Beanpot

Also hoping the Wings close things out tonight or in game 7.

As for game sevens, holy crap is tomorrow night going to be delicious. I was listening to some sort of sports radio this morning and the host (may well have been Patrick) mentioned that for all of the national love given to the Celtics/Bulls series, the Pens/Caps series has been even better. A-freaking-men to that.

My loyalties for the final four, whomever they may be, remain with the greatest sweater in the history of sports - the wonderful creation of Irene Castle and everyone wearing the Indian head.

Beanpot

Beanpot

@cimo. said:

Terrific game seven in Washington. I was listening to the Caps feed on the way home and the announcers continually talked about the shot total after two periods. Unreal that there were only two lead changes in that entire series. Now on to period three in New Jersey!

Beanpot

@beanpot said:

Thanks again for sharing.

Beanpot

I will do that....I'm really humbled that you'd ask or care.

@cimo. said:

I couldn't agree more and the 2003 NBA draft is a perfect comparison. So much young talent in the game now and it really does come down to getting people to care about it. Here in Tampa, people cared quite a bit before the lockout. Many were event fans rather than hockey fans but they cared. Now, not so much.

Beanpot

@oldcrow1945 said:

In the first poll her high school team is ranked #1 in the state in Div. III.

Thanks for asking Bean. That was nice. Here is a pic of her. I couldn't be more proud.

She's a switch hitting centerfielder. Bats in the two hole.

So very cool! Do us a favor and keep us updated on her season if you wouldn't mind. Stan, the guy who built this place, is very into high school sports (me too!) and it's always great to have a rooting interest.

Thanks again for sharing.

Beanpot

@clevelandfanforlife said:

That would be sweet to see Pavano get back on track and beat the Yankee's. He did talk shit about them after signing with the Indians. But he's going up against Burnett, he has a .90 WHIP. We'll see?

@brownb499 said:

LMAO

@cowsrus said:

Yea I do dislike Boston, but for the right reasons. They play good baseball and are classy. The Yankee's are a bunch of ass clowns. Boston fans are loud but are loud because they know baseball. Yankee fans are fat over opinionated slobs that know nothing about baseball except how to be a front runner. Just wait, if the Yankees have a losing record at all star break, who will turn on them, their fans and the media. The Indians or Red Sox fans would stick with their team no matter what. That is just the respect I have for the Red Sox. Of course the Indians are going to kick their ass this year in the playoffs....

@oldcrow1945 said:

In the first poll her high school team is ranked #1 in the state in Div. III.

Thanks for asking Bean. That was nice. Here is a pic of her. I couldn't be more proud.

She's a switch hitting centerfielder. Bats in the two hole.

Enjoy this while you can Crow ... Blink your eyes and it's over

Best of luck to her this season

GO TRIBE - They scored more touchdowns in one inning than the Brownies did in six games

@oldcrow1945 said:

They did well. In a round robin type tourney they went 4-0 for the weekend. Beat two teams from Illinois, Youngstown Ursaline and Loudonville.

In the first poll her high school team is ranked #1 in the state in Div. III.

Thanks for asking Bean. That was nice. Here is a pic of her. I couldn't be more proud.

She's a switch hitting centerfielder. Bats in the two hole.

Girls rule! Way to go! You have every right to be proud.

@beanpot said:

Beanpot

While I am enjoying watching the Yankees getting their butts handed to them, we gotta stop and remember (yet savoring the moment) that #1 the season just started and #2 this is the Yankees and you better believe the powers that be in NY won't allow them to get to far behind. Steinbrenner lets it be known when he's not happy as does the rest of management Im sure .

On the other side (ours) it certainly has been a fun time in the Bronx. Although I still hate black and yellow more than pinstripes. Boston's not on my list of favorites either.

NEW YORK - The jokes started flying as the Cleveland Indians piled up runs in the second inning Saturday. Ben Francisco was glad he wasn’t in the field. Ryan Garko was hoping to avoid making another out.

It was one fun day for the Tribe at the New York Yankees’ swanky new home.

Asdrubal Cabrera hit a grand slam and an RBI single in Cleveland’s 14-run second — the biggest inning ever against New York — and the Indians set the bar for Yankee Stadium’s new record book, coasting to a 22-4 victory.

“It was just one of those games for the entire team,” said Mark DeRosa, who went 4-for-7 and tied a career high with six RBIs. “Just a lot of guys getting good swings.”

DeRosa and Shin Soo-Choo hit three-run homers, Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore and Victor Martinez had solo shots and manager Eric Wedge earned his 500th victory. Jhonny Peralta had three hits and two RBIs after missing Friday’s 6-5 loss with a strained left elbow.

The Indians chased struggling starter Chien-Ming Wang and set several marks that could stand for a while at New York’s $1.5 billion ballpark. The 14 runs were the most scored in the second inning of a major league game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The runs and 13 hits in the inning were a franchise record for a Yankees opponent.

“We did a good job of not missing pitches and we squared a lot of balls up today,” Wedge said.

Mark Teixeira and Melky Cabrera each hit a two-run homer for the Yankees, who were embarrassed in two of their first three regular-season games at their new field. New York lost 10-2 in its home opener Thursday when Cleveland scored nine runs in the seventh inning.

