Wednesday Morning Quick Hitters

Fenway Parked looked more like Gillette Stadium as the Boston Red Sox beat the Texas Rangers 19 – 17 Tuesday night. David Ortiz had 2 HRs in the 1st inning and Kevin Youkilis finished the scoring with his second HR of the night. In other Red Sox news, they acquired Cleveland Indians pitcher Paul Byrd for cash or a player to be named later.

Apparently 2 angry 2 run homers for Gary Sheffield were not enough for the Detroit Tigers as they lose to the Toronto Blue Jays 6 – 4. The Tigers put Sheffield on waivers Tuesday.

The Chicago White Sox moved 1/2 game ahead of the Twins by beating the KC Royals 9 – 0. Dye, Swisher and Pierzynski all had homers for the Pale Hose.

Injuries may be taking their toll on the Tampa Bay Rays, as they lost to the Oakland A’s 2 – 1 Tuesday. Scott Kazmir pitched well, but without their 2 spark plugs, the offense couldn’t get going. The Rays are still up by 3 games on the Red Sox.

The Philadelphia Phillies lost in the 9th inning to the surging Los Angeles Dodgers 4 – 3. Andre Ethier singled home Russell Martin for the win. Philly is now only 1 game up on the Mets, and the Dodgers are 1 game back of the D-Backs.

The New York Mets bullpen finally saved a game for Johan Santana, as the Mets beat the Nationals 4 – 3. The Nationals’ Saul Rivera hit the Mets Damion Easley with the bases loaded to bring in the winning run.

The Florida Marlins gained a game on the Phillies as well, by beating the Cardinals 4 – 3. The Cards were held scoreless over the last 8 innings. The Marlins are now 1 1/2 games behind the Phillies.

Randy Johnson continued to look like his old self, leading the Arizona Diamonbacks to a 4 -2 win over the Rockies. Newly acquired Adam Dunn doubled in his debut with Arizona.

Micheal Phelps won 2 more Gold Medals today, winning the 200m Butterfly (beating his own world record) and then, less then an hour later, started the 4×200 freestyle relay win.

US Girls Gymnastics can’t overcome injuries, but still take silver to China’s Gold.

The Miami Dolphins cut A.J. Feely.

The Minnesotta Vikings free agent acquisition CB Madieu Williams, who injured his neck, could be out for an extended period.

The Arizona Cardinals 1st Round pick was carted of the field Tuesday.

The Philadelphia 76ers re-signed Andre Iguodala.

Former Celtic Dan Dickau latest to bolt for Europe.

Monday Morning Quick Hitters

Clay Buchholz had another poor performance, losing to the Chicago White Sox 6 – 5.

The California Angels finished off a sweep of the New York Yankees with a 4 – 3 win.

The Minnesota Twins lost to the KC Royals 5 – 4 in 12 innings and also lost a game in the standings to the Chicago White Sox, now 1/2 game down.

A late inning rally got the Philadelphia Phillies over the Pittsburgh Pirates 6 – 3.

The NL East stayed tight Sunday, as the Florida Marlins stayed away from a sweep, and beat the New York Mets 8 – 2. The Mets are 2 games back of the Phils and the Marlins are 2 1/2 games back.

Former Portland Sea Dog Ryan Dempster dominated the St Louis Cardinals on the way to a 6 – 2 win. The Cubbies are now 4 games up on the Brewers and 7 up on the Cardinals.

Gabe Kapler, through 12 innings was 0 – 6 with 2 Ks and 6 LOB, but leading off the 13th, Kapler beat the Nationals wioth a walkoff HR. The Brewers beat the Nationals 5 – 4.

Arizona D-Backs pitcher Brandon Webb dominated on the mound and also added 2 RBIs on the way to beating the Atlanta Braves 6 – 1.

The LA Dodgers blow another save against the San Francisco Giants, losing to the Giants 5 – 4. The Dodgers are now 1 1/2 game back of the D-Backs.

Kyle Busch continued his absolute dominance in the NASCAR.

Michael Phelps won an improbable 2nd Gold in the 4×100 Men’s Freestyle. Trailing on the final turn, Jason Lezak, swimming anchor, swam the fastest leg in Olympic relay history, beating the world record holder to win the Gold.

