Late December and early January are a time where a slew of end-of-the-year awards are released. Here are some of the more well-noted.
While Taylor Swift won Entertainment Weekly's Entertainer of the Year, the AP (who picked Swift in 2009) went with Betty White, star of an instant classic Snickers bar Super Bowl commercial, the most popular SNL episode of the year (which followed a huge Facebook campaign to get her on the show and earned her a seventh Emmy) and now the star of TV Land's most popular series Hot in Cleveland. She also won a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild. Not bad for an 88-year-old woman. She beat out the cast of Glee, and tied for third were Conan O'Brien, James Cameron and Apple's iPad. My pick would've been Cameron, but it's hard to be bitter about any victory by Betty White.
Betty White voted AP entertainer of the year
Jake Coyle
Mon Dec 20, 2010
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101220/ap_en_tv/us_ye_ap_entertainer_of_the_year
Drew Brees, who are also won the Sportsman of the Year prize from Sports Illustrated, was named AP Male Athlete of the Year. Following him in the top five were NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, boxer Manny Pacquiao, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick. Brees was a deserved pick, not only for leading the New Orleans Saints to a Super Bowl victory with his passing (he set a completion percentage record for a season in 2009) but for basically saving a franchise in the Katrina-thrashed city that seemed almost certainly headed to Los Angeles when he came to town...
Drew Brees is the AP's Male Athlete of the Year
Dec 17, 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5igK8lwllKJhHREB_-fbt_YySm3pw?docId=c16e4ae657ee4c84936e46130b24fd66
Sporting News, meanwhile, gave its pro athlete prize to Halladay, who won the Cy Young Award and pitched both a perfect game in the regular season and a no-hitter in the playoffs. A good pick, but Brees was the better choice in my book...
2010 SN Pro Athlete of the Year: Roy Halladay
Wednesday, Dec 15, 2010
http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2010-12-15/2010-sn-pro-athlete-of-the-year-roy-halladay
Lindsey Vonn, who won a Gold and Bronze Medal at the Winter Olympics and a third straight skiing World Cup, won AP's Female Athlete of the Year. She beat out racehorse Zenyatta and UConn's Maya Moore...
Lindsey Vonn is 2010 AP Female Athlete of Year
Dec 18, 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ifIFngCc8KqLHr0dlnT-F1T2ewpg?docId=3f173bb89943488da77fc96c517f274b
Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven made Cooperstown, Alomar getting the nod in his second year of eligibility, Blyleven in his 14th. They will be joined by Pat Gillick, the general manager executive who built the Toronto Blue Jays into World Series champs in 1992-93 (teams that included Alomar) and the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008. Dave Van Horne, play-by-play man for the Florida Marlins after a 32-year-run with the Montreal Expos, will receive the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting, and Bill Conlin, Phillies beat writer for the Philadelphia Daily News, will receive the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for baseball writing. Technically, both Van Horne and Conlin won't be HOF members for their lifetime achievement awards, but The Konformist isn't into technicalities.
Alomar, who will likely wear Toronto Blue Jays cap at induction, was a 12-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove-winning second baseman during a 17-year-career. His lifetime stats: 2,724 hits, 210 homers, 1,134 RBIs, 474 stolen bases and a .300 average in 2,379 games. Blyleven, who will likely wear a Minnesota Twins cap, was 287-250 as a pitcher with 3,701 strikeouts, 60 shutouts and a career ERA of 3.31 in 23 seasons, winning World Series with the '79 Pittsburgh Pirates and the '87 Twins.
Shortstop Barry Larkin, in his second year of eligibility, received 62.1 percent of the vote, and will likely get in sooner rather than later. Starting pitcher Jack Morris, in his 12th year, received 53.5, and he has three more years to reach the 75 percent needed for HOF induction. Relief pitcher Lee Morris received 45.3 and has six years of eligibility left, so he's a fairly good bet. Meanwhile, Rafael Palmeiro became the Steroid Era's second test case and didn't do to well, only getting 11 percent of the vote in his first year. Mark McGwire, in his fifth year, only received 19.8 percent...
