John’s Blog - Coast To Coast

Since so much has happened to the “Hanging Chads” over the past 24 hours, time for a “Part Deux.”

Billingsley: Brilliant today in Florida. The line: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 8 K’s, and the easy win as the Dodgers blew out the Marlins 13-1. Keep it going, Chad!

Cordero: A LONG DL stint. “The Chief” is going to miss four to six weeks thanks to an acute tear of the latissimus dorsi muscle in the back of his right shoulder. Jon Rauch will be closing games for the Nats during foreseeable future. Get well soon, Chad!

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This is actually going to be a rare Arizona-based blog… seems like all of the BIG sports stories tonight involve the Arizona teams, so that’s where I’m going… one involves the Diamondbacks baseball team, the other the Suns basketball team.

First off, Arizona Diamondbacks phenom Max Scherzer (pronounced “Sure Zur”) made his major league debut at home against the Houston Astros tonight and impressed everyone watching, pitching 4 1/3 perfect innings, while striking out seven in relief of an ineffective Edgar Gonzalez. Gonzalez was pulled with two outs in the third inning after allowing six earned runs. Scherzer’s 98 MPH fastball and devestating curveball simply had the Astros hitters completely baffled. If you’re in a fantasy league, it’s strongly recommended that you pick him up as he could be in a starting role with the D-Backs very soon thanks to injuries to several starters. Even in relief, seven strikeouts can certainly help your team - I even subbed him in for Ian Snell and Derek Lowe in a few leagues today and that paid off VERY nicely!

As for a move that didn’t pay off so well, that would go to the Phoenix Suns and the trade they made to counteract the Los Angeles Lakers’ move a few days earlier to get All-Star forward Pau Gasol. I made a post on February 6th stating that acquiring Shaquille O’Neal from the Miami Heat flat-out wouldn’t work as Shaq would not fit in well with the Suns fast-paced offense:

Shaq Diesel to Phoenix?

Five days later, I commented that the trade for Shaq would be termed “infamous.”

At the time of the trade, the Suns held a 2 1/2 game lead over the Lakers in the NBA’s Pacific Division. At season’s end, the Suns would find themselves two games back of the #1 Western Conference seeded Lakers and scratching their heads as they went to take on the defending NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs in their first round playoff series. The Spurs won the first three games of their series, while the Suns took game four to make it a three games to one San Antonio lead going into tonight’s game at the Alamodome in San Antonio. The game was close throughout, but in the end, the Suns and Shaq simply could not match up or play San Antonio’s slow down game as the Spurs prevaled by a 92-87 score. As for Shaq, he had a horrible game, making only two of eight field goal attempts and missing 11 of his 20 free throws. Yes, if Shaq could have just made his free throws? Sound familiar?

So, while the sun may have set on the Suns tonight, a bright star by the name of Max Scherzer may have risen out of the ashes in Phoenix as well!!!

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No, the Los Angeles Lakers didn’t bring their “A” game tonight to Denver - it was more like their “C” game. Lots of turnovers in the second half and some poor defense kept their opponent in the game after trailing by 10 points at halftime. In the end though, their “C” game was good enough as the Lakers defeated the Denver Nuggets 107-101 to sweep their best-of-seven first round series.

Kobe Bryant lead the Lakers as usual with 31 points, seven rebounds and six assists, though he did uncharacteristically miss six of his 10 free throw attempts. The rest of the three-headed beast was in full effect tonight as well as Pau Gasol contributed 21 points and seven boards, while Lamar Odom had yet another double-double, scoring 14 points, while leading the team with 12 rebounds. Amazingly, this sweep by the Lakers was the first in a playoff series since the 2002 NBA Finals.

The Lakers now get to rest a little as they await the winner of the series between the Houston Rockets and Utah Jazz. The Jazz currently hold a commanding three games to one lead in that series.

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When my sister told me a few weeks ago that she had bought ticket for herself, Mom and I to go see Richard Marx at the Canyon Club here locally in nearby Agoura, I had no idea of several things. First off, I did not know that Matt Scannell, the lead singer of Vertical Horizon was going to be performing with him. Secondly, I had no idea until the night before the show that three of my best friends (Gwen, Sarah and John) were ALSO going to the show! Needless to say, I knew it was going to be a fun night… best of all, I knew I’d be home before midnight - something that is very rare when attending a concert for me!

Mark Castrillion was of the first three acts to play and did a very good job, closing his 30 minute mostly acoustic set with a cover of Bon Jovi’s “I’ll Be There For You.” Kind of ironic, since the last concert I happened to see was Bon Jovi three weeks ago.

