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MLB General

The Full Count: Chipper comes off the DL with a bang



3 HR night

1. Chip off the old block: Chipper Jones wasted no time returning to form after his stint on the DL for the Braves. Jones hit 3 homeruns at RFK stadium against the Nationals in just his second game back. It was his first career three-homer game and brings his career total to 350. Chipper went 4-5 to up his title-contending average to .339. Also for the Bravos, Matt Diaz went 4-5 and at one point had a hit in 10 consecutive at-bats. Diaz had gone 2-2 on Saturday and 4-4 on Sunday. His 10 hits in a row streak tied an NL record. The Braves won 10-4. They are still a whopping 16 games back in the division but trail by only 5.5 in the Wild Card race.

2. Run over by a train: We’re not sure if Pedro Martinez and the Mets were altogether ready for last night’s game against Philadelphia. While they lead the Phillies by more than a dozen games and have practically guaranteed themselves a playoff berth, the Mets still need to put on better showing than they did yesterday. They were dominated 13-0 by the Phils. Pedro Martinez only lasting the first inning, in which the Phillies scored 6 runs. According to ESPN.com, it was the first time in 10 years that Pedro had not gone at least 3 innings in any given start. Leadoff man Jimmy Rollins continued his hot streak by going 3-3 with 3 RBIs. Chas Utley added two more ribbies, while Abraham Nunez drove in three himself. The Phillies also got an excellent start from Cole Hamels, who put together his fourth consecutive quality start. He is 3-1 during those starts with 34 strikeouts.

3. Mean streak: The schedule-makers did not give the Detroit Tigers a very easy ride in August. After series last week against the Twins and White Sox, they now travel to Boston to face the Red Sox. They had lost five straight games, their longest such streak of the season, before last night’s much needed 7-4 edging of the BoSox. Sean Casey drove in two runs while Dimitri Young added three hits. Starter Nate Robinson picked up his 11th win with a quality start. For the Red Sox, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez combined to go 1-6, which is probably the reason they lost. The Tigers still lead the charging White Sox (who beat the Royals 12-2) by 5.5 games.

4. Making their run: Has there ever been a season that the A’s haven’t performed well in the second half? It’s certainly hard to remember, as there has been more of the same this year. The A’s have quietly won 9 of their last 10 games. They are now 14 games over .500 and lead their division by 5.5 games. This is all despite having narrowly outscored their opponents on the year, 530-525. in fact, the A’s offense simply stinks; that total is the second-lowest runs scored of any team in the AL. But when your pitching staff has a 4.16 ERA, you don’t need to worry about trivial matters like hitting. It looks to me like the A’s, who won 5-4 yesterday with Frank Thomas and Nick Swisher homeruns, will return to the playoffs this year.

5. Combined effort: Most shutouts might involve one or two pitchers. Not with the Giants yesterday. Starter Brad Hennessey was taken out after 5.2 innings and 70 pitches, but five relievers held up the 0. Armando Benitez, who had blown three consecutive save opportunities, held up in this one.

Categories
MLB General

August 15 in Sports History: The Other Babe Ruth


In 1915: George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns pitched a complete game, but lost 1-0 to the Cleveland Indians. Sisler came into the big leagues as a promising young pitcher in 1915. He won five games, including two against Walter Johnson. Much like Babe Ruth, however, his bat was too good to keep out of the weak Browns’ lineup, and he was converted into a first baseman. He hit .340 for his career (including over .400 twice), held the record for hits in a season with 257 (broken by Ichiro in 2004), and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1939.

In 1993: Paul Azinger won the PGA Championship at Inverness Club in Ohio with a 272. Azinger defeated Greg Norman, who once again failed to capture a major on U.S. soil, in a sudden-death playoff. After helping the U.S. win the Ryder Cup, Azinger would be diagnosed with cancer. He returned to golf quickly, but didn’t win again until 2000 in Hawaii.

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MLB General

August 12 in Sports History: MLB goes on strike


On August 12, 1994: Major League baseball players went on strike. The collective bargaining agreement had expired, and the owners and players were miles apart on the issue of a salary cap, revenue sharing (why Bud Selig didn’t just show the players an NFL logo) and the owners withholding $7.8 million pension payment to the players . The strike would last 209 days and over 900 games would be washed out. Worst of all, the World Series went uncontested for the first time since 1904. It was the fourth work stoppage in 23 years, and it wiped out a possible record-setting season by Ken Griffey Jr. (41 home runs), a triple crown-type year for Jeff Bagwell (.368/39/116) and a possible .400 season for Tony Gwynn . The biggest losers might have been the Montreal Expos, who had a comfortable division lead over the Atlanta Braves and were considered a World Series contender. They haven’t had a winning season since, and moved to Washington in 2005.

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All Other Sports

Odds and Ends: Sometimes the internet sucks


The internet is a wonderful place — news, information, hot chicks, Borat clips… But sometimes it absolutely sucks. Like when a sportsbook decides to shut down their operations and keep everyone’s money. (Sports Business News) Betonsports.com is “moving their operations” but what that really means is that they’re kaput. We’d be seriously surprised if they came back online. Remember folks, online sports betting is not without its risks.

