Armchair Weekend in Review (April 13-15, 2007)

by user JB82

Dedication

In memory of the 33 victims of the Virginia Tech shooting on 4/16/2007

MLB celebrates a pioneer

Sunday marke the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's breaking of Major League Baseball's color barrier, becoming its first African-American player with the Brooklyn Dodgers. In the six decades since, the Dodgers relocated to Los Angeles, where Robinson's legacy was celebrated along with the rest of MLB.

• The Dodgers were one of only six teams to have their entire roster don number 42 for the day, and they made Jackie proud with a 9-3 win over the San Diego Padres. Chris Young, the starting pitcher, wrote his senior thesis at Princeton about Robinson's impact on the game. Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson threw out the first pitch, while MLB put on a fantastic pre-game celebration of Robinson's life

• While Aaron will not be in attendance for whenever Barry Bonds breaks his home run record, the San Francisco Giants slugger clubbed two home runs Friday night in a 8-5 win over his first team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Bonds now stands at 737 homers lifetime, just 18 shy of Hammerin' Hank.

• When last we left Paul Byrd, the Cleveland Indians pitcher came within one strike of making an official game out of a snowbound affair against the Seattle Mariners. Eight days laer, Byrd and the Tribe returned to Jacobs Field and the former handcuffed the Chicago White Sox 3-0.

• • The next day, the Indians finished them off 6-1. The interesting stat is that Team Cuyahoga did it despite getting only one hit in the game – ONE HIT, JERRY!! Also, C.C. Sabathia went eight innings and gave up all five of the Sox' hits.

• New York Mets pitcher Orlando Hernandez had an outing to forget on Saturday. The Washington Nationals touched up El Duque for six runs in five innings of work. As if things couldn't have gotten any worse, Hernandez gave up a home run to Ryan Church and then hit his Nats counterpart Shawn Hill on the wrist. Hernandez' apologies weren't enough for umpire Mike Winters from getting him the boot. BTW, the Mets lost, 8-5.

• Another pitcher with a bad outing was B.J. Ryan. The Toronto Blue Jays had blown three different leads against the Detroit Tigers before the last and biggest blow fell. With the Jays leading 7-6, Ryan lost command of his control and the defending American League champions took full advantage, scoring four runs to win 10-7. Adding injury to insult, Ryan was placed on the disabled list the next day due to elbow trouble.

• Mariano Rivera became the third pitcher on the weekend to get busted out of his skull. The usually-reliable New York Yankees closer was within one strike of taking their series with the Oakland Athletics 4-2 when A's utility infielder Marco Scutaro clubbed a three-run homer off the foul pole for a 5-4 upset win.

NHL Playoffs

For the first time in recent memory, every road team who played on one given playoff day all won their games. One example of Saturday's action:

• When Rick DiPietro went down with a concussion earlier in the season, it looked as though the New York Islanders' playoff hopes would follow suit. But, the Isles still hung on to clinch the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference (cf. last week). DiPietro was back in goal for Game 2 of their series and got 32 saves as the Isles tied their series with the Buffalo Sabres, 2-1.

• Wasted effort of the weekend: Calgary Flames goalie Miika Kiprusoff stopped 44 shots, but the Detroit Red Wings went two-up in their series, 3-1.

• Three nights after they went to four overtimes, the Vancouver Canucks needed only one to beat the Dallas Stars, 2-1 on Sunday.

NBA Highlights

• Being a referee in any sports is a difficult job. Their job is to call the game according to the rules of that particular sport with great impartiality, and stand by each ruling in the face of adversity on an almost regular basis. One such situation happened to veteran NBA referee Jerry Crawford. In the third quarter, Crawford thought San Antonio Spurs center Tim Duncan expressed his opinion about an offensive foul Crawford called against him. JC responded with a technical foul call. Shortly thereafter, Duncan was still giving him the business, and Crawford had reached his limit, relegating him to the dressing room. Duncan said after the game that Crawford had a "personal vendetta" against him.

• Meanwhile, in Southern California, Kobe Bryant dropped 50 points and the Los Angeles Lakers needed every last one as the Los Angeles Lakers earned their ticket to the NBA Playoffs with a 109-98 win over the Seattle Supersonics. Just when you thought they were out...

Across the Pond

• April 15 takes on more somber overtones in the UK sports scene. It was on that date in 1989 that Liverpool and Nottingham Forest were to play an FA Cup semifinal at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield. Instead, excitement gave way to tragedy as 96 people lost their lives in a stampede.

• • Reds played the day before, playing Manchester City to a scoreless tie. Meanwhile, Liverpool's Merseyside rival, Everton, got a 2-1 win over Charlton Athletic, keeping the Addicks in the relegation zone.

• • "Forest", on the other hand, remain on the road to promotion from Football League One to just one step from the Premiership (the Football League Championship) thanks to a 4-2 win against Brentford.

• • Keeping with the FA Cup theme, Manchester United ended Watford's bid to become this year's West Bromwich Albion with a 4-1 at Villa Park in Birmingham. The following day, Michael Ballack's extra-time goal sent Chelsea to Wembley Stadium in the FA Cup Final on May 19. Chelsea defeated Blackburn Rovers 2-1.

Fast Track

• With qualifying scrapped due to bad weather, points leader Jeff Gordon was awarded the pole position. However, it was another Jeff – Jeff Burton – who got the win at The Great American Speedway (aka Texas Motor Speedway) in the Samsung 500. Burton's second checkered flag at Fort Worth, Texas – he also won the inaugural event held here ten years ago – came thanks to a last-lap pass on former Roush Racing teammate Matt Kenseth.

• The last time Felipe Massa was mentioned in this space was when he overshadowed Michael Schumacher's farewell in the Brazilian Grand Prix, the final race of the 2006 Formula 1 season. The Brazilian clinched his first win of 2007 at the Bahrain Grand Prix. On the same day the US sports world honored Jackie Robinson, British driver Lewis Hamilton came home second, his second podium in three races.

• Sébastien Bourdais rebounded from an early exit at Las Vegas with his win at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

That's all for this week

Until next time, as always, let's all be good sports...