Author: lleonardbw

NBA Championship Finals: Spurs back in physical way 111-92 S.A. in series lead 2-1

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by David Zizmor

San Antonio (2) vs. Miami (1): This was a big game for the Spurs they won the first game with the broken air conditioner out of action and a lot of people would have said Miami would have won game two back in San Antonio if not for the air conditioning and then the Heat came back and win game two.

So a lot of people were thinking the Heat really had a shot to have swept those two in San Antonio, so the Heat might have the advantage now that their going Florida. The Spurs said no were not having any of that talk and they had a pretty decisive win in game three on Tuesday night 111-92 and it really wasn’t that close.

The Spurs jumped out to a 16 point lead in the first quarter, they scored 41 points and the Heat have a very good defense but you drop 41 points on the Heat in one quarter your doing something right. From that point forward it was all San Antonio there was a blip in third quarter as the Spurs were having trouble getting the ball in the hoop.

The Spurs recovered and the Heat was never really able to get back in this game. It was a solid game all around from the Spurs there was really no breathing room for the Heat in this one. The Heat’s LeBron James and Dwayne Wade were impact players for the Heat Tuesday night. All the props go out to the Spurs Kahwi Leonard he really sent a message for the Spurs with 29 points, 10-13 shooting, that’s impressive.

Leonard was all over the floor and not just on offense, he was a tough defender on D, he helped contain LeBron and LeBron scored 22 points on 9-14 shots it wasn’t impactful. LeBron is one of those guys who where you can give up 20 it’s a matter of what points your giving him.

For LeBron these were points that he would not really care about, LeBron got his shots here and there but it’s really nothing he would care about and it was nothing that really would stoke the crowd it was nothing that got the team going. So the Spurs come in and makes a statement in game three, in game two they struggled and in game one they won more because of the lack of air conditioning in their building.

This was a physical game on Tuesday and your going to see players getting a little physical in this series and your talking about two very good defensive teams already and when you get in the finals everybody throws everything out the window. Your getting everything but the kitchen sink and sometimes you can get the kitchen sink. It’s the Spurs and Heat for game four on Thursday night in Miami.

David Zizmor is covering the NBA Finals for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Kings arena downtown: Citizens protest the building of new arena citing traffic and environmental concerns

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by Jerry Feitelberg

A Sacramento citizens lawsuit hearing was heard in Sacramento Superior Court on Tuesday, 12 citizens in their efforts to try and stop the construction of the Sacramento Kings new arena was heard. The citizens claim traffic, huge crowds creating pollution, noise in the neighborhood, possible public drunkeness and riots after games as part of the reasons given why the arena should not be built at downtown’s Fairfield Mall where all the merchants have moved out in preparation for the Kings demolition for the new arena build.

The lawsuit by the citizens was filed a day after the Sacramento City Council took a vote to approve construction for the Kings new arena, the council voted 7-2 in favor for the new arena. The citizens filed the lawsuit under the California environmental laws, the lawsuit also protests SB 743 which was signed into law by California Governor Jerry Brown giving the construction of the arena teeth against CEQA lawsuits.

The citizens went down a laundry list of reasons why the court should over rule the City Council explaining that traffic conditions around downtown’s K and L streets would be a congestion nightmare and that people who live in the neighborhood would have difficulty getting access to their homes before and after games and show events at the area.

The citizens went onto say that noise in the nieghborhood after hours or normally after a game for example around 10pm would be a disruption to the nieghborhood and to those who sleep and have to go to work the next day, parking and traffic was another issue the citizens talked about stating that gridlock before and after games would not allow the neighbors to have the normal access to their homes, parking would be horrendous for neighbors trying to park near their homes according to the citizens lawsuit complaint and creates a huge traffic delays on neighboring freeway exits.

In response to the complaint lawyers for the Kings and the City said that the issues brought up by the citizens to stop the construction of the arena were not going to be the big problem that the citizens say it was. The city and the Kings did not specify why in challenging each complaint, the proceedure for hearings at this stage for not being specific is normal. The Kings and the city plan to list why the arena is good for the city in the next hearing after listening to the citizen complaints.

The lawsuit was not filed against the Kings as the Kings were listed in the lawsuit as “the real party of interest” and the suit was filed against the City of Sacramento.

