There are many positives about Rick Pitino. The man could recruit the ghost of Adolph Rupp into a Louisville uniform, his defenses could make a polar bear sweat, and his perfectly coiffed hair could survive a nuclear attack or a night out with Michael Irvin.
But, if he is to be judged by his Louisville Cardinals team, Rick Pitino is not the kind of man who believes in an early start.
Think sleep in till, noon, hit snooze and roll over, show up 15 minutes late to first period. College basketball season starts in November, but yet again Pitino's teams wait until the New Year's bubbly pops to really get rolling. Year. After year. After year.
So naturally after Saturday's win against Pitt and the nation in the mood for inauguration, these late-arriving Cardinals have been crowned again as national title contenders.
But despite the win over No. 1, Bono and will.i.am can stay in the green room. These Cardinals might not be for real.
The Pittsburgh Pirates are going to right a wrong in the sports world this season. After the New England Patriots same so close to an undefeated season only to lose it all in the final moments, the Pirates are going to conquer the world of baseball and go 162-0 with the team they have and the power of dreams!
And if they lose? Well, all the kids on the hipster t-shirt circuit get a "161-1" yellow and black novelty tee.
On today's Spring Dugz (are we seriously calling it that), we take step one on the year-long journey toward destiny with the Pittsburgh Pirates. And hey, we managed to get this one done without throwing in the mascot!
The Fanhouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups
Chicago Cubs (3-6) vs. Cincinnati Reds (6-4)-1:05PM Est.
He's only nine games into his tenure as manager of the Chicago Cubs and Lou Piniella is already tired of his team. After the way Big Z and the pen blew yesterday's 5-0 lead it's pretty obvious that no matter how much money they spend, or who they bring in to manage, they're still the Chicago Cubs. I can't wait until Rich Hill gets into trouble and Piniella comes to the mound. "What's wrong, Skip?" Piniella then rips Hill's heart out and bites into it. "Nothing."
Pittsburgh Pirates (4-6) vs. San Francisco Giants (3-7)-7:05PM Est.
Barry sure did have a happy homecoming to Pittsburgh on Friday didn't he? Two home runs, four RBI, and a Giants romp. If Barry played the Pirates everyday he'd catch Hank Aaron by Thursday. This game will also be Barry Zito's third attempt to get his first win as a Giant. So far he's making $15.59 million for every point on his 8.08 ERA. Also, as far as the Pirates are concerned, remember when they were 3-0 and in control of the NL Central? Boy, those were the days.
Boston Red Sox (5-4) vs. Los Angeles Angels (6-5)-FOX 3:55PM Est.
Something tells me that sitting around all week hearing nothing but talk of Daisuke Matsuzaka will arouse the fire that's dormant in the innermost recesses of his soul. So I'd expect a very philosphical performance from the pitcher turned blogger this afternoon. Hector Carrasco will make the start for the Angels in place of Kelvim Escobar as the Angels continue to rack up injured starters like Britney does new wigs.
So Chris Carpenter's going to miss his next start. Panic time for the Cardinals, right? Wrong. For the second day in a row, a new addition to the Cardinal rotation turned in a gem of a start to lead the Cards to a win.
After Kip Wells' dominant performance last night, Braden Looper rolled in to PNC Park today and ruined the Pirates' home opener (trust me, it was ruined, I was there) with seven scoreless innings in which the Pirates only mustered two hits. Ian Snell was almost as good for the Pirates, allowing only one run in his seven innings. Unfortunately for him, Albert Pujols continued his flat out dominance of Snell with two hits, one of which was a double that put him in position to score on Scott Rolen's single, providing Looper with more than enough run support. Ryan Franklin and Jason Isringhausen closed out the win for the Cards and Izzy looked pretty good in person today, touching 95-96 on the gun a couple of times and putting down Freddy Sanchez, Adam LaRoche, and Jason Bay in order to earn his second save of the young season.
So, if you're counting at home, that's fourteen innings, three hits, and zero runs for Looper and Wells in the Cards last two games. Scott Rolen has driven five runs in during the same span. Not surprisingly, the Cards won both games.
The Fanhouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups
Pittsburgh Pirates (4-2) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (2-4)-1:35PM Est.
It's only a week into the season, but seriously, how many of you thought the Pirates would be in first place and the Cardinals would be in last place at this point? Raise your hands. If you raised your hand, you are a liar and should be ashamed of yourself. What would your mother say? Anyway, it's a matchup of Ian Snell and Braden Looper. Snell was fantastic in his first start of the season against Houston, and Looper was decent against the Mets. Now whether or not Snell will experience the same success against the Cardinals now that Albert's got his groove back, that's a whole different story.
Chicago Cubs (3-3) vs. Houston Astros (1-5)-2:20PM Est.
