16. June 2008 by Glendo.

Tiger Woods has won the US Open at Torrey Pines beating Rocco Mediate in a thrilling overtime. The two finished at even par after the 18 hole playoff when Tiger sunk a birdie putt and Rocco could only get a  par. They then went to a sudden death playoff where Tiger does what he does best and wins another major with a birdie to Rocco’s par. Just a great weekend of golf, I was rooting for Rocco who seems to be the most likeable guy in the sport, what a great story if he would have beat Tiger in the playoff. This is Tiger’s 14th major championship.

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16. June 2008 by Glendo.

 Willie is still the manager for now. After splitting a doubleheader with the Rangers on Sunday the Mets head back out west after a 3-3 homestand. The first stop on the road trip is in Los Angeles to take on the Angels for 3 games. The Angels are one of the best teams in the league and the Mets need to pick up their game if they want to do well out there.  Should be an interesting series since it will be the first time a lot of these pitchers will be facing their opponent. The Mets open with Pelfrey who will look to continue is great pitching in recent starts, followed by Johan then Ollie before heading to Denver.

MATCH UP:

New York Mets (33-35, 4th Place NL East/6.5GB) at Los Angeles Angels (42-28, 1st Place AL West)

 Tonight: Mets (Mike Pelfrey, 2-6, 4.24) at Angels (Jered Weaver 6-6, 4.45) 10:05pm ET

Tuesday: Mets (Johan Santana, 7-4, 2.85) at Angels (John Lackey, 3-1, 1.83) 10:05pm ET

Wednesday: Mets (Oliver Perez, 5-4, 4.98) at Angels (Jon Garland, 6-4, 4.13) 10:05pm ET

Notes: This will be the Mets 4th consecutive road trip out west. It will also be their last one west of Houston.

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16. June 2008 by rich.

Reports are surfacing that Chien-Ming Wang may have sustained a Lisfranc ligament injury, much like that of teammate Brian Bruney, who has been out and will be out for a total of up to three months. This is a devastating blow to the Yankees, who have clearly begun to gel. This takes their reliable 19 game winner the past few years out of the rotation for the near future, and posssibly the year. He left the game last night on crutches and in an air cast. He could not put any weight on his foot.

Hola C.C. Sabathia?

Update: INJURY UPDATE ON RHP CHIEN-MING WANG

RHP Chien-Ming Wang was examined today at New York Presbyterian Hospital Columbia Medical Center by Yankees Team Physician, Dr. Stuart Hershon and Dr. Jason Greisberg, Foot and Ankle Specialist.

Imaging studies revealed a mid-foot sprain of the Lisfranc ligament of the right foot and a partial tear of the peroneal longus tendon of the right foot.
Wang will be on crutches and wear a protective boot for a minimum of six weeks.

UPDATE: Wang will be in a protective boot for six weeks. That’s July 28. He would need at least four weeks to get his arm back in shape to pitch - assuming that he is full healed after six weeks.

Posted in Yankees, MLB, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

16. June 2008 by critter.

Yesterday, the US Mens National Team played its first qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup.  They hosted Barbados in the first match of a home and home round.  Acting Captain, Carlos Bocanegra started things off quickly launching a perfectly placed ball half way down the field to Clint Dempsey who slipped the ball into the net in just the very first minute of play.

 The rest of the match saw exactly what was expected.  More domination by the US as they went on to win 8 - 0.  The 8 goals was the largest margin of victory for the US Men EVER.  I’d go through much more of the play and goals but honestly it was just more of the same.  Dempsey put another ball in later and Brian Ching also tallied 2 goals to lead the step closer to qualifying for the World Cup.

 Landon Donovan had a great goal off of a free kick to get things going in the 2nd half.  As the Barbados defense was still setting up for the kick, the ref gave the okay signal and Donovan quickly chipped a 30 foot ball into the far corner of the net that even caught the goaltender off guard.  That scored marked Donovan’s 10th goal in the past 12 matches.