In other news…

[Bolt Talk]: Junior Seau to retire a Charger

[MSNBC]: Someone tell Randy Moss it’s just a preseason game

[AP]: Kevin Costner returns to Field of Dreams

[Fringe Sports Central]: Wait… Yakov Smirnoff is still alive?

[Kentucky.com]: Ryan Freel hears voices in his head but won’t go Clarett anytime soon

[Miami Herald]: US Basketball blows out Lithuania

[Scotsman.com]: Billion dollar baby passes buck again

Categories
Cincinnati Bengals

Hello? Jerk line? Jerome Bettis sucks.

The Bengals Jerk line debuted last night and because there’s no call waiting or voicemail, there were only 100 logged calls. The majority of the people just wanted to see if the jerk line worked. A couple of people called to complain that Jerome Bettis (did you know he was from Detroit and then played the Super Bowl in detroit?) was in the stadium. One was an actual complaint that required a security guard to intervene.

The Bengals director of stadium development said the jerk line worked but that they’d evaluate the effectiveness after the second regular season home game. “If 90 percent of the calls we’re getting are prank calls, we need to re-evaluate this.”

Links:
[Cincinanti Enquirer]: Jerk line makes its debut

Categories
Tennessee Titans

Titans mascott can’t drive


At the end of halftime in Sunday’s Titans-Saints game, T-Rac, the imposing racoon mascott of the Titans ran his golf cart into Saints backup QB Adrian McPherson. McPherson was treated on the field and walked himself into the lockeroom.

Jeff Fisher said he tried to contact Saints coach Sean Payton to apologize but has not reached him. Reports are McPherson is OK and won’t miss any playing time so his Saints teammates are laughing their asses off. This is definitely not something you want as the highlight of your NFL career.

Links:
[Tennessean.com]: Inquiries possible after T-Rac crash

Categories
NFL General

Attorney says police roughed up Clarett while he was in handcuffs


Maurice Clarett’s lawyer Michael Hoague is claiming that as Maurice Clarett was cooperative with police but they struck him and maced him while he was on the ground and already in cuffs. According to the police, the use of mace was necessary because Clarett was wearing a bulletproof vest and a taser gun didn’t work.

Hoague says that Clarett called his fiance and mother to tell them he loved them and to call his lawyer.

A person who calls his loved ones to say, ‘I’m about to go to jail,’ does not have the mind-set to put up a fight.

Hoague also claims that Clarett was simply moving his belongings from his mother’s house to a hotel. This is perfectly reasonable. Who hasn’t kept a rifle and 3 semiautomatic guns at their mother’s house? And the bottle of grey goose in the passenger seat? He just didn’t want that to break in the move.

Isn’t this the same lawyer who claimed that he was afraid for his client’s safety and worried he might injure himself? A person with a bunch of guns and a bulletproof vest isn’t just moving his stuff, he’s preparing for a war. We’re not saying that the police didn’t hit Clarett after he was arrested but you don’t get arrested in the first place if you don’t have a munitions depot in the passenger seat.

Links:

[Yahoo]: Lawyer says Clarett cooperated with arresting officers

[The Phat Phree]: I’m Proud of Maurice Clarett

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: The White Sox remind us who the champs are


1. Remember us?: It seemed as though Detroit had captured the AL Central division title. After all, they were leading at 10 games at one point while their main foe, the White Sox, weren’t looking too good. In fact, many thought Detroit’s main challenger would be the red-hot Minnesota Twins. Not anymore. The Sox just swept up Detroit like they were the last place team of years past. They won their 70th game by defeating the Tigers yesterday. Freddy Garcia picked up his 11th win while Bobby Jenks closed the door for the 33rd time. Now, as the Tigers have lost 5 straight, the White Sox are just 5.5 games back, their lowest deficit in about a month. Minnesota still looms 8 games back.

2. Sunday Night Duel: Last night’s Sunday Night Baseball featured one of the best pitching matchups of the season. The Giants’ Jason Schmidt took on the Dodgers’ Greg Maddux in a memorable affair. Neither pitcher allowed a run and both pitched 8 innings, though they got there in remarkably different ways. Schmidt threw 115 pitches and struck out 9. The high pitch count isn’t unusual for him; he has averaged 110 pitches per start this season. Maddux was much more efficient in achieving the same result. He threw in mere 68 in his outing, 50 for strikes. He allowed just 2 hits and no walk in his third straight gem start since being traded to LA. Both of these pitchers were so brilliant, but both walked away with no-decisions. The ninth inning didn’t decide anything either, as the shutout continued for both sides. But in the bottom of the 11th, the Dodgers’ little-known catcher Russell Martin stepped up to the plate, and ended the game with a solo shot. That gave the first-place Dodgers their 4th straight win and 15th of 16, while the Giants were sent home with their fourth-straight loss.

