My favorite player in major league baseball is Colorado Rockies’ third baseman Nolan Arenado. My current favorite players in the upcoming World Series will be either Howie Kendrick, Anthony Rendon or Houston’s Jose Altuve.
It should be a great World Series.
Washington GM Mike Rizzo is smiling right now. He didn’t waste his money on Bryce Harper. He’ll need it though because Anthony Rendon becomes a free agent after this season.
Who’s better…Arenado or Rendon? I don’t know. They’re both quiet unassuming franchise players who play third base and hit the cover off the ball.
Hopefully…this World Series take us to Christmas so I can pretend for as long as possible the Oklahoma City Thunder was granted an executional stay from Adam Silver and only aspiring millennial bloggers from the Daily Thunder have to watch them play. I take back everything I wrote about Little Nick Gallo last NBA season. LNG…can you forgive me?
As soon as Houston clinches I’ll give Altuve some love on my blog.
What a lovely fairytale this major league baseball season has given us from of all places Washington D.C.
Nobody saw this coming and yet maybe they should have after these Nationals pulled themselves up after the 19-31 start to in essence become one of the best teams in the majors this baseball season.
There was the departure of franchise player Bryce Harper. The early season injuries to Trea Turner, Juan Soto… and unassuming super star Anthony Rendon. But most of all this was a franchise known for being an early post season choker. A team which could never get out of its own way and win when the spotlight was brightest.
Even though I’ve never been a Nationals fan…I feel some love for these guys. I was at Coors Field last season to see them play the Rockies on the last day of the season and they were brutal. Max Scherzer was scheduled to pitch, but was a scratch. They were beaten 14-1 and showed no life whatsoever. Nobody circled the Nationals to come back this season and win a pennant.
And yet here they are fresh from beating Milwaukee, Los Angeles, and St. Louis for the right to play either the Astros or Yankees in the World Series.
The Nationals will be a Vegas underdog to both. But I think these guys relish being underdogs. Relish being somewhat discarded and removed from the championship relevant spotlight. Nobody outside of baseball geeks really even know what a stud Anthony Rendon is and even he doesn’t seem to care.
Howie Kendrick won the National League Post Season MVP. It’s fitting for Kendrick who was at one time an LA Dodger himself to turn out to be the ultimate Dodger killer in the twilight of his career.
At one time Kendrick played for the minor league Cedar Rapids Kernals. I found this video of Kendrick being honored as an inductee into the team’s Hall of Fame. It’s fitting of Kendrick and the Nationals. He was pumped to be a Kernal Hall of Famer and here he is on the biggest stage holding the National League post season MVP trophy.
His MVP postgame interview was eloquent and touching. He talked of the journey. Of his love and respect for his teammates. It was old school. It was something you would have heard from a Green Bay Packer back in the days of Lombardi, Jerry Kramer, and Camelot.
Vegas will tell you the Astros are the team to beat, but I wouldn’t bet against these Washington Nationals at this point. They still have one more trophy to win as a team on their season of redemption.
The Washington Nationals are one win away from making the World Series. Three starting pitchers in a row have destroyed the bats of the St. Louis Cardinals. Anibal Sanchez, Max Scherzer, and Steven Strasburg have given up one earned run in 27 innings of baseball in this National League Championship Series.
Game three was an 8-1 rout as the Nationals’ bats warmed up with Victor Robles and Howie Kendricks leading the way. Robles is back in centerfield and responded with a home run while Howie Kendricks had three doubles all gappers hit to the wall. Kendricks tied a major lead record for hitting three doubles in a post season game.
Maybe it’s destiny. Maybe it just took awhile for the team to jell under manager Dave Martinez. Maybe the best team in the National League just peaked at the right time.
It’s a beautiful thing to watch though when a baseball team peaks at just the right moment in post season play.
Most will say the Houston Astros are the best team in baseball this season. They very well could be as they have two starters of their own in Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander who are at times unhittable.
We’ll just have to wait and see if both of these loaded pitching staffs advance to the World Series.
