Monday Wrap: Wednesday’s Weekend
Wednesday Survive
Years from now, people will look at the final standings for the 2007-08 English Championship and say "Sheffield Wednesday finished 16th? What a dull season that must have been."
Little do they know.
The Owls beat Norwich 4-1 on Sunday, thanks to a pair of Deon Burton goals, but the season was never as safe as 16th place sounds. Wednesday lost their first six games, and looked doomed in early March, but picked up four wins and seven draws in their last 12 matches to save themselves from League One.
Marvin Williams is a Punk
This photo isn't misleading - Williams' foul on Rondo in Game 7 of the Celtics-Hawks series was really that bad. The game was a blowout, so there was no reason for a hard foul, much less one that could have seriously injured Rondo.
After the game, Williams said he didn't even think he should have been ejected, and that he and Rondo are friends. Right.
Given the violence of the foul and the fact that it came in a situation where the Hawks knew their season was over, I want to see the NBA come down hard on this guy. First ten games of next season at a minimum. I know that Rondo wasn't seriously hurt, but that's just a lucky break.
By the way, taking Marvin Williams over Chris Paul is almost as dumb as taking Darko Milicic over Chris Bosh.
Almost.
Jacque Jones: Tiger Legend
The Tigers just released Jacque Jones, probably because he's hitting .163 with one homer. Jones was supposed to fill the one hole in the lineup - leftfield - but that turned out to be a complete failure.
So now what? Jim Leyland promised drastic changes starting today, and this has to be step one. Step two, at least for today, is Gary Sheffield moving to left field. That's not going to work too well - his arm might fall off the first time he tries to throw to the plate.
With Jones gone, I think they are going to have to bite the bullet and put Brandon Inge back into the everyday lineup. Guillen goes back to 1B, Inge plays 3B and Cabrera goes to LF. No, Cabrera in left won't be pretty, but someone has to play LF. It's a rule.
Multiple Major Winners
No, this isn't about Tiger Woods or Roger Federer, and while it is a post about horse racing, it isn't about Eight Belles. That's the next post.
This is about the concept of "majors" in horse racing. It's an idea introduced by Richard Sowers in his book The Abstract Primer of Thoroughbred Racing. He tried to provide a level playing field for comparing eras by picking the 110 biggest North American races of every year since 1946. You can't compare earnings or Grade I wins, because those number have changed drastically over the years, but if you pick the biggest 110 races, then it becomes meaningful to compare Willie Shoemaker's 16 majors in 1954 to Jerry Bailey's 19 in 2003.
The book only covers the years from 1946 to 2003, so I'm trying to fill in the data for the last few years. So far, I've figured out the list of majors for 2004-2008, and I've figured out the winners for 2007 and the first four-plus months of 2008.
Until Saturday, no horse had won two majors this year, which is unusual. Last year, Rags to Riches had already won three by Derby Day, and Invasor and Scat Daddy had two each.
The streak's over, though. Three horses won majors at Churchill Downs on Saturday, and it was the second of the year for all of them. Intangaroo won the Humana Distaff after winning the Santa Monica Handicap in February, Einstein added the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic to the Gulfstream Park Breeders' Cup Handicap, and Big Brown has now won the Florida Derby and the Kentucky Derby.
Among jockeys, Edgar Prado and Rafael Bejarano have won three each, while Richard Dutrow picked up his third training win of the year with Big Brown. Last year, Garrett Gomez was the leading rider with 12, while Todd Pletcher had an exceptional 19 training wins. This year, they each have one.
A Thrilling and Boring Night
On paper, last night had to be something close to perfection for a Detroit sports fan. The Red Wings clinched a playoff series, the Pistons clinched a playoff series, and the Tigers finished off a sweep of the Yankees. Even the Lions appear to have gone 24 hours without making any major mistakes.
(When will people stop saying "on paper", and start saying "on electronic screens"?)
Really, though, how exciting was it? The Pistons were up 16-2 before Doug Collins could even take credit for building the team, the Red Wings were leading 7-1 in the second period, and I'm not sure who has noticed, but the Yankees stink. They may go out and buy a bunch of guys and sneak into the postseason, but at the moment, this is the worst Yankees team in more than a decade.
The Avalanche, 76ers and Yankees put up about as much fight as Caveman Lee did against Marvin Hagler. And, for the 99% of you that aren't familiar with early-80s boxing, that isn't much. The fight lasted 62 seconds.
Maybe Detroiters are getting jaded, but that was a very dull night of excitement.
State of the Sports City
Detroit Tigers: (12-15, 3 games behind Chicago)
When the Tigers started 0-6, everyone started talking about 2003 - including me, but that was because AP paid me to do it - but this team isn't nearly that bad.
In 2003, there wasn't any talent. In 2008, there was a lot of injured and slumping talent. There's a big difference. Talented players get healthy and break out of slumps. Bad players just stay bad.
The injuries are getting better - after 25 games of patchwork lineups, they finally got the first-choice nine on the field together Sunday. Of course, The Great Nine promptly lost 6-2, only getting five hits off Jered Weaver, but they did beat the Yankees Tuesday in their second game together.
That said, having everyone on the field doesn't mean everyone is healthy. Gary Sheffield's shoulders are being held together with string, chewing gum and cortisone injections, and Placido Polanco's back isn't much better. Polanco went 4-for-5 Tuesday, boosting his batting average to a whopping .216, while Sheffield's homer helped him get all the way up to .164. There's no reason to think either player is going to get healthy without surgery - they are both going to be resting a lot and playing through a lot of pain. A lot of the season is going to depend on how well that goes.
Jacque Jones is hitting .185, but everyone knew he was going to be streaky. He looked like he had a hot stretch going last week, but his violent collision with the left-field wall seemed to kill that before it got rolling.
Ivan Rodriguez has to be a concern. There haven't been many catchers who have lasted 18 seasons - the position takes a huge toll on your back and knees - and he's been a below-average offensive player for a couple years now. He never walks, and most of his power is gone, so he's got to hit over .300 to be productive, and I'm not sure he can do that any more. This isn't the guy who hit .500 for a month in 2004 - the aging process has made sure of that.
The rest of the offense is fine. Curtis Granderson has been outstanding in his first week back from a broken hand, Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen are hitting .300 with walks and power, and Miguel Cabrera hasn't been far behind them. Edgar Renteria is like Rodriguez in that he doesn't give you much more than his batting average, but he's hitting .311, so that's fine. Brandon Inge might not be happy as a utility player, especially after the disaster of playing Cabrera at third, but he's among the team leaders in walks, and he's hitting the ball hard. When he can do that, given his ability to play centerfield, third base and catcher, he's valuable.
Unfortunately, while the offense is coming around, the pitching staff is still terrible. I'm fairly certain that it isn't a good thing that Armando Galarraga has been the unquestioned ace through the first month of the season. Great guy, and he might help the team out, but you can't count on him to pitch like Greg Maddux all season.
Kenny Rogers is 106 years old, and he was hurt all of last season, so it isn't a surprise that he's struggling. He looked better Tuesday against the Yankees - his first quality start since April 2 - but he still walked four guys in six innings.
I don't know what's going on with Justin Verlander. He's not throwing strikes - 18 walks and six hit batsmen in 36 innings - but he struggled with his control a bit at the beginning of last year too, walking 15 in his first 36 innings. This year, the control is worse, the strikeouts are down, and the hits are up. That turns a 2.79 ERA into 6.50 - a change from outstanding and terrible.
Jeremy Bonderman is the only starter with an ERA under 6, but that's mainly because he's given up a lot of unearned runs. I don't think he's ever going to be better than average - he just doesn't have the ability to harness all of his talent. Nate Robertson isn't walking people, but only because he's throwing batting practice, so no one wants to miss the chance to crush one of his pitches.
The bullpen? Todd Jones and Denny Bautista are a fairly decent late-inning combination, but the rest of the pen is terrible. It will help a lot if Fernando Rodney and/or Joel Zumaya come back at anything close to 100 percent, but I doubt that's going to happen this season.
So, a month into the season, what is the outlook for the Tigers? Despite the panic, I think they are in decent shape. The division is terrible, and the Indians are at least as messed up as Detroit. This team can still win 90 games, and 90 games will win the Central.
Detroit Pistons: (3-2 in first round of playoffs)
Welcome to Detroit Pistons basketball. With the exception of the strange shooting funk at the end of Game 1, this is what this team does. They play in second gear until they get in trouble, and then they "flip the switch" and try to save themselves with their superior talent.
That usually works against teams like the 76ers, but it gets them in trouble when they do it against teams like the 2005 Spurs, 2006 Heat or 2007 LeBrons.
Is it going to matter in this series? Nope. Young teams can steal games early in a series, before they realize what the pressure means (see also: HAWKS, ATLANTA), but Philly's last chance at actually winning died when they collapsed in the third quarter of Game 4. The Pistons will win Game 6 by 20.
Detroit Red Wings: (3-0 in second round of playoffs)
Your 2008 Stanley Cup champions.
Seriously, who is going to beat them? Colorado is down 0-3 and out of bodies. Dallas? Marty Turco has beaten the Red Wings twice in 17 games. Pittsburgh? Maybe, but Chris Chelios is older than the entire Penguins roster combined. They don't exactly have a lot of big-game experience.
Besides, it's over for another reason. Joel Quenneville has coached against the Red Wings in four playoff series - 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008. For those of you playing at home:
- 1997 - Quenneville's team knocked out by Red Wings, who went on to win Stanley Cup
- 1998 - Quenneville's team knocked out by Red Wings, who went on to win Stanley Cup
- 2002 - Quenneville's team knocked out by Red Wings, who went on to win Stanley Cup
- 2008 - Quenneville's team down 0-3 to Red Wings, who went on ...
That note courtesy of Bob Duff of The Windsor Star, who also points out that in 1997, 1998 and 2002, there was also a horse that won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, but not the Belmont. So, when Big Brown (not my official pick - that will come Friday) wins the Derby Saturday, you should bet the house on him in the Preakness, then bet on someone else in the Belmont.
Detroit Lions: (offseason)
The Lions haven't lost a game in months. They drafted players from Haiti, Hawaii, Germany and West Point.
I'll get back to you in August.
Detroit Shock: (training camp)
If Pee Wee Johnson hits the shot at the end of Game 4 of the Finals, or if Bill Laimbeer lets Swin Cash onto the floor, the Shock would be coming into the season looking for a three-peat and a fourth championship since 2003.
Instead, the season came to an ugly finish with the blowout loss in Game 5 and the inevitable end of the Laimbeer-Cash relationship. Cash is now in Seattle, along with Sue Bird, Lauren Jackson and Sheryl Swoopes, which will make the Storm the most recognizable team in league history, even if they might not actually be all that good.
The Shock should make a run at the title again this year, because they aren't going to be dealing with Olympic hangovers for their top players. Katie Smith might go to Beijing, but it doesn't appear that Cheryl Ford or Kara Braxton are in the picture, and Deanna Nolan's odd Russian flirtation seems to have knocked her out of the American system.