Mlb

It’s time for Wednesday Morning Quarterback, your weekly sports round-up. Things aren’t looking good for the Dodgers. Their supposed strong point, their bullpen, is being totally trashed by the brutal Phillies offense. In fact, their starting pitching, Kuroda excluded, has been their most dominant factor and the only thing that’s been keeping them afloat most of these games. Still, you can only blow so many leads before I stop believing that your team can actually put wins on the board. In fact, the Dodgers are nice and down three games to one with little hope of winning tonight to actually make this a series. Padilla will be pitching against Cole Hamels and, since Vicente is responsible for the only Dodgers win, this is really their last chance. ...

Folks, from here on out, the SITB (that’s Super Ichiban Travel Blog for the uninitiated) will be shifted to a Tuesday/Thursday(/maybe Saturday) schedule (there are really only nine or so posts left, including this one) so that the blog can return to its regularly scheduled programming on MWF. The MLB playoffs have started and here I am still talking about my time in Japan. I need to be covering this! You’ll recall that I wrote daily posts about the playoffs last year. Neither the Marlins nor the Rays made it this year, but that won’t necessarily keep me from adding in extra coverage as I see fit. ...

Jet lag is always a bit difficult to overcome, but when you’ve flown to the other side of the world, the body really doesn’t know what to do with itself. So it came to pass that I wrote the whole second half of Part II of this travelogue at 0600 after a half hour of tossing and turning, despite being on almost no sleep. This third part comes straight from my exhausted fingers to you, starting before the first Giants game and continuing after getting back to the hotel. ...

It’s time for Wednesday Morning Quarterback, your weekly sports round-up. Baseball, sad as I am to say it, is nearing the end of its season. As pre-season stories begin to flood my RSS reader I can only lament the loss of the pure baseball period. That time of the year where the only professional sport being played in America is my favorite time of year. Turning on Sportscenter will only yield tiny stories and not spend long segments on the state of some team’s offensive line. ...

It’s time for Wednesday Morning Quarterback, your weekly sports round-up. This year’s hall of fame class included Joe Gordon, Ricky Henderson, and Jim Rice, a fairly solid class inducted without much controversy. It seems like the controversy will only increase as the years continue to go by. Already the HoF voters seem to be softbanning Mark McGwire from the Hall by simply not voting for him on the basis of the steroid allegations made against him and the Hall of Famers are certainly starting to speak up and become vocal about this point. Both Hank Aaron and Jim Rice were quoted last weekend as condemning the steroid era and the numbers and players they represent. While some don’t mind them entering the hall, it’s universally accepted that those numbers need to have some sort of caveat to indicate the shady methods from which they were obtained. ...

It’s time for Wednesday Morning Quarterback, your weekly sports round-up. Here we are at the middle of the 2009 MLB season and things could not be more different than I expected. Dark horse candidates lead wild cards, division standings are mostly in shambles, it’s just not what most anyone predicted. Let’s take a look at the current standings: AL East Yankees Red Sox 1GB Rays 4.5GB Blue Jays 10.5GB Orioles 15GB ...

It’s time for Wednesday Morning Quarterback, your weekly sports round-up. It’s that time of year again, the MLB All-Star game is upon us! Last night was the Home Run Derby and, despite being in his team’s stadium, Albert Pujols did not quite manage to make it to the third round. Instead the final competition was between Prince Fielder, of the Milwaukee Brewers, and Nelson Cruz, of the Texas Rangers. In the end, Fielder took it and even bashed in a homer over 500 feet. ...

It’s time for Wednesday Morning Quarterback, your weekly sports round-up. I don’t tend to report on tennis news, but I happened to watch various parts of the Federer/Roddick match on Sunday, so I thought I’d say a few words on it. It’s worth nothing that this is probably one of the most lopsided rivalries in tennis. In fact, the 2 wins by Roddick (of 21 matches) is so embarrassing I’m sure that he wishes people would stop calling it a rivalry so he wouldn’t have to hear that stat. ...

It’s time for Wednesday Morning Quarterback, your weekly sports round-up. Ever wondered which baseball team you should be rooting for, based on geographic location in the US? Wonder no more. I do believe you have now found an acceptable excuse for not rooting for a baseball team if you live in Utah. Injuries, Home Losses, and the Fish Are Back! The NL East has had what some may call a troubled month. ...

It’s time for Wednesday Morning Quarterback, your weekly sports round-up. There was a lot of talk about the mistakes Joe Maddon was making in not bringing David Price up at the start of the year. I think last night speaks volumes about why he thought he needed more work. Price gave up ten runs to spearhead a 10-1 loss to the Phillies last night, meaning that he was embarrassed by a pitcher more or less twice his age (Jamie Moyer, age 46). ...