MLB: Colorado Rockies, Down With Flashes of Credibility  

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“SPORTS NOTEBOOK” posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.

MLB:   THE Cincinnati Reds/Colorado Rockies July 27-July 29 three-game series would be interesting across several levels, for instance, the Reds arrived at Denver’s Coors Field as the second best ball club in the National League, tied for numero uno in both leagues at 58 wins along with the American League’s Texas Rangers---the Reds would play a Colorado franchise that on July 26 was second worst in the NL, and second worst in both leagues at 36 wins/60 losses, the Houston Astros beneath them at 34 wins/66 losses. Being emphasized here is that a top dog/underdog face-off rarely becomes a trip to Dullsville.

But while the Rockies would be receiving the Reds after having won only four of 12 games since the All Star break, the Colorado team wouldn’t be appearing as fallen wimps, as declared wipeouts. A kind of saving grace is that the four wins formed a total of 23 runs, while runs of the four worst Rockies losses totaled 20, just a three run deficit. That’s roughly four runs per game for the 12, not great but far from being no-show at the dance.

Also, none of the eight Rockies losses were by more than four runs, six with deficits of only three runs.

Too, Rockies LHP Drew Pomeranz would start the first game of the Reds/Rockies series, holding an ERA below 4.0 for his seven starts at Coors Field, versus Reds RHP, Bronson Arroyo, of a 5.6 ERA. We’d be seeing another result of the Rockies four-man/70-75 pitching limit experiment and its impact on one of the more promising of the new Rockies starters, possibly a good result.

Moreover, superb infielder and hitter, Todd Helton, would again be in the Rockies line-up, returning from 12 days on the Rockies DL. In spite of days away, he’d return with seven home runs accrued, 34 RBI’s, a triple and 13 doubles. Add, Rockies outfielder, Carlos Gonzalez, with hits in more than 25 consecutive games, and outfielder Dexter Fowler’s stunning 39 triples since 2010, with 10 in 2012, batting average .341; and include the Rockies rookie with the most home runs in the NL since the All Star game, catcher, Wiln Rosario (16 HR’s).

Now add that the Rockies have been blessed with Rookie shortstop, Josh Rutledge, of 16 hits, including multi-hits in six of 12 games since the All Star break.

No way would the July 27-July 29 vs. Cincinnati series be Part One of a movie titled “Major League-4,” the Rockies looking like first day back from a winter of partying and a series of hangovers.

Furthermore, no team that the Rockies had faced for a three game series since the All Star event (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Diego and Arizona) could sweep the Rockies, though each departed their respective series, 2-1.

So—while at the bottom among professional baseball’s under .500 teams on July 27, the Rockies picture was still that of a struggling but credible franchise---they’d be facing the Reds as a competitive team.

But the Rockies were swept by the Reds, 3-0, 9-7, and 7-2 (ugh!), the team’s accumulation of nine runs vs. the Reds 19 reflecting a drop in average runs per game. Particularly embarrassing were the five homers given up by Rockies pitchers Christian Friedrich (the starter), Josh Roenicke and Matt Belisle, during game two of the series. Games one and three turned out to be lots of half innings when the Rockies were left scoreless with men on base, implying that the Rockies line-up is a hitting line-up, that the team is capable of having a decent on-base percentage, just not frequent enough with bang for runs needed to offset the Rockies already identified big weakness, a starter rotation that falters in early innings, which to date has a worse than 6.0 ERA, plus a bull pen that, like the team’s hitters, lacks what it takes to offset that awful weakness consistently, compounded by the once-promising RHP Jeremy Guthrie becoming Santa Claus awarding hits and runs to nearly every team he faced, traded not too soon for starter Jonathan Sanchez, who gave up six runs to the Reds on Saturday ( were the Rockies starters from the mound those of a few seasons ago, the team’s defense and offense would be contributing to a Rockies team above .500, maybe leading the NL-West).  

There’s no joy for the Rockies in being one of only two teams below .400, today at 37/63, still ahead of the Astros by only two games. Yet a favorable irony in baseball is that a losing team can still provide wonder, signs of skill and consistency, e.g., Carlos Gonzalez having hit in 30 consecutive games as of Sunday, batting .328, having gone 2-4 on Saturday with three RBI, and Rutledge continuing to manage multi-hits per game, 3-5 on Saturday, 2-4 on Sunday, now batting .379. It’s this that paints the Rockies as an interesting team in spite of the losses, now up for a three-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals, third place, NL-Central, at 54/48.

A fan wrote, “Of late, shouting ‘Go Rockies, Go!’ feels like praying for rain during a drought that weather experts have proven will last another 62 days, which is the number of games left to the 2012 season.”

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MORE ABOUT LONDON OLYMPICS // BRIEF TAKES, CURRENT ISSUES 

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“SPORTS NOTEBOOK” posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone. 

OLYMPICS--- OF the more than 30 sports categories that will be at the London Olympiad July 27 through August 12, seven will probably be watched more than others by millions of TV viewers around the world. These seven being---

• Basketball--- Starts July 28. Semi-finals and final, August 11-12, for 2 Gold medals awarded.
• Boxing--- Starts July 28, continues until August 9, 11 & 12 for finals, 13 Gold awarded.
• Gymnastics--- Starts July 28, finishes August12, w/18 Gold given along the way.
• Soccer--- Began July 25, will finish August 11, w/2 Gold awarded.
• Swimming:--- Starts July 28, goes through August 4---32 Gold.
• Tennis:--- July 28 through August 5---5 Gold.
• Track & Field (includes Marathon)--- August 3-12---47 Gold. 

