Absence makes the heart grow fonder…

Hey ladies… on this weekend where so much of the country is focused on love, I decided to discuss a matter of the heart:  the old saying that absence (or distance) makes the heart grow fonder.  Hopefully this is the case with my excellent writing.. since I’ve been away for a bit I hope that you’re all aching for another informative, quirky, and highly original post.  Well, if thats the case, here I am.  Lucky (or unlucky, as some may see it) for you, I’m not the only thing returning from a lengthy absence this weekend:  many of the 30 major league baseball teams start Spring Training this weekend, which is the first sure sign that warm weather is returning (or at least my husband likes to think so).  Apparently I’m one of those people who just doesn’t understand how “meaningful” this day is… this is a great day for baseball fans, probably running a close second to Opening Day (just wait until my blog post for that one…seeing as my husband already has a countdown going…I should have a lot of information)…  

For weeks now, maybe even months, my husband has been counting down with his Dad, his good friends, and basically anyone else who will listen to him, which isn’t really many people:  Pitchers and Catchers report in 5,4,3,2 days!  What is so special about pitchers and catchers, they’re only two of the nine players on the baseball field at any given time?  Well, it turns out that in the world of baseball the pitchers and catchers are required to report to Spring Training a few days before the rest of the team, usually 5-7 days, to give them time to build familiarity with one another and start getting their arms and bodies in shape for the season.  Apparently this is mainly for the pitchers, but they wouldn’t have anyone to throw to if the catchers didn’t show up too.  And this used to be a much bigger issue in decades gone by, when players typically didn’t work out in the offseason and commonly showed up to Spring Training 20-40 pounds heavier than the last time we saw them in the fall (rumor has it that Ryan Howard of the Phillies will be appearing 20 lbs lighter…look at him).

So, now that you know why they’re required to show up at camp before everyone else, my question is, why wouldn’t everyone show up as early as possible?  All of these teams train at luxurious complexes in Florida and Arizona, spending 6-7 weeks in great weather getting ready for the season, and also working on their golf games and their tans… I’d be there the first day I was allowed to show up!  The World Champion Philadelphia Phillies (wow, that phrase looks weird… and great) started Spring Training on Saturday, and I’m sure their long absence from the sporting landscape in Philadelphia (it has been about 15 weeks since the parade!) has made a lot of hearts grow fonder, and ready for the 2008 season.  So ladies, keep an eye out on the TV for glimpses of palm trees swaying in the breeze and catchers mitts popping with good fastballs, baseball is back, and that means warm weather can’t be far behind…damn groundhog!!

 

Alright..here’s to motivation that I can get my act together this week…I am just particularly bored with sports right now…but I don’t want to let any of you down….I’ll be back

 

-sportsgirl

All I Want for Christmas is a Break From Sports….

Hey ladies… hopefully you made it through Monday. I am totally in countdown mode for my holiday vacation to kick in….I am so over sports right now because I have gifts to still buy, parties to attend and decorating to finish.    Just a quick post here to recap another weekend full of sports.  Maybe you were lucky enough to avoid a heavy dose of televised football and basketball, but I’m sure some of you weren’t, and I’m sure that some of you want to impress the cute guy at the office, so that being said, here’s what happened this weekend:

• On the “Hot Stove”… what’s the “Hot Stove”, you may ask??  Thats what my husband tells me they call offseason baseball talk and transactions since the thoughts of baseball keep you warm in the winter… Anyway, the Phillies made some news by signing 46 year old Jamie Moyer to a new contract… not just a one year contract, but a 2 year contract!  This is crazy, it means that he’s going to be a professional athlete when he’s 48 years old, which is comparable to a woman being a 48 year old Victoria’s secret model….and I don’t know if you saw the Victoria Secret fashion show a few weeks ago…but I can’t even imagine.  Also, it is confirmed that Pat Burrell will not be returing to the Phillies…at least he got to ride in the carriage pulled by the Clydesdales for the Phillies World Series parade…I am sure he is super disappointed though….
• In the NFL, the Cowboys put aside their differences to beat the Giants in a big Sunday night game.  In case you hadn’t noticed, the Cowboys, particularly Terrell Owens, Jason Witten, and Tony Romo, have been bickering more than the cast of “The Hills”, but apparently they were able to overcome it for one night and beat the Giants to keep their playoff hopes alive.
• Sam Bradford, who is Oklahoma’s QB, won the Heisman Trophy on Saturday night.  He seemed to be a pretty nice soft-spoken guy at the ceremony, and he’s only a sophomore, so there’s always the chance he could join the very thin ranks of multiple Heisman winners (can you name any of them?  More on that next time)

 

Sam Bradford...Cute or Not Cute???? The verdict is still out....

