MMMM...Tastes Like Weekend

For those of you who might have missed out on some of the nuggets in the world of sports from this past weekend, here’s what had us talking…

PEDRO MARTINEZ: I have to be honest that when I initially heard of the Phils interest in Pedro, I was really hoping for a short courtship. You know, like Ruben Amaro takes Pedro to a lovely, intimate Italian cucina and they share red wine and great conversation, but when it comes to the the after-dinner portion of the evening, Amaro declines coming upstairs for coffee…but politely takes Pedro’s number so as not to look like a jerkoff.

However, the more I think about the signing, the more I like it. Jim Salisbury has a really interesting read in today’s Inquirer that outlines the story behind Pedro’s addition to the squad. Of the reasons presented in the article–decreased price tag, Martinez’s fitness level/dedication to workouts, simple necessity–two points jump out to me.

1) His fastball was clocked between 86-91 consistently at his workouts for Phillies staff. While his breaking stuff remains superb (one anonymous Phillie described Martinez as still having ‘funkiness and deception to his pitches’ the last couple of years), you can’t keep hitters off your slow stuff if you can’t keep them honest with your fastball. For anyone who doubts this, witness Jamie Moyer at age 87 still winning baseball games. Ryan Madson’s emergence as a lights outs, ‘Bridge to Lidge’ last season was a direct result of added 3-4 MPH to his fastball. If Martinez can regularly hit 88-91, he still has a shot of being effective

2) Pure motivation. One thing we can’t doubt about Martinez is his competitive spirit and will to win. Having already backed off his (slightly ridiculous) contract demands to sign for a cut-rate $1 million, his incentive to join the Phils is clearly to get another ring. And for those who are concerned about Martinez’s reputation for being a clubhouse diva, is it not clear by now that Charlie Manuel runs a pretty organized group of professionals? Martinez is in the ideal environment, with little to no pressure and lowered expectations that have literally been stated for the world to hear.

I’m not saying Martinez is the key to the continued success of the pitching staff (a guy named Halladay might have a role in that), but stranger things have happened then a 37-year old Mets castoff leading the Phils to a repeat.

SOCCER SATURDAY: I’ve been a big fan of the English Premier League now for a quite a number of years, so I was interested to see in how Chelsea looked in their preseason friendly with MLS side Seattle. While the transfer window has proven to be a bit more quiet than usual for the London outfit, they still boast a roster full of International stars and the 2-0 scoreline in their favor certainly won’t surprise many outside of Seattle. However, what I was impressed with was the atmosphere at Qwest Field and the show put on by the fans of the MLS Expansion team. From the get-go, a full house of nearly 65,000 fans made the environment feel decidely un-exhibition like, a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by the Chelsea players.

“It was probably the best pre-season atmosphere I’ve ever played in, for sure,” [Chelsea midfielder Frank] Lampard said, “The Seattle team tried to play good football, created a few chances and were unlucky not to score really.”

Clearly starved for a sporting success at any level–How ’bout the OKC Thunder?–the city of Seattle did an amazing job in furthering the belief amongst soccer fans in this country that perhaps the sport is in fact growing in popularity and that the surprising success of the US National Men’s team at the Confederations Cup will have a more lasting effect. Speaking of the USMNT, the team won a somewhat uneven performance in Philadelphia over Panama at the Gold Cup. The atmosphere was very different inside the Linc in comparison to Seattle, but that shouldn’t be an indictment of the support for the game in the tri-state region. I’ll wait until I haul down to Chester for the first time to see the Union before making any rash judgments.

Holy shit. No rain?

OLD MAN CAN STILL SWING THE WRENCHES…FOR 71 HOLES EDITION: Golf is hard. Tom Watson is old. So naturally he almost wins the British Open Championship. No matter your allegiances, you couldn’t help but feel like you just got punched in the gut watching him blow the 8-footer at the last before self-destructing in the playoff. Hard not to like Stewart Cink (cliched praises to Jesus post-win aside) but it would have been nice for the AARP crowd to get one in the books.

QUICK HITS

• When did Andriy Schevchenko become Andriy Voronin? Although this picture is better. Life in the Ukraine looks incredibly comfortable
• Don’t you love it when announcers heap love on David Wright’s game? Sure I can’t hate on him because the guy apparently ‘does everything’…Everything that is, but win baseball games.
• What a great bit of luck for the Phillies to get rained out of a Josh Johnson start…and that once the game was called it actually STOPPED raining! Karma 1, Marlins 0.
• Did anyone see the contest Southwest Airlines is running to ‘Play Ball with Nolan Ryan?’ Sounds great and all, but do you really want to step in the batter’s box against the dude responsible for the single most hilarious ass-whooping of all time? Must. Find. Way. To. Purchase. And. Frame. That. Photograph.
• Lost in the Mets actually winning a game yesterday was the fact that the ultra-talented yet ultra-idiotic Yunel Escobar found another way to make Bobby Cox want to eject himself from a baseball game. Escobar–who has been the most consistent bat in the Braves lineup–is in serious danger of getting a new zip code after missing a sign for a hit-and-run that resulted in teammate Diory Hernandez getting thrown out by a mile at second base. Escobar’s priceless response (which by the way, was translated from Spanish by Mike Gonzalez as apparently Escobar spends too much time frosting his tips to learn English) to the line of questioning? “Talk to me when I get three hits.”
• I leave you with the pure hilarity is this video. Cowboys haters, enjoy.

LET’S GO PHILS!