With Evander Holyfield in attendance and thanks to the girlfriend scoring tickets from work, I had the pleasure of sitting front row behind the Rangers dugout last night as the Rangers swept the Mariners and now have 5 wins in a row (2nd longest winning streak of the season). Not many people possibly care, but Holyfield makes a return to the ring this Friday night at the American Airlines Center . His opponent not even a Buster Douglas worthy Jeremy Bates with record of 21-11-1.
As for the Rangers currently standing at 61-58, they still sit 5 games back off the A's and only .5 game back of the Angels. With plenty of series against both teams left thanks to the unbalanced schedule, anything is possible. Although the A's do this every year, so it's hard to be that optimistic.
The Rangers managed to handle pantheon worthy prospect "King" Felix Hernandez to the tune of 6 runs in a little over 5 innings . From my vantage point, the kid has sick, sick stuff (including a fastball that can touch 99 on the gun, an 89-90 slider and an offspeed pitch that just dives right at the plate). Felix just needs to get a little more seasoning at the major league level before he starts to dominate. At age 20, I'd say he has a pretty bright future.
Here is another Rangers story from the
Star-Telgram about the Rangers bullpen, most notably Wes Littleton out of Cal-St. Fullerton.
Next Simms Chooses Louisville
Matt Simms, son of former Super Bowl MVP and Louisville native Phil Simms, has committed to sign with U of L, his high school coach said last night. Rivals.com ranks him as the nation's 13th-best pro-style quarterback.
The 6-foot-2 Simms led Don Bosco Preparatory High School to an 11-1 record and the New Jersey parochial state final as a junior last year. He threw for 2,744 yards and 30 touchdowns while completing 62 percent of his passes.
"He's got a tremendous arm, but he's so much more than that," Don Bosco Prep coach Nunzio Campanile said. "He's that rare commodity who has great talent and all the intangibles. He's smart, he's a great leader, he's tough and he's got a great heart. He's about as good as there is for a quarterback
Not that I watched it, but the Cowboys beat the Seahawks 13-3 on Saturday night . Tony Romo played the entire game converting 19-25 passes for 235 yards and one touchdown. Of course, the only thing the first preseason game proves is just how desperate this city is for football. No, there is no quarterback controversy although it proves that Romo might have a better football future than his near scratch handicap in golf.
Speaking of Golf, the PGA championship has snuck up on us this week at Historic Medinah golf club in Illinois . The course which hosted the famous '99 PGA when Tiger and Sergio (And Sergio's miracle "closed eye" shot right up against that tree) dueled to the very end with Tiger coming out triumphant. Strangely, Sergio still lacks a major and it can basically be summed up that he has failed to show up since then on a Sunday when in contention at a major (this year's British and the '01 US Open at Southern HIlls come quickly to mind).
The course is playing a ridiculous 7,561 yards to a par 72. Expect long hitters to do very well this week. Probably won't be any Jeff Slumans ('87 PGA winner) or Corey Pavins ('95 US Open at Shinneock) holding up the Wannamaker trophy this year. As most golf fans know, the PGA is the last chance for anyone outside of the top 10 to make the Ryder Cup team. As usual, I hear people on this side of the pond (well just Lanny Wadkins this past weekend at the International) expecting big things out of the US team when they play over in Ireland at the end of September.
Fat chance. The Europe team is much better and much more experienced and always hands the Americans their asses over in Europe. And you can expect tensions to be running extra high with Europe and the rest of the world in general not real big fans of the US currently. Either way, expect fireworks as I expect the US to make a last stand before being totally humiliated in an event they once owned.
If you don't believe me, check out the last 20 years of Ryder Cups dating back to the Mid 80s.
2004 Oakland Hills CC, Bloomfield Township, MI 18.5 Europe 9.5 USA Europe in a Huge way wire to wire in one of the biggest ass whippings in the event's history
2002 Sutton Coldfield, England USA 12 ½ Europe 15 ½ Europe nips the US in England thanks to some heroic putting on Sunday
1999 The Country Club, Brookline, MA USA 14 ½ Europe 13 ½ The scene of Crenshaw's famous "I believe in fate" speech. Unless you witnessed this event live or in person, it's hard to create the drama on that day. Easily one of the top 5 sporting events I've ever witnessed and the comback was complete when Justin Leonard's miraculous putt to beat Olazabal. And of course the American team trampling on the green with wives and cameraman before Olazabal missed the putt to halve the hole.
