sportsfanatic

Sports has never ceased to amaze me with some of the rules that they put in place. Let me give you a great example of such a rule that MLB instituted a few years ago. It goes something like this. If a team allows no hits for an amount of 8 innings, yet does not pitch a ninth inning, then they have not thrown a no hitter. Whoever decided to make that rule up must have been no-hit a few times in their lifespan and still won but was sick of having the no-hitter labeled against them.

For all you great baseball fans out there, such a game took place last night. It was between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Dodgers were the home team and the combination of starter Jered Weaver and reliever Jose Arredondo who pitched a total of 8 no hit innings. The only run that was produced in this 1-0 win for the Dodgers was manufactured by way of 2 errors on the Angels. The first of which was on Weaver. it is a sad day for pitchers when they can produce such a feat and not get rewarded with anything more than the innings pitched. Hats off to the Halos anyway.

*DISCLAIMER* All pictures are linked back to their respective websites.

After yesterday’s defeat at Wimbledon , one has to wonder what has happened to Andy Roddick. Ousted in the third round by Janko Tipsarevic in just 4 sets, Roddick now admits that he “choked”. For some reason, I am just not buying that. I have watched Andy play for the last 4 years and have been a big supporter to him. But after yesterdays collapse, it makes me wonder if he has what it takes anymore. When I saw that he brought Jimmy Connors on as his coach a few years back, I thought that it would be the turn around to a once great tennis player. Now, it is suspect to even think that Roddick can make it to the semi-finals of a major tournament.

Is he injured? Or is he distracted by his soon to be marriage. Either or, he is not the Andy of old. He has to get away from the distractions and get the old form back if he is to keep his rankings going forward.

Cinderella not only went to the Ball, but she took off the glass slipper and smacked the Georgia Bulldogs  with it. As for this writer, I truly believed that Georgia had this all in hand and would end the threat in 2 games. With that being said, Fresno State decided that they were not going to go quietly and proceeded to give the Bulldogs of Georgia a spanking in game two and beat them 19-10.

That beating must have not set well with Georgia as they still had their tale between their legs in game three. And it ended proving that Cinderella was not a fantasy but a reality. As of today. Fresno State Bulldogs  are now the National Champions. Hats off to you boys.

It baffles me that people call themselves a sports nut or a sports fanatic and yet they only watch one sports. And most the time they only watch one team. Yesterday I had a discussion with a potential client that I was working on a mortgage for.  In the discussion, we started talking about sports. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks that he called himself a sports nut and yet all he could talk about was the Atlanta Falcons and the upcoming season. When I would attempt to change the subject to the Braves , he would divert the conversation back to what he felt comfortable with. If I wanted to talk about the races at the Atlanta Motor Speedway , he once again stayed away from Kyle Busch or Jimmy Johnson and got back to the Falcons. It seemed to be the same when I would mention the Hawks or the Thrashers as well.

Once the conversation was over and we hung up, I had realized that my conversation was not with a total sports fanatic but a Falcons Fanatic after speaking to my business partner Rich Dansereau . My question to you is, do you love sports or do you love your team?

For the prelude to this, click here .

Georgia has not had smooth sailing in this tournament by no means. Last night was no different as they were taken to the wire by the Fresno State Bulldogs. Fresno State is our Cinderella wearing cleats and baseball pants. And for those Bulldogs, that is another story in itself that I will write about later. For now, lets get back to the Georgia Bulldogs and their trek to get here.

Georgia had made its way through the regionals and the super regionals, but it was not that they were unscathed in accomplishing that task. With that said, once the tournament in Omaha’s Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium kicked off, the Bulldogs of Georgia seemed to morph. The sung heroes of Gordon Beckham and Joshua “Lights Out” Fields stood side by side with the heroics of Rich Poythress and Matt Cerione to get the Bulldogs to the Best of 3 Championship Series.

Georgia made it’s way through teams like Miami and Stanford for the chance to face the winners of the second bracket for this best of three series. Fresno State proved to be that team and last night it was on. Neither team was willing to break as both would bend. Then came the 8th inning and Fresno State erupted for 3 runs to take the lead over Georgia. Finally Georgia pulled out the third out and decided that it was time to break out the lumber, or in their case, the metal.

Fresno State sent their closer Brandon Burke to the mound to tame the bats of the Georgia Bulldogs. However, that was not to be the case. Georgia lead the half of the inning off with a single and when the smoke cleared, they had scored 4 runs to take the lead 7-6. Brandon’s first batter that he was to face after coming into the game in the 8th with a runner on 1st was no other than Gordon Beckham. Beckham proceeded to take the 0-1 pitch over the left field wall for his 27th home-run of the season and bring the game to a 5-6 score and still no outs. 2 batters later, Cerione roped an RBI double to tie the game. he then took third on the throw to the plate. It did not stop there as Joey Lewis hit a double of his own to drive in Cerione for what would prove to be the winning run. Fields then came in and systematically dismantled the next three batters to close out the game.

