BREAKING NEWS: BYU will leave the Mountain West, and its football program will become an independent school in the 2011 season. In the rest of the collegiate sports, BYU will compete in the West Coast Conference beginning in the 2011-2012 school year.
Title: 2010 MLB Awards
Part 2 of the MLB Series podcast, in which Chris Pierangeli and I discuss the end of the season MLB Awards, including Cy Young, MVP, Rookie of the Year, and Coach of the Year.
Download Link: http://bobsportsblog.podomatic.com/entry/2010-08-30T19_28_41-07_00
Title: 2010 MLB Playoff Predictions
The second Bob Long’s Sports Podcast discusses the baseball stretch run, including division winners, wild card winners, and top seeds in the league. With associate Chris Pierangeli
Download Link: http://bobsportsblog.podomatic.com/entry/2010-08-30T17_32_16-07_00
The first round of the FedEx Cup playoffs began this past Thursday with the Barclays, the tournament where the top 125 golfers in the FedEx Cup standings battle to position themselves in the top 100 to advance to the Deutsche Bank Championship, which will be played next weekend. Tiger Woods found himself outside the top 100 entering the tournament (112), and needed to play well this weekend to move into the top 100 and advance to next weekend. Ernie Els led the FedEx Cup standings entering the week, and was assured a spot in the top 10 regardless of his performance this weekend. Jim Furyk was 3rd, but dropped 5 spots in the FedEx Cup standings after he was controversially disqualified for not making his Wednesday Pro-Am tee time.
On the first day of the tournament, Tiger Woods looked to make a Herculean climb in the FedEx Cup standings. He shared the lead after Round 1 with a score of -6, and if the first day results held, Woods would have moved into the top 5 in the standings. This type of climb would have been shades of Heath Slocum last year in the Barclays, who by winning the tournament moved from out of the top 100 to 3rd in the FedEx Cup standings. However, Tiger would come back to Earth in the next 3 days. Tiger played the final 3 rounds at -1, and finished 5 strokes back on Sunday. This was good showing compared to some of Tiger’s recent tournaments, however, and Tiger moved to 65th in the FedEx Cup standings as a result of his Barclays performance. If the results hold, he will be safe to advance past the Deutsche Bank to the BMW Championship, which hosts the top 70 golfers in the FedEx Cup standings. Phil Mickelson was cut this week, but due to his good performance during the regular season, remains at 10th in the standings, and only dropped 6 spots.
The Barclays leaderboard remained very tight through the first 2 days of the championship, and on Saturday Martin Laird began to separate himself from the field. He moved to -12 and 3 strokes ahead of 2nd place. He was in control of the tournament, and a sizable comeback was needed from a competitor to challenge Laird for the title. Matt Kuchar took that challenge. Starting on Sunday at -7, 5 strokes behind Laird, Kuchar played an impressive round at -5 to take the lead in the clubhouse at -12 while Laird was completing his last few holes. Through 17, however, Laird had a 1 stroke lead, and only needed to par hole 18 to win the Barclays and assume the top spot in the FedEx Cup standings. Kuchar was given his shot to win the tournament after Laird 3 putted from about 20 feet on 18 to choke away his 1 stroke lead and enter a playoff with Kuchar.
On the very first playoff hole, Kuchar hit a punch shot from the left deep rough that rolled up to the back right of the green, where the ball played the ridge perfectly and rolled to about 2 feet from the hole for a tap in birdie. Laird could not birdie the hole, and Kuchar won the Barclays thanks to his unbelievable 2nd shot on the playoff hole. Kuchar became the FedEx Cup points leader with his victory, and leads 2nd place Steve Stricker by just under 1,500 points. Kuchar has a big lead and a big advantage over the rest of the field, but the interesting aspect of the FedEx Cup playoffs is that next week’s Deutsche Bank winner will almost certainly climb at least into the top 10 or even top 5 in the points standings. Kuchar needs to continue to play very well for his points lead to remain comfortable, and this makes the FedEx Cup postseason so exciting.
