Category Archives: Sports

General sports articles that range from teams to drug testing to amateur sports.

Red Sox Triumphant as Tigers Fail, Move to World Series Against Cardinals

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Today I will discuss last night’s Tigers’ failure against the triumphant Red Sox who they used the grandslam to punctuate the Tigers failure. Last Sunday, Tiger closer Benoit, threw a nothing-get-it-over-fastball-first-pitch to David Ortiz who hit a grand slam in Fenway to win that critical game that kept the series at 1-1 and not 2-0 Tigers. Last night, reliever Veras, on an 0-2 pitch to Red Sox outfielder Victorino, threw the ball high and inside so that VIctorino could hit it over the Green Monster for a winning grandslam. That a pitcher threw such a pitch at that time indicates a serious lack of intelligence, in fact, it is just plain dumb. Just as Benoit’s pitch to Ortiz was just plain dumb.  These were, “here, beat me” pitches.

During the final week of the season, I was sitting with a Cubs scout at Target Field, We were discussing the coming playoffs and I said,”I don’t think the Tigers relievers can hold the Red Sox.” This was based on instinct and turned out to be dead on. I wonder at Manager Leyland’s decision to remove Max Scherzer, who is better than Tiger relievers under any circumstance. However, the Tigers made errors as well. Prince Fielder ran into a double play in the sixth inning, when, with runners on first and third, (Fielder was on third), the ball was hit to second and Fielder, instead of running hard to score, or returning to third, went half way. This allowed Pedroia, the second baseman to tag the runner and throw home to trap Fielder. This gaffe cost the Tigers a run, or, at least ended the rally. Then in the seventh, Iglesias, the shortstop, after catching the ball in his glove, dropped it and blew a double play that would have ended that inning, preserved the lead and possibly allowed the Tigers to win. This gafffe set the stage for Victorino’s grandslam. As has been written on this blog for sometime, “it is hard to play with one hand on your throat,(choke).”

We are off to the World Series, Torii Hunter won’t be there and will spend his life dreaming of catching David Ortiz’s Grandslam, but the Red Sox earned it in direct contrast to the way the Tigers failed at it. Baseball is a hard game, what a team wishes is that when they lose, they get beat by a better team, not that they lose or give it away. Here, the Red Sox were given victories by the Tigers who just couldn’t get it done.

National Sports Law Institute Sports Law Conference at Marquette Law School

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This may be the best sports law conference in the US.
Information on the conference can be found here

New era for women’s basketball in the U.S.

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Unending Playoffs Continue; Red Sox/Tigers Tied In The AL;Cardinals lead LAD 3-2.

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Today is another day in the seemingly endless MLB Playoff Scheme that started with a playoff to see who was the second wild card, that little twist that was added to increase interest in the postseason, but actually will reduce interest in the World Series that starts some time later this month. Nevertheless, the League Championship Series continues with the Red Sox and Tigers tied at 2-2, with one game left at Tiger Stadium, and the Cardinals leading the Dodgers 3-2 as that series moves back to St. Louis.

Yesterday’s games were just normal baseball games where one team just beats the other. The Tigers, for example, beat the Red Sox 7-3, scoring five in the second inning as the Red Sox blew a possible double play, but the Sox weren’t going to win this one, anyway.  Doug Fister started for the Tigers, and I’ve been a Fister Fan for some time, (he once struck out nine straight batters,) as he pitched six innings giving up one run. He just seems to get it done when it counts.  For the Red Sox, Jake Peavey just got hammered as he gave up seven runs in three innings. He allowed just five hits, but his three walks hurt his chances, as did Dustin Pedroia’s bobbled double play ball that would have gotten him out of the second inning. But that’s baseball and this was not the Red Sox game.

The Dodgers hit four solo homeruns in beating the Cardinals who lead this series 3-2. The Dodgers pitched Zach Greinke in this critical game and he won, while pitching seven innings, giving up two runs. The Dodgers will start Kershaw in game six. When the Cardinals took a 3-1 lead, Dodger Manager Mattingly mentioned that he was confident with Greinke and Kershaw starting the next two games, a sensible position. Mattingly also said that he thought the Cardinal fans would like to see a seventh game! Wrong, Don, the Cardinals will want to beat Kershaw Friday night.  I will be driving back from Milwaukee during that game and will be searching for the game on a variety of Wisconsin stations.

After these games are over, the World Series will start on October 23 (not a typo). I am starting to think we have sacrificed the World Series for the additional wild card that was played over in the first week of month.  More on this later, but the games are great anyway.  

