Spooky's don't stop believing weekly express

[Spooky]

Monday's six-pack

-- 18-year old kid named Ryo Ishikawa shot 58 in the last round to win a pro tournament in Japan. He missed a 15-foot putt on the last hole. He's already won seven pro tournaments in Japan.

-- Golfer Rickie Fowler was dressed in all orange Sunday, complete with orange Puma golf shoes. Very bright.

-- Rory McIlroy made the cut on the number Friday, then went nuts over the weekend, shooting 6-under Saturday, 10-under Sunday to win going away at Quail Hollow. His 62 Sunday is the new course record.

-- Julio Lugo plays for the Orioles, but he's getting more money from the Red Sox this season than he is from Baltimore.

-- Kentucky Derby got its best TV ratings since 1992.

[Spooky]

Monday's List of 13: Wrapping up a sports weekend........

13) Five years ago, Calvin Borel was an obscure journeyman jockey; now he's won three Kentucky Derbies in last four years, and his story is one of the most interesting in modern sports. Its amazing how he seems to be the only jockey who has the onions to ride the whole race on the rail. Am thinking next spring will be a good time to be Borel's agent.

12) How do NFL rookies go to minicamp out of shape? Joe McKnight was puking at Jets' camp this weekend, not a great first impression.

11) Difference between SEC football and Pac-10 ball; Oregon Ducks had 25,211 fans for their spring game Saturday and thats the school record for spring football. Oregon State drew 7,141, and they have a winning team. Alabama had 93,000+. In the Pac-10, football is fun; in SEC, its religion.

10) Jamie Moyer has been teammates with three guys whose sons are in the major leagues now: Garry Matthews, Ron Davis, John Russell. 146 active players weren't born when Moyer made his major league debut.

9) Wild game in the Eastern League Saturday night; New Hampshire had a 5-1 lead after eight innings, but Reading Phillies scored eight runs in top of the ninth to take a 9-5 lead. New Hampshire then scored five times in its half of ninth inning and won a very strange 10-9 game.

Two teams played again Sunday and New Hampshire won 16-5, so can't be lot of pitching prospects on either one of those AA teams.

8) Seven people didn't vote Lebron James for MVP; two people actually voted him third. Do those two people even follow the NBA? You can see someone voting Kobe over Lebron for MYP, but Lebron 3rd? Umm, no.

7) Cavaliers were +23 with Mo Williams on court Saturday, which means they were -15 in the 8:20 he was off the floor. Interesting stat to track.

6) Zach Greinke has a 2.27 RA in six starts, but no wins. Go figure.

5) Supposedly, the Rutgers basketball job is down to either Mike Rice Jr the Robert Morris coach, or ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla.

4) Ben Sheets allowed 17 runs in his last two starts; at first glance, looks like Oakland's $10M gamble for this season is pretty much a disaster.

3) Big league pitchers throw 1st-pitch strikes to 58% of batters they face.

2) Colorado's Ubaldo Jimenez, one of the best pitchers in baseball, runs six miles the morning after he pitches, as part of his normal routine.

1) I seriously wonder why umpires don't call more strikes; baseball is lot more fun to watch and play when the hitters swing the bat. Having every batter go to a 3-2 count makes for slower, less interesting baseball.

[Spooky]

Tuesday's List of 13: On leadoff hitters and 2010's first debasco

13) Home runs are down for obvious reasons, in the post-steroids era, so teams need to find different ways to score runs, but there aren't a lot of real fast players in the big leagues anymore. Lack of speed, lack of power; it is no wonder some teams have trouble scoring runs.

12) In the 70's/80's, players like Lou Brock, Tim Raines, Vince Coleman, Bert Campaneris and Ron Leflore were dominant offensive players who controlled the game with their feet. How many guys like that are in the game today? Jacoby Ellsbury/Michael Bourn led their league in stolen bases LY; would you consider them to be dominant players? Me either.

11) Milwaukee just finished a four-game series in San Diego where they scored a total of two runs and got shut out three times. Brewers have a couple of baseball's best power hitters, Braun and Fielder, and they get shut out three times in four games? Leadoff hitter Weeks was 3-17 in the series, hitting a HR for one of the Brewer runs (pitcher Gallardo also hit a homer for the other Milwaukee run in their series).