After Mark’s set, the local band Venice took the stage. My friend Gwen has been a big fan of theirs for quite a long time, and actually I had seen them perform with her and some other friends at the same Canyon Club a few years ago. They’re comprised of many members of the Lennon family, led my vocalists Kipp and Mark. They have been performing for generations, quite literally. Their set was highlighted by a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” and their song “The Family Tree.”

While the warm-up acts were good, they definitely paled in comparison to Richard Marx and Matt Scannell. They took the stage just before 9:45, and played for nearly two hours straight through a few technical difficulties. At the beginning, they alternated playing their songs. Richard did “Endless Summer Nights” to open things, and Matt then took over with the second hit from Vertical Horizon’s 1999 self-titled debut, “You’re A God.” A classic Marx ballad was next - “Now & Forever,” on which Marx implored the audience not to sing as they would “ruin the song.” We all got several laughs throughout the night at Richard’s sense of humor. They then played a couple of their newer songs before Richard launched into his hit “Hazard.”

Throughout the night, I shuffled between the table I was sharing with my Mom and sister and the floor where my friends were. And yes, John and Sarah (pictured below), you’re famous now! The middle of the show was very hilarious as Richard told a story about how his song and Matt’s songs (done by other artists) were doing very well on the radio back a couple of years ago. Richard is good friends with Country star Keith Urban and they’ve written several songs together the past few years including Keith’s hit song “Better Life”. Meanwhile, Nashville star Gary Allan covered Vertical Horizon’s third hit “Best I Ever Had.” The songs were climbing the Country chart at the same time and in the beginning Matt’s song was winning, beating Richard’s song into the top 20… soon thereafter thought, Richard’s song moved ahead and ended up spending five weeks at #1 on the Country charts for Mr. Urban. Matt’s song did very well for Gary Allan in it’s own right though, climbing to #7 on the Country chart. Soon after that, Matt launched into his version of his hit, while Richard sang an acoustic version of another of his #1 hits, “Should’ve Known Better.”

The last part of the show was definitely the best though… Richard continued with his massive library of hits, singing his first hit, “Don’t Mean Nothing” and then telling more stories - one involving his most famous #1 song, “Right Here Waiting.” He basically the song didn’t belong to him anymore as he told the story of a woman overseas singing the song during his travels one time. Richard then launched into the song… Matt then the song which put him and Vertical Horizon on the map, their first hit, the #1 song “Everything You Want.” The crowd truly enjoyed the show and their three song encore concluded with Richard’s version of another song he co-wrote with Keith Urban (which was another HUGE #2 hit for him on the Country charts), “Everybody.” Two great singers and two great songwriters coming together… it was quite an awesome show and night!

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It was probably their first true playoff test to date. The Los Angeles Lakers went to Denver to take on the Nuggets in game three of their best-of-seven playoff series this afternoon. The game just concluded and to say the Lakers passed their first playoff “road test” with passing colors would be a huge understatement. The Lake Show flat out ACED this exam!

With a ferocious defense, the Lakers held the Nuggets to just 46 first-half points in taking a seven point lead into the lockerroom. In the second half, the Lakers D tightened the clamps down even harder, holding the Nuggets to just 38 second half points. In the meantime, the Lakers offense was working on all cylinders. A 30 point third quarter extended the lead to 19 points and effectively put the game away. The Lakers lead grew to as many as 23 points in the final period, before they settled for a 102-84 victory to take a commanding three games to none lead in the series.

Once again, the Lakers victory was a team effort. As usual, Kobe Bryant led, scoring 22 points, while adding seven assists and eight rebounds. Pau Gasol had 14 points and Lamar Odom talled 12. Derek Fisher also scored 14 points, including three 3-pointers in the pivotal third quarter to help put the game out of reach. The final dagger from “D-Fish” came with 1:53 to play in the period to give the Lakers an 81-64 lead. Luke Walton again made his presence felt as the sixth man, scoring 15 points while adding five rebounds and five assists in just 24 minutes off the bench.

Game four of the series will be on Monday night at 10:30 ET/7:30 PT and can be seen on KCAL 9 locally and TNT nationally. GO LAKERS!

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If you’re a die-hard fantasy baseball player like I am, then probably two of the biggest enigmas of the 2008 season would happen to be pitchers named “Chad.” One plays on the West coast, the other plays on the East coast… A perfect topic for my “coast to coast” blog.

