Day 183: First Half Recap: 6 Months Down, 6 Months to Go!

The Balls of All Sizes quest for 365 consecutive days of sports blogging is half over as of today. For six straight months, I have (surprisingly) stuck to my goal and it has been a blast doing it. I've learned a lot about sports I don't normally watch and blogged about some that don't really involve balls. A lot has happened over the past six months—some pretty awesome stuff and some pretty awesomely bad stuff. 

Just in case you're new to Balls, here are a few of my favorites:

April 12:  Day 12: Happy Birthday, Dad!

What better way to honor my dad on his birthday than to write a post for him. He's the reason I love sports so much—it's his fault I care so deeply about every win and loss.

April 24:  Day 24: Happy Birthday, Mom!

It just wouldn't have been fair to honor dad without giving mom her day in the sun. She also has a lot to do with my sports addiction. She allowed it.

May 10:  Day 40: An Act of Kindness. A Happy Fan.

Even though I'm not a Dodgers fan and really don't care what they do, I fell in love with this story and Matt Kemp's selfless act of kindness making a young man's day.

May 22:  Day 52: Jerry Remy: Commentator Extraordinaire or Playgirl Pinup?

This post totally cracked me up to research and write and it was one of my most successful with 122 views. (For me, that's a banner day!!)

June 27:  Day 88: Aaron Hernandez is a Dumbass

Even though there were a couple Hernandez posts that precede Day 88, this one is by far my favorite. Not only because I got the chance to rant about a completely ridiculous situation, but also because the damn post got 251 views. Must've been the title!

June 29:  Day 90: These are a Few of My Favorite (Fenway) Things

Just because I love Fenway Park so much... if anyone ever tears this ballpark down, I'll be forever broken. Baseball season is the only time of year I sort of wish I lived in Boston.

July 16:  Day 107: An Open Letter to the Pre All-Star Break Red Sox

I actually got to the point of hating the Red Sox towards the end of last season. I went to a game in August and wanted so badly to throat-punch each and every guy on the field. It was just to nice to love this team again.

July 17:  Day 108: Those Rolling Stone Idiots Really Have No Clue

I've never been so disgusted with a publication as I was with Rolling Stone for glorifying that asshole who was responsible for the Boston Marathon Bombings. 

August 8:  Day 130: Wes Welker Left Because Bill Belichick was Mean... Really?

I love this post for many reasons, but mainly because I was half in the bag when I wrote it. And I still think I managed to write a pretty mistake-free post that actually made some sense!

September 9:  Day 162: Red sky at night, sailor's delight.

This post was a favor for a friend who loves sailing. Who knew that I would become so caught up in the America's Cup, I would write not one, but three posts about the oldest trophy in sports. It was fun doing the research and learning all about this rich man's race.

September 21:  Day 174: Red Sox Clinch the AL East... And I WAS THERE!!

Of course this one is on my list... I've never been to a division clinching game before so this was so much fun. What a season for the Sox!!

Well, I think that's probably enough favorites for now. I just hope the next six months provide as much material as the first six did. Minus murderers on my favorite teams... I've had enough of that. 

Do you have a favorite?

Day 182: And That's a Wrap for Regular Season Baseball

Well folks... the 2013 MLB regular season is officially ends today and for the first time since 2009, the Red Sox will see some October action. It makes me happy and nervous all at once. While I love October baseball, when the Sox are involved, I spend the entire playoffs in a severe anxious state. Please pass the Xanax.

The results looks a little something like this:

American League:
East—Boston Red Sox are Champions of the East after completing a magical worst to first turnaround. They also clinch home field advantage with the best record in the AL.
Central—Detroit Tigers win the Central for the third straight season.
West—Oakland A's also repeat as West winners and prove there's something to that Moneyball.

National League:
East—Atlanta Braves finally win the division after finishing the last three seasons in second place.
Central—St. Louis Cardinals clinch not only the Central, but also the best record in the NL and home field advantage.
West—Los Angeles Dodgers made a miraculous about face earlier in the season. They were dead last at the end of June and looking pretty bad.

Wildcard:
American League: This gets tricky. There are three teams tied for the two wild card spots—Tampa Bay, Texas and Cleveland. So Tampa will play at Texas tomorrow and the winner of that game will face Cleveland on Tuesday. The winner of that game will face the Red Sox on Friday.
National League: The surprising Pittsburgh Pirates will play the Cincinnati Reds in a one-game playoff on Tuesday, October 1st.

AL Divisional Playoff Match-ups:
Detroit at Oakland
Tampa, Texas or Cleveland at Boston

NL Divisional Playoff Match-ups:
LA Dodgers at Atlanta
Pittsburgh/Cincinnati at St. Louis

So here we go! This is where the fun (and my prescription drug abuse) begins!