BRIEF TAKES:

            NBA --- Seems like the NBA has become numerous shifting energies that could become season-long perfect storms, or just a few now-and-then appearances of such, like summer rain. That’s what the recent big trades within America’s professional basketball league seem to be promising: Jeremy Lin from the Knicks to the Rockets; Steve Nash from the Suns to the Lakers; Ray Allen from the Celtics to the Heat; Jason Kidd from the Mavericks to the Knicks.

Also, Dwight Howard wants to leave the Magic as though something bad and fast were gaining on him.

Moreover, Pau Gasol may have left the Lakers if Kobe Bryant hadn’t protested the idea, maybe Bryant floating that he’d re-think that multi-million dollar deal that a European team offered him two years ago.

What are the common threads in all of this? Except for Lin, the traded players listed are big names and super ticket-sellers. If nothing grand comes from the trades, teams will be making mucho dinero from them.

And, most of these traded heroes are known for a special skill---Nash for his unique passing ability, Ray Allen as one of the best shooters in basketball, Kidd being a quick playmaker and leader when improvisation on the floor is essential, and Howard would be leaving the Magic as one of the game’s best rebounders/blockers ever.

Too, these traded players have been around, they have that game savvy that comes from being in a sport across many seasons; they have that special edge from having overcome mistakes when up against other top athletes. At the same time, their departure leaves room for youth, for future prospects within the teams left behind.

An upshot from this will be the revised starter/bench mixes and playbooks within each team absorbing the significant addition, or “loss,” which always adds curiosity and intensity to a sport, as happened from the drop to a 66 game season throughout the 2011/2012 NBA year, the tension from it making for one of the more exciting seasons of the decade.

Anyway, a lesson in this from the NBA, and from most other sports associations, is that things never stay the same, which could be a constant that we can rely upon.          

            NFL ---  In August, NFL teams will be in pre-season mode, with observers asking questions that probably can’t be answered truthfully until late December, which is appropriate in that the asking can lead us to what matters most among the many outcomes that a 16 week NFL season can deliver, for instance, will what quarterbacks do, or not do, dominate professional football because (a) their skills far outperform that which the remaining offense and a defense squad can do, or (b) because expectations of quarterbacks are so many and so demanding that their mere presence within football takes the spotlight away from all others on the field?

In other words, the first wave of questions within football universe today are about QB’s Peyton manning (Denver Broncos), Eli Manning (New York Giants), Tim Tebow (N.Y. Jets), Mark Sanchez (Jets), Drew Brees (New Orleans Saints), as if QB’s always isolate and win or lose games “solo,” which is rarely the case. A cornerback exceptionally good at tackling opposing running backs, or a defensive lineman always adept at seizing the fumble and running for a TD, these are better candidates for “solo dominance” than the QB.

Fact: a QB is the player afield who gets more support and has to rely on that support more than any teammate does---without superb pass protectors, running backs, wide receivers and canny tight ends, the QB is nada, nyet, nein, the big NO! Yet the questions persist: will Peyton Manning deliver for the Broncos the way that he had for the Indianapolis Colts? Will Eli Manning signal that he could surpass the greatness of his more experienced, possibly more talented brother, Peyton? Will Tebow shine brighter than Sanchez for the Jets and cause position-reversal, as happened within the Denver franchise when Tebow replaced a starting QB? Can Brees demonstrate power of restoration and top the list of QB’s before mid-season? Don’t change channels, stay tuned! Watch and listen closely---those pass protectors, running backs and wide receivers will be helping to make the difference. In several cases, these supporters “will be the difference.”    

SPORTS & “SHOOTING” --- Long a category of sport at the Olympics has been “Shooting,” limited to skeet, trap, and combined skeet/trap, plus rifle-firing as part of the Olympics Pentathlon competition. Anyone who has taken to skeet, trap or rifle shooting surely knows that controlled shooting is a legitimate sport and that the ease by which targets can be struck using an automatic weapon such as that employed by a gunman who last week killed 12 and wounded more at a Colorado movie theater could never qualify as a legitimate sport in any country where rational persons live.

Yet not long ago a weapons aficionado called for the legitimacy of automatic assault weapons-firing within the hunting and sport shooting realms, and some current U.S. laws allow such weapons to be obtained legally by almost anyone, an idea shunned by sportsmen and shooting-athletes everywhere.

Something to reflect upon: one cannot find many athletes or sports management individuals among advocates of sales of automatic assault-weaponry to other than the military and to special police teams. Here’s a bet that can be won: no person like the Colorado killer captured last week, or upon the roster of serial killers of any history of the macabre, has ever been a serious athlete or been among serious sports fans.

Not that American sports have ever been squeaky-clean. In 2012 alone, there’s been the Sandusky affair, athletes arrested for possession of firearms, others for illegal drug possession, still others for abusing spouses, and others for DUI’s. But another good bet is that, for the most part, participation in sports can condition the more edgy persons far from tending toward horrific violence.

