Greg Maddux Traded to Dodgers

By Ethan, Future Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux has been traded from the San Diego Padres to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The last time the Dodgers traded for Maddux was in 2006, a year they made the playoffs before being swept in the first round by the New York Mets. With Jason Schmidt and Brad Penny sidelined with injuries, LA was once again in need of starting pitching help. Maddux this year has a record of 6-9 with the Padres, but also has a respectable 3.99 ERA. Once among the best pitchers in the game, Maddux has 353 career wins to go along with a 3.14 career ERA and 3353 career strikeouts. It is unclear at this time what San Diego will get in return.

Michael Phelps Wins Eight Olympic Gold Medals

By Ethan, Last night Michael Phelps captured his eighth gold medal of the 2008 Summer Olympic games. The final hurdle was the 400 meter team medley relay, a race that includes all four major strokes: backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle. Phelps swam the butterfly portion for the USA, then waited anxiously as his teammate Jason Lezak completed the final leg- the freestyle -giving the Americans, including Phelps, the gold. For Phelps it wasn't just that he got the record eight golds that was so amazing, but it was how he did it. Of his eight victories, seven were world records. Phelps also won every event he competed in. Eight golds in eight events. So congratulations to Michael Phelps, the best Olympian of all time!

At The Buzzer Update

Some new things going on At The Buzzer:

-Congrats to Marissa on being promoted to editor. So now all our writings will be in tip-top shape.

-At The Buzzer hopes to add another writer within the next two weeks. I am in the process of bringing in another writer who is just as passionate and sports savvy as our current writers.

-In an effort to generate more readers and comments and sports discussion, I will take several measures such as advertising and will also look into finding friends on blogspot and other blog sites we can meet and share thoughts with.

Keep the good stuff coming.

The Greatest Misses of All Time

Scott Norwood. Bill Buckner. Kevin Dyson. Marian Hossa. Mariano Rivera. Byron Scott.

All these men have one small, SCREAMING detail in common.

All have been a part of some of the greatest "misses" in sports history.

Their stories are just as immortalized as our heroes, who shined in their moment of glory (Adam Vinatieri, David Tyree, Mike Eruzione, Kirk Gibson, Dominik Hasek, to name a few)

Knowing about these men that are remembered for their plays, their "misses" , is what makes each of these men so fascinating. If you do not recall their particular miss, I HIGHLY recommend discovering for yourself their claim to fame.

I love to watch the plays involving each of these men. It is in these plays you find the greatest swing of emotion, the possibility of victory ripped away by defeat, and the emotions that come in the result for both teams. It is in these moments that we do not see athletes, we see human beings, enduring loss and hardship as we ourselves do in different ways. Athletes are people. In these misses, we see that.

I invite you all to share your heroes and misses, to compare and question mine, and discover further the well of athletes that have endured some of the greatest losses in sports history.

You Will Not Know Who Michael Phelps Is In 6 Months

This article is simple. See title.

What Michael Phelps is doing now is stuff of legend. We will, without question, tell our grandchildren about seeing him on television, and how humble he was about it all, and how seeing him swim was artistic.

We still would not recognize him if he sat next to us in a restaurant six months from now. While this is a bold claim, it was this quote, said to me by a co-worker, that inspired this idea and this article:

"Michael Phelps...He was that guy I fell in love with four years ago. I don't know what happened to him, but I am in love again!"

Lest we forget, it was four years ago Michael Phelps was a 19-year-old with aspirations of Olympic immortality.

Carly Patterson. Tara Lipinski. Michelle Kwan. Kristi Yamaguchi. Michael Johnson. Michael Phelps.

Above is a list of athletes the average sports fan has probably forgotten over the years. Anyone who knows these names recognizes the contributions each made to their respective sports, especially in the Olympics, where Americans watched and glorified them for 2 months. Years later, these athletes are just names of past events.

Why? America does not care about their respective sports.

LeBron James. Kobe Bryant. Tom Brady. Alex Rodriguez. Sidney Crosby.

By all measures, their level of greatness is comparable and relative to the aforementioned athletes in their respective sports. The difference is that the latter group plays the 4 major sports of America, and as a result, these men take on celebrity status. What they do in everyday life is just as important to us as how they play their sports.

For his part, Michael Phelps will surely reap the benefits of his golden quest, bringing in endorsement deals, appearances, and the like. 1 year from now? You tell me what he's doing.

We are all in love with Michael Phelps right now. He is America's golden boy, our pride of the Olympics. But only for a few more weeks. Football season starts in September. So long Mr. Phelps, and enjoy your 30 days of fame.

How Do You Beat The Angels?

I simply pose this question, as my baseball knowledge is not the same as Ethan's or Marissa's.

-I caught glimpses of this team sweep the Yankees, handle the Red Sox, and every time I have seen them play, they seem in control of the game.

