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Saturday, June 5, 2010

"Bad" A.J.

If you've followed along, Chris Pronger went to the Stanley Cup finals in his first year as an Edmonton Oiler, as an Anaheim Duck and as a Philadelphia Flyer. That is damn impressive, and no small coincidence. The Flyers were 5-3 winners last night to even the series at 2-2, and send it back to Chicago for game five tomorrow.

Pity Kim Myong Won, a striker for the North Korean entry to the World Cup. When the team submitted their roster on Tuesday, they listed him as a goalie. No biggie, right?  Wrong. He will only be eligible to play goal in what has to be the most ridiculous thing I've heard all week.  But hey, at least he'll possibly play.  Same can't be said for Ivory Coast's Didier Drogba (broken arm) who appears to be doubtful or England's captain Rio Ferdinand (knee), who is in fact out.  I suspect that England might be better off without Ferdinand in any event.  Kudos to England manager Fabio Capello for not going the easy route and making John Terry captain again.  Instead, it'll be Steven Gerrard leading the team out of the tunnel next Saturday when they face the U.S.A.

Check out the Best Sports Quotes of the Week.  Always fun to see what the mostly uneducated can come up with.

Toronto FC look to keep their strong run of late, especially at home, on the go when they host Kansas City at 4pm. It is getting almost too easy to say they win. Who saw that coming after the first few games this year?

The Toronto Blue Jays bats keep pounding homers, and that led to a 6-1 beating of the New York Yankees at the Rogmahal last night. Up today is a juicy Ricky Romero v. Andy Pettitte matchup, and am personally pumped to be bringing my boy to the game, his first seeing the Yankees.

A prominnent concussion doctor says that the NFL is in need of an "enormous culture change" if they're to properly care for players.  He actually thinks the league really and truly cares?  They routinely send out guys with pain killers and a variety of injuries, what makes him think the tougher to recognize head injury would be so different?


How Not To Leave A Message For A Woman You're Hoping To Date. Exactly what it sounds like.

Sourced from our friends at Empties Crushed, check out this great send up of the NHL's "History..." ads.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Black Mamba Bites

The LA Lakers opened the NBA Finals last night with a no-doubt 102-89 win over the Boston Celtics at home.  Kobe Bryant had a mere 30 and has the look of a guy who is hell bent on avenging the 2008 championship loss to Beantown. Cannot imagine the Lakers don't win the series.

Word is the NHL schedule for next year could see the playoffs end as far out as June 17th, 6 days later than game 7 is slated for this year which was pushed out because of the three weeks lost due to the Olympics. How the hell does that make sense?  Game four of the Final goes tonight in Philadelphia.

The Baltimore Orioles are 39-89 since the 2009 All-Star break, and weren't exactly world beaters before that. They've had and have a pile of top flight prospects too in Matt Wieters, Brian Matusz, Adam Jones and more than a few others. Just goes to show prospects don't necessarily mean legit "pros".

The 10 Worst Blown Calls in Sports History. Speaking of, Tom Verducci at SI.com says that the call blown by Jim Joyce that cost Detroit Tiger Armando Galarraga a perfect game could change baseball.  Sure, but wouldn't you think the series of blown calls in last year's playoffs - as one example - would have prompted that even moreso?  If you've seen hilites of how Joyce and the Detroit Tigers squad and fans handled his appearance yesterday, you have to be impressed with all parties.

Honda dealerships in Ontario are picking up the tab at this year's Honda Toronto Indy on the Friday of the event, once more famously known as the Molson Indy.  Free admission.  I'm going to go out on a very sturdy limb here and suggest the only reason they're giving away tickets is because nobody is buying them.  Crazy, I know.  Somewhere in the Rogers Centre, there's an idea taking shape.

Speaking of the Rogers Centre, Toronto Blue Jays attendance ought to see a boost over the next few days, what with the New York Yankees in town.  The Jays will have their best attended series of the season so far this weekend.

