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A day of crashes

Tuesday, June 13th, 2006

What an ugly day. Nothing good came out of Monday, it was the devil’s day or something. First the U.S. World Cup team got spanked around by the Czech Republic and then came the news that Steelers QB Ben Roethilsberger was in a pretty serious motorcycle accident. Like I said, no good news. First to the World Cup. The experts all said that this was going to be a tough match up for the U.S as the Czech Republic, ranked 2nd in the FIFA rankings, is no slouch but it was supposed to be at least competitive. Anyone who watched knows that the actual game was pretty far away from being competitive.

I’m a soccer lay man so I’ll defer to those who know what they are talking about but from what I saw it looked like the US squad simply failed to show up. They looked flat all game, got beaten to most balls and let the Czech team run circles around them. Perhaps the buildup of expectations leading to the Cup was too much and everyone knows the US is in the so-called “Group of Death” but still, show up and give it a go, you know? Jonah Freedman at SI.com makes the analogy of the US being the wimps in the school yard and the Czechs being the bullies who slap the wimps around. As Freedman says, the convergence of the Czechs playing near-perfect and the US being awful led to the ugly 3-0 score which probably wasn’t even that close.

The coverage of the game has been universally negative. The ESPN 2 studio set ripped the team to shreds immediately after the match and justifiably so. An aside here, did you know that some of the announcers for the games (not the US ones though) are not actually in Germany but rather watching the games on TV from Bristol and doing the coverage from that? Its true, John Harkes was in the Bristol studio providing analysis and then he called the Italy/Ghana game. The guy had been talking so much his voice kept cracking. Anyway everyone’s ripping the US team. Jeff Carlisle at Soccernet says the team needs a change in attitude, probably something you don’t want to hear after only one game but thats how dire the U.S.’s circumstances are. Carlisle drops words like “courage” and “aggressiveness” and says the US needs a lot more of both. Jamie Trecker at Foxsports.com busts some myths about the 2002 World Cup preformance and points out the flaws that were exposed against the Czech Republic. Among the flaws: Eddie Pope is old and slow and Landon Donovan, if he wants to be a star, can’t be taken out of the game completely like the Czechs did. Brian Sinkoff at the TNR World Cup blog provides the most complete takedown of the team and yesterday’s game. Next up for US? Italy on Saturday in a must win game. Oh well, maybe next…um, four years from now, will be our year.

What are you doing Ben?
OK I can understand the whole “living life on the edge” vibe. I get it. I’ve even thought of getting a motorcycle myself but, and you may not have known this, I don’t earn millions upon millions of dollars as a NFL starting QB. Big Ben (I’m not spelling his name) is a starting QB and even better for him, he just led his team the Steelers to the title. Now he’s lying in a hospital after seven hours of surgery to fix the effects of a motorcycle accident the guy had yesterday morning. Right now the reports are that the guy has a broken jaw, a broken nose, a 9-inch cut on the back of his head, chipped and missing teeth and banged up/cut knees. The worst part? The guy wasn’t wearing a helmet. Honestly he’s in serious but stable condition right now but he’s lucky to be a live. His bike got pretty messed up as did the car that hit it. Witnesses say Ben went head first into the car’s windshield. A tragic sidenote: Ben’s mom died when he was 8 in a car accident.

Like I said, he’s lucky to be a live. In Pennsylvania you are allowed to ride a bike with out a helmet but that obviously doesn’t make it a very good idea. Its unclear at this point how long Big Ben’s going to be out but it takes 7 weeks or so to heal a broken jaw, at the least. When I heard about the crash the first thing that popped into my mind was the Jay Williams story or the Kellen Winslow accident. We all know about their accidents on motorcycles and both guys are only this year ready to make an attempt, an attempt at making a comeback. Obviously you hope that Ben’s situation is nothing like what happened to Williams but when are these athletes going to learn? They aren’t invincible. Fine ride a motorcycle but for God’s sake wear a helmet. The best piece on the whole situation is SI’s Michael Silver take. Best wishes to Ben and his family.

NBA Finals come to Miami
One would assume the crowd is going to be pretty wild for tonight’s NBA Finals Game 3 in Miami and really, the Heat need all the help they can get down 2-0 to the Mavs. The games at 9 on ABC and in a sign of how bad things are for the Heat SI.com’s Kelly Dwyer think’s its safe enough to call out Shaq as a chump. This has nothing to do with his play but Marc Stein came up with a list of Shaq’s 10 best Finals quotes. Shaq may be done as a player (we doubt that) but he’s always been a funny guy. Anyway we think the Heat take this one at home with big games from Shaq (please, please) and Wade of course to bring the series to 2-1 and make things a little more interesting.

Yesterday’s American League games

O’s starter Kris Benson is a Blue Jays-stopper. He’s 7-5 on the year but 3-1 against Toronto. The Blue Jays’ Alex Rios continues to break out, he hit 2 HRs in the loss. The O’s have actually been pretty decent against Toronto this year. O’s 6, Blue Jays 4.

Jose Contreras can’t be beaten. He’s won 15 games in a row after yesterday’s victory over the Rangers. Contreras struck out 11 in the win. Wonder how much the Yankees would love to have him back in their rotation. White Sox 8, Rangers 3.

The way the year has been going for the Tigers and the Devil Rays you knew, once this game went into extra innings, that Tampa wasn’t going to win this game. And of course they didn’t. Curtis Granderson drove in the winning run in the 13th on his fourth hit of the night. Tigers 4, Tampa 3.

Yesterday’s National League games
In your face Jim Bowden! Traded away by the Nats GM in the off-season, Rockies 2nd baseman Jamey Carroll returned triumphant to RFK with 3 hits and and RBI. Rockies 4, Nats 3.

Rookie Zach Jackson gave up four jacks but the Brewers rallied behind Prince Fielder and Richie Weeks to steal one from the Reds. Adam Dunn hit his 21st bomb of the year in the loss. Dunn’s batting .236 on the year with a ton of strikeouts so basically when he makes contact its going out. Brewers 6, Reds 5.

Odds and Ends

Kicking the man while he’s down, MLB has given Jason Grimsley a nice little 50 game suspension in light of the recent news about the fellow. Listen, Grimsley is 38 years old and not that good to begin with, he’s never playing in the majors again. So fine, suspend the guy, but he’ll never have to serve it out.

Here’s a lovely mock NBA draft from Dime Magazine. They’ve got Texas C LaMarcus Aldridge going first to the Raptors. At this point, who really has any clue though?

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The Big Disappearing Act

Monday, June 12th, 2006

There are really no words to describe what it has been like to watch Shaq in this series. We are only two games in to this series but at the moment Shaq looks like a shell of his former self. Who would have thought that Erick Dampier and DeSagana Diop, working with double teams, would be able to cause this much trouble for Shaq. And Shaq and the Heat are in a lot of trouble right now, down 2-0 to the Mavs. You can’t say the series is over, not with three games to come in Miami, but if the Heat don’t change things radically then the Mavs could waltz all the way to the championship.

Last night’s box score is shocking to look at. Shaq, in an NBA Finals game, had five points (five points!) on five shots. Think about that, Shaq, still one of the most intimidating forces in the game took only five shots the entire game. Udonis Haslem, known primarily for his rebounding, took one more shot then Shaq and scored one more point too. Five Heat players took more shots then Shaq. How is that possible, after everyone said after Game 1 that the Heat needed to get Shaq more involved, that they managed to get him less involved? Pat Riley sat Shaq for the entire 4th quarter and Shaq skipped his postgame interview responsibilities, earning himself a nice little fine.

And about those free throws. Shaq was 1-7 from the charity stripe in Game 2 which puts him at 2 for 16 in the series. Shaq has always maintained that he would make his free throws when it mattered but you’ve got to think this pile up of misses is starting to weigh on him. His free throw shots at this point have almost no chance of going in; he’s shooting straight lines with no arc at all. Its sad to see really. Are his misses getting into his head? Its hard to imagine but it seems like it.

It should also be pointed out that Dwyane Wade isn’t having the series of his life. Wade dropped 23 points in Game 2 but only shot 6-19 from the field and had 4 turnovers. As the Heat’s primary ball handler, Wade has to receive some of the blame for not getting Shaq involved. You can hate on Kobe all you want, and almost everyone does, but Kobe would have made sure Shaq got his shots. When Shaq and Kobe played together on the Lakers Shaq would complain about Kobe being selfish during the regular season but when the playoffs came around Kobe always made sure that Shaq was happy and involved. Wade is admittedly dealing with an older Shaq then Kobe played with but Wade has to work harder to get Shaq into the game. Otherwise the Heat are dunlevey.