But first things first. The Washington Nationals are one game away from the fall classic after almost being eliminated in the one game wild card game against the Milwaukee Brewers.
All of this is a great diversion for me. The Sooners, the Green Bay Packers, and the Washington Nationals are giving me something to write about sports wise on my blog in this impending season of NBA tanking by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Nationals started the season 19-31 then went thirty games over. .500 the rest of the season. The big push started in August as the Nats grinded out the best two last months of any team in the majors. Here’s Steven Strasburg after a so-so 7-4 win over the Reds with his post game thoughts in August.
What a great autumn day of college football as OU beat Texas 34-27 in the Red River Rivalry game to take control of the regular season Big 12 standings as the No. 1 seed for this December’s Big 12 Championship Game.
It was a coming out party for Alex Grinch’s defense as for the first time this season his defense faced an elite national caliber quarterback in Sam Ehrlnger.
For those who didn’t watch—the Sooners sacked Ehrlinger nine times and in total tackled Longhorns behind the line of scrimmage fifteen times on the day.
For the first half of this game what the college football nation saw was a glimpse of the past when a coach named Switzer had his defenses swarming to the ball like a horde of rabid Dobermans with fangs guarding a Trump rally in Alabama.
This wasn’t your OU Mike Stoops Part II defense. This wasn’t the defense Ruffin McNeil ‘coached’ last season either after Mike Stoops was fired the day after the loss to Texas.
This was a defense which held the Longhorns to 340 yards on the day and but three points in the first half. This was a defense which had to bring a smile to both the face of Jalen Hurts and his father. Because they now know if son gets the chance this is a defense which can play with Alabama, Clemson, LSU, and Ohio State if OU gets back to the Final Four.
OU clearly has to stay away from injuries on the defensive side of the ball. OU’s defense is already better than what LSU trots out there right now. This isn’t your normal LSU, this is what LSU would look like if they hired Mike Leach.
Alabama and Clemson are different and Georgia doesn’t have a quarterback to hang with Hurts, Lawrence, Tua, Burrows or Fields. Auburn, Georgia, and Florida are on borrowed time. Depending on what you think of Wisconsin we’re down to five or six teams in the hunt for the national championship.
Did the PAC 12 even field a football conference this season?
But back to Dallas and the Red River Rivalry. This wasn’t Jalen Hurts’ best day and yet there was never a doubt who was the best team on the Cotton Bowl field on this sun drenched crisp October day.
This day belonged to linebacker Kenneth Murray, to wide receiver Ceedee Lamb, to Canadian nose guard Neville Gallimore and to Alex Grinch and to Lincoln Riley.
For those not keeping score—Riley is now 3-1 versus Texas as the head man who took over for Bob Stoops and eventually had to fire his brother one year ago to the day.
The future burns bright for Sooner Nation this Sunday morning. The nation’s best offense for three years running now doesn’t have to play Clemson and the SEC with one arm tied behind their back. In fact…they now have a defense which can cover their back for in reality the first time this decade in the score crazy world of Big 12 football.
OU’s offense and Lincoln Riley now have some drooling Dobermans of their own who can run to the ball and tackle in space.
What a simple plan by Lincoln Riley. Put players on the field who can tackle and run to the ball.
I thought I was putting a Barry Switzer interview on here, but ended up with Barry Sanders instead. I think I’ll leave it though because Switzer to this day says Barry Sanders is the biggest recruiting miss which occurred during his tenure at OU. I’ll do the Coach Switzer interview tomorrow. Small world…my father actually represented Barry Sanders in a lawsuit after his career with the Detroit Lions was over. I have this photo autographed in my study.
Like the Washington Capitals two years ago with Alex Ovechkin this baseball team in our nation’s beleaguered capitol has the look of a team on a mission.
After ‘losing’ Bryce Harper to free agency and starting the season 19-31 this team has been the best team in major league baseball even without their starting centerfielder Victor Robles in the playoff lineup.
It is a team hitting on all cylinders at just the right time. Clutch hitting, great starting pitching, and the bullpen coming around when it matters in post season play.
