Week in Review 7/4-7/10

Dr. Giganto

Starting this week, every Monday I'm going to give a recap of the previous week in American sports. Hope you guys enjoy:

Major League Baseball

The participants for this year's Home Run Derby were announced, with a slight twist in the selction process. Wanting to highlight the multin-national nature of the game, 8 players representing 8 different countries will participate in the crowd-pleasing event. The participants will be:

Mark Texeira, Texas Rangers (USA)
David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox (Dominican Republic)
Jason Bay, Pittsburgh Pirates (Canada)
Carlos Lee, Milwaukee Brewers (Panama)
Andruw Jones, Atlanta Braves (the Netherlands)
Hee Seop Choi (South Korea)
Bobby Abreu (Venezuela)
Ivan Rodriguez (Puerto Rico)

Curt Schilling came one step closer to returning to the mound for the Boston Red Sox, but manager Terry Francona had some surprising news as to how the Boston would return. Francona said that Schilling would return to the team as a reliever, probably serving as the team's closer until Keith Foulke is ready to close games again. This drew criticism from some of the Red Sox players, most notably Johnny Damon, but seems like a good decision to me

The scrappy Toronto Blue Jays, who have managed to hang around with the big boys in the AL East all season, were dealt a serious blow this week after ace Roy Halladay was hit in the leg by a line drive, breaking a bone. Halladay is expected to miss 4-6 weeks of action. He was replaced on the All-Star game roster with Boston RHP Matt Clement

Despite facing a 20-game suspension and loads of venom from the fans for assaulting two cameramen, Texas Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers announced that he would attend the All-Star in Detroit on Tuesday.

St. Louis 3B Scott Rolen announced that his sore shoulder would keep him out of the All-Star game. He was replaced by Houston 3B Morgan Ensberg

A few perennial playoff teams made runs at the end of the first-half to close the gaps with their division leaders. The Yankees won 7 of their last 8 games to pull to within 2.5 games of first place Boston, while Atlanta also won 7 of 8 to pull to within 2.5 of first place Washington, before losing the last two games before the break. Alsewhere, two teams left for dead early on, Oakland and Houston, got hot at the end of the first half to pull to one game above .500. Do they have what it takes to make a playoff run?

Last week's hot hitters:

Jason Giambi (New York Yankees): .556, 5 HR, 10 RBIs
Todd Helton (Colorado Rockies): .522, 4 HR, 8 RBIs
Travis Hafner (Cleveland Indians): .420, 4 HR, 12 RBIs

Last week's hot pitchers:

Roy Oswalt (Houston Astros): 2-0, 1.17 ERA, 13 K's
Ryan Franklin (Seattle Mariners): 2-0, 1.17 ERA, 0.98 WHIP
Jason Isringhausen (St. Louis Cardinals): 3 saves, 0.00 ERA

National Football League

Hall of Fame coach Hank Stram died on July 4th at the age of 82. Stram coached the Kansas City Chiefs as they lost the first Super Bowl to the Green Bay Packers, then won the big one three years later over Minnesota. Stram was known most for his unconventional strategies on the field, and his engaging personality off of it

Tim brown signed a one-day contract with the Oakland Raiders, and promptly retired from the league. Brown played the 2004 season with Tampa Bay, after spending his entire career with the Raiders.

National Basketball Association

The two biggest free agents on the market decided to stay put. Ray Allen of the Seattle Supersonics and Michael Redd of the Milwaukee Bucks resigned with their teams, spurning a chance to play with budding star LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Instead, the Cavs signed former Wizards guard Larry Hughes, a superb defender.

Nate McMillan, after spending his entire career, both playing and coaching, with the Seattle Supersonics, signed a deal with the Portland Trail Blazers, making him the second-highest paid coach in the NBA (behind Phil Jackson of the Lakers). McMillan took a Seattle team that was not expected to contend, and led them to first place in the Pacific Division

Milwuakee named Terry Stotts their new coach. Stotts formerly coach the Atlanta Hawks.

National Hockey League

The league announced that, depsite media reports to the contrary, a deal between the owners and players is not imminent

There were a couple of coaching changes, but since there hasnt been an NHL game played in 13 months, and there probably wont be any played for quite some time, it's not worth wasting words on

Golf

Michelle Wie missed her best chance to this point of making the cut on a PGA Tour event. Wie shot a one-under-par 70 in the opening round, but shot a 71 in the second round to fall short of the cut. The even was won by Sean O'Hair (no, not that one)

Tour de France

Lance Armstrong, looking for his 7th consecutive Tour de France victory, took the overall lead early in the event. Lance has now dropped back to 3rd place, 2 min 18 seconds behind the leader, Jens Voight of Germany.

IRALB

Trent Yawney replaced Brian Sutter in Chicago, and Mike Bab**** is looking to leave Anaheim for Detroit to replace Dave Lewis, if that hasn't happened already.

AudioSavior

I hope Lance wins. They have like 2 weeks yet don't they? I'm not worried yet though, I am sure he knows what he is doing by now lol.

Dr. Giganto

Yeah, the Tour de France is a looooooong race. A few people I know were saying that he usually doesnt take the lead this early anyway. I dont know if they actually know what they're talking about however

I think I heard that when he really pulls away is when they get to the mountains, and I dont think they are there yet

This reminds me of a joke I once heard, regarding Lance's suspected steroid use:

Did hear that they found three substances in Lance's hotel room that are banned in France?

Soap, deodorant, and toothpaste

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

Wasn't a really big week in sports but great job anyway, D..

This is the time of year where I watch baseball from time to time, but don't really focus too much time on sports in general...I'm just waiting for baseball to come down to the wire..

I love September sports..You have the baseball pennant races heating up and then into the playoffs, and then you have the return of my fav. sport, Football!! I love watching College Football all day Sat. then getting up the next day and watching the NFL all day Sun...It doesn't get any better than that..


On a side note, I'm not going out tonight, so I'll be watching the MLB All-star game..I like the MLB's version of this much better than other sports. In NHL and NFL they don't hit anyone, and in the NBA they don't play defense. In MLB the pitcher pitches to get hitters out and the hitter tries to get a hit..It's almost like a real game, and now they have the home field of the World Series on the line, which I'm in favor of..

I know the people on the D-Rays don't give a shit, but at least the Yanks, Sox, and a few other teams take the game a little more serious. That's not a bad thing, that's a Goooood thing!!