ZIM - MER - MAN!!!

If you've had the pleasure of attending a Washington Nationals home game at RFK Stadium this year, then you are probably familiar with the "Zim - mer - man!!!" chant given to the Nats third baseman Ryan Zimmerman when he's up in a pressure situation. Zimmerman, as you may recall, came thisclose to being named Rookie of the Year in the National League last year after slugging 20 home runs driving in 110 while hitting .287. With such a promising start to his career, people were expecting big things from him in 2007.

The Nats and Zimmerman both unfortunately got off to slow starts in 2007, the Nats opening with a 9-25 record... Since that horrific start, the team has played a lot better going 41-35 (.539) since May 9th. They also have been red-hot of late, winning five straight and 16 of their past 24 played since my birthday on July 7th.

It took Zimmerman about two months longer than the rest of the team to finally wake up. For most of the season, his batting average remained remarkably consistent - ranging from .239 to .255 from May 13th through July 13th. Through the games played as of July 7th, Zimmerman's numbers didn't look all that great - his batting average stood at .251 with 47 runs scored, 13 home runs and 43 RBI through 87 games. While this would put him on pace to better the 84 runs scored (2007 pace 86) and the 20 home runs he hit last year (2007 pace 24), it was going to leave him woefully short of last year's numbers in RBI's (on pace for 80) and batting average. Very obviously, no longer having Alfonso Soriano in the lineup ahead of him has taken away a lot of Zimmerman's RBI opportunities this year.

As some of you know, I attended the Nats game the day after my birthday - July 8th - and Zimmerman has been RED-HOT himself ever since! That day he went 2-for-4 including a two run home run in the Nats 7-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. The game began a remarkable resurgence in the Nats' best player - in his past 23 games he's hit .344 with four home runs, 17 RBI's and 16 runs scored. I wonder who or what could have possibly inspired him that sunny summer afternoon four weeks ago??? In yesterday's 12-1 rout of the 2006 World Champion St. Louis Cardinals, Zimmerman had the first two home run day of his career!!! He is now on pace for 25 homers, 88 RBI's and 91 runs scored... Of course, if he continues on his recent pace, he may be set to post even better numbers than that this year.

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Well, A-Rod was not the only one who reached a milestone yesterday. In San Diego, Hank Aaron's 755 historic number was finally tied by Barry Bonds as he crushed the first pitch he saw in the game into the left field stands off of Padres starter Clay Hensley in the top of the second inning. ESPN's been covering the home run chase extensively, but I actually missed viewing the historic moment live - I was tuned into the Dodgers game against the Arizona Diamondbacks and actually found out from legendary Dodger announcer Vin Scully - who said he was very happy not to have been put in the awkward position of having to announce either the record tying or breaking home run. Bonds plans on taking Sunday off, meaning he more than likely will break the record at home in San Francisco this coming week.

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From the "you better watch what you wish for department"... Rory Sabbatini is a very good golfer as his recent stretch of four top three finishes in six events, including a win at the Colonial, will attest... However, Sabbatini's probably a lot more well-known for his comment "beatable as ever," in referring to Tiger Woods the last time he was in a position to defeat him. This coming several days after the South African shot a 74, while Woods shot a 69 to claim the Wachovia Championship two months ago - Sabbatini wound up tied for third in that tournament.

Woods shot a one-under-par 69, while Sabbatini shot a two-over par 72 on Saturday to set up another Sunday showdown between the two. Sabbatini goes into today's final round at 4 under par, while Woods is a stroke back at 3 under par. Kenny Perry is at 1 under par, and is the only other player in red numbers. You can catch final round coverage of the tournament on your local CBS affiliate starting at 1 pm ET/10 am PT.

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A-Rod hits 500th HR!

It just happened minutes ago at Yankee stadium off the newly acquired Kyle Davies of the Kansas City Royals - a three run shot, and his major league leading 36th home run of the year! Congrats to A-Rod on this historic achievement. At 32, he reaches this milestone at a younger age than any other player previously!

