Afternoon Wake Up Call: Opening Day Edition

All kinds of things are happening in the sports world friends.  Some good basketball was played last night, some basketball odds went up, and lots of baseball was played.  Let’s get with it.

The NCAA Men’s Championship Game last night was a joke.  I watched approximately 5 minutes of both the first and second half and neither small window of viewing could keep me from flipping the old LCD back over to Component 1 and getting my Tiger Woods 08 on.  There was only one exciting play in the entire duration of my viewing last night and that was when Raymar got smacked in his broken nose.  I literally cringed when that happened, watched the aftermath, and promptly flicked it back to the Playstation.

With the laugher of a title game a distant memory, everyone can now turn their attention to next year’s NCAA season.  I heard on the radio today that UNC and UK lead the early props betting lines in Vegas at 12:1 odss for making the Final Four.  No one else is even 20:1 right now.  That says a lot about Roy’s ability to keep UNC stocked (they could lose 5 guys to the NBA) and Coach Cal’s abilities to bring in talent and coach.  I doubt he can turn UK around that fast, but I do appreciate the thought.

Baseball started yesterday and APIAS went 2-2.  Our National League teams both won while the American League teams lost.  The Tigers fought off the Toronto crowd (damned near literally) en route to a loss.  Oakland’s new-look offense didn’t bother to leave Spring Training as the A’s were swept by the Angels.  The Mets won a close one and the Cubs started their march to the 2009 World Series Championship behind a 4-2 win over Houston.

The only game I caught much of was the A’s game.  It looked like the pitching emphasis from the spring as Dallas Braden hammered the strike zone early and often with a strike percentage around 70% and only one walk in Wuertz and Bailey both pitched perfect innings in relief but it wasn’t enough as the A’s were shut out.

That’ll wrap up Opening Day as frigid weather throughout the Midwest and East make talking about baseball almost strange.  It feels like NFL season in these parts.  Our favorite thing for today is pretty obvious: baseball Ray.  As TGC likes to say it is the perfect game.  You’re never out of the game until the final out is recorded and there’s nothing quite like a night or, even better, a day at the park.  We’ll definitely be covering a lot of bat and ball sports this summer so stick around for road trips, live blogs that spring from the nether regions of a back porch, and plenty of bitching and complaining depending on how long it takes the Tigs and A’s to win a game.  Until next time, stay warm and watch baseball.  It’ll only be here for another 7 months folks.

Friday Night Baseball, Live Blog Style!

Well it’s Friday night and the A’s are battling the Tigers.  The Metropolitans are squaring off with the Marlins and are already up 2-0.  Everyone knows the A’s are the worst team in baseball right now and I’m already predicting that TGC will use a broom post before the weekend is out.  Never fear though because even though The Cowboy is still away at the beach, SmoothRon and myself will try to entertain you with a little live blog action tonight.  Expect lots of baseball talk, some college football talk, little to no Frett Bavre talk, and dick jokes.  Just because.

7:25: eDayStat – And away we go!  SmoothRon is finishing up dinner and will join this fray soon.  The A’s are tied with the Tigs through 1 inning so we’ll consider that a win.  The Mets, as previously stated, have already put up a 2 run first inning.  All is right in the world…For now.

7:33: eDay – And Marcus Thames (no pronounced live Rhamses, but that would be awesome) goes yard.  Seriously, does this fucking guy do anything but hit homers?  He’s played in like 17 games this year and now has 21 bombs.  This is the start of a long night.

7:37: SmoothRon – And the bases are loaded full of Marlins!  Let’s keep in mind that no lead less than 10 runs is safe for the Mets because of their shitty bullpen.  Should be fun!

7:40: eDay – The A’s are 8 – 24 in their last 32.  How’d we ever win 8?

7:42: SR – Somehow, Oliver Perez gets out of the one-out-bases-loaded-jam.  He will be referred to as OP for the rest of the night, mainly because I love the nickname OP.

7:45: eDay – Is Perez’s middle name Pedro?  I’d be down with referring to him forever and always as O.P.P.

7:47: SR – Well played, sir.  In other news, the corpse of Fernando Tatis just grounded out.

7:50: SR – Wikipedia lists Tatis as 33.  33!  That would make him almost as old as 2SL.  If he’s 33, then I’m dating Blake Lively.