Jerry Feitelberg is covering the arena developments for the Sacramento Kings and the Golden State Warriors for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NHL Stanley Cup Finals: Vigneault says Rangers face must win on Wednesday night

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by Larry Leavitt

Los Angeles vs. NY Rangers: It would be a big surprise if the Rangers can win one at home as they face the Los Angeles Kings in game four and if the Rangers can win game four they face the tough task of facing the Kings in Los Angeles for game five.

The Kings are playing the way that they were expected to play, game three was a complete game. They really gave the Rangers a lot of opportunity on the power play that their power play is strong and they handled the rush of power plays and they handled that from the beginning of the game to the end.

Kings goalie Jonathan Quick got the shutout on Monday night at MSG 3-0 and it showed that even though they were out shot two to one he was able to hold the line and did a great job. Let’s face it the Kings got pretty lucky because there were some open pucks that the Rangers couldn’t get the handle on the stick.

Another example the Rangers Rick Nash had a wrap around with the whole side of the net open and just couldn’t get the puck on the stick. Sometimes it takes skill and a whole lot of work and a little luck and the Kings have a lot of luck going for them right now.

Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault put themselves in a corner here, the question is how good a coach is he? Are the Kings destined to win this thing? Can Vigneault take a chance to over coach this thing? He’s got some problems to figure out.

Right now the Kings are just out playing the Rangers, their giving the pucks up to a much quicker team. It’s questionable if the Rangers have injuries that the players are not admitting to and your never going to find these things out until much afterwards.

Vigneault needs to out coach Kings head coach Darryl Sutter and he could do it but he hasn’t shown it yet. Vigneault has to step up and elevate his team and get some of these players to perform a little bit better because everything is on the line on Wednesday night for the Rangers in game four.

Larry Leavitt is covering the NHL Stanley Cup Finals for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Angels set to turn things around in chase of A’s and first

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

ANAHEIM–The Los Angeles Angels are playing great ball right now, their playing to win and the last few years the A’s have won the west. Everybody on the Angels is healthy, Albert Pujols, Mike Trout is back, Josh Hamilton and the Angels have a great line up.

I challenge anybody who knows baseball to compare the Angels position by position. The Angels are a better team than the A’s. The A’s at present are playing much better no doubt about that. Looking at the Angels you have Pujols at first, you have Howie Kendrick at second, Erick Aybar is a great shortstop with a gold glove.

The Angels have a great team with Hamilton, Trout, they have great pitching with Jerod Weaver and C.J. Wilson and on Monday night they had starter Garrett Richards who pitched a tremendous game. The Angels are going for it they have won four in a row beating Oakland for their fourth on Monday night.

NCAA players making move for pay: It’s very simple I got one opinion I don’t agree with it, I don’t think college athletes should be paid to play sports. You go to college for academics and if you excel in sports that’s great.

There are a small amount of players that become professionals, you have to work hard, you have to have some kind of God given talent. I don’t agree I don’t think the players in college should get paid. This country is huge and it’s the richest country on earth.

There are still plenty of opportunities, you got four terrific leagues here. you have the NFL, MLB, NHL and the NBA. There are so many outlets if your good at the sport. I don’t think we should be paying kids to be playing sports in college.

World Cup in Brazil: Brazil is a huge country territory wise and it’s larger than the United States and population wise it’s still a third world country and their still very poor. There is a lot of criticism about FIFA.

FIFA has been for three years loaded with corruption and scandals and they have a lot of beautiful stadiums in Brazil and the people there are kind of complaining about what is going to happen when World Cup ends?

They cannot eat those stadiums there, what are they going to do with those stadiums? There are still a lot of people there still suffering. The World Cup should help them though in their economy. Brazil still has a lot of problems, the Brazilians are so proud to have the World Cup.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish TV voice for Angels baseball and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Attention K-Mart shoppers and bandwagon fans!

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

ANAHEIM–There are bandwagon fans in baseball everywhere. The Bay Area is no exception, however Boston and St Louis, win or lose they show up all the time, they are there for baseball not because of a Bobblehead or Towel Day. The 12,350 fans that show up for Monday night games at the Oakland Coliseum to see the A’S are as good, if not better than the fans at Boston and St Louis, and the same can be said about the 8,560 fans that used to show up until 1999 to watch the Giants play at Candlestick, those were real baseball fans.