Red Sox Win 1-0; Cardinals Win For 3-1 Series Lead

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Mike Napoli hit a Justin Verlander fastball into the left field stands in the seventh inning of the game in Detroit for the only run in the game. The Sox lead the series 2-1. The critical moment in this game came in the bottom of th eighth when Austin Jackson walked with one out and Torii Hunter singled to right moving Jackson to third. So, two on, one out, Miguel Cabrera at bat.  In fifth game theory, familiar to readers of this blog, says that fifth games come down to moments like this where a pitch is made, a player hits it or not and the game is over. Here, Junichi Tazawa struck Cabrera out as did Koji Uehara against Prince Fielder a minute later. 
Of note in this game, Detroit Manager Leyland did bring in lefthander Phil Coke to pitch against Ortiz and got him to ground out. This is the match up he should have had Sunday night.  Also, Napoli’s first ML at bat was vs. Verlander in Detroit and he homered then, too.

The Cardinals just beat the Dodgers 4-2 in LA. The Cardinals hit well with two homeruns, pitched well and the defense was superb.
Even though they lead the series 3-1, the Cards have to get past Greinke and Kershaw to win. We’ll see. 

Dodgers Win Game LCS Game Three With A Little Help From The Cardinals

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The Dodgers beat the Cardinals 3-0 last night, and it wasn’t that close. The Dodgers scored two in the fourth when Mark Ellis doubled with the help of the Cardinal outfield, and then scored on an Adrian Gonzalez double. Gonzalez then scored on a Yasiel Puig triple.

The third Cardinal run scored in the 8th when Carl Crawford scored from second on a ball hit just over second baseman Kolten Wong’s head. Wong was late throwing the ball home and Crawford was barely safe, but safe non the less. 

Dodger pitcher Ryu gave up three hits in seven innings, as the Cardinals continue their batting woes, but still lead in the best of seven series, 2-1. For highlights of this game look here.

League Championship Series; Three Great Games, Then Last Night in Boston, Wow.

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The League Championship Series is well underway and the drama is intense.The St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers have played twice in St. Louis and the Cardinals have won both times, They won the first game 3-2 in 13 innings as Carlos Beltran batted in all the runs and threw out one at home. They won the next game 1-0 as Michael Wacha pitches 6 2/3 shutout innings. The Cardinals in this second game, used four pitchers to finish 2 1/3 innings, three for the next 1 1/3 and Trevor Rosenthal struck out the three Dodgers, Yasiel Puig, Juan Uribe and Andre Ethier, he faced in the 9th. Nothing to it, as they say, and the Cardinals have a two game lead over the Dodgers going to Dodger Stadium.

In the American League, the Tigers and Justin Verlander beat the Red Sox in Fenway 1-0 in a very good game on Saturday, but it was Sunday’s game that will get all the attention for the next century, especially in New England, where the town of Nonantum voted last night to change its name to Ortiz.

In Sunday’s game, the Tigers were cruising behind Max Sherzer’s pitching and were leading 5-1 in the 8th inning when the wheels fell off. First, Scherzer was replaced by Jose Veras who gets one out and then gives up a double to Will Middlebrooks. Then Drew Smyly replaced Jose Veras and walked Jacoby Ellsbury, so he gets replaced by Al Alburquerque, who strikes out Shane Victorino, but then gives up a single to Dustin Pedroia, loading the bases.

At this point, where getting one out is critical and the batter, David Ortiz, is the most dangerous of the Red Sox, I was thinking a left handed pticher would be brought it to face the left hand hitting Ortiz, Phil Coke, maybe, but Manager Leyland brought in Benoit, his closer. He did this after consulting data on Ortiz v. Benoit, and Oritz v. Coke. Benoit was the choice. I have another objection to Benoit at this time. He is a closer and is accustomed to pitching the bottom of the ninth on the road when he has a lead and no baserunners. Here he had three baserunners and Ortiz. His first pitch,  a fast ball that was over the plate and had no sink, was hit into the Red Sox bull pen to tie the game. One pitch by Benoit, and the series is changed.

Baseball is a curius game in that one game is seldom critical, unless it is the last game. So the Tigers will come steaming back and probably, with Verlander on Tuesday against Lackey, then Fister aganst Peavey and then back to Sanchez and Scherzer, will win this series. However, that will not happen if it plays in the field like it did Sunday. In the ninth inning alone three plays gave away the game. Jonny Gomes hit the ball in the hole to short. Jose Iglesias fielded the ball moving away from first, threw awkwardly towards first eventhough he had little chance to getting the runner, and the ball went past Prince Fielder, who, as a first baseman, had to stop the ball. He simply waved at it as it almost hit him.  This puts the winning run on second, scoring position! Fielder wasn’t finished yet. Jarrod Saltalamacchia popped the ball up foul and Fielder tried to catch it while standing against the low fence. The ball went off his glove. He just blew that one too. He claimed he was interferred with by a fan, but he was not. The ball hit his glove on the back side. Then Tiger pitcher Porcello wild pitched Gomes to third. Where it should have been one on, one out, it was none out, runner on third. Saltalamacchia, batting with the infield drawn in, singled to left scoring Gomes. Game over.