10) Then there are the Mets, who have the one player who resembles the prototypical leadoff hitter-- Jose Reyes. These geniuses bat Reyes third to compensate for Carlos Beltran's injury; problem is, Reyes is a leadoff hitter, not a #3 hitter; he's batting .226 with a .277 on-base percentage, as he tries to muscle up but hits popup after popup. Very frustrating.

9) If Reyes did 20 pushups every time he hit a popup, his arms would look like Herschel Walker's; the Mets went on a winning streak after the lineup switch, but just because A and B both happened doesn't mean that A caused B. Mets got hot because their pitching improved, not because of anything Reyes did in the third slot.

8) Angel Pagan is the Mets' leadoff hitter; he of the .241 batting average and .308 on-base percentage. How can you expect to contend when you bat a stiff leadoff? Castillo bats second; he's OK, but a slap hitter. Would it be so horrible to bat Reyes-Wright-Bay 1-2-3? You think if your three best players got the most ABs, you might score more runs? Hmmmm

7) Things got uglier for the A's Monday night, who got two baserunners in seven innings against old friend Rich Harden, who came into the game having allowed 30 baserunners in his last 14 IP. The lineup Oakland puts on the field these days is AAA at best; no Suzuki-Crisp-Ellis; shortstop Cliff Pennington actually bats leadoff. What a nightmare.

6) Back when the Eldrick Woods story unfolded in December, we coined a new word: debasco, past debacle/part fiasco. Its an event that is so bad that it has a permanently negative effect on the person involved. Eldrick Woods can avoid his debasco if he resumes being a championship golfer. People get divorced all the time; not everyone screws up their career in its prime. Debascos are few and far between; we just had 2010's first one.

5) Tim Welsh worked on ESPN the last couple years as an analyst after he coached Providence for 10 years; he's pretty good on TV, just talks about the game, but last month he signed on to coach Hofstra for 5 years at $600,000 a year, a darned good gig. Unfortunately, Welsh got a DUI on Long Island the other night, and resigned at Hofstra Monday. Its hard to believe he'll ever coach again; hopefully, ESPN will take him back. If you are scoring at home, thats a $3,000,000 DUI, a definite debasco.

4) Ubaldo Jimenez is 6-0, 0.87 after striking out 13 and stroking an RBI single to right in Colorado's 5-2 win at Petco Park.

3) Jake Peavy threw seven shutout innings Monday night, by far his best work of the season, as White Sox beat Kansas City 5-1.

2) Supposedly, Rutgers will name Mike Rice Jr its new hoop coach. Not sure if Fran Fraschilla will go after the Hofstra job now.

1) Police arrested a naturalized US citizen from Pakistan as he tried to get on a flight to Dubai Monday; he bought the Nissan Pathfinder that was in Times Square Saturday, with explosives in the back. Good quick work by the NYPD. Lot of crazy people in this world.

[Spooky]

Wednesday's six-pack

SI.com came up with their college football Top 25 for this fall. Never too early to start thinking about the upcoming football season......

6) TCU-- Will Horned Frogs join Big 12 if Nebraska/Missouri bolt for the Big 12? TCU/Houston would be logical replacements.

5) Iowa-- Going to have to see vast improvement from QB Stanzi if the Hawkeyes are going to live up to this ranking. Vast improvement.

4) Texas-- No pressure on young QB Gilbert, whose dad played in the NFL. Just replace Colt McCoy, and win a national title.

3) Ohio State-- Best team in Big 11, which in college football is kind of like being the heaviest guy in Somalia.

2) Boise State-- Did a doubletake when I saw this ranking, but if they go undefeated this season, they'll finally get to play for national title.

1) Alabama-- Eight starters back on offense, only two on defense; QB McElroy returns. SEC West won't be an easy gauntlet to run.

[Spooky]

Wednesday's List of 13: Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone........

13) Bud Selig likes to brag how baseball has never been healthier; does he know there are 30 big league teams? Monday night in Oakland, A's back from a road trip, playing Texas where the winner would be in first place in AL West, and 8,874 fans showed up. Its not healthy everywhere.

12) Scouts are saying that Johan Santana's fastball has lost velocity, and that makes his changeup less effective; three of the four HRs he gave up Sunday night came when he was ahead in the count, a red flag.

11) Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated had a terrific article today, where he talked about how 28% of all at-bats in April baseball ended in either a walk or a strikeout. 10 years ago, that figure was 26%; 20 years ago, 24% and 30 years ago, 21%. Solution: umps have to enlarge the strike zone, so hitters swing the bat more.