Another good bet is this: at the recurring Olympiads, you cannot find exceptional athletes from nations that condone and actually conduct acts of terrorism---hail, all sports! A motto for the ages is the Olympic Latin phrase, “Citius, Altius, Fortius!” the modern English translation, “Swifter, Higher, Stronger!” each word capable of underscoring morals and integrity as much as each pertains to athletic grace.

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THE OLYMPICS, 2012 // MLB: COLORADO ROCKIES & TEAM R&D

For more analysis, go to Mile High Sports Radio AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com

“SPORTS NOTEBOOK” posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone. 

OLYMPICS, 2012---You don’t have to look far to find books about what sports can mean for the individual participant or fan, for a local community or for a nation. There’s The Meaning of Sports by Michael Mandelbaum, Sport and Philosophy by Drew A. Hyland, and recently published Sports & The Heroic, by Marvin Leibstone (Ed./Publ., this page), available from major book stores, from amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, XLIBRIS.com and other on-line outlets, each book suggesting that from sports we can derive numerous values for the good life.

Any person desirous of knowing what sports can mean for them personally, any individual planning on a career in sports, would do well examining the above-cited books that are essentially introductions to, and meditations on, the various aspects that comprise professional as well as amateur games.

Equally valuable as learning tools are the summer Olympics, held every four years, the 2012 London-held event starting this Friday.

Make no mistake, at the London Olympics will be many examples of great courage, integrity, development and maintenance of skills, teamwork, clarity of thought when under stress, handling defeat gracefully, compassion for others, and the powers of motivation, of discipline and focus---these virtues will be on full display until the Olympics closing ceremony, reminding viewers of what works best when one’s goal is to be one’s best, whether such has to do with a chosen sport or with any other endeavor, even if the latter is about starting a business, teaching at a public school, being a health care professional, a chef,  whatever!

We are reminded by the Olympics to “go for it” in ways that enhance not only one’s self-esteem but also that of the immediate environs in which we live. At the cutting edge of this year’s Olympiad examples will be Jamaican track star, Usain Bolt, hoping to be the first athlete winning the 100 and 200 meter heats under 10 and 20 seconds respectively, more so “consecutively,” having won the 100M and 200M events during the last Olympiad (Beijing, 2008). If it happens, it will be Bolt as a comeback runner, in that countryman, Yohan Black, beat Bolt in both races during this year’s Olympic trials.

So, too, will America’s Serena Williams and her yet to be chosen partner hope to bring home Olympic Gold in mixed tennis-doubles (held for the first time at an Olympiad since the late 1920’s---her partner could be U.S. men’s tennis star, Andy Roddick); and, Americans Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte will be pushing for Gold in multiple swim events, each athlete hoping to outperform the other.

Questions abound regarding Olympiad-2012 performances, for instance, Can the U.S. basketball team collect Gold for the fifth time within six Olympics? Will the U.S. Women’s Field Hockey Team be the next U.S. Dream Team by performing as it had against the world class Argentine club at the recent Pan American games? Will the U.S. women’s soccer team prevail over all others for a third Olympics entry and Gold? Can the U.S. men’s 4X100 meter relay swim team win Gold again, as it had at Beijing-2008? Can Kenyan-born U.S. citizen, Bernard Laygot, maintain his position as world record holder in the 1,500, 3,000 and 5,000 meter races? And, will women’s boxing remain an Olympic event, following its debut this year? Can the U.S. record breaking women-gymnasts, Jordan Wieber and Gabby Douglas, continue at high performance levels, staying ahead of the talented Russian and Chinese female gymnasts?

But no matter the outcomes at the London Olympics, shown will be the best of athletic grace, borne from dedication toward locating one’s self at the forward edges of the combined physical/mental/spiritual envelope, proving that sports and triviality have never joined, never will.

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MLB: The Colorado Rockies four-man starting rotation/roughly 65-75 pitches limitation makes sense along several levels. It helps to discipline and train starting hurlers for more strikeouts and fewer walks, forcing up what causes an opposing baseball team to lose games, that fast succession of “outs.” Also, if executed right the four-man/number of pitches limitation can reduce likelihood that pitchers will accrue injuries.

The R&D method also forces relievers to prepare for more successful innings, helping closers to have a winning game to preserve rather than have to reverse a score during one or two half-innings.

Overall, from the four-man experiment a team’s entire pitching staff can become skillfully routinized, cubbyholed into specific roles and missions, each starter able to excel at each. Not a bad thing if it’s the future that a manager and a GM are most concerned with, in that the results from the four-man experiment cannot arrive quickly, proven by the Colorado Rockies having adopted the method less than two months ago.

The Rockies four-man starter rotation improvements have been minor, the team’s starter-caused losses still much greater than wins, the collective starter ERA still above 5.0. Yet many of the Rockies losses have also been the result of a bull pen failing to build on the starter successes of early innings. Too, the Rockies line-up has been injury-infected, replacement players often unable to offset pitching weaknesses with a sufficient number of hits becoming runs.

A lesson, then, is that a four-man rotation experiment intended to bring on a quick and steady stream of team wins won’t have a chance in any ballpark if the team’s bull pen and batters cannot also experience significant enhancements. Though presently without this set of values, the Rockies ought to stay with the four-man rotation experiment if only to ready the team’s starter rotation for year 2013, preparation for which R&D for bull pen and line-up restoration should also be high on the Rockies 2013 agenda.

