Pitching is back...in the NL

It's the new hot trend...it's what all the cool kids are doing...
It's pitching. and it's back in the National league.
I am making this post in light of the perfect game by Roy Halladay. One of our contributors, Shawn, is an avid Phillies fan, and is very happy about this. i think that the Doc is the best pitcher in the league, by far. And by in the league I mean all of baseball. But his perfect game got me thinking...
I remember watching alot of MLB network, and watching about how the 1960's was a dominant era for pitching. I feel like this feeling is back, but only in the NL. Where pitchers like Halladay and Lincecum and Jimenez are owning their opponents. In the AL, they still have alot of high scoring games, because of the DH. But in the NL, I have noticed alot of low scoring games lately, and even though i'm a Sox fan, I kinda like it.
The only issue here is the question of whether or not this has to do with the strict testing for steroids that has happened lately. As much as I don't want to think that is the reason for this dominant pitching, I can't help but be opened minded to the idea. After Manny got suspended for 50 games last year, other players all over baseball must have been more weary of their own situation.
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A Dream Stanley Cup Finals

It happened. It actually happened. My two favorite teams in the world are facing each other for the right to lift Lord Stanley's Cup. Once upon a time, the Blackhawks were never shown on television, leaving a young HBJ without a team to enjoy watching on TV from time to time (the rare times hockey was shown). Enter the Philadelphia Flyers, the team that maintained my interest in hockey whenever I could catch a game. That and I always liked the team name and logo. After all the hardships the team went through during the regular season, they wholeheartedly deserve to be in the Stanley Cup Finals.

However, the Blackhawks are still my team, and after all the hardships they went through for the past FIFTY YEARS, they most definitely deserve a shot at the Cup. Combine the two, and you're looking at one of the best potential Stanley Cup matchups in years. There are a few reasons why this is the best possible matchup the NHL could have had out of the sixteen teams that made the playoffs.

1. The Battle for the Cup this year is fresh. No Penguins, no Red Wings. The Flyers have not made the Finals since 1997, the Hawks since 1992. Both teams have not won the Cup in decades (Flyers since 1975, Hawks since 1961). I know some people were hoping for a Original Six Finals with the Hawks and Habs but this is the better matchup (Fun Fact: The Flyers were the first non-Original Six team to win the Cup). The Cup is going to a city that hasn't seen it in forever, isn't that exciting!?

2. With the NHL trying hard to bring in American viewers, Flyers/Hawks is an excellent selling point. Montreal would not have drawn in nearly as many American viewers, and Canada already has the entire population watching the sport, so they don't need the help. In addition, Philly and Chicago both have huge fanbases, with the Chicago having one of the best and Philly having one of the worst (I say this in a good way. Their fanbase consists of the biggest assholes in the country, and honestly that is one of the reasons I still like the Flyers). You can say this is a battle of good vs. evil (and of course the good guys always come out on top right?).

3. Both teams play an extremely exciting style. They both use a good combination of physicality and skill, with a slight emphasis on one of those (physical play for Philly, skill for Chicago). This is what makes hockey fun to watch, and both teams are sure to put on a good show.

4. Goaltending. Honestly, who expected the starting goalies in the Stanley Cup Finals to be ANTTI NIEMI and MICHAEL LEIGHTON? Hell, at the beginning of the playoffs, both teams were predicted to not do well because of the "shaky" goaltending. Many people predicted Devils over Flyers in the 1st round and Canucks over Hawks in the 2nd because of the goaltending. Niemi is no Marc Andre-Fleury, Leighton is no Ryan Miller. Where are they at now? On the golf course. I wonder if this is the first time that both goalies in the Finals were not even starters at the start of the season. Niemi and Leighton (also Brian Boucher, another "backup scrub" who only owned the Devils and kept Philly from getting swept by Boston) are sending a message to all the mid to low level goalies: Everyone has the potential to be great if you put your heart into it. Niemi and Leighton, along with the rest of their teams, did just that. The Hawks and Flyers really really want to win the Cup, and you could see that when Philly made history in Boston and Chicago got out the brooms against San Jose.


