San Jose Sharks: Magic Number and Beyond

THE COUNTDOWN TO SAN JOSE SHARKS MAKING NHL HISTORY.

This will updated frequently.

For now, the Silver Bullet will move to http://silverbulletsports.com/ I will no longer cross-post on this site.  I will keep it active for now though.

-dan,

SBS Show #2: San Jose Sharks Preview

It’s Opening Night! So what better way to get the season going than our second installment of the Silver Bullet Sports Show.

This one takes on the Sharks preseason and the expectations they DON’T have this season.
The Whole episode here (17.8mb)

You can also access our podcast on Itunes. Just search the Silver Bullet and subcribe there. We welcome and comments or thoughts here on the Bullet.

NOTE: Currently, there are two podcasts for the silver bullet on I tunes. One has been disconnected and has not been removed from Itunes… THey will both appear upon searching. Make sure the episodes begin downloading for you. I am currently trying to get apple to remove the one that doesn’t work.

Don’t forget we have moved most of our content over to the new Silver Bullet

SBS Show 1: fantasy football- wr rb pickups/performance

The return of the Silver Bullet show is here!

Shawn breaks down fantasy football and I am awed by his analysis. THE WHOLE EPISODE HERE.

SEGMENTS:

Hear Shawn talk about running back surprises this season… here.

Shawn’s most disappointing wr…. here.

Shawn’s insider tip on best wr to trade for… here.

You’ll want to hear the whole episode… i promise.

Don’t forget we’ll be on Itunes in the coming days. search silver bullet sports show, or Dan Harris. Subscribe to our podcast… It’s free!

And we’re moving our site… we will soon be exclusively on silverbulletsports.com

-Dan.

San Jose Sharks Preview: Defense and Goal

Well, enough time has passed for me to scratch out some more thoughts on the Teal and Black. Now, we turn to the Defense and Goalie positions.

-Dan.

San Jose Sharks Preview: Forwards

Training Camp Opens this weekend and that means it’s time to look at the San Jose Sharks and their individual reports from the Silver Bullet.

The 2009 San Jose Sharks are puzzle pieces, or so says the team’s marketing department. Apparently, Seeing how those pieces fit together is why we should buy tickets this season. Truthfully, I have my own cynicism about Team Teal this year and how well these pieces fit together…

To see the rest of this article click here.

And be sure to check out our new site at http://silverbulletsports.com/… Our Local Opinions will be cross-posted for now.

-Dan

Olympic Roundup & Standings: Sunday 08.17

Time for the daily roundup. Don’t forget to read a great post by Shawn, “Spiking the Competition” posted yesterday.

BASEBALL: The US Team is off today and is preparing for a match up with China early tomorrow morning. Standings remain the Same. See below.

BASKETBALL: The US WOMEN took it to New Zealand this morning 96-60. The win keeps TEAM USA undefeated heading into the knockout rounds.

FINAL STANDINGS

Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Avg	Pts
USA	5	5	0	491	276	2	10
China	5	4	1	358	346	0.986	9
Spain	5	3	2	350	354	1.009	8
Czech Republic	5	2	3	353	326	1.174	7
New Zealand	5	1	4	320	423	0.795	6
Mali	5	0	5	255	402	0.644	5

Beating out the Chinese Team sets up a date with Korea on Tuesday.

KNOCKOUT BRACKET

Quarterfinals (2008-08-19)

Semifinals (2008-08-21)

Gold medal game (2008-08-23)

A2

Russia

B3

Spain

B1

USA

A4

Korea

B2

China

A3

Belarus

Bronze medal game

A1

Australia

B4

Czech Republic

The Men will conclude their round robin play with Germany tomorrow at 5:00am.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL: One women’s team is eliminated in the Quest for Sandy Gold in Beijing. The duo of Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs fell in straight sets to the Chinese in their quarterfinal matchup. Misty May and Kerri Walsh had no problems with one Brazilian team and now will face the other team in the Semi-Finals.