7:55: SR – Hanley Ramirez is batting for the Marlins.  Hanley’s Ramirez has an accent over the ‘A.’  I feel like the Hispanics are doing to Ramirez with accents what Americans have done with Antoine/Antawn/Antwan/Antwrioganeioangn.

7:58: eDay – So the Olympics started today.  You know what would make me watch the Olympic Games again?  A Russian guy carrying around a small boy for the U.S. gymnastic team.

8:02: SR – Look, everyone watched those ’96 games and was impressed by Strug.  But, for Pete’s sake, whatever happened to Dominique Moceanu?  I was about the same age as her then, so I feel okay in saying that she was hot.  Unlike 2SL, who will have no problem talking about Shawn Johnson.

8:05: SR – Whatever.  Moceanu is two years older than me AND she’s married.  Please follow along after the jump.  Please?…

2008 MLB All-Star Game: Live Blog

12:35: EdayStat – Man, this could be a really good game tonight.  There are so many stories, I wonder if it’ll go extra innings!

12:37: Eday – Okay, okay so we got a late start.  But we’re glad we’re not the guys from WalkOffWalk or Deadspin who’ve been doing it all night!  Sorry guys, but hang in there.  Or take the rest of the night off, we’ll take it from here.  Poorly, of course, as we’ve been drinking since softball ended an hour before game time.

12:39: Eday – Dear Lord, TGC’s Guillen almost ended this thing 4 minutes in!  The excitement keeps coming.

12:40: Eday – Captain Cook steps off and New York boos, anyone surprised?  Oh, and Danny Boy almost boots another.  Can anyone say Knoblauch?

12:42: Eday – Holy Hell, Guillen should have been out at the plate.  That’s a fair ball on the chalk because it never landed again.  This is getting ridiculous.

12:43: Eday – Time for a wager.  Which invisible suicide is Selig doing right now?  TGC says toaster in the bathtub and that’s a good bet because that’s a long, drawn out one that he’ll probably have time for.  I’m hedging bets on good old take out the pistol case, spin it one good time, place 6 bullets in, and play everybody wins! Russian roulette.

12:44: Eday – This game has everything.  We just got an indifference call, which was the secondary name that we almost made this blog’s name.

12:45: Eday – And there will be 13.

12:47: Eday – I think I speak for everyone when I say I can’t wait to get old to where I obtain financial independance, have to color my hair, and have to take pills to get it up.  Man, that will be the day.

12:49: Eday – Sherrill has been watching tape of Scott Van Pelt to get his windup posture.

12:51: Eday – This game does not end without a winner.  After they run out of pitchers they must start throwing fielders.  There’s got to be a backup catcher to throw extra innings.  If the damned M’s can do it then an All-Star sure as Hell can.

12:54: Eday – The part of the story you didn’t hear is that Larussa actually said, “Is quite a sorry is’t it?”  Then he staggered around the desk and started sobbing on Ludwick’s shoulder.

12:55: Eday – Bottom of 13 we go and the orchestra is like “Fuck!  We’re tired of playing this damned song!”

12:58: Eday – Buck says “Uggla has struggled.”  Thank you Captain Obvious!

12:59: Eday – I cannot stress how thrilled the entire APIAS staff is right now with the entrance of a marmot into the game.

1:00: Eday – Wow.  Just wow.  Good thing that kid can hit.

1:01: Eday – All jokes on Uggla aside, how do you get that bad a hop off the Yankee Stadium infield?  Then again, there’s a reason you don’t sit back on your heels when a ground ball comes your way.

1:03: Eday – Hey!  Uggla caught one!  On a throw down from the catcher I suppose.

1:05: Eday – Fourteen, here we come.  And America enjoys the sweet milk of Selig’s tears.

1:08: Eday – How about the cats like Guillen and Martin who got in the game late thinking they’d get one AB?  Now they’re getting to play a whole damned game.

1:11: Eday – Wade Boggs and Jose Canseco will pitch it out in the 15th.  Write it down.

1:13: Eday – And UK is represented!  B-Webb comes out.  They keep bitching about Kazmir but Webb has came out and holy SHIT!  Tejada with another amazing play!  Anyways, Webb threw more pitches on Sunday than Kazmir and he’s also in a pennant race.  I’m jus’ sayin’.

1:18: Eday – Fifteen innings.  TGC says Selig just shut down his IE window of the Realm and starts trying to make decisions.

