As June hits the sports calendar Tree.com will have you covered. The pennant races are just heating up in baseball, while the NBA and NHL seasons are coming to an end. The NFL will continue to grab headlines as both sides creep closer to a deal, and on the links the U.S. Open will be center stage. Great topics, big stories, and we look forward to discussing them with you on the sports channel.
The Colorado Rockies are baseball's Sphinx, elevated and mysterious. No one has ever figured them out, even the Rockies themselves. This is as it should be. The Rockies live in the mountains and wear purple, which sets them apart from the other 29 major league clubs, so why not be mysterioso as well?
The 2011 NBA Draft is only a few weeks away and the NBA Combine has ended. Now begins the monotonous month of mock drafts and massive amounts of speculation. The draft order is set, so let’s take a look at my opinion of how the draft may just play out on June 23.
1. Cleveland Cavaliers: Kyrie Irving, Point Guard, Duke
Arguably the best prospect in the draft, Irving has plenty to offer to whatever team he ends up on. Irving will make an immediate impact with his tremendous basketball IQ, outstanding passing and explosiveness.
Jerry Coleman can be found at nearly all San Diego Padres home games, either behind a radio microphone or in his own booth, but on a recent night the longtime broadcaster and former New York Yankee had someplace else to be.Good for the Colonel, West Coast Bias thought. A man 86 years old should get a break from watching these Padres.Come to find Coleman was hobnobbing with some of his favorite people -- military aviators and mechanics, hundreds of whom convened at a San Diego hotel to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Marine aviation.
In a wildly entertaining contest Friday night, the Boston Bruins downed the Tampa Bay Lightning 1-0, earning their first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals in 21 years. Many games ending with a 1-0 score are slow-paced, conservatively played and just plain boring. That wasn’t the case Friday though as both clubs came out flying from the opening puck drop and traded quality scoring chances throughout.
Cody Decker ... minor league baseball player for the San Diego Padres organization went down due to an unfortunate ankle injury. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him ... we have the technology. We can make him stronger ... faster... well, we can make him stronger... We can make the world's first bionic man ... but, we are not going to spend a lot of money ... roughly $1000 before taxes .... $638 after (depending on what state you are in). Yes, this is the tagline to the new spinoff series I'm trying to pitch to NBC
Only a month after the NFL draft, 2nd-and-long confronts quarterback Jake Locker even as wheelbarrows of cash roll his way.
The Tennessee Titans, causing West Coast Bias to wince, overdrafted the University of Washington star when they chose him eighth overall. Better for Locker to have gone where a veteran quarterback was entrenched, if only to save Locker from himself. This is a quarterback who enjoyed slamming into tacklers for the Huskies.
Welcome to the second edition of my “NHL off-season strategy sessions,” where I preview what each club’s plan should be for the summer along with identifying potential free agent targets. Remember, not each team will share the same goals. Some will be gearing up for what they hope is a long playoff run next season. Others should be rebuilding or augmenting their foundation in an effort to push for post-season success down the road.
Florida was profiled first as they finished last in the East. Today we move up the standings to the New York Islanders.
Another death hit the baseball world this week, as former Kansas City Royals pitcher (and more recently a broadcaster for the team) Paul Splittorff died Wednesday morning at the age of 64 after recently being treated for melanoma and oral cancer. Splittorff spent all 15 of his major league seasons with the Royals (1970-1984), is the franchise's all-time wins leader with 166 and had a 3.81 ERA during his career.
Tom Lewis owns a semi-pro football team called the Palm Springs Coyotes. It will join the UDFL (United Developmental Football League) in 2012 and is playing a schedule of non-league games in 2011. But on May 8th, 2009, as Lewis was in the Kunar Province in Afghanistan, bullets whizzing past his head, he starting talking to God, “If you let me out of this place, I will go do something I love.”
Rookies continue to make an impact across baseball this season, particularly those that make their living on the pitcher's mound. That may be slowly changing as some notable top prospects that are position players, like Eric Hosmer, Domonic Brown, Dustin Ackley, Anthony Rizzo and Brett Lawrie, are either in the big leagues or look likely to be on their way soon.
Here is this week's "Rookie Report", here at Tree.