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PENN STATE/SANDUSKY // OLYMPICS: the Medals, to Which Country, to Whom?.

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“SPORTS NOTEBOOK” posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.  

PENN STATE/SANDUSKY ---  Wherever one travels to, or wherever one decides to stay put, no matter the place, no matter the beauty of the surroundings, no matter the goings on, there will be drive-by windows where persons can buy shame and ruin easily, no return policy. A most recent example of this, and of the worst that could occur in American sports, is the Penn State/Sandusky affair, an affront to all that is civil and right.

Of course, atop the heap of Penn State’s wrongdoings is Sandusky himself, a stark example of violation of the innocent, telling us that Neanderthals are still part of the crowd, that an individual’s forceful control over another for personal gratification is possible within what we like to think are our best institutions for learning and athletic grace.

At one level, an initial response to revelations of Jerry Sandusky’s behavior was, “the guy is Puke.” At another, “the man’s sick, he needs to be taken off the street, but he also needs psychiatric help. His victims need help, too, and they deserve some form of rational reprisal.”

Then responders got around to the question, “How could Sandusky’s awful entrapment and abuse of the young have happened repeatedly?” That’s when we learned (again!) that individuals aware of a wrong, then doing nothing to stop it, empowers the perpetrator of the wrong, inviting the terrible behavior to advance like a fast-spreading cancer.

Starting with Sandusky, signals of what should never be surfaced and spread at Penn State. Suddenly visible were the operative tumors that characterize villainy: unbridled perversion; greed; love of power and its abuse; fear of truth and of loss of opportunity; lack of integrity; desire to preserve institutional reputation at any cost. To some satisfaction, the school’s bad actors have been fired, and other methods of redress will be in the making at Penn State for many months to come.

Important now is that the NCAA not only insists that all other universities and colleges lift curtains where Sandusky-like behavior could occur, or may have occurred, but that mechanisms exist in their environs to prevent any reappearance of a Sandusky and of any shameful cover-ups.

Scary is that the NCAA’s record as creator and enforcer of behavioral stops in sports is not what anyone might characterize as pure and at championship level. The NCAA also needs a lifting of the curtains, along with revitalization of moral purpose that is more than talking the talk.

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OLYMPICS, 2012.   Data from the last four Olympics, and from the several World Games and Grand Slam events held since 2000, plus this year’s Olympic qualifying events, all suggest where the lion’s share of Gold, Silver and Bronze medals will likely be handed to at London, U.K., in coming days. For instance, of the top 10 countries that usually dominate post-event award ceremonies, four are from Asia (China, Japan, South Korea and Australia), and five are from Europe (Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Russia).

The only other continent with a country among the top 10 is North America, offering up the United States, currently number one on the top 10 list.

Following the U.S. within the top 10 are China, then Russia.

How to look at the above? We could note that the countries likely to take home the most medals are among the more highly populated, existing within similar longitude/latitude framing. Also, the top three countries have economies, or funding policies, that allow Olympic readiness programs to be state-of-the-art. We could therefore note that a large population from which a greater number of potential Olympic athletes can surface, plus geographical conditions and financial policies, equal Olympiad dominance.

But then, “Where is that dominance?”

The very best athletes at such key Olympic track and field events as the marathon and the modern pentathlon are neither Americans, nor Chinese, nor Russians, and it’s unlikely that neither of the top three medal-winning countries will dominate soccer, tennis (singles), field hockey, men’s volleyball, boxing, judo, the equestrian sports, shooting, nor fencing, archery or rowing. Basketball USA, yes! Swimming USA, (not synchronized swimming), yes! Gymnastics USA, yes! with the Chinese and the Russians not far behind in first tier sports, which have sub-events providing lots of medals.

We shouldn’t be fooled into thinking that the country with the most medals is best of all and the only “victory entity” at the Olympics. The real winner at the Olympics is “diversity.” Kenyans dominating the marathon and a few track events couldn’t care less about how many medals another country accrues, no more than America’s Michael Phelps will care greatly about who takes home Gold and Silver for equestrian or rowing prowess, no more than Basketball USA will care about which national team wins at field hockey.

To be applauded most at the Olympics should be the individual athlete, or team, turning up best, no matter the country of origin.

Not that national pride shouldn’t factor in, it also deserves “Gold.” Rather, national accumulation of medals shouldn’t be all that matters during the Olympics. Let China have ping pong!

Yet this page still wants to shout, “Basketball USA, don’t let us down, come home with shining Gold!”

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MLB: Colorado Rockies, Mid-Season---Good, Bad, What?

For more analysis, go to Mile High Sports Radio AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com

“SPORTS NOTEBOOK” posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.  

MLB:  IT’s not news that two MLB teams holding poor season records within their respective divisions can meet and provide an exciting three-game series. Nor is it news that a team with the second worst record in baseball can still have a bright side and experience glimmers of hope that they will be regarded as a professional sports organization worthy of respect and an audience. On Friday, July 13, the NL-West last place Colorado Rockies and the last place NL-East Philadelphia Phillies were the game of baseball peppered with excitement as a young and less experienced Rockies starter, LHP Christian Friedrich, battled the Phillies seasoned and award-winning starter, LHP Cliff Lee, with the Rockies taking the Phillies down, 6-2, the team’s first post-All Star win.

