Monday Wrap: Fulhamerica Stays Up
Fulham Football Club has been trying an odd experiment as they struggle to stay in the English Premier League - load the roster with Americans. Brian McBride is the team captain, Kasey Keller is the starting goalkeeper, Clint Dempsey is the leading scorer, plus Eddie Johnson and Carlos Bocanegra.
Until the last month, it wasn't working too well. Midway through the 38-game season, they slid into 19th place and stayed there for weeks. The bottom three teams out of 20 are relegated to the English Championship, and at one point, British bookies were giving 50-1 odds on them avoiding relegation.
On April 12, though, they won 1-0 at Reading. Not only was that just their fifth win in 34 games, it was their first victory away from Craven Cottage all season. A week later, they lost 2-0 to Liverpool, meaning that
to have any chance of staying in the first tier of English soccer, they'd have to win their last three games.
The "Great Escape" really started April 26 in Manchester. Playing at Manchester City, a team that had beaten Manchester United twice this season, Fulham fell behind 2-0 in the first 21 minutes. On the BBC, the announcers said they were now dead and relegated.
It was still 2-0 at halftime. After an hour. Then, after 70 minutes, Diomansy Kamara scored to make it 2-1. Nine minutes later, Danny Murphy tied the game at 2, and in the dying moments, Kamara scored again to win the game. A stunning road win against a very good team, but they still needed two more.
May 3 - home against Birmingham, one of the teams they were trying to send down to the Championship. Captain America (McBride) scored, Kasey Keller picked up a 2-0 shutout and Fulham were up to safety in 17th place for the first time in months. But it still wasn't over - they needed a third road victory on the last day of the season to stay up.
May 11 - at Portsmouth. Fulham had to be hoping that Pompey was focusing more on next Saturday's FA Cup Final than on this game.
Fulham: Day of Destiny (YouTube)
Keller played well in goal, but it was 0-0 with 15 minutes left and results elsewhere meant that Fulham knew they needed a win.
Jimmy Bullard swung in a free kick, Danny Murphy headed it home, and Fulhamerica will be staying with the big boys for another year.
On the other end of the table, the incredible Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 41st goal of the season to help Manchester United win the championship with a 2-0 win over Wigan. In an emotional moment, 119-year-old Ryan Giggs scored the clinching goal on the day that he tied Sir Bobby Charlton's record of 758 games for United.
So United finish two points ahead of Chelsea, but the Blues can get their revenge next week in the Champions League final in Moscow.
Pistons, Red Wings Rolling
Does anyone even want to bother with the rest of the Red Wings-Stars and Penguins-Flyers series? Let's just get to the Wings-Pens final, and see Chris Chelios playing the kid who could be his grandson, Sidney Crosby. Luckily for the Wings, they won't need Johan Franzen to beat Dallas, so he can rest his strange concussion syndrome and get ready for the finals.
As for the Pistons, losing Game 3 was no big deal. They always lose Game 3, and usually get blown out. You can't really expect this team to stay focused for three straight games, can you? Chauncey Billups getting hurt was a problem, of course, but Rodney Stuckey and Lindsey Hunter were more ready to step in than people realized. It also helps that Orlando isn't actually good.
So the Pistons are up 3-1, and Billups will have had almost a week to rest by the time Game 5 finally rolls around on Tuesday. They might not even want to play him - save him for a Game 6 or for Boston.
Yankees-Tigers Rained Out: Millions Cheer
No one actually wanted to watch that game yesterday, did they? Derek Jeter hitting cleanup with a pink bat might have been entertaining, but the first two games of the series were atrocious. Neither team can field, but they make up for it by not being able to pitch, either. These teams are spending a combined $330 million on their rosters, and they might be able to put together one decent pitching staff between them. Wang's fine, and maybe Verlander, Rasner and Bonderman will come around by the time Pettitte, Rogers and Mussina run out of Geritol. The bullpen would be all New York, unless you wanted Todd Jones to pitch mop-up innings. He's certainly not getting any crucial time ahead of Mariano Rivera, Joba Chamberlain and, as much as it pains me to say it, Kyle Farnsworth.
Big Brown Has A New Supporting Cast
For the first time since Citation in 1948 - Chris Chelios and Gary Sheffield's rookie seasons - the Kentucky Derby winner has scared all of his opponents off the Triple Crown trail. Big Brown is the only Derby horse headed to the Preakness. Recapturetheglory was the only other one under consideration, and he got sick.
This makes sense. After all, with the death of Eight Belles, there's not a single horse left that could come within 10 lengths of Big Brown, so why not find an easier spot than the Preakness. If you really believe your horse can still challenge him - Colonel John and/or Pyro come to mind - give him a breather and bring him back for the Belmont.
Of the new challengers in the Preakness, the one that stands out is Behindatthebar. He ran a nice race in the Lexington, and looks like he can make the adjustment from poly to dirt. I haven't run all the numbers, but at this point, he appears to be the only one that I can see challenging Big Brown.
May 15th, 2008 - 02:32
Just a random question: why isn’t Kyle Farnsworth better?
He’s got an absolute canon for an arm. He’s got a killer’s mentality (which may stem from the fact that he has actively tried to kill several people during bench-clearing brawls).
In short, he’s a scary dude with the fire to back it up. And yet… he’s just okay. He’s fine for middle relief, but I would avoid using him in a big spot late in a game at all costs. As a baseball fan, his career is gonna bug me for the rest of time.
May 15th, 2008 - 10:56
He doesn’t know how to pitch. At some point, great closers went from intimidating (Goose Gossage) to baffling (Mariano Rivera), but Farnsworth is still trying to just throw heat past everyone.
He reminds me a lot of Jeremy Bonderman. The tools are all there, but they don’t have the chessplayer mentality, where they are thinking 2-3 pitches and 2-3 at-bats down the line. They are both just throwing the next pitch.
The shame is that both guys have a perfect role model sitting next to them in the clubhouse – almost literally in Bonderman’s case. How much better would Farnsworth be if he were able to pick up 20 percent of Mike Mussina’s pitching strategy? Or if Bonderman could learn that from Kenny Rogers?