Category: Bullz-Eye Sports Channel (Page 14 of 38)

      Kobe Bryant and Lakers finish off Rockets in Game 7, look to Denver

      May 17, 2009 /

      http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2009/0505/nba_g_kobe01_576.jpg

      Well, the Lakers finally made it out of the Western Conference semi-finals. Certainly took them long enough. Arash Markazi from Inside the NBA at Sports Illustrated had an interesting quote after the game:

      When Kobe Bryant was asked what he learned about the Lakers after a grueling seven-game Western Conference semifinal series against the Rockets that culminated with an 89-70 win Sunday, he didn’t hesitate before answering.

      “That we’re bipolar,” Bryant said with a straight face.

      Ya think? While I still whole-heartedly feel the Lakers are the best team in the West, it makes the upcoming series against the Nuggets seem like less of a sure-fire thing. The Lakers, and Kobe Bryant especially, really need to get their act together, take the proper meds or whatever, and regain some consistency.

      Their general level of play is high enough that most teams can’t touch them even on an off night, but the Denver Nuggets have a lot of fire in their eyes. Their games haven’t been as well publicized as any of the other potential conference finalists. But as any Detroit fan can tell you, with Chauncey Billups leading them anything could happen when he meets the Lakers.

      If Los Angeles can come into their next game on Tuesday with the same level of desire they showed against Houston today, they’ll get past the Nuggets handily. But with even the star-player admitting the team is mentally out of control, it’s anybody’s guess who will show up. If only this kind of wild variety made for more interesting basketball! The Houston/LA series was defined by a succession of surprise blowouts, something pretty boring for a neutral and bad for TV. I’m hoping the Nuggets can keep the Lakers on their toes.

      Bullz-Eye Sports Channel, Fantasy Basketball, NBA, Rumors & Gossip

      Top 10 MLB active free passes

      May 16, 2009 /

      There are some batters that no pitcher wants to face, especially in a crucial situation with runners on base, or with first base open. But some guys are intentionally walked with regularity, and in some cases, even with the bases loaded to give up one run instead of four. Here is the current Top 10 among active players in intentional walks. Pitchers, proceed at your own risk…..

      1. Ken Griffey, Seattle Mariners (244)—Of course this guy has always been a feared slugger, but he had a career high 25 intentionals in 1993, and the year he slugged 56 homers with 147 RBI on his way to winning the AL MVP (1997), Griffey was intentionally walked 23 times. Yikes. But before we get all excited about that, consider that Barry Bonds was given the free pass 120 times in 2004, a league record that surely will never be broken.

      2. Vladimir Guerrero, Los Angeles Angels (240)—He’s topped 20 seven times and 30 once. Is he that feared or are pitchers tired of looking at that crap on Vlad’s helmet?

      3. Manny Ramirez, Los Angeles Dodgers (199)—‘Roids, no ‘roids, hormones, no hormones, whatever. This is the one guy in baseball I am never pitching to if I don’t have to.

      4. Carlos Delgado, New York Mets (186)—As a Mets fan, I’m just glad my team doesn’t have to face this guy. There is always the potential to hit one 600 feet the opposite way.

      5. Todd Helton, Colorado Rockies (172)—You don’t give a guy like Helton anything to hit, not with a .329 lifetime batting average, as well as an average of 30 homers and 109 RBI per season.

      6. Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals (160)—Oh yeah, screw what I said about Manny. I forgot about Albert. He’s only 29 years old and should easily hit 700 homers or more. THIS is the guy I don’t ever pitch to if it’s not necessary.

      7. Jim Thome, Chicago White Sox (159)—It’s interesting to note that in the ‘90’s Thome and Ramirez typically had single digits in free passes. That’s because if you put them on, you still had to face Albert Belle or Eddie Murray.

      8. Chipper Jones, Atlanta Braves (143)—It’s kind of funny that Chipper’s intentional walks are declining as he’s becoming a better and better hitter.

      9. Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle Mariners (129)—This one baffles me. Why put a guy on who averages 40 steals per season?

