Bobby Lashley Would Dominate The UFC & Wang, Hughes & Mariano Rivera Are The Keys To A Yanks Championship posted by Colin Linneweber

Bobby Lashley Would Dominate The UFC 

Former WWE and ECW champion Bobby “The Dominator” Lashley pulverized mixed martial arts veteran fighter Bob “The Beast” Sapp via TKO less than two minutes into their bout Saturday night at “Ultimate Chaos” in Biloxi, Miss. Moments after the opening bell rang, Lashley (4-0) easily grappled the enormous Sapp (10-5-1) to the canvas.  

Once Lashley, 32, seized the advantage, he connected with a vicious barrage of punches on Sapp, 35, until the onetime PRIDE and K-1 star tapped the mat to signal to the referee that he wanted the fight called at 1:17 of the first round.

 

"I got a good shot in the eye and was unable to see," explained the onetime University of Washington offensive lineman who was chosen by the Chicago Bears in the third round of the 1997 NFL Draft. "He got me in the eye. No excuses, He got me down today and controlled it. Give it up to Bobby Lashley."

 

Lashley, a chiseled 255 pound physical specimen who attended Missouri Valley College and won three national amateur wrestling championships there between 1996 and 1998, acknowledged how important it was that he gained control of the matchup from the outset.

 

"Going up against Bob," Lashley noted of the man he surrendered 67 pounds to for the main event, "you always expect the big bulls. I had to take him down, cover and pound. The first thing is to win: ground-and-pound to wear the big man down. He has a big punch. I used my ground-and-pound and got out of there."

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Kansas City Royals- Optimism to frustration posted by Keri Kemmerer

Once upon a time, not so long ago, Kansas City Royals fans had a sense of optimism.  Remember back to the time when we thought this was going to be our break out year.....oh about 2 or 3 months ago.  A lot has changed since that time.  Injury upon injurry, game after game filled with multiple errors, and of course the lack of offense.  Frustration has set in.  Why oh why do we keep wasting good pitching performances by only scoring one or two runs?  There are times where they boys in blue will get on base...but how many times have we seen them stranded, inning after inning, never crossing home plate?  There are so many questions and so many places to point fingers.  Come on Royals, just pull it together and play some baseball.Continue reading "Kansas City Royals- Optimism to frustration"

There Will Be No Homoerotic Riverdance for Papelbon This Fall posted by Colin Linneweber

The New York Yankees defeated the Seattle Mariners 8-5 Tuesday night in the Bronx to move 12 games over .500 for the first time this season.

Yankees hurler Joba Chamberlain (4-2, 3.89 ERA) yielded three runs on nine hits over 5-1/3 innings to help the Yankees notch their sixth straight victory in the no-decision.

Bombers Manager Joe Girardi said he is pleased with Chamberlain’s efforts to date and he insinuated that he is not worried his precocious ace will cower under pressure and begin to smoke meth with his estranged mother, Jacqueline Standley.

"The bottom line is we're 10-5 in his starts," said Girardi, one of the most unlikable leaders the field of athletics has seen since John Goodman’s character in Revenge of the Nerds.

"Pretty much every game he goes out, he keeps us in. The expectations are so high, I think people expect him to be 15-0 at this point, and that's not really fair."

Chamberlain, 23, is a very solid starter and when Chien-Ming Wang’s bummed hoof is entirely healed the Yankees will feature an extremely formidable staff.

Wang (1-6, 10.06 ERA) finally earned his first win since last June this past Sunday when he stifled the New York Mets bats in a 4-2 victory.

Bombers catcher Jorge Posada, who is known to drain the urine from his ball sack onto his hands to harden them, believes Wang is destined to regain the form that made him one of Major League Baseball’s most accomplished recent pitchers.

“It seems like every time he goes out there, he has more confidence,” Posada, 37, observed. “If we get this guy straight, we’re going to have a fun summer.”
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Jim Leyritz Will Soon Be Living in a “Federal Pound-Me-In-The-Ass Prison” posted by Colin Linneweber

Clown pocket New York Yankees playoff hero of yesteryear Jim Leyritz is determined to prove that he is innocent of a DUI manslaughter charge that stems from a December 2007 automobile crash in Fort Lauderdale that killed Fedia Ann Veitch, a mother of two children.

