College of Sports Media Game of the Night:

The Philadelphia Phillies laid a beat down last night on the New York Yankees in game one of the World Series. Pitcher Cliff Lee was the dominant ex-Cleveland as he out-dueled former teammate CC Sabathia to pick up the win in the 6-1 drubbing. Lee went the distance, struck out ten and only gave up six hits. The lone Yankee run came of a Jimmy Rollins throwing error. Chase Utley powered the Phillies offence. He took Sabathia deep twice. Here’s an obscure World Series fact for you. Last night, Utley joined Babe Ruth as the only two left-handers to hit two home runs off a southpaw in a championship game. Derek Jeter was the only good thing for the Yanks. He had three hits. Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira struggled last night. The Yanks dynamic duo went a combined 0-8 with five strike outs.

Game two goes tonight. Former Boston Red Sox and Yankee rival, Pedro Martinez gets the call for Philadelphia. Over his career Martinez has been average against New York. In 32 starts he’s 11-11. In the postseason, Martinez has faced the Yanks six times and has a 1-2 record with a 4.70 ERA. New York counters with AJ Burnett, who’s making his first ever World Series start.

College of Sports Media Game of the Night:

World Series. Game One in the Bronx. Philadelphia Phillies. New York Yankees. The waiting is over and it’s time to get this series going. Both teams have been pounding the ball during this post-season and have been getting some fantastic pitching from their left-handers. For the Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard has been the catalyst. Howard is batting .355 with 23 RBIs and two home runs. There was no bigger trade deadline move then Philadelphia acquiring reigning AL Cy Young winner Cliff Lee from the Cleveland Indians. Since joining the Phillies, Lee has been dominant. In three play off starts he’s 2-0 with a 0.74 ERA. Lee gets the call tonight for the game one start.

During the regular season, the New York Yankees led the major leagues in most offensive categories including home runs. The trend has continued in the play offs. It was Mark Teixeira (39 HRs) doing most of the damage for the Bronx Bombers during the season and in October its been all Alex Rodriguez. A Rod is enjoying his best post-season as a Yankee. In nine games he’s blasted five long balls, driven in 12 and has a blistering .438 batting average. On the mound New York showcases a pretty formidable southpaw as well. In the play offs, CC Sabathia is 3-0, has a 1.19 ERA and struck out 20. Sabathia starts game one for the Yanks, up against his former teammate in Cleveland. That city may have figured things out when it comes to hoops, but in terms of baseball it’s no surprise the place is sometimes called ‘the mistake by the lake.’

College of Sports Media Game of the Night:

The Philadelphia Phillies finished off the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-4 last night winning the NLCS in five games (deja vu anybody?) The Phillies will look to become the first NL team to win back-to-back titles since the 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds. In the ALCS, game five goes tonight and the New York Yankees have a commanding 3-1 series lead. New York has gotten two incredible starts from CC Sabathia and Alex Rodriguez has been incredible. In his first four playoffs with the Yanks, he had a grand total of four home runs and nine RBIs. Already this post-season A-Rod’s gone deep five times, driven in 11 and is hitting a blistering .407. In total the Bronx Bombers have hit 14 home runs (tied with the Phillies for the league lead during the playoffs) and combined for 54 RBIs. Unfortunately for the Los Angeles Angels this team looks unstoppable. The Angels will do their best tonight. They send John Lackey to the mound in this critical game. New York goes with AJ Burnett. Whether the Yanks win tonight or not, one things is for sure. Game one of the World will be on Wednesday, October 28th and the Philadelphia Phillies will be the visiting team.

College of Sports Media Game of the Night:

Everything looked to be going New York’s way in the ALCS, until the bottom of the sixth of game three. Both games played in the Bronx ended with different scores, but the result was the same – a Yankees win. For game three the series switched to LA, but the Yankees kept rolling. Derek Jeter led off the game with his second home run of the postseason. Yanks up 1-0. In the fourth, Alex Rodriguez took Jeff Weaver deep and the Yanks now led 2-0. Top of the fifth and Johnny Damon gets into the long ball act. Before you know it Yanks lead 3-0. The Angels cut into the lead in the bottom half of the inning. Howie Kendrick went deep off of Yankee starter Andy Petite, but the Halos still trailed 3-1. Then in the bottom of the sixth with Bobby Abreu on first and two down Vladimir Guerrero stepped up to the plate. On a 2-2 count, Guerrero hit his first post-season homer and the Angels suddenly had new life. The game ended up going into extra innings. In the bottom of the tenth, Abreu tried to stretch a double into a triple and was tagged out trying to get back to second. Were things swinging back New York’s way? The very next inning Angel’s back up catcher Jeff Mathis blasted a ball of the wall in left-centre and Kendrick scored all the way from first. LA won the game 5-4 and gained so much needed momentum.

