Yankees – Phillies Head to World Series

We called it last week on Facebook and Twitter, and it became official tonight.  The Yankees will meet the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series starting Wednesday night.

In the Inaugural Season at the New Yankee Stadium, the Yankees managed to set a number of club and MLB records.

• Club record for the number of home runs hit at home games (136)
• Club record for the most home runs hit at the stadium (237)
• MLB record for having a home run hit in all but one home game

What I just realized, my daughter and I witnessed the record breaking home run (most in a season by Yankees at home), number 127, on September 25th when Alex Rodriguez slammed one over the left field wall against Jon Lester and the Boston Red Sox.

The Series should be one of the most competitive series since the 2003 Yankees – Marlins series, which the Marlins won 4-2.

So you tell us, who do you think will win the 2009 World Series.

MLB – All Star Game in St. Louis

With Derek Jeter starting at shortstop and Mark Texiera starting at First Base there is no doubt in my mind that the AL All Star Team is a winner. Even better Roy Halladay is the starter. The rest of the lineup for the American League team includes Ichiro Suzuki, Josh Hamilton, Joe Mauer, Jason Bay, Michael Young and Aaron Hill. On the National League starting lineup is Hanley Ramirez, Albert Pujols, Chase Utley, Ryan Braun, Raul Ibanez, David Wright , Shane Victorino, Tim Lincecum, and Yadier Molina.

In the first inning Lincecum walks Jeter(HBP)  and an error by Pujols allows Jeter to score the first run. Lincecum allowed two runs in the first, which didn’t look good for the National League team.  Michael Young starting at third base was a big surprise as Evan Longoria had an infection from a cut. First inning was a solid one for the American League as it was 3up and 3down. Looked pretty good there to begin with, but then the bottom of the second inning happened and the National League scored 3 runs. The 3rd and the 4th innings were pretty quick as no one got a single hit or on base.

The innings that followed were pretty quick, until the 7th where the AL gained another run. In the 9th inning Mariano Rivera in to close the bottom of the 9th.  As always he was the “sandman” and put the batter to sleep! With one strikeout and 2 plays in the field….and that ended it for the All Star Game 4-3 AL winning. This means the last 13 years have been dominated by the American League and have home field advantage again in the world series.

The game was the shortest since 1982 with a  time of 2 hours and 10 minutes, and Carl Crawford won the All Star MVP award. I must admit this wasn’t the  most entertaining All Star game I have ever seen in my entire life, but I’m really looking forward to the world series in October!

Are You Ready For Some Football

It is almost that time of the year.  The breeze in the air, the crunch of bones, and the sound of screaming fans all through the fall.  I love football, whether it be high school, college, pro, or even Canadian.  The NFL does not start for almost 3 months, but college starts in less than 2 months.

Seeing as how we are in the south we know football is king.  Whether it be SEC, ACC, or even Southern Conference.  No matter who you pull for the season is soon to be on us.

In college football everyone knows the big names, USC (the real USC out west), Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and Ohio State.  Florida is the consensus number one across the board in most major magazines and prognostications.  Texas and Oklahoma come in at two and three respectively.  USC comes in at fourth followed by continually disappointing Ohio State.

In South Carolina you have to make a choice in who you want to pull for, South Carolina or Clemson.  It does not matter if you went to either school or even to another but you have to choose one.  I would like to think that the state is evenly divided, but honestly I do not know.

South Carolina is considered by most preseason magazines to be a late 30’s to early 50’s.  I believe that the Gamecocks will end up being 7-5, but has a chance to be 8-4.  I think that the Spurrier magic has ran its course and hie reign is soon to be at an end.  The Gamecocks have talent coming back, but unfortunately they lost a lot of key players from last year.

Clemson is rated by most prognosticators to be in the low 30’s.  I think the Tigers will end up 8-4, but will hopefully can steal one and end up at 9-3.  We will see how Dabo Swinney does with a full year under his belt.  The Tigers did not bring in a lot of recruits, and they lost a lot of skill players from last year.

I am not intentionally leaving out the smaller schools, so if anyone would like to add something about our other schools I would gladly like to read it.  I welcome all comments regarding any and all teams, so let me know what you think.

Phelps Break 100M Butterfly Record

We witnessed history tonight.

Looking at the latest things to do in Indianapolis during our somewhat free day, I found that the US National Swimming Championships were being held about a mile away.  For $8, I bought a general admission ticket and became a swimming fan for an hour and ten minutes.

It was a neat experience and it was amazing to see Phelps in person.  We all know the guy is huge and has a huge appetite but it was very neat to see him perform in person.

As usual, as so it seems from watching the Olympics last year, Phelps took to the starting blocks and began “flapping his wings”.  I really don’t know how else to describe it.

Phelps was well ahead of the pace when as he finished is first fifty meters in about 23 seconds.  At that time, whoever wasn’t standing stood up.

He finished the race with a time of 50:22, beating the world record by .18 seconds.  Peirsol finished 3rd in the 100M Butterfly finals.

We also were able to witness Dara Torres win the 50M freestyle.  She won it in considerable fashion.

Enjoy the video below.

NAACP Blocks ACC Baseball Tournament in SC

It looks like South Carolina has lost the ACC baseball tournament for the next three years.  This tournament was suppose to bring in a million dollars to the Myrtle Beach area.  The people who live and work in this area could use this money.  Whether it be the waiter, the business owner, or the maid in the hotel.  There will be no tips, there will be no increased business, and there will be more vacancies in the hotels.  The majority of the income in this part of the state is driven by tourism.

The NAACP who imposed this supposed boycott in 1999 has been fairly ineffective in actually keeping activities or other things out of this state.  I do not know why now they decide to push away money from an area badly in need of it.  For an organization supposedly around to Advance Colored People it is only serving to keep those people down but keeping money out of their hands.

Why is this boycott now being pushed or being pushed at all.  This whole thing was suppose to be over in 2000 when the agreement to move the flag from the state house down to the state house grounds.  According to state Reps D- Vida Miller:  “I’m very troubled,” Miller said. “When we debated this issue in 2000, the consensus of the General Assembly was that a compromise was agreed to … so that we could put this issue behind us and move this state forward and deal with quality-of-life issues.”

The ACC is as much to blame as the NAACP.  The ACC acted cowardly and backed down to a thug group who is serving no purpose with this act.  According to state Rep  R- Thad Viers:  “The bottom line is they’re letting political correctness dictate policy,” Viers said in a telephone interview. “I don’t know who to be more upset with, the state chapter of [the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] or the ACC commissioners for caving in to political correctness.”

Those comments were the weakest of the ones Rep Viers had to say.  In a tweet on Tuesday he poseted:  “the ACC= the girly men conference for athletics!”  After this he posted:   “i apologize for my last tweet … the ACC is fine; its [sic] not their fault that their commissioners don’t have the gonadic strength of a goat!”

As I am not a fan of John Swofford or his stance on this issue I feel that Rep Viers second opinion on the ” gonadic strength” of Mr Swofford is correct.

In the long run the people of SC are caught in the middle of an issue that will not be corrected anytime soon, and truely is a non-issue to most people.  The NAACP needs to find an issue they could actually help people with and the ACC needs to grow a pair.  If the NAACP would have tried this with the SEC I feel sure that they would have laughed at the NAACP and slammed the door in their face.

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