Congratulations to the Arizona Diamondbacks for becoming the NL Western Division Champs!
The Mets completed their collapse today, losing to the Florida Marlins 9-1. It was an ugly end to an ugly swoon, complete with Carlos Delgado getting his left hand fractured by a Dontrelle Willis pitch.
I expect to hear some gloating by "My Friend, the Yankees Fan." While the Mets were choking, the Yanks clawed back into the playoffs. But the Mets collapse does not bother me as much this year as it would most others. The Mets have had the Diamondbacks number for a long time and I’d just as soon not see them in the playoffs.
Seven of the eight voters in my latest poll said The D’Backs would finish atop the division. 1 voted that they’d finish as the wild card. No one though they’d fall out of the race altogether.
TUCSON — Watching Arizona revive its season by taking apart Washington State 48-20 Saturday night, I couldn’t help but be reminded what incredible potential there is for Tucson to be a football town.
It was a vintage night for the sport in the Old Pueblo, and it started before sundown with tailgates all over the lawn area of the mall leading up to U of A’s Old Main. Kids throwing footballs, every variety of canned and bottled beer you could ever Google, dogs and burgers grilling up, free for the asking…but best of all, sweet, pristine young blondes and brunettes, mile-long legs glowing invitingly as the dusky early fall evening turned crisp and invited you into Arizona Stadium, along with 50,400 others.
Yes, in spite of a start to the 2007 football season for which there is no kinder word than “disappointing,” Arizona’s football home was nearly filled last night–and the Wildcats finally repaid those fans’ patience and loyalty with an offensive show Arizona football has never been able to put on quite like this before.
Junior Willie Tuitama gave flight to the football 31 times last night, completing it 22 times for 346 yards and 5 touchdowns.
That is not a misprint. An Arizona quarterback passed for five touchdowns in a single game.
To put the phenomenon in better perspective, the current Arizona record-holder for most touchdown passes in a single season is Greg Reed, who had 20 touchdown passes in the entire 1966 season.
Through five games this season, Tuitama has already thrown 15 TDs.
And some of them last night were simply things of beauty. Spiral bombs floating near the full moon for 20, 40, even 60 yards to eager-handed receivers like Mike Thomas (4 receptions for 53 yards and 2 touchdowns), Terrell Turner (2 for 87), and Rob Gronkowski.
“The Gronk,” as the true freshman tight end out of Pennsylvania is better known, is like no tight end Arizona has ever had. He caught only four passes against Washington State–for 115 yards and two touchdowns.
On the season already, Gronkowski is building ridiculous catch-to-TD and catch-to-recieving yards ratios. He’s barely been thrown to ten times through five games, yet he’s caught nine of those passes for an average of 23.3 yards a reception. Right now, he’s averaging a score every third catch.
Gronkowski just takes tacklers out, before and after catches. Last night a Washington State defender, on the Gronk’s long TD reception, took a cart into the locker room with a concussion after getting slammed to the turf simply trying to tackle Gronkowski.
But even better news for Arizona football fans came in two words: Nic Grigsby.
It’s a truism in college football that establishing the run opens up your entire offense. And the freshman running back proved that right again Saturday, rushing for 186 yards on 30 carries.
It was one thing for a walk-on–senior Chris Jennings, now relegated to second-string behind Grigsby–to rush for 200 yards against a team like Stephen F. Austin or Northern Arizona.
It is quite another thing entirely to see an 18-year-old run for nearly 200 yards against a Pac-10 opponent–AND catch another SIX passes for 76 yards and a touchdown to boot.
And boot the Cougars the Wildcats did in the second half, scoring 28 unanswered points in the final 35 minutes. It wasn’t perfect, as the defensive front four still rushes the quarterback about as well as the football-throwing kids on the lawn did, but it was a much-needed victory, in decisive fashion, over a conference opponent.
Arizona has Oregon State to take care of next week in Corvallis before anyone can start calling the Wildcats “back.”
Arizona head coach Mike Stoops was treated and released for kidney stones Friday morning at University Medical Center.
He spent several hours there before being released at noon. He plans to see physicians Monday for further evaluation, but Friday afternoon he was at the football offices in McKale Center preparing for Saturday night’s game: a 48-20 smackdown of the Washington State Cougars.
“We have work to do,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”
Doesn’t winning make EVERYTHING “fine,” though? I have friends who have had kidney stones–you probably do too–and a common factor in most of these cases is unusually high stress.
I’m just sayin’, there’s a reason why most fans view Mike Stoops as a Pac-10 coach who needs his blood pressure checked more. Take it EASY and go with the flow once in a while, Coach Mike.
While sifting through the depths of interweb hell, I kept stumbling across the same thing, “The Coyotes only sold (insert random, and most likely wrong, number here) season tickets. They suck.” Maybe you can all enlighten me but since when do ticket sales have anything to do with talent? (Get off my back, it made sense in my head.) If you went the other way with it I’d understand… “The Coyotes suck so bad they could only sell (random number) tickets.” I might even allow you to get away with that one.
