New York Support

'Twas a good day for New York baseball. As it so happens, interleague play has the Yankees at the Braves and the Mets at the Rays. Both of these teams are the mainstay of competition for first place at the moment.

So, to have the Mets give an absolute blowout of a game and bring 11 runs in, despite their outfielders having a few mishaps with tracking the ball under the Tropicana dome, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 11-2, is quite a welcome advantage for the Yankees.

Had they stayed at the score they had going into the eighth, this would have at least kept the Yanks even with Tampa for first. But, in that inning, a strong rally brought six runs in -- enough for the Yankees to win in the end over the Braves, 6-4.

It's safe to say New York baseball fans are happy tonight.

Mets and Nats Errorfest

I think the announcers actually called it "a delightful mess of a game." It was one of those where one team (the away team, the Mets) would get a run -- looked like they'd win. Then, a million errors in the bottom of the inning would bring the home team (the Nationals) up to a tie.

Rinse and repeat for three innings.

I'm not even joking, the amount of errors in the 9 - 12 innings were like...ridiculous.

When you have announcers going "WHAT IS HE DOING?!" and just absolutely bewildered/flabbergasted by the game...

After a lot of botched throws and catcher fails and whatnot, the painfully entertaining game ended with the bases loaded and almost, almost walked the last run in, but there was a base hit instead and so the Nationals won 7-6.

I only started watching because I heard outraged screaming from watchers at the beginning of the errorfest.

And just when the Mets got their first no-hitter in history...second place going against first place, supposedly these are the best teams in the NL East, and we get this. I know it happens, but it feels ridiculous when it does.

Devils to the Stanley Cup

I will admit. I am a Rangers fan more than a Devils fan by far. So, to say that the Devils are going to the Stanley Cup stings a little. But, considering the game ended maybe an hour or two before the time of writing, it's a surprisingly tame sting.

Had the game gone as it did in the first period, I don't think I would have felt as peaceful with this outcome. The Devils were positively flogging the Rangers -- 2 goals in one period, the players were nowhere, missing the puck or neglecting to hustle. In a word, the Rangers were sloppy in the first period, and it was embarrassing, especially thinking that we could go down in such a pathetic manner.

The second period made up for this, though. In a matter of minutes, the Rangers came alive and blasted two goals to tie the game back up. The tying goal was astonishing -- a long shot by Callahan that ricocheted off skates and between players, Ranger and Devil alike, to get into the goal. It passed at least five players, including a hit on Girardi's skate.

For the rest of the game, it was a pretty admirable back-and-forth. The Rangers indeed fought hard, but it is as hard to get past Brodeur as it is Lundqvist, and through unlucky placement and missed shots and a thousand other little quirks, none of the scoring chances made in the third period bore any fruit. The same could be said for the Devils, though, which brought the game into overtime.

The winning goal was a tiny putt behind Lundqvist after he defended a barrage of shots. The puck slipped through on one, went behind him, and one calm tap finished the game 3-2 Devils, ending the series.

Obligatory Yay Giants Post

YAY GIANTS!!! :D :D :D

New York team wins Super Bowl.

I am happy.

Yay. :D

Rangers vs Islanders and Flyers

1) Rangers and Islanders - Islanders did surprisingly well, their defense was intense. Rangers managed to keep the lead, though.
2) Rangers and Flyers - Lundqvist did amazingly with his saves. Considering the amount of shots made on goal...the fact that only two got in? Pretty darn good.

Manchester United Got Pwned

Admittedly, I'm not a huge soccer fan (yet). As such, I don't have a clear way of the way the leagues are, particularly over in the UK. But, from what I've heard, Manchester United is the team to beat. Or it was. And, from what I know, or thought I knew, 6-1 is one hell of a point difference. So, since Manchester City beat Man U by five points...wow. Looks like both Manchester teams are doing well, from what it says here. (reading ESPN)

A's @ Yanks, Yanks Pound A's

I really wish I'd watched the game last night. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I got to see the incredible nine-run inning. A three-run homer, two forced runs, and finished off by a grand slam by Teixiera. Wow.

Derek's 3000th

I know this is late, I've been neglecting this blog, I suppose. :/ But I wanted to leave a short blurb to congratulate Derek Jeter, again, on his 3000th hit. What a milestone, first Yank to do it. And he did it with a bang - a home run! That moment was amazing...