Whats going to happen in Game 3 in Miami? Its hard to say. With the Finals being 2-3-2 the Heat have an excellent chance to right their ship. Certainly, despite his struggles, it’s hard to bet against Shaq playing at home in front of that crowd but we would have said it was hard to bet against Shaq playing well from the start of this series and look whats happened. The problem for the Heat is, even if Shaq does perform at the level we expect of him that might not be enough. Dirk is back to being Dirk after a shaky Game 1; he dropped 26 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in Game 2. Jerry Stackhouse had 19, Josh Howard 15, Jason Terry 16, Devin Harris 11. The Heat are getting better then expected production from Antoine Walker but thats about it. At this point its Wade versus the world, with the world beating the hell out of him. Mavs 99, Heat 85.

World Cup Fix
Today’s the big day, US v. Czech Republic at noonish. Games have already been played but who cares about all those other countries? Thats not to say other countries don’t care, two people died in Somalia during riots to protest a hardline Muslim court’s decision to ban World Cup broadcasts. Something like that probably wouldn’t happen in this country. Today we have dueling pieces that come at the US confidence level from opposite angles. Jamie Trecker at Foxsports.com says the US is anxious to win on European soil, something that in the past, during the World Cup, has been a challenge. Wayne Drehs at ESPN.com on the other hand looks at the unshakable confidence of US coach Bruce Arena. Arena can rub people the wrong way (he has no worries about speaking his mind) but he seems like a guy you’d play hard for.
Every major media outlet is doing the whole “blog the World Cup” thing but for our money the best out there is the one over at the New Republic (yeah I know). Its sorta all over the place but its alot more interesting then the typical efforts. TNR editor Franklin Foer (author of the very good How Soccer Explains the World) is joined by friends from a variety of walks of life at “The Goal Post“.

Perhaps the most important soccer-related article you’ll ever read: “How do the Brazilian players get their names?” brought to us by the always helpful Explainer at Slate. Did you know, for instance, that 17 of the 23 players on Brazil’s roster go by a single name? For the most part scorers, primarily forwards, are blessed with single-name nicknames. Portugal, Spain and Angola also are very into the single-name thing.

Superman, meet kryptonite
Looks like Roger Federer, world’s greatest tennis player, has a bit of a problem with Rafael Nadal on clay courts. Nadal, quite simply, is unbeatable on clay courts; the guy has won 60 straight clay court matches, including Sunday’s victory over Federer in the French Open final. Nadal’s also not to shabby against Federer on really any surface; Nadal has beaten Federer 6 times in their 7 matches. For a while (when Andy Roddick was still good) tennis people were worried that Federer might not have anyone to test him and his greatness but with Nadal establishing himself as a star thats no longer a concern. Greg Garber at ESPN.com speculates that Federer may never win the French Open as long as Nadal is around. Matthew Cronin at Foxsports.com thinks this last match could be a passing of the torch moment. We are all for getting caught up in Nadal’s greatness, and he is great, but when Federer wins the next to Majors, and he should be the favorite to do so, these same guys are going to be falling all over themselves saying Federer is the greatest ever. And I mean come on, Nadal wears capri pants for God’s sake.

Hopkins has one last fight in him
On Saturday night I was out boozing and after the bars closed there was a pretty big brawl in the street that stopped and started a couple of times and resulted in a couple of people getting pretty messed up. It was a lovely time really and my friend Stilz pointed out that it was better then watching the Hopkins-Tarver fight we had missed earlier in the evening. Maybe, maybe not because apparently Bernard Hopkins went all out in the last fight of his career. Tarver was the 3-1 favorite going into the fight but all three judges scored it 118-109 in Hopkins favor. Basically Tarver got beat down like some of the guys I saw on Saturday night. I’m actually glad because Tarver has beaten my man Roy Jones, Jr. twice so I’ll always not like him. Big up to Hopkins and also the random guys on the street.

Yesterday’s American League games
The Red Sox and Rangers split an old fashioned double header yesterday with the Red Sox taking the first game on a walk off two-run shot by, of course, David Ortiz. In the second game the dynamic duo of Gary Matthews and Mark DeRosa combined for 8 hits to lead the Rangers. Red Sox 5, Rangers 4. Rangers 13, Red Sox 6.

Looks like the Twins have a keeper with this Liriano kid, he’s pretty sick. 7 innings yesterday giving up only one hit and no runs. Him and Santana gives the Twins a pretty lethal 1-2 punch, too bad they’ll never spend enough to have a real contending team. Twins 4, O’s 0.

Felix Hernandez is in the middle of a mediocre and disappointing season but he put everything together yesterday in a complete game victory over the Angels. The kid stroke out 9 and only allowed 2 runs. Admittedly he was facing Jared Weaver so he was almost guarenteed a victory but impressive nonetheless. Mariners 6, Angels 2.

Tampa’s Jonny Gomes might be the most underrated power hitter in the majors. He broke out last year and this year he’s got 17 jacks after hitting two yesterday. Carl Crawford hit two jacks of his own as Tampa won easily over the terrible Royals. Crawford by the way is being mentioned in trade rumors, in particular to the Angels for Ervin Santana. Tampa 8, Royals 2.

The Indians withstood 6 White Sox runs in the 9th to win. Cleveland catcher Victor Martinez is on a bit of a tear as he hit his 3rd HR in two games, one of 4 HRs hit by the Indians. Indians 10, White Sox 8.

Tigers pitchers gave up four HRs to Blue Jays hitters but the Tigers still won, thanks in large part to Pudge Rodriguez’s 5 RBIs. Its got to be a little worrisome to the Blue Jays that they are starting the completely washed up Edgardo Alfonzo at 2B. Tigers 10, Toronto 5.

We said it before and we’ll say it again: Here come the A’s. They swept the Yankees, in New York, and I’m telling you, they are making their move, just like they do every year. Barry Zito won his 7th game of the year and Nick Swisher continued to breakout with his 17th HR, this one of the inside-the-park variety. A’s 6, Yankees 5.

Yesterday’s National League games
Where have you gone Jake Peavy? We pointed this out last time the guy started, that he’s been nothing like people expected, and he sucked yesterday. The guy’s 4-7 on the year now after getting rocked for 6 runs in 5 innings. He can still strike people out though as he K’d 10 Marlins but he’s not helping the Padres win. Marlins 7, Padres 3.

When Daryl Ward gets into a ball he can hit that thing a mile. I saw him hit a pinch-hit homer yesterday that if it hadn’t hit the upper deck probably would still be going right now. Also someone needs to tell Sal Fasano to shave because, I mean seriously, he’s in a race with Adam Morrison for worst sports facial hair. Nats 6, Philly 0.

The usual reliable Brian Fuentes blew his second save of the year for the Rockies as the patchwork Dodgers scored 2 in the 9th for the come from behind victory. Nomar is hitting .358 on the year, don’t call it a comeback. Dodgers 6, Rockies 5.

Its bad enough that Barry Bonds is banged up and sitting out, now the Giants lose 3 out of 4 to the lowly Pirates. Jason Schmidt pitched well enough to win but the Giants bullpen blew it for him, culminating in Jose Bautista’s go ahead grand slam in the 8th for the Pirates. Pirates 7, Giants 5.

Remember when Russ Ortiz was like a decent starting pitcher with the Giants and then the Braves? He’s just awful now with the Diamondbacks and he got crushed yesterday, giving up 7 runs in 3 1/3 innings. The Mets blew up the D-Backs with Delgado and Beltran chipping in 3 and 4 RBIs respectively. Mets 15, D-Backs 2.

It was a bad day all around for the Braves’ Horacio Ramirez. Not only did he give up 7 in 1 2/3 innings but he also took a line drive off his forehead and got knocked out of the game. The Astros pound Atlanta behind Jason Lane’s 5 RBIs. Astros 14, Braves 4.

You silly Reds. How can you be contenders and yet lose 3 of 4 to the Cubs of all people? Thats just not going to cut it guys, not if you want to win your division. Cubs 9, Reds 3.

The Cards are hanging on without Pujols, taking two of three from the Brewers. Prince Fielder hit a jack for the Brewers; what kind of name is Prince anyway? Isn’t that more of a horse or dog name? Whatever. Dayn Perry at Foxsports.com examines the changes in the NL Central with Pujols out and Clemens coming back. Cards 7, Brewers 5.

Odds and Ends
Marcus Vick, despite going undrafted, might actually have a chance of making the Dolphins as a poor, poor man’s Randel El-type player. That is if he can manage to not drive to fast/pull a gun/smoke the wacky weed.

New ESPN.com MLB Power Rankings are out. White Sox are first, replacing the Pujols-less Cards. Biggest suprise perhaps? The Reds in the seven spot. How long can the Red Stockings keep this up?

