Blast from the Past

What a return to Progressive Field (The Jake, in my mind) for Chien Ming Wang. A true baseball fan couldn't have asked for a better dueling of the aces. Chien Ming Wang (4-0) came into face off with CC Sabathia (1-3). Wang left as one of two ML pitchers with a 5-0 start in April and Sabathia hit the showers with an abysmal 1-4 crawl through the first month of play. However, all is not lost for Cleveland fans. Anyone watching the game Sunday knows that CC's "loss" is only deemed so for record keeping purposes. CC hurled 8 innings, scattering 4 hits, striking out 8, and walking 1. The only error he made was allowing a 5th inning Melky Cabrera solo HR (5), which turned out to be the difference. The true spectacle, however, was Wang's game breaking performance. Despite CC's brilliance, Wang stole the show throwing for 7 innings, allowing 4 hits, walking 2, and striking out 9, surrendering nary a run. Then, watching Joba and Mo work through the last 2 innings as if it were a stroll through a park on temperate summer day. However, what really excited me as a Yankees fan was noticing the unmistakable likeness this year's team bears to the 1996 Yankees team...

Homegrown Talent:

'96 - Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettite, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams

'08 - Robinson Cano, Joba Chamberlain, Melky Cabrera, Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy

Trusty Vets:

'96 - Wade Boggs, Paul O'Neill, Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez

'08 - Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettite, Jorge Posada (note the similarity to Homegrown Talent '96)

Aged Superstarts:

'96 - Tim Raines, Daryl Strawberry, Ruben Sierra, Cecil Fielder, Dwight Gooden, Jimmy Key

'08 - Johnny Damon, Bobby Abreu, Jason Giambi, Mike Mussina

Enter Sandman:

'96 - Set up: Mariano Rivera Closer: John Wetteland

'08 - Set up: Joba Chamberlain Closer: Mariano Rivera

New Sheriff in Town:

'96 - A Catcher named Joe

'08 - A Catcher named Joe

The comparison is uncanny, but what is mostly exciting is seeing Brian Cashman really enforce the ways of old. Mimicking the most recent of the Yankees' Golden Ages. The foundation is there, the leadership is there, the ownership's insistence on winning is there. Let's just hope the WS rings are there come October.

Random Thoughts of the Week

1. Sunday I attended one of the top 10 sporting events I've ever seen in person. No, it wasn't the Masters, it wasn't the Red Sox Yankees game...It was game 3 of the Bruins vs. Habs first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Despite the hard hitting aggressive play, the chants, the many cheers and beers, and the outcome in overtime (Bruins won 2-1) I couldn't help but walk away a little disappointed. Will the NHL ever get the appreciation in America it deserves? I couldn't believe it when I showed up at the arena an hour early, and the parties were dominated by Montreal fans, and the attendance had to have been at least 50/50 Bruins/Canadians fans...if not even in Montreal's favor. Why is it Canadians get it and we don't? Hockey is a fast paced, skillful hard hitting sport. There are minimal stoppages, consistent player changes, and many scoring chances. I think a Montreal fan wearing the Blue and Red towel holding a Stanley Cup made of aluminum foil said it best when looking at the TD Banknorth Garden's souvenir shop: "why is all the Celtics gear in the window right now? All I see is Green. Don't they know the Bruins are playing tonight?" Who knows...

2. I love Hank Steinbrenner. He is far more interesting than Mark Cuban, and may be the most enjoyable baseball owner since Marge Schott. (come on, we all remember her and Schottzie, her lovable little mutt that used to defecate all over Riverfront Stadium.) After spending $50,000 to have a weekend construction crew come in and spend 5 hours drilling through concrete to pull out a planted David Ortiz Jersey, Steinbrenner made the following statement: "This is such a bunch of bullshit. I hope his coworkers kick the shit out of him." This is the latest on a bunch of classic lines including my personal favorite, "This is Yankees' Nation. We are going to put the Yankees back on top and restore order to the universe." That's just classic. I'm not even being sarcastic. I really like the guy, great entertainment.

