Sports Vortex Podcast Live Tonight

Mike Easler, former MLB'er who now runs the website Conditioned To Hit, joins us tonight to break down the World Series between the Yankees and the defending champion Phillies. Tim Rosenthal from Inside Hockey will probably stop by, and we give out our "More Worthless than Colin Farrell" award. The Sports Vortex Podcast, tonight from 9-11a at the TheBigJab.com

Author of A-Rod SI Article Penning a Book

Selena Roberts, the SI writer who basically picked the giant scab that is steroids off of baseball's leg this weekend, is now starting to emerge as a story in her own right. First according to Miami police there was an incident between her and one of A-Rod's security guards at his Miami home.

Then SI.com interviewed her today.

Oh and she is also writing a book, which includes details of how A-Rod likes buff women.

There are 103 other players that tested positive in 2003 that are currently unnamed.

No this doesn't smell awful at all.

Monday Morning Quick Hitters

Clay Buchholz had another poor performance, losing to the Chicago White Sox 6 - 5.

The California Angels finished off a sweep of the New York Yankees with a 4 - 3 win.

The Minnesota Twins lost to the KC Royals 5 - 4 in 12 innings and also lost a game in the standings to the Chicago White Sox, now 1/2 game down.

A late inning rally got the Philadelphia Phillies over the Pittsburgh Pirates 6 - 3.

The NL East stayed tight Sunday, as the Florida Marlins stayed away from a sweep, and beat the New York Mets 8 - 2. The Mets are 2 games back of the Phils and the Marlins are 2 1/2 games back.

Former Portland Sea Dog Ryan Dempster dominated the St Louis Cardinals on the way to a 6 - 2 win. The Cubbies are now 4 games up on the Brewers and 7 up on the Cardinals.

Gabe Kapler, through 12 innings was 0 - 6 with 2 Ks and 6 LOB, but leading off the 13th, Kapler beat the Nationals wioth a walkoff HR. The Brewers beat the Nationals 5 - 4.

Arizona D-Backs pitcher Brandon Webb dominated on the mound and also added 2 RBIs on the way to beating the Atlanta Braves 6 - 1.

The LA Dodgers blow another save against the San Francisco Giants, losing to the Giants 5 - 4. The Dodgers are now 1 1/2 game back of the D-Backs.


Kyle Busch continued his absolute dominance in the NASCAR.





Michael Phelps won an improbable 2nd Gold in the 4x100 Men's Freestyle. Trailing on the final turn, Jason Lezak, swimming anchor, swam the fastest leg in Olympic relay history, beating the world record holder to win the Gold.

Approximately 1 billion (insert Dr Evil joke here) people watched USA Basketball put away an early challenge from China, and finally beating them in prelim action, 101 - 70.

Nadal struggles to a 3 set win in Olympic tennis.

Seems the rain from home has followed Maine's Olympic rowers.

Sunday Morning Quick Hitters

The Boston Red Sox continued their mastery over the AL Central, beating the White Sox 6 - 2. The win give the BoSox an 18 - 7 record against the AL Central. Chicago lost Jose Contreras for the rest of the season while he was trying to cover 1st on a Jacoby Ellsbury grounder.

The California Angels pounded the New York Yankees once again. Vlad Guerrero triggered a 8 run 8th inning with a HR starting the onslaught. The Angels won 11 - 4.

Tampa Bay came back again, beating the Seattle Mariners in 11 innings 8 - 7. The Rays tied their franchise record for total wins, 70. The Rays stayed 3 1/2 games up on Boston.

The Minnesota Twins took sole possession of 1st place with their 7 - 3 win over the KC Royals. Francisco Liriano looked very good again in his 2nd start back from the DL. The Twins are 1/2 game up on the Pale Hose in the AL Central.

Philadelphia Phillies starter Brett Myers did not like being told "boom...Outta Here" by manager Charlie Manual after 7 2/3 strong inning, arguing with his skipper on the mound and in the dugout during the Phillies 4 - 2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. All seemed calm after the game from all parties.

The New York Mets used huge rookie contributions to stay within 1 game of NL East leaders, the Philadelphia Phillies. Mets outfielder Daniel Murphy ( pinch hit 2 run HR) and starter Brian Stokes (5 2/3 innings, 6 Ks) helped the Mets to the 8 - 6 win over the Florida Marlins.

The St Louis Cardinals playoff hopes got a slight bit brighter with their 12 - 3 win over the NL Central leading Chicago Cubs. Troy Glauss, who was previously hitless against the Cubbies, hit 2 HRs and had 5 RBIs. St Louis' win puts them 6 games behind the Cubs.

The Milwaukee Brewers gained a game in the standings by beating the Washington Nationals 6 -0. The win marks the 1st time since 1992 that the Brewers has back to back complete game shutouts by their pitching staff. The Brewers are now 4 games behind the Cubs.

The Arizona Diamondback's playoff push may have taken a monstrous blow Saturday. 2nd Baseman Orlando Hudson broke his wrist attempting a tag. Hudson could be gone for the year. The Atlanta Braves used a 7 run 6th inning to top the D-Backs 11 - 4.