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Well that was odd

Friday, June 9th, 2006

Sometimes things just don’t work out like you thought they would. Take last night’s Mavs/Heat Game 1. Dirk scores 16 points….and the Mavs still win? Dirk and Josh Howard shot a combined 7-28…and the Mavs still win? The Mavs won because Jason Terry dropped in 32 points and because Shaq didn’t play well. To be quite honest, the Heat had to win this game. When Dirk and Howard shoot that poorly you have to take advantage because you can’t expect that to happen every game.

The Heat exploded out of the gate, shooting 70% from the field for 31 points in the first quarter but after that they only scored 49 points in the remaining three quarters. Really the worst thing that happened to the Heat was Antoine Walker hitting a couple of threes early. That only encouraged him to keep shooting and shoot he did. He ended up 7-19 from the field including 3-9 from downtown and added 6 turnovers. Basically he was the Walker out of Pat Riley’s nightmares. The real problem for the Heat though is Shaq’s preformance. He played 38 minutes, which is good and was 8-11 from the field, which is a nice shooting percentage but way to few shots. Only 11 shots for Shaq when he’s going up against Diop and Dampier? No way that should happen. No way Walker should be taking 8 more shots then Shaq. Free throws were once again a problem for Shaq, 1-9 from the line is not helping his cause. The Heat also need their bench to pick up their preformance, just 2 points isn’t going to cut it, not when the Mavs got 24 from theirs. Wade scored 28 points but he needs help if the Heat are going to be competative in this series.

For the Mavs the only feeling they should have right now is happiness. Forget concern about Howard and Nowitzki’s bad shooting, they defended the home court advantage and now have a 1-0 lead in the series. Jason Terry probably isn’t going to shot 13-18 from the field again but he will put up good numbers. Devin Harris’ didn’t play well (or even start) which needs to change but a victory makes everything look rosy. Mavs 90, Heat 80.
World Cup Fix
Need some last minute help before finishing your World Cup pool entry? Here’s SI.com’s experts picks.

Here comes the worst possible scenario
The Jason Grimsley fallout is just begining but already one of the biggest names out there could find himself involved, at least by guilt through association: Albert Pujols. Lets be clear here, no one is saying Pujols took steroids and obviously he hasn’t tested positive for anything. But Deadspin has learned that one of the blacked out names in the Grimsley affidavit was Chris Mihlfeld. Who’s Chris Mihifield? He’s Pujols’ personal trainer. Like we said, this is guilt by association, maybe. In the affidavit Grimsley says Mihifield told him who to contact to get some steroids. Again to be clear, the guy who Grimsley got the steroids from wasn’t Pujols trainer but rather the guy who Pujol’s trainer told him to call. In an update to their original post the Deadspin guys also point to a diary Grimsley wrote for MLB.com in which he thanks Mihifield for helping him recover from surgery. So when we said yesterday that this could get bad we didn’t really realize how bad it could get. When Pujols got off to such a hot start this year people were holding him up as the anti-Bonds as no one has ever seriously suspected Pujols of using (and again there is no proof, none, that he has). At this point all there is is maybe, maybe the fact that Pujols’ trainer knows people who can get you steroids. But when Bonds personal trainer was tainted by BALCO, people (also for other reasons) through Bonds under the bus. If you are a baseball fan, hope that Pujols isn’t tainted by this in anyway, it would simply be too much to take. Cards site Viva El Birdos gives us the cards fans’ perspective. The always excellent Jason Whitlock weighs in here.

Yesterday’s American League games
First the Orioles bullpen blew the game and then the Blue Jays bullpen returned the favor. The Blue Jays only split this series with the O’s which doesn’t bode well for their contending hopes, the Red Sox and Yankees have no problems beating up on Baltimore. O’s 7, Blue Jays 5.

Joe Mauer, the Twins catcher, can hit. He went 3-4 yesterday and is now batting .379 on the year, best in the bigs. Gammons has been touting this guy for what seems like years now but injuries have held him back. He’s busting out right now, though his power numbers are still not that hot. Twins 7, Seattle 3.

The Rangers and the Royals played a slow-pitch softball game yesterday won by the Royals 16-12. Neither starting pitcher made it into the 3rd inning and both team’s ERAs were ruined. Royals 16, Rangers 12.

Who thought the Tigers would be ahead of the White Sox at this point in the season? Anyone? Didn’t think so. Clearly there’s a lot of time left in the season but the Tigers are for real. Tigers 6, White Sox 2.

Curt Schilling became the AL’s first nine-game winner despite giving up 3 HRs to the Yankees. Schilling only gave up four hits in 8 innings but three of those hits left the yard. The Red Sox rallied with 3 runs in 6th and 5 in the 7th to salvage one game in their three game series with the Yankees. Red Sox 9, Yankees 3.

The A’s lost a starter and then got one back. Rich Harden went on the DL and Esteban Loaiza came off of it to pitch well in beating the Indians. The A’s are going on their annual run, watch and see. A’s 4, Indians 1.

Yesterday’s National League games
Someone break up the Reds, they’ve won 7 games in a row and lead the NL Central. Can the Reds’ starting pitching hold up, thats the big question. Bronson Arroyo is now 8-2 with a 2.31, who knew? And the guy can play the guitar. He’s the total package. Reds 7, Cubs 1.

The Brewers rallied against Trevor Hoffman in the 9th and then Bobby Hall hit a jack in the 10th to win it. For a guy filling in for an injured player (J.J. Hardy) Hall’s playing pretty well, that was his 14th HR of the year. Brewers 4, Padres 3.

Alfonso Soriano for MVP anyone? The guys playing out of his mind right now, he hit his 23rd HR of the year yesterday and also stole his 14th base. Soriano also scored 4 runs in the Nats victory over the Phillies. Nats 5, Phillies 2.

Whats with Andy Pettitte pitching poorly in the first half of the year and really well in the second? He did it last year and he’s following the same script this year, though I guess we’ll have to see about the second half. He did pitch well yesterday though, improving to 5-7 on the year with the Astros win. Astros 7, Braves 4.

Orlando Hernandez shut down his former team, going the whole way while only allowing one run. Mets 7, D-Backs 1.

Odds and Ends
The Raptors and Jazz pull off a blockbuster trade: C Rafael Araujo to the Jazz for PR Kris Humphries and C Robert Whaley. Boy those Raptors really got alot out of Araujo, their former 8th overall pick. Who knows, maybe Araujo will be inspired by DeSagna Diop and turn into something decent.

Gary Sheffield is having surgery on his wrist that will keep him out two months at the least. One doubts that Big George will stand pat with an outfield regularly playing Terrence Long, Bernie Williams and Melky Cabrera. Every talented OF in the game is going to be involved in rumors with the Yankees.

Neither Danny Almonte nor Jeff Maier were taken in the MLB draft. Almonte is married to a 30 year old woman though. Seriously. And Maier can go to hell for what he did to Orioles fans.

Foxsports.com has their MLB Power Rankings up. Yankees at #1, blah blah blah.

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On the Finals and HGH

Thursday, June 8th, 2006

Here we go. At long last the NBA Finals are here, tonight we get Game 1 in Dallas on ABC (9 PM ET). Are you excited? I am. In fact I haven’t been this excited for a Finals in a while (sorry Spurs/Pistons just didn’t do it for me). Its hard to see this series not going seven games, barring an injury to Dirk, Shaq or Wade. Seems like most people are picking the Mavs to send Mark Cuban into hysterics with a series victory but the Heat are getting some love as well. What’s our prediction? You’ll have to read to the end of our Finals Preview to find out.

Shaq vs. DeSagana Diop
Ok, who at the start of this season thought DeSagana Diop would be starting in the first game of the NBA Finals? Raise your hands people? Nobody? Didn’t think so. Diop has got to be one of the unlikelist starters in Finals history. A first round bust with the Cavs, the guy lost some weight (ok a lot of weight) and now he’s more then a credible NBA center. As an aside, how pathetic is Erik Dampier? The guy loses his starting spot to Diop, I mean seriously. Only in the NBA does a guy like Dampier make millions of dollars. Anyway back to the match up. The clear advantage goes to the Heat and Shaq because, well, this is Shaq we’re talking about here. OK its not Shaq from four or even two years ago but its still Shaq. He showed in the Heat’s Game 6 closeout of the Pistons that he can still get it done when motavated/well rested. As a second fiddle to Dwyane Wade he’s still got enough left in the tank to put up 20 and 10 every game. The Mavs are only hoping that Diop, and to a lesser extent Dampier, is able to get in Shaq’s way a little bit and maybe grab a few rebounds and block a shot or two. Really Diop and Dampier are going to be used for their 12 combined fouls against Shaq with the Mavs hoping O’Neal will brick his freebies in crunch time. In the end though expect Shaq to dominate on the national stage. Advantage? Heat big time.

