Yankees vs. Phillies. Game 1 of the World Series starts October 28th. Read about the Yankees series victory over the Angels from TSN.ca:
NEW YORK - They dashed from the dugout and in from the outfield, swarming Alex Rodriguez in a sea of pinstripes only steps from his spot at third base.
“I couldn’t be more excited,” he said. “I feel like a 10-year-old kid.”
Making it to the World Series for the first time after all those misses will do that to you.
The New York Yankees, baseball’s biggest spenders, finally cashed in with their first pennant in six years Sunday night, beating the Los Angeles Angels 5-2 in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series behind the savvy pitching of that old October pro, Andy Pettitte.
Next up, New York hosts defending champion Philadelphia in the World Series opener Wednesday night. Cliff Lee is expected to face ALCS MVP CC Sabathia in an enticing pitching matchup between former Cleveland teammates — and the past two AL Cy Young Award winners.
Ridiculed in the past for his October flops, the three-time MVP played a huge role in helping his team advance through the playoffs, batting .438 with five home runs and 12 RBIs. Thriving under late-inning pressure this time around, the slugger earned his first trip to the Fall Classic during a 16-year career in which he’s accomplished almost everything else.
“That’s what you play for,” Rodriguez said. “In order to win a World Series, you have to get there first.”
Cameras flashed in the stands throughout the ninth inning as the crowd roared louder and louder with each pitch.
After Mariano Rivera fanned pinch-hitter Gary Matthews Jr. for the final out at one minute past midnight, Mark Teixeira, Derek Jeter and most Yankees rushed to mob a jubilant Rodriguez near third base.
Rivera received a huge hug from catcher Jorge Posada in front of the mound. Then, Rodriguez and the Yankees partied with beer and bubbly in their swanky, high-tech clubhouse.
“I feared that I wouldn’t be able to contribute, so I had a lot of limitations,” Rodriguez said about his previous playoff failures. “The whole year for me was about trusting my teammates and being one of the guys.”
All he’s gotta do is turn around the LA Clippers… yikes. Read more from ESPN.com:
LAS VEGAS — They were there for Blake Griffin, and they didn’t even get to see him play. Fans started lining up at an autograph booth in the Thomas & Mack Center concourse before the Los Angeles Clippers’ summer league game, and they stayed there until Griffin arrived some 20 minutes after the game ended, sat down and started signing jerseys, cards, basketballs, shirts and programs. The line extended past concession stands and entry portals, with more fans breaking ranks to get a glimpse of the Clippers’ No. 1 pick. A team official said he’s never seen anything like it for one of their players at summer league.
This is different.
And this goes against everything I’ve learned since the Clippers moved to Los Angeles in 1985 and provided us with a quarter-century’s worth of bad draft picks, loafing centers, point guards on 10-day contracts taking last-second shots, and Donald Sterling’s ownership serving as the lone constant, but I believe Griffin can change this team.
If he does, if he turns the Clippers into regular playoff residents instead of occasional visitors, he’ll go down as one of the greatest No. 1 picks ever. That’s the magnitude of the challenge, and that’s how monumental that accomplishment would be.
There have been other moments of hope: the “Space Cowboys” group of past-their-peaks Norm Nixon, Cedric Maxwell and Marques Johnson; the head-pounding young squad of Quentin Richardson, Darius Miles, Elton Brand and Lamar Odom; and the team that got to within a game of the Western Conference finals. You don’t need to be an NBA historian to know how those promising stories ended. Just look at the upper reaches of the Staples Center. You won’t find a single piece of Clippers fabric. No retired jerseys, not even so much as a division championship banner.
When the Clippers won the draft lottery and selected Griffin with the top pick, I didn’t think this one would turn out any different. It would be just the Clippers’ luck to go first in what’s viewed as a weak draft. They never get this chance when there’s a Shaq or a LeBron to be had.
Read the rest HERE
It’s official. LeBron James is the real deal. Hitting a playoff game winning 3-pointer off the hop from an inbounds pass with 1 second on the clock? Watch your back Mr. Jordan… catch the entire play here:
Can this Series get any better? Well yes, maybe if Crosby and Ovechkin pulled a Getzlaf/Thornton, but each of them scoring a hat trick in the same game is a pretty close second… Read more from cbc.ca:
Watching Sidney Crosby pull ahead in a superstar showdown, Alex Ovechkin decided to take matters into his own hands.
Ovechkin scored a hat trick, including the winner late in the third period, to lift the Capitals to a thrilling 4-3 win over the Penguins Monday night at the Verizon Center.
Washington’s victory spoiled a marvelous performance by Crosby, who also registered a hat trick.
“It’s a great atmosphere and when you win the game it’s an unbelievable feeling,” Ovechkin told Hockey Night in Canada. “People want to see great players play well. Both teams played well and Sidney played great tonight. He scored three goals and brings energy to the team.… He’s good.”
While the showdown is tied in goals — Ovechkin and Crosby have four apiece — the Capitals are off to a flying start.
The NHL club now has a 2-0 series lead in its Eastern Conference semifinal with the Penguins.
