Happy Birthday, Nolan Ryan

Blowing out candles today is baseball’s strikeout king, the winner of 324 career MLB games and one of the soon-to be-owners of the Texas Rangers, along with Chuck Greenberg. Baseball season is not far away…

Blazing Hot: Trail Blazers 114 Mavericks 112 (OT)

As much as I want to talk about the Mavericks, this game was the Andre Miller show. The Portland Trail Blazers guard had a career-high 52 points, shattering his old mark of 37. Miller was 22 of 31 on field goals, 7 of 8 from the line and sent a 3-pointer through the hoop, only his 11th of this season. I know Juwan Howard made the winning shot, but I would not be trying to process a Mavericks loss if it wasn’t for Andre Miller, who was just one point shy of Dirk Nowitzki’s record for points scored at American Airlines Center.

Another big factor in the loss was the Trail Blazers’ ability to guard Nowitzki. Despite leading the team with 28 points total and 16 in the fourth, he missed his last four shots when the game was on the line, including a last second chance to win in regulation. Former UT star LaMarcus Aldridge, who had 21 for the Trail Blazers, also missed a game winner.

Josh Howard seemed to carry the Mavs in the second quarter, scoring 12 Maverick points in a row, a great stretch for a player who has been in a slump. Leading 47-44 at halftime, the Mavs were outscored 29-22 in the third quarter. With frustration mounting, Nowitzki was called for a technical after the refs missed calling a foul on Portland. But the Mavs stole some momentum back thanks to J.J Barea’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer, and the Mavs entered the final 12 minutes trailing by just four.

Nowitzki, Jason Terry, Howard, Barea, Shawn Marion and Jason Kidd all scored in double figures. Erick Dampier started but did not get the ball to the basket. He looked out of sorts and uncomfortable with a newfangled knee brace.

On a more positive note, Eduardo Najera received a huge ovation from the crowd when he entered his first Maverick game in years and hit a 3-pointer in the second quarter. A hard-working fan favorite, #14 was re-acquired from the New Jersey Nets on January 11th.

Australian Open: Serena Williams Prevails in 3 Sets

The women’s final pitted defending champion Serena Williams against comeback Belgian Justine Henin (see first entry). Serena defended her title down under for the first time, which undoubtedly added to her drive. She doesn’t need any extra help though, winning the first meeting of the two players in a Major final 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

With her second serve weapon, Serena advanced through the first four rounds without getting broken, but lost her serve on five occasions against Victoria Azarenka in the quarters and once against Na Li in the semis. Today, she dropped serve five times, but immediately broke back at least twice. Henin failed to hold six times and was broken three times in a row to end the match, helping Serena to finalize her victory.

Taking out the astronomical quarterfinal statistics, she hit an average of 37.2 winners per match throughout the two weeks, and she continued that pattern against Henin today. Serena served 12 aces in the finals, many well timed to dig her out of break point situations. Henin powered four aces, including one on a second serve.

Despite the overall numbers, Serena struggled on serve early, facing multiple deuces in her first two service games. Henin had chances but only converted 1 of 7 early break points.

Although Henin found her game and hit winner after winner at the beginning of the third set, Serena won the final four games in route to the championship. It was her fifth Australian Open and 12th career Grand Slam singles title, tying her with Billie Jean King, who attended the match.

Phoenix Returns Favor: Suns 112 Mavericks 106

The Mavs controlled the game, leading for all but a minute until a dunk by Louis Amundson put the Suns up 99-98 with 5:31 to go. Phoenix outscored Dallas 28-16 in the fourth quarter. Despite the Mavs leading by as many as a dozen throughout the game, that’s the 12-point deferential that mattered. Jason Terry and Dirk Nowitzki, who had 21 and 19 points respectively, shot 1 for 5 for 2 points in the final quarter. On December 8, Dallas beat Phoenix 102-101 at home.

Terry and the Mavs started quickly against the big offense of Phoenix, scoring 34 in the first 12 minutes, and on his own Terry bucketed 12. No turnovers and 6 by Phoenix helped Dallas to a nine point lead after one quarter.

“He’s a guy that can get it going,” head coach Rick Carlisle said on the Jet’s early performance. “We got him some good looks early, and he delivered with some shot-making. Defensively, he’s active and got a couple steals, so we want to keep him involved.”