Japan Wins Women's World Cup

The game was really intense, from the peripheral view I was able to get. USA scored, then Japan caught up. Rinse, repeat. The penalty kicks were what it came down to, and Japan outmaneuvered USA there for the win - in great part thanks to Japan's goalie, the USA penalty kicks missed, while Japan made the requisite scorings. Congratulations to Japan and the USA both, it was a great, great game.

Women's World Cup Finals

I will be honest, I wasn't REALLY paying attention, just peripherally hearing what was going on, but the finals might have to be watched. Japan vs USA. That...is going to be really interesting, it sounds. Gonna have to pay attention there.

The Canucks and the Sharks (NHL Semifinals)

So, looks like the Canucks are in the finals, they took out the Sharks with what appeared to be relative ease. Bruins and Lightning play tonight; Tampa Bay (Lightning) is on the brink of getting pwned out of the finals, but they're not out of it yet. The Bruins are playing strong, though. If it's not gonna be Canucks vs Bruins, there's going to be a tough road ahead on the ice.

Opening Day: Yankees Win!

I can't believe I got so caught up in things that I didn't post. Opening Day was Thursday, and the Yanks were the openers for the American League (Atlanta and Washington opened for the National League; the Braves beat the Nats 2-0.) CC (Sabthia) pitched damn well, and the Yanks won their first game of the season! It was 6-3, in the end. Great start of the season for the Yanks! :)

Nets @ Knicks

This game was pretty intense. At halftime, I saw, the Nets were actually ahead by ten points exactly. Throughout the third quarter, though, the Knicks slowly caught up, and the game ended with a pretty close score of 116-120 Knicks.

Rangers @ Bruins

An intense last period, with Lundqvist blocking a barrage of shots by the Bruins, who I'm sure were desperate to tie it up. Alas, their efforts went unrewarded - the Rangers won the day, score 1-0. Lundqvist has a personal season high of 11 shutouts now, I believe the statistic was. (Got that from ESPN I think...not totally sure.)

Superbowl XLV

The Sports Aspect:

This was a great game. The Packers were on it at the beginning, holding the Steelers at bay and scoring two touch downs in something like twenty-four seconds -- it was pretty intense. A Packer grabbed the ball/intercepted/whatever and ran with it like a maniac right after the first touchdown.

And then the Steelers began to play. (injuries on the GB side probably didn't help much) They stopped being sloppy and started being dangerous. They started scoring -- at first it was just a field goal, but then there were a few good touchdowns. The gap started closing, and fast. A two point conversion brought it to a six-point game. In other words, if the Steelers scored a touchdown and got the extra point (which is more or less a given), they won. Green Bay'd been on top the whole game, and now, they had two or three minutes to defend themselves from giving it up at the end.

Long story short, they managed to hold out. Green Bay managed to get possession of the ball with about fourty-five seconds left, give or take a few, and that was that.

The Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl XLV with a score of 31-25.

The Non-Sports Aspect:

Christina Aguilera opened with the Star-Spangled Banner. I admit, although I respect her voice, I was frankly disappointed with the performance she gave. She embellished the anthem so much that there were points I could barely tell what song she was singing. I'm not talking the way that Jimi Hendrix did the anthem on guitar - THAT was a GOOD way of embellishing. This was a bad way. She slurred words together and everything. It wasn't very good at all.

The half time show was all right. It was the Black Eyed Peas, being very sparkly with lots of lighted costumes (for them and their scads of dancers). Very Tron. The audio work was pretty bad, though. I actually texted someone to ask if my television was going wonky, and they were like, no. What I heard was a lot of leveling issues, such as Fergie's voice being muted out and then coming back...it's like they couldn't balance it right or something. I will say, though, it was an interesting show. Besides, there's one part I HAVE to give them absolute props for. When I heard "Sweet Child of Mine" playing, I was like, is that Guns n' Roses? What? And then Slash came out of the stage!!! I seriously squealed, pretty much. Huge fan. (Slash is the guitarist for GnR). Also, Fergie's voice really goes well with that song. She does a good parallel to Axl Rose.

