Arian Foster get carried away on Twitter

Houston Texans running back Arian Foster hurt his hamstring in last weeks preseason game versus the 49ers sending a scare across the franchise. Foster led the league in rushing last year and is a key asset for the Texans offense. While he has had to spend some time off the field the past few days, this injury sure has not prevented him from getting onto his computer and tweeting. Earlier this week, Foster tweeted that "fantasy owners that care more about my ability to start week one then how my actual heath is are sick people". In some ways he is right with this statement, but Foster has to understand that he is an entertainer as a star in the NFL and if he is not entertaining people, us humans tend to lose interest.

If that tweet wasn't bad enough, this morning, he put on Twitter a picture of his hurt hamstring. After looking at this footage, some medical doctors stated that he actually has a torn hamstring. Why would he do this!?!?!?! They Colts now know he is doubtful for week one and they don't have to worry about planning their defense around him. This is a huge time saver to them as they can now focus their defense around wide receiver Andre Johnson. ESPN analysist Tedy Bruschi even said "This picture shows defenders where on his hamstring he is injured. If I was playing against him, during a dog pile, I would find that spot on his hammy and give it a little shove." He makes a really good point because now defenders know where Foster is vulnerable and will probably be going for that spot to try to injure him more. All I can say is when Foster returns, he better be fully healthy or he could end up getting hurt for the remainder of the season.

 Twitter has become very popular among pro athletes

Updated NL MLB Races

NL East:      Games Back:
Philadelphia Phillies -
Atlanta  Braves 7.5

The Phillies have been the most consistent team in the MLB this season. They have an astounding 85-46 record that leads the league. Their main strength is their starting pitching as all five starters (Halladay, Lee, Worley, Hamels, Oswalt) are all star caliber. The name that may not be familiar to fans is Vance Worley. The rookie has a 9-1 record with a 2.65 ERA. Those are incredible stats for a guy rounding out the teams rotation. As for the Braves, they are a very good team as well. Leading the wild card by a wide margin, the Braves are bound for the playoffs themselves. They are very balanced with solid pitching and hitting. Watch for the Braves to maybe cause some problems to whomever they play in the first round.

NL Central:    Games Back:
Milwaukee Brewers  -
St Louis Cardinals  9.5

The Brewers are 9.5 games up on the Cardinals!?!?! That is completely correct. Going 21-6 in their last 27 games, the Brewers have gone under the radar to grasp the NL Central. It just seems like days ago when the Pirates led the division and the Brewers and Cardinals were both 1.5 games back. With the Pirates disappearing and the Cardinals not playing to par, the Brewers have seized the moment and seem to be playoff bound. The acquisitions of starting pitchers Shaun Marcum and Zack Greinke have really helped this pitching rotation be very effective. The Brewers also do not worry about losing if they are in the lead in the last few innings as they have K-Rod and Axford (40 svs, 2.38 ERA) to shutdown games. Their offense is near the top in most categories due to the help of potential MVP's Ryan Braun (.331/25/88) and Prince Fielder (.294/29/102). These team has pitching, defense,offense, and unity which typically creates a championship team. Watch for these guys to challenge the Phillies for the NL spot in the World Series.


NL West:      Games Back:
Arizona Diamondbacks   -
San Francisco Giants    5.5

After winning the World Series last year, the Giants seemed like an easy pick to come out of the NL West again. The NL West happens to be the weakest division in the league, so the Giants were pretty confident coming into this year. All of a sudden at the end of summer, the Arizona Diamondbacks are up 5.5 games on the Giants who happen to be playing their worst baseball of the year. Arizona really has no big names on the team. They are a bunch of hard working individuals that have found a formula to win. The Giants may wake up towards the end of the season and make it closer but for now, the NL West is for Arizona to lose.

Updated AL MLB Races

AL East:              Games Back:
Boston Red Sox    -
New York Yankees 2

When is it not between these two dynasties as this rivalry for first place has gone on for years. The teams have two more series together with the first one starting this Tuesday. As you look at both the Red Sox and Yankees, they are completely loaded up and down their respective rosters. Look for one of these two teams to represent the AL when it gets to October.

AL Central:    Games Back
Detroit Tigers -
Chicago White Sox   6.5
Cleveland Indians 6.5

The Indians had become the Cinderella story for baseball when they got off to a blazing start the first few months of the season. Since then, the Tigers led by ace Justin Verlander, have started to run away with this division. Verlander has an astounding 20-5 record and with the Cy Young basically locked up, there have been rumors that he could win the AL MVP, an award typically won by fielding players.

