tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-109682742009-11-04T10:40:20.488-05:00The Sporting Word is a site designed for fans to express their opinions on the world of sports. Anybody can submit an article and be published. To submit a article or contact us, email us at <a href="mailto:sportingword@hotmail.com">SportingWord@hotmail.com</a>.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.comBlogger166125http://sportsop.blogspot.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1129822716311496222005-10-19T11:00:00.000-05:002005-10-20T10:38:36.323-05:00By Val Thompson With one swing of the bat last night, Albert Pujols cemented himself as the best hitter of the 21st Century. With one swing he showed why he is on a plateau above all the others. Great hitters compile great numbers during the regular season. There are several great hitters in the major leagues. But Pujols is the greatest because he can perform when his team absolutely needs him...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com78http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/10/pujols-pulls-through.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1129656039831914422005-10-18T23:00:00.000-05:002005-10-18T12:20:39.846-05:00By Greg Kelminson The NBA has finally achieved all its objectives. The league has obviously mastered any salary cap issues, ridded all violence from the league, and has purged its reputation that drugs are rampant in the NBA. Yes, it was only a matter time before the league addressed the most ubiquitous and pressing issue the league has ever faced: a mandatory dress code. The NBA has turned...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com9http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/10/nfp.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1129594945061590752005-10-16T23:00:00.000-05:002005-10-17T19:22:25.083-05:00By Jake Brown Michelle Wie made her much anticipated professional debut this weekend in the LPGA World Samsung Championship. This was the biggest story of the weekend in golf, even bigger than Annika Sorenstam coasting to yet another victory. The problem was that Wie didn’t just make the headlines for competing in her first tournament as a pro. She made the biggest headlines for being...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com12http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/10/wie-bit-of-mistake.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1129345210782048622005-10-14T11:00:00.000-05:002005-10-14T22:00:10.820-05:00By Val Thompson Can we please put an end to all this talk about how A.J. Pierzynski and the "called third strike" controversy won Game 2 for the Chicago White Sox? Reporters, on-air personalities, and baseball players alike act as if the game was won when Pierzynski reached first base. Though filled with controversy, Pierzynski's "stealing" first base was not even the most significant play of...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com10http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/10/angels-not-robbed.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1129180045260041472005-10-12T23:00:00.000-05:002005-10-13T00:07:25.270-05:00By Val Thompson Everyone keeps talking about the Anaheim Angels' flight itinerary as if it's the most important aspect of the American League Championship Series. All of a sudden, because the Angels were on a plane the last two nights, they enter with a huge disadvantage against the White Sox. It's true that Anaheim should be an underdog in the upcoming series, but it has nothing to do with jet...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com9http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/10/somber-series.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1129046682960975012005-10-11T11:00:00.000-05:002005-10-11T11:04:42.976-05:00By Jake Brown This is finally the year the Green Bay Packers will be left behind in the NFC North Division, or so it seemed until this past week. The team that has reigned over the division for the past three season looked to be all but done after a 0-4 start left them one of the few winless teams leading into week five of the NFL schedule. Then the New Orleans Saints rolled into Titletown....<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com2http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/10/not-packing-it-in.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1128873892508403962005-10-09T11:00:00.000-05:002005-10-09T11:04:52.516-05:00By Greg Kelminson Emeka Okafor grew up in Houston, Texas. He went from a relatively unknown high school player onto center stage at the University of Connecticut. Coming out of college, most people believed he was as close to a sure thing as an athlete can get. He was projected to be a double-double guy night in and night out. The Charlotte Bobcats immediately grabbed him with the second...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com2http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/10/okafor-odyssey.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1128755986652451382005-10-07T23:00:00.000-05:002005-10-08T02:19:46.666-05:00By Val Thompson This season, major league baseball players did something that hadn't been accomplished since 1964. It's not a new home run record. In fact, it has nothing to do with power numbers. It has nothing to do with the nine steroid suspensions that were dished out this season. On the opposite spectrum of the nine suspendees stand ten players who stood up this year and showed that...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com1http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/10/baseballs-workhorse.