Jim Thome picked a nice moment to get his 500th home run. With the score tied in the bottom of the 9th at 7-7 vs the Los Angeles Angels, Thome cranked his 500th home run as the Chicago White Sox walked off the field with a 9-7 win over the Angels.
Congratulations to Thome on the milestone.
Video of Jim Thome’s home run and the celebration afterwards.
Tonight brings an interesting dilemma for the residents of Red Sox Nation who happen to also be Patriots fans. At 8:05 PM on ESPN, the Red Sox will take on the New York Yankees. On NBC at 8:15 PM, the Patriots will kick off their game against the San Diego Chargers.
Both games have a lot to offer. For one it is the Red Sox vs Yankees. The other is the first game following “Spygate”. The Sox/Yanks game offers a pitching matchup of Curt Schilling vs Roger Clemens. The Pats vs Chargers game offers Tom Brady and Randy Moss vs LaDainian Tomlinson and Shawne Merriman.
One solution to overcome this problem would be to head your local sports bar in your area to catch both games. Another would be to set up a second television in your living room (this is what I have chosen to do). If you have a TV capable of doing a split-screen picture, that will also work for you.
If you are attending the Red Sox game tonight, you could also bring a small portable television as the game is being broadcast over the air on NBC. Unfortunately if your heading up to Foxboro and want to do the same thing, you can’t because ESPN is a cable channel and not broadcast over the air.
The folks at ESPN and NBC really need to get together and work a little better to serve the needs of the people up here in New England. It will be interesting to see what the ratings for both games end up being.
Despite this post number being 2246, this is actually the 2000th post in the history of Random Thoughts/SOX & Dawgs.
There have been a lot of design changes and even a name change to the blog during the course of these 2000 posts. Steve has joined me and has helped a great deal. Without him, we wouldn’t have made 2000 posts for a while.
So now we move forward and work towards 3000 posts.
Thanks to everyone for their support and please keep your comments coming.
Mike Flynt, the 59-year old football player for Sul Ross State University, did not see action in yesterday’s 55-14 spanking at the hands of Mary Hardin-Baylor.
Since they were getting killed, their head coach didn’t want to risk injury for next week’s home opener.
They weren’t the only ones disappointed. Midway through the fourth quarter, the Mary Hardin-Baylor band chanted “We want Mike Flynt!” followed by “49! 49!” (his jersey number) and finally, “Put Mike in!”
Look for Flynt to finally play next week against East Texas Baptist.
Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon has already forgotten about Friday night’s implosion.
Yankees OF Johnny Damon made his first Fenway left field start since 2000 on Saturday.
The Angels are trying to get healthy before the postseason starts.
Josh Anderson may bat lead-off for the Astros in 2008.
Despite not being in the playoffs, the A’s haven’t given up yet.
Matt Stairs would like to wait until the end of the season to talk contract with the Blue Jays.
Yunel Escobar is showing a lot of maturity at the plate for the Braves.
Ben Sheets will make his next start on short rest for the Brewers.
Chris Duncan returned to the Cardinals in Game 1 of yesterday’s doubleheader.
Cubs closer Ryan Dempster doesn’t like to pitch in non-save situations.
Carl Crawford returned to the Devil Rays lineup after his suspension ended for arguing with an umpire.
Chad Tracy could return to the Diamondbacks today.
Dodgers closer Takashi Saito has been on a roll as of late.
Tyler Walker and Brian Wilson will share the closer duties for the Giants the rest of the way this season.
Cliff Lee hopes to regain the form he once had with the Indians.
Adam Jones has learned alot on the Mariners bench.
Kevin Gregg became the fourth pitcher in as many years to record 30 saves for the Marlins.
Mets pitcher Orlando Hernandez is still having problems with his injured foot.
Felipe Lopez got a vote of confidence from Nationals skipper Manny Acta.
Orioles pitcher Danys Baez is likely done for the season with an injured elbow.