AL West:     Games Back
Texas Rangers   -
LA Angels 3

This has been Texas's division to lose for the whole season. They have taken charge since day one and it has been since of late that the Angels have gotten close. Texas is more of an offensive team while the Angels are all pitching led by Weaver, Santana, and Haren. The two teams just wrapped up a three game series with Texas winning two out of the three. This division should been taken by the Rangers, but don't count the Angels out yet.

NL Races will come out tomorrow!

DC Sports

Living my first 8 years in Washington DC had a lot of positives; I lived in the nations capital, they had an organized metro, and I made many friends. One negative was becoming emotionally attached to some of the worst teams in their respective sports. Moving to San Diego in 2003, I thought my feelings would change towards the home teams like the Chargers and Padres. As I would wake up and read their individual sections in the newspaper, my eyes would always drag to the league standings to see how my DC teams were doing.

            My football team is the Washington Redskins. In the previous ESPN magazine, they ranked them one of the worst franchises in all of sports. They are known in history as trying to grab stars over the hump and overpay for them. Recent players such as Donovan McNabb, Shaun Alexander, Larry Johnson, and Albert Haynesworth have been a major disappointment. Before last season, Big Al was given a $100 million salary to solidify the Redskins defense. As the 2010 season came to a close, Hayneworth finished with a career low 2.5 sacks, played in only half the games, became a huge distraction to the team, and he was suppose to be our franchise player. The Redskins haven’t had a winning record since 2007 and since my birth in 1995 they have won 2 playoff games. I have been to one game since moving to San Diego and it was quite embarrassing. The game meant nothing since it was the last game of the season and the Redskins lost the Chargers 2^nd string on a game winning touchdown. As I looked around the stadium, many of the Redskin fans had paper bags over their head as they didn’t want to show their faces for rooting for a team so bad. The future does not look good down the road for this franchise as their offense is very old and their head owner, Dan Snyder is incompetent. I see a lot of sad Sundays down the road.

             For basketball, I am a Washington Wizards fan. I grew up going to games at the Verizon Center in Chinatown. I saw Michael Jordan play as a Wizard and even watched them make the playoffs a few times (only to get swept by the Cavs twice). I started to believe in this team but after a dismal season in 2009, 2010 brought even worse luck to the Wizards. The star point guard, Gilbert Arenas was accused of pointing guns to players in the locker room. They weren’t loaded and Arenas called it a prank, but the NBA didn’t think it was funny as he was suspended the remainder of the season. Since then, the team has finished back to back seasons as one of the worst teams in the NBA and Arenas was traded to the Orlando Magic earlier this season. We have hope with a young roster, but the kids do not play like a team making it hard to believe the Wizards will make it back into the playoffs any time soon.

Every baseball season, I stare at the AL East standings and see my team the Baltimore Orioles stuck at the bottom. When I lived in Washington DC, the Nationals (now the DC baseball team), were stationed in Montreal. The Orioles are 45 min drive down the beltway so they were the team to root for and still are for a lot of DC residents. They were very good back in the day with Cal Ripkin Jr, but the past decade they have been stuck on the bottom of the always loaded division, the AL East. The AL East is considered as the best division in baseball with the Yankees and Red Sox leading the way every year. It doesn’t help that one player on the Yankees alone (Alex Rodriguez) has a bigger salary than the whole Orioles team combined. This year is no different as they are 15 games out of 1^st place and are looking to deal their veterans to contenders. Unless they miraculously find money, the Baltimore Orioles will be on the bottom for a long, long time.

Besides the three major sports, the DC teams are still unable to produce in their respective leagues. The DC United of the MLS have finished last place back to back years. The Mystic of the WNBA have finished last three years in a row. Even the Washington Capitals of the NHL who finished with the best record in the NHL back to back years, quickly became the laughing stock of hockey as both years, they weren’t able to capture the Stanley Cup, even though they were the favorites both years.

The curse of DC sports I have accepted into my life. I find it humorous that someone so involved with sports, could be punished with his teams being so bad. I still continue to believe and hope one day, I will be proud to be a DC sports fan.

Washington Wizards (basketball).