1997 Valderrama GC, Sotogrande Spain Europe 14.5 - USA 13.5 Gutwrenching defeat for the Americans. Probably the best the US has played on Europeans soil since they last won in 1993.
1995 Oak Hill CC, Rochester, NY USA 13 ½ Europe 14 ½ In probably the most underrated Ryder Cup that I remember, just an unbelievable Saturday teams and Sunday singles. Ended up with Nick Faldo (with an ace in Sunday singles) beating captain's pick Curtis Strange to give Europe the victory.
1993 The Belfry, Sutton Coldfield, Eng USA 15 Europe 13 USA's last win in Europ and probably the last time the US had momentum on their side in this series.
1991 The Ocean Course, Kiawah Island, S.C. USA 14 ½ Europe 13 ½ "The War at the shore" as it was called had some nailbiting action and some unblelievable winds of the South Carolina coast. Hail Irwin narrowly beat Bernard Langher in a Sunday match for the ages. This was more a survival test than golf under those conditions. There were more casualties than heroes on this day, but the US had finally won again.
1989 The Belfry, Sutton Coldfield, Europe 14 USA 14 The dispicable draw that helped Europe retain the cup. I vaguely remember this one but I remember Mark Calcavecchia and a few others butchering the 18th hole as became the custom for America during this time period.
1987 Muirfield Village GC, Dublin, Ohio USA 13 Europe 15 The disgrace of all disgraces for US golf fans losing at Jack's course with Jack Nicklaus is captain. Easily one of the worst days in US golf history.
1985 The Belfry, Sutton Coldfield, Eng USA 11 ½ Europe 16 ½ While I personally don't remember this Ryder Cup (I was 7 for crying out loud), this Ryder Cup would become a signal of the years to come for the US after such long dominance in this event.
So that final tally since 1985, 6 wins for Europe, 3 wins for the USA and 1 draw in which Europe reatained the cup. Pretty pitiful and I wouldn't expect things to change this year.
Here is a list of both teams heading into the PGA:
USA
1. WOODS, Tiger 4,150.000
2. MICKELSON, Phil 2,474.375
3. FURYK, Jim 2,076.000
4. CAMPBELL, Chad 1,129.602
5. TOMS, David 1,072.250
6. DiMARCO, Chris 830.000
7. TAYLOR, Vaughn 780.833
8. HENRY, J.J. 778.750
9. JOHNSON, Zach 756.477
10. WETTERICH, Brett 746.000
All I got to say is Tiger, Phil, and Furyk better play out of their minds because this top 10 looks absolutely scary on paper. Of course, the US may need that sort of underdog mentality on their side. So this may not be so bad afterall. Of course, maybe we should suit up Tom Lehman and Pavin (both captain and co-captain this year) for these matches. Brett Wetterich, Zach Johnson (A&M clown), JJ Henry (TCU boy), and Vaughn Taylor are going to be pissing in their pants during their first matches.
Europe's squad
1 David HOWELL 208.65
2 Colin MONTGOMERIE 207.88
3 José Maria OLAZÁBAL 202.09
4 Henrik STENSON 201.76
5 Luke DONALD 192.25
6 Sergio GARCIA 190.30
7 Paul CASEY 165.33
8 Padraig HARRINGTON 154.46
9 Carl PETTERSSON 154.12
10 Robert KARLSSON 151.46
This team looks much better on paper than the Americans especially when you consider how good Olazabal, Monty, and Garica are in team play. David Howell and Luke Donald form a somewhat fearsome England duo.
The teams in their current form look like a huge advantage to Europe, espcially playing in front of the fans in Ireland . And because it looks like such a mismatch on paper. And because crazy things happen when I don't get to watch them live, I am predicting the US pulls off the miracles and wins on European soil.
Okay, not really but it would be a good story wouldn't it.
Vancouverwon't be too bad as a consolation to missing the ryder cup. Your damn sure I'm gonna watch that son of a bitch on TIVO and maybe even catch the Sunday singles if I'm lucky.
USA, USA, USA
No comments:
Post a Comment