A Trip Down Memory Lane: Fight Night

BY MELISSA ZIELINSKI

While interning for the Washington Capitals the month or so after free agency opened up and after development camp came to a close it was hard to find a story of relevance. Who’s really thinking about hockey when it’s over 100 degree in the District? That’s when I came up with the brilliant idea to right a weekly feature with the title “This Week in Caps History.”

My days at the Caps have ended, but I still have hockey on the mind. Since a chance of a lockout is ever increasing I decided to stay positive and do my own take on the Caps’ feature I created, but with my own twist, I’ll call it “A Trip Down Memory Lane.”

For my first trip down “memory lane,” I’ll set the Scene:

It’s late March in Rochester, New York and the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League (AHL) have a game. To paint a vivid picture it’s bitter and freezing. My nine year-old self is bundled up and hand-in-hand with my dad as I walk across the bridge that overlooks the Genessee River, creating blustery cold air that hits my face.

Now that you are shivering as you read, here’s the important part – the game.

Tonight the Americans are hosting the Hamilton Bulldogs, which always guarantees a game to watch. As it’s hard to bring up archives from the seasons in the late ‘90’s a lot of today’s blog is by memory, but don’t worry, no matter the age I always have a keen memory of my Amerks.

It seemed from the moment that the Bulldogs and Amerks took the opening faceoff, gloves were on the ice.

And the fighting went on and on.

To be honest, I don’t remember who even won the game and I don’t think either team cared either.

On the ride home, all I could remember about the broadcast was that Rochester’s radio play-by-play  broadcaster, Don Stevens, kept repeating himself. “Man oh Man,” he’d say, when he’d play back the tap of the game that was now in the books.

The “Penalty box” show host, Craig Schailler, echoed those words too.

Now for a little history.

When I decided to revisit this game from March 22^nd of Rochester’s 1997-98 season I looked at some names and found one in particular that struck me…Dennis Bonvie.

Bonvie is what you call a career AHL-er. He saw just less than 95 games of National Hockey League action and 871 games in the AHL in what was more than a 15-year career.  With that though came more than 4,804 penalty minutes (PIM) from both the AHL and NHL.

During the 1997-98 season, Bonvie set the record for PIMs and this game helped him reach that milestone.

That night Bonvie decided to duel with Rochester’s Peter Vandermeer. The two went gloves off for a minute before any referee even broke it up (ah, the good old days where players could really go at it).

Before the night’s end there was a handful of other fights and roughing penalties dealt to Hamilton and Rochester and combined both teams walked away with 359 PIMs.

Now I don’t know if you’d necessarily call that game a hockey game, but it is one that I’ll never forget. My first real fight night.

MLB Game Notes: A Few Things Worth Mentioning

BY MELISSA ZIELINSKI

A couple weeks ago I predicted that the Red Sox would take the AL East division and the whole American League, but a lot has changed since then…

Tampa Bay who was a handful of games out when I wrote my last blog has come back to be just three behind the Sox and the Yanks are sitting pretty in first place (four and a half games ahead). Also New York seemingly doesn’t have much to worry about this week matching up against the nothing-to-lose Jays, while the Sox have an all important duel between a team they must beat in Tampa.

According to ESPN, Boston’s “panic meter” is only 3-4, but this may change if their pitching doesn’t improve and with the injured Youkilis on the bench.

There are some other battles that are worth taking a look at too…

Texas Rangers vs. LA Angels vs. Boston Red Sox vs. Tampa Bay Rays

Even though I said I was moving on I had to throw the Sox and Rays into the mix on this next discussion because the Angels, who are three and a half games behind the Rangers for first are also only one game behind the Rays and four games behind the Sox for the Wild Card spot. 

LA has a good chance to make up some ground in this next series as they throw out the first pitch tonight in a weekend series against the Orioles (and since I’m working for the Washington Capitals I should mention Alex Ovechkin is throwing out the first pitch tonight). The Angels are 5-1 this season against the O’s and are on a two-game winning streak, while also winning seven of their last ten.

Still, the Rangers will be facing a three-game set against the Mariners and have went 6-1 against Seattle this season. Their starter CJ Wilson has also won six of his last seven on the mound.

The Angels should be able to sweep the series and help give them self a chance at the wildcard (given that Texas stays hot and sweeps their series against Seattle). Offensively the team has connected and it should make for an exciting AL West race in the final days of the regular season.

Over in the NL, it’s pretty clear that the Phillies will walk away with the best record in the league, leaving Atlanta, St. Louis and San Fran to duke it out for the wild card spot. The best contender out of these three looks to be Atlanta who’s heading into a weekend series against the New York Mets. After this weekend they will have some time to make up ground as they face the Marlins once more (where they took two of three during the week) and Washington before seeing Philadelphia again for the last three games of the regular season.