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1128702003611387762005-10-07T11:00:00.000-05:002005-10-07T11:20:03.630-05:00By Mike Moore After 16 months of anger, 16 months of frustration, and 16 months of resentment, it took only 95 seconds for fans of Hockeytown to remember what it was they had missed so much. And it wasn’t a sight which sparked the memory, it was a sound. Resembling that of a speeding fire truck, the horn blared once, then again, three times, and finally four. It is a sound in Detroit’s Joe...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com3http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/10/hockey-towns-usa.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1128568900683640582005-10-05T23:00:00.000-05:002005-10-05T22:21:40.696-05:00By Val Thompson The NHL debuts tonight in an arena near you. The league is coming back in full force, with each of its 30 franchises opening on the same night. Games are literally going on across the continent. Not a single league game has been played since the Tampa Bay Lightning won Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals on June 7, 2004. That was 484 days ago. Since then, the NHL has gone through...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com2http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/10/hockeys-home.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1128521452374244802005-10-04T23:00:00.000-05:002005-10-05T09:10:52.390-05:00By Val Thompson Daunte Culpepper came clean yesterday about a knee aggravation that may be the cause of his horrible start this season. He suffers from a strained ligament and bursitis in his right knee. Nevertheless, he insists that he's going to stay off the sidelines. "There's swelling, and it's painful, but I'm a warrior," Culpepper told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "I'm going to push...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com2http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/10/viking-warrior-hurting-team.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1128402183654491792005-10-03T23:00:00.000-05:002005-10-04T00:03:03.670-05:00By Val Thompson October is the best month to be a sports fan. You've got the baseball playoffs (which, unlike basketball and football, involve only the upper-eschelon teams and don't drag out for two months), the heart of the NFL regular season, and college football. Professional baseball writers will try, and fail, during the course of the day to select which teams will move on from the...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com1http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/10/playoff-pickings.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1128371386565895082005-10-03T11:00:00.000-05:002005-10-03T15:29:46.576-05:00By Jake Brown I recently had a conversation with a rabid Notre Dame Football fan. Actually, I have these conversations frequently, having grown up no more than 30 minutes from the Golden Dome. But anyway, these conversations usually go something like this: ND Fan: USC is going down in two weeks! Me: Haven’t you noticed that USC is one of the best teams of all-time; they have a quarterback for...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com0http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/10/golden-oppertunity.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1128224007334074232005-10-01T23:00:00.000-05:002005-10-01T22:33:27.346-05:00By Val Thompson The focus of major league baseball this week is on pennant races. Rightly so. The focus is also on MVP races. Not so rightly so. Meanwhile, hardly anyone is talking about what could be the best individual accomplishment by any player this season. Jimmy Rollins is in the middle of a 33-game hitting streak. With a hit on Friday, he would move into a tie for 12th for the longest...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com0http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/10/rolln-rollins.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1128182798336578012005-10-01T11:00:00.000-05:002005-10-01T11:06:38.346-05:00By Brian Weaver Okay, kids, you know how “mad libs” work: Whenever you see parentheses, get your friends to give you whatever word the story asks for, and the story writes itself. I’m (adjective) of Barry Bonds. After a year of (verb ending in –ing) about how rough his life is, the biggest (noun) in baseball is back in the batter’s box. Apparently, he didn’t jump off a bridge like he said...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com1http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/10/fill-in-blanks.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1128001882471189712005-09-28T23:00:00.000-05:002005-09-29T08:51:22.486-05:00By Val Thompson I admire the efforts by Congress to bring stricter punishment to steroid-users in baseball and other professional sports. The baseball players union has been dragging its feet and has not properly dealt with the problem. Commissioner Bud Selig's proposal of a 50-game ban for the first offense, 100-games for the second, and lifetime for the third is appropriate (although I would...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com19http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/09/steroid-crackdown-not-about-kids.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1127926602584290702005-09-28T11:00:00.000-05:002005-09-28T11:56:42.610-05:00By Val Thompson The Cincinnati Bengals are off to their best start in 15 years, due in great part to the turnaround of second-year quarterback Carson Palmer. Palmer is leading the NFL with eight touchdown passes and ranks second only to Ben Roethlisberger in quarterback rating. Palmer is at the head of the league's most surprising team (Dolphins notwithstanding). He's calling the shots on the...