-Their bullpen is untouchable. Period.
-The lineup? With Texiera, Hunter, Guerrero, Anderson it is versatile and can beat you with the bat, speed, or a combination.
-The pitching? Much better than originally expected at the beginning of the season, when the injury bug struck.

I would just love to hear how you guys diagnose this team and how to attack them. Obviously you would want to score early and often ideally, but is there another way?

Daniel Murphy: Rising Star or Flash in the Pan?

By Ethan Recently, the New York Mets called up a young player from their farm system by the name of Daniel Murphy. Murphy was a guy who hit well in AA posting averages of .308/.374/.496 with 13 homers, 67 RBIs, 26 doubles, and 56 runs scored. However, nobody could have anticipated the smoking start that his big league career has gotten off to. Since being called up, all he's done is hit 467, with OBP/SLG averages of 556/800. In 30 ABs, he has 2 homers, 2 doubles, 1 triple, 8 RBIs, and 7 runs scored. Now, of course, 30 ABs is nothing in the grand scheme of a major league career, and there have been players before him who have gotten off to huge starts and never quite panned out over the long haul. Such names as Bo Hart and Shane Spencer come to mind. However, there are several things about Murphy that lead this writer to think that he could be for real. First, he has shown remarkable plate discipline, rarely swinging at pitches out of the stike zone. This is quite a rare trait for someone with as little MLB experience as Murphy. Second, both of his homers have been opposite field shots. This is very significant because as a lefty hitter, if he only pulled the ball, other teams would be able to shift him around towards right field which would take away many of his base hits, as it does to such players as Carlos Delgado, David Ortiz, and Jim Thome. Perhaps most impressive though is that he has shown the ability to perform in the clutch. He is batting .571 with runners on base, .800 with runners in scoring position, and .333 in close and late situations. Not all players can perform well in these spots, but it looks like Murphy can. Time will tell if Murphy can develop into a major league star, but right now, it appears as if Daniel Murphy is a name that sports fans will be hearing for a long time, and with Jose Reyes and David Wright already established as superstars, and dynamite prospects Fernando Martinez, pitcher Jon Niese, and the 17-year-old phenom Wilmer Flores on the way, the future at Citi Field looks very bright indeed.

Olympic Observations

Every 4 years, the Summer Olympics come around. If you're more of a winter person, every 4 between the Summer ones, the Winter Olympics arrive, although the Summer variety is longer running and significantly more popular. Every time they do, in either case, I swear I'm not going to watch "that much" and every time, I get utterly and completely hooked.

It's not just the competitions/Games themselves. Not even close. These 16 days are a glimpse not only into the lives of the people of the host city/nation but also a glimpse of the best athletes 204 countries have to offer, and, in many cases, the stories behind them, stories that run the gamut of emotion and sport, from US Swimmer Eric Shanteau putting off surgery for testicular cancer (that was discovered right before the US Trials) in order to have his Olympic moment to Polish swimmer (and '04 Olympic champion) Otylia Jedrzejczak first auctioning off her medals to support juvenile cancer, only to soon after lose her brother in a car accident, a car accident that she was blamed for, to the much more publicized and sports-related gold medal quest of Michael Phelps, and finally, the little boy, Lin Hao, who had the huge honor of walking next to Yao Ming into the opening ceremony, just a couple months after being buried in the rubble of the Sichuan Province earthquake, escaping and then rescuing two classmates. Each is a compelling and interesting story that we would not have heard about if it weren't for the Olympics.

Another much more sportscentric advantage of the Olympics is the simple opportunity to watch events that barely make a blip on the radar of the sports world or the average person the other 95% of the time. Sports such as gymnastics, track, and swimming and diving take over primetime, and events such as weightlifting, equestrian eventing, and shooting get their moment in the sun, although in many cases the latter set of events do not quite garner the priority to be live, but still get probably their only TV appearance until the next Games roll around.

All in all, the Olympics are 16 days packed with sporting events, with something for everyone, even, as noted above, someone who really isn't all that into sports most of the time.

There's 10 days left. Tune in, you might be surprised at what you end up watching and, I'm willing to bet, enjoying.

Are the Tigers Done?

The Detroit Tigers were the unanimous pick to win the AL Central and a popular pick to make the 2008 Fall Classic with their lineup additions of Miguel Cabrera and Edgar Renteria and the addition of Dontrelle Willis to the rotation. Things haven't exactly worked out that way. The Tigers are sitting in 3rd in the AL Central 8.5 games behind the Chicago White Sox, who are trading the top spot with the Minnesota Twins. Willis has just been re-promoted to AAA Toledo after being sent down to Low-A ball in Lakeland, FL after a number of disastrous starts and a trip to the DL.
Even with the disappointing standings so far, it seems no one really wants to count out the Tigers, due, it would seem, to their ability to play like they were expected for a few games at a time.

