In case you’re just getting home from work and checking Major League Baseball scores, you might not be aware that two teams have blown huge leads so far on Wednesday.
One of them was the Atlanta Braves, who led the Colorado Rockies 10-1 after three innings at Coors Field and subsequently lost 12-10.
This, obviously, did not sit well with Beyond The Scoreboard Associate Editor Zettler Clay, who as a born and bred Atlantan, lives and dies with his Braves. Me, on the other hand…I’m an enabler:
So, just a heads up to anyone reading this in the Peach State: if you see a young man wandering around, muttering about Mark Lemke and repeatedly watching this video on his iPhone, return him to his house.
(By the way, the other blown lead: the Reds, who also led 10-1 after 4.5 innings and are currently in extra innings with San Francisco tied at 11.)
It's time for the Nationals to let their ace hurler recover and sit out the rest of the season. (Courtesy: Sports Illustrated)
June 8, 2010 will forever be one of those moments in my sports fan life where I’ll remember exactly where I was – sitting on my couch and staring, slack-jawed in awe as Stephen Strasburg fanned 14 Pirates hitters in his big league debut.
But now, in the wake of the phenom’s 2nd trip to the disabled list in the last month, it’s time to end 2010 for the Washington Nationals wunderkind.
Blasphemy? Possibly. Reality? Absolutely.
No one can deny that Strasburg is the reason that excitement about baseball in D.C. has been at a fever pitch this summer; at least every five days; something the team’s front office and city leaders, who plunked $700 million into a brand new riverfront stadium, has yearned for since moving there from Montreal.
There’s something to be said for protecting your greatest asset though – and protecting Stephen means not letting him get near a mound until next February in Viera.
Besides, it’s not as if the Nats need Strasburg anymore this season. Here are five reasons why:
1) The season is over. Only the jaded believe that there’s anything for Washington to play for anymore. The Nats are 20 games under, 20 games behind Atlanta and 17.5 behind Philadelphia in the N.L. East. They’re also 17.5 behind the Phillies and San Francisco in the Wild Card race. It seems oversimplified to say it, but it’s not like the Nationals are in a pennant chase here in late August. Stephen isn’t going to be the White Knight that leads Washington back into the playoff hunt in 2010 – so his services are no longer necessary.
2) The allure has worn off. That June 8 game mentioned earlier sold out Nationals Park and for good reason. But since his night-before-Independence-Day start against New York when the Nats drew 39,219, the attendance for Strasburg’s home starts has decreased with each outing. His last home start was August 15 against Arizona was in front of 21,695, just a shade over the team’s average attendance for 2010. While the excitement over his first season hasn’t gone away – just ask any radio host – the drawing power is gone.
3) Forearm injuries aren’t anything to mess with. There are still conflicting reports over what exactly ails Strasburg; some reports say it’s a forearm flexor injury while some claim it’s his pitching elbow. While the latter would be much more of a concern than the former, any ailment to his pitching arm or shoulder should be treated with everything short of casing him in bubble wrap. I’ve injured my own forearm flexor, which is the muscle that links your wrist to your elbow, while lifting weights and it’s much more of a debilitating ailment than you would think. You simply can’t grip objects with as much force as you’d like.
4) Rushing him back again won’t help him. He’s got his game reps in. He made 12 starts in 2010 for the Nationals and, while he’ll fall about 30 innings short of the 150 IP target the organization placed on him before the season started, it’s not a tragedy. It’s better for him to get those reps in at 100 percent rather than try to get him to that goal while coming off nearly a month of rehab. Remember the panic when he simply couldn’t get loose and was scratched from a start on July 27? It’s eons more panicky now. There’s no difference in having him pitch meaningless late season games in 2010 or meaningless early season games in 2011, so you might as well let him wait.
