Magnolia State Madness Sports Grits Chowdah Update- Mississippi Blues for Aggies, Crimson Tide; Royal Flush- Kansas City Sweeps Angels to Advance to 1st ALCS Since 1985; Patriots Bounce Back Against Cincinnati.

NCAA FOOTBALL- Every once in awhile, I'll encounter a subset of football fans who are outright dismissive of college football, sneering that REAL football is played on Sundays- as though their favorite NFL player was cultivated in some magic football orchard hidden off from the rest of the world until their product was ready. On Saturday, I genuinely felt bad for those people.

Where to start? Obviously the biggest story of Saturday afternoon was the Ole Miss vs #1 Alabama game in Oxford, MS. For the first time since 2003, when Eli Manning was the Rebels QB, Ole Miss bested the Alabama Crimson Tide thanks to a 4th quarter rally. This also marks the first time since 1962 that the Rebels have gotten out to a 5-0 start.

Midway through the 4th quarter, Mississippi trailed 17-10 before pulling even on a 34 yard TD pass from Bo Wallace to WR Vance Sanders with 5 and a half minutes remaining in regulation. With the ensuing kickoff, Alabama's Christion Jones fumbled and Mississippi recovered on the Alabama 31 yard line. It didn't take long for the Rebels to capitalize, with Wallace connecting with RB Jaylen Walton for a TD catch and run to put Ole Miss up 23-17 with just under 3:00 remaining in the 4th. The Rebels attempted to go for two, but were unsuccessful, giving Alabama one last chance to pull ahead for good in the final minutes.

With just 37 seconds to go, the Tide had one last shot at the end zone, but Rebels outfielder-turned-DB Senquez Golson managed to get his hands on a Blake Sims pass attempt in the end zone and after a lengthy review was able to corral it for a galme-clinching INT.

Wallace ended up throwing for 251 total yards and 3 TDs, including two in the fourth quarter. The victory propels Ole Miss to 3 in college football polling as well.

This Saturday, the Running Rebels will travel to College Station, TX to take on #14 Texas A&M.

ELSEWHERE IN THE SEC- Saturday's stunner in Oxford was by no means the only upset in the SEC, let alone NCAA Football. The only-slightly-less-favored Aggies fell to Mississippi State in Starkville by a 48-31 final in what ended up being a track meet. Like in-state rival Ole Miss, the Mississippi State Bulldogs are out to a 5-0 start and will host #2 Auburn this weekend.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL- The upsets actually began as early as Thursday night, with the Arizona Wildcats holding on against the #2 Oregon Ducks by a 31-24 final. On Firday night, the Utah State Aggies handed #18 BYU their first loss of the season, going on to win 35-20.

On Saturday, Texas Christian handed the Oklahoma Sooners their first loss in a wild one at Amon G Carter Stadium in Fort Worth that included Horned Frogs LB Paul Dawson picking off Sooners QB Trevor Knight's pass and running it back 41 yards for a TD early in the 4th quarter. On the point after attempt, it was successfully blocked before being run back for 2 points by Sooners DT Jordan Phillips to cut TCU's lead to 37-33. However, that would be the last of the scoring and #25 TCU remains undefeated and advances to #9 in the college football standings while #4 Oklahoma was handed their first loss and dropped down to #11 in the rankings.

But there was more......especially out on the West Coast. Utah ended up beating #8 UCLA by a final of 30-28 while Arizona State trailed #16 USC late in the fourth. The Sun Devils had the ball on the Trojans 46 and trailed 34-32 with just 7 seconds left in the game when this happened.



The Trojans would go on to lose by a 38-34 final, their second loss since playing Boston College at Chestnut Hill and their first loss of the season within the Pac 12 conference.

MEANWHILE IN THE ACC- The Boston College Eagles had the weekend off after their September 27th 24-21 loss to Colorado state, but will resume this weekend in Raleigh, NC as they take on the North Carolina State Wolfpack on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 ET and the game will be broadcast on ESPN3 streaming.

NFL- And then there were none.

The last of the undefeated teams in the NFL this season turned out to be the Cincinnati Bengals, and that only lasted until Sunday night against New England at Gillette Stadium.

Heading into Sunday night's game there were a number of storylines- could the Pats and Brady bounce back after last week's fiasco at Arrowhead, not to mention the final remaining undefeated team in the NFL [Arizona also got out to a 3-0 start, had a bye and then lost to the Broncos earlier in the day- NANESB!]. But what really had people talking during and after the game was the Patriot's tribute to the cancer-stricken daughter of defensive lineman Devon Still in the 3rd quarter.

During a timeout in the third quarter on Sunday night, the Patriots let Still know that they were with him and his daughter during their battle. Patriots cheerleaders donned Still’s Bengals jersey as the music video played on the big screens, and Patriots owner Robert Kraft donated $25,000 to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Leah’s name.

Still was shown on the big screen following the music video, and got a little emotional when he received an ovation from the Gillette Stadium crowd. You could see tears stream down his face,

Reaction across Social Media was quick, with accolades for the Patriots as well as pledges of support from other NFL players and owners for Devon and Leah Still. Still was sporting a nose strip that had the hashtag #LeahStrong on the Sunday night game.

Meanwhile, on the field Brady seemed to have quieted his critics with a TD pass in the first half as well as a 1 yard Stevan Ridley TD run and 3 Gostkowski field goals to make it a 20-3 game at the half.

Cincinnati scored on their second possession of the second half with a 37 yard TD pass from QB Andy Dalton to WR Mohamed Sanu to make it a 20-10 lead for New England, but on the following possession, Brady capped an 86 yard drive with a 16 yard TD Pass to TE Rob Gronkowski to put New England up 27-10. Things only got worse for the Bengals when they fumbled the ensuing kickoff and it was recovered by Kyle Arrington on special teams and run back for the second Patriots TD in just 6 seconds of playing time.

Unlike Kansas City, the Patriots would go on to cruise to a 43-17 win, with all the scoring in the 4th quarter coming off the leg of Gostkowski. Tom Brady would go 23-35 with 292 yards and 2 TDs while Cincinnati's Andy Dalton would go 15-24 with 204 yards and 2 TDs. Stevan Ridley would lead New England's ground attack after rushing for a total of 113 yards and a TD.

This sets up only the second intra-conference matchup for New England this weekend when the Patriots travel to Orchard Park, NY to take on the Buffalo Bills, who are sporting a similar 3-2 record [but do have at least one win against an AFC East opponent this year- NANESB!]. Kickoff is at 1:00 ET and the game will be televised on CBS.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL- Week 6 gets underway with a Thursday night AFC South matchup between the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts. Kickoff is 8:25 PM and the game will be televised on the NFL Network.

MLB PLAYOFFS For the first time since 1985, the Kansas City Royals are advancing to the American League Championship Series. This comes after the team completed a sweep of the Anaheim Angels at Kauffman Stadium on Sunday night- a sweep of the team that could boast the best regular season in MLB, no less.

The only time the favored Angels led was in the first inning when outfielder Mike Trout belted a 412 foot solo homer to deep left center off of starter James Shields- I'm not talking just game 3, but the only time in the entire American League division series. In the bottom of the 3rd, a shaky CJ Wilson ended up loading the bases with singles to Nori Aoki and Lorenzo Cain and waling Billy Butler after striking out Eric Hosmer. That brought up the home-grown Alex Gordon, who belted a 2-2 offering off of the wall in left center field to clear the bases with a 3-RBI double and give the Royals the lead back as they led it 3-1.

Halos manager Mike Socia went to the bullpen early, but that wouldn't slow down the Royals as they got two more runs in the bottom of the 3rd thanks to a 2-run Eric Hosmer homer to make it a 5-1 game. The Angels would close the gap a little thanks to a 391 foot solo homer from Albert Pujols, but the Royals would start of pull away in the 4th thanks to a Mike Moustakas solo homer and Lorenzo Cain RBI sac fly to give KC a 7-2 lead.

The Royals would go on to cruise to an 8-3 win over the Angels, sweeping the team with the best record in the Majors. This sets up a meeting with the Baltimore Orioles, who put the finishing touches on a sweep of their own, bouncing the AL Central winning Detroit Tigers from the first round of the postseason.

NLDS- Meanwhile in the National League Division series, it will be a rematch of the 2012 NLCS after the St Louis Cardinals bested the LA Dodgers 3 games to 1 in the first round while the San Francisco Giants also got by the Washington Nationals by a similar margin, including an 18 inning marathon in the nation's capital last weekend.

That series gets underway on Saturday night and will be televised on FOX and FOX Sports One.

NHL- It's here! It's here!

The NHL regular season got underway on Wednesday night with the Bruins taking on the Flyers at the TD Garden.



Reilly Smith got the scoring started in the first with a power play tally midway through the first. Through 2 periods, Rask turned aside 13 shots from Philadelphia while Steve Mason turned aside 19 of 20 shots from the Bruins, keeping the Flyers very much in the game.

Just four minutes into the 3rd, the Flyer managed to tie the contest up at 1-1 thanks to a Sean Coutourier goal. However, Chris Kelly would notch the go-ahead goal for the B's with just a minute fifty to go. The Bruins hang on to win by a 2-1 final in their home opener and will immediately travel to Detroit to take on the Red Wings for Thursday night's game.

Puck is scheduled to drop at 7:30 ET at Joe Louis Arena and the game will be televised on NESN.

