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Yesterday I watched the the Detroit Tigers take on the Chicago White Sox for the final regular season game. The game was not just any game, it had ramifications as far as the playoffs go. If Detriot won, the Minnesota Twins were in the playoffs, and Chicago was out. If Chicago won, Minnesota goes to Chicago for a one game playoff.

Chicago won, 8-2. Cuban rookie Alexei Ramirez hit a grand slam in the bottom of the sixth inning to insure that they would play the Twins today.

But here is what impressed me the most; what keeps me coming back for more baseball, over and over again. In this instance, it is Jim Leyland, manager of the Tigers. He managed the game with the upmost respect that can be given to the game of baseball. Although the Tigers season was over, with no chance going to the playoffs, he managed the game like a playoff game. He started almost all of his regulars, and left his September call ups on the bench. He put forth his best team that he could, to insure the integrity of the game. Chicago was not “given” the game, they had to earn the win straight up.

Now I am not saying that no other manager would not do the same, but following Jim Leyland’s managerial career since his Pirates days back in the early 1990’s, he has always been one of my favorite people in baseball. I love his competitiveness nature. Guys like him, Dusty baker, Tony LaRussa,Ozzie Guillen and newcomer Joe Girardi are guys that manage every game, every inning, the way it should be.

also, it was good to hear that Leyland will be back managing the Tigers next year.

Yesterday I watched the the Detroit Tigers take on the Chicago White Sox for the final regular season game. The game was not just any game, it had ramifications as far as the playoffs go. If Detriot won, the Minnesota Twins were in the playoffs, and Chicago was out. If Chicago won, Minnesota goes to Chicago for a one game playoff.

Chicago won, 8-2. Cuban rookie Alexei Ramirez hit a grand slam in the bottom of the sixth inning to insure that they would play the Twins today.

But here is what impressed me the most; what keeps me coming back for more baseball, over and over again. In this instance, it is Jim Leyland, manager of the Tigers. He managed the game with the upmost respect that can be given to the game of baseball. Although the Tigers season was over, with no chance going to the playoffs, he managed the game like a playoff game. He started almost all of his regulars, and left his September call ups on the bench. He put forth his best team that he could, to insure the integrity of the game. Chicago was not “given” the game, they had to earn the win straight up.

Now I am not saying that no other manager would not do the same, but following Jim Leyland’s managerial career since his Pirates days back in the early 1990’s, he has always been one of my favorite people in baseball. I love his competitiveness nature. Guys like him, Dusty baker, Tony LaRussa,Ozzie Guillen and newcomer Joe Girardi are guys that manage every game, every inning, the way it should be.

also, it was good to hear that Leyland will be back managing the Tigers next year.

http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/sports/baseball

That’s right, finally a game this season that gets the juices flowing.  And to top it off, McNabb and T. O. are geting their jaw-jacking going, which is alway good for more excitement!!!

Soory everyone, but time constraints is getting the best of me, but I wanted to give props to Carlos Zambrano, who no-no’d the Astros in Milwaukee. Please go here to read about it.

So LeBron James’ loyalties “irk”Cleveland fans.

That’s the story all over the news after Lebron was seen hanging out on the Dallas Cowboys sideline before last Sunday’s home opener for the Cleveland Browns, while sporting a Yankees cap that I have seen him wear all the time.

Cleveland, you have bigger problems with sports than worrying about LeBron’s likes outside of basketball.  You should be more “irked” over how the Browns played against the Cowboys.  I was born and raised in Texas. I was a Cowboys fan out of the womb, and I even felt sorry for the Browns getting their butts spanked 38-3.

Face it, you will lose LeBron to free agency when his contract is up. And you deserve to. Well, not so much the fans, but the front office deserves to. Forget about the fact the the NBA front office wants King in a bigger market, but the Caveliars front office does not know their head from their butt when it comes to building a team around this guy. I won’t bring up the names of all those  “wonderfull building pieces” that your front office signed over the years, because I am not one to make a fan cry over something so obvious.

So back to your “irk” over LeBron’s loyalties. He really does not owe you a thing. He’s from Akron. He’s a lifelong Yankees fan. He’s a lifelong Cowboys fan (what did you expect, for him to don a vintage Brian Sipe jersey, while snacking on  a scooby snack?).

He is also a family man and business man. Yes, that’s right, a business man…who takes cares of who is important, which is himself and family. He doesn’t owe you fans a thing.

My advice is to enjoy him while you can, because in two years you’ll be able to seen him only a few times a season when he comes to town on the visitors plane…and don’t think that means in the playoffs either.

Dwight Gooden breaks the season strikeout record for a rookie by whiffing 16 Pirates. Gooden’s total of 251 is six more than Herb Score’s 1955 mark.

Doc K had the world at his fingertips, with a blazing, heavy fastball, and a curveball named “Lord Charles”. Many of very good hitters made many of walks back to the dugout with their bats not even coming close to hitting his pitches.

Such a shame that Gooden succumbed to the disease of alcohol and drugs. I would have liked to have taken my boys to Cooperstown one day and told them stories of him pitching while looking at his plaque for induction.

Former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner passed away earlier this week out in the desert in Palo Alto, California after his motorcycle was found, which had ran out of gas.

Go here to watch the tribute by ESPN MMA Live

I’m just not a huge fan of DiceK. I never have – and though one can never rule out the future, I don’t see myself feeling all warm and fuzzy over him.

He’s a good pitcher. Absolutely.
Is he the “second coming of (fill in the blank w. your choice HERE)” as we all thought he’d be? Hell no.

I know his season’s been great, statistically. However, it’s games like last night when you really need him to be able to make it out of the 5th inning…..he seems to fall short. I just don’t get it. Is it that he’s not great under pressure? I don’t see how that can be, seeing as he’s always got two men on base, no outs – and seems to make it out of an inning. If that isn’t pressure….

But it just seems like he is such a short distance pitcher. If you get 5 solid innings out of him, you’re lucky.

Maybe it’s that he’s a frustrating style to watch. Maybe we’ve been spoiled to some extent by having some really solid, consistent pitchers. I just don’t get that, “whew, DiceK’s up tonight” feeling.

Don’t paint me a flipping picture for God’s sake — just strike the guy out!

- Rebecca, I’m just a girl

http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/sports/baseball

Haskins, the Hall of Fame coach credited with helping break color barriers in college sports in 1966 when he used five black starters to win a national basketball title for Texas Western, died Sunday. He was 78 of congestive heart failure.

He was the subject of the Disney movie “Glory Road”.

“The word unique does not begin to describe Don Haskins,” Bobby Knight, the winningest men’s coach in the sport’s history, said Sunday. “There is no one who has ever coached that I respected and admired more than Don Haskins. I’ve had no better friend that I enjoyed more than Don Haskins.”

“The myth that surrounds Don Haskins in the movie ‘Glory Road’ and what he did for black players is better said that he cared like that for all his players,” Knight added. “To me that tells me more about the man than anything. … There was never anyone like him before and there will never be one like him again.”

Well, here we go go again…Cardinals bullpen stunk it up again.

Kyle Lohse could have picked up his 14th win Wednesday afternoon at Chase Field, but for the second time in the series, the Cardinals bullpen could not close the game, as the D-backs scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to defeat the Cards, 4-3.

If the Cardinals think they have any chance to make a run for the playoffs, their bullpen HAS TO BE LIGHTS OUT the rest of the way.

http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/sports/baseball