The Sports Pickle presents A Xenophobe's Guide to Hating All 31 U.S. World Cup opponents.  Awesome stuff.  If you didn't know, the World Cup starts in one week.  Global productivity slides at approximately the same time.

Totally clutch athletes.  Or at least a few of them.

Cannot believe that the "Chris Pronger stole a puck" story is getting the run that it is.  Who.  Freaking.  Cares.  Question mark.

Don Cherry finally said or did something original, a first for him in at least a decade, and even that was a rip off job of something that's decades old.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Robbery

Game three of the Stanley Cup Final was the best of the bunch so far, and even went to overtime.  In the end, the Flyers were 4-3 winners were victorious, leaving them a game down.  Game four goes Saturday night in Philadelphia.

The Toronto Blue Jays have allowed four runs the last two nights total from innings one thru eight hosting the AL East leading Tampa Bay Rays. But, they've allowed 10 in inning nine the last two nights. Yep, Cito Gaston is back.  The Jays blew a 3-1 lead and lost 7-3.

Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga, who was robbed in the ninth by a horrible call which you can see here at the bottom of today's entry, was actually beat out for a rotation spot by Dontrelle Willis. Remember him? Willis was dealt to Arizona for next to nothing.  To his credit, Galarraga has been classy about umpire Jim Joyce severe error, but come on, that's a joke.

Speaking of "remember", remember when Tampa Bay Ray Carlos Pena was even a decent player?

It took 24 innings over two nights for the LA Dodgers to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, both 1-0 scores over 10 and 14 inning games.

Hard to believe, but the New England Patriots are letting Tom Brady enter his last year of his contract and aren't talking extension. I know they're not a team to be bullied by any player, but Tom Brady isn't just an ordinary player, is he?  Might Brady jump ship?

Is there anybody anywhere that would've guessed the two Yankee pitchers most likely to head to the All-Star Game this year would have been Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes Hughes-es is now 7-1 on the year after another stellar start last night.

Looks like Liverpool may be rid of Manager Rafa Benitez after all, as he is said to be ready to accept a £3 million buyout. Next stop, Juventus?

Didn't Jose Canseco once out Roger Clemens as a steroid user?  So how is it he's part of Rocket Roger's defence?

Robbery.  Period.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

"I'm gonna burn this playhouse DOWN!"

The Toronto Blue Jays had the Tampa Bay Rays on the ropes last night, but Jays closer Kevin Gregg brought his gas can out to the mound and tried to burn the Rogers Centre down - which would've left a sea of burnt plastic seats and very few casualties, if it were to happen literally - and the Rays worked four runs across the plate in the 9th on all of one hit in the inning.  Five walks will tend to help that cause on occasion.  Speaking of five, five games is all that separates first through fourth in the AL East.

Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals goes tonight in Philadelphia with the Flyers badly needing a win to get back in the series.  The Flyers have only lost three of their last 10 so it is far too early to count them out.

Nine times since they became New York Yankees teammates, an opposing team has chosen to walk Mark Teixera to get to Alex Rodriguez. All A-Rod has done is go 5 of 6 with three grand slams, two walks, a sac fly and 19 RBIs.  Might not want to walk Teixera ever to get to A-Rod.

Ought to be a festive night at BMO Field in a nothing game as Toronto FC host Vancouver in the final game of the Canadian Championships.  That's a small "f" in final intentionally, TFC has already wrapped up the title and will lift the Voyageur Cup for the second straight year.

The quality blog SportsbyBrooks figures the only chance that soccer has to be as big in the U.S. as the NFL is if the English Premier League drops a team or several in the U.S.  Cannot see it happening, either the EPL going that route or it getting NFL big.  That would be huge, however.

Washington Redskin Albert Haynesworth is being sued for $10 million by a stripper he impregnated, and then decided he should no longer talk to her after finding out she was pregnant, leaving her to fend for her self.  Maybe AH figured that blue collar ballerinas have a great benefits package?

