Saturday 24 October 2009

Who's It Gonna Be?

Game 6 of the ALCS is scheduled for 7:57 PM tonight, but apparently, rain is falling in NYC. Guess miracle and misfortune come hand in hand (Game 2 was supposed to be rained out, but was played in its entirety last Saturday night).

If this game does get underway, it's going to be Andy Pettitte vs. Joe Saunders. Odds would favour Pettitte, who is the all time winner during the postseason, whereas Saunders is young, inexperienced, and susceptible to the big game jitters. Nonetheless, Saunders has shined this October, posting an ERA of 2.57 (2 points lower than Pettitte). So, it should be an interesting match up.

We've seen some nailbiters in this series. Remember Game 2, when the Yanks walked off in the bottom of the 13th, after about 5 hours of play? Remember Game 3, when it was the Angels who walked off in extras? And remember Game 6 a couple nights ago, when Brian Fuentes walked the bases loaded with two outs and up a run, and finally popped Nick Swisher up on a 3-2 count? Now that's what I love about October baseball!!

Personally, I think the Yankees will take this series. The Angels will NOT win 2 straight on visitor's turf, especially when that turf is Yankee Stadium. As for the World Series, I still think the Yankees will win over the Phillies. But if I could wish for anything in the world, I would wish for a Phillies win. I'm not a Yankees-hater or anything, but I like the Phillies better.

Leafs are still dead last in the entire NHL with 0 wins and just 1 point overall. And I thought the Jays were depressing this season...

Raptors start play on Wednesday. They finished up with a 2-6 record, but it'll be interesting to see how the nagging injuries play out when the season starts. I think they've got a great shot at the playoffs if they stay healthy.

-D

Friday 16 October 2009

October Baseball

Another post on October baseball.

It's been a fun one so far. The Yankees and Angels are playing in New York right now. Lackey vs. Sabathia. Sabathia has been amazing this post season and with the Yankees up 2-0 already, I think the Yanks have a pretty good chance of taking this one.

It's not the best baseball conditions in New York, but I don't think Robinson Cano's full gear face mask is necessary. It's also spitting some rain-boy, don't you wish you were still watching Dodgers baseball?

Speaking of the Dodgers, they SQUEAKED out a victory earlier today. So that series is tied 1-1. I think that one might go 7. Both teams have great pitching, great power, great running game. My pick would be the Phillies though. JA Happ perhaps buckled under the pressure today, but I think he'll be a star to shine in the future.

-D

Sunday 11 October 2009

Surprise! Surprise!

Cardinals swept!

Red Sox swept!

Could this really be happening?

You better believe it. With a loss to the Dodgers last night, the Cardinals, who were the first to clinch their division no less, was swept out of the NLDS. And with a 7-6 defeat at the hands of the Angels this afternoon, the Boston Red Sox are goin' home as well.

As a Red Sox-hater, the latter situation put a smile on my face. But as the for the former, I was disappointed that the Cards didn't make it past the first round. I wanted to see Pujols in the World Series again.

Twins Yankees tonight. It's going to be a close one I think. They're back in the Metrodome, which will no doubt favour the Twins. But the Yankees have been hot and they've been hot since May. As much as I want to see Mauer and co. advance, I have a feeling the Yanks will hand them a third straight loss.

It's October in Denver. That means snow!! Woot! After a postponement yesterday, the Rockies and Phillies will be back on the field today. The weather's not that better though. It's only 3 degrees Celsius there right now. Talk about cold! Imaging fouling a 90 mph fastball off the end of your bat in that weather...

-D

Monday 5 October 2009

Rio de Janeiro 2016!

Some were surprised, but I was not.
Besides, when my dad predicts something to be true, you'd better believe it. And a couple weeks ago, he logically explained why Rio de Janeiro was going to be awarded the games. First of all, they were not going to give Europe consecutive games and it was too closely removed from Beijing for Tokyo to win. And seeing how South America had never hosted before, Rio would beat out Chicago in the end.

Of course, that was not the order in which the vote went down. I was very surprised that Chicago was knocked out first. A lot of analysis have been written on this and I'm not going to go into that here. But let me just say to everybody who blames the President for it, if he hadn't gone to Copenhagen, you would be criticizing him for not doing the very same act that you're criticizing him for doing right now. Know that the President at least tried his best and he was going to get heat, no matter what he did. But he is CERTAINLY NOT RESPONSIBLE for failing to bring the games to Chicago.
As a witness to history being made in 2001 as the IOC awarded the games to Beijing, I can honestly say that I know how the people in Rio feel. It's AWESOME!!!!!! To know that the world will come to YOUR country, to YOUR city, to YOUR neighbourhood, that's an incredible statement. Don't get me wrong, the Olympics do have a lot of flaws in them and thsoe flaws won't get fixed all at once, but the big picture is still pretty luminescent and I certainly look forward to the Olympics whenever they come.

Onto baseball, JP is FINALLY gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did a mini dance in my mind when I read that in the papers on Saturday morning. I believe Mr. Anthopoulos, our new, energetic GM is an experienced man, and he will offer a contrast to the JP philosophy (if he ever had one). It'll be interesting what he does with Roy Halladay. Will have to keep watch on that one.

Twins-Tigers one game playoff should be exciting! Remember last time, Rockies vs. Padres?

My pick for the World Series this year: the New York Yankees.

-D
Photo credit: Associated Press

Thursday 1 October 2009

NATIONAL DAY

On this very special October 1, I'm gonna deviate from my usual topic of sports and blog about CHINESE NATIONAL DAY!

Sixty years ago, in 1949, on October 1, at 3 PM, a fellow named Mao Zedong bellowed to the rest of the world: "Today, the People's Republic of China and the People's Government is established!"

I've been looking a lot of clips of that lately 'cause I've been feeling the Chinese spirit. This is the first major National Day celebration (60th) that I've witnessed, though I do vaguely remember the last military inspection on the 50th anniversary in 1999. But as an aspiring political science student, this is my first one that I've watched in context and with background info. Boy, was it ever exciting!

The sheer dominance of colours, people, and technology is amazing. On Tiananmen Square, the coordination of thousands holding up coloured flowers, the measured steps of the flag troopers, the massiveness of the military band. All of it, though staged, was epic in nature! Then, there was the military parade-the inspection of troops and equipment. That was simply humbling-to see so many, so coordinated, marching as one, past that historical part of China.

Nonetheless, a ton of hard work goes into this kind of stuff and it's amazing, even after the Beijing Olympics, what China can produce. After havin witnessed that grandeur, I can't say how PROUD I am to be Chinese.

-D