In that first versus Phillies game, the Rockies put its first run on the board in the second inning, and the Phillies followed with a run of their own in a later inning. Friedrich held the game at 1-1 until relieved, and flashing ahead across innings were moments that popular author John Grisham has embellished past belief in a recent best seller, Calico Joe, that of a  rookie making his first major league appearance, super hits at every at-bat. That was new Rockies infielder Josh Rutledge, up from Double-A Tulsa where he was averaging .306 with 35 RBI’s, 27 doubles and 13 home runs, suddenly proud owner in the majors of a game that the Rockies may have just squeezed through were it not for his hits per two at-bats and a deep sacrifice fly, result: RBI’s keeping the Rockies ahead of the Phillies.

And in games two and three of the versus Philadelphia series, which the Rockies lost 8-2 and 5-1, it wasn’t competition from Snoozeville. Innings that weren’t filled with lots of base-running carried the suspense of near strike-outs and then yer out, fella! So, who stood out among the Rockies during the vs. Philadelphia series, in addition to Rutledge? Outfielders and superb hitters, Dexter Fowler, and Carlos Gonzalez, and catcher and rookie, Wiln Rosario, a good guess being that these athletes will be helping to prove that for the remainder of the MLB season the Rockies, though far below .500 with only 34 wins against 54 losses at the start of the present week, and of a starter rotation and bull pen that’s still searching for the right performance upgrades, are still a formidable ballclub.

The Rockies Fowler has had six multi-hit games of seven in recent days, and he leads both the American and National Leagues this year in number of triples attained, “nine,” with Gonzalez and the Rockies Tyler Colvin following close with five triples apiece. In fact, the Rockies are leading the NL in triples for the year, with 34. Gonzalez was chosen as an All Star this year, and is number three in the NL for having the most extra base hits, 43 as of Sunday. Gonzalez is also third on the list of NL players achieving the most base-positions for the year, 191, also as of Sunday. As to the Rockies Rosario, he’s a leading MLB rookie regarding total home runs for the season, thus far---15.

Okay, the Rockies haven’t been a .500 team since the last day of April, when for that month the team went 11 wins/11 losses; and, by the end of May the Rockies were 10-18 for the month, and at the end of June, 9-18, and by July 12, 4-7,  all not good! Nor is it good that throughout this season the team has experienced only one significant winning streak, five wins straight from May 28 through June 1, meanwhile having suffered through five straight losses in May, followed by six straight losses in the same month.

Yet there’s a strange upside within the composition of the Rockies 2012 wins that point to a capability for high competitiveness. Of the nine games that the Rockies finished with 10 or more runs, in seven of them the Rockies have had twice the number of runs that were accrued by the opposing clubs, for example, the Rockies 17-8 victory over the San Francisco Giants, April 11, the exceptions being an 11-7 win against the Texas Rangers, on June 23, and a win against the Washington Nationals, 11-10, on June 28. It should be noted that in addition to these high numbered wins, most of them were against division leading teams that are still high above .500, for instance, the Rockies beating the Rangers and the Nationals, teams that could be the 2012 World Series contenders, this set of Rockies achievements not something that really bad ballclubs ever accomplish.

Without any doubt, then, “inconsistency” has been the overall drag for the Rockies, mostly from what’s been said on TV, in newspapers and on this page repeatedly, “a weak starter rotation and a line-up without enough power for offsetting the worst of the pitching staff’s vulnerabilities.” The Rockies 2012 pitching saga has included starters reaching failure mode before a fourth inning, among the sadder happenings the 49 year-old Jamie Moyer’s starting record plummeting. Add, RHP Jeremy Guthrie’s ability to start well experiencing a severe nosedive, with the entire pitching staff ERA above 5.0, lessened by the team’s lately improved relievers.

Also, the Rockies Disabled List has been a horror show, not only including power-hitter and outstanding infielder, Todd Helton, but also the award-winning hitter/shortstop,Troy Tulowitzki, plus star LHP Jorge De La Rosa and eight others have been on the 15-day DL roster. Add these days up and they reach 161, just short of the number of games that are played within the MLB year, which is an incredible loss of manpower for any organization, nearly the loss of a significant player per game between April and October. Now add that “15 DL days” is a mere label, that many on the list could be out for five or more weeks, as in the six weeks that Troy Tulowitzki will probably be gone from baseball; and, De La Rosa may not see the mound again until 2013. Ugh! From injuries, a team could see enough lost manpower-work days to fill an entire calendar year. That’s an enormous absence of game-changing talent and skill-sets, causing analysts to wonder if there’s something missing during baseball’s training days, and/or within a team’s ongoing effort to achieve game-ready well-being for all of its team members.

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LONDON OLYMPICS, 2012 // ALL SPORTS, “A Take On Today’s Big Questions”

For more analysis, go to Mile High Sports Radio AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com

“SPORTS NOTEBOOK” posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.  

LONDON OLYMPICS:   IT was 2004 when I stood at the exact spot where more than 1,000 years before a soldier called Phidippedes was ordered by superiors to bring a message to Athens, Greece, to proclaim the end of a brutal war, the then intrepid Athenians having beaten the formidable Persians. Phidippedes ran the 26 miles that is today’s runners’ marathon and the marathon that would be held during recurring Olympiads for around 1,000 years, starting 776 BC.