I think it's finally about time to count them out, a difficult admission for Tigers fans like me


Everyone knew that the bullpen would be the problem, but it was expected that the strong lineup and solid starting pitching would bail them out. Hardly. The bullpen has held quite a few leads into the 9th, only for Todd Jones and now Fernando Rodney to blow the save. If they had managed to convert half of their staggering number of blown saves (21), today they would be on top of the AL Central with a record of 68-51.If they would have converted all of them, they would have a major league leading record of 79-40.
The trade of future Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez to the Yankees in a straight up deal for Kyle Farnsworth is the other major indication that the front office, especially GM Dave Dombrowski, is worried about the bullpen if they're going to get ANYWHERE closing out the season. Pudge, for many was the symbol of the resurgence in the Motor City. Rodriguez said it himself in his "exit interview" with the local TV station. "When I got here, there weren't even 10,000 fans at home, now that I'm leaving, we've had 40,000 or more." We traded him for Farnsworth, a player the Tigers had in 2005, when they were still bad, and got rid of before the WS run of '06. Coincidence? Probably, but it still says something.
It is also true that the starting pitching has been even worse than expected. Willis, as mentioned above, has been a non-factor, while expected ace Justin Verlander is 8-13 and 0-4 in his last 4 starts, although was 6-0 with two no-decisions in the 8 prior to that. The strongest starting pitching has surprisingly come from Willis' replacement Armando Galarraga (10-4, 3.23) and the recent call-up Zach Miner (6-4, 3.41, 3-1 since being put back in the rotation), while the man expected to be the 2nd (or 3rd, if you count Willis) ace Jeremy Bonderman is out for the season with a shoulder problem.
The offense has shown up sporadically, but the Tigers are 13-18 in 1-run games, as the offense has shown up in bursts, with their last three wins coming by 5+ runs.



The Tigers, overall, have been one of , if not the biggest, disappointments of the 2008 season, maybe sharing the "honors" with the Seattle Mariners and the Cleveland Indians, the latter sitting even below perennial last-place KC Royals. It has been a combination of things, but really it has been their inability to put it all together for more than one game at a time. The White Sox have bounced back from an awful 2007, while the Twins are still consistently good, as they seemingly are every year. There's still a month and a half of baseball left to play, but those two teams are solid enough top to bottom that it's going to be tough to overtake either.
All things considered, I think the Tigers are just about done for the year, unfortunately, unless (and my apologies to the other authors of this blog) the White Sox and/or Twins go the way of last year's Mets, although I find that hard to fathom.

We'll have to see, but after reviewing the (depressing) stats and tidbits for this post, I think it's over. I guess the silver lining is that it can't be as bad as 2003.

Is Brett Favre The Biggest Giant In New York?

The New York Giants are Super Bowl Champions. But who cares??!? BRETT FAVRE!!!

Brett Favre is the feel-good story for the New York Jets right now. Is this what the Jets need? How does this affect the Giants?

If you have not been living under a rock, you know that Brett Favre is now a quarterback for the New York Jets. If you have read any article on this topic, you have seen that Brett has been compared to a man by the name of Joe Namath. If you read my post on Ethan's Brett Favre article, you know I feel this is a good move for the Jets. It gives them an identity on offense, and enhances the team completely. Before Favre this was a good team, but they lacked superstars who could change the game. While the defense really does not have that (Save for rising stars Kerry Rhodes and David Harris), Favre gives the offense another weapon and makes defensive coordinators take notice. Favre gives the team a potential no one thought they had, a potential to be a contender and make the playoffs.

Ultimately, Brett Favre is exactly what the Jets need. No one can say for certain what they will get statistically from Favre, but that is better than what they would have with Chad Pennington or Kellen Clemens. A buzz is what this team lacked around it, and Brett Favre gets the team noticed.

The New York Giants are Super Bowl Champions. It would be wrong to say this fact has been forgotten by New York. 660 WFAN, the flaghsip station for the Giants, always mentions them as "The Super Bowl Champion New York Giants". All around Giants training camp, banners hang noting their champion status. Since their victory over Team Asterisk (Thanks to the New York Post, who after Spygate always labeled the Patriots with an asterisk noting: caught cheating), Eli Manning and company have lived the life of champions. Eli can even be seen on this month's cover of Vogue.

Brett Favre is a blessing in disguise for the Giants. Since Favre's arrival, the New York Post back page has been Green and White, and media attention has been shifted to Favre (ESPN posted a story that Brett had to run a lap in practice). Giants players have been quoted as feeling disrespected and bothered that people seem to have forgotten so easily they are the Super Bowl Champions. Couple this with the fact that most pundits have picked the Dallas Cowboys to win the NFC East, and the Giants are seemingly forgotten. Playing with a chip on their shoulder, like they had something to prove galvanized the Giants and propelled them to Super Bowl glory. The Giants played their best football last season when they were underdogs. The Giants, albeit champions, feel as if they still have something to prove, the best motivating factor for them.

Thanks a bunch Brett.