The Yankees

The Major League Baseball season is in full swing right now and the New York Yankees are finally into their groove. They've won 9 of their last 11 games and just recently swept cross town rival the New York Mets. The most recent of those three wins came off of a walk-off home run by catcher Russell Martin. Everything seems to be coming together now, the pitching has been much better and the Bronx Bombers have climbed up the ladder from 4th place in the division up to a half a game back of the Tampa Bay Rays in 2nd place. It seems as though they've been able to get over the Mariano Rivera loss for the season with the ACL tear. David Robertson and Rafael Soriano have stepped up big time into that closer role. But the big story of late, is Mark Teixeira. Every Yankee fan knows that Mark always gets off to rough starts hitting wise in the beginning of the season. It's just what he does he tries to correct and for some reason he can't. It's been like this his entire career with any team. But lately he has been on a tear. He is finally out of his slump, good news to Yankees fans. But what's really stood out is the power he has displayed lately. Nevertheless, the Yankees are always in the conversation at the end, you can count on that. They are looking for their 28th World Series Championship, ans will stop at nothing to get it. Hopefully with all the experience the team has, they will be able to accomplish their goal. Especially since the careers of some of the veterans like Jeter, and Rivera, and Pettitte. are coming to an end very soon.

Rivalry

Celtics v. Heat has always been a heated rivalry in the NBA. And it feels like every time the playoffs roll around the Celtics end up taking on LeBron James the superstar of the league. They met when he was in Cleveland in 2008, and 2010. 2010 being LeBron's last year with the Cavaliers, the Celtics ended him on a low note and sent him packing. LeBron went to Miami, and what do ya know, the Heat met up with the Celtics again. Miami was able to edge them out for a chance to go to the finals even though they lost to Dallas in that. And then this year. One of the greatest playoff series, greatest performances in a single game by players, that I have ever seen. Game one went to the Heat, game two was a dramatic overtime victory for the Heat, Rajon Rondo put everything he had into this game, he played every second and put up a monster number in 44 points. Game three it all started to go downhill for Miami. They lost game three, game four on overtime, and game five. But the best player in the league would not be denied in game six. He had that look on his face. The look of determination and a look that he knew he was the best in the world and he would not be stopped from winning his first NBA title. He usually struggles in the garden but not on that night. He put up 45 points and took over the game and single-handedly defeated the C's in dominating fashion. Game seven was taken control of in the fourth quarter by the Heat and they cruised to a victory that set them up on a date with the Thunder in the NBA Finals.

Cinderella's

Cinderella stories are always a very intriguing and exciting part of sports. Everyone loves them and it really turns people who aren't fans of the sport into fans. It's like TV stations or games get much higher ratings. Usually this cinderella's don't happen in the professional sports, the higher ranked or higher seeded team usually wins the game. It's more common in college for lower seeded teams or smaller schools to defeat larger ones, especially in the Men's College Basketball tournament. There is even one still alive in the College Baseball tournament. Stony Brook a number four seed in their regional, swept the regional and is currently one win away from going to the College World Series. They will take on #7 National seed LSU later tonight in a winner-take-all game 3. What I'm really writing this blog about though, is the LA Kings. This is a team who at the all-star break wasn't even at .500, and fired their coach. At the trade deadline they picked up a nice player in Jeff Carter from the Philadelphia Flyers. And that was when everything started to turn around. They started winning, other teams started losing, and it started to seem as if they had a chance at getting back into the playoff race. And they did. Just barely squeaking in after some wins in the last couple games of the season. Being the last seed, they obviously had to take on the #1 seed, which was the Edmonton Oilers. They swept them, and then won in 5 against the Phoenix Coyotes. Do they head into the Stanley Cup not having lost a game on the road, and they win the first three games against the Devils. They finally lose a game on the road in game 5, and will look to finally close out their red hot streak of wins.

Playoffs

Playoff series are always very intense. As a matter a fact any playoff game is really intense no matter what sport it is. Whether it's football, basketball, baseball, or hockey, any playoff game of any ages is intense. Currently there is three sports that are in the postseason at the moment. The NBA is about to begin the 7-game series in the NBA Finals. The NHL is currently in the Stanley Cup series, where the cinderella-story, 8th seeded Los Angeles Kings, lead the New Jersey Devils 3 games to 2. Game 6 will be on Monday where the Kings look to clinch their first ever Stanley Cup. The NBA Finals beginning on Tuesday will feature 4 of the best players in the league, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade for the Miami Heat, and Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook for the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Heat defeated the Boston Celtics in 7 games in a back and forth series where LeBron took over the last couple games to get his team the win. The Thunder defeated a very experienced San Antonio Spurs who already won a championship together. But the Thunder won the series in 6 games after falling down 2-0 in the series. The last sport in the postseason, is College Baseball. Now talk about an exciting sport. I know the majority of the population isn't big baseball fans or they think it's boring, but you should see the passion within the players and the intensity and the craziness of this sport. Really for all collegiate sports. It's amazing. They do it for the love of the game. And that is really what it feels like in any playoff series. It's as if all the professional athletes were back to school and weren't doing it for the money anymore and that's really what it is all about.

MLB Draft

The Major League Baseball Amateur Draft is a very long process that lasts about a week. Over 1200 players are drafted players drafted to 30 different teams. High School and College players from all over the world are drafted. And the top players or so can become very productive in the future with their team. And in come cases, that future can be very quickly for them. For example look at the last two number one overall picks. First of all, those two picks went to the same team, the Washington Nationals. Now talk about rebuilding. Stephen Strasburg, a pitcher out of the University of San Diego State, was taken two years ago and made his MLB debut in the summer of last year. He is a go who throws upper 90's on the radar gun, and can even clip 100. He also has a very dirty, and sharp breaking ball, and a nice complementary changeup. I had the chance to this guy in person when he was in Triple-A playing against the Bisons. And it was crazy he was so good, and I'm surprised some of the kids could even touch him. Last year, they took Bryce Harper, who may have been the most talked about and best MLB prospect in the history of the draft. As a Junior in High School, he hit a 500 ft home run and left school early to go to a community college so he could get drafted sooner. As a 17 year old he was drafted and made his MLB debut earlier this year. Alden alum, Christian Barczykowski, was drafted in the 27th round in this year's draft by the Atlanta Braves. Hopefully he will get his opportunity to make his MLB debut in the near future. Goos luck to Christian, and congratulations.