The best-of-seven matchup shifts to Pittsburgh for Games 3 and 4, beginning Wednesday night (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 7 p.m. ET).
Washington centre David Steckel scored the other goal, and rookie goaltender Simeon Varlamov made 33 saves.
Penguins netminder Marc-André Fleury finished with 29 stops.
Ovechkin, Crosby living up to billingOvechkin and Crosby are more than living up to their immense hype and so, too, is this series, with the Capitals skating away to a pair of one-goal triumphs.
Washington took advantage of a careless tripping penalty by Pittsburgh centre Evgeni Malkin to forge ahead 3-2 with less than eight minutes remaining in the game.
After a faceoff win, Ovechkin rifled a one-timer to the short side of Fleury.
“Lots of goalies stop me, but I have too many chances to score goals, so sometimes the puck goes into the net,” Ovechkin said of the plethora of shots his continues to register on a nightly basis.
He fired 12 at Fleury on Monday.
Malkin, on the other hand, remains a disappointment through the first two games.
“I’m going to talk to a lot of players about the things we did do well [and] didn’t do well,” Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said when asked about Malkin’s struggles. “We’re going to address [it] and Geno’s [Malkin’s nickname] is no different.
“We need to get better in certain areas if we’re going to get back in this series and have success.”
Smelling blood, Ovechkin sealed the victory with 4:22 remaining, using Pittsburgh defenceman Sergei Gonchar as a screen before sending a wrist shot over the glove of Fleury — resulting in a flood of red caps onto the ice by the sold-out crowd in honour of his first career playoff hat trick.
“Sick game. Sick three goals by me and Crosby,” said Ovechkin, who celebrated by bouncing his body high off the glass following both of his third-period goals.
“It’s unbelievable to see how fans react, how fans go crazy. The atmosphere right now, it’s unbelievable in town. You see all the red, and — probably I’m afraid to go home right now.”
Following a second round of hats that descended to the ice, Crosby chatted with the referee regarding the long delay.
“People kept throwing hats,” Crosby said. “And I was just asking if he could make an announcement to ask them to stop.”
For his part, Crosby gave the Penguins a chance, netting his third goal of the game by batting a fourth opportunity behind Varlamov on the power play with only 31 seconds left.
In the end, Ovechkin got the help that Crosby didn’t receive.
“It’s nice to score,” said Crosby. “But it’s better to win. I’m sure it’s entertaining for people to watch, if I were to look at it from a fan’s point of view. As a player, you don’t like when the guy on the other team gets a hat trick. That’s usually not a good sign.”
Read the rest HERE
I love this. Two absolute titans battling it out at the 1 second into the first period of Game 6. Too bad the Sharks packed it in shortly after this…
This is interesting. I’ve often wondered what the situation is with steroids in the NHL, but it never seems to be a big issue? Read more on the topic from ColumbusDispatch.com:
Blue Jackets captain Rick Nash slowly collected a handful of empty bottles littering his corner of the visitors’ locker room in Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena and deposited them in a trash can.
The contents of the plastic bottles — grape juice and water and protein drinks — helped Nash and teammates replenish fluids and nourish their bodies during and after the Jackets’ first playoff game against Detroit on Thursday night.
The scene is a familiar one in National Hockey League locker rooms. So is the sight of several players walking through the room with ice packs taped to aching body parts. The sport takes a tremendous physical toll, especially in the postseason, when endurance and the ability to recover are critical.
It also might be a tempting time for players who are willing to take shortcuts, because the NHL doesn’t test for performance-enhancing drugs during the playoffs. For all the prices paid to hoist the Stanley Cup, a fear of being caught taking banned substances is not among them.
The NHL’s performance-enhancing drug policy, enacted three years ago by the league and players union, does not permit testing during the playoffs and off-season. It’s a five-month window in which the only enforcement against doping is the honor system.
Some players and NHL officials told The Dispatch that they would support a stronger, year-round testing program, but for now, there is no threat of any testing until September.
“You would have to be an idiot to get caught under a system like that — an absolute moron,” said Charles Yesalis, a Penn State University professor who specializes in the use and impact of performance- enhancing substances. “To me, you have to go far beyond that testing system to have a true sense of whether players are not doping.”
Since the drug policy went into effect, only one player, former NHL defenseman Sean Hill, tested positive for a banned substance, in 2007. Hockey’s doping record stands in contrast to the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the Olympics and other international sporting events in which cheaters routinely are caught.
So, are hockey players that honest or is the policy that ineffective?
“I’d say we’re that clean,” said Nash, who added that he has never considered using banned substances and would support a year-round testing program. “I have been here for five or six years, and I haven’t seen anything once.”
The Dispatch conducted an anonymous survey of the Jackets, and not a single player thought that the league has a doping problem.
National doping experts say the NHL policy is “woefully inadequate” and too flawed to allow a judgment on what percentage of players might be using steroids, stimulants or other banned substances.
“I think most people in professional sports wish the problem away,” said Dr. Gary Wadler, a New York official with the World Anti-Doping Agency and an expert on drug use in sports. “They tweak their programs to take the heat off, but there hasn’t been any heat on hockey.”