Alomar, Blyleven elected to Hall of Fame
Barry M. Bloom
01/05/11
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110105&content_id=16392298
Lake Superior State University has released its annual list of banished words. Here's the winners:
VIRAL
EPIC
FAIL
WOW FACTOR
A-HA MOMENT
BACK STORY
BFF
MAN UP
REFUDIATE
MAMA GRIZZLIES
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
I'M JUST SAYIN'
FACEBOOK / GOOGLE as verbs
LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST
http://www.lssu.edu/banished
The annual list of most popular baby names in America was released. Count me as someone confused by the popularity of some choices...
Boys
1. Aiden
2. Jacob
3. Jackson
4. Ethan
5. Jayden
6. Noah
7. Logan
8. Caden
9. Lucas
10. Liam
Girls
1. Sophia
2. Isabella
3. Olivia
4. Emma
5. Chloe
6. Ava
7. Lily
8. Madison
9. Addison
10. Abigal
100 most popular baby names of 2010
http://www.babycenter.com/top-baby-names-2010
Showing posts with label Roy Halladay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roy Halladay. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Halladay joins Larsen with postseason feat
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20101006&content_id=15461558
Halladay joins Larsen with postseason feat
Tom Singer / MLB.com | 10/06/10
PHILADELPHIA -- At precisely 7:42 p.m. ET, Roy Halladay wound up for the final stroke of his masterpiece. Brandon Phillips beat the pitched ball into the ground. Carlos Ruiz picked it up and tossed it into immortality.
Halladay thus turned the beginning of the Phillies' National League title defense into defiance, defying history and denying the Reds with his 4-0 no-hitter in Game 1 of the NL Division Series at Citizens Bank Park.
"It's surreal," Halladay said. "It really is. I just wanted to pitch here, pitch in the postseason. To be able to go out and have a game like that is a dream come true."
Halladay's masterpiece joins Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series as the only two no-hitters in postseason history.
"Don Larsen? Oh, sure, I grew up aware of it," Reds first baseman Joey Votto said. "That perfect game in a World Series, yeah. How many in the postseason since?"
Zero. Nada. Zip.
"Really?" Votto's head bopped up and down. "It's no fun being on the hitter side of it."
Since the Yankees' Larsen perfected the Brooklyn Dodgers on Oct. 8, 1956, there had been 954 postseason games in Major League Baseball prior to Halladay delivering the opening pitch of his first one.
None of those other games finished with a "0" in the hit column. Until Wednesday night, in a Game 1 of the NL Division Series that qualified as an iTunes Instant Classic.
Doc just got promoted to Surgeon General.
To Mike Sweeney, it seemed like a put-on. Here he was, a distinguished veteran suited up for his first career postseason game after 1,454 in the regular season, and this is the view he gets from the Phillies' first-base dugout?
"I knew my first time in a postseason game would be something special and extraordinary -- but I couldn't have envisioned anything like this," Sweeney said.
An all-time game deserves an all-time understatement, so Halladay called the no-hitter "pretty neat."
Others weren't quite so reserved, not only about the outcome but about the method, about a pitcher able to take on the NL's top offensive club with such mastery that this was a no-hitter without a single oh-oh.
No defensive heroism was required. The only line drive was off the bat of Reds reliever Travis Wood, right at shallow-positioned right fielder Jayson Werth.
"He was dialed in. He just didn't miss tonight," said Jay Bruce, Cincinnati's lone baserunner on a full-count walk with two outs in the fifth. "He was aggressive in the strike zone. He didn't nibble."
Bruce added of getting no-hit in his team's first playoff game in 15 years: "It comes with a shock factor."
