Friday October 17th, 2003
1:59am
Stupid Yankees
Boy howdy, do I love the Marlins now. I can honestly say that of all the Yankees to hit a game winning extra inning HR off the Red Sox in Game 7 of the ALCS, I'm glad it was Aaron Boone. Boone, in my opinion, is the player on the team that least represents the "Yankees". He was a late season pick-up, and it wasn't a situation that he was really looking to get into, rather it happened because his father was canned and he needed to get away from the situation in Cinci. How spooky is this....3 run lead only 5 outs away from advancing to the World Series....2 times in one week....Both teams lost....those teams were the Cubs and the Red Sox. Just something to think about before you go and say it's all in the Boston and Chicago fan's heads....You can't blame Tim Wakefield for this one, he gave the Sox everything they had during the entire playoffs. I don't really buy into the whole blaming the manager thing. As Bobby Valentine said tonight, "If his team loses, a manager either left the pitcher in too long or took him out too early." (that wasn't an exact quote, but it was close enough to get the picture. Grady Little said he wanted Pedro out there because he was their man, and you can't really fault him too much for that. I feel the same way about Prior staying in to face Derek Lee in the NLCS G6, he's your horse and he got you here. Yippee More Games On FoxI know that I'm not the only person out there that thinks Fox is quite possibly the worst sports channel in the history of TV. Get rid of the sound effects, the Virtual Manager, the 1000 replays of the unimportant plays, the shot of the manager in-between every single pitch thrown....the list could go on and on.I will say something that I've never said before, and probably won't say again. The crew did a great job during the first 2 innings of the game. I don't know if there was some sort of technical difficulties or what, but the announcers only made very short 2 or 3 word recaps of the previous play and were silent the rest of the time. I thought it was awesome because it really made me feel more like I was there, because you could feel the intensity and the energy of the crowd. Enjoy this statement for a second Fox, because it's the only time you'll ever hear me say this....Well done. Now to my thoughts on Tim McCarver. Brett Boone owns you. I don't think I ever heard one thing come out of your mouth that had any relevance to what was going on, and if it was close to being relevant, then it just didn't make any sense. My example: At some point during the game, Tim said that Manny Ramirez caught the least fly balls of any corner outfielder in the league this year and that is why Johnny Damon has to cover so much ground. Did it cross your mind that maybe he just didn't have a lot of balls hit out to him? I mean, how many plays can we think of him making this series. Maybe 2 or 3 a game? It seemed like everything hit in the air was to CF or RF or the right-center gap. Pedro throws so hard that the right handed hitters can't pull the ball (and there are more righties than lefties). Derek Lowe is a ground ball pitcher, not a fly ball pitcher. Tim Wakefield gets lots of weak infield popups and ground balls that guys roll over on. John Burkett's balls just leave the yard giving no outfielder a chance to make a play. The reason Johnny Damon covers so much ground is because he is fast and can physically do it. I really think that the broadcast would be a lot better with only young Buck in the booth, or even better just Brett Boone (I also think that Al Leiter did an amazing job with the NL games, actually even better than Boone).
Preview: Texas A&M vs. Nebraska
This isn't going to be my normal preview, I'm gonna have to make it a bit shorter because I need to get to sleep. The reason I need to get some sleep is because I'll be driving somewhere in the neighborhood of 24 hours over 2 1/2 days because I'M GOING TO LINCOLN FOR THE GAME! I mentioned it a few weeks ago, when I got my tickets, but I wanted to remind everyone, so you aren't wondering where I am because I probably won't post until Tuesday of next week, and even then I have a paper and a mid-term on Wednesday and Thursday. Pat, an Iron Spike buddy (Hunter), and I will be leaving today at 3:30pm in my folks Tahoe and we'll probably stop somewhere in north Kansas to eat and crash. We've got tons of blankets and sleeping bags, so we're just gonna sleep in the van which isn't that bad (trust me...my two previous big road trips were 12 days each and we probably slept in that van for 15 of the 24 nights). We want to get about 2 or 3 hours from Lincoln before calling it quits so we don't have to drive very far in the morning (kickoff is at 11:30am so I figure we should get there around 9:30 to get parked, eat, see a bit of the pregame stuff and get into the stadium). Here's a layout of the stadium and where we're sitting:
Yeah, row 91 seems like a lot of stairs to climb, but I think the ramp comes out somewhere near row 35 or 40 so people can walk up to the top or down to the bottom, so it won't be too bad. In order to win, I think A&M will have to do exactly what Missouri did last weekend. Use our mobile QB and make plays happen. We also can't turn the ball over when we're returning punts. It's going to be a long game if that continues to happen. One more note....Nebraska's kicker, David Dyches, went to Westfield High School (that's my HS) and was a freshman when I was a senior. He played baseball too (honestly, at the time I didn't even know he played football) and he was a little punk. He was really lazy in the OF and he also wore his hat really weird. I'm glad he found his niche on the football field b/c he wasn't very good on the diamond. Hopefully, he won't burn me after I say all that, but if they're kicking lots of field goals then they're not scoring TDs (and I don't think he can burn me kicking extra points).... I'm soo pumped about the trip, and I've heard so much about how great Husker fans are that I think win or lose this will be a fun and memorable weekend.