Hump Day Sports Chowdah Update- Sox Engineer Twin Killing at Fenway; Feat of Clayton, Dodgers Starter Kershaw Throws No-Hitter; Team USA Gets By Ghana in 1st Round of World Cup While Reigning Spain Mainly Plain; Bruins, Thronton Part Ways; Suprred to Action, San Antionio Wins 5th NBA Title

RED SOX- The streak-ey Red Sox followed up Rubby De LaRosa's gem on Monday night with a couple of pitcher's duels at Fenway on Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon.

On Tuesday, Jon Lester got run support in the form of a Pedroia RBI single in the 1st and a Bogaerts sac fly in the 3rd [Brock Holt was the runner that crossed the plate both times- NANESB!] and was able to outlast former Yankees starter Phil Hughes in Boston's 2-1 win on Tuesday night.

Wednesday was an afternoon game as the Red Sox were getting ready to leave on a west coast road trip. Twins starter Kyle Gibson confounded the Red Sox bats, ultimately striking out 8 and not allowing a hit until the bottom of the 5th. Lackey pitched nine complete shutout innings, but got no decision in the afternoon contest.

The first RBI of the game came when Twins outfielder Chris Parmalee belted a solo homer in the top of the 10th off of Koji Uehara in the top of the 10th to give the Twins the first lead of this week's series at Fenway.

However, after Minnesota reliever Casey Fein got Dustin Pedroia to fly out for the first out of the bottom of the 10th, David Ortiz managed to tie the contest up 1-1 with a solo homer that wrapped around the Pesky pole.



But the Red Sox weren't done with the extra-inning heroics....not by a longshot. Speaking of long shots, that's exactly what Mike Napoli did with an 0-2 pitch from Casey Stein that didn't come down until it reached the bleacher seats in the triangle behind deep center field. Boston wins by a 2-1 final, sweeping a surprisingly low-scoring series against Minnesota after splitting a 4-game series against Terry Francona's Indians. Despite scoring a combined total five runs over 3 days, the Red Sox are 3-0 this week. Despite allowing an uncharacteristic homer, Koji Uehara was credited with the win on Wednesday and now has a 2-1 record.

Hopefully some of this momentum will carry over to the west coast as the Red Sox will resume play on Thursday night in Oakland. Jake Peavy [1-4; 4.53 ERA] will get the start against Oakland's Scott Kazmir [8-2; 2.05 ERA] with first pitch scheduled for 10:05 ET, 7:05 PT- the game will be televised on NESN.


OTHER RED SOX NEWS- Red Sox starter Brandon Workman has lost an appeal with MLB and will begin serving a 6-game suspension for throwing at Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria last month. Despite Rays pitchers- including starter David Price- hitting three Red Sox batters, no Tampa Bays pitchers have faced any MLB sanction from the May 30 contest.

Also on Wednesday, the Red Sox released outfielder Grady Sizemore outright. In 52 games with Boston this season, Sizemore has struggled- batting .216 with 2 HR and 15 RBI. June has been particularly hard on him as he's lost playing time with the emergence of Brock Holt and has been batting .133 with only 1 RBI in 30 at-bats.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS- There have been only two no hitters in Major League baseball so far this season and both of them belong to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

On Wednesday night, Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw struck out 15 in an 8-0 rout of the Colorado Rockies. The only baserunner to reach was outfielder Corey Dickerson who reached on a throwing error by infielder Hanley Ramirez in the 6th inning, costing Kershaw the chance at a perfect game. Still, Kershaw set down the rest of the batters he faced in order.

Earlier in the season, Josh Beckett threw a no-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies on May 25th. Interesting, Kershaw's no-hitter was the 19th called by Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully throughout his career calling games in both Brooklyn and Los Angeles- this includes no-hitters thrown against LA, the most recent of which was a combined 6-pitcher no-hitter for the Mariners against LA at Safeco field in Seattle in June 2012.


NCAA BASEBALL- The final four teams for the NCAA College world series are almost set as the Texas Longhorns got by the UC Irvine Anteaters by a 1-0 final in Omaha on Wednesday night.

A baserunning error by the Longhorn's Ben Johnson in the 6th inning cost Texas a run. Johnson hit the ball into the left field corner and advanced to 3rd base, but was called out after it was determined he didn't touch first base. Mark Payton then hit a single that would've easily scored Johnson to give them a 1-0 lead, however, the Anteaters ended the Longhorn threat with no runs allowed.

Instead, CJ Hinojosa got Texas on the board with a solo homer in the 7th inning to give Texas the 1-0 lead that held up thanks to the Longhorns relievers. With just the second 1-0 game in the college World Series since 1985 and only the 23rd homer in the CWS since the venue was moved to TD Ameritrade Park from Rosenblatt stadium in 2011, Texas will now advance to face Vanderbilt on Friday.

Meanwhile, Virginia awaits the winner of Thursday nights contest between the TCU Horned Frogs and Ole Miss Running Rebels. First pitch from Omaha is scheduled for 5:00 ET and the game will be televised on ESPN.

FIFA WORLD CUP- We're already a few days into the FIFA World Cup from Brazil and Team USA is off to a good start.

Rookie John Brooks was the difference-maker in Monday's match against Ghana when the substitute scored in the 86th minute to break a 1-1 deadlock. Team USA would go on to win by a 2-1 final, avenging an earlier loss to Ghana's 'Black Stars' from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. After Monday's win, the USA will have nearly a week's rest to go up against Portugal on Sunday from Arena Amazonia in Manaus, Brazil.

For the World Cup, the USA plays in what some have called 'The Pool of Death' which includes Portugal, Ghana and Germany.

Meanwhile, it's all over for defending World Cup champion Spain. They were blown in by the Netherlands in a devastating 5-1 loss to open up the tournament with a rematch of the 2010 title game before being shut out 2-0 by Chile. For a bit of perspective, Spain allowed all of two goals during their 2010 run in South Africa.

NBA FINALS- In a rematch of the 2013 NBA title that saw Miami win it in 7 games against San Antionio, the 2014 edition was nearly all San Antonio. The Spurs closed out the series with a exclamation point, crushing Miami by a 104-87 final in Game 5, and it wasn't even that close.

Forward Kawhi Leonard was named the tournament MVP and the title was head coach Greg Popovich's fifth since starting his tenure in San Antonio in 1996.

NFL- In a ruling from the US Trademark and Patent office this week, the Washington Redskins may lose copyright protection for their name and logo after the Agency's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled that the name was disparaging of Native Americans.

The Redskins organization announced that they would appeal the ruling and the team's copyrighted name and logo will still be protected during that time. While a number of Native American groups [including some of the Navajo Code Talkers from WWII- NANESB!] have said they have no issue with the Redskins name, a number of local and federal politicians- including US Senate Majority leader Harry Reid [D- NV] have called upon the organization to change names and threatening legal or legislative action to do so [because all the other problems in America- ESPECIALLY on Indian reservations- have been solved- NANESB!].

Redskins owner Dan Snyder has so far resisted pressure to change the Redskins name and mascot. The team was originally formed in 1932 as the Boston Braves and played at Fenway Park before moving to Washington DC in 1937.


BOSTON BRUINS- The Boston Bruins have decided not to re-sign defenseman Shawn Thornton. The 36 year old became a free agent at the end of the season.

Thornton, who has been with Boston since 2007 has been in two Stanley Cup finals, winning it against Vancouver in 7 games in 2011. However, at the end of the season Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli indicated that the game was moving away from the fisticuffs that Thornton specialized him and that they would make a decision about his future in Boston over the next few weeks. More recently, Thornton received a 15 suspension last season for his beatdown of Pittsburgh Penguins enforcer Brooks Orpik after Thornton blindsided him and dragged him down to the ice.

The announcement allows Thornton to pursue other offers as a free agent and a number of teams would be interested in having a veteran player with his playoff experience on the ice.

Home Cookin' Sports Chowdah Update- Home of the Braves, No Hospitality as Atlanta's NL Club Gets Back to Its Beantown Roots; Beckett Notches First Career No-No, Shuts out Phils

RED SOX- Somebody break up the Red Sox! Of course, if I said that a week ago it would've sounded like some sort of plea to invoke the mercy rule when they looked to be matching or beating the record for consecutive regular season games lost by a defending World Series champion with that disastrous series against Tampa Bay [Not to mention the homestand against Toronto and Detroit- NANESB!].

Although it didn't look that way at first, things started to turn around with Monday afternoon's game at Turner Field when the Red Sox rallied from a 6-1 deficit to tie the game at 6-6 before a rainstorm moved in and caused an hour-long delay. After the delay, the Red Sox got two more runs and the bullpen persevered to make it an 8-6 final- their first win since May 14th.

The following night in Atlanta, Boston made it two in a row after scoring four unanswered runs in the top of the 7th, rallying from a 3-2 hole to go on and win by a 6-3 final.

Wednesday night saw the series shift to Boston- the original home of the Braves until 1953- and the games opened up with a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the 2004 World Series team with alumni on field [with the notable exception of Big Papi- the only member of the 2004 'idiots' still on the Red Sox roster- NANESB!]. This included a ceremonial first pitch from Manny Ramirez that was cut off by fellow outfielder Johnny Damon in an impromptu recreation of one of the more infamous "Manny being Manny" moments during his time with the Red Sox



It gets better for Red Sox nation, though. After the ceremonial first pitch, Lackey and the Red Sox bullpen hurled a gem with Lackey, Tazawa, Capuano and Breslow shutting out the Braves by a 4-0 final and capping their 3rd straight win.

On Thursday night at Fenway, the Braves jumped out to an early lead with a Jason Heyward solo homer in the 3rd and an RBI single from Evan Gattis to make it 2-0. In the bottom of the 5th the Red Sox got on the board with an RBI double to make it 2-1, but Atlanta added to their lead with a booming Freddie Freeman RBI double that barely stayed in the park to put Atlanta up 3-1.