Under current policy, an NHL team can receive up to three no-notice tests a season. The Blue Jackets were given the league maximum last season but only one test this season.
Test year-round?
Drug-testing policies are enforced in professional football and baseball and in the Olympics year-round. In those sports, hundreds of athletes can be randomly tested during the playoffs and out of competition.
But the NHL has allowed its athletes to compete in the playoffs and train in the off-season without testing. The league and players union decided in the collective bargaining agreement to exclude playoff testing because of potential distraction for teams. As for the off-season, only players participating in international competitions are subject to testing.
Jackets general manager Scott Howson says his league is clean, but he understands why some might push for a policy revision.
“I think it needs to be looked at,” Howson said. “One of the critiques of our system is the timing of the tests.”
The issue of revamping the league’s drug-testing policy was raised at the most recent general managers meeting in March and is expected to come up this summer at the players union meetings. Any changes would require both sides to agree.
Most people within the game defend hockey and say it’s relatively free of performance-enhancing drugs. But its guardians want to ensure that their sport doesn’t suffer through scandals like those that have plagued pro baseball.
Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner, said the league would back year-round testing. He said he favors testing players during the playoffs, although not necessarily in the same manner as during the season.
“The league would be supportive of enhancing the scope of the policy,” Daly said. “Having said that, it is a little misleading what some people have said about players’ ability to use it during the off-season. Most (performance-enhancing drugs) are three-month cycles to get out of the system. So you are really not dealing with a long period of time that the player could really be getting any benefit from using the drug. Our players are great role models, and they have a great reputation for their integrity, and I would hate to see that get affected.”
Read the rest HERE
This is sage advice:
from Yahoo! Sports:
TORONTO - The New York Yankees will miss the postseason for the first time since starting their run in 1995. Mike Mussina pitched five shutout innings to earn his 19th win, Jason Giambi homered and the Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 on Tuesday night.
ADVERTISEMENTIt wasn’t enough to keep New York’s slim postseason hopes alive as Boston beat Cleveland 5-4 minutes before the Yankees win. The Red Sox win clinched at least the AL wild-card and eliminated the Yankees from postseason contention.
New York shortstop Derek Jeter didn’t start because of a sore left hand, but came on as a defensive replacement in the ninth inning. This will be the first October that the Yankees missed the playoffs in 13 years — a remarkable run, which included four World Series titles.
The Atlanta Braves still hold the big league record by reaching 14 straight postseasons. No one team in the majors has currently made the playoffs more than two years in a row.
Mussina (19-9), who also won 19 games with Baltimore in 1995 and 1996, will try for a career-high 20th victory when he faces Boston at Fenway Park on Sunday in the final game of the regular season.
With his 269th career victory, Mussina moved past Jim Palmer into 33rd place on baseball’s career list. Mussina has the most wins of any pitcher never to have a 20-win season.
The right-hander allowed four hits, walked none and struck out six.
Marco Scutaro hit a one-out double off Mussina in the first, but was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple.
Mussina was struck on the right elbow by Travis Snider’s line drive single in the third, with the ball ricocheting into foul territory between home plate and third base. Trainer Gene Monahan and manager Joe Girardi came out to check on Mussina, who declared himself fine after two practice pitches, then ended the inning with a 4-6-3 double play.
Mariano Rivera worked the ninth for his 38th save in 39 opportunities.
Blue Jays right-hander Jesse Litsch (12-9) allowed three runs and five hits in seven innings. He walked one and struck out a career-high eight.
New York opened the scoring in the second when Giambi singled, went to third on Xavier Nady’s double and scored on Robinson Cano’s grounder.
Giambi hit a one-out solo drive to right center in the fourth, his 32nd.
The Yankees made it 3-0 in the seventh when Cano doubled, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Gregg Zaun’s passed ball.
Toronto scored a run in the seventh on Scott Rolen’s RBI single, but Joba Chamberlain ended the threat by striking out Gregg Zaun and Snider
An amazing collection of the best NBA Playoff moments guaranteed to waste your afternoon.
I bet you can’t watch just one.
A lot of people have mentioned that the modern day Pittsburgh Penguins are like the 1980s Edmonton Oilers, with the 1-2 punch of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin being the closest thing to a Wayne Gretzky-Mark Messier combo.
Even if the Pens don’t win the Cup this year (much like the Oilers didn’t in their first attempts), the comparison is warranted because this team can score, especially with Marian Hossa in the mix being reminiscent of Jari Kurri alongside of Crosby/Gretzky.
The only thing that is scary, however, is that Crosby and Malkin are not quite like Gretz and Mess, but rather, Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. Crosby is like a stronger, feistier Gretzky; his back-hand last night was harder than most people wrist shots. Malkin is eerily similar to Lemieux: a big, strong, fast player with a helluva shot himself.
Lemieux and Gretzky rarely played together; which was a shame. The Hockey Gods are smiling down upon us.
Here’s Game 1 against the Flyers:
Here’s Game 2 against the Flyers:
PLAY
