MySports Today

It’s been a while, but we haven’t forgotten.  Here’s the latest installment of some sweet shots of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Melissa Baker.  The Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio native was a competitive gymnast back in the day and is now gracing magazine covers and fashion shows all over the world.  Baker is managed by Click Model Agency in New York City and Los Angeles.  She has modelled for the following brands – - Express, Ambercrombie & Fitch and Sisley.  She appeared in the 2008 SI Swimsuit Issue and has also appeared in Maxim and V-Magazine.  Enjoy – I know I did…

In the latest leak surrounding the 2003 MLB drug tests, it is now reported that Boston Red Sox teammates David Ortiz & Manny Ramirez were among the 104 MLB players that tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs back in 2003.  While Manny being on the list is not surprising at all (he just finished serving a 50-game suspension for violating baseball’s drug policy this year), if you’ve ever seen “Big Papi’s” physique, it is shocking to believe that Ortiz was using.

Alex Rodriguez was “outed” back in February as one of the “Evil 104″ that tested positive and Sammy Sosa was the next name leaked back in June.  At this point, someone just needs to approve the release of all the names to put an end to this charade.  At the time of the testing, none of the players were in violation of any MLB rule against using performance-enhancing drugs, so the fact that players tested positive is irrelevant.  The source of the leaks should be “outed” as well – the person or persons is/are in violation of explicit confidentiality provisions protecting the results of the testing and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for violating such terms.

For the latest news on the report, click here!

At least Big Papi hit a game-winning 3-run HR in the 7th inning of today’s Red Sox win over the A’s at Fenway Park.  You da man Big Papi!!!

Mark Buerhle pitched a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday afternoon and then retired the 1st 17 batters that he faced in last night’s 5-3 loss to the Twins in Minnesota.  The 45 outs in a row was a new Major League Baseball record for most consecutive outs recorded.  The previous record was 41 batters – San Francisco’s Jim Barr did so in 1972 and Buerhle’s teammate Bobby Jenks did so in 2007.  D Span ended Buerhle’s no-hit bid with a bloop single to center field with 2 outs in the 6th inning.  The Twins scored 1 run that inning off of Buerhle on Joe Mauer’s RBI double and then 4 more runs in the bottom of the 7th inning to take control of the game.

Buerhle could ot focus on the record after the frustrating loss at the Metrodome:  “It’s frustrating after a loss.  It might mean more tomorrow or the next day once I cool off.  But I’m not too happy right now…I’m not a big fan of broken-bat, bloop singles.  It just seems like any time at this place you just know it’s going to happen.  You could be up 10-0 in the ninth inning and something’s going to happen in that inning.”

The White Sox have been in a tailspin since Buerhle’s perfect game, losers of 5 of 6 games.  The White Sox and Twins are currently tied for 2nd place in the AL Central, 2 games behind the Detroit Tigers.

The Brett Favre era is over – we think.  Favre called Minnesota Vikings Head Coach Brad Childress today to let him know that he did not plan on playing football in 2009.  Favre had this to say about the decision:  “It was the hardest decision I’ve ever made… I didn’t feel like physically I could play at a level that was acceptable.  I would like to thank everyone, including the Packers, Jets and Vikings, but, most importantly, the fans.”

It comes as a bit of a suprise, but I guess the off-season surgery to repair a torn biceps tendon in May took its toll on his body. Favre played 17 seasons for the Green Bay Packers, winning 1 Super Bowl title and 3 NFL Most Valuable Player awards.  Favre played 1 season for the New York Jets during the 2008-9 NFL schedule, but after a hot start, he could not lead the Jets to a much-expected playoff berth.  Following the season, Favre announced his decision to retire again, but had 2nd-thoughts (or 3rd thoughts if you count his back-and-forth actions in the off-season leading up to the 2008 NFL season) once it became clear that the Minnesota Vikings might be interested in his services.

We’ll keep you posted if Favre changes his mind anytime soon.  And don’t be surprised if we hear Favre toss his name around next year if he fully recovers from surgery and stays in shape during the 2009-10 NFL schedule.  Stay tuned…until then, we’ll be seeing a much more “relaxed” Favre in the near future.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell conditionally reinstated Michael Vick to the NFL today.  Vick is allowed to participate in all pre-season workouts and practices, and he will be allowed to play in the final 2 games of the pre-season.  Goodell will not allow Vick to play in regular season games right off the bat, but he will reconsider activating Vick to a full reinstatement situation by Week 6 of the NFL regular season.  That means if Vick can find a team to take a shot on him, he could play in NFL regular season games as early as October 18th or 19th…

Pretty surprising news considering the hard line that Goodell has taked with respect to other NFL players who have gotten into trouble off the field.  The one difference with Vick is that he served serious jail time (18 months jail time and house arrest) for his involvement in running an interstate dog fighting ring.  Plaxico Burress and Donte Stallworth are 2 NFL players whom Goodell has indefinitely suspended for their actions off the field, and many believed that Goodell would continue Vick’s indefinite suspension even after personally meeting with Vick last week. But I guess things went well enough with Vick for Goodell to feel that Vick had served his debt to society.  If Vick joins with a squad soon, and stays out of trouble for the next few months, it looks like we might see Vick on the football field at some point during the 2009 NFL schedule.  Guess we will have to wait and see…

Spain’s Alberto Cantador won the 2009 Tour de France on Sunday for his 2nd career Tour de France victory.  Cantador also won the 2007 Tour de France.  Fellow Astana team member – 7-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong – finished in 3rd place.  Cantador and Armstrong battled throughout the Tour as tensions grew over who would be the team leader.  Cantador had this to say about the win – “It has been an especially difficult Tour for me, but I savor it and it is more special because of it… We are totally incompatible.  In the end, Armstrong will go his way and I’ll go mine.”

