Mariano Rivera's Last Game at Yankee Stadium

The greatest closer of all time, Mariano Rivera, pitched his last game at Yankee Stadium on September 26, 2013 in a game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

I am a Dodgers fan, but I cheer for the Yankees while living in New York because I can't cheer for fellow National League competitor the Mets.  Plus it gave me chills to go to the old Yankee stadium, which was steeped with so much tradition.  The new Yankee Stadium is nice, but doesn't have quite the same feeling as the old one.

Rivera entered the last game in the eighth inning with one out and runners on first and second.  The Yankees played longtime announcer Bob Sheppard's introduction of number 42 (Sheppard died in 2010), and the familiar "Enter the Sandman" by Metallica also accompanied Rivera's entrance.

Rivera retired four straight batters, and with two outs in the ninth inning, manager Joe Girardi sent long-time teammates Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte to the mound to relieve Rivera.  That was when the tears and cheers started.  A great ending to an amazing career.  

I had the pleasure of watching Rivera pitch several times, and it's great that he is able to do a farewell tour. Many clubs around the league have paid tribute to him.  It's too bad that the Yankees have been eliminated from the playoffs and they also lost his last game 4-0.  However, Rivera left with five World Series rings, 13 All-Star selections, the all-time save record at 652 saves, and numerous other accolades and awards.  He is also for sure going into the Hall of Fame.

Goodbye, Mo. Thank you for the memories.

Anthony Brodeur Drafted by the New Jersey Devils

This is a great story.  Martin Brodeur's son, Anthony Brodeur, was drafted in the seventh round of the NHL draft by the New Jersey Devils.  The proud dad and Devils legend got to announce the pick, and the big grin on his face was awesome, as well as the proud look he had when his son came to the table and put on the Devils jersey and hat. 

Anthony is 18 years old and is also a goalie like his dad.  He just finished his senior year at Shattuck-St. Mary's Prep in Minnesota, and will be playing for the Gatineau Olympiques of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League next season.

When asked about the moment, Anthony stated, "This is so surreal.  There's no other way to explain it. I've grown up watching the Devils, cheering on the Devils, cheering on my dad. So being in this jersey right now, in this arena, is awesome."

The seventh round is a far cry from the first round where Martin Brodeur was drafted by the Devils in 1990, but with pedigree like that, here's hoping another Brodeur will be a star in the NHL. 

Grant Hill and Jason Kidd Retiring from the NBA

Grant Hill and Jason Kidd, who shared Rookie of the Year honors in the 1994-1995 season, both announced their retirement within days of each other after 19 years in the NBA as members of the Los Angeles Clippers and the New York Knicks, respectively. 

I remember both of them when they first entered the league, Kidd with the Dallas Mavericks and Hill with the Detroit Pistons.  Kidd is likely to go into the Hall of Fame as one of the best point guards to play the game.  He averaged 12.6 points, 8.7 assists, 6.3 rebounds and 1.9 steals in 1,391 regular-season games, and won an NBA championship with the Mavericks.  He also won two gold medals in the Olympics.

Hill probably won't make it into the Hall of Fame.  Although he was an amazing player when he first entered the league, a series of injuries have derailed his career.  He still left with an average of 16.7 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 1.2 steals in 33.9 minutes per game, after playing in a total of 1,026 games (972 starts).  Hill never won an NBA championship, but he was part of the 1992 championship team at Duke and won a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics.  Hill was the one who passed the ball to Christian Laettner, who then turned and made a jump shot that sent Duke to the 1992 Final Four and to every NCAA tournament highlight reel since then.  Hill is also known as one of the classiest guys in the league, and it's impressive how much he has fought back from injuries again and again. 

Clayton Kershaw

Clayton Kershaw is a bright spot in an otherwise terrible start to the Dodgers season.  This Grantland article spotlighted the pitch that got him noticed during spring training, complete with a Vin Scully call.  My favorite part is the Kershaw Bet: "The first person to go over to Kershaw and ask him their hand-picked goofy question during one of those between-innings scenes would win the entire pot."

Michigan Basketball Coach and His Connection to Saving Private Ryan

Michigan is going the the Final Four for the first time since the Fab Five played in the national championship game 20 years ago.  A lot of their success can be attributed to their coach, John Beilein, currently in his sixth season.

