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 Sports
 The Rap
Join me here every Monday for a weekly review and analysis from the world of sports. From the NBA to the NFL, with a little of everything in between, one of the most comprehensive sport reports on a single page.
Bob Cohen - PVNN
| | Jockey Kent Desormeaux and favorite Big Brown started from the 20th position in the 20-horse field. (Heinz Kluetmeier/SI) | | |
The 134th "Run for the Roses", the Kentucky Derby was run Saturday with a full field of 20 3 year olds, 19 colts and one filly. Favorites generally do not win the Derby and with that said, the early favorite was Big Brown, an undefeated speed horse who had raced only 3 times. Add that to having to break from the outside 20 hole, with 3 other speed horses just inside of him, the challenge was demanding.
Critics and all the prognosticators looked at all the ways and reasons that Big Brown couldn't win the Derby. The break and long run to the first turn should eliminate more than half the field as those from the outside can get caught 5 or 6 wide and the horses breaking from the inside can get pinched back with too much ground to make up.
The colt had an easy trip down the stretch, unable to move inside and veteran jockey Kent Desormeaux knew what type of horse he had underneath him. Big Brown was five wide going into the turn and stayed five wide throughout in 6th place as they turned to the backstretch. The early fractions by the leaders showed a quick pace so Desormeaux just let the colt run in 6th place into the far turn when he asked for just a little and Big Brown responded, passing 4 horses and came out of the turn wide and moving into the lead and then the colt felt a tap of the jockey's whip and shifted gears moving clearly and boldly into the lead at the top of the stretch and was never challenged to the wire.
Big Brown crossed the line 4 ¾ lengths ahead of the filly Eight Belles who sadly but amazingly finished 2nd in the race while injured, and after she crossed the finish line she collapsed, breaking her two front ankles and sadly had to be euthanized as the injury was so severe that there was no hope of saving her life. It was both a glorious and sad day for the two horse's connections, but Big Brown was clearly the best horse of the 20 and had to run at least 100-150 yards further then the others due to his wide trip. The Preakness is next from Pimlico in two weeks and again racing fans will hope to see a Triple Crown winner.
The NBA playoffs have moved into the divisional semifinals with some surprises but most series went as expected. The Lakers were the first team to move into the 2nd round by routing Denver 4-0. Orlando moved ahead the same day, defeating Toronto 4-1. New Orleans surprisingly defeated Dallas rather easily 4-1 and defending champion San Antonio also had a surprisingly easy time with Phoenix Tuesday, also taking the series 4-1.
Detroit took out Philadelphia next, but not without a fight 4-2. Cleveland had a difficult time with Washington before prevailing 4-2. Utah played a tough Houston team but won 4-2 also. Boston, who had the best record in the NBA at 66-16, had the hardest time advancing and struggled with Atlanta, who had the worst record at 37-45.Each team won their first 6 games at home but the Celtics finally advanced winning Sunday 99-65 to be that last team to move into the next round..
Kobe Bryant was voted the NBA Most Valuable Player for the first time in career, leading the Lakers to the best record in the Western Conference. Kobe was 2nd league in scoring with a 28.3 PPG average was a complete player this season, averaging 6.3 rebounds per game, 5.4 assists per game and 1.8 steals per game.
Divisional semifinal matchups:
Eastern Division
Detroit 1 - Orlando 0
Cleveland - Boston
Western Division
LA Lakers 1 - Utah 0
New Orleans 1 - San Antonio 0
The NHL reached the divisional finals with the Dallas victory late Sunday night.
In the Eastern Conference, Pittsburgh defeated the NY Rangers 4-1 and Philadelphia defeated Montreal 4-1. In the Western Conference Detroit shut out Colorado 4-0 and Dallas defeated San Jose 4-2.
The Eastern Conference final pits Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia.
The Western Conference final pits Detroit vs. Dallas.
In golf with Tiger Woods just getting off his crutches, all eyes were on Lorena Ochoa who after a week off was gunning for her 5th consecutive win and 6th in her 7 tournaments in 2008. Play was at the SemGroup Championship in Oklahoma and all the players battled the wind gusts that plagued the course during the 1st two days of play. The opening round leader shot a 69 and was the only player to shoot less than 70. Lorena shot an uncharacteristic 73, only her 2nd over par round in 2008, and followed with a 3 over par 74 but was only 6 strokes back with 2 days to go.
