Ambidextrous Pitcher vs. Switch Hitter....Who Wins?

One of the strangest things ever in baseball took place Thursday night in the Single A baseball game between Staten Island Yankees and the Brooklyn Cyclones. Yankees pitcher Pat Venditte is a rarity...he can pitch with both his left and right hand. Usually that gives him the advantage, but with one out to go in the 9th inning, Venditte met his kryptonite...a switch hitter.

As is the case in baseball, the pitcher loves to pitch against a hitter of the same type (lefty vs lefty, righty vs righty). Well, both Venditte and the switch hitter Ralph Henriquez knew this, so they had a mind game. First the batter stepped in as a righty, then the pitcher adjusted, then the batter went lefty, so the pitcher followed. This unspoken dialogue went back and forth until finally the umpires recognized the eternal argument taking place between Venditte and Henriquez and thus ruled that the batter had to choose first. So he did and needless to say the pitcher Venditte went on to strike him out.

A perfect Coyote-Roadrunner moment that will be shown for years to come.


The short video highlight from Fox News:



The longer unedited version from the game broadcast (I recommend being patient and watching this one):

Scott Kalitta Killed In Funny Car Race

Scott Kalitta, a 46 year old veteran Funny Car driver was killed during the final round of qualifying for the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. His car took off and about halfway through the run his car explodes into a fireball, breaking into pieces and sending Kalitta and his vehicle into a wall at nearly 300 mph. Below is the official description of what exactly went wrong.

"Something went wrong with the engine as the exhaust on the left side of the car appears amiss. When the engine let go, it exploded creating a gigantic fireball and breaking the car body into thirds around the hood and windshield area. The body lifted off the car in flames and flew back as the car continued down the track. Replay shows a continued fire as the car slowed greatly but not enough. The parachutes were twisted and did little to stop the car. The car continued down the track, went through the sand, over some dirt, through a fence, and hit the wall shooting the car into the air, breaking it into hundreds of pieces. An immediate fireball enveloped the car as part landed in the woods and part appears to land on the camera tower. Some of the trees in the woods were scorched by heated fragments."

The fire and ensuing crash are difficult to see on video, but sadly Kalitta's dad, Connie, a veteran NHRA driver was also his sons crew chief and was there when this tragedy occurred. Kalitta leaves behind his wife Kathy and their two sons, Colin and Corey.


*****I have posted the video of the crash below. Please understand it is very vivid and might be uncomfortable for some to see. But if the written description doesn't describe the scene enough, you can see it on video*****

Adding To The Tiger Lore

Golf viewership will decline immensely for the rest of the 2008 season because Tiger Woods is set to have season-ending knee surgery which will unfortunately take away the golf's best player for many months. Woods confirmed today on his website that he has a torn ACL and a stress fracture in his left tibia.

Golf will lose its undeniable drama that it takes on when Wood's is in the field, but for the true golf fan I guess its better that Wood's gets healthy for the long run...plus, he set out to win all 4 Majors this year and is only 1 for 2...so what is there to even play for?

What is amazing is that even by missing the rest of the season, Woods has already clinched a spot on this years Ryder Cup team (which he will also miss) and will probably remain the World's top Ranked golfer and Fed-Ex point leader based solely on what he has done in a measly 7 tournaments. In those 7 tourneys, Tiger has won 5 and finished in the Top 5 the other two times (2nd place at the Masters). Although he will only win 1 major this year, there is a chance that with the knee injury and all the other drama surrounding him, we will amazingly look back at Tiger's career and mark 2008 as his most dominant year ever...and thats special!

Greatest Closer Ever...Maybe Not So Much

Many people love to debate who the best closer of all time is...MJ or Kobe, MJ or Kobe...I think we have our answer.

Two things to note from the 2008 Lakers-Boston Finals. 1) In game 4, the Lakers gave up the largest first quarter lead in Finals history (24 points). 2) In game 6, the Lakers lost by the biggest margin ever in a closeout game (39 points). These are not two statistics that the greatest closers let their team become apart of.

