Web Gems

There is nothing that fires a baseball fan up more than a web gem. For those of you lacking in the Baseball Tonight slang speak, web gems are the nightly countdown of the top defensive plays from around the league.
The Baseball Tonight die-hards will tell you that there is nothing sweeter than watching grown men get after it with the leather. This minute of highlight reel is so nasty (see amazing), not even the home run slug-fest segment "Touch 'em All" can touch it. Enjoy.
Video courtesy of ESPN.com

A Sad Moment

Late Thursday night, the Los Angeles Angels lost their top pitching prospect, their next young star, their teammate, and their friend. Nick Adenhart, a 22 year old right-hander from Baltimore, Maryland, tragically passed away after being involved in a car accident. The young pitcher was fresh off his season debut in which he scattered seven hits in six scoreless innings in a no decision effort for the Angels. It was the best start of his young career and he will be sorely missed.
It is just so shocking when an athlete dies. It's at times like these that we remember that the professional athletes we idolize are human too. They hurt, they bleed, and they are just as vulnerable to death as anyone else. Nick Adenhart was so young and so full of talent but life had other plans.

Go Away Rain: It's Baseball Season

The winter is gone and April is upon us. After weeks of long toss, batting practice, scrimmages, and PFP's the baseball season is finally here. There is no emotion like the hope that comes with that "this is our year" feeling. It's opening day, and everybody is ready to rock n' roll.
Mother nature has other plans, however. For the Boston Red Sox, the excitement will have to wait at least another day as the possibility of inclement weather has postponed their home opener until tomorrow. Yes, their season will still start and they will play the full 162 game schedule but the Sox are being robbed of one of the best moments of the year. In the most disasterous sports news reported this weekend, baseball will once again be ruined by rain. It's just unbelievable that water, the same liquid that is necessary for human existence, will once again rip out the hearts of fans everywhere. Get here summer, we need you more than ever.

Everybody Wins

As a sports fan you have to just love when a deal is made and every party involved is a winner. Thursday afternoon the Chicago Bears reached a deal with the Denver Broncos sending two first round draft picks, a third rounder, and QB Kyle Orton out west in return for 25 year old QB Jay Cutler.
The Bears got a great deal in receiving a young, talented player and now have the best quarterback in the division. In turn, the Broncos got two first round picks to help reload and sent the disgruntled Cutler packing. Both teams got what they needed and were winners in the deal.
Some would argue however, that the real winners in the Cutler deal are the San Diego Chargers. With Cutler out of the AFC West, the Chargers are the favorite to win the division for the next 10 years. Sadly, it will be tougher for the media to paint SD QB Philip Rivers as such a bully, considering the biggest baby in the league is now gone.

Don't Ever Doubt Him

How's this for a storybook ending to a golf tournament? A 15 foot birdie putt is drained on the 72nd hole as the sun fades off into the distance. Sounds a little all too familiar if your anyone trying to go blow for blow with the world's number one ranked golfer on a Sunday. Tiger Woods yet again destroyed the dreams of a competitor, sank an amazingly clutch shot, and inspired golf fans around the world when he knocked in a birdie on the 18th at Bay Hill to complete a five shot comeback earlier today.

Coming into the final round Sean O'Hair was up five strokes and had his heart set on stopping a Woods' comeback attempt. Well Tiger, as he so often does, had other plans. He birdied five holes including the big one on 18 and converted 15 of 15 putts within 10 feet Sunday. It was yet another amazing performance by Tiger when he needed it most.

This being his first win since coming back from a knee injury made it all the more impressive. Sunday was just another example of the intense calm and focus he carries with him each round and the mystifying skills he continues to wow us with.

Enjoy the ride as we watch this amazing athlete on a pursuit of golf immortality. It wasn't a storybook ending, just another chapter in the life of Tiger Woods.

Tattletexting

As the sports world moves with the times into a technologically advanced age, a new innovation has made its way into stadiums across the country and will change the fan experience forever. Meet "tattletexting", a way for fans to send text messages to security with complaints about unruly fans.
In his recent column in ESPN the Mag, Rick Reilly describes the "text-narcing" as a step in the right direction for sporting events everywhere. In his hilarious account of this new step in spectator enjoyment, Reilly offers some examples of texts sent to security, a few spoof messages, and even the Cincinnati Bengals number to text in case of an incident (513-381-JERK).
According to Reilly, tattletexting is being offered at this week's NCAA Tournament games as well as in 29 of 32 NFL stadiums. Last season 3,807 texts were sent at NFL games. In addition to ratting on your fellow fan, the text messages can be sent for any kind of problem:
I've driven 4 hours and I've left my tickets behind. Can you help? (They met him at the gate with new tickets.)
This innovative idea does come with some creepy side effects. Can you go to the game and act crazy without worrying that the tool next you is gonna tattletext on you? Worry not sports nut, individuals will not be removed without serious proof. In some stadiums, security is using cameras to zoom in on those being complained about before any action is taken.
So go out there and enjoy the game. Be not afraid of the guy behind you who "smells like he bathes in Jack Daniel's and is cursing more than Amy Winehouse".

To read Rick Reilly's full column click here

Elite 8 Ecstasy

In a miraculous final second play, Villanova shocked the basketball world and toppled number one seed and conference foe Pitt last night. With 10 seconds remaining in the game Nova had the ball and the lead 76-74. In an attempt to break the full court press, the Wildcats threw a full court pass that was heading out of bounds. A Villanova player saved the ball right into the hands of a Pittsburgh Panther who advanced the ball to Levance Fields who was fouled. With ice in his veins, Fields sank both shots from the charity stripe to knot the game at 76.
What happened next was simply "March Madness". Villanova borrowed the 1998 Valparaiso play and finished one of the best games of the 2009 tournament in dramatic fashion. Reggie Redding threw in the ball to Dante Cunningham out past the three point line who dished it to Scottie Reynolds. In the final 5.5 seconds, the junior guard weaved his way through traffic and took the ball to the rack. With a Pitt defender in his face he hit a hanging floater to advance the Wildcats to the Final Four.
What a game, what a finish. There were 15 lead changes with six of them coming in the final six minutes of play. The rest of us might be shocked by the upset, but Nova certainly is not. Since seeding began in 1979, they have won an NCAA record 15 games in the tourney as the underdog. Pitt had an amazing year and it was tough that someone had to lose. But this is what college basketball is supposed to be about and what keeps the fans coming back each year. Any team can win on any night. You gotta love this game.

Image courtesy of ESPN.com