3. I saw a couple of goobers trying to "speed walk" the other day. This got me thinking, "how the hell are some sports created?" Even further, how the hell do people even get involved in some of the more obscure sports. Speed walking, or officially known as race walking, is an actual Olympic sport! How did that become an Olympic sport and golf isn't? The only thing I can think of is that it all started one day when the recess bell rang, and everyone starting rushing to the door at which point a teacher yells the cliche command, "no running in the halls!" Every child knows how to handle this situation.....walk as fast as you can and elbow the chump next to you without technically running. Check out this Youtube video of a 20Km...yes I said 20Km, race walking event.

4. Here are the Hots Nots of my ESPN MLB fantasy team (Southie Sluggers) through the first 2 weeks:

Hot: Derrek Lee (64 points), Raul Ibanez(62 points), Livan Hernandez (58 points)

Not: Robinson Cano (16 points) my boy J.J. Hardy (He will come around for sure,15.5 points), Nate Robertson (5 points)

Sleeper of the year: Andre Ethier. Took Juan Pierre's spot in the L.A. outfield....keep an eye on him.

Series 1 - @ Boston - Red Sox 2 - Yankees 1

After Dr. Reisman threw out the first pitch; and I'm still not sure how I feel about that. I'll let it slide on this occasion on account of him being a native of Parsippany, NJ, neighbor of my hometown: Denville, NJ. And after the Ortiz jersey was unearthed from deep in the new Yankee Stadium's concrete foundation, the Red Sox took two out of three from the Yanks, winning the rubber match 8-5 in which Philip Hughes looked spectacular, especially over the first two frames. At least Dice didn't look like a world beater. That was encouraging. As was seeing that Posada's arm has healed by leaps and bounds. That was evident late in the game Sunday Night. But overall, I can't complain about the outcome too much after a weekend at Fenway playing as poorly as the Yankees have been. You figure it's hard enough to beat the Super Sox on a good day let alone with an anemic offense and, our staple, poor pitching.

On a side note, I think they should have left the Papi jersey in the infrastructure of the new Stadium. As long as it's been buried there, D.O. has struggled to say the least. Boasting the lowest BA of any player in the ML, that qualifies, Papi has gone 3-for-43 overall and just 1-for-his-last-29 for a .070 average for the season to date. Secondly, all of that nonsense and drama shit the Red Sox rounded up in October of 2004 to pull off the miracle of miracles about believing, and idiots, and red sox nation, and reversing the curse. It appears now, four years and 2 Red Sox WS championships later, that the most enduring of their charming little mantras was reversing the curse. I'm not a superstitious kinda guy and I didn't buy it at first as I thought it was just your standard Boston propaganda because they like the soap opera part of things more than the game itself. But, it has held true. The Yankees surrendered their streak of first place finishes, they have been dismissed in the first round of the last three MLB playoffs, but worse, Boston has meanwhile prospered. After witnessing all of the events that transpired to allow the Red Sox to win that ALCS after they had infinitesimal chances of doing so. The indefensible steals of Dave Roberts. The 2-out rallies of the Red Sox, pick which one was your favorite. Mariano Rivera. Mariano Rivera. Mariano Rivera. Tony Clark's ground-rule double over the, coincidentally, shortest fence in the Major Leagues that missed winning the series by a matter of inches. Getting eerie, isn't it? Never mind all of that. The Red Sox Nation believed that the idiots could reverse the curse! And I didn't even get into the topic of AA level ballplayers resurrecting their previously tepid careers one after the other soon after arriving in Boston (i.e. Millar, Mueller, Bellhorn, Ortiz, Damon). Or the incomprehensible ability of slumping players or generally poor players breaking out solely against the New York Yankees (i.e. Varitek, Nixon). The point is that the Trost should have left the jersey embedded in the stadium to allow the Yankees teams for years to come to experience the good fortune the Red Sox have enjoyed over the last 4 years. We gotta get it back.

Nice Return for Buckner


First of all, let's congratulate the University of Tennessee Women's basketball team for winning yet another invigorating women's tournament....I think I actually watched 5 or 6 minutes of this year's classic event. I'm sorry, these women are talented, but after watching the likes of Hansbrough, Curry, Love and Rose.. the women just don't cut it. And can someone please tell me why Candace Parker wore a long sleeve T-shirt in the final 4??? Did she think this was some kind of hot yoga class? I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it, I wouldn't have made 4 laps up and down the court before gnawing those sweaty sleeves off my arms. Anyway, to the meat of this post...