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In the Ricoh Women's British Open, Lorena Ochoa is looking to get the "major monkey" off her back, and she's well on the way to doing that as she stands at six under par - six strokes ahead of Sweden's Linda Wessberg going into tomorrow's final round. Ochoa shot her second consecutive even par round of 73, to go with her opening round of 6-under-par 67. Scoring conditions were EXTREMELY difficult on Saturday as only three players managed to break par - Wessberg, fellow Swede Maria Hjorth, along with American Stacy Prammanasudh all shot one under par 72's. 26 players failed to break 80, including big-name Americans Sherri Steinhauer (80), Beth Daniel (80), Juli Inkster (82), Meg Mallon (83), and Scotland's Catriona Matthew (81) who was only one stroke of Ochoa going into the third round. Amongst the notables hoping for a miracle, Annika Soranstam is seven strokes back at +1, Paula Creamer is another two strokes back at +3, Karrie Webb is at +5, and last week's winner, Natalie Gulbis stands at +6... You can catch a glimpse of the leaderboard here: Women's British Open Leaderboard. You can also watch tape-delayed (not live as I had previously posted) final round coverage beginning at 1PM ET/10AM PT on your local ABC affiliate.

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More 2007 Miss DC Pageant Pics!

I've been playing a lot of catch-up the past couple of weeks, and finally have had a chance to go through all of the pictures from the 2007 Miss District of Columbia pageant and organize them. In the above two pictures, 2007 Miss DC, Shayna Rudd, is pictured with 2006 Miss DC, Kate Michael (left), and fellow competitor Jennifer Corey (right). I've uploaded the best of them here (111 total) on my new flickr account:

2007 Miss DC Pageant Photos

Additionally, I took a video of Kate that night performing her jazz dance to "Fever," - the same performance she used in last year's Miss DC pageant along with this past January's Miss America pageant. You may now view it here:



There are at least three photos of every contestant in both the Miss DC and Miss Teen DC portions of the pageant. I hope you all enjoy them and that you have a GREAT weekend!

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Crazy 8's!

No, it wasn't televised locally or on WGN (the Chicago superstation), so not many of us out in Southern California got to see what happened in the Bronx yesterday... Thankfully, if we can't see a game on TV, these days we can follow the games pitch by pitch via various sites - FYI, I prefer either CBS Sportsline or Yahoo's Gamecast. The game yesterday at Yankee Stadium between the Yankees and the White Sox started innocently enough, with only Bobby Abreu of the home team getting a hit in the first inning.

Then came the second inning... and what a second inning it was!!! With a future Hall of Famer (Roger Clemens), and a man who won 18 games each of the past two years (Jon Garland) facing each other, we had no idea about the fireworks that were in store for us. Clemens gave up a leadoff single to Paul Konerko. A.J. Pierzynski would single. Then, Jermaine Dye would double in Konerko to give the White Sox a 1-0 lead. And with that the floodgates opened... Six more hits and an error would result in SEVEN more runs coming in for the White Sox, knocking Clemens out of the game, leaving the Yankees down 8-0.

With an eight run cushion, you probably would have figured a veteran like Garland would just cruise to an easy victory. Such was not the case though as Hideki Matsui led off the bottom of the frame with a single. Jorge Posada then doubled. Robinson Cano then singled to score Matsui and it was now an 8-1 game. Newly acquired Wilson Betemit then tagged his first home run for the Yankees to make it an 8-4 score. Garland would allow four more hits, along with getting a strikeout of Johnny Damon before being removed for Brooke Logan. By then, two more runs had scored and it was now an 8-6 game... Logan proceeded to strike Matsui out, but he then allowed a double to Posada, scoring two more runs. Suddenly, the game was tied 8-8! Cano was then retired by Logan on a ground out, and the inning was FINALLY over! It took exactly an hour for that one inning to be played! Five different pitchers were used and a total of 90 pitches were thrown. 16 runs, 18 hits, a walk and an error... all in ONE inning! It's not something you see every day!

The final seven innings of the game were much more "normal," with the White Sox outscoring the Yankees by a 5-1 margin for a 13-9 win. As for A-Rod, well he's STILL stuck on 499 homers... Incidentally, the other eight innings of the game clocked in at 2 hours and 59 minutes, making the total game time 3 hours and 59 minutes.

