Hole Punch Sports

The big news in Denver-area sports, in case you missed it... Last Friday : Rockies drop a thriller to San Diego, 12-2. Padres pour salt on the wound by bringing in Brian Falkenborg to pitch the last two innings. The Rockies do not score, and Falky drops his ERA from a perfect 10 to 8.18. Saturday : Rockies win first 1-0 game in Coors Field history over Padres, a fact SportsCenter beat to death trying to make the recap interesting. Sunday : San Diego exacts revenge, a dish best served cold, with an 8-5 topping of the Rox. Todd Helton goes 2-for-3 with his tenth homer to continue his relatively hot recent hitting. Tuesday : Brian Fuentes pitches a scoreless...wait, make that doesn't pitch a scoreless anything in the All-Star game. Didn't see that coming. Wednesday : The Denver Post runs an outstanding article, "Depth makes Middlebrooks expendable" . It's unfortunate that headlines have to be crammed into such a specific space; the Post had to reject the original and...

Yesterday the Rockies made some big trades . Well, some trades, how's that. Here we go: Colorado sent Preston Wilson and cash to Washington for pitcher Zach Day, outfielder J.J. Davis, and either a player to be named later or cash. (Wonder which one we'll take.) To Oakland we sent pitchers Joe Kennedy and Jay Witasick for outfielder Eric Byrnes and minor-league middle infielder Omar Quintanilla. The two biggest names in these trades are Wilson, who leads the Rockies in home runs and RBI, and Byrnes, who, at least statistically, is a lot more comparable to Wilson than I would have thought. This year the 30-year-old Wilson is hitting .258, getting on base at a .322 clip, and slugging .491. Byrnes is 29, hitting .266, OBP of .336, and slugging .474. Pretty comparable. And their career numbers aren't so different, either: .265/.333/.481 for Wilson; .270/.336/.462 for Byrnes. Which is not to suggest that the two players are neck-and-neck in all-around skill. Wilson plays centerf...

I know this is a sports blog, but I hope you'll bear with me if I depart from the usual topics today to discuss something almost related. Golf. Now, you might not know this yet, but there's apparently an up-and-coming young female golfer named Michelle Wie who aspires to play on the pro men's tour and can, at least theoretically, win a spot at the Masters by winning the men's U.S. Amateur Public Links this week. First off, let me start by saying: fantastic! Anything with the potential of upsetting stuffy golf traditionalists is fine by me. However. I am quite bored with the whole women-competing-with-the-men thing, especially since it's beaten to death before any of the women have actually slain the pack of snarling men-folk. And I think we all know why that is. Don't get me wrong. I would love to see Michelle Wie miraculously (and it's going to take a miracle) qualify for the Masters, and then win it, partly because she's a woman, and partly because she...

Yesterday I turned on not one but two Rockies games during the seventh inning, one of which must have been a replay. Sweet. Since the Captain pointed out that he has a hard time following Denver sports from out of town, I'll just go over recent happenings and then worry about baseball next week. And yes, I promise not to mention the Yankees and Rogers in detailed fashion. Rockies : The Rockies did win yesterday's actual game 8-5, thanks in large part to two home runs from Todd Helton, who's actually not having much of a season. By his standards, it's horrific: .281, nine homers, and 38 runs-batted-ins. A recent Denver Post story suggested his struggles might be related to lingering resentment over comments made by broadcaster Wayne Hagin, who maybe sort of suggested that Helton was on steroids. If that's the actual cause, Helton might be the most easily distracted athlete of all-time. That's just weak, and I doubt that's it. Tough to determine what the actu...

All right, class, what kind of things do we look for in an NBA draftee? A player who's proven, or one with oodles of upside? A guy coming off a spectacular college career, or one coming off the bench for his Serbian club team? A player who's shown constant improvement, or one who mysteriously fared worse as a senior than a junior? No, Kiki, put your hand down, it's the first answer to each of these questions, not the second. Yesterday the Nuggets picked 20th in the first round, selecting Julius Hodge, shooting guard/small forward, out of North Carolina State. College fans will immediately recognize his name, as Hodge was the ACC Player of the Year as a junior. Unfortunately, he just finished his senior year, which was marked mostly by a dip in his scoring numbers (he developed a sudden inability to hit free throws or threes) and a punch to the groin by Wake Forest guard Chris Paul. Hodge is mostly a mid-range and slashing-type scorer, kind of like the more-than-sufficient s...

So we finally got done with the NBA playoffs after nearly two months of stretched-out play, and tomorrow's the draft. I really couldn't care less. I'm so burned out on the sport. Sadly, there's nothing else going on worth mentioning, so we might as well get into it. (Yes, baseball, Pugs, but I haven't really started following that this year yet, sorry.) Would the NFL hold its draft five days after the Super Bowl? Of course not, and not just because the league doesn't want to distract from the highlight of its annual calendar, the Pro Bowl. Of course, the NBA's situation is a little different. College play ended two and a half months ago, and the teams want to get draftees ready for the all-important summer league play (because the kind of guys that need the summer league always end up players). Not that when college basketball is over is relevant, anyway-the league is overrun by a bunch of high school players "just months removed from their prom" (...

You know, I've really grown sick of the Lakers over the last few years and I ought to talk about the Finals, but outside of Pistons fans and their multiple boy friends (OOOOOOOOOOH!), I don't think anyone finds this year's series compelling...yet. So what is up with Phil Jackson? Rumors of his return to coach the Lakers have been public for weeks, but I was convinced he just wanted to raise his asking price from the Knicks. Why would Jackson, who at this point can write his ticket just about anywhere, want to return to work for an owner and star who ran him and the team's bets player out of town? (Why Phil Jackson would want to coach the Knicks is beyond me as well, but that's a whole other story.) Money is obviously a motivator for Jackson; how could it not be? I'll never understand why fans want sports figures to pretend that money isn't important. If I was offered two jobs and one paid a lot better than the other, I'll probably follow the money. Doesn...