      10. Gary Sheffield, New York Mets (128)—A nice, long career, and sheer intimidation at the plate, even today at age 40.

      Source: Baseball Reference

      Bullz-Eye Sports Channel, Fantasy Baseball, MLB

      The Super Bowl in London?

      May 10, 2009 /

      http://en.ce.cn/sports/others/200802/05/W020080205557866161143.jpg

      Ross Tucker at Sports Illustrated has a new column up about the rumors going around about a London Super Bowl in the near future. He writes:

      For the loyal hometown fans, a regular season game is one of the eight glorious days that they look forward to and pay good money for every year. The Super Bowl, on the other hand, is already an outrageously expensive neutral site game. It is pretty much mainly high rollers paying top dollar for the tickets at this point anyway. How many true fans of the teams playing in the game really go to the Super Bowl? The vast majority watch it on TV and wouldn’t be affected at all by a move abroad, assuming issues like weather, field conditions and kickoff time can be worked out.

      I suppose it makes a lot of sense to try and create a more international market for the sport of American football. Mr. Tucker writes elsewhere in his article that basketball and baseball have had “exponential” increases in popularity overseas, and of course the NFL would want to cash in too. A few regular season games have already been held across the pond and the attendance has been pretty high, more than 83,000 for the Saints/Chargers game last year at Wembley Stadium, but the Super Bowl is another beast entirely.

      Having the Super Bowl in London give a lot of people a knee-jerk “the NFL is screwing me again!” reaction, but the truth is that this is capitalism straight up. Just because the NFL is on top in terms of popularity in America, that popularity does not extend to other countries in the least. In fact the London games thus far have seemed more like freak shows for people interested in seeing giant Yanks smashing each other for a few hours rather than opening people up to a new and intricate sport.

      Speaking from personal experience as an English teacher in Los Angeles, even those people living a few miles from any given USC game or a remote click’s distance from watching the sport have no interest in it. The reasons I’ve been given from my mainly Korean students (with some Japanese, Russians, Chinese, and Bulgarians as well) is that American football is not a sport that can be picked up from simple observation. The penalties can be very frustrating for them and the point values really throw people off too.

      I’m not saying it’d be impossible for them to learn the rules (I’ve taught classes proving the exact opposite), but it does show the inability to learn the game passively, or casually. Especially for people whose grasp of the English language is tenuous at best, the rules and intricacies of football seem nonexistent or indecipherable. It’d take one heck of a push by the NFL to break through that barrier. But if any league can become insinuated into a culture, I think the NFL can.

      In fact, they may want to start with video games (that’s how I learned hockey). It’s easy to figure out a sport when you can repeat a specific action as many times as you want. Considering the popularity of gaming systems in Europe, it’d be an obvious step to get the next Madden game out there as prominently as possible. Just an idea…

      Bullz-Eye Sports Channel, General Sports, NFL, Rumors & Gossip, Super Bowl

      Top 10 Active Gopher Ball Leaders

      May 9, 2009 /

      Some pitching statistics are not very complimentary, most of all the gopher ball line….that is, for pitchers who have a penchant for throwing that big fat pitch that a hitter tends to crush over the fence. Here is a list of the active pitchers who lead the majors in this category, and only includes players who are currently on a major league roster:

      1. Jamie Moyer, Philadelphia Phillies (474)—Okay, so he’s been pitching since 1986 and throws mostly slow junk, but Moyer has given up double digits in gopher balls 16 times, including FORTY FOUR in 2004 while with Seattle, the fifth highest total for a single season in baseball history. And he is only 31 behind all-time leader Robin Roberts, who gave up 505 long balls. Way to go, Jamie.

      2. Randy Johnson, San Francisco Giants (399)—We can pretty much give the Big Unit a pass, because he’s struck out 4,819 batters and is closing in on 300 wins.

      3. Tim Wakefield, Boston Red Sox (363)—All you can say is that sometimes the knuckleball is completely baffling, and sometimes it looks like a soccer ball to the hitter.

      4. Tom Glavine, Atlanta Braves (356)—As good as Glavine is and has been throughout his illustrious career, he has always had the penchant for giving up the long ball.

