[SPOOKY]

Monday six-pack

-- In 47.5 years, no Met pitcher has ever thrown a no-hitter, even with Ryan-Seaver-Gooden-Fernandez-Santana on their teams.

-- Other than Carlos Beltran, the lineup the Mets used Saturday looked more like a AAA team than a big league contender.

-- Other than Ryan Ludwick, Cardinal batters in spot behind Albert Pujols are hitting a combined .174 this season.

-- If Billy Beane is so smart, why didn't he hire Ron Washington as his manager when he had the chance?

-- David Price already had a postseason win, but he got his first big league win in regular season on Saturday, 5-2 against the Twins.

-- Jose Lopez hit a 3-run homer with two out in 9th inning, tying a game Seattle went on to win 4-3 in 10 innings on Saturday as well.

[SPOOKY]

June 1st List of 13: Famous people, obscure knowledge......

13) The late Paul Newman was a radio man/gunner on a plane aboard the USS Bunker Hill during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.

12) Robert Redford once got a baseball scholarship to University of Colorado, as a pitcher.

11) Long before he owned race cars, David Letterman was a pit road reporter for ABC at the 1971 Indianapolis 500, back when he was a weatherman at a TV station in Indiana.

10) When he was 14, Martin Sheen organized a strike of caddies at a private golf course where he was working in Dayton.

9) John Madden was the catcher on his college baseball team at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo.

8) Former Presidential candidate Mitt Romney was once governor of Massachusetts; his father had been governor of Michigan; one of the elder Romney's brothers once played QB for the Chicago Bears.

7) Denzel Washington played freshman basketball at Fordham-- his coach there was former Warrior/Sonic coach PJ Carlesimo.

6) Because of a virus he had as an infant, actor Rob Lowe is deaf in his right ear.

5) In June 1980, Vanna White was a contestant on Price Is Right -- she didn't win anything.

4) When Toronto Argonauts won 1991 Grey Cup, two of its owners were the late John Candy and Wayne Gretzky.

3) Before Dick Vitale was yelling on TV, he was a pretty good coach going 78-30 at U of Detroit, including a 21-game win streak in 1977; one of those wins was over Marquette in Milwaukee, later that year, Marquette won the national title.

2) Don't think athletes in New York get overrated quickly? Career won-lost record as a pro quarterback for Joe Namath: 77-108-3, with 173 TD passes, 220 INTs.

1) When George McGovern ran for President in 1972, Bill Clinton ran his campaign in Texas; one of the people who worked with him in Texas was an obscure TV producer named Steven Spielberg. Both of them are a little more famous these days.

[SPOOKY]

Monday six-pack

Anatomy of a college baseball marathon.........
Was listening to this game late Saturday night never expecting to hear it still on the radio.

-- Texas beat Boston College 3-2 in 25 innings Saturday, in a game that took 7:03 to play in 95-degree weather, in front of 7,104 fans.

-- Longhorn lefty pitcher Austin Wood came in the game in relief, then pitched 12.1 innings of no-hit ball; all in all, he struck out 14, walked four, gave up two hits no runs while throwing 169 pitches.

-- BC reliever named Belfiore threw 9.2 scoreless innings in relief, with no walks, 11 strikeouts, throwing 129 pitches.

-- Kicker is that both relievers had thrown 40+ pitches in games a night earlier-- college baseball coaches don't coddle their guys.

-- Boston College didn't commit an error in 25 innings. Amazing.

-- Texas had 20 hits, left 24 men on base. BC had eight hits, left 12 runners on base. Longhorns were the visiting team, even though the game was played in Austin. Must have been great game to watch.

As it turns out, Boston College lost 4-3 to Army Sunday in losers' bracket and was knocked out of double elimination tourney. Texas then beat Army to move on to the Super Regionals next week.

[SPOOKY]

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend........


13) Joe Paterno needs a new agent; he made $1.03M last year, while nomad Nick Saban earned $3.8M at Alabama. Doesn't seem right.

12) Then there's Les Miles at LSU, whose contract says he has to be paid $1,000 more than any other SEC coach, so he apparently made at least $3,801,000 last season. JoePa needs to call Miles' agent.

11) What would happen if another SEC coach had the same clause put in his contract that Miles has?

10) New Mexico football coach Mike Locksley was accused of both sexual harassment and age discrimination recently, which is unusual only because he hasn't even coached in a game yet. Maybe Locksley can call Lane Kiffin for advice on how to break into a job quietly.

9) When San Diego State beat Fresno State in NCAA tournament in an elimination game Saturday, it was first NCAA tourney win for the Aztecs since 1990. Tony Gwynn has done a solid rebuilding job.

