Showing posts with label Dodgers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dodgers. Show all posts
November 16, 2019
October 14, 2018
Sunday Sport: MLB Championships
The 30 modern teams of the Major League Baseball in the
United States play a long season. Lasting
over six months the regular season consists of thousands of games, with each of
the teams playing almost every day, and
sometimes twice a day.
But it all comes to this, the League Championships seasons,
the last stop on the way to the World Series of Baseball. This Autumn we see the boys of summer playing
their hearts out as each of the four teams vies for a spot in the overall
championship. This Fall's American
League Championship Series pits the Boston Red Sox against recent champs the
Houston Astros. In the National League,
the Los Angeles Dodgers are combating the Milwaukee Brewers for the top
spot.
Both championships will prove to be exciting as the teams are
evenly matched. In both of the best of seven series the teams are tied one to
one, with the Boston Red Sox winning their game just a few moments ago.
Game three in the Brewers vs. Dodgers series will be played
Monday night at Dodger Stadium. Game three in the Astros vs. Red Sox series will
be played Tuesday night in Houston.
October 27, 2017
Saturday Sport
Like perhaps no other time in recent history, sports and
politics are again at the crossroads this weekend.
Pakistan has not hosted international cricket within the
country since 2009. In that year, the
visiting Sri Lanka team fell under attack by rebels, losing 8 of their members,
with another 8 escaping with serious injuries.
The Sri Lankans have decided to give it another go, on Sunday, when the
blockade is broken... Tens of thousands
of security will be deployed in Lahore when Sri Lanka become the first major
cricket team to visit Pakistan since that deadly ambush. Some of the attack survivors will be among
those returning to the scene.
No one
blames the several Sri Lankans who have opted out of this Twenty20 game, as
security is not completely assured, given recent rebel attacks. Asanka Gurusinha and Hashan Tillakaratne of
Sri Lanka and Pakistan's Ahsan Raza, are among those returning to the field for
this match. Sunday's game will the third and final T20 -
with the other two having been played in UAE, site of many of Pakistan's
"home" games in recent years. Pakistani's
have a great passion for Cricket, so this step towards normalcy is greeted with
great expectation. Sunday's Twenty20 international is being
hailed as a brave decision by Sri Lanka and a milestone for Pakistan as it
attempts to end its sporting isolation. We wish all those involved the best
this Sunday!
Meanwhile back in Spain, the Catalans have declared
independence. For some reason, though, their teams are still playing in the
Spanish Liga. This weekend should be
interesting, in that Real Madrid are playing in the Catalan stronghold Girona,
and Barcelona travels to Basque stronghold Bilbao. Real Madrid is chasing Barcelona in the
standings, whilst Bilbao has been scraping the bottom. Fresh from picking up FIFA's award for the
best player of 2017, Cristiano Ronaldo will be one of number of Madrid stars to
return after being rested for Madrid's Copa del Rey last-32, first-leg at
third-tier Fuenlabrada on Thursday. Gareth Bale once again misses out through
injury, although there is hope the Welshman could return from a calf problem in
time to face his old team the Tottenham Hotspur in their Champions League contest
on Wednesday.
In England, the Premier League Season is heating up. Defeat is not an option for Manchester United
or Tottenham Hotspur as their teams seek
to keep pace with leaders Manchester City in the Premier League title race. The
respective teams begin the weekend five points behind City as they face each
other at Old Trafford in Saturday’s early kick-off. Man U has lost significant
ground in the last two weekends. Coach Mourinho accused his players
of a “poor attitude” after the Huddersfield reverse, and switched several of
them out of starting spots. United have
won all four of their home league matches this season, scoring 14 goals and
conceding none, and Mourinho is seeking to keep that sequence going. "Tottenham are a direct rival every
season," midfielder Ander Herrera said. "In the last two or three
years they have improved a lot and they are contenders for everything. The
Champions League, the Premier League and for both cups."
That's right, Tottenham... The same Tottenham who beat Liverpool last
weekend 4-1. The same Tottenham who will meet Real Madrid next Wednesday in Champion's League action. They would be clear favorites and full of confidence had they not
lost to West Ham United during the week, 3-2.
... and what of the Gunners? Arsenal
look prepared to field Chilean Alexis Sanchez, German Mesut Ozil and Alexandre
Lacazette on Swansea City on Saturday after the trio all scored against Everton
last weekend, this was the first time they had all played together. Prospects are, apparently, looking up for the
team as they face Saturday's contest. At
least the English Season gives us a bit
of a break from the politics/sports nexus
In the United States of America, hurricane ravaged Houston
has recovered enough to cheer their home team, the Astros, along the way in the World Series
of Baseball. Los Angeles hosted the
first two games, and won and lost one, and with Friday night's game, Houston
has convincingly seized the home field advantage. Today's game promises even
more excitement.