That brings us to game four tonight. The Yanks stick to their three man rotation as big lefty, CC Sabathia makes his second start of the series. He dominated in game one, going eight strong, striking out seven and only giving up one earned run. The Angels counter with a south paw of their own, Scott Kazmir. Kazmir struggled in his only other play off start. He was roughed up for five run over six innings in the game clinching game of the ALDS.

Ron Wilson was on with Bill Watters and Greg Brady today here is a synopsis:

Darren Dregger emails, texts me all the time and I never answer him. He asks me about EVERYTHING, what I am eating, whether I wear thongs or boxers and I don’t respond to him-
Getting away won’t be the big relief that everyone thinks. Going to Vancouver not so different than Toronto or Montreal, Burke and Nonis were GM’s there so it will still be pretty intense. The rest of the trip will be better for lots of our guys.
Was looking at clothes asked the tailor if they had something nice when he is buried in his coffin in a few weeks. Need to have a sense of humor. Been through this before, when you are in a bad streak you feel like you will never win another game. One night you get a little bit lucky and then you win a game and then four or five in a row and you feel that you will never lose again. You can’t panic. As Brian says everyone is throwing you anchors when you need life jackets. It’s not wise to make moves because the strong will pray on the weak. We just simply have to play better. It’s amazing that everything has fallen apart. Won’t be surprised if we win tomorrow night. If we do everyone will say Joey McDonald should be our starting goaltender. We try to avoid the press because it’s hysterical. We haven’t contemplated taking Luke Schenn out of the lineup. We need to lessen his workload when he is struggling. The guys we signed need to simplify their games until we feel good about themselves. I could have sat down any number of guys, the numbers I know, Matt Stajan hasn’t been on the ice for one goal for. We tried to shock the team a little bit. Some times it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Every time we did it last year it worked. We need these guys to know how much we count on them. We could have sat Jason Blake. We as a group decided we had to do something and we really wanted to get Tyler Bozak in a game, so it could have been anyone. Lee Stempniak has been our best player. He didn’t finish very well last year. I don’t know how but he turned his whole life around, at least in terms of how he is playing. He was a bubble guy and he is outperforming every forward we have.

College of Sports Media Game of the Night:

The NLCS kicked off last night as the Philadelphia Phillies used the long ball en route to a 8-6 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Tonight it’s the American League’s turn to get things going. Barring any type of weather postponement the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Angels kick off game one of their series tonight in the Bronx. At first glance this looks like a classic example of David versus Goliath. New York had the best record (103-59) in the AL. The Yanks hit the most home runs (244) in the regular season and continue to do so in the playoffs. They have the three hard throwing pitchers that there going to rely on and they have arguably the best closer in the history of the game. On yeah they’re yearly payroll is close to 208 million dollars. The Angles had the second best record (97-56) in the AL and are arguably the best small ball team in baseball. They’re great at stealing bases, moving runners over and getting the timely hits with runners in scoring position. They have crafty pitchers, who can strike batters out with a little heat or use some of the off-speed junk to get hitters missing. During the regular season they played against other ten times and each team won five games (NY 3-1 vs LA @ home, LA 4-2 vs NY @ home). Tonight New York starts CC Sabathia. Sabathia dominated the Minnesota Twins in game one of the ALDS, going six and two thirds, striking out eight and giving up only one earned run. Los Angeles counters with John Lackey. Lackey was just as dominant in his first start against the Boston Red Sox. Lackey went seven and third, gave up four hits without giving up an earned run. Weather may be a factor tonight and if that’s the case Sabathia has the edge. Not only is he used to pitching in New Yankee Stadium, but he was once a Cleveland Indian and used to the frigid temperature.

College of Sports Media Game of the Night:

In the MLB playoffs the focus tonight will be on the American League, as the teams from the NL get the night off. The New York Yankees resume their series with the Minnesota Twins in the Bronx. Game one featured all of New York’s strengths. There was a dominant pitching performance from CC Sabathia and the offence hit a couple of long balls en route to a 7-2 win over the Twins. The Yanks hope game two is no different so win they go into Minnesota with a 2-0 series lead. Tonight AJ Burnett (13-9) makes his first postseason start. In fact this is Burnett first ever playoff action. Jose Molina gets the call behind the plate. When Molina is catching opposing hitters have a .221 average against Burnett. With starter Jorge Posada they’re batting .270. Also Molina has caught each of Burnett’s last six starts. Nick Blackburn (11-11) gets the call for the Twins.

In the late game the Boston Red Sox are looking to bounce back from a 5-0 game one lose to the Los Angeles Angels. LA starter John Lackey was a loser the last two years in the ALDS against the Sox, but last night he went seven strong striking out four and only giving up four hits. Torii Hunter contributed the key offensive play blasting a three run bomb off Boston starter John Lester. Red Sox hope their ace and playoff vet, Josh Beckett (17-6) can get them back in the series tonight. LA counters with Jered Weaver (16-8).

