What is it we feel when truly alive? What is that intangible feeling, that pulsation through our veins, heightening our awareness, sharpening our senses? How do we continually find that glimmer of curiosity, an innocent yearning for hope burning within our eyes?
How does one trap that feeling, grasp it forever, never let it go? Does it become an addiction? A detriment?
What is the cost of these prices we pay for each other?
[Written shortly after the Yankees swept the Red Sox]
Nothing fastballs, hanging curves, flat sliders, maddening walks, cheap hits, big bombs, did I mention walks?
Frail swings, meek grounders, zero cohesion, dead sox.
Imminently questionable, utterly inconsolable, thy name is Tito.
/
Here, for your reading pleasure, are five observations gleamed from Armageddon. Shards of insight from a diehard Yankee fan, temporarily unburdened from this media fed beast known as Yankees-Red Sox.
Dear A-Rod,
I am sure you are already well aware, but the frustration level of your performance on the baseball diamond has reached an all time high. I am not here to remind you yet again of your 0-10 performance the last two games in Anaheim, which includes seven strikeouts. Instead, please think of this as a simple form of motivation.
There is absolutely no reason I should be sitting here talking or, rather yet, thinking about basketball, especially since the NFL is about two weeks away from kicking off. Yet, here I am, with no choice.
There has been such a flurry of activity, especially in the East, that I have no choice but to sit back and try to make sense of any of what has happened.
So, with a long way until the start of the season, I give you: My Eastern Conference Playoff Scenario.
By David J. Cohen
The Patriots have given disgruntled WR Deion Branch permission to seek a trade with another team. This comes after weeks of failed contract negotiations between the Pats and Branch. This includes two denied offers from the Patriots: the first, a 3-year deal worth $18.75 million with $8 million guaranteed; the second, a 5-year extension worth $31 million. Branch has until September 1st to find a deal elsewhere.
Quarterback Rhett Bomar, whose potential was sky high; potentially end his football career by taking money he didn’t earn. This brings up the age old question should college athletes get paid?
by Matt Wells
There are some rules in the current game of baseball that are etched in stone. For every homerun hit, you travel around four bases. Four balls equals a walk, three strikes equals an out, and three outs means that the other team must come up to bat. There are nine innings in a regular game that is not shortened by rain or lengthened by extra innings.
Other baseball rules, though not necessarily permanent, have helped shaped the game to what it is today. A five-inning game is an official one in tomorrow’s boxscores. A batter can run to first on a swinging third strike if there was a wild pitch or passed ball on that third strike (remember A.J. Pierzynski in last year’s playoffs?).
As a service for the Sportscolumn community, I went to the 11:30 AM showing of Invincible today. Who am I kidding, if I wasn’t going to write a review for SC, I’d have seen the 2:30 showing anyway. As an Eagles fan, I am obligated to see the movie. What’s the population of the Delaware Valley? 6 million people? Multiply by $9… Invincible is guaranteed to bring in at least $50M just from the Philly area alone.
by Trevor Freeman
Upon reading our esteemed editor’s “Friday Free for All” and seeing that he was trying to wrest the title of “Most Random Writer” back from me, I knew action had to be taken. Like Maurice Clarett, I decided to bring four guns and a hatchet to this battle. And while I didn’t imbibe half a bottle of Grey Goose before writing there surely is some liquid grain still flowing through these veins. Without further ado, here is a medley of thoughts kicking around my extremely hungover brain this afternoon.
The Detroit Tigers seem to have lost their stranglehold on the #1 slot, but keep it because they were able to win two games against the division rival White Sox. Perhaps I’m just an optimist in thinking that National League teams have as much chance at winning a World Series as American League teams, but the New York Mets still hold the #2 slot. The Yankees looked primed to make the upward jump after sweeping the Red Sox in a critical five-game series, but then go and lose two of three to the pathetic Seattle Mariners. As they say, I guess that’s why they play the games.
On a more individual note, two veterans changed teams this week: Jamie Moyer brought his 200 career wins to the City of Brotherly Love and Shawn Green takes his 300 career homeruns to the Big Apple. Two other players had significantly different outcomes with non-baseball related ailments: Tom Glavine avoided surgery on a possible blood-clot, while Chan Ho Park went under the knife, hoping to solve internal bleeding.