Dirk vs. Udonis Haslem
This one’s a draw. OK just kidding. Yeah Dirk’s been sick this postseason. He’s probably the most dangerous offensive player in the NBA right now, a seven-footer who can hit the three better then almost anyone and also take you down low. He’s averaging 28 and 12 in the playoffs and we should expect the same in the Finals. He’s going to get his points and rebounds no matter what, he’s the Mavs star and they will only go as far as he can carry them. Haslem on the other hand is the guy who does the dirty work for the Heat. He’s not even the 6th scoring option for them when he’s on the floor; all his points will come off put backs and the like. Basically his role is to take some of the rebounding and defensive pressure off Shaq and bother Dirk a little bit if possible. Advantage? Mavs by a lot.

Josh Howard vs. Antoine Walker
Both these guys have a world of talent and can pretty much do anything they want on a basketball court. Drive, pass, hit threes, etc.. Howard is world’s better defensively and that is important, especially with the new defensively inspired Mavs. The real difference though is how they play the game. Walker can just kill you sometimes. Any night he could go 1-8 from three point land or he could hit 6 threes. Either way, whether he’s hot or not, he’s going to take his shots. On a team that already has Shaq and Wade, thats not really a good thing. Walker’s shooting 34% from downtown in the playoffs but that doesn’t really matter because, as we said, if he was shooting 10% he’d still take the shot. Pat Riley has done a solid job in trying to rein him in a bit but I have a hard time trusting Walker even still. Howard on the other hand seems to except his role as the second or third scorer behind Dirk and sometimes Jason Terry. Howard plays within the offense, runs the floor for easy baskets and, as we said before, is an above-average defensive player. Advantage? Mavs

Dwyane Wade vs. Jason Terry
Perhaps the most intriguing matchup of the Finals. Wade is, obviously, one of the best three players in the NBA. He can basically do it all and is the unquestioned leader of the Heat. Even Shaq has said this is Wade’s team. He’s going to get his points, at least 30 a game, he’s going to hand out assists and he’s going to grab rebounds. No one can stop Wade from driving and finishing so really, as the cliche goes, you can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him. Wade has been sidelined from practice with the flu or something so watch out for that. The Heat need him at full strength. Terry on the other hand is the other half of the Mavs’ blazing backcourt. Terry is fast as lightening and he can hit the three. He’s the Mavs second leading scorer in the playoffs and when he gets hot the Mavs are almost impossible to stop offensively. Defensively he’s too small to put on Wade but he’s pretty good at getting steals and being a general pest. Terry is a good player but he’s no match for Wade (few people are) Advantage? Heat

Jason Williams vs. Devin Harris
Let’s just get this out there from the start: Jason Williams is one of the most underrated point guards in the NBA. There we said it. The guy gets very little respect, everyone remembers his days with the Kinds when he would throw unbelievable no-look passes that frequently resulted in turnovers. But that player is long gone. Williams has had one of the best assist-to-turnover ratios in the NBA the past few years. He’s no longer a loose cannon. People are falling all over themselves in their attempts to jump aboard the Devin Harris bandwagon. Harris is playing well and he is very, very fast but he’s not head and shoulders above Williams. In fact we here at the Note consider this match up pretty much a draw. Either of these guys could get hot on offense (neither is known as a particularly good defender) and carry their teams for a stretch but both are 3rd or 4th options at best. Advantage? Heat, slightly.

Pat Riley vs. Avery Johnson
This is Riley’s 9th Finals appearance as a coach and Johnson’s first season as a head coach (he’s been to the Finals as a player with the Spurs). Going on experience alone you’d give Riley the advantage but Johnson is no slouch. The guy was named the Coach of the Year this season. Johnson did what people thought was impossible: he made the Mavs play defense. Now the Mavs are a complete team, able to run and score and still get back and play good defense. Johnson’s got production from Diop, he put Devin Harris in the starting lineup and he’s helped Dirk take the next step towards stardom. Riley is obviously a great coach but lets face it, he stabbed Stan Van Gundy in the back. I mean who’s kidding who right? Yes Riley has done a good job taking a team of somewhat mismatched players to the promised land but then this team had to reach the Finals or be considered a failure. Despite Riley’s experience advantage we see see this as a draw between the two coachs with Johnson’s obvious talent for coaching making it all even. Advantage? Even

Heat bench vs. Dallas bench
Here’s where things get interesting. Both these teams have good benches that are used frequently. The Mavs use primarily Keith Van Horn, Jerry Stackhouse, Erick Dampier and Adrian Griffin. Stackhouse is actually the Mavs 4th leading postseason scorer, dropping 14 a game. Griffin is their defensive sub and will probably see alot of time of Dirk. Van Horn is working himself back from injury but the Mavs will need his scoring. Dampier will basically just be out there for his 6 fouls that will be used on Shaq. For the Heat you’ve got James Posey, Gary Payton and Alonzo Mourning as the first guys off the bench. Posey is a good defender who’s shooting 42% from the three point line in the playoffs and will see more time if Antoine Walker starts playing like, well, Antoine Walker. Payton is no where near the Payton of old but he’ll provide steady play and experience and might have a little more left in the tank then people think. Mourning is the guy everyone hates when they are on the other team but love to have on their team; he’s going to block shots and grab rebounds. With Shaq and Mourning the Heat have the best 1-2 punch at center in the NBA. Advantage? Heat

X-factors
The whole x-factor idea is stupid. Its an attempt to guess at what wil be important in the series ahead of time, how are we supposed to know that? We’re just some guy on the internet. So whats the x-factor for this series? Your guess is as good as mine.

Prediction
Time to stop beating around the bush. Ok here it is, we’ve got the Mavs in seven games. Its almost impossible to imagine Shaq letting the Heat fall short at this point but the Mavs are on a real roll. Dirk is playing out of his mind, Josh Howard is establishing himself as an all-around star and everything Avery Johnson does seems to work. With home court advantage for Game 7 we say that plays the deciding factor in a close series. Besides, everyone wants to see David Stern hand the championship trophy to Mark Cuban. Awkward anyone?

World Cup Fix
Foxsports.com is doing a preview of all 32 World Cup teams leading up until the event but since people reading this only care about the US squad, we’ll only give you their preview.

Could the man who brings baseball to its knees be….Jason Grimsley?
Here we go again. Just when you thought steroids in baseball had faded a little bit into the background along comes Jason Grimsley (Jason Grimsley?). With Bonds past Ruth and slowly crawling towards Aaron, the steroid story, if it was ever big, didn’t seem like that huge of a black cloud. Yeah some minor leaguers got busted this year but there was no Palmero of 2006. Now though we get introduced to Human Growth Hormone or HGH. Baseball doesn’t test for HGH despite its rumored widespread usage among players. The only way a player was going to get caught was if someone ratted them out but who would do that? Jason Grimsley apparently. Federal investigators raided the guys house two days ago after a week of cooperation from Grimsley in which he spilled the beans about everything. The Smoking Gun, as is their want, have obtained the relevant affidavit in which the names of the players Grimsley says have used steroids are blacked out. How long can that last though? If Barry Bond’s grand jury testimony can leak, so will this. There are players throughout the majors who are sweating bullets today. Grimsley played on 7 different teams and with some big, big names. This could get bad, real bad. Grimsley, by the way, askd for and recieved his release from the Diamonbacks. Prediction: we never see him pitch again. Here’s the complete internet roundup:

Summery of what everyone says? This could be really huge and it could get very ugly. Who would have thought a not real good middle reliever would be the one who busted things wide open. We’re not sure how big and ugly this will get but we are sure this story will continue for a while.

Yesterday’s MLB Games
We were too busy making our NBA Finals preview to recap every game so go to ESPN.com’s MLB Scoreboard if you really need to know. Some people won, some lost, nothing important happened.

Odds and Ends
It took forever but Steve McNair was finally traded to the Ravens. With McNair behind the center, Jamal Lewis, Derrick Mason and Todd Heap as weapons the Ravens could be pretty good next year. We won’t get ahead of ourselves and make a prediction but lets just say the Ravens are climbing up our rankings.

The Hurricanes beat up the Oilers 5-0 to take a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Finals. I’d seriously cover this a lot more if I could just figure out where OLN is on my TV. I know I have it, I just can’t find it.

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Enough is enough

Wednesday, June 7th, 2006

Ok I get that Roger Clemens is/was a great pitcher, maybe even the greatest of all time. The guy has had an awesome career and its nice that he’s coming back for another season. But this has to stop. Yesterday ESPN had live coverage of Clemens’ first start with a Houston minor league team. Live coverage with Peter Gammons, Harold Reynolds and the whole Baseball Tonight crew commenting. I mean seriously people. So what if the guy is coming back? Every year for the past three years Clemens has threatened to retire but then he’s comeback, usually because the Astros have overwhelmed him with money, just like they did this year. Why is him coming back a worthy story? He’s getting like $3 mil a month to pitch, he basically had the Astros bidding against the Rangers, Red Sox, and Yankees in order to drive up his price. Can we stop pretending he’s back simply for the love of the game? Sure that might be part of it but the money, as it always is, was a big factor to, lets not kid ourselves.