It was shocking how early the witnesses began thinking "no-hitter." You could see the potential in Halladay's stuff, in his demeanor. It was apparent even in the other dugout.
"You knew probably in the third or fourth inning," admitted Cincinnati manager Dusty Baker. "When you saw his command. ... I've been on both sides of no-hitters. The deeper the game goes, you can tell they were feeling it."
The awareness that history was unfolding also came with a shock. These moments happen so suddenly, so unannounced, and unfold so fast spectators invariably wish for a "pause" button.
But real life doesn't have one of those. So you just have to pay real close attention as it is happening.
Whenever a pitcher wanders into no-hit territory, the obvious media response is to prepare a historical perspective in which to frame it. Researchers carefully comb through precedents and painstakingly prepare lists.
This one didn't take long.
The list of pitchers who have thrown a no-hitter in the regular season and in the postseason now includes ... well, there is no list. Halladay is it.
As far as hitless postseason games go, we've got Larsen and Halladay.
And if thinking in terms of no-hitters in the same year, ignoring the line between regular and postseason, we now have five cases, the precedents including Nolan Ryan (1973), Virgil Trucks (1952), Allie Reynolds (1951) and Johnny Vander Meer, who uniquely twirled his 1938 no-hitters in consecutive starts.
That's it. Obviously, Halladay is not the sort of fellow who wilts in the face of high expectations. He follows his high-profile trade to the Phillies with a 21-10 season, likely to earn him a second Cy Young Award, then follows that with a postseason-opening no-hitter.
Thus, neither Halladay nor Game 1 disappointed. The Year of the Pitcher, Continued.
"I appreciate it now," said Votto, in the warmth and quiet of the dry clubhouse. "I have tremendous respect for Roy. To throw a no-hitter in your first postseason start is amazing."
Halladay showed that, too: Amazing grace, putting his team and its goals first.
"It's hard to explain," he said, "but pitching a game like that, being able to win the game comes first. That's kind of your only focus until after it's over with.
"I think these are types of things that once the season is over, I think you're able to kind of soak it all in and enjoy it."
Unless your name is Placido Polanco, and you incur back stiffness which keeps you off the field and out of a box score headed to the Hall of Fame.
"What am I supposed to do? Kill myself?" Polanco asked. "It was just one game. Hopefully I'll get better and get back in there for Friday's game."
But it's not like Roy Oswalt will pitch another no-hitter in that game. At the rate we've gone, no one will again do so in a postseason setting until 2042. According to that timetable, the guy -- or gal -- who will do it probably hasn't been born yet.
Want some perspective on Halladay's masterpiece? Try that one.
Tom Singer is a national reporter for MLB.com. Follow @TomDinger on Twitter.
Halladay joins Larsen with postseason feat
Tom Singer / MLB.com | 10/06/10
PHILADELPHIA -- At precisely 7:42 p.m. ET, Roy Halladay wound up for the final stroke of his masterpiece. Brandon Phillips beat the pitched ball into the ground. Carlos Ruiz picked it up and tossed it into immortality.
Halladay thus turned the beginning of the Phillies' National League title defense into defiance, defying history and denying the Reds with his 4-0 no-hitter in Game 1 of the NL Division Series at Citizens Bank Park.
"It's surreal," Halladay said. "It really is. I just wanted to pitch here, pitch in the postseason. To be able to go out and have a game like that is a dream come true."
Halladay's masterpiece joins Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series as the only two no-hitters in postseason history.
"Don Larsen? Oh, sure, I grew up aware of it," Reds first baseman Joey Votto said. "That perfect game in a World Series, yeah. How many in the postseason since?"
Zero. Nada. Zip.
"Really?" Votto's head bopped up and down. "It's no fun being on the hitter side of it."
Since the Yankees' Larsen perfected the Brooklyn Dodgers on Oct. 8, 1956, there had been 954 postseason games in Major League Baseball prior to Halladay delivering the opening pitch of his first one.
