A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
As Spring Training winds down in Arizona and Florida, we are going division-by-division previewing the 2011 Major League Baseball season. Previously, we discussed the NL East and whether the Phillies can live up to enormous preseason expectations.
In this post I will talk about the National League West, home of the 2010 World Series Champion San Francisco Giants.
Todd Zeile is a “Gnarls Gnarlington.” What does that mean? I couldn’t tell you. Just add it to the plethora of things to come out of Charlie Sheen’s mouth lately that are completely staggering.
Charlie Sheen has become pop culture in the last couple weeks. He really did all the work for me in coming up with the ideal player to return with when he mentioned his three favorite sports personalities were Zeile, Reggie Jackson and Mark Cuban. He also mentioned he would like to be Brian Wilson for a few minutes (who wouldn’t want to become one with THE BEARD?), and that the Reds need more starting pitching; so he obviously isn’t that out of it.
That said, let’s take a look at the man who has beguiled Mr. Sheen so much.
Huzzah! The first request I am fulfilling for someone. Comment below if there are any forgotten players you would like to see in future weeks.
Let’s get down to it.
All too often, people in the world of sports have unfair advantages, and certainly extra pressure, due to their bloodlines. Some, like say Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr. and Prince Fielder, can exceed what their fathers accomplished. Most, however, say Dale Berra, Tony Gwyn Jr., and Josh Barfield cannot reach such lofty expectations.
Such was the case for Greg Gagne.
The Major League Baseball regular season is almost upon us, and between ESPN, TBS, Fox and elsewhere, you’re bound to find your favorite team on a television set near you.
Fox will broadcast their usual Saturday afternoon games, TBS will pick up on Sundays, and for the most part, you can expect ESPN to have games on Sunday and Monday evenings. (Mid-week, you might look for your local team networks and eventually, on Thursdays, the MLB Network will be back for their second season, though the schedule has yet to be released).
My wife and I drove 500 miles round trip to Busch Stadium Saturday afternoon to see the Cards drop another close one to the playoff-less Brewers. They did the same the prior evening, as well as Sunday, looking bad in each game.
While most know of the Dodgers’ struggles the past fortnight or so, they finished by winning their final two games.
And though St. Louis had little to play for other than home field in round one, the Redbirds dropped eight of their final ten, mostly to teams now playing golf.
Thankfully, perhaps, they avoided the Rockies, who took six of seven from them in 2009, and instead get the Dodgers, who limp into the postseason, after being arguably the NL’s best squad most of the season.
Today’s Link and Video of the day is an unfortunate one.
Some girl that I’ve never heard of before sang “God Bless America” last night at the Dodgers-Cardinals game and, well, it didn’t go so well. Follow the link to Busted Coverage’s account of Erika David failing miserably in her singing of “God Bless America”, and then watch video of said failure below.
And, yes, James Loney’s facial expressions are priceless.
And now some other links from around the blogosphere for you:
The Chicago Cubs suffered their second consecutive sweep in the playoffs falling at the hands of the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 Saturday night. The Cubs were one of the favorites to win it all this year after an impressive 97-64 record during the regular season, running away with the division by 7-1/2 games over the Milwaukee Brewers.
The sweep was the Cub’s first since June 27-29 when they lost three straight games to their cross town rivals Chicago White Sox in Interleague play.
Ironically the Dodgers avenged an earlier sweep at the hands of the Cubs at the Friendly Confines back in May. The only difference is that the Dodgers are advancing to the National League Championship Series and the Cubs are looking to 2009 where they will hopefully find a way past the first round.
Then only thing the Chicago Cubs have to worry about is their own pitching woes that plagued the Cubs again last night as they hosted the Los Angeles Dodgers to open the NL playoffs.
Dodger first baseman James Loney silenced the crowd connecting on a 3-2 pitch that sailed over the center field fence for a heartbreaking Grand Slam and a 4-2 lead. The Cubs suffered their seventh straight post season loss as Chicago coach Lou Piniella’s refused to pull the plug on starter Ryan Dempster who had clearly struggled through five innings on the hill.