With the conclusion of the first round of the playoffs, there are only 3 events remaining before the FedEx Cup Champion is crowned. This coming weekend, the Deutsche Bank Championship will be played, and the top 70 in the points standings after the tournament will advance to the BMW Championship, which will be held 2 weeks from now. The top 30 players in the FedEx Cup Standings after the BMW Championship will advance to the Tour Championship, the final PGA event of the season. The Tour Championship will be held two weeks after the BMW Championship (Sept. 23-26, East Lake G.C.), and the leader in FedEx Cup points after the Tour Championship will earn the title of 2010 FedEx Cup Champion. The 2010 FedEx Cup Champion will join Vijay Singh (2008) and Tiger Woods (2007, 2009) as the only winners in the 4 year history of the FedEx Cup.
Title: 2010 Preseason College Football Predictions
Bob Long’s Sports Blog’s inaugural podcast, featuring colleague Chris Pierangeli. The podcast includes analysis and predictions for the upcoming college football season. Created on August 25, 2010.
Download Link: http://bobsportsblog.podomatic.com/enclosure/2010-08-29T18_00_39-07_00.mp3
BREAKING NEWS: It has been released that Stephen Strasburg will likely need Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ligament in his elbow. Strasburg appeared to have incurred the injury during his last start, August 21st, against the Philadelphia Phillies. The injury and subsequent surgery will keep Strasburg out anywhere from 12 to 18 months. It is highly unlikely that he will be ready to pitch in 2011, and even less likely that the Nationals will allow him to do so.
How could this injury have happened to such a young pitcher with such high expectations? Some have argued that the Nationals rushed him to the majors and pushed him too hard when he got there. That could not be further from the truth. Strasburg was well under 150 innings for the whole season (minors and majors combined), and only pitched 68 innings in the majors. He never went beyond 7 innings or 100 pitches in any start. In addition, several reputable sports medicine doctors stated that, with Strasburg’s delivery and mechanics, such an tear in the ligament could have occurred on even one pitch. This type of injury is simply more likely to occur to pitchers will violent, jerky mechanics, and pitchers with incredible stuff. Strasburg fits into both categories. This injury is reminiscent of the injuries to Mark Prior and Kerry Wood, who ironically both played for the Chicago Cubs at the time. Both were two of the best young arms in the league, and were very successful during the 2003 season. However, after 2003, the pitchers were never nearly as dominant as they were before, and both players struggled to get back to the field. Prior had 11 injuries and multiple surgeries during his career, and is now in the slow process of trying to return to Major League Baseball. Kerry Wood also underwent multiple surgeries, and was relegated to a relief role with the Cubs two years later, a role he now has with the New York Yankees. Neither of these pitchers ever returned or will return to the prominence of the early 2000s, and the injuries caused by their violent mechanics are of considerable blame.
This possibility is sickening for Nationals fans, I understand. The entire franchise is built around this pitcher, and now the future is uncertain to say the least. However, there certainly have been pitchers who have returned from Tommy John surgery and have been very successful. Chris Carpenter has overcome both labrum surgery and Tommy John surgery. In fact, before Carpenter’s Tommy John surgery in 2007, he had been injury plagued his whole career, and was rarely able to complete a full season injury free. However, Carpenter has become stronger since the surgery, and he has not spent extensive time on the DL over the past 2 years. In another example, Tim Hudson’s career was thought to be over when Tommy John surgery was required to repair his right elbow. However, Hudson returned in September of 2009, just 13 months after the surgery, and in 2010 he has been one of the best pitchers in the league (14-5, 2.28 ERA) and has carried Atlanta to its first place position in the NL East standings.
Therefore, there is hope for Stephen Strasberg. After Tommy John surgery, pitchers can return to form, lose their edge, or even come back better than they ever were. Baseball needs a phenomenon like Stephen Strasburg, as does a flailing franchise in Washington. Best of luck to Strasburg in his lengthy recovery from Tommy John surgery. Hopefully we will see him on the mound in 2012.