With a 59-55 advantage at halftime, the Mavs scored 16 points off the Suns’ turnovers.

Midway through the third quarter, Jason Kidd had 3 3-pointers. He originally downed 4 from long range, but one was later changed to a 2-pointer. Terry and Beaubois also added 3’s, but the Mavs only went 5 for 16. That hurt them as Phoenix, although controlled to an extent, made 9 of 15 for a 60 percent success rate. That number doubled the Mavs. A late 3 by former Maverick Steve Nash gave the Suns a 5-point lead, as the superstar was perfect in 3 such attempts.

Named an All-Star reserve on Thursday, Nowitzki will join Nash for the All-Star Game on February 14th at Cowboys Stadium.

Nolan Ryan: Thoughts About His Career & Rangers Baseball in 2010

As the keynote speaker at a TCU Business Network of Dallas luncheon, Rangers Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, along with Chuck Morgan, the longtime in-stadium voice of the team, answered questions and reflected on Ryan’s time in baseball Thursday at the Intercontinental in Addison.

Ryan is the President of the Rangers and a member of Chuck Greenberg’s new ownership group.

Nolan Ryan’s 2 sons attended TCU, and he was once a volunteer coach for the baseball team.

Here are some highlights of what Ryan shared:

• He and the Rangers organization expect to win the AL West in 2010
• Things were brewing between the Rangers and the White Sox before the Robin Ventura incident. Steve Buechele had been hit with a pitch. In the offseason, Buechele was promoted to manager of the Frisco Rough Riders, the Rangers’ Double-A affiliate.
• Ryan said he learned early in his career that you have to be aggressive to be effective. With 5,714 strikeouts, there’s no doubt he accomplished that.
• He doesn’t think that Major League Baseball will implement a strict salary cap system any time soon, and he’s fine with the Yankees having to pay $26.9 million in luxury taxes for last season.
• After spending 2 years in Japan, Colby Lewis has really matured as a pitcher. Lewis pitched in the Majors from 2002 to 2007 before heading overseas. He was a Ranger for 3 seasons before spending one season with the Tigers and one with the A’s. On January 19, he signed a 1-year contract to return to Arlington with a club option for a second.
• Ryan said the Rangers would have signed first-round pick Matt Purke if they weren’t so financially strapped. Purke was asking for a lot of money, and Ryan said MLB, because of the team’s financial situation, had to approve spending more than the budgeted amount. The team could not get approval from the Commissioner’s office. Purke will play NCAA baseball for TCU.
• Ryan laughed and said TCU was a good place for Purke to go if he had to go somewhere. Go Frogs!!!
• Years ago, the Rangers had an opportunity to move to the Central Division. Ryan would entertain that idea because it would prevent the team from losing fans and viewership for their late-night divisional games. (I guess most fans are not diehard like me!)
• Randy Johnson (a.k.a “The Big Unit”) gives Nolan Ryan a lot of credit for helping him figure out his career. Jokingly, Ryan said he never should have talked to him because the next time their teams faced each other, Johnson struck out 18.
• As a sophomore in high school, Ryan was 6’2” and weighed 150 pounds.

Watch for a special message for Nolan Ryan on Sunday.

"I wanted to play as long as I could. I was blessed."
-Nolan Ryan

Q&A With Rangers Starters Scott Feldman & Brandon McCarthy

For someone who has the Rangers logo plastered on her wall and a “Charge” ringtone, it’s surprising that it took me 5 days to make a Rangers post. If you know me, you know I live and die with them.

Scott Feldman was a go-to guy for the Rangers last season with 17 victories. Brandon McCarthy had 7 wins while struggling with injuries, but he hopes to be fully healthy next season. The pair signed autographs at the Rangers’ Dallas Team Shop on Wednesday afternoon. Big Thanks!

Q&A With Rangers Starters Scott Feldman & Brandon McCarthy

What was the key to your 17 wins last season?
Feldman: “We had a really good team. A lot of times, if I pitched good, we hit good. Also, we had a new pitching coach (Mike Maddux) that helped me a lot. Elvis (Andrus) helped me a lot at shortstop. Elvis is really good. Our whole defense is just really good.”