5) This is the franchise were talking about here. Strasburg isn’t just a pitcher. Strasburg is the hat the Nationals hang on the post every morning. With apologies to Alfonso Soriano, Stephen is the biggest thing this franchise has had to tout since arriving in D.C. We’ve seen early injuries decimate power pitchers early in careers before. The last thing Washington needs is to watch Stephen succumb to nagging injuries and see their best hope of being relevant – ever – whittle away as quickly as he arrived.
Part of what were doing here at Beyond The Scoreboard is innovation. We’re finding new ways to tell you the stories that matter in pro and college sports.
As explained a few days ago, these Master Maps are a quick reference for things you need to know about every team in pro and college sports, including their home venue, where you can get tickets and a few other interesting nuggets.
We’re still developing and adding to these maps though. What do you think should be included in the Master Maps?
The recent concern in the North Star State about the adversities of Percy Harvin has exposed a (surprising) lack of public knowledge about the magnitude of migraines in sports.
Last Thursday at 12:11 p.m., 22-year-old Harvin bent over, vomited and fell out in practice. He was taken to the hospital.
Harvin is alert now and has been back with the team lifting weights and participating in light drills. But the events leading up to the collapse was odd:
Harvin left the team on July 31 because of his grandmother’s death. What was expected to be a brief respite from athletic activity turned to two weeks away from the gridiron. On Aug. 11, Vikings Head Coach Brad Childress said that migraines – due to stress – was the cause for Harvin’s absence.
The Vikings then issued him a “five day letter,” basically stating that Harvin’s season would be over if he didn’t return within five days. He returned on Aug. 16 after missing 15 straight practices. On Aug. 19, he was taken to the hospital.
Childress, again, confirmed that a migraine was the cause. Three days later, reports from the Vikings camp downplayed the migraine angle, saying that his recent date with the hospital wasn’t “directly related to migraines.”
Notice the word “directly.”
Is this the Vikings way of covering their tracks because they essentially forced him to come back when he may not have been ready? Also, as you may have heard, little known Vikings quarterback Brett Favre missed a lot of practices too. Was there a similar ultimatum put on the one-time Falcon quarterback?
As a person who is well-familiar with migraines, I thought that missing two weeks because of them was a bit excessive. But keeping in mind he was dealing with the death of his grandmother and he fell out days after he returned to practice, it might be safe to say that Harvin is dealing with something far deeper than I – and others – can fathom.
Migraines aren’t occurrences that happen to most people, that’s for sure. But enough athletes have been afflicted in recent years for it to warrant more attention.
Scottie Pippen. Game 7 of the 1990 Eastern Conference Finals.
Terrell Davis. 1997 Super Bowl.
Steve Francis. His whole career.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Marquez Pope. Jason Williams. Countless others.
Some time ago, me and a former football player from the University of South Carolina were chatting. We were talking about Terrell Davis in the ’97 Super Bowl and my friend said incredulously, “Can you believe he almost missed the second half because of a migraine?” I just looked at him, for he was a guy who obviously didn’t understand the extent of them.
Those sentences have become more and more commonplace and I spend a considerable amount of time elucidating the pain that migraines take me through.
But there is no better way to expose a debilitating condition than for it to happen to a famous person. It’s going to be intriguing to see how the Vikings will handle Harvin for the rest of the season. Signing Javon Walker may be a sign that they see the writing on the wall, or simply covering their bases.
Either way, Harvin – who has been dealing with migraines since he was a child – has become a case study for much more than his stellar play on the field. For his loved ones and empathizers, this is hardly just another case study.
One month ago, Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella announced he would be retiring from Major League Baseball at the end of the season. At the time, Chicago was nine games under .500.
Flash forward to Sunday morning. The Cubs have won only three games at Wrigley Field in the past month and entered today with only two more wins than the Arizona Diamondbacks.
So it was not surprising to hear Piniella say he would retire after Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Braves. The Cubs sent Sweet Lou out in style to the tune of a 16-5 defeat. Fittingly, Piniella ended each of his four seasons in Chicago with a loss (’07 & ’08 in the NLDS, ’09 vs. Arizona).
Now that Piniella is out of baseball, the question is whether he should be elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.
