A-Rod delivers late...

As usual, a quick hit Saturday with various bouts of English Premier League action on the go today.

My what a strange week in the Yankee Universe.  You've got Derek Jeter getting glossed "Derek Cheater" for his act a few days back.  AJ Burnett showed up yesterday with a black eye that he won't discuss, and almost as strangely, has pitched three strong games in a row. There have been four lead changes in the AL East with Tampa Bay this week, the Yanks now back on top with Tampa losing to Anaheim while the Yankees needed a three run blast from A-Rod in the top of the 9th with two out and two strikes, which you can see here, to best Baltimore 4-3, though A-Rod clutching up is hardly new anymore.  What is new is one of his homers - he had an earlier one last night too - was celebrated, in Baltimore, by blowing up fireworks.  Gonna guess somebody is on the unemployment line in Baltimore today.  The Orioles, by the way, are an impressive 26-16 since Buck Showalter took over as manager.  He keeps that pace up, and the Toronto Blue Jays progress from a .500 team, and next year's AL East race will be insane.

The Pittsburgh Pirates, 2010 edition,  have to be among the worst teams ever.  They're 50 games below .500 - using the traditional, and erroneous measure of .500 - and have played 31% of their games against not-exactly-the-1927-or-1998-Yankees Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers and Houston Astros.

Some quick hit NFL stats courtesy of KD: only 23% of teams who lose in week 1make the playoffs.
Only 13% of teams who go to 0-2 make it.  So, the heat is on some hyped squads like Dallas, NY Jets, and San Diego going into tomorrow.  And yes, I will be back tomorrow for a Prime Time Pick, you greedy bastards.

Great tweet from some random guy, retweeted by The SportsGuy, on the subject of Houston Texans running back Arian Foster: "Foster's parents named him Arian? Was Adolf Foster already taken?"

Toronto FC are in Houston tonight to face the Dynamo.  They...you know the rest.  It'll be tough sledding as this is their third match in eight days and fourth in eleven.

Crazy story yesterday on former Montreal Canadiens/Toronto Maple Leafs/New Jersey Devils/Boston Bruins coach Pat Burns.  Word was Burns had finally lost his fight with cancer and it spread quickly through Twitter and the web.  Shame nobody told Burns.  Seems he's still alive and kicking.

Detroit Tigers rookie Austin Jackson, a strong rookie of the year candidate, is leading the AL in strikeouts.  What is really impressive is he is still hitting north of .300 despite that.

German rising star and Bayern Munich's midfielder Thomas Muller scored a beauty in Champions League play on Wednesday against AS Roma.  Not sure how I didn't see this earlier, but this is as beautiful a goal as you'll see all year.  Incredible.