In the bottom of the 8th, Brock Holt led off the inning with a single to shallow left off of David Carpenter and advanced to second on a fielding error by Justin Upton. This was followed by a Xander Bogaerts single that plated Holt to make it a 1-run game. Dustin Pedroia would then single to put Bogaerts in scoring position with nobody out. Bogaerts then came home on a Pierzynski single to tie the game up at 3-3.

Carpenter got Gomes to strike out for the first out of the bottom of the 8th before Luis Avilan came out of the Braves pen to strike out Grady Sizemore and intentionally walk Big Papi. Craig Kimbrel then came out of the Atlanta pen to get David Ross to strike out and end the threat, but the damage had been done.

After Uehara came on in relief of starter Jake Peavy, Ryan Doumit led off the inning with a single followed by a Tommy LaStella sac bunt to move pinch-runner Jordan Schafer over to second. With Schafer in scoring position, Uehara got Andrelton Simmons to ground out and Jason Heyward to strike out and end the Braves threat in the top of the 9th.

In the bottom of the 9th, Jackie Bradley Jr and Brock Holt led off with walks, putting runners in scoring position right away and with nobody out. On Kimbrel's 15th pitch of the inning, Xander Bogarts hit into what initially looked like a double play- or at least a routine groundout- to 3rd, but Braves 3B Chris Johnson's throw to second was low and dribbled past Tommy LaStella.



An alert Jackie Bradley Jr bolted for home and Lastella's throw was wide of the plate, giving the Red Sox a walkoff 4-3 win in the bottom of the 9th to complete the home-and-away series sweep against Atlanta.

While winning four straight against a club like the Atlanta Braves is always good, the Red Sox need to improve their record within the AL East and they'll have a chance to do exactly that when they host the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night. David Price [4-4; 4.42 ERA] is scheduled to get the start against Brandon Workman, who was recently called up from Triple-A Pawtucket. In seven starts against the International League this season, Workman has a 3-1 record with a 5.12 ERA.

The game will be televised on NESN with first pitch scheduled for 7:10 ET.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB- Former Red Sox starter Josh Beckett has pitched the first no-hitter of the 2014 season last weekend as the Dodgers blanked the Phillies 6-0 on Sunday. This also marks the first no-hitter in Beckett's distinguished career and the first no-hitter for the Dodgers since 1996. Although Beckett's no-no was the first of 2014, the last MLB no-hitter actually took place on the final day of the 2013 regular season when Marlins [another one of Beckett's former clubs- NANESB] starter Henderson Alvarez threw a no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers.

Beckett, a 1999 1st round draft pick by the Marlins, made his MLB debut for Florida in 2001 and won his first World Series in 2003, besting the Yankees in six games. In 2006, Beckett and then-teammate Mike Lowell were traded to Boston and Beckett won a World Series title with the Red Sox in 2007 after Boston swept the Colorado Rockies in four games.

During the colossal trainwreck that was the 2012 season, an underperforming Beckett was traded to Los Angeles along with outfielder Carl Crawford and 1B Adrian Gonzalez for infielder James Loney in the biggest post-deadline transaction in MLB history. Although the Red Sox had to pay the salaries of the traded players for the remainder of the 2012 season, the move freed up nearly $250 million in salary for the Red Sox.

Beckett's pitch total

40 Years Ago Tonight- Henry Aaron Breaks Babe Ruth's Career Home Run Record at Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium

Tuesday night marks the 40th anniversary of Henry Aaron hitting career HR #715, breaking Babe Ruth's record. Aaron, who spent most of his career with the Braves, faced anonymous death threats in the run up to surpassing Babe Ruth's mark in a deep south not too far removed from Jim Crow- although this wasn't widely known until well after Aaron's 1976 retirement. In fact, journalists and MLB security briefly feared the worst when two white fans rushed out of the stands towards Aaron as he rounded the bases, but as it turned out they were fans who wanted to be the first to congratulate him.


At the time, Aaron was the last player from the Negro Leagues still playing in the big leagues, playing for the Indianapolis Clowns as an 18 year old. Aaron reportedly entertained offers from the Boston Braves and New York Giants- according to Aaron himself, the only thing that separated him from becoming teammates with Willie Mays was that the Braves offered an extra $50 a month. However, by the time Aaron made his MLB debut in 1954, the Braves had moved from Boston to Milwaukee.


By 1957, the Milwaukee Braves bested the New York Yankees in 7 games in the World Series- Aaron's only World Series title in his 22 year MLB career. In 1966 the Braves moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta, putting the Alabama-born Aaron back in the Deep South for the first time since he came up through the Braves farm system.


Aaron, who turned 80 a few weeks ago and still resides in the Atlanta area, will be honored during a pregame ceremony at Turner Field before the Braves/Mets game on Tuesday night.


Interestingly, out of the three broadcasters who were calling the game that April night in Georgia, two of them were calling games until 2012 season. Milo Hamilton was the Braves broadcaster that night and went on to become the Astros broadcaster until his 2012 retirement. The late Curt Gowdy called the game for NBC's national telecast that night- he passed away in 2006 and has a state park in his native Wyoming named after him. Since the Braves were playing the visiting Dodgers that night, that meant that Vin Scully was doing the play-by-play for Los Angeles that night. Scully began his 61st year as the Dodgers broadcaster this month.

Opening Day Is Here!

Nobody could sum up my love of baseball better than the late Ernie Hariwell and the final portion of his 1981 Hall of Fame Induction speech.



The 2014 MLB Baseball season technically got underway last weekend in Sydney, Australia when the Los Angeles Dodgers took on the Arizona Diamondbacks at the Sydney Cricket Ground, sweeping the two-game series Down Under.

However, Sunday night marks the beginning of the 2014 season in the USA- the LA Dodgers will take on the San Diego Padres at PetCo park at 8:05 ET and the game will be televised on ESPN. The Dodgers come into Sunday's game already two games up on the Padres by virtue of the fact that the two games they played in Australia counted as regular season wins. LA's Hyun Jin-Ryu will get the start against San Diego's Andrew Cashner.

Closer to the Hub, the Boston Red Sox will embark on their defense of their 2013 World Series title at Baltimore's Camden Yards. Jon Lester will get the start against Chris Tillman in Baltimore's home opener, and the game will be televised on ESPN2 with first pitch scheduled for 3:05 ET. Once a perennial doormat in the AL East, Baltimore was the only opponent in the division to have a winning record against Boston in 2013 with an 11-8 record versus the BoSox.

The Red Sox home opener is set for Friday, April 4th and it will be interleague play right out of the gate when they host the Milwaukee Brewers. First pitch for the Fenway Park home opener is scheduled for 2:05 and the game will be televised on NESN.

In the 'Zona Sports Chowdah Update- Arizona Iced B's, Bruins Rally Late for 12th Straight Win; Thunder Down Under, Dodgers and Diamondbacks Open Up 2014 MLB Season at Sydney Cricket Grounds

Ross D Franklin- AP

NHL- Less than 24 hours after getting their 11th straight win in Colorado [a 2-0 shutout with their backup goalie, no less- NANESB!] the Boston Bruins made their way to Arizona to take on the Phoenix Coyotes for the second time in 8 days.

Although the Coyotes started out aggressively, Patrice Bergeron drew first blood with a goal just 3:25 into the first period. However, with less than four minutes to go, Coyotes Captain Shane Doan got the equalizer to tie the game up at 1-1. Also in the final 30 seconds of the first, Boston's Matt Bartkowski was sent to the sin bin for tripping. Although the Coyotes weren't able to do anything in the dying seconds of the first, most of that penalty would carry over to the second period where Phoenix's Oliver Ekman-Larsson would put the Coyotes on top 2-1.



This was actually the first time in seven games that the Bruins had trailed, but just 3:48 into the 3rd period, Jarome Iginla would get the equalizer to make it a 2-2 game. After twelve minutes of quick, intense and at times chippy play where it looked as though the contest would be heading for overtime, Shawn Thornton put Boston back on top with 3:18 left in regulation. Shortly after the go-ahead goal, the Coyotes pulled netminder Mike Smith for an extra attacker- however, Iginla was able to corral the puck out by the blue line and shot it for a back-breaking empty net goal with 30 seconds to go in regulation.

Boston goes on to win its 12th straight in game- this time before a standing-room only crowd of nearly 17,500 at Glendale's Jobing.com arena. Iginla has now scored 10 goals in the Bruin's last nine games while Tukka Rask stopped 31 of 33 shots faced in Glendale. By way of comparison, Mike Smith had faced 27 shots on goal and turned aside 24. The win gives Boston sole possession of the Eastern Conference lead [the 103 points is currently tied with St Louis for the best in the NHL- NANESB!]. The Bruins are now two wind shy of tying a franchise record of 14 straight wins that was set during the 1929-1930 season.

After Saturday's contest in the Grand Canyon state, the Bruins will travel back to Boston for a Monday night prime time matchup against the Montreal Canadiens. Puck is scheduled to drop and the game will be televised nationally on NBC Sports Network.

Mark Kolbe- Getty

MLB- As the Bruins and Coyotes were going head-to-head, some 7800 miles away the MLB season was getting underway Down Under. As in previous seasons, MLB had decided to start the regular season overseas while most teams were still winding down Spring Training. This time around, the season got underway as the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks went head-to-head in Australia at the Sydney Cricket ground over the weekend. The 48,000 seat cricket venue was painstakingly converted to a ballpark for the MLB's downunder opener.