"There was no possibility of me avoiding that crash with all of my senses," Leyritz, 45, told The Miami Herald last weekend despite the fact that he operated his SUV chemically inconvenienced with a blood-alcohol level that rivaled Nicholas Cage’s character in Leaving Las Vegas.

"A mother was taken away from her kids. I can't change that. But I didn't do it. The accident did. And that accident wasn't my fault."

The pulsating cock that is Jim Leyritz, a career .264 hitter who played on seven teams in 11 seasons, reportedly morphed his liver into a prune slamming Grey Goose vodka and tonics while he tried to seduce Playboy pin-up Erica Chevillar at a local club that fateful evening.

Once he vacated the hotspot and predictably drove off on his lonesome with a sack full of blue balls, Leyritz allegedly snubbed a red light and smashed into Veitch’s vehicle at full-speed which sent the victim, who wasn’t wearing a seat belt, through her windshield.

"You don't get that image out of your head real easily," stated the two-time World Series champion and all-time bearded clam who will live in Yankee lore for his three-run homer off Atlanta Braves closer Mark Wholers in Game Four of the 1996 World Series.

Dishearteningly, toxicology reports confirmed that Veitch was also shitfaced at the time of the accident and Leyritz is confident that he can demonstrate that she drove like Lindsay Lohan on smack that night and actually caused the collision.
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Are Joe Torre's Dodgers looking like Torre's 1998 Yankees? posted by Cesar Valverde

It's starting to look like Joe Torre is running away with a 14th consecutive trip to the playoffs as a manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. They've been straight up dominating the opposition in the NL West. Some might say, "Oh, the NL West has the worst teams in baseball. It's the easiest division." Regardless, the Dodgers are where they're at 79 games into the season. All this and they're doing it without Manny Ramirez. They're hasn't been a superstar in the lineup. Everybody on the team is pitching in. Over the past 14 years, Torres had a knack of making things happen with the players given to him yet still make the playoffs.This team is starting to remind me of Torre’s 1998 Yankees. How’s does this Dodger team compare? Let’s take a look.

These are the 1998 Standings for that record-setting Yankee championship team 79 games into the season:

AL East Division
Tm W L W-L% GB RS RA pythW-L%
NYY 59 20 .747 -- 479 324 .672
BOS 51 32 .614 10.0 453 365 .598
TOR 44 42 .512 18.5 409 429 .478
BAL 38 48 .442 24.5 420 453 .465
TBD 34 50 .405 27.5 307 391 .391

Source: http://www.baseball-reference.com/games/standings.cgi?date=1998-07-03

Here are the current standing for Torre’s 2009 Dodgers as of July 1, 2009 after 79 games:

West W L PCT GB
  Los Angeles 50 29 .633 -
  San Francisco 42 34 .553 6.5
  Colorado 41 37 .526 8.5
  San Diego 34 42 .447 14.5
  Arizona 31 46 .403 18.0

Source: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/standings/

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A College Student’s Perspective of Tuesday’s 11-10 Loss posted by Tony Rossi

I’ll tell you right now that it’s not better than viewing it as any other person. 

I’ll also tell you that even though it’s the summer, we still maintain some of the college atmosphere here in Salem.  A lot of us Salem Staters have off campus apartments so we get to see each other even when school is not in session. 

Personally I was looking forward to watching an entire game on Tuesday night, which is hard to do between multiple jobs and summer classes.  However, I got a text last night before the game started saying that there were going to be some cool people meeting up at Salem Beer Works that night.  I figured I’d go after the game.  So I sat in my room watching the Sox dominate the Os for the first 4 innings.  Thanks to some great offense and a much better start for Smoltz, things seemed to be going our way. 

Then the rain came.

With both the big lead and the rain, I figured I’d head down to meet my friends.  There are multiple TVs at Beer Works so I knew I’d be able to see the game if it resumed.  Maybe it would have been better if there weren’t any.  While I was enjoying the company of my friends, I couldn’t help but notice every time I turned around to look at the TV, our lead was getting slimmer and slimmer.  Everyone kept saying “Don’t worry.  We’re still up by 5.”  That soon turned into, “Don’t worry.  We’re still up by 3” and so on and so forth.  I think it was around the 8th inning when I just turned around entirely so I could watch the game.  I wasn’t happy with the results. 

