Here’s the final out from the stands,
Although it seems like the Yankees win too many World Series titles the team actually hadn’t won in all since their string of 3 consecutive ending in 2000. 9 years is a long time for a team as stacked as the Yanks have been the last few years. I suppose its nice that ARod finally won a World Series… but I still think the guy is a douchebag! Read more about the victory from TSN.ca:
The New York Yankees bolted from the dugout even before the last grounder was scooped up. After waiting nine years for championship No. 27, no one would dare hold them back.
“It feels better than I remember it, man,” captain Derek Jeter said. “It’s been a long time.”
Hideki Matsui tied a World Series record with six RBIs, Andy Pettitte won on short rest and New York beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-3 in Game 6 on Wednesday night, finally seizing that elusive title — the most in all of sports.
Nearly a decade after their dynasty ended on a blooper in the desert, the Yankees are baseball’s best again.
Matsui, the Series MVP, powered a quick rout of old foe Pedro Martinez. And when Mariano Rivera got the final out, it was ecstasy in the Bronx for George Steinbrenner’s go-for-broke bunch.
What a way for Alex Rodriguez and Co. to christen their US$1.5-billion ballpark: One season, one World Series crown — the team’s first since winning three straight from 1998-2000.
“The Yankees won. The world is right again,” team president Randy Levine said.
The season certainly ended a lot better than it started — with a steroids scandal involving A-Rod, followed by hip surgery that kept him out until May.
“My teammates, coaches and the organization stood by me and now we stand here as world champions,” said Rodriguez, who admitted using steroids from 2001-03 while with Texas. “We’re going to enjoy it, and we’re going to party!”
For Chase Utley and the Phillies, it was a frustrating end to another scintillating season. Philadelphia fell two wins short of becoming the first NL team to repeat as World Series champions since the 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds.
Utley tied Reggie Jackson’s record with five home runs in a Series. But Ryan Howard’s sixth-inning shot came too late to wipe away an untimely slump that included 13 strikeouts, also a Series mark.
Meanwhile, Phillies pitchers rarely managed to slow Matsui and the Yankees’ machine.
“I told them that I loved the way they played. We’re fighters and never quit,” Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel said. “We want to keep what we got as far as attitude and chemistry.”
For second-year manager Joe Girardi, a three-time Yankees champion as a player, it was the fulfilment of a mission. When he succeeded Joe Torre in October 2007, Girardi chose uniform No. 27, putting his quest on his back for all to see. His tenure didn’t start out so well, with New York missing the playoffs in its final season at old Yankee Stadium following 13 consecutive appearances.
“To be able to deliver this to the Boss, the stadium that he created and the atmosphere he has created around here is very gratifying for all of us,” Girardi said.
In a fitting coincidence, this championship came eight years to the day that the Yankees lost Game 7 of the 2001 World Series in Arizona on Luis Gonzalez’s broken-bat single off Rivera.
Steinbrenner spent billions trying to win another Series. At long last, his team did.
Fittingly, it was dedicated to the 79-year-old owner, who has been in declining health and didn’t make the trip from his home in Tampa, Fla.
Still, his presence was felt.
“Boss, this is for you,” the giant video screen in centre field flashed during post-game ceremonies while his son, Hal, the team’s managing general partner, accepted the championship trophy.
For the Four Amigos, it was ring No. 5.
Jorge Posada, Jeter, Pettitte and Rivera came up together through the minors and were cornerstones for those four titles in five years starting in 1996.
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From Bloomberg.com:
April 1 (Bloomberg) — John Calipari was hired to restore the University of Kentucky’s basketball program, agreeing on an eight-year, $31.65 million contract that makes him the sport’s highest-paid college coach in history.
Calipari, who spent the past nine seasons at the University of Memphis, was introduced as Kentucky’s 22nd head coach at a televised news conference today in Lexington.