College of Sports Media Game of the Night:

It’s day two of the Hunt for October and there is still one more series to get underway. The Boston Red Sox easily took the AL Wild Card and open up postseason play on the road taking on the AL West champs, the Los Angeles Angels. On paper this series looks totally lopsided leaning towards the team from Beantown. This isn’t the first time these two teams have met in the ALDS and Boston owns a 9-1 record over LA. In fact this will be the third straight year the Sox and Halos have met in the first round of the playoffs and both times Boston jumped out to a 2-0 series lead. To take it a step further tonight’s starter for the Angels, John Lackey (11-8) has lost game one both times and he’s hoping the third time is a charm. Boston sends lefty John Lester (15-8) to the mound for this one.

There are also a couple of game twos going down today.

In the first game of their series the Cliff Lee went the distance as the Philadephia Phillies topped the Colorado Rockies 5-1. Lee was dominant as he struck out five, giving up only six hits and the one earned run. He becomes only the eighth Philly in history to go the distance in the postseason. Things don’t get much easier for the Rockies, they face Cole Hammels (10-11) in game two. Aaron Cook starts for Colorado (11-6).

In the other National League series the Los Angeles Dodgers took the St Louis Cardinals 5-3 in a game that featured a playoff record thirty runner left on base. Matt Kemp and Rafael Furcal led the offensive charge for LA. Furcal had three hits, a run and RBI. Kemp hit a two run bomb off Cards starter Chris Carpenter in the first inning.  It was the first home run Carpenter had given up in ten starts. For the Cards they’ll need better production from their superstar first baseman Albert Pujols. Pujols was 0-3 with two intentional walks. With a 1-0 series lead the Dodgers turn to Clayton Kershaw (8-8). St Louis counters with Adam Wainwright (19-8).

Are you panicking? No, really. Three games in, have the alarm bells started to ring? When the Blue Jays were on their tear early on, where you ready to annoint them playoff bound? When a guy hits a homerun or scores a goal in game one of the season, do you project their season totals???? I mean really.

We Toronto Sports fans take a lot of shit. Some of it is deserved. Most of it is fabricated in attempt to sell papers (who reads em) or radio ads(who listens)… Listening and looking around this town, you would think the Maple Leafs are this years version of the Detroit Lions. Wholly smokes folks, it’s 3 stinking games. It’s three games with how many new faces? Get a grip.

The good news, I think is that most of the hysteria is media generated. No one I know has hit the panic button yet. It is way too early for that. With all due respect, those who call in to Leafs talk aren’t, in my mind anyways representative of Leafs fans. Seriously, do you know anyone who calls in to those shows? That is not to say that people don’t…It’s just that the notion that those who do are speaking for the larger group is bunk. I mean the larger group doesn’t think that the guy from Maple is bang on when he suggested the Jamal Mayers for a first round draft pick.

So, is it the media who creates hysteria and the fans feed off of it, or are fans really panicked as has been suggested. I am not buying that it is the fans. I don’t see it, I don’t hear it and it makes no sense. It makes about as much sense as the Bruce Garrioch Ron Wilson story today.

Look, this is really simple. If the Leafs are any worse than they were last year when the season ends and lottery positions are finalized, Brian Burke is going to have some explaining to do. If the Boston Bruins are on the podium with the Maple Leafs pick things have gone dramatically astray. If this team regresses after the overhaul the lineup has undergone, something is amiss. It’s really that simple. To reach that conclusion after game 3?????????? I am sorry. We aren’t, collectively anyways, that dumb are we???????

I certainly hope not. Saturday could be ugly by the way. If the same Leafs team shows up that did against Ottawa, Pittsburgh may have a field day.

Chins up leafs nation. It’s a long haul, and we’ve only just begun.

College of Sports Media Game of the Night:

They rumbled last night in the Bronx as the Toronto Blue Jays took on the New York Yankees. Tempers flared in the eighth inning. Earlier in the game Blue Jays Edwin Encarnacion and Aaron Hill were plunked by Yankees pitchers. Jesse Carlson sent a message of his own when he threw behind New York catcher Jorge Posada. The benches empty, but nothing happened. Then a couple of batters later Posada scored on a Brett Gardiner single and nudged Carlson while crossing home. That set things off and the two players went at it and this time the both teams spilled on the field for good reason. Posada was ejected and Carlson had a welt on his head. The fight may have been a draw, but the Jays put the bats to the Yanks, blasting them 10-4. Toronto tied a season high with five  home runs, two of which were launched by Travis Snider.

Round two, I mean game two goes tonight. Chad Gaudin (5-10) starts for New York, while Brain Tallet (7-9) gets the call for Toronto.

If you want to watch a game with playoff intentions you may want to check out Colorado Rockies in San Francisco to take on the Giants. San Fran took game one and two in convincing fashion and now only trail the Rockies by two and a half in the NL wild card race. Jorge De La Rosa (14-7) toes the mound for the Rox and San Fran counters with one of their aces Matt Cain (13-5).