It is a tough call when you take a look at Lou’s resume.
There are only 13 managers in the history of the game that have more wins than Piniella. The Seattle Mariners have had 11 winning seasons and reached the playoff four times in their 33-year history. Seven of those winning seasons and each playoff appearance was during Piniella’s tenure.
In Chicago, Piniella became the first manager to have three consecutive winning seasons since Leo Durocher did it from 1966-1969. He was also named Manager of the Year three times; twice in Seattle, once in Chicago.
But does regular season success as a manager warrant a place in Hall?
While Piniella did manage the 1990 Cincinnati Reds to a World Series title, his teams were notorious for coming up short in October.
The Mariners 1995 season is remembered for the magical series against the New York Yankees, but Seattle was quickly dispatched by the Cleveland Indians in the ALCS. Seattle tied a major league record for wins with 116 in 2001, but were thumped by the Yankees in the ALCS.
In 2007, Piniella famously removed starter Carlos Zambrano out early in Game 1 of the NLDS to “rest him for Game 4.”
Game 4 never came for Chicago.
The following season Chicago had the best record in the National League entering October and were favored by many to at least reach the World Series. Once again the Cubs were out in only three games.
So will Sweet Lou get the call from Cooperstown?
I think had Piniella won another World Series with either Seattle or especially Chicago, this would not be a conversation. Piniella will be remembered as one of the best in the history of the game. Winning only one World Series is not enough to keep him out.
Hopefully voters will be smart enough to recognize that.
Dustin Johnson broke a rule he knew was on the books. (Courtesy: Wikipedia)
I know we’re a little late to the game on this topic, but while driving in D.C. and listening to a golf show on ESPN 980 this morning, I got all fired up over how the 2010 PGA Championship ended.
On Sunday Tee Time with Steve Czaban, Steve and the hosts were continuing to go on and on about how the tournament’s “karma” was ruined when the PGA gave Johnson a two-stroke penalty on the 18th hole, virtually eliminating him from contention.
He was penalized because he grounded his club in what the course officials designated a bunker, despite the fact that spectators were standing in it.
In the immediate aftermath, the reaction was simple and passionate – Johnson, who was gunning for just his 4th victory on the pro tour, was jobbed by a technicality.
Except he wasn’t. And the argument needs to stop immediately, because it’s silly and defies common sense.
Czaban and his co-hosts brought a PGA rules official on to explain the situation, how the decision was reached and the extreme lengths officials went to inform players of the bunker rule:
We had signs up about bunkers in the locker room. We told them over and over at players meetings…we even had signs up on the inside of stall doors in the bathrooms.
The argument then moves to the fact that a rules official, who was present on 18 when Johnson was lining up, neglected to tell him that he was in a sandy area designated as a bunker:
Johnson had previously asked, that day, about whether or not he was in a bunker on 14 and 16. He didn’t on 18 for some reason.
And there’s the rub. If this argument has now denigrated to the idea that a rules official should have been proactive about informing Johnson of his ball’s location in a bunker, then this debate is totally moot.
This reminds me of a rules enforcement situation that occurred in the NHL 17 years ago. In Game 2 of the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, with the Los Angeles Kings up 2-1 with less than two minutes left, Montreal Canadiens coach Jacques Demers called for Kings defenseman Marty McSorley’s stick to be measured.
He thought it was illegal. He was right and the ensuing penalty changed the complexion of the series. McSorley was penalized, Montreal tied the game on the power play and won the game in overtime.
The Canadiens won three straight afterwards to win the Stanley Cup.To this day, the argument rages on whether or not Demers should have made that call; that he broke the “spirit of the rule” since it came in such a pivotal moment of the game and series.
But the last I checked, that call should be made regardless of whether it was in the first two minutes of a preseason game or in the last two minutes of a Stanley Cup Final game.
A rule is a rule. Many cry that they shouldn’t make that call on Johnson since it was on 18, on Sunday, for the PGA Championship; that it “broke up the flow and ruined the tournament.”
