April 26 - The Stars Come Out in Dallas

The NBA is all about stars as Houston’s two big guns proved quite emphatically last night in Dallas. Houston’s big duo of Yao and Tracy McCrady were simply too much for Dallas for stop as Yao went 13-14 from the field and Tracy poured in 28 including the game winner with two seconds to go. Maverick coach Avery Johnson better figure out a way to guard McCrady and Bobby Sura off those high screens or this series will never make it back to Dallas. Even as things stand right now, Dallas has almost no chance of prevailing as it would be only the third team in NBA history to lose the first two games of a seven game series at home and then come back to win the series. While Dallas looks to be in real trouble, Houston looks like a team capable of coming out of the West. McCrady is playing terrific right now and Van Gundy’s supporting cast is probably good enough to play with any other team out west. David Wesley is a bit of a stiff at point guard, but who needs Wesley when the rest of your team is making well over fifty percent of its shots? It is a bit too early to go crazy over this team, but if they were to lose this series, it would be the greatest collapse the city of Houston has seen since Enron got swept off the Big Board in the fall of 2001. For my money, I’ll take Van Gundy over Lay any day of the week to coach my team.

It was not a pretty sight in Boston last night where the Celtics experienced a complete fourth quarter meltdown and, in doing so, let the Indiana Pacers back into this best-of-seven series. In case you missed it, Boston led 75-68 with more then eight minutes to go. From there on out, the Celts scored an impressive four points on their way to a 82-79 loss. Along the way, the Celts missed a bunch of threes and made only one of eleven shots from the field. The Celts shot selection wasn’t merely bad – it was terrifying. Pierce took a few shots from Brookline while Toine took one shot that he wouldn’t try again in a game of HORSE. Toine then compounded his error by missing a couple of layups just as the Pacers were rallying. Indiana wasn’t playing a whole lot better down the stretch, but everything is relative in the NBA. While the Celtics were counting their money, the Pacers did just enough to get by, led of course, by fifty-four year old Reggie Miller who went for 28. Miller hasn’t had an outburst like that since his late forties and it clearly caught the Celtics off guard. Tell me how the Pacers won last night while being out-rebounded 44-31. I’ll tell you how – the Celts turned the ball over sixteen times, including some real killers down the stretch.

Notes from the National League: The Phillies, short Pat Burrell, snapped a three game losing streak at Washington last night behind Corey Lidle. Philly pinch-hitter Jose Offerman actually had a triple in this game, although replays showed National third baseman Vinny Castilla tagged Jose’s wheelchair before he got to the bag. Oliver Perez finally showed up to give the Pirates a nice outing as he threw seven scoreless innings against the A-holes. Atlanta and Pittsburgh have the worst offenses in the NL but Houston isn’t too far behind. Why was Chris Burke, a second baseman, playing left for Houston last night while Craig Biggio was playing second? Aaron Heilman gave the Mets seven strong innings last night although I have to deduct a couple of points since it came against the Braves. We got Smoltz and Pedro at Shea tonight at 7:10. You want to know what batters are hitting against Pedro this year - .110! Petey could very well throw a no hitter tonight. The Cubs blasted the Reds last night at Wrigley but if looks like they may have lost reliever Chad Fox for the year. Can anyone on that staff stay healthy? Mark Prior pitched well last night, striking out ten in six innings, while Nomar’s replacement, Neifi Perez, hit his third home run of the year. That is three more then the Cubs eight million dollar man. Meanwhile, Ken Griffey had a few hits for the Reds who are probably dying for Griff to get hot so they can begin talks to move Sean Casey or Adam Dunn, The Diamondbacks won their fourth straight last night behind AL East castoffs Javy Vasquez and Brandon Lyon. I guess the Diamondbacks don’t miss Randy Johnson after all. Wasn’t Shawn Green going to sit out this week because of Passover? The Padres got well last night against the hapless Giants who are just 3-10 against teams other then Colorado.