Calipari, 50, takes over a Kentucky program that ranks first all-time with 1,988 victories and is second to UCLA with seven national championships. He replaces Billy Gillispie, who was fired March 28 after a season in which the Wildcats lost 14 games and missed the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament for the first time since 1991.
“This is a dream I had since I brought my (University of Massachusetts) team down here in 1992,” Calipari said. “I could not believe the environment. At that point I said, ‘I’d love to coach there someday.’”
Calipari leaves Memphis with four years left on a contract that was paying him $2.35 million annually. Kentucky paid Memphis $200,000 to buy out the contract.
Calipari surpasses Florida’s Billy Donovan as the nation’s top-paid college basketball coach. Donovan received a deal that’s worth about $3.5 million a year after winning back-to- back national titles in 2006-07.
Paying a Premium
“In the marketplace we operate in, to be the premium basketball program in America, you want the best coach and you must pay a premium price,” Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart said. “We don’t mind doing that because we think it’s that important. If it’s done correctly, the investment in the coach will yield results immediately.”
Barnhart announced the financial details of Calipari’s new contract and said the base salary would be $400,000 a year, with the rest of the money coming from the school’s media and television rights.
Calipari had a 252-69 record at Memphis and helped build the school into a championship contender. The Tigers won at least 30 games each of the past four years and reached the title game of the 2008 NCAA tournament, losing to Kansas in overtime.
“This decision for me was extremely hard,” Calipari said. “It wasn’t hard coming here, it was leaving Memphis and the support that my family and I received there over the years. To walk away from that was difficult, but this is heady stuff.”
While Memphis lost three starters from last year’s runner- up team, the Tigers went 33-4 this season and reached the round of 16 at the NCAA tournament. Memphis is the only school in the nation to receive a No. 1 or No. 2 tournament seed each of the last four years.
Kentucky’s Last Title
Kentucky has won two NCAA tournament games over that span and hasn’t advanced past the second round since 2005. The Wildcats won their most recent championship in 1998 under Tubby Smith, two years after winning the title with Rick Pitino as coach.
Pitino is now at the University of Louisville, about 75 miles (120.7 kilometers) from Kentucky’s campus in Lexington. Louisville this season was the top-seeded team in the NCAA tournament.
“I do not walk on water, I do not have a magic wand,” Calipari said. “I told Mitch and I told (Kentucky President Lee) Todd, ‘If you want something to happen in a year, do not hire me.’ That’s not how I do things. But when we get it right, you notice we’re No. 1 in the country, we’re No. 1 seeds and we’re playing in Final Fours.”
Calipari has a 445-140 record as a college coach, having also spent eight seasons at the University of Massachusetts from 1988 to 1996. The Minutemen reached the Final Four in his final season, though the school was stripped of the achievement after Marcus Camby admitted he violated NCAA rules by receiving gifts from a sports agent.
Calipari then left to coach in the National Basketball Association, where he had a 72-112 record with the New Jersey Nets before getting fired in 1999. He returned to the collegiate ranks with Memphis in 2000 and ended the school’s six-year NCAA tournament drought in his third season.
Tebow is a dual threat quarterback who can run and pass, notching 20 QBs on the ground and via air, another first.
For Tebow, all good things come in… pairs.
- 2 National Championships
- Two Maxwell Awards, only the second player to win the award twice.
- So in that spirit, we give you these two nice pictures of his lady friend.
I am sure Tebow - who spends his summer season at his father’s Christian orphanage in Philipines and had John 3:16 written on his face during the Big Game - picked her out for her values.
Hat tip to Liberal Values Blog for the images of Ms. Tebow.
Follow the rankings here.
Michael Ballack might not play for the Germans, while Spain won’t have leading scorer David Villa for sure.
I think the game will be amazing nonetheless.
Thursday: Euro Quarterfinal #1 - Germany vs. Portugal
=> We predict Germany will win 2-1 in penalties. Portugal has a 30% chance of winning, however.
Friday: Euro Quarterfinal #2 - Croatia vs. Turkey
=> We predict Croatia will win 2-1. Turkey has a 20% chance of winning.