Not being a serious long distance runner (5K’s were my effort at the time), I followed the Phidippedes route mostly by vehicle, but during the following five mornings I ran laps around a track inside the same ancient mostly-marble stadium at Athens, where Phidippedes delivered that end-of-war communication, my noting that moving swiftly around the ancient track in the cool morning air were runners from several far apart locations, obvious from the languages that I heard spoken by them in pairs and in larger formations, corroborated after my asking “Hey, guys, where you from?”

Afield in that old Athens stadium were Greeks, Americans, Koreans, Japanese, Germans, French, Italians, Brits, and runners from several African countries, reminding what an amazing leveler the modern Olympics have been since planned for in 1894 and reactivated at Athens, Greece, in 1896, when 14 nations and their 241 athletes competed, with a message sent to all nations no different from that message given to the 14 nations comprising the first Olympics, that there be “an Olympic Truce,” that any nations at war agree to a cease fire during the Olympic games.

Probably intentioned, during the Olympics many military arts have been shown to be actualized and perfected as “peaceful endeavors,” among them, archery, fencing, shooting from horseback, plus the Olympic martial arts being held: taekwondo, boxing, judo and wrestling.

Though to be unheeded, the cease fire/make peace message will be communicated again worldwide prior to July 27, when the 2012 London-held Olympics will begin and will include 204 countries and approximately 11,000 athletes participating in 29 sports breaking out into 36 event categories and 302 events at 31 venues.

Right now, the famous Olympic torch is completing travel through numerous countries for what will be a 70 day trip to a giant cauldron at the main London Olympics field, where at the completion of the 17-day games on August 12 more than 2,000 gold, silver and bronze medals will have been awarded.

Of the 29 sports to be observed, U.S. Olympic teams have won medals in 26 of them over the years, none for badminton, handball or table tennis. During the last summer Olympiad, at Beijing, 2008, Team USA accrued 110 medals, 36 of them gold. As for the U.S. winning gold this year in team sports to be held at the London games, there are the following: basketball, soccer, tennis (doubles), hockey, beach volleyball, relays in track & field + swimming.

The most gold medals to be awarded during the Olympic games will be in track & field---47, the least being for each team sport, “two.”

Of the 10 American athletes that U.S. Olympic officials underscore as having better chances for gold than others, only three have national prominence and could set records---Tyson Gay, with statistics listing him as the second fastest sprinter in the world, and already winner of six Olympic gold medals, Ryan Lochte, and, of course, multiple medals winner, Michael Phelps.

ALL SPORTS:  There is an annual framing of time in American team sports when the inquisitiveness among fans doubles and triples, and it’s around now, as midsummer approaches. Of the questions dominating fandom today, here’s a few that Sports Notebook has been thinking about, knowing that they are not necessarily the most important among questions within the realms of world and national sports, also aware that only one or two can be answered definitively.

            Question: Which teams will be MLB’s division and league winners, and which will be playing in the World Series?

            Response: In the National League, only the Washington Nationals appear as a very likely division winner (NL-East), being four games ahead of second place team, the Atlanta Braves, and 4.5 ahead of third place team, the New York Mets, though there are enough games left in the 2012 season for the Nationals to fall behind and for the Braves and the Mets to catch up in the win column.

Regarding NL-Central, the Pittsburgh Pirates are only ahead today by one game over second place team, the Cincinnati Reds, and two above the St. Louis Cardinals.

In the NL-West, it’s a close battle now between first place team, the L.A. Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants, L.A. ahead by only one game.

In the American League’s East Division, the N.Y. Yankees are ahead by seven games, above the Baltimore Orioles, and 7.5 ahead of third place team, the Tampa Bay Rays.

In the AL-Central, it’s the Chicago White Sox atop the Cleveland Indians by three games and 3.5 above the Detroit Tigers.

In the AL-West, the Texas Rangers are leading by four games over the L.A. Angels, the Rangers being nine above third place club, the Oakland Athletics.

Given that in the major leagues, rankings do not shift starkly very often after the All Star break, a safe guess is that the currently 49/34 .590 Nationals will win the National League after defeating either the Dodgers or the Pirates, and that the Nationals will play either the AL’s NYY or the Rangers for the 2012 World Series championship.     

            Q:  Can USA basketball win gold at the London Olympics without Dywane Wade, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, and having to face a series of  “take LeBron James down” strategies?

            Response:  If LeBron James plays less for the “me” and more for the “we,” as he did throughout most of the 2011/12 post-season, the world will see that James can be the expert all-around basketball athlete, assisting, passing, rebounding, yet always available for the shot when able to evade double teaming—it is this that will enhance the U.S. chances for basketball gold. 

            Q:  Will Phil Jackson dump retirement (again) and decide to coach the New York Knicks?

Response: It won’t be personal ambition pulling Jackson back into the NBA, nor any allegiance that he may feel toward the Knicks, his team as a player many years back, nor will it be money, nor even pure love of the game. Any decision made by Jackson to coach the Knicks will likely be from something quite specific, the challenge of molding a team including Jeremy Lynn, Carmelo Anthony, of late Jason Kidd and J.R. Smith, and having that bunch defeat the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics.