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Well, there were other games played yesterday, and believe it or not the Yanks/White Sox game was not the highest scoring one. That honor would go to the Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves, who would go 14 innings before Houston prevailed by a 12-11 score. It's hard to pick out just one star here, but Mike Lamb definitely had the key hit in regulation, tying the game in the top of the eighth inning with a grand slam off of Braves set-up man Rafael Soriano. Mark McLemore would single in Jason Lane in the top of the 14th inning to drive in what turn out to be the winning run for the Astros. Willie Harris and Jeff Francoeur each had three hits, and Mark Teixeira homered for the second straight game with his new team. The Braves have tallied double digit runs in four consecutive games.

Having the aforementioned Clemens on one of my important fantasy teams was quite disheartening yesterday, but thankfully I also have San Diego ace Jake Peavy on that same team - and Peavy thankfully undid a lot of the Rocket's damage!! In seven innings the 2007 Cy Young Award candidate shut out the Arizona Dimondbacks, striking out 10, while only allowing three hits and a walk. Newly acquired Morgan Ensburg homered twice for the Padres as Peavy cruised to his 11th win of the year in the Padres 11-0 decision.

In Oakland, the appropriate word for the night at least for Vladimir Guerrero would probably be one that Natalie Gulbis can relate to: FINALLY! For those of you that missed it, Gulbis finally noticed her first LPGA win last weekend... Meanwhile, Guerrero had not hit a home run since June 23rd - a span of 125 at bats, and the longest drought of his career. Last night, "Vlad The Impaler" finally lived up to his nickname, launching two homers in leading the Angels to a 6-4 win over the Oakland A's. Despite not his power outage, Guerrero's still been doing his main job - driving in runs. His four RBI's give him 87 on the year, good for fourth in the American League. Down the coast in L.A., the "Barry watch" will now have to head further south. The Dodgers held Barry Bonds to a single and two walks last night, though his San Francisco Giants did end up defeating the Blue Crew by a 4-2 tally. Bonds and the rest of the "Barry watch" contingent will now travels to San Diego as the Giants take on the Padres this weekend. The Dodgers welcome the division leading Arizona Diamondbacks into Chavez Ravine to begin a crucial three game series.

Break up the Nats??? For the second straight game, Manny Acta's team put up seven runs on the Cincinnati Reds. Mike Bacsik pitched a very strong seven innings for the home team, only allowing three runs and three hits, walking none and striking out six as the Nationals swept their three game series with the Reds. For the Nats, it was their first home series sweep this year since taking three games from the Florida Marlins 2 1/2 months ago. The Nats are now 13-8 since Miss DC Day at the Nationals... Hey, I have to give credit where credit is due after all!

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There was also a baseball game that was postponed yesterday - the Minnesota Twins were supposed to play the final game of their four game series against the Kansas City Royals at the Metrodome. As most of you know, the I-35W bridge collapsed near the Metrodome on Wednesday. So far at least five people have been confirmed dead, with others still missing. Things like this really put sports in their proper perspective. While the games still must go on, please remember to keep the families and friends of these people who tragically lost their lives in your thoughts and prayers.

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"Big Teix" - A Smash Debut!

The Atlanta Braves already had a potent offense before they acquired Mark Teixeira from the Texas Rangers just before the trade deadline. With "Big Teix," the Braves now have the most feared lineup in the National League - Renteria, Chipper Jones, Teixeira, Andruw Jones, Francoeur and McCann in the two through seven spots. That's a lot of heavy lumber! The Braves were doing just fine without Teixeria in the lineup against the Houston Astros, scoring 26 runs in the first two games of their series. Last night, they hung a 12-spot on the Astros for the second consecutive night as "Big Teix" hit a 3-run homer in the sixth inning in his first start for the Braves at Turner Field. The crowd cheered wildly and didn't stop until "Big Teix" gave them the obligatory curtain call. The 12-3 win keeps the Braves only 3 1/2 games behind the New York Mets in the NL East.

