insightsports

For all of you armchair athletes, ESPA has come up with the remote to solve all your viewing problems. Dubbed the ESPN Ultimate Remote, this little gadget is packed with features. And no, I’m not getting a cut on any of the sales, but I thought you would want to know about it. For a mere $300, you can get all of this: wireless connection to the Internet that allows you to text message, send and check e-mail plus watch television via the 2-inch screen. It will even turn itself on when it senses nearby movement and automatically adjusts the brightness of its screen based on surrounding light. How could you possibly get along without it?

Fantastic catcher Buster Posey of Florida State has been voted as the nation’s top college baseball player…hands down. Consider these stats if you think he doesn’t deserve the accolades—nation’s No. 1 batting average of .460; nation’s No. 1 in home runs (26); nation’s No. 1 in RBIs (92); nation’s No. 1 in hits (114); nation’s No. 1 in runs (88); nation’s No. 1 in on-base percentage (.564); nation’s No. 1 in total bases (220). The 6-2, 220-pound Seminole is also one of the nation’s top defensive catchers, with only eight errors in 474 chances (.983). Earlier this year against Savannah State Posey played all nine positions in the game. He’s made eight appearances as a relief pitcher, earning six saves. Watch for him next year in a San Francisco Giants uniform. The Giants made him the number five pick in this month’s draft.

I’ve been playing fantasy sports on Yahoo since the start of the new millennium, dating back to 2000. If you’ve never tried it, you should give it some serio9us consideration. There are both public leagues and private leagues. I don’t recommend the public leagues because there are many participants who flake out after the start and it takes the fun out of it for everyone else. The best thing to do is to go to Yahoo Sports, click on Fantasy Sports and choose the one you are interested in. Then go to the message board where you will find dozens of private leagues that are looking for a few more participants. Find the one that appeals to you and join up. Pretty soon you’ll find yourself with a group of guys who stay active. I’ve been playing with the same people for seven years or more and we come from every corner of the United States. Give it a try—you’ll be glad you did.

The Boston Celtics are on a roll and the lowly Los Angeles Lakers aren’t in any position to stop them. With Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce leading the charge, the Boston squad is going to bring home the NBA championship to Bean Town. It’s been a long time and they are certainly due. And I for one am a bit tired of the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant and the whole bunch of guys. They’re yesterday’s bad news. I predict that it will all be wrapped up on Sunday. And it’s about time. The season is one of the longest in sports. It’s already mid-June and they’ve been going for so many months that I lost count. We won’t have very long to wait for the next pre-season. So now it’s onward to baseball and then my personal favorite, the National Football League. Go Seahawks!

The Calgary Vipers of the Northern League had a problem. One of their pitchers, an American named John Odom, was having trouble crossing the border into Canada. Don’t know why. But the Vipers came up with an interesting solution. They traded Odom to the Laredo Broncos of the United Baseball League for 10 bats. Not just any old bats, these were custom maple bats known as Prairie Sticks. Manufactured by Prairie Sticks Bat Company of Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, these hard maple bats are gaining in popularity among professional baseball players. The ones involved in the trade for Odom were the 34-inch double-dipped black C243. They are made from rock maple grown in eastern Canada. The company only sold 1,500 bats last year, but when word hit the Internet about the trade of 10 bats for a professional pitcher, the phones in Red Deer started ringing off the hook. According to an Associated Press account, players from California to Connecticut wanted Prairie Sticks bats. Where it all goes from here is anyone’s guess, and my guess is that things in Red Deer are going to continue to get better and better. And for Odom, originally from Atlanta, Laredo, Texas is a lot closer to home. This trade is one of those win, win, win situations.

He’s only 21 and his batting average is a cool 1.000. In his major league debut with the Reds, Jay Bruce played center field and batted second. And he had a great game, helping Cincinnati to a 9-6 win over the never easy Pittsburgh Pirates. Jay’s line went like this: At the plate five times, but two were walks so they don’t count as times at bat. He went 3 for 3, with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI’s. He also had a stolen base. Heck of a start for the youngster from Beaumont, Texas. At 6’3” and 205 pounds, lefthander Bruce is coming into his prime. Reds CEO sees Jay Bruce as the team’s next superstar and he may very well be right if yesterday’s start is any indication. The Reds could certainly use a superstar right about now. They struggled last year to a dismal 72-90 record and haven’t had a winning record since 1999, when they finished 96-67. They haven’t had a consistently good team since the late 1980s, so they’re about due. Good luck, Jay.