Yahoo! Sports' Dan Wetzel wrote an incredible story about John Beilein's family, who inspired the book "Band of Brothers" that became the movie "Saving Private Ryan."  Beilein's mother, Josephine, was the cousin of the Niland brothers, and all of them grew up close to each other in the working class town of Tonawanda, New York. 

Four of the Niland brothers went to fight in World War II.  One of them, Ed, was a pilot, and his plane went down in the Pacific Theater a few weeks before D-Day and he was presumed dead.  Two other brothers, Bobby and Preston, were sent to storm the beach on D-Day and were killed in action.  The military had decided that it was not right for one mother to lose all her sons in combat, so the last brother, Fritz, was found and sent home.  Fritz had also been at Normandy, but had been dropped behind enemy lines as part of the gliders along with his cousin Tommy, Josephine's brother.  He was the real-life inspiration for the character of Private James Ryan, Matt Damon's character in the movie.  Fritz later became an oral surgeon and lived until 1983, and Tommy also survived and lived a pretty long life.  Ed Niland was later found in a Japanese POW camp in Burman and was sent back to Tonawanda and lived until he was 72 years old. 

Opening Day

It's opening day for baseball!  It's the time when every fan can still have hope that their team will win the World Series.

I'm a Dodgers fan, and they play against their big rivals the San Francisco Giants later today at Dodger Stadium.  I would love for the Dodgers to hand the Giants their first loss of the season, and with Clayton Kershaw on the mound, there is a good chance this will happen. 

I'm cautiously optimistic about the Dodgers this season.  They have a team loaded with talent after the new owners were willing to spend money, but things did not quite gel last season after all the acquisitions.  There is still a question whether the Dodgers have enough chemistry and leadership to win it all, especially since their toughest competitor and the defending World Series Champion is in their own division, the Giants. 

They do have as their starters two former Cy Young winners in Kershaw and new Dodger Zack Greinke, plus Korean sensation Hyun-Jin Ryu and Josh Beckett.  A bunch of other pitchers are vying for the fifth slot.  Their lineup is pretty solid, even with shortstop Hanley Ramirez starting the season on the disabled list.  Carl Crawford is looking to prove that he is still a good player after an awful two years, and Matt Kemp should come back strong from his shoulder surgery.  Adrian Gonzalez and Andre Ethier provide nice power in the middle of the lineup, and let's hope Luis Cruz will continue to improve.  Mark Ellis provides the veteran dependability, and A.J. Ellis is a very patient hitter as well as a great catcher. 

The best part about Dodgers games is still Vin Scully.  The 85-year-old announcer has slowed down in recent years and is now only calling home games and select road games in California and Arizona, but there is nothing like watching Dodger baseball with Scully calling the game. 

Anthony Adams Retirement

Anthony Adams is a defensive tackle in the NFL, first with the San Francisco 49ers and then with the Chicago Bears.

He posted a hilarious retirement video that is worth watching.  Hope someone snaps this guy up as a commentator. 

Sports Illustrated and Game of Thrones

Sports Illustrated uses Game of Thrones as the theme of its latest Power Issue, which features an illustration of Roger Goodell sitting on the Iron Throne as the cover.  SI named Roger Goodell the most powerful person in sports this year.  SI also did a sports map based on the Game of Thrones landscape, including Selig's Landing (King's Landing), Stern's End (Storm's End), Vale of Anschutz (Vale of Arryn), and the NHL as wildlings to the North in the Land of Always Hockey (the Land of Always Winter).  The last part will be controversial to Mr. Y. 

SI also did a podcast with Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin.  My favorite part of the excerpt was Martin comparing the two teams I hate, the Dallas Cowboys and the New England Patriots, to the evil Lannisters, and the revelation that Martin called Patriots coach Bill Belichick "Evil Little Bill" on his blog, as well as Martin speculating that Belichick might be worse than a Lannister - perhaps a Grejoy. 

Hawaii Five-O, Train, and the 2013 Pro Bowl

Hawaii Five-O's latest episode, "Paʻani" ("The Game") was shot during the actual Pro Bowl occurring in Honolulu, Hawaii, and guest-starred Arian Foster, the star running back from the Houston Texans.  In addition, Pat Monahan from the band Train showed up to play the CEO of a technology company who had one of its employees killed during a team building military-style exercise. 

It turned out that Train was the halftime performer at the Pro Bowl, and they also shot a video for their new single, Mermaid, that incorporated the Pro Bowl and featured cameos from Hawaii Five-O and the NFL. 

