Time is ticking for the New York Yankees to make a move that will give them another solid arm in their pitching rotation. The trade deadline is just days away, and time isn’t the only thing that is working against them. With Cliff Lee gone, Roy Oswalt wanting to stay in the National League (and currently talking to Philadelphia), and now Dan Haren being shipped to Los Angeles, the Yankees options are slipping away one by one. I understand that the Yankees are still playing exceptionally well, and not picking up another pitcher in a trade isn’t exactly going to kill them. However, this is the Yankees that we are talking about. They don’t leave any room for doubt, and without another great arm in their starting pitching rotation, that is exactly what they will have, even if it is just a little.
You know who is hoping that Terrell Owens will join Chad Ochocinco in Cincinnati? Me; and just about every other sports media outlet in the country. Think of all the possibilities; Ochocinco and T.O. team up to win Super Bowl. Ochocinco and T.O. butt heads in the locker room, causing tension in Cinci. Ochocinco and T.O. leave field to update their fans on Twitter. Any one of those aforementioned “headlines” could realistically happen if the two were to join forces in Cincinnati. In all honesty, the possibility that would be most likely to happen would be that T.O. and Ochocinco would not be able to handle each other, and would create tension in the locker room. Unless T.O. changed his entire persona that he has had throughout his entire NFL career, he will want to be the number one receiver. However, you can’t say that having both of them on one team wouldn’t be great entertainment. Plus, if Cincinnati is willing to take the risk, it could even work out well for them. Ochocinco is still a good number one receiver, and having T.O. as a two is great for a team that is on the cusp of being an elite team in the NFL. In an ideal world, the two would not only entertain, but compliment each other’s play on the field, making Cincinnati a feared offensive team. Well, an ideal world for everyone not in the AFC North.
Welcome to the club, Matt Garza. Tonight, you became the fifth pitcher this year to throw a no-hitter, joining Ubaldo Jimenez, Edwin Jackson, Roy Halladay, and Dallas Braden (the last two mentioned threw perfect games). This is so great for baseball in my opinion. With every perfect game, baseball is distancing itself from the Steroid Era that cast a dark cloud over the game for the past decade or so. Tomorrow on SportsCenter, the talk will not be about Alex Rodriguez, who is still searching for his 600th home run, but about Garza. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t cover Rodriguez at all, but the fact that his soon-to-be accomplishment will likely come so soon after a perfect game is fitting. It’s almost symbolic, as if these tainted performances we have witnessed will eventually be overshadowed by those that have been done honestly. The sun is finally beginning to peek around that ugly dark cloud that has been around baseball for more than half of my lifetime.
Either Lane Kiffin is a snake, or he is an extremely persuasive man. Almost everyone in Tennessee would choose the first option, as Kiffin is now being sued by the Tennessee Titans for luring away running backs coach Kennedy Pola. I have a hard time figuring out why Pola would want to coach at USC, with their postseason bans and all. Also, I find it hard to believe that you can trust a man who has not once, but twice, left the team he coached for greener pastures. Kiffin is kind of like the bachelor who can get any woman he wants because he has a way with words. Eventually though, the bachelor loses his touch, because it becomes known that his words are hollow. I’m wondering how many more empty promises it will take before Kiffin can no longer talk guys into joining him.
– K. Becks