MLB

A month ago, on May 8th, the Kansas City Royals were 18-11 and in first place in the AL Central.  They proceeded to lose the next six games and go into a month-long tailspin.  Goinginto Friday's game against the Reds, they had lost 23 of 30 games.  They have won the first two games of this series with effective pitching, hitting, and defense, all of which had been lacking over the previous month.

Team (Current Record|Last Week's Ranking)

1. Los Angeles Dodgers (41-22|1)

The offense functionally disappeared last week. Pierre, Loney, and Hudson have cooled off significantly. Kemp has sustained his good play (.353 avg/5 RBI/1.095 OPS last week). Despite that, the Dodgers still are second in the National League in batting average (.278) and on-base percentage (.357).

Brian Bruney laced into former Angels' closer Francisco Rodriguez for his actions when he finishes a game.

Brian called Rodriguez's machinations, in which he pounds his chest, points to the sky, and roars, a "tired act."

"I just don't like watching the guy pitch. I think it's embarrassing. I was taught to play the game a different way."

Brian Bruney is Right

Of course, Brian Bruney is right. The opposition feels bad enough when it loses. To rub it in is classless, and as the old-timers used to say, it is bush league.

Before I turned out the necessary Roy Halladay article (by necessary I mean that writing anything else before dealing with that would have been near sacrilege), I was working on another angle.

I was writing about a player who needs more things written about him before we forget.

His name is Jesse Litsch.

I was watching during his first start against the Baltimore Orioles. The big story was his father sitting in the stands; and he won the game for the Jays in convincing fashion, pitching the most innings ever by a Blue Jays first-time starter.

Clay Buchholz, Jeff Bialey, Chris Carter, Lars Anderson, Jonathan Van Every, Michael Bowden, Argenis Diaz, Junichi Tazawa, Josh Reddick, etc. etc. etc.
Everyone acknowledges that the Boston Red Sox farm system is by far one of the deepest in all of baseball. Some of the players have been in the system forever, others just getting their first sip of Red Sox minors coffee. These guys are the fututre of the Sox, and will show why Boston will contend for the next decade.

Earlier this week, Mets manager Jerry Manuel walked out mound to get Johan Santana.  Johan did not want to come out of the game.  He's a competitor and he was beating the Phillies.  I understand.

We learned after the game what he was saying to Manuel on the mound.  Johan has a saying, "I'm a man, I'm a man."

I don't know what Johan means by this; I'm sure it has meaning to him.

What I do know, is Luis Castillo is a man, and I'm proud to have him on my team.

Breaking news at this hour as FOXSports.com is reporting the Washington Nationals are set to announce the termination of manager Manny Acta's contract, potentially allowing bench coach Jim Riggleman to become head coach.

The reports are unconfirmed however, as team sources are stating Riggleman has not been told he is taking over the job, even going as far as mentioning that Acta has not been dismissed from his position on the team.

When tragedy strikes the world of sports, it always leaves an everlasting imprint in our lives.

No matter if we cheered the player, booed the player or hated the player, we always respected the player.

This slide show is so we never forget the guys we rooted for, the ones that could have been so great... but were stolen from us early in life. Never take for granted what you have, no matter how small or big it is, just be happy that we got to open our eyes today.

Here is a list of players that left our world tragically way before it was there time to go.