Baseball is a wonderful game and we have the Dodgers and Cardinals tonight. Wainright 19-9 for the Cards aganist Ryu 14-9 for the Dodgers. I can’t wait to see what they have in order for us. It will be interesting.
  

Final Four, MLB Money Counts

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The Tigers with the fifth highest payroll beat the A’s with the twenty-sixth last night as Justin Verlander dominated the A’s and won a 3-0 game that was never close. Verlander took a no hitter into the seventh inning, giving up two singles in eight innings pitched. Closer Benoit gave up another hit in the ninth. A’s rookie pitcher, Sonny Gray, pitched well and only made a single mistake that allowed Miguel Cabrera to hit a two run homerun in the fourth.  The A’s had been pitching Cabrera on the outside corner, but Sonny Gray tried to get one buy inside and Cabrera hit it out.

What this means is that the final four in the race to the World Series are all high salary,  large market teams. The Dodgers at number two, $216,302,909, the Red Sox number four at $158,967,286, the Tigers at number five at $149,046,844, and the St. Louis Cardinals at number eleven at $116,702,085.  When the playoffs began, I was hoping small markets in Oakland, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati (a wild card contender) would prevail. It was not to be.

In the day of wooden war ships where ships fired broadsides at each other with their cannon, the weight of the broadside, computed as number of guns times weight of each cannon ball, was often the determing factor. So, too, in MLB today, the weight of the broadside, measured by the dollars paid to players, is the determing factor. 

We are off the the League Championship Series and the World Series. In the morning paper, I noted a decline in interest in these games. It is nearly the middle of October, afterall.

St. Louis Beats Pittsburgh as the Baseball Gods Toy With Us

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Baseball people all recognize that game you are just not going to win. That happened to the Pirate faithful on Wednesday night as they lost 6-1. Although the faithful held hope until the final out, it seems to have been preordained. It was like the baseball gods were saying, “OK, Pittsburgh, you had a good run, but it’s over for now.”  This devine intervention is best shown by the two line drive double plays that the Pirates hit into last night. in both cases, with a runner on first, line drives were caught by the second baseman who threw behind the runner to double them off. This occurs as the runner has to look over his shoulder to see the second baseman and the runners first instinct on seeing the line drive is to advance to second or to third so there is that slight move to second that dooms them as the second baseman has a short throw to make the out. On other caught line drive plays, the play is in front of the runner, easily seen and reponded to, or the ball is hit to the first baseman who is already standing between the runner and the base for an easy out. These two rare double plays stopped innings and cost the Pirates four critical outs, and baseball keeps time with outs. It was also a sign that it was the Cardinals night.

The next indication that it was the Cardinals night was in the second inning when David Freese hit a two run homerun on a slider that just happened to wander over the middle of the plate. The pitcher, Garrit Cole, had his “good stuff,”  and it is very good, but he made one mistake and the Cardinals took advantage of it. The next run scored on a grounder up the middle to make it 3-0. The Pirates scored their run on a bizarre series of two out hits. Justin Moreau singled to the second baseman, who moving to his right to field the ball, slipped, and that slip allowed Morneau to be safe at first. Marlon Byrd then singled to the shortstop, who instead of making the easier third out at second forcing Morneau, tried to make the out at first and Byrd was safe there. Two on, two out, NL homerun champ Pedro Alvarez at bat. Alvarez hit a ground ball to first that hit the bag and bounced over the first baseman where it was fielded by the second baseman who threw wildly to first. The errant throw, by the way, was toward home where it almost allowed the catcher to make a play on the scoring Morneau.  The next batter grounded out to short. For followers of Fifth Game theory, that was the batter who held the key to the game. A hit there makes it 3-2 and the game is on, but this was only an example of how the baseball gods toy with us during the season. This exciting inning, where an infielder slipped, a shortstop hesitated, and a ball that hit first base  bounced over a fielder’s head to allow a run to score, is the stuff of baseball’s best drama.  Alas, it was only the baseball gods toying with us. The Cardinals scored twice in the bottom of the inning to ice it.

Today, we get Justin Verlander pitching against the remarkable rookie, Sonny Gray, as the Tigers play the Athletics in Oakland. I wonder what the baseball gods have in store for us today!

Clouds over the Whitney Bridge in Minneapolis.

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