Tag: randy johnson

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MLB General

Street Fighter lives on within your favorite MLB pitchers

You remember Street Fighter, right? No, not the horrible, horrible movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue (yes, that Kylie Minogue). We’re talking about the video game sensation that swept the nation. As kids, we would literally walk for miles with a pocket full of quarters to the nearest gas station just to play. We always got beaten up and had our change taken once we got there, but at least we got to watch the high school kids play. Turns out, Uncoached had a similar love for the game and now, all these years later, they found a connection between the MLB and Street Fighter: Pitchers. See what you think about these comparisons.

CC Sabathia = E Honda

Josh Beckett = Ryu

Curt Schilling = Ken

Ben Sheets = Guile

Rich Harden = Chun Li

Randy Johnson = Dhalsim

Carlos Zambrano = Blanka

Joba Chamberlain = Zangief

Roy Halladay = Sagat

Johan Santana = Vega

Shawn Chacon = Barlog

Roger Clemens = M. Bison

Sorry, Curt, we know this is about pitchers and all, but Owen Wilson will always be our Ken.

Links:

[Uncoached.com]: These MLB Pitchers Remind me of Streetfighter II Characters

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: And now back to your regularly scheduled rivalries


1. Another Yankees Starter: The Yankees have started more pitchers this year than any other team in the majors, with 11. Seven of those have been rookies, including Tyler Clippard on Sunday against the Mets. After Clippard’s first three pitches struck out Jose Reyes, it seemed like he would be one of their better pitching experiments this year. And he was. Clippard was efficient in 6 innings, allowing one run, only three hits, and striking out six. He won as the Yankees avoided a sweep in the Subway Series. The Yankees’ offense featured homers from Derek Jeter, A-Rod, and Jorge Posada as they shelled John Maine for five runs. The Yanks are still 10.5 back behind Boston, as the Red Sox took 2 of 3 from the Braves over the weekend.

2. World Series Revenge: The Tigers-Cardinals matchup was a rematch of last year’s World Series, and the result was a complete reversal. The Cards won the series 4-1 last October, but this time around, the Tigers swept struggling St. Louis. Sunday’s 6-3 win for Detroit was highlighted by Justin Verlander’s fourth straight win. Verlander pitched 8 innings, gave up just two runs, and improved to 5-1 on the year. Verlander has quietly been even better than he was last year, with a team-leading 2.68 ERA. Now they are tied with Cleveland atop the AL Central, while St. Louis is in fifth in the NL Central. The Cardinals just cannot find any starting pitching, and their batter have hit a major-league low 20 homers.

3. Interleague Results: The weekend was highlighted by many strong Interleague matchups. Cross-town rivalries included the Yanks-Mets, Cubs-White Sox, Angels-Dodgers, and A’s-Giants. The Cubs took two of three from the White Sox, though the White Sox won 10-6 on Sunday after smashing Carlos Zambrano for seven runs in six innings. The Angels swept the Dodgers by a combined score of 19-4 using some excellent starting pitching. Kelvim Escobar finished the series with an 8-inning shutout performance as the Angels won 4-1. Oakland won the first two games of their series against the Giants, but San Fran won 4-1 on Sunday behind a complete-game outing from Matt Morris. Barry Bonds continued his slump, and he has no homers or RBIs in his last ten games. The next Interleague action will be the second week of June, with some of these same rivalries.

Player of the Day: Mark Teixeira, Rangers: 4-6, 2 HR, 3 RBIs in a 14-1 rout of the Astros. Teixeira has been on fire lately with 6 homers, 20 RBIs, and a .349 average in his last 22 games.

Stat of the Day: Randy Johnson’s 5.2 inning, 10 strikeout game on Sunday was his first career double-digit strikeout game with fewer than 6 innings pitched, according to Elias Sports. Johnson has 28 strikeouts and is 2-0 in his last three starts.

Categories
General Sports

These guys are not bringing sexy back



You callin’ me ugly? Why I oughta…

So, The Phoenix decided to release their list of “The 100 Unsexiest Men of 2007” and it is a pretty good compilation of ugly dudes. But, here at Sportscolumn, we’re only fascinated with the most hideous, stomach turning sports dudes that made the list. Well, we’re not really fascinated with them. It’s more like we’re just interested in them. Uh, not interested in them as in interested in them; oh, geez, forget it. Here’s who made the list:

#90 – John Kruk, Roundballer

#74 – Peyton Manning, Spokesmodel

#72 – George Steinbrenner, Evil emperor

#62 – Larry Bird, Gomer Pyle with skillz

#57 – Randy Johnson, Buzzardly hurler

#55 – Ronaldinho, Goal getter

#53 – Bud Selig, Baller, shot-caller

#45 – The Duke Lacrosse Team, Player haters

#43 – Pacman Jones, Rainmaker

#40 – Curt Schilling, Bloggist

#37 – Tony Kornheiser, Roundtablist

#31 – Bill Belichick, Player-coach

#25 – O.J. Simpson, First-time novelist

Just so you have a sense of where exactly on the line of ugly these guys rank, here’s some notable markers to keep in mind. #82 – The Geico Caveman, #61 – Harry Knowles, #42 – Jeff Foxworthy, #36 – Brian Posehn, #28 – Dustin “Screech” Diamond, #24 – Phil Spector, #3 – Flavor Flav and, of course, #1 – Donald Trump. Just imagine if The Donald had his head shaved at Wrestlemania; actually that might have improved his looks.

Links:

[The Phoenix]: The 100 Unsexiest Men 2007

Categories
MLB General

The Full Count: Return of the Big Unit not as good as hoped



Dude, those CANNOT be real

1. Bad Debut for the Unit: Randy Johnson going to Arizona was one of the biggest stories this offseason. But, in his first start of the season due to a back injury, Johnson was not himself. He went 5 innings, allowing 6 runs and an uncharacteristic 4 walks. Johnson did strike out 7, but he ended up losing his matchup with fellow 43-year-old David Wells. Wells allowed just one run less than Johnson, but the bullpen behind him surrendered nothing. The Padres’ offense was the real star in this game. Adrian Gonzalez went 3-3 with 3 runs and 3 RBIs, and hit a rare lefty homer off the southpaw Johnson. Khalil Greene‘s 4-5, 4-RBI performance further helped the Padres in their 10-5 win, which sent their record to 12-8. The slumping D-Backs, meanwhile, have lost five in a row.

2. From Awful to Dominant: As any Braves fan would tell you, the main reason their 14-year division title streak ended last year was their bullpen. Their relievers blew the most saves in baseball last year. But this year, Atlanta’s bullpen is probably one of the best in the National League. That was proven on Tuesday, when they made up for another bad start by Mark Redman with six shutout innings. Redman, whose 3-inning, 6-run start gave him a 10.12 ERA this season, could and should be demoted from the Braves’ rotation. But the bullpen only allowed three baserunners, and Bob Wickman continued his 0.00 ERA season. The Braves’ offense is heating up as well; seven different players had an RBI as they beat the Marlins 11-6. at 13-7, they are a half-game back from the Mets for division supremacy.

3. Underperformers: The Tigers and Angels are two teams with World Series potential this year, but neither is looking good right now. They played each other on Tuesday to end their two-game set, and the performance by both teams was sloppy. There were 5 combined errors, including one by Tigers closer Todd Jones that led to an Angels victory in the 10th inning. But the Angels shouldn’t be pleased with their play either; they gave up a 7-run lead with an unusually poor effort by their bullpen. Both teams are lucky to be within a game of their division leader, as the Tigers are 11-9 while the Angels are just 10-10. Expect those records to get a lot better as the year goes on.

Player of the Day: Vernon Wells, Blue Jays: 4-5, HR (4), 3 RBIs, 4 runs.

Stat of the Day: When David Wells and Randy Johnson faced each other, it was the first time in MLB history that opposing pitchers were each 43 years or older.

Categories
New York Yankees

Odds and Ends (06.1.06): Randy Johnson love child fund



I am reluctantly your father

Can we start a fund for Randy Johnson’s love child? Maybe then she can afford to finally meet her father who won’t even return her phone calls. An Arizona couple won a charity auction to have dinner with Randy Johnson, his wife Lisa, and 20 of their friends. Ironically, the auction was to benefit the notMYkid organization. (You couldn’t make this stuff up.)

It’s too bad we didn’t know about this sooner. I’m sure all the sports bloggers could’ve raised more than $7,000, won the auction, and then invite Randy’s love child to dinner. That, friends, would be high comedy. (via The Hater Nation / Photo from Boston Dirt Dogs)

In other news…

[Yahoo]: Shocking! Sean Taylor gets special treatment and cops a plea

[ESPN]: Avery Johnson’s wife could be charged with assault for mixing it up with Suns fans

[Fire Dusty Baker]: Bad groundskeeping reason for Cubs losing

[Mr. Mack]: The All-Rotten Hall of Fame

[Off Wing Opinion]: Goalie scores all the way across the pitch