 The two teams will face each other once more, this time in Barbados, on Sunday June 22nd.  With an aggregate goals scored system being used in this round, Barbados will need to beat the US by a 9 goal difference (or 8 goals by the end of regulation and then win in PKs) in order to advance to the next round of qualifiers.  Being that US is ranked nearly 100 spots higher than Barbados, I highly doubt this will happen.

Posted in Soccer, World Sports | No Comments »

16. June 2008 by critter.

2007 MLS MVP, Luciano Emilio, single-handedly kept the Red Bulls at bay this past saturday when he scored his first ever hat trick.  With stars Claudio Reyna and Juan Pablo Angel both out with back injuries, and with the team still trying to fill the vacated space of Jozy Altidore, the Red Bulls took on DC United (only having beaten them once in the past five years). 

 With no star talent (which naturally consists of forwards and attacking midfielders) the Red Bulls were forced to put a bench team on the field.  More importantly, the Red Bulls main bragging right of being a great defensive team, have failed to back that up in the past few matches.  The Bulls actually played a decent game, but when the time came that they made a mistake or lost concentration, United was more than happy to capitalize.

 4 - 1 was the final score and now the Red Bulls have slipped to 6th place in the Eastern rankings (4 - 4- 3).  The good news: they have 2 matches in hand as they have only played 11 and several others have already played 13.  The bad news:  counting this past Saturday’s match, the Red Bulls will be making up those games with 5 total matches in 14 games.  The badder news:  Reyna and Angel aren’t expected back to even practice until this coming saturday and likely won’t play much, if at all, for the next two matches.  The WORST news:  their match Wednesday comes against the East’s 1st place Revolution, and then look forward to West’s 3rd place FC Dalls and 4th place Rapids.

 In a glimmering sign of hope:  Red Bulls officials have made comments that they have some big transfers lined up and ready to go, but unfortunately the fans have to wait for the transfer period to begin.  I’m hoping they can grab U.S. MNT star defenseman Carlos Bocanegra who’s contract just ended with England’s Fulahm FC.  That would be a great start.  And then um….some sort of offensive player wouldn’t hurt either….

Posted in Soccer, MLS | No Comments »

16. June 2008 by sid.

Going into the final day of games for Group A, Portugal had already wrapped up the group… Their fixture against Switzerland was purely superficial.  Whatever the outcome, the star studded Portuguese squad was moving on.  Having already out-dueled both the Czech Republic and Turkey to an aggregate score of 5-1 (2-0 v Turkey, and 3-1 v the Czechs) Cristiano Ronaldo and company had already clinched the top spot in group A, and could coast onwards regardless of their final match outcome versus the host nation the Swiss… The game itself saw Portugal shutout by the tournament co-hosts, in a match that did nothing but wash out the salt in the wounds of an already eliminated Swiss side.  Finally, something for the home crowd to cheer about, albeit too little too late…

The match with arguably the most exciting footballers in the world was not the focus of soccer fans today…  The eyes of the soccer world (and those who don’t subscribe to ESPN classic) were not fixed upon the Portuguese, but rather, were glued upon the pitch of the Stade de Genève for the match between Turkey and the Czech Republic.  Both teams were currently tied in the table, not just in overall points (each with a win earning 3 points), but also in goal differential (each with 2 goals for, and 3 goals against… for all you math braniacs, that’s a -1 goal differential).  Under FIFA tie break rules, if two teams battling for a spot in the tournament round are tied in points, the better goal differential (if you need that explain… maybe you should check out the basketball section… that might be more up your alley) clinches the advancing position in the group as the first tie breaker.  If goal differential is the same, whichever team has the most goals scored advances… However, if both are tied in points, tied in goal differential and tied in goals scored, the head to head match up decides who advances…  What if both teams are playing each other in the final game of the group, and after 90 minutes, both teams are drawn?  Well… then FIFA’s brand new rule, debuting this tournament, will see the fate of the two teams decided in a penalty shootout…  Can you say drama?