Day 181: What happens when you get doinked in the head with a punted beer can?

Last Friday night, the Red Sox clinched the AL East for the first time since 2007. And then they celebrated. And celebrated... and celebrated some more. They donned their new "We Own the East" t-shirts, goggles, and in some cases, army helmets, and let their hair (and beards) down. Unfortunately, we left Fenway before the booze-soaked team emerged from the clubhouse, but as with everything, there's a video.

The video showed a group of guys that had come into the 2013 season with something to prove. They had a score to settle... they needed to wash away the disgrace of 2012's finish. And with a team of "good guys" and "clubhouse guys," they did just that. I'm not sure there was Red Sox fan around that didn't question at least one signing over this past off-season. But now... I'm guessing no one is questioning anything.

Part of the celebration included Jonny Gomes, sporting an army helmet and goggles, punting Bud Lights into the stands. Clearly, Jonny has a fondness for punting things. He punted his own helmet during a walk-off home run back in June. I hope his cleats have steel toes.

But the beer can punting went slightly awry. One doinked a 74-year-old fan in the forehead and left a gash that required stitches. This could've been a PR nightmare for the Red Sox... but honestly, if you're hanging around Fenway Park that long after a game to witness the celebratory activities, you must be a big enough fan so that you're not going to slap a lawsuit on your favorite team. Hopefully...

Jonny Gomes felt horrible about the incident and reached out to the fan. Turns out the fan was pretty upset about the whole thing, but not because of the beer boinking episode. WEEI's Rob Bradford caught up with Gomes recently for an update on his conversation with the fan in question, Greg Hanley.

“I’m definitely bummed out that it happened. I reached out and talked the guy, Greg, for a while,” said Gomes. “He was actually mad that it did hit him because he played third base in high school and he played on the grass and he really does have good hands. He doesn’t want people to think he has bad hands. He’s taking it hard. He was like, ‘I used play third base. I used to play on the grass. I never played back.’”

Gomes made sure Hanley was well taken care of. Not only did he give him a jersey signed by a number of the Red Sox players, but he also is hooking him up with some playoff tickets. Crap... if I knew that was in the cards, I might of stuck around and thrown myself in the path of a flying beer can.

Day 180: Happy Birthday, Virtual First Down Line!

Today is a day for celebrating... For one, it's my seventh wedding anniversary. It's also my mother-in-law's birthday... Happy Birthday!! And she shares a birthday with two pretty cool things: both Google and the virtual first-down line turn 15 today. If you asked me how long either of those things has been around, I would've guessed longer. I can barely remember a day when I couldn't turn to Google for the answers to all of my questions!

I know Google doesn't have anything to do with sports specifically, but if you get the chance, check out the Google Doodle today. You get to whack a pinata full of virtual candy. I may or may not have replayed it three or four times. Like I thought some candy was going to shoot out of my computer or something. It didn't.

But the real celebration here is for the virtual first-down line. Any football fan knows how difficult it is to tell if your team has gained enough yardage for a first down. The invention of the yellow line, seen only on the television screen, has made armchair referees out of all of us. What? Why do you need to measure for that first down? That running back clearly made it past the yellow line! I bet the referees on the field wish they could see that line. And the players too.

The virtual first-down line was invented in 1998 by SportVision who basically took existing technology that was invented 20 years prior and worked out a lot of the initial bugs and started shopping it around. ESPN was the first to buy in to the technology, introducing it in a Ravens-Bengals game in Baltimore. They were even smart enough to negotiate a year of exclusivity which really pissed off Fox who wanted to use the yellow line during that year's Super Bowl. ESPN said no.

Over the past decade and a half, the technology has improved and now you can't imagine a game without that line. At least I can't. Some folks often wonder where the line is when they attend their first live football game!

TGIF!

Day 179: Is it possible I kinda feel bad for the Yankees?

Something rare happened Wednesday night in New York. The Yankees were officially eliminated from the 2013 post season after losing to the Tampa Bay Rays. It's only the second time in 19 seasons they will not play October ball. And it's the first time since the new Yankee Stadium opened in 2009. It will be weird to not root against them this fall...

There was nothing they could've done about it. Even if they won, it didn't matter. They were actually eliminated before their game even ended when the Cleveland Indians beat the White Sox to officially thwart any slim chance New York may have still had.