      5. Javier Vasquez, Atlanta Braves (304)—Since breaking into the big leagues in 1998, Vasquez has AVERAGED 29 homers given up per season…he’s been as low as 20, and as high as 35. Batter up!

      6. Livan Hernandez, New York Mets (301)—I read recently where Livan’s pitches were clocking in the 62 mph range…..are you kidding me? Yet, he’s still getting hitters out with regularity.

      6. Jeff Suppan, Milwaukee Brewers (301)—Jeff Suppan has always had decent control, averaging 68 walks per season since breaking in with the Red Sox in 1995. But he’s also given up an average of 27 homers per season. Sometimes control means you leave it out over the plate.

      8. John Smoltz, Boston Red Sox (277)—Smoltz has only averaged 16 homers given up per season, including a few years as the Braves’ closer, but still—you pitch since 1988, your numbers are going to add up.

      9. Bartolo Colon, Chicago White Sox (245)—In 2004, Bartolo won 18 games but gave up 38 homers. Somebody must have inspired or bribed him with cheeseburgers the next year when he went 21-8 and won the AL Cy Young.

      10. Andy Pettitte, New York Yankees (235)—For all those years with the short porch in right field in the old Yankee Stadium, Pettitte gave up a career high 27 homers while pitching for the Astros in 2006.

      Source: Baseball Reference

      Bullz-Eye Sports Channel, Fantasy Baseball, MLB

      Saints players arrested for indecent exposure, etc…

      May 3, 2009 /

      http://photos.nola.com/photos/tpphotos/1cdcebe9e078641ed3b5ffc81162caba.jpg

      I get to report on athletes breaking the law and making poor life decisions for the first time today. In order to sanctify this inaugural post let me chant the greats for a sec: Please inspire my words to come ye great muses Pete Rose, Michael Vick, Mike Tyson. Oh, and there are so many more I could add, feel free to do so in the comments. Something tells me it’d be a good way to let off some steam.

      – Right. So whatta we got today? Well, YAHOO! SPORTS has an article up about the recent arrest of two New Orleans Saints players, wide receiver Biren Ealy and tight end Kolomona Kapanui:

      Two women, who weren’t identified, were riding in a vehicle when they reportedly saw Ealy and Kapanui urinating in the parking lot of an apartment complex around 12:42 a.m. Sunday, authorities said.

      One of the women told Ealy to stop. Authorities said Ealy turned around while exposing himself and began making lewd comments. Moments later, Kapanui allegedly exposed himself to the driver of the vehicle and made lewd comments, the sheriff’s office said.

      What? Oh man, I thought there’d be something a bit more severe than that coming. What gives here? Alright, I guess this has “intern” written all over it. So we got two professional football players peeing in public, alright I admit that’d get you a ticket. But at the same time, come on…I’m not alone in this am I? How many times have you peed in an isolated public area after a night of drinking? I see 3 guys doing that in downtown LA on my way to return books. I apologize if I’m thoroughly nonplussed by this.

      I suppose the real crime here, and the thing that makes this worse than writing your name in the snow, is the behavior of Ealy and Kapanui after they got busted. I don’t see the need for these two guys to get so sassy with the two people who were bothered by their illegal activities.

      Props to those ladies by the way. If I saw two drunk guys (who were both 6’3” and over 200 lbs) peeing in a dark parking lot late at night, I don’t think a confrontation would be my first instinct.

      Do I really need to get serious about this news though? If I fail to voice some personal rebuke of their behavior do I get in trouble too? I just don’t think it’d make any difference. There’s always gonna be morons out there that can’t behave beyond the level of a school bus full of kindergarteners (and no, that hasn’t happened to me while I was waiting for the light to change), I can’t expect every person who can play a sport to be a model citizen. But that’s certainly no excuse for the athletes who refuse to be one.

      In conclusion, let me just say this: In terms of athletes breaking the law, this incident gets filed under toilet humor and depressingly over-common. Though I can’t believe how hard I’d be laughing at the whole situation were I an anonymous passer-by.

      Bullz-Eye Sports Channel, Humor, News, NFL, Rumors & Gossip

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