AND DOWN THE STRETCH THEY COME! With about 30 games
left in the regular season, the MLB season gets ready for its stretch run
before October takes in full effect. It heats up in the American League East as
finally the A-Rod banter took its toll with Ryan Dempster as he decided to peg
A-Rod on his 4th attempt of hitting him last Sunday. I found it amusing
but at the same time was a big time no-go when it comes to sportsmanship in the
way he did it. Hence why he got suspended even though he didn’t affect his playing
time when it came to his position in the rotation. An even bigger story than
this was the success of Ichiro Suzuki this past week.
Ichiro Suzuki is a man that will go down in MLB lore
as the Seattle Mariners saver for the majority of his career. The sad part is
he was the furthest thing from a team player when it came to his overall
success on the Seattle Mariners. Before his historic season in 2004 he was a
pretty good team player, but something struck in his mind after that 2004
season, when Edgar Martinez was finally ending an era in Seattle, and he
decided to become this self-imposed me-me, I own this city type of mantra. His
performance yearly was absolutely amazing and you cannot question his work
ethic, but his ego did start affecting the potential movement of the team. It’s
not his fault that Bill Bavasi ruined the entire growth of this team when they
were going through a rebuilding process, but Ichiro denying relinquishment of
his #1 spot in the batting order when the team clearly needed a contact hitter
in the #3 hole was a sign of things to come in his ability to help the team as
much as he could. He fired Mike Hargrove in the process of his heightened egotistical
mentality when they got into a scuffle midway through his Mariners career.
Again, the guy got the job done and was a phenomenal attribute to his hitting,
but he started playing to improve himself as a product instead of doing what he
could to improve the well-being of the team. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy
that he reached this milestone that only 2 other men have reached and I was one
of his biggest fans when he was in Seattle, but overtime you started to see an
Ichiro that really gave less and less when it came to his overall team
commitment to this franchise with his time in Seattle and it was quite evident
especially in his final couple of seasons. Awesome career Ichiro, in-fact, one
of the greatest ever, but you shouldn’t fool yourself that he didn’t do “EVERYTHING”
he could to improve the state of the Seattle Mariners when they needed him to
bat in other positions in the lineup.
Yasiel Puig decided to stay out late during this
week in Miami with the likes of LeBron James, and other people within the Cuban
community, then that night after showing up late to the ballpark win the game
with a homerun. This guy can do nothing wrong. He is currently the Superman of
major league baseball, and nobody can stop him anytime soon.
There was an 18 inning game on Saturday this week
that was played while Max Scherzer also won his 19th game of the
regular season. The chase for 25 wins is now in effect. This guy can do it with
at least 6 to 7 more starts left for his season. Hopefully he gets it done as I’ve
been saying the past month and a half.
Aaron Hernandez was formally indicted this week and
nobody cared in the courtroom as the hearing only lasted about 10 minutes. Wake
me up when the man actually speaks in the court and this thing gets rolling
mid-2014.
Tokyo won the Little League World Series over some
team in California on Sunday. Since that’s over now we can focus on real baseball
the last couple months of the season.
I think the biggest news for me personally was the
announced retirement of Allen Iverson. This was the man that defied the saying
of to hurt, too small, and too much of a distraction. He showed up every night
whether he had a broken foot, strained back, broken fingers, thigh contusions,
stiff back, or twisted ankles, he balled till he could not ball anymore.
Practice will be the main thing he’ll be remembered for, but this guy will go
down as one of the badest dudes to ever lace up the sneakers. As a guy who
refused to leave the court, a guy who could break anyone’s ankles, and dove on
the floor whenever there was a loose ball weather his back was dorked up or his
shoulders will messed up, he played hard. He had a trait very few athletes or even
people hold in today’s world; Toughness. Pure and sheer toughness, a guy who
played way past his size and had the heart of a warrior, and with all that
being said and all those injuries happening in his life, he also finishes his
career with almost the same average points per game higher than Kobe Bryant.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it, this guy was a pound for pound stud beyond what
others could bring especially when it came to his ability to stay on the court
with guys almost a 6 inches taller than the position he played. Practice, hell
yeah we talking about practice.
Live football action will be on this upcoming week.
Let’s get it. See you next week. Make sure to check out my Preseason Prediction
Blog that should be up sometime this week. You will get updates and will have
full, in-depth analysis of each team throughout the 17 week season with
postseason predictions and a Super Bowl pick all in one blog. It should be one
heck of a write and I’m excited to share it with you all! Keep an eye out!
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