Steve Nash's Nickname

Kobe Bryant gave Steve Nash a pretty funny nickname: Gatsby.  When you look at the picture of Nash sitting in the sidelines in the three-piece suit and the parted hair, the nickname definitely fits. 

Ichiro Suzuki's Present to One Fan

Ichiro Suzuki was a star with the Seattle Mariners for many years before being traded to the New York Yankees last July.  While he was still in Seattle during the 2004 season, fan Amy Franz came up with the idea of bringing the Ichimetere to Safeco Field to track Ichiro's progress of breaking George Sisler's single-season record of 257 hits.  The sign was often featured on television as Ichiro notched hit after hit, and he eventually broke the record that year by getting 262 hits.  The original Ichimeter went into the Hall of Fame, but Franz brought new versions after that season and she became known as the Ichimeter Lady.

Ichiro had thanked Franz and autographed the Ichimeter when the trade with the New York Yankees happened while they were in Seattle, but this week Franz received a special package from Ichiro: a sweet thank you note and autographed cleats.

What a class act. 

A.J. Ellis and a Special Delivery

Hurricane Sandy has come and gone, but the recovery efforts have just begun.  Sending good thoughts to everyone who have been affected.

For a little levity amid all the hurricane coverage, here is a heartwarming and funny story about Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis.   He was driving to the hospital in Milwaukee after his wife's water broke, but then his wife, Cindy, started screaming in the car that she wasn't going to make it.  Ellis didn't take her seriously, but then she really did give birth to their daughter, Audrey Elizabeth, in the front seat of the car.  I especially love the part when she told him that the baby was a girl.

Ohio State Marching Band

As a former band geek, this video of the Ohio State Marching Band doing their halftime show this past weekend in the game against Nebraska was fantastic.  The Best Damn Band in the Land (seriously, that's what they call themselves) did a tribute to classic video games such as Zelda, Pokemon, Tetris, Super Mario Bros., Space Invaders, Pacman, and Halo.

Here's a story of how they pulled it together.  I'm impressed that it only took 14 hours of on-field practice time.  These are definitely elite band members.  In high school we had 14 hours of practice every week, but we definitely couldn't pull off a new show every week.

 

Update on Adam Greenberg

I mentioned Adam Greenberg in a previous blog entry about his quest to get one at-bat in the major leagues after getting hit in the head seven years ago in his first major league plant appearance. 

Now here is the update - Adam Greenberg went up to bat as a pinch hitter at the top of the sixth inning, and struck out on three pitches against Mets pitcher and Cy Young award candidate R.A. Dickey.  He took strike one and swung at the next two pitches.  All three pitches that he faced were knuckleballs, which is a Dickey specialty. 

Even better, Topps is issuing a 2013 baseball card for him. 

The Marlins did end up winning the game, 4-3, denying Dickey his 21st win. 

One-At-Bat - Adam Greenberg

Seven years ago, Adam Greenberg stepped up to the plate in his first major league at-bat as a pinch-hitter for the Chicago Cubs.  He was hit in the head by a 95-mph fastball thrown by the Florida Marlins pitcher Valerio De Los Santos, and had to be helped off the field and taken into the hospital.  Ever since that hit, he had to deal with a host of medical issues, from post-concussion syndrom to dizziness, severe headaches, and vertigo.  He had kept trying to make it to the majors, but his career had fizzled in the minors.

Filmmaker and Cubs fan Matt Liston started the One At Bat campaign to get Greenberg at least one at-bat in the major leagues.  Despite a great video, thousands of signatures, and endorsements from the likes of Hall of Famer George Brett, Chicago Cubs passed on giving Greenberg the chance.  The Marlins heard about the campaign, and sought and obtained permission from Commissioner Bud Selig to sign Greenberg to a one-day contract (normally Major League Baseball doesn't allow one-day contracts).  Greenberg accepted the offer on the Today Show, and will do his one at-bat next Tuesday, October 2nd, against the New York Mets and R. A. Dickey at Marlins Park in the second-to-last game of the season.  Neither the Marlins nor the Mets are in playoffs contention. 

According to ESPN, "Greenberg has also agreed to donate his one-day salary to the Marlins Foundation, which will then make a donation to the Sports Legacy Institute, an organization that advances the study, treatment and prevention of the effects of brain trauma in athletes and other at-risk groups."

Even though some cynics said it is just a PR ploy by unpopular Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, and others complained that he didn't deserve it, I still think it's sweet.  It clearly means a lot to Greenberg, and I hope he gets a hit. 