For Johnson (and McSorley), the rules are the rules. I deplore the idea of officials putting the whistle in their pockets, if you will, during pivotal moments. A foul is a foul and a penalty is a penalty.
Johnson committed one. He lost because of it. Why should the integrity of the rules be challenged? The PGA should be applauded for upholding the letter of the law, even if the bunker Johnson was stuck in looked like a patch of dirt you pull into on the side of a highway.
Mariotti was arrested in Los Angeles early Saturday morning after a domestic dispute. (Courtesy: AP)
To say that the last few years have not treated Jay Mariotti very well is an understatement.
First, he gets pegged by most observers as the most obnoxious out of all the obnoxious on Around The Horn, ESPN’s daily roundtable shouting match (at least when Kevin Blackistone and Bill Plaschke aren’t involved).
Then, he left his longtime gig with the Chicago Sun-Times when he got jaded by the prevalence of web journalists at the Beijing Olympics. All the while, his reputation in the Second City had been questioned for years after White Sox cheer squad captain Hawk Harrelson outed Mariotti for never being at Sox games, which ended with Jay allegedly breaking Hawk’s nose in Minnesota.
Obviously, Woody Paige was either hitting himself with a pie or hiring a new intern to come up with his chalkboard one-liners.
Either way, it should be interesting to see how ESPN and AOL Fanhouse handles this situation. The four-letter network has been notorious for having a quick trigger on employees like Harold Reynolds and Steve Phillips.
We now wait to see what the fallout for Jay is, but needless to say, his next appearance on ATH should be dynamite.
The buzz around the NFL for the last two weeks (aside from Favre Watch 2010) has been HBO’s Hard Knocks. Even if you do not have premium cable, you cannot avoid hearing about the New York Jets, more specifically head coach Rex Ryan’s use of the f-bomb.
Personally, I don’t have a problem with it. You know what you are getting into when you choose to pay extra for channels like HBO. This is the same channel that has naked vampires, a male escort and a celebrity agent that makes Ryan look tame by comparison.
Besides, the appeal for Hard Knocks is not to see what swear word Ryan drops next.
NFL Films and HBO have found a way to make the pre-season interesting. From front office decisions to position battles to film meetings, fans of the show, like myself, see what life is like in the National Football League.
Still, I understand why some people find the content of “Hard Knocks” offensive. Not everyone likes foul language. I assumed one of those people was going be Tony Dungy, former head coach of the Indianapolis Colts and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
I have followed his career closely for several years, in fact I own two of his books, so I am not surprised he did not like the amount of swearing on the show.
But I was taken aback by some of the comments Dungy made on the Dan Patrick Show earlier this week.
Among other things, Dungy told Patrick in the radio interview “if I was in charge, I wouldn’t hire someone like that” and he hopes Commissioner Roger Goodell would get involved:
I don’t think our young people need to hear that that’s the way it’s done to be successful. Because it doesn’t have to be that way.
Ryan and his players quickly went of the defensive, claiming that Dungy unfairly judged him. And you know what? They are right.
What’s worse is this comes from the same man Goodell asked to mentor Michael Vick. The same man who has written books about how to be a better man in every aspect of life. Dungy has never been a fan of profanity, but judging Ryan over his choice of words is just hypocritical. Tony should know better.
Ryan has extended an invite for Dungy to come to camp and resolve the issue. I am sure once he does everyone involved will forget this ever happened. Dungy will go back to his desk on NBC’s Football Night in America and Ryan will continue to be the brash, fun-loving coach fans across the country have fallen in love with.
As for me, I have lost a little respect for Dungy. You can say I am overreacting, but to be critical of a few f-bombs cheapens Dungy’s overall philosophy on life.
The Yankees are a game up on the Rays with two months left. (Courtesy: UPI)
To say that the American League East is the best division is baseball is an understatement.
It has not just one but two teams with a .600 winning percentage or better (New York Yankees, and Tampa Bay Rays) and another one who if they weren’t battling injuries all season would more than likely also be at that mark.