1:21: Eday – After all the hype I won’t be impressed unless Kazmir’s arm falls off.

1:23: Eday – So you can reinsert catchers.  That’s already been stated tonight.  TGC and myself maintain that in the 16th you put catchers back in and have one inning of softball to decide who gets home field position in the World Series.

1:26: Eday – Bottom of 15 we go and we’ve resorted to eating cold Dariy Queen french fries here.  When you’re pushed to the limits you do anything to sustain yourself.

1:30: Eday – A little life!  Morneau doesn’t go yard but he does what he usually does.  Hit the ball.  Now Ian (great name by the way) comes up.  Fuck you Tim!  No bunt here.

1:31: Eday – Ludwick, are. you. serious?

1:33: Eday – Navarro continues to have an excellent game.  And can Drew do it again?

1:35: Eday – So we started this an hour ago now as a joke.  We thought we’d have some fun with the fact that the guys at WOW and Deadspin had been going for 4 hours.  Surely, it would end in another 10-15 minutes.  Now we’ve been pulled into this spiral and it may never end.

1:36: Eday – TGC and I were begging for the squeeze play in the 11th (12th?) and now is the perfect time.  Whoops, sac fly!  BALL GAME!

FWP: My Head Hurts

Fearless Weekend Predictions is a weekly column running on Friday afternoons where our resident soothsayer (or whoever we can get) locks down what will transpire in the coming 72 hours. It’s better to get these out before the 7-year is open.  The crystal ball gets cloudy.

Wow, what a week!  I love the NBA Draft and I highly encourage you to check out the NBA Draft LiveBlog from last night.  A few commenters even stopped by and they were fantastic.  There was also some interleague baseball that was mildly entertaining, capped off with Shawn Chacon trying to kill his GM.  The douche known as Kyle Busch won the NASCAR race out in Sonoma.  EURO 2008 raged on to a cast of hundreds in the US.  And, as usual, the Mets stink.  Summer rolls on this weekend: Mets/Yankees, Cubs/White Sox and that riveting Tigers/Rockies rivalry; the finals of EURO 2008; Joe Crawford moves to LA and you-know-who will be on the prowl.  Here we go…

• The Mets will get swept by the Yankees.  Well, I really hope this doesn’t happen, but every week I talk about how they’re going to do well, so we’ll see how they do if I say they’re going to do poorly.  I have little to say about the Mets until they start playing better.
• Bethanie Mattek will keep on rolling at Wimbledon.  I’d never heard of Mattek until about five minutes ago, but by the looks of this picture, I think she’s great.  I really could give two shits about tennis, however, when the ladies look like her I can really get into it.
• Joe Crawford will start living the dream.  Wow, the guy balls at the pre-draft camps and ends up getting drafted in the second round by the Lakers.  Come on, if Sasha Vujacic can play significant minutes for them, surely Joe Joe can make the team.
• Rick Dutrow will have some free time.  HA HA HA.  I laugh at you, Rick.  A mistake apparently caused one of his horses to test positive for a banned steroid?  Yeah, because none of his horses ever take steroids?  Oh, that’s right… they all do.  I’m glad he’s suspended and I’m glad Big Brown isn’t a Triple Crown winner. 
• Danillo Galinari will travel around NYC with a bodyguard.  Shit, what a way to be welcomed to America!  If I were him, I would have played it up; asking the people to boo more.  That would have really confused the Knick fans.  Either that or I would have held up a homemade poster that read, “AT LEAST I’M NOT BALKMAN!”
• Jimmie Johnson will win this weekend at Loudon.  Even if you’re not a big NASCAR fan (and I’m certainly not), it’s easy to tell Jimmie Johnson is a huge tool.  He’s just not a guy you’d want to get a beer with, unlike Tony Stewart or Dale Jr.  Somehow, some way, he managed to get Chandra to marry him.  Chandra is sexy and I really like that cowgirl hat. 
• Everyone will keep counting down to college football.  Seriously, this is not a good sports weekend.  Only about two months left… thank Mitch.
• Billy Gillispie will keep lurking in the weeds, but then sleep with your girlfriend.  We haven’t heard a peep from the guy in months!  What’s he doing?  Well, if you have a significant other in the greater-Lexington area, you may not want to know.
• Fathers in Indianapolis will lock up their daughters.  Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy and Josh McRoberts are all now Pacers.  That is one vanilla team right there.  It’s no surprise that their GM is Larry Bird.  You know, White Jesus… or something like that.
• Spain will win EURO 2008.  I have no clue who’s going to win, but I don’t really like Germany and I found this picture of a sexy Spanish fan.

Gosh, that was brutal.  There isn’t a damn thing going on this weekend.  Here’s hoping you have a pool to use and cold beers to drink.  Enjoy.

NBA Draft LiveBlog: 2008 Version

The time has come once again!  It’s time for the NBA Draft and I couldn’t be happier.  We did this last year and if you want to know what you’re getting into, here’s last years.  I love watching college basketball and I love the NBA; combine the two and I’ve got a half-chub.  This year’s draft has the chance to be a great one.  I think we’re going to see a ridiculous amount of trades, a LOT of bad picks and DICK VITALE AND STEPHEN A. SMITH YELLING AT EACH OTHER!  I’m actually skipping PBJT’s last softball game of the year in order to be here and I’m sure my counterparts will be joining after they get a big win and grab a few post-game brews.  I, too, will be drinking heavily throughout so things may get interesting around 9PM.  Enjoy, people.

6:15 – We’re about an hour and fifteen minutes out from actual draft time (don’t let ESPN fool you with their Preview show coming on at 7).  It’s pretty apparent the Bulls are going to take Derrick Rose at #1.  The #2 pick is where things could get really interesting.  I am hoping the Heat trade the pick, mainly because I don’t like the Heat and want them to rue the day they passed on Beasley for the next decade as he dominates the league.  I also think OJ Mayo may end up being the best player in the draft when things are all said and done.  The Lopez twins scare the hell out of me… and not from a basketball standpoint.  They scare me in a “homo-incest” kind of way.  DeAndre Jordan is a guaranteed bust, as is anyone from Nevada or Rider (I’m talking to you, Javale McGee and Jason Thompson).  I just saw ESPN’s desk at the draft and there was no Vitale or Stephen A.  Could the Lord be shining on this night already?  I’ve got to make a beer run.

7:16 – Dammit, I walk in from the beer run (The longest beer run in history, also, I went with my mom.  True story.) and the first peron I see on the screen is Stephen A.  Oh well, even he can’t ruin this night for me.  Let me also go on the record saying I think Portland is going to package their two picks to move up in the draft.  Indiana should be trying to do the same.  Twelve minutes until Derrick Rose’s mother starts crying and fanning herself uncontrollably!

7:24 – Colleen Dominguez is really sexy.  Wendy Nix… not so much.

7:26 – Fran Fraschilla just said the Knicks don’t have a lot of history with international players.  Um, they drafted Frederic Weis didn’t they?

7:29 – The “New Loaded Special” from Burger King scares me.  Loaded baked potato on top of a burger?  And they’re showing this on ESPN?  Nothing like a few clogged arteries to get me wanting to watch sports!

7:32 – The Bulls are going to select Derrick Rose first overall.  I can’t say enough how bad of an idea it is bringing a guy back to his hometown to play professional basketball.  Oh… he’ll never be able to find anyone to go out with in Chicago, will he?  As always, I select Blake Lively first overall as, “Female Most Likely to Be My Wife.

Okay, I’ve put a picture of one hot girl on here, hopefully that’s enough to have you keep reading.  More after the jump…

We’re 400!!!

Well, technically, we’re not 400 days old until tomorrow, but much like 2SL we can’t keep help but bust out a little early.  For those of you who haven’t been here from the start this here web log started back in ought seven on April 22nd.  That parting shot fired over the wall of the Internets at Lexington Herald Leader resident write John Clay was our first foray into this odd world of sports blogging. 

Since that day we knew we’d never be the same again, and if you’ve read this site more than 2 days, we suspect you feel much the same about your own life since discovering us.  We’re sure you’ve never been more horrified.  Where’d we go from there? 

Well it’s hard to say.  A little baseball, a little racin’, a little college football and then it was New Year’s.  Time was flying and our hits were going up.  Soon, with the help of Deadspin, With Leather, and some well-timed Google image searches we were floating at about 1,000 hits per day.  We’re happy to say that’s still the case.  And we’re extremely happy that we’re had over 330,000 hits in a little over a year since we started this.  We’d like to get teary and thank everyone but we’ve still got some time to recap.  Hit the more for recaps of our best and worst ideas around this here blog.

