The Day in Sports: September 19, 2005

Well, unfortunately for Baltimore sports fans, the Redskins and Cowboys weren’t the only rivals going at it last night. The Orioles were visiting Yankee Stadium, so here’s the downer. There had been too much jubilation around here, anyway.

MLB: New York Yankees 3, Orioles 2

AAAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!! That’s all I can say. That one hurt.

The Orioles were up 2-0 after three innings, but the Yankees tied it in the fifth after Erik Bedard loaded the bases with nobody out. The game remained tied until the bottom of the ninth. Eric DuBose was pitching, as he had been since the seventh inning, and with no outs, Bubba I-raised-my-batting-average-28-points-tonight Crosby hit one into the right field stands for the walk-off home run. Cue Sinatra’s “New York, New York.”

Argh.

Crosby was batting .250 coming into the game, and went 3-for-4 to raise his average to .278.

To make matters worse, the Red Sox lost to the Devil Rays, 8-7, so the Yanks are now just half of a game out of first place in the American League East. Argh.

The Orioles get three more games to try to keep New York from taking over that top spot, then they play Boston for three games, then they get the Yankees for another four games. This is the Orioles’ chance to play spoiler, and it’s not starting out well.

Miguel Tejada did get his 92nd RBI of the season last night, so he now has 13 games to get eight more to reach 100.

Tonight, the O’s send John Maine (2-1, 3.27 ERA, RHP) to face 33-year-old journey man/career minor leaguer/new Yankees savior Aaron Small (8-0, 3.28 ERA, RHP). Despite winning his last two games, Small has given up nine runs in 13 innings (a 6.23 ERA), but has gotten wins in both because the Yanks scored eight runs in the first game and nine in the second. Your little sister could be a 20 game winner with that kind of run support.

Game time is 7:05.


Also tonight, Barry Bonds makes his first road trip of the season as the Nationals face the San Francisco Giants at RFK Stadium at 7:05.

Booooooooooo. Booooooooooooooo. BOOOOOOOOOOO!

In the past few weeks, everyone has been saying, “Say what you want about Barry Bonds as a person, but he is one of the most/THE most talented player in the history of baseball.” I’m tired of it. Here is my reply: “Say what you want about Barry Bonds as a player, but he is a cheater and an asshole.” (That’s me quoting myself ... because I’m so hardcore.)

I. Do. Not. Like. Barry Bonds. In my mind, he is currently competing with Terrell Owens and Gary Sheffield for the biggest jerk in all of sports. I’m not sure who’s winning.

Livan Hernandez (15-7, 3.93 ERA, RHP) will pitch to Barry Bonds tonight, and pitching on Barry Bonds’ side is 20-year-old Matt Cain (2-1, 2.00 ERA, RHP). Cain has pitched well in four appearances for the Giants this season (all starts). His last three games have all been quality starts.

For the Nats, Livo can get kind of ornery, so he might just throw at Barry Bonds. I wouldn’t complain.

I fully urge all of you to go and boo Barry Bonds. It’ll be fun.


And now, back to the Redskins beating the Cowboys!!! (You didn’t think that one post was it, did you?)

Michael Wilbon wrote in The Washington Post that he didn’t think Brunell looked that good until the last few minutes, and that he was outshined by “one of his mid-thirties peers, Drew Bledsoe of the Cowboys.” I don’t really agree. Brunell, at the very least, looked like he was confident in the pocket. Bledsoe was under-throwing receivers also, but everyone seemed ready to heap praise on him. Besides the interception, I thought Brunell looked like a guy who could drive the offense. But then again, maybe I’m just so used to watching the Ravens offensive ineptitudes that any offense that managed more than one first down would look good to me.

At the very least, Santana Moss was impressed. The Washington Times quoted Moss as saying, “If he gets blocking, that man can do anything with his arm.” I guess Patrick Ramsey’s not headed back under center any time soon.

Also check out Thomas Boswell’s column in The Post, where he says that this gives the younger ‘Skins fans “one nearly unbelievable national-TV Gibbs-over-Parcells, Redskins-over-Cowboys miracle victory on which to hang [their hats].”