The fact is that here in Arizona we have an overabundance of ways to spend money. Cardinals, Dbacks (who just nabbed themselves a playoff spot, naysayers), Suns, Mercury, the list is exhausting. Add to that the fight-to-the-death rivalry between any and all ASU/UofA teams and that just doesn’t leave a lot of money to be spent on a hockey team that isn’t sure-to-win.
No, we’re not selling as many tickets as we’d probably like. No, our arena won’t be full (except during Red Wings games; where no matter how high we jack the prices, the crazies still show up). Does that mean we don’t have a talent pool worth watching? No. If any of you out there in cyber land knew anything about the Phoenix Coyotes and what they’re trying to accomplish in the next couple years you’d understand that you have to start somewhere.
Sure, there are ex-STH’s that are bitching and moaning now about how the organization isn’t doing anything that they approve of and they refuse to renew… good riddance. We don’t need ya. There are enough of us true fans to tide the team over until we fill up the arena with all the fairweathers (much like yourselves). Don’t try to BS me (or yourselves) into believing that as soon as the team starts winning you won’t be right back in there, spouting off that you were there from the beginning. Sure, you may have had season tix from 1996-2006… but to be perfectly honest with you, that doesn’t mean squat to me since you couldn’t bother to be there when the team truly needed you.
Moving on.
There’s a subject that is sure to cause feathered ruffles [sic] to any and all involved and I’ve kept quiet about it because it’s just stupid. I am finally choosing to weigh in on it, because, well… this is my damn blog and I can do what I want. *If I was standing, I would stomp my foot in a temper-tantrum fashion.* As we all; or some of us; know, the Winnipeg Jets were moved to Phoenix in 1996 and ever since then, Winnipeg, their fans and their media have been pissed off.
They seem to take every chance they get to bash, criticize and tear down the Coyotes, Phoenix and every portion of our “organization” that they get their greedy little hands on. Let me state now, for the record, that not all Winnipegers (Winnipegians?) are this way, some have become Phoenix fans and moved beyond the fact that we “stole their team”. Now, I wasn’t a fan at the time so I don’t pretend to know how it all went down but from what I can piece together, it came down to Winnipeg couldn’t afford the Jets… no harm there, right? So the Jets moved to Phoenix, became the Coyotes and all was right with the world. Erm… scratch the last part.
We stole their team, took their history and have basically made a mockery out of hockey. God knows that no desert city could EVER like hockey. The nerve of us even assuming that.
Their side: The exhibition game in Winnipeg sells out every year. My side: Of course it does. It’s ONE game. You don’t have a team. If we had no football team in Phoenix and an NFL team came here, I bet football fans would buy that out too. It’s not hard to sell out one game, we’ve sold out in the past too. The problem is getting the sell-out to be an ongoing thing. Winnipeg can’t (or couldn’t) afford to lose that much money, having teams come in and not selling tickets. Phoenix can.
Their side: Winnipeg is in Canada. Canada loves hockey more than the U.S. My side: I refuse to get in a pissing battle over the political “my country is better than yours” agenda. True, hockey is more popular in Canada, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t pockets of the U.S. that love it just as much. We have plenty of people here who like hockey, just not as much as they like basketball and/or football.
Their side: We are retiring players who never played for the Coyotes. My side: Get over it. Would you rather not have your beloved players honored or have them honored by a spinoff of the Jets?
Their side: The Coyotes suck. My side: No one cares what you think. We have a team, you don’t.
Ok, that last one was a bit harsh and I’m sure I’ll get pissed off emails from Jets fans about it. Let me answer some of your emails in advance. No, I don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m just some dumb blogger. You’re right. I should just go jump in a lake… if only my stupid desert town had any.
Look, the bottom line is that the Coyotes belong to Phoenix now. Winnipeg doesn’t have a team anymore and I understand the frustration that comes from that but it’s not our fault. Don’t bitch about our players and our fans because your government/owners/whoever couldn’t get it done.
Moving on… again.
Qwest Coyotes Live airs live tonight from the Fox Sports Grill in Scottsdale. Take your lazy hiney over there and grill Maloney & Carcillo or sit in the comfort of your own home (in your Phoenix Coyotes pajamas if you’re cool like me) and park it in front of the tube at 10:00 (right after the High School Musical back-to-back, haha!) to watch all the happenings.
Cheers, dear readers, I’m sure I’ll be back later. I have a lot to say lately… I’ve missed so much.
As you can see, I am toying around with a new layout for the new season. It pretty much goes along with my new Myspace layout, but that’s a different story entirely. I hope that it shows up the way it’s supposed to on all other browsers (I use Firefox) if not, you’re missing out. I’m hoping to add a few more pieces to the puzzle, I have to figure out how to work around blogger’s restrictions though, so it might be a slow time coming.
Suggestions? Comments? Anything? HELLOOOO out there??
In the final game of the preseason Saturday night, the Phoenix Coyotes fell to the Colorado Avalanche 3-2. Niko Kapanen scored his second goal of the preseason and Steven Reinprecht scored his first, but it was not enough.
Goaltender Mikael Tellqvist stopped 17 of 18 shots before he was relieved by David Aebischer. Aebischer faced eight shots and stopped six.