So the stage was set… Winner advances… Loser watches the remaining tournament from a bar stool at their local pub.  And if, by the unlikely chance after 90 minutes, the game wasn’t resolved, we’d put the nerves of both teams to the test in a shootout to decide who advances, and who curses FIFA’s sporadic rule changes for the next 4 years…

The game started off as everyone expected… the talented Czech Republic were all over the Turks…  Their passing was crisp, their runs were precise, and the Turks looked like they were just barely scraping by with a 0-0 tie… Then in the 34th minute, a beautiful cross by Zdenek Grygera found the 6′8, 218lbs Czech forward Koller’s head, and despite a worthy attempt by Demirel (turkey’s netminder) banked off the keeper’s fingertips, off the crossbar, and into the net…  The Czech’s were up 1-0, and now 56 minutes away from advancing.

The second half started the same way the first half ended, dominated by the Czech’s.  Late in the 58th minute of the match, an injury forced one of the Turk’s center defensemen to sit on the sideline… Rather than make a substitution, the Turkish coach (Fatih Terim) opted to have the player attended to by the medical staff on the sideline, and play with 10 men until he was patched up… then in the 62nch minute, controversy… Terim was trying to get the referee’s attention to get his defenseman back in the game (since an injured player who leaves the pitch needs the referee’s permission to re-enter the match), but wasn’t able to get the ref’s attention.  The Czechs were able to counter attack, and with another cross, the Czech Republics Jaroslav Plasil was able to slide into a ball, bouncing it over the extended hand of the Turk keeper, who for a second time had a hand on the ball, but couldn’t stop it from passing over the goal line.  The Czechs were now up 2-0, and 28 minutes away from advancing through the group stage of the European Championship.

This is where everything changed… The Turks, led by their forward Tuncay Sanli (who basically led every surge they posted from this point on) took complete control of the game… Finding and abusing a weakness in the left side of the Czechs defense, they played ball after ball in front of Petr Cech (the Czech keeper, who is arguably one of the best in the world).  Surge after surge ended up within feet of Cech who had to fight through bodies to knock most of them away, until the 75th minute, when a through ball split two Czech defensemen to Turkey’s midfielder Hamit Altintop (seriously, I couldn’t make these names up if I wanted to), who passed across the 18 on the ground right to the on-rushing Arda Turan who one timed a blistering shot along the ground beating the out-stretched Cech on the near side of the net for Turkey’s first goal.  2-1.

Turkey’s onslaught didn’t end there, after more and more shots, all knocked away by Cech, Turkey started getting desperate… Balls were being put into the box from anywhere.  They didn’t seem to care how the ball went in, they just wanted it in the net… The rain picked up… the pitch was getting slippery, and they knew the old adage, a ball on net is better than a ball not on net… you never know what’s going to happen… In a rain ridden game, any ball can slip into the most opportune position… just make sure you capitalize, because you might not get another shot…  Or maybe you’ll get three…

After a missed header a foot away from the goal (which would have tied the game at 2), the Turks looked defeated… they were hurling everything at the Czech net, quality be damned, it was now about quantity…  Yet, you still never know… in the 87th minute, a cross that was put way too close to Petr Cech (remember, the Chelsea keeper just lost both the Engish Premier League, and the UEFA Champions League final to Manchester United, but is still considered by many to be one of the top 3 keepers in the world), who played it just like he would any other terrible cross.  Except this time, the rain wasn’t on his side.  The ball slipped out of his hands, and landed directly onto the feet of the Turkish captain Nihat Kahveci, who coolly, slid it into the back of the net…

Cech looked stunned… his normally steady hands just gave the Turks the game tying goal, and it looked like he would have to face a penalty shootout (every keeper’s nightmare).  2-2.