The pitcher on the West coast is a starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers named Chad Billingsley. Last night, he looked almost unhittable, striking out 12 batters! In his previous start, he struck out nine batters in just 4 innings! The problem though is that despite his dominating stuff, the “West coast Chad” also has been walking a lot of batters and conseuently giving up quite a few runs. Despite the 21 strikeouts in just 11 innings the past two outings, Billingsley has walked seven batters and allowed nine earned runs while giving up 12 hits. So, his K/9 ratio over that time is an other-worldly 17.18, but his ERA is 7.36 and his WHIP is 1.91. As a multiple league Billingsley owner, those latter two numbers hurt a lot… The season is young though, and as a 23 year old with tons of talent, I expect him to correct things and get those ratios down. It would probably be a good time to try and play up his WHIP and ERA numbers and get him in trade as it’s pretty obvious he can be VERY dominant! With experience, he will only get better.

As for the East coast pitcher named Chad, that would be the guy also known as “the Chief,” Chad Cordero. Arguably the Washington Nationals’ MVP the past three seasons with 113 saves, Cordero has battled with tendinitis and general weakness in his throwing shoulder. His fastball velocity has consistently been in the low 80’s this year, down several MPH from his usual numbers. Pitchers with arm issues and velocity issues tend to be a ticking time bomb. For the moment, Jon Rauch has taken over the closer’s role for the Nats. Unless something drastically changes, I don’t see this situation changing anytime soon. Needless to say, if Rauch is still available in your fantasy league you should pick him up right away. If someone is willing to give you near full-value for Cordero in trade, then I’d say do it, as things are not looking good for him at the moment.

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Yes, the much rumored about Leona Lewis appearance on American Idol finally took place last night during the results show, and from all accounts, she simply brought the house down! Leona gave the best U.S. performance of her hit “Bleeding Love” that I’ve ever seen and heard, hitting an amazingly high note towards the end of the song. It’s received stellar reviews pretty much EVERYWHERE! Yes, even the critics are starting to warm up to Leona!

Not too surprisingly, the Idol performance has pushed “Bleeding Love” back ahead of Madonna’s “4 Minutes” and into the #1 spot (by a wide margin) on iTunes. Leona’s album “Spirit” has already sold over 300,000 copies here in the U.S. in only two weeks, and you just know that the Idol performance will bolster the week three sales.

On the airplay front, “Bleeding Love” continues to do incredibly well. It cracked the 10,000 spin barrier on Pop radio on Tuesday and 100 million in estimated listening audience the next day. It’s now setting the Hot AC chart on fire, picking up unheard of 100+ spins a day gains in crashing the top 20 this week. She’s currently at #16 there and is a shoo-in to get to the top 10 next week. Even the Rhythmic stations are taking notice of Leona as she’s already up to #11 on that chart. Lastly, she’s even attracting the older adult crowd, moving up to #17 on the Adult Contemporary chart as of this morning. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again - the sky seems to be the limit here for Leona Lewis and her hit “Bleeding Love” here in America!

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The “MVP” chant was in full-force almost from the beginning for the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant in their game tonight at Staples Center in game two of their best-of-seven playoff series against the Denver Nuggets… Unlike Sunday’s performance where he had an off shooting game, #24 was simply “en fuego” all night long, scoring 20 points in the first quarter and 25 in the first half to help give the Lakers a 59-49 halftime lead.

The Nuggets though were not done, and actually went on a 21-10 run over the first 6:33 of the third period to take a one point lead at 70-69. The Lakers stormed right back though, going on a 20-9 run of their own to close the quarter, reestablishing their 10 point halftime margin. The Lakers withstood one last Denver run in the fourth quarter as Allen Iverson scored six points as part of a 14-9 run to trim the Lakers lead to 98-93 with 7:16 to play. At that point, Kobe decided to do what the only the very great ones are capable of doing - he almost single-handedly took over the game! Over the next almost five minutes, he scored 17 points during a 22-8 Laker run. Yes, it was VERY reminiscent of what #23 in the Chicago Bulls uniform did so many times in the 1990’s… After scoring his 49th point with 2:22 to play in the game, Kobe was pulled to more MVP chants from the crowd. The Lakers then cruised the rest of the way to a 122-107 win to take a two games to none lead in the best-of-seven series.

As for Kobe’s night, the 49 points only tell part of the story. He was extremely efficient from the field, making 18 of his 27 shot attempts including 5-for-9 on three pointers. He was also 8-for-9 from the foul line and even managed to dish out 10 assists when he wasn’t scoring. Both totals being one short of career playoff highs. Pau Gasol had a double-double of his own, scoring 18 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Luke Walton had another great game off the bench with 17 points, 7 rebounds and five assists.

Yes folks, Showtime is BACK in L.A.!!! The Lake Show featuring Kobe, Paul & L.O. travels to Denver this weekend. Game three of the best-of-seven series will be shown at 5:30 ET/2:30 PT on TNT. GO LAKERS!