Approximately 1 billion (insert Dr Evil joke here) people watched USA Basketball put away an early challenge from China, and finally beating them in prelim action, 101 – 70.

Nadal struggles to a 3 set win in Olympic tennis.

Seems the rain from home has followed Maine’s Olympic rowers.

Saturday Morning Quick Hitters

Mark Buehrle stymied the Boston Red Sox for 7 innings, and Carlos Quentin added an insurance HR in the 8th to beat the Red Sox 5 – 3.

The Tampa Bay Rays moved 3 1/2 games up on the Red Sox by beating the Seattle Mariners 5 -3. Carlos Pena went 2 -3 with 2 RBIs to lead the Rays to victory.

The California Angels used a 17 hit barrage to nail the New York Yankees 10 – 5. Ian Kennedy looked as dismal as ever giving up 5 earned runs in just 2 innings of work. Torii Hunter continued his blazing year at the plate, going 4 – 5 with 4 RBIs.

Chipper Jones returned to the Atlanta Braves lineup Friday, and immediately brought his team a victory. Chipper went 2 – 4 with a HR and 2 RBIs in Atlanta’s 11 -6 win over Arizona.

Brad Penny returned to the LA Dodgers rotation Friday and looked like the Opening Day starter the Dodgers expected. Penny went 5 inning only giving up 1 hit on the way to leading the Dodgers to a 6 -2 win over the San Francisco Giants. With the win, the Dodgers are only 1/2 game back of the Arizona Diamonbacks for the NL West lead.

Former St Louis Cardinal Jim Edmonds, was a 1 man wrecking crew on his former team Friday. Edmonds hit 2 HRs and Henry Blanco singled home the winning run in the 11th inning, helping the Chicago Cubs to a 3 – 2 win over the St Louis Cardinals.

CC Sabathia was on his game again, throwing a complete game, 5 hit shutout against the listless Washington Nationals. Sabathia struck out 9 in the 80’s Old School Pinstripes, to lead the Brew Crew to a 5 – 0 win over the Nats. The Brewers stayed 5 games back of the Cubs.

The Minnesota Twins kept pace with the White Sox, beating the Kansas City Royals 4 -1. Kevin Slowey 5 2/3 innings and the Twins bullpen held it the rest of the way for the win. In other Twins news, Michael Cuddyer is possibly lost for the season, as he was hit in the foot by a line drive while he was leading off first.

The Philadelphia Phillies wasted a gem from newly acquired Joe Blanton, losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates 2 – 0. The Pirates used a bevy of pitchers and survived 2 walks by former Red Sox reliever Craig Hansen, in the 12 inning to secure the win. The Phillies have now gone 23 innings without scoring a run.

The New York Mets moved to within 1 game of the Phils, beating the Florida Marlins 3 – 0 Friday. Carlos Delgado and David Wright homered in the win.

The Atlanta Hawks didn’t waste much time deciding whether to keep Josh Smith. The Hawks kept Smith by matching the Grizzlies’ offer of 5 years, $58 million.

76ers center, Jason Smith, suffers ACL injury.

Tony Parker picked as EA Sports NBA Live 09 cover player.

Chad Pennington didn’t stay unemployed for long, signing a 2 year deal with the Miami Dolphins.

The Philadelphia Eagles locked up Brian Westbrook for another 3 years on Friday.

New York Jets tight end AJ Schable left the hospital after a helmet to helmet collision in Thursday’s game against the Browns.

Michael Phelps opened his quest for USA Swimming history by setting an Olympic record in the 400 meter individual medley. Larsen Jensen improved on his 400M freestyle American record

US Women’s Soccer got into the win to take his prelim heat.column, with a victory over Japan 1 – 0.

USA women’s saber fencing takes the 1st medals of the Olympics for The United States.

Friday Morning Quickies

MLB

Mike Mussina got his 15th win…yes I did say 15th win, last night, on the way to shutting out the Texas Rangers 3 – 0.

The Tampa Bay Rays heroics may have caught up with them Thursday. The Seattle Mariners Raul Ibanez continued his monster August with a walkoff HR against the Rays. The Mariners won 2 – 1.

The New York Mets David Wright bailed out Scott Shoeneweis in the 9th, by hitting a 2 run walkoff HR to give the Mets a 5 – 3 win over the San Diego Padres. The Mets gained 1 game on the Philadelphia Phillies and are now 2 1/2 games back in the NL East.

