It was the best of times it was the worst of times. Well for
a normal Mets fan, the best of times were a long time ago and it doesn’t look
like they are coming back anytime soon. Not after the devastating news that
their pitching ace, Matt Harvey will miss the rest of this season and probably
all of next season because he will be recovering from Tommy John Surgery.
Harvey has had a fantastic year for the Mets this year going
9-5 with a 2.27 ERA and 191 strikeouts in 26 starts. He also started the
All-Star game for the National League this year, which was played at Citi
Field, the Mets home stadium.
Even though the Mets have not won many games this year, 58-71
so far, Harvey gave Mets fans a reason, finally, to be optimistic for next
season with Zach Wheeler starting in the rotation for the second straight
season and hopefully living up to his very high expectations. All the Mets
needed was to add some power to their atrocious lineup in the offseason and
they would be able to compete for a Postseason Berth next year. Now, it’s the
same old tune for the Mets. From Pedro Martinez to Carlos Beltran to Jose Reyes
to Johan Santana and to now, Matt Harvey.
Last night, one winning streak ended last night and one streak lived to see another day of baseball. The one that ended was the Los Angeles Dodgers road winning streak of 15 games which is remarkable. In fact, what that team has done since June 1 is remarkable. On June 1, they were 23-31 and 7.5 games out of first place in the NL West.
Going into this season, they were big favorites to compete for and possibly win a World Series this year after they acquired a ton of talent at the end of last year and in the offseason. They acquired SS Hanley Ramirez, 1B Adrian Gonzalez, P Josh Beckett and P Zach Greinke to go with Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw. Expectations were extremely high in LA.
Then they got off to a terrible start and everybody was panicking. I think Manager Don Mattingly was fired at least once per week. And then they brought up young phenom Yaisel Puig. Since he was brought up on June1, they have gone 39-19 and are now in 1st place in the NL West with a lead of 5 games over Arizona. Absolutely incredible!!!
Also this season in the 55 games that Puig has played in since June 1, he is batting .373 with 11 HR and 25 RBIs. He is only in his first year in the big leagues and should become a super star for many years to come, if he isn't one already. If you haven't seen him play, then I suggest you watch this video.
The team that raised its winning to streak to 12 straight games last night was the Atlanta Braves with a 2-1 victory over the Washington Nationals who are just fading away. With the win, the Braves extended their division lead over Washington to 14.5 games. Remember, Washington was a huge favorite to win the World Series this year with all of the talent on that roster and right now, they have a very small margin for error if they want to have any chance of even competing for a playoff spot in September.
The Nationals took the lead in the bottom of the 3rd on a solo HR for Bryce Harper, his 17th of the year but things got a little testy between Harper and Braves pitcher Julio Teheran during Haper's next at-bat in the 5th inning.
Harper: "What's your problem man? Why did you do that man?"
Sorry I was thinking of Mike Piazza in the 2000 World Series
It's ok Bryce your french is excused.
MLB has finally suspended Alex Rodriguez and 12 other PED users yesterday afternoon. 12 of those players cooperated and accepted their suspensions but A-ROID did not. Does he really think that he can appeal this suspension and WIN? Does he really think that there are people out there that believe his "woe is me" attitude and that he is and has been clean? Give me a break!
The Yankees must have injected him with HGH while he was sleeping because they're conspiring to get rid of his contract. As much as the Yankees want to get rid of his contract, which they should, this isn't about the Yankees. This is about a person who received the biggest MLB contract of all time not owning up to his mistakes and trying to blame other people for them.
