Filed under: MLB | Tags: A.L. Central, Baseball, Ben Sheets, Interleague Play, Kevin Slowey, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, MLB, Sports
| The team didn’t spend much time on the losing track though, as they bounced back yesterday for a 5-0 victory behind the masterful performance of pitcher Kevin Slowey (W, 5-6). Slowey pitched a complete game, gave up just 3 hits, and struck-out 8 for his first major league shut-out. The Twins dealt Ben Sheets (L, 9-2) his first road loss of the season. Sheets worked 7 innings, gave up 9 hits and 5 runs, all of them earned. Coming in to Sunday’s game with the Twins, Sheets was 6-0 on the road in 10 starts.The Twins 10-game winning streak began back on June 17th with a 3-game home sweep of the Washington Nationals followed by a sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks. They had a quick 3 game road trip and swept the San Diego Padres before returning home to face the Brewers again. The Twins are 13-2 in their last 15 games, dating back to their series in Milwaukee. During that time the Twins beat pitchers Randy Johnson, Brandon Webb, Jake Peavy (Trevor Hoffman blown save), Greg Maddux, and Ben Sheets. |  |
The Twins were the benefactors of a Cubs sweep over the White Sox last weekend, but they didn’t get any help from them this time around as the Sox swept the Cubs. This puts the Twins 1½ games out of first in the A.L. Central with 13 games to go before the All-Star Break.
The Twins closed out Interleague Play with a major league best 14-4 record against teams from the opposing league. The Twins will look to ride this success all the way to the All-Star break through what appears will be a tough stretch of games. The team opens a 3-game series at home tonight against the Detroit Tigers and they get 3 more against the Cleveland Indians before they hit the road to close out the first-half of the season. The schedule concludes with the Twins taking on the Red Sox for 3 games in Boston and another 4 against the Tigers in Detroit.
It’s tough to call any games in the first-half of the season must-win when you’re sitting just 1½ out in your division, but with the way the White Sox and Tigers are playing and the All-Star Break fast approaching, these next to weeks could be make-or-break for this young Twins squad.
Filed under: NBA | Tags: Basketball, Kevin Love, Kevin McHale, Memphis Grizzlies, Mike Miller, Minnesota Timberwolves, NBA, NBA Draft, O.J. Mayo, Sports, UCLA, USC
“He’s the whole package,” said Hoiberg. “We went out and saw him two Saturdays ago and he just blew us away. The guy can flat out stroke the basketball. He can spread the court so that Al (Jefferson) can operate on the block…The most impressive part was his interview after the workout. You guys are going to love him.”
Hold the Mayo though (some people are sick of this joke, I’m not). Hours later Wolves faithful, the few of them that still exist, learned that all this talk and excitement was for naught, as the Wolves aforementioned perennially giddy GM pulled off another draft day trade. It was reported around midnight that the Wolves would send their number three selection, O.J. Mayo, to the Memphis Grizzlies for the 5th pick in the draft, Kevin Love, with a number of other players changing jerseys as well. The Wolves can go ahead and remove the 24-photo montage collage of Mayo post draft selection any time now.
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Here’s how the trade breaks down. The Wolves get Love, a 6′ 10″, 271 pound power forward out of UCLA. He averaged 17.5 PPG and 10.3 RPG in his only season with the Bruins. They also get veteran swingman, and quite possibly one of the top five ugliest players in the NBA, Mike Miller. He averaged 16.4 PPG, 6.7 RPG, and 3.8 APG with the Grizzlies last season. Additionally, the Wolves acquire mediocre big men Brian Cardinal and Jason Collins, whose stat lines aren’t even worth mentioning.
Meanwhile, the Grizzlies get former short-time Timberwolf O.J. Mayo, a 6′ 4″, 200 pound shooting guard out of USC. He averaged 20.7 PPG, 4.5 RPG, and 3.3 APG in his freshman season with the Trojans. Also headed to Memphis is Marko Jaric and the remainder of his bloated contract, 3 years, $21 million. To wrap the deal up the Wolves rid themselves of washed up veterans Antoine Walker and Greg Buckner, a man I can honestly say I never knew wore a Timberwolves uniform. |
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Until Kevin Love puts on a Wolves uniform, laces up his tenni’s, takes to the court and proves his worth Wolves fans can only shudder and be reminded of Kevin McHale’s past draft day blunders. The most recent memory being on draft day 2006, when the T-Pups shipped off Brandon Roy for Randy Foye and cash. Roy went on to win NBA Rookie of the Year honors, while Foye has struggled to stay healthy. I can only hope for all the Wolves fans out there that this one pans out a little better for us. We will see.
Filed under: NBA | Tags: Crap, Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers, Rap, Shaq, Shaquille O'Neal
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In one of the least news-worthy stories in recent memory, Shaquille O’Neal fueled the melodramatic fire between himself and Kobe Bryant Sunday evening at a night club in New York. Honestly, does anybody care anymore.