It's the Cubs home opener, and Wrigley Field is sure to be packed. Unfortunately, I'm guessing the majority of that bleacher talent won't be there seeing how it's going to be 38 degrees with possible flurries at game time. The only thing colder than the Chicago weather is the Houston offense. The Astros have managed to score a whole 16 runs in their first six games. Will they be able to get their 2.7 runs a game against Ted Lilly? It won't be easy if Lilly pitches like he did in Cincinnati last week.
Minnesota Twins (4-1) vs. New York Yankees (2-3)-ESPN 7:05PM Est.
This game has an interesting pitching matchup, but not in any way that involves actual pitching. No. It's the pitchers themselves. There's the heartbroken Carl Pavano who struggled on opening day, and then there's the possibly drunk, judge-punching Knight of the Aruban Round Table himself, Sidney Ponson, making his debut as a Twin. I'm guessing both will throw no-hitters because that's just the way things work in baseball.
Beyond the Cards drubbing of the 'Stros, there were actually two other games of note involving the other four NL Central teams today, making it a pretty good day for the division.
It took a week, but the Pirates finally got the 2006 NL batting champ back into their lineup today in Cincy and Freddy Sanchez picked up where he left off last year. He went 2-for-4 with an RBI double and Zach Duke pitched very well for six innings (before getting shelled in the seventh) while the Pirates did one of the very few things they're good at, beating Eric Milton and by extension the Reds, 6-3. To build on to Red's Canadian meme from earlier, BC native Jason Bay hit his 2nd homer of the year to finish the Reds off and Pittsburgh's Brad Eldred made the most of his first playing time this year by homering and doubling in another run. Ken Griffey Jr. had 2 RBIs for the Reds and Xavier Nady went a full nine innings without batting any flyballs over the fence with his glove.
Meanwhile in Milwaukee, Wade Miller made his first start in Cubbie blue and he didn't look much like the Wade Miller of old, giving up six earned runs in less than 5 innings of work. Geoff Jenkins and Gabe Gross both went deep against Miller for the Brewers and Craig Counsell knocked in three runs to help the Brew Crew a 9-4 win to even off both teams' records at 3-3.
Pittsburgh and Chicago both move on to their home openers against the Cardinals and Astros, respectively, while both the Brewers and Reds will head on out towards warmer weather in Arizona and Florida.
After a rough spring, things had been going pretty well for Xavier Nady in the early goings of the 2007 season. On opening night he hit a two out, two strike, game tying homer off of Brad Lidge to help the Pirates erase a deficit and win their opener in extra innings. On the second night of the season he hit another homer, he had a key RBI in the Pirates third win over the Astros, and he knocked in a run in the first inning of today's game against the Reds. That's a pretty good five games for a guy that only had three homers and 23 RBIs in 55 games after being traded to the Pirates on last year's deadline. The karma gods got their revenge on Nady today while he was trying to track down an Adam Dunn fly ball in the bottom of the first inning of the Reds' 7-5 win. From the AP report:
Dunn's high fly got caught in the swirling wind and drove Nady within a step of the green-padded wall. Nady reached for the ball, which smacked the middle of his glove and then deflected into the first row of seats, hitting a gray-coated man wearing a Reds cap.
Luckily for Nady there weren't many people in the stands to see this one. The game was originally scheduled for a 7:10 start, but the wintry weather in Cincy forced the Reds to move things up to 1:05 this afternoon. It was still ridiculously cold for the game (the temperature hovered around 30 the whole game), but at least there wasn't much snow. The paid attendance was around 16,000, but the Pirate radio announcers estimated it be "closer to 6,000 than 16,000." I suppose some Pirate fans may want to blame Nady's strange play for the loss since it provided the margin of defeat, but that would be overlooking the nine walks the pitching staff issued.
For the Reds, Aaron Harang threw a decent five and two-thirds innings, especially given the incredibly cold temperature, to earn his second win of 2007 and Edwin Encarnacion added three hits, two RBIs, and a run scored to Dunn's homer to lead the charge for Cincy offense. The Reds also used the win to end the Pirates' five day reign of terror as division leaders and take over first place by themselves.
Tonight's Pirates/Astros game looked eerily similar to last night's game headed into the 8th inning. The Astros were nursing a 2-1 lead and the way Phil Garner was using his bullpen, with Qualls in the seventh and Wheeler in the eighth, he was clearly setting things up for a Brad Lidge appearance in the 9th. That was until Wheeler served up two runs in the top of the eighth and the Astros lost another late inning lead to the Pirates. Instead, Rick White pitched the ninth. How uninteresting.
There were some big performances on the mound in this one tonight. Ian Snell fanned 11 Astros in six innings, but took a no decision after leaving the game behind 2-1 on a Jason Lane homer and a Carlos Lee RBI single. Jason Jennings was impressive in his Astro debut, striking out seven in his six innings and allowing only a monstrous Xavier Nady homer in the second inning. On top of his second homer in two days, Nady's bloop single off of Wheeler in the eight brought home the go ahead run. After a spring in which he had no extra base hits or RBIs and battled intestinal disease causing him to miss a ton of time, Nady now has two homers and three ribbies in two games. That's why he gets his picture on the side.