 

 

Also…one more thing that I almost forgot to tell you….if your man is involved in Fantasy Football…which it seems like pretty much every guys is….most leagues have the championship coming up this weekend…therefore you might notice the guys in your life having a little more free time and away from their computer…enjoy it…

 

Hope you’re enjoying the week so far and making it through, the holidays are almost here (along with College Football bowl season, which starts Saturday! Ummm, I’m not so psyched)  I’ll have the answers on the multiple Heisman winners next time, along with an update on some things to watch for later this week.  Until then…here’s to wishing that next week I can have a small break from any sports on the television (doubtful.. but we’ll see)…

-sportsgirl

Who Knew an NFL Game Could End in a Tie? The Players Didn’t…

That’s right…this weekend the Eagles vs Bengals game ended in a tie…the final score was 13-13.  I had no clue that NFL games could end in a tie…and apparently some of the Eagles players didn’t know the game could end in a tie either. After the 15 minute overtime ended in a tie, the players thought that they were going out there for another overtime…not the case according to the rule book.  The reason for the confusion around a tied football game is that it is pretty rare…here are a few stats about today’s game….

• This is the first NFL tie in 6 years…the last tie was Pittsburgh vs the Falcons in 2002
• The last time that the Eagles ended in a tie was in 1997…the crazy thing about that game was it was also on November 16th…
• The last time that the Bengals eneded in a tie was in 1969…almost 40 years ago

 

Some other stats from this weekend’s NFL games…

• The Steelers beat the Chargers at home..the crazy thing…the final score was 11-10…the first time an NFL game has ended with this score.
• The Tennessee Titans are still undefeated with 10 wins…the Detroit Lions are also keeping up their “0fer” season…they have 10 losses.  The two teams play each other on Thanksgiving Day…

 

The Monday Night Football game is the Cleveland Browns (3-6) at the Buffalo Bills (5-4).  The game is on ESPN at 8:30 EST.  This game doesn’t really mean much, so not much to worry about stat wise….

College Football…this weekend none of the top teams had big match-ups…so they were all able to keep their ranking intact…the top 5 teams are…

1.  Alabama

2.  Texas Tech

3.  Texas

4. Florida

5.  Oklahoma

On Sunday Night’s 60 Minutes, Obama was interviewed and talked about his wish to change the way that the College football championship was decided.  Basically, he wants the top 8 teams to play in a three week playoff series to get to a final champion… a good idea, but he might want to focus on the economy first. 

Other sports news…this week the baseball MVPs will be announced….they just keep wanting to have baseball in the news….

Alright, back to a Monday….college basketball and NBA stuff coming this week….

-sportsgirl

“Why Can’t Us?” Explained….

So, I will admit that I have written a lot of posts around the MLB playoffs.  This is actually surprising to me because if you see a pattern in all of the posts, it is not my favorite sport to watch.  I will admit, with the Phillies as the World Series champions it did get a lot more exciting to watch, especially because a lot of readers are Philadelphia fans…so it made it all the more exciting to give you the facts you needed for all of the playoff parties.  You are probably wondering now, what the title of this post has to do with baseball…and why, yet again I am writing about a sport that collectively we agree can be as boring to watch as watching paint dry…

So, last week when I gave you the information about the Golden Gloves…(if you missed it, it is a must read)…I got a question about t-shirts being sold on cafepress.com in relationship to the Philadelphia World Series champions.  The shirts simply said “Why Can’t Us?” and were pictured with a Liberty Bell.   When asked, I had no clue what this meant….however I did notice right away that it was not a gramatically correct question and it was in relation to Philadelphia, making me wonder if it was another thing giving Philadelphia a bad rap…it turns out it is not….its kind of cool story…

Basically during the MLB playoffs, there was an XM playoff baseball show where a Philadelphia fan from Delaware called in, exhausted both from being overworked and from waiting for a Philadelphia championship.  This guy’s name was “Marty.”  Marty and the announcers talked back and forth about the game from the night before between Philadelphia and the the LA Dodgers (the NLCS).  At the end of the phone call, the announcers asked Marty what he thought about the fate of the Phillies and he replied that he thought there would definitely be a World Series Championship parade in Philadelphia.  He mentioned that the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox had beaten the curses that prevented them from winning championships…so for the Phillies, “Why Can’t Us?” 