People outside of the Boston sports world may have missed what happened opening day at Fenway Park on Tuesday. All day leading up to the game WEEI (local Boston sports radio) was saying that the person throwing out the first pitch would be special, and "moving." Brainstorming the possibilities the best I could come up with was Kevin Millar, and by no means am I proud of that statement. I mean come on, is there any other player in MLB that would more blatantly rather be on another team? I think Kevin Millar would play for the Sox for free if Theo would let him. (check out this video of Papelbon interviewing Millar, He disects the entire Sox team without mentioning the Orioles. My favorite part is the end of the video where he says" the Sox will win by default--it's cheating").

To my most heartbreaking disappointment it was not Kevin Millar. Sitting on my couch at 2 in the afternoon (yes home from work, 3 bud lights deep), I was shocked to see the infamous Bill Buckner walk out of the Green Monster to the mound to throw out the first pitch. It was a truly touching moment for all Sox fans, and quite apparently to the teary eyed Buckner as well. I don't need to get into the details of what Bill Buckner is famous for, unfortunately this is pretty much all anyone knows about him. What I would like to point out is the other side of the story; the very decent 22 years that Bill Buckner played baseball. First of all, anyone that plays baseball for 22 years in the bigs knows what they're doing, clearly that is not an easy accomplishment. Buckner finished up with a very respectable .289 lifetime BA, 1,208 RBI, and hit over .300 7 times including .324 in 1980. In 5 of his 22 years he even received MVP votes. He finished with a career .992 fielding percentage. 99.2% of the time the guy fielded the ball cleanly....what an unfortunate time to have the .8 kick in huh? Even with that though, the Sox still had the opportunity to win that game (game 6) and game 7 of that series in 1986. So anyway, it was nice to see the Sox fans give Buckner a 2 or 3 minute standing ovation....the poor guy deserved it.

I agree with Rob. I, too, am making a bigger effort to watch the NHL playoffs this season. My Bruins are playing the Canadiens, who have been the Bruins' daddy's all year (7-0 against the black and gold). But it is the playoffs, you never know what can happen with this great rivalry. I will be at the game on Sunday night at the Garden, I'll let you know how it goes....

Put it on Ice

I have dedicated myself to watching the NHL playoffs in their entirety this year. The Devils are my squad which makes it nice that they feature the best goalie in hockey history. You will hear lots of people argue for George Hainsworth and his impeccable goals against averages but he played around the time FDR's New Deal was being radio broadcast into people's living rooms. The game has changed and so with it the requirements for claiming the #1 spot. Patrick Roy had a phenomenal career, but if you want to get technical and look strictly at statistics, Martin Brodeur tops more statistical categories than the other roughneck frenchman. The fact is that as far as active goalies are concerned, Brodeur, Belfour, and Curtis Joseph have posted the most impressive career numbers in regards to wins, shutouts, playoff wins, playoff shutouts, and goals against average. Dominik Hasek can't go without mention but he's been around the same amount of time as Brodeur (15 seasons) without nearly the numbers. Brodeur has proven a winner too, having hoisted the Stanley Cup 3 times. Whatever the measure, Brodeur has to be argued as the game's best.

I post this with a couple of motives. One, to praise and commend Martin Brodeur for his accomplishments during a very impressive career. And two, to defend the guy after allowing 4 goals last night in a 4-1 romp at the hands of some team that doesn't really matter. The match-up between the Devils and Rangers couldn't be more inviting as a first round battle. The Devils finished the season better than the Rangers but the season series sways strongly in the favor of the Rangers (7-1). I'm not scared. Three of those losses were decided in OT or a Shootout and the remaining games were decided by no more than 2 goals in any case. On top of that, the most recent clash had the Devils victorious moving into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The game is played on ice but it is all about who gets hot.

The bottom line is that the NHL playoffs are bigger than the Devils-Rangers first round series. There are excellent teams in the post-season and no one team is clearly dominant. The Red Wings and the Sharks come in as the teams to watch, but how about the surging Capitals that came from last place to clinch a shot at the cup? The Flames showcase Jerome Iginla who can change a game every time he touches the puck. You've got gritty veterans like Shanahan, Jagr, Fedorov, and the aforementioned Hasek. You've got young phenoms in Crosby, Ovechkin, and Fleury. These players have to show up and make fireworks. Their teams need it. The NHL needs it.

Where's the Slipper?!