Consistently every year the division produces a winner: three of the last six World Series champions have been from the A.L. East (Red Sox in ’04 and ’07, Yankees in ’09) and in the past ten years, the ALCS has lacked a team from this division only three times.
That’s why I’m finding it odd that the race for the division pennant is not as exciting as it should be. After a Yankees win and Rays loss Thursday night, the Rays are one game back of the Yankees with a little less than two months left in the season. But for some reason, the race is being down played by most of the major news organizations.
It might have something to do with the constant winning.
After a while you can just become numb to the fact that you are always seeing a team from A.L. East deep into the playoffs, or for the division to come down to the final series of the year.
Look at the Yankees schedule for instance. Their final series of the year is against the Red Sox in Boston, more than likely set up by Major League Baseball in an effort to get as much excitement out of that series as possible; of course, they didn’t foresee that the Red Sox would be mostly out of the race by this point.
The lack of excitement might also have something to do with the fans are just ready for a change. Seeing the same teams every year gets boring; the lack of parity in Major League Baseball is a completely different article though.
Every fan wants the same thing — they want to see their team succeed and feel the joy of winning. It gets tiresome seeing the same fans year in and year out getting to celebrate.
The Rays have had a lot to dogpile about in 2010. (Courtesy: Reuters)
But this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t stand up and take notice of the great baseball that is being played in the A.L. East. There is a reason these teams win every year: they are the best. When the best go up against the best, great things happen.
So get excited about the this race down the stretch. The Yankees and Rays have two more series against each other and they’ll be just as compelling as any other series you could think of.
Why do you think certian playoff races are covered or considered more interesting than others? Is it just in baseball or is it all sports?
One week after I cracked the seal on the obligatory annual Madden purchase, I decided to play with the Eagles and give my old friend a run at quarterback. All was well until about 3:43 seconds left in the second quarter, when I saw something hanging out the back of his helmet.
I didn’t give it much mind, until I threw an interception two minutes later. In the game’s authentic splendor, there was a camera sequence on the sideline of Vick talking to his offensive coordinator. And there it was. A braided-up Vick.
Even the Madden franchise still see the old Vick. Which is odd or ironic or fitting (depending on your perspective), considering that Vick donned the 2004 Madden cover.
I know, I know. You’re thinking, “It’s not that big of a deal. It’s a video game and a simple error was made. Let it go. Move it.
“And besides, there are settings in the game that allows users to change a player’s appearance.”
But it is not that simple. If Vick rocked braids last season and cut it in the offseason, or even late in the season, I could understand the oversight. But Vick cut his hair over three years ago. How do the people behind Madden, one of the most popular video games ever, make this error about one of the most popular (if not controversial) football players ever?
Is this a microcosm of a societal perception that has a fixed picture of Vick?
When you look at Falcon highlights of Michael Vick, the braids are there. When Vick signed that record contract, he was smiling in braids. He flipped fans the middle finger…in the braids. When news came out about his dog-killing operation, he came into the 2007 season without the braids. It even warranted coverage. His new haircut symbolized a breaking away of the past.
But Madden 11 didn’t get that memo.
Don’t confuse this for a Vick apologist piece. It’s hard to feel sorry for a guy who had the motherboard of dogfighting operations, blew his money and admitted to being “lazy” and “settled for mediocrity” during his stay in the Dirty Dirty. I am the Vick anti-apologist. He made his bed. He served time. And he may not have completely learned his lesson about staying out of trouble.
But it’s something to note that Madden didn’t verify the accuracy of a player that, at this time last year, was a top-five jersey seller. It may not mean much, but it may be an indication that, like my man Dangerfield, Vick just can’t get respect these days.
Is the Madden peccadillo an honest error or Freudian slip?
So, just a heads up to anyone reading this in the Peach State: if you see a young man wandering around, muttering about Mark Lemke and repeatedly watching this video on his iPhone, return him to his house.
