Had Ozzie Guillen not been such a racist, Mark Buehrle would not have reached perfection

Moments ago, Mark Buehrle just put the finishing touches on a perfect game, the first by a White Sox pitcher since 1922, leading Chicago over the Tampa Bay Rays 5-0.  It was the perfect game in Major League Baseball since 2004, when Randy Johnson threw one with Arizona, and the first by an American League pitcher since David Cone’s 1999.  Buehrle, who threw a no-hitter in 2007, may be one of the most underrated pitchers in the game, a pitcher that works efficiently, and quickly (this game lasted just over two hours).  This was a fantastic Rays lineup that he completely shut down, except for one batter in the top of the ninth.

Leading off the ninth, Gabe Kapler crushed a Buehrle offering to deep left-center.  Dewayne Wise, who went into center field as a defensive replacement, scaled the wall, moving at full speed into it, to make the catch.  The impact with the wall jarred the ball out of his glove, but he caught it with his bare hand.  One of the best catches of the season, and maybe the best defensive play in perfect game history.  Buehrle then pulled the strings on a change-up to Michel Hernandez and got Jason Bartlett to ground out to short to finish it off.

Wise, Chicago’s fourth outfielder, is hitting .196 with one home run on the season.  Just Monday, he was the cause of controversy, as Ozzie Guillen kept Wise on the MLB roster and sent down outfielder Brian Anderson when Carlos Quentin was activated from the disabled list.  Anderson was only hitting .238 with two homers himself, but it didn’t stop many from calling Guillen racist for keeping the minority player and sending down the caucasian player.

While Anderson is a decent defensive centerfielder in his own right, Wise has a little more speed.  It took all of Wise’s speed to get to that ball, so Guillen’s roster decision may have been the savior for Buehrle.  Are those Chicagoians complaning about Guillen now?

If you can, watch SportsCenter or find the highlights online later, because Dewayne Wise’s catch was the real deal.

EDIT: There’s a video on YouTube, found thanks to Mark McGuire over at the Times Union.

Yankees make it six in a row

“Just when I think you couldn’t possibly be any more dumber, you go and do something like this… AND TOTALLY REDEEM YOURSELF!”- Harry Dunn (Jeff Daniels) in Dumb & Dumber, speaking to Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey).

When a Brian Roberts line drive hit Nick Swishers glove and ricocheted to the wall in the top of the third inning, anyone watching the game could see the disgust on both his and pitcher A.J. Burnett’s mugs.  So when Swisher made a spectacular play on an even harder hit ball by Ty Wigginton with runners on second and third to end the threat, they were both more than pumped up about it.

According to Swisher after the game, A.J. quoted the 1995 comedy as he congratulated the Swish when they went in the dugout.  It’s another piece of evidence that these two men, with Swisher’s always upbeat personality and Burnett’s practical jokes (the pies in the faces after walk-offs) are one of the main reasons that the Yankees are a completely different team in 2009.

The Bombers looked superb out of the gates this afternoon, scoring four in the first and adding one in the third on a Jorge Posada solo home run, en route to the 6-4 victory.  That would be the only Yankees homer, so it looks good that the Yanks scored five runs without the benefit of a long ball.  Burnett and Hughes were both magnificent, perhaps the only downer on today’s game is that Brian Bruney still looks like the Brian Bruney that failed miserably with the Diamondbacks, giving up back to back home runs in the top of the ninth, forcing Girardi to bring in Mariano Rivera to end it.  That’s six in a row coming out of the break, three against a decent team, three against an awful team.  The next four are against a team in between, the mediocre Oakland Athletics.

My pride and joy

Yes, that is Derek Jeter’s authentic autograph.  I love baseball cards, I collected them throughout my entire childhood.  Now that I’m going to college, I’ll have to put adding to my collection on hold, but I will keep most of the cards I have (especially my Yankees cards).  This is my favorite, the leader of the dynasty of my youth, the ultimate Yankee, Captain Clutch, Mr. November, Jeter himself.  This is one card that I will NEVER sell.