The Padres brought up their Triple-A manager Rick Renteria for the end of the season.
Cole Hamels is ready to start for the Phillies on Tuesday.
John Van Benschoten will get a second chance for the Pirates on Monday.
Rangers skipper Ron Washington has a wish list of players for next year.
Reds 2B Brandon Phillips learned a valuable lesson for admiring a near home run.
Rockies SS Troy Tulowitzki is making a strong case for the Gold Glove.
Royals DH Mike Sweeney will miss two games with a groin injury.
Tigers closer Todd Jones is closing in on 300 career saves.
Justin Morneau is frustrated with his performance for the Twins this year.
White Sox pitcher Jose Contreras doesn’t factor his age into his pitching.
Check out today’s headlines from the Boston area and New York scribes.
Rough and tumble [Boston Globe]
BOSOX LOWER BOOM ON YANKS [NY Post]
Resilient Sox dish out [Boston Herald]
Yanks head south in East [NY Daily News]
Regroup Therapy [Hartford Courant]
Bosox barrel over Yanks, 10-1 [Newsday]
‘It was all Beckett’ in Sox’ dismantling of Yanks [Pro Jo]
Lately, not much OK with Red Sox reliever Okajima [Boston Globe]
TWO WORLDS COLLIDE: YOUKILIS HIT ON ARM, SAWX RETALIATE, SORT OF [NY Post]
Masters remain students [Boston Herald]
Torre may have tipped his hand [NY Daily News]
Youkilis A Target Again, But Yanks Take Some Hits [Hartford Courant]
Hard-fought, but no fighting at Fenway [Newsday]
Ellsbury pays dividends, even as a sub [Pro Jo]
For more headlines head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant, Providence Journal, NY Post, NY Daily News and Newsday websites.
Josh Beckett became MLB’s first 19 game winner on Saturday as he threw 3-hit baseball over 7 innings as his Red Sox spanked the Yankees 10-1. He also bolstered his Cy Young candidacy in the process.The win by the Sox pushed the lead in the AL East back up to 5 1/2 games with 15 days left to go in the season.
The game was a physical one as it featured two home plate collisions of Jorge Posada and also Kevin Youkilis leaving the game after taking a Chien-Mien Wang pitch in the forearm. Youk is day-to-day with a contusion on his forearm after the x-rays were negative.
Derek Jeter provided the only run of the game for the Yankees in the first inning. Beckett got Johnny Demon for the first out of the inning and then the Yankees’ captain crushed a Beckett fastball to the deepest part of Fenway in center field. After a Bobby Abreu ground out, Beckett walked AROD and Posada. He got out of the mini-jam as the slumping Hideki Matsui grounded out to Youk at first.
The local nine got the run back for Beckett in their half of the first. Dustin “Mighty Mouse” Pedroia continued his push towards rookie of the year as he reached on a single. Wang then got Youk to strikeout on three pitches for the first out. David “Big Papi” Ortiz, 3 for 3 on the day, moved Pedroia to second on a single. Pedroia came around to score Mike Lowell’s team leading 104th RBI of the season. The RBI also tied his career high. The sinkerball pitcher finished off the inning with ground ball outs by J.D. Drew and Jason Varitek.
Wang struggled with his control a little bit in the 3rd inning. After he got the first two outs of the inning, Wang had some trouble finding the strike zone, usually located between the letters and the knees over home plate. Wang wasn’t close as he issued walks to Big Papi, Lowell and Drew. He got lucky as Varitek grounded out a pitch that was probably a ball.
Meanwhile, the Sox ace was just cruising along like it was a normal day at the park. He allowed a single to Abreu in the third, struck out the side in the 4th and set the Yanks down in order in the 5th.