Cantador is probably the best cycler in the sport today.  He has already won all 3 Grand Tours of France, Italy and Spain, and at the young age of 26 still has plenty of good years ahead of him.

As for Armstrong, he intends to return to the Tour de France with a different team in 2010.

Forget about the bad play – a 16-29 stretch since June 1st has left the Mets with a 44-50 record trailing the Phillies by 10.5 games in the NL East race – what is going on with Mets’ management?

Tony Bernazard, the Mets vice president of player development, has had a rough season and recently challenged the Double-A Binghamton team to a fight in the clubhouse following another loss.  Bernazard allegedly took off his shirt, thretening the players in a fiery tirade.  Pretty funny.  Guess everyone is starting to lose their cool in the Mets orgnanization.

Mets GM Omar Minaya had this to say about the incident:  “We do take these matters seriously and we are going to investigate these reports.  We need to follow up and we plan on doing that.”

The Mets have had several key players on the disabled list in 2009, and Bernazard has taken a lot of heat for not having the right minor league players to step up a level to compete while waiting for the return of the likes of Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, John Maine, Jose Reyes and J.J. Putz.  While that is a tough order to fill, the Mets replacements have been atrocious this season as the Mets Triple-A Buffalo affiliate has a 34-58 record and the Double-A Binghamton affiliate has a 37-58 record.  For the latest on the Bernazard debacle click here.

At this point, Omar Minaya and the Mets will just be glad when this mess of a 2009 MLB schedule ends in October.  These next 60+ games are going to brutal – plain and simple.

The St. Louis Cardinals made a big move to bolster their offense by acquiring Matt Holliday in a trade with the Oakland A’s on Friday.  Holliday will likely bat clean-up behind the best hitter in baseball – Albert Pujols – to give Pujols some protection down the stretch run of the 2009 MLB schedule.

The Cards lead the NL Central by 1.5 games over each of the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros.  The addition of Holliday should put the Cards in great position to win the NL Central division in 2009.

The Cards sent power-hitting 3rd baseman Brett Wallace, outfielder Shane Peterson and right-handed pitcher Clayton Mortensen back to the A’s in the trade.

As we reported yesterday, Mark Buerhle threw the 18th perfect game in MLB history ni Thursday’s 5-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.  After we did some digging on the perfect game, we came up with a few interesting facts.

First, home plate umpire Eric Cooper was also behind the plate for Buerhle’s no-hitter at U.S. Cellular Field back in April 2004 when Buerhle no-hit the Texas Rangers.  Buerhle also faced just 27 batters in that game – Buerhle walked Sammy Sosa to end the perfect game but picked him off of 1st base to maintain the 27-batter minimum.  Pretty random.

Second, cather Ramon Castro caught Mark Buerhle for the 1st time ever in Thursday’s game.  Buerhle typically has his regular catcher A.J. Pierzynski behind the plate (as he did for his no-hitter back in 2004), but because the White Sox were set to play 4 games in 3 days against the 1st place Tigers over the weekend, Manager Ozzie Guillen wanted to give Pierzynski the day off so that he would be able to play each day over the weekend. Castro spoke with both Buerhle and Pierzynski before the game to go over the game plan, and surely benefited from the fact that Buerhle works quickly and rarely shakes off the catcher’s call during a game.  Pierzynski and Buerhle even joked around about Buerhle throwing a no-hitter or perfect game on Thursday, so good things come to those who wait I guess.

Congrats Mark – it couldn’t have happened to a better guy…

27 up, 27 down – Mark Buehrle entered the history books by throwing the 18th perfect game in Major League history.  It was the 1st perfect game thrown in the big leagues since the Diamondback’s Randy Johnson threw a perfect game against the Atlanta Braves back in 2004.  Manager Ozzie Guillen and outfielder DeWayne Wise get a big assist – Guillen inserted Wise into the game in the 9th inning in center field for defensive purposes.  The Rays gabe Kapler hit a bomb to left center field that Wise tracked down and knocked back into the playing field by leaping over the center field fence.  The ball almost popped out of Wise’s glove, but as he fell to the ground, he managed to scoop the ball up bear-handed and put it back in his glove to preserve the out.  Buerhle then struck out Michel Hernandez and got Jason Bartlett to ground out to shortstop to complete the 116-pitch perfect game.

Buerhle had this to say about Wise’s catch and the amazing feat – - “I was hoping it was staying in there, give him enough toom to catch it.  I know the guys were doing everything they could to save the no-hitter, the perfect game, whatever it might be… I don’t know if it’s really sunk in yet.  We have a short flight to Detroit.  I’m sure it will be a little hectic later.”

Buerhle faced the minimum 27 batters back in his April 2007 no-hitter against the Texas Rangers.  He picked off Sammy Sosa after walking him to negate the perfect game.  He became only the 2nd player to throw 2 no-hitters in a White Sox uniform – Frank Smith did so against Detroit in 1905 and against the Philadelphia Athletics in 1908.  Charles Robertson threw the White Sox’ only other perfect game back in 1922 against the Detroit Tigers.

President Barack Obama – a lifelong White Sox fan – called Buerhle after the win to offer his congratulations.  And while it probably doesn’t mean as much – congrats to you Mark from all of us here at MySportsToday.com!