So what????  So, it turned out that a Philadelphia blogger (Dan Levy) from the 700club.com had been listening to the program and wrote about it that day…he thought it was a cool slogan that should be spread around Philadelphia as a rally cry of sorts for the playoffs….he then went to cafepress.com and quickly created t-shirts with the slogan and decided that all proceeds from the sale of the shirt would go towards the fight against ALS (Lou Gherig’s disease).   The slogan became a phenomena around the city and other bloggers picked up the story as did a lot of the local television stations….So Marty from Delaware sort of became famous…pretty crazy stuff.  If you click on the link to the 700club.com  above you can hear the XM sound byte. 

Ok..so what can you do with this information?  Well…although it did become a slogan to some…not all people have heard about it…as you know my husband is one of the biggest Phillies’ fans I know…he had no clue what I meant when I asked him about the “Why Can’t Us?” phenomena…so educate the people around you….at least for once you can be gramatically incorrect without being penalized…and hey the more merchandise that gets purchased, the more money that will go towards ALS research….so spread the story around…and get yourself a t-shirt or “be green” and get a mug…

Thanks Amanda for the inspiration to research this story…keep the questions coming and I will see what I can find…

 Other things that might come up in conversation today….

NFL: 

• The Tennessee Titans still remain undefeated (only team in NFL this year) – you can comment that although their schedule is mixed in terms of difficulty, they have a good defense and a good running game.
• The Indianapolis Colts had a big win against the Pittsburgh Steelers – it was a big win because it keeps their playoff hopes alive.
• The Monday Night game is the San Francisco 49ers vs. the Arizona Cardinals…the 49ers stink…so not sure if people care about this game as much.

 

College Football:

• Alabama and Texas Tech are still #1 and #2 in the BCS (respectively)
• Penn State had a disappointing and their first loss of the season to Iowa…this dropped their ranking from #3 to #8…

 

Have a good Monday…I am off to really start researching basketball and hockey since I am behind the times…

-sportsgirl

And I Thought We Were Talking About the Golden Globes…

So today I kept hearing all of this talk about the Golden Gloves…now tell me if I am wrong, but I thought all of the talk was the Golden Globes.  Not going to lie…I perked up as soon as I “thought” that was what I had heard.  I mean, what girl doesn’t love an award show?  When the award shows are on, I usually have a glass of vino or two and am texting my girlfriends with my predictions for each winner.  Well, apparently, the “Golden Gloves” doesn’t incite the same ritual for the guys…but I hear that they are a big deal and that there is always speculation about who will win the awards. 

So…here is a short breakdown on what these are….before I go into detail, it is important to note that this is a baseball award.  Now, I was not only disappointed about the fact that we weren’t talking about the “award” shows…but we are also back to baseball…I thought that I had until at least March until I needed to discuss it again, but maybe this is the last time….only time will tell…

THE GOLDEN GLOVE AWARDS: 

• Award that is given to one player in each position (in each league) based on the most number of votes determined by the players and coaches. 
• The whole Golden GLOVES thing means that the best fielders get the award (doesn’t have anything to do with their batting skills)
• The players and coaches cannot vote for someone on their own team
• The votes are cast at the end of the regular season and prior to the start of the post season
• The National League award winners were announced on Wednesday, November 5th
• The American League award winners were announced on Thursday, November 6th
• Note…the awards were only “announced” this week…the actual award is given to each player during one of their home games next season…talk about dragging the award process out…I thought the Oscars at 3-4 hours was LONG.

I wonder where the players' wives let them put the award??? Basement anyone?