The Dodgers took Friday's Game 1 by a final of 3-1. It looked as though they were on their way to an easy sweep of the two game series after getting out to a 7-0 lead against Arizona, but the Diamondbacks got on the board in the bottom of the 8th with an RBI single from offseason pickup Mark Trumbo to make it 7-1. With one out in the bottom of the 9th and runners on second and third, Martin Prado cut the lead to make it 7-3 Dodgers. Not wanting to take any more chances, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly brought start Paul Maholm into the game to get the final two outs and kill the Arizona rally. However, after striking out Miguel Montero, Mattingly brought in reliever Kenley Jansen, who immediately offered up a booming homer to Trumbo to pull the Diamondbacks to within two runs. However, Jansen would then strike out Martin Prado to end the ballgame, giving the Dodgers a sweep of the Sydney series.

The Dodgers will resume regular season play next weekend- this time on the same continent- as they face the San Diego Padres at PETCo Park in San Diego on Sunday, March 30th. First pitch is scheduled for 8:05 ET and the game will be televised on ESPN.

Quickie Sports Chowdah Update- Category 8, Bruins Top 'Canes For 8th Straight Win and Season Sweep;

BOSTON BRUINS- March is shaping up to be a terrific month for the Bruins. After their rout of Montreal on Wednesday night, the B's returned home to face the Phoenix Coyotes who were fighting to secure one of the final playoff berths out west. The Bruins did all of their scoring in the first, with Zdeno Chara and Jarome Iginla accounting for all the Boston goals before Phoenix's Lauri Korpikoski ended Tukka Rask's shutout bid about midway through the third and cut the Boston lead in half. However, the Bruins would hang on to win by a 2-1 final.

On Saturday afternoon, the Bruins would play host to the Carolina Hurricanes, who were a game over .500 and looking to get into the 8th and final playoff spot in the East with a few weeks to go in the regular season.



Milan Lucic opened up the scoring for Boston in the first with 4:32 to go after driving a Krejci rebound past 'Canes goalie Cam Ward. With just over 2 and a half minutes to go in the second, Iginla gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead. However, three minutes into the 3rd stanza, Alexander Semin made it a 1-goal game for the 'Canes when Chad Johnson couldn't corral a bouncing puck. However, the Bruins would pile on three unanswered goals later on in the 3rd (from Chris Kelly, Iginla and Torey Krug) to go on and win by a final of 5-1.

Chad Johnson stopped 29 of 30 shots faced while Iginla would have a two-goal game, scoring three goals since Thursday's contest against Phoenix. The Bruins will next host the Minnesota Wild on Monday night before embarking on a 3-game road trip that takes them to New Jersey, Colorado and Phoenix. Monday night's game will be nationally televised on NBC Sports with the puck scheduled to drop at 7:30 PM ET.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL- Even with the Bruins on a hot streak, it seemed like it still wasn't enough to vault past the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Eastern Conference lead as recently as Thursday's contest against the Coyotes. However, the Bruins got a lot of help this weekend from the Flyers when they swept a home-and-away series against the Penguins. After shutting out the Penguins at home by a 4-0 final on Saturday, Philly edged the Pens by a 4-3 final at Pittsburgh's Consol Energy Center on Sunday afternoon.

The Bruins currently sit atop the Eastern Conference with 95 points, and Pittsburgh missed an opportunity to gain any ground on Sunday and now remain three points behind.

MLB- The team with baseball's biggest payroll- the LA Dodgers- have broken camp on their spring training facility at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, AZ and are currently enroute to Australia where they will take on the Arizona Diamondbacks at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Australia's largest city as well as an exhibition game against Australia's national team.

The two games (which are scheduled for March 22nd at 4 AM and 10 PM ET, respectively) mark the start of the 2014 MLB regular season while the rest of the league gets started on March 31st.

Five Alive Sports Chowdah Update- Lester, Red Sox Bullpen Keeps Lid on Tigers Bats; Bird Watch- St Louis Advances to World Series; Bruins Encounter Some-Tim Familiar in Florida

Rick Osentoski- USA Today

RED SOX- After Wednesday night's lackluster start by Jake Peavy and Detroit's 7-3 win over Boston, the ALCS became a best of three series with the Tigers evening things up at 2 games each. Tigers manager Jim Leyland's shakeup of the Tigers lineup seemed to pay dividends for Detroit and they were hoping to keep that going for Game 5 on Thursday night.

The last time the Red Sox faced Anibal Sanchez, he didn't allow a single hit and the Tigers bullpen held Boston hitless until the bottom of the 9th in Game 1. Game 5 of the ALCS was a slightly different story. This time, the Red Sox didn't have to wait nearly as long for their first hit against Sanchez, starting with a 2-out single by Pedroia in the top of the first.

On Thursday night, the Red Sox were looking pull ahead in the series and got out of an early jam in the bottom of the first when Miguel Cabrera attempted to come home from second on a two out Jhonny Peralta single, but was cut down at the plate by David Ross to end the early Tigers threat.



The Red Sox got on the board in the top of the second thanks to a leadoff homer by Mike Napoli- a 3-1 offering that was blasted at least 440 feet into dead center. Johnny Gomes then reached first safely on a throwing error by Miguel Cabrera and after Stephen Drew struck out, Xander Bogaerts doubled to left to give the Red Sox had runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out. David Ross then doubled to deep left, plating Gomes and moving Bogaerts to 3rd. Ellsbury then lined a hit off of Sanchez's glove that trickled to a halt on the infield grass behind the pitcher's mound between first and second, allowing Bogarts coming to home and giving the Red Sox a 3-0 lead. Shane Victorino then hit into a fielder's choice where David Ross plowed into catcher Alex Avila at the plate where he was called out. The inning ended when Pedroia grounded into a fielder's choice at shortstop.

Meanwhile, Lester had settled down, allowing only an Austin Jackson single in the bottom of the bottom of the 2nd. In the top of the 3rd, Napoli belted a ground-rule double and advanced to third on a Gomes groundout. Napoli then came home on a wild pitch by Sanchez to make it a 4-0 game.

Lester would then pitch two scoreless innings before Detroit got on the board thanks to a 2-out Miguel Cabrera RBI single. Detroit would then cut the Red Sox lead in half after Victor Martinez led off the inning with a walk to Victor Martinez before striking out Jhonny Peralta and allowing a single to Omar Infante. Lester was pulled for Junichi Tazawa, giving up a single to Barayan Pena before getting Austin Jackson to ground into a double play to end the inning.

Detroit would threaten again in the bottom of the 7th after Tazawa gave up back to back singles to Jose Iglesias and Torii Hunter. While a run did come home, whittling the Boston lead down to 1, the Red Sox got two much-needed outs when Miguel Cabrera hit into a double play. Craig Breslow would then come on in relief of Tazawa and get Prince Fielder to ground out and end the Tigers rally.

Meanwhile, Jose Veras was cruising after coming out of the Tigers bullpen, getting Napoli, Gomes and Drew out in order in the top of the 8th. After Breslow got Victor Martinez out with a groundout to leadoff the inning, manager John Farrell made the unconventional decision to bring Koji Uehara out of the bullpen for a 5-out save, striking out Jhonny Peralta and Omar Infante. While the Red Sox managed to threaten with runners on second and third with one away before Al Albuquerque struck out Victorino and got Pedroia to fly out to shallow center field.

For the bottom of the 9th, Uehara got three straight flyouts to end the ballgame, securing the Red Sox win and securing a 3 games to two advantage in the ALCS, winning by a 4-3 final. The Red Sox head back to Fenway needing just one more win to advance to the World Series and Clay Buchholz is scheduled to get the start against Max Scherzer for Game 6. First pitch is scheduled for 8:07 PM on Saturday and the game will be televised on FOX.

A couple of notes from Game 5- Mike Napoli went 3-4 with 1 homer and an RBI and crossed home plate twice, making him 6 for 16 with 2 homers and 2 RBI in the ALCS. Xander Bogaerts became the youngest starter in Red Sox history to appear in the postseason. All of Boston's ALCS victories have come by a margin of one run.


NLCS- Regardless of who wins the ALCS over the weekend, it will be a rematch of either the 2004 or 2006 World Series as the St Louis Cardinals took the deciding Game 6 of the NLCS by a convincing 9-0 final. Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw was roughed up, allowing 10 hits and 7 earned runs in just four innings of work while Cardinals starter Michael Wacha threw 7 shutout innings of two-hit baseball. Although the first two innings started out as a scoreless tie, the Cardinals broke the game open in the bottom of the third thanks to RBI singles from Carlos Beltran, Yadier Molina and Shane Robinson. Robinson's two out, 2-RBI single would be all the Cardinals needed, getting five more runs in the bottom of the 5th and having their bullpen throw two shutout innings in relief of former Texas A&M Aggie Wacha.

The Cardinals cruise to a 9-0 victory over LA and await the winner of this weekend's ALCS at Fenway after winning the National League championship series 4 games to two.

Alan Diaz- AP

BOSTON BRUINS- The Bruins came up short in that OTHER Detroit vs Boston game this week before embarking on a road trip that started off in the sunshine State.

While in Sunrise, the B's encountered a familiar face in the decidedly un-retired Tim Thomas, who signed on to a 1 year contract with the Florida Panthers after a late September tryout with the team.

In the first, the Bruins were able to notch two tallies past their former teammate- one from Danny Paille and a power play goal from Dougie Hamilton to give Boston a 2-0 lead.