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com2http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/09/palmer-power.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1127828126091031752005-09-26T23:00:00.000-05:002005-09-27T08:35:26.106-05:00By Jake Brown If you would’ve told me a year ago that the Indianapolis Colts would be undefeated through three games with only two touchdown passes by Peyton Manning I would have laughed at you. But here we are, three weeks into the season, and that is exactly what has happened. The defense Indianapolis has featured over the past few seasons certainly has not been Super Bowl caliber, to say...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com1http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/09/new-in-dee-colts.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1127591339027334822005-09-24T11:00:00.000-05:002005-09-24T14:48:59.036-05:00By Val Thompson ESPN baseball writer Tim Kurkjian reported earlier today that Joe Torre could be fired if the Yankees don't make the playoffs. This seems ridiculous at first. After all, Torre has built the franchise, and has kept it going for almost a decade. In Torre's nine complete seasons as head coach, he has compiled a record of 887-567. He's never had a losing season. He's won eight...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com1http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/09/torres-trouble.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1127444959044994242005-09-22T23:00:00.000-05:002005-09-22T22:09:19.066-05:00By Val Thompson Both the Houston Astros and the Anaheim Angels appear to be playoff-bound. Both teams have been carried since August by an underrated veteran pitcher. Bartolo Colon finally got some attention when he became the first pitcher in the American League to get to 20 wins. Not Johan Santana. Not Jon Garland or Mark Buerhle. Not Randy Johnson. Instead, it's the short, stubby Colon who...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com1http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/09/making-pitch-for-playoffs.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1127403186176809942005-09-21T23:00:00.000-05:002005-09-22T10:33:06.190-05:00By Val Thompson The WNBA announced the new team name and logo for the new franchise in Chicago today. And the much anticipated result is: The Chicago Sky. They'll be light blue and yellow (like a sky?). I'm told the logo includes the Sears Tower, which forms the "k" is Sky. Team CEO and president Margaret Stender said the name had to be "distinctly Chicago". Right. No other towns or cities in...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com3http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/09/mascot-madness.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1127320928511331962005-09-21T11:00:00.000-05:002005-09-21T11:42:08.523-05:00By Val Thompson The second week of action in the NFL is so full of surprises, shocks and oddities that I couldn't pick one thing to focus on. Some obvious observations coming from yesterday: Team with an 0-2 start that still has the best chance: Oakland Raiders. Moss and Company at least competed in both of their losses, which can't be said for most 0-2 teams. Their problem is they're not...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com0http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/09/week-2-wonderings.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1127184043220708682005-09-18T23:00:00.000-05:002005-09-19T21:40:43.230-05:00By Jake Brown It seems as if everyone thought that when the Minnesota Vikings jettisoned their star wide receiver to Oakland in the off season they would be better for it. Sure, Randy Moss was a distraction both on and off the field. But after two horrific games this season, the Vikings seemed to be headed in the wrong direction without their former star. The list of problems is long in...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com2http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/09/culcrapper.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1126925129012433242005-09-16T11:00:00.000-05:002005-09-16T21:45:29.023-05:00By Val Thompson Whew. Lance Armstrong is not coming back. It's a wise decision in a sporting world filled with athletes who don't know when to ride off into the sunset. Armstrong's decision to be done with competitive cycling is good for him, good for America, and horrible for the Tour de France. Now Americans no longer have to pretend to care about cycling for three weeks in the heart of the...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com2http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/09/lance-passing-chance.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10968274.post-1126878373246675682005-09-15T23:00:00.000-05:002005-09-16T08:46:13.256-05:00By Val Thompson There has been a lot of talk lately about the "front-runners" in the MVP race in the American and National League. Sportswriters and columnists seem satisfied in narrowing down their nominees to two players in the AL (Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz) and two players in the NL (Andruw Jones and Albert Pujols). Each of these players is having an incredible year and is extremely...<br/> <br/> Read the full article or submit your own article for publication at http://sportsop.blogspot.com.Big Skinnynoreply@blogger.com1http://sportsop.blogspot.com/2005/09/mv-lee.html