Now that hockey is over and football hasn't started yet I can focus all my attention on baseball. Starting with the Nationals, who lost to the Yankees (I know that was a few series ago but I got locked out of my blog to write about it). I have a deep set hate-rid for the Yankees. It's not the kind of hate-rid that you have for a rival team, but the kind you reserve for arrogant teams who think they rule all of baseball because of how much money they have. The Yankees are like the Jets of baseball. Unfortunately, no matter how much I hate them, it pains me to say that they are a good team, but it's true. When the Yankees rolled into town to play the National everyone paid attention. The Nats had just swept their last two series and most Nats players and fans were hoping to do the same to the Yanks. That's not quite what happened. They lost all three games to the Yanks, it stung to say the least. But everyone has to move on to the next thing, in this case it was the Tampa Bay Rays. The three games with the Rays were interesting to say the least. Losing the first game may have in the past put a downer on the team but in the next game the Nats came back lead by Stephen Strasburg. After the game their were rumors floating about that the Rays reliever Joel Peralta had used pine tar in his glove in Tuesday's game against the Nats. Both Davey Johnson (Nats Manager) and Joe Madden (Rays Manager) jumped into action; Johnson by ordering an inspection of Peralta's glove and Madden by defending his player. Peralta also got involved in the word battle by basically saying, "Lots of people use stuff to help them in this game." It's cheating! It doesn't matter if other people do it or not it's still cheating. You may be wondering how Johnson found out about the pine tar. Some of the Nats players were suspicious of how Peralta was playing and told Johnson like they should have. This shows that their are still some people in the world of baseball who care about the sport. They are trying to make it better. If you think that they are ratting out players so they can personally gain or win more games then you may need your head checked. Yes, I won't deny that some may do that but more likely than not they are trying to better the sport they love. The Nats went on to win their next two games against the Rays but continued to bonce back and forth between wins and losses with the Orioles, Rockies, and now the Braves. They won the first match up with the Braves but lost today 7-5 in the sweltering heat of Atlanta. Strasburg had to leave the game early due to a heat related issue. The two teams match up again tomorrow at 1:35.
So I lied about hockey being over. With the NHL draft and all the free agents and traded players bouncing about it hard to keep everyone straight.
-The Capitals have a new head coach: Adam Oates. He has 19 playing seasons in the NHL and has been an assistant coach for two teams. During his playing career, he played for a time in Washington and was part of the only Capitals team to make the Cup Championships. Maybe he could lead the team to another Championship.
-On a side note, one of the keys to another Championship is Ovie. The Great 8. Not the hoe-hum 8 we've seem these past few seasons but the Great 8 that we had during his first few years. I think that he still has it in him but he just lost his way. He needs someone who he can respect and someone who can respect Ovie in return. Someone who's been there before. Someone like Oates.
-They traded prospect Cody Eakin and the 54th overall pick in the draft to the Dallas Stars for center Mike Ribeiro. Ribeiro is the strong center the Caps have been looking for and now have, but Eakin was good so that may be a little bit of a loss in the future.
- Dennis Wideman traded to the Calgary Flames (bummer, I liked him).
I think that's all besides the ever looming threat that Semin may leave. Hopefully with Oates now as the head coach he may reconsider leaving.
To golf. The AT&T National, Tiger Woods pet project, is going on this week. On one of the days the reporter asked some kids who they liked best in the tournament. The answer: Tiger Woods. The kid went on to say something about how great he thought Tiger is and that he looked up to him. Why in the world, no wait the world isn't big enough, why in the universe would you look up to him? He made huge mistakes and doesn't seem to care about it anymore. He should have spent more time with his family and less time out flaunting about with his money. Really, I see no reason to look up to him.
27 days until the Olympics.