UPDATED BRACKET:

Quarterfinals							Semifinals							Gold Medal Game
	1	Tian Jia – Wang (CHN)	21	21
	14	Schwaiger – Schwaiger (AUT)	12	12
								1	Tian Jia – Wang (CHN)
								4	Xue – Zhang Xi (CHN)
	5	Branagh – Youngs (USA)	17	13
	4	Xue – Zhang Xi (CHN)	21	21
	10	Barnett – Cook (AUS)	22	14
	6	Talita – Renata (BRA)	24	21
								6	Talita – Renata (BRA)
								2	Walsh – May-Treanor (USA)						Bronze Medal Game
	3	Larissa – Ana Paula (BRA)	18	15
	2	Walsh – May-Treanor (USA)	21	21

The Men’s Quarterfinal matches are set for Tonight and Tomorrow Morning.

FOOTBALL: The Women’s Semifinal Matchup with Japan is on deck tomorrow at 5:00am.

FIELD HOCKEY: We’re still waiting to see what happens against Great Britain tomorrow as the US Women fight to keep their medal round hopes alive. That game coming up tomorrow at 3:00am.

SOFTBALL: TEAM USA in yet Another Mercy Rule win. They beat up on the Netherlands 8-0 (5 inn.) They will wrap up their Round Robin play against China tonight at 9:00pm. PST. TEAM USA has already clinched their spot in the Elimination Round . The USA has wOn the Gold Medal every year since Softball has been played at the Olympics.

Team	W	L	RS	RA	WIN%	GB	Tiebreaker
United States	6	0	44	1	1.000	-	-
Japan	5	1	17	13	.833	1	-
Australia	4	2	21	9	.667	2	-
Canada	3	3	17	17	.500	3	-
China	2	4	19	12	.333	4	-
Chinese Taipei	2	4	8	19	.333	4	-
Venezuela	2	4	13	26	.333	4	-
Netherlands	0	6	4	46	.000	6	-

GYM VOLLEYBALL: TEAM USA has already played Poland in Women’s Volleyball but I won’t spoil it, since it hasn’t aired on NBC yet. The Men’s team will take on Japan tomorrow morning.

-Dan.

Olympic Roundup & Standings: Saturday 08.16

Another Round of updates from Beijing.

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT A GREAT ARTICLE HERE ON THE BULLET: SPIKING THE COMPETITION by SHAWN CAMILLERI

(Also available below this post)

Let’s do the roundup:

BASEBALL: It’s a victory for TEAM USA! The R,W, and B beat our neighbors to the North 5-4 last night. Brian Barden went 2-for-5 with a double and a homerun. The win brings the USA into the mix in the standings again.

Team	W	L	RS	RA	WIN%	GB	Tiebreaker
Cuba	4	0	17	12	1.000	-	-
South Korea	3	0	14	10	1.000	½	-
United States	2	2	23	17	.500	2	-
Japan	2	2	17	10	.500	2	-
China	1	2	12	23	.333	2½	-
Canada	1	3	20	13	.250	3	-
Chinese Taipei	1	3	13	15	.250	3	-
Netherlands	1	3	6	22	.250	3	-

Up Next for TEAM USA is China very early Monday Morning.

—–

BASKETBALL: Team USA cannot be beat in these Olympics it seems. Both the Women and Men’s teams destroying Spain. The Boys beat the current world champions, 119-82. They will take the #1 seed into the knockout round no matter how they far against Germany on Monday

Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	PF	PA	Avg	PD	Pts
USA	4	4	0	1.000	409	297	1.377	+112	8
Spain	4	3	1	.750	320	319	1.003	+1	7
Greece	4	2	2	.500	324	298	1.087	+26	6
China	4	2	2	.500	289	309	0.935	-20	6
Germany	4	1	3	.250	273	284	0.961	-11	5
Angola	4	0	4	.000	271	379	0.715	-108	4

Tournament knockout bracket to be completed by Monday. The U.S. Women to take on New Zealand early tomorrow. .

