(Not so) rapid reactions

By Dr. Jekyll

Apologies for the hiatus, but when life gives you Stanley cup and NBA finals and a world cup, sometimes forget to share opinions. With that being said, here are some (not so) rapid reactions to the past few weeks in sports:

The Los Angeles Lakers remind me that every sport constantly needs a bad guy. I’m not an NBA fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I tune in to watch them lose… Andrew Bynum makes me feel like a failure at life for doing what he does at my age. Originally, I ate cake while watching the game for enjoyment, now it’s eating feelings…

Strasmus came early this year in DC, as the resurrection of the franchise is in the hands of ohmygodthiskidcanpitch… For how awful it is that Baltimore has more opponent fans in the stadium than O’s fans, it really makes me more likely to make the trip up to “Fenway South” a few times each year… MASN2 had coverage of the Strasburg start, MASN covered the O’s vs. Yankees. That’s like having the Super Bowl on ESPN2 and the “Puppy Bowl” on ESPN…

I really hate Chris Pronger, and Duncan Keith was robbed of a playoff MVP trophy in the only sport where the playoff MVP trophy is just about pointless…

I watch soccer games on mute, thank you vuvuzela. Also, ESPN should have Spanish announcers do the World Cup as well; they’re much more active…

Speaking of active, Rajon Rondo is the reason the Celtics will win this NBA finals, as opposed to ’08 where they won in spite of him…Kobe Bryant is still “the next Michael Jordan”. No knock on LeBron, but when Kobe takes over, it’s a beautiful thing to watch…

Everyone throwing no-hitters every week is getting annoying. Want to make an anniversary less special? Have one every other day. See what I mean…?

Soccer won’t make it big in the states for one reason: that all of our best athletes play football or basketball. And the moment they’re good enough to play at an international level for soccer, they’re shipped to England (not that I particularly care)…

The realignment of the conferences will be the death of age old rivalries, but will eventually lead to the playoff system over the BCS that we all desperately want…USC is doomed, Lane Kiffin will miss Oakland, if such a thing is possible…

Special K dominates, Yanks blast O's

By Dan Rodgers

My Tuesday night was fairly eventful. My girlfriend and I decided to attend our second Yanks vs. Orioles game in a week, this one at Camden Yards. Of course she forgot the camera so I took a couple pictures with my phone...nothing special. Whoever said Yankees fans aren't nice was dead wrong. My girl and I were standing in line to buy the eight dollar cheap seats when some guy motioned for me to come over to him. Kind of sketchy right? Well, he had two seats he wanted to give away to me. Fine with me considering they retailed for sixty bucks each and we were going to spend eight bucks on our tickets. They were beautiful and under cover, just in case.

Granderson, Swisher, and Teixeira all homered for the Yanks; Adam Jones hit a two-run homer for the O's. Granderson's bomb was a grand slam, an extremely exciting moment in the game... for Yanks fans. O's fans had had enough and most of them left the game early, but the Baltimore team did show some fight scoring two runs in the eighth and two more in the ninth.

In other news, Stephen Strasburg showed absolutely dominance in his MLB debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates. I know he gave up a two-run homer, but he also struck out 14 and walked a magical zero in seven innings of work. He is the first pitcher in MLB history to strike out 11 or more batters and walk none in their debut. That's pretty impressive considering the sport is over 100 years old. He finished his appearance retiring the previous 10 batters he faced, striking out the last seven. The Nationals did him right and scored five runs and Strasburg was credited with the win, as Matt Capps closed it out for the Nats and now has a MLB-leading 19 saves.

There isn't much else to say about Strasburg besides the fact that his next opponent, the Cleveland Indians, have already sold the most tickets to that game then any other this season. Enough said.

Oh, I also heard that there is restaurant in D.C. that now has the "Strasburger". So if you're in the area you should check it out...I know I'm going to.

Rodgers That

A night full of baseball

By Dan Rodgers

Just a quickie here guys. I am going to the Orioles vs. Yankees game tonight to watch my beloved Yanks hopefully kick the crap out of the O's. I'll take some pictures at the game and post them for you.

However, the real point of this quickie is because Stephen Strasburg will be starting for the first time in the big leagues tonight. He will face the Pittsburgh Pirates at Nationals Park.

Strasburg pitched in eleven games in the minor leagues, earning nine decisions. He posted an impressive 7-2 mark with an astounding 1.30 earned run average. He seemed to completely dominate while he was down there and proved to the Nats and the rest of baseball that he is ready to pitch in the majors.

He struck out 65 batters in 55 and a third innings and only walked 13 batters. Only one lucky fella hit a homer off of him, and we'll see if the Pirates can add to that total tonight. Look for Strasburg to only throw a maximum of 90-95 pitches. However long he can drag that out is up to him.

I wish the best for him and the Nats; living in the D.C. area for so long has put the Nats in my heart.

Rodgers That