Some others that are my personal favorites:

Of course this is just the tip of my collection.  I’ll probably end up showing most of my favorites over time on the blog.

“A thrilla from Godzilla” seals the deal for the Yanks

Hideki Matsui may be the most awkward man to ever receive a pie in the face.

His solo home run with one out in the bottom of the ninth tonight gave the Yankees their fourth straight win coming out of the All-Star break, 2-1 over the Orioles.  That’s three straight 2-1 victories, indicating how fresh the starters are looking coming out of their week off.

For Matsui, it’s a big homer for a guy who has had an underrated season.  He’s hit 15 home runs in 82 games, and as always, he’s posting a decent on-base percentage.  He can no longer play the outfield, but he’s a crucial bat that the Yankees need if they want this year to be championship number 27.  He might look old enough to be Jackie Chan’s grandpa, but he can still swing the bat.  Good to know that he had a sense a humor about A.J. Burnett getting him with the pie in the face as well.

Great start for Pettitte tonight, he really needed an outing like the one he had (7 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 8 Ks).  Arguably his best outing of the season, it was huge for him to get his second half started the right way.

That’s all I’ve got for tonight, I’ll be back tomorrow with something fun, something interesting, something for everyone.  Here’s a little fantastic viewing material for your pleasure tonight as I retire to my bed.

Crucial start tonight for Pettitte

As the Baltimore Orioles stroll into Yankee Stadium for the first of a three game set tonight, they see a very, very familiar foe toeing the mound for the Bronx Bombers: Andy Pettitte.  Pettitte has made 37 appearances (35 starts) against the Orioles, second most in his career to Toronto.  He’s not a friendly opposing pitcher for the O’s, as Andrew Eugene owns a 25-6 career record against Baltimore.

However, the 2009 Andy Pettitte (8-5, 4.85 ERA) is not the same Pettitte that has shut down the Orioles for years.  After starting the season with three quality starts, getting out to a 2-0 record with a 2.56 ERA, Andy has thrown quality starts in just four of his past 15 starts.  Pettitte, who walked just 55 batters in 204 innings pitched last season, has already walked 44 in 107 2/3.  He also has struggled mightily at the new stadium, boasting an un-Pettitte like 5.72 ERA.

For Pettitte’s sake, and for the Yankees sake, let’s hope he gets it turned around starting tonight.  If not, it may be time to get worried.  Pettitte is unofficially the third starter for the Yanks right now, but hasn’t pitched up to the task.  More reason to be worried: the 37-year-old, who is normally known for being better in the second half, wore down during the home stretch last season, posting a 5.35 ERA after the All-Star break.

We went to the Moon, in 1969

Here’s a little video that I thought of this morning, when I found out that today is the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing.  Enjoy the throwback to one of the better television shows of my youth, while thinking about how freakin’ crazy it is that someone traveled to another planet.

Welcome to my new blog!

Welcome to Coop’s Scoop, the brand spankin’ new blog fresh from the mind of Mark Cooper.  I am Mark Cooper, a freshman at Syracuse University, in the Newhouse School of Public Communications.  This blog will be [hopefully] my second successful blog, as I blogged for the Times Union during my senior year of high school (you can still read my posts here).  This blog will be about everything under the sun, with most of the focus on sports.

I hail from Cohoes, New York, which is near Albany for those who are not from the Capital Region.  I’m a die-hard sports fan, mainly for the Yankees, Jets, and both North Carolina and Syracuse basketball.  In addition, I’m an assistant coach for the New York Outkast, a tournament softball team comprised of players from the Capital Region.  The season is just about over, but there may be posts on the team’s results, in the same way that I covered the Section II softball sectionals this past spring.

Anyways, this blog is going to be a lot of fun for me, and hopefully it will be for you.  The readers are what makes a blog go, so hopefully I appeal to the masses.  Bookmark the page, comment, email me (mcooperj@syr.edu) with something you’d like me to blog about, whatever you want.  I’ll blog as often as I can, so make sure you keep coming back for more!