Q:  The Brooklyn Nets, how will they fare as the first major professional sports team to grace Brooklyn since 1958, when the Dodgers departed for Los Angeles?

Response: If you are from Brooklyn, something like redemption is in the wind, and last place in 2013 will give Brooklyn’s sports fans the chance to scream, “Dem Bums!” which the old Dodgers listened to regularly.

Q:  Will the 2012 U.S. Open (tennis) prove (again) that America has lost an ability to field a Grand Slam winner in the men’s category?

Response: The answer here needs scientists from MIT, Harvard, NASA, plus Bill Gates, to deliver on, but until solutions are offered it’s good to remember Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, those whom the Europeans still idolize.       

            Q:  Can Tiger Woods move upward this year from position four among the world’s best professional golfers?

Response:  There’s not been any evidence yet of the consistency that delivered Tiger Woods' past achievements, and he’s up against better competition than in years past when under similar conditions.

            Q:  Will NFL Denver Broncos pass protection, running backs and receivers deliver the speed, synchronicity and skills needed to match quarterback Peyton Manning’s genius. And, should Manning begin to show some mileage due to his many years in the NFL, will they be able to offset such with their supportiveness?

            Response: The talent is there, depending greatly on the synchronicity built up during training, depending equally upon the season playbook-understandings + priortized preferences being generated “together” by Broncos head coach John Fox and Manning. 

            Q:  Will there really be a Manny Pacquiao/Bradley boxing re-match, and will Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. ever meet in the ring?

            Response:  It’s about the money, more money and lots, lots more money!!!      

              NOTE:   If there’s a question you’d like to have a response to, send it to MLResources1@aol.com.

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All Sports // MLB: All Star Game

For more analysis, go to Mile High Sports Radio AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com

“SPORTS NOTEBOOK” posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.

ALL SPORTS:   WITHIN U.S. and world sports, the year 2012 is already marked by those unexpected curves and twists that occur in the midsummer night dreams of Gods, heroes and anti-heroes. For instance, artful boxer Manny Pacquiao was unexpectedly beaten by a lesser competitor. Add, the strange happenings in tennis, such as Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Russian born/U.S. resident Maria Sharapova being put away early during the year’s Wimbledon tourney, and Serena Williams overcoming physical difficulties, pushing ahead to win Wimbledon for the fifth time.

            Also at Wimbledon, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic lost in the semi-finals and the United Kingdom’s Andy Murray made it to the finals and put up a fine showing while losing to Roger Federer’s 17^th Grand Slam victory and seventh Wimbledon win (the 30 year-old Swiss tied the Wimbledon win record held by U.S. tennis great, Pete Sampras).

And, Major League baseball has been just as strange, with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Washington Nationals among professional baseball’s leading teams when expected to be otherwise. How could award winning hurlers Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants and Cliff Lee of the Philadelphia Phillies be doing so poorly, and Texas Rangers hitter, Josh Hamilton, start the season so well, falling flat so quickly? Then there’s the expected to be marginal R.A. Dickey of the New York Mets becoming a knuckleball maestro, holding a 2.3 ERA and averaging 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings of play.

Also, there’s Miami Marlins slugger, Giancarlo Stanton, rising suddenly to be the game’s hope that home run kings will reign over the best pitchers for at least a decade (he’s well over .300 now---in May alone, he belted 12 homers and provided 30 RBI’s).

And, no ball club this year has been more stunningly and unexpectedly disappointing than the Colorado Rockies, as of yesterday holding the poorest record in both the American and National Leagues, only 33 wins against 52 losses, team average .388, the possibility of a .500 season finish a dreamer’s long stretch away.

Colorado’s problems are many, including a weak starting rotation, a bull pen that would have to be “the Avengers” in order to undo early inning damage, and a line-up of hitters running hot and cold, when hot just as admirable as the better hitters of most ball clubs. Unfortunately, Colorado’s inconsistency of power for extra-base hits and home runs hasn’t been enough to undo the rotation’s vulnerabilities.

With regard to professional basketball, the negative surprise has been the Miami Heat’s Dywane Wade and Chris Bosh, and the Los Angeles Clippers Chauncey Billups, suddenly no-go’s for the U.S. team at the London Olympics. Another NBA surprise has been Steve Nash traded from the Phoenix Suns to the L.A. Lakers, and Jason Kidd from the Dallas Mavericks to the New York Knicks.  

So---what all this demonstrates is that sports is always a verb, it’s action 24/7, a dynamic formed from a constant stream of multiple changes. Maybe constant change is at the core of professional sports, contributing to why all sports are speculative, not easy to predict.

Of course, some changes become positive transformations, evolving into betterment for the sport in question, while other changes barely alter the status quo. Changes can also deny progress, causing a sport to regress and lose respect, e.g., baseball during the steroid scandals, and college football marred by the Sandusky affair.

In tennis, Roger Federer’s quick return to being best among the best in tennis could be telling us that a paradigm change signaled by Nadal and Djokovic being the reigning champions among champions is not meant to be, and perhaps the likes of Stanton and a hitter like Carlos Gonzalez of the Colorado Rockies are evidence that super sluggers will still be lighting up baseball, that the game hasn’t been purchased by hammering and hard-edge pitching rotations.

And, what's the overall message from the current condition of the Rockies? In general terms, it’s that baseball, like all sports, is always what happens in spite of what’s planned, yet the best plans avoid the most damage.