But despite those two horrendous figures, the clearest stat that Kobe isn't the closer we all thought he was is this. When the Lakers faced elimination (a time when the closer should step up), Kobe showed up in the first quarter and then went to bed for the final three. In game 5, Kobe exploded for 15 points in the first quarter, then ended the last 3 quarters amassing another 10 points. In game 6, Kobe had a very similar performance scoring 11 in the first and 11 in the final three.

The argument of who the greatest closer ever is will finally be laid to rest, but don't worry Kobe fans, I'm open to debating who the greatest first quarter player ever is.

Update On The Death of Steroid Dealer, David Jacobs

I wrote last night about how the steroid problem has gone too far since many people believed that the death of convicted steroid dealer David Jacobs was tied to the NFL athletes that he outed. Today, ESPN is reporting that the Dallas Medical Examiner has decided that Jacob's killed himself and was not murdered by someone else. Jacobs suffered a self-inflicted wound to the abdomen and another to the head.

So the conspiracy theory that I found rather interesting (especially after Jacob's comments about people who might put a bullet in his head), isn't true. But for the 24 hours that we considered it an option, it really made me step back and realize this steroid saga has the potential to evolve into not just a sports problem, but a crisis that effects alot of people.

From Hypothetical to Real-Life...The Steroid Saga Has Crossed A Line

This steroids epidemic reached new heights today when a convicted steroid dealer who has begun naming NFL players who bought from him, was found shot in his house in Plano, Texas. The police have not confirmed a link between his past life as a steroids dealer and his death, but it makes too much sense to not be the case.

35 year old David Jacobs, along with a female friend named Amanda Jo Earhart-Savell, were found shot in Jacobs' home. The fact that Jacobs recently outed many NFL players as being steroid users, causes many people to see a strong connection between the death of Jacobs and the athletes that he recently named. This story takes an even crazier twist. According to ESPN the Magazine senior writer Shaun Assael, who has consistently been in contact with Jacobs over the last month, Jacobs expressed concern over the people he implicated through the information he shared with the NFL. This is a direct quote from David Jacobs: "The kinds of people I know about could put a bullet in the back of my head."

The steroid issue is a sad one because it has tarnished the record books in many professional sports. But it takes on a new importance when it transcends sports and begins to threaten human life either through ending the lives of children who misuse the drug in high school or in cases such as Jacobs', causes people whose reputation is being threatened to end the life of their accuser. This is yet another story that hints toward people taking athletics too seriously and convincing themselves that the life of another human is less important than having a tarnished reputation.

A Made For Hollywood Story From A Not So Familar Name...At Least Not Yet!

If you research the 1999 MLB draft, you will see names such as Barry Zito, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Ben Sheets, Jon Lackey, Justin Morneau, Hank Blalock, J.J. Putz, and Alex Rios. These are a few of the stars of the future, some older than others, but all ring a bell to the common baseball fan. The one name that doesn't show up is the top overall pick in that draft, Josh Hamilton. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays selected him number one overall and gave him a singing bonus of almost 4 million dollars. He was the future, he was the cream of the draft class, he was the next big thing. But after a series of MLB struggles and then a car crash that left him and his mother hurt, Hamilton fell into a life of drugs, drinking and an addiction to not caring for anything.

Open up the stat sheet in this Sunday's paper and take a look at the American League section. You won't see A-Rod, Jeter, Manny, Big Papi, Guerrero, Cabrera, Griffey Jr. or any of the perennial all-stars that play in the AL. The name that appears is Josh Hamilton. He is at the top of Home Runs, Batting Average and RBI's. The three biggest offensive categories are lead by some 27 year old crack addict who has 26 tattoos, has a coach hold his meal money and spent most of the last 5 years wondering the streets.

His story is amazing; not just his new found glory in a sport where he used to represent the future, but also because its incredible to hear how a human being can fall so low and yet, through faith, family and friends, recover and come back to begin a life that suddenly has purpose and direction. Last season, in the midst of his rookie campaign, Hamilton wrote this article for ESPN. Give it a read, its a phenomenal account of what his life was like and how he turned his life around to get to where he is now.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2926447