Baseball

     Does anyone have fingernails after last weekend? If there are any Saints fans who haven’t been contending with chest pains watching these close-to-the-vest games, they don’t have a pulse. The 2010 Saints remind Big Daddy of the Jim Mora era. Unlike now, those Saints owned the league’s best defense and Morten Andersen drilling clutch 3-pointers. Even though the battles usually came down to the wire, the “Dome Patrol” and the “Great Dane” gave Saints fans a sense of security. Injuries in both the offensive and defensive backfields have the Saints fans hoping Capts. Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce and John “Trapper John” McIntyre would bring their M*A*S*H* unit down to Saints Headquarters to patch up our beloved Black ’n’ Gold troops. Since Hawkeye and Trapper John aren’t coming, Big Daddy will just need to find that magical Leprechaun with a pot full of Valium until the Saints get back to full strength. In this edition of the Section 645 Saints Beat, Big Daddy recounts the insanity in Death Valley, delivers a Section 645 report, recaps the Carolina game, attends the 2nd annual Pat Ramsey Hospice Benefit, and releases his World Famous Pregame Information.

Continue reading "Big Daddy Prefers Touchdowns"

Despite many prognosticators enamorization with all things Gator, Saban will indeed bring his Crimson Tide into the Georgia Dome Saturday afternoon.

I'm not quite ready to predict the winner...but I will give a lean...

Continue reading "Breaking News - Alabama will show ..."

To compete, a baseball team needs pitching and defense. An old adage maybe, but it exists for a reason. A team that continuously gives up runs ends up yanking their starters early in games and taxes their bullpen, lessening their effectiveness over time and thereby compounding the problem over the season. Ironically, trying to keep games close hurts the team in the long run. But with one of the best fielding percentages and team ERA’s in the league, the Toronto Blue Jays are competing.

Continue reading "Why the Jays won't compete: the importance ..."

Just picture it: it’s the top of the ninth inning and the Toronto Blue Jays are holding a slim 2-1 lead over the New York Yankees. Up to bat is Derek Jeter with Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez on deck. Cito Gaston, in order to shut the door on the game and the series gets on the phone and brings in the big gun, Pedro Luis Lazo, winner of two Olympic Gold medals with Cuba and current closer of the Blue Jays. And even if he gives up a run its okay, because leading off the bottom of the ninth for the Jays is Alexei Bell, who hit 30 HR with 100 RBI with Santiago del Cuba last year.

Continue reading "Part Time Jays: How to add a little ..."

What a day for Alfonso Soriano. He came up with a huge 3-run home run in the 7th inning with 2 on and 2 out to put the Cubs up 10 to 7 over the Astros. Soriano also had a single and a double to give him 4 RBI on the day. He touched home twice. 

Continue reading "If He Stays Hot..."

I really enjoy reading good copy whether it be on the Chicago Cubs or just on baseball.   On this site, I highly recommend Street Reporter's work   http://www.chicagocubsnews.com/streetreport/

Continue reading "Outstanding blogs to read"

It has been a while since my last post, which was bitter to say the least. A month and a half later I can hardly find much to complain about when it comes to the Cubs. They look like the best baseball team in the National League right now (obviously their record doesn't disagree), and after a 7-0 homestand this week, my baseball excitement is at its peak. I can't miss a Cubs game anymore. I make a point to try to watch or listen to every game, and I went to two games during the undefeated homestand. They have just been so entertaining to watch. Their play has been solid all around, and their offense has just been hilarious. Geovany Soto has been incredible, and he looks like he is going to be a legitimate NL all star catcher for years to come in the shadow of Mike Piazza.

Continue reading "Cubs Tearing Up the National League"

I call it "Baseball Heroin," as it's all too easy to sit for hours flipping between games, immobile, helpless to the draw of constant, and constantly changing, baseball.

This year has the added bonus of being able to watch either the home or away feed for a game, so I can tailor my watching to the team I like, or switch between the two to get a different perspective on a game. This somewhat ameliorates some of the problems DirecTV has been having this year with feeds--I'm one of the many, many people who woke up at 3AM on Opening Day in Japan . . . only to find that DirecTV's satellite problems were blacking out the broadcast. A handful of games later on in the season experienced this same problem, but these problems have been by and large small ones.

Continue reading "Saturday: The Black Hole of Baseball"

Bring back day games for the World Series. Baseball's being lost to other sports, in part because kids don't watch the games (live or in person) the way they could when the games were in the daytime. Sure, ratings are higher at night, but how much does this affect ad revenue, really? And even if it does, sometimes you've gotta sacrifice the present for the future, instead of the other way around.

Continue reading "How I'd Change Baseball"

What an outing today! In the first game I actually got to watch on TV for quite a while, Redding pitched what was for the most part a gem. While he tailed off a bit after I stopped watching, he threw

Continue reading "Tim Redding"

First off, I find it incredibly ironic that one of the NFL's most respected players, Marvin Harrison, is in some trouble. Even though things are pointing at this time toward the fact that he's not responsible, I still find it hard to believe that he could have even gotten himself in that position in the first place.

Continue reading "Saturday's Roundup"

Congratulations! You've stumbled upon my new blog. Since I'm a student and have very little credibility when it comes to sports (just a foaming-at-the-mouth passion), you're just going to have to trust me at first.

Continue reading "What I'm here to do"

Today was a bit of a letdown for me watching the Cubs lose in Colorado. After how great they have played over the last couple weeks, you almost expect them to win every time they go on the field these

Continue reading "Can't win them all"

I never liked the "Soriano Hop". I never thought it would actually cause him to hurt himself though. I am not a Soriano fan. He's an absolute offensive mammoth when he gets hot, but when he's not hot, he has very little value to this team. And he is a terrible leadoff hitter when he's cold. His on-base is .230. Let's face it: this is one of the worst contracts  in baseball right now, second maybe only to Barry Zito.

Continue reading "Soriano Injures Himself Hopping"

Its opening day spring is in the air, and this is the time of year for optimism for all baseball fans with new prospects coming up and all the dreams and hopes for the upcoming season still alive.  Well this is true for every one but Giants fans. 

Continue reading "Only 159 games until next year!!"

With Mark DeRosa's heart condition and his availability in question at this point of spring training for the regular season, the time has come to finally make the Brian Roberts trade happen.

Continue reading "With DeRosa out, time for Cubs to ..."

Finally, the baseball buzz is heating up here in Chicago. I hate the time between the end of football and the beginning of baseball. Especialy this year. I stopped watching Bulls game over a month ago, for obvious reasons- like their absolute suckage causing my eyes to bleed. And as for the Blackhawks and the NHL (RIP), I have been trying to get back into them this year, and the Hawks look like they have a good future ahead of them, but I'm still not to the point of being a raging hockey follower.

Continue reading "Let Baseball Season Begin Already"

It figures. The Chicago Cubs have invested millions of dollar to rehabilitate their pitchers on top of the multi-million dollars they were paying them. When Mark Prior signed with the San Diego Padres this off-season I said to everyone I know that he'd be healthy for Spring Training.

Continue reading "San Diego to Benefit from Cubdom's Millions?"