The Los Angeles Dodgers missed a golden opportunity to take sole possession of 1st place in the NL West Saturday, losing to the San Francisco Giants 3 - 2 in 10 innings. Jeff Kent gave the Dodgers the lead with a solo HR in the top of the 10th. Captain Fake Tan aka Jonathan Broxton quickly blew that lead when he had a wild throw home on a squibber, loaded the bases and allowed a line drive through the drawn in infield for a blown save. Manny "I Love LA" Ramirez had 3 more hits for the Dodgers. The win came on the Giants 50th Anniversary in San Francisco which Barry Bonds attended.


Michael Phelps won, what is likely the 1st of many Gold Medals setting a blazing world record of 4:03.84 in the 400M Individual Medley (IM consists of all 4 swimming strokes, freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly).

The Men's Volleyball team overcomes shock and sadness to win their 1st match of the Olympics.

Dara Torres became the oldest competitor in Olympic swimming to win a medal, when at age 41, the US 4x100 freestyle team took home silver. Torres won her 10th Olympic Medal in her 5th Olympic competition.

US sprinter Tyson Gay feels good in 1st full workout in Beijing.



Denver Broncos linebacker Louis Green was carted off the field in a violent collision in the 1st quarter of Denver's 19 - 16 loss to the Houston Texans.

Multi-year Multi-Million dollar RB Ryan Gran has a hamstring injury that is causing concern for the Packers.

Brett Favre was a huge hit in his 1st practice with the Jets.

Sports Vortex guest Paul Kuharsky has a nice story on David Garrard and his 1st full off season as starting QB.


The Los Angeles Lakers signed their 2nd round draft pick Sun Yue, who is currently playing for the Chinese Olympic Basketball Team.

A Blog's Resurrection-Semi Daily Postings and thoughts Start Today!

On a Monday in which the headlines were not all about Mike Vick's kennel club and Tim Donaghy's penchant for picking overs, I thought it might be time to bring the blog back to semi-regularity and respectability. The MLB Trade deadline is tomorrow, I will be posting links to the sites that first report the trades if you need more info than what I post here. Also news out of Boston that the Celtics and T-Wolves yelled "clear" and electric-chest-paddled the Kevin Garnett trade talks back to life. MLB trade stuff first.

Mark Teixeira is going to be a member of the Atlanta Braves. The trade consists of Teixeira and reliever Ron Mahay going to the Braves for Jarrod Saltalamacchia(that is way easier to spell than Mientkiewicz) and three minor league prospects, two of which are pitchers. The Fort Worth Star Telegram reported this first (amazingly beating ESPN to the punch, lol) http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/story/185662.html, so they get the credit here. Probably the best deal Texas could make at this point, as they probably didn't want to send Teixeira to the Angels and face him 19 times a year.

Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe is reporting that the Red Sox and White Sox are preparing to swap Wily Mo Pena and probably a minor league pitcher (although there is rumor that Manny Delcarmen could be involved) to the ChiSox for Jermaine Dye. Details can be found here -http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2007/07/dye_chances_pre.html
Still not sure what this does for Boston. Dye isn't a real strong bench player type, and it almost admits that signing JD Drew this offseason hasn't worked out. It makes me wonder if the Sox may have a deal in place to move Coco Crisp for a bullpen arm, and they are planning on moving Drew to center, putting Dye in right and calling up Ellsbury to be the 4th outfielder. That is just speculation on my part, but keep in mind when the Red Sox make trades, they are usually trading for one thing to replace something else they haven't traded yet. (Update 7-30-2007 3:23 pm est-Edes is now saying that the Red Sox cooled on the deal once Kenny Williams insistance on Delcarmen or Justin Masterson didn't die down, so this one looks like it is on the back burner for now).

So far not alot of other deals that are close, other than the Eric Gagne sweepstakes (supposedly the Yankees are the front-runners, but only if Texas stops demanding Melky Cabrera). I haven't seen much to any Griffey or Dunn rumors. Kyle Lohse and Jose Contreras don't really get my blood boiling all that much either. It would be nice to see the Yankees get rid of Kyle (I call him "specs")Farnsworth in another addition by subtraction move.

On to the NBA, where although not a ton of stuff has been reported so far today , but yesterday(and this morning) draftexpress.com (http://draftexpress.com/blogs.php?blogid=8) broke the news that Kevin Garnett may have changed his mind about not coming to Boston after all, and that the Celts and Wolves were close to a deal that would send Al Jefferson, Theo Ratliff, Sebastian Telfair (and presumably his collection of assorted handguns) and Gerald Green to the Wolves for Garnett. Brian Scalabrine and next year's first rounder have been mentioned as well, as Garnett has a trade kicker in his contract that will bring his total cap figure this year to over 23 million. Reasons for the change of heart haven't been explained but something tells me the Celtics draft night exodus of Wally Szczerbiak might have changed KG's mind about heading to Beantown. I hope Michael Wilbon doesn't write another article about Boston's penchant for racism that gets KG to change his mind again, because this would be a really good thing basketball here in the northeast. I also find it extremely coincidental that this news comes over a week and half after the Tim Donaghy scandal and that there really hasn't been any other transaction news during that time. Convenient for the NBA? Probably. I also think that if the Celtics make a triumphant return to the NBA Finals it might help those sorry NBA Finals ratings last spring. Think a Celtics/Suns finals might get some people interested in the NBA again?