Saturday: Euro Quarterfinal #3 - Netherlands vs. Russia
=> We predict Netherlands will win 2-0. Russia has a 10% chance of winning.
Sunday: Euro Quarterfinal #4 - Spain vs. Italy
=> We predict Spain will win 1-0. Italy has a 40% chance of winning, however.
Rankings denote yesterday’s rankings
1 - Netherlands (1) - Netherlands is our top seed going into the quarterfinals with 3 victories, maximum points, 8 goals despite being in the so-called Group of Death. At present time, their depth makes them the team to beat.
2 - Croatia (2) - Croatia is a team that will give it their all to win. They got maximum points despite a relatively tough group that included pre-tournament favorite Germany and host team Austria, who despite the low ranking posed a threat thanks to the home crowd.
3 - Portugal (3) - Yes, the loss to Switzerland was not representative of Portugal, but take away Pepe and Ronaldo, and you neutralize Portugal considerably.
4 - Spain (4) - Spain’s legacy as underachievers is really the only thing holding them back, the team showed a lot of poise coming back from an 0-1 deficit in an otherwise meaningless game against Greece on Wednesday.
5 - Germany (5) - Germany is starting to show signs of the Germany we know, and fear.
6 - Italy (6) - Forget the fact that the Italians sucked in Round 1, they’re now in it, and taking on the Spaniards…
7 - Russia (8) - After eliminating the defending champion Greeks and Sweden, Russia edges into the quarterfinals.
8 - Turkey (7) - With their goalie Volkan to miss the next two games against the Croats… Turkey is on thin ice with seven players missing the quarter-finals.
9 - Sweden (9) - Eliminated
10 - Romania (10) - Eliminated
11 - France (11) - Eliminated
12 - Austria (12) - Eliminated
13 - Czech Republic (13) - Eliminated
14 - Poland (14) - Eliminated
15 - Greece (15) - Eliminated
16 - Switzerland (16) - Eliminated
So… it’s over: Boston Celtics claim their 17th championship… the Lakers were not really ever in it, even though sure, technically they almost came back to win Game 2 in Boston and had they not lost Game 3 in the worst meltdown (or best comeback - depending on your vantage point), blah-blah…
All right, point of the post is to say that after a miserable - and we mean miserable 20th century, the 21st century’s first decade has pretty much made things up for Boston fans.
Let’s look at the decade it’s been.
Football - New England Patriots:
Nothing to show for in the 1900s, but then in the 2000s, we’re talking three Super Bowl Championships!
- 2001 (XXXVI),
- 2003 (XXXVIII),
- 2004 (XXXIX)
And let’s face it, they were awfully close in 2008, too. But no need to be greedy, that record is not bad at all…
That’s 3 Super Bowls in the decade.
Baseball - Boston Red Sox:
The BoSox sure started off the 1900s well, with World Series Championships in 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918… they then traded Babe Ruth and we know the rest… until 2004, when they came back from an 0-3 deficit to defeat the Yankees on their way to the World Series, only to win again in 2007.
That’s 2 World Series in the decade.
Basketball - Boston Celtics:
The winningest club in NBA history just won its 17th championship. They dominated the 20th century, but yesterday’s championship was the first of the decade and century.
Championship years include 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1976, 1981, 1984, 1986, and of course, 2008.
Hockey - Boston Bruins:
Of course, this means that NHL’s Boston Bruins are due… and as a Montreal Canadiens fan, that is nauseating. Incidentally, when the Bruins were down 1-3 against the Habs this year and tied the series at 3 to force Game 7, I could not help but think that the last two teams who defeated the Habs (the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004 and the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006) went on to win the Cup…
But, then, Montreal beat the Bruins in Game 7, but then lost to the Flyers in 6… but the Flyers lost to the Penguins who in turn got beaten by the Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings… which means little, other than Boston Bruins are due, I guess.
PLAY