Do I feel bad? Sort of. I feel bad for Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte. I feel bad that their careers are going to end with a fizzle. That these last outings are all for nothing. I don't feel bad for Alex Rodriguez. In fact, I think he was a pinstriped curse. He's a greedy, egotistical piece of shit whose only concerns in life revolve around money and how and when he's going to get paid... I bet he tries to spell TEAM with an I. The best thing that could happen to this team and the game of baseball is that A-Roid gets suspended for a long, long time.

The Yankees never really had a chance this season. The injury-plagued roster often featured names no one recognized, or names you knew but you probably thought they had retired long ago. They spent a large portion of their season without names like Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson and Kevin Youkilis. And as if to add insult to injury, Yankees pitching lacked its usual pizzazz, and while CC Sabathia had the most wins with 14, he also racked up 13 losses.

With the oldest roster in the Major Leagues, the Yankees will have some serious off-season decisions to make with regards to their future. The biggest being whether or not to resign Robinson Cano whose .315 batting average is about 40 points higher than any other starter. Then there's the issue of what to do with the 39-year-old Jeter, who now looks like that gimpy, aging shortstop you sort of feel bad for because he just doesn't cover the ground like he used to.

Like any decent Red Sox fan, I will admit that, while I hate the Yankees with every fiber of my being, I still respect the rivalry and alway hope for a 2004-like playoff battle.

Day 178: Holy America's Cup, Batman!

The 35th America's Cup is officially over and the Auld Mug is unbelievably staying on American soil after a stunning Oracle Team USA victory over Emirates Team New Zealand Wednesday afternoon. For just the third time in the Cup's history, it came down to a winner-take-all race and Oracle took that race by 44 seconds after trailing at the start.

But that's almost not the real story here. The USA team began the America's Cup behind after a two point penalty for "juicing" their boat. So in a first to nine wins contest, the Oracle team needed to win 11 races. After the first 11 races, the Team USA crew found themselves in a deep hole trailing the Kiwis 8-1. It was starting to look as if the Cup was making a long trip down under.

And then something miraculous happened. Something that's never before happened in an America's Cup contest. In its 162 year history, no team has ever overcome a deficit so large to win... and no team has ever won eight straight races.

This collapse by the Kiwis has to be the biggest of all time in any sport. Bigger than the New York Yankees losing a 3-0 series lead to the Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS. Bigger than the New England Patriots losing in the Super Bowl after an undefeated season. Bigger than Phil Mickelson's failure at Winged Foot in 2006. Huge.

Oracle Team USA deservedly erupted in celebration after their win with hugs, high-fives and champagne showers for the team members and owner Larry Ellison aboard the winning yacht. Nineteen days is the longest the contest has lasted since its inception in 1851.

I would like to say I cozied up to a bar somewhere and watched this miracle unfold, but I didn't. You see... I didn't watch a single race live. If you know me at all, you know of my severe sports superstitions. I couldn't be the jinx that stymied this historic comeback.

You're welcome.

Day 177: Moose Hunting is a Sport, Right?

Ahhhh... fall. My favorite time of year. But not a favorite time for Bullwinkle. For it is late September when the moose hunt starts and the large, spindly-legged moose gets just a tad jumpy. With the arrival of crisp air comes a surge of hunter orange and pick-up trucks to the Maine woods. So break out your .308, site that baby in, and make sure your freezer is empty.

Maine's moose hunting season runs for three weeks each fall—one in September, October and November, and permits are issued through a lottery system. The moose population is currently estimated to be about 76,000, according to state wildlife biologists. In 2012, the overall success rate for the three weeks came in at 79% with 2,937 moose killed out of a possible 3,725 permits issued.

This year, 4,110 permits were issued—and one of them went to my household. Not me though. I've been picked in the lottery once before, and despite the nearly 80% success rate for permit holders, we came home empty handed. Alas... I've been deemed moose hunting bad luck. I'm okay with that. Driving around in the woods for 10 hours a day, desperate to spot the tall, dark and delicious, really can screw with your mind. Every single thing in the woods looks like dinner. No joke.

According to Quigley's Outdoor in Fort Kent, Maine, as of 2pm Tuesday afternoon, they had tagged 63 moose. One bull tagged had an antler spread of about 60 inches and weighed in at just over 1,000 pounds—one of several plus-1000 pound animals already harvested. Not sure you want that one coming over the hood of your car. The majority of a moose's weight is carried in their body and they're long, skinny legs don't hold a chance in a vehicle collision, most likely sending that giant body through your windshield.

Personally, I'm not much for killing the furry animals... I leave that to men-folk. But I pity the ill-fated, unsuspecting partridge that wanders out into the road. I'll shoot the feathers right off that poor bastard.

Hopefully a moose lasagna is in my future. And moose chili. And moose stew... you get the idea.