The Florida Marlin inch closer to the top of the NL East by beating the Philadelphia Phillies 3 – 0. Florida Rookie Chris Volstad pitched 6 shutout innings to bring the Marlins within 1 1/2 games of the Phils in the NL East.

Manny being Manny is apparently better in Dodgertown than it is in Boston. In 6 games with the Dodgers, Manny is 13 – 23 (that .565 folks) 4 homers, and 9 RBIs. He hasn’t had a HR stretch like that this season and only 1 6 game streak with as many RBIs..hmmm….maybe Scott Borus really is the best. Manny helped the Dodgers beat the St Louis Cardinals 4 – 1.

NFL

Quick Scores for Pre-Season : The Patriots lost to the Baltimore Ravens 15 -16. The Saints beat the Cardinals 24 – 10. The Chiefs beat the Bears 24 -20. The NYJ beat the Browns 24 – 20 and the Detroit Lions beat the Super Bowl Champs (yech!) New York Giants 13 – 10.

Sorry, have to report, Brett Favre meets the press in New York City. In related news, the Jets release Chad Pennington.

Indianapolis Colts camp seems to be missing their little Peyton.

Chicago Bears 1st Round Draft Pick Chris Williams had back surgery yesterday, leaving season in doubt.

Former Patriot Asante Samual will miss The Philadelphia Eagles opening pre-season game wit a hamstring injury.

NBA

The Los Angeles Clippers continue to overhaul their roster by signing White Chocolate, Jason Williams.

Olympic Coverage

As much as NBC would like to pretend it hasn’t happened yet, the Beijing Olympics opened with a glorious fireworks display and ceremony. NBA players Yao Ming and Dirk Nowitzki carried their countries flag in the opening ceremony.

Some Helpful Olympic links

A Great Event Calendar at New York Times

NBC Main Page

NBC TV & Online Schedule.

Portland Press Herald’s Coverage of the Maine participants in the Olympics.

CC=Crush Colorado

We are live from my living room, joined by my 42 inch HDTV, MLB Extra Innings, my beagle Lucy, and my special friends gin and tonic. Without further ado..

8:04 PM EST- CC Sabathia takes the mound to a standing ovation from the home crowd. The place is just about sold out. I just realized that if Prince Fielder and Sabathia formed a WWE Tag team their combined weight would be more than Earthquake and Typhoon’s…

8:17 pm- Sabathia gets out of a runners on the corners situation with 2 outs with a strikeout of Ryan Spillborghs. The token fist pump and CC is back to the dugout. Funny things from the top half of the inning-

1. The scouting report-type interview from Jason Kendall. He looks like Tom Hanks at the end of “Philadelphia”

2. Most of crowd is wearing the vintage “Teddy Higuera-style” Brewers uniforms. When the majority of your fan base is wearing the old school logo, it may be time to go back to that…

Keep refreshing every 20 minutes or so, I plan on updating at the top of each inning.

Thoughts on the Cubs dealing for Rich Harden..

Didn’t the Cubs get rid of Mark Prior? This looks like a knee-jerk reaction to the Sabathia deal, but if Harden stays healthy, great move. If he doesn’t, that will make 100 years and counting. The Cubs really didn’t give up a ton here, and also managed to get Gaudin to help the stress on their pen. I am sure A’s fans are thrilled that Rich Harden was traded with their team 5 or 6 games out of the wild card. By the way to recap, the Cubs traded Sean Gallagher, Matt Murton, Eric Patterson and Josh Donaldson to Oakland for Harden and Gaudin.

Ryan Braun hit a 3 run home run in the first and the Brewers lead 3-0 going into the second.

8:28 pm- The playoff atmosphere in Milwaukee is evident as the crowd hangs on every pitch and is booing every borderline strike call. Sabathia has a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts, giving him 3 for the game. The real fun begins in the bottom of this inning when CC steps to the plate. Ed Sedar, the Brewers first base coach, is wearing a microphone. He thinks Rickie Weeks is “great”. That is the insight I am sure network execs look for with the microphones.

8:36 pm-Sabathia grounds weakly to first to end the inning. Dude….

8:39 pm- “Piggly Wiggly, shop the pig and save!” I love MLB Extra innings just for that.