Thursday October 16th, 2003
4:48am
Wait Til Next Year
Game 7 ThoughtsWell, I said on Tuesday that if the Fish can beat Prior and Wood then they are obviously the best team in the league....and they did. Sure things could have gone differently for the Cubs but they didn't. Wood didn't throw well tonight, and they lost. It really wasn't totally Wood's fault either....the Cubs 8 starting defensive players were a combined 4-27 at the plate....that's a .148 average.I really felt crappy after that first inning, but when K-Wood hit his HR I thought, "Man, this is our night. It's going to be just like Game 5 of the Braves series." Then Alou hit his HR to give us the 2 run lead, I honestly started thinking about which Cubs shirt I was going to wear tomorrow. Even after Game 6. I should have known.... Even after the Cubs gave up the lead once more, I was still confident and when I saw that Beckett was coming in I felt even more so. Beckett threw 115 pitches in G5 on Monday night and I figured he'd be juiced....boy was I wrong. Josh was once again, unbelievable! His line looked like this:
He threw 45 pitches tonight and the only one that wasn't great was the one Troy O'Leary hit out of the yard. That's 160 pitches within 48 hours and only 1 ER! Phew....Some Possible Causes of the Series Loss
- The fact that my dog, Olsen, full out peed on my "We Got Wood Shirt" WHILE I WAS WEARING IT before each of Wood's starts in this series. The only 2 times he's ever full out peed on me. Kerry pitched decent in the first game and crappy in the second game.
- We didn't outscore the Marlins in 4 of the games.
- The "Fan"-With all sincerity, I still blame G6 on him. I feel absolutely terrible for the guy, but I still think he lost us the game.
- Bernie Mac singing "Root Root Root for the Champs" during his time on the mike while singing the 7th Inning stretch in G6.
- Kyle Farnsworth's 8.31 ERA during the series.
- Game 1....Zambrano's poor outing was saved....then blown....then saved....then blown for a terrible way to kick off the series.
- Juan Pierre is good.
- I had a dream on Monday night...actually a nightmare. It was G7 at Wrigley during the afternoon and Prior was on the mound with 2 runners on base. Somehow the ball got past the catcher and when the catcher tried to get back to home plate to make a play, the batting practice roll-away cage was set up and he couldn't get around it in time to get either runner out. Somehow that was the last play of the ball game and the Cubs lost. I was on the field near the Cubs on-deck circle laying on the grass just sobbing.
- Pudge earned his $10 million salary in 8 days
- Josh Beckett-His numbers looked like this:
| G | GS | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | ERA |
|---|
| 3 | 2 | 19.1 | 11 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 19 | 3.26 |
|---|
Now take out the 1st inning of G1:| G | GS | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | ERA |
|---|
| 3 | 2 | 18.1 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 18 | 1.49 |
|---|
- We're the Cubs
Just a Bit More on G6
I know I need to get over this, but I'm still sick about it. Losing the series didn't feel as bad as losing G6 the way we did. It felt maybe 1/10th as bad. I had a knot in my stomach until maybe 2 hours before G7 started. In all the 100s of games and 1000s of innings I've watched or played in, that was the most demoralizing inning in the most demoralizing game I've ever seen. I can't imagine what it was like to be at the park....Like I mentioned above, I feel absolutely horrible for this guy. I wish that the media had not sold their soul to the devil for breaking news and didn't release his name. At least have enough decency to blur out the guy's face. If this was 10 years ago and there was no internet, the only time you would have seen his face was during the game. As mad as I am at him, I wish him no harm and I wish him his privacy back. Please leave him and his family alone. If there is anyone else out there that needs some more, then check out these 3 articles:
One other note....For all those people out there who say, "Not one person in the world would have not done the same thing." I know that I wouldn't. I've played enough baseball in my life to know how much it hurts to catch a ball someone throws from 90 feet away if you don't have a glove on, so I definitely know how much it would hurt to try to catch a ball that was falling from 200 feet in the air straight down. I wouldn't have touched the ball, not because I was going to let the player make a play, but because I'm not dumb enough to stick my hand out at a 9 oz. hard sphere traveling at 30-40 mph. It always amazes me how many people try to catch it, and how they're so shocked when it ricochets 10 rows backwards after bruising their hands.