Atlanta should be able to inch into the postseason, but I have one concern. The Nats want to head into their offseason with some momentum. After getting Strasburg back on the mound, completing a four-game sweep of the Mets (which hasn’t been done since relocating from Montreal) and being on a five-game win streak this young team has something to prove and could give the Braves a hard time.

Both the Cardinals and Giants are at least seven games behind the first-place contender in their division, which will make them extra hungry for a “W.”

Still, with Matt Holliday possibly missing some time with finger inflammation and the inconsistency seen in the Giants, neither will have enough to muster up against Atlanta. In my opinion, the Braves have the hardest schedule nearing the end of September, but should be the WC victor.

It may have seemed like things weren’t going to be interesting, with the Sox on top as usual and the Yankees right behind them, but the dark horse has stopped that from being the case. Of course now the certain isn’t so certain and as always when it comes down to it no baseball, but September baseball matters now.

The Not So Surprising American League East: A Year in Retrospect

The Best Month for Sports

It’s the time of year that any sport enthusiast can appreciate, football is almost ready to kick-off, hockey will drop the puck very soon and baseball is in full-swing. Now that I’ve got that very cliché sentence out of the way it’s time to talk baseball.

First on my list of to-do’s is the rivalry that never gets old, Yankees nation vs. Red Sox nation. Being a fan of neither, I think I have a pretty non-bias approach to the argument of who’ll take the top spot in the AL East and most likely the whole conference.

Now let’s really play ball.

For a Month that Means Consistency for Some…

In April I previewed the American League East and my predictions have proven true as we head into the final month of the regular season. Boston is atop the standings in the AL and Adrian Gonzalez has done the team good, leading the team with a .345 batting average.

There’s even talks about  Gonzalez earning MVP status by the end of the season and as much as I’m not a “fan” of the Red Sox, you can‘t deny it when you see a good baseball player. In his last ten games alone he’s averaged more than .340 and is already nearing his projected hitting totals for the year. Gonzalez also leads the AL in bating average (.345), is second in RBI’s (103) and fourth and fifth in slugging percentage (.559) and runs (90), respectively.

Don’t forget that Boston is also a huge threat when Jacoby Ellsbury and Carl Crawford are both healthy and ready to go. Ellsbury, who’s finally at that defining stage of his career has been outstanding defensively and has also been of great importance when up to bat. He leads the team in runs with 95 and is also second in the league overall. He and CC’s wheels and a .251 batting average to boot leave the Sox in good shape for the playoffs.

Also, with four of their big names hitting above .300 Boston has the confidence it needs to guide itself through the first few rounds of the playoffs in what I believe should be effortless fashion. For a team that was anything but consistent in the first month and a half of baseball, since they’ve been just that.

…September Means Higher Expectations for Others

As I try to completely erase the memory of New York setting a record against my beloved A‘s (I won‘t say what was done, but baseball fans know), the Yankees are right behind the Sox and I predict will take the wildcard spot in October, but for now that question is still up in the air being only two games back. What the Yankees don’t have that the Sox do is a solid core that can develop output all at the same time.
 
Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter, two of the biggest threats on the roster have been in-and-out with different injuries and while Eric Chavez and Ramiro Pena have served as back-ups, the amount of playing time they receive and other variables (age, experience) are not enough to make the team able to keep up with the competition that surrounds them.

Robi Cano has served as the rock of this team for the past two seasons and has a solid .303 average (team leader) and is second on the team in RBI’s (95) just behind Curtis Granderson who has 107. If A-Rod and Jeter can get healthy and stay solid for the rest of the regular season along with Granderson and Cano then watch out. These top four players will be eyeing to edge the Red Sox’s top four in what makes for some great end of the season baseball (they will be playing each other this week and the second to last series in September hint hint).

Other keys to the Yankees success could be Brett Gardner and Nick Swisher. Gardner has wheels and makes a statement in the outfield and while Swisher has been a bit of a wash this year, a breakout September could help him regain his confidence and spirit that makes him so well liked by teammates and fans alike.

Last Call

With out a doubt these two teams will be the most talked about teams this month given their rich history, but at the same time who wouldn’t be excited? Do we remember the AL all star roster? Many complained that it consisted of too many players from these two teams (including me…hey look at my last blog), but now that they are in a truly competitive atmosphere watching these two teams won’t be all that bad to say the least.

Next up I will look at the rest of the AL and what my predictions for the playoffs will be and then I’ll share what I think about the National League.