SPORTS HITS

Dustin Pedroia is small in size, but the one thing he knows how to do is play baseball. If you do not believe me just ask any Major League Baseball team that has faced him this year. Last night he went 4 for 4 and help the Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox by a score of 8-0. Pedroia the last few weeks have really been hitting the ball well and as he goes so does his Red Sox. With Manny gone he has picked up the slack.

What can you say about Dice K who now is 16-2 after his impressive performance last night. It seems now he is getting into a groove and once he does he is awful tough to beat. Last year he struggled at times, but now he understands the American game more and his play on the field shows that.

Friday, August 29th

Oregon State dominated the Stanford Cardinals in total yards and first downs, but on the scoreboard is where it counts. Oregon State looked like they were going to make an unbelievable comeback only to have Stanford’s Taylor Skaufel knock the ball loss in as Oregon State Darrell Catchings try to reach across the goal line with it resulting in a touchback and a thrilling 36-28 win for the Cardinals.

This marked the start of the College Football season and gives Stanford their first win of the season and maybe a good season as well for Jim Harbaugh and company. For Oregon State it was a tough loss, but they will regroup and get better from this loss.

Aramis Ramirez hit a grand slam in a five run eighth inning to give the Cubs a 6-4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. It seems the Chicago Cubs are doing everything right and the Cubbie fans could not be happier right now. They have a big lead in the division and they are very hard to beat at home. Toss in Aramis Ramirez who has been clutch all season driving in runs backed by solid pitching and they will be a tough out in the postseason. It looks like the Cubbies could be a team we see in the World Series after all these failed attempts. Only time will tell though if that happens.

Many observers knew this is what was going to happen eventually. Adam Pacman Jones has been cleared to play with the Dallas Cowboys after all of his troubles the past couple of years. Now I am not one to say yes or no if he should have been reinstated, but I do have one question though. Would h have been reinstated if he played for a lesser team.

I mean if he played for the Atlanta Falcons or some team that has struggled would he be allowed to play. I do not think so. The Cowboys are a high profiled team and they do have pull in the league which I think maybe had something to do with it. I guess only time will tell if Pacman continues his bad behavior or he has turned over a new leaf.

The New York Yankees went into their latest series knowing they must get two out of three with Boston if they wanted a good shot at making the playoffs. With the 11-3 drubbing of the Yankees last night the Red Sox can basically put the Yankees away with another win tonight.

Many observers think the Yankees are done and post season is out of the question and I am one of them. They have just to many injuries to key people and you can only patch it so long before the leaks surface again. It is time to rebuild the Yankees and starting now. Bring up some young players and see what they can do and make moves for next season as this season is lost.

Wednesday, August 27th

The New York Mets have played good baseball for the most part, but lately they have not been very consistent and last night was another example of that. The Mets blew a 7-0 lead and lost in 13 innings to the Philadelphia Phillies by a score of 8-7.

Chris Coste’s single in the bottom of the 13 inning was the game winner and put the Phillies back into first place and dropped the Mets out of it. This division could go down to the wire as these two teams have been trading the top spot all season long. This should be very good down the stretch.

Tuesday, August 26th

The LPGA has decided that every player must learn English if they already do not. Now I find this really a stupid rule for a couple of different reasons.  First I can understand why the LPGA is doing this, but in reality it is all about money. They want to draw more sponsorship and they think if they do this it will help out. I can tell you it will not. Almost half of the LPGA top money winners were South Korean and by making them learn English they think it will bring in more sponsorship.

I can tell you it will not. LPGA golf is something many Americans really do jot care that much about. Their really is no play young girls can relate to and men for the most part do not even watch it. I think this new policy will backfire in their faces, but I guess in the end they will do what they want anyways.

It seems that every year A.J. Pierzynskiis involved in a strange play or two and in yesterday’s White Sox he was involved in another one. Pierzynski was heading to third and was going to be out and ran into Willy Aybar and got the umpire to call interference on Aybar and was awarded third base.

This was huge as the Rays walked Jim Thome and than Alexei Ramirezsingled home the winning run to cap a White Sox comeback. The bad part for the Rays it was a bad call and I hope this loss does not come back to cost them a playoff spot, but you never really know anymore.

Sunday, August 24th

All year long in Nascar the buzzword was can anybody stop the steamroller that Kyle Busch has going and so far only one man has stepped to the plate and that is Carl Edwards. After watch Busch lead 415 straight laps at Bristol Edwards put his bumper to good use and moved Busch out of the way and won the race. Busch was not very happy with Edwards at the race and showed him by ramming his car after the race was over. I am sure Nascar will have a nice fine for Busch.

Kyle Busch has a long memory and do not think that he will forget this for one minute. Their will be a payback somewhere down the road as their always is. This makes two straight wins for Carl Edwards which is very important heading into the chase.

It has been since the year 2000 that Team USA Basketball or Dream Team as they are called by many have won a gold medal in the Olympics, but no more. The United States outlasted a tough and gritty Spain group for a 118-107 win in the gold medal game.

Dwayne Wade tossed in 27 points and Kobe Bryant added 20 points as the United States won a shootout with Spain. This Dream Team was all about redemption and now they are the talk of the United States and the world. Hopefully most of these same players will come back for another trip to the Olympics and another gold medal.