10) NC State fired their AD Lee Fowler Tuesday; OK, they announced he "resigned" but his contract will be paid in full. People who quit don't get paid in full. Its also bad news for basketball coach Sidney Lowe, who will be on the way out the door too, unless he makes NCAAs next winter.

9) Old story I read about during the NFL Draft: in 1979, Dallas Cowboys were on the clock in the third round; highest-rated player left on the board was a QB, but Dallas had Staubach-White and a 3rd stringer named Glenn Carano, so Tom Landry didn't think the QB could make the team. They drafted another player instead of some guy named Joe Montana.

8) Am reminded that AJ Burnett threw a no-hitter nine years ago out in San Diego, but he walked six of the first 15 batters that night, and walked nine batters overall. One of the strangest no-hitters ever.

7) Why are there three days between Games 2-3 of Celtic-Cavalier series? Does it take three days to get from Cleveland to Boston?

6) Whatever happened to artificial turf in baseball? Toronto/Tampa Bay are only two turf fields left in major leagues. At one time or another, the major leagues had as many as 14 artificial turf fields. Now every outdoor stadium has a grass playing field.

5) Actor Paul Gleason turned 71 Tuesday; to me, he is most memorable as the teacher in The Breakfast Club, but he has been in a ton of things, and is definitely only person ever to be all four of these shows/movies: Banacek-The Green Hornet-Magnum PI and The Great Santini.

4) When it comes to fans running on the field, I've got zero sympathy for anyone who trespasses on the field during a game; whatever happens to you, you deserve. Stay in the stands and nothing will happen to you.

3) Former White Sox centerfielder Brian Anderson is trying to become a pitcher in the Royals' organization; he's going to make his pitching debut later this week. When you hit like a pitcher, you become a pitcher or you find another line of work.

2) I'd like to see baseball experiment in the minor leagues with walks being three balls and strikeouts two strikes, just to see what it would be like.

1) Ernie Harwell, longtime broadcaster for the Detroit Tigers, beloved throughout baseball, passed away Tuesday at age 92. I can remember him and Paul Carey broadcasting Tiger games on WJR in Detroit when I put a radio under my pillow to listen to latenight games as a kid. What a voice he had. He wasn't a homer, but you knew he wanted the Tigers to win. A true professional, a Hall of Famer.

[Spooky]

Thursday's six-pack

-- Brutal loss for Indians, as game-ending grounder went thru SS's legs, then Lind won game for Toronto with a 2-run homer. Dagger.

-- Barry Zito is 5-0 with a 1.49 ERA. Excellent turnaround.

-- Suns have 2-0 lead over San Antonio; they can't lose series unless they lose four of last five games.

-- Minnesota Twins already have a 4-game lead in AL Central, as do the Cardinals in the NL Central.

--Tampa Bay Rays are now 11-1 on the road; Toronto is 9-3.

-- A's moved back into 1st place by beating Texas behind young Cahill, who was excellent in his second start of the season.

[Spooky]

Thursday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind........

13) Bill Murray's son Luke will be a graduate assistant basketball coach at Wagner next winter, working with the Hurley brothers. Luke has worked at both Arizona and Quinnipiac previously.

12) Eagles open with Green Bay this September; this probably isn't a coincidence, since its the 50th anniversary of Eagles beating the Packers to win their last NFL championship. Philly will wear throwback unis from 1960 in that opening week game. Pretty nice throwbacks, too.

11) Brewers scored two runs in four games at Petco Park last weekend; in their first ten innings at Dodger Stadium this week, Milwaukee scored 15 runs. Brewers have been a very streaky team so far this year.

10) Houston's Carlos Lee had gone 163 ABs since his last home run, then he hit a walk-off blast to give the Astros a 4-2 win over Arizona.

9) Joe Saunders allowed nine runs over 10 IP in his last two starts, but in those two games, the Angel bullpen allowed 16 runs in just eight IP. Los Angeles has now lost its last six road games.

8) Giants have approximately 21,000 season ticket holders. Across the bay in Oakland, the A's have approximately 5,000.

7) Phillies had their 54th straight sellout Wednesday night.

6) Cubs are 4-2 when Ryan Dempster starts; they scored 9-8 runs in the two wins; all four losses were by 3-2 scores.

5) Atlanta has been outscored 27-8 in Kenshin Kawakami's five starts so far this season (0-5, 6.15).