None of those other games finished with a "0" in the hit column. Until Wednesday night, in a Game 1 of the NL Division Series that qualified as an iTunes Instant Classic.
Doc just got promoted to Surgeon General.
To Mike Sweeney, it seemed like a put-on. Here he was, a distinguished veteran suited up for his first career postseason game after 1,454 in the regular season, and this is the view he gets from the Phillies' first-base dugout?
"I knew my first time in a postseason game would be something special and extraordinary -- but I couldn't have envisioned anything like this," Sweeney said.
An all-time game deserves an all-time understatement, so Halladay called the no-hitter "pretty neat."
Others weren't quite so reserved, not only about the outcome but about the method, about a pitcher able to take on the NL's top offensive club with such mastery that this was a no-hitter without a single oh-oh.
No defensive heroism was required. The only line drive was off the bat of Reds reliever Travis Wood, right at shallow-positioned right fielder Jayson Werth.
"He was dialed in. He just didn't miss tonight," said Jay Bruce, Cincinnati's lone baserunner on a full-count walk with two outs in the fifth. "He was aggressive in the strike zone. He didn't nibble."
Bruce added of getting no-hit in his team's first playoff game in 15 years: "It comes with a shock factor."
It was shocking how early the witnesses began thinking "no-hitter." You could see the potential in Halladay's stuff, in his demeanor. It was apparent even in the other dugout.
"You knew probably in the third or fourth inning," admitted Cincinnati manager Dusty Baker. "When you saw his command. ... I've been on both sides of no-hitters. The deeper the game goes, you can tell they were feeling it."
The awareness that history was unfolding also came with a shock. These moments happen so suddenly, so unannounced, and unfold so fast spectators invariably wish for a "pause" button.
But real life doesn't have one of those. So you just have to pay real close attention as it is happening.
Whenever a pitcher wanders into no-hit territory, the obvious media response is to prepare a historical perspective in which to frame it. Researchers carefully comb through precedents and painstakingly prepare lists.
This one didn't take long.
The list of pitchers who have thrown a no-hitter in the regular season and in the postseason now includes ... well, there is no list. Halladay is it.
As far as hitless postseason games go, we've got Larsen and Halladay.
And if thinking in terms of no-hitters in the same year, ignoring the line between regular and postseason, we now have five cases, the precedents including Nolan Ryan (1973), Virgil Trucks (1952), Allie Reynolds (1951) and Johnny Vander Meer, who uniquely twirled his 1938 no-hitters in consecutive starts.
That's it. Obviously, Halladay is not the sort of fellow who wilts in the face of high expectations. He follows his high-profile trade to the Phillies with a 21-10 season, likely to earn him a second Cy Young Award, then follows that with a postseason-opening no-hitter.
Thus, neither Halladay nor Game 1 disappointed. The Year of the Pitcher, Continued.
"I appreciate it now," said Votto, in the warmth and quiet of the dry clubhouse. "I have tremendous respect for Roy. To throw a no-hitter in your first postseason start is amazing."
Halladay showed that, too: Amazing grace, putting his team and its goals first.
"It's hard to explain," he said, "but pitching a game like that, being able to win the game comes first. That's kind of your only focus until after it's over with.
"I think these are types of things that once the season is over, I think you're able to kind of soak it all in and enjoy it."
Unless your name is Placido Polanco, and you incur back stiffness which keeps you off the field and out of a box score headed to the Hall of Fame.
"What am I supposed to do? Kill myself?" Polanco asked. "It was just one game. Hopefully I'll get better and get back in there for Friday's game."
But it's not like Roy Oswalt will pitch another no-hitter in that game. At the rate we've gone, no one will again do so in a postseason setting until 2042. According to that timetable, the guy -- or gal -- who will do it probably hasn't been born yet.
Want some perspective on Halladay's masterpiece? Try that one.
Tom Singer is a national reporter for MLB.com. Follow @TomDinger on Twitter.
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