Baseball Season’s Underway

Baseball fans, get ready for a brand new day: spring training has begun in Arizona and Florida for all thirty MLB teams.  As a baseball fan, I’ve been counting down the days until pitchers and catchers report to their respective camps; it is here where questions and speculations get answered.  Who’s going to lead the rotation?  Who’s going to play first base on opening day, and who’s going to start the season in AAA?  Who’s going to bat leadoff?  Will Yoenis Cespedes measure up to the hype?  All of these questions will be answered by the end of March when the spring training games have been played, but for now, the players are gathered only for team workouts.

For these first few weeks, it’s just players taking their cuts in the cage for batting practice, and pitchers limbering up throwing off the mound, but for fans, this is enough.  The baseball season ended in October (September if you’re a Braves or Red Sox fan, May if you’re an Astros fan), and through the winter all that was available to talk about was what happened in the season, what your team needed to do over the offseason, and then count down the days until spring training started.  And now, the days made for nine inning escapes from the daily grind are back.

Baseball is a special sport because it never stops.  If games aren’t being played, then teams are trading players, and when teams are trading, fans have something to talk about. With the start of spring training, we now sit at the start of the cycle, which holds all of the hopes and none of the crushed dreams that the end of the regular season holds.  At this point, the division is still winnable, the League Championship Series can still be reached, and the World Series can still be captured- in theory, of course.

So sit back and enjoy the promise of the season ahead. Your team is still in first place, and your seat in the stadium is waiting to join with the masses in singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”

After Capello, England wonders what’s next

By: Kiran Balan

With the sudden resignation of Fabio Capello, the English Football Association has been left scrambling for a replacement. According to press reports and rumors, the F.A. prefers a manager who is English, but is England ready to give another Englishman a chance after the failures of Steve McClaren?

Return Of The Kick Off

*No punches were pulled in the recording of this podcast*

This week, we covered Arsenal’s 7-1 victory of Blackburn, Chelsea’s 3-3 draw with Manchester United, and we also discussed the various pitch invaders from over the past few weeks of matches around the world.  This week’s podcast is one that you won’t want to miss!  If you have questions that you’d like for us to answer on the podcast in the future, leave them in the comments below.  Enjoy!

 

The Kick Off #3 (Right click to download)

Team/Player of the Week: 2/5

By Kiran Balan and Joe Ballard

It was another terrific weekend of soccer in the EPL, and while our team of the week was a simple choice, there were so many great individual performances we couldn’t limit the award to just one player. So have a look at DB20′s first ever player(s) of the week as well as a team who “gunned” down their opponents this weekend.

Super Rematch In The Circle City

On February 3rd, 2008, the New England Patriots met the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, Arizona.  The two teams played at University of Phoenix Stadium in what I’ve ranked as one of the top three best football games ever played in that dome, the other two being the Chicago Bears’ rally to beat the Arizona Cardinals in 2006, and the 2007 Fiesta Bowl between the Oklahoma University Sooners and Boise State Broncos.

In that season, the Patriots entered the Super Bowl as the first team to go 16-0 in the regular season, and were looking to become the first team to go 19-0 over the entire season with a win in the Superbowl.  The Giants were able to ruin New England’s plans with help from an exhilarating third and long play late in the fourth quarter that had Eli Manning spinning out of the grasp of multiple Patriot defenders and heaving a pass downfield that was caught by (now former Giant) David Tyree.  That play in turn set up the game winning touchdown pass from Manning to Plaxico Burress with 39 seconds left, leaving the Patriots’ hopes of a perfect season dashed.

Four years later, the same teams will meet again in Indianapolis in America’s biggest game, and while a lot of changes have been made to the squads, the core players from 2008 remain, and most importantly, the quarterbacks are the same.

How Do You Solve A Problem Like De Gea?

