John Mugatu's blog

It's Saturday morning, September 13th, and I'm not sure but this could be a record: 21 MLB games will be played today. Due to 6 rainouts last night (1 because of Ike evacuations) there will be 5 make-ups as doubleheaders today because of the rainout last night and another make-up from a month ago (Sox-Jays). Throw in College Football and Sportscenter won't have any time for their homo puff pieces and will have just tons and tons of sports to report. It'll be like the mid-90's all over again!

Ugh. This was almost ready to go and then Brady’s knee got Gillooly’d by Bernard Pollack and I couldn’t think about football until now. By the way, love the consistency of the NFL – Vince Wilfork gets pushed into J.P. Losman in last season's opener and got flagged and fined; Pollack hits the reigning MVP below the knee and gets nothing. Anyway, I’m amazed by the amount of glee all the Patriots’ ‘Haters’ have shown to Brady’s injury and look forward to an exciting season.

Thank heavens we're done with the boring, pointless and mostly unnecessary preseason (like 1 or 2 games wouldn't suffice?) and we can finally move on to the real games. This is going to be a quick preview of the season and predictions of each team's final standings.

AFC East

Well, we're back from the break with some extended action......
MLB is in full swing as we enter August. Every division east of the Grand Canyon is hotter than a whore in church as no more than three games separate first and second in five of the six divisions.
-In the AL East, the Rays are holding on for dear life as the Sox methodically work towards first and the white-hot Yankees right themselves from their early struggles.
-The NL East is up for grabs as the Mets just put their claim on the division lead in taking two of three from Philly, meanwhile Florida refuses to go away.
-In the AL Central, the White Sox continue to slug their way through the division with a league-leading 143 HR, but the clutch hitting of the Twins has kept them in the race and now the resurgent Tigers look to put their paw print on the division.
-The NL Central hosts two of the best teams in the NL. The Cubs currently have the upper hand, but the Brewers are chugging along since CC joined the fray. Don't count out the Cardinals as they still have Pujols and who knows what impact the impending returns of Carpenter and Wainwright will have.
-The AL West has long been in the grasp of the Angels and while the Rangers and A's have made some noise, the true test will be to see if the Angels can secure home field advantage throughout the playoffs and maximize their use of that stupid monkey.
-And that brings us to the much maligned NL West, where the only thing hot in this division is the chimichangas they serve on the Mexican border. The putrid-ness of the division has allowed the fan favorite Rockies to make an appearance and their slim grasp of hope for a division title could quite possibly be the only exciting thing to come out of it.

Well, we’ve reached the 2008 All-Star Break and we have a new #1. As good as the AL East is, none of those teams have a winning road record, so something has to be said for the outstanding performance of the Angels on the road (31-18). You can check out the JBB (Just Before the Break) Awards written for this site here. And we hope you caught Josh Hamilton’s performance in the Home Run Derby – truly the greatest performance ever by a silver medalist!

1.
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 57-38 (2)
-(4-3) K-Rod saved four more games (and blew one in dramatic fashion) this past week as the Angels took 4 out of the 7 on the road against their chief division rivals. No team in baseball has a bigger division lead and no team handles the pressures of playing on the road better (no AL team is above .500 on the road except them, at 31-18). They host the Red Sox right after the break which should be a good gauge for both teams as to where they are.

With a few games left before the All-Star break, let’s hand out some awards for the first half of a surprising baseball season. I figured I’d get this out in the open before 42 different writers for ESPN, CBS, FOX & Yahoo write on the same subject during the break. So with 3 games to go this weekend and then the Yankee Wet Dream of an All-Star Game, here are the 1st annual Just Before the Break Awards, or the JBBs.

AL JBB MVP: Josh Hamilton, Rangers (.309, 21 HR, 91 RBI)

We're about halfway through the summer classic and there are some major surprises and disappointments as the All-Star break nears. Who would have guessed that Tampa Bay only needed to change their name to the Rays in order to compete in the AL East (Someone should tell the Orioles and Jays that birds are no longer hip.) The Cubbies had a tough week with their crosstown rivals but are still in control of the NL Central. Let's also not forget about the quiet Twinkies who have been stringing together a couple of decent weeks here and in turn have put together a solid first half performance. At the bottom of the barrel we have major disappointments from the Rockies, the Tigers (who are creeping back), Indians, Padres, and Mariners. One can either hold their breath in anticipation to see what these teams will do as the trade deadline quickly approaches or watch the WNBA on Tuesday nights... Yeah like the latter will happen.

I'm not going to rehash too many of my pre-draft thoughts. Here's the running notes I kept during the draft:

"With the first pick of the 2008 NBA Draft, the Chicago Bulls select ..."
1. Derrick Rose, CHIM
No surprise here, although ESPN was anxious to report this was definitely going to happen a few minutes before the draft, like they were brilliant for "reporting" the worst kept secret in the past couple weeks. And I still believe they should have taken Beasley.

2. Michael Beasley, MIA

I want to get a few of my thoughts down about the upcoming NBA draft (which is pretty much the most meaningless draft of my life as a Celtics fan - the first draft I can remember was 1986, which was very meaningful - and very painful). You heard it hear first, so when I'm right about something, remember, it was a pre-draft thought from yours truly.

What a game, what a season.
I've had the pleasure of attending several Celtics games with my dad, a Celtics season-ticket holder since 1979 (he got them the day after the Celtics drafted a fellow by the name of Larry Bird, you may have heard of him). Game 6 was the most enjoyable experience of my life as a sports fan. There is NOTHING that compares to seeing your favorite team win the championship. It is the ultimate fan reward. Being there with my dad was extra special as well; he's raised me as a Boston sports fan, to the point where I don't even know when my love of the Celtics, Red Sox & Patriots began - it was just always the way.