So now that you know that the Finals are going to be amazing, who is going to win the Stanley Cup? I'm predicting every game except one will be close, but the Chicago Blackhawks win in 6 games. And I'll be in Chicago for the parade!

The cup chronicles: vol. II: media day

Today was media day, and i do commend the NHL network for their extensive coverage. I'm still trying to get to know the enemy a bit more so it was helpful to see these interviews and such. Not only that, but they are replaying the game we had against them in Philly back in March. Much to my surprise Michael Leighton started in this game, and faced off against that one goalie we used to have play...what was his name again?
I'm trying to get a feel for how this is going to go by simply watching this game, but I know that's impossible. The biggest difference is obviously that we will have Niemi start instead, so as much as they had a bit of trouble with Huet in this game, i can only imagine Niemi will come out of this eating them for breakfast. Or Brunch if you prefer. In the media day interviews, the great Hossa story was addressed, and it made me think of what my Pokedex entry would be for him:
Marian Hossa was a Penguin. Then, he was a Redwing. And he lost the Stanley cup with both! Until one day, he signed with the Blackhawks. And he's about to find out, being on the Blackhawks, is the only one that isn't really lame.
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A weird one in Cleveland...

I love when Ozzie gets ejected from the game before I even wake up in the morning.
A very early start must have meant that the umpires couldn't get much sleep last night, either. At least I had an excuse, I'm freaking out about the Blackhawks. ^_^ But those balk calls were...well...I hate to sound like Hawk, but they were pretty bad. Especially that second one. And as Buehrle threw his glove on the ground in disgust, he got ejected as well, which was sad because I think he could have gone at least 7 innings, get the win, and go to Tampa Bay a happy human. Instead, I now was worried because our bullpen had to come in very early.
Williams wasn't too good, but he was really just there to give Tony Pena some extra warmup time. Pena then came in and did an amazing job, and Hawk and Stone Pony mentioned that his performance picked up the whole team, and I completely agree. Props to him for coming in on such a weird moment's notice and getting it done.
The offense was nice too, scoring the 5 runs we didn't need at first, but then ended up needing by the end of the game (more on that in a bit...). Teahen continued to produce where Carlos Quentin couldn't. After Quentin struck out with the bases loaded, Teahen got a nice 2 run single to increase our lead. It was also nice to see Kotsay put one on h board, and the offense in general seems to be clicking a bit more lately which will obviously help alot going into this next series against the Rays, although the Rays' pitching is pretty sick.
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The cup chronicles: volume I: Captain vs Captain

I decided to create a mini-series of blogs to follow what could possibly be one of the most memorable times of my life. in the next week, as i await the beginning of this incredible series between my beloved Blackhawks and the Flyers, I'm not really sure what else to do with myself to pass the time (watch the Sox...?). But today, now that we officially know who we are playing and when, i've decided to do a little bit of reconnaissance work to get to know my newest rivals, and my newest sworn enemy: Mike Richards. So I present to you, a few Pokedex entries on the Whales trophy winners, the Philadelphia Flyers.
first of all, if anyone says "team of destiny" one more time, i might have to jack them in the face. I am very proud of the Flyers and the way they showed resiliency in this post season, especially coming back from being down 3-0 to Boston in the series, and in game 7. I wanted this matchup from the beginning, and i'm really glad it turned out that way, mostly because it'd be super fun for HBJ.
That being said, I hope the Hawks destroy them ^_~
General Pokedex entry for Philedelphia Flyers: the physical type team. Their main strategy against these other teams has been to stop their "big guns", as they did with the Canadiens and Camalleri. but let's think about the depth of the Hawks here, and how even if they TRY to stop the Captain (which is impossible), the Hawks go alot deeper than their first or even second line, of offense and defense. So the "Captain" Mike Richards will have his work cut out for him if he wants to try and stop everybody.
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No Teahen party for Masterson

(I can't take credit for that one myself, as Bill melton used that joke last year when we played KC in reference to how well Teahen hits against Mark Buehrle...)