MLB & the All Star Game.    

Except for 1945 (it was WW-2), there’s been a MLB All Star game every year since the early 1930’s, the American League winning 38 times, the National League 41, in 2002 a tie after 11 innings. Sort of close, but since year 2000 the AL has won the All Star game nine times, the NL three times, hardly close. However, the NL won the event in 2010 and 2011, cumulatively eight runs over the AL’s two.

And, there’s no proof that the NL cannot win again this year.

Yet even if the NL does win the All Star game, it will still be hard pressed to convince anyone that it is indeed the better league. Here’s why: the AL is the only league with teams averaging above .600, the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers. Moreover, the teams leading the AL’s three divisions are averaging .612, .600 and .553, with a total number of winning games exceeding 150, while the NL’s three division leading clubs have averages of .590, .565 and .540, with a total number of wins below 145.

Too, the AL’s worst three teams have 51, 48 and 43 wins respectively, the NL’s three bottom teams having 37, 33 and 33 wins respectively.

Yet the best way to enjoy MLB's All Star game is to set aside the numbers and watch baseball's best athletes do their thing.

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TENNIS, Wimbledon // SOCCER, Europe // GOLF: Tiger Woods.

For more analysis, go to Mile High Sports Radio AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com

“SPORTS NOTEBOOK” posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.

TENNIS:  SPAIN’s number four player in world tennis, Rafael Nadal, is now off the court at Wimbledon, and the year’s French Open winner, Maria Sharapova, is gone, too, and Serena Williams had to bow out---favorites least expected to be shut down early at a Grand Slam event. Left as a possible women’s champion at Wimbledon, is Germany’s Sabine Lisicki, having beaten Sharapova during Wimbledon’s fourth round. Among possible men’s tennis winners at Wimbledon, are the game’s number one player, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, Switzerland’s Roger Federer, and the United Kingdom’s Andy Murray.

If Djokovic wins at Wimbledon, it will be from his incredible endurance and his ability to keep the ball in transition with enormous power, placing physical strain on his opponents. Not that Djokovic isn’t a chess player on the court; he’s been able to surprise with clever set-ups capped by power shots that no player could return; rather, Djokovic’s endurance and power can be the X factor for winning when up against equally smart, or smarter, opponents. 

If Federer wins at Wimbledon, it will be from his still being the game’s most tactically skillful active player, with those skills prevailing against the endurance + power of players like Djokovic. Federer’s quality of endurance and strength hasn’t weakened considerably, but his is less than the endurance + power that in recent years has brought much success to the game’s new regime of winners (in today’s world tennis, strategy and tactical implentation often takes second place behind “staying power and the consistency of speed accomplished within”).

If Andy Murray dominates and takes the Wimbledon title, it will be from the upticks that he’s gained since being coached by former tennis champion, Ivan Lendl, getting more aggressive and stronger in his serves and return of serves, his volleying and a backcourt ability to shift quickly from defense posturing to maintaining the offense. Thus far at Wimbledon, Murray has been showing a better mix of the tactical + power game, still needing to extend his range of consistency.

SOCCER:  A country isn’t doing very well; it could go broke and have to borrow huge from others in order to survive, and one of its heroes, a young and world class tennis player, Rafael Nadal, had that bad day at Wimbledon, having lost to a player seeded 100. Apathy surfaced in Spain, but a reason for national pride erased that quite quickly, for, on Sunday, Spain proved that its soccer club is Europe’s best, defeating Italy’s also exceptional soccer team, 4-0, in this year’s Euro championship finals. In soccer, a 4-0 victory is super triumphant, like a 12-0 win in baseball.

Noteworthy is that Spain’s team gained two of its four points early in the first half, and the last two as if having postponed the gain deliberately, so as to tie a blue ribbon around the competition, which Spain’s team accomplished as though it had been choreographing the finals from moment one.

For Spain, Euro 2012 was its third big soccer title, having won the game’s World Cup in 2010, before that, Euro 2008, in each case and on Sunday winning mostly from three basic elements, (1) fast regaining of the ball from Italy’s struggling offense, (2) exploitation of openings for horizontal, backward and wide angle passing, which guaranteed a large number of scoring attempts, (3) outstanding goalkeeping.

Ask many an aficionado of soccer and they’ll suggest that what’s best about the game is observance of coordinated mastery of the three basic elements cited above, as team-members stay mission-oriented: “Score that goal with least amount of wasted movement!”  

GOLF:  On Sunday, Tiger Woods won the AT&T National at Bethesda, Maryland, doing so two under par, leaving with a score of 69, his 74^th major career win and his third such for 2012, placing him just below the great Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus for most career wins, adding legitimacy to the question, “Can Woods regain eminence as number one in world golf?”

The year is already a Woods comeback story; he’s positioned himself as number four in the annual PGA run, with two world class events to go. Necessary to be numero uno will be Woods playing better than he’s ever played, as the odds are within mathematical probability but unlike having assurance that the sun will rise tomorrow. Woods hasn’t been pure for 36 holes straight---but then neither has anyone else on the circuit.

Since golf is a game during which one’s best efforts can be minimized by players less skilled having their very best day for reasons they will never again encounter, Woods’ chances of 2012 supremacy will remain a bettor’s quandary.

END/ml