Good News for BoSox Fans
I've been watching all the Red Sox/Yankee games, I just haven't been posting on them. The Sox are my 2nd or 3rd favorite team, and the Yankees are my least, so you know I'm pulling for Boston. Tonight's match up is what the playoffs are all about....Yankees vs. Red Sox, Game 7, everything on the line, Pedro vs. Roger, blah blah blah. If I was in Vegas, I'd drop a pretty penny on the Sox for one reason. Pat was playing with Olsen after the Cubs game, and put him down RIGHT before Olsen yakked on his Red Sox T-Shirt. After Olsen's little "episodes" with my Kerry Wood shirt and with the results of Kerry's performances in those games, this is an omen sent from the Baseball Gods blessing the Red Sox's bats and Pedro's right arm. GO SOX!
Wednesday October 15th, 2003
12:39am
Game 6: Cubs 3 vs. Marlins 8
The MoronIn all honesty, I thank God that I am not related to or know that kid in the left field seats. I don't doubt that he will receive death threats, and spend many a $ on a psychologist’s couch. I'm also sure that this kid has a nice little grudge against ESPN.com for putting a still photo of him during the blunder on their website (I blurred out his face because the kid is going to go through enough without my help).
Why? Why do you do something like this to your own team? I know that in the heat of the moment you wanted that ball, but when you see Alou running at you--GET OUT OF HIS WAY. I'm sure that Mo would have gladly given you the ball after the out was made. This same thing happened in either G1 or G2 behind home plate, so why can't you learn from others? I know the announcer's claimed that it wasn't his fault, but it was. The kid in the left field corner lost the game for the Cubs. I thought it should have been fan interference, but the ruling on that is that the ball has to be in fair territory (like behind home plate) and Alou was definitely in foul ground. Still, you can't tell me that Mo would have dropped that ball. The entire stadium died in that exact second. It was like the kid punched 35,000 people (+ the 9 on the field + everyone watching at home) right in the stomach and knocked the wind out of them. From that second on, the game was in jeopardy and everyone there knew it. In all fairness, the moron in the grey sweatshirt should get some razzing too because he sure as heck would have done the same thing if the ball had come down about 3 feet closer to home. Here's the situation: Top of the 8th inning and the Cubs are leading 3-0. Mark Prior is pitching a masterpiece (at this point he's got a 3 hitter going with although it's obvious He doesn't have his "A" game. The first batter is Mike Mordecai and Mark gets him to fly out to left field....5 outs away from going to the World Series. That brings up lead-off man, Juan Pierre, who is the sparkplug of the Marlin's squad. He hits a double, which worried me a little, but Prior had been cruising for the last 2 innings or so without any problems. Luis Castillo is next to bat and fouled off pitch after pitch. One of the pitches was a fly ball down the left field line. Cub's LF, Moises Alou, was running over to make a play on the ball, and a fan (the one pictured above) muffed the ball out of Alou's reach screwing up what was out number 2. This play caused everyone in the ballpark to lose focus and reflect on the 1984 NLCS. Prior's next pitch (his 9th to Castillo in this at-bat) is ball 4, so now the Marlin's two fastest base runners are on first and second with one out and Pudge Rodriguez is coming up to the plate. Pudge hits a lacing single into LF scoring Pierre and advancing Castillo to second base. Next batter is Miguel Cabrera and he hits a ground ball to the NL's leader in fielding %age at SS, Alex Gonzalez and he doesn't field the backhand cleanly. They wouldn't have had Cabrera at 1st, but they would have forced Pudge at 2nd. I blame this solely on the lack of focus caused by the fan interference. Things didn't get better, but at least I didn't see it because I had my eyes closed and I was attempting to take deep breaths to keep me from breaking something. Next batter was Derek Lee, who promptly doubled into the left field corner scoring Castillo and Pudge and putting Cabrera on 3rd and himself on second. This ended Prior's evening and what should have been another gem performance from what should be the NL's Cy-Young winner. Kyle Farnsworth came into the game and gave up 4 more runs and he was relieved by Mike Remlinger who gave up a hit that scored one of Farnsworth's base runners and then he got the final out of the worst inning I've ever witnessed in my life. 8 runs, 5 hits, 1 error, and 1 moron fan.
