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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

NBA Playoff Pick-a-thon Day 47: When the Finals Are Finally Over

POST-SEASON RECORD TO DATE: 48-29 ATS 

KYLE'S NHL PICKS TO DATE: 50-35-1

KYLE'S MLB PICKS TO DATE: 146-112-7

Well, dear readers, it has been forty-six glorious days in a row of original content at The Spread Zone. We've listened seen everything from fantasy to fiction to real statistical analysis. Along the way we've not only picked up new followers but also expanded TSZ by adding KYLE'S CORNER and covering baseball, hockey, and the occasional ultimate fighting championship. With the long layoff between the Conference Finals and the Final Finals, however, I found myself doing a little perusing of the Inter-Web to see what kinds of interesting stories I'll be covering in baseball when the NBA and NHL finally come to rest later this month. 
The good news is baseball is a sport, and like all the others there will be important new stories to cover on a daily basis - from steroid allegations to...well, that's pretty much it. The better news: the other writers out there seem to be just as hard pressed for headline news. In lieu of such, the best news of all is we get to continue having fun at the expense of...probably somebody new on a daily basis. Here's an example submitted by a person named Sawyer to Yardbarker.com about Josh Reddick and the Sunflower Seed Scandal. Let us know what you think of our competition.
             
Josh Reddick has publicly apologized after recently being embroiled in a shocking scandal. No, it has nothing to do with anything sordid or salacious. No, he wasn’t arrested. Instead, an Astros' employee was hit in the face by sunflower seeds thrown by Reddick. Did we say this was a scandal? We meant to say this is a SCANDAL.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is #Seedgate. (cue dramatic music)
Everything went down during the May 25 game at Minute Maid Park between the A’s and Astros. The Astros' employee alleges Reddick intentionally hit her in the face with sunflower seeds while she was tossing T-shirts into the crowd. We cannot confirm whether the seeds were original, ranch, spicy, BBQ or some other flavor.
The employee said she notified A’s team officials of the incident and was told it would be handled “in house.” She was disappointed when she did not hear anything else from the team after that (because this is obviously something that called for a Major League Baseball team to drop every single thing it was doing), not even a face-to-face apology from Reddick the next day. And now baseball is RUINED for her.
How do we know all this? Because she publicized a letter she recently wrote to A’s PR director Bob Rose complaining about Reddick, whom she calls a “rough player.” You can read the entire notice of allegations here. But here are a few snippets of her complaints (a reminder: the employee actually wrote these things):
  • “I am sure that hundreds of kids witnessed Josh hitting me in the face with sunflower seeds and that makes me more upset than anything. Where I come from, men don’t treat women like that. Coming from Alvin (a fairly small town), even the most ill-behaved men would never publicly disrespect a female like that.”
  • “All of the members of the Astros Shooting Stars have full-time jobs and choose to spend every minute of our free time working for the team just to be part of something great… baseball. It is now tarnished for me. After over 200 games, Sunday was the first time that I wasn’t excited walking into Minute Maid Stadium for the game… I dreaded it.”
  • “Aside from the obvious problem of an Astros employee being hit in the face by sunflower seeds on screen, there is also the problem of sponsorship. HEB paid well to advertise during the middle of the 6th inning and their on screen promotion was messed up because of the disturbance.”
Surprisingly nothing about wasting seeds while there are children starving in Africa, however.
Reddick, pretty much the worst person on the face of the earth, finally addressed his crimes against humanity on Tuesday via Twitter. He’s “deeply sorry” for hitting the employee and insists the whole thing was an accident. He was actually trying to hit the mascot with seeds, as he does, he says, at every stadium:
Bob Melvin also weighed in:
“He feels bad about it,” Melvin said. “Nothing was done maliciously. It was his way of having a little fun. Based on where we were and the proximity of it, apparently he didn’t know he was going to hit somebody, or wherever it hit. But he feels bad about it. It wasn’t intentional.”
Melvin added, “He expressed his remorse to me.”
           
No word on whether the Astro's employee accepts Reddick’s apology or if he gave a separate personal apology. But life goes on. We consider #Seedgate over.
                                         
So, that's our competition out there. Intimidating? Not really, but it's good to know there are literate baseball writers out there to help make the unbearably long dog days of summer tolerable. Personally, I like more pictures. 
Fortunately, Kyle's material is 100% original this morning and has tons of pictures, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't have to get his three year-old to her toddler Spanish class by 8:30. I know, sounds ridiculous, but the direct translation of Espanol Class is "One Hour of Free Time for Dad." 
Buenos Dias,
Vinny and Marco
KYLE'S CORNER:
Well, my friends, it looks like the Titanic of a week I had has finally come to an end. A night off the NHL has done wonders for my mental health and the tide of baseball is splashing up on the shores of victory once again - I can feel it. 
NHL: Overall: 50-35-1

MLB: Overall: 146-112-8

Tuesday:
MLB: 4-4

I was so upset that STL lost by 1 measly run. Heartbreaking. I'm liking Wednesday's lineup for baseball though, hopefully that means something.

NHL: Pittsburgh @ Boston: Over 5.5, at this point who knows what crazyness this game will turn into.
MLB:
Pitcher follow:
NYY:   Sabathia (5-4, 3.71 ERA)
SEA:   Iwakuma (6-1, 2.13 ERA)
BOS:   Lackey (3-5, 2.96 ERA)
OAK:   Colon (6-2, 3.33 ERA)
CIN:   Cueto (3-0, 2.17 ERA)
BAL:   Garcia (2-2, 3.57 ERA)
LAD:   Kershaw (5-3, 1.85 ERA)


Overs:
ARI:   Miley (3-5, 5.01 ERA) @ STL:   Kelly (0-2, 6.75 ERA) O8.5
NYM:   Gee (3-6, 5.68 ERA) @ WSH:   Haren (4-6, 5.09 ERA) O7.5
TOR:   Dickey (4-7, 5.18 ERA) @ SF:   Zito (4-3, 3.88 ERA) O8
TEX:   Ogando (4-2, 3.08 ERA) @ BOS:   Lackey (3-5, 2.96 ERA) O9
MIA:   Turner (1-0, 0.00 ERA) @ PHI:   Hamels (1-9, 4.86 ERA) O7.5


Good luck!

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