4) AJ Pierzynski becomes a 10-and-5 man in June, meaning that he earns veto rights on any trade once that happens. Expect the White Sox to try and deal him before that happens, since they've got highly touted Tyler Flowers waiting in the wings down at AAA Charlotte.

3) Cincinnati Reds were last in the playoffs in 1995; Baltimore Orioles were last in the playoffs in 1997. The common link between those facts? The manager of both of those playoff teams was Davey Johnson. Orioles haven't had a winning season since Davey left; Reds have had two.

2) You'll know Miami Heat has enough talent to contend for NBA title when/if Pat Riley comes back to coach the team. Apparently its beneath him to coach a merely average team.

1) 17 inches of rain fell in two days in Nashville. 17 freakin' inches. Our thoughts and prayers go to everyone in Music City. Hope things return to normal fairly soon.

[Spooky]

Friday's List of 13: Clearing out a cluttered mind......

13) Tim Tebow's #15 Broncos jersey was best seller on NFL.com in the month of April; Donovan McNabb's Redskin jersey was #2.

12) Cardinal starting pitchers had 20 quality starts in their first 27 games, the most of any team in their first 27 games since the '72 Dodgers.

11) Cardinal hitters scored total of 11 runs in Brad Penny's six starts.

10) Texas Rangers led 8-0 in third inning, but needed back-to-back HRs from Hamilton/Guerrero in bottom of 8th inning to hold off the Royals 13-12 in a wild but not necessarily well-played game Thursday night.

9) Reliever Tyler Clippard is 4-0, 0.42 for the Nationals, who are really improved. Its hard to believe, but they could be contenders this year.

8) Word of the day: Kerfuffle-- a disorderly outburst or tumult, as in, he caused quite a kerfuffle.

7) Cleveland Indians are last in major leagues in attendance, averaging just 14,153 fans per game, down 8,339 a game from last year's average. Thats what happens when you have back-to-back Cy Young winners, and you trade both of them. People lose interest.

6) Other teams whose attendance is way down so far: Mets down 7,695 a game, Blue Jays 7,955, White Sox 5,187. Reason for concern.

5) Minnesota's attendance is up 9,193 fans a game, a product of their new stadium, which is just about sold out for the season.

4) Canadiens beat Pittsburgh Thursday; series is 2-2, If Montreal upset the Penguins and Bruins advanced, it would set up quite a conference final in the east. Two old rivals, with a berth in the Cup finals at stake.

3) 20-year old Mike Stanton hit a 500-foot HR over the centerfield fence and scoreboard in Montgomery Thursday, his 14th tater of the season, which leads minor leagues. Stanton is hitting .343; his performance begs for a promotion to the Marlins' AAA team in New Orleans.

2) Scott Kazmir had a 4-0 lead before he took the mound Thursday night in Boston, but he never got out of the 5th inning, as Boston ripped him for seven runs in an 11-6 win. Maybe Kazmir is a reliever? He just burns out the bullpen as a starter, rarely finishing the sixth inning.

1) Orlando Magic is 6-0 in playoffs, with one win by less than 8 points.

[Spooky]

Friday's six-pack

-- JaMarcus Russell earned $36M in three years with the Raiders, or if you want to be mean about it, $5.2M per win (7-18).

-- Last time USC/Notre Dame both entered a season with new football coaches was way back in 1941.

-- Former Duke hooper/Syracuse QB Greg Paulus is getting a tryout in New Orleans with the Saints.

-- In Jose Reyes' career, Mets win 70.8% of the time when he scores at least one run. Not sure why they would ever not bat him leadoff.

-- Robert Burke is new hoop coach at Mount St Mary's; man earned his stripes as an assistant coach, will do a good job there.

-- Best news of the day: Bob Uecker was released from the hospital after his heart operation. Get well soon.

[Spooky]

Saturday's six-pack

-- Tough night in Boston, as Bruins-Celtics-Red Sox all lost.
But the Spooky Express won again.

-- Stunningly, Nick Johnson is headed to DL with an injured wrist.

-- Twins had their first home rainout since September, 1980.

-- Five Kentucky hoopers left school early for the NBA. Wonder at what point they stopped going to class? Presidents' Day? Before that?

-- There's a chance justice could triumph and Phoenix Coyotes will go back to Winnipeg, where they used to call home.

-- The great Pat Summerall turned 80 years old Friday. Time flies.