Sunday will be a real challenge for the American sports buff. Start out with a full slate of MLB games—15 games in all. Then toss in game three of the NBA Western Division finals, with Kobe Bryant’s Lakers leading 2-0. With this game being in San Antonio it’s time for the Spurs to get back on track. They lose this one and it’s all she wrote. They would have to win the next four straight and that isn’t going to happen. Also on tap is auto racing, starting with the Indianapolis 500 and then NASCAR’s Coca Cola 600. Add it up, that’s 1,100 miles of racing this Sunday. Perhaps golf is your forte. No problem, the final round of the Colonial in Fort Worth is on tap with fan-favorite Phil Mickelson leading the pack. I haven’t really been a big Mickelson fan, but I’m starting to come around a little bit, plus I picked him to win in my fantasy golf league, so I guess I’ll be rooting for him tomorrow. Oh, and did I mention tennis? It’s one of the big four starting tomorrow at Roland Garos—the French Open, this year’s second Grand Slam. Favorites Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova will be taking on a formidable group of challenges led by Roger Federer and Ana Ivanovic. The only major professional sport that won’t take place tomorrow is NHL. First game of the Stanley Cup final between the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penquins takes place tonight in Detroit. Sunday is an off day and then they will all be back out on the ice on Monday. So good luck in choosing what to watch. Personally I’ll be toggling back and forth between the Indy 500 and the French Open, with quick checks of basketball and golf during commercials. Baseball can take a back seat at this juncture in the season.

Jayson Werth of the Phillies is on fire. Jayson homered in his first three at-bats last night and he had a chance to tie a major league record of four straight when he fouled out to the first baseman in the 7^th inning.  Still not a bad night for the kid from Springfield, Illinois. He’s already chalked up 6 homers this year. That might not seem like much, but consider that he had a total of eight during the entire season last year. He also raised his batting average 16 points in that one game. He is 8 for 15 in his last three games, with 8 RBI’s.  Werth started with a three-run shot in the second inning, and followed it with a grand slam HR in the third and a solo shot in the fifth. The big loser in all of this was Blue Jays starting pitcher David Purcey who was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse after the game.  Tough break for him. Just goes to show you that MLB is a business, not a sport.

There was a rarity in Cleveland last night as Indians shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera turned an unassisted triple play against Toronto. Just how rare was it…well the last triple play that was turned in the American League was back in 2000 when A’s second baseman Randy Velarde turned the trick. Colorado shortstop Tony Tulowitzki (who is really struggling this year by the way) completed a triple play against Atlanta on April 29, 2007. There have only been three recorded triple plays by Cleveland Indians storied past and both occurred a long, long time ago. The first was in 1909 when Indians shortstop Neal Ball made the first one in history of professional baseball. The second occurred 11 years later in 1920 when Cleveland second baseman Bill Wambsganss turned the only one ever in the World Series. This one was in Game 5 against Brooklyn.  To make his night complete, participated in two double plays and hit a two-run homer in Cleveland’s 3-0 shutout of Toronto.

 How did Cabrera pull off the triple play?  It started with a brilliant backhand stab of a hard liner by Lyle Overbay. Cabrera then touched second base to force Kevin Mench and tag Marco Scutaro who was running from first. One, two, three…that’s all she wrote, folks!

What’s going on in Major League Baseball? One of last year’s big guns is this year’s cannon fodder. Check out Ryan Howard’s stats. Sad isn’t a strong enough word to describe his performance. Totally pathetic comes closer. In 2006 Howard batted .313 with 58 home runs. He slipped a bit last year— 268 with 47 home runs. Still pretty good. So how about 2008? Well his batting average as of today is .171. Do I hear the words “Struggling at the plate!”  Let’s look at the home run production. In 2006 he hit 58 HRs in 581 at bats—so that’s about one in every 10 plate appearances. In 2007 he hit 47 HRs in 529 at bats—one in 11 at bats. But this year, 7 home runs in 140 at bats—a dismal one in 20. So how about strikeouts? Well, let’s see. In 2006 he struck out 181 times in 581 at bats; in 2007 it was 199 in 529. Not bad. This year he’s already racked up 54 strikeouts in 140 tries at the plate, that’s nearly 40 percent of the time.  I wish him luck. I’d really like to see him turn things around, but it won’t be a walk in the park. Or for that matter, it won’t be a trot around the base pads either.