“I haven’t seen this many big innings in a long while,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “We expected pitching to be a strength and sometimes it has been. But at other times not.”

It was the most runs for the Indians since they beat New York 22-0 on Aug. 31, 2004, at the old Yankee Stadium. The 22 runs also tied the Yankees’ record for most allowed in a home game.

Choo delivered the first big blow in the second, hitting a three-run drive off Wang to give Cleveland a 3-2 lead. Asdrubal Cabrera singled in a run, DeRosa had a two-run double and Martinez had an RBI single before Wang was replaced by Anthony Claggett, who was making his major league debut after being recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before the game.

Wang (0-3) was charged with eight runs and eight hits in 1 1-3 innings, giving him a 34.50 ERA in three starts this year. He went 5-0 with a 3.23 ERA in six April starts last season.

“Actually, I thought he threw more good sinkerballs today but that inning got out of hand and we need to fix that,” Girardi said. “We have some time. We have a day off I think Thursday and we’re going to have to decide what’s best for Chien-Ming Wang and the team.”

The Yankees could skip Wang’s next turn in the rotation but Girardi said the team hasn’t made a decision yet.

Peralta doubled in two more runs after Wang left and Asdrubal Cabrera hit a drive to right on a 3-1 pitch for his first homer of the year. Sizemore followed Cabrera’s shot with his fourth homer to make it 14-2 as the crowd booed loudly.

By then, the party was on in the Indians’ dugout.

“There’s some funny stuff that’s said,” DeRosa said. “Obviously Garko made the first out and didn’t want to make another out in the same inning.”

The fans started chanting “We want Swisher!” for the second time in the series as Claggett struck out DeRosa for the final out. Yankees outfielder Nick Swisher pitched a scoreless inning during a blowout loss at Tampa Bay on Monday.

Wang and Claggett combined to throw 69 pitches during the half-inning, which lasted 37 minutes.

“We knew it was long,” Francisco said. “I think I was talking to Grady, I’m like, ’It would suck to be on defense right now, just sitting out there.”’

The “We want Swisher!” chant returned when Hafner hit his fourth homer of the season in the eighth.

Fausto Carmona (1-2) was the beneficiary of the Indians’ big day at the plate, working six innings in his first victory of the season. He allowed four runs and six hits.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/30283349/

@beanpot said:

Beanpot

They did well. In a round robin type tourney they went 4-0 for the weekend. Beat two teams from Illinois, Youngstown Ursaline and Loudonville.

In the first poll her high school team is ranked #1 in the state in Div. III.

Thanks for asking Bean. That was nice. Here is a pic of her. I couldn't be more proud.

She's a switch hitting centerfielder. Bats in the two hole.

Toss in the fact that playoff hockey is in full swing and this day has been nothing short of fantastic.

Glad to hear it, I swear this is the best hockey's been since Gretzky retired. The lockout couldn't have had worse timing, I think Crosby, Ovechkin and the like are doing to the league what the 2003 draft class did to the NBA...now people just have to care.

@kosar_for_president said:

That's a freaking awesome comment! And I hate the Yankees even more than I do those bitches in yellow and black.

Beanpot

It's sickening, I think I now hate the Yankees as much as the Stoolers.

Not that I care all that much about the house of the a-holes and their equally a-hole fans, but this is going to develop into a pretty big story if TNYS continues to play like Coors.

Of course, it could be as simple as the ball being juiced as discussed below. And by discussed, I mean talked about in some weird code that goes way, way over my head:

Thought you might like to hear about something I’ve been following for the first week of the season. I began wondering at the large number of long home runs being hit in the first two full days of the season, and started watching the numbers closely. The distance of the home runs being hit this year (the true distance, i.e where they actually land, as well as the standard distance, which factors out weather and altitude) is significantly higher than last year, with the average standard distance being 8.5 feet longer this year than last.

You may be wondering about sample sizes, and of course I took that into account. I used a 2-sample T-test on the 2009 and 2008 full season data, and got this:

Two-Sample T-Test and CI: 2009, 2008

Two-sample T for 2009 vs 2008

N Mean StDev SE Mean

2009 199 399.8 27.8 2.0

2008 4820 391.3 25.4 0.37

Difference = mu (2009) - mu (2008)

Estimate for difference: 8.49

95% CI for difference: (4.54, 12.45)

T-Test of difference = 0 (vs not

: T-Value = 4.23 P-Value = 0.000 DF = 211

The p-value actually works out to 0.0000341, which is a very strong indicator that something is making 2009 home runs fly farther than 2008 home runs, in isolation of the weather, and to me that implicates the ball. In the course of observing all the homers, I have also heard lots of comments from announcers who were surprised at how far the ball had carried.

When I look at only April, 2008, I get a p-value of 0.01, so I don’t think it’s just some sort of calendar thing here. I’ve done the same comparison to 2007, 2006, and the month of April for each of those years, and all indications agree that the difference is significant.

So, you might want to dust off your calculations from that “Changes in HR Rates from the Retrosheet Years” article and see what you get. Looks like a big year for homers, and so far the actual rate of 2.14 HR per game (in April!) doesn’t contradict that…

http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/...l_juiced_again/

Beanpot

GOOOOOOOOOO TRIBE!!!!!!!!