Prior Still Threw WellEven though his line doesn't look appealing to the eye...
...Mark still threw a great game. Like I mentioned above, before the "fan" screwed things up, Prior had given up only 4 hits 2 walks and no runs. His playoff totals thus far come out to look like this:
| G | W-L | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | ERA | AGSc |
|---|
| 3 | 2-1 | 29.1 | 19 | 9 | 6 | 11 | 24 | 1.98 | 63 |
|---|
...
Next Up
So off we go to a Game 7, which will feature Kerry Wood vs. Mark Redman. For their success against the opposing lineups check out my post from their last match up. If you didn't read yesterday's post, then I recommend you check it out so you can see the Cub's success with Prior and Wood throwing back-to-back.I'll be sporting my "We Got Wood" t-shirt for the 5th time in 3 weeks tomorrow at school (I've worn it every day he's started since his last start of the season, and the Cubs are 4-0), so I wanted to let everyone know that it has been washed and it's clean. Until tomorrow night, I'm going to just be stick to my stomach, but I guess all I can say is: "LET'S GO CUBBIES, LET'S GO!"
Some Articles on G6
Tuesday October 14th, 2003
12:31am; updated 10/14/03 at 10:23am
Aggies Thwarp Baylor 73-10
Box score I wanted to write about this earlier, but I thought it would be more important to get up my stuff on the Cubs first and talk about the Baylor game second.... OverviewWow, did we bust out of our funk or what? I know that a win over Baylor isn't something to call up longhorn friends and brag about, but we really stuck it to 'em. We've played worse Baylor teams and not won like this before, so if nothing else it sure helped moral on campus a bit.OffenseI don't really even know where to start with the offense. I guess I should list some things I thought were good:
- We had 719 yards of total offense
- 437 rushing yards; 5 rushing TDs (2 from #25 Courtney Lewis, 2 from #16 Reggie McNeal, and 1 from #7 Jason Carter)
- 282 passing yards; 4 passing TDs (2 by #2 Jamaar Taylor, 1 by #14 Chad Schroeder, and 1 by #38 Andy Matakis)
- 27 first downs
- 7-of-7 in the Red-Zone
- 2 RBs went over 115 yards (#25 C.Lewis for 158 and #1 Derek Farmer for 117)
- Our 3rd string RB, #32 Oschlor Flemming, ran for 55 yards
- #16 Reggie McNeil threw for 199 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INTs on 9-of-14 passing
- #2 Jamaar Taylor had 5 receptions for 145 yards (one for a 91 yard TD)
- 9 different guys had receptions and 7 different guys had carries (one of them was the 12th Man, #12 Thomas Perry)
Everything just clicked for us on Saturday....we ran the ball very well and we threw the ball around a lot....good balance. I think that #16 Reggie is showing us each week that he is getting better and better, which is really pretty scary. He still makes mistakes, but they're becoming less and less obvious and at the same time, less costly. #25 Courtney Lewis is turning out to be a stud! Coach Fran said he'd like to have another 1,000-yard RB here at A&M, and C-Lew is well on his way. He has 556 yards already and has scored one of his 9 TDs in each Aggie game so far. Much of the credit for C-Lew and Reggie's success goes to our VERY young offensive line. Of the 15 OLmen on the Depth Chart there is a cumulative total of 8 previous letters experience and 6 of those come from 2 seniors. Each game, these guys seem to get stronger and stronger and I'm very impressed with how far they've come since August 31st! It's like a totally different team out there. DefenseWhile I'm not ready to toss the Wrecking Crew label on these guys, they did play umpteen times better this week, albeit against Baylor. We finally proved we could stop the run, holding Big XII rushing leader, Rashard Armstrong to a measly 22 yards on 18 touches (his avg. coming into Kyle Field was 117.8 ypg) and he had 0 yards in the second half.Leading our D, not surprisingly, was #19 Jaxson Appel who had 7 tackles and a 64-yard INT return for a TD! #97 Johnny Jolly is also starting to come alive the last 2 or 3 games...he had 2 sacks vs. Baylor. BU QB, Aaron Karas (who I failed to previously mention went to Spring High School and also played