Not there for the “selfies”with their I-Pods, or to post a photo with their girlfriends on their Facebook page. I recently spoke in front of class of young men and women, who had an interest in baseball. About 22 of them, I asked them, who many knew how to score a game, I only counted 5 hands that went up. Both of the Bay Area teams are on top of the baseball world. There are still like 100 games left. But these are different times.

A team that finishes 86-76 and advances to the playoffs can be as dangerous as a 110-52 team during the regular season that makes it to the playoffs. It all depends who is hot, who is peaking at the right time. And then, of course, who goes in really healthy into the postseason, since nobody these days can escape injuries. Tommy John is the most popular name in the press box these days, not your favorite pitcher in the Bay Area.

There is a new movie out there, classified as a comedy; “A Million Ways To Die In The West”. The American League West might be the strongest division, with only one team, Houston, under .500, and Houston has shown they are getting better by the day, and can spoil anybody’s party, nobody is dying there. The same cannot be said about the National League West, where either 1-The Giants are the best team of all time, or 2-Nobody else is worth a damn. That division, could, could have 4 teams under .500. There is a lot of dying on that division. You can come to your own conclusion. It is your call, and it will not be challenged or reviewed.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish TV voice for Angels baseball and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NBA Championship Finals: LeBron cramps San Antonio’s style 98-96, as the Heat take their talents to South Beach Tuesday

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by David Zizmor

Miami @ San Antonio Game #2: We watched game one with the air conditioning broken at AT&T Center in game one in which the Spurs won. While the Heat were able to hang in there for that game for three quarters they completely fell apart in the fourth especially the Heat’s LeBron James who cramped up in that one due to the indoor 90 degree temperatures.

For game two on Sunday night the temperature returned to the normal, 74 degrees indoors and nobody cramped up in this game. LeBron played from start to finish and you could tell he was kind of angry at all of the fun everyone was making of him for cramping up in game one. He took it pretty seriously and he took it out on the Spurs.

LeBron came out and dropped 35 points with ten boards on the Spurs and it was a big 35 points. It was LeBron being LeBron, it was LeBron dominating the game in which the Heat took game two 98-96. LeBron dominated the game especially late, this one was not a blow out by Miami but it definitely was a close one.

LeBron’s superpowers were definitely needed in this one and he delivered. 35 and ten in an NBA Final against a team like the Spurs that is good defensively like San Antonio is impressive and he did it on both ends of the floor. Not only was LeBron getting the 35 in the basket but he was playing great defense.

LeBron made a ton of critical plays and while the Heat’s Chris Bosh hit a three pointer late that put Miami ahead for good it was LeBron who dished it to him. He was involved in everything from start to finish he was the man, he was the guy that controlled the fate of the game and he came through.

Whatever happened in game one let’s write that one off, chances were the Heat were going to split the series in the first two games in San Antonio anyway. It happened to come at an unusual fashion with that air conditioner blow out but never the less the Heat are taking this series back to Miami for game three on Tuesday night.

David Zizmor is covering the NBA Finals for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NHL Stanley Cup Finals commentary: Rangers goalie Lundvquist still talking about non interference goal by Kings

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by Larry Leavitt

NY Rangers vs. Los Angeles: I’m not a big fan of goaltender interference that’s too opinionated with too many variables, and whether the L.A. Kings Dwight King was pushed into New York Ranger goalie Hendrik Lundvquist in the third period at 1:58 of Saturday night’s game two to cut the Rangers lead to 4-3, there is a lot of discussion if King fell on him or if the Rangers Ryan McDonagh pushed King on Lunqvist.

Also Lundqvist was disputing that the officials got that call right and the Kings certainly and in my opinion it looked like goaltenders interference and the officials say it didn’t look like it was goaltender interference and it didn’t look like he was shoved into Lundqvist. King was shoved into Lundqvist but he was kind of pinched by King.

One thing that Lundvquist has to do is calm down let the refs call the game realize their going to miss calls and he and the Rangers need to go and play their game. It took Lundvqist off his game here and there. There were so many controversial calls and there were so many tough plays and the speed of the game was so quick that either team could be leading this series and the Rangers for instance could be the team leading 2-0 instead of the Kings going into game three on Monday, it’s that close.

It’s just a shame that it’s so controversial but the play was so fast and so furious and their going back and fourth in that double overtime game on Saturday night at Staples Center that you can’t see it all and you can’t catch it all. The non interference call made for good press as everyone who follows the Stanley Cup Finals is talking about that play and it’s making it’s way onto the talk show circuit.