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Giants Outscore The Cardinals and Pujols 13-to-3 In First Two Games In St.Louis posted by Michael McGauley

  We are officially halfway through the season, and I'm trying not to get too excited about these Giants.  However, if the last three games are any indication of where this team is going, there's reason for optimism.  San Francisco improved to 42-and-34 with last night's 6-to-3 win in St. Louis, and find themselves only six games behind the Dodgers in the National League West.  The Giants also lead the Cards and the Rockies for the wild card.  Double up the numbers, and the Giants are on pace for 84 wins, which is a heck-of-a-lot better that last year's 72-and-90 performance.  I don't want to get too greedy and think play-offs, but, on second thought, YES I DO WANT TO GET VERY GREEDY.  I know, I know, there's a lot of baseball left to be played.      Following last Saturday's implosion in Milwaukee, the Giants have outscored their opponents 20-to-3 over the last three games, including Sunday's 7-to-0 drilling of the Brew Crew, and Monday's 10-to-0 beat down of the Cards.  And, despite two Albert Pujols homeruns last night, the starting pitching has been flawless.  Randy Johnson pitched well enough to win, improving to 8-and-5, capturing career victory #303. But anytime a starter gets six runs, he should win!  At this point in his career, with win #300 under his belt, multiple Cy Young awards and a World Series title, RJ is thriving as a mentor between Lincecum and Cain in the rotation.  How much fun is it to watch those two potential all-stars go back-and-forth!  Cain takes the bContinue reading "Giants Outscore The Cardinals and ..."

BoSox Bullpen Blows a 9 Run Lead!! posted by Hank Hill

Boston Red Sox Bullpen Blows a 9 Run Lead!!
So last night the 42 year old John Smoltz would get his second start of the year!!  In the last game he pitched he gave up 3 runs in the first inning, but then he was lights out. So I believe it was because it was his the first start and 1st inning jitters, so I didn't know what to expect. Well he was on point again and looked great. He only gave up 3 hits, 1 earned run and had 2 strikeout-- awesome! But the story is far from over. Meanwhile the Red Sox bats looked like they where going to explode, scoring 9 runs giving Smoltz a 9-1 lead, but that's when the rain came and this was big trouble for Smoltz and the Sox.(rain always seems to be trouble for the Sox).
After the rain came and went, a delay for about a hour and 20 minutes had gone by, Smoltz couldn't come back out, leaving a 9-1 lead up to the bullpen. At this point all of Red Sox Nation, including me, were thinking it's over, we got this in the bag and when it came to the 7th and the Sox now had a 10-1 lead I thought it's definitely over, but I was way off!! The Orioles would put our bullpen to work-- Masterson then Delcarmen and Okajima would allow 7 hits and 5 runs in the 7th making it a 10-6 game heading into the 8th!!  Okajimia would start the 8th gave up a quick 2 runs with runners on, so the Sox would bring in Saito who gave up another run making it 10-9 with men on 1st and 2nd and 1 out,  BIG trouble!!!    So of course the Sox would bring in Papelbon who is looking for the save which would set a new franchise record by moving past B. Stanley for No. 1 in saves, but after getting a strikeout and the 2nd out of the inning he would give up a double which rolled all the way to the wall allowing both runners to score giving Baltimore a 11-10 lead and the win.  This was a hard one to watch and definitely write about, well we got Beckett going today at 1:35 for a day game, so let's get a win!! Sox Nation here.
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Don't Blame Manny; The Grass Was Wet posted by Greg Archuleta

Those awaiting a statement from Manny Ramirez about his alleged performance-enhancing drug use when he returns to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night after serving a 50-game suspension probably should be tested themselves.

Manny was the artful dodger when questions of his suspension arose during his "rehab" stints at Triple-A Albuquerque and Class A Inland Empire. Heck, the Dodgers also sent a plethora of organizational personnel on his little league tour, ensuring his protection from the big, bad media.

That comes as no surprise, seeing how the Dodgers also saw fit to protect Manny from the wet grass at Isotopes Park in Albuquerque and the sunlight over Arrowhead Credit Union Park in San Bernadino.