4 runs in the first inning? We must have been playing Justin Masterson and the Indians. I had mentioned in my blog yesterday that I wanted to beat up on these bad AL teams like we are supposed to, and i'm glad we did. Especially because I also almost forgot that the Twins will be playing the Yankees these next few days, so if there was a good time to gain some ground it would be now. With Peavy going tonight and Buehrle going tomorrow, I hope we can continue to give this unusual run support and help a bro out. Sweeping the Indians would be a great thing, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. Let's focus on tonight first.
but even before I focus on tonight, I want to share some things I liked about last night. getting runs early is obviously helpful, especially when you know your offense is so off and on. luckily, those 4 runs were all we needed to support another good outing (besides maybe a bit of a high pitch count) by John Danks. But the other runs were good to see too. Especially because Mark Teahen got it going, after I was complaining about him offensively (maybe he knew I wanted Crede back ^_~). But that 2 run double in the first was a nice way to get the rest of the team going too, even Beckham who had also been struggling got a couple of hits for himself. Ozzie knew Masterson struggled against lefties, so it was only natural that Pierre and A.j. both got hits to start with as well, and that can also be taken into account for Teahen's big night. I'm glad Danks did well once again and we actually gave him a win to show for it.
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Series win a good thing?

As the Blackhawks swept the Sharks on the west side, the Sox hoped to also have a fish fry of their own over in the South side. However, Freddy giving up 4 runs in the first inning was a pretty good indication that it wasn't going to happen.
The first two games against the Marlins were refreshing to see for us Sox fans. it was really good to see Buehrle and Floyd have nice outings, and see the Sox giving them some run support. Quentin is starting to come around at least a little bit, and Rios is continuing to impress. The Sox website is trying to get fans to vote for Paulie and Rios for the all-star game, and I agree with it that if they send anyone from our team's offense, it should be them. I know fans don't get to vote for pitchers, so I also hope that John Danks gets some recognition too, because he deserves it. the W-L stat has always been very decieving for Danks, as the lack of run support is an obvious issue (and Matt Cain of the Giants can now sympathize with that after yesterday, losing 1-0 to the A's with that run being an unearned one). I know the all-star game is far away, but MLB does a nice job of getting crazy fans like me to think about it early.
I would also like to give Bobby Jenks some credit for Saturday afternoon. I really liked his velocity, and his nice 1-2-3 inning notching the save. Getting runs is hard for the Sox at times, but it's good to know that when we do, Bobby at least has the capability to hold the lead for us if he could keep up his velocity, even after there was some question as to whether or not we should hand the ball over to Matt Thornton in the 9th inning.
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SWEEEEEP!!!!

After winning the first 2 games at the not-so-intimidating shark tank, I was a little nervous about coming back home because of how much better we had been playing on the road previously. But after winning Friday night's game in awesome fashion as always, I just got overwhelmed by the feeling that Sunday would be the day. And I was right.
After being down 2-0, I, along with everyone else was a little bit nervous, but I knew that this team was more than capable of coming back. After the Seabrook 4 on 4 goal that almost wasn't (and I loved Captain's reaction to his cross checking penalty just before that too hehe), I knew not only were we back in this game, but we would probably win. The Sharks just can't seem to get their momentum back when it seems to be going our way, and the result was an epic sweep, and the Shark's realization of who the top team in the Western conference really is. ^_^
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A crazy 3rd base idea...