The commercials this year were pretty good. Some of them were eh, but some of them were great. My favorites were the Pepsi Max commercials, hands down. There were three of them - the first date one, the dieting one (where the girl keeps taking away food from the guy), and the watercooler one (ends up with a jerk getting a Pepsi Max to the nuts). Also, the Sealy commercial that showed a bunch of couples lying next to each other in bed and then going "it's better on springs" or whatever...that was funny. There were sooo many good commercials. And you can find them all here:

http://msn.foxsports.com/video/shows/super-bowl-commercials-2011

Devils @ Rangers

I caught only the last minute or two of this game, and wow, what a heartbreaking ending to catch. The Rangers, in something like the last fifteen seconds of the game, made not one but two rather good shots at the goal. With five seconds left, I remember, something got past the goalie but was juuuuuust wide enough to bounce off the goalpost the wrong way. They were THAT CLOSE to forcing overtime, but it didn't happen, and the Devils won the game, 3-2.

NFL Playoffs - Championships

Packers vs Bears - The Packers had the upper hand in most, if not all, of this game. They clearly outplayed the Bears, though it wasn't a blowout; the game, as a whole, didn't have a lot of scoring to it. The final was 21-14, Packers, making them the NFC Champions and sending them to the Super Bowl.

Jets vs Steelers - Everyone saw this one coming. There was a point where the score was 24-3 Jets, and I believe that may have actually been at halftime. Their defense and offense, compared with the Jets' inability to move the ball down the field (likely due to the Steelers' defense as well as some miscommunications within the team), shut the Jets down. To their credit, though, the Jets came alive towards the end, and were within a touchdown of winning. If they had managed to take possession of the ball in the last two or three minutes and score a touchdown, and then keep Pittsburgh from scoring, they would have won. But this elaborate plan fell through, as Pittsburgh held on to the ball in the critical moments. You knew it was over when Rex Ryan slammed his headset down. The final score was 24-19, Steelers, making them the AFC Champions and sending them to the Super Bowl.

NFL Playoffs - Divisionals Day 2

Seahawks vs Bears - The Seahawks' miracle run ended today. They actually made a pretty good comeback, considering. For most of the game, it was a shut-out -- the Bears were ahead by twenty-something points and the score was twenty-something to zero. The final score was 35-24, but the Seahawks, though they managed to lessen the damage by a lot, could not nullify it, and they lost.

Jets vs Patriots - What a game. The Patriots had the upper hand at first, finishing the first quarter off with a field goal. But, the next quarter, the Jets went to work, making it a 14-3 score at halftime. The Patriots began to catch up the third quarter, but the fourth quarter was the big one. Both teams scored in the final quarter - the Jets added another 14 points onto their score, and the Patriots made a valiant effort to catch up, scoring 10 points. But, the game was decided even before the timer ran out -- they started celebrating (with backflips, literally) with something like 0:23 left. The final score was 28-21 Jets, leaving an intense game with the other number one seed knocked out - another upset, one might say.

NFL Playoffs - Divisionals Day 1

Ravens vs Steelers - This game seemed to be pretty well fought out. The score was close throughout, pretty much, and for a long time in the fourth quarter, it was tied at 24. Near the end of the fourth quarter, though, the Steelers scored a touchdown, which gave them the necessary boost to win the game (31-24) and move on.

Packers vs Falcons - One could say this was a surprise. Atlanta was the number one seed, while Green Bay was the sixth. And, while the Packers have definitely been strong - after all, they beat the Eagles - I know many were thinking that the number one seed would have the advantage. To the delight of certain other sixth-seeders (cough), the Packers proved that seed number means nothing. They did not defeat the Falcons. They all-out POUNDED the Falcons. The score was pretty close at halftime, but the Packers all but exploded after that. This sixth seed brought the upset, big time, defeating the Falcons 48-21.

NFL Playoffs - Wild Card Day 2

Packers vs Eagles - The Packers took the Eagles down. As tough a team as the Eagles proved to be this season (this going mostly by a certain game against a certain New York team as firsthand proof, eck), the Packers managed to beat them 21-16.

Ravens vs Chiefs - I know some people were worried about the Chiefs as a potentially dangerous contender, but it was quite clear today that the bigger threat is Baltimore. They all-out creamed KC, 30-7.