—–

BEACH VOLLEYBALL:

The Men’s Round of 16 match results are in. Rogers/Delhausser(#1 seed) began the tourney against Switzerland. They won in three sets. The Gibbs/Rosenthal duo easily dispatched Spain in 2 Sets. So NOW the tournament bracket.

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Gold Medal Game

Klemperer – Koreng (GER)

Rogers – Dalhausser (USA)

Nummerdor – Schuil (NED)

Geor – Gia (GEO)

Ricardo – Emanuel (BRA)

Gibb – Rosenthal (USA)

Bronze Medal Game

M. Araujo – Fabio Luiz (BRA)

Gosch – Horst (AUT)

TEAM 1 is scheduled at 7 PM tomorrow night.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL – WOMEN: The Two team’s Quarterfinal matches are set for later tonight and early tomorrow morning. Both teams will look to advance to the Semifinals. See the Bracket below.

—–

FOOTBALL: The big game between USA and JAPAN in the Women’s Semifinal will go off tomorrow at 5:00am PST. As mentioned TEAM USA already beat Japan in the tournament. The win could set up a gold medal match with Brazil or Germany.

—–

FIELD HOCKEY: The U.S and New Zealand was a crucial match for Team USA as they need a full six points to even have potential into the Medal round. They got the effort they needed. USA destroys New Zealand 4-1. USA’s Keli Smith scores two goals in the win: 1 Field Goal and one off a Penalty Corner.

Updated Standings

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Germany	9	4	3	0	1	11	8	+3
Argentina	8	4	2	2	0	10	5	+5
Great Britain	7	4	2	1	1	7	9	−2
USA	5	4	1	2	1	9	8	+1
Japan	4	4	1	1	2	5	6	−1
New Zealand	0	4	0	0	4	4	10	−6

Now, the United States plays England, so if they win outright they would leapfrog the Brits. They would need a big victory over GB and a loss by Argentina who wraps up their play against Argentina. It doesn’t look good, but if New Zealand can beat Argentina 1-0. The US would only need to beat England by 5. HA!

—–

SOFTBALL: The US team gets another Mercy Rule win. They beat up on Chinese Taipai 7-0 in 5 innings late last night. Jennie Finch on the Bump for TEAM USA, Jessica Mendoza hits a homerun in the 3rd inning, part of a 5-run 3rd for USA.

Team	W	L	RS	RA	WIN%	GB
United States	5	0	36	1	1.000	-
Japan	4	1	12	11	.800	1
Australia	3	2	17	9	.600	2
Canada	3	2	17	13	.600	2
China	2	3	18	10	.400	3
Venezuela	2	3	11	21	.400	3
Chinese Taipei	1	4	6	18	.200	4
Netherlands	0	5	4	38	.000	5

USA has clinched a spot in the Semi-finals. The Softball page playoff system is different but an interesting twist in this tournament. (though, it really won’t affect the USA too much if they win out.)

—–

GYM VOLLEYBALL:

MEN: Check out Shawn’s Article Below as he discusses the great journey of the US Men’s Volleyball team. The Men swept China in dominating fashion and now have a match with japan to wrap up round robin play. The US Men are already into the knockout round by way of their 4-0 record.

Rk	Team	Points	Played	Won	Lost	PW	PL	Ratio	SW	SL	Ratio
1	United States	8	4	4	0	385	320	1.203	12	4	3.000
2	Italy	7	4	3	1	332	297	1.117	10	4	2.500
3	Bulgaria	6	4	2	2	348	358	0.972	7	8	0.875
4	China	6	4	2	2	341	385	0.886	7	10	0.700
5	Venezuela	5	4	1	3	339	353	0.960	7	9	0.778
6	Japan	4	4	0	4	341	373	0.914	4	12	0.333

Shouldn’t be a problem for the men who have secured a top seed in the tournament.