Airmail from the American League: Are any leads in baseball safe anymore? Now Minnesota’s Juan Rincon is getting into the swing with a blown save against Detroit yesterday. The stated attendance for that makeup was fifteen thousand but it looked like there were no more then three thousand at Comerica. It looked like a New York Knights game before Roy Hobbs was brought up. For the Twins, Justin Morneau is 3-7 since returning from that beaning so I guess we can put that issue to sleep. Take a look at the top of Detroit’s lineup – all five regulars are hitting .300 while Carlos Guillen is chasing Ted Williams. Boy did the Mariners mess up when they let him go. The Red Sox were lackluster again last night and I’ll have more on them later, while the Orioles keep chugging along behind Bruce Chen. The Panamanian-born Chen has some of the worst stuff in baseball, but he has given the birds four good starts. Chen is a perfect example of what can happen when a pitcher actually throws strikes. Sosa struck out swinging four times last night – doesn’t that entitle him to upgrade his golden sombrero to a platinum version? Manny also whiffed four times while Mark Belhorn picked up number 26. You know it’s a bad night in Boston when not one, but two Sox sprain their ankles. The White Sox are simply on fire right now as they won their eighth straight last night in Oakland. Jon Garland, who pitched a four hit shutout, sure looks like an ace right now although Oakland is probably the proper benchmark. He’s only given up eleven hits in his last 24 innings. The White Sox ERA is 2.91 this season while it was 4.90 a year ago when they won 83 games. Meanwhile, Barry Zito dropped to 0-4 and the Oakland offense officially bottomed out. Eric Chavez is in a miserable slump and Jason Kendell is providing absolutely no spark. Is it too early to start dangling Dotel for a bat? The Blue Jays had the nerve yesterday to fire their batting coach, Mike Barnett, just twenty games into the season. The Jays must have expected this guy to work miracles but, in his defense, there is only so much you can do with Corey Koskie and Alex Rios.

I have been highly critical of the Yankees over the past week, but to be fair, their main rival in the AL East has not exactly been setting the world on fire this year. After twenty games, the Red Sox are a pedestrian 11-9 against an exclusive diet of AL East teams. This team has a bunch of problems right now. Starting with the staff, Curt Schilling has lost his ability to put batters away and you never know what you are going get with David Wells. Alan Embree has been dreadful since he started squawking off to the Boston Globe and Keith Foulke has certainly had his own troubles. And what about that vaunted offense that scored fifty runs more than any other team in the American League last year? Well, Mark Belhorn has struck out 26 times in 66 at bats, Kevin Millar has yet to hit a home run and Edgar Renteria has been extremely quiet so far. Add in Billy Mueller’s weeklong battle with a mysterious flu strain and it all computes to some inconsistent production, especially against lefthanders. And let’s take a look at the big three of Manny, Papi and Damon for a second. All have pretty decent numbers but I have watched virtually every inning this year and a big chunk of this largesse has come against Tampa. I expect some of these offensive problems to iron themselves out, but that is not to say that changes to this lineup don’t loom. First of all, Belhorn has to go. I was able to stomach his whiffs last year when he was getting on base .380 of the time, but this year, his Ks are up and his OBP is now under .350. More importantly, Belhorn just cannot be relied upon in a big spot as he proved Saturday night when he whiffed with the game on the line. If his problems continue, and I suspect they will, I would not be surprised to see AA stud Dustin Pedroia called up on July 1st so long as he keeps tearing it up at Portland. First base is the other spot worth watching. Kevin Millar’s bat can no longer justify his glove and his inability to hit in the clutch is a real problem. Do you think Theo is going to sit by and let this beer leaguer continue to kill rallies? This should be an easy spot to fill in July if the streaky Millar doesn’t turn it around. I suspect that both Sean Casey and Adam Dunn will be made available by the Reds and I can see them biting on an Arroyo for Casey deal. Things will not get any easier for the Sox tonight as they go up against their nemesis Rodrigo Lopez. With a loss tonight, the Sox will be 11-10 and that is a far cry from the April this team had last year. On the bright side, last year’s team plodded along in May and June so this team will have an opportunity to get back on pace.