baseball against me--that's 2 QBs in 2 weeks) pretty much stank. He was 15-of-25 for 138 yards and 1 TD, but was sacked 4 times and threw 2 INTs. BU totaled 152 yards passing and was sacked 6 times. The All 12th Man Kickoff SquadThis was easily the highlight of the game....every player who lined up for the kickoff was a walk-on! Coach Fran let 3 different groups of walk-ons get out onto Kyle Field after our last 3 scores, and the crowd just went nuts. When it first happened, I didn't notice it right away, but I thought it was somewhat odd that the guys going out were leaping up and down getting pumped up after we scored our 59th point. Then the announcer came on and said "Now taking the field an all 12th Man Kickoff Team" and the place just went nuts. It was the loudest I've heard it since the O.U. game last season! It was so cool to see those guys who go through practice everyday and take the hits, bumps and bruises so our team can prepare for the next week. That moment made me remember how proud I am to be an Aggie and how great our school is.
Coming UpNext Saturday we will be playing #14 Nebraska at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. The game is at 11:30 and will be televised regionally on Fox Southwest....
Game 6 Preview: Cubs vs. Marlins
Tonight is, in my opinion, the biggest game of this series. The Cubs are up 3-2 in a best-of-7 and the Marlins have to beat Mark Prior and Kerry Wood to go to the series. If they can do that, then they are more than deserving and will surprise the heck out of me! Over at The Cubs Reporter they received an email and posted it...it is astounding... "I just looked back at the Cubs' 2003 performance in games started consecutively by Prior and Wood (or Wood and Prior). It happened 15 times. The Cubs swept the two games 7 times and split 8 times. In no case did the Cubs lose two in a row. (By the way, in games where Prior started the first game in the pair -- which happened 10 times -- the Cubs record was 5 wins and 5 splits.) In September, Prior and Wood started consecutive games five times. Cubs earned 4 sweeps and 1 split. Prior/Wood numbers over those games: 73 Innings Pitched
71 Hits
97 Strikeouts
23 Walks
13 Earned Runs Allowed
1.60 E.R.A." Tonight, Mark Prior goes up against Carl Pavano, who has not started a game in 2 1/2 weeks but has thrown 5.2 innings of shutout ball out of the 'pen. Hopefully, the Cubs offense can rebound after a mesmerizing pitching performance by Spring native, Josh Beckett. Here are how Prior and Pavano have fared vs. each other's supporting cast members throughout their career (not including the postseason):
Cubs vs. Carl Pavano
| Batter |
AB |
H |
RBI |
HR |
XBH |
SO |
BA |
OPS |
| K.Lofton |
4 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
.250 |
.750 |
| M.Grudz. |
21 |
6 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
.286 |
.708 |
| S.Sosa |
10 |
5 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
.500 |
1.783 |
| M.Alou |
9 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.111 |
.222 |
| A.Ramirez |
9 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.111 |
.384 |
| Simon/Karros |
3/15 |
2/2 |
0/1 |
0/1 |
0/1 |
0/2 |
.667/.133 |
1.333/.569 |
| Gonzalez/Martinez |
5/7 |
1/5 |
0/1 |
0/0 |
0/2 |
0/1 |
.200/.714 |
.400/1.714 |
| Miller/Bako |
8/1 |
2/1 |
1/0 |
0/0 |
0/0 |
2/0 |
.250/1.000 |
.500/1.000 |
Marlins vs. Mark Prior
| Batter |
AB |
H |
RBI |
HR |
XBH |
SO |
BA |
OPS |
| J.Pierre |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.000 |
.000 |
| L.Castillo |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
.333 |
| I.Rodriguez |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
.333 |
1.000 |
| D.Lee |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
.000 |
.000 |
| Cabrera/Lowell |
0/0 |
0/0 |
0/0 |
0/0 |
0/0 |
0/0 |
.000/.000 |
.000/.000 |
| J.Encarnacion |
6 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
.333 |
1.167 |
| J.Conine |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
.000 |
| A.Gonzalez |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
.000 |
Here is how each starter has faired at Wrigley during their careers (not including this postseason)....
