This Weekend in Sports (11-May-2007)
Major League Baseball
AL
The Boston Red Sox are sitting on top of the American League standings after 43 games with a sparkling .697 winning percentage. Josh Beckett and Tim Wakefield have been untouchable this summer. Add to that Curt “Bloody Sock” Schilling, Dice-K, and closer Jonathan Papelbon and you have the best pitching staff in the AL. Boston will be facing the surprising second place Baltimore Orioles for a 3 game set. Look for Boston to continue their winning ways against the O’s.
The Toronto Blue Jays are on a 9 game losing streak and given that their number 3 starter, their left fielder, catcher, setup man, and closer are all on the DL people are actually calling it a season in Toronto. B.J. Ryan is scheduled for Tommy John surgery and will not be available until spring training next year. The Jays depth is paper thin and they simply cannot compete with all these key players injured. As we’ve heard year after year around here, there’s always next year!
NL
In the National League Barry Bonds is closing in on Hank Aaron’s home run record of 755 career home runs. Barry is just 10 home runs shy now. It will be interesting to see how many pitchers actually give him a chance to hit the ball. Nobody is going to want to be known as the pitcher that gave Barry Bonds the all time home run record. In a poll by ABC News and ESPN, 37 percent said they are rooting for Bonds to break Aaron’s record, while 52 percent said they hope he falls short and 11 percent had no opinion.
PGA
The Players Championship started Thursday and will run through the weekend. Looks like Phil Mickelson is enjoying his time at TPC Sawgrass in Florida. Phil carded a 5 under 67 in the first round to be tied for the lead. Defending champion Stephen Ames had a 5 over 77 which essentially puts him out of the tournament and he would be lucky just to make the cut. Tiger Woods also had a tough day with the swirling winds carding a 3 over 75, but everyone knows Tiger isn’t out of a tournament until the 18th hole on Sunday.
It’s always bugged me how baseball calls its Championship the ‘World Series’. I hardly think a championship with only teams from the USA (and Candada I think?) makes it a WORLD Series. The next time Jim, Gary and I have our year-end Dungeons & Dragons elimination match we’re gonna call it the ‘World D&D Finals!’
Whats up with no hockey? They’re bustin’ their butts for the Stanley Cup…the toughest championship to win in sports!! My team is out, but you gotta hand it to Ottawa…maybe they are finally getting it together for a good playoff run. Impressive win last night in Buffalo. And the Detroit Fossils somehow hung on against the Ducks tonite, equally impressive.
I was trying to change it up a little with baseball and golf. Lately my posts have been NHL and NBA. Next week I’ll make sure to have hockey in there!
We are competing against the DRays for the worst record in our div… btw, there are some $2 Jays tickets for tomorrow’s game.
2 bucks would have been well worth it to see the kid pitch last night. I don’t know if he’ll stick around, but he should.
Well, there is no NBA update? Please cover Utah vs Golden State, i want to see Utah in finals.
Here’s 1 NBA preview:
http://www.derrich.com/2007/05/12/nba-playoffs-top-5-reasons-spurs-should-beat-the-suns/
No prob on the NHL change up…gives me the opportunity to add that the Sens beat the Sabres AGAIN to take a 2-0 lead in the series. Here’s an interactive site with the game summary…http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=206651
Yea leave out basketball. Haha even though I’ve been watching the NBA playoffs, I wanted Golden State to win but they just got out yesterday.
Other than that, I cannot stand the sport. There are to many fouls, and whenever someone gets fouled they over exaggerate and act like little babies. And when they show the replay (about 50% of the time) the guy doesn’t even really get hit.
[…] Weekender - Who doesn’t want it to be the weekend everyday? Sports and beer and games and toys. What more do you need to […]