They went on the road for their first ever Game 1 in a NLCS and their fourth starter Anibal Sanchez promptly threw a brilliant one-hitter for 7 2/3 innings against the St’ Louis Cardinals as the Nationals won the opener 2-0.
It was a masterful performance which bodes well for the Nationals with Scherzer, Strasburg, and Corbin all rested and back in their normal rest rotation.
It was a gritty win with the heart of the Nationals lineup not getting their normal clutch hitting with runners on base.
But they found a way to win on the road doing the little things behind a great pitching performance by Anibal Sanchez who was an Atlanta Brave before joining the Nationals and reshaping his pitching style.
Here’s Anibal Sanchez last season as an Atlanta Brave before he joined the Nationals. Funny how you can lose a franchise player like Bryce Harper and then get lucky with a mid level pickup which fits just right for a baseball team.
Game 2 later today after the OU-Texas game. What a great time of the year on the sports calendar.
So sad for our country as we cope with the most corrupt presidency in our history as this unravels every day. Trump will clearly surpass Andrew Johnson, Harding, and Nixon as our most corrupt president when this entire story is revealed. As I’ve written on here multiple times, the Trump presidency is like watching Reservoir Dogs set in the Oval Office.
And yet in places like rural Oklahoma where there is no newspaper of substance the rural uneducated whites and evangelicals still cling to Trump as their savior.
Let’s be candid, the scariest demographic for America isn’t Isis, it’s the uneducated males and the evangelicals in this country who haven’t come to terms with LBJ and the civil rights legislation which he passed while he was in office. The Solid South for the GOP was created in this aftermath and Trump with the Birtherism aspect of his presidency has taken it to other parts of rural America.
Nixon was worried about a McGovern candidacy while Trump was concerned about a candidacy from the only viable moderate in the Dem 2020 field.
Oklahoma has no viable newspaper of any consequence to offset any of this. My guess is regardless of what is revealed the state will remain in the grip of the Trump bullshit pulpit.
This is why unchallenged ignorance in our own country is even scarier than Isis.
I’ll be very interested to see if Dem Kendra Horn will be able to hold her congressional seat in Oklahoma’s 5th District in 2020.
I need to make another sign to go with my PUTIN-trump 2020 sign:
Veteran Howie Kendrick had this walk-off slam to beat the San Francisco Giants in a regular season game in 2017.
But that paled in comparison to his series clinching grand slam last night to beat the LA Dodgers and send the Washington Nationals to their first ever NLCS. This in fact is the Nationals first ever post season series win in their history.
So many sweet ironies for the Nationals. No Bryce Harper and his super stardom contract. I actually saw Bryce Harper play his last game as a National last season when the Rockies humiliated them 14-1 to close out a dismal season.
No one saw this coming even after the Nationals dramatic comeback in the wild card game to eliminate the Milwaukee Brewers.
Howie Kendrick called this his greatest moment as a professional baseball player. Teammate Ryan Zimmerman said the same after his Game 4 home run sent this series back to LA for Game 5.
There is clearly an underdog Rocky element to this Nationals team and this post season run.
There is nothing which would make me think they can’t beat the St’ Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series.The Nationals have two stellar starters in Steven Strasberg and Max Scherzer. Two hitters in Juan Soto and Anthony Rendon who can carry a team’s offense in post season.
Who saw the St. Louis Blues winning the Stanley Cup?
The St. Louis Cardinals and their fans better be prepared for a what I hope is an epic series.
So many ironies. Bryce Harper is gone. Howie Kendrick used to be an LA Dodger at one time. The slam was off reliever Joe Kelly who was one of Boston’s heroes on last season’s Red Sox championship team. And in most likelihood an ex-Dodger in Kendrick probably just ended Dave Robert’s run as the manager in LA.
How can any baseball fan not love these Washington Nationals. The baseball world is in love with these Nationals.
Hard to get very excited about NBA pre-season games, but Steven Adams hit a three from the right corner in the Thunder’s 119-103 win over the Dallas Mavs in Tulsa on Tuesday night.