I said it at the time of the trade, and I will reiterate it today. The Los Angeles Lakers acquision of Pau Gasol a few months ago may go down as the best in-season player move the Lakers organization has ever made. Mitch Kupchak has gone from looking like a goat to genius in a short six months, and Kobe Bryant for the first time in a very long time seems to be totally content playing here in Los Angeles.

Prior to yesterday’s game between the Lakers and the Denver Nuggets at the Staples Center, I had heard from ESPN and other sources that the officiating had been especially poor in most of the earlier playoff games held this weekend. Sure enough, as I got on the road to visit family yesterday and listened to the first several minutes of the game on the radio, what were the Lakers announcers griping about despite the Lakers getting out to an early 26-16 lead with less than a minute to play in the first quarter? Yes, the officiating! From buying into Vlade Divac-like flops by Nugget players and calling ticky-tack fouls on the Lakers it was apparent from the outset something was up.

After about three minutes or so of watching the game, I was convinced that the refs were trying to give the game to the Nuggets. And not surprisingly the Nuggets proceeded to go on a 27-9 run over the next seven minutes of action to take an eight point lead midway through the second quarter. The “officiating” got so bad that I even turned the game off, telling my Mom “the refs are trying to throw the game.” Despite the “officiating,” the Lakers though managed to go on a little run of their own, outscoring the Nuggets 11-4 over the next three minutes. The refs decided to then call a “phantom foul” on Allen Iverson against Kobe to give him his third one of the game with 2:51 to go in the half. Coach Phil Jackson took a risk and left Kobe in the game for more than two minutes before benching him with 35 seconds to play in the half. Led by Pau Gasol’s 18 points, the Lakers took a narrow 58-56 lead into the lockerroom. In addition to picking up three fouls, Kobe had a miserable first half offensively, scoring four points on just 2-for-9 shooting.

The Lakers halftime lead would have been much larger if the referees had called the game fairly - the Nuggets took 22 free throw attempts to the Lakers’ SEVEN in the first half!!! Perhaps Comissioner Stern sent a memo to the officiating crew at at halftime, as the officiating was much more equal in the second half.

Kobe and the rest of the his Lakers teammates, and most especially Gasol, made sure the refs weren’t going to have any bearing on the result of this one as they went on a 15-4 run to begin the second half to stretch the lead to 13 points. The Nuggets would never get closer than nine points the rest of the way as the three pronged monster of Kobe, Pau and “L.O.” went crazy over the game’s final 24 minutes. In his first ever playoff game victory in 13 tries, Gasol truly had a game to remember, finishing with 36 points, 16 rebounds, 8 assists and three blocked shots. Kobe pitched in 28 second-half points to finish with 32 despite only shooting 9-for-26 from the field. L.O. added 16 points, 14 boards and six assists, while Luke Walton chipped in with 17 points and five assists off the bench. Final score: Lakers 128, Nuggets 114.

Game two of the best of seven series will be played at the Staples Center on Wednesday night at 10:30 ET/7:30 PT and can be seen on TNT nationally and Prime Ticket locally.

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LPGA player Natalie Gulbis probably knows very well what Danica Patrick had to endure in not winning a single one of her first 49 IndyCar starts. Like Danica, Natalie had a lot of success prior to turning pro, winning lots of events growing up and coming close to winning many times as a pro - even losing an event in a playoff in 2006. Until yesterday, Danica’s highest finish also had been a runner-up. On July 29th of last year, after six years of playing on the women’s golf tour and being more known for her stunning looks than her playing ability, Natalie finally got the monkey off her back and won the Evian Masters in France for her first LPGA tour title. So effectively ever since that day, the monkey has resided squarely on Danica’s back. When would the female auto racer known better for her good looks than racing prowess finally break through? Well, that day turned out to be today!

Ironically, Danica followed Natalie’s lead and took her first IndyCar series win off of American soil as well. Using a fuel conservation strategy, Danica managed to hang in the top 10 of the Japan 300 throughout, but didn’t lead anytime during the first 197 laps. Just 11 laps from the finish she sat in 8th place. Helio Castroneves took the lead on lap 196 after Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan and Dan Wheldon had to pit. Danica then took the lead from Castroneves on lap 198 with a pass on the outside and then pulled away for a victory margin that nearly ended up being nearly six seconds at the conclusion of the 200 lap event.

Congratulations to Danica on breaking through and getting a very well deserved first win! Hopefully, this will be the first of many and it will finally put a stop once and for all to the unwarrented comparisons Danica was getting to a certain tennis player who never won a single event and was rarely competitive.. After yesterday, perhaps the monkey can make it’s rightful return to Anaheim where the Los Angeles Angels baseball team can make some good use of it!

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