In Chicago, the Cubs have finally tracked down the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League's Central division. A Brett Myers wild pitch allowed Matt Murton to score in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Cubs took a 5-4 decision over the Philadelphia Phillies at Wrigley Field. With the win, the Cubs are now percentage points ahead of the Brewers for first in the division after trailing them by 8 1/2 games back on June 23rd.

The two big home run chases remained just that last night as others took the spotlight in Los Angeles and New York. The resurgent Nomar Garciaparra hit a 2-run homer in the eighth inning - his third in the past 11 games, capping off a 4-run Dodger rally as the locals beat the San Francisco Giants 6-4. Barry Bonds went 0-for-3, drawing an intentional walk. The win keeps the Dodgers a game back of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL West standings. In New York, the Yankees got five more homers to give them 13 in the past two games - but none of them have been by Alex Rodriguez so he remains mired at 499 career homers. Incidentally, A-Rod is now 0 for his last 21 at bats. Andy Pettitte pitched a strong six innings for the Yanks, allowing only a run on six hits while walking two and striking out six in an 8-1 win over the Chicago White Sox. The win keeps the Yankees seven games back of the Boston Red Sox in the AL East race. The Red Sox rallied from a 3-1 deficit at home, scoring four runs in the bottom of the 7th to take a 5-4 win against the Baltimore Orioles. Jonathan Papelbon picked up his 24th save of the year.

In our nations capital, the Nationals continued their winning ways as they pounded Cincinnati Reds starter Bronson Arroyo for seven runs in just 1 2/3 innings of work. Austin Kearns continued his recent hot stretch for the Nats, slamming his third homer in the past nine games in the bottom of the second inning in a 7-2 win. For the Nats, it was their 13th win in their last 21 games. Early in the season, many figured the Nats were a lock to be the senior circuits worst team after their 9-25 start. Well, there are now actually four teams in the National League with worse records, so things are looking a lot better now. The Nats actually been an over-.500 team for nearly half a season now, going 38-35 for a nice .520 winning percentage their past 73 games - this in spite of having three of their best pitchers (John Patterson, Jason Bergmann and Shawn Hill) and first baseman Nick Johnson injured for most of or all of that period.

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NBA Gambling Scandal cont.

I have taken in some ESPNews today and the NBA gambling scandal remains among the top headlines. One revelation that has been brought up now is that no less than three of the casinos that NBA Commissioner David Stern supposedly had investigated in the Tim Donaghy allegations reports that the NBA NEVER contacted them. Given the tone in Stern's news conferenece last week, I'm hardly surprised - and apparently neither is the rest of the public.

No one knows for sure what exactly transpired in those casinos, but one thing is VERY clear - the American public thinks commissioner Stern is covering something up, overwhelmingly believing that Tim Donaghy is NOT the only official involved. Go to this link here and examine the results:

Do You believe Tim Donaghy is the only NBA official involved in gambling??

27,834 votes had been cast as of 3:20 PM ET/12:20 PM PT 8/1/07...

Yes: 21%
No: 79%

I REALLY have a bad feeling about this whole thing, and given how much joy the NBA and especially the Los Angeles Lakers championship teams brought me growing up, it TRULY saddens me to say what I'm about to. I now think the NBA's future viability as a league is in some VERY SERIOUS doubt now. A widespread gambling scandal amongst the officials could destroy the league, and commissioner Stern knows it. None of us wants to see it, but at this point the possibility that the NBA may no longer be in operation in a short amount of time thanks to this scandal can no
longer be ignored.

For more on the scandal, please visit CBS Sportsline and this article: Fans, refs want the truth... so let's give it to them

**EDIT** Given the amount of interest this particular topic is garnering here, I've posted my first ever poll. How do you feel about these NBA gambling allegations? Please vote and comment if you so feel led. Thanks in advance for your input! ****

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Boston's Bonanza!