Going for It on Fourth Down

I've mentioned before the book Scorecasting, which challenges conventional wisdom and assumptions about sports by applying economic analysis to sports situations. 

One of the stories mentioned in the book is about Kevin Kelley, the football coach at Pulaski Academy in Little Rock, Arkansas.  Kelley has also been featured in Sports Illustrated - here's one article about him.  Kelley's approach is unusual because he doesn't follow a lot of the typical football wisdom.  His team doesn't punt - always going for it on fourth down.  His team almost always attempts an onside kick after scoring, and his playbook has a lot of tricks and gimmicks.  Kelley has done a lot of research on football matters, and the numbers and analyses convince him that a lot of conventional football wisdom is just wrong.  For example, as the SI article mentioned, "according to Kelley's statistics, when a team punts from near its end zone, the opponent will take possession inside the 40-yard line and will then score a touchdown 77 percent of the time. If it recovers on downs inside the 10, it will score a touchdown 92 percent of the time.  'So [forsaking] a punt, you give your offense a chance to stay on the field," he said. "And if you miss, the odds of the other team scoring only increase 15 percent. It's like someone said, '[Punting] is what you do on fourth down,' and everyone did it without asking why.'"

It's hard to argue with the results - over the past ten years Pulaski Academy has the record of 105-20 over the past 10 seasons, including an undefeated season in 2011, and it has also won won three state championships. 

Kelley's name recently surfaced again as the inspiration behind Louisiana-Monroe's stunning 34-31 overtime defeat of Arkansas this past Saturday.  Louisiana-Monroe has not had a winning season since 1993, and has never been to a bowl game, while Arkansas is a perennial national powerhouse who was ranked #8 in the Associated Press bowl heading into the game.  Kelley had befriended Louisiana-Monroe's offensive coordinator and head coach, and shared his research and philosophy with them.  Although the Warhawks didn't fully buy into the system, when they were behind 28-7 in the second half, they started playing Kelley's way.  The result is that they went 6-for-7 on fourth downs and converted a fourth down on each of the five touchdown drives, including the last one that gave them the win. 

Los Angeles Lakers

I have been a massive Lakers fan practically since I was born, and I am really excited about the upcoming season.  The Lakers added Dwight Howard and Steve Nash in the offseason, and those are great players who I think will fit well with Kobe and Pau.  Howard is a great defender and rebounder, and as as long as his back holds up, he is the top center in the NBA and is a better player than Andrew Bynum.  Steve Nash has always been a consistently excellent player, and although he is slowing down, he is still a major improvement on the point guard front from Ramon Sessions.  He also has a good attitude and he and Kobe seem to be getting along well, which is a good sign. 

I'm also excited about Antawn Jamison.  He signed a one-year, $1.4 million contract, which is a bargain considering how much he could've gotten elsewhere.  He is clearly serious about trying to win a championship, especially having been on terrible teams for most of his 14-year career.  His signing really helps improve the Lakers' bench, which was terrible last season.  Jamison averaged 17.2 points and 6.3 rebounds last year with Cleveland, and in his career has averaged 45.1% from the field, including 34.1% from the three-point line.  He has been called this generation's James Worthy, and I hope he lives up to the billing.

It will be a fun season in the NBA!

The Olympics Are Over

Last night marked the end of the 2012 Olympics.  The past two weeks had gone by so quickly, and it was a fun ride. 

My favorite highlights (in no particular order):

- Michael Phelps.  After a slow start at the 400 IM, Phelps went on to win four more golds and two silvers.  He is now the most decorated Olympian ever, and he had elevated his sport to amazing new heights.  People kept asking him if he was really done and he said yes.  I hope he meant it and never came back, because it's rare that an athlete can go out on top. 

- The U.S. women gymnastics team.  What a wonderful bunch of girls - they worked together to win team gold, and then Gabby, Aly, and McKayla went on to win their own individual medals.  Even though Jordyn Wieber didn't qualify for the all-around and faltered during the floor exercise, she had shown so much class and team support.  I hope she comes back for Rio.  By the way, if you haven't seen the memes going around of McKayla's pouty face during the vault medal ceremony (she won silver after falling on her butt during her second vault), you have to check these out. 

- Missy Franklin.  She was the breakout star of the swimming team this year, with her great attitude, big smiles, and five medals.  She won the most golds for any female Olympian - four golds, and she also has a bronze medal.  To think she's only 17 and will most likely be back for Rio. 