ESPN keeps doing this. They went way, way overboard on the Barry Bonds/714 HR thing. Nobody I knew really cared, yet there was ESPN doing live cut-ins of every BOnds at bat. This is overkill people, just like its overkill to show us Clemens making a minor league start. Listen, I hope Clemens has a nice year. He’s probably not going to pitch as well as he did last year and the Astros probably aren’t going to make the World Series again. So why is this story so important? I could understand extensive coverage if he was returning to the Red Sox because of all the bad blood that there was between Roger and the Sox but the guy has played for the Astros before. Whatever happened to been there, done that? Even worse really is the fact that Clemens’ son didn’t catch him in the minor league game. There had been rumors that Kolby (all the Clemens’ kids names start with “K” because “K” is the symbol for a strikeout) might catch his dad’s first start but the kid was at third for the game. Now that might have been an interesting story, the father pitching to his kid. But it didn’t happen and everyone knew it wasn’t going to happen well before the game. So there was no real compelling story here, yet ESPN tried to blow us away with their ability to cover a story. Listen ESPN, a word of advice: Just because you can cover a minor league game like no one else doesn’t mean you should. I don’t care about Clemens coming back other then how it will effect my fantasy team and I think I fall in the vast majority of sports fans when I say that.
Baseball Draft
The Royals had the first pick in yesterday’s draft and the consensus opinion was that they were going to take UNC’s Andrew Miller. So of course the Royals took RHP Luke Hochevar, a guy who is a Scott Boras client and was drafted last year by the Dodgers but couldn’t agree to terms and reentered the draft. Now I generally applaud outside the box thinking but when its the Royals who are doing the thinking, you’ve got to wonder if they aren’t going to blow it. I guess we’ll see if the Royals made a good pick 4 or 5 years from now but right now all we can say is good luck with that.

No really interesting names so far have been taken (its a two-day draft remember) but that could change today. That Real Housewives guy hasn’t gone yet. SI’s Tom Verducci offers 4 ways to improve the the Draft, 1. put it on TV, 2. make it a real world draft instead of just US players, 3. make pickes tradeable, and 4. end the draft after 20 rounds. From a public relations stand point ideas 1 and 4 make the most sense. From a baseball stand point idea 3 is the best. Let teams with good management, who make good choices, be rewarded for their efforts by making smart trades. Teams that can’t afford to spend like the Yankees or Red Sox could still compete if they were smarter then the big spenders with their picks.

World Cup fix
Via Deadspin (who in case you haven’t noticed we try to steal from frequently) we get this amusing parody video of the Italian National team practicing flopping. Also, any interest out there in starting a World Cup pick’em pool through ESPN or Yahoo? No prize other then respect and your name published on the internets right here in the Note.

Whats the deal?
So I keep talking about this great NBA Finals preview I’m going to punch out on Thursday, just in time for that night’s Game 1 but apparently I’m way behind everyone else. ESPN’s Marc Stein has already got his preview out and so does SI’s Marty Burns and Foxsports Mike Kahn. Whats the rush guys? Scared I was going to wipe you off the map so you decided to preempt me? Whatever. Both Burns and Stein take the Mavs over the Heat while Kahn goes with Shaq and Wade. What’s my prediction? Sorry, you’ve got to wait till Thursday for that.

Yesterday’s American League games
Yankees beat the Red Sox 2-1, yawn. These teams have played each other too many times too early in the season. I no longer feel the hype, its just a regular game at this point Bernie Williams put his guitar down long enough to hit a home run. Yankees 2, Red Sox 1.

The Blue Jays’ Alex Rios’ breakout season continued yesterday as he hit a two-run HR in the 7th inning, his 11th on the year, to put the Blue Jays past the O’s. Rios is now hitting .359 on the year to go along with 43 RBIs and his 11 HRs. Corey Patterson failed to steal a base for the first time in 10 games. Blue Jays 6, O’s 4.

Kevin Millwood is turning out to be exactly what the doctor ordered for the Rangers. He won yesterday to improve to 7-3 on the year and is providing exactly the type of veteran starting pitching the Rangers have needed for so long. Admittedly Millwood and the Rangers beat the lowly Royals yesterday but still, a wins a win. Rangers 6, Royals 2.

The Tigers are stumbling a little bit. After losing to the White Sox yesterday the Tigers have now lost 7 of their last 9 games. The Sox’s Alex Cintron hit a three-run HR in the 8th to lead the White Sox to the come from behind victory. White Sox 4, Tigers 3.

Felix Hernandez won a duel between two of the best young pitchers in the AL as he squared off againt the Twins’ Francisco Liriano. Liriano was delt his first loss of the year and falls to 4-1 while Hernandez is now 5-6. Seattle 4, Twins 2.

Here come the A’s and there goes the Indians? Both teams were expected to contend this year but right now they are 2 and 1 games, respectively, under .500. This is nothing new for the A’s, who always make a late season run but the Indians need to get their act together if they are going to compete in their divison with the Tigers and the White Sox. The A’s come from behind with 3 runs in 8th to beat the Indians. Could be a season-changing game for both teams. A’s 7, Indians 6.

In a match up of two good young pitchers Ervin Santana showed up and Scott Kazmir got killed. Santana struck out 7 in 7 innings, giving up only 2 hits and 1 run. Kazmir gave up 7 runs in 6 1/3 innings. Angels 12, Tampa 2.

Yesterday’s National League games
Its sad to see what has become of Kerry Woods. The guy who once struck out 20 Astros didn’t strike out a single one yesterday and only lasted 3 2/3 innings. Admittedly Wood didn’t help himself much yesterday, commiting a throwing error that led to three of the four runs he gave up being unearned. Lance Berkman homers and the Astros win. Astros 4, Cubs 1.

Whats up with Jake Peavy? The guy lost again yesterday to drop to 4-6 on the year. He’s supposed to be an ace but he’s not pitching like one. Forget pissed off fantasy owners, Peavy was supposed to lead the Padres to a divison title but its not happening so far. The Brewers Dave Bush looked like what Peavy is supposed to be yesterday as Bush through a complete game allowing only 1 run and 3 hits. Brewers 5, Padres 1.

The Braves ended a five-game losing streak behind 8 strong innings by Horacio Ramirez and, seriously, newly grown facial hair the team decided to sport in an effort to build team unity. Whatever floats your boat I guess. Braves 5, Nats 3.

Yeah, the Rockies finally win again! Congrats on beating the worst road team in the NL Colorado, we knew you could do it. Jamey Carroll went 4 for 4 for the Rockies and Jeff Francis pitched six strong innings for the win. Rockies 5, Pirates 4.

Last year’s Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter returned from the DL to start for the Cards against the Reds but he didn’t provide the pick me up St. Louis needed. In perhaps a sign of things to come for the Cards without Pujols they only managed five hits against Reds starter Eric Milton and were shut out. Adam Dunn and Felipe Lopez hit jacks for the Reds. Reds 7, Cards 0.

Jason Schmidt is reestablishing himself as a top starter. He went the whole way against the Marlins while giving up only one run and striking out 16. If the Giants are out of it by late July he’s going to be a very hot name on the trade market. Giants 2, Marlins 1.

Odds and Ends
Congrats to the University of Arizona’s softball team who swept Nortwestern to win the NCAA Divison I Championship. I actually watched a significant amount of the Softball World Series and was quite entertained. And if you missed the Arizona team, and you are a guy, you really, really missed out. Thats some school they’ve got there.

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Sooooo

Tuesday, June 6th, 2006

Kind of a down period in the sports world. NBA Finals are still a couple days away, nothing too interesting in baseball, football hasn’t picked up yet. Its days like these that we find the Sports Note a challenge to write but, of course, we soldier on. We could talk about the Stanley Cup, and to be honest we wanted to watch Game 1 last night but for the life of us we couldn’t find the game. The Outdoor Life Network is very hard to find. Just a little aside here but if the NHL ever wants to get back into the mainstream they need, need to get on ESPN or a network. All this talk about a more exciting game and higher attendence and blah blah blah does little good if you can’t get on TV. Anyway the only really interesting thing happening today is the MLB draft. Obviously the MLB draft is nothing compared to the NBA or NFL drafts but its still a little interesting, if only for the sheer size of it. Honestly I just want to see where, or if I guess I should say, Shane Keough goes in the draft. Who is Shane Keough you say? Why he’s the virgin fellow who people think might be gay who was on Bravo’s Real Housewives show. To give you a brief background, his dad played in the Majors with the A’s, the kid Keough barely graduated high school and now he plays for Yavapai Community College. The kid actually got drafted in something like the 33rd round last year but his family/him are looking for a little higher selection. So yeah, thats what we are looking forward to today. Like I said, slow news day. Oh and um, we don’t watch Real Housewives or anything, we had just heard from a friend about all that.