3. Watch out: The Cleveland Indians, the consensus most disappointing and most inconsistent team of the year, have won their 6th game in a row. They swept up the Kansas City Royals in four games, including a 13-0 demolition yesterday. The Tribe showed what their offense is capable of, putting up 11 runs in the first inning. KC starter Luke Hudson, who recorded only one out, was charged with all 11. His outing was easily the worst of the year by a starter, in fact in was the worst in over 100 years. Hudson became the first pitcher since 1897 to allow 11 runs in the first inning of a ballgame. The scoring that inning was capped off by a Travis Hafner grand slam, his 6th of the year. That ties a major-league record for most grand slams in a season. Hafner, who has the highest OPS in the American League, is on pace for 49 homers and 145 RBI.

4. How wild: The Cincinnati Reds, at least for now, are still in first place for the NL Wild Card. They escaped 7-5 yesterday over Philadelphia in an 11-inning game. Juan Castro and Ken Griffey drove in runs in the 11th to seal the deal. The Reds also got back-to-back-to-back homers in the 6th inning, including Adam Dunn’s 35th. They won despite another big-time effort from Ryan Howard, who hit his NL-best 41st homer and tied the game in the 9th with an RBI single. Still, the Reds won and are ahead of second-place San Diego by a half-game. The Phillies are just four games back.

5. What a year: Can you say 8-0? Jered Weaver can, because he has accomplished that record this year for the Angels. The only significant undefeated pitcher left in baseball, Weaver was on top of things yesterday as the Angels cruised to a 5-3 win over the Yankees. Weaver struck out 8 in six innings of work, and he has been a part of the Angels’ major league best class of rookies. Howie Kendrick is hitting .319 after a 3-5 effort yesterday. Catcher Mike Napoli has 12 homeruns on the year. Both, of course, are rookies. The Yankees, after losing their second consecutive game, now only lead the Red Sox by one game and have a worse record than the Wild Card leading White Sox.

Categories
Fantasy Football

Due to technical difficulties…

We are only publishing an abbreviated blog today. And by technical difficulties, we mean we have to go get drunk, gamble, get drunk some more and then visit the… erm… “cultural attractions” in Montreal for our Fantasy Football Draft! Have a great weekend.

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Red Sox Swept by a AAA team?


1. A Royal Sweep: What has happened to the Boston Red Sox? The team, once dominant over the AL East, has lost five straight games. They have fallen from first place to 3 games back in that span, and they are just not looking good right now. The Kansas City Royals of all teams just hammered the Sox in a three game sweep. Yesterday they prevailed 5-4, despite an incredible 8th-inning single by David Ortiz that many national columnists are calling “clutch.” Anyway, the Royals got three hits and two RBIs by vet Reggie Sanders, and a decent start by Runelvys Hernandez, who had allowed 17 runs in his previous two outings. For the Red Sox, Curt Schilling allowed an uncharacteristic 11 hits and 5 runs to one of the league’s worst offenses. Until the Red Sox can figure out what’s going on, the Yankees have a chance at dominating the division.

2. Different Sox, different story: Ready to take some more blame, Alex Rodriguez? The Yankees slugger, who had been relatively quiet for like a week, made a costly throwing error against the White Sox. His errant throw let Jermaine Dye score, and four runs total crossed the plate that inning. So with those runs and a Scott Podsednik RBI, the White Sox won to take the series of three. Javier Vasquez walked six but struck out 8 and Bobby Jenks closed the door for his AL-leading 31st save. With that Chicago was able to re-pass Minnesota for second place in the division. The 76-38 Tigers, who were off yesterday, still loom large in first.

3. Back to the normal: The Earth rotates, the sky is blue, and the Houston Astros are in Wild Card contention. Those are the facts of life these days. The `Stros, who have won the Wild Card and advanced to the NLCS for two consecutive seasons, are now two games back after sweeping the Pirates. Roger Clemens pitched last night to close out the series, with his 4th win of the year. Incredibly the Rocket has allowed three earned runs or less in each of his 10 starts. So now the Astros, despite an underwhelming record of 56-58, trail the leading Reds by just 2.5 games. In the American League, their record would put them 11.5 games out.

4. One game changes everything: San Diego had the NL West lead when they woke up on Thursday. Now, after they lost and the Dodgers won, the Padres find themselves tied for second. SD lost to El Duque Hernandez of the Mets, who after early struggles has won four straight decisions. The Dodgers, meanwhile, defeated the Rockies despite an ace performance by their starter Jason Jennings. Underrated youngster Andre Ethier hit his 11th homerun for LA. They lead both the Padres and the Diamondbacks (who were off) by a half-game. With how crazy this division is, however, the Dodgers could find themselves in third place by tomorrow.

5. Don’t believe it Phillies fans: The Fightins might be 3 games out of Wild Card contention and starting a series against the Cincinnati Reds who lead the WC race but don’t get your hopes up. This is, after all, the Phillies. They will break your hearts every time. Even worse so because they give you some hope. Just move it along. Move it along to football and the Eagles. This has been a public service announcement from Sportscolumn blog.