Shaq’s lyrical display, which lasted about two minutes, is being referred to as a ‘free-style rap’. However, area rappers are claiming it was not a rap at all, but merely just crap. Shaq began by saying ‘Check it. You now how I be. Last week Kobe couldn’t do without me.’ He later goes on to suggest Bryant made comments that factored in to his separating from his wife: “I’m a horse. Kobe ratted me out. That’s why I’m getting divorced. He said Shaq gave a [woman] a mil’. I don’t do that ’cause my name’s Shaquille.” |
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Shaq has publicly apologized for possibly offending anyone, telling ESPN Monday ‘I was freestyling. That’s all. It was all done in fun. Nothing serious whatsoever. I’m totally cool with Kobe. No issue at all. Please tell everybody don’t make something out of nothing.’ Wow, what a linguist. He truly is ‘The Big Aristotle’.
Apologies were not enough to save Shaq from being stripped of his Maricopa County Special Deputy’s badge though. When asked to comment Tuesday, Sheriff Joe Arpaio told The Associated Press, ‘I want his two badges back. Because if any one of my deputies did something like this, they’re fired. I don’t condone this type of racial conduct.’
For those that wish to watch Shaq’s ridiculously terrible free-style crap, here it is:
Shaq entered the realm of rap professionally in 1993. His first album, eloquently titled ‘Shaq Diesel’, was Platinum certified. His subsequent two albums, ‘Shaq Fu: Da Return’ and ‘You Can’t Stop the Reign’, released in 1994 and 1996, respectively, were Gold certified. These albums are known for such hits as ‘(I Know I Got) Skillz’, ‘Shoot, Pass, Slam’, ‘Biological Didn’t Bother’, and ‘Strait Playin’.
Filed under: MLB | Tags: Baseball, Boston Red Sox, Jason Varitek, Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Kevin Youkilis, Minnesota Twins, MLB All-Star Game, Sports
It has taken Mauer three consecutive weeks of strong voting to catch Varitek, despite posting a .331 batting average on the year, second only in the AL to the Texas Rangers DH Milton Bradley and New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who are batting .332 entering the day. In addition to batting a solid .100 better than Boston’s Varitek, Mauer has a .110 edge over him with a .417 OBP. Mauer currenlty leads the race for the American League’s starting catcher spot by a slim margin of 44,775 votes.
In a slightly more balanced All-Star balloting race Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau is gaining ground on the Boston Red Sox Kevin Youkilis, who I feel resembles a lumberjack. The latest poll has Youkilis leading Morneau, who I affectionately refer to as ‘Hoser Papi,’ by just under 270,000 votes with just over a week left in the balloting. Morneau is batting .305 on the year, with 11 HRs and 59 RBI, while Youkilis is batting .304, with 13 HRs and 47 RBI.
Here’s hoping Morneau can continue to gain ground and Mauer can hold his, and fend off the feverish voting of Boston fans. The last thing we need to see is another All-Star game in which half of the AL team is composed of Yankees and Red Sox. Lets get some young, talented faces out there, as opposed to say a grizzled veteran that’s batting a paltry .231 on the year.
Vote Here for the 2008 MLB All-Star teams. Vote 25 times a day for the next 8 days if you so desire. Balloting ends at 11:59 PM ET Wednesday, July 2, 2008.
Filed under: NBA | Tags: Basketball, Boston Celtics, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA Finals, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Sports
Kobe Bryant scored a team high 22 points for the Lakers, but only managed to go 7-22 from the floor. This certainly wasn’t his best effort, but he didn’t get much help either. Lamar Odom added 14 points, and Pau Gasol mustered a measley 11 points and 8 boards. Their subpar performances in the finals have given rise to such nicknames as Lamar Fold’em and Oww Gasol. Jordan Farmar came off the bench for the Lakers with 12 points, but that wasn’t enough to get it done, as they were the only four Lakers in double figures. European sensations Vladimir Radmanovic and Sasha Vujacic combined for a modest 13 points and 5 rebounds as the Lakers fell in the finals to the Celtics 4-2 to wrap up the marathon that was the NBA Playoffs.
This caps an impressive run by the Celtics who finished the regular season with a 66-16 record, and home court advantage throughout the playoffs. The Celtics played in a record 26 playoff games, beating the Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, and finally (no pun intended) the Lakers en route to their 17th NBA Championship, the most by any franchise in the history of the sport.
Congratulations to Doc Rivers and the Celtics. It was an impressive march to the NBA title. I am happy to see Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett get rings, as they say. They have both had great careers and carry themselves with class, KG’s on-court potty mouth aside. As a Minnesota Timberwolves fan I find myself feeling utterly dissappointed more than anything though. I can’t help but lament the blunders of Kevin McHale and the franchise over the last decade, and wonder what might have been…
