Happy Monday!
This week on 15MOF we recap a very interesting Super Bowl between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers, we discuss the opening weeks of the NHL season and how the Edmonton Oilers are looking and we answer the question: who owns the Phoenix Coyotes?
In the GABBYs: Vincent Lecavalier, David Beckham, the NFL, Ottawa’s CFL team, PED’s and pro sports blackouts. The Punchline this week is OHL ref Joe Monette.
Happy Monday!
This week on the show, we recap the NHL playoffs, make a couple of NHL Award show predictions and discuss who should go first overall at the upcoming draft. As well, the latest on the Pacquiao/Bradley boxing controversy and Lance Armstrong is facing doping charges.
In the GABBYs: Matt Cain, Alex Rodriguez, Nik Wallenda, KTLA, Croatian soccer fans & Aubrey Huff. The Punchline this week is Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Jorge Posada (Keith Allison, Wikimedia Commons)
One of the best catchers of all-time has decided it is time to retire.
On the weekend, New York Yankees’ catcher Jorge Posada decided it was time to hang up the cleats at the age of 40.
Posada won four World Series with the Yankees in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009. In 2003, he had his finest season, hitting .281 with 30 home runs and 101 runs batted in. He became only the second Yankees catcher (Yogi Berra is the other) to hit 30 home runs in a season. That year he was an all-star, silver slugger and was third in the American League Most Valuable Player voting, where he lost out to his future teammate Alex Rodriguez, who at the time was playing for the Texas Rangers.
Posada was a very productive bat throughout his career for the Yankees at a position where emphasis is placed more on solid defense than offense. He was an asset in the Yankees lineup because he was a switch hitter, a rarity for a catcher. In his career, he had a solid .273 batting average, .374 on base percentage and .474 slugging percentage.
Curtis Granderson (Keith Allison, Wikimedia Commons)
The New York Yankees (97-65) host the Detroit Tigers (95-67) and the Texas Rangers (96-66) host the Tampa Bay Rays (91-71) in the American League Divisional Playoff starting today.
I’m picking the Yankees in four games and the Rangers in four games.
In the Yankees/Tigers matchup, Justin Verlander had an outstanding year for Detroit and will win the Cy Young Award after going 24-5, 250 strikeouts, 57 walks, an earned run average of 2.40 and a no-hitter against the Toronto Blue Jays.
The number that concerns me though is that the Tigers failed to win in the two games he started against the Yankees. Verlander pitched relatively well, giving up only three runs in six innings each time, but the bottom line is that Detroit couldn’t beat the best team in the American League this season with their ace on the mound.
The Yankees have a strong offensive balanced attack led by Robinson Cano (.302, 28 HR, 118 RBIs), Derek Jeter (.297), Alex Rodriguez (.276, 16 HR, 62 RBIs), Curtis Granderson (41 HR, 119 RBIs) and Mark Teixeira (.248, 39 HR, 111 RBIs), and should get by Detroit with their sub-par pitching, because don’t forget after Verlander, the Tigers don’t have much either.
Jim Thome (Rory Connell, Wikimedia Commons)
A significant milestone in Major League Baseball was achieved on Monday night.
Minnesota Twins’ designated hitter Jim Thome became the eighth player in Major League Baseball history to collect his 600th home run.
Thome actually hit two home runs in a 9-6 Minnesota win in Detroit. He hit his 599th career home run in the sixth inning off of Tigers’ starter Rich Porcello and then his 600th home run in the seventh inning off of reliever Daniel Schlereth. His home run in the sixth inning broke a 3-3 tie and his three run home run in the seventh inning put the Twins up 9-5.
Thome also had five runs batted in during the game and raised his batting average to .254.
It is interesting that Thome’s home run milestone wasn’t given as much hype as Derek Jeter’s 3000th hit earlier in the season, even though Jeter became the 28th player to accomplish his offensive achievement, compared to Thome being the eighth. I have three explanations:
1) The New York Yankees simply get more press and are in a larger baseball market than the Minnesota Twins.
2) It was difficult to promote Thome’s milestone in the making because he wasn’t playing everyday, and at the age of 40, wasn’t getting as many at bats.
3) A significant amount of Jeter’s at bats are meaningful than Thome’s because the Yankees are in a playoff chase, while the Twins are not.
Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (David J. Philip, Associated Press)
The National Hockey League playoffs will dominate my television viewing this weekend, but this morning I will have a little diversion.
The World Figure Skating Championships takes place in Moscow, and Canada is in an excellent position to win a second Gold medal. Olympic Gold medallists Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue of London, Ontario currently lead the ice dance competition after the short program. The long program goes this morning (11am, www.cbc.ca), with Virtue and Moir leading Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White 0.53 points. Virtue and Moir have 74.29 points and Davis and White have 73.76 points. Keep an eye out for Virtue’s leg however, as she was recently diagnosed with compartment syndrome. The team had to pull out of the Four Continents event leading up to the Worlds.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching:
Saturday–1pm–NHL Eastern Conference Semi-Final, Game 1–Boston Bruins @ Philadelphia Flyers–NBC–Last year, the Bruins and Flyers played an epic Eastern Conference semi-final with the Flyers winning in seven games after they lost the first three in the series. This year, the Flyers have the home ice advantage. I like Boston in this series because they seem to be more stable than Philadelphia at the goaltending position. Tim Thomas is playing better now than when he won the Vezina Trophy two years ago.
Jose Bautista (Keith Allison, Wikimedia Commons)
If you have read any of my baseball posts on www.anysportanytime.ca, I have been a little critical of Jose Bautista.
I have felt he has decent power, but doesn’t hit with the consistency of some of the other power hitters in Major League Baseball like Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez and Josh Hamilton.
Well, I am pleased to say the consistency is now here, and in a big way.
The starting right fielder of the Toronto Blue Jays currently leads all of Major League Baseball with an overpowering .360 batting average. He has gone 27 for 75 in the month of April so far, and is the favourite to be the American League Player of the Month. That would make Bautista the player of the month for three of the last four months, as he was also the American League Player of the Month for July and August last year.
Adrian Gonzalez (Getty Images)
In my first of a six-part series this week, I will examine the American League East.
The New York Yankees have dominated the division, winning ten of the last thirteen years. However they have only one World Series since 2001. Despite outstanding production in the middle of their batting order, (Robinson Cano, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira) it is the pitching depth that I’m concerned about the most. After C.C. Sabathia, the Yankees don’t have much. A.J. Burnett and Phil Hughes will need to have better seasons in 2011 than 2010, where they each had an earned run average above 4.00.
Danny Maciocia, Canadian Press
The August long weekend will be remembered for something that happened off the field rather than something on it.
Edmonton Eskimos General Manager Danny Maciocia was canned Saturday despite seeing his team defeat the British Columbia Lions 28-25 at Commonwealth Stadium the night before.
Was he to blame for the 0-4 Eskimos start? One could make a compelling argument of no. If the Eskimos win the two games they had a great chance of winning– at home against the Alouettes and in Regina, we’re talking about a respectable 3-2 start instead.
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