| Pitcher |
G |
GS |
W-L |
IP |
H |
R |
ER |
HR |
SO/BB |
ERA |
BAA |
| M.Prior |
24 |
24 |
11-6 |
163.0 |
136 |
63 |
57 |
19 |
206/41 |
3.15 |
.224 |
| C.Pavano |
2 |
1 |
0-2 |
9.2 |
11 |
4 |
4 |
1 |
5/3 |
3.72 |
.275 |
Hopefully, Pavano's winless streak at Wrigley will continue and Cubs Magic has to wait until Saturday to poke its head out once more....
Monday October 13th, 2003
posted 10/12/03 at 7:20pm
Cubs vs. Marlins
Ok, so I haven't been on the ball with this, but it's the weekend and I've had things going on. Game 3Game 3 was craziness....I went out with Jennifer on Friday (cause I'd kinda like to keep that relationship out of the red zone) and when we got back from dinner it was the 7th inning and Florida had just taken the lead, so I decided that I couldn't watch anymore so we put in a DVD and watched it. Well to my surprise, the game was still on when the movie was over so I got to watch the bottom of the 11th just in time to see a Cubs victory! Clutch hitting by Randall "Bling Bling" Simon pulled this one off!Game 4If you walk the first batter of an inning, he's going to score 80% of the time. That's what my old coach in high school preached to us ALL THE TIME! Ok, so Coach Lynch didn't quite say it in those kind terms, but he did say 80% of the time....apparently the Marlin's pitching coach, Wayne Rosenthal, doesn't emphasize it quite as much. I think that number will go up if you walk the 3 of the first 4 batters of an inning, ask Aramis Ramirez who jacked a grand slam in the 1st inning after watching such a thing happen. The Cubs uber-fireplug Kenny Lofton did it again in the 4th inning and he scored on an Alou single to left. A very solid start by Matt "Abe Lincoln" Clement only needed those 5 runs to come away with victory (although they added 3 more runs later to seal it).Game 5WOW! What a performance by Josh Beckett! He was phenominal and just pretty much dominated the Cubs from the beginning of the game to the end. Here is his line:
That 93 GSc was his season high and actually the 4th highest GSc of the Major Leagues during the entire season (see here for the list)! The key for Josh was getting the first batter of each inning out, which he did....and 7 times it was with a SO! This series will go back to Chicago for Game 6 on Tuesday night with Mark Prior going up against an unannounced starter for Florida....
Mayhem in Fenway
It appears that the Sox and the Yankees are trying to teach our kids how the game really works through a number of difficult math equations. I, and my genius dog, have crunched the numbers and have solved each equation:
Now, if you haven't heard (which means you've been living in a cave) Pedro shoved Yankee's coach (and former Red Sox and Cubs manager) Don Zimmer down. This may seem terrible since this man has been getting senior citizen discounts at Wendy's since I was born, but why on earth was he charging at Pedro like a bull? There is another picture floating around the 'net taken just before the pictures I have there. It shows Zim with his fist out as if he was going to punch Pedro....so can you blame Pedro for moving out of the way and redirecting Zim's charge? Apparently, New York Mayor Blumberg felt that Don Zimmer running full steam at someone was not anything to be worried about "If that happened in New York we would have arrested the perpetrator," Bloomberg said. "Nobody should throw a 70-year-old man to the ground, period. You start doing that pretty soon you're going to throw a 61-year-old man to the ground, and I have a big vested interest in that." Oh, so you would just let the fella tackle you? Now those pictures above do look a bit violent, and I'm not saying that the shove wasn't a bit forceful, but Pedro really could have acted more violently than pulling an 'Ol Le' with a shove. He would have been arrested in NY? Clemens wasn't arrested after throwing a bat at an opponent, or even arrested for hitting that same opponent with a pitch square in the symbol of his helmet earlier in the year. Pedro acted in self defense, and I'm sorry that he hurt an old man who was trying to hurt him. I didn't realize that in NY old people are protected by law even if they attempt to attack you. The mean nurses at Retirement Homes better start watching their backs.... Later in the game there was a fight that broke out in the Yankee's bullpen between what appeared to be a Red Sox fan and some Yankees. It turned out to be a Red Sox grounds crew worker and RP Jeff Nelson and Karim Garcia (who was in the field playing when it broke out). According to ESPN.com the worker left the fight with "...cleat marks on his back and arm..." and charges may be filed against the two Yankee players. Apparently the Yankees feel like this whole situation is the Red Sox fault: "The events of the entire day were disgraceful and shameful, and if it happened at our ballpark, we would apologize, and that's what the Red Sox should do here," president Randy Levine said." Please....if two Red Sox players attacked someone in Yankee stadium, they'd probably be shot dead on the spot by some nut in the bleachers.If you'd like to read more, click here for the ESPN.com article.