After the first intermission, the Panthers got on the board and cut the Bruins lead in half with a Kris Versteeg goal for the only score of the 2nd period. Florida than got the game-tying goal with six minutes to go in regulation thanks to Jesse Winchester. Acquired in the Tyler Seguin trade with Dallas in the offseason, Reilly Smith notched his first goal with Boston after beating Thomas with 59 seconds to go in the game, giving Boston the 3-2 win as the Bruins held on for the win with less than a minute to go.

Boston goes on to win by the 3-2 final in Sunrise, giving them a 4-2 record in the young 2013/2014 season so far. Rask stopped 27 of 29 shots faced while Thomas turned aside 37 of 40 shots faced [even after Thomas left the Bruins, didn't think I'd be doing a game recap with Rask and Thomas in opposite nets- NANESB!] and Boston was 1-3 on the power play.

The Bruins will stay in Florida for their next game, heading over to Tampa to take on the 5-2 Lightning. Puck is scheduled to drop at 7:00 ET and the game will be televised on NESN.

Lights Out Sports Chowdah Update- Sox Avoid Tiger Trap in Game 3 as Lackey Exceeds Expectations; No Door Matts- Cardinals Take NLCS Game 4 on Carpenter, Holliday RBIs

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

RED SOX- I'll be honest- if someone told me in the 7th inning of Sunday night's Game 2 of the ALCS that the Red Sox would have a 2-1 series lead, I'd ask them what the hell they were smoking and if they brought enough to share.

So here we are, 48 hours later. A large part of the urgency for the Red Sox in Game 2 was that not only would it have been bad enough heading to Detroit down 0-2, but they were also scheduled to face Tigers ace Justin Verlander, which would almost automatically guarantee the Red Sox falling into an ALCS 0-3 hole.

Fortunately for Red Sox Nation, Big Papi and Salty's late-inning heroics made the whole argument a moot point. On Tuesday afternoon, the ALCS resumed from Comerica Park in Detroit, MI with Verlander going up against John Lackey. To hardly anyone's surprise, Verlander was cruising early while Lackey was able to work around two singles he gave up in the bottom of the first to Torii Hunter without doing any damage.

Things took an odd turn in the middle of the second inning when the stadium lights went out. Even though it was a day game, the umpires decided to resume the game only after all the lights were back on given the gloomy and overcast conditions. Michigan utility DTE [NYSE- DTE] said the power outage was likely the result of a nearby cable failure. After a 17-minute delay, play at Comerica Park resumed.

But that wasn't the only power failure in Comerica on Tuesday. While it was almost a given that Verlander would keep the Red Sox bats quiet [true to the nature of the series, the Red Sox were held hitless until the 5th inning- NANESB!], Lackey would match Verlander's performance nearly pitch for pitch...with one key difference.

With one away in the top of the 7th and Napoli in the batter's box working the count full, the Red Sox broke the scoreless tie thanks to a solo homer to deep left center.



Meanwhile, Lackey would leave with one on and two away in the bottom of the 7th. Craig Breslow would come on and walk Alex Avila before getting Omar Infante to ground out and end the Detroit threat. The Sox bullpen would walk a tightrope in the bottom of the 8th- after Breslow got former teammate Jose Iglesias to strike out he walked Austin Jackson. Junichi Tazawa then came out of the pen and gave up a single to Torii Hunter with Jackson advancing all the way to third base. Tazawa would then get Miguel Cabrera to strike out before John Farrell would bring out Koji Uehara for the four out save. Uehara managed to shut down the Detroit threat by striking out Prince Fielder on three pitches.

When Uehara came back on in the 9th, he allowed a leadoff single from former Red Sox and Indian Victor Martinez, but Martinez would be erased from the basepath when Jhonny Peralta grounded into a double play. Avila would strike out to end the ballgame and give Boston a 2-1 series lead in the ALCS after Lackey, Breslow, Tazawa and Uehara made Napoli's solo homer stand up. Lackey would go 6⅔ shutout innings while striking out 8 batters and the bullpen would preserve the shutout for him.

A couple of interesting side notes- Tuesday's 1-0 win is the first 1-0 victory by the Red Sox in the postseason since Game 1 of the 1986 World Series against the Mets. Interestingly, Napoli's first career hit was with the Angels and was a home run off of Justin Verlander in 2006- also at Comerica Park.

Wednesday's Game 4 is scheduled for 8:07 PM ET from Comerica Park. The game will be televised on FOX and Jake Peavy and Doug Fister are slated to be the starters.

Chris Carlson- AP

ELSEWHERE IN MLB- After winning the first two games of the NLCS at Busch Stadium by a 1-0 margin, the Cardinals were shut out by Hyun Jin Ryu in a 3-0 loss on Monday night's Game 3 at Dodger stadium.

Still, the St Louis Cardinals have moved to within one game of advancing to the World Series on Tuesday night after besting the Dodgers in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series at Dodgers Stadium.

St Louis took an early 3-0 lead in the top of the 3rd when Matt Carpenter hit a 1-out RBI double to put the Cards on the board before Matt Holliday hit a 2-out 2-run homer to make it a 3-0 ballgame. The Dodgers shaved the lead to one run in the bottom of the 4th after former Red Sox and Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez led off with a double and moved over to second when Andre Ethier walked. This set the stage for rookie phenom Yasiel Puig, who brought Gonzalez home with an RBI single. After Ethier moved up to 3rd on a Uribe fly ball, AJ Ellis drove in another run with an RBI single to make it 3-2.

However, the Cardinals would get some cushion in the top of the 7th when Shane Robinson belted a pinch hit solo homer to left field with one out to take a 4-2 lead. For the bottom of the 9th, Trevor Rosenthal came out of the Cards bullpen and gave up a leadoff single before Puig grounded into a double play and then got Juan Uribe to strike out to end the ballgame.

The Dodgers look to avoid elimination in Game 5 and will send Zach Greinke to the mound against Joe Kelly on Wednesday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 4:07 PM ET (1:07 Pacific) and the game will be televised on TBS.

Division Series Sports Chowdah Update- Sox Wrap up Series Against Rays, Advance For First Time Since 2008; Tigers Roar Parst Oakland on Verlander Gem; Dodgers Tomahawk Chop Braves Out of Playoff Picture

I cannot overstate how much I love this time of year. Sure the days get a little shorter and there's a little chill in the air, but as the leaves explode into brilliant hues or orange, red and yellow in the New England countryside, there's also some electricity in the air. It's October, and the Red Sox are not only still relevant, but they've also been dominant.

Mike Carlson- AP

RED SOX- For the first time since the 2008 ALDS, the Red Sox are advancing to the American League Championship series. Interestingly, they bested the team that ended their 2008 playoff run in order to advance.

Tampa Bay was no stranger to must-win games coming into game 3 on Monday night, having played three elimination games the week before- besting the Blue Jays in the 'final' regular season game to qualify for a tiebreaker game with the Texas Rangers the following day. The Rays win in Arlington, TX won them a trip to Jacobs Field where they shut out the Cleveland Indians under the 1-game Wild Card elimination format.

On Monday, the Red Sox got out to the early lead to make it 3-0 in the top of the 5th, but Rays 3B Evan Longoria knotted the game up at 3-3 with one swing of his bat in the bottom half of the 5th.

The Rays briefly took a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the 8th on a Delmon Young RBI groundout with a runner at third. But in the top of the 9th, Will Middlebrooks drew a leadoff walk and had Xander Bogaerts replace him as a pinch runner. Dustin Pedroia would tie the game up on an RBI groundout but the inning would end with a Mike Carp strikeout, stranding a runner on 3rd.

It appeared as though the game would be heading to extras when Koji Uehara got the first two Rays batters out in the bottom of the 8th, but Jose Lobaton came in to pinch hit to give Tampa Bay the walkoff 5-4 win over Boston- winning their fourth 'must win' game in a little over the week.

Boston wasn't really interested in heading back to Fenway and being put in a must-win scenario themselves, so for Game four they brought out Jake Peavy to face Jeremy Hellickson.

Hellickson only made it to the top of the 2nd inning and manager Joe Maddon pulled him after walking the bases loaded with nobody out. Jamey Wright came in and got Saltalamacchia to strike out before former Red Sox infielder James Loney snagged a ball off the bat of Stephen Drew that looked as though it was heading to right field for a sure base hit and managed to double-up the runners.

The Red Sox frustration grew as Maddon went to the bullpen seemingly every inning, getting a new pitcher to face the Red Sox batters each time. But Peavy kept Boston in the game, shutting out the Rays until the 6th inning when he gave up a leadoff double to Yuniel Escobar followed by a Lobaton groundout to move the runner over to 3rd and a David Dejesus RBI single. Peavy then got Will Meyers to fly out to center before John Farrell pulled him to bring in reliever Craig Breslow, who ended the inning by striking out Loney.

In the top of the 7th, Johnny Gomes flew out to center to start off the 7th before Xander Bogaerts replaced Stephen Drew and drew a 1-out walk. Will Middlebrooks struck out before Jacoby Ellsbury singled, putting runners on 1st and 3rd with 2 away. After Maddon brought in Joel Peralta, Ellsbury successfully swiped second, giving the Red Sox 2 runners in scoring position. The rookie Bogaerts came home to tie the game on a wild pitch uncorked by Peralta while Ellsbury advanced to third. Victorino the legged out an infield single to plate Ellsbury- the Red Sox went from being shut out to scoring two runs when the ball didn't even leave the infield.

Not wanting to take any chances, Farrell brought out Uehara with a runner on and two away in the bottom of the 8th. In the top of the 9th, the Red Sox got some insurance after Shane Victorino was hit to load up the bases with one out. Once again, it was Bogaerts who crossed the dish to put Boston up 3-1 thanks to a Pedroia sac fly to right.

