Sports Blog

After grinding out 162 regular season games and nine playoff games, the New York Yankees finally punched their ticket to the World Series Sunday night with a 5-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. It will be the Yankees first trip to the big dance since 2003 when they lost to the Florida Marlins in six games. Although they have struggled sealing the deal this decade, the Yankees history is quite illustrious. This marks the 40th time they have won the American League pennant and a win over the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series would be their 27th time winning it all.

Of course, the Phillies will more than put up a fight to defend their World Series crown. The match up features some of the best pitchers in the game (Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, CC Sabathia, Mariano Rivera, etc.) as well as some of the leagues’ premier hitters in Ryan Howard and Alex Rodriguez. Game one is scheduled Wednesday in New York at a time to be determined.

Other baseball news: The Yankees victory over the Angels and subsequent berth in to the World Series was not the only piece of interesting baseball news over the weekend. After much debate in St. Louis over whether or not manager Tony La Russa would return to the club next year, it was announced that he and management agreed to a one year deal for 2010 that includes a mutual option for 2011. However, the real buzz surrounding the agreement was word that the Cardinals will be replacing hitting coach Hal McRae with a former slugger most recently known for his refusal to speak about the past during a Congressional hearing on steroids. That slugger is none other than Mark McGwire, who was coached by La Russa during his time with the Cardinals and Oakland Athletics.

College football: For those of you (like me) who do not like the BCS and desperately want to see a playoff system implemented, the storm clouds have started to brew with the most recent set of BCS rankings. The top four teams in the current standings — Florida, Alabama, Texas and Iowa — are all undefeated and barring an upset, three of those teams will likely end the season that way. A one-loss USC team comes in at number five and is followed by another set of undefeated teams in TCU, Boise State and Cincinnati. Even if only half of these top-eight teams win out we are looking at plenty of BCS drama and will hopefully move one step closer to a playoff system.

NFL: After seven weeks of play there are still three undefeated teams (Indianapolis Colts, Denver Broncos, and New Orleans Saints) attempting to join the 1972 Miami Dolphins in the NFL history books. The Dolphins ran the table that year and remain the only team to have ever completed a perfect season. The field was nearly trimmed down to two teams this week as the Saints struggled against, ironically, the Dolphins. The Saints found themselves down 34-24 at the end of the third quarter but scored 22 unanswered points in the fourth to secure the victory.

What do you think was the biggest story of the weekend? What are you looking forward to the most this week? Let us know in the comments section below.

This week in sports blogs and news:

• Alicia Sacramone has a boyfriend - The Big Lead
• Ex-fiance of Mark McGwire’s brother, talks about steroids - Deadspin
• Terry Bradshaw and the Fox gang out on the town - TMZ
• Three wins cost U of Michigan $6.6 million - SportsByBrooks
• Michael Irvin gets his own reality show - Deadspin
• Who voted Bruce Bowen third in All-Star voting??? - Larry Brown Sports

This week on the Smarter Sports Blog we covered:

•  “Mr. President”
• They Said What!? - Kobe Bryant
• Blindsided! Lacrosse Player Has His Bell Rung
• Finally, Live Madden Commentary for Your Highlights

There was one question on everybody’s mind after the first round of the home run derby – from people who don’t follow baseball to those who only do so casually – just who in the world is Josh Hamilton?

After all, the talk leading up to the home run derby was primarily about the players who chose not to participate in the fan favorite event. New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez was too busy playing prima donna to hit a few home runs on his home field. All-time home run leader Barry Bonds can’t even find a major league team to take him at the veteran’s minimum.

Then, as magically as his dream foretold, Hamilton put on a show that baseball fans will be talking about for a very long time. In the house that Ruth built, in the last year Yankee Stadium will exist in its current form, Hamilton laid the foundation for the post-steroids era.

Let’s face it; this year’s all-star game was supposed to be a game that the casual baseball fan didn’t care about. Baseball was at a crossroads between the stars of the steroids-era-past and the young, talented players that had yet to breach mainstream stardom.

Or so we all thought. Hamilton blasted 28 home runs in the first round of the home run derby, surpassing the Bobby Abreu mark of 24 set back in 2005. The average length of each of his home runs was an astounding 445 feet, with three landing beyond 500 feet.

Hamilton would eventually lose in the finals to Justin Morneau, but as Hamilton would probably agree, sometimes the beauty is in the process. You see, a few years ago Hamilton was banned from Major League Baseball for substance abuse and was an admitted drug addict. The 1999 first overall pick was walking down a dangerous path and slowly wasting away, quite literally at points.

Eventually, however, he would get his life back together. After a vivid dream in which he says Jesus helped him fight off the devil, Hamilton started to get clean. The MLB would eventually reinstate him, and in 2007 the Cincinnati Reds drafted him.

Which brought us to Monday night, when a 27-year-old who two years earlier had a dream of being interviewed at a home run derby at Yankee Stadium, stepped to the plate and had all of us asking just who the heck Josh Hamilton is? He didn’t have the name recognition of previous home run derby notables like Jason Giambi, Sammy Sosa or Mark McGwire, but he left with one of the most remarkable stories you’ll ever hear in sports: the story of a troubled man who struggled in his life and managed to defy the odds.

A man who overcame addiction and literally lived his dream, in the process helping rebuild the tarnished image of baseball in the aftermath of the Barry Bonds’ and Jose Canseco’s of the past. Maybe this year’s all-star festivities weren’t what we expected them to be, but they were better than any of us, with the exception of Hamilton, could have ever dreamt they would be.

Photo Source.