Token shots of Mark Atanasio, the Brewers owner. Is he related to former owner Bud Selig?

Sabathia gets “K” number 4 against the pitcher. This is another reason why if Sabathia was smart he would take the best money offer he gets from an NL team. His stats would go through the roof. As soon as I type that Willy Tavares hits a double to left. Karma, yick…

Clint Barmes flies to right. JJ Hardy won the NL Player of the week honor last week, what do those guys get for that? A Subway gift card or something?

Sabathia vs Matt Holliday, aka “the next big trade rumor guy”. He grounds out to third and the inning is over.

Best sign of the night “CC=Crush Colorado”

9:00 pm- A long bottom of the third so far. Highlights include Prince Fielder beating out a potential double play and getting an RBI. 10 college kids are shirtless in the outfield, spelling -“Corey Hart” (yes the Brewers logo separated the names). A little creepy…

9:06 pm- CC time again. By the way the FSN Wisconsin announcers are just not good. I should have brought in the XM radio and listened to Bob Uecker.

Trivia question “Which 6 Brewers won Cy Youngs in their careers?” Only 2 happened with the Brewers. Hmmmm. One is Eric Gagne, CC Sabathia won it in Cleveland, who are the other 4?

CC in trouble, the long layoff from 3rd to 4th inning hurt him. 1st and second with nobody out.

Bases loaded,nobody out after the 2nd base umpire can’t quite see that Ryan Spillborghs slid past the the second base bag and was tagged out 2 and half feet in front of the umpire and calls him safe. Rox get a run on a double play on the next at bat and Sabathia gives up his first run as a Brewer. 4-1 Brewers, bottom of the 4th.

BTW, Julian Tavarez signed a deal with the Braves today. That’s the equivalent of dating Tara Reid, isn’t it?

Trivia answer-Pete Vuckovich, Mark Davis, Jim Lonborg, Rollie Fingers, Eric Gagne and CC Sabathia. How in the hell did I not remember Rollie Fingers?

9;27 pm –FSN Wisconsin has a Myspace page. Good lord.

Brewers store sold out of all official Sabathia merchandise last night, they restocked in time for tonight’s game. Nice to see fans spending money on a shirt that will be in style for about 3 to 4 months.

Real announcer exchange-
“He seems like a guy who sees it all…”
“You mean CC’s it all?”
Ba-Dum–Cha!

1-2-3 inning for Sabathia, on to the bottom of the 5th….

9:37 pm- Klements sausage race jingle. I will say no more, other than “They Race For Taste”

Sabathia so far has 4 k’s, no earned runs through 5.

Matt Holliday gets on with an infield hit. By the way he is signed through 2009 and then he becomes a free agent. Oh and his agent is Scott Boras. Just saying, if Harden and Sabathia have been moved it’s either Holliday or Mark Teixera trade rumors we hear next…

CC is in trouble. 1st and 2nd, nobody out, Spillborghs at the dish, and he walks. Now we have the bases loaded and Brewers pitching coach Mike Maddux, who is Greg’s brother and “King of Porn-Stache” goes out to the mound.

Uh-oh, Yorvit Torrealba lines a double into right, 2 runs score and it is 4-3 Brewers. Spillborghs should have scored but he hurt himself rounding second base. Still nobody out.

1-5 double play. Nice play by Sabathia there, he is pretty nimble for a big guy…

David Riske is warming up for the Brewers. Should we say that’s a “Risk-e proposition?” Don’t worry, I will just throw myself down the stairs, no help needed.

2-2, 2 out, 2 on, crowd standing, the wind-up, the pitch is “Just a bit outside” (love ya Bob)

Sabathia gets the K, his 5th of the night.

Current line 6 IP, 5 hits, 3 runs(2 earned), 4 walks, 5 k’s.

Looks like the chef sausage, whose name is Guido, won the race. Thank god he races for taste.

Oh and Corey Hart is up for the final all-star spot. Don’t you think if he sang karaoke to “Sunglasses at Night” and put it on YouTube he would win it hands down? Yeah, me too.

10:01 pm- Matt Herges is in the game for Colorado. The phrase “Herges then blew the save” should sound familiar to San Francisco Giants fans. Oh, hey, a balk. This game has had a little bit of everything.