Labels:
Astros,
Barcelona,
baseball,
cricket,
Dodgers,
Houston,
La Liga,
Los Angeles,
Manchester,
MLB,
Pakistan,
politics,
Premier League,
Real Madrid,
Spain,
Sri Lanka,
Tottenham,
World Series
October 22, 2017
Sunday Cricket and Sports
Pakistan stretched their winning streak to eight matches in
one-day internationals, and piled on more misery for Sri Lanka in the process,
as they won by seven wickets in Sharjah on Friday. Sri Lanka is currently in the midst of their
tour of Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, and the hosts have not been very
hospitable! The victory, secured with a convincing 11
overs to spare, gave Pakistan a 4-0 lead in the series with just Today’s final
match still to play.
Given they were on
an unusual 10-match losing run of their own, Sri Lanka’s spirits were probably
low enough, even before making the trip north-east up the coast from Abu Dhabi
for the final phase of this series. The
loss for Sri Lanka was, perhaps, not surprising, as they have not won at
Sharjah, the Emirates most historic cricket venue, since 2002. Sri Lanka, embarrassingly, is amidst a rut of
nearly a dozen losses. The picture is
not any rosier for the Sri Lankans, who return to Sharjah, to play Pakistan, in
their fifth and final ODI of this series. tomorrow. in. Sharjah. Also on tap for today is a test match between
West Indies and Zimbabwe, and ODIs between India and New Zealand, and South
Africa and Bangladesh.
In the USA, in MLB, the two teams contesting the World
Series of Baseball have been decided.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, formerly of Brooklyn, had already beat the
Chicago Cubs in the NLCS to become that league's contender. Last night the seventh game of the seven game
series was played between the perennial champions the New York Yankees, and the
Houston Astros. The 'stros prevailed to take the American League title, and so
will face the Dodgers in the World Series, which will start later this
week. The Los Angeles Dodgers are World
Series favorites, but not by much. Their best-of-seven series begins Tuesday in
Los Angeles. The Dodgers are in the
World Series for the first time since 1988 and will face a Houston team that
rallied back from a 3-2 series deficit in the American League Championship
Series against the New York Yankees. The Astros beat the Yankees 4-0 Saturday
night in Game 7 of the ALCS to advance to the franchise's second World Series. Neither team was considered favorites, even
some time into the season.
In the USA, in the football season, six weeks in, there's
not a division leader with a lead of more than one game in the loss column, and
the NFC West, NFC South, AFC East and NFC North all have at least two teams
tied in the loss column sitting atop the division. Of the league's 32 teams, a
whopping 25 have three or fewer losses and 23 have two or three defeats to
their name. Green Bay has lost
tremendous Quarterback Aaron Rodgers to injury.
They host the Saints at Lambeau Field today, and will be testing the
limits of their backup talent.
.
October 20, 2017
Saturday Sport
The Los Angeles Dodgers beat last year's champions, the
Chicago Cubs, in convincing fashion, and so advance to represent the National League
in the World Series. Major League
Baseball's World Series will begin shortly, once it is decided whether the New
York Yankees or the Houston Astros will represent the American League in this
year's championship. The American League
Championship Series is tied at three games apiece, after the Astros came back
convincingly in last night's sudden death (for them) game. This afternoon's game will be sudden death
for either of the two teams, as it will be the last game of the playoffs, and
will show who will represent the American League in the series...
American Football is reaching a do or die situation this
weekend, with high school teams in some states involved in the last games of
their regular season, and some of whom are
already engaged in elimination round play.
This afternoon features so many NCAA contests, that it is difficult to
point out which will be the best... This
afternoon promises exciting action, when #2 Penn State, cross swords with archrivals #19 Michigan. The Nittany Lions are much higher ranked, but
the afternoon should be filled with exciting action.
In Spain, Barca’s most vocal fans held up a ‘Freedom for
Catalonia’ flag on Wednesday, though which league the team will play in the
event of independence is far from certain.
For now, Barcelona has been dealing with the "independence
for Catalonia" question in a non convincing fashion. Instead, they have been winning Soccer in a
convincing fashion, and are currently atop
the table in the Primera Liga. This
afternoon they are expected to beat winless Malaga with ease. With friends like
Malaga to play, who wants independence? While expected magic moments from Lionel Messi
and his teammates may very well go viral, the political angle remains acute,
and very much a part of this year's season for Barcelona...
October 6, 2017
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