Clinton County Ousted

The Little League World Series is all about bringing joy to young baseball players from around the world. As the 13 year old players  from Clinton County Little League did their final thank you lap around the field, the kids could not have been more happy. The LLWS fields are just 30 miles away from their hometown called Rock Haven, Pennsylvania. The team played in four games and each one was loaded with fans cheering them on. The average LLWS game hosts 10,000 but Clinton County had 30,000 plus at all their games which is more than the Padres get.

After losing their first game, Clinton County went on to win the next two games to set themselves up for a chance at the US finals. They just ran into an extremely balanced Southern California team who came out victorious Thursday night 2-0. Southern California will face the Cinderella team from Montana on Saturday to decide who goes to the finals to face the winner of the international bracket. On the international side, Japan won Thursday to proceed to the finals against Mexico.

The dejected faces of the 13 yr olds after losing to Huntington Beach in the Semi Finals

Plaxico is Back

After serving 20 months in jail for gun charges, Plaxico Burress took the field for the Jets last Sunday night in a preseason game versus the Bengals. Burress has missed the last two years and was last seen on the football field catching the game winning touchdown pass for the Giants to help lead them to win the 2008 super bowl. Just a month ago, the Jets to the risk of signing Burress due to a shortage of wide receivers on the team. He agreed to a one year deal and has a lot to prove. He is 34 years old and has had numerous issues with the police.

Sunday night marked a new beginning for the wide receiver. As he stepped onto the field, he was getting his chance to reassure the Jets organization, he was worth the risk  His first catch was a very simple grab over the middle. Then, with 51 seconds left in the half, we saw a glimpse of the old  Plaxico when he sprawled out across the end zone to make the diving catch for a touchdown. This 26 yard pass from Mark Sanchez will not be the last time these two hookup in the end zone as the 6'5 Burress should be the main target anytime the Jets have the ball.

This story really interests me as I relate it a lot to Michael Vick's situation. Vick was an All star player before he went to jail for dog fighting. Burress as well was an All star before his incident. After spending numerous months in jail, Vick was signed by the Eagles. Last year, Vick became an elite player again and the Eagles are now contenders to win the Super Bowl this year because of him. Burress may not be that much of a game changer, but if the once stud can get close to what he once was, the Jets will be able to compete for a title themselves.

Georgetown and China’s Bench Clearing Brawl

Georgetown's basketball tour through China turned ugly Thursday night when the Hoyas and a Chinese professional team Bayi Rockets, ended their scrimmage in a bench clearing brawl. The teams had been feisty all game as many free throws had been taken from hard fouls. At a 64-64 tie in the fouth quarter, punches started to be thrown and after seconds, both teams had cleared their benches and stormed onto the court. Fans started to get involved also as chairs started flying through the air. Hoyas coach Thompson had this to say after the game; "Tonight, two great teams played a very competitive game that unfortunately ended after heated exchanges with both teams. We sincerely regret that this situation occurred". Georgetown's 10 day tour through China continues Sunday ironically versus the Bayi Rockets. Stay tuned as that will be a very physical, nasty game played by both sides as they will hope for redemption.

Thome Reaches 600

On August 15th, Thome belted his 600th home run joining Bonds, Aaron, Mays, Rodriguez, Griffey, Sosa and Ruth as the only players to do so in MLB history. Even though he played through the steroid era, Thome is considered clean and has never tested positive for HGH. That makes this feat even more amazing as half of those players listed above have been affiliated with steroids in their career.

A usual 30-40 home run hitter a year, Thome' 600ths was only his 11th on the season as injuries have plagued him throughout the year. He stated in his interview after the game that "he never took hitting 600 home runs for granted and he knew he would have to fight for the last one until his final professional plate appearance". Luckily it came earlier then that as the 40 year old Thome and his fellow Twin teammates got to enjoy a special moment, something they have not had much of this year due to a poor record and numerous injuries.

Thome is playing for his fifth team as he previously played for the Indians, Phillies,White Sox, and briefly with the Dodgers. From rookie season with the Indians in 1991 until 2002 Thome hit 334 home run before traded to the Phillies in 2003. In three seasons in Philly he hit 96 home runs and was then traded to the White Sox. In Chicago, Thome belted 134 home runs and led the team to win the World Series in 2005. He stayed on the White Sox until he was traded for the second half of the 2009 season to the Dodgers where he didn't hit any. He has found a home the last two years in Minnesota where injuries have limited him to only 36 home runs.

All in all, Thome has had an outstanding career and will find his way to the Hall of Fame sooner or later.

New Blog

This is a carry over from my and Liam's old website. This will be the same as it was before, current sports events. Hope you enjoy!