8) Freddie Lewis of the Giants is only major leaguer ever whose first two big league home runs were 1) a grand slam and 2) part of a cycle.

7) Four of the starters in Florida Marlins' rotation are 6-7 or taller.

6) You'd think with three sons as major league catchers that the dad in the Molina family was a backstop himself, but no-- he was not only a second baseman, but good enough to be in the Puerto Rican baseball Hall of Fame.

5) Adrian Gonzalez is the first major leaguer to 20 HRs this season.

4) Angels trailed Seattle 6-0, rallied to win 9-8, but Scioscia has to be concerned with his starting pitching.

3) Edwin Jackson allowed only three baserunners in eight innings as Detroit blanked the Orioles 3-0 at Camden Yards. Jackson was lone major league starting pitcher to finish the 8th inning Sunday.

2) Playoff teams, if baseball playoffs started Monday morning:
AL: Bronx-Detroit-Texas-Red Sox
NL: Philadelphia-Milwaukee-Los Angeles-Cardinals

1) What genius decided the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals had to be played on consecutive nights? At what point is it the job of the commissioner to step in, tell TV no? Hockey is a great, physical game; players need a day to recover in between games of the Finals.

issing:

[SPOOKY]

SPOOKY'S FAB FIVE FOR JUNE 1ST

Happy Monday everyone.

1. Quick Hits

It will be the Lakers against Orlando for the NBA title. Game one is Thursday night in L.A.

LeBron James says it doesn't make sense to shake somebody's hand after you lose to them. He stormed off after getting eliminated by Orlando. James would never make it in tennis.

Rafael Nadal loses at the French Open for the first time. The four time defending champ was 31-0. He lost in 5 sets to Robin Soderling of Sweden. (And Nadal didn't storm off afterwards.)

Detroit is halfway home to the Stanley Cup leading Pittsburgh 2 games to none.

2. La La Land

So when Shaq and Kobe got a divorce in 2004, who thought that the Lakers were finished? I did. And here they are in their second straight NBA Finals. Tells you about their organization, one of the most consistently successful in all of sports. That is rare. And it makes you wonder all the more why teams like the Knicks, Clippers, and Warriors just to name three, rarely, if ever, get it together.

3. You Stop Girl

I mentioned after the Preakness I virtually begged the owners of winner Rachel Alexandra not to run their filly in the Belmont. The Belmont is a mile and a half, the longest Triple Crown race. And there was tragedy on that track in 1975 with the great filly Ruffian racing against a colt. Rachel Alexandra already beat the boys in the Preakness, there's nothing left for her to prove. She will not race this Saturday in the Belmont. I salute her owners for giving her a "rest."

4. The Name Game

Well isn't that special. Pitcher Lance Broadway is now the property of the Mets. It almost never happens that way. Reggie Cleveland never pitched for the Indians and Daryl Boston never patrolled the outfield in a Red Sox uniform at Fenway. Not only that, Chili Davis never played baseball in South America and Michael Jordan never won a championship in the Middle East. Should I go on?

5. Fore

A foursome was playing golf at Abbey Hill in the UK when they spotted a hazard. A big naked guy was lying in the 9th fairway. He was sunbathing and he refused to budge. Police had to be called. Always gets confusing when 4 golfers tee off and there are 6 balls in the fairway.

Today's Birthday: Former NBA and Fordham guard Smush Parker. (I love the name Smush) 28.

Bonus Birthday: Model Heidi Klum. 36. :bnnahmp:
Extra Bonus Birthday: Andy Griffith. 83.
Marilyn Monroe would have been 83 today as well.

Today in Sports: Lou Gehrig played the first of his 2,130 consecutive baseball games. 1925.

Bonus Event: Look, up in the sky! Superman flies for the first time in Action Comics. 1938.

:fvehgh:

[SPOOKY]

Only baseball tonight so lets post a couple.

MLB

CLEVELAND INDIANS/NEW YORK YANKEES OVER 10 RUNS 105

PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES-110

[manong36]

finally, another one taking phillies. lol. hope it will be perfect day for your picks again.
gl, spooky.

[SPOOKY]

Lets bring it home Manong!!

Have a great night.

Good Luck.

[SPOOKY]

Tuesday six-pack


If there was any doubt the Bronx Bombers are the most arrogant, self-absorbed franchise in sports, check out this online auction that is posted on mlb.com........here are some of the items up for bid.....

-- For a No Smoking sign from the old ballpark in the Bronx: $210
I'd like to meet the person who buys this sign for $210.