Paula Creamer was able to tame the course best on Saturday, leading by 2 strokes at only 3 under par going into Sunday's final round. Ochoa wasn't able to mount a rally and shot even par and was an astounding 5 over par for the tournament, leaving her with a battle to just break par for the event and even for Lorena winning appeared out of reach. Creamer collapsed on Sunday and bogeyed the final hole and shooting 2 under for the tournament, tied with Julie Inkster; then Creamer won in a sudden death playoff. Ochoa saw her phenomenal winning streak end, but she wound up 5th, five strokes behind the leader.
In tennis most top players took the week off after the Monte Carlo Masters. Rafael Nadal was the lone exception, looking for his 4th consecutive title in the $1.3 million Barcelona Open played on clay where Nadal is virtually unbeatable. Top seeded Nadal didn't even come close to losing a set as he breezed through the field to reach the final against fellow Spaniard David Ferrer. Nadal won the first set 6-1 and lost his first set of the tournament 4-6, before dominating and winning the final set 6-1 for the championship.
In baseball, there were neither fantastic starts nor horrible beginnings from teams and all teams are still in contention. A winning streak could move a last place team right into the top of their division. Arizona has the baseball's best record at 21-10 and both Cincinnati and San Diego share the worst record at 12-20. Chipper Jones leads all hitters with a .421 batting average and Chase Utley leads in homers with 13. Brandon Webb is 7-0 to lead all pitchers. We will review each division as the first month of play concluded.
AL East | GB
Boston 20-13
Baltimore 16-15 | 3
Tampa Bay 16-15 | 3
NY Yankees 17-16 | 3
Toronto 15-17 | 4 1/2
AL Central
Minnesota 16-14
Chicago White Sox 14-15 | 1 1/2
Kansas City 14-16 | 2
Cleveland 14-17 | 2 1/2
Detroit 14-18 | 3
AL West
LA Angels 20-13
Oakland 19-14 | 1
Seattle 13-19 | 6 1/2
Texas 13-19 | 6 1/2
NL East
Philadelphia 18-14
NY Mets 16-13 | 1/2
Florida 17-14 | 1/2
Atlanta 15-15 | 2
Washington 14-18 | 4
NL Central
St. Louis 20-12
Chicago Cubs 18-13 | 1 1/2
Milwaukee 16-15 | 3 1/2
Houston 16-16 | 4
Pittsburgh 12-19 | 7 1/2
Cincinnati 12-20 | 8
NL West
Arizona 21-10
LA Dodgers 17-14 | 4
San Francisco 14-18 | 7 1/2
Colorado 12-19 | 9
San Diego 12-20 | 9 1/2
In boxing, Oscar De La Hoya (39-5, 30 KOs) got into the ring to fight for the first time in almost a year in his farewell to competitive boxing commencing by the end of 2008 after 3 fights this year. His opponent Saturday night was Steve Forbes (33-5, 9 KOs) and although not stated publicly, the fight was designed for the Golden Boy to tune up for his rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr. that has $20 million going to each fighter. Oscar can't look past this fight as this type of fight that is most dangerous to De La Hoya, fighting a smaller boxer and possibly looking ahead to September. De La Hoya was a 17-1 betting favorite.
De La Hoya won an easy unanimous decision and two judges gave him every round, but it appears that he needs more power to follow up on his jab and flurries in order to take out a better fighter. Oscar did what he wanted to however; he fought 12 rounds and was fresh at the end and experimented with his fight game. All things considered, it was exactly as people expected the fight to be; an easy De La Hoya victory.
In soccer, the Mexican Premier 2008 division concluded regular season play. The game of the week was the Chivas playing at Chiapas and Chiapas scored a goal in the final minute of play to tie the Chivas 2-2. Another big game was San Luis at Santos and Santos scored the last 4 goals to win 4-1.
Toluca won Group 1 at 7-4-6 and 27 points with Chiapas 2nd at 7-5-5 and 26 points. Both will be in the playoffs. Santos won Group 2 at 8-2-7 and 31 points and Monterrey was 2nd at 6-5-6 and 24 points. Both will be in the playoffs. The Chivas won Group 3 at 9-2-6 and a league best 33 points. Cruz Azul finished 2nd in Group 3 at 9-4-4 and 31 points. San Luis was 3rd at 8-3-6 and 30 points and all three Group 3 teams will be in the playoffs.
In the FIFA Beach Soccer qualifier in Argentina, three more powerful teams joined Mexico, El Salvador and the African countries that advanced. Defending champion Brazil won the cup, defeating host Argentina in the finals as both advanced as did Uruguay who came in 3rd in the competition. Next stop is Dubai for the Asian teams to compete after a short break in the qualifying schedule. |
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