After last night's game, a thought had occurred to me. I started thinking about somebody I hadn't thought of in a while, because there hadn't really been reason to think about him. I give credit to my boytfriend who mentioned this person on the phone last night and kind of sparked my idea.
So, at 3rd base we have basically 2 choices as of right now. Mark Teahen, who can't hit, and Jayson Nix, who can't field (last night alone was even a good enough example of that). Now, I have a solution, and those of you that know me probably know what i'm going to say...
...what would we have to lose if we signed Joe Crede?
I know the main issue, and yes i did think of it, would be his chronic back problems. But perhaps not having played yet this year and getting the extra rest could be helpful for that. Crede has a career bating average of .254, and while that doesn't sound extremely great, it can be put in perspective by going through the Sox lineup and looking at their averages. Teahen himself is only hitting .221. The biggest thing isn't even the batting average, though, although it would help. Defensively Crede has obviously made a name for himself with this team, and would definitely be a better fit than Nix over at third.
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So many contributions to a 2-0 lead!!

I am pretty much praising Niemi right now. after the 44 saves the other night and his wonderful performance again tonight, I am all about our rookie goalie. This was another amazing hockey game, and while both teams played well, the Hawks had a definite advantage just as they did in game 1. the phrase "track meet game" kept getting thrown around during the broadcast, and I was trying to figure out what they meant by that, and I came up with a general idea.
The track meet game means it became a game of closer distances to the net, like a 200m dash or something like that compared to taking shots from far away. this in my opinion was a reference to the fact the Buff has been right by the net, because of the fact that him being on the line with Captain and Kaner allows him to do so. I really like this line, because it works very well strategically. Everyone focuses on Kane and Toews, and in the meantime Buff goes in front of the net and can get a good poke in, because nobody sees it happening. On the contrary, if the Sharks are on to the placement of Buff, they might pay more attention to him and let the young stars own Nabokov. So basically that line is a win-win situation, and I really like how it's turning out for us.
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Another series lost to a bad team...

The Sox still have all the same issues. That sentence was sitting on my screen for a while as I tried to figure out what else to really say about it. I feel alot like Rongey in the sense that i have to repeat the same thing every show (or in my case, blog), but i'll try to mix it up at least a little bit. I only saw bits and pieces of these games, but from what I saw the same things have been happening as they have all year. Friday's game was another strong start from Buehrle...for a while. One could argue that Ozzie left him in a bit too long, but I agree with him as far as the theory that (and i loosely quote Ozzie) no matter how good a starting pitcher is, if he makes 1 mistake, it's game over. That's pretty much what happened on Friday, and kind of what happened today as well.

The hitting on this team is still bad, and even though i feel like a broken record saying it, it's still the main issue. And I know i've said this before too, but as I anticipated Rios being the defining factor on this team, he has been very very good (notably his 12 game hitting streak, and today's game) and the rest of the team is under performing to say the least. It used to be the pitching and the offense, but now it's mostly just the offense. i really don't like looking at the beginning of the broadcast and seeing that most of our lineup is hitting in the vicinity of .160 .190, and the occasional .250 if we're lucky. This of course is besides Paul Konerko and Andruw Jones I believe, who actually have pretty decent averages. Is Greg Walker to blame? I still agree with what Gordon Beckham once said in that Walker isn't the one going up there and swinging the bat. but from the higher ups perspective, apon seeing these terrible batting averages on paper there are only 2 people to put the blame on, and that is Walker and Kenny Williams. Kenny put together a really good pitching staff, but we absolutely need the Quentins and Beckhams of the world to hit up to their potential to support them. i know they can come around, but the "it's still early" thing isn't going to fly anymore because May will be over before we know it.
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One victory down!

Well the Hawks have done something they haven't done yet in these playoffs, and that is win the first game of the series. The difference is, that this game was on the road, where we have been playing extremely well, and if you take into account the regular season games we played at the HP-Shark-Pavilion-Tank, there is really no reason to be surprised at all that we won there in this first game. The stats they showed before the game were interesting though, as the Hawks had been 5-1 thus far on the road and the Sharks had been 5-1 at home thus far. So winning the first game on the road and evening up the ice advantage should help, but in these playoffs where home games aren't exactly what they seem, the point is no matter where you are just go out there and win.
Both teams played awesome today, but the entire game I could see that at least as far as 5 on 5 hockey goes, we have a bit of an edge over this Sharks team. The Sharks do not want to play at our pace, but we are good enough to set the pace no matter what. It was nice to see an outstanding performance from Mr. Niemi, and some nice penalty killing as well, considering how many power play chances the Sharks actually ended up having. I really liked the energy we had coming out in this game even after being down 1-0 after the first period, and after watching awesome hockey from both teams, i'm really really excited for the rest of this series.
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History Has Been Made (FLYERSFLYERSFLYERS Edition)

I was ready to post this yesterday, but due to unforeseen circumstances was unable to do so. As of this writing the Hawks defeated the Sharks in Game 1 and Philly/Montreal is playing right now.


The playoffs are only getting better and better. The 2nd round was much more entertaining than the 1st as things have really started to heat up. So just like before I will analyze and rank the games from the second round followed by previews/predictions for the Conference Finals.

4. Sharks over Red Wings in 5 - Not to say this was a bad series, because it was awesome especially given the result, but it's fourth solely because it only went five games. Every game was very close other than the total beatdown from the Wings in Game 4, but the Sharks had a mission this year, and they finally achieved it. What a team to get over that hump that is the 2nd round too, the Wings are never easy to beat. However, Jimmy Howard showed his inexperience in the series, and combined with Thornton finally making some noise in the postseason, the Sharks were destined for the conference finals.

3. Hawks over Canucks in 6 - Honestly Sharks/Wings was technically the better series, but I'm being biased here because Chicago won it. We had two very ugly games at home this series, which is something we need to fix in the next round, but on the bright side we absolutely owned Vancouver on the road, which is a good sign considering we have potentially four road games next round.

2. Canadiens over Penguins in 7 - Of course any series that goes the distance has to be great, and this series was. Every game was close except Game 7, but that's okay because the result was great. This victory by the Habs is even more amazing when you consider that Pittsburgh had been getting healthier as the series progress whereas the Habs were losing key players to injury. Most of all, LOL Crosby. Losing Game 7 is completely his fault. He got called for boarding ten seconds into the game and completely sucked all the energy out of Mellon Arena. Montreal was relentless the whole game and it showed. Just a great performance, but it didn't make history

1. Flyers over Bruins in 7 - They're not kidding when they say history will be made. This is only the 4th time in sports history that a team came back from a 3-0 deficit to win the series. Now, make that even more epic by having Game 7 end the same way the series did, with Boston taking a 3-0 lead and Philly coming back to win 4-3. Does it get any better than that!? Also, Philly did this with two goalies who were primarily backups in their careers. They won this series with heart and soul, and that's why hockey is the best.

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Target field debut and other Sox tidbits

Well, many many many things have been going on with our dearest White Sox since I last got a chance to blog. Jake Peavy must have heard what I said (well, and what everyone else was saying) and he has gotten worlds better. I listened to an interview with him on the Saturday morning radio show "hit and run" on 670 the score and got some insight. The biggest thing was that he and Coop actually watched old tape of him pitching for the first time after the series against the Rays. After that first inning against the Rangers in his next start, he seemed to have found his old edge, and his next 2 starts after that were very very good. It's good to see him back in his usual form, which is why we got him in the first place. I feel alot better about our starting rotation, aside from Gavin. He has been struggling alot the whole season so far, and I hope he can get back to his usual form. The Sox need to also hit alot better (aside from a few games here and there where the offense explodes) to support our pitchers when they do end up doing really well. A perfect example of this is Danks's last two starts, including today. He is our best pitcher so far, in my opinion, and the way he's been pitching he shouldn't have a loss let alone two. Our team's batting average is probably still last in the AL, with Rios being the only one hitting over .300 in the lineup today. The thing i'm most sad about it Beckham's hitting performance (or lack thereof) so far. I hope he can find his groove because I know how good he can be, maybe the pressure was a bit too much for him as he instantly became a star on this team after his rookie of the year-like performance last year.
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I prefer Shark meat to Octopus

bring it on, Nabokov!!