-- A Yogi Berra signed baseball: $410. Guaranteed, I can drive to his house here in New Jersey, find Yogi's house and have him sign a ball for less than $410.

-- A spring training game-used Mark Teixeira hat: $350 Hats sell for $31 or so, so you're shelling out $319 for Teixeira's sweat.

-- The third base used in Cub-Bronx exhibition game April 4: $610-- I'm thinking, how do we know this was really 3rd base, not 2nd?

-- Meet-and-greet with Joba Chamberlain: $460-- I would definitely have paid $460 to hang out with Wilt Chamberlain, but Joba? Um, no.

-- A lineup card from a game vs Minnesota last July, signed by Alex Rodriguez, yours for only $1,499.99-- For $1,500, I'd rather hang out with ARod's stripper friend from Toronto.

These are real online prices. $210 for a No Smoking sign. Yikes.

And this is coming from a memorabilia collector myself.

:weeed:

[SPOOKY]

Tuesday's List of 13: Nobody asked me, but..........


13) Cleveland Browns coach Eric Mangini has a football camp for some underprivileged kids in Connecticut; for some bizarre reason, he had his Cleveland rookies ride a bus for 10 hours to get to the camp and work at it, while he and his coaches flew to the camp. Not surprisingly, rookies weren't too happy about this. Way to get off on the right foot, coach.

12) Cal-Irvine trailed Virginia 2-1 in top of 6th late Sunday night, when they pulled an odd defensive move; with a runner at third and one out, Irvine used five infielders, with the CF playing behind second base. Sure enough, batter hit the ball right to the extra fielder, who got a key out. In all my years, have never seen five infielders used in that situation before.

11) SEC football teams have agreed to limit themselves to signing 28 new recruits a year; Ole Miss signed 37 kids this spring. Considering that 85 scholarships per school is the limit, that means their other four classes (college football teams generally redshirt all their freshmen, so they have five classes of players on scholarship) that leaves 12 players a year for the other four classes with the Rebels.

10) The more college baseball I see, the more I like it, although coaches have to get a grip on butchering their pitchers. Letting the Wood kid on Texas throw 169 pitches the other night wasn't exactly great coaching.

9) Tim Clark lost to Steve Stricker in a playoff at Colonial Sunday, his 7th second-place finish on Tour without a win. He hit the flag with his approach on the second playoff hole, and still lost the hole. Still, hard to feel to bad for a guy who cashed a check for half a million this week.

8) When Nick Saban coached the Dolphins, he had first shot at signing Drew Brees but passed, wary of Brees' surgically-repaired shoulder that he hurt playing for the Chargers. You can easily make the point that the Saints signing Brees is the best thing thats happened to Alabama football in quite some time, seeing as how it led to Saban bolting Miami quickly, and re-vitalizing the Crimson Tide program.

7) There was a rumor the Rams were interested in Michael Vick, but no way, and here's why; remember when the St Louis Blues hockey team played in an arena called the Checkerdome? It was called that because the Ralston-Purina pet food company is in St Louis, so doubtful that a city where dogfood is a big industry would be anxious to employ Vick.

6) Phillies have played in eight three-game series this season where they split the first two games; the road team won Game 3 in all seven series.

5) Washington Nationals are 2-0 in the second game of a series if they won the first game; they're 2-12 in second game if they lost the opener.

4) Brutal start to road trip for the Mets, who blew a 5-0 lead to Pirates and lost 8-5 at PNC. Its games like this that rear their ugly head late in the season in a close pennant race. JJ Putz gave up five straight hits in the 8th inning, as Pittsburgh rallied for the upset win.

3) There is a kid pitching for Astros' AAA team named Bazardo who is 6-2, 2.58 in eight starts at Round Rock; this makes him interesting guy to follow as far as anyone's fantasy team goes, but then I look at his record in 2008 and I see this: also in AAA, 4-13, 6.72 in 22 starts, when batters hit .340 against him for the season. Now they're hitting .210; go figure.

2) Whats up with the White Sox? First Jake Peavy turned down a trade to South Side, now Roy Oswalt has, too. AL Central is wide open, so White Sox are still contenders. Maybe pitchers are wising up and want to stay where there is no DH, and the ERAs are a little lower.

1) Rough few days in Cleveland, with Cavaliers getting beat by Magic in the NBA playoffs, then woeful Indians losing three of four to Bronx and then of course, Mangini's odd treatment of his rookies with the Browns, who are the most beloved team in Cleveland. If you know someone from the Buckeye State, give them a hug today.


:fvehgh: