Ah, Monday mornings, back to work. Gotta love it! Nothing like getting up at 7:40, cleansing and punching in at the office by 8:00! Oh well, I like money! I need money! I wish I had more money, but I keep doing dumb things like buying web domains!
Anyway, it was a busy weekend for sports. The Twins, well, they tried hard! I actually felt bad for Kenny Rogers. None of the first 7 batters hit the ball hard, but all got hits. Bad Luck? Just facing a team that’s on a role? Anyway, the 4 games sweep is not good for the Twins, but they go into their next series still 3 ½ games ahead of the Royals, and 6 games ahead of the White Sox. With the series sweep, the Mariners now are tied with the Braves for the best record in baseball. The team with the 3rd best record in baseball… the San Francisco Giants! Oh yes, that’s where the Twins are playing Tuesday through Thursday!
I have to admit, I’m really excited about this coming series. I’m looking forward to the Twins taking on Barry Bonds. Will they walk him frequently? Will the pitch to him?
And, the Twins hit a lot of home runs in this series with Seattle, but now they go into Pac Bell, which is statistically the toughest park in major league baseball to hit home runs. (Does this put even more perspective into home impressive Barry Bonds is?)
Pitching Matchups and Game Times (gotta love West Coast games!):
Tuesday (9:15 CT) - Joe Mays (6-3, 5.48) vs. Damion Moss (6-3, 3.44)
Wednesday (9:15 CT) - Brad Radke (5-5, 5.71) vs. Kurt Ainsworth (5-4, 3.82)
Thursday (9:15 CT) - Kyle Lohse (4-4, 3.09) vs. Jesse Foppert (3-4, 4.31)
So, the Twins miss out on their two more established pitchers (Jason Schmidt and Kirk Reuter), but they will see three young, quality pitchers!
It’s always fun to see American League pitchers hit, and it’ll be interesting to see the Twins pitchers hit! Actually, I don’t have the exact stats, but the Twins pitchers have hit fairly well (relatively speaking) in their plate appearances!
Final Twins Thought, Congratulations to Lew Ford! He came off the bench in the 9th inning to pinch hit for Luis Rivas and hit his first major league home run! How exciting!!! Mr. Gleeman would probably agree, and for additional reasons, but Gardy should really pinch hit more frequently for Luis Rivas! The last time he did that, Bobby Kielty hit the big 3-run home run off Barry Zito to win the game last Tuesday!
NBA -
The Coaching Carousel is starting to clean itself out as the biggest pieces are falling into place. Larry Brown will be accepting the Pistons head coaching job Monday. Interesting that the Pistons, coached by Rick Carlisle, beat the 76ers, coached by Larry Brown. But, Joe Dumars has made some good moves, so who am I to question this one?
And, the winner of the Lebron Lottery Part II… Paul Silas. Silas will be named the Cleveland Cavaliers head coach on Monday. Paul Silas played for 6 NBA franchises in his 16 year NBA Career (1964-1980). He averaged 9.4 ppg and 9.9 rpg for his career. His best season for points was 17.5 in 1971-72 for Phoenix. His best rebounding season was 1972-73 for the Celtics, when he averaged 13.0 rebounds per game. After spending the last 5 seasons coaching the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets franchise, he will be the first coach of Lebron James.
TV -
Last night was the season finale of the HBO Original Six Feet Under. Great show! After watching all year, each week, I was trying to figure out where they were going with the show. A lot of that came together during the finale. Some still didn’t, leaving more questions for next season. I won’t give any details as many readers may not have viewed it yet and won’t be able to until the Tuesday night encore showing. I’ll just say that I’m really glad that the Lisa situation has been resolved. I’m also really happy that the writers were fair in their portrayal of Claire’s thoughts on her abortion. Last episode, I thought they just had her do it and were just going to leave it at that. So, I’m happy! PS - Rico is the man!
What’s Ahead -
Tuesday à Be sure to check back tomorrow. One of my fantasy baseball leagues is done with CBS Sportline. On there, we are able to enter polls and answer them. Well, the question that was added today is: Who is the Greatest hitter of all-time? The choices are: Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Joe Dimaggio or Hank Aaron. So, being the instigator that I try so hard to be, I wrote a message on the message board just saying, “Great poll question, but my answer is “None of the Above!”. Willie Mays is the greatest hitter of all-time.”
Well, there have been 5 messages posted basically telling me I’m an idiot. So, tomorrow’s issue of SethSpeaks.net will be a critical look at the six players listed, as well as Willie Mays. I will also put Barry Bonds’ stats up against them all and try to rank them.
Wednesday à Check out my predictions on the NBA Finals!
Of course, thoughts on the Twins will be basically every day!! So, again, any feedback you may have, please let me know at SethSpeaksNet@hotmail.com (or click on Email Seth above).
Have a great week!