Uehara would come back on for the 9th and strike out Longoria to end the game and wrap up the ALDS. After a week of surviving must-win games, the season finally ends for the Tampa Bay Rays as they fall to Boston in the ALDS, 3 games to 1.

It's also worth pointing out that Johnny Gomes, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Will Middlebrooks all notched their first career postseason hit in the ALDS. Although he has yet to get a postseason hit, rookie SS Xander Bogaerts has already scored three runs in the last two games of the ALDS while Peavy pitched well but didn't factor into the decision.

Juan H Gonzalez- Detroit Free Press

ELSEWHERE IN THE ALDS- After Tuesday night's celebration in the visitor's locker room at Tropicana Field, the Red Sox were awaiting the winner of the series between the Oakland A's and Detroit Tigers. Earlier on Tuesday, the Tigers had rallied from going down 0-3 to hang on for am 8-6 win over the AL West champions in Comerica Park, forcing a deciding game 5 back in Oakland for Thursday night.

Game 5's pitching matchup was Game 2 rematch featuring rookie Sonny Gray against 2011 Cy Young winner Justin Verlander. Verlander threw a gem in the pitcher's duel that was Game 2, but had no decision and the A's ultimately won on a walkoff RBI single in the bottom of the 9th.

Thursday night was another story, however. While Gray got off to a good start, he served up a 1-out 2 RBI homer to Miguel Cabrera in the 4th to make it 2-0 Detroit. Omar Enfante would make it a 3-run game in the top of the 6th after grounding into a fielder's choice with a runner on 3rd with only 1 out.

Meanwhile- kind of like Red Sox pitcher Brandon Workman earlier this year- Justin Verlander took a no-hitter into the 7th inning at the Oakland Coliseum. Unlike Workman, the first hit Verlander gave up stayed in the park- a 2 out Yoenis Cespedes single that did no damage.

After manager Jim Leyland had starter Max Scherzer come out of the bullpen for game 4 and pitch two innings, Verlander most of the Tigers pitching staff the night off, throwing 8 shutout innings while giving up two hits and striking out 10 batters. Joaquin Benoit came out of the pen for the save, getting the first two batters out before allowing a double to former Red Sox infielder Jed Lowrie and hitting Yoenis Cespedes with a pitch. However, Benoit would get Smith to fly out to end the ballgame and wrap up the series for Detroit.

This sets up a Boston vs Detroit ALCS with Game 1 slated for Saturday. Jon Lester will get the start against Anibal Sanchez. First pitch from Fenway is scheduled for 8:07 ET and the game will be televised on FOX.

NATIONAL LEAGUE- The LA Dodgers rallied late in Monday night's game to beat the Atlanta Braves and take the series. Atlants had just taken a 3-2 lead on a Jose Costantza pinch hit RBI single in the top of the7th, but in the bottom of the 8th, Juan Uribe belted a 2 run homer to put the Dodgers up for good, giving them nearly five days off as they awaited the winner of the Pittsburgh/St Louis Series.

Meanwhile, my dreams of a 1903 World Series rematch have been dashed by the St Louis Cardinals, as they beat the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday at PNC Park by a 2-1 final to force a deciding Game 5 which the Cardinals won by a 6-1 final on Wednesday night.

First pitch for Game 1 of the Dodgers/Cardianls NLCS is scheduled for 8:37 ET from Busch Stadium on Friday night and the game will be televised on TBS.

NFL- Tom Brady's streak of 52 consecutive games with a TD pass came to an end on Sunday and not surprisingly, the Patriots were handed their first loss of the season in a rain-drenched Paul Brown stadium.

Former Patriot Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis scored the only touchdown of the day for Cincinnati with a TD run on 4th and goal in the 4th quarter, but it would be all the Bengals needed in the 13-6 win over New England on Sunday.

Although the Patriots head home for Week 6, it doesn't get easier with the Pats hosting 5-0 New Orleans. A bit of good news is that Rob Gronkowski has been listed as day to day, although it's unlikely he'll start Sunday. The TE had missed every game after leaving last season's playoff game against the Houston Texans with a forearm injury. In the offseason, Gronkowski had multiple surgeries on his arm as well as an additional prodecure to clear up an infections.

NHL- The Boston Bruins were dealt their first loss of the season and were shut out for the first time since February 2012 on Thursday night when the visiting Colorado Avalanche came away with a 2-0 win.

LW Ryan O'Rielly gave the Avs the lead late in the first period with a power play goal while JS Giguere turned aside all 39 shots he faced in his season debut for Colorado. The Avs are off to a 4-0 start under head coach Patrick Roy- their best start since relocating to Denver from Quebec City during the 1995-1996 season.

The 2-1 Bruins will travel to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets on Saturday afternoon for their first away game of the 2013-2014 season- Columbus is also sporting an identical 2-1 record.

Puck drops at 2:00 ET and the game will be televised on NESN.

LA Story Sports Chowdah Update- Red Sox Escape From LA With Series Win; NCAA Football Set to Kick Off This Week

Mark J. Terrill- AP

RED SOX- In a matchup that some of the more hyperbole-prone broadcasters were dubbing a World Series Preview, the Red Sox dealt the Los Angeles Dodgers their first series loss in more than two months. The TV coverage seemed to reflect some of this hype, with two out of the three games in the weekend series getting national TV coverage.

Despite John Lackey pitching a complete game and allowing only three hits in Friday night's series opener, one of those hits was a 2-run Hanley Ramirez homer and Dodgers starter Ricky Nolasco managed shut out the Red Sox. LA took the series opener by a 2-0 final.

In Saturday afternoon's game, the Red Sox jumped all over Hyun-Jin Ryu in the first thanks to a Mike Napoli RBI single and Johnny Gomes 3-run homer to give the Red Sox a 4-0 lead. Ryu would settle down, and that would be all the Red Sox offense would get. However, Lester would go 7⅓ innings and giving up three hits, an earned run [that Junichi Tazawa inherited when he gave up a 2-RBI double to former Red Sox infielder Adrian Gonzalez in the bottom of the 8th- NANESB!]. After Craig Breslow struggled, Koji Uehara came on in the bottom of the 8th for a 4-out save, sealing the Red Sox 4-2 win.

Sunday's series finale was nationally televised on ESPN and had Jake Peavy go up against Springfield, MA native Chris Capuano. Mike Napoli got the Red Sox on the board in the first with a ground rule double, and despite loading the bases, Capuano was able to escape the first without any further damage. Another run came home in the 3rd on a Pedroia sac fly and in the top of the 4th, Xander Bogaerts was credited with his first big league RBI after doubling to right center to make it 3-0.

However, Gonzalez would get the Dodgers on the board with a solo homer, but that would be all LA was getting. Not only was Peavy Dealing, he was getting plenty of run support in his complete-game gem in Los Angeles.



Capuano left the game after five innings and the Red Sox batters would just tee off of Dodgers reliever Chris Withrow. Saltalamacchia would belt a 2-run homer in the 6th, followed by a solo homer from Victorino in the 7th to make it 6-1 Boston. For good measure, Mike Napoli tacked on a 2-run homer in the top of the 9th and Peavy decided to give the bullpen the night off and close out the Dodges himself in the bottom of the 9th.

So for the first time since mid-June, the torrid Dodgers have lost a series. Although Boston missed Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers didn't get to see Clay Buchholz, this series still had a number of sports commentators hinting that this was a 'World Series in August' matchup. Interestingly, Big Papi was only in one of this weekend's games, going 0-3 in Friday night's loss while playing first base.

Monday was a travel day, but for Tuesday night, the Red sox will return home to face the Baltimore Orioles. Felix Doubront [9-6; 3.79 ERA] is scheduled to get the start against Baltimore's Wei Yin Chan [7-6; 3.19 ERA] with first pitch scheduled for 7:10. The game will be televised on NESN.

ELSEWHERE IN THE AL EAST- While the Red Sox were travelling on Monday afternoon, they got a little help from the Kansas City Royals. The Tampa Bay Rays had to fly out of Kauffman Stadium to play a game against the slumping Royals that was postponed in early May due to snowfall. Kansas City got off to an early 1-0 lead on a Billy Butler RBI single off of Rays starter Jeremy Hellickson in the first and broke it open in the 4th before going on to win by an 11-1 final. The win is only the Royal's second in 7 games, but put Tampa Bay an additional ½ game behind the Red Sox in a tight race for the AL East pennant.

NEW YORK METS- Mets phenom pitcher Matt Harvey is likely to miss the remainder of the season after being diagnosed with a partial ligament tear in his right shoulder. Harvey has a 9-5 record this season with a 2.27 ERA, although he was outduelled by Tigers starter Max Scherzer in his last start.

The struggling Mets are 58-71 and next to last in the NL East, meaning that even if Harvey's injury wasn't as serious as feared, he still would be sidelined as a precaution since the Mets are well out of any pennant or wild card chase.

NCAA FOOTBALL- College football in New England gets underway a little earlier than usual with UConn hosting FCS opponent Towson at East Hartford's Rentschler Field on Thursday night with a 7:30 kickoff

The other two New England FBS programs will kick off on Saturday, Aug 31st, with the UMASS season opener likely drawing the most national eyes as they open on the road against the #23 ranked Wisconsin Badgers in Madison's Camp Randall stadium.

Meanwhile, the BC Eagles will host Villanova from the FCS's Colonial Conference on Saturday at noon on Chestnut Hill.