He is just following the advice of Don Draper by "changing the conversation"
A couple of weeks ago, the New York football Giants were flying high on a four game winning streak and had distances themselves from the other teams in their division to claim first place. They were 6-2 and everything was great in Giants world. Now, coming off of two straight losses, one of them extremely ugly to the Cincinnati Bengals, what's wrong with the Giants? They are 6-4 and going into a much needed bye week. Panic mode right? I don't think so. People, the Giants do this every year. They are a team that plays better when they face obstacles. This is still the team that blew out the 49ers a few weeks ago and the team that won the Superbowl last year. They have great coaches and great players and there is no reason for me to believe that they will not overcome this and finish off the season on a good note and possibly make another run at the title. Eli Manning will let that happen and neither will Tom Coughlin. These are guys that have been there before and will get this right. People need to stop panicking because it could be worse. Just look at the other team that plays in the same stadium, the JETS.
The topic of interest that I chose was sports. One pinterest account that I found came from the National Post who just posted a picture of Kyle Lowry, the guard of the Toronto Raptors. The headline underneath read "Kyle Lowry brings new personality to Raptor's lineup." The pins on the board show that this user is interested in all different sports and not only basketball. The second pinterest account came from Andrew 'Oyl' Miller. He recently posted an old picture of Allen Iverson getting blocked by Ben Wallace. This picture shows that maybe this user is more interested and has more of an admiration for the history of basketball rather than what is going on presently compared to National Post. The pins on his board are also of old photos of legendary athletes from all sports. He has a photo of Michael Jordan with Scottie Pippen and a photo of Ricky Henderson as well while with the Oakland Athletics. These two accounts differ in that National Post has a board filled with current athletes in their respective sports and Andrew 'Oyl' Miller has a board filled with legendary athletes of the past.
Wow what a long season it has been. 162 games have been played and now the real season can begin. When people think of October, they think of pumpkins, football, beer, scary costumes. Not me. It's time for baseball. The matchups are set...well almost. We still have to wait for the inaugural wild card game of death. In today's blog, I am going to dissect each playoff team and then make my predictions.
As you all know, Friday will consist of two wild card matchups. In the American league, it will be the Baltimore Orioles visiting the Oakland Athletics...I mean the Texas Rangers. How did Texas collapse that miserably at the end of the season? They had been in sole possession of first place since April 9th. That's 176 straight days in first. Everyone thought that it would be the Yankees to collapse but no, The Rangers were able to claim that horrible feat. Congratulations to Oakland by the way. Because of their historic collapse, I have absolutely no faith in them beating a red hot Orioles team that everyone counted out but kept hanging around. I don't understand it. They can't score runs and they can't pitch. How do they win? I'll tell you how. Buck Showalter. The man is a genius. He turned around the Yankees in 1995 and then the Diamondbacks in 1999. He made Joe Torre and Bob Brenly managerial hall of famers and he has no rings to show for it. I've been betting against the Orioles all season but I believe they make it past Texas and into the REAL tournament.
Now the real Postseason can begin. The matchups now will be the Yankees vs Orioles, Athletics vs Tigers, Giants vs Reds, and Braves vs Nationals.
In my opinion, the Orioles may be the toughest matchup, in MLB because of one small factor. Luck. They are the luckiest team on the face on the earth. No team goes this far with no pitching and no hitting. It's unbelievable. On the other hand, the Yankees are red hot right now and finally healthy. Texeira is back. Sabathia's red hot and nobody is getting Cano out right now which is very scary. They also have pitching depth with the return of Pettitte who has been brilliant. The Yankees should not only win this series but they should sweep. They won't sweep because nothing is ever easy when it's the Yankees especially this year. Even so, I believe the Yankees will find a way to win in five games because the Orioles just don't have the pitching and pitching wins championships. Also, the Yankees have a guy named Derek Jeter. Maybe you've heard of him. I'll pick the Yankees but it won't be easy.
