Rounding the bases

By Dr. Jekyll,

A weekly feature on the good, the bad, and the ugly happening around the diamond.

Single: A nice little win streak, mostly the sweep of the Rays, have the Red Sox dreaming of a turnaround. Yes, they’re better than .500. But no, they’re not good enough to sweep the Rays all year round. Look for a regress to the norm, but way to stave off selling the farm boys!

Double: The Cincinnati Reds are in sole possession of first place. This is not a misprint. The loveable losers (sorry, not you Cubs fans), are atop the NL Central podium for what feels like the first time in years, and they’re celebrating. And why not? It’s been 20 years since a World Series ring and they haven’t made the playoffs since ’95. With Phat Albert doing his best disappearing act (and still hitting over .300), the big boy at first has torn things up. The Central is going to be won on sheer power, and with Pujols struggling, there’s no power outage for the Reds.

Triple: Even though he can’t leg ‘em out anymore, and he was considered a wash-up and the odd man out in a very crowded outfield, Vlad The Impaler is back and doing what he does best for the not surprisingly AL West front running Rangers: raking. Leading baseball in RBI’s and amongst the leaders in homers, Vlad is taking a nice little victory lap in Arlington, giving the league a friendly reminder of why he’s so, so good.

Home Run: Ozzie Guillen, no matter what you do in your career as a manager (now that you have that ring, of course), you will always be quotable and entertaining. This little tirade following your ejection just goes to show your passion, drive, and really, just how funny it is to watch you blow up. No matter how relevant the state of your team, you, Mr. Guillen, will always hold a place in our hearts.

Strikin’ them out: Josh Johnson, the unheralded pitcher on the we-only-win-every-7-years Florida Marlins, is trying to bring some peace to the OTHER team from the sunshine state. Sitting pretty at 5-1 with an ERA under 2.50, Johnson is reminding us all of why the Marlins are able to go on the little tears that they do. With the Phillies recent struggles, the NL East is more open then ever (the Marlins are in LAST and still above .500 and down in the standings by under 5 games). If the fish are going to make a swim for the division title, look for JJ to be reelin’ um in (ok, I get it, too many fish jokes).

Popping Up: It’s not shocking that the Toronto Blue Jays are having trouble keeping pace in the 3-legged race that is the AL East. They’re still clobbering the ball like nobody’s business, leading the league in team homers, but the average is tinkering near the bottom. It was a nice little run from our Canadian friends, but without a truly stable pitching rotation and so many free swingers at the plate, it’ll take a bat and another arm for them to stay within striking distance as summer rolls in.

Caught Looking: If you missed baseball’s night games this week, you’re hardly at fault. With series finales of great shows like Lost and 24, there was plenty going on to excuse yourself. I mean, that’s what the Cubs did. Just a few days after celebrating the anniversary of the night time baseball game, the folks at Wrigley reminded us of why we couldn’t do so in the first place, treating us to a lovely blackout on the ivy. Of course, Wrigley wasn’t at fault, but this may be the most exciting thing to happen to the Cubs all year.

Magic fight back, Lakers stumble back to L.A.

By Dan Rodgers

The Orlando Magic have made the Eastern Conference finals a bit more interesting now that they've won two in a row. The series heads back to Boston with the Celtics looking to close out the series up three games to two. The Magic seemed to have found their way offensively, after struggling in the first three games and only breaking 90 points just once. They have since scored 96 points in their game four win and exploded last night with 113 points in their game five win.

I don't really have much to say until the Magic win game six. However, I do want to bring to everyone's attention that we in the sports world have already experienced a historic 3-0 comeback involving a Boston team. As a New York fan, it would be sweet revenge to witness two Boston collapses in one year. All that would make it even better, is if the Red Sox participated in it as well in October.

Boston/Orlando Game 6: Tomorrow

Okay, now on to the Western Conference finals. The Lakers seemed to dominate to the first two games, winning by 21 points in the first and 12 points in the second. However, the Suns have recorded back-to-back nine point victories to tie the series at two games apiece. The series heads back to L.A. and the Lakers all of the sudden don't seem to have an answer for Amar'e Stoudemire. Pau Gasol seems to be way too soft to take care of Amar'e, and since Andrew Bynum is still not 100% it should be interesting to see what the Lakers try to do to neutralize Stoudemire.

L.A./Phoenix Game 5: Tonight

Rodgers That

Blackhawks advance, Habs look for more magic

By Dan Rodgers

So...the Chicago Blackhawks have returned to the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1992. Good for them. Chicago finally has something to cheer about considering the Cubs and White Sox currently stink (White Sox lost 13-0 tonight, and the Cubs are battling to keep their heads above .500). Of course, they'll probably cheer up a storm when they get LeBron James, but that's for another post.

Anyway, the Blackhawks will sit at home and relax while the Flyers attempt to put away the Canadiens in game five. Might seem fairly simple considering they've dominated them just about the entire series. Except for this one statistic, the Habs are an undefeated 5-0 this year in elimination games. Whether that was luck or them playing well with their backs against the wall, props to them. I hope they pull it out again... being down 3-1 to the Caps, then 3-2 to the defending champion Pens, and now 3-1 again to the seventh-seeded Flyers.

Let us look at something else. Does Chicago actually have a disadvantage here? They were the two seed and absolutely dominated the first-seeded San Jose Sharks without question. Well beyond a reasonable doubt. However, if the Habs pull out a win on tonight...and maybe even another, the Hawks will be at home watching. Ever think they might cool off in the process, and even though the other team will be tired, they'll still be hot. Just something to think about. I hope Montreal pulls out another one, but something tells me the story stops here.

Go Blackhawks in the finals...they're a fun team to watch.

Rodgers That