SI.com is actually beating ESPN.com into the ground with their draft coverage. Here’s a mock draft, which has the Royals taking pitcher Andrew Miller from UNC first. A look at the high school kids is found here. Baseball Prospectus’ “draft rules” can be found here. Every year someone random gets drafted late, Michael Vick got drafted, after he was in the NFL, and I’m sure some interesting names will pop up in the next two days (in another sign of how dumb MLB is, the draft is so long it goes two days) and we’ll mention them either tomorrow or the next day. Also be prepared for Thursday’s Note as you will not find a better NBA Finals breakdown. Boy we need the Finals to start, pumping out even a hundred words on days without Shaq and Mark Cuban is kinda hard.

World Cup Fix
SI.com’s Jonah Freedman ranks the 32 World Cup teams. Brazil is the obvious number one. The US, despite their FIFA ranking, he puts at 11. The lovely nation of Togo is, apparently, the worst team in the World Cup. Bet accordingly people. (Link).

Yesterday’s American League games
The Red Sox and the Yankees played for the millionth time this season. Josh Beckett vs. Mike Mussina had the potential to be a pitcher’s dual but both guys got roughed up. Beckett got the worse of it though, giving up 8 runs in 1 1/3 innings. Mussina gave up five runs in 6 innings and got the win to improve his record to 8-1. Despite all his wins and being a quality pitcher for a lot of years, Mussina has never won 20 games. Its looking more and more likely that this could be his year. Yankees 13, Red Sox 5.

Corey Patterson is really, really fast. After bunting for a hit in his third at bat he stole his 26th base of the year. Even more impressive it was the 9th game in a row in which Patterson has stolen a base. Nobody since Rickey Henderson in 1986 has done that. Patterson leads the majors in steals and, perhaps even more impressively, has only been caught once. Bet the Cubs wish Patterson was doing this for them. Orioles 4, Blue Jays 0.

For a guy with all the talent in the world, Jared Weaver just can not win games. Just can’t. After yesterday’s 4-0 loss to the Devil Rays Weaver is now 3-8 on the year with a 6.39 ERA. People keep waiting and waiting for the guy to put everything together but its becoming increasingly clear he’s just never going to live up to his potential. Tampa 4, Angels 0.

In a game anticipated by dozens the Mariners taste the sweet taste of victory over the lowly Royals. Seattle 4, Royals 1.

Yesterday’s National League games
If Barry Bonds quest for 714 HRs was called “the Chase” what will his struggle for 755 be called? Bonds hit his 8th of the year yesterday, the 716th of his career. At this point I think the most accurate title would be “the crawl towards Aaron”. Giants 14, Marlins 2.

Carlos Zambrano went 7 1/3 innings without giving up a hit until Houston’s Preston Wilson got a single off him in the 8th. No Cubs pitcher has thrown a no-hitter since 1972. Oh yeah, not only did Zambrano almost throw a no-hitter, he also hit a three-run homer in the second and finished the game with four RBIs. So it was an all around good game for Carlos. Cubs 8, Astros 0.

Brandon Webb didn’t get his 9th win of the season yesterday as the Phillies came from behind to beat the Diamondbacks. Ryan Howard continued his hot streak, hitting his 20th HR of the season. Phillies 4, D-backs 3.
Livan Hernandez is getting back into the groove, winning his fourth straight yesterday. The better he pitches, the more likely he is to be moved at the deadline (Mets anyone?). The Nats scored five runs in the 6th, helped along by two Braves errors. Nats 5, Braves 4.

As the Padres found out yesterday, if your pitchers walk nine batters you are going to lose. Thats sorta Baseball 101 as they say. The Brewers’ Carlos Lee hit his 19th HR of the year in leading his team to their first victory in eight games. Brewers 5, Padres 2.
Ouch that hurts. Poised to win their second game in a row after losing all-world Albert Pujols, the Cards instead got punched in the stomach by the Reds. Ken Griffey, Jr. hit a three-run HR, his second HR of the game, off Cards closer Jason Isringhausen in the 9th. If the Cards are going to stay afloat without Pujols they need to lock down games like this. Reds 8, Cards 7.

The Rockies are begining to expose themselves as pretty obvious pretenders. They’ve now lost four games in a row, all at home, against the two worst teams in the National League. Winners don’t do that. Pirates 5, Rockies 2.

Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado hit jacks and Cuban refugee Alay Soler had a solid outing in a Mets victory. Mets 4, Dodgers 1.

Odds and Ends
Via Deadspin, here’s a video of Phillies catcher Mike Lieberthal going after a foul ball, knocking into a little girl in the stands and then walking away with no regard for the crying little girl. So much for there’s no crying in baseball.

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And then there were two…but what about the departed?

Monday, June 5th, 2006

Looks like we’ve got our NBA Finals match up all set. Both the Mavs and the Heat took care of business in their respective Game 6’s to advance to each franchises’ first Finals. Lots of interesting story lines and match ups to talk about but we’ll wait till Thursday, the date of Game 1, to give you a comprehensive preview (although for those of you wondering, here is Mark Cuban’s post on the affair). Instead lets today look at the two teams that are leaving us, the Suns and the Pistons.

This off-season is going to be pretty important for the Pistons. Ben Wallace is an unrestricted free agent and while it would be hard to imagine Wallace playing for someone else, he’s been a little cold in talking about returning. If some team overwhelms him with money (Chicago?) he might take it, leaving a huge hole in Detroit’s lineup. No Defensive Player of the Year makes that vaunted Pistons defense pretty weak. Wallace is the biggest issue but definitely not the only one. Whats up with the Pistons and Flip Saunders? After a dream regular season where Saunders got applause from all over for opening up the Detroit offense and giving the Pistons more freedom then they had under Larry Brown, Saunders got killed in the post season. People loved the Pistons reliance on their starting five in the regular season, then wondered why they had no bench in the playoffs. He was ripped for being out coached in both the Cavs and Heat series. His own players voiced displeasure with the guy. The guy was in a lose-lose situation as anything less then the Finals would have been viewed as a failure but he did look pretty shaky against the Cavs; the Heat just had to much firepower and you can’t blame the guy for that. In addition to the Wallace and Saunder’s problems they Pistons need a bench. I love Antonio McDyess as much as the next guy but you need more then one or two effective bench players to be successful in today’s NBA. Look at the Suns or the Mavs, both of whom have benches that contribute. The Pistons championship window could be slamming shut on them.

The Suns are in a lot better situation then the Pistons. Their coach is firmly entrenched, they’ve got a point guard in Steve Nash who’s won two MVPs in a row, they’ve got one of the best all-around players in the NBA with Shawn Marion, Raja Bell is establishing himself as a great defensive player and a good offensive one, and then there’s Amare Stoudimire. Thats right, next year the Suns get back perhaps the best young big man in the NBA. Its hard not to wonder what the Suns could have been this year if Stoudimire had been healthy but next year hopefully we’ll get a chance to see what the Suns at full strength can do. The history of players coming back from micro-fracture surgery isn’t that great (see:Webber, Chris; Hardaway, Penny; Houston, Allan) but Amare is a lot younger then many of the others who have had the surgery. Add a dominant post man to the Suns and you could have something special, Nash kicking it out to Marion for a three or throwing it up to Amare for a dunk. Now if they’d only resign Paul Shirley…

Pujols Out
There goes a chase at the Triple Crown or the single season home run record. Depending on how much time Albert Pujols misses with a strained oblique muscle, there could go the Cards playoff hopes. For Cards fans, not to mention fantasy owners everywhere, this is the nightmare scenario. Already the Cards have Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter on the DL; they’ve got Jim Edmonds who’s banged up; now they’ve lost Pujols for at the very least two weeks. The problem with oblique muscle problems is that you don’t want to come back to early, otherwise it’s a condition that will bug you for your career. And you feel the injury basically whenever you move, particularly when you swing a bat, which as we all know is something Mr. Pujols does quite well. For the complete overview of what Cards fans are feeling head to Viva El Birdos.

Stanley Cup anyone?
I know nothing about hockey and, if possible, even less about the two teams meeting in the Stanley Cup Finals. So all I’ll do is point you to SI.com’s preview/review and to the same at ESPN.com. I believe Game 1 is tonight but its probably on the Outdoor Life Channel or something.