By the time the Turks were done celebrating, the time had made it’s way to the 88th minute, and The Czechs kicked off at center field, only to immediately have the ball take away by the Turks, who kept the pressure on… Just as they had done during the final quarter of the 90 minute game, they methodically brought the ball down the pitch, until once again, Hamit Altintop slid a through ball right to the feet of the captain, Nihat Kahveci who set, and released a shot that curved up over the head of outstretched Cech, then dropped down, off the crossbar and straight down across the goal line into the back of the net… The captain had just scored his second goal of the match, in as many minutes, his first tying the game, and this one putting Turkey ahead…  3-2 Turkey, and again the Turks celebrated…

The game wasn’t over yet though.  The Czechs had 4 minutes of stoppage time to level the field, and force a penalty shootout…  Drama central wasn’t TNT today…  Rushing down the field, the Czechs put little pressure on the Turkish netminder, until a cross in the 91st minute went a little too far, and a few bodies collided… That’s when he 6′8 Czech forward Koller decided to take a little walk towards the Turkish netminder, speaking a few things that were clearly on his mind about the keeper.  Volkan Demirel decided to take things into his own hands, and shoved the 6′8 218 lbs Koller to the ground (well, he tapped him, and Koller, who by the way should try out for Czech’s diving team in the upcoming Olympics, helped the rest by flopping to the ground as though he had just been shot).  Red card to the keeper. 

Normally, this would result in the coach subbing one of his regular players for the backup keeper… but since a team is only allowed 3 substitutes a game, and the Turks had by now used up all 3 of their subs, one of the players on the field had to take up keeping duties for the remainder of the game…  Who else but the Turkish surge leader himself (and in my opinion game MVP) Tuncay Sanil was fit for the job?  Well, actually, it could have been anyone… All the Czechs had to really do was put a shot on net, anything… The slippery conditions had already gotten the best of one of the world’s top goalies, what were they going to do to a midfielder who had to put on soggy gloves he hadn’t tried on since probably high school?  However, it was not to be…  The Czechs failed to capitalize, and didn’t record another shot on goal, and after 6 total minutes of stoppage time the referee blew the final whistle, putting an end to the best game of this tournament thus far… Whew… and we’re not even done with the group stage yet…

Posted in Soccer, World Sports, Euro 08 | 1 Comment »

16. June 2008 by gchacko.

• Adam Dunn’s no-trade protection narrows from all teams to ten teams today. Dunn told Rosenthal he’d like a resolution soon rather than another round of rumors. He’d be open to an extension with the Reds, but the team has not made contact. Will Walt Jocketty attempt to re-sign Dunn before shopping him?

• Sherman believes the Indians are leaning toward trading C.C. Sabathia. He names the usual suspects (Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs) but also throws the Brewers into the mix based on the opinion of an “AL talent evaluator.” Tough situation for the Indians - at 6.5 games out, they’re not ready to give up. However, Mark Shapiro could maximize the return for C.C. Sabathia by trading him now rather than late July. As many have noted, Sabathia is more than just a rental given the certain Type A draft pick compensation.

• Rosenthal says the Braves (also 6.5 games out) are even less likely to concede than the Indians. So don’t look for another summer of Mark Teixeira rumors. The Braves may be buyers, hunting for a left fielder and a young controllable starting pitcher.

• Bucs may choose not to trade Jason Bay this summer. Xavier Nady is more likely to go. The Boras client is not expected to re-sign with the Pirates when he reaches free agency after the 2009 season.

• Speaking of the Brewers, Sherman believes Prince Fielder will be available “almost definitely in the offseason” and perhaps even this summer. Doug Melvin says he’s not exploring it but never rules out anything. The presence of Mat Gamel and Matt LaPorta plus Fielder’s unwillingness to sign long-term could lead to a deal. Fielder figures to jump up to at least $7-8MM upon reaching arbitration for the first time.

• The Yankees have Damaso Marte atop their list, but the Pirates want something better than two draft picks in return. He’s looking like a Type A free agent.

• Walt Jocketty wants to “clean house.” The usual players are named, but Sherman also mentions Bronson Arroyo as a possibility.

• According to the Denver Post and New York Daily News, the Mets have expressed interest in Rockies closer Brian Fuentes. Adam Rubin says nothing is imminent. Troy E. Renck points out that the Rox turned down an offer of Aaron Heilman during the winter.

Posted in Misc MLB, Yankees, Mets, MLB | No Comments »