By the way speaking of Bob Uecker, the Portland Sea Dogs have a closer with the last name “Vaughn”. Seriously, look it up. Shouldn’t they force him to have black glasses and have the number 99?

10:08 pm- David Riske is in the game. He has Pat Riley’s hair. Apparently he and CC are good friends from their Cleveland days. Maybe FSN Wisconsin can post a video of that interview on their Myspace.

Sabathia’s final line- 6 IP, 2 ER, 5 BB, 5 K’s, 97 pitches. It will go in the books as a quality start.

This is where the Brewers need help, in the bullpen. Solomon Torres is the closer, Eric Gagne the 8th inning guy (quick Red Sox fans, tell me about Gagne and the 8th), and Riske is here in the 7th. If Riske and Gagne are considered a “bridge” to Torres, might I suggest a visual of frayed rope between two mountains above a ravine with broken wood in the middle?

Riske gets a break when Matt Holliday thinks he hit a grounder foul, but it is called fair and he is thrown out. 1-2-3 for Riske.

Quick NBA News-Elton Brand is signing with 76ers. I wonder if Baron Davis actually signed any thing yet?

10:25 pm- Ryan Braun is at the plate with two on, 1 out, and Gagne warming in the pen. Did someone say “insurance run”? He strikes out, leaving it to the biggest vegetarian ever to pick up the slack with two outs. BTW, Fielder hits .396 in the 7th inning and later. Perhaps A-Rod should stop eating meat…

Now, right out of the script, Fielder is intentionally walked and the man vying for an All Star slot, Corey Hart, steps up with the bases loaded and two outs. All that’s missing is a montage involving Kelly Preston…

By the way you can vote for the final All-Stars at the top of this page…

Hart draws a walk to force in a run. Did I mention Gagne is the Brewers 8th inning guy? This could be a key run. Clint Hurdle is out to make a pitching change.

Breaking news from Los Angeles- Andruw Jones is overweight and overpaid. That is all. He actually managed an infield single while I wrote that. Damn you karma!

10:35 pm- Jason Grilli is in for the Rockies to face Bill Hall. The bases are still loaded. Oh and the Rockies are defending NL champs. 2 run single for Hall, Hart gets thrown out in a rundown, and the inning is over. 7-3 Milwaukee, top of the 8th, can Eric Gagne hold on?

10:40 pm- Gagne gives up a line drive single to open the inning, but is bailed out by a double play. Weeks to Hardy to Fielder.

Gagne has tied his right show twice already in this inning. Maybe Nike should send him something with velcro on it.

Jason Kendall narrowly avoids a busted testicle. Twice.

Torrealba grounds out to Weeks, and Gagne survives. Bottom of the 8th, still 7-3 Brewers.

10:58 pm- Brian Shouse is in to finish it for the Brewers. Torres is warming just in case.

1 out now, and the announcers are arguing about the turning point of the game. Great chemistry in that booth.

2 outs now and a grounder to Fielder , “Behind the Bag!!!!” Oh, no , wait, he snagged it cleanly and the game is over. CC Sabathia is victorious in his Brewer debut. Thanks for stopping by.

The MLB Pendulum Swings

Bob Uecker hasn’t been this excited since “Major League”

CC Sabathia is a Milwaukee Brewer. If you had told me in February I would be typing that sentence in an unsarcastic way I would have lost money, pride, or both in some ridiculous wager. For years many of baseball’s fans, front offices and such have cried “How do we compete with the Red Sox and Yankees? It’s not fair!!!!” followed by embarrassing tantrums, pants-wetting, and door slams (come on admit it). I never found this to be true, as although the Red Sox have won 2 World Series this decade, the other champions(Arizona, Anaheim, Florida, the White Sox, St Louis) weren’t necessarily the highest spenders. In fact, the Cardinals have become world reknown for their ability to pick up scrap heap pitchers and do well with them (see Weaver, Jeff and Lohse, Kyle for examples). In fact, if you subtract the Red Sox from the equation, none of the other 5 teams and payrolls in the top 5 of baseball in the seasons in which they won the World Series. Even with that, the small market fans whined “But you still get all the impact players at the deadline!” However, in a season in which the Tampa Rays are 5 games ahead of the Red Sox and 9 ahead of the Yankees on the day of my 30th birthday (cheap plug), the “rebuilding”Oakland A’s are 6 games above .500 in an offseason in which they traded both their best pitcher and hitter in Dan Haren and Nick Swisher, respectively, and the Minnesota Twins are 1 game out of first after trading Johan Santana, the small market fans and media aren’t talking much. Perhaps it’s the roast crow they are eating right now that has them quiet. In a season in which a Brewers/Rays World Series is possible, where the Cubs are a leading contender to win the World Series, it was fitting that the crown jewel of trading deadline is now in the land of sausage races, Bernie Brewer and Harvey’s Wallbangers. It remains to be seen how this season will play out, if Brewers ace Ben Sheets stays healthy, if Solomon Torres can be a decent closer, if Eric Gagne can rebound, even if Prince Fielder will finally eat a cheeseburger, but this I can say right now, the Brewers showed more guts in making this deal than they they have in the last 26 years, which is coincidentally the last time they made the playoffs. Here’s hoping it pays off for them, unless they end up playing the Phillies in the playoffs….

In podcast related news yesterday’s episode of “The Sports Vortex” was simulcast live on WJZF, Lakes Region Community Radio. The Sports Vortex can be found on WJZF every Sunday from 4-6pm, if you miss it, the archives will always be here for you.

Tuesday-7/31/07

The MLB non-waiver trade deadline is at 4pm est today, I will be on until 5 trying to keep things updated as fast as I can. Things we know right now….
-The Octavio Dotel to Atlanta deal is not done yet, and may not be. Looks like someone jumped the gun on that one. www.MLBtraderumors.com is reporting that the deal was Kyle Davies for Dotel. Kind of surprised Dayton Moore hasn’t gone for that already…
-Eric Gagne will be the biggest name bandied about, and Gordon Edes of the Boston Herald thinks the Sox are in the lead. Two problems with that include the Sox unwillingness to trade any of their good prospects for him and that Gagne has a no trade veto in effect for Boston. I personally think they are longshots, but that is just me.
-Joe Blanton was nearly traded to the Dodgers last night, but although the package they offered was pretty good, it wasn’t quite up to Billy Beane’s standards, at least for now. This could be a deal like the Teixeira to Atlanta one, where Beane takes the Jon Daniels approach and makes sure this is the best offer out there.
-Thank god Peter Gammons was able to recover from brain surgery last year. Not only because he seems like a good man and is pretty knowledgeable, but if I had had to go through another trade deadline with Steve Phillips being the main guy I would have lost it. If Phillips actually thinks a trade is good or was good, would a GM have the right to change his mind? This is like that episode of Seinfeld when George does everything the opposite of how he would normally do it. If gm’s around baseball did this, I don’t think a single one of them would get fired.

Watched two great games last night in Blue Jays-D’Rays and Angels-Mariners. The early game was pretty good in a sense that it was fairly well pitched, the D’Rays came back in the late innings to tie it up at 4. Both teams had their chances late, with the Rays’ Brendan Harris getting thrown out at home when John McDonald kept a ball form going to the outfield. Apparently the Rays gave Harris the green light because Carl Crawford, who had come into the game to pinch run, was due up next and was still battling a sore wrist. The Jays loaded them up in the top of the 11th but couldn’t push one across, which is an amazing feat against the Rays pen. Crawford of course led off the bottom of the inning with an opposite field shot to win it, so apparently the wrist wasn’t too bad.

Angels-Mariners was highlighted by the pitching duel between Kelvim Escobar, who went the distance for the Halos, and Miguel (Bernie Williams long lost twin brother) Batista. Batista was bailed out in the fourth when with the bases loaded and two out, Vlad Guerrero hit a screaming liner into left that Raul Ibanez was just able to keep from hitting the ground. The Angels never really mounted another threat. The interesting part of this game was watching fans making signs imploring M’s broadcaster Mike Blowers to send them rally fries (have no idea what that’s all about). Two 12 year-olds ended up getting them in the 8th inning, apparently paid for by FSN Northwest. They should do this for Sox games and Jerry Remy could send the winners down a pack of Marlboro Reds. (Rally Smokes anyone?)

Saw Roger Clemens At+T cell phone commercial last night, the dropped call one where he asks his wife if it’s ok to come back and play. Freakin hilarious.

I wonder how many frequent flier miles Erin Andrews has racked up. She is everywhere. That’s not a bad thing either.

