting from a fantasy football ban could be far worse than the loss of productivity caused by 10 minutes of online team management.

What Challenger really meant is that lazy son of a bitch in the cubicle next to yours isn’t going to do any work anyway so what is the difference if he spends his time trolling the waiver wires or forwarding chain-emails for free jeans from the Gap – IT REALLY WORKS!

Of course, the next logical step in employee-employer relations is to do absolutely no work and just spend the day managing your multiple fantasy teams. Why waste only 34 minutes a day on fantasy football when you can waste the entire 8 hours? And if your boss says anything to you, tell him he’s ruining morale in the workplace.

Links:

[Reuters]: Fantasy football sacks real work production