WOMEN: The women are 3-1 in their respective pool and will qualify for the knockout round, just maybe not as dominating as the men. They wrap up their round-robin with Poland.

Rk	Team	Points	Played	Won	Lost	PW	PL	Ratio	SW	SL	Ratio
1	Cuba	8	4	4	0	351	312	1.125	12	3	4.000
2	United States	7	4	3	1	357	338	1.056	9	7	1.286
3	China	6	4	2	2	391	341	1.147	10	7	1.43
4	Japan	6	4	2	2	337	313	1.077	7	8	.875
5	Poland	5	4	1	3	338	343	0.985	7	9	0.778
6	Venezuela	4	4	0	4	203	320	0.649	1	12	0.008

-Dan.

Olympic Roundup & Standings: Friday 08.15

UPDATES from BEIJING

BASEBALL: A marathon game between Cuba and the United States hands the Red, White and Blue their second loss. The defending Gold Medal winner Cubans scored two runs in the top of the 11th to win it. I still have not seen a baseball game on TV, It’s starting to piss me off. If NBC can’t stick to it’s schedule how does it expect us all to stick around for it’s coverage.

LATEST STANDINGS:

Team	W	L	RS	RA	WIN%	GB	Tiebreaker
Cuba	3	0	16	12	1.000	-	-
South Korea	2	0	9	7	1.000	½	-
Japan	2	1	14	5	.667	1	-
China	1	1	8	17	.500	1½	-
United States	1	2	18	13	.333	2	-
Canada	1	2	16	8	.333	2	-
Chinese Taipei	1	2	13	14	.333	2	-
Netherlands	0	3	0	18	.000	3	-

Top Four Advance to knockout round.

—–

BASKETBALL: Only the women have played Spain so far and this wasn’t much of a contest. USA’s Lisa Leslie with a double-double and the USA Women are on autopilot as they head into the Quarterfinals. Up next: New Zealand Sunday morning.

Team	Played	Won	Lost	PF	PA	Avg	Points
USA	4	4	0	395	216	1.876	8
China	4	3	1	279	303	0.894	7
Spain	4	2	2	271	307	1.009	6
Czech Republic	4	2	2	290	247	1.174	6
New Zealand	4	1	3	260	327	0.795	5
Mali	4	0	4	228	334	0.630	4

Nothing more can happen in this group, so the New Zealand game is pretty minor.

—–

BEACH VOLLEYBALL: The women’s beach volleyball Round of 16 is underway, and the USA didn’t disappoint. Both teams demolished the opposition and it’s startiong to look really good for the American teams. The draw for the knockout tournament is in. May-Traenor and Kerri Walsh should have smooth sailing and could face Branagh and Youngs for the Gold.

Quarterfinals							Semifinals							Gold Medal Game
	2	Tian Jia – Wang (CHN)
	14	Schwaiger – Schwaiger (AUT)
	5	Branagh – Youngs (USA)
	4	Xue – Zhang Xi (CHN)
	10	Barnett – Cook (AUS)
	6	Talita – Renata (BRA)
															Bronze Medal Game
	3	Larissa – Ana Paula (BRA)
	1	Walsh – May-Treanor (USA)

The Men’s side of the coin has set them up for Round of 16 play before we get to the eight-team bracket. One pair gets Switzerland and the Other, Spain. shouldn’t be a problem for the USA who should advance into the bracket easily.

—–

FOOTBALL: or Soccer. The US Women scored in Extra Time to catapult them into a semifinal matchup with Japan. The US Women have already defeated Japan 1-0, That was back on August 9th. Either way, the game should be a nice test before the US women go for the GOLD.

The Bracket:

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Gold medal match

F1

Brazil

2

G2

Norway

1

F1

Brazil

F2

Germany

E2

Sweden

0

F2

Germany

2

G1

USA

2

E3

Canada

1

G1

USA

Bronze medal match

G3

Japan

E1

China PR

0

G3

Japan

2

—–

FIELD HOCKEY: The US women have the weak New Zealand sqaud next. They will need a victory here and over Great Britain to have hopes of advancing to the Medal Round.

