Maddux Sports Blog

Justine Henin retired suddenly yesterday despite the fact that she was number one in the world rankings. A couple of things arise from that. First, it’s sad where we have gotten to as a society of sports watchers - an athletes leaves suddenly and I can’t help but wonder what she was about to be caught doing. That’s probably not the case here, but we can’t help but wonder. Second, there goes one of the easiest bets in tennis. She had won three straight French Opens. The tournament starts in a couple of weeks. She hasn’t been playing well lately, but she still would have been an automatic bet for a few rounds.

Home teams are now 19-1 in the second round. This is truly, historically insane. The books seem to be getting a handle on it, though - the road teams are 3-1 ATS in the last four.

Kobe clearly isn’t very healthy right now. What a waste of an opportunity that would be if he can’t contribute to his fullest for two more rounds. I’m quite convinced that their next series is the de facto championship round.

Sucks to be John Lackey. The Angels’ ace finally gets off the DL and makes his season debut yesterday against the White Sox. He pitches very well - one earned run in seven innings. His team gives him no run support despite the fact that Jose Contreras is pitching, so he leaves a tie game. Then Scot Shields comes out in relief and does his best impression of Eric Gagne - no outs, but a walk and three hits including a grand slam.

I don’t know what is more interesting - that Cleveland starters have now gone more than 43 straight innings without allowing a run (the longest streak in the majors since 1974), or that a 21-19 record is good enough for the Indians to be alone in first in a league that was supposed to be a force to be reckoned with. Either way, the rest of the AL Central, and the AL for that matter, should be very worried now that the Cleveland rotation has remembered how talented it is.

The Marlins have lost three in a row to Cincinnati, and they could be swept tonight. I like a lot of things about the Reds, but a team that wants to be a good one can’t be losing three straight to them. That, combined with the fact that more than a third of their wins this year come against Washington and they are just 2-7 against teams sitting first, second, or third in their division make me think that the feel good story of the Marlins is going to be long forgotten by September.

I can’t believe I am saying this, but other teams could learn from the Rays. They have quietly got their house in very good order - the signed Scott Kazmir to a four year extension yesterday, and they already inked James Shields for four years in January. They have the best record in the AL (an identical mark to the Marlins), but unlike their upstate rivals, their resurgence is not a fluke (resurgence isn’t the right word, because Tampa Bay has never before been good, but you get the point).

I know that I spend more time talking about the AL Central than anything else in baseball, but it is just so darned fascinating that you can’t look away - it’s like simultaneous car crashes. I was just about to sit down and right a comment of some sort about how the Tigers were finally showing some signs of life - they had won three straight after all, and their offense was hitting on all cylinders. I was also going to throw in a comment about how troubled Cleveland was - they were supposed to be neck and neck with Detroit, and they were, but it wasn’t supposed to be at 5-10. I had been busy all day, and I hadn’t checked out the scores all day, so I took a quick look before making my comments. So much for that article. After Detroit blew away the Indians 13-2 yesterday, they are now trailing Cleveland 11-1 in the 8th.

Cleveland’s best pitcher is C.C. Sabathia. Supposedly. You’d never guess it from the mess that he put out yesterday - nine earned runs in four innings. That moves him to 0-3, and raises some real concerns for backers of the team. I probably would have talked about that for a while, and then tried to find a comparison with the Tigers that made Detroit look better - you know, to build the the argument that Detroit was getting better. So much for that. Justin Verlander, Detroit’s best pitcher, went out tonight and threw out another stinker. He allowed five earned runs in five innings, and unless the Tigers make a miraculous comeback in the ninth he will move to a matching 0-3 record. To confound my problems, I probably would have made some comment about how Fausto Carmona signed a rich new contract and promptly went out and sucked badly in his first game as a rich man. That argument is pretty irrelevant now that Carmona went out and allowed just one run in six and two thirds tonight.

The point is that I have given up trying to figure out what is going on in this division. To make it more confounding, the teams that were supposed to be fighting for the spot at the bottom of the league - Chicago and Kansas City - are instead dueling at the top. It’s things like the start this division is enjoying (some of the teams, anyway) that are good for sports bettors - they remind us that logic isn’t an infallible tool. Sometimes things just don’t make sense, so you might as welll just sit back and enjoy the ride. Enjoy the car wreck, and just make sure that you don’t get caught in it.