Yesterday’s American League games
Have we seen this before? David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez hit home runs, Boston wins. Looks like the formula is still working. Boston beats Detroit, 8-3. (Link)

A good pitching matchup turned into a blowout as only John Lackey showed up to pitch while C.C. Sabathia got creamed. Angels hit 4 home runs in blowing out the Indians 14-2. (Link)

The Rangers could have something in rookie starter John Rheinecker. He’s pitched well and now he’s 2-0 as the Rangers beat the White Sox 10-2. The guy’s only got to be decent with the Ranger’s offense. (Link)

Good news for the A’s, ace Rich Harden is back from the DL. The A’s, as usual, are medicore so far into the season and with Harden back and pitching well they seem poised to make their annual burst. A’s 5, Twins 1. (Link)

The Royals won yesterday to improve their record to 14-40. 14-40, thats really, really bad. The only thing worse then being a Royals fan and living with that is being a Mariners fan and seeing your big off-season signing Jarrod Washburn get shelled for seven runs and the loss, putting his record at 3-7. Royals win 9-4. (Link)

Tampa has to win a game every now and then right? The laws of probability and all that right? With four HRs to help their cause the Devil Rays beat the Blue Jays 10-5. (Link)

Yankees starter Aaron Small must have used up all his baseball luck last year because he’s getting killed this year. Three HRs and seven runs before he got pulled. Javy Lopez hit two HRs as the Orioles avoid a sweep, beating the Yankees 11-4. (Link)

Yesterday’s National League games
Diamondbacks sweep the Braves, Damion Easley has hit four HRs and driven in 10 RBI in his last two games. D-Backs 9, struggling Braves 3. (Link)

Alfonso Soriano is so hot right now. Two HRs yesterday along with 5 RBI in leading the Nationals to a sweep of the Brewers. Whats with the Brewers by the way. They were supposed to be wild card contenders at least but they are currently 5 games under .500. Nats win 8-4. (Link)

Why did the Rangers, always in need of starting pitchers, ever trade Chris Young to the Padres? For the second start in a row Young had a no-hitter through 5 1/3. The Pirates could only manage two hits off Padres pitchers as San Diego wins 1-0. (Link)

All right, here’s the deal Colorado. You started off well, people thought you might be legit. Now you get swept by the Triple A Marlins, so whats the deal? Fraud or non-fraud? Time will tell but this isn’t a good omen. Marlins win 4-3. (Link)

How bad are the Cubs this year? The Cardinals lose the best player in the game, Albert Pujols, and the Cubs still can’t beat them. Boy they suck. St. Louis wins 9-6, Cub fans continue to bang their heads against the wall. (Link)

Armando Benitez loves to blow saves in NY. He’s not with the Mets any more so he has a lot fewer chances but he took advantage yesterday, giving up two HRs in the 10th. Luckily for the Giants the Mets couldn’t close the deal. San Fran wins 7-6 in twelve innings. (Link)

Three runs in the 8th for the Phillies mean victory over the Dodgers, 6-4. (Link)

Austin Kearns and Ryan Freel both hit two home runs as the Reds took advantage of Roy Oswalt being scratched from the start with back problems. Reds win in twelve, 6-4. (Link)

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Don’t mess with Dirk

Friday, June 2nd, 2006

Mr. Nowitzki made a bit of a statement last night. After getting blown out in Game 4 by the Suns and Dirk not playing well at all, Dirk came back in Game 5 and blew everybody away. He dropped in 50 points and grabbed 12 rebounds while he was at it. This was a statement game for Dirk and Dallas. I don’t think there is anyone in the playoffs right now who can match Dirk offensively. The guy’s seven feet tall and can hit a shot from anywhere on the court. With Shaq looking less and less like his old self, there’s no one else who can compare to Dirk. Dywane Wade doesn’t work, he doesn’t have the height or the talent from long distance. Shawn Marion does lots of things well but he doesn’t explode like Dirk can. Dirk is unstoppable and its getting pretty likely that at the least he’s going to lead Dallas to the finals. Honestly I wouldn’t bet against Dallas winning it all. Of course I say that and the Suns probably come back and win Game 6, forcing an anything can happen Game 7, so I’m not predicting anything just yet. I will predict that Miami closes out the Pistons tonight though (8 PM ET on ESPN) and that I will be very glad to be done with that series. (Link)

FIRST EVER SPORTS NOTE UPDATE!
I know we said we wouldn’t be updating the Note after the orginal post but this is a special circumstance. I’ll be brief. The Post writes this morning that the O’s are considering/would consider drafting Jeffery Maier. The same Maier who stuck his dumbass glove in the way, giving Derek Jeter a home run, giving the Yankees the series. I hate Maier, he ruined my childhood, and if the O’s draft him that will be the last straw. The O’s will be dead to me. I can’t properaly convey how angry this makes me. OK, outburst over. (Link)

Katharine Close, you are the biggest nerd of all!
Ursprache, meaning a parent language. We’ve all used it in casual conversation I’m sure. Just the other day I dropped an ursprache while discussing 18th century Swedish poetry. Anyway Katharine Close successfully spelled ursprache last night, making her the biggest nerd of all, beating out 273 other nerds to win the $42,000 worth of prizes. It should be noted that Close was a favorite in this thing; Darren Rovell had her as the 3rd seed. Also it should be noted that this was her fifth, thats right I say fifth Spelling Bee. So it’s about time she won. The primetime broadcast was kinda boring really, too many commericals and Robin Roberts was not adding anything of quality to the broadcast. I did like the color guy though, he was talking about the spellers as if it were the NBA Draft. He kept talking about “potential” and how much of the dictionary the kids had read. Anyway a big round of applause for little Katharine Close; its all down hill from here kid. (Link)

Special Bonus Spelling Bee coverage
If you, like me, are wondering what happens to Spelling Bee champs after the glory days are over; fear not as ABC News did the dirty work with their piece: “Spelling Bee Champs: Where are they now?”. (Link)

Free at last, free at last
The bizarre Sean Taylor trial is over before it even got a chance to start. Taylor agreed to plead no contest to two misdemeanors in exchange for prosecutors dropping felony charges against him. Taylor will serve no jail time, instead he gets 18 months probation and has to talk at 10 Miami schools about the importance of education (along with giving each school $1000 for scholarships). As pointed out by Friend of the Sports Note (FOSN) Senor GP, why in the world would anyone think it’s a good idea for Sean Taylor to be held up at a school as a role model? Forget the fact that he’s supposed to be talking about the importance of education and yet he left the U early for the NFL. Taylor believes in education so much that he skipped out early on the NFL Rookie Orientation, getting himself fined in the process. I think I read somewhere that he was one of the only rookies ever to skip out. So to recap, in the last two somewhat educational situations Taylor was a part of, being at the U and the Orientation, Taylor checked out early. So yeah, I guess that makes him the perfect guy to talk about eductation to school kids. Oh yeah he also spit in Michael Pittman’s face during the Skins/Bucs playoff game last season, getting himself kicked out of the game. And he just pleabargined his way out of spending time in jail for hunting down people he thought stole some ATVs from him and assualting them with bats and guns. What a role model for the kids, he’s so street he’s like an anti-Wayne Brady. Him and Adam Archuleta are going to form a sick safety tandem though. No way I’d go over the middle against those to. Watch out T.O. (Link)

Yesterday’s American League Games
The O’s/Devil Rays game featured a 1 hour, 32 minute rain delay. One team came back from the delay, the other didn’t. Tampa scored three in the 3rd, two in the 4th, and one in the 5th in beating the Orioles 8-6. Jonny Gomes and Carl Crawford hit bombs for the Devil Rays. (Link)

Looks like Barry Zito has gotten his stuff back. He allowed only four hits over seven innings with no runs as the A’s beat the Twins 4-0. (Link)

With Mariano Rivera out due to back spasms caused by awkwardly putting on one of his shoes (seriously), the Yankees had to use setup man Kyle Farnsworth to close out the Tigers. You know what happened next. The Tigers scored twice in the ninth, coming back to win 7-6. (Link)

In a back and forth game Ronnie Belliard hit a three-run homer in the seventh and the Indians rallied to beat the White Sox 12-8. Jermaine Dye hit two home runs and drove in 5 in a losing effort. (Link)

Yesterday’s National League Games
In a pitcher’s duel the Diamondbacks scored two runs in the 8th inning, withstood a towering Andruw Jones solo shot in the 9th, to beat the Braves 2-1. (Link)

The Dodgers scored all seven of their runs off homers as they beat the Phillies 7-2 behind Derek Lowe’s strong outing. (Link)

Jose Castillo thought he had won the game with a home run in the ninth and he, along with his happy Pirates teammates, celebrated at home plate. Not so fast. Brewers manager Ned Yost successfully argued that Castillo’s home run was actualy a double and the game went on, now tied after Jose Hernandez scored on Castillo’s home run turned double. Luckily for the Pirates Ryan Doumit stepped up in the clutch, hitting a single to right to win the game for the second time that night for the Pirates. Pirates beat the Brewers 4-3. (Link)

Odds and Ends
Updating yesterday’s Note, Mavs backup center DJ Mbenga was suspended for 6 games for going into the stands in an incident involving Avery Johnson’s wife in Game 4 of the Mavs/Suns series. Mark Cuban escapes scot free. (Link)