Ramirez skipped his final scheduled appearance for the Isotopes because rain earlier in the day left the outfield grass wet, and the Dodgers didn't want him to ... get a grass stain? Perhaps they feared that Major League Baseball officials would mistake the stain for another type of grass and slap him with a 100-game suspension for a second offense.

The baggy-clothed crusader also was allowed to opt out of his final scheduled appearance because it was a day game that came after -- gasp -- a night game!

The two absences leads to the question: Is Manny radioactive waste or an elite professional athlete whose physical conditioning should be able to handle wet grass or two games in 16 hours without fear of major injury?

Granted, either answer is correct.

But when professional sports organizations pampers their athletes in such a manner, how else would you expect a $25 million player to act? This is not an indictment on the Dodgers; most baseball franchises -- except perhaps the Boston Red Sox, who might add landmines to wet grass in the outfield if Manny were to play --probably would've handled Ramirez's "rehab" the same.

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The Bad News Mets posted by Robert Shatzkin

Yes, the Mets have been decimated by injuries. They have lost more of their core players then any team I can think of in recent history. They have a built-in excuse for losing. Trying to compete every night with role players and rookies is hard. Yes, I understand. But the Mets play terrible defense, they make mental errors, they throw to the wrong base, they drop balls, they don't run out pop-ups, they give up hits to bottom of the order hitters, they WALK OPPOSING PITCHERS and they don't show any willingness to fight when they get behind. And all of this points to the manager. It points to a lackadaisical culture created from the top. Whether or not Jerry and his staff condone this type of play is beside the point. The fact that it doesn't seem like he is willing or capable of correcting it means that something must be done. The players must be held accountable for their mistakes. If you don't run out a pop-up, you dont play, plain and simple. If Jerry can't convey that message then Omar needs to find someone who can. When you lose your superstars, playing smart, crisp, fundamental baseball becomes that much more important. You need to rely on defense, pitching and baserunning more than ever. And it starts with the skipper.Continue reading "The Bad News Mets"

NHL supports Reinsdorf's bid for Coyotes (AP)

The NHL believes Jerry Reinsdorf can succeed where Jerry Moyes failed as owner of the financially ailing Phoenix Coyotes. Reinsdorf, the owner of baseball's Chicago White Sox and the NBA's Chicago Bulls, has offered $148 million to buy the Coyotes out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and keep the team in Glendale, a suburb west of Phoenix. [read full article]

From Yahoo! Sports

Yanks add infield depth, get Hinske from Pirates

Former AL Rookie of the Year Eric Hinske was acquired by the New York Yankees from the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday for a pair of minor leaguers.Pittsburgh will receive right-hander Casey Erickson and outfielder Eric Fryer for the utilityman. In addition, the Pirates will give the Yankees cash.The 31-year-old Hinske hit .255 in 106 at-bats this season with nine doubles, one homer and 11 RBIs, playing right field, first base and third base. [read full article]

From FOXSports.com News for MLB

Sox to wait a few days after Lowell hip treatment

Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell had fluid drained from his ailing right hip Monday in Boston, and received an injection that might relieve inflammation in his surgically repaired joint.The Red Sox will wait at least a couple of days to determine whether the treatment was successful or whether Lowell needs to be placed on the disabled list, manager Terry Francona said before Monday night's game against the Baltimore Orioles. [read full article]

From FOXSports.com News for MLB

Jeter back in lineup; Damon still sidelined by flu

Derek Jeter is back in the New York Yankees' lineup for the Subway Series finale, but Johnny Damon is still out because of a flu bug that's going around the clubhouse.Jeter missed the previous two games against the Mets with a fever, headache and cough. The All-Star shortstop was set to return Sunday night, batting in his usual leadoff spot.Melky Cabrera was in left field to replace Damon, who also sat out Saturday night's 5-0 win due to flu symptoms. [read full article]

From FOXSports.com News for MLB

Piniella, Bradley bury hatchet

Milton Bradley was in the Chicago Cubs' lineup Saturday, a day after he was sent home by manager Lou Piniella following an angry outburst in the dugout."I apologized for the last comment I made, told him he knows in the context I meant it," Piniella said. "But I also told him that just can't continue, to have shenanigans that we've put up with. I told him he's going to hurt somebody, he's going to hurt himself. [read full article]

From FOXSports.com News for MLB