School is finally over, so I will have much more time to blog about all of this craziness that is the Blackhawks postseason. After a very shaky game Sunday to say the least, it was good to see the Hawks finally got back into that (expletive) Luongo's head and showed those Canucks who the better team really is.
Don't get me wrong, Vancouver is a very good team and I give them credit, it's just so easy to make fun of Luongo and his crybaby ways. And let's not forget the Sedin sisters. After the teams seemed to switch off nights of bad discipline and embarrassing themselves in front of their respective home crowds, it was only fitting that for the second time this postseason the Hawks clinched the series on the road. Captain had an amazing series, and now leads in points in the playoffs (even above that other Captain that everyone seems to think is a stud in the playoffs that has to play a game 7 against the Habs...)so obviously that is a good thing for me. I love how Buff stepped up too, and Bolland with the shorty today was also awesome, as we have been owning the shorthanded goal situation all year especially in the postseason. All in all, it was a great series and it's always good to see a team I love destroy a team I hate. ^_^
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Captain hat trick!!!

WOW!!!!

Obviously I am hopelessly in love with the Captain, so this was extra special for me. Back to back hat tricks for the Hawks, and the latter being from none other than Jonathan Toews. <3 I knew we had Luongo's number, and as I have been pretty busy lately I havent even been able to write about any of the games in this series.
Game 1 was on my birthday, so my boyfriend and I went to the game. I was sure they'd win, and once again I must have gotten "too cocky" and we ended up getting owned. The defining moment in that game was the beginning of the third period, when I saw that the new goalie was none other than our old friend Cristobol Huet. I really couldn't believe my eyes. If we had to resort to Huet, did I have any reason for hope? good thing the hawks proved to me that I did.

Game 2 was another awesome night at work for me, as Versteeg did indeed make the make the madhouse go mad, as the commercial says. Game 3 I watched while working at the Sox game, which was kinda weird, but more people were inside watching the Hawks than there were in the seats, despite the 9-2 victory for the Southsiders. It is always fun sharing these moments with other fans, and I really love every minute of it.
One thing I noticed while watching game 3 was how Hossa played. I really feel like the reason we got Hossa in the first place is for the month between May 5th and June 5th. He was good during the regular season, don't get me wrong, but I think we are paying him the big bucks to be a leader in the playoffs.
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MLB's Racist Problem

Hi everyone, this is my first article here on Sports and Stuff. I'm sure you'll figure it out after a few of my articles but I prefer the sports stories that link multiple aspects of our lives. I guess I'm the "Stuff" part of our site. I know most will prefer to read the pure sports stories, so feel free to skip over mine if it isn't your cup of tea.

A couple weeks ago Orlando Hudson enlightened all of us with his opinion on why Jermaine Dye doesn't have a job. Mr. Hudson strongly hinted that the free agent market often passes up on aging black players such as Dye (36) and Gary Sheffield (41). Both are without jobs at this time. Now JD was offered a 1 year/3 million dollar deal from the Cubs but declined that offer. He also declined offers from the Brewers and Nationals. I have not seen or heard any specifics about Gary Sheffield but supposedly there were four teams interested in him this past offseason.

Now both of these players earned over 10 million dollars in 2009 and it is fairly obvious that there was interest in them for the right price. They both have been playing in a decreasing number of games the past couple years, associated with decreasing hitting number. Could it be that these players priced themselves out of contracts due to pride or past earnings? Maybe Mr. Hudson could explain to me how Ryan Howard just received one of the richest contracts in baseball history with such blatant racism existing. Or maybe an easier deal for him to explain would be that of his own teammate, Denard Span's new deal.

I'm not naive enough to believe that racism is no longer a problem in our country, because it does still exist. But when individuals claim racism without basis, it cheapens those who do endure racism and makes it harder to see the true racism that exists. I think the reason it upsets me so much is due to the fact that our world has quickly become one of blaming others for our own shortcomings. It couldn't be that both of these players are getting too old to be productive everyday players, it must be the evil owners and GM's around the league are racist. I'm sorry Orlando Hudson I have not seen any proof of racism, but two players of color that have declined opportunities for jobs.