—–

SOFTBALL: Two big wins, first over Japan and then over the rain-shortened game against Canada. UP next Chinese Taipei.

Team	W	L	RS	RA	WIN%	GB
United States	4	0	29	1	1.000	-
Canada	3	1	17	11	.750	1
Japan	3	1	9	11	.750	1
Australia	2	2	9	9	.500	2
China	2	2	18	7	.500	2
Chinese Taipei	1	3	6	11	.250	3
Venezuela	1	3	9	21	.250	3
Netherlands	0	4	4	30	.000	4

It’s almost disgusting how good TEAM USA is….

—–

GYM VOLLEYBALL: The Men’s win over Bulgaria clinches their spot in the Quarterfinals. They have two more matches against China and Japan.

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL:

Rk	Team	Played	Won	Lost	Points
1	United States	3	3	0	6
2	Italy	3	2	1	5
3	Bulgaria	3	2	1	5
4	China	3	2	1	5
5	Venezuela	3	0	3	3
6	Japan	3	0	3	3

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL:The women’s only loss to Cuba will be okay as the girls clinch semifinals as well. They escaped a brutle slug-fest against China, a 5 set nail biter goes to the Americans.

Rk	Team	Played	Won	Lost	Points
1	Cuba	4	4	0	8
2	United States	4	3	1	7
3	China	4	2	2	6
4	Japan	4	2	2	6
5	Poland	4	1	3	5
6	Venezuela	4	0	4	4

Enough!

-Dan.

Olympic Roundup & Standings: Thursday 8.14

Okay, so we’ve got some new updates from across the globe.

Let’s start with

BASEBALL: Two rain delays left the game with a USA lead 7-0 into the bottom of the ninth. The excessive rain forced officials to call the game with the Netherlands rallying. Nevertheless, USA gets it’s first win of the tournament and is now set to face Cuba later today.

Standings

Team	W	L	RS	RA	WIN%	GB	Tiebreaker
Cuba	2	0	11	8	1.000	-	-
South Korea	1	0	8	7	1.000	½	-
Canada	1	1	16	7	.500	1	-
United States	1	1	14	8	.500	1	-
Japan	1	1	8	5	.500	1	-
Chinese Taipei	1	1	6	6	.500	1	-
China	0	1	0	10	.000	1½	-
Netherlands	0	2	0	12	.000	2	-

Top Four teams qualify for Medal round.

========================================================

BASKETBALL: Both teams are crushing opponents and the Men seem to have the Redeem Team mentality locked up. No one has been close to either team in round-robin team. Is there any competition in this tournament. Up Next both teams to face Spain over the next two days.

USA MEN and WOMEN have qualified for the Quarterfinals already.

MEN STANDINGS:

Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	PF	PA	PD	Pts
USA	3	3	0	1.000	290	215	+75	6
Spain	3	3	0	1.000	238	200	+38	6
Germany	3	1	2	.333	218	225	-7	4
Greece	3	1	2	.333	222	237	-15	4
China	3	1	2	.333	230	254	-24	4
Angola	3	0	3	.000	210	277	-67	3

WOMEN STANDINGS:

Team	G	W	L	Pts
USA	3	3	0	6
China	3	2	1	5
Spain	3	2	1	5
Czech Republic	3	1	2	4
New Zealand	3	1	2	4
Mali	3	0	3	3

========================================================

BEACH VOLLEYBALL-WOMEN: We’re in the playoffs now and the USA teams have dominated the fields here as well. The May-Treanor/Walsh team has been superb as expected.