Opening Day Live Blog

Its that time of year folks, and on that special day, you expect nothing less than a diary of the day’s activities.  We’re here to bring it to you.  First pitch in a few.

1:05 TGC – Rod Allen and Mario Impemba about to bring us the starting lineups… padnuh

1:08 TGC – 51 degrees in Detroit, we’ll try to hold off the rain.  Verlander on the mound.  Groundball first base. 1 up 1 down.  Season underway!

1:11 TGC – First groundball to Cabrera.  First error of the year.  Awesome.

1:18 TGC – Your Tigers 2008 Lineup.  Renteria, Polanco, Sheffield, Ordonez, Cabrera, Guillen, Rodriguez, Jones, Inge.

Brandon is starting in CF in place of the injured Granderson (15 day DL)

1:24 2SL – Just walked into our local watering hole, ready for the Cubs to begin defense of their NL Central title.  Big Zambrano gets the opening day nod and is looking for his first opening day win.  Ernie Banks had a statue placed outside of Wrigley Field this morning, can’t wait to see it. Go Cubs!

1:31 TGC – The last drops of the first delicious pitcher of the season have dripped their way into Smoothron’s mug.  Its going to be a good year.  And a good day.  End of 2, Tigers 1, Royals 0.

1:42 TGC – After a 4 pitch walk to 9-hole Inge, Renteria knocks a liner back up the middle for the first RBI of the year.  The count was 2-2-2.  Yes, E, we Two-ed Em Up.

1:58 TGC – Maggs opens up the 3rd with a double in the right center gap, then tries to score on a 2 out single by Cabrera but is gunned down at the plate on a zero-hop laser from Jose Guillen in Right.  A great throw that just did beat the runner.  Tigs still lead 1-0.  On to top 4.

2:04 2SL – The majestic grounds crew at Wrigley Field is pulling the tarp up off the infield as we speak.  Good news for me and bad news for our local watering hole because thats a few more pitchers I would surely have purchased.

Kentucky @ Houston: Live Blog

 

Well, we’re 10 games into the UK basketball season and what could make things worse than ol’ eDay live blogging the Houston game?  Maybe it won’t be that bad, but why not hang around for the next two hours and find out?  And UK’s team this year is much like Forrest’s box of chocolates.  You never know how shitty this team will be tonight. 

11:19:  Rebuilding?  Buddy, New Orleans didn’t need this much rebuilding.  Yeah, I said it and I’ll leave you with that one.

11:17:  Just me or does that walk-on handle the ball better than Porter?

11:16:  TGC just said “Is that your press.”  Unfortunately yes.  Rick Pitino is celebrating his 500th win by thinking about what his press looked like in his UK years.  Filthy.

11:15:  Is Jodie Meeks still playing?  Well, sory, shouldn’t take anything away from the guy.  He blew up the first half and kept it somewhat close.  You know he’d get tired eventually.

11:12:  It continues to amaze me that the national media thinks Joe Crawford is so good.  Yes the kid has some skill but there’s not one person outside of Kentucky that realizes how selfish and destructive he is to this team.  It’s simmply amazing.

11:08:  Rest Of Team has 16.  What number is he again?

11:05:  Rangers beat the Pens 4-0.  Was probably more exciting than this basketball game.  Even though it was hockey.

Kentucky/SC – Open Thread

And it shall pass, there was bountiful and plentiful juice of blue. 

 And the people rejoiced.

Gut-Check Saturday

Here’s our attempt at a “live-blog” on a football Saturday. TGC and Eday are cutting up some rug down at Mucklewain, so 2SL and I will be your captains. Lay back, find yourself a cool drink… and enjoy the ride (that’s what she said).

SR (1:55pm) — Here we sit about 2pm on a Saturday afternoon. Michigan is cruising against Northwestern and looks to go to 5-0. The Mets have had the East clinched for over a week now, and look ready to make a nice postseason run. OH SHIT!! That’s how things were supposed to happen. Alas, Michigan is 2-2 and is losing at the half to a bad Northwestern team that got embarassed by Ohio State last weekend. Oh, and the Mets and their “7-game-lead-15-days-ago-thing,” well, they’re up 4-0 against the Marlins, but Philly controls their own destiny and with a win and a Mets’ loss will win the division. Here’s to a great fall!