My question is did Lundqvist over annunciate how the power play went so that maybe he’ll catch a better break by the refs or did he feel that it was that bad and it didn’t look that bad but there was definitely contact. The rule is contact period and it didn’t say how severe the contact. Lundqvist was arguing the point hoping the call would go the other way and to capitalize on it.

There was a fair amount of penalities called and how the refs put their whistles in their pockets and the problem that I have is there are a lot of calls that aren’t getting called because their both playing on the edge, both teams are playing for all the marbles and the contact for retaliation is getting called but their missing the initial hits.

Game one the Kings got away with the obvious too many men on the ice which would have gave the Rangers a power play going into the overtime if they didn’t score in the third period. The NHL should worry about cleaning and making it tight but they want the players to play the game. They don’t want the game to count for what it is and their trying not to control the game and take advantage here either.

Larry Leavitt is covering the NHL Stanley Cup Finals for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NBA Finals: Spurs show Miami what Heat is all about on the floor and in the building too

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by David Zizmor

Miami vs. San Antonio: This first game on Thursday night was an interesting game and the Spurs won this one pretty handily 110-95 over the Miami Heat. There is kind of a nice side story that goes with this one. If you were watching this game you had to know that something was screwy and it turns out this game which was played at the AT&T Center in San Antonio with no air conditioning.

The air conditioning was just broke and there is nothing like being indoors with no air conditioning in San Antonio in June. It was sweltering and it got to be up to 90 degrees inside the arena. For anyone playing championship level basketball that’s really difficult.

Those are very unusual conditions and the last time we saw anything like it was back in 1985 between the Lakers and the Celtics when Boston Garden famously lost air conditioning and it was a complete swamp in the place. It was just hot, humid, and damp with all sorts of condensation on the floor.

Not quite as slippery in San Antonio but just as hot, just as sweltering and it just didn’t favor the Heat this time around. You got to figure both of these teams are used to hot and muggy weather in the summertime. The Spurs had the home court advantage and at the very minimum knew about the air conditioning so the Spurs were a little better prepared for it.

The trainers had extra Gatorade for the players on the benches and they were making sure that everybody was hydrated, on the flip side the Heat’s LeBron James was doing everything he could to keep in the game. LeBron left the game on a couple of occasions in the fourth quarter because he was so hot and so dehydrated he was cramping up.

LeBron literally had to come out of the game to get himself a rest and get some water in him and get himself on the court. So when San Antonio is in a situation where they can get LeBron off the court it’s very easy to take advantage of the Heat. If you look at the box score you would see that the Spurs took advantage of this one.

The Spurs took advantage of the situation when LeBron had to sit twice during the fourth quarter. They outscored Miami 36-17 to end the game. When you do that your just going to win everytime. The Spurs won by 15 and the game was reasonably close until that last fourth quarter. Next game is on Sunday night at San Antonio for game two, the Spurs say they have assured everyone the air conditioning should be ready for that one.

David Zizmor is covering the NBA Finals for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NHL Stanley Cup Finals: There might be no other than these Miracle Kings

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by Larry Leavitt

NY Rangers vs. Los Angeles: They’ve been called the comeback kids, the cockroaches of the NHL, the Lazerus of Playoff teams, three rounds of seven games playoffs all three game sevens on the road and they won them all and they showed up at home on Wednesday night to open up their cause only to trail the mighty visitors from the Eastern Conference the New York Rangers 2-1 after the first period.

The Kings came right back and in the third period got a game winner after the score was tied 2-2 and won it 3-2. If you had to pick one of the big stars for these playoffs for L.A. it would be Drew Doughty, right after Doughty, Anze Kopitar, Jeff Carter, Justin Williams they’ve all been great, and yes Dustin Brown too.

The truth of the matter Doughty is the real thing he made a huge mistake after the first goal in the first period when the Rangers scored. Doughty ended up coming back and makes one of those amazing goals in the second period he got a pass that was kind of behind him so he deflects hit between his legs right in front of him which alludes the Rangers defense.

Doughty just ended up popping it into the net in the smallest of openings and he had plenty of room on the glove side but just found this tiny little crack on the stick side and got the puck to go in to make up for the defensive blunder in the first period where he allowed the Rangers to score on him.