What is your offseason routine?
McCarthy: “Everybody has their own little different things. But most of us that are in Dallas are pretty similar. We all go to the field, and we workout for a couple of hours. It’s a lot of strength training, and just recently we started throwing. As we start throwing and to kind of build up, we get on a mound and start pitching again. It’s just kind of feeds into the season. It’s kind of a slow process, but it’s just a lot of working out and running.”

Has that been any different for you (McCarthy) since you’re coming back from an injury?
“It’s actually been a lot different. I’m working on changing my mechanics to kind of save myself from being hurt again. So I’ve had to change the way I throw. I actually got on Scott’s (Feldman’s) program. He’s been healthy for quite a while now, so I got on that program. It’s less throwing now in the hopes that I can throw more during the season.”

What are your pregame rituals?
Feldman: “I try to mix it up because if I start getting superstitious, I drive myself crazy. I sit at my locker and listen to my iPod like 45 minutes before the game and just kind of hang out and try to focus a little bit to get ready for the game.”

McCarthy: “It’s kind of always changing. What’s weird is that I used to be really, really superstitious, really, really bad with it to the point where the entire team knew what I was thinking and started making fun of me over and over and over again. At the start of last season, I tried to change everything to where I was more someone who tried to change it up each time so you don’t drive yourself crazy. I think this year I’m going to have to keep doing that”

Are there any teammates that you know of that have funny superstitions?
McCarthy: “Ian (Kinsler) puts on 5 pairs of socks, but outside of that nobody does anything too weird, and if it is weird, that’s probably why we don’t know about it because they don’t let us know.

Which ballparks are your favorite ones to pitch in?
Feldman: “I like pitching in Yankee Stadium, but I don’t really like facing the lineup that much.”

The new one or the old one?
Feldman: “Either one. I think it’s just fun to pitch in New York.”

McCarthy: “I like the old (Yankee Stadium) better than the new one. It’s more fair to pitchers at least, or it was.” McCarthy also said he liked Comerica Park in Detroit and Safeco Field in Seattle.

How did you pick your uniform numbers?
Feldman: “I didn’t even get to pick mine. When I got called up, that’s just what they had in my locker. I did good when I got called up the first time, so I just stuck with it.”

McCarthy: “I was #20 in high school for a year. When I came over here (from the White Sox), I just decided I’d go back to that number. I just kind of randomly got there.”

Look for Nolan Ryan tomorrow. This is a big week for Rangers fans!

Australian Open: A Champion's Comeback

Serena Williams’ quarterfinal match against Victoria Azarenka was very different than her other matches. Her form was off, her serve was off, but the result was the same. She won.
Serena was broken 5 times in the first two sets, a shocking number considering she came into the match proud to be the only player to have not dropped serve at all. But down 4-0 in the second set, she showed the reason she holds 11 Grand Slam titles. She fought back in ‘Grand’ fashion to win 5 straight games, take the set to a tiebreak and win it 7-6 (7-4).

In the third set, Serena hit the cruise control button and speeded down the road to victory, to put it nicely. Her 15 winners, 6 aces and 3 errors in the set left Azarenka in a cloud of dust she could not find her way out of.

The Sister Showdown in the semifinals was not to be as Venus Williams, although serving for the match, could not put the final exclamation point on Na Li. For the first time, two Chinese women will be in the semifinals of a Major.

Australian Open: Sassy Serving Show

Having lost to Sam Stosur the last time they played, Serena Williams came to the court with something to prove whether she admitted it or not.

And she did just that. In a 6-4, 6-2 victory, Serena effectively slammed the door on anyone thinking they could beat her.

She illustrated, with a level of power most of us only dream about, why she is the only player remaining in the tournament not to have her serve broken. She opened the match with an ace to begin a string (no pun intended) of 15 consecutive service points won. And that was only the beginning.

Stosur possesses a more-than-solid serve herself, but Serena treated it as though it were a punching bag, knocking back 30 winners and 10 aces. The two both served 64 percent, but the contest was anything but even. Stosur finished with 8 winners and 4 aces. Respectable, but nowhere near Serena’s numbers.

Note that Stosur did have 3 break points, but Serena had all the answers.

Serena, both literally and figuratively, aced the test. But in post-match interviews, she only gave herself a ‘B.’

