Lushbucket Baseball League - Week 2 Recap

Another successful week for the Flying Cave Donkies as we knock off the defending champs 5-3 thanks in large part to Jacoby Ellsbury winding up on the DL. Here's a look back at Week 2 of the Lushbucket Baseball League:

MLS Recap - Week 6

Nine games on the slate this weekend for Major League Soccer. Here's a rundown of the week's action:

Philadelphia 1 Columbus 0 - It took 5 games, but the Philadelphia Union finally have their first win of the 2012 season. Freddy Adu was in the lineup for just the second time this year for the Union, and his play was the difference in the match as he drew the penalty that Gabriel Gómez converted for the game's only goal. Zac MacMath didn't see a ton of action in net for the Union but he make a big time kick save of an Olman Vargas effort from point blank range in the second half that would've tied the match.

Photo Credit: zimbio.com

The Ultimate Water Hazard

As if PGA Golf Courses weren't tough enough already, why not just throw in a man-sized alligator on 15? You know, spice things up a bit. Good lord! Props to Brian Gay's caddy Kip Henley for going after it with the sand rake. Probably not my weapon of choice when it comes to FENDING OFF ALLIGATORS, but obviously that's why he's a PGA Tour Caddy and I am not.



Gay bogeyed the hole and finished 4 over par on the day.

Bynum Dominates Glass Versus Spurs

Photo Credit: reddogreport.com

Lakers bigman Andrew Bynum almost single-handedly outrebounded the San Antonio Spurs last night when he grabbed a league-high 30 rebounds in L.A.'s 98-84 win. The entire Spurs team finished with just 33 rebounds including a mere 2 by Tim Duncan and no player on their team had more than 5. The Lakers finished +27 in the rebounding column for the game, allowed just one offensive rebound, and overcame the absence of injured Kobe Bryant in a big road win (more on this in a bit). Bynum's 30 rebounds are the most since Kevin Love had a 31 against the Knicks early last season. Love and Bynum are the only two players in the past 15 seasons that have grabbed at least 30 rebounds in a game. Bynum is also just the fifth Lakers player to collect 30 rebounds in a game, joining greats George Mikan, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain (who did it 16 times) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Not bad company to be in.

VOCABULARY LESSON

So I was reading the Bynum story last night and looking through the box score and came across this gem for why Kobe Bryant didn't play:

 Yep. Teno..syno..vito... ? Of course, not to be out done, San Antonio had this for Gary Neal:

So yes, now in addition to being a huge sports nerd, you also require a medical doctorate to decipher postgame boxscores. Anyhow, upon doing some research, Tenosynovitis is the inflammation of the fluid-filled sheath (called the synovium) that surrounds a tendon while Gastroenteritis is also known as... (dramatic pause)... the stomach bug. And now you know. And knowing is half the battle.

Them's Fighting Words!

Think Lionel Messi is best player in the world? Well, according to Pelé, you need think again...

"...some are saying that Messi is better than Pelé. Well, he has to be better than Neymar first..."

That's right. Pelé is on record saying that the 20-year-old Brazilian striker Neymar is a better player - RIGHT NOW - than Lionel Messi. Wow... This is the same Lionel Messi who scored his 61st goal of the year for Barcelona the other day and who scored 2 goals against Neymar's Santos team at the Club World Cup Final in December.

Photo Credit: marketwallpapers.blogspot.com

Now there's a couple things to consider here.

One, Pelé is from Brazil. Neymar is from Brazil. Messi is from Argentina. There is no love lost between these two nations when it comes to soccer. Thing Army/Navy, Celtics/Lakers, Red Sox/Yankees, etc. That's the sort of rivalry we're dealing with. No way is Pelé going to side with Messi over his countryman.

Two, the one knock on Messi is that while he's been unbelievable for Barcelona, he's failed to deliver on for Argentina. Pelé won three World Cups, Maradona won one, Messi of course has zero World Cup Titles and was shutout in South Africa in 2010. I don't know that Messi's failings on the international stage warrant putting him below Neymar (who also has zero World Cup wins), but it should also be worth noting that Messi hasn't scored against Brazil since 2005 when he was playing with the U-20s. Conversely Neymar scored against Argentina in Brazil's 2-0 win at the Superclásico de las Américas in September. However, asterisk, the rosters for that tourney were limited to footballers playing in either the Argentine or Brazilian leagues.

Three, how do we even quantify best player? Most skilled? Best results? Neymar may very well have more skills than Messi does, but you can't dispute Messi's results - at least at the club level.

I dunno, what do you guys think?

Fantasy Hockey Fail

Photo Credit: bleacherreport.com

With the Stanley Cup playoffs set to kick off tonight it's time that I acknowledge my complete and utter failure as a fantasy hockey owner this year. It wasn't even for lack of trying. Only two guys in my league made more moves than I did. Shoot, two of the teams that finished ahead of me made ZERO moves. But yeah, I did very little right. Cut Scott Hartnell in the early part of the season and what happens? He goes on to score a career high 37 goals. It was just that kind of season. No one to blame, but myself. But that's all right. I can always redeem myself with fantasy baseball!

Introducing your Masters Champion

No truth to the rumor that instead of green jackets they will be handing out blue overalls next year...

It's a good thing Bubba Watson can crush the bejeezus out of a golf ball, because I don't think he was ever going to make it in music.