California Dreamin' Sports Chowdah Update- Red Sox West Coast Road Trip off to Giant Start; Detroit Motors Over New England in Preseason Matchup

RED SOX- Gotta say- actually going to some of the games makes it difficult to find some time to blog them after the fact.

After an explosive weekend versus the Yankees, the Red Sox kicked off their week-long California road trip on Monday night in San Francisco against the defending World Series champion Giants. John Lester threw 8⅓ innings of shutout baseball in Monday night's 7-0 win. However, the Red Sox allowed a golden opportunity to fall by the wayside and a bases-loaded walk off walk to Giants SS Marco Scutaro in the bottom of the 9th cost Boston the game.

Tuesday afternoon was the rubber game of the series- Felix Doubront was scheduled to go up against Chad Gaudin, but Gaudin was placed on the night before and Barry Zito got the start in his place. The Red Sox basically took batting practice off of Zito, with the Red Sox jumping out to a 6-1 lead before the Giants starter got the hook after 3⅔ innings. Meanwhile, Doubront allowed 5 hits- including a Joaquin Arias solo homer- in 8 complete innings of work as the Red Sox offense exploded for 6 more runs against the Giants bullpen- including a 3 run homer from Stephen Drew in the 7th and Koji Uehara had a 1-2-3 inning to close out the 12-1 Boston win.

The Red Sox take two out of three from the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants. Will Middlebrooks went 1-3 with a homer and two RBI while Stephen Drew went 1-3 with a homer and 3 RBI in Wednesday afternoon's rubber game.

David Ortiz left the 5th inning of Wednesday's game due to tightness in his lower back while shortstop phenom Xander Bogaerts went 0-3 in his MLB debut during Tuesday night's game after getting called up from Pawtucket.

The Red Sox California road trip will continue Friday night when they travel to LA to take on the scalding-hot Los Angeles Dodgers. LA has gone 18-3 in the month of August. John Lackey [8-10; 3.22 ERA] is scheduled to get the start against Ricky Nolasco [9-9; 3.60 ERA] with first pitche scheduled for 10:10 ET from Dodger Stadium. The game will be televised on NESN.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS- Red Sox starter Ryan Dempster received a 5-game suspension and was fined an undisclosed amount after intentionally hitting Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez with a pitch in Sunday night's nationally televised game. Surprisingly, Dempster wasn't ejected from the game, which prompted irate Yankees manager Joe Girardi to come out of the dugout and argue with one of the umpires before getting thrown out of the Sunday night game.

With two off days within a week, Dempster will miss- at most- one start as a result of the suspension.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS- The Dodgers have activated former San Francisco Giants pitcher and Londonderry, NH native Brian Wilson from the DL earlier this week. Wilson was signed to a one year contract by LA back in July after undergoing a second Tommy John surgery.

OTHER DODGERS NEWS- Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully announced that he will return to the Dodgers' broadcast booth for a 65th season in 2014. There was speculation that Scully might retire at the end of the 2012 season, but the veteran announcer who cut his teeth with the Dodgers in Brooklyn announced his plans to return for the 2013 season on a limited basis, citing his enthusiasm for the new ownership group spearheaded by LA Lakers Hall-of-Famer Magic Johnson.

In recent years, Scully limited himself to calling home games at Dodgers Stadium as well as road games against the San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Angels or Arizona Diamondbacks- this is expected to be the case for 2014 as well.

MLB- Major League Baseball announced a proposal that would dramatically expand the use of instant replay in baseball, including a 'challenge' system similar to the NFL where managers could contest the umpire's ruling on a certain play. Currently, the league uses instant replay to determine whether a home-run ball is fair, foul or is still in play.

The expanded replay and challenge system would include:

• A review will be initiated when a manager informs the umpire that he wants to challenge a play. He will be allowed one challenge in the first six innings and two more from the seventh through the end of the game.

• If the manager wins his appeal, he retains the challenge. The challenge from the first six innings does not carry over.

• Not all plays are reviewable.

• If a manager disagrees with a reviewable call, his only recourse would be to use a challenge. Managers would not be able to argue a reviewable call in a bid to get it overturned without the use of replay. A manager could still argue in situations not open to review, such as when defending a player or questioning an improper substitution.

MLB owners are expected to vote on the revised rules at the upcoming meetings in November.

PATRIOTS- Well, about the only positive from last night's preseason game against Detroit was that it was a preseason game and, thus, didn't count in the standings.

The Lions forced no less than four turnovers in the first half in their 40-9 rout of New England and Tim Tebow spent then entire game on the bench, speculating that the Heisman winning QBs days in New England and the NFL are coming to an end. In fact, up until a Ryan Mallet TD with 32 seconds remaining in the game, the only ponts for New England came off the foot of Stephen Gostkowski in the second quarter.

The final preseason game is set to take place next Thursday at Foxboro against the New York Giants.

Sports Chowdah Update- Going Going Gone(zo)- Red Sox, Dodgers Make Blockbuster Post Deadline Trade; Colon Blow- A's Starter Suspended 50 Games; Tour De Farce- Armstrong Stripped of All 7 Tour Titles

RED SOX- The Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers completed a massive nine-player trade over the weekend that sent Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez and Nick Punto to Southern California as well as $11 million in cash. In return, the Dodgers sent first baseman James Loney, minor leaguers Alan Webster and Ivan DeJesus to Beantown as well as two players to be named later.

The trade- reportedly the largest in Dodgers history- has triggered hyperbolic comparisons from Boston sportswriters who claim the transaction is on the scope of sending Babe Ruth to New York [personally, I think its more along the scale of the 2004 trade that sent Nomar Garciaparra to the Cubs in exchange for Boston getting Orlando Cabrera from Montreal and Doug Mientkiewicz from Minnesota. Not quote as big money, but even more moving parts to potentially complicate the deal- NANESB!] .

Beckett was reportedly shopped around by Boston about 48 hours prior to the trade deadline last month. Although the Braves and Rangers had reportedly expressed an interest, no deal was reached by the trade deadline and if the front office still intended to move Beckett, it was assumed such a move would take place in the upcoming offseason. Just three games out of first place in the NL West and flush with cash from a new ownership group that includes NBA legend Magic Johnson, the Dodgers decided not to wait for November to try and swing a massive deal. Despite sending more than $11 million in cash to LA, the Red Sox are expected to save more than $260 million in salary after being free from Beckett, Gonzalez and Crawford's sizable contracts. The Los Angeles Times points out that the Dodgers payroll for 2013 will be $100 million more than it was on opening day this year.

A number of other Red Sox fans had pointed out that manager Bobby Valentine seemed largely unaware of the August transaction, despite its unprecedented scope. That in and of itself seems to point out that he most likely won't be back for the 2013 season.

Steven Senne/AP Photo

OTHER RED SOX NEWS: With all this taking place, the Red Sox still had a 4-game series against the Kansas City Royals at Fenway to contend with over the weekend.

After taking two out of the first three home games against KC, Daisuke Matsuzaka would return to the mound for his first start since going back on the DL in early July.

Matsuzaka, who had never gone more than 6 innings this season, started off by allowing an unearned run in the top of the 1st before getting out of the inning. Jacoby Ellsbury tied the ballgame up at 1-1 with a 2-out solo homer in the bottom of the first. Cody Ross would then break the deadlock with a 2-RBI wall-ball base hit in the bottom of the 3rd- it had come close to landing in the stands, but the umpires ruled it had stayed within the park. It remained a 3-1 game until the bottom of the 6th when Cody Ross and new acquisition James Loney each had RBI base hits to make it a 5-1 game. Matsuzaka and the bullpen did not squander the run support they got, either. Daisuke went 7 complete innings allowing 5 hits and the unearned run while striking out six. With Alfredo Aceves serving a 3-game suspension, Clay Mortenson, Vincente Padilla and Andrew Bailey closed out the game for the Red Sox.

Monday's Day game was the last before the Red Sox embark on their west coast Road Trip. Things kick off in Orange County on Tuesday night when Clay Buchholz [11-4; 4.47 ERA] gets the start against the Angel's Jared Weaver [16-3; 2.74 ERA]. First pitch is at 7:05 ET Pacific Time and 10:05 ET and the game will be televised on NESN and Fox Sports West.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS- The Los Angeles Dodgers were shut out by the Colorado Rockies by a 10-0 final in Josh Beckett's debut in Dodger blue. Beckett went 5 and ⅔ innings allowing three earned runs on 7 hits and 3 walks at Coors Field before the Dodgers bullpen imploded- giving up 7 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning.

Adrain Gonzalez is presently batting .250 for LA with 4 RBIs and a homer in three games with the Dodgers.

OTHER DODGERS NEWS- Hall of Fame Broadcaster Vin Scully announced that he would be returning to the Dodgers broadcast booth for a 64th season starting in 2013.

Scully had stated that the recent trade with the Red Sox that brought Beckett, Crawford and Gonzalez to LA had revitalized the organization as well as himself and demonstrated that the new ownership group was serious about bringing another World Series to LA.

The venerable play-by-play man was in the booth for a number of baseball milestones, including Henry Aaron's 715th career home run in 1974, Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series and a walk-off homer from a hobbled Kirk Gibson in Game 1 on the 1988 World Series.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB- Oakland A's starter Bartolo Colon received a 50 game suspension from MLB after testing positive for banned substance- reportedly synthetic testosterone.

Colon- a 15 year veteran- admitted to violating the MLB substance abuse policy and will reportedly not appeal the suspension, which would carry over into next season if he were to continue playing in the MLB.

In 24 starts with Oakland this season, Colon has a 10-9 record and 3.43 ERA. Since 2008, Colon has started for the Red Sox, A's, Yankees and White Sox. The suspension comes after another Bay Area ball player- San Francisco's Melky Cabrera- also tested positive for a substance prohibited by MLB.