In his book Steven wrote that he had been working on this in workouts the past few years with then Thunder assistant coach Mark Bryant who is now with the Phoenix Suns.
It was a beautiful shot from the right baseline corner on the Thunder’s first possession of the game as Chris Paul assisted the monumental three. It was an interesting starting lineup as Billy Donovan went with his three point guards….Chris Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Dennis Schroder.
If Steven Adams could become a contemporary big who could shoot the three what a difference it would make for him and the Thunder.
Anyway…good for Steven and I wish him well on his endeavor of becoming an NBA center who can score the three ball and help spread the floor for his guards.This didn’t happen over night. It’s been a process for Steven to take his offensive game to another level and add this dimension to his game. Steven was a late starter to play basketball in New Zealand and wasn’t really allowed to shoot much at all in his one college season at Pitt under head coach Jaime Dixon. I’m certain Mark Bryant sent a congrats text to his pupil.
One of these two teams needs to beat the other twice for a Big 12 team to advance to the Final Four. I think LSU will eventually be a wildcard in all of this.
Chris Paul won NBA Rookie of the Year that first year of NBA basketball in Oklahoma City when Hurricane Katrina started a chain of events which brought NBA hoops to an unlikely destination in a rogue red state where Charles Barkley thought it laughable an NBA team could reside.
The whole thing is such an oddity. The hurricane. The team’s relocation to a place where Donald Trump would eventually be revered even after being endorsed by David Duke. The two years in Oklahoma City. George Shinn the controversial owner. All of it. Surreal to be sure.
But I got to see the rookie from Wake Forest who was the fourth pick in the NBA draft win NBA Rookie of the Year honors.
He almost rented the house across the street from us in fact. That would have been cool.
You figured Chris Paul by this stage in his career would have a couple of championship rings. But unlike Russell Westbrook, who at least made it to that one NBA Finals in 2012 when James Harden played the point at times–Chris Paul has never played in an NBA Finals. Not with Oklahoma City, not with New Orleans, not with the LA Clippers, not with the same James Harden in Houston, and clearly not with Oklahoma City in 2019.
You could make the argument Sam Presti traded away the league’s worst contract in Westbrook’s for the league’s second worst contract in thirty-four year old Chris Paul.
He still has enough game to win a ring if placed with the right roster with a more limited restrained role.
So the question will be where and when Sam Presti can unload the contract for some assets as the Thunder start the arduous process of realizing precisely what it meant when Portland took Greg Oden and Durant fell to the Seattle Sonics as the second pick.
I got to watch Durant in person in both Norman and Stillwater during his one year stay at Texas with Rick Barnes where he won National Player of the Year as a freshman.
I’ve been genuinely blessed to witness all of this in person in a college market which became an NBA market solely because of Hurricane Katrina.
Before Katrina—the closest OKC could come to landing any major league franchise was when the city lost out to Columbus for the franchise which would become the NHL’s Bluejackets.
How would the NHL have done in minor league Oklahoma City? I don’t think very well because there isn’t all that much fighting like there is in minor league hockey and the beer isn’t cheap in NHL arenas. In fact, Oklahoma City currently has no professional hockey at any level after the AHL affiliation with Edmonton didn’t draw much interest.
I’d love to talk hockey with OKC mayors Mick Cornett (former) and (current) David Holt sometime– as to why Oklahoma City doesn’t have a pro hockey team at any level playing somewhere in Bricktown if Oklahoma City is indeed a major league city. By the way though… Seattle, New Orleans, and Houston don’t have major imprints of professional hockey as well.
So Chris Paul is back in Oklahoma City where there is no hockey except for OU’s club team. Durant, Westbrook, Harden, and Paul George all have moved on to cities with a ‘bit’ more diversity than Oklahoma City and Sam Presti has grown a really bad beard which reminds me of Paul Giamatti in Sideways.
Sideways–what an epic film on human dysfunction. And sideways is what it will be for Chris Paul this season until Sam Presti can unload his contract to a team which is in contention for more than a lottery draft pick this NBA season.
Here’s a Chris Paul video just to show what a baller he was back in the day at Wake Forest.