75-68 F/OT. Thank god. If there were any tremblings about this year's March Madness not living up to the usual billing, they were quickly quieted after the National Championship Game. Sure, my bracket didn't pan out the way I would have liked to see but that hasn't put a damper on my view of the tournament. Granted we didn't see the proverbial Cinderella go on a tear into the Final Four a la George Mason; Davidson was the closest thing. Although, anyone watching Stephen Curry and Jason Richards had the feeling that maybe Davidson was just a good team. But, we did get something out of it. The top 4 seeds made up the final four for the first time in history. Kansas made easy work of the Tar Heels/Tyler Hansbrough... you ever notice the goofy bug-eyed kid that is somehow good even shares initials with the mascot? Anyway, Memphis went on a charge behind a special Freshman that seems to have an extra hundred horsepower over the next fastest guy. The emergence of stars told the story of this years tournament. We saw a lot of things but I firmly believe that had the National Championship game not transpired the way it did, we would have been left feeling a little cheated. It just perpetuates the mystique of a tournament that seems destined not to fail. Name another playoff system that generates the same excitement and anticipation as March Madness. It is a pool of 64 teams, not even the top 64 teams in the country, mind you, and yet the competition is always second to none. Now draw comparisons to the depravity of the BCS in college football. It really is a shame. So I want to thank you again March Madness for living up to the reputation that so precedes you.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Looks as though the start of this baseball season will start the same way it has over the past few years. Fresh off a disappointing Duke loss in the NCAA tourney, I look to my trusted New York Yankees for a pick-me-up. However, to no avail, we see the most anticipated offense in baseball bring a meager 17 runners across home plate over 6 games; an average of less than 3 runs a game. However, I am a believer in the law of averages. Duke will rebound next year, literally and figuratively, and the Yankees will find themselves closer to the 6 runs a game that the 2007 lineup boasted (prediction count: 1). And I know all of this because of one sustainable fact: The Orioles are in first place through the first week of the 2008 season. A feat that has Vegas odds of 1 to 1. Just as sure, September will have the Orioles finding themselves defending fourth place only to allow it to slip away to a respectable Rays team (prediction count: 2). This plays into another indisputable fact: That the AL East is the only division which truly matters and the Yankees and Red Sox are the only teams within the division that truly matter. With all due respect to the other teams as they will surely give us our licks throughout the season only to see fate wrap its fingers around the game as the Sox and Yankees finish one, two respectively as September draws to a close (prediction count: 3).

The beauty of baseball is that the law of averages applies nowhere else as strongly as it does to the sport of baseball. Albert Pujols hit 14 home runs in April two seasons ago, ending the season with 49. Alex Rodriguez matched the April home run barrage a year later, finishing the season at 56. To be sure, these are no numbers to scoff at but the point is that they didn't end the season flirting with 100 round trippers. In 1998, Juan Gonzales had 101 RBI at the break, only to end the season with 157. Once again, an impressive figure, but not worthy of shattering Hack Wilson's 68 year old record, a record no one will ever break (prediction count: 4).

You may wonder where exactly I am going with this so I will end all of the suspense. The Yankees will have a poor showing in April. But April showers bring May flowers. They will end April hovering around .500 (prediction count: 5). They will leave the month of May, entering the dog days of summer, atop the AL East leader board (prediction count: 6). They never fail. Spoken like a true modern-era Yankees fan (1985-present). I never suffered through the miserable eighties of hapless last place finishes and players whose only evidence of MLB employment is a 1984 Fleer wax-pack baseball card complete with chewing gum residue on the back. Perception is reality and I see the Yankees finishing strong, per usual.

Naturally, the question arises of where such lofty expectations came to be. I assure you, I won't be spuming with positivity down 1 run to the Red Sox in the 3rd inning (those are sure losses, just ask Erik). But, the scales always find a way to level out. So my advice to you is not to mind all of the analyst mumbo jumbo or color commentators gushing over how the highest payroll in baseball is struggling mightily on the field. It is merely something that comes with the territory. The Detroit Tigers are the only winless team in baseball to this point, meanwhile they flaunt the second highest payroll in the league. Yet, there are no warnings of Rome burning down quite yet. I posit that the headlines would be different if the Yankees started with an 0-5 mark.

P.S. I promise nothing by making predictions. I commiserate with Mike Greenberg of Mike&Mike in this respect.