20 points for 20 innings: Mets vs. Cardinals

It may be a little early to dive headlong into the MLB season, but those who waited have missed a classic day.

It starts in St. Louis, with a 2-1 Mets’ win over the Cardinals in 20 innings. That’s right, I said 20. And as a fan of the Cardinals, I was duty-bound to watch every second (except for the three 10-minute naps I took in innings eight, 11, and 13).

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=Cardinals+Mets&iid=8551609″ src=”2/3/e/5/New_York_Mets_b7cc.JPG?adImageId=12522574&imageId=8551609″ width=”500″ height=”349″ /]

Here are some notes for what you missed (and we’ve got 20 innings to recap, so we’ll be here a while):

– The game was scoreless for the first 18 innings, the longest scoreless game in 21 years.

– The Mets broke through in the 19th inning with a sacrifice fly from Jeff Francoeur, which was answered by an RBI single by Yadier Molina. Jose Reyes hit a sac fly in the 20th to earn the win for the Mets.

Philly fan thrown up and out of game

If you’ve ever been sickened by Phillies fans, here’s another one that should earn this South Jersey resident a bronzed urinal from the Vet.

At Wednesday night’s Phils-Nationals game, Matthew Clemmens of Cherry Hill, NJ (oh, South Jersey!) was ejected and arrested for a very peculiar reason (and check out the photo tab for his mugshot; he kind of looks like Rosanne Barr after a hockey game). His friend had been ejected from Citizens Bank Park earlier, and deciding that revenge was a dish best served after it had already been digested, forced himself to vomit on a family of nearby spectators, including an 11-year-old girl.

But the joke proved to be on him, as the young girl’s father, Easton, Pa. police captain Michael Vangelo, took umbrage and punched the refunding Clemmens in the face before helping Philadelphia police arrest him. The newly black-eyed Clemmens still had a little guts left, literally, which he shared with the arresting officer.

He was charged with assault and harassment, and has also been recognized by the honor of a “Matthew Clemmens is a Douche” group on Facebook. No word on whether or not he also has ever booed Santa Claus or cheered at opposing players injuries.

– Matthew De George ’10

10 things to watch for the upcoming MLB season

As I watch what actually has turned out to be an interesting season opener between the Yanks and the Sox (in the Michael Wilbon voice), I guess there’s no better time than the present to give you my 2010 MLB season preview. Here are 10 storylines to watch as America’s pastime opens 2010 in earnest tomorrow.

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=curtis+granderson+yankees&iid=8433886″ src=”3/f/1/f/New_York_Yankees_d98c.jpg?adImageId=12111377&imageId=8433886″ width=”380″ height=”327″ /]

Repeat?

It’s been another busy winter for the Yankees, though this time with a tighter grip on the purse strings. The 27-time World Champs signed former farmhand Nick Johnson as their DH and added journeyman Randy Winn to provide a capable outfielder off the bench. But the other additions came through trades. Curtis Granderson, fresh off a career-high 30 home runs with the Tigers (written as he takes Josh Beckett deep with two outs in the second inning), was brought in for pitchers Phil Coke, Ian Kennedy, and top prospect Austin Jackson. The rotation was strengthened by the acquisition of Javier Vasquez (another former Yankee returning to the Bronx) for misfit Melky Cabrera. Vazquez and the reintroduction of Phil Hughes to the rotation stabilizes the back-end of one of the best starting fives in the AL, while Chan Ho Park and Joba Chamberlain’s return to the bullpen gives them depth there. Despite playing in baseball’s toughest division, the Yanks are still a front-runner to take home another World Series Title.

Phil me up again?

Hot Reads: February 1, 2010

After a brief, one-week hiatus thanks to three St. Joe’s men’s basketball games in five days, and the subsequent wrist exhaustion, we’re back to give you the best articles in brief.

After a distinctly underwhelming Pro Bowl (hey, at least Mario Williams managed two sacks in that defensive masquerade) that did somehow squeak out strong ratings, it’s Super Bowl week! Bring on the lame coverage over-dissecting each angle, and created several erroneous ones of their own, until you’re so nauseated you don’t even care who wins!!

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=peyton+manning+archie+manning&iid=884294″ src=”4/5/e/3/NERF_Fathers_Day_2bd1.jpg?adImageId=9812561&imageId=884294″ width=”500″ height=”333″ /]

In the way of interesting coverage, this year’s BCS Championship Game has opened up the now obligatory questioning of back-up quarterbacks heading into each big game from here to kingdom come (thank you Marcell Dareus). I’m sure Colt McCoy is thrilled that his lasting legacy to this point is as the moniker for quarterbacks injured in big games. Of course, no coverage of Super Bowl XLIV would be complete without delving into the Manning family lineage.

Top prospect trades corner outfield for corner tabernacle

We always see baseball players point to the sky as the cross home plate, but one highly touted prospect has preempted that celebration by retiring from professional baseball to join the priesthood.

Foxsports.com is reporting that Oakland A’s outfield prospect Grant Desme is retiring from the ranks of pro ball to pursue a life in the priesthood. (An aside: kudos to Foxsports for the unbiased article title of “Touted A’s prospect leaving baseball for…priesthood?” Nice.)

It’s not for a lack of talent, as Desme’s play in A ball last year and the Arizona Fall League garnered him some serious acclaim. He spent one season at San Diego State before tearing things up at Cal Poly (a public school, by the way) and earning the 2007 Big West conference Player of the Year award. He was drafted in the second round (74th overall pick) by Billy Beane’s notoriously thorough scouting department.

