The biggest story heading into Saturday is Tiger Woods. According to CBS there was a possibility that Woods would be disqualified heading into the third round of the Masters (Saturday, CBS, 1:00 p.m.) for dropping his ball in an illegal area after his approach shot on the 15th hole hit the flag stick and went into the water. Woods apparently dropped his ball two yards back from where he should have dropped it.
However, according to ESPN, Woods was only given a two stroke penalty after officials reviewed the tape. Do you think Woods was given preferential treatment by officials because of his status or is a two-stroke penalty considered harsh enough? Please comment at www.anysportanytime.ca. One thing is for sure, and that is a major golf tournament with Tiger Woods boosts television ratings significantly more than a major golf tournament without him.
With the acquisition of the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner coming to the Toronto Blue Jays, one needs to ask will R.A. Dickey be a strong positive or a negative for the entire organization?
Fact: The Blue Jays are getting a 38 year-old pitcher who is coming off the best season of his career. The twenty wins means something because the Mets were horrible and the 230 strikeouts were also significant because it led the National League.
Fact: Dickey might be up there in age, but he is a knuckleball pitcher, who generally tend to have much longer lifelines than most pitchers.
Fact: The Blue Jays gave up significant prospects for Dickey. They include catcher Travis d’Arnaud and pitcher Noah Syndergaard.
Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers and Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants have won baseball’s Most Valuable Player Awards for 2012.
Cabrera’s AL MVP win should come as no surprise. That is what happen when you become the first player in over forty years to win the triple crown. Posey meanwhile hit .336 and became the first catcher in the National League to win the batting title since Ernie Lombardi of the Boston Braves led the National League in 1942.
Outfielder Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim won the AL rookie of the year in a landslide. Trout led the AL in runs and stolen bases. Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals won the NL rookie of the year. He was fifth in the senior circuit in runs.
Another National to win an award was Davey Johnson who won the NL manager of the year. He was the AL manager of the year with Baltimore in 1997. Also for the second time in his career, Bob Melvin has won the manager of the year award. Nobody expected him to lead Oakland to the AL West title, but Oakland did just that getting by the sexier teams such as Texas and the Angels.
The Calgary Stampeders and Saskatchewan Roughriders will battle this afternoon at Regina’s Mosaic Stadium (Saturday, TSN, 1pm). Both teams are 3-4 on the year, and are tied for third place in the western division.
The Roughriders got out of the gate quickly, winning their first three games before losing their last four, while the Stampeders haven’t gone on any significant run throughout the season. They haven’t been able to put two consecutive wins together all season long.
The Roughriders meanwhile will try to get revenge on a Stampeders team which came back from a 35-18 deficit to win in overtime 41-38 on July 19 at McMahon Stadium.
This week on 15 Minutes of Fame, we look at the drama leading up to the first overall pick 2012 NHL Entry Draft and a couple of big trades that happened on draft day. As well: a look ahead to game one of the CFL season, the latest on the NFL’s bounty program, some Euro 2012 controversy and a look at some boxing news.
In the GABBYs: The Miami Heat, Evgeni Malkin, R.A. Dickey, David Nalbandian, Nicklas Bendtner & Joel Peralta. The Punchline this week is LeBron James!
Three game sevens (and possibly a fourth) will dominate my sports viewing this weekend.
In the NHL, there is a game seven in the Eastern Conference Semi-Final between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. This will be a battle of Alexander Ovechkin versus Henrik Lundqvist. Despite limited ice time, Ovechkin leads the Capitals in scoring with nine points, but will have to get by Hart Trophy nominee Lundqvist to move on to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time in his career. The game can be seen on CBC tonight at 5:30pm.
In the NBA, there are two game sevens, both involving the Los Angeles teams. Tonight the Los Angeles Lakers host the Denver Nuggets in game seven of the Western Conference Quarterfinal tonight (TSN2, 8:30pm). Questions are surrounding the health of Lakers star Kobe Bryant who played with the stomach flu in game six on Thursday. Afterwards, he was not happy with Pau Gasol for his lack of effort and had no problem telling him so.
Then tomorrow the Memphis Grizzlies host the Los Angeles Clippers (ABC, 11am) in game seven of another Western Conference Semi-Final. Like the Nuggets, the Grizzlies were once down 3-1 in the series but have clawed their way back to force a game seven. Last night in Los Angeles, the Grizzlies won game six 90-88 on Marc Gasol’s 23 points.
One of Major League Baseball’s most unique pitchers announced his retirement on Friday.
The Associated Press reported that Tim Wakefield would be leaving the game at age 45.
Wakefield, a knuckleballer, was 7-8 with 93 strikeouts and a 5.12 earned run average last season. Twice in his career he won 17 baseball games, in 1998 and 2007, both times with the Red Sox. Throughout his career, Wakefield won 200 baseball games and 2156 strikeouts.
Wakefield began his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1992 before joining the Red Sox in 1995. He was an all-star at age 42 in 2009 and won two World Series with the Red Sox in 2004 and 2007.
But the bottom line with the retirement of Wakefield is, we might have seen the last of a legendary pitch– the knuckleball. For decades the pitch has been used in baseball as a quirky way to fool hitters. The unpredictable pitch may not go fast, but dances in the air as it is released from the pitcher. With the retirement of Wakefield, the only current knuckleballer today is R.A. Dickey of the New York Mets.
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