Georgia will face Fresno State again tonight at 7 PM EST. In my humble opinion, it will be the last game of the tournament.

The Bulldogs of Georgia are set to take on the Bulldogs of Fresno State tonight at 7 PM at Omaha’s Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium . The stadium holds 23,100 people and it looks like it will be packed for this showdown. The first game will be televised on ESPN2 . All game times are Eastern Standard Time. Georgia is going in undefeated in this segment of the tournament and Fresno State was involved in a fight for their lives against the North Carolina Tar Heels.

With that said, Fresno State has been called everything from Underdog to Wonderdog. And it is no wonder why these names stuck. These Bulldogs were ranked a 4 seed in their Regionals. That is the equivalent to a 16th seed in college basketball tournament. Some might call the the “Cinderella” story of the 2008 Men’s College World Series.

The issue for Fresno State is going to be that they have to take on a very strong Georgia squad. While Fresno State packs their own punch, it will be interesting to see how they handle the slugging combination of  Gordon Beckham and Rich Poythress. Beckham is the shortstop for Georgia who possesses great bat control and a ton of pop and Poythress is the first baseman that makes you pay when you intentional walk or pitch around Beckham. Also, it will be interesting to see how Joshua Fields holds up in this game. The phenomenal closer has struggled as of late.

With all that, I am giving the first game to the Georgia Bulldogs.

and that might not be all. Curt is going to have season ending surgery to repair his ailing shoulder. With that said, this could also be the end of his career. The 41 year old Boston Red Sox pitcher will undergo surgery on Monday. Curt’s own physician Craig Morgan stated the tis could be a career ending surgery that the rehabilitation failed to fix. Dr. Morgan will perform the surgery in Wilmington, Delaware on Monday.

Curt attempted to do a rehabilitation program that was encouraged by the team to remedy the shoulder problem. This issue sparked some controversy with doctors back in spring training.

Curt has expressed no regrets and thanked the fans and wrote the following on his own blog 38pitches.com.

“Coming back from this surgery at 31 would be an enormous challenge, at 41 more so,” he wrote. “BUT, if that is an option at least I’ll be able to make that decision with all the cards on the table, and it will end on terms I choose. I won’t come back throwing 85 with so-so crap. If there is not an option to come back and be good, I won’t.”

I have to say that every since the fight in the stands between a fan and a player ensued, the NBA has been lacking something. I am not quite sure what it is that they are missing, but I can tell every time that I flip it to the channel you can see it in the faces of the people that are there. And it does not stop there. I was at a sports bar here in Knoxville during one of the games and I have to tell you, no one was really paying attention to the game.

Now, it might just be a couple of 100,000 people that I am noticing this out of, but somehow, I doubt that. I can remember the last time that Major League Baseball had a strike, it damaged them for years. People would not go to a game for nothing. Now, do not get me wrong, there were people in the stands, but it was angry people. Or people that just does not give a rat’s behind about what happens.

The Nation Football League went through it also and it was worse for them because they tried to suffice the fans thirst for the game with “replacement” players. Now, I have to say as a fan, thanks for trying, but kiss and make up with the real guys and not these weekend warriors that have to show up to work on Monday morning at the post office or the rock quarry or where ever it is they call work.

Bottom line is this. The NBA needs to work on winning “ALL” the fans back, not just some of them.

Last night Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves wore the collar and went 0-4 dropping his league leading batting average to .402. I am sure that somewhere lurking in the shadows, Lance Berkman of the Houston Astros was licking his chops, however, he has fallen to .360 average himself, which is good enough for second place. Chipper is heading to Coors field for a one game showdown against the Colorado Rockies . He has a .308 batting average for the year. He is batting .333 against tonight’s starter Ubaldo Jimenez who is just 1-6 on the season. Then they are off to face the Texas Rangers for a 3 games series before they head back to the friendly confines of Turner Field for a 6 game stretch.

If you are not a New York Giants fan, that is fine. If you are not a Michael Strahan fan, then you must be an offensive player. he might be one of the most liked guys in the NFL. With that said, he is calling it quits after 15 years of service to the NFL . To know that he will not be wrecking havoc on the field this year saddens a lot of people.

The one thing that I can say as a fan or the Giants and Michael is that I am glad to see the he is going out this way. What I hate is to see players hang on and continue to play when it is time to go. Now mind you, I am not saying it is time for mike to go. With that said, he won a ring as he has stated many times, the physical pain is sometimes more than one can bare.

So, Michael, from your fans that love and adore you, good luck in whatever you do. i am sure that you will be great at it.