BC sophomore Courtney Castle gets in a dig during the Eagle's match against Fordham at this weekend's Boston College Invitational. BC Eagles photo via Twitter

NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL- The NCAA's volleyball season got underway this weekend in Chestnut Hill with the 2012 Boston College Invitational.

To kick off the 2012 campaign, the Eagles played host to Texas Tech, Fordham, Siena and SUNY Binghamton on Friday and Saturday.

The lady Eagles got off to an 2-0 start on Friday when they swept the Binghamton Bearcats 3 sets to none.

Siena Junior Taylor Akana- named the MAAC Conference's Offensive Player of the Year in 2011 and Preseason Player of the year for 2012. Siena Saints photo

The Siena Saints and captain Taylor Akana presented a little more of a challenge to BC as the Eagles dropped the opening set 25-19, but the BC would rebound and win the next three consecutive sets by totals of 25-14, 25-18 and 25-20. Katty Workman led the Eagles with 12 kills while outside hitter Courtney Castle had 11 for BC. Over on the Siena side of the net, Taylor Akana and Rachel Stoklosa led the Saints with 11 each on the losing effort.

On Saturday, the Eagles went .500 on the court, sweeping Fordham 3 sets to none, but then dropping the match against the Texas Tech Red Raiders after taking a 2-0 lead.

With a 3-1 record, the BC Volleyball team will next head out to the west coast for the USC Tournament where they'll take on the host Trojans as well as Northern Iowa and Mississippi State.

CYCLING- Seven time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong will reportedly be stripped of his titles after announcing he would no longer fight an investigation by the United States Anti-Doping Agency.

The announcement from Armstrong means that the USADA will recommend Armstrong be banned from all International Cycling Union (UCI) sanctioned events and that he be stripped of all titles dating back to 1998. The decision was made even though Armstrong had passed hundreds of tests administered during that timeframe.

Quickie Cuppa Sports Chowdah Update- Who's Won First? Sox Rally in Toronto; Scully to Miss LA's Home Opener; Guillen Suspended Over Castro Remarks

Getty Images

BOSTON RED SOX- Well, if I'm going to pout and kvetch when the Sox get off to an 0-3 start, then I might as well savor their first win of the season.

After the disastrous sweep in Detroit that left many in Red Sox nation with the unshakable feeling that the sky is indeed falling, the Red Sox took their road trip across the river and some 200 miles up the MacDonald-Cartier highway to Toronto for what would be the Blue Jays home opener.

With the roof closed on the Rogers Centre during a rainy, windy Toronto evening and Felix Doubront on the mound for Boston, the Blue Jays got off to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 3rd after Jays 2B Kelly Johnson was called safe on a close play at home and SS Yuniel Escobar was driven home on an Edwin Encarnacion RBI single. Those two runs notwithsanding, Doubront had a decent outing but was stymied by an apparent lack of offense until a solo home run in the top of the 6th by Red Sox 2B Dustin Pedroia to cut the Jays lead in half.

Doubront left after 5 innings of work- giving up 4 hits, 2 earned runs, 3 walks and striking out 6- and was replaced by Scott Atchison. Atchison would throw three shutout innings, allowing just one hit and striking out three.

In the top of the 9th, the Jays sent Sergio Santos to the mound to close out the game. Pedroia led off the inning with a double and advanced to 3rd base on a passed ball, tying up the game when he came home on an Adrian Gonzalez sac-fly. Santos would then strike out Youlikis for the 2nd out, but walked DH David Ortiz and OF Cody Ross. Ortiz was lifted for pinch-runner Darnell McDonald and after OF Ryan Sweeney singled to shallow center, it looked as though Jays outfielder Jose Bautista's throw to home plate would cut down McDonald, except it clanged off the glove of catcher J.P. Arencibia to give Boston the 3-2 lead.

After what happened in Detroit on Sunday, understandably not everybody was comfortable with a mere 1-run lead. But Cody Ross would come home on a wild pitch by Santos to make it 4-2 Red Sox before walking C Saltalamacchia. Santos then got the hook and was replaced by Luis Perez who promptly got SS Aviles to hit into a fielders choice.

Alfredo Aceves would then come on for Boston to close out the game with a 1-2-3 bottom of the 9th, getting Lawrie, Thames and Arencibia out in order. Red Sox get their first win of the Valentine era by a 4-2 final and more importantly win their first AL East contest of the 2012 season.

Tuesday night's starter are going to be Daniel Bard for Boston and Kyle Drabek for Toronto. Bard had been previously assigned to the Sox bullpen and hasn't started a gmae since 2007 with the South Atlantic League's Greenville Drive.


MIAMI MARLINS- Not even a full week into the MLB season, Marlins Manager Ozzy Guillen has earned the enmity of south Florida's considerable Cuban expat community after comments about Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in a TIME magazine interview. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Venezuelan-born Guillen said-

"I respect Fidel Castro," Mr. Guillen was quoted as saying. "You know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that mother f— is still here."

Miami is home to at least three generations of Cubans who have fled Castro's communist government which came to power after a lengthy civil war that toppled the Bautista regime. Immediately afterwards, Castro's government expropriated private property, arbitrarily executed 'counter-revolutionaries' and political opponents, jailed dissidents, outlawed opposition parties, took control of the press and heightened tensions in the Cold War by allowing Soviet bloc troops and armaments to be positioned in Cuba for a potential attack against the USA. Since Fidel and his brother Ramon took power, many Cubans have fled by boat to Florida, which is 90 miles to the north of Cuba's northern coast.

Although Guillen appeared with staunch Fidel Castro ally Hugo Chavez in 2005 and praised the socialist leader while returning to his native Venezuela after the Chicago White Sox 2005 World Series title, Guillen more recently was critical of Chavez's American allies such as actor Sean Penn.

Sean penn if you love venezuela please move to venezuela for a year

— Ozzie Guillen (@OzzieGuillen) June 8, 2011

If I may play devil's advocate for a moment, I'm guessing Guillen was inarticulately attempting to express admiration for Castro's longevity and durability, not a proclamation of 'Gee! His style of governing is so awesome- can't wait to hop on the next flight to Havana and experience the squelching of free speech and noticeable lack of basic consumer goods myself!'. After all, if Guillen is into that, he could return to Venezuela at any time and experience those things himself thanks to the way Chavez has been running Venezuela for the last decade.

Guillen will be suspended for five games with pay and Guillen apologized to the community during an hour-long press conference. Guillen has been known for polarizing comments about immigrants and gays before arriving in Miami, and some are already calling for him to be fired. Whether or not Miami's Cuban community will let bygones be bygones will be reflected in how many seats are filled at the Marlins Little Havana ballpark for the remainder of the season. The Marlins are currently 2-3 and 3rd in the NL East.

However, what I do find abhorrent regarding Cuba is the institutional and supposedly educated left in this country embracing mass murderers like Che Guevara and giving dictators like Castro and Chavez a pass for detaining and executing political opponents while taking away so many basic freedoms from people in those nations. While you could honestly make the argument that Ozzy took one too many fastballs to the noggin or needs to cut back on his alcohol intake, there is no ambiguity or lack of clarity in their words when our 'betters' on the left when they say they want to see more Castro and Chavez-style totalitarian rule in the USA and for her citizens.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB- This season has gotten off to a rough start for a pair of Hall Of Fame broadcasters.

The Milwaukee Brewer's longtime broadcaster Bob Uecker returned to the team over the weekend for the first time since the death of his 52 year old son Steve.

In a statement released by the Brewers, Uecker said his son had passed away at Milwaukee's Froedtert Hospital due to complications from San Joaquin Valley Fever- a fungus that infects the body after entering through the lungs.

Two years ago, Bob Uecker missed several weeks in the booth after undergoing heart surgery, returning later in the 2010 season. Also known as a pitchman for Miller Lite and appearances in sitcoms and the 1989 comedy Major League, Uecker was given the Ford C Frick by the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY and was enshrined as a broadcaster [while joking about how he never would've gotten in with his record as a catcher for the Braves during his Hall of Fame speech- NANESB!].

Meanwhile over in Los Angeles, the Dodgers announced that 84 year old Vin Scully would miss LA's home opener at Chavez Ravine due to a cold. The Dodger's statement said that doctors advised Scully to rest up, although he is expected to return soon.

Scully has been calling games for the Dodgers since 1950 when they were in Brooklyn and has been in the booth for such memorable baseball moments as Hank Aaron's 715th career home run, a battered Kirk Gibson hitting a walkoff home run in the 1988 World Series and four of Sandy Koufax's no-hitters.

In recent years, Scully has limited his travel with the team to away games in San Diego, Arizona and San Francisco, leaving the remainder of the play-by-play duties to former ESPN anchor Charlie Steiner.

Tuesday's home game would be the first home game that Vin Scully has missed since 1977 when he was in Augusta, GA calling the Masters golf tournament. It also marks the 50th anniversary of Dodgers Stadium.



NHL- No NHL hockey until Wednesday, but here are some TMZ pictures of Paulina Gretzky leaving a Los Angeles steakhouse while clad in what appears to be not much more than black lingerie and heels.

The Stanley Cup playoffs resume tomorrow with three games- none of them involving the Bruins, sadly. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh go at it in an intra-state matchup that gets underway at 7:30 ET on NBC Sports network. Detroit and Nashville will get underway at 8:00 ET on CNBC and the nightcap will consist of Los Angeles and Vancouver at 10:30- also on NBC Sports Network.