Closers Blow It But the Yankees Still Win

The Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees meet up for an interesting extra inning matchup. In a game where both closers receive blown saves but the Red Sox fall short 4-3.

It looked to be a great night for the Red Sox as they came into the game with a chance to go for the sweep. The Red Sox came out in the third inning with an early one run lead with a Victor Martinez RBI to right field which allowed Bill Hall to run home.

Red Sox starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka came out with one of his best outcomes of the season. He pitched 8.0 innings giving up four hits, seven strike outs, one walk and a two run homer to Alex Rodriguez in the seventh inning. To give the Yankees a 2-1 lead.

While the Yankees give Phil Hughes the start in a game in which he was going to be skipped. Hughes had a decent game with 6.0 innings pitched, three hits, four walks and one earned run.

The Red Sox forced the Yankees to bring out there closer Mariano Rivera to come in the eighth inning for a quick out, but the ninth wasn’t a normal outing for Rivera as he allowed four key walks. Two walks to Kalish and Two walks for Hall, both of which would lead to two runs scored to give the Sox a one run lead going in to the bottom of the ninth and his fifth blown save.

With a one run lead the Red Sox bring out Jonathan Papelbon to come in and get the save and give Matsuzaka his 10th win of the season but he would blow it for his eighth blown save. He would give up a run to Eduardo Nunez on a Robinson Cano RBI.
With the game being tied 3 all going in to the bottom of the tenth inning, Sox bring Hideki Okajima who would give up a bases loaded walk-off walk to Marcus Thames which would lead to a Juan Miranda run for a 4-3 victory.

Winning pitcher for the Yankees is Logan (2-0) and Okajima (4-4) would receive the L.

Remembering Nine Years Later

I feel today is a day to take a break from sports talk and talk about the importance of today. Take time to remember and honor those who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks that happened 9 years ago today. As many we remember where we were on that day, I will never forget. I was seating in my high school freshman English class on the front row, I was supposed to reading the book To Kill a Mocking Bird but I had dozed off when my teacher gets off the phone and runs to put the television on and screams the World Trade Center has been hit by a plane. I can remember being confused about what was happening and scared of what this would bring for our future as a country. I can remember being glued to the television and seeing the rest of the horrible acts that happened throughout the rest of the day including the attacks on the pentagon and the bravery of flight 93. To this day I still think about it daily as we see our troops fighting the war against terrorism and how it has affected our country and still does daily.

I remember how as a country we joined together and united for the common good of our country, that we wasn’t republicans or democrats but that we was Americans. This was an important scene to show our enemy that no matter what they do to us we will remain strong and join together. An important image I can remember is when former President George W. Bush went to visit ground zero and spoke with the volunteers that were helping find survivors it was an important image for our country. He spoke through a bull horn so everyone could hear this image will always stick with me as well as this one line he said.

“I can hear you! I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people—and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!”

All important events were put on hold including sports in fear of another attack to our citizens but we found out that sports are important to hold us together. An important day to our country was on Sept. 18, 2001 one week after the attacks on America, the New York Yankees took the field against the Chicago White Sox. The people was excited to be getting back to normal why the players had no idea why they was about to take the field.

“When we started playing, I didn’t see the sense of it.” New York Yankee Bernie Williams said. “We were playing games and resuming our season, and it seemed ridiculous to me”

“It started making sense when I saw the faces of people who lost loved ones, people who needed something to take them away for a few minutes and see something else,” he added. “We helped bring some sense of normalcy to the whole thing.”

The people of this country needed something to be excited about even if it is sports, it gives us something to look forward to and it was something to heal the city of New York. When the Yankees took the field that night they wasn’t representing the team the was representing the city and they didn’t wear their traditional NY hat they had on NYPD and NYFD hats in honor of the men and women who gave their lives to help and those who was still working to find survivors at ground zero. I recall watching this game not thinking the Yankees are killing the Red Sox in the division, I was thinking of the pride this meant for the city of New York to rise about this day but not forget about what happened to show that you can blow up one of our building but you cannot kill our spirit. We as Americans needed a distraction that sports were able to give us. We used sports to not only help us think about something other than the loss of our countrymen but as a way of honoring the people who died and saying that they did not die in vain.

The acts of 9/11 will always be a sad day in American history that we will feel the effects of this day for years to come but as we will never forget the images of that day. I’ll close with a quote from President Bush.

“Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last calls, the funerals of the children.”

We will never forget!

Bad Day for Brady Turns Into Payday

Most people would think they were having a really bad when it started with a car accident. But for Tom Brady it seems like nothing bad can happen, as He started his day yesterday with a minor car accident. At around 6:30 AM on Thursday morning Brady was leaving his home in an Audi S8, which happened to be a loaner, when he was smashed in to by a 21 year old driver which a pretty poor driving record. Brady would walk away from this with no major injuries and managed to keep a low profile while doing it.

Unlike most people who have been in a car accident most people would lay around most of the day or go to the emergency room and get checked out, not Brady. He continued his day as usual as he arrived at practice a little late but made the team meeting and went through the normal practice routine with full pads as scheduled for the day. According to his teammates it was as if nothing had ever happened Brady completed his passes as normal and everything went as scheduled.

As if Tom Brady wasn’t enough of a superman at this point for making it through a car accident unharmed and showing up to practice. It was reported that Friday morning Brady will receive a four-year deal worth $72 million with $48.5 million guaranteed money. This contract makes Brady the highest paid yearly player, this will probably last until Peyton Manning signs his new deal.

This is not a bad way to end a day that started so awful, if getting in a car accident makes me $72 million sign me up. Brady and the New England Patriots will open there season on Sunday at 1PM eastern time against the Bengals.