Mighty Mouse started off the 5th with a ground out to Jeter at short. With a 1-2 count, Wang hit Youk with a fastball that ran in on home. Since he had issues with his control, it didn’t look like he was throwing at him. Youk left the game and Jacoby Ellsbury came into run for him. Big Papi got his second single of the day and the speedster Ellsbury ended up on third base. Wang got Lowell to line out to Jeter for the second out. The much maligned Drew brought in the Sox second run of the day with a single as Ellsbury coasted home for a 2-1 Sox lead. Varitek grounded out to end the inning stranding two more runners. He had stranded three in the 3rd and these two gave him a total of five runners stranded thru 5 innings.
The UCONN Huskies football team came into today’s game against the Temple Owls as 29.5 point favorite. Judging by the way the game was played you would have thought the opposite. UCONN was lucky to escape their home confines at the Rent with a 22-17 win. The win makes the Huskies 3-0 on the young season while the Owls drop to 0-3.
For UCONN, Tyler Lorenzen was 19 of 29 for 222 yards. He did not throw a touchdown pass nor an interception. He was sacked 6 times by the Owls. Redshirt freshman Andre Dixon took over for an ineffective Donald Brown at running back and rushed for 129 yards in his first collegiate action. Former QB D.J. Hernandez led the Huskies in receiving with 58 yards. For Temple, Adam DiMichele was 9 of 18 with one touchdown pass and one interception by UCONN’s Robert Vaughn. Jason Harper led the Owls ground attack with 114 yards. Bruce Francis caught 4 passes for 84 yards and one touchdown pass.
UCONN got the scoring going on their first possession of the first quarter after Larry Taylor gave them excellent field position at the Temple 49. The two big plays of the drive were passes to Brad Kanuch and one to D.J. Hernandez that gave UCONN the ball at the Owls 13. Brown finished the drive up with a run of 5 yards and then a 8 yard run for the touchdown. The extra point by Tony Ciaravino was good for a 7-0 lead.
The second drive of the game for the Huskies netted them 3 points. Lorenzen was 4 of 5 for 53 yards. On 3rd and 19 at the Temple 40, Lorenzen hooked up with Brown for an 11-yard reception. Ciaravino lined up for a career long 47 yard field goal that was good for a 10-0 lead.
Temple got on the board late in the second quarter. After DiMichele threw two incomplete passes, the Owls were facing a 3rd and 10 at their 41. DiMichele went deep for Francis who caught the ball and beat two UCONN defenders on his way to a 59-yard touchdown pass. Jake Brownell’s extra point was good and the Huskies faithful were left stunned as the lead was cut to 10-7.
After the kickoff, UCONN went into their two-minute offense, honestly they should do this all the time, and got themselves down to the Temple 7. They closed out the half with Ciaravino chip shot field goal from 24 yards for a 13-7 lead.
If you’re looking for the lineups for today’s Red Sox vs Yankees game on FOX, I would like to send you over to Extra Bases or the ProJo SoxBlog. I am out today taking care of some personal things and won’t be back until the start of the game.
I will be back later with a recap of today’s UCONN vs Temple football game as well as the battle between the Yanks and Red Sox.
Just for the record it’s 11:36 PM during the Yankees Red Sox marathon game as I write this.
With all the stories and bad press coming out about HGH in baseball, MLB is hoping to implement HGH testing with it’s players starting next season. A blood test is being develop for mass use and should be ready in a few months.
The blood test, which was developed under the oversight of the World Anti-Doping Agency and was used on a limited basis in the 2004 Summer Olympics and 2006 Winter Games, will be available for mass use within months, WADA science director Olivier Rabin told the newspaper. “This is great news, because we strongly believe that human growth hormone is abused in sports,” he said.
HGH is usually tested for with a blood test and measuring your HGH levels to get a starting point. Another blood test would have to done to check the levels to the first test. I am not sure how this new test will work.
For one, it’s going to take an act of Congress to get this test implemented in MLB. Actually that’s not out of the realm of possibility. I highly doubt the MLB Player’s Association is going to just give in and allow blood testing. They have been against any type of blood testing.
Look for this story to really take flight once the testing is made available.