Mark Bosnich, Massimo Taibi, Fabien Barthez, Andy Goram, Paul Rachubka, Raymond Van der Gouw, Ricardo, Tim Howard, Roy Carroll, Edwin Van der Sar, Ben Foster, Tomasz Kuszczak, Ben Amos, Anders Lindegaard, and David De Gea. These are the 15 goalkeepers who have started for Manchester United since the legendary Peter Schmeichel retired in 1999. Whereas Newcastle had Shay Given, Blackburn had Brad Friedel, and Bolton still has Jussi Jaaskelainen, it’s been something of a circus in the United goal for the majority of the last 13 years (the Van der Sar years aside).

The Kick Off Strikes Back

Punxsutawney Phil called, he predicts more soccer in the next few weeks.  This week on The Kick Off, we review some of the deals made on Transfer Deadline Day, Robin Van Persie’s heroic two penalty effort against Aston Villa in the FA Cup, the US Women’s National Team’s dominance in Vancouver (in which Kiran professes his love for Alex Morgan), and we also preview upcoming matches including Chelsea v Manchester United on Sunday.  If you have questions you’d like for us to answer in future podcasts, leave them in the comments below!  Enjoy!

The Kick Off #2 (Right click to download)

Shutouts all around

Buffalo, NY February 1st. The heat was on as the first place Rangers (32-12-9) took on the number twelve ranked Sabres (21-24-6) who are sprawling just to make the playoffs this year. While there was no scoring throughout the game the two teams made it clear they do not like each other. The Rangers proved to be the tougher team doubling the amount of hits and penalty minutes the Sabres had. When I turned on this game I had no idea it 0-0. When I found out I was immediately hooked and was constantly shouting as both Ryan Miller and Henrik Lundqvist took center stage. Both goalies were white hot, stopping everything that came their way, forcing the game into overtime, and a shootout. In the shootout both goalies finally gave up a goal. First goal was allowed by Ryan Miller against one of the league’s top goal scorers in Marian Gaborik. The Sabres didn’t score their next time up but just when all hope was lost Jason Pominville snaps a quick one blocker side past Henrik Lundqvist to keep the shootout alive. Unfortunately that was cut short as Ryan Callahan buried the game winner and the Rangers continue to show why they are in first place. Up next for the Sabres is the 13th ranked Islanders (20-22-7) on Saturday. The Rangers next game is against the Philadelphia Flyers (29-14-6) who are just 5 points or 2 1/2 games back of the Rangers in the Atlantic division.

India: A New Age Of Soccer

Hernan Crespo hoping to win more silverware

By: Kiran Balan

Soccer is the world’s sport. It has the ability to unite and create opportunities for anyone and everyone who has the determination and desire to succeed. It is with this thinking that India has developed a soccer league called the Premier Soccer League. The main goal of this large project is to raise awareness of the soccer in the region and to build on the recent soccer frenzy that hit the country in recent months. The new league will be a welcomed breath of fresh air to a country that is cricket crazy.  With the Indian national soccer team ranked at a dismal 158^th in the world according to FIFA’s current rankings.  The league will begin in the Indian state of West Bengal and based on the popularity of the league, could spread to other states in India.  It is believed to have a similar structure as Major League Soccer in North America and of the competitive I-League in India.

Top 10 Deadline Day Transfers: January 2012

By: Kiran Balan and Joe Ballard

Another January, another Transfer Deadline Day done and dusted. It might not have been the barnstormer of big-name moves we were hoping for, but there were still plenty of surprise transfers all around England and even some here in America’s MLS. My colleague Kiran and I are bringing you our top ten transfers from Deadline Day and our thoughts on how these players could impact their new clubs.

Nikica Jelavic:

Rangers FC to Everton (Undisclosed Fee)

Jelavic signed a four-and-a-half year deal with David Moyes’ side on Tuesday for a fee thought to be in the range of £6 million. The precociously talented striker signed with Glasgow Rangers in 2010, quickly becoming their star man up front and leading them to two Scottish Premier League titles. The EPL will be a big step up for the Croatian, but he has the skills to acclimate and could be the spark Everton needs to kick-start their season. An excellent piece of business for Moyes’ team.