A quick hit on the Kevin Garnett trade. It’s expected to be finalized today or tomorrow and should include Ryan Gomes and two #1 picks on top of the base deal reported yesterday. Apparently the only thing holding it up is the extension talks between Boston and Garnett’s agent Andy Miller. It’s going to be nice to have the Celts relevant again.

RIP Bill Walsh, a man who changed the game of football as we know it and by all accounts was a great person as well. I watched the America’s Game on the 88 49ers, and he came off very well in that, not only as a coach but as a person. Condolences to not only the Walsh family, but the Stanford and 49er families he left behind as well.

A Blog’s Resurrection-Semi Daily Postings and thoughts Start Today!

On a Monday in which the headlines were not all about Mike Vick’s kennel club and Tim Donaghy’s penchant for picking overs, I thought it might be time to bring the blog back to semi-regularity and respectability. The MLB Trade deadline is tomorrow, I will be posting links to the sites that first report the trades if you need more info than what I post here. Also news out of Boston that the Celtics and T-Wolves yelled “clear” and electric-chest-paddled the Kevin Garnett trade talks back to life. MLB trade stuff first.

Mark Teixeira is going to be a member of the Atlanta Braves. The trade consists of Teixeira and reliever Ron Mahay going to the Braves for Jarrod Saltalamacchia(that is way easier to spell than Mientkiewicz) and three minor league prospects, two of which are pitchers. The Fort Worth Star Telegram reported this first (amazingly beating ESPN to the punch, lol) http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/story/185662.html, so they get the credit here. Probably the best deal Texas could make at this point, as they probably didn’t want to send Teixeira to the Angels and face him 19 times a year.

Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe is reporting that the Red Sox and White Sox are preparing to swap Wily Mo Pena and probably a minor league pitcher (although there is rumor that Manny Delcarmen could be involved) to the ChiSox for Jermaine Dye. Details can be found here –http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2007/07/dye_chances_pre.html
Still not sure what this does for Boston. Dye isn’t a real strong bench player type, and it almost admits that signing JD Drew this offseason hasn’t worked out. It makes me wonder if the Sox may have a deal in place to move Coco Crisp for a bullpen arm, and they are planning on moving Drew to center, putting Dye in right and calling up Ellsbury to be the 4th outfielder. That is just speculation on my part, but keep in mind when the Red Sox make trades, they are usually trading for one thing to replace something else they haven’t traded yet. (Update 7-30-2007 3:23 pm est-Edes is now saying that the Red Sox cooled on the deal once Kenny Williams insistance on Delcarmen or Justin Masterson didn’t die down, so this one looks like it is on the back burner for now).

So far not alot of other deals that are close, other than the Eric Gagne sweepstakes (supposedly the Yankees are the front-runners, but only if Texas stops demanding Melky Cabrera). I haven’t seen much to any Griffey or Dunn rumors. Kyle Lohse and Jose Contreras don’t really get my blood boiling all that much either. It would be nice to see the Yankees get rid of Kyle (I call him “specs”)Farnsworth in another addition by subtraction move.

On to the NBA, where although not a ton of stuff has been reported so far today , but yesterday(and this morning) draftexpress.com (http://draftexpress.com/blogs.php?blogid=8) broke the news that Kevin Garnett may have changed his mind about not coming to Boston after all, and that the Celts and Wolves were close to a deal that would send Al Jefferson, Theo Ratliff, Sebastian Telfair (and presumably his collection of assorted handguns) and Gerald Green to the Wolves for Garnett. Brian Scalabrine and next year’s first rounder have been mentioned as well, as Garnett has a trade kicker in his contract that will bring his total cap figure this year to over 23 million. Reasons for the change of heart haven’t been explained but something tells me the Celtics draft night exodus of Wally Szczerbiak might have changed KG’s mind about heading to Beantown. I hope Michael Wilbon doesn’t write another article about Boston’s penchant for racism that gets KG to change his mind again, because this would be a really good thing basketball here in the northeast. I also find it extremely coincidental that this news comes over a week and half after the Tim Donaghy scandal and that there really hasn’t been any other transaction news during that time. Convenient for the NBA? Probably. I also think that if the Celtics make a triumphant return to the NBA Finals it might help those sorry NBA Finals ratings last spring. Think a Celtics/Suns finals might get some people interested in the NBA again?