For those that aren't hip to the World Cup nations, this blog does a pretty solid take on which North American team each nation most resembles.  It'll take you some scrolling to get through it after the history of the Cup bit, but well worth it.

So I hear the NBA Finals start tomorrow.  Good of them to get around to that.

A bad, bad own goal...from a country I won't mention.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

The Chicago Black Hawks were 2-1 winners to grab a 2-0 series lead over the Philadelphia Flyers.  If game one was open and exciting, game two was the complete opposite.

Colorado Rocky Ubaldo Jimenez shut out the San Francisco Giants yesterday to move to 10-1 on the season and lower his ERA to a ridiculous 0.78. 

Enjoy these short films on the living players who scored goals in the World Cup Final. Beautiful, and addictive stuff.

Shame on me for missing out on another ridiculous baseball injury in the past few days. This one is Los Angeles Angels catch Kendry Morales breaking his leg celebrating a walk-off grand slam.

Stephen Strasburg, aka "the best pitching prospect ever", will make his debut for the surprising Washington Nationals on June 8th. Nats manager Manny Acta told The Jim Rome Show last week that Strasburg is on a 150-160 innings pitched limit for this season, which leaves him about 100 innings to throw.

The best idea to come to attending live NFL games, perhaps ever, is that NFL RedZone, which moves to each game as it goes into the red zone, will be available to every stadium. Why?  Frankly, because the NFL in-game experience is real dull aside from the party with all the ridiculous time outs.

If you can't sell tickets to a game ahead of time, you may as well try to sell them after. The Florida Marlins are selling leftover tickets from Roy Halladay's perfect game on Saturday.  In other news, the Toronto Blue Jays are said to be contemplating doing the same, what with all their inventory.

Speaking of the Jays, they were impressive 3-2 winners over the suddenly shaky Tampa Bay Rays. Brandon Morrow looked impressive on the bump as the Jays moved to 3.5 behind the first place Rays. Is the AL East a four team race?

Monday, May 31, 2010

A little late today, blame a pretty crazy time at the office.

Barely a week after winning the Champions League, Jose Mourinho is off, as was rumored last week, to Real Madrid Check out this article, in which JM sets a new world record for usage of the word "I".  The guy has a hell of a resume, but I suspect the moment Sir Alex Ferguson bails from Manchester United, he'll be in hot pursuit of that job to continue his whoredom to the biggest clubs in the game.

You can almost set your watch to it.  Adidas unveils the new ball for a given World Cup, declaring it the most technologically advanced version yet.  Shortly thereafter, players complain that it is difficult to control, behaves strangely, and Adidas responds denying the feedback and mentioning they had extensive player feedback in the development process.  The tourney starts, the comments die off, life goes on.

Bob McCown of Fan 590 called Toronto Blue Jay Aaron Hill the worst hitter in the American League. Ouch.

One AL executive on the subject of pending free agent Cliff Lee: “I have no doubt that the Yankees will sign Cliff Lee.”  Here's hoping said executive is with Seattle right now, or New York.

Spanish midfielder Xavi thinks that England will be very much in the running for the World Cup.  Maybe he doesn't know their goaltending is at best average?

Quick weekend wrap to wrap: the NBA Final is set, and will see Boston and the L.A. Lakers play for the ugly trophy...Toronto FC were 3-1 winners at San Jose, and sit second place in the Eastern Conference...the Chicago Black Hawks opened the Stanley Cup Finals with a wild 6-5 win over Philadelphia.  That's almost as many goals as were scored in last year's entire final series.  Only mild sarcasm there...Rashad Evans beat "Rampage" Jackson by decision in UFC 114's main event...Rock of Ages in Toronto is one hell of a great night of entertainment.  Guaranteed hit for anybody who grew up in the 80's or was a fan of that era's rock.

Have a great day.
RM returns over the noon hour, I hope.