The Philadelphia Eagles are going to replace T.O. with….track star Justin Gatlin? Apparently the Eagles want to explore the idea but Gatlin’s just no into them. (Link)

Could Jay Williams finally be ready to comeback to the NBA? He’s trying out for the Raptors and looks like he could be close to completing a pretty incredible recovery. (Link)

Dayn Perry at Foxsports.com posts his MLB Power Rankings. Yankees at the top, Royals at the bottom. (Link)

Could a WNBA coach become a NBA head coach? Marty Burns at SI.com explores the possibility that the Kings will take such a path. (Link)

Gilbert Arenas thought he was being “Punk’d” in Miami. Nope, you were really just getting arrested. (Link)

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Freaks. F-R-E-A-K-S. Freaks

Thursday, June 1st, 2006

Ok they are probably really smart. They know how to spell really long, complicated words. I applaud them wholeheartedly. But let’s be honest here: the kids who take part in the National Spelling Bee are freaks. Freaks because they are intelligent maybe but definitely freaks. That’s really the best word to describe them, though I’m sure there is a word with many more syllables that would be appropriate as well.  The Spelling Bee is riveting TV. Watching these little home schooled robots squeak out words no one has ever used in normal conversation is hilarious. The 15 year old 8th graders with full mustaches are my favorite. Or actually the voice cracking, that’s good too.

But now the Spelling Bee is selling out. I know, it’s sad but true. Yes its been televised on ESPN for many years now but it was still only a niche sport. Now the finals are going to be on primetime TV tonight, 8 PM ET on ABC. Robin Roberts is even hosting. The whole thing is getting commercial and the event is losing its identity. How commercial you ask? How about this: You can bet on who’s going to win the thing. I swear to God; you can gamble on the freaking National Spelling Bee. I don’t want to even imagine what kind of gambler puts money down on Spelling Bee contestants. What if you lost your house or the clothes off your back because you picked the wrong Indian kid?  Can you bet a trifecta or is it straight up? Are there parlays? ESPN.com’s Darren Rovell actually handicaps the top 8 contestants here. I wonder if his editor had to explain idea of the piece to him twice: “No seriously Darren, we want you to write an article about which home schooled kid has the best chance of spelling words correctly. Now go get’em!”.  When your show is getting gambling action you know you’ve made it to the big time. One can only hope that the organizers of the Bee will remember that the show isn’t about ratings or gambling odds, it’s about watching nerdy freaks Will the show get big numbers? I bet it will. Once you start watching these little freaks you can’t take your eyes off them. Oh and for the record, I can’t spell to save my life.

Pistons hold on
Detroit isn’t dead yet but they are in trouble. The Pistons managed to defend their home court last night, beating back the Heat 91-78 behind Tayshaun Prince’s 29 points. The series is now 3-2 in favor of the Heat. This game as usual featured boring basketball. If you actually watched it, detox yourself tonight with Suns/Mavs at 8:30 on TNT. (Link)

Clemens is back
A $22 million contract would be enough to convince most anyone to come back to work and apparently Roger Clemens would agree. He’s decided to end the suspense and rejoin the Houston Astros, putting off his something like third retirement for at least another year. There had been rumors that he might be thinking about the Rangers, Red Sox or Yankees but the Houston offer was just too attractive. Clemens doesn’t have to travel to road series were he isn’t scheduled to pitch. His son Kolby is in the Astros minor league system. His family lives nearby. Oh and he’s getting over 12 million bucks (the pro-rated amount of the $22 million contract) for about three months work. It’s a nice gig if you can get it. (Link)

How much is this going to cost Mark Cuban?
The NBA loves to bring the hammer down on Mark Cuban, fining him hundreds of thousands of dollars for all sorts of things, usually involving his big mouth. This time though Cuban’s mouth didn’t get him in trouble, his feet did. During Game 4 of the Suns/Mavs series Cuban and Mavs benchwarmer DJ Mbenga (inactive for the game) went into the stands to look after Mavs coach Avery Johnson’s wife who was having some issues with two Suns fans. When Antonio Davis went into the stands in Chicago to look after his crazy wife he got suspended for five games. Mbenga can get suspended (with no impact on the Mavs) but if David Stern decides to discipline Cuban, it’s going to be all about the cash money. Good thing Cuban’s a billionaire. (Link) P.S. Jay Mariotti is pushing a Cuban buys the Cubs idea. (Bonus Link)

World Cup
In preparation for the World Cup we’re starting adding a new section to the Note which will be devoted to soccer-related stuff, just to get you in the mood and all. Mostly we’ll be featuring videos found around the web. Here’s today’s offering. (Video Link). Even better, here’s a link to pictures of soccer wives/girlfriends. Short summery of the pictures: its good to be a soccer player. (Link)

It’s about time
The Kansas City Royals finally fired their GM, Allard Baird, yesterday. After the performance of the Royals under Baird’s reign this move seems to be only four years too late. It makes one wonder who exactly one has to know to become a GM in this business, since clearly any incompetent can get the job and then hold it for a while. Braves Assistant GM Dayton Moore gets the unenviable task of cleaning up Baird’s mess. Royals Review has complete coverage from a Royals fan’s perspective. (Link)

Yesterday’s American League Games
The Royals fire their GM and promptly get shutout by Joe Blanton and the A’s. Eric Chavez, Frank Thomas and Jason Kendall each had two RBIs as the A’s win 7-0. Kendell hit a home run, the first he’s hit in two years. (Link)

It’s the same story every year for the Rangers. Lots of offense but no starting pitching. They aren’t going to win the West unless their starters can do a better job. Didn’t happen yesterday as Texas starter John Koronka gave up 7 runs in 2 2/3 as the Mariners crushed Texas 14-5. (Link)

Mike Mussina is sick this year and yesterday was no different. Mussina threw a complete game against Tigers, allowing only one unearned run in the Yankees 6-1 victory. (Link)

The powerful White Sox offense was shut down by Jake Westbrook and the Indians as Cleveland won 5-0. (Link)

If the Orioles only played Tampa they’d be the best team in baseball. They can’t beat anyone but the Devil Rays, which certainly says something about the quality of Tampa. The O’s come back from a 5-1 deficit to win in 11 innings 6-5. (Link)

Twins rookie Francisco Liriano is living up to the hype. Liriano, paired with Johan Santana gives the twins two dominant power pitchers. Of course the cheapskate Twins will probably let both go someday but yesterday they were glad they still have Liriano as he gave up only one hit and no runs in 6 innings as the Twins won 7-1 over the Angels. (Link)

David Pauley was the starting pitcher for the Red Sox yesterday as they took on the Blue Jays. Yeah the Red Sox have rotation problems. Luckily for them they still have David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez who each home runs in Boston’s 8-6 victory. (Link)

Yesterday’s National League Games
The Astros celebrate Roger Clemens’ signing by losing to the Cards 4-3 in 11 innings. The Astros are now 27-27 and, like last year, their problem is offense, not pitching. Of course last year they made it to the World Series so maybe history will repeat itself. (Link)

Livan Hernandez pitched well and Alfonso Soriano continued his hot streak, driving in all three of the Nats runs and hitting his 19th home run of the year as Washington beat the Phillies 3-2. Both Hernandez and Soriano could be gone by mid summer, shipped to contenders for prospects. (Link)

The Rockies got 10 hits; the Padres 4. So of course the Padres won 3-2, scoring all of their runs in the 6th. (Link)

Jason Schmidt was dominant, striking out 10 in 5 2/3 innings in the Giants 6-1 victory over the Triple A Marlins. (Link)

A match up of two of the NL’s premier starting pitchers in Brandon Webb and Pedro Martinez was better then expected as the Diamondbacks and the Mets were scoreless until the 13th when Endy Chavez hit an RBI single to give the Mets the victory, 1-0. (Link)

You can not stop Jason Bay; you can only hope to contain him. Bay hit his 17th home run of the year leading the Pirates to a 6-1 victory over the Brewers. (Link)

Tim Hudson pitching well, Jones and Jones each hitting two-run home runs adds up to a 9-3 victory for the Braves over the Dodgers. (Link)

Ken Griffey, Jr. knocked in two runs as the Reds beat the Cubs and their ace Carlos Zambrano 3-2. (Link)

Odds and Ends
The Cubs traded for Texas Rangers DH Phil Nevin, giving up utility player Jerry Hairston, Jr. in return for the struggling slugger. Clearly the Cubs are desperate for any production from first base after Derek Lee’s injury. (Link)

Steve Nash drunk at a club. I might break out the pulling the shirt open move this weekend. (Link, via Deadspin)

Are the Rockies good because of religion? They’d like us to think its because they have talent, not because the man upstairs is helping them out. (Link)

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