FINAL STANDINGS – WOMEN

Pool B

Rk	Team	Points	Won	Lost	PW	PL	SW	SL
1	Walsh – May-Treanor (USA)	6	3	0	126	85	6	0
2	F. Grasset – L. Peraza (CUB)	5	2	1	116	116	4	2
3	Håkedal – Tørlen (NOR)	4	1	2	108	111	2	4
4	Teru Saiki – Kusuhara (JPN)	3	0	3	88	126	0	6

Pool E

Rk	Team	Points	Won	Lost	PW	PL	SW	SL
1	Branagh – Youngs (USA)	6	3	0	139	129	6	1
2	Pohl – Rau (GER)	5	2	1	117	115	4	2
3	Esteves Ribalta – M. Crespo (CUB)	4	1	2	130	117	3	4
4	Kadijk – Mooren (NED)	3	0	3	107	132	0	6

PLAYOFFS:

Team 1 will face Belgium in a round of 16 match.

Team 2 will face Cuba.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL-MEN: The Playoffs are ahead as well, here. Not quite as dominating a performance as on the women’s side. But the Gibbs/Rosenthal team should make a case for Gold in Beijing.

FINAL STANDINGS – MEN

Pool F

Rk	Team	Points	Won	Lost	PW	PL	SW	SL
1	Gibb – Rosenthal (USA)	6	3	0	142	111	6	1
2	Asahi – Shiratori (JPN)	4	1	2	147	151	3	5
3	Boersma E. – Ronnes (NED)	4	1	2	125	137	3	4
4	Brink – Dieckmann Ch. (GER)	4	1	2	106	121	2	4

Pool B

Rk	Team	Points	Won	Lost	PW	PL	SW	SL
1	Samoilovs – Pļaviņš (LAT)	5	2	1	139	134	4	3
2	Rogers – Dalhausser (USA)	5	2	1	121	92	4	2
3	Heyer – Heuscher (SUI)	4	1	2	120	129	3	4
4	Conde – Baracetti (ARG)	4	1	2	99	124	2	4

Playoff matchups have not been determined.

========================================================

FOOTBALL: or Soccer. Well, the Men are done as they faded to Nigeria early yesterday morning. The women are still alive and have a date with Canada early Friday.Tough break for the men who really needed a win or draw against Nigeria.

WOMAN’S KNOCKOUT BRACKET

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Gold medal match

F1

Brazil

G2

Norway

E2

Sweden

F2

Germany

G1

USA

E3

Canada

Bronze medal match

E1

China PR

G3

Japan

WOMEN’S FINAL STANDINGS

Group G

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
USA	3	2	0	1	5	2	+3	6
Norway	3	2	0	1	4	5	−1	6
Japan	3	1	1	1	7	4	+3	4
New Zealand	3	0	1	2	2	7	−5	1

MEN’S FINAL STANDINGS

Group B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Nigeria	3	2	1	0	4	2	+2	7
Netherlands	3	1	2	0	3	2	+1	5
USA	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
Japan	3	0	0	3	1	4	−3	0

========================================================

FIELD HOCKEY: The USA Women are in trouble if they can’t pull off two straight wins and somehow wiggle their way back into contention. It was  virtual must-win against Germany yesterday and Team USA floundered to a 4-2 loss. A controversial missed call noted by NBC commentators would not have made a difference in this loss. Up next: NEW ZEALAND.

Pool B

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Germany	9	3	3	0	0	11	4	+7
Argentina	5	3	1	2	0	6	5	+1
Japan	4	3	1	1	1	4	4	0
Great Britain	4	3	1	1	1	5	8	−3
USA	2	3	0	2	1	5	7	−2
New Zealand	0	3	0	0	3	3	6	−3

Looking at the standings, It doesn’t look good for a medal round as only the top two will advance to the knockout stage.  With 2 wins, Team USA would have 8 points and would leapfrog England. Japan and Argentina still both have to play Germany, so it’s not completely unheard of.

========================================================

SOFTBALL: The rain quieted the matchup between USA and Canada last night, so there isn’t much here.  They will play a double header today.