Of course the big story from this one is going to be the Astros inability to hold a lead for the second night in a row. We aren't talking about the Yankees here; the Pirates aren't going to score a lot of runs this year. And it's not just Lidge either. Qualls gave up the homer to Bay last night and Wheeler blew the save tonight. Then again if the Astros offense scored more than two runs in either game, winning would be a lot easier. And as usual, this post comes with the reminder that there are still 159 games left and the Astros bullpen won't blow 162 leads this year. At least probably not.
The Fanhouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups
San Francisco Giants (0-0) vs. San Diego Padres (0-0)-4:05PM Est.
There are always those two teams that the schedule makers wait the extra day to start the season, and this year that "honor" belongs to the Giants and Padres. Whether or not it's Bud's way of keeping Barry from catching Aaron for at least one more day, we'll never know. All we do know is that he needs 22 more injections home runs to break the record. It's also the debut of Barry Zito as a Giant as he faces Jake "F#*% the Police!" Peavy and the Padres. When you think about it, Zito and Peavy both share the same disdain for The Man, they just have different ways of showing it. They're kinda like MLK and Malcolm X that way.
Houston Astros (0-1) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (1-0)-8:05PM Est.
It's Jason Jennings' turn to see a masterful performance wasted by the Jell-O brained closer that is Brad Lidge right now. I don't know who to feel worse for, Lidge or Astros fans? You would think that it has to be killing Astros fans to know that Phil Garner is going to stick with Lidge until he finally just blows his own head off on the mound. As for the Pirates, they look to maintain their stranglehold on first place in the NL Central.
St. Louis Cardinals (0-1) vs. New York Mets (1-0)-8:10PM Est.
The Cardinals look to rebound from losing the first game of their quest to defend the World Series crown. Cardinals fans have to be a little nervous though. If the Mets could rough up Chris Carpenter like that, just what are they capable of doing to Kip Wells? You can question the Mets starting rotation all you want, but sometimes the best rotation is an offense that scores 8 runs a game.
The Astros check list to win the game tonight probably went something like this: Give the ball to Roy Oswalt, let him dominate the inferior Pirates lineup, score just enough runs to win. Things were pretty much going according to plan through eight innings. Oswalt threw 7 and 2/3 dominating frames in which he threw 75 of 92 pitches for strikes against the Pirates hacking batters and the 'Stros took a 2-1 lead into the ninth.
In the ninth, Phil Garner made the curious choice of bringing Brad Lidge out to close instead of leaving Dan Wheeler in to finish the Pirates off (Wheeler had only pitched to one batter in the eighth) as he should've. Lidge got two outs, but Xavier Nady launched a 2 out game tying homer. Lidge managed to get out of the ninth, but Jason Bay launched a two run homer off of Chad Qualls in the tenth and the Pirates stole the Opening Day win.
Beyond Lidge, this was mostly a pitcher's battle for the first eight innings. As mentioned, Oswalt completely baffled Pirate hitters, save pinch hitter Nate McLouth who hit a homer in the eighth, and Zach Duke mostly cruised through seven strong innings with some solid defense behind him lead by Chris Duffy's two outfield assists and Jose Castillo's two tough double play turns and a diving catch and flip DP. It was mostly a lucky win for the Pirates, but hey, us Pirate fans will take whatever we can get.
The Astros' lone runs came from a Luke Scott two run homer in the fifth and that probably should've been enough except for the Lidge fiasco. So yeah, the Lidge watch is on and it probably isn't going to last much longer than the Pirates' reign in first place.
. The man could recruit the ghost of Adolph Rupp into a Louisville uniform, his defenses could make a polar bear sweat, and his perfectly coiffed hair could survive a nuclear attack or a night out with Michael Irvin.
The Pittsburgh Pirates are going to right a wrong in the sports world this season. After the New England Patriots same so close to an undefeated season only to lose it all in the final moments, the Pirates are going to conquer the world of baseball and go 162-0 with the team they have and the power of dreams!
So 
Beyond 
After a rough spring, things had been going pretty well for Xavier Nady in the early goings of the 2007 season. On opening night he hit a two out, two strike, game tying homer off of Brad Lidge to help the Pirates erase a deficit and win their opener in extra innings. On the second night of the season he hit another homer, he had a key RBI in the Pirates third win over the Astros, and he knocked in a run in the first inning of today's game against the Reds. That's a pretty good five games for a guy that only had three homers and 23 RBIs in 55 games after being traded to the Pirates on last year's deadline. The karma gods got their revenge on Nady today while he was trying to track down an Adam Dunn fly ball in the bottom of the first inning of the Reds' 7-5 win. From 
The Astros check list to win the game tonight probably went something like this: Give the ball to Roy Oswalt, let him dominate the inferior Pirates lineup, score just enough runs to win. Things were pretty much going according to plan through eight innings. Oswalt threw 7 and 2/3 dominating frames in which 