- Synchronized swimming.  I was so excited to catch some synchronized swimming.  Only in this sport will you see crazy amounts of makeup and insane outfits.  Plus what they do look easy, but it's incredibly hard.  The Michael Jackson routine performed by the Russians was my personal favorite.

- U.S. diving.  After failing to win any medal in the past two Olympics, the United States overhauled their diving program and the results were four medals.  Kelci Bryant and Abby Johnston won silver in the 3-meter springboard, and David Boudia and Nick McCrory in the 10-meter platform and Troy Dumais and Kristian Ipsen in the 3-meter springboard won bronzes.  The most amazing medal was obviously David Boudia's gold in the individual 10-meter platform.  Boudia was the last diver to qualify out of the preliminaries, but fortunately for him no score carried over.  He performed the best six dives of his life in the finals, and narrowly edged China's Qiu Bo and Great Britain's Tom Daley for the gold. 

- Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings.  Watching these two win their third gold medal was fantastic, especially since it's the last Olympics for Misty May-Treanor.  They really have a very deep bond, and it was a pleasure to see how hard they worked.  Despite all the brouhaha about the bikinis, no one would mistake Misty and Kerri as anything but serious athletes. 

- The U.S. women.  The U.S. women won 29 of the team's 46 golds.  If the U.S. women were their own country, they would tie for third with Great Britain for the number of gold medals.  In some sports the women clearly outperformed their male counterparts - boxing, beach volleyball, gymnastics, soccer, track and field, and water polo. 

Basketball Player Punched in the Crotch

French basketball player Nicolas Batum deliberately punched Spanish guard Juan Carlos Navarro in the crotch during the last 23 seconds of their quarterfinal game in the Olympics.  The French needed to foul, and Batum certainly delivered.  When asked by Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski why he punched Navarro, Batum stated, "I wanted to make sure he had good reason to flop."  Amazingly, Batum was not ejected.  Instead the referee simply called an unsportsmanlike conduct call (the second one against France that night after Ronny Turiaf clocked Rudy Fernandez just a few minutes earlier), and Navarro hit one of the two free throws.

At the U.S.-Argentina game, Carmelo Anthony was also punched in the crotch by Facundo Campazzo, who stated later that he did it in retaliation for Chris Paul's hit earlier.. Campazzo was also not ejected.

Wojnarowski makes a good argument in this article that if a United States player had done the same thing, the outcry would be ten times worse.  Even though Batum is an NBA player with the Portland Trailblazers, he is thought of as representing France at the Olympics, not the NBA.  But the U.S. players are seen to represent both the country and the NBA.  Four years ago in Beijing, the Spanish team came under fire for making slanty eyes.  As Jason Kidd mentioned back then, if the U.S. team had done that, "We would've already been thrown out of the Olympics. At the least, we wouldn't have been able to come back to the U.S. There would be suspensions."

Batum did apologize later over Twitter - "I want to apologize for my stupid act at the end.  I showed a bad image of France and myself. Congrats to team Spain."

Samyr Laine

Mr. Y and I were watching the Olympics tonight and heard the amazing story of Samyr Laine.  He was born in New York to Haitian parents, and competes for Haiti in the Olympics in the triple jump.

Samyr went to Harvard as an undergraduate, and was the freshman year roommate of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook.  In this Bloomberg article, he talked about playing a lot of video games with Zuckerberg and both of them not sleeping much.  He was also the fourteenth person to sign up for Facebook when he and Zuckerberg were sophomores, and as he mentioned in the Los Angeles Times article, he is still friends with Zuckerberg and talks to him every couple of months.

After graduating from Harvard, Samyr got a master's degree in kinesiology and sports management from University of Texas while training.  Then he went to Georgetown and got a law degree, and was a summer associate at a prestigious law firm, Shearman & Sterling.  He studied and passed the bar exam while training for the London Olympics, and he also started a foundation, Jump for Haiti, to help the poorly-funded athletics community in Haiti.  It was only in the past 18 months that he was able to concentrate solely on training.  Samry mentioned in a BBC Sports article, "I am a US citizen but when it comes to competing or representing Haiti I feel I am an ambassador on an international level. I wear my red and blue on my sleeve and the country is near and dear to me."

Although Samyr didn't medal in the triple jump, his is still a great story for so many reasons.  Let's hope he can continue to inspire and raise money for Haiti.