Yesterday was major league baseball's trade deadline, and quite a few deals went down at the last minute. The bigger story (at least to those of you that have been following it on ESPN) may have been who was not traded. Repeatedly they made mention of the Washington Nationals' Chad Cordero (and to a lesser extent Jon Rauch) and the Chicago White Sox' Jermaine Dye getting moved. None of these three players ended up getting traded. Some of you that are close to the Cordero situation know full well that there was actually very little chance of "The Chief" being dealt. The reason being is the asking price was simply way too high, as it was earlier this year when teams tried unsuccessfully to pry him away from the Nats. On the other hand, I fully expected set-up man Rauch to get dealt as his asking price was a lot less. But Rauch wasn't moved either and Nats fans such as myself slept a little easier last night. **EDIT** There's a nice article which goes into the Nats dealings a little more in detail here: Nat's Stand Pat At Trade Deadline **** As for Dye, I just didn't see the White Sox trading one of their star players (lots of Paul Konerko trade rumors also were thrown around), not when they still have much of the nucleus of their 2005 championship team still in tact.

The Red Sox did (much to my surprise) score the biggest free agent signing of the day, landing former Los Angeles Dodgers and now Texas Rangers closer Eric Gagne. Gagne is good insurance in case something happens to their current closer, Jonathan Papelbon. Gagne's addition now gives the Red Sox arguably the deepest bullpen in baseball. With a 2.16 ERA and 1.05 WHIP, Gagne is not too far off from the form that he displayed during his remarkable run with the Dodgers from 2002 through 2004. With this signing, it's obvious the Red Sox are more than serious about repeating what they did in 2004. As for the Yankees, they made a rather curious trade, sending their best long reliever in Scott Proctor to the Dodgers for third-baseman Wilson Betemit. Given that they already have a certain guy named A-Rod playing third base and their bullpen is not very good as is, this trade left me scratching my head... It also makes you wonder whether the Yankees are intent on signing A-Rod after this year or whether they're going to let him go.

Not only did the city of Boston land the big prize in the baseball trade deadline signings, but the Celtics picked up one of the NBA's best players yesterday in "the Big Ticket," Kevin Garnett. Garnett, also known simply as "KG," was picked up in a 7 player trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves, where the Celtics gave up Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Sebastian Telfair, Theo Ratliff, two future first-round picks and cash considerations. "KG" joins other perennial All-Stars in forward Paul Pierce and guard Ray Allen to give the Celtics one of the most feared front lines in the NBA. Last year, the Celtics finished an abysmal 24-58 in the Atlantic confenece of the Eastern Division - the second worst record in all of the NBA. With this trade, the Celtics are now a favorite to win the division. Time will tell though, especially given the now fragile future of the NBA.

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Lots of baseball was played again last night, but the milestones remained untouched by Mr. Bonds and A-Rod... The Dodgers simply never could put anything together last night against Noah Lowry and the Giants, falling 3-1. Brad Penny took only his second loss of the year in 15 decisions for the Blue Crew. The aforementioned Bonds went 0-for-2 with two walks an a run scored. In New York, the Yankees put up EIGHT home runs including two by "Godzilla," Hideki Matsui, as the Bronx Bombers pummeled the Chicago White Sox by a 16-3 score. A-Rod may be pressing a little, as he went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts. In Atlanta, the "magic number" was 12 yesterday as the Braves walloped the Houston Astros 12-4. Brian McCann, Kelly Johnson and Jeff Francoeur all coincidentally hit their 12th home runs of the year for the Braves in the game - Johnson actually hit his 11th as well... Francoeur has been red hot of late, by the way, going 3-for-5 to raise his batting average to .300 for the first time all season. If you traded for "Frenchy" recently as I did in several fantasy leagues, this recent hot streak (a .370 batting average with four homers, 23 RBI's and 23 runs scored the past 29 games) just has to make you smile. The real trade deadline came and went and Chad Cordero is still doing what he's done so well for the Nationals the past several years - close out games! After the Reds scored two runs in the top of the fifth inning against starter Matt Chico, the Nats erupted for five runs in the bottom of the frame, led by a 3-run double by Ryan Zimmerman in RFK Stadium. Cordero closed things out for his 22nd save of the year in the Nats 6-3 win. In Anaheim, John Lackey finally looked more like his "normal" self, scattering seven hits and walking three while striking out five as he and the Angels shut down the Seattle Mariners in an 8-0 decision. For Lackey it was his 13th win of the year and his 6th career shutout.

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