Team	W	L	RS	RA	WIN%	GB
Japan	3	0	9	4	1.000	-
Canada	2	0	15	3	1.000	½
United States	2	0	14	0	1.000	½
China	2	1	18	6	.667	1
Australia	1	2	6	8	.333	2
Chinese Taipei	1	2	5	8	.333	2
Netherlands	0	3	4	22	.000	3
Venezuela	0	3	1	21	.000	3

Nothing to be too worried about, here though. The USA should make the top four in this group and advance to the Semi-Finals.

========================================================

GYM VOLLEYBALL:

Admittedly, I haven’t been paying as close attention to the indoor volleyball, but the United States is in the mix here. Both the MEN and WOMEN were off yesterday. The men played earlier this morning against Bulgaria, but will not air on NBC until tonight, so I will not spoil.

For updated Men’s Standings, go here

WOMEN’S STANDINGS

Pool A

Rk	Team	Points	Played	Won	Lost	PW	PL	Ratio	SW	SL	Ratio
1	Cuba	6	3	3	0	276	251	1.100	9	3	3.000
2	China	5	3	2	1	288	230	1.252	8	4	2.000
3	Japan	5	3	2	1	266	238	1.118	7	5	1.400
4	United States	5	3	2	1	246	235	1.047	6	5	1.200
5	Poland	3	3	0	3	263	299	0.880	4	9	0.444
6	Venezuela	3	3	0	3	159	245	0.649	1	9	0.111

Top four teams advance so USA is on the fringe but still hanging on. They will play China in the early morning hours tomorrow.

THAT’S ALL FROM HERE. WOMEN’S SOCCER LIVE ON USA TOMORROW MORNING 3:00am!!!

-Dan

Standings and Brackets courtesy: Wikipedia.

Olympics: What a show! USA vs. S. Korea

In the final go around for baseball in the Olympic summer tournament, how much more could you ask for in an opening day game featuring Team USA.

An exciting finish for TEAM USA even if they were on the losing side of the coin. Trailing 5-6 in the top of the ninth, Matt Brown stands in for a battle with S. Korea pitcher Suk Min Yoon. Brownie smacks a line drive into left center and drives home two runs (Brian Bardon and Dexter Fowler). USA goes up 7-6 into the Bottom of the 9th inning.

S. Korea didn’t concede so easily though. Jeff Stevens came into try and close it out for Team Stars and Stripes. BUT he gives up a rally starting double to Keun-Woo Jeong–the innings first batter. The the pinch hitter Hyun-Soo Kim (a stud in the Korean League) up to the plate. His groundout pushes Jeong over to third.  Ko Youngmin up for SK, with one out and he pops up a bunt foul

Here’s a question… This is where it gets weird. Korea sends up a different hitter in the at bat who takes over with one strike. The batter Taekkeun Lee, who -surprise, surprise- a infeild ground ball to second. USA’s Jayson Nix goes home with it and the play at the plate isn’t close, and they don’t get the out at 1st. Game tied 7-7.

And then we got problems… Stevens throws the ball away on a pick-off attempt, and Lee takes not one, but two bags on the USA error. He stands at 3rd with one out. Then the game winning Sacrifice Fly by Jongwook Lee who was the next batter. SK wins 8-7.

Nix’s choice to go home allowed the winning run to remain on the bags, and Stevens throw away allowed the sacrifice to be set. It’s a really tough way to open this tournament.  Up next the Netherlands.

TOP FOUR ADVANCE TO THE KNOCKOUT ROUND.

Team	W	L	RS	RA	WIN%	GB	Tiebreaker
Canada	1	0	10	0	1.000	-	-
South Korea	1	0	8	7	1.000	-	-
Chinese Taipei	1	0	5	0	1.000	-	-
Cuba	1	0	4	2	1.000	-	-
Japan	0	1	2	4	.000	1	-
Netherlands	0	1	0	5	.000	1	-
United States	0	1	7	8	.000	1	-
China	0	1	0	10	.000	1	-