More Mayhem (this time on the field)
Wow, what a weekend for ranked teams in College Football! Here are the all the Top 25 losses in order of highest ranked to lowest:
- #3 Ohio State 10 vs. #22 Wisconsin 17
OSU's first away game of the season proves their luck may be confined to that big 'ole stadium they play in - #5 Florida State 14 vs. #2 Miami 22
I thought that FSU would pull it out this year....or maybe I just wanted Miami to lose so every ESPN anchor would stop saying "Miami keeps it's __ game regular season win streak alive" - #6 LSU 7 vs. Florida 19
I can't think of the last time Florida wasn't ranked, so maybe this was their way of saying we deserve to be in the polls - #7 Nebraska 24 vs. Missouri 41
This game was a shocker to me, but at the same time I felt like it was one of Nebraska's big tests for the season--playing away against a good team that got embarrassed the week before. It hurts me to see Nebraska lose the weekend before I drive 24 hours in a 3-day span to see A&M play them because they won't be a Top-10 team anymore, but it does give me a bit of hope that our mobile QB may be able to produce similar results as Brad Smith did for Mizzou - #8 Arkansas 3 vs. Auburn 10
Auburn is starting to look like the team that started the season in the Top-10 winning every game since their 0-2 start - #11 t.u. 13 vs. #1 Oklahoma 65
Boy, I thought our game was a blow out...this was a rivalry game so the wounds are quite deep. I think OU needed to win big to keep their #1 ranking, especially after #2 Miami handed it to #5 FSU - #13 Minnesota 35 vs. #19 Michigan 38
Michigan keeps everyone guessing which team will show up the good one or the bad one - #14 Tennessee 14 vs. #10 Georgia
I don't know anything about these teams, but it really isn't an upset since the higher ranked team won - #16 Pitt 14 vs. Notre Dame 20
Notre Dame is finally looking away from the West Coast Offense that doesn't fit their team's strengths - #21 Kansas State 34 vs. Oklahoma State 38
That soft non-conference schedule didn't really prepare K-State for the Big XII - #24 Virginia 27 vs. Clemson 30 (in OT)
I don't know anything about these teams either, but it was an upset
Yep, for those at home counting, that is 11 of the Top 25 teams losing! Here is the ESPN/Coaches Poll after yesterday's craziness:
| Rank | Team | PVS |
|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma | 1 |
|---|
| 2 | Miami | 2 |
|---|
| 3 | Virginia Tech | 4 |
|---|
| 4 | USC | 9 |
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| 5 | Georgia | 10 |
|---|
| 6 | Washington St. | 12 |
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| 7 | Florida State | 5 |
|---|
| 8 | Ohio State | 3 |
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| 9 | Iowa | 15 |
|---|
| 10 | LSU | 6 |
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| 11 | Arkansas | 8 |
|---|
| 12 | Wisconsin | 22 |
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| 13 | TCU | 17 |
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| 14 | Nebraska | 7 |
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| 15 | Purdue | 20 |
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| 16 | Northern Illinois | 18 |
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| 17 | Michigan | 19 |
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| 18 | Michigan St. | 23 |
|---|
| 19 | Minnesota | 13 |
|---|
| 20 | t.u. | 11 |
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| 21 | Oregon St. | 25 |
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| 22 | Tennessee | 14 |
|---|
| 23 | texas tech | NR |
|---|
| 24 | Oklahoma State | NR |
|---|
| 25 | Auburn | NR |
|---|
*Dropped from Rankings:
Pitt (16)
K-State (21)
Virginia (24)
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