This matchup will not be easy by any means. You have the very young, talented A's going against the very talented underachieving Tigers who have a guy who just won the Triple Crown, Miguel Cabrera, and a guy who is on the verge of winning his second straight cy young, Justin Verlander. The only problem with Verlander is that he can't pitch every day. The A's pitching is better and deeper than the Tigers pitching. Their rotation is superb and their bullpen is even better. Each game in this series will be decided by one run because that's how the A's play. They are surprisingly very relaxed and play each day like they have nothing to lose, which they don't. That is why I have them leap frogging the Tigers who, in my opinion, do not even deserve to be in the Playoffs. They play in the worst division in baseball and barely sneak in in the last week. I just don't trust them and I don't think they can get it done. I have the A's in five.
If you enjoy a great pitchers duel each night, then you might want to check in on this series. The Reds just seem like it's their time. They have everything you could want in a team. Pitching, defense, maturity, offense. They can do it all. The Giants, on the other hand, have question marks. What's Tim Lincecum gonna do after a sub-par year? He looked better as the year went on. What's Madison Bumgarner gonna do after the Padres crushed him last week. The Padres don;t crush anybody. Is Barry Zito going to get a start? If he does, they are doomed. You know Matt Cain will be lights out. You know they won't score many runs. They just don't match up well enough to give me confidence that they can beat the Reds. That's why I'm gonna pick the Reds in four and move on to the NLCS.
Another division matchup between two NL East rivals. This has the making of a slugfest. Too bad it won't be. The Nationals did something that says to me that they care more about next season than this one, even though they finished with the best record. They decided to bench Stephen Strasburg. They handled this situation so poorly that it's going to bite them in the ass sooner rather than later. The Braves are ready and they are on a mission to make a deep playoff run. The Nationals would be if they had Strasburg. Them benching Strasburg to me is like the Tigers benching Verlander. He's that important. They still have Gio Gonzalez and Jordan Zimmerman, which is enough to win a short series but the Braves have more and they are coming. Don't expect Chipper Jones to retire quietly either. I'll pick the Braves in five.
This is a terrible matchup for the Yankees. The A's have great pitching and they are very good at playing small ball. They have a top notch starter who can pitch in any game. Their bullpen is extremely deep and they live for one run games that tend to go into extra innings. The Yankees have Sabathia, who hasn't fared extremely well against Oakland this year. After that, it's Kuroda, Pettitte, and maybe Hughes or Nova or Phelps. The Yankees also do not hit well with men on base and usually wait for the Home Run. These Oakland pitchers don;t give up many homeruns and they don't make a lot of mistakes. I'll pick Oakland in five in a seven game series and keep their magical run going.
The Braves have plenty of momentum and are trying to ride the Chipper Jones farewell tour as long as they can. Expect them to come out swinging and ready to play. On the other hand, it's the time of the Reds and they're not going down easy for anybody. With Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips and Jay bruce, they will provide plenty of offense for the Reds to take this series. They can also pitch as well. So long Chipper. you've had a great career. Reds in six.
As you may have guessed, I have the Oakland Athletics taking on the Cincinnati Reds in this year's fall classic. This is a classic showdown between two historic franchises. You have the kids with names that nobody knows and the veterans who are really good. With the advantage on paper to the Reds, don;t expect the Athletics to just lay down and die and just be happy to be there. They will compete and this series has the makings to go the distance. Unfortunately, for the Athletics, this Cinderella story won;t have a happy ending. This is the Red's year and they will win this series. The Athletics should be happy for their great year and be excited for the future because they have a very young and talented team. Unless Billy Beane decides to break them up which he does with every great Athletics team. They should make a movie about this guy, he's too much. Reds in seven
In basic communication, there are many interpersonal goals. The first goal is known as basic and an example of that would be a text message to one other person or an email sent to one other person. The second goal is interactive in which people interact with one or more people. An example of this would be a person going to a job fair who needs to communicate with many potential employers to try to get a job. Also a college student making his or her schedule and having to communicate with other people to figure out what classes to take. Finally, the third goal is the semantic web goal or relational goal which would involve forming a relationship, professional or personal, with someone. An example could be when an employer acknowledges the hard work of one of his employees and shows him appreciation by giving him a pat on the back or a raise.