How can the Rangers get back in this series? The only thing that they can do is put game one out of their minds and a regroup and they need to play 60 minutes of hockey. There was a lot of fluke plays and deflections. It’s amazing how it could have gone either way. The Rangers really did play their best game especially there at the end.

The Rangers had some break always and the Kings goalie Jonathan Quick stood on his head and stopped them. The Rangers need to take advantage of whatever they can get, whatever little thing they can get, they can take advantage of and play a good defensive sound hockey and then and when they get that sound offensive opportunity the Rangers need to capitalize on it.

Don’t worry about what the Kings are doing they should play their game and then they have a chance. I actually picked the Kings in five games, the Kings look like they sure are going to win this. But if you love hockey you’d love to see the Rangers come back in this one and really come out with a good game on Saturday night in game two.

Larry Leavitt is covering the NHL Stanley Cup Finals for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary:Relievers are made and also unmade

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–In his first year in the majors,(1995) Panamanian-born right handed hurler Mariano Rivera pitched in 19 games for the New York Yankees, starting in 10 of those, finishing the season with a 5-3 record and a 5.51 earned run average. After that he never started another game for the next 18 years, finishing his career with 652 games saved in relief, the all-time leader.

Mariano’s first pitching coach in the minor leagues with the Gulf Coast Yankees was Hoyt Wilheim, the great Hall of Fame knuckleballer specialist. As a young kid growing up in Havana, Cuba, I remember Wilheim when he pitched for the Leones del Habana(Havana Lions)in the old Cuban Professional Winter League, in the late 1950’s and then remember him pitch in the major leagues with the Chicago White Sox.

Hoyt Wilheim was the first ever reliever elected to the Hall of Fame. Mariano Rivera made a Hall of Fame career with basically one pitch, a great cutter.

2.Dennis Eckersley started his career in the major leagues with the Cleveland Indians in 1975 as a starter. Ecksersley pitched for Boston and won 20 games in 1978, 17 in 1979 and when he arrived in Oakland in 1987 he had visions of continuing his career as a starter.

However, that year after starting 2 games and relieving in 52, he saved 16. He would never start another game in his life with the Oakland Athletics. He retired after the 1998 season, saved a total of 390 games and was inducted with his number 43 to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 2004.

In 1987 Tony LaRussa was on his second year as manager of the Oakland Athletics and his right hand, pitching coach Dave Duncan converted Eckersley to the closer position.

And such is the history of most relievers today, known as “closers”because they get the ball to pitch in the ninth inning exclusively,(in some rare occasions managers would bring their closers in the eighth inning for an out or two).

3-Jim Johnson started his career with the Baltimore Orioles in 2006 and would pitch for them until 2011 and in those six seasons saved a total of 20 games. In 2012 he saved 51 games for the Orioles and 52 the next season.

Today Jim Johnson is fighting for his job with the Oakland Athletics, who acquired him with the purpose of closing their games. Johnson has appeared in 22 games with the A’s this 2014 season, has saved 2 games, won 3 lost 2, all with a 6.55 earned run average.

The Oakland A’s are so deep in pitching that even losing two of their regular rotation starters, Jerrod Parker and A.J Griffin and basically “losing “their closer, a man that saved 101 games last two years, still have the best record in the American League as they opened on Tuesday a ten game in ten days road trip to New York, Baltimore and Anaheim. The majority of teams today, could not lose two of their five pitchers in a rotation(including the number one)and still survive and even be in first place.

In today’s baseball, and since a complete game from a starter is almost “Breaking News”, a closer is necessary to win and make it to the postseason. Obviously the Oakland Athletics still hope that Johnson can be the closer he was in Baltimore; at least the A’s have the luxury to “figure this out”while they are in first place, which makes this much easier.

If the A’s lost all hope for Johnson, management has not said it publicly; one third of the season just concluded, the A’s have time to figure this one out, since there are still over 100 games this season. Who knows, Johnson can still end the season with another 50 saves. Of course for him to do that he must get the ball in save situations.

Action speaks louder than words, and the A’s are not giving Johnson the opportunity of closing these days. If this continues, I expect Billy Beane to work a deal for Johnson before the July trade deadline. What else can the A’s do?

A friend told me: Why not try him as a starter? Yes, sure, and the Chicago Cubs will also win the World Series this year!

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Vice President of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Heritage Museum and does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com