Desme got a taste of minor league ball in 2007, but was limited to just 14 games total between ’07 and ’08 due to injuries. He rebounded for a huge year in 2009 between Kane County (Northwest League, short-season A) and Stockton (California League, high-A), batting .288 in 131 games with 31 homers, 89 RBIs, and 40 steals (the only 30 steal-30 homer player in ALL of minor league baseball). He continued to rake in the Arizona Fall League, taking home league MVP honors thanks to a .315 average, 11 dingers, and 27 RBIs 27 games. Baseball America ranked Desme as he A’s eighth best prospect.

Hot Reads: December 28th, 2009

While just about everyone else at St. Joe’s may be on vacation, we at The Hawk are still hard at work. And we know that with all the holiday milieu and gifts to return, we realize you might not have that much time to peruse the Web for the top sports stories. We, on the other hand, don’t have anything better to do half the time, so we’ll help you out by going through our browsing history:

It will come as no surprise that the hot topic this week is the decade-in-review articles, and it won’t take much to find a whole slew of them. Leading the pack is ESPN Soccernet’s superb index of categories chronicling all the best and worst in the footballing world this millennium.

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=brad+friedel+blackburn&iid=3213519″ src=”5/3/5/b/91.JPG?adImageId=8707796&imageId=3213519″ width=”500″ height=”367″ /]

(By the way, real teams of the decade from yours truly:

Premier League (4-4-1-1): Shay Given, Gary Neville, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Ryan Giggs, Patrick Vieira, Roy Keane, Stephen Gerrard, Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry; Bench: Brad Friedel (Go USA!!), Sol Campbell, Paul Scholes, Frank Lampard, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Didier Drogba.

International (4-4-1-1): Gianluigi Buffon, Cafu, Paolo Maldini, Fabio Cannavaro, Roberto Carlos, Luis Figo, Claude Makelele, Zinedine Zidane, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry; Bench: Iker Casillas, Carlos Puyol, Ryan Giggs, Kaka, Lionel Messi, Ruud van Nistlerooy).

Who has the momentum?

Heading into the National League Championship Series, the buzz around Philadelphia is about the nerves on the mend from the Phillies-Rockies NLDS. And those nerves don’t look like they are going to have an easy road ahead. The Los Angeles Dodgers enter the NLCS boasting the best record in the NL with a 95-67 record, finishing two games ahead of the Phillies.

[picapp src=”b/b/e/4/Mets_vs_Phillies_4347.JPG?adImageId=5451116&imageId=6504067″ width=”380″ height=”521″ /]

Game 1 is slated for 8:07 p.m. on Thursday. That’s about the only thing set in stone right now for the Dodgers. With starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda returning after taking a line drive to the cheek bone in August, the Dodgers have six starting pitchers vying for four spots. Two of the starters, Vicente Padilla and Randy Wolf, anchored the Phillies pitching staff during the early 2000s, when people started looking ahead to “next season” by mid-May. The other four, Chad Billingsley, Clayton Kershaw, Jon Garland, and Kuroda, are all solid pitchers who could make a big impact on the series. The Dodgers come into the NLCS with a stronger bullpen than the 2008 squad, but more or less a similar lineup with just another year under theirs belts.

America’s parenting pastime

How do you liven up a boring game against the Washington Nationals? Try cute little kids.

That’s the recipe the Phillies used on Tuesday, and it’s landed the little girl and her family on NBC’s Today Show tomorrow morning.

The father, Steve Monforto of Laurel Springs, N.J., is a lifelong Phillies fan and season-ticket holder. But through all the games he’s seen, it was the first foul ball he had ever caught. And as quickly as he reached over the railing to snag the fly ball off the bat of Jayson Werth, he was watching fly right back toward the field of play out of the hand of his three-year-old daughter, Emily.

After the ball flew off, Monforto quickly hugged his daughter to reassure her everything was ok. As far as the ball, there were a host of Phillies’ executives, seated a few sections over in the 300 level and including General Manager Ruben Amaro, Jr., who quickly came over to replace it.

-Matthew De George ’10

Time to Worry?

After another Brad Lidge blown save last night, the Phillies needed a win this afternoon to split a four-game series at the Houston Astros. However, the offensive funk struck again for the Phillies as they lost their third straight game to the Astros, 3 to 4.

Coming off of 19 straight scoreless innings, fans were hoping Cole Hamels would able to complete his third straight shutout. While he looked good early on, Hamels was roughed up with a three-spot in the fifth inning, and ended up lasting six innings, allowing four earned runs, striking out six and walking two on his way to earning the loss. Former Phillie Michael Bourn proved to be the bane of existence for the Fightins’, as his stolen bases in the fourth and fifth innings led to two runs that were the difference in the final score. There were a few bright spots in today’s game however, as Jimmy Rollins, Ben Francisco, and Jayson Werth all had solo home runs today.

What’s that line about if it ain’t broke?

After Cole Hamels’ stellar pitching performance last night, the Giants proved that turnabout’s fair play as the Giants took advantage of their own good pitching and took one from the Phils by a score of 4-0.

Tonight’s loss revealed the offensive drought that the Phillies have been in for the past three series. Since the beginning of the series against the Pirates, the Phils have only scored three or more runs twice, as high-quality starting pitching has kept the lead in the NL East comfortably at seven games.