Here are the winners for each league…since I have been getting lots of request for discussions around the good looking players in each sport…I have “bolded” the names of the players that I think are pretty good looking…if you are bored, go look them up…

 

National League Golden Glove Winners:

Pithcer: Greg Maddux (LA Dodgers) - important to note…this is 18th GG award (the most of all time)

Catcher:  Yadier Molina (St. Louis Cardinals) – no clue girls how to say his name

1st Base:  Adrian Gonzalez (San Diego Padres)

2nd Base: Brandon Phillips (Cincinnati Reds) – I mean there are blogs about him….

3rd Base:  David Wright (NY Mets) – very good looking…

Shortstop: Jimmy Rollins (Philadelphia Phillies)

Outfielders:  Shane Victorino  aka Flyin Hawaiin (Philadelphia Phillies), Nate McLouth (Pittsburgh Pirates), Carlos Beltran (NY Mets) - featured in the 2006 People Magazine’s 100 Most Beautiful People Issue

 

American League Golden Glove Winners:

Pitcher: Mike Mussina (NY Yankees)

Catcher: Joe Mauer (Minnesota Twins)

1st Base: Carlos Pena (Tampa Bay Rays)

2nd Base: Dustin Pedroia (Boston Red Sox)

3rd Base: Adrian Beltre (Seattle Marriners)

Shortstop:  Michael Young (TX Rangers)

Outfielders: Torii Hunter (LA Angels), Grady Sizemore (Cleveland Indians), Ichiro Suzuki (Seattle Marriners)

 

Ok…now that I am done looking them all up I have to say baseball players are really good looking…I could have potentially bolded all of these guys, but you would have taken up all of your time and you might have gotten distracted at work, so I narrowed it down for you…

 

NFL Week 10 Suicide Picks

I probably should go back and see how good (more likely bad) of a job I have done picking the winners…but I figure I should include the necessary information for Week 10…

• Miami Dolphins – this might be a surprise, but they are playing better than in years past…plus they are up agains the Seattle Seahawks…the Seahawks again will be playing on the east coast…usually not a good outlook for the team.
• San Diego Chargers – playing at home against Kansas City who only has one win….
• Arizona Cardinals- playing at home against San Francisco 49ers who only have 2 wins this season….bank on the Cardinals with 5 wins this season…another surprising team.

 

I’ll be back tomorrow with the College Football big games for the weekend…and the season is getting close to the end so the competition is tough….

TGIF!

-sportsgirl

What’s Going on with All of These Starting QBs?

OK girlies…so I know I have been MIA this weekend….and I do apologize.  I have had a super busy weekend because I am on the planning committee for the “Race for Hope” in Philadelphia which raises awareness and funds for Brain Tumor Research.  It is pretty ironic that this race is this weekend in Philadelphia because as you know from my posts all week…the Phillies won the World Series.  The last time they won the World Series was in ‘80…their closer at the time was Tug McGraw.  Tug threw a strike out in the deciding game of the World Series that sealed the deal for the Phillies win.  You are probably wondering what is so ironic…well, it just so happens that Tug McGraw was diagnosed with a brain tumor almost 6 years ago and died just 3 years ago…I am sure he would have been so proud of the Phillies this week.  

 

So, I am making the NFL post this weekend super short because I need to be up early in the morning to set up for the Race for Hope.  There are three games I am concentrating on this weekend and as I did my research, I noticed a pattern…one that I have been writing about off and on all fall…lots of injuries.  This week, the three games I am writing about deal with teams where at least one of the teams is plagued with an injured quarterback…so here we go….

Apparently the game of the week….

Dallas Cowboys at the New York Giants (4:15pm, FOX)

• The Dallas Cowboy (aka Jessica Simpson’s boyfriend), Tony Romo is still out with his broken pinkie…Brad Johnson will take his place again. 
• The Cowboys are currently 5-3 for the ‘08-’09 season and last week ended their 2 game losing streak when they beat the Tampa Bay Bucs (tough week for Tampa Bay)
• The Giants beat Pittsburgh by a touchdown last week….meaning their record is now 6-1 and they are 4-0 at home this year…I would say that the Giants keep it up…they don’t want their first loss at home to be against their biggest rival. 
• One obstacle that the Giants have to deal with is that they have lost the past 3 times to the Cowboys…however, without Romo, I think that the Giants can handle the “Boys” this weekend. 