Now the Coyotes can decide the final two players that will be cut from the team before the season starts Thursday night.
With the goaltenders, I would think that one of the three will be released. Here are their stats for the preseason:
• Mikael Tellqvist played 119:23 and allowed four goals on 60 shots. His save percentage is .933 and his GAA is 2.02.
• Alex Auld played 159:06 and allowed five goals on 61 shots. His save percentage is .918 and his GAA is 1.89.
• David Aebischer played 159:06 and allowed nine goals on 57 shots. His save percentage is .842 and his GAA is 3.39.
Since the NHL does not keep accrued stats during the preseason, if my math is wrong, feel free to tell me, but what these numbers indicate that Aebischer could be the odd man out.
Statistically, Alex Auld had the strongest preseason among the four netminders (counting David LeNeveu who was sent down to the San Antonio Rampage earlier), followed by Mikael Tellqvist. Both Auld and Aebischer had equal time on the ice and faced the same amount of shots.
Mikael Tellqvist faced his old team the Maple Leafs in Toronto and came away with a win. David Aebischer came in relief last night in Colorado and dropped two goals on eight chances against one his former teams. Which of these two is more mentally tough?
If I were making the decision, I would take Auld and Tellqvist; Auld will need to have a break out season to regain the respect around the NHL.
Thursday night the Coyotes face the St. Louis Blues where the games count. Go ahead and erase the 3-2-3 record, not that it meant anything huge considering both teams had players on the ice that needed to make the their respective teams.
However, in the two games I saw, I was duly impressed with the speed and the work ethic of this young squad. Hopefully, it continues.
Content originated at One Fan’s Perspective…
Any reproductions are the sole permission of the author.
Unauthorized publication is prohibited. Any questions, feel free to e-mail
the author.
The Phoenix Suns open Training Camp tomorrow with everyone gathering at US Airways Center meeting the press for the traditional Media Day (at noon). Make sure to check the live webcast of the event at Suns.com.
The Suns will then take a bus to Tucson. I have checked the Greyhound schedule, they should be able to take the 4.30 PM bus to Tucson and be there in time for dinner. While in Tucson the Suns will train at the University of Arizona Facilities. Food won’t be that great probably but Tucson is much closer than Treviso, Italy.
The highlight of the early part of training camp will be the annual intra-squad scrimmage on Saturday Oct. 6th.
With all the excitement about Planet Orange growing by the day…the Suns will have 16 players on Camp with forwards Doug Thomas (fresh from Switzerland basketball), Richie Frahm and Rawle Marshall completing the pre-season roster.
Camp will be quite interesting to watch, much more than last year since a few questions will have to be answered:
1. Will Shawn Marion stop the “respect or trade me” non-sense?
2. How will his teammates deal with that?
3. Who will emerge as Steve Nash’s back up?
4. Can Brian Skinner be the answer as the back up center?
5. How will the 2007/08 rotation be with Grant Hill in the mix?
6. Can the Suns finally with the Championship? OK, we’ll reserve that for later in the season
Will wait and see. But what’s important is that we can finally wait for the new season actually watching basketball being played by real Suns players in real Suns uniforms.
1) Matt Leinart is still young and inexperienced. He has not proven that he can be a leader, and it seems that he is more interested in Hollywood and fame than he is winning a game.
2) Kurt Warner is the direct opposite. Coming into his tenth season as quarterback, he has two Superbowl rings and a Superbowl MVP with the Rams. He is humble, modest, and effective. He doesn’t like the lime-light, but when he gets it he does what he does and goes home.
3) Last season, Kurt Warner started and messed up a few times. Leinart came in and did a pretty good job cleaning up the mess. This year, Leinart is messing things up, and last Sunday, Warner did a fantastic job cleaning things up.
3) Since water is under the bridge and we can’t judge what Warner did last year (which wasn’t all that bad), let’s look at this year’s stats so far: Warner has played one game. He completed 15 of 20 passes for 258 yards with two touchdowns and no picks or sacks. The Cardinals scored 20 of the 23 points total when Warner was under snap, and he had a 150 QB passer rating. Leinart threw the same amount of passes (20) that game, but he completed only nine for 53 yards, no touchdowns and a sack. His passer rating was 52.1 for the week, and his year to date is 62.6. He has only two touchdowns total and three total interceptions. His best game was against Seattle when he completed 62% of his passes for 299 yards, a touchdown, a pick, and no sacks. Even so, his rating was only 85.3.
4) The Cardinals are 1-2 with Leinart starting, and 0.5-0 with Warner coming off the bench.
5) Warner has consistently proven himself to be a leader and a producer. He has been patient, while still mentoring Leinart throughout the entire process. His attitude is one that any coach would want. He doesn’t complain, he doesn’t whine, he doesn’t raise a scene.
Leinart seems to be in a sophomoric slump. If Whisenhunt is going to play musical chairs with the rotation, he should land on the proven producer. Warner still has what it takes, and it is clear that Leinart has still got a lot to learn.
Your Views...Blog 'em
Got a Photo...Share it
Record it? Upload Video
Daily Email
Subscribe
RSS Feeds