The statistics are from www.australianopen.com.

It’s All About Teamwork

Let me just type it again, because I understand that the final score of yesterday’s Mavericks game may be something you have to see more than once to believe. All statistics used are from DallasMavericks.com

Mavs 128 Knicks 78

Did I mention the team played without Jason Kidd and Erick Dampier? Kidd was out for personal reasons while Dampier’s knee was giving him problems. Soon-to-be-All-Star Dirk Nowitzki had a scoreless first quarter. So how did they do it?

Every player scored at least 4, and the 3-pointer’s were dropping to the tune of 12 for 22. Most of the misses came later in the game when it was just a formality.

Drew Gooden proved to be better than good, racking up 7 rebounds, a block and 3 points in the first 10 minutes and taking full advantage of his opportunity to start for Dampier. Other guys also showed their skills Sunday.

• Rookie Rodrigue Beaubois played 24:02 minutes and tallied 13 points to more than double his average in both categories. Nine of the points came on made 3’s.
• Matt Carroll also made a 3 and scored 7 in 8:06 minutes.

Record Set: Mavs Beat Knicks By 50

You do not need to adjust your computer screen. No, it is not a typo. After being ahead by just 2 points at the end of the first quarter, the Mavericks turned the game into a total thrashing, beating the Knicks, 128-78 on the road at Madison Square Garden. The Mavs largest advantage was 53 points. Prior to today, 45 points stood as the largest margin of victory in franchise history.

Watch for more details later…

Australian Open: Big Serve Not Enough

As is typical in my family, we raced home to let ourselves be captivated by a sporting event. That phrase in my bio is no joke. This time the semi-madness was all for a match between John Isner and Andy Murray.
(I am a big fan of the other Andy on the tour, Andy Roddick. His match with Fernando Gonzalez will be broadcast in the dead of night due to the time difference. Not sure if I’ll stay up or not…)
Back to the topic at hand. Isner crushed his way out of many a tight spot with his serve, but with 41 unforced errors, I would say his problems could be upgraded to a mess. Not a debacle though. He competed well and was never completely out of it.
For those who are wondering, Murray had eight unforced errors in the 7-6, 6-3, 6-2 win. Needless to say, the match was less than captivating. Isner can now focus on the doubles with fellow American Sam Querrey.

Mavs Outplayed by 76ers Bench: 76ers 92 Mavericks 81

I love statistics. Look at these statistics, and you will see the Mavericks had little chance to come out on top in Friday night’s contest with the Philadelphia 76ers. Philadelphia easily surpassed Dallas in bench points and took better advantage of turnovers.

Bench Points:
Mavs: 34
76ers: 49
(Thaddeus Young led in this category with 22. Drew Gooden led the Mavs with 14.)

Turnovers:
Mavs: 15
76ers: 14

Points Off Turnovers:
Mavs: 11
76ers: 20 (statistics from Mavs Live Post-Game Show)

So, it didn’t matter that the Mavericks entered the game 28-14 and 15-7 on the road or that the 76ers had complied a 13-28 mark with a 6-14 record at home.

Because as all sports enthusiasts know, any team can beat any team on any given night.

Australian Open: One Belgian Continues On, Another Stopped

I come from a family of tennis fanatics. In my house, we are practically glued to the TV whenever any major tournament is on. I am a night owl, but with a 16-hour time difference between Dallas and Melbourne, the Australian open pushes the limits.
Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters, both former Belgian tennis stars have been in the sports news in recent months as both seem to have been successful in their comebacks from what turned out to be pseudo-retirements. Henin was probably inspired to join the grind of the tour again following Clijsters’ championship at the U.S. Open in September.
Henin, as only champions do, recovered from being down a set and 3-1in the second set against Alisa Kleybanova to win her third-round match. Serving 70 percent in the deciding set and converting both break point chances definitely helped her.
Clijsters wasn’t as lucky, losing to Nadia Petrova and winning only one game in the process. Clijsters wasn’t on her game, committing 26 unforced errors to her opponent’s 10 and winning only 47 percent of her first service points to Petrova’s astronomical 92 percent. Both those statistics will never lead to a victory.

Welcome

Welcome to my new sports blog, Sports Inside & Out. Enjoy!