In last night’s Phillies Astros game, Ryan Howard was ejected in extra innings after he tossed his bat towards the dugout after being called out on a check swing by third base umpire Scott Barry. It was a very controversial call, because there were no position players available on the bench to replace Howard, and Roy Oswalt was forced to enter the game in left field, while Raul Ibanez moved to 1st base. Then, 2 innings later, Roy Oswalt was up to bat with two outs and runners on 1st and 2nd, the very spot in the order where Howard would have batted, and was retired to end the game.
The game was impacted greatly by this ejection, and the important question is, should the ejection even have occurred? I approach this situation wearing two hats. First, I am an objective fan, as I am neither fan of the Phillies nor of the Astros, and both my favorite teams are all but mathematically out of the race. Second, I am a certified umpire, so I understand exactly what Scott Barry was feeling in that important moment.
With that being said, I think Scott Barry made a critical error in his ejection of Ryan Howard for a few reasons. First, NO WORDS WERE SAID! When a player or manager is ejected, it is extremely rare for the ejection to come before any words are stated. The actions have to be extremely demonstrative in order for an ejection to be justified in this case. A simple toss of the bat is, in my opinion, nowhere near enough to warrant or justify an ejection in extra innings, even though Howard was angry about a check swing call earlier in the at bat as well.
Second, the job of the umpires is to be invisible on the field if possible. Scott Barry did not assume the role of invisibility by ejecting one of the best players in the game, in extra innings, in the middle of a pennant race, when he didn’t say anything to the umpire. That was Barry’s big mistake.
Finally, as an umpire, it is important never to assume the intentions of players. For example, if I think that a coach is second-guessing me in the dugout, or on the third base line, I need to be completely sure that he is directing his comments towards me and is not simply referring to someone or something else before I take any action whatsoever, even if it is just to warn him. In Barry’s case, he should have been more careful to ensure that when tossing the bat Howard wasn’t simply angry at himself, or was simply tossing his bat towards the dugout so someone else could “pick him up” for the next inning on defense so he didn’t need to return to the dugout. Instead, Barry made a wrongful, quick assumption about Howard’s actions and immediately ejected him from the game. It was at this point that Howard overreacted and began charging down the third base line toward Barry.
Could this ejection have cost the Phillies the game? It absolutely could have. Raul Ibanez dropped a ball at first that could have kept a Houston run off the board in the 16th, and Oswalt was forced to bat with 2 outs in the bottom of the 16th instead of Howard. Therefore, the Phils could very well have been cost a game because of an overreaction and terrible decision by umpire Scott Barry, and one would hate to see such a decision decide a pennant race.
First, I would like to thank all of you for your time and attention in regards to Bob Long’s Sports Blog. I do this because I love to write about sports and I love when I can provide interesting information and opinions for others, and so I thank all of you for your support.
Over the past month, I have not been very faithful to the blog. The month was very hectic and I decided to just take the month off and return to blogging when school started. Today, on August 24th, 2010, I am entering my sophomore year at Penn State University and am thrilled and rejuvenated to be continuing the blog. I look forward to continued readership from my loyal followers.
The point of this letter is to both thank the readers and inform them of my plans to expand the blog over the next few months. First, and most simply, I look to continue writing every day, and to continue the weekly practice of delivering my Top 25 for both College Basketball and College Football. Second, in order to cover the landscape of sports more fully, and to include some loyal readers in a more interactive capacity, I will be conditionally allowing guest writers on the blog, if said writer brings something unique to the table that I feel would benefit the readers. Third, and perhaps most exciting for me, I am going to release a weekly sports podcast (Bob Long’s Sports Podcast), giving readers another interactive way to access the Bob Long’s Sports brand. Finally, I will be taking my writing past that of short blogs, and I will become an author. I will be doing a chronicle of the 2010 Villanova football season, from training camp through the postseason. I will be giving updates on the progress of both the team and the book itself throughout the season.
Thanks again for reading, and I hope you are as excited about the future of the blog as I am. As always, if you have something that you would like me to blog about, or anything else you would like to discuss, feel free to leave a comment on the blog or contact me in some other way. Thanks, and here is to a great semester of Bob Long’s Sports Blog.
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