2010 NFL Projections

I have taken the last couple of days to put together my 2010 NFL projections grant it I’m in no way or form an NFL expert but I thought I’d throw my two-cents in the bucket. First off I will say I didn’t use any of the pre-season games to come up with this mainly because I feel that pre-season is a joke. I used last season’s results and how much the teams have changed since that point in their off-season activities. Let’s take a look at this at the end of the regular season and see how I did; now here are the teams broken down by conference. I may come back later this week if I have time to explain why I feel which teams will do what.

AFC EAST
New York Jets 12-4
New England Patriots 9-7
Miami Dolphins 9-7
Buffalo Bills 3-13

AFC NORTH
Baltimore Ravens 11-5
Cincinnati Bengals 10-6
Pittsburg Steelers 9-7
Cleveland Browns 2-14

AFC SOUTH
Indianapolis Colts 12-4
Houston Texans 10-6
Tennessee Titans 8-8
Jacksonville Jaguars 6-10

AFC WEST
San Diego Chargers 11-5
Kansas City Chiefs 8-8
Denver Broncos 6-10
Oakland Raiders 5-11

NFC EAST
Dallas Cowboys 10-6
New York Giants 9-7
Philadelphia Eagles 8-8
Washington Redskins 7-9

NFC NORTH
Green Bay Packers 11-5
Minnesota Vikings 10-6
Chicago Bears 7-9
Detroit Lions 2-14

NFC SOUTH
New Orleans Saints 12-4
Atlanta Falcons 7-9
Carolina Panthers 6-10
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2-14

NFC WEST
San Francisco 49ers 10-6
Seattle Seahawks 9-7
Arizona Cardinals 7-9
St. Louis Rams 2-14

Garza Makes No-Hit History

If you are a fan of pitching then you must love the 2010 season. Pitchers have dominated both leagues as we have saw two perfect game, an imperfect game and with tonight’s no-hitter by Matt Garza three no-hitters. Garza became the Tampa Bay Ray to perform this act in the franchise short existence in a 5-0 win over the Tigers. This game was truly a pitcher duel as there was no hit in the game until the sixth inning when Matt Joyce comes up to the plate with bases loaded and hits a grand slam, to break up a no hitter for Tigers pitcher Max Scherzer. Garza also got help from outfield Carl Crawford when he hit a solo homerun in the eighth inning. Garza made his way in to history with six strike outs and one walk that came in the second inning. Garza had a lot of help from the defense of the team to lead him in to the history books from the outfield with two great plays. The Rays feel great that they are on the winning side of a no-hitter as they have been on the losing side twice this season. Now that the Rays have got the no-no under their belt, it leaves two teams without this joy and those teams are the New York Mets and the San Diego Padres. I look forward to seeing what else this 2010 season has to bring and see if it continues to be the Year of the Pitcher.

The Streak is Over

For the last thirteen years the American League has came to the All-Star game and dominated the event. Not this year as the National League finally picks up a win in the midsummer classic. The game was a true showing of this year’s baseball being known as the year of the pitcher as the NL’s arms held the AL to only one run as the National League went on to win 3-1.

The AL came out in the fifth inning when Evan Longoria scored the first run of the game and what would be the only run for the AL. The Lead did not last for long as Braves catcher Brian McCann came in to a bases loaded opportunity when he came up with a bases clearing double and three run RBI. As these was the only three runs for NL and that’s all it took to win.

The American League thought that they had a chance in the ninth when David Ortiz (the winner of last night home run derby) comes up with a lead off base hit single off of Jonathan Broxton. As things seemed to be looking up Papi’s Red Sox team Adrian Beltre comes up to bat and strikes out. So with one out in the bottom of the ninth you would think that you would send in a pinch runner for one of the lowest runners in baseball but they left Ortiz out there which would come back to bite them. As Catcher John Buck gets a base hit in right field that would lead to Ortiz getting a force out at second base. With two down Broxton faces Ian Kinsler and Kinsler can’t get it done which leads to the National League win. The winning pitcher for the game was Matt Caps and the save went to Broxton. Of course the winner of the MVP award was McCann who lead to all the runs that was scored for the NL.

The only thing that I don’t understand about this game is the balancing of players by Joe Girardi. Why would you not keep players for the ninth inning in a close game so that you have options? When it came down to need a pinch runner all he has on the bench is Alex Rodriguez, who never entered the game. I feel if he left some bench players and gave himself some better option there may have been a different ending to this game. But there wasn’t and the National League wins the game and wins the home field advantage for the team that wins the NL Pennant.

The Boss has Passed

This morning the game of baseball has lost one of its more powerful faces, George Steinbrenner. Steinbrenner passed away at the age of 80 at his Tampa home. Steinbrenner was known to most baseball fans as “The Boss” and the owner of the New York Yankees. Most people hated his team but always respected the way he ran it; he was one of the most powerful owners in sports. The man changed the way that organizations got players as he always strived for the best and wanted the best for his organization. He changed the way of free agency and how much players would be worth, always making sure he got who he wanted for his franchise. But he always pushed the players to get what he wanted out of them as he would do this in the media to their face or however it took to get the point across. The players respected him and would always show him that in all times. George built his organization around the idea of winning and winning he did. His Yankees won 11 pennants and 7 World Series titles. He also turned them in to a brand when he created the YES network and putting his all-stars out there made millions off of them. The Boss went out on top his team is the current World Champs, they have the best record in baseball at this point in the season, and 8 of his players made the All-Star team I feel all of this is fitting for the exit of the Boss. You will be missed by baseball!