OK. So I know I said it may be quiet around here, but I had some time to kill this afternoon at lunch. And it was an eventful sports weekend.
62 Yards?!
I watched the last 20 seconds of the Eagles-Buccaneers game yesterday. Most Philly sports fans feel their teams are cursed. Yesterday was more proof for them. The Bucs’ kicker, who’s career best was 50 yards, kicked a 62 yard field goal with 4 seconds left, one yard less then the NFL record shared by Tom Dempsey and Jason Elam. Yikes! Of course the Eagles played bad and had to come back with a touchdown with 33 seconds left in the game to take the lead. But they still lost, and that’s the way Philly fans will see it.
Flyers Clean House
The Flyers are looking very different in the last week. They waived three players after an embarrassing 9-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres. One of the players they waived was a recent free agent signing. Then this weekend, General Manager Bobby Clarke resigned, and coach Ken Hitchcock was fired.
Just my opinion, both moves were stupid. If I was upper management with the Flyers, I would have fired Clarke a couple of years ago, and certainly would have fired him after not resigning Kim Johnsson and trading away Michael Handzus this summer. I wouldn’t have given him the time to contemplate it and write the resignation letter! As for Hitchcock, I think he is still a great coach and could have turned the team around. The banter is that the team wasn’t responding to his methods, which Hitch thinks is not correct. Still, to me, it was the wrong move. I am sure that he will be behind another NHL team’s bench by the start of next season.
World Series Tied After Two
I was too tired with moving to watch all of both Game 1 and Game 2 of the World Series, but saw enough. The Cardinals seemed to respond well to the US Today writer who’s prediction that the Tigers would win the Series in 3 games. They really hit the ball when needed, and capitalized on Tigers’ mistakes. Game 2 seemed more of the usual Tigers in the playoffs. Now off to St. Louis for Games 3, 4, and 5 after a day off. I think the Cards will win one of them, forcing a Game 6 in Detroit.
Did Kenny Cheat?
Of course, the biggest news out of Game 2 was the substance on pitcher Kenny Rogers’ hand during the first inning. The umpires didn’t pursue it as hard as they should have (trying to be fair here), so I think Kenny got away with one. He said it was dirt. I have seen the pictures. It looked like something other then dirt (that being my non-expert opinion), like maybe pine tar (which is illegal for pitchers) as suspected by some of the Cardinals. If we see a Game 6, and Rogers makes his scheduled start, and gets shelled (he now has 24 or so consecutive innings of scoreless pitching this postseason), I think we will have our answer.
Victory for M-S-U!
I have not watched much of Michigan St.’s football games this year. Like usual, they are not always televised much around southeastern Pennsylvania. Though games against the big boys (like Notre Dame, Ohio St., and Michigan) do make the airwaves from time to time. And their last game of the season is ALWAYS televised out here, since it’s against Penn St. Well this past Saturday the Spartans were headed for another disappointing loss, this time at the hands of the Northwestern Wildcats. Down 38-3 at the half, the Spartans came storming back to win 41-38. Boy, wish I could have seen that second half, and wish they could have done that against Michigan instead of Northwestern.
October 23rd, 2006 at 6:52 pm
The story going on around here regarding Kenny Rogers and the supposed pine tar is that the whole thing was initiated by one of the FOX announcers who just happens to be an ex-Cardinal and just may have an interest in seeing them win. Our Detroit sports people seem to think that given the high technology of the cameras which can virtually discern individual nose hairs on any of the players, why would Kenny Rogers be so stupid as to place a banned (and very smelly) substance such as pine tar on his pitching hand when it could be so readily noticed? Interesting debate I think!
October 23rd, 2006 at 9:35 pm
MICHIGAN IS UNDEFEATED
October 24th, 2006 at 6:19 am
Yes Aunt Mary, I find it funny that Fox would continue using the two announcers they have. McCarver (other then being a blithering idiot) is a former Cardinal, and Joe Buck’s dad was the longtime announcer for the Cardinals.
There are reports on ESPN’s and Fox Sports’ web sites that say Tony LaRussa hasn’t put up a big fuss because Rogers still supposedly pitched 7 “clean” innings. And that given Jim Leyland worked for the Cardinals the last 5 years that he would know where they are cheating, so best to just shrug it off.
October 24th, 2006 at 6:56 am
It kind of stinks knowing that Kenny might have cheated but the thing that I have heard and saw is that even after that inning he had no problem mowing down the Cardinals. So pine tar or no pine tar he got the job done. Second I didn’t know MSU knew how to come back and win a game, of course they have watched it happen time and time again to them. But being a sports fan, I have to say that I enjoyed watching the end of that game down here in Georgia. Which actually some of the people down here commented about.
December 15th, 2006 at 11:45 am
[...] Ken Hitchcock I had MENTIONED when Hitch was fired as coach of the Flyers earlier this season that I thought it wasn’t a smart move. He’s a good coach, and I figured he would be coaching another team before next season. Sure enough, a month later he was hired by the Columbus Blue Jackets. I had read earlier this week that the Jackets have gone 6-3 since putting Hitch behind the bench. It may not last, but that’s what a good coach can do for a team. [...]