Philadelphia Eagles at Seattle Seahawks(4:15pm, FOX)

• Philadelphia beat the Atlanta Falcons last weekend…it was an interesting day last Sunday in Philadelphia…the Eagles had the 1pm game and the Phillies played at 8 pm, both at home, right across the street from one another.  The QB for the Eagles, Donovan McNabb, read off the starting line up for the Phillies the next night at the game.  He had to wear sunglasses on Monday as he read the lineup because he got poked in the eye…
• Philadelphia hasn’t lost a game in Seattle since 1995…and I must say that the Seahawks stink, so the Eagles should be able to get out of this game with a win. 
• The normal starting QB for the Seattle Seahawks, Matt Hasselbeck, is out with an injured shoulder (as I said, there is a pattern in all of these games).  Seneca Wallace is the starting QB for the Seahawks this week, filling in for Hasselbeck. 

New England Patriots at Indianapolis Colts (8:15pm, NBC)

• Last year when these two teams played (Nov. 4, 2007), Sports Illustrated called this game “SuperBowl XLI 1/2″ because the two teams were thought to be the best two teams in the league…the Patriots won the game and wound up being undefeated for the season…however they did lose in the SuperBowl to the NY Giants.  I am thinking that Eli Manning wanted revenge on Brady for beating is brother during the Patriots v Colts game earlier in the season….
• As I mentioned in the point above…the game took place the same weekend that it is taking place this year…there is a reason for this.  The networks know that typically this is an important game.  Traditionally these two teams are usually good so the head to head match up draws a lot of viewers.  Since this weekend kicks off “November Sweeps”…what better time to televise the game????  These networks are not stupid.
• Although the Patriots still have a decent record (5-2)…the Colts are (3-4).  The Colts have not had a record under .500 since 1995…maybe Peyton is getting old????  
• The Patriots don’t have the beloved Tom Brady this year (all those knee surgeries I keep mentioning)…therefore Matt Cassel has been the starting QB…he has been doing OK…and in the looks department he is not too bad…but definitely has a baby face. 

OK…so that’s what I have for you this weekend…not too bad, but I can promise in the weeks ahead, I will pick it up.  I hope you have a fantastic Sunday…mine will be chilly to start, but rewarding at the same time when I see all of the people out to help support Brain Tumor Research.  

-sportsgirl

 

PS – So now that I am finished… I am wondering what “super long” would look like…oh well, I had a lot to say, like usual.

The Phillies Take on QVC? and Your Week 8 Suicide Picks

So today I did a lot of reading up on the Tampa Tribune website and the Philly.com website and not surprisingly the stories and the mood were very different.  On one hand, you had the Philadelphia news site with a big headline “Champs at Last” and the top stories were all about the Philadelphia World Series win…the upcoming presidential election was further down on the list of stories.  The pictures showed the excitement of the fans and the players.  On the other side, the Tampa Bay site showed a much smaller picture of the disappointed Rays’ players, the story was very subdued and the presidential election was the top story.  I will say though, that the Rays’ fans do have a lot of class…even though their team lost, they are still having a welcome back party for their American League Champions… 

The other thing that I found interesting was when the players from both teams were interviewed about their plans for the next week…the losing Rays players weren’t sure what to do with themselves after having a super extended season.  The Phils on the other hand don’t have time to think about their plans…they have stuff all lined up…

• To start…the red, white and blue team, aka the Phillies, will be floating along Market Street and Broad Street in the World Series parade on Friday..it is anticipated that over 1 million fans will come out to see the parade and that traffic and the transit system will be gridlocked…I can only imagine the stories that we will hear. 
• Super hottie Cole Hamels…I know, there is a small obssession that I have with him…he read off the Top 10 List on Letterman on Thursday Night…you can read up on the “Top 10 Things that went through Cole Hamels’ Mind after winning the World Series” on the PhillyGossip.com website….my favorite is #10 “Maybe I’ll [Cole Hamels] get to be on “Dancing with Stars.”  I bet his partner would be Julianna Hough, that is if she gets better from her injury right now. 
• In addition to his Letterman appearance, Hamels, along with Shayne “the Flyin’ Hawaiin” Victorino with 1980 World Series champ Mike Schmidt will be appearing on QVC on Friday Night to promote 2008 World Series Memoriabilia…not much else I can say about that one….I am sure there will be other opportunies coming their way

Hamels should always go with the backwards hat look…

 Now…I thought that this was a great segway into NFL football news…how ironic is this?  Apparently there is a MLB Fantasy Football league on CBSSportsline…meaning, real MLB players are in the FF league…I kid you not when I say that it is rumored that Brad Lidge (Phillies closing pitcher from World Series final game) will be playing Eric Hinske (Rays final batter who struck out swinging) in fantasy football this week, as reported on the Rays Report by Mark Lancaster.  Both fantasy football teams are 3-5…so it is an important week for these two guys.  Will Lidge be a guys’ guy and go for the win…or will he give Hinske the benefit of the doubt and play his worst line-up to let Hinske win? 

Week 8 Suicide Picks:

1.  Chicago Bears over Detroit Lions – the Lions are 0-7…plain and simple…I don’t think they will win a game all season. 

2.  Tampa Bay Bucs over Kansas City Cheifs – The Chiefs are on their third quarterback…and really, do the Bucs want to come home with a loss after their baseball team just lost the World Series…come on boys…take one for the team and put it all into the game. 

3.  Jacksonville Jaguars over Cincinnati Bengals – The Bengals are 0-8…again, I just don’t see them winning…they stink.  In addition, the Bengals are winless in the last 4 games against the Jaguars.

 

I will be back with college football and I guess I need to start studying up on basketball (both NBA and college)…Have a fantastic Halloween…

-sportsgirl

The Curse of Billy Penn is Over!!!

Ladies….it seems like Philadelphia sports fans have something to cheer about….the Philadelphia Phillies have won the World Series!  Philadelphia fans have been waiting for 25 years for a championship and 28 years for a Philadelphia Phillies World Series Championship! 

 

I have to say that for a girl…it was definitely easy to watch the final game (Game 5) of the World Series.  First off, it was split into two days…I have a short attention span and even I could do it.  Part of Game 5 was on Monday and lasted for 5-1/2 innings until a horrendous rain/wind storm caused the game to be suspended…a 2-2 tie for the Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays.  The controversary that ensued for the following 48 hours was crazy.  Part 2 of Game 5 kicked off at 8:37pm on Wednesday evening and only last 90 minutes…not too tough to watch.  The Phillies won the game 4-3. 

 

The World Series Pile Up (FoxSports.com)

Here are some of the key “drama” points around the World Series Championship game:

• Philadelphians believe that they have been under the curse of Billy Penn.    If you are not from Philadelphia, the story behind this is basically that prior to 1987 the statue of William Penn atop of City Hall was the highest point in the city.  Since then, several buildings have been built higher than that.  Many people blamed the continuous Philadelphia sports championship “drought” on a curse from Billy Penn for constructing buildings higher than the William Penn statue.  Just in the past year, when the Comcast building (the newest tall building) was finished…a small sized statue of William Penn was placed at the top of the building with the hopes to break the curse…looks like it may have paid off…this building just officially opened in June 2008. 

 

• The closing pitcher Brad Lidge finished Game 5 undefeated…this means he finished 48-0 for closing a Phillies game.  He became the first Philadelphia pitcher to be perfect in regular season saves. 

 

• Cole Hamels…ok girls, by now if you have been reading you should know a little about him.  First, he is super hot.  Two, he is married to a former playboy centerfold.  And three, his is an amazing pitcher.  Hamels started in game 1 and game 5 of the World Series.  He ended the post season undefeated and was named the MVP of the World Series.  Not only did he win a trophy and the title,  but also a Chevy Corvette.  Also, not only did he get to celebrate his the World Series Championship on Wednesday…but also his wife’s 30th birthday.  That’s right girls…his wife Heidi is “cougar-esque” …married to Cole at the age of 24. 

 

• Last year the Philles were “honored” as the first team to hit 10,000 losses…this year, they battled hard at the end of the regular season just to make it to the playoffs and at the end to win the World Series championship!

The Tampa Bay Rays have nothing to be ashamed of….as I mentioned in an earlier post, they have the lowest paid team in the league…but still played the season to win.   They also finished the regular season with over 90 wins after finishing last season with the worst record….looks like this young team will be around for a long time!

Congratulations Phillies and congratulations ladies….we now have a break from baseball until March 2009…enjoy!

-sportsgirl

Phillies World Series Champs in ‘80 and then ‘08???

OK ladies…this is an exciting Monday for Philadelphia…all things seem to be lining up for the Philiadlephia Phillies to win the World Series.  After an exciting Saturday night game that ended with a hit by catcher Carlos Ruiz to win the game 5-4 against the Tampa Bay Rays at close to 2 am.  And then on Sunday, to see a Homerun Derby-esque like game…where the Phillies won 10-2…we could see a national championship in Philadelphia for the first time in 25 years….this is craziness.   Currently, Philadelphia is leading the series 3-1 and have the fifth game tonight, being played in Philadelphia…if they lose tonight, game 6 and 7 will take place in Tampa Bay.   It seems that Philadelphians are hopeful…but also know that to be in Philadelphia there isn’t a championship until the game is over….so we will see.

Here are some key facts for you to bring to your Game 5 World Series gatherings…if you can socialize on a Monday night…

• Many fans think that it is fate…the last time that the Phillies won the world series was in 1980 (aka ‘80)…well superimpose those last two digits and now they are looking at a potential win in ‘08..is it fate… well you decide. 
• Tonight’s pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies is Cole Hamels and he is 4-0 in the playoffs….if he keeps his streak alive then the Phillies will be the World Series champions.  I have written about Cole plenty of times before because 1. he is super hot and 2. most guys love his playboy centerfold wife…..good to know….
• In last night’s game, two of the Phillies put themselves in the record books.  The first was Ryan Howard (potential MVP for the National League)…he had two homeruns in the game, which has not been done for the Phillies since 1993 when Lenny Dykstra had the same kind of night.  The second record was that Joe Blanton, the starting pitcher for the Phillies last night hit a homerun, which is something that no pitcher has not been done in the World Series game since 1974…
• Now for the Tampa Bay Rays…Evan “Don’t call me Eva” Longoria and Carlos Pena, were the two top hitting threats for the Rays during the regular season…well, it looks as though they seemed to have hit a slump…they are a combined 0-29 with 15 strikeouts during the World Series games…seriously, not the time to hit a slump….
• Tampa Bay Rays’ B.J Upton hit the record books in Game 3 of the World Series…he became the first player to steal 3 bases in a World Series since 1968 (Lou Brooks on the Cardinals held the record previously)

 

I was able to go to the World Series Game 4 last night…and I will tell you Philadelphia is itching for a win…the love screaming “EVA, EVA, EVA” when Longoria from the Rays gets up to bat…it seems to be getting in his head.   I read reports on the Philadelphia websites that say that the police & emergency response teams are gearing up with plans for ensuring all fans safety if the Phillies do pull away with a victory…this is drama that any girl would want to watch unfold…I know I will be DVRing tonight’s Gossip Girl episode, which is a must watch every week for me. 

For those who are not into the World Series, there is also Monday Night Football on…the matchup is the Indianapolis Colts at the undefeated Tennessee Titans.  If this will be where your man’s interest is…here is some information to get you talking….

• The Colts are 3-3 and the Tennessee Titans are 6-0
• The Titans’ 6-0 record is the lenghthiest winning streak since their 11 straight wins in the ‘93-’94 season…but at that time they were the the Houston Oilers…the franchise moved to Tennessee in 1997. 
• The QB for the Titans is Kerry Collins – this is his 14th year as a QB.  He is the starting QB after Vince Young went “AWOL of sorts” and had to go to rehab for a mental evaluation to learn how to deal with all of the pressure of being a starting QB in the NFL and the fame that comes with it.  Young sits on the sidelines now as the back-up so that he can learn from the older veteran, Collins.  Who knew such drama could exist on something other than Dirty Sexy Money  or Grey’s Anatomy????
• The Colts are 15-11 against the Titans…so we will have to see if the Titans can pull away with a win and close the gap here….

 

Alright…well I know Mondays stink in general, but tonight should offer a lot of good “drama” in the sense of sports….be back tomorrow to discuss the results of the World Series game 5 match-up….

-sportsgirl

Phillies vs The Rays…What you Need to Know

To start…in case you are completely in the dark…the Phillies vs the Rays refers to the two teams in the 104th World Series.  The World Series kicked off on Wednesday night and started with a Phillies win.  At most we have one more week of Baseball until Spring Training starts in late February…this is music to my ears. However, I will say I have a new found respect for the good looks of baseball players…I mean, there are some hot players out there…a discussion for another time.  For now, it is good to know some facts about these two teams in case you are at a World Series party this weekend (there are games on Saturday and Sunday night this weekend). 

I apologize for not getting this information to you earlier in the week, but I was out of commission for a few days….but I can assure you…a lot of these facts should impress anyone that you happen to be around this upcoming weekend. 

Phillies’ Knowledge…

• The Phillies’ opponent, the Tampa Bay Rays, are in the AL East…this does not bode well for the Phillies.  Historically the Phillies have been to the World Series 5 times…when playing a team from the AL East they are 0-4 and 1-0 against an AL West team…too bad the Angels didn’t make it to this year’s World Series….they are from the AL West and for those Phils fans who believe that history repeats itself this would be a much better predictor of how this series would go….From a girl’s perspective…I think that the Phillies should just hope for some frost while they are at home…I can’t imagine that the Tampa Bay Rays would hold up too well in the cold weather….but that’s just my perspective.
• The Phillies’ closer Brad Lidge is 47 for 47 for the season…ok, so what in the world does this mean…To start, the closer is someone who comes in at the end of the game and when a team is winning and pitches the last inning for 3 quick outs to “close” the game with the win…this doesn’t always happen, however the Phillies’ closer hasn’t blown a game this year…can he keep up this record throughout the World Series?  Will he get the chance to close more games?  He did in Game 1 with success…
• Although the Phillies made it to the playoffs last year (where they were swept in the division series)…their season was shadowed with a rough statistic…the Phillies were the first team in any professional support to reach 10,000 losses…ouch that is a rough one. 
• One other observation that you might witness…if you are watching the World Series somewhere in Philly and notice that the sound on the TV is muted and the radio is on…that is because most Philly fans prefer to hear the beloved Harry Kalas announce the game (he has been announcing since 1971).  Since he is a local announcer he doesn’t get to call the game as an announcer on the national stage…per league rules or something like that…

 

Tampa Bay Rays Knowledge:

• The Rays (formerly the Devil Rays) started out as an expansion team in 1998 along with the Arizona Diamondbacks…this was after the area had built Tropicana Field in an attempt to lure teams such as the White Sox, Giants or Mariners to move to Florida…when it didn’t happen, it seemed like the perfect place to be the home for one of the expansion teams.  The Arizona Diamonbacks have already won the World Series in 2001…I feel bad for the teams that have been around for 5 times as long and haven’t won a World Series..
• Prior to this year, the Rays have never had a winning season…in fact last year they had the worst record in the league. 
• I find this next statistic to be DEPRESSING…most of the Rays team is young, the ages of their starting lineup in Game 1 were 29, 24, 30, 23, 27, 24, 25, 27, 28 and their Game 1 starting pitcher, Scott Kazmir is 24…what the hell…I feel ancient….I still think that when I am watching sports that the players are older than me…when in fact I am now older than most of them…especially for this team. 
• One of the Rays best young players is pitcher David Price… he was the #1 overall pick in the draft in 2007 out of Vanderbilt University.  So a year ago he was playing college baseball, and now he will be in the World Series possibly with the game on the line.  This may not seem like a big deal since in football and basketball there are no ‘minor leagues’, but in baseball it usually takes at least 2 or 3 seasons in the minor leagues for a draft pick to make it to the Major Leagues… to put this in perspective…you can compare this to Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada, when she gets picked to go to Paris in her first year as an assistant….this is a BIG DEAL. 
• Many people think the division that the Rays won this year, the American League East, was the best and most competitive division in the history of baseball.  The Rays won 97 games, Boston won 95, the Yankees won 89, and Toronto won 86… whats the big deal you ask?  Well, the Dodgers won the National League West with 84 wins, so they would have been in 5th place had they played in the AL East!

Alright…I think you should be good to go to impress those around you with some facts…the last thing to note…if you are watching the game and keep hearing “Eva Longoria” it is not a celebrity sighting at the game…I thought it was at first…the announcers are merely talking about the Rays third baseman